The contemplations upon the history of the New Testament. The second tome now complete : together with divers treatises reduced to the greater volume / by Jos. Exon.

CHAP. XIV. The Newness of the Romish Invocation of Saints.

OF all those Errours which we reject in the Church of Rome, there is [ D] none that can plead so much shew of Antiquity as this of Invocation of Saints:* 1.1 which yet, as it hath been practised and defended in the later times, should in vain seek either example or patronage amongst the Antient. However there might be some grounds of this Devotion secret∣ly muttered, and at last expressed in Panegyrick forms; yet untill almost 500 years after Christ it was not in any sort admitted into the publick service.* 1.2 It will be easily granted that the Blessed Virgin is the prime of all Saints; neither could it be other then injurious that any other of that Heavenly Society should have the precedency of her: Now the first that brought her name into the publick Devotions of the Greek Church is noted by Nicephorus to be Petrus [ E] Gnapheus,* 1.3 or Fullo, a Presbyter of Bithynia, afterwards the Usurper of the See of Antioch, much about 470 years after Christ; who (though a branded Here∣tick) found out four things (saith he) very usefull and beneficial to the Catho∣lick Church;* 1.4 whereof the last was, Ut in omni precatione, &c. That in every Prayer the Mother of God should be named, and her Divine name called upon. The phrase is very remarkable wherein this rising Superstition is expressed.

And as for the Latine Church, we hear no news of this Invocation in the publick Letanies till Gregorie's time,* 1.5 about some 130 years after the former.

And in the mean time some Fathers speak of it fearfully and doubtfully. How could it be otherwise, when the common opinion of the Antients, even [ F] below Saint Austin's age, did put up all the Souls of the Faithfull, except Martyrs, in some blinde receptacles, whether in the Center of the earth or elsewhere, where they might in candida exspectare diem Judicii, as Tertullian hath it four severall times? Anda 1.6 Stapleton himself sticks not to name divers of them thus fouly mistaken.

Others of the Fathers have let fall speeches directly bent against this Invo∣cation.

a 1.7 Non opus est patronis, &c. There is no need of any Advocates to God, [ A] saith S. Chrysostome: and most plainly* 1.8 elsewhere, Homines si quando, &c. If we have any suit to men (saith he) we must fee the porters, and treat with jesters and parasites, and goe many times a long way about. In God there is no such mat∣ter; he is exorable without any of our Mediators, without money, without cost, he grants our petitions: It is enough for thee to crie with thine heart alone, to powre out thy tears, and presently thou hast won him to mercy. Thus he.

And those of the Antients that seem to speak for it, lay grounds that over∣throw it. Howsoever it be, all holy Antiquity would have both blushed and spit at those forms of Invocation which the late Clients of Rome have broa∣ched to the world. If perhaps they speak to the Saints tanquam deprecatores, [ B] (vel potius comprecatores) asb 1.9 Spalatensis yields, moving them to be compe∣titioners with us to the throne of Grace, not properly, but improperly, as c 1.10 Altissiodore construes it: how would they have digested that blasphemous Psalter of our Lady imputed to Bonaventure, and thosed 1.11 styles of mere Dei∣fication which are given to her, and the division of all offices of Piety to mankinde betwixt the Mother and the Son? How had their eares glowed to hear, Christus oravit, Franciscus exoravit, Christ prayed, Francis prevailed? How would they have brooked that whiche 1.12 Ludovicus Vives freely confesses, Multi Christiani, &c. Many Christians worship div••s divasque the Saints of both sexes, no otherwise then God himself? Or that whichf 1.13 Spalatensis professes [ C] to have observed, that the ignorant multitude are tarried with more entire reli∣gious affection to the Blessed Virgin, or some other Saint, then to Christ their Sa∣viour? These foul Superstitions are not more hainous then new, and such as wherein we have justly abhorred to take part with the practicers of them.

Sect. 2. Invocation of Saints against Scripture. [ D]

AS for the better side of this mis-opinion, even thus much colour of Anti∣quity were cause enough to suspend our censures (according to that wise & moderate resolution of learnedg 1.14 Zanchius;) were it not that the Scriptures are so flatly opposite unto it, as that we may justly wonder at that wisdome which hath provided Antidotes for a disease that of many hundred years after should have no being in the World. The ground of this Invocation of Saints is their notice of our earthly condition, and speciall Devotions.h 1.15 And behold, thou prevailest ever against man, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honour, and he knows it not; and they are brought low, and he perceiveth it not, saith Job.i 1.16 The dead know nothing at [ E] all, saith wise Solomon: Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the Sun. No portion in any thing, therefore not in our miseries, nor in our allocutions. If we have a portion in them, for their love and Prayers in common for the Church, they have no portion in our particularities, whether of want or complaint.* 1.17 Abraham our Father is ignorant of us (saith Esay) and Israel acknowledges us not. Loe, the Father of the Faithfull above knows not his own children, till they come into his bosome; and he that gives them their names,* 1.18 is to them as a stranger. Wherefore should good Josiah be gathered to his Fathers, as Hulda tels him, but that his eyes might not see all the evil which [ F] should come upon Jerusalem?

We cannot have a better Commenter then S. Augustine;* 1.19 If (saith he) the Souls of the dead could be present at the affairs of the living, &c. surely my good Mother would no night forsake me, whom, whiles she lived, she followed both by land and sea. Far be it from me to think that an happier life hath made her cruel, &c.

[ A] But certainly that which the holy Psalmist tels us is true; My Father and my Mother have forsaken me, but the Lord took me up. If therefore our Parents have left us, how are they present or do interesse themselves in our cares or busi∣nesses? And if our Parents do not, who else among the dead know what we doe, or what we suffer? Esay the Prophet saith, Thou art our Father, for Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel knows us not. If so great Patriarchs were ignorant what became of that people which came from their loyns, and which upon their belief was promised to descend from their stock, how shall the dead have ought to doe either in the knowledge or aide of the affaires or actions of their dearest survi∣vers? How do we say that God provides mercifully for them who die before the evils [ B] come, if even after their death they are sensible of the calamities of humane life? &c. How is it then that God promised to good King Josiah for a great blessing, that he should die beforehand, that he might not see the evils which he threatned to that place and people?* 1.20 Thus that divine Father. With whom agrees Saint Hierome, Nec enim possumus, &c. Neither can we, (saith he) when this life shall once be dissolved, either enjoy our own labours, or know what shall be done in the World afterwards.

But could the Saints of Heaven know our actions, yet our hearts they can∣not: This is the peculiar skill of their Maker.* 1.21 Thou art the searcher of the hearts and reines,* 1.22 O righteous God: God only knows abscondita animi, the hidden [ C] secrets of the soul.* 1.23 Now the Heart is the seat of our Prayers: the Lips do but vent them to the eares of men: Moses said nothing, when God said, Let me alone, Moses. O therefore thou that hearest the prayers, to thee shall all flesh come. Solomon's argument is irrefragable;* 1.24 Hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place, and doe, and give to every man according to his wayes, whose heart thou knowest: For thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men. He onely should be implored that can hear; he onely can hear the Prayer that knows the heart.

Yet could they know our secretest desires, it is an Honour that God chal∣lengeth as proper to himself,* 1.25 to be invoked in our prayers; Call upon me in the [ D] day of thy trouble,* 1.26 and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorifie me. There is one God, and one mediator betwixt God and man, the man Jesus Christ. One and no more;* 1.27 not only of redemption, but of intercession also: for through him (onely) we have accesse by one Spirit unto the Father: and he hath invited us to himself, Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden.

Sect. 3. Against Reason.

HOw absurd therefore is it in Reason, when the King of Heaven cals us to him, to run with our Petitions to the Guard or Pages of the Court? Had [ E] we to doe with a finite Prince, whose eares must be his best informers, or whose will to help us were justly questionable, we might have reason to present our suits by second hands: But since it is an Omnipresent and Omniscious God with whom we deal, from whom the Saints and Angels receive all their light and love to his Church, how extreme folly is it to sue to those Courtiers of Heaven,* 1.28 and not to come immediatly to the Throne of Grace? That one Me∣diator is able (and willing also) to save them to the utmost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Besides, how uncertain must our Devotions needs be, when we can have no possible assurance of their audience? for who can know that a Saint hears him? [ F] That God ever hears us, we are as sure, as we are unsure to be heard of Saints: Nay, we are sure we cannot be all heard of them; for what finite nature can divide it self betwixt ten thousand Suppliants at one instant in severall regions of the world, much lesse impart it self whole to each? Either therefore we must turn the Saints into so many Deities, or we must yield that some of our prayers are unheard; And whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

As for that heavenly glasse of Saint Gregorie's,* 1.29 wherein the Saints see us and [ A] our suits (confuted long since by Hugo de S. Victore) it is as pleasing a fiction, as if we imagined therefore to see all the corners of the earth, because we see that Sun which sees them. And the same eyes that see in God the particular necessities of his Saints below, see in the same God such infinite Grace and Mercy for their relief, as may save the labour of their reflecting upon that Di∣vine mirrour in their speciall intercessions.

The Doctrine therefore and Practice of the Romish Invocation of Saints, both as new and erroneous, against Scripture and Reason, we have justly reje∣cted; and are thereupon ejected as unjustly. [ B]

Notes

• * 1.1

  Spalat. de Resp. Eccl. l. 7. c. 12. §. 16.
• * 1.2

  Rex Jacob. Praemonit. ad Principes, &c.
• * 1.3

  Niceph. lib. 15. cap. 28.
• * 1.4

  Ecclesiae Catho∣licae commodis∣sima, ibid.
• * 1.5

  Jos. Sca••ig. Notis in No∣vum Test.
• a 1.6

  Stapl. lib. de author. scr.
• a 1.7

  Chrys. hom. de poenitent. hom. 4. Which place the Margine of the Latine Edition of Ve∣nice, set forth by the authori∣ty of the Inqui∣sition, tells us, (and we must believe it) makes nothing against Invo∣cation of Saints.
• * 1.8

  Vide ibid.
• b 1.9

  Spalat. lib. 7. c. 12. §. 26.
• c 1.10

  Gul. Altis. in 4. sent. &c.
• d 1.11

  Dea, primas Coeli, &c. prae∣cipe Angelis ut nos custodiant. In Rosar. Ca∣non. Reg. Ano∣nym. Dividunt coram Patre in∣ter se Mater & filius pietatis ••fficia, & con∣dunt inter se reconciliationis nostrae inviolabile testamentum. Arnold. Carnot. de Laudibus 5. Virg.
• e 1.12

  Lud. Vives in Aug. de Civitar. D••i lib. 8. c. ult.
• f 1.13

  Nam & plebem rudiorem religiose, &c. Et magis plurimos interne religioso affectu crga B. Virgin. &c. quam 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Christum. Spalat. de Re Eccl. lib. 7. cap. 12. §. 28.
• g 1.14

  Ego certe ab Antiquitate non recedo nisi coactus. Zanch. in Coloss.
• h 1.15

  Job 14. 20, 21.
• i 1.16

  Eccles. 9. 5, 6.
• * 1.17

  Esay 63. 16.
• * 1.18

  2 King. 22. 20.
• * 1.19

  August. de cura pro mort. ge∣rend. cap. 13.
• * 1.20

  Hiero. in Eccl. 3. ad fin.
• * 1.21

  Psal 7. 9.
• * 1.22

  Psal. 44. 21. & 139. 1. 4, &c.
• * 1.23

  Prov. 15. 11. & 17. 3. & 24. 12. Jer. 11. 20. & 17. 10 & 20. 12.
• * 1.24

  1 Kings 8 39.
• * 1.25

  Psal. 50. 15.
• * 1.26

  1 Tim. 2. 5.
• * 1.27

  Ephes. 2. 18.
• * 1.28

  Heb: 7 25.
• * 1.29

  Hug de Sancto Vict de sacr. l 1.