the vows made to saints are made to God in saints, in the same manner as maledictions against saints are blasphemous, because God is blasphemed in them.

This solution is accepted by Bellarmine, who says, however, that vows are not made to God, and to saints, exactly after the same sort, and therefore that vows to the latter are not idolatrous: for it is universally agreed among Catholics, that a thing is promised to God, in testimony of our gratitude to him as the first cause of all good, and in acknowledgment of blessings received from himself, but to saints, in testimony of our gratitude to them, as our mediators and intercessors, through whom we have received blessings from God.

There remains one objection for him to answer, which he thus states; "If a promise made "to dead saints may be called a vow; why not " also a promise to saints still living with us?" His answer is as follows; because, first, a promise made to saints reigning with Christ is more like a promise made to God, than one which is made to a living man; inasmuch as the thing promised is not useful to the saints in Heaven, but to ourselves, and is only offered in testimony of our veneration and gratitude; secondly, because a vow is not suitable to

stains, unless as they are Gods by participation,* and we know for certain that saints reigning with Christ are really such; besides, they are confirmed in that state and cannot fall from it. In both which respects they differ from living saints.

I have dwelt with Bellarmine at some length on this particular, at the risk of being tedious; because I think it throws much light on the kind of honour paid by members of your Church to saints. For, whether your church be, or be not, answerable for Bellarmine's arguments, he at least must be admitted as a sufficient evidence of facts, namely, of the general prevalence of the practice of offering vows to saints, and of the general notion of the nature of them entertained by your highest authorities. That the multitude in his day regarded them still more seriously, and offered them with the utmost degree of religious confidence, and on the most ordinary and trivial occasions, is plain from the testimony of his contemporary Erasmus, a testimony which he cites himself, without affecting to contradict it, I mean the dia

* Votum non convenit Sanctis, nisi quatenùs sunt Di per participationem; at Sanctos, cum Deo regnantes, certè scimus esse tales. Bell. ibid.

D

logue entitled "Naufragium," a rich treat to those who have never read it.

For the prevalence, and the kind of vows, offered to saints in these days, I venture to refer to any modern traveller in Spain or Italy.

I admit, that I am not aware of any positive. order of your Church for this particular species of honour to saints; but it will hardly be contended that it is not, as a Church, answerable for a practice so ancient, so general, so strongly asserted and enforced by its greatest divines, and never in any way restrained.

And here I should proceed to prayers addressed by your Church to saints; but there is one previous question, (a very simple one it is true,) which requires to be first stated. As you are in the habit of addressing a good many saints, the merits of very few of whom are mentioned in Scripture, a plain man might ask, -What assurance you have that they really are Saints? Is it not possible that very awkward mistakes may occasionally happen? That you may, for instance, address your petitions to persons of very different characters, and occupying a very different place in the world of Spirits, from that which you suppose? And this uncertainty, if it be not removed, must consider-. ably impair the zeal of all rational worshippers.

The possibility of all this is so manifest, that you have very long been provided with a remedy. It is true, that for some centuries matters went on rather uncertainly, and during that time very unpleasant accidents did sometimes occur. Pope Alexander III. had occasion to reprehend certain persons for worshipping, as a martyr to the cause of true religion, a man who was in truth only a martyr to the strength of his wine, having been killed in a state of drunkenness.* And Bellarmine informs us, on the authority of Sulpicius, of the following remarkable occurrence which happened to St. Martin. He had long entertained some pretty strong doubts of the propriety of the devotions offered by the people in his neighbourhood to a supposed saint; because, in truth, there was nothing very certain or satisfactory in the traditions concerning him. One day, when St. Martin was at his prayers, the ghost of this personage appeared to him, and frankly confessed "that he was a damned spirit; that when "alive he had been a robber; and that he had "suffered death for his crimes by the hand of "the public executioner."

To prevent the recurrence of similar mistakes,

*Bell. de Cult. Sanct. 1. i. c. 7.

+ Ibid.