says We pray to the Saints in Heaven in the same order of Brotherly Society with which we intreat our Brethren upon Earth to pray for us But that this says he is not a true Representation of their Doctrine will appear by these Considerations 1. That they pray continues He to the Saints and Angels in Heaven with the same solemn Circumstances of Religious Worship that they pray to God himself 2. That in their Prayers and Thanksgiving they joyn the Angels and the B. Virgin and the Saints together with God and Christ 3. That in the Creed of Pope Pius 4. it is expresly said the Saints which reign with Christ are to be Worship'd and Invocated 4. That in the Public Offices of their Church they do not only pray to the Saints to pray for them but they direct their Prayers and Thanksgivings immediately to them for all those Blessings and Benefits which they ask of God and thank Him for of which innumerable Examples adds He might be given out of their Public Offices particularly in the Office of the B. Virgin they pray to the Angels thus deliver us we beseech you by your command from all our Sins To which I answer 1. That there never was a Book more universally commended and approv'd in the Latin Church than the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church The Pope highly commended and approv'd it as appears by his Brief to this Bishop annex'd to the said Book All the Cardinals and Consistory in Rome approv'd it as the Letters of the Master of the Sacred Palace and the Consultor of the Holy Office do witness And all the Learned Bishops and Prelates of the R. Catholic Church have very much approv'd and commended t as appears by the Letters of many of them to the said Bishop and his Friends all which are likewise annex'd to the said Book it has been translated into almost all the Vulgar Tongues in Europe and is read and perus'd by all R. Catholics with all the satisfaction and content imaginable so that to say this Exposition is not a true Representation of the Doctrine and Practice of the R. Catholic Church in this matter is as Unreasonable in it self as it is injurious to that Great and Learned Prelate and to the whole Catholic Church which hath so universally approv'd it 2. As to his first Consideration I have already prov'd that we address no Prayers to Saints or Angels in the Public Service of the Church but that all our Prayers are directed to God only and as to our Posture in the Church or at our private Devotions whether kneeling or standing or bowing we declare our intention is to adore God alone and none else Touching his second Consideration viz. that in their Prayers and Thanksgiving ibid pag. 80 81. they join the Angels and the B. Virgin and the Saints together with God and Christ Of this He gives us in an other place these instances Nothing so frequent with them says He as to joyn the blessed Virgin with God and our Saviour in the same breath nothing so common in their Mouth as Jesus Maria glory to God and the B. Virgin and in the Roman Missal adds He they make Confession of their Sins to God-Almighty and the blessed Virgin and to St. Michael the Arch-Angel and to all the Saints To which I answer 3. That it is very True we join God and his Saints together in the same breath as the Dr. saith but then our Plea is that we are taught both by the Old and New Testament so to do For Instance All the Congregation blessed the Lord God of their Fathers and bowing their Heads Worship'd the Lord and the King 1 Chron. 29.20 Here at the same time and in the same act and in the same breath too 't is said that the Israelites Worship'd God and the King Had we but any such thing in our Public Offices what work wou'd the Dr. make on 't Again The people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel 1 Kings 12.18 Here again God and Samuel are join'd together in the same Breath Again It seem'd good to the Holy Ghost and to Vs to lay upon you no other Burthen Acts 15.28 Again I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels 1 Tim. 5.21 St. John writes to the Seven Churches in Asia Grace be unto you and Peace from Him which is and which was and which is to come and from the Seven Spirits which are before His Throne and from Jesus Christ Rev. chap. 1. Had we offer'd Peace from the Angels to our Flocks and placed them before Jesus Christ how loud wou'd He Cry Yet no less than an Apostle of Jesus Christ hath done it What will the Doctor say to all this Is not God here join'd with Angels and Saints and Men in the same Breath And must it be a Crime in us to do that whereof we have such manifest Precedents in the very words of the Scripture Truely to weigh well the matter one wou'd almost swear the Doctor was not in earnest but were I of councel for him I shou'd have advis'd Him if He had a mind to exhibit such Ridiculous Scenes not to make the Religion of Jesus Christ a Theatre of Laughter and Sport for God is not mock'd As to his third Consideration I answer 4. That Pope Pius 4. his worshiping and invocating the Saints is to be understood in the same order of brotherly Society in which we worship and reverence our holy Brethren on Earth upon Account of their Piety and Virtue and in which we intreat them to pray for us as the Bishop of Meaux saith and as St. Austin said long since Colimus Martyres eo cultu dilectionis societatis quo in hac vita coluntur sancti Deì homines We worship the Martyrs with that Worship of Love and Fellowship wherewith the holy Men of God are worshipped in this Life Lib. 20. cap. 22. contra Faust All the difficulty then of these and the like Phrases which we read in Scripture in the Fathers and in the Decrees of Councils and Popes consists in the Ambiguity of these Words Worship and Invocate which I have on purpose explain'd in the beginning of this Dispute to avoid Confusion and which the Catechism publish'd by Order of the Council of Trent and many other learn'd Divines have so clearly and fully explain'd So that nothing but an Itch of Contention and a Spirit of Wrangling cou'd make any Man doubt of our Sense of these Words But the Passage of St. Austin is so clear and full to the purpose that I hope the Reader will not be sorry to have it at large tho' it be something long and the rather because it is in answer to a Certain Manichee who about twelve Hundred Years since reproach'd St. Austin with what the Doctor and his Party charge the Roman Catholics at present The Christian People says this Father do celebrate the Memory of
ascribe Omnipotence to them for Omnipotence supposes a power of doing all things whatsoever possible whereas we suppose in the Angels and Saints at most but a power of obtaining of God those benefits and blessings we have need of 2. Nor Omniscience for Omniscience supposes a knowledge of all things past present and possible to be And we only suppose in the Saints aknowledge of those few prayers we put up to them 3. Nor Immense-presence for this supposes an immensity or a being present not only to all the things in the World but to hundreds of Worlds if there had been so many whereas the utmost of what we suppose can amount to no more than that the Angels and Saints are present to those Christians who beg their Charitable Assistance Nor do we ascribe any of those divine Perfections to them if we conceive that God reveals our prayers to them This the Dr. himself does not say but endeavours to elude our Reasons by saying that if God reveals our prayers to the Saints we shou'd pray to Him before every prayer we make to the Saints that He wou'd be pleas'd to reveal that prayer to them but this says he is such away about as no Man wou'd take that cou'd help it To which I answer that such Reasonings are only fit to amuse the common People who as I said above measure all things even the most sublime by the notions they have of those things they are here on Earth acquainted with whereas the Scripture and the Fathers tell us that the manner of God's revealing His Will to His Angels and Saints is so mysterious and the knowledge and power of these blessed Spirits so vast and to us so incomprehensible that nothing on Earth much less such poor stuff as the Dr. brings is able to give us the least glimpse how these things are perform'd Vol. 2. edit post ob pag. 46. The Dr's last Objection is founded in a Parallel which he makes between the Pagan Saints as he calls them and the Christian Saints He tells us the Gentils address'd themselves to God by innumerable Mediators by Angels and the Souls of their departed Herâ—es which were the Pagan Saints This he repeats in several places with no material Addition only that in speaking to the pretended Worship we give to Images he adds that all our distinctions are no other ibid pag. 100. but what the Heathens us'd in the same Case And taking this for granted He leaves his Auditors to conclude that as it was Idolatry in the Heathens to Worship these Pagan Saints so it is in the Church of Rome to worship the Christian Saints Answ The best way in my opinion to remove this difficulty is to take a short view of the Character and Worship which the Heathens gave to their Pagan Saints as the Dr. is pleas'd to call them tho' without any Warrant from the Heathen Writers who always call them Gods and see whether upon the Comparison the Christian Saints be in any thing by us treated like Them And here I shall not distrust any Man's knowledge so far as to bring any Authorites from Heathen Writers to confirm what I say being resolv'd to instance only in such plain things as our very School-Boys are not ignorant of And First As to their Character 't is no less evident that the Heathens gave these Saints the Attributes of the Supream Being than that they are represented in their Writings under such Circumstances of Debauchery Lewdness and Intemperance as the greatest Debauchees are hardly capable of The Doctor cannot deny but Jupiter to omit several others was reckon'd a Hero in his Time according to the Pagan Belief We are told his Father was Saturn that he was born in Crete and that after his Death he was for his great Feats Deified and got the Supream Dominion in Heaven as his Brothers Pluto and Neptune got that of Hell and the Sea This departed Hero is describ'd every where with the Majesty of the true God He has Omnipotence put into His hands He is represented as the Great Rector and Governour of the World and at the same time is said to be sullied with all the Lewdness and Debauchery imaginable Now the Christian Heroes or Saints are quite of another Complexion We give them none of the Attributes of the true God We believe they fought stoutly under the Banner of Jesus Christ reduc'd Kings and Princes not by their Swords but by their Sufferings to his Subjection and laid down their Lives for the Truth of his Doctrine but we do not put Omnipotence into their Hands We believe they did work Miracles and wondrous Things but then we do not say they did these Things by their own Power and Virtue but that they were the happy Instruments by which God wrought these Miracles in Confirmation of the Word which he put in their Mouth We believe the Saints are Great Friends and Favourites of the true God because Jesus Christ has so declar'd He tells us that as his Father hath appointed unto Him so haâ—â— He appointed unto them a Kingdom Luke 22.30 that they might eat and drink at His Table in His Kingdom by which Metaphor of Eating and Drinking He gives us to understand that they are Partakers of the same Glory and Bliss with himself in Heaven But we say the Saints can do nothing of themselves but that all their Sufficiency is from God who made them what they are And then as to their Lives and Conversation I hope the Doctor wou'd not put me upon proving that the Apostles and the B. V. Mary and the Saints in Heaven are in no manner concern'd in the Lewdness and Intemperance of the Pagan Saints or that we do not ascribe any such thing to them So that as to the Character the Pagan and Christian Saints have no more Resemblance than Black and White Secondly as to the Worship The Heathens worship'd their Gods or Pagan Saints as the Doctor wou'd have it upon a false Pretence of their Power and Greatness in Heaven whereas there was no such Gods or Saints But we honour and respect the Christian Saints because we are warranted by the Word of God that they are such as we represent them The Heathens erected Altars to their Gods but we make Altars for none but one God only They offer'd Sacrifice to all their Gods and Saints which is the chief Mark of supream Worship but we offer Sacrifice only to the true and living God as Malice it self cannot deny They made Idols and believ'd that their Gods came and dwelt in them and that many of them spake and eat and drank and for that Reason they worship'd them and therefore are justly call'd Idolaters because they worship'd things that were not but we only put up in our Churches the Images and Pictures of Jesus Christ the Living God and of such as we are sure are truly Saints but do not believe that there is any Virtue or Divinity in
is the Word of God and the Scripture again bears witness that the Church is Infallible and yet this way of Reasoning is not in the least defective because the Church has sufficient Credentials for the truth of its Evidence before it rereceives a Testimony from the Scripture viz. The Universal Consent of the whole Catholic Church which as is already proved is undoubtedly certain The Testimony then of Scripture bearing witness of the Church is properly speaking Argumentum ad hominâ—â— that is an Argument from a Concession or a Principle agreed upon by both Parties And now since the Protestants do agree that the Scripture is Infallibly true I hope they will hear it if it bears witness of the Infallibility of the Church Let us see then what it says upon this Subject Christ saith Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Matth. 16. verse 18. Again Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and so I am with you alway even unto the End of the World cap. 28. ver 19 20. And again I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now â— howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth John 16. ver 12 13. St. Paul writes to Timothy But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the Living God the Pillar and Ground of the Truth 1 Tim. â— ver 15. You see Christian Reader that Christ promi'sd to build his Church upon a Rock and that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it that he himself continues with it â—â—â—o the end of the World That the spirit of Truth shall guide it into all Truth And St. Paul says that the Church of God is the Pillar and Ground of the Truth Now if any Man that believes the Goodness and Power of Jesus Christ to perform what he promises can shew me any Text in Scripture more Plain and Evident to prove any thing else than these do the Infallibility of the Church I shall hold my self highly oblig'd to him for that Favour If the Gates on Power of Hell for they are both the same shall not prevail against the Church surely then it shall not fell into Error For there are but two Ways of prevailing against it viz. by destroying all the Members that compose it as to their temporal Being or by corrupting their Souls with Error That the Gates of Hell hath not prevail'd as to the former our own Being is a sufficient Evidence and that they shall not as to the latter methinks a sober modest man ought to be content with the Insurance of Christ's Promise If Christ continues with the Church unto the end of the World can it be imagined that he shou'd suffer it to fall into Error since we cannot suppose him to have any other bus'ness to continue with it than to preserve it from that If the holy Ghost or as the Teâ—t calls him the Spirit of Truth will guide the Church into all Truth we must surely renounce all pretence to Reason and Christianity if we believe that any Power whether Earthly or Infernal can be able to make it err Lastly if the Church be the Ground and Pillar of Truth as St. Paul calls it certainly neither Rain nor Floods noâ— Wind can shake or throw down an Edifice so firmly founded I shall now add three or four Testimonies of the Primitive Fathers in savour of this Truth and so conclude this chapter Saint Ireneus a Father of the second Age writes thus of the Church where the Church is there is the Spirit and where the Spirit of God is there is all Grace lib. 3. c. 40. Praes in lib. per. Ar. In the third Age Origen That only is to be believed for Truth which in nothing disagrees from the Tradition of the Church And a little after We must not believe otherwise than as the Church of God has by Succession deliver'd to us In the same Age St. Cyprian Whoever divides from the Church and cleaves to the Adultress is separated from the Promises of the Church he cannot have God his Father that has not the Church his Mother Again To Peter's Chair and the Principal Church Infidelity or false Faith cannot have access Epist 55. In the fourth Age St. Jerom The Roman Faith commended by the Apostles cannot be changed in Apolog. cont Ruffin In the beginning of the fifth Age St. Augustin I know by Divine Revelations that the Spirit of Truth teacheth it the Church all truth Lib. 4. de Bap. c. 4. Again To dispute against the whole Church is insolent Madness and I my self would not believe the Gospel were it not that the Authority of the Church moves me to it cont Epist fundam c. 5. I shall not trouble the Reader with any Reflections upon these Sentences but will let them stand or fall by their own Weight perswaded as I am that no Comment or Gloss whatsoever can make them speak plainer or more to my purpose I will only mind him that these Great and Eminent Men who shin'd in the Church like so many Lights as well by the Lustre of their extraordinary Piety as by the profoundness of their Learning cou'd not be ignorant of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church of their Time Consequently wou'd never have taught so peremptorily the Infallibility of the Church unless it had been the Opinion of all the Christian World There is then an Infallible Church that is to say a Congregation of Faithful that believes holds and teaches the Doctrine of Jesus Christ 1. Upon the Universal Consent of the Christian World 2. Upon clear and plain Texts of Scripture declaring the Assistance of the Holy Ghost to guide it into all Truth 3. Upon the unanimous Consent of the Fathers of the Primitive Times a Triple Cord which neither the Power of Hell nor the Subtility of Heretics nor the Malice of the World shall ever be able to break Let us now examine what Society of Christians can justly lay claim to or be truly call'd the Catholic Church CHAP. II. The Congregation of Faithful in Communion with the Bishop of Rome and no other is the Catholic Church TO prove this Assertion I shall lay down some Principles known either by their own Light or sufficiently proved by plain Texts of Scripture and the Consent of our Adversaries I. That in the Catholic Church there is and shall be a Continued Succession of Bishops Priests and Teachers from Christ to the End of the World II. That there is but one Catholic Church III. That one Communion as well as one Faith is Essential to the Being of one Church IV. That whosoever separates from or
Purgatory because they pray'd for the Virgin Mary and the Apostles and Martyrs c. else why do they not conclude that we do not believe it because we do the same To sum up all these Evidences then I reason thus The Primitive Church pray'd to God for some Souls departed that they might be deliver'd out of Prison that their Faults and Sins might be forgiven them that they might be eas'd of their Pain that they might be sav'd from the Punishment of Fire that they might be receiv'd into Heaven but such Prayers are inconsistent with a Belief that the Souls departed are immediately taken into Heaven or condemn'd to Hell Therefore the Primitive Church believ'd there was a Third Place wherein some souls departed were detain'd and were capable of being assisted and better'd by their Prayers The first Proposition is taken from the very Words of the Fathers and acknowledged by our Adversaries to be true The second a very small portion of Natural Reason with never so little insight in Scripture and Christian Religion which assure us that Prayers of that nature for those that are in Heaven or Hell are needless and vain will easily discover to be likewise True And I think the consequence is rightly infer'd I now proceed to the Objections 3. The Doctor objects first Vol. 2 Pag. 63. that the Doctrine of Purgatory is not founded in Scripture nor can be prov'd from it and that some of our own Eminent Men do acknowledge it cannot To which I answer that I have produc'd two Passages from Scripture and cou'd produce as many more which the most Eminent Fathers of the Primitive Church have interpreted of Purgatory and therefore I think I may safely tell the Dr. that with submission He was mistaken As to those Eminent Men of our Church who say that the Doctrine of Purgatory cannot be prov'd from Scripture when any one in his behalf names them and points at the place in their Works where they say so I will return him as satisfactory an Answer as I can In the mean time I may reasonably presume they say no such thing Seeing he was never backward in giving citations when they made any thing for him All the Eminent Men He vouches for this is Estius who by the Dr's own confession only says that in his Opinion the Passage of St. Paul above cited does not evince Purgatory but does not say that other Passages of Scripture do not and if he had I shou'd oppose to his Opinion that of Tertulian St. Cyprian St. Ambrose St. Jerom St. Austin and many more of the Ancient Fathers whose Authority in this matter ought I think to weigh more with any reasonable Man than that of any modern Writer whatsoever Vol. 2. edit post ob pag. 307. His second Objection is borrow'd from a Text in the Revelations Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence forth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them cap. 14.13 Here says the Dr. the Spirit pronounces them happy who die in the Lord because they rest from their Labours which adds He they wou'd not do were they to be tormented in Purgatory Fire Ergo c. Answ This Passage is confessedly obscure as to the meaning of some Words in it and the Time whence the blessing there mention'd is to Commence and the Doctor 's bestowing six full Pages upon the Explication of it shews it to be so and for that Reason I think it is against the Rules of Logic to pretend to more Evidence in the conclusion than the Premises will afford But it seems he forgot in his second Sermon upon this Text that in his First he had told us that the Dead which die in the Lord in Scripture Phrase are those who die or are put to death for the Lord's Cause that is as he expresly says suffer Martyrdom for the Lord I say he must have forgot this else he wou'd not have objected that Text against Purgatory since he cou'd not be ignorant that we believe that all the Martyrs who suffer for the Faith of Christ and even other Eminent Saints who do not suffer Martyrdom but live the life of Martyrs do rest from their Labours and pass not thro' the Fire of Purgatory Wherefore in my opinion he shou'd have given us an other Interpretation of this Text or have let Purgatory alone but 't is no new thing to find the Doctor pulldown in one place what he had built in an other and therefore I am not surpriz'd to see Purgatory brought in by Head and Shoulders and spoken against in Season and out of Season 'T is Purgatory that reproaches the Sacrileges and Depredations of the Doctor 's Ancestors of worthy Memory and Bears hard upon their Posterity and upon that account it must be Cry'd down lest the horrid guilt of the Sacrileges of the Fathers shou'd fly in the Face of their Children and give them that Purgatory in this Life which He wou'd perswade them they shall not meet with in the next For a third Objection the Doctor tells us Vol. 2. Edit Post ob Pag. 310. we have a very considerable and substantial Reason to exempt as few as possibly we can from going to Purgatory because says he the more we put in fear of going thither the Market of Indulgences as he calls it riseth the higher and the profit thence accruing to the Pope's Câ—ffers and the more and greater Legacies will be less â—o the Priests to hire their saying of Masses for the delivery of Souls out of the Place of Torments Answ After my hearty thanks to the Dr. for his Charitable Opinion of us I must observe from what is above said that it seems this Market of Indulgences is of a very long standing and that the Ancient Fathers of the Church took great care it shou'd not sink But to be serious 'T is well known and even acknowledged by the Learned of his Church that in the Time of Gregory the Great now a Thousand Years since the Doctrine of Purgatory and all the Practices consequent upon it were believ'd and us'd as they are now And did that great Saint exempt as few as he cou'd from Purgatory only to raise the Market of Indulgences Did all the Bishops of the Western Church nay and of all the World concur with him in this only to fill his Coffers Alas The good Holy Man had but few Coffers and as little Money to fill them with Conversion of Souls not Money was his bus'ness Did St. Austin design the raising of the Market of Indulgences or the putting of the People into a fear of going to Purgatory when he earnestly desires the Readers of his Confessions to pray for his Mother Monica's Soul for the remission of her Sins And had St. Jerom any thoughts of filling the Pope's Coffers when he wrote that much benefit wou'd accrue to the Souls departed by the commemoration made of