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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33211	A discourse concerning the worship of the Blessed Virgin and the saints with an account of the beginnings and rise of it amongst Christians, in answer to M. de Meaux's appeal to the fourth age, in his Exposition and pastoral letter.	Clagett, William, 1646-1688.	1686 (1686)	Wing C4384; ESTC R171370	81,086	123

Faithful arrived to the knowledge of the Martyrs yet he doubted not that the Martyrs prayed for the Faithful which is all that can be proved from these places But what is this to the Invocation of them which St. Austin also expresly denies in saying that they are not invocated by the Priest who Sacrifices And here we ●●●st remember what the Ancient Fathers meant by the Christian Sacrifice Not only the Oblation of Bread and Wine brought by all the People and presented at the Holy Table with the Prayers of the Priest nor onely the Consecration of those Elements afterwards to be the Memorials of Christs Body and Blood which they first laid before God and then distributed to the Faithful I say we must remember that they did not onely mean these visible Sacrifices but likewise all the Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings of the Church which were Vocal Sacrifices together with Contrition of Heart and all pious Affections answerable to the Outward Sacrifices by which the Faithful offer'd up * Aug. de Civ lib. 10. c. 6. themselves a Sacrifice to God This was that Reasonable Service and unbloudy Sacrifice which the Priest in behalf of all the People solemnly offered up to God So that St. Austin's meaning is this That the Faithful being assembled at the Memories of the Martyrs for Divine Service the Martyrs are not Invocated by the Priest in any part of the Administration And therefore the distinction of Sacrificial and Extrasacrisicial Prayers will not avoid this Testimony since the Prayers of the Faithful at their Religious Assemblies were all Sacrificial Prayers as being part of the Christian Sacrifice And St. Austin whose Testimony this is did in this notion of Sacrifice clearly follow the Doctrine of the more Ancient Fathers Let us observe saith he Ibid. c. 5 that where God said he would not have Sacrifice there it is shewn that he will have Sacrifice He willeth not the Sacrifice of a slain Beast but he will have the Sacrifice of a contrite Heart And afterwards he addeth these instances as the Ancients had done before him The Psalmist saith Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise and pay thy vows to the Most High and call upon me in the day of tribulation and I will deliver thee and thou shalt gl●●●fie me 'T is true that he sometimes distinguisheth the visible Oblations of the Church from Prayers and Praises as where he argues Ibid. c. 19. that the visible Sacrifices are to be offered up to God onely whose visible Sacrifice we our selves are in our hearts as in vocal Prayer and Praise we pray to God and praise him onely to whom we offer the devotion of the Heart But though in that place he doth not call Prayers and Praises Sacrifices as he doth elsewhere very frequently yet even there he taketh it for granted that when the Faithful were assembled for praying to God and praising him they addressed themselves to none but to Him It is so plain even from this Father that the Invocation of Martyrs and Saints was no part of the Service of the Church that I have thought sit to insist onely upon his Testimony especially since Monsieur de Meaux has been pleased to bring in the words of the Council of Trent explaining their practise in Invocating the Saints Because saith he the Council doth almost make use of the very words of this Holy Bishop Let us first hear the words of the Council The Church does not offer Sacrifices to the Saints but to God alone who has Crowned them The Priest also does not address himself to St. Peter and St. Paul saying I offer up to you this Sacrifice but rendring thanks to God for their Victories he demands THEIR ASSISTANCE to the end that those whose Memory me celebrate upon Earth would vouchsafe to pray for us in Heaven Now let us hear the words of St. Austin in that place to which Monsieur de Meaux refers But we do not appoint Temples Priesthoods Holy Rites and Sacrifices to the Martyrs because not They but their God is our God Indeed we honour the Memories of the Martyrs as of holy men c. But who of the Faithful ever heard the Priest standing at the Altar Ibid. lib. 8. c. 27. though erected for the Honour and Worship of God over the holy Body of a Martyr to say in the Prayers I offer Sacrifice to thee O Peter or Paul or Cyprian when at their Memories 't is offered to God who made them both Men and Martyrs and associated them to the Angels in heavenly glory that by this solemnity we may give thanks to the True God for their Victories and that we by renewing in our selves the remembrance of them may be excited by imitating them to strive for such Crowns and Palms as they have obtained † Eodem invocato in Auxilium THE SAME True God BEING INVOCATED FOR OVR ASSISTANCE It seems there is almost no difference made by putting the Saints instead of God Let Monsieur de Meaux lay his hand upon his Heart and tell us honestly for once whether Eodem invocato in Auxilium do not refer to the True God spoken of before and not to the Saints And if so what there is in this passage of the Holy Bishop that makes for the Invocation of Saints And now Monsieur de Meaux may go on as long as he thinks fit to make Triumphs Pastoral Letter p. 29. upon our Acknowledgement that during the Fourth Century the Church desired the Prayers of Martyrs and honoured Reliques For he goes on in this strain in his late Pastoral Letter where he declaims so Tragically against those that if you will believe him charge Idolatry upon the Illustrious Fourth Age yea that very Age wherein the Prophecies of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ were accomplished more manifestly than ever when the Kings of the Earth till then Persecutors of the Name of Jesus became according to the Ancient Oracles his Adorers My Lord the Bishop of Meaux knew when it was convenient to use the stile of a perfect Gentleman p. 30. But since he wrote his Exposition the Case of some of his Countrey-men is something altered though the Cause be the same Now the Blasphemies of the Protestants put him into sits of Amazement p. 2● and he cannot tell what Horrour they are worthy of But to do him right he keeps true to one old principle that will I believe be dear to him as long as he lives p. 16. Once more my Brethren let us not dispute let us not run into Controversie No by no means for it is much easier to declaim than to dispute to take things for granted than to prove them and to make general slourishes than to enter into examination of particulars What can be more easie than to exclaim in this manner The Ambroses the Augustines the Hieroms p. 30. the Gregories of Nazianzene the Basilius 's and the Chrysostomes whom all Christians have

a Lye or be made to believe it I confess 't is hard on the one hand to believe that this story should be so dextrously shuffled into Nazianzen's Oration that the Impostor was never discovered yet on the other hand 't is harder to believe that such a man as he should lend his Belief and his Breath to so absurd a Fable Epiphanius also tells us of some Arabian Women that worshipped the Virgin Mary Epiph. Haeres 79. lib. 3. Tom. 2. Adv. Collyrid by laying a Cake before her for some days and offering it up to her and then eating it amongst themselves But that which he says upon this occasion is by no means for the comfort of her Worshippers Let us saith he put on the Spirits of men and beat down the madness of these Women I know it will be said that this reproof of those that sacrificed to the B. Virgin reaches not those that do not sacrifice to her but worship her without sacrifice But I am sure Epiphanius makes no such distinction For says he who of the Prophets ever allowed that a Man should be worshipped much less a Woman If it was the Doctrine of those times that the B. Virgin was more glorious than the Cherubim and Seraphim Epiphanius did strangely forget himself and the Person he was speaking of when he supposed a Man might rather be made an Object of Religious Worship than a Woman though the B. Virgin For thus he goes on Though the Virgin be a chosen Vessel she is yet but a Woman The old Error shall not reign amongst us to leave the living God and to worship things that he has made For if he will not suffer the Angels to be adored how much less the Daughter of Joachim and Anne who was born to them as other Mortals are born c. of a Father and a Mother If the Virgin had then been invocated with Prayers and Hymns is it to be thought that Epiphanius Haer. 78. Adv. Antidicom who in the foregoing discourse raised the honour of the Virgin as high as Truth would suffer him would not have said it there or distinguished it from Sacrifice here He says indeed Let Mary be honoured but let the Father Son and Holy Ghost be adored But if it had been then as it is now Epiphanius could not have avoided saying Let Mary be worshipped with Religious Invocation indeed but let God onely be worshipped with Sacrifice But does he intimate any thing of this nature Nay he does as plainly exclude all Religious Worship of her as it was possible to exclude a thing which had not then obtained in the Church For says he God did not commit the Power of Baptizing to Mary or of Blessing his Disciples or any Authority upon Earth This onely he vouchsafed to her to be a Sanctified Creature and worthy to enter into his Kingdom But if she had been then adored in any sort and Epiphanius had approved it he was strangely forgetful of the duty of a good Writer not to mention it in this place at least where the plain Rules of Discourse obliged him and would have led him to it All which makes it evident that we are to take Worship or Adoration here in the proper sence of the word and not for visible Sacrifices onely And the whole place is the more unlucky to the Worshippers of the B. Virgin because no comfort is to be had from that expression of * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honouring her which Epiphanius requires we should do For that by this he did not mean any Religious Worship is I think reasonably plain from what he says concerning Eve in this very Discourse Let our Mother Eve † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be honoured as being formed by God I do not know that Prayers are said to Eve in the Roman Church But I am confident Epiphanius was a stranger to any such thing in his time So that if we examine these words of worshipping and honouring as they stand in Epiphanius never so long they will confess this and no more that we must think and speak very honourably of Mary as being a most holy woman and the Virgin Mother of Jesus but that we must at no hand adore her with any sort of Invocation or Religious Rites whatsoever And so I shall conclude this plain business with the words of Epiphanius Although Mary be excellently good and holy and to be honoured she is not yet to be honoured so as to be worshipped By which we may judge of the modesty or understanding of him whoever he was that clap'd the name of St. Epiphanius to that fulsome † De Laudib Virg. Mar. Tom. 2. Epiph. Oration concerning the B. Virgin where the Angels Cherubim and Seraphim are brought in adoring her c. As for what we have concerning the B. Virgin in the Liturgy said to be St. Chrysostom's and pretended to be translated by Erasmus it is all manifest Interpolation being directly contrary to St. Chrysostom's Doctrine in his undoubted Writings Could he that affirms that if Christ were not by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 in Hebr c. 1. Hom. 2. nature the Son of God he had been inseriour to the Angels affirm also that the Blessed Virgin who is naturally no Goddess is incomparably more glorious than the Cherubim and Seraphim Or that she was unspotted whom he plainly notes for † 〈◊〉 Joan. c 2. Hom. 20. Ambition and Desire of Worldly Glory and supposes to be checked by Jesus for it Concerning the Blessed Virgin and the priviledge she had by being the Mother of Jesus they spake in those days as we of the Reformation now do St. Chrysostom be witness for this in the place last cited When thou hearest that Woman saying Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps that give thee suck and then himself answering Yea rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it Do not think that these words argued contempt of his Mother but that he would shew how little it would profit her that she was his Mother if she were not exceedingly good and faithful But if it profited Mary nothing at all that Christ was born of her unless she had the virtue of the Soul much less good will it do us to have an excellent Father Brother or Child whilst we have none of their Virtue For we are to place our hope of salvation in nothing next to the Grace of God but onely in our proper good Actions and Qualities For if that Relation which Mary had to Christ were a thing of it self profitable the Jews had found it so in some degree For Christ was akin to them after the Flesh and so had the City in which he was born and so had his Brethren But whilst his Brethren did just what pleased themselves the honour they had to be of kin to him profited them not at all but they were condemned with the rest of the World