Saint, or Angel, any of them fhall pray, with an Affurance that God will communicate to that Saint, or Angel, fuch Addreffes?

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But, fuppofe God were continually to make known to Saints and Angels the Petitions that are made to them from Earth, even this would not make them capable Objects of our Prayers; for, unless they be capable of answering Petitions, what will their knowing our Wants fignify to us? And it is impoffible that they fhould be able to fupply all our Wants, without being omniscient, and omnipotent; without Omniscience, they cannot tell whether what we afk of them be good for us, or how our Wants may be fupplied. Without Omnipotence, they cannot always be able to put their good Defigns in Execution. They must be able to fee all the prefent bad Defigns of evil Spirits, and evil Men, against us. They must be able to forefee all the future Intentions and Actions of free Agents. They must likewife be able to controul and over-rule them; and, I prefume, there is not a Papist of common Senfe who believes that Saints and Angels have fuch Powers as thefe; which, yet are abfolutely requifite towards making them capable Objects of their Prayers. How, then, can they act fo abfurdly, and impertinently, as to pray to Beings which they must know, and acknowledge, to be incapable of helping them? And, yet, that they do pray to Saints and Angels is undeniable. At prefent, indeed, their Maffes are not publickly used among us; and, therefore we cannot have daily experimental

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Evidence

Evidence of this Fact; but, all Perfons, who know any thing of Popery, must know that the Papifts do publickly pray to Saints and Angels in their Churches: Nay, they have made the Doctrine of praying to Saints and Angels an Article of their Faith, and, in their Opinion, neceffary to Salvation; and they refufe Communion with, and pofitively condemn, all thofe who will not profefs their Belief of this Article of their Trent Creed. Nay, they not only pray to them, but they pray to them with all the fame Circumstances of religious Honour, and Worship, with which they pray to God and Chrift; and pray to them together with God and Christ as joint Objects of Worship: This might eafily be proved from their publick Forms of Prayer, but this does not fo properly fall within my present Plan which was, to fhew that Saints, and Angels, as Creatures of a finite and limited Nature, are not capable Objects of our Addresses of any fort, because they can neither know what we pray for, nor are capable of anfwering our Prayers, If any one is defirous of receiving farther Satisfaction on this Head, I refer him to three most excellent Sermons of Archbishop Tillotson upon one God, and one Mediator between God and Man, &c. in the 1ft Folio Volume of his pofthumous Works.

But, though Saints and Angels are not capable of bearing, or anfwering our Prayers, by Virtue of their own Knowledge and Power, yet, the Papifts pretend that God may reveal to Saints and Angels what we afk of them, and

enable

enable them to grant our Petitions.God, it feems, may do this if he pleases, and therefore they pray to Saints and Angels without knowing whether he will be pleased to do it, or not. Is it not more reasonable to argue after this Manner: We do not know (the Scriptures being quite filent about it) that Saints and Angels do know what we fay to them, or are able to grant what we afk of them, and therefore we will not offer to pray to them, for want of a fufficient Warrant from Reafon, or Scripture, because fuch a Practice would be a foolish one? I shall illustrate it by putting a familiar Cafe. Suppose that we in England thould ask any thing of the Emperor of China, tho' it is naturally impoffible for the Emperor to hear what we fay to him, or be capable of affifting us, unless God reveals it to him, and enables him to grant it; I fay, fuppofe we fhould pray to him only because God can do all this, when we have no Grounds of Affurance that God will do it; in this Cafe would any Man pretend to talk, or converfe, with the Emperor at fo great a Distance from us, as if he were prefent with us, or we were fure that he knew what we faid to him, and could fupply our Wants? The Parallel between this and the Cafe of praying to Saints and Angels is so obvious, that I need not stay to draw it: But, to obviate this Difficulty, the Papifts have found out a very great Secret, viz. that Saints and Angels, having the beatific Vifion of God, fee all Things in him, and, confequently know when we pray to them, what we pray to them for, and whether our Prayers be fit to be offered. Now, in the first

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place,

place, as to Saints, we, knowing nothing of the Hearts of Men, cannot tell who are Saints, or who are hypocritical Sinners, and may pray to them under a Perfuafion of their being in the more immediate Prefence of God, while they are among the Wicked in Darkness and Despair; and, therefore before the Papifts pray to any of the Saints, they fhould pray to God that he would be pleas'd to tell them whether the Perfon to whom they are going to pray be really a Saint in Heaven, or a Sinner in Hell: Befides, the Scripture is filent about this Glafs, in which the Saints fee all things. And, if this be the Cafe, we need not go fo far about, but may better go directly to the Throne of Grace, according to the Direction of Scripture, and afk for what we want, with a firm Reliance on Chrift's Promife, that whatever we afk in his Name will be granted, provided it be fit for us, and we worthy of it.

Before I fhut up this Head, concerning the proper Object of our Prayers, I must observe, that our Bleffed Saviour, the Man Chrift Jefus, tho' a Creature of a limited Nature, and now refident in Heaven, is a capable Object of our Prayers, because he is God, as well as Man. As the reafonable Soul and Body are one Man, fo God and Man are ONE CHRIST: And, by Virtue of this Union of the divine and human Nature in his Perfon, he has all thofe effential Perfections which make him a capable Object of Prayer; fuch as Omniprefence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence; but, if he were a mere Creature, he would be as incapable an Object of Prayer

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Prayer as any other invifible Creature, because he could be no more capable of hearing, or anfwering, our Prayers, than Saints and Angels are, without a particular Revelation, and a fupernatural Affiftance, from God, of which the Scripture fays not a Syllable: And, yet, the Scriptures plainly reprefent CHRIST as the Object of Prayer, and relate the Prayers that the Saints offered to him. Thus, Acts vii. 59, 60. They Stoned Stephen calling upon God, and faying, Lord Jefus receive my Spirit; and he kneeled down, and cried with a loud Voice, Lord lay not this Sin to their Charge. In these Words St. Stephen is expreffly faid to pray unto Jefus Chrift; confequently, in the Opinion of that inspired Martyr, Jefus Chrift is the Object of Prayer, and truly God. As from his Divinity we can prove him to be a capable Object of our Prayers, fo we may argue, backward, from his being a capable Object of our Prayers, to his being God; and if he be God, lie must be the one God, fince the Scriptures know of no other God, but the one fupreme God; and of no other Worship, but what is due to the one fupreme God. A fubordinate Worship, to a fubordinate God, to a CREATURE God, is a Doctrine of modern Invention. A CREATURE God, an omniprefent, omnifcient, omnipotent Creature, is the frangeft Creature that ever was heard of, as great a Stranger to common Senfe, as it is to the Bible, and a much greater Myftery than the Doctrine of the Trinity.

So plain a Cafe as this is needs no Authority to confirm it, but I fhall cite a Paffage in the

Sermons,