SECTION VIII. BUT this mischief is gone further yet: for, as Cajetan affirms, "Prayers ought to be well done; 'saltem non malè,'' at least not ill."" But, besides that what we have now remarked is so 'not well,' that it is very ill; that which follows, is directly bad, and most intolerable. For the church of Rome, in her public and allowed offices, prays to dead men and women, who are, or whom they suppose to be, beatified; and these they invocate as preservers, helpers, guardians, deliverers in their necessity; and they expressly call them " their refuge, their guard and defence, their life and health :" which is so formidable a devotion, that we, for them, and for ourselves too, if we should imitate them, are to dread the words of Scripture," Cursed is the man that trusteth in man." We are commanded to "call upon God in the time of trouble;" and it is promised, "that he will deliver us, and we shall glorify him." We find no such command to call upon saints; neither do we know who are saints, excepting a very few; and in what present state they are, we cannot know, nor how our prayers can come to their knowledge; and yet if we did know all this, it cannot be endured at all, that Christians, who are commanded to call upon God, and upon none else, and to make all our prayers through Jesus Christ,' and never so much as warranted to make our prayers through saints departed,' should yet choose saints for their particular patrons, or at all rely upon them, and make prayers to them in such forms of words, which are only fit to be spoken to God; prayers which have no testimony, command, or promise, in the Word of God, and, therefore, which cannot be made in faith or prudent hope. Neither will it be enough to say, that they only desire the saints to pray for them; for though that be of itself a matter indifferent, if we were sure they do hear us when we pray, and that we should not, by that means, secretly destroy our confidence in God, or lessen the honour of Christ, our Advocate; of which because we cannot be sure, but much rather a Summa Cajetan. v. Oratio. b Jerem. xvii. 5. Psal. cxv. 9. and xlvi. 3. and exviii. 8. and 1. 15. Heb. iv. 16. Matt. xi. 28. John, vi. 37. the contrary, it is not a matter indifferent: yet besides this, in the public offices of the church of Rome, there are prayers to saints made with confidence in them, with derogation to God's glory and prerogative, with diminution to the honour of Christ, with words in sound, and, in all appearance, the same with the highest that are usually expressed in our prayers to God, and his Christ: and this is it we insist upon, and reprove, as being a direct destruction of our sole confidence in God, and too near to blasphemy, to be endured in the devotions of Christians. We make our words good by these allegations: 1. We shall not need here to describe, out of their didactical writings, what kind of prayers, and what causes of confidence, they teach towards the blessed Virgin Mary and all saints only we shall recite a few words of Antoninus, their great divine, and archbishop of Florence: "It is necessary that they, to whom she converts her eyes, being an advocate for them, shall be justified and saved." And whereas it may be objected out of John, that the apostle says, "If any sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:" he answers, "That Christ is not our Advocate alone, but a Judge: and since the just is scarce secure, how shall a sinner go to him, as to an Advocate? Therefore God hath provided us of an advocatess, who is gentle and sweet, in whom nothing that is sharp, is to be found." And to those words of St. Paul," Come boldly to the throne of Grace :" he says,-" That Mary is the throne of Christ, in whom he rested; to her, therefore, let us come with boldness, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in time of need;" and adds, that "Mary is called full of grace,' because she is the means and cause of grace, by transfusing grace to mankind;" and many other such dangerous propositions of which who please to be further satisfied, if he can endure the horror of reading blasphemous sayings, he may find too great abundance in the Mariale' of Bernardine, which is confirmed by public authority,-Jacobus Perez de Valentiaf, and in Ferdinand Quirinus de Salazar, who affirms, "That the Virgin Mary, by offering up Christ to e Sum. part. 4. tit. 15. d 1 Jo. c. ii, 1, 2. e Bernardin. de Bastis, de Concept. Mariæ. 1 part. serm. 1. part. 2. f In Cantic. Mar. Magnificat. 8 Comment. in Proverb. viii. 18. God the Father, was worthy to have, after a certain manner, that the whole salvation and redemption of mankind should be ascribed to her; and that this was common to Christ and the blessed Virgin his mother, that she did offer and give the price of our redemption, truly and properly; and that she is deservedly called the redeemer, the repairer, the mediator, the author, and cause of our salvation." Many more horrid blasphemies are in his notes upon that chapter; and in his Defence of the Immaculate Conception, published with the privilege of Philip III. of Spain, and by the authority of his order. But we insist not upon their doctrines delivered by their great writers, though every wise man knows that the doctrines of their church are delivered in large and indefinite terms, and descend not to minute senses, but are left to be explicated by their writers, and are so practised and understood by the people; and, at the worst, the former doctrinę of probability will make it safe enough: but we shall produce the public practice of their church. And first, it cannot be supposed, that they intend nothing but to desire their prayers; for they rely also on their merits, and hope to get their desires, and to prevail by them also: for so it is affirmed by the Roman catechism, made by the decree of the council of Trent, and published by the pope's command: "The saints are, therefore, to be invocated, because they continually make prayers for the health of mankind, and God gives us many benefits by their merit and favour and it is lawful to have recourse to the favour or grace of the saints, and to use their help; for they undertake the patronage of us." And the council of Trent does not only say it is good to fly "to their prayers, but to their aid and to their help;" and that is indeed the principal and the very meaning of the other. We pray that the saints should intercede for us, " id est, ut merita eorum nobis suffragentur;" "that is, that their merits should help us," said the master of the sentences. "Atque id confirmat ecclesiæ praxis," to use their own so frequent expression in many cases. Continet hoc templum sanctorum corpora pura, A quibus auxilium suppleri, poscere cura. This distich is in the church of St. Laurence, in Rome h.Tit. de Sanctis. VOL. X. i Sess. 9. "This church contains the pure bodies of saints, from whom take care to require that help be supplied to you." But the practice of the church tells their secret meaning best. For besides what the common people are taught to do, as to pray to St. Gall for the health and fecundity of their geese, to St. Wendeline for their sheep, to St. Anthony for their hogs, to St. Pelagius for their oxen; and that several trades have their peculiar saints; and the physicians are patronized by Cosmas and Damian; the painters, by St. Luke; the potters, by Goarus; the huntsmen, by Eustachius; the harlots (for that also is a trade at Rome) by St. Afra and St. Mary Magdalene: they do also rely upon peculiar saints for the cure of several diseases; St. Sebastian and St. Roch have a special privilege to cure the plague; St. Petronilla the fever; St. John and St. Bennet, the abbot, to cure all poison; St. Apollonia the toothache; St. Otilia sore eyes; St. Apollinaris the French pox (for it seems he hath lately got that employment, since the discovery of the West Indies); St. Vincentius hath a special faculty in restoring stolen goods, and St. Liberius (if he please) does infallibly cure the stone, and St. Felicitas (if she be heartily called upon) will give the teeming mother a fine boy. It were strange if nothing but intercession by these saints were intended, that they cannot as well pray for other things as these; or that they have no commission to ask of these any thing else, or not so confidently; and that, if they do ask, that St. Otilia shall not as much prevail to help a fever as a cataract; or that if St. Sebastian be called upon to pray for the help of a poor female sinner, who by sad diseases pays the price of her lust, he must go to St. Apollinaris in behalf of his client. But if any of the Roman doctors say, That they are not tied to defend the superstitions of the vulgar, or the abused:'-They say true, they are not indeed, but rather to reprove them, as we do, and to declare against them; and the council of Trent very goodly forbids all superstitions in this article, but yet tells us not what are superstitions, and what not; and still the world goes on in the practice of the same intolerable follies, and every nation hath a particular guardian saint, and every city, every family, and almost every house, and every devouter person almost chooses his own patron saint, whose altars they more devoutly fre quent, whose image they more religiously worship, to whose relics they more readily go in pilgrimage, to whose honour they say more 'Pater nosters,' whose festival they more solemnly observe; spoiling their prayers by their confidences in unknown persons, living in an unknown condition, and diminishing that affiance in God and our Lord Jesus Christ, by importune and frequent addresses to them that cannot help. k But that these are not the faults of their people only, running wilfully into such follies, but the practice of their church, and warranted and taught by their guides, appears by the public prayers themselves; such as these, "O generous Mary, beauteous above all, obtain pardon for us, apply grace unto us, prepare glory for us. Hail, thou rose, thou Virgin Mary, &c. Grant to us to use true wisdom, and with the elect to enjoy grace, that we may with melody praise thee; and do thou drive our sins away: O Virgin Mary, give us joys." These, and divers others like these, are in the anthem of our lady. In the rosary of our lady this hymn is to be said; Reparatrix et Salvatrix desperantis animæ, ...... Corde prudens, ore studens veritatem dicere, Malum nolens, Deum volens pio semper opere. That is, "Thou Repairer and Saviour of the despairing soul, the dew-giver and bestower of spiritual grace; heal my wounds, and give to the mind that prays to thee, the gifts of grace, that I may be chaste, modest, wise in heart, true in my sayings, hating evil, loving God in holy works :" and much more to the same purpose. There also the blessed Virgin Mary, after many glorious appellatives, is prayed to in these words, "Join me to Christ, govern me always, enlighten my heart, defend me always from the snare of the enemy, deliver us from all evil, and from the pains of hell." *Ex cursu horarum beatæ Mariæ. |