suist confesseth*: "Fleshly pleasures, the more they are called into particular mention, the more they move the appetite." I do willingly conceal from chaste eyes and ears, what effects have followed this pretended act of devotion, in wanton and unstayed Confessors.

Impossible; for, Who can tell how oft he offendeth? He is poor in sin, that can count his stock: and he sins always, that so presumes upon his innocence, as to think he can number his sins; and, if he say of any sin, as Lot of Zoar, Is it not a little one? as if, therefore, it may safely escape the reckoning. It is a true word of Isaac the Syrian †, Qui delicta &c: "He, that thinks any of his offences small, even in so thinking falls into greater."

This doctrine and practice therefore, both as new and erroneous, full of usurpation, danger, impossibility, is justly rejected by us; and we, for so doing, unjustly ejected.

SECT. 4.

The Novelly of Absolution before Satisfaction.

LEST any thing in the Roman Church should retain the old form, how absurd is that Innovation, which they have made IN THE ORDER OF THEIR PENANCE AND ABSOLUTION!

The ancient course, as Cassander ‡ and Lindanus § truly witness, was, That absolution and reconciliation and right to the communion of the Church was not given by imposition of hands unto the Penitent, till he had given due satisfaction, by performing of such penal acts, as were enjoined by the discreet Penitentiary. "Yea, those works of penance," saith he , "when they were done out of faith, and a heart truly sorrowful, and by the motion of the Holy Spirit preventing the mind of man with the help of his divine grace, were thought not a little available to obtain remission of sin, and to pacify the displeasure of God for sin: not, that they could merit it, by any dignity of theirs; but, that thereby the mind of man is, in a sort, fitted to the receipt of God's grace. But now, immediately upon the Confession made, the hand is laid upon the Penitent, and he is received to his right of communion; and, after his absolution, certain works of piety are enjoined him, for the chastisement of the flesh, and expurgation of the remainders of sin." Thus Cassander.

In common apprehension, this new order can be no other than preposterous; and, as our learned Bishop of Carlisle ¶, like Easter before Lent. But, for this, ipsi viderint: it shall not trouble us, how they nurture their own child.

* Sayr. Summa Cas, Navar. tempt. Mundi, &c. nopf. I. iv.

Cass, ibid.

† Isaac. Syr. Presb. Antiochen. de ConCassand. Cons. Art, de Confess. § Lind. Pa¶ Resp. ad Fisherum.

CHAP. X.

ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS.

SECT. 1.

The Newness of the Invocation of Saints.

Of all those errors, which we reject in the Church of Rome, there is none, that can plead so much shew of antiquity, as this of INVOCATION OF SAINTS *.

Which yet, as it hath been practised and defended in the latter times, should in vain seek, either example or patronage amongst the Ancient. However there might be some grounds of this devotion secretly muttered, and at last expressed in panegyric forms; yet, until almost five hundred years after Christ, it was not, in any sort, admitted into the public service.

It will be easily granted †, that the Blessed Virgin is the prime of all Saints neither could it be other than injurious, that any other of that heavenly society should have the precedency of her.

Now the first, that brought her name into the public devotions of the Greek Church, is noted, by Nicephorus, to be Petrus Gnapheus, or Fullo, a Presbyter of Bithynia, afterwards the usurper of the See of Antioch; much about 470 years after Christ : who, though a branded heretic, found out four things, saith he, very useful and beneficial to the Catholic Church;" whereof the last was, Ut, in omni precatione, &c: "that, in every prayer, the Mother of God should be named, and her divine name called upon." The phrase is very remarkable, wherein this rising superstition is expressed.

And, as for the Latin Church, we hear no news of this Invocation in the public Litanies, till Gregory's time; about some 130 years after the former .

And, in the mean time, some Fathers speak of it fearfully and doubtfully. How could it be otherwise, when the common opinion of the Ancients, even below St, Austin's age, did put up all the souls of the faithful, except martyrs, in some blind receptacles, whether in the centre of the earth or elsewhere; where they might, in candidá expectare Diem Judicii, as Tertullian hath it four several times and Stapleton ¶ himself sticks not to name divers of them, thus foully mistaken.

*Spalat. de Rep. Eccl. I. vii. c. 12. sect. 16. + Rex Jacob. Præmonit. ad Principes, &c. $ Ecclesia Catholicae commodissima. Ibid. Test. ¶ Stap. I. de Author. Scr.

Niceph. 1. xv. c. 28.
Jos. Scalig. Notis in Nov,

Others of the Fathers have let fall speeches, directly bent against this Invocation: Non opus est patronis &c: "There is no need of any advocates to God;" saith St. Chrysostom *: and, most plainly, elsewhere †; Homines si quando &c: "If we have any suit to men," saith he, "we must fee the porters; and treat with jesters and parasites; and go, many times, a long way about. In God, there is no such matter: he is exorable, without any of our mediators without money, without cost, he grants our petitions: it is enough for thee to cry, with thy heart alone; to pour out thy tears; and presently thou hast won him to mercy."

Thus he.

And, those of the Ancients, that seem to speak for it, lay grounds, that overthrow it.

Howsoever it be, all holy antiquity would have both blushed and spit at those forms of invocation, which the late clients of Rome have broached to the world. If, perhaps, they spake to the Saints, tanquam deprecatores, vel potiùs comprecatores, as Spalatensis yields; moving them to be competitioners with us to the throne of grace, not properly, but improperly, as Altisiodore construes it § how would they have digested that blasphemous Psalter of our Lady, imputed to Bonaventure; and those styles of mere deification, which are given to her ; and the division of all offices of piety to mankind, betwixt the Mother and the Son? How had their ears glowed, to hear Christus oravit, Franciscus exoravit ; "Christ prayed, Francis prevailed!" How would they have brooked that, which Ludovicus Vives freely confesses ¶, Multi Christiani &c: "Many Christians worship divos divásque, the Saints of both sexes, no otherwise than God himself?" Or that, which Spalatensis professes to have observed **, that "the ignorant multitude are carried with more entire religious affection to the Blessed Virgin or some other Saint, than to Christ their Saviour?"

These foul superstitions are not more heinous, than new; and such, as wherein we have justly abhorred to take part with the practisers of them.

Chrysost. Homil. de Pœnitentiâ. Hom. 4. Which place the margin of the Latin Edition of Venice, set forth by the authority of the Inquisition, tells us (and we must believe it) makes nothing against Invocation of Saints.

+ Vide ibid.

Spalat. 1. vii. c. 12. sect. 26.

§ Gul. Altis. in 4. Sent. &c.

Dea, Primas Cæli, &c. præcipe Angelis ut nos custodiant. In Rosar. Canon. Reg. Anonym. Dividunt coram Patre inter se Mater et Filius pietatis officia, et condunt inter se reconciliationis nostræ inviolabile testamentum. Arnold. Carnot. de Laudibus 5 Virg.

¶ Lud. Vives in Aug. de Civit. Dei. I. viii. c. ult.

**Nam et plebem rudiorem religiosè, &c. Et magis plurimos internè religioso affectu erga Beatam. Virg. &c. quàm erga Christum. Spalat. de Rep. Ecc), 1. vii. c. 12. sect. 28.

SECT. 2.

Invocation of Saints, against Scripture.

As for the better side of this misopinion, even thus much colour of antiquity were cause enough to suspend our censures, according to that wise and moderate resolution of learned Zanchius*, were it not, that the Scriptures are so flatly opposite unto it, as that we may justly wonder at that wisdom, which hath provided antidotes for a disease, that, of many hundred years after, should have no being in the world,

The ground of this Invocation of Saints, is, their notice of our earthly condition and special devotions. And, behold, Thou prevailest ever against man, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honour, and he knows it not and they are brought low, and he perceiveth it not; saith Job; Job xiv. 20, 21. The dead know nothing at all, saith wise Solomon; Eccl. ix. 5. Also, their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished: neither have they any more a portion for ever, in any thing that is done under the sun; v. 6: no portion, in any thing; therefore, not in our miseries, not in our allocutions. If we have a portion in them, for their love and prayers in common for the Church ; they have no portion in our particularities, whether of want or complaint. Abraham, our father, is ignorant of us, saith Isaiah, and Israel acknowledges us not; Isa. lxiii, 16. Lo, the Father of the Faithful, above, knows not his own children, till they come into his bosom; and he, that gives them their names, is to them as strangers. Wherefore should good Josiah be gathered to his fathers, as Huldah tells him; but, that his eyes might not see all the evil, which should come upon Jerusalem ? 2 Kings xxii. 20.

We cannot have a better commenter, than St. Augustin. "If,” saith he †," the souls of the dead could be present at the affairs of the living, &c. surely my good mother would no night forsake me, whom, while she lived, she followed both by land and sea. Far be it from me, to think that a happier life hath made her cruel, &c. But, certainly, that, which the holy Psalmist tells us, is true, My father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord took me up. If, therefore, our parents have left us, how are they present, or do interest themselves in our cares or businesses? and, if our parents do not, who else among the dead know what we do, or what we suffer? Isaiah, the Prophet, saith, Thou art our father; for Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel knows us not: if so great Patriarchs were ignorant, what became of that people, which came from their loins; and which, upon their belief, was promised to de. scend from their stock? How shall the dead have ought to do,

*Ego certè ab Antiquitate non recedo, nisi coactus, Zanc. in Coloss. Aug. de Curâ pro Mort. Gerend. c. 13.

either in the knowledge or aid of the affairs or actions of their dearest survivors? How do we say, that God provides mercifully for them, who die before the evils come; if, even after their death, they are sensible of the calamities of human life, &c.? How is it, then, that God promised to good King Josiah for a great blessing, that he should die beforehand, that he might not see the evils which he threatened to that place and people?" Thus that divine Father.

With whom agrees St. Jerome: Nec, enim, possumus &c : "Neither can we," saith he *, "when this life shall once be dissolved, either enjoy our own labours, or know what shall be done in the world afterwards."

But, could the Saints of heaven know our actions; yet our hearts they cannot. This is the peculiar skill of their Maker: Thou art the searcher of the hearts and reins, O righteous God: God only knows abscondita animi, the hidden secrets of the soul +. Now, the heart is the seat of our prayers: the lips do but vent them to the ears of men: Moses said nothing, when God said, Let me alone, Moses. O, therefore, thou that hearest the prayers, to thee shall all flesh come. Solomon's argument is irrefragable: Hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling-place; and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest: for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men; 1 Kings viii. 39. He only should be implored, that can hear: he only can hear the prayer, that knows the heart.

Yet, could they know our secretest desires, it is an honour, that God challengeth as proper to himself, to be invoked in our prayers : Call upon me in the day of thy trouble; and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me; Ps. 1. 15. There is one God, and one Mediator betwixt God and man, the man Jesus Christ; 1 Tim. ii. 5: one, and no more; not only of redemption, but of intercession also for, through him, only, we have access by one Spirit unto the Father; Eph. ii. 18: and he hath invited us to himself, Come to me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.

SECT. 3.

Invocation of Saints, against Reason.

How absurd, therefore, is it, in Reason, when the King of Heaven calls us to him, to run with our petitions to the guard or pages of the court! Had we to do with a finite prince, whose ears must be his best informers, or whose will to help us were justly questiona. ble, we might have reason to present our suits by second hands; but, since it is an Omnipresent and Omniscious God with whom

Hier. in Eccles, iii, ad fin.

† Ps. vii. 9. xliv. 21. cxxxix. 1. &c. Prov, xv. 11. xvii. 3. xxiv. 12. Jer. xi. 20. xvii. 10. xx. 12.