then the whole Christian worship which was signified and prefigured by these Types must be peculiar and appropriate to the one Supreme GOD. As for instance I have already proved at large that the Jews were to worship but one God because they had but one Temple to worship in and all their worship had some relation or other to this one Temple and therefore all their worship was appropriated to that one God whose Temple it was now we know Gods dwelling in the Temple at Jerusalem was only a Type and Figure of Gods dwelling in Humane Nature upon which account Christ calls his body the Temple and St. John tells us That the word was made flesh and dwelt among us es kenosen en hemin tabernacled 2 Joh. 19. 21. 1 Joh. 14. 2 Coloss 3. among us as God formerly dwelt in the Jewish Tabernacle or Temple and St. Paul adds That the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ bodily somatikos realy substantially as an accomplishment of Gods dwelling by Types and Figures and shadows in the Jewish Temple Now if all the Jewish worship was confined to the Temple or had a necessary relation to it as I have already proved and this Temple was but a figure of the Incarnation of Christ who should dwell among us in humane nature then all the Christian worship must be offered up to God through Jesus Christ as all the Jewish worship was offered to God at the Temple for Christ is the only Temple in a strict and proper sense of the Christian Church and therefore he alone can render all our services acceptable to God So that God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only object of our worship and Christ considered as God Incarnate as God dwelling in humane nature is the only Temple where all our worship must be offered to GOD that is we shall find acceptance with God only in his name and mediation we must worship no other Beeing but only the Supreme God and that only through Jesus Christ Thus under the Law the Priests were to interceed for the people but not without Sacrifice their Intercession was founded in making atonement and expiation for sin which plainly signified that under the Gospel we can have no other Mediator but only him who expiates our sins and interceeds in the merits of his Sacrifice who is our Priest and our Sacrifice and therefore our Mediator as St. John observes If any man sin we have 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins The Law knew no such thing as a Mediator of pure intercession a Mediator who is no Priest and offers no Sacrifice for us and therefore the Gospel allows of no such Mediators neither who mediate only by their prayers without a Sacrifice such Mediators as the Church of Rome makes of Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary but we have onely one Mediator a Mediator of redemption who has purchased us with his Blood of whom the Priests under the Law were Types and Figures Thus under the Law none but the High Priest was to enter into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Sacrifice now the Holy of Holies was a Type of Heaven Heb. 1. 12. and therefore this plainly signified that under the Gospel there should be but one High Priest and Mediator to offer up our Prayers and Supplications in Heaven He and He only who enters into Heaven with his own Blood as the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Sacrifice There may be a great many Priests and Advocates on Earth to interceed for us as there were under the Law great numbers of Priests the Sons of Aaron to attend the Service and Ministry of the Temple but we have and can have but one Priest and Mediator in Heaven Whoever acknowledges that the Priesthood and Ministry of the Law was Typical of the Evangelical Priesthood and Worship cannot avoid the force of this argument and whoever will not acknowledge this must reject most of St. Paul's Epistles especially the Epistle to the Hebrews which proceeds wholly upon this way of reasoning Now this manifestly justifies the worship of the Church of England as true Christian worship for we worship One God through one Mediator who offered himself a sacrifice for us when he was on Earth and interceeds for us as our High Priest in Heaven which answers to the One Temple and the One High Priest under the Law But though the Church of Rome does what we do worship the Supreme GOD through Jesus Christ yet she spoils the Analogie between the Type and the Antitype the legal and Evangelical worship by doing more when she sends us to the Shrines and Altars of so many several Saints surely this cannot answer to that one Temple at Jerusalem where God alone was to be worshipped there are many Temples and Mercy-seats now as there are Shrines and Altars of Saints and Angels by whose Intercession we may obtain our requests of God When she advances Saints and Angels to the Office of Mediators and Intercessors in Heaven this contradicts the Type of One High Preist who alone might enter into the Holy of Holies which was a type of Heaven for there is some difference between having one Mediator in Heaven and there can be no more under the Gospel to answer to the Typical High Priest under the Law and having a hundred Mediators in Heaven together with our Typical High Priest To have a Mediator of pure Intercession in Heaven who never offered any Sacrifice for us cannot answer to the High Priest under the Law who could not enter into the Holy of Holies without the blood of sacrifice The High Priests entering but once a year into the Holy of Holies which was typical of Christs entering once into Heaven to interceed for us cannot be reconciled with a new succession of Mediators as often as the Pope of Rome pleases to canonize them So that either the Law was not typical of the state of the Gospel or the Worship of Saints and Angels which is so contrary to all the types and figures of the Law cannot be true Christian Worship Sixthly I shall add but one thing more that Christ and his Apostles have made no alteration in the object of the worship appears from hence that de facto there is no such Law in the Gospel for the worship of any other Beeing besides the One supreme God There is a great deal against it as I have already shewn but if there had been nothing against it it had been argument enough against any such alteration that there is no express positive Law for it The force of which argument does not consist meerly in the silence of the Gospel that there is nothing said for it which the most Learned Advocates of the Church of Rome readily grant and give their reasons such as they are why
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
to our Faith The means which Goâ— hath given us towards the certain Prop. IV. attaining of it is not the Authority of any infallible Guide on Earth This will not be disbelieved by those who weigh well the following considerations First God did not set up such a constant infallible Guide among the Jews though at first he gave Assurance Consid I. to them by Miracle that Moses had received his Commission from him and had brought to them the Tables which he had Written for their direction with his own finger Some of the Sanedrim were of the Sect of the Sadducees who erred in the Fundamental point of a future State Most of them erred in the Quality of the Messiah not considering their Scriptures so much as their Traditions And of the errors of the Levitical Priesthood there is in the Old Testament * Isai 56 10. Jer. 2. 8. Ez. 7. 26. C. 22. 26. frequent mention and great complaint And the Prophet Malachy †Mal 2. 7. 8. as soon as he had said The Priests lips shall preserve Knowledge he adds this reproof but ye are departed out of the way It is true the Israelites were by God directed in difficult cases to an Assembly of Judges * Deut. 17 8. to 12. But they were not Judges of controversies in Doctrine but in Property To their sentence the People were to submit as to an expedient for Peace though Judgment might be perverted or mistaken See Levit. 4. 13. It must be also confessed that God spake to them by the Oracle of Vrim and that the voice of it was infallible But its answers concerned not the necessary Rudiments of the Mosaick Law but emergencies in their civil affairs those especially of Peace and War But if we admit that there was under Judaism a living infallible Guide it does not thence follow that it must be so under Christianity For their small precinct the People of which were thrice in a year to come up to the Temple was much more capable of such a Judge then the Christian Church which is as wide as the World Also the new Revelation is more clear and distiâ—ct then the old one was and stands not in such need of an Interpreter Secondly God hath no where promised Christians such a Judge He hath no where said that he hath given such a Consid II. one to the Christian Church And seing such a one cannot be had without God's supernatural assistance the most knowing amongst Men being subject both to Error and to Falshood it is great arrogance whilst the Scripture is silent to say he is in beeing And to affirm that if there were not such a Guide God would be wanting in means sufficient for the maintenance of Peace and Truth is presumptuously to obtrude the schemes of Man's fancy upon God's Wisdom He can Govern his Church without our methods Now God hath no where promised such a Judge to Christian Men though he hath promised help on Earth and assistance from Heaven to Men diligent and sincere in their inquiries after truths which are necessary for them There are two places of Scripture which are by some taken for promises of such a nature though they were not by the Divine Wisdom so intended Of these the First is that which was spoken by Christ unto St. Peter * S. Mat. 16. 18. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church Which Promise concerneth the Church in general and the necessary Faith of it and not any particular persons or places or successions of persons in them And Christ doth here assure us that the Gates of the Grave shall not swallow up the Church that it shall not enter in at them that it shall not die or perish But he doth not say he will preserve it by the means of any Earthly infallible Guide He can by other waves continue it till time it self shall fail The other place of Scripture is the promise of Christ a little while before his Ascension into the Heavens †S. Mat. 28. 20. Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World As long as this Age of the Messiah shall last and that is the last time or Age. This promise is indeed made to the Apostles and to their successorrs also But it is a promise of general assistance and it is made upon condition that they go forth and make Disciples of all Men of all Nations and Baptize them and give them farther instruction in the things which Christ gave in charge to them And some of the successors of the Apostles have not performed these conditions and the Governour of the Church of Sardâ—s had not held fast what he had received heard Rev. 3. 1. 2 3 As GOD hath not promised an unerring Guide so neither hath he said he hath set up such an one in any Church on Earth He hath not said it either directly 〈◊〉 by consequence Tâ—â— places which are supposed directly to affirm this are two and both mistaken One of them is that of Christ to his Disciples after he had given Commission to them to preach the Gospel * Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth Me Me the infallible way and the Truth This Speech if it be extended to all Ministers it makes them all infallible Guides And it is certain they are so as long as they deliver to the People what they received from Christ But the words are especially directed to the seventy Disciples who were taught to preach a plain Fundamental Truth that the Kingdom of GOD was come nigh to the Jews †S. Luke 10. 1 9. And these Disciples were able to give to the Jews a demonstration of the Truth of that Doctrine which they taught by miraculous signs By healing the sick ‡ verse 12. and doâ—ng among them mighty works Another place used as an express Testimony * 1 â—im 3. 15. is that in the first to Timothy to whom St. Paul saith that the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth But this place also is misapplied It seemeth to be spoken of that Church of Ephesus in which St. Paul advised Timothy to behave himself with singular care Which place hath so farre failed that the loâ—ty Building called St. John's Church †is now become a Turkish Mosch But iâ— it Ryc of the Greek Ch. p. 44. were spoken in a general sense it would amount only to this meaning A Christian Church is like a Pillar sustained by a Pedestal on which a writing is so fixed that all who pass by may see it It is as Jerusalem once was to the Heathen-World a City on a Hill It is a visible Society which giveth notice to Jews and Gentiles of Christianity and is instrumental to awaken their observation and by their sense to prepare the way to their belief For this advertisement being so publickly given to them they have fair occasion of examining the grounds of Christian
but had great numbers of Disciples a visible Society of Christians who followed their Judgements Some of these sadly bewailed the degenerate state of the Roman church others petitioned for and advised not only the correction of the abuses of good Doctrines and innocent Institutions but the Reformation of gross Errours and scandalous Additions to the christian Faith and others in great Authority promised an amendement and to reduce the whole frame of christianity to its Primitive sense Model And the famous council of Trent was promis'd and begun to rectifie Errours and Abuses creept into the Romish Faith and Government yet after a long Sitting it fatally concluded confirming those corruptions which was hop'd after so many complaints and addresses with strong reasons for them should have been throughly redrest and reform'd The Original of their barbarous Inquisition will be a standing record of the frequent and stout oppositions that were made against the Romish Innovation in the christian Faith And so long as the Blood of the numerous Albigenses and Waldenses cryes to Heaven for Vengeance against the Papal cruelty we have a cloud of Witnesses for this Truth who resisted unto Death the new Doctrines of Rome The carriage of old Wicliff and his Followers tells us plainly in story that the corruptions of Rome had no such quiet possession but ever and anone some or other inconsiderable numbers did endeavour to eject them out of their hold though they paid dear for it And so long as the Treachery of their council of Constance about the safe conduct granted to poor Huss and his Disciples in number above forty thousand remains upon record never to be forgotten or forgiven so long we have clear evidences of strong resistance made to the Romish Religion before the times of Luther And in most Countries and times where and when the Romish corruptions began from small and obscure beginings to be gross and plain some or other in greater or lesser numbers began to Renounce and Protest against them What though some of these early Reformers might hold some erroneous Opinions which we our selves condemn yet however they opposed the Romish Church in her corruptions and these tended to a Reformation which was compleated only by degrâ—eâ—â— and 't is no wonder some Stumbled in such a night of Ignorance And have not the Agents of Rome destroyed the Papers and Records disguis'd their Adversaries and falsify'd their Opinions to serve the power and Interest of their great Mistriss They therefore branded the Waldenses with the name of Manichaism and that they affirmed two Principles or Originals of all things because they asserted that the Emperour was independent of the Pope and that they denyed CHRIST to be the Son of GOD because they could not believe a crust of Bread to be CHRIST And they have fram'd as lewd stories against many excellent Men of the latâ—r Ages who withstood the approaches of their Doctrine and Government which we certainly know and the more ingenuous among them confess to be notoriously false Though we have reason to believe because of the severity and industry of the Romish Factors ever warm against those who opposed her Practises a great number of Honest and Learned Men as those Ages would afford are buried in obscurity and their names unknown there being an Expurgatorian Index for the merits of such Men as well as Books and Editions yet we have a sufficient Catalogue of them who kept up the Title and claim of old Christianity would not suffer their new Errors to plead prescription 2. By shewing what Errours and Mistakes are included in the Question 1. That these new Errors of Rome are absolutely necessary to the being of a Christian Church For though we believe all that Christ and his Apostles taught all things that are contain'd in the Holy Scriptures all things that undoubted Tradition or good Reason proves to drive themselves from both or either yet because we do not assent and Subscribe to the new Articles of Faith that Rome hath invented for us we cease to be a Christian Church are mark'd for Hereticks which are worse than Pagans with them and must be certainly damn'd Nay should we embrace all the other Doctrines of Rome and deny only the Popes Authority and Supremacy that Epitome of their Christianity it would avail us little we are Heathens still Should we reject but one Article of Pope Pius's Creed suppose the Doctrine of Purgatory or Merit yet because this questions Infallibility the centâ—e of all their Religion we are in the state of Damnation still Should we receive their Doctrines as probable and in a larger and more favâ—urable meaning yet because we do not entertain them as Articles of Faith in the sense of the Church our case is not mended we shall meeâ— with Fires here and hereafâ—er for our reward Should we wink and swallow them all down with a good Catholick stomach yet iâ— the Bishop of Rome should give out a new Edition of Faith enlarged with many more monstrous Doctrines and Opinions yet if we boggle and kick at them all our former Righteousness shall not not be remembred we are Apostates worse than Truks and Infidels and who can tell what this Infallible and powerful Guide of â—â—â—â—stendom will do For when things obscure or of an indifferent Nature when things wherein they differ among themselves and only serve a temporal Interest when Opinions which they can dispense withal upon occasion when only the modes and manner of Truth when Contradictories and Doctrines directly leading unto impiety and things Barbarous and Blasphemous have been christened Articles of Faith and Fundamentals of Religion have we not just reason to suspect as ill or worsé may be done again And the intrigues of Trent may be acted once more and as many new Articles of Faith as Titular Bishops by the same Spirit moving in the same manner were not the first and early Christians sound Members of Christs Body though they never thought of such wild Opinions as these and publish'd truths directly contrary to them And could I suppose them to have known these Innovations out of Zeal and Fidelity to their trust would have detested and abhor'd them Was Christ negligent in the discharge of his mighty Office and his Apostles defective in their Duties and Ministry not to acquaint the first Christians with these great truths and were they reveal'd in the Tridentine Council only to us upon whom the ends of the world are come These Primitive Disciples of Christ thought themselves secure of Heaven by this short Creed that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God And the contrary was the character of the Man of Sin that denied that Jesus was come in the Flesh that he was the God incarnate and the true Messiah and were scandalized at his meanness and obscurity S. Paul told the Jaylor that certainly he would be saved if he believed that Jesus was the Christ all other Fundamentals of Christianity one
of civil honour due to beasts as that there is an inferiour degree of Religious Worship due to some men For all degrees of Religious Worship are as peculiar and appropriate to God as civil respects are to men and as the highest degree of civil honour is to a Soveraign Prince However should we grant that some excellent Creatures might be capable of some inferiour degrees of Religious Worship yet as the Prince is the fountain of civil honour which no subject must presume to usurp without a grant from his Prince so no creature how excellent soever has any natural and inherent right to any degree of Religious Worship and therefore we must not presume to worship any Creature without Gods command nor to pay any other degree of worship to them but what God hath prescribed and instituted and the only way to know this is to examine the Scriptures which is the only external revelation we have of the will of God Let us then inquire what the sense of Scripture is in this controversie and I shall distinctly examine the testimonies both of the Old and New Testament concerning the object of Religious Worship SECT II. The Testimonies of the Mosaical Law considered TO begin with the Old Testament and nothing is Sect 3. 1. more plain in all the Scripture then that the Laws of Moses confine â— Religious worship to that one Supreme God the Lord Jehovah who Created the Heavens and the Earth For 1. The Israelites were expresly commanded to worship the Lord Jehovah and to worship no other Beeing as our Saviour himself assures us who I suppose will be allowed for a very good Expositor of the Laws of Moses It is written Matth. 4. 10. Deut. 6. 13. Deutr 10. 10. thou shalt worship the Lord they God and him only shalt thou serve In the Hebrew Text from whence our Saviour cites this Law it is only said Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him without that addition of him only And yet both the Septuagint and the vulgar Latine read the words as our Saviour doth him only shalt thou serve and the authority of our Saviour is sufficient to justifie this Interpretation and withal gives us a general rule which puts an end to this controversie that as often as we are commanded in Scripture to worship God we are commanded also to worship none besides him For indeed the first Commandment is very express in this matter and all other Laws which concern the obiect of Worship must in all reason be expounded by that Thou shalt have none other Gods before me The Septuagint 20 Exod. 3. renders it plen emu besides me so does the Chaldee Syriack and Arabick to the same sense And it is universally concluded by all Expositors that I have seen that the true interpretation of this Commandment is that we must worship no other God but the Lord Jehovah To pay Religious Worship to any Beeing does in the Scriptures notion make that Beeing our God which is the only reason why they are commanded not to have any other Gods For there is but one true God and therefore in a strict sense they can have no other GODS because there are no other Gods to be had but whatever Beeings they worship they make that their God by worshiping it and so the Heathens had a great many Gods but the Jews are commanded to have but one GOD that is to worship none else besides him In other places GOD expresly forbids them to worship any strange Gods or the Gods of the people or those Nations Deut. 6. 14 that were round about them And least we should suspect that they were forbid to worship the Gods of the people only because those Heathen Idolaters worship Devils and wicked Spirits the Prophet Jeremiah gives us a general notion who are to be reputed false GODS and not to be worshipped Thus shall ye say unto them the Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Jer. 10. 11. Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens So that whatever Beeing is worshipped whither it be a good or a bad Spirit which did not make the Heavens and the Earth is a false GOD to such Worshippers and I suppose the Church of Rome will not say that Saints or Angels or the Virgin Mary as much as they magnifie her made the Heavens and the Earth And then according to this rule they ought not to be worshipped But to put this past doubt that the true meaning of these Laws is to forbid the worship of any other Beeing besides the Supreme GOD I shall observe two or three things in our Saviours answer to the Devils temptation which will give great light and strength to it 1. That our Saviour absolutely rejects the worship of any other Beeing together with the Supreme GOD. The thing our Saviour condemns is not the renouncing the worship of God for the worship of Creatures for the Devil never tempted him to his but the worship of any other being besides GOD though we still continue to worship the Supreme GOD. It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Which is a plain demonstration that men may believe and worship the Supreme God and yet be Idolaters if they worship any thing else besides him The Devil did not desire our Saviour to renounce the worship of the supreme God but was contented that he should worship God still so he would but worship him also And therefore it is no reason to excuse the Church of Rome from Idolatry because they worship the supreme God as well as Saints and Angels this they may do and be Idolaters still for Idolatry does not consist meerly in renouncing the worship of the supreme God but in worshipping any thing else though we continue to worship him When the Jews worship'd their Baalims and false gods they did not wholly renounce the worship of the God of Israel and the Heathens themselves especially the wisest men amongst them did acknowledge one supreme God though they worshiped a great many inferiour Deities with him 2. Our Saviour in his answer to the Devils temptation does not urge his being a wicked and Apostate Spirit an enemy and a rebel against God but gives such a reason why he could not worship him as equally excludes all Creatures whither good or bad Spirits from any right to Divine Worship Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Him and none else whither they be good or bad spirits for our Saviour does not confine his answer to either and therefore includes them both When we charge the church of Rome with too plain an imitation of the Pagan Idolatry in that worship they paid to their inferiour Daemons which was nothing more then what the Church of Rome now gives to Saints and Angels they think it a sufficient answer that the Heathens worshiped Devils and Apostate Spirits
The sum is this If it be more for the glory of God to have all Religious Worship appropriated to himself then to have only a part of it and it may be the least share and part too then the worship of Saints and Angels cannot be for Gods glory But besides this the worship of Saints and Angels together with God does mightily obsâ—ure and lessen the Divine perfections and therefore it cannot be for his glory It represents him indeed like a great Temporal Monarch but it does not represent him like a God That which we ignorantly think a piece of state and greatness in earthly Monarchs to administer the great affairs of their Kingdoms to receive Petitions and Addresses to bestow Favours to administer justice by other hands to have some great Ministers and Favourites to interpose between them and their Subject is nothing else but want of power to do otherwise He would be a much greater Prince more beloved and reverenced who could do all this himself but no Prince can be present in all parts of his Kingdom nor know every particular subject much less their particular cases and conditions deserts and merits and therefore is forc'd to divide this care into many hands and in so doing shares his power and honour with his Subjects But whoever imagines any such thing of God denies his omnipresence his omnipotence his omniscience and his particular care and providence over his Creatures God indeed does not alwayes govern the world by an immediate power but makes use both of the Ministry of Angels and Men but he governs all things by his immediate direction or at least by his immediate inspection He overlooks every thing himself while all Creatures either obey his commands or submit to his power If this be the true notion of Gods governing the world that he has the concernments of the whole Creation under his eye and keeps the disposal of all things in his own hands so that nothing can be done but either by his order or permission then the most perfect and glorious Angels the greatest Ministers of the Divine Providence can challenge no share in Religious Worship cannot be the objects of our trust or hope because they are only Ministers of the Divine Will can do nothing from themselves as civil Ministers of State and Officers of great trust can in Temporal Kingdoms but are alwayes under the eye and alwayes move at the command of God In such a state of things all the peculiar rights of Soveraign Power and Dominion God reserves wholly to himself as any wise Prince would among which the receiving the Prayers and Petitions of his Creatures is none of the least to hear Prayers is made the peculiar attribute of God in Scripture Thou art a God that hearest prayers therefore unto thee shall all flesh come And reason tells us that it is the most eminent part of Soveraignity and Majesty and the reason why Temporal Princes do not reserve this wholly to themselves is because they cannot do it but God can and he challenges it to himself and will not allow any Creature to do it and there is no temptation to pray to any creature when we know that they cannot help us that they must receive their orders and commands from God and do not act by their own will and inclinations Thus Princes have their Favourites to whom they express a very partial fondness and respect to whom they will deny nothing that they ask nor hardly shew any grace or favour to their Subjects without them and this forces Subjects to address themselves to their Prince by them but it is a reproach to the Divine goodness and universal Providence to conceive any such thing of God which yet is the foundation of the worship of Patron Saints and Angels as persons so dear to God that he cannot deny their requests will not grant our Petitions without them or at least that is the most certain and effectual way to obtain what we desire to offer up our Prayers and Petitions to God by their hands No doubt but all good men on earth much more Blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven as being more perfect and excellent Creatures are very dear to God but yet God is not fond and partial in his kindness as earthly Princes are but has an equal regard to all his Creatures and delights in doing good to them and needs not to be importuned by any powerful Favourites to hear their cryes and prayers he will as soon attend to the Prayers of an humble penitent sinner as of the most glorious saint and is more ready to grant then they are to ask A Mediator of Redemption is very consistent with the perfections of the Divine Nature and does mightily recommend both the goodness and wisdom of God to the world When Mankind had transgressed the Laws of their creation they forfeited their natural â—ight and interest in the care and goodness of their Maker The Divine Justice and the wisdom of God in the government of the world required an atonement and expiation for sin and it was an amazing demonstration of the Divine goodness to sinners that he found one himself that he gave his Son to be a propitiation for our sins When men by sin had forfeit their original innocence and happiness together they could expect nothing from God but by way of convenant and promise and every covenant between contending parties must be transacted in the hands of a Mediator and none so fit to be our Mediator as he who is our ransome too And a Mediator must be invested with power and authority to see the terms of this covenant performed and this is his Mediatory Intercession He interceeds not meerly as a powerful Favourite but as the Author and Surety of the covenant not meerly by intreaties and prayers but in vertue of his blood which sealed the covenant and made atonement and expiation for sin Thus Christ is our Mediator of redemption who hath redeemed us by his blood and we must offer up all our prayers to God in his name and powerful intercession because we can expect no blessings from God but by vertue of that covenant which he purchast and sealed with his blood But now a Mediator of pure intercession without regard to any atonement made for sin or any covenant of redemption such as Saints and Angels and the blessed Virgin are made by the church of Rome is a mighty reproach to the Divine Nature and perfections It cloaths God with the passions and infirmities of earthly Princes represents him as extreamly fond of some of his Creatures and very regardless of others as if his kindness to some favourite Saint were a more powerful motive to him to do good then his own love to goodness as if he knew not when nor to whom to shew mercy with out their direction or counsel or would not do it without their importunity as if some of his Creatures had as much the ascendant
over him as some favourites have over their Princes who can with a words speaking have any thing of them and extort favours from them even against their wills and inclinations No man can think there is any need of such Intercessours and Mediators with God who believes him to be infinitely wise and to be infinitely good to know when it is fit to hear and to answer and to be alwayes ready to do what his own wisdom judges fit to be done There can be no place for such intercessions and intreaties to an infinitely perfect Beeing For they alwayes suppose some great weakness or defect in him who want them for even a wise and a good man wants no Mediators to perswade him to do that good which is fit to be done The Objection against this is very obvious and the Answer I think is as easie The Objection is this If God be so good that he needs not such Prayers and Intercessions to move him to do good Why do we pray for our selves Why do we pray for one another Why do we desire the Prayers of good men here on earth Why is it a greater reproach to the Divine Perfections to beg the Prayers of St. Paul or St. Peter now they are in Heaven then to have begged their Prayers while they had been on Earth To this I answer When we pray for our selves I suppose we do noâ— pray as Mediators but as Supplicants and nothing can be more reasonable then that those who want mercy or any other blessing should ask for it It is certainly no reproach to the Divine goodness that God makes Prayer the condition of our receiving which is a very easie condition and very necessary to maintain a constant sense and reverence of God and a constant dependance on him And when we pray for one another on earth we are as meer supplicants as when we pray for our selves and to pray as supplicants is a very different thing from praying as Advocates as Mediators as Patrons The vertue of the first consists only in the power and efficacy of Prayer the second in the favour and interest of the person This the Church of Rome her self owns when she allows no Mediators and Advocats but Saints in Heaven which is a sign she makes a vast difference between the prayers of Saints on earth and Saints in Heaven There are great and wise reasons why God should command and encourage our mutual prayers for each other while we are on earth for this is the noblest exercise of universal love and charity which is a necessary qualification to render our prayers acceptable to God this preserves the unity of the body of Christ which requires a sympathy and fellow-feeling of each others sufferings this is the foundation of publick worship when we meet together to pray with and for each other to our common Father and it gives a great reputation to vertue and Religion in this world when God hears the prayers of good men for the wicked and removes or diverts those judgments which they were afraid of this becomes the wisdom of God and is no blemishâ—to his goodness to dispence his mercies and favours in such a manner as may best serve the great ends of Religion in this world God does not command us to pray for our selves or others because he wants our importunities and solicitations to do good but because it serves the publick ends of Religion and Government and is that natural homage and worship which Creatures owe to their great Creator and Beneâ—actor and Soveraign Lord. But to imagine that God needs Advocats and Mediators to solicite our cause for us in the Court of Heaven where none of these ends can be served by it this is a plain impeachment of his wisdom and goodness as if he wanted great importunities to do good and were more moved by a partial kindness and respect to some powerful Favourites then by the care of his Creatures or his love to goodness From hence it evidently appears how inconsequent that reasoning is from our begging the prayers of good men on earth to prove the lawfulness of our praying to the Saints in Heaven to pray and interceed for us the first makes them our fellow supplicants the second makes them our Mediators and Intercessors and how little the Church of Rome gains by that distinction between a Mediator of Redemption and Mediators of pure Intercession for though they pray to Saints and Angels only as Mediators of Intercession yet this is a real reproach to the nature and government of God a Mediator of Redemption is very consistent with the Divine glory and perfections a Mediator of pure intercession is not And the sum of all is this That it is so far from advancing the Divine glory to worship Saints and Angels together with God that it is a real reproach and dishonour to him and therefore this can be no Law nor Institution of our Saviour who came not to abrogate the Divine Laws but to fulfil and perfect them Some think there is no danger of dishonouring God by that honour they give to Saints and Angels because they honour them as Gods Friends and Favourites as those whom God has honoured and advanced to great glory and therefore whatever honour they do to them rebounds back again on God and this may be true while we give no honour to Saints and Angels but what is consistent with the Divine glory but when the very nature of that honour and worship we pay to them is a diminution of Gods glory and a reproach to his infinite perfections as I have made it appear the worship of Saints and Angels is surely it cannot be for Gods glory to advance his Creatures by lessening himself SECT VII 2. LEt us now consider whither the worship of Saints and Angels together with God be a more perfect state of Religion then the worship of God alone with respect to our selves whither it puts us into a more perfect and excellent state It does indeed mightily gratifie the superstition of mankind to have a multitude of Advocats and Mediators to address to but there are three considerations which may satisfie any man how far this is from a perfect state of Religion 1. That it argues very mean and low conceits of God for did men believe God to be so wise so good and so powerful as really he is they would be contented with one infinite God instead of ten thousand meaner Advocats The worship of Saints and Angels as I have already proved is a great reproach to the Divine perfections and therefore such worshippers must have very imperfect and childish apprehensions of the Supreme Beeing which is a plain proof what an imperfect state of Religion this is for the perfection of Religion is alwayes proportioned to that knowledge we have of God who is the object of it 2. This worship of Saints and Angels is a very servile state it subjects us to our fellow-creatures who are by
this was not done why we are not directed to pray to Saints and Angels and Images c. but the argument lies in this that there can be no alteration made in the object of worship without an express Law and therefore there is no alteration made because there is no such Law in the Gospel The Jews were expresly commanded to worship no other Beeing but the Lord Jehovah as I have already proved which Law appropriates all the acts of Religious worship to one God and therefore all those who were under the obligation of this Law as to be sure all natural Jews were could not without the guilt of Idolatry give any Religious worship to any other Beeing till this Law were expresly repeated and express leave given to worship some other Divine Beeings besides the Supreme God so that at least our Saviour himself while he was on Earth and subject to the Law and his Apostles and all believing Jews were oblidged by this Law to worship none but God unless we can shew where Christ by his Legislative Authority or his Apostles by Commission from him have expresly repealed this Law nay indeed unless we can shew that Christ himself repealed this Law and taught the worship of Saints and Angels Mat. 28. 20 the Apostles themselves could have no authority to do it for their Commission was only to teach what Christ had commanded them which though it does not extend to matters of order and discipline and the external circumstances of worship yet it does as to all essentials of Faith and worship and I think the right object of Worship is the most essential thing in Religious Worship From hence it appears that at least all the Jewish Christians in the Apostles dayes and all succeeding Ages to this day cannot worship Saints and Angels without Idolatry because the Law which was given to them and never yet repealed commands them to worship none but God and if Gentile Converts were received into the Jewish Christian Church and Christ has but one Church of Jews and Gentiles they must also be oblidged by all those Laws which were then and are still obligatory to all believing Jews and therefore Gentile as well as Jewish Christians are still bound to worship none but God Now I think I need not prove that an express Law can be repealed onely by an express Law That Law which commands us to worship God and him only must continue in full force till GOD do as expresly declare that he allows us to pay some degree of Religious Worship to other Beeings besides himself When a Law-giver has declared his will and pleasure by a Law it is not fit that Subjects should be allowed to guess at his mind and dispute away an express Law by some surmises and consequences how probable soever they may appear for at this rate a Law signifies nothing if we may guess at the will of our Law-giver without and against an express Law And yet none of the Advocates of the Church of Rome though they are not usually guilty of too much modesty ever had the confidence to pretend an express Law for the worship of Saints and Angels and Images c. and though they sometimes alledge Scripture to prove this by yet they do not pretend that they are direct proofs but only attempt to prove some other Doctrines from Scripture from which they think they may prove by some probable consequences that which the Scripture no where plainly teaches nay the contrary to which is expresly taught in the Scripture And if this may be allow'd I know no law of God so plain and express but a witty man may find wayes to escape the obligation of it This is a consideration of great moment and therefore I shall discourse more particularly of it The Law of Moses expresly commands us to worship GOD and him only Our Saviour Christ owns and confirms the authority of this Law in the Gospel the Church of Rome notwithstanding this Law gives Religious Worship to Creatures the question then is how she avoids the force of this Law since it is no where expresly repealed and she does not pretend that it is Now the Patrons of Creature-worship thinks to justifie themselves from the breach of this Law these three ways 1. By consequences drawn as they pretend from other Scripture-Doctrines 2. By distinctions And 3. By authority Let us then examine whither all this have any force against an express Law which was never expresly repealed 1. By consequences drawn as they pretend from other Scripture-Doctrines and I shall discourse this with a particular reference to the Invocation of Saints For when they would prove the lawfulness of praying to Saints they alledge no direct proof of this from Scriptureâ— but because they must make a shew of saying something from Scripture when they are to deal with such Hereticks as will be satisfied with no less authority they endeavour to prove something else from Scripture from whence they think by an easie consequence they can prove the lawfulness of praying to Saints Thus they very easily prove that we may and ought to pray for one another and to desire each others prayers while we are on Earth and from hence they presently conclude that we may as lawfully pray to Saints in Heaven to pray for us as beg and desire their prayers while they are one Earth And to confirm this they endeavour to prove that some extraordinary Saints whose merits are very great do directly ascend up into Heaven unto the immediate presence of God and a participation of his Glory and hence they conclude that they have authority and power to help us and to intercede for us and that they are so far advanced above us in this mortal state that they deserve some kind of Religious Honour and Worship from us as being Dii per participationem Gods by participation that is by partaking in the Divine Nature and Glory by their advancement to Heaven And if after all this they can prove that the Saints in Heaven do pray and intercede for us on Earth they think the demonstration is complete and perfect that therefore * Bonum atque utile esse suppliciter Sanctos invocare ad beneficia impetranda a Deo per filium ej us Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum qui solus noster Redemptor Salvator est ad eorum orationes opem auxlium que confugere Conc. Trin. 16. 25. de Invocat It is good and profitable as the Council of Trent words it huâ—bly to invock the Saints after the manner of Suplicants and to â—â—y to their prayers and help and aid to obtain blessings of God by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who is our only not Intercessor and Advocate but Redeemer and Saviour Now how they prove all this is not my business at present to enquire but my inquiry is whither such arguments as these be sufficient to oppose against the authority of an express Law and if
Though we should grant that God if he pleased might allow us to worship Saints and Angels as the Church of Rome does without any diminution of his own Glory which is the most that all their arguments can pretend to prove yet it does not hence follow that we may worship them when God by an express Law has declared that he will not allow it No arguments nor consequences can prove that God allows us to do that which by an express Law he has forbid us to do No reason can prove that to be Gods will which he has publickly declared in his Law to be against his will 4. That no reason or arguments can absolve us from our obedience to any express Law till it be as expresly repealed appears from this that our obligation to obedience does not depend meerly upon the reason of the Law but upon the authority of the Law-giver and therefore though the reason of the Law should cease yet while it is inforced by the same authority it oblidges still Thus I am sure it is in humane Laws and it is very fiting it should be so meer reason cannot make a Law for then every thing which is reasonable would be a necessary duty that which is reasonable may be fit matter for a Law but it is the authority of the Law-giver which makes the Law and the same authority which at first made it a Law continues it to be a Law while the authority lasts though the particular reason for which it was enacted into a Law may cease So that though the Church of Rome could prove that there is no reason now against the worship of Saints and Angels that all those reasons for which God forbad the Jews to worship any one but himself were now ceased yet till the Law be repealed too it is utterly unlawful to worship any Beeing besides the Supreme God and yet this is the most that all their reasonings come to that there is not the same reason for this Law under the State of the Gospel that there was under the Jewish Oeconomy They suppose that God forbad the Jews to worship any one but himself because they were in great danger of falling into Pagan Idolatries and worshipping the Gods of the Aegyptians and other Neighbour-Nations and that this was the case also of the Christian Church at the first planting of the Gospel but now there is no danger of worshipping false Gods we may very securely worship the Friends and Favourites of God They suppose that all the ancient Patriarchs who lived before the Resurrection of Christ were not received into Heaven and therefore not being in a state of Bliss and Glory themselves were not yet capable of Divine Honours could neither know our Prayers nor intercede for us But now at last some eminent Saints and Martyrs ascend directly into Heaven and are the Beati advanced to such a state of Happiness and Glory that they are fit objects of Religious Worship and are so powerful in the Court of Heaven that God denies them nothing which they ask and so tender and eompassionate to us that they readily undertake our Cause and intercede for us and therefore it is very good and profitable now to invoke their aid and assistance by solemn and devout Prayers And though the learndest men among them are put to miserable shifts to prove the least part of all this yet let us for argument-sake suppose all this to be true that things are mightily changed since the making of this Law and that there is not the same reason now to confine all Religious Worship to God alone that there was in the time of Moses what follows from hence that therefore we may now worship Saints and Angels notwithstanding this Law which forbids it by no means unless they can prove that the Law is repealed too as well as the reason ceased Here is the authority of the Law-giver still though we should supose that we had lost the reason of the Law till the Law is as expresly repealed as it was given it is God Will still and that is reason enough to bind the Law upon us though other reasons fail The reason if we speak of such reasons as these which the Church of Rome assigns for it is a different case if we speak of eternal and necessary reason which is nothing else but the eternal and immutable nature and will of God which is an eternal Law did not make the Law and the change of the reason cannot repeal it And since we see that God has not repealed this Law we rather ought to conclude that we are mistaken in the reasons for which God made this Law or that there are other reasons which we know not of for which he continues it we may indeed reasonably suppose that God will repeal a Law when the reasons for which it was given ceases though earthly Princes may not alwayes do so but still the Law binds till it be repealed and it is more reasonable to conclude that the reason of the Law continues while we see God does not repeal it then first to perswade our selves that the reason of Law is changed and thence infer the repeal and abrogation of the Law when we see no such thing done 5 That these arguments which the Roman Doctors urge to justifie their worship of Saints and Angels are of no force to repeal that Law which forbids the worship of any other Beeing besides the Supreme God appears from this that they had no force in them to prevent the making of this Law and therefore much less can they repeal it now it is made The reasons which they use had the same force then which they have now and if notwithstanding all the reasons God thoughâ— fit to forbid the worship of all Created Beings it is ridiculous to imagine that these reasons should supersede the obligation of that Law which is made in contradiction to all such reasonings as to shew this briefly They prove that we may pray to Saints and Angels to pray for us because we may desire good men on earth to pray for us Now suppose we could not assign the difference between praying to Saints in Heaven and desiring the prayers of Saints on earth yet I would desire to know whither good men did not pray for one another and desire each others prayers before and after God gave this Law on Mount Sinai which forbids the Religious worship and invocation of any other Beeing but himself if good men did in all ages pray for one another and desire one anothers prayers and God allowed and approved of this then it seems God did not think this a good reason for praying to Saints and Angels in Heaven because good men might beg each others prayers on earth for if he had he would not have made that Law which forbids such a Religious Invocation of any Creature And if notwithstanding this reason which had as much force then as it has now God made
ends then to triflle with to Pray to them For to what purpose should they Pray to them that can't hear them Why should they beseech those to be their Advocates to God and recommend their particular cases to him whose cases they cannot by any way that we know of come to understand As for their Learning and seeing all things in the Glass of the Trinity or learning them by particular revelation from God as God has declared no such thing to us so is it not to be known by the Light of Nature but the contrary is very probable if not certain as shall be made to appear in the sequel of this Discourse It is not denyed but that blessed Spirits who are safely landed upon the Shore do pray for their Partners who are still behind beating it on the Waves it is not denied but that Saints in Heaven may Pray in particular to God for their Friends and Relations whose necessities and infirmities they were well acquainted with before they left the Body so 't was agreed betwixt St Cyprian and Cornelius that who went first to Glory should be mindful of the others condition to God for why should their Memories or their Charity be thought to be less in Heaven then they were on Earth We know 't was the practice of some good Men in the Primitive times to recommend themselves to the Prayers of the Saints that is to desire God to hear the Prayers that the Saints in Heaven did make in their behalf and to apply themselves to the Martyrs a little before their suffering when they themselves were entred into bliss to interceed with God for those who were yet on the way passing thither with fear and trembling But now is there no difference betwixt the Saints intercessions for us and our Invocation of them Betwixt their Praying for us in Heaven and our Praying to them on Earth Is there no difference betwixt one Living Christian Praying to another to Pray for him who hears his request and who is acquainted with his condition and our addressing to Saints departed to pray for us who know us not and who are are ignorant of our state Again when they pray to Saints departed they do it with all the Rites and Solemnities of a Religious Worship in sacred offices upon their Knees with uncovered Heads with Hands and Eyes lifted up in times and places dedicated to Gods Worship now though it should be true that they do no more then Pray to Saints to pray for them yet doing it in that manner with such external Acts of Devotion that are confest to be the same wherewith we call on God I do not see how they can be excused even on this account from attributing that Honour to the Creature which is due only to the Creator As God is owned to be infinite in himself and to have incommunicable perfections so there ought to be some peculiar and appropriate Acts and signs of Worship to signify that we do inwardly so esteem and believe of God and when these are once determined by the Law of God or the universal reason and consent of Mankind the applying them to any else but him is a plain violating his peculiarities and robbing him of his Honour And now in this respect also I cannot discern how the Romish Invocation of Saints is of the same nature with our requesting our Fellow-Members to pray for us For not to mention again the presence of these and the absence of the other is there no difference betwixt my desiring an eminently good Christian to pray for me and falling down on my Knees with Hands and Eyes lifted up and that in a Temple to him with that request Would not every good Man that has any regard for the Honour of God presently shew his detestation of such an action Would he not say to me as St. Peter to Cornelius falling down before him Stand up I my self also am a Man Would he not with St. Paul have rent his Garments and with much Holy indignation cryed out to me as he to the Men of Lystra designing the same Honours to him and Barnabas wherewith they Worship'd their Gods Why do ye these things we also are Men of like Passions with you As the Saints in Heaven cannot be supposed to lose any thing of their Love and Charity towards their Fellow-Members by going thither so neither can they be thought to abate any thing of their Zeal and fervour for the honour of God and therefore certainlie what they did and would have refused here on Earth they must with higher degrees of abhorrence reject now they are in Heaven Moreover if this be all they mean by all their several Offices of Devotions to Saints departed that they should pray for them unto God why in all this time that these forms have been complained of has not the sense of them been better exprest Whence I pray should we take the meaning of such prayers but from the usual signification of the Words But if not why has no Inquisition past upon them Why have not the grossest and rankest for Superstition and encroaching on the prerogative of God been expunged and blotted out Why all this while has there been no review no comments upon them no cautions and instructions written and bound up with their Breviaries Rosaries and Hours that the people might know how to understand them If the form of words in their Saint-Invocation be the same that is used to God but their sense and meaning otherwise Why don't they tell this to the World and make their explication as publick and as general as the prayers Certainlie the Bishops and Governours of the Romish Church and those that have the care of Souls amongst them are either guilty of gross and willfull neglects to the people or else whatever they say to us their will is that the People should understand those Prayers according to the customary and received use of the words and then I am sure they pray not only to saints to pray for them unto God in order to the obtaining of him such aids and supplies they want but to Saints themselves for those very blessings As will appear at large in the next particular 2. They pray to Saints departed for those very blessings that none but God can give To what purpose else do they advise us to fly not only to their prayers but their help and assistance which words help and assistance would have been Opeâ— auxiliiumque Trid. Con. fess 25. Propere veni accelera altogether superflous was not something else mean'd by them then only that of their prayers To what purpose else do they Pray to visit them to make haste and come to them did they not expect some other aid and assistance from them then bare praying for them for that certainly might have been better and more convenientlie performed in Heaven before the Face of God To what purpose else in some particular cases do they put up
their Addresses to one Saint rather then to another according as in this World they were famous either for some eminent Grace shining in them or for some strange cure or extraordinary deliverance wrought by them but onlie that they believe and trust that those who did such great things on Earth are much more willing and able to do them now they are in Heaven where while other Graces cease Charity and Beneficence are perfected and abide for ever Thus because St. Roch was signally Charitable in assisting those who were infected with the plague therefore do they call upon him in times of infection because St. Appollonia had all her Teeth struck out for her undaunted Confession of the Faith of Jesus therefore do they fly to her for ease against the Rage of Teeth because St George was by profession a Souldier and renowned for wonderful Atchievements therefore have they recourse to him for assistance against Enemies 'T is true was it Lawfull to Address to any at all this might be a sufficient reason why they Address to this rather then to another Saint because his or her former actions or sufferings do best suit and befit their present case but being not sure that these and such like Canoniz'd Saints of the Romish Church are Saints in Heaven being sure if they are they can't hear us nor know our particular State much less bestow health and deliverance upon us whilest we Love and Honour the Memory of Saints indeed we ought to call only upon God who only is a present help in time of need and the Saviour of them that put their trust in him But to put this out of doubt it will not be amiss to set down some of their forms of Devotion to Saints departed And here not to rake for them in some obscure Authors that have privately stole into the World I shall need go no farther then the present Roman Breviary Corrected and Published by the Decree and Order of the Council of Trent The blessed Virgin is there Invocated in the Feast of the Assumption For strength against Enemies and in the Hymn frequently used in her Office she is not only called the Gate of Heaven but intreated to loose the bonds of the Guilty to give light to the blind to drive away our evils to obtain good things for us and to shew her self to be a Mother that is as the Mass-Book of Paris 1634 interprets it * O foelix puerpera nostra pians scelera jure matris impera Redemptori Dall de cultu Latin lib. 3. c. 4. p. 359. Not denied by Natalis Alexander though he answers this Citation of Dalle only sayes Nec est ab ecclesâ—â— probata quibusdam tantâ—m missalibus â—lim inserâ—â— est Hisâ— Eâ—â—l sec 5. dissert 5. p. 343. 347. in right of a Mother to command her Son In another place she is sued to for help to the Miserable for strength to the Weak for comfort to the Afflicted and that all that Celebrate her Festivals may feel her assistance And but that I said I would not hunt for matter I could send you to Authors of theirs and not of the least note where we may read such Blasphemy as this †Biel. in Can. mis sect 80. That God hath given the Virgin Mary half of his Kingdom * Salmeroâ— in Tim. 1. 2. disc 8. That the Prayers made to and by all Saints are better then those made by Christ †Carol. scrib in Amph. hon Com. p. 29. Châ—â—â— exemp Invocat Sanct. p. 146. That the Mothers Milk is equally to be esteemed with the Sons Blood This you may take for a tast of that Hyperdulia that super-refin'd service which they put up to the blessed Virgin and yet that to the Apostles and other Saints of less magnitude comes not much behind it St. Peter is intreated by the power given to him To hear their prayers to unty the bonds of their iniquity and to open the Gates of Heaven all the Apostles to absolve them from their sins by their command to heal all their spiritual maladies and to encrease their vertues St. Andrew is supplicated for patience to bear chearfully the Cross of Christ St. Francis for deliverance from the drudgery and bondage of sin St. Brigit for Wisdom against the snares of the World St. Nicholas for courage against the assaults of the Devil St. Agnes for the chiefest of Graces that of Charity and St. Catharine for all Graces We are taught to pray to be delivered from Hell and to be made partakers of Heaven by their merits to fly to them as our Patrons and Advocates to put confidence in their intercessions Breviar â—â—ss and to ascribe our mercies and deliverances to their Power and Interest in God In the office of Visitation of the Sick the Priest laying his right hand upon Rituâ—l de Visit Infirm the head of the Sick Person prayes that Jesus the Son of Mary and Saviour of the World would for the Merits and Intercession of his Apostles Peter and Paul and all saints be gracious Merciful to him in another place in the same office that through the intercession of the blessed Virgin all saints he might obtain Eternal-Life these are enough but I Merits and intercessione S. S. Ritual Rom. de Sacram. poenit cannot omit one more which is a flower indeed in the office about the Sacrament of Penance there is found this remarkable Prayer The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ the Merits of the blessed Virgin Mary and of all saints and whatsoever good thou hast done and whatsoever Evil thou hast suffered be to thee for the remission of sins the encrease of grace and the reward of Eternal Life And now let the Reader judge if this be not to give the Creature that Worship that 's due only to the Creator and to seek to obtain those blessings from finite Beeings and through their procurement which only Almighty God and his blessed Son Christ Jesus can give unto Men. 3. 'T is the Doctrine of the church of Rome that Mental Prayers as well as Vocal are to be put up to Voce vel mente Supplicare Saints departed So the Trent-Council decreed so their Bishops and Pastors are enjoyned to teach the People and so they practise this being a form of Prayer to Saints in frequent use amongst them With the desire of our Hearts we pray unto you regard the ready service of our minds So that according to them Saints departed do not only hear our Prayers but know our Hearts also and indeed this is necessarily implied in every Prayer that 's made to them viz. That they not only hear the Prayer but know the disposition of the Heart from whence it proceeds otherwise the Hypocritical Supplicant must be supposed as likely to obtain their favour as the Sincerest Votary 4. They not only Pray to them with Mental and Vocal Prayer but They confess their sins to
them Very remarkable is that form of Confession in the Reformed Roman Ordinar missae 217. Missal I confess to Almighty God to the ever blessed Virgin to Hessed Michael Arch-Angel to blessed John Baptist to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul to all the saints and to you Brethren that I have sinned in thought word and deed They make Vows to them nothing is more common then at entrance into Religious Orders thus Francis Albertin de Angel Custod p. 224. Horst in dedic sect 2. p. 83. to express their Devotion I Vow to God and the blessed Virgin then to Vow that their whole life shall be devoted to the blessed Virgin or some other Saint according to the famous Pattern I humbly beg of thee Oh Mother of all Clemency that thou wouldest vouchsafe to admit me into the number of those who have devouted themselves to thee to be thy perpetual servants Another of this kind not much inferiour to it we meet with in Horstius viz I firmly resolve henceforth to serve thee and thy Son with all Faithfulness and for ever to cleave to thee They offer up Laud and Praise to them and intreat them to hear and receive their Thanksgiving thus Brev. Rom in fest S. Jacob. to St. James they pray that he would joyfully hear the acknowledgements that as right and due they paid to him 'T is usual with their Learned Men to conclude their Books with praise to God and the Blessed Virgin particularly Valentia and Bellarmine the letter of which thus ends his Book concâ—rning the Worship of faints praise be to God and to the blessed Virgin also to Jesus Christ Morstius before had it thee and thy Son Bellarmine here the Blessed Virgin and then Jesus Christ whereby we Bellarm de cul-Sanct Lyon Edit Laus deo virginique Mariae Jesu item Christâ— may see they give her not only an equal part with God in their Praises but by placing her before Christ seem to give her somewhat of preeminence above him 5. They appoint Angels and saints Deputies and Lievtenants under God in the Government of the World and stick not to make them Cuardians Patrons and Patronesses over particular Kingdoms Cities Churches and single persons The Scripture indeed frequently speaks oft he Knowledge presence Dignity occasional Ministry and Embassies of holy Angels but that delegation of power the Romanists give them whereby they make them share Empire and Dominion with God in the Government of the world can be as little proved of them as of saints departed however I am chiefly to consider their Doctrine and practice in reference to the latter they teach the people to make choico of one or more out of the number of the saints to be their Patron to Love them to imitate them through their hands Horst parad Animae sect 2. to offer daily their works to God to commend themselves to their protection at all times especially in difficulties and temptations they give to one saint this precinct and to another that to one power over this malady over that to others more of this you have drawn to the life in the forementioned excellent Homily of our Church against Idolatry out of which I shall only â—ull some passages and refer â—he Reader for farther satisfaction to the Homily it self it compares such saints in the Roman Church to whom they allot Homil of Idolat the defence of certain countries to the Dii Tutelares of the Gentile Idolaters such to whom the safety of certain Cities are cammitted to their Dii presides and such to whom Temples and Churches are Builded and Altars Erected to their Dii Patroni it tâ—lls us that the Romanists have no fewer saints then the Heathens had Gods to whom they give the Honour due to God every Artificer and profession has his special saint as a peculiar God for example Scholars have St. Nicholas and St. Gregory Painters St. Luke neither lack souldiers their Mars not Lovers their Venus amongst Christians The sea and waters amongst the Romanists as well as Cities and Countries have their special Saints to preside over them as amongst the Heathens they had Gods all diseases have their special Saints as Gods the Curers of them the Pox St. Roch the Falling-Evil St. Cornelis the Toothach St. Apollonia neither do Beasts and Cattle lack their Gods with us for St. Loy is the Horsleach and St. Anthony the swineheard c. where is Gods Providence and due Honour in the mean time Who saith the Heavens be mine the Earth is mine the whole World and all that therein is but we have left him neither Heaven nor Earth nor Water nor Country nor City Peace nor War to Rule and Govern neither Man nor Beasts nor their diseases to Cure and as if we doubted of his ability or will to help we joyn to him another as if he were a Noun Adjective using these sayings such as Learn GOD and St. Nichol as be my speed such as sâ—eese GOD help and St. John to the Horse God and St. Loy save thee thus are we become like Horses and Mules that have no understanding Oh Heavens Oh Earth What madness and wickedness against God are Men fallen into What dishonour do the Creatures to their Creator and Maker This is not written to reproach the Saints but to condemn the Foolishness and Wickedness of Men who make of the true servants of GOD false Gods by attributing to them the Power and Honour which is Gods and due to him only II. On what occasion this Doctrine and Practice began and spread in the Church GReat was the Honour the Primitive Christians had for the Martyrs and Confessors they frequented their Tombs erected Altars on the places of their burial highly esteemed their bones and reliques â—here they rehearsed their good works done in their life time and their Faith Patience and Constancy shewed at Death here they blessed God for that Grace that was given to them and for that good that accrued to themselves by their example here they proposed their vertues for imitation and had their own Piety and Zeal enflamed by the remembrance of them and the Christian cause being then harassed on every side by implacable Enemies the Malice of the Jew and the subtity of the Greek and the Power of the Roman combining with their united force to destroy and root it up it pleased God not only by the demonstration of a Divine power in the Apostles and their immediate Successors whilst they were alive but also by many wonderful things done at their Tombs when the were dead and by sensibly answering Prayers that were there puup to him to confiâ—m the Truth of Christianity to declare hi approbation of the sufferings of his servants and to encourage others to Seal the Doctrine of the Gospel with their Blood as they bad done To them in a particular manner may that of the Apostle be applied Wâ—om GOD did foreknow Rom. 8. 29 30. them he did predestinate
it not of as much force now to cast it out of the Church as it was then not to bring it in Does it not give infinite offence to a great part of the Christian World and is it not esteem'd and that justly by them to be the old Pagan-Worship revived or something very near it For it is not enough to excuse them from it that the object of their Invâ—cation is not the same that they do not with them pay this Worship to the Heathen Deities who though in some respects they had been Patrons and Benefactors to their Country were yet in others very lewd and unworthy persons but to the Apostles of Christ and Christians Martyrs who in all respects were highly deserving of the World whilst they agree in the same act kind of Worship and give that Honour to the Creature which properly and peculiarly belongs to God and herein especially did the Pagan Worship and Superstition consist 2. We shall now examine the chief of those Texts the Romanists produce in the behalf of this Doctrine and let you see how little they serve to that purpose The first is Luke 15. 7. 10. There shall be joy in Heaven and again There shall be joy before the Angels of God over our Sinner that repenteth From whence they argue that if Angels and blessed spirits rejoyce at the Conversion of a sinner they must know and understand this change that 's wrought in them before they can rejoyce at it and if the knowledge of their repentance reaches them why not also of their Prayers And then if they can hear their Prayers why may they not be Prayed unto To this it 's answered That this rejoycing in Heaven is not for the Conversion of a particular sinner but in general for the Redemption of Mankind by Jesus Christ and this appears more then probable from the parable of the lost sheep immediately going before whereof these words are the Conclusion the Ninety nine sheep not lost are the Angels presevering in their first state of Innocency the sheep that went aftray Adam and in him all his Posterity that fell from God the shepherd that went to seek the lost sheep God himself who sent his Son into the World to seek and to save that which is lost on whose shoulders the great Work of Mans Redemption was laid and for this we are sure there was joy in Heaven when a Blessed Chore of Angels sung that Heavenly Anthem at Christs Nativity Glory be to God on high and on Earth Peace good will towards Men But Supposing this rejoycing is to be understood for the repentance of individual sinners it may be observed Emopion toâ— Aggelâ—n that this joy is not said to be the joy of Angels but before the Angels intimating that this rejoying is not to be attributed to the Angels but to God in whose presence they stand and this exposition is countenanced by considering 't is God that answers to the Shepherd in the parable as he went to seek his straied sheep and rejoyced at the finding of it so 't is God that by his Grace and Mercy in Christ recovered Man and rejoycâ—d at the accomplishment of his own Work Again If this Text does imply that Angels in Heaven know when a Sinner is converted and rejoyce at it it does not follow that they know this by some excellent priviledge and perfection of their nature whereby also they are enabled to understand even those mental Prayers that we are told ought to be put up to them but passing alwayes betwixt Heaven and Earth as waâ— represented unto Jacob in his Divine Vision on God's Errands and Embassies those that ascend from Earth may tell the joyful News of converted sinners to them in Heaven but they that tell them this cannot also acquaint them with the inward secret desires and cogitations of Mens Hearts be-being in a capacity by observing in Men the Signs and Fruits of true Repentance to know the one but having no way by their own natural power to understand the other The second place is Mat. 22. 30. Where our Saviour sayes That the just at the Resâ—rrection shall be as the Angels in Heaven from whence they infer that if our Prayers and concerns are known to the Angels and they on that account may be Invocated why should they not be known also to the Saints departed who are as they enjoying the same Blissful Vision of God To this may be returned That we are no more sure of the Knowledge of Angels in this particular then we are of that of Saints and therefore the one ought to be proved before the other be granted The Angels in Heaven see indeed the Face of Christs Father which is in Heaven but the meaning of that is not that by enjoying the sight of Gods Face they therein see and hear all things transacted here on Earth but that they are God's Ministers alwayes attending round about his Thron and waiting before him to receive his Commands and to execute his pleasure But was this Knowledge the priviledge of the Angelical nature the equality which just Men in the Text are said to have to the Augels is not mean'd an equality of Knowledge or perfection of nature but a similitude of State and Priviledges and his appears from the contex In the Resurrection they neither Mary nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels of God the just shall not be equal to the Angels in every respect for as they dâ—ffer in Nature and Kind so they shall have distinct natural Quâ—lities and Operations of Bliss and Haâ—piness they as the Angels in that Spiritualized State shall not need Matrimony for the propagation of their Kind nor Food for the preservation of their incorruptible Bodies they shall be free from all the necessities that attend temporal humane lite and all the affections that arise from the body and sensitive part of Man they as Angels shall be the Children of God being Children of the Reâ—urrection partakers of the Blâ—ss and immoveably possest of all the priviledges of the Sons of God Yet Was this equality to the Angels to be mean'd of an equality in Nature and Knowledge yet the Saints departed are not to enjoy it untill the Resurrection and so though the Angels on that account might be Invocated yet the Saints departed who are not till the Resurrection â—o have this excellent priviledge conferred on them are not till then to have this Homage and Worship paid to them At the Resurrection they shall be as the Angels of God whither they are before that admiâ—ted into the beaâ—fical Vision we need not now dispute since if they are this Angelical priviledge of seeing all things in the Face of God is reserved for the Saints as a farther addition of bliss till that day Again they produce Revel 5. 8. Where it 's said That the Four Beasts and twenty four Elders fell down before the Lamb having every one of them Harps and Goldâ—n
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
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
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
influences of his Government over all his subjects did he not make use of more Eyes and more Hands then his own the complaints of some would be altogether neglected and the cause of others not rightly judged his mistakes would be innumerable and his wings too short to cherish and foster to shelter and cover every corner of his Realm But could he act with that plenitude of Wisdom and Knowledge and Power that is in God all then might have access to his Person either immediately or by his Son that is of like Nature and Power with him and no Man fear the being sent back unheard or the having his cause misjudged the not having justice done him or Mercy in a compassionable case with-held from him Gods Wisdom is never wearied with seeing nor his Power tired with acting in the World supposing the affairs of the World to be infinite which they are not yet God is infinite too and now an infinite God can with as much ease manage and govern an infinite number of affairs as one wise-Man can prudently manage one affair Infinite bearing the same proportion to Infinite as one does to one The same fancy likewise of making the Court of Heaven resemble Princes Courts on Earth hath brought forth that excuse in the Romish Supplicants that it 's out of an humble sense of their own unworthiness and an awful regard to the Infinite Majesty of God that they address to him as Earthly subjects to their King not immediately to himself but by the Mediation of Angels and Saints those Courtiers and Favourites of Heaven But what Wiseman on Earth who is abundantly satisfied of the readiness and ability of his Prince to help him and hath free leave given him on any ocasion to come immediately or by his Son to him will choose to wave this freedom of access and apply himself to some inferiour Officer and Favourite of whose Power and Interest he is not so well assured either to relieve him himself or to procure relief of the King for him This is our case God is of infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power every way able on all occasions to afford sutable aids and supplies to the wants of his Creatures hath not only allowed but commanded all to call upon him in the day of trouble to pour out their complaints to him hath over and over promised to hear their Prayers and to answer them hath appointed his own Son God with himself the Master of Requests from time to time to receive all the Petitions of his Subjects and both the one and the other are infinitely more able and infinitely more willing to hear and succour them then the Best and Wisest and most Powerful of all Created beings and shall we now be afraid to take the liberty that God hath given us Shall we call that Impudence which God hath made our Duty Whilst we pretend Huâ—ility shall we forseit our Allegiance And distruct his promises and suspect the Goodness of his Nature for fear of being too Sawcy and too Bold with his person To this pretence of voluntary Humility the Fathers long since particularly St. Ambrose and St. Chrysostom gave a satisfactory answer St. Ambrose or whoever was the Author of those Commentaries that go under his name observing that the Heathens used the same Apology for going to their Gods by their inferiour Deities as the Romanists do now for their addressing to God by In Rom. 1. 21. Saints and Angels namely As Men go the King by his Courtiers out of Humility and a deep sense of the infinite distance betwixt God and them calls it a miserable excuse and adds is any Man so mad and regardless of himself to give the Honour due to the King to any of his Courtiers which if a Man does he 's condemned of Treason And yet they think themselves not guilty who give the Honour due to Gods name to a creature and forsaking God Adore their Fellow Servants as though any thing greater then that were reserved for God himself But therefore we go to a King by his Officers and Servants because the King is but a Man who knows not of himself whom to imploy in his publick affairs without information from others But with God it is otherwise for nothing is hid from him he knows the deserts of every one and therefore we need no spokes-Man but a Devouâ— mind for whensoever such an one shall speak to him he will Answer him St. chrysostom also often to the same St. chry serm 7. of Repentance serm in Psalm 4. p. 524 p. 802. purpose denies the way of our coming to God to be like the manner of Kings Courts When thou hast need saith he to sue unto a King thou are forced first to apply to his favourites and go a great way about but with God there is no such thing he is intreated without an Intercessor it sufficeth only that thou cry in thine Heart and bring tears with thee and entring in straightway thou mayest draw him unto thee and for example hereof he sets before us the Woman of Canaan she intreated not James she beseeched not John neither did she go to Peter but brake through the crowd to Christ himself saying I have no need of a Mediatour but taking Repentance with me to recommend me I come to the Fountain it self for this cause did he descend for this cause did he take Flesh that I might have the boldness to speak unto him I have no need of a Mediatour have thou Mercy upon me 3. It 's highly injurious to the Honour of Christ as the only Mediatour God has appoint betwixt God and Man God as the reward of the unspotted innocency of his life and perfect obedience of his Death exalted him to the right hand of Majesty and Glory bestowed a mediatorious Kingdom on him invested him with all Power in Heaven and Eaâ—â—h and gave Acts 2. him Authority to receive and answer the Prayers of his People Jesus whom ye flew and hanged on a Tree Acts. 5. Phil. 2. 9. him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that that same Jesus whom ye crucified God hath made Lord and Christ He humbled himself and became obedient unto the Death even the Death of the cross wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every Knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Lord to the Glory of God the Father so that now to make more Mediatours then Christ is not only to undervalue his all-sufficient merits to distrust his never-failling Interest and Power with God but also to invade that Honour and Royalty that God hath conferred on him alone by giving to Angels and Saints the same Power they give them the same Honour too and Christ is robbed of both whilest others are made to divide with him But to which of the
Angels or Saints departed said God at any time Sit thou on my right hand to make intercession for Men Of which of them has he at any time affirmed as he has done of Christ He is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him seeing he ever lives to make Intercession for Men That if any Man Sin he is an Advocate with the Father for him Or whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in his name it shall be given you Certainly they who will have Angels and Saints Mediatours betwixt God and Men ought to produce a Commission signed by God or his Son Jesus to constitute them such but this they are no more able to do then they are to make a grant of such Power and Honour themselves to them It 's true the Blessed Spirits above are said to stand about the Throne of God and the Holy Angels to behold his Face and as the Honour of a Prince is encreased by the number of his Attendants so is our Lords exaltation rendered the more Glorious by those ten thousand times ten thousand that Minister unto him but yet it 's never said They sit at Gods right Hand or live for ever to make Intercession for us and having no such delegation of Power from God for this office the Honour and Worship that belongs to it can't be given to them without manifest Wrong and Sacriledge to Christ who has The Holy Angels are Gods ministring Spirits and the Spirits of Just-Men departed his Glorified Saints but God hath made Jesus the Lord and Christ and put all things in Heaven and Earth in Subjection under his feet of him only hath he said Let all the Angels Honour him and all the Saints fall down before him and all Men Honour the Son even as they Honour the John 5. 23 Father Amen To Conclude WEre we certain that the Saints departed do now reign in Heaven and enjoy the Beatifick Vision and that it was lawful to Invocate such as are undoubtely Saints as the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Apostles Yet methinks a wary Man should be shy and not over-forward to exhibit that honour to all whom the Pope hath Cannoniz'd I cannot for my heart but think that the Prelates and Bishops in King Henry the Eighth's time had as much reason to Unsaint Thomas Becket for being a Rebel against his Prince as Pope Alexander the Third had to Canonize him for being a Biggot for the Church What can a sober Christian think of the Saintship of some who never had any being in the World and of others who never had any goodness many of their Saints are meer Names without Persons and many meer Persons without Holiness nay I am very confident that the greatest Incendiaries and Disturbers of the Peace of the World do as well deserve it as that famous Pope Hildebrand or Gregory the seventh Inumerable might be instanc'd in whose Saintship justly falls under great Suspicion but 't is enough that some Romanists themselves and those of no little Authority in their Church have granted that the Popes canonizations are doubtful and subject to error If then at any Billar de beat sanct l. 1. c. 7. 8. time his Infallibility should chance to mistake as I am pretty sure he has more then once done the Members of that Church are in a sweet case and are not only in danger of Invocating Saints but Devils also which is Idolatry with a witness and by their own Confession FINIS A DISCOURSE AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION EDINBVRGH Re-printed by John Reid Anno DOM 1686. A DISCOURSE AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION COncerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper one of the two great positive Institutions of the Christian Religion there are two main Points of difference between Vs and the Church of Rome One about the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in which they think but are not certain that they have the Scripture and the words of our Saviour on their side The other about the administration of this Sacrament to the People in both kinds in which we are sure that we have the Scripture and our Saviour's Institution on our side and that so plainly that our Adversaries themselves do not deny it Of the first of these I shall now treat and endeavour to shew against the Church of Rome That in this Sacrament there is no substantial change made of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the natural Body and Bloud of Christ that Body which was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered upon the Cross for so they explain that hard word Transubstantiation Before I engage in this Argument I cannot but observe what an unreasonable task we are put upon by the bold confidence of our Adversaries to dispute a matter of Sense which is one of those things about which Aristotle hath long since pronounc'd there ought to be no dispute It might well seem strange if any man should write a Book to prove that an Egg is not an Elephant and that a Musket-Bullet is not a Pike It is every whit as hard a case to be put to maintain by a long Discourse that what we see and handle and taste to be Bread is Bread and not the Body of a Man and what we see and taste to be Wine is Wine and not Bloud And if this evidence may not pass for sufficient without any farther proof I do see why any man that hath confidence enough to do so may not deny any thing to be what all the world sees it is or affirm any thing to be what all the world sees it is not and this without all possibility of being farther confuted So that the business of Transubstantiation is not a controversie of scripture against scripture or of Reason against Reason but of downright Impudence against the plain meaning of scripture and all the sense and Reason of Mankind It is a most self-evident Falshood and there is no Doctrine or Proposition in the world that is of it self more evidently true then Transubstantiation is evidently false And yet if it were possible to be true it would be the most ill-natur'd and pernicious truth in the World because it would suffer nothing else to be true it is like the Roman-catholick Church which will needs be the whole Christian Church and will allow no other society of Christians to be any part of it so Transubstantiation if it be true at all it is all truth for it cannot be true unless our senses and the senses of all mankind be deceived about their proper objects and if this be true and certain then nothing else can be so for if we be not certain of what we see we can be certain of nothing And yet notwithstanding all this there is a Company of men in the World so abandon'd and given up by God to the efficacy of delusion as in good earnest to believe this gross and palpable Errour and to impose the belief of it upon the Christian World under no less
it is so called there by Nazianzen the Antitypes ‡ Eipou ti â—oÌ„n antitypon tu timu somatos kai haimatos he cheir â—thefaurisan Ib. of Christs Body and Blood which shews they were not thought to be the substance of it and she had all these about her and in her own keeping as many private Christians had in those times and there was no Host then upon the Altar when she worshipped Christ upon it for it was in the night †Nuktos aorian teresasa Ib. she went thus to the Church So St. Chrysostom * Vid. Boileau c. 7. l. 1. ex Chrysost in all the places quoted out of him only recommends the worshipping of Christ our blessed Savior and our coming to the Sacrament with all humility and Reverence like humble supplicants upon ouâ— knees and with Tears in our Eyes and all Expressions of sorrow for our sins and Love and Honour to our Saviour whom we are to meet there and whom we do as it were †Horas enthysiasterio Chry. in 1. Ep. Cor. 10. c. see upon upon the Altar which is the great stress of all that is produced out of him That we do not truly see him upon the Altar the Papists must own tho' they believe him there but not so as to be visible to our senses and he is no more to be truly adored as corporally present then he is visibly present St. Ambrose ‡ In sermone 56. Stephanus in terris positus Christum tangit in caelo sayes of St. Stephen that â—e being on Earth touched Christ in Heaven just as St. Chrysostom sayes Thou seest him on the Altar and as he and any one that will not resolve to strain an easie figurative Expression must mean not by a bodily touch or sight but by Faith * Non corporalia tactu sed fide and by that we own that we see Christ there and that he is there present 2. Adoring the Flesh and Body of Christ which tho' considered without his Divinity it would be worshipping a Creature as St. Cyril of Alexandria sayes †In actis concil Ephes Hos anthropon proskyneistai te ktisei latreuein yet as it is alwayes united to his Divinity 't is a true object of worship and ought to be so to us who are to expect Salvation by it even from the Blood and the Body ‡ Proskynete esti sorz syntoÌ„ logoÌ„ TheoÌ„ kathos apotheosen auten Chrysost Hom. 108. and Flesh of Christ and therefore as we inwardly trust in it so we ought to adore it as no doubt the Angels do in Heaven and as we are to do in all the Offices of our Religion tho' that be in Heaven yet we are to worship it upon Earth and especially when it is brought to our minds and thought by that which is appointed by Christ himself to be the Figure and Memorial of it the blessed Sacrament there and in Baptism especially when we put on Christ and have his Death and Rising again represented to us and have such great benefits of his Death and Incarnation bestowed upon us in these Mysteries we are as St. Ambrose * Caro Christi quam hodie in Mysteriis adoramus Ambros l. 3. de sp fanct c. 12. apud Boil p. 32. sayes to Adore the Body and the Flesh of Christ to which we immediately and particularly owe them and which we may truly call our Saviour St. Ambrose and St. Austin * August Enar. in Ps 98. his Scholar after him supposing that there was a great difficulty in that passage of the Psalms worship his footstool for so it is in the Latin * Adorate scabellum pedum ejus without the Preposition at his footstool they laboured to reconcile this with that command of Worshipping and serving God alone and to give an account how the Earth which was Gods footstool could be worshipt and the way they take was this to make Christs Flesh which he took of the Earth to be meant by that Earth which was Gods footstool ‡ Invenio quomodo sine Impietate adoretur terra scabellum pedum ejus suscepit enim de terra terram quia caro de terra est de carne Mariae carnem accepit August Ib. and this say they we ought to worship his Apostles did so whilst he was upon Earth and we do so now whilst he is in Heaven We worship the Flesh of CHRIST which was crucified for us and by the benefit of which we hope for Pardon and Salvation we worship that tho' it be now in Heaven we worship it in the solemn Offices of our Religion * Ipsam carnem nobis manducandam ad salutem dedit nemâ— autem ill â—m carnem mâ—nducat nisi prius adoraverit Aug. Ib. that Flesh which he gave to be eaten by us for our Salvation that we worship for none eates that Flesh but he first worships Worships that if they please tho' St. Austin do not expresly say that but we will own and we will be always ready to Worship the Flesh of Christ by which we are saved and we will do this especially at the Sacrament and that more truly and properly then they themselves will own that we eat and manducate it as St. Austin sayes not with ouâ— Teeth as we do the Bread but eat it and worship it too as it is Heaven St. Hierome †Epist ad Marcel Ibant Christiani Hierosolymam ut Christum in illis adorarent locis in quibus primum Evangelium de patibulo coruscaverat says of some devout Christians That they went to Hierusalem that they might adore Christ in those places where the Gospel first shone from the cross They went that they might adore Christ in those places not that they believed him to be corporally present in those places much less that they worship'd the places themselves but they made a more lively impression of Christ upon them and made them remember him with more Passion and Devotion and so does the blessed Sacrament upon us and we therefore worship Christ whom we believe to be in Heaven in the Sacrament as they worship'd him in those places where they were especially put in mind of him Thus St. Hierome sayes He worshipped Christ in the Grave and that Paula worshipped him in the stall * Ad Paul Eustoch and so we may be said to worship him on the cross or on the Altar or in the Sacrament and yet not to worship the Cross or the Altar or the Sacrament it self 3. Other places out of the Fathers brought by him for the Adoration of the Host mean only that the Sacrament is to be had in great reverence and esteem by us as all things sacred and set a part to religious uses are that a singular Veneration is due to the Eucharist as St. Austin says ‡ Eucharistiae deberi singularem venerationem Epist 118. c. 3. and as is to Baptism also of which he uses
Business of confession that now it was become plainly impossible And so much for that But for the second part of this impeachment viz. That the Auricular confession now used in the Church of Rome is mischievous to Piety This remains yet to be demonstrated and we will do it the rather in this place because it will be an abundant confirmation of all that hath been discoursed under the two former heads and might indeed have saved the labour of them but that we were unwilling to leave any pretence of theirs undiscused for if this practice of theirâ— appear to be mischievous to Piety it will never by any sober Man be thought either to have been instituted by our Saviour or to have been the sense and usage of the Catholick Church whatever they pretend on its behalf Now therefore this last and important part of my charge I make good by these Three Articles following First This Method of theirs is dangerous to Piety as it is very apt to cheat People into an Opinion that they are in a better condition then truly they are or may be in towards God as that their sins are pardoned and discharged by him when there is no such matter The Church-men of Rome complain of the Doctrine of sâ—â—e reformed Divings touching assurance of Salvation that it fills men with too great confidence and renders them careless and presumptuous but whatsoever there is in that it is not my business now to dispute it however methinks it will not very well become a Romanist to aggravate it till he have acquitted himself in the point before us for by this Assurance Office of theirs they comply too much with the self-flattery of Mens own Hearts they render Men secure before they are safe and furnish them with a confidence like that of the Whore Solomon speaks of who wipes her Mouth and saith I have done no evil For Men return from the Confessors Chair as they are made to believe as Pure as from the Font and as Innocent as from their Mothers womb as if God was concluded by the act of the Priest and as if he being satisfied with an humble posture a dejected look and a lamentable murmur God Almighty would be put off so too Ah nimium faciles qui tristia criminâ— c. Ah cheating Priests who made fond Men believe That God Almighty pardons all you shrieve Perhaps they will say this is the fault and folly of the Men not of the Institution of the Church But why do they not teach them better then Nay why do they countenance and incourage them in so dangerous mistakes For whither else tend those words in the Decree of the Council of Trent ipsi Deo reconciliandis q. d. that by this way of confession c. men are reconciled to the sess 14. Can. 1 Divine Majesty himself or those other forcited where the Priest is said to be the Vicar of Christ and in Ibid. cap. 5. his steed a Judge or President or especially what other meaning can those words have where it is said Ibid. cap. 2. that this Rite is as necessary as Baptism for as in that all sins are remitted which were committed in former time so in this sins committed after Baptism are likewise remitted Now I say what is the natural tendency of all this but to make People believe that their Salvation or Damnation is in the Power of the Priest that he is a little God Almighty and his discharge would certainly pass current in the Court of Heaven But there is sophistry and juggle in all this as I thus make appear for 1. The Priest cannot pardon whom he will let him be called Index and Praeses never so for if his Sentence be not according to Law â— will be declared Null at the Great Day only it may be good and valâ—â— in the mean time in foro Ecclesiae and here lies the cheat 2. Nor are all sins retained or unforgiven with God that are not pardoned by the Priest it is true in publick Scandals till the sinnâ—r submit to the Church God will not forgive him For what that binds on Earth is in this sense bound in Heaven but what hath the Church to do to retain oâ— to bind the sinner in the case of secret sins where it can charge no guilt on him 3. Nor is it properly the act of the Priest which pardons but the Tenor of the Law and the disposition of Mind in the Penitent agreeable thereunto qualifying him for Pardon to which the Pardon is to be â—â—pâ—â—ed As it is not the Herald which pardons but the Prince who by his Proclamation bestows that Grace upon those who are so and so qualified 4. Nor Lastly Can the Priest be said to pardon so properly by these Majestick words Absolvoâ—te as by his whole Ministry in instructing People in the Terms of the New Convenant and making Application of that to them by the Sacraments this he hath Commission to do but those big words I cannot find that he hath any where Authoriâ—y to pronâ—unce and therefore as I think I observed before the Ancient Church had no form of Absolution but only receiving Peniâ—ents to the Communion And the Greek Church had so much modesty as to Absolve in the third Person not in the first to shew that their Pardon was Ministerial and Declarative only All these things notwithstanding the People are let to go away with such an Opinion as aforesaid because it is for the Grandeur and Interest of the Priesthood that they should be cheated but these misapprehensions would vanish if their teachers would be so just as to distinguish between God's Absolution and the Absolution of the Church the first of which extends to the most secret sins the latter to open Scandals only the one delivers from all real guilt the other from external Censure only of the latter the Priest may by the leave of Church have the full dispensation so that he is really pardoned with her that haâ—h satisfied the Priest but of the former he dispenses but conditionally To confirm all which I will here add only two Testimonies of the judgment of the Ancient Church The first is of Firmilianus Bishop of Caesarea in his Epistle to St. Cyprian reckoned the Seventy Fifth of St. Cyprians where speaking of holding Ecclesiastical councils every Year he gives these reasons for it Vi si qua graviora sunt communi consilio â—â—rigantur lapsis quoque fratribus post lavacrum salutare a Diabolâ— vulueratis per poenitentiam medela quaeratur non quasi a nobis remissionem peccatorum consequantur sed ut per nos ad intelligentiaâ— delictorum suorum convertantur Domino plenius satisfacere cogantur partly saith he that by joint advice and common consent we may agree upon an uniform Order in such weighty Affairs as concern our respective churches partly that we may give relief and apply a remedy to those who by the temptation of the Devil