CHAPTER XXIV.

Of the Invocation of Angels and Saints.

Q. What are the doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church, with regard to the invocation of angels and saints?

A. We hold it to be pious and profitable to apply ourselves to them, in the way of desiring them to pray to God for us; but not so as to address ourselves to them, as if they were the authors or dispensers of pardon, grace, or salvation; or as if they had any power to help us independently of God's good-will and pleasure. Q. But in some of the addresses made to the saints or angels, I find petitions for mercy, aid or defence; what say you to that?

A. The meaning of those addresses, as far as they are authorized by the Church, is no other than to beg mercy of the saints in this sense, that they would pity and compassionate our misery, and would pray for us. In like manner, when we beg their aid and defence, we mean to beg the aid and defence of their prayers; and that the angels to whom God has given charge over us, would assist us and defend us against the angels of darkness. And this is no more than what the Protestant Church asks in the collect for Michaelmas Day, praying, that as the holy angels always serve God in heaven, so by His appointment they may succor and defend us upon earth.

Q. Have you any reason to believe that it is pious and profitable to beg the prayers of the saints and angels?

A. We have the same reason to desire the saints and angels to pray for us, and to believe it profitable so to do, as we have to desire the prayers of God's servants here upon earth; or as St. Paul had to desire so often the prayers of the faithful, to whom he wrote his epistles. (See Rom. xv: 30; Ephes. VI: 18, 19; 1 Thess. v: 25; Heb. xm: 18.) For if it be pious and profitable to desire the prayers of sinners here upon earth (for all men here upon earth must acknowledge themselves sinners) how can it be otherwise than pious and profitable to desire the prayers of saints and angels in heaven? Is it that the saints and angels in heaven have less charity for us than the faithful upon earth? This cannot be, since charity never faileth (1 Cor. XIII: 8), and instead of being diminished is increased in heaven. Or is it that the saints and angels of heaven have less interest with God than the faithful upon earth? Neither can this be said, for as they are far more holy and pure, and more closely united to His divine Majesty than the faithful upon earth, so must their interest in heaven be proportionably greater. Or is it, in fine, that the saints and angels have no knowledge of what passes upon earth, and therefore are not to be addressed for their prayers? Neither is this true, since our Lord assures, that "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth" (St. Luke xv: 10), which could not be if the citizens of heaven knew nothing of what passes here upon earth.

Q. Have you any instances in Scripture of the angels or saints praying for us, or offering up our prayers to God?

A. Yes: (Zachar. 1: 12) "The angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord

of host! how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years. (Rev. v: 8) "The four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints." (Rev. VIII: 3, 4) "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hands."

Q. Have you any instances in Scripture of asking the blessing or prayers of angels or saints?

A. (Gen. XLVII: 15, 16) "God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long until this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless these boys." (Rev. 1: 4) "Grace be unto you, and peace from Him Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before His throne." But if there had been no instances in Scripture, both reason and religion must inform us that there cannot possibly be any harm in desiring the prayers of God's servants, whether they be in heaven or upon earth. Q. At least there is no command in Scripture for desiring the prayers of the angels or saints; what say you to this?

A. The Scripture did not command St. Paul to desire the prayers of the Romans, nor does it command a child to ask his father's blessing, nor the faithful to kneel at their prayers, or pull off their hats when they go to church, yet these things are no less commendable, as being agreeable to the principles of piety and religion, and so it is with regard to the invocation of the saints and angels. In the meantime, we are sure that there is no law nor command in Scripture against any of these things, and consequently they are guilty of a crying injustice, who accuse us of a crime for begging the prayers of the saints, for "where there is no law, there is no transgression." (Rom. IV: 15.)

Q. Does not God say (Isaiah XLII: 8), "I will not give My glory to another?" A. Yes: but that makes nothing against desiring the saints to pray to God for us; for this is no more robbing God of His honor, than when we desire the prayers of the faithful here below.

Q. But does it not argue a want of confidence in God's mercy, to have recourse to the prayers of the saints?

A. No, by no means; no more than it argues a want of confidence in God's mercy, to have recourse to the prayers of our brethren upon earth. The truth is, though God be infinitely merciful and ready to hear our prayers, yet it is our duty and His will, that we should neglect no means by which we may be forwarded in our progress to a happy eternity: and therefore it is agreeable to His Divine Majesty, that we should both pray ourselves without ceasing, and that we should also procure the prayers of our brethren, whether in heaven or on earth, that He may have the honor, and we the profit of so many more prayers.

Q. Have you any proof or instances in Scripture that God will more readily hear His servants when they intercede for us, than if we alone were to address ourselves to Him?

A. Yes: (Job XLII: 7, 8) the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks, and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, like my servant Job."

Q. But is it not an injury to the mediatorship of Christ to desire the intercession of the angels and saints?

A. No more than when we desire the intercession of God's servants here; because we desire no more of the saints than we do of our brethren upon earth, that is, we only desire of them to pray for us, and with us, to Him that is both our Lord and their Lord, by the merits of His Son, Jesus Christ, who is both our Mediator and their Mediator.

Q. Does not St. Paul say (1 Tim. 1: 5), "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ"; and does not this exclude the intercession of the saints?

A. The words immediately following are, "Who gave Himself a ransom for all"; so that the plain meaning of the text is, that Christ alone is our Mediator of redemption. But as for intercession and prayer, as nothing hinders us from seeking the mediation of the faithful upon earth to pray for us, so nothing ought to hinder us from seeking the like from the saints and angels, though neither the one nor the other can obtain anything for us any other way than through Jesus Christ, who is the only Mediator that stands in need of no other to recommend His petitions. Q. Have you anything else to add in favor of the Catholic doctrine and practice of the invocation of saints?

A. Yes; first, that it is agreeable to the "communion of saints," which we profess in the creed and of which the Apostle speaks (Heb. xII: 22, 23, 24), "Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant," etc.

Second, that it is agreeable to the doctrine and practice of the ancient fathers, saints, and doctors of the Church, and this by the confession even of our adversaries. "I confess," says Mr. Fulk, in his Rejoinder to Brislow, p. 5, "that Ambrose, Augustine, and Hierome held invocation of the saints to be lawful"; and upon 2 Pet. I., sect. 3, fol. 443, that in Nazianzen, Basil and Chrysostom is mention of invocation of saints, and that Theodoret also speaks of prayers to the martyrs; and the Centuriators of Magdeburg in their Fourth Century, col. 295, allege several examples of prayers to saints in St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Ambrose, Prudentius, St. Epiphanius, and St. Ephrem. All which fathers, together with St. Augustine, St. Jerome, etc., are also charged by Mr. Brightman (in Apocalypse, chap. 14, p. 382) of establishing idolatry by invocation of saints, worshipping of relics, and such like wicked superstitions. And Mr. Thorndyke, in Epilog. par. 3, P. 358, writes thus: "It is confessed that the lights both of the

Greek and Latin church, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Gregory Nyssene, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret, St. Fulgentius, St. Gregory the Great, St. Leo, and more or rather all after that time, have spoken to the saints, and desired their assistance." (See Melancthon, quarta Parta Operum, p. 218; Kemnitius, Exam, par. 3, p. 200; Beza, in Præf. Nov. Test.; Archbishop Whitgift's Defence against Cartwright, p. 473; and Daille, Advers. Lat. Tradit, p. 53-)

Third, that it stands upon the same bottom as all other Christian truths, viz., upon the authority of the Church of Christ, which the Scripture commands us to hear, with which both Christ and His holy Spirit will remain for ever, and against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. See St. Matt. XVI. 18; XVII. 17; XXVIII. 20; St. Luke x. 16; St. John XIV. 16, 17, 26; and XVI. 13.

Fourth, that it has been authorized by God Himself, by innumerable miracles in every age, wrought in favor of those that have desired the prayers and intercession of the saints. See St. Augustine's City of God (1. 22, c. 8).

Q. But what do you say to Coloss. II. 18, where St. Paul condemns the religion or worship of angels; and to Rev. XIX. 10, where the angel refused to be worshipped by St. John?

A. I say that neither one nor the other makes anything against desiring the angels or saints to pray to God for us, for this is not giving them any adoration, or divine worship, no more than when we desire the prayers of one another. Now, it was adoration, or divine worship which the angel refused to receive from St. John. (Rev. XIX) "I fell at His feet to worship Him," says the Apostle; and it was "a superstitious worship," and not the desiring the prayers of the angels, which is condemned by St. Paul, Coloss., "a superstitious worship," I say, either of bad angels, of whom the Apostle speaks, ver. 15, or of good angels, in such a manner as to leave "Christ not holding His head," says the Apostle, ver. 19. Such was the worship which many of the philosophers (against whom St. Paul warns the Colossians, ver. 3) paid to angels or demons to whom they offered sacrifices, as to the necessary carriers of intelligence between the gods and men. Such also was the worship which Simon Magus and many of the Gnostics paid to the angels, whom they held to be the creators of the world. (See Theodoret, l. 5, Hær. Fah., c. 9.) Q. What do you think of making addresses to the angels or saints upon our knees? Is not this giving them divine worship?

A. No more than when we desire the blessing of our fathers or mothers upon our knees; which is indeed the very case, since what we ask of our parents, when we desire their blessing, is that they would pray to God for us; and this same we ask of the angels and saints.

Q. But is it not giving to the angels and saints the attributes of God, viz., the omniscience and omnipresence, that is, knowing all things, and being everywhere, if they suppose that they can hear or know all our addresses made to them?

A. No: we neither believe the angels or saints to be everywhere, nor yet to have the knowledge of all things, though we make no question but they know our prayers, since the Scripture assures us that they offer them up to God. (Rev. VII. 8 and VIII. 3, 4).

If you ask me how they can know our prayers without being everywhere, and

knowing all things, I answer, that there are many ways by which they may know them.

First, the angels may know them by being amongst us in quality of our guardians; and the saints may know them by the angels, whose conversation they enjoy.

Second, both angels and saints may see them and know them in God, whom they continually see and enjoy, or by revelation from God, as in God they see the repentance of sinners. (St. Luke xv. 10). For they that see God face to face, by the light of glory, discern all His divine attributes, and in them innumerable secrets impenetrable to nature. And therefore, though they themselves are not everywhere, yet, by contemplating Him that sees and knows all things, they have a vast extent of knowledge of things that pass here below. "In Thy light shall we see light," says the Royal Prophet. (Psalm xxxv., alias XXXVI. 9) And "we shall be like to Him," says St. John (I John m. 2), "for we shall see Him as He is." For "now we see," says St. Paul (I Cor. XIII. 12), "through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known."

Third, both angels and saints may know our petitions addressed to them, by the ordinary way by which spirits speak to one another and hear one another, and that is, by our directing our thoughts to them with a desire of opening our minds to them; for we cannot otherwise understand or explain the speech and conversation of spirits, who, having neither tongue nor ears, must converse together by the directing of their thoughts to one another. Now this kind of conversation by the thoughts may extend to ever so great a distance, as being independent on sound and all other corporal qualities, and consequently independent on distance.

Besides all this, the saints, whilst they were here upon earth, knew very well the miseries we labor under in this vale of tears; they also knew that good Christians earnestly desired to be helped by the prayers of God's saints; and as they knew this whilst they were here upon this earth, so they know it still. Consequently, as their charity prompts them to pray for the faithful in general, so it is not to be doubted but they pray more particularly for those who stand most in necessity of their prayers, or most earnestly desire their prayers; it being the property of charity, which is perfect in heaven, to act in this manner. Hence it follows that, though we were even to suppose that the saints did not know in particular our addresses, yet it would still be profitable to desire their prayers, because they certainly pray for Christians in general, and for those more particularly who desire the help of their prayers.

In fine, the experience of eighteen hundred years, and the innumerable favors that have been granted in every age to those that have desired the prayers of the angels and saints, have convinced the Church of God, that this devotion is both pleasing to God and profitable to us; and therefore we may dispense with ourselves from a curious enquiry into the manner of their knowing our requests, since we find by experience so great benefit from them.

Q. Does not the prophet Isaiah say (chap. LXIII. 16), that "Abraham is ignorant of us ?"

A. His meaning is plain, that the fatherly care and providence of God over His people were infinitely beyond that of Abraham and Israel, who were their parents according to the flesh. "Doubtless Thou art our Father," says the prophet,