over him as some favourites have over their Princes who can with a words speaking have any thing of them and extort favours from them even against their wills and inclinations No man can think there is any need of such Intercessours and Mediators with God who believes him to be infinitely wise and to be infinitely good to know when it is fit to hear and to answer and to be alwayes ready to do what his own wisdom judges fit to be done There can be no place for such intercessions and intreaties to an infinitely perfect Beeing For they alwayes suppose some great weakness or defect in him who want them for even a wise and a good man wants no Mediators to perswade him to do that good which is fit to be done The Objection against this is very obvious and the Answer I think is as easie The Objection is this If God be so good that he needs not such Prayers and Intercessions to move him to do good Why do we pray for our selves Why do we pray for one another Why do we desire the Prayers of good men here on earth Why is it a greater reproach to the Divine Perfections to beg the Prayers of St. Paul or St. Peter now they are in Heaven then to have begged their Prayers while they had been on Earth To this I answer When we pray for our selves I suppose we do noâ— pray as Mediators but as Supplicants and nothing can be more reasonable then that those who want mercy or any other blessing should ask for it It is certainly no reproach to the Divine goodness that God makes Prayer the condition of our receiving which is a very easie condition and very necessary to maintain a constant sense and reverence of God and a constant dependance on him And when we pray for one another on earth we are as meer supplicants as when we pray for our selves and to pray as supplicants is a very different thing from praying as Advocates as Mediators as Patrons The vertue of the first consists only in the power and efficacy of Prayer the second in the favour and interest of the person This the Church of Rome her self owns when she allows no Mediators and Advocats but Saints in Heaven which is a sign she makes a vast difference between the prayers of Saints on earth and Saints in Heaven There are great and wise reasons why God should command and encourage our mutual prayers for each other while we are on earth for this is the noblest exercise of universal love and charity which is a necessary qualification to render our prayers acceptable to God this preserves the unity of the body of Christ which requires a sympathy and fellow-feeling of each others sufferings this is the foundation of publick worship when we meet together to pray with and for each other to our common Father and it gives a great reputation to vertue and Religion in this world when God hears the prayers of good men for the wicked and removes or diverts those judgments which they were afraid of this becomes the wisdom of God and is no blemishâ—to his goodness to dispence his mercies and favours in such a manner as may best serve the great ends of Religion in this world God does not command us to pray for our selves or others because he wants our importunities and solicitations to do good but because it serves the publick ends of Religion and Government and is that natural homage and worship which Creatures owe to their great Creator and Beneâ—actor and Soveraign Lord. But to imagine that God needs Advocats and Mediators to solicite our cause for us in the Court of Heaven where none of these ends can be served by it this is a plain impeachment of his wisdom and goodness as if he wanted great importunities to do good and were more moved by a partial kindness and respect to some powerful Favourites then by the care of his Creatures or his love to goodness From hence it evidently appears how inconsequent that reasoning is from our begging the prayers of good men on earth to prove the lawfulness of our praying to the Saints in Heaven to pray and interceed for us the first makes them our fellow supplicants the second makes them our Mediators and Intercessors and how little the Church of Rome gains by that distinction between a Mediator of Redemption and Mediators of pure Intercession for though they pray to Saints and Angels only as Mediators of Intercession yet this is a real reproach to the nature and government of God a Mediator of Redemption is very consistent with the Divine glory and perfections a Mediator of pure intercession is not And the sum of all is this That it is so far from advancing the Divine glory to worship Saints and Angels together with God that it is a real reproach and dishonour to him and therefore this can be no Law nor Institution of our Saviour who came not to abrogate the Divine Laws but to fulfil and perfect them Some think there is no danger of dishonouring God by that honour they give to Saints and Angels because they honour them as Gods Friends and Favourites as those whom God has honoured and advanced to great glory and therefore whatever honour they do to them rebounds back again on God and this may be true while we give no honour to Saints and Angels but what is consistent with the Divine glory but when the very nature of that honour and worship we pay to them is a diminution of Gods glory and a reproach to his infinite perfections as I have made it appear the worship of Saints and Angels is surely it cannot be for Gods glory to advance his Creatures by lessening himself SECT VII 2. LEt us now consider whither the worship of Saints and Angels together with God be a more perfect state of Religion then the worship of God alone with respect to our selves whither it puts us into a more perfect and excellent state It does indeed mightily gratifie the superstition of mankind to have a multitude of Advocats and Mediators to address to but there are three considerations which may satisfie any man how far this is from a perfect state of Religion 1. That it argues very mean and low conceits of God for did men believe God to be so wise so good and so powerful as really he is they would be contented with one infinite God instead of ten thousand meaner Advocats The worship of Saints and Angels as I have already proved is a great reproach to the Divine perfections and therefore such worshippers must have very imperfect and childish apprehensions of the Supreme Beeing which is a plain proof what an imperfect state of Religion this is for the perfection of Religion is alwayes proportioned to that knowledge we have of God who is the object of it 2. This worship of Saints and Angels is a very servile state it subjects us to our fellow-creatures who are by
them Very remarkable is that form of Confession in the Reformed Roman Ordinar missae 217. Missal I confess to Almighty God to the ever blessed Virgin to Hessed Michael Arch-Angel to blessed John Baptist to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul to all the saints and to you Brethren that I have sinned in thought word and deed They make Vows to them nothing is more common then at entrance into Religious Orders thus Francis Albertin de Angel Custod p. 224. Horst in dedic sect 2. p. 83. to express their Devotion I Vow to God and the blessed Virgin then to Vow that their whole life shall be devoted to the blessed Virgin or some other Saint according to the famous Pattern I humbly beg of thee Oh Mother of all Clemency that thou wouldest vouchsafe to admit me into the number of those who have devouted themselves to thee to be thy perpetual servants Another of this kind not much inferiour to it we meet with in Horstius viz I firmly resolve henceforth to serve thee and thy Son with all Faithfulness and for ever to cleave to thee They offer up Laud and Praise to them and intreat them to hear and receive their Thanksgiving thus Brev. Rom in fest S. Jacob. to St. James they pray that he would joyfully hear the acknowledgements that as right and due they paid to him 'T is usual with their Learned Men to conclude their Books with praise to God and the Blessed Virgin particularly Valentia and Bellarmine the letter of which thus ends his Book concâ—rning the Worship of faints praise be to God and to the blessed Virgin also to Jesus Christ Morstius before had it thee and thy Son Bellarmine here the Blessed Virgin and then Jesus Christ whereby we Bellarm de cul-Sanct Lyon Edit Laus deo virginique Mariae Jesu item Christâ— may see they give her not only an equal part with God in their Praises but by placing her before Christ seem to give her somewhat of preeminence above him 5. They appoint Angels and saints Deputies and Lievtenants under God in the Government of the World and stick not to make them Cuardians Patrons and Patronesses over particular Kingdoms Cities Churches and single persons The Scripture indeed frequently speaks oft he Knowledge presence Dignity occasional Ministry and Embassies of holy Angels but that delegation of power the Romanists give them whereby they make them share Empire and Dominion with God in the Government of the world can be as little proved of them as of saints departed however I am chiefly to consider their Doctrine and practice in reference to the latter they teach the people to make choico of one or more out of the number of the saints to be their Patron to Love them to imitate them through their hands Horst parad Animae sect 2. to offer daily their works to God to commend themselves to their protection at all times especially 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 forementioned excellent Homily of our Church against Idolatry out of which I shall only â—ull some passages and refer â—he Reader for farther satisfaction to the Homily it self it compares such saints in the Roman Church to whom they allot Homil of Idolat the defence of certain countries to the Dii Tutelares of the Gentile Idolaters such to whom the safety of certain Cities are cammitted to their Dii presides and such to whom Temples and Churches are Builded and Altars Erected to their Dii Patroni it tâ—lls us that the Romanists have no fewer saints then the Heathens had Gods to whom they give the Honour due to God every Artificer and profession has his special saint as a peculiar God for example Scholars have St. Nicholas and St. Gregory Painters St. Luke neither lack souldiers their Mars not Lovers their Venus amongst Christians The sea and waters amongst the Romanists as well as Cities and Countries have their special Saints to preside over them as amongst the Heathens they had Gods all diseases have their special Saints as Gods the Curers of them the Pox St. Roch the Falling-Evil St. Cornelis the Toothach St. Apollonia neither do Beasts and Cattle lack their Gods with us for St. Loy is the Horsleach and St. Anthony the swineheard c. where is Gods Providence and due Honour in the mean time Who saith the Heavens be mine the Earth is mine the whole World and all that therein is but we have left him neither Heaven nor Earth nor Water nor Country nor City Peace nor War to Rule and Govern neither Man nor Beasts nor their diseases to Cure and as if we doubted of his ability or will to help we joyn to him another as if he were a Noun Adjective using these sayings such as Learn GOD and St. Nichol as be my speed such as sâ—eese GOD help and St. John to the Horse God and St. Loy save thee thus are we become like Horses and Mules that have no understanding Oh Heavens Oh Earth What madness and wickedness against God are Men fallen into What dishonour do the Creatures to their Creator and Maker This is not written to reproach the Saints but to condemn the Foolishness and Wickedness of Men who make of the true servants of GOD false Gods by attributing to them the Power and Honour which is Gods and due to him only II. On what occasion this Doctrine and Practice began and spread in the Church GReat was the Honour the Primitive Christians had for the Martyrs and Confessors they frequented their Tombs erected Altars on the places of their burial highly esteemed their bones and reliques â—here they rehearsed their good works done in their life time and their Faith Patience and Constancy shewed at Death here they blessed God for that Grace that was given to them and for that good that accrued to themselves by their example here they proposed their vertues for imitation and had their own Piety and Zeal enflamed by the remembrance of them and the Christian cause being then harassed on every side by implacable Enemies the Malice of the Jew and the subtity of the Greek and the Power of the Roman combining with their united force to destroy and root it up it pleased God not only by the demonstration of a Divine power in the Apostles and their immediate Successors whilst they were alive but also by many wonderful things done at their Tombs when the were dead and by sensibly answering Prayers that were there puup to him to confiâ—m the Truth of Christianity to declare hi approbation of the sufferings of his servants and to encourage others to Seal the Doctrine of the Gospel with their Blood as they bad done To them in a particular manner may that of the Apostle be applied Wâ—om GOD did foreknow Rom. 8. 29 30. them he did predestinate
Vials full of Odours which are the Prayers of Saints By the prayers of Saints they mean of those Saints that arâ— living upon the Earth and by the Four Beasts and Twenty Four Elders 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 But now if they are mistaken in the â—ense of this Text and by the Four Beasts and Twenty four Elders are not mean'd the Memberâ— of the Church triumphant but the Bishops and Elders of the Church Miliâ—ant Whose Office it is to represent the Prayers and Praises of the Church to God then this cannot afford them the least shew of a reason for their Invocation Dr. Hamonâ— and many other Learned Expositors are of opinion that either this whole Text is nothing but a representation of the Church below offering up prayers by their Pastors who are the Mouths of the Congregation to God through the Lamb and it 's said veâ—se 10. That they shall Reâ—gn upon the Earth or else a representation of the whole Church of Christ boâ—h in Heaven and Earth joyning together in their Doxâ—logies and Praises to God for the Victâ—ries of the Lamb and the Redemption of the World by his blood and for this sense the next veâ—sâ— seems to give it where they are said to Sing a new Song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and for thou wast sâ—ain and redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation Another place to be explained which they sometimes mention as on their side is Revel â— 10. Where the Souls of the Martyrs under the Altar are said to cry How long Oh Lord Holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth Now say they if the Souls of Martyrs pray for Vengance upon their Persecutors and Murderers much more may we suppose them to pray for Mercy and Deliverances for their Fellow-Members and Sufferers To this may be replied That these words cannot signify a formal Prayer of the Martyrs to God for Revenge on their Persecutors they who after their Lord's example Prayed God to forgive their Murderers when they were on Earth cannot be supposed now they are in a more perfect State to Pray for Vengeance upon them but the words are only an Emblem and representation of the certainty of Dr. Ham. God's judgments and Vengeance overtaking them by the Souls of them that were stain and cry under the Altar is mean'd their blood and the Sin of Murthering them and as we are wont to say Murther is a crying Sin and as it 's said that Abel's blood cryed for Vengance so the Sin of shedding their blood cryed ' that is would certainly awake and provoke the justice of God to take Vengeance on them for it This is well explained Esdr 2. 15. by a passage in the book of Esdras Behold the Innocent and Righteous blood cryeth unto me and the Souls of the just complain continually and therefore saith the Lord I will surely Avenge them c. But Let their inference be granted that the Souls of Martyrs in the future State do Pray for their Fellow Sufferes 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 Lastly they cite Gen. 48. 16. When Jacob blessing the two Sons of Joseph thus prayes The Angel that redeemed me from all Evil bless the Lads this will require no long answer God being pleased often to make use of the Ministry of Angels in sending succour and relief to good Men Jacob Prayed not unto the Angel but to God that he would appoint the same bessed Angel that administred unto him in all his streights to be the instrument of his good providence to those two Sons of Joseph whom he had now made his own and caused them to be called after his name Or else If the Patriarch must be thought here to have Prayed to the Angel we must suppose with Athanasius and others of the Fathers that Angel to be Christ the Son of God And the same answer is to be given to Revel 8 4. Where it 's said That the smoke of the Incense which came with the Prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand that is Christ's the Angel of the Covenant and therefore this Angel that offered up the Prayers of the Saints is called verse 3. Another Angel intimating that it was a special Angel one different both in Nature and Office from the other seven mentioned verse 2. and described there as Ministring Spirits And I saw the seven Angels which stood before God c. verse 2. and then â— 3. And another Angel came c. IV. That there is no proof for it from the Fathers of the first three hundred years and more THe Trent Fathers and the Catechism put out by Concili Trident. sess 25. Catech. Rom. par 3. c. 2. their Authority having declared invocation of Saints to be a custom received and continued in the Church ever since the Apostles time the Romish Authors have not been wanting to turn every Stone to search every Author to produce and strain every sentence and expression that looks that way to the height in order to the making it good but how short their proofs fall of it will be made evident by these following particulars 1. Those that have taken the most pains to seek for Testimonies have not been able to produce any tolerable one out of the Genuin Writings of the Fathers within the first three hundred years after Christ they cite indeed the Hierarchy of Dionisius Areopagita Origeâ—s comments on the second Chapter of Job and the twenty first of Numbers the works of St. Ephroem and Athanasius's of the most Holy Mother of God but these have been sufficiently proved by many of our Learned Men and acknowledged by some of no obscure fame amongst them to be spurious Mons Dal. Coc. Censur Patr. in D. Areâ—p Rivet in Crit Sac. Bellar. de Scrip. Eccl. and falsly father'd on them and then for their proofs out of Irenaeus Eusebius and St. Ambrose it 's easy to shew that the first is grosly misunderstood the second corrupted and third retracted by that Father Irenoeus indeed is an Ancient Father and of sufficient Authority but his words are little to their Irenoeus Adver Haer. l. 15. c. 10. purpose they are these Sicut Eva seducta est ut effugeret Deum sic Maria suasa est obedire Deo ut Virginis Evoe Virgo Maria fieret Advocata Wherein the blessed Virgin Mary is termed the Advocate of Eve Now to make this a pat proof for their Invocation they must put this sense upon it that the blessed Virgin being a Glorified Saint in Heaven did at the request and desires of Eve living upon Earth represent her
that she died and was not miraculously assumed The Ascension of Elias is thus expounded b Dom. infrâ Oct. Asc in 3. Noct. p. 443. He was taken up into the Aerial not the Aetherial Heavens from whence he was dropped in an obscure place on Earth there to remain to the end of the World and then to expire with it They say †Infra Oct. Asc 3. Noct. Lect. 8. p. 447. of Job That when he spake of a Bird and of her path in the Air he by a figure called Christ a Bird and by the motion of it in the Air figured also our Lords Ascension We may perceive by these few Instances what an entrance into the sense of Scripture is like to be given whilst a Pope has the Key of Knowledge in his keeping Thirdly If Men would use the Church as their Assert III. Ministerial Guide and admit of the scripture as the only Rule by which all Matters of Faith are to be measured they would agree in the proper means to the blessed end of Unity in the Faith This was the perswasion of St. Austine who thus applieth himself to Maximinus * S. Aug cont Max. l. 3. Neither ought I at this time to alledge the Council of Nice nor you that of Ariminum For neither am I bound to the authority of the one nor you to that of the other Let us both dispute with the Authorities of scripture which are Witnesâ—es common to both of us Whilst the Romanists ascribe the differences which arise amongst the Reformed to their want of an infallible Guide and to their different interpretations of the scriptures they unskilfully derive effects from causes which are not the natural Parents of them There is saith St. Austine one Mother of all strifes and she is Pride Neither doth the scripture divide us nor does the infallibility of their judge unite them Their Union such as it is ariseth from the mighty force of their external Polity and they speak not differently because they dare not and the strength of that Polity arose at first from Rome not as the Chair of St. Peter but as the Seat of the Empire Our divisions like theirs arise as all Wars do be they Ecclesiasticall or Civil from the unruly Lusts and Passions of Men. And from these likewise arise generally the misinterpretations of plain Laws and Rules the sense of which must be made to chime according to the Interest of prejudiced Men or else they will not give attention to them If the Lusts and Passions of Men were mortified all Christians agreeing in the certainty of the Scriptures though not of any Living Guide and the words of one being as intelligible as those of the other All might agree in one Creed and put an end to those unnecessary Controversies which entangle Truth and extinguish Charity FINIS THE PROTESTANT RESOLUTION OF FAITH Being an Answer to THREE QUESTIONS I. How far we must depend on the Authority of the Church for the true sense of the Scripture II. Whither a visible Succession from CHRIST to this day makes a Church which has this Succession an infallible Interpreter of Scripture and whither no Church which has not this Succession can teach the true sense of Scripture III. Whither the Church of ENGLAND can make out such a visible Succession London Printed And Edinburgh Re-printed by J. Reid for T Brown G Schaw A Ogston and G Mosman Stationers in Edinburgh to be sold at their Shops 1686. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THese Papers which are here presented to thee were write for the use of a private Person and by the Advice of some Friends are now made Publick We find how busie the Romish Emissaries are to corrupt our People and think our selves equally concerned to Antiaote them against Popâ—â—y and Phanaticism Two extreams equally dangerous to the Government of Church and State in these Kingdoms both in their Principles and Practices and both of them very great Corruptions of the Christian Religion and very dangerous to mens Souls Some of our Clergy have already been so charitable to our Dissenters as to warn them of their danger and by the Strength and Evidence of Scripture and Reason to Convince them of their mistakes and I pray God forgive those men and turn their Hearts who will not contribute so much to their own Conviction and Satisfaction as diligently and impartially to read and consider what is so charitably offered to them Ignorance and mistake may excuse men whâ— have no opportunities of knowing better but such wilfull and resolved Ignorance which bars up mens miâ—ds against all means of better Information will as soon damn them as sins against knowledge And now it might justly be thought want of charity to those of the Roman communion should we take no care at all of them nay want of charity to those of our own communion and to Dissenters themselves who are daily assaulted by the busie Factors for Rome For the Disputes against the church of Rome as well as against Dissenters are for the most part too Learned and too Voluminous for the instruction of ordinary People and therefore some short and plain Discourses about the principal Matters in dispute between us is the most effectual way we can take to confirm men in their Religion and preserve them from the crafty Insinuations of such as lie in wait to deceive Some few Attempts which have been already made of that kind give me some hope that several other Tracts will follow that the ruine of the church of England if God shall please ever to permit such a thing whither by Popery or Phanaticism may not be charged upon our neglect to instruct People better Some Persons it seems whose Talent lies more in censuring what others do then in doing any good themselves are pleased to put some sinister constructions on this Design as it is imposible to design any thing so well but men of ill minds who know not what it means to do good for goods sake shall be able to find some bad name for it Some guess that we now write against Popery only to play an after-Game and to regain the Favour and good Opinion of Dissenters which we have lost by writing against them But I know not that any man has lost their Favour by it nor that any man values their Favour for any other reason then to have the greater advantage of doing them good If so good a work as confuting the Errors of the church of Rome will give the Dissenters such a good Opinion of us as to make them more impartially consider what has been writ to perswade them to communion with the church of England I know â—â— reason any man has to be ashamed to own it though it were part of his design but whither it is or not is more then I know I dare undertake for those Persons I am acquainted with that they neither value the favour nor fear the displeasure either of Phanaticks
of civil honour due to beasts as that there is an inferiour degree of Religious Worship due to some men For all degrees of Religious Worship are as peculiar and appropriate to God as civil respects are to men and as the highest degree of civil honour is to a Soveraign Prince However should we grant that some excellent Creatures might be capable of some inferiour degrees of Religious Worship yet as the Prince is the fountain of civil honour which no subject must presume to usurp without a grant from his Prince so no creature how excellent soever has any natural and inherent right to any degree of Religious Worship and therefore we must not presume to worship any Creature without Gods command nor to pay any other degree of worship to them but what God hath prescribed and instituted and the only way to know this is to examine the Scriptures which is the only external revelation we have of the will of God Let us then inquire what the sense of Scripture is in this controversie and I shall distinctly examine the testimonies both of the Old and New Testament concerning the object of Religious Worship SECT II. The Testimonies of the Mosaical Law considered TO begin with the Old Testament and nothing is Sect 3. 1. more plain in all the Scripture then that the Laws of Moses confine â— Religious worship to that one Supreme God the Lord Jehovah who Created the Heavens and the Earth For 1. The Israelites were expresly commanded to worship the Lord Jehovah and to worship no other Beeing as our Saviour himself assures us who I suppose will be allowed for a very good Expositor of the Laws of Moses It is written Matth. 4. 10. Deut. 6. 13. Deutr 10. 10. thou shalt worship the Lord they God and him only shalt thou serve In the Hebrew Text from whence our Saviour cites this Law it is only said Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him without that addition of him only And yet both the Septuagint and the vulgar Latine read the words as our Saviour doth him only shalt thou serve and the authority of our Saviour is sufficient to justifie this Interpretation and withal gives us a general rule which puts an end to this controversie that as often as we are commanded in Scripture to worship God we are commanded also to worship none besides him For indeed the first Commandment is very express in this matter and all other Laws which concern the obiect of Worship must in all reason be expounded by that Thou shalt have none other Gods before me The Septuagint 20 Exod. 3. renders it plen emu besides me so does the Chaldee Syriack and Arabick to the same sense And it is universally concluded by all Expositors that I have seen that the true interpretation of this Commandment is that we must worship no other God but the Lord Jehovah To pay Religious Worship to any Beeing does in the Scriptures notion make that Beeing our God which is the only reason why they are commanded not to have any other Gods For there is but one true God and therefore in a strict sense they can have no other GODS because there are no other Gods to be had but whatever Beeings they worship they make that their God by worshiping it and so the Heathens had a great many Gods but the Jews are commanded to have but one GOD that is to worship none else besides him In other places GOD expresly forbids them to worship any strange Gods or the Gods of the people or those Nations Deut. 6. 14 that were round about them And least we should suspect that they were forbid to worship the Gods of the people only because those Heathen Idolaters worship Devils and wicked Spirits the Prophet Jeremiah gives us a general notion who are to be reputed false GODS and not to be worshipped Thus shall ye say unto them the Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Jer. 10. 11. Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens So that whatever Beeing is worshipped whither it be a good or a bad Spirit which did not make the Heavens and the Earth is a false GOD to such Worshippers and I suppose the Church of Rome will not say that Saints or Angels or the Virgin Mary as much as they magnifie her made the Heavens and the Earth And then according to this rule they ought not to be worshipped But to put this past doubt that the true meaning of these Laws is to forbid the worship of any other Beeing besides the Supreme GOD I shall observe two or three things in our Saviours answer to the Devils temptation which will give great light and strength to it 1. That our Saviour absolutely rejects the worship of any other Beeing together with the Supreme GOD. The thing our Saviour condemns is not the renouncing the worship of God for the worship of Creatures for the Devil never tempted him to his but the worship of any other being besides GOD though we still continue to worship the Supreme GOD. It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Which is a plain demonstration that men may believe and worship the Supreme God and yet be Idolaters if they worship any thing else besides him The Devil did not desire our Saviour to renounce the worship of the supreme God but was contented that he should worship God still so he would but worship him also And therefore it is no reason to excuse the Church of Rome from Idolatry because they worship the supreme God as well as Saints and Angels this they may do and be Idolaters still for Idolatry does not consist meerly in renouncing the worship of the supreme God but in worshipping any thing else though we continue to worship him When the Jews worship'd their Baalims and false gods they did not wholly renounce the worship of the God of Israel and the Heathens themselves especially the wisest men amongst them did acknowledge one supreme God though they worshiped a great many inferiour Deities with him 2. Our Saviour in his answer to the Devils temptation does not urge his being a wicked and Apostate Spirit an enemy and a rebel against God but gives such a reason why he could not worship him as equally excludes all Creatures whither good or bad Spirits from any right to Divine Worship Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Him and none else whither they be good or bad spirits for our Saviour does not confine his answer to either and therefore includes them both When we charge the church of Rome with too plain an imitation of the Pagan Idolatry in that worship they paid to their inferiour Daemons which was nothing more then what the Church of Rome now gives to Saints and Angels they think it a sufficient answer that the Heathens worshiped Devils and Apostate Spirits
this was not done why we are not directed to pray to Saints and Angels and Images c. but the argument lies in this that there can be no alteration made in the object of worship without an express Law and therefore there is no alteration made because there is no such Law in the Gospel The Jews were expresly commanded to worship no other Beeing but the Lord Jehovah as I have already proved which Law appropriates all the acts of Religious worship to one God and therefore all those who were under the obligation of this Law as to be sure all natural Jews were could not without the guilt of Idolatry give any Religious worship to any other Beeing till this Law were expresly repeated and express leave given to worship some other Divine Beeings besides the Supreme God so that at least our Saviour himself while he was on Earth and subject to the Law and his Apostles and all believing Jews were oblidged by this Law to worship none but God unless we can shew where Christ by his Legislative Authority or his Apostles by Commission from him have expresly repealed this Law nay indeed unless we can shew that Christ himself repealed this Law and taught the worship of Saints and Angels Mat. 28. 20 the Apostles themselves could have no authority to do it for their Commission was only to teach what Christ had commanded them which though it does not extend to matters of order and discipline and the external circumstances of worship yet it does as to all essentials of Faith and worship and I think the right object of Worship is the most essential thing in Religious Worship From hence it appears that at least all the Jewish Christians in the Apostles dayes and all succeeding Ages to this day cannot worship Saints and Angels without Idolatry because the Law which was given to them and never yet repealed commands them to worship none but God and if Gentile Converts were received into the Jewish Christian Church and Christ has but one Church of Jews and Gentiles they must also be oblidged by all those Laws which were then and are still obligatory to all believing Jews and therefore Gentile as well as Jewish Christians are still bound to worship none but God Now I think I need not prove that an express Law can be repealed onely by an express Law That Law which commands us to worship God and him only must continue in full force till GOD do as expresly declare that he allows us to pay some degree of Religious Worship to other Beeings besides himself When a Law-giver has declared his will and pleasure by a Law it is not fit that Subjects should be allowed to guess at his mind and dispute away an express Law by some surmises and consequences how probable soever they may appear for at this rate a Law signifies nothing if we may guess at the will of our Law-giver without and against an express Law And yet none of the Advocates of the Church of Rome though they are not usually guilty of too much modesty ever had the confidence to pretend an express Law for the worship of Saints and Angels and Images c. and though they sometimes alledge Scripture to prove this by yet they do not pretend that they are direct proofs but only attempt to prove some other Doctrines from Scripture from which they think they may prove by some probable consequences that which the Scripture no where plainly teaches nay the contrary to which is expresly taught in the Scripture And if this may be allow'd I know no law of God so plain and express but a witty man may find wayes to escape the obligation of it This is a consideration of great moment and therefore I shall discourse more particularly of it The Law of Moses expresly commands us to worship GOD and him only Our Saviour Christ owns and confirms the authority of this Law in the Gospel the Church of Rome notwithstanding this Law gives Religious Worship to Creatures the question then is how she avoids the force of this Law since it is no where expresly repealed and she does not pretend that it is Now the Patrons of Creature-worship thinks to justifie themselves from the breach of this Law these three ways 1. By consequences drawn as they pretend from other Scripture-Doctrines 2. By distinctions And 3. By authority Let us then examine whither all this have any force against an express Law which was never expresly repealed 1. By consequences drawn as they pretend from other Scripture-Doctrines and I shall discourse this with a particular reference to the Invocation of Saints For when they would prove the lawfulness of praying to Saints they alledge no direct proof of this from Scriptureâ— but because they must make a shew of saying something from Scripture when they are to deal with such Hereticks as will be satisfied with no less authority they endeavour to prove something else from Scripture from whence they think by an easie consequence they can prove the lawfulness of praying to Saints Thus they very easily prove that we may and ought to pray for one another and to desire each others prayers while we are on Earth and from hence they presently conclude that we may as lawfully pray to Saints in Heaven to pray for us as beg and desire their prayers while they are one Earth And to confirm this they endeavour to prove that some extraordinary Saints whose merits are very great do directly ascend up into Heaven unto the immediate presence of God and a participation of his Glory and hence they conclude that they have authority and power to help us and to intercede for us and that they are so far advanced above us in this mortal state that they deserve some kind of Religious Honour and Worship from us as being Dii per participationem Gods by participation that is by partaking in the Divine Nature and Glory by their advancement to Heaven And if after all this they can prove that the Saints in Heaven do pray and intercede for us on Earth they think the demonstration is complete and perfect that therefore * Bonum atque utile esse suppliciter Sanctos invocare ad beneficia impetranda a Deo per filium ej us Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum qui solus noster Redemptor Salvator est ad eorum orationes opem auxlium que confugere Conc. Trin. 16. 25. de Invocat It is good and profitable as the Council of Trent words it huâ—bly to invock the Saints after the manner of Suplicants and to â—â—y to their prayers and help and aid to obtain blessings of God by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who is our only not Intercessor and Advocate but Redeemer and Saviour Now how they prove all this is not my business at present to enquire but my inquiry is whither such arguments as these be sufficient to oppose against the authority of an express Law and if
Though we should grant that God if he pleased might allow us to worship Saints and Angels as the Church of Rome does without any diminution of his own Glory which is the most that all their arguments can pretend to prove yet it does not hence follow that we may worship them when God by an express Law has declared that he will not allow it No arguments nor consequences can prove that God allows us to do that which by an express Law he has forbid us to do No reason can prove that to be Gods will which he has publickly declared in his Law to be against his will 4. That no reason or arguments can absolve us from our obedience to any express Law till it be as expresly repealed appears from this that our obligation to obedience does not depend meerly upon the reason of the Law but upon the authority of the Law-giver and therefore though the reason of the Law should cease yet while it is inforced by the same authority it oblidges still Thus I am sure it is in humane Laws and it is very fiting it should be so meer reason cannot make a Law for then every thing which is reasonable would be a necessary duty that which is reasonable may be fit matter for a Law but it is the authority of the Law-giver which makes the Law and the same authority which at first made it a Law continues it to be a Law while the authority lasts though the particular reason for which it was enacted into a Law may cease So that though the Church of Rome could prove that there is no reason now against the worship of Saints and Angels that all those reasons for which God forbad the Jews to worship any one but himself were now ceased yet till the Law be repealed too it is utterly unlawful to worship any Beeing besides the Supreme God and yet this is the most that all their reasonings come to that there is not the same reason for this Law under the State of the Gospel that there was under the Jewish Oeconomy They suppose that God forbad the Jews to worship any one but himself because they were in great danger of falling into Pagan Idolatries and worshipping the Gods of the Aegyptians and other Neighbour-Nations and that this was the case also of the Christian Church at the first planting of the Gospel but now there is no danger of worshipping false Gods we may very securely worship the Friends and Favourites of God They suppose that all the ancient Patriarchs who lived before the Resurrection of Christ were not received into Heaven and therefore not being in a state of Bliss and Glory themselves were not yet capable of Divine Honours could neither know our Prayers nor intercede for us But now at last some eminent Saints and Martyrs ascend directly into Heaven and are the Beati advanced to such a state of Happiness and Glory that they are fit objects of Religious Worship and are so powerful in the Court of Heaven that God denies them nothing which they ask and so tender and eompassionate to us that they readily undertake our Cause and intercede for us and therefore it is very good and profitable now to invoke their aid and assistance by solemn and devout Prayers And though the learndest men among them are put to miserable shifts to prove the least part of all this yet let us for argument-sake suppose all this to be true that things are mightily changed since the making of this Law and that there is not the same reason now to confine all Religious Worship to God alone that there was in the time of Moses what follows from hence that therefore we may now worship Saints and Angels notwithstanding this Law which forbids it by no means unless they can prove that the Law is repealed too as well as the reason ceased Here is the authority of the Law-giver still though we should supose that we had lost the reason of the Law till the Law is as expresly repealed as it was given it is God Will still and that is reason enough to bind the Law upon us though other reasons fail The reason if we speak of such reasons as these which the Church of Rome assigns for it is a different case if we speak of eternal and necessary reason which is nothing else but the eternal and immutable nature and will of God which is an eternal Law did not make the Law and the change of the reason cannot repeal it And since we see that God has not repealed this Law we rather ought to conclude that we are mistaken in the reasons for which God made this Law or that there are other reasons which we know not of for which he continues it we may indeed reasonably suppose that God will repeal a Law when the reasons for which it was given ceases though earthly Princes may not alwayes do so but still the Law binds till it be repealed and it is more reasonable to conclude that the reason of the Law continues while we see God does not repeal it then first to perswade our selves that the reason of Law is changed and thence infer the repeal and abrogation of the Law when we see no such thing done 5 That these arguments which the Roman Doctors urge to justifie their worship of Saints and Angels are of no force to repeal that Law which forbids the worship of any other Beeing besides the Supreme God appears from this that they had no force in them to prevent the making of this Law and therefore much less can they repeal it now it is made The reasons which they use had the same force then which they have now and if notwithstanding all the reasons God thoughâ— fit to forbid the worship of all Created Beings it is ridiculous to imagine that these reasons should supersede the obligation of that Law which is made in contradiction to all such reasonings as to shew this briefly They prove that we may pray to Saints and Angels to pray for us because we may desire good men on earth to pray for us Now suppose we could not assign the difference between praying to Saints in Heaven and desiring the prayers of Saints on earth yet I would desire to know whither good men did not pray for one another and desire each others prayers before and after God gave this Law on Mount Sinai which forbids the Religious worship and invocation of any other Beeing but himself if good men did in all ages pray for one another and desire one anothers prayers and God allowed and approved of this then it seems God did not think this a good reason for praying to Saints and Angels in Heaven because good men might beg each others prayers on earth for if he had he would not have made that Law which forbids such a Religious Invocation of any Creature And if notwithstanding this reason which had as much force then as it has now God made
ends then to triflle with to Pray to them For to what purpose should they Pray to them that can't hear them Why should they beseech those to be their Advocates to God and recommend their particular cases to him whose cases they cannot by any way that we know of come to understand As for their Learning and seeing all things in the Glass of the Trinity or learning them by particular revelation from God as God has declared no such thing to us so is it not to be known by the Light of Nature but the contrary is very probable if not certain as shall be made to appear in the sequel of this Discourse It is not denyed but that blessed Spirits who are safely landed upon the Shore do pray for their Partners who are still 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 Relations whose necessities and infirmities they were well acquainted with before they left the Body so 't was agreed betwixt St Cyprian and Cornelius that who went first to Glory should be mindful of the others condition to God for why should their Memories or their Charity be thought to be less in Heaven then they were on Earth We know 't was the practice of some good Men in the Primitive times to recommend themselves to the Prayers of the Saints that is to desire God to hear the Prayers that the Saints in Heaven did make in their behalf and to apply themselves to the Martyrs a little before their suffering when they themselves were entred into bliss to interceed with God for those who were yet on the way passing thither with fear and trembling But now is there no difference betwixt the Saints intercessions for us and our Invocation of them Betwixt their Praying for us in Heaven and our Praying to them on Earth Is there no difference betwixt one Living Christian Praying to another to Pray for him who hears his request and who is acquainted with his condition and our addressing to Saints departed to pray for us who know us not and who are are ignorant of our state Again when they pray to Saints departed they do it with all the Rites and Solemnities of a Religious Worship in sacred offices upon their Knees with uncovered Heads with Hands and Eyes lifted up in times and places dedicated to Gods Worship now though it should be true that they do no more then Pray to Saints to pray for them yet doing it in that manner with such external Acts of Devotion that are confest to be the same wherewith we call on God I do not see how they can be excused even on this account from attributing that Honour to the Creature which is due only to the Creator As God is owned to be infinite in himself and to have incommunicable perfections so there ought to be some peculiar and appropriate Acts and signs of Worship to signify that we do inwardly so esteem and believe of God and when these are once determined by the Law of God or the universal reason and consent of Mankind the applying them to any else but him is a plain violating his peculiarities and robbing him of his Honour And now in this respect also I cannot discern how the Romish Invocation of Saints is of the same nature with our requesting our Fellow-Members to pray for us For not to mention again the presence of these and the absence of the other is there no difference betwixt my desiring an eminently good Christian 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 request Would not every good Man that has any regard for the Honour of God presently shew his detestation of such an action Would he not say to me as St. Peter to Cornelius falling down before him Stand up I my self also am a Man Would he not with St. Paul have rent his Garments and with much Holy indignation cryed out to me as he to the Men of Lystra designing the same Honours to him and Barnabas wherewith they Worship'd their Gods Why do ye these things we also are Men of like Passions with you As the Saints in Heaven cannot be supposed to lose any thing of their Love and Charity towards their Fellow-Members by going thither so neither can they be thought to abate any thing of their Zeal and fervour for the honour of God and therefore certainlie what they did and would have refused here on Earth they must with higher degrees of abhorrence reject now they are in Heaven Moreover if this be all they mean by all their several Offices of Devotions to Saints departed that they should pray for them unto God why in all this time that these forms have been complained of has not the sense of them been better exprest Whence I pray should we take the meaning of such prayers but from the usual signification of the Words But if not why has no Inquisition past upon them Why have not the grossest and rankest for Superstition 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 cautions and instructions written and bound up with their Breviaries Rosaries and Hours that the people might know how to understand them If the form of words in their Saint-Invocation be the same that is used to God but their sense and meaning otherwise Why don't they tell this to the World and make their explication as publick and as general as the prayers Certainlie the Bishops and Governours of the Romish Church and those that have the care of Souls amongst them are either guilty of gross and willfull neglects to the people or else whatever they say to us their will is that the People should understand those Prayers according to the customary and received use of the words and then I am sure they pray not only to saints to pray for them unto God in order to the obtaining of him such aids and supplies they want but to Saints themselves for those very blessings As will appear at large in the next particular 2. They pray to Saints departed for those very blessings that none but God can give To what purpose else do they advise us to fly not only to their prayers but their help and assistance which words help and assistance would have been Opeâ— auxiliiumque Trid. Con. fess 25. Propere veni accelera altogether superflous was not something else mean'd by them then only that of their prayers To what purpose else do they Pray to visit them to make haste and come to them did they not expect some other aid and assistance from them then bare praying for them for that certainly might have been better and more convenientlie performed in Heaven before the Face of God To what purpose else in some particular cases do they put up
case to God and interceed with him on their behalf but how could Eve alive request this of the Virgin Mary and Eve dâ—ed above three thousand years before Mary was born Or how could Irenoeus think the blessed Virgin in a capacity to do this whose opinion it was with the Iren. l. 5. c. 31. generality of the Fathers in that Age that her Soul as all others of departed Saints were yet in an invisible place and not admitted to the Beatiâ—ick Vision Or how could Eve stand in need of her Advocatship who if it were true as the Romanists hold that our Saviour at his Resurrection Aquin. Durand freed the Saints of the Old Testament from their Limbus and carried them up with him into heaven and the presence of God was a Glorified Saint in Heaven whilst she was living upon the Earth and so was in a better State to be an Advocate for the Virgin Mary then the Virgin Mary for her Thus you see as clear a proof as Bellarmin Bellar. de Sanct. beat l. c. 19. thinks this to be nothing can be more ridiculously and impertinently quoted some other meaning then of the words must be found out and the most obvious and natural is this that the Virgin Mary is here by a figure put for Christ her Son according to the Flesh and said to do that as she was the happy Mother of a Son who did it and thus indeed she is Advocate for Eve and all Eves Posterity instrumentally not by her self personally but by her Son she being that vessel made choice of by the Holy Ghost to bear him in her Womb who by taking Flesh of her became the Saviour of Eve and all Mankind For the Testimony of Eusebius it as Bellarmine Bellar. de Sanct. beat l. 1. c. 19. reports it runs thus We Honour those Heavenly Souldiers â—s God's Friends we approach unto their Moâ—â—ments and Pray unto them as unto Holy Men by whose intercession we profess to receive much help and assistance but it is apparent as many Learned Men have shewn that Bellarmine took this allegation not out of Euseâ—ins's Original but a corrupt translation made by Trapezuntius and afterwards followed by Dadrâ—â—uâ— a Doctor of Paris who set forth Eâ—sebius there being no such words as Praying to them as unto Holy Men to be found in him speaking his own Language his words are these hâ—then kai ept tas thekas aut on ethos Evang praep l 13 c. 7. hemin parienai kai tas euchas para tautais poiesthai c. It is our custom to come to their Tombs and Monuments and to make our Prayers not autois to them those Martyrs as the Translaâ—or and Bellarmine would have it buâ— para tautais i e thekais at or before their â—ombs and Monuments and to Honour those blessed â—ouls I might now pass over St. Ambrose he living beyond the time I undertook to answer for Anno 374. but whatsoever he said of this nature was said when he was but a young Christian and recalled and contradicted by him afterwards Speculatores vitae actuùmque nostrorum in his book of Widows he exhorts them to pray to the Angels and Martyrs whom he calls beholders of our Lives and Actions â—ut Baronius himself Confesses as Bishop Andrews proves â—â—out oâ— the life of St. Ambrose that this Book was written presently after his Conversion when he was but a raw Divine and had not thâ—â—ughly Learned the Christian Doctrine and this appears by some other mistakes he was guilty of besides this that are of as dangerous a Nature when in the same Book he asserts that the Martyrs either had no Sin at all or what they had they did themselves wash away with their own Blood But that St. Ambrose changed his opinion concerning this Proprio Sanguine point of Invocation we are as sure as that once he held it since we find him afterwards plainly asserting the Contrary in such words as these That to procure God's favour we need no Amb. in Rom. c. 1. tom 5. Tu tamen Domine solus es invocandus De â—bitu Theâ—d tom 3. Advocate but a devout Mind and again speaking with relation to the two young Sons of Theodosius Thou only Oh Lord art to be Invocated and Prayed unto namely for a blessing and protection upon them 2. They make the Rhetorical Flourishes and Apostrophes of the Fathers in their Panegyricks of the Martyrs to be folemn forms of Invocation of them The Fathers about the laâ—ter end of the Fourth Century observing Piety and Devotion to decay and wax cold as the Church encreafed in Riches and Prosperity thought themselves obliged by all the Wit and Art and Rhetorick they had to retrieve if it was possible the pristine heat of Devotion that was formerly in it to that purpose they spake hâ—gh and large in commendation of their Martyrs and sometimes in their Oâ—ations directed their words to them as though they had been there present not with an intent to teach the People to Pray unto them or to rely upon their merits but to signify the mighty favour they were in with God and the more effectually to excite them to an imitation of their vertues Many such strains of Rhetorick occur in the Writings of St. Hierom St. Basil St. Gregory Nyssen St. Grâ—gory Nazianzen and others Orat. in Sanâ—â— Theod. So St. Gregory Nyssen speaks to â—heodore the Martyr in his Oration Gather together the Troops of thy Brethren Martyrs and thou with them beseech God to stay the Inâ—â—sâ—on of the Barbarians So St. Gregory Nazianzen in his Oration calls unto Orat. in Athan. St. Cyprian St. Basil St. Athanasius to each after this manner Do thou favourably look upon us from on high After the same manner does St. Hierom conclude his Funeral Oration on Paula Farewel Oh Paul and help the Old Age of thy Honourer with thy Prayers Now what is there in all this but what 's usual in all Authors both Sacred and Profane The design of the Faâ—â—â—â—s was to raise the People to as hâ—gh an opinion as they could boâ—â— of the Persons of the Martyrs and their vertues that made them so illustrious and might they not make useof their best Art and Rhetorick to do it What is more in this then those Apostrophes frequently found in the Sacred Writings even to insensate Creatures Hear ye Oh Mountains the Lord's Controâ—ersy Praise the Lord ye Dragons and all Deepâ— And who will infer from hence that the inâ—ensate Creatures were hereby invock'd and addrest unto 3. A great part of the Testimonies they produce out of the Fathers are to prove the Intercession of Saints in Heaven for us and not our Invocating of them and so they change the Question and are at a great deal of pains to prove that which no body denies such sayings as assert the Saints Praying for us are frequent among the ancient Fathers and that not only for the Church
influences of his Government over all his subjects did he not make use of more Eyes and more Hands then his own the complaints of some would be altogether neglected and the cause of others not rightly judged his mistakes would be innumerable and his wings too short to cherish and foster to shelter and cover every corner of his Realm But could he act with that plenitude of Wisdom and Knowledge and Power that is in God all then might have access to his Person either immediately or by his Son that is of like Nature and Power with him and no Man fear the being sent back unheard or the having his cause misjudged the not having justice done him or Mercy in a compassionable case with-held from him Gods Wisdom is never wearied with seeing nor his Power tired with acting in the World supposing the affairs of the World to be infinite which they are not yet God is infinite too and now an infinite God can with as much ease manage and govern an infinite number of affairs as one wise-Man can prudently manage one affair Infinite bearing the same proportion to Infinite as one does to one The same fancy likewise of making the Court of Heaven resemble Princes Courts on Earth hath brought forth that excuse in the Romish Supplicants that it 's out of an humble sense of their own unworthiness and an awful regard to the Infinite Majesty of God that they address to him as Earthly subjects to their King not immediately to himself but by the Mediation of Angels and Saints those Courtiers and Favourites of Heaven But what Wiseman on Earth who is abundantly satisfied of the readiness and ability of his Prince to help him and hath free leave given him on any ocasion to come immediately or by his Son to him will choose to wave this freedom of access and apply himself to some inferiour Officer and Favourite of whose Power and Interest he is not so well assured either to relieve him himself or to procure relief of the King for him This is our case God is of infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power every way able on all occasions to afford sutable aids and supplies to the wants of his Creatures hath not only allowed but commanded all to call upon him in the day of trouble to pour out their complaints to him hath over and over promised to hear their Prayers and to answer them hath appointed his own Son God with himself the Master of Requests from time to time to receive all the Petitions of his Subjects and both the one and the other are infinitely more able and infinitely more willing to hear and succour them then the Best and Wisest and most Powerful of all Created beings and shall we now be afraid to take the liberty that God hath given us Shall we call that Impudence which God hath made our Duty Whilst we pretend Huâ—ility shall we forseit our Allegiance And distruct his promises and suspect the Goodness of his Nature for fear of being too Sawcy and too Bold with his person To this pretence of voluntary Humility the Fathers long since particularly St. Ambrose and St. Chrysostom gave a satisfactory answer St. Ambrose or whoever was the Author of those Commentaries that go under his name observing that the Heathens used the same Apology for going to their Gods by their inferiour Deities as the Romanists do now for their addressing to God by In Rom. 1. 21. Saints and Angels namely As Men go the King by his Courtiers out of Humility and a deep sense of the infinite distance betwixt God and them calls it a miserable excuse and adds is any Man so mad and regardless of himself to give the Honour due to the King to any of his Courtiers which if a Man does he 's condemned of Treason And yet they think themselves not guilty who give the Honour due to Gods name to a creature and forsaking God Adore their Fellow Servants as though any thing greater then that were reserved for God himself But therefore we go to a King by his Officers and Servants because the King is but a Man who knows not of himself whom to imploy in his publick affairs without information from others But with God it is otherwise for nothing is hid from him he knows the deserts of every one and therefore we need no spokes-Man but a Devouâ— mind for whensoever such an one shall speak to him he will Answer him St. chrysostom also often to the same St. chry serm 7. of Repentance serm in Psalm 4. p. 524 p. 802. purpose denies the way of our coming to God to be like the manner of Kings Courts When thou hast need saith he to sue unto a King thou are forced first to apply to his favourites and go a great way about but with God there is no such thing he is intreated without an Intercessor it sufficeth only that thou cry in thine Heart and bring tears with thee and entring in straightway thou mayest draw him unto thee and for example hereof he sets before us the Woman of Canaan she intreated not James she beseeched not John neither did she go to Peter but brake through the crowd to Christ himself saying I have no need of a Mediatour but taking Repentance with me to recommend me I come to the Fountain it self for this cause did he descend for this cause did he take Flesh that I might have the boldness to speak unto him I have no need of a Mediatour have thou Mercy upon me 3. It 's highly injurious to the Honour of Christ as the only Mediatour God has appoint betwixt God and Man God as the reward of the unspotted innocency of his life and perfect obedience of his Death exalted him to the right hand of Majesty and Glory bestowed a mediatorious Kingdom on him invested him with all Power in Heaven and Eaâ—â—h and gave Acts 2. him Authority to receive and answer the Prayers of his People Jesus whom ye flew and hanged on a Tree Acts. 5. Phil. 2. 9. him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that that same Jesus whom ye crucified God hath made Lord and Christ He humbled himself and became obedient unto the Death even the Death of the cross wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every Knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Lord to the Glory of God the Father so that now to make more Mediatours then Christ is not only to undervalue his all-sufficient merits to distrust his never-failling Interest and Power with God but also to invade that Honour and Royalty that God hath conferred on him alone by giving to Angels and Saints the same Power they give them the same Honour too and Christ is robbed of both whilest others are made to divide with him But to which of the
Angels or Saints departed said God at any time Sit thou on my right hand to make intercession for Men Of which of them has he at any time affirmed as he has done of Christ He is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him seeing he ever lives to make Intercession for Men That if any Man Sin he is an Advocate with the Father for him Or whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in his name it shall be given you Certainly they who will have Angels and Saints Mediatours betwixt God and Men ought to produce a Commission signed by God or his Son Jesus to constitute them such but this they are no more able to do then they are to make a grant of such Power and Honour themselves to them It 's true the Blessed Spirits above are said to stand about the Throne of God and the Holy Angels to behold his Face and as the Honour of a Prince is encreased by the number of his Attendants so is our Lords exaltation rendered the more Glorious by those ten thousand times ten thousand that Minister unto him but yet it 's never said They sit at Gods right Hand or live for ever to make Intercession for us and having no such delegation of Power from God for this office the Honour and Worship that belongs to it can't be given to them without manifest Wrong and Sacriledge to Christ who has The Holy Angels are Gods ministring Spirits and the Spirits of Just-Men departed his Glorified Saints but God hath made Jesus the Lord and Christ and put all things in Heaven and Earth in Subjection under his feet of him only hath he said Let all the Angels Honour him and all the Saints fall down before him and all Men Honour the Son even as they Honour the John 5. 23 Father Amen To Conclude WEre we certain that the Saints departed do now reign in Heaven and enjoy the Beatifick Vision and that it was lawful to Invocate such as are undoubtely Saints as the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Apostles Yet methinks a wary Man should be shy and not over-forward to exhibit that honour to all whom the Pope hath Cannoniz'd I cannot for my heart but think that the Prelates and Bishops in King Henry the Eighth's time had as much reason to Unsaint Thomas Becket for being a Rebel against his Prince as Pope Alexander the Third had to Canonize him for being a Biggot for the Church What can a sober Christian think of the Saintship of some who never had any being in the World and of others who never had any goodness many of their Saints are meer Names without Persons and many meer Persons without Holiness nay I am very confident that the greatest Incendiaries and Disturbers of the Peace of the World do as well deserve it as that famous Pope Hildebrand or Gregory the seventh Inumerable might be instanc'd in whose Saintship justly falls under great Suspicion but 't is enough that some Romanists themselves and those of no little Authority in their Church have granted that the Popes canonizations are doubtful and subject to error If then at any Billar de beat sanct l. 1. c. 7. 8. time his Infallibility should chance to mistake as I am pretty sure he has more then once done the Members of that Church are in a sweet case and are not only in danger of Invocating Saints but Devils also which is Idolatry with a witness and by their own Confession FINIS A DISCOURSE AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION EDINBVRGH Re-printed by John Reid Anno DOM 1686. A DISCOURSE AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION COncerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper one of the two great positive Institutions of the Christian Religion there are two main Points of difference between Vs and the Church of Rome One about the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in which they think but are not certain that they have the Scripture and the words of our Saviour on their side The other about the administration of this Sacrament to the People in both kinds in which we are sure that we have the Scripture and our Saviour's Institution on our side and that so plainly that our Adversaries themselves do not deny it Of the first of these I shall now treat and endeavour to shew against the Church of Rome That in this Sacrament there is no substantial change made of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the natural Body and Bloud of Christ that Body which was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered upon the Cross for so they explain that hard word Transubstantiation Before I engage in this Argument I cannot but observe what an unreasonable task we are put upon by the bold confidence of our Adversaries to dispute a matter of Sense which is one of those things about which Aristotle hath long since pronounc'd there ought to be no dispute It might well seem strange if any man should write a Book to prove that an Egg is not an Elephant and that a Musket-Bullet is not a Pike It is every whit as hard a case to be put to maintain by a long Discourse that what we see and handle and taste to be Bread is Bread and not the Body of a Man and what we see and taste to be Wine is Wine and not Bloud And if this evidence may not pass for sufficient without any farther proof I do see why any man that hath confidence enough to do so may not deny any thing to be what all the world sees it is or affirm any thing to be what all the world sees it is not and this without all possibility of being farther confuted So that the business of Transubstantiation is not a controversie of scripture against scripture or of Reason against Reason but of downright Impudence against the plain meaning of scripture and all the sense and Reason of Mankind It is a most self-evident Falshood and there is no Doctrine or Proposition in the world that is of it self more evidently true then Transubstantiation is evidently false And yet if it were possible to be true it would be the most ill-natur'd and pernicious truth in the World because it would suffer nothing else to be true it is like the Roman-catholick Church which will needs be the whole Christian Church and will allow no other society of Christians to be any part of it so Transubstantiation if it be true at all it is all truth for it cannot be true unless our senses and the senses of all mankind be deceived about their proper objects and if this be true and certain then nothing else can be so for if we be not certain of what we see we can be certain of nothing And yet notwithstanding all this there is a Company of men in the World so abandon'd and given up by God to the efficacy of delusion as in good earnest to believe this gross and palpable Errour and to impose the belief of it upon the Christian World under no less
the Resurrection from their own foolish and erroneous Customs in effect telling them that their usage of Baptizing the living for the dead was vain and impertinent if there were no Resurection For if the Dead rise not at all to what end were these Funeral Solemnities Why was there vicarium tale Baptisma as Tertullian calls it the manner whereof is thus described by Epiphanâ—us When any Catechumenist dyed some living person being placed under the bed they came to the deceased party and asked him whither he would be Baptised the Party under the bed answered that he would whereupon they immediately Baptized him for the dead a silly superstitious Action Yet from this Topick St. Paul proves a Resurrection to them as he did once the existence of the true God from an inscription on an Altar in Athens to one that was unknown but Bellarmine would perswade us that by this washing they intended to afford their Friends some relief in Purgatory and he might with as much reason have told us that the Sea burns IV. The Fourth place is that of St. Matthew 5. 25. Agreewith thine adversary quickely whilst thou art in the way with him leâ—t at any time the adversary deliver thee to the Judge and the Judge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into prison verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing Now if the Cardinal may be credited Purgatory is this Prison and the Prisoner shut up therein is in a condition to pay the uttermost farthing by the help of Prayers Masses and the Pope's Indulgence Whereas all this is an Allegory whereby we are taught to reconcile our selves to God the great Judge of Heaven and Earth by leading a Godly Righteous and Sober life whilst we are in the Way or on this side the Grave for if we neglect our repentance and amendment of life in this our day before the night approaches wherein no man can work we run the hazard of being cast into a prison out of which there is no Redemption for the Text sayes We shall by no means come out thence till we have paid the uttermost farthing which will be never because we shall never be able to discharge this Debt We are infinitely beholding to the goodness and mercy of God who hath appointed his only begotten Son to be our Surety and to deliver us out of this Prison how justly then may the Saviour of the World be angry with Papists for pretending to cast simple people into I know not what Prison and to torture them with painted Fires in spight of that Redemption which he hath made for the whole World V. The Fifth place is that of Mat. 5. 22. Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of the Council but whosoever shall say thou Fool shalt be in danger of Hell Fire The last onely of these sins Bellarmine observes shall be punished with Hell Fire consequently after this life the punishment of lesser sins will be in Purgatory But this is no true inference because after this life there will be no distinction of Courts of Justice as there was among the Jews in our Saviours time then all Judicature shall appertain to Christs and his Apostles therefore this Text cannot be rightly understood without considering the words before and after it Now our Saviour in this Chapter was about to interpret the Law of Moses which the Jews thought they had fulfilled when they had not transgressed the Grammatical sense thereof this made them believe that the Sixth Commandment was not broken but by killing a Man nor the Seventh but actually committing Adultery or Fornication Whereas our Saviour forbids the inward Anger of a Man against his Brother without a cause the punishment whereof at the Day of Judgement shall be Hell Fire How Purgatory then should be maintained from these words I cannot imagine unless the Papists can make it out that as the Jews had divers Temporal Courts of Justice so God Almighty will have three distinct Courts of Justice hereafter and will inflict different punishments for Sin VI. The Sixth place is Luk 16. 9. Make ye friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Invocation of Saints the Papists say may be proved from this Text but I cannot see upon what grounds We are advised to make the Poor our Friends by Charity and by giving them some of our Riches that we may have in this life the benefit of their Prayers and thereby make God himself our Debtour for he that giveth to the Poor lendeth to the Lord. Lastly the Champions for Popery alledge for Purgatory 1 Pet. â— 19. 20. By which also he went and preached to the Spirits in prison by which they understand the descent of Christ into purgatory to loose some Souls there from their Torments But en ho by which relates to Pneumati Spirit that is set down just before it by which Spirit in Noah who is called a Preacher of Righteousness Christ Jesus is said to preach to the Generation of Men immediately before the Floud whose Souls are now shut up in Hell for their Disobedience For this Preaching was not performed by an immediate act of the Son of God as if he personally had appeared on Earth and actually Preached to the Old World but he did it by the ministry of a Prophet For to doe any thing by another that is not able to perform it without him as much demonstrates the existence of the principal cause as if he did it of himself without any interveening instrument But if purgatory be intended in these words we must be mightily mistaken in our conceptions about a future state then the dayes that follow after Death do afford opportunities of obtaining a better Life then may Men rise from a life of torments to a life of joy whereas the Angels had one Instant either to stand or fall eternally what that instant was to them that this Life is to us for after death immediately follows Judgment the Soul at its departure from the body knows it's doom and what it must trust to for ever The Schoolmen labour all they can to destroy the true Belief of Christians in this matter and have the face to propose it as a matter of Faith that Christ delivered the Souls of the Saints from the very suburbs of Hell which they call Limbus of the Fathers It is pity but the wits of these Men had been better imployed then in building such Castles in the Air or in filling Mens thoughts with imaginary Ideas of strange places in the other World that have no foundation in Scripture which is our surest guide against all such Notional wandrings opens our eyes to perceive the reality of things and clears the brain not only from Darkness but from falsâ—
seventh Council * Syn. 7. Act. ult p. 886. Con. in Labb Richer H. Conc. Gen. vol. 1. p. 658. Ad calc ejusd act 7 in omn. editionibus concil legitur Epist Synod quam Tarasius c. Et diserte narrat cunctos Patres Honorium damnasse condemned as a Monothilite And he was expresly anathematized for confirming the wicked Doctrine of Sergius The guilt of Heresie in Honorius is owned in the Solemn Profession of Faith made by the Popes at their entrance on the Papacy a Lib. diurn Pontif. con sid 2. p. 41. Autores verò novi hoeretici dogmatis Sergium Pyrrhum Paulum Petru◠Episcopos unà cum Honorio qui pravis eorum assertionibut fomentum impendit pariterque Theodorum Pharamitanum Cyrum Alexandrinum cum eorum imitatoribus c. This matter is so manifest that Melchior Canus b Melch can Loci com l. 6. c. ult p. 242 243. c. professeth no Sophistry is artful enough to put the Colour of a plausible defence upon it A late Romanist hath undertaken to write the History of the Monothilites c Anton. Dez Hist Mon. Par 1678. and the Defence of Honorius seemeth to be the principal motive to that undertaking Yet so great is the power of Truth and such in this case is the plainness of it that in the Apologist himself we find these concessions That the Pope a Id. ib. p. 224. 325 226 218. was condemned by the Council and that the Council was not to be blamed †that Pope Leo the second owned both the Council and the Sentence and that Honorius was Sentenc'd as an Heretick * Id. p. 220. He would abate this guilt by saying b P. 207 208. that Honorius erred as a private Person and not as Head of the Church because his Epistle was hortatory and not compulsive It is true he erred not as Head of the Church for such he was not neither as such was he owned But he erred as a publick person and with Heretical obstinacy For Pope Leo as he noteth said concerning him that he had made it his business to betray and subvert the Holy Faith c Id. p. 122. profanā proditione immaculatam fidem subvertere conatus est Flammam confovit p. 123. Now this matter of Fact sufficeth for the refuting all the fallacious reasonings of the patrons of Papal infallibility For all must agree that they d de Socer Christ p. 40 are not unerring Guides who actually erre The Sieur de Balzac d Socr. Chr. p. 40. mocks at the weakness of one of the Romish Fathers who offered four reasons to prove that the Duke D' Espernon was not returned out of England And offered them to a Gentleman who had seen him since his return There seemeth no fitness in the constituting of such a Arg. V Guide nor any necessity for it Had it been agreeable to Gods Wisdom his Wisdom would not have been wanting to it self God having made Man a Reasonable Creature would not make void the use of deliberation and the freedom of his judgment There is no vertue in the Assent where the Eye is forced open and Light held directly to it It is enough that God the rewarder of them who believe hath given Men sufficient faculties and sufficient means And seing Holiness is as necessary to the pleasing of GOD and to the peace of the World as Union in Doctrine to which there is too frequently given a lifeless assent seing there must be Christian Obedience as long as there is a Church seing as the Guide in Controversie * R. H. Annot. on D. St. Answ p. 81. himself urgeth the Catholick Church and all the parts of it are believed in the Creed to be Holy as well as Orthodox We ask not the Romanists an impertinent Question when we desire them to tell us why a means to infallibility in the judgement rather than irresistibleness in the pious choice of the Will is to be by Heaven provided in the Church Both seem a kind of Destination of equal necessity But though the Reformed especially those of the Prop. V. Church of England see no necessity for an infallible Guide nor believe there is one on the face of the earth yet they do not reject all Ecclesiastical Guidance but allow it great place in matters of Discipline and Order and some place also though not that of an unerring Judge in Matters of Faith At the beginning of the Reformation the Protestants though they refused the judgment of the Pope their Enemy yet they declined not the determination of a Council And in the Assembly at Ausburgh the Romanists and Protestants agreed in a council as the Umpire of their publick difference At this the Pope was so alarumed saith the Sieur de Mezary * Hij A. 1. that he wrote to the Kings of France and England that he would do all they would desire provided they hindred the calling of a Council In the Reformation of the Church of England great regard was had to the Primitive Fathers and Councils And the aforesaid French Historian was as much mistaken in the affairs of Our Church when he said of our Religion that it was a medly of the Opinions of Calvin and Luther a A. as he was afterwards in the affairs of our State when he said King James was elected at the Guild-hall King of England b 10. A. 1603. The Romanists represent us very falsly whilst they fix upon us a private Spirit as it stands in opposition to the Authority of the Catholick Church Mr. Alabaster c See J. Racsters 7 motives of W. A p. 11 12. expresseth one motive to his conversion to the Roman Church in these Words Weigh together the Spouse of Christ with Luther Calvin Melancthon Oecumenical councils with private opinions The Reverend learned Fathers with Arius Actius Vigilantius Men alwayes in their time Burned for Hereticks of which words the former are false reasoning the latter is false History The Bishop of Meaux d Confer avec M. claut de p. 110. reasons after the same fallacious manner Supposing a Protestant to be of this perswasion that he can understand the Scriptures better than all the rest of the Church together of which perswasion he saith very truly that it exalteth Pride and removeth Docility The Guide in controversies d R. H. Annot on D. St. Answ p. 84. puts the Question wrong in these terms Whither a Protestant in refusing the submission of his judgment to the Authority or Infallibility of the Catholick Church in her Councils can have in several Articles of necessary Faith wherein the sense of Scripture is controverted as sure a Foundation of his Faith as he who submits his judgement to the foresaid Authority or also Infallibility Here the Catholick Church is put in place of the Roman Authority and Infallibility are joyned together and it is suggested dishonestly concerning the Reformed that they lay aside
first 600. years 1. By Usurpation upon the Rights of other Churches every degree of Exaltation gained being the depression and diminution of them till all power was in a manner swallowed up by the Papal ambition and none left to any oâ—her which was not dependent hereupon in its Original and altogether precarious in its administration So that here alone it must be immediately derived from Christ but to all others by commission from Him Thus in the choice of the chief Governours of the Church all must await his consent and confirmation where he does not alone forcibly obtrude them and must pay for it a round sum for an acknowledgement at their entrance and an after Tributary Pension out of their income and take a formal Oath of subjection at their admittance and own their own Authority from his Delegation and be lyable to have their sentences reversed at his pleasure and flee as far as his Judicatory and stand to the tryal of it when he is pleased to call any cause to himself Nay if a controversie arise between him and any Prince or State the whole Kindom or Nation shall lie at once under his Interdict the Clergy be with-held from the exercise of their Function and the People from the benefit of publick Divine Worship and Sacraments Of these and such like effects of the plenitude of Apostolick Power so much talkt of lately they would do well to shew us any thing like a Plea from Scripture or Antiquity within the bounds forementioned or for some Ages after in the greater part certainly so great a change could not be effected without some notice and complaints struglings and contentions of which Church History is fâ—ll Their early Faith spoken of throughout the world in St. Pauls time The eminent Zeal of the first Bishops of that Church most of whom if we may credit the account generally received of them sealed to the former with their bloud Their continued constancy in the Orthodox Profession thereof amidst the corruptions or defections of so many others particularly in the time of the Arrian Persecution The concurrent opinion of the Foundation of their Church being laid by the two chief Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and the honour of the Imperial Seat wherein they were placed c. gave them great repute and advantagious recommendation in those first Ages None will much contend with them about priority of Order or Precedence But when the preheminence of the first Bishop came to be improved into a Patriarchate and that swelled into the Title of the Universal Bishop which a S. Greg. l. 4 Reg. Ep. 32. Absit à cordibus Christianornm nomen islud blasphemiae in quod omnium Sacerdotum honor adimitur dum ab uno sibi demenâ—er arrogatur c. Et alibi in Epist passim St. Gregory so severely condemned in the Bishop of Constantinople and that at last grew into the stile of the sole Vicar of Christ and Soveraign Monarch of the whole Church when the interposition of a Friendly and Brotherly Arbitration which all persons in distress or under the apprehensions of injury are apt to flee unto and amplifie made way by degrees for the challenge of an ordinary Jurisdiction and that at first from the pretence of Canonical priviledge to that Divine Right and Sanction and then to prevent all scruple about its determinations these must be back'd with the vindication of an infallible conduct When instead of that charitable support they at first readily bestowed on other Churches in their distress they now made use of this power to rob them of what was left taking the advantage of the poverty and oppression of some under the common Enemy or the confusion of others through Domestick distractions to raise themselves out of their spoils then no wonder if other Churches complain and strugle under the yoke which they could not presently or easily throw off Indeed had not this claim of the Church and Bishop of Roâ—e risen to such an extravagant height in the arrogance of its pretended Title and been strained to that excess in the exercise of its assumed Authority so as not to leave it in the power of other churches to take all due and necessary care of their own members or provide for them all needful supplies these might more easily have born their usurpation of more power then ever they could prove belonged to them They that have learnt the Humility of Christs School and who are more concern'd to perform their Duty then vindicate their Priviledge and know how much safer it is to obey then command and easier to be Governed then to Govern will not be much moved at what others fondly assume knowing still that the more difficult account awaits them But then this power became most intolerable when it was made use of to purposes so much worse then it self which were beside the former 2. The weakning of the power of Temporal Princes and disturbing the Civil Rights of men a Cracanthorp's defence of Constantine and against the Popes temporal Monarchy Although our blessed Saviour assured Pilate his Kingdom was not of this world yet his pretended Vicar here on earth can hardly say so for beside the Temporal Dominions unto which he hath entitled himself a Soveraign Prince there are few other Kingdoms or States on this side of the world in which he hath not or had not almost as great a share of the Government as their immediate Princes at least so far as to prescribe bounds to their Administrations and subject in great measure all Laws and Persons to his Foreign Courts Jurisdiction and Decrees yea their Purses to his Exactions and upon the least dispute hath withdrawn so great a number of his immediate dependants who scarce own any other Governours and raised so many disturbances that great Princes and States have been forced at last to yield Not to mention the Arrogance it at length grew up unto in dethroning Princes giving their Kingdoms to others authorizing their Subjects to rebel against them or all wayes to oppose them and what oft follows if not expressed to murder them as in their late Sentence against some of our Neighbour Princes But before much of this may be seen in the long contentions between some of the Western Emperours particularly Henry the Third and Fourth and the Popes as we have them discribed in their own Authors b Sigonius de regno Italiae Also to go no farther their various contests with several of our Kings especially Henry the second and the almost continual complaints in all our Parliaments before the Reformation of the encroachments made by them upon the Civil Rights of Prince and Subject by vexatious and chargeable suits and appeals as far as Rome by Insolencies and diverse Rapines committed under the shelter of their protection and defended from due punishment and by their extravagant Extortions c. abundantly prove Now though these Usurpations grew by degrees and were practised
an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four footed beasts creeping things And thus changed the the truth of God into a lie But this was not the only fault but they also gave his incommunicable worship to Creatures and worshipped and served the Creature more then the Creator who is blessed for ever Amen Which words do vers 25. plainly suppose that they did worship the Creator of all things but besides the Creator for so para may signifie they worshipped the creature also which proves that the worship of the Supreme God will not excuse those from Idolatry who worship any thing else besides him For the opposition lies between the Creator and the creature be it good or a bad creature it matters not as to Religious Worship which must be given to neither Or if we render the words as our Translators do more then the Creator for para is often used comparatively yet so it supposes that they did worship the Creator when they are said to worship the Creature more that cannot signifie a higher degree of worship but more frequent addresses and thus the Church of Rome worships the Virgin Mary more then the Creator for they say ten prayers if they be prayers to the Virgin Mary for one to God ten Ave Maries for one Pater noster The same Apostle determines this matter in as plain words as can be For though there can be that are called 1 Cor. 8. 5 6 Gods whither in Heaven or Earth as there be Gods many and Lords many but to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him Where in opposition to the Pagan Idolatry who worship'd a great many Gods not as Supreme Independent Deities for they acknowledged but one Supreme God who made all the other Gods but either as sharers in the Government of the World or Mediators and Intercessors for them with the Supreme GOD the Apostle plainly asserts That to us Christians there is but one GOD the maker of all Things and one LORD JESUS CHRIST our great Mediator and Advocate with GOD the Father that is that we must worship none else And that none of the distinctions which are used by the Church of Rome to justifie that Worship which they pay to Saints and Angels can have any place here is evident from this consideration For either these distinctions were known or they were not known when the Apostle wrote this and in both cases silence is an argument against them If they were known he rejects them and determines against them for he affirms absolutely without the salvo of any distinctions that we have but one GOD and one Mediator that is that we must worship no more If they were not known as it is likely they were not because the Apostles takes no notice of them it is a plain argument that these distinctions are of no use unless they will say that St. Paul who was guided by an Infallible Spirit was ignorant of some very useful and material notions about the object of Worship If the Apostle did not know these distinctions it is evident they are of a late date and therefore can have no authority against an Apostolical determination If he did not know them he could have no regard to them and therefore made no allowance for such exceptions Nay the same Apostle does not only give us such general rules as necessarily exclude the worship of Saints and Angels but does expresly condemn it and warns the Christians against it He fortels of the Apostasie of the latter days wherein some shall depart from the Faith 1 Tim. 4. 1. giving heed to seduâ—ing Spirits and the doctrine of Devils didaskaliais daimonion the doctrine of Daemons the doctrine of worshipping Daemons or some new inferiour Deity Saints or Angels or whatever they are as Mediators and Intercessors between GOD and men This is the true notion of the doctrine of Daemons amongst See Mr. Joseph Medes Apostasie of the latter times the Heathens and the Apostle tells us the time shall come when some Christians for it is evident he speaks here of the Apostasie of Christians shall fall into the same Idolatry which is an exact prophecy of what we now see done in the Church of Rome who have the same notion of their Saints and Angels and pay the same worship to them which the Heathens formerly did to their Daemons or inferiour Gods 3. And as a farther confirmation of this I observe that the Gospel of our Savour forbids Idolatry without giving us any new notion of Idolatry and therefore it has made no alteration at all in this Doctrine of the worship of one God which Moses so expresly commanded the Jews to observe For the Gospel was preached to the Jews as well as to the Gentiles nay the Jews had the first most undoubted right to it as being the posterity of Abraham to whom the promise of the Messias was made and therefore as the Law was at first given them by Moses so it did still oblidge them in all such cases wherein the Gospel did not in express terms make a change alteration of the Law and therefore since there was no such alteration made and yet the Law against Idolatry renewed and confirmed by the authority of the Gospel what could the Jews understand else by Idolatry but what was accounted Idolatry by the Law of Moses that is the worship of any other Beeing besides the Supreme GOD the Lord Jehovah And since it is evident that there are not two Gospels one for the Jews and another for the Gentiles all Christians whither Jews or Gentiles must be under the obligation of the same Law to worship only one God The notion of Idolatry must alter as the object of Religious Worship does If we must worship one God and none besides him then it is Idolatry to worship any other Beeing but the Supreme God for Idolatry consists in giving Religious worship to such Beeings as we ought not to worship and by the Law of Moses they were to worship none but God and therefore the worship of any other Beeing was Idolatry But if the object of our worship be enlarged and the Gospel has made it lawful to Worship Saints and Angels then we must seek out some other notion of Idolatry that it consists in worshipping wicked Spirits or in giving Supreme and Soveraign worship to inferiour Deities which the Church of Rome thinks impossible in the nature of the thing for any man to do who knows them to be inferiour Spirits But if Idolatry be the same under the New Testament that it was under the Old the object of our worship must be the same too and we have reason to believe that it is the same when we are commanded to keep our selves from Idols and to flie from Idolatry but are no where in the New
Testament expresly told what this Idolatry is which supposes that we must learn what it is from some antecedent Laws and there were no such Laws in being but the Laws of Moses The only thing that can be said in this case is that the Apostle refers them not to any written Law but to the natural notions of Idolatry but with what reason this is said will soon appear if we consider to whom the Apostle writes and they were but Jewish and Heathen Converts As for the Heathens they had corrupted all their natural notions of Idolatry and had no sense at all of this sin till they were converted to Christianity and therefore they were not likely to understand the true notion of Idolatry without being taught it and it is not probable the Apostles would leave them to guess what Idolatry is As for the Jews God would not from the beginning trust to their natural notions but gave them express Laws about Idolatry which though they are the same Laws which natural reason dictates to us as most agreeable to the nature and worship of God yet since the experience of the world which was over-run by Idolatrous worship sufficiently prove that all men do not use their reason aright in these matters God would not trust to the use of their reason in the weighty concernments of his own worship and glory but gives them an express positive Law about it and Christ and his Apostles having done nothing to repeal this Law they leave them under the authority of it and when they warn them against Idols and Idolatry without giving them any new Laws about it must in all reason be presumed to refer them to those Laws which they already had SECT V. 4. AS a farther proof of this I observe that Christ and his Apostles did not abrogate but only complete and perfect the Mosaical Laws Our Saviour with great zeal and earnestness disowns any such intention or design Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil plerosai to fill it up by fulfilling the types and prophecies 5. Mat. 17. of it by exchanging a ceremonial for a real righteousness or by perfecting its moral precepts with new instances and degrees of vertue And therefore he adds For verily I say unto you Till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled And St. Paul who was lookt on by the believing Jews as a great enemy to the Law of Moses does renounce all such pretences Do we then make void the Acts 21. 21. 22. Rom 3. 31. Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Indeed had Christ or his Apostles attempted to have given any new Laws contrary to the Laws of Moses it had justified the Jews in their unbelief for God by his Prophet Isaiah had given this express rule to examine all new Doctrines by To the law and the testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them and that Isai 8. 20. Christ himself is not excepted from this rule appears in this that this is joyned with the prophecie of the Messias both before and after as you may see in Isai 8 13. 14. and Ch. 9. 6. 7. and therefore Christ his Apostles alwayes make their appeals to the writings of the Old Testament and St. Paul in all his disputes with the Jews urges them with no other authority but the Scriptures and thö the Miracles which were wrought by the Apostles did move the Jews to hearken to them and greatly dispose them to believe their Doctrine yet it was the authority of the Scriptures whereon their Faith was founded As S. Peter tels those to whom he wrote that though they preach'd nothing to them concerning the coming of Christ but what they were eye-witnesses of and though God had given testimony to him by a voice from Heaven which they heard when they were with him in the holy Mount yet he adds We have also a more sure word of prophecie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as to a light Pet. 1. 16. 7. 18. 19. that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts That is the Scriptures of the Old Testament and therefore the Jews of Berea are greatly commended for their diligence in searching the Scriptures and examining St. Pauls Doctrine by them and this is assigned Acts 17. 10. 11. as the reasons why many of them believed To apply this then to our present purpose I observe 1. That if Christ did not make any new Laws in contradiction to the Law of Moses then he could make no alteration in the object of Religious Worship He could not introduce the worship of Saints and Angels without contradicting that Law which commands us to worship no other Beeing but the one Supreme God For the worship of Saints and Angels together with the Supreme God is a direct contradiction to that Law which commands us to worship God alone though we should suppose that in the nature of the thing the worship of Saints and Angels were consistent with the worship of the Supreme God yet it is not consistent with that Law which commands us to worship none but God So that let this be a natural or positive Law or whatever men please to call it it is a very plain and express Law and Christ never did contradict any express Law of God It is true that Typical and Ceremonial Worship which God commanded the Jews to observe is now out of date under the Gospel and does no longer oblidge Christians but the reason of that is because it has received its accomplishment and perfection in Christ Christ has perfected the Jewish Sacrifices and put an end to them by offering a more perfect and meritorious sacrifice even the sacrifice of himself The Circumcision washings Purifications of the Law are perfected by the Laws of internal purity The external Ceremonies of the Law cease but they are perfected by an Evangelical righteousness But this I say that Christ never repealed any Mosaical Law but by fulfilling and perfecting it He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil Now methinks I need not prove that the worship of Sainâ—s and Angels is not a fulfilling but a destroying that Law which commands us to worship none but God And it is not enough to say that these are positive Laws given to the Jews though that be said without any reason for let them shew me any positive Law relating to the worship of GOD which Christ has wholly abrogated without fulfilling it 2. Yet as a farther proof that Christ has made no alteration in the object of our worship that he has not introduced the worship of Saints or Angels or Images into the Christian Church which was so expresly forbid by the Jewish Law I observe
then the whole Christian worship which was signified and prefigured by these Types must be peculiar and appropriate to the one Supreme GOD. As for instance I have already proved at large that the Jews were to worship but one God because they had but one Temple to worship in and all their worship had some relation or other to this one Temple and therefore all their worship was appropriated to that one God whose Temple it was now we know Gods dwelling in the Temple at Jerusalem was only a Type and Figure of Gods dwelling in Humane Nature upon which account Christ calls his body the Temple and St. John tells us That the word was made flesh and dwelt among us es kenosen en hemin tabernacled 2 Joh. 19. 21. 1 Joh. 14. 2 Coloss 3. among us as God formerly dwelt in the Jewish Tabernacle or Temple and St. Paul adds That the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ bodily somatikos realy substantially as an accomplishment of Gods dwelling by Types and Figures and shadows in the Jewish Temple Now if all the Jewish worship was confined to the Temple or had a necessary relation to it as I have already proved and this Temple was but a figure of the Incarnation of Christ who should dwell among us in humane nature then all the Christian worship must be offered up to God through Jesus Christ as all the Jewish worship was offered to God at the Temple for Christ is the only Temple in a strict and proper sense of the Christian Church and therefore he alone can render all our services acceptable to God So that God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only object of our worship and Christ considered as God Incarnate as God dwelling in humane nature is the only Temple where all our worship must be offered to GOD that is we shall find acceptance with God only in his name and mediation we must worship no other Beeing but only the Supreme God and that only through Jesus Christ Thus under the Law the Priests were to interceed for the people but not without Sacrifice their Intercession was founded in making atonement and expiation for sin which plainly signified that under the Gospel we can have no other Mediator but only him who expiates our sins and interceeds in the merits of his Sacrifice who is our Priest and our Sacrifice and therefore our Mediator as St. John observes If any man sin we have 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins The Law knew no such thing as a Mediator of pure intercession a Mediator who is no Priest and offers no Sacrifice for us and therefore the Gospel allows of no such Mediators neither who mediate only by their prayers without a Sacrifice such Mediators as the Church of Rome makes of Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary but we have onely one Mediator a Mediator of redemption who has purchased us with his Blood of whom the Priests under the Law were Types and Figures Thus under the Law none but the High Priest was to enter into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Sacrifice now the Holy of Holies was a Type of Heaven Heb. 1. 12. and therefore this plainly signified that under the Gospel there should be but one High Priest and Mediator to offer up our Prayers and Supplications in Heaven He and He only who enters into Heaven with his own Blood as the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Sacrifice There may be a great many Priests and Advocates on Earth to interceed for us as there were under the Law great numbers of Priests the Sons of Aaron to attend the Service and Ministry of the Temple but we have and can have but one Priest and Mediator in Heaven Whoever acknowledges that the Priesthood and Ministry of the Law was Typical of the Evangelical Priesthood and Worship cannot avoid the force of this argument and whoever will not acknowledge this must reject most of St. Paul's Epistles especially the Epistle to the Hebrews which proceeds wholly upon this way of reasoning Now this manifestly justifies the worship of the Church of England as true Christian worship for we worship One God through one Mediator who offered himself a sacrifice for us when he was on Earth and interceeds for us as our High Priest in Heaven which answers to the One Temple and the One High Priest under the Law But though the Church of Rome does what we do worship the Supreme GOD through Jesus Christ yet she spoils the Analogie between the Type and the Antitype the legal and Evangelical worship by doing more when she sends us to the Shrines and Altars of so many several Saints surely this cannot answer to that one Temple at Jerusalem where God alone was to be worshipped there are many Temples and Mercy-seats now as there are Shrines and Altars of Saints and Angels by whose Intercession we may obtain our requests of God When she advances Saints and Angels to the Office of Mediators and Intercessors in Heaven this contradicts the Type of One High Preist who alone might enter into the Holy of Holies which was a type of Heaven for there is some difference between having one Mediator in Heaven and there can be no more under the Gospel to answer to the Typical High Priest under the Law and having a hundred Mediators in Heaven together with our Typical High Priest To have a Mediator of pure Intercession in Heaven who never offered any Sacrifice for us cannot answer to the High Priest under the Law who could not enter into the Holy of Holies without the blood of sacrifice The High Priests entering but once a year into the Holy of Holies which was typical of Christs entering once into Heaven to interceed for us cannot be reconciled with a new succession of Mediators as often as the Pope of Rome pleases to canonize them So that either the Law was not typical of the state of the Gospel or the Worship of Saints and Angels which is so contrary to all the types and figures of the Law cannot be true Christian Worship Sixthly I shall add but one thing more that Christ and his Apostles have made no alteration in the object of the worship appears from hence that de facto there is no such Law in the Gospel for the worship of any other Beeing besides the One supreme God There is a great deal against it as I have already shewn but if there had been nothing against it it had been argument enough against any such alteration that there is no express positive Law for it The force of which argument does not consist meerly in the silence of the Gospel that there is nothing said for it which the most Learned Advocates of the Church of Rome readily grant and give their reasons such as they are why
it not of as much force now to cast it out of the Church as it was then not to bring it in Does it not give infinite offence to a great part of the Christian World and is it not esteem'd and that justly by them to be the old Pagan-Worship revived or something very near it For it is not enough to excuse them from it that the object of their Invâ—cation is not the same that they do not with them pay this Worship to the Heathen Deities who though in some respects they had been Patrons and Benefactors to their Country were yet in others very lewd and unworthy persons but to the Apostles of Christ and Christians Martyrs who in all respects were highly deserving of the World whilst they agree in the same act kind of Worship and give that Honour to the Creature which properly and peculiarly belongs to God and herein especially did the Pagan Worship and Superstition consist 2. We shall now examine the chief of those Texts the Romanists produce in the behalf of this Doctrine and let you see how little they serve to that purpose The first is Luke 15. 7. 10. There shall be joy in Heaven and again There shall be joy before the Angels of God over our Sinner that repenteth From whence they argue that if Angels and blessed spirits rejoyce at the Conversion of a sinner they must know and understand this change that 's wrought in them before they can rejoyce at it and if the knowledge of their repentance reaches them why not also of their Prayers And then if they can hear their Prayers why may they not be Prayed unto To this it 's answered That this rejoycing in Heaven is not for the Conversion of a particular sinner but in general for the Redemption of Mankind by Jesus Christ and this appears more then probable from the parable of the lost sheep immediately going before whereof these words are the Conclusion the Ninety nine sheep not lost are the Angels presevering in their first state of Innocency the sheep that went aftray Adam and in him all his Posterity that fell from God the shepherd that went to seek the lost sheep God himself who sent his Son into the World to seek and to save that which is lost on whose shoulders the great Work of Mans Redemption was laid and for this we are sure there was joy in Heaven when a Blessed Chore of Angels sung that Heavenly Anthem at Christs Nativity Glory be to God on high and on Earth Peace good will towards Men But Supposing this rejoycing is to be understood for the repentance of individual sinners it may be observed Emopion toâ— Aggelâ—n that this joy is not said to be the joy of Angels but before the Angels intimating that this rejoying is not to be attributed to the Angels but to God in whose presence they stand and this exposition is countenanced by considering 't is God that answers to the Shepherd in the parable as he went to seek his straied sheep and rejoyced at the finding of it so 't is God that by his Grace and Mercy in Christ recovered Man and rejoycâ—d at the accomplishment of his own Work Again If this Text does imply that Angels in Heaven know when a Sinner is converted and rejoyce at it it does not follow that they know this by some excellent priviledge and perfection of their nature whereby also they are enabled to understand even those mental Prayers that we are told ought to be put up to them but passing alwayes betwixt Heaven and Earth as waâ— represented unto Jacob in his Divine Vision on God's Errands and Embassies those that ascend from Earth may tell the joyful News of converted sinners to them in Heaven but they that tell them this cannot also acquaint them with the inward secret desires and cogitations of Mens Hearts be-being in a capacity by observing in Men the Signs and Fruits of true Repentance to know the one but having no way by their own natural power to understand the other The second place is Mat. 22. 30. Where our Saviour sayes That the just at the Resâ—rrection shall be as the Angels in Heaven from whence they infer that if our Prayers and concerns are known to the Angels and they on that account may be Invocated why should they not be known also to the Saints departed who are as they enjoying the same Blissful Vision of God To this may be returned That we are no more sure of the Knowledge of Angels in this particular then we are of that of Saints and therefore the one ought to be proved before the other be granted The Angels in Heaven see indeed the Face of Christs Father which is in Heaven but the meaning of that is not that by enjoying the sight of Gods Face they therein see and hear all things transacted here on Earth but that they are God's Ministers alwayes attending round about his Thron and waiting before him to receive his Commands and to execute his pleasure But was this Knowledge the priviledge of the Angelical nature the equality which just Men in the Text are said to have to the Augels is not mean'd an equality of Knowledge or perfection of nature but a similitude of State and Priviledges and his appears from the contex In the Resurrection they neither Mary nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels of God the just shall not be equal to the Angels in every respect for as they dâ—ffer in Nature and Kind so they shall have distinct natural Quâ—lities and Operations of Bliss and Haâ—piness they as the Angels in that Spiritualized State shall not need Matrimony for the propagation of their Kind nor Food for the preservation of their incorruptible Bodies they shall be free from all the necessities that attend temporal humane lite and all the affections that arise from the body and sensitive part of Man they as Angels shall be the Children of God being Children of the Reâ—urrection partakers of the Blâ—ss and immoveably possest of all the priviledges of the Sons of God Yet Was this equality to the Angels to be mean'd of an equality in Nature and Knowledge yet the Saints departed are not to enjoy it untill the Resurrection and so though the Angels on that account might be Invocated yet the Saints departed who are not till the Resurrection â—o have this excellent priviledge conferred on them are not till then to have this Homage and Worship paid to them At the Resurrection they shall be as the Angels of God whither they are before that admiâ—ted into the beaâ—fical Vision we need not now dispute since if they are this Angelical priviledge of seeing all things in the Face of God is reserved for the Saints as a farther addition of bliss till that day Again they produce Revel 5. 8. Where it 's said That the Four Beasts and twenty four Elders fell down before the Lamb having every one of them Harps and Goldâ—n
by the Romanists own Confession are of this opinion and though they should be mistaken as their great Cardinal thinks they were and endeavours to prove yet 't is enough to our purpose that they did not hold the one and therefore could neither teach nor practice the other 2. One chief Argument which the Primitive Fathers used to prove the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost against the Arrians and Macedonians was the Catholick practice of the Church in Praying to them which would not have been of any force had they believed that any Creatures though never so highly exalted in Nature and Condition might have had that Honour payed unto them They tell us frequently in their writings that when the Gospel directs us to invocate the Son and Holy Ghost in conjunction with the Father it proves them Orig. l. 8. in Epis ad Rom. c. 10 Athan. Orat. 4. contr Arrianos to be true God that Invocation supposing them every where to be present when they are invock'd and that Omnipresence being the sole property of God For the same reason when the Arrians who conceived Christ to be no more then an excellent and Godlike Creature did yet Pray unto him the Catholicks accused them of Idolatry Had the Catholicks at the same time practised the Invocation of Saints the charge might have been returned with greater force upon themselves and whatever could have been thought of by the Catholicks to excuse themselves from that guilt might with more strength have been urged by the Arians in their behalf Had the Catholicks replied as the Romanists do now that though they did Pray to the blessed Spirits yet they did not do it with that Soveraign direct and final Prayer nor with those Sublimest Thoughts and intentions of Honour wherewith they did address to God but only with indirect subaltern and relative Prayer and with no higher intentions of Honour to them then what is proportioned to the excellencies of their finite nature the Arrians might have returned upon them with great advantage even after the same manner Sirs and with the same due limitations do we Invocate the Man Christ Jesus and whilst we do no more but so we have more reason for what we do then you can have since Christ is confessedly superiour to all Creatures and consequently deserves at least as great an Honour to be paid to him as unto any the highest amongst them though we do not think him God equal with the Father yet the Scripture assures us he is exalted far above all Angels Principalities and Powers and every name which is named in Heaven and Earth and though we may not Honour the Son in the same high degree with an as of equality as we do the Father yet the Scripture enjoyns us to do it with the same kind of Honour with an as of similitude and likeness and this is more then can be said in defence of that Honour and Invocation you offer to Saints and Angels 3. Because the Fathers condemned the Heathens as guilty of Idolatry for Invocating their Doemons or inferiour Deities which in a manner is the same with the Romish Invocation of Angels and Saints This has been invincibly proved Dean of St. P. against G. against the Romanists by a great Light of our Church who hath made the Parity and Agreement betwixt them to be very obvious as 1. In the Object of their Invocation the Heathens had one Supreme God and a multitude of Inferiâ—uâ— Deities the Romanists have also besides one God above all a multitude of Angels and Saints departed It may be the Vulgar and Ordinary People might mistake for their Gods Jupiter of Crete Mars Venus Vulcan Bacchus Persons that had been famous for Lewdness and Adulteries and if they did 't is to feared not much better an account can be given of many of the Canonized Saints in the Church of Rome but the Wiser sort had farr different apprehensions of their Deities they said and believed the same of the Supreme God as Christians do That he made the whole Plot Enn. 5. l. 9. c. 5. Laert. in Vit. Thal. p 24. Senec. Ep. 83 World and sees all things that he wants neither Power nor Will nor Knowledge to make his Providence concerned in the least things that neither the Actions nor the very thoughts of Mens minds can be hid from him Accordingly we find St. Paul affirming of the Heathens that they knew God ascribing to the Heathens Jupiter he being the Creator of all things so he told the Athenians Him whom ye Ignorantly Worship declare I Acts. 17 unto you God that made the World and the being the Father of all Mankind when he said in the words of one of heir Poets for we are all his off-spring And then for their Inferiour Deities there is so very little disparity betwixt them and the Angels and Saints Invocated by the Church of Rome that it seems to be only in name Accordingly St. Austin Confest that the Platonists did affirm the same things of their good Daemons as Christians St. Aust de civit Dei l. 9. c. 23. did of the blessed Angels did they distinguish their Inferiour Deities into such Spirits as were by Death delivered from the Body and such as never had any into such as alwayes lived in Heaven and such Apul. de Deo Socr. p. 50. cic de leg l. 2. whose merits had advanced them thither how exactly doth this sute with the difference given by Romanists betwixt Angels and Saints departed and the reason of their Worshiping of them The spiritual and Heavenly Nature of the one and the Merits of the other 2. In the Office ascribed to them The imployment the Heathens put upon their Daemons was to Aug. de civ Dei l. 8 e. 18. carry up the Prayers of Men to God and what they had obtained to bring back to Men imagining the Supreme God to be of too pure and sublime a Nature immediately to converse with Men they look'd upon these as Advocates and Mediators betwixt God and Men and as Intercessors and Procurers of their desired blessings and is not this the same thing the Church of Rome sayes touching the Office of Angels and blessed Spirits in the behalf of Men such as do solicite God for them and by their more prevailing merits and interest in God obtain of him what they themselves Pray for 3. In that which they make the Foundation of their Worship and Invocation to them viz. a middle sort of excellency betwixt God and Men so said the Heathens that there were a sort of Beeings between God and Men that participated of both Natures and that by means of those intermediate Beeings an intercourse was maintained betwixt Heaven and Earth and as God was to be Worship'd for himself so the others to be Loved and Honoured for his sake as being Gods by way of participation as likest to him as his Vicars and as Reconcilers betwixt them And is
Posterity why should the Dead S. Aust de cura pro morie c. 13. be thought in a condition to know or help their surviving friends in what they do 3. They that will have God acquaint particular Saints and Angels with those Petitions that are put up to them impose a very Servile and Dishonourable Office on God and as sometimes they will have us out of Discretion and Humility go to God by Saints and Angels as Men make their way to a Prince by his Favourites now they make the King and his Subjects to change places and God is sent to wait on them with the requests of their Votaries What can be more strangely ridiculous then this Position of theirs That the Petitioner must first make his sute to Angels and Saintâ— then God must tell those Angels and Saints both the person that Prayes and the boon he Prayes for then the Angels or Saints must back again and present them to God Or when any one addresses to an Angel or Saint to supplicate the blessed Virgin in his behalf God must first tell this Angel or Saint the contents of the Address then he must Post to the blessed Virgin she upon the first notice of it must have recourse to her Son and he upon the motion of his Mother repair to his Father to present that request to him which he himself fiâ—st revealed But is not this an insufferable affront to God and an intollerable abuse of themselves To send the most high God on the Errands of his Creatures and to apply themselves to broken Cisterns when they may directly go to the Fountain it self of all blessings 4. Neither can the Angels and Spirits above know the Hearts and Petitions of their supplicants any more by vertue of the sight of God then by Revelation from him this fond opinion depends upon this Romish gingle That seeing God they must in him see all things that in Idea are contained in him but does not the Scripture assure us That no one knows the things of God but the Spirit of God that is in him Do they not tell us how 1 cor 2. 11. ignorant the Angels were of the great Mystery of Mans Redemption notwithstanding their nearness to God Eph. 3. 10. and beholding his Face Till it was made known to them by the church Does not our Saviour let us know that 1 Pet. 1. 12. he himself as Man though his Humanity was Hypostatically united to the Divinity did not pretend to know all the Councils and Purposes of God Speaking of the day of Judgment he says Of that day and hour knoweth no Man no Matt. 24. 36 not the Angels but the Father only Why then should it be thought credible that the blessed spirits above by beholding Gods Face do in that Glass of the Divinity see all things and transactions that are done and hear all Prayers and Petitions that are made by the sons of Men 2. This Doctrine and Practice is highly derogatory from the Glory of God as Governour of the World God is the great Lord of Heaven and Earth all that we are and all that we have we derive from him we are upheld by his Power and maintained by his bounty and Goodness In him we live and move and have our being he gives to all life and breath and all things he numbers the hairs of our head paints the Lillies of the Field beyond the Glory of Solomon feeds the young Ravens that call upon him takes care of Sparrows much more of Man who is of a more worthy and excellent Nature much more yet of Nations and Kingdoms who consist of multitudes of Men linkt together by Laws and Government and though sometimes when he pleases he makes use of the Ministry of Angels and makes them the Instruments of his Providence towards the sons of Men yet he hath no where told us that he hath divided to them much less to Saints departed their several Provinces or set them their particular tasks that he has made them Presidents over such Countries or Cities Patrons and Guardians over such persons or professions that he has given them a power over such and such Maladies and Diseases but has reserved the power of dispensing his kindnesses where to whom and in what measure in his own hands and therefore all our trust and confidence ought intirely to be placed in God all our Thanks and Praises are due to him and he alone is to be acknowledged as the Author and Donor of all our blessings but now from that Presidentship and protection that power and patronage that the Romanists intruding into these things they have not seen without sufficient ground Col. 2. 18. ascribe to Angels and Saints over particular Kingdoms persons and in particular Cases and Circumstances though as substitutes under God arises naturally some degree of trust and confidence in them some debt of Homage and praise to them and 't is well if the person oblidged looks any higher in his returns of Love and Thankfulness then to that particular Angel or Saint he prayed to and from whose deputed power and Authority he thinks he received his deliverance and what is this but to rob God of the Honour of being sole Governour of the World and to make some of his Creatures who are no less beholding to him for their subsistence then the rest to partake with him of that Trust and Affectioâ— that Homage and subjection that is wholly due to him from all his Creatures What is this as our Church in her Homily expresses it But a turning from the Creator to the Creature Cursed is Man that trusteth in Man sayes the Prophet and Jerem 17. 5. 7 for the same reason in any Finite and Created Beeing because in what degree he does so in the same does his Heart depart from God but blessed is the Man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is What low and mean conceptions of God have those Men who think his Government of the World must be modelled and conformed to a Princes Government over his Kingdom and because he being but a Man and so not able in person to hear all complaints and redress all grievances appoints substitutes under him Judges and Magistrates to do it therefore God must do so too whereas there is an infinitely wider distance betwixt the Wisdom and knowledge and Goodness and Power of God and those of the most acccomplish'd Governour then there is betwixt the height of Heaven and the lowest centre of the Earth My thoughts Esa 55. 8. 9. are not your thoughts neither are your wayes my wayes saith the Lord for as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are my wayes higher then your wayes and my thoughts then your thoughts The Wisest Monarch on Earth falls infinitely short of the perfections of God his Knowledge is but short his Power small and therefore cannot possibly without the information and assistance of others extend the
Idolol l. â— c. 1. and Omnipresent God they did not worship them purely for themselves but as God was in them and they were as St. Austin speaks Aut partes ejus aut membra ejus aut aliquid substantiae ipâ—ius c August l. 24. contra Faustum Either parts of him or Members of him or something of his substance as the Papists believe the Sacrament to be his body Thus they Deified the things of Nature tho' they thought there was but one Supreme GOD whom they worship'd in them as â—usebius sayes of them they believe a that c Hena gar onia theon pantoiais dymamesi ta panta plerun kai dia panta diekein kai iu ton dia ton dedelomenon sebein Euseb Praepar Evangel l. 3. c. 13. one GOD fills all things with his various power and pervades all things and that he is to be worshipped in and by all visible things but yet they denied that those visible things were to be worship'd for them selves but for the sake of God and those invisible powers of God whichwere in them as appears from the same place b Me ta horamena samata heliu kai selenes kai astron medege ta aistheta mere tu kosmu phesusi the opoiein alla tas en tutois aoratus dunameis autu de tu epi pasin They do not they say make Gods of the visible bodies of the Sun Moon and Stars or the other sensible parts of the World but they worship those invisible powers that are in them of that God who is GOD over all Nay the Egyptians themselves did not as Celsus pleads even for those Idolaters worship their bruit Animals but only as they were Symbols of God c einai auta kai theu symbola Orig. contra cels l. 3. 4. Yet notwithstanding this Plea of Idolaters they may justly be charged with worshipping those material Objects which they say as the Papists when we charge them with Bread-worship that they do not worship So the Egyptians might be charged with brut-worship the Heathens with the worship of the Sun and Moon and the Scripture d Isa 44. 17. expresly Reproaches and Accuses the Idolaters with worshipping a Stock or Stone or a piece of Wood tho' it was the constant Plea and pretence of the Heathens that they did no more worship those material Objects then the Papists do Bread e Non ego illum lapidem colo nec illud simulachrum quod est sine sensu Aug. in Psal 69. I do not Worship the sensless Stone or Image which has Eyes and sees not Ears and hears not sayes the Heathen in St. Austin and in Arnobius We do not worship the Brass or the Gold or Silver or any of the matter of which our Images are made a Nos neque aera neque auri argentique materias neque alias quibus signa Conficiunt eas esse per se Religiosa decernimus numina sed eos in his colimus eosque veneramur quos dedicatio infert Sacra Arnobius contra Gentes and in St. Austin again Do ye think we or our Forefathers were such Fools as to take those for Gods b Vsque adeone Majores nostros insipientes fuisse credendum est ut Does No they would disown it as much as Boileau does With his who shall say we adore the bread or Wine c Quis nos adorare panem vinum Boileau p. 160. or T. G's pretending that we run upon that false ground that Catholicks believe the bread to be God And yet I see not why there may not be good reason to charge the one as well as the other 5. If those other Idolaters had been so foolish and absurd as to believe and think that those things which they worship'd were their very Gods themselves substantially present and that the visible substance of their Idols had been converted and turned into the substance of their Gods this would have made their Idolatry only more horribly sottish and ridiculous but would not in the least have made it more excusable If the Jews had thought that by the powerful words of Consecration pronounced by Aaron their High Priest the Calf had been turned into the very substance of GOD and that tho' the Figure and Shape of the Calf had remained and the Accidents and Species of Gold which appeared to their sight yet that the substance of it had been perfectly done away and that only God himself had been there under those appearing Species of a golden Calf would this have mended the matter or better excused their Idolatry because they had been so extremely sottish That they conceived the Gold not to be there at all but in the place thereof the only true and eternal God and so altho' the Object or rather subject materially present in such a case would have been the golden Calf yet their Act of Adoration would not have been terminated formally upon that but only upou God as T. G. sayes of the bread p. 339. Or if the Manichees had thought the Body of the Sun had been converted into the glorious Body of JESUS CHRIST would this have signified any thing to bring them off if their mistake had been as T G. sayes p. 327. Theirs is concerning the Bread that they believed the Sun not to be there at all and therefore what they would have in their minds would not or could not be the Sun but the only true and eternal Son of God Indeed they had as it appears from St. Austin a Eum sc Christum naâ—im quandam esse dicitis eum triangulum esse perhibetis id est per quandam triangulam caeli Fenestram lucem istam mundo terrisque radiare August contra Faustum Manichaeum l. 30. c. 6. Nescio quam navim per foramem Triangulum micantem atque lucentem quam confictam cogitatis adoretis Ibid. some such absurd Imagination they did think that it was not the material Sun which appeared to their senses but a certain Navis which was the substance of CHRIST that did radiate through the triangular Fenestra in the Heavens to the World and to the Earth These wretched Figments of theirs whereby they made the Father of the Light that was inaccessible and placed CHRIST in the Sun and Moon and the Holy Ghost in the Air b Trinitati loca tria datis patri unumâ— e. lumen in accessibile filio duo Solem Lunam spiritui sancto rursus unum Aris hunc omuem ambitum Ibid c. 7. and called these the Seals of their substance c Sedes ejusdem substantiae dicatis Ibid. c. 8. these made them indeed as he sayes worship only the Figments of their own crazy heads and things thâ—t were not d In iis non quod sunt sed quod vobis dementissime fingit is adoratis Ib. c. 9. Vos auâ—em colitis ea quae nec dii nec aliquid sunt quoniam prorsus nulla sunt Ib. c. 9. but yet this
it is so called there by Nazianzen the Antitypes ‡ Eipou ti â—oÌ„n antitypon tu timu somatos kai haimatos he cheir â—thefaurisan Ib. of Christs Body and Blood which shews they were not thought to be the substance of it and she had all these about her and in her own keeping as many private Christians had in those times and there was no Host then upon the Altar when she worshipped Christ upon it for it was in the night †Nuktos aorian teresasa Ib. she went thus to the Church So St. Chrysostom * Vid. Boileau c. 7. l. 1. ex Chrysost in all the places quoted out of him only recommends the worshipping of Christ our blessed Savior and our coming to the Sacrament with all humility and Reverence like humble supplicants upon ouâ— knees and with Tears in our Eyes and all Expressions of sorrow for our sins and Love and Honour to our Saviour whom we are to meet there and whom we do as it were †Horas enthysiasterio Chry. in 1. Ep. Cor. 10. c. see upon upon the Altar which is the great stress of all that is produced out of him That we do not truly see him upon the Altar the Papists must own tho' they believe him there but not so as to be visible to our senses and he is no more to be truly adored as corporally present then he is visibly present St. Ambrose ‡ In sermone 56. Stephanus in terris positus Christum tangit in caelo sayes of St. Stephen that â—e being on Earth touched Christ in Heaven just as St. Chrysostom sayes Thou seest him on the Altar and as he and any one that will not resolve to strain an easie figurative Expression must mean not by a bodily touch or sight but by Faith * Non corporalia tactu sed fide and by that we own that we see Christ there and that he is there present 2. Adoring the Flesh and Body of Christ which tho' considered without his Divinity it would be worshipping a Creature as St. Cyril of Alexandria sayes †In actis concil Ephes Hos anthropon proskyneistai te ktisei latreuein yet as it is alwayes united to his Divinity 't is a true object of worship and ought to be so to us who are to expect Salvation by it even from the Blood and the Body ‡ Proskynete esti sorz syntoÌ„ logoÌ„ TheoÌ„ kathos apotheosen auten Chrysost Hom. 108. and Flesh of Christ and therefore as we inwardly trust in it so we ought to adore it as no doubt the Angels do in Heaven and as we are to do in all the Offices of our Religion tho' that be in Heaven yet we are to worship it upon Earth and especially when it is brought to our minds and thought by that which is appointed by Christ himself to be the Figure and Memorial of it the blessed Sacrament there and in Baptism especially when we put on Christ and have his Death and Rising again represented to us and have such great benefits of his Death and Incarnation bestowed upon us in these Mysteries we are as St. Ambrose * Caro Christi quam hodie in Mysteriis adoramus Ambros l. 3. de sp fanct c. 12. apud Boil p. 32. sayes to Adore the Body and the Flesh of Christ to which we immediately and particularly owe them and which we may truly call our Saviour St. Ambrose and St. Austin * August Enar. in Ps 98. his Scholar after him supposing that there was a great difficulty in that passage of the Psalms worship his footstool for so it is in the Latin * Adorate scabellum pedum ejus without the Preposition at his footstool they laboured to reconcile this with that command of Worshipping and serving God alone and to give an account how the Earth which was Gods footstool could be worshipt and the way they take was this to make Christs Flesh which he took of the Earth to be meant by that Earth which was Gods footstool ‡ Invenio quomodo sine Impietate adoretur terra scabellum pedum ejus suscepit enim de terra terram quia caro de terra est de carne Mariae carnem accepit August Ib. and this say they we ought to worship his Apostles did so whilst he was upon Earth and we do so now whilst he is in Heaven We worship the Flesh of CHRIST which was crucified for us and by the benefit of which we hope for Pardon and Salvation we worship that tho' it be now in Heaven we worship it in the solemn Offices of our Religion * Ipsam carnem nobis manducandam ad salutem dedit nemâ— autem ill â—m carnem mâ—nducat nisi prius adoraverit Aug. Ib. that Flesh which he gave to be eaten by us for our Salvation that we worship for none eates that Flesh but he first worships Worships that if they please tho' St. Austin do not expresly say that but we will own and we will be always ready to Worship the Flesh of Christ by which we are saved and we will do this especially at the Sacrament and that more truly and properly then they themselves will own that we eat and manducate it as St. Austin sayes not with ouâ— Teeth as we do the Bread but eat it and worship it too as it is Heaven St. Hierome †Epist ad Marcel Ibant Christiani Hierosolymam ut Christum in illis adorarent locis in quibus primum Evangelium de patibulo coruscaverat says of some devout Christians That they went to Hierusalem that they might adore Christ in those places where the Gospel first shone from the cross They went that they might adore Christ in those places not that they believed him to be corporally present in those places much less that they worship'd the places themselves but they made a more lively impression of Christ upon them and made them remember him with more Passion and Devotion and so does the blessed Sacrament upon us and we therefore worship Christ whom we believe to be in Heaven in the Sacrament as they worship'd him in those places where they were especially put in mind of him Thus St. Hierome sayes He worshipped Christ in the Grave and that Paula worshipped him in the stall * Ad Paul Eustoch and so we may be said to worship him on the cross or on the Altar or in the Sacrament and yet not to worship the Cross or the Altar or the Sacrament it self 3. Other places out of the Fathers brought by him for the Adoration of the Host mean only that the Sacrament is to be had in great reverence and esteem by us as all things sacred and set a part to religious uses are that a singular Veneration is due to the Eucharist as St. Austin says ‡ Eucharistiae deberi singularem venerationem Epist 118. c. 3. and as is to Baptism also of which he uses