<!DOCTYPE ETS PUBLIC "-//UMDLPS//DTD EEBOPROOF 2.0//EN">
<ETS>
<TEMPHEAD>
<REVDESCR>
<CHANGE>
<DATE>2014-04-23</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Colm MacCrossan</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed.</ITEM>
</CHANGE>
</REVDESCR>
</TEMPHEAD>
<EEBO>
<IDG S="marc" R="OX" ID="B09164">
<STC T="W">F2140A</STC>
<STC T="C">R188077</STC>
<BIBNO T="oclc">[ocm]62369283</BIBNO>
<VID>187932</VID>
</IDG>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>A DISCOURSE Concerning INVOCATION OF SAINTS.</P>
<Q><BIBL><HI>Rom. 10.14.</HI></BIBL>
<P>How &s;hall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?</P></Q>
<P><HI>LONDON:</HI> Printed for <HI>Ben. Tooke</HI> at the <HI>Ship</HI> in St. <HI>Paul</HI>'s Church-Yard, and <HI>F. Gardiner</HI> at the <HI>White-Hor&s;e</HI> in <HI>Ludgate-Street.</HI> MDCLXXXIV.</P>
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2" MS="y">
<PB REF="3" MS="y">
<PB REF="3" MS="y">
<GAP DESC="duplicate" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 page">
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="tract">
<PB REF="4">
<PB N="1" REF="4">
<HEAD>A DISCOURSE Concerning INVOCATION of SAINTS.</HEAD>
<P>AMong&s;t many other very corrupt and erroneous Doctrines of the <HI>Romani&s;ts,</HI> the Church of <HI>Eng|land</HI> in her twenty &s;econd Article condems that <HI>of Invocation of Saints, as a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrantry of Scripture, but rather repug|nant to the Word of God;</HI> and in her Learned Homily a|gain&s;t the Peril of Idolatry pa&s;&s;es yet a much &s;everer Cen|&s;ure upon it, and makes all tho&s;e that believe and practi&s;e it, <HI>Guilty of the &s;ame Idolatry that was amongst Ethnicks and Gentiles.</HI> How &s;harp &s;oever this charge may be thought to be, 'tis, you &s;ee, the plain &s;en&s;e and judgment of our Church, and what I believe is the Truth, and no hard matter to make good.</P>
<P>To proceed therefore in the ea&s;ie&s;t and cleare&s;t method I can, I propo&s;e to &s;um up all that I think needful to be &s;aid upon it under the&s;e following heads:</P>
<P N="1">1. <HI>What's the profest Doctrine and Practice of the Church of</HI> Rome, <HI>as to Invocation of Saints?</HI></P>
<P N="2">2. <HI>On what occa&s;ion it began and &s;pread in the Church?</HI></P>
<P N="3">3. <HI>That there is not the least proof for it from Scripture.</HI></P>
<P N="4">4. <HI>That there is no proof for it from the Fathers of the fir&s;t three hundred years, and more.</HI></P>
<P N="5">5. <HI>That there is full and evident proof in Scripture a|gain&s;t it.</HI></P>
<PB N="2" REF="5">
<P N="6">6. <HI>That the Fathers of the first and purest Ages, till af|ter three hundred, are all expre&s;s and po&s;itive in their wri|tings against it.</HI></P>
<P N="7">7. <HI>That the Doctrine and Practice of Saint-Invocation is Impious and Idolatrous.</HI></P>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="part">
<HEAD>I. What's the profest Doctrine and Practice of the Church of <HI>Rome,</HI> as to Invocation of Saints?</HEAD>
<P>AN Account of this I &s;hall give you fir&s;t in general, as it is &s;et down in the Decree of the <HI>Trent</HI>-Coun|cil, and then lay it before you more at large, di&s;tributed under &s;everal particulars.</P>
<P>In the twenty fifth Se&s;&s;ion of that pack'd Synod, we have its Decree in the&s;e Words: <HI>That all Bi&s;hops and Pa&s;tors that have the Cure of Souls, do diligently in&s;truct their Flock, that it is Good and Profitable, Humbly to Pray unto the Saints, and to have recour&s;e to their Prayers, Help and Aid:</HI> And then to reinforce the Obligation of it, it denounces an Anathema again&s;t all tho&s;e who &s;hall find fault with it, or refu&s;e to practi&s;e it. So that now who|&s;oever &s;hall be &s;o hardy as to think and teach the contra|ry, to &s;ay, that either it ought not to be done, or that it's a fooli&s;h thing to do it; that the practice is little le&s;s than Idolatry, repugnant to the Doctrine of the Scriptures, hugely derogatory to the Glory of God as &s;ole Governour of the World, and highly injurious to the Honour of Chri&s;t as the only Mediatour betwixt God and Man, does, in the judgment of that Church, <HI>think impiou&s;ly;</HI> and if the Pope's Power as well as his Infallibility does not fail him, he mu&s;t be Cur&s;t and Damn'd for it. But, for once, not to be frighted with this vain Thunder, I &s;hall pro|ceed in due place, by God's a&s;&s;i&s;tance, to prove all the
<PB N="3" REF="5">foregoing particulars again&s;t it, when I have given you yet a fuller di&s;cription of it. Fir&s;t then,</P>
<P N="1">1. The lea&s;t and mo&s;t excu&s;able thing in this Doctrine and Practice is, to Pray to Saints to Pray for them. Thus much is not onely confe&s;t by them, but made the pretence to bring off this Doctrine without the Charge of Idolatry and Creature-Wor&s;hip: We do no more in Pray|ing to Saints departed, &s;ay they, than one living Chri|&s;tian does to another, when he &s;ays, Pray Sir, Pray for me, or remember me in your Prayers. But, was this in|deed the true meaning of &s;uch Devotions, it's &s;o far from being any ju&s;tification of them, that the Apology it &s;elf is &s;inful, and admitting the excu&s;e, the Practice no le&s;s to be condemned. For,</P>
<P>When they Pray to Saints departed to Pray for them, tho&s;e Saints do either hear their Prayers and become acquainted with their de&s;ires, or they do not; If they do hear all tho&s;e Prayers that are put up to them at the &s;ame time by innumerable per&s;ons, and that in far di&s;tant places, what's this but to a&s;cribe to them that U|biquity and Omnipre&s;ence, that's &s;olely, peculiarly, and incommunicably in God? If they do not, then it's very ab&s;urd and ridiculous, and a great abu&s;e of that rea&s;on God hath given men for other ends than to trifle with, to Pray to them. For, to what pur|po&s;e &s;hould they Pray to them that can't hear them? Why &s;hould they be&s;eech tho&s;e to be their Advocates to God, and recommend their particular ca&s;es to Him, who&s;e ca&s;es they cannot, by any way that we know of, come to under&s;tand? As for their learning and &s;ee|ing all things in the Gla&s;s of the Trinity, or learning them by particular revelation from God; as God has declared no &s;uch thing to us, &s;o is it not to be known by the Light of Nature, but the contrary is very pro|bable, if not certain; as &s;hall be made to appear in the
<PB N="4" REF="6">&s;equel of this Di&s;cour&s;e. It is not denyed but that ble&s;&s;ed Spirits who are &s;afely landed upon the Shore, do Pray for their Partners who are &s;till behind beating it on the Waves; it is not denied but that Saints in Heaven may pray in particular to God for their Friends and Re|lations, who&s;e nece&s;&s;ities and infirmities they were well acquainted with before they left the Body: &s;o 'twas a|greed betwixt St. <HI>Cyprian</HI> and <HI>Cornelius,</HI> that who went fir&s;t to Glory, &s;hould be mindful of the others condition to God; for, why &s;hould their Memories or their Chari|ty be thought to be le&s;s in Heaven than they were on Earth? We know 'twas the practice of &s;ome good Men in the Primitive times to recommend them&s;elves to the Prayers of the Saints, that is, to de&s;ire God to hear the Prayers that the Saints in Heaven did make in their be|half; and to apply them&s;elves to the Martyrs a little be|fore their &s;uffering, when they them&s;elves were entred in|to bli&s;s, to interceed with God for tho&s;e who were yet on the way pa&s;&s;ing thither with fear and trembling. But now is there no difference betwixt the Saints interce&s;&s;ions for us and our Invocation of them? betwixt their Pray|ing for us in Heaven, and our Praying to them on Earth? Is there no difference betwixt one living Chri&s;tian Pray|ing to another to Pray for him, who hears his reque&s;t, and who is acquainted with his condition, and our addre&s;&s;ing to Saints departed, to Pray for us, who know us not, and who are ignorant of our &s;tate?</P>
<P>Again, when they pray to Saints departed, they do it with all the Rites and Solemnities of a Religious Wor&s;hip, in Sacred Offices, upon their Knees, with uncovered Heads, with Hands and Eyes lifted up, in times and places dedicated to God's Wor&s;hip; now, though it &s;hould be true, that they do no more than pray to Saints to pray for them, yet doing it in that manner, with &s;uch External Acts of Devotion that are confe&s;t to be the &s;ame where|with
<PB N="5" REF="6">we call on God, I do not &s;ee, how they can be ex|cu&s;ed, even on this account, from attributing that honour to the Creature, which is due onely to the Creator. As God is owned to be infinite in him&s;elf, and to have in|communicable Perfections, &s;o there ought to be &s;ome pe|culiar and appropriate Acts and Signs of Wor&s;hip to &s;ig|nify that we do inwardly &s;o e&s;teem and believe of God; and when the&s;e are once determined by the Law of God, or the univer&s;al rea&s;on and con&s;ent of Mankind, the ap|plying them to any el&s;e but him, is a plain violating his Peculiarities, and robbing him of his Honour. And now in this re&s;pect al&s;o, I cannot di&s;cern how the <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Invo|cation of Saints is of the &s;ame nature with our Reque&s;ting our Fellow-Members to Pray for us? For (not to menti|on again the pre&s;ence of the&s;e, and the ab&s;ence of the o|ther) is there no difference betwixt my de&s;iring an emi|nently good Chri&s;tian to pray for me, and falling down on my knees with Hands and Eyes lifted up, and that in a Temple, to him, with that reque&s;t? Would not every good man that has any regard for the Honour of God, pre&s;ently &s;hew his dete&s;tation of &s;uch an action? Would he not &s;ay to me, as St. <HI>Peter</HI> to <HI>Cornelius</HI> falling down before him, <HI>Stand up, I my &s;elf al&s;o am a man?</HI> Would he not with St. <HI>Paul</HI> have rent his Garments, and with much holy indignation cryed out to me, as he to the men of <HI>Ly|&s;tra,</HI> de&s;igning the &s;ame Honours to him and <HI>Barnabas,</HI> wherewith they Wor&s;hip'd their Gods, <HI>Why do ye the&s;e things, we al&s;o are men of like pa&s;&s;ions with you?</HI> As the Saints in Heaven cannot be &s;uppo&s;ed to lo&s;e any thing of their Love and Charity towards their Fellow-Members by going thither, &s;o neither can they be thought to abate any thing of their zeal and fervour for the Honour of God, and therefore certainly what they did and would have re|fu&s;ed here on Earth, they mu&s;t with higher degrees of ab|horrence reject now they are in Heaven.</P>
<PB N="6" REF="7">
<P>Moreover, if this be all they mean by all their &s;everal Offices of Devotions to Saints departed, that they &s;hould pray for them unto God, why in all this time that the&s;e forms have been complained of, has not the &s;en&s;e of them been better expre&s;t? Whence, I pray, &s;hould we take the meaning of &s;uch Prayers but from the u&s;ual &s;ignification of the Words? But, if not; why has no Inqui&s;ition pa&s;t upon them? Why have not the gro&s;&s;e&s;t and ranke&s;t for Super&s;tition and encroaching on the Prerogative of God, been expunged and blotted out? Why all this while has there been no review, no comments upon them, no cauti|ons and in&s;tructions written and bound up with their Bre|viaries, Ro&s;aries and Hours, that the People might know how to under&s;tand them? If the form of words in their Saint-Invocation be the &s;ame that is u&s;ed to God, but their &s;ence and meaning otherwi&s;e, why don't they tell this to the World, and make their Explication as publick and as general as the Prayers?</P>
<P>Certainly the Bi&s;hops and Governours of the <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Church, and tho&s;e that have the Care of Souls among&s;t them, are either guilty of gro&s;s and wilful Neglects to the People, or el&s;e, whatever they &s;ay to us, their will is, that the People &s;hould under&s;tand tho&s;e Prayers according to the cu&s;tomary and received u&s;e of the words; and then I am &s;ure they pray, not only to Saints to pray for them unto God, in order to the obtaining of him &s;uch aids and &s;upplies they want, but to Saints them&s;elves for tho&s;e very ble&s;&s;ings. As will appear at large in the next particular.</P>
<P N="2">2. They pray to Saints departed for tho&s;e very ble&s;|&s;ings that none but God can give. To what purpo&s;e el&s;e do they advi&s;e us to fly, not onely to their Prayers, but <HI>their help and a&s;&s;i&s;tance;</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Opem auxili|um&abque; Trid. Con. Se&s;&s;.</HI> 25.</NOTE> which words, <HI>help and a&s;&s;i&s;tance,</HI> would have been altogether &s;uperfluous, was not &s;ome|thing el&s;e meant by them, than onely <HI>that</HI> of their Prayers.</P>
<PB N="7" REF="7">
<P>To what purpo&s;e el&s;e do they pray to them to <HI>vi&s;it</HI> them, <HI>to make ha&s;te and come</HI> to them,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Propere veni, accelera.</NOTE> did they not ex|pect &s;ome other aid and a&s;&s;i&s;tance from them, than bare praying for them? For that certainly might have been better and more conveniently performed in Heaven, be|fore the Face of God.</P>
<P>To what purpo&s;e el&s;e in &s;ome particular ca&s;es do they put up their Addre&s;&s;es to one Saint rather than to another, according as in this World they were famous, either for &s;ome eminent Grace &s;hining in them, or for &s;ome &s;trange Cure or extraordinary Deliverance wrought by them, but onely, that they believe and tru&s;t, that tho&s;e who did &s;uch great things on Earth, are much more willing and able to do them now they are in Heaven, where, while other Graces cea&s;e, Charity and Benefi|cence are perfected, and abide for ever?</P>
<P>Thus becau&s;e St. <HI>Roch</HI> was &s;ignally Charitable in a&s;|&s;i&s;ting tho&s;e who were infected with the Plague, there|fore do they call upon him in times of Infection; be|cau&s;e St. <HI>Apollonia</HI> had all her Teeth &s;truck out for her undaunted Confe&s;&s;ion of the Faith of Je&s;us, therefore do they fly to her for ea&s;e again&s;t the Rage of Teeth; be|cau&s;e St. <HI>George</HI> was by Profe&s;&s;ion a Souldier, and re|nown'd for wonderful Atchievements, therefore have they recour&s;e to him for A&s;&s;i&s;tance again&s;t Enemies. 'Tis true, was it lawful to Addre&s;s to any at all, this might be a &s;ufficient rea&s;on, why they Addre&s;s to this rather than to another Saint, becau&s;e his or her former actions or &s;ufferings do be&s;t &s;uit and befit their pre&s;ent ca&s;e; but, being not &s;ure that the&s;e and &s;uch like Ca|nonized Saints of the <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Church, are Saints in Hea|ven, being &s;ure, if they are, they can't hear us, nor know our particular State, much le&s;s be&s;tow health and deliverance upon us; while&s;t we Love and Honour the Memory of Saints indeed, we ought to call onely upon
<PB N="8" REF="8">God, who onely is <HI>a pre&s;ent help in time of need,</HI> and <HI>the Saviour of them that put their trust in him.</HI></P>
<P>But to put this out of doubt, it will not be ami&s;s to &s;et down &s;ome of their Forms of Devotion to Saints departed: And here, not to rake for them in &s;ome ob|&s;cure Authors that have privately &s;tole into the World, I &s;hall need go no farther than the pre&s;ent <HI>Roman</HI> Bre|viary, Corrected and Publi&s;hed by the Decree and Or|der of the Council of <HI>Trent.</HI> The Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin is there Invocated in the Fea&s;t of the A&s;&s;umption, <HI>For &s;trength against Enemies;</HI> and in the Hymn frequently u&s;ed in her Office, &s;he is not only <HI>called the Gate of Hea|ven,</HI> but intreated to <HI>loo&s;e the bonds of the Guilty, to give light to the Blind, to drive away our evils, to obtain good things for us, and to &s;hew her &s;elf to be a Mother;</HI> (that is, as the Ma&s;s-Book of <HI>Paris,</HI> 1634, interprets it)
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>O foelix puer|pera no&s;tra pi|ans &s;celera, jure matris impera Redemptori. Dall. de cultu Latin. lib</HI> 3 <HI>cap</HI> 4. <HI>p.</HI> 359. <HI>Not denied by Na|talis Alexan. though he an|&s;wers this Cita|tion of Dalle, only &s;ays, Non est ab eccle&s;ia probata &amp; qui|bu&s;dam tantum mi&s;&s;alibus olim in&s;erta est. Hi&s;t. Eccl. Sec.</HI> 5. <HI>di&s;&s;ert.</HI> 5. <HI>p.</HI> 343.347.</NOTE> <HI>in right of a Mother to command her Son.</HI> In ano|ther place &s;he is &s;ued to <HI>for help to the Mi&s;erable, for &s;trength to the Weak, for comfort to the Afflicted, and that all that Celebrate her Fe&s;tivals may feel her A&s;&s;i&s;tance:</HI> And but that I &s;aid I would not hunt for matter, I could &s;end you to Authors of theirs, and not of the lea&s;t note, where we may read &s;uch Bla&s;phemy as this:
<NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="foot"><HI>Biel. in Can. mi&s;. Sect.</HI> 80.</NOTE> <HI>That God hath given the Virgin</HI> Mary <HI>half of his Kingdom.</HI>
<NOTE N="&Verbar;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Salmeron in Tim.</HI> 1.2. <HI>di&s;.</HI> 8.</NOTE> <HI>That the Prayers made to, and by the Saints, are better than tho&s;e made by Christ.</HI>
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Carol. Scrib. in Amph. hon. Commun. p.</HI> 29. <HI>Chemn. exemp. Invocat. Sanct. p.</HI> 146.</NOTE> <HI>That the Mother's Milk is equally to be e&s;teem'd with the Son's Blood.</HI> This you may take for a ta&s;t of that <HI>Hyperdulia,</HI> that &s;uper|refin'd Service which they put up to the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin; and yet that to the Apo&s;tles and other Saints of le&s;s Magnitude comes not much behind it: St. <HI>Peter</HI> is intreated by the Power given to him, <HI>To hear their Prayers, to unty the bonds of their Iniquity, and to open the Gates of Heaven:</HI> all the Apo&s;tles, <HI>to Ab&s;olve them from their Sins by their command, to Heal all their Spi|ritual
<PB N="9" REF="8">Maladies, and to increa&s;e their Virtues.</HI> St. <HI>Andrew</HI> is &s;upplicated <HI>for Patience to bear chearfully the Cro&s;s of Christ; St.</HI> Francis, <HI>for Deliverance from the drudgery and bondage of Sin; St.</HI> Brigit, <HI>for Wi&s;dom again&s;t the Snares of the World; St.</HI> Nicholas, <HI>for Courage again&s;t the a&s;&s;aults of the Devil; St.</HI> Agnes, <HI>for the chiefest of Graces, that of Charity;</HI> and <HI>St.</HI> Catharine, <HI>for all Graces:</HI> We are taught to Pray to be delivered from Hell, and to be made Partakers of Heaven by their Merits;
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Breviar. &amp; mi&s;&s;.</NOTE> to fly to them as our Patrons and Advocates, to put confi|dence in their Interce&s;&s;ions, and to a&s;cribe our Mercies and deliverances to their Power and Intere&s;t in God. In the Office of Vi&s;itation of the Sick, the Prie&s;t laying his right hand upon the head of the &s;ick Per&s;on, Prays,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ritual de Vi&s;it. Infirm.</NOTE> <HI>That Je&s;us the Son of</HI> Mary, <HI>and Saviour of the World, would for the Merits and Interce&s;&s;ion of his Holy Apo&s;tles,</HI> Peter <HI>and</HI> Paul, <HI>and all Saints,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Meritis &amp; in|terce&s;&s;ione S. S.</NOTE> <HI>be Gracious and Mer|ciful to him:</HI> And in another place in the &s;ame Office, That <HI>through the Interce&s;&s;ion of the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin, and all Saints, he might obtain Eternal Life.</HI> The&s;e are enough, but I cannot omit one more, which is a Flower indeed; in the Office about the Sacrament of Penance, there is found this remarkable Prayer:
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ritual. Rom. de Sacram. poe|nit.</NOTE> <HI>The Pa&s;&s;ion of our Lord Je&s;us Christ, the Merits of the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin</HI> Mary, <HI>and of all Saints, and what&s;oever Good thou hast done, and what&s;oever Evil thou hast &s;uffered, be to thee</HI> for the <HI>Re|mi&s;&s;ion of Sins, the Encrea&s;e of Grace, and the Reward of Eternal Life.</HI> And now let the Reader judge, if this be not to give the Creature that Wor&s;hip that's due only to the Creator, and to &s;eek to obtain tho&s;e Ble&s;&s;ings from finite Beings, and through their procurement, which only Almighty God, and his Ble&s;&s;ed Son Chri&s;t Je&s;us, can give unto Men.</P>
<P N="3">3. 'Tis the Doctrine of the Church of <HI>Rome,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Voce vel mente Supplicare.</NOTE> that Mental Prayers, as well as Vocal, are to be put up to
<PB N="10" REF="9">Saints departed; So the <HI>Trent</HI>-Council decreed, &s;o their Bi&s;hops and Pa&s;tors are enjoyned to teach the People, and &s;o they practi&s;e, this being a form of Prayer to Saints in frequent u&s;e among&s;t them, <HI>With the de&s;ire of our Hearts we Pray unto you, regard the ready Service of our Minds.</HI> So that according to them, Saints depar|ted do not only hear our Prayers, but know our Hearts al&s;o; and indeed this is nece&s;&s;arily implied in every Prayer that's made to them, <HI>viz.</HI> that they not onely hear the Prayer, but know the di&s;po&s;ition of the Heart from whence it proceeds, otherwi&s;e the Hypocritical Supplicant mu&s;t be &s;uppo&s;ed, as likely to obtain their favour, as the Sincere&s;t Votary.</P>
<P N="4">4. They not only Pray to them with Mental and Vocal Prayer, but</P>
<P>They confe&s;s their Sins to them. Very remarkable is that Form of Confe&s;&s;ion in the Reformed <HI>Roman</HI> Mi&s;&s;al,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ordinar. mi&s;&s;ae. p.</HI> 217.</NOTE> <HI>I confe&s;s to Almighty God, to the ever Ble&s;&s;ed Vir|gin, to Ble&s;&s;ed</HI> Michael, <HI>Arch-Angel, to Ble&s;&s;ed</HI> John Ba|pti&s;t, <HI>to the Holy Apo&s;tles</HI> Peter <HI>and</HI> Paul, <HI>to all the Saints, and to you, Brethren, that I have Sinned in thought, word and deed.</HI></P>
<P>They make Vows to them; nothing is more common then, at entrance into &s;ome Religious Orders, thus to ex|pre&s;s their Devotion: <HI>I Vow to God and the Ble&s;&s;ed Vir|gin;</HI> then to Vow that their whole life &s;hall be devoted to the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin, or &s;ome other Saint, according to that famous pattern,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Francis Alber|tin. de Angel. Cu&s;tod. p.</HI> 224.</NOTE> <HI>I humbly beg of thee, O Mother of all Clemency, that thou wouldest vouch&s;afe to admit me in|to the number of tho&s;e who have devoted them&s;elves to thee, to be thy perpetual Servants.</HI> Another of this kind, not much inferiour to it,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Hor&s;t in dedic. &s;ect.</HI> 2. <HI>p.</HI> 83.</NOTE> we meet with in <HI>Hor&s;tius, viz. I firmly re&s;olve henceforth to &s;erve thee and thy Son with all faithfulne&s;s, and for ever to cleave to thee.</HI></P>
<P>They offer up Laud and Prai&s;e to them, and intreat
<PB N="11" REF="9">them to hear and receive their Thank&s;givings; thus to St.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Brev. Rom. in fe&s;t. S. Jacob.</NOTE> <HI>James</HI> they pray <HI>that he would joyfully hear the acknow|ledgments that as right and due they paid to him.</HI> 'Tis u|&s;ual with their learned men to conclude their Books with <HI>Prai&s;e to God and the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin,</HI> particularly <HI>Valentia</HI> and <HI>Bellarmine,</HI> the latter of which thus ends his Book concerning the Wor&s;hip of Saints: <HI>Prai&s;e be to God,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Bellar. de cul. Sanct. Lyon Edit. Laus deo vir|gini&abque; Mariae, Je&s;u item Chri|&s;to.</NOTE> <HI>and to the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin al&s;o to Je&s;us Chri&s;t. Hor&s;tius</HI> before had it, <HI>thee and thy Son; Bellarmine</HI> here, <HI>the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin, and then Je&s;us Chri&s;t:</HI> whereby we may &s;ee they give her not only an equal part with God in their Prai|&s;es, but by placing her before Chri&s;t, &s;eem to give her &s;omewhat of Pre-eminence above him.</P>
<P N="5">5. They appoint Angels and Saints, Deputies and Lieutenants under God in the Government of the World, and &s;tick not to make them Guardians, Patrons and Patrone&s;&s;es over particular Kingdoms, Cities, Churches, and &s;ingle Per&s;ons. The Scripture indeed frequently &s;peaks of the Knowledge, Pre&s;ence, Dignity, occa&s;ional Mini&s;try, and Emba&s;&s;ies of holy Angels, but that delega|tion of power the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> give them, whereby they make them &s;hare Empire and Dominion with God in the Government of the World, can be as little prov'd of them, as of Saints departed: however, I am chiefly to con&s;ider their Doctrine and Practice in reference to the latter;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Hor&s;t. parad. Animae &s;ect.</HI> 2.</NOTE> they teach the People to make choice of one or more out of the number of the Saints to be their Patron, to love them, to imitate them, through their hands to offer daily their works to God, to commend them&s;elves to their protection at all times, e&s;pecially in Difficulties and Temptations; they give to one Saint this Precinct, and to another, that; to one, power over this Malady; over that, to others. More of this you have drawn to the life in the fore-mentioned ex|cellent Homily of our Church again&s;t Idolatry,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Homil. of Ido|lat.</NOTE> out of
<PB N="12" REF="10">which I &s;hall only cull &s;ome Pa&s;&s;ages, and refer the Reader, for farther &s;atisfaction, to the Homily it &s;elf: It compares &s;uch <HI>Saints in the</HI> Roman <HI>Church, to whom they allot the defence of certain Countries, to the</HI> Dii Tutelares <HI>of the Gentile Idolaters; &s;uch, to whom the &s;afety of cer|tain Cities are committed, to their</HI> Dii Pre&s;ides; <HI>and &s;uch, to whom Temples and Churches are builded, and Al|tars erected, to their</HI> Dii Patroni; <HI>it tells us that the</HI> Romani&s;ts <HI>have no fewer Saints, than the Heathens had Gods, to whom they give the Honour due to God; every Ar|tificer and Profe&s;&s;ion has his &s;pecial Saint as a peculiar God: for example, Scholars have St.</HI> Nicholas <HI>and St.</HI> Gregory; <HI>Painters, St.</HI> Luke; <HI>neither lack Souldiers their</HI> Mars; <HI>nor Lovers their</HI> Venus <HI>amongst Chri&s;tians. The Sea and Waters, amongst the</HI> Romani&s;ts, <HI>as well as Cities and Countries, have their &s;pecial Saints to pre&s;ide over them, as amongst the Heathens they had Gods: All Di&s;ea&s;es have their &s;pecial Saints as Gods, the Curers of them; the Pox, St.</HI> Roch; <HI>the Falling-Evil, St.</HI> Cornelis; <HI>the Toothach, St.</HI> Apollonia: <HI>Neither do Bea&s;ts and Cat|tle lack their Gods with us; for St.</HI> Loy <HI>is the Hor&s;leach, and St.</HI> Anthony <HI>the Swineherd,</HI> &amp;c. <HI>Where is God's Providence and due Honour in the mean time? who &s;aith, The Heavens be mine, the Earth is mine, the whole World and all that therein is: but we have left him neither Hea|ven, nor Earth, nor Water, nor Country, nor City, Peace nor War, to Rule and Govern; neither Men nor Bea&s;ts, nor their Di&s;ea&s;es to cure: And, as if we doubted of his abi|lity or will to help, we joyn to him another Helper, as if he were a Noun Adjective, u&s;ing the&s;e Sayings; &s;uch as Learn, God and St.</HI> Nicholas <HI>be my &s;peed; &s;uch as Nee&s;e, God help and St.</HI> John; <HI>to the Hor&s;e, God and St.</HI> Loy <HI>&s;ave thee. Thus are we become like Hor&s;es and Mules, that have no under&s;tanding. Oh Heavens! Oh Earth! What Madne&s;s and Wickedne&s;s again&s;t God, are Men fallen into?
<PB N="13" REF="10">What di&s;honour do the Creatures to their Creator and Maker? This is not written to reproach the Saints,</HI> but to condemn <HI>the Fooli&s;hne&s;s and Wickedne&s;s</HI> of Men, <HI>who make of the true Servants of God, fal&s;e Gods, by attribu|ting to them the Power and Honour which is Gods, and due to him only.</HI></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="part">
<HEAD>II. On what occa&s;ion this Doctrine and Practice began and &s;pread in the Church?</HEAD>
<P>GReat was the Honour the Primitive Chri&s;tians had for their Martyrs and Confe&s;&s;ors; they fre|quented their Tombs, erected Altars on the places of their burial, highly e&s;teemed their Bones and Reliques; here they rehear&s;ed their good works done in their life-time, and their Faith, Patience, and Con&s;tancy &s;hewed at Death; here they ble&s;&s;ed God for that Grace that was given them, and for that good that accrued to them&s;elves by their example; here they propo&s;ed their Virtues for imitation, and had their own Piety and Zeal enflamed by the remembrance of them: and the Chri|&s;tian Cau&s;e being then hara&s;&s;ed on every &s;ide by impla|cable Enemies, the Malice of the <HI>Jew,</HI> and the Subtilty of the <HI>Greek,</HI> and the Power of the <HI>Roman</HI> combining with their united force to de&s;troy and root it up, it plea|&s;ed God, not only by the demon&s;tration of a Divine pow|er in the Apo&s;tles and their immediate Succe&s;&s;ors, whil&s;t they were alive, but al&s;o by many wonderful things done at their Tombs when they were dead, and by &s;en|&s;ibly an&s;wering Prayers that were there put up to him, to confirm the Truth of Chri&s;tianity, to declare his approbation of the &s;ufferings of his Servants, and to en|courage others to Seal the Doctrine of the Go&s;pel with their Bloud as they had done. To them in a particular
<PB N="14" REF="11">manner may that of the Apo&s;tle be applied,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Rom.</HI> 8.29, 30.</NOTE> <HI>Whom God did foreknow, them he did prede&s;tinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son;</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ver.</HI> 28.</NOTE> <HI>and whom he did prede&s;tinate, them he called; and whom he called, them he ju&s;tified; and whom he ju&s;tified, them he glorified.</HI> The Apo&s;tle having &s;aid in the ver&s;e before, <HI>We know that all things work together for good unto them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpo&s;e;</HI> adds, as a proof of what he had &s;aid, <HI>whom he did foreknow,</HI> would be per&s;ons of Great and Noble minds, and &s;o fit for the work, <HI>them he did prede&s;tinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son,</HI> them he did decree to &s;uffer for his &s;ake, and by &s;ufferings to be made conformed to his Son, who was made perfect through &s;ufferings; <HI>and whom he did prede&s;tinate, them he al&s;o called,</HI> them in due time he actually called forth to &s;uffer for his Name; <HI>and whom he called, them he ju|&s;tified,</HI> them he approved of as faithful Servants, as loyal Souldiers, as invincible Champions of Truth and Righ|teou&s;ne&s;s; and <HI>whom he ju&s;tified them he glorified,</HI> them he crowned with Honour and Renown here, and with immortal Glory hereafter. This was the Te&s;timony God bore to the Apo&s;tles and fir&s;t Bi&s;hops of the Church, to the Authority they had received, to the Doctrine they taught, and for which they died; this was the Honour the Primitive Chri&s;tians de&s;ervedly &s;hewed to their victorious Martyrs; they did not In|vocate them, but Loved their Memories, Commemo|rated their Virtues, and Ble&s;&s;ed God for their Example; they performed to them not any part of Religious Wor|&s;hip that was due to God only,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Cultus officio|&s;us dilectionis, &amp; &s;ocietatis, &s;pecialis ob&s;er|vantia. S. Au&s;t. Contr. Fau&s;t. lib.</HI> 20.21. <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">. <HI>Cyril. l.</HI> 6. <HI>contr. Jul.</HI></NOTE> but (as they called it) <HI>an officious Wor&s;hip, a Wor&s;hip of Love and Society, a &s;pe|cial and particular ob&s;ervance, a re&s;pect convenient and pro|per,</HI> and which they could not but think was due to them on the account of the great &s;ervice they had done to the Cau&s;e of Chri&s;t, and the more than ordinary worth and excellency that &s;hined in them.</P>
<PB N="15" REF="11">
<P>But afterwards in &s;ucceeding Ages, when through the good Providence of God, and Favour of <HI>Con&s;tantine the Great,</HI> the Church had re&s;t and ea&s;e, and Pro&s;perity began to dawn upon it, the Devil finding he could not prevail over the Chri&s;tian Faith by fiery trials and tem|ptations, betook him&s;elf to other, more &s;ecret it may be, but equally dangerous &s;tratagems; and by working on the &s;trong inclinations and affections of men to ea&s;e and &s;oftne&s;s, he too &s;ucce&s;sfully attempted to deprave and corrupt it by loo&s;e and &s;uper&s;titious Doctrines: mo&s;t men are for &s;ome kind of Religion whether the Devil will or no, which, becau&s;e he cannot hinder, he labours what he can, it may be &s;uch, that whil&s;t it pretends fair, may do them but little good; and men are forward e|nough to clo&s;e with that which offers, at carrying them to Heaven, on the ea&s;ie&s;t terms. The Church being now out of Per&s;ecution, and Riches and Honours attend|ing that Profe&s;&s;ion, for which &s;uch Multitudes had lo&s;t all, and endured the Flames, the People began to be more loo&s;e and vain in their conver&s;ations, than when they &s;till expected Martyrdom: now they began to place their Religion in &s;hews and pretences more than in a &s;in|cere and &s;ub&s;tantial Piety; and whereas before they were wont to frequent the Tombs of the Martyrs, that at the &s;ight of the place their Affections might be rai&s;ed, their Devotions enlivened, and their Faith and Charity receive farther degrees of warmth and heat from their burning and &s;hining Examples; now they placed all their Religion in the bare outward ob&s;ervance of that Solemni|ty, and took more care to honour the Saints by their lof|ty Prai&s;es and Commendations of them, than to become Saints them&s;elves by imitating their Graces and Virtues; and that, what was wanting in the one, they might make up in the other, they now began to fall into many &s;uper&s;titious Conceits and Opinions concerning them, to
<PB N="16" REF="12">break out into too lavi&s;h, and indeed extravagant ex|pre&s;&s;ions of their worth, and to fly too high in their Pa|negyricks and Laudatory Orations: Now they began</P>
<P>To attribute the Miracles done at the Martyrs Tombs, to the Martyrs own Power, or at lea&s;t Mediation with God. The common People ob&s;erving, that many Cures were wrought upon tho&s;e, that at tho&s;e Monuments ap|plied them&s;elves to God, were led by degrees to look upon them as &s;o many Te&s;timonies of the Martyrs great Intere&s;t in the Court of Heaven, and in&s;tead of begging relief of God, to &s;peak directly to the Martyrs them|&s;elves:</P>
<P>To fancy that the Souls of Martyrs were always ho|vering about their Tombs and A&s;hes, and &s;o joyned their Interce&s;&s;ions with the Prayers of Chri&s;tians that were put up to God in tho&s;e places; &s;o 'twas objected by <HI>Vi|gilantius</HI> to St. <HI>Hierom:</HI></P>
<P>To wi&s;h that the Martyrs would Pray for them: &s;o they cried out in the Council of <HI>Chalcedon,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Oret pro nobis Flavianus.</NOTE> <HI>Let</HI> Flavia|nus <HI>Pray for us:</HI> and in <HI>Theodoret</HI>'s Hi&s;tory of the Lives of the Fathers, we find in the clo&s;e of mo&s;t of them, (th&ocirc; &s;ome think them not to be his words, but Additions and In&s;ertions afterwards:) <HI>I wi&s;h and de&s;ire that by their In|terce&s;&s;ion I may obtain Divine help.</HI></P>
<P>To commend them&s;elves to the Martyrs Interce&s;&s;ions,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Commend are nos orationi, St. Au&s;t.</NOTE> to beg to be heard for their &s;akes, to be helpt by their Prayers, to be vouch&s;aft the effects of the Prayers that were made by them, in behalf of the Church below:</P>
<P>To Pray to them upon &s;uppo&s;ition, if they heard or knew what was done here below:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">. <HI>Nazian. Orat.</HI> 3. <HI>in Julian.</HI> <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">. <HI>Orat. und. in Gorgon.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Hear, oh thou Soul of Great</HI> Con&s;tantius! &s;ays St. <HI>Gregory Nazianzen, if thou hast any under&s;tanding of the&s;e things.</HI> The like he hath in his Funeral Oration which he made upon his Si&s;ter <HI>Gorgonia: If thou hast any care of things done by us, and Holy Souls, receive this Honour from God that they have
<PB N="17" REF="12">any feeling of &s;uch things as the&s;e, receive this Oration of ours.</HI></P>
<P>By &s;uch &s;teps and degrees as the&s;e, the frequenting the places where the Martyrs were en&s;hrined, and ho|nouring their Names and Memories, was turned into &s;uper&s;titious Devotion, and that &s;oon ended in &s;olemn and down-right Invocation.</P>
<P>To all this we may add,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Dr. <HI>Teni&s;on.</HI></NOTE> what a Learned Author of our own has ingeniou&s;ly gue&s;t, that the great compli|ance and yielding of the <HI>Roman</HI> Chri&s;tians in this par|ticular to tho&s;e Northern Nations, the <HI>Goths</HI> and <HI>Van|dals,</HI> when they invaded and over-run the Empire, did not a little contribute to rai&s;e and propagate this Saint-Wor&s;hip and Invocation in the Church; of all the Hea|then Nations none were more Zealou&s;ly Devoted to the Wor&s;hip of <HI>Daemons,</HI> than tho&s;e were, whereof he gives many Te&s;timonies; now it's not improbable that the Chri&s;tians, to mollifie their fierce natures, and to induce them the more readily to embrace Chri&s;tianity, might indulge them &s;till that Practice, excepting onely the Object of their Wor&s;hip, giving them real Saints and Holy Angels in&s;tead of their feigned and impure Deities; and that which makes this the more probable is, that their Inva&s;ion and &s;tay in <HI>Italy,</HI> and the ri&s;e and growth of <HI>Daemon</HI>-Wor&s;hip there, jump exactly as to time, and both bear Date from the Fourth and Fifth Centuries.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="part">
<HEAD>III. That there is not the least proof for it from Scripture.</HEAD>
<P N="1">I. ANd here we are fir&s;t to take notice,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Bell. de Sanct. beat. c.</HI> 19. <HI>Sal. in</HI> 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 2. <HI>di&s;p.</HI> 7. <HI>Eckius En|chir. de vener. San. c.</HI> 15. <HI>Car|din. du Perron.</HI></NOTE> that it is freely confe&s;t by &s;ome of their own Learned Divines, that there is no expre&s;s Text, either in the Old or New Te&s;tament, for this Doctrine and Practice; And is it not hard to make that an Article of Faith, that
<PB N="18" REF="13">has no foundation to &s;tand on in the word of God? or to make that a Duty, that has no Law nor Sanction to bind us to the Practice of it? Were not the Scriptures writ|ten <HI>to make men wi&s;e unto Salvation,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">2 <HI>Tim.</HI> 3.15, 16.</NOTE> and <HI>to in&s;truct them throughly unto all good works?</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>John</HI> 20.30.</NOTE> Were they not written that <HI>we might believe, and believing might have eternal life?</HI> Do not the Apo&s;tles &s;ay, <HI>they have made known to Men the whole will of God, and kept nothing hid from them?</HI> Do they not abound in earne&s;t Exhortations <HI>to pray, to pray always to pray without cea&s;ing, with all Prayer?</HI> Have they not left frequent Directions for the right performance of it, in a Language <HI>that all that hear may under&s;tand,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 14.</NOTE> <HI>with pure hands, in Faith, without wrath and doubting?</HI> And now can we imagine after all this, that, had Invocation of Saints been <HI>&s;o good and profitable a Duty,</HI> or that it had been &s;o great a Crime,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Catech. Rom.</HI> 584.</NOTE> &s;o much as to doubt of the Ble&s;&s;ed <HI>Virgin</HI>'s <HI>Merits and Ability to help,</HI> that they would have been wholly &s;ilent as to this matter? Were not the Apo&s;tles guided by the Holy Spirit of God? Mu&s;t they not be &s;uppo&s;ed to have as hearty a concern, and as burning a zeal for the Salvation of Souls, and the Glory of God, as the <HI>Trent</HI> Fathers had? And now, had this Practice been &s;o highly in&s;trumental to promote both the&s;e, as that Synod would have us believe, is it to be imagined that every one of them would have quite forgot it, and neglected to have given it in charge with as much &s;trictne&s;s, as they have done to all Bi&s;hops and Pa&s;tors, to in&s;truct their Flocks in the Piety and U&s;efulne&s;s of it? Have not the Apo&s;tles both by their Precept and Ex|ample enjoyned Chri&s;tians to beg the Prayers of one a|nother, whil&s;t they are in the Body? Have they not pre|&s;cribed the &s;ick man, as the mo&s;t Soveraign Receipt, to have recour&s;e to the Prayers <HI>of the Elders of the Church?</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Jam.</HI> 5.14.</NOTE> What rea&s;on then can be given, that we have not any one Example or Precept to fly to the Prayers of Saints
<PB N="19" REF="13">departed, to their help and a&s;&s;i&s;tance, as the more pre|vailing and meritorious, but only this, that they are not in a capacity to hear our Reque&s;ts, or to know our Conditions? Nay, had our Saviour and his Apo&s;tles intended this Saint-Invocation as a nece&s;&s;ary Chri&s;tian Duty, it would have needed a more expre&s;s command and penalty to have inforced its obligation, than mo&s;t other Duties of Chri&s;tianity, &s;ince it was altogether a thing new to the <HI>Jews,</HI> and what had never been practi|&s;ed by them: for though &s;ometimes in their Prayers to God, they be&s;ought him to remember <HI>Abraham, I&s;aac,</HI> and <HI>Jacob,</HI> that is,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Luk.</HI> 1.55, 72, 73. <HI>Deut.</HI> 7.8.</NOTE> <HI>his own covenant and promi&s;e</HI> he had made with and to them; yet they never u&s;ed them as Interce&s;&s;ors, or &s;aid, <HI>Holy Abraham, or Holy I&s;aac, Pray for us.</HI></P>
<P>But to blunt the edge of this Argument that they them&s;elves have put into our hands again&s;t it, they tell us, 'twas not for any intrin&s;ick Evil in the thing, but for &s;ome particular rea&s;ons relating to the times of the Old Te&s;tament, and the fir&s;t Ages of the New, that it was not mentioned and enjoyned in Scripture; but if the Rea&s;ons produced by them do hold with equal force again&s;t it promi&s;cuou&s;ly in all Ages, as well as again&s;t it, then certainly the main rea&s;on why it's no-where pre&s;cribed in Scripture, is, that it might at no time be put in practice. The Rea&s;ons they give are chiefly two.</P>
<P>For the Old Te&s;tament, they &s;ay it's not there en|joyned, becau&s;e the Patriarchs and Saints departed, du|ring that di&s;pen&s;ation, were not admitted into the Bea|tifick Vi&s;ion, and &s;o could not ordinarily under&s;tand the Prayers of the Living; but, if for ought we know, <HI>Abraham, I&s;aac,</HI> and <HI>Jacob,</HI> are &s;till in the &s;ame Limbo, or place of Re&s;t they went to at fir&s;t, or if our Saviour at his a&s;cen&s;ion into Heaven did give them a happy de|liverance, and took them up with him into the imme|diate
<PB N="20" REF="14">pre&s;ence of God, it's not certain, that they under|&s;tand the de&s;ires of the Living any more than they did before, then there is as much rea&s;on not to Invocate them now, as there was not to do it then. Many of the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> will not have the Saints in Heaven come to know the de&s;ires of their Living Votaries by the be|nefit of the Beatifick Vi&s;ion which they enjoy, but by particular Revelation from God; and if &s;o, then the Old Te&s;tament-Worthies were as capable of it, and con&s;e|quently there was as much rea&s;on to Pray unto them before our Saviour's coming, when they were but in Paradi&s;e, as afterwards when by his glorious Victory and Triumph over Death they were exalted into Hea|ven, &s;ince God could have revealed the reque&s;ts of their Supplicants alike to them in all places, in one as well as another: be&s;ides, con&s;idering the great e&s;teem and ve|neration the <HI>Jews</HI> ever had for tho&s;e great Men, the Founders of their Nation, <HI>Abraham, I&s;aac, Jacob, Mo&s;es, Jo&s;hua,</HI> and others, had there been no evil in the thing, no rea&s;on can be given why it was not preached to the <HI>Jews</HI> by our Saviour and his Apo&s;tles, as the mo&s;t like|ly Argument to win them to embrace the Chri&s;tian Religion.</P>
<P>For the New Te&s;tament, they &s;ay, 'tis not there en|joyned, becau&s;e it would have been a great offence and &s;candal to the new-converted Gentiles, and have given them an occa&s;ion to think, that they had only changed their Gods, but not their Religion; that the Chri&s;tian Doctrine was only a device of the Apo&s;tles to thru&s;t out their old <HI>Daemons</HI> and <HI>Heroes,</HI> and to put in them&s;elves; that as tho&s;e had hitherto been Wor&s;hipt for the great &s;ervices and benefactions they did in this pre&s;ent World, &s;o they for the future might have the &s;ame Honour done them for the full di&s;coveries they had made, and excellent directions they had given, relating to a future and more happy State.</P>
<PB N="21" REF="14">
<P>And is not this a good Argument, and does it not hold &s;till again&s;t <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Invocation? Is it not of as much force now to ca&s;t it out of the Church, as it was then not to bring it in? Does it not give infinite of|fence to a great part of the Chri&s;tian World, and is it not e&s;teem'd, and that ju&s;tly, by them to be the old Pagan-Wor&s;hip revived, or &s;omething very near it? For it is not enough to excu&s;e them from it, that the object of their Invocation is not the &s;ame, that they do not with them pay this Wor&s;hip to the Heathen Deities, (who, though in &s;ome re&s;pects they had been Patrons and Benefactors to their Country, were yet in others very lewd and unworthy per&s;ons) but to the Apo&s;tles of Chri&s;t and Chri&s;tian Martyrs, (who in all re&s;pects were highly de&s;erving of the World) whil&s;t they a|gree in the &s;ame act and kind of Wor&s;hip, and give that Honour to the Creature, which properly and peculiarly belongs to God; and herein e&s;pecially did the Pagan Wor&s;hip and Super&s;tition con&s;i&s;t.</P>
<P N="2">2. We &s;hall now examine the chief of tho&s;e Texts the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> produce in the behalf of this Doctrine, and let you &s;ee how little they &s;erve to that purpo&s;e.</P>
<P>The fir&s;t is, <HI>Luke</HI> 15.7, 10. <HI>There &s;hall be joy in Heaven:</HI> and again, <HI>There &s;hall be joy before the Angels of God, over one Sinner that repenteth.</HI> From whence they argue, that if Angels and Ble&s;&s;ed Spirits rejoyce at the Conver&s;ion of a Sinner, they mu&s;t know and under|&s;tand this change that's wrought in them, before they can rejoyce at it; and if the knowledge of their repen|tance reaches them, why not al&s;o of their Prayers? And then if they can hear their Prayers, why may they not be prayed unto? To this it's an&s;wered,</P>
<P>That this rejoycing in Heaven is not for the Con|ver&s;ion of a particular Sinner, but in general for the Redemption of Mankind by Je&s;us Chri&s;t; and this
<PB N="22" REF="15">appears more than probable from the parable of the lo&s;t Sheep immediately going before, whereof the&s;e words are the conclu&s;ion; the Ninety nine Sheep not lo&s;t, are the Angels per&s;evering in their fir&s;t State of Innocency; the Sheep that went a&s;tray, <HI>Adam,</HI> and in him all his Po&s;terity that fell from God; the Shepherd that went to &s;eek the lo&s;t Sheep, God him&s;elf, who &s;ent his Son into the World to &s;eek and to &s;ave that which is lo&s;t, on who&s;e &s;houlders the great Work of Mans Redemption was laid; and for this we are &s;ure there was joy in Heaven, when a Ble&s;&s;ed Chore of An|gels &s;ung that Heavenly Anthem at Chri&s;t's Nativity, <HI>Glory be to God on high, and on Earth Peace, good will towards Men.</HI> But</P>
<P>Suppo&s;ing this rejoycing is to be under&s;tood for the Repentance of individual Sinners, it may be ob&s;erved, that this joy is not &s;aid to be the joy of Angels, but <HI>before the Angels;</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">.</NOTE> intimating that this rejoycing is not to be attributed to the Angels, but to God in who&s;e pre&s;ence they &s;tand, and this Expo&s;ition is countenanced by con&s;idering that it's God that an&s;wers to the Shep|herd in the Parable; as he went to &s;eek his &s;traied Sheep, and rejoyced at the finding of it, &s;o it's God that by his Grace and Mercy in Chri&s;t, recovered Man, and rejoyced at the accompli&s;hment of his own Work. A|gain,</P>
<P>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 &s;ome excellent pri|viledge and perfection of their Nature, whereby al&s;o they are enabled to under&s;tand even tho&s;e Mental Pray|ers, that we are told ought to be put up to them; but pa&s;&s;ing always betwixt Heaven and Earth, (as was re|pre&s;ented unto <HI>Jacob</HI> in his Divine Vi&s;ion on God's Er|rands and Emba&s;&s;ies) tho&s;e that a&s;cend from Earth may
<PB N="23" REF="15">tell the joyful News of converted Sinners to them in Heaven; but they that tell them this, cannot al&s;o ac|quaint them with the inward &s;ecret de&s;ires and cogitati|ons of mens hearts, being in a capacity, by ob&s;erving in men the &s;igns and fruits of true Repentance, to know the one, but having no way by their own natural pow|er to under&s;tand the other.</P>
<P>The &s;econd place is, <HI>Matt.</HI> 22.30. where our Sa|viour &s;ays, <HI>That the just at the Re&s;urrection &s;hall be as the Angels in Heaven:</HI> From whence they infer, that if our Prayers and Concerns are known to the Angels, and they on that account may be Invocated; why &s;hould they not be known al&s;o to the Saints departed, who are as they, enjoying the &s;ame bli&s;sful Vi&s;ion of God? To this may be returned,</P>
<P>That we are no more &s;ure of the knowledge of Angels in this particular, than we are of that of Saints, and therefore the one ought to be proved before the other be granted. The Angels in Heaven &s;ee indeed <HI>the Face of Christ's Father which is in Heaven;</HI> but the meaning of that is not, that by enjoying the &s;ight of God's Face, they therein &s;ee and hear all things tran&s;acted here on Earth, but that they are God's Mini&s;ters always attend|ing round about his Throne, and waiting before him to receive his Commands, and to execute his Plea&s;ure.</P>
<P>But was this Knowledge the Priviledge of the An|gelical Nature, the equality which ju&s;t Men in the Text are &s;aid to have to the Angels, is not meant an e|quality of Knowledge or Perfection of Nature, but a &s;imilitude of State and Priviledges; and this appears from the Context: <HI>In the Re&s;urrection they neither mar|ry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the Angels of God.</HI> The ju&s;t &s;hall not be equal to the Angels in every re&s;pect, for as they differ in Nature and Kind, &s;o they &s;hall have di&s;tinct natural qualities and operations, but in re&s;pect
<PB N="24" REF="16">of Bli&s;s and Happine&s;s, they as the Angels in that Spi|ritualized State, &s;hall not need Matrimony for the pro|pagation of their Kind, nor Food for the pre&s;ervation of their incorruptible Bodies; they &s;hall be free from all the nece&s;&s;ities that attend temporal humane Life, and all the affections that ari&s;e from the Body and &s;en&s;itive part of Man; they as Angels &s;hall be the Children of God, being Children of the Re&s;urrection, Partakers of the Bli&s;s, and immoveably po&s;&s;e&s;t of all the Priviledges of the Sons of God. Yet</P>
<P>Was this equality to the Angels, to be meant of an equality in Nature and Knowledge, yet the Saints de|parted are not to enjoy it until the Re&s;urrection; and &s;o, though the Angels on that account might be Invocated, yet the Saints departed, who are not till the Re&s;urrecti|on to have this excellent priviledge conferred on them, are not till then to have this Homage and Wor&s;hip paid to them: <HI>At the Re&s;urrection they &s;hall be as the Angels of God;</HI> whether they are before that admitted into the Beatifical Vi&s;ion, we need not now di&s;pute, &s;ince, if they are, this Angelical Priviledge of &s;eeing all things in the Face of God, is re&s;erved for the Saints, as a farther addition of Bli&s;s till that day.</P>
<P>Again, they produce <HI>Revel.</HI> 5.8. where it's &s;aid, <HI>That the four Bea&s;ts, and twenty four Elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them Harps, and Golden Vials full of Odours, which are the Prayers of Saints.</HI> By <HI>the Prayers of Saints,</HI> they mean, of tho&s;e Saints that are living upon the Earth; and by <HI>the four Bea&s;ts, and twenty four Elders,</HI> the Saints that are in Heaven; and from thence draw their Argument, that Saints in Heaven do offer up the Prayers of Holy Men living upon the Earth.</P>
<P>But now if they are mi&s;taken in the &s;ence of this Text, and by <HI>the four Bea&s;ts, and twenty four Elders,</HI>
<PB N="25" REF="16">are not meant the Members of the Church Triumphant, but the Bi&s;hops and Elders of the Church Militant, who&s;e Office it is to pre&s;ent the Prayers and Prai&s;es of the Church to God; then this Text cannot afford them the lea&s;t &s;hew of rea&s;on for their Invocation. Dr. <HI>Hamond</HI> and many other Learned Expo&s;itors, are of Opinion, that either, this whole Text is nothing but a repre&s;entation of the Church below offering up Prayers by their Pa&s;tors, who are the Mouths of the Congregation, to God through the Lamb; (and it's &s;aid Ver&s;e 10. <HI>That they &s;hall Reign upon the Earth;</HI>) or el&s;e, a repre&s;entation of the whole Church of Chri&s;t both in Heaven and Earth, joyning together in their Doxologies and Prai&s;es to God for the Victories of the Lamb, and the Redemption of the World by his Blood; and for this &s;ence the next Ver&s;e &s;eems to give it, where they are &s;aid to <HI>Sing a new Song, &s;aying, Thou art worthy to take the Book and &mdash; for thou wast Slain, and re|deemed us to God by thy Blood, out of every Kindred, and Tongue, and People, and Nation.</HI></P>
<P>Another place to be explained, which they &s;ome|times mention as on their &s;ide, is, <HI>Revel.</HI> 6.10. where the Souls of the Martyrs under the Altar, are &s;aid to cry, <HI>How long, O Lord, holy and true, do&s;t thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth!</HI> Now &s;ay they, If the Souls of Martyrs Pray for Ven|geance upon their Per&s;ecutors and Murderers; much more may we &s;uppo&s;e them to Pray for Mercy and De|liverances for their Fellow-Members and Sufferers. To this may be replied,</P>
<P>That the&s;e words cannot &s;ignify a formal Prayer of the Martyrs to God for Revenge on their Per&s;ecutors; they who after their Lord's Example prayed God to for|give their Murderers when they were on Earth, can|not be &s;uppo&s;ed, now they are in a more perfect State,
<PB N="26" REF="17">to pray for Vengeance upon them; but the words are onely an Emblem and Repre&s;entation of the certainty of God's Judgments and Vengeance overtaking them: By <HI>the Souls of them that were &s;lain,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Dr. <HI>Ham.</HI></NOTE> <HI>and cry under the Altar,</HI> is meant their Blood, and the Sin of Murthering them, and (as we are wont to &s;ay) Murther is a crying Sin, and as it's &s;aid, that <HI>Abel</HI>'s Blood cryed for Vengeance, &s;o the Sin of &s;hedding their Blood cryed, that is, would certainly awake and provoke the Ju&s;tice of God to take Vengeance on them for it:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>E&s;dras</HI> 2.15.</NOTE> This is well explained by a pa&s;&s;age in the Book of <HI>E&s;dras, Behold the innocent and righteous bloud cryeth unto me, and the &s;ouls of the just complain continually, and therefore, &s;aith the Lord, I will &s;urely avenge them,</HI> &amp;c. But</P>
<P>Let their inference be granted, that the Souls of Mar|tyrs in the future State, do pray for their Fellow-Suffer|ers that are left behind; it does not follow that their Fellow-Sufferers pray to them, or that they offer up their Prayers made to them unto God.</P>
<P>La&s;tly, They cite <HI>Gen.</HI> 48.16. when <HI>Jacob,</HI> ble&s;&s;ing the two Sons of <HI>Jo&s;eph,</HI> thus Prays: <HI>The Angel that redeemed me from all evil, ble&s;s the Lads.</HI> This will re|quire no long an&s;wer:</P>
<P>God being plea&s;ed often to make u&s;e of the Mini&s;try of Angels in &s;ending &s;uccour and relief to good Men, <HI>Jacob</HI> prayed, not unto the Angel, but to God, that he would appoint the &s;ame ble&s;&s;ed Angel that Admini&s;tred unto him in all his &s;treights, to be the In&s;trument of his good Providence to tho&s;e two Sons of <HI>Jo&s;eph,</HI> whom he had now made his own, and cau&s;ed them to be cal|led after his name. Or el&s;e,</P>
<P>If the Patriarch mu&s;t be thought here to have pray|ed to the Angel, we mu&s;t &s;uppo&s;e with <HI>Athana&s;ius,</HI> and others of the Fathers, that Angel to be Chri&s;t the Son of God.</P>
<PB N="27" REF="17">
<P>And the &s;ame an&s;wer is to be given to <HI>Revel.</HI> 8.4. where it's &s;aid, <HI>That the &s;moke of the Incen&s;e which came with the Prayers of the Saints, a&s;cended up before God out of the Angels hand;</HI> that is, Chri&s;t's, the Angel of the Covenant, and therefore this Angel that offered up the Prayers of the Saints, is called, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 3. <HI>Another Angel;</HI> intimating, that it was a &s;pecial Angel, one different both in Nature and Office, from the other &s;even men|tioned <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 2. and de&s;cribed there as Mini&s;tring Spi|rits; <HI>And I &s;aw the &s;even Angels which &s;tood before God,</HI> &amp;c. <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 2. and then <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 3. <HI>And another Angel came</HI>&mdash; &amp;c.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="part">
<HEAD>IV. That there is no proof for it from the Fathers of the three fir&s;t hundred years, and more.</HEAD>
<P>THE <HI>Trent</HI> Fathers and the Catechi&s;m put out by their Authority,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Concil. Tri|dent. &s;e&s;s.</HI> 25. <HI>Catech. Rom. par.</HI> 3. <HI>c.</HI> 2.</NOTE> having declared Invocation of Saints to be a cu&s;tom received and continued in the Church ever &s;ince the Apo&s;tles time, the <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Au|thors have not been wanting to turn every Stone, to &s;earch every Author, to produce and &s;train every &s;en|tence and expre&s;&s;ion that looks that way, to the height, in order to the making it good; but how &s;hort their proofs fall of it, will be made evident by the&s;e follow|ing particulars.</P>
<P N="1">1. Tho&s;e that have taken the mo&s;t pains to &s;eek for Te&s;timonies, have not been able to produce any tole|rable one out of the genuine Writings of the Fathers within the fir&s;t three hundred years after Chri&s;t; they cite indeed the Hierarchy of <HI>Diony&s;ius Areopagita, Ori|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">igen</HI>'s Comments on the &s;econd Chapter of <HI>Job,</HI> and the twenty fir&s;t of <HI>Numbers,</HI> the Works of St. <HI>Ephraem,</HI> and <HI>Athana&s;ius</HI>'s of the mo&s;t Holy Mother of God; but
<PB N="28" REF="18">the&s;e have been &s;ufficiently proved by many of our Learned Men,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Mon&s;. Dal. Coc. Cen&s;ur. Patr. in D. Areop. Rivet in Crit. Sac. Bell. de. Scrip. Eccl.</NOTE> and acknowledged by &s;ome of no ob&s;cure Fame among&s;t them, to be &s;purious, and fal&s;ly father'd on them; and then for their Proofs out of <HI>Irenaeus, Eu|&s;ebius,</HI> and St. <HI>Ambro&s;e,</HI> it's ea&s;ie to &s;hew that the fir&s;t is gro&s;ly mi&s;under&s;tood, the &s;econd corrupted, and the third retracted by that Father.</P>
<P><HI>Irenaeus</HI> indeed is an Ancient Father, and of &s;ufficient Authority, but his words are little to their purpo&s;e; they are the&s;e:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Irenaeus adver. Har. l.</HI> 15. <HI>c.</HI> 10.</NOTE> <HI>Sicut Eva &s;educta est ut effugeret deum, &s;ic Maria &s;ua&s;a est obedire Deo, ut Virginis Evae Virgo Maria fieret Advocata:</HI> Wherein the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin <HI>Mary</HI> is termed the Advocate of <HI>Eve.</HI> Now to make this a pat proof for their Invocation, they mu&s;t put this &s;ence upon it, that the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin, being a Glo|rified Saint in Heaven, did at the reque&s;t and de&s;ires of <HI>Eve,</HI> living upon Earth, repre&s;ent her ca&s;e to God, and interceed with him on her behalf; but how could <HI>Eve</HI> alive reque&s;t this of the Virgin <HI>Mary,</HI> when <HI>Eve</HI> died above three thou&s;and years before <HI>Mary</HI> was born? Or how could <HI>Irenaeus</HI> think the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin in a capacity to do this,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Iren. l.</HI> 5. <HI>c.</HI> 31.</NOTE> who&s;e Opinion it was, with the generality of the Fathers in that Age, that her Soul, as all others of departed Saints, were yet in an invi|&s;ible place, and not admitted to the Beatifick Vi&s;ion? Or how could <HI>Eve</HI> &s;tand in need of her Advocate&s;hip who,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Aquin. Du|rand.</NOTE> if it be true, as the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> hold, that our Sa|viour at his Re&s;urrection freed the Saints of the Old Te&s;tament from their <HI>Limbus,</HI> and carried them up with him into Heaven, and the Pre&s;ence of God, was a Glorified Saint in Heaven whil&s;t &s;he was living upon the Earth, and &s;o was in a better State to be an Ad|vocate for the Virgin <HI>Mary,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Bell. de Sanct. beat. l.</HI> 1. <HI>c.</HI> 19.</NOTE> than the Virgin <HI>Mary</HI> for her? Thus you &s;ee, as clear a Proof as <HI>Bellarmin</HI> think this to be, nothing can be more ridiculou&s;ly and im|pertinently
<PB N="29" REF="18">quoted; &s;ome other meaning then of the words mu&s;t be found out, and the mo&s;t obvious and natural is this, that the Virgin <HI>Mary</HI> is here by a Figure put for Chri&s;t her Son, according to the Fle&s;h, and &s;aid to do that, as &s;he was the happy Mother of a Son who did it; and thus indeed &s;he is Advocate for <HI>Eve,</HI> and all <HI>Eve</HI>'s Po&s;terity, in&s;trumentally, not by her &s;elf per&s;onally, but by her Son, &s;he being that Ve&s;&s;el made choice of by the Holy Gho&s;t, to bear him in her Womb, who by taking Fle&s;h of her, became the Savi|our of <HI>Eve</HI> and all Mankind.</P>
<P>For the Te&s;timony of <HI>Eu&s;ebius,</HI> it,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Bellar. de Sanct. beat. l.</HI> 1. <HI>c.</HI> 19.</NOTE> as <HI>Bellarmine</HI> re|ports it, runs thus: <HI>We Honour tho&s;e heavenly Souldiers as God's Friends, we approach unto their Monuments, and Pray unto them as unto Holy Men, by who&s;e interce&s;&s;ion we profe&s;s to receive much help and a&s;&s;i&s;tance;</HI> but it's appa|rent, as many learned men have &s;hewn, that <HI>Bellarmine</HI> took this Allegation, not out of <HI>Eu&s;ebius</HI>'s Original, but a corrupt Tran&s;lation made by <HI>Trapezuntius,</HI> and after|wards followed by <HI>Dadraeus</HI> a Doctor of <HI>Paris,</HI> who &s;et forth <HI>Eu&s;ebius;</HI> there being no &s;uch words, <HI>as Praying to them as unto Holy Men,</HI> to be found in him, &s;peaking his own Language; his words are the&s;e:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Evang. prap. l.</HI> 13. <HI>c.</HI> 7.</NOTE> <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, &amp;c. <HI>It is our cu&s;tom to come to their Tombs and Monuments, and to make our Prayers, not</HI> <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, to them, to tho&s;e Martyrs, as the Tran&s;lator and <HI>Bellarmine</HI> would have it, but <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, <HI>i. e.</HI> <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, <HI>at or before their Tombs and Monuments, and to Honour tho&s;e Ble&s;&s;ed Souls.</HI></P>
<P>I might now pa&s;s over St. <HI>Ambro&s;e,</HI> he living beyond the time I undertook to an&s;wer for, <HI>Anno</HI> 374, but what&s;oever he &s;aid of this nature, was &s;aid when he was but a young Chri&s;tian, and recalled and contra|dicted by him afterwards;
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Speculatores vitae actuum&abque; no&s;trorum.</NOTE> in his Book of Widows he exhorts them <HI>to Pray to the Angels and Martyrs, whom
<PB N="30" REF="19">he calls beholders of our Lives and Actions;</HI> but <HI>Baronius</HI> him&s;elf confe&s;&s;es, (as Bi&s;hop <HI>Andrews</HI> proves it out of his Life of St. <HI>Ambro&s;e</HI>) that this Book was written pre|&s;ently after his Conver&s;ion, when he was but a raw Divine, and had not throughly learned the Chri&s;tian Doctrine; and this appears by &s;ome other mi&s;takes he was guilty of, be&s;ides this, that are of as dangerous a nature; when in the &s;ame Book he a&s;&s;erts, <HI>That the Martyrs either had no Sin at all,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Proprio San|guine.</NOTE> <HI>or what they had, they did them&s;elves wa&s;h away with their own Bloud.</HI> But that St. <HI>Ambro&s;e</HI> changed his opinion concerning this point of Invocation, we are as &s;ure as that once he held it, &s;ince we find him afterwards plainly a&s;&s;erting the con|trary Doctrine,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Amb. in Rom. c.</HI> 1. <HI>tom.</HI> 5. <HI>Tu ta|men, Domine, &s;olus es invo|candus. De obi|tu Theod. tom.</HI> 3.</NOTE> in &s;uch words as the&s;e: <HI>That to procure God's favour, we need no Advocate but a devout Mind:</HI> and again, &s;peaking with relation to the two young Sons of <HI>Theodo&s;ius, Thou only, Oh Lord, art to be Invo|cated, and Prayed unto,</HI> namely, for a Ble&s;&s;ing and Pro|tection upon them.</P>
<P N="2">2. They make the Rhetorical Flouri&s;hes and Apo|&s;trophes of the Fathers in their Panegyricks of the Martyrs, to be &s;olemn Forms of Invocation of them. The Fathers, about the latter end of the Fourth Cen|tury, ob&s;erving Piety and Devotion to decay and wax cold, as the Church increa&s;ed in Riches and Pro&s;perity, thought them&s;elves obliged, by all the Wit and Art and Rhetorick they had, to retrieve, if it was po&s;&s;ible, the pri&s;tine heat of Devotion that was formerly in it; to that purpo&s;e they &s;pake high and large in commenda|tion of their Martyrs, and &s;ometimes in their Orati|ons directed their words to them, as though they had been there pre&s;ent, not with an intent to teach the People to pray unto them, or to rely upon their merits, but to &s;ignifie the mighty favour they were in with God, and the more effectually to excite them to an
<PB N="31" REF="19">imitation of their Virtues. Many &s;uch &s;trains of Rhe|torick occur in the Writings of St. <HI>Hierom,</HI> St. <HI>Ba&s;il,</HI> St. <HI>Gregory Ny&s;&s;en,</HI> St. <HI>Gregory Nazianzen,</HI> and others. So St. <HI>Gregory Ny&s;&s;en</HI> &s;peaks to <HI>Theodore</HI> the Martyr in his Oration,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Orat. in Sanct. Theod.</NOTE> <HI>Gather together the Troops of thy Brother Martyrs, and thou with them be&s;eech God to &s;tay the Inva|&s;ion of the Barbarians.</HI></P>
<P>So St.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Orat. in Athan.</NOTE> <HI>Gregory Nazianzen</HI> in his Oration calls unto St. <HI>Cyprian,</HI> St. <HI>Ba&s;il,</HI> St. <HI>Athana&s;ius,</HI> to each after this manner: <HI>Do thou favourably look upon us from on high.</HI></P>
<P>After the &s;ame manner does St. <HI>Hierom</HI> conclude his Funeral Oration on <HI>Paula, Farewel, oh</HI> Paula, <HI>and help the old Age of thy Honourer with thy Prayers.</HI> Now what is there in all this but what's u&s;ual in all Authors both Sacred and Profane? The de&s;ign of the Fathers were to rai&s;e the People to as high an Opinion as they could, both of the Per&s;ons of the Martyrs and their Virtues that made them &s;o illu&s;trious; and might they not make u&s;e of their be&s;t Art and Rhetorick to do it? What is more in this than tho&s;e Apo&s;trophes frequent|ly found in the Sacred Writings even to in&s;en&s;ate Crea|tures? <HI>Hear ye, oh Mountains, the Lord's controver&s;ie! Prai&s;e the Lord ye Dragons and all Deeps!</HI> And who will infer from hence, that the in&s;en&s;ate Creatures were hereby in|vok't and addre&s;t unto.</P>
<P N="3">3. A great part of the Te&s;timonies they produce out of the Fathers, are to prove the Interce&s;&s;ion of Saints in Heaven for us, and not our Invocating of them; and &s;o they change the Que&s;tion, and are at a great deal of pains to prove that which no body denies; &s;uch &s;ayings as a&s;&s;ert the <HI>Saints Praying for us,</HI> are frequent among the ancient Fathers, and that not onely for the Church Militant in general, but in particular for tho&s;e who&s;e per&s;ons and conditions were well known to them on Earth, and the&s;e are cunningly
<PB N="32" REF="20">&s;hufled in by the <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Doctors as proofs <HI>for Invoca|tion of them,</HI> with a de&s;ign to impo&s;e on the unwary Vulgar, who are &s;uppo&s;ed not to take notice of the difference (but it's a wonder if they &s;hould not, for it's wide enough) <HI>betwixt their Praying for us, and our Praying to them.</HI> Neither is this the only in&s;tance wherein tho&s;e cunning Sophi&s;ters play this game, Fir&s;t alter the Nature of the Que&s;tion, and then where they have no Adver&s;ary, to Triumph in demon&s;trating the Truth of it:</P>
<P>If the Que&s;tion be, whether the Bi&s;hop of <HI>Rome</HI> be the Supreme Head of the Church, and has an ab&s;olute Juri&s;diction and Monarchy over all other Bi&s;hops and Churches?
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Bellar. de Rom. Pont. l.</HI> 2. <HI>c.</HI> 15, 16.</NOTE> they &s;hall bring you a number of Te&s;timo|nies out of both Greek and Latine Fathers, to prove St. <HI>Peter</HI> had a Primacy of Honour and Authority.</P>
<P>If the Que&s;tion be whether the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament be Sub&s;tantially turned into the Body and Blood of Chri&s;t;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Bellar. de Eu|char. l</HI> 2.</NOTE> they &s;hall write a whole Volume to prove the Truth and Reality of Chri&s;t's Pre&s;ence in it, which we own as well as they, but after a Spiritual manner, not Corporally and by the way of Tran&s;ub|&s;tantiation.</P>
<P>If the Que&s;tion be about Purgatory, a place pre|pared for the Purification of tho&s;e Souls that depart hence not quite clean&s;ed;
<NOTE PLACE="marg">St. Ambr. Hil. Orig. Hierom, &amp;c.</NOTE> they &s;hall alledge you Fa|thers, and tho&s;e not a few, of unque&s;tionable Name, to prove the utter Con&s;umption of all things by Fire at the end of the World.</P>
<P>So here, when the Que&s;tion is whether we ought to Pray to Saints departed; they bring innumerable Fathers to prove that the Saints departed do Pray for us;
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Epi&s;t. ad Tral.</NOTE> hence we hear of that of St <HI>Ignatius, My Spirit Salutes you, not only now, but will al&s;o, when I enjoy God:</HI> and of St. <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tom</HI> in his Oration to tho&s;e that were to
<PB N="33" REF="20">be Baptized, <HI>Remember me when that Kingdom receives you.</HI></P>
<P N="4">4. They produce the Sayings and Practices of &s;ome few in the Church for the general and allowed Doctrine and Practice of the whole Church. If the Story &s;hould be true that <HI>Ju&s;tina,</HI> a Chri&s;tian Virgin, did in great di&s;tre&s;s, joyntly Supplicate the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin with God and Chri&s;t, does it follow, that it was the practice of all to do &s;o? It cannot be denied but that many of the Fathers let &s;lip, in the heat of their Affection and Oration, many unwary &s;peeches to this purpo&s;e, and that many, otherwi&s;e good Men, were guilty of this ex|ce&s;s of Devotion to the Martyrs; the many Miracles God was plea&s;ed to work at the Memorials of the Mar|tyrs for the Honour and Confirmation of the Faith, rea&s;onably begat a cu&s;tom among&s;t Chri&s;tians to re&s;ort to tho&s;e places, and there to offer their Prayers to God; and thinking, it may be, they could not ea&s;ily honour tho&s;e too much whom God was plea&s;ed after &s;o wonderful a manner to declare his e&s;teem of, from Pray|ing to God at their Tombs, they began to pray to them them&s;elves. But now</P>
<P>We are to di&s;tingui&s;h betwixt the Speeches of &s;ome particular Fathers, and the general Doctrine of the Church; betwixt what they expre&s;s in Rhetorical &s;trains to move Affection, and what they lay down in plain terms to inform the judgment; betwixt what comes from them in the heat of their Di&s;cour&s;es and po|pular Orations, and what in cool and deliberate debates they &s;et down for the truth of Chri&s;t; it's generally con|fe&s;t, that the Fathers oft-times hyperbolize, particularly St. <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tom,</HI> and we mu&s;t not take their flights of Fan|cy, for the Doctrine of the Church.</P>
<P>We are to di&s;tingui&s;h al&s;o betwixt what the Church did teach and allow, and what &s;he onely tolerated and was forced to bear with; the Bi&s;hops and Governours
<PB N="34" REF="21">of the Church being many times engaged in weightier matters, in defending the Chri&s;tian cau&s;e again&s;t Hea|thens and Hereticks, were not always at lei&s;ure to re|form Abu&s;es and irregular Practices, but were forced too often to connive at tho&s;e Faults which they had not time and opportunity to Redre&s;s;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>St. Au&s;t. de morib. Eccle&s;. c.</HI> 31. <HI>tom.</HI> 1.</NOTE> St. <HI>Au&s;tin</HI> complains much of this piece of Super&s;tition in his days, that it had got &s;uch an head, that the good Father wanted power to give a check to it:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Epi&s;.</HI> 119. <HI>ad Jan. approbare non po&s;&s;um, li|berius improba|re non audeo.</HI></NOTE> <HI>I can no way allow them,</HI> &s;ays he, <HI>and yet I dare not freely reprove them, le&s;t I either offend &s;ome good Men, or provoke &s;ome turbulent Spi|rits.</HI></P>
<P N="5">5. They cite the practice of the Ancients praying to God, that for the Interce&s;&s;ion of tho&s;e Holy Men that had died in the Lord, he would grant them their re|que&s;ts, as a good proof for direct praying to them. The Ancients generally believing that the Saints and Martyrs in the future State did continually pray to God in behalf of the Church Militant on Earth, and &s;ome, that their Souls were pre&s;ent at their Shrines and Tombs, and did joyn their Interce&s;&s;ions with tho&s;e Prayers of the Chri&s;tians that were there offered up to God, were wont in their Addre&s;&s;es to mention the Mar|tyrs, and to beg the effects of their Interce&s;&s;ions, that God would be moved by their Supplications as well as their own, to grant a &s;upply of their wants and nece&s;&s;i|ties; but this is no more praying to them, than <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> may be &s;aid to pray to <HI>Abraham, I&s;aac,</HI> and <HI>Jacob,</HI> when he be&s;ought God to remember them in behalf of the People of <HI>I&s;rael;</HI> than we may be &s;aid to pray for help to that part of the Church of Chri&s;t that is at a great di&s;tance from us, when we de&s;ire God to hear the Prayers of his Church Catholick di&s;per&s;t through|out the whole World in the behalf of all Chri&s;tian People, that in all places call upon him. Thus it's &s;aid
<PB N="35" REF="21">by the Hi&s;torian that the Emperor <HI>Theodo&s;ius,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ruffin. Hi&s;t. l.</HI> 2. <HI>c.</HI> 33.</NOTE> when <HI>Eugenius</HI> and his Complices rai&s;ed that dangerous Re|bellion again&s;t him, <HI>repaired with his Clergie and Laity to the Oratories and Chappels,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Sanctorum in|terce&s;&s;ione.</NOTE> <HI>and there lying Pro&s;trate before the Tombs and Monuments of the Apo&s;tles and Mar|tyrs begged aid and &s;uccour by interce&s;&s;ion of the Saints.</HI> He did not Pray to any Saint or Saints, he did not beg help of them, but &s;uppo&s;ing they Prayed with him and for him, he Prayed unto God, that he would &s;end him help for the &s;ake of their Interce&s;&s;ions in his behalf. This is al&s;o the meaning of tho&s;e expre&s;&s;ions in St. <HI>Au|&s;tin,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Aug. de Cur. pro mort. c.</HI> 4.</NOTE> that <HI>They ought to commend them&s;elves to the Pray|ers of the Martyrs, and frequent their Tombs with a Reli|gious Solemnity, that they may become partakers of their Merits, and be helpt by their Prayers;</HI> that is, not by Praying to them, but (holding, as was then commonly believed, that when Chri&s;tians came to their Tombs, the ble&s;&s;ed Martyrs joyned their Supplications with them) by Praying to God to afford them the benefit of their Prayers, and that their Petitions might &s;ucceed the better for the &s;ake of their Reque&s;ts put up in conjun|ction with their own. The &s;ame account may be given of St. <HI>Ba&s;il</HI>'s words in his Oration on the forty Martyrs, <HI>He that is in di&s;tre&s;s flies to them,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ba&s;il. Hom.</HI> 20. <HI>in</HI> 40. <HI>Mart.</HI></NOTE> <HI>and he that is in pro|&s;perity runs to them; the one that he may have his condi|tion changed, the other that he may have his continued; but now to fly and to run unto them,</HI> &s;ignifies no more than to fly and run to the Churches and Tombs where they lie interr'd; for &s;o it follows, here <HI>a Woman pray|ing for her Son is heard; and here let us, together with tho&s;e Martyrs, pour forth our Prayers:</HI> Suppo&s;ing, it's likely, as was mentioned before, that the Martyrs Souls were continually about their Tombs, and prayed for all that came thither to pray for them&s;elves, the Father exhorts Chri&s;tians to go thither, <HI>not to pray to
<PB N="36" REF="22">them,</HI> but to joyn with them in Praying unto God.</P>
<P N="6">6. They tell us of many Miracles wrought by God upon Addre&s;&s;es made to Saints, and in this they triumph as an undeniable Proof that God approves of &s;uch Ad|dre&s;&s;es; <HI>God heareth not Sinners,</HI> neither <HI>will he give his Glory to another,</HI> and therefore were Prayers made to Saints a &s;in of that &s;acrilegious nature, as to rob God of his Honour, it's not to be thought that he'd give &s;uch countenance to them again&s;t him&s;elf, as to crown them with &s;ucce&s;s.</P>
<P>To this it may be an&s;wered, It's certain, that at fir&s;t God was plea&s;ed, upon the Prayers of Chri&s;tians put up to <HI>him&s;elf,</HI> to work many Miracles for the Confirma|tion of the Faith; but that any were wrought in an|&s;wer to &s;uch Prayers that at tho&s;e places were in after-Ages made <HI>to the Martyrs,</HI> is very uncertain, and much to be &s;u&s;pected:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Augu&s;t. de Ci|vit. Dei. l.</HI> 22. <HI>c.</HI> 8.</NOTE> St. <HI>Au&s;tin</HI> names but two in&s;tances of this kind that I have met withal, and at the &s;ame time he mentions them, bla&s;ts their credit, by telling us he had no undoubted Authority for the truth of them: St. <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tom</HI> not only declares, that Miracles in his time were cea&s;ed, but hath wrote a Di&s;cour&s;e on pur|po&s;e to give us the rea&s;ons why they are &s;o; &s;o that all the Miracles the Church of <HI>Rome</HI> pretends to on this account, are either Delu&s;ions of Satan, which God &s;ometimes permits him to work for the Tryal of his People, or el&s;e Cheats and Impo&s;tures performed by Cunning Men of their own, to wheedle and impo&s;e on the ea&s;ie and credulous Vulgar.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="part">
<PB N="37" REF="22">
<HEAD>V. That there is full and evident Proof in Scripture again&s;t it.</HEAD>
<P>IF that general Rule of St. <HI>Au&s;tin</HI>'s be allowed of,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Aug. de con&s;en. Evang. l.</HI> 1. <HI>c.</HI> 18.</NOTE> that <HI>God is &s;o to be Wor&s;hipt,</HI> that is, as to all the E&s;&s;ential parts of it, <HI>as he him&s;elf has commanded to be Wor&s;hipt,</HI> then all tho&s;e places of Scripture that com|mand us to direct our Prayers only to God, and only in the Name and Mediation of Je&s;us Chri&s;t, do with equal force forbid us to direct our Prayers to any o|ther Object, or to u&s;e any other Name and Mediation. Now Texts to this purpo&s;e are innumerable.</P>
<P><HI>Oh thou that heare&s;t Prayers,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>P&s;al.</HI> 65.2.</NOTE> <HI>unto thee &s;hall all Fle&s;h come.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Call upon me in the time of trouble &mdash; and I will deli|ver thee.</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>P&s;al.</HI> 50.15.</NOTE></P>
<P><HI>Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Matt.</HI> 11.28.</NOTE> <HI>and I will give you re&s;t.</HI></P>
<P><HI>What&s;oever ye &s;hall ask the Father in my name,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>John</HI> 16.23.</NOTE> <HI>he will give it you.</HI></P>
<P><HI>In every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thank&s;|giving, let your reque&s;ts be made known unto God.</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Phil.</HI> 4.6.</NOTE></P>
<P><HI>If any of you lack Wi&s;dom, let him ask it of God,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Jam.</HI> 1.5.</NOTE> <HI>who gives to all men liberally,</HI>&mdash;&amp;c.</P>
<P><HI>How &s;hall they call on him in whom they have not be|lieved?</HI> Now if none but God is to be believed in,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Rom.</HI> 10.14.</NOTE> none but God is to be called upon.</P>
<P>The&s;e are very plain and convincing, and no others need to be produced; but becau&s;e the <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Authors have been practi&s;ing upon &s;ome others, endeavouring to ob&s;cure and weaken their evidence, which are yet no le&s;s clear and full; I &s;hall bring them forth al&s;o, and not only wipe off the du&s;t that has been ca&s;t upon
<PB N="38" REF="23">them, but re&s;tore them to their own natural Sen&s;e and Per&s;picuity.</P>
<P>They are chiefly the&s;e Four.</P>
<P>The fir&s;t is, <HI>Luke</HI> 11.2. <HI>When ye pray, &s;ay, Our Father, which art in Heaven,</HI> &mdash; &amp;c. <HI>for thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory for ever and ever.</HI> Now the meaning of this Precept mu&s;t be one or both the&s;e two things, either that we &s;hould u&s;e this form of words when we pray, or that we &s;hould compo&s;e all our Prayers after this pattern; take which we will, in either &s;en&s;e they oblige us to direct all our Prayers to our <HI>Heavenly Father, who&s;e is the Kingdom, Power, and Glory;</HI> when&s;oever we repeat this Form of Prayer, we addre&s;s to God as the Object, &s;aying, <HI>Our Father;</HI> and if no Prayer is to be made, but after this pattern, then &s;till it follows, that no other ought to be the Object of them, but he who is <HI>Our Heavenly Father.</HI> 'Tis generally concluded on all &s;ides, that in this ab&s;olute and perfect Form of our Lord's Prayer is contained a Summary of whatever ought to be the &s;ubject-matter of a Chri&s;tians Prayer. Now &s;ince every Petition in it is directed immediately to God our Heavenly Father, it follows, that whenever we pray, we are not only to pray for no other things but the&s;e Ble&s;&s;ings, but al&s;o to beg them of no other Being but him.</P>
<P>But to put by the force of the Argument taken from this command of our Lord's,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Spenc. Script. mi&s;taken by Protest. p.</HI> 57.</NOTE> <HI>When ye pray, &s;ay;</HI> or, <HI>after this manner pray ye;</HI> the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> tell us, that it's true, we are to imitate this Prayer of Chri&s;t's in compo&s;ing our own, as to its brevity and compendi|ou&s;ne&s;s, as to the &s;ubject-matter of it, as to the Catho|lickne&s;s of its Spirit, obliging us to pray for others at the &s;ame time when we pray for our &s;elves, &s;aying, <HI>Our</HI> Father; but not as to the <HI>Object</HI> to whom our Prayers are to be addre&s;t: for then by the &s;ame Argu|ment
<PB N="39" REF="23">we may exclude the Second and Third Per&s;ons in the Ble&s;&s;ed Trinity, as well as Angels and Saints; to this it's no hard matter to give an An&s;wer. And</P>
<P N="1">1. It mu&s;t be confe&s;t, that the word Father in this Prayer is to be meant chiefly, though <HI>not &s;olely,</HI> of the fir&s;t Per&s;on in the Sacred Trinity; he being the Root and Fountain of the Deity, and the prime Original of all our happine&s;s, may in &s;pecial be called upon by us, &s;o far as is con&s;i&s;tent with our acknowledgment of the equal Divinity of the other two Per&s;ons; for though the Son and the Holy Gho&s;t partake alike with him of the Divine Nature, and con&s;equently have a right to the &s;ame Adoration, yet fora&s;much as God the Fa|ther is the <HI>First Per&s;on,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>John</HI> 2.29. <HI>John</HI> 6.57. <HI>John</HI> 5.26.</NOTE> and the <HI>Father</HI> who Communi|cates that Divine Nature to them both, fora&s;much as God the Father hath that E&s;&s;ence in him&s;elf, and what he is, is from none, but the Son and Holy Gho&s;t have it by Communication from the Father, and what they are, they are from him, this Title may bear a par|ticular and primary re&s;pect to him. Accordingly we find the Apo&s;tles in a particular manner directing their Prayers to God the Father:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Eph.</HI> 1.3.</NOTE> <HI>Ble&s;&s;ed be the God and Fa|ther of our Lord Je&s;us Christ, who hath ble&s;&s;ed us,&mdash;I cea&s;e not to make mention of you in my Prayers,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ver&s;.</HI> 17.</NOTE> <HI>that the God of our Lord Je&s;us Christ, the Father of Glory, &mdash; for this cau&s;e I bow my Knees to the Father of our Lord Je&s;us, that he would grant you</HI> &mdash; But</P>
<P N="2">2. The word Father in this Prayer is to be taken E&s;|&s;entially, and not Per&s;onally, and &s;o excludes not the other two Per&s;ons of the mo&s;t Holy and Undivided Trinity, but onely tho&s;e that are of a different Nature from them. Now if the whole three Per&s;ons are one in E&s;&s;ence, then whenever we Pray to, and do Honour to God the Father, we mu&s;t at the &s;ame time Wor|&s;hip the other two, though not &s;o directly, who are
<PB N="40" REF="24">one with him.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>John</HI> 10.20.</NOTE> Thus our Saviour &s;peaks: <HI>I and the Father are one.</HI> Yea, the whole three Per&s;ons are &s;o, as St.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">1 <HI>John</HI> 5.7.</NOTE> <HI>John</HI> tells us expre&s;ly, <HI>There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and the&s;e three are one.</HI> We read that 'twas the Will of God,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>John</HI> 5.23.</NOTE> <HI>That all men &s;hould honour the Son as they do the Father,</HI> and that we &s;hould Honour the Holy Gho&s;t as well as either, becau&s;e we are equally Bap|tized into his Name:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Mat.</HI> 28.19.</NOTE> <HI>Go ye therefore and teach all Na|tions, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.</HI> Now if the Son and the Holy Gho&s;t are one in E&s;&s;ence with the Father, and to be Honoured with the &s;ame Honour, then although in this Title, the Father be onely expre&s;ly named and in|vokt, the other two Per&s;ons can't but be implied and comprehended in it.</P>
<P N="3">3. We may con&s;ider that this Doctrine of the Tri|nity, being in a great mea&s;ure a &s;tranger to the Old Te|&s;tament, and the Apo&s;tles, when our Saviour gave them this Prayer, not &s;ufficiently in&s;tructed in it, our Saviour might teach them to call upon God in &s;uch an expre&s;|&s;ion, which, though for the pre&s;ent they might under|&s;tand only of God the Father, yet afterwards when they &s;hould come more fully to under&s;tand and believe the Trinity, might fairly be extended to take in the other two per&s;ons, Son and Holy Gho&s;t.</P>
<P N="4">4. Since it is by virtue of our Spiritual relation to God by Chri&s;t, through the opperation of the Holy Gho&s;t, that in a more &s;pecial and particular manner he is Our Father; whenever we call upon God <HI>as a Father, and Our Father,</HI> it implies that we addre&s;s to him in the Name and Mediation of Chri&s;t, and by the a&s;&s;i&s;tance of the Holy Gho&s;t; the Apo&s;tle tells Believers that they had received <HI>the Spirit of Adoption,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Rom.</HI> 8.15.</NOTE> <HI>whereby they cried</HI> Abba <HI>Father:</HI> St. <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tom</HI>'s Notion on the Text is, That
<PB N="41" REF="24">the <HI>Jews</HI> during the time of the Old Te&s;tament, be|ing under a &s;ervile Di&s;pen&s;ation, did &s;eldom or never pre&s;ume to call upon God by that familiar appellation of a Father; but the Holy Gho&s;t moving Believers, after a miraculous and extraordinary way, in the fir&s;t days of Chri&s;tianity, to invoke God by that name, as our Savi|our had directed his Di&s;ciples before, might well be cal|led <HI>the Spirit of Adoption,</HI> as thereby declaring them to be his Adopted Sons.</P>
<P>Another evident proof are tho&s;e words of the Apo&s;tle, 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 2.5. <HI>There is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Je&s;us.</HI> The natural importance of the words &s;eems to be this, that, as there is but one God only, and no more, to whom we ought to Pray, &s;o there is but one Mediator only, and no more, by whom we have acce&s;s with boldne&s;s to the Throne of Grace; <HI>one Mediatour</HI> Emphatically, in the &s;ame &s;en&s;e as there is <HI>one God,</HI> and you may as well make to your &s;elves more Gods as more Mediators.</P>
<P>But to weaken the &s;trength of this evidence, the <HI>Ro|mani&s;ts</HI> di&s;tingui&s;h betwixt a Mediator of Redemption and a Mediator of Interce&s;&s;ion, and tell us, that the Text is only to be under&s;tood of the former, which in|deed is but one, but not of the latter, which may be more than one, even as many as there are Angels and Saints in Heaven: But how little this Di&s;tinction does &s;erve their turn, may appear by con&s;idering.</P>
<P N="1">1. That there is a va&s;t difference betwixt an In|terce&s;&s;or and a Mediator of Interce&s;&s;ion; that Saints in Heaven, out of that Charity that all the Members of Chri&s;t have for one another, do in general interceed for the good of that Body of which they are a part, was owned and granted before; but this makes them not Mediators of Interce&s;&s;ion, to which Office it be|longs to receive the Prayers of others, and to pre&s;ent
<PB N="42" REF="25">them to God; and in order hereunto, they mu&s;t hear the Prayers of others, and receive information concern|ing their particular States and Conditions, which they are not capable of.</P>
<P N="2">2. That this Text is e&s;pecially to be under&s;tood of that part of Chri&s;t's Mediatory Office that con&s;i&s;ts in interceeding for us; the Apo&s;tle &s;eems to oppo&s;e the&s;e words to the Heathen Form of Praying, which was to many Gods by many <HI>Daemons,</HI> who were reputed Agents or Mediatours between their chief Gods and them; now all that the Heathens attributed to their <HI>Daemons</HI> was Interce&s;&s;ion onely, and the Apo&s;tle &s;hews that Chri&s;t being made a Mediatour, every way ef|fectual for that end, there could be no nece&s;&s;ity of any Mediatours of Interce&s;&s;ion be&s;ides him; &s;o that the A|po&s;tle here replyes two things to the Heathens mul|tiplicity of Mediatorus: 1. That God had appointed but one, the God-man Chri&s;t Je&s;us; therefore he &s;ays, Ver. 7. That he was <HI>ordained a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity;</HI> for e&s;tabli&s;hing the Chri&s;tian Faith and Truth in this particular e&s;pecially, of <HI>one God and one Mediatour,</HI> in contradiction to the plurality of Gods and Mediatours among&s;t the Gentiles. An&s;werable to this, are tho&s;e words of the Apo&s;tle in another place: <HI>Though there be many that are called Gods (as there be Gods many and Lords many) but to us there is but one God the Father,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 8.5.</NOTE> <HI>and one Lord Je&s;us Christ;</HI> here there is a manife&s;t and direct oppo&s;ition betwixt the Heathen way of Praying, and the Chri&s;tian; the Heathens had many Gods and many Lords Mediatours, the Chri&s;ti|ans, but one God and one Lord Mediator; the Heathens had many Soveraign Gods betwixt whom and men they &s;uppo&s;ed there was no immediate intercour&s;e; they had al&s;o many under Gods or <HI>Daemons,</HI> by who&s;e A|gency and Mediatour&s;hip they Addre&s;t them&s;elves to
<PB N="43" REF="25">their Soveraign Gods; this the Apo&s;tle confutes, and &s;hews that Chri&s;tians are taught to believe and profe&s;s but one God, Maker of all things, to whom they ought to pray; and but one Lord, Mediator and Advocate, by whom they offer their Petitions to him. 2. That there needed no other be&s;ides this one, he being a Me|diator of Redemption too, and on that account had not only an Authority and Commi&s;&s;ion from God to &s;hew for that Office, but an infinite worth and invalu|able merits of his own to plead in the behalf of Mankind, and to procure the granting of their reque&s;ts; he hath purcha&s;t what he begs for, and atoned for what he prays for; having no &s;in of his own to an&s;wer for, he was excellently qualified to intercede for Pardon for our Sins; and having perfectly fulfilled all Righteou&s;|ne&s;s, and &s;hed his mo&s;t precious Bloud for us, he high|ly merited of God, both for us and for him&s;elf; for us, the &s;everal Ble&s;&s;ings he intercedes for; for him&s;elf, the Godlike Honour and Royalty to be the Donor and Di&s;pen&s;er of them. Hence it is that the Apo&s;tle here makes his Mediation to depend on his Propitiation, and after he had told us there is but one Mediator, pre|&s;ently &s;ubjoyns, <HI>Who gave him&s;elf a Ran&s;om for all:</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ver.</HI> 6. 1 <HI>John</HI> 2.1, 2.</NOTE> to the &s;ame purpo&s;e is that of St. <HI>John, If any man &s;in, we have an Advocate with the Father,</HI> that is, the &s;ame with a Mediator of Interce&s;&s;ion, and that we might be fully a&s;&s;ured of the greatne&s;s of his Authority and Pow|er, he adds, <HI>Je&s;us Chri&s;t the Righteous, and he is the Pro|pitiation for our Sins.</HI></P>
<P>A third Scripture again&s;t Saint-Invocation are tho&s;e words of our Saviour, <HI>Mat.</HI> 4.10. taken out of <HI>Deut.</HI> 6.13. <HI>Thou &s;halt wor&s;hip the Lord thy God, and him only &s;halt thou &s;erve.</HI> Now if Prayer be a nece&s;&s;ary and chief part of God's Wor&s;hip, as all are agreed it is, we are bound by this Scripture to pray only to God.
<PB N="44" REF="26">But to this they &s;ay, there are &s;everal degrees of Re|ligious Wor&s;hip, and that it is only an inferiour kind wherewith they wor&s;hip the Saints departed, called by them <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, when it's applied to ordinary Saints, and <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, when to the ble&s;&s;ed Virgin; and that they never wor&s;hip them as they do God, with <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, the highe&s;t kind of Wor&s;hip; if it be asked, How does this appear, &s;ince the &s;ame Signs and outward Acts of Wor&s;hip are performed to the one as well as to the o|ther? they an&s;wer, that they have higher conceptions and intentions of Honour to God in the exerci&s;e of their Offices to him, than when they perform the like to any Angel or Saint departed. To this, &s;everal things may be &s;aid,</P>
<P N="1">1. If the&s;e words, <HI>him only &s;halt thou &s;erve,</HI> are to be under&s;tood only of the highe&s;t degree of Religious Wor&s;hip, as a part of the whole, and di&s;tingui&s;ht from a lower kind, they had not been a &s;ufficient an&s;wer to the Devils demand; he might thus have an&s;wered: I acknowledge the Soveraign and Almighty Power of God,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ver.</HI> 3.</NOTE> as well as you, <HI>That it is he alone can command Stones to become Bread;</HI> and this Power I have over the King|doms of the World, I own to have received from him, <HI>for it was delivered to me.</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Luke</HI> 4.6.</NOTE> And therefore I do not de|fire that thou &s;houlde&s;t wor&s;hip me as thou do&s;t God, with <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, with the highe&s;t degree of Wor&s;hip; but only with <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, a lower kind; thy Heart, the highe&s;t and mo&s;t elevated thoughts and conceptions of thy mind, may be given to God, 'tis only the outward Act that I challenge of thee, that thou woulde&s;t only <HI>fall down and wor&s;hip me,</HI> or by falling down wor&s;hip me.</P>
<P N="2">2. That the Scriptures often u&s;e the&s;e two words, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, and <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, promi&s;cuou&s;ly, to &s;ignifie the &s;ame
<PB N="45" REF="26">thing; and as &s;ometimes <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, is &s;et to &s;ignifie that ci|vil Honour and Service that's due to Men in Eminency and Authority; &s;o is <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, to expre&s;s that Religious Wor&s;hip that's only due to God. As to the fir&s;t,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Deut.</HI> 28.48. <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">.</NOTE> God thus threatens the <HI>I&s;raelites,</HI> therefore thou &s;halt <HI>&s;erve</HI> thine Enemies; as to the other, many places may be in&s;tanced in.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">1 <HI>Sam.</HI> 7.3. <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">. <HI>Rom.</HI> 10.11. <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">. <HI>Matt.</HI> 6.24. <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">.</NOTE> Thus when <HI>Samuel</HI> exhorted the Hou&s;e of <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> to prepare their Hearts unto the Lord, <HI>and to &s;erve him only;</HI> and when the Apo&s;tle urged Chri&s;tians to be &s;ervent in Spirit, <HI>&s;erving the Lord,</HI> and when our Saviour &s;aid, ye <HI>cannot &s;erve God and Mammon,</HI> <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, is the word made u&s;e of.</P>
<P N="3">3. That there is no &s;uch di&s;tinction in Religious Wor&s;hip as an higher and lower kind, becau&s;e whatever is Religious Wor&s;hip, is &s;uch, with re&s;pect to God only as the Object; and therefore can be but one, and that in the highe&s;t degree, as God is one, and infinitely ex|alted above all. <HI>Religion,</HI> &s;ay the School-men, <HI>is a Moral Vertue which exhibits due Wor&s;hip to God, as the Principal of all things.</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>L.</HI> 4. <HI>In&s;t. c.</HI> 28. <HI>de ver. Rel. c.</HI> 55.</NOTE> <HI>Lactantius</HI> therefore derives it <HI>&agrave; Religando,</HI> becau&s;e it ties man to God; and St. <HI>Au&s;tin, &agrave; Religando,</HI> becau&s;e men chu&s;e God again, whom they had for&s;aken. 'Tis not therefore what&s;oever is excel|lent, but what&s;oever is Divine, and as it is Divine, that is the Object of Religion: now Angels and Holy Men, although there be &s;ome kind of Honour due to tho&s;e Excellencies that are found in them, an Honour com|men&s;urate to tho&s;e Excellencies; yet falling infinitely &s;hort of Divinity, mu&s;t be excluded from having any &s;hare of that Wor&s;hip, which either by God him&s;elf, or the univer&s;al con&s;ent of Mankind, is made Religious, that is, appropriate to God. Neither.</P>
<P N="4">4. Will it help the matter to &s;ay, that though the outward Acts and Expre&s;&s;ions of Wor&s;hip to both are the &s;ame, there is a va&s;t difference in the inward De|votion
<PB N="46" REF="27">of their Mind and Souls, and that when they pray to Saints and Angels, they mu&s;t not be thought to do it, with that height of affection, and tru&s;t and re|&s;ignation, wherewith they call upon God? For, when all is done, words and outward Acts will be reckon'd to &s;ignify according to that &s;en&s;e and meaning Cu&s;tom and In&s;titution hath &s;tampt upon them; and let the inward thoughts of the Votary be what they will, if he apply to Saints and Angels in &s;uch Expre&s;&s;ions and Offices, or with &s;uch Rites and Ceremonies, as accord|ing to the u&s;ual 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 a&s;cribe unto them the Honour which he ows to God. Outward Acts of Wor&s;hip are declarative of the inward re&s;pect and veneration of the Soul to God, as words are of the inward thoughts and apprehen&s;ions of the Mind; and, as when I u&s;e &s;uch words, which according to common cu&s;tom &s;ignify &s;uch a Propo&s;ition, I mu&s;t be concluded to mean and intend that Propo&s;ition; &s;o when I u&s;e &s;uch outward Acts of Wor&s;hip, which by Cu&s;tom or In&s;titution &s;ignify the Honour due to God, to any other, I mu&s;t be thought to a&s;cribe the Honour that's due to God, to that other. The <HI>Corinthians,</HI> although they knew that an Idol was nothing in the World, yet becau&s;e they ob&s;erved the Fea&s;ts that were dedicated to the Honour of the Idol,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 20.21.</NOTE> <HI>Eating and Drinking in the Idols</HI> Temple, are &s;aid by the Apo&s;tle to Drink the Cup of Devils, and to be Partakers <HI>of the Devils Ta|bles, and to have Fellow&s;hip with Devils;</HI> that is, by doing tho&s;e actions that in tho&s;e places were u&s;ed to &s;ignify the Wor&s;hip of the Heathen Gods, although they intended no Religion, but Civility and Comple|ment in the compliance, they are &s;aid to Wor&s;hip tho&s;e Heathen Gods, who were not Gods, but Devils. The
<PB N="47" REF="27"><HI>I&s;raelites</HI> that halted betwixt God and <HI>Baal,</HI> although they could not but have higher apprehen&s;ions of God then <HI>Baal, Yet by bowing the knee to Baal,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">1 <HI>Kings</HI> 19.18.</NOTE> <HI>and ki&s;&s;ing his mouth,</HI> by u&s;ing tho&s;e outward Acts of Wor&s;hip, where|with the Heathens Wor&s;hipt him, are &s;aid to be guilty of Idolatry. In &s;um, was a mental re&s;ervation of keep|ing the Heart to God, and intending the highe&s;t de|grees of Honour and Wor&s;hip to him, &s;ufficient to clear men from Idolatry, whil&s;t they perform outward Acts In&s;tituted and cu&s;tomarily ob&s;erved for Religious Wor|&s;hip to any be&s;ides God;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Exod.</HI> 32.8.</NOTE> the <HI>I&s;raelites</HI> could not be guilty of it, when they Sacrificed to the Golden-Calf they had made; nor the wi&s;er &s;ort of Heathens, who whil&s;t they knew the vulgar Gods to be no Gods, but Cheats and Devils, did out of fear of puni&s;hment com|ply with the vulgar practice of burning Incen&s;e to them; and the Primitive Fathers were very much mi&s;taken, who judged not only tho&s;e Chri&s;tians who at the Em|peror's command Sacrificed to Idols again&s;t their Con|&s;ciences, guilty of Idolatry, but even tho&s;e, who, though no threats could move them to do it in per&s;on, did yet either purcha&s;e Certificates that they had done it,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Libellatici.</NOTE> when they did it not, or procure &s;ome others, their Heathen Friends and Servants to do it for them, impli|citly to be guilty of it.</P>
<P>I &s;hall name but one Scripture more, <HI>Col.</HI> 2.18. <HI>Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humili|ty and wor&s;hipping of Angels &mdash; and not holding the Head.</HI> Where we &s;ee the Apo&s;tle expre&s;ly condemns the Wor&s;hip of Angels as for&s;aking of Chri&s;t and not holding the Head; and if the Wor&s;hip of Angels, it follows with greater force of Rea&s;on, the Wor&s;hip of Saints departed. What this Wor&s;hip was, <HI>Theodoret</HI> upon the place informs us, where he &s;ays, <HI>That the Jews,</HI> that is, Jewi&s;h Chri&s;tians, <HI>having received the Law by
<PB N="48" REF="28">the Mini&s;tration of Angels, and holding that the God of all was Invi&s;ible and Inacce&s;&s;ible, taught that men ought to obtain the favour of God by the Means and Interce&s;&s;ion of Angels;</HI> and the &s;ame Father tells us, that <HI>they had Ora|tories or Chappels of St.</HI> Michael.</P>
<P>This St. <HI>Paul</HI> calls, not holding the Head, becau&s;e they &s;et up more Mediatours be&s;ides Chri&s;t, who was the onely one appointed by God, and they that joyn others with him, do for&s;ake him; accordingly the Council of <HI>Laodicea</HI> condemned it as Idolatrous; the words of the Canon are the&s;e:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Council Laod. Can.</HI> 35.</NOTE> <HI>That Chri&s;tians ought not to for&s;ake the Church of God, and Invocate Angels, be|cau&s;e they that do &s;o, for&s;ake our Lord Je&s;us Christ the Son of God, and give them&s;elves to Idolatry.</HI> St. <HI>Paul</HI> and the Canon both &s;peak &s;o direct and home again&s;t the <HI>Romani&s;ts,</HI> that <HI>Baronius,</HI> it &s;eems, was hard put to it, to an&s;wer them, when he's forc't to beg <HI>Theodoret</HI>'s Par|don, and tells him, with his good leave, that he un|der&s;tood neither the one nor the other, that it was the Religious Wor&s;hip of fal&s;e and Heatheni&s;h Gods, not that of good Angels that was forbad and condemned by both of them, and that tho&s;e Oratories of St. <HI>Mi|chael</HI> were &s;et up by Catholicks and not by Hereticks, it being then the practice of the Church to Invocate Angels. And now though we might &s;afely venture <HI>Theodoret</HI>'s Judgment and Credit again&s;t <HI>Baronius</HI>'s, yet we have no need of his Authority to find out the true meaning of the Text; whoever con&s;iders that the Apo&s;tle condemns the Wor&s;hip of Angels in gene|ral, and duly weighs the &s;eries of his Di&s;cour&s;e, will ea&s;ily apprehend, that it is not levelled again&s;t the Hea|thens who had not yet embraced Chri&s;tianity, but ad|her'd to the Wor&s;hip of their fal&s;e Gods; but a &s;ort of Judaizing Chri&s;tians, who retaining &s;till a mighty Ve|neration for Angels, as the &s;uppo&s;ed Givers of the Law,
<PB N="49" REF="28">endeavoured to introduce the Wor&s;hip of them into the Church of Chri&s;t: <HI>Let no man beguile you of your reward &mdash; in wor&s;hipping of Angels, not holding the Head:</HI> The Apo&s;tle's Argument to di&s;&s;uade them from that Wor&s;hip is, that by doing &s;o, they for&s;ook Chri&s;t, which could not have been an Argument to the Hea|thens, who had never yet believed on him.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="6" TYPE="part">
<HEAD>VI. That the Fathers of the fir&s;t and pure&s;t Ages, till af|ter three hundred, are all expre&s;s and po&s;itive in their Writings again&s;t it.</HEAD>
<P>HOW fully the Sacred Scriptures both of the Old and New Te&s;tament, do condemn the Invocati|on of Saints, you have &s;een already; now that the Fathers of the pure&s;t Ages under&s;tood the Scriptures in the &s;ame &s;en&s;e as Prote&s;tants do, as to this particu|lar, and are al&s;o very clear in their Writings again&s;t it, will appear from the&s;e following Con&s;iderations:</P>
<P N="1">1. They generally denied the Doctrine on which this of Saint-Invocation is founded; <HI>viz.</HI> that Saints departed do now reign in Heaven, and enjoy the Bea|tifick Vi&s;ion. 'Tis by this ble&s;&s;ed priviledge e&s;pecial|ly, of &s;eeing God, that the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> ground their be|lief, that the perfected Spirits of ju&s;t Men in Heaven come, to &s;ee all things in him, to know the Petitions and to be acquainted with the reque&s;ts of their hum|ble Supplicants; but now the Primitive Fathers have peremptorily affirmed, that the Saints departed are not yet admitted to the &s;ight of God, but are only kept in certain hidden receptacles in the full enjoy|ment of Peace and Re&s;t, till the general Re&s;urrection: this they have not only a&s;&s;erted in &s;o many words, and
<PB N="50" REF="29">endeavoured to prove,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Iren. l.</HI> 5. <HI>c.</HI> 31.</NOTE> from our Saviours Soul being in Paradi&s;e, which they will not have to be the highe&s;t Heaven; but thinking them in a condition not yet ful|ly and compleatly happy,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Chry&s;o&s;. Tom.</HI> 6. <HI>p.</HI> 998.</NOTE> in&s;tead of Invocating them, did pray for their farther Bli&s;s and Con&s;ummation. So that denying the Foundation, they can't be &s;uppo&s;ed to grant the Doctrine built upon it. No fewer than Eighteen Fathers, by the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> own Confe&s;&s;ion, are of this opinion; and though they &s;hould be mi&s;ta|ken, as their great Cardinal thinks they were, and en|deavours to prove, yet it's enough to our pre&s;ent pur|po&s;e, that they did not hold the one, and therefore could neither teach nor practi&s;e the other.</P>
<P N="2">2. One chief Argument which the Primitive Fathers u&s;ed to prove the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Gho&s;t again&s;t the <HI>Arrians</HI> and <HI>Macedonians,</HI> 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 &s;o highly exalted in Nature and Condition, might have had that Honour payed unto them. They tell us frequently in their Writings, that when the Go&s;pel directs us to in|vocate the Son and Holy Gho&s;t in conjunction with the Father,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Orig. l.</HI> 8. <HI>in Epi&s;. ad Rom. c.</HI> 10. <HI>Athan. Orat.</HI> 4. <HI>contr. Arria|nes.</HI></NOTE> it proves them to be true God, that Invocation &s;uppo&s;ing them every-where to be pre&s;ent when they are invok'd, and that Omnipre&s;ence being the &s;ole pro|perty of God. For the &s;ame rea&s;on, when the <HI>Arrians,</HI> who conceived Chri&s;t to be no more than an excellent and God-like Creature, did yet pray unto him, the Catholicks accu&s;ed them of Idolatry. Had the Ca|tholicks at the &s;ame time practi&s;ed the Invocation of Saints, the charge might have been returned with greater force upon them&s;elves, and whatever could have been thought of by the Catholicks to excu&s;e them|&s;elves from that guilt, might with more &s;trength
<PB N="51" REF="29">have been urged by the <HI>Arrians</HI> in their behalf. Had the Catholicks replied, as the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> do now, that though they did pray to the ble&s;&s;ed Spirits, yet they did not do it with that Soveraign, direct, and final Prayer, nor with tho&s;e &s;ublime&s;t Thoughts and In|tentions of Honour, wherewith they did addre&s;s to God; but only with indirect, &s;ubaltern, and relative Prayer, and with no higher Intentions of Honour to them, than what is proportioned to the excellencies of their finite nature; the <HI>Arrians</HI> might have returne upon them with great advantage: even after the &s;ame manner, Sirs, and with the &s;ame due limitations, do we Invocate <HI>the Man Chri&s;t Je&s;us;</HI> and whil&s;t we do no more but &s;o, we have more rea&s;on for what we do than you can have, &s;ince Chri&s;t is confe&s;&s;edly &s;uperi|our to all Creatures, and con&s;equently de&s;erves at lea&s;t as great an Honour to be paid to him as unto any the highe&s;t among&s;t them; though we do not think him God equal with the Father, yet the Scripture a&s;&s;ures us, <HI>he is exalted far above all Angels, Principalities, and Powers, and every name which is named in Heaven and Earth;</HI> and though we may not honour the Son in the &s;ame high degree with an <HI>as</HI> of equality as we do the Father, yet the Scripture enjoyns us to do it with the &s;ame kind of Honour, with an <HI>as</HI> of &s;imilitude and likene&s;s: and this is more than can be &s;aid in defence of that Honour and Invocation you offer to Saints and Angels.</P>
<P N="3">3. Becau&s;e the Fathers condemned the Heathens as guilty of Idolatry for Invocating their <HI>Daemons</HI> or infe|riour Deities, which in a manner is the &s;ame with the <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Invocation of Angels and Saints.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Dean of St.</HI> P. <HI>again&s;t</HI> G.</NOTE> This has been invincibly proved again&s;t the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> by a great Light of our Church, who hath made the Parity and Agree|ment betwixt them to be very obvious; as,</P>
<PB N="52" REF="30">
<P N="1">1. In the Object of their Invocation, the Heathens had one Supream God, and a multitude of Inferiour Deities; the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> have al&s;o, be&s;ides one God a|bove all, a multitude of Angels and Saints departed. It may be the vulgar and ordinary People might mi&s;take for their Gods, <HI>Jupiter</HI> of <HI>Crete, Mars, Venus, Vulcan, Bacchus,</HI> per&s;ons that had been famous for Lewdne&s;s and Adulteries; and if they did, it's to be feared not much better an account can be given of many of the canonized Saints in the Church of <HI>Rome:</HI> but the wi&s;er &s;ort had far different apprehen&s;ions of their Deities, they &s;aid and believed the &s;ame of the Supream God, as Chri&s;tians do,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Plot. Enn.</HI> 5. <HI>l.</HI> 9. <HI>c.</HI> 5. <HI>Laert. in Vit. Thal. p.</HI> 24. <HI>Senec. Ep.</HI> 83.</NOTE> <HI>That he made the whole World, and &s;ees all things; that he wants neither Power, nor Will, nor Knowledge to make his Providence</HI> concerned in the lea&s;t things; that neither the Actions nor the very Thoughts of mens minds can be hid from him.</P>
<P>Accordingly we find St. <HI>Paul</HI> affirming of the Hea|thens,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Rom.</HI> 1.20.</NOTE> <HI>That they knew God,</HI> a&s;cribing to the Heathens <HI>Ju|piter,</HI> the Being the Creator of all things; &s;o he told the <HI>Athenians,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Acts</HI> 17.</NOTE> <HI>Him whom ye ignorantly wor&s;hip, declare I unto you, God that made the World,</HI> and the Being the Father of all Mankind, when he &s;aid in the words of one of their Poets, <HI>for we are all his Off-&s;pring.</HI> And then for their Inferiour Deities, there is &s;o very little di&s;parity betwixt them and the Angels and Saints In|vocated by the Church of <HI>Rome,</HI> that it &s;eems to be only in name.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>St. Au&s;t. de Civit. Dei. l.</HI> 9. <HI>c.</HI> 23.</NOTE> Accordingly Saint <HI>Au&s;tin</HI> confe&s;t, that the <HI>Platoni&s;ts</HI> did affirm the &s;ame things of their good <HI>Doemons,</HI> as Chri&s;tians did of the ble&s;&s;ed Angels; did they di&s;tingui&s;h their Inferiour Deities into &s;uch Spirits as were by Death delivered from the Body,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Apul. de Deo. Socr. p.</HI> 50. <HI>Cic. de leg. l.</HI> 2.</NOTE> and &s;uch as never had any, into &s;uch as always lived in Hea|ven, and &s;uch who&s;e merits had advanced them thi|ther; how exactly doth this &s;ute with the difference
<PB N="53" REF="30">given by <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> betwixt Angels and Saints departed, and the rea&s;on of their Wor&s;hipping of them, <HI>The Spi|ritual and Heavenly Nature of the one, and the Merits of the other?</HI></P>
<P N="2">2. In the Office a&s;cribed to them. The employ|ment the Heathens put upon their <HI>Daemons,</HI> was to car|ry up the Prayers of Men to God; and what they had obtained, to bring back to Men;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Aug. de Civ. Dei. l.</HI> 8. <HI>c.</HI> 18.</NOTE> imagining the Su|pream God to be of too pure and &s;ublime a nature, im|mediately to conver&s;e with Men, they lookt upon the&s;e as Advocates and Mediators betwixt God and Men, and as Interce&s;&s;ors and Procurers of their de&s;ired Ble&s;&s;ings; and is not this the &s;ame thing the Church of <HI>Rome</HI> &s;ays, touching the Office of Angels and ble&s;&s;ed Spirits in the behalf of Men, &s;uch as do &s;ollicite God for them, and by their more prevailing Merits and Intere&s;t in God, obtain of him what they them&s;elves pray for?</P>
<P N="3">3. In that which they make the Foundation of their Wor&s;hip and Invocation to them, <HI>viz.</HI> a middle &s;ort of Excellency betwixt God and Men; &s;o &s;aid the Hea|thens, that there were a &s;ort of Beings between God and Men that participated of both Natures, and that by means of tho&s;e intermediate Beings an intercour&s;e was maintained betwixt Heaven and Earth; and as God was to be Wor&s;hipt for him&s;elf, &s;o the others, to be Loved and Honoured <HI>for his &s;ake, as being Gods by way of participation, as like&s;t to him, as his Vicars, and as Re|concilers betwixt them:</HI> And is not this the declared rea&s;on why the Church of <HI>Rome</HI> gives Religious Wor|&s;hip to Angels and departed Saints, <HI>Becau&s;e of a middle &s;ort of worth and excellency that is in them, that's nei|ther infinite as the Divine, nor &s;o low as the Humane;</HI> but Spiritual and Supernatural, whereby approaching near to the Divinity, they have great intere&s;t in the Court of Heaven, and ought, as <HI>Cel&s;us</HI> &s;aid of their
<PB N="54" REF="31"><HI>Daemons,</HI> to be prayed unto to be favourable and pro|pitious to us. So exact you &s;ee is the Parallel betwixt them. Now again&s;t this <HI>Daemon</HI>-Wor&s;hip the Fathers replied, that whatever great and &s;upernatural Excel|lencies were to be found in the Spirits above, ought indeed to have an Acknowledgement and Honour paid to them both in Mind and Action, proportioned and commen&s;urate to &s;uch Excellencies; but yet they were not to be e&s;teemed inwardly as Gods, nor to be wor|&s;hipt with any outward Act of Religious Wor&s;hip, be it erecting Altars, making Vows, or putting up Prayers to them, as if they were &s;uch: For all and every part of that was &s;olely due to God, and not to be given to any the highe&s;t created Excellency. As you may &s;ee their minds more fully in the next par|ticular.</P>
<P N="4">4. The Fathers po&s;itively a&s;&s;ert, that none but God ought to be Invocated.</P>
<P>And the fir&s;t I &s;hall mention is that advice which <HI>Ig|natius</HI> gave the Virgins of his time,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ign. Ep. ad Philadelph.</NOTE> not to direct their Prayers and Supplications to any, but only to the Ble&s;|&s;ed Trinity. <HI>Oh ye Virgins, have Chri&s;t alone before your Eyes, and his Father in your Prayers, being inlightned by the Spirit.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Irenaeus</HI> in his Fir&s;t Book taking notice of &s;ome per|&s;ons, who had entertained &s;trange fancies concerning the Power of Angels, and accordingly gave Divine Wor&s;hip to them,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Iren. l.</HI> 2. <HI>c.</HI> 57.</NOTE> tells us plainly, that the Doctrine and Practice of the Church in his days was far other|wi&s;e, and <HI>that throughout the World, it did nothing by In|vocation of Angels, nor by Incantations, but purely and ma|nife&s;tly directs her Prayers to God who made all, and calls upon the Name of our Lord Je&s;us Christ. Feuardentius</HI> in his Notes upon the place, would have the words of the Father to be under&s;tood only of Prayers made by
<PB N="55" REF="31">Evil Men to Evil Spirits and Angels; but then why did not the Father expre&s;s it &s;o? Why does he exclude all Angels, without di&s;tinction, from Divine Wor&s;hip, when he &s;ays, <HI>The whole Church every where called only upon God and his Son Chri&s;t Je&s;us.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Eu&s;ebius</HI> in his Hi&s;tory hath &s;et down a long Prayer of the Holy Martyr <HI>Polycarp,</HI> which he uttered at the time of his &s;uffering, wherein there is not any one Pe|tition put up to Saints, but every one directed to God through the Mediation of Chri&s;t, clo&s;ing his Prayer with this Doxology;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Eu&s;eb. l.</HI> 4. <HI>c.</HI> 15.</NOTE> <HI>Therefore in all things I Prai&s;e thee, I Ble&s;s thee, I Glorifie thee through the E|ternal Prie&s;t Je&s;us Chri&s;t thy beloved Son, to whom with thee, Oh Father, and the Holy Gho&s;t, be all Glory now and for ever.</HI></P>
<P>To which we may add, what al&s;o is recorded by the &s;ame Author, that when the Church of <HI>Smyrna</HI> de&s;ired the Body of their Martyred Bi&s;hop to give it an Honourable Interment, and was denied it by the Governour, upon the unworthy &s;ugge&s;tion of the <HI>Jews,</HI> that they would Wor&s;hip it, they thus replied: <HI>We can never be induced to Wor&s;hip any other but Chri&s;t, him being the Son of God we adore; others, as Martyrs and his &s;incere Di&s;ciples, we worthily love and re&s;pect.</HI> And that which here de&s;erves a particular ob&s;ervation, is what the Learned Primate of <HI>Armah</HI> hath pointed out to us, <HI>viz.</HI> that what in the Original Greek is <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ex pa&s;&s;ion. M. S.</HI> 7. <HI>Ka|lend. Febr. in Bib. Eccl. Sa|risb. &amp; Dom. Rob. Cotton.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Religiou&s;ly to Wor&s;hip,</HI> is in the Latin Edition that was wont to be read in all the Churches of the We&s;t, ren|dred <HI>precem orationis impendere, to impart the Supplica|tion of Prayer.</HI></P>
<P>The next Te&s;timony I &s;hall produce, is that of <HI>Ori|gen,</HI> who is is very full to this purpo&s;e; in his Writings again&s;t <HI>Cel&s;us,</HI> he tells us, <HI>We mu&s;t endeavour to plea&s;e God alone, and labour to have him propitious to us, procu|ring
<PB N="56" REF="32">his good will with Godline&s;s, and all kind of Virtue; and if</HI> Cel&s;us <HI>will have us to procure the good will of any others after him that is God over all, let him con&s;ider, that as when the Body is moved, the motions of the &s;ha|dow thereof doth follow it; &s;o in like manner, having God favourable to us, who is over all, it followeth, that we &s;hall have all his Friends, both Angels and Spirits, loving to us:</HI> And whereas <HI>Cel&s;us</HI> had &s;aid of the Angels, that they belong to God, and in that re&s;pect were to be Prayed unto, that they may be favourable to us, he thus &s;harply replies; <HI>Away with</HI> Cel&s;us<HI>'s Coun&s;el, &s;aying that we mu&s;t Pray to Angels, for we mu&s;t Pray to him who is God over all, and we mu&s;t Pray to the Word of God, his only begotten Son, and the fir&s;t born of all Crea|tures, and we mu&s;t intreat him, that he as High-Priest would pre&s;ent our Prayer unto his God and our God.</HI> And when <HI>Cel&s;us</HI> objected that the Chri&s;tians did not keep to their own Rule of Praying to, and Wor&s;hipping none but God, &s;ince they gave the &s;ame Honour to Chri&s;t, whom they knew to be a Man; he replies, <HI>That Chri&s;t was God as</HI> well as Man, <HI>one with the Father,</HI> and proves it from Miracles, and Prophe&s;ies, and Precepts, that this Honour was given to him to be Wor&s;hipt as they Wor|&s;hipt the Father.</P>
<P>Had <HI>Cel&s;us</HI> objected, that the Chri&s;tians Wor&s;hipt Angels and Saints departed, it had been laid right, and would have born hard upon them, and he had inferred &s;trongly, that they might as well Wor&s;hip their Inferiour Deities; but <HI>Cel&s;us</HI> objects no &s;uch thing, (but only their Wor&s;hipping of Chri&s;t, which <HI>Origen</HI> was well provided to an&s;wer;) and this is an evident Proof that the Chri&s;tians were not guilty of it. Had there been but the lea&s;t ground to &s;u&s;pect them for it, it would have been &s;o hugely &s;erviceable to his Cau&s;e, and with &s;o much force have rebounded back
<PB N="57" REF="32">upon the Chri&s;tians, that it's not to be imagined &s;o in|du&s;trious and &s;pightful an Adver&s;ary as <HI>Cel&s;us,</HI> would have omitted, with the greate&s;t In&s;ult and Triumph, to have laid it at their Door.</P>
<P>To the&s;e we might add the Suffrages of many more,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">St. Cyprian.</NOTE> who have written &s;et Treati&s;es of Prayer, teaching us <HI>to regulate all our Prayers after that mo&s;t perfect Pattern of our Lords, and ever to direct our Petitions to our Hea|venly Father only.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Gregory Ny&s;&s;en</HI> &s;aith,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF"><HI>Cont. Eunom. Tom.</HI> 2. <HI>Orat.</HI> 4. <HI>Orat.</HI> 3. <HI>Contr. Arrian.</HI></NOTE> we are taught <HI>to Wor&s;hip and Adore that Nature only that's uncreated.</HI></P>
<P>Athana&s;ius, <HI>That God only is to be Wor&s;hipped, that the Creature is not to Adore the Creature.</HI></P>
<P>St. <HI>Au&s;tin</HI> &s;ays expre&s;ly,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>De ver. Relig. c.</HI> 55. <HI>de Civit. Dei. l.</HI> 22. <HI>c.</HI> 10. <HI>Ep.</HI> 42.</NOTE> <HI>That the Saints are to be Ho|noured for imitation, not to be Adored for Religion; that at the Communion-Table they were named, but not Invo|cated. And again, you &s;ee the Head of the mo&s;t re|nowned Empire &s;tooping with his Diadem, and Pray|ing at the Sepulchre of</HI> Peter <HI>the Fi&s;her-man, namely, it's to God him&s;elf that he Prays, though at the Tomb of</HI> Peter.</P>
<P><HI>Epihanius</HI> reproving, as he calls it,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Haeres.</HI> 79. <HI>ad|ver. Collyridi|an.</HI></NOTE> the Womens He|re&s;ie, who were wont to offer up a Cake to the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin, hath the&s;e words: <HI>Let</HI> Mary <HI>be in Honour, but let the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Gho&s;t, be Wor&s;hip|ped.</HI> And to &s;hew us what a very ill opinion he had of that at lea&s;t &s;uper&s;titious Practice, he &s;ix times re|peats in that Tract, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF">, <HI>Let no Man Adore</HI> Mary.</P>
<P>To name no more;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Apol. c. Sect.</HI> 30.2, 3.</NOTE> <HI>Tertullian</HI> in his Apology for the Chri&s;tians, thus expre&s;&s;es him&s;elf, after he had &s;et down the many great Ble&s;&s;ings the Chri&s;tians thought them&s;elves ever obliged to beg for their Emperours: <HI>As long Life, and Valiant Arms, and a Faithful Senate, and Loyal Subjects, and a peaceable Reign; the&s;e things,</HI>
<PB N="58" REF="33">&s;aith he, <HI>I may not pray for from any other but from him, of whom I know I &s;hall obtain them, becau&s;e both it is he who is alone able to give, and I am he to whom it apper|tains to obtain that which is reque&s;ted, being his Servant who ob&s;erve him alone.</HI></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="7" TYPE="part">
<HEAD>VII. That the Doctrine and Practice of Saint-Invocation is Impious and Idolatrous.</HEAD>
<P>THis, I think, will be fully made out from the&s;e three particulars.</P>
<P N="1">1. This a&s;cribes to Angels and Saints the Attributes and Perfections that are &s;olely proper and peculiar to God, <HI>viz. his Omni&s;cience and Omnipre&s;ence;</HI> for, not only, when Mental Prayers, as the Church of <HI>Rome</HI> directs, but (&s;ince the ble&s;&s;ed Spirits above can't be &s;up|po&s;ed to e&s;pou&s;e the Cau&s;e of an in&s;incere Votary) when vocal Prayers al&s;o are offered up to them, it &s;uppo&s;es them privy to the very thoughts, and acquainted with the Hearts of Men; again, when innumerable Pray|ers and Supplications from millions of places at the greate&s;t di&s;tance from one another, are at the &s;ame time immediately put up to them, it &s;uppo&s;es in like manner, that they are pre&s;ent in all places, and at the &s;ame time can give Audience to all their Petitioners. Now what more or greater can be &s;aid of God? Is not this that infinite Knowledge, that Omnipre&s;ent Power, and never ab&s;ent Nature that the Scriptures &s;olely attribute to the Creator of all things, and have denied to any of the highe&s;t Form of the Creatures? And although I will not undertake to de&s;cribe to you the exact bounds and mea&s;ures of the Angelical Na|ture and Perfections, how per&s;pective their Knowledge is, how piercing their Under&s;tanding, how &s;wift
<PB N="59" REF="33">their Motion; yet, &s;ure I am, that neither they nor any other the mo&s;t elevated part of Gods Creation, can by their own natural Power know the Hearts of Men, and be in all places at one in&s;tant of time. It is God alone who&s;e Under&s;tanding is infinite, who looks down from Heaven, and beholds all the ways of the Sons of Men; <HI>He,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">1 <HI>King.</HI> 8.27.</NOTE> <HI>even he knoweth all the Chil|dren of Men. 'Tis he that &s;eeth in &s;ecret.</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Mat.</HI> 6.4.</NOTE> And God challenges it as a peculiar to him&s;elf; <HI>The Heart is de|ceitful above all things and de&s;perately wicked,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Jer.</HI> 17.9, 10.</NOTE> <HI>who can know it? I the Lord &s;earch the Heart, and try the Reins.</HI> By this Argument the Fathers triumph over the <HI>Arrians</HI> and <HI>Macedonians,</HI> in proving the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Gho&s;t; which yet would have been no Argument at all, had not this Knowledge been an In|communicable Perfection in the Divine Nature.</P>
<P>But it's &s;aid, that it's God indeed that only <HI>natural|ly, and of him&s;elf,</HI> knows the Hearts of Men; but this hinders not, but that others, his Saints and Angels may know them by Communication from him, <HI>viz.</HI> either by Revelation from God, or by the Beatifick Vi&s;ion, <HI>Seeing all things in God who &s;ees all things.</HI></P>
<P>In an&s;wer to this, not to mention how it contradicts the expre&s;s words of Scripture, which, without any di|&s;tinction or limitation, does as plainly a&s;&s;ert as words can do it, <HI>That God only knows the Heart;</HI> not to men|tion the many Di&s;putes the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> have among them&s;elves which way is to be cho&s;en as the mo&s;t pro|bable, and after what manner in either way this Know|ledge is derived and pa&s;t from God to them; the&s;e things may be &s;aid,</P>
<P N="1">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 vi&s;ible or known to them the Hearts and the
<PB N="60" REF="34">Reque&s;ts of Men; and now, <HI>if what is not of Faith is Sin,</HI> we having no Text of Scripture to build our Faith upon in this particular, mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity &s;in in Pray|ing to them on that &s;uppo&s;ition, and commit that very &s;in too, which we doubt whether we &s;o doing, commit or no; nay, the &s;ilence of the Scripture in this particu|lar, has in a manner determined the point, and we may conclude, that the mo&s;t jealous God has re&s;erved the Honour of Invocation to him&s;elf alone, &s;ince he has no|where given us the lea&s;t hint or intimation of leave, to Pray to them.</P>
<P N="2">2. We are informed in Scripture, that the Saints de|parted do not particularly know or mind what's done here below:
<NOTE PLACE="marg">2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 34.28.</NOTE> <HI>God tells</HI> Jo&s;iah, <HI>Thou &s;halt be gathered to thy Grave in Peace, neither &s;hall thine Eyes &s;ee the Evil I will bring upon this place.</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Eccl.</HI> 9.5.</NOTE> <HI>The Dead know not any thing,</HI> that is, of the Affairs of this World, &s;aith the Preacher. <HI>His Sons come to Honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, and he perceiveth it not of them,</HI> &s;ays <HI>Job,</HI> of Man in the other State. When <HI>Elijah</HI> was about to be taken up into Heaven,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">2 <HI>Kings</HI> 2.9.</NOTE> he thus &s;pake to <HI>Eli&s;ha: Ask what thou wilt, before I am taken from thee.</HI> Strongly implying, that when he was once gone, 'twas in vain to ask any think of him. <HI>Elijah</HI> was immediately taken up into Heaven, made no &s;tay by the way <HI>in Limbo,</HI> as the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> them&s;elves a|gree; being in Heaven, his Love to <HI>Eli&s;ha</HI> could not be forgot, nor his Intere&s;t in God le&s;&s;ened, but rather both by being exalted thither, very much increa&s;ed and augmented: &s;o that no rea&s;on can be given why he &s;hould limit and fix his making his de&s;ires known to him to the time of his abode with him on Earth, but only this, his Per&s;wa&s;ion that in the other State he &s;hould not be capable to hear his Reque&s;t, and &s;o all his future Addre&s;&s;es to him would be ineffectual. To
<PB N="61" REF="34">the&s;e we may add that known place in <HI>I&s;aiah,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>I&s;ai.</HI> 63.16.</NOTE> <HI>Abraham doth not know us, and</HI> I&s;rael <HI>is ignorant of us:</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>St. Au&s;t. de cu|ra pro morte. c.</HI> 13.</NOTE> from whence St. <HI>Au&s;tin</HI> concludes, That <HI>if tho&s;e great Men and Founders of their Nation, were ignorant of what was done in after-Ages to their Po&s;terity, why &s;hould the Dead be thought in a condition to know or help their &s;urviving Friends in what they do.</HI></P>
<P N="3">3. They that will have God acquaint particular Saints and Angels with tho&s;e Petitions that are put up to them, impo&s;e a very &s;ervile and di&s;honourable Office on God; and as &s;ometimes they will have us, out of di&s;cretion 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 &s;ent to wait on them with the Reque&s;ts of their Votaries. What can be more &s;trange|ly ridiculous, than this Po&s;ition of theirs? That the Petitioners mu&s;t fir&s;t make his &s;ute to Angels and Saints, then God mu&s;t tell tho&s;e Angels and Saints both the Per&s;on that Prays, and the Boon he Prays for, then the Angels or Saints mu&s;t back again and pre&s;ent them to God. Or, when any one addre&s;&s;es to an Angel or Saint, to &s;upplicate the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin in his behalf, God mu&s;t fir&s;t tell this Angel or Saint the Contents of the Addre&s;s, then he mu&s;t Po&s;t to the Ble&s;&s;ed Vir|gin, &s;he upon the fir&s;t notice of it mu&s;t have recour&s;e to her Son, and he upon the motion of his Mother, repair to his Father, to pre&s;ent that Reque&s;t to him which he him&s;elf fir&s;t revealed. But is not this an in|&s;ufferable affront to God, and an intollerable abu&s;e of them&s;elves, to &s;end the mo&s;t high God on the Errands of his Creatures, and to apply them&s;elves to broken Ci|&s;terns, when they may directly go to the Fountain it &s;elf of all Ble&s;&s;ings?</P>
<PB N="62" REF="35">
<P N="4">4. Neither can the Angels and Spirits above, know the Hearts and Petitions of their Supplicants any more by vertue of the &s;ight of God, than by Revelation from him; this fond Opinion depends upon this <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Gin|gle,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 2.11.</NOTE> <HI>That &s;eeing God they mu&s;t in him &s;ee all things</HI> that in <HI>Idea</HI> are contained in him:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Eph.</HI> 3.10.</NOTE> But does not the Scripture a&s;&s;ure us, <HI>That no one knows the things of God, but the Spirit of God that is in him?</HI> Do they not tell us, how ignorant the Angels were of the great My&s;tery of Mans Redemption, notwith&s;tanding their nearne&s;s to God, and beholding his Face,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">1 <HI>Pet.</HI> 1.12.</NOTE> <HI>Till it was made known to them by the Church.</HI> Does not our Saviour let us know that he him&s;elf, as Man, though his Humanity was Hypo&s;ta|tically united to the Divinity, did not pretend to know all the Councils and Purpo&s;es of God? Speaking of the day of Judgment,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Mat.</HI> 24.36.</NOTE> he &s;ays, <HI>Of that day and hour knoweth no Man, no not the Angels, but the Father only.</HI> Why then &s;hould it be thought credible that the Ble&s;&s;ed Spirits a|bove, by beholding Gods Face, do in that Gla&s;s of the Divinity &s;ee all things and tran&s;actions that are done, and hear all Prayers and Petitions that are made by the Sons of Men?</P>
<P N="2">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 Goodne&s;s; <HI>In him we live, and move, and have our being; he gives to all, life and breath, and all things;</HI> he numbers the Hairs of our Head, paints the Lillies of the Field beyond the Glory of <HI>Solomon,</HI> 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 con&s;i&s;t of multitudes of Men linkt to|gether
<PB N="63" REF="35">by Laws and Government; and, though &s;ome|times when he plea&s;es, he makes u&s;e of the Mini&s;try of Angels, and makes them the In&s;truments of his Pro|vidence towards the Sons of Men, yet he has no-where told us, that he hath divided to them, much le&s;s to Saints departed, their &s;everal Provinces, or &s;et them their particular tasks, that he has made them Pre&s;idents over &s;uch Countries or Cities, Patrons and Guardians over &s;uch Per&s;ons or profe&s;&s;ions, that he has given them a Power over &s;uch and &s;uch Maladies and Di&s;ea&s;es; but, has re&s;erved the Power of di&s;pen&s;ing his Kindne&s;&s;es where, to whom, and in what mea&s;ure, in his own hands; and therefore all our tru&s;t and confidence ought intirely to be placed in God, all our Thanks and Prai&s;es are due to him, and he alone is to be acknowledged as the Author and Donor of all our Ble&s;&s;ings; but now from that Pre&s;ident&s;hip and Protection, that Power and Patronage,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Col.</HI> 2.18.</NOTE> that the <HI>Romani&s;ts intruding into tho&s;e things they have not &s;een,</HI> without &s;ufficient ground, a&s;cribe to Angels and Saints, over particular Kingdoms, Per&s;ons, and in particular Ca&s;es and Circum&s;tances, (though as Sub&s;titutes under God) ari&s;es naturally &s;ome degree of tru&s;t and confidence in them, &s;ome debt of Homage and Prai&s;e to them, and it's well if the per&s;on obliged looks any higher in his returns of Love and Thankfulne&s;s, than to that particular Angel or Saint he prayed to, and from who&s;e deputed Pow|er and Authority he thinks he received his deliverance; and what is this but to rob God of the Honour of be|ing &s;ole Governour of the World, and to make &s;ome of his Creatures who are no le&s;s beholding to him for their &s;ub&s;i&s;tence, than the re&s;t, to partake with him of that Tru&s;t and Affection, that Homage and Sub|jection, that is wholly due to him from all his Creatures? What is this, as our Church in her Homily expre&s;&s;es
<PB N="64" REF="36">it,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Jer.</HI> 17.5, 7.</NOTE> <HI>But a turning from the Creator to the Creature? Cur|&s;ed is Man that tru&s;teth in Man,</HI> &s;ays the Prophet, and for the &s;ame rea&s;on in any Finite and Created Being, becau&s;e in what degree he does &s;o, in the &s;ame <HI>does his Heart depart from God; but ble&s;&s;ed is the Man that tru|&s;teth in the Lord, and who&s;e hope the Lord is.</HI></P>
<P>What low and mean conceptions of God have tho&s;e Men, who think his Government of the World mu&s;t be modelled and conformed to a Princes Government over his Kingdom; and becau&s;e, he being but a Man, and &s;o not able in per&s;on to hear all Complaints, and redre&s;s all Grievances, appoints Sub&s;titutes under him, Judges and Magi&s;trates to do it, therefore God mu&s;t do &s;o too; whereas there is an infinitely wider di&s;tance betwixt the Wi&s;dom, and Knowledge, and Goodne&s;s, and Power of God, and tho&s;e of the mo&s;t accompli&s;ht Governour, than there is betwixt the height of Hea|ven and the lowe&s;t centre of the Earth;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>E&s;a.</HI> 55.8, 9.</NOTE> <HI>My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,</HI> &s;aith the Lord, <HI>for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth, &s;o are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.</HI> The wi&s;e&s;t Monarch on Earth falls infinitely &s;hort of the Perfections of God, his Knowledge is but &s;hort, his Power &s;mall, and there|fore cannot po&s;&s;ibly, without the information and a&s;|&s;i&s;tance of others, extend the influences of his Govern|ment over all his Subjects; did he not make u&s;e of more Eyes and more Hands than his own, the Com|plaints of &s;ome would be altogether neglected, and the cau&s;e of others not rightly judged, his mi&s;takes would be innumerable, and his Wings too &s;hort to cheri&s;h and fo&s;ter, to &s;helter and cover every corner of his Realm: But could he act with that plenitude of Wi&s;dom, and Knowledge, and Power, that is in God, all then might have acce&s;s to his Per&s;on, either immediately, or by
<PB N="65" REF="36">his Son, that is of like Nature and Power with him, and no Man fear the being &s;ent back unheard, or the having his Cau&s;e mi&s;-judged, the not having Ju&s;tice done him, or Mercy in a compa&s;&s;ionable ca&s;e with-held from him; Gods Wi&s;dom is never wearied with &s;eeing, nor his Power tired with acting in the World, &s;uppo&s;ing the affairs of the World to be infi|nite, which they are not, yet God is infinite too, and now an infinite God can with as much ea&s;e manage and govern an infinite number of Affairs, as one Wi&s;e Man can prudently manage one Affair, Infinite bear|ing the &s;ame proportion to Infinite, as one does to one.</P>
<P>The &s;ame fancy likewi&s;e of making the Court of Heaven re&s;emble Princes Courts on Earth, hath brought forth that Excu&s;e in the <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Supplicants, that it's out of an humble &s;en&s;e of their own Unworthine&s;s, and an awful regard to the Infinite Maje&s;ty of God, that they addre&s;s to him, as Earthly Subjects to their King, not immediately to him&s;elf, but by the Media|tion of Angels and Saints, tho&s;e Courtiers and Favou|rites of Heaven. But what Wi&s;e Man on Earth, who is abundantly &s;atisfied of the readine&s;s and ability of his Prince to help him, and hath free leave given him on any occa&s;ion to come, immediately or by his Son, to him, will chu&s;e to wave this freedom of acce&s;s, and apply him|&s;elf to &s;ome inferiour Officer and Favourite, (of who&s;e Power and Intere&s;t he is not &s;o well a&s;&s;ured) either to relieve him him&s;elf, or to procure relief of the King for him? This is our Ca&s;e, God is of infinite Wi&s;dom, Good|ne&s;s and Power, every way able on all occa&s;ions to afford &s;utable aids and &s;upplies to the wants of his Crea|tures, hath not only allowed, but commanded all <HI>to call upon him in the day of trouble, to pour out their com|plaints to him,</HI> hath over and over promi&s;ed <HI>to hear
<PB N="66" REF="37">their Prayers, and to an&s;wer them,</HI> hath appointd his own Son, God with him&s;elf, the Ma&s;ter of Reque&s;ts, from time to time to receive all the Petitions of his Subjects, and both the one and the other are infinite|ly more able, and infinitely more willing to hear and &s;uccour them, than the Be&s;t and Wi&s;e&s;t and mo&s;t Pow|erful of all Created Beings; and &s;hall we now be afraid to take the liberty that God hath given us? Shall we call that Impudence, which God hath made our Duty? Whil&s;t we pretend Humility, &s;hall we forfeit our Allegiance? and di&s;tru&s;t his Promi&s;es, and &s;u&s;pect the Goodne&s;s of his Nature, for fear of being too &s;awcy and too bold with his Per&s;on? To this pre|tence of voluntary Humility, the Fathers long &s;ince, particularly St. <HI>Ambro&s;e</HI> and St. <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tom,</HI> gave a &s;atis|factory an&s;wer; St. <HI>Ambro&s;e,</HI> or whoever was the Au|thor of tho&s;e Commentaries that go under his name, ob&s;erving that the Heathens u&s;ed the &s;ame Apology for going to their Gods by their inferiour Deities,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>In Rom.</HI> 1.21.</NOTE> as the <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> do now for their addre&s;&s;ing to God by Saints and Angels, namely, <HI>As Men go to the King by his Courtiers, out of Humility and a deep &s;en&s;e of the in|finite di&s;tance betwixt God and them,</HI> calls it <HI>a mi&s;erable excu&s;e,</HI> and adds, <HI>is any Man &s;o mad and regardle&s;s of him&s;elf, to give the Honour due to the King, to any of his Courtiers, which if a Man does, he's condemned of Trea|&s;on? And yet they think them&s;elves not guilty, who give the Honour due to God's Name, to a Creature, and for&s;a|king God, Adore their Fellow-Servants, as though any thing greater than that, were re&s;erved for God him&s;elf. But therefore we go to a King by his Officers and Servants, be|cau&s;e the King is but a Man, who knows not of him&s;elf whom to employ in his publick affairs</HI> (without informa|tion from others.) <HI>But with God it is otherwi&s;e, for nothing is hid from him, he knows the de&s;erts of every
<PB N="67" REF="37">one, and therefore we need no Spoke&s;-man but a Devout mind, for when&s;oever &s;uch an one &s;hall &s;peak to him, he will an&s;wer him.</HI> St.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>St. Chry. Serm.</HI> 7. <HI>of Repen|tance. Serm in P&s;al.</HI> 4. <HI>p.</HI> 524. <HI>p.</HI> 802.</NOTE> <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tom</HI> al&s;o often to the &s;ame pur|po&s;e, denies the way of our coming to God to be like the manner of Kings Courts; <HI>When thou ha&s;t need,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>to &s;ue unto a King, thou art forced fir&s;t to apply to his favourites and go a great way about; but with God there is no &s;uch thing, he is intreated without an Inter|ce&s;&s;or, it &s;ufficeth onely, that thou cry in thine Heart, and bring tears with thee, and entring in &s;traightway, thou maye&s;t draw him unto thee:</HI> And for example hereof, he &s;ets before us the Woman of <HI>Canaan; She entreated not</HI> James, <HI>&s;he be&s;eeched not</HI> John, <HI>neither did &s;he go to</HI> Peter, <HI>but brake through the Crowd to Chri&s;t him&s;elf, &s;aying, I have no need of a Mediator, but taking Repentance with me to recommend me, I come to the Foun|tain it &s;elf; for this cau&s;e did he de&s;cend, for this cau&s;e did he take Fle&s;h, that I might have the boldne&s;s to &s;peak unto him; I have no need of a Mediator, have thou Mercy upon me.</HI></P>
<P N="3">3. It's highly injurious to the Honour of Chri&s;t, as the only Mediator God has appointed betwixt God and Man. God, as the Reward of the un&s;potted In|nocency of his Life, and perfect Obedience of his Death, exalted him to the right hand of Maje&s;ty and Glory, be&s;towed a mediatorious Kingdom on him, inve&s;ted him with all Power in Heaven and Earth, and gave him Authority to receive and an&s;wer the Prayers of his People. <HI>Je&s;us whom ye &s;lew and hanged on a Tree,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Acts</HI> 2.</NOTE> <HI>him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour. Let all the Hou&s;e of</HI> I&s;rael <HI>know a&s;&s;uredly,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Acts</HI> 5.</NOTE> <HI>that that &s;ame Je&s;us whom ye Crucified, God hath made both Lord and Chri&s;t. He humbled him&s;elf,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Phil.</HI> 2.9.</NOTE> <HI>and became obedient unto the Death, even the Death of the Cro&s;s, wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
<PB N="68" REF="38">every name, that at the name of Je&s;us every Knee &s;hould bow, and every Tongue confe&s;s that Je&s;us is the Lord, to the Glory of God the Father.</HI> So that now to make more Mediators than Chri&s;t, is not onely to under|value his all-&s;ufficient Merits, to di&s;tru&s;t his never-fail|ing Intere&s;t and Power with God, but al&s;o to invade that Honour and Royalty that God hath conferred on him alone; by giving to Angels and Saints the &s;ame Power, they give them the &s;ame Honour too, and Chri&s;t is robbed of both, whil&s;t others are made to divide with him. But to which of the Angels or Saints departed, &s;aid God at any time, <HI>Sit thou on my right hand to make interce&s;&s;ion for Men?</HI> Of which of them has he at any time affirmed, as he has done of Chri&s;t, <HI>He is able to &s;ave them to the uttermo&s;t, that come to God by him, &s;eeing he ever lives to make Interce&s;&s;ion for men? That if any Man &s;in, he is an Advocate with the Fa|ther for him? Or what&s;oever ye &s;hall ask the Father in his Name, it &s;hall be given you?</HI> Certainly, they who will have Angels and Saints Mediators betwixt God and Men, ought to produce a Commi&s;&s;ion &s;igned by God or his Son Je&s;us, to con&s;titute them &s;uch; but this they are no more able to do, than they are to make a grant of &s;uch Power and Honour them&s;elves to them. It's true, the ble&s;&s;ed Spirits above are &s;aid to &s;tand about the Throne of God, and the Holy Angels to behold his Face; and as the Honour of a Prince is increa&s;ed by the number of his Attendants, &s;o is our Lords exaltation rendered the more Glorious by tho&s;e ten thou&s;and times ten thou&s;and that Mini&s;ter unto him; but yet it's never &s;aid, <HI>They &s;it at Gods right hand, or live for ever to make Interce&s;&s;ion for us;</HI> and having no &s;uch delega|tion of Power from God for this Office, the Honour and Wor&s;hip that belongs to it, can't be given to them, without manife&s;t Wrong and Sacriledge to Chri&s;t, who
<PB N="69" REF="38">has? The Holy Angels are Gods Mini&s;tring Spirits, and the Spirits of Ju&s;t Men departed, his Glorified Saints; but God hath made <HI>Je&s;us only Lord and Chri&s;t, and put all things</HI> in Heaven and Earth <HI>in &s;ubjection un|der his feet:</HI> of him only hath he &s;aid,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>John</HI> 5.23.</NOTE> <HI>Let all the An|gels Honour him, and let all the Saints fall down before him, and all Men Honour the Son even as they Honour the Father.</HI> Amen.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="conclusion">
<HEAD>To Conclude,</HEAD>
<P>WEre we certain that the Saints departed do now reign in Heaven and enjoy the Beati&s;ick Vi&s;i|on, and that it was lawful to Invocate &s;uch as are un|doubtedly Saints, as the Ble&s;&s;ed Virgin and the Holy Apo&s;tles; yet, methinks, a wary Man &s;hould be &s;hy, and not over-forward to exhibit that Honor to all whom the Pope hath Canoniz'd: I cannot for my heart but think, that the Prelates and Bi&s;hops in King <HI>Henry</HI> the Eighth's time had as much rea&s;on to Un&s;aint <HI>Thomas Becket</HI> for being a Rebel again&s;t his Prince, as Pope <HI>Alexander</HI> the Third had to Canonize him for being a Biggot for the Church. What can a &s;ober Chri&s;tian think of the Saint&s;hip of &s;ome, who never had any being in the World, and of others who never had any goodne&s;s; many of their Saints are meer Names, with|out Per&s;ons, and many meer Per&s;ons, without Holi|ne&s;s; nay, I am very confident that the greate&s;t In|cendiaries and Di&s;turbers of the Peace of the World do as well de&s;erve it as that famous Pope <HI>Hildebrand,</HI> or <HI>Gregory</HI> the Seventh. Innumerable might be in&s;tanc'd in, who&s;e Saint&s;hip ju&s;tly falls under great &s;u&s;picion;
<PB N="70" REF="39">but, it's enough that &s;ome <HI>Romani&s;ts</HI> them&s;elves, and tho&s;e of no little Authority in their Church, have gran|ted,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Bellar. de beat. Sanct. l.</HI> 1. <HI>c.</HI> 7, 8.</NOTE> <HI>That the Popes Canonizations are doubtful, and &s;ubject to error:</HI> If then at any time his Infallibility &s;hould chance to mi&s;take, as I am pretty &s;ure he has more than once done, the Members of that Church are in a &s;weet ca&s;e, and are not only in danger of Invocating Saints, but Devils al&s;o, which is Idolatry with a witne&s;s, and by their own Confe&s;&s;ion.</P>
</DIV2>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
