All these improvements may be made by a believer, of his daily converse with the souls above. This is the communion with them which we must hold on earth: not by praying to them, which God hath never encouraged us to do; nor by praying for them (for though it be lawful to pray for the resurrection of their bodies, and the perfecting of their blessedness thereby, yet it being a thing of absolute certainty as the day of judgment is, we must be very cautelous in the manner of our doing this lawful act; it being a thing that their happiness doth not at all depend on, and a thing which will-worshippers have showed themselves so forward to abuse, by stepping further into that which is unlawful; as the horrid abuses of the names, and days, and shrines, and relics, of real or supposed saints, in the papal kingdom, sadly testifieth). But the necessary part of our communion with the saints in heaven, being of so great importance to the church on earth, I commend it to the due consideration of the faithful, whether our forgetfulness of it is not to be much repented of, and whether it be not a work to be more seriously minded for the time to come. And I must confess I know not why it should be thought unlawful to celebrate the memorial of the life or martyrdom of any extraordinary servant of God, by an anniversary solemnity, on a set appropriate day: it is but to keep the thankful remembrance of God's mercy to the church; and sure the life and death of such is not the smallest of the church's mercies here on earth. If it be lawful on November the fifth to celebrate the memorial of our deliverance from the powder-plot, I know not why it should be thought unlawful to do the like in this case also: provided, 1. That it be not terminated in the honour of a saint, but of the God of saints, for giving so great a mercy to his church. 2. That it be not to honour a saint merely as a saint, but to some extraordinary eminent saints: otherwise all that go to heaven must have festivals kept in remembrance of them; and so we might have a million for a day. 3. That it be not made equal with the Lord's day, but kept in such a subordination to that day, as the life or death of saints is of inferior and subordinate respect to the work of Christ in man's redemption. 4. And if it be kept in a spiritual manner, to invite men to imitate the holiness of the saints, and the constancy of the martyrs, and not to encourage sensuality and sloth. [185] I have said more of this since, in my "Life of Faith." [186] Heb. xi. 1. [187] Concil. Later. sub Innoc. III. Can. 3. [188] Rom. i. 7; 1 Cor. i. 2; xiv. 33; Eph. i. 8; ii. 19; iv. 12; v. 3; Rom. xv. 25, 26. [189] 1 Cor. iv. 12, 13: Lam. iii. 45. CHAPTER XI. DIRECTIONS ABOUT OUR COMMUNION WITH THE HOLY ANGELS.