Downame - BV209_D69_G6_1640_v1

That Saints departed are not to 6e prayedunto. 6r Thirdly, That they do not worfhip the Saints as A third pre - gods, but as the friends of God. As if a woman edife avoad- taken in adultery Mould alledge for her felf, that fhe loved the adulterer not as her husband but as her husbands friend. For religious worfhip Both as pro- perly belong unto God as conjugal' love unto the husband. But do not they give Divine worfhip to the Saints whom they invocate,prefcribing thereby unto them omniprefence, omnifcience, omnipoten- cie,and thereby alto profefiing themfelves to repofe their trua in them if For when they pray to Saints departed, do they (peak unto them as prefent or as abfent? If as to prefent,they being in heaven & they on the earth difperfed in many places & countreys, then they afcribe unto them omniprefence; if as to abfent, they afcribe to them omnifcience : Both which are blafphemous. Befides, when they invo- cate they afcribe omnipotencie to them , and there. fore repofe their truf} in them : But God alone is to be truaed in, becaufe he alone is omnipotent; and curled is he that trufieth in man, Jer. z 7.5 . Il. Again, mere men are not religioufly to be z. Rearon, adored : It is Peters reafon, A6is 1o.26, and Pauls, Acts 14.15. If Chria himfelf had been but a mere man or a creature, though a god by creation, yet ought not he religioufly to be adored ; and much leffe the Saints, who are but the fervants of Chriff. Therefore the ancient Fathers termed the Arians ( who fuppofed Ch riff to be God by creation, and yet worfhipped him) idolaters ; and the Neftorians likewife, who fuppofed the humanitie of Chrift to be a diftinC perfon from the Sonne of God. III. Tò_