Semi. XIX. between God and Men. 41 Heaven, and the Mother of Mercy, which they of the Church of Rome, are pleafed to beflow upon her, and without her confent, and as may reafbnably be prefumed, againft her will ? I will put a Cafe, which may help to render this matter a little more plain and fenfible to us, fo as every Man may be able to judge of ir. Suppofe a King fhould conflitutehis Son, the great Mafier of Regstefls; with this exprefs Declaration and Affurance, that all Petitions that were addreft to him by his Son, fhould he gracioufly received and anfwered ; in this cafe, though every Man (night uf: his own Difcretion, at his own Peril, and take what courfè he pleafed, Yet i Mould moft certainly prefer all my Petitions to the King, in the way which he had fo plainly dire&ed, and fhould trouble never a Courtier of them aft with my Bufinefs; for fear the King fhould think, that I did either diftrufl his Royal Word, or defpife his Son, by my foliciting the Aid and Help of every little Courtier, after I had put my Petition into the Hands of this great Mailer of Reque/ls. And now I will not diftruft any of your Underftandings fo far as to make the Application. I will only add, that it is an Eternal Rule of Truth, and which never fails in any Cafe, Fruflra fit per plura, quad fieri potefl per pauciora, it is in vain to attempt that by snore Ways and Means, which may as well and as effettssally be done by one; becaufe this would be perfect lots of time and pains: And therefore they who would fend us fo far about, as to trouble all the Saints and Angels in Heaven with our Petitions, when they cannot deny but that Mir great Mediator is alone fufficient ; do feem to me to fend us upon a very fleeve- lefs Errand ; So that if with all their Skill in Fencing, they could defend this Practice from being Unlawful, yet this one thing is a fufficient Objeltion iii Reafon againft it, that it is perfectly Needlefs. Or if we could imagine any need of this ; all Addreflès to them muff be vain and unprofitable, if they do not know our Wants, and hear oui Prayers that are put up to them ; which St. AuJlin thought they do not know and hear, Fa- tendum eft (faith he, L. De Curd pro mortuie) nefcire quidem mórtuos, quid hic agatur ; it mull be acknowledged that the Dead are ignorant of what is done here. This was his Opinion; but we are certain that they cannot know our Wants, nor hear our Prayers at all Times and in all Places; unlefs they can either be prefent every where, which no Finite Being can be; or elfe God be pleafed iu fome Supernatural way to communicate to them the Knowledge of our Wants, and of the Prayers which we put up to them ; which we can never know that he does, unlefs he have communicated to us, that he is pleafed to do fo, of which the Scripture no wheregives us the leaft intimation. But becaufe they pretend, that the Scripture gives us fome hints of this I (hall briefly examine what they fay about this Matter. I. That the Angels know our Condition here below, becaufe they are faid to rejoyce at the Converfion of a Sinner ; and therefore the Saints do likewife know our Condition, becaufe they (hall he like the Angels. But this is not faid of them till after the Refurreltion, when we (hall have no Occafion to pray to them. Befides, that it may well enough be fuppofed, that God may reveal both to the Angels and Saints in Heaven, the Converfion of a Sinner, becaufe it may contri- bute to the Increafe of their Joy and Happinefs : But will it hence follow, that God reveals to them all other Circumftances of our Condition, our Dangers and Temptations and Troubles, our Sins and our Sufferings, the Knowledge whereof would no ways contribute to the Increafe of their Happinefs ? And yet in order to their Interceflion with God for us, their Knowledge of theft: things would be molt beneficial to us. II. Becaufe the rich Man was concerned in Hell for the Salvation of his Rela- tions on Earth, they argue that it is much more probable, that the Saints in Hea- ven are concerned for us, and are ready to pray for us, and therefore it is very credible, that fome way or other, they have theKnowledge of our Conditión and Wants, though we cannot certainly tell, what that particular way is, To which I anfwer.
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