XIX.

that are made to God, but to desire His blessings by and through the NOTE merits and intercession of His Saints; as (the following) ‘By whose merits and prayers grant that in all things we may be guarded by Thy protection and help :' 'We pray Thee, Lord, by the merits of the Saints, whose relics are here, and all Saints, that Thou wouldest vouchsafe to release me all my sins:' And again; ‘that we, who believe her truly the Mother of God, may be helped by her intercession with Thee.' . . . . This first kind seem to me utterly agreeable with Christianity, importing only the exercise of that communion, which all members of God's Church hold with all members of it."-B. iii. p. 356, &c.

VI. From the work of Dr. Thomas Brett, one of the Bishops who corresponded with the Eastern Patriarchs, A.D. 1716, 1724:

66

If they, (the Saints departed) still hold the Communion of Saints, and it is an Article of our Creed that they do so, we cannot doubt of their praying for us. And if they do pray for us, is it unlawful for us to pray that God would hear their prayers for us? Is it a corruption in a Liturgy to have such a petition in it? I can by no means think so. The Apostle speaking of our praying one for another, adds, that 'the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.' Now I cannot doubt but the Saints departed are righteous men, and therefore cannot doubt but their effectual fervent prayer for their brethren on earth availeth much; consequently, that it is lawful for any private Christian, or any congregation of Christians, to pray that their prayers may be available to them in this particular. We know well that there is but one Mediator betwixt God and man, the man Christ Jesus; but then we know also that this must be understood of one Mediator of redemption, because God has so frequently commanded us to pray one for another, that is, to be intercessors or mediators of intercession for each other. For these reasons I can by no means think it amiss to pray, that we may obtain a place at God's right hand by the intercessions and supplications of the Saints. . . . For if the prayers of the righteous, which they make for others, avail much, there is no question but they help forward and further the salvation of those for whom they are made: and therefore it cannot be unlawful or unfit for those for whom these prayers are made by the Saints departed, that is, the whole Church on earth, to beg of God that the prayers of His Saints now in Paradise, which they make for their brethren here on earth, may be heard, and that we may receive the benefits prayed for, and particularly the great benefit of all, a place at God's right hand in that terrible and just Day. As such intercessions of one Christian, or one part of the Church for another, are so far from being unlawful, that they are necessary, and our bounden duty to each other, so they can be no affront to the mediatorial office of Christ, because such intercessions are made in His name, and in virtue of His merits. And if the intercessions themselves are necessary,

XIX.

NOTE and for the honour of Christ, Who requires them of us, to pray that such intercessions may be heard, or that we may be heard or receive benefit by them, even the greatest benefit of all, the salvation of our souls, can be no fault..... That prayer, wherein God is desired to grant unto His people 'a place at His right hand, by the intercessions and supplications of the Virgin Mary, and all His Saints,' though it be not in the Clementine Liturgy, yet cannot be judged an interpolation in a Liturgy ascribed to St. Basil; forasmuch as... St. Cyril, who was twenty years St. Basil's senior, testifies that the Church in his time prayed, that God would receive their requests by virtue of the prayers and intreaties of the Saints. Which is as old as any testimony we have during the first four or five centuries for the use of the Lord's Prayer in the Eucharistic Service."-P. 360, &c.

VII. And it is important to remark that the Eastern Patriarchs distinctly offered to make union with the British, so long as they would go thus far with them, even though they declined, through what they deemed a pious though mistaken caution, to make any direct addresses to the Saints:

"We may here fairly cry out with David 'They were in fear where no fear was ' . . . for we do not pay them (the Saints) the same honour that is due to the King alone, but such as is proper for the friends of the King. Nevertheless, if this offend you, ye may forbear saying, 'Holy Mother of God help us,' and instead of it ye may say, 'O merciful and almighty Lord, assist us by the intercessions of Thine immaculate Mother, the blessed Virgin Mary, and all Thy Saints.'"-Answer to Prop. ii.

And again, on the Invocation of Angels:

"What we said above will serve as a reply to this Proposition: but as to the jealousy ye speak of, it seems like the zeal of those, of whom the Apostle says, that 'they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge:"" And at length, exhorting them "to shake off all prejudice, and follow unhesitatingly the uniform tradition of the Church, which is not contrary to holy Scripture," they conclude thus: "Ye give us great expectations (even in this Proposition) of the wished for and much desired happy union and agreement: which do Thou O Christ, our King, speedily effect, by Thine Almighty help, for the intercession of Thine immaculate Mother and all Thy Saints! for we earnestly, and from the bottom of our souls desire it."-Answer to Prop. iii.

But besides the admission of those oblique Invocations, which alone the Eastern Patriarchs required as absolutely necessary in order to a union, and besides poetical and spiritual Apostrophes, whether inviting to prayer or praise, which occur in the Hymns of the Anglican Ritual, and even in the Psalter itself, testimonies may be found to prove the possibility of a still closer agreement on this subject:

VIII. Bishop Latimer (apud Foxe), writes as follows:

"Take Saints for inhabitants of heaven, and worshipping of them for

praying to them, I never denied but they might be worshipped, and be our N OTE mediators, though not by way of redemption (for so Christ alone is a whole mediator, both for them and for us) yet by way of intercession."

XIX.

Like admissions to this may be seen quoted and set forth at length, not only from other British Divines but from many of the most celebrated and learned writers of the Protestants, in the book of Dr. William Forbes, first Bishop of Edinburgh. (Consid. Modest. p. 322, &c.) He quotes very distinct passages from Luther, J. Ecolampadius, M. Bucer, Joachim Camerarius, The Author of the Enchir. Col., on the Decalogue, J. Casaubon, Jo. Gerhard, Andr. Fricius, and others; which the reader may consult. IX. Bishop Montague writes as follows:

"I see no absurdity in nature, no incongruity unto analogy of faith, no repugnancy at all to sacred Scripture, much less impiety, for any man to say, 'O Sancte Angele Custos, ora pro me." In like manner he defends the Virgin Justina mentioned by St. Gregory Nazianzen as imploring the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and says that "against such a manner of invoking Saints, joined with faith in Christ, he would not contend.”— Forbes, Consid. Modest. p. 327.

X. Antonio De Dominis, (lib. VII. c. xii.) owns, that he "finds the custom of thus invoking the Saints, to pray for us, or rather with us, to be most ancient, and never blamed in the Church, but rather the contrary condemned in Vigilantius by St. Jerome, with the applause of all;" and that "resting thus upon ancient prescription and approved practice, it ought not to be done away.” . . . . And again: “Let not then this custom of Invocation be a cause for schisms: but let those who invoke the Saints take care to warn the people against giving any undue or idolatrous honour; and let the other side leave off absolutely condemning Invocations, as if they were evil in themselves, when used with caution.”—Vol. III. p. 287.

XI. Archbishop Bramhall writes as follows:

"A comprecation both the Grecians and we allow; an ultimate invocation both the Grecians and we detest:" (Works, p. 418.) alluding to a passage in the Answers of the Patriarch Jeremiah to the Lutherans, (In Cens. de Præcipuis, &c. c. xxi.) which is also quoted with approbation by Bishop Forbes, (p. 298.) “We say that Invocation strictly and properly belongs to God alone, and is due to Him in the first place and in the most absolute sense, while that made to the Saints is not invocation properly so called, but per accidens only, and in a certain sense, by a certain grace and privilege. For it is not Peter or Paul that of himself hears any of those who invoke him, but that grace and gift which they have according to that promise of Christ, 'I am with you even to the end of the world."" XII. Thorndike writes thus:

"The second kind of Invocations is the ora pro nobis,' and the 'te rogamus audi nos,' directly addressed to the Blessed Virgin and the

XIX.

NOTE Saints." Of this kind he pronounces, that "it is not idolatry;" and that the greatest "lights of the Greek and Latin Church, Basil, Nazianzen, Nyssen, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom, both the Cyrils, Theodoret, Fulgentius, Gregory the Great, and Leo, &c., who lived from the time of Constantine, have all of them spoken to the Saints departed, and desired their assistance." And again: "After Constantine," he says, "when the Festivals of the Saints, being publicly celebrated, occasioned the confluence of Gentiles as well as Christians, and innumerable things were done, which seemed miracles done by God to attest the honour done them, and the truth of Christianity which it supposed, I acknowledge those great lights did think fit to address themselves to them as petitioners."-Epilogue, B. iii. p. 356, &c.

XIII. Dr. William Forbes, Bishop of Edinburgh, has exhausted the whole subject in his book entitled "Considerationes Modestæ, &c." The third chapter of his treatise is devoted to prove the following Proposition:—

"The mere Invocation or addressing of Angels and Saints, asking them to join us in praying, and to intercede for us to God, is neither to be condemned as unlawful, nor as useless."-P. 299.

Again: Though there be no command nor formal example to be found for it in Scripture, the invocation of Angels and Saints to pray with us and for us to God is not on this account to be rejected as unlawful, as the Protestants now-a-days commonly contend.".. "It is enough, the thing being not an essential, but to be placed among the adiάpopa, that it be not repugnant to holy Scripture, but agreeable thereto; as we see that many other things have been received by the Fathers as lawful and pious, and are still so received by the Church of England, though they have no express command nor even example of Scripture: &c."-P. 305, and p. 307.

"Further, though in the Fathers of the first three centuries there is no clear passage for direct addresses in prayers to Angels or Saints, (p. 308.) still, neither on this account is the usage of addressing Angels and Saints to be rejected or condemned. For many lawful and profitable rites, as is well known, have been introduced into the Church by the Fathers and Councils of subsequent ages, especially by those of the fourth and fifth centuries, about which nothing is to be read in the writers of earlier times. For the Church of the fourth century had like and equal right with that of the three preceding to institute such rites as she might judge lawful and profitable. No man in his senses, I suppose, will deny this."-P. 310.

And lastly, before bringing an overwhelming mass of testimony from the Protestants themselves, he concludes thus: "In fine, for very many ages now past, throughout the Universal Church, in the East no less than in the West, and in the North also among the Muscovites, it is a received usage to sing 'St. Peter, &c., pray for us:' but to despise or condemn the universal consent of the whole Church is most dangerous presumption."-P. 322.

XIV. The same Bishop, among other admissions of later times, quotes with NOTE XIX. approbation the following from a book entitled " Pia et Catholica Christiani Hominis Institutio," in English and Latin, put forth by the Bishops of the Church of England in the year 1537, and afterwards again in the year 1543, (the Latin in 1544,) and never hitherto retracted or condemned:

:

“To pray unto Saints to be intercessors with us and for us to our Lord in our suits which we make unto Him, and for such things as we can obtain of none but Him, so that we esteem not, or worship not them as givers of those gifts, but as intercessors for the same, is received and approved by the most ancient and perpetual use of the Catholic Church: but if we honour them any other ways than as the friends of God, dwelling with Him, and established now in His glory everlasting, and as examples which were requisite for us to follow in holy life and conversation, or if we yield unto Saints the adoration and honour which is due unto God alone, we do, no doubt, break the commandment."-Formul. of Faith, ed. Lloyd, pp. 141, and 351. And Forbes, Consid. Modest. p. 328.

XV. But if any question the sufficiency of these testimonies, let him consider what has been recently alleged by a living writer of the Presbyterian or Calvinistic persuasion.-Masson, Apology for the Greek Church, p. 30, and p. 108, &c.

NOTE XX.

Q. What testimonies are there to confirm us in the belief that the Saints after their departure work miracles through certain earthly means? A. The bones of the Prophet Elisha raised a dead man to life, . . The Apostle Paul by handkerchiefs and aprons, . . St. Peter by his shadow,. . &c. (And then St. Gregory the Divine and St. John Damascene are quoted.)—Orthodox Catechism, p. 51.

I. The Calendars of the Scottish and English Churches still commemorate on certain Days the discovery of Relics, and their Translations; as, May III, the Invention of the Cross by the Empress St. Helena; June xx, the Translation of the Relics of St. Edward; July Iv, the Translation of those of St. Martin; September XIV, the Holy Cross ; &c.

II. In the Book of Homilies we have the following admission :—

"It is testified that 'Epiphanius being yet alive, did work miracles; and that after his death, devils being expelled at his tomb, did roar.""-P. 159.

III. Hooker, among other "considerations for which Christian Churches