The latitude, however, of the expressions employed, does not in
itself {230} of necessity imply any of those sinister and unworthy
motives to which it has been usual with many writers to attribute it. In
charity, and without any improbable assumption, it may be referred to an
honest and laudable desire of making the terms of communion as wide as
might be, with a view of comprehending within what was regarded the pale
of the Catholic Church, the greatest number of those who professed and
called themselves Christians. Be this as it may, the vagueness and
uncertainty of the terms employed, compel us in many instances to have
recourse to the actual practice of the Church of Rome, as the best
interpreter of doubtful expressions in the articles of that Council. The
decree which bears on the subject of this volume is drawn up in the
following words:--
[Footnote 88: See Mosheim, xvi. Cent. c. i. vol. iv. p. 196.
London, 1811.]
"SESSION XXV.[89]
"On the invocation, veneration, and reliques of saints, and of
sacred images.
"The Holy Council commands all bishops and others bearing the
office and care of instruction, that according to the usage of
the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the primitive
times of the Christian religion, and the consent of holy
fathers, and decrees of sacred councils, they in the first place
should instruct the faithful concerning the intercession and
invocation of saints, the honour of reliques, and the lawful use
of images, teaching them, that the SAINTS REIGNING TOGETHER WITH
CHRIST, offer their own {231} prayers for men to God: that it is
good and profitable SUPPLIANTLY TO INVOKE THEM: and to fly to
their PRAYERS, HELP, and ASSISTANCE, for obtaining benefits from
God, by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our only Redeemer
and Saviour.
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