Nay the Apostle makes this observation in ver 5. Unto which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Ps 2. 7. And observe verse 13. of this first Chapter to the Hebrews to which of the Angels said he at any time Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy Enemies thy footstool And if upon these Considerations this great Doctor useth this expression Why gape ye after Angels upon the same consideration I may say Why gape ye after the Saints To which of the Saints said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee or Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine Enemies thy footstool If God by not speaking this to the Angels doth shew that they ought not to be worshipped then it necessarily follows that the Saints ought not to be worshipped unless you can tell where and when God used such expressions to them as he used to his Son. Again we find that God made his Angels ministring Spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be Heirs of Salvation and they being no more St. Chrysostome saith Why do you gape after Angels Then what can we expect from the Saints who are not so much as ministring Spirits who never were sent forth by God to minister for the People of God here upon Earth St. Chrysostom in his eighteenth Homily on the Epistle to the Romans saith Vnto whom shalt thou flee whom wilt thou call upon to fight for and help thee shall it be to Abraham he will not hear thee shall it be to these Virgins but they also shall impart none of their Oyl unto thee shalt thou call upon thy Father or Grandfather but none of them shall be able to release or relieve thee These Sayings considered worship and pray to him alone who hath power to blot out thine obligation and quench that flame You may observe the holy Father shews the vanity of those Men that have a recourse to the Saints departed and how they are disappointed that expect any Relief or Comfort from any other but God. Therefore the holy Doctor admonisheth Christians to have recourse to God alone who is able to help and to relieve them Now I pray if God alone is able to help and relieve us to what end is it for us to have recourse to Angels and Saints if they are not able to relieve us and release us And what warrant can you pretend from God to worship or pray to any other since this Holy Father saith You must worship and pray to God alone Again the same Father in his ninth Homily upon the Colossians he shews us that the Devil envying the Honour that we have to address our selves to God immediately hath brought in the Worshipping of Angels It is strange that you should practice that as an Institution of God which was but a meer Intention of the Devil and that the Council of Trent should define that as an Article of Faith which hath been Condemned by the Fathers of the Church Catholick as Sin and a manifest breach of our Duty and Obedience we owe to God and if that the Worshipping of Angels were an Invention of the Devil Then Sir I pray what reason have you or any sober Man to think that Worshipping of Saints can be an Institution of God and that you may see the latter as well as the former was a meer contrivance of Hell. I pray consider the Doctrine which holy Epiphanius did teach the Church in his time and largely refuting the Heresies of those who were called Collyridians from the Collyrides or Cakes which they used to offer to the Virgin Mary and says That neither Elias nor John nor Thecla nor any of the Saints are to be worshipped and again God will not have Angels to be worshipped much less her that was born of Anna And again which of the Prophets have permitted a Man to be worshipped much less a Woman The Virgin is a choice Vessel indeed but a Woman Let Mary be in honour but let the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost be worshipped Let no Man worship Mary Epiph. Haeres 79. This Doctor is as plain as may be in the Point in debate They offered her Cakes and you Incense and Vestments and Candles If they were Hereticks in Epiphanius's time for worshipping the Virgin Mary what are you who do it now I have one Father more to offer to your Consideration and that is Lactantius who is a Doctor of great esteem with you observe what he saith Qui supplicant mortuis rationem hominum non tenent Lactant. Insti Divin Lib. 2. Cap. 18. It is a short Testimony but as plain as can be in opposition to your Doctrine of Praying to the Saints who are departed and can neither hear your Prayers nor are they in any capacity of granting your Desires This sort of Service must unman you for that you do not pray upon any good ground nor can you pray for any good end If you can let us know the Principle upon which you pray and the end for which you pray to the Saints for all Services that have not their Foundation upon good Principles and are not performed for a good end are so far from being Christian Services that those who perform them are scarce worthy of the Name of Men. I have taken some pains to make it appear that the Doctrine of Praying to Saints and Angels is unlawful I have deliver'd you my thoughts freely in answer to those Authoiries which you have produced which at the first view had the aspect of Prayers but upon a strict observation they prove to be no more then Rhetorical Apostroplies those holy Fathers used not adoring the Saints for Religion but only honouring them to beget in their Hearers an holy imitation of their Vertue and to oblige them to follow those good Examples the Saints left behind them and then I have given you the Authorities of the most eminent Fathers both of the Greek and Latin Churches that with one consent condemn your Doctrine and Practice by you defended But in truth Sir Humane Writings are no Foundation of our Faith we have a more sure Rule of our Faith in this particular the Holy Scriptures which are the Word of God whereunto you will do well to take heed and no more endeavour to bring in the Authorities of humane Writers to stand in competition with the Holy Word of God that hath commanded us to worship and serve him alone and hath sworn by himself that he will not part with this Honour to another but if this doth not satisfie you I am ready to reply to any thing you shall further bring in to give countenance to the Point in hand as it is defined and determined in your Church Sir you were pleased in your Epistle to the English Peer to reflect upon the Ordination of the Church of England and in words at length you
places far distant from each other at one and the same time for you must know that at the first creeping in of this fend notion the memory of those Martyrs were only kept up where their Bodies were Intombed and their Relicks kept but now you generally pray to them in many places at one and the same time where you have no Monuments of those Saints nor any of their Relicks which you do endeavour to prove offering several Authorities in vindication of the same The first Authority you produce is St. Augustine who as you say saith The Solution of this Question is beyond the reach of my Vnderstanding how the Martyrs help those which most certainly are helped by them whether or no they be themselves present at one time in so different places c. From whence you conclude that the holy Doctor Is certain that the Martyrs help their Clients at one and the same time in different places yet uncertain whether they were themselves present It was not say you his Perswasion that then the Saints help was to be required only where they were believed to be present This you say is a clear demonstration Your using the word Clyents is fitter for a Lawyer than a Divine of your station there might another word have been sound out but I let that pass and tell you that I do really believe the examples of the Martyrs have been of great use to the faithful and in this sence they may be said to help those that follow their good example you see it was past St. Austins understanding to solve the question How the Martyrs did help those that were their Clients as you call them in his Cura pro Mort. c. 16. but Sir suppose I should ask this question whether or no the Saints in Heaven have any knowledge at all of Humane Affairs on Earth I am sure there St. Austine can resolve me and he will tell us That the Dead can have no knowledge of our Affairs here upon Earth Mortui nesciunt etiam Sancti quid agant vivi etiam eorum filii Again Si rebus viventium interessent animae mortuorum c. If saith he so great and famous Patriarchs as Abraham Isaac and Jacob did not understand how the world went with their posterity how can it be that the dead should at all take notice of the living or intermeddle with assisting them De cura pro Mort. c. 13. 16. I pray Sir observe that St. Austin here is so far from praying to Saints that he tells you they are so far from helping or assisting that they know not your affairs on Errth for they have not the least knowledge of our condition Therefore when he saith the Christians are helped by the Martyrs you must not understand help as a consequent of your Prayers to them but of your following those holy Rules and Examples they have left you for by their Examples they may be said to help men Another Authority you produce is St. Gregory Nazianzen in his twelfth Oration who you say having largely shewed how the Martyrs cure Diseases put the Devil to flight c. He adds where their Bodies only are the same effect is had as from their Souls whether they are touched or worshipped The Reliques of Saints are much in Esteem in your Church and no Christian I think should offer any Indignity to them were they not false and fictitious and put upon Men in order to deceive them and those things termed to be Reliques which indeed are not so and many of the supposed Miracles done by them so foolish that a Man hath no reason to expect any miraculous Effects from them but rather ought to set them at nought they being the Inventions of Men to deceive the Simple but with your pardon I think St. Gregory here only speaketh of the Miracles that have been done by the Bodies of the Saints that have suffer'd for the Testimony of Jesus I will not dispute the Truth that the Holy Father delivers but I think from these words you cannot yet justifie your Doctrine of praying to Saints The Bodies of Martyrs cure Diseases and put the Devils to flight say you therefore must we pray to the Saints and Martyrs I think it by no means will follow Another Authority you produce is St. Ambrose in his Sermon upon the Holy Martyrs Nazarius and Celsus Have you invocated the Martyrs saith he He hears you every where who is honoured in the Martyrs according to his Dispensation who weighs your Vows and dispenceth his Gifts in so much is a nearer presence of the Intercessor granted as the Faith of the Clyent is more devout These words you say are St. Ambrose's words and so do several of your Divines But Sir I will offer you another saying of St. Ambrose as you call him in his Sixth Sermon upon St. Margaret Redere debemus Sanctis honorisicentium que nobis salutem profusione suis sanguinis perpererunt qui tam sacra hostia pro nostra propitiatione Domino suo oblati We must yield Honour unto the Saints which have procured Salvation for us by their shedding of their Bloud which also were offered up unto the Lord so Holy a Sacrifice for our Salvation You must not think Sir that any Protestant Divines will take either of these for the sayings of St. Ambrose for your Divines have miserably corrupted this Father and made him speak such Blasphemies against God and his Christ which that Holy Father would never have uttered and especially in his Sermons upon the Feasts of the Saints And the reason why I offer this is because that I find St. Ambrose is corrupted by Eutropius one of your own Authors and instead of Dominici sanguinis consecrationem He saith Dominici sanguinis dispensationem and again we find him in his Funeral Oration upon Theodosius to say these words Tu solus Domine Invocandus es Tu Rogandus ut eum in filiis Representes Thou alone O Lord art to be Invocated Thou art to be Intreated to make up the want of him in his Sons If a Saint and Martyr might lawfully be prayed unto then St. Ambrose was not Orthodox in this Request he put up to God. If he were Orthodox in this then God only is to be Invocated and not the Saints wherefore I conclude that when you Represent him to Admonish his Hearers to call upon the Saints that then you make him speak what your Divines have Forged and not his own Sence And this doth further appear if you will but consider that the Prayer you call his makes the Creature Omnipresent which is an Incommunicable Attribute of Almighty God of which great Blasphemy that Holy Father would not be Guilty But I suppose your Lippomanus or your Amphilochius hath helped you to this Prayer for in the old Edition of St. Ambrose I cannot find the Title of this Sermon but if they should be the words of St. Ambrose you know the word Invoke doth not always
for mine own use and my being abused by these uncircumcised Philistines and neglected by the Prelates and Presbyters of our Church and others that should have stood by me in that Cause for which I do Suffer hath made me sensible that Man is noâ— to be relied upon but that Trust is to be put in him that will confound these Hell born Devils in his own due time and that he will preserve those who abide faithful in the Truth Nor do I envy the Happiness of those my Brethren of the Church of England who are easie in their Places and Preferments for my part blessed be God I can from my Poor Prison where I have been almost five years behold all my Brethren of the Church of England with much Contentment and sufficient Enjoyment of my self on Thrones round about me It will not be amiss to tell you that one great Artifice of these Firebrands and Incendiaries was to perswade many of my Brethren of the Church of England that I was a Dissenter and an Enemy of the Church of England which tho' it was notoriously false for all that know me can testifie that I received my Ordination from the Church of England and Communicated with the Church of England in the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper But this is the truth and nothing but the truth that I have been always of the opinion and do still esteem my Dissenting Brethren as a Generation of Men anointed by Almighty God with a Spirit of Wisdom Knowledge Zeal and Faithfulness and might well be so esteemed by all my Brethren of the Church of England and accepted of as Persons fit to help on the great Work of ruining the Temple of Dagon destroying of Baal and all its Worshippers and to bring on the New Heavens and the New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell and that by the mutual joyning of Protestants in the Repair of the House of GOD and making up the Breaches and decayed Places in the Body of the Doctrine of the Christian Religion which since the first raising and compleating of it by Christ and his Apostles and the delivering it from the Hands of these Edomites partly through the ignorance and insufficiency of some and partly through the remisness of others to whom the Guardianship and Custody thereof hath been committed by GOD in their successive Generations hath by these Locusts been lamentably dismantled and defaced in most parts of it that if a Man should look upon it as they have represented it he could scarce call it the Doctrine of Christ And therefore since my Brethren that are Dissenters were always ready to do their part to support and maintain the Doctrine of the Church of GOD here in England I could not but in point of Justice Truth and Righteousness own them for my Brethren with whom I am contented to suffer as well as with my Brethren that are in close Communion with the Church of England since both profess the same Faith. And were this Spirit of Love in me an Errour it might be more easily pardoned then the Errours and Wickedness of some few of those who pretending to be Bishops and Presbyters of the Church of England yet have been very zealous and forward to promote Popery and Slavery in the Nation these for a time have been caressed by those whose eyes now blessed be God are opened and have seen their own Mistake and the Villany of those that have deceived them they now see who were the Criminals and I question not but may help them to that state into which they have put the Innocent and relieve me who have been kept close these five Years My humble Request therefore to my Brethren of the Church of England is that I might not be thought unworthy of their Cognizance because of my tender Affections to my poor Brethren that cannot comply with the Church of England in some few things since they are so willing to go as far in the Service of the Protestant Cause and Interest as any of those who profess themselves Members of the Church of England Brethren It is time for me to cease entertaining you with the sad Account of the Villany Inhumanity and Cruelty of these Monsters of Mankind against me and to tell you that the Prize that I run for in this Humble Application of my self to you is by the opportunity and advantage hereof to excite provoke and engage you to bless the World in general and this Nation in particular labouring under Popish Burdens and Tokes which neither we nor our Forefathers were able to bear by asserting those blessed Truths worthy of your defending and maintaining and by bringing the Doctrines of God our Saviour out of the Pavillions of Romish Darkness into clear and perfect Light to be beheld understood reverenced and obeyed I have endeavoured to the best of my power at present to make it plain that Prayers to Saints departed this Life and to Angels are unlawful and abominable in the sight of God I have examined into some Authorities this angry Gentleman hath produced and find them either forged misrepresented or impertinent and without all Reason and Conscience he falls fouly upon a Reverend Presbyter of our Church for Licensing a Letter to him in which he is fairly and fully Refuted but the Mungril Curr will not leave barking in his Letter he is light profane and abusive and impudent as if he never had been in a Conspiracy against the Lives of two of the greatest Princes of Europe nay three and two of them Crowned Heads and against the Religion Liberties and Lives of the Protestants of these three Kingdoms But I shall say no more of this little Schoolmaster that talks as sawcily in the Pulpit and is as peremptory in his Notions as he was over his Boys at St. Omers where he used to bellow and roar like a Town Bull. This little Piece I offer to your Consideration and pray your acceptance of it there are Mistakes in it through the carelesness of the Printer which I cannot help because of my Imprisonment and not being permitted to see after it myself so that by this means I may appear obvious to your Censures because that some passages ought to have been better secured But I trust the Ancient Law of Indulgence in such Cases and Circumstances as mine are which may probably in due time be some of my Adversaries also is of Authority sufficient with all sober Protestants to relieve me Brethren and Beloved my Pen hath transgressed the Law and time of my Intentions these confined me to a much narrower Compass in my Epistle and prohibited me the troubling of you to any such degree as now I have done The truth is I have for a long time suffered wrongfully from my Popish Adversaries and I hope you will give an injured Presbyter of the Church of England leave to speak and complain a little of his hard and cruel usage for no other cause but doing Justice to
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall uphold me Now Sir if God be in Heaven Earth Sea Hell and fills all Places with his Presence this shews him an Omnipresent Being Now produce as much of the Mother of Jesus or of any of the Saints and Angels and we will joyn with you in making our Addresses to them but this cannot be said of any Saint or Angel whatsoever therefore How can they hear How can they help And if they can neither hear nor help what reason have we to pray unto them 2. As they are not Omnipresent so they are not Omniscient for suppose they could hear what Men do or speak yet they cannot understand what they think if we could imagine that they could hear us what our Mouths do utter yet we cannot imagine that they know the Secrets of the Heart Now Sir the greatest part of our private Devotions are mental they are conceptus Animi such as are conceived in our Hearts and Minds nay Sir let me tell you that our most acceptable Prayers many times consist of those Sighs and Groans which cannot be utter'd and if you will make the Saints and Angels privy to these it is to give that to them which is only due to God see what Solomon saith the 2 Chron. 6. 30. Thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men there was no Man nor no number of Men but will say that such Knowledge was too painful and too wonderful for them in a word Sir you well know that to search and try the Heart is an incommunicable property and perfection of Almighty God. It hath been Sir a Question among the Divines of your Church Whether the Saints in Heaven have any knowledge at all of our Human Actions and Affairs on Earth but I think the Scriptures are as full as may be to the contrary viz. That they have no knowledge of our Affairs or Actions here upon Earth see Isai 63. 16. Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not and see the 22 Kings 20. Thine eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place for I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gather'd in peace this was a Promise made unto Josiah so take notice of Job who tells you that ye know not what is done after their death Their sons may come to honour and they know it not and they are brought low and they perceive it not of them From all which you may easily conclude that there can be no Man whether good or bad that can tell any thing of earthly Transactions after they are departed this Life This I may assert with the greatest assurance that the Saints have no such knowledge as is necessary in this case they can neither know nor understand the Prayers that Men offer up to them nor which is also highly necessary with what Mind they offer their Prayers whether in sincerity or in hypocrisie I pray call to mind what St. Augustine saith Mortui nesciunt etiam Sancti quid Agant Vivi etiam eorum filii This was the Opinion of that Great and Learned Doctor and Bishop of the Church of God and it is so plain a Truth that whatsoever shall be brought in to say in contradiction to it it will be scarce received for a Catholick Verity in the Church of God. But Sir how can we expect any satisfaction from you when your Divines are to this day divided about that matter and can neither satisfie themselves nor one another how the Glorified Saints come to have knowledge of our Supplications and Prayers you know that many nice and curious Questions have been argued in our Schools amongst many Learned Men for at least Six Hundred Years Pro and Con without any satisfactory Determination as Gratian Gloss in 13. Qu. de Mortuis and St. Augustine in his Tract De cura pro Mortuis they have all left the matter in doubt As whether the Souls of those to whom they Pray be present or absent If they be present whether they be present actually or virtually If they be absent and have Information from others then whether it be from the Angels or from God himself and if it be from God then whether it be by particular Revelation from him or by the Beatifical Vision of him Thus Sir you know it hath been inquired into and debated amongst your own Doctors one hath determined one way and another hath determined another way and there is not yet to this day any Catholick Determination made of any of those Questions 't is true they all agree that they are made acquainted with the Prayers or else in vain they would be Invocated but how they come by this knowledge Non convenit inter Omnes saith your Pinello all are not agreed about it Some of your Divines that have been very fanciful have been taken with the Notion of a Looking-glass in the Face of God wherein those blessed Spirits have an exact and full view of all things past present and to come the Notion is pleasant and 't is pity you have not had the good fortune to beget a firm belief amongst those of your own Church of this Point for since this Looking-glass was broken in pieces even in your own Church there hath been some of your own Doctors who could see nothing in it but the Folly and Rashness of those who first invented it without any Warrant from the Word of God Cajetan Gabriel Durandus Scotus Occam and many other great Names think themselves no whit obliged to this imaginary Glass for they were then satisfied of the vanity of that Imagination nor will the Text In thy light we shall see light nor will that Saying Qui videt videntem omnia is Videt omnia He seeth all things that seeth him who seeth all things establish the belief of it For Sir if it were so he that sees God seeth whatsoever is in God and whatsoever God seeth Then the Angels that always behold his Face and look up to this Glass would have never stooped down to pry as they did into the Mysteries of the Gospel and needed not be informed by the Church about the manifold Wisdom of God then would they not be to seek concerning any future Events no nor be ignorant of the Day and Hour of the last Judgment I shall conclude this with the Saying of St. Augustine in his Discourse De cura pro Mortuis If saith that Father so great and famous Patriarchs as Abraham and Jacob did not understand how the World went with their Posterity how then can it be that the Dead should at all take Notice of the Living or intermeddle with assisting them That is they neither know their Wants nor can they give them any assistance Why then we should make our Prayers to them I hope Sir you will give a Reason for
able to give and I am he for whom they must be obtained being his Servant who observe him alone Apologetic c. 30. There is a Discourse of the Trinity by Novatian which is added to the Works of Tertullian in which you may meet this passage If Christ be only a Man Why is a Man called upon in our Prayers as a Mediator seeing that the Invocation of a Man is judged of no Efficacy to Salvation Why also is Hope reposed in him seeing Hope in Man is Accursed From hence observe that if Christ may not be Prayed unto if he were but a Man then the Saints who are but Men may not be prayed unto If Christ be but a Man he cannot be prayed unto as a Mediator therefore how can you justifie Praying to Saints as Mediators seeing they are but Men If a Prayer to a Man be of no Efficacy to Salvation then Prayer to Saints can be of no Efficacy to Salvation since they are but Men. If Christ were but a meer Man then why is Hope reposed in him the Saints being but Men Why should Hope be reposed in them for if you pray to Saints you must not only believe that they hear you but hope that they will answer you which hope is in vain because they are but Men. Observe what he saith further Si Homo tantum modo Christus quomodo adest ubique invocatus haec-Hominis Natura non sit sed Dei ut adesse omni loco possit If Christ be only Man how is he present being called upon every where seeing this is not the Man but God that can be present in every place De Trinit c. 14. The Saints being only Men how are they present being called upon every where they cannot be in all places it being the Nature of God only to be present in every place If the Omnipresence of God be the great Argument why we should call upon him every where then you can give no reason why the Saints should be called upon every where because they are not Omnipresent We could not justifie Praying to Christ every where as Mediator if he were but a meer Man because as such as he could not be in every place How then can you justifie Praying to Saints every where as Mediators sure they cannot as Men be in every place Observe what St. Ambrose saith in his Funeral Oration upon Theodosius the Emperour Tu solus Domine Invocandus es Tu Rogandus ut eum in filiis Representes Thou only O Lord art to be Invocated Thou art to be Intreated to make up the want of him in his Sons If this Holy Doctor saith true which is beyond all Contradiction then how can you justifie the Invocation and Prayer to Saints as it is practised in your Church Why might not St. Ambrose have applied himself to the Saints to make up the want of Theodosius in his Sons if that the Praying to Saints had been lawful And if the Praying to Saints be lawful how can this passage of that great Doctor be by you justified If you can but reconcile this you shall be my great Oracle for if God alone be to be called upon and Intreated then none else ought to be called upon and Intreated Why then are your Saints called upon and Intreated Consider that passage of St. Augustine in his Confessions he thus Prays unto God Quem invenirem qui me Reconciliaret tibi an eundem mihi fuit ad Angelelos qua prece quibus Sacramentis multi conantes ad te redire neque per seipsos volentes ficut audio tentaverunt haec inciderunt in disiderium curiosarum Visionem digni habiti sunt Illusionibus Whom shall I find that might Reconcile me to thee Should I go to Angels with what Prayer With what Sacraments Many endeavouring to return unto thee and not being able to do it by themselves as I hear have tryed these things and have often fallen into the Desire of curious Visions and were accounted worthy of Delusion If Angels and Saints had been Mediators as your Church saith they are then St. Austin could have lain under no great difficulty of finding some body to Reconcile him to God If praying to Angels had been a Doctrine according to Truth he would not have wanted a Prayer He saith Should I have gone to the Angels With what Prayer If praying to Angels had been a received Doctrine there would have been Directions given with what Prayer he should have gone to them and the very same may be said of the Saints Should we go then with what Prayer See what he farther saith I confess and know my Soul is Defiled But who shall cleanse it or to whom else should I cry besides thee Confess lib. 10. c. 41. Sir The Question had been altogether needless or else soon answered had your Doctrine been true the Distemper that he laboured under had soon been cured had your Practice been lawful If it were lawful for St. Austine to cry to none but to God and seek redress from him then why doth your Church engage us to call upon Saints and Angels There is another Saying of the same Father that doth appear against your Practice and Doctrine in Controversie in these words Divine singulariter in Ecclesia Catholica traditur nullam Creaturam collendam esse c. In the Catholick Church it is divinely and singularly delivered that no Creature is to be Worshipped by the Soul but only he that is Creator of all things De quantit Animae C. 34. It is apparent that the Word of God is against you for you have no warrant from thence for this assertion nay you have the express Words of Christ against it Mat. 4. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Which Injunction was delivered by Moses to the Jews Deut. 6. 13. chap. 10. 20. And by the Prophet Samuel 1 Sam. 7. 3. with a Promise of their being deliver'd out of the hands of the Philistines and not only so but you have a Tradition of the Church Catholick Traditur saith the holy Doctor in Ecclesia Catholica nullam Creaturam collendam esse From whence I argue if no Creature is to be worshipped but God only who is the Creator of all things then the Saints who are but Creatures are by no means to be worshipped because Worship is only due to God for that he is the Creator of all things Again the same Doctor saith Christus Sacerdos est qui nunc Ingressus in interiora veli Solus ibi ex his qui Carnem Gustaverant interpellat pro nobis in cujus rei figura in illo primo populo in illo primo templo unus sacerdos intrabat in Sancta Sanctorum populus omnis foras stabat Jesus Christ is the Priest who being now enter'd within the Vail alone there of them that have been partakers of Flesh doth make Intercession for us in figure of which thing amongst that first People
A DISCOURSE OF THE Unlawfulness of Praying TO Saints and Angels BEING A full Answer to a LETTER OF SABRAN the JESUITE WHEREIN The Practice of the Church of Rome in Praying to Saints and Angels is plainly proved to be contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and the pretended Authority by him produc'd to be either Forged or Impertinent By TITVS OATES D. D. A Presbyter of the Church of England LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Black Bull in the Old-Baily MDCLXXXIX ERRATA PREFACE PAge 1. line 1. read Controversies ibid. l. 7. r. new Matter p. 3. l. 8 r. that rascally DISCOURSE PAge 2. line 24. read erat Judaeis p. 4. l. 12. r. perparum ibid. l. 36. r. Caroli p. 5. l. 35. r. ut nonnulli ibid. l. 38. r. adorari ibid. l. 40. ◠for if p. 11. l. 25. r. Apostolum Christi non sicut Antichristum p. 12. l. 〈◊〉 r. Mulieres ibid. l. 38. r. Filii ibid. l. 39. r. subactas p. 13. l. 21. r. 〈◊〉 ibid. l. 28. r. posteros p. 14. l. 35. r. affinity ibid. l. 41. r. inde p. 15. l. 3. r. Dixit quid mihi tibi est ibid. l. 4. r. quod non putaret aliquis magis eximiam ibid. l. 5. r. veluti ibid. l. 7. r. admirati delibantur p. 16. l. 7. r. I pray p. 17. l. 7. r. aliquem p. 19. l. 13. r. quisque ib. l. 16. r. Nymphis ib. l. 21. r. Nympha p. 21. l. 8. r. hath been far ib. l. 26. r. Now your Divines ib. l. 42. r. alitèr p. 22. l. 33. r. supplicitèr p. 24. l. 3. r. drive our sins away p. 25. l. 12. r. call a sequence ib. l. 25. r. it is by her ib. l. 36. r. per manus ipsius administrantur ib. penult r. aureum p. 26. l. 37. r. than he that is p. 28. l. 14. r. of his skill ib. l. 33. r. King moved him to wrath that he threatened p. 30. l. 3. r. recalling ib. l. 26. r. of Tours in France p. 31. ult r. Revelations meant p. 33. l. 12. r. who are intreated in the Name of the King. p. 34. l. 29. r. of Blood throughout p. 36. l. 13. r. dependit p. 41. l. 3. r. do not mention p. 43. l. 7. r. was kept that he went from thence into p. 44. l. 40. r. as I have already observed dead p. 51. l. 36. r. was only p. 52. l. 38. r. and were not p. 53. l. 13. r. honorificentiam qui nobis salutem profusione sui p. 54. l. 9. r. great Miracles p. 57. l. 4. r. in Testimony that p. 58. l. 4. r. Martyrs I must tell you that of these ib. l. 5. r. doubt were very ib. l. 14. r. portenta ib. l. 22. r. qui essent veri Christiani qui. ib. l. 28. r. mirabiliarios ib. l. 30. r. ut inducant p. 63. l. 17. r. Rem it being only for the. p. 64. l. 30. r. longa sint tempora ib. l. 38. r. Testimonies as Authentick p. 65. l. 11. r. years to justifie your groundless Notions p. 66. l. 31. r. Grace who by Nature were ib. l. 35. r. whom they asserted p. 68. l. 12. r. an eundum mihi ad Angelos ib. l. 13. Neque per seipsos potentes ib. l. 15. r. that may reconcile p. 69. l. 13. r. gestaverunt ib. l. 15. r. Sanctum Sanctorum ib. l. 17. r. Vail there he alone of all them p. 70. l. 27. r. quia si pie vixerunt These are the gross Faults of this Piece besides which are many other smaller Errors not only literal but in the Pointing which I have omitted here and desire the Reader to Correct with his Pen. ADVERTISEMENT WHereas a Late Paper was Publish'd Entituled A Petition and Proposals to his Highness the Prince of Orange this is to satisfie my Friends it is a very unjust Imposition on me both by Printer and Publisher TO ALL True Protestants GRACE and PEACE c. BRETHREN THE Controversie between us of the Reformed Religion and the Synagogue of Rome have been so often debated and the Authorities on both sides so often produced that to some who are yet Strangers to the present Constitution of Affairs it may seem unnecessary to say them over again and I must confess that it will be scarce possible to bring forth any Matter or if we could it is scarce probable that what can be newly laid down as Proof can prevail more than all those Arguments that have been used and urged in those great Controversies by Men Eminent in their Generations for Learning and Piety and who have blessed the World with their Labours in a most signal manner but these Considerations have not discouraged me from doing my Duty because that Experience hath taught me that the same Medicaments are with Success applied to a returning or abiding Vlcer and the Truth of it is the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God must be for ever ready to put the Church of God in mind of such things as they have already heard and by the same Scriptures and the same Arguments endeavour to prevent and destroy Sin and by the same Authority from the Word of God to extirpate Heresies which daily are sowed by those cursed Impostors of the See of Rome These eight or ten years of warm Weather and many Indulgent Showres of soft Rain have made many of their Damnable Heresies like Weeds to take Root greatly and to spread themselves widely and the Conspirators by their repeated Importune Impudence have had great Encouragements to seduce our Countries from their Obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they bave had some Success upon those who have made Gain to be Godliness and their Interest their God and have to the utmost of their Power and Skill endeavoured to brand and blacken all Men that have stood in their way some they have almost Ruined for endeavouring to prevent the Mischiefs they have ever since the Restauration been Plotting and Contriving against our Lives Liberties and Religion amongst which I am one and should have been silent under my present Oppression and unjust Vsage and given way to others of better Abilities to have defended the Cause had I not been provoked to appear in Print Some time since Mr. Lewis Sabran who calls himself a Priest of the Society of Jesus wrote a scurrilous Letter to Mr. William Needham in answer to a third Letter by him Licensed written to him the said Sabran in the fourth Page of which Letter he is pleased to use these words Hence have taken their Rise those black unconcionable Calumnies by which when they could reach it they have taken away our Lives to this end of late years was singled out against us the Minister Oates Their Fury being now disarmed they turned the Stream of those Calumnies on the Catholick Church by misrepresenting her Doctrine and again when all the false Colours of those Misrepresentations are wiped of those Slanders that scurrulous
Language fall on them who appear in the Defence of those Catholick Truths for which double Service the Minister G seems to have been singled out they are both equally well qualified for the purpose because neither can blush Thus far Mr. Sabran who falling so fouly upon me I thought it fit to put Pen to Paper in order to justifie my self and expose the Doctrine by him so zealously defended I have no reason at this time of day to suspect that Spirit of Malignity amongst Protestants which carrieth some on to run down Men by vulgar Acclamations and as for those dismal Vizors those Rascally Party of Mankind the Popish Party I mean hath endeavoured to put upon me viz. of Malice Perjury Treason with the like which serve to affright Children in Vnderstanding and their Illegal and Vnjust and Reproachful Whippings and Pillorying as a Malefactor whereas God knows and you now must own that they have had no matter of just Accusation against me all which was to bring you out of the Love of those most Worthy and Important Truths I did before three Parliaments deliver upon my Oath as also in several Courts of Judicature where my Testimony was received believed and approved of In order to my fall these unwearied Vermin employed a Profligate Fellow the common Buffoon of the Nation and great Presents were made to him to blast and abuse me and the Pains he took met with an unexpected Success for many of my Brethren of the Church of England were deluded by him and were carried away by his Profligate Hellish Lyes Being thus run down by his Pen nothing would serve the turn of my Popish Adversaries but that I must dye to this end great Endeavours were used if possible to take away my Life by a false Accusation of Fellony and Treason but their Witnesses not having the luck to be believed then they were resolved not to rest themselves satisfied in the Defeat of that Effort and Enterprize they proceeded to Indict me for Perjury in which by the help of their Banditti from St. Omers and Staffordshire and by the Countenance of the Common Hangman of England they prevailed upon a Credulous Jury to Convict me and having obtained a Verdict these Conspirators laid their Heads together to invent what Punishment they should Inflict and ordered me to be Pilloried five times a Year during my Life and to be Whipt from Aldgate to Newgate and then within a day after to be Whipt from Newgate to Tyburn in which sort of Punishment I received two thousand three hundred fifty six Stripes according to the most modest Computation that could be made and they ordered that I should be divested of my Canonical Habit which they had no Power to do as I conceive besides all this they set a great Fine upon me and Condemned me to be a close Prisoner during my Life which Punishment they thought would render me very Obnoxious to all Mankind at least but the great Design was my Murther that I might not Communicate to the World those Particulars relating to the Popish Conspiracy carried on by that Wicked Party for the Murther of the Late King and the Subversion of the Protestant Religion and Government both in Church and State as by Law Established which are not yet told which I shall do when it shall please God and the King that now is that a Parliament shall meet and sit and Redress our Crying Grievances and Heal all those Wounds which the Devillish Hellish Popish Crew have made amongst us by Murthering our Protestant Brethren attempting to Assassinate the Late King Firing the City Corrupting Christianity Enslaving the Nation Debauching our Youth and Disturbing of Mankind Their base Vsage of me was I say to lessen me and those plain Truths which I have delivered in order to discover these Serpents to the World who at that time acted as behind a Curtain but since they have been more bare and brazen faced in their Proceedings and the Series of their Actions from the second of February 1684. to this very day have sufficiently justified me so that by the good Providence of our Great God and the Imprudence of my Implacable Enemies I do find that they have taken away all Cause and Occasion of Jealousie in me concerning you that you should take any such Impressions from them as may tend to beget in you an evil Opinion of me Further because you well remember that it hath been the common practice of the Members of that Whorish Synagogue they being instigated by the Devil their Father to put the Servants of God and Professors of the Protestant Religion into Bears Skins and Wolves Skins that they might be the better prepared to be torn in pieces and devoured by Dogs but they being now disabled from the acting of such Cruelties here they took another Course with some of us and slily have insinuated with the Sons of Men that they were a peaceable and quiet People and that those who have charged them with those Crimes viz. Treasons Murthers Fires and Massacres were Men not to be believed against them and by those Courses they did prevail with some Eminent and Holy Men who were carried away for a time with their Dissimulation but they have given you such a tast of their Truth Peace and Love that I conceive you will not any more fly to any such polluted Sanctuaries nor rely upon their Suggestions as if at this time of day they could disswade you from giving Credit to those great Truths I have already made known to you but if there be any Man or number of Men that may or shall remain subject to the Delusions of these Devils it is That they may be Damned for not receiving the Truth in the Love thereof As for me I have that Witness within me whose Prerogative it is to Laugh at all Jealousies and Suggestions of Men to Scorn whether they be deceived or such as deceive though I confess they have not run about altogether in vain who have sought my Ruine But I bless my Good God though my Popish Adversaries have to the utmost of their Power endeavoured to bring me under a Cloud of Disparagement insomuch that some of my old Friends were afraid or ashamed to own me yet he raised up new ones who have not without Difficulties preserved me from Perishing in my Affliction Feeding and Cloathing me many of whom were Persons who were better acquainted with my Cause than my Person who escaped the being deluded by that Infamous Race of the Babylonish Strumpet Almighty God who never forsakes those who stand faithful to the Truth hath been pleased to Comfort me with his Presence and to give me the Blessing of his Holy Jesus to grow in the Favour of himself and of good Men and though he hath Chastned me sore yet he hath not delivered me over unto Death but under the Affliction he hath taught me some weak Rudiments of his Heavenly Art drawing Light out of Darkness