c. 1 & 3.) In the Fourth, that they do not honour the image itself, but its prototype.-To all these distinctions we reply, (1.) The deed is in every case contrary to the intention; and they in reality do the very thing which in their intention they profess themselves desirous to avoid: (2.) The judgment of God is adverse to their intention; for He does not interpret the deed from the intention, but forms his judgment of the intention from the deed. God himself [adhibuit] has exposed an intention that is in accordance with such a deed, although the man who does it puts in his protestation about his contrary intention. This intention is evident from the following passages: "They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." (Exod. xxxii, 8.) "He falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god." (Isai. xliv, 17.) "They sacrificed unto devils, not to God," &c. (Deut. xxxii, 17.)-(3.) We add, if these distinctions possess any validity, neither Jews nor Heathens could at any time have been accused of having committed idolatry: For by the same distinctions as these, they would be able to justify all their acts of worship, whether offered to a true or to a false Deity, to the Supreme God, to inferior divinities, or to an image. For [on these principles] their intention never feared the works of their own fingers, but those persons after whose image such works were formed, and to whose names they were consecrated: Their intention never honoured angels, demons, or the minor gods, except that such services should redound to the honour of the Supreme Deity; (Lactan. Inst. 1. ii, c. 2;) it never wished to procure such esteem and veneration for them as belong solely to the Majesty of God Supreme; and it never worshipped a false deity.

XIX. The THIRD exception has a special tendency to justify the invocation of the Virgin Mary and the saints: (Thesis XVI:) For the Papists say that they invoke them, not as the prime authors and donors of blessings; nor as Christ, whom God the Father hath constituted the High Priest, and to whom He has given all power in heaven and on earth; but that they invoke them, in truth, as friends, intercessors and donors, yet in subordination to Christ. To this we reply, FIRST, From the premises which they grant, they may themselves be convicted of idolo-dulia, or inferior worship offered to idols: For they confess that the invocation which they practise to the Virgin Mary and to saints,

is the adoration of dulia. But they fabricate idols of the Virgin Mary and of Saints, before they invoke them by heresy, both by falsely attributing to them the faculty of understanding their prayers, of interceding for sinners, not only feelingly, but also meritoriously, and of granting the things requested; and by presenting to them, as possessed of these qualifications, the worship of invocation: For this is the mode by which an idol is fabricated of a thing that has had a real existence. To this argument strength is added from the circumstance,-that, although these saints might know the things for which the Papists pray, might intercede for them with a pious feeling, and, as “ministering spirits," might bestow what they have requested; yet as they could not bestow them " with power," they ought not to be invoked. SECONDLY. By the words, " in subordination to Christ," they in reality destroy such a subordination and introduce a collaterality. If this be true, then on that very account they are likewise idolaters: Because the worship, which God the Father wishes to be given to his Son, is that of latria, or divine adoration. For it is the will of the Father, "that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." (John v, 23.) But subordination is removed, and collaterality is introduced, (1.) Universally, when all these Saints are said, by their own merits to intercede for and to obtain blessings, and to dispense the blessings thus obtained; which are two tokens of the eversion of subordination and of the introduction of collaterality. (2.) Specially, this collaterality exists [from their own showing] between Christ and the Virgin Mary; as is evident, (i.) From the names under which they invoke her, when they denominate her" the Queen of heaven," "the Mistress of the world," "our salvation, harbour, defence, refuge and solace," who is able to command our Redeemer in virtue of her authority as his mother: These expressions place Christ in subordination to her. (ii.) But this is likewise evident, From the cause on account of which they say she ought to be invoked.-As a FEMALE ADVOCATE: Because, since Christ is not only a man and an Advocate, but likewise God and a Judge, "who will suffer nothing to pass unpunished; the Virgin Mary, as having in her nothing that is harsh and unpleasant, but being all mildness and suavity," (Thesis XII,) ought [intercedere] to act as intercessor between Him and sinners. -And as a FEMALE DISPENSER OF BLESSINGS: Because "God the Father has given half of his kingdom to her, (that is, to administer his Mercy while he reserves the exercise of Justice to Himself,)" and has conferred upon her a plenitude of all grace, VOL. II. X

that out of her fulness all men may receive. This is nothing less than to hurl Christ from his throne, and to exalt the Virgin Mary in his place.

XX. The FOURTH subterfuge is the distinction between an image and an idol. The Papists say, An Image is the likeness of something real; an Idol, that of something false. When Bellarmine explains this definition, he commits a fallacy: For in interpreting "something false," he says, since it is a being, it is not that which it is feigned to be, that is, God. But that the difference which he here makes is a false one, many passages of Scripture prove: The image which Rachael purloined from her father, is called "an idol;" but it was the image of a man. (Gen. xxxi, 34.) Stephen calls the molten calf "an idol,” and it was made to represent the true God. (Acts vii, 41.) The calves of Jeroboam were representations or images of Jehovah, yet they are called "idols" by the Greek and Latin translators. (1 Kings xii, 28.) Micah's image is also called "an idol,” and yet it was "set up" to Jehovah. (Judges xvii, 4; xviii, 31.) Among the "dumb idols" unto which, the Apostle says, the Corinthians "were carried away," (1 Cor. xii, 2,) were statues of men, and probably images of "four-footed beasts, of creeping things, and of birds:" (Rom. i, 23:) Yet Bellarmine would with difficulty prove that these are things which have no existence. Wherefore if an idol be that which is nothing, that is, a sound without reality and meaning, this very distinction, which is purely an invention of the human brain, is itself the vainest idol, nay one of the veriest of idols. Such likewise are those distinctions and intentions which have been invented, for the establishment of idols and of the impious and unlawful adoration of idols, by the church of the malignants, by the mother of fornications, who resembles the "adulterous woman" mentioned in Prov. xxx, 20: "She eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no harm,” or “I have not wrought iniquity.”

COROLLARY.

It can be proved by strong arguments from the Scriptures, that the Roman Pontiff is himself an idol: And that they who esteem him as the personage that he and his followers boastingly depict him to be, and who present to him the honour which he demands, by those very acts shew themselves to be idolaters.

DISPUTATION XXIV.

ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS.

Respondent, JAMES A PORT.

1. FROM the hypothesis of the Papists, we denominate those persons "Saints," whom the Roman Pontiff has by his canonization transferred into the [album] book of Saints. (Bellarm. de Beat. Sanct. lib. i, c. 8.) From the truth of the matter, we also call those persons "Saints," who, being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ, (1 Peter i, 2,) and [signati] sealed with the characters of the Holy Spirit, the Sacred Fountain of all holiness, have been illustrious in this world by the sanctity of their lives, which flows from their spiritual union with Christ; but who, as it regards the body, being now dead, still live in heaven with Christ as it regards the soul: (Rev. xiv, 13:) Of this description were the Patriarchs of old, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Martyrs, and others like them. The Invocation of Saints is that by which men have recourse to their [suffragium] intercessions, interest, patronage and assistance, for the sake of imploring, intreating, and obtaining their aid.

II. But the Papists assert, that the Saints are invoked for three reasons: (1.) That they may vouchsafe to intercede by their prayers and their suffrages. (2.) That, through their merits, and on account of them, they may obtain by their petitions the things which are asked of them. (3.) That they may themselves bestow the benefits which are required. For the Papists have invested departed Saints with these three [respectus] qualities;-that, being nearer to God, they have greater freedom of access to Him and to Christ, than the faithful who are yet their survivors in the present life ;-that, by works of supererogation performed in this life, they have obtained by their merits [the privilege] that God shall hear and grant their prayers;-and that they have been constituted by God the administrators of those blessings which are asked of them: And thus are they appointed Mediators, both by merit and efficacy, between God, nay between Christ and living believers.

III. Yet upon all these things the Papists have not had the hardihood to erect, as a superstructure, the necessity of invoking the Saints: They only say, that "It is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them;" and that "those persons hold an impious opinion who deny that the Saints ought to be invoked." (Can. &

Dec. Coun. of Trent, Sess. xxv, c. 2.) But perhaps by these last words, which have an ambiguous meaning, they wished to intimate the existence of this necessity. For not only does he deny that Saints ought to be invoked, who says that it is not necessary to invoke them,-but likewise he who says that it is not lawful: The words, when strictly taken, bear the former signification, that invocation is not necessary; but the latter meaning of its unlawfulness, when they are understood as opposed to the words which preceded. Even Bellarmine, when he had affixed this title, "The Saints ought to be invoked," immediately subjoined the following thesis, "The Saints are piously and usefully invoked by the living." (De Beat. Sanct. lib. 1, c. 19.) But that most subtle and evasive petty Synod often trifled with ambiguous expressions, being either compelled into such a course on account of the dissensions among its chief members, or else being perversely ingenious on account of its adversaries, whose blows it would not otherwise have been able with any degree of speciousness to avoid: We will therefore enquire concerning the invocation of Saints, Is it necessary? Is it lawful and useful?

IV. With regard to the FIRST of these questions, we say, (whether the Papists assent to our affirmation or dissent from it,) that it is not necessary for believers in the present state of existence to invoke the Saints who [conversantur] are engaged with Christ in heaven. And since this necessity is-either according to the duty which surviving believers are bound to perform to the saints who have departed out of this life, and who are living with Christ; or according to the end for the sake of obtaining which, invocation is laid down as a necessary means; we affirm, that, by neither of these methods is the invocation of Saints necessary. V. (1.) It is not necessary in reference to the Deity; because the invocation of Saints has neither been commanded by God, nor is it sanctioned with any promise or threatening, which it would of necessity have been if it had to be performed as a duty by the faithful during their continuance in the world. (2.) It is not necessary in reference to the Means; because neither the merits nor the intervening administration of the Saints is necessary to solicit and to obtain the blessings which the faithful in the present life make the subject of their prayers: For otherwise the mediation and administration of Christ either are not sufficient, or they cannot be obtained except through the intercession of departed Saints; both of which are false: And that man who was the first of the Saints to enter heaven, neither required nor employed any Saint as a previous intercessor.