XXII. difference between praying to God to favour us on ART. their account, and praying immediately to them to hear us. The praying to them imports either their being every where, or their knowing all things; and as it is a blafphemous piece of idolatry to afcribe that to them without a divine communication; fo it is a great prefumption in any man to fancy that they may be prayed to, and to build fo many parts of worthip upon it, barely upon fome probabilities and inferences, without an exprefs revelation about it. For the faints may be perfectly happy in the enjoyment of God without feeing all things in him; nor have we any reafon to carry that farther than the Scripture has done. But as the invocating of martyrs grew from a calling to them at their memories, to a general calling to them in all places; fo from the invocating martyrs, they went on to pray to other faints; yet that was at firft ventured on doubtfully, and only in funeral orations; where an addrefs to the dead perfon to pray for thofe that were then honouring his memory, might, perhaps, come in as a figure of pompous eloquence; in which Nazianzen, one of the firft that ufes it, did often give himself a very great compafs; yet he and others foften fuch figures with this, If there is any fenfe or knowledge of what we do below. From prayers to God to receive the interceffions of martyrs and faints, it came in later ages to be ufual to have Litanies to them, and to pray immediately to them; but at first this was only a defire to them to pray for those who did thus invocate them, Ora pro nobis. But fo impoffible is it to reftrain fuperftition when it has once got head, and has prevailed, that in conclufion all things that were afked either of God or Chrift, came to be asked from the faints in the fame humility both of gefture and expreffion; in which if there was any difference made, it feemed to be rather on the fide of the bleffed Virgin and the faints, as appears by the ten Ave's for one Pater, and that humble proftration in which all fall down every day to worship her: the prayer ufed conftantly to her, Maria, Mater gratia, Mater mifericordia, tu nos ab hofte protege, et bora mortis fufcipe, is an immediate acknowledgment of her as the giver of thefe things; fuch are, Solve vincla reis, profer lumen cacis; with many others of that nature. The collection of these fwells to a huge bulk, Jure Matris impera Redemptori, is an allowed addrefs to her; not to mention an infinity of moft fcandalous ones, that are not only tolerated, but encouraged in that Church. Altars are confecrated to her honour, and to the honour of other faints; XXII. ART. faints; but which is more, the facrifice of the mafs is offered up to her honour, and to the honour of the faints: and in the form of abfolution, the pardon of fins, the increase of grace, and eternal life, are prayed for to the penitent by the virtue of the paffion of Chrift, and the merits of the bleffed Virgin, and of all the faints. The pardon of fins and eternal life are alfo prayed for from angels, Angelorum concio facra, arch-angelorum turma inclyta, noftra di luant jam peccata, præflando fupernam cœli gloriam. Many ftrains of this kind are to be found in the hymns and other public offices of that Church: and though in the late corrections of their offices, fome of the more fcandalous are left out, yet thofe here cited, with a great many more to the fame purpose, are ftill preserved. And the Council of Trent did plainly intend to connive at all these things, for they did not reftrain the invocation of faints, only to be an addrefs to them to pray for us, which is the common difguife with which they ftudy to cover this matter: but by the decree of the Council, the flying to their help and affiftance, as well as to their interceffion, is encouraged: which fhews that the Council would not limit this part of their devotion to a bare Ora pro nobis; that might have feemed flat and low, and fo it might have difcouraged it; therefore they made ufe of words that will go as far as fuperftition can carry them. So that if the invocating them, if the making vows to them, the dedicating themfelves to them; if the flying to them in all diftreffes, in the fame acts, and in the fame words that the Scriptures teach us to fly to God with; and if all the ftudied honours of proceflions, and other pompous rites towards their images, that are invented to do them honour; if, I fay, all this does amount to idolatry, then we are fure they are Rom. i. 25. guilty of it; fince they honour the creature not only befides, but (in the full extent of that phrase) more than the Cre alor. And now let us fee what is the foundation of all these devotions, against which we bring arguments, that, to fpeak modeftly of them, are certainly fuch that there fhould be matters of great weight in the other scale to balance them. Nothing is pretended from Scripture, nor from any thing that is genuine, for above three hundred and fifty years after Chrift. In a word, the practice of the Church, fince the end of the fourth century, and the authority of tradition, of Popes and Councils, must bear this burthen. Thefe are confequences that do not much affect us; for though we pay great refpect to many great men that flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries, yet XXII. yet we cannot compare that age with the three that went ART. before it. Thofe great men give us a fad account of the corruptions of that time, not only among the Laity, but the Clergy; and their being fo flexible in matters of faith, as they appeared to be in the whole courfe of the Arian controverly, gives us very juft reafon to fufpect the practices of that age, in which the protection and encouragements that the Church received from the firft Chriftian Emperors, were not improved to the best advantage. The jufteft abatement that we can offer for this corruption, which is too manifest to be either denied or justified, is this, they were then engaged with the Heathens, and were much fet on bringing them over to the Chriftian religion. In order to that it was very natural for them to think of all methods poffible to accommodate Christianity to their tafte. It was, perhaps, obferved how far the Apoftles complied with the Jews, that they might gain them. St. Paul had faid, that to the Jews be became a 1 Cor. ix. Jer; and to them that were without Law, that is, the Gen- 20, 21, 22. tiles, as one without Law; that by all means he might gain fome. They might think that if the Jews, who had abufed the light of a revealed religion, who had rejected and crucified the Meffias, and perfecuted his followers, and had in all respects corrupted both their doctrine and their morals, were waited on and complied with, in the obfervance of that very Law which was abrogated by the death of Chrift, but was ftill infifted on by them as of perpetual obligation; and yet that after the Apoftles had made a folemn decifion in the matter, they continued to conform themselves to that Law; all this might be applied with fome advantages to this matter. The Gentiles had nothing but the light of nature to govern them; they might feem willing to become Chriftians, but they ftill despised the nakedness and fimplicity of that religion. And it is reasonable enough to think that the Emperors and other great men might in a political view, confidering the vaft ftrength of beatbenifm, prefs the Bifhops of those times to ufe all imaginable ways to adorn Christianity with fuch an exterior form of worship, as might be most acceptable to them, and might moft probably bring them over to it. The Chriftians had long felt the weight of perfecution from them, and were, no doubt, much frightened with the danger of a relapfe in Julian's time. It is natural to all men to defire to be fafe, and to weaken the numbers of their implacable enemies. In that ftate of things we do plainly fee they began to comply in leffer matters: for whereas in the first ages the Chriftians were often re proached Epiph. ART. proached with this, that they had no temples, altars, faXXII. crifices, nor priests, they changed their dialect in all thofe points; fo we have reafon to believe that this was carried further. The vulgar are more eafily wrought upon in greater points of fpeculation, than in fome fmall ritual matters; because they do not underftand the one, and fo are not much concerned about it: but the other is more fenfible, and lies within their compafs. We find fome in Palestine kept images in their houses, as Eufebius tells us; others began in Spain to light candles by day-light, and to paint the walls of their churches: and though thefe things were condemned by the Council of Elliberis ; yet we fee by what St. Jerome has cited out of Vigilantius, that the spirit of fuperftition did work ftrongly among them : : we hear of none that writ against thofe abuses befides Vigilantius; yet Jerome tells us, that many Bishops were of the fame mind with him, with whom he is fo angry as to doubt, whether they deferved to be called Bithops. Moft of these abufes had alfo fpecious beginnings, and went on infenfibly: where they made greater fteps, we find an oppofition to them. Epiphanius is very Hæref. 79. fevere upon the Collyridians, for their worshipping the bleffed Virgin. And though they did it by offering up a cake to her, yet if any will read all that he fays againft that fuperftition, they will clearly fee, that no prayers were then offered up to her by the orthodox; and that he rejects the thought of it with indignation. But the respect paid the martyrs, and the opinion that they were ftill hovering about their tombs, might make the calling to them for their prayers, feem to be like one man's defiring the prayers of other good men; and when a thing of this kind is once begun, it naturally goes on. Of all this we fee a particular account in a difcourfe writ on purpose on this argument, of curing the affections and inclinations Theod. de of the Greeks, by Theodoret, who may be juftly reckoned among the greateft men of antiquity, and in it he infifts upon this particular of propofing to them the faints and martyrs, inftead of their Gods. And there is no doubt to be made, but that they found the effects of this compliance; many Heathens were every day coming over to the Chriftian religion. And it might then perhaps be intended to lay thofe afide, when the Heathens were once brought over. cur. Gr. affect. 1. 8. de Martyr. To all which this must be added, that the good men of that time had not the fpirit of prophecy, and could not foresee what progress this might make, and to what an excefs it might grow; they had nothing of that kind in their view: fo that between charity and policy, between ART. a defire to bring over multitudes to their faith, and an XXII. inclination to fecure themfelves, it is not at all to be wondered at, by any who confiders all the circumftances of those ages, that thefe corruptions should have got into the Church, and much lefs, having once got in, they fhould have gone on so fast, and be carried fo far. Thus I have offered all the confiderations that arife from the state of things at that time, to fhew how far we do ftill preferve the refpect due to the fathers of those ages, even when we confefs that they were men, and that fomething of human nature appeared in this piece of their conduct. This can be made no argument for later ages, who having no Heathens among them, are under no temptations to comply with any of the parts of heathenifm, to gain them. And now that the abuse of these matters is become fo fcandalous, and has fpread itself fo far, how much foever we may excufe thofe ages, in which we difcern the first beginnings, and as it were the fmall heads of that which has fince overflowed Chriftendom; yet we can by no means bear even with thofe beginnings, which have had fuch difmal effects; and therefore we have reduced the worship of God to the fimplicity of the Scripture times, and of the firft three centuries: and for the fourth, we reverence it fo much on other accounts, that for the fake of these we are unwilling to reflect too much on this. Another confideration urged for the Invocation of Saints is, that they feeing God, we have reafon to believe that they fee in him, if not all things, yet at leaft all the concerns of the Church, of which they are ftill parts; and they being in a moft perfect ftate of charity, they must certainly love the fouls of their brethren here below: fo that if faints on earth, whofe charity is not yet perfect, do pray for one another here on earth, they in that state of perfection do certainly pray moft fervently for them. And as we here on earth do defire the prayers of others, it may be as reasonable and much more useful to have recourfe to their prayers, who are both in a higher state of favour with God, and have a more exalted charity: by which their interceffions will be both more earnest, and more prevalent. They think alfo that this honour paid the faints, is an honour done to God, who is glorified in them and fince he is the acknowledged fountain of all, they think that all the worfhip offered to them ends and terminates in God. They think, as princes are come at by the means of those that are in favour with them; fo |