f after Scripture, it furely cannot be a Thing neceffary. Letting it alone is undoubtedly safe: whether practising it be fo, the Church of Rome would do well to confider. They tell us indeed that they only beg the Prayers of the Saints in Heaven, as we do thofe of good Perfons on Earth. And were this true; (as I fhall prove it is not) we defire our Fellow Chriftians on Earth to pray for us because we know they hear our Defires and furely it is Reason enough not to ask those in Heaven to do it, because we do not know they hear us, nor have the leaft Cause to think they do. For Scripture, which alone could tell us fo, hath told us no fuch Thing. But befides, if we can at all understand Scripture, it hath expressly forbidden all Applications to the Inhabitants of the invifible World, excepting the Supreme Being. Thou shalt worfhip the Lord thy God, fays Mofes, and him only fhalt thou ferve". There is one God and one Mediator, fays St. Paul, between God and Mens the Man Chrift Jefus. Accordingly we find, that the Angel which appeared to St. John in the Revelation, forbids any religious Honour to be paid him, even when prefent. See thou do it not: I am thy Fellow Servant: worship b a Matt. iv. 10. Y 2 1 Tim. ü. 5. God. God. And when fome amongst the Coloffians had affected unjustifiable Practices of this Kind, St. Paul cenfures them as being in a very dangerous Error. Let no Man beguile you of your Reward in a voluntary Humility and worshipping of Angels, intruding into thofe Things which he hath not feen. Yet does the Church of Rome intrude so much farther as to pay undue Worship to Beings far below Angels: not only to the Saints in Heaven, but to fome who were fo wicked on Earth, that there is great Reafon to fear they are in Hell, and to others that are mere Fictions of their own Imaginations, and never were at all. For the Sake of thefe, and through their Merits, they defire in their public and authorized Prayers, God's Mercy, fometimes quite omitting to mention the MeFits of Chrift, and fometimes joining his and theirs together. Farther than this, they directly pray to them, in the House of God, and in the fame Pofture in which they pray to God; and that not only to intercede with him for them, but, in fo many Words, that they themfelves would beflow Grace and Mercy upon them, would forgive the Guilt of their Sins, deliver them from Hell, and grant them a Place in Heaven. What Pretence is there now in Rev. xix. 10. xxii. 9. d Col. ii. 18. Christianity Christianity for fuch Things as these? and what doth this tend to, but making the Ignorant, especially, think their favourite Saint can do every Thing for them, right or wrong? To Him therefore they recommend themselves, not by a religious Life, but by flattering Addreffes and coftly Presents: on His Interceffion they often depend much more than on our bleffed Saviour's; and being fecure, as they think, of the Favour of these Courtiers of Heaven, pay little Regard to the King of it. Thus is the Intent of Religion destroyed, and the Heathen Multitude of Deities brought filently back into Christianity. But above all, their Worship of the Virgin Mary is very remarkable. We honour her Memory as a Perfon whom he that is mighty bath peculiarly magnified, and whom all Generations fhall call bleffed. But They addrefs her in fuch Terms as follow: Emprefs of Heaven; Queen of Angels and Men; through whom, after God, the whole Earth liveth; Mother of Mercy; the Fountain of Grace and Salvation ; the only Hope of Sinners: Who ever trufted in thee, and was confounded? To thee I commit all my Hope, and all my Comfort: under thy Defence is my Refuge; make Hafte to help me in all . Things which I fhall either do or think every Moment of my Life, loofe the Bonds of the guilty, enlighten the Eyes of the blind, free us from all Sin, and drive away from us all Evil: grant us to escape eternal Damnation, and cause the Glory of Paradife to be bestowed on us. What Autho rity or what Excufe is there now for fuch Expreffions as these? And yet every one of them I have myself collected partly out of their public Offices, partly from others of their authorized and approved Books of Devotion. Formerly in their very Mafs Book they went yet farther: And begged her, by Virtue of her parental Authority, to command of her Son what they wanted. But to this very Day, in another Office, they intimate the fame Thing, by exhorting her that she would shew herself to be his Mother. And the better to make fure of her doing fo, they apply to St. Joachim, who, they fay, was her Father, though indeed it is not certainly known at all who her Father was; much less whether he was Saint or Sinner: However, they apply to St. Joachim and tell him, that as his Daughter can poffibly deny him nothing, it is in his Power to do every Thing be will for them. This, you fee, is being very artful in making Interest: only it is more Art than than is neceffary. For fince we are both permitted and appointed to approach God through Chrift directly, who, we are certain, both doth hear and will help us, we fhall prejudice, instead of benefiting our Cause, by making underhand Applications to other Perfons, who perhaps never come to know of our Petitions, and, if they do, are displeased at them; or, if they were not, can be in Comparison of little Ufe to us. Yet to judge by the Practice of the Romish Church, who would not think that the whole New Teftament were filled with Precepts for the Worship of the Saints, especially the bleffed Virgin? Whereas, even in the Gospels the is but feldom and occafionally mentioned; our Saviour feeming on Purpose to take lefs Notice of her, as if he forefaw what Advantages taking more would give to the Extravagancies of after Times. In the Acts she is just mentioned once. In the Epiftles and Revelation not at all. Yet these are not half the monftrous Things that the Romanifts are guilty of about her. They have invented a Fable of her Body being taken up into Heaven, and appointed a folemn Festival in Honour of it. They have inftituted a Form of Devotion called the Rofary, in which ten Addreffes Y 4 |