CHAPTER VI.
SAINT-WORSHIP, IMAGE-WORSHIP, RELIC-WORSHIP, CROSS-WORSHIP.
I SHALL next examine the doctrine and practice of Saint-worship, Image-worship, Relic-worship, and Cross-worship.
I. In exhibiting the tenets of the Romish Church and Clergy on these several points, I shall successively give: the decision of the council of Trent; the comments of some of the most approved Latin Doctors; and the actual practice of the Romanists themselves as the best explanation of their received tenets.
1. Let us first hear the decision of the Council of Trent.
All Bishops, and others who discharge the duty of teaching, must diligently instruct the faithful, concerning the intercession and invocation of the Saints, the honouring of Relics, and the legitimate use of Images.
For this purpose, they must teach them: that the Saints, reigning with Christ, offer up their prayers to God for men; and that it is good and useful, suppliantly to invoke them, and to flee to their prayers and assistance for the purpose of obtaining benefits from God through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who is our only Redeemer and Saviour.
Furthermore, they must teach them: that those, who deny that the Saints in heaven ought to be invoked, or who assert either that they do not pray for men or that the invoking of them to pray for us is idolatry or that it is contrary to God’s word and adverse to the honour of Jesus Christ the only mediator between God and man or that it is foolish by voice or in mind to supplicate those who reign in heaven, think impiously.
They must also teach them: that the holy bodies of the Saints and Martyrs and others living with Christ are to be venerated by the faithful, through which many benefits are afforded from God to men; so that the affirmers, that veneration and honour are not due to the Relics of the Saints, or that these and other sacred monuments are uselessly honoured by the faithful, or that it is vain to celebrate the memories of the Saints for the purpose of obtaining their assistance, are wholly to be condemned, as the Church long since condemned and still condemns them.
Likewise, they must teach them: that the Images of Christ and of the Virgin Mother of God and of the other Saints are especially to be had and retained in Churches, and that due honour and veneration are to be paid to them; not that any divinity or virtue, on account of which they ought to be worshipped, is believed to be inherent in them; or that any thing is to be sought from them; or that trust is to be placed in Images, as was formerly done by the Gentiles, who placed their hope in Idols; but because the honour, which is paid to them, is referred to the originals which they represent; so that, through the Images which we kiss and before which we uncover our heads and bow down prostrate, we adore Christ and venerate the Saints whose similitude they bear. [45]
2. Let us next, upon the doctrinal and practical system of the professedly unchangeable Church of Rome, hear the comments of some of the most approved Latin Doctors both before and after the Council of Trent.