pray for us diminished the trust we have in God it would be no less condemnable to use it to the Living than to the Dead and St. Paul would not have said so often Brethren pray for us the whole Scripture is full of Prayers of this nature Thus the Author of the Character tells us In this he does not at all neglect coming to God or rob him of his honour but directing all his Prayers up to him and making him the ultimat Object of all his Petitions He only desires sometimes the just on Earth sometimes those in Heaven to joyn their Prayers to his that so the number of Petitioners being increased the Petition may find better acceptance in the sight of God and this is not to make them Gods but only Petitioners to God He having no hopes of obtaining any thing but of God alone This is the least that can possibly be made of that Worship they give to Saints which is not reconcileable with their practice neither and if it should appear that this as little as it is thought to be is to give that Worship to Creatures which is due to God they must e'en reject praying to Saints to pray for them as they now do trusting in their aid and assistances and power to keep them Now I only ask whether Prayer be not an Act of Religion and a worship due to God if it be not why do they pray to God if it be then they give the worship of God to Saints when they pray to them For it is not so much the matter of our Prayer as the nature of Prayer which makes it an Act of Religion We may pray to God for those things which men can give viz. Food and Raiment and yet these are as religious prayers as when we ask such things of God as none can give but himself and by the same reason though we pray to Saints only to do that for us which a creature can do that is only to pray to God for us yet our very praying to them is an Act of religious worship which is due only to God The truth is I am so dull that I cannot see what makes these new Reformers of the Roman-Catholick Doctrine and Worship so shy of owning any other aid and assistance which they expect from the Saints but only their Prayers for them for this makes no alteration at all in the nature of that worship they pay to them For suppose the Saints in Heaven who now reign with Christ as the Council affirms were intrusted with the Guardianship of men and the care of Saints on Earth as Cardinal Bellarmine expresly says they are might we not as lawfully pray to them to imploy that power God has committed to them for our good and happiness as to use their interest with God for us by their prayers Does one exalt you more above the condition of creatures than the other May we not beg our Friends on Earth to relieve our wants and necessities as well as to pray for us And if begging the prayers of our Friends on Earth will justifie our praying to the Saints in Heaven to pray for us our asking an Alms on Earth will equally justifie our begging the aid and assistance as well as prayers of the Saints in Heavâ—n and then we are just where we were And if ever there were any good Arguments against praying to Saints they are all good still though they pray to Saints only to pray for them which is my only business at present to shew according to the Bishop's desire that his Explication leaves all the Objections in full force and all the Disputes untouched So that setting aside the matter of our prayers or what it is we ask which makes no alteration in this case the inquiry is Whether when we pray to Saints we do not give that worship to them which is peculiar and appropriate to God Now the Church of Rome is so far from thinking such prayers to be the peculiar worship due to God that she thinks it as innocent to pray to the Saints in Heaven to pray for us as it is to desire the prayers of our Christian Brethren on Earth The Bishop says The Church in teaching us that it is profitable to pray to Saints teaches us to pray to them in the same spirit of Charity and according to the same order of fraternal Society which moves us to demand assistance of our Brethren living on Earth The Character to the same purpose makes our desiring sometimes the Saints on Earth sometimes those in Heaven to joyn their prayers with ours to be Actions of the very same nature and equally lawful This is the true Pinch of the Controversie and here it is we part with the Church of Rome that we think there is some difference between speaking to our Christian Brethren on Earth whom we see and converse with and praying to the Saints in Heaven with all the external expressions of religious worship and adoration The first is to converse with them as men the second is such a manner of Address as is proper only for a God To pray to Saints is somewhat more than to desire our Christian Friends to pray for us it is supplicitèr eos invocare as the Council of Trent speaks to invoke them or call on them in the manner of Supplicants so that this must be acknowledged a worship of the Saints and then it must be either a civil or religious worship and which of these two it is must be known by the manner of paying it And therefore when all the circumstances of worship are religious we must acknowledge the worship to be religious too Such as praying to them in religious Places in Churches and Chappels and at consecrated Altars with bended knees and hands and eyes lifted up in a very devout manner when they see no body to speak to or to receive their Addresses unless it be the Image of the Saint they worship Thus some Nations worship their Gods but no People ever paid their civil respects to each other in this manner But as I observed in my Reply p. 66. There is one infallible distinction between civil and religious worship between the worship of God and men That the worship of the invisible Inhabitants of the other World has always been accounted religious worship Civil respects are confined to this World as all natural and civil Relations which are the foundation of civil respects are but we have no intercourse with the other World but what is religious And therefore as the different kinds and degrees of civil honour are distinguished by the Sight of the Object to which they are paid though the external acts and expressions are the same as when men bow the body and are uncovered you know what kind of honour it is by seeing who is present whether their Father their Friend or their Prince or some other Honourable Person So the most certain mark of distinction between
had for the Pagan Deities in assuming their names and worship let others consider But to return to the Bishop He having assured us that the Church of Rome does not ascribe any divine perfections to the Saints of which the Reader may judge by what I have already discoursed he thus concludes It is therefore true that by examining what are our interiour Sentiments concerning the Saints it will be found we do not raise them above the condition of creatures and from thence we ought to judge of what nature that exteriour honour is which we render them exteriour Veneration being established to testifie the interior Sentiments of the mind That is we must conclude they do not give the worship of God to them because they do not believe them to be Gods Now this I confess would be true were the external Signs of honour wholly arbitrary and at our own choice for then they could signifie no more than what we intend to signifie by them and we ought not to be charged with intending to signifie more than what we profess to intend but when either the Act of worship naturally signifies divine perfections as prayer to an Invisible Being does or God has reserved any Acts of worship to himself as he has done all Religious Worship that is all Worship paid to Invisible Beings as I have already shewn in these cases we may be guilty of giving divine honours to creatures though in words and intention we ascribe no divine perfections to them So that I cannot see but that after all the fine colours and soft interpretations which the Bishop puts upon this practice of the Church of Rome in praying to Saints the charge against them of giving the peculiar worship of God to creatures is as strong and forcible as ever Secondly let us now consider whether our praying to the Saints to pray and intercede for us be not injurious to the Merits and Mediation of Christ. Now there are two things the Bishop urges to prove that the Mediation of Saints is not injurious to the Mediation of Christ. 1. That if the quality of Mediator which the Scriptures gives to Jesus Christ received any prejudice from the Intercession made to the Saints who raign with God it would receive no less from the intercession made to the Faithful who live with us For this he alledges the Authority of the Catechism ad Parochos which tells us That if it were not lawful to desire help of the Saints because we have one Patron or Mediator Jesus Christ the Apostle would not so earnestly have desired the Prayers of the Brethren who were then living to God for him For the glory and dignity of Christ as Mediator is not less diminished by the Prayers of the Living than by the Intercession of Saints in Heaven This is the least that can be made of it that the Mediation and Intercession of the Saints for us in Heaven is no more than one Christians praying for another on Earth and I fear this is not reconcileable with the practice of the Church of Rome in this matter For can this if it be no more be thought a sufficient foundation for all that pompous worship of the Virgin Mary and other powerful Saints Is this a good reason to erect Temples and Altars consecrated not only to their Memory but to their Honour to set up their Images in Holy Places and pay our humble Adorations before them because they pray for us in Heaven just as Christian Brethren pray for one another on Earth And therefore I must needs say the Bishop has not truly expounded the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in this Point which makes the Saints to be our Mediators in Heaven not indeed Mediators of Redemption which she acknowledges none to be but Christ who has purchased us with his own Blood but Mediators of Intercession who have so much interest and favour in the Court of Heaven as powerfully to recommend those to God who put themselves under their Patronage This I confess makes a great difference between the Mediation of Christ and of the Saints and yet leaves a great distance between the Prayers of Saints in Heaven for us and the mutual Intercessions of Christians for each other on Earth and the Church of Rome never taught that they were of the same nature for though the Catechism endeavours to prove that the Mediation and Intercession of the Saints in Heaven for us is not injurious to the Mediation of Christ because the Prayers of Christians for each other on Earth are very reconcileable with the Honour of Christ's Intercession yet it never teaches that there is no difference between the Prayers of Saints in Heaven and Christians on Earth and I think we ought to distinguish between the Doctrine and the Arguments of the Church What she declares to be her Doctrine we must own to be so but I think we must not grant every thing to be her Domakes which ought to be supposed to make her Arguments good because there is no necessity of granting that all her Arguments must be good This Argument indeed that the intercession of the Saints in Heaven is no more injurious to the Mediation of Christ than the Prayers and Intercessions of the Saints on Earth for each other cannot be good without supposing that the Intercessions of the Saints in Heaven are of the very same nature with the Prayers of Christians for each other on Earth and the Bishop takes the advantage to represent this as the Doctrine of the Church that she teaches us to pray to Saints in the same spirit of Charity and according to the same order of fraternal society which moves us to demand assistance of our Brethren living upon Earth But this I think is not reconcileable with the express words of the Council of Trent which founds the invocation of Saints upon their reigning with Christ which makes a vast difference between their interest and authority in the Court of Heaven and the humble supplications of Christians on Earth And I think the spirit of Charity and the order of fraternal society does not require us supplicitèr invocare to pray to our fellow Christians on Earth as humble Supplicants to pray for us as the Council teaches us to address our selves to the Saints in Heaven Christians indeed on Earth and Saints in Heaven since the Bishop has limited all their aid and assistance to their prayers can do no more than pray for us and are thus both of them distinguished from Christ who is our Mediator of Redemption who has bought us with his blood But then we ought to consider that there is a vast difference in prayers and prayers may prevail upon such different Reasons as may quite alter the nature of the Intercessions For is there no difference between the power and interest of a favourite to obtain what he desires of his Prince and the Petition of an ordinary Subject A Prince may grant the Petition
tacite acknowledgement that Jesus was born of her and that the Son must be a very Glorious Prince when the Mother is so highly exalted upon account of her Relation to him as to have so many devout Prayers and Hymns offered up to her But does this prove that the Prayers which are immediately directed to the Virgin Mary are principally directed to Christ because Mary was his Motâ—â—â— which is the whole Mystery of the business Suppose Christ should think himself honoured by those Prayers which are offered to his Mother yet is there no difference between praying to Christ and that Honour we do him in praying to his Mother A late Author indeed tells us that the Veneration which we give to Mary redounds to Jesus All Honour given to the Mother tending to the Glory of the Son for as he communicates with her in Flesh and Blood so also doth he partake with her in her Qualities and Perfections and therefore he is a sharer in that Homage and Observance that is made to her This is a new sort of Consubstantiation and Communication of Properties but yet how much soever we honour Jesus when we pray to Mary yet we do not pray to Jesus when we pray to Mary and therefore these Prayers are principally and immediately directed to Mary not to God or Christ and therefore to offer ten Prayers to Mary for one to God look very like honouring Mary much more than her Son or God the Father Well but she is the Mother of God and Blessed amongst Women but how does her being Christs Mother entitle her to a greater share in our Prayers and Devotions than Christ himself It is indeed a great Honour to her to be the Mother of Jesus but does this entitle her to that Worship and Homage which is due to her Son She is the happiest Mother among Women but does this advance her above Angels and Arch-Angels For my part I see no reason to think that her bearing Christ in her Womb which was a singular Favour conferred on her but has nothing of Merit in it should advance her above the most Eminent Apostles and Martyrs who with undaunted Courage and unwearied Industry propagated the Gospel throughout the World and were the great Ministers of his Kingdom I am sure our Saviour does not seem to attribute any such mighty Vertue to the Maternity of Mary when a certain Woman said unto him Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast sucked he answered yea rather Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it And in another place when some told him behold thy Mother and thy Brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee he answered and said unto him that told him who is my Mother And who are my Brethren and he stretched forth his hand towards his Disciples saying behold my Mother and my Brethren for whosever shall do the Will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Mother and Sister and Brother Which prefers his meanest Disciples before the Mother of his Flesh considered only as his Mother which he would not have done had the bare Maternity of Mary advanced her above all other Creatures Well but she is most acceptable to God in her Intercession for us Did the Angel tell them this too as well as that she is Blessed among Women Whence then do they learn it Is it only because she is a Mother Have all Mothers then such a natural Authority over their Sons even when they are Soveraign Princes Cannot the Eternal Son of God chuse an Earthly Mother but he must admit her into the Throne with him and govern his Kingdom if not by her Commands yet by her Importunities and Requests This is thought a great weakness in Earthly Princes and usually proves fatal to their Government and yet it is much more tolerable in Earth than in Heaven What has the Mother of his Flesh to do to intermeddle in the affairs of his Spiritual Kingdom which she is not capable of managing She had no Authority in the Church while she was on Earth which methinks her Maternity might give her as much Right to as to be Queen-Regent of Heaven When Christ was a Child he lived in Subjection to Mary and Joseph though he began early to give them a Specimen of a Superiour Power he had and such a work to do as discharged him from Subjection to Earthly Parents When he was but twelve years old he told his Mother how was it that ye sought me wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business When his Mother at the Marriage in Cana of Galilee acquainted him that their Wine was spent and insinuated her desire that he should help them he rebukes her for it Woman what have I to do with thee my hour is not yet come She was not to direct him what to do in such matters and can we think then that now he is advanced to the Right Hand of God he will suffer her to intermeddle in the administration of his Kingdom But our Author believes it damnable to think the Virgin Mary more powerful in Heaven than Christ or that she can in any thing command him It is well the Impera Redemptori command the Redeemer is at last disowned by them though it may be some may think it a little too much to call it damnable because whatever Papists believe now there was a time when this was used in the Missals of the Roman Church and will he say that it was damnable then to use that Hymn I believe no Papist ever thought the Virgin Mary to be-Omnipotent much less that she can do more than Christ can or can command him by a direct and Superior Authority nor did any man that I know of ever charge them with this and if it be only in this sense that he denies the Virgin to be more powerful in Heaven than Christ it is nothing to the purpose for it is possible for a Subject to be more powerful than his Prince though he cannot command him and can do nothing but by his Princes favour but if he have so much the ascendant of his Prince that he can deny him nothing that he does whatever he will have him and such things as no other consideration should incline him to do but the desire of such a powerful Favourite this man is really more powerful than the Prince because he has the direction and Government of the Princes Power He has the Prince himself in his Power and therefore is more powerful than he And if this be the case of the Blessed Virgin that she has the Disposal of Christ's Grace and Mercy though not by a direct Authority yet by her Interest in her Son if he never denies that which she asks but grants that at her Intercession which he would not grant without it if the Papists believe this they believe her to be more Powerful than Christ
admitted into God's immediate Presence our selves But could every ordinary Priest or Jew have been admitted into the Holy of Holies as the High-Priest was they might as well have offered their Prayers and Sacrifices there immediately to God without the Ministry and Mediation of the High-Priest and those who are in Heaven in the immediate presence of God if they offer up any Prayers to God for themselves or others they offer them immediately and directly to God because they offer them to God in his immediate Presence which is the true notion of Christ's Mediation that he appears in the presence of God for us And therefore whatever use there may be of the Name of Christ in Heaven Saints in Heaven who live in the immediate Presence of God have no need of a Mediator to offer their Prayers to God as Saints on Earth have because they are admitted to the immediate Vision of God themselves To offer up our Prayers to God in the Name and Mediation of Christ supposes that we are at a distance from God and not admitted into his Presence to speak for our selves but those Prayers which are offered to God in his immediate Presence need no Mediator to present them And yet to say that the Saints in Heaven offer their Prayers to God in the Name and Mediation of Christ is to say that when they are admitted to the immediate Presence of God themselves they still need a Mediator that the Prayers they offer to God in his immediate Presence they do not offer immediately to him but by the hands of a Mediator which if it be Sence I am sure is no good Divinity as neither agreeing with the Types of the Law nor with the Gospel-account of Christ's Mediation And therefore if glorified Saints appear for us in the presence of God in Heaven they are as much our Mediators as Christ is for this is the most essential Character of this Mediation that he appears in the presence of God for us The only Objection I can fore-see against this is that some of the ancient Fathers though they did not pray to Saints to pray for them yet were inclined to believe that Saints departed did Pray for the Church on Earth especially for their particular Friends which they left behind them and therefore to be sure did not think this any injury to the Mediation of Christ. But then we must consider that as they spoke doubtfully of this matter so those very Fathers did not believe that Saints departed were received up into the highest Heaven into the immediate Presence and Throne of God though they thought them in a very happy state yet not perfect till the resurrection and therefore they prayed for Saints departed as well as believed that Saints departed prayed for them Now any Mediation and Intercession on this side Heaven is very consistent with the Mediation of Christ in Heaven but to intercede in Heaven is his peculiar Office which no other Creature can share in since his Resurrection and Ascension This I think is sufficient to prove that Monsieur de Meaux his Exposition cannot reconcile Praying to Saints to Pray for us either with the peculiar Worship of God or with the Glory and Dignity of our great and only Mediator and Advocate Jesus Christ. The Character of a Papist Represented 3. Of addressing more Supplications to the Virgin Mary than to Christ. Monsieur de Meaux takes no notice of that peculiar kind of Worship which is paid in the Church of Rome to the Virgin Mary as being sensible how hard it is to reconcile this with his bare Ora pro nobis but the Representer who pretends to follow the Bishops Pattern but wants his Judgment and Caution to manage it undertakes to Apologize for this too and it is worth the while to consider what he says The Papist Mis-represented is said to believe the Virgin Mary to be much more powerful in Heaven than Christ and that she can command him to do what she thinks good and for this reason he Honours her much more then he does her Son or God the Father for one Prayer he says to God saying ten to the Holy Virgin Let us then consider how much of Mis-representation there is in this and I shall begin with the last first because mens Actions are the best Interpreters of their Thoughts and Belief The Papist for one prayer he says to God says ten to the Virgin Mary Is this mis-represented Let him but tell over his Beads and see how many Ave Maries and Pater nosters he will find upon a string which are exactly ten for one This he confesses and thinks it as innocent to recite the Angelical Salutation now as it was for the Angel Gabriel and Elizabeth to do it But did the Angel use it as a Prayer to the Virgin Mary Is Hail thou that art Highly favoured the Lord is with Thee blessed art thou amongst Women when spoken to the Virgin who was then present to hear it a friendly Saluation or a Prayer Was it delivering a Message or an act of Devotion Or is this the Ave Maria now in use in the Church of Rome As I remember there are two or three little words Ora pro nobis added to it which make it a Prayer not the Angelical Salutation And we do not read that the Angel said Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and in the hour of Death Indeed were it lawful to pray to the Virgin Mary I should have less to say against the frequent repetition of this prayer but yet a man might enquire why the prayer to the Virgin Mary is repeated so much oftner than the prayer to God is not this to honour her much more then he does her Son or God the Father For is not Prayer an act of Honour and Worship And do we not then honour that Being most to whom we pray oftenest No says the Representer for he does not at any time say even so much as one Prayer to her but what is directed more principally to God Surely there must be some Mystery in this For do they not say a great many Prayers immediately directed to the Virgin Mary and not at all directed to God Is not their Ave Maria such a Prayer and do they principally pray to God in those Prayers which are immediately directed to the Virgin Mary When they pray to the Virgin Mary to pray to them is this Prayer princâ—pally directed to God Almighty What when the Virgin is only named And the matter of the Prayer is such that it cannot be directed to God Almighty unless they think it proper to pray to God to pray for them Yes these Prayers to the Virgin are offered up as a thankful Memorial of Christ's Incarnation and an acknowledgement of the Blessedness of Jesus the fruit of her Womb. The meaning of which can be no more than this That when they Pray to Mary the Mother of Jesus it is a
his House So that there is no need to find any Hole as the Protestor speaks to get out at with the Altar for that was never in yet as far as this Controversy is concerned and therefore I am like to make no breach for him to follow at with his Image Nor does any Man kneel to the Sacrament but only receive the Sacrament kneeling and if he cannot distinguish between an Act of Worship to the Sacrament and a devout Posture of receiving it yet the meanest Son of the Church of England can Why does he not as well say that when we kneel at Prayers we worship the Common-Prayer Book which lies before us and out of which we read as that we worship the Bread when we receive and eat it with devout Passions upon our Knees But to return to the Exposition 2. I observe that there is a great difference between a memorative Sign and the Representation of an Image both of them indeed excite in us the remembrance of something but in such different manners as quite alter the nature of them It is necessary to take notice of this because I find Monsieur de Meaux and after him the Representer very much to equivocate in this Matter it is a very innocent thing to worship God or Christ when any natural or instituted Sign brings them to our minds even in the presence of such a Sign As if a Man upon viewing the Heavens and the Earth and the Creatures that are in it should raise his Soul to God and adore the great Creator of the World or upon the accidental sight of a natural Cross should call to mind the Love of his Lord who died for him and bow his Soul to him in the most submissive Adorations because I say this is very innocent the Bishop would perswade his Readers that this is the only use they make of Images to excite in us the remembrance of those they represent and mightily wonders at the little justice of those who treat with the term of Idolatry that religious Sentiment which moves them to uncover their Heads or bow them before the Image of the Cross in remembrance of him who was crucified for the Love of us And that it is sufficient to distinguish them from the Heathen Idolaters That they declare that they will not make use of Images but to raise the mind towards Heaven to the end that they may there honour Jesus Christ or his Saints and in the Saints God himself who is the Author of all Sanctity and Grace Now it is certain an Image will call to our remembrance the Person it represents as the presence of the Person himself will make us remember him but this vastly differs from a meer memorative Sign For the use of Images in the Church of Rome is not primarily for Remembrance but for Worship as the Council of Trent expresly teaches That the Images of Christ and the Virgin the Mother of God and other Saints are especially to be had and kept in Churches and due Honour and Veneration to be given to them because the Honour given to them is referred to the Prototypes which they represent so that by the Images which we kiss and before which we uncover our Heads and prostrate our selves we adore Christ and venerate the Saints whose likeness they bear These are the words of the Council and it would be a very odd Comment upon such a Text to say that Images serve only for Remembrance A meer Sign which only calls Christ to our Minds can deserve no Honour or Worship but a representing Sign which puts us in mind of Christ by representing his Person to us as if he were present whether it raises our hearts to him in Heaven or not yet according to the Council of Trent it must direct our Worship to him as represented in his Image When Men go to Church to worship Christ or the Virgin Mary before their Images it may be presumed they think of them before they see their Images and therefore do not go to be put in remembrance of them by their Images but to worship them before the Images in that Worship which they give to the Images And therefore when the Bishop speaks so often of the Virtue of Images to excite in us the remembrance of the Persons they represent to reconcile him with himself and with the Council of Trent which he pretends to own we must not understand him as if Images were of no use but to be helps to memory and are honoured for no other reason which is no reason at all as the unwary Reader will be apt to mistake him but that these visible Images represent to us the invisible Objects of our Worship and give us such a sense of their Power and Presence as makes us fall down and worship them before those Representations which we honour for their sakes that is tho they serve for remembrance yet not as meer memorative Signs but as memorative or representative Objects of Worship 3. I observe that it is the very same thing whether we say that we worship Christ as represented by the Image or worship the Image as representing Christ for they both signify that Christ is worshipped in and by his Image that the Honour and Worship is given to the Image and referr'd to the Prototype If Christ be worshipped as represented by the Image then the Worship which is intended for Christ is given to the Image in his Name and as his Representative if the Image be worshipped as representing Christ then the Worship which is given to the Image is not for it self but for Christ whom it represents which differ just as much as a Viceroy's being honoured for the King or the King 's being honoured in his Viceroy And therefore I wonder that any Man of Understanding and Judgment as Monsieur de Meaux certainly is should think there is any great matter in saying When we honour the Image of an Apostle or Martyr our Intention is not so much to honour the Image as to honour the Apostle or Martyr in the presence of the Image that is in and by the Image as I have showed that Phâ—â—se signifies when it is referred to a Representatiâ—◠〈◊〉 for it is the very same thing to say we honour the 〈◊〉 as representing the Martyr or we honour the Martyr as represented by the Image Having premised these things let us now compare the Opinion of Monsieur de Meaux with the Opinion of St. Thomas Aquinas about the Worship of Images and tho the first is thought by some Men to say a great deal too little and the other a great deal too much yet it will appear that their Opinions in this matter are the very same They both agree That Christ and his Saints are represented by their Images they both agree that Christ and his Saints are worshipped in their Images as represented by them they both agree that no other Worship is to be paid to or before or