the Son and the Holy Ghost partake alike with him of the Divine nature and consequently have a right to the same Adoration yet forasmuch as God the Father is the First Person and the Father who Communicates that Divine nature to them both forasmuch as John 2. 29. John 6. 27. John 5. 26. God the Father hath that Essence in himself and what he is is from none but the Son and the Holy Ghost have it by Communication from the Father and what they are they are from him this Title may bear particular and primary respect to him Accordingly Eph. 1. 3. we find the Apostles in a particular manner directing their Prayers to God the Father Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us Ver. 17. I cease not to make mention of you in my Prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory for this cause I bow my Knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus that he would grant you But 2. The word Father in this Prayer is to be taken Essentially and not Personally and so excludes not the other two Persons of the most Holy and Undivided Trinity but only those that are of a different nature from them Now if the whole three Persons are one in Essence then when ever we Pray to and do Honour to God the Father we must at the same time Worship John 10. 20. the other two though not so directly who are one with him Thus our Saviour speaks I and the Father are one yea the whole Thre Persons are so 1 John 5. 7. as St. John tells us expresly There are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one We read that 't was the John 5. 23. will of God That all Men should Honour the Son as they do the Father and that we should Honour the Holy Ghost as well as either because we are equally Baptized Matt. 28. 19. into his name Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost now if the Son and the Holy Ghost are one in Essence with the Father and to be Honoured with the same Honour then although in this Title the Father be only expresly named and invock'd the other two persons can't but be implyed and comprehended in it 3. We may consider that this Doctrine of the Trinity being in a great measure a stranger to the Old Testament and the Apostles when our Saviour gave them this Prayer not sufficiently instructed in it our Saviour might teach them to call upon God in suchh an expression which though for the present they might understand only of God the Father yet afterwards when they should come more fully to understand and beleive the Trinity might fairly be extended to take in the other two persons Son and Holy Ghost 4. Since it is by vertue of our Spiritual relation to God by Christ through the operation of the Holy Ghost that in a more special and particular manner he is Our Father when ever we call upon God as a Father and Our Father it implies that we address to him in the Name and Mediation of Christ and by the assistance of the Holy Ghost the Apostle tells believers that they had received the Spirit of Adoption wherby they cried Abba Father St. Chrysostom's notion on the Text is that the Jews Rom. 8. 15. during the time of the Old Testament being under a Servile Dispensation did seldom or never presume to call upon God by that familiar appellation of a Father but the Holy Ghost moving believers after a miraculous and extraordinary way in the first dayes of Christianity to invocke God by that name as our Saviour had directed his Disciples before might well be called the Spiâ—it of Adoption as thereby declaring them to be his Adopted Sons Another evident proof are those words of the Apostle 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one God and and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus The natural importance of the words seems to be this that as there is but one God only and no more to whom we ought to Pray so there is but one Mediatour only and no more by whom we have access with boldness to the Thron of Grace one Mediatour Emphatically in the same sense as there is one God and you may as well make to your selves more Gods as more Mediators But to weaken the strength of this evidence the Romanists distinguish betwixt a Mediator of Redemption and a Mediator of Intercession and tell us that the Text is only to be understood of the former which indeed is but one but not of the latter which may be more then one even as many as there are Angels and Saints in Heaven but how little this distinction does serve their turn may appear by considering 1. That there is a vast difference betwixt an Intercessor and a Mediator of Intercession that Saints in Heaven out of that Charity that all the Members of Christ have for one another do in general interceed for the good of that Body of which they are a part was owned and granted before but this makes them not Mediators of Intercession to which office it belongs to receive the Prayers of others and to present them to God and in order hereunto they must hear the Prayers of others and receive information concerning their particular States and Conditions which they are not capable of 2. That this Text is especially to be understood of that part of Christs Mediatory Office that consists in interceeding for us the Apostle seems to oppose these words to the Heathen Form of Praying which was to many Gods by many Doemons who were reputed Agents or Mediatours between their chief Gods and them now all that the Heathens attributed to their Doemons was Intercession only and the Apostle shews that Christ being made a Mediatour every way effectual for that end â—â—â—re could be no necessity of any Mediatours of Intercession besides him so that the Apostle here replyes two things to the Heathens multiplicity of Mediatours 1. That God had appointed but one the God-Man Christ Jesus therefore he sayes ver 7. that he was ordained a Teacher of the Gentiles in Faith and Verity for establishing the Christian Faith and Truth in this particular especially of one God and one Mediatour in contradiction to the plurality of Gods and Mediatours amongst the Gentiles answerable to this are those words of the Apostle in another place Though there be many that are called Gods as there be Gods many and Lords many but to us there is but one 1 Cor. 8. 5. God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ here there is a manifest and direct opposition betwixt the Heathen way of Praying and the Christian the Heathens had many Gods and many Lords Mediatours the Christians but one God and
miraculous signs of their Apostolical Office And if they had not had such Assurance themselves and could not have given proof to others of their mission there would have been a defect in the first promulgation of the Gospel and such as could not afterwards have been amended That which at first had been delivered with uncertainty would with greater uncertainty have been conveighed down to after Ages and Men who in process of time graft error upon certain Truth would much more have grafted error upon uncertain Opinion Ever since the Apostles times there has been True Faith and the Profession of it in the Catholick Church And it will be so till Faith shall expire and Men shall see him on whom they before believ'd For a Church cannot subsist without the Fundamentals of Christianity And Christ hath Sealed this Truth with his promise that there shall be a Church as long as this World continues * S. Mat. 28. 20. I mean by a Church a visible Society of Christians both Ministers and People for publick Worship on Earth cannot be invisible But the True Faith and the Profession of it is not fixed to any place or to any succession of Men in it God's Providence has written the contrary in the very Ashes of the Seven Churches of the lesser Asia Neither is any particular Church though so far infallible in Fundamentals as to be preserved from actual error an infallible Rule to all other Christians If they follow the Doctrine of it they erre not because it is true but if they follow that Church as an unerring Guide or Canon they mistake in the Rule and Motive of their Faith For that particular Church which Teacheth Truth might possibly have err'd and the Church which erres might have shined with the True Light But the whole Church cannot erre in any Age for then the very being of a Church would cease Neither doth it hence follow that the Faith of the Roman Church when Luther arose was the only true and certain Doctrine For that Church was not then the only visible Church on Earth The Greek Church for instance sake was then more visible than now it is and more Orthodox The Rich Papacy having much prevailed upon the necessities of it by Arguments guilded with Interest That Church did not erre in Fundamental Points the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father by the Son which the Romans accuse of Heresie being easily acquitted of it if Men agreeing in the sense forbear contention about the Phrases Besides if our Fore-Fathers under the Papacy embraced the True Faith we have it still the Faith not being removed but the Corruption Their Question therefore Where was your Religion before Luther is not more pertinent amongst Disputers than this amongst Husbandmen Where was the Corn before it was weeded We have seen that necessary Faith is perpetual and it is as Prop. II manifest that wheresoever God requireth the belief of it he vouchsafeth sufficient means for information and unerring Assent Of all he does not require this belief for to all the Gospel is not preached and where it is preached there are Infants and Persons of Age so distempered in Mind as to remain unavoidably Children in understanding And though thâ— same sum of Doctrines is generally necessary to Salvation yet the Creed of all men is not of equal length seing they have unequal capacities But wheresoever there is a particular Society of Men who call themselves a Church yet erre actually in the necessary Articles of the Faith it is certain they were not forced into that error for want of external means For the Just Judge of the World would never have required Unity in the Faith upon pain of his Eternal displeasure if he had not given to Men Power sufficient for such Unity No Tyranâ— on Earth has been guilty of such undisguised injustice as that is which maketh a Law for the punishment of the Blind because they miss their way The Articles of Christian Religion come not to the Mind by natural reason but by Faith and Faith comes by hearing or reading and where these means are not offered a Man is rather an Ignorant Person then an Unbeliever Wherefore our Saviour told the perverse Jews * Joh. 15. 22 23. that if the Messiah had never been revealed to them they had not been answerable for the Sin of Infidelity But that since he was come to them and by them despised their Infidelity was blackned with great aggravation The means then are sufficient wheresoever the end Prop. III. is absolutely required but whatsoever those means are the Act of Assent is to be utlimately resolved into each Mans Personal reason For no Man can believe or assent but upon some ground or motive which appears credible to him He could not believe unless he had some reason or other why he believed When all is done said Mr. Thorndike * To the Reader of the Dis of Govern of Churches Men must and will be Judges for themselves I do not quote the saying because it is extraordinary but because that Learned Man said it who was careful to pay to Authority its minutest dues If a man believe upon Authority he hath a farther reason for the believing of it He is not willing to take Pains in examining that which is proposed to him or he thinks himself of less Ability in understanding then those from whom he borrows his Light If he desireth another to judge for him his choice is determined by the Opinion he hath conceived of him Every Man has his reason though it be a weak one and such as cannot justify it self or him Something at last turns the Ballance though it be but a Feather This the Romanists own as well as the Reformed till it toucheth them in the case of a new Convert To induce a Man of another particular Church to embrace their Communion they submit these weighty points to his private Judgement What is a True Church and which are the marks of it What is the Roman Church And whither the marks of the True Church do only belong unto the Roman What Men or what Books spâ—â—k the sense of that Church They tell us †R. H. Guide in Controv. in Pref. p. 3. That the Light of a Man 's own reason first serves him so far as to the discovery of a Guide Also that in this discovery the Divine Providence hath left it so clear and evident that a sincere and unbyassed quest cannot miscarry But when once this Guide is found ouâ— the Man is afterwards for all other things that are prescribed by this Guide to subject and resign his reason As if it were not as difficult to judge of such a Guide as of his direction It seems the Roman Church is like a Cave into which a Man has Light enough to enter but when once he is entred he is in thick Darkness But how subservient soever our reason may be
plain a case as Heresie if our Church thinketh a private Man may without an infallible Guide on Earth judge aright of it it does but believe as Pope Adrian believed as he professed in a Synod of Rome of which profession report is made in the 2d Synod of Nice †Syn. Nic. 2. art 7 sec vers Anastasii Licet enim Honorio post mortem anathema sit dictum ab Orientalibus sciendum tamen est quia fuerat super haeresi accusatus propter quam solam licitum est minoribus majorum suorum moribus resistendi vel pravos sensus libere respuendi c. For speaking of the Sentence against Pope Honorius he excuseth it in point of good behaviour because it was given in the case of Heresie For in that case and that case alone he allowed Inferiors so he was pleased to call the Oriental Bishops to reject the corrupt sense of those who are superiour to them I will hasten to the next Proposition after I have added one thing more which relates to the guidance of Ecclesiastical Authority And it is this Those of the unlearned Laity who are Members of the Church of England have much more of the just guidance of Ecclesiastical Authority than the like order of Men in the Church of Rome For the Authentick Books of that Church being all written in the Latin Tongue the illiterate People resolve their Faith into the ability and honesty of their Confessor or Parish Priest They take it upon his word that this is the Doctrine this the Discipline this the Worship of their Church Whereas each Minister in our Church can direct the People to the Holy Bible to the Books of Homilies Articles Canons Common-Prayer Ordination as set forth in their native Tongue by publick Authority Of this they may be assured by their own Eyes as many as can but competently read They do not only take this from the mouth of a Priest but from the Church it self Where the Laws of the Church and the Statutes of the Civil Government are written in an unknown Tongue there the Unlearned depend more upon private than publick Authority for they receive the Law from particular Priests or Judges Though Ecclesiastical Authority be a help to our Prop. VI. Faith yet the Holy Scripture is the only infallible Rule of it and by this Rule and the Ministeral Aids of the Christian Church we have sufficient means without Submission to papal Infallability to attain to certainty in that Faith which is generally necessary to Salvation I do not mean that by believing the whole Canon of the Scripture in the gross we thereby believe all the necessary Articles of the Faith because they are therein contained That looks too like a fallacy and it giveth countenance to an useless Faith For he that believes on this manner hath as it were swallow'd a Creed in the lump only whereas it is necessary for a Christian to know each particular Article and the general Nature Tendency of it Otherwise his Faith will not have a distinct influence upon his Christian behaviour to which if it were not useful it were not necessary To believe in general as the Scripture believes is with the Blind and Flexible Faith of a Romanist to believe at adventure He believes as his Church believes but he knows not what is the belief of his Church and therefore is not instructed by that Faith to behave himself as a Member of it The Scripture is that rule of Faith which giveth us all the particular Articles which are necessary to eternal Life By this rule the Primitive Fathers govern'd themselves and this they commended to the Churches And Clemens Alexandrinus a Cl. Alex. Strom. 2. Kanon Ekklesiastikos he Synodia c. Strom. 7 Alethon kai pseudon kriterion does in terms call the Consent of the Old and New Testament the Ecclesiastical Canon and the Touch-stone of true and false I will not multiply Testimonies enough of them are already collected b V. Davenant de Judice normā fidei c. 12. p. 53. c. D. Till Rule of Faith part 4. sect 2. p. 320. c. I will rather pursue the Argument before me in these three Assertions First a Protestant without the submission of his Judgement to the Roman Church may be certainly directed to the Canonical Books of Holy Scripture Secondly He may without such submission sufficiently understand the Rule of Faith and find out the Sense of such places in those Canonical Books as is necessary to the belief of a true Christian Thirdly This rule of Faith is the principal means of Union in Faith in the Christian Church First a Protestant without the submission of his Assert I. Judgement to the Roman Church may be certainly directed to the Holy Scriptures It is commonly said by Men of the Roman perswasion but injudiciously enough that we may as well receive our Creed from them as we do our Bible The Scribes and Pharisees might have said the like to the People of the Jews But with the good Text they conveighed down to them a very false gloss and misinterpreted the Prophesies as meant of a pompous temporal Messiah But for the Reformed they have received neither Creed nor Bible from the Church of Rome The first enumeration of those Books they find in the Apostolical Canons and in those of the Council of Laodecea no Westren writings They have received the Scriptures from the Universal Church of all Ages and Places the Copies of them having been as widely dispersed as the Christians themselves And they receive them not from the infallibility of any particular Church but upon the validity of this sure principle that all the Christian World so widely dispersed could not possibly conspire in the imposing of false Books upon them For particular Churches we may of all others suspect the Roman in reference to the Scriptures For what sincerity of dealing may we hope for from such a Cabal of Men as has forged decrees of Councils and Popes obtruded upon the World Apocryphal Books as Books Canonical purged out of the writings of the Fathers such places as were contrary to their Innovations depressed the Originals under an imperfect Latin Copy and left on purpose in that Copy some places uncorrected for the serving of turns For example sake they have not either in the Bible of Sintus or in that of Clement both which though in War against each other are made their Canon changed the word She in the third of Genesis a Gen. 3. 15. for That or He. But contrary to the Hebrew Text to the Translation of the Seventy to the Readings of the Fathers They persist in rendring of it after this manner She shall break thy Head They believe this Reading tendeth most to the Honour of the blessed Virgin whom they are too much inclined to exalt in the Quality of a Mother above her Son The English Translation of Doway hath followed this plain
excepting the Dispute between the Latin and Greek Church about the Filioque or the Holy Spirits proceeding from the Father and the Son received by all catholick churches to this day which is as compleat and perfect Succession as any Doctrine can have therefore when the Church of Rome asks us Where was our Religion before Luther we tell them it was all the World over all Catholick churches believed what we do though we do not believe all that they do they themselves did and do to this Day own our creeds and Articles of Faith excepting such of them as are directly opposed to their Innovations So that we are on a â—ure Foundation our Faith has been received in the catholick church in all Ages But now the church of Rome cannot shew such a Succession for her new Doctrines and Articles of Faith which were unknown to the Primitive church for many Ages which were rejected by many flourishing churches since the first appearance of them which never had a quiet possession in her own communion and were never formed into Articles of Faith till the packt conventicle of Trent This I think is a sufficient Answer to this Paper and it pities me to see so many well-meaning Persons abused with such transparent Sophistry FINIS A DISCOURSE About the Charge of NOVELTY Upon the Reformed CHURCH OF ENGLAND Made by the PAPISTS Asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before LVTHER LONDON Printed and Edinburgh Re-printed by J. Reid for T. Brown and G. Schaw and A. Ogston and G. Mosman Stationers in the Parliament Closs 1686. A DISCOURSE About the Charge of NOVELTY Upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists c. THe Christian Doctrine was once by the way of trust delivered by Christ and his Apostles unto the Saints Men of Care and Honesty and who should preserve it in its first purity and Spiritual intention only to prescribe methods unto Men by Faith and an Honest conversation how they might arrive at Heaven that this Religion might make a deeper impression upon their minds and memories and be more faithfully kept it was set down in plain and significant Terms and reduced into 2 Tim. 1. 13 14. Rom. 6. 17. 1. Tim. 6. 20. short summaries called a form of sound words that good thing that Form of Doctrine a depositum or trust and by the Church afterwards a creed That it might be believed and valued it was in its own Nature of the greatest importance confirmed with variety of the best of Arguments Miracles Prophecies innocent carriage and Death of its numerous Disciples and severe curses denounc'd against any that should add to or take from it till Gal. 1. 8. 9 Rev. 22. 18. their great Master And its Author Jesus should come from Heaven again Yet notwithstanding all this by the Malice and Subtility of the Devil the Designs and Passions of Men the Ignorance and Negligence of some the Cunning and Industry of others this plain and simple Religion began by degrees to be corrupted by the mixtures of Philosophy and niceness by the Rules of Stat Craft and Policy by idle Traditions and Inventions by the Melancholy of some and the gayety of others and the natural Face of it was so strangely changed that it seem'd another Gospel and you might seek Christianity in the Christian World and yet scarce find it Many Kingdoms and People were to blame in this being Teacherous to their Master and false to their trust suffering so Pure and chast a Religion to be corrupted 2. Cor. 11. 2 or Stolen away but the Church of Rome seems the most Guilty of them all especially upon her own grounds her Bishop being the Infallible Vicar of Jesus to whom are committed the Oracles of GOD once indeed renowned Cyp. Epist Ox. Edit p. 5. 6. Rom 18. Platina vitâ— Bon 7. p. 159. vide quaeso quantum degeneraverint c. for her Faith and Pious Governours but now as famous for their Degeneracy as well in Religion as in their Lives Whose Ambition or Interest prostituted the Faith to those Designs and made it Earthly and Sensual or their Negligence and Stupidity suffered the Enemy in the night of Ignorance to sow the tares which so grew up and choakt the Wheat that Faith was turn'd into Fables and Lyes Foppery and Superstition were Nick-nam'd Devotion Ridiculous Gestures and Habits past for Repentance and Mortification the Bible was shut up and contemned and the Legends open'd and praised Honest and Good Men were butchered and unknown Persons and Malefactors canonized Saints with their Pictures and Reliques were made Rivals to Christ in Mediation and Intercession Good Works were spoiled by Merit and Arrogance or done by way of composition for vices the fear of Hell was abated by the invention of Purgatory Christ was fetch from Glory by the Magick of a Priest and put into a Wafer or into a more sordid place riddles and quirks of their Schools were made Articles of Faith in short old truths were rooted up and new errors grafted on them Power and Profit were Stiled the church the court of Rome was brought into the Temple and called the Holy of Holies Such errours as these in the christian Faith came from Rome and infected our Ancient British church not at first planted by the Labours of the Romish Bishops of old but corrupted by their later Emissaries and lasted a long time among us being supported by Power twisted with Interest sutable to the pleasures and vices of Men incorporated into the Government having put out Mens reason to try and discern between Truth and Error and at length became Fashionable Legal Terrible with Fires and censures which made us Sick unto death absolute almost and beyond recovery Such was our condition here of Slavery and Ignorance but it pleased him that dwells between the Golden Candlesticks to dispel our Darkness and restore the Ancient light of Primitive Christianity His Wisdom and Goodness improving the passions and inclinations of some in temporal changes and concerns to Spiritual purposes encouraging the secret groans and desires of others putting many more upon search and enquiry after Truth and infusing courage for it at length came to a resolution of Arguing and Debating the Errors of the Romish Faith and manners of reforming the abuses in Discipline and Devotion and to call back True Christianity again and being dispossest of the Spirit of Rome which oft tore them and rent them till they foamed again are now cloath'd and in their Wits once more upon this account the Friends of Rome call us Hereticks Schismaticks and Innovators Discharge Censures and Excommunications and Eternal Damnation against us are full of Wrath and indignation and to shew a little Wit in their Anger And pretended reason pertly ask the Question where was our Religion before Luther This is the common and trite objection against our Religion very frequent not only in the Mouths of their Bellarmine Campian Smith more Ordinary
glorious with arrogant Titles and borrow'd Names Search into the Pedegree of Romes Religion we do not find Christ or St. Peter or any of his Apostles to be the Authors of it but Pride Interest and Design old Vices indeed but new Fathers of a Christian church which brought in a late and new generation of Opinions and additions to Christs Religion clothing them with the venerable Names of Primitive and Apostolical Where was the Romish Religion before the Council of Trent concluded onely about the year 1563. of a latter date then when Luther first began which legitimated all their Innovations the issue of Scholastick Wranglings pretended Dreaâ—â—s and Visions forc'd and unnatural Senses of Scripture Ambition and Profit the Fxchequer of Rome to be made Sons of the Church and Fundamentals of the Christian Faith Many of their own Writers confess that for 1400 or â— 500 years the Pope was not believ'd to be infallible till of late some of their flaming Zealots have vested him with infallibility whereby the Roman Church is sick unto death and no cure is to be applyed because she is so certain and sure that she is well Their lewd Doctrine of Transubstantiation was not made an Article of Faith till the Council of Laâ—eran under Innocent the third above 1200 years after Christ and many of their own Writers are still dissatisfied about it The Title of Vniversal Bishop was obtained by Pope Boniface the Third not till about 600 years after Christ fearing a powerful Rival the Constantinopolitan Bishop who affected the same and therefore by the Popes themselves was declaimed against as proud and Antichristian but now by Hypocrisie and base compliance with the wicked Phocas who was guilty of Treason and Murder against the Emperour Mauritius Rome gained the delicious point and has made it a fundamental Article of her new Religion though the Popes came not up to their swaggering temper and Power of Hectoring Christian Princes some hundred of years afâ—erwards The Doctrine of Purgatory which some derive from the Platonick Fancies of Origen the Montanism of Tertullian pretended Visions and Pagan Stories Rhetorical Flourishes and doubtful Expressions of the later Fathers yet it was not positively affirmed till about the year 1140. and not made an Article of Faith till the Council of Trent then indeed a good Estate became a surer way to Heaven then a good Life and Conversation The use of indulgences was the Moral to the Fable of Purgatory and began to grow much what about the same time though it came not to the height and perfection till Pope Leo the Tenths time when Luther so stoutly opposed them then Heaven was set to sale and the best Chapman was the greatest Saint though they boast of the second Council of Nice for the Antiquitie of their Image Worship And if it will do thern any good so they may of Simon Magus who was of an elder date and a very fit Patron of Acts 11. 13 such an Opinion yet the Council of Frankfurt condemned it and the purest times did not so much as allow the making of Images And it was not the Catholick Doctrine in France for almost 900 years after Christ nor in Germany till after the 12th Câ—â—tury then indeed such a Doctrine might be very proper when true Religion was turned into Pageantry and a form of Godliness The number of the seven Sacraments is now an Article of the Romish Faith yet the Council of Florence ended in the year 1439 was the first Council and Peter Lombard the first man that precisely fixt that number That the Laity ought to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper onely in one kind was never made an Article of Faith till the Council of Constance concluded in the year 1418 then indeed that Council with the greatest insolence and a direct Invasion of the Authority of CHRIST took the Cup from the Laymens mouths notwithstanding as it was then acknowledged the Institution of CHRIST to the contrary and they may as well Christen the Laicks Children only in the name of the Holy Ghost leaving out the Father and the Son by the way of concomitancy it being as Lawful to Baptize as Communicat by the halfes For what cannot such a pretended Power do The prohibiting of Priests to Marry was not in perfection as 't is now till Pope Gregory the Sevenths time Let them tell us where 't is said by Christ or his Apostles or any of the truly Ancient Writers of the christian Church that Pennance is a Sacrament or that Auricular Confession is necessary to Salvation or that Prayers ought to be made in an unknown Tongue or that good works are strictly meritorious or where can they find the many Impieties and absurdities of their Mass in those early times of Antiquity And since they are fond of asking us this Question we might ask them many more about the many Fopperies and Innovations in their Faith and Devotion and many they are and large is the inventory almost as many as are the Christian Truths in direct opposition to them or prevarication from them But they seem to confess the newness of their Religion when they arrogantly set up a Power in their Church to frame new Articles of Faith and many things only Opinions and Notions at first have grown up by degrees to Fundamental Truths and having once slipt into errour they are bound to maintain it for the Reputation and Autâ—ority of Holy Church And who knows how many of this Nature are upon the Romish forge ready to be put into their Creed and where must we end not till it be believed that consecrated Feathers and Holy Water can convey Divine Grace to us and drive away wicked Spirits and the Weathercocks of our Churches be thought Pâ—illars of it Would the Champions of Rome speak out they would tells us as their Eckius did the Duke of Bavaria That the Doctrine of Luther might be overthrown by the Fathers though not by the Scriptures 't is a plain confession that we have the truest Antiquity on our side and in the beginning it was not so But we add that we have the Fathers also on our side for otherwise what mean their Expurgat orian Indices of the Fathers and other Ancient Writters but that they very well know that these are old Enemies to Pope Pins's new Creed and the Truth in them confounds their errour Such an account as this about the Original and Progress of their new Additions to the old Faith was convenient to be given not because the Nature of the thing did necessarily require it for it had been sufficient only to have prov'd that these Romish Additions to the Christian Faith are contrary to the Word of GOD and no where to be found in any of the Divine Writings the only Infallible Rule of Faith and that they have no power of minting new Articles Fundamental to Salvation but because the Disciples of Rome so frequently ask us the Question and
Land was a Holy Land Gods peculiar Inheritance which he gave by promise to their Fathers and the Temple was his House where he dwelt among them it cannot be expected that any other Gods might be worship'd by such a people in such a Land and in such a house as God had appropriated to himself 3. It is very considerable that we have no approved example under the Law of any worship pay'd to Saints or Angels or any other Beeing but God alone We have too many sad examples of the Idolatry of the Jews both in worshipping the Molten Calf which Aaron made and Jeroboams Calves and Baalim's and other Heathen gods but had it been allowed by their Law to have pay'd any inferiour degree of Religious Worship to Saints and Angels which is now asserted by the Church of Rome to be a matter of such great benefit and advantage to mankind it is a very strange that we should not have one example of it throughout the Scripture nor any authentick Records among the Jewish Writers All the Psalms of David are directed to God alone and yet we cannot think but such a devout man would have bestowed some Hymns upon his Patron and tutelar Saints had he worship'd any such as well as the Papâ—sts do now This the Church of Rome sees and acknowledges and thinksshe answers too when she gives us the reason why it could not be so under the Law because those Old Testament-Saints were not then admitted into Heaven to the immediate vision and fruition of God Heaven-gates were not opened till the resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour and therefore those blessed Spirits were not in a condition to be our Intercessors and Mediators till they were received into Heaven but now Saints and Martyrs ascend directly into Heaven and reign with Christ in Glorie and it seems share with him in his peculiar Worship and Glorie too Now 1. Whither this be so or not the Scriptures assign no such reason for it and therfore it is likely there might be other reasons and I think I have made it very plain that there was We are not inquiring for what reasons the Jewish Church did not worship Saints and Angels but whither they did worship them or not and it appears that they never did so that we have neither precept nor example for this during all the time of the Jewish Church which is all we intend to prove by this argument 2. But yet it is evident that this is not a good reason why the Jews did not worship Angels under the Law For certainly Angels were as much in Heaven then as they are now whatever Saints were They are represented in the Old Testament as the constant Attendants and Râ—tinue of God and the great Ministers of his Providence and therefore they were as capable of Divine Worship in the time of the Law as they are now nay I think a little more For the Law it self was given by the Ministry of Angels and their appearances were more frequent and familiar and the world seemed to be more under the Government of Angels then then it is now since Christ is made the Head of the Church and exalted above all principalities and powers And therefore sometimes the Advocates of the Church of Rome make some little offers to prove the worship of Angels in those days to this purpose they alledge that form of benediction which Jacob used in blessing the Sons of Josheph The Gen. 44. 16. Angel which redemed me from all evil bless the Lads But 1. This is not a direct prayer to the Angel but onely his committing of them to the care and patronage of that Angel with a prayer to God for that purpose And if he by experience had found that God had appointed his Angel to defend and protect him it was but reasonable to pray to God that the same Angel might protect his posterity 2. But yet according to the sense of the Antient Fathers this was no created Angel and Spirit but the Son and Word of God the Angel of the presence who is so often in Scripture stiled Jehovah a name which can belong to no created Spirit And it is no hard matter to make it highly probable that this is that Angel who redeemed Jacob out of all his troubles But it is strange if Angels were worshipped under the Old Testament we should have no clearer and plainer evidence of it then such a single Text which was never expounded either by any Jewish or Christian Writers to this sense till of late dayes and here the Priests of the Church of Rome are to be put in mind of their Oath to expound Scripture according to the unanimous consent of the Ancient Fathers SECT III. The Testimonies of the Gospel considered whither Chrâ—â—â— and his Apostles have made any alteration in the object â—f our Worship LEt us now proceed in the second place to consider Sect. 3. the writings of the New Testament and examine what they teach us concerning the object of our Worship And that Christ and his Apostles have made no change in the object of our worship will appear from these considerations 1. That they could not do it Had they ever attempted to set up the worship of any other Beeings besides the One Supreme God the Lord Jehovah the Jews were expresly commanded by their Law not to believe them nor hearken to them whatever signs and wonders and miracles they had wrought If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a Deut. 13. 1 2 3 4 5. sign or wonder and the sign or wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying let us go after other Gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of the Prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your GOD proveth you to know whither you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your Soul Ye shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his Commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and cleave unto him And that Prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death c. in which Law there are some things very matterial to be obsered in this present dispuâ—e 1. When they are forbidden to hearken to any Prophet who seduces them to the worship of any other Gods this must be extended to all those instances of Idolatrous worship which are forbid by the Law of Moses whatever is opposed to the worship of one Supreme and Soveraign Beeing the Lord Jehovah And therefore whither these Prophets seduced them from the worship of the Lord Jehovah to the worship of other Gods or perswaded them to worship other Gods besides the Lord Jehovah whither they were any of those Gods which were at that time worship'd by other Nations or any other Gods whom the ignorance and superstition of the people should create in after
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
the meaning themselves They give them light into the nature of the Doctrine they do not require them to take it upon trust They endeavour to open their understandings that they may themselves understand the Scriptures And if they cannot themselves understand the Doctrine it will be of little use to them in their lives For they then believe in general that it is a necessary Truth but what Truth it is or for what ends it is necessary they apprehend not A Foolish Master in the Mathematicks may require his Schollars to take it upon his word that a Problem is demonstrated But a wâ—se and useful teacher will give them light into the manner of the demonstration in such sort that they themselves shall at last be able to judge that it is truly performed And till they can do this they are not instructed St. Hierom relates it in praise of Marcella a Roman Lady a S. Hieron in praef ad comment in Epist ad Galat Vt sentirem me non tam Discipulam habere quam Judicem v. Psal â—19 99. that she would not receive any thing from him after the Pythagorean manner or upon bare Authority She would with such care examine all things that She seemed to him not so much his Schollar as his Judge It is certain that there are great depths and obscure Mysteries in the Holy Bible But the Doctrines of Christian Faâ—th are to the sincere and industrious and such as wait on God in the way of the Reformed Church sufficiently plain But to the Idle the prejudiced the captious Light it self is Darkness The Romanists affright with this pretence of obscurity and profoundness as if we must not adventure into any part of the Waters because in some places we may go beyond our depth If there are hard and difficult places which the Vnstable wrest who required their meanness to make a Judgment of that for which they might perceive themselves to be insufficient But whilst St. Peter speaketh of some few places in St. Paul's writtings which are obscure he does at the same time suppose many others to be plain enough for the capacities of the Unlearned And if they be evil Men though very Learned they will wrest the plainest places and as some did in St. Hieroms * S. Hieron in Ep. ad Paulin. ad sensum suum incongrua aptant testimonia Et ad voluntatem suaÌ„ S Scripturam repugnantem trahunt days they will draw violently to their private sense a Text of Scripture which is incongruously and with reluctance applied to it It is true all Sects of Christians cite the Scriptures but that does not prove the obscurity of those Sacred writings It rather shews the Partiality Boldness and Sophistry of those who alledge them All Laws are obscure if this Argument hath force in it For every Man in his own case has the Law on his side Men take up their opinions and Heresies from other reasons and then because the name of Scripture is venerable they rake into the several Books of it and they bend and torture places and force them on their side by unnatural construction So do the Socinians producing all niceties of Grammar and Criticism in a matter of Faith Yet the Guide in Controversies a R. H. Guide c. Disc 4. p. 375 376 377 378. c. useth it as an Argument against the plainness of this Rule of Faith that the Socinians cite the Holy Scriptures in favour of their Heresie But is not this Argument two-edged And will it not cut as well on the other side and do Execution against the words of Fathers and Councils and the Apostolical Creed it self For the Socinians those especially who are turned Arians since Petavius hath furnished them with Quotations will cite the writings of the Ancients And Slichtingius a mere Socinian * V. Confess fid Christ ed. nom Eccl. Polon c. hath expounded every Article of the Creed in a sense agreeable to the Heresie of his Master But if the Scriptures were so obscure in necessary matters what remedy would be administred by the Roman Church They cannot offer to us any Ancient Infallible exposition What the Antienâ—s have said the Reformed generally understand much better then Popes amongst whom there have been some who could scarse read the Holy Gospel in Latin For the Fathers of the earliest Ages they were more busied in writing against Heresies then in explaining of Scriptures Nor to this day hath the Roman Church given any Authentick Collection of Expositions either of the Ancients or of her own And if we must go to any Church for a comment on the Scriptures let the Roman be one of our last Refuges For it is manifest that the Key the Papalins use is the Wordly Polity of that Church And as they like so they interpret Had not they governed themselves by this art we should not have found in the writings of their Popes and in the very Caâ—â—â— Law it self those words which were spoken to Jeremiah expounded of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome a V. Innoc. 3. in decret Greg. l. 1. tit 33. c. 6. Greg. Ep 12 Extrav de Major Obed. 1. P. Pi. 5. in Bulla Cont. R. Eliz. in Camd. Annal A. 1570. I have set thee over Kings to root out to pluck up and to destroy b Jerem. 1. 10. The Donatists found their Church in these words of the Canticles Tell me thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy Flock to rest at noon For they expounded this as it 〈◊〉 them best of the Flock of their 〈◊〉 the Southern Countrey of Africa Such Exâ—â—unders of Scripture are those Popish Writers who interpret Feed my sheep of the Universal Monarchy of the Bishop of Rome and conclude that a Pastâ—r must drive away Wolves or depose Princes huâ—â—ul to the Church But the straining of such Metaphorical expressions as an excellent Person * D. Falkner in Christ Loy p. 315. saith proves only that they want better proofs And by a like way of interpretation from the same Text it might be concluded that all Christians are Fools because Sheep are silly Creatures No expositions are more besides the sense of the Text or more ridiculous then some of those which may be found in the Roman Church And those who composed them appear to have looked asquint on the Scriptures For whilst they looked on them they seemed to have looked another way I will instance only in a few of those many absurd expositions with which the Roman Breviary abounds The words of the Angel to the Holy Virgin a sword shall go through thine own soul also are a Domin infrâ— Octav. Nati v. in 2. nocturno Lect. 8. p. 175. interpreted of that word of God which is quick and powerful and sharper then any two-edged sword And this sense is designed as an evasion of their reasoning who from that Text conclude concerning the blessed Virgin
And they seem to acknowledge we do not and therefore to make up the matter pretend a Divine Authority in the Church to cast new Articles and Truths fere de fide almost fit for a Creed and some others of them confess that some of their Opinions as Image-Worship and others were not maintain'd in the first Ages of Christianity for fear of coming too near the Heathens Worship and out of other Prudential considerations so that whosoever doth compare the Doctrine of our Church with that of Christ and his Apostles must needs conclude that our Religion is Ancient Christianity and that the charge of Novelty is groundless 2. The Nature of Reformation which was not to found a New Church but correct an old one Christianity that Pearl of great price was hid with trash and Mat 13. 3. filth that the Romish Church had heap'd upon it our Reformers removed only what loaded and obscur'd it and restored it to its first Beauty and Lustre Such a Reformation indeed is later then their errors and it must needs be so it naturally supposing them before otherwise 't is not Reformation but a destructive change but Primitive Christianity which is our Religion was long before the Dâ—sease of Popery though the cure of this Disease was after or later then the disease it self but the sound Body of Christianity for which we are concern'd was before them both for 't is not Reformation barely that we are pleased withal no more then with a Pill or Potion but only as necessary to drive away an inveterate Disease and recover an old Religion to its â—ormer Health When Christ reformed the Jewish Religion from the false senses and glosses that the Scribes and Pharisees had put upon it and grafted Christianity upon the old stock will the Romanists call this a New Religion or rather an old one well amended and improved by Divine Authority Bellarmin doth allow this for Truth and saith that Christianity was rather a new State and Condition then a new church and he that can call our Religion New because 't is mended and made now what it was about 1600 years ago may affirm that Christ built a new Temple when he Whipt the buyers and sellers out of the old And that Hezekiah built a 2 Chron. 305 New Sanctuary and Instituted a New Passover because he cleans'd the one and restor'd the other to its first Institution our Reformation did no more it only scal'd off the Leprosie that stuck to the Body of the Romish church it only pair'd off those Additions that Interest or Superstition Niceness or Foppery had glew'd to it what after remain'd was our Religion the same that Christ and his Apostles taught the world at first And if they can shew that any thing hath been added since pernicious to the Nature of the True and Old Religion our church is ready to remove it or that any thing is wanting that is necessary to its complement and perfection she is ready to entertain it with the same spirit of meekness and Wisdom and Regard to the Gospel that she used in the Reformation but hitherto upon good grounds and strict inquiry She is fully satisfied that Her Religion is absolute and compleat Christianity 3. We have many and impartial Judges on our side that our Religion is Pure and Old Christianity The particular church of Rome indeed that supports her self by a pretended Infallibility to be true to her Principle refuses to be tryed by any other Church but will be only Judge of her self and others too yet we that are certain and sure of the Truth of our Religion though not Infallible dare appeal to the Judgment of other Christian churches The Greek church condemns their half Communion the Doctrines of Purgatory Merit and Supererogation The Adoration of Images their locking up the Scriptures in an unknown Tongue their extreme Unction and sale of Masses and laughs at their Infallibility the thing that makes their errours in Faith incorrigible the Arminian Christians reject the Supremacy Baron Tom. 10. P. 256. of the Pope Transubstantiation Purgary and excommunicat those that worship Images The Jacobites the Indians of St. Thomas the Egyptian and Abassine Christians dissent from most or all of the Romish errours which we condemn We have all the truly ancient Christian Churches on our side and most of the Modern whom the busie Emissaries of Rome have not terrified or seduc'd into their Party Our Writters have appealed with great success to the Ancient Councils the holy Fathers and to the Learned and Pious Bishops and Priests of old and from thence discovered the Novelty of the Romish Faith and the good old way of the English Church And they dare not stand the trial when we desire to be determined by the best and infallible Judge the holy Scriptures exept they must give the meaning of them otherwise they load them with Ignominious Names of â— Lesbian rule mere Ink and Paper and a Nose of Wax Who will they be try'd by by a Council truly General No except it be called manag'd and Confirm'd by the Pope Will they be Judg'd by any that differ from them yet are men of good honest and unprejudic'd Judgements No they are out of the pale of the Church and stubborn Hereticks And the best reason they have for their assurance that they are in the right is that they are sure they are so and keep themselves safe in their Enchanted Castle of Infallibility The Arabian Philosopher was offended at and abhorr'd their barbarous Doctrine of Transubstantiation and eating of their God and resolv'd to stick to his Philosophical rather then be of such a Christian Religion The Roman Images and the Worship of them have laid a Stumbling block before the Jews who therefore approved our Sentence and condemnation of them having therefore such a number of good Testimonies and Judgements on our side we rise up and reverence the gray Hairs of our Religion which Rome once cloath'd in a wanton and phantastick dress and made it ridiculous which because we have pull'd off and put on its ancient habit and made it look manly with the Image of GOD and Christ upon it they call us Innovators Many of their own Writers have spoke in favour of the English Church and many of their distinctions in a fair sense have concluded for her Doctrine and shewn their dislike of many opinions of their own Church 4. That our Religion was long before Luther will appear from the oppositions that were made to the Papal corruptions which did not enjoy so quiet a life but were frequently disturb'd and cry'd oâ—t against not only by other Churches but by many honest and considering men in their own Communion Men they were not of Interest and Discontent Peevishness and given to change of little Learning and less conscience and not in the World but men eminent in their Generation men of Probity and Studies of Temper and consideration men that stood not alone
or thing make the same inclosures about the Catholick as about the Roman Church and are as free in their severest censures of all others and as haughty in what they assume to themselves alone as they were though not proceeding upon the same grounds But what that holy Father every where presseth upon them reacheth as nearly our Antagonists the indispensable necessity of Charity that great bond of Unity in the Church and principal evidence of the Divine Spirit which animates the whole without which the highest gifts and most Sacred Ministrations are rendered ineffectual This is one of the prime characteristick notes of the true Catholick Church and every living Member thereof and nothing is more opposit to their Principles and Practices who have formally excluded all other christians and churches from any share therein not only those in the West that have deservedly cast off that Power which they had unjustly arrogated and tyrannical exercised but also the Greeks and others in the East that never owned any subjection to them But most securely may the Church of England glory in true Catholicism which to all her other priviledges and advantages that she may boast of above almost any other Church still maintains and evidences the greatest charity to others of any that I know in the world makes no other inclosures then those which GOD himself hath made not assuming any Authority to command yea or to pass hasty judgment upon any but only to provide for her own the best she can and with such tender regard to common Christianity and the Rights of all other Churches that she seems designedly to have chalk'd out the way of restoring the most desirable â—â—uits of Christian Unity throughout the whole Church and we should have been sensible of considerable effects by it had other Churches pursued like methods That Church sure is most Catholick that makes provision for the most Catholick Communion Peace and Unity and which imposes no other terms or conditions of it but those most universally received throughout all Ages in all places and by almost all Christians which may soon decide the competition whither the Church of England more truely vindicates to her self a part of the Catholick Church or they of Rome arrogate to themselves the whole Or which are the Schismaticks from it they which exclude none whom they own no power over but invite all to them and joyn with any in what is good and agreeable to the Institutions of our common LORD or they who shut out all but those who will subject themselves to their usurp'd Authority and most unjustfiable Impositions a Firmilianus de Stephano Episcopo Rom. ad Cyprianum Ep. 7â— p. 228. Ox. Ed. Siquidem ille vere Schismaticus qui se a Communione Ecclesiasticae unitatis Apostatam fecerit dum enim putas omnes a te abstineri posse solum te ab omnibus abstinuisli Farther the term Catholick is sometimes taken for Orthodox and so the Catholick Church interpreted for that which holds the Catholick Faith opposed to heretical Opinions and Doctrines as well as to Schismatical Separations b S. Cyril Hieros Cat. 18. p. 2. Catholike men â—â—â— kaletai dia to kata pases einai tes oihoumenes apo peraton ges heos peraton kai dia to didaskein catholikes kai anellei pos hapanta ta cis guosin anthropon elthein ophelonta dogmata Sozomen Hist L. 7. c. 4. In this sense the Church of England hath as good a claim in the Catholick Church as any whatever Receiving all the Articles of Christian Faith delivered in Scripture and received in the Primitive Ages for more than five hundred years No Principles having been so formally declared then and for some time after as the catholick Faith of all christians and as such necessary to be own'd which she rejects whatever private opinions there might be then among some eminent Doctors of the Church in which they oft differed one from the other or although there might be some observances then generally received which she thinks her self not bound to retain But ill will this charecter agree to the Romanists who have added so many new dangerous Articles to the common Faith of Christians not only beside the original Rule which they cannot but own with us but too often against it and the professed belief of the first and best Ages of the church Wherefore we reject not these Innovations meerly from negative arguments because not sufficiently proved and yet that way of arguing hath been alwayes allowed in the Fundamentals of Faith which must be grounded upon express Divine Authority and Testimony But we lay the greatest stress of our aversations to them upon that direct opposition which we undertake to prove most of them have to the common Faith and revealed Will of GOD which they and we both own And surely that Church in this acceptation is most Catholick that relies on such Catholick Principles and refers all others to be examined by this touchstone V. But in the fifth place some Objections lie in our way fit to be answered Object 1. They urge against us that we reject several Doctrines since formally determined in the Church by the known and received Authority thereof in Councils more general or particular which they pretend were believed through all Ages but then established when they came first to be called in question Answ We are not much concerned in the first part of the objection though very many exceptions might come in especially as to the formality and regularity of those Councils but as to the latter part in which the main stress lies here we never refused a fair trial thereof 1. From Scripture against which no Authority Civil or Ecclesiastical in single persons or the greatest Assemblies no time or custome of whatever date can prescribe a Tertullian de velandis virginibus c. 1. p. 172. hoc exigere veritatem cui nemo prescribere potest non spatium temporum non patrocinia personarum non privilegium regionum S. Cyprian Ep. 63. p. 155. Quare si solus Christus audiendus est non debemus attendere quid alius ante nos faciendum putaverit sed quid qui ante omnes est Chriflus prior fecit neque enim hominis consuetudinem sequi oportet sed Dei veritatem S. Basil de judicio Dei T. 2 p. 392. ejus moral T. 2. p. 423. S. Hierom. adv Joh. Hieros T. 2. p. 185. in eodem T. ex Ep. Aug. ad Hierom. p. 353. 359 c. This hath been ever received till of late as the perfect and intire Rule of all necessary doctrines of Faith and practice of which abundant Testimonies may be seen in most Protestant Writers 2. We appeal also to the Primitive and best Ages of Christianity which either knew nothing of these Additions that we can find or sometimes give as express declarations against them as could be expected at this distance But to take off much of the strangeness of
agree together in the Summons place or time of meeting or about the persons who are to resort to it from their several Dominions While the Roman Empire was intire the Emperours Edict alone was Summons sufficient to almost the whole Christian Church But now who shall take upon him to call or invite so many from so distant places no way under his Authority And that the Pope ever pretended to this power till of late can scarce be pleaded against such clear evidences and Examples and where he is so much concerned it will be judged more unreasonable for him to demand it If this difficulty were overcome by any consent or condescension yet so many jealousies and cross interests are behind that will be and have been laid in the way of their first meeting together with a requisite peaceable disposition as are not easily foreseen and less readily governed not to interpose the difficulties of the journeys from such distant places and of the discontinuance so long from home of the chief Governours of the Church many doubts and controversies of the number and quality of persons having right to vote therein by themselves or representatives will not soon be adjusted and without these and such like be determined there is no preparation made for so venerable an Assembly After all when never so duely met we have neither Reason Promise or Example to suppose them now infallibly Ecclesia non numerus Episcoporum Tertullian de pudicitia c. 22. guided in their determinations but that they or the greater part may be mistaken themselves or mislead others through passion and false interest or be carried away in the noise or torrent of a multitude or be imposed on by the crafty He that considers matter of fact more then the finest Schemes and most subtil Reasonings of his own brain how things are oft strangely and unaccountably carried in publick meetings of men of extraordinary Fame yea in some Councils themselves and some of very sacred Repute in the Church a Greg. Naz. Epist 55. p. 814. Ep. 72. p. 829 Ep. 135. p. 864. ejusd Orat. 15 init p 451. Theod. Ep. 112. Vol. 3. p. 582 983. will think this no hard supposal though their orderly Sentence carries the most venerable Authority below Heaven It seems to argue the heighth of Blasphemy to arreign God himself of indiscretion if it be possible for any man or number of men to erre from their Duty And very presumptuous it is to charge the Supreme Providence of defect in the provision for the continuance of his Church if they be capable to fall away yea let GOD be true but every man a liar when brought in competition He will not be tyed up by our most plausible Methods in the way of securing his own Truth which shall at last prevail though condemned Whose wisdom is unsearchable and his wayes oft past our finding out He will bring to pass his own holy designs though by means to us most unlikely or it may be seemingly opposite Whoever seriously reflects upon these things will have little reason to quarrel at the Reformation for want of this formal establishment in Council No Christian or Church is chargeable with the lack of that which is not in their power to procure Men may please themselves with remote Speculations and the fairest hopes and wishes of such an Authoritative Decision of the disputes in controversie but if it be not to be had we must rest content with and make the best use we can of that provision which GOD in mercy hath indulged us for our sufficient satisfaction and safety Every particular National Church directly subject to no other may and ought to reform it self from known Abuses keeping within the Rule of GODS Word avoiding as much as possible giving just offence to any beside and being ready to give an account of its proceedings therein to all and to alter any thing that shall be found amiss or add whatever may be proved wanting to receive others into its Communion and to communicate with them so far as may be consistent with common Christianity owned by all endeavouring to preserve Peace and Unity with all that call upon the same LORD praying to GOD to increase and improve them more and more such hath been the continued aim and proceeding of the Church of England We believe no true Member of this would have refused the general communion of the truely Catholick church in St. Augustine's Age or for some after though possibly every opinion or practice then current be not suited to their present judgement or wish Neither can we think after so strange alteration of circumstances through so many degenerate Ages that holy Father in his eminent zeal for the most a S. Aug. adv Crescon Grammat l. 3. T. 7. p. 273. Ego in Ecclesia sum cujus membra sunt illae omnes Ecclesiae quaâ— ex laboribus Apostolorum notas atque firmatas simul literis canonitis novimus Earum communionem sive in Africa sive ubicunque non deseram Catholick Communion therein would now have been much moved by our present Adversaries arrogant claims of it to themselnes alone though against the Rules and Principles of it with all others No Foundation is laid for it here but by the absolute submission of all others to their usurp'd Authority and rash or impious determinations Now who can hope for an universal Peace and Unity from such terms of accommodation only fit for an insulting Conquerour to impose like those which Nabash the Ammonite propounded to the men of Jabesh Gilead to thrust out all their eyes and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel 1 Sam. 11. 2. Object 3. Sometimes they object to us the personal miscarriages of some ingaged in the Reformation Answ If any did what they ought not or with unjustifiable designs what they ought the Church is no way accountable if what they did in the Reformation as such were good and they had sufficient Authority for doing it which we are ready to maintain that is all she is responsible for were other imputations really true which they oft are not However it will be an endless dispute and if determined would add little to the cause I may add few great and publick changes are brought about where so many interests are concerned either way to promote or hinder them in which all things are carried with that clearness and evenness that were to be desired Private Persons are not chargeable with the supposed defects of publict Administrations of which they have not the management if nothing be required of them against their express Duty and they be provided of all necessary means of their Salvation though they may be inclined to wish some things had been ordered otherwise Object 4. Our Enemies on both sides are apt to object to us the want of due Discipline if not absolutely necessary to the being of the Church yet so far useful to the well-being and
appear to be so in this that we were mistaken that we were over-nice and curious in refusing to worship Saints and Angels yet ours is a much more innocent and pardonable mistake then that which the church of Rome is guilty of if they should prove to be mistaken We are only wanting in some Religious courtship which we might innocently have given to Saints and Angels but which we were not bound to give as the Church of Rome will not say that we are by any express Divine Law and therefore it is no sin against GOD not to do it and when this neglect is not owing to any designed contempt and dis-regard of those excellent Spirits but to a great reverence for GOD and jealousie for his incommunicable glory if it were a fault we need not doubt but that GOD would pardon it and that all good spirits who have such profound veneration for GOD will easily excuse the neglect of some ceremonies to themselves upon so great a reason But if the Church of Rome be mistaken and gives that worship to creatures which is due only to the Supreme God they have nothing to pretend in excuse of it neither any positive Law of God which expresly forbids all Creature-worship as I doubt not to prove to the satisfaction of all impartial Readers nor the principles of Natural Reason which whatever Apologies it may make for the worship of Saints and Angels can never prove the necessity of it and it highly concerns the Church of Rome and all of her communion to consider whither if their distinctions and little appearances of reason cannot justifie their worship of creatures they will be able to excuse them from the guilt of so great a sin But not to insist on these things now I shall divide this discourse into three parts 1. I shall prove from the plain evidence of Scripture That God alone is to be worshipped 2. I shall examine what that worship is which is proper and particular to the Supreme God 3. I shall consider those distinctions whereby the Church of Rome justifies her worship of Saints and Angels and Images c. SECTION I. That GOD alone must be Worshipped TO make good the first point that we must worship Sect. 1. no other being but only GOD I shall principally confine my self to Scripture evidence which is the most certain authority to determine this matter For though I confess it seems to me a self evident and fundamental principle in natural Religion that we must worship none but that Supreme Beeing who made and who governs the World yet I find men reason very differently about these matters The Heathen Philosophers who generally acknowledge one Supreme and Soveraign Deity did not think it incongruous nor any affront or dimimition to the Supreme God to ascribe an inferiour kind of Divinity nor to pay an inferiour degree of Religious Worship to those excellent Spirits which are so much above us and have so great a share in the government of this lower world no more then it is an affront to a Soveraign Monarch to honour and reverence his great Ministers of State or peculiar Favourites And the Church of Rome as she has corrupted Christianity with the worship of Angels and Saints departed so she defends her self with the same Arguments and reasons which were long since alledged by Celsus and Porphyrie and other Heathen Philosophers in defence of their Pagan Idolatry And it must be confest that these Arguments are very popular and have something so agreeable in them to the natural notions of Civil Honour and respect which admits of great variety of degrees that I do not wonder that such vast numbers of men both wise and unwise have been imposed on by them For there is certainly a proportionable reverence and respect due even to created excellencies and every degree of power challenges and commands a just regard and we are bound to be very thankful not only to GOD who is the first cause and the supreme giver of all good things but to our immediate Benefactors also And therefore if there be a sort of middle Beeings as the Heathens believed and as the Church of Rome asserts between us and the Supreme God who take particular care of us and either by their power and interest in the government of the world or by their Intercessions with the Supreme GOD can and do bestow a great many Blessings on us it eems as natural and necessary to fear and reverence to honour and worship them and to give them thanks for their care and patronage of us as it is to court a powerful Favourite who by his interest and authority can obtain any request we make to our Prince and the first seems to be no greater injury to God then the second 2. Col. 18. to a Prince Thus St. Paul observes that there is a shew of humility in worshipping Angels that men dare not immediately approach so glorious a Majesty as God is but make their addresses to those excellent spirits which attend the Throne of God and are the Ministers of his Providence But then every one who believes that there is one Supreme God who made all other Beeings though never so perfect and excellent must acknowledge that as there is nothing common to God and Creatures so there must be a particular Worship due to God which no Creatures can challenge any share in It is no affront to a Prince to pay some inferiour degrees of civil honour and respect to his Ministers and Favourites because as the difference between a Prince and his subjects is not founded in nature but in civil order so there are different degrees of civil respect proportioned to the different ranks and degrees of men in the Common-wealth There is a degree of preheminency which is sacred and peculiar to the Person of the Prince and no Prince will suffer his greatest Favourite to usurp the Prerogative honours which belong to the Crown but while they are contented with such respects as are due to their rank and station this is no injury to the Prince for all civil honour is not peculiar to the Prince but only a supereminent degree of it and therefore inferiour degrees of honour may be given to other persons But though there are different degrees of civil honour proper to different ranks and degrees of men who all partake in the same nature and are distinguisht only by their different places in the Common-wealth yet in this sense there are no different degrees of Religious Worship All Religious Worship is peculiar to the Divine Nature which is but one and common only to three Divine Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost one God blessed for ever Amen Civil honor and Religious Worship differ in the whole kind and species of actions and have as different objects as God and Creatures and we may as well argue from those different degrees of civil honour among men to prove that there is an inferiour degree
ages whither good or bad Spirits the case is the same whoever perswaded them to worship any other Beeing with or besides the Supreme God was to be rejected by them for this is the sense of the Mosaical Laws concerning the worship of one Supreme God as I have already proved and the serving other Gods in this place is opposed to the worship of one God and therefore must include whatever according to the Law of Moses is contrary to the worship of one Supreme Beeing 2. This Law makes the worship of one God eternal and unâ—â—â—geable There is no way of altering any Divine Laws but by a new revelation of Gods will and there is no way to give Authority to such a revelation but by Miracles or Prophesie but in this case Miracles and Prophesie it self can give no authority because God himself has expresly forbid us to hearken to any Prophet whatever signs or wonders are wrought by him who teacheth the worship of any other Beeing besides the one Supreme God So that the Law of Moses having expresly forbid the worship of any other Beeing besides God and as expresly forbid us to hearken to any Prophet though a worker of Miracles who teaches any other worship it is impossible this Law should ever be altered because we are before-hand warned by God himself not to give credit to any Prophet whatever he be or whatever he do who attempts any alteration of it And therefore had Christ or his Apostle taught the worship of Saints and Angels it had been a just reason for the unbelief of the Jews notwithstanding all the Miracles that were wrought by them and it is well the Jews never had any just occasion to make this objection against our Saviour for if they had I know not how it would have been answered I say a just occasion for the Jews did urge this very Law against him before Pilate We have a Law and by our Law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God In which they refer to Joh. 19. 7. that discourse of our Saviour John 10. 29 30. where he affirms that God is his Father and plainly tells them I and my Father are one for which saying they attempt to stone him for blasphemy and that being a man he made himself a God v. 33. But though he did indeed as the Jews rightly inferred make himself a God by this saying yet he did not preach any new God to them but affirmed himself to be one with the Father that same Supreme God the Lord Jehovah whom they were commanded to worship by their Law he made no alteration in the object of their worship but onely did more clearly and distinctly reveal the Father to them as manifesting himself in and by his only begotten Son And therefore he did not offend against this Law by seducing them to the worship of any other Gods besides the Lord Jehovah which if he had done their accusation had been just and all the Miracles which he did could not have secured him from the guilt and punishment of an Impostor Which shews us what force there is in that Argument which the Church of Rome urges from these Miracles which have been wrought at the Tombs of Martyrs to prove the Religious invocation of them if such Miracles were ever wrought it was in testimony to the truth of Christianity for which they suffered not to betray men to a superstitious and idolatrous worship of them ten thousand Miracles should never convince me of the lawfulness of praying to Saints departed while I have such a plain and express Law against believing all Miracles upon any such account Nor can it reasonably be said that this Law was given only to the Jews and therefore oblidges none but them for we must remember that Christ was originally sent to the Jews to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and therefore by this Law he was bound not to teach the worship of any other Beeings under the penalty of death and they were bound not to own and receive him if he did and therefore it was impossible for the true Messias to introduce the worship of any Beeing besides the one supreme God and if Christ could not teach any such Doctrine I know not how the worship of Saints and Angels should ever come to be a Doctrine of Christianity For what Christ himself cannot do none of his Followers may who had no other Commission but to teach those things which they had learn'd from him and he could not give commission to preach such Doctrines as he himself had no authority to preach So that though this Law was not originally given to the Gentiles but only to the Jews yet it equally oblidges the Christian Church whither Jews or Gentiles because Christ himself who was the Author of our Religion was oblidged by it The worship of one Supreme God and of none else is as fundamental to Christianity as it is to Judaism for Christianity is now or ought to be the Religion of the Jews as well as Gentiles and yet the Jews are expresly forbid by this Law ever to own any Religion which allows the worship of any Beeing besides God and therefore the worship of one God and none else must be fundamental in Christianity if the people of the Jews are or ever were bound to embrace the Faith of Christ SECT IV. 2 ANd therefore I observe in the next place that Christ and his Apostles have made no alteration at all in the object of our worship Christ urges that Old Testament Law in answer to the Devils Temptation It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Which it seems is as â— Matth. 10. standing a Law after the appearance of Christ as it was before He gives no other direction to his Disciples but to pray To their Heavenly Father and in that form of prayer which he gave them he teaches them to address their prayer neither to Saints nor Angels but to God only Our Father which art in Heaven When St. Paul charges the Heathens with Idolatry he does it upon this account that they joyned the worship of Creatures with the worship of the Supreme God Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned Where the Apostle acknowledges that they did know God that Rom. 1. 21. they did own that Supreme and Soveraign Beeing who made the world and does suppose that they did worship him also For he does not charge them with renouncing the worship of that God who made the world but that they did not glorifie him as God which only taxes the manner of their worship And wherein that was faulty he declares in the following verses As that they made mean and vile representations of him that they vers 23. changed the Glory of the uncorruptible God into
nature but our equals however are not our Gods It is a state of liberty freedom and honour to be subject to God who is our natural Lord and Soveraign But to fall down to our fellow creatures and to worship them with Divine honours with all humility of address and sacred and awful regards is to debase our selves as much below the dignity of our natures as we advance them above it The excellency and perfection of reasonable Creatures principally consists in their Religion and that is the most perfect Religion which does most advance adorn and perfect our Natures but it is an argument of an abject mind to be contented to worship the most excellent creatures which is a greater dishonour then to own the vilest Slave for our Prince Mean objects of worship do more debase the Soul then any other the vilest submissions and the more our dependencies are and the meaner they are the more imperfect our â—tate and Religion is 3. The greatest perfection of Religion consists in the nearest and most immediate approach to God which I think these men cannot pretend to who fly to the patronage and intercession of Saints and Angels to obtain their Petitions of him Though we should allow it lawful to pray to Saints and Angels to meditate for us with God yet we cannot but own it a more perfect state to do as the Saints and Angels themselves do go to God without any other Advocat but Christ himself It is a great happiness to have a friend at Court to commend us to our Prince when we have no interest of our own but it is a greater priviledge to go immediately to our Prince when we please without any Favourite to introduce us This is the perfect state of the Gospel that we have received The adoption of Sons and because Gal. 4. 5. 6. we are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father This is this Holy Spirit which dwells in us teaches us to call God Father and to pray to him with the humble assurance and confidence of Children This is the effect of Christs intercession for us That we may now come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy Heb. 4. 16. and find grace to help in a time of need The throne of Grace certainly is not the shrine of any Saints but the immediate throne and presence of God whither we may immediately direct our prayers through the merits and intercession of Christ Upon the same account the whole body of the Christians are called a Spiritual house that is the Temple of God where he is peculiarly present to hear these Prayers that are made to him An holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to GOD through Jesus 1 Pet. 2. 5. 6. Christ And a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people This is a priviledge above what the Jews enjoyed they had a Priesthood to minister in holy things and to offer their Sacrifices to them but the whole Nation was not a Priesthood nor had such immediate access to God but now every Christian has as near an access to God as the Priests themselves under the Law had can offer up his Prayers and Spiritual Sacrifices immediately to GOD and that very acceptably too through Jesus Christ our great High Priest and Mediator and if our Prayers be acceptable to God by Jesus Christ we need no other Mediators or Advocats This is the only direction our Saviour gave his Disciples a little before his death to ask in his name with this promise If ye ask any thing in my name I will do it Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name ask and ye shall Joh. 14. 13 15. Joh. 16. 24. receive that your joy may be full and to give them the greater assurance of acceptance he acquaints them with Gods great and tender affection for them such as a Father has for his Children At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father ver 26 27. for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God a reason which equally extends to all those who shall believe in Christ to the end of the world And can we now imagine that when our Saviour has purchast for us this liberty of access to God he should send us round about by the shrines and Altars of numerous unknown Saints to the Throne of Grace When he will not assert the necessity of his own prayers for us while we pray in his name because our heavenly Father hath such a tender affection for all the Disciples of Christ can we think it necessary to pray to St. Paul and St. Peter and the Virgin Mary to pray for us This is none of our Saviours institution nor can it be because Christ by his death and sufferings and intercessions brings us nearer to God as the Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. Apostle to the Hebrews speaks Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh and having an high Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith But the worship of Saints and Angels removes us at a great distance from God as not daring to approach his presence without the mediation of some Favourite Saint And though the Church of Rome does sometimes pray directly to God only in the Name and Mediation of Christ as the Pagans themselves sometime did to their Supreme Deity yet it seems this is what they dare not trust to and therefore joyn the Meditation of Saints with their prayers to God and never pray to God without it SECT VIII 5. THat the Gospel of our Saviour has made no alteration in the object of our worship appears from that Analogy which there is and ought to be between the Jewish and Christian Worship The Jewish and Christian Church are but one Church and their worship the same worship only with this difference that the Jewish worship was in Type and Figure and Ceremony the Christian worship in Truth and Substance And therefore if this Evangelical worship be the same it must have the same object for the object is the most essential part of worship So that if it appear not only from the express letter of the Law of Moses but from all the Types and Figures of the Law that God only was to be worshiped by the Jewish Church if Christ was to fulfil all these Types and Figures in his own person and in the Evangelical worship then it is certain that the object of our worship must be the same still for if the Type was confined in its nature and signification to the worship of one God
particularly to set them up in competition with God and to create in Men an Opinion that they are more easily entreated and readier to do us a Kindness then he is And therefore though Men may fear God more yet they will rather love the Saint and Love is the truest Motive to such Devotion as will be best accepted with God And yet in this plainly consists all that Court which they make to the Virgin Mary that she should pacifie the Anger of GOD the Father or of the Son towards Men they are represented severe and almost cruel to render her more amiable to the people in her interceeding for them So they frequently in their printed and allowed Books of Devotion call her Fountain of Mercy and Pity and other Names of the like Importance Now all the assurance they have of her being tender and compassionate is only because she is a Woman but they are assured of God's Mercy both from his Nature and his Word They have no Assurance that she or any other Saint hears them nor can they shew how the Saint can be rationally supposed to know every thing that we do or say but they are well assured that God hears them For he is stilled the God that heareth Prayer which Prerogative of his by every Prayer to a Saint they may at least suspect that they intrench on They are not assured that the Saint can help them but they may be fully satisfied of his Help who is Almighty They have no Encouragement from Scripture for praying to Saints For though the Angels rejoyce at the repentance of a sinner it doth not follow that therefore every concern of Men is known or Prayer heard by them much less that we may pray to them for the Gift of Repentance or any other Grace And prayer being so considerable a part of Divine Worship we need not doubt but the Angels and Saints would refuse it For so St. John was rebuked for offering to Worship the Angel though supposed immediately and visibly with him Worship God Rev. 19. 10. So that if they prayed to Saints and Angels only to mediate and interceed for them to GOD it is more then they have any Warrant or Allowance for Christ being alwayes represented as the Mediator between God and Man and the setting up his servants in his Office is as far as is possible a deposing of him Nor is it in this case as it is in Courts on Earth which is their common Excuse where a Favourite is made use of to represent our cause and request to the King For this is done because our Kings do not know our Persons nor understand our Case nor can they be present in all places and hear all causes themselves so that it is often necessary that Princes should imploy and trust other then their own Eyes and Ears Many things they think below them to inquire particularly into and sometimes they will do that at the request of a Favourite which they would not do for the sake of a Person that is not particularly known to them But there is no Room nor Occasion for this in the Court of Heaven For God is not onely intimately known but is immediately present to all his Creatures as he hath declar'd himself no Respecter of Persons but to love all and therefore there is no need of any Intercessor for us except the Lord Jesus he affects not empty pomp and state but his Providence extends to every particular Concern of the meanest of all his creatures and though he may give some undeserved Favours as longer Lives and farther Opportunities of Amendment c. for the sake of others Prayers yet no man is so far his Favourite as to be able to perswade him to reverse his own Laws and to save a wicked Person that continues in his Wickedness On all which Accounts there is no Occasion of praying to the Saints so much as to interceed for us as the Church of Rome pretends But to pray to them to bless us and give us this or that Temporal or spiritual Good as they of the Church of Rome practise and to suppose them to have Power to help us in this or that particular Difficulty and Distemper is plainly intollerable For this is in a great measure to revive Heathenism by which Men Worshipped this or that GOD for this or that particular Case They must grant the Saint to have though not an Original yet a most certain and derivative Power according to which he will not fail to assist them that worship him and in all such Prayer methinks they even terminate their Worship on the Saint For if I pray to a Saint to help me in this or that Difficulty with a full assurance that this Saint hath sufficient power to help me though I should grant that this Saint received this Power from GOD yet my prayers terminate on the Saint Indeed the Saint is oblidged to God for that power but I seem to own my self only oblidged to the Saint for his applying this his general power to my particular case Just as I am oblidged to a man for giving me an Estate though he is beholden to the Government and Laws that either he enjoyed the Estate himself or was impowered to give it to another Besides that they often pray to Saints for such things which if they be only Creatures they can have no power to give or to be even so much as the Instruments of conveying to us and yet it is notorious they pray sometimâ—â— to the Saints for Grace for Pardon of Sins and strength against them So in Benaventure's Psalter translated into Italian and published Salmi di S. Bonav in Lode della Virgine per Giovan Battista Pinello in Genoa Anno 1606. for the use of the People tho' the Translator and Publisher sayes that he had purged it from the Blasphemies which were in the former Editions yet we find such passages as these to the Virgin Mary Psal 7. Come to her all ye that are heavy laden and she shall give Rest and Refreshment to your Souls Psal 40. Cleanse my heart Psal 41. Thou art the begining and the end of my Salvation Psal 44. By thy Holiness my sins are purged and by thy Integrity Incorruptibility is given to me Psal 104 Eternal Salvation is in thy Hund O Lady and he that worthily honoureth thee sâ—all obtain it And many more Sayings of this nature or wroâ—e if possible Now can any man say that such Prayers as these are fit to be offered up to a Creature or that they are Instances of the Devotion of a Christian when they are so offered I am sure that we charge the Heathen with giving Divine Worship to Men though we can hardly find any Expressions or prayers to their Gods which are so high and argue their terminating their Worship on them so fully as these and other such which are commonly used by those of the Church of Rome to Saints and especially to the
confess I could not with a safe Conscience say of any Creature And Albertus Magnus the Master of St. Thomas Aquinas hath not only 12 Books of the Praises of the Virgin Mary but also a distinct Book called Biblia Mariana in which he applies several places of Scripture to the Virgin Mary as if she were prefigured in several passages of the Old Testament as well as her Son So Gen. 1. 1. that she was that Heaven that God made Gen. 1. 3. She was the Light which God there made and so on through almost the whole Scripture And however Cautious they are in the Books which they Print in English for the use of their Converts here yet in them we find often such sayings to or of the Virgin Mary as I cannot reconcile with Christianity for so in the Manual quoted before in the Prayers for Women with Child they sing thus to her Hail to the Queen who Reigns above Mother of Clemencie and Love c. Elsewhere they pray thus to her page 1â—6 O blessed Mother assisâ— my Weakness in all my Daâ—â—ers and Necessities in all Temptations to sin and in the hour of my Death that through thy Protection I may be safe in the Lord. Where the Lord indeed is mentioned out of Complement and for Fashions sake but they had first begged of the Lady as much as they wanted or could desire and pag. 80. they call her Spouse of the Holy Ghost Promise of the Prophets Expectation of the Patriarchs Queen of the Angels Teacher of the Apostles strengthâ—â—â— of Martyrs Faithful comforter of the Living and Dead Now if they print such things in English what do they print in Spanish If they do such things in a green Tree what shall be done in a dry And I fear that even their nicest Casuists give too much Countenance to this so gross Practice For they have determined that Honours above civil câ—ltus Hyperduliae are due to the Virgin Mary that is in plain English Divine Honours must be paid to her For it must be a very Metaphysical head that can in this sense apprehend a kind of Honour above ciâ—il and yet not divine it must be somewhat like his that would pretend to find a mean between Creator and Creature between Finite and Infinite Lastly this is most notorious that they enjoyn acts to be used and propose Objects of Worship which they themselves cannot deny but there is danger of offending in them and even of falling into that Idolatry and yet take little or no care of giving caution concerning them and if the grosest abuse should happen there is scarcely any possibility of redress Indeed where-ever they speak of Veneration due to Reliques and Images of worshipping of Saints and especially the Virgin Mâ—â—y they always seem as if they cared not how much Honour were to paid to them only they must make as if they put some Reâ—â—â—iction on it for the sake of the Reformed who would exclaim against them And therefore their Command for the worshipping of them is general and absolute but the Limitations are so nice and forced that one may easily see that they very unwillinglie deny any Worship to be paid to them For so the wary council of Trent speaking of Images sayes They are to be kept and due Honour and Veneration paid to them And though by and by they seem as if they would limit this Honour yet presently they put in such words as make that pretended Limitation to signifie nothing For they tell you That whatever Honour you pay to the Image goes to the person represented v. g. to our Saviour it seems the Honour is paid to him whither we intend so or no And hence you may easily gather what Honour is due to to the Image of our Saviour and how little fear there is of paying too much Honour to it For I suppose we are all agreed there is no fear of paying too much Honour to our blessed Saviour and whatever Honour is paid to his Imâ—â—â— is paid to him if we can believe these Gentlemen And agreeably hereunto it is very rare to hear of any person censured or blamed for paying too much Honour to Images though surely it is as possible for men to be Idolaters now as in the former Ages and I suppose that neither the common people nor all the Priests are Men of such extraordinary Understanding and Learning as to be altogether free from the like Temptation Nay the Caution which is given â—eems only to concern Imagines falsi dogmatis Rudibus periculosi Erroris Occasionem praebentes but there is not one word concerning the abuse which may be made of the Image of Christ or of a true Saint There is no Provision made that Men be warned not to perform too much Devotion in their Minds to a good Image And by what this Council sayes the Priest understands well enough what it intends and therefore scarcelie ever darâ— preach against the excess and abuse of Images Reliques c. Tho' they cannot but â—ee it actually committed every day And now if their should happen to be any Idolatrous Worship pay'd to an Image tho' the Bishop hath power indeed to set the Image up yet he hath not power to pull it down or to correct any abuse concerning it without the leave of the Archbishop and other Bishops of the Province and even of the Pope himself So unwilling do they seem that any Provision should be made for redressing abuses in so great and common a Case as the excess in Worship of Images must needs be v. Conciâ— Trid. Sess 25. Lastly as we have seen how deficient and very faultie the Church of Rome is in her pretences to Devotion wee 'll now consider what Provision is made for the due Exercise of Devotion among our selves that we may thank God for our being settled in the Communion of the Church of England and may learn to be conscientiously strict and â—â—gular in our own as well as to despise the Romish Devotions And in order hereunto I reckon that these four things are especially to be regarded First That among us none but the true Object of Devotion is proposed to be worshipped God the Father Son and Holy Ghost none of the most blessed Angels or Saints in Heaven being ever invocked or adored by us For we look on them only as our Brethren and Members of the same Church with us triumphing indeed whilst we are here below still in our Warfare We thank God for them and keep Feasts in the Memory of them at the same time praising God for his Goodness and Grace bestowed on them and shining forth in them and also stirring up our selves by such Commemorations to follow their good Example and this we think is as much as is due from us to our fellow Creatures and believe that neither God allows nor do they expect more from us Secondly Only proper expressions of Devotion are commanded or allowed by our Church For the
practice excepting only the object of their Worship giving them real Saints and Holy Angels instead of their feigned and impure Deities and that which makes this the more probable is that their invasion and stay in Italy and the rise and growth of Daemon-Worship there jump exactly as to time and both bear date from the Fourth and Fifth Centures III. That there is not the least proof for it from Scripture 1. ANd here we are firstâ—â— take notice that Bellar. de sanct beat c. 19. Salm. in 1 Tim. 2. disp 7. Eckius Enchirid de vener sanct c. 15. Cardin. du Perron it is â—reely confeâ—â— by some of their own Learned Divines that there is no express Text either in the Old or New Testament for this Doctrine and practice and is it not hard to make that an Article of Faith that has no Foundation to stand on in the word of God Or to make that a Duty that has no Law â—or sanction to bind us to the practice of it Were not the Scriptures written to make Men Wise unto salvation and to instruct them throughly unâ—o all good works Were they not written that 2 Tim. 3. 15. 16. we might believe believing might have Eternal Life Do not the Apostles say they have made known to Man the whole will of God and kept nothing hid from them Do John 20. 30. they not abound in earnest Exhortations to Pray to Pray alwayes to pray without ceasing with all prayer Have they not left frequent directions for the right performance of it in a Language that all that hear may understand with pure hands in Faith without wrath and doubting And now can 1 Cor. 14. we imagine after all this that had Invocation of Saints been so good and profitable a Duty or that it had been so great a Crime so much as to doubt of the Blessed Virgin 's Merits and Ability to help that theâ— would have been Catech. Rom. 584. wholly silent as to this matter Were not the Apostles guided by the Holy Spirit of God Must they not be supposed to have as hearty a concern and as burning a Zeal for the Salvation of Souls and the Glory of God as the Trent Fathers had And now had this practice been so highly instrumental to promote both these as that Synod would have us believe is it to be imagined that every one of them would have quite forgot it and neglected to have given it in charge with as much strictness as they have done to all Bishops and Pastors to instruct their Flocks in the Pieâ—y and Usefulness of it Have not the Apostles both by their precept and example enjoyned Christians to beg the Prayers of one another whilst they are in the body Have they not prescribed the Sick Man as the most Soveraign receipt to have recourse to the Prayers of the Elders of the Jaâ— 5. 14. Church What reason then can be given that we have not any one example or precept to fly to the Prayers of Saints departed to their help and assistance as the more prevailing and meritorious but only this that they are not in a capacity to hear our requests or to know our conditions Nay had our Saviour and his Apostles intended this Saint-Invocation as a necessary Christian Duty it would have needed a more express command and penalty to have inforced its obligation then most other Duties of Christianity since it was altogether a thing new to the Jews and what had never been practised by them for though sometimes in their prayers to God they besought him to remember Abraham Isaac and Luk 1. 55. 72. 73. Deut. 7. â— Jacob that is his own covenant and promise he had made with and to them yet they never used them as intercessors or said Holy Abraham or Holy Isaac pray for us But to blunt the edge of this Argument that they themselves have put into our hands against it they tell us was not for any intrinsick Evil in the thing but for some particular reasons relating to the times of the Old Testament and the first Ages of the New that It was not mentioned and enioyned in scripture but if the reasons produced by them do hold with equal force against it promiscuously in all Ages as well as against it then certainly the main reason why it 's no where prescribed in scripture is that it might at no time be put in practice The reasons they give are chiefly two For the Old Testament they say it 's not there enjoyned because the Patriarchs and Saints departed during that dispensation were not admitted into the beatifick Vision and so could not ordinarily understand the Prayers of the Living but if for ought we know Abraham Isaac and Jacob are still in the same Limbo or place of rest they went to at first or if our Saviour at his ascension into Heaven did give them a happy deliverance and took them up with him into the immediate presence of God 't is not certain that they understand the desires of the Living any more then they did before then there is as much reason not to Invocate them now as there was not to do it then Many of the Romanists will not have the Saints in Heaven come to know the desires of their Living Votaries by the benefit of the beaufick Vision which they enjoy but by particular Revelation from God and if so then the Old Testament worthies were as capable of it and consequentlie there was as much reason to pray unto them before our Saviours coming when they were but in Paradise as afterwards when by his Glorious Victory and Triumph over Death they were exalted into Heaven since God could have revealed the requests of their supplicants alike to them in all places in one as well as another besides considering the great esteem and veneration the Jews ever had for those great Men the Founders of their Nation Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses Joshua and others had there been no evil in the thing no reason can be given why it was not preached to the Jews by our Saviour and his Apostles as the most likely argument to win them to embrace the Christian Religion For the New Testament they say 't is not there enjoyned because it would have been a great offence and scandal to the new converted Gentiles and have given them an occasion to think that they had only changed their Gods but not their Religion that the Christian Doctrine was only a device of the Apostles to thrust out their old Daemons and Heroes and to put in themselves that as those had hitherto been Worship'd for the great services and benefactions they did in this present World so they for the future might have the some Honour done them for the full discoveries they had made and excellent directions they had given relating to a future and more happy State And is not this a good Argument and does it not hold still against Romish Invocation Is
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
not this the declared reason why the Church of Rome gives Religious Worship to Angels and departed Saints Because of a middle sort of worth and excellency that is in them that 's neither infinite as the divine nor so low as the humane but Spiritual and Supernatural whereby approaching near to the Divinity they have great interest in the Court of Heaven and ought as Celsus said of their Daemons to be Prayed unto to be favourable and propitious to us So exact you see is the parallel betwixt them Now against this Daemon-Worship the Fathers replied that whatever great and supernatural excellencies were to be found in the Spirits above ought indeed to have an Acknowledgement and Honour paied to them both in Mind and Action proportioned and Commensurate to such excellencies but yet they were not to be esteemed inwardly as Gods nor to be Worshipp'd with any outward Act of Religious Worship be it erecting Altars making Vows or puting up Prayers to them as if they were such For all and every part of that was solely due to God and not to be given to any the highest Created Excellency As you may see their minds more fully in the next particular 4. The Fathers positively assert that none but God ought to be invocated And the first I shall mention is that advice Ign. Ep. ad Philadelph which Ignatius gave the Virgins of his time not to direct their Prayers and Supplications to any but only to the Blessed Trinity Oh ye Virgins have Christ alone before your Eyes and his Father in your Prayers being enlightned by the Spirit Irenaeus in his first Book taking notice of some Persons who had entertained strange fancies concerning the Power of Angels accordingly gave Divine Worship to them tells us plainly that the Doctrine and Practice of the Iren l. 2. c. 57. Church in his dayes was far otherwise and that throughout the World it did nothing by Invocation of Angels nor by Incantations but purely and manifestly directs her Prayers to God who made all and calls upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Feuardentius in his notes upon the place would have the words of the Father to be understood only of Prayers made by Evil Spirits and angels but then why did not the Father express it so Why does he exclud all Angels without distinction from Divine Worship when he sayes the whole Church every where called only upon God and his Son Christ Jesus Eusebius in his History hath set down a long Prayer of the of the Holy Martyr Polycrap which he uttered at the time of his Suffering wherein there is not any one Petition put up to Saints but every one directed to God through the Meditation of Christ closing his Prayer with Euseb l. 4. c. 15. this Doxology Therefore in all things I Praise thee I Bless thee I Glorify thee through the Eternal Priest Jesus Christ thy Beloved Son to whom with thee Oh Father and the Holy Ghost be all Glory now and for ever To which we may add what also is Recorded by the same Author that when the Church of Smyrna desired the Body of their Martyred Bishop to give it an Honourable Inteâ—ment and was denyed it by the Governour upon the unworthy suggestion of the Jews that they would Worship it they thus replied We can never be induced to Worship any other but Christ him being the Son of God we adore others as Martyrs and his sincere Disciples we worthily Love and Respect and that which here deserves a particular observation is what the Learned Primate of Armagh hath pointed out to us viz. that what in the Original Greek Sebein Religiously to Worship is in the Latin Edition that was wont to be read in all the Churches of the West rendred precem Orationis Ex passion M. S. 7. Kalend. Febr. in Bib. Eccl. Sarish Dom. Rob. Cotton impendere to impart the Supplication of Prayer The nexâ— Testimony I shall produce is that of Origen who is very full to this purpose in his Writings against Celsus he tells us We must endeavour to please God alone and labour to have him propitious to us procuring his good will with Godliness and all kind of Vertue and if Celsus will have us to procure the good will of any others after him that is God ovâ—â— all let him consider that as when the Body is moved the motions of the shadow thereof doth follow it so in like manner having God favourable to us who is over all it followeth that we shall have all his Friends both Angels and Spirits loving to us and whereas Celsus had said of the Angels that they belong to God and in that respect were to be Prayed unto that they may be favourable to us he thus sharply replies Away with Celsus's Council saying that we must Pray to Angels for we must Pray to him who is God over all and we must Pray to the Word of God his only begotten Son and the first born of all Creatures and we must intreat him that he as High Priest would present our Prayer unto his God and our God And when Celsus Objected that the Christians did not keep to their own rule of Praying to and Worshipping none but God since they gave the same Honour to Christ whom they knew to be a Man he replies that Christ was God as well as Man one with the Father and proves it from Miracles and Prophesies and Precepts that this Honour was given to him to be Worship'd as they Worship'd the Father Had Celsus Objected that the Christians Worship'd Angels and Saints departed it had been laid right and would have born hard upon them and he had inferred strongly that they might as well Worship their Inferiour Deities but Celsus Objects no such thing but only their Worshipping of Christ which Origen was well provided to answer and this is an evident proof that the Christians were not guilty of it Had there been but the least ground to suspect them for it it would have been so hugely serviceable to his cause and with so much force have rebounded back upon the Christians that 't is not to be imagined so industrious and spightfull an Adversary as Celsus would have omitted with the greatest Insult and Triumph to have laid it at their Door To these we might add the Suffrages of many more St. Cyprian who have written set Treatises of Prayer teaching us to regulate all our Prayers after that most perfect Pattern of our Lords and ever to direct our Petitions to our Heavenly Father only Gregory Nyssen saith we are taught to Worship and aktiston physin Cont. Eunom Tom. 2. Orat. 4. Oâ—at 3. Contr. Arrian De ver Relig. c. 55. de civit Dei l. 22. c. 10. Ep. 42. Adore that Nature only that 's uncreated Athanasius That God only is to be Worshipped that the creature is not to Adore the creature St. Austin sayes expresly that the Saints are to be Honoured for
imitation not to be Adored for Religion that at the Communion Table they were named but not Invocated And again you see the head of the most renowned Empire stooping with his Diadem and Praying at the Sepulchre of Peter the Fisherman namely 't is to God himself that he Prayes though at the Tomb of Peter Epiphanius reproving as he calls it the Womens Hoeres 79. adver Collyridian Heresie who were wont to offer up a Cake to the Blessed Virgin hath these words Let Mary be in Honour but let the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost be Worshipped and to shew us what a very ill opinion he had of that at least Superstitious practice he six times repeats in that tract Marian medies â—roskyneito Let no Man Adore Mary To name no more Tertullian in his Apology for the Apol. c. Sect. 30. 2. 3. Christians thus expresses himself after he had set down the many great Blessings the Christians thought themselves ever oblidged to beg for their Emperours As long life and Valiant Armies and a Faithful Senate and Loyal Subjects and a peaceable Reign these things saith he I may not Pray for from any other but from him of whom I know I shall obtain them because both it is he who is alone able to give and I am he to whom it appertains to obtain that which is requested being his Servant who observe him alone VII That the Doctrine and Practice of Saint-Invocation is Impious and Idolatrous THis I think will be fully made out from these three particulars 1. This ascribes to Angels and Saints the Attributes and Perfections that are solely proper and peculiar to God viz. his Omniscience and Omnipresence for not only when Mental Prayers as the Church of Rome directs but since the blessed Spirits above can't be supposed to espouse the cause of an insincere Votary when vocal Prayers also are offered up to them it supposes them Privy to the very thoughts and acquainted with the Hearts of Men again when innumerable Prayers and Supplications from Millions of places at the greatest distance from one another are at the same time immediately put up to them it supposes in like manner that they are present in all places and at the same time can give Audience to all their Petitioners Now what more or greater can be said of God Is not this that infinite knowledge that Omnipresent Power and never absent Nature that the Scriptures solely attribute to the Creator of all things and have denied to any of the highest Form of the Creatures And although I will not undertake to describe to you the exact bounds aad Measures of the Angelical Nature and Perfections how perspective their Knowledge is How piercing their understanding How swift their motion Yet sure I am that neither they nor any other the most elevated part of Gods Creation can by their Natural Power know the Hearts of Men and be in all places at one instant of time It is God alone whose understanding is infinite who looks down from Heaven beholds all the wayes of the Sons of Men He even he knoweth all the Hearts of the Children 1 King 8. 27. of Men. 'T is he that seeth in secret And God challenges it as a peculiar to himself The Heart is Matt. 6. 4. Jerem. 17. 9. 10. deceitful above all things and disperatly Wicked who can know it I the Lord search the Heart and try the Reins By this Argument the Fathers Triumph'd over the Arrians and Macedonians in proving the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost which yet would have been no Argument at all had not this Knowledge been an Incommunicable perfection in the Divine Nature But 't is said that 't is God indeed that only Naturally and of himself knows the Hearts o Men but this hinders not but that others his Saints and Angels may know them by Communication from him viz. Either by Revelation from God or by the Beatifick Vision Seeing all things in God who sees all things In answer to this not to mention how it contradicts the express words of Scripture which without any distinction or limitation does as plainly assert as words can do it That God only knows the Heart not to mention the many disputes the Romanists have among themselves which way is to be chosen as the most probable and after what manner is either way this knowledge is derived and past from God to them these things may be said 1. That God hath no where declared that he hath Communicated this Priviledge and Prerogative of his Nature to Saints and Angels or that he does any way make visible or known to them the Hearts and the Requests of Men and now if what is not of Faith is Sin we having no Text of Scripture to Build our Faith upon in this particular must of necessity Sin in Praying to them on that supposition and commit that very sin too which we doubt whither we so doing commit or no nay the silence of the Scripture in this particular has in a manner determined the point and we may conclude that the most jealous God has reserved the Honour of Intimation to himself alone since he has no where given us the least hint or intimation of leave to pray to them 2. We are informed in Scripture that the Saints departed do not particularly know or mind what 's done 2 Chron. 34. 28. here below God tells Josiah thou shalt be gathered to thy Grave in Peace neither shall thine Eyes see the Evil I will bring upon this place The Dead know not any thing that is of the affairs of this World saith the Eccl. 9. 5. Preacher His Sons come to Honour and he kneweth it not and they are brought low and he perceiveth it not of them sayes Job of Man in the other State When 2 Kings 2. 9. Elijah was about to be taken up into Heaven he thus spake to Elisha Ask what thou wilt before I am taken from thee Strongly implying that when he was once gone 't was in vain to ask any thing of him Elijah was immediately taken up into Heaven made no stay by the way in Limbo as the Romanists themselves agree being in Heaven his Love to Elisha could not be forgot nor his Interest in God lessened but rather both by being exalted thither very much encreased and augmented so that no reason can be given why he should limit and fix his making his desires known to him to the time of his abode with him on Earth but only this his perswasion that in the other State he should not be capable to hear his requests and so all his future addresses to him would be ineffectual To these we may add that known place in Isaiah Abraham doth not know us and Israel is ignorant of us from whence St. Austin concludes that if those great Men Isa 63. 16. and Founders of their Nation were ignorant of what was done in after Ages to their
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
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
te vivere te illi semper dulce sapere Rythmus St. Thom. ad Eucharist in Missal Sacrament which is before them Prayers they call them to the Eucharist f Laus sacratissimo Sacramento and 't is become a common form of Doxology amongst them instead of saying Praise be given to God to say Praise be given to the most holy Sacrament g Ad Sacram Eucharistiam Rithmus Rom. breviar as 't is in one of their Authors instead of ye shall pray to God ye shall pray to the Body of Christ i e. To the Sacrament h Orlandinus hist Sanders in his Book of the Supper of the Lord i Corpore sangiâ—â— Christi sub speciebus panis vini omnis honor Laus Gratiarum actio in secula seculerum Sanderus de caena Dom. instead of Glory be to the Father Son and Holy Ghost turns it thus To the Body and Blood of our Saviour under the species of Bread and Wine be all Honour and Praise and Thanksgiving for evermore as if it were another Person of the blessed God-head This Adoration is not only in the time of Communion when it is properly the Lords Supper and Sacrament but at other times out of it when ever it is set upon the Altar with the Candles burning and the Incense smoaking before it or hung up in its rich Shrine and Tabernacle with a Canopy of State over it And not only in the Church which is sanctified they say by this Sacrament as by the presence of God himself k Bellarm. de sanct c. 5. but when it is carried through the Streets in a solemn and pompous Procession as it is before the Pope when he goes abroad just as the Persian fire was before the Emperor l Curt. l 3. S. 3. meerly by way of state or for a superstitious end that he may be the better Guarded and Defended by the company of his God m Ad capit is illius sacri custodiam praesidialem patronalem perron de Euch. l. 3. c. 19. In all these times it is to be worshipped and adored by all persons as it passeth by as if it were the Glory of God which passed by They are like Moses to make hast and bow their heads to the Earth and worship n Exod. 34. â— but above all upon that high day which they have dedicated to this Sacrament as if it were some new Deity the Festum Dei as they call it the Feast of God or the Festum Corporis Christi the Feast of the Body of Christ for to call the Sacrament God is a general Expression among them as when they have received the Sacrament to say I have received my Maker to day and the Person who in great Churches is â—o carry the Sacrament to the numerous Communicants is called Bajulus Dei the Porter or Carrier of GOD and they alwayes account and so alwayes reverence it as Boileau falsly sayes o Eucharistiam pro praesente numine â—emper habuisse Veteres the Ancients did as a present Numen and Deity This Feast was appointed by Pope Vrban the 4th about the middle of the twelfth Century and again by â—lement the fifth in the begining of the 13th as is owned by themselves upon the occasion of a Vision to one Juliana who saw a crack in the Moon that signified it seems a great â—efect in the Church for want of this Solemnity such was the rise of this great Festival p Bzovii Annal in Contin Baron Anno Dom. 1230. and so late was its Institution in the Roman Church in which alone and in no other Christian Church of the World it is observed to this day And that the whole practice of the Adoration to the Host is Novel and unknown to the primitive Church and to the Ancient Writers I shall endeavour to make evident against that bold and impudent Canon of the Council of Trent which is the first Council that commanded it in these words q Siquis dixerit non esse hoc Sacramentum peculiari festivia celebritate venerandum neque in processionibus secundum laudabilem Vniversalem Ecclesiae sanctae ritum consuetudinem soleâ—niter circumgeslandâ—â— vel â—on publice ut adoretur populo proponendum ejus Adoratoresesse Idololatr as anathema sit Concil Trident. Can. 6. Sess 13. If any one shall say that the Sacrament is not to be worship'd by a peculiar Festival nor to be solemnly carried about in Processions according to the laudable and universal manner and custom of the Holy Church nor to be publickly proposed to the people that it may be adored by them and that the Worshippers of it are Idolaters let him be accursed To confront this insolent pretence of theirs that it was an universal custom of the church thus to carry the Sacrament in processions the ingenuous confession of their own Cassander is sufficient The Custom sayes he r Consuetudo quae panis Eâ—charistiae in publica pompa conspicuus circumferetur ac passim omnium oculis ingeritur praeter veterum morem ac mentem haâ—d ita longo tempore inducta recepta videtur Illi enim hoc mysterium in tanta religione ac veneratione habuerunt ut non modo ad ejus perceptionem sed ne inspectionem quidem admitterent nisi fideles quos Christi membra tanta participatione dignosesse existimarent quare ante Consecrationem Catecbumeni Energumeni poeniteâ—tes denique non Communicantes Diaconi voce Osliariorum Ministerio secludeb antur Cassand consult of carrying about the Sacramental Bread in publick pomp to be seen and exposed to all eyes is contrary to the mind and custom of the Ancients and seems to be lately brought in and received for they had this mystery in such religious Veneration that they would not admit any not only to the partaking but not to the sight of it but the Faithful whom they accounted members of Christ and worthy to partake of such a Mystery Wherefore all those who were but Catechumeni or were Energumeni or Penetents and not Communicants were alwayes put out and dismist at the Celebration of it Whither they be Idolaters for adoring the Sacrament I have considered already and their practice joyned with their Doctrine maks it more evident I shall now prove that this Adoration of theirs was neither commanded nor used by Christ or the Apostles nor by the Primitive Church nor is truely mean'd and designed by those Authorities of the Fathers which they produce for it and upon a general view of the whole matter That it is a very absurd and ridiculous thing that tends most shamefully to reproach and expose Christianity 1. That it was not used or commanded by Christ or the Apostles is plain from the account that all the Evangelists give us of Christs celebrating this Sacrament with his Apostles where is only mention of their taking and eating the Bread and drinking the Wine after it was blessed by
the same word We venerate Baptism †Baptismum ubicunque est veneramur Id Epist 146. as we ought to do all the Rites and Ordinances of our Religion this is meant by Origen in that first place of him produced by Boileau * de Euch. Ador p. 10. ex Orlg. Homil. 12. Nostis qui Divinis mysteriis interesse consuestis quomodo cum suscipitis corpus Domini cum omni cautela veneratione servatis ne ex eo parum quid decidat ne consecrati muneris aliquid dilabatur Reos enim vos creditis recte creditis si quid inde per negligentiam decidat Ye that are wont to be present at the Divine Mysteries know how when ye receive the Body of Christ ye keep it with all caution and Veneration that no part of the consecrated gift be let fall for ye think and that rightly that ye should be guilty of a fault if any of it should be let fall through your negligence And Christians have this care and Veneration of those consecrated Symbols of the Body and Blood of their Saviour of these wonderful Pledges of his Love that they would not willingly spill them or let them fall to the ground through their carelesness and neglect they that have that due regard to the Holy Bible which they ought would not trample it under their feet or shew any such disrespect to it it was this which Origen was recommending in that place from that example of their care and respect to the Sacrament Elements that they should give it also to the Word of God * Quod si circa corpus ejus tanta utimini cautela merito utimini quomodo putatis minoris esse praculi Verbum Dei neglexisse quam corpus ejus Ib. But if ye use such care and that very deservedly about keeping his Body how do ye think it to be a less fault to neglect the word of God then to neglect his Body The comparison here made between the Word of God and the Sacrament so plainly shews that he no way meant its Adoration that I wonder this person was not ashamed to pretend just before it that he †Alienum esse ab institutis meis ullum in medium adducere patrem quin conceptis verbis proprium Boil p 10. would bring no Authority but what was expresly for his Opinion and use none but †Animo decreverim argumenta invictissima concludere invincible Arguments but Roman Faith must be defended with Roman courage and confidence which is the only invincible thing they have The words of Theodoret are a great deal more plausible and seem at the first glance to look more fairly then any for their purpose The Elements are understood to be what they are made and they are beleived and reverenced as those things which they are beleived †Noeitai haper egeneto kai pisteuetai kai proskyneitai hos ekeina onta haper pisteuontai Theod Dialogâ— asygchyt apud Boil p 64. Here our Faith makes the Sacrament to be what it signifies to become to us the res Sacramenti as well as a sign and Representation of it and that thing is to be adored by us in the use of the Sacrament which is the true sense of Theodorets words and that he cannot mean in the Roman sense the substance of Christs Body is plain from what immediatly goes before and utterly destroyes what they would catch from half his words for he says That the Elements or the mysticall Signs do not after sanctification recede from their own but remain in their former substance †Oude gar meta tonhagiasmon ta mystica symbola tes â—oikeias existataiphyseos menei gar eiâ—eâ— proteros odfius Ibid. Thus their best Witness that seems to speak the most for them yet speaks that against them which destroys their whole cause as he must own whoever reads the Dialogue and considers the design of it which was to answer the pretence of those who said that the Body of Christ was after his Ascension turned into a Divine substance and lost the true nature of Body * hosper toinyn ta symbâ—la tu despotikon as the Symbols of Christs Body and Blood are changed say those Hereticks into what they were not before Yes sayes he Now ye are taken into your own net for they remain in their former nature and substance afterwards and so does Christs Body If then the change of these sacred Elements be only as to their use and vertue but not as to their substance according to Theodoret then he could not mean that they should be adored but only reverenced by the word proskyneitai just as the Holy Bible * is said to be reverenced and the Priests themselves by the very same word * Prosknesai met ' eulabei as to euaggelion Liturg. chrysost Hiepeis proskynetot proskynetoi Adelpboi proskynete synodos Acta concil Ephes 4. Some of the Fathers words imply that when we come to the Sacrament it should be with the greatest lowliness both of Body and Mind and as the Primitive Church used to do and as the Church of England does in a posture of Worship and Adoration in the form and manner of Worship as St. Cyril of Hieros speaks ‡ Kypton kai tropo proskyâ—eseâ—â— kaâ— sebasmatos Catech. Myst 5. or as St. Chrysottome In the form of supplicants and Worshippers †Schema hiketon kai proskyneton echomen Chrysost Homil 7. in Matth. epi to timesai kai proskynesai ton hyion tu Theu Ibid. prosenegke sy tapein ophrosynen kai tetapeinomenen kapdion Homil. de Phil. Dianastesomen toinyn heautous kai phrixomen kai pollo ton barbaron â—keinon pleiona epideixomethaâ—en eulabeian of Christ as the Magi were when they came to bring their presents to him do thou then present him with humility and a lowly and submissive heart and be not like Herod who pretended he would come to worship him but it was to murder him but rather imitate the Magi and come with greater fear and reverence to thy Saviour then they did This is the whole design and substance of what is produced out of St. Chrysostom †Boil c. 7. l. 1 And this is the plain meaning of Origen * Hom. 5. in N. T. Tunc Dominus sub tectum tuum in greditur tu ergo humilians teipsuâ—â— imitare hâ—nc Centurionem dicito Domine non sum digâ—â—s ut intres sub tecâ—â—◠〈◊〉 that when we come to receive Christ in the Sacrament we should do it with all Humility for consider sayes he That then the Lords enters under thy roof do thou therefore humble thy self and imitate the Centurion and say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof When the Fathers would give us the Picture of a devout Communicant they draw him in the greatest Posture of Humility and Reverence looking upon and †Phrixomen toinyu proâ—iontes cachariste somen prospesomen
whither they be contrite or attrite or neither at least when they can give no Evidence of â—â—her If they intended this only for absolution from the Censures of the Church it might be called Charity and look something like the practice of the Primitive Church which released those upon their Death-beds whom it would not discharge all their lives before tho' not then neither without signs of Attrition and contrition too but these pretend to quite another thing namely to release men in foro Conscientiae and to give them a Pass-port to Heaven without Repentance which is a very strange thing to say no worse of it Or to instance one thing more what is the meaning of their practice of giving Absolution before the Penance is performed as is usual with them unless this be it that whither the Man make any Conscience at all how he lives hereafter yet he is pardoned as much as the Priest can do it for him and is not this a likely way of Reformation I conclude therefore now upon the whole matter that Auricular Confession as it is used in the Church of Rome is only ane Artifice of greatning the Priest and pleasing the People a trick of gratifying the undevout and impious as well as the Devout and Religious the latter it imposes upon by its outward appearance of Humility and Piety to the former it serves for a palliative Cure of the Gripes of Conscience which they are now and then troubled with in reality it tends to make sin easie and tolerable by the cheapness of its Pardon and in a word it is nothing but the Old Discipline of the Church in Dust and Ashes And therefore though the Church of England in her Liturgy piously wishes for the Restauration of the Ancient Discipline of the Church it can be no defect in her that she troubles not her self with this Rubbish FINIS A POST-SCRIPT AFter I had finished the foregoing Papers and most part of them had also past the Press I happened to have notice that there was a Book just then come over from France written by a Divine of the Sorbone which with great appearance of Learning maintained the just contrary to what I had asserted esepecially in the Historical part of this Question and pretended to prove from the most Ancient Monuments of the Holy Scriptures Fathers Popes and Councils that Auricular Confession had been the constant Doctrine and Universal and Uninterrupted usage of the Christian Church for near 1300 years from the Times of our Saviour to the Laterane council So soon as I heard this I heartily wished that either the said Book had come out a little sooner or at least that my Papers had been yet in my hands to the intent that it might have been in my Power to have corrected what might be amise or supplied what was defective in that short Discourse or indeed if occasion were to have wholly supprest it For as soon as I entered upon the said Book and found from no less a Man then the Author himself that he had diligently read over all that had been written on both sides of this controversy and that this work of his was the product of Eighteen years study and that in the prime of his years and most flourishing time of his parts that it was published upon the maturest deliberation on his part and with the greatest applause and approbation of the Faculty I thought I had reason to suspect whither a small Tract written in hast by a Man of no Name and full enough of other Business could be fit to be seen on the same Day with so elâ—borate a work But by that time I had read a little further I took Heart and permitted the Press to go on and now that I have gone over the whole I do here profess sincerely that in all that learned Discourse I scarcely found any thing which I had not foreseen and as I think in some measure prevented But certain I am nothing occurred that staggered my Judgment or which did not rather confirm me in what I had written for though I met with abundance of Citations and a great deal of Wit and Dexterity in the management of them yet I found none of them come home to the point for whereas they sometimes recommend and press Confession of Sin in general sometimes to the Church sometimes to the Priest or Bishop as well as to God Almighty Again sometimes they speak great things of the Dignity of the Priest-hood and the gâ—â—at Honour that Order hath in being wonderfully useful to the relief of Guilty or Afflicted Consciences other while they treat of the Power of the Keys and the Authority of the Church the danger of her Censures the Comfort of her Absolution and the severity of her Discipline c. But all these things are acknowledged by us without laborious proof as well as by our Adversaries That which we demand and expect therefore is where shall we find in any of the Ancient Fathers Auricular Confession said to be a Sacrament or any part of one Or where is the Universal necessity of it asserted Or that secret sins committed after Baptism are by no other means or upon no other terms pardoned with God then upon their being confessed to men In these things lies the hinge of our dispute and of these particulars one ought in Reason to expect the most direct and plain proof imaginable if the matter was of such Consequence of such Universal practice and notoriety as they pretend but nothing of all this appears in this Writter more then in those that have gone before him In contemplation of which I now adventure this little Tract into the World with somewhat more of Confidence then I should have done had it not been for this occasion But lest I should seem to be too partial in the Case or to give too slight an account of this Learned Man's performance the Reader who pleases shall be judge by a specimen or two which I will here briefly represent to him The former of them shall be the very first argument or Testimony he produces for his Assertion which I the rather make my choice to give instance in because no Man can be said ingenuously to seek for faults to pick and choose for matter of exception that takes the first thing that comes to hand The business is this Chap. 2. Page 11. of his Book he cites the Council of Illiberis with a great deal of circumstance as the first Witness for his Cause and the Testimony is taken from the Seventy Sixth Canon the words are these St. quâ—s Diaconum c. i e. If any Man shall suffer himself to be ordained Deacon and shall afterwards be convicted to have formerly committed some Mortal or Capital Crime if the said Crime come to light by his own voluntary Confession he shall for the space of Three Years be debarred the Holy Communion but in case his sin be discovered and made known
Saints mentioned by St. Jude is not intirely delivered in the Scripture but we must seek for the rest in the Traditions of the Church Which Traditions say they are to be received as a part of the Rule of Faith with the same Religious Reverence that we do the Holy Scripture Now though this is not really the bottom of their heart as will appear before I have done but they finally rest for their satisfaction in matters of Faith somewhere else yet this being plausibly pretended by them in their own Justification that they follow Tradition and in their Accusations of us that we foresake Tradition I shall briefly let all our People see who are not willing to be deceived what they are to judge and say in this business of Tradition About which a great noise is made as if we durst not stand to it and as if they of the Roman Church stedfastly kept it without any variation neither of which is true I shall plainly shew in this short Discourse The meaning of the Word Which for clearness sake shall begin with the meaning of the word TRADITION which in English is no more than delivering unto another and by a Figure signifies the matter which is delivered and among Christians the Doctrine of our Religion delivered to us And there being two wayes of delivering Doctrines to us either by writing or by word of mouth it signifies either of them indifferently the Scriptures as you shall see presently being Traditions But custom hath determined this word to the last of these wayes and distinguished Tradition from Scriptures or writings at least from the Holy Writings and made it signifie that which is not delivered in the Holy Scriptures or Writings For though the Scripture be Tradition also and the very first Tradition and the Fountain of all true and legitimate Antiquity yet in common Language Traditions now are such ancient Doctrines as are conveyed to us some other way whither by word of mouth as some will have it from one Generation to another or by humane Writings which are not of the same authority with the Holy Scriptures How to judge of them Now there is no better way to judge aright of such Traditions then by considering these four things First The Authors of them whence they come Secondly the matter of them Thirdly Their Authority Fourthly The means by which we come to know they derive themselves from such Authors as they pretend unto and consequently have any authority to demand admission into our belief 1. For the first of these every body knows and confesses that all Traditions suppose some Author from whom they originally come and who is the diliverer of those Doctrines to Christian people who being told by the present Church or any person in it that such and such Doctrines are to be received though not contained in the Holy Scriptures because they are Traditions ought in Conscience to inquire from whom those Traditions come or who first delivered them By which means they will be able to judge what credit is to be given to them when it is once cleared to them from what Authors they really come Now whatsoever is delivered to us in Christianity comes either from Christ or from his Apostles or from the Church either in General or in part or from private Doctors in the Church There is nothing now called a Tradition in the Christian World but proceeds from one or from all of these four Originals 2. And the mater which they deliver to us which is next to be considered is either concerning that Faith and godly life which is necessary to Salvation or concerning Opinions Rites Ceremonies Customs and things belonging to Order Both which as I said may be conveyed either by writing or without writing by the Divine Writings or by Humane Writings though these two wayes are not alike certain 3. Now it is evident to every understanding that things of both sorts which are delivered to us have their Authority from the credit of the Author from whence they first come If that be Divine their Authority is Divine if it be onely Humane their Authority can be no more And among Humane Authors if their Credit be great the Authority of what they deliver it great if it be little its Authority is little and accordingly must be accepted with greater or lesser Reverence Upon which score whatsoever can be made appear to come from Christ it hath the highest authority and ought to be received with absolute submission to it because he is the Son of God And likewise whatsoever appears to have been delivered by the Apostles in his Name hath the same Authority they being his Ministers sent by Him as He was by God the Father and indued with a Divine Power which attested unto them In like manner whatsoever is delivered by the Church hath the same Authority which the Church hath which though it be not equal to the foregoing the Church having no such Divine Power nor infallible Judgement as the Apostles had yet is of such weight and moment that it ought to be reverenced next to theirs I mean the sense of the whole Church which must be acknowledged also to be of greater or lesser Authority as it was nearer or farther off from the times of the Apostles What was delivered by their immediate Followers ought to weigh so much with us as to have the greatest Humane Authority and to be looked upon as little less then Divine The Universal consent of the next Generation is an Authority approaching as near to the former As the Ages do one to another But what is delivered in latter times hath less humane Authority though pretending to come but without proof from more early dayes and hath no Authority at all if it contradict the sense of the Church when it was capable to be better acquainted with the mind of Christ and of his Apostles As for particular Churches their Authority ought to be reverenced by every Member of them when they profess to deliver sincerely the sense of the Church Universal and when they determine as they have power to do Controversies of Faith or decree Rites and Ceremonies not contrary to GOD's Word in which every one ought to acquiesce But we cannot say the same of that which comes from any private Doctor in the Church Modern or Ancient which can have no greater Authority than he himself was of but is more or less credible according as he was more or less diligent knowing and strictly religious 4. But to all this it is necessary that it do sufficiently appear that such Doctrines do really come from those Authours whose Traditions they pretend to be This is the great and the only thing about which there is any question among sober and judicious persons How to be sufficiently assured that any thing which is not delivered unto us in the Scriptures doth certainly come for instance from CHRIST or his holy Apostles For in this all Christians are
agreed that whatsoever was delivered by CHRIST from GOD the Father or by the Apostles from CHRIST is to be embraced and firmly retained whither it be written or not written that makes no difference at all if we can be certain it came from Him or them For what is contained in the Holy Scripture hath not its Authority because it is written but because it came from GOD. If CHRIST said a thing it is enough we ought to submit unto it But we must first know that he said it and let the means of knowing it be what they will if we can certainly know He said it we yield to it But how we can be certain at this distance of time from his being in the World that any thing now pretending to it was said by CHRIST which is not recorded in the Holy Scriptures there is the business And it is a matter of such importance that it cannot be expected any man should be satisfied without very good evidence of it but he may very reasonably question whither many things be not falsely ascribed unto Him and unto his Apostles which never came from them Nay whither those things which are affirmed to be the Doctrines of the Primitive Church and of the whole Church be not of some later Original and of some particular Church or private Doctors in the Church unto whose Authority that Reverence is not due which ought to be paid and which we willingly give unto the former Now according to this state of the matter any good Christian among us who is desirous to know the Truth and to preserve himself from Errour may easily discern what Traditions ought to be received and held fast and what we are not bound unto without any alteration and what are not to be received at all but to be rejected and how far those things are from being credible which the Roman Church now would obtrude upon us under the name of Apostolical or ancient Traditions without any Authority from the Holy Scriptures or in truth any Authority but their own and some private Doctors whose Opinions cannot challenge an absolute submission to them But to give every one that would be rightly informed fuller satisfaction in this business I shall not content my self with this General Discourse but shall particularly and distinctly shew what Traditions we own and heartily receive and then what Traditions we cannot own but with good reason reâ—use These shall be the two Parts of this short Treatise wherein I shall endeavour that our people may be instructed not merely to reject Errours but also to affirm the Truth PART I. What Traditions we receive 1 AND in the first place we acknowledge that what is now Holy Scripture was once only Tradition properly so called that is Doctrine by word of mouth In this we all agree I say that the whole Gospel or Doctrine of CHRIST which is now upon record in those Books we call the Scriptures was once unwritten when it was first preached by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles Which must be noted to remove that small Objection with which they of the Roman Church are wont to trouble some peoples minds merely from the Name of Traditions which St. Paul in his Epistles requires those to whom he writes carefully to observe particularly in that famous place 1. Thess 2. 15. Where we find this Exhortation Therefore Brethren stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whither by word or our Epistle Behold say they here are things not written but delivered by word of mouth which the Thessalonians are commanded to hold Very true should the people of our Church say to those that insist upon this but behold also we beseech you what the Traditions are of which the Apostle here writes and mark also when it was that theâ— were partly unwritten For the fiâ—st of these it is manifest that he means by Traditions the Doctrines which we now read in the holy Scriptures For the very first word therefore is an indication that this verse is an inference from what he had said in the foregoing Now the things he before treated of are the grand Doctrines of the Gospel or the way of Salvation revealed unto us by Christ Jesus from God the Father who hath from the begining saith he v. 13 14. chosen you to Salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth whereunto he hath called you c. This is the sum of the Gospell and whatsoever he had delivered unto them about these matters of their Sanctification or of their Faith or of their Salvation by obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ to which they were chosen and called through their Sanctification and Faith this he exhorts them to hold fast whither it was contained in this Epistle or in his former preaching for he had not occasion now to write all that he had formerly delivered by word of mouth Which afterward was put in writing for mark which is the second thing the time when some things remained unwritten which was When this Epistle was sent to the Thessalonians Then some things concerning their salvatâ—on were not contained in this Letter but as yet delivered only by word of mouth unto this Church I say to this Church for it doth not follow that all Churches whatsoever were at the time of the writing of this Epistle without the Doctrine of the Gospel compleatly written because among the Thessalonians some Traditious or Doctrines were as yet unwritten Which can in reason be extended no farther then to themselves and to this Epistle which did contain all the Evangelical Doctrine though other writings which it is possible were then extant in some other Churches did And I say as yet unwritten in that Church because the Thessalonians no doubt had afterward more communicated to them in writing besides this Epistle or the former either viz. all the Gospels and the Acts of Apostles and other Apostolical Epistles which we now enjâ—y Which Writings we may be confident contain the Traditions which the Apostle had delivered to the Thessalonians by Word concerning the Incarnation Birth Life Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension of our blessed Saviour and concerning the coming of the holy Ghost and the mission of the Apostles and all the rest which is there recorded for our everlasting instruction And therefore it is in vain to argue from this place that there are still at this day some unwriten Traditions which we are to follow unless the Apostle had said Hold the Traditions which ye have been taught by word which shall never be written And it is in vain for us to inquire after any such Traditions or rely upon them when they are offered unto us unless we were sure that there was something necessary to our Salvation delivered in their Sermons which was never to be delivered in writting and unless we know where to find it as certainly as we do that which they have committed to writing And