An Exposition of the Last Psalme | Page 2

diei in die suo, the worke of the day[m] in the same day it was wrought; it is well ordered by the Church of England, that the most illustrious and remarkable qualities of the saints are celebrated vpon their proper festiuals, that on S. Stephens day, we may learne by S. Stephens example to loue our enemies: on S. Matthewes day, to forsake the world and to follow Christ: on S. Iohn the Baptist his day, to speake the truth constantly, and to suffer for the same patiently. Thus in stedfastnes of faith and godlinesse of life (_non legere mod�� sed degere sanctorum vitas_, as [n]one wittily) to bee followers of them as they were followers of Christ; is (as [o]blessed Latymer was wont to say) the right worshipping of Saints, and of God in his Saints.
[Sidenote g: _Iames 1. 17._]
[Sidenote h: _1. Pet. 5. 10._]
[Sidenote i: _1. Cor. 15. 10._]
[Sidenote k: _Euseb. Emisen. hom. de S. Maximo._]
[Sidenote l: _See Harmon. confess. sect. 16. pag. 486._]
[Sidenote m: _Maior pr?sat. in Psal. 22._]
[Sidenote n: _Owin epigram. lib. 3._]
[Sidenote o: _Ser. on Christmas day preached at Bexterly, & ser. on S. Stephens day at Grimstorpe._]
Againe, for as much as there is a communion of Saints, as we c?fesse in the Creed, a knot of fellowship betweene the dead Saints and the liuing; it is our dutie to praise God for their good in particular, as they[p] pray to God for our good in generall. It is required on our part I say, to giue God most humble thanks for translating th{~e} out of this [q]valley of teares into Hierusalem aboue, where they be [r]clothed with long white robes, hauing palmes in their hands, and [s]crownes of gold on their heads, euer liuing in that happie kingdome without either dying or crying, Apocal. 21. 4. and this also (in the iudgment of Augustine, Hierome, Hugo, _Raynerius,_ and other) is to praise God in his Saints.
[Sidenote p: _Apocal._ 6. 10.]
[Sidenote q: _Psal._ 84. 6.]
[Sidenote r: _Apocal._ 7. 9.]
[Sidenote s: _Apocal._ 4. 4.]
These reasons are the grounds of certaine holy daies established in England by law, namely to blesse God for his Saints eminent grace while they were liuing, and exceeding glorie now they be dead. Wherein our Church ascribes not any diuine worship to the Saints, but all due praise to the sanctifier: in celebrating their memorie (saith _Augustine_) we neither adore their honour, nor implore their helpe: but (according to the tenour of our text) wee praise him alone, [t]who made them both men and martyrs. In the words of [u]Hierome to _Riparius_: _Honoramus reliquias martyrum, vt eum cuius sunt martyres adoremus: honoramus seruos, vt honor seruorum redundet ad dominum:_ If thou desire to doe right vnto the Saints, esteeme them as paternes, and not as patrones of thy life; honour them only so farre, [x]that thou maist alway praise God in them, and praise them in God.
[Sidenote t: _De ciuit. lib._ 8. _cap._ 27.]
[Sidenote u: _Tom._ 2 _fol._ 118]
[Sidenote x: _Philip Morn?us de missa, lib. 3 cap. 11. See Melanct. resp. ad art. Bauar. art. 25._]
The gunpowder men erre very much in this one kinde of honouring God, for either they worship his Saints as himselfe, or else their owne saintlings, and not his Saints. In praying to the dead, in mingling the blood of their martyrs with the precious blood of their Maker, in applying their merits, and relying vpon their mercies; it is plaine that they make the Saints (as Melancthon tels them in his [y]Apologie for the Confession of _Auspurge_) quartermasters with God, and halfe mediatours with Christ, I say ioynt mediatours not of incercession only but of [z]redemption also. Nay they make the blessed Virgin vpon the poynt their only mediatrix and aduocate, so they sing, and so they say. They sing in their publique seruice, [aa]_Maria mater grati?, mater misericordi?_, &c. the which is Gods owne stile, 1. Pet. 1. 10. & 2. Cor. 1. 3. so they likewise say, _Maria consolatio infirmorum, redemptio captiuorum, liberatio damnatorum, salus vniuersorum._ [ab]_Giselbertus in lib. altercationis Synagog? et ecclesi?, cap. 20. Maria quasi maria_, saith Augustinus de Leonissa, sermon 5 vpon Aue maria, for as all riuers come from the seas, and returne to the seas againe, Ecclesiastes 1. 7: [ac]so forsooth (if you will vndertake to beleeue him) all grace is deriued from Mary, and ought to be returned again to Mary. We finde so much _in [ad]Rosario Mari?, reparatrix & saluatrix desperantis anim?_, &c. That which is worse, their owne Pope (who cannot, as they teach, erre in a poynt of doctrine as Pope) calleth her expresly Deam. _Pet. Bembus_ in his epistles written in Pope _Leo 10._ name, _lib. 8. epist. 17._ printed at _Strasburg an. 1609._ that which is worst of all, in their most approued