frages and prayers were superfluous in the Church of God, although some other wise men thought the contrary." And in this particular question now in hand, Altissiodorensis telleth us, that "MANY do say that neither we pray unto the saints, nor they pray for us, but improperly in respect we pray unto God, that the merits of the saints may help us." For which he referreth us to the versicle, used to be sung at the feast of All Saints, which in the breviary of Sarum I find laid down in this manner: accuse us. Adjuvent nos eorum merita, Quos propria impediunt scelera; Accusat quos actio; Et qui eis tribuisti Cœlestis palmam triumphi, Nobis veniam non deneges peccati. "Let their merits help us, whom our own sins hinder. Let their intercession excuse us, whose own action doth And thou, who hast bestowed upon them the palm of the heavenly triumph, deny not unto us the pardon of our sin." Where if any poison do remain hidden under the name of merits, we will prepare an antidote against it in his proper place. And in the mean time observe here a fourth difference betwixt the popish prayers and the interpellations used in the ancient time. For by the doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome, the saints in heaven are not only made joint petitioners with us (as the saints are upon earth) but also our attorneys and advocates, who carry the suit for us, not by the pleading of b Propter istas rationes et consimiles dicunt multi, quod nec nos oramus sanctos, nec ipsi orant pro nobis, nisi improprie : ideo sc. quia oramus Deum ut sanctorum merita nos juvent. unde: Adjuvent nos eorum merita, &c. Guilielm. Altissiodor. in summ. part. 4. lib. 3. tract. 7. cap. de orat. quæst. 6. c Breviar. secundum usum Sarum. in omnium sanctorum officio. Whence I correct the error of Illyricus, in catalogo testium veritatis. edit. Basil. ann. 1562. pag. 390. (cited by me in the former editions of this treatise); who allegeth this out of the breviary of the Præmonstratensian order, in a contrary sense; reading the place interrogatively. Christ's merits alone, but by bringing in their own merits likewise; upon the consideration of the dignity or condignity whereof it is believed, that God yieldeth to the motions they make unto him in our behalf. "Wed pray unto the saints," saith the master of the Sentences, "that they may intercede for us, that is to say, that their merits may help us, and that they may will our good: for they willing it, GoD doth will it, and so it will be effected." "Wee ought to entreat the apostles and the other saints," saith Hugo de Prato, "in all our necessities, because they are our advocates, and the means betwixt us and God, by whom God hath ordained to bestow all things upon us." Because "it' is a thing fitting," saith Scotus, "that he that is in bliss should be a coadjutor of God in procuring the salvation of the elect, according to such manner as this may agree unto him; and to this it is requisite, that our prayers which are offered unto him should specially be revealed unto him, because they lean specially upon the merits of him as of a mediator bringing us to the salvation which is sought for: therefore it is probable that God doth specially reveal unto him that is in bliss such of our prayers as are offered unto him, or unto God in his name." But this is an open derogation to the high prerogative of our Saviour's meritorious intercession, and a manifest encroachment upon the great office of mediation, which the most religious and learned among those fathers, who desired to be recommended unto the prayers of the d Oramus sanctos, ut intercedant pro nobis, id est, ut merita eorum nobis suffragentur, et ut ipsi velint bonum nostrum: quia eis volentibus Deus vult, et ita fiet. Petr. Lombard. sentent. lib. 4. distinct. 45. et Jacobus de Vitriaco. în Litania majori. e Rogare debemus apostolos et alios sanctos in omni necessitate nostra: quia ipsi sunt advocati nostri, et medii inter nos et Deum, per quos Deus ordinavit omnia nobis largiri. Hug. de Prato, sermon. 35. f Quia congruum est beatum esse coadjutorem Dei in procurando salutem electi, eo modo quo hoc sibi potest competere; et ad istud requiritur sibi reveJari orationes nostras specialiter, quæ sibi offeruntur, quia illæ specialiter innituntur meritis ejus tanquam mediatoris perducentis ad salutem, quæ petitur: ideo probabile est, quod Deus beatis revelat de orationibus sibi, vel Deo in nomine ejus oblatis. Jo. Scot. in 4. sent. dist. 45. quæst. 4. 66 saints, were so careful to preserve entire unto him: "For what is so proper to Christ," saith St. Ambrose, as to stand by God the Father for an advocate of the people?" "He" is the priest," saith St. Augustine, "who being now entered within the veil, ALONE there of them that have been partakers of flesh, doth make intercession for us. In figure of which thing, in that first people, and in that first temple the priest only did enter into the Holy of holies, and all the people stood without." And therefore where St. John saith: "These things write I unto you, that ye sin not: and if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." St. Augustine in his exposition upon that place maketh this observation thereupon: that St. John being so great a man as he was, did not say, YE have, nor ye have ME, nor YE have Christ himself: but did both put in Christ, not himself; and also said, we have, not YE have. Because he had rather put himself in the number of sinners, that he might have Christ to be his advocate, than put himself for an advocate instead of Christ, and be found amongst the proud that should be damned." And from thence draweth this conclusion against Parmenian the Donatist: "If he had said thus: * Quid enim tam proprium Christi, quam advocatum apud Deum patrem adstare populorum? Ambros. in Psal. 39. op. tom. 1. pag. 861. h Ipse sacerdos est, qui nunc ingressus in interiora veli, solus ibi ex his qui carnem gestaverunt interpellat pro nobis. In cujus rei figura in illo primo populo, et in illo primo templo unus sacerdos intrabat in sancta sanctorum, popu, lus omnis foras stabat. August. in Psalm. 64. op. tom. 4. pag. 633. 1 John, chap. 2. ver. 1. * Non dixit, habetis, nec me habetis, dixit, nec ipsum Christum habetis, dixit : sed et Christum posuit, non se, et habemus dixit, non habetis. Maluit se ponere in numero peccatorum, ut haberet advocatum Christum : quam ponere se pro Christo advocatum, et inveniri inter damnandos superbos. Id. tractat. 1. in 1. epist. Johan. cap. 2. op. tom. 3. par. 2. pag. 831. Si ita diceret; Hoc scripsi vobis ut non peccetis, et si quis peccaverit, mediatorem me habetis apud patrem, ego exoro pro peccatis vestris: (sicut Parmenia, nus quodam loco mediatorem posuit episcopum inter populum et Deum :) quis eum ferret bonorum atque delium Christianorum? Quis sicut apostolum Christi, et non sicut Antichristum intueretur? Id. lib. 2. contr. epist. Parmenian. cap. 8. op. tom. 9. pag. 34. 456 I have written this unto you, that you sin not, and if any man sin, you have me a Mediator with the Father, I make intercession for your sins: (as Parmenian in one place doth make the bishop a mediator betwixt the people and God): what good and faithful Christian would endure him? who would look upon him as the apostle of Christ, and not as Antichrist rather?" The doctrine therefore and practice of the Church of Rome in this point, by this learned father's judgment, must needs be held to be ungodly and antichristian. Fifthly, the recommendation of men's selves unto the prayers of the saints deceased, which was at first admitted in the ancient Church, did no way impeach the confidence and boldness which we have gotten in Christ, to make our immediate approach unto the throne of grace: which by the invocation of saints now taught in the Church of Rome, is very much impaired. For to induce men to the practice of this, the great majesty of God, and the severity of his justice is propounded unto poor sinners on the one hand, and the consideration of their own baseness and unworthiness on the other. Whereupon it is inferred, that as well for the manifesting of their reverence to God's majesty, as the testifying of their submissness and humility, they should seek to God by the mediation of his saints, like as men do seek unto the King by the mediation of his servants. Which motives can have no more force to encourage men to the invocation of saints, than they have to discharge them from the immediate invocation of God and his Christ. So among the causes alleged by Alexander of Hales, why we ought to pray unto the saints: one is, "inm respect of our want in contemplating, that we who are not able to behold the highest light in itself, may contemplate it in his saints;" m Ulterius propter nostram inopiam in contemplando: ut qui non possumus summam lucem in se aspicere, eam in suis sanctis contemplemur. Tertio, propter inopiam in amando: quia nos miserabiles homines, vel plerique nostrum magis afficimur circa sanctum aliquem aliquando, quam etiam circa Dominum ; et ideo Dominus compassus nostræ miseriæ, vult quod oremus sanctos suos. Alexand. de Hales, summ. part. 4. quæst. 26. memb. 3. artic. 5. another," in respect of our want in loving: because we, miserable men, (miserable men indeed that do so) or some of us at least are more affected sometimes unto some saint, than unto our Lord himself: and therefore God having compassion on our misery, is pleased that we should pray unto his saints;" and a third, "in" respect of the reverence of God, that a sinner who hath offended God, because he dareth not to come unto him in his own person, may have recourse unto the saints, by imploring their patronage." The like we read in Gabriel Biel, handling the same argument: "This is a singular consolation,' saith he, "to sinners, who have oftentimes more mind to the interpellation of the saints than of the Judge: whose defect of holiness also other men's goodness is able to supply;" and it maketh "for the reverence of God, that a sinner who hath offended God, as it were not daring for the dross of his sin to appear in his proper person, before the most high and dreadful majesty, should have recourse unto the saints who are most pure and grateful to God, who may present the sinners' prayers unto the most High, and by adjoining their merits and prayers thereunto, might make the same more fit for audience, more pleasing and more grateful." Therefore Salmeron the Jesuit sticketh not to deliver his opinion plainly, that the praying unto God by the saints seemeth to be better than the praying unto him immediately, as for other reasons, "so because the Church, which hath the spirit of " Propter Dei reverentiam ut peccator, qui Deum offendit, quia non audet in propria persona adire, recurrat ad sanctos, eorum patrocinia implorando. Alexand. de Hales, summ. part. 4. quæst. 26. memb. 3. artic. 5. • Peccatoribus singularis est consolatio, qui ad sanctorum interpellationem quandoque magis animantur quam Judicis: quorum etiam sanctitatis defectum supplere potest probitas aliena. Gabr. Biel, in Canon. Miss. lect. 30. P Propter Dei reverentiam; ut sc. peccator qui Deum offendit, quasi non audens in persona propria, propter peccati scoriam, coram majestate altissima pariter et tremenda apparere, recurreret ad sanctos purissimos et Deo gratos; qui peccatoris preces altissimo præsentarent, easque suis adjunctis meritis et precibus magis redderent exaudibiles, placidas, atque gratas. Ibid. lect. 31. 4 Tertio, quia Ecclesia, quæ Christi spiritum habet, frequentissime per sanctos recurrit ad Deum, rarius per se ad Deum accedit. Quarto, precatio Dei per in |