AN ANSWER TO THE REPLY, &c. Being a further Defence of the EXPOSITION of the DOCTRINE of the Church of England.
INTRODUCTION.
IT was the Opinion of a late Author concerning a very short Treatise that he had publish'd upon most of the Points in Controversy between us and the Church of Rome; that tho he had neither put himself to the expence of any new Argu∣ments against us; nor produced the Authority of either Ancient Fathers, or even of Modern Writers to back his Assertions; he had nevertheless answer'd in that one Treatise, not only all those late Discourses that had just before been publish'd by our Divines on those Subjects, but a great part of all the Books and Sermons that had ever been writ or preach'd against his Church. Tho I am not very fond of following any Copy which that Au∣thor can set me, and in this especially do think his Vanity so ri∣diculous, that he is rather to be pitied than imitated; yet be∣ing once more called upon for a farther Vindication of my self, to another review of the most considerable Articles wherein we differ from those of the other Communion, I cannot but observe, that not only my present Adversary has not advanced in this Page 44 new Attempt one jot beyond what I had before confuted, but that in all their Books, their whole Business is meerly to transcribe one another; so that from the † Bishop of Condom's Exposition, even to the * Eye Catechism, there is nothing new; but the same Answer that is made to one, do's really in effect overthrow them all.
2. 'Tis this has put me upon the troublesome design, not on∣ly of resuming and collating the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition, and the Vindication of it, with the Reply that is now before me on every Article; But to search all those other Treatises that have been publish'd since the Representer first broke the Peace with us: To convince the World that Matters are now driven as far as they can go; so that in reading any one of their Books they may really find as much, as when they shall have taken the pains to consult them all. If this will not engage them to produce something more than they have yet done to answer our Argu∣ments, it shall at least I hope excuse us, if we from henceforth dispense with our selves the trouble of large Confutations; so that instead of transcribing again our own Books, as often as they shall please to furnish out a new Title to their old Objections, we shall need only to direct them to those Replies that have been al∣ready made; and in which their Pretensions have been confuted before they were publish'd.
3. It was the Complaint of S. Austin against such kind of Antagonists as these in his Time;
The ANSWER to the FIRST ARTICLE.
YOU will excuse, Sir, this little Address to my Reader; I shall from henceforth keep close to your Reply, and not∣withstanding * St. Austin's Insinuation to the contrary, attend you once more whithersoever you shall please to lead Me. And to shew how exactly applicable what I have before said of your Books in general, is to your Reply above any in particular; the first Observation I have to make is, that for what concerns the common Cause of Religion in this first Article, you have entirely taken, or rather indeed stollen it (since I do not re∣member that you have once mention'd your Author) out of T. G's Discourse against Dr. Stillingfleet, and which that most Learned Man had fully answered some Years since. And yet you neither take notice of his Answers, nor offer any one thing to prevent the same Replies from being made by me to the same Objections.
2. You begin your * Vindication with a scandalous Charge of
3. Ad pag. 2.] Reply.
Answ.] Had you but ingenuously own'd from whence you had taken this Objection against our Church, the Reader would presently have known whither to have gone for the Confuta∣tion of it. But seeing you are resolved to make it your own, I shall answer two things;
- 1st, That what you have said is false.
- 2dly, That you either did, or ought to have known it to be so.
4. First, It is false that those whom from T. G. you are pleased to stile the Genuine Sons of the Church of England, have excused your Church of that odious Imputation of Idolatry, or by consequence did think that we could not defend it against you without contradicting our selves, and going against the in∣tention of the Reformation.
5. Your first Author is Dr. Jackson; and he so far from ex∣cusing you in this Point, as you most wretchedly assert, that * in a set Discourse under this very Title,
he spends above 17 Sheets on purpose to prove the Charge of Idolatry upon you: and answers all your Evasions, by which you endeavour in vain to clear your selves of the Guilt of it. The very Subject of his first Chapter is to shew,[‖
6. This is the first of our Church-men that you say excused you from the odious imputation of Idolatry. And since I perceive his Authority is of some weight with you, as being one of the Genuine Sons of the Church of England, which T. G. would not allow his Adversary, nor it may be will you therefore esteem Me to be; I hope you will for his sake, who here charges your Offices with CHARMS and SORCERY, as well as with Superstition and Idolatry, be from henceforth a little more favourable to my Reflection on another occasion of your † MAGICAL INCANTATIONS.
7. I have been detain'd a little longer than I designed in this first Author; but I will make amends for it, by referring Page 48 you for the ‖ three next to the like account which * Dr. St. gave to your Friend T. G. from their own words: As for † Mr. Thorndyke, it is confess'd he was once in the Opinion that you mention; but you knew very well that he changed his Mind before his Death. You may see by an Extract that has lately been ‖ publish'd out of his Will, what an ill Notion he had of your Church in general, and for the Point before us, T. G's Reverend and Learned Adversary eight Years ago pub∣lish'd a Paper from * Mr. Thorndyke's own hand, in which, among other Exceptions against you, he makes this his 12th:
8. Such was the last Judgment of this Learned and Pious Man in this matter. If after this it be necessary to say any thing to his former Opinion; I will only observe, that the ground of it was this Mistake, viz.
9. The last of your Divines whom you cite as excusing you from Idolatry, is the Reverend * Dr. Hammond: but your falseness is as notorious in him as in all the rest. For in a particular Discourse of Idolatry, § 44. He approves and ex∣plains the design of our Homilies against the peril of Idolatry: §. 50. He says,
10. So that now upon the whole it remains, that there is not so much as a shadow of Truth in your Assertion, that the true and genuine Sons of the Church of England have excused your Church of the odious Imputation of Idolatry. My next business is to shew, that you did or ought to have known that there was not one word of Truth in what you said.
11. Now this will depend upon the Answer which I shall leave any honest Man to give to these two plain Questions. 1. Whether when you stole all this out of T. G. you either did not, or ought not to have known, that Dr. St. had answered all these Cavils many Years since, and shewn that there was no Truth nor Sincerity in them? 2. Whether a Man that quotes but six Authors for an Assertion derogatory to the Establishment of their Church, and contrary to the publick Doctrine of the Homilies and Injunctions; and to the private Opinions of the Generality of the Divines of it, ought not to have been sure that those Authors at least did affirm that which he pre∣tends they did? The latter of these will conclude against you, that you ought to have known that what you here say is false, be∣cause you ought to have examined these Authors, and then you would have known it to be so. And for the former (were not your Conscience unfit to be appeal'd to in a matter of Truth against your self) I durst appeal to your own Soul, whether you did not know, that the Learned Man I have so often mentioned, had shewn T. G. how false these Pretences were? But I go on with you to your next Paragraph: where you tell Me,
12. Ad pag. 2.] Reply.
Answ.] To satisfie you in which Demand, I reply, 1. That I charge you with this, because it is true, and I have both Page 50 shewn it already, and will yet farther shew it to be so. 2. I do it at this time, because at this time you have the Confidence to deny it, nay to charge us with Calumny, and Misrepresenta∣tion for having ever accused you of it. So that your wise Question is in effect but this; We the Vindicators and Repre∣senters of New Popery have publickly exposed you to the World as a pack of Knaves, that have misrepresented our Doctrine, and wherefore do you go about to vindicate your selves, and not suffer us to make silly People believe in quiet that what we say is true?
13. Ibid.] Reply.
Answ.] Now to this you should have known that Dr St. gave this Answer.
14. For your Objection from * T. G.
15. Thus did this Reverend Person confute your Oracle: If you had offer'd any thing to prevent the same Answer from be∣ing return'd to you, I should have been far from complain∣ing against you for advancing of an old Argument with new Strength: But when you saw how unable ‖ T. G. was to de∣fend these Cavils, nevertheless still to produce them; and tho you could not but be conscious to your self at the same time that they were not to be maintain'd; I shall only say, that it serves to convince me of the Truth of what an ancient Greek Poet once observed, and the meaning of whose words you may enquire among the Learned at your leisure; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
16. Ad pag. 3.] Reply. Your next Paragraph consists of a Story of Q. Elizabeth, and that too eccho'd form T. G's Inspi∣ration: * But to this I have already return'd my Answer, and when you shall think fit to speak out what you mean by it, you shall not fail of a farther Consideration from me, if I be not prevented by your receiving it from a more proper hand.
17. And thus have we done with what concerns the general Cause, in this Introduction; and the Sum of all is this; That Page 52 of four Paragraphs of which it consists; the first is Calumny; the second false (and I am reasonably perswaded known by you to be so): the third impertinent, and long since answered (as was also the foregoing) by the Reverend Dr. St. the last sedi∣tious: I go on to the following part of this first Article, to ex∣amine what relates to my self in it.
18. Where first you except against my quoting your particu∣lar Authors to find out your Churches meaning, and call it Ca∣lumny, tho what Calumny it is to say that those Authors, whom you cannot deny but that I truly cite, have expounded your Churches Sense otherwise than you and some others do, I cannot imagine: But however you tell us;
Ad p. 3, 4. Reply.]
Answ.] And in this you still follow your old Guide * T. G. But I have † already shewn you the weakness of this Pretence; and for your next supposal that even those Authors do not say what I affirm they do, if your Proofs are as convincing as your Assertion is confident, I have already promised you all you can desire,
Ad pag. 4.] Reply. Your next Paragraph charges me with
Answ.] And is it not the ancient and undoubted Foundation of the Christian Faith which we hold, and which has been de∣liver'd down to us in those very Creeds which your selves profess, and into the Faith of which you still baptize your Children? Nay, do not you your self confess this to be true in the very place where you cavil against me for this Asser∣tion ‖ Vindic. p. 24. where you grant, that what we hold is the ancient and undoubted Foundation, and only deny that it is Page 53 intirely so? And again, in this very Reply in which you repeat your Accusation; * P. 4.
1st, That you dare not say positively that I affirm'd any such thing, †
2dly, That to make something of this charge, you are forced to go back from your own Concession: For whereas in your Vindication you had said plainly, that tho you do not allow us * to hold all Fundamentals, yet no body ever deny'd that we held some of them; here you clap in an Insinuation even against this too:
But, 3dly, Where at last do you find that I ever said, that you granted that we held ALL which you esteem to be fun∣damental? In my Exposition, I tell you, in the very next words to those you cavil at, that this was the thing to be put up∣on the issue;
20. Ad p. 5.] Reply. But you go yet farther in this Point against me; and accuse me in the next place
Answ.] The Spectacles I use are p'ain Honesty and plain Reason; if you have better, I envy you not. In stating the Question between us, I said *
21. Ibid.] For the Parallel you add between our charging you as guilty of Idolatry upon the account of your Worship, and the Fanatick's Clamours against us for our Ceremonies, and against the Justice of which you think we have little to say, it still more confirms me that the ancient Poet I before mention'd was a wise Man: For after so full a Confutation as has been given to this Parallel by * two several Hands, for you to pre∣sume still to say, that we have little to reply to it; this would certainly have made any other Creature in the World blush, but a Man that has taken his leave of Modesty.
22. Ad pag. 6.] For your last little Reflection, which you have dubb'd with the Title
The ANSWER to the SECOND ARTICLE.
That Religious Worship terminates ultimately in God alone.
1. AD p. 6.] Reply.
2. Answ.] It is perhaps none of the least Instances of that Perplexity, into which Sin and Error commonly lead those who have been involved in them, to consider what a multiplicity of obscure and barbarous Terms the Iniquity of these latter Ages has invented to confound those things, which are other∣wise in themselves of the greatest Clearness and Evidence. Whilst Men kept to that Primitive Rule of the Gospel, *
3. But before I enter upon this Enquiry, I cannot but ob∣serve the Change you make in the Title of this Article. Hi∣therto we have had it in these words, †
4. But we will examine your own Scheme, that so we may the better understand your Pretences. And,
Ad Pag. 7, 8.] Reply. 1st, As to the words (you say)
5. Answ.] This I think is the sum of what you desire me to take notice of; and I will now return you a few general Reflecti∣ons upon it. And,
1st, Though we are contented to take all these hard words in your own Sense, yet I must observe to prevent any misapplication of them to the Passages of either Holy Scripture, or Primitive Antiquity, before St. Austin's Time. That for what concerns the Hebrew Phrases of the Old Testament, by which this Worship is express'd, they are all of them promiscuous, and indifferently used with reference both to God and the Creatures. But now with the Greek Phrases in the New Testament it is otherwise. One of them indeed, viz. that from whence you derive your term Dulia, is ambiguous; but for the other two, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & * 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the former is never at all, the latter never but once, and that too in a parabolical sentence, applied to any other Worship than that of God only; not to any Humane or Civil respect.
2dly, As to the distinction you make between Civil and Re∣ligious Honour properly so called, we readily embrace it: and we do confess, that the difference must be taken from the di∣versity of excellency in the Objects on which they are terminated. * From which we infer, that there must be therefore the same proportion between Civil and Religious Worship, as there is be∣tween God and Men. Seeing then there can be no Analogy be∣tween these two, neither can there be any between the Worship that is paid to the One, and to the Other. By consequence, that properly speaking, there can be no other Honour attributed to a Page 59 Creature but what is Civil, and which must be diversified, ac∣cording to the different Excellencies of those to whom it is gi∣ven. And this you your self allow in your Vindication, [p. 28, 29.] where you declare that this Honour is but an extrinse∣cal Denomination from the Cause and Motive, not from the Na∣ture of the Act; and that you do renounce any other sort of Re∣ligious Worship which is so from the Nature of the Act, and by consequence only due to God. And here again in your Reply you found the Appellation of Religious Honour with reference to the Saints,
3dly, That as to the first of these,
4thly, As for Religious Honour properly so called, and as it re∣spects not meerly the Religious Motive, or the Supernatural Gifts which God has bestow'd upon his Servants, but the very Nature and Quality of the Act it self; such Acts by which we pay not only all that worship which may be due to the Excellencies of a pure Creature, but the proper Exercises of Religion, as Prayer, Confession, and such like; and these with all the Circumstances of a proper, religious Worship; in the House of God, in the Page 60 midst of his Solemn Service; it may be in the same Breath and Form in which we address to the Creator; this is that religious Worship which we constantly affirm, and which you your self confess may not without impiety be given to any but God only; and it is for this we charge you with that, which by your own acknowledgment none of your Distinctions reach to, nor will therefore excuse you of, viz. Idolatry.
5thly, As for the outward Expressions of this Honour by bodily Actions, as Bowing, Kneeling, Prostrating, &c. these we confess are ambiguous, and must be determined by the other Circumstan∣ces. But then we deny that they are to be interpreted meerly according to the intention of him that performs them. There is an External Adoration, which no Internal Act of the Under∣standing or Will can excuse, if it be applied to any besides God. Such as is perform'd with those Circumstances of a Religious Worship before mention'd, as to Time, Place, Words, and the like. In short, it is, we say, Idolatry by any External Act whatsoever, to shew that we do attribute Religious Honour to any other but God alone.
6thly, And for the rest, we do affirm, That there are some other kind of External Actions so peculiarly appropriate to God, that they cannot without Idolatry be attributed to any other. Such as, 1st, Sacrifice *, by your own Confession: † to which I will, 2dly, add all those other things of the like kind which God appropriated to himself under the Law; as Religious Adora∣tion, Erection of Temples and Altars, Burning of Incense in token of Divine Worship, Solemn Invocation, and Vows; in all which neither our Saviour nor his Apostles having made the least alte∣ration, we ought certainly (as both the Jews and Primitive Christians most undoubtedly did) to esteem them still his own peculiar Prerogative.
Having thus establish'd in General our Notion of Religi∣ous Worship; let us see if any of these Distinctions will (as you pretend) excuse you of that imputation which has been laid upon you.
ANSWER TO THE THIRD ARTICLE, OF THE INVOCATION of SAINTS.
IN the beginning of this Article I cannot but acknowledge * a commendable Endeavour in you to clear the true State of the Question betwixt us: And tho I am not absolutely of your mind, nor do I see any Cause for your Supposal that Mr. † Thorndyke spoke the Sense of the Church of England in every one of those Particulars mention'd by you in Order thereunto, yet I will not enter into any Controversie with you about them.
1. And first, Be it allow'd that the Words Prayer, Invoca∣tion, Calling upon, Address, &c. are or may be Equivocal; i. e. (as that Learned Man phrases it) that we may make use of the same Expressions in signifying our Requests to God and to Man; tho yet for the two first of these, viz. Prayer and Invocation, they are seldom Applied to any Other than a Religious Sense. This T. G. long since observed, and you have now borrowed it from Him; and you may make what use of this Remark you please in managing of this Controversie.
2. We do not deny but that we ought to Honour the Saints departed, as well as Holy Men upon Earth; Only we desire that that Honour be such as becomes them to receive, and us to pay. We honour them when we praise, and much more when we follow their Faith and Patience. And because the Reason and End of this Honour is Religious, you may without being contradicted by me call the Honour it self Religious too; see∣ing Page 66 you explain your self to mean no more by it, than an an External Denomination from the Cause and Motive, but not * from the Nature of the Act its self.
3. Nor will I dispute with you, lastly, Whether the Saints in Happiness do not in General pray for the Church Militant: For 'tis to as little purpose to deny what cannot be disproved, as to affirm what one cannot prove. I have as great an Ho∣nour as any Man for Mr. Thorndyke's Memory; but yet I cannot see the Proof even of this in those Scriptures which (as you say) He proves it by. Some Fathers I know have said * so; but their saying it is not to Me a sufficient Proof of a Point of Doctrine. When all is done, the Congruity of the thing is the best that can be brought for it. And if upon this account you are resolved to call them Advocates or Inter∣cessors between God and us, you will I hope excuse me if I do * not comply with you in it. That they are full of Charity towards us who are Members of the same Body with them, I make not the least Question: But how they express it I do not certainly know, because many Particulars there are from whence such a Matter is to be concluded, which are all hid∣den from my Knowledge. One thing I know, That we have a Mediator at the Right Hand of God, who knows all our Wants, which I see no reason to believe the greatest Saint in Heaven does. I am likewise assured that his Right to inter∣cede for us is founded upon the Sacrifice of his Death. And since the Gospel gives this Honour and Prerogative to Him ONLY, to appear in the Presence of God for us, I shall never whilst I live help forward an Ambiguity in those Titles, of a Mediator with God, or an Advocate with the Father, or an In∣tercessor in Heaven, by attributing of them to any Saint what∣soever. These Expressions so applied are dangerous, and scan∣dalous; and 'tis but a frivolous Pretence for the doing of it, that possibly the Saints may do something for us in Heaven, upon the account of which the Titles of our Redeemer may in some sense be given to them.
2. As for the State of the Question which you next pro∣pose, you should know by this time that we are by no Means * agreed that the only thing in dispute betwixt us is, Whether it be lawful for us to Pray to the Saints that they would Pray for us? and, Whether such kind of Addresses as these are of Page 67 such a Nature as to make Gods (for so you tell me I very dis∣respectfully * call them; tho I believe you will find 'tis your Misrepresenter's Phrase, and not Mine) of Men and Women. You do indeed with your Guides T. G. and the Bishop of Meaux tell us, that all the Prayers of your Church, be their Words never so repugnant, must yet be reduced to this sense, PRAY FOR US: But you have often been told, that this is utterly disallow'd by us. However, to take off all occasion of Cavil, as far as is possible, I will offer you the State of the Question in such Terms as you shall have no just cause to except against it; viz.
And I will so far comply with you, as to consider it in both respects: 1. According to your own Representation of it: 2. According to that which is indeed your Practice, and fre•∣ly acknowledged by the greatest Men of your Church to be so.
I. POINT.
Whether it be Lawful to pray to the Saints, to PRAY FOR US?
3. This is the least that can possibly be made of this Mat∣ter: And because I would bring the Point to the fairest Issue that may be, as I have proposed the Question according to your own desire, so I will dispute it with you upon your own Principles.
4. And first; for what concerns the Terms of the Que∣stion, they are exactly taken from your own Words: You tell us in your Vindication, that all you say is,
5. But I will now presume to go farther: And since you dare not say that such an Invocation is Necessary, I will un∣dertake to affirm, that neither is it Profitable, nor indeed Lawful, but utterly forbidden. And for proof of this, I shall lay down no Other Foundation than what you have your self establish'd; viz. That Religious Honour or Worship may be ta∣ken in a double Sense:
6. And now from this Principle which you have your self laid down, and which you think
I take leave to inferr,- Page 69
- I. From the very Nature of the Act it self.
- II. From the Circumstances of it.
I. That the very Nature of the Act it self of Invocating the Saints, does shew, that it is strictly and properly a Religious Worship.
7. This is what I know Monsieur de Meaux denies: He tells us,
8. For 1. If the Nature of that Act of Invoking the Saints in Heaven, be the same with that of desiring my Christian Bro∣ther to pray for me upon Earth, then on the other hand this is also of the same Nature with that. And by consequence, I may as well fall down upon my Knees here in London, and desire my Christian Brother, who is now, it may be, in Ja∣pan, or somewhere in the East Indies, or perhaps on his return homewards, to pray for me, as do the like to S. Peter or S. Paul, who, for any thing I can tell, are at a vastly greater distance from me, than my Friend upon Earth is. But if there be something more than a Spirit of Charity, or an acknowledg∣ment of Brotherhood, in calling upon my living friend, who is out of all natural distance of hearing, there is also something Page 70 more than this in calling upon the dead, who it may be are a thousand times farther from me, than the living can be from one another. Would not such an Invocation of my Friend, think you, suppose him to be more than a Brother, or a Man? Would not the Nature of the Act ascribe to him not only the praise of Charity, but likewise the power of hearing and knowing all that is said upon Earth, at any distance whatsoever? I grant, that if this were indeed no more than according to the Order of Fraternal Society; neither would it be any more than so for you to call upon the Saints deceased to pray for you. But if the former would be more, when you have said all that you can, the latter must necessarily be so too: And you do thereby Elevate the Saints above the condition of Creatures. For whether you believe them to be Omnipresent or not, the very Act of in∣voking them indifferently in any place, and their being called upon in several places at the same time, does imply their Om∣nipresence, unless you could give us some other ground of cer∣tainty, that they hear you, besides this, that wherever they are when they are spoken to, and wherever you are when you speak to them, 'tis all one, they do as surely know what you say, as if they stood within the common distance of hearing. Now that Action, which in the very Nature of it ascribes an Immensity of presence to the Object, about which it is conversant, is religious in the very Nature of the Act. And then I leave it to you to deter∣mine whether it be Idolatrous or not, if it be paid to any thing that is not God. But,
9. Secondly, If you are not yet satisfied, I would desire to know, whether prayer to God, which you will not deny to be in its own Nature a religious Act, be not so upon this account as well as others, that 'tis an Acknowledgment of his Immense Pre∣sence. But how is it such an acknowledgment, otherwise than as we do in all places, and at all times call upon him. Since there∣fore you do in all places, and at all times call upon the Saints as well as upon God, I pray tell us why this Invocation should not also be in its own Nature religious Worship. If you allow this, then you have already pass'd sentence upon your self: If you do not, I should be glad you would find a little leisure to shew us the difference. This is an Argument that has been often enough urged to be taken notice of; and if you shall still go on to say nothing to it, we shall conclude the reason to be, that indeed you have nothing to object against it.
Page 71 10. And what I have now said of this Invocation, upon the account of the distance of the Saints from us, that they are now out of the compass of all Civil Commerce; and therefore to pray to them must be properly a Religious Worship, will be yet further confirm'd, Thirdly, by another of your practises; in that your Church allows not only Vocal, but even Mental Prayer to be made to them. Now this can be no Act of Civil Ho∣nour, seeing no creature, such as Man (the Object of all Civil Honour) is, can be capable of searching the Heart, so as to find out the secrets of it. For God, even God only knows the se∣crets * of all the Children of Men. And therefore to pray in our minds to the Saints, to offer up the secret aspirations of our Souls, in Honour to any Creature, this must be an Act of Reli∣gious Worship, and such therefore as by your own acknowledg∣ment is due to God only.
11. Now that you could not be ignorant of these things, and by consequence are the more inexcusable in this your Worship, appears from what Monsieur de Meaux has told us; viz.
12. And thus he represents the Saints as Dii facti, Made Gods, and that by the Almighty himself; which being done with respect to Omnipresence, may, whenever a wretched Cause requires it, be done as well with respect to Omnipotence, and all the other Divine Perfections; and in one word leads to such Consequences, as cannot but stir up the Indignation of all good Men. Nothing should be maintain'd in the Minds of Christian People with more care than the distinct Notion they ought to have of God and his Creatures. But your Doctrine and Practice in this kind does so confound these Apprehensi∣ons of the One and the Other, that they cannot tell what Prerogative, as to the matter of hearing Prayers, God has above his Saints; since they hear all, as well as He. Prayer to God every where is that which principally supports in the Minds of Men the apprehension of his being every where pre∣sent: And tho much of it is due to the natural Impressions which God has left of himself in our Souls, yet the Reflexi∣ons we make upon it, are chiefly owing to the frequent Ad∣dresses we make every where, publickly and privately, to the Page 73 Invisible Being, the Lord of All, of whom we have some know∣ledge by Nature, and more by Christian Instruction. But when Prayer is made to other Invisible Beings as generally as to God, how can it be otherwise, but that the People should conceive them to be as Omnipresent as God himself is? Especially if it be considered, that when their Educated and Philosophical Men, come to vindicate their Practice and Doctrine from this imputa∣tion, they cannot so much as speak sense about it, but with all their Art, talk more meanly and confusedly than meer Nature would instruct an Honest man to do. The difference between the People and the blind guides on the one side, and between the Seers on the other, being only this, That the Worship, and the Notions of the former go together, and are of a piece; but the latter, with as bad a Worship, have better Notions; and give that Honour to the Saints by their Practice, which their Notions (as they would have us think at least) deny to them. But for that reason they are the more to blame; and tho their Idolatry be not so gross as the Peoples, yet it is more inexcusable.
13. And yet if we may judge of their thoughts by their words, some of the refined Controvertists do not come much behind the Common People in this stupidity. If they think o∣therwise than they say, they are to answer to God for that too. Cardinal Bellarmine, and others, who had none of these * Expounding designs to carry on, speak out freely, and tell us, that the Saints are Dii per participationem, God's by participation; and upon that account he justifies the Practice of the Church of Rome, in swearing by them, and making Vows to them. Nor * indeed do I see how that differs very much from Monsieur de Meaux's giving them the Knowledge which the hearing of all Prayers requires, as by a light communicated to them by God. For what is that but to say, that God has (in effect) made them par∣takers of his Immensity? Nay, the Representer (if we may con∣clude any thing from his arguing) seems plainly to yeild, that the Saints have a Natural Knowledge of our Prayers:
Page 74 14. No wonder therefore if Bellarmine makes a greater dif∣ference between the Prayers to the Saints, and our desires of good mens Prayers upon Earth, than Monsieur de Meaux seems willing to acknowledge; and looks upon it to be a Worship due to them, thus (in the words of your Synod of Trent) suppli∣antly to call upon them: For what can be more reasonable than * to esteem that Prayer, the Invocation of Suppliants, and the Worship of Invocation, which is made with such deference of respect from the very Nature of the Act, as is due to God the only Omnipresent Being? And what more unreasonable and foolish, than to call our desires of each others Prayers by such Titles as these?
And hitherto have I shewn, that in the very Act of praying to the Saints, without any regard had to the form or substance of your Petitions, or the circumstances with which you call upon them, you give proper, religious Worship to them, which you acknowledge it is unlawful for you to do. I proceed, Secondly, to shew this yet more plainly,
II. From the Circumstances of it.
15. And here to avoid, if it be possible, all your little Ca∣vils so usual upon this occasion, as in speaking to the former part of this Argument, I have managed it so as not to concern my self with any of your distinctions of Supreme and Inferiour * Religious Worship; so here I will not insist on those Exteriour A∣ctions of the Body, which you tell me are Equivocal, and of which Monsieur de Meaux roundly affirms,
16. For 1. What else can be gathered from those outward Circumstances, of the Place, Time and Manner (to say nothing of the Gestures of the Body) with which you call upon them? Do not all these speak plainly to us what the Nature of this Page 75 Worship is? You pray (for instance) to the Saints in the House of God, it may be, in a Temple which you have conse∣crated at once to the Service of God, and to the Honour of the Saint whom you invoke. You accompany these Prayers with Incense smoking before their Images; a Circumstance which was once reckon'd as a peculiar instance of External Religious Ado∣ration; and which was therefore thought so appropriate an Act of Divine Worship among the Primitive Christians, that they chose to die rather than to throw a little Incense into the fire upon the Heathen Altars. You call at the same instant upon the One and upon the other, and too often place them in an equal rank with one another.
Page 76 17. Secondly, Another Circumstance which plainly shews your Invocation of Saints to be in the very Nature of the Act a Religious Service, is, that you offer not only your Prayers, but your very Sacrifice too to their Honour and Veneration: And this I am sure you will not deny to be truly a Religious Act. Thus in the Missal of Salisbury.
And in the Common Roman Missal,
And in the Post-Communio of the Mass of the B. Virgin.
Now, not to enter on an Enquiry, how far these Expressions will in some measure apply the very Sacrifice it self to those Saints; it being hardly intelligible otherwise what Honour can be done to the Saints, by a Sacrifice offer'd solely to God; it cannot be doubted, but that this being confessedly a proper Re∣ligious Act, whatever Honour is hereby done the Saints, must be strictly and properly a Religious Honour; not meerly in denomina∣tion, but in the very Nature of the thing it self. And I desire Monsieur de Meaux to tell us, whether this too be done with the same Spirit of Charity, and in the same Order of Brotherly Society with which we intreat our Brethren upon Earth to pray for us. And what would be thought of him, that out of kindness or respect to his fellow Christian, should offer up the Son of God for his Honour, or (as the last Prayer has it) in his Veneration.
Page 77 I do not pretend that this is properly an Act of Prayer to Saints; and therefore I propose it only as a Circumstance from whence to conclude what the true Nature of your Invocation of them is. For if it appear, that the other parts of that Worship you pay to the Saints, are properly Religious Acts, it will not be doubted but that your praying to them is certainly so too. And tho you have restrain'd the terms of our Question to this one particular Instance, of calling upon them, yet it suffi∣ces me in general to conclude against you, that you do give proper Religious Honour to others besides God, if it appear, that any part of that Worship you pay to the Saints is such.
18. Nor is it by any means to be forgot here, that in almost every one of these Masses you desire to be accepted by the MERITS of that Saint in whose Honour or Veneration the Mass it self is offer'd. I will give you an instance or two of this.
Regard, we most humbly beseech thee, O Lord, these things * which we offer to thee: and by the MERITS of thy Bles∣sed Bishop Julian, deliver us from all sin.
Let the MERITS of S. Bathildis obtain, that these gifts may be accepted by thee.
We load thy Table, O Lord, with mystical gifts, in comme∣moration * of S. Agatha thy Virgin and Martyr; humbly be∣seeching thy Majesty, that by the help of HER MERITS we may be freed from all Contagions.
Thus (as I have heretofore observed) do you joyn the ME∣RITS of Christ, whom you suppose to be the Offering, with the MERITS of your Saints; and make a Bathildis or a Julian, joynt Intercessors with the Son of God for your for∣giveness. What is this but truly to ascribe to the Creature the Honour of the Creator, and to worship them with a Religious Wor∣ship, in the utmost propriety of the Expression?
19. I shall add but one Circumstance more, and that of an∣other sort of Service with which you sometimes accompany your Prayers to the Saints, and which I think will undeniably convince you, that you do give them the most strict Acts of Page 78 Religious Service; and that is, Your making of Vows to them. That this is a proper Act of Religion, both the Holy Scripture * evidently shews, and the reason of the thing it self declares; A Vow being in its own Nature nothing else than a Promise made to God; and such by which he is acknowledged to be the Searcher of the Heart, and the just Avenger of all perfidious Pro∣misers, as he is the bountiful Rewarder of those who are faith∣ful in his Service. And your own Authors unanimously ac∣knowledge * it to be an Act, not only of Proper, but of Supreme Religious Worship.
20. And yet even this too is paid by you to the Saints: and I desire you to consider what you then did, when at the entry into your Order (if you herein, as I suppose, agree with the manner of your Brethren the Dominicans), you so∣lemnly * vow'd to
21. The Consequence of all is this plain Conclusion, That if a Vow be strictly and properly an Act of Religious Worship, Page 79 and not only call'd so by an extrinsecal Denomination from the Cause and Motive of it; and Prayer (as Card. Cajetane says) be an Act of the same kind with it; then are they both Acts, by your own Acknowledgment, due only to God: And there∣fore it must be a Sin to give them to any Other; and being a Sin in a matter of Religious Worship, whereby that Honour is given to the Creature which is due only to God, it remains, according to our Notion, that it must be Idolatry.
22. And thus have I hitherto argued against that Worship you pay to the Saints, upon your own Principle, and accord∣ing to your own Proposal: I shall only add, to close this First Point, That whether these Arguments shall be thought of force sufficient to convict you of what I am persuaded you are guilty in this Service, it is your Concern alone to weight. If they are, I need not say any thing to exaggerate your Offence which you commit in this Matter: If they are not, yet whilst we are neither defective in our Veneration towards those Bles∣sed Souls, but pay them all that Honour (as I have before shewn) of which they are now Capable; whilst we transgress no Command of God in our Omission of these Superstitions; nor fail continually to Address our selves to the Throne of Grace, through our Great and Only Mediator Jesus Christ; We are not only sure of his Intercession, who we know is able both to Hear and Help us; but also in a most likely way of obtaining the Charitable Assistances of those Holy Souls too, who, if they have any Knowledge of us, or Concern for what passes Here below, will doubtless need no Sollicitation to be kind to us; but without our Intreaty offer up their Prayers to God, for all those who thus serve him in Sincerity and Truth.
23. But I must now go much farther, and bring my Charge more closely against you, by shewing, secondly,
II. POINT.
What the True Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome is, as to the Point of INVOCA∣TION of SAINTS?
Now the Sum of this Point may I think best be reduced to these Four Considerations, by which you endeavour in your Reply to justifie your selves in this Particular.
For, I. As to the Prayers themselves, you cannot deny but that in the natural Sense of them they do imply a proper and formal Invocation of the Saints to whom you Address: But then you tell us, That the Churches Sense is much otherwise; and therefore that whatever their Words may seem to imply, yet the Intention of them all is One and the Same, viz. PRAY FOR US.
II. That as to what We object concerning the MERITS of the Saints, your concluding of All your Prayers in this Form,
III. That for those Addresses you have the Warrant both of Scripture and Antiquity. Whereas,
IV. We have neither against them: Those Pretensions I offer'd in my Defence being either false or deceitful; or at least not conclusive enough to engage you to lay aside a Practice which has been so many hundred Years in the Church, and that by our own Confession.
This is the Sum of what is said on this Occasion, not only by your self, but by the generality of your Party: And to this I shall answer with all the Plainness and Candour that I am able.
SECT. I.
Whether all the Prayers that are made to the Saints by those of the Church of Rome, are fairly to be reduced to this One Sense, PRAY FOR US?
24. For thus it is that you Expound your selves.
25. Answer.] Such then are your Pretences. To your Re∣flections I have spoken Already; I come now to examine your Reasons: And to convince Others, if not You, that I was not WILFUL in my MISTAKES as to the meaning of your Prayers, but that you are a sort of Miserable Shufflers, in your pretended Expositions of them. For tell me now, I be∣seech you, by what Authority is it that your New Guides * T. G. and the Bishop of Meaux undertake thus to detort the plain Expressions of your Addresses to a Signification utterly repugnant to the natural Meaning of them? Have any of your Page 82 General approved Councils positively defined this to be all your * Design in them? And if they have not, are you not, accord∣ing to your own Language, in your accusing of me on this * Occasion, a Falsifier, a Calumniator, and a Misrepresenter TOO? Does the Council of Trent, where it decrees this Service is to be paid to them, say that this shall be the Universal, Ecclesiastical Sense of these Devotions? Nay, does but so much as One sin∣gle Rubrick in all your Offices give us the least Intimation of it?
26. It is, I know, pretended by Monsieur de Meaux, That * your Catechism authorizes this Exposition of them; where it
27. Such are that Bishops Pretences, and it must be confes∣sed they have something that is plausible in them; tho what will soon vanish when it comes to be examined to the Bot∣tom. For be it allow'd, as He desires, that there are here proposed two different Forms of Prayer; for indeed we do not deny but that in General you may pray with other Senti∣ments to God, than to the Saints; tho too often in your Prayers themselves we find no great care taken to distinguish them: To God, as to the First and Supreme Dispenser of All Good; to the Saints only as His Ministers, and inferiour Distributers of it.
28. If this be ANOTHER MANNER from the fore∣going then I am sure all the Prayers of your Church are not Page 83 to be reduced to that One Form, Pray for us. But what is this Other Manner?
29. This is plain dealing, and gives us an Authentick Exposi∣tion of that Passage in the Council of Trent, whose Sense you no less pervert than that of your Liturgies; viz.
30. But Secondly, We will examine this Point a little fur∣ther; for indeed the whole Mystery of this Service in the Church of Rome depends upon a right understanding of what Notion they have of the Saints above. And because I will do this without any suspicion of Falsity, I will deliver nothing but from Card. Bellarmine's own Words. In his Book of the Eternal Felicity of the Saints, among Other Reasons that * he gives
31. Having thus established His Foundation, He now goes on to the practical Demonstration of it.
32. I shall not need to transcribe what He in the next place adds concerning the Worship that upon this and other accounts is paid to the Saints, beyond that of any Earthly Monarch. But from what has been said, I conclude, That it is the Opinion of those in the Church of Rome, that (as the Council of Trent expresses it) The Saints reign together with Christ; and, are Gods by Participation; that is, are made Par∣takers of the Dignity and Power of God. 2. That therefore whatever Intercourse the Faithful upon Earth may have with them, it must be vastly different from what they have with their Brethren here below, who are neither admitted to such a Dignity, nor Partakers of this Power. 3. That since the Saints are thus Kings in Heaven, when those of the Roman Church address to them in a SUPPLIANT manner, as their CLI∣ENTS, for Help and Assistance, they do not do this in the same Spirit of Charity, nor after the same Order of Fraternal * Society with which they would desire the Prayers of their Fellow-Christians yet living. And, 4. That seeing the Bless'd in Heaven have Power together with God of taking Care of us, and bestowing Blessings upon us; there is neither Truth nor Reason in that vain Pretence, That all the Prayers that are made * Page 86 to them, must be reduced to this One form, PRAY FOR US; but that we ought indeed to understand them to desire of the Saints, what both their Principles allow them to do, and their Words declare that they do desire; viz. THEIR HELP and ASSISTANCE, as reigning TOGETHER WITH Christ.
33. But, Thirdly, I have yet more to say in Answer to this Evasion. It is well known how much those Prayers you make to the Saints, scandalized many of the most Eminent Men of your Church. Wicelius doubted not to say of one of your * Hymns, that it was full of downright Blasphemy, and horrible Superstition; of others, that they were wholly inexcusable. Lu∣dovicus Vives profess'd, that he found little difference in the * Peoples Opinion of their Saints, in many things, from what the Heathens had of their Gods: and that numbers in your Church worshipp'd them no otherwise than God. Now this the Council of Trent could not but know, and it then lay before them to redress it. If therefore those Fathers had thought, that there was no other form of Invocation allowable to the Saints, than (as you now pretend) to Pray to them to Pray for us, is it to be imagined, that at such a juncture as this they would have taken no care about a thing so justly scanda∣lous, not only to the Protestants, whom they desired to reduce, but even to many of their own Communion? How easie had it been for them to say,
34. Nay, I will go yet farther: There was not only no Care taken then, but at this day men are suffer'd to run, with∣out Censure, into the same Excesses. We know to what Extra∣vagance Card. Bona, Father Crasset, and but the other day Do∣ctor J. C. our own Countryman, have gone; and no One of your Church censures them for it. Cassander immediately after the Council, no less complain'd of these things than Vives and Wicelius before; and that too was disregarded. On the con∣trary, whilst the Extravagances of these Votaries are encoura∣ged, the moderation of the others is censured by the highest Authority of your Church. The Psalter of S. Bonaventure goes abroad with permission, but the Comments of Lud. Vives are put in the Expurgatory Index, and George Cassander's Works ab∣solutely prohibited. If Advices are given from the Blessed Virgin * to her indiscreet Worshippers,
35. Fourthly, Had the Council of Trent been of the same Opinion with Monsieur de Meaux, I shall leave it to any reason∣able man, that will but be at the pains to examine your Offices, to say, whether there was not great need of some such Adver∣tisement Page 88 as I before said. As for example: In the Office of the Blessed Virgin you thus address to Her:
Now that these Prayers are conceived in as formal terms as any can be to God himself, is not to be deny'd: I desire you therefore to tell me by what Rules of Interpretation, by what Publick and Authentick Decree of your Church, we are to expound a Prayer made to the Blessed Virgin, that She would give strength and power, into a desire that she would pray to God that He would do this?
36. But however, let us for one moment suppose this to be reasonable, and try whither such a method of interpreting will carry us. For instance, thus you * Pray to the Apostles.
That is to say,
That is, you who by your Prayers to God are able to incline him either to shut or open H•aven, we intreat you, that by YOUR COMMAND, meaning only your Prayers, you would deliver us; that is to say, would Pray to God, that He would deliver us—, from all our sins.
That is to say, O ye Holy Apostles, to whose command, as far as Prayers may be so called, the Health and Sickness of all is subjected; forasmuch as your Requests can prevail with God to submit it to you: Heal us, i. e. Pray to God that He would Heal us, who are sick in our manners; and Restore us; that is to say, intreat God, that He would restore us to Vertue.
37. Such, according to your Principles, is the Paraphrase of this Prayer. If this be a natural way of Expounding, then be also your Pretences allow'd of: But if to pray in such words as these, meaning no more than what I have ex∣press'd, be a downright mocking both of God and his Saints, then let the World judge what we are to think of your Inter∣pretations.
38. But however, for once let us allow even this too: What shall we do with those Prayers where God and the Saints are both join'd together in the same Request. As for instance,
Here, I doubt, it will be something difficult to reduce them to what you call the Churches Sense, PRAY FOR US, unless you pray to God too as well as to the Saints, to pray (to whom I cannot imagine) for you.
39. I shall add but one Consideration more, from your Ser∣vice of the Saints, to overthrow your new Expositions; but that such as I shall be very glad to receive an Honest Answer to. For be it that in defiance of all Sense and Reason, your Prayers to the Saints, in what terms soever they be conceived, must all be interpreted, as you pretend. Yet what shall we do in those Cases where the very Nature of the Service utterly refu∣ses such kind of Colours? As,
I. When in your Vows, you vow'd (as I before obser∣ved),
II. When in your Doxologies, you give
Vers. Open my lips, O Mother of JESUS.
Resp. And my soul shall speak forth thy Praise. *
Vers. Divine Lady, be intent to my aid.
Resp. Graciously make haste to help me.
Vers. Glory be to JESUS and MARY.
Resp. As it WAS, IS, and ever SHALL be.
So Dr. J. C. Now what you will think of all this I can∣not tell, but sure I am S. Athanasius pronounces it to be down∣right Idolatry, and what no good Christian would ever be * guilty of.
III. When in your Commendation of a departing Soul, you bid him,
IV. When in the Confession of your sins, you confess,
V. When in absolving your Penitents from them, you join,
VI. When in your Conjurings against storms,
VII. When in your Excommunications, you shut men out of the Church,
VIII. When in Absolving them from this Sentence, you
Lastly, When in consecrating of a Church or Altar, you
Page 92 Now in all these several instances, there is no room for any such interpretation as you pretend in the Case of your Prayers; but here either your hearts join in what your lips utter, and then it is plain you give as Proper Divine Worship to the Saints as you do to God, which you confess to be unlawful: Or if they do not, what is this but to speak words of Vanity in your most Solemn Service, and in which you ought especially to take heed not to offend?
40. Thus do the very Words of your Liturgies utterly refuse such an Exposition as you pretend to be your only meaning in all your Prayers to the Saints. I will add yet one Consideration more, to shew the insincerity of it, Fifthly, from the concur∣rent Practice of the most eminent Persons of your Church, and whose Authority you cannot with any justice except against.
41. Now of this the famous Psalter of S. Bonaventure, may alone serve for a sufficient Evidence; which as it has been publickly set forth, and authorized amongst you, so I need not tell you, that the design of it was to apply all the Addresses that are made to God in the Psalms and Hymns of the Church; nay, and even the very Creeds to the Blessed Virgin.
Come unto Mary all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and * she shall refresh your Souls. Come unto Her in your temptations, and the Serenity of Her Countenance shall establish you.
When I called upon thee thou heardest me, O Lady, and from thy high Throne didst vouchsafe to remember me. Blessed * art thou, O Lady, for ever, and let thy Majesty be exalted for evermore.
O Lady, in thee do I put my trust, deliver my Soul from mine Enemies. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: O * give thanks unto His Mother, for her Mercy endureth for ever.
42. I might pass at this rate through all the other Psalms, and to these add the Te Deum, Benedicite, Athanasian Creed, &c. all burlesqued to He• Honour: But there has been so many large * Collections of these already publish'd, that I shall subjoin only one Prayer at the close of all.
43. I will not now insist upon this, that this Book has been often Printed among you with Licence and Commendation, and particularly my Editions of it; the one Italian and Latin, Printed at Genoa, 1606. with the Licence of the Superiors, and submitted by the Translator Giovan Battista Pinello to the Censure of the Church; the other at Leige in the same Year, by le Sage: But this last had the Honour of being particular∣ly commended by the Vicar of that Church, and Censor of * Books, as a Piece
44. And now I am instancing in your Saints, I cannot forbear presenting you with a Strain or two of your Pious, but very Superstitious and Indiscreet St. Bernard: and this too to try your Faculty of Expounding.
45. But I insist too long upon these Matters; and there∣fore * in stead of multiplying new Instances, shall refer you to those I have already offer'd: And from your Saints descend to the Heads of your Church; One of which thus piously * call'd upon S. Peter and S. Paul at the Head of a Synod, in Excommunicating the Emperour Henry IV. Anno 1080. in these Words.
This is a blessed Prayer for a Pope to make; and I doubt will be found to signifie somewhat more than to pray to those Saints to pray for Him. If you think otherwise, let us see your Paraphrase, and then we shall be able the better to judge of it. To conclude, Let any Man but read over the late Books of Father Crasset, and Dr. J. C. and then I will leave Him to believe if He can, that all you mean in your Invoca∣tion Page 95 of Saints, is only to desire them to pray for you.
46. And this may suffice to your first Pretence, of the In∣terpretation you would put upon these Addresses. As for the Authority you would be thought to have from Holy Scripture, for them, it is so very trifling, as not to deserve a Considera∣tion. For who would not laugh at that Man that should se∣riously argue after this manner?
1. When the Children of Israel were under Oppression, * God raised up a Deliverer or Saviour for them, who de∣livered them: Therefore it is lawful to pray to Saints as our Saviours in Heaven. Again,
2. St. Stephen calls Moses a Ruler and a Deliverer of the * Children of Israel; and St. Paul a Mediator, because at the delivery of the Law God sent it by his Hands to them: Therefore we may now give the Titles of Media∣tors and Redeemers to the Saints departed, with reference to our Spiritual and Eternal Concerns, tho they neither are, nor have been, either Redeemers or Mediators to us.
3. St. Paul tells Timothy, That if he discharged the part of * a faithful Pastor, as He exhorted him to do, He should be a blessed Instrument of Salvation both to Himself and Others: Therefore we may now pray to Timothy as our Saviour in Heaven.
47. Are not these, Sir, weighty Arguments? And were you not resolved utterly to confound us, when you alledged such Proof out of Holy Scripture as this? But you have one Pas∣sage at least that will do our Work.
A notable Proof this, and almost as terrible as that which follows: The Holy Scripture says of Princes,
48. But the Representer has yet a Passage to justifie the ut∣most Extravagance of former Times, and prove even that Prayer, which Bellarmine was fain to deny they ever used,
But be it as he desires; God obey'd the voice of Joshua; i. e. as the Chaldee Paraphrast has it, He accepted his Prayer; as the Doway Bible it self expounds it,
How will it even thence follow, that we may desire the Blessed Virgin to command our Saviour by the Right of a Mother over him? But such Twigs as these must be laid hold on, when Men are re∣solv'd to keep to their Conclusion, tho at the same time they have not so much as the shadow of a Proof to support it.SECT. II.
After what manner it is that the Church of Rome * prays to God through the Merits of Her Saints?
This is the next Point to be considered by us; and thus you establish it.
49. Reply, p. 23.]
50. Answ.] For Answer to which Discourse, I must first desire you to come a little out of the Clouds, and not play with us in ambiguous Terms, whilst you charge Me with it. The word Merit, you say, is Equivocal; and the two Senses you Page 98 give it are, First, To signifie that We do by our own Natural force alone deserve the Reward of Grace and Glory. And in which Sense if you pretend that we charge you with pleading your own Merits, you do certainly most falsly accuse us. The other Sense you give the word is, That our Good Works may be said to Merit, because they apply the Merits of Jesus Christ to us, and are the Means by which we attain Eternal Life, in vertue of the Promises of God, and Merits of our Blessed Re∣deemer. In which were you sincere (for all the impropriety of the Speech) yet we should not be far from agreeing with you. But now what is all this, to your praying to God to hear you by the Merits of the Saints? This may do well in its proper Article; but here it serves only to amuse the Reader with that which is nothing to the purpose, that so he may be di∣sposed to forget what you were to prove. Jam dic Posthume de tribus Capellis.
51. You tell us then, in the next Paragraph, That you pray,
O Blessed John the Baptist, reach out thy Hand to us, and be to us continually a Holy Intercessor, to the Clemency of the most High Judge, that through THY MERITS we may DE∣SERVE to be freed from all Tribulation.
O God! by whose Grace we celebrate the Memories of thy Saints Saturninus and Sisinnius, Grant that by THEIR MERIT we may be helped, through our Lord.
Mercifully accept, O God, our Offerings which we have made unto thee, for the SAKE of the Passion of thy Blessed Martyrs Saturninus and Sisinnius; that by their Intercession they may be made acceptable to thy Majesty.
Page 99 And in the Breviary of Salisbury, we find this to be a part of the Constant Service:
Be propitious we beseech thee, O Lord, unto us thy Servants, * through the glorious Merits of thy Saints whose Reliques are contain'd in this Church; that by their pious Intercession we may be protected in all Adversities.
Grant we beseech thee, Almighty God, that the Merits of thy Saints whose Reliques are contain'd in this Church may protect us, &c.
It were infinite to recount all the other Prayers which run in the same strain throughout all your Offices, insomuch that the very * Canon of the Mass is infected with it. I will men∣tion only one Instance more, which is indeed a singular one; not so much because of the Expression of it, wherein the General word of Merit is restrain'd to the particular Merit of his Death, as because it was made to one who died in Actu∣al Rebellion against his Prince; and concerning whom there∣fore it was for some time debated amongst you, Whether he were damn'd or saved?
52. It remains then, that you do recur to the Saints not meerly for their Prayers, but that by their Merits and Inter∣cession they would obtain Grace and Pardon of God for you. This is the Doctrine of your Catechism:
53. Let us see therefore how you excuse your selves in this Matter. You say,
Now changing only the Names, this, according to your Ex∣position, will be the Paraphrase of it.
In this extravagant Petition, the very Transcript of the fore∣going Prayer, he must be blind who sees not that the Conclu∣sion of it, for the Princes sake, &c. is very impertinent, and does not at all hinder but that the Request is formally made by the Interest of my Lord Chancellor, and in Honour of his Birth∣day: Page 101 And therefore that notwithstanding this Conclusion (which is really the Remains of your Old Forms, before ever any New Intercessors were put into them) you remain justly chargeable with what I accused you of, That you make the Saints joint Intercessors with Christ to God; and desire not only through his Merits, but by theirs also, to obtain your Requests.
54. As for your last Pretence of Holy Scripture for this Pra∣ctice, it is every jot as little to the purpose in this, as I have shewn it to be in the foregoing Point.
1.
Because God, in pursuance of his Covenant made with Abra∣ham, blessed his Son, and Moses put him in mind of that Co∣venant, to appease his Anger, that he should not destroy the Israelites; Therefore it is lawful now to pray to God not only by the Merits of Christ (the only Mediator of God's Covenant with us) but also of the Saints too, for Pardon and Salvation
2.
I wonder you did not put in the City Jerusalems Merits too, to prove that we may not only pray through the Merits of the Saints, but of their Cities also: For the Text seems as express in this, as in the other: I Kings xi. 32.
3. What you mean by your last Passage, I must confess I * cannot divine; unless you think that because Elijah, who was sent by God's express Command to make a Proof of his Divi∣nity before all the People of Israel, who were gone after Baal, began his Prayer with that usual Character of his being the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; it was therefore through their Merits that the Fire came down from Heaven, and burnt up his Sacrifice.
SECT. III.
In which the Arguments offer'd by the Vindicator for the Establishing of this Worship are particularly Consider'd, and their Weakness laid open.
55. Hitherto we have been clearing the matter of Fact, what your Practice in this Invocation of Saints is; I come now in the next place to examine your Arguments, and see what grounds you have to support so great a Superstition.
And First, for what concerns the Holy Scripture, I find you do not much care to be try'd by that: You plead Possession for your Warrant, and are resolved that shall be sufficient, till we by some better right can throw you out of it. Now in this I cannot but commend your discretion; for indeed those who go about to found this Article upon the Authority of Holy Writ, do in the Opinion of many of your own Church but loose their Labour, since (as they tell us) for the Old Testament, the Ho∣ly * Patriarchs and Prophets that lived before Christ's Incarnation were not yet admitted into Heaven, and therefore were not Capable of being pray'd to; and for the New, it was not ex∣press'd there for fear of Scandalizing the Jews, and least the Gentiles should have been thereby moved to think, that the Worship of new Gods had been proposed to them.
56. Wherefore passing by the Holy Scripture, which you look upon as unfit to be appeal'd to in this Case, let us come to the Possession you so much boast of; And see how you defend it against those Arguments I offer'd to prove
First, Of the first 300 Years, wherein I affirm that there was no such prac•ice in the Church.
Secondly, Of the F•urth Century; towa•ds the latter End of which I confess it began to appear; tho' still with very great difference from what you now Practise.
I. PERIOD.
That the Custom of Praying to Saints had no being in the Church for the First 300 Years.
57. Now for this I shew'd you in my Defence,
58. First, You clap a Marginal Note upon my Assertion (in earnest of your future Civility)
And to wipe off this Calumny you undertake to shew that they did Pray to the Saints within the First 300 Years. This is I confess to the purpose, and if you can do it, let the Note of Calumny stick upon Me; but indeed I rather think that this Undertaking will fix another, and a much more proper Note upon You. But let us hear your Proofs.Ibid.] And first you say,
59. Answer] If this be true, then, Sir, I tell you in one word, that my Brethren the Centurists were mistaken; and that, (considering the time they wrote in) is no great Wonder. But now did you never hear in your Life, that your Brethren, Erasmus, Sixtus Senensis, Possevin, Bellarmine, Baronius, Labbé, Du Pin, &c. have all confess'd, that neither the Tracts, nor Comments upon Job were Origen's? Has no one ever told you, Page 104 Secondly, that another of your Brethren Card. du Perron, has * utterly rejected the Authority of Origen, as an incompetent Witness in matter of fact, and that especially in the very Point before us? Were you indeed so ignorant, Thirdly, as not to know how opposite this Father is to you (as I shall presently shew) in his undoubtedly genuine Works as to this matter? As for the other Passages you quote, Fourthly, out of his Com∣ments upon Ezekiel; besides that He there supposes the Angel present with Him: Could you look upon this place and not see that another of your Brethren, your own Editor, calls it an Apostrophe to His Guardian Angel; and I desire you to try if you can make any more of it. And Lastly, for what you finally alledge out of his Lamentations; did you in good earnest not know that it was a Book mark'd, not by your Brethren only, but by your Holy Father Pope Gelasius as Apchryphal; and rejected as such by all the Learned Men of your own Communion? So unfortunate, or rather unfaithful have you been in your first Entry upon Antiquity. It may be you will go on a little better.
Reply.] You tell us in the next place a story of one Justina, *
60. Answer.] If by this Story you design to prove the In∣vocation of Saints to have been the Practice of the Church within the first 300 Years, (and indeed it is for this you do produce it,) I must then again complain of your Unsincerity; seeing it is both acknowledged by your own Authors, and indeed * confess'd by your own self, that Gregory Nazianzen was mi∣staken in the relation, and attributed that to the great St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, which could not belong to Him. As for the other Cyprian to whom Card. du Perron, Baronius, &c. apply it, He is not pretended to have lived * within that Period, and so your Proof is without the Compass of what you undertook to shew.
61. But Secondly, Had there been any truth in this Story, even with reference to this other Cyprian, how comes it to pass that none of the ancient Martyrologies, no not your own Page 105 Breviary, since the Reformation of it, makes the least mention of any such thing: Would all these have omitted so Consi∣derable a Passage had there been any grounds of certain∣ty in it.
62. To Reply therefore to this Instance, I say, It is more than probable that St. Gregory took up this Story either from some flying report, or out of some Counterfeit Acts: For one part of it, at least that which relates to St. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage, you confess your † selves that in this he was cer∣tainly mistaken. And if any other Cyprian we hear nothing either in Eusebius, or any other Historian or Writer of that Age. The first Cardinal Baronius has produced being Beda and Adelhelmus, who lived not till the Eighth, and Meta∣phrastes in the latter end of the Ninth Century. But however let us see even what they say of this matter. They tell us that the Cyprian here meant was Bishop of Antioch, and suffer'd Martyrdom at Nicomedia with St. Justina: And thus it stood in your own Breviary too till the Reformation of it by the Or∣der of the Council of Trent. But now it is beyond dispute e∣vident * that this is utterly false; for that in those times there was no such Bishop of Antioch, both the accounts of the Suc∣cession of that Sea given us both by ancient and modern Historians plainly shew; and Card. Baronius himself confesses it: Who is therefore forced for the credit of the business con∣trary both to his own Authors, and to your Ancient Brevaries, * to degrade him from a Bishop to a Deacon. And for this He has no Authority. So evident do's it remain, that this whole matter is what the Card. calls, one part of it at least, a Fable to be exploded by all Wise Men. And this is another Proof ei∣ther of your integrity or ability in Church History. But we will hope the next may be better.
63. Reply.] And thus you go on with your Undertaking,
64. Answ.] Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor Hiatu?
You will not insist upon Dionysius, nor upon Justin Martyr, * nor upon Irenaeus: But what then will you insist upon? for you have said nothing at all to the purpose yet.
After all this Gaping, we have two Testimonies only offer'd to us for the practice of 300 years: One a passage of Origen al∣ready rejected as Spurious: And the other out of a Tract of Methodius, if not certainly Spurious, yet justly suspected by your own Critick's, being neither quoted by any of the Anci∣ents, nor mention'd by Photius; and of a Stile more Luxuri∣ant than that Fathers other Writings are; and that speaks so clearly of the Mystery of the Trinity, of the Incarnation, and Divinity of the Word, whom He calls, in a Phrase not well known in his time, CONSUBSTANTIAL with the Father; of the Trisagion never heard of for above 100 years after His death; of the Virginity of Mary after Her Concepti∣on; and of Orginal Sin; that your late Critick Monsieur du * Pin had certainly reason to place it among his Spurious Works, however it be now cited with such assurance by you.
65. But to quit this Exception against the Book: The very Passage it self is so manifest a piece of Oratory, that had you ever consulted it, in the Greek set out by Combefis, you could not have doubted of it. He had begun his Apostrophe two or three Pages before what you produce; and he ushered it in with this express Introduction, to prepare us for it,
66. This then is the sum of your Arguments to Establish this Practice in the first three Centuries. Were it necessary, af∣ter what has been done by so many better hands, to recount the Opinions of those Holy Fathers as to this Point, I should cer∣tainly be able to make some better Proof of the Antiquity of our praying to God only, than you have been able to do of your Addressing to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints.
67. In the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning the death of Polycarp, Anno 167. we find that the Jews had per∣swaded the Heathens, that if they suffer'd the Christians to have the body of that Holy Martyr, they would leave Christ, to Worship Polycarp:
68. This is indeed the true Spirit of Christianity, and the exact account of the Honour we now pay to the Saints. We Adore only our Saviour Christ, as the Son of God, and there∣fore (as the Ancient Latin Translation of this Letter reads it) * we pray to no other. But for the Saints, we Love and Ho∣nour them; we recite and magnifie their noble Acts: We en∣courage our selves by their Examples to the like performances, as those who earnestly desire to be partakers of their Glory. This is all the Honour they are now capable of receiving; and this was all that the Primitive Church in those best Ages, was ever known to have given to them. *
69. The Church of Christ (says Irenaeus) does nothing
70. * Origen tell us, that to Invocate the Lord, and to Adore God, are the same thing. So do Tertullian and Cyprian, using Page 108 the words to Pray and to Adore promiscuously in the same signi∣fication. In a word, this was the constant Doctrine of those first Ages; and I will chuse to deliver it in the words of that Father whom you have especially alledged to the contrary:
71. I will add but one Testimony more in a matter both so plain in its self, and so often insisted upon by others, and it is of Novatian proving the Divinity of Christ, from the Churches * praying to him,
72. Such was the Opinion of the Church in the first three Centuries: As for that extraordinary discovery you are pleased next to make,
73. But tho you are not then able to answer my Challenge of producing any Warrant from the Fathers of the first 300 years for this Doctrine and Practice; it may be you are able at least to answer my Presumption from those times against it: viz.
74. Reply] To this you say,
75. Answ.] That the Fathers about the latter end of the IV. Century began to Invocate the Saints we do not deny; tho' it were rather in the way of a Rhetorical Compellation, than of a formal Address. And if herein they contradicted any other of their Principles, we know they were but Men, and as such might possibly in their Religious heats do some things not en∣tirely consonant to themselves in their Cooler hours. Now then taking it for granted that those Fathers I heretofore mentioned did teach, that the Saints departed do not yet enjoy the Bea∣tifick Vision, I say with those great Men of your Church, whom you here forsake, that they could not reasonably pray to them. Since it is upon this Vision, especially, that you found your Opi∣nion of that particular knowledge you suppose they Ordinarily and Constantly have of those things that are done here below, and without which it would be Vain and Absurd to call upon them. And therefore tho you have no regard to Bellarmine's or Sua∣rez's Authority, yet for the sake of Sense and Reason answer their Arguments; and tell us a little (upon your own Principles) Page 110 how those Fathers could think the Saints were fit to be pray'd to, if by denying them to be yet in Heaven, they by conse∣quence must have deny'd them to have any ordinary and cer∣tain knowledge of what is done here upon Earth?
76. Reply.]
77. Answ.] Had I been crampt, as he was, with a Defini∣nimus of my Church, I might possibly have been tempted to make Excuses for those Fathers, as he did. But a Man need only look upon their Words, as they are cited by him, to see how little such shuffling will avail, to reduce their Doctrine to your Pretences. And the truth is, this Sixtus Senensis was so Ho∣nest as to confess, tho you were not so Honest as to take notice of it. For having offer'd that Exposition of their Words which you mention, he immediately subjoins,
78. And now there is but one thing more remaining, to get over this unlucky Period of the First 300 Years.
Reply.] For what if the few Writings of the Ancients of the First 300 Years which remain, be silent in this Particular, does it * follow that they approved not the Practice?
Page 111 Answ.] No, Sir, this in not the Case: We do not pretend to a bare Silence of those Holy Fathers, but we produce their express Authorities against you: And that I hope is a good Ar∣gument that our Possession is at least 300 Years better than yours; and that you, not we, have been Innovators in this Particular.
79. Reply.]
80. Answ.] To your Instance from the Fourth General Coun∣cil, I reply, That besides that you your self confess that it is nothing to the purpose, there being a mighty difference be∣tween wishing that the Saints would pray for us, and praying to the Saints for their Aid and Succour, you should have known that this Council was held in the middle of the Fifth Age, and so is without the compass of what I am here to consider.
81. But I will go yet farther with you as to this Instance; and to that end I must tell you, that your Authors have very much deceived you in their Accounts of it. For first, It was not the Synod, but only a Party in that Synod, that cry'd out, Let Flavian the Martyr pray for us. And secondly, Even they that did cry out thus, were as far from designing to pray to Flavian at all, as you were from understanding the meaning of their Exclamation. The Occasion of those Words in short * was this: In the Eleventh and Twelfth Actions of that Coun∣cil there arose a difficult Debate concerning Bassianus and Ste∣phanus, whether of the two was lawful Bishop of Ephesus. Bas∣sian had this Plea, That he had held it quietly Four years; that Proclus and his Successors, Bishops of Constantinople, had communicated with him as lawful Bishop of that See; among whom was Flavianus but lately deceased. Upon this the Fa∣thers that were of Bassianus Party urged to the Synod, that Flavian by communicating with him, had acknowledged him to be lawful Bishop of Ephesus: And thereupon press the Holy Bishops to have this respect to Flavian a Catholick and Martyr, Page 112 as to acknowledge Bassianus to be the true Bishop, seeing he had Communicated with him as such. And here comes in among other Expressions, this that is the Subject of our present De∣bate. The Bishops and Clergy of Constantinople cry out, in Ho∣nour of their late Martyr,
82. As for your Argument, That had this Custom of Praying to Saints been introduced in the Fourth Age, it would certainly have been condemned in the following: I reply, First, That this is at most but a meer Presumption, against plain and un∣doubted Matter of Fact, and such as not only this, but too many other Corruptions which have crept into the Church, without any notable Opposition for some time made to them, abun∣dantly overthrows. But, Secondly, Tho your Argument there∣fore (if we should allow it) would be good for little; yet it has another Misfortune too, which most of your Proofs labour under, that it is as false as it is unconclusive. For, Good Sir, did you never, in your Enquiry into these Matters, hear of such a Canon as the Thirty fifth of the Council of Laodicea, Anno 364. expresly condemning the Worship of Angels? Did you never meet with such an Order as that of the Third Coun∣cil of Carthage in S. Austin's time, commanding
At least I am confident you cannot be ignorant what Vigilan∣tius did in opposition to this Superstition; and whose Piety S. Hierome himself (tho his hot Antagonist) could not but ac∣knowledge. Nor was he alone in this Quarrel: S. Jerome speaks of several Bishops that were of his Party, and join'd with him in his Endeavours against this growing Evil. Even S. Austin himself, as appears from many Places of his Works, spoke not a little contrary to it, and plainly insinuates he * would have done more, had not this Practice already so pos∣sess'd Mens Minds, that it was not safe so to do.Page 113 83. But to quit all these, The publick Declaration which Epipha∣nius made against the Collyridians (a sort of Women in those days Superstitious in their Honour of the Blessed Virgin) is alone enough to shew that this practice did not pass without Opposition in those times.
84 To conclude this Point you tell us;
Reply]
85. Answ. What meer Harangue is this? But we must be contented where better is not to be had. And therefore I re∣ply, 1st. As to your insinuation, which since Cardinal Perron first invented it, has been the constant common place of the little crowd of Controvertists that have follow'd after, viz. That the Fathers of the first Three Hundred years lived under persecution, and therefore wrote but little, and of that little the greatest part was Page 114 lost too; tho I can easily excuse this in you as a Sin of Ignorance, yet I must needs say of the Cardinal and Others, that they have herein greatly injured those Holy Men; who were neither so lazie nor fearful as they have represented them to have been.
86. For not to say any thing of the foundation of all our Religion, the Holy Scriptures, which were written within this pe∣riod; how large a Catalogue has Eusebius alone preserved of the works of those Holy Fathers: And yet how many of the Latin Church has he omitted: Look into his History, and there you will find those great names, Clemens Romanus, Papias, Quadra∣tus, Aristides, Hegesippus, Justin Martyr, Dionysius of Corinth, Pi∣nytus, Apollinarius, Melito, Modestus, Irenaeus, Theophilus, Tatian, Bardesanes, Clemens Alexandrinus, Rhodo, Miltiades, Apollonius, Se∣rapion, Heraclitus, Moscarinus, Candidus, Sextus, and Arabien; all to have been Writers of the Second Century: Tertullian, Judas, Beryllus, Hippolytus, Caius, Africanus, Dionysius Alexandrinus, Nepos, Cyprian, Origen; in the Third. And the Writings of which last Author only were said to have amounted to Six Thousand Vo∣lumes; and which tho St. Jerome retrench'd to a third part, yet still he left Two Thousand to him.
87. In what sort of Writings were these Holy Men defective? Some publish'd Apologies for our Religion; Others disputed a∣gainst the Heathens, the Jews, the Heretick's of those times. Some wrote of the Discipline of the Church; Others moral Dis∣courses, for the direction of Mens Lives and Manners. Their Histories, their Accounts of the Holy Men, who suffer'd for the Faith; their Comments on the holy Scripture, their Sermons are yet upon Record: And when such was their diligence, why should it be insinuated as if living under persecution they wrote but little; and therefore that it is unreasonable to appeal to them?
88. Nor is your next pretence any better: that their Writings are lost and destroyed: For tho it be indeed in great measure true, that in respect of what they wrote there is but a small part brought down to us (and we have some reason to believe that the Opposition they made to your Corruptions has been in some * measure the Cause of it;) yet have we still enough to shew us what the Faith of those times was, and how vastly you have de∣clined from it. And when both the Writings of Holy Scripture, and of those Fathers that do remain speak so plainly against you, we have no great reason to believe that those which are lost were at all more favourable to you.
Page 115 89. But can any one Imagine, that the Church when in Grots and * Caverns should teach one thing, and when it came into the light practise another? I answer, yes; this is very easie to be imagined. Affliction keeps men close to their duty, whereas Prosperity too of∣ten corrupts the best manners. When it pleased God to convert the Empire to Christianity, there were but too many instances of Heathen Customs, accommodated to the principles of the Gospel; and this was one. Whether it were that they could not so soon forget their ancient Rites; or that they thought it a religious po∣licy to extend the pale of the Church by suiting Christianity as much to the Heathen Ceremonies as it was possible, and to dispose men thereby the more readily to embrace it; Or whether finally, that simplicity of the Gospel which suited well enough with a State of persecution, was now thought too mean for an Establish'd Church, the Religion of the Emperour, and they were therefore willing to render it more pompous, and set it off with grea∣ter lustre in the Eyes of Men, tho in so doing they a little depart∣ed from the purity of their lower and better State.
90. Let us add to this, the Opinion which then began to pre∣vail among those Holy Fathers, of the particular intercession of the Saints for us; and which both the prayers that were made in those days at the memories of the Martyrs, and the Miracles God was sometimes pleased to work there; not to say any thing of the Visions and Apparitions that were sometimes thought to be seen there, very much confirm'd them in. Now this naturally prepared the way for the Invocation which follow'd upon it. For now the Poets began instead of their Muses, to call (more Christi∣anly) upon the Saints and Martyrs to assist them. The Orators, following the Genius of the Age, indulged themselves all the li∣berty of their Eloquence, in Apostrophe's to the Saints at their Me∣mories. And as things seldome stop in their first beginnings, by degrees through the Ignorance of some, and superstition of more; they fell into a formal Invocation, about the beginning of the Vth. Century.
91. But here another accident fell out for the carrying on of this Service. For about this time Nestorius began to teach that men ought not to call the Blessed Virgin the Mother of God. Now this made some think his design was secretly to revive the Heresie of Arrius or Sabellius under a new Cover; and their Zeal for the Divinity of Christ made them in the Council of Ephesus, An∣no Page 116 431 condemn his Opinion as Heretical; and in Opposition to Him they fell into the contrary extream, of an immoderate mag∣nifying of Her; tho' (as I shall presently shew) they still conti∣nued within much better bounds than you do now: It being al∣most Three Hundred years after this, before ever the Invocation of Her or the Saints, was publickly Establish'd in the Church. And this brings me to my next Proposal; which was Se∣condly;
II. PERIOD.
To consider what Grounds this Superstition had in the IVth. Century.
92. And here, first, to what I said concerning the first begin∣nings of this Invocation, viz. That the most part of your Alle∣gations from this Age were rather Rhetorical flights than formal prayers; you return very pleasantly.
Reply.]
93. Answ. One would think by this Droll you had been lately reading the judgment of your University of Doway concerning Bertram.
94. But what now is this shifting? Why I said that, which all the learned Men in the World must allow to be true, viz. That the Fathers of the IVth. Age were many of them great Ora∣tors, and made use of Rhetorical Addresses to the Saints. And that from those conditions they sometimes expresly put into their Wri∣tings, Page 117 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. If thou hast any sense, If thou hast any concern for what is done here below, and the like; we may reaso∣nably conclude, that this was all they meant, even where they do not express any such thing.
95. But did not those Fathers do somewhat more than this? Can all their Expressions be fairly reduced to such Apostrophe's? To this I have already said, that We do acknowledge that a∣bout the latter end of this Century, S. Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory Nyssen, amongst the Greeks, and their great Imitator S. Ambrose among the Latins, did begin to Invocate the Saints. And had you thought fit to consult that Excellent Treatise to * which I referr'd you, or rather to take notice of what was said there, (for I am apt to believe you did Consult it) I should not have been troubled with these impertinen∣ces here. And therefore tho it were not difficult to find some considerable faults with those few passages you have al∣ledged from those Holy Men; (as when you say that S. Basil exhorts those who are in Tribulatian to flie to the Saints, those who are in joy to have recourse to them, whereas He only Hi∣storically relates what they did do,
96. But then that you may not put any more such Crude notes upon your Reader as you have done here, where you say,
First, That in your Church, Prayer to Saints is look'd upon * as a part of Worship that is due to them; insomuch that (as I have shewn) Cardinal Bellarmine places it among one of those Advantages that accrues to them upon their Canonization: But this those Holy Fathers never believed; on the contrary they absolutely define prayer, as a service proper to God only, and argu∣ed against the Arrians upon this very Topick, that Christ must needs be God, because the Church prayed to him.
Page 118 If you pretend that there are two sorts of Prayers, one pro∣per to God, another that is not: I reply, 1. That this is false, because (as we have seen) all Prayer is a Religious Worship, and therefore proper to God only. Secondly, It concludes nothing; because you offer the most proper sort of Prayer for Help and As∣sistance to the Saints, that you can do to God himself.
Secondly, In your Church you allow mental Prayer as well as Vocal to be made to the Saints: But in the Primitive, this * was reserved as peculiar to Him who searcheth the Heart, and a∣lone knoweth the Secrets of all the Children of Men.
Thirdly, In your Church it is resolved that the Saints are capa∣ble of hearing and knowing your requests: In the Primitive this * was never determined, and the contrary seems to have been the most generally received.
Fourthly, In your Church formal Prayers are made to the Saints; But the Addresses of these Holy Fathers were either wishes * only, or requests of the same nature with those which are in this kind usually made to the living; where they who are requested, be evermore accounted in the Number of those that pray for us, but none of those that are prayed unto by us.
Fifthly, In your Church the Saints are made not only joynt Petitioners with us, but Advocates too; and that to plead not on∣ly * Christs Merits, but their own likewise. But against this these Fathers openly protested as an open derogation to the high pre∣rogative of our Saviors meritorious Intercession, and a manifest en∣croachment upon his Great Office of Mediation.
Sixthly, In your Church it is thought a more proper way of access, and a surer means of obtaining your requests to address by * some Saint to God, than to go immediately to the Throne of Grace, through our Saviour Christ. But this those Fathers earnest∣ly opposed, exhorting all men to go directly to God by his Son Jesus Christ.
Seventhly, In your Church the Saints are indifferently called upon all the World over; which does in effect attribute a Di∣vine * perfection, viz. That of Omnipresence to them: But in the Primitive Church, those who sought the Intercession of the Saints, limited their presence to some determinate places, as particularly to their Memories, where they thought them within Hearing; and did not call upon them indifferently every where.
Eightly, This in your Church is an establish'd practice; they Page 119 who oppose it are declared to do wickedly, and an Anathema is pronounced against them on that account. But in the Primi∣tive there was no Rule, or Order for it; it was the effect of a private and voluntary Zeal, encouraged it may be by the Guides of the Church, but no part of the established Service of it.
97. And this may suffice to shew how vain your pretences to the Antiquity even of this Age are to warrant your Superstition; and upon what slender grounds you affirm, after your Master the Bishop of Meaux, that this Invocation of Saints was Esta∣blish'd, nay that we grant it was Establish'd in the Fourth Age. But to convince you yet more with what little reason you ei∣ther boast of this, or tax us with receding from our old prin∣ciple of being tryed by the Fathers of the First Four General Coun∣cils; upon this account I will now make you a more Liberal offer; and that is to prove if you can any Authentick Esta∣blishment of this Service in the Church. I do not say now in the Sixth Century; but in the Seventh: Nay or even before the latter end of the Eighth: In short, I do affirm that the first solemn Establishment of it was in the Second Council of Nice 787. and indeed that Synod which decreed the Worship of Images in opposition to the Second Commandment, was the most proper to define the Religious Invocation of Saints contrary to the First: And because there is something almost as bad in the manner of the Establishment, as in the thing it self, I will close all with a brief account of it.
98. About the end of the Sixth Century both the Worship of Images, and the Invocation of Saints, having taken deep root in the minds of many Superstitious persons; Controversies be∣gan to arise about them; and generally the same persons were found to be either Friends or Enemies to both.
In the year 754 Constantine Copronymus called a Synod of * 338 Bishops, to Examine into these matters, and both the Invocation of Saints, and Worship of Images were utterly con∣demned by them.
99. Thirty years after this Council the Abettors of these Su∣perstitions * prevailing, another Anti-Synod was convened by the Au•hority of the Empress Irene at Nice. In † this the Acts of the former Council of Constantinople were recited, and instead of the Canons which they made in condemnation of this Worship; ‖ two others were read in their Names, Establishing of it. How Page 120 this came to pass it is not known; but this the † Nicene Fathers themselves acknowledge that the other Synod had established the quite contrary: Nay they were such Enemies to this Invocation, that Binius tells us, they exacted a solemn ‖ Oath of all their party, That they would never invocate the Saints, Apostles, Martyrs, or the Blessed Virgin. And yet have these good Fathers transmit∣ted down to Posterity those two spurious Canons of the Council of Constantinople, as approving that very Worship, which the Coun∣cil in the true definitions of it had utterly disclaimed.
100. As for the Synod of Nice its self; if the definitions there made were of any force; that of Frankford, seven years after, has utterly taken it away; in which
I have only now remaining in the last place to shew;
SECT. IV.
What our Reasons are against this Service?
101. You had ask'd me in your Vindication,
102. To this I answered;
Page 121 103. To this you now reply in your Margin with great As∣surance; *
104. But since you are so desirous to know what our Reasons against this Invocation are, I will now very freely lay them before you, if you will first give me leave only to prepare the way for them, by stating truly the difference between us in this matter, which you are wonderfully apt either to mistake or to palliate.
105. You tell us in your Vindication,
106. But this is not ingenuous; nor as becomes the Disci∣ples of Christ. For tell me now I beseech you: If we unite our selves to your Church, will you not oblige us to go to Mass with you? Or can you dare for our sakes to alter your Service, and leave out all those things that relate to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints in it? Shall we be excused from having any thing to do with your Litanies and Processions, your Vespers or your Salves? Or will you purge all these too in Order to our Conversion? When we lie in our last Agonies, will you be content to Anoint us in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and leave the Angels, Arch-Angels, Patriarchs, Prophets, and A∣postles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and all the Saints out of the Commission? And when our Souls are now expiring, shall we be sure you will not then at least trouble us with that long Bead∣roll which your Office prescribes to be call'd upon in that Ceremo∣ny? If you have indeed the Liberty to do this, why do ye not use it, and remove so great a stumbling block as this out of our way? But if you cannot dispense with these things for our com∣mon Conversion, how shall we believe that you can do it to sa∣tisfie a private Proselyte?
107. The truth is Invocation of Saints in your Church is not esteemed so indifferent a matter as you would have it thought to be. It is a Worship you suppose due to them: And to which they acquire a right by their Canonization. So Cardinal Bellarmine informs us: And therefore in your Profession of Faith set forth by the order of Pope Pius IVth. you are obliged with
108. These are the words of your Council. If therefore you permit your Prosolytes to profess what they do not believe; if you receive those as good Catholicks into your Church, whom never∣theless you know to remain still infected with wicked Opinions, contrary to the Doctrine and Practise established amongst you; If you allow them to assist at your prayers, without any intenti∣on to joyn in them, nay in an Opinion that they could not pray with you, without committing a grievous sin; Then go on to make folks believe, as you do, that you oblige no body to pray to the Saints, and that they may be of your Church, and yet still believe or do what they please in this matter. But if otherwise this be all gross Hypocrisie, if there be nothing but cheat and design in these pretences; then may I humbly desire all sincere Members of our Communion to beware of such Guides, as value not how they charge ours, or palliate their own Religion, so they may but by any means draw unwary men into their Net.
109. But the Council of Trent goes yet further: It does not only Establish this Doctrine, but in express terms Anathematises those who oppose it: For in the close of that Chapter I but now men∣tioned, * thus it decrees:
Page 124 110. It remains therefore that your Church does teach and re∣quire of all its Members both the profession and practise of such an Invocation, as I have before explain'd: And of which I now undertake to shew:
- 1. That it is repugnant to Gods Holy word.
- 2. Contrary to Antiquity.
- 3. That is unreasonable in the constitution; and
- 4. Unprofitable and unlawful in the Practise.
I. It is repugnant to Gods Holy Word.
111. And here, First I will not doubt once more to tell you that to pray to Saints after the manner that it is now done in the Church of Rome, is contrary to all those passages of Holy Scrip∣ture which attribute Religious Worship to God only; such as Deut. VI. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve Him, and swear by his Name; and again Chap. X. 12, 20. XIII. 4. &c. All which our Saviour Christ has taught us to interpret with such a restrictive term, as excludes all others from a share in our Service. Mat. IV. 10. It is Written, Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God, and Him ONLY shalt thou serve. I have already shewn that all Prayer made to a person that is absent, with a Confidence that he is able both to know our wants, and to hear our Prayers, and to answer our desires, is in its own nature a Re∣ligious Worship. Now then from these places of Holy Scripture, I thus argue: It is repugnant to Gods Word to give any proper Acts of Religious Worship to any but God only; but all such prayer as is made in your Church to the Saints departed, are proper Acts of Religious Worship; and therefore it must be contrary to Gods Word to pray to any but God only.
112. Nor am I here at all concern'd in your distinctions of a Supreme and an Inferior Religious Honour; seeing both you and I are agreed that all Honour properly Religious (such as Prayer) is comprised under these prohibitions. If I were, I would then tell you that the Devil here did not require of Christ such a Supreme Worship, but on the contrary acknowledged himself to have a Superior, from whom He derived his Power of disposing of all the Kingdoms of the Earth, and the Glories of them. All he desired was to have some Religious Honour paid to Him. And our Saviour by alledging this Sentence of the Law against Page 125 it, Evidently shews that it is not only such a supream Religious worship as some of you pretend, but that all such Honour in general, is the peculiar service of God alone. But this (if you stand to your own principles) you cannot object, and for o∣thers, what I have now said may suffice to obviate their pre∣tences.
113. Secondly, What I have now concluded from this general Principle of Holy Scripture, I will in the next place more particu∣larly inforce from these other passages, where the worship of Creatures is expresly prohibited. In the Xth. of the Acts, when Cornelius fell down at St. Peters feet, and would have worshipp'd him,
114. But this will more evidently appear in another instance, viz. that of St. John, Revel. XIX. 10. who when in his Ecstacy * he fell down and would have worshipp'd the Angel that discours∣ed with him, the blessed Spirit utterly forbad him; See (says he) thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant: WORSHIP GOD. In which words are plainly establish'd these two Conclusions against this service; 1st. That Angels (and so likewise the Saints) being our fellow Servants are not to be worshipp'd: 2dly, That God only is to be adored.
115. But St. Paul is yet more plain: He exhorts the Colos∣sians in general, and in them us: Colos. II. 18. Let no man be∣guile * you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worship∣ping of Angels. It is answered by some among you, that this was said in Opposition to the Heresie of Simon Magus who would have Sacrifice offer'd to the Angels: Or at least of some Others, who thought that tho' Christ had abolish'd the Law, yet was it still to be observed out of respect to the Angels by whom it had been deliver'd. But besides that I do not find Page 126 any such thing charged by any of the Ancients upon Simon Magus, as is pretended; had S. Paul designed only to forbid one particular Act of Religious Worship being paid to them, would he in General have said that they were not to be Wor∣shipped? Or had he intended to signifie the abolishing of the Law, would he not have said so here, as well as in his other Epistles; and not have given such an obscure insinuation of it, as when he meant to forewarn them against observing the Law, to bid them have a care of worshipping Angels. But the truth is the meaning of the Text is too plain to be thus eluded. And I shall give it to you in the words of an ancient Father who lived in those very times in which you yet pretend such a service was establish'd:
116. Thirdly, And to come more immediately to the Worship of Invocation. The same Apostle in that Question, Rom. X. 14. *
117. I will add but one principle more of Holy Scripture a∣gainst Page 127 this Service, and so close this first Point. Rom. XIV. 23. * That whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin. But now those Prayers which have no foundation in Holy Scripture cannot be of Faith; for (says the same Apostle Rom. X. 17.) Faith cometh by Hear∣ing, and Hearing by the word of God; And therefore such Pray∣ers must be Sin. If God has any where revealed it to you, that you may lawfully give such a religious Worship to the Saints, shew this, and our dispute is ended. But if you cannot do this, nor by consequence cannot pray to them with any well grounded perswasion of Conscience, that this is what God al∣lows, and what the Saints are capable of receiving, I do not see how it can be avoided but that to you it must be sin so to do. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, * 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. As an ancient Father argues from this very principle in the like man∣ner.
118. For the Other part of this Service, the intercession of the Saints for us; I might to this Oppose all those passages of the New Testament, where Christ is set forth to us as our only Mediator. But I shall content my self with one single text, 1. Tim. II. 5, 6. There is one God, and one Mediator between God * and Men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a Ransome for all. Now if there be but one Mediator, then Saints and Angels are not Mediators as you pretend. If the foundation of Christs Mediatorship be this,
II. It is Contrary to Antiquity.
119. And here I am fallen into a vast Ocean; and should never have ended, should I go about particularly to shew how vain your pretences are to possession for this superstition. It shall suffice me at present only to point out to you a few of those Remarks which others have more largely pursu'd; and which do abundantly declare how little conformable the best and highest Antiquity has been to what you now practise.
120. I have already given some short account of the first three Centuries: And how little able you are to lay any claim to the Authority of them. You have there seen what the Opinion was of those Holy Fathers, touching the State of the Saints de∣parted: How they thought that they do not yet enjoy the Bea∣tifick Vision, and by consequence were not in a condition to be called upon by the Church on Earth. I have shewn you the Fa∣thers arguing against the Arrians for the Divinity of Christ from the Churches praying to Him; and which evidently proves that they thought none but God was capable of such a ser∣vice. I have offer'd you the definition which those Holy Men gave of Prayer; viz. That it was an Address to God, a Conversing with God, and the like; and in all which they still restrain'd it to Him as His own peculiar prerogative. There we find no mention of any calling upon the Blessed Virgin or the Saints. No distinction of supreme and inferiour religious Worship; of Mediators of Redemption and Intercession: in short none of those Evasions with which all your discourses on this Point are now filled; and without which indeed, according to your principles, it is impossible to explain it.
121. But I will now add yet more. It was a general cu∣stome in the third and following Ages (concerning which we are particularly to enquire) to pray for the Saints departed, for Martyrs and Confessors, nay for the Blessed Virgin her self, as has been elsewhere fully proved, and I suppose you will not have * the confidence to deny it. Now let me appeal to any reasona∣ble man to say; could the Church in those times have prayed Page 129 in a suppliant manner to the Saints, as Reigning with God, nay and Gods themselves by participation, to aid, and assist them, when on the contrary they thought them in such a State as to need prayers to God for them? Is it to be believed, that they Addressed to those as Mediators and Intercessors with God, for whom they themselves interceded to God? It is a memorable remark that has been made to confirm the force of this Argument, that since the prevalency of this praying to Saints in the Church of Rome, your publick rituals have had a notable change. Those very Saints which in your ancient Missals you pray'd for, being now a la Mode pray'd to. Thus upon IV. Kalends of July in the Sacra∣mentary of Pope Gregory I. above 600 years after Christ we find * this Prayer made in behalf of S. Leo, one of your Popes.
But in the present Roman Missal, the Collect is changed, and * the Address made by the Intercession of the Saint now, that was formerly made by way of Intercession for Him.
And of this change, Pope Innocent the 3d. gives this honest * account: Viz. That the Authority of Holy Scripture says, that he
112. The truth is, the whole face of the Ancient Church seems clearly opposite to the present practise: Some doubted whe∣ther the holy Saints departed, do at all concern themselves for us, or conduce any thing to our Salvation. So Origen. And these to be sure never prayed to them. Others made open opposition to such service. So the Council of Laodicea; S. Epiphanius, Vigi∣lantius, and others before mention'd. Now you Canonize Saints, and esteem it necessary so to do, to prevent mens praying to those in Heaven, who are it may be at this time tormenting in Hell. Page 130 But in those first Ages we find none of these Apotheoses; and Bellarmine himself could not find out any instance of any Saint * that was Canonized before the VIIIth. Century. If we go into your Churches, we find them filled with Altars and Chappels, I∣mages and Reliques of the Saints: Candles are lighted up before them; Incense is burned to their Honour: But in those Primitive Ages, not the least shadow is to be met with of any such Super∣stitions. Your Books of Devotion are now filled with little else than advises how to pray to the Blessed Virgin; to list your selves into her service; to vow your selves to her Worship; her Psalter, and Rosary, and Salutation is in every part of your performan∣ces. Even the Catechism of the Council of Trent it self, the most Cautious Book that has been set forth for some Ages in your Church, having taught you first how to pray to God, fails not to instruct you that you must in the next place have recourse to the Saints, and make Prayers to them.
How comes it to pass, if this were the primitive practise too, that none of those Holy Fathers, in any of their practical discourses have ever treated of these things? Nay on the contrary, they every where thunder in our Ears, that Protestant, Heretical Maxim, that we must pray to GOD ONLY, and that we ought not to address our selves to any other.
123. In all your Sermons, you call upon the Blessed Virgin for assistance. In the Ends of your Books, her Name seldom fails of standing in the same return of praise in which God and our Saviour are Glorified. Your publick service, and private prayers, are all over-run with this superstition. But is there any thing of this in the Primitive Rituals? Look I beseech you into the account that has been given us of the publick service of the Ancient Church by Justin Martyr, Tertullian, nay by the Clementine Constitutions themselves: Consult the Relation which Pliny made to the Em∣perour Trajan of their Manners. Try those famous Liturgies of the Church within the first 100 years, which no body has the * happiness to be acquainted with but your self; see if you can pick us up but one instance, but some shadow of an instance to flourish with on this occasion.
124. What are the Lives of your Saints, but continued Hi∣stories of their Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and the Saints, and the favours which upon that account they received from them? But in the ancient Compilers of such kind of Discourses, we find Page 131 only dry accounts of their Piety towards God; of their Zeal and Constancy in the Faith; of their patience in suffering any thing, rather than submit to such superstitious practises as these, which the Heathens indeed would have drawn them to, but which the Church utterly abhorred. But for their knight errantry in Honour of the Blessed Virgin; for watching whole Nights before her Images; or in her Chappels; for turning Vagabonds in order to the visiting her Cham∣ber at Loretto; or fetching a Feather from Compostella; of this New Method of Piety there are not the least traces.
125. I might run out these remarks into almost infinite Ex∣amples, were they not things as well known, as your contrary superstition is notorious. But I shall reserve these, and some other Observations of the like kind, till you think fit to call me to account for them. In the mean time I conclude from this short specimen I have here given, that certainly the face of the Church must be very much changed as to these things; Or other∣wise that so great a difference could not possibly be found in the Lives, the Writings, the Actions, the Customs, the Opinions, the Expressions, Prayers, Practises, of those holy Fathers, from what we see and lament in your Church at this day. I go on thirdly to shew;
III. The Unreasonableness of this Service.
126. And for that I shall offer only this one plain Argument; If the Saints cannot ordinarily hear your prayers, nor are able to attend distinctly to those Addresses that are made to them: If those whom you Canonize are not indeed such as you suppose, but many at this day tormented in Hell, upon whom you call for assistance in Heaven: If some of those to whom you pray never had any being, but either in the Heralds Office, or in the fruitful Womb of a Legendaries Brain: Then it cannot be doubted but that to pray to the Saints must be the most unrea∣sonable Devotion in the World; you speak to the Wind, and call upon them to as little purpose as if you should here in England make an Address to a Man in China or Tartary; and you might as well have continued the Deities, as you do the practise of the ancient Heathens in this service: It being altogether as wise a Devotion to pray to a Jupiter or an Apollo that never lived in the World, as to a St. George or a St. Christopher that never Page 132 had any more being in it than they. And yet were we now to inquire into these Circumstances, without a full knowledg of which this Invocation can never be a reasonable service, what uncertain accounts should we receive from you. For,
127. First. As to the main foundation of all
In what doubt is your Bishop of Meaux still in his Exposition, and you know he was once in a great deall more? All he has to say is that you teach128. Secondly, Concerning the Canonization of your Saints, may I beg leave to ask you: Are you sure that all those whom your Church has placed in Heaven are truly there? if you are not, I am sure you do very unreasonably to pray to them. Now this I the rather desire to be satisfied in because here again I find your Authors very much unresolved what to say.
First, It is but the common Opinion, (no matter of Faith) * that the power of Canonizing Saints belongs to the Pope; and therefore it cannot be without all doubt whether those whom he Canonizes are infallibly Saints or no.
Secondly, The Jesuit Vasquez tells us, there are Catholicks Page 133 (He means those of your Communion) who do not think it without doubt that all whom your Church has Canonized are indeed Saints: And he mentions no less a man than Cardinal * Cajetane for one. And that Cardinal in the book to which Vas∣quez refers, alledges the great Doctour of your Schools S. Thomas for another. To these I will add Melchior Canus, Antoninus, and Gerson, who at most esteem it but piously credible, not abso∣lutely certain. But Augustinus Triumphus goes farther; and doubts not freely to declare that all who are Canonized by the Pope cannot be in Heaven. And Prateolus tells us that Herman the Author of the Heresie of the Fratricelli was for twenty years together after his death honour'd as a Saint, and then his body was taken up and burnt for a Heretick. And now if you are not yet sensible of the danger you run by this means, whilst you not only call upon a damned soul for aid and assistance, but (as in some of your prayers you do) pray unto God so to give you Grace on Earth as he has glorified them in Heaven; I shall leave it * to your own Cardinal Bellarmine to inform you of it.
Thirdly, It is confessed by those of your own Church that a∣mong your Canonized Saints, some there have been whose Lives were not to be commended: Others whose Opinions have been condemned as Heretical; and for my part, when I consider the Character of some to whom you pray, such as Thomas a Becket, Dominick, &c. I cannot but say, that if these be the men whom you place in Heaven, what the poor Indians did of the Spani∣ards, that then the other is certainly the more desirable portion. For, and I am perswaded that were but S. Martin again alive to summon their Souls before him, as he once did that of a suppo∣sed Saint in his time, they would make the same Confession that * wretched Spirit is reported to have done, and prove much more worthy your Compassion than your Adoration. Now that which the more encreases this danger is
Fourthly, The almost infinite Number of Saints that have been received amongst you, and whose Consecration depending whol∣ly on matter of Fact, in which you do not pretend the Pope to be Infallible, it can hardly be supposed but that he must have very often proved mistaken. For to keep only to your own Order; a late Author of yours tells us, that your Domestick Saints * alone did long since by computation amount to fourty four thou∣sand. And I find another † list increasing them to fifty thousand. Page 134 Now to consider all the Arts and Intrigues that are used to pro∣cure these Canonizations; by what Popes many of them have been placed in Heaven; what Characters several among them have in your own Histories of their Lives; these and many other Re∣flections would I confess prompt me, were I otherwise as well sa∣tisfied of the Innocence of this Worship, as I am fully convinced of the unlawfulness of it, yet to pray to the greatest part of your Saints, as he once did to Saint Cutbert; Si Sanctus sis, Ora pro me: IF THOU ART A SAINT, pray for me.
129. It is I know, the last refuge of many, who consider this uncertainty, to say, That at least your good intention shall ren∣der these Prayers acceptable to God; for what (says the Learned * Erasmus) if the Saints do not perceive our desires, yet Christ do's know them, and will for them give us what we ask? But yet still this will not make it a reasonable Service; nor can you with a firm Faith call upon those in Heaven, of whom you have at most, but a Pious Credulity that they are there: And tho' some of your Authors do believe, that your own Piety shall excuse you, yet others utterly deny it, and doubt not to say, that you may as well excuse the Heathens themselves, who in worshipping the parts of the World, supposed (according to Varro's Divinity) * that they Worshipped the Divine Nature, that was diffused through it. But
130. Thirdly, That which is the worst of all, is, that you have not only no certainty of the Happiness of those Saints whom you Canonize, but you pray to some who (for ought appears) ne∣ver had any Being in the World.
Now among these, I shall not doubt in the first place, to ac∣count our own Country Saint and Champion St. George, and of whom our English Legends still recount so many Miracles; tho' Cardinal Baronius himself has confess'd that they are for the most * part absolutely false. In the Roman Breviary since the Reforma∣tion of it by Pope Pius V. there is no account at all of his Life; and your own * Authors tells us the reason is, because there is no certain truth of any of those things that are extant concerning him. And indeed, if the Antient Histories of this Saint were justly censured by Pope Gelasius, as Apocryphal, we have no great reason to believe, that the latter Legends deserve any better re∣ception. As for the famous Story which still continues in those equally Books of the Ignorant, The English Lives of the Saints, and Page 135 the Sign Posts; where we see this great Champion, like another Perseus, mounted to deliver the fair Andromeda from the Dragons Mouth; Baronius charges Jacobus a Voragine with the pure In∣vention of it, and almost every Body now, but our English Com∣piler, is grown asham'd of it. In short, if there be any Founda∣tion at all in Antiquity for this Story, it is but little for the satis∣faction of those who Worship this Saint. Your own Authors con∣fess, that this George lived about the time of Dioclesian, that he was by Birth a Cappadocian; that he had Encounters with Atha∣nasius a Magician: Now all this seems to perswade us, that our S. George was no other, than George the Arrian Bishop, who was also a Cappadocian by Birth, who had Encounters with S. Atha∣nasius, whom the Arrians called a Magician; and who was Dei∣fied by those Hereticks, after his violent Death in the time of Ju∣lian. And in Memory of which perhaps it was, that they first mounted him upon a Camel, (being led through the Streets upon one) and then for greater decency changed it into a Horse; to which Jacobus a Voragine added the Dragon and the Lady; with the Warlike Equipage of Cask and Lance: And thus is our Tu∣telary Saint, brought under suspition of being, if any thing at all, a wicked Heretick; that persecuted one of the greatest Bishops of his time, for asserting the Divinity of the Son of God; and yet is this Man still pray'd to in your Church; and I have now by me an Antient Ritual in which he is seen Armed at all points, his Spear in the Dragons Mouth, the Lady by him on her Knees: and these Prayers addressed to him.
Saint GEORGE, famous Martyr; Praise and Glory be∣come thee: By whom the princely Lady being grieved by a wicked Dragon, was preserved.
Almighty and Everlasting God, who mercifully hearest the prayers of those who call upon thee; we humbly beseech thy Ma∣jesty, that as for the honour of thy Blessed and Glorious Mar∣tyr S. George thou causedst the Dragon to be overcome by a Maid, so by his Intercession thou wouldest vouchsafe to defend us against all our Enemies visible and invisible, that they may not be able to hurt us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now what is this but to mock God in his solemn service? To pray to him through the Intercession of a man that either never Page 136 lived in the World, or it may be was one of his most hated Enemies; and deified by a crew of wretched Hereticks, for his fury in opposing the Eternal Generation of the Saviour of us all.
131. And what I have thus chosen more particularly to in∣sist upon in this Example, I might shew in several others not a whit less fabulous. Our Saviour in S. Luke gives a parabolical account of the different States of men in the other World, un∣der the names of Dives and Lazarus. As for the former there was no great danger of making him a Saint. But for Lazarus he is transubstantiated into a real man. Temples are built among you to his Honour: Anniversary solemnites are Consecrated to * his memory, and because he was represented in Scripture as full of sores, he is now made the Patron of the Lepers in Heaven. From the Greek word signifying a Spear, you have first found out a name for the Centurion that ranour Blessed Lord into the Side; and having metamorphosed the Spear into a Man, it was no hard matter to make the Man a Saint: And now upon the 15th. of March, who so much Honour'd, as S. Longinus. Nay * what is yet more pleasant, Baronius assures us that his Venerable Body is kept in the Church of St. Austin at Rome.
132. S. Christopher is another of your Saints that never li∣ved. He is pretended to have suffer'd under Dagnus King of Lycia, who also never was in the World; and being of a Gi∣antly stature to have dwelt by a River side where there was no Bridge, and there he made it his business in Charity to carry o∣ver all that pass'd that way: Which our Saviour so much appro∣ved as to suffer him once upon a time to carry himself over upon his shoulders. Now all this Cardinal Baronius confesses to * be a meer Legend; but our thorough paced English-Irish Collector, tho he confesses he never saw any approved Author that said it, yet for the Pictures sake which are so common amongst you, declares generously that he was resolved to believe it. And the ancient Ritual I before mention'd, prays to our Saviour that in consideration of his riding over the River upon S. Christophers back, he would deliver you from all dangers.
133. I should never have done should I insist on this manner upon all the other Imaginary Saints whom you Worship. Such were our own Country-woman again, S. Ursula and her 11000 Virgins; who is pretended to have been Daughter to Dionet King of Cornwall, in the time of Marcian, when there was no Page 137 such King in England; and to have been Martyr'd at Cologn, whither she went by Ship, being the first and last that ever sail'd thither; and yet this Lady makes no mean Figure in your Church. She is Patroness under God and the Blessed Virgin, of a whole Re∣ligious Society; and with great Devotion pray'd to, December 21. I might to this Visionary Saintess, add others of the same Sex; S. Catharine, S. Margaret, &c. But I shall content my self with one Memorable Instance, not so commonly known, which may suffice to shew with what uncertainty you pray to many in these Devotions. The account is given by one of your own Communion, and who himself discover'd the mistake.
134. About eight Miles from Evora a City of Portugal, there * is a place which they call the Cave of the Martyrs; where they pretend were slain a great number of Christians with their Bi∣shop and his two Sisters; to one of which, called Columba, there was a Chappel erected, and in the place where the other was slain, there issued out a Spring of sweet Water, called to this day, Holy-well, and very good for curing a weak sight. The Se∣pulchre of the Bishop himself is in a Church of the Blessed Virgins, empty, and open. Over it is a Table of Stone supported by four Pillars, so that a Man might go under it. Hither came all those that had Pains in their Loyns, and imploring the aid of this Martyr, they went away certainly Cured. There was also the Picture of this Bishop: and upon this Stone Table they Sacrificed the Mass, in Honour to him, calling him by his proper Name VIARIUS.
135. This was the ancient Tradition, and Worship. When Res∣sendius, who relates this Story, came hither, in order to the pub∣lishing the Life of this Saint, among others he was then Writing; he desired the Priest who had given him this account of their Martyr, to shew him if there were any antient Records, or In∣scriptions, that confirm'd it. Upon this he brought him to the Altar beforemention'd, and there he found this Inscription.
Page 138 S. Q. JVL. CLARO. C. V. IIII. VI RO VIARVM CVRANDA RVM ANN. XXI.
Q. JVL. NEPOTIANO. C. I.
IIII. VIRO. VIARVM CVRAN DARVM. ANN. XX.
CALP. SABINA. FILIIS.
The Priest pointing with his Finger to these Words VIARUM CVRANDARUM, See (says he) the proper Name of the Martyr VIARIUS: And for CURANDARUM, it is as much as to say Cura Cutarum, i. e. a Bishop. As for the other Names (continued he) I suppose they may be the proper Names of the other Martyrs that suffered with him.
136. Ressendius held his Countenance as well as ever he could, but went immediately away to Cardinal Alphonsus, who was at that time Bishop of Evora, and told him all that had pass'd, and how a couple of Heathens, Overseers of the High-ways, had been Worshipp'd there for Christians, and Martyrs. The Cardinal commanded the Tomb to be stopped up, to the great discontent of the people, who had been wont to receive mighty relief by their Addresses to this Viarius; and cursed the Learning and Curiosity of Ressendius, that had deprived them of so great and useful a Saint.
137. I shall make no other Application of this Story, than what I find in the complaint of another Learned man of your Church, * as to this very matter. There is also (says he) another Error, not uncommon; that neglecting, in a manner, the antient and known Saints, the common People Worship more ardently, and diligently, the new and unknown; of whose Holiness we have but little assu∣rance, and some of which are known to us only by Revelation; inso∣much that of several of them it is justly doubted, Whether EVER Page 139 THERE WERE ANY SUCH PERSONS IN THE WORLD.
138. From all these Considerations, I now conclude against the reasonableness of this Invocation. 1. No Man can reasonably pray in Faith to such Persons, as he can never be sure are able either to hear his Prayers, or to answer his desires: But you can never be sure that your Saints are able to do either of these; and therefore you cannot reasonably pray with any good assurance to them. 2. It is unreasonable to pray to those as Saints, who, it may be, are not in Heaven, nor ever shall be there: But this is very probably the Case of many of your Saints, and you cannot be sure it is otherwise, when you address to them; and therefore it is unreasonable in you to pray to them. 3. To pray to those who never were in the World, is the most unreasonable thing that can be imagined; but in your Prayers to many of your Saints, you address to those that never were in the World; and therefore upon this, and upon all the foregoing Accounts, I conclude it very unreasonable to pray to the Saints at all.
There is yet one thing more remaining to finish this whole Subject of Invocation of Saints, viz.
IV. That it is Unprofitable, and Impious in the Practice.
First, That it is Unprofitable.
139. And if the former consideration stand good; this will necessarily follow from it. For if either those whom you pray to are meer figments of your own brain, that have neither Truth nor Existence; or if tho they do Exist, yet they are not Saints as you suppose; or tho they should be Saints too, yet have no means ordinarily and particularly to hear your prayers, nor can attend to those numberless addresses that are at the same time from all the parts of the World put up to them; it must then be a most unprofitable, as well as a most senseless practise to pray to them; and what our Saviour once objected to the Samari∣tans, will be found no less true of you, that ye worship ye know not what, nor why.
140. But let us allow that you invoke none but what have lived, and are sanctified: Let us also grant that which yet the Holy Fathers so much doubted of, that the Saints do already en∣joy the Beatifick Vision; and therefore (according to your Di∣vinity) Page 140 are capable of understanding your prayers, by whatsoever way it be that they do so: I dare yet ask of you, what profit is there in this service? For tell me now, I beseech you, O ye Wor∣shippers of dead men? Have we not an Advocate in Heaven, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the sole and full propitiation of our * sins? Has he not promised that whatsoever we ask the Father in HIS NAME, we shall receive it? Has he not told us that he * is the Way, the Truth, and the Life? And that no one can come to the Father but by him? Is it not he that has set us an Example how we ought to pray; when ye pray say, Our Father which art in Heaven: Shew us if you can any precept, or encouragement, or Example, for going to any other. Is it that our Saviour Christ has not compassion enough for us, that you go to others as more merciful? Thus some of you I know have said: But on the contrary the Scripture tells us
141. But I will go yet further, to shew you the unprofitable∣ness of this service. It was objected by a great Man of your own Church;
142. I shall conclude this with the words of S. Austin,
Page 142 Secondly, To close all, That this Invocation of Saints departed, is as Impious, as it is Unprofitable.
143. For First, To take this Practice in the most Moderate Sense that may be, yet to pray to any Creature after the manner that you do to the Saints departed, is to make them the Objects of a proper Religious Worship, and to pay that Service to the Creature, which is due only to the Creator; and this cer∣tainly cannot be done without a very great Impiety.
144. Secondly, To pray to the Saints but only as Intercessors, even this do's usurp upon the peculiar Prerogative of our Blessed Saviour, who is our only Mediator, and whose singular Priviledge it is to appear in the presence of God for us. And to joyn others with Christ in his great Office and Employment, to make to our selves new Mediators; what is this but tacitely (at least) to imply, that we dare not trust either his Mercy, or his Interest; in the concern of our Everlasting Salvation. But then
145. Thirdly, To pray, as you evidently do, not only that the Saints would intercede for you, but that God would be merci∣ful to you, not only through the Merits of Christ, but of the Saint whose Memory you celebrate; this is a downright under∣valuing of our Saviour's Bloud, and do's despight unto the Covenant of Grace.
146. Fourthly, To pray to the Saints, (as if we may be al∣low'd to understand the meaning of plain words you do) as the Arbitrary Dispensers of Benefits to you, that they would them∣selves grant you those things which you ask of them; this makes your Service yet more intollerable. And tho' you seek to evade the justice of this Censure by those unreasonable Expositions of your prayers, I have before refuted, yet I am sure it ought to be more than enough to make us avoid that practice which cannot be ex∣cused but by such forced Interpretations, as should men use the like on other Occasions, all Society must be overthrown, and Mens Words be no longer relied upon as sufficient to declare the Sense of their Minds.
147. Fifthly, As to what concerns the practice of the people in this point, it cannot be deny'd; nay, it is by some of your own Church openly complain'd of, how much their hope and confidence, their Love and Service are hereby lessen'd towards God; and what greater signs of Zeal appear in them towards the Blessed Virgin, than towards our Saviour Christ himself. And indeed, Page 143 you who ought to have better inform'd them, are the very Per∣sons that have especially help'd to mislead them. 'Tis from you they have learnt, as a great practice of piety, to salute her ten times, for God's once. 'Tis you that have taught them to joyn Mary still with Jesus in their Mouths: Insomuch, as if it be possible, to let her Name be the last Expression of their dying Breath. 'Tis you that have told them, that to list themselves into her Frater∣nity, is one of the surest means in the World to ascertain their Salvation. From you they learn in all their prayers to call upon her: at the sound of a Bell thrice every day wherever they are, or whatever they are about, to fall down upon their Knees and sa∣lute her. Your Confessions, Absolutions, Excommunications, Vows, Thanksgivings, Visitations, Commendations, Conjurations, are all transacted in her Name, as well as in the Name of the Holy Trinity. Whilst our Saviour Christ is represented by you either as still in the state of Pupillage, an Infant in her Arms, or expiring upon his Cross, she has her Crown, and Glory about her Head; sometimes the Moon under her feet, and not seldom the whole Trinity joyn∣ing to set forth her Honour. Her Titles in all your Offices are Ex∣cessive: The Queen of Heaven, the Mother of Divine Grace, the Mirrour of Righteousness, the Seat of Wisdom, the Cause of our joy, the Tower of David, the Ark of the Covenant, the Gate of Heaven, the Refuge of Sinners, the Help of Christians, the Queen of Angels, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, and all Saints: These are the common Names you give her, in your Hymns, your Litanies and Prayers to her. And what Impression all this must make upon untutor'd minds; how much greater value they will be hereby apt to set upon her than upon Christ himself, eve∣ry mans reason will soon tell him, and a sad experience confirms it to us.
148. But indeed Sixthly, It is here (in the Words of the * Prophet) As with the people so with the Priest: Your Superstition is not at all less, tho much more inexcusable than theirs. Wit∣ness those great Names for whom you have appeared to be so much concern'd; St. Bernard, St. Germain, St. Anselme, St. Antonine, St. Bernardine, &c. And whose Blasphemous Devotion I have before exposed to the World. Let the Writings of Card. Bona, and Father Crasset, the Contemplations of the Blessed Virgin, and the late Apology for them in our own Language be consider'd. For I am very much mistaken, if it be possible for the most igno∣rant Page 144 Zealot to be more unreasonably extravagant, than these Lear∣ned Men have approved themselves to be.
149. Nor may you turn off these with your old distinction, that they are but private persons, and for whose Excesses therefore your Church is not to Answer. They were approved in what they did, and many of them are at this day Worshipped by you as Canonized Saints; and 'twas this Superstition that especially contributed to their Exaltation. Who was it that composed that exorbitant Hymn, yet used in your Church, Ave Maris Stella, but your de∣vout St. Bernard? S. Herman, another of your own Order, made those others neither less extravagant, nor less authorized by you, Salve Regina, Alma Redemptoris Mater, and Ave Regina Caelorum. And the late Editor of his Life tells us, That being Lame in * Body, and Dullin Mind, he pray'd earnestly to the Blessed Virgin in this Romantick manner:
150. It was another of the same Order, and that had in your Opinion two the greatest Characters any Man can pretend to; a Pope in the Church Militant, and now a Saint in the Church Trium∣phant, * who appointed the three Solemn [Devotions I have spoken of, to be every day paid to the Blessed Virgin at the sound of a Bell, and composed the Course of the Virgin, that what was done before by the Monks only, might from thenceforth become the Public Service of the Church to her.
151. What is the great Commendation that is given of S. Ge∣rard, and he too a Saint of your own Order. But that having caused an Image of the Blessed Virgin to be curiously wrought, he set it up * in a Chappel built on purpose for it, and appointed Incense and sweet Odours to be every day for ever burnt to it. That he taught the Hungarians to call her their Lady, having perswaded their King Stephen to make his Kingdom Tributary to her. In short, that he never heard the Name of Mary pronounced, but he Worshipp'd it, bowing his Face towards the Ground.
Page 137 152. 'Twas this was the great thing for which yet another * of your Order St. Joscio was Canonized. Whose Piety to the Virgin whilst he lived, was rewarded with a notable Miracle at his death. For no sooner was he dead, but there grew five Roses of an extraordinary sweetness out of his Head, two out of his Eyes, two out of his Ears, and one out of his Mouth; and upon every one of them a Letter of the Virgin Mary's name; so that the whole M. A. R. I. A. was composed by them.
153. Thus has this devotion to the Saints, almost wholly overcome your piety towards God. Your Devotions, your Histories, your Lives, your Miracles, are all framed to promote it. And now I am mentioning those Evils which from these kind of Le∣gends have been derived to corrupt both the Opinions and Practice of those who are acquainted with little else than these Fables: I will refer it to your self to tell me, whether you can endure to see the Dignity of our Saviour, and the Majesty of God himself, so lessen'd as it is by many of your Communion, to encrease the Vene∣ration of the Saints.
154. When St. Gothardus was chosen by the Emperor Henry to * succeed Bernard in the Bishoprick of Hildersheim, and the Monk mo∣destly declined that Honour; the Blessed Virgin the same night ap∣pears to him, and sharply reproves him in this Ranting Rheto∣rick, Scito Imperatorem MEO id JUSSU motiri.
155. But you have dealt yet worse with our Saviour than this; your Writers represent him at this day as a little Child in Heaven, as if he were ever to continue in the same impotent State, in which your Pictures and Images express him. Thus we read in the Life of St. Paula, That the Blessed Virgin appear'd to * her with her LITTLE BOY, who kist Paula, and squeezed some of his Mothers Milk into her Mouth. Nor was this any thing extra∣ordinary; The Writer of her Life assures us, that she was often wont to take him into Her Arms and play with him. And the like happened to many other of your Saints; as for instance, Saint * Aldegundis, St. Francisca, of whom we are told, that being com∣mitted Page 138 to the care of an Arch-angel, she did oftentimes read the Office of the Blessed Virgin in the night, by the Light that proceed∣ed * from his Rays: And was for her diligence in it so acceptable to the Virgin, that she several times came down from Heaven to refresh her, and offer'd her Son to be kiss'd, and embraced by her.
156. But the Favours of the Blessed Virgin to St. Ida were of all * others the most considerable.
157. These are the effects of this Superstition: I might add many other Examples no less Horrible, in which our Blessed Lord has been diminish'd to make up the Honour of his Servants. But I shall shut up all with an Impiety of another kind, though the ef∣fect of this Worship; and which ought the more to be taken no∣tice of, both because it was done by a Society which would be thought at least the most zealous of any for their Faith; and was exposed publickly in the sight of the Sun, and before the Eyes of many to whom I now write. The thing I mean is the late Proces∣sion of the Jesuits at Luxemburg, May 20. 1685. designed for the * Glory of the Blessed Virgin
The Procession indeed was singularly extravagant; and it need∣ed the skill of that Learned Society, to put Prophaness into so Scho∣lastick Page 139 a dress. Heathenism and Christianity walk'd together, as if the Fathers of the Society had equally reverenced the Ancient Deities of the One, as the Modern Deities of the Other.
On the one side were carried the Image of the Blessed Virgin, and the Holy Sacrament. On the other, Mars, Vulcan, the Cyclops and Nayades, Ceres, Flora, Pomona, &c. And these too with all the Pomp, and even under the Names of GODS and DIVI∣NITIES.
At several Stations, where the Procession was to rest, Theatres were erected, to serve to inspire agreeably (say the Learned Fathers in the Account which they printed of this days Work) a Piety towards our Lady of Consolation. So the Blessed Virgin there is called.
The second of these Theatres, was for the GOD MARS;
It were too long to transcribe all the other Follies and Impie∣ties of this days Solemnity, in which the Holy Scripture found no room; the Sacrament but very little: The whole Piety was designed to the Blessed Virgin; and because Christianity had not Gods enough in it, to set forth her Glory, all the Poetic Deities were revived, to inspire agreeably a Devotion into the People for Her. This was indeed a Master-piece of Contrivance; and what Invention shall next be had, to excite a Devotion to her, we may expect to see the first time the Gentlemen of the Society shall have Occasion to make their complying Consciences do something extraordinary, for the Flattery of a Prince so much their Friend, and therefore so much their Favourite as he, for whose Honour Page 140 this Solemn Procession was in great measure designed. In the mean time, I shall leave it to the Reader seriously to consider, what sad Effects such a Devotion as this has given birth to; and what just Cause we have to oppose a Superstition, contrary to the Holy Scripture, unknown to the best and most Primitive Antiqui∣ty; unreasonable in its self, and which is worst of all, not only, very Unprofitable, but very Wicked too in its Practice.
ANSWER TO THE FOURTH ARTICLE, OF IMAGES and RELIQUES.
IN the beginning of this Article you tell me (but with very * little reason) that you might have past over this point without any further consideration; the best Argument you bring for it, being, if I mistake not, this, That you are not obliged to defend what I had advanced against you upon it. And in∣deed tho the reason be but a poor one, yet I am perswaded you had done better both for the interest of your Cause, and for your own credit, to have contented your self with it, and have past over this Article altogether; rather than by giving such loose An∣swers to my Allegations, to have satisfied the World, that you have no just Exceptions to make against them.
2. Were I minded in return to excuse my self the trouble of any farther Answer to you, I could, I believe, give you some more plausible pretences for it. I might tell you, (1st,) That your Di∣stinctions are now so well known, and have been so often explo∣ded by us, that there is no longer any danger that even
I might add, (2dly,) And that with great truth, that this whole subject has been utterly exhausted by that Learned Man, I have so often men∣tion'd, in his Defence of the Charge of Idolatry against T. G. and from whom you have here again borrow'd your chiefest strength. I might mind you, (3ly,) How after two endeavours to reply to him, T. G. was forced to give over; and it is now above eight years since neither he nor any of your Church has thought fit to Page 142 carry on the Dispute. I might desire you, (4thly,) To compare your performances upon this point with what the Representer ventur'd not above a year since to make a flourish with; and see if you could find out but any one thing in all you here re∣peat, that his learned and judicious Adversary had not utterly con∣futed. But he too has forsaken the Cause; and I am now called upon to give you the same Answers that have been made to both these, and then without pretending to be a Prophet, I dare be bold * to say for all your blustring, you will go off the Stage as tamely and quietly, as any of your Predecessors have done before you. There is a certain Circle of Shifts and Distinctions which you all run; and no sooner are those spent, but your bolt is shot; you drop the Question, and begin again upon a new score.3. These and many other reasons I might offer to decline any farther Examination of this Point; but I have promised you be∣fore, that I would neither misrepresent your Doctrine, nor FOBB * OFF your Arguments. And I will here perform it with such ex∣actness, that•even your Incense and Holy Water shall not be forgot∣ten. And if for our diversion you shall think fit the next time you write to add to these all your other follies, of Holy Ashes, Consecrated Candles, Agnus Dei's, and in one word, whatever Su∣perstitions of the like kind, your Pontifical, Ceremonial, Missal, Bre∣viary, Office of the Blessed Virgin, with all the Rationals and Comments that have ever been written upon them can furnish you with, I do once more promise you, that no pretence of their Imperti∣nence shall hinder me from sifting both them and you to the Bot∣tom. As to the present subject, I shall observe this plain Method:
- I. I will make good the Charge of Image-Worship against you.
- II. I will shew you, that in this service too, you are truly and properly guilty of Idolatry.
4. But before I enter upon these Particulars, I must stop so long as to consider the new Introduction you endeavour to amuse your Reader with: viz.
SECT. I.
Of the Benefit of Pictures and Images. *
AND which brings to my mind what Tully (reckoning up the several Opinions of the Philosophers concerning the Nature of * the Soul) said once of Aristoxenus, who of a Fidler became a Phi∣losopher, and asserted the Soul to be a Harmony;
5. Reply, §. 19.]
6. Answ.] In all which tho you fight with your own sha∣dow, and say nothing that either contradicts our Principles con∣cerning Worship, or justifies your practises; yet have you been so unhappy as to offer just matter for our Animadversion: For,
1st. It is no small mistake in you, thus to joyn Pictures and Images together, as if they were all one; when yet both your own Superstition, and the Opinion both of the Jews and Gentiles (as to the point of worshipping of them) have always made a very great difference between them. As for the ancient Heathens, they adored their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Statues, or Graven Images; because they conceived them most apt to be animated by their Gods, of which they were the resemblances. Whereas Pictures were not thought so capable of receiving that animation. The same was the distin∣ction of the Jews too, who upon this very account have always look'd upon the former sort of † Sculptures to be the thing espe∣cially forbidden in the second Commandment; insomuch that they thought it unlawful to have them even for Ornament; but for * Pictures painted or woven, those they did not esteem to have been absolutely forbidden to them. And at this day in your Church, your Images are set up with solemn Consecrations to receive your Page 144 Adoration. But I do not know that any Pictures are dedicated for Altar-pieces, or other uses, with the like solemnity.
2. Another Confusion of the like kind you make in what fol∣lows, in speaking of the Pictures not only of Holy Persons, but of their Actions too. For every body knows how much more use there may be, and how much less danger there certainly is in Hi∣storical Representations, than in single Figures, but especially Carved Images.
3. Were the benefit of Images never so great, yet you know this is neither that which we dispute with you, nor for which they are set up in your Churches. Your Trent Synod expresly defines that due Veneration is to be paid to them. Your Catechism says that they are to be had not only for Instruction, but for Worship. And this is the Point in Controversie betwixt us. We retain Pictures, and sometimes even Images too in our Churches for Ornament, and (if there be such Uses to be made of them) for all the other Benefits you have now been mentioning. Only we deny that any service is to be paid to them; or any solemn Prayers to be made at their Consecration, for any Divine Vertues, or indeed for any Vertues at all, to proceed from them. This is our Business; the rest is all Impertinence in such Discourses as these, where men are to dispute, not harangue. And for Images set up in Churches, with these Cere∣monies, and for this purpose, I add
4. That were the benefits of them otherwise never so great, yet will not this be any manner of Excuse to you for the violating of God's Law, seeing, as you have been often told, and indeed do your self confess, No Evil is to be done, for any Good whatsoever that may come of it. Tho now
5. I am not altogether satisfied of the great usefulness of Ima∣ges for the instruction of the Ignorant. They may indeed serve to call Good things and Persons to their remembrance, when they have before been instructed, and by consequence in that respect are no longer ignorant of what is represented by them. But let a man, that is properly Ignorant, i. e. who never heard of the XIIth (for * instance) of the Revelations, see the Virgin Mary ten thousand times painted with a Half-moon under her feet, I do not believe he would become one jot the Wiser for it. Nay,
6. In opposition to your Pretences, though all this is out of the way, yet I dare affirm, lastly, that for such Images and Pictures as are too often •…d both in your Churches and •ouses, they are Page 145 so far from serving to any of those Uses you pretend, that on the contrary, if Men are not very well instructed, they will be apt to beget in them most pernicious Notions, contrary to the Honour of God, to the Nature of our Saviour Christ, and to the Covenant of His Gospel.
7. For tell me, I beseech you; Was not this the great reason wherefore God forbad any Resemblance to be made of Himself under * the Law, that it was a lessening and debasing of his Nature so to do? And does not St. Paul urge this very consideration against the Athenian Idolatry? Acts XVII. 29. And is not the Divine Nature * as excellent now, and as much debased by yours, as ever it was by their Representations of it? I need not tell you of the frequent Pictures of God the Father in the shape of an Old Man, and com∣monly in a Pope's Dress; and the meaning of which (if one may conjecture the design of this by the Natural tendency of it) can be no other than this, viz. to perswade the Ignorant, that as you sometimes call the Pope a God on Earth, so God is no other than the Pope of Heaven.
8. And this, were it only in some Sacred Places, would yet be too prophane for any Pious Christian to endure. But alas! you have not been so reserved. Every Office carries this Abuse in it; Hardly a Psalter or Catechism without it: Nay, I will add, what I should hardly be credited in, had not thousands among us with indig∣nation beheld it, that in the open Streets of your Cities, we may see That God who is over all blessed for ever, exposed to the scorn and meanness of a Sign-post.
9. How miserably have you by these Pictures, abused the My∣stery of the Sacred Trinity; sometimes you make it a Monster; As where you paint one Body with three Heads; One Head with three Faces; sometimes one Body with two Heads, and a Pigeon in the midst; of which Card. Capisucchi makes mention. The Sacred * Trinity in the Belly of the Virgn, which Gerson says, He saw with his own Eyes in a Church of the Carmelites; the most ordinary Figures are, Either an Old Man holding a Crucifix in his Hands, and a Pigeon upon his Shoulder; Or, (as in your Eye-Catechism) on one side an Old Man with a Globe, on the other a Younger with a Cross upon his Shoulder, and a Dove betwixt them: And what is all this but to debase the glorious Godhead? In St. Paul's Phrase, to * change the truth of God into a lie, by representing the Incorruptible God by an Image made like unto a Corruptible Man? And where is there a Page 146 Christian so insensible of that dishonour that is hereby done to the Majesty of that God, whom the wiser Heathens themselves never debased to the likeness of any created Being, as not with the same Apostle to have his Spirit stir'd within him, at the sight of such Impiety? *
10. Nor are you at all less excusable in your Representations of our Blessed Saviour, and the Holy Virgin; not to descend to any other of the Saints. For besides that such Similitudes exhi∣bit only one, and that his inferior Nature, viz. his Manhood; how do these Pictures insensibly breed a mean Opinion of him, in the minds of the Ignorant and Unwary? As 1st, Nothing is more ordinary in the most solemn Places of your Worship, than to see our Blessed Lord still set forth as a Child, in the Arms of his Mother. And what Notions this has bred in many of your Communi∣on, I would to God the greater esteem they seem to have for the Virgin, than for Christ, did not too plainly shew. But that which renders this more intollerable, is, that you thus represent him not only upon Earth, but at this time even in Heaven; and indeed, seeing in your Legends, you speak of him as a Child still, I do not wonder if in your Pictures, you represent him too as such.
11. Thus in one of your Eye-Catechisms, set forth in Portugal, for the Instruction of the People; the latter part of the Ave-Ma∣ria, is set in this manner before them. All sorts of Men and Wo∣men upon Earth, are drawn in an open Scene, upon their Knees, and Hands lifted up to Heaven, and in the Clouds over them, the Blessed Virgin in Glory with our Saviour (as a Child) in Her Arms; and under it this Inscription, O Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us Sinners now, and in the hour of Death. Amen. Jesus.
12. In the Calender of the Saints of your Order, There is a Figure of St. Odilo, devoting himself to the blessed Virgin in this * manner.
13. I will not deny, but that these may be very good Instru∣ctions for Father Crasset's, or Doctor J. C's Disciples. But I can∣not see how any of the Expounding and Representing Party, will be able to prove such Pictures as these, to be much for the Edifi∣cation of the People. I shall finish these Remarks, (which have already run out into a greater length than I design'd, tho I might have added much more) with the account which the Learned Gerard Vossius gives us, of a Picture over an Altar in Flanders, in which that blasphemous Epigram is express'd of Mens doubting whether they should run to the Blood of Christ, in which alone there is Redemption to be obtain'd; or to the Milk of the Virgin. This is certainly to contradict the very Foundation of the Gospel; and to lead the Ignorant into Error in that Point, in which it is of all others the most dangerous to be mistaken; viz. Whether they ought to place the Hopes of their Salvation in the Redemption of Christ, or in the Mercy and Interest of his Mother.
14. You may at your leisure consider how to improve these things into Helps of Devotion, and useful Instructions for the illite∣rate Populace. I might have added, what has lately been else∣where observed, of the Prophaness of many (in Italy especially) in this Point: Where the most celebrated Madonna's, are the Pi∣ctures of the Painters Whores, set up in their Churches, as Objects of the Peoples Veneration. But this and other Excesses of the like kind I purposely forbear, lest I should be thought to please my self in your Impieties, which I heartily lament, and earnestly be∣beseech God to reform in you. Nor should I have said thus much, but only to shew how little Reason you had to enter on this new and most Impertinent Subject of the Benefit of Images; and that were our Cause to be try'd by this alone, we might even so expect to carry it against you. And this to your first Pre∣tence.
15. The next thing you offer in favour of your Images, is Reply § 20.]
16. Answ.] That the Devil is an Enemy to Piety, and to all those things that may any way serve to promote it, I can easily believe; but that it is He, who upon this account stirs up us to oppose your Idolatry, I shall hardly Credit, tho you should give me as good an assurance of it, as ever your Brother the old Monk did the second Council of Nice, when he told them that the Devil himself had confess'd to him, how much he hated your Holy and Venerable Images. I am sure Tertullian was so far from this, that * he thought 'twas the Devil that instigated Men to bring them into the World, and not to help to cast them out. But to over∣throw at once, both your Reflection and Argument together, I do here roundly affirm, That what you say is so far from being true, That there is now no danger of Idolatry in the Worship of Images, that on the contrary I will shew, that in the Worship of them pub∣lickly authorized and practiced amongst you, you do actually com∣mit it. And then every Body will see what Spirit it is that Acts us in opposition to this Service; and who it is that blinds you so far, as to make you contend for that, which both the Holy Scrip∣ture condemns, and the Primitive Christians neither knew, nor would have endured. And this brings me to my first Proposal; wherein I am
SECT. II.
To make good the Charge of Image-Worship against you, and Answer those Evasions, by which you endavour to clear your selves of it.
17. NOW that you give Religious Worship to Images, has been so fully proved in that Learned Book I have before refer'd you to, in Answer to T. G. both from the Definitions of your Councils of Nice and Trent, and from the unanimous Voice Page 149 of almost all the great Men of your Church, who have written any things of this matter, that I shall need say but very little here in Confirmation of it. And therefore not to multiply Quotations by transcribing what has been already collected as to this matter, I shall content my self with this plain, and I think unexceptionable manner of proceeding against you;
- 1st, I will propose to you the Voice of your Church in her Defi∣nitions.
- 2dly, I will give you the Interpretation of her Sense in these Defi∣nitions, from Card. Capisucchi only; and out of that Book to which Mons. de Meaux himself appeals.
- 3dly, I will from both vindicate the Account I have given of the Practice of your Church, in Conformity to these Princi∣ples.
18. 1st, For what concerns the first of these, the Voice of your Church, as to this Point; the Council of Trent declares,
19. Thus that wary Synod; Neither determining what Honour should be given to Images, nor yet setting any bounds to any. But then, as it expresly allows them the external Marks of Divine Worship, so by fixing the Grounds of this Honour to be the passing of it to the Proto-type, not only Soto, Turrian, and Naclantus, three great Di∣vines concern'd in that Synod, but also the Generality of those who have treated since of this matter, have concluded, that the same Adoration is to be paid to the Image, and the Proto-type; So that if Christ himself be worshipp'd with Divine Worship, then must the Crucifix also be worshipp'd with the very same. But this will better appear,
Page 152 19. 2dly, From the Account I am to give of the Doctrine of your Church, as to this Worship, from Cardinal Capisucchi.
And to whose Book since Mons. de Meaux has thought fit to Appeal, I am content to submit the Decision of this Controversy to his Sentence, and shall leave the World to judg whether I have Misrepresented, or whether the Bishop and You have not de∣parted from the Doctrine of the Council of Trent.
20. Now that we may know precisely, what in his Opinion, that due Honour and Veneration is, which you pay to Images, and which the Council so cautiously declined the telling us; we will consider first of all, what was thought to be so by them, whose Opinions he rejects, as not fully delivering your Churches Sense. Such were
21. First of all Durandus;
22. The next whose Opinion he Rejects, is Vasquez;
23. The next Opinion which he rejects, is that whereby an Infe∣rior Honour is supposed due to Images, and not an Honour of the * same kind with that which is paid to the Exemplar. And this has been proposed with some variety. Catherine and Peresius thought that no other Worship besides this inferior, honorary respect, was due to Page 151 them. Sanders distinguish'd, That the Images consider'd by them∣selves, and without any regard had to the Exemplars, deserved only an inferior Honour; but being consider'd conjunctly with the Exemplar, were to be worship'd with the very same Worship that the Exemplars themselves were. And this was also the opinion of Suarez,
24. The next whose opinion he refutes, is Card. Bellarmine; * who supposed that,
25. Lastly, Cardinal Lugo's Opinion was, that the Image and * the Exemplar were to be adored as two distinct Objects of Adora∣tion; as when a man sees the Son of his friend, he at the same time loves both the Son and the Father, not together with the ve∣ry Page 150 same Act, yet both directly: The Son for the Father's sake, and the Father accidentally upon the occasion of the Son's bringing him to his remembrance. Thus in the present case,
26. Having thus rejected all those several Opinions, he finally concludes,
27. And this may suffice by the way to answer your Excepti∣on against the Authority of Aquinas; who as you see allow'd a true and proper worship to be paid to the Cross as well as to * Christ. And that you may not shift off this REPLY (as you have done my former Answer) only with scorn and derision, I must mind you, that 'tis not now a Doctor of the Populace whom you think uncapable of penetrating into the profound Mysteries of Scholastick Niceties, that says this; but Card. Capisucchi, a Schoolman * and Disciple himself of St. Thomas, and whom perhaps you will allow to have as deep a reach as your self in these matters. For Vasquez having brought the very same interpretation of Aquinas's Doctrine that you now insist upon against me, the Cardinal thus roundly answers him,
27. And thus have I in short laid before you the sum of this Cardinal's Doctrine, who both approved M. de Meaux's Exposition, and to whom Monsieur de Meaux himself appeals for the Vindicati∣on of this very part of it. I have already sufficiently shewn how inconsistent these two are with one another; I will now only apply what I have here further added to my former account of this matter, to the point before us. And,
28. First, It may not be amiss to observe what great diversi∣ty of Opinions there has been in stating of that Worship which is paid by you to Images, and what difficulty you have found to de∣fend your practice against that Charge of Idolatry we have so just∣ly brought against you upon the account of it. How the Caution of some, and the distinctions of others amongst you, have been branded by the rest as Scandalous and Erroneous; and one forced to abjure as Heretical, what others have set up as the only true Ex∣position and Representation of the Churches sense. And this you will give me leave the rather to remark, because you are so often pleased to reflect upon our divisions, which yet are neither so frequent nor dangerous, as among you who pretend not only to Truth, but Infallibility in all you believe. And if the consequence you are wont from thence to draw against us, That because we differ in some things, therefore we have no certainty in any, be good, (as you say it is) you may now see that it will equally fall upon your selves too; and by so much the more heavily, by how much your pretences in this matter are greater than ours. But,
29. Secondly, Tho there be then such a diversity of Opinions amongst you as to this Worship; yet it is to be remarked that they who have allow'd the least Honour to Images, have yet still con∣fest that some Honour was due to them.
30. Thirdly, It may from hence farther appear, that the Wor∣ship which this Cardinal thought due to Inages, was not an improper, accidental, abusive Worship, but a true, proper, and real Adoration; the Image being to be adored in the very same act with which the Exemplar was. So that now according to this Ex∣position, the Cross of Christ is to be worshipped truly and properly with a Supreme Divine Adoration. And that not only as to the outward acts, but by the inward sense of the Soul too; all which are so to be paid to Christ, as to terminate at once both upon him, and upon the Crucifix by which he is to be adored. And this,
31. Fourthly, We are to look upon, not as a private opinion, or a meer Scholastick Nicety, but as the true and proper sense of the Church, and to be held of all. So the Cardinal expresly declares; as being the Doctrine of the Councils both of Nice and Trent; and for denying of which, Aegidius Magistralis was by the Inqui∣sition forced to recant, and renounce his Doctrine contrary there∣unto, as Heretical.
32. This is an Instance which with Card. Capisucchi I will take the liberty to recommend to your consideration. For certainly if what he says be true, you who deny that the Cross is upon any ac∣count whatsoever to be worshipped with Divine Worship, can be no o∣therwise * than a downright Heretick. And tho you are at pre∣sent secure in a happy Expounding Country, where you may safely make what representation of your Doctrine you please, or rather that the necessity of your present circumstances moves you to do, without any other danger than that of losing your credit with honest and inquisitive men, which you do not seem much to value; yet should time and other circumstances invite you hereafter into a hotter Cli∣mate, you might run some worser hazards among those who have not given themselves up to follow your Innovations. It hap∣pened not many years since, that a French Gentleman being travell∣ing * in the East-Indies, fell into some company at Goa, and there discoursing about matters of Religion according to your Princi∣ples, maintain'd,
33. This was plain dealing, and a sensible convicton that it is not meerly a Scholastick Nicety with the Fathers of the Inquisition,
34. Thirdly, To vindicate the Account I have heretofore given of your Practices in consequence to this Doctrine.
And first, I observed that in the solemn Procession made at the reception of the Emperor, the Legat's Cross is appointed by the Pon∣tifical to take place of the Emperor's Sword, because LATRIA or DIVINE WORSHIP is due to it.
35. This you cannot deny to be faithfully quoted out of your Pontifical: but you say there
and we must understand it so, not as if Divine Worship were due to the Cross, but to Christ crucified upon it. A strange Page 156 liberty of interpreting this, which turns plain Affirmatives into downright Negatives; and this contrary to the sense, not only of your greatest Authors, (as I have shewn) but in their opinion contrary to the sense of your Church too. These all say with the Rubrick,36. My next Instance was from your form of blessing a New Cross: To your Cavil about my omitting some words, I have said enough heretofore; but the dear Calumny must be continu'd, tho not only those two words were added, but so many more set down, that you seem as much dissatisfied with my length here, as you pre∣tended to be with my brevity before.
37. You pray,
38. This is in short the sum of that Ceremony; In which you desire to know what is Amiss? I answer; That take this whole Office together, with the Ceremonies, Prayers, and other Circum∣stances of it, and it is Superstitious and Idolatrous; and I shall not doubt once more to repeat, what before so much offended you, That the Addresses you here make, look more like Magical Incan∣tations, than Christian Prayers. For,
Page 157 39. First, If we enquire into the design of this Ceremony; it is to Consecrate a piece of Wood or Stone, that it may become a fit Object of Adoration: which being directy contrary to the Second Commandment, cannot be done without a very great Sin.
40. 2dly. To this End, secondly, you pray that several benefits may proceed from this Wood of the Cross; and if those words sig∣nify any thing, whereby you beseech God, that it may be a whol∣some remedy to Mankind, a strengthner of Faith, &c. We must then look upon it, that you do believe, that by this Consecration there is a Virtue, if not residing in it for all these purposes, yet at least proceeding from it; which your Council of Trent confesses was one of the things that made the Worship of Images among the Hea∣thens to be Idolatrous. Nor will your little Evasion here stand you in any stead; that
41. Again, 2. As the thing it self is not a proper means of pro∣ducing these Effects in us; so the manner by which you pray it may be done, renders it yet more Superstitious. To get instruction by hearing or reading; to have ones Faith confirm'd, or Charity enlarged, or Zeal heightned, by pious Considerations, or powerful Motives, all this is very natural; and we may therefore lawfully pray to God for to bless them to us in order to these Ends. But to pray to God, that by bowing our selves down before a Cross, we may find health of Soul and Body; to sanctify a piece of Wood, that by ITS Page 158 MERITS it may free men from all the Sins they have committed, this must be more than a natural Effect, neither the thing nor action being proper to produce it; and whether such Requests be not more like Magical Incantations than Christian Prayers, I shall leave it to any indifferent person to consider.
42. But 3dly, That this which you pretend, is not all that your Church designs by those Prayers, is evident, in that this Ex∣position cannot possibly be applied to several of those things which you ask of God in those Addresses. For instance, you pray,
43. 4thly, I must once more ask you that Question, I before proposed on this Occasion; and which, tho you heartily rail at, yet you shift it off without answering one wise word to it. If you design no real Virtue to proceed from the Cross which you thus consecrate, nor allow any Adoration to be paid to it, but in∣tend it meerly for a memorative Sign, and no more: To what purpose all these Prayers, and Sprinklings, and Smokings, and Bles∣sings, and other Ceremonies for the Consecration of it? As to your Question, why we dedicate our Churches to God? I will then allow it to be a Parallel, when you can prove that we pray that God would Sanctify the Walls or Seats of them, That they may become a wholesome Remedy to Mankind, and by their Merits free us from all the Sins we have committed. In the mean time it shall suffice to tell you, that as all we design in those Ceremonies, is no more than a solemn setting of it apart for Prayer and Devotion to God only; Page 159 so all we desire, is, that God would vouchsafe favourably to ac∣cept our Offering of that Place to his Service, and give a blessing to those Holy Offices that are from thenceforth to be peformed in it.
44. But 5thly; and to conclude this Point; He that would know what your Intention in these Prayers is, need only consider what Prayers you make in behalf of other things of the same Na∣ture: And in which you so evidently desire a Divine Virtue may proceed from the very things themselves which you Sanctify, that there is no doubt to be made of it. I shall give but one Instance of this, viz. the Prayer you make at the Consecration of your Agnus Dei's; in which you thus Address your selves to God.
45. Such are the admirable Virtues which you desire may proceed from these little Images; and by the Prayers you make at the Con∣secrating of these, we may easilly understand how to interpret your Addresses for the same purpose in the other. But now to make your Practice exactly parallel with the old Heathen Supersti∣tion; I must observe,
And now I shall leave it to you, to try once more your gift of Expounding, and see if you can bring all this to your new Sense: And for your Encouragement in it, I will promise you if you can, to give you something more of this matter, which will be more difficult, and which I forbear at present to insist upon.
Page 160 46. I should now go on to the next Instance; but I must in∣treat the Reader's excuse, if I stop one moment to follow your ram∣bling Discourse in two Points, as little to your purpose, as the handling of them will appear to have been for your Reputation.
47. I. The first is concerning the Use of Holy Water.
Reply]
48. Answ.] For the Antiquity of this Usage, I wonder you should stop at Pope Alexander I. when had you but look'd into the Clementine Constitutions (a much more authentick Piece than * your Decretal Epistle) you might have found St. Matthew to have been the Author of it. And the one would have been as easily believed as the other.
49. Nor have you been less defective in setting out the Benefits of it, than you were in your account of its Antiquity. And there∣fore to spare your Modesty, I will help to publish them for you.
50. And are not these now rare Follies for a Man to force us to publish whether we will or no? Did ever any Mountebank set out his false Ware with greater Vanity, than those of the Church of Rome have here done theirs? And indeed was there ever less reason to believe his Remedies, than in this Case there is to Cre∣dit your Pretences? In short, seeing you sanctify Water in the Page 161 Name of God, by Prayer for these Ends, either shew us some Pro∣mise, some Warrant at least from the Holy Spirit of God so to do; or all reasonable Men will look upon this after all you have said for it, as none of the least both of your Follies, and of your Superstitions.
II. The other thing you mention is your Incense.
51. And this is indeed to our purpose; and I shall presently shew you how little you consider'd your own interest in the mention of it. I pass by your pretended significations of it, as im∣pertinent in a Discourse where Truth only is sought. For the An∣tiquity of it you refer us to Dionysius and St. Ambrose; in which you again shew your skill in Church-History. The one of these being an Author that lived not till the latter end of the Fourth Century, and the other probably much later. But now the use of Incense, in the Greek Church especially, was of a much earlier date. The Apostolical Canons speak expresly of it: And if that Oration of Hyppolitus about the End of the World, be truly his, as from St. Jerome's mentioning of it in his Catalogue it seems to be; we have then two considerable instances to assure us that it was in use in the Greek Church even in the Third Century. You see how far I am from detracting any thing from the force of your Argument: But yet now after all, without fear of censuring Primitive Antiquity in this matter, whose Innocence I as freely ac∣knowledg, as I heartily honour its piety; I shall not doubt to say that the present usage of it in your Church is so far from being innocent, that it is in truth Superstitious and Idolatrous.
52. First, it is Superstitious. For indeed what else can we make of your praying to God, (as in this very Ceremony of Consecrating a * Cross you do) that,
53. Now if you make this prayer in faith, that it is pleasing to God, and have a confidence that it shall be accepted by him, you must then shew us some grounds, some security in the Word of God for it. But if you cannot do this, what is it but Superstition, that is, a vain and fond service, to intreat the favour of God in the Page 162 usage of a thing to which he has neither annexed any promise, nor for the doing whereof has he any where given us the least encou∣ragement. But,
54. Secondly, The Use you make of this Incense, is yet worse than the Consecration of it. You offer it up to Creatures, nay to the very Images which you worship; and in doing of which I do not see how you will excuse your selves of being guilty of Idola∣try. That the burning of Incense was part of that Religious Worship under the Law, which God was pleased to appropriate to Himself only, is not to be denied. It was indeed a more peculiar act of Divine Worship, than that of bloody Sacrifices themselves. And therefore both the Altar on which it was offer'd was cover∣ed with Gold, and it stood in a more Holy place than that of the Burnt-offerings; and is in a more singular manner said to be
55. Now this being the undoubted Practice of your Church, and such as you cannot deny to be contrary to the express Com∣mand of God under the Law; insomuch, that Cardinal Bellarmine * freely confesses it would have been Criminal in a Jew to have offer'd Incense to any besides God only; either you must evidently prove to us, That those Acts which were then appropriate Acts of Divine Worship, are not so now, but remain indifferent to be paid Page 163 to the Creature, as well as the Creator; or you must give us leave to conclude, that you do in this, attribute that Honour to an Image, which God has reserved as peculiar to Himself; and are by so doing, guilty of Idolatry.
56. And thus have I dispatch'd the two Things you called me, without any Provocation of mine, to examine; and which it may be you will now begin to think you might as well have let alone: I return to my Defence, in which I am next to consider, what you have to except against my third Argument, which I brought to shew, that you do truly and properly Adore the Cross; and that was from your Good-Friday Service.
Reply.] To this you Answer,
57. Answ.] These are hard Words; but I have always observ∣ed, that men are most uneasy when Truth touches them to the quick. If you are not yet sensible that it was indeed a pitiful Cavil to pretend I had false translated your Service, by what I have offer'd in my former part from Mons. Imbert's Case, and who for opposing that Interpretation of those Words which I deliver'd, was used after the manner that I have declared; I am confident you are the only Person even of your own Church, that needs to be convinced of it. In all the French Translations of your Missal, I have ever seen, it is render'd in the very words that I gave it, Behold the Wood of the Cross, come let us Adore IT: And particularly in that of Mons Voisin, approved by those of your Church, even to excess, you will find it in these express terms, Voila le Bois de la Croix, R. venez Adorons LE.
58. In the Missal of Salisbury, the Determination of that Ad∣dress to the Cross, is undeniably evident. The Priests uncover the Cross, and sing the whole Antiphone,
59. And this may by the way suffice, to shew how falsely you * expound even those Words, not to signifie the Cross of Christ, but his Passion. Which besides, that it is foreign to the Ceremony of Worshipping the Cross, which you are then about; and not a little Nonsence into the bargin; is here interpreted, not only by me, but by the Fathers of the Inquisition, of the Cross properly so called; and whose Authority I presume you will not care to de∣spise. And now I shall leave it to any Jury that you please, to judg of my Translation; and what Character you deserve for your * little Reflection upon me. And I do assure you withal, that I will never from henceforward so far distrust my Reader's Memo∣ry, as to say the same things again, tho you should give me the same occasion.
60. For the other Point; That this do's plainly shew, that your Church Adores the Cross in the utmost propriety of the Phrase; If you will allow those great Men I before quoted, to understand the Sense of your Church in this Point, then 'tis plain, that my Assertion must stand good. You see they freely confess it; nay, what is more, they pronounce you a Heretick for denying it. As for your applying of this Worship to our Saviour Christ; if you mean thereby to signify that Christ only is worshipp'd in this Cere∣mony, exclusive to the Cross; it is evidently false, seeing the whole Action, as well as Words, shew, that the Cross is at least wor∣shipped together with him; or rather (to speak more precisely) Christ is worshipped together with the Cross. Nor will Cardinal Bellarmine, to whom you direct me, stand you in any stead. For even he allows the Cross to be improperly and accidentally Worshipp'd with the same kind of Worship that Christ himself is. And if you please to let me send you to another Cardinal, and who being * both a great Schoolman himself, and Master of the Sacred Palace, may be presumed to know somewhat of your Churches Sense; he will tell you, that your Cardinal Bellarmin was too wary in his Distinctions: And that he ought without any of those softning Limitations, freely to have asserted, That the Cross was truly and properly to be worshipped with Divine Adoration. And that I think, is much the Page 165 same with what I said, That you do Worship the Cross in the utmost propriety of the Phrase.
61. But you have here two singular Arguments to excuse this Service from the charge of Idolatry, and which ought not to be forgot. For,
Reply.]
Answ.] Ergo (ô Lepidum Caput!) If St. Paul may be Judg, 'tis no Idolatry in you to fall on your Faces in the Assembly, and worship the CROSS. What would T. G. have given to have met with such a Consequence in his Learned Adversary? But indeed we needed not this Proof to convince us (in that Gentleman's Phrase) that you never look'd over Aristotle's Threshold, however your ill Genius has prompted you to become a Controvertist.
62. Well, •…t if St. Paul wont do, yet at least you are sure the Primitive Christians were on your side. And you prove it by an Instance most fit to keep company with the foregoing Argument. The Case in short is this.
Reply.]
63. Answ. This is indeed a most melting Argument, and which as I remember, set all the good Fathers of the second Council of Nice, a crying. But Sir, be not you too much affected with it, for I will venture to give you that Consolation, which one of your * Brethren once did his Congregation in France; when having preach'd in a most Tragical manner about the Passion, not of a Crucifix, but of our Blessed Saviour himself, insomuch, that the whole As∣sembly was in Tears at it; the good Father bid them not weep, for that, after all, it may be it was not true. For
Page 166 1st, As to the Book which you cite for this goodly Story, 'tis certain it was written above 420 years after Athanasius was in his Grave, and is of no manner of Credit among the Learned.
2dly, As to the Story: It was invented in the time of Irene the Empress, when all the World was set upon making and finding out Fables and Miracles, for establishing the Worship of Images.
3dly, All the Authority we have, that ever there was any such thing done, and that it was not a meer Invention (as were many others of the like kind at that time) is that of Sigebert, whose Chronicle besides, that it was written yet another 400 years after this supposed Insult upon the Crucifix, was also an * Author whom Bellarmin himself confesses, is not to be credited in every thing he says. And especially, when in all probability he had no other Warrant for it, than the Acts of the Council of Nice, and the pretended Treatise of St. Athanasius, which you quote for it. So unlucky a thing is it for you to meddle with Church-History.
64. But whether the Relation be Truth or Fable; The Questi∣on is put, and must be Answer'd: Would I not have thought that these Jews hereby intended to affront our Saviour Christ? I answer, Yes; No doubt they did. And
65. Fourthly; From the Hymns of your Church. In which I * shewed that you address your selves to the Cross, and beg spiri∣tual Graces of it; and that you could not say the Cross was here put by a Figure to signify Christ crucified upon it; because the very words of the Hymns shew, that 'tis the Material Cross as distin∣guish'd from Christ, of which they speak.
66. And here you are in a great distress; you catch at every thing that comes near you; but for the most part without con∣sidering whether it be to any purpose or no. As for instance: You observe, First, That I am brisk and confident, and have a mind to
67. Secondly, You say I must confess that your Churches Hymns were made by Poets, unless I will be so great a Hypocrite as to deny that Prudentius and Fortunatus were Poets. I suppose Pru∣dentius and Fortunatus clubb'd together to make the Hymn that I refer to: Only the mischef is, that the One lived in the End of the IVth, the other not till about the middle of the Vth Century. Page 168 Nay, but what now if neither of these were Author of that Hymn? I am sure Gretser, a very inquisitive Man in these matters, speaks very doubtfully of it, and leaves it in Question, whether Venantius * Fortunatus, or Theodulphus Bishop of Orleans, was the Author of it; and He lived yet later, about the beginning of the IXth Century. But to let this pass; and consider,
68. Thirdly, How you prove these Men to be Poets, for indeed it is very remarkable. You tell me, that if I will but look into the Corpus Poetarum, I shall find them to have had a place among the Poets. A most undoubted way this, to find out whether an Author were a Poet or a Schoolman; And I dare say you were be∣holden to no man's Literature but your own for this Remark.
69. Well, but to grant that which I perceive you do not know very well how to go about to prove, that the Author of this Hymn, whoever he was, was a Poet; what will follow? Why then you say, Fourthly, I shall presently find the Figure he there uses; his Title being not
The PASSION of our King comes forth; The mystery of the PASSION shines; upon which PASSION the Maker of our Flesh was hanged in the Flesh.
Beautiful and bright PASSION! Adorned with the purple of a King. Chosen of a fit Stock to touch such sacred Members.
Blessed PASSION! upon whose Arms the price of the World hung. Hail, O Passion! our only Hope; In this time of the PASSION, increase righteousness in the Godly, and give pardon to the Guilty.
70. Now this I am confident a man of so much Literature as you are, will not allow to be a proper paraphrase of this Hymn: And if instead of the Passion, you put Christ for the Cross, this will yet Page 169 more increase the Nonsense and Confusion. In short; If all the Cor∣pus Poetarum were alive, and should lay their Heads together with you, they could not find out any of their Figures that would do the business; but must have some new Ecclesiastical Figure found out to make the Cross signify Christ and his Passion, at the same time, and in the same place in which it distinguishes both from the Cross. And such a Figure I do say would be as Great a Mystery, in Verse, as Transubstantiation is in Prose. And I desire you, if you can, to give me but one parallel Text of Scripture, in which the Cross is at once taken both literally for that Cross on which Christ suffer'd; and figuratively, for Christ and his Sufferings upon it.
71. In the mean time it shall suffice me Once more to mind you of what I perceive you have nothing to say to; viz. That Aquinas and his Followers, who have been sometimes reckon'd men of Literature in your Church, have understood this Hymn according to the plain and literal meaning of it: and that so confidently as to conclude from it, that your Church holds Divine Honour to be due to the Cross.
72. But if all this will not yet satisfy you, but you are still resolved to adhere to your new Figure, I will then give you ano∣ther Instance, and which I believe may be Prose, for I do not re∣member I ever saw it in the Corpus Poetarum, though this I shall leave to your Literature to determine: And I pray be pleased to send us the Paraphrase of this Antiphone, according to your New Method of Expounding:
SECT. III.
That the Church of Rome thus Worshipping of Images is truly and properly guilty of Idolatry.
73. THERE is nothing in all our Disputes with those of the Church of Rome that seems so much to offend them, as this Charge. They think it not only unreasonable to suppose that men in the clear light of Christianity should be capable of falling into Idolatry, but even destructive of the very nature of a Church, and by con∣sequence contrary to all those Promises of Christ in his Gospel,
74. But whatever their opinion of the true and only Notion of Idolatry be, yet common equity should have taught them to con∣fess, that we mean no more in our charge of it against them, than this, That those of the Church of Rome, in their worship of the Host, of Saints and Images, do give that Honour to the Creature, which ought to be given only to God. We do not pretend that you have either renounced the Worship of the Supreme Deity; or that you do adore either the Sun, Moon and Stars; or even Angels and Saints as such. And therefore howsoever you may dislike our Notion of Idolatry, yet you ought not to revile us for fixing a false Charge against you, but to shew that we give an ill Name to a true Charge. And because I now desire not to be mis-understood, I do first of all declare, that by my present Conclusion I intend no more than this,
75. To discharge therefore this last part of my Undertaking as I ought to do; I will proceed distinctly upon these two things,
Ist. To fix our Notion of Idolatry, against those New Idea's that have of late been given of it.
IIdly. To shew, that according to the true Notion of it, the Church of Rome in her Worship of Images is guilty of Idolatry.
I. POINT.
I. Of the true Nature of Idolatry.
76. This is what you desire me to reflect upon, and I hope it * will not be thought amiss if I here with all imaginable tenderness communicate my Reflections to you.
Reply, p. 28.]
77. Ans. That is to say, that no One is an Idolater, but what takes somewhat to be God that indeed is not so, and upon that account gives the Worship due to the Supreme God to a Created Being. And this explains what you had said before;
78. And now let Idolatry be as stabbing and cut-throat a word as * it will; Be its punishment, if it were possible, greater than what a Reverend Author has lately told us is its least, Death and Damnation; If this be the only Idolatry, viz. to worship somewhat else besides God, as supposing it to be very God; I dare confidently affirm in be∣half of all those Popular Divines that have ever used that scolding word, That the Church of Rome is not Idolatrous in the worship of Saints or Images, nor has it in this sense ever been charged by us Page 172 as such. But to shew the Vanity of this Pretence; and yet more clearly express what we mean by this Charge, I will now very plainly examine these two things:
I. Whether, according to the Scripture-Notion of Idolatry, those may not be guilty of it, who yet both Know and Worship the One true God?
II. How such Persons may become Guilty of it?
I. Whether, according to the Scripture-Notion of Idolatry, those may not be guilty of it, who yet both Know and Worship the One true God?
79. And here it is not my design to enter on any large Discourse about the general Nature of Idolatry; but still remembring the par∣ticular Point before me, to prove it only in such Instances, as are more immediately applicable to it. And such are especially these two:
- 1st, The Idolatry of the Golden Calf.
- 2dly, Of the Calves of Dan and Bethel.
80. As to the former of these, it has of late been suggested, * That it was made by Aaron as the Symbol of the Egyptian Apis or Osyris; and to whose Idolatry the Israelites now return'd in the Worship of it. But this is indeed a very weak Suggestion; and whosoever will but consider the Circumstances of what was done by that People on this occasion, will presently see, that they de∣sign'd that Calf to be the Symbol not of any Egyptian Deity, but of the true God, whom accordingly they worshipp'd in presence of it. And this will appear;
81. 1st, From the occasion of this Idolatry; which was not any Infidelity as to the true God, or that they had now any better Reasons given them for the Worship of others besides him; but because Moses delayed to come down from the Mount, therefore they urged Aaron to make them a God, that might go before them. They had now * rested a long time in that place, and were impatient to go on to∣wards the Land of Promise. But having now no Moses to enquire of Gods Pleasure, they wanted an Oracle to consult upon these Occasions. And therefore they cri'd out unto Aaron, Up, make us Gods that shall go before us, for as for this Moses the man that brought us up out of the Land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
82. Now that this was all they intended by it, will appear, 2dly, From the Character which the People presently gave to the Page 173 Calf, as soon as it was made: This is thy God; or as the Chaldee * Paraphrast renders it, This is thy Fear, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt. For sure the People were not so stupid as to think it was either that Image which had brought them up out of Egypt; or that the Gods of Egypt had plagued their own People for their sakes, and with a high hand deliver'd them out of their Power. No, doubtless they understood by it their God, * who but just before at the delivery of the Law, had assumed this as his own peculiar Character, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, and out of the house of Bondage. And this naturally Suggests to me a third Evidence of this Truth.
83. From the Title which Aaron himself gave to that God, of which this Calf was the Symbol. Ver. 5.
84. 4thly, Had the People hereby designed this to be the Sym∣bol of the Egyptian Deities; how comes it to pass, that (as we read in the next Verse) they offer'd Burnt-offerings, and Peace-offerings un∣to * it. For this, both the Scripture tells us, was an Abomination to the Egyptians; and a late Advocate for you, freely confesses, that * they esteem'd Bullocks and Rams to be Sacred Animals, and there∣fore never offer'd any of them to their Gods.
85. Lastly, The Scripture plainly distinguishes this Idolatry from that of the Egyptians, and makes the one to have been the Punishment of the other. It is confess'd, or rather contended for by the Author I but now mentioned, that the Egyptian Idolatry consisted in worshipping the Sun, Moon and Stars, as the Supreme Deity: Now, this St. Stephen tells us, that God afterwards per∣mitted them to fall into, and therefore it must have been some other Idolatry, which in this Case they were Guilty of; For speaking of their setting up the Golden Calf, Acts VII. 41. He thus goes on, ver. 42. THEN God turned, and gave them up to wor∣ship the Host of Heaven.
86. As for the other Instance I proposed to consider; The Calves of Dan and Bethel; the Occasion of their making, was this. Page 174 When the ten Tribes had thrown off Rehoboam from being their King, and had chosen Jeroboam to Reign over them; This new Usurper, fearing lest if the People went up at the yearly Sacri∣fices to Jerusalem, where Rehoboam still Reigned over the other two Tribes, it might in time occasion their falling away from him, set up two Calves in Dan and Bethel, and made Altars before them, and perswaded the People, saying, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: Behold thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out * of the Land of Egypt.
87. Now that Jeroboam intended these Calves to be Symbols of the God of Israel, appears, 1st, From most of those Reflections I before made. He gives them the same Character by which they constantly understood the God of Israel; Behold (says he) thy God, that brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt. He offer'd Sacrifies before them, and consecrated the Priests that Ministred unto them, with a young Bullock and seven Rams. All which is exactly agree∣able * to what God required of them, but was utterly inconsistent with the Idolatry of Egypt. But
88. 2dly, We have some more peculiar Proofs of this matter. I speak not now of the readiness of the People in complying with him, which it is not imaginable they would so easily have done, had he intended to lead them to the Worship of strange Gods. Nor will I insist upon the danger, which so sudden an Innovation might have brought to this new King, and who was not so little a Polititian, as to attempt such an Alteration at a time when he was hardly yet well establish'd in his new Usurpation. These are indeed great Probabilities, but such as this Cause needs not; seeing it has the Evidence of Holy Scripture fully confirming it; It being certain that the Idolatry of these Calves did not take them off from the Service of the true God. Let us examine all along the History of the Kings of Israel; we shall find them constantly worshipping the Jehovah, the God of Israel. Jehu was zealous for him; he destroy'd the Ido∣latry of Baal out of his concern for the Lord; and had the King∣dom by Gods own immediate Promise setled upon his Posterity for his so doing. And yet it is expresly said of him, Howbeit from * the Sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel to Sin, Jehu departed not from after them, viz. the Golden Calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.
89. Who was it but the true God for whom Elijah appear'd so zealous? 1 King. XVIII. when he enter'd into that famous trial Page 175 with the Prophets of Baal; If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, than follow him. And the Fire came down from Heaven, and burnt up the Sacrifice, and all the people confest, saying,
90. Hence it is, that when Ahab fell into that other kind of Idolatry which consists in worshipping of false Gods, he is repre∣sented as much more heinously offending God, than the other Kings of Israel, who worshipp'd the Calves of Dan and Bethel, * 1 Kings XVI. 31.
91. By all which it undoubtedly appears, that in both these cases, they design'd by those Calves to worship the true God; and then seeing it is confest they did commit Idolatry in that service, it must remain that men may know, and serve the true God, and yet by worshipping him in this prohibited manner, may in the in∣terpretation of the Divine Law commit Idolatry.
92. I shall conclude this with that Confession which the Evi∣dence of truth in this matter has extorted from Cardinal Bellarmin and and some others of your own Communion; where answering this objection, that when the Golden Calf was set up, Aaron pro∣claimed a Feast not to any other strange God but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to the LORD, to the Jehovah,
It is (says he) the solution of Abulensis * and others, that there were two sorts of Idols among the Hebrews. One without the name of any certain God, as that of Micha, Judges XVII. and perhaps the Golden Calf which Aaron made, Exod. XXXII. and Jeroboam renew'd, 1 King. XII. for the Scripture does not call the Calf the God Moloch, or the God Baal,
These are thy GODS, O Israel. The other sort of Idols had a certain name; as Baal, Moloch, Ashtoreth, Chamos, &c. as is plain, 1 King. XI. &c. They say therefore, and that not improbably, that it may be admitted of the former kind, That the Jews did think that in the Idol THEY WORSHIPPED THE TRUE GOD.
93. And now tho this might suffice to shew how consistent the guilt of Idolatry is with the acknowledgment of one true God, yet will I add a reflection or two more, for the farther confir∣mation of it. For,
First, Were such a Notion as this of Idolatry to be admitted, it would serve no less to excuse the Heathens than those of the Church of Rome of the guilt of it. For however they worshipp'd Page 176 other inferior Deities, as these do Saints and Angels with a lower degree of Religious Honour; yet even they too acknowledged one supreme God, who was over all, and to whom the highest Wor∣ship and Adoration alone was due. This has been so largely proved * by T. G's worthy and learned Antagonist, not to mention any others who have occasionally treated of this Argument, that I shall not need to enter on any particular induction in order to the asserting of it.
94. Secondly, It cannot be question'd but that this new Notion of Idolatry, set up on purpose to excuse you from that Imputa∣tion, is utterly repugnant to the Principles of the Ancient Fathers, who certainly charged those with Idolatry, who yet believed and worshipp'd the very same God with themselves. Thus St. Athanasius charges the Arrians with Idolatry for adoring Christ,
95. But now that I have mentioned Epiphanius, I may not for∣get another sort of Idolatry exploded by him, and yet more near our purpose than the foregoing. I mean that Worship which some Superstitious Women in his time paid to the Blessed Virgin by offer∣ing a Cake to her. Now this that Holy Father condemns as down∣right Idolatry, and the device of the Devil. And to shew how consistent the charge of Idolatry is with the worship of one God, he gives us a similitude that would almost imply a necessity of acknowledging the one true God to compleat the nature of it:
Page 177 96. I might add here the Exhortations of the New Testa∣ment, where both S. Paul and S. John, among other Cautions to the Christians of their Times, place that of fleeing from I∣dolatry; and this in such a manner, as evidently supposes them very capable of continuing the Profession of Christianity, and the Knowledg and Worship of God, and yet of falling into it. But I shall content my self, lastly, to close up this with the Confessions of Learned Romanists themselves, who have ac∣knowledged Idolatry to be consistent with the Worship of the true God.
97. S. Thomas defines Idolatry to be a Sin, whereby the singu∣larity * of God's Dominion is taken from him: And Card Caje∣tane in his Notes upon this same Question, supposes that a Chri∣stian may commit Idolatry, and yet be so far from renouncing the true God, as not to violate any part of his Faith in him. Gregory de Valentia, says 'tis Idolatry;
98. But what need I insist upon Generals, seeing if we may believe those of your own Communion, you are not only ca∣pable, for all your Christianity, of falling into Idolatry; but in this very Point of Image-Worship, are actually guilty of it. For,
1st, Cardinal Bellarmine disputing against that which I have * shewn by such a number of Witnesses to be the True Doctrine of your Church, viz.
99. So that now then the Point is reduced to a fair issue. Either we must pay the same Adoration to the Image that we do to the Original, and then Card. Bellarmine pronounces us Ido∣laters; Or we must give it only an Inferior Honour, and then Card. Capisucchi, and the Inquisition, damn us as Hereticks. Nay, but there is Idolatry committed go which way you will. For Vasquez, another Learned Jesuit, and whose Works have been * no less approved than Card. Bellarmine's, tells us;
2dly, To shew, How this may be done by him.
100. I shall mention only two ways, and which I have al∣ready before infinuated; •iz.
- 1. By worshipping the True God after an Idolatrous man∣ner.
- 2. By giving Divine Worship to any other besides Him.
1. By worshipping the True God after an Idolatrous man∣ner.
101. This was the Case of the Israelites, in the Examples I have before mention'd, of the Calves of Aaron and Jeroboam. They directed their Adoration to the JEHOVAH, the Page 179 LORD their God that brought them up out of the Land of Egypt. To him they proclaim'd the Feast, and offer'd Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices upon their Altars. Yet because they set up a Symbol of him, contrary to his Command, and worshipp'd him after an Idolatrous manner, they are expresly charged as Idolaters in Holy Scripture; and the Worship that was intended by them to God, is represented as given to a Molten Image.
102. And the same was the Case of that other Image which Card. Bellarmine joins with these, viz. the Teraphim of Micha, Judg. XVII. that these were designed for the Service of the True God, is plain, seeing both his Mother is said to have con∣secrated the Silver of which they were made 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to the JEHOVA, Vers. 3. and Micha himself hired a Levite of the LORD's to be his Priest, Vers. 10, 11. And he comforted himself upon this consideration, Vers. 13.
Page 180 103. 2dly, As for the other way by which a Man may com∣mit Idolatry, who yet both acknowledges and worships the True God, viz. by giving Divine Worship to any other together with him; I have already offer'd Instances of that in the Cases of the Arrians and Collyridians; the one of which for worshipping Christ, whom they supposed to be but a Creature; the other for offering a Cake to the Virgin Mary, are charged by the Ancient Fathers as guilty of Idolatry. Nor is this without foundation from the Holy Scripture. For besides, that first of all we find there
104. Let us add to this, 4thly, That Cardinal Bellarmine * himself confesses that Idolatry is committed, not only when God is forsaken and an Idol worshipped, but when an Idol is worshipped together with him. And this he proves from Ex∣od. XX. 23. Ye shall not make WITH ME Gods of Silver, &c. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 i. e. says your Learned Vatablus, to worship them
105. I shall finish this with the Consideration of that Charge which S. Paul brings against the Gnostick Hereticks, and in which he plainly argues against their Idolatry, Rom. 1. 25.
106. Hence Athanasius calls this
And again,107. And thus have I endeavour'd in as short a compass as I could, to clear the general Nation of Idolatry, as far as con∣cerned the Point before me, and in which I suppose you to have erred more for your Churches sake, than for any great difficulty there is in understanding the nature of this Sin. It will now be an easie task from these Principles to infer, (which is my next Point.)
Page 182 II. That your Church in the Worship of Images is truly and properly guilty of it.
And this I shall shew according to what you desire;
- 1st, With reference to those who hold that Images are to be worshipped with the same Worship as the Things which they represent.
- 2dly, As it concerns their Opinion, who denying this, yet allow an inferiour Honour to them.
First, That they are guilty of Idolatry, who worship Images with the same Honour as the Things which they represent.
108. Where first I must observe, that this, however of late opposed by you and the rest of our new Representers, is yet not only the most general received Doctrine of the Roman Church, but so esteem'd to be the sense of your two Councils of Nice and Trent, that Card. Capisucchi produces a long Catalogue of your greatest Writers who have look'd upon it as savouring of Heresy to oppose it. And not only Monsieur Imbert in France, but also Aegidius Magistralis, and the French Gentleman, whose Case I before represented, will assure you, that in the Inquisiti∣ons of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, 'tis somewhat more than a Scholastick Nicety, or a probable Opinion, which may without danger be opposed by you. And therefore, tho to make good my promise, I shall also dispute this Point with you too upon your own Principles; yet I must needs declare that 'tis here I esteem my self truly to oppose the Doctrine of your Church in this particular.
109. Now that they who hold this sort of Image-worship are thereby guilty of Idolatry, is so evident that your own Card. Bellarmine could not forbear reproaching them with it: And whose words I will once more produce, not more for the Au∣thority than the Weight of them; where maintaining this Con∣clusion,
110. It appears by this how uneasy you are in this Case, and it is not a little Confirmation to us of the Security of our Condition, to see that you whose concern it so much is to be very well assured of what you do, yet cannot agree among your selves what Honour is to be given to Images. But one Party thinks that cannot be maintain'd without Idolatry, which the other declares may not be deny'd without Heresie. As for the Images of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, that those commit Idolatry who worship them with the same Religious Worship that Page 184 they pay to the Exemplars, will follow from what I have be∣fore said of your worshipping the Blessed Virgin and Saints themselves. For if it be Idolatry to give Religious Worship to the Prototypes, it must then be much more so, to pay it to the Images.
111. For your other Images, those of our Saviour Christ and the Holy Trinity, I shall need no other Argument than that of Card. Bellarmine before-mention'd, to shew the Worship of those too to be Idolatry. It being evident that to give Divine Ado∣ration to any Creature, that is, to worship any Creature as God, is to make an Idol of it, and therefore the Service that is thereby paid to it must be Idolatry. Now that this is the Case of those who hold this Opinion, if what I have already cited from them be not sufficient to show, and especially where they declare (as we have seen) that not only Christ, but the Image it self too is to terminate the Divine Worship which is paid to Christ by it; I am sure the Reason which they bring to establish their Conclusion will be more than enough to do it: viz.
112. But how then do's the Cardinal excuse this from being Idolatry. He answers,
Secondly, That even those who deny this Supreme Divine Honour to Images, are yet guilty of Idolatry in what they allow to them.
113. The truth is, the case of these Men is, I think, rather more inexcusable than that of the other kind, because that (in S. Paul's words) Rom. 1. 32.
114. Now that this is indeed truly your Case appears, 1st, In that at the same time that you assert in express terms, that you do not worship Images, God forbid: That the Cross is upon NO ACCOUNT WHATSOEVER to be worshipp'd with Divine Worship; you nevertheless comply with those others before mention'd in all the most forbidden Instances of Divine Adoration. You incense them, you carry them solemnly in Processions, you consecrate them for this very end that they may be worshipped, you prostrate your selves before them in the Church of God, and in the time of Prayer, you desire several Graces to accrue to you by your serving of them, nay you address your very Prayers to them, which your own Aquinas makes use of to prove that a proper Divine Adoration is due to the Cross; for having laid down this Conclusion, that the Cross is to be adored Page 186 with the same Adoration that Christ himself is; He immediately subjoins,
115. And that which yet farther confirms me in this is, to consider what wretched Evasions you make use of to excuse your selves in these Particulars. Can any thing be more piti∣ful than the Expositions you have here offer'd, of your Conse∣crating of Crosses, of your Good-friday-Service, and of the Hymns of your Church, which I had alledged as Instances of that Wor∣ship you give to Images? Do not these plainly shew a desperate Cause: and that you are but too sensible that your old Practices are not to be reconciled with your new Pretences.
116. If while I am endeavouring to convince you of Idolatry, I do by the way discover your Insincerity, 'tis what I cannot help. But all the use I shall make at present of these Remarks shall be to observe, that even those among you who pretend the most to deny a Divine Worship to Images, yet must allow such Acts of it as these I have here recounted. Now that even this will involve you in this Guilt, is evident from the Scripture-Notion of Idolatry before establish'd. For I desire you to tell me, if you can, what did those Israelites do when they wor∣shipped the Golden Calf, that you do not at this day practise in the very same manner? Was it, 1. that they worshipped God by an Image? But if this be Idolatry, you cannot deny but that you do the very same. Or, was it, 2. that they did not re∣fer their Worship finally to God, but terminated their Adoration upon the very Image it self? Nay, but Aaron in express terms proclaim'd a Feast unto the Lord; and to whom can we suppose that they offer'd their Burnt-offerings and their Peace-offerings, but to the same LORD to whom the Feast it self was pro∣claim'd?
Page 187 117. To conclude; There is nothing in that whole History to make us doubt but that they design'd that Calf only as a Symbol of the God of Israel: And their Idolatry by Conse∣quence was no other than what the most moderate Men of your Church must confess themselves to be guilty of, viz.
118. It remains therefore upon the whole, that either you must shew us to be mistaken in our Notion of Idolatry; or you will never be able to acquit your selves of the Charge of it. And when you have done this, we shall then only tell you, that you commit a Sin in this Service, that you violate God's holy Law which forbids it; but for the denomination of it, we shall leave it to you, whose Sin it is, to give it what particular Name you your selves think fit.
Of RELIQUES.
119. IN the Point of Reliques you offer only two things in * answer to all that I had said upon that Subject, viz.
Reply] First,
120. Answ.] For answer to which Pretences, because I as little love to prolong Disputes at any time, as you do when you * have no more to say in order to the carrying of them on; I will lay aside words, and bring the Issue to the things themselves, Page 188 and shew how miserably you have prevaricated in this Point too, as wellas in the foregoing, by proving,
- I. That you do properly worship the Reliques of your Saints.
- II. That you do seek to them for Help and Assistance.
And when this is done, I shall not need say any thing to prove that you here also commit Idolatry; seeing you allow the Cases of Images and Reliques to be the same; and the Council of Trent makes this to be the very difference between * the Heathens and them, and that by which they hope to escape the Censure of Idolatry, viz.
I. That you do truly and properly worship the Reliques of your Saints.
121. This is a Point that in any other Age, or Country but ours, would have needed no Proof. And it is not the least Argu∣ment of an innovating Spirit in you, that no Words or Expressions are of any value with you, as often as you are minded to give us what you call the Churches Sense. Let your Writers use never so many Phrases to assure to us their Opinion that Re∣liques are to be worshipp'd, all this signifies nothing, they meant no more by it than an
122. Now that this was truly the Case, will appear,
First, From what I have before said, concerning the Holy CROSS; which is consider'd by you in a double Capacity, both as an Image and as a Relique; and is upon both accounts decla∣red to be worthy of the very SAME ADORATION that Christ himself is; And I hope that is a proper Worship in the strictest sense. For thus St. Thomas argues;
123. Now this is the more to be consider'd, in that here you cannot say, as you do in the Case of Images, that the Figure and the Proto-type are in a manner united together, and that therefore the Image in its representative Nature is in some sort very Christ: The reason of this Worship being only a former Relation to our Saviour; because (says Aquinas) it heretofore * touch'd his Sacred Members, or was sprinkled with his Blood. Upon which single account Cardinal Capisucchi doubts not to affirm, *
124. And what I have now said of the Cross, will in the next place no less hold for the Nails, Lance, and other In∣struments of his Passion. Upon which account, as we have * seen that you address to the Cross, so you also do to the Lance;
125. Thirdly, To another Instance of your giving religious Worship to Reliques; and that is your allow'd practice of swear∣ing by them. Now that to swear by another, is to give that thing by which you swear the VVorship due to God only; both the nature of an Oath, which implies a calling of God to witness, Page 191 and therebly acknowledges him to be the Inspector of the Heart, and the just Avenger of the falshood of it, and the Authority of Holy Scripture plainly declare;
126. Nor am I here concern'd in those Pretences that are sometimes brought to excuse this, viz. that you hereby intend no more than to swear by God, seeing it is plain that you do it at once both by God and Them. And again; That you do not believe that thereby any strength is added to the Oath which it would not otherwise have; for allowing this, yet still you do swear by them; and if there be neither any reason for it, nor benefit in it, you are never the less culpable, but the more inexcusably so upon this account. But indeed you do ex∣pect a benefit by this swearing; and suppose that the Saints do hereby become Sureties with God to you to see the Oath fulfill'd, and to punish the Perjury if it be not. And so you not only swear by the Reliques as well as by God, but ascribe all the rea∣son and design of an Oath to the Saints in common with God. I will illustrate this in one of your own Instances, which will clear this Matter to us. It happen'd that one of your Saintesses, S. Guria, was married to a Goth, a Souldier in the Roman Army, that was sent to deliver the City Edessa from the Hunns. The Siege being raised, and the Army recall'd, the Souldier requi∣red his Wife to go home with him. Her Mother could not bear this; but being forced to comply, she brings the Souldier and her Daughter to an Altar, under which were buried the Bodies of three Saints. And being there, she thus spake to him;
127. Fourthly, And to conclude this Point. I will to these add those Superstitions which are your common practice; and of which every one that has lived any time among you, must needs have been Eye-Witnesses. Such are your running to visit the Shrines of your Saints upon their Solemn Festivals; which with what devotion you do it, all Paris on the 3d of January every Year is sufficiently sensible. Your carrying them in Pro∣cession is indeed very remarkable; and of which I shall leave those who have ever known a dry time in the City I last men∣tion'd, to consider what they have then seen. But because I must not expect to be credited by some Men in any thing that can possibly be deny'd; I will leave these Matters of Fact to those who have been Spectators of them: and for the satisfa∣ction of those who have not, will give a short extract of the Page 193 form of Procession, with which you bring the Reliques of your Saints into a New Church.
128. First the Bishop with his Clergy leads the Procession to * the place where the RELIQUES were lodged the Night before; When they are come to it, they sing this Anthem, Move your selves, O ye Saints of God from your Mansions, and hasten to the place which is prepared for you. Then the Bishop uncovering his Head before the RELIQUES prays thus. Grant unto us, O Lord, we beseech thee, that we may worthily touch the Members of thy Saints that are more especially dedicated unto thee.
Then the Incense being prepared with the Cross, and lighted Candles leading the way, and follow'd by the Clergy, singing their Anthems, the Priests appointed take up the Carriage, and one going by them all the way incenses the Reliques. The Bishop and Clergy singing, among others, this Anthem, Rise up ye Saints of God from your Habitations; SANCTIFY the PLACES; BLESS the PEOPLE, and KEEP us sinful Men in PEACE.—Walk O ye Saints of God; Enter into the City of the Lord, for a Church is built unto you, where the People may adore the Majesty of God.
Being come to the Door of the Church, they make a stop whilst some other Ceremonies are performed. Then the Bishop crosses the Door with Holy Chrism, and bids it be Blessed, and Sanctified, and Consecrated, and Consign'd, and Commended, in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And so they carry in the Reliques, the Bishop and Clergy singing as before.
This is the Order of that Solemnity. What Name it de∣serves I shall leave it to others to say. But sure I am, that all this is somewhat more than such an Honour and Respect which you pretend is all that you give to them. Let us see,
IIdly, Whether you do not seek to these Sacred Monuments for Help and Assistance?
129. It is indeed a hard Case that we must be forced now to prove that which is a known practice of daily experience a∣mongst you. The Council of Trent it self confesses,
and then I am confident it will not be thought at all improbable, that it should encourage Men to recur to them for their help. But here you have a notable evasion.130. For what concerns the thing it self; Whether you do not seek to the Monuments of the Saints for the obtaining the Help of their Reliques; this is what will need no proof to those who are but never so little acquainted with your Su∣perstition: And have seen with what Zeal you touch your Beads and Psalters at the very Shrines in which they ae con∣tain'd, to sanctify them thereby. How upon all occasions they are brought forth by you: To cure your Sickness; to pre∣serve you from Tempests at Land, and in Storms at Sea; but especially to drive away Evil Spirits, for which they are the most beneficial. The Messieurs du Port Royal, have given us a * whole Volume of the Miracles wrought by the Holy Thorn. There you may see how Sister Margaret, one of the Nuns, being ill of the Palsy, was carried to ADORE the Holy Thorn. How another being sick, recurr'd to it for its help, and found it too; having no sooner ADORED the Holy Thorn, and kissed it, but she was well of her Infirmity. In∣finite Examples of the like kind might be produced, but I shall content my self to shew what Opinion you have of the Power of your Reliques, from the very Prayer that * you make at the blessing of those little Vessels in which they are put.
Page 196 Here I hope are benefits enough to invite a Man to seek to them, and if they can help in all these Cases, we need not doubt but they shall have Votaries enough to recur to them for it.
131. But that which is most admirable is, that in all these Cases, false Reliques are every jot as good as true ones; and which makes somewhat for the Opinion of Vasquez, that pro∣vided a Man do's but think 'tis the Relique of a Saint, he may securely worship it, tho it may be 'tis no such thing. We have before heard what mighty Cures were wrought at the Monu∣ment of the famous Bishop and Martyr VIARUM CURAN∣DARUM: And whether the Council of Trent prescribed it * or no, Ressendius assures us, all the Country round about did come to the Monument of this pretended Saint, for the ob∣taining Help and Assistance, and fancied at least that they found it too. Tho it afterwards appear'd that 'twas an old Heathen Inscription, and those words far enough from signifying either the Name of a Man, or the Character of a Bishop. Many have been the Cheats of the like kind, and which ought very much to lessen the Credit of those Miracles that you pretend are wrought in your Church: But I shall finish all with one so much the more to be considered, in that it was the happy occasion of undeceiving a very great Person, and disposed him to receive that Truth he afterwards embraced: And may it please God, that the recital I shall here make of it, may move those who are yet in Captivity to these Superstitions to deliver themselves from the like Impositions.
132. Prince Christopher, of the Family of the Dukes of Rad∣zecil, a Prince much addicted to the Superstitions of your Church, having been in great Piety at Rome to kiss his Holiness's * Feet; the Pope at his departure presented him with a Box of Reliques, which at his return soon became very famous in all that Country. Some Months had hardly pass'd when certain Monks came to him to acquaint him that there was a D. Man possess'd of the Devil, upon whom they had in vain try'd all their Conjurations, and therefore they humbly intreated his Highness that for his relief, he would be pleased to lend them his Reliques which he had brought from Rome. The Prince readily complied with their desires, and the Box was with great So∣lemnity carried to the Church, and being applied to the Body Page 197 of him that was possess'd, the Devil presently went out with the Grimaces and Gestures usual on such occasions. All the be∣holders cry'd out, A Miracle! and the Prince himself lifted up his Hands and Eyes to Heaven, and blessed God who had fa∣vour'd him with such a Holy and powerful Treasure.
It happen'd not long after that the Prince relating what he had seen, and magnifying very much the Virtue of his Reliques: One of his Gentlemen began to smile, and show by his Actions how little Credit he gave to it. At which the Prince being moved, his Servant (after many promises of Forgiveness) in∣genuously told him, that in their return from Rome he had unhappily lost the Box of Reliques, but for fear of being ex∣posed to his Anger, had caused another to be made as like as might be to the true one, which he had filled with all the little Bones, and other Trinkets that he could meet with, and that this was the Box that his Monks made him believe did work such Miracles.
The Prince the next Morning sent for the Fathers, and en∣quired of them if they knew of any Demoniaque that had need of his Reliques: They soon found one to act his part in this Farce; and the Prince caused him to be exorcised in his presence. But when all they could do would not prevail, the Devil kept his Possession, he commanded the Monks to with∣draw, and delivered over the Man to another kind of Exorcists, some Tartars that belonged to his Stable, to be well lash'd till he should confess the Cheat. The Demoniaque thought to have carried it off by horrible Gestures and Grimaces, but the Tar∣tars understood none of those Tricks, but by laying on their Blows in good earnest quickly moved the Devil, without the help of either Hard Names, Holy Water, or Reliques, to con∣fess the truth, and beg Pardon of the Prince.
As soon as Morning was come, the Prince sent again for the Monks (who suspected nothing of what had pass'd) and brings their Man before them, who threw himself at the Princes Feet, and confess'd that he was not possess'd with the Devil, nor ever had been in his Life. The Monks at first made light of it, and told the Prince it was an Artifice of the Devil who spoke through the Mouth of that Man. But the Prince calling for his Tartars to exorcise another Devil, the Father of LIES, out Page 198 of them too, they began presently to relent, and confess'd the Cheat, but told him they did it with a good Intention to stop the Course of Heresy in that Country.
Upon this he dismiss'd them, but from that time began se∣riously to apply himself to read the Holy Scriptures, telling them that he would no longer trust his Salvation to Men who defended their Religion by such pious Frauds, so they called them, but which were indeed Diabolical Inventions. And in a short time after, both himself and his whole House made open Pro∣fession of the Reformed Religion. Anno 1564.
And thus much be said in Answer to your IVth Article.
