the Apostle to thrust out their own demons and heroes, and to put in themselves. And is not this a good argument still? Is it not of as much force now to cast this practice out of the Church, as it was then to keep it out? Does it not give infinite offence to a great part of the Christian world? And is it not esteemed, and that justly by them, to be the old Pagan worship revived, or something very near it? For it is not the change of the object that makes any material difference, or that can excuse it, whilst the act or kind of worship is the same: religious worship is God's peculiar, and to give it to a creature was the Pagan worship and superstition. Now is it not a very unaccountable thing, that the Church of Rome should make that an article of faith, for which there is confessedly no foundation in Scripture? And is it not as much to be wondered at, that if this practice was to obtain in the Church, the Scriptures that give so many plain directions concerning prayer, the object, the manner of performance, the qualifications of the suppliant, should be wholly silent about this? That the Apostles, who were guided by the Spirit of God into all truth, and therefore cannot be supposed to omit any part of the Christian doctrine that was necessary, nay, profitable for the salvation of souls, should quite forget it, and neither practise it themselves to the blessed Virgin, who died before some of them, nor in any of their writings instruct the people in the piety and usefulness of it? But though there are no plain texts in the Old Testament for invocation of saints, there are for invocation of angels, and they insist chiefly on these. In Gen. xlviii. 16, it is said that Jacob prayed to an angel to bless the two sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim; and "the angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads.” To this I answer, first, that this might be only a wish, and not a solemn prayer; and if a prayer, not put up to the angel, but to God, that he would appoint the same angel that preserved him to bless them; a form of prayer like that of David's, Psalm xxxv. 6, "Let the angel of the Lord persecute them;" he prayed to God that it might be, not to the angel to do it. The like is to be said to Tobit, chap. v. 15, "God, who dwelleth in heaven, prosper your journey, and the angel of God keep you company." Which words are not spoken to the angel, but concerning him, merely by way of wish and desire, and not. by way of supplication. But if they are a prayer, then again it must be to God, as before, to send and appoint his angel. Secondly, This angel is generally thought, by the Fathers (whom the Romanists, in interpreting Scripture, are sworn to follow), to be the Son of God; so Justin Martyr,* disputing with Trypho the Jew: "He, an angel, God and Lord, appeared unto Abraham in human shape, and was seen of Jacob in the form and figure of a man." So Athanasius, and St. Cyril of Alexandria expound them, and thus they argue: "How indecent was it for Jacob to join God and a creature together!" as he must do if the angel was no more than an angel, "The Lord that fed me all my days, the angel which redeemed me." This can seem reasonable to none but the Romanists, who commonly practise it, joining in their doxology the "blessed Virgin with God the Father and our blessed Saviour." Again, "How more unworthy of so holy a man as Jacob to pass by God, as it were, and to make his intercession to an angel, as if he had more confidence in the angel than in God?"§ Lastly, Who was the angel that had redeemed Jacob from all evil? Was it not he that had wrestled with him? Gen. xxxii. 28, that had delivered him from his brother Esau ? Whom he would not let go till he had blessed him? And does not Jacob say of him, ver. 30, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved ?" For the confirmation of this exposition, it will not be amiss to consult Hosea xii. 3, 4, 5 : "He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God; yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial." Where the person that is called "an angel," ver. 4. is in ver. 3, called " God," not because he represented God, but was God himself; the word Elohim, in the plural number, being never used (as some learned men have observed) to denote one angel, but many, but often used to signify God. And ver. 5, he is called "Jehovah, God of hosts;" appella * Οὗτος καὶ "Αγγελος, καὶ Θεὸς, καὶ Κύριος, ἐν ἰδέᾳ ̓Ανθρώπου τῷ Ἰακὼβ φανείς. p. 71. [p. 156. Par. 1742.] + Serm. 4.-contra Arian. [vol. 1. p. 260, 261. Heidelb. 1601.] Thesaur. lib. 3. cap. 6. Laus Deo, Virginique matri, Deo item Jesu Christo. Bell. in fin. tom. 1. § Perer. in fin. lib. de motus et mundi ætern. Greg. Val. in fin. omn. Op. tions proper to God alone, and not communicable to any created angel for thus saith God of that name Jehovah, or "I am that I am," Exod. iii. 15, "This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." To this, some of them add those other words of Jacob,* in the latter part of the 16th verse, "And let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;" but most ignorantly and impertinently: for who does not see the difference betwixt calling on the name of Jacob, and the name of Jacob being called upon them? Nothing can be more evident, than that Jacob did not speak of a religious invocation of himself after he was dead, and of his ancestors, Abrahain and Isaac, but of the adopting of the sons of Joseph into his family, and dividing to them a portion with the rest of his children, in the land of Canaan; and that though they were born in Egypt, out of his family, they should no less be esteemed his sons. It is a known phrase among the Jews, whereby is expressed the engrafting of any person, man or woman, into a family, explained beyond all contradiction in Gen. xlviii. 5, "And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt, before I came unto thee in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon they shall be mine." As also in Isa. iv. 1, “In that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, &c. Only let thy name be called upon us;" so the margin reads it verbatim from the Hebrew; that is, as it is in the text, "Only let us be called by thy name," or accounted thine. The same phrase we find, Dan. ix. 18, “O my God, behold the city, whereupon thy name is called;" so in the Hebrew, but rendered in the text, "which is called by thy name." Was it needful in so plain a case, I might produce their own interpreters against themselves; but I shall set down only the words of one of them, "The name of one man, according to the usual speech of the Jews, is said to be called upon another, when that other is called by his name."‡ With the like confidence and impertinence do Bellarmine and others cite Job v. 1, "Call now, if there be any that will answer thee, and to which of the saints wilt thou turn ?" Bellarmine here tells us, that by saints, according to St. Austin, *Bell. de Sanct. Beat. 1. 1. c. 20. + Ribera in Comment. Am. c. 8. ver. 12. are meant angels, and cites many other places of Job where angels are called saints. Be this granted, is there here any precept to pray to them? No, he confesses, the words are no farther an argument for it, than as they shew it "was the custom of that age to implore the aid and protection of angels."* ; But how do they shew this? if the words have a quite different sense and design, as appears they have from the context. We find that Eliphaz, in the former chapter, instead of pitying Job, and administering comfort to him in his agony, accused him of impiety towards God, and unrighteousness towards men; alleging for it, that God never afflicts men in so grievous a manner, but for some great and notable wickedness and for the proof of this, he appeals to Job's‡ and his own experience, to the admonitions he had frequently given others of it, to the many instances of it in the destruction of great oppressors; § and tells him at last, that he was confirmed in this truth by an angel, who in the night had appeared to him and lest all this was not enough, he reassumes the argument in this verse, and bids him ask the opinion, and consult the experience of other holy men or saints, and he would find that all of them would seal to this truth; nay, but that he was so unworthy, and could not expect it, if an angel should appear to him, as one had done to him, he also would bear witness to it. A like text to this, and as little to their purpose, is that in Job xix. 21, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of the Lord hath touched me.' By friends cannot, without manifest violence to the context, be meant angels; but Job's three friends that came to visit him, and instead of applying fit lenitives to his anguish, did, by their sharp and cutting reproaches, wound him deeper, and enrage his sores. Thus he begins the chapter, and complains of their cruelty, ver. 1, 2, "How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? These ten times have ye reproached me," &c. And having in the following verses very lively expressed his bitter and pungent afflictions, in ver. 21, he takes up the complaint again, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends." Ye, the same persons he complained of before; as if he had said, O ye my friends, who pro * C. 19. [ut supra, p. 412. col. 1.] § Ver. 9, 10. + Job iv. 7. Ver. 8. fessed to come to comfort me, do not ye make my condition more deplorable; let it suffice that the hand of the Lord lies heavy upon me, do you not, by your cruel taunts, unreasonable and inhuman censures, add to my load and pressures; but after others have forsaken me in my miseries, shew yourselves to be friends indeed, by the comforts and assistances you administer to me. Their chief proof for invocation of saints, and what they most insist on, is yet behind; it is some such texts of Scripture, wherein good men on earth are commanded to pray for one another, and from examples of that kind. A number of these are to be found both in the Old and New Testament; 1 Sam. vii. 8, "And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hands of the Philistines." Job xlii. 8, "And my servant Job he shall pray for you, for him will I accept." Rom. xv. 30, "I beseech you, brethren, that you strive together in your prayers to God for me." To the same purpose are cited, Eph. vi. 18, 19, "Pray always with all prayer and supplication for all saints, and for me." 1 Thess. v. 25, "Brethren, pray for us." 2 Thess. iii. 1, "Finally, brethren, pray for us.' Col. iv. 3. Heb. viii. 8, "Praying also for us." Eph. iii. 14, 16, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would grant you to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." It is confessed on all hands, and these texts abundantly prove it, that it is the indispensable duty of the members of Christ's church, to pray for one another, and that they may and ought to desire one another's prayers. God has for great and wise reasons commanded and encouraged this; hereby we testify our mutual love to one another, express our sympathy and fellow-feeling with one another's miseries; most effectually preserve the unity of the body of Christ, and uphold the solemn public worship of God in the world; which consists of meeting together, and putting up to one common Father mutual prayers for one another's prosperity. This also gives great credit and reputation to religion and virtue, when God hears the prayers of good men; and upon their supplications diverts a judgment, or removes a calamity from themselves and others. But from hence can be drawn no argument for the invocation of saints and angels: For, 1. Christians on earth are by these texts empowered only to desire others to pray for them. But the Church of |