nature but our equals however are not our Gods It is a state of liberty freedom and honour to be subject to God who is our natural Lord and Soveraign But to fall down to our fellow creatures and to worship them with Divine honours with all humility of address and sacred and awful regards is to debase our selves as much below the dignity of our natures as we advance them above it The excellency and perfection of reasonable Creatures principally consists in their Religion and that is the most perfect Religion which does most advance adorn and perfect our Natures but it is an argument of an abject mind to be contented to worship the most excellent creatures which is a greater dishonour then to own the vilest Slave for our Prince Mean objects of worship do more debase the Soul then any other the vilest submissions and the more our dependencies are and the meaner they are the more imperfect our â—tate and Religion is 3. The greatest perfection of Religion consists in the nearest and most immediate approach to God which I think these men cannot pretend to who fly to the patronage and intercession of Saints and Angels to obtain their Petitions of him Though we should allow it lawful to pray to Saints and Angels to meditate for us with God yet we cannot but own it a more perfect state to do as the Saints and Angels themselves do go to God without any other Advocat but Christ himself It is a great happiness to have a friend at Court to commend us to our Prince when we have no interest of our own but it is a greater priviledge to go immediately to our Prince when we please without any Favourite to introduce us This is the perfect state of the Gospel that we have received The adoption of Sons and because Gal. 4. 5. 6. we are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father This is this Holy Spirit which dwells in us teaches us to call God Father and to pray to him with the humble assurance and confidence of Children This is the effect of Christs intercession for us That we may now come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy Heb. 4. 16. and find grace to help in a time of need The throne of Grace certainly is not the shrine of any Saints but the immediate throne and presence of God whither we may immediately direct our prayers through the merits and intercession of Christ Upon the same account the whole body of the Christians are called a Spiritual house that is the Temple of God where he is peculiarly present to hear these Prayers that are made to him An holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to GOD through Jesus 1 Pet. 2. 5. 6. Christ And a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people This is a priviledge above what the Jews enjoyed they had a Priesthood to minister in holy things and to offer their Sacrifices to them but the whole Nation was not a Priesthood nor had such immediate access to God but now every Christian has as near an access to God as the Priests themselves under the Law had can offer up his Prayers and Spiritual Sacrifices immediately to GOD and that very acceptably too through Jesus Christ our great High Priest and Mediator and if our Prayers be acceptable to God by Jesus Christ we need no other Mediators or Advocats This is the only direction our Saviour gave his Disciples a little before his death to ask in his name with this promise If ye ask any thing in my name I will do it Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name ask and ye shall Joh. 14. 13 15. Joh. 16. 24. receive that your joy may be full and to give them the greater assurance of acceptance he acquaints them with Gods great and tender affection for them such as a Father has for his Children At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father ver 26 27. for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God a reason which equally extends to all those who shall believe in Christ to the end of the world And can we now imagine that when our Saviour has purchast for us this liberty of access to God he should send us round about by the shrines and Altars of numerous unknown Saints to the Throne of Grace When he will not assert the necessity of his own prayers for us while we pray in his name because our heavenly Father hath such a tender affection for all the Disciples of Christ can we think it necessary to pray to St. Paul and St. Peter and the Virgin Mary to pray for us This is none of our Saviours institution nor can it be because Christ by his death and sufferings and intercessions brings us nearer to God as the Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. Apostle to the Hebrews speaks Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh and having an high Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith But the worship of Saints and Angels removes us at a great distance from God as not daring to approach his presence without the mediation of some Favourite Saint And though the Church of Rome does sometimes pray directly to God only in the Name and Mediation of Christ as the Pagans themselves sometime did to their Supreme Deity yet it seems this is what they dare not trust to and therefore joyn the Meditation of Saints with their prayers to God and never pray to God without it SECT VIII 5. THat the Gospel of our Saviour has made no alteration in the object of our worship appears from that Analogy which there is and ought to be between the Jewish and Christian Worship The Jewish and Christian Church are but one Church and their worship the same worship only with this difference that the Jewish worship was in Type and Figure and Ceremony the Christian worship in Truth and Substance And therefore if this Evangelical worship be the same it must have the same object for the object is the most essential part of worship So that if it appear not only from the express letter of the Law of Moses but from all the Types and Figures of the Law that God only was to be worshiped by the Jewish Church if Christ was to fulfil all these Types and Figures in his own person and in the Evangelical worship then it is certain that the object of our worship must be the same still for if the Type was confined in its nature and signification to the worship of one God
his own Tongue And the Lord of all Tongues doth hear those that pray to him in all Tongues c. St. Cyprian at the same time doth say That the Mind in Prayer doth think of nothing In orat Dom. n. 22. else but what is prayed for And therefore the Priest before Prayer doth prepare the Minds of the Brethren by saying Lift up your Hearts that when the people doth answer We lift them up unto the Lord they may be admonished that they ought to think of nothing but the Lord. For not the sound of the Voice but the Mind must pray to the Lord. Dionysius Alexandrinus that lived in the same Age Apud Euseb Eccles Hist l. â— c. 8. in a Letter to Xystus Bishop of Rome doth write of a person that having been baptised by Hereticks upon the hearing the Questions and Answers at the Baptism of the Orthodox questioned his own Baptism But saith he we would not rebaptize him because he had for a good while held Communion with us in the Eucharist and had been present at our giving of Thanks and answered Amen St. Basil Who flourished about the year 370. Tom. 2. Reg. brev reg 27â— putting the Question How the Spirit prayes and the Mind is without Fruit Answers It is mean'd of those that pray in a Tongue unknown to them that hear For when the Prayers are unknown to them that are present the mind is without Fruit to him that prayes c. And as to the Practice of the Church in the publick Service he declares That the People Tom 1. in Ps 28 had the Psalms Prophets and Evangelical Commands And when the Tongue sings the Mind doth search out the sense of the things that are spoken And he relates how the Christians used to spend the Night in Prayers Confessions and Psalms one beginning and the rest following Tom. 2. Epist 63. Cler. Neâ—caes Tom. 1. â—exameri Hoâ— 4. sub â—n And that the noise of those that joyned in the Prayers was like that of the Waves breaking against the Shoar With him we have S. Ambrâ—se agreeing that lived much about the same time who faith It is evident that the Mind is ignorant where the In 1 Cor. 14. â— Nâ—â— siora vere Tongue is not understood as some Latines that are wont to sing in Greek being delighted with the sound of the Words without understanding what they say And again the unskilful hearing what he doth not understand knows not the conclusion of Ibid Quis supplet locum the Prayer and doth not answer Amen that is it is true that the Blessing may be confirmed For by those is the confirmation of the Prayer fulfilled that do ansâ—â—â— Amen c. And he doth shew what an honour is given to God what a reverence is derived upon Ibid. Sia 〈◊〉 prophetâ—â—â— our Religion and how far it excells the Pagan that he that hears understands and that nothing is in the dark And he saith This is a symphony when there Tom. 3. Com. l. 7. in Lâ—c. 1â— p. 169. Par. 1614. In 2 cor c. â— Homil 1â— Et 〈◊〉 is in the Church a concord of diverse Ages and Vertues that the Psalm is answered and Amen said c. Toward the latter end of the same Century lived S. Chrysostome who saith That the people are much concerned in the Prayers that they are common to them and the Priest that in the Sacrament as the Priest prayes for the people so the people for the Priest And that those Words and with thy Spirit signifie no thing else And what wonder is it That in the Prayers the people do talk with the Priest And elsewhere he saith That the Apostle shews that the people receive no little damage when In 1 Cor. 14. Hom. 35. they cannot say Amen To conclude Bellarmin saith that in the Liturgy which bears this Fathers name the parts sung L. 2. c. 16. Sect. idem etiam v. Chrysost Tom. 4. Par. 1621. by the Priest Deacon and People are most plainly distinguished To him let us add S. Jerom his cotemporary who declares that at the Funeral of Paula in Jerusaelem the multitude did attend and sung their Psalms in Hebrew Greek Latin and Syriack according Tom. 1. Epitap Paulae ad Euslochium Epist Paulae ad Marcellam to the Nations they were of And we are farther told That at Bethlem there resorted Gauls Britains Armenians Indians c. And there were almost as many Choirs of Singers as of Countries of a different Tongue but of one and the same Religion And the same Fathers tells us That at Rome the Tom. 10. prooem 2. ad Galat. people sounded sorth Amen like to the noise of Thunder Next let us consult Augustine of the same time who saith That no body is edified by Tom. 3. in Genes l. 12. c. 8. Lib. de Magi. stro c. 1. 7. De catechis rud C. 9. what he doth not understand And That the reason why the Priest lifts up his Voice in the Church when he prayeth is not that God but the people may hear and understand and joyn with him And that whereas the Bishops and Ministers of the Church were sometimes guilty of using barbarous and absurâ— Words they that should correct it that the people may most plainly understand and say Amen And elsewhere as has been quoted before exhorts that they be not as Parrots and Pies that say they In psalm 18. know not what Thus far our Authorities do proceed with little interruption For Bellarm doth grant That not c. 16. Sect. sed neque only in the times of the Apostles all the people were wont to answer in Divine Offices but that the same was a long time after observed both in the Eastern and Westren Church as is evident from S. Chrysostome S Jerom c. Now having derived the Tittle thus far above 400 years we need not be much solicitous for what was introduced afterwards but yet for a farther confirmation I shall add some Testimonies of a latter date Such is that known Edict of the Emperour Justinian who dyed Anno 565 in which Novel 123. See this vindicated in Bishop Jewes reply to Hardings answ p. 128. it is thus enacted We command all Bishops and Priests to celebrate the holy Oblation and the Prayers in sacred Baptism not in a low but such a Voice as may be heard by the people that thereby their heart may be raised up with greater Devotion and Honour be given to God for so the Holy Apostle teacheth in the first to the Corinthians For if thou only bless with the Spirit c. To this I shall add that of Isidore Hispalensis that lived in the end of the fifth Century who saith De Eccles off l. 1. c. 10. That it behoveth that when it is sung in the Church that all do sing and when prayers are offered that all do pray and when there is reading
their Tombs the blessed Martyrs joyned their Supplications with them by Praying to God to afford them the benefit of their Prayers and that their Petitions might succeed the better for the sake of their requests put up in conjunction with their own The same account may be given of St. Basils words in his Oâ—aâ—â—on on the forty Martyrs He that is in distress flies to them and Baâ—il Hom. 20. in 40. Mart. he that is in Prosperity runs to them the one that he may have his condition changed the other that he may have his continued but now to fly and to run unto them signifies no more then to fly and run to the Churches and â—omb where they lie interr'd for so it follows here a Woman Praying for her Son is heard and here let us together with those Marâ—yrs pour forth our Prayers Supposing it's likely as was mentioned before that the Marâ—yrs Souls were continually about their Tombs and Prayed for all that came thither to Pray for themselves the Father exhorts Christians to go thither not to Pray to them but to joyn with them in Prayer unto God 6. They tell us of many miracles wrought by God upon addresses made to Saints and in this they triumph as an undeniable proof that God approves of such addresses God heareth not Sinners neither will he give his Glory to another and therefore were Prayers made to Saints a sin of that sacrilegious nature as to rob God of his Honour 't is not to be thought that he 'd give suchcountenance to them against himself as to Crown them with success To this it may be answered It 's certain that at first God was pleased upon the Prayers of Christians put up to himself to work many miracles for the Confirmation of the Faith but that any were wrought in answer to such Prayers that at those places were in after Ages made to the Martyrs is very uncertain August de Civit Dei l. 22. c. 8. and much to be suspected St. Austin names but two instances of this kind that I have met withal and at the same time he mentions them blasts their credit by telling us he had no undoubted Authority for the Truth of them St. Chrysostom not only declares that miracles in his time were ceased but hath wrot a Discourse on purpose â—o give us the reasons why they are so so that all the miracles the Church of Rome pretends to on this account are either delusions of Satan which God sometimes permits him to work for the Tryal of his people or else Cheats and Impostures performed by cunning Men of their own to wheedle and impose on the easie and credulous Vulgar V. That there is full and evident proof in Scripture against it IF that general rule of St. Austin's be allowed off that God is so to be Worship'd that is as to all the Aug. de consen Evang. l. 1. c. 18 Essential parts of it as he himself has commanded to be Worship'd then all those places of the Scripture that command us to direct our Prayers only to God and only in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ do with equal force forbid us to direct our Prayers to any other object or to use any other Name and Mediation Now Texts to this purpose are inumerable Oh thou that hearest Prayers unto thee shall all Flesh Psalm 65. 2 come Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver Psalm 50. 15 thee Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and Matt. 11. 28 I will give you rest Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will John 16. 23. give it you In every thing by Prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving Phil. 4. 6. let your requests be made known unto God If any of you lack Wisâ—om let him ask it of God who Jam. 1. 5. gives to all Men liberally c. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10. 14. Now if none but God is to be believed in none but God is to be called upon These are very plain and convincing and no others need to be produced but because the Romish Authors have been practising upon some others endeavouring to obscure and weaken their evidence which are yet no less clear and full I shall bring them forth also and not only wip off the dust that has been cast upon thèm but restore them to their own natural sense and Prespicuity They are chiefly these Four The First is Luke 11. 2. When ye Pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Now the meaning of this precept must be one or both these two things either that we should use this form of words when we Pray or that we should compose all our Prayers after this pattern take which we will in either sense they oblidge us to direct all our Prayers to our Heavenly Father whose is the Kingdom Power and Glory whensoever we repeat this form of Prayer we address to God as the Object saying Our Father and if no Prayer is to be made but after this pattern then still it follows that no other ought to be the Object of them but he who is Our Heavenly Father 'T is generally concluded on all sides that in this absolute and perfect form of our Lord's Prayer is contained a Summary of what ever ought to be the subject matter of a Christians Prayer now since every Petition in it is directed immediately to God our Heavenly Father it follows that when ever we Pray we are not only to Pray for no other things but these blessings but also to begg them of no other Beeing but him But to put by the force of the Argument taken from this command of our Lord's When ye Pray say or Spenc. Script mistaken by Protest p. 57. after this manner Pray ye the Romanists tells us that 't is true we are to imitate this Prayer of Christ's in composing our own as to it's brevity and compendiousness as to the subject matter of it as to the the Catholickness of its Spirit oblidging us to Pray for others at the same time when we Pray for our selves saying Our Father but not as to the Object to whom our Prayers are to be addrest for then by the same Argument we may exclude the Second and Third Persons in the Blessed Trinity as well as Angels and Saints to this it 's no hard matter to give an answer And 1. It must be confest that the word Father in this Prayer is to be mean'd chiefly though not solely of the first person in the Sacred Trinity he being the Root and Fountain of the Deity and the prime Original of all our happiness may in special be called upon by us so far as is consistent with our acknowledgment of the equal Divinity of the other Two Persons for though
that according to our Saviours own rule that he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil these Laws of worshipping one God and none besides him were not lyable to any change and alteration because there was nothing to be perfected or fulfilled in them He made no change or alteration but by way of perfecting and fulfilling and therefore those Laws which had nothing to be fulfilled must remain as they were without any change To perfect or fulfil a law must either signifie to accomplish what was prefigured by it and thus Christ fulfilled all the types and prophecies of the Law which related to his Person or his undertaking as the Jewish Priesthood and Sacrifices c. or to prescribe that real righteousness which was signified and represented by the outward ceremony and so Christ fulfilled the Laws of circumcision Washing Purifications Sabbaths c. by commanding the Circumcision of the heart and the purity of mind and spirit or by supplying what was defective and thus he fulfilled the moral Law by new instances of vertue by requiring something more perfect of us then what the letter of the Mosaical Law enjoyned These are all the wayes that I know of and all that we have any instances of in Scripture of fulfilling Laws Now I suppose no man will say that the first Commandment which forbids â—he worship of any other Gods besides the Lord Jehovah is a Typical Law for pray what is it a Type of nor can any pretend that the first Commandment is a ceremonial Law for it prescribes no rite of worship at all but onlâ— determines the object of worship As for the third way of fulfilling Laws by perfecting them with some new instances and degrees of vertue it can have no place here for this Law is as perfect as it can be For it is a Negative Law Thou shalt have none other GOD. Now that which is forbid without any reserve oâ— limitation is perfectly and absolutely forbid There are no degrees of nothing though there are several degrees of perfection in things which have beeing and therefore though there are degrees in affirmative Laws for some Laws may require greater attainments then other and one man may do better then another and yet both do that which is good yet there are no degrees in not doing a thing and no Law can do more then forbid that which the Law-giver will not have done And besides â—his way of fulfilling Laws does not abrogate any command but adds to it it may restrain those liberties which were formerly indulged but it does not forbid any thing which was formerly our duty to do for when GOD requires greater degrees of vertue from us he does not forbid the less And therefore in this way Christ might forbid more then was forbid by the Law of Moses but we cannot suppose that he gave liberty to do that which the law forbids which is not to perfect but to abrogate a Law But to put an end to this dispute if Christ have perfected these Laws by indulging the worship of Saints and Angels under the Gospel which was so expreslly forbidden by the Law then it seems the worship of Saints and Angels is a more perfect state of Religion then the worship of the one supreme God alone If this be true then though the Heathens might mistake in the object of their worship was yet the manner of their worship was more perfect and excellent then what God himself prescribed the Jews For they worshiped a great many inferiour Deities as well as the supreme God and if this be the most perfect and excellent worship it is wonderful to me that God should forbid it in the worship of himself that he should prescribe a more imperfect worship to his own people then the Heathens paid to their Gods For to say that God forbade the worship of any Beeing besides himself because this liberty had been abused by the Heathens to Idolatry is no reason at all For though we should suppose that the Heathens worshiped evil spirits for Gods this had been easily prevented had God told them what Saints and Angels they should have made their addresses to and this had been a more likely way to cure them of Idolatry then to have forbid the worship of all inferiours Deities for when they had such numerous Dieties of their own to have made their application to they would have been more easily weaned from the Gods of other Countries And we have reason to believe so it would have been had GOD been pleased with this way of worship for he would not reject any part of religious worship meerly because it had been abused by Idolaters The Heathens sacrificed to Idols and yet he commands the Jews to offer Sacrifices to himself and so no doubt he would have commanded the worship of Saints and Angels had he been as well pleased with this as he was with Sacrifices had it been a more perfect state of Religion then to worship God only and without any Image When God chose the people Israel and separated them from the rest of the world to his own peculiar worship and service we cannot suppose that he did intend to forbid any acts of worship which were a real honour to the Divine Nature much less to forbid the most excellent and perfect acts of worship for he who is so jealous of his glory will no more part with it himself then he will give it to another and therefore excepting the Typical nature of that dispensation the whole intention of the Mosaical Law was to correct those abuses which the rest of the world was guilty of in their Religious Worship which either respected the object or the acts of worship that they worship'd that for God which was not God or that they thought to honour God by such acts as were so far from being an honour that they were a reproach to the Divine Nature And whatever is forbid in the worship of God unless there be some Mystical and Typical reasons for it must be reduced to one of those causes This account God himself gives why he forbids the worship of any Beeing besides himself or the worship of graven Images I am the Lord that is my Name and my glory will I not give to Isa 42. 8. another nor my praise to graven Images Whatever is his true glory he reserves to himself and therefore never did forbid any act of worship which was truly so but he will not give his glory to another and for that reason forbids the worship of graven Images or any thing besides himself and if this was not his glory then much less the most perfect and excellent part of worship I know not how it should come to be his glory now unless the Divine Nature changes and alters too So that God having forbid by the Law of Moses the worship of any other Beeing besides himself is a very strong presumption that the worship of Saints
it not of as much force now to cast it out of the Church as it was then not to bring it in Does it not give infinite offence to a great part of the Christian World and is it not esteem'd and that justly by them to be the old Pagan-Worship revived or something very near it For it is not enough to excuse them from it that the object of their Invâ—cation is not the same that they do not with them pay this Worship to the Heathen Deities who though in some respects they had been Patrons and Benefactors to their Country were yet in others very lewd and unworthy persons but to the Apostles of Christ and Christians Martyrs who in all respects were highly deserving of the World whilst they agree in the same act kind of Worship and give that Honour to the Creature which properly and peculiarly belongs to God and herein especially did the Pagan Worship and Superstition consist 2. We shall now examine the chief of those Texts the Romanists produce in the behalf of this Doctrine and let you see how little they serve to that purpose The first is Luke 15. 7. 10. There shall be joy in Heaven and again There shall be joy before the Angels of God over our Sinner that repenteth From whence they argue that if Angels and blessed spirits rejoyce at the Conversion of a sinner they must know and understand this change that 's wrought in them before they can rejoyce at it and if the knowledge of their repentance reaches them why not also of their Prayers And then if they can hear their Prayers why may they not be Prayed unto To this it 's answered That this rejoycing in Heaven is not for the Conversion of a particular sinner but in general for the Redemption of Mankind by Jesus Christ and this appears more then probable from the parable of the lost sheep immediately going before whereof these words are the Conclusion the Ninety nine sheep not lost are the Angels presevering in their first state of Innocency the sheep that went aftray Adam and in him all his Posterity that fell from God the shepherd that went to seek the lost sheep God himself who sent his Son into the World to seek and to save that which is lost on whose shoulders the great Work of Mans Redemption was laid and for this we are sure there was joy in Heaven when a Blessed Chore of Angels sung that Heavenly Anthem at Christs Nativity Glory be to God on high and on Earth Peace good will towards Men But Supposing this rejoycing is to be understood for the repentance of individual sinners it may be observed Emopion toâ— Aggelâ—n that this joy is not said to be the joy of Angels but before the Angels intimating that this rejoying is not to be attributed to the Angels but to God in whose presence they stand and this exposition is countenanced by considering 't is God that answers to the Shepherd in the parable as he went to seek his straied sheep and rejoyced at the finding of it so 't is God that by his Grace and Mercy in Christ recovered Man and rejoycâ—d at the accomplishment of his own Work Again If this Text does imply that Angels in Heaven know when a Sinner is converted and rejoyce at it it does not follow that they know this by some excellent priviledge and perfection of their nature whereby also they are enabled to understand even those mental Prayers that we are told ought to be put up to them but passing alwayes betwixt Heaven and Earth as waâ— represented unto Jacob in his Divine Vision on God's Errands and Embassies those that ascend from Earth may tell the joyful News of converted sinners to them in Heaven but they that tell them this cannot also acquaint them with the inward secret desires and cogitations of Mens Hearts be-being in a capacity by observing in Men the Signs and Fruits of true Repentance to know the one but having no way by their own natural power to understand the other The second place is Mat. 22. 30. Where our Saviour sayes That the just at the Resâ—rrection shall be as the Angels in Heaven from whence they infer that if our Prayers and concerns are known to the Angels and they on that account may be Invocated why should they not be known also to the Saints departed who are as they enjoying the same Blissful Vision of God To this may be returned That we are no more sure of the Knowledge of Angels in this particular then we are of that of Saints and therefore the one ought to be proved before the other be granted The Angels in Heaven see indeed the Face of Christs Father which is in Heaven but the meaning of that is not that by enjoying the sight of Gods Face they therein see and hear all things transacted here on Earth but that they are God's Ministers alwayes attending round about his Thron and waiting before him to receive his Commands and to execute his pleasure But was this Knowledge the priviledge of the Angelical nature the equality which just Men in the Text are said to have to the Augels is not mean'd an equality of Knowledge or perfection of nature but a similitude of State and Priviledges and his appears from the contex In the Resurrection they neither Mary nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels of God the just shall not be equal to the Angels in every respect for as they dâ—ffer in Nature and Kind so they shall have distinct natural Quâ—lities and Operations of Bliss and Haâ—piness they as the Angels in that Spiritualized State shall not need Matrimony for the propagation of their Kind nor Food for the preservation of their incorruptible Bodies they shall be free from all the necessities that attend temporal humane lite and all the affections that arise from the body and sensitive part of Man they as Angels shall be the Children of God being Children of the Reâ—urrection partakers of the Blâ—ss and immoveably possest of all the priviledges of the Sons of God Yet Was this equality to the Angels to be mean'd of an equality in Nature and Knowledge yet the Saints departed are not to enjoy it untill the Resurrection and so though the Angels on that account might be Invocated yet the Saints departed who are not till the Resurrection â—o have this excellent priviledge conferred on them are not till then to have this Homage and Worship paid to them At the Resurrection they shall be as the Angels of God whither they are before that admiâ—ted into the beaâ—fical Vision we need not now dispute since if they are this Angelical priviledge of seeing all things in the Face of God is reserved for the Saints as a farther addition of bliss till that day Again they produce Revel 5. 8. Where it 's said That the Four Beasts and twenty four Elders fell down before the Lamb having every one of them Harps and Goldâ—n
one Lord Mediatour the Heathens had many Soveraign Gods betwixt whom and Men they supposed there was no immediate intercourse they had also many under Gods or Doemons by whose Agency and Mediatourship they addrest themselves to their Soveraign Gods this the Apostle confutes and shews that Christians are taught to believe and profess but one God Maker of all things to whom they ought to Pray and but one Lord Mediatour and Advocate by whom they offer their Petitions to him 2. That there needed no other besides this one he being a Mediator of Redemption too and on that account had not only an Authority and Commission from God to shew for that office but an infinite worth and invaluable merits of his own to plead in behalf of Mankind and to procure the granâ—ing of their requests he hath purchast what he begs for and atoned for what he Praâ—s for having no Sin of his own to answer for he was excellently qualified to interceed for Pardon for our Sins and having perfectly fulfilled all righteousness and shed his most precious Blood for us he highly merited of God both for us and for himself for us the several blessings he interceeds for for himself the God like Honour and Royalty to be the Donour and Dispenser of them Hence it is that the Apostle here makes his Mediation â—â—â—â—pend on his Propitiation and after he had told there is but one Mediatour presently subjoins Who gave himself a Ransom for all to the same purpose is that of St. John Ver. 6. 1. Joh. 21. 2. If any Man Sin we have an Advocate with the Father that is the same with a Mediatour of Intercession and that we might be fully assured of the greatness of his John 2. 1 2. Authority and Power he adds Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our Sins A third Scripture against Saint-Invocation are those words of our Saviour Mat. 4. 10. Taken out of Deut. 6. 13. Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Now if Prayer be a necessary and chief part of God's Worship as all are agreed it is we are bound by this Scripture to Pray only to God But to this they say there are several degrees of Religious Worship and that it is only an inferiour kind wherewith they Worship the Saints departed called by them Duleia when it 's applied to ordinary Saints and hyperduleia when to the blessed Virgin and that they never Worship them as they do God with Latreia the highest kind of Worship if it be asked How does this appear since the same Signs and outward Acts of Worship are performed to the one as well as to the other They answer that they have higher conceptions and intentions of Honour to God in the exercise of their officâ—â— to him then when they perform the like to any Angel or Saint deparâ—ed To this several things may be said 1. If these words him only shalt thou serve are to be understood only of the highest degree of Religious worship as a part of the whole and distinguish'd from a lower kind they had not been a sufficient answer to the Devils demand he might thus have answered I acknowledge the Soveraign and Almighty Power of God as well as you That it is he alone can command Ver. 3 Stones to become Bread and this Power I have over the Kingdoms of the World I own to have received from him for it was delivered to me And therefore I do not Luke 4. 6. desire that thou shouldest Worship me as thou doest God with Latreia with the highest degree of worship but only with Duleia a lower kind thy Heart the highest and most elevated thoughts and conceptions of thy mind may be given to God 't is only the outward Act that I challenge of thee that thou wouldest only fall down and Worship me or by falling down worship Me. 2. That the Scriptures often use these two words Latreia and Duleia promiscuously to signify the same thing and as sometimes Latreia is set to signify that Civil Honour and Service that 's due to Men in Eminency and Authority so is Duleia to express that Religious worship that 's only due to God As to the first God Deut. 28. 48. Latreuseis thus threatens the Isralites therefore thou shalt serve thine Enemies as to the other many places may be instanced in thus when Samuel exhorted the House of Isarel to prepare their Hearts unto the Lord and to serve him only and when the Apostles urged Christians to be fervent in Spirit serving the Lord and when our Saviour said ye cannot 1. Sam 7. 3. duleusate Rom. 10. 11. duleuontes Matt. 6. 24. u dunasthe Theo dulein serve God and Mammon Duleuein is the word made use of 3. That there is no such distinction in Religious worship as an higher and lower kind because whatever is Religious worship is such with respect to God only as the Object and therefore can be but one and that in the highest degree as God is one and infinitely exalted above all Religion say the School-Men is a Moral Vertue which exhibits due Worship to God as the L. 4 Inst c. 28. de ver Rel. c. 55. Principal of all things Lactantius therefore derives it a Religando because it ties Man to God and St. Austin à Religendo because Men choose God again whom they had forsaken 'T is not therefore whatsoever is excellent but whatsoever is Divine and as it is Divine that is the Object of Religion now Angels and Holy Men although there be some kind of Honour due to those excellencies that are found in them an Honour Commensurate to those excellencies yet falling infinitely short of Divinity must be excluded from having any share of that worship which either by God himself or the universal consent of Mankind is made Religious that is appropriate to God Neither 4. Will it help the matter to say that though the outward Acts and Expressions of worship to both are the same there is a vast differrence in the inward Devotions of their minds and Souls and that which they Pray to Saints and Angels they must not be thought to do it with that height of Affection and trust and resignation wherewith they call upon God For when all is done words and outward Acts will be reckon'd to signify according to that sense and meaning Custom and Institution hath stamp'd upon them and let the inward thoughts of the Votary be what they will if he apply to Saints and Angels in such expressions and offices or with such Rites and Ceremonies as according to the usual acceptation of them naturally import that Hope and Confidence that Love and Duty that is due to God alone he will be deem'd to ascribe unto them naturally import that Hope and Confidence that Love and Duty that is due to God alone he will be deem'd to ascribe unto them the Honour which he owes to
by the Romanists own Confession are of this opinion and though they should be mistaken as their great Cardinal thinks they were and endeavours to prove yet 't is enough to our purpose that they did not hold the one and therefore could neither teach nor practice the other 2. One chief Argument which the Primitive Fathers used to prove the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost against the Arrians and Macedonians was the Catholick practice of the Church in Praying to them which would not have been of any force had they believed that any Creatures though never so highly exalted in Nature and Condition might have had that Honour payed unto them They tell us frequently in their writings that when the Gospel directs us to invocate the Son and Holy Ghost in conjunction with the Father it proves them Orig. l. 8. in Epis ad Rom. c. 10 Athan. Orat. 4. contr Arrianos to be true God that Invocation supposing them every where to be present when they are invock'd and that Omnipresence being the sole property of God For the same reason when the Arrians who conceived Christ to be no more then an excellent and Godlike Creature did yet Pray unto him the Catholicks accused them of Idolatry Had the Catholicks at the same time practised the Invocation of Saints the charge might have been returned with greater force upon themselves and whatever could have been thought of by the Catholicks to excuse themselves from that guilt might with more strength have been urged by the Arians in their behalf Had the Catholicks replied as the Romanists do now that though they did Pray to the blessed Spirits yet they did not do it with that Soveraign direct and final Prayer nor with those Sublimest Thoughts and intentions of Honour wherewith they did address to God but only with indirect subaltern and relative Prayer and with no higher intentions of Honour to them then what is proportioned to the excellencies of their finite nature the Arrians might have returned upon them with great advantage even after the same manner Sirs and with the same due limitations do we Invocate the Man Christ Jesus and whilst we do no more but so we have more reason for what we do then you can have since Christ is confessedly superiour to all Creatures and consequently deserves at least as great an Honour to be paid to him as unto any the highest amongst them though we do not think him God equal with the Father yet the Scripture assures us he is exalted far above all Angels Principalities and Powers and every name which is named in Heaven and Earth and though we may not Honour the Son in the same high degree with an as of equality as we do the Father yet the Scripture enjoyns us to do it with the same kind of Honour with an as of similitude and likeness and this is more then can be said in defence of that Honour and Invocation you offer to Saints and Angels 3. Because the Fathers condemned the Heathens as guilty of Idolatry for Invocating their Doemons or inferiour Deities which in a manner is the same with the Romish Invocation of Angels and Saints This has been invincibly proved Dean of St. P. against G. against the Romanists by a great Light of our Church who hath made the Parity and Agreement betwixt them to be very obvious as 1. In the Object of their Invocation the Heathens had one Supreme God and a multitude of Inferiâ—uâ— Deities the Romanists have also besides one God above all a multitude of Angels and Saints departed It may be the Vulgar and Ordinary People might mistake for their Gods Jupiter of Crete Mars Venus Vulcan Bacchus Persons that had been famous for Lewdness and Adulteries and if they did 't is to feared not much better an account can be given of many of the Canonized Saints in the Church of Rome but the Wiser sort had farr different apprehensions of their Deities they said and believed the same of the Supreme God as Christians do That he made the whole Plot Enn. 5. l. 9. c. 5. Laert. in Vit. Thal. p 24. Senec. Ep. 83 World and sees all things that he wants neither Power nor Will nor Knowledge to make his Providence concerned in the least things that neither the Actions nor the very thoughts of Mens minds can be hid from him Accordingly we find St. Paul affirming of the Heathens that they knew God ascribing to the Heathens Jupiter he being the Creator of all things so he told the Athenians Him whom ye Ignorantly Worship declare I Acts. 17 unto you God that made the World and the being the Father of all Mankind when he said in the words of one of heir Poets for we are all his off-spring And then for their Inferiour Deities there is so very little disparity betwixt them and the Angels and Saints Invocated by the Church of Rome that it seems to be only in name Accordingly St. Austin Confest that the Platonists did affirm the same things of their good Daemons as Christians St. Aust de civit Dei l. 9. c. 23. did of the blessed Angels did they distinguish their Inferiour Deities into such Spirits as were by Death delivered from the Body and such as never had any into such as alwayes lived in Heaven and such Apul. de Deo Socr. p. 50. cic de leg l. 2. whose merits had advanced them thither how exactly doth this sute with the difference given by Romanists betwixt Angels and Saints departed and the reason of their Worshiping of them The spiritual and Heavenly Nature of the one and the Merits of the other 2. In the Office ascribed to them The imployment the Heathens put upon their Daemons was to Aug. de civ Dei l. 8 e. 18. carry up the Prayers of Men to God and what they had obtained to bring back to Men imagining the Supreme God to be of too pure and sublime a Nature immediately to converse with Men they look'd upon these as Advocates and Mediators betwixt God and Men and as Intercessors and Procurers of their desired blessings and is not this the same thing the Church of Rome sayes touching the Office of Angels and blessed Spirits in the behalf of Men such as do solicite God for them and by their more prevailing merits and interest in God obtain of him what they themselves Pray for 3. In that which they make the Foundation of their Worship and Invocation to them viz. a middle sort of excellency betwixt God and Men so said the Heathens that there were a sort of Beeings between God and Men that participated of both Natures and that by means of those intermediate Beeings an intercourse was maintained betwixt Heaven and Earth and as God was to be Worship'd for himself so the others to be Loved and Honoured for his sake as being Gods by way of participation as likest to him as his Vicars and as Reconcilers betwixt them And is
not this the declared reason why the Church of Rome gives Religious Worship to Angels and departed Saints Because of a middle sort of worth and excellency that is in them that 's neither infinite as the divine nor so low as the humane but Spiritual and Supernatural whereby approaching near to the Divinity they have great interest in the Court of Heaven and ought as Celsus said of their Daemons to be Prayed unto to be favourable and propitious to us So exact you see is the parallel betwixt them Now against this Daemon-Worship the Fathers replied that whatever great and supernatural excellencies were to be found in the Spirits above ought indeed to have an Acknowledgement and Honour paied to them both in Mind and Action proportioned and Commensurate to such excellencies but yet they were not to be esteemed inwardly as Gods nor to be Worshipp'd with any outward Act of Religious Worship be it erecting Altars making Vows or puting up Prayers to them as if they were such For all and every part of that was solely due to God and not to be given to any the highest Created Excellency As you may see their minds more fully in the next particular 4. The Fathers positively assert that none but God ought to be invocated And the first I shall mention is that advice Ign. Ep. ad Philadelph which Ignatius gave the Virgins of his time not to direct their Prayers and Supplications to any but only to the Blessed Trinity Oh ye Virgins have Christ alone before your Eyes and his Father in your Prayers being enlightned by the Spirit Irenaeus in his first Book taking notice of some Persons who had entertained strange fancies concerning the Power of Angels accordingly gave Divine Worship to them tells us plainly that the Doctrine and Practice of the Iren l. 2. c. 57. Church in his dayes was far otherwise and that throughout the World it did nothing by Invocation of Angels nor by Incantations but purely and manifestly directs her Prayers to God who made all and calls upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Feuardentius in his notes upon the place would have the words of the Father to be understood only of Prayers made by Evil Spirits and angels but then why did not the Father express it so Why does he exclud all Angels without distinction from Divine Worship when he sayes the whole Church every where called only upon God and his Son Christ Jesus Eusebius in his History hath set down a long Prayer of the of the Holy Martyr Polycrap which he uttered at the time of his Suffering wherein there is not any one Petition put up to Saints but every one directed to God through the Meditation of Christ closing his Prayer with Euseb l. 4. c. 15. this Doxology Therefore in all things I Praise thee I Bless thee I Glorify thee through the Eternal Priest Jesus Christ thy Beloved Son to whom with thee Oh Father and the Holy Ghost be all Glory now and for ever To which we may add what also is Recorded by the same Author that when the Church of Smyrna desired the Body of their Martyred Bishop to give it an Honourable Inteâ—ment and was denyed it by the Governour upon the unworthy suggestion of the Jews that they would Worship it they thus replied We can never be induced to Worship any other but Christ him being the Son of God we adore others as Martyrs and his sincere Disciples we worthily Love and Respect and that which here deserves a particular observation is what the Learned Primate of Armagh hath pointed out to us viz. that what in the Original Greek Sebein Religiously to Worship is in the Latin Edition that was wont to be read in all the Churches of the West rendred precem Orationis Ex passion M. S. 7. Kalend. Febr. in Bib. Eccl. Sarish Dom. Rob. Cotton impendere to impart the Supplication of Prayer The nexâ— Testimony I shall produce is that of Origen who is very full to this purpose in his Writings against Celsus he tells us We must endeavour to please God alone and labour to have him propitious to us procuring his good will with Godliness and all kind of Vertue and if Celsus will have us to procure the good will of any others after him that is God ovâ—â— all let him consider that as when the Body is moved the motions of the shadow thereof doth follow it so in like manner having God favourable to us who is over all it followeth that we shall have all his Friends both Angels and Spirits loving to us and whereas Celsus had said of the Angels that they belong to God and in that respect were to be Prayed unto that they may be favourable to us he thus sharply replies Away with Celsus's Council saying that we must Pray to Angels for we must Pray to him who is God over all and we must Pray to the Word of God his only begotten Son and the first born of all Creatures and we must intreat him that he as High Priest would present our Prayer unto his God and our God And when Celsus Objected that the Christians did not keep to their own rule of Praying to and Worshipping none but God since they gave the same Honour to Christ whom they knew to be a Man he replies that Christ was God as well as Man one with the Father and proves it from Miracles and Prophesies and Precepts that this Honour was given to him to be Worship'd as they Worship'd the Father Had Celsus Objected that the Christians Worship'd Angels and Saints departed it had been laid right and would have born hard upon them and he had inferred strongly that they might as well Worship their Inferiour Deities but Celsus Objects no such thing but only their Worshipping of Christ which Origen was well provided to answer and this is an evident proof that the Christians were not guilty of it Had there been but the least ground to suspect them for it it would have been so hugely serviceable to his cause and with so much force have rebounded back upon the Christians that 't is not to be imagined so industrious and spightfull an Adversary as Celsus would have omitted with the greatest Insult and Triumph to have laid it at their Door To these we might add the Suffrages of many more St. Cyprian who have written set Treatises of Prayer teaching us to regulate all our Prayers after that most perfect Pattern of our Lords and ever to direct our Petitions to our Heavenly Father only Gregory Nyssen saith we are taught to Worship and aktiston physin Cont. Eunom Tom. 2. Orat. 4. Oâ—at 3. Contr. Arrian De ver Relig. c. 55. de civit Dei l. 22. c. 10. Ep. 42. Adore that Nature only that 's uncreated Athanasius That God only is to be Worshipped that the creature is not to Adore the creature St. Austin sayes expresly that the Saints are to be Honoured for
imitation not to be Adored for Religion that at the Communion Table they were named but not Invocated And again you see the head of the most renowned Empire stooping with his Diadem and Praying at the Sepulchre of Peter the Fisherman namely 't is to God himself that he Prayes though at the Tomb of Peter Epiphanius reproving as he calls it the Womens Hoeres 79. adver Collyridian Heresie who were wont to offer up a Cake to the Blessed Virgin hath these words Let Mary be in Honour but let the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost be Worshipped and to shew us what a very ill opinion he had of that at least Superstitious practice he six times repeats in that tract Marian medies â—roskyneito Let no Man Adore Mary To name no more Tertullian in his Apology for the Apol. c. Sect. 30. 2. 3. Christians thus expresses himself after he had set down the many great Blessings the Christians thought themselves ever oblidged to beg for their Emperours As long life and Valiant Armies and a Faithful Senate and Loyal Subjects and a peaceable Reign these things saith he I may not Pray for from any other but from him of whom I know I shall obtain them because both it is he who is alone able to give and I am he to whom it appertains to obtain that which is requested being his Servant who observe him alone VII That the Doctrine and Practice of Saint-Invocation is Impious and Idolatrous THis I think will be fully made out from these three particulars 1. This ascribes to Angels and Saints the Attributes and Perfections that are solely proper and peculiar to God viz. his Omniscience and Omnipresence for not only when Mental Prayers as the Church of Rome directs but since the blessed Spirits above can't be supposed to espouse the cause of an insincere Votary when vocal Prayers also are offered up to them it supposes them Privy to the very thoughts and acquainted with the Hearts of Men again when innumerable Prayers and Supplications from Millions of places at the greatest distance from one another are at the same time immediately put up to them it supposes in like manner that they are present in all places and at the same time can give Audience to all their Petitioners Now what more or greater can be said of God Is not this that infinite knowledge that Omnipresent Power and never absent Nature that the Scriptures solely attribute to the Creator of all things and have denied to any of the highest Form of the Creatures And although I will not undertake to describe to you the exact bounds aad Measures of the Angelical Nature and Perfections how perspective their Knowledge is How piercing their understanding How swift their motion Yet sure I am that neither they nor any other the most elevated part of Gods Creation can by their Natural Power know the Hearts of Men and be in all places at one instant of time It is God alone whose understanding is infinite who looks down from Heaven beholds all the wayes of the Sons of Men He even he knoweth all the Hearts of the Children 1 King 8. 27. of Men. 'T is he that seeth in secret And God challenges it as a peculiar to himself The Heart is Matt. 6. 4. Jerem. 17. 9. 10. deceitful above all things and disperatly Wicked who can know it I the Lord search the Heart and try the Reins By this Argument the Fathers Triumph'd over the Arrians and Macedonians in proving the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost which yet would have been no Argument at all had not this Knowledge been an Incommunicable perfection in the Divine Nature But 't is said that 't is God indeed that only Naturally and of himself knows the Hearts o Men but this hinders not but that others his Saints and Angels may know them by Communication from him viz. Either by Revelation from God or by the Beatifick Vision Seeing all things in God who sees all things In answer to this not to mention how it contradicts the express words of Scripture which without any distinction or limitation does as plainly assert as words can do it That God only knows the Heart not to mention the many disputes the Romanists have among themselves which way is to be chosen as the most probable and after what manner is either way this knowledge is derived and past from God to them these things may be said 1. That God hath no where declared that he hath Communicated this Priviledge and Prerogative of his Nature to Saints and Angels or that he does any way make visible or known to them the Hearts and the Requests of Men and now if what is not of Faith is Sin we having no Text of Scripture to Build our Faith upon in this particular must of necessity Sin in Praying to them on that supposition and commit that very sin too which we doubt whither we so doing commit or no nay the silence of the Scripture in this particular has in a manner determined the point and we may conclude that the most jealous God has reserved the Honour of Intimation to himself alone since he has no where given us the least hint or intimation of leave to pray to them 2. We are informed in Scripture that the Saints departed do not particularly know or mind what 's done 2 Chron. 34. 28. here below God tells Josiah thou shalt be gathered to thy Grave in Peace neither shall thine Eyes see the Evil I will bring upon this place The Dead know not any thing that is of the affairs of this World saith the Eccl. 9. 5. Preacher His Sons come to Honour and he kneweth it not and they are brought low and he perceiveth it not of them sayes Job of Man in the other State When 2 Kings 2. 9. Elijah was about to be taken up into Heaven he thus spake to Elisha Ask what thou wilt before I am taken from thee Strongly implying that when he was once gone 't was in vain to ask any thing of him Elijah was immediately taken up into Heaven made no stay by the way in Limbo as the Romanists themselves agree being in Heaven his Love to Elisha could not be forgot nor his Interest in God lessened but rather both by being exalted thither very much encreased and augmented so that no reason can be given why he should limit and fix his making his desires known to him to the time of his abode with him on Earth but only this his perswasion that in the other State he should not be capable to hear his requests and so all his future addresses to him would be ineffectual To these we may add that known place in Isaiah Abraham doth not know us and Israel is ignorant of us from whence St. Austin concludes that if those great Men Isa 63. 16. and Founders of their Nation were ignorant of what was done in after Ages to their
Posterity why should the Dead S. Aust de cura pro morie c. 13. be thought in a condition to know or help their surviving friends in what they do 3. They that will have God acquaint particular Saints and Angels with those Petitions that are put up to them impose a very Servile and Dishonourable Office on God and as sometimes they will have us out of Discretion and Humility go to God by Saints and Angels as Men make their way to a Prince by his Favourites now they make the King and his Subjects to change places and God is sent to wait on them with the requests of their Votaries What can be more strangely ridiculous then this Position of theirs That the Petitioner must first make his sute to Angels and Saintâ— then God must tell those Angels and Saints both the person that Prayes and the boon he Prayes for then the Angels or Saints must back again and present them to God Or when any one addresses to an Angel or Saint to supplicate the blessed Virgin in his behalf God must first tell this Angel or Saint the contents of the Address then he must Post to the blessed Virgin she upon the first notice of it must have recourse to her Son and he upon the motion of his Mother repair to his Father to present that request to him which he himself fiâ—st revealed But is not this an insufferable affront to God and an intollerable abuse of themselves To send the most high God on the Errands of his Creatures and to apply themselves to broken Cisterns when they may directly go to the Fountain it self of all blessings 4. Neither can the Angels and Spirits above know the Hearts and Petitions of their supplicants any more by vertue of the sight of God then by Revelation from him this fond opinion depends upon this Romish gingle That seeing God they must in him see all things that in Idea are contained in him but does not the Scripture assure us That no one knows the things of God but the Spirit of God that is in him Do they not tell us how 1 cor 2. 11. ignorant the Angels were of the great Mystery of Mans Redemption notwithstanding their nearness to God Eph. 3. 10. and beholding his Face Till it was made known to them by the church Does not our Saviour let us know that 1 Pet. 1. 12. he himself as Man though his Humanity was Hypostatically united to the Divinity did not pretend to know all the Councils and Purposes of God Speaking of the day of Judgment he says Of that day and hour knoweth no Man no Matt. 24. 36 not the Angels but the Father only Why then should it be thought credible that the blessed spirits above by beholding Gods Face do in that Glass of the Divinity see all things and transactions that are done and hear all Prayers and Petitions that are made by the sons of Men 2. This Doctrine and Practice is highly derogatory from the Glory of God as Governour of the World God is the great Lord of Heaven and Earth all that we are and all that we have we derive from him we are upheld by his Power and maintained by his bounty and Goodness In him we live and move and have our being he gives to all life and breath and all things he numbers the hairs of our head paints the Lillies of the Field beyond the Glory of Solomon feeds the young Ravens that call upon him takes care of Sparrows much more of Man who is of a more worthy and excellent Nature much more yet of Nations and Kingdoms who consist of multitudes of Men linkt together by Laws and Government and though sometimes when he pleases he makes use of the Ministry of Angels and makes them the Instruments of his Providence towards the sons of Men yet he hath no where told us that he hath divided to them much less to Saints departed their several Provinces or set them their particular tasks that he has made them Presidents over such Countries or Cities Patrons and Guardians over such persons or professions that he has given them a power over such and such Maladies and Diseases but has reserved the power of dispensing his kindnesses where to whom and in what measure in his own hands and therefore all our trust and confidence ought intirely to be placed in God all our Thanks and Praises are due to him and he alone is to be acknowledged as the Author and Donor of all our blessings but now from that Presidentship and protection that power and patronage that the Romanists intruding into these things they have not seen without sufficient ground Col. 2. 18. ascribe to Angels and Saints over particular Kingdoms persons and in particular Cases and Circumstances though as substitutes under God arises naturally some degree of trust and confidence in them some debt of Homage and praise to them and 't is well if the person oblidged looks any higher in his returns of Love and Thankfulness then to that particular Angel or Saint he prayed to and from whose deputed power and Authority he thinks he received his deliverance and what is this but to rob God of the Honour of being sole Governour of the World and to make some of his Creatures who are no less beholding to him for their subsistence then the rest to partake with him of that Trust and Affectioâ— that Homage and subjection that is wholly due to him from all his Creatures What is this as our Church in her Homily expresses it But a turning from the Creator to the Creature Cursed is Man that trusteth in Man sayes the Prophet and Jerem 17. 5. 7 for the same reason in any Finite and Created Beeing because in what degree he does so in the same does his Heart depart from God but blessed is the Man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is What low and mean conceptions of God have those Men who think his Government of the World must be modelled and conformed to a Princes Government over his Kingdom and because he being but a Man and so not able in person to hear all complaints and redress all grievances appoints substitutes under him Judges and Magistrates to do it therefore God must do so too whereas there is an infinitely wider distance betwixt the Wisdom and knowledge and Goodness and Power of God and those of the most acccomplish'd Governour then there is betwixt the height of Heaven and the lowest centre of the Earth My thoughts Esa 55. 8. 9. are not your thoughts neither are your wayes my wayes saith the Lord for as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are my wayes higher then your wayes and my thoughts then your thoughts The Wisest Monarch on Earth falls infinitely short of the perfections of God his Knowledge is but short his Power small and therefore cannot possibly without the information and assistance of others extend the
Sacraments and seems no less to be contrary to the reason and Notion of a Sacrament in general The sum of what we have hitherto discoursed amounts to this First That here is no Auricular confession instituted by our Saviour Joh. 20. 22. As was pretended Secondly Not any Sacrament of Penance in which it can be included or implied no nor indeed any Sacrament at all I confess I might have spared all the words I have used in proving the latter for so long as I have made appear that private confession is not instituted it was not so very material to consider whither penance could be a Sacrament or no but this I added to shew the imperious dictates of that church and their extravagancy in imposing the most sacred Names upon their own inventions thereby to give them the greater veneration with the People And thus I would dismiss the first part of my undertaking yet the Romanists will not forego their pretensions for Auricular confession for they will yet urge that wihther or no we will call it a Sacrament which our Saviour institutes in the Text before us it is however certain here is a Power conferred on the Apostles and their Successors of remitting and retaining sins for by these words Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted c. * Our Saviour had made the Christus constituit Sacerdoteâ— sui ipsius Vicarios Sess 14. Praesides Judices Ibid. 4. Sacerdos solvit peccata potestate quadam praetoria Bellar. lib. 1. de Sacram. c. 10. Christus ratam habet sententiam a Sacerdote latam Id. lib. 3. c. 2. Priest a judge of Mens consciences and conditions Wherefore that he may not proceed blindly and indiscriminatly it is necessary that he know the merits of the Cause and not only understand the matter of fact but all the circumstances which may aggravate or extenuate it all which cannot be attained without the Confession of the party therefore Auricular confession is as necessarily implied in the Text as Absoltion or Retention of sins exprest in is it So they But I crave leave to demand in the first place Is it certain that upon such a confession as they require the Priest as such will be able to make a right judgment of a Mans case that addresses himself to him especially considering the intricacy of some cases and the ignorance of some Priests upon this account are those memorable words of St. Austin confess lib. 10. c. 3. Quid mihi ergo est cum hominibus ut audiant confessiones meas quaâ—i ipsi sanaturi sint omnes languores meos unde sciunt cum a meipso de meipso audiunt an verum dicam Quandoquidem nemo scit hominum quid agitur in homine nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est i. e. To what purpose should I Confess my sins to Men who cannot heal my wounds For how shall they who know nothing of my heart but by my own Confession know whither I say true or no For no one knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of Man that is in him O Yes they will say Clave non errante that is to say if he judge right he judges right and no more and this is mighty comfort to a distressed conscienâ—â— Secondly Though we grant our Saviour hath given the Priest Authority to Remit and Retain sins yet how doth it appear that this extends to Secret sins sins in thought only or as the Council expresses it against the ninth and tenth Commandments Of open â—ins and publick scandals the Church hath cognizance and hath a right which she may insist upon or recede from if she see cause because such sins are an injury to the Society as well as an offence against God and therefore here the Officers of the Church may dispense her Authority and Remit or Retain as we shall see more by and by but in secret sins where only GOD is injured and to that which he is only privy what hath the Church to do unless they be volunlarily discovered to her Otherwise they are properly reserved Cases to the Tribunal of God Thirdly I would be bold to enquire farther why may not sins especially such as we last named be Remitted upon Confession to God without Confession to the Priest also And I the rather ask this for these two reasons First I observe that this very Council of Trent saith that until the times Sess 14 c. 1. of our Saviour and his Institution of this Sament sins were remitted upon contrition only and application to the mercies of God without Auricular confession They cannot therefore now say remission implies this Confession for that cannot be said to be implied in the nature of a thing when the thing it self can be had without it They will answer that it is sufficient that it is now made necessary by our Saviour But I reply Then that Institution which now makes it necessary must be better proved then yet it hath been or else Men will be very apt to hope they may now under the Gospel obtain Pardon at least upon as easie terms as it was to be had at before My Second reason of asking that third Question is this I observe that their own Schoolmen Aquinas summ part 3. Q. 68. acknowledge sins to be remitted under the Gospel by the Priest without any Confession to Men particularly in the Administration of Baptism by which it plainly appears that Confession is not implied in the nature of Remission but one may be had without the other and then why may not a sinner after Baptism hope for Pardon upon his contrite and devout application to the Word and Sacraments without this new device and pick-lock of Conscience Auricular Confession But so much for that Sect. 3. I proceed now to the second thing propounded namely to inquire historically whither or no Auricular or such a secret and Sacramental Confession as aforesaid hath been of constant and universal use in the Christian Church as the Romanists pretend and as the Council of Trent asserts Sessi 14 Chap. 5. This inquiry is not into matter of Law or Divine Right as the former was but of Fact only yet nevertheless it is of great moment upon a double account 1. Because this is the ground which the Old Roman Canonists wholly went upon as I noted before they exploded all pretence of Divine Institution in the case as having more modesty it seems then to pretend so high upon no better evidence or at least they contented themselves to prescribe for it only upon the Authority of constant and universal practice now if we shew the falseness of this ground as well as of the other then will their Hypothesis of Auricular Confession have no foot to stand upon 2. Because the Credit of what hath been already said under the former head doth very much depend upon this and that Discourse will be confirmed or impaired respectively to what shall be evidently made out in this