A Godly and Learned Treatise of Prayer, Chapter 11
CHAP. XI. That God alone is to be called upon.
HAving spoken of the person which doth invocate, we are now to intreat of the party who is called upon, that is, God. Where we are to shew two things: 1. That God alone is religiously to be called upon; 2. That in our prayers we are so to conceive of God as he hath revealed himself in his word. Both which points are of great moment: for if we do religiously invocate any besides the true God, we commit sacrilegious idolatry; or if we shall conceive of God, either in respect of his nature or of the persons, otherwise then he hath revealed, we shall in stead of the true God worship an idole of our own brain.
That God is to be called upon I have already shewed, and it needeth no further proof. Call upon me, saith the Lord, Psal. 50. 15. When ye pray, say, Our Father, Luke 11. 2. The true worshippers shall worship the Father, John 4. 23. But that God alone is to be called upon religiously, though it follow upon the former, (for God will be worshipped alone or not at all, praecept. 1.) yet it is gainsaid by the Antichristian church, the mother of spirituall fornications, which in this part of Gods worship addeth to him both Angels and Saints departed. For the confutation of which blasphemous errour, I will first prove in generall, That God alone is to be called upon; and then particularly, That neither Angels nor Saints are.
For first, Whomsoever we do religiously invocate,1. Reason. him do we worship and adore: For invocation is a principall part of worship and adoration, as I have shewed, the Lord esteeming the sacrifice of praise and prayer above all outward sacrifices of the law, Psal. 50. But God alone is religiously to be worshipped and adored. For the exhibiting of religious worship unto any that is not God, is idolatrie; such as is religious adoration, invocation by prayer and thanksgiving, reposing our affiance and trust, vows, oathes, sacrifices offered to any creature: 1. Sam. 7. 3. Direct your hearts unto the Lord, & serve him onelyonly. Matth. 4. 10. Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him onelyonly shalt thou worship or serve.
Against which allegation they do object, ThatAn objection of the Rhemists answered. the words do appropriate not adoration but Divine worship unto God: so that notwithstanding this place, foreign adoration, may be given to the creature, though foreign, Divine worship, be reserved as peculiar unto God; Rhem. in Matth. 4. 10.
For answer of which shift we must consider what the tempter demanded of Christ, vers. 9. All these things will I give thee, foreign, if thou shalt fall down and worship me: which demand our Saviour might have yeilded unto if he had allowed this Popish distinction: But it appeareth by his answer that there is no such difference to be made betwixt foreign and foreign, that is, between Divine worship and religious adoration. For he would not foreign, that is, adore, the tempter, as he required, because he must foreign, that is, worship, God alone; thereby plainly shewing, that if he did foreign, he should also foreign. Indeed foreign or adoration may be either civill; which may be performed to creatures, Gen. 23. 7, 12. or religious; and that as well as foreign must be reserved as proper to God.
The like distinction they have forged betweenThe distinction of foreign and foreign discussed. foreign and foreign, that is, Service and Worship: whereof the former, as they say, may be given to the creatures, the latter onelyonly to God. If by these words they distinguished civill worship from religious, as Augustine doth, they might be born with: For, asDe civit. Dei lib. 10. cap. 1. he saith, both is servitus, Sed ea servitus quae debetur hominibus, secundùm quam praecipit Apostolus, SERVOS DOMINIS SUIS SUBDITOS ESSE DEBERE, alio nomine Graecè nuncupari solet, scilicet foreign : ea verò servitus quae pertinet ad colendum Deum, dicitur foreign: Both is Service: But that service which is due to men, according to which the Apostle commandeth servants to be subject to their masters, in the Greek it is used to be called by another name, to wit, foreign, and that service which belongeth to the worship of God is called foreign; But when under the name of foreign they would cloke religious service performed to creatures, they are intolerable. For between religious service and foreign there is no difference: and both foreign and foreign are alike in the Scriptures ascribed to God, & both of them used asAils 20. 10. 1. Thess. 1. 9. Rom. 7. 6. and 12. 11. the translation of the Hebrew foreign, Exod. 23. 33. SI SERVIERIS DIIS EORUM. Hîc Graecus, saith S. Augustine, foreign habet, non foreign. unde intelligitur Quaest. super …xod. lib. 2. 94.quia & foreign debetur Deo tanquam Domino, foreign verò non nisi Deo tanquam Deo: IF THOU SERVEST THEIR GODS. Here the Greek hath foreign, not foreign whence it is understood that foreign is due to God as unto our Lord, but foreign to none but God as God. Lodovicus Vives in August. De civit. Dei, lib. 10. cap. 1. saith, Valla docet, foreign & foreign idem esse, & utrumque significare Servitutem. Suidas ait, foreign, servitus mercenaria. Lev. 23. 7. opus servile dicitur foreign. 18. 21. Desemine tuo non dabis servire foreign, principi: foreign, juxta Septuaginta: Valla (saith be) teacheth us, foreign and foreign to be the same, and that both do signifie Service. And Suidas saith, that foreign is service for a reward, or mercenarie service. Lev. 23. 7. a servile work is called foreign. and chap. 18. 21. Thou shalt not give any of thy seed to serve the prince (or, the idole Molech:) which service the Septuagint expresseth by the word foreign, Heb. 8. 3. But if a difference between these words is to be urged, it will be found that foreign is the greater, and foreign the lesse; the former being derived of foreign, which signifiethforeign, Suid a bond-slave, the latter of foreign, which signifieth an hired servant: For Suidas telleth us that foreign, that is, service, for a reward. And so by this distinction they shall gain thus much, That they give the greater to the creatures, and reserve the lesse for God. Neither can this distinction be applyed to either of these places alledged; 1. Sam. 7. 3. Matth. 4. 10. in both which the vulgar Latine hath servire: in the former, eique soli servite, and serve ye him alone; where the Greek also hath foreign: in the latter, eique soli servies, and thou shalt serve him alone.
Secondly, he that is to be called upon is to be believed2. Reason. in: Rom. 10. 14. How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? God alone and none but God is to be believed in: Psal. 73. 25. whom have I in heaven but thee? According to the Creed the object of our faith is God and the Church: but with this difference, that we believe in God; but as touching the Church, we do not say that we believe in it (for the Church is not God, but domus Dei, as Augustine hath observed) but onelyonly that we believe the holy catholick Church. Now if we are not to believe in the Church, much lesse in the members thereof, whether they be of the Church militant or triumphant.
Thirdly, no part of Gods glory is to be communicated3. Reason. to any thing else: Isa. 42. 8. My glorie will I not give to another. To be a hearer and granter of our requests is a great part of Gods glory: Psal. 65. 3. O thou that hearest the prayer, to thee shall all flesh come: and in the conclusion of the Lords prayer; thine is the glory, namely of hearing and granting our prayers. And therefore this glory is not to be communicated to any other: and consequently no other is to be called upon.
Fourthly, the commandment of Christ is broken4. Reason. if in prayer we call upon any to whom we may not say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdome come, &c. For thine is the kingdome, &c. When ye pray, say, Our Father, Luke 11. 2. But without horrible blasphemie we cannot use this form of words to any but onelyonly to God: therefore if we call upon any other we break the commandment of Christ. If the Papists alledge, that in their prayers they usually do say their Pater noster, I confesse they do, but in so doing they commit blasphemous idolatry, saying this prayer to the Rood or to the Crosse, which they worship cultu foreign, saying with the old idolaters to a piece of wood, Pater m… us Jer. 2. 27. Thom. part. 3. quaest. 25. a…t. 4.es, Thou art my father, and before the images not onelyonly of men but also of women departed.
Fifthly, all acceptable prayers are made in faith5. Reason. that they are accepted; and in hope that they shall be granted: For without faith it is impossible to please Heb. 11. 6. Rom. 14. 23.God; and what is not of faith is sinne: and prayer which is made without hope is in vain. But those prayers that are made to God, and they onelyonly, are made in faith and hope: In faith, because God hath commanded us to call upon him, and hath promised to heare us: In hope, because God to whom we pray is omnipresent; and therefore is acquainted with our wants, and secret desires, Psal. 38. he is omnipotent, and therefore able to do for us exce…dingly above all that we can ask'or think, Ephes. 3. 20. and for his bounty and goodnesse more ready to heare and to grant then we are to ask, Isa. 65. 24. On the other side, prayers made to creatures are made neither in faith: For there is no warrant in the Scripture for such a prayer, no doctrine which teacheth it, no precept that injoyneth it, no promise to confirm it, no example to commend it. And this is confessed by Eckius, viz. That neither it is warranted or taught in the Old Testament, because the people were prone to idolatry, and the fathers deceased were in Limbo; nor in the New, lest the Gentiles should return to their old idolatry, and lest the Apostles should seem to direct Christians to invocate them after their decease. And therefore by their own confession no testimonie of Scripture can be alledged to this purpose. Neither can such prayer be made in hope: because none but God is either omniscient or omnipresent to know the wants or heare the desires of men in all places calling upon them, nor omnipotent to grant their desires. Hereunto may be added the testimonies of the Fathers: Origen Contra Celsum, lib. 8. Solus adorandus est Deus, God onelyonly is to be worshipped. Eusebius, De praeparat. Evang. 4. 5. … Deum adorare didici…us, We have learned to worship God onelyonly. Nazianzen, De Spir. sanct. foreign; If it be to be adored, why is it not to be worshipped? if it be to be worshipped, how is it not God? Ambrose, De Spiritu, lib. 3. 12. Neque adorandum quicquam prater Deum legimus, We do not reade of any thing which ought to be worshipped except God alone. Cyrill, Thesaur. lib. 2. 1. Vnanatur a Dei…atis est quam solummodo ador are oportet, There is one nature of the Deitie which alone ought to be worshipped.