to have been done by the Reliques of St. Stephen in Africa those of St. Martyn in France and those of the Anacorites in Egypt and Syria Not to enter into a long dispute on the subject of this pretended mark of the Church of Rome I answer three or four things briefly to which I pray give attention 1. That this pretended fountain of light fit and proper to make the Church of Rome visible is not for the simple and unlearned For to see the bottom and solidity thereof they must examine the History of the pretended Miracles which were done in the fourth and fifth Ages They must see what we have said in opposition to it they must examine circumstances and see if there be not reason to believe that all these stories of Miracles are either frauds or fictions They must also examine by History whether these pretended Prodigies of Sanctity be not either Fables or the disorders of sick and melancholick minds They must therefore be able to understand Latin and Greek and to read great and large Volumes To offer this as a light sutable to the capacity of the weak and unlearned is to scoff and deride them 2. I say that the Miracles of the Apostles which are certain and the Prodigies of the Sanctity of the three first Ages does not appertain by right of succession to the Church of the fourth and fifth Age but as far as she inherits the Doctrine of the Apostles These Miracles were good to prove the Divinity of the Christian Religion to Pagans But they are worth nothing to prove Novelties as are the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Reliques which are purely Pagan Practices With far greater reason the Church of Rome hath no right by succession to the Miracles of the Apostles to prove her Worship her Idolatries and Superstitions We have as much right as she to these Miracles They are truly and properly our Miracles They are good for us all in common against the ungodly and against Infidels to prove that there is one God in three Persons that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the true Redeemer of the World. But they are nothing to prove our Additions our Corruptions and our Alterations if it be so that either the one or the other of the Christian Sects whether Popery or Calvinism have introduced them into the Church This is clear the Miracles of the Apostles appertain not to us but as far as we have and do inherit their Doctrine 3. As to the Miracles of the fourth and fifth Age which were done in the times when they prayed to Saints and worshipped Reliques we say that they were false Miracles It is to be observed that from the death of the Apostles until the end of the fourth Age nothing was spoken of Miracles in the Church or so little and in so doubtful a manner that it doth not deserve to be reckoned for any thing but when the Devil desired to set up the Worship of Creatures he poured out a Spirit of Lying and a Spirit of Credulity which began to entertain discourses of Miracles 'T is a thing of importance press your Converters thereon Why did these Miracles cease for the space of well nigh two hundred Years or at least why were they so rare And why did they begin again exactly at the time when the Worship of Reliques grew famous Do we not see clearly that 't is a Wile of the Devil Hath God any interest to serve by Bones and Ashes was it necessary that he should begin again to do Miracles at that time And if it were of use to perswade the truth of the Religion which the Martyrs declared to the Pagans why did not God work Miracles by the Bones of the Martyrs for the first three Ages This had been much more profitable than when Paganism was rampant and the Church persecuted and oppressed Wherefore did not the Bones of Polycarpus of whom the believers of Smyrna speak with so much love work miracles Why did not so many Martyrs whose Reliques they had and whose Anniversaries they observed in the time of St. Cyprian work signs and wonders your Converters will never be able to answer this be you therefore perswaded that these pretended Miracles done by the Reliques of St. Stephen St. Gervais St. Protais St. Martyn c. were Illusions of the Devil whom God permitted to work false Miracles or the Cheats of Villains and lewd Superstitionists or to conclude Stories of the Vulgar and Fables which honest men received as Truths upon hear-say And as to the Miracles which are ascribed to the Anacorites of Aegypt and Syria I know not how Mr. Nicholas is not ashamed to draw from them a Light to make his Church visible They are Fables for the most part so gross that the Falseness of them stares in the face of the most Ignorant The Lives of St. Paul the Hermite of Hilarion and others written by St. Jerome that of St. Antony composed as they say by Athanasius are written with so little modesty and judgment that a man ought to be ashamed of them The judicious Readers that would preserve respect for the Authors of those Lives say that the Fathers composed them not as Histories but as pious Romances to divert Christians from reading the Pagan Fables We see in the Lives of those solitary persons of the Desart such as found Centaurs in the Woods Satyrs Men half Horses and half Goats who spake to them and prayed them to intreat the common Saviour to have pitty on them and to give them part in the common Salvation with them We see Hermites-which were in perpetual contests with the Devil always tempted and often beaten by him We see them which herded among the Beasts We there read in one word almost all the Impertinencies of our new Legends This makes it evident that the Fabulous Spirit entred into Christian Religion as soon as the Spirit of Superstition and Idolatry 4ly I say that although it should be true that these Miracles wrought in the Age of the establishment of the Worship of Saints and Reliques should be true Miracles it would not be a Light for the Roman Church any more than for the Greek who also worship Saints and Reliques 'T is therefore needful that we have Miracles from the Church of Rome since she was separate from the Greek Church and that it appear this Gift of Miracles is departed from all other Churches to affix itself to the Church of Rome Now the Greek Schismaticks have their Saints their Legends and their Miracles as well as the Latine Church Besides we do maintain that all the Miracles of the Church of Rome those of St. Bernard as well as others are Legendaries Tales or Illusions of the Evil Spirit 5ly To conclude I do maintain that every person who hath no other support of his Faith but Miracles is a false Believer I have said it elsewhere Miracles are not designed principally to prove Truth they are appointed above
its Ceremonies were intirely unknown As to what appertains to other Sacraments as is that of Marriage and Penance he must have a mind blinded by prejudice beyond all imagination to believe they may be found in the Scripture Marriage and Penance are indeed found there but there is not one word which does establish them as sacred Ceremonies designed to seal the Covenant of Grace and to confer forgiveness of sins Confirmation is found there i. e. the custom of laying on of hands for the giving the Holy Spirit and that of Anointing the Sick to recover them from Diseases Some of the Proselytes of these Gentlemen make a great business of it and have said to us as a great reproach that we have taken away Confirmation and Extreme Unction It is a great pity that minds which seem inlightned should stumble at trifles And is it not clear that this Imposition of Hands and Extreme Unction was designed for doing of Miracles which are long since ceased But they say that the following Ages did nevertheless practise it That we shall see afterward The Invocation of the Holy Virgin and Saints the Worship of Relicks Adoring of Images and the Service of Creatures in Popery is an affair so considerable that it fills almost all Nevertheless the Scripture of the New Testament says nothing of it Nor is it possible that Men well Educated can persuade themselves that these are Apostolical Traditions when we see not the least footsteps of them in the Writings of the Apostles It is a blindness which cannot be understood As to matter of Fact we can have no dispute with Papists concerning it They must acknowledge that the Apostles and Evangelists speak not one word either of the Invocation of Saints and Angels nor of the Veneration of Relicks nor of the Adoration of Images As to matter of Right if the Church has power to introduce these new Worships let it be proved and put past doubt and Controversie for I do affirm that he must be smitten with a spirit of blockishness that maintains that we may Religiously invoke creatures without the Authority of God and order of his Apostles Plainly it will be said that the Apostles have appointed the Invocation of Saints and that they themselves have practised it but they have left nothing written concerning it I do affirm that he must have a Forehead made of Brass who shall say such a thing And the new Converts who can be persuaded of it make no use of their reason It will never enter into the mind of a reasonable Man that the Apostles have appointed Invocation of Saints and said nothing of it in their Writings Purgatory which they would have pass for a little thing is nevertheless a very great one For Prayers for the dead publick and private Masses and almost all the Roman Worship is founded thereon So that the Holy Spirit could not let it slip If there be a Purgatory it must be in the Scripture or there is none .. I take it for granted and 't is to scoff People to go search this pretended Fire in the prison whence we must not go out till we have paid the utmost farthing in the fire that ought to try all things at the end of the world in the prison where are the Spirits to which Noah preach'd If Heaven and Hell were no other ways revealed in the Scripture the profane would have a fair opportunity to laugh at us The Authority of the Pope is the last of those Articles of Popery that I have represented 'T is an Affair about which there can be no Controversie which has any foundation in the World. Ask your Converters where-is the Pope in the Scriptures they will quote to you the Words of Jesus Christ to S. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my church Call a Turk a Jew or any other Man that hath common sense and ask him whether he sees therein that God hath established a Man at Rome with full authority to guide the whole Church to damn to save to judge of all Differences to determine without Appeal to excommunicate Kings Princes and Sovereigns he will believe you laugh him to scorn The new Converts which see therein the Apostolick Chair from S. Peter to Innocent the Eleventh have very good Eyes I beseech you my Brethren take your Converters a little to those Texts of Scripture where S. Paul enumerates the Officers of the Church He has given some to be Pastors Teachers Apostles Evangelists Bishops Deacons Elders and Prophets in those places where he declares the Duties of those who enjoy the Offices of the Church Press them say I and demand of them whether they dare say that the Apostle hath omitted the first of all Offices an Office alone in its kind infinitely superior to all others Ask them if they do believe in good earnest that S. Paul declared the Duties of Bishops in general and that he said nothing for the Regulation of the Bishop of Bishops I am persuaded if you press them earnestly thereon they will blush in your Faces Behold I do maintain that I have said enough already for the History of the first Age. The silence of the Scripture about all the Articles of Popery is an indisputable proof that then it was wholly unknown But there is much more you have an hundred positive Proofs that then the Christian Religion was wholly opposite to Popery Against the Real Presence you have all those Passages where the Eucharist is called Bread and a Commemoration of the Death of our Lord all those where 't is said our Lord is on high and not here below Against the Sacrifice of the Mass you have all the Epistle to the Hebrews Against the Worship of Creatures you have the Decalogue and a thousand other Commandments which do appoint that you adore and invoke God alone Against the taking away the Cup and the Adoration of the Eucharist you have the History of its Institution Against Purgatory you have an hundred Texts which tell you that after this life Believers go to Heaven Against the Pope you have all those places where our Lord and the Apostles forbid the Domination of Church-Men both over their Flocks and one another This is not a place to engage in a long Controversie by the Scripture we compose a History not a Disputation Know therefore historically in the following Articles what was the Primitive Christianity Behold what was the form of the Apostolick Church 1. Christians having as yet no Churches assembled where they could for the Service of God and it was almost always from House to House This is apparent both in the History of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of S. Paul. 2. In the Assemblies they preached and declared the Word of God. This is also certain and read in divers Texts in the Book of the Acts. 3 They brake Bread from House to House the Sacred Scripture says so expresly that is to say
from Judaism but bred up in the Schools of the Greeks having suck'd the Spirit of Fables and Lies wherewith those two Nations are justly reproached forged the Oracles which he attributes to the Sybils he caused to enter there as Oracles of those ancient Prophetesses all that which he believed proper to support the Christian Religion and render it plausible to the Pagans The better to persuade the Greeks he there mingled their Fables and to please the Philosophers he entered their Dreams there making himself all things to all Men that he might gain some Among other Philosophick Dreams he inserts two in his Work The first was drawn from the Platonick Philosophy 'T was that there was a certain separate place into which he pretended the Souls of the Faithful were carried after death and where they were lodged till the Day of Judgment without enjoying the happy vision of God. The other was this that at the end of the World there would be a great Fire through which all Men must pass that should be saved An imagination which seems to have some likeness to the Stoick Philosophy which teaches that the World would be burnt after which it would return into the State wherein it was at the beginning and in a continual vicissitude pass through the same Revolutions and Changes Or rather 't is taken from what the Holy Scripture says that the World at last must be burnt by Fire We are not able to say how these two Opinions the one concerâ—â—ng the separate state of Souls and the other concerning the Torrent of Fire through which they ought to pass did readily diffuse themselves among those which had any Learning and read any thing besides the Sacred Volumes The Ancients good Men and credulous being ravished to find Books under the name of Pagan Prophesies which foretold the coming of Jesus Christ his Names his Passion the Circumstances of his Birth of his Life Death and Resurrection much more clearly than the true Prophets embraced with greediness what they found in these false Prophesies Justin Martyr who wrote well nigh in the same time that these false Oracles were forged falls into the persuasion that Souls after death are in a separate place where even in some sort they are subject to the Power and Persecution of the Devil From thence it comes to pass that he said it was the Devil that caused the true Samuel to ascend by the Charms of the Witch of Endor ‖ Dial. cum Tryph. For which reason says he when a person is near death you ought to pray that his Soul don't fall under such a power S. Ireneus Bishop of Lyons the most considerable Writer of this second Age was of the same opinion concerning this separate place where all Souls must be inclosed until the Day of Judgment without seeing the Face of God. * Advers Haeres lib. 5. He calls this place Paradise whither Enoch and Elias were transported but he also calls it Hades Hell and a place invisible Note that this Opinion is universally at this day rejected by the Papists and passes among them for an Error Pope John XXII having been accused to be of this Persuasion there was a terrible noise about it and he was forced to retract it Now this Opinion is the original of Purgatory For as we shall see afterward this place changes by little and little its-nature until at length they made of it a place of Torments and Punishments for the purging of Souls This separate state produced a little while after Prayer for the Dead which we shall see had its original about the beginning of the third Age. But whereof nevertheless we see nothing in the second unless it be towards its end On the contrary Justin Martyr tells us that we must pray for dying Souls to the end that in the place of their Separation they fall not under the Power of Devils He would not have failed to have added that we must pray for Souls after death to the end that we might draw them from under the power of Devils if Prayers for the dead had then been in use On the Subject of this praying for the Dead whereof they make such great boasts in Antiquity tell them these three things 1. That it was not in use in the first and second Age. 2. That the Reason why they began to pray for the Dead is very different from that which causes Prayers for them at this day At this day 't is to draw them from Purgatory then it was to the end that in the terrestrial Paradise or other place of Separation where they were God would increase their rest and joy for it was believed that they were there in the beginning of Happiness 3. To conclude tell them that these Prayers for the Dead are no important business in Religion and that they are not the Reason of our Separation After that press them to shew you in the second Age the least footsteps of this place of Torments whither penitent Souls must go after Death to pay the remainder of those punishments which they could not satisfie during their life Demand proofs from them that in this Age the Church prayed for Souls that they might quickly get out of torment and you will see them forced to confess that there are none I come to the Worship and Adoration of Creatures such as are Relicks Images the Blessed Virgin Saints and Angels They treat this as a small business we shall have occasion to prove to you one day that without running into any extravagance 't is a Pagan Idolatry But for the present we will content our selves to shew you that we do not find the least footsteps of these worships in the second Age wherein we now are If they did invoke Saints the Blessed Virgin and Angels if they had Images if they did kiss and adore Relicks let them shew it you let them cause you to read one Author that speaks of it Bellarmine hath the impudence to produce the words of Justin Martyr to prove the Worship of Angels We adore and venerate the Father and the Son which is come to us from him who hath taught us both us and others which follow him and the Army of good Angels by the Spirit of Prophecy c. Apol. 2. He refers the word we adored to that of Angels as if the design of Justin Martyr had been to say that they adored Angels Whereas he ought to refer Angels to the word teach his Sense being that Jesus Christ hath taught the Angels as well as us the Mystery of the Gospel according to what S. Paul says To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 It is so clear that this is the Sense of S. Justin that at this day none of your new Doctors dare quote these words to prove that they worshiped Angels in the second Age. This passage being
Corruption because it is a state of Violence and against Nature Now how can we recover the Church from this Corruption but by separating our selves from it You will say we ought to continue in it and remonstrate against its Corruption But you know well that this is impossible you know that they burnt our Fathers because they made remonstrance against it By continuing and remonstrating against Idolatry and Superstition should we not be immediately seized by the Inquisition or by the Bishops and secular Judges where there are no Inquisitors Should we not be put in Prison hanged and burnt Therefore it is necessary that we go out or remain there in silence Now behold what kind of loosness is this to know that we are in a very corrupt Communion and which is it may be Antichristianity and to keep and continue there without saying any thing If this state of Corruption be violent to the Church if it be contrary to the nature of it certainly the intention of God cannot be to leave her always in it for the intention of God is that when things are at a distance from their own natural state they should return unto it as soon as may be Now with what means can God serve himself for the Reformation of the Church Certainly he ought to serve himself of Men for it is not his ordinary method of proceeding to send Angels to preach upon earth Now how can these Men reform the Church if they do not represent unto her her Corruption and if they do not break with her in case she do not reform If separation be not granted Reformation will never happen For a Church perswaded that she is pure and even Infallible takes no care to renounce those Doctrines and Worships for which she produces to you a possession of many Ages and a Title of Infallibility Tell me a little I intreat you my Brethren what will you do to reform the Roman Church by continuing in it If you speak freely saying that her Worship Innovations and Adorations of Creatures are true Idolatries they will send you the Dragoons and peradventure hang you If you hold your peace will your secret Sighs and Groanings reform the Church Will God send from Heaven a secret and immediate Inspiration for Reformation though no body speak one word of it And this in the favour of whom Either the ancient Catholicks who are plunged in Superstition or in favour of many ancient illuminated Papists and those that are re-united to them who both one and the other are loose Dissemblers which retain the Truth of God in unrighteousness You ought to understand at present my Brethren that we shall never attain the end of reforming the Roman Church unless we have right to go out of it because she will never stir for Complaints and Counsels experience has made it plain enough And therefore the temper of your Soul ought to be such as this rather than move our selves and trouble our repose 't is better that we suffer the Church to perish and be overwhelmed with Corruption This say I is the most wicked sentiment which can enter into the Mind of an honest Man and much more of a Christian But let us continue the examination of your Illusions Abuses introduced by Governours may not be imputed to private Christians you tell us This is it which we will refute in that which follows at present we go on All the holy Scripture which makes mention of Heresies doth not command Separation How dare you say this Do you not read that Passage so express Go out of Babylon my People for fear lest by partaking in its Sins you partake in its Plagues This Babylon is a false Church which says of her Church I am a Queen and shall see no sorrow I am the Church which cannot fail It imports not at present where this Church is but do you not see that God commands those that are there to go out of it Wherefore doth S. Paul say to his Disciples A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject How can a Person shun any one and stand at a distance with him without Separation from him Doth not S. Paul say to the Corinthians Put from among you that wicked person will you restrain these wicked Persons to the vicious and except the Hereticks See how the same Apostle describes those Hereticks that denied the Resurrection he says * 2 Tim. 2. That as to the faith they made shipwreck thereof that their words eat like a gangreen that they have proceeded even to impiety and that they are vessels of dishonour These are therefore wicked Wretches and by consequence ought to be cast out Do you not remember the same Apostle saith to the Galathians That if any none preach to you any other Doctrine besides that which you have received let him be to you Anathema Do you believe that it is allowed you to adhere to those which you ought to have in execration and to whom you ought to say Anathema The Scripture on the contrary exhorts us to a mutual support of each other And where is it that you find this It exhorts you to support the weak but about what About the distinction of Meats about the use of some Ceremonies of little importance Behold the things about which St. Paul commands that we bear with each other * Rom. 14. Now as to him which is weak in the Faith receive him to you but not to doubtful disputations one believes that he may eat all things another that is weak eateth herbs But where do you find that we must tolerate Heresies which ruine the Worship of the true God and oppress and sink Christianity under a heap of Superstitions But I will confound you with your own Weapons If it be the Spirit of Christianity and of the true Church to tolerate Abuses and Corruptions you are not in the true Church for that Church will allow no Toleration she burns and condemns to Death If we are obliged to suffer her in her Corruptions at least she is obliged to bear with us in our Complaints and Admonitions If we ought to hear with her when she speaks false with much more reason she ought to bear with us when we tell her the Truth She hath no Charity she is cruel erroneous and raging in her Error See if you can have Communion with such men The Scripture says that we may build upon the foundation which is Christ Wood Hay and Stubble Do you understand that this Wood Hay and Stubble which we may safely build are Idolatries Superstitious Doctrines Depravations in Morality monstrous and enormous Opinions such as are found in the Roman Church Is that it which you think But to persuade our selves into the belief of so great a Paradox we must have either Authorities of Reasons For Reasons have you any which can persuade you that the Invocation of Saints by which are given to the Blessed Virgin all
permit this re-union with the Roman Church even on supposition that her corruption is not extreme for 't is a shameful cowardize and unworthy of an honest man to betray his own Sentiments and to give to a Church which he believes impure that homage which is due only to a Church that is clean and undefiled To conclude I say that your Salvation will not permit you to put a period to your Separation from the Roman Church even supposing that her corruption is in some sort tolerable for that corruption which might not destroy your Soul when you were there having been educated brought up and instructed therein from your Infancy becomes mortal when you receive it not having been born brought up nor instructed therein The difference is clear and the reason thereof is evident It is certain that there is a Superstition ungrateful to God which he tolerates in an ignorant Person but he will not suffer nor endure it in a Man of Knowledge and Understanding for a Person which practises a considerable Superstition against his Conscience makes appear therein an Abyss of Perverseness contempt of God his Laws and Truth and such a love of the World and the interests of the Flesh which put him absolutely out of the state of Salvation Behold already something advanced to deliver you from those vain horrors which they would thrust upon you for your Separation under the name of Schism for 1. Although the Schism or Separation had been rash you would have no reason to be afraid of your Salvation 2. Although the corruption of the Roman Church had been in some sort tolerable and although there had been something of Precipitation in the Separation nevertheless you would have no Obligation to return to the Roman Church but you would be obliged to the contrary And here we shall find an occasion to answer to the Fallacy which the new Converts as they call them put upon themselves and which we have mentioned in our Tenth Pastoral Letter and which is one of the most effectual means by which they lay themselves to sleep in that unhappy state where they are There is in it a Question of Right and another of Fact. The matter of Fact is to know whether indeed the Roman Church be corrupted to that degree that we report it The Question of Right is Whether supposing the Roman Church very corrupt we may separate our selves from it and persevere in that Separation to this day We will first handle the Question of Right because 't is thereby that they enchant you and thereby that the most part of you do quiet and calm your selves 't is thereby say I that they do enchant you for your Converters following the Principles of the Author of the Legitimate Prejudices against the Calvinists and Mr. Ferrand's Treatise concerning the Church tell you * Book of Prejudices p. 147 148 c. That although the Church of Rome were Idolatrous and Heretical the Calvinists had no right to separate themselves from it and to set up other Churches and another Ministry 'T is also thereby that those which would be at rest in the Roman Church do lull themselves asleep for this Proposition that though the Roman Church were Heretical and Idolatrous you ought not to separate from it in the Writings of your Converters Mr. Nicholas and Mr. Ferrand is nothing but a false Supposition to make you see the more clearly the necessity of Adherence to the Church of Rome and the horror of Schism And if they found themselves pressed too hard on this spot of ground they might be able always to retrench themselves behind and say Now it is not true that the Church of Rome is Heretical and Idolatrous But at this day one part of these new Converts from a false Supposition draw a very solid Conclusion They receive the Supposition as true That the Church of Rome is very corrupt and maintain this Thesis That nevertheless they ought not to separate from it and that Men may or ought to return to it We have heard the Reasonings of one of these Men in our Tenth Letter we must hear it once more for he says all that these Men think Speaking of the Questions which perplex the New Converts First says he on the positive Separation which ous Fathers made we say that we ought to suffer many things rather than separate from the Vnity of the Church that the Abuses introduced by the Governors thereof may not be imputed to the Faithful that all Scripture which makes mention of Heresies doth not command Separation for the sake of them on the contrary it commands us to bear them It says that we may build upon the Foundation which is Christ Wood Hay and Stubble that Jesus Christ only will make Separation the one from the other that the good Grain and the Chaff will be separated at the last day but that they must grow together till then After he adds some Reflections on a Conjecture of the Author of the Accomplishment of Prophesies which 't is not necessary to report here because they will have their place elsewhere And he concludes this Points with these Words And although the Pope should be Antichrist that would not infallibly hinder Christians from being saved in the Roman Church The Letter contains another Article on the Question Whether the Roman Church be Idolatrous in worshiping the Eucharist or Jesus Christ in the Eucharist This also shall have its place elsewhere Afterwards he adds At last they conclude two things the first That all the Fundamental Truths of Christianity being confessed by the Roman Church we are obliged to continue united with it without making a positive Separation which is against all the duties of Charity and which instead of bringing back those which err produces nothing but an eternal Distance and Animosity In the second place they do maintain That we do not necessarily partake in the Errors of a Communion in which we are the common Confession of Faith ought to be esteemed as an agreement to live under the same Ministry but we are not therefore responsible for all the Abuses which may be or can be introduced into the Ministry Provided we adore the same God and profess the same Fundamentals of Christianity the rest cannot be imputed to single Persons above all when there is a necessity of joyning our selves to this first Christian Society and we cannot find any publick Worship more pure and more edifying The Examples of our Fathers before the Reformation prove clearly That we may secure our Salvation in the Roman Communion even in adhering to the publick Worship Whatever Men say it is inconceivable that Men born and brought up in a Religion who never heard speak of any other Doctrine and who lived and died without protesting against the Opinion of their Church should not partake in the Worship thereof Behold an exact account of all the Illusions which these new re-united Persons put upon themselves and an
account which does honour enough to the Spirit and Wit of him that made it Would to God he would take as exact an account of his own Heart Our Sheet being full you shall have no Answer to these Juggles till the following Letters March 15. 1687. The FIFTEENTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity The Birth of the religious Worship of Creatures in the Fourth and Fifth Ages The proofs of the Novelty of this Worship An Article An Answer to the Reasons of the new Converts on the Subject of Schism and Separation Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ SInce we entred into the Fourth Age we found there three great Innovations Monnachism General Councils and the Hierarchy The fourth important Change which altered the form of the Church happening in the Fourth and Fifth Ages is the Worship of Creatures the Adoration of Relicks and the Invocations of Saints If there be any thing certain in the World it is that this Worship was wholly unknown in the preceding Ages and no man can give attention to those few Proofs that heretofore we have made thereof without being convinced of it 't is certain that we have seen the Occasions and if I may so say the Blossoms thereof in that excessive respect which they had for the Persons of their Confessors in the regards which they had for their Intercessions and in the care that they took to collect their Bones and to bury their Bodies honourably and this is it which gave occasion to the Pagans of accusing the Christians for worshiping their Martyrs as we have seen that the Jews of Smyrna did accuse the Christians thereof on the occasion of the Body of Polycarpus which they hindred from being given unto them This is that which caused the Pagans under the Persecution of Dioclesian to dig up the Bodies of those two Martyrs Dorotheus and Gorgonius and throw them into the Sea For fear saith Eusebius * Lib. 8. Hist Eccl. cap. 6. that if they continued in their Tombs they should be adored and taken for Gods according to the Opinion they had concerning us We have seen how the Christians of Smyrna and Eusebius who transcribes their Epistle did refute this calumny Moreover Eusebius saith in this last Passage According to the Opinion that they have concerning us This makes it appear that the Opinion was false They had therefore in the beginning of the Fourth Age a very great respect for the Tombs of Martyrs but 't was a thing unheard of to open them take out their Bones and put them in Chests and Boxes to the end that they might be scattered over all the World yea long before in the fourth Age St. Anthony being about to dye declared that it was his Will that his Body should be buried and not kept upon a Bed after the manner of the Egyptians Because says he 't is an affront and a Violation of the Laws not to bury the Bodies of the Dead how holy soever they might be These were the last Words of dying Truth for afterwards Men began to search all Places and to disinterr the Bodies of Saints The deceit of Priests the Innocence of the People and the malice of the Devil advanced this unhappy Superstition Persons ran about in the search of Relicks nor would they build any Temple or Church without them they feigned Visions and devious Dreams which revealed unto them where the Bodies of Saints were laid and they took the pretended Bodies of Apostles and Martyrs from their Tombs three hundred and four hundred Years after their Death As it was impossible that this foolish Superstition should not soon degenerate into Idolatry so it did not fail to come to pass for these Relicks drawn from their Tombs wrought Miracles these Miracles were ascribed to the Saints whose Relicks they were Men could not fail of invoking those Saints which they believed did work Miracles in favour of those who did venerate and honour their Relicks We see no sensible marks of the Invocation of Saints till after the year of our Lord 360 and the most ancient Authors that speak thereof are St. Ambrose and St. Basil not that we are not persuaded that the People the Authors of this Superstition did not practise it a long time before as in the time of St. Austin we observe the Worship of Images to have taken its birth by the Superstition of some ignorant People notwithstanding the generality of the People and Pastors did not suffer themselves to be carried away to this unhappy Idolatry till a long time after In like manner it may not be doubted but that from the beginning of the Fourth Age there were some ignorant Persons among the People who ran into excess in the respect which they gave to the Ashes of the Martyrs But the practice did not become universal till the Fifth Age and the Doctors and Teachers began not to be born down thereby till about the end of the Fourth And yet there was but little of it for in all the former part of the Fourth Age we see very few Monuments or Footsteps thereof in the Authors of those times but in the Fifth Age this Torrent ran with a prodigious swiftness in such a manner that in less than Fifty Years this Superstition became as it were the reigning Religion of the People Behold then a matter of Fact which we dispute not with the Papists 't is that about the end of the Fourth Age some Examples of the Invocation of Saints are seen and a great many more in the Fifth so that it is to no purpose that they quote to us Passages from S. Austin S. Basil Chrysostom and Theodoret to prove the Invocation of Saints in that Age for 't is a Point we do not dispute with them But we do maintain these Two things 1. That the Worship of Saints took its original from that of Relicks and that Men only invoked the Martyrs whose Relicks they had 2. That this Worship was new in that Age and that it was unknown in the Ages preceding The first Point will serve in what follows for a proof of the second which is the important Point we have to prove viz. The novelty of this Worship in the Fourth and Fifth Ages 1. We prove the novelty of this Worship by the silence of Christian Authors during the space of three Hundred or four Hundred Years 'T is a thing impossible that so many Writers having so much occasion to speak of the Martyrs and Saints and having said so much concerning them did never find it convenient to speak one word concerning the Worship and Honour that was to be given them after their death The lesser Doctors among the Papists such is that from whom Mr. Pelisson produces a Latin Fragment treat this negative Argument with Contempt but no Man of good Sense will treat it so and no wise Man will ever perswade himself that for the space of three