necessarily upon the saints' beatitude, that they should hear our prayers of congruity: yet that God doth reveal all things which are offered unto them by men, whether in magnifying and praising them, or in praying unto them and imploring their help." Cardinal Bellarmine supposeth, that" if the saints should have need thus of a new revelation, the Church would not so boldly say unto all the saints, pray for us: but would sometimes entreat of God, that he would reveal our prayers unto them." Yet because "it seemeth unto him superfluous to desire ordinarily of them that they should pray for us, which cannot ordinarily understand what we do in particular, but know only in general that we are exposed to many dangers:" he resolveth, that" although there may be some doubt, in what manner the saints may know things that be absent, and which are sometimes delivered by the affection of the heart alone, yet it is certain that they do know them." And you must note", saith Doctor Pesantius, that this is to be held for a point of faith, "that the saints do know the prayers which we pour unto them: because otherwise they should be made in vain." So that to make good the popish manner of praying unto saints, that which at the first was but probable and problematical, must now be held to be de fide, and an undoubted axiom of divinity.

Thirdly, in the popish invocation, formal and absolute prayers are tendered to the saints; but the compellations of them used at first, were commonly either wishes only, or requests of the same nature with those which are in

Si indigerent sancti nova revelatione, Ecclesia non diceret ita audacter omnibus sanctis: Orate pro nobis: sed peteret aliquando a Deo, ut eis revelaret preces nostras. Bellarm. de eccles. triumph. lib. 1. cap. 20.

• Superfluum videtur ab eis (qui sunt in purgatorio) ordinarie petere, ut pro nobis orent: quia non possunt ordinarie cognoscere quid agamus in particulari, sed solum in genere sciunt nos in multis periculis versari. Id. de Purgator. lib. 2. cap. 15.

Etsi dubitatio esse possit, quemadmodum cognoscant absentia, et quæ solo cordis affectu interdum proferuntur; tamen certum est eos cognoscere. Id. de eccles. triumph. lib. 1. cap. 20.

" Notandum, quod est de fide, beatos cognoscere orationes quas ad illos fundimus alias frustra fierent. Alexand. Pesant. in 1. part. Thom. quæst. 12.

artic. 10. disput. 7. conclus. 6.

this kind usually made unto the living, where the requester is oftentimes superior to him whose prayers he desireth (which standeth not well with the condition of prayer" properly so called) and they that are requested, be evermore accounted in the number of those that pray for us, but none of those that are prayed unto by us. Of this you may hear, if you please, what one of the more moderate Romanists writeth: "If it were lawful for the prophet to call to the angels and the whole host of heaven, and to exhort them that they would praise God, which notwithstanding they do continually without any one admonishing them, whereby nothing else but a certain abundance of desire of the amplifying of God's glory is declared, why may it not be lawful also, out of a certain abundance of godly desire to call upon those blessed spirits which by the society of the same body are conjoined with us; and to exhort them, that they should do that, which we believe they otherwise do of themselves? That to say: All ye saints, pray unto God for me: should import as much as if it were said, Would to God, that all the saints did pray unto God for me! I wish earnestly, that all the saints should pray to God for me." Thus writeth Cassander, in his notes upon the ancient ecclesiastical hymns, published by him in the year MDLVI.; who being challenged for this by some others of that side, added this further to give them better satisfaction: "When I did see that it was

Est enim oratio actus quidam rationis, quo unus alteri supplicat, inferior videlicet superiori. Bellarmin. de bonis operib. in particulari, lib. 1. cap. 7.

Si prophetæ licuit appellare angelos, et universum cœlestem exercitum, eosque hortari ut Deum laudent, quod tamen nullo etiam monente assidue faciunt; quo sane nihil aliud quam abundantia quædam studii divinæ gloriæ amplificandæ declaratur cur etiam non liceat beatos illos spiritus ejusdem corporis societate nobiscum conjunctos, ex quadam pii desiderii redundantia compellare, atque exhortari, uti id faciant, quod eos ultro facere credimus? ut perinde valeat; Omnes sancti orate Deum pro me: ac si dicatur: Utinam omnes sancti Deum orent pro me! quam velim ut omnes sancti Deum orent pro me. Georg. Cassand. Schol. in Hymn. ecclesiastic. operum, pag. 242.

y Cum viderem non necessarium, ut statuamus sanctos intelligere nostras preces; credebam ad calumnias nonnullorum repellendas satis esse si dicamus per modum desiderii eas interpellationes explicare posse: quod minus habet absurditatis, et divinarum literarum exemplis congruit. Si quis autem hujusmodi

not necessary, that we should hold that the saints do understand our prayers, I thought it was sufficient to put back the calumnies of some, if we should say that these interpellations might be expounded by way of wishing or desiring: which hath less absurdity in it, and is agreeable to the examples of the holy Scriptures. But if any man would have such compellations as these to be taken also for an intimation of the desire, and a direct speaking unto them, I do not gainsay it. Notwithstanding I would think that a tacit condition ought to be understood in such an intimation, such as Gregory Nazianzen doth express in the funeral oration of his sister Gorgonia, when he saith: If thou hast any care at all of our speeches, and holy souls receive this honour from God, that they have notice of such things as these, do thou accept this oration of ours."

Yea in the very darkest times of the papacy there wanted not some, who for certain reasons (recited by Guilielmus Altissiodorensis and Gabriel Biel) resolved that neither the saints do pray for us, neither are we to pray unto them. "With these and such like reasons," saith

Biel, 66 were the heretics deceived, and some Christians in our time are now deceived." Which moved John Scharpe in the university of Oxford publicly to dispute the two questions, of praying to saints, and praying for the dead, "especially, because it was esteemed by some famous men, and not without probability, that such suf

compellationes pro intimatione quoque desiderii, et directa (ut ita loquamur) alloquutione haberi velit ; non repugno. Crediderim tamen hujusmodi intimationi tacitam conditionem subesse debere; qualem Gregorius Nazianzenus in oratione funebri sororis Gorgoniæ exprimit, cum ait: Proinde si nostri sermones vel parumper tibi curæ sint, honorque talis sanctis a Deo debetur animabus, ut talia resciscant; suscipe et tu sermonem nostrum. Georg. Cassand. epist. 19. ad Jo. Molinæum, pag. 1109.

z His et similibus rationibus decepti sunt dicti hæretici. Decipiuntur et nunc nonnulli nostro tempore Christiani. Gabriel Biel, in Canon. Miss. lect. 30.

a Præsertim, cum a quibusdam famosis verisimiliter æstimatur, quod hujusmodi suffragia et orationes in ecclesia Dei superfluunt; quibusdam vero sapientibus videtur contrarium. Joh. Scharpe, Prooem. in quæstiones de orationib. sanctorum, et suffragiis viatorum. MS. in bibliotheca collegii Mertonensis

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:

Adjuvent nos eorum merita,

Quos propria impediunt scelera;
Excuset intercessio,

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 accuse us. 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. in 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 revelari 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.