Againe, for as much as there is a communion of Saints, as we cofesse 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 Mornaeus 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 gratiae, mater misericordiae_, &c. the which is Gods owne stile, 1.  Pet. 1. 10. & 2.  Cor. 1.