Antichrist This Sir I humbly conceive is worthy of your Consideration And I hope that you will not for the future rely much upon that Distinction I must mind you of that Saying of the Prophet Where are thy Gods that thou hast made thee Let them arise if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble for according to the number of thy Cities are thy Gods O Judah Jer. 2. 28. chap. 11. 13. And according to the number of the Streets of Jerusalem have you set up Altars to the shameful Thing even Altars to burn Incense unto Baal So you have your innumerable Company of Saints to whom ye erect Altars insomuch that those of your Communion cannot tell to which Saint it were best to turn them first yet you have assighed every one of them their Office and direct your Disciples what things they ought to ask and what to give and what to bring to pass under their respective Protections without any manner of Warrant from the Word of God. But Sir be pleased to understand me I do not apply these false Gods to the Saints for that would be Blasphemy and it were to call them Idols which is absurd seeing that they see the Face of God evermore and are with God in Glory but in respect of those horrible Abuses and vain Fancies of those of your Communion the words of the Prophet may be justly applyed for you in your Imagination of the Saints of God you have made Idols and have so multiplied and increased the same that the number of them have exceeded the number of your Cities and Towns But Sir if you will give me your patience I will shew you that an eminent Light in the Church of God did apply these very words of the Prophet unto the Blessed Mother of Jesus being then abused most Idolatrously by the Hereticks Collyridians in the same manner as you abuse her and other Saints now even to the highest Idolatry it was the old Father Epiphanius Lib. 3. Haeris 79. Nequis comedat de Errore qui est propter Sanctam Mariam tam si enim pulchrum sit lignum tamen non'est ad Cibum si Pulcherrima est Maria Sancta Honorata at non ad Adorationem Hae vero Mulieris colentes Mariam rursus Renovant fortunae mixturam praeparant Mensam Diabolo non Deo quemadmodium Scriptum est pascuntur cibo impietatis rursus Faeminae terunt Pollinem Filiis colligunt Ligna ut faciant Placentas Oleo subactus Reginae Caeli Compescantur Jeremia tales Mulieres ne turbant Orbem Terrarum ne dicant Honoramus Reginam Coeli Let no Man feed upon this Error touching St. Mary for though the Tree be fair yet is not the Fruit to be eaten and though Mary be Beautiful Holy and Honourable yet is she not to be Adored But these Women Worshipping St. Mary run again to the Sacrifice of Wine mingled in the Honour of the Goddess Fortune and prepare a Table for the Devil and not for God as it is written in the Scriptures they are fed with the meat of wickedness and again their Women boult flower and their Children gather sticks to make Cakes in honour of the Queen of Heaven therefore let such Women be rebuked by the Prophet Jeremiah and let them no more trouble the World and let them not say We worship the Queen of Heaven Here you may see Sir that these words were spoken of the filthy Idols of the Heathen and by this holy Father applied to the Mother of our Lord not to deface that blessed Woman but to declare the fond Errours of those Hereticks what is done less to that great Saint in those Countries that pay Obedience to the Church and See of Rome than these Hereticks did of whom this holy man thus complaineth Do you not offer to her Candles Incence Garments Jewels of Silver and Jewels of Gold Are not by pretence of Worship your Churches inriched And all this you do because you say She is the great Mediator of Intercession But you pay the same Homage to her if not more as you do to her Son the Redeemer of the World. You pray to her to save and defend you in Body and Soul now and in the hour of death for you call her The Queen of Heaven the Lady of Angels you say to her Command thy Son shew thy self to be a Mother Your Cardinal Bembus telleth the Virgin Dominam Deam Nostram Bemb in Epist ad Carolum 5. Ambrosius Catharinus one of the Council of Trent Sess 2. calleth the Virgin God's Fellow Fidelissima ejus Socia Nicholaus Cusanus a Cardinal of Rome saith Excitat Lib. 8. Hoc cedit ad Laudem dei Virginis Mariae Matris quod ipso suo principatu Authoris mortis nullo unquam tempore fuit non indiguit virgo Liberatore qui ipsam absolveret a sententia in Adam in posteres Lata Maria non est deleta de Libro Mortis quia nunquam in eo scripta fuit This thing turneth to the praise of God and of the Virgin Mary the Mother that she never was at any time under the power of the Author of Death that Virgin needed no Deliverer that should ransom her from the Sentence pronounced against Adam and his Posterity Mary was never razed out of the Book of Death for she was never written in it When our Nation did profess the Romish Religion I meet with a Council held at Oxford where the Name of Christ is quite left out and Mary's Name put in for thus it beginneth Authoritate Dei Patris Baeatae Virginis omnium Sanctorum By the Authority of God the Father and the Blessed Virgin and of all Saints Do you not in your Offices call her Mediatrix and Redemptrix Why then do you shuffle off your Hearers with this distinction that Christ alone is the Mediator of Salvation and that the Virgin and Saints are only Mediators of Intercession and not of Salvation I would once more pray you to observe how you contradict your own Doctrine left by men whose Authority was not to be question'd by any that did succeed them If your St. Ambrose saith true The Saints by shedding their Bloud did purchase Salvation for us how comes it to pass that they are not Mediators of Salvation But if they did not purchase Salvation for us I pray how comes it to pass that they are Mediators of Intercession When did this Priesthood of theirs commence When did God say to any one of them Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The Saints did not glorifie themselves to be made Priests nor did God call them to that Priesthood that should intitle them to such a Mediatorship that you would put upon them and Christ himself had not glorified himself to be made an High-Priest but God glorified him and said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Heb. 5. 8. From all which Sir we may
my Protestant Brethren in discovering what those Hellish Popish Conspirators were doing against our Religion Lives and Liberties and of their Villanous Firing the City of London and Borough of Southwark Your eyes have seen enough and would have seen more had not Almighty God put a stop to their Career by confounding their Councels and defeating theirwicked purposes against us I will therefore say no more but shall ever stand by that Truth which I have delivered and will not hide one Iota of what remains behind undiscovered And I have taken care of that though it should please God that my Enemies should by any indirect course take away my Life and I shall always approve my self an honest man. and at present remain November 1. 1688. Your Brother and Servant in the King's Bench Prison for the Testimony of a Good Conscience TITVS OATES AN ANSWER TO SABRAN the Jesuit SHEWING The Unlawfulness of Praying TO Saints and Angels SIR I Perceive you are very earnest in the defence of a great Point much controverted between the Divines of the Reformed Churches and the Church of Rome viz. The Doctrine of Praying to Saints and Angels a Doctrine exploded by the Protestants and as zealously defended by those of your Communion And because the unknown Minister hath not as you would make the World believe dealt ingenuously with you you take occasion to fall upon Mr. Needham for Licensing those Replies made to your Sermon in which you were pleased to defend that Doctrine so much opposed by us of the Reformed Religion I will not go about to use any unhandsome Reflection upon you or any of your Communion for any point of Religion which I am satisfied in my Conscience to be contrary to the Doctrine of God our Saviour Amongst the many Errours the Church of Rome doth hold and maintain I humbly conceive this to be one and an Errour tending highly to the overthrowing of the Mediation of Christ the High-Priest and Apostle of our Profession Therefore the Point that I shall lay down is this That your Practice of Praying to Angels and Saints departed this Life is contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and abominable in the sight of God. I shall not Sir trouble you at present with those many Reasons those of our Church and Communion have offered to justifie this Assertion of mine therefore I shall only tie my self up to these few First Our Divines have rejected the Doctrine of Praying to Saints and Angels and look upon it as a Doctrine contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and abominable in the sight of God because it hath no Warrant from the Word of God. This Sir is acknowledged by the most Learned of your Communion Bannesius saith Orationes ad Sanctos faciendos neque expresse neque involute Sanctae Literae docent 2 Qu. 1 Artic. 10. Lib. 1. Which in plain English is this That it is not taught in the Holy Scripture neither expresly nor covertly that Prayers are to be made to Saints Bellarmine de Beat. Sanct. cap. 19. saith plainly It was not the manner under the Old Testament to say Holy Abraham pray for us for which he gives several Reasons as that the Fathers were then shut up in Prison and did not see God. So that by the confession of that Learned Doctor it was no Practice of those that lived under the Ministry of Moses his Law. Salmeron in 1 Tim. 2. saith the same and withal adds That there is nothing expressed in all the Gospels or Epistles of the Apostles touching the matter And withal he saith It would have been hard to enjoyn such a thing upon the Jews and the Gentiles would have thought that many Gods were put upon them instead of the many Gods they had forsaken His own words Sir are these Durum eratie Judaeis percipere Gentibus daretur occasio putandi multos sibi Deos c. Therefore be pleased to observe that it was the Practice of the Church of God to require Christians when they did labour under any Distemper whether of Body or Mind to have recourse to the Prayers of living Saints and were taught that the Prayers of such were prevalent and if the Prayers to Saints supposed to be in Heaven were a Doctrine according to truth why were they not then order'd to apply themselves to the Patriarchs and Prophets to the Blessed Virgin to St. Stephen and St. James and other more early Martyrs of the Church whose Prayers by your common received Opinion in your Church are highly meritorious and far more prevailing But Sir you see these great Doctors of your Church and men of great Reading confess that there are not the least foot-steps in the Scripture for this Practice as also Suarez Tom. 2. in disput Thes 42. Sect. 1. Eccius in Enchyrid suo But suppose Sir that these Great Men had not been so ingenuous as to confess yet give me leave to tell you that it is not possible for you to find the least intimation of any Warrant for this Practice which is apparent if you will but consider that in the Book of God there is neither one Precept from our Lord nor one Precedent to justifie such a Worship Now if you can produce no Command from God nor Example from any of the Saints of God in the time of the Apostles you cannot expect to gain one Soul that hath the least consideration to the belief of that Proposition of the Lawfulness of Praying to Saints and Angels which you so fiercely maintain If you have a Warrant from God's Word then it will lie upon you first to produce the Command then you must produce the Promise that the complying with that Commandment shall be acceptable for there is not one Command enjoyned us in the New Testament but hath its peculiar Promise and you must also produce a Threat if this Command be not obeyed Then secondly shew but where and when the holy Apostles in their day or any Christian under their immediate Ministry did ever practise Praying to Saints and Angels and you shall be my great Oracle in Controversies of Religion otherwise you must give me leave not to believe Father Sabran's Ipse Dixit in this case Sir give me leave to put you in mind that the Holy Scripture every-where makes God to be the only Object of Prayer and Invocation How many hundred Petitions or Prayers are upon Record there and not one of them put up to any other When our Lord taught his Disciples and us in them to pray he directs them to say Our Father which art in Heaven The Scripture often expresseth this Duty by the term of Praying without any mention of the Object When you pray use not vain Repetitions When thou prayest enter into thy Closet And hereby it is intimated that Prayer in matter of Worship can signifie nothing else but Praying to God. It is not Prayer if it be directed to any other From all which I must necessarily conclude that your Practice
Protect and Secure but saith they will ask the Continuance of that Protection and Security which God was pleased to bestow upon the Church as a Reward of St. Theodore's Sufferings by whose Death the Church might perchance otherwise have sustained some loss But you will say further that St. Gregory prays to St. Theodore to ask for Peace It is true the Bloud of Christ's Martyrs do cry to Heaven see Revel 6. 9 10. And when he had opened the fifth Seal I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were Slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held and they cryed aloud How long O Lord Holy and True dost thou not judge and avenge our Bloud on them who dwell on the Earth And if he calls for Vengeance upon the Persecutors of the Peace of the Church such a sort of asking St. Theodore might use and for such an Intercession as this St. Gregory might perchance Invocate St. Theodore We find such Invocations as these frequently amongst fanciful Men to Persons to whom they would pay no Worship The Noble Army of God's Martyrs as they do Praise God in Heaven so their Bloud calls for Vengeance upon their Persecutors on Earth Therefore Sir upon the Consideration of the whole Words there is nothing more to be said but that they were a Rhetorical Strein in Honour of the Memory of St. Theodore and not a Prayer to him as an Act of Adoration that he paid to that Saint The Reason that I give is this because that in his Works against Eunomius Lib. 5. he most excellently speaks thus We are taught to understand that whatsoever is Created is a different thing from the Divine Nature and that we are to Adore that Nature only which is Vncreated Whose Character is this that neither at any time began to be or ever shall cease to be Now compare St. Gregory with St. Gregory and you must conclude that there is no Invocation as an Act of Adoration nor Formal Prayer as any Act of Devotion paid to this Saint but as the Psalmist did Invocate the Dragons and Deeps Sun Moon and Stars and as the three Children did call upon the Frost and Snow to magnifie God without any mention of Adoration or Formal Supplication and such an Invocation many fanciful Men at this day use But you are pleased to say that St. Gregory did pray to St. Theodore to get the rest of the Martyrs St. Peter St. Paul and St. John to pray for the several Churches planted by them This plainly sheweth that it was but a Rhetorical Redundancy of Speech of St. Gregory in Memory of that Saint The Cryes of the Martyr's Bloud reacheth to Heaven and is heard by God and his avenging their Bloud upon the Persecutors on Earth secures the Peace of the Church but that St. Gregory did so supplicate St. Theodore for that he believed that the Saints hear our Prayer I cannot gather from his Words beccause that he is so full against giving any Worship unto any but the Uncreated Being so that you may see he intends no Adoration to St. Theodore nor any Prayer to him as if he did believe that St. Theodore did hear him or did make Intercession to God otherwise then his Bloud crying to Heaven for Vengeance Thy Brothers Bloud cryeth to me from the Earth saith God to Cain Gen. 4 10. The Saints Bloud did Cry and St. Theodoret's Bloud did Cry What then were they therefore Mediators of Intercession were they to be Prayed unto and Worshipped as if they could hear our Prayers No St. Gregory doth not Invocate him for those Reasons nor for that End. But those warm Expressions of Holy Men have given great occasion to your Idolatrous Practices their Heats of Zeal were many times beyond the Bounds of their Judgment by which Sir you may observe that we do not depend much upon the Authority of the Fathers we having a more sure Word of Instruction which gives us no Warrant for this way of Worship nor have we any Precedent in the New Testament that ever any Worship to them was ever performed You say that St. Gregory doth explain himself in his Oration on Theodore the Martyr The Christians saith he call on this Martyr as on God's Minister who being Invocated by them he is able to Impetrate for them what Favours he pleases and this you tell us is St. Gregory's Explanation of himself and you tell us that his Prayer was as full and as plain as could be The Church at that time did begin to have great Devotion to the Monuments of their Martyrs not that they did permit any Worship to be paid to them and their great Orators did in their Orations on the Saint whose Memory they kept use a great many Rhetorical Apostrophies which looked like Prayer But I tell you again that they designed no praying to their Saints but did Invocate them as the Ministers of God The Psalmist did so by the Angels the Sun Moon and Stars and it was only in Honorem Sancti not in Adorationem They did use to repeat all their good Words and all their good Works and did speak to their Monuments and their Reliques and is there no difference betwixt Invocation by way of Honour and Invocation in order to Worship The former might perchance be used to St. Theodore but latter not But you press still and say that St. Gregory saith That St. Theodore being Invocated by them is able to obtain what Favours be pleases 'T is true that God doth look upon himself Honoured when we retain a grateful Memory of those who have highly served him and in a most Eminent Manner have suffered for him and many times the word Invocate signifyeth only a calling to and not always a calling upon they spake of their Saints with great Reverence and reported their Works and Services and Sufferings to induce their Hearers to follow their good Examples then according to the custom of the Time they did use to convert their Speeches to the Monuments or Images of these Saints which you call Praying to them which was no more a Prayer than a Poets calling upon his Muse and as for the Intercession you would have us take notice of is no more then the Cry his Bloud makes to Heaven from under the Altar for upon the Account of their Sufferings great Blessings have been bestowed on the Church of God Sanguis Martyrum est Semen Ecclesiae by the Example of their Constancy many have been brought to the Faith and by their Eminent Holiness many have enter'd into so strickt a Course of Life that they have been of great Use in the Church of God and therefore these Fathers did mention the Names of these Martyrs and did as it were speak to them that they might engage their People to follow their good Examples so that with them they might be made partakers of Bliss and Happiness This is all that I can apprehend from St. Gregory