Service are guilty of Sixthly The Practice of your Church in Praying to the Saints is irrational and abominable because upon a due consideration of what manner of Saints you Invocate they are such whose Saintship nay whose Existence is by us justly to be question'd I pray call to mind what Cassander one of your own Church speaketh by way of complaint in his Chapter De Meritis Intercessione Sanctorum These are his words The People do now almost despise the Old Saints and serve with more Affection the New whose Holiness is less certain Yea there are some of them of whom we may justly doubt whether ever they lived in the World. I. You pray to some of doubtful Saintship or Holiness who instead of reigning in Heaven it may be are frying in Hell. You I suppose very well know that I do not now speak without Authority for it is a famous Saying of Gregory the Great That the Bodies of many Persons are Worshipped on Earth whose Souls are tormented in Hell. This is not only the opinion of one Doctor but Thomas of Aquine and Cardinal Cajetan and others do acknowledge that in a matter of Fact his Infallible Holiness may be mistaken and that his Holiness may be in an Errour in this very business of Canonization And many of your Church have taken great offence at that prostitution of Devotion usual in your Publick Assemblies to every upstart new Saint Do you not in this Worship many times ye know not what Christ put the Question to the Samaritan Woman give me leave to put the same to you I pray Who is it that you Worship How came they to be the Objects of your Worship and great Devotion paid to them in your Churches after they were dead whose Conversations were much questioned whilst alive against whom many Scandals were proved How many of your Saints Sir have been made fâ—r Money Many of them Traytors to the Government under which they then lived It would be an endless Task for me to make Observations upon the Lives of some of your Saints Murderers and common Disturbers of the Peace of Christendom Sir I will instance in the Lives of those Saints that have been of Note in the English Nation The first Instance that I shall give you is that of Austin the Monk and Archbishop of Canterbury who was sent into this our Nation by Gregory the Great and therefore called by your Church The Great Apostle of England this Monk with others were by this Gregory sent into this Island to turn the People to the Romish Religion which Augustine when through his pretended Holiness or rather Hypocrisie had got a Party to own him and had obtained of King Ethelbert to be Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England went into Wales where he found many Godly and Learned Bishops and Preachers of God's most Holy Word which sincerely and truly taught the Doctrine of the Scriptures and rightly administred the Sacraments according to Christ's Institution whom this Austin the Monk laboured to the best of skill and power to allure from the Sincerity and Simplicity of Christ's Religion unto the Superstition and Idolatry of your Church setting out that he was a Legate of the Most Holy Father the Pope sent from Rome and that he was made and ordained the chief Bishop and Primate of all England and therefore he commanded them to obey him and his Doctrine and to receive that Most Holy Father of Rome and his Religion but the Godly and Learned Fathers boldly answer'd That they were already true Christians and according to the Word of God they governed their Churches therefore would neither obey him nor submit themselves to the Authority of that strange Romish Bishop nor yet receive his strange Superstitious Ceremonies but continue as heretofore they had done in their old way of serving of God. For which cause Austin the Monk with his Companions departed and being not satisfied with the entertainment these holy men gave him he found a way to give these Christians great trouble because they would not obey him nor comply with the Bishop of Rome's pretended Title over them This develish Priest he complained to King Ethelbert that the Britains would neither obey him nor any man but only the Archbishop of Carleon which thing thus represented to the King it moved him to wrath and threatned to destroy them all Writing to Elfrid King of Northumberland that he would come to him with all the Force he could raise and that he would meet him at Leicester and from thence they would go into Wales and destroy the Archbishop of Carleon and all those who had refused to obey Austin and his Doctrine When these holy men heard of this and that the two Kings with their Armies did approach to the end they might destroy them they sent unto the Kings certain holy and good men who went barefoot and with all Humility and Meckness besought them to cease from so ungodly an Action But these wicked Kings would not speak to these holy men but presently order'd them to be slain which was presently done being in number five hundred and forty some say eleven hundred And from thence these Kings went to Bangor in order to destroy all the Britains but they having received notice of the intentions of these instigated Princes they assembled themselves and raised all the Force they could resolving to fight in the defence of their Religion and Country so that in the Battel King Ethelbert was slain by the just Judgment of God and Kind Elfrid was sore wounded in the Battel and forced most shamefully to fly the whole Army also were defeated and almost all destroyed Thus God gave his Servants Victory over their Enemies Ex Chron. Angl. This Sir is a Saint to whom great Devotions are paid by your Church for that as your Divines say he was the first that brought the Faith into this Land which is false the Faith having been Received by the Inhabitants thereof many hundred years before he was born But behold his Pride and Cruelty two Vices that did rather intitle him a Devil than a Saint His Pride is sufficiently set forth by Venerable Bede who tells us That he did disdain to rise up in token of Reverence to seven Bishops and other Learned and Grave men of Britain when they made their appearance at his Council And because of this his Pride they would not hearken to his Demands nor take him for their Archbishop thinking that if he carried himself so insolently to them whilst a Stranger what Respect might they hope for when they came under his Jurisdiction His Cruelty appears in stirring up two Kings to commit such barbarous Murders Now Sir what reason have we to pray to such a Saint as this that had stained his Life with such foul Crimes as these Besides I could never yet read of his Repentance for that Bloud which he had occasioned to be shed Nay see but the old Chronicle written in
A DISCOURSE OF THE Unlawfulness of Praying TO Saints and Angels BEING A full Answer to a LETTER OF SABRAN the JESUITE WHEREIN The Practice of the Church of Rome in Praying to Saints and Angels is plainly proved to be contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and the pretended Authority by him produc'd to be either Forged or Impertinent By TITVS OATES D. D. A Presbyter of the Church of England LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Black Bull in the Old-Baily MDCLXXXIX ERRATA PREFACE PAge 1. line 1. read Controversies ibid. l. 7. r. new Matter p. 3. l. 8 r. that rascally DISCOURSE PAge 2. line 24. read erat Judaeis p. 4. l. 12. r. perparum ibid. l. 36. r. Caroli p. 5. l. 35. r. ut nonnulli ibid. l. 38. r. adorari ibid. l. 40. ◠for if p. 11. l. 25. r. Apostolum Christi non sicut Antichristum p. 12. l. 〈◊〉 r. Mulieres ibid. l. 38. r. Filii ibid. l. 39. r. subactas p. 13. l. 21. r. 〈◊〉 ibid. l. 28. r. posteros p. 14. l. 35. r. affinity ibid. l. 41. r. inde p. 15. l. 3. r. Dixit quid mihi tibi est ibid. l. 4. r. quod non putaret aliquis magis eximiam ibid. l. 5. r. veluti ibid. l. 7. r. admirati delibantur p. 16. l. 7. r. I pray p. 17. l. 7. r. aliquem p. 19. l. 13. r. quisque ib. l. 16. r. Nymphis ib. l. 21. r. Nympha p. 21. l. 8. r. hath been far ib. l. 26. r. Now your Divines ib. l. 42. r. alitèr p. 22. l. 33. r. supplicitèr p. 24. l. 3. r. drive our sins away p. 25. l. 12. r. call a sequence ib. l. 25. r. it is by her ib. l. 36. r. per manus ipsius administrantur ib. penult r. aureum p. 26. l. 37. r. than he that is p. 28. l. 14. r. of his skill ib. l. 33. r. King moved him to wrath that he threatened p. 30. l. 3. r. recalling ib. l. 26. r. of Tours in France p. 31. ult r. Revelations meant p. 33. l. 12. r. who are intreated in the Name of the King. p. 34. l. 29. r. of Blood throughout p. 36. l. 13. r. dependit p. 41. l. 3. r. do not mention p. 43. l. 7. r. was kept that he went from thence into p. 44. l. 40. r. as I have already observed dead p. 51. l. 36. r. was only p. 52. l. 38. r. and were not p. 53. l. 13. r. honorificentiam qui nobis salutem profusione sui p. 54. l. 9. r. great Miracles p. 57. l. 4. r. in Testimony that p. 58. l. 4. r. Martyrs I must tell you that of these ib. l. 5. r. doubt were very ib. l. 14. r. portenta ib. l. 22. r. qui essent veri Christiani qui. ib. l. 28. r. mirabiliarios ib. l. 30. r. ut inducant p. 63. l. 17. r. Rem it being only for the. p. 64. l. 30. r. longa sint tempora ib. l. 38. r. Testimonies as Authentick p. 65. l. 11. r. years to justifie your groundless Notions p. 66. l. 31. r. Grace who by Nature were ib. l. 35. r. whom they asserted p. 68. l. 12. r. an eundum mihi ad Angelos ib. l. 13. Neque per seipsos potentes ib. l. 15. r. that may reconcile p. 69. l. 13. r. gestaverunt ib. l. 15. r. Sanctum Sanctorum ib. l. 17. r. Vail there he alone of all them p. 70. l. 27. r. quia si pie vixerunt These are the gross Faults of this Piece besides which are many other smaller Errors not only literal but in the Pointing which I have omitted here and desire the Reader to Correct with his Pen. ADVERTISEMENT WHereas a Late Paper was Publish'd Entituled A Petition and Proposals to his Highness the Prince of Orange this is to satisfie my Friends it is a very unjust Imposition on me both by Printer and Publisher TO ALL True Protestants GRACE and PEACE c. BRETHREN THE Controversie between us of the Reformed Religion and the Synagogue of Rome have been so often debated and the Authorities on both sides so often produced that to some who are yet Strangers to the present Constitution of Affairs it may seem unnecessary to say them over again and I must confess that it will be scarce possible to bring forth any Matter or if we could it is scarce probable that what can be newly laid down as Proof can prevail more than all those Arguments that have been used and urged in those great Controversies by Men Eminent in their Generations for Learning and Piety and who have blessed the World with their Labours in a most signal manner but these Considerations have not discouraged me from doing my Duty because that Experience hath taught me that the same Medicaments are with Success applied to a returning or abiding Vlcer and the Truth of it is the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God must be for ever ready to put the Church of God in mind of such things as they have already heard and by the same Scriptures and the same Arguments endeavour to prevent and destroy Sin and by the same Authority from the Word of God to extirpate Heresies which daily are sowed by those cursed Impostors of the See of Rome These eight or ten years of warm Weather and many Indulgent Showres of soft Rain have made many of their Damnable Heresies like Weeds to take Root greatly and to spread themselves widely and the Conspirators by their repeated Importune Impudence have had great Encouragements to seduce our Countries from their Obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they bave had some Success upon those who have made Gain to be Godliness and their Interest their God and have to the utmost of their Power and Skill endeavoured to brand and blacken all Men that have stood in their way some they have almost Ruined for endeavouring to prevent the Mischiefs they have ever since the Restauration been Plotting and Contriving against our Lives Liberties and Religion amongst which I am one and should have been silent under my present Oppression and unjust Vsage and given way to others of better Abilities to have defended the Cause had I not been provoked to appear in Print Some time since Mr. Lewis Sabran who calls himself a Priest of the Society of Jesus wrote a scurrilous Letter to Mr. William Needham in answer to a third Letter by him Licensed written to him the said Sabran in the fourth Page of which Letter he is pleased to use these words Hence have taken their Rise those black unconcionable Calumnies by which when they could reach it they have taken away our Lives to this end of late years was singled out against us the Minister Oates Their Fury being now disarmed they turned the Stream of those Calumnies on the Catholick Church by misrepresenting her Doctrine and again when all the false Colours of those Misrepresentations are wiped of those Slanders that scurrulous
for mine own use and my being abused by these uncircumcised Philistines and neglected by the Prelates and Presbyters of our Church and others that should have stood by me in that Cause for which I do Suffer hath made me sensible that Man is noâ— to be relied upon but that Trust is to be put in him that will confound these Hell born Devils in his own due time and that he will preserve those who abide faithful in the Truth Nor do I envy the Happiness of those my Brethren of the Church of England who are easie in their Places and Preferments for my part blessed be God I can from my Poor Prison where I have been almost five years behold all my Brethren of the Church of England with much Contentment and sufficient Enjoyment of my self on Thrones round about me It will not be amiss to tell you that one great Artifice of these Firebrands and Incendiaries was to perswade many of my Brethren of the Church of England that I was a Dissenter and an Enemy of the Church of England which tho' it was notoriously false for all that know me can testifie that I received my Ordination from the Church of England and Communicated with the Church of England in the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper But this is the truth and nothing but the truth that I have been always of the opinion and do still esteem my Dissenting Brethren as a Generation of Men anointed by Almighty God with a Spirit of Wisdom Knowledge Zeal and Faithfulness and might well be so esteemed by all my Brethren of the Church of England and accepted of as Persons fit to help on the great Work of ruining the Temple of Dagon destroying of Baal and all its Worshippers and to bring on the New Heavens and the New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell and that by the mutual joyning of Protestants in the Repair of the House of GOD and making up the Breaches and decayed Places in the Body of the Doctrine of the Christian Religion which since the first raising and compleating of it by Christ and his Apostles and the delivering it from the Hands of these Edomites partly through the ignorance and insufficiency of some and partly through the remisness of others to whom the Guardianship and Custody thereof hath been committed by GOD in their successive Generations hath by these Locusts been lamentably dismantled and defaced in most parts of it that if a Man should look upon it as they have represented it he could scarce call it the Doctrine of Christ And therefore since my Brethren that are Dissenters were always ready to do their part to support and maintain the Doctrine of the Church of GOD here in England I could not but in point of Justice Truth and Righteousness own them for my Brethren with whom I am contented to suffer as well as with my Brethren that are in close Communion with the Church of England since both profess the same Faith. And were this Spirit of Love in me an Errour it might be more easily pardoned then the Errours and Wickedness of some few of those who pretending to be Bishops and Presbyters of the Church of England yet have been very zealous and forward to promote Popery and Slavery in the Nation these for a time have been caressed by those whose eyes now blessed be God are opened and have seen their own Mistake and the Villany of those that have deceived them they now see who were the Criminals and I question not but may help them to that state into which they have put the Innocent and relieve me who have been kept close these five Years My humble Request therefore to my Brethren of the Church of England is that I might not be thought unworthy of their Cognizance because of my tender Affections to my poor Brethren that cannot comply with the Church of England in some few things since they are so willing to go as far in the Service of the Protestant Cause and Interest as any of those who profess themselves Members of the Church of England Brethren It is time for me to cease entertaining you with the sad Account of the Villany Inhumanity and Cruelty of these Monsters of Mankind against me and to tell you that the Prize that I run for in this Humble Application of my self to you is by the opportunity and advantage hereof to excite provoke and engage you to bless the World in general and this Nation in particular labouring under Popish Burdens and Tokes which neither we nor our Forefathers were able to bear by asserting those blessed Truths worthy of your defending and maintaining and by bringing the Doctrines of God our Saviour out of the Pavillions of Romish Darkness into clear and perfect Light to be beheld understood reverenced and obeyed I have endeavoured to the best of my power at present to make it plain that Prayers to Saints departed this Life and to Angels are unlawful and abominable in the sight of God I have examined into some Authorities this angry Gentleman hath produced and find them either forged misrepresented or impertinent and without all Reason and Conscience he falls fouly upon a Reverend Presbyter of our Church for Licensing a Letter to him in which he is fairly and fully Refuted but the Mungril Curr will not leave barking in his Letter he is light profane and abusive and impudent as if he never had been in a Conspiracy against the Lives of two of the greatest Princes of Europe nay three and two of them Crowned Heads and against the Religion Liberties and Lives of the Protestants of these three Kingdoms But I shall say no more of this little Schoolmaster that talks as sawcily in the Pulpit and is as peremptory in his Notions as he was over his Boys at St. Omers where he used to bellow and roar like a Town Bull. This little Piece I offer to your Consideration and pray your acceptance of it there are Mistakes in it through the carelesness of the Printer which I cannot help because of my Imprisonment and not being permitted to see after it myself so that by this means I may appear obvious to your Censures because that some passages ought to have been better secured But I trust the Ancient Law of Indulgence in such Cases and Circumstances as mine are which may probably in due time be some of my Adversaries also is of Authority sufficient with all sober Protestants to relieve me Brethren and Beloved my Pen hath transgressed the Law and time of my Intentions these confined me to a much narrower Compass in my Epistle and prohibited me the troubling of you to any such degree as now I have done The truth is I have for a long time suffered wrongfully from my Popish Adversaries and I hope you will give an injured Presbyter of the Church of England leave to speak and complain a little of his hard and cruel usage for no other cause but doing Justice to
my Protestant Brethren in discovering what those Hellish Popish Conspirators were doing against our Religion Lives and Liberties and of their Villanous Firing the City of London and Borough of Southwark Your eyes have seen enough and would have seen more had not Almighty God put a stop to their Career by confounding their Councels and defeating theirwicked purposes against us I will therefore say no more but shall ever stand by that Truth which I have delivered and will not hide one Iota of what remains behind undiscovered And I have taken care of that though it should please God that my Enemies should by any indirect course take away my Life and I shall always approve my self an honest man. and at present remain November 1. 1688. Your Brother and Servant in the King's Bench Prison for the Testimony of a Good Conscience TITVS OATES AN ANSWER TO SABRAN the Jesuit SHEWING The Unlawfulness of Praying TO Saints and Angels SIR I Perceive you are very earnest in the defence of a great Point much controverted between the Divines of the Reformed Churches and the Church of Rome viz. The Doctrine of Praying to Saints and Angels a Doctrine exploded by the Protestants and as zealously defended by those of your Communion And because the unknown Minister hath not as you would make the World believe dealt ingenuously with you you take occasion to fall upon Mr. Needham for Licensing those Replies made to your Sermon in which you were pleased to defend that Doctrine so much opposed by us of the Reformed Religion I will not go about to use any unhandsome Reflection upon you or any of your Communion for any point of Religion which I am satisfied in my Conscience to be contrary to the Doctrine of God our Saviour Amongst the many Errours the Church of Rome doth hold and maintain I humbly conceive this to be one and an Errour tending highly to the overthrowing of the Mediation of Christ the High-Priest and Apostle of our Profession Therefore the Point that I shall lay down is this That your Practice of Praying to Angels and Saints departed this Life is contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and abominable in the sight of God. I shall not Sir trouble you at present with those many Reasons those of our Church and Communion have offered to justifie this Assertion of mine therefore I shall only tie my self up to these few First Our Divines have rejected the Doctrine of Praying to Saints and Angels and look upon it as a Doctrine contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and abominable in the sight of God because it hath no Warrant from the Word of God. This Sir is acknowledged by the most Learned of your Communion Bannesius saith Orationes ad Sanctos faciendos neque expresse neque involute Sanctae Literae docent 2 Qu. 1 Artic. 10. Lib. 1. Which in plain English is this That it is not taught in the Holy Scripture neither expresly nor covertly that Prayers are to be made to Saints Bellarmine de Beat. Sanct. cap. 19. saith plainly It was not the manner under the Old Testament to say Holy Abraham pray for us for which he gives several Reasons as that the Fathers were then shut up in Prison and did not see God. So that by the confession of that Learned Doctor it was no Practice of those that lived under the Ministry of Moses his Law. Salmeron in 1 Tim. 2. saith the same and withal adds That there is nothing expressed in all the Gospels or Epistles of the Apostles touching the matter And withal he saith It would have been hard to enjoyn such a thing upon the Jews and the Gentiles would have thought that many Gods were put upon them instead of the many Gods they had forsaken His own words Sir are these Durum eratie Judaeis percipere Gentibus daretur occasio putandi multos sibi Deos c. Therefore be pleased to observe that it was the Practice of the Church of God to require Christians when they did labour under any Distemper whether of Body or Mind to have recourse to the Prayers of living Saints and were taught that the Prayers of such were prevalent and if the Prayers to Saints supposed to be in Heaven were a Doctrine according to truth why were they not then order'd to apply themselves to the Patriarchs and Prophets to the Blessed Virgin to St. Stephen and St. James and other more early Martyrs of the Church whose Prayers by your common received Opinion in your Church are highly meritorious and far more prevailing But Sir you see these great Doctors of your Church and men of great Reading confess that there are not the least foot-steps in the Scripture for this Practice as also Suarez Tom. 2. in disput Thes 42. Sect. 1. Eccius in Enchyrid suo But suppose Sir that these Great Men had not been so ingenuous as to confess yet give me leave to tell you that it is not possible for you to find the least intimation of any Warrant for this Practice which is apparent if you will but consider that in the Book of God there is neither one Precept from our Lord nor one Precedent to justifie such a Worship Now if you can produce no Command from God nor Example from any of the Saints of God in the time of the Apostles you cannot expect to gain one Soul that hath the least consideration to the belief of that Proposition of the Lawfulness of Praying to Saints and Angels which you so fiercely maintain If you have a Warrant from God's Word then it will lie upon you first to produce the Command then you must produce the Promise that the complying with that Commandment shall be acceptable for there is not one Command enjoyned us in the New Testament but hath its peculiar Promise and you must also produce a Threat if this Command be not obeyed Then secondly shew but where and when the holy Apostles in their day or any Christian under their immediate Ministry did ever practise Praying to Saints and Angels and you shall be my great Oracle in Controversies of Religion otherwise you must give me leave not to believe Father Sabran's Ipse Dixit in this case Sir give me leave to put you in mind that the Holy Scripture every-where makes God to be the only Object of Prayer and Invocation How many hundred Petitions or Prayers are upon Record there and not one of them put up to any other When our Lord taught his Disciples and us in them to pray he directs them to say Our Father which art in Heaven The Scripture often expresseth this Duty by the term of Praying without any mention of the Object When you pray use not vain Repetitions When thou prayest enter into thy Closet And hereby it is intimated that Prayer in matter of Worship can signifie nothing else but Praying to God. It is not Prayer if it be directed to any other From all which I must necessarily conclude that your Practice
and most clemently reconcile this Company unto Christ that the Fountain of Supream Piety who cleansed thee from thy sins giving pardon may cleanse us who are his Servants and thine But above all see that excellent Prayer to St. Becket whose Bloud ye have supposed to be as soveraign as the Bloud of the Son of God. 'T is not enough to pray as you do that by his Merits and Prayers you may be deliver'd from Vice to Virtue and from the Prison to the Kingdom this you hope for from the more ordinary Saints but as for St. Thomas of Canterbury you pray That by his Bloud you may climb to Heaven as he hath done before you Now do you judge in your own Conscience Whether this and all your Saints be not made equal to Christ and whether you do not make them Mediators of Salvation as well as Intercession And more than all this one of your own Doctors tells us That the Intercession of the Saints is more available than the Intercession of Christ and that as Christ wrought greater Miracles by his Saints than by himself so oftentimes he sheweth the force of their Intercession more than his own This Doctor of yours put a Question Whether it is better to pray to God through Christ alone or thro' the Saints which Question he determineth That it was better to pray to God through the Saints So that by the Doctrine of your Learned men you may nay you ought to go to God through the Merits Satisfaction and Intercession of the Saints so that there is nothing remaining of the Honour due to Christ our Saviour and our Confidence in Him but the same in every kind is by your Church imputed to the Saints therefore the Being and Oeconomy of Christianity is destroyed by these Prayers and the People are not and cannot be good Christians in these Devotions and what hopes are laid up for them who Repent to no purpose and pray with derogation to Christ's Honour is matter of deepest consideration Therefore our Church will take care that her Members may not be seduced with little Tricks and Artifices of useless and laborious Distinctions and Protestations against Evidence of Fact. Therefore Sir you ought with Fear and Trembling to consider what God said by the Prophet My people have done two great evils they have forsaken me the living fountain that is the strong and living God and have digged to themselves cisterus that is little phantastick helps that hold no water that give no refreshment Jer. 2. 13. Or as St. Paul expresseth it They worship and invocate the Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beside the Creator so the word properly signifies and so it is used by the Apostle in other places 1 Cor. 3. 11. and Gal. 1. 8. But to conclude this Head I beseech you Sir to remember the words of St. Augustine Tutius jucundius loquar ad meum Jesum quam ad aliquam Sanctorum Spirituum Dei I can speak more safely and more cheerfully to my Jesus than to any of the Saints and Spirits of God Lib. 1. Cap. 2. De Visitatione Infirmorum For that Holy Father knew that Jesus was the only Mediator and it was highly tending to the prejudice of Christ's Priesthood who only ever lives to make Intercession for us to pray to any of the Saints Fourthly You know Sir that Christians are every-where exhorted to flee from Idolatry and to keep themselves from Idols for this I shall not need to use many Arguments to satisfie you or any man therefore we cannot consent to your Practice of Praying to Saints and Angels because it is Idolatry I confess this is and hath been a Charge which none of your Communion could bear but have been and are still highly offended at it Any man saith a Doctor of your Church of common Reason would think it as easie to prove the Snow to be black as so innocent a Practice to be Idolatry But Sir I humbly conceive that Learned Person may be mistaken for it is agreed by both the Romish Doctors and those of the Reformed Religion That Idolatry in the proper notion of it is a giving that Worship and Service to the Creature which is due only to God yea though men worship God yet if they worship the Creature also they are Idolaters The holy Apostle reproves those Rom. 1. 25. that worshipped the Creature besides the Creator And this was the Idolatry of those whom the King of Assyria sent to inhabit Samaria The Text saith They feared the Lord and served other or their own Gods 2 King. 17. 33. Now that you worship Saints and Angels as well as Almighty God is notorious enough for you profess and practise it and is not that a worshipping the Creature besides the Creator And if to worship the Creature besides the Creator be Idolatry how shall you be excused from the just Charge of Idolatry The distinction that you think to help your selves out withal is that of Latria and Dulia which I think is as ill applied as ever any distinction was I confess I am no Proficient in the Hebrew but those that are Masters of that Tongue tell us there is but one word in the Hebrew for Dulia and Latria but that skill I have in the Greek assures me that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are indifferently taken in the Old and New Testament both for one and the same thing and both applied to God the former to him as he is Lord and the latter as he is God as St. Augustine saith that first made the distinction and therefore as I said before I repeat it to you again it was neither made by him nor used by him to justifie any such Practice as you maintain in your Church But there is another distinction of yours much to the same purpose that is of Superiour and Absolute Worship which you say is only due to God and Inferiour and Relative Worship which is applicable to the Creature Now Sir if by Inferiour and Relative Worship you mean a Religious Worship as you must do if you will justifie your own Doctrine then give me leave to tell you that you have no ground for this distinction in all the Word of God and had the Arians found out such a distinction by its help they might have destroyed the force of the Apostle's Argument whereby he proves the Deity of Christ because the Angels of God are enjoyned to worship him Heb. 1. 6. Psal 97. 7. To this they might readily have replied that the Text intends a Religious Worship of an Inferiour degree such as may be given to the most excellent Creature But Sir you know that shift was not found out then and therefore they were not able to give any answer but were necessitated to silence You must either prove that this distinction is grounded on the Word of God or you must quit your distinction And if you quit that then it roundly follows that
is no mention made of praying to Saints nor of the Saints Intercession for us It hath been commonly observed when the learned Writers of your Church have wanted Scripture for any Point or Notion of Religion which they have endeavoured to defend then they pretend the Authority of the Fathers and Counsels to justifie them in the maintenance of their Notions and in particular this practice of your Church in pray-to Saints and Angels Your Bellarmine says That all the Fathers both of the Greek and Latin Churches teach us to pray to Saints Salmeron and Stapleton and others do speak the same Language but all of you to this day have so inured your Tongues to talk of the Fathers that you can hardly use any other form of Speech nay you have attempted to bring several of the Fathers of the first four or five hundred years But you have not yet produced one Testimony out of any Father whereby it may appear that any account at all was made of it nay those whom you have named were all against it I could produce Testimonies in abundance for this my Assertion but it would be too tedious for me to Write and you to Read therefore take a tast of these few Ignatius who flourished about the year of our Lord 140. in his Epistle to the Philadelphians writeth thus You Virgins have none but Jesus Christ before your Eyes in your Prayers and the Father of Jesus Christ Ignat. ep 6. By which Testimony it appears to me that the Christians of his time did not so much as pray to the Virgin Mary herself To the same effect is that of Origen We must pray to him alone who is God above all things to him also we must pray who is the Word the only Son of God and the first Born of all Creatures Tom. 8. cont celsum pag. 395. in eod lib. p. 381. 384. 402. 416. 420. Tom. 5. conta celsum lib. 8. in ep ad Rom. c. 10. Athan. in orat 3. contr Arrian To God alone saith he it belongeth to be Worshipped and the Angels themselves are not ignorant hereof for although they excel in Glory yet are they but Creatures and are none of those that are Worshipped but of those that Worship the Lord And again because Jesus Christ is not a Creature but begotten of the very Substance of the Father and is by Nature the Son of God therefore he is to be Worshipped Therefore Sir what becomes of your urging of Athanasius for countenancing of Invocation and Prayer to the Saints and of his Prayer as you call it to the Virgin Mary Consider Origen once more and he hath this expression if I understand his Greek aright That we ought not to Worship our Fellow-worshippers nor to pray to those that pray themselves which saying of this great Doctor agrees with that passage in the Revelations c. 22. 9. c. 19 10. When St. John offered to Worship the Angel he saith to him See thou do it not for I am thy Fellow-Servant and of thy Brethren the Prophets and of them that keep the sayings of this Book Worship God. That great Doctor saith in another place If Celsus will have us to procure the good Will of any others after him that is God over all let him consider that when the Body is moved the shaddow thereof doth follow it So in like manner having God propitious to us who is over all it follows that we shall have all his Friends both Angels and Saints loving to us for they have a fellow-feeling with them that are thought fit to find favour with God neither are they only favourable unto such but they work with them also that are willing to do Service unto him who is God over all and are friendly to them and pray and intreat with them so as we boldly say that when Men with Resolution propose unto themselves the best things do pray unto God many thousands of the Sacred Powers pray together with them unspoken to Origen lib. 8. contr celsum p. 432 433. The Writings of Origen are full of Evident Testimonies against this Doctrine for which you so earnestly contend And Athanasius wrote as much as he about this Point and the Arrian Heresie which had spread itself in his time in many considerable parts of Christendom against which he contended with great Zeal and as great Judgment gave him occasion for it They maintained Christ was a meer Creature and yet they prayed unto him The Holy Doctor on the other side did with the Orthodox Fathers maintain That if he were Created he must not be Invocated What reason had they to pray to Christ who was a meer Creature You very well remember that their Plea was because the Word of God dwelt in him then he argueth upon them thus If you Worship the Man Christ because the Word of God dwelt in him at the same time Worship also the Saints who have the Word of God dwelling in them The Word of God dwelling in Christ was no manner of Plea or Argument for his being Worshipped but because he is not a Creature but is begotten of the very Substance of his Father and is by Nature the Son of God therefore he is to be Worshipped If you find St. Athanasius to say That the Saints are by Nature the Sons of God and begotten of the Substance of the Father then we must Worship the Saints but since they are the Children of God by Adoption and Grace and by Nature they were the Children of Wrath as well as those who are yet dead in Trespasses and Sins though since their Conversion the Word of God and Seed of God remaineth in them and they are not to be Worshipped If the Plea of the Arrians for the Worship of Christ who they asserted to be a meer Creature had been justifiable then by Vertue of the said Plea it had been lawful to Worship the Saints but as the Plea cannot maintain the Arrians in the Worshipping of Christ so that Plea will not justifie you nor your Church in the Practice of Praying to Saints Hence it is that the great Doctor St. Athanasius That if you Worship the Man Christ because the Word of God abideth in him Worship also the Saints who have the Word of God abiding in them I humbly conceive it may not be unnecessary to put you in mind that as the Greek Fathers now cited do by no means Countenance your Doctrine and Practice of Praying to Saints and Angels there are also several Latin Fathers who are of the same Opinion Tertullian who lived about the beginning of the third Century he saith Haec ab alio orare non possum quam aquo me scio consecuturum quoniam ut ipse est qui solum praestat c. The substance of which words is this He tells us that such and such things he might not pray for from any other but from him from whom he knew he should obtain them because it is he who alone is
did deny the Validity of the Orders of our Church If you have a Will to enter into the debate of that point I am ready to justifie the Validity of our Ordination and again you were pleased to assert that all Councils Fathers and Churches condemned and deposed all those who having received Holy Orders pretended to Marriage which you call Sacrilegious I am inclined to give you manifest proof of the lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy and to this end be pleased to observe That Pope Silvester the first ordained Degrees in Ecclesiastical Orders and Decreed That every Priest should be the Husband of one Wife only according to the Doctrine of the Holy Apostles Tim. 3. 2 3. Tit. 1. as Platina St. Huldrich in his Epistle to Pope Nicholas the first tells him that Pope Gregory the first restored Marriage again to the Priests which he for some time before had denied them when he saw how many great Inconveniences attended the single Life of Priests which would take up too much time to repeat The whole Epistle I recommend to you as worthy of your serious Consideration in which you may see that the Marriage of the Clergy is at large justified and their Restrained Chastity or single Life Condemn'd by that Reverend Prelate In a word I do assert that all the Councils all the Fathers and all Churches did not condemn the Marriage of the Clergy nor did they esteem their Marriage Sacrilegious but did esteem it Honourable in all Men they well knowing it was Ordained to prevent Sin that they who have not the Gift of Continency might Marry and preserve themselves undefiled Members of Jesus Christ Sir there are many other Doctrines and Practices in your Church which are Antichristian and Develish tending to the total overthrow of the whole Body of the Christian Religion as your Doctrine of the Pope's Supremacy the single Life of the Clergy your private Masses your Doctrine of the Real Presence your Doctrine of the Adoration of Images your holding up the Sacrament over your Heads that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion votion your Doctrine of Purgatory and praying for the Dead your Doctrine of Justification by Works Indulgences that the Sacrament was called by the Fathers Lord and God these are the strange Notions of and Positions of your Church Sir I will if you please begin and engage with you in any one or all of these Points therefore you need not give Mr. Needham any trouble in this Matter for though he wonderfully exceeds you or any of yours in Parts and Learning and is much more able to cope with you then perhaps I my self yet I am at leisure and he on the contrary is an Attendant on a great Person and may be diverted from going through in such an undertaking therefore I am ready with all the modesty that may be to answer you therefore be pleased to turn your Pen against me and spare your Reflections upon our Church which is yet able to shew it self and will gain ground when Babylon shall be brought down to the Dust Dagon will never stand before the Ark of God we have the Apostles and Prophets for our Foundation and Jesus Christ for the chief corner Stone so that we cannot fail of giving you or any of yours a Reason of our Faith when you or any of your Church shall demand it of us In your Letter to Mr. Needham you conclude with a Prayer Fas est ab hoste doceri In mine to you I will conclude with one also which is That God would preserve the Church of England that he would increase her Peace and inlarge her Borders and make her Fruitful and Glorious even as the Garden of God is Fruitful and Glorious as for her Enemies let God Cloath them with Shame and Confusion of Face and that in her the Gospel may Flourish to this end may all Blessings Gifts and Graces from the God of Heaven descend upon all her Bishops Presbyters and Deacons let God arise and pull down Babylon and destroy all Superstition and Idolatry all false Doctrine and Heresie to the Glory of his Holy Name and Comfort of all Protestants This is the hearty Prayer of SIR Yours so far as you are Christs TITVS OATES