frivolous Since as I have now shewn the very Foundation of Christ's interceding for us in Heaven is founded on his Suffering for us upon Earth and no one can appear in the Presence of God to ask our Pardon there but he only who died and gave himself a Ransome for us here 2. But secondly this will appear more clearly if we consider the Analogy which the Author to the Hebrews makes between the two Covenants and compare the High-Priests interceding for the People under the Law with our Saviour Christ's interceding for us in Heaven It was the Ordinance of God under the Mosaical Dispensation that upon the great Day of Expiation the High-Priest should offer a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole People And then carry the Blood of the Sacrifice into the most Holy Place and present it before God and so make an expiation for them Now the Law having a shadow of good things to come we are hereby taught to make this plain Application That Christ our High-Priest having offered up himself as an Expiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World is now ascended into Heaven the most Holy Place there to appear in the Presence of God for us and by presenting his Blood before the Throne of Grace to make an Attonement for the Sins of all the true Israelites who trust in it for their Forgiveness And as under the Law no one was to appear in the Presence of God but the High-Priest only under Pain of Death and he only once a Year having first offered up the Blood of the Sacrifice so now under the Gospel Christ only appears in the Presence of God with his own Blood to intercede for us and 't is through his Merits and Mediation alone not through that of any other whatsoever in Heaven or Earth that we ought therefore to apply our selves to God for Pardon and Salvation But still the Distinction before made will recur upon us For be it that Christ only has a Power to plead the Satisfaction of his Death for our Forgiveness yet may not the Blessed Virgin and the Saints too pray for the same thing and in this Respect be called our Advocates and Mediators To this I answer first That what the Blessed VIRGIN and the other Saints may do as to this Matter is unknown to us In general they may possibly pray to God to endue us with his Grace whereby we may repent and be saved But then neither have we any Assurance that they do this much less that they do it in particular for every single Person that calls upon them neither if they did would this entitule them to the Name and Dignity of Mediators properly so called nor warrant us to pray to them as such Secondly much less would this be sufficient to engage us to put them in an equal Rank of Mediation with Christ himself to joyn his Merits and theirs together and pray to God that for our Saviour and the Virgin 's sake he would forgive us which yet the Church of Rome most notoriously does And besides for what concerns our present purpose Thirdly This is not all they allow to the Holy MARY when they call upon her as their Advocate No they tell us plainly as you have before seen that she obtains nothing of God but what she has merited for us she having joyned her Actions and Sufferings to those of Christ for the Salvation of Mankind and God having accepted of them for that End And this I suppose I have sufficiently shewn to be utterly repugnant to the whole tenor of the New-Covenant and to the Analogy which the Holy Scripture it self has made between that and the Old Let us therefore go on and enquire in the last place Thirdly Whether there be any reason why we should give her those Titles and ascribe to her such an Authority as in all their Solemn Addresses they allow to Her And First For what concerns those Titles which they give her we shall need no long search after them The Litany of the Blessed VIRGIN alone contains above forty of them and scarce one of which can without a very favourable Construction be allowed to her But indeed having form'd all their Devotion upon this Foundation of turning the Kingdom of Heaven into an Earthly Court having set up the Saints as Masters of Requests to receive Addresses and present them to God as King it was but fit afterwards to keep up the Decorum by raising the Blessed Virgin to the Dignity of QVEEN there and then they ought not to address to her without all the Titles and Ceremonies that became the Quality to which they had raised her Now 't is to this Vanity we may ascribe the Eight last Compellations we meet with in her Litany and by which she is set forth to us as Queen of Angels Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins and all Saints And in all which if there be not some Excess yet doubtless there is a great deal of Presumption and of the vain leaven of Humane Folly and Ambition To call upon God Himself in a multiplicity of Attributes which are neither pertinent to our purpose nor otherwise apt to raise those Affections in our Souls that are proper to the Holy Exercise we are about is an argument of our Weakness and Vanity rather than an instance of a reasonable and religious Respect But to set up a poor humble Woman in such a formal Pageantry of Majesty and Glory To address to Saints in Heaven as if they valued the little Ceremonies and Titles to which Men on Earth aspire this is at best to shew a mind too much affected with the Vanities of this World but to do it without all warrant from God or so much as the least signification of his Pleasure in it is I think too near a presumptuous Impiety But these are not the Titles that the most offend us Others there are which we esteem by so much the more dangerous by how much the more they encroach on the peculiar Attributes of God and our Blessed Saviour For indeed to whom else can it belong to be esteemed the Help of Christians the Comforter of the Afflicted the Refuge of Sinners the Gate of Heaven the Ark of the Covenant the Câ—â—se of our Joy the Seat of Wisdom and Mirrour of Justice but to Him alone who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith from whom all Help and Comfort and Refuge to Sinners does descend and who alone by being the Gate of Heaven to us is thereby the Cause of all our Joy I will not deny but that it may be possible for those who have found out a way to reduce all the Prayers that are made to the Blessed VIRGIN to that one sense Pray for us to find out some convenient meaning for all these dangerous Titles too But in the mean time to what a desperate state O God! must that Church be arrived That those things should be a part of
reveal them unto her yet since he has no where promised that he will do this nor encouraged us to call upon her to this End we think we cannot in this manner pray to her without either great Folly or great Impiety Without great Folly if not believing that she do's certainly some way or other understand our Requests we yet neverless address to her Without great Impiety if in confidence that she has such an Ability we ascribe the most peculiar Prerogatives of God to her viz. Immensity Omniscience Omnipresence and so make her every way equal with God But were she now upon Earth where we could either speak to her our selves or otherwise entertain any certain Correspondence with her we should be far from discouraging any to beg the Benefit of her Prayers or thinking them worthy of Censure for so doing When we stand at our Altars and celebrate the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and set forth the Lord's death until his coming We cannot indeed allow our selves to do this to the Honour and Veneration of any other than of him only whose Death and Passion we commemorate But even here also we do the utmost that we can to Honour her We name her at the Holy Table we recite there the History of God's Favour to her and magnifie him with her upon the account of it In a Word when we confess our Sins and absolve our Penitents if we commend either our selves or others to God's Mercy In these and the like Cases we think it an Impiety to joyn the Daughter of Anna with the great God the Lord of Heaven and Earth If we give Thanks for any Blessings we have receved we chuse rather to follow her Example and cry out with her My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour than with others to divide the Glory between God and her and say Glory be to JESVS and MARY If we vow a Vow unto the Lord or swear by his Name we neither think it fitting nor lawful to joyn God and the Blessed Virgin together lest we should thereby seem to make her the Searcher of Hearts as well as him and a powerful Avenger of such secret Sins If we speak of Her we readily give her any Attribute that either the holy Scripture warrants or her Nature allows of But to call her a Goddess and our selves her Suppliants to style her Queen of Heaven and Mother of Divine Grace the Refuge of Sinners and the Ark of the Covenant the Sovereign Lady of Angels Archangels Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and all Saints and as such beseech her That she and her Son would bless us this we think is to carry the Complement too far and a Strain much fitter for some poetical Heathen Goddess than for a Christian Saint But let these and the like Superstitions be laid aside and which a Virgin so humble on Earth cannot sure be supposed to be so much altered for the worse as to aspire after in Heaven let Religion and the Worship of that be exempted as the peculiar Due of that God who made both her and us and whom alone both she and all of us therefore ought to adore and then what farther remains to proclaim her Blessed shall as freely be allowed and paid her by us as it can be justly claimed of us Now the sum of all such Honour may be referred by us to these two general Considerations 1. Of that just Esteem and Value and Opinion we have of her And 2. Of Actions suitable to such Opinions As for the former of these 1. That Esteem and Value and Opinion we have of her It is certainly as great as any sober Christian can desire it should be We believe her to have been a most pure and holy and vertuous Creature That her virgin Mind was clean and spotless as her Body Chast and immaculate and that she was upon the Account of both the most fit of any of all her Race or Sex for the Holy Ghost to overshadow and for the Son of the most Highest to inhabit When we consider the firmness of her Faith the fervour of her Devotion the excellency of her Humility we cannot but acknowledge a Grace extraordinary in her working all those eminent and Divine Qualities And tho' we are not so curious as to enter on those nicer Speculations in which so many have in vain exercised themselves Whether she was Conceived in Sin And if she was How far it was restrained in her at first and at what instant totally extinct in her afterwards Whether she was Sanctified in the Womb of her Mother And to what degree And at what time Whether before she was Animated or after And Whether this Sanctification was such as to keep her from ever committing any so much as Venial Sin Yet as the common condition of Mankind does not permit us without all warrant from Holy Scripture which they confess is here wanting to them to exempt her from all Sin so neither do we pretend to accuse her of any And for her present state we do not at all question but that God who shewed her such favour on Earth hath also very highly exalted her in Heaven So that among all the Race of Adam next unto him who was God as well as Man we think it very probable that she has obtain'd the chiefest place in God's Kingdom who brought forth the Son of God into the World And here then let these our Accusers who say that we are not of the number of those of whom the Blessed Virgin in my Text prophesied That Behold from thenceforth all Generations should call her Blessed tell us if they can Wherein is it that we are defective in our Opinion concerning the Mother of our Lord Is it that we deny her Immaculate Conception and suppose her to have in this been submitted to the common condition of all others since the Fall of our first Parents Christ only excepted But then they must not forget that this is no more than what their own Brethren of their own Infallible Church deny as stifly as we do And if there have been Saints and Popes and Visions and Miracles for it yet we know there have been also Saints and Popes and Visions and Miracles against it too And at this day there is Order against Order School against School about it And as if the Spirit of Infallibility had in this Matter forsaken their Church it could never yet be finally determined either by Council or Pope which Side is in the right Is it that we suspend our selves as to the Point of her Actual Sins And see no cause to conclude why the Blessed Virgin though a most pure and holy Creature yet should not have been as capable of committing Sins as well as all others Christ only excepted here also we think must be allowed to be But yet in this we do but follow some of the greatest
Hearers For such there still are in our days as well as we read there were heretofore in the Apostles Who hold mens Persons in Admiration and esteem the Gospel of Christ more according to the Preachers Eloquence than its own Authority One is of Paul another of Apollos and a third of Cephas As if the business of our Preaching were to please their Fancies not to instruct their Minds and to reform their Manners and that simplicity which was once the Glory of the Gospel were now to be esteem'd the scandal of its Ministers Hence it is that so many of our Auditors instead of coming to our discourses as they ought to hear their Duty and confirm their Faith and encrease their Piety come rather to observe and censure The application they make is not to enter into their Closets and Meditate upon what they have Heard and consider how they may benefit their Souls by it and then to beg the assistance of God's Grace to enable them so to do But to Applaud or Despise the Preacher according as he has had the Fortune to be liked or disliked by them There is hardly any defect in the Preacher so small that is not enough to distast them against the very Doctrine that is delivered And be the Duty never so clearly and solidly established yet if the Method be not exact the Style correct the Subject such as they approve the Voice the Action nay and sometimes the very Look of him that speaks to them agreeable to their Fancies all is spoiled and they are not Edified But alas Who is Paul or who is Apollos or who is Cephas Are we not all the Ministers of Christ and your Servants for Jesus sake Do we not all Preach to you the same common Salvation Is it not the same Gospel that is delivered by every one of us What if we have not all of us the same accidental advantages If another speak to you with more Ornament and Eloquence Must therefore my Weakness render the Gospel of Christ Contemptible I would to God for your sakes we were all such as you desire That we could every one of us not only instruct but please you too to Edification that so by any means if it were possible we might gain some of you But yet in the words of St. Paul give me leave freely to say of this Curiosity That verily there is a fault among you And what wonder if you do not reap that real Advantage we could wish from our instructions when alas it is not That you look after You come with curiosity to gratify an itching Ear not with true Humility to increase your Knowledge and improve your Piety But 3 dly A third sort of Hearers to be considered in this place are The Carnal and Sensual Hearers Men who in their wills and desires are utter Enemies to the Practice of Christianity however they sometimes comes to be hearers of it But as the Great Philosopher heretofore when he opened his School of Morality and began his Lectures with the same reflections I am now making excluded all vicious and even young men from his Auditory Esteeming it in vain for him to spend his time in instructing those who were either already engaged in a Course of Sin or otherwise by the bent and heat of their Age strongly inclined and tempted to it So may I certainly with much greater reason say with reference to our Gospel That to such as these all our Addresses will signify but very little Nor can we reasonably expect men should become such Proficients as we desire by our exhortations to Piety till they will begin seriously to dispose their minds to the practice of it To preach to a soft Voluptuary the severe Doctrines of Mortification and Self-denyal to an Angry and Impatient Spirit to bear Injuries not to recompence to any Evil for Evil to forgive nay to love his Enemies To the Covetous Miser to Give Alms of such things as he has and make himself friends in Heaven by the wise distribution of his unrighteous Mammon upon Earth what is this but to plow the sand to sow your seed upon the water They look upon the Doctrine to be senseless and unreasonable and the Gospel of Christ foolishness indeed if it expects they should obey such kind of Precepts as these What therefore our Blessed Saviour once said with reference to his own preaching I must here beg leave to apply to ours If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self If any man will do God's will if he will sincerely resolve to apply himself to the practice of Religion then he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether we speak of our selves He shall be fit and prepared to judge of what we speak whether they are our own words or the Gospel of Christ and the Words of Eternal Salvation that we deliver unto you But till these thorns are first rooted out i. e. according to the explication which our Saviour gives us in this very Parable till men have overcome their affections to the Cares the Pleasures the Riches of this World 't is in vain to expect that any thing we can say should be able to prevail with them to bring forth fruit unto perfection and such as may carry them to everlasting Happiness in the next But 4 thly And to close this first point A fourth sort of Hearers there are who profit nothing by our preaching and those yet worse than any I have hitherto mention'd viz. the Malicious Hearers A sort of Men who come to our Churches now as the Scribes and Pharisees were wont sometimes to do to our Saviour's Discourses not to improve themselves but if they can to intangle us in our Talk I shall not need to say that such Auditors as these are not likely to be much benefited by what they Hear This is not what themselves aim at their business is only to find faults to lie in wait for any thing that they may but be able to make an ill use of and like to some venemous Creatures to suck poison out of the most wholsome Flowers If a word or an expression chance to fall from the Preacher which they think for their purpose that is sure to be turn'd and scann'd to the uttermost And though the meaning was never so innocent yet 't is great odds but by a false conjunction of things with one another by a convenient alteration and an uncharitable representation it shall be set forth to the World as some heinous Crime And were they always our Open Enemies that did this we should have the less reason to complain of them We know their Principles and what a liberty it is their Religion gives them by any means to defame and abuse those whom their Church thinks fit to put the greatest abuse of all upon in
about whether it be fit to be done by him ought certainly yet much more to carry every good Christian to this farther necessary Reflection Whether it may be done by him And whosoever ventures upon any Action without this he may by accident not do ill but 't is his good Fortune not his Praise that he does not And were it never so good yet for want of doing it with that design and knowing it to be such he must not expect that God should ever impute that to him for Righteousness which he himself did not design or perform with that intent As to the other sort of Consideration That of our State and of our Duty What God requires of us and how we have lived according thereunto Certain it is that 't is absolutely necessary that we should some time or other enter upon it and then I suppose I need not say how very prudent it will be for us not to defer it For since our Life is but a puff of breath every day in our Nostrils and which we can at no time say shall be our own the next moment surely it will very much concern us not to defer considering how we are provided for another World seeing we have so very little Hopes or security in this Repentance is not a Duty that can be discharged in a Moment and I fear the best among us upon the enquiry will find that we stand in need of a very great one Now there is no time no place for Repentance but only in this present Life And should we suffer our Incogitancy so far to prevail upon us as to neglect it here we shall in vain lament our sin and our folly to all Eternity hereafter If there be therefore any one among us that has hitherto omitted so great and necessary a Consideration what shall I say to him Let him no longer defer it Nay but rather in the words of holy David Let him not go back unto his house nor climb up into his bed let him not suffer his eyes to sleep nor his eye-lids to slumber till he has begun to set about it It were no doubt very much to be wish'd that men would not suffer any day to slip without this Consideration There is I believe but seldom a day passes in which we are not guilty of something that may justly call for a particular Repentance to obtain our forgiveness And who can tell if he lies down to sleep e're he has done this whether he shall ever rise up to perform it afterwards But alas This is the greatest Instance of all of our Inconsideration And instead of repassing in this manner every day upon our Actions I fear there are many who go on whole Weeks and Months and Years without ever thinking at all of it as if it were enough to practice this duty by the same proportions which some of our modern Casuists have prescribed for that other of the Love of God some of which have thought it necessary to be done only upon Sundays and Holy-days others not above once a year some once in Five years others at any one time in our whole lives and lastly others never at all either living or dying But thô there be then no time so proper as the present for the doing of that which cannot without the greatest danger be deferr'd the least moment yet some seasons there are which seem more especially to invite us to it Thus 1 st If old Age be crept upon us or any Sickness or Danger threaten us with a speedy appearance before God's Tribunal this ought certainly at the same time that it admonishes us of the shortness of our present life to call us to an immediate providing for the next 2. Thô the hand of God be not just upon us yet if we see his Arm lifted up to strike if we have some just cause to apprehend any evils or afflictions likely to come upon us much more if our Country and our Church be in danger for the iniquity of her Children and People within her this also may be another time that seems on purpose mark'd out to call us to Consideration to think upon our ways and how to prevent both our own and the publick desolation But now 3 dly If these Evils are not merely apprehended but are actually upon us so that we already have begun to bear the punishment of our sins and may have just cause to apprehend yet more dreadful effects of them this certainly ought yet more strongly to engage us to such a Consideration In such circumstances as these the worst of men naturally become Religious God himself could say of the Rebellious Israelites That in their afflictions they would seek him early And the Prophet observed of all men in general That when God's Judgment are in the Earth then the inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness I will only add 4 thly And with reference to the approaching season That as the time of Lent has in all Ages of the Church been look'd upon as a season proper for the business of Repentance so certainly we cannot better prepare for it than by the practice of this great Preliminary duty of Consideration without which it will be impossible for us ever to discharge it as we ought to do And however the Godly Primitive Discipline of Publick Confession and Penance has for the hardness of our hearts been of late laid aside among us yet ought we not therefore to be ever the less nay rather we should be the more careful to examine our own souls and call our ways to remembrance and by our Private Diligence make some supply of what seems to be acknowledged by our Church as wanting to our Publick Discipline And to the end I may the better enforce this Practice which upon all these accounts seems so very proper for us I will now finally Close all IV thly With some Motives that may serve to stir us up to the fulfilling of our duty in so great and necessary a part of it I have already observed in the beginning of this Discourse That 't is the want of Consideration that is really the last universal Cause of all our Sins And I have just now shewn That till it be removed it will be impossible for us to repent of them And sure then one would think that nothing more need be said to engage any sober man to the practice of it But I must now go yet farther For to compleat our Obligation to so necessary a practice Inconsideration is not only to be charged as the cause of all our evils but the corrupter of our good too It spoils our very vertues insomueh that were it possible for the unthinking man to fulfil every Command and not deviate in the least degree from the rules of his duty all would be in vain his Inconsideration alone would ruin him and his Virtues themselves lose by it not only their Praise but their very Nature
to and the greatest Infidel must be forced at least to confess the Probability of it And indeed However Wicked men may endeavour to dissemble their Belief of these things and live so as if they truly did not give the least credit to them yet are their Fears many times too strong for them and discover their Apprehensions whether they will or no. This is the next Point I proposed III dly That however Sinners may Live as if they Believed nothing â—f all this yet the greatest of them cannot chuse but Tremble sometimes at the Appprehension of it So Felix did and so we have been told of many others that have done likewise Men may pretend to out-brave Hell and Eternity at a distance may laugh at our Discourses concerning another World and the Judgment that is to pass on all our Actions in it and make it a Piece of Wit and Gallantry not to believe any thing of them But I have seldome heard of that man that could look Damnation in the face when he came within prospect of it There is a certain time when all men begin to acknowledge the Power of Religion and if not to believe a Heaven yet at least to fear a Hell Atheism and Profaneness are things that pass well enough while there is no great cause to reflect on the danger of them Whilst mens Pulse beats strong their Years run briskly on their Condition is Easie and Prosperous they go on in their sins without Controul and therefore without considering either what they do or whether they are running But no sooner does any Trouble and Adversity come upon them If their prosperity fails them and the iniquity of their ways begins to encompass them round about If age and infirmities call upon them to think what they have done or where 't is they must next go but presently all their Schemes and Hypotheses vanish They awake as Men out of a deep sleep and too late begin if not to convince themselves that there is a Judgment to come yet to tremble with horror lest perhaps there should be One. But alas What is for the most part the consequence of these Terrors Is it even now at least to fit and prepare themselves for it No They are afraid of a future judgment and cannot endure the thoughts of it yet still they neglect to provide against it This was the last point I proposed to consider and is evidently the sad condition of many of these Men viz. IV thly That the use they make of these reasonings concerning a Judgment to come is not to bring themselves thereby to a repentance of their Evil-doings but rather to endeavour by any means to put off these thoughts of their future state that are so troublesome and uneasy to them There is not perhaps any one thing in the World that ruins more Souls than this unhappy Method so common with most sinners of still putting off the business of Religion to a more convenient season They cannot endure the thoughts of another World and that Judgment which we must every one of us undergo in it They tremble at the reflection of it and delude themselves with a future prospect of resolving in good earnest to prepare themselves for it but like Felix in the Text they put off this work to another Time without ever fixing when that Time is to come and it happens to them as it did to him that for the most part it never comes at all I believe there are but few in the World so wicked as never to have had their lucid intervals of Piety and Religion nor occasions both to consider of a Judgment to come and how much it would import them to provide for it On the contrary I am apt to think the greatest part of Sinners go on in their sins now with a confidence and resolution of repenting some time or other But still some thing or other interposes to prevent their doing of it and Death overtakes them before they are aware and they go out of this World or ever they have made the least provision for another I shall not need to say how unreasonable such a procrastination is even upon those Principles of Natural Reason on which I have hitherto proceeded in the managing of this great Argument For if we have so much reason as we have seen to believe that there is to be a Judgment to come in which we must render a strict account of all our Actions and every days experience convinces us of the shortness and uncertainty of our present life and the little dependâ—nce we can make upon it for the time to come If in that judgment the state and condition of sinners shall without controversy be very grievous and there be no way to promise our selves either any peace of Conscience now or any hopes of Happiness hereafter but only by acting in such a manner and putting our selves in such a state that we need not be either ashamed to live or afraid to die It must then certainly be most fit and reasonable for all of us to begin personally to consider and do like Men and no longer continue in those sins which are our torment now and which should we chance to die ere we have repented of them will prove our ruin for ever And all this the very light of reason and the dictates of natural Conscience speak to us to call us to repentance and to convince us of the Danger and Vnreasonableness of the least delaying of it And if there should chance to be any here present whose Wickedness and Infidelity render this discourse as seasonable to them now as St. Paul's once was to Felix I cannot but hope they may meet with somewhat in this reasoning that may have the same Effect upon them but with a better Consequence than the Apostles had upon that wretched Man may serve not only to awaken their fears of a judgment to come but to stir them up to an immediate provision for it But it is time now to remember that I am speaking all this while to a Christian Assembly and therefore to such as will admit of yet more lively persuasives of a future Judgment and of the Great and Eternal Torments that await the Wicked after it And I shall not need to say how much our Religion has discovered to us to make the sinner tremble at the apprehension of that dreadful Inquest which the best Christian cannot think of without amazement For indeed where is the Soul so well established so secure of its own sincerity as to be able to endure the Horrors of that day when the end of all things being come the World its self shall begin to tremble and fall into its ancient Chaos When the sun and moon and stars shall be darkened the mountains shall quake and the powers of Heaven be shaken When the Earth shall be set on fire the Heavens shall be shrivell'd up as a scroll the Elements also shall melt with
constant performance of Piety and Good-Works But now 2dly If the Question be of a dying Penitent then indeed it will be a matter of more difficulty to answer it For if on the one hand I may not be so uncharitable as to conclude at all adventures the utter invalidity of such a Repentance because for ought I know 't is possible for a man in the very last act of his life to be struck with such a true contrition for his sins as might if he had lived have produced a real Amendment and then God who is able to discern this will consider him accordingly Yet neither on the other can we ever be sure that such a Repentance is sincere nor by consequence may we at all Adventures supppose in favour of it The truth is a Death-bed Repentance is in the best prospect we can take of it exceeding dangerous and in the case before us I am afraid desperate Nor have we in all the Holy Scripture so much as one Example of any one that purposely put off his Repentance to this time and yet was saved upon it and the Instance of Felix in my Text is a terrible one to the contrary He was touch'd with St. Paul's Preaching and feared the Judgment of which he spake But he put off the Apostle to a more convenient season and we do not find that ever that more convenient season came or that he had ever any future call to Repentance It is not to be question'd but that if a man be come to this sad pass he ought by all means to be exhorted to repent because otherwise to be sure he must perish and 't is possible this may save him But what that Repentance is which a wicked man then exercises we cannot tell and the effect of it must be left to God's Judgment to declare and it will be our parts instead of being over-inquisitive into these secrets to be careful not to expose our selves to a condition so full of danger in which there is much to be feared but little Hope and no Security And now what more remains to engage us to a speedy or rather to a present Repentance but that having thus largely shewn the danger of deferring our duty I very briefly close all with a more excellent Prospect II dly Of the Comfort and Satisfaction that will arrive to us from the Consideration of having perfected this great and necessary Work This is a Point on which it were as easie to speak great things as I think 't is needless so to do If to Live in a State of Friendship with God and to be able to look forward into Eternity with Comfort If to be freed from the stings of Conscience and the Terrors of Everlasting Punishment and instead thereof to be full of a well-grounded Confidence that Heaven and all its Glories shall be one day Ours in short If there be any such thing as a Felicity to be attain'd either in this World or in the Next such a Christian as this possesses it all For he enjoys the Love the Favour of that God who is the Great dispenser of all Good both in Heaven and Earth O the Peace and the Tranquility The Pleasure and the Satisfaction of that Man who lives in such a State as this Whose Conscience acquits him whose Innocence supports him in the midst of Dangers whose Piety and Virtue chear his Soul and fill it with the most excellent Comforts whose Present Condition is full of Hope and whose Future Prospect is to be for Ever Happy How will such a Christian as this Triumph over all the Miseries and despise the Blandishments of a vain uncertain sinful World Even Death its self the last and greatest of Terrors will not be able to amaze him But rather He will welcome it with a chearful mind and with St. Paul desire to depart and to be with Christ whilst able with him to cry out I have fought a good fight I have finish'd my Course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day But O Wretched Sinner Who by thy unreasonable Delays in a matter of such vast concernment both to thy Present and Eternal Happiness not only exposest thy self to the danger of Damnation in the other World but deprivest thy self of the only true and real Felicity of this Men indeed may flatter themselves in their Evil doings and find a great deal of seeming satisfaction in their ways of Wickedness But when all is done the Remembrance of this one thing That in a little time they must die and come to Judgment will ever and anon come in and embitter all their Enjoyments and convince them that 't is the way of Piety that alone is the way of pleasantness and her paths the paths of peace But I must not pursue these Reflections any farther I will therefore conclude this whole Argument with those excellent Words of the Son of Sirach Ecclus. v. xviii Make no long tarrying to turn unto the Lord and put not off from day to day Before Judgment examine thy self and in the day of Visitation thou shalt find mercy Humble thy self before thou be sick and in the time of sins show repentance Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy Vows in due time and defer not until death to be justified AN EXHORTATION To Mutual Charity and Union AMONG PROTESTANTS IN A SERMON Preach'd before the KING and QUEEN AT HAMPTON-COURT MAY 21. 1689. ROM XV. 5 6 7. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God THE Words are part of that affectionate Application which the Apostle here makes of his excellent Discourse concerning the Exercise of Christian Charity in that great Instance of Condescension to the Infirmities of our Weaker Brethren in the foregoing Chapter The Occasion of it was this There were in those first times many among the Jews who tho' they were converted to the Christian Faith yet still continued zealous for the Law and not only carefully observed themselves all the Rites and Ceremonies of it but would also by any means impose upon all others also the observance of them And how earnest they were upon this account and how much they hated the Gentile Converts upon whom the Apostles did not think fit to lay any such burden many Passages both in the Acts and in St. Paul's Epistles do sufficiently declare But as in all other differences it seldom happens that the whole heat of the Controversie rests only on one side so here tho' the Jewish Converts were both the first beginners of this Dispute and the more zealous pursuers of it yet
that the blessed time so long wrapped up in sacred Prophecy is indeed now ready to be revealed When the Church of Christ being purged from those Corruptions that have so long defaced its Beauty shall again appear in its primitive Purity When all Heresie and Schism being every where abolished and the Mystery of Iniquity laid fully open and the Man of Sin destroyed true Religion and sincere Piety shall again reign throughout the World God himself shall pitch his Tabernacle among us and dwell with us and we shall be his People and he shall be our God O Blessed State of the Church Militant here on Earth the glorious Antepast of that Peace and Piety which God has prepared for his Church Triumphant in Heaven Who would not wish to see those days when a general Reformation and a true Zeal and a perfect Charity passing through the World we should All be united in the same Faith the same Worship the same Communion and Fellowship one with another When all Pride and Prejudice all Interests and Designs being submitted to the Honour of God and the discharge of our Duty the Holy Scriptures shall again triumph over the vain Traditions of Men and Religion no longer take its denomination from little Sects and Factions but we shall all be content with the same common primitive Names of Christians and Brethren and live together as becomes our Character in Brotherly Love and Christian Charity with one another And who can tell but such a Change as this and which we have otherwise some reason to believe is nigh at hand may even now break forth from the midst of us would we but all seriously labour to perfect the Great Work which the Providence of God has so gloriously begun among us and establish that Love and Vnity among our selves which may afterwards diffuse it self from us into all the other Parts of the Christian World besides But however whether we shall ever see I do not say such a Blessed Effect as this but even any good Effect at all of our Endeavours here on Earth or no yet this we are sure we shall not lose our Reward in Heaven When to have contributed tho' in the least degree to the healing of those divisions we so unhappily labour under shall be esteemed a greater Honour than to have silenced all the Cavils of our Enemies and even to have pray'd and wish'd for it and where we could not any otherwise have contributed our selves but to have exhorted others to it shall be rewarded with Blessings more than all the Stars in the Firmament for number Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ To Him be Honour and Praise for ever and ever Amen A SERMON Preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons AT St. MARGARET'S WESTMINSTER June 5 th 1689. Being The FAST-DAY Appointed by the KING and QUEEN'S Proclamation TO Implore the Blessing of Almighty God upon Their MAJESTIES Forces by Sea and Land and Success in the War now declared against the FRENCH KING Jovis 6 o die Junii 1689. Resolved THat the Thanks of this House be given to Mr. Wake for the Sermon he Preached before them yesterday And that he be desired to Print the same Ordered THat Mr. Grey do give him the Thanks and acquaint him with the Desires of this House accordingly Paul Jodrell Cl. Dom. Com. OF THE Nature and Benefit OF A PUBLICK HUMILIATION JOEL ii 12 13. Therefore also now saith the LORD Turn ye even to Me with all your heart and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God for He is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth Him of the Evil. THough the time of this Prophecy be uncertain so that neither the Jewish Rabbins nor Christian Antiquaries are able to give us any tolerable Account of it yet is the Design plain and the words of my Text a most proper and pathetick enforcement of the great duty of this day to turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning for he is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. If we look into the foregoing Chapter we shall there find an astonishing Account of the great Evils that were just ready to befall the Jews for their Sins But that which is yet more surprising is That though all this was about to come upon them yet were they nevertheless insensible of their danger nor took any the least care to prevent their utter desolation To awaken a stupid and inconsiderate People a Nation dead in Sin and Security in the beginning of this Chapter he prepares a lofty and magnificent Scene He sets before them a Prophecy of yet greater dangers than any they had hitherto experimented and that in a manner so unusual with such a Pomp of Words and in such Triumphant Expressions as carry a terror even in the Repetition of them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion sound an Allarm in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble for the day of the LORD cometh for it is nigh at hand A day of darkness and of glooâ—iness a day of Clouds and of thick darkness as the Morning spread upon the Mountains a great People and a strong there hath not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it A fire devours before them and behind them a flame burneth The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness The Earth shall quake before them the Heavens shall tremble the Sun and the Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining Whatever be the Import of these Phrases whether by the mighty and terrible Host here spoken of we are only to understand that swarm of Locusts and other Insects that we are before told were utterly to devour all the Fruits of the Land Or whether under the Character of these we shall with most Interpreters comprehend the numerous and mighty Armies of the Chaldeans and Babylonians which at divers times brought such Desolations as we read of upon the Jews This is plain that we have here the denunciation of some Judgment worthy of God and great as the sins and incorrigibleness that occasion'd it And now who would not here expect the final desolation of such a People as this But behold God even yet in his Anger remembers Mercy and tho' they had hitherto neglected all the Calls and Invitations of his holy Prophets to Repentance yet He resolves once more to try whether they would now at least in their dangers hearken to his Admonitions He raises up Joel at once both to set before
not see how any good Christian can with a good Conscience so frequently neglect In the mean time this is the summ of all He that despises this Institution does not only shew a light esteem of the Death of Christ and do violence to the Command of his Saviour but does moreover deprive his Soul of the most excellent assistance God has given us in this World in order to our Salvation in the next Whereas he who comes frequently and with that due Preparation he ought to it will not only put himself out of all danger from the Precept before us but will in a little while secure himself of such a measure of the Grace and Favour of his Redeemer whose Memory he here honours as shall carry him through all the Temptations the Sorrows the Afflictions of this Life to an Eternal Enjoyment of Glory Honour and Immortality in the next And to which God of his infinite Mercy vouchsafe to bring us all for the same his Son Jesus Christ's sake our Lord Amen OF THE Honour due to the Blessed Uirgin A SERMON Preached on Lady Day MARCH xxv 1688. LUKE I. 48 49. For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed for he that is mighty hath done to me great things and holy is his name THese Words are part of that Magnificat or Song of Thanksgiving which the Blessed Virgin made to God in return of that wonderful Favour He had vouchsafed unto her in esteeming her worthy to become the Mother of our Lord. And they contain in them a kind of Prophecy of that Honour which the Christian Church should in all Ages to come pay to her Memory upon the account of it It is the Observation of our English Rhemists in their Annotations upon this Place That this Prophecy is fulfilled in their keeping her Festival Days and saying the Ave Marie and other Holy Anthems of our Lady And that the Calvinists therefore so they are pleased to stile us for not doing of this are not among these Generations which call our Lady Blessed And in their Marginal Note on the same Passage they very briskly ask this Question Have the Protestants had always Generations to fulfil this Prophecy Or do they call her blessed that derogate what they can from her Graces Blessing and all her Honour In answer to so ignorant or so malicious a Calumny and to shew that We tho' we neither say any Ave-Maries to her Honour nor are engaged in any other part of that unwarrantable Superstition whereby they have so long dishonoured God abused the Blessed Virgin and scandalized the Church of Christ have yet as just an Esteem for the Holy Mother of our Lord and proclaim her Blessedness as much as either this Prophecy requires or any sober Orthodox Christian may be allowed to do it I shall crave leave to make use of that Occasion the Solemnity of this Day offers to me to enter on the Comparison between our selves and them And could I be assured That the Blest above have this Honour from God to be made acquainted with these solemn Exercises of their Brethren here below I would not doubt to appeal to the Holy Virgin her self to judge betwixt us Who they are that do the most truly honour her We who freely pay her all that Love that Respect that Glory that any Creature in her Circumstances can possibly be thought capable of Or they who by giving her more raise her up to a State above the Condition of her Nature and so instead of honouring her dishonour that Son whom she was so happy as to bring into the World and that God who thought her worthy of so great an Exaltation Now in order to this End I shall observe this following Method I. I will shew what that Honour is which the Blessed Virgin is now capable of Receiving and which accordingly we our selves this Day pay to her Memory II. I will lay before you some Instances of that Additional Worship which those of the other Church pretend is due to her III. I will offer some of those Reasons for which we think such a Worship to be unlawful and therefore refuse to give it to her I. I begin with the first of these I. What that Honour is which the Blessed Virgin is now capable of receiving and which accordingly we our selves pay to her Memory For answer to which Enquiry I shall lay down this plain and I suppose undeniable Foundation viz. That however some have been pleased to exalt the Glories and Prerogatives of the Holy MARY to a very great indeed to an extravagant Degree so as hardly to leave any Comparison between her and any other Creature whether in Heaven or Earth yet since they still confess her to be but a meer Creature the Measure we must take whereby to judge What Honour may warrantably be paid to her must be to consider What Honour any meer Creature in her Circumstances is capable of receiving And then I presume it cannot be justly said That we are not of the number of those who call the Holy Virgin Blessed who upon this Foundation do freely profess That providing only for that just Distance that ought to be observed between the Adoration that we owe to God and that Honour which we may be allowed to give to a Creature there is no Respect that we think too great to be given to her Nor will we scruple to pay her any Honour that does not entrench upon our Piety and confound the Service of God and his Creatures together Were the Blessed Virgin yet present upon Earth with us we would soon convince those our Accusers that we thought no Respect too much for her which either they or we are wont to give to the greatest Saints yet on Earth Now that she is departed from us all we can do is to follow her with our Esteem our Praise and our Imitation That is To give her all that Honour which any Creature in the same Circumstances is fit to receive or which it may be either Lawful or Reasonable for us to offer to such a one We pray not indeed to her now nor would we do it if she were still on Earth and we were sure she could hear and know our Requests Because Prayer we look upon to be an Act of Religious Worship and therefore such as is proper to God only But we Bless God for the Honour he vouchsafed unto her when he made her the Mother of our Lord with the Angel we pronounce her Blessed among Women and that in that very Form which she her self set us for our Pattern And so every Day fulfil her Prophecy whilst we cry out with her to God Almighty My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour in that he regarded the lowliness of his Handmaiden We intreat her not to pray for us because we cannot tell how to convey our Requests to her And tho' for ought we know God might
Lights in the Primitive Church and Reason according to the common Condition of Mankind and from which they themselves cannot produce us any Authority of Holy Scripture to exempt her And if some among us have with St. Chrysostom freely supposed That in some cases she did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in the very Instances to which they refer they have at least probable grounds for what they say And for the most part we are contented with St. Austin to suspend our selves and for the honour of our Saviour not to enter into any question at all concerning her as to this matter whether she ever did actually sin or no Or now that God has taken her up into Glory Have we not all that high and worthy Opinion of her Exaltation that we ought to have because indeed we freely profess we cannot believe such extravagant Romances as all sober Men even of their own Church are ashamed of We doubt not but she is at this time in Heaven Do we ever the more debase her because we will not entertain a shameless Legend of her Assumption thither We are persuaded that she is adorn'd with one of the brightest Aureola's in God's Kingdom That her Crown is more Illustrious than any among the Daughters of Eve Is not this sufficient unless we will undertake to tell you what her Crown was made of how many Stars went into her Atchievement what Badges her Servants wore and what Speeches and Complements were made to her upon the occasion and to compleat all set forth in perspective all the Holy Trinity concurring in this Ceremony and all the Powers of Heaven and Earth singing Praises to Her and adoring of Her We make no question but that as she was very highly favour'd by God on Earth so is she now no less beloved by him in Heaven But should we therefore set her up as another Mediatrix that as both Sexes concurr'd to our Ruin so might both concur to our Reparation and so tye up the Hands of God as not to allow any to be saved but according to Her Will Nay make her so far the Queen of Heaven and Earth as to give her a Power of all the Grace that is to be bestowed on Mankind Of saving her Votaries if they do but sufficiently love and worship Her whatever their Affections or their Service be to God Almighty Of fetching Souls not only out of Purgatory but even from Hell it self by her Authority Of ordering all the Events of the Fortunes of Men and Kingdoms insomuch that not a Battel can be fought or a Victory obtain'd but by the favour of this Pallas to whom the Success is due and to whom the Praise and Honour therefore ought to be return'd These indeed are the Extravagancies of some of our Adversaries but God forbid they should ever be the Practice or Opinions of any among us To conclude It is impossible for any to entertain more honourable Sentiments of the Blessed Virgin than we do who will not run out into Blasphemy and Fanaticism and believe such things as neither Scripture nor Antiquity have deliver'd nor will either Piety or common Sense suffer us to receive Let us see Secondly Whether our Actions be not every way suitable to our Opinions Now for this I must observe according to my Foundation before laid down That the Holy Virgin however highly exalted by God being yet still but a meer Creature our Actions towards her must be no other than what a Creature that is at such a vast distance from us and out of all compass of Civil Communication is capable of receiving And so the summ of what may warrantably be paid to her will fall under these Three Generals First To celebrate the Memory of those Blessings and Favours which it has pleased God to bestow upon her Secondly To return Praises to God on the account of them And Thirdly To endeavour what in us lies to imitate her Excellencies This is all the Honour she is capable of receiving from us and it cannot be doubted but that we are as careful as any to fulfil the Prophecy of our Text in every one of these Particulars First We celebrate the Memory of those Blessings and Favours which it has pleased God to bestow upon her Let this day and the other Solemn Festivals we observe to the same End be our Witness how careful we are as to this particular We mark it out in our Rituals as a Day Holy unto the Lord We assemble in our Sacred places solemnly to recount what the Holy Scriptures have recorded of God's Mercies to Her And annually as at this time we encourage one another to bless and praise Him upon the account of them But here the Objection made in the beginning will rise against us 'T is true indeed we do observe some of her Festivals but yet we pass by the greater part of them And for the main thing of all we quite omit it in that we say not AVE MARIA so often and so impertinently as they do nor other Anthems of our Lady as they call her by a new and phantastical Title never given her either in Scripture or by any of the ancient Fathers This we confess is in some measure true We say no AVE MARIE'S i. e. after the manner that they do nor can we imagin what Honour is done to the Blessed Virgin by the nauseous tautologie of a Salutation pertinent in its season when the Angel spoke to her upon her Conception but now as unseasonable in the Application as it is vain and absurd in the Repetition But yet when we recite the History and celebrate the Memory of that surprising Salutation then we read it in our Assemblies that is we do say Ave Maria as often as 't is either pious or to the purpose to do it And if for not doing it as they do we are to be excluded out of the Number of those of whom our Text speaks yet God be thanked we shall run but the same Fortune that the Apostles and the primitive Ages of the Church did before it was first as they tell us revealed to St. Dominick and by him to the Church how they were to recite the Rosary But now for the other Instances objected against us viz. The Feasts and Anthems of our Lady in these we may venture to justifie our selves We celebrate the Memory of all the great Particulars that we know of her Life And if upon the meer Authority of Fables confess'd to be uncertain and disputed by many among themselves as not fit to be credited we cannot be induced to observe more yet in this we hope all sober Christians will acquit us and esteem us to be very excusable in what we do It being certainly to mock not honour both God and Her solemnly to commemorate and seriously to thank God for such Blessings as at the same time we are sure He never bestowed upon Her nor She ever receiv'd
asking all sorts of Blessings of him whether to deliver us from any Evil or to grant us any Good we confess the Sovereign Authority of his Providence over us and declare his Omnipotence who can do whatever he pleases and manifest our trust and dependance upon him In a word By all Creatures doing this in all places and at the same time we set forth the vast capacity of his immense Nature that is able to attend without distraction at once to all the Affairs of the World and can without confusion both hear and answer whatever Requests are made to him But now to suppose that any meer Creature can do this what is it but to confound that infinite distance that above all things ought the most carefully to be kept up in the Minds of Men between God and Us And leave no Perfection in the one so proper to him as not to be communicable to the other And yet however they may think fit to palliate this matter 't is plain he that will pray with any tolerable reason or confidence to the Blessed VIRGIN must suppose all this He must in effect esteem her what the very act of his calling upon her supposes her to be Omniscient Immense Omnipresent and even Omnipotent too It being otherwise a most stupid thing for millions of Men every hour to pray to one who has no power to hear their Prayers to offer up the motions of their Souls to one that cannot search or know their Hearts and ask all manner of Blessings of her who has neither Ability nor Authority to confer any upon them Now 't is upon this ground then that without considering of what kind the Requests are that are made to the Blessed VIRGIN we look upon the very Act it self of Invocation to be an Act indeed one of the most proper Acts of Religious Worship and by consequence such as ought to be paid to God only And though they may pretend that 't is no more to pray to the Holy MARY in Heaven than it would be to desire the Prayers or Assistance of some Friend on Earth yet it is apparent from what I have now been speaking that there is a very vast difference between these two the one supposing no Power or Perfection in our Friend but what may without danger be ascribed to a Creature the other necessarily implying such as are peculiar to God only For to consider this Pretence in a Reflection or two First Does any Man that is well in his Wits discourse with his Friend at a thousand Miles distance from him with that seriousness that those who worship the Blessed VIRGIN pray to Her And yet why is the one esteemed a piece of Piety while the other would be thought meer madness but only that they suppose the Blessed VIRGIN though absent from them nevertheless to be capable of knowing what they do while they think the other is not in a capacity of so doing For as for Gods communicating it to her I presume he is as well able to do it in the one instance as in the other and I think I may say he has as much promised he will do the first as the last that is indeed there is no grounds that he will do it to either Or Secondly Were this a rational thing would yet they themselves endure that a Man should in the House of God and in the midst of his solemn Devotions to him not only desire but in the same breath with which he addresses to God invoke the Assistance of a pious Christian yet living upon Earth Would they think this no more than an act of Brotherly Charity and which one Christian might warrantably use towards another Much less Thirdly Would they permit the Images of a living Christian to be set up in their Churches Candles to be burnt before them and Incense offered to them his Name to be put in the Liturgies of the Church and all the Faithful upon Earth be directed and encouraged every where to pray to Him as a most useful and innocent piece of Piety And with the same opinion and confidence of his hearing their Prayers and answering their desires as they now call upon the Blessed VIRGIN Would they say that this were no more than to ask a private Friend as we have opportunity to pray for us or to desire by Letter the Supplications of our absent Brethren in our behalf And yet much less Fourthly Would they permit this living Christian not only to be thus called upon to pray for his Votaries but to bless them too to keep them in their Lives and to receive them at the hour of Death If indeed these are Instances of Brotherly Charity I shall for my part be content to allow that their Devotion to the Holy MARY is no more But if the very Supposition of such a Power as this be something beyond the natural Abilities of any Creature on Earth with what Conscience can it be said that when they consecrate the Images of the Blessed VIRGIN burn Tapers and Incense before them list themselves under her Protection commit all the care of their Salvation to her call her the Queen of Heaven and Sovereign Lady of Angels and Men put her Name into their Liturgies erect Congregations to her Honour set apart Festivals and Days for her particular Service and then call upon her at the same time in all Parts of the World and this as expecting no small benefit from their Prayers and therefore certainly in a confidence that she though Ten thousand times farther off from us than one Christian on Earth can be from another does nevertheless know what they call upon her for and can and will grant their desires I say with what Conscience can it be pretended that in all this they do but entertain a Brotherly Communion with her and in effect do no more than when a Christian here below desires a Fellow-Christian to pray for Him It remains therefore that to ascribe to the Holy MARY such a Power as is necessary to receive our Prayers and to attend to our Petitions and to search our Hearts and know the motions of our Souls towards her and answer us accordingly is to raise her above the state of a Creature and therefore unlawful for us so to do And it is observable that when the Ancient Fathers first began to make some kind of Addresses to the Holy Martyrs not only the Subject of them was innocent but the Supposition on which they went as to this Point of the Saints or Martyrs hearing them however fanciful yet was such as did not ascribe any undue Perfections to them They call'd upon them not in all places and at all times indifferently but only at their Monuments at the places of their Suffering where their Bodies or Reliques were interr'd and about which they had a conceit that their Souls hovered for some time and therefore being present with them were capable of knowing their desires In process of time
they began to multiply the places of calling upon them and then there grew a Question in the Church Whether the Dead know the things that are done in this World by the Living And in particular Whether the Saints do hear the Prayers of Suppliants so as to understand the Requests that are made to them This was at first resolved in the Negative but by degrees it grew to be more a doubt Lombard thought it was not incredible but that they might know our Affairs as far as was requisite either for their Joy or our Help But Scotus went farther and esteemed it probable that God does specially reveal to them such of our Prayers as are made unto them And so it continued for some time till at last it was found necessary to have the thing certainly believed for the Reason I before gave And then Cardinal Bellarmin roundly concluded That seeing otherwise it would be in vain to pray ordinarlly to those that we could not be sure were ordinarily able to receive our Prayers and understand our Desires therefore it is certain the Saints above do know them And another tells us That it is a Matter of Faith that the Blest above do know the Prayers that we pour out unto them seeing otherwise they would be made in vain And even our late Expositors are not only contented to allow all this to the Saints by a Light communicated to them by God but give us some insinuation as if they did not know why the Saints might not be allowed some knowledge even of themselves of what is done here below as also of our secret Thoughts And thus have we at last these Blessed SPIRITS invested with the Power and Attributes of the Divinity And as some have not doubted to call them made Gods by Participation that is Partakers of the Immensity and other Prerogatives of God But let those who presume to allow this to any Saint in Heaven consider a little who it is that hath said I am the Lord that is my Name and my Glory will I not give unto another And certainly then they will see some cause if not to correct their own ungrounded Error in this Matter yet at least to think a little more favourably of us that we dare not presume to joyn with them in it But Secondly The Second Point wherein we suppose them to have erred in their Opinions of the Blessed Virgin is That they ascribe to her the Right of a Mediatrix to intercede for us Now by a Right of Interceding for us I do not mean such an Intercession as the Faithful here upon Earth many times make for one another when they put up their Prayers to God to forgive their Sins or to grant them any Blessings which they stand in need of Whether the Saints above do in general pray for us or no is a Point which none of us can certainly resolve and therefore is not fit to be disputed by any That they have a great deal of Love and Charity for us is not to be doubted but how they express it God has no where thought fit to declare to us nor is it therefore either fit or needful for us to enquire into it The Intercession which I here mean is of another nature and implies such a kind of Prayer as is founded on the Merits of the Person that intercedes whereby he is able to plead a Right to Gods Mercy So that we may intreat God for his Merits to grant us his Pardon and Forgiveness Now that this is the true Notion which those of the Roman Church have both in general of a Mediator and in particular of the Blessed VIRGIN when they address to her as their Advocate is not only clear from the very Addresses themselves which they make to her but is moreover acknowledged by themselves in the accounts they give us of this Power which they ascribe to her I have before observed from one of their own Authors That to be a Mediator and to discharge the Office of such a one Three things are required viz. First That he who intercedes should have Merited that for which he asks Secondly That he should have offered his Merits to that End And Thirdly That God should have accepted of them And all this they say is true of the Virgin MARY She has merited all that she asks for us She offered her Merits to be joyn'd with those of her Son for our Salvation and God has accepted and ratified the Offering in order to that End Now that in this they attribute that to the Virgin MARY which the Holy Scriptures have every where reserved as the peculiar Prerogative of our Saviour Christ not only St. Paul plainly declares but the whole Analogy of the Old and New Testament assures us of it 1. If first we consider the express Words of Holy Scripture what can be more plain than that Declaration of S. Paul to Timothy 1 Epist. ii 5 That to us Christians there is as but one God so but one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransome for all For if there be but one Mediator and that the Man Christ Jesus how then is the Virgin Mary too our Advocate in Heaven If the Foundation of Christ's Intercession for us be built upon his Death as this Text plainly declares so that he is therefore our Mediator to intercede for us in Heaven because he was our Sacrifice and Propitiation i. e. our Mediator of Redemption on Earth If the Intercession which he makes for us be this That God having covenanted with him to forgive us if he would lay down his Life for us our Saviour Christ having done this do's therefore now in Right of this Covenant represent his Death and Passion to his Father for our Forgiveness then it must follow That as the Blessed VIRGIN has neither any Merits of this kind to plead nor did God ever enter into any Covenant with her to accept of any thing she did in order to our Salvation so neither has she any Right to intercede for us in Heaven nor ought we therefore to pray to her so to do It is I know a Distinction which some here make use of when forced by the evidence of Truth to confess Christ to be our only Mediator That there are two sorts of Mediators one of Redemption the other of Intercession That Christ only is our Mediator of Redemption and alone can plead a Right to our Forgiveness but that others and especially the Virgin MARY is a Mediator of Intercession to implore God's Favour by humble Prayer and Supplication for us But besides that it is evident from what I have before observed That this is not indeed all the Opinion they have of the Blessed Virgin as our Mediatrix whom they allow to have Merits to plead as well as her Son and to intercede by a proper Right and Title for us this Distinction is wholly
not well see how they will be able to clear themselves altogether of those Follies which they so readily encourage and not only neglect to correct themselves but will not suffer those who would to do it Nay but we must not stop here They have given a yet greater encouragement to the dishonour of our Saviour than this If we look into their Churches and there view their Pictures and their Images those Books of the Ignorant as they are pleased to call them what can be either more wretched in it self or more apt to seduce unthinking Votaries than every where to see Holy MARY with our Saviour still an Infant in her Arms as if he were never to get out of the state of his Pupillage And this were yet tolerable if they thereby took care to call back their Minds to the condition of his Infancy once when on Earth But alas I must add what exceeds all Extravagances besides that they set him out still as a Child in Heaven Nor is there any thing more common in the Lives of their Saints in the Records of the Miracles of the VIRGIN and even in their Offices and Books of Devotion than to hear of the Son of God brought down in the Arms of his Mother and still behaving himself as a little Child towards her Votaries And what mean and low Opinions such things as these must needs create in Superstitious and Ignorant Minds of the Saviour of the World is very natural to conceive and the Devotion of the People towards the Blessed VIRGIN compared with their Notions and Zeal towards the Holy JESVS does but too fatally demonstrate But Secondly This Consideration is not only thus important in it self but of a more especial concern with regard to us Were the Votaries of the Blessed VIRGIN content with a Speculative Opinion of her Excellencies or would they be satisfied to pay her what Homage they thought fit themselves without forcing others to joyn in it this Matter though very Scandalous to our Religion yet would not so much concern our Practice But now that the very Publick Devotion of the Church is wholly over-run with this Abuse so that 't is impossible to pray to God with them unless you will be content to pray to Holy MARY too it was certainly very necessary for us to understand the danger of such an Error which is thus combined with the most publick and solemn Piety of a whole Body of Christians And then Thirdly This is a Point not only of very great moment in it self and of a particular concern to us but very plain too and easie to be understood In other things though our Arguments are strong to those that comprehend the force of them yet many times the Subject is obscure and the Disputation past the Capacity of the ordinary Christian. Thus in their Doctrines about the Church the Authority Vnity Infallibility and other either real or pretended Privileges of it The Argument is nice and easily perplexes an uninstructed Capacity But here the Advice is evident and the whole Subject easie The only hardship is to bring them to own their Doctrine but afterwards the most Vulgar Christian is able to discern the falseness of it Those first Rudiments of Christianity Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed There is one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus and the like being abundantly sufficient to shew how impossible it is that those should not have departed from their first Faith who give Religious Honour to the Virgin MARY and set her up as a Mediatrix in Heaven Now this being once proved it will from hence presently follow Fourthly That all the Pretences of the Church of Rome against us are vain and that we not only had sufficient Reason but that it was our Duty to reform as we did from them For to consider this Argument in one word If the Church of Rome be actually and undoubtedly Erroneous in this Point then let her fancy what she please 't is plain she can Err and is not what she says Infallible If she be not Infallible then there can be no Obligation to believe and follow her at all Adventures without examining what she teaches whether it be true or false If we may examine her Doctrine then the End of all Examination being to find out the Truth and to cleave unto it it must follow that when upon the Enquiry we had discovered her to be involved in grievous Errors it was our Duty to abandon her Corruptions and to declare against them And thus this one Point alone being well cleared does in the Consequence of it plainly prove a Vindication of the whole Work of the Reformation and is alone sufficient to satisfie any unprejudiced Mind what just Cause we had for it And let us then Bless God who has opened our Eyes to discover such Abuses as these and which had almost subverted the very chief Principles of Christianity And let us as we ought value nothing so much as that Purity of Religion in which we have the happiness to exceed most Christians in the World Let our Adversaries if they please revile us let them call us Hereticks and Schismaticks Despisers of the Church and Haters of the Blessed Virgin let them fill Heaven and Earth with their Anathema's against us because we will not joyn with them in these and the like Abominations But let us stand fast in the Lord and in the Religion which we have received knowing from whom we have received it and what is the rule and measure of it And that though I do not say They or We or any other Church or Society of Men whatsoever but though an Angel from Heaven though St. Peter himself should come to us and preach any other Gospel he is to be accursed I shall conclude all with those excellent words of an Ancient Father of the Church against some who began in his time to Honour the Blessed VIRGIN though not with any part of that excess that these Men now do yet more than he supposed was fitting for them 'T is true says he MARY was Holy but she was not therefore God She was a Virgin and highly honoured but she was not set forth to us to be worshipp'd And therefore the Holy Gospel has herein arm'd us before hand our Lord himself saying Woman what have I to do with thee Wherefore does he say this But only left some should think of the Blessed VIRGIN more highly than they ought He called her Woman as it were foretelling those Schisms and Heresies that should arise upon her account But God permits us not to worship Angels how much less the Daughter of Anna Let MARY be held in Honour but let the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Worshipped Let no one Worship MARY for though she were most fair and holy and honourable yet she is not therefore to