T. p. 416

P. 16.

P. 27.

P. 17.

P. 27,

6. 13.

P. 142.

pre

rightly told there, that their Prayers, in irritum abeunt nifi ex intimis vifceribus prodeunt, ane in vain, unless they proceed from the very bottom of their Souls; and that without this inward Affection, their Beads are but as fo many Worm-eaten or empty Nuts, which though they make a ratling noife have really neither Kernel nor Moisture in them; and though it is there boaftingly pretended that the veriest Ideot may be easily cured of his wandering thoughts, and brought to understand them and attend them, yet for my part I fear, (let them fay what they please, and do what they can as to this Point,) that not only the Ideots, but even the greatest part of all the reft of their Beads-men, will herein be found amongft, parum pias mentes, the careless Votaries there complain'd of. The Rofary of the Virgin Mary alone hath Prayers many to her, which if they were directed to God Almighty himself (to whom alone all the things there requefted do peculiarly belong) they would well become the most pious and devoutest Christian alive. I am lure that Christ taught us and commanded us, to pray to the Father, to deliver us from all evil, both Ghoftly and Bodily, both of Sin and of Punishment; from A Lap. in Mat. Temptation, from the Devil, (as the Papifts themselves interpret it) nihil remanet quod ultrà adhuc debeat poftulari, there is nothing more remains for which we ought to pray; Then, to pray for any thing more, either to the Virgin Mary, or to any other Creature whatsoever, I have no warrant; and therefore in doing fa I rob him of his Hanour who is a Jealous Gad. I fhall fay nothing of that Monftrous piece of Iniquity, the Mary Pfalter; he that defires to see more of fuch extravagant Addresses to her, may find enough careExam. cone fully and faithfully fet down by the Learned Chemnicius; where he will alfò Trid. part 3. find altogether as enormous Prayers to particular Saints. Take this one at p. 134. c. fent, to St. Catharine, instead of all the reft. Hail O worthy Virgin of Ġad, confign me to Christ by thy Prayer; hear thou my Prayers, grant thou, voT. p. 417. ta, my defires or wishes; give me a contrite Heart and fix it in Goodness, govern all my Senfes, my Seeing, Hearing, Tafting, Smelling, Touching; that in all things, thee ruling me, I may live to God with a pure Mind; O Bleffed Catharine fafely lead me from the fink of Babylon, and appeafe my maker; be thou my Comfortrefs, be thou my Solicitrefs, folicite Chrift for me; fave me from the form of Death; make me overcome the World; let me not be plunged in the deep; fuffer me not to be Shipwrackt in this Sea of Sins: vifit me who am Infirm, confirm me in that which is good; O valliant Champion of God be prefent with me in the hour of Death; when I lie down cherish me, lift me up, and free me from cruel Death, that I may rife a new Man, a Citizen of Heaven; let not a two-fold Death annoy me; may Jefus Chrift perform this, being entreated by thy Prayer; may the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, do the fame, who Live and Reign, Amen. It must be a moft extravagant conceit in any one to think, that thefe Petitions are not made plainly or purely to her, but are faid only as directions to her for what the fhould pray for them to Chrift. If the Votaries believe that the is fo Omniprefent and Omnifcient as to hear them and know their wants, it must be the highest Infolence in them to offer thus to teach her what she should fay for them; and this Prayer is ftill primarily and directly made to her. St. Catharine of Sienna died at three and thirty years of Age anno 1380. and about eighty years after was Canonized by P. Pius the fecond. 1 fuppofe none before that time were Authorized to make any fuch Addreffes to her, nor was the thought qualified for receiving them; I protest I never well confider'd till now the wonderfull Power of the Pope; he made her a regular Saint, I wonder what he could have done more to have made her a perfect Goddess; for fhe is now plainly declared by him, to be an All-prefent, an All-knowing and an Almighty Being; the is every where, knows every one, and can help every one in all conditions. To burn Incense, and light up Candles, and make Presents, (before her Image, or Picture, or Altar,) for benefits received or expected, may be flubber'd over with that

deceitfull

Fig. 32.

Tristan. T. 1.

P. 102.

deceitfull Popish Varnish, of being by fome counted only very high civil re- T. p. 417. Spects; but to add at the fame time fuch Prayers as these to her, or to any other Saint, I cannot fee how it can any ways be diftinguished from the Idolatry of the Antient Heathens, who paid the very fame Religious Worship, Dæmonibus & Divis, to their reputed Gods or dead Hero's. I have the Life and Miracles of St. Catharine now by me, where I confefs amongst the rest are Edit. Antwerp. two very wonderfull things recorded; one that he prayed to Chrift (her re- Quart. 1603. puted Spouse) a great while that he would give her a new and clean Heart; and fo he did, for we are told that he appear'd and actually open'd her very Fig. XVI. Breaft, and took out her old Material Heart, and put in another entire new one in its place; and the fear where the Incifion was made (through which all this was bodily and really done,) remain'd in her Breaft to her dying day. The other is the infallible Teftimony of Thom Penna, the Pope's Prothonotar, and of a good Widow at Sienna, who both faw Her afcending in a Choir of Angels to Heaven, at the very hour of her Death. I remember I Plutar. Romul. have read fome fuch things of Romulus and Arifteus and Cleomedes and Nume-P. 35. C. rius Atticus of old; and there is this grave remark made upon it, aʊv@va τὴν θειότητα τῆς ἀρετῆς, as it is a wicked and difingenuous thing to difown the Divinity of Virtue, fo it is meer Folly or Stupidity, to mix Earth with Heaven. Truly they who can believe but only thefe two Stories of St. Catharine, can by no means blame the good Pope for making her fomething far above the common nature of a Woman. Had this famous Saint been Canonized before the fecond Council of Nice, her Miracles would undoubtedly have been very highly esteem'd and vouched for as good Evidence to justify their Iconomania, their mad zeal for the Adoration of Images, as any other Legend there; I must call it Iconomania, perfect Madness for Image Worship. I cannot excuse the Cruelty of the Emperors who were against it, especially of Ca- Theophan. in pronymus (yet I fufpect the Sincerity of the Writers which we have of thofe jus vita. 359. matters, they being all, or most of them, either Monkish Clerks, or bigotted Courtiers,) but any one that shall unbyasedly read, and candidly judge of what past on both fides by their own Books, must say that the Fathers in that Council were far more Spiritually outragious in Anathematizing, and without Mercy damning all the contrary party, and calling them all along, Jews, Saracens, T. p. 418. Heathens, Samaritans, and what not. One thing (to fhew the temper of Lab.cone. T. 7. those inspired Fathers) I cannot omit; it was allow'd as good Catholick Do. P. 347. C. &c. trine, that a Man may better go to all the Baudy-houfes in the City, then Ibid. p. 252. F. refufe to Worship the Image of Chrift and the Virgin Mary. Nay, there 382. B.949.C. was a poor ftupid Monk, who had Sworn to the Devil to keep a Secret, but he brake his Oath. This wretch was indeed rightly blamed for his rafh Oath, but it past (with Tarafius Patriarch of Conftantinople; Prefident of the Ibid. p. 253. B Council, and with the most reverend Proxy of the other three Patriarchs, C. D. E. and all the Synod, nemine contra dicente,) without any contradiction, quod expedit magis pejurare quam omnino fervare Jusjurandum in diftructionem venerabilium Imaginum, that it was much better, or more expedient, quarra eguño, for one that hath fworn to be perjur'd, then strictly to keep his Oath to the Destruction of venerable Images.

&c.

Let any judicious Man caft his Eyes upon only the Hymns appointed to be fung or faid upon all the Festivals of the Virgin, the Apoftles, and all the Saints throughout the year, and he will find far higher matters pray'd for, from them there, then only, ora pro nobis, that they should pray for us. But if thus to pray to them, be fuch a grofs Indignity and Affront (to fay no worse) put upon, dwτnga lawr, the only giver of every good and perfect gift, who hath Hef. Theeg. vi commanded us to call upon him in the day of trouble, and upon him only; 46. who is the only Potentate, Almighty, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, pf. 50. 15. whom no Man hath feen nor can fee; and will admit of no fenfible Image Mat. 4. 10. to reprefent him, and deprave our Thoughts who is a fealous God; who Deut. 4. 12: knows our wants and can hear all our Petitions, and is able to fulfill all 24.

Ddd 2

Jam. 1. 17.

iTim. 6. 15,16.

our Joh. 5.14, 15.

Pf. 62. 11, 12.
Dan. 9. 9.

C.

Offic. Mar. p.

269.

T. p. 418. our defires; I fay, if fuch Prayers as thefe to the Saints, are fuch ProphanaPf. 20. p. to- tions, and plain Robbings of the high and mighty one of his Honour, ( who 1.57 15. inhabiteth Eternity yet dwells with every contrite and humble Spirit) if they fo manifeftly invade his Property, to whom alone belongeth Power and Mercy, as due to him only; how can the Iconoclaters juftify their praying to a Cross or Crucifix, or their asking or expecting any thing from it, (that is Bell. de Imag. a meer Image and a fenfelefs Creature) according to this caution of the Sy1. 2. c.26.332-od? In the Hymn to it we have this Salutation and Petition, O Crux, ave Exaltation cru- fpes Unica, hoc paffionis tempore Pijs adauge Gratiam, reifque dele crimina; cis. Sept. 14. Hail, O Cross, thou only Hope in this time of Trouble, increase in the pious Grace, and blot out the Sins in the guilty. I know the common trifling anfwer is this, that this is only a Figurative expreffion, by the Cross is meant only Chrift Crucified upon it; But the two Stanzas immediately going before, plainly fhew that the words are directed to the very Crofs it felf, the Graceful and fhining Tree adorn'd with the purple of a King, being (or was) chofen by its worthy flock to touch fuch holy Members; Being bleed, on whofe Arms or Branches bang'd the price of the Age, or of the World, was made the balance (or was made the blessed balance) of a Body; and hath born, or taken away, the Spoil of Hell. This, if I understand any thing, must be faid of the very material Cross it felf in contradiftinction to the Body which it did hear. Then immediately follows, Hail, O Cross, which furely must ftill fignify the very fame thing. And in the Stanza immediately following, te, fons falutis Trinitas, thee O Trinity, fountain of Salvation, there cannot be any the leaft fhadow of a Figure, but it must be taken literally De Imag. ). 2.and in its proper fenfe. But Bellarmine is not fatisfied with a Metonimy, (the C. 24. p. 331. common pretended Figure of the School-men in this place; but hath devised another of his own, and calls it, a Profopopoeia, or a feigning a fenfelefs thing to understand, and fo Speaking to it; as in that of Mofes, give ear O Heavens and I will speak, and hear O Earth the Words of my Mouth. That is no more then, let Heaven and Earth be witnesses to what I shall Gen. 31. 52. Say; as a heap of Stones and a Pillar were witnesses or Monuments of the League between Laban and Jacob. I will add another or two, Praife the Lord, O Sun and Moon, Stars, Deeps, Fire, Hail, Snow, Vapours, and the rest of God's Creatures; that is, manifeft and fo declare the Praife and Power of the Lord to rational Man that he may Praise him, for he Commanded and they were made; this is a figurative fpeech indeed, but it would be quite another thing even Madnefs or right down Idolatry to fay, O Sun and Moon fmite me not by Day or Night; Ŏ ye Stars fight for me against mine Enemies; O ye Deeps fwallow me not up; O Fire finge not fo much as the hair of my Head or in the least change my Coat; O Vapours fill not my Head with dew; O Hail and Snow hang not my Locks with the Drops of the Night. In thefe expreffions the Power and Glory of the great Creator alone, are changed and afcribed to the corruptible and fenfelefs Creature. So David like a divine Poet indeed faid to his Inftruments, awake O Pfaltery and Harp; Pf. 31. 23, 24. but he would not dare to fay to them preferve me, give me good Courage and ftrengthen my Heart; or cover my Head in the Day of Battle.

C.

Deut. 32. 1.

T. p. 419.

PL. 148.

verf. 5.

Pf. 121. 6.

Judg. 5. 20.

Pf. 69. 15.
Dan. 3. 27.

Cant. 5. 2.

Rom. 1.

Pf. 57. 8.

Pf. 140. 7.

3. 9. 25. 4.

Thus much for the Cardinals folution but their Angelical Doctor Tho. Aquinas without any farther fcruple plainly tells us, in Cruce Chrifti ponimus fpem folutis, that they place their hopes of Salvation in the Cross of Chrift, and therefore Worship it, Latria, with the highest Worship, that is due to God himfelf; and he cites this very Hymn, O Crux ave, Hail O Crofs, to prove it. Now let us fee his fublime Sophiftry by which he would Juftify it. There is no Honour, faith he, or Reverence due to an infenfible Creature but, ratione, in reafon or refpect of a rational Nature; and that two ways, first as it reprefents a rational Nature; fecondly, as it is, quocunque modo, by any way or means join'd to it. The Cross is to be Worshipped upon both thefe accounts, first as it reprefents the Figure of Chrift extended, or hanging, upon it; Next as it touched his Members and was, perfufa, befmeared or dyed

1.

Concluf

with his Blood; and this Adoration, must be, Latria, the very fame with T. p. 419% that which is given to Chrift; and for this, faith he, we Speak to the Cross, and Pray to it as to Chrift himself Crucified. And thus we Worship the, Effigics, Images or likeness of the Cross of Chrift, in any matter of Stone or Wood, or Silver or Gold, as his Image, Latria, with divine or the highest Worship. Give me leave to make a Reflection or two upon this Angelical Doctrine. First this cannot be meant here of the Original Cross of Christ, for they cannot now speak or pray to that, which is no where to be found entire to represent him to them; and it is very doubtfull (by what I have remarked above) what was the real Figure of it. So then all this must be apply'd now to only the very material Croffes, or Crucifixes, or Pictures deviled and made to reprefent that first Cross, (let it have been in what Figure it would,) or Chrifl upon it. Then it is plain that they must thus Worship an uncertain imaginary Type, of an invisible Prototype with Divine Worship. Now indeed if a material Cross, or Crucifix, or Image, or Picture of Chrift, fhould Speak to their Votaries, (as it is faid, one of them once did to this Angelical Doctor) they might have some encouragement to speak to it again, and pray to it too; otherwife, truly to me, they seem to Worship they know not what. He hath concluded in the Article juft beforegoing, that as Chrift is to be Adored, Latriâ, with divine Worship, fo is the Image alfo with the very fame; But the Arguments there firft framed against it, will not one of them in the least be refuted by his fhuffling Scholaftick anfwers; neither can he with all his Wit excuse his Votaries, who are all Careless, Formal, meerly Fashionabble Worfhippers, and most of them Illiterate or perfect Ideots. 1. For first, when he owns that there is the very fame, Motus, Motion (or Action of the Will and Understanding) towards the Image as it is, Res quædam, a certain thing; and towards the thing it felf reprefented by it; (one thing being a material fenfible Object, the other purely Intellectual or Spiritual;) do the first of thefe, or can the latter of them diftinguish between these two? They will always be led rather by their Senfes then by their understanding. And what he faith of the Commandment; that by it only the Adoration of the Gentiles, by Exod. 20. 5 which they Worshipped their Dæmons or Hero's (Saints departed) is there forbidden, is a meer Notional or Scholaftick shift; feeing the blind Adoration of their Worshippers is in effect the very fame with that of the Gentiles, as hath been fhewed. 2. Will they not all think that there is fomething Divine in the Images and Figures themfelves, when they believe that the Cross and its very fign, will fright away Devils, Confecrate every thing that is but markt with it, and cure Difeafes, and work many other fuch like Divine Effects; that the Saints are every where prefent with their Pictures and Images and, dant Refponfa, can answer them, either in real words, or in granting their Defires? 3. Will not this Adoration of a Crucifix, or Image or Saint, reft in the vifible Object or Figure of a meer Man, which is before the Eyes of the Votaries, especially the Illiterate and Ideots? He owns, poteft effe erroris occafio, that it may be the occafion of a mistake, and yet peremptorily in the conclufion of the Anfwer, faith, non poteft contingere, it cannot happen in a graven or painted Image. 4. The Argument is thus proposed very full, nothing is to be allowed in Adoration or Divine Worship, but what is Inftituted or prefcribed by God, or received from the Lord. Here he would put us off only with their old Song (when they have nothing else to fay,) Tradition. Now will any Man go about to perfwade me that the Apoftles and the firft Chriftian Profelites, who were all Jews, and by their Law Acts 2. 5. 10, were as Zealous and Violent abhorers of Images and all fenfible Objects in11. their divine Worship, as the present Turks are, (who took from them and ftill retain the very fame abominable Contempt and Hatred of either Pictures or Images) and therefore the fecond Council of Nice, amongst other opprobrious Language, called the Iconoclafts Jews; I fay can I believe that they admitted of them in their Primitive, Pure, and Spiritual Worship? Such a

Practice

T. p. 420.

3.

4.

§. 13.

15.

318.

43. p. 210. a.

16.

P. 407. c.

τως,

σωης

T. p. 420. Practice would have deter'd those, as much then, as it doth both the Present Jews and Turks, from being made Converts now. I know it is the common boasting Catech. Rom. Pretence both of the Latins and Grecks that Image Worship, and even all opart 3.1. præp ther of their Modern Superftitions, are derived down to us from the Apostles Dofith. Syn. practice by Tradition; whereas they have been again and again manifeftly provHierof. p. 338.ed to have been brought into the Church by degrees in the following corrupted Ages of it. His inftance of St. Luke's painting the Image of Chrift (which was once at Rome) is no fmall Argument to me, that Pictures at first were only (as they are now with us,) uled as the Memorials of Friends or Brave Men; (as Tiberius is faid to have honoured the Hero's of his Age,) they were also made Ornaments of their best Rooms; next by degrees of Churches and Sapient. c. 14, holy Places; but at laft by doting Devoto's they were Worshipped and Adored. Nicephorus Calliftus, was fufficiently addicted to Imagery, yet he bluntly, but truly, gives us this fair Intimation of the whole Matter. St. Luke, T. 1. 1. 2. c.faith he, (who understood and Practifed both Medicine and Painting whilft he P. 1. 6. c. was an Unbeliever,) and several others, ex vi ounsel derevortes, obferving the Heathen fashion, were accustomed to paint, owrupas, their Benefactors, or Patrons, and by their Pictures to Honour them; and they delivered or left, to others the Practice of doing or working the very fame, anagapuránTws, without regard, or aragamanтws, without diftinction, (1 fuppofe between Sacred and Prophane or common Pictures;) But the Church receiving this Prattice from thence, εἰς μέγα τε ἤυξεσε να ἐπέδωκε, hath improved it and raised it to a great height. Now fuppofe that it was very true that St. Luke did draw (as it was his firft Profeffion) the Pictures of Christ himself (whom notwithstanding he never faw in the Flesh, no more then his Chriftian Mafter St. Paul did,) and of fome Saints after he was himself a Chriftian; I know no harm in it at all to our caufe, nor any advantage in it to theirs; if it could be clearly proved that St. Luke Worshipped and Pray'd to thofe Pictures, (which were the meer work of his own Hands and Fancy) or that his Chriftian Doctor, St. Paul, did do fo, this would indeed be very much to their purpose. I wish with all my Heart that I had fome of them; I should most highly value them not only as very great Rarities and choice pieces of wonderfull Antiquity, but as fingular Memorials of those refpective holy Perfons, and whenever I faw them I fhould defire God to enflame my Heart with a pious Meditation of their Merits and Glorious Actions, and with a moft earnest defire of Imitating their grand Examples; but I fhould not dare to bow down to these Pictures, or to Worship and Adore them, least I should rob my God of his Honour due to him alone; neither fhould I venture to pray to him before them, left the fenfible Objects then before my Eyes fhould debafe and defile, or any ways quench the Intellectual and purely Spiritual Reflections of my Soul.

T. p. 421.

Art. 4. §. 3:

But I shall in the next place note his third Argument against the Worshipping of the Cross and his answer to it. The Argument is very obvious and it is this. If the Cross is to be Worshipped, Latria, with the bigheft divine Worship because it was the Inftrument of Chrifi's Paffion and Death, then all the other Inftruments are fo to be Worshipped likewife, as the Nails, the Crown of Thorns and the Lance. The Angelical Doctor denies the Confequence, Although, faith he, all these were Sanctified alike by the touch of Chrift's Body and Blood, yet they do not reprefent his Image as the Crofs doth; therefore we Worship the Cross of Chrift in any matter, but not the reft. This will appear as trifling an Anfwer as any of the former. First all these touched the Body of Chrift as well as the Crofs; and thefe much more then it; for thefe every one of them pierced it, and fo by confequence according to him, were all more intimately or properly united to it; for by the Nails alone the Body was faften'd to it; fo by this contract they were all more peculiarly Con fecrated, efpecially the Nails, then it. Secondly, as I have fhewed, the real Figure of the true Crofs is very doubtfull, and therefore if Chrift died upon one