Of the invocation of the saints.
Is it true that the papists allow the invocation of the saints?
This does not require much questioning, experience bears witness to it. Do we not hear the saints invoked every day, is it not said in their litany: St. Michael pray for us, St. Augustine pray for us, all the holy martyrs, pray for us. How every country, every city, every faculty, every art, every disease had special saints in the papacy can be read in the Catechism of Dr. Polycarp Leyser, “Against the Papacy”. Now I will only introduce one or two testimonies. A papal scribe, Caspar Schatzgeyer, writes thus: "The saints who reign with Christ in the fatherland are permitted to appeal to me very meritoriously, so that they may prove two kinds of good deeds to us. The first is that they represent us before God. The other, that they may help us either visibly or invisibly.
The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary was printed in Venice by Johannem de Hallis, and subsequently reprinted in Paris and Leipzig, in which the Blessed Virgin is asked for the favors that King David asked of God. Among others are these words:
In you, most holy Virgin Mary, I trust, never let me be ashamed, receive me in your graces, incline your ears to me and rejoice in my sadness, you are my strength and my protection. I cried out to you when my heart was troubled and you heard me from the top of the eternal mountains. Into your hands, holy Mother of God, I commend my soul, my whole life and my last hour, etc... This is rightly called the saints, and those who live under the papacy know that this is all too true and all too common among the papists.
Is it wrong to invoke the departed saints?
If the invocation of the saints has no express basis in all sacred Scripture, it is easy to consider
that it is unjust. Now some of the papists themselves confess that this invocation of the saints is not expressly contained either in the Old or in the New Testament. Thus Eck, the well-known and distinguished papist, writes:
Explicite non est praecepta Sanctorum Invocatio in sacris literis: Non in veteri Testamento, ubi populus alioquin erat propensus in idololatriam: & Patres erant in Limbo, nondum Beati, Isa 63. Abraham nesciuit nos, & Israel ignoravit nos. Sub Evangelio etiam non fuit praeceptum, ne gentiles conversi, crederent se iterum induci ad cultum terrigenarum, ut pro veteri more, Sanctos, non ut Patronos, sed ut Deos adorassent. Sicuti Lycaoniae Paulo & Barnabae sacrificare volebant. Porro si Apostoli & Evangelistae docuissent Sanctos venerandos, arrogantiae datum eis fuisset, ac si ipsi post mortem, gloriam illam quae sivissent. Noluit ergo Spiritus St. Expressis Scripturis docere venerationem Sanctorum.
That is saying so much in German:
The invocation of the saints is not expressly commanded in the Holy Scriptures, not in the Old Testament; for there the people without were inclined to idolatry, and the fathers in lymbo, in limbo, were not yet saved. Isaiah on 63 [:16]: Abraham knows nothing of us and Israel does not know us. Nor was it commanded under the Gospel, lest the converted Gentiles should think that they were being led back to their former idolatry, that they were again invoking the saints according to their old custom, not as patrons and patron saints, but as gods, as they would sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas in the land of Lycaonia. Furthermore, if the apostles and evangelists had taught that the saints should be venerated, it might have been reckoned to them as an ambition, as if they had wanted and desired such honor after their death. Therefore, the Holy Spirit did not want to teach the invocation of the saints with explicit words. Up to this point Eck. We take it for granted.
Can other reasons be given to prove that the invocation of the saints is unjust?
This can be enforced with many and impressive reasons.
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First of all, God commands us to worship him alone, to come to him. In the 6th chapter of the fifth book of Moses and the 4th chapter of Matthew [:10]: You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.
In the 50th Psalm [:15]: Call upon me in the time of trouble, and I will deliver you and you shall praise me.
Joel 2 [:32]: It shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And Christ says in Matthew 11 [:28]: "Come to me (not to the saints), all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
And how God is angered by the invocation of foreign gods can be seen from the following passage:
Jeremiah 2 [:5-13]: What have your fathers lacked in me, that they have departed from me, and cleave unto idols? Go to the island of Chittim and send to Kedar, and see whether it is so there, whether the nations change their gods, though they are not gods. And my people change their holiness for a useless idol. Let the heavens be astonished, terrified and trembling. My people forsake the living fountain, and dig fountains that have holes and hold no water.
Secondly, God alone hears, our prayer comes before him, our prayer is valid before him, not before the saints.
Psalm 141: Lord, let my prayer be acceptable before you (not before the saints).
Psalm 145 [:18]: The Lord (not the saints) is near to all who call on him.
Solomon in Proverbs, chapter 18 [:10-13]: The name of the Lord is a stronghold; the righteous run to it (namely, to the name of the Lord, not of the saints) and are protected.
Sirach in chapter 35 [:21-26]: The prayer of the wretched penetrates the clouds and does not cease until it comes, and does not cease until the Most High (that is God, not the saints) sees it.
Thirdly, we cannot call upon the departed saints, because they know nothing of us living ones in particular (in specie), as the people confess so clearly in the 64th chapter of Isaiah, where they say to God [sic: Isaiah 63:16]: If you
(God) are our Father, Abraham knows nothing of us, and Israel (or Jacob) does not know us. But you, Lord, are our Father and our Redeemer, from ancient times this is your (not the saints') name. In particular, because the prayer of the faithful is sometimes done in the heart with sighs, it is impossible for the departed saints to look into one's heart, for this is due to God alone. As it says in the 8th chapter of the first book of Kings [:39]: Thou alone knowest the hearts of all the children of men, that they may fear thee always, as long as they live upon the earth.
Fourthly, if we are to call on the saints, we must also believe in them. As St. Paul says to the Romans on the 10th [:14]: How will they call on him in whom they do not believe? Now the clever papists themselves consider it wrong that one should believe in the saints.
Fifthly, we are moved by the examples of Holy Scripture, since only God, only God, only God alone has been invoked. And although the saints were invoked, we read:
In the sixth place, that she does not tolerate such things, as is especially well exemplified in the 19th chapter of the Revelation of St. John. St. John falls down before an angel to worship him. The angel refuses such honor, saying to John [:10 ]: See, do not do it. I am your fellow servant and of your brothers and those who have the testimony of Jesus. What can be raised against this reason?
The Jesuits say that they call on the saints not as emergency helpers, but as mediators.
Let it be so, then, though the contradiction be worldly, yet it is wrong to think of the saints as mediators; for thus St. Paul says in the first epistle to Timothy, chapter 2 [:5]: There is but one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.
Some say they call on the saints as intercessors.
This expedient is just as useless as the previous one. Scripture points us only to one Advocate, Christ, and not to others, as it is written in the first epistle of John 2 [:1]: If any man sin, we have an Advocate with
the Father Jesus Christ. Rom. 8 [:34]: Christ sits at the right hand of God and represents us. And how are the deceased to be our advocates, since they themselves need an advocate, Jesus Christ?
Some say that they invoke the saints because of their merits, so that they may be heard.
This worship is even ungodly. Scripture instructs us that we should not base our prayers on the merit of our own works or those of the saints who have died, but solely on the mercy of God, on the name and merit of Jesus Christ. So it says in the 9th chapter of Daniel [:18]:
We lie before you with our prayer, not for our righteousness, but for your great mercy. Christ says, John chapter 14 [:13]: If you ask anything in my name, I will give it to you. And John 16 [:23]: Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you.
So this must be called false worship, if one prays in the name and merit of men, in the name and merit of the saints, as S. Mariae, S. Petri, S. Pauli, S. Nicolai, and the like.
The popes, to whitewash their invocation, say that God is too angry with us and therefore we must repay him through the saints.
That God is angry with impenitent sinners is not denied, but that the saints should appease the wrath of God is not; but only our Lord Christ Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace, who reconciles us to God. And let us now speak of the prayer of pious, penitent sinners, on whom God is not angry, but lavishes his grace upon them. This is why David says in Psalm 103 [:8-11]: The Lord is merciful and gracious, patient and of great kindness; he will not always be angry, nor will he endure wrath forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities; for as high as the heavens are above the earth, he shows mercy to those who fear him. As far as the morning is from the evening, he puts away our transgression. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
In the 145th Psalm [:8]: Gracious and merciful is the Lord, patient and of great kindness.
God is not as grumpy as the grumblers want to make him out to be. This is why the epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 2 writes of Christ [:17]: Therefore he had to become like his brothers in all things, so that he might become merciful and a faithful high priest before God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
But it is too much that Christ should always pray for us, he is far too high and glorious.
We certainly do not deserve this good deed of Christ, but Christ wants to show it to us and does not consider himself too worthy to make intercession for us. As it says in the epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 7 [:25]: He is able to save forever those who come to God through him, and he lives forever and prays for them.
St. Paul to the Romans in chapter 8 [:34]: Who will condemn? Christ is here, who died; yea rather, who is also risen, who is at the right hand of God, and standeth for us.
One must be afraid and shy to call on God at all times, but one is not so afraid of the saints.
It is no favor at all to the pious God if we have a servile fear and do not come to him as our father and brother with childlike trust. He wants us to call upon him and pray to him, even to knock on his door. This is why the epistle to the Hebrews on the 5th says [:15-16]: We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but one who is tempted in all things like as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with joy to the mercy seat, that we may receive mercy and find grace for the time when we need help.
One may not come before worldly kings and princes oneself, but through their servants and counselors.
This is the use of the world, the use of man. But God is not like man. And Christ says, John 18 [:36]: My kingdom is not of this world.
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And Luke 17 [:20]: The kingdom of God does not come with outward appearances. Therefore it is no wonder that things are much, much, much different in the kingdom of God than in the kingdom of men, with the heavenly prince than with the earthly prince.
Hosea 2 [sic: 11:9]: I am God and not man.
Isaiah 55 [:8]: My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. But what God's thoughts are of true calling, he has revealed in His Word.
Absalom did not immediately come before the father, even though he was reconciled to him. So we too must come to Christ again through the saints.
This is just like the previous one. In the 15th chapter of Luke [:20] we read that the father himself runs to meet the prodigal son, and does not wait for the intercession of others. So it must not be that we allow ourselves to be interceded for by the saints; God himself runs to meet us, stretches out his hands and will graciously hear us.
Adonijah did not want to come to Solomon himself, but sent his mother first, who was set at the right hand of King Solomon. So we also send the mother of Christ first.
As I said before, I repeat it again: Christ Jesus does not make use of worldly princes, kings or lords, before whom they make much intercession. But before God there is only the intercession of Jesus Christ, and nothing else. Beyond this, Adonias did nothing through his mother. From this it would follow that nothing fruitful was accomplished through the mother of Christ either.
Luke 16 [:24]: The rich man addresses Abraham and not God.
Well, shall we now learn the form of prayer from the damned godless hellhound, the rich glutton? Is that so praiseworthy? What did the rich man accomplish with his request? Nothing anywhere. So we will also achieve nothing by invoking the saints.
How often are intercessions commanded to be made, 1 Timothy. 2, James 5, Rom. 15, Col. 4.
That the living should pray for the living is commanded in Scripture, and the passages quoted
refer to this. But that we should pray for the dead is not commanded. Because we are alive, we can pray for one another if we know their need. But when we have died, we can no longer help one another because we are not aware of our neighbor's needs, groans and concerns.
For it is often said in Scripture that the living worshiped one another, how much more shall we worship the saints in heaven?
I know very well what this objection is about. Scripture says of Abraham that he worshipped the Hittites, of Jacob that he worshipped Esau, of Nathan that he worshipped David, of Solomon that he worshipped his mother. But this is a phrasis Hebraea, a way of speaking in Scripture, which means as much as to humble oneself before someone, to do outward honor to someone, of which worship is not spoken in this article.
Is it right to honor the saints?
They are not to be worshipped, but they can be honored, so that their faith and good works may be praised and they may be followed, for the righteous shall never be forgotten, in the 112th Psalm [:6]. The epistle to the Hebrews, in the 13th chapter, refers to this with these words [:7]: Remember your teachers, who have spoken the word of God to you, and follow their faith.
Because one is not allowed to call upon the saints, one is much less allowed to call upon the images.
Of course, it should not be whether it already happens in the papacy. For thus it is written in the 20th chapter of the Exodus [:4-5]: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Do not worship them or serve them.
In the third book of Moses in the 19th chapter [Leviticus 19:4]: You shall not turn to idols, neither shall you make molten gods, for I am the Lord your God.
In the first epistle to the Corinthians in chapter 10 [:14]: Flee from idolatry.
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In the first epistle of John in chapter 5 [:21]: Beware of idolatry.
The popes say that they do not worship the images, but the one who is meant by the image.
This is contrary to public practice: if they do not worship the images themselves, why do they prefer to go to this image of Mary rather than to that image of Mary? In addition, it is not only wrong that they worship the image of Mary, but that they worship Mary, because the invocation is due to God alone, as has been previously reported and proven. But that it may be evident that the most distinguished papists themselves have publicly taught that the images are to be worshipped just as much as those indicated by the images, I will add one or two testimonies from their books:
Thomas de Aquino, who is one of the most distinguished, writes thus: parte 3. q. 25. art. 3:
Omnis imago est veneranda, sicud illud, cujus est imago. Cum ergo Christus adoretur adoratione Latriae, consequens est, quod ejus imago sit adoranda adoratione Latriae.
That is:
Every image is to be worshipped in the same way as the image of which it is made. If, then, Christ is worshipped with the worship due to the divine majesty alone, it follows that his image should also be worshipped with the same divine worship.
Bonaventura super Sent. lib. 3. D. 9. Q. 2. writes thus:
Quoniam ergo imago Christi introducta est, ad repraesentandum eum, qui pro nobis crucifixus est, nec offert se nobis pro se, sed pro illo, ideo omnis reverentia, quae ei offertur, offertur Christo, & propterea imagini Christi debet cultus Latriae exhiberi.
That is:
But Christ's image was introduced for this reason, to represent and present to us the one who was crucified for us, and does not present himself to us for himself, but for Christ, so that the reverence and devotion shown and offered to him is shown and offered to Christ. Therefore divine honor is due to the image of Christ, so that God himself may be honored.
What use is all this to me?
First, learn from this how you should pray rightly, namely, that you invoke God alone as your Giver and Father, that you invoke Jesus Christ alone as your Helper, your one Mediator and Advocate, that you worship him on His one merit. 2. Beware of the idolatrous prayers of the popes, who worship not only God, but also the saints next to him, and mute idols of wood and stone, who make their invocation not in the name of the one merit of Jesus Christ, but on their own merit and work, on their pilgrimages, on their fasting, their vows, their religious rules, and so on. Let what has been irrefutably said from God's Word so far confirm you against this.
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