one would think hardly any thing in Ecclesiastical Antiquity that hath escaped the strict Examination of judicious Criticks some Learned Men indeed have suspected the Passion of the Thebean Legion to have been a Fiction but none of them had the Courage to oppose an Opinion which they saw so Universally established If general Approbation might be admitted as a Proof there would be scarce any Opinion more Probable than that of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion if we consider the great number of grave and Learned Authors who have all asserted it as an undoubted matter of Fact Rome Geneva the Lutherans the Church of England and generally all Christian Societies have given Credit to the History of this Legion and that no doubt upon account of the Honour which they imagined the Martyrdom of it did to the Christian Religion by the wonderfulness of the Action the greatness of Soul and the Glorious Characters of the Persons that suffered John Lewis Fabritius relates the Example of the Thebean Legion in his Learned Dissertation concerning the just Limits of humane obedience in order to establish this so important a Maxim in Morality That we ought always to side with God whenever there is more certainty and evidence in the Prohibitions of God than in the Ordinances of Princes Archbishop Usher a Man of so vast a knowledge in Ecclesiastical Antiquity fell into the same common opinion And the Martyrdom of the Thebean Souldiers making for him in his Book of Regal Power he lays as great a stress upon it as if it were a thing of unquestionable certainty The famous Grotius speaks twice of it in his Learned Book de jure Pacis Belli and makes use of it as that which of all things he least doubted the Truth of And though since the death of these two great Men the exactness of Criticism upon the Works of the Fathers hath been much improved yet the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion is still cryed up amongst those other popular Errours the World is fallen in Love with Edward Fuller Bishop of Glocester hath made it one of the Ornaments of a very fine Treatise composed by him upon the great Design of Christianity which is the Sanctification of Men. And Doctor Cave one of the Prebends of Windsor brings in with great great Pomp the History of this Legion in that Work of his in which he gives us a very fine Representation both of the Religion and Manners of the Primitive Christians There is scarcely I confess any Divine who hath out-done him in the Study of Church History as may appear by the great Volume he hath given us upon the Writings of the Fathers Now how great a respect soever we have for the extraordinary merit of these Learned Authors we ought to reject their Errours be they never so Ancient There is no prescription against Truth and a long prepossession gives no right at all to Errour I have seen saith one of our Old Writers the Birth of many Miracles in my time and though they no sooner saw the Light but they were stifled we do however foresee the course they would have taken had they happened to have lived to their full Age. For the main business is to find out out the end of the thread then you may wind as much as you please and there is a greater distance from nothing to the least thing that may be than there is from that least to the greatest that can be imagined A private Errour first causeth a publick one and then that publick Errour occasions other private ones Thus the whole work goes on patch'd up and fashioned by a succession of several hands so that the remotest witness knows more of the matter than the nearest and the last inform'd is better perswaded of it than the first This was exactly the way the Passion of the Thebean Souldiers first crept into the World and then insensibly got credit in the Church And they have been for these Eight or Nine Hundred Years in a quiet Possession of the glory of their Martyrdom and do enjoy it peacably to this day under the shadow and Authority of the greatest Names and the most renowned Doctors of all Christian Communions Now that we may distinguish the Romance from the History we must remove all the Mists which the Legendaries and Martyrology-makers have spread over it For the support of so much of it as is purely Romantick there are alledged Manuscripts and Old Writings and we must shew that those who do pretend the greatest skill in Antiquities are lyable to mistakes CHAP. IV. That the most skilful Men are sometimes mistaken in the Judgments they make upon the Works of the Ancients IT will Evidently appear from what shall be said hereafter that Baronius Peter Francis Chifflet Archbishop Usher and Grotius have been mistaken in their Judgments concerning the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion and the Relation Fathered upon Eucherius For Criticks are not always in the right Though they have contributed much to the reviving of Learning yet it does not thence follow that even the most skilful Men in that Science are infallible It hath very often happened that they have taken false Copies for Originals and set upon Modern Writings the worth and value due to those of Antiquity Those who have any skill in Medals know that the most understanding Men themselves are apt sometimes to be mistaken If one Examines the first Edition of the Praestantiora Imperatorum Numismata of Mr. Vaillant Printed at Paris in the Year 1682 there one will find the Medals of Germanicus of Nero Drusus his Father of the Emperour Claudius of Julia Wife to Severus and of Gordianus Affricanus the Son the Price and Rarity whereof this Medalist does mightily Extol But if you cast your Eye upon the Second Edition of 1692. there you will find the same Medals very much debased Mr. Vaillant acknowleging the three first to be suspicious and the two last absolutely false He praiseth likewise in the same Work one of Trajan's Medals with a Pillar and an Owl on the top of it And in his Remarks upon Scelecta Numismata Seguini Published at Paris in the Year 1684. he confesseth ingenuously that the same was Counterfeit 'T is no less usual to be deceived in matter of Statues and Basso-Relievos then in Medals We have a great many Examples of this kind but it will suffice to give here only one single instance Vazari tells us that Michael Angelo to convince some Vertuosos and Antiquaries who valued nothing but what was Ancient of the rashness of their Judgment in such cases made a Cupid and buried it under the ruines of an Old Building having first broken off one of its Arms which he kept at home All the Lovers of the Art came immediately to look upon it and no Body did so much as question the Antiquity of the piece till Michael Angelo shewed them the Arm which he had kept by
all the Functions of the Mediator of Redemption may be reduced to these Three principal ones First Christ hath taught Men the true and only way that leadeth to Heaven having brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel Secondly Christ by his Death hath reconciled God to Men and the Merits of his Cross are the source of their Peace and Righteousness God having made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we should be the Righteousness of God in him In the Third Place Christ is the Dispenser of all those good things which are the effects and consequences of that eternal and new Covenant which he hath brought into the World and sealed with his own Blood upon the Cross all power being giveâ— him both in Heaven and Earth that he might save to the uttermost all that come to God by him Now we think we have great reason to accuse the Roman Church of attributing to the Saints these Functions of the High Priest of the New Covenant For as if the Gospel were not a sufficient Rule to direct us the way to Heaven the Romish Church teaches that her Dominicks Francis's Loyola's c. have received from Heaven Rules more certain and powerful to raise those who follow them to a higher Perfection than those of the Gospel it self And for the proof hereof they produce the Heavenly Visions Divine Apparitions and other Miracles wherewith they pretend God hath honoured the calling of these Founders of Orders Moreover the Romish Church holds that by Christ's Death only our Mortal Sins and the eternal punishment due to them were expiated so that Men must have recourse to other ways of Expiation both for their Venial Sins and the temporal Punishments due to their Mortal ones Therefore was Purgatory invented and to that purpose are likewise applied the Fasts the disciplining Whips the Obits or Offices for the Dead the pious Foundations the Masses and the Canonical Penances injoyned by the Confessors at the Tribunal of Penitence as they call it But the most powerful Machine is the Treasury of Indulgences that Treasury which hath drawn so much Money into the Pope's Exchequer and which they say is silled up with the Overplus of the Satisfactions and Merits of Saints which superabundance is by Indulgences applied either for the expiation of Venial Sins or for a compensation for the temporal Penalties due to Mortal Sins This is the ground of that Prayer which the Priest saith in the Mass when he asks of God the forgiveness of Sins by the Merits of those Saints whose Reliques are at rest under the Altar Finally the Roman Church makes her Addresses to the Saints as to the Dispensers of Heavenly Graces and we might observe a Hundred Places in their Prayer-Books Rituals Breviaries and other Books of their Religion where it plainly appears that they ask of them the forgiveness of Sins the Grace of Perseverance and good Dispositions for Dying well But here perhaps it may be objected that the Church of Rome makes a great difference in its Practice between Christ's Mediation and that of the Saints which is so far from being true that one of her most famous Writers sadly complains that it is evident that most of the People put more trust in the Intercession of the Saints than in Christ's Intercession and that they have recourse with more zeal to their Protection than to the Patronage of that great Redeemer And after all this distinction of Mediator of Redemption and Mediator of Intercession is very injurious to Christ and to the fulness of his Priesthood The Apostle willing to condemn the partialities of the Corinthians some saying they were of Paul and others of Cephas asked them with indignation Have Paul Apollos or Cephas been Crucified for you And may not we then with more reason ask the Doctors of the Romish Church have Francis Dominick or Ignatius Loyola been Crucified for you For Christ's Priesthood comprehends two parts namely Sacrifice and Intercession one upon the Earth and the other in Heaven one on the Cross and the other beyond the Vail in the true and incorruptible Sanctuary that 's to say that his Intercession is nothing but a continuation of his Priesthood and that the reason why he is our Advocate is because he was crucifi'd for us But in what order of Mediators can the Romish Church put St. Christopher St. Longine St. Catharine the eleven thousand Virgins and the Thebean Souldiers since it is plain that at the best they are nothing but meer figments They will not sure offer to own them Mediators of Intercession and therefore they must confess that they have errâ—d and are still in error The Seventh device of the Church of Rome to excuse the Worship they render to Saints iâ— That they would fain perswade us That the Council of Trent hath not determined this Worship to be necessary but only simply declared that it was a good and profitable practice To which it will suffice to oppose this Argument That Practice must needs be held necessary to Salvation for the not observing of which People are declared to be damned Now it is evident that the Church of Rome damns all those who believe that Saints ought not to be prayed to from whence it ought to be inferr'd that the Worship of Saints is according to the Principles of the Roman Church a practice necessary to Salvation The proof for the Minor of this Argument is found in the 25th Session of the Council of Trent where is a Canon that Anathematizeth all those who deny the lawfulness of calling upon Saints conformably to the use and practice of the Roman Church Unless they would say that the Council of Trent did pronounce these Anathemas notwithstanding they were of Opinion that the worshiping of Saints is not a practice necessary to Salvation But while they go about to set off the Wisdom of the Fathers assembled in that Council they are not aware that they accuse them both of Levity and want of Charity in damning Men for things that may be either done or let alone without prejudice to Salvation The Doctors of the Church are hardly put to it to know what things the Council of Trent hath judged Ceremonial and what Dogmatical and Essential to Religion That which gives occasion to these Disputes is That in some States that submitted to the Pope's Authority the Decisions of the Council of Trent have been recieved as to the Dogmatical part of Religion though they will not acknowledge them as to Rites and Ecclesiastical Discipline I shall observe by the by that the Illustrious Peter de Maâ—ca frequently lays iâ— down as a certain Truth That France approved of and received the Council of Trent in the year 79 of the last Age. However we find in the History of the Cardinal Duke of Joyeuse compos'd by Haberi a Barester at the Parliament of Paris a Brief of Pope Paul the V. sent to the Cardinal of
him to convince them of their Errour and to shew them how easily they might be imposed upon in a matter wherein they pretended to so much skill But mistakes of this kind have been yet more frequently made by those who have imployed their-Criticks upon those Heathen Authors which have been left to us either by the Grecian or Latin Antiquity Every Body knows the witty trick Muret put upon Scaliger how he composed some Verses and told him he had found them in an Old Manuscript And how Scaliger who boasted that he was very well â—cquâ—inted with the genius and Style of every Age both in Prose and Verse found immediately an Ancient Author for those Verses of Muret's making And being afterwards informed they were of his composing he revenged himself of him by a Distich upon his Cheat. These feigned and Counterfeit Works were not unknown to Ancient Greece since the Learned of those times made it their Study to find them out Dionysius Longinus made a Treatise upon the same Subject and we should be informed now of a great many Fabulous Relations inserted into Histories had not the ill Fate of Learning deprived us of the Works of that excellent Critick But seeing that Men have naturally a respect for things which belong to Religion one would think that they should not suffer themselves to be mis-led by those who have made it their business to impose upon the World by inventing Fables and Publishing supposititious Ecclesiastical Writings and Transactions Nevertheless by what Misfortune I know not these frauds have been more frequent in the Church than any where else and it is impossible to Summ up the mistakes they have occasioned amongst the Learned in all Christian Societies So many spurious Writings and supposititious Facts were made and Published even in the three first Ages of Christianity that Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium so much esteemed by St. Basil one of the most worthy Fathers of the Church composed a whole Book of them which is cited in the Acts of the Seventh Council There was scarcely any thing to be seen to make use of Fontanel's Words in his History of Oracles but false Gospels false Epistles of the Apostles false Histories of their Lives c. The chief Men of the Church have been sometimes deceived c. They did not always narrowly examine what seemed to favour Religion The heat and fervour they felt when they fought for so good a cause did not always suffer them to chuse the best Weapons And the Distemper was so far from lessening in the following Ages that it still more increased and tâ—e boldness in inventing Fables and Forging false Lives of Martyrs and Saints went so far and became so common that the Church thought it necessary to put a stop to it by the Authority of its Canons For in the Council of Constantinople held in the Year 692 under Justinian the Younger the Church condemned in the 63 d Canon the false Passions and Fabulous Lives of Saints and Martyrs A great number of Learned Men have endeavoured in these latter times to find out these supposititious Writings and to ascribe to every Author the Works belonging properly to him And they would undoubtedly have been more succesful in it had they not been mis led as well as the People by Interest or Partiality For oftentimes both their Minds and Pens are sway'd by prejudice and Passion As if a Work were good or bad Ancient or Modern as it chanced to be look'd upon by Protestant or Popish Eyes false and supposititious if contrary to their Opinions but Ancient and of the true stamp if it proved fovourable to them But though they should be allowed to have been free from Prejudice and Passion yet it is no strange thing to see Men differ in their Judgments This follows necessarily the different applications and Natural inclinations of their minds Some view things only on one side and some on another The greatest part fix themselves before they have well examined all the Reasons that are and may be produced on both sides And sometimes it happens that Men concern themselves for some Works as they do for some Persons without knowing why they are more for those than for the others Hence it is that the Writers of the same Church do not always agree in their Opinions Cardinal Baronius speaks of the Recognitions attributed to St. Clement as of a sink full of filthiness and lies Whereas Bellarmine maintains that they are St. Clement's own or of some other Author as Ancient and as Learned as he The same difference in Opinions is observed amongst the Protestants concerning St. Ignatius's Letters though these Letters are generally and with good reason look'd upon as one of the fairest Monuments of the Apostolick Age. And Mr. Dupin in his Bibliotheca nova sets aside in a hundred places the Judgment and Authority of his Friends Possevinus Sixtus of Siena Rainaldus Bellarmine Labbe and other Writers of his Religion who have Criticis'd upon the Works of the Fathers This shews that the most Learned may sometimes be mistaken in their Judgments upon the Works of the Ancients Nor is this much to be wondered at since the intricacy and confusedness wherewith some Transactions are related and the distance of the time wherein they happened make it a very hard matter for us now to discern Truth from Falshood Criticks borrow most part of their Light from the Quality of the Manuscripts and sometimes these Manuscripts the Antiquity whereof sounds so high with some Men are but Modern Writings And particularly we shall consider in another place wh a Judgment one ought to pass upon a Relation of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion which Peter Francis Chifflet took out of an Ancient Manuscript of St. Claudius's Monastery But 't is now time to come to our Proofs CHAP. V. That St. Eucherius Bishop of Lions â—s not the Author who wrote that Passion of the Thebean Souldiers which both Surius and Baronius have followed THE first proof we bring against the Relation of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion is That it is clear and plain that St. Eucherius Bishop of Lions is not the Author of it and that his Name hath been set to it by some Cheat to gain more Credit thereto from the esteem which the Church always had for the extraordinary Virtues and Merits of this great Prelate To be convinced of this 't will suffice to mention only one passage wherein 't is said of Sigismond King of Burgundy That they never cease Night nor Day to sing Psalms and Hymns in the Monastery of Agaunum And that this Holy Praclice first appointed there by the blessed King and Martyr St. Sigismond is observed there to this very day It visibly appears from this place that when this Relation was made King Sigismond was dead It follows moreover from thence that it must have been compos'd several Years after the Death of this Prince since that Author after he
contradictions Instead of one Thebean Legion which is suppos'd to have suffered Martyrdom he relates the Passions of two Thebean Legions He saith that the Legio Secunda Flavia Constantia Thebaeorum was raised by Constantius and put in the room of the Second Thebean who were Christians and had been Massacred at Treves by Rictiovarus a Prefect of the Emperour Maximian And as for the Legio Secunda Felix Valentis Thebaeorum Pancirollus will have it that the Emperour Valens raised it to make up the loss of the Legion which perished at Agaunum on this side of the Alpes for refusing to take the Military Oaths with the Pagan Ceremonies That which led him into this Errour was his having read in other Legends that Maximian having passed the Alpes made a Detachement of some Cohorts of the Thebean Legion with some other Troops to reinforce the Army wherewith he designed to oppose Carausius Thus this famous Antiquary of these few Cohorts hath made an entire Legion Which is so far from being true that in the following Chapters the same Thebean Souldiers who are now supposed to have been sent against Carausius will furnish us with new proofs against the Martyrdom of the whole Thebean Legion CHAP. XIII That if the History of this Legion were true there would not be so much uncertainty of the time wherein it happened ANother Character of falshood in the History of the Thebean Legion which deserves our observation is the uncertainty and contrariety of the Writers of the Church of Rome concerning the time in which they suppose the Thebean Legion suffered The Martyrdom of a whole Legion is so Memorable an Event that if it were true it would certainly have been written and described in all its circumstances in the Annals of the Church And though the Ecclesastical writers had been so negligent as to be silent therein yet Aurelius Victor Eutropius Jordanes or some other Author would undoubtedly have made amends for this Omission Titus Livius failed not to relate the Tragical end of that Legion whereof all the Souldiers were Condemned to Death for Mutining and possessing themselves of Rhegium during the War of the Romans with Pyrrhus And yet some would have it that Six Thousand Six Hundred Sixty and six Officers and Souldiers were Massacred by the Emperour's Order upon their refusal to swear by his false Gods and to joyn with the other Troops that were Heathens in shedding of Christians Blood though not one word is to be found either in Profane or Ecclesiastical Writers whereby to discover the exact time of an Event which so many circumstances render so extraordinary and wonderful Neither do the ablest writers of the Romish Church agree upon the Year the Pope or the Consul under whom it happened Cardinal Baronius puts their Martyrdom under the Pontificate of Marcelline in which Errour he was followed by two Learned Fathers of the Oratory Namely le Cointe and Morin Anthonius Pagi refers this Martyrdom to the first Years of Emperour The Jesuite Labbe forsakes here the Opinion of his Baronius and 't is he perhaps whom Anthonius Pagi followed His words are these 'T is said that about the Year 286 Sebastianus Tiburtinus Tranquillus Marcellinus Zeus Mauricius and several others with the Thebean Legion suffered Death for the Faith of Jesus Christ at Agaunum at the entrance of the Pennine Alpes This agrees very well with the Pontificate of Cajus and the beginning of the Empire of Dioclesian And whereas Cardinal Baronius refers the Martyrdom of the Thebean Souldiers to the Year 297. it happened according to Father Labbe's computation in the Year 286 viz. immediately after that Carinus was killed and that Dioclesian had taken Maximian into the Government Which if true what will become of Mr. Duchesne's Argument in his History of Popes who to prove that Pope Marcelline did not Sacrifice to Idols in the time of Persecution as is most commonly believed saith that this Pope adminstred the Sacrament of Confirmation to the Thebean Legion when they passed by Rome and earnestly exhorted them to Piety and to perseverance in Religion Here Labbe and Pagi put the Martyrdom of this Legion several Years before the Pontificate of Marcelline In the mean while we may take notice of the extraordinary fair dealing of this Jesuite who does not give us the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion as a thing whereof he himself is very well assured and of which he hath found any Authentick Records and Proofs but only with an It is said or given out and this no doubt he does as being unwilling to vouch for a Relation which he found to be somewhat fabulous Now if it be reply'd that it is not fairly done to deny a matter of Fact meerly because its Epoche is uncertain it may be answered that there is a great deal of difference between one Transaction and another that there are in Ecclesiastical History several Relations of matters of Fact concerning which this Argument would prove of no great force But the Martyrdom of a whole Legion is a thing so extraordinary so singular and so remarkable in it self that the uncertainty of the time in which they say it happen'd makes it very suspitious And for the same Reason several Person doubt of the Dispute of St. Peter with Simon Magus and of the surprizing Death of this wicked Man whom the Devils let fall to the ground after they had born him up for some considerable time in the Air. 'T is true that Eusebius Sulpitius Severus and St. Austin take Notice of this Memorable Event But those who believe it to be false do reply that one ought not always to trust to the Relations of the Ancient Ecclesiastical Authors because the Zeal they had for Religion made 'em not always very Nice in the choice of Proofs and Examples and sometimes they had a mind to oppose one Miracle to another seeing that the whole Pagan Religion was Built upon the Belief of Miracles and the Apparitions of their false Gods They add farther that had this Event happened as it is reported it would have occasioned so much Noise in Rome and through the whole Empire that some Footsteps thereof would have been preserved in the Writings of Pagan Authors And that after all though it was believed by Eusebius Sulpitius Severus and St. Austin this does not make it less dubious since those three Writers do not agree about the time wherein it happn'd Eusebius puts it under the Empire of Claudius St. Austin and several others under that of Nero about the Year of our Lord 67. and Sulpitius Severus refers it to the time when St. Paul came to Rome towards the Year 57. And this is the very argument we urge against the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion CHAP. XIV That the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion cannot be referred either to a General or to a Local and particular Persecution ANother Character of falshood yet more palpable and in the very Fact is this that if
his Expedition into Gaul with the Thebean Legion All which does agree well enough with the time we have assigned for the same Expedition And it is strange that Cardinal Baronius who hath followed the Acts of Surius and ought consequently to have joined the time of the Bagaudian Revolt with that of the Death of the Thebean Souldiers hath notwithstanding this placed their Martyrdom in the Year 297 viz. Twelve Years after Dioclesian had taken Maximian into the Government and sent him into Gaul to suppress the Rebellion of Amandus and Aelianus And since these two Events fell out so well to the purpose one would wonder Father Chifflet should be so transported upon his finding a Manuscript in which there is not a word spoken of the Begauds noâ— of Amandus nor Aelianus if it were not that King Sigismond unluckily appeared there also amongst the rest For as these two concuring Events very much favoured the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion so what is there related of St. Sigismond made it evident that St. Eucherius could not be the Author of the Acts of that Martyrdom since he Dyed several Years before this Prince came into the World Bollandus thought he might save the Credit of this piece prove it to be the work of this Holy Bishop of Lions and remove the Anachronism by saying that there was formerly a Monastery at Agaunum and that King Sigismond only repaired and beautified it But because it is but a poor shift destroyed both by the Acts of Surius and the Accounts which all the Historjans give of that Martyrdom Father Chifflet was overjoyed upon his finding a Manuscript wherein not the least mention is made of King Sigismond or of the Bagaudian Insurrection We have already declared how good an Opinion we have of Father Chifflet's integrity which we don't pretend to retract Nevertheless if he be not the Man who hath helped this place out of the Acts of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion no Body ought to find fault with us if we suspect that some others might have conjured it away Whatsoever may be the Antiquity of Father Chifflet's Manuscrpit sure it is that Impopostors are yet much ancienter than it Now I hope Father Ruinart will not except against us for making some advantage of the Advice he himself gives in his Answer to Mr. Dodwel viz. That the Collectors of the Acts of Murtyrs have frequently added too and lop't off such things as they did not like But let us come now to the Matter it self and examine whether the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion can be made to fall in with Maximian's fourth Expedition into Gaul mentioned by Eutropius and Aurelius Victor The Emperour Dioclesian fearing lest the Gallican Revolt should be of dangerour consequence assumes him into the Government to the end that by his assistance he might with more ease to himself undergo the weight of it He raises an Army with all speed to suppress this threatning Insurrection in its Birth then it is supposed that he sent for the Thebean Legion from the East to serve in the Expedition And yet they needs will have it that having passed the Mountains with them and in a manner facing the Enemy such a Frenzy of superstition on a sudden seized him as made him weaken his Army by the Martyrdom of this whole Legion We took Notice before that the Author of this Romance was not very cautious in observing the Rules of probability But because some things may be true though they do not seem very probable we shall therefore add something of more weight than meer Conjeures for the proof of our Assertion First then let a Man be never so little versed in Roman History he will find no ground there to believe that Maximian being but lately admitted to a share in the Empire should by his own single authority cut off a whole Legion For though Dioclesian had made him Augustus yet were they Masters in Common and joint sharers of the Provinces Arms and Legions of the Empire Galesius and Constantius were the First that shared the Empire This the City of Rome took very ill looking upon it as a diminution of its Power and glory But this sharing of the Empire ending in the Victories which Constantine got over all his Competitors Rome became again the Mistress of the Universe Whereupon the Poet Porphyrius in a Poem which he composed in the 15 th Year of this Prince has these words lacera cruentis Imperii pars fessa Poli diversa gemehat Sâ—eptra Ausoniae moerebat perdita jura During the Division of the Empire each Emperour acted as he pleased in his own District and was under no obligation to Communicate his Affairs and Conduct to the other Emperours whereas when the Empire was possessed jointly by two or three Emperours they Consulted one another in all Affairs of Importance because each had an equal right to the whole Aequo Jure as Eutropius saith speaking of Marcus Aurelius and of Lucius Verus Whence we may judge if it be possible in reason to suppose that Maximian would of his own head have Commanded a whole Legion to be put to Death and without so much as Consulting Dioclesian have allarm'd all the Christians throughout the Empire by so violent a Persecution 'T is true indeed if the loss of a whole Legion cut off by the Command of a Cholerick and Enraged Prince were to be look'd upon as a trifling matter and of no consquence to the State there would have been no great need for Maximian upon this occasion to have ask'd the Advice of his Colleague but I question much whether any considering Person will think it so Secondly Let us reflect upon what the Historians tell us of the Reign of Dioclesian and Maximian till the time they begun to persecute the Christians and we shall find that they represent those times to us as times of Ease and Plenty and they speak of their Government as managed with Clemency and Moderation Matermin tells Maximian that no sooner had the Light of his Government shined upon the Empire but it overspread all places with peace and security Eusebius in the 12 th and 13 th Chapter of the 8 th Book of his Church-History cannot forbear making frequent mention of the Happiness which both the Church and Empire enjoyed before Dioclesian and Maximian had resolved to Exterminate the Christians Who can express saith he the Prosperity and Plenty which the Empire enjoyed so long as those who Governed were well and kindly affected towards us He had said before we want Words to express the great value and esteem which the Doctrine of our Blessed Saviour met with amongst the Greeks and Barbarians and the perfect Liberty and Tranquility which the Professours of it enjoyed before the Persecution which was raised against the Church in our Days The particular affection the Emperours shewed towards those of our Religion and the Honour they did them in conferring
Legion be of more Weight and Consideration then that of a whole Army Secondly Sulpitius Severus speaking of the persecution which Marcus Aurelius rais'd against the Christians saith That that was the first time that Martyrs were known to have suffered in Gaule Christianity having been received somewhat late beyond the Alpes From which words we may very reasonably infer That it is not likely that when Dioclesian admitted Maximian to a Partnership in the Government the Christians were so numerous as to form an Army But if to destroy this consequence and the Authority of Sulpitius Severus it be reply'd that there is no likelyhood that the Gospel was preached so late in France a Country so near adjoining to Italy since in the time of Marcus Aurelius the Apostles and their Disciples had published it in the most distant parts of the World we will oppose nothing to this Answer that may any way detract from the Antiquity of the French Churches For besides that this would carry us too far beyond our purpose the Persecution which their unworthy Posterity have raised against us shall never lessen that high and just respect and veneration we have always had for the first Churches of the Gauls But suppose it were True that St. Luke St. Philip St. Paul Crescent and some other Disciples of Christ did Preach the Gospel in Gaule and let it be suppos'd likewise That it is not without ground that Vienna Lions Aix Narbonne Sens Paris Reims Limoges and Toulouse do boast of having received the Christian Religion from the Apostles and Apostolical Men yet all this would not suffice unless we should also further suppose that these first Preachers left there both Successors and very great numbers of Converts Nay indeed it ought to be made out That their Preaching proved very effectual and made considerable progress every where But if none but well approved Acts must be trusted this matter will prove of greater difficulty than may at first be imagined The Assembly of the French Clergy having ordered all the Bishops to send Memoirs to the Messicurs of St. Marthe concerning the Foundations and Antiquity of the Churches of their Dioceses these learned Men made to these Memoirs several Additions and Discoveries of their own and at last caused those large Volumes of theirs of Christian France to be Printed 'T is true we find in them that the Christian Religion was Preached in Gaule very early by the Apostles and their Disciples and we believe That in that respect the Titles of the Gallican Churches are as good as those of many other Churches that flatter themselves with the like belief of their having been honoured with the Presence and the Preaching of some or other of the Apostles who came there in Person But if you strictly and impartially consider the Works of Messicurs de St. Marthe after the Apostolick Age you fall into a kind of Wilderness a large waste of almost 250 years fill'd up with nothing but fabulous Legends and uncertain Traditions except the Relations of some few Martyrs as those of Lions who shine as Stars in so profound and long a Darkness all the rest being made up of nothing but groundless Suppositions or Acts that may easily be proved to be spurious I have by me the Original Copy of the Memoirs which Artus de Lion Bishop of Gap sent to Mrs. de St. Marthe written by himself and signed with his own hand Where he proves that St. Demetrius Disciple of the Apostles was Bishop of Gap and gives two Reasons for it the First is That before the Protestants had pull'd down the Episcopal Palace in the year 1577 there were seen upon the Walls of the great Hall the Images of the Bishops of Gap and that St. Demetrius was at the head of them with these Words Saint Demetrius the First Bishop of the Church of Gap and Disciple of the Apostles And that by the Grace of God they had yet an Eye Witness of it in their Chapter namely Mr. Paul of Bauvais who when he wrote these things was in the hundredth year of his Age. The other Authority he produces is taken out of a Berviary which Bertrand of Champeaux Bishop of Gap caused to be Printed in the year 1499 where St. Demetrius is placed in the Calender on the 26th of October with the Character of Bishop and Martyr and the Word totum Duplex which according to the use of the Church of Gap signifies the same as according to the use of the Council of Trent Duplex primae Classis which is proper to the Festivals of Patrons and Titulars of Churches After these so special and convincing proofs who would venture now to deny that St. Demetrius Disciple of the Apostles did plant the Faith in the Diocess of Gap That Breviary of Gap Printed in the Year 1499. is a curious Piece indeed We read there in the. 8th Lesson of St. Demetrius's Office speaking of the Etymology of that Saint's Name that Demetrius ex eo dictus quia de Medio id est de Mundo triumphavit And in the fourth Lesson that the City of Gap having been taken by the Sarazens Count William beat them out of it and gave the half thereof for the Redemption of his Soul to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Year of our Lord 86 on the Kalends of January in the fifth Indiction Though it is well known to every body that the use of the Indictions did not begin till three Hundred Years after Christ and that the Sarazens did not make Inruptions into Gaule till several years after Should we come to Examine narrowly the traditional Origins of most Gallican Churches we should not I think find much more solidity in any of them And especially we may observe that after the First Age there happened to that kind of Traditions such an Eclipse or Discontinuation that they do'nt appear again till after the time of the General Persecution And yet notwithstanding if we believe Mezeray and take his Anonimous Writer's bare word for it the Christians made a figure great enough at that time in Gaule to raise whole Armies against the Emperours However there is no need of straining very much for to preserve to the Churches of France their Antiquity and to Sulpitius Serverus the Authority he deserves in a matter of this nature For though the Apostles and their Disciples had preached the Christian Religion in Gaule very early yet this blessed Seed as well as that in the Parable was soon after choak'd by thorns and sprung not up again till a long time after so that it was very late before it came to any considerable Maturity there Gregory of Tours gives us this way of saving both the Authority of Sulpitius Severus and the Antiquity of the Gallick Church who saith that about the Year 250 under the Reign of Decius the City of Toulouse had Saturnine for its Bishop and that he came from Rome with six others to preach
the Gospel in Gaule Viz. Gatian at Tours Trophimus at Arles Paul at Narbonne Dionysius at Paris Astremonicus at lermont and Martial at Limoges These are then the new Evangelists sent in the time of Decius to re-kindle the Light of the Gospel in Gaule which had been so long extinguished there From whence it may be gathered that the Christian Religion had not then made any great progress amongst the Gauls since in the Year of our Lord two hundred and fifty there was need to preach it a fresh there and even at Narbonne and Arles Citys rather belonging to Italy then to Gaule and which Sulpitius meant not to speak of if we may believe Father Pagi How is it possible then to imagin that four Years after the Reign of Decius the Christians should be so multiply'd in Gaule as to be in a condition to make up vast Armys and those so formidable as to strike a terrour into Rome it self and to perplex its Emperours This they would fain perswade us by Asserting peremptorily that the Bagauds were Christians and that Maximian destroy'd the Theb. Legion for no other reason but because he was afraid They should joyn with them But Thirdly They are at a very great loss for Arguments to prove the Martyrdom of their Theb. Legion when they are forced to this shift of supposing those Bagauds to have been Christians For they cast no small blemish upon the Ancient Gallican Church who fix such a Character upon her Sons besides they are very much unacquainted with the Morals of the Christians of those Primitive Ages who think they were capable of such injustice and violences as the Bagauds stand charg'd with in History Therefore Mezeray receiving the Bagauds into the Church thought fit to clear them from these odious Aspersions and to justify their proceedings Who knows saith he but that having suffer'd so many horrible Persecutions their Patience turn'd at last into a just Fury in arming themselves both against the Torments and the Tormentors Bucherius endeavours likewise to excuse them saying That the Bagauds were moved to a Rebellion which was in a manner just by reason of the Crueltys and Tyranical Impositions of their Governours Salvianus did the same before them whom perhaps they have both followed He saith That the Bagauds oppressed by their unjust Judges lost all respect for the Majesty of the Empire because they had been Stript of the Rights and Priviledges of Roman Liberty In short the Emperor Augustus the better to procure himself the good Affection of the Gauls had granted to some of them the Roman to others the Latine and to others again the Italic Laws and Liberties Whence Salvian took occasion to say We call the Bagauds Rebels and Profligate Villains when 't is we that have hurried them into these Outrages For how came they to be Bagauds but by our own injustice by our proscriptions of their Persons and violent Vsurpations of their Estates and this is the effect of their being condemned to death and hang'd for the Robberies of their Judges That they are now become like Barbarians because they were not suffered before to live like Romans That Priest of Marseilles who wrote about the year of Our Lord 495 adds several other things whereby the Crimes and Violences which were imputed to the Bagauds are laid to the Charge of the Governours of the Gauls of their Judges and of the Collectors of the Taxes But he never speaks the least Word from whence we may conclude that the Bagauds were Christians but on the contrary his way of speaking on their behalf shews plaingly enough that they did not profess the Christian Religion we need only compare his Apology with those of Athenagoras of St. Austin of Tertullian and especially of Arnobius who lived at the time of the Bagaudian Revolt These Fathers speak of nothing so much as of the Piety Meekness Charity and Innocence of those happy Ages of the Church Whereas Salvian Apologizes for the Bagauds by excusing their Crimes of Injustice Violence and Rebellion Were that true which Mezeray saith of them perhaps Eutropius and Aurelius Victor would have told us something concerning their Religion Prosper might also have taken some notice of it since he makes mention of them in his Chronology so likewise Eumenius in his Panegyrick wherein he informs us that the Bagauds having besieged Autun that City implored the Emperour's Assistance But it is most incredible that Marmertine would have been silent in this Matter in the Panegyrick which he made at Treves in praise of the Emperour Maximian Mr. Cuper saith that he made it in the year 288. The Learned Henry Norris puts it a year later in his curious Dissertations upon the Medal of Dioclesian and Maximian Howsoever it be Mamertine made this publick Speech but few years after the defeat of the Bagauds wherein he endeavours to quicken his discourse by drolling upon their Army and makes a meer jest of it That a Crew of ignorant Rusticks should pretend to the Exercise of Arms and Military Discipline that the Plowman should change his Goad for a Pike the Shepherd leave his Flock to turn Trouper and that the Husband man should plunder and waste his own Estate and destroy the Fruits of his own Labour with as little concern as the most Barbarous Enemy would have done From which sharp and pungent Expressions One may give a shrewd Guess at what he would have added had the Bagauds professed the Christian Religion President Fauchet is One of the French Writers who hath made the greatest discoveries in the Gallick Antiquities But it does not appear that he was of Opinion that the Bagauds were Christians for he saith of them The Gauls being overburdened with publick Subsidies and Taxes rose up in Arms in the year of our Lord 290 or thereabouts under the conduct of Amandus and Aelianus and took the Name of Bagauds which some say signifies in the old Gallick Language Forced Rebels or Traitors and some are of Opinion that they were all Peasants and will have it That the VVord Bagaud signifies Tribute the heavy Taxes being in some parts of France not many years ago called Bagoges These troubles were appeased by Maximian Dioclesians Partner in the Empire Joseph Scaliger saith That Bagaud is not a French VVord but the Name of a Faction or People and that ever since the time of Dioclesian the Highway-men and Robbers were call'd Bagauds Which agrees with what Aurelius Victor saith That Amandus and Aelianus gathered together great numbers of Peasants and Robbers And that which shews it to be the Name of a Faction or Party according to Joseph Scaliger's Observation is that Idacius in his Chronology speaks of the Bagauds who mutined in Spain in the Province of Tarragonia under the Kings Rechila and Theodoricus 'T is also very likely that they wandred from one Countrey to another as the Hordes of the Tartars do
This Conjecture is seconded by what Prosper tells us of a Physician nam'd Eudoxius who took shelter in the Bagaud which then had changed Station And because perhaps they lived in Tents their Name might well be derived from thence since Amerbachius remarks that formerly the Tents were call'd Baugas Menage in his Origines of the French Tongue saith That Ciron fetched the term Bagaud from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies in Suidas to live a Vagabond or rambling Life and that Mr. Bochart derived it from the Hebrew Bagad which signifies saith he to revolt though it is properly used for Perfidious He relates besides one of the Memoirs which Mr. Dupuy communicated to him upon the Names which divers Nations and People have given to the Gangs of Robbers or Highway-men where the Bagauds seem to Answer to the Vscoks of Dalmatia the Cosaks of Poland the Heydukes of Hungary the Arabs of Africa and the Pyrenean Mikelets So that it makes doubtless very much to the honour of the Ancient Gallican Church to maintain that those Bagauds professed the Christian Religion Thus we see what poor shifts they are forc'd to make use of in defending the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion when they find themselves oblig'd to assert that the best and most Ancient Christians were Banditi Rebels and Rapperies And besides let the say what they will they shall never perswade us that in the Church of the Third Century there were sufficient numbers of these goodly Christians to make up an Army So that upon the whole it seems much better to reject as we do the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion as a groundless Romance then to cast such a scandal upon the primitive and golden Ages of the Church But had Mazeray and the other Writers read with attention the fifth Book of Salvian in which he deplores the sad misfortune and miseries of Gaule they would never have imagin'd that the Bagauds had been Christians The Christians being there very numerous in his time and involved in publick calamities Salvian represents them as Persons of a Spirit and Principles quite different from those which Mezeray attributes to the Bagauds VVhat place is there saith he where the Magistrates and Governours of Towns do not devour the entrails of the Widows and Orphans nay and even of the Saints too with whom they deal in like manner because either the love they have for their Religion hinders them from making any resistance or their innocence and humility does not leave them the power to do it This was the true Spirit of the Ancient Galican Church and we ought rather to follow Salvian who lived nearer to those first times of Christianity then Mazeray and the Legend-Writers who say that the Christians in Gaule rose up in Arms and that Maximian caused the Theb. Legion to be put to the sword for fear they should joyn with and strengthen that Party Nevertheless it is Universally believed as a certain Truth not only at Turin but throughout all Italy All the Modern Writers speak of it after the same manner and all the Preachers on the Festival of the Theb. Soulders do from their Pulpits deliver it so to the People After the very same manner Emmanuel Tesauro famous for several of his other Works and especially his History of the Kings of Lombardy relates the matter in the account he gives of the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion in his History of the City of Turin Printed in â—olio where he saith that at the Place where St. Mauritius's Town now stands there was an Altar upon which the Emperour Maximian commanded all the Souldiers of his Army to sacrifice to Jupiter and swear hostilety against the Christians But Mezeray Tesauro and all the others have been led into this mistake by the Acts of the Martyrs of Agaunum For those Acts in Surius's Copy and in that of Chisslet do attribute the cause of their Death to their refusal to go and persecute the Christians in Gaule There it is said that they together with the rest of the Army were Commanded to persecute the Christians and that they alone refused to Execute that Bloody Order And a little after it follows that the Emperour having commanded the whole Theb. Legion to be decimated sent new Orders to force all those who were left to promise that they would persecute the Christians But this chiefly appears in the Speech the Theb. Souldiers are made to speak to Maximian wherein the Author of these Acts hath displayed all his Wit and Rhetorick We offer you say they the best Service our hands can perform against all your enemies whatsoever but we look upon it as the blackest of crimes to imbrue them in innocent blood These hands know how to fight against VVicked men and Rebels to the Empire but they have never yet learned to destroy good Men and loyal Subjects c. You command us to go and seck for the Christians that they may be brought to punishment but there is no need for you to make these enquiries any further for here we our selves are Christians and do confess God the Father the Author of aâ— things Jesus Christ his Son and the Holy Ghost This one particular related in all the Acts of the Agaunian Martyrs to wit that Maximian's Army was ordered to persecute the Christians and to punish their Rebellion shews evidently the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion to be but a counterfeit Story Such a studied and pathetick Speech as this which they are made to deliver to the Emperour is another proof of the Forgery of their Acts. These little School Declamations would have been very unbecoming the mouths of dying Christians and Martyrs whose minds were wholely taken up with the thoughts of another Life Whensoever such Speeches as these are found in the Acts of Martyrs we may well conclude that either those Acts are counterfeit or that those Speeches were added to them by some Christians of the following Ages The true Acts of Martyrs are those that have been taken out of the publick Registers Church-Offices and Proconsular Acts. Now after the Stentence of Death pronounced against the Christians it was not usual amongst the Romans to insert or add to them any thing more in the publick Registers The Opinion of Mezeray upon this matter is so just and so rational That it is well worth reciting In all the Authentick Acts of Martyrs saith he you will find an ardent Charity for God and their Brethren a modesty and humility so much the greater by how much they were more constant and worthy of Glory an entire confidence in the Grace of God an extream diffidence of their own Weakness much Meekness and Compassion for those who were fallen great Wisdom and Strength and above all continual Prayers to God All which godly dispositions render those other Acts which make Martyrs utter long Speeches and elaborate Discourses Invectives and Threatnings justly suspected Fourthly since Mezeray was
the Bishop of St. Pons and taking occasion from the Feast of the Immaculate Conception to speak of the Honours due to the Blessed Virgin he carry'd them as far as Bonaventure Bernardine and Crasseâ— But at last the Archdeacon's Appeal was declared frivolous and faulty The Bishop of St. Pons was maintained in the power which the Councils of the Gallican Church gave to their Bishops of making a Calendar and regulating the Church Service of their Diocess And this Sentence was the effect of the Virtue and Honesty of the first President who without contradiction was a Great Magistrate and worthy of a better Age. I have related these Facts upon this Account only that they of the Romish Religion who may read this Work of mine may see that I had reason to question the Truth of the Acts of some of their Saints since some of the greatest Men of their Communion have done the same and do agree that many false ones are found amongst them And if some Preachers should not like our Endeavours in exposing the Falshood of the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion because hereby they find themselves at a loss for want of so many fine Passages elevated thoughts and an Example so moving and ready at hand whenever they had a mind to exhort their Hearers to patience and perseverance in the Faith we need only to recommend them the reading their Eusebius wherein they shall find great numbers of true Martyrs whose Examples are much more instructive and fit to move the affections then the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion is pretended to be It is neither Arthur of Britain nor the Roland of Ariosto nor the Renaldo of Tasso which those who are intrusted with the first Education and Instruction of young Princes do propose to them for a Pattern of Imitation but those Heroes who had a real being in the world such as Scipio Hanibal and Augustus In like manner Church History being full of the glorious Conflicts and great Examples of the Piety of true Martyrs Christian Princes would betray the Holiness of their Ministry did they propose to their People false Martyrs and Counterband Saints as Mr. de Valois us'd to call them CHAP. XIX That the Fabulous Relations of the pretended Agaunian Martyrs and other fictitious Saints are sufficient to destroy all the Reasons brought by the Roman Church to justify the VVorship they pay to Saints THE first shift of the Romish Church in this matter is to distinguish Worship into Absolute and Relative Mediate and Immediate They say that God alone ought to be the Object of absolute and immediate Worship but that the Relative and Mediate Worship may be paid to Saints and Angels since it passeth only through them and terminates in God That this is but a mere Evasion our Writers have shewed a thousand times And more than that they have proved that upon Examination of the Matter of Fact it is not true neither that the Romish Church renders to the deceased Saints only mediate and relative Honours For this distinction hath place only in their Schools being no way discernible in their Practice They make no distinction as to Place since they worship both God and the Saints in the same Churches nor in respect of time for as God hath his so the Saints have likewise their Holy-days nor yet in the Church-Service since the Saints are mentioned four or five times in the Service of the Mass which they offer most immediately to God nay not so much as in the bodily Postures of the Worshippers since they fall down on their Knees and make the same bodily Prostrations before God and his Saints Neither can it be distinguish'd in the quality of their Petitions since they who pray to Saints ask pardon of them for their Sins and the Grace of the Holy Ghost No more is it in the multitude of their Prayers for they will say ten Ave Maria's to one Pater noster So that the Saints do if I may so say reap all the Worship of the Roman Religion and God who should gather the whole hath only the Tithe of it This distinction therefore hath place no where but in Disputes no real difference being perceivable between the Honours paid to God and the Saints Our Writers have likewise discussed the Question de Jure viz. whether it be lawful to bestow upon the Creatures a Worship which terminates in God Their Writings are full of good Reasons shewing that religious Worship is the Glory of God's Excellency and that not so much as the least portion of this Glory can be bestow'd upon the Saints without provoking the anger of that Jealous God 'T is true that in coming near to God to know him we may make use of the Creatures as steps to the knowledge of Him But when we approach God in the duty of Worship all our Thoughts Attention and Affections ought wholly to be fix'd upon him alone We ought then to banish the thoughts of all created beings out of our Minds and so to Bless Pray to and Worship him as if there were none but He and We in the World But when all is done what use soever they may make in their Disputes of the distinction of Worship into Absolute and Relative 't is certain the Doctors of the Roman Church can make none of it when we charge them with calling upon such Saints as never had any being in the World such for instance as St. Longinus St. Christopher St. Catharine the eleven thousand Virgins and the Souldiers of the Thebean Legion They cannot surely have the face to say That the Worship paid to these pretended Saints hath any relation to God or terminates in him And therefore they ought to confess that their Church hath erred and is yet in errour Secondly The Romish Doctors to justifie the Worship they pay to the Saints say that all their Prayers to them do amount to no more according to the intention of their Church than barely to desire them that they would please to pray to God for them To which it hath been replyed and abundantly proved that the Use and Form of the Terms do determine the quality of Prayers and not the Intention of the Church that if the Matter or the Form of Prayers be faulty it is not the Intention of the Church that can rectify them and that the Common People mind only the literal signification of Prayers and never think while they are pronouncing them of giving a Catholick sense to Idolatrous Expressions Why then do they put so many ignorant People in danger of making unlawful Prayers Why do they give Protestants so great an occasion of Scandal Why do they not take out of their Prayer-Books and Breviaries all those Forms of Prayer in which they ask the Saints to have mercy on them to cleanse them from their Sins by their Merits to illuminate their hearts and to excite in them a true Repentance If this Principle of the Roman Church had any
Joyeuse Bishop of Ostia above five and fourty Years after the time when Mâ—uns de Marca saith That France received the Council of Trent wherein this Pope complains very bitterly of the refusal which they still made in France to approve this Council and to submit to its Decisions Whatsoever it is most of the Doctors of the Romish Church do agree that to know the difference which the Council of Trent hath put between things dogmatical pertaining to Religion and things meerly ritual and belonging to Discipline the most certain Rule to judge by is the Anathemas that are fasten'd on them And therefore since that Council hath Anathematiz'd all those who do not approve the Worship of Saints it follows that the Fathers of that Council did look upon this Worship as a thing of great moment and necessity in Religion and not as one of those Practices and Ceremonies which though they be allowed to be very good and profitable yet may be left out or changed at the will and pleasure of the Pope and Church But let them say what they please certain it is that the Romish Church does not only believe that it is necessary to Salvation to call upon Saints but is moreover bound to believe so And their Doctors pretend that this piece of service to Saints is commanded in the Scripture wresting I know not how many Texts to make them apparently comply with their fancy and utter what they would be at Now if we believe that God hath commanded a Worship there is no doubt but we ought also to believe that we cannot omit the peformance thereof without puting our Salvation to stake But what can they say for those Services that are established in so many places to the honour of such Saints as owe all their being to the forgeries of a parcel of Monks and the credulity of a deluded People Whereas instead of declaring these Practices to be necessary the Church of Rome ought to acknowlege that they fall short of being even good and profitable And therefore that Church must confess that it hath erred and is yet involved in error The Eight Shift is that of some Doctors of the Romish Church who do deplore the excess that the Worshiping of Saints is grown to and protest altogether that if in some places some Saints that never were are Worshiped they are but local practices tolerated though not approved by the Church This is the Rock on which do split every day the Learning Piety Knowledge and Conscience of many Ecclesiasticks in the Church of Rome who being desirous of Salvation and having made a considerable study in Religion yet comparing the mischief of that false Worship with the consequences of a Separation think it much safer for their Souls to live in a corrupted Church and to groan under its Errors than to make a breach of Charity by separating from its Communion In which they are like those cowardly and unworthy Citizens who while a generous Deliverer hazards his Fortune and his Life to preserve to them both their Laws and Country are content with folded Arms to wish him good success and prosperity and if he chances to fail in the attempt will also bewail and pity him Of which sort of People a great Man used to say that they were the most useless of all Friends for that having the Vertue of wishing us well and shedding some tears for us they had not yet courage enough to afford us their Assistance For indeed all these good Wishes and Lamentations are no remedy to the misfortunes of a Church or Country Works they are and honest endeavours which God requires at our hands and not timorous Wishes and unprofitable Vows If some of the Romish Party do sigh at the sight of a Worship which they think dishonourable to their Church why do they not likewise joyn with those who apply themselves to reform it I believe there are but few very amongst them who have not heard of the wholsom Advices of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her Indiscreet Votaries and of the Pastoral Letter which a Bishop of France adjoyn'd thereto recommending them to the perusal and practice of all the good Christians of his Diocess This was just the time and a fair occasion for those Doctors who bewail so much in private the Abuses of their Church to appear and to speak had not some unworthy considerations stop'd them in the way and made them Speechless The Prelates the Universities Rome it self condemned those wholesom Advices no body having Piety and Courage enough to defend them while Error and Falshood found a World of Zealous Protectors Crasset a Jesuite stood in the defence of all the Excesses of the Bonaventures and Bernardines And the Sorbonne by giving their Approbation to his Works condemned likewise both the wholesom Advices and the pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Tournay How can they say then that most of those things which we find fault with in the Church of Rome are but local Practices or Excesses only tolerated and not approved by the Church Those very things which we disallow are of such a nature that a bare toleration of them hath the force of an Approbation For they are not Dogmatical Errours nor empty Speculations but Errours in the Practice and False worship in the publick Service of Religion Which whenever a Christian Society does tolerate it gives thereby a sufficient ground to believe that it approves them likewise Yet had not all our just Complaints upon this matter power enough to induce the Commissioners of the Index Expurgatorius to expunge the scandalous Excesses of their Bonaventure Bernardine of Siena and Gabriel Biel. The Congregation of the Holy Office and that de Ritibus are very well informed of the Honours paid in divers Places to the Souldiers of the Thebean Legion But let the Protestants prove as clear as the Day the Forgery of their Martyrdom these imaginary Beings consecrated by a blind Superstition are permitted notwithstanding still to retain all the Deferences of Honour and Worship formerly paid to them A Ninth evasion of the Romish Party is that we cannot they say condemn their worshipping of Saints without involving both the Fathers the Church of the first Ages and the most ancient Christians in the same Condemnation But this Accusation which they enter against us with so much confidence is wholly groundless The truth is that in the times of St. Basil St. Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen in the East of St. Ambrose St. Jerom St. Austin and St. Paulinus in the West some Practices may be observed which have been in the After-Ages the Origine of the false Worship paid to the Saints The People beginning then to esteem a little too much of their Reliques they flock'd from all parts to their Sepulchers and with an extraordinary zeal they celebrated the memorial of them the Preachers in the mean time by Rhetorical Figures directing their Speech to them in such manner as if
immediately to God for us is a high Injury offered to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ Now as to his third Tenet viz. That the Saints have not the Power to convey to us those Graces which we want and that we ought not so much asto look upon them as the occasional Causes of them if this opinion of his be true what will become of so many Litanies and Prayers set down in the Popish Breviaries and in their Prayer and Mass-Books in which they ask the Saints to cleanse them from all their Sins to preserve them from the Sicknesses of the Spirit to inflame their hearts with the Fire of Charity to deliver them from Hell-fire to open the Gates of Heaven to them and to make them sit on Thorns with the glorious Company of the Blessed above c. Lastly if according to Malbranche's fourth and fifth Principles all the good Services which the Saints are able to do are only to move and excite Christ's desires towards us and to give us ease in our Afflictions or afford us a good Crop he Asserts these last Tenets in so dubious a manner and so faintly though upon any other matter he uses to be very Vigorous and Positive that it is an easy thing to discern that he himself is not very well convinced of it 'T is saith he The Opinion of the Church that the Saints do know all our wants We may pray to the Saints that they be pleased to stir up the desires and the Charity of Jesus Christ One Saint perhaps is more in Favour and hath more Access to Christ upon his own Holy-day than at another time or than another Saint It may be also that they have the power of healing our Sicknesses or of procuring us a plentiful Year We see by these shy and uncertain expressions how hard he is put to it to reconcile his Opinions with the Doctrine and Practice of his Church For indeed there is a palpable incompatibility of his Principles with that Religious Worship which the Romish Church pays to the Saints And we need only to examin the Principles which he had already laid before viz. That the Church by praying to the Father through the Son does acknowledge the Son to be equal and of one substance with the Father For if he were not so saith he we could not call upon him And likewise he had already said that the Father hath tyed his Blessings and Treasures to Christ's Desires and that this is the Reason why we ought to adore the Father and to call upon Christ But what he after adds deserves especially our consideration namely that these Desires of Christ are the desires of his human Will that his Flesh is the Principle of these Desires which make all the riches of the Church and the Sanctification of the Elect And that this is the reason why Religion teaches us to Address sometimes our Prayers to the Father because if we never did invocate any but Christ by reason of those Priviledges which God hath by an eternal Decree adapted to his Desire to those human desires he saith which do proceed from the Child of the Blessed Mary we should be in danger of adhering to Christ as he is a Man and of trusting in his Flesh with the same kind of Love and Trust which we owe only to the Infinite and Soveraign Being We may easily perceive that this way of reasoning is quite contrary to the Doctrine of the Roman Church and to that Worship it renders to Saints The Esteem indeed which I have for Great Men is such that I cannot forbear having also a kind of respect even for their odd fancies and by-ways of Writing which made me take notice by the by of Father Malbranchâ— his System concerning the worshipping of Saints though I know in the bottom of it there is no more reality than in a shadow or dream But after all should we suppose his Opinion to be not altogether groundless who would venture to say that supposititious Saints such as we have proved those of the Theb. Legion to be can move and excite Christs desires Therefore the Roman Church ought to confess that she hath erred in permitting and approving the Worship which is paid to them FINIS Some BOOKS Printed for R. Bently Books in Folio 1. BEaumont's and Fletcher's Plays in one Volume containing 51. Plays 2. Mr. William Shakespear's Plays in one Volume 3. Towerson's Works compleat in one Volume 4. Dr. Allestry's Sermons in one Volume 5. Dr. Comber's Works the four Parts in one Volume 6. The Council of Trent By Father Paolo 7. Toriano's Italian Dictionary 8. Mr. Milton's Paradice lost with 13 Copper Cuts finely engraven to express the whole Poem 9. Milton's Paradice Regain'd in the same Volume Paper and Print to bind with it 10. Fodina Regalis or the History of the Laws of Mines By Sir John Pettus 11. Bishop Brownrig's Sermons Books in Quarto 1. The Burnt Child dreads the Fire 2. A Treatise of our Sanguinary Laws against Papists 3. Dr. Whitby's Answer to S. Cressy 4. Mr. Nathanael Lee's Plays in one Volume 5. Mr. Thomas Otway's Plays in one Volume Books in Octavo 1. Dr. Whitby Of Idolatry 2. Dr. Whitby of Host-Worship 3. The Life of the Marshâ—l Turenns 4. The Secret History of the House of Medicis 5. Cronelius Agrippa Of the Vanity of Arts and Sciences 6. Mauger's French Grammar Edit 13. 7. Lipsius Of Constancy 8. Agiates Queen of Sparta 9. Nicorotis 10. Plurality of Worlds Translated by Mr. Glanvil 11. Boyle's Art of Poetry Traslated by Mr. Soames 12. Poems and Songs by Mr. Cuts 13. Sir James Chamberlain's Poems 14. Mr. Coppinger's Poems 15. Madam Colonna's Memoirs 16. Hudibras compleat in Three Parts 17. Seneca's Morals By Sir Roger L' Estrange 18. Comber's Companion to the Altar 19. Godfrey of Boloign A Poem 20. Plato's Apology of Socrates 21. Natural History of the Passions Books in Duodecimo 1. Present state of England 2. Enter into thy Closet 3. Moral Essays in Four Volumes 4. A perfect School of Instructions for the Officers of the Mouth 5. A Prospect of Human Misery 6. Vanity of Honour Wealth and Pleasure 7. Bishop Andrew's Devotions 8. Covent-Garden Drollery 9. Zelinda A Romance 10. Happy Slave 11. Hatige or the King of Tameran 12. Homais Queen of Tunis 13. Triumphs of Love 14. Obliging Mistress 15. Uufortunate Hero 16. Countess of Salisbury 17. Count Teckely 18. Essex and Elizabeth 19. The Pilgrim 20. The Empire betray'd by whom and how 21. The Character of Love 22. Don Henrick 23. Princess of Fez. 24. Marce Christianissimus 25. Gallant Ladies in two Parts 26. Victorious Lovers 27. Love in a Nunnery 28. Duke of Lorain 29. Minority of St. Lewis 30. Queen of Majorca 31. Count de Soysons 32. Clytie 33. Dialogues of the Dead in Two Parts 34. Neapolitan Or the Defender of his Mistress 35. Instructions for a young Nobleman 36. Five Love-Letters from a Nun to a Cavalier 37. Five
good foundation I don't see why she might not as well have put an Arrian Creed into her Liturgy with a warning to her Children to follow her Intentions and give an Orthodox sense to that Heretical-Creed It would prove a hard matter to reduce to an Orate pro nobis that Prayer used at the Consecration of their Altars Sanctify O Lord this Stone to thine Honour to the Honour of the Virgin Mary and to the Honour of all Saints You see here the Saints and the Blessed Virgin joyn'd equally with God Mons de le Habespine Bishop of Orleans hath laboured in vain to justify this Prayer And from hence we must necessarily conclude that the Romish Church pays to the Saints a Religious Worship of the same nature with that which she gives to God For otherwise Bellarmine does not argue well when he proves from the Form of Baptism that the Holy Ghost being joined therein with the Father and the Son ought therefore to be esteemed God as well as the Father and the Son Go and Baptise all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost But what can the Romish Church reply when it is objected that she prays to Saints who never had any being as St. Christopher St. Catharine the eleven thousand Virgins and the Souldiers of the Theb. Legion Let these Prayers be reduced as much as they please to the general Spirit of the Church yet she cannot justify them and therefore she must confess that she hath erred and is yet in error Thirdly They of the Church of Rome to excuse the Worship they pay to the Saints say That they pray to them in the same manner as we pray our living Brethren to intercede for us But had they not thus explain'd their meaning by the Bishop of Meaux's Pen we would hardly believe that they were in good earnest What! Is there then no difference between the Prayers which the Sick Protestants desire to be made for them in their Churches that God would comfort and relieve them in their several necessities and those which the Papists direct to their Saints When the Protestants desire these Offices of Charity of their Brethren do they ask them after the same manner and in the same order as the Romish Church implores the Intercession and Assistance of her Saints Do they consecrate Holy-days and Altars to them Build them Churches Make Vows and Pilgrimages to their Honour Do they light Wax-candles before their Images Approach them with Censers Present them with Offering And make Processions and Confraternities in honour of their Memories Quite contrary Our Brethren are there present with us where they see our necessities with their own Eyes and we desire them to joyn with us in Prayer We don't look upon them as if they were of a superior Order to us but as Fellow Labourers subject to the same weaknesses and infirmities as we are and thereby ingaged to compassionate our sufferings Our practice is authorized by the Example of the Faithful of all Ages and by the express command of the Apostle St. James who exhorteth us to Pray one for another But the Romish practice is very far from having a Title to any of these advantages Under the Old Testament no Prayers were ever made to the deceased Saints though the Faithful prayed one for another as we do Notwithstanding they had at that time Saints whose Holiness could not be call'd in question since God himself had if I may so speak canonized Elias and Enoch All these Answers are solid and good But how can they apply this Or what other Answer can they make when we charge them with praying to such Saints as never were in the World such as St. Christopher St. Catharine the eleven thousand Virgins and the Souldiers of the Theb. Legion seeing these Saints were only meer fictions and the invention of Legend-Writers They cannot sure answer that they Pray to these after the same Manner as we do to our living Brethren and therefore they ought to confess that they have erred and do remain still in error The Fourth Evasion of the Romish Church is to have recourse to the equivocal Sense of the Terms Worship and Adoration They say that there is a Supream Worship and Adoration of Latria and that God alone deserves this Worship and Adoration but that there is an inferiour Worship and a Service of Dulia which we ought to pay to Angels and Saints But this Distinction is not in nor is it grounded upon Scripture For St. Paul makes use of the Term Dulia when he speaks of the Supream Worship telling the Thessalonians That they turn'd to God from Idols to serve the Living and True God And the Septuagint have used it in the same Sense 1. Sam. c. 7. v. 3. and Ps 11. v. 11. and on the contrary they have expressed by that of Latria the Services which Men do one to another in that Threatning which God makes to his People That they should servetheir Enemies which God would send against them in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness But besides this Distinction is very insignificant for let the Terms be never so Equivocal yet the things expressed by them are not so For Churches Festivals Altars Vows Offerings Lights and Processions are not Equivocal things but determined to the highest sort of Religious Worship To prove this let an Indian or a Chinese go into a Popish Church tell him That this Temple is consecrated to Francis of Assise that this is his Holy-day and that they are going to make a Procession to his Honour That the Image which he seeth adorned with so many flowers and illuminated with so many Torches is his Representation And let him see afterwards all the People prostrating themselves before it in order to the Addressing their Prayers to it And then ask him what this People is a doing He will answer that they adore St. Francis or his Image the simple Notions of Nature leading him to that Answer because all the Actions of this People are determined to Religion which being taken altogether are the formal and distinct Signs of the Supreme Worship And therefore it is in vain for them to endeavour to palliate the Matter by a pretended equivocal use of Words Had the Romish Doctors been pleased to express themselves more clearly there would have been no wrangling about the Terms We acknowledg that the Acts of Religion are not all of the same Weight and Importance The first are those that are call'd Elicite and Immediate which are referred only to God The second are grounded upon the reference or relation which certain Things and Persons have to Religion In this Rank we place the reverence due to Pastors to Churches Holy Vessels to the Elements of the Sacraments to Saints to Angels to the blessed Mother of God That is That there are some Degrees of respect due to each of these in proportion to the Rank
which they hold in Religion and to the Account which God makes of them The last Sorts of Religious Acts are those that are commanded by Religion it self as for Example the Submission and Honour we owe to Parents and Magistrates But if these Controversies were fairly manag'd all the Dispute would be about the first Sort of these Acts of Religion which are call'd in the Language of the Schools Elicite and Immediate and such as God reserves peculiarly to himself with exclusion of the noblest and most exalted Rank of Created Beings such for instance as Invocation Psal 50. v. 15 Trust and Affiance Jer. 17. v. 17. Vows Isa 19. v. 21. Worship Sacrifice and Adoration Exod. 20. v. 50. Act. 10. v. 26. Apocal. 19. vers 10. These are the Acts of Religion which we accuse the Roman Church of giving to the Saints Those amongst them who pretended to devotion make Vows to the Saints upon every occasion though St. Thomas hath said that a Vow is an Act of Latria But however this be the Equivocal Sense of the term Adoration can do them no service where they are accused of paying a Religious Worship to Supposititious Saints such as St. Christopher St. Longine St. Catharine the eleven thousand Virgins and the Souldiers of the Theb. Legion They cannot pretend that they pay these Saints only a Worship of Dulia Honours much inferior to the Supream They ought therefore to confess that they have erred and do still persist in their error Fifthly the Roman Church speaking by the Mouth of the Bishop of Meaux saith that she instructeth her Children to make a great deal of difference between the affections that accompany the Prayers they make to Saints and the Zeal Piety and profound Humility they ought to be possessed with when they direct their Devotions immediately to God himself But to this have not we just reason to reply that God alone knows the Affections of the Heart and that we cannot judge of them but by Mens Words and Actions We don't pretend to usurp the Prerogative of God and should be very unwilling to pass a rash Judgment upon Men. Moses hath taught us that secret things belong to the Lord our God and Christ hath told us that we shall know Men by their Fruits that is by their Words and Actions This way of passing Judgment upon Mens Hearts is so common a notion and so universal a Principle that all Men in the World do follow it in the judgments they make of others So that it is very unjustly done by those of the French Clergy who accuse us of calumny in finding fault with their Church for its paying to Saints a prohibited Worship since our Accusation is founded upon their Words and Actions For let them say what they please that they do not form the same Idea of the Saints as they do of an Infinite and Supream Being and that their Prayers to God are accompanied with Affections far more lively ardent and humble than those they address to the Saints This is known to none but God and discernable only by his all-seeing Eye And all that we see and hear of their Performance towards the Saints as Prayers Temples Festivals Illuminations Burning of Incense Processions Prostrations all these things I say are the proper and formal Characters of the Supream Worship which God hath in a peculiar manner reserved to himself Are we then in the wrong to conclude that they carry the honours they render to the Saints too far The Jansenists in that Book of theirs intituled the imaginary Heresie charged the Jesuites with making the Pope a God by their Tenet that the Pope is infallible because Infallibility is a property belonging only to God But we have yet more reason to reproach the Roman Church for dealing with Saints as if they were Gods not only upon account of the external Worship she pays to them but also because of the good things she asks of them which suppose that they know the Hearts of Men are present every where and have an unlimited power all which are Properties belonging only to the Supream being But after all suppose it should be true that the Romish Church puts a great difference between the Thoughts that accompany the Prayers to God and those addressed to the Saints we leave every wise Man to consider whether this distinction in the Thoughts does not raise in the Mind troublesome Scruples and hinder its due application and adherence to God These Theological Principles leave one always unquiet and uneasie for fear of going beyond or stopping short of the Mark. Thus far in their Opinion the Worship is lawful and right but to go ever so little further is Idolatry When those who repeat after the Priest the Confession of Sins at the beginning of the Mass hear him say I confess to God Almighty they must mind to do an Act of Latria but when he adds and to the Blessed Virgin they must take care to descend lower to Hyperdulia and when he goes on saying to the Angels and to the Saints to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul c. it would be a Crime should they offer to them any of the Two former kinds of Worship and therefore they must pass to that of Dulia If an Image be presented to them they are to offer but a relative honour to it but let it be a little piece of the true Cross they may go as far as the indirect Latria And because these different Worships are often mix'd in the same Service and Litanies we leave it again to Wise Men to consider whether all those who are present at these Church-Services have in that instant of time all these distinctions present in their Minds whether they be all capable of these nice and refined subtilties of the Schools and whether all this be proper to raise the heart and to inflame true piety At least our Religion hath this advantage above theirs that God alone being proposed to us as the Object of our Worship and Prayers we need not busie our Minds about any of these Distinctions no scruple arises to disturb our Zeal we embrace the Divine Object with all our Heart and with all our Soul free from fears and danger of running beyond the Mark But after all this difference of Thoughts in their Prayers will do them no Service as to the worship which they render to Saints that never existed such as St. Christopher St. Catharine the Eleven Thousand Virgins and the Souldiers of the Thebean Legion These being mere Chimeras and groundless fancies which deserve not any the least respect they who pay any sort of Religious Worship to them ought to confess that they have been and are yet in Error The Sixth Subterfuge of the Roman Church is that they make great difference between Christ's Mediation and that of the Saints For say they Christ is a Mediator of Redemption and the Saints are only Mediators of Intercession But in answer to this