And for as much as I believe, your Grace has à great Veneration for St. Auftin, because he was a learned Doctor of the Church, and very well versed in the Belief and Practice both of his own and of the preceding Ages; I fhall beg leave to infert here a Paffage taken out of his 20th. Book, Cap. 21. Contra Fauftum Manichaum, who feem'd to reproach the Chriftians, much after the fame Manner as your Grace is pleas'd to reproach the Roman Catholicks; telling them they took away the Idols indeed, but fubftituted the Martyrs in their Room; to which this Holy Father returns an Anfwer in thefe Words. "Nam quod etiam hinc nobis calumniatur Fauftus, quod Martyrum Memorias honoramus, in hoc dicens nos Idola convertiffe, non tam me movet, ut huic Calumnia refpondeam, "quam ut ipfum Fauftum oftendam Studio Ca. "lumniandi etiam ab ipfius Manichai Vanita"tibus exorbitare voluiffe, & in vulgarem atque "Poeticam Paganorum Opinionem, a quibus fe

alieniffimum cupit videri, nefcio quomodo in"cautum incidiffe. Cum enim dixiffet, nos ver"tiffe Idola in Martyres, quos Votis, inquit, Si"milibus colitis, Defunctorum Umbras Vino pla

catis&Dapibus: Sunt ergo Umbræ Defunc"torum? Numquam hoc in veftris Sermonibus "audivimus, nunquam in Litteris legimus: 1"mo contradicere foletis talibus Opinionibus, "afferentes Animas Mortuorum Malas minùfq;

purgatas, aut in Revolutiones ire, aut in gra"viores aliquas Poenas, bonas autem in Naves "imposi, & in Coelo navigantes tranfire hinc,

in illud Phantafma Terra Luminis, pro qua "pugnando perierant: Ita nullas Animas circa "fuorum Corporum fepulchra detineri: Unde

“ igitur

1

" igitur Umbræ Defunctorum? Que Subftantia "Earum, qui Locus? Sed maledicendi Cupiditate "Fauftus quid profiteretur, oblitus eft: Aut for"tè dormitans Umbras fomniando dictavit, nec, "cum Verba fua legeret, evigilavit: Populus "autem Chriftianus Memorias Martyrum religi"ofa Sollemnitate concelebrat, & ad excitandam "Imitationem, & ut Meritis eorum confocietur, " atque Orationibus adjuvetur: Ita tamen ut "Nulli Martyrum, fed ipfi Deo Martyrum, "quamvis in Memorijs Martyrum, conftituamus "Altaria. Quis enim Antiftitum in Locis Sanc"torum Corporum affiftens Altari, aliquando "dixit; Offerimus tibi Petre, aut Paule, aut Cypriane: Sed quod offertur, offertur Deo qui "Martyres coronavit apud Memorias eorum "quos coronavit; ut ex ipforum Locorum Ad

monitione inajor Affectus exfurgat, ad acuen"dam Charitatem, & in illos quos imitari poffu"mus, & in illum, quo Adjuvante, poffumus. "Colimus ergo Martyres eo Cultu Dilectionis "& Societatis, quo & in hac Vita Coluntur "Sancti Homines Dei, quorum Cor ad talem

66

pro Evangelica Veritate Paffionem paratum "effe fentimus. Sed illos tanto devotiùs, quan"to fecuriùs poft Certamina fuperata: Quanto "etiam fidentiore Laude prædicamus, jam in "Vita feliciore Victores, quam in ifta adhuc

ufque pugnantes. At illo Cultu, quæ Græcè "Latreia dicitur, Latinè uno Verbo dici non "poteft, cuni fit quædam propriè Divinitati "debita fervitus, nec colimus nec colendum do"cemus, nifi unum Deum. Cum autem ad hunc "Cultum pertineat Oblatio Sacrificij, unde Ido"lolatria dicitur eorum, qui hoc etiam Idolis ex

hibent, nullo modo tale aliquid offerimus,

"aut

aut offerendum præcipimus, vel cuiquam Mar"tyri, vel cuiquam Sancte Animæ, vel cuiquam "Angelo: Et quifquis in hunc Errorem delabitur, corripitur per fanam Doctrinam, five ut "corrigatur, five ut caveatur."

For as to the Calumny caft on us by Fauftus, because we honour the Memory of the Martyrs, faying: We have chang'd the Idols into Martyrs, I am not so much concern'd to answer it, as I am to shew that Fauftus himself has, out of a defire of Calumniating, exceeded the Follies of Manichæus himself, and has unwarily, Iknow not bow, fallen in wit the Vulgar and Poetical Opinion of the Pagans, from which he covets to be efteem'd very much averfe. For when he had faid, that we have chang'd the Idols into Martyrs, whom you worship, fays he, with like Service, and appease the fhades of the Dead with Wine and Meats: There are then fades of the Dead. This we never heard in your Sermons, never read in your Writings: Nay ye ufe to contradict fuch Opinions, afferting that the evil Souls of the Dead, and thofe that are lefs purify'd eiTrant ther go into Revolutions, or into fome more migrati grievous Pains; that the good Souls are put in

op.

to Ships, and failing to Heaven, pafs hence into that Phantom of Land of Light, in fighting for which they died: No Souls then are detain'd about the Sepulchers of their Bodies: Whence then come the fhades of the Dead? What is their Subftance, what their Place? But Fauftus out of a Defire of speaking Evil forgot what he professeth. Or perhaps, as he slept, he wrote Shades in his Dream, nor did he awake when he read his own Words. The Chriftian People indeed do celebrate the Memory of the Martyrs, with a Reli

*

licks o

gious Solemnity, both to excite themselves to an Imitation of the Martyrs, to have a Jhare in their Merits, and be affifted by their Prayers. Yet fa as not to erect Altars to any Martyr, but to the very God of Martyrs tho' in the Memory's of Altars the Martyrs For who of the Prelates affifting at on which the Altar in the Places of the Body's of the Saints the Reever fail : We offer unto thee O Peter, or Paul, the Mar or Cyprian? But that which is offer'd, is offer'd tyrs were to God, who crown'd the Martyrs, at the Me placed. mory's of the Martyr's whom he crown'd; to the End that being admonish'd by thofe Places, a greater Defire may be fir'd up in them, both to whet their Love towards them, whom we may imitate, and towards † him by whofe Help, we God t fhall be able to imitate them. We worship then the Martyrs with t at Worship of Love and Fellowship wherewith the Holy Men of God are worship'd in this Life, whofe Hearts we perceive to be prepar'd to fuffer the like Paffion for the Truth of the Goffel. But the Martyrs we worSkip fo much the more devoutly, by how much we may do it with more fecurity after their Victory, and by how much we may with a more confident Praile extol them, as Victors in a happy Life, than thofe as yet fighting in this. But with that Worship, which in Greek is call'd Latreia, but in Latii cannot be exprefs'd in one Word; fince it is a certain Service properly due to the Divinity, we neither worship nor teach to be worshipp'd but one God. And whereas unto this Worship appertains the Oblation of a Sacrifice, whence Idolatry is faid to be committed by those who exhibit it to Idols, we do by no Means offer any fuch, or command to be offer'd, either to any Marty, or to any boly Soul, or to any Angel: And

whoever

whoever falls into this Error, he is check'd by wholefome Doctrine, in order to be corrected, or to be avoided.

Now, My Lord, I beg leave to ask your Grace, whether St. Aufin doth not justify our Practice, with Refpect to the Worship we exhibit to Martyrs, and Saints, in order to obtain for us, Help and Affiftance from God in our Neceffities? And whether St. Auftin was not a competent Witness of the Practice of the whole Catholick Church of his Time? Or whether he himself would not rather condemn and abhor fuch a Practice, if he had not believ'd it to have been lawful, and the Senfe of the whole Catholick Church? And if it was good and Orthodox when he liv'd, now thirteen hundred Years ago, why not so in our Days?

IN

CHA P. III.

Of the Pope's Supremacy.

IN the fixth Paragraph, your Grace returns again to the Questions put by the Prieft, and the Anfwers made by the Convert. In the fe. venth you are pleas'd to tell us, that what you have faithfully extracted out of our Rituals, "is fufficient to fhew what that Faith and Religion is, upon the Profeffion of which alone, every Perfon is, by the Sacrament of Baptifm "to be admitted as a Member of our Church: "And when an Infant is brought to be baptized, "his Sureties in his Name make the very fame, "and no other Profeffion."

In