Lord your God with all your heart and with all your Soul Ye shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his Commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and cleave unto him And that Prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death c. in which Law there are some things very material to be observed in this present dispute 1. When they are forbidden to hearken to any Prophet who seduces them to the worship of any other Gods this must be extended to all those instances of Idolatrous worship which are forbid by the Law of Moses whatever is opposed to the worship of one Supreme and Soveraign Being the Lord Jehovah And therefore whether these Prophets seduced them from the worship of the Lord Jehovah to the worship of other Gods or perswaded them to worship other Gods besides the Lord Jehovah whether they were any of those Gods which were at that time worshipt by other Nations or any other Gods whom the ignorance and superstition of the people should create in after ages whether good or bad Spirits the case is the same whoever perswaded them to worship any other Being with or besides the Supreme God was to be rejected by them for this is the sense of the Mosaical Laws concerning the worship of one Supreme God as I have already proved and the serving other Gods in this place is opposed to the worship of one God and therefore must include whatever according to the Law of Moses is contrary to the worship of one Supreme Being 2. This Law makes the worship of one God eternal and unchangeable There is no way of altering any Divine Laws but by a new revelation of Gods will and there is no way to give Authority to such a revelation but by Miracles or Prophesie but in this case Miracles and Prophesie it self can give no authority because God himself has expresly forbid us to hearken to any Prophet whatever signs or wonders are wrought by him who teacheth the worship of any other Being besides the one Supreme God So that the Law of Moses having expresly forbid the worship of any other Being besides God and as expresly forbid us to hearken to any Prophet though a worker of Miracles who teaches any other worship it is impossible that this Law should ever be altered because we are before-hand warned by God himself not to give credit to any Prophet whatever he be or whatever he do who attempts any alteration of it And therefore had Christ or his Apostles taught the worship of Saints and Angels it had been a just reason for the unbelief of the Jews notwithstanding all the Miracles that were wrought by them and it is well the Jews never had any just occasion to make this objection against our Saviour for if they had I know not how it would have been answered I say a just occasion for the Jews did urge this very Law against him before Pilate We have a Law and by our Law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God In which they refer to that discourse of our Saviour 10. John 29 30. where he affirms that God is his Father and plainly tells them I and my Father are one for which saying they attempt to stone him for Blasphemy and that being a man he made himself a God v. 33. But though he did indeed as the Jews rightly inferred make himself a God by this saying yet he did not preach any new God to them but affirmed himself to be one with his Father that same Supreme God the Lord Jehovah whom they were commanded to worship by their Law he made no alteration in the object of their worship but only did more clearly and distinctly reveal the Father to them as manifesting himself in and by his only begotten Son And therefore he did not offend against this Law by seducing them to the worship of any other Gods besides the Lord Jehovah which if he had done their accusation had been just and all the Miracles which he did could not have secured him from the guilt and punishment of an Impostor Which shews us what force there is in that Argument which the Church of Rome urges from those Miracles which have been wrought at the Tombs of Martyrs to prove the Religious invocation of them if such Miracles were ever wrought it was in testimony to the truth of Christianity for which they suffered not to betray men to a superstitious and idolatrous worship of them ten thousand Miracles should never convince me of the lawfulness of praying to Saints departed while I have such a plain and express Law against believing all Miracles upon any such account Nor can it reasonably be said that this Law was given only to the Jews and therefore obliges none but them for we must remember that Christ was originally sent to the Jews to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and therefore by this Law he was bound not to teach the worship of any other Beings under the penalty of death and they were bound not to own and receive him if he did and therefore it was impossible for the true Messias to introduce the worship of any Being besides the one Supreme God and if Christ could not teach any such Doctrine I know not how the worship of Saints and Angels should ever come to be a Doctrine of Christianity For what Christ himself cannot do none of his Followers may who had no other Commission but to teach those things which they had learnt from him and he could not give commission to preach such Doctrines as he himself had no authority to preach So that though this Law was not originally given to the Gentiles but only to the Jews yet it equally obliges the Christian Church whether Jews or Gentiles because Christ himself who was the Author of our Religion was obliged by it The worship of one Supreme God and of none else is as fundamental to Christianity as it is to Judaism for Christianity is now or ought to be the Religion of the Jews as well as Gentiles and yet the Jews are expresly forbid by this Law ever to own any Religion which allows the worship of any Being besides God and therefore the worship of one God and none else must be fundamental in Christianity if the people of the Jews are or ever were bound to embrace the Faith of Christ. SECT IV. 2. ANd therefore I observe in the next place that Christ and his Apostles have made no alteration at all in the object of our worship Christ urges that Old Testament Law in answer to the Devils Temptation It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Which it seems is as standing a Law after the appearance of Christ as it was before He gives no other direction to his Disciples but to pray to their Heavenly Father and in that form of prayer which he
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 worshipt 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 worshipt 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 whether 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 whether 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 infâ—riour Daemons which was nothing more than what the Church of Rome now gives to Saints and Angels they think it a sufficient answer that the Heathens worshipt Devils and Apostate Spirits but they worship only the Friends and Favourites of God blessed Saints and Angels Now I shall not at present examine the truth of this pretence but shall refer my Reader to a more Learned person for satisfaction in this matter but if it were true yet it is nothing to the purpose if our Saviours answer to the Devil be good For let us suppose that the Pope of Rome who calls himself Christs Vicar had at this time been in Christ's stead to have answered the Devils temptations and let us be so charitable for once as to suppose that saving always his indirect power over the Kingdoms of this world in or line ad spiritualia he would not worship the Devil to gain all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them Consider then how the Pope of Rome could answer this Temptation All this I will give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me could he answer as our Saviour does It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve How easily might the Devil reply Is this indeed your infallible Opinion and the judgment and practice of your Church to serve God onely do you not also serve and worship St. Paul and St. Peter and the Virgin Mary besides a great many other obscure and doubtful Saints This is down right Heresie to confine all Religious Worship to God Here now is matter of fact against the Pope that he does worship other Beings besides God and if he will shew any reason for his not worshipping the Devil he must quite alter our Saviours answer and not plead for himself that he is bound to worship God and him onely but that he is bound to worship onely God and good Spirits and therefore the Devil being a wicked and Apostate Spirit it is not lawful to worship him So that if our Saviour gave a sufficient answer to the Devils temptation it must be equally unlawful to worship good and bad Spirits there may be some peculiar aggravations in having communion with Devils but the Idolatry of worshipping good and bad Spirits is the same 3. Our Saviours answer to the Devil appropriates all kinds and degrees of Religious Worship to God alone The Devil was not then so good a School-man as nicely to distinguish dispute the degrees of Religious Worship with our Saviour but would have been contented with any degree of Religious Worship He did not pretend to be the Supreme God nor to have the disposal of all the Kingdoms of the world in his own right but acknowledges that it was delivered to him and now by vertue of that grant he gives it to whom he will Now it is impossible in the nature of the thing to worship any Being as Supreme whom at the same time we acknowledge not to be Supreme And therefore the Devil asks no more of our Saviour than that he would fall down and worship him which is such an inferiour degree of Worship as Papists every day pay to Images and Saints and yet this our Saviour refuses to do and that for this reason that we must worship God only which must signifie that we must not give the least degree of Divine Worship to any Creatures or else it is not a satisfactory answer to the Devils Temptation who did not require any certain and determinate degree of Worship but left him at liberty to use what distinctions he pleased and to pay what degree of Worship he saw fit whether absolute or relative supreme or subordinate terminative or transient so he would but fall down and worship him any way or in any degree he left him to be his own Schoolman and Casâ—ist but of this more presently 11. As the Laws of Moses in general appropriate all Religious Worship to God command us to worship God and him only so the whole Jewish Rellgion was fitted only for the worship of the Lord Jehovah I suppose our Adversaries will not deny that the Tabernacle and Temple at Jerusalem was peculiarly consecrated to the honour and worship of the Lord Jehovah this was the house where he dwelt where he placâ—â— his Name and the Symbols of his presence It was a great profanation of that holy place to have the worship of any strange Gods set up in it and yet this was the only place of Worship appointed by the Law of Moses they had but one Temple to worship in and this one Temple consecrated to the peculiar worship of one God which is a plain demonstration that they were not allowed to worship any other God because they had no place to worship him in And this I think is a plain proof that all that worship which was confined to their Temple or related to it was peculiar to the Lord Jehovah because that was his house and then all the Jewish worship was so which was either to be performed at the Temple or had a relation and dependance on the Temple worship Sacrifice was the principal part of the Jewish worship and this we know was confined to the Temple Moses expresly commands Israel Take heed to thy self that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest But in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy Tribes there shalt thou offer thy burnt offerings and there shult thou do all that I command thee The Prophets indeed especially before the building of the Temple did erect Altars
are perfected by an Evangelical righteousness But this I say that Christ never repealed any Mosaical Law but by fulfilling and perfecting it He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil Now methinks I need not prove that the worship of Saints and Angels is not a fulfilling but a destroying that Law which commands us to worship none but God And it is not enough to say that these are positive Laws given to the Jews though that be said without any reason for let them shew me any positive Law relating to the Worship of God which Christ has wholly abrogated without fulfilling it 2. Yet as a farther proof that Christ has made no alteration in the object of our worship that he has not introduced the worship of Saints or Angels or Images into the Christian Church which was so expresly forbid by the Jewish Law I observe that according to our Saviours own rule that he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil these Laws of worshipping one God and none besides him were not lyable to any change and alteration because there was nothing to be perfected or fulfilled in them He made no change or alteration but by way of perfecting and fulfilling and therefore those Laws which had nothing to be fulfilled must remain as they were without any change To perfect or fulfil a Law must either signifie to accomplish what was prefigured by it and thus Christ fulfilled all the types and prophesies of the Law which related to his Person or his undertaking as the Jewish Priesthood and Sacrifices c. or to prescribe that real righteousness which was signified and represented by the outward ceremony and so Christ fulfilled the Laws of Circumcision Washings Purifications Sabbaths c. by commanding the Circumcision of the heart and the purity of mind and spirit or by supplying what was defective and thus he fulfilled the moral Law by new instances of vertue by requiring something more perfect of us than what the letter of the Mosaical Law enjoyned These are all the ways that I know of and all that we have any instances of in Scripture of fulfilling Laws Now I suppose no man will say that the first Commandment which forbids the worship of any other Gods besides the Lord Jehovah is a Typical Law for pray what is it a Type of nor can any pretend that the first Commandment is a Ceremonial Law for it prescribes no rite of worship at all but only determines the object of worship As for the third way of fulfilling Laws by perfecting them with some new instances and degrees of vertue it can have no place here for this Law is as perfect as it can be For it is a Negative Law Thou shalt have none other God Now that which is forbid without any reserve or limitation is perfectly and absolutely forbid There are no degrees of nothing though there are several degrees of perfection in things which have a being and therefore though there are degrees in affirmative Laws for some Laws may require greater attainments than other and one man may do better than another and yet both do that which is good yet there are no degrees in not doing a thing and no Law can do more than forbid that which the Law-giver will not have done And besides this way of fulfilling Laws does not abrogate any command but adds to it it may restrain those liberties which were formerly indulged but it does not forbid any thing which was formerly our duty to do for when God requires greater degrees of vertue from us he does not forbid the less And therefore in this way Christ might forbid more than was forbid by the Law of Moses but we cannot suppose that he gave liberty to do that which the Law forbids which is not to perfect but to abrogate a Law But to put an end to this dispute if Christ have perfected these Laws by indulging the worship of Saints and Angels under the Gospel which was so expresly forbidden by the Law then it seems the worship of Saints and Angels is a more perfect state of Religion than the worship of the one Supreme God alone If this be true then though the Heathens might mistake in the object of their Worship yet the manner of their worship was more perfect and excellent than what God himself prescribed the Jews For they worshipt a great many inferiour Deities as well as the Supreme God and if this be the most perfect and excellent worship it is wonderful to me that God should forbid it in the worship of himself that he should prescribe a more imperfect worship to his own people than the Heathens paid to their Gods For to say that God forbade the worship of any Being besides himself because this liberty had been abused by the Heathens to Idolatry is no reason at all For though we should suppose that the Heathens worshipt evil spirits for Gods this had been easily prevented had God told them what Saints and Angels they should have made their addresses to and this had been a more likely way to cure them of Idolatry than to have forbad the worship of all inferiour Deities for when they had such numerous Deities of their own to have made their application to they would have been more easily weaned from the Gods of other Countries And we have reason to believe so it would have been had God been pleased with this way of Worship for he would not reject any part of Religious Worship meerly because it had been abused by Idolaters The Heathens sacrificed to Idols and yet he commands the Jews to offer Sacrifices to himself and so no doubt he would have commanded the worship of Saints and Angels had he been as well pleased with this as he was with Sacrifices had it been a more perfect state of Religion than to worship God only and without any Image When God chose the people of Israel and separated them from the rest of the world to his own peculiar worship and service we cannot suppose that he did intend to forbid any acts of worship which were a real honour to the Divine Nature much less to forbid the most excellent and perfect acts of worship for he who is so jealous of his glory will no more part with it himself then he will give it to another and therefore excepting the Typical nature of that dispensation the whole intention of the Mosaical Law was to correct those abuses which the rest of the world was guilty of in their Religious Worship which either respected the object or the acts of worship that they worshipt that for God which was not God or that they thought to honour God by such acts as were so far from being an honour that they were a reproach to the Divine Nature And whatever is forbid in the worship of God unless there be some Mystical and Typical reasons for it must be reduced to one of those causes This account God
himself gives why he forbids the worship of any Being besides himself or the worship of graven Images I am the Lord that is my Name and my glory will I not give to another nor my praise to graven Images Whatever is his true glory he reserves to himself and therefore never did forbid any act of worship which was truly so but he will not give his glory to another and for that reason forbids the worship of graven Images or any thing besides himself and if this was not his glory then much less the most perfect and excellent part of worship I know not how it should come to be his glory now unless the Divine Nature changes and alters too So that Gods having forbid by the Law of Moses the worship of any other Being besides himself is a very strong presumption that the worship of Saints and Angels whatever fine excuses and Apologies may be made for it yet at least is not a more perfect state of Religion than to worship God alone For though God may not always think fit to command the highest degrees of perfection yet there never can be any reason to forbid it But let us now consider the nature and reason of the thing whether it be a more perfect state of Religion to worship God alone or to worship Saints and Angels c. together with the Supreme God Now the perfection of any acts of Religion must either respect God or our selves that they signifie some greater perfections in God or more perfect attainments in us and a nearer union and conjunction with the Deity Let us then briefly examine the worship of Saints and Angels both with respect to God and our selves and see whether we can discover any greater perfection in this way of worship than in the worship of the Supreme Being alone without any Rival or partner in worship and if it appears that it is neither for the glory of God nor for the happiness and perfection of those who worship we may certainly conclude that our Saviour has made no alteration in the object of our worship for he made no alteration for the worse but for the better he fulfils and perfects Laws which I suppose does not signifie making them less perfect than they were before SECT VI. 1. THen let us consider whether the worship of Saints and Angels be more for the glory of God than to pay all Religious Worship to God alone Now if Religious Worship be for the glory of God then all Religious Worship is more for Gods glory than a part of it unless men will venture to say that a part is as great as the whole And yet whoever worships Saints and Angels though he be neve so devout a worshipper of God also yet he gives part of Religious Worship to Creatures and therefore God cannot have the whole unless they can divide their worship between God and Creatures and yet give the whole to God If it be objected that those who worship Saints and Angels do not give that worship to them which is peculiar and appropriate to the Supreme God and therefore they reserve that worship which is due to God wholly to himself though they pay an inferiour degree of Religious Worship to Saints and Angels I answer what that worship is which is peculiar to the Supreme God I shall consider more hereafter but for the present supposing that they give only an inferiour degree of worship to Creatures is this Religious Worship or is it not if it be is a degree of Worship a part of Worship if it be then God has not the whole and therefore is not so much honoured as if he had the whole as to shew this in a plain instance Those who pray to Saints and Angels though they do not pray to them as to the Supreme God but as to Mediators and Intercessors for them with the Supreme God yet they place an inferiour degree of hope and trust and affiance in them or else it is non-sence to pray to them at all so that though God may be the Supreme Object of their relyance and hope yet he is not the only Object he has part and the greatest part but not the whole for they divide their hope and trust between God and Creatures and if it be a greater glory to God to trust wholly in him than to trust in him in part then it is a greater glory to God to pray to him only than to pray also to Saints and Angels Nay it is more than probable that those who pray to Saints and Angels as trusting in their merits and intercession for them do not make God but these Saints and Angels to whom they pray the Supreme Object of their hope This it may be will be thought an extravagant charge against men who profess to believe that God is the Supreme Lord of the world and the sole giver of all good things but this is no argument to me but that notwithstanding this belief they may trust more in Saints and Angels than in God and consequently give the Supreme Worship to them For men do not always trust most in those who have the greatest power but in those by whose interest and intercession they hope to obtain their desires of the Soveraign power Thus I am sure it is in the Courts of earthly Princes though men know that the King only has power to grant what they desire yet they place more confidence in a powerful Favorite than in their Prince and when they have obtained their requests pay more solemn acknowledgments to their Patron for let the power be where it will our hope and trust is plac't there where our expectations are And when mens expectations are not from the Prince who has the power but from the Favourite whose interest directs the influences of this power to them which otherwise would never have reacht them such Favourites have more numerous dependants more frequent addresses more formal courtships than the Prince himself And when men model the heavenly Court according to the pattern of earthly Courts and expect the conveyance of the Divine Blessings to them as much from the intercession of Saints and Angels as they do to obtain their desires of their Prince by the mediation of some powerful Favourite no wonder if they love and honour and fear reverence and adore trust and depend on Saints and Angels as much or more than they do on the Supreme God For there is not a more natural notion than to honour those for our Gods from whose hands we receive all good things whether we receive it from their own inherent power or not Deus nobis haec otia fecit Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus illius aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus Men may acknowledge God to be the Supreme Being and ascribe incommunicable perfections to him and yet may pray more frequently more devoutly more ardently with greater trust and affiance to Saints
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 than his own love to goodness as if he knew not when nor to whom to shew mercy without 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 Intercessors 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 always 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 Being for they always suppose some great weakness or defect in him who wants 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 than 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 not pray as Mediators but as Supplicants and nothing can be more reasonable than 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 Advocates 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 blemish 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 Benefactor and Soveraign Lord. But to imagine that God needs Advocates 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 than by the care of his Creatures or his love to goodness Erom 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 whether the worship of Saints and Angels together with God be a more perfect state of Religion than the worship of God alone with respect to our selves whether it puts us into a more perfect and excellent state It does indeed mightily gratifie the superstition of mankind to have a multitude of Advocates 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 Advocates 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 Being which is a plain proof what an imperfect state of Religion this is for the perfection of Religion is always 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 nature but our equals however are not our Gods It is a state of liberty freedom and honour to be subject to God who is our natural Lord and Soveraign but to fall down to our fellow Creatures and to worship them with Divine honours with all humility of address and sacred and awful regards is to debase our selves as much below the dignity of our natures as we advance them above it The excellency and perfection of reasonable Creatures principally consists in their Religion and that is the most perfect Religion which does most advance adorn and perfect our Natures but it is an argument of an abject mind to be contented to worship the most excellent Creatures which is a greater dishonour than to own the vilest Slave for our Prince Mean objects of worship do more debase the Soul than any other the wilest submissions and the more our dependancies are and the meaner they are the more imperfect our State and Religion is 3. The greatest perfection of Religion consists in the nearest and most immediate approach to God which I think these men cannot pretend to who flye to the patronage and intercession of Saints and Angels to obtain their Petitions of him Though we should allow it lawful to pray to Saints and Angels to mediate for us with God yet we cannot but own it a more perfect state to do as the Saints and Angels themselves do go to God without any other Advocate but Christ himself It is a great happiness to have a freind at Court to commend us to our Prince when we have no interest of our own but it is a greater priviledge to go immediately to our Prince when we please without any Favourite to introduce us This is the perfect state of the Gospel that we have received The adoption of sins and because we are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father That is this Holy Spirit which dwells in us teaches us to call God Father and to pray to him with the humble assurance and confidence of Children This is the effect of Christ intertercession for us That we may now come boldly unto the throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in a time of need The throne of Grace certainly is not the shrine of any Saints but the immediate throne and presence of God whether we may immediately direct our Prayers through the merits and intercession of Christ. Upon the same account the whole body of Christians are called a Spiritual house that is the Temple of God where he is peculiarly present to hear those Prayers which are made to him An holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people This is a priviledge above what the Jews enjoyed they had a Priesthood to minister in holy things and to offer their Sacrifices for them but the whole Nation was not a Priesthood nor had such immediate access to God but now every Christian has as near an access to God as the Priests themselves under the Law had can offer up his Prayers and Spiritual Sacrifices immediately to God and that very acceptably too through Jesus Christ our great High Priest and Mediator and if our Prayers be acceptable to God by Jesus Chrrist we need no other Mediators or Advocates This is the onely direction our Saviour gave his Disciples a little before his death to ask in his name with this promise If ye ask any thing in my name I will do it Hither to have you asked nothing in my name ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full And to give them the greater assurance of acceptance he acquaints them with Gods great and tender affection for them such as a Father has for his Children At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God a reason which equally extends to all those who shall believe in Christ to the end of the world And can we now imagine that when our Saviour has purchast for us this liberty of access to God he should send us round about by the shrines and Altars of numerous and unknown Saints to the Throne of Grace When he will not assert the necessity of his own Prayers for us while we pray in his name because our heavenly Father hath such a tender affection for all the Disciples of Christ can we think it necessary to pray to St. Paul and St. Peter and the Virgin Mary to pray for us This is none of our Saviours institution nor can it be because Christ by his death and sufferings and intercessions brings us nearer to God as the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh and having an high Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith But the worship of Saints and Angels removes us at a great distance from God as not daring to approach his presence without the mediation of some Favourite Saint And though the Church of Rome does sometimes pray directly to God only in the Name and Mediation of Christ as the Pagans themselves sometimes did to their Supreme Deity yet it seems this is what they dare not trust to and therefore joyn the Meditation of Saints with their Prayers to God and never pray to God without it SECT VIII 5. THat the Gospel of our Saviour has made no alteration in the object of our worship appears from that Analogie which there is and ought to be between the Jewish and Christian Worship The Jewish and Christian Church are but one Church and their worship the same worship only with this
at that time immediately apply this Law against the worship of any other Beings but those which were at that time worshipped in the world If God gives a Law which forbids the worship of all Beings besides himself and particularly applies this Law to prohibite the worship of all those Gods which were then worshipped in the world will any one in their wits hence conclude that if the folly and superstition of men should set up a new race and generation of Gods in after ages that the worship of these new Gods is not as well forbidden by this general Law as the worship of those gods which were worshipt at that time when this Law was given if this were true possibly Pagan Rome it self was not guilty of Idolatry for most if not all of their Gods might be of a later date than the giving the Law 3. Now since no such distinctions as these appear in Scripture it is impossible they should justifie the worship of Saints and Angels which is so expresly forbidden by the Law if we will acknowledge them to be distinct Beings from the Supreme God for if they are not the Supreme God we must not worship them for we must worship none but God No distinctions can justifie us in this case but such as God himself makes for otherwise it were easie to distinguish away any Law of God Humane Laws will admit of no distinctions but such as they make themselves for a distinction does either confine and streighten or enlarge the Law and he who has power to distinguish upon a Law has so far power to make it If the Law says that we shall worship no other Being besides God and we have power if we have but wit enough to invent some new distinctions between the worship of good and bad spirits between Supreme and Subordinate absolute and relative worship this makes a new Law of it for it is one thing to say thou shalt worship God only and quite contrary to say thou shalt worship God only and good Spirits God with a Supreme and absolute good Spirits with a subordinate and relative worship This I think is sufficient to shew that we must admit of no distinctions upon a Divine Law but what the Scripture it self owns and therefore since those distinctions with which the Church of Rome justifies her worship of Saints and Angels are no where to be found in Scripture they have no authority against an express Law 3. The next course the Papists take to justifie their Creature-worship in contradiction to that Law which expresly commands us to worship none but God is an appeal to such authorities as they think sufficient to decide this matter Now I shall not say much to this for I believe all Mankind will acknowledge that no Authority less than Divine can repeal a Divine Law and therefore unless God himself or such persons as act by a Divine Authority have repealed this Law no other Authority can do it That Christ and his Apostles have not repealed this Law I have already proved that the whole Church in after Ages had any Authority to repeal this Law I desire them to prove For the authority of the Church as to the essentials of Faith and Worship is not the authority of Law-givers but of Witnesses The Church never pretended in former Ages to make or to repeal any Divine Laws but to declare and testifie what the belief and practice of the Primitive and Apostolick Churches was and it is unreasonable to think that they should have any such Authority for then Christ and his Apostles preached the Gospel to little purpose if it were in the power of the Church to make a new Gospel of it when they pleased But indeed could it appear that the Apostles did teach the Christians of that Age and the Church in those Ages which immediately succeeded the Apostles did practice the worship of Saints and Angels we should have reason to suspect that we and not they are mistaken in the sense of that Law which commands us to worship none but God But then none can be admitted as competent witnesses of this matter but those who did immediately succeed the Apostles or conversed with Apostolical men and Churches And thanks be to God there is no appearance of Creature worship in those Ages we dare appeal to the testimony of Fathers and Councils for above three hundred years and those who come after come a little too late to be witnesses of what was done in the Apostolick Churches especially when all the intermediate Ages knew nothing of it I shall not fill up this discourse with particular Citations which learned men know where to find since the Roman Doctors can find nothing in the Writings of the first Fathers to justifie the worship of Saints and Angels and the Protestant Writers find a great deal in those Ages against it Indeed at the latter end of the fourth Century some of the Fathers used some Rhetorical Apostrophes to the Saints and Martyrs in their Orations which the Church of Rome interprets to be Prayers to them but though other Learned men have vindicated those passages so far as to shew the vast difference between them and solemn and formal Invocations which is not my business at this time yet there are several things very well worth our observation towards the true stating of this matter As 1. That these Fathers came too late to be witnesses of the Apostolical practise which they could know no otherwise than we might know it if there had been any such thing viz. by the testimony and practise of the Church from the Apostles till that time This was no where pretended by them that the Invocation of Saints had been the practise of the Catholick Church in all ages and they could have no proof of this unless they had better Records of former times than we have at this day and such as contradicted all the Records which we now have of the Apostolick and Primitive Churches and I believe few men will be so hardy as to assert this and methinks there should be as few who are so credulous as to believe it and I am sure there is no man living who is able to prove it 2. Nay the particular sayings of these Fathers by which the Romanists prove the Invocation of Saints do not prove that it was the Judgment and practise of the Church of that age They no where say that it was and it does not appear to be so by any other Records Let them shew me any Council before or in those times when these Fathers lived that is in the fourth Century which decreed the worship of Saints and Angels Let them produce any publick offices of Religion in those days which allows this worship and if no such thing appears those men must be very well prepared to believe this who will without any other evidence judge of the practice of the Church only from some extravagant flights of Poets and
Orators and if even in those days the worship of Saints was not received into the publick offices of the Church methinks we may as well live without it still and they must either grant that these Fathers whose authority they alleadge meant no such thing by these Rhetorical flourishes as they extract out of them or else that they introduced a new and unknown worship into the Christian Church and then let them prove that some few Fathers of the fourth Century without the publick authority of the Church had authority enough of their own to change the object of worship contrary as the Church in former Ages believed to an express Divine Law which commands us to worship none but God 3. Nay I further observe that these Fathers whose authority is urged for the invocation of Saints by the Church of Rome do no-where dogmatically and positively assert the lawfulness of Praying to Saints and Angels and many Fathers of the same Age do positively deny the lawfulness of it which is a plain argument that it was not the judgement and practice of the Church of that Age and a good reasonable presumptition that these Fathers never intended any such thing in what they said how liable soever their words may be to be expounded to such a sense Gregory Nazianzen indeed in his Book against Julian the Apostate speaks to the Soul of Constantius in this manner Hear O thou Soul of great Constantius if thou hast any sense of these things c. But will you call this a Prayer to Constantius does this Father any where assert in plain terms that it is lawful to pray to Saints departed a hundred such sayings as these which are no Prayers to Saints cannot prove the lawfulness of praying to Saints against the constant Doctrine of the Fathers of that Age. Thus in his Funeral Oration for his Sister Gorgonia he bespeaks her to this purpose that if she knew what he was now a doing and if holy Souls did receive this favour from God to know such matters as these that then she would kindly accept that Oration which he made in her praise instead of other Funeral Obsequies Is this a Prayer to Gorgonia to intercede for him with God by no means He onely desires if she heard what he said of her which he was not sure she did that she would take it kindly Whereas in that very Age the Fathers asserted that we must pray onely to God and therefore they define Prayer by its relation to God That Prayer is a request of some good things made by devout Souls to God that it is a conference with God that it is a request offered with supplication to God Which is a very imperfect definition of Prayer were it lawful to pray to any other Being besides God St. Austin tells us that when the names of the Martyrs were rehearsed in their publick Liturgies it was not to invoke them or pray to them but onely for an honourable remembrance nay he expresly tells us that the worship of dead men must be no part of our Religion for if they were pious men they do not desire this kind of honour but would have us worship God honorandi ergo sunt propter imitationem non adorandi propter religionem they are to be honoured for our imitation not to be adored as an act of Religion The Council of Laodicea condemned the Worship of Angels and so does Theodoret Oecumenius and others of that Age. It is notoriously known that the Arrians were condemned as guilty of Idolatry for worshipping Christ whom they would not own to be the true God though they owned him to be far exalted above all Saints and Angels and to be as like to God as it is possible for any Creature to be and those who upon these Principles condemned the worship of the most perfect and excellent Creature could never allow the worship of Saints and Angels So that though the worship of Saints and Angels did begin about this time to creep into the Church yet it was opposed by these pious and learned Fathers and condemned in the first and smallest appearances of it which shows that this was no Catholick Doctrine and Practice in that Age much less that it had been so from the Apostles and I think after this time there was no authority in the Church to alter the object of worship nor to justifie such an Innovation as the worship of Saints and Angels in opposition to the express Law of God The sum of this Argument is this Since there is an express Law against the worship of any other Being besides the supreme God the Lord Jehovah which never was expresly repealed whatever plausible reasons may be urged for the worship of Saints and Angels they cannot justifie us in acting contrary to an express Law of God THE END ERRATA PAge 53. Line 23. for repepealed read repealed p. 54. margin for domini r. dominum p. 59. l. 30. for last r. least A Catalogue of Books sold by Abel Swalle at the Vnicorn at the West-end of St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. A Companion to the Temple or a Help to Devotion in the use of the Common Prayer Divided in the four Parts Part 1. Of Morning and Evening Prayer Part. 2. Of the Litany with the Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings Part. 3. Of the Communion Office with the Offices of Baptism Cateohism and Comfirmation Part. 4. Of the Occasional Offices viz. Matrimony Visitation of the Sick c. The whole being carefully corrected and now put into one Volume By Tho. Comber D. D. Folio Forty Sermons whereof twenty one are now first published the greatest part of them Preached before the King and on Solemn Occasions By Rich. Allestry D. D. With an account of the Authors Life in Folio The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley consisting of those which were formerly Printed and those designed for the Press and now Published out of the Authors Original Papers The eighth Edition in Folio The Second Part of the Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley being what was written in his younger years and now Reprinted together The fifth Edition The Case of Resistance of the Supreme Powers Stated and Resolved according to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures By William Sherlock D. D. in Octavo A Vindication of the Rights of Ecclestastical Authority being an Answer to the First Part of the Protestant Reconciler By William Sherlock D. D. and Master of the Temple in Octavo Pet. Dan. Huetii de Interpretatione Libri 2. duo quarum Prior est de Optimo Genere Interpretandi Alter dâ— Claris Interpret c. in Octavo The Case of Compelling Men to the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper considered And Authority vindicated in it by the Rules of the Gospel and from the Common and Popular Objections against it By the Author of the Charge of Scandal omitted in the late Collection L. Coely Lacâ—antâ—i Firmiani Opera que extant ad fidem MS S. recognita Commentariis illustrata a Tho. Spark A. M. Oxonii e Theatr. Sheldoniano A Sermon Preached before the King at White-hall Novemb. 23. 1684. By Gilb. Ironside D. D. Warden of Wadham Colledge in Oxon c. 4. Mat. 10. Sect. 1. 2 Col. 18. Sect. 2. 4 Matth. 10. 6 Deutr. 13. 10 Deutr. 20. 20 Exod. 3. 6 Deutr. 14. 70 Jere. 11. Stilling fleetâ—s Defence of the discourse of Idolatry 4 Luke 6. 12 Deut. 13 14. 22 Joshua v. 16. 19. 22 23. 22 Exod. 2â— 56 Isai. 7. 2â— Matth. 13. 1 King 8. 3 Acts 1. 6 Dan. 10. 55 Psalm 17. 9. Dan. 21. 1 Kings 8. 30. v. 35. v. 37. v. 39. v. 44. v. 48. 6. Dan. 10. Buâ—torsii Synag Jud. p. 222 65. Psalm 2. 23 Joshua 7â— 1 Kings 18. 26. 20 Ezek. 20. 10 Deut 21. 19 Isai. 18. 4â— Gen. 16. Sect. 3. 13 Deut. 1 2 3 4 5. 19. John 7. 4 Matth. 10. 1 Rom. 21. v. 23. v. 25. 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. 1 Tim. 4. 1. See Mr. Joseph Medes Apostasie of the latter times 5. Mat. 17. 21. Acts 21 22. 3. Rom. 31. 8. Isai. 20. 2 Pet. 1. 16 17 18 19. 17. Acts 10 11. 42. Isai. 8. 4 Gal. 5 6. 4 Hebr. 16. 1 Pet. 2 5 9. 14 Joh. 13 15. 16 Joh. 24. 26 27. 10 Hebr. 19 20 21 22. 2 Joh. 19. 21. 1 Joh. 14. 2 Coloss. 3. 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. 1. Heb. 12. 28. Mat. 20. * Bonum atque utile esse suppliciter Sanctos invocare ab beneficia impetranda â— Deo per silium ejus Jesum Christum Domini nostrum qui solus noster Redemptor Salvator est ad eorum orationes opem auxilium confugere Canâ— Trin. 16. 25. de Invocat 20 Exod. 10 Deut. 20. 4 Matth 10. 13 Deuter. 6 7. c. 6 Deut. 13 14. 13 Deut. 7. See Bishops Ushers Answer to the Jesuits Challenge Greg. Naz. Orat. 2. in Gorg. Basil Orat. in Julit Martyr Greg. Naz. Orat 1. de Oratione Chrys. in Genes Homil. 30. Aug. De Civit Dei l. 22. cap. 10. Id. de vera religione Cap. 55