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DURRETT COLLECTION
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
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I. ONTHEPKEMACY OF OS
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II. ON PARDONS AND INDULGENCES
GRANTED BY THE POPE.
LONDON:
Printed for the
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
NO. 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE J
AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
1846.
;;. ADVERTISEMENT
THE present Tracts are the first ~of a r series intended to foe
issued on some of the chief and most prevalent errors of the
Church of Rome. Theiollowing have already been published :
I. ON THE SUPREMACY op THE POPE.
II. ON PARDONS AND INDULGENCES GRANTED BY THE POPE.
III. ON THE INVOCATION OP SAINTS AND ANGELS.
IV. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
V. ON THE INVOCATION OF -SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
VI. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT.
VII. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT [con-
tinued].
-J=U .f ./"V - j* ,?'" t r 'S
2a,. a '--.' ji. ii 'w*
IN examining the references to the Psalms the reader
will bear in mind that our English version, which
strictly follows the original Hebrew, differs from the
Roman Catholic version in the numbering of the Psalms
from the 9th to the 147th. The Roman Catholic ver-
sion throws our 9th and 10th Psalms into one ; and
thus our llth becomes their 10th, our 12th their llth,
and so on till the 147th, which they divide into two,
beginning their 147th at the 12th verse of ours. Be-
tween these limits, consequently, the reader, in referring
to a passage quoted from the Roman Catholic version,
must turn in our version to the Psalm next after that so
quoted. Thus, if the quotation is taken from the 50th
Psalm in the Roman Catholic version, the reader must
refer to the 51st Psalm in ours.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
On the Supremacy of the Pope.
THE root and groundwork of much of the evil which
for many centuries oppressed the nations of Christen-
dom, (our own country not less than others,) was, in
the assumption by Rome, of universal sovereignty
over all the churches and all the kingdoms of the
world, and of infallibility vested in her sovereign pon-
tiff. The advocates of Roman supremacy claim the
whole of Christ's fold as Rome's heritage. "The
Bishop of Rome they maintain to be the sole vicar
of Christ, his vicegerent and representative on earth.
Except in the communion of Rome, they deny that
there is,any spiritual safety. The doctrines sanctioned
by the Pope are all put on an equality with the plainest
revelations of the written word of God; for them Tail
they claim the same certainty. Not content with
spiritual dominion over the consciences of Christians,
the Popes assume to themselves a divine right "to
dethrone kings, to release the subjects of any Govern-
ment from their allegiance, and to shut out from the
fold of Christ all who impede or refuse to second the
Court of Rome in the exercise of these powers.
We in 'England have been so long accustomed to the
protection which our constitution is strong enough -to
guarantee to us all against the attacks of any foreign
tyranny, spiritual or temporal, that we not only feel
easy as to any future interference, on the, part of
Rome affecting our spiritual liberty ,and political
independence, but. we can scarcely, without an effort,
conceive that our country .ever was in reality exposed
to any such dangers as we are now contemplating.
We are incredulous as to the facts alleged we sus-
" pect some mistake, either wilful or involuntary, as to
' the actual exercise of such enormous and monstrous
A2
4 On the Supremacy of the Pope.
power by the Court of Rome,; we consequently feel
not so much need of proofs to show that the assump-
tion of such power by any man, or any body of men,
is unjustifiable; we want rather to be satisfied that
such powers have been claimed and exercised that
the doctrine of the sovereignty and infallibility of the
Pope is inherent in the papal system, and has been
carried into execution in our own country ; for what-
ever it may be in words, however monstrous in theory,
if it never was accompanied by any outward and tan-
gible act which might endanger the peace and threaten
the liberties of our native land or our colonies, we
might well let it pass as a dead letter.
To know then xvhat in this point Rome has actually
been in spirit and in practice, and what therefore,
under a combination of favourable events, Rome may
to our peril and cost be again, we need not have
recourse to the early history of our people, when all
professed one religion and all acknowledged allegiance
to Rome (though many a dark page in that history
abounds with evidence to the same point) ; nor need
we rely on our own documentary annals, nor on the
testimony of our accredited historians ; abundant proof,
evidence beyond gainsaying or suspicion, is contained
to this very day in the records of Rome itself. We
need look only to the bull or letters apostolic, as the
Pope's decrees are called, by which Pope Pius the
Fifth excommunicated and condemned our Queen
Elizabeth, and as far as he could, deprived her of her
Jthrone ; absolved her subjects from their oath of alle-
giance ; and laid under the same curse and anathema
jail who dared to maintain her rights, or adhere to her
.as their sovereign. This indisputable proof of what
.Home has shown herself to be, even since the reform-
. ation of religion in England, and what she might be
.again, if from morbid delicacy or carelessness we
"' betray our trust, and cease to guard ourselves against
. the revival of such extravagant pretensions, is recorded
Jn the second volume of the Roman Pontiff's decrees
On the Supremacy of the Pope. 5
called the Bullarium. It bears date April 27th, 1570,
(that is in the fifth year of his pontificate, the twelfth
year of Elizabeth's reign,) and is entitled " The Con-
demnation and Excommunication of Elizabeth Queen
of England and of her Adherents, with the addition of
other punishments, by Pope Pius the Fifth." Among
other passages are the following :
" He who reigns on high, to whom all power is
given in heaven and in earth, delivered one holy Ca-
tholic and Apostolic Church, without the pale of which
is no salvation, to one only person in ear thj namely,
to the prince (or chief, principi) of the Apostles, to
Peter, and to Peter's successor, the Roman Pontiff,
to be governed in the plenitude of power. This one
person he appointed prince (or chief) over all nations
arid all kingdoms, to pluck up, to destroy, to scatter
abroad, to disperse, to plant, and to build, that he might
in the unity of the Spirit keep together the faithful
people, bound by the tie of mutual charity, and present
them safe and unhurt to their Saviour. . . . But
the number of impious men has so increased in power,
that no place in the world is now left which they have
not tried to corrupt by the worst doctrines: among
others, Elizabeth, the servant of wickedness, the pre-
tended Queen of England, adding her endeavours;
with whom, as their asylum, the most hostile of all
have found a refuge."
Then having enumerated her alleged crimes and
impieties, that she had in a monstrous manner usurped
to herself the place of supreme head and chief authority
in the Church in all England, compelling her subjects
to abjure the authority of the Roman Pontiff, and on
their oath to acknowledge herself as sovereign in
temporal and spiritual matters, and not suffering the
Pope's nuncios to pass over into England to reason
and remonstrate with her, the Pope proceeds :
" We, by necessity driven, to the arms of justice
against her, cannot soothe our grief that we are led to
punish one whose ancestors deserved so well of the
A3
6 On the Supremacy of .the, 'Pope.
Christian commonwealth; wherefore upheld by the
authority of him who willed to place us (though
unequal to such a .work) on this supreme throne of
justice, we v of .the plenitude of .-..the Apostolic power, ...
declare that the aforesaid Elizabeth, being a (heretic,
and the favourer of heretics, and those who adhere,
to her in the matters aforesaid, have incurred the sen,.
tence of cursing, and are cut off from the unity of
Christ's body; and moreover that she herself is der
prived of her pretended: right; to the kingdom aforesaid,,
and; also of all and every, kind of dominion, dignity,
and privilege ; and likewise that the nobles, subjects,
and people of the said kingdom, and all others who
have in, any way whatever sworn to her,- are for ever,
absolved from, such oath, and utterly from all obliga-?,
tion of dominion, fealty, and obedience, as we by
authority of these presents do absolve them;; and we :
deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended; right of
the kingdom, and of all others aforesaid; and we
charge and forbid all and singular the nobles, subjects,
people^ and others aforesaid, that they dare not obey-
her <or her admonitions, commands, and laws. , Whoso-
ever shall act otherwise, them we bind by like sentence
of cursing."
Now- it pleased the King of Heaven, by whom
earthly kings reign, that this anathema of the Sov.e^
reign Pontiff deposing the Queen of England should,
fall lifeless to the ground ; but that was, because the
adherents of Rome were too weak ;to carry his will and
decree into execution, Our own history tells us of
an earlier time when the Pope's malediction and in-
terdict threw misery and mourning over the whole
land; as this anathema of excommunication and de-
thronement would have done> had his supporters
been sufficiently numerous and powerful. Rome
has never abandoned the right to which that Pope
laid claim; and as long as she usurps the title of
mistress and queen of all nations,: and clings to
her commission to pull down and destroy* agreer.
f)n the Supremacy of the Pope. 72
ably to the dictates of her : own infallibility, so long
our; duty to God,, to our Church^ to our nation,:-,
an,d to our children's children, calls upon us aslwise.
men to guard against the most remote return of -.such,
danger ; to- take provident measures that; Rome .shall
hereafter gain, no footing in England. Our firm ire-;
solve on this point must ne<ver,lead us to judge harshly,
or act unkindly, or entertain a wish to .interfere with
the consciences of individuals. To our fellowrsubjects
who acknowledge the supremacy of Rome^we.must
show all, forbearance and charity, cheerfully conceding;
to them the same liberty of conscience which: we claim
as.rour own birthright. But let us take good .care that
the temptation be never laid before -them of joining
together, and with others, in upholding, the ^aggressive
authority of: Rome against the liberties of * this country.
Doubtless for the overthrow of our Church, Atheists,
Infidels*, and various classes of- professed Christians,
all opposed to Rome, would gladly confederate with
Rome itself.
Circumstances, how improbable soever now, may,
conspire to / bring about such a combination : and ne-
cessity is laid upon.us to be on our guard against the
united efforts of such heterogeneous enemies,: and in:
this, view it is well for us never to -speak of r the supre-
macy claimed by the Pope as a harmless- shadow. It
may suit the purposes of the adherents : of Rome
in our own times to represent these precautions - as
the fruits of unworthy suspicions* groundless: anti-
cipations, the dreams of bigotry, fitted rather for -
benighted ages long passed away, than for the
enlightened liberality of modern times. But our
spiritual inheritance is too valuable in itself, and too
dear to us for any fear of such hard names to drive us
from its present defence, or from prospective measures
for its future safety. It is the best treasure bequeathed
to us by our forefathers, and with God's blessing. we
will deliver it down whole and entire, to our children's
children.
A 4
8 On the Supremacy of the Pope,
If we enquire into the origin of this claim
of the Roman Pontiff to supreme and universal
dominion over all the churches of the world, we find,
by the most searching examination of the earliest
authentic records, that the assumption of such dignity
and power was never made on the part of Rome till
after many centuries from the time of our Lord's death.
The primitive church never recognised such a claim,
nor ever heard of it. There is no allusion to it in
Scripture, nor in the remains of the most remote an-
tiquity. It resulted as one of the many accumulated
and various changes, which time and opportunities
brought about in opposition to the primitive and apos-
tolic system. Pagan Rome had reduced the nations
of the world under its own iron sceptre j and the
spiritual tyranny of papal Rome, gradually step by
step, here a little and there a little, as favourable
occasions offered, was built upon the same foundation.
To those who would for themselves sift the evidence
on which these assertions are made, may be recom-
mended a work full of sound reasoning, extensive
learning, and Christian charity, written by John Henry
Hopkins, bishop of Vermont, in America, who proves
these points beyond all doubt and gainsaying by a
calm, and searching, and candid examination of those
very fathers and writers of the early Christian Church,
against whose testimony Rome cannot demur; for
they are the very authors, whose authority she herself
maintains in her canon law l . The work, too, of Dr.
Isaac Barrow, entitled ' A Treatise on the Pope's
Supremacy,' deserves the especial examination of all
who feel anxious to make themselves masters of this
subject.
1 This work is entitled " The Church of Rome in her primitive
purity, compared with the Church of Rome at the present day, being a
candid examination of her claims to universal dominion, addressed in
the spirit of Christian kindness to the Roman Hierarchy." The first
edition was published in America in the year 1837 ; the English edi-
tion appeared in 1839, with a valuable preface by the Rev. Henry
Melvill.
WHAT IS ROMANISM ?
No. II.
ON
PARDONS AND INDULGENCES GRANTED
BY THE POPE.
A 5
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
Pardons and Indulgences granted by the Pope.
IT must be .remembered throughout,, that .the object >
before us is not to fasten -on individuals of the : Church
of Rome doctrines or views which, they disclaim ; it ,
is. to endeavour, as honest .and prudent men, to pre--
serve our Church and nation.from any return of those ....
corruptions in doctrine and practice^ ; from which the
Reformation set us free. In pursuing this end,, we can.-
not restsatisfied with the partial and rhetorical represen-
tation of Roman tenets and Roman practices, .which is
now sometimes made in their pulpits by preachers of that
Church before mixed congregations, and is not unfre-
quently issued from the press. Especially at this time,
when the members of that Church are engaged witkre-
newed ardour, and almost unprecedented zeal in making
the religion of Rome palatable to our countrymen,,
and facilitating, by every : device the path of the pro-
selyte, we must, in. fairness, see what were . the:
current practical doctrines which the Reformation
banished from our Church; what our .forefathers were,
taught, before England threw off the yoke of Rome ;
nay, what they were compelled to believe and ac-
quiesce in, or else rsubmit to the .curse ofr excommuni-
cation. On the assumed supremacy of the, Roman.
Pontiff we have spoken in another part; our thoughts
are now drawn to the power assumed by the Pope,
A6
12 Pardons and Indulgences
and his priesthood under him, of granting pardons
(or as they were familiarly called indulgences),
that is, a release, on certain conditions, from all, or a
portion of the temporal punishment otherwise due to sin
from God's justice, the benefit, whatever it be, to be
derived to the guilty soul from the ministration of the
Roman hierarchy, either in this world, or after death
has closed our time of probation.
On the subject of this chapter we may freely confess
that, were not the very books themselves (not reprints,
but the originals,) still in existence, we could scarcely
have believed any testimony as to what they really con-
tained. But (happily for the truth's sake) various
copies of the books themselves, printed before the Re-
formation, are still in existence, preserved in our libra-
ries, and accessible to all. We need not say, "Our
ears have heard, our fathers tell ;" our own eyes see
what was then the doctrine of pardon and indulgences ;
what power the popes of Rome actually assumed over
the dead as well as the living. No doubt the
monstrous forms which these spiritual wickednesses
had assumed, had so disgusted Christendom, and
threatened so loudly and intelligibly to shake the
very throne of Rome, that resolutions were passed in
the Council of Trent to check the enormity of the
evil. The council forbade that "wicked gains"
[pravos qusestus] should be derived from the granting
of indulgences; and directed the Bishops to inquire
into other abuses, and report them to the Pope, " lest
by the too great ease of obtaining indulgences, eccle-
siastical discipline might be weakened." Dec. 4,
1563. But the evil exists even to the present day,
as we shall see before the close of this chapter, in
its very same nature, though its most monstrous-
shapes are no longer visible among us in England.
These are dark and melancholy subjects, and we will 1
not dwell upon them at any unnecessary length;,
but we must not disguise the reality, or extenuate the
greatness of the evil.
granted by the Pope. 13
In our own times we have been told by preachers
and writers of the Roman Church in our own country,
that all that is meant by indulgences is, "a releas-
ing, by the power of the keys, the debt of TEMPORAL 1
punishment which may remain due upon account of
our sins, after the sins themselves, as to the guilt and
eternal punishment, have been already remitted by re-
pentance and confession 2 " "that the priest may
offer prayers for the souls in purgatory, and he can
moreover offer the sacrifice of the mass 'that all he
can do is, to apply to the mercy of God in behalf of
the dead ; but that, like other men, he must remain
uncertain as to the efficacy of his prayers THAT HE
CLAIMS NO AUTHORITY OR JURISDICTION OVER THE
DEAD V
But what was the belief and practice of the Roman
church before the time of the Reformation, and what
is it now ? Do her spiritual powers claim no authority
or jurisdiction over the dead ? In good faith, do not
her promises and declarations of pardon extend to the
other world ? And does she not claim jurisdiction
over the souls in purgatory, so as to release them from
their torments altogether, (in which case the pardon
is called a Plenary Indulgence,) or remit such a por-
tion of its bitter pains, and for so long a period and
on such conditions, as her spiritual officers on earth
shall determine ?
First let us see what was the doctrine and what the
practice just before the Reformation in England.
JLeo the Tenth, who was Pope from 1513 to 1521,
1 By TEMPORAL punishment we have generally understood punish-
ment endured in this life ; but when we read Roman Catholic definitions
and explanations of pardons and indulgences, we shall he misled if we
confine the term to this life ; it extends to the bitter pains after death
of souls in purgatory, though no mention he made of the next world.
2 Chaloner, London ; Jones, 1843, p. 57*
3 Sermon preached at Bradford, July 27, 1825, by Peter Augustus
Baines, D.D., Bishop of Siga. London; Booker, "1826, p. 24: re-
published with the authority of the Bishops of the Church of Rome
in England and Scotland, and its committee of Lay members, as
No. 2, by the Society called The Catholic Institute of Great Britain.
Pardons and Indulgences
states., the doctrine, (at=: the same time ; denouncing 1
excommunication, against all who should deny it 4 ;) ( inu
a letter of Instruction to his legate at the^, court of>
Maximilian. Having; referred to the report that, had;
reached him, thak " some .divines, even .<- professing; to
follow Roman doctrine* , had by preaching on indulrt
gences: which , had been customarily vgranted by ;himr;
self and,.his predecessors,. Popes of; , Rome, in, times,:
beyond; memory,.. imprinted, errors on,. the-; hearts : of
many ;" and . having . charged his.- legate to reprove
and condemn those men,. eo proceeds IT
"And in ; order that hereafter no one may plead
ignorance of ; the Roman doctrine about indulgences ;
of this kind and. their efficacy, or excuse, himself by
the pretext of such ignorance, or help himself /by a,
feigned ^protest, but -. that, .they may be .convicted , and
condemned .as. guilty of a notorioua; lie,,, we have
thougTbfc.it .our duty to signify to you, by: these pre-
sents,, that the :Roman' church, which v as. their .mother,,
other, churches are bound^tO' follow, .has taught by,
tradition^ that the Roman: Pontiff, 1 , successor., of the,.
key-rbearerj. Peter^ and vicar of, Jesu&: Ghristv..upon
earth, by the power , of the keys, (the ^office ,-of, which i is.
to open, .by removing. in.the. faithful of Christ its. im-
pediments,, that is to say > the guilt and: punishment
due.for actual, sins, therguilt being removed by means,,
of the sacrament of penance, and the temporal punish-
ment due according, to. Divine, justice for, actual sins
being removed by ecclesiastical indulgence,); may for
reasonable causes grant to the same .faithful of :Christ,
who by the bond of charity are members of Christ,
whether they be iri this life or in; purgatory, indul-
gsncesr.out of the. .superabundance .of the merits of.
hrist and'of'the saints ; and on the apostolic^authorifeyi
by granting the indulgence .as well 1 for the living, as
for, the .dead, ,to; dispense the- treasure of i the .merits :of
Christ B.nd.thesaintS','- he has been;. accustomed, either to
CONFER the indulgence itself by the way of. absolution,
or by the way of .suffrage r to. TRANSFER, it ; and
granted &y-. the-, JEope.*- 15.f
sequentlyM;hat,allj.,as.;well the living; a& the dead^ who ;
shall truly have >, obtained indulgences of this kind, t are .
freed^from-so much ; temporal. punishment, due accord^
ing jto.vDi vine -justice to their actual sins, as ?is equiva^-
lenb to the indulgence granted and obtained ; and that;
thus* it must be .held and taught by all under pain of;
the^sentenee of;excommunieation> from; which (unless?
at t the ; points of death) they cannot obtain > thei benefit ;
of absolution^; except from the Apostolic authorityj we ;
decree by the tenor of these same presents *;"
Thisfexposition of- the doctrine and practice of in-
dulgences by Leo X seems to have been: a ; sort of
textJbooky.as we shall soon :be reminded^ xlowiL.to.ihisi
very day;
Much discussion has been entertained by Roman
Catholic: writers as- to the precise distinction here
made by- Leo between the conferring of an indulgence-:
by-absoltition.and transferring it by suffrage. Cardinal
Bellarmirii 5 , whose dissertation on indulgences presents,
mostv startling?: views; to those who have not? before
been acquainted with the real doctrine and:practice of-;
Rome^ maintains this to be the distinction : The Pope,
he saysy. grants an indulgence by absolution directly to
the individual, whence remits the punishment and guilt
tO;the sinner in; jthis life; whereas, in the other icase,
he -transfers <,from the Church's treasure of the merits:
of Christ^ and, the -saints so much as will satisfy the
Divine-justice, and procure, as an equivalent for those
merits,- either the ; total remission of -the punishment, or
such at proportion- of it as- the indulgence expressly
grants. The Cardinal illustrates it by what he con-
siders more familiar to his readers, but what would
convey to our minds somewhat of the same : idea of
superstition-and impious intrusion into the-province
of the: Almighty. " Therefore," he says*. " in the
same manner asv when ; any one gives alms, .or fasts^ or
gaes; aipilgrimage to holj^ places for the sake 0f the dead,
4 Le Plat, vol. ii. p. 21, &c;; Brit; Mus.,491, i,.
5 Bellarmin^sParisj 1608, voLiii. p. 1169.
16 Pardons and Indulgences
lie does not absolve the dead from the state of punish-
ment, but offers that satisfaction for the dead so that,
God accepting it, frees the dead from the debt of the
punishment which they would have suffered ; so the
Pontiff does not absolve the souls of the dead, but
offers to God out of the treasure as much as is required
to liberate them ; and God, accepting the satisfaction
of another person communicating it to the souls of
the dead, frees them from the state of punishment 6 ."
Of the deplorable application, however, of this doc-
trine in actual practice in our own country we have
too abundant testimony; indeed were that evidence
found in the books of our Reformers, we should have
questioned whether they had not been mistaken,
whether we were not reading their inferences rather
than the undoubted facts themselves; whether, how-
ever honestly they might have desired to give their
testimony, they had not exaggerated the evil nay,
were not the awful subject of man's salvation ever
before our eyes, the reality could scarcely, in many
cases, do otherwise than excite ridicule.
In a work in English, entitled " The Hours of
the most blessed Virgin Mary, according to the 7 legi-
timate use of the Church of Salisbury r } " published at
Paris in 1526, just five years after the death of Leo the
Tenth, and only twenty-three years before our Book
of Common Prayer was first published, we find such
instances of the practical working of the doctrine
declared by that Pope as would probably be pro-
nounced unworthy inventions of the enemies of Rome,
were they found in professed transcripts from the
originals, or reported on the evidence of eye-wit-
nesses, however respectable.
The volume abounds with forms of praj r er to the
Virgin, many of them prefaced by notifications of
indulgences, startling indeed to us, but apparently
familiar to our countrymen of that day, promised to
6 Paris, 1608, vol. iii. p. 489.
1 A copy may be examined in the British Museum.
granted by the Pope. 17
those who duly repeat the prayers. These indul-
gences are granted by Popes and by Bishops, some
of them dead centuries before that time. They
guarantee remission of punishment for different spaces
of time, varying from a few weeks to ninety thousand
years : they undertake to warrant freedom from hell ;
they promise remission of punishment for deadly sins
and for venial sins to the same person and on the
same condition ; they assure, according to the spiritual
wants of the individual, both a commutation of the
pains of eternal damnation for the pains of purga-
tory, and a change of the sufferings of purgatory into
a full and free pardon.
The following specimens, a few selected from an
over-abundant supply, will exemplify the several par-
ticulars specified in the above summary :
1. " Laurence, Bishop of Assaven, hath granted forty
days of pardon to all them that devoutly say this prayer
in the worship of our blessed Lady, being penitent and
truly confessed of all their sins. Oratio, Gaude
Virgo, Mater Christ! 8 ."
This was Laurence Child, who was made Bishop of
St. Asaph, 1382.
2. " To all them that be in a state of grace, that
daily say devoutly this prayer before our blessed Lady
of Pity, she will show them her blessed visage, and
warn them the day and hour of death ; and in their
last end the angels of God shall yield their souls to
heaven ; and he 9 shall obtain five hundred years and
so many Lents of pardon, granted by five holy Fathers,
Popes of Rome V
3. "Our holy Father, Sixtus IV. 2 , Pope, hath
f ranted to all them that devoutly say this prayer
efore the image of our Lady, the sum of XIM.
8 Folio 35.
9 "They." The language no less than the printing is in many of
these passages inaccurate, but it is thought better to quote each
passage as it appears.
1 Folio 38.
2 Sixtus IV. had been then dead somewhat more than forty years.
18 Pardons and Indulgences^
(eleven thousand) years of pardon.,. Ave, sanctissima ;
Maria, Mater Dei, Regina.CoaH 3 ."
4., "To all them that before this image of Pity ,
devoutly say five Pat. Nos. and five . Av.es . and a --.
Credo, piteously beholding these, arms of Christ's ....
passion, are granted XXX.IIM. VII. hundred and
LV. (thirty-two thousand seven, hundred and fifty-
five) years of pardon; and Sixtus IV., Pope of Rome,
hath made the fourth and fifth prayer, and, hath
doubled his aforesaid pardon *."
5. "Our holy Father, the Pope John XXIL,. hath-
granted to all them that devoutly say this prayer,
after the elevation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ,3000
days of pardon for deadly sins 5 ."
6. " Our holy Father, Pope Innocent ILL, hath
granted to all them that say these three prayers
following devoutly, remission of all their siris, con-
fessed and contrite V
7. " These three prayers be written in the chapel of
the Holy Cross, in Rome, otherwise called Sacellum
Sanctse Crucis Septem Romanorum ; who : that de T
voutly say them shall obtain X CM. (ninety thousand)
years of pardon for deadly sins ? , granted of our holy
Father, John XXIL, Pope of Rome 8 ."
8. " Who that devoutly beholdeth these arms of our
Lord Jesus Christ shall obtain six thousand years of
pardon of our holy Father Saint Peter, the first
Pope of Rome, and of XXX. (thirty) other Popes of
the Church of Rome, successors after him ; and. our holy
Father, Pope John XXIL, hath granted to all them,
very contrite and truly confessed, that say these devout
prayers following in the commemoration of the bitter
passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, three thousand
years of pardon for DEADLY sins, and .other three
thousand for VENIAL sins 9 ."
We will only add one more instance. The following
3 Folio 42. * Folio 54. 5 Folio 5fc;
6 FoJio 63. 8 Folio 66. 9 Folio 6.
.granted by Hie Pope. 19
announcement accompanies a prayer of St. Bernard,
" Who that devoutly, with a contrite heart, say this
orison,, if he be that day in a state of eternal damna-
tion, then this eternal pain shall be changed him in.
temporal pain of purgatory; then if he hath deserved:
the pain of purgatory, it shall be forgotten and forgiven
through the infinite mercy of God."
On this it may be observed, that Cardinal Bellar-
min..does not venture to express any doubt of his own
as to the genuineness of those indulgences which ex-
tend over 'many thousands of years; and he tells us,
moreover, that those who entertained such a doubt, on
the ground that, the Pope never granted indulgences
to souls in purgatory for a longer period than would
have been. sufficient to expiate their guilt by penance,
were utterly mistaken, for that agreeably to the canons*
some souls would not suffer enough punishment in
purgatory in. the. course even of thousands of years :
and: he quotes the opinion that some must, if . left to
themselves, .remain there in torments till the day of
judgment. . Still, . according to Bellarmin and other
modern writers, the Church of Rome professes to ex-
ercise no jurisdiction over souls condemned to eternal
fire. They tell us* that however grievously a man
may haA r e sinned, and however bitterly he may be
punished in the next world for his crimes, yet the
pains of purgatory are the only sufferings which the
indulgences, of that Church are believed to shorten
or mitigate. This theory is, indeed, inconsistent with
the promise in "The Hours of the Virgin," that
a man's pain of eternal damnation should be changed
for him into temporal pain of purgatory. But when
human corruptions are allowed to carry men away so
far and so recklessly from Gospel truth, contradictions
and/in consistencies afford little matter of surprise.
It is melancholy to reflect that such were the husks,
or? rather the deadly poisons, once supplied to our
countrymen instead of the bread of life. But is it fair,
to fasten upon our Roman Catholic brethren now such
20 Pardons and Indulgences
impious enormities ? We desire to do no such thing ;
yet we do desire that our countrymen of the present
day should become better acquainted than they have
been with the nature of the evils from which the
Reformation rescued us. But, as we have intimated
above, though such gross blasphemies do not shock
our eyes in England now, yet in theory and in practice
the doctrine of indulgences, extending not only to this
life but to the next, is still the doctrine of the Church
of Rome, and is still operative, acted upon by the
hierarchy and received by the laity; and of this we
have abundant proof.
In the first place, the doctrine is maintained and
the practice sanctioned by the decrees of the Council
of Trent, and enforced by a condemnation and curse
on all who should oppugn it.
In the second place, the doctrine is affirmed in the
creed of Pope Pius IV., as one article of the Catholic
faith, without which no one can be saved. Totheir entire
belief in this creed all officers in the Church of Rome
are bound by an oath on the Gospels; and their assent
to it, without restriction or qualification, all proselytes on
their admission into that Church are bound to testify.
In the third place, the Popes at the present day
grant indulgences on certain stipulated conditions,
extending expressly to purgatory.
And, lastly, the clergy and laity of the Roman
church accept those indulgences, extending to the
next world, as boons to be prized most highly for
their eminent spiritual efficacy 5 and utge their fellow
members to avail themselves of such means of salvation.
These four points it will be now incumbent on us
to establish.
First, as to the Council of Trent. To what is
declared in this council, the creed of Pope Pius IV.
compels every Roman Catholic to assent ; and not only
himself to assent, and undoubtingly to receive and
confess it, but at the same time in like manner to
condemn, reject, and curse with anathemas, all that is
granted by the Pope. 21
contrary thereto. In the twenty-fifth session of this
council, Dec. 4, 1563, the decree runs in these words:
" Since the power of conferring indulgences was
granted by Christ to the Church, and she has used a
power of this kind, divinely delivered to herself, even
in the most ancient times, this most holy synod teaches
and instructs, that the use of indulgences, in the
greatest degree salutary to Christian people, and
approved by the authority of sacred councils, is to
be retained; and condemns those with a curse, who
either assert that they are useless, or deny that the
power of granting them is in the Church."
The remainder of the decree (as we have before
intimated) merely forbids " depraved gains" to be
obtained for granting these indulgences, and leaves
the rest of the abuses to be inquired into by the
bishops, and reported to Rome. Not one single word
is there as to the limiting an indulgence to the remis-
sion of temporal penances for sin in this world, or as
to modifying the indulgence, that is, the remission of
punishment in the world beyond the grave, within
limits less awfully startling than those which the
" Hours of the Virgin, according to the use of Salis-
bury," announced. Nor would the decrees of Trent
have been consistent with the present practice, had
they not sanctioned the doctrine, that the Church
of Rome still possesses power, put into operation
by some means or other of her own approval, to
remit the pains of purgatory. The reality may not
now be put before us in such broad characters, as it
assumed in the early years of the sixteenth century ;
but the reality is in truth one and the self-same less
appalling and less palpably blasphemous, but not
one whit less real, and much more deceitful and
seducing.
Secondly, The creed of Pope Pius, called by
Roman Catholics "their profession of faith," thus
expresses the two parts of the doctrine, of which
whoever denies the one or ,the other, is condemned
22 Pardons and Indulgences
with an ! anathema by the Coun oil of Trent. " I
affirm that the power of indulgences was by Christ
left in the Church/ and 'that the use of them is salu-
tary to Christian people 1 ."
Of ! the third and fourth points we have proof to the
overflow. Roman Catholic books abound with evidence,
that Pope Leo's doctrine is still maintained in theory,
and acted upon practically, in all its parts that the
Pope grants indulgences, that' is, remits the guilt and
the temporal punishment due from Divine justice to
actual sins that some of these are plenary indul-
gences, that is, entire and complete remission of, .guilt
and punishment ; others are partial, that is, a remis-
' sion of so much only of the guilt and punishment as
is specified in each separate indulgence; that some of
these indulgences relate to this life, others extend to
the life beyond the grave. To establish these points
we need not refer to distant times, or unwilling wit-
nesses; our own days furnish 'too ample testimony.
Take, for example, the bull of 'Pope ' Leo XII.
granting the last "grand jubilee," only one-arid-
twenty -years ago, "celebrated at {R'ome in the course
of the holy year 1825, and extended to -the Universal
Church in 1826." The entire doctrine of indulgences
maybe drawn 1 from the language of this single docu-
ment:
" Daring this year,' which we truly call the accept-
able time, and the time of salvation," said this mortal
: man, " we are resolved, in virtue of 'the authority
given to us by Heaven^ fully to unlock 'that sacred
. treasure composed of the : merits, sufferings, and vir-
tues of Christ our Lord, and of his Virgin Mother,
: and* of all the saints, WHICH THE AUTHO R OF H VMAN
SALVATION HAS ENTRUSTED TO OUR DISPENSATION;
" Let the earth, therefore, hear the words of our
mouth, and let the ; whole world joyfully' hearken to
; the voice of the priestly trutnpeti souhUirig forth to
r: God's people the sacred jubilee. We proclaim! that
-' a Chaloner, p, 58.
granted by the Pope. 23
the year of atonement and pardon, of redemption and
grace, of 'remission and indulgence^ is* arrived.
"We, with the -assent of our venerable brethren,
: the cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, ^do^ by the
authority of Almighty God, arid of the blessed apostles
Peter ; and Paul, and by our own, for the glory of God
Himself, the exaltation of the Catholic Church, and
the sanetifieation of all Christian people, ordain and
publish the universal and most solemn jubilee, to com-
mence in this holy city from the first Vespers of the
;. /'Nativity, and to 'Continue during the whole year 1825 :
during which year of jubilee WE MERCIFULLY GIVE
AND GRANT in the Lord a plenary indulgence, re-
'.mission,; and pardon of all their sins to all the faithful
; of Christ of both exes, truly penitent and confessing
their sins, and -receiving the Holy Communion, who
shall devoutly visit the churches of blessed Peter and
Paul, as also of St. John Lateran, and St. Mary
Major, of this city, for thirty-successive days."
Pope Leo subsequently laments, that, " some per-
sons covering themselves with sheep's clothing, under
the usual pretence of a more refined piety, were sow-
ing among the people erroneous comments on this
subject," and he urges all patriarchs and bishops- to
explain clearly t{ the power of indulgences ; what is
their efficacy, not only in the remission of the canoni-
cal penance, but also of the temporal punishment due
'- to the divine justice for past sins ; and what succour is
..afforded OUT OF THIS HEAVENLY TREASURE, from
; the merits of Christ and his saints, ; to such as have
DEPARTED ^REAL PENITENTS IN GOD'S LOVE, yet be-
fore they had duly satisfied, by fruits worthy- of pe-
inance, for sin of commission and omission; and are
NOW PURIFYING IN THE FIRE OF PURGATORY,- that
< &h entrance may be opened for them into their eternal
country where; nothing defiled is admitted 2 ."
Four years after that j ubilee,- the; 'Roman breviary,
in four Volumes, was printed; at Norwich with the
2 Laity's Director^ 'for 1825. ^Keating and Brown.
24 Pardons and Indulgences
tion of the pope, and by his permission adapted ex-
pressly for England ; and what view of the Roman
doctrine of indulgences do we find there? At the
very opening of the breviary, between the calendar
and the Psalms, we read this announcement, " To
those who devoutly recite the following prayer after
performing service, Pope Leo X. hath forgiven the
defects and faults in performing it which have been
contracted by human frailty." That pope died more
than three centuries ago; and yet, in 1830, his pro-
mise of indulgence and pardon is recognized and put
forward in the public offices and authorized rituals of
the Church of Rome. To us there is something
awfully revolting, in the thought of a mortal man
prescribing for future ages, the conditions on which
the frailties of human nature shall be pardoned ; and
of priests in the temple, even now, being taught to
rely on such a promise of pardon, of whatever charac-
ter it be, or whatever kind of punishment it may be
supposed to remit. To believe that a priest can be
put into a better condition by such a promise, does
seem to be the very height of superstition.
But a work published at Derby only three years
ago, entitled, "Manual of Devotion, for the use of the
brethren and sisters of the confraternity of the Living
Rosary of the blessed Virgin Mary, by Ambrose
Lisle Phillips, Esq., of Grace Dieu Manor 3 ," renders
all other evidence superfluous; the testimony borne
by it is in every point complete. In the first place,
page 22, this Roman Catholic writer copies a letter
by the present pope, Gregory XVI., dated Rome,
Feb. 2, 1832, of which the following are parts. The
letter the pope addresses to " John F. Betemps, Canon
of Lyons, and the Vicar of St. Roc, Paris.
" In the midst of that profound sorrow wherewith
these evil days have overwhelmed our soul, we have
found one subject of consolation, in that which we
have heard touching a pious exercise, instituted to
promote the devotion to the blessed Virgin Mary,
3 Derby, 1843.
granted by the Pope. 25
under the title of the Living Rosary. Most heartily
do we concur with our authority, in order to help you
in extending this pious institution ; wherefore we
open to you the heavenly treasures of holy indul-
gences, as you will find in the Apostolic Letter which
we have directed to you, appended unto this. Con-
tinue, then, dear children, encouraged by this spiritual
assistance, which we have drawn forth for you from
the inexhaustible treasury of God.
" To this letter is appended an apostolic brief,
wherein the holy father is pleased to grant the follow-
ing indulgences to all the faithful in Christ of both
sexes, who shall be inscribed in the guild, or con-
fraternity of the Living Rosary.
" 1. Plenary indulgence, receiving the Holy Com-
munion after a devout confession on the first festival
day after their admission into the guild.
" 2. All the indulgences hitherto annexed to the re-
cital of the Rosary.
"3. Indulgences of a hundred days as often as the
members shall recite their appointed decade of the
Rosary on working days.
" 4. Indulgences of seven years and seven quadra-
genaB, [Lents,] as often as they shall recite their
aforesaid decades on Sundays and holydays, as well
those of obligation, as on those which are no longer
of obligation, and every day during the octaves of
Christmas, Easter, Whit-Sunday, Corpus Christi, the
Assumption, the Nativity, and the Conception of the
Blessed Virgin.
" 5. Plenary indulgence on Christmas-day [&c.], as
well as on all the feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
as noticed in the last calendars of the holy. Roman
Church, and moreover on the third Sunday of every
month."
On this letter and brief of the Pope, the writer
makes a long comment, exhorting all to secure to
their own souls the benefit of these indulgences.
Among other remarks we read :
[652] B
26 Pardons and Indulgences
"These plenary indulgences are applicable to the
holy souls in purgatory." . . . "Indulgences are
the remission of the temporal punishments which re-
main due to sin, even after God has forgiven us in the
Sacrament of penance the eternal punishment due to
it. . . . In this Sacrament the grace is not so
abundant as in that of Baptism : it remits indeed the
eternal punishments of hell, if we receive it in due
dispositions ; but it leaves uncancelled the debt of
temporal punishment which God still requires for
the repenting sinner, after his justifircationj to undergo.
If this debt be not fully discharged in this life, the Church
teaches that we must suffer it in the next in the place of
departed spirits. But she also teaches, that the payment
of this debt is not so easy a matter in the next life as
in this. . . Venial sins will add fuel to the flames,
that have been already kindled by the debt due to our
mortal sins forgiven as to their eternal punishment.
How true then are the words of the holy Church, that
indulgences are most profitable unto Christian souls.
And why ? because they apply to our souls the super-
abundant merits of Jesus Christ and of the saints,
(who are members of his mystical body, with whom
also we have communion,) and so enable us more
easily to cancel the debt of temporal punishment,
which God in his infinite wisdom has still left upon usj
even after He has reinstated us in his grace, and re-
mitted the eternal punishment due to our sins by the
Sacramental absolution of the Church. Ify then, we
desire to make our calling and election sure, let us
diligently have recourse to this- second branch of the
power of the keys, which Christ our Lord hath left to
his Church. I mean, let us never lose an opportunity
of gaining holy indulgences."
Such is* the present state of indulgences : the Pope
granting them both plenary, and in part ; and the
Romanists in England receiving them as boons; ac-
knowledging their efficacy both in this world, and in
the life of the world to come.
granted < by the Pope. ,27
To us who are accustomed to appeal to the Holy
Scriptures as the rule of faith, there is something
most awfully impious in this doctrine and practice,
even under its least offensive form. In the thought that
a mortal man should assume at his pleasure and .on his
own conditions, the right, the power on earth, of miti-
gating the punishment appointed by the eternal Judge
to be endured in the next world ; in one case suspend-
ing it for days or years, or myriads of years in ano-
ther remitting it altogether, and freeing the souls of the
departed from all the pangs and sufferings, which but
for that mortal man's indulgence they mustier ages have
undergone, there is something so abhorrent fr.om our
very first principles of reason, and our notions of God
and of man, and so utterly at variance with the
whole tenour of revelation, that our difficulty is not to
point out its evils, but to believe that such a doctrine
is indeed and in reality practically in existence, be-
lieved, and acted upon.
If it be said that the Pope does not assume
this right and power, but that it was .assigned to
him by the providence of God, revealed in his
written word, and testified by the primitive Church,
we declare ourselves unable to find one single
trace or shadow of it either in the Holy Scrip-
tures, or in the records of the primitive ages. Pope
Leo X., indeed, boldly affirms' that indulgences had
been customarily granted by his predecessors, Popes
of Rome as St. Peter's successors, time out of mind :
but for any grounds on which to rest that assertion, we
search the records of the Christian Church in vain.
Indeed, the Romanist writers do not allege any evi-
dence of the doctrine and practice of indulgences from
early ages ; and many of them freely confess that they
were comparatively modern in their origin. There is,
we conceive, no point in pagan or sacred history
more clearly established than this, that for the doctrine
and practice of indulgences there is no ground what-
ever in the Gospel or the primitive Church.
28 Pardons and Indulgences
Many proofs of this may be adduced; but we need
no more than the confession of John Fisher, Bishop
of Rochester. This Romanist Bishop, when he
wrote his first arguments against Luther, seems to
have thought it impossible for any true Catholic AT
THAT TIME (whatever might have been the creed of
Christendom in former ages) to doubt the existence
of purgatory. And he thus argues, " Those who be-
lieve in purgatory must agree to indulgences. In
former ages they had no purgatory; therefore, they
did not seek indulgences ; we have purgatory, there-
fore we must have indulgences." But let his own
words convey his sentiments : " Many, perhaps, are
induced not to place so much confidence in these in-
dulgences, because their use in the Church seems to
have been somewhat recent, and to be found exceed-
ingly late among Christians. I answer, that it is not
a settled point by whom they began to be delivered
[or from what time they began to be delivered down].
There was, however, some use of them, AS THEY SAY,
among the most ancient Romans, as we are given to
understand even from the very frequent stations 4 in the
city. But they even say that Gregory the First
granted some in his time. Nor is it otherwise than
clear to every one, that by the talents of men in after
times many points, as well out of the Gospel as from the
other Scriptures, are now drawn out more clearly and
understood more perspicuously than they were formerly.
Either, forsooth, because the ice was not yet broken
through by the ancients, and their age did not suffice
for weighing to a nicety the whole sea of Scriptures ;
or because even in the very ample field of the Scrip-
tures, after the reapers, although most careful, it will
be allowed to glean some ears left hitherto untouched.
For there are still in the Gospels very many places
yet very obscure, which I doubt not will be made
4 By "stations" was meant, places where the processions made a
halt, and prayers were offered, confessions heard, &c.
granted by the Pope. 29
more clear to posterity. Why should we despair of
this, whereas for this very reason has the Gospel been
delivered down, that it might be thoroughly and ex-
actly understood by us ? Since then the love of Christ
to his Church continues not less strong than it was
formerly, of whose power too there is no diminution ;
and since the Holy Spirit is the perpetual guardian
and keeper of the same Church, whose gifts flow as
uninterruptedly and copiously as they did from the
beginning, who can doubt but that, whatever points re-
main in the Gospel unknown, the clear intellects of those
who are to come will illustrate ? However, as we were
saying, there are many points on which no question was
raised in the primitive Church, which, nevertheless, by
the diligence of subsequent men, when a doubt arose,
have been made clear. No orthodox person, at all events
(to return to our point), now doubts whether there
be a purgatory, of which, at that time, among those
ancients no mention was made at all, or as rarely as
possible. Nay, by the Greeks even to this very day,
it is not believed that there is a purgatory. Let who
will read the commentaries of the ancient Greeks, and
he will meet with no word, as I think, or as rarely as
possible, of purgatory. But not even did ail at once
the Latins, but by little and little, receive the truth of
this matter. Nor was the belief either of purgatory,
or of indulgence, so necessary in the primitive Church
as it is now. For at that time charity was so ardent,
that individuals were most ready to die for Christ.
Crimes were rare, and those which occurred were visited
with great and severe vengeance by the canons. But
now a good part of the people would rather strip them-
selves of Christianity than submit to the rigour of the
canons, so that, not without a very great dispensation of
the Holy Spirit, has it come to pass, that after the revo-
lutions of so many years,, belief in purgatory and the
use of indulgences have generally been received by
the orthodox. As long as there was no care about
purgatory, no one sought indulgences ; for from
30 Pardons and Indulgences
that depends all the estimation of an indulgence.
If you take away purgatory, for what will there be
any use of indulgences ? for we should not need them
at all, if there were no .purgatory. Seeing then that
purgatory was for a considerable time unknown, and
then step by step^ partly from revelations, partly from
the Scriptures, was believed, and so at length generally
the belief of it was most widely received by the or-
thodox Church, we can most easily understand some
reason for indulgences. Since then purgatory was at
so late a .period received by the universal Church, who
,can now wonder about indulgences, that in the begin-
ning of the nascent Church there was no use of them ?
Indulgences, therefore, began after there had been for
some considerable time trepidation about the torments
of purgatory. For, at that time, it is credible that
= the holy fathers more attentively studied by what means
they could best consult for the safety of their flocks
against those torments, especially for those whose age
would not allow of their completing the penance ap-
pointed by the canons." The writer then proceeds to
say, that those fathers, seeing that the Pope, as Peter's
successor, has so much power, conceived that he might
-fairly be believed to have the power of releasing from
the pains of purgatory; hence the origin of indul-
gences ! He finishes the section in these words
" Nor would I deny that the abuse'of them may take
place on both sides. For both the person who grants
them, may give them with some sinister view; and at
the same time he who receives them, may make them
a handle for living more carelessly."
After such a declaration, by one of the most learned
champions of the Romish Church, we need not exa-
mine those passages of primitive writers which are now
strangely perverted and pressed, to give countenance
to some part or other of these innovations. The very
earliest time to which Bishop Fisher would refer is the
age of Gregory the First, who was not Pope till the very
end of the sixth century; and even that he does not
granted by the Pope. 31
venture to give as his own opinion, or to confirm by-
any evidence all he can write is, " As they say."
And if from the ancient Church we turn to the
Holy Scriptures, we cannot find one single passage
to give the slightest shadow or colour of authority to
the practice or the belief of indulgences. The Pope
claims the right on his being the successor of St.
Peter, and on the authority of the keys as given to
that Apostle by our Lord. But whatever that autho-
rity involved, it had certainly nothing in common with
indulgences; and whatever it was, itwasgiven-equally
to all the Apostles, The words by which He explains
the figurative expression of delivering the keys to Peter
He repeats to all the Apostles: te Thou art Peter
and upon this rock I will build my Church ; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:
ad whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven 5 ." "Verily I say
unto you, whatsoever YE shall bind on earth, shall be
bounc! in heaven: and whatsoever YE shall loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven V " Then were the
disciples glad when they saw the Lord; Then said
Jesus unto THEM again, Peace be unto you. As my
Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And wheh :
he had said this, he breathed on them and said unto
them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins
YE remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose-
soever sins YE retain, they are retained V
And when we read written as with a sunbeam,-
" The blood of Jesus Christ his Son eleanseth us from
all sin ;" " if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un-
righteousness," we turn from the doctrine and practice
of indulgences as an unseriptural error, robbing the
atoning sacrifice of Christ's death of its infinite ful-
ness, and denying its power of saving to the utter-
3 Matt. xvi. 18,19. 6 Matt, xviii. 18. 7 John xx. 20.
32 Pardons and Indulgences granted by the Pope.
most those who come to the Father through Him. The
idea of a treasure of merits, consisting of the mingled
merits of Christ and his saints, seems to us nothing short
of impiety. To maintain that a mortal man has the
disposal of that treasure to make amends and satisfac-
tion to God's eternal justice for the unexpiated guilt of
departed souls, and liquidate that portion of their debt
of punishment which they have not yet paid by suffer-
ings, we cannot but regard as a presumption most offen-
sive to the Almighty, and most abhorrent to our first
principles of religion.
We throw ourselves on the mere mercy of God
in Christ Jesus, assured that if we sincerely repent,
and unfeignedly believe His Holy Gospel, He
will absolve us from all our sins, and receive us to
Himself as souls ransomed from sin, and death,
and hell, by His blood, and cleansed from all our
corruptions by the Holy Spirit. We endeavour,
in reliance upon his grace, to work out our own
salvation ; considering the purity of God and our own
frailty, we engage in that work with fear and trem-
bling; but knowing that He will work in us by a
power not our own, and will give us, in answer to
earnest prayer, the strength, and guidance, and protec-
tion of His Holy Spirit, we go on our way rejoicing-,
in sure and certain hope of victory and of heaven.
We feel no trepidation as to the torments of purga-
tory, but are sure that they are the presumptuous
fabrication of men ; and regarding the interval between
our death and the resurrection, even were it a myriad
of ages, in comparison with eternity, to be like the
twinkling of an eye, with humble confidence we trust
that, when the time of our departure is come, we shall
fall asleep in Jesus, to be raised in God's good time to
possess our full consummation and bliss, both in
body and soul, in his everlasting glory.
GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
No. III.
ON THE
INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND
ANGELS.
LONDON:
Printed for the
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
NO. 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE;
AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
[653] 1846.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE present Tracts are the first of a series intended to be
issued, on some of the chief and most prevalent errors of the
Church of Rome. The following have already been published :
I. ON THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPE.
II. ON PARDONS AND INDULGENCES GRANTED BY THE POPE.
III. ON THE INVOCATION OP SAINTS AND ANGELS.
IV. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OP THE OLD TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
V. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
VI. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND AN GELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT.
VII. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT
[continued].
WHAT IS ROMANISM ?
Invocation of Saints,
ONE of the characteristic doctrines of Romanism, in
contradistinction to the faith and practice of the
Church of England, is that tenet by whieh every
member of the Church of Rome is bound to hold the
Invocation of Saints. We are aware that different
members, perhaps different sections, of that Church
vary much in their practical acceptation of that doc-
trine; but their fundamental Articles, and the authori-
tative interpretation of those Articles, leave them no
option as to its admission. In the twenty-fifth session
of the Council of Trent, the article entitled, " On the
Invocation, Veneration, and Relics of Saints and of
sacred Images," is expressed in these words:-
" The holy council commands all bishops and others
bearing the office and care of instruction, that accord-
ing to the usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church.,
received from the primitive times of the Christian:
religion, and the consent of holy fathers, arid decrees
of sacred councils, they, in the first place, should in-
struct the faithful concerning the intercession and
invocation of saints, the honour of relics, and the law-
ful use of images; teaching the&i that the saints reign-
ing together with Christ, coffer their own 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. Those who deny that the saints enjoy-
ing everlasting happiness in heaven are to be invoked,
or who assert either that they do not pray for us,
or that the invocation of them to pray for us even as
individuals is idolatry, or is repugnant to the word of
A '2
4 Invocation of Saints.
God, and is opposed to the honour of the one Media-
tor of God and man, Jesus Christ, or that it is folly by
voice or mentally to supplicate those who reign in
heaven, hold impious sentiments.
" Those who affirm that . . . the shrines of the
saints are in vain frequented for the purpose of
obtaining their succour, are altogether to be con-
demned, as the Church has long ago condemned
them, and now also condemns them."
There are several points of view in which the ex-
pressions of this decree are remarkable ; among others,
their elastic character forces itself upon our notice ;
for whilst they may be so widely expanded as to justify
the practice of praying for blessings temporal and
spiritual directly from the saints themselves, they may
be so contracted as not palpably to contradict those
who assert that the Church of Rome never offers to a
saint any other petition than merely and simply a
request, that the saint would, by his or her prayers,
intercede with God for the worshippers. And con-
formably with this latitude we find the most astonish-
ing discrepancies between the representations of their
faith and conduct made by different Roman Catholic
writers; and whilst this discrepancy reminds us es-
pecially of the rule which we have prescribed to our-
selves throughout these papers, of not seeking to
charge individual members of the Roman Church
^with doctrines and practices which they disavow, it
enforces on us with increased obligation the necessity
-of cautioning the members of our own communion
against those errors in belief and religious worship,
which however softened down by metaphysical dis-
tinctions, are inseparably connected with such cor-
ruptions as we are led in the present paper to lay
open. But let us first see what views of the invo-
cation of saints are put before us by those Romanist
writers who wish to make their doctrines as little
repulsive as may be to members of our communion,
and then how the doctrine and practice show them-
selves elsewhere.
Invocation of Saints. 5
In the sermon preached at the consecration of the
Roman Catholic chapel at Bradford, July 27, 1825, by
P. A. Baines, D.D., bishop of Siga, the doctrine and
practice are thus stated: "But do we not worship
and pray to the saints? We worship no creature
whatever, and therefore not the saints. But at least
we pray to them. Yes, my Christian brethren, just
as St. Paul prayed to his own converts, or I pray to
you. I say to you, and with all sincerity 1 say it,
Pray for me, my brethren; obtain for me from God
those blessings which I may myself be unable or
Unworthy to obtain. I say the same to the blessed
mother of Jesus Christ, to St. Peter, St. Paul, St.
Augustine, St. Jerome, or any other of those holy
persons whose acknowledged sanctity has procured for
them, through the grace and merits of Christ, the
friendship of God and the happiness of heaven.
Surely there is nothing wrong or unreasonable in this.
The earthly trials of those holy persons are past, the
veil of mortality is removed from their eyes, they
behold God face to face, and enjoy without reserve
his friendship and his love. May I not reasonably
hope that their prayers will be more efficacious than
my own, or those of "my friends? Under this per-
suasion I say to them as I just now said to you,
" Holy Mary, holy Peter, holy Paul, pray for us !"
The end of this section Bishop Baines closes with
this awful imprecation on his own soul, "Anathema
to myself, if the doctrine I have here explained to
vou is not the true and universally received doctrine
of the Catholic Church !"
To this exposition we must again revert. At
present we only say, that however wide the difference,
however groundless the analogy between one of us
mortals asking a fellow mortal on earth to pray for us
on the one hand, and on the other our suppliantly
invoking the spirits in the unseen world to pray for
us between our requesting, by word of mouth or by
letter, a living friend to join his prayers with our own
afc the throne of grace, and, on the other hand, in the
A a
6 Invocation of Saints,
attitude of prayer, on our knees, with uplifted hands, in
private or in the house of prayer in the very midst of
the worship of Almighty God, (all marking it as a reli-
gious act of prayer,) our imploring an unseen spirit to
aid us; however great a difficulty we may find in re
conciling this declaration of Bishop Baines and his
knowledge with the real state of facts both of doctrine
and practice as we find them ; we do not for a moment
suspect him of willingly misleading his audience,
which consisted of members of his own Church, and of
the Church of England, and of Dissenters. His sermon
was preached in 1825; in 1843 we have a very differ-
ent view of the doctrine forced upon us in a letter
dated " St, Mary's College, Oscott, Octave of Corpus
Christi 1 ." It is written " to a friend at Oxford by a
late member of the University," who represents him-
self as a convert from the Church of England to the
Church of Rome. This writer, on the subject of the
Invocation of Saints, uses these expressions: "To
prevent all quibbling, I shall explain all the points in
the above argument which are liable to be misunder^
stood or cavilled at. By * Invocation of Saints/ I do
not mean the mere e Ora pro nobis,' (the mere * Pray
for us,') but the direct 2 asking from the saints things
which God alone can bestow."
Whether this view or the representation of Dr.
Baines be the more approved now in England it is
needless for us to inquire, who believe both of them
to be contrary to the faith and practice of the Primi-
tive Church, and inconsistent with the Scriptural
principle of one God, the only object of prayer, and
one Mediator between that God and our fallen race.
But we must now inquire what were the doctrines
and practices from which the Reformation rescued
pur country in this respect, and what are the con-
1 The title-page is "The Character of the Rev. W. Palmer, M.A.,
of Worcester College, as a Controversialist, particularly with reference
to his charge against the Right Rev. Dr. Wiseman, of quoting a
genuine works of the fathers, spurious and heretical productions, &c.
London: Dolman, New Bond Street, 1843."
2 These italics are in the original,
Invocation of$g,ints. 7
elusions to be drawn by honest minds from the autho-
rized formularies now in use in the Church of Rome,
and what are practically the prevalent devotional
exercises of its members. We reserve the worship of
the blessed Virgin Mary for a separate consideration.
We cannot, however, help observing on the unsatis-
factory language in which, on this subject, no less
than on Indulgences, Dr. Baines conveys to a mixed
congregation, unacquainted with Roman doctrines,
this article of their faith, " I say the same e Pray for
me ' to the blessed mother of Jesus Christ, to St.
Peter, St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, or any
other of those holy persons whose ACKNOWLEDGED
SANCTITY has procured for them, through the grace
and merits of Christ, the friendship of God and the
happiness of heaven." By whom does he mean that
their sanctity is acknowledged ? If God be meant as
acknowledging it, how can we be certified of the
judgment of God as to the sanctity of any departed
mortal? If man be meant, how can man know the
heart of a fellow mortal ? And, in any case, how
can we know whether (on the Romanist principles, so
far as Bishop Baines explains them) the soul departed
is in a condition to be prayed for, or to be prayed
to? If the soul is in purgatory, according to the
Roman theory, it requires the prayers of the faithful
on earth for its release from suffering ; if it is already
in heaven, not only may it pray for souls on earth,
but those souls may suppliantly implore its assistance
and good offices. This alternative can be decided by
no mortal except through immediate revelation ; but
here the Church of Rome has attempted to meet this
difficulty by investing the Pope with the power of
canonizing such departed souls as he adjudges to be
saints in heaven ; and in this act he is held to be in-
fallible. Cardinal Bellarmine insists upon this as an
indisputable dogma; though, when he proceeds to
enumerate his arguments, the first would seem not to
partake of a seriousness corresponding with the cha-
racter of the subject. " In the first place, was the
A 4 -...--
8 Invocation of Saints.
Pope ever proved to be mistaken in this act ? " In
Dr. Barnes's exposition of the doctrine, then, there is
much to be understood beyond what is expressed, By
"acknowledged sanctity" is meant " sanctity acknow-
ledged by the Pope and the College;" and to the
words " has procured for them the friendship of God
and the happiness of heaven," must be added, " in the
judgment of the Roman pontiff." Thus the soul of a
departed Christian might be prayed for, and masses
said in his behalf to release him from purgatory through
this year, and if the act of canonization were passed by
the Pope at the end of the year, from that day and hour
he would become, not the subject, but the object of
prayer ; he would not be prayed for, but prayed to.
Thus in the record of the canonization of Alphonsus
Liguori, we are told that immediately on the comple-
tion of the act, before leaving the church, the official
offered to him the prayer " Pray for us." In contrast
with this, the apostolic injunction forces itself upon
us, " Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord
come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of
darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts : and then shall every man have praise of God 3 ."
With regard to the awful extent to which the wor-
ship of saints had grown before the Reformation, we
have a mass of evidence on record which must make
us thankful that our Church suffers us to pray only to
God, and to seek his mercies only through the merits
and intercession of his blessed Sou our Saviour. We
cannot consistently with the teaching of his Gospel
and of his Church make any distinction between a
Mediator of Redemption and a Mediator of Interces-
sion, such as some of our Roman Catholic brethren
would persuade us to adopt. Holy Scripture coun-
tenances no such distinction. There we find the
two offices of redemption and mediation joined in
Christ, and in Him alone : " If any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righte-
ous, and he is the propitiation for our sins 4 ." And
3 1 Cor. iv. 5. * 1 John ii. I, 2.
Invocation of Saints. 9
the same Saviour who is declared to have ** obtained
by his own blood eternal redemption for us," is an-
nounced to us also as the Mediator of Intercession :
" Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost those
who come unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth
to make intercession for them 5 ." We are thankful, there-
fore, that our Church has restored to us this only sound
and true doctrine ONE GOD and ONE MEDIATOR.
But how was it before this sound doctrine' was re-
stored? One service familiar to the people of our
country at that time, is of itself enough, (and we
select it out of very many,) to enable us to answer that
question the Service of Thomas a Becket, arch-
bishop of Canterbury, whom some have denounced as
a rebel ; of whose condemnation as a sinner, or admis-
sion into heaven, the masters of Paris are reported to
have disputed forty-eight years after his death ; and
whom the Church of Rome canonized as a saint. Into
the questions of his religious and moral excellence or
delinquency our present inquiry does not lead us;
for our argument, we may consider him to be cor-
rectly represented by his most ardent admirers. The
whole Service, consisting of biographical legends, and
praises of Thomas a Becket, and declarations of
the Divine vengeance upon his murderers, and prayers
to him, may be read in a work on the Catalogue
of the Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge 6 . In the ninth lesson of the first Service we
find this announcement: "At the cry of this blood
the earth was moved and trembled. Nay, moreover,
the powers of the heavens were moved ; so that, as if
for the avenging of innocent blood, nation rose against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom; nay, a king-
dom was divided against itself ; and terrors from
heaven and great signs took place. Yet from the
first period of his martyrdom the martyr began to
shine forth with miracles, restoring sight to the blind,
walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, language to
5 Heb. ix. 12. 6 Primitive Worship, p. 201.
A 5
10 Invocation of Saints.
the dumb ; afterwards cleansing the lepers, making
the paralytic sound? healing the dropsy and all kinds
of incurable diseases, restoring the dead to life, in a
wonderful manner commanding the devils and all the
elements ; he alsa put forth his hand to unwonted and
unheard-of signs of his own power, fbr persons de-
prived of their eyes merited by his merite to obtain
new members/' &c.
Among the addresses to the Almighty for mercy
through the merits and mediation of Thomas, and to
Thomas for his own spiritual aid, we find the fol-
lowing \-~~
(C O Christ Jesus, BY THE WOUNDS OF THOMAS,
loosen the sins which bind us, lest the enemy, the
world, or the works, of the flesh, bear us captive to
hell. BY THEE, O Thomas, let the right hand of God
embrace us. . . , Happy place, happy church, in
which the memory of Thomas lives ! Happy the land
which gave the prelate ! Happy the land which sup-
ported him in exile ! Happy father, succour us mise-
rable, that we may be happy and joined with those
above." " O good Jesus, BY THE MERITS OF THOMAS,
forgive us our debts, Visit the house, the gate, the
grave, and raise us from the threefold death. What
lias been lost, by act, or in mind, or use, restore with
thy wonteo 1 pity. Pray for us, Q blessed Thomas !
" The grain falls, and gives birth to an abundance
of corn.
"The alabaster-box is broken, and the odour of
he ointment, is powerful.
" The whole world vies in love to the martyr whose
wonderful signs strike all with astonishment.
" The water for Thomas five times changing colour,
once was turned into milk, four times into blood.
" At the shrine of Thomas four times the light
came down, and, to the glory of the saint, kindled
the wax tapers.
"Do THOU, BY THE BLOOD OF THOMAS WHICH,
HE SHED FOR THEE, CAUSE US, O CHRIST, TO AS-
CEND whither Thomas has ascended.
Invocation of Saints,
ft Extend succour to; us, O Thomas, giiide
who stand; raise up those that fall. Correct ibur
morals, actions, life; and guide us in the way of
peace."
This Service (which, as a writer * contemporary with
our Reformation tells us, used "full solemnly to be sung
ia the temples" ) suggests many serious reflections as to
the state of religious worship in our country before .the
Reformation. It is indeed lamentable to find such le*
gends substituted for the reading of the word of God.
Of these lessons there are no less than fifteen. But even
more lamentable is the impression which this Service
must make on minds of ordinary power and cultiva-
tion. Its natural, and, as we conceive, unavoidable
tendencys is to withdraw the worshippers from contem-
plating Christ, the only Saviour, and to fix their
thoughts on the powers, the glory, the merits, and
mediation of a fellow-creature. It is often said, that
the worshippers will look beyond the martyr, and trace
the blessings to Christ as the primary cause, and will
think of the merits of Thomas as efficacious only
through the merits of their Saviour; that in their
religious addresses .to. Thomas, though they ask di-
rectly of him mercies which God alone can bestow,
they will only ask him to pray for them, But can this
be so ? Is it reasonable to expect such a result ? Does
not experience prove the futility of such an expecta-
tion ? Is .not such a service rather a snare to the con-
science ? at all events, a most dangerous experiment ?
Let us look at it in one, or two of its particular points.
Does not the ascription of miracles to Thomas a
Becket does not the very form of enumerating those
miracles tend much to exalt the servant to an equality
with Him who alone doeth great wonders? For the
reader will observe a marked and lamentable absence
of any immediate reference of those miracles to God,
or ascription of glory to Him. So, too, many passages
in this Service tend to withdraw the minds of the wor-
. 1 Becon, 1564, v. 183.
A 6
12
Invocation of Saints.
shippers from an implicit and exclusive dependence
on the merits of Christ alone, and to tempt them to
mingle, at all events, the merits of Thomas, in the
work of grace and salvation, with the merits of Christ's
death and precious blood.
We request the reader to reconsider the language
already quoted from the Service of Thomas a Becket,
and to compare it with the passages of that Word of
life and of death to which at last, if we are Christians,
our appeal must be made, and from which there is no
appeal.
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC SERVICE
OF THOMAS A BECKET.
K O Christ Jesus, BY THE
WOUNDS OF THOMAS, loosen the
sins which hind us."
"O blessed Jesus, BY THE
MERITS OF THOMAS, forgive us
our debts, raise us from the
threefold death."
" Do Thou, O Christ, BY THE
BLOOD OF THOMAS, which he
shed for Thee, cause us to ascend
whither Thomas has ascended."
" For thy sake, O Thomas,
let the right hand of God em-
brace us."
" Send help to us, O Thomas.",
" Guide thou those who stand."
" Raise up those who fall."
THE REVEALED WORD OF GOD,
"Who bis own self bare our
sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should
live unto righteousness : by whose
stripes ye were healed 8 ."
" He who spared not his own
Son, but gave him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things 9 Z "
"The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth from all sin * ."
"By prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your re-
quests be made known unto
God 2 ."
" Lord, be thou my helper V
" Thou shalt guide me by thy
counsel V
" The Lord upholdeth all that
fall, and raiseth up all those that
are bowed down 5 ."
s 1 Pet. ii. 24. 9 Rom. viii. 32.
1 1 John i. 7. 2 Phil. iv. 6.
* Psalm xxx. 10. * Psalm Ixxiii. 24. 5 Psalm cxlv. 14.
Invocation of Saints. 13
" Correct our morals, actions, " Create in me a clean heart,
and life." OGod 6 ."
" Guide us unto the way of " Now the Lord of peace him-
peace." self give you peace always by all
means V
Compare also the language in which ascriptions of
praise are couched to this departed mortal with the
words which Holy Scripture appropriates to the eternal
Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, the only wise God,
our Saviour.
ASCRIPTIONS OF PRAISE TO HOLY SCRIPTURE WHEN SPEAK-
THOMAS A BECKETT. ING OF GOD.
" Hail, Thomas, thou Rod of " There shall come a rod out of
justice I" the stem of Jesse 8 ." " Ye denied
the Holy One and the Just 9 ."
" The brightness of the world." " I am the Light of the world 1 ."
" The brightness of his glory 2 ."
"The strength of the Church. "I can do all things through
The love of the people. The Christ that strengthened me V
delight of the clergy." " Christ loved the Church, and
gave himself for it V " I will
love thee, O Lord, my strength 5 ."
" Grace be with all them that 1
love our Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity 6 ." "Delight thou in
the Lord*."
" Hail, glorious guardian of " Our Lord Jesus, that great
the flock. Save those who re- Shepherd of the sheep 8 ." "Give
joice in thy glory." ear, O Shepherd of Israel, come
and save us V " He that glo-
riethjlet him glory in the Lord 10 ."
How can these prayers and praises be regarded as
merely variations of the expression "Pray for us?"
Try the real, genuine nature of these prayers and
praises by this general test change only the name,
and substitute the holy name of the supreme God and
Saviour for the name of Thomas a Becket, and then
6 Psalm li. 10. ? 2 Thess. iii. 16. 8 Isa. xi. 1.
9 Actsiii. 14. 1 Johnviii. 12. s Heb. i. 3.
3 Phil. iv. 13. * Eph. v. 25. 5 Psalm xviii. 1.
6 Eph. vi. 24. * Psalm xxxvii. 4. 8 Heb. xiii. 20.
Psalm xxx. 1. 2. 1 1 Cor. i. 31.
invocation of Saints.
judge whether such devotions offered to the departed
spirit of a fellow-creature, can be safe or justifiable.
ROMAN SERVICE.
" To Thomas all things bow
and are obedient plagues, dis-
eases, death, and devils, fire, air,
land, and sea.
" Thomas fills the world with
glory.
" To Thomas the world offers
obeisance.
' "Thomas shone forth with
miracles.
"Do thou, O Lord, by the
blood of Thomas, cause us to as-
cend whither he, Thomas, hath
ascended.
11 O Thomas ! send us help.
Guide those who stand. Raise up
those who fall. Correct our morals,
actions, and life ; and guide us
into the way of peace,
" O Thomas ! thou Rod of
Justice ! the Brightness of the
World 1 the Strength of the
Church 1 the Lover of the Peo-
ple! the Delight of the Clergy!
Glorious Guardian, of the flock t
save Thou those who delight in
thy glory:"
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
"To God all things bow and
are obedient plagues, diseases,
death, and devils, fire, air, land,
and sea.
"God fills the world with
glory.
" To God the world offers
obeisance.
" The Lord Jesus shone forth
with miracles.
"Do thou, O Lord, by the
blood of our Saviour Christ, cause
us to ascend whither he our
Saviour hath ascended.
"OGod! send us help. Guide
those who stand. Raise up thpse
who fall. Correct our morals,
actions, and life; and guide us
into the way of peace.
" O Lord Jesus ! thou Rod of
Justice! the Brightness of the
World! the Strength of the
Church ! the Lover of the Peo-
ple ! the Delight of the Clergy !
Glorious Guardian of the flock 1
save Thou those who delight in.
thy glory."
Can that worship become the disciples of the Gospel
and the cross which addresses such prayers and such
praises to the spirit of a mortal man ? Every prayer
and every form of praise here used in honour of Tho-
mas a Becket it would well become Christians to offer
to the eternal Giver of all good, trusting for accept-
ance solely and exclusively to the mediation of Christ
Jesus our Lord, and pleading only the merits of his
most precious blood. We are, however, bound to con-
fess, though in the ministrations authorized and ap-
pointed by the Church of Rome in public worship at
the present day we are not shocked by such startling
language, yet tha.t in principle, in spirit, and: in fact,
Invocation of Saints. 15
we can discover no substantial difference between this
Service of Thomas of Canterbury and the Service which
all persons in communion with the Church of Rome are
under an obligation to use even at this very hour.
Far, very far, are we from charging with idolatry our
fellow-creatures who declare that they offer Divine wor-
ship only to the supreme Lord of heaven and earth;
but we know and feel that, according to the, standard
of Christian truth and the rule of pure worship of
Almighty God, which the Scriptures and primitive
antiquity compel us to adopt, we should stain our
own souls with the guilt of idolatry, and with the sin
of relying on other merits than Christ's, were we our-
selves to join in those services.
Invocation of Saints. Present worship in the Church of
Rome.
IN our remarks on the 'Service of Thomas a Becket,
whom our Roman Catholic brethren call St. Thomas
of Canterbury, we observed, that although the same
startling expressions and words do not now exist in the
formularies of Rome, yet, that we are unable to find
any real and essential difference in the objectionable
points, between that service and the devotions at pre-
sent prescribed and employed by that Church. We
might, leaving more minute and subordinate distinc-
tions, enumerate four grievous errors in that service,
for which we shall not be long in discovering real
parallels in the authorized books of the Church of
Rome now.
First, prayer is offered to God through the media-
tion and intercession of the saints, instead of the
mediation and intercession of Christ alone ; and the
merits of the saints-are pleaded with God- for the
highest spiritual blessings.
Secondly, prayer is offered to the saints, asking
for their prayers at the throne of grace, agreeably to
the representation of Bishop Baines.
16 Invocation of Saints.
Thirdly, prayer is offered to the saints, imploring
directly at their hands gifts spiritual and temporal,
which God alone can bestow ; agreeably to the repre-
sentation made in the letter from Oscott above re-
ferred to.
Fourthly, praises are offered to them, and ascriptions
of glory, such as Christians should offer only to the one
supreme God.
The following instances are all taken from the
present authorized and enjoined Liturgy of Rome.
1. First, prayer is offered to the Almighty, through
the mediation and intercession of the saints ; and the
Almighty is supplicated to grant to the worshippers the
benefits of the advocacy and intercession of particular
saints by name 1 .
" We beseech Thee, Almighty God, that he whose
feast we are about to celebrate, may implore thy aid
for us: that he may be for us a perpetual inter-
cessor. A. 545. 551 . " We beseech Thee, O Lord, let
the intercession of the blessed Anthony, the abbot,
commend us, that what we cannot effect by our own,
merits, we may obtain by his patronage, through the
Lord." H. 490.
On this point it may be wise to compare two prayers
of the Romish Church, both offered to Almighty God,
and both seeking at his hand the self-same recovery
from the misery into which sin had plunged the.
worshippers; but the one prayer imploring that mercy
through the intercession of his dear and only Son, the
other pleading the advocacy of a mortal man.
"We beseech thee, Almighty "OGod, who hast granted the
God, that we, who among so many rewards of eternal blessedness
adversities from pur own infirmity tothesoulofthyservantGregory,
fail, the passion of thy only be- grant that we who are pressed
gotten Son interceding for us down by the weight of our sins,
may revive." V. 243. .j may by his prayers with Thee be
raised up." V. 480.
1 These references are made chiefly to the Roman Breviary, pub-
lished under the Pope's sanction and patronage at Norwich, in the
year 1830, by the Rev. F. C. Husenbeth, expressly adapted to the use of
Mngland. It is in four volumes, corresponding with the quarters of
the year. A. stands for autumn, .33. for summer, H. for winter, V. for
spring.
Invocation of Saints. 17
Thus do the authorized services of Rome teach
Christians to seek at God's hand a supply of their
wants, in return for the prayers and intercession of
their departed fellow mortals, of whose present condi-
tion neither reason nor revelation gives them any
assurance. But there is another form of the same
class of prayers which contradicts our judgment and
shocks our feelings more even than the form of which
we have here given instances. We are admonished
by the written word of God, and the earliest wor-
ship of the Church of Christ, that by joining in
such a form of prayer, we should do wrong to our
Saviour, and mi thankfully disparage his inestimable
merits, and the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice
and satisfaction of his omnipotent atonement. The
form we mean consists of prayers to God, which
supplicate that our present and future good may be
advanced by the MERITS of DEPARTED MORTALS ; that
by THEIR MERITS our sins may be forgiven, and our
salvation secured ; that BY THEIR MERITS our souls
may be made fit for celestial joys, and be finally ad-
mitted into heaven. Of these prayers the Roman
Breviary forces upon us a great variety of examples,
some exceeding others in their apparent forgetfulness
of the merits of the only Saviour, and consequently
far more shocking to the reason and affections of us,
who hold it a point of conscience to make the merits of
Christ, exclusively of any other to be joined with
them, the only ground of a believer's acceptance with
God.
" O God, who didst adorn the blessed Pontiff
Nicholas with unnumbered miracles, grant, we beseech
Thee, that by his merits and prayers we may be set
free from the fires of hell, through," &c. H. 436.
Another instance occurs in the Collect for the 19th
March, in which the Church of Rome teaches her
members to pray to God for the benefit of Joseph's
intercession, and to hope for succour from his merits.
" We beseech Thee, O Lord, that we may be suc-
coured by the merits of the husband of thy most holy
18 Invocation of Saints,
mother, so that what we cannot obtain by our own power
maybe granted to us by his intercession."' -V. 486.
Under this head we will add only one more instance,
in which the Church of Rome directs her people to offer
this prayer to Christ,
" O God, whose right hand raised the blessed Peter
when walking on the waves so that he did not sink,,
and rescued from the depth of the sea his fellow apostle
Paul, for the third time suffering shipwreck; mercifully
hear us, and grant that BY THE MERITS OF BOTH we
may obtain the glory of eternity."- H, 149.
Now suppose for a moment it had been intended in
anyone prayer, to exclude negatively the merits of
Christ from the great work of our salvation, and
to limit our hopes of everlasting glory to the merits of
St. Peter and St. Paul, could the object have been
more effectually secured than by this prayer ? No re-
ference is here made, even by allusion, to the merits of
Christ's death, none to his merits as o.ur Redeemer,
none to his merits as our Intercessor. The worshipper
is led to approach the throne of grace only with the
merits of the two apostles on his tongue. If those
who offer this prayer, hope for acceptance through the
mediation of Jesus Christ, and for the sake of his
merits, that hope is neither suggested nor fostered by
their prayer. The truth as it is in Jesus would compel
us, in addressing Him as the Saviour of the world, to
think of the merits neither of Peter nor of Paul, neither
of angel nor spirit. Instead of praying to Him that
we may obtain the glories of eternity for their merits,
true faith in Christ would compel us to throw ourselves
implicitly on his all-perfect and omnipotent merit
alone, and implore the blessing for his own mercy's
sake. If we receive the whole truth, can it be other-
wise than a disparagement of his merits to plead with
Him the merits of one whom the Saviour Himself
rebuked with as severe a sentence as ever fell from his
lips ; and of another who after his conversion, when
speaking of the salvation wrought by Christ, in profound
humility confesses himself to be a chief of those sin-
Invocation of Saints* 19
ners for whom Christ died 3 ? We feel, indeed, a sure
and certain hope that these two fellow-creatures, once
sinners, but by God's grace afterwards saints, have
found mercy with God, and will, through Christ, live
with Christ for ever; but for us to pray for the same
mercy at his hand, for the sake of their merits, is re-
pugnant to the first principles of our Christian faith.
When we think of merits for which to plead for mercy,
we can think of Christ's, and of Christ's alone.
2, The second class of invocation in our division,
comprehends those addresses to the saints which im-
plore them to pray for the worshippers. These occur
so frequently in every part of the authorized worship of
Rome, that we need not lengthen the present section
by enumerating many instances. One example both of
the preceding class, and of this in juxtaposition, occurs
in the case of Ambrose, bishop of Milan. The Church
of Rome has availed herself of his pious labours, and
Las introduced into her public worship many of the
hymns usually ascribed to him. It had been well for
Christian truth and apostolic worship had she followed
his example in addressing her invocations to no one
but our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier,
,." O God, who didst assign to thy people the blessed
Ambrose, as a minister of eternal salvation, grant, we
beseech Thee, that we may deserve to have him as our
intercessor in heaven, whom we had as a teacher of
life upon earth .-!"
"O thou most excellent teacher, the light of the
Holy Church ! O blessed Ambrose, thou lover of the
divine law, deprecate the Son of God for us !"
In the "Litany of the Saints" more than fifty dif-
ferent persons are enumerated by name, and are im-
plored to pray and intercede for those who join in it;
among them are Raphael, Gervasius, Protasius, and
Mary Magdalene; whilst in the Litany for the re-
commendation of the soul of the sick and dying, the
names of Abel and Abraham are specified.
Under this head we will cite only one more example.
2 Matt. xvi. 23. 3 1 Tim. i. 15.
20 Invocation of Saints.
Indeed, it may be doubted whether the hymn would
be more properly classed under this head or reserved
for the next, since it seems to partake of the nature of
each. It supplicates the martyr to obtain spiritual
blessings by his prayers, and yet addresses him as the
power who is to grant those blessings. It implores
him, indeed, to liberate us by the love of Christ ; but
so should we implore the eternal Father of mercies
Himself. We think it, however, the safe course to cite
it under this head, as merely a prayer to St. Stephen
to pray for us. But it may be well to derive from it
a lesson on this point, how easily the transition is made
from one false step to a worse; and how infinitely
wiser and safer it is to avoid evil in its very lowest and
least objectionable character.
" Martyr of God ! [or unconquered martyr] who,
by following the only Son of the Father, triumphest
over thy conquered enemies, and as conqueror enjoy est
heavenly things, wash out by the office of thy prayer
our guilt, driving away the contagion of evil. The
bands of thy hallowed body are already loosed ; loose
thou us from the bands of the world, by the love of the
Son of God [or by the gift of God] most high V H.
237.
8. But thirdly, the Roman Church (we say this with
the declaration of Bishop Baines, &c. on the one side,
and the Letter from Oscott, &c. on the other, before us)
by no means limits herself to this one kind of invoca-
tion. Prayers are addressed to saints imploring them to
hear, and as of themselves to grant, the prayers of the
faithful on earth, and to release them from the bands
of sin, without any allusion to the intercession of those
saints. Thus, in* the Gradual on St. Michael's day,
this prayer is offered to him :
" O holy Michael, O Archangel, defend us in battle,
that we perish not in the dreadful judgment !"
When we read the invocation made to St. Peter on
the 18th of January, called the Anniversary of the
Chair of St. Peter at Rome, the words of our blessed
4 In the above hymn the words included in brackets are the read-
Invocation of Saints. 2 1
Lord Himself and of his beloved apostle seem to rise
up in judgment and to condemn that prayer.
" Now, O good shepherd, merciful Peter, accept the
prayers of us who supplicate, and loose the bands of
our sins by the power committed unto thee, by which
thoti shuttest heaven against all by a word, and
openest it 5 !" H. 497.
It may be well to place the several members of this
address to Peter side by side with the language of Holy
Scripture, and then ask, can such a form of devotion be
safe ?
"Merciful Peter, O thou good "Jesus saith, I am the good
shepherd," Shepherd 6 ."
" Accept the prayers of us who " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my
supplicate:" name, that will I do 7 ." " That
whatsoever ye shall ask the Father
in my name, he may give it you 8 ."
" And loose the bands of our " The blood of Jesus Christ,
sins, by the power committed to his Son, cleanseth from all sinsV
thee :"
" By which thou shuttest "These things saith he that is
heaven against all by a word, and holy, he that is true, he that
openest it." openeth,andnomanshutteth; and
shutteth, and no man openeth 1 ."
" I am he that liveth, and was dead ;
and T am alive for evermore, and
have the keys of hell and of
death V
ings adopted in the last edition of the Roman Breviary, printed in
England (1830) ; and it may be well here to observe, that we find
various readings in the hymns, as they are now printed for the use of
Roman Catholics in different countries. In some instances the
changes are curious and striking. Grancolas, in his historical com-
mentary on the Roman Breviary (Venice, 1734, p. 84), furnishes us
with interesting information as to the chief cause of this diversity.
Pope Urban VIII., who was Pontiff from 1623 to 1644, himself a man
of letters and a poet, took measures for the emendation of the hymns
in the Roman Breviary. His taste was offended by the many defects
in their metrical composition, and upwards of 950 faults in metre
are said to have been corrected. This gave Urban occasion to say, that
the Fathers had begun rather than completed the hymns. According
to Grancolas, many complained of these changes, alleging that primi-
tive simplicity had been sacrificed to poetry. " AccessitLatinitas.reces-
sit pietas." The verse was neater, but the pious feeling was chilled.
5 This hymn has undergone many changes since its first adoption
into the Roman Breviary.
6 John x. 14. 7 John xiv. 13. 8 John xv. 16.
fl 1 John i. 7. ' Rev. iii. 7- a Rev. i. 18.
22 Invocation of Saints.
The satne unsatisfactory associations must be ex-
cited in the minds of all who ground their faith and
worship On the word of God, by the following suppli-
cations to various saints on St. John's day. The reader
cannot fail to observe how peculiarly fitting would the
expressions of this hymn be in an address to our God
and only Saviour, and our Judge ; whereas, when they
are used in a devotional prayer to our fellow-creatures,
the words of inspiration condemn every sentence.
" Let the world exult with joy, let the heaven re*
sound with praise ; the earth and stars sing together
the glory of the Apostles. Ye Judges of the Ages,
and true Lights of the world, we implore with the
prayers of our hearts, hear the voices of your suppli-
ants. Ye who, by a word, shut the temples of heaven
and loose its bars, COMMAND us, who are guilty, TO
BE RELEASED FROM OUR SINS, we pray. Ye, of whose
commands sickness and health are immediately sensible,
heal our languid minds, increase virtues in us, so that
when Christ the Judge shall return at the end of the
world, he may grant us to be partakers of eternal joy.
Jesus, to Thee be glory, who wast born of a virgin, with
the Father, and the Benign Spirit, through eternal
ages. Amen."- H. 243.
4. On the subject of our present examination we
will only quote one more case-^-the prayers and praises
offered in the Roman Ritual to Joseph, the husband
of the Virgin Mary, which will supply us with a suf-
ficient proof of the fourth error above 'Specified. Of Jo-
seph mention is made byname in the Gospel, just before
and just after the birth of Christ, as an upright, merciful
man, to whom God on three several occasions, by the
medium of a dream, made a direct revelation of his will
with reference to the incarnate Saviour. Again, on
the holy family visiting Jerusalem, when our Lord
was twelve years old, Mary, in her remonstrance with
her Son, speaks thus : " Why hast thou thus dealt
with us ? Behold thy father and I have sought thee
sorrowing." On which not one word was uttered by
Invocation of Saints.
our Saviour enabling us to form an opinion as to
his own will with regard to Joseph. He seems pur-
posely to have withdrawn their thoughts from his
earthly connexion with them, and to have raised their
minds to his unearthly, his heavenly and eternal origin.
" How is it that ye sought me ? Wist ye not that I
must be about my Father's business?" After this
time, though the sacred writings, either historical, doc-
trinal, or prophetical, embrace at the lowest calcula-
tion a period of fourscore years, no allusion is made
to Joseph as still living, nor to his memory as one
already dead. And yet not only does Rome teach her
members to pray to God for the benefits of his merits
and intercession, but offers prayers to Joseph himself,
as well to obtain his prayer, as to procure from him
" gifts and graces which God alone can bestow," and
offering him praises and honours which are due only
to God our Saviour.
Of course, in the Litany of the Saints, " St. Josepli
pray for us," is one of the suffrages; but on his day
(March 19), we find three hymns addressed to him,
full of lamentable superstition, assigning to him a share
at least in the work of our salvation, and solemnly
stating as a truth what, whether true or false, rests on a
groundless legend, namely, that our blessed Lord and
Mary watched by him at his death ; ascribing also, as
we have intimated, that honour and praise to Joseph
which the Church, from its earliest days, was wont to
offer to God alone. The following are extracts from
these hymns :-
First Hymn " Let the companies of heaven cele-
brate thee, O Joseph ! Thee let all the choirs of
Christian people resound ; who, bright in merits, wast
joined in chaste covenant with the renowned Virgin.
Others their pious death consecrates after death, and
glory awaits those who deserve the palm. Thou, when
alive, equal to those above, more blessed by wondrous
lot, enjoyedst God. O Trinity most high, spare us who
pray ; grant us to reach Heaven [to scale the stars]
EY THE MERITS OF JOSEPH, that, at the last, we may
perpetually offer thee a grateful song." V. 485.
24 Invocation of Saints.
Second Hymn " O Joseph, the glory of those in
Heaven, and the sure hope of our life, and the safe^
guard of the world, benignly ACCEPT THE PRAISES
WHICH WE joyfully sing TO THEE. Perpetual praise
to the most high Trinity, who, granting to thee
honours on high, give to us, BY THY MERITS, the joys
of a blessed life." V. 486.
Third Hymn " He whom we the faithful worship
with joy, whose exalted triumphs we celebrate, Joseph
on this day obtained the joys of eternal life. O, too
happy ! O, too blessed I at whose last hour Christ and
the Virgin together, with serene countenances, stood
watching. Hence he, the conqueror of hell, freed
from the bonds of the flesh, removes in placid repose
to the everlasting seats, and binds his temples with
bright chaplets. Him, therefore, reigning, let us all
importunately pray, that he would be present with us,
and that he, obtaining pardon for our transgressions,
would ASSIGN to us the rewards of peace on high.
" Be praises to thee, be honours to thee, O true
God, who reignest and ASSIGNEST golden crowns to
thy faithful servants for ever. Amen." V. 490.
It is painful to remark, that the very same word is
employed when the Church of Rome requests Joseph to
ASSIGN to the faithful the rewards of peace, and when
glory is ascribed to God for ASSIGNING crowns to his
faithful servants. These hymns contain expressions
which ought to be addressed to the Saviour alone,
whose " glory is in the heavens," who is " the hope of
us on earth," and " the safeguard of the world."
Speaking the truth in love, we confess it would be im-
piety and sin in us to offer these prayers and praises to
the soul of any man, however holy, however blessed,
however exalted.
GILBERT & RIYINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
Nos. IV. & V.
ON THK
INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND
ANGELS.
IV. EVIDENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
AGAINST IT.
V. EVIDENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
AGAINST IT.
LONDON:
Printed for the
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
NO. 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE;
AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
[654]
1846.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE present Tracts are the first of a series intended to be
issued, on some of the chief and most prevalent errors of the
. Church of Rome . The following have already been publishe d :
I. ON THE SUPREMACY OP THE POPE.
II. ON PARDONS AND INDULGENCES GRANTED BY THE POPE,
III. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS.
IV. ON THE INVOCATION OF : SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
V. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
VI. ON THE INVOCATION OF ^SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT.
VII. ON THE INVOCATION OF/SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT
[continued].
WHAT IS ROMANISM ?
Invocation of Saints and Angels. ^Evidence of Holy
Scripture.
THE Ghurcli of Rome, as we have seen in a previous
section, teaches her; members to pray to the angels of
heaven, and the -souls of the faithful departed now
with God, for their' intercessions, and for blessings,
and graces, and benefits, which God alone can bestow;
and moreover, to plead the merits of the same saints
as a ground of their own acceptance with God; and
to offer them religious praise and honour. Both in
faith and in practice the Church of England holds all
this to be wrong, unsound, unjustifiable, and dangerous;
and maintains that a Christian, whether engaged in
public worship or in private devotions, must, if he
would be safe, address his prayers to God alone, and
seek blessings in no other way than by directly apply-
ing for them to God alone; and in his supplications
to the Almighty, plead only the merits, and trust
only to the mediation and intercession of the Lord
Jesus Christ,' the one only Mediator, either of redemp-
tion or of intercession, between God and man.
Now ;as ;persons to whom the supreme Creator,
Redeemer, cand Sanctifier, has ^entrusted the oracles of
A 2
4 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
truth, the written revelation of his will, the first step
to be taken by us in the way of determining which of
these two contradictory and irreconcilable systems is
the true and safe system, and which is unsound and
dangerous, will of necessity be to ascertain what conclu-
sions an honest study of that revealed will of God
would lead us to form: we must search which is the
faith and practice countenanced, recommended, or pre-
scribed in the sacred Book, both in the times of the
elder covenant, when " holy men of old spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost," and also in that
" fulness of time " when God spoke to us by his Son.
And here, on this first entrance upon a review of
the inspired volume, it will be well for us briefly to
recall the principles and tone of mind, the temper and
feelings, the frame both of the understanding and the
heart, with which we should study the sacred pages,
on whatever subject we would try all things, and hold
-fast what should prove itself most in accordance with
-the will of God. The two great parts into which the
..books of Holy Scripture are divided, are sometimes
called the Old and New Testaments, sometimes the
Old and New Covenants. But whichever view we
. prefer to take, the practical result will not be in the
least affected. Different associations are suggested by
these different titles of the inspired volume; yet
under either view, the same honest and good heart,
the same patience of investigation, the same upright
and unprejudiced judgment, the same exercise of our
.faculties, and the same enlightened conscience, must
vbe brought to the investigation.
Regarding the book of God as a COVENANT, we must
^endeavour to ascertain its true intent and meaning on
principles the very same with those on which we
would interpret a covenant made by ourselves with a
person who had joined in it, in full and unsuspect-
ing reliance on our integrity, justice, and honour.
Looking upon the Bible as a WILL or TESTAMENT,
must bring with us the same principles and feelings
Evidence of Holy Scripture. 5
to our inquiry as we should apply if we were called to
interpret the last will and testament of our own father,
who, with implicit confidence in our uprightness and
straightforward dealing, and in our affectionate anxiety
to fulfil his intentions, had assigned to us the sacred
duty of executor or trustee.
Under the first supposition, our anxiety would be
to discover the true intent and meaning of the con-
tracting party ; not to seek out plausible excuses for
departing from it; not to cull out and exaggerate
such expressions as might seem to justify us in adopt-
ing the view of the contract most agreeable to our
present wishes, and most favourable to our own in-
terests. Our fixed purpose would be, at whatever
cost of time, or labour, or self-sacrifice, or personal
discomfort, to apply our unbiassed judgment to the
interpretation of the deed.
Or, adopting the other analogy, our single desire
would be to ascertain the chief and leading objects of
our parent's will ; what were his intentions generally,
what ruling principles seem to have guided him in
adopting its provisions ; and in all cases of obscurity
and doubt, in every thing approaching an appearance
of inconsistency in one part with another, we should
refer to that great and pervading principle as our test
and guide. We should never seek for ambiguous ex-
pressions, which might be ingeniously interpreted so
as to countenance our departure from the general
drift of the will.
Now, only let us act upon these principles in the
interpretation of THAT COVENANT in which the Al-
mighty has deigned to make Himself one of the con-
tracting parties, and man the other ; only let us act
on these principles in the interpretation of THAT TES-
TAMENT of which the Saviour of the world is the
Testator; and, with God's blessing, we need not fear
the result. Any other principle of interpreting the
Bible wilLonly confirm the inquirer's prejudices, and
involve him more deeply in error.
A 3
6; Invocation of Saints and,- Angels.
EVIDENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
Let us then suppose that; a person of a cultivated
mind and sound judgment, but hitherto a stranger to
revelation, were required to study the Old Testament,
with the single view of ascertaining, what one object
more than any other. (subordinate to- the great end ; of
preparing the world, for the promised Saviour) seemed ;
to be, proposed by the Almighty, in* imparting to
mankind that revelation^; could he fix: upon any
other point with, so much reason as he would upon this^
-the preservation in the world of a practical belief 1
in.the perfect unity of Goclj and the, protection of his;
worship! against; the, admixture of any other worship 7
whatever; the^ announcement. that the Creator and
Governor f of the; universe is the sole: Giver of every ;
temporal and spiritual blessing* the one only Being >to
whom : his rational , creatures ; oa earth should pay any
religious! ser-viee whatever.; the one only Being- to
whom -mortals must seek, by invocation and*; prayer,
for the supply of all their wants ? Through the entire
volume; the inquirer would;; find, that the unity of
GocL is announced: in every variety of expression ; and :
that the exclusive -worship o HIM alone is ; insisted.
upon,, and guarded and ; fenced* with the utmost jea-
lousy, and in every variety of way, as of the .God who?
heareth prayer, alone* to be called upon, alone to be
invoked, alone, to be adored; So to speak,; he would;
find that recourse was had to every expedient for the
express purpose of protecting God's people from em-
bracing in; their worship ; any other being or name
whatever^. He would find not that supreme adoration
was reserved for the Supreme-Being, while; a sort of
secondary honour; and inferior invocation was allowed
to his ; own exalted: saints; and servants:: but that the;
laws of God.; banished, at. once and. for ever the most
distant approximation towards religious, honour, the
veriest shadow of spiritual , invocation to; any being-
except JEHOVAH HIMSELF ALONE.;
Evidence of Old- Testament ' against it. 7'
In .process of * time the 'heathen began to deify those
mortals who had conferred signal benefits on the
human race; or* had distinguished themselves in jpowei*
and skill above ; their : fellow-niortals ; and thus 'male and
female divinities were multiplied on every side. Toge-;
therewith Jupiter, the fabled father of gods and men,
who was-wor-shippgd under various names in different
countries, were associated those " gods many and lords
many" which ignorance and; superstition, or policy,
and craft, had invented, and which shared 1 some a
greater,- some a less portion of popular veneration
ami religious worship. To the people of God it 'was
again and again most solemnly and awfully denounced,
that no such thing should be. " Thou shalt worship
the; Lord thy Gbd$ and him only shalt thou serve,"
is>a mandate repeated in every variety of language,
and under every variety of circumstance. In some
passage;, indeed, together with the most clear assur-
ances that mortal men need apply to no other* dis-
penser 1 of good, and can want no otherj as saviour,
advocate,; or intercessor, that same truth is announced
with such 'Superabundance of repetition, that in the
productions of ; any human writer, the style would be
liable, to the charge of. tautology. In the Bible this
repetition serves*; only to fix on the mind that same
principle as an: eternal verity never to be questioned^
neverr. to be dispensed with, never to be diluted or
qualified* never to >be invaded by any service, worship,
prayer, invocation^ K or adoration of any other being
whatever. Take for example the forty-fifth chapter
of Isaiah : "I am the LORD, and there is none else,
there is no God beside me : I guided thee, though
thou ihast not known me : that they may know from
thesrising.iof the sun, and from the west, that there is
none beside mei I am the Lordj and there is none
else. They shall be ashamed, and also confounded*
all of them : theyshall go to confusion^ together that
are makers of idols; But Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation : ye shall 5 not 1 be
A 4
8 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
ashamed nor confounded world without end. I am
the Lord; and there is none else. I said not unto the
seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. They have no
knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image,
and pray unto a god that cannot save. There is no '
God beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none
beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the
ends of the earth : for I am God, and there is none else."
But to multiply such passages is needless. Mem-
bers of the Church of Rome will say, that they ac-
knowledge, as fully as members of our own Church
can do, that there is but one supreme God and Lord,
to whom alone they intend to offer the worship due
to God ; and that the appeals which they offer by way
of invocation to saints and angels, for their intercession
and good offices, do not contravene this principle.
But without for a moment questioning their sincerity
in making that profession, it may be well here to ask
ourselves these few questions:
First, if it had been intended by the Almighty
to forbid any religious application (such as is now
professedly the Invocation of Saints and Angels) to
any other being than Himself alone, what words could
have been employed more stringently prohibitory ?
Secondly, had such an address to saints and angels
as the Church of Rome now confessedly makes, been
contemplated by our heavenly Lawgiver as an excep-
tion to the general rule, would not some saving clause,
some expressions indicating such an intended excep-
tion, have been made in mercy and wisdom ? Would
not some allusion to it have been discoverable in some
page or other of his Divine will ?
Thirdly, if such an appeal to the angels of light, or
to the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven, had
been sanctioned under the elder covenant, would not
some examples, some few instances, at least some one
solitary instance, have been recorded of a faithful
servant of God offering such a prayer with the Divine
permission ?
Evidence of Old Testament against it. 9
Lastly, when such strong and repeated declarations
and injunctions, interspersed through the entire
} volume of the Old Testament, show beyond all ques-
tion the will of God to be, that no other object of
religious worship should have any place in the heart
or on the tongue of his own true spiritual sons and
daughters, is it becoming in a faithful child of our
heavenly Father to seek for excuses and palliations,
and to invent distinctions between one kind of worship
and another ? After so many positive warnings
against seeking by prayer the aid of any other being
whatever, is not a positive command required to
justify a mortal man in preferring any prayer to any
being, saint, angel, or archangel, save only the one
supreme God alone? Instead of any such com-
mand, or even permission, appearing, not one single
word occurs, from the first syllable in the book of
Genesis to the last of the prophet Malachi, which
can be forced or strained to countenance the prac-
tice of addressing any created being in prayer.
It may, however, be satisfactory to look to such
examples in the Old Testament as may seem to have
a direct and genuine bearing on the subject. Very
many a prayer is recorded of men, to whose sanctity,
and integrity, and acceptance with God, the Spirit
Himself has set his seal ; yet among these prayers
there is not found one invocation addressed to saint
or angel.
The whole book of Psalms is a manual of devotion,
consisting of prayers and praises, composed some by
Moses, some by other inspired Israelites of less note,
but chiefly by David himself; and what is the force
and tendency of their example ? Words are spoken
in praise of "Moses and Aaron among HIS
saints," and of " Samuel among such as called upon
HIS name," and mention is made with becoming
reverence of the " angels of HIS that do HIM service,"
but not one word ever falls from the pen of the
psalmist addressed by way of invocation to saint or
A 5
10 Invocation 0f Saints. an&dngels.
angel. .., In the, Roman. Ritual .supplication is imade to
Abel and: Abraham as. well as to Michael and all
angels. If, it is- now.lawful, if it>is now the, duty
of. the worshippers, of the .true : God, to seek his aid',
through the mediation -of those ; spirits, can ; we .. .avoid,
asking: why the inspired , patriarchs did* not appeaL
to, Abel for his .mediation ? Why. didaiot ;the inspired:
David; invoke the. father of, the faithful to intercede;
for.-'. him with; God ? If , the . souls < o : those faithful,
onesj./who in their, lifetime appeared to. theira fellow-
mortals ., to be accepted servants ,andu honoured saints^;
may -be; safely addressed in, prayer,. and, be invoked by
an act of, religious -supplication, either to grant us .aid,
or, .to intercede with God, for, aid in. oiir behalf, why
did not -men, whom God Himself , declared to be. par-v
takers o.his.. Spirit, offer the-.: same r supplication; to
such? departed spirits, as before and after? their .decease
had this testimony from. .Omniscience itself,! .that, they
pleased God? Why, is. no intimation given in the
later books of the. Old Testament, that such invo-
cations were addressed, to Moses, or Aaron, or, Noah,
or, Abraham?
When wrath was gone out fronhihe: presence .of the
Lorx3, and the plague was begun . among, the people,
Aaron took a, censer in . his, hand, and< stood between
the living and the dead, and; the plague was stayed..
If the soul, of, Aaron, > was to be. regarded sas. a ,spirit i
influential with God, one whose intercession i could ,
avail,,,one who ought, were it only for. his intercession,
to.be approached .in prayer; could^a stronger motive
be conceived for suggesting,, that invocation, than;
David: must have felt, when, the pestilence was de--
stroying its thousands around him, ..and* all , his ; glory*
and, strengths and his, very life,, ;too, were threatened -t
by its resistless ravages.? But, no j neither; Abel, nor
Abraham, nor Moses, nor Aaron,, must be petitioned
to intercede , with God, and limplom Him to stay his?
hand. To God, and God alone, : for. his own mercy ? s
sake, must his afflicted servant turn. < in supplication,.
Evidence of Old Testament against- it. 11
Among 'his prayers we find no " Holy Abraham,- pray
for >us !" ' " Holy Abel, pray for us !" "Holy Aaron,
mediate for us, as thou didst for thy brethren of old !"
His own Psalm of 'thanksgiving well describes the
object and the nature of his prayer, "When the
waves of death compassed mej the floods of ungodly
men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed
me about: the snares of death prevented me. In my<
distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: '
and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my
cry did enter into his ears."
Abraham^ when on earth, prayed God to spare the
offending people of 'Sodom and Gomorrah; but he In-
voked neither Noah, nor Abel, nor any of the faithful
departed, to join their intercessions with his own. Isaac
prayed to God for his son Jacob 3 but he did not ask- the
mediation ;of Abraham in his behalf; and when Jacob
in* his > turn supplicated an especial blessing on \ his
grandsons, Ephraim and Manassehj though with gra-
titude he called to his mind, and expressed with his
tongue the devotedness to the Almighty both of Abra-
ham and of Isaac, yet we never find him appealing to
thenij or invoking their intercession with the Lord.
When the conscience-struck Israelites felt that they
had exposed themselves by sin to the wrath of the
Almighty, whose Sovereign power, on the prayer of
Samuel, they then witnessed, distrusting the effi-
cacy of their own supplication, and confiding in the
intercession of that man of God, they implored
Samuel to intercede for them ; and Samuel answered
their appeal with an assurance} that he would under-
take to plead their cause with heaven. " And all the
people said unto Samuel, Pray for- thy servants unto
the Lord thy God, that we die not. And Samuel
said unto the people, Fear not. . . The Lord will not
forsake his people for his great name's sake. . . .
Moreover, God forbid that I should sin against the
Lord in ceasing to pray for you." The Holy Spirit
numbers Samuel among those who " called upon HIS
A 6
12 Invocation of Saints and Angels f
name :" and when Samuel died, all Israel were
gathered together to lament, and to bury him ; but
when he was once removed from them by death,
we read of no petition being offered to him to carry
on the same intercessory office in their behalf. As
long as he was alive in the flesh, and sojourned
on earth with his brethren, they besought him to
pray for them, to intercede for blessings with their
God and his God (just as among ourselves one
Christian asks another to pray for him) ; but when
Samuel's body had been buried in peace, and his soul
liad returned to God who gave it, the Bible never
records any further application to him ; we never read
of his being " suppliantly invoked," we nowhere
find " Holy Samuel, pray for us !"
Again, what announcement could the Almighty
Himself make more expressive of his acceptance of
the persons of any, than He actually and repeatedly
made to Moses with regard to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob ? How could HE more clearly intimate, that
if "the spirits of just men made perfect" could exercise
intercessory or mediatorial influence with Him, those
three holy patriarchs would possess such power above
all others who had ever lived on the earth ? "I am
the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid
his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,
The God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto
you : this is my name for ever, and this is my memo-
rial throughout all generations 1 ." Did then Moses,
in his alarm and dread, when he was afraid to look
upon God, call upon those holy and accepted servants
to aid him in his perplexity, and intercede for him
and his people with the Eternal Being on whose
Majesty he dared not to look ? Did he teach his-
1 Exod. iii. G. 15.
Evidence of Old Testament against it. 13
people to invoke Abraham, the father of the faithful ?
That was far from him.
When Moses himself, that saint and servant of the
Lord, was called hence, and was buried (though no
mortal man was allowed to know the place of his
sepulture), did the survivors pray to him for his help
and intercession with God ? He had wrought before
their eyes so many and great miracles as never had
before been witnessed on earth ; he had in his lifetime
been admitted to talk with the Almighty as a man
talketh with his friend, and yet the sacred page records
no invocation ever breathed to his departed spirit.
We need not multiply instances, and we will here
refer only to one more. Hezekiah, who " trusted in
the Lord God of Israel 2 ," and clave to the Lord, and
departed not from following him, but kept his com-
mandments when he and his people were in great
peril, addressed his prayer only to God. He offered
no invocation to holy David to intercede with the
Almighty for his own Jerusalem ; he made his suppli-
cation directly and exclusively to the Lord God of
Israel. And yet the very answer made to that prayer
would have seemed to justify Hezekiah in seeking
holy David's mediation, if prayer for the intercession
of any departed mortal could ever have been sanctioned
by heaven. " Thus saith the Lord, the God of David
thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy
tears : behold, I will heal thee : and I will defend
this city for mine own sake, and for my servant
David's sake V Of what saint in the calendar was
such a thing as this ever spoken ?
This then is the evidence borne by the books
of the Old Testament. No prayer to angel or
beatified spirit occurs from its first to its last page.
And this is indeed confessed by the chief champions of
the Romish Church, though at the same time there is
a strong and inconsistent desire to enlist some pas-
sages in favour of the invocation of angels, to which
2 2 Kings xix. 15. 3 Kings xx. 5, 6.
14 Invocation of Saints : and Angels.
we -must: briefly refer .before we bring this subject; to
a close.
Those writers who openly confess thate the Old
Testament affords.; no; instance, of invocation, being
offered to the spirits of : departed mortalsj and are yefe;
desirous of escaping from the force of that- evidence' as :
conclusive against the .. present adoration;: of saintss
and angels annthe Church, of Rome, have recourse to
one or ; the other of two arguments,, both equally
untenable^ to; reconcile; that fact: with their ; present >
belief: and practice.;
One class, with Cardinal; Bellarmin at their head;,;
allege -this reason, "No one can be invoked who
isr.no.tt admitted to the presence of God in heaven ;
but before Christ went down to hell land released .= the
spirits from prison, .no, mortal was; admitted into-
heaveii ; consequently, before the resurrection of
Christ, .the spirit of no mortal was invoked." At the
close of his preface to the "Church Triumphant," the
cardinal says, "The spirits of the patriarchs, and
prophets, before the coming of Christ, were for this
reason* not worshipped andanvoked as we/ now .worship
and invoke the Apostles and Martyrs, because they
were yet shut up and detained in prisons below 1 ;" Again,
he says, ."Because before the coming of Christ; the
saints who died did not enter heaven, and? saw not
God, nor could ordinarily know the prayers o sup-
pliants, therefore it was not customary in the Old
Testament to say, ' Holy Abraham, pray for me,' &c., .
but; the men of that time prayed to God only, and
alleged the merits of the saints who had already *
departed^ that their own prayers might- be aided by
them 5 ."
We need not here dwell on the inconsistencies and ;
perplexities (involved, in this assumed theory; far less-
need, we inquire, into the state of the souls of the
faithful departed before our Lord's advent. With;;
4 Bell. Ingolstadii, 1601, vol. ii. p 833.
5 P. 900. This last position, " That,, the men of old, before the time
of Christ, pleaded the merits of the Saints," is unfounded.
Evidence of; Old Testament against it. 15
S.t; Augustin^ and other. Christians, we are content to
leave- that s subject, where .Scripture hasvleftvit.; But
surely before such, an assumption can be expected i to
obtain, any acceptance : among thinking: men,* ,the - case ;
of Enoch .requires to be well weighed, whose trans-.-
lation from this, life to, heaven, making,- as rit has been
beautifully expressed^ but onei step,; from earth to
glpryj . the Epistle to the Hebrews > < cites with a
most important comment: "Enoch, walked with.
God; and he was not; for God took him 6 :" "By
faith Enoch,;- was ^translated that he; should not>see
death; anduwas not found, because God had translated
him : for before his translation he had this testimony,
that he, '.pleased: God 7 ." Surely, too^ the case of:
Elijah .must; not be dismissed summarily, of whom, the
book of truth .declares, " that the Lord took, him, in a
whirlwind, into heaven ;" his ascent being made visible
to .mortal eyes, asiwastafterwards the ascension .of our
blessed Lord Himself^ Surely, moreover, before such;
a theory as Bellarmin's can be received, the language
o. Holy, Scripture must be well examined, which,
positively, declares, that before the resurrection of
Christ,, at ;his transfiguration, Moses and Elijah both
in.iglory. 'appeared visibly to his Apostles, and con-
versed with Him on the holy mount. " Anduber.
hold, there talked with him two men, which .were
Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory,. and spake
of t , his decease- s which he should accomplish at Je-
rusalem 8 ."
Whilat.>we need not dwell longer on this immediate,
point, .two; considerations seem to present themselves
to our,, notice altogether decisive as to the evidence
borne against thefinyocation of saints .by the writings of
the. Old Testament. The first is this ; if the; spirits
of, the.: saints departed were .not invoked before the
resurrection .of Christ, merely because .they were not
then.- admitted into heaven, why did not the faithful.
5 Aug. De Pecc. Orig. c. 23; torn, vii.-p.338.
6 Gen. v, 24, ? Heb. xi. 5. , Luke ix, 30, 31.
16 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
and inspired servants of the Lord invoke the angels who
were in heaven ? The second is this, why did not the
inspired Apostles and faithful servants of our Saviour
invoke the spirits of those saints after his resurrec-
tion, and when the Holy Spirit was present with them
to guide them into all truth ; that is (according to the
theory of Bellarmiri, and those who put forth the same
view), after those saints had been taken by Christ
with Him into his Father's presence? We must not
here anticipate our inquiry into the evidence borne
by the New Testament against the doctrine and
practice of the Church of Rome in this point; and we
will only add, that whatever be the cause of the
absence from the Old Testament of all worship and
invocation of Abel and Abraham, whom the Roman
Church now invokes, the alleged reason that it was
because they were not in heaven till after Christ's
resurrection, is utterly contradicted by the conduct of
his Apostles and disciples, recorded in the New Tes-
tament, for more than half a century after his return
to his glory in heaven. This is, however, the proper
place for entertaining the first of the two considera-
tions suggested above, why did not the holy men of
old under the elder covenant invoke the angels, as the
Roman Church now does ?
The inspired writers of the Old Testament, and
those to whom through their mouth and pen the
Divine word was addressed, were as fully as ourselves
acquainted with the existence of the angelic beings.
They were aware of the station held by those angels
in the court of heaven, of their power as God's ambas-
sadors and agents for good. Either their own eyes
had seen the operations of the Almighty by the hands
of those celestial messengers, or their ears had heard
their fathers tell what HE had done by their instru-
mentality in times of old. Why, then, did not the
chosen people offer to the angels the same worship
and invocation which the Church of Rome now
addresses to them? In the condition of the holy
Evidence of Old Testament against it. 17
angels, no one ever suggests that any change affecting
the argument has taken place since the time when
man was created. And as the angels in heaven were
in themselves the same, equally in the presence of
God, and equally able to succour men through that
long space of four thousand years which intervened
between Adam's creation and the birth of HIM who
was Son of Adam and Son of God, so was man in the
same dependent state, needing the guidance and pro-
tection of a power above his own. Nay, surely, what-
ever difference affecting the argument has arisen in
the state of man, it must all add weight to the reason
against the invocation of angels by Christians. ' God's
people of old had no clear knowledge, as we have, of
one great Mediator who is ever making intercession
for us ; and yet they never sought the mediation, and
intercession, and good offices of those superhuman
beings, of whose existence, and power, and employ-
ment in works of blessing to man, they had, however,
no doubt. This is a point of much importance, and it
will be well to refer to a few passages in support of it.
When David, who had himself 9 visible demonstra-
tion of the existence and ministration of the angels,
called upon them to unite with his own soul, and
with the whole creation throughout the world, in
praising their merciful, glorious, and omnipotent
Creator, he thus conveys to us his own exalted ideas
of their nature, their excellence, and their ministra-
tion : " The Lord hath prepared his throne in the
heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the
Lord, ye angels of his, that excel in strength, that do
his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his
word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts ; ye servants
of his, that do his pleasure 1 ." David knew, moreover,
that one of the offices, in the execution of which the
angels do God's pleasure, consists in their succouring
and defending us on earth. In a psalm, prophetic of
9 1 Chron. xxi. 16. 1 Psalm ciii. 1921.
1.8 ^Invocation- of Saints and Angels.
the; Redeemer,; the. Psalmist : says, -" There shall no
harm, happen unto .thee, nor shall any plagues come'
nigh/thy dwelling; For -he' shall give his angels-charge*
over- theej to keep thee; in all thy ways. They shall
bear thee up in their hands^ lest thou: dash thy foot?
against a stone: 2 ." And again, with exquisitely beauti-
ful imagery, he represents; those same blessed servants'
as ; a host of God ? s spiritual : soldiers,' keeping watch-
and ward over the poorest of the children' of men who
would take refuge in his mercy. " The angel of the
Lord encampeth round about them that fear >hirn* and
deliv.ereth ; them 3 ." And yet David, the- prophet of
the Lord, never addresses to these beings, highy and
glorious^ and powerful as he acknowledges them to bej,
one single invocation; he neither asks them to assist :
himj nor to. pray for him,, nor to pray with him in his
behalf.
Isaiah was; admitted by the Holy Spirit to witness 3
in the; ^fulness of its glory -the court and the throne of
heaven; and he heard the voices of the seraphim pro-
claiming their Maker's praise*; he experienced- also
personally the effect . of their ministration^ when 1 one
of; them-rsaid s "Lo, this hath 1 touched thy lips;
and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin-
purged*." Still, though the prophet must have > re-
garded this angel as his benefactor under Godj yet
neither to this seraph, nor to any ofUhe host of
heaven, does : he oiler one prayer, for their .good
offices, not even by their intercession. He ever
ascribes all to God alone, and never joins any other
name with HIS, either in supplication* or in praise*
Daniel's case* toovbears immediately on the point
before us; He acknowledgeSj not only that the'
Lord's omnipotent hand had rescued him 'from the
jaws of the, lions, but- that; the deliverance was brought
about by the (ministration of an ^ angel: "My God
hath, sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths,
2 Psalm xci.. 10 12. 3 Psalm xxxiv. 7- * Isaiah vi. 7-
Evidence of Old/ Testament against it. 1*9
that they have not -hurt me 5 ." Yefr, throughout
Daniel's prayers j ( we can find no allusion to any even-
of the highest angels- He had seen Gabriel before
his prayer, he: had heard the voice and felt the- hand
of that -heavenlymessenger who was commissioned to
reveal to him; what was to come; and immediately
after the offering of his prayersy the same Gabriel
announces himself as one come 1 forth to give the
prophet skill and understanding'. And yet, neither
to Gabriel nor to any other of the angels of God^ does;
one. word of invocation fall from the lips of Daniel;
In the supplications, of .that holy, intrepid, and blessed
servant and child of God* it is in vain to search- for i
any thing approaching in speech to the invocation,
"Holy Gabriel j pray for us ! "
The> other strange reason assigned for the people of
God not having " suppliantly invoked " saints and an-
gels in; times of the Old Testament, to which 1 we before
advertedj is this, in those times prayer was not of-
fered -to. God; through a mediator at all ; and as the one
Mediator -was not then- revealed in his person and
his; offices,- the subsidiary intercessors, to whom the
Church of Bome> now prays, could 1 not act, and there-
fore could? not ^ be invoked by man. The answer to
this suggestion is at once conclusive ; that Mediator has
been revealed in his person and in his offices, and has
been expressly declared to be " THE ONE Mediator
between God and man;" we therefore seek God's
covenanted mercies through Him . Those subsidiary
intercessors, as they are called, have never been
revealed > and therefore we do not seek their aid. To
assurers; that our heavenly Father willed us -to ap-
proach Him by secondary and subsidiary mediators and
intereessorsj a revelation would have been required as
clear- and; unquestionable as that which He has vouch-
safed to us of the mediation of his blessed Son. Had
5 Dan. vi. 22.
20 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
the will of God been that we should seek his mercy
through the intercessions of saints, and martyrs, and
angels, to be secured by our own prayers to them,
is it conceivable that HE would not have given us
some intimation of his will in this respect ? If believers
in the Gospel were expected to look to unnumbered
mediators of intercession in heaven as well as the one
Mediator of redemption (a distinction of which we
find no trace in Holy Scripture), would not the Gos-
pel itself have announced it ? Could such declarations
as these from the oracles of Divine Truth have been
put on record without any qualifying or limiting ex-
pressions ? " He is able also to save to the uttermost
them who come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth
to make intercession for them." " There is one God
and one Mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus." But this involves the question which
must next be discussed, what is the evidence of
the New Testament on this point ? All we would
anticipate here is, that if the irresistible argument
from the Old Testament is met on the ground that
no mediator at all was then revealed, we must require
a distinct revelation of the existence and offices of
other mediators and intercessors who are to be suppli-
antly invoked by us, before we can be justified in
applying to them for their intervention with God in
our behalf. The question, therefore, now is ; though
no prayer to angel or beatified spirit occurs in the
Old Testament from its first to its last page, nor any
intimation of the office of such mediators, much less of
our duty to invoke them, yet are such mediators re-
vealed in the pages of the New Testament of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?
It may however be wise first to advert, though briefly 6 ,
to those passages in the Old Testament to which some
The reader will find this subject examined more fully in " Primi-
tive Christian Worship," p. 38.
Evidence of Old Testament against it. 21
Roman Catholics appeal as countenancing religious
adoration to angels. The two principal instances re-
lied on are, first, Abraham bowing down before his
heavenly visitants ; and secondly, the words of Jacob
when he gave his benediction to his grandsons.
With regard to the first case, even did the words
imply religious adoration, it could not justify our
paying religious adoration to angels; because what-
ever it was, agreeably to the interpretation of the
best commentators both ancient and modern, the per-
son whom Abraham then addressed was no created
being, neither angel nor seraph, but the Word, the
eternal Son of God, the Angel of the Covenant, Him-
self God r . But the fact is, that no argument can be
drawn from this passage; for the word which the
authorized Roman version translates "adoravit," and
the Douay Bible renders " adored," is the same, letter
for letter, with the word employed to signify Jacob's
bowing down to his brother Esau ; and which means,
as the English Bible has it, " bowed down toward the
ground V
In the other passage the very words of Jacob prove
that when he expressed his desire that the angel,
" which had redeemed him from all evil, would bless the
lads," that Being was no other than the same Angel of
the Covenant, God revealing Himself to mortal eyes.
And this, too, is the interpretation put upon the
passage by the early fathers. Among others, Eusebius
and Athanasius declare the person spoken of by Jacob
to be God the Son. " And he blessed Joseph, and
said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac
did walk, the God who fed me all my life long unto
this day, the ANGEL which redeemed me from all evil,
bless the lads." " And the angel of God spake .... I
7 Among others, see Justin Martyr, Dial, cum Tryph. c. 56. See also
for the next instance, Athanasius, Paris, 1698, vol. i. p. 561 j Euseb.
Demonst. Evan. v. 10.
8 Gen. xviii. 2 ; xxxiii. 1 3.
22 , Invocation of Saints and Angels,
f am the God of Beth-el, where thou yowedst .-,- a <vow
unto; me 9 ."
We .must now^ examine .the evidence borne by the
books of the New Testament .on; our present subject.
*
9 Gen. xlviii. 15, 16; xxxi. 11. 13.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
No. V.
ON THE
INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND
ANGELS.
EVIDENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
AGAINST IT.
WHAT IS ROMANISM ?
Invocation of Saints and Angels. Evidence of the New
Testament against it.
THOUGH the testimony borne by the Old Testament
against the invocation of saints and angels is, as we
have seen, strong and irresistible, yet it has been said
that we are living under another dispensation ; that
to us as Christians, neither the precepts nor the ex-
amples of the patriarchal and Mosaic times are appli-
cable ; and that consequently the injunctions from
heaven, given of old to preserve the chosen people
from pagan idolatry, do not prohibit us, under the
Gospel, from seeking the aid of those departed saints
who are now reigning with Christ. But surely to
those whose heart's desire is to fulfil the will of God in
all things, those commands and examples are still most
strictly applicable, as conveying a knowledge of the
will of our heavenly Father, that his sons and daugh-
ters on earth should associate no name, however ex-
alted, with his own holy name, in prayer and spiritual
invocation. To those who can be content to depart
from that will, whenever they can devise plausible ar-r
guments and refined distinctions to countenance such
departure, we are not here addressing ourselves.
Before, then, it can be safely concluded that Chris*
[654] B
26 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
tians have a liberty, denied to believers under the
former dispensations, of addressing prayers to saints
and angels for their aid and intercession, surely an
authoritative declaration to that effect from the divine
Lord of all our dispensations must be produced, clear
and unequivocal. But from the very first to the very
last word of the New Testament, we find the doc-
trines, the precepts, and the examples, the pervading
and reigning spirit of the entire volume, combining with
voices loud and clear, to impress upon us this principle
of devotion, 'Pray to God Almighty only, and
pray only in the name and for the sake of his blessed
Son, Jesus Christ, our only Mediator in heaven :
offer no prayer, no supplication, no entreaty, to any
other being in the unseen world, neither saint nor
angel, though it be only to ask for their intercession,
with the Great God.'. This, however, involves the
whole question, and must be fairly and thoroughly
sifted.
Let us then review the entire volume with close
and minute scrutiny, and ask ourselves, Is there
"a single passage which directly sanctions any religious
invocation to any being except God alone? And
then let us resolve this point: In a matter of so vital
importance, of so immense interest, and of so sacred
a character as the worship of the Supreme Being,
who declares Himself to be a jealous God, ought we
to suffer any refinements of casuistry to entice us from
the clear light of revelation? If it were <God r s
good pleasure to make exceptions to his rule a rule
so repeatedly and so imperatively enacted and en-
forced surely our knowledge of his gracious dealings
with mankind, would have taught us to look for an
announcement of the exception by an inspired tongue
or pen, in terms equally forcible and explicit. Instead
of this, we find no single act, no single word, nothing
which even by implication can be forced to sanction
any prayer or religious invocation, of whatever kind,
to any being, save to Himself alone; the God who
Evidence of the New Testament against it. 27
heareth prayer, and who has revealed to us his only
Son, as the one Mediator between God and man.
In this inquiry we must first look to the language
and conduct of our blessed Lord Himself, whose
prayers to his Father are upon record for our instruc-
tion and comfort, and whose precepts and example
form the best rule of a Christian's life. So far from ;
repealing the ancient law, he repeats in his own
person its solemn announcement, " Hear, O Israel j
the Lord our God is one Lord V and commands us
with authority, "When thou prayest, pray to thy
Father which is in secret; and thy Father who seeth
in secret himself shall reward thee openly V ! Un-
doubtedly our Lord is here cautioning his followers
against engaging in religious acts for the purposes of
the hypocrite ; but neither here nor elsewhere is there
any allusion in a single word of his to prayer from
a mortal on this earth to an angel or saint in heaven.
And yet occasions were multiplied, on which some
reference to the invocation of angels, and their inter-
cession, would have been natural, and apparently
called for, had his will been that his disciples should
unite such an in vocation, with their prayers to his Father,
and such an intercession, as auxiliary to his own.
Again and again He places beyond all doubt the
reality of the existence of angels, and of their good
offices in behalf of mankind; but it is as they are
God's servants, and act at God's bidding, not in
answer to any supplication of ours. The parable of.
the rich man and Lazarus has been appealed to for
opposite testimony 3 ; but the parable is not in point;
and were it. in point, it might be fairly and strongly
urged against our invoking the spirit of any departed '
mortal, even the Father of the faithful himself. What
are the circumstances of the parable*? A lost soul,
lr the regions of torment, prays to Abraham in the
re gions of the blessed, and the spirit of the deceased
1 Mark xii. 29. 2 Matt. vi. 6.
3 Bellarmin, vol. ii. p. 895. 4 Luke xvj, 19.
B 2
28 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
and blessed Patriarch professes to have no power
to grant the request of the deceased and condemned
spirit. The practice, indeed, of our Roman Catholic
brethren would have been exemplified here, had our
Lord represented the rich man's five brethren still on
earth as pious men, supplicating Abraham in heaven
to pray for themselves, or for the mitigation of their
lost brother's punishment and his woes. But then
the case would have afforded Christians little encou-
ragement to follow such an example, when they found
Abraham declaring himself unable to aid them in
attaining the object of their prayer, or in any way to
assist them. Without one single exception, we find
our Saviour's example, precepts, and doctrines 5 , to be
decidedly against the practice of invoking saint or
angel; while not one solitary act or word of his can
be cited to countenance or palliate it.
It follows next that we inquire into the writings of
Christ's Apostles and immediate followers, to whom He
graciously promised that the Holy Spirit should guide
them into all truth. In the Acts of the Apostles various
instances of prayer attract our notice, but not one
ejaculation is found there to any other being save
God alone. Neither angel nor saint is invoked. The
Apostles prayed for guidance in the government of
Christ's infant Church, but it was thus : "Thou, Lord,
who knowest the hearts of all men :" they prayed
for their own acceptance with God s but it was " Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit V They prayed for each other,
as in behalf of St. Peter in prison ; but we are ex-
pressly told, that the prayer which was made without
ceasing by the Church for him was addressed to
God 8 .
To deliver St. Peter from his chains an angel was
sent on an especial mission from heaven ; but though
St. Peter saw him, and heard his voice, and followed
him, and knew of a surety that the Lord had employed
5 See especially St John xiv. 14; xv. 16; xvi. 23, 24.
Acts i. 24. 1 Ibid. vii. 59. 8 Ibid. xii. 5.
Evidence of the New Testament against it. 29-
the ministration of an angel to liberate him from his?
bonds, yet we do not hear of Peter afterwards praying
to angels to secure their good offices and their inter?
cession with God : nor has he once intimated to others)
that such applications would avail, or were allowable*.
He exhorts his fellow-Christians to pray, "Watch unto
prayer ;" but it is because: "the eyes of the Lord are 1
over the righteous, and his ears are open to their
prayers 9 ." He himself prays for them, but it is that
the God of all grace might make them perfect,
stablish, strengthen, settle them. He suggests no
invocation of saint or angel to intercede with God for
them. He bids them cast all their care upori God,:
in the assurance that God himself eareth for them.
St. Paul also experienced in his own person thej
comfort of an angel's ministration, bidding him cast:
off all fear when in the extreme of imminent peril 10 : :.
but with him God, and God alone, is the object of
prayer throughout ; by him no saint or angel is alluded
to as one whose intercession might be sought by himself:
or by us. He speaks in glowing language of patriarchs, ..-
prophets, and angels; but unto none of these would;
lie. turn in prayer. " Be careful for nothing, but in
every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanks-;
giving, let your requests be made known unto God 1 ."
And can any one receive, in the plain meaning of his;
words, the solemn caution which he gives to the Colos^ ,
sians on the subject of worship, and think that St. Paul
could have uttered these words without any excep~
tion or qualifying expression, if he had worshipped;
angels himself by invocation., merely asking them for-
their prayers, or had meant us to do so? "-Let.no;
one beguile you of your reward in a voluntary-,
humility and worshipping of angels, not holding the,
head 2 ;'' which " Head" he had .before declared to
be the Son of God, in whom we have redemption;
through his blood, "even the forgiveness .of our sins.";
9 1 Pet. iv. 7 ; "i- 12. 10 Acts *xvii. 23.
i Phil. iv. 6. a -Col.ii. 18, ;
B 3 -.'-.
30 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
It has been said that St. Paul does not here prohibit
all worship of angels, but only such worship as would
cause those who offered it to desert the worship of
God : but had that been his meaning, would not the
Apostle have told us so ?
In the Epistle to the Hebrews the inspired pen-
man brings before our minds with most fervent up-
lifting eloquence, together with Abel, and Abraham,
and David, that goodly fellowship of the prophets,
that holy army of martyrs whose names were written
in the book of life : he speaks as though he were an
eye-witness of what he describes, of the general as-
sembly of the Church of the first-born 3 . Had the
thought of seeking by invocation the support or inter-
cession of saint or angel been familiar to him,- had the
thought ever been entertained favourably in his mind,
could he have allowed such an occasion to pass by
without even alluding to any benefit that might result
from our invoking such friends of God? But so far is he
from any such allusion, that the utmost he says at the
close of his eulogy is this : " These all, having obtained
a good report through faith, received not the promise :
God having provided some better thing for us, that
they without us should not be made perfect *."
The beloved Apostle, who could look forward in
full assurance of faith to the day of Christ's second
comingj and who knew that " when he shall appear
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is,"
has left us this record of his sentiments concerning
prayer: "This is the confidence that we have in HIM,
that if we ask any thing according to his will he
heareth us 5 ." St. John alludes to no intercessor, to no
advocate, save only " that advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous, who is also the propitiation
for our sins e ." St. John never suggests to us the
advocacy or intercession of saint or angel ; with him
God in Christ is all in all.
The case of St. James, equally to the point, and
strongly illustrative of the truth, is the last to which
3 Co], i. 18. * Heb. xi. 39, 40. * 1 John v. 14. 1 Jolin ii. 1,2.
Evidence of the New Testament against it. 31
we will now refer. He is anxious to impress on his
fellow- Christians the efficacy of our intercessions.
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much V He instances its power with God in
the case of Elijah, a man so holy that the Almighty
suffered him not to pass through the regions of death
and the grave, but translated him at once from this life to
glory. " Elias was a man subject to like passions as we
are, and he prayed that it might not rain ; and it rained
not on the earth for the space of three years and six
months; and he prayed again, and the heaven gave
rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." And yet
St. James is very far from suggesting the efficacy or
lawfulness of any invocation to the hallowed spirit of
this man, whose prayer had been permitted to in-
fluence, the elements and natural powers of the sky and
the earth. He exhorts all men to pray, but it must be
to God alone, and directly to God, without applying for
the intervention of any mediators or intercessors from
among angels or men : " If any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God, who giveth liberally to all men,
and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But
let him ask in faith, nothing wavering 8 ." Like the
writer to the Hebrews, he would have us come our-
selves " boldly " and directly " to the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in
time of need."
Surely these Apostles, chosen heralds for conveying
the truths of salvation throughout the world, knew
well how the Almighty could best be approached by
his children on earth ; and had the invocation of saint
or angel found a place in their creed, they would not
have kept back so important an article of faith and
practice from us.
Before leaving this part of our inquiry, it is neces-"
sary to weigh the import of two passages in the New
Testament, often quoted on our present subject, one in
7 James v. 16. 8 James i. 5, 6.
32 ; Invocation of Saints, and Angels.
the Acts of the Apostles, the other in the Apoca-
lypse.
The holy Apostles, Barnabas and. Paul, by a striking
miracle had excited feelings of religious, reverence and-
devotion among the people of Lystra, who prepared
to offer sacrifice to them. as two. of their fabled deities 9 . ;
The indignant zeal with which these two ministers of ;
the word rushed forward to prevent such an act of;
impiety, however admirable and affecting, does not;
constitute the chief reason for which reference is here
made to this incident. They were, undoubtedly^
still clothed with mortal flesh, and the weakness of
human nature; and the priest and, the people were;
ready to offer to them the wonted victims* the abomi-
nation of the heathen. Equally clear is the wide
difference, in many particulars, between such an act
and the act of a Christian praying to their spirits after;
their departure hence, and supplicating them to inter-
cede with the true God in their behalf; and on this .;
difference Roman Catholic writers have held the in-;
applicability of this incident to the present question. ,
But, surely, if any such prayer to departed saints, as:
the Roman Church now offers, had been familiar to
the minds of those Apostles, instead of repelling the.-
religious address of the inhabitants of Lystra at once
and for ever, they would have altered the tone of their
remonstrance; and not have suppressed the truth? ;
when so good an opportunity offered itself for impart-
ing it. And, supposing it was part of their commission ,
to announce and explain the invocation of saints
at all, as a doctrine of the Gospel^ on what occasion,
could an announcement of what would be a just and;v
authorized and beneficial invocation of angels and
saints departed, have been more appropriate in the
Apostles than when they were denouncing the unj us-
tifiable offering of sacrifices to themselves when living? '
But whether the more appropriate place for such an
announcement were at Lystra, at Corinth, at Athens,
9 Acts xiv. 11. :
Evidence of the New Testament against it. 33
or at Rome, it matters not; nor whether the doctrine
would have been more advantageously communicated
by their oral teaching, or in their epistles. If
the Apostles by their example, or instruction, had
sanctioned the invocation of saints and angels, it would
have inevitably appeared in some page or other of the
New Testament, in the course of the fifty years and
more, between the resurrection of Christ and the
date of the last Canonical Scripture. Instead of this,
the whole tenour of the Holy Volume is in perfect
accordance with the spirit of the apostolical remon-
strance at Lystra, to the fullest and utmost extent of its
meaning, " We preach unto you, that ye should turn
from these vanities to serve the living God."
On the weight and cogency of the other instance, also,
it well becomes every Christian to ponder carefully and
honestly. St. John, the beloved disciple of our Lord,
when admitted to view with his own eyes, and to hear
with his mortal ears the things of heaven, rapt in
amazement and awe, fell down to worship before the
feet of the angel who showed him these things l . If the
adoration were ever justifiable, surely it was then ; and
what a testimony to the end of the world would have
been put upon record, had the adoration of an angel
by the blessed John at such a moment, when he
had the mysteries and the glories of heaven before
him, been received and sanctioned ! But what is the
fact? "Then said he, See thou do it not; I am thy
fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets,
and of them who keep the sayings of this book:
worship God." It is difficult to understand, it is im-
possible to admit, the refinement by which the con-
clusiveness of this direct refusal of all religious
adoration and worship is attempted to be set asideV
Uttered without any qualification, at such a time, by
such a being, to such a man, these words are conclu-
sive beyond gainsaying to those who resolve to follow
1 Rev. xxii. 8.
34 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
Scripture, and not to bend Scripture to their own
theories. The interpretations put upon this passage,
and the inference drawn from them by a series of our
most trustworthy guides, with St. Athanasius at their
head, present to our minds so entirely the plain,
straightforward, honest, and common-sense . view of
the case, that all the subtilty of casuists, and all the
ingenuity of modern refinements, will never be able
to establish any other in its stead. " The angel (for
such are the words of that ancient defender of the
true faith) in the Apocalypse forbids John, when de-
siring to worship him, saying^ < See thou. do it not ;
I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the pro-
phets, and of them who keep the sayings of this book :
worship God.' Therefore to be the object of wor-
ship belongs to God only; and this even the angels
know: they, though they surpass others in glory, yet
are all creatures, and are not among objects of wor-
ship, but among those who worship the sovereign-
Lord 2 ."
To say, as some have said, that St. John was too
fully illuminated by the Holy Spirit to do what was.
in itself wrong, especially a second time, is as un-
tenable as it would be to maintain that St. Peter,
whom the Saviour had pronounced blessed, could not,
especially thrice, have done wrong when he denied
our Lord. St. John did wrong by worshipping the
angel, or the angel would not have chidedand warned
him. And to say that the angel here forbade John
personally to worship him, because John was himself
a. fellow-servant and one of the prophets, and thus
that the prohibition, only tended to exalt the prophetic
character, and not to condemn in others, not prophets, I
the worship of angels, is proved by the angel's own
words to be a groundless assumption, who reckons
himself a fellow-servant not with prophets only and
St. John, but with all those also who keep the words -
2 Athanasius, Orat. 2 Cont. Ar. vol. i. p. 491.
Evidence of the New Testament against it. 35
of the book of God; thus equally forbidding every
faithful Christian to worship his fellow-servants, the
angels. These are not far from the last words in the
volume of inspired truth, and together with those last
words themselves, they seem to us, as with "the voice of
a great multitude, and of many waters, and of mighty
thunderings," from the very throne itself of the Most
High to proclaim to every inhabiter of the earth,
* Fall down before no created being in religious
worship of any kind ; invoke, call upon, pray to no
created being, whether saint or angel : worship and
adore God only : pray only to God. Trust : to his
mercy; seek no other mediator or intercessor in the
unseen world, save only his own blessed Son.' "Be-
hold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to
give every man according as his work shall be. I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the last. I Jesus have sent mine angel to
testify unto you these things in the Churches. He
which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come
quickly; Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Amen."
Thus the New Testament, the Gospel covenant,
that gracious dispensation under which we live, so
far from relaxing the strictness of the law of the Old
Testament, in respect to the subject before us,
so far from countenancing any departure from
the obligation of that code which limits prayers
and all religious worship to God only, so far from
suggesting the distinction of worship invented com-
paratively of late years into three kinds, one for God,
another for the Virgin, a third for saints and angelsT
so far from sanctioning, even by a shadow, invocation
to sainted men and to angels as intercessors for us
with the eternal Giver of all good so far from this,
the Gospel renews and repeats the commands given of
old, and declares also, that our invocation, in order
to be Christian, must be addressed to God alone ; and
36 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
that there is one, and only one, Mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who is at the
right hand of his Father, a merciful High Priest,
sympathizing with us in our infirmities, ever making
intercession for us, and able to save to the uttermost
those who come unto God through Him.
THE END.
GILBERT & RIYINGTOX, Printers, St. John's Square, London.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
Nos. VI. & VII.
ON THE
INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND
ANGELS.
VI. EVIDENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH
AGAINST IT.
VII. EVIDENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH
AGAINST IT. Continued.
LONDON:
Printed for the
SOCIETY FOB PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
NO. 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE;
AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
[656] 1846.
ADVERTISEMENT.
. THE. present .Tracts..are the first of . a series .. intended to.be
issued, on some of the chief arid most prevalent errors of the
Church of Rome. The following have already been published :
"I. ON THE SUPREMACY OF THE : POPE.
II. ON PARDONS AND .INDULGENCES GRANTED BY THE POPE.
III. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS.
IV. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
V. ON THE INVOCATION OP -SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE NEW 'TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
VI. ON THE INVOCATION >/OF' SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE i PRIMITIVE -.CHURCH AGAINST IT.
VII. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT
[continued].
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
i
:j
'/'
.Invocation of Saints and Angels. Evidence of the
Prim itive , Church . against it, o i
ON .the subject of the worship in the Church of Rome
of saints and angels, we are .induced to examine into
the evidence of Christian antiquity, not by any mis-
giving lest the testimony of the Holy Scriptures
might appear defective or .doubtful ; far less by ililie
unworthy notion that God-s word .needs the support
of the suffrages of man. On the contrary, /the
voice of God in his revealed word is clear, certain,
and indisputable, commanding the invocation; rf
Himself alone in acts of religious worship, and con-
demning any such 'departure from that singleraesfe
of .adoration, as now distinguishes the Churchuuf
Rome, iin her worship of saints and angels, from tour
own communion. It is a fixed principle in our creed 1 ,
that whenever God's word is clear and certain, hiiman
evidence cannot be weighed against it in " the balance
of the .sanctuary." When the Lord hath spoken," wed!
does it become the whole earth to be silent before
Him. But when Scripture is silent, or wherie iits
meaning is doubtful, the: testimony of the early Cfejroh
offers itself to us ^as a : guide to be followed- nwath
watchful care and due reverence. t->a -.m
Now for the present let it;be supposed, that instead
of the oracles of God having spoken, as
A 2
4 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
them to have spoken, with a voice clear, strong, and
uniform, against the invocation of saints and angels,
their voice had been doubtful ; suppose in this case
the question had been left open in Scripture, and we
were therefore the more anxious to ascertain the faith
and practice of the primitive Church, then what
evidence should w,e be able to draw from the remains of
the earliest ages ? What testimony do the writers
who followed next, after the canon of Scripture was
closed, bear upon this point? To what conclusion
would a full and candid inquiry into the real spirit of
those authors lead us in answer to this question
Whether we of the Church of England, by scrupu-
lously abstaining from offering, in thought or word,
any prayer, or supplication, entreaty, request, or
'invocation whatever, to any spiritual being except
God, are treading in the steps of the first Chris-
tians, adhering to the very pattern they set, or not ?
and whether members of the Church of Rome, by
addressing angels or saints in any form of invocation,
seeking aid from them by their intercession or otherwise,
have or have not swerved decidedly and far from those
same footsteps and departed widely from that pat-
tern ?
An examination, then, of the passages collected by
the most celebrated Roman Catholic writers, and a
searching scrutiny into the undisputed original works
of. primitive writers of the Greek and Latin Churches,
seem to force upon us two conclusions :
First, negatively, that the Christian writers through
-the first three centuries and more, never refer to the
-invocation of saints and angels as a practice with
which they were familiar, or which they had adopted
-far themselves ; that they have not recorded or alluded
tojany forms of invocation of that kind, as used by
themselves or by the Church in their days; and that
no services of the earliest times contain hymns, lita-
nieSi or collects to angels, or to the spirits of the
faithful departed.
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 5
In the second place, positively, that the principles'
which these early Christians habitually maintain, are
irreconcilable with such a practice. In tracing (as
the original documents supply us with suggestions)
the worship of saints and angels, we proceed one step
after another, from the earliest practice of the Church
the practice of addressing prayers to Almighty God
alone, for the sake and through the merits of his
blessed Son, the only Mediator between God and
man to the lamentable innovation, both of praying
to God through the mediation of departed mortals,
and of invoking those mortals themselves, as the actual
dispensers of the blessings sought. It is indeed pain-
fully interesting to trace the several steps, one after
another, beginning with the sound doctrine maintained
by various early writers, that the souls of the saints are
not yet reigning with Christ in heaven, and ending
with the anathema of the Council of Trent against all
who maintained that doctrine ; beginning with prayer
and thanksgiving to Almighty God alone, and ending
with daily prayers both to saints and angels ; one
deviation from the strict line of religious duty, and
the pure singleness of Christian worship successively
gliding into another, till at length, with a few notable
exceptions, the whole of Christendom was seen to
acquiesce in public and private devotions, which in
earlier and better times, had they been proposed, the
whole of Christendom would at once with unanimity
have rejected.
The places and occasions most favourable for
witnessing and estimating the gradual innovations in
the worship of the early times of Christianity, are the
tombs of the martyrs, and the churches where their
remains were deposited ; at the periods of the annual
celebration of their martyrdom, or, in some instances of
what was called, their translation, that is, the removal
of their mortal remains from their former resting-place
to a new spot, generally dedicated to their memory.
On these occasions an almost incredible enthusiasm
A 3
6 Invocation of Saints and-- Angels.
reigned;, sometimes, as St. Chrysostom 1 tells us, the
ardour of . the .-worshippers 1 being little removed from'
madness* , -But* even; at: times of less^ excitement^ by
contemplating the acts and; sufferings of a beloved
and admired martyr, immediately after his< death,
recalling his looks, and words, and stedfastness^- and'
exhorting: each other; to picture to themselves 'his holy
countenance then fixed on them^ his tongue addressing
them, his sufferings still fresh before them; encoiH"
raging all to follow his example, they were 1 led' to
consider; him as actually himself one of the faithful
assembled round hisr tomb. Hence they cherished?
first the hope* then the belief, that he was 'praying with-
them} as : well as for'them; that he heard their eulogy
on his Christian excellence; -and took' pleasure in the 1
honours paid 5 to his memory : hence they inferred,
together with his good-will towards them, his ability
also, as ; though he were still on earth, to promote their
welfare : hence they proceeded by a fatal stepj first- to
implore him to procure them bodily relief- from their
present sufferings ; next they invoked him to plead
their cause witlrGod, and to intercede for the supply
of their spiritual wants, and the ultimate salvation of
their souls ; andi lastly, they prayed to him directly;
as himself the- dispenser of temporal and spiritual
blessings.
The following then is the order in which =the inno-
vations in^Christian worship seem to have taken place,
being chiefly introduced at the annual celebration of
martyrdoms.
1st. In the: first ages confession, and prayer, and
praise were offered to the Supreme Being alonej and
for the sake of his Son our only Saviour and
Advocate; when mention was made of saints or
martyrs, it was to thank God for the graces bestowed
on his faithful ones when on earth, and to pray to
God for grace to follow their good examples, and
attain through Christ to, the same end and crown of a
1 St; Chrys-. P&ris, 1718, vol. vii. p. 330.
Evidenrt^ofilfie Primitive (Shltrtft against it. 7''
Ch'r istian';s J earth'l y struggles; This act ! of' worship
was usually accompanied by f a ; homiij^ setting fortlf
tliie^GKristfan^ex'cellence of tKi3 s saintj and encotoTagitfg 1 ;
tlie x survivors* so 'to follow him as he followed Christ.
2nd. Tfte ' second ' stage appears to have been a'
prayer 'to Almighty God^ that He would 1 suffer" the v
supplications- and' intercessions of angels- and f saints^
(their embassies;, as they were called) to prevail 1 with :
Him- and -bring* down' a blessing on their fallow peti-
tioners on earth ; the idea having spread among'
enthusiastic worshippers, j that the spirits of the ; saints
were suffered 1 to be present at'their tombs^ artd'to join
witfr the 1 faithful in their addresses to th : e tHrowe of ;
3rd; The' third grade appears to- have owed it i
origin to tire practice of orators dwelling continually'
on the T excellencies and glories of the saints in tlre-
panegyrics' delivered; over their remains representing ;
their ; constancy and Christian virtues as super-human 1
andv divinej and as having conferred 1 lasting 1 benefits
on tlie'Ghurch. By these benefits at first were meant'
the comfort and encouragement of their gpod example,
and the honour flowing to the religion of the cross 4
from the testimony they had borne to its truth even
urito : death ; but' in process of time, the habit gre\v ;
of attaching a sort of mysterious efficacy to their
merits; hence 1 sprang this third gradation in religious 1
worship, prayers to the Almighty s that " He would"
hear 1 his suppliants, and grant th'eir requests for the
sake of his- martyred servant^ and by the efficacy of :
that martyr's merit."
4th; Hitherto, unauthorized and objectionable ' as
are* the two -last forms' of prayer; still the petitions" in
each case were directed to God alone; The next
step svverved lamentably from that principle : of wor-
shipv and the j petitioners^ were led to address their
requests to angels ; and sainted men' in heavenj at 7
firsts however; confining their petitions- to the asking
for their pray ers? and intercessi0ns ; witb5Al mighty God.
A 4
8 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
5th. The last stage in this progressive degeneracy
of Christian worship was to petition the saints and
angels directly and immediately themselves, at first
for the temporal, and afterwards for the spiritual
benefits which the petitioners desired to obtain from
heaven. For it is not less evident than curious, that
the worshippers seem for some time to have petitioned
the saints for temporal and bodily benefits, before
they proceeded to ask for spiritual blessings at their
hands, or through their intercessions a .
Of these several gradations and stages, we find traces
in the records of Christian antiquity less and less faint,
as superstitions and the corruptions of apostolic doc-
trine spread wider, and leavened more of Christian wor-
ship. Of all of them we have lamentable instances in
the ritual of the Romish Church. But, as we now
proceed to show, it was not so from the beginning.
In the earliest ages we find only the first of these
forms of worship exemplified, and it is the only form
retained in our English ritual, of which the prayer
for Christ's Church militant here on earth furnishes a
beautiful specimen : " We bless thy holy name for all
thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear,
beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow their
good examples, that with them we may be partakers
of thy heavenly kingdom : Grant this, O Father, for
Jesus Christ's sake, our only Mediator and Advocate.
Amen."
Before we refer in detail to some of the invaluable
remains of Christian antiquity, in proof of our views,
three observations may be premised.
1st. We do so, not for the purpose of attesting the
exact accuracy of the above representation as to the
various stages of the worship of saints and angels in
the order of time (the soundness of our argument
not depending upon that accuracy), but to be enabled
to answer satisfactorily this question, Whether the
invocation of saints and angels prevailed from the
2 See Basil. Orat. in Mamanta Martyrem.
.Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 9
first in the Christian Church, or whether it was an
innovation introduced after pagan superstition, in the
worship of its many inferior divinities, had begun
to mingle its poisonous corruptions with the pure
worship of Almighty God?
2nd. The field of Christian antiquity is too wide
to be even cursorily examined here, and we must
refer the reader who desires to verify any of our
statements, or scrutinize fully and minutely any of
our arguments on points of much research, to the
work lately taken upon the Catalogue of the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge, to which refer-
ence has been already made, entitled, "Primitive
Christian Worship." But a brief outline of the
evidence, and specimens of the conclusive testimonies
of primitive writers at different periods cannot be
otherwise than satisfactory to those who desire to
make themselves generally acquainted with the nature
of the argument.
3rd. We conceive that few persons will be disposed
to doubt, that if the primitive believers were taught
by the Apostles to address the saints in heaven and
the holy angels with adoration and prayers, the
earliest Christian records must have contained clear
and indisputable references to the fact, and that
undesigned allusions to the custom would inevitably
have presented themselves to our notice here and there.
Not that we could expect to meet with full statements
of the doctrine or practice of the primitive Church in
this particular, far less such elaborate apologies for the
practice as abound in later times. But what is more
satisfactory in proof of the general prevalence of any
custom, expressions would incidentally occur imply-
ing habitual familiarity with such worship. For ex-
ample, in the remains of Christian antiquity, from the
very earliest of all, such expressions are constantly
meeting us (even when the writer is engaged on some
other and different topic), as imply the doctrines of the
ever blessed Trinity, the atoning sacrifice of Christ,
the influences of the Holy Spirit ; habitual prayer and
A 5
1 Invocation'of Saints and Angels* ,
praise; offered to the Saviour,. as very and eternal God ;
the observance of; the holy sacraments of baptism and the
Lord's supper, with other tenets and practices of. the
Apostolic 'Church.. It isrimpossible to study the;remains-
of Christian antiquity without, being, assured* beyond,
the' reach of doubt, that such doctrines and practices
prevailed in the universal Church: from: the days- of
the Apostles. Can the invocation of saints and angels
and the blessed Virgin be made an exception to this
rule ? And can it stand this test ? Had it .prevailed;
is it not beyond gainsaying that we. must have found
traces: of it in the earliest works- of primitive an-
tiquity, especially in the forms of prayer and exhorta~
trons to prayer- with; which those works ^abound? Can.
such traces be found?
CENTURY I. THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS;
The books called the works of the Apostolic Fathers
are full, and copious, and explicit, and cogent on the
nature and duty of prayer and supplications, as well
for public as for private blessings, and of intercession
by one Christian for another, and for the whole race of
mankind, no less than of petitions for mercy on himself ;
and yet, though openings of every kind offered them-
selves for a natural introduction of the subject, there is
in no one single instance any reference or allusion to<
the invocation of saints or angels as a practice either-
approved or even known in those times. With the.
different opinions as to the exact time when these
writings first appeared, and with the genuineness of.
all or any of them, though interesting questions in
themselves, we have nothing to do in this argument.
They were certainly all in existence before the Council
of Nice, A.D. 325, and their testimony is not affected by
the. exactness of the date assigned to them. Not only,
however, is the absence of all allusion to prayers offered
to saints and angels decisive of the question, in point
of negative evidence, but .various passages occur 3 which
3 The references are made to the edition published at Antwerp, 1698;
Evidence of : the Primitive Chitr^li against it. 1-1 ]
supply 'positive testimony on the 'subjeetl The nature 5
of the present work does not admit of many quota-
tion^ or long discussions, and throughout' this : re-
ference to the testimony of ancient writers we will'
endeavour 1 to be as brief as- may be consistent with
the desire of enabling the reader' to form a fair esti-
mate of the evidence.
1. THE EPISTLE or ST. BARNABAS gives directions
oil the subject of prayer, but it is ; prayer to God only.
He speaks of ; angels, but not as beings who were to
be invoked by us. The saints of whom he speaks are 'riot
souls- in heaven to be petitioned by us on earth, but
Christians on earth whom a true Christian is' bound
to search out, and comfort, and assist on their way to-
heaven.
"There are two ways- of doctrine and authorityV
one of lightj the other of darkness. Over the one are'
appointed angels of God, conductors of the -light 1 ;"
over the other, angels of Satan; . . . Thou shalt love'
Him that made thee; thou shalt glorify Him' that
saved thee from death; . . .Thou shalt' love as- the
apple of thine eye one who speaketli to thee 1 the
word ! of the Lord. Call to remembrance the day of
judgment night and day. Every day thou shalt
search out the persons of the saints.- ... proceeding
to exhortation, and anxiously caring to save a soul by
the word; . . . Thou shalt not come with a bad con-
science to thy prayer. The Lord of glory and all
grace be with your spirit. Amen;"
2. THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS*. "Let us then
remove from us double-heartedness, and faint-hearted-
ness, and never at all doubt of supplicating any thing
from God, or say within ourselves, How can I who
have been guilty of so many sins 1 against Him ask of
the Lord and receive ? But with thine whole heart
turn to the Lord, and ask of Him without doubting ;
and thou shalt know his great mercy, that He will
4 The passage, of which we can here give but a 'brief extract, will
be found in Primitive Worship, p. 77 5 and is full of sound, and pious, and
comfortable sentiments.
A 6
12 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
not forsake thee, but will fulfil the desire of thy
soul," &c.
Speaking of the angels, the writer says, " These
are all to be reverenced for their dignity. By these,
as it were by a wall, the Lord is girded round. But
the gate is the Son of God, who is the only way to
God : for no one shall enter into God except by his
Son."
3. CLEMENT, BISHOP OF ROME, has left us an
epistle, which no one can read without agreeing with
Jerome, that it is " very admirable." Clement speaks
of angels, and of the holy men of old who pleased
God, and were blessed, and were taken to their
reward. He urges to prayer he specifies the objects
and the subjects of our prayer he speaks of the
. :. . \ , ~ J 1 "l ',.1
saints* and of our remembering them with compassion
for our own good (just as St. John says, Let him
who loveth God Jove his brother also ; and as St.
Paul speaks of our ministering to the necessities of
the saints) he invites us to contemplate with re-
verence Abraham and the other faithful ones, but it
is only to imitate their good examples he bids us
think of St. Paul and St. Peter, but it is to listen to
their godly admonitions. Throughout there is not
the most distant allusion to the saints and angels, as-
persons to whom supplication should be addressed-
" Let us venerate the 'Lord Jesus, whose blood was
given for us." ..." Let us approach HIM (God) in
holiness of soul, lifting up holy and uridefiled hands
towards Him .... loving our merciful and tender
Father, who hath made us a portion of his elect 5 ."
Of any other being to whom the invocations of the
faithful should be offered, except God alone, and of
any other advocate and intercessor, except the Lord
Jesus alone, Clement seems to have had no know-
ledge. Could this have been so had those who re-
ceived the Gospel from the very fountain-head been
accustomed to pray to the angels, or to the holy men
5 Epist. Corinth, c. xxi. and xxix.
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 13
who had finished their course on earth, and were gone
to their reward ?
4. SAINT IGNATIUS sealed the truth of the Gospel
with his blood about seventy years after the death of
our Lord. In his works, in which many passages
occur most cheering and uplifting to the soul, no
vestige however faint can be found of the invocation
of saints or angels; whilst he prays for his fellow
labourers to the Lord; and he implores them to
approach the throne of grace with supplications for
mercy on his soul 5 . "Long since have I prayed to
God, that I might be worthy to see your faces which
are worthy of God." . . . . " Only pray for strength
that it may be given to me from within and from
without, that I may not only say but also may will ;
and not that I may be only called a Christian, but
also may be found to be so." " Pray to Christ for
me."
5. The only remaining name among those who are
called Apostolical Fathers is the venerable Polycarp.
He suffered martyrdom by fire at a very advanced age
in Smyrna, about 330 years after our Saviour's death.
In the only epistle of Polycarp that remains, addressed
to the Philippians, he speaks to his brother Christians,
of constant continual prayer but he speaks only of
prayer to the all-seeing God. He marks out for our
imitation the good example of St. Paul, and the other
Apostles, assuring us that they had not run in vain,
but were gone to the place prepared for them by the
Lord, as the reward of their labours. But not one
word can we find alluding to the invocation of saints
in prayer.
Here we must refer, though briefly, to the 7 epistle
from the Church of Smyrna to the neighbouring
Churches, announcing the martyrdom of Polycarp, ana
relating the affecting circumstances which attended
it. The letter purports to contain the very words of
the martyr himself in the last prayer which he ever
6 Epistle to the Romans i. 3, 4.
7 Eusebius, Paris, 1628. Book i. Hist. iv. c. xv. p. 163.
14' Invocation of Saints ''and 1
offered on earth* On the ? subject' of 3 oar present
inquiry, this interesting letter, of the ' genuineness
of- which* there: is no ground for doubt, supplies
evidence not merely negative; So far from coun-
tenancing any- invocation of saint or martyr, it con*
tains-avery ; striking' passage, the plain common'sense
meaning of which bears decidedly against all exaltation
of mortals into objects of religious worship. The
letter is ; so J generally known, that we may the less
regret ; our inability to quote it at length in these
pagesy though every line is deeply interesting*
"The Church of r God which is ; in Smyrnai to the
Church in Philomela, and to all the branches of the 1
Holy Catholic Church dwelling in any place, mercy,
peace, and love of : Grod the Father, and 1 our Lord
Jesus ; Christ' be multiplied* ......
" The proconsul 1 in astonishment caused it to be
proclaimed thrice, Polycarp has confessed himself to
be a Christian. On this they all shouted that the
proconsul should let a lion loose on Polycarp : but the
games were over; and this could not be done; they
then with ! one accord insisted on his being burnt to
death."
Before -his death Polycarp offered this prayerj or
rather this thanksgiving to God for his mercy in thus
deeming him worthy to suffer death in testimony of
the Gospel.
"Father of thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, by whom
we have received our knowledge coricerning.Thee, the
God of-angels, and powers, and of the whole creation and
of the whole family of the just who live before Thee ;
I bless Thee because Thou hast deemed me worthy of
this day and this hour, to receive my portion among
the martyrs in the cup of Christ.; to the resurrection
both of -soul and ! body in > the incorruption of the Holy-
Ghost ; among whom may I be received before Thee
this day in a rich and acceptable sacrifice, even as
Thou the true God, who canst not lie, foreshowing; and
fulfilling, hast beforehand prepared. For this and for
all I praise Thee, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee through
Evidence of the -Primitive Church against it. 15;
the eternal high-priest Jesus Christ thy beloved Son,
through whom to Thee with Him in the Holy Ghostj-
be glory 'both' now and ' for future ages. Amen."
After recounting the circumstances of his death the;
narrative proceeds 1 : " But the envious adversary of'
the just observed the honour put on the greatness : of
his testimony, and his blameless life from the first/'
and knowing that he was now crowned with victory,
resisted when' many of us desired to take his body, and-
have fellowship with his holy flesh. Some ' then
suggested to Nicetes^ the father of Herod, and brother
of ; E)alce, to entreat the governor not to give his-"
body, < Lest^' said lie, * leaving the crucified One, they<
should begin to worship this man;' and this they said
at the suggestion and importunity of the Jews, who
also watched us, when we would take the body from:
the- fire. This they did, not knowing that we can
never either leave Christ, who suffered for the salva-
tion of all who will be saved in all the- world, or
worship any other. FOR HIM, BEING THE SON OF
GOD, WE< WORSHIP, BUT THE MARTYRS; AS DISCIPLES
AND IMITATORS OF OUR LORD, WE WORTHILY LOVE,
BECAUSE OF THEIR PRE-EMINENT. GOOD-WILL TO-
WARDS THEIR OWN KlNG AND TEACHER, -WITH
WHOM MAY WE BECOME PARTAKERS, AND FELLOW
DISCIPLES !
" The centurion," it is added, "seeing the deter-
mination of the Jews, placed him in the midst* and
burnt him as their manner is. And; thus we collecting
his boneSj more valuable than precious^ stones, and
more esteemed than gold, deposited them where it
was meet. There, as we may be able, collecting 'our-
selves together in rejoicing and gladnessjthe Lord; will
grant to us to observe the birth-day of his martyrdom,
for the remembrance of those who have before under-
gone the conflict, and for exercise and preparation of
those who are to come."
Such is the record of the martyrdom of Polycarp,
and how full is it of interesting and important sugges-
tions ! In this work of primitive antiquity we find
16 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
the prayer of a holy martyr, at his last hour, offered
to God alone through Christ alone. Here we find no
allusion to any other intercessor, no commending of
his soul by the dying Christian to saint or angel.
Polycarp pleads no -other merit ; he seeks no other
intercession ; he prays for no aid, save only his
Redeemer's. How strongly does Polycarp's prayer
contrast with the commendation made by Thomas a .
Becket of his own soul, when he was murdered in his
own cathedral of Canterbury, as that commendation is
recorded in the ancient Romish services for his day,
to which we have referred at length in a previous
number ! The comparison will impress upon us the
difference between religion and superstition, between
the. purity of primitive Christian worship, and the
unhappy corruptions of a degenerate age. " To God,
(such is Thomas a Becket's prayer) and the blessed
Mary, and Saint Dionysins, and the holy patrons of
this Church, I commend myself and the Church."
In the record of Polycarp's martyrdom we find also
an explicit declaration, that Christians then offered
religious worship to no one but God, while they
loved the martyrs and kept their names in grateful
remembrance, and honoured their ashes also when the
spirit had fled.
Here too we find that the place of a Christian
martyr's burial was the place which the early Chris-
tians loved to frequent; but then we are expressly
told with what intent they met there not as in later
times to invoke the departed spirit of the martyr, but
to call to mind, in grateful remembrance, the sufferings
of those who had already endured the awful struggle ;
and by their example to encourage and prepare other
soldiers of the cross to fight the good fight of faith,
assured that they would be more than conquerors
through Him who loved them.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
No. VII.
ON THE
INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS.
EVIDENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH
AGAINST IT.
Continued.
WHA1 IS ROMAMISM?
Invocation, of Saints and Angels.-- Evidence of the
Primitive: Church agains&it*
IN the previous ; number, we 1 examined' _those re-
mains of' Christian antiquity which are called tire
works 1 of ' th : e~ Apostolical fathers ; persons who at th'e
very lowest calculation lived close upon the Apostles' 1
time, and who, according to the conviction of many^
had all of f them' conversed with the Apostles; and
heard the- Gospel- from their 'mouths. We may weir
rejoice- to 'find' the fundamental articles- of our faith !
witnessed by these holy men, not so much' by : direct-
and' positive 5 statements, (though we find many such,)
as by 'what is f far more satisfactory and beyond cavil,'
incidental, and^as-they seem, unintentional allusions to
those ' articles as familiar truths, taking them 'for granted
as well known and deceived principles; Now sappostf
no such statements or allusions at all were founder!'
these early documents^ suppose, for example^ we 5
could find no reference to the atomng^ sacrifice of- our
Saviour's death j no incidental allusion to itj no tra'ee
of any cognizance- of it j on the part of the writers'
either as a doctrine : of their own creed^ or as- received '
by their contemporary Christians 1 ; with what force of;
argu ment would the absence of all : such vestiges 'of 1 the
doctrine be urged against the existence and preva-
lence of the doctrine in those times? And how, in
20 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
plain honesty, can we avoid a similar process of reason-
ing on the subject of the invocation of saints ? If the
doctrine and the practice of praying to saints or to
angels for their succour, or for their intercession, had
been known, and recognised, and approved, and acted
upon by the Apostles, and those who were the very
disciples of the Apostles, would not some plain,
palpable, intelligible, and unequivocal indications
of it have appeared in such writings as these?
In these writings much is said of prayer, of
intercessory prayer, of the one object of prayer,
of the subjects of prayer, of the time and place
of prayer, of the spirit in which we are to offer prayer,
and the persons for whom we ought to pray ; does it then
accord with common sense and common experience,
with what we should expect and require in other cases,
that we should find a profound and total silence on the
subject of any prayer or invocation to saints and angels,
if the invocation of saints and angels had been recog-
nised, approved, and practised by the primitive Church?
If we proceed with our inquiry into the evidence
left us by the Christian writers of times following the
age usually assigned to the Apostolical fathers, we
arrive at the same result.
Till the middle of the fourth century, or rather the
closing years of it, we find no signs of the prevalence of
the doctrine and practice of the worship of saints and
angels. Then, unhappily, innovations began to spread
through the Church itself, which had before retained the
original divine doctrine of one God, to whom Christians
must pray, and one Mediator and Intercessor through
whom they must pray. But instead of being surprised
that such innovations should have so soon prevailed,
when we reflect on the general tendency of the natural
man as to the objects of religious worship, and also how
great is the temptation in teachers, either unenlightened
or guided by a crooked policy, to accommodate the
dictates of truth to the prejudices and desires of those
whom they instruct, our wonder might rather be, that
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 21
Christianity was so long preserved pure and uneonta-
minated in this respect, than that- corruptions should
gradually and stealthily have mingled themselves with
the simplicity of Gospel worship. The tendency of the
natural man is to multiply to himself the objects of
religious worship, and to create, by the help of super-
stition and the delusive working of the imagination, a
variety of unearthly beings, whose wrath he must
appease, or whose favour he may conciliate. That
tendency is plainly evinced by the history of every
nation under heaven ; it was the same tendency
which rendered such guards and fences necessary to
preserve the children of faithful Abraham from its
contamination; and even those laws of the Most
High often failed of securing his worship from its in-
roads. Greek and Barbarian, Egyptian and Scy-
thian, would have their " gods many, and their' lords
many." To one they would look for one good ; on another
they would depend for a different benefit in mind,
body, and circumstances. Some were of the highest
grade, and to be worshipped with supreme honours ;
others were of a lower rank, to whom an inferior
homage was addressed; whilst a third class held a
sort of middle place, and were approached with a
reverence far above the least, though infinitely be-
low the greatest. In the heathen world we find exact
types of the dulia, the hyperdulia, and the latria,
with which unhappily the practical theology of modern
Christian Rome is burdened 1 .
It is, indeed, a cause of wonder, that when, under the
Christian dispensation, the household and local, male
and female deities, the heathens' tutelary gods, and the
genii, had been dislodged by the light of the Gospel,
angels, and male and female saints, were not even at a
much earlier date forced by superstition to occupy
the vacated places : especially when we bear in mind
1 In the Roman. Church, the word dulia is said to mean the wor-
.ship paid to saints and angels ; hyperdulia, the worship paid to the
"Virgin ; latria, the worship paid to God.
:22 Invocation of -Saints and Angels.
what powerful ihelps <and extraordinary ^facilities were
rafforded to /these external causes, fry tbe religious ^pro-
ceedings .whichvwere taking place -among Christians
themselves at the tombs and "memories," as they were
= called, of the martyrs. We shall be led to refer
to i some ^passages in the early 'Christian writers, /repre-
.-senting in strong but true colours, the -weakness and
ifolly of deeming a multitude of inferior, divinities
.necessary, ;whose good offices we must secure by acts of
.attention andi worship. We anticipate; the observation
in this:place;merely to remind the reader, that the ap-
petency of the human mind .to secure a .variety of
.unseen protectors and benefactors, ;to be appeased
and conciliated by man, was among the ;many obsta-
cles with which the first preachers of the. Gospel had
to struggle. When we come ;to those passages, -the
reflection will force itself upon ius, how hardly -it
would have been possible for those early Christian
writers to express themselves in so < strong, so sweep-
,ing,;and so unqualified a manner (makingno exceptions
or limitations),; had the practice of; apply ing: by invoca-
tion ?to saints and angels then been prevalent among
the disciples of : Christ. But we now proceed with
our iinquiry into the evidence .of the primitive
writers.
Justin Martyr 2 , , A.D. 150.
.Justin, who flourished about .the year ,1,50, .was
.trained from early youth an, all the learning of Gre.ece
.and Egypt. ,He .was , born .in Palestine .of heathen
parents, .and .after a /patient .examination of .the evi-
'dences .of .Christianity, and a , close comparison .of
.them with , the systems of philosophy with which ', he
(had, been familiar, he became a. Christian. In ., those
systems he found nothing solid or satisfactory ; nothing
2 Paris, 1742.
f the .I&ifflitive Church* against it. >,23
,011 wliich .his ;jinind veould :rest. .Jnfthe vGospel he
.,g#in.ed>all,that hissSouL yearned for, as a being; destined
,for iromortaljife,! conscious, of .that destiny* and longing
for Jts .Accomplishment. .The 'testimony -.of ? such ia
:-.#jan ,on any doctrine connected with , our ^Christian
faith, must be,loo,kedrtO;withJnterest.
.. Injustin's, works we, are unable to. find,a sin.gle vestige
of theiiivracution of saints. Thoijghlhe speaks,; much on
.the subject of prayery and has left ; some : testimonies as to
the primitive mode of conducting: public - : worship, full
ofJnterest in i themselves, as well as I bearing on the
.points ^at .issue:; ^ still no ^expression ; is =found
which <;an ,be?.construedto; imply the doctrine pr prac-
tice .amon^^ Christians of invoking the sou-Is; of the
-, departed. : He , speaks . of private as well ; as of pub-
lic prayer, and: he ; offers prayer ; but the s prayer which
he offers,, and the; prayer of which he ; speaks are ta God
alone ; -and, he alludes to no mediator or intercessor in
; heaven, .excepts only; the eternal <S)n of Crod Himself.
3S"or ; -is this jail. Justin maintains a- doctrine which
..utterly .overturns the very foundation on which the
.entire ; theory of the invocation of saints Js ; built.
.He holds ithat tlie ; soiils of: the blessed are not, ad-
mitted into ; heaven ; now, but are waiting for ithe
{.general , resurrection ; whereas the very essence of , the
advocacy of the saints is, that they are now in heaven
with; God, ,and reigning with; Christ.
[Thusiin his dialogue with Trypho the, Jew, (sect, v*)
he s says, **' - Nevertheless, I do ; not say that souls all
s ,4ie; .ifor ithat were in truth; a boon ito the wicked.
."Bwt what ? .That; the souls of , the pious remain some-
where;inva better place, and the, unjust, and wicked in
,,a vworse, Awaiting for the time, of judgment, when .it
.ishall jbe; (thus ; the: one .appearing worthy of > God do
: not. die , any more; -and ( ithe others are .punished
.as jlong ; as v(God wills them .to exist, -and ;to be
punished."
Not only so. Justin classes among renouncers
of tjje faith, cfchose who maintain the doctrine which
24 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
is now the acknowledged doctrine of the Church of
Rome, and considered indispensable as the groundwork
of the invocation of saints. In the same dialogue
(sect. Ixxx.) he thus strongly states his sentiments, "If
you should meet with any persons called Christians
who confess not this, but dare to blaspheme the God
of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and say there is
no resurrection of the dead, but that their souls at the
very time of their death are taken up into heaven, do
not regard them as Christians."
But whilst Justin's testimony is so full and conclu-
sive against the invocation of saints, a passage occurs
in his first Apology 3 , admitting of two grammatical
renderings; one which places the angels between the
second and third persons of the ever blessed Trinity, as
objects of the Christian's reverence and worship ; the
other, which represents them as being taught divine
truths by the Son of God. The first interpretation
is so full of impiety, that we at once reject it; the
second is so entirely in accordance with the sentiments
of many celebrated men in the earliest times, that we
feel no doubt in receiving it. The subject is, how-
ever, fully discussed in " Primitive Christian Wor-
ship," page 107 ; and we must, therefore, refer the
reader, who desires to enter into the question more at
large, to that work.
We have already said, that not a single word can
be found in Justin to sanction the invocation of saints ;
but his testimony is far from being merely negative.
He strongly admonishes us against our looking to any
other being than God for help or assistance. Without
any exception or modification in favour of saint or
angel, he says, among various passages of similar im-
port, " In that Christ said, Thou art my God, go
not far from me, He at the same time taught, that all
persons ought to hope in God, who made all things,
and seek for safety and health from Him alone *."
3 Page 47. * Trypho 102, p. 197.
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 25
Irenceus*, A.D. 180.
Justin sealed his faith by his blood about the year
165, and next to him in the noble army of martyrs,
we must examine the evidence of Irenseus, bishop of
Lyons. A very small proportion of his works survives
in the original Greek; but that little will cause every
scholar and divine to lament the calamity which theo-
logy and literature have sustained by the loss of the
author's own language. We must now avail ourselves
with thankfulness of the nervous, though inelegant,
copy of that original, which the Latin translation,
corrupt and imperfect in many parts, still affords.
There is not a single passage found in Irenseus to
countenance the invocation of saints and angels; on
the contrary, there is evidence which leaves no doubt
that neither in faith nor practice would he sanction
such invocation. '
With regard to angels, we find these sentiments:
" Nor does it [the Church] do any thing by invo-
cation of angels, nor by incantations, nor other de-
praved and curious means, but with purity, and open-
ness, directing prayers to the Lord who made all
things; and calling upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, it exercises its powers for the benefit, and
not the seducing of mankind 5 ." It has been said, that
by angelic invocations, Irenseus means addresses to
evil angels and genii, such as the heathen super-
stitiously used to make. But that is a mere assump-
tion, not warranted by the passage or its context.
And surely, even were that so, had Irenseus known
that Christians prayed to angels as well as to their
Maker and their Saviour, he would not have used so
unguarded and unqualified an expression ; but would
4 There is a passage in Irenseus often referred to, in which a con-
trast is drawn between Eve and the Virgin Mary, and to that our
attention will be drawn, when we inquire into the worship of the
Virgin Mary.
5 Benedictine Ed., lib, ii. e. 32, sect, 5, p. 166. .
656] B
26 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
liave cautioned his readers against any misapprehen-
sion of liis meaning.
Then, again, -with regard to the invocation of the
saints, beatified spirits of mortals supposed to be now
with God, one passage is conclusive as to his faith and
practice. Cardinal Bellarmin, and all who maintain the
doctrine of the in vocation of saints, assume that the saints
are already in heaven: for, say they, if the saints are not
already in the presence of God, they cannot pray for
their brethren on earth, and prayer to them would
therefore be preposterous 6 . But Irenseus is clear in
stating the doctrine, that the souls of Christians go to
the unseen place, and remain there till the resurrection
and the re-union of body and soul. In the following
quotation, the words printed in small capitals are found
both in the Latin and the Greek copies ? :
" Since the Lord, in the midst of the shadow of
death, went where the souls of the dead were, and
then afterwards rose bodily, and after his resurrection
was taken up, it is evident that of his disciples also,
for whom the Lord wrought these things, THE SOULS
GO INTO THE UNSEEN PLACE ASSIGNED TO THEM BY
GOD, AND THERE REMAIN TILL THE RESURRECTION,
WAITING FOR THE RESURRECTION ; AFTERWARDS RE-
CEIVING AGAIN THEIR BODIES, AND RISING PER-
FECTLY, THAT is, BODILY; EVEN AS THE LORD ALSO
ROSE AGAIN, SO WILL THEY COME INTO THE PRE-
SENCE OF GOD. For no disciple is above his master, but
every one that is perfectshall be as his master. As, there-
fore, our Master did not immediately flee away and
depart^ but waited for the time of the resurrection,
appointed by his Father, which is evident even by
the case of Jonah, after the third day rising again, he
was taken up; so we, too, must wait for the time
of our resurrection, appointed by God, and fore-
announced by the prophets, and thus rising again, be
6 Bell. lib. i.e. 4, vol. ii. p. 8.51.
? Lib. v. c, 32, sect. 2, p. 331.
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 27
taken up, as many as the; Lord shall have deemed
worthy of this."
Clement -of Alexandria*. About the year 180.
Contemporary with Irenseus* and probably less than
twenty years his junior, was Clement, the celebrated
Christian philosopher of Alexandria. We are not
aware that any Roman Catholic writer has appealed
to the testimony of Clement, in favour of the invoca-
tion of saints: nor is there probably a passage to be,
found which the defenders of that practice would be
likely to quote in its support; and yet there are many
passages, which any one anxious to trace the true Chris-
tian faith, in this respect, would not willingly neglect.
The tendency of Clement's mind to blend with the sim-
plicity of the Gospel the philosophy with which he so
fully abounded, renders him the less valuable as a Chris-
tian teacher ; but his evidence as to the question of fact,
Was the invocation of saints prevalent among Christians
in his day, or not ? is rendered even more cogent and
pointed by this tendency of his mind.
Clement has left us many of his meditations on the
efficacy, the duty, and the comfort of prayer. When
he speaks of God and of the Christian in prayer, (for,
"prayer" he defines to be " communion or intercourse
with God,") his language becomes often exquisitely
beautiful, and not unfrequently sublime. We can
only add a few detached passages; and yet those few
may show, that Clement is a man whose testimony
cannot be slighted :
" Therefore, keeping the whole of our life as a
feast, every where and on every part persuaded that
God is present, we praise Him as we till our lands;
we sing hymns as we are sailing. The Christian is
convinced that God hears every thing ; not the voice
only, but the thoughts. Suppose any one should say
8 Ed. Oxon. 1715.
B2
28 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
that the voice does not reach God, revolving as it does
in the air below; yet the thoughts of the saints cut
through not only the air, but the whole world. And
the divine power, like the light, is beforehand in seeing
through the soul. He [the perfect Christian, whom
he speaks of throughout as the man of divine know-
ledge] prays for things essentially good 9 .
" Wherefore, it best becomes those to pray who
have an adequate knowledge of God, and possess
virtue in accordance with Him who know what are
real goods, and what we should petition for, and
when, and how in each case. But it is the extreme
of ignorance to ask from those who are not gods, as
though they were gods. .... Whence, since
there is one only good God, both we ourselves and
the angels supplicate from Him alone, that good
things might be either given to us, or remain with us.
In this way, he [the Christian] is always in a state of
purity fit for prayer. He prays with angels, as being
himself equal with angels ; and as one who is never
beyond the holy protecting guard. And if he pray
alone, he has the whole choir of angels with him V
Clement alludes to instances alleged by the Greeks
of the effects of prayer, and he adds, " Our whole
Scripture is full of instances of God hearing and
granting every request according to the prayers of
the just 2 ." Having in the same section referred to
the opinion of some Greeks, as to the power of demons
over the affairs of mortals, he says 3 , " But they think
it matters nothing whether we speak of these as gods,
v or as angels, calling the spirits of such * demons,' and
- teaching that they should be worshipped by men, as
.-having, by divine providence, on account of the purity
of their lives, received authority to be conversant
^about earthly places in order that they may minister
to mortals." Is it possible to suppose that this
9 Stromata, lib. vii. sect. 7, p. 851. * Sect. xii. p. 879.
2 Sect. iii. p. 753. 3 Lib. vi. sect, 3, p. 753.
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 29
teacher in Christ's school had any idea of a Christian
praying to saints or angels ? In the last passage, the
language in which he quotes the errors of heathen
superstition to refute them, so nearly approaches the
language of the Church of Rome, when speaking of the
powers of saints and angels to assist the supplicant, that
we conceive if Clement had any thought whatever of a
Christian praying for aid and intercession to saint or
angel, he must have mentioned it, especially after the
previous passage on the absurdity and ignorance of
praying for any good, at the hands of any other than
the one true God. In common with his contem-
poraries, Clement considered the angels to be, as we
mortals are, in a state requiring all the protection and
help to be obtained by prayer; he believed that the
angels pray with us, and carry our prayers to God :
but the thought of addressing them by invocation does
not appear to have occurred to hisi mind. At the
close of his " Psedagogus" he has left us a form of
prayer to God alone, very peculiar and interesting.
He closes it by an ascription of glory to the blessed
Trinity. But to saint, or angel, or the Virgin, there
is no allusion.
Tertullian 4 . About A.D. 180.
Tertullian of Carthage, was a contemporary of
Clement of Alexandria, and so nearly were they of
the same age, that it has been doubted which should
take precedence in point of time. There is a very
wide difference in the character and tone of their
works, as there was in the frame and constitution of
their minds. The lenient and liberal views of the
erudite and accomplished master of the school of
Alexandria, stand out in broad contrast with the harsh
and austere doctrines of Tertullian.
Cardinal Bellarmin calls Tertullian a heretic, and
Ed. Paris, 1675.
B 3
$0 ; Invocation >of$airit& and Angels.
says he was the: first lieretic .; who denied that the
saints went at once, and forthwith, to glory. We have
already seen how entire a ^misrepresentation of the
sentiments ;of the early -fathers 'is conveyed in > this
judgment of -Bellarmm. And Jerome, from whom
the Roman Church ismnwillmg to Callow 'any appeal,
as .being .-himself an oracle on such subjects, '-would
?lead us to form a very ^different .opinion .-or; the estima-
tion, in : which Tertulliian was 'held by the fathers of
the, early Church : for he tells us, that after Tertul-
lian rhad remained >a ; presbyter of the Church to
middle, age, he was, ,by >the envy and revilings of the
members of the {Roman Church, driven to fall from
iits unity, , and-;espouse Montanism. He ; also informs
us, uthat fc St. iCyprian never passed a single ; day
without reading Tertullian, whom ;he called The Mas-
ter, often saying <to:his secretary, ; give me The Mas-
ter, meaning Tertullian 5 ."
Tertullian fell into serious errors by joining himself
/to. -Motntanus. Still wei see in him, throughout, traces
;of that spirit which animated the early converts of
-Christianity; and his whole soul seems to have been
bent on promoting the practical influence of 1 the
Gospel. A wide distinction is drawn by Romanist
writers between the works of Tertullian written be-
fore he espoused Montanism and afterwards. But
this distinction does not affect his testimony on the
historical : fact before us. If, : indeed, he held the doc-
trine of the invocation of saints before he took that
unhappy step, ; and rejected it afterwards, no one con-
ducting, such an argument as the present could quote
against the practice r his later opinions. ; But we are
only inquiring into the matter of fact. Is there, in
the works of 'Tertullian, any evidence that the invoca-
tion of saints formed part of the doctrine and, practice
of the Christian Church in or before his time ?
5 Jerome^ ed. 1584, torn. ii. p. 183.
Evidence q/r-th'e. Primitive Church wgdinst it. 31
The ; following; passages, cannot .be read but^withs in-
terest's- ,
"We '.invoke ;the < eternal -.God, the teue God, ;ithe
living (God, 'for the nsafety -of the empeuor. Thither
[heaven ward} looking ?up iwith hands extended, be-
cause they are innocent; with >our/ head bare, because
we;are not ashamed ; in -fine, -without) a. prompter, be-
cause it dsi:from ; the heart, we ^Christians pray for all
rulers a long: !ife,.a secure (government, a safe .home,
brave armies, a .faithful senate, ; a good .people, a quiet
world. . . For these things 1 cannot ask in prayer from
any other except. Him; from whom I know .thatvLshall
obtain, because He is the one who .alone, grants, and
I ,am the .one who needs to obtain by prayer; his
servant, who -lociks to. Him alone, who for .the sake -of
his religion . am iput to'death, ^who offer to Him?a rich
and greater victim, -which He has commanded, prayfer
from a i chaste frame, from a harmlessrrseul, from -. a
holy /spirit. . . . So :let hoofs ;dig inio us, let v crosses
suspend us, let fires embrace us, let swords sever our
necks from the body, Jet beasts rush >upon ;us ; *the
very frame of mind of a praying Christian as ^prepared
for revery torment. This do, , good ^presidents ! tear
ye away;the sonl^tliatis praying ;for the emperor 6 ."
In the opening of his reflections on the Lord's
Prayer, we find these words : .
"Let us consider, therefore, beloved, in the first
place, the heavenly wisdom in the precept of .praying
in.secret, by which ! He required in a man faith ; to
believe, that both the sight -. and the hearing -of ', the
Omnipotent God is present under ^ our i roofs, and in
our secret places ; ,and desired :the lowliness .of faith,
that lo Him alone, whom he believed itoJiear* and to
see every where, .he 'Would -offer ;Ms worship , 7 ."
We will; only add Tertullian's solemn .pKofession of
his faith, the last clause of which, : though in.petfect
accordance with) the sentiments/of his contem>porariesj
6 Apolog..sect.:xxx. p..27. 7 Page 129.
B 4
32 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
seems to have been regarded unfavourably by modern
writers of the Church of Rome, because it bids us
look to the day of judgment for the saints being taken
to the enjoyment of heaven ; and consequently im-
plies, that they cannot be properly invoked now.
" To profess now what we maintain : by the rule of
our faith we believe that God is altogether one, and
no other than the Creator of the world, who produced
all things out of nothing by his Word first of all sent
down : that that Word, called his Son, was variously
seen by the patriarchs in the name of God ; was always
heard in the prophets, at length borne by the Spirit
and power of God the Father into the Virgin Mary,
was made flesh in her womb, was born of her, and was
Jesus Christ. Afterwards He preached a new law,
and a new promise of the kingdom of heaven ; wrought
miracles, was crucified, rose again the third day, and
being taken up into heaven, sat on the right hand of
the Father ; and He sent in his own stead the power of
the Holy Ghost to guide believers : that He shall
come with glory to take the saints to the enjoyment
of eternal life, and the heavenly promises, and to con-
demn the impious to eternal fire, making a reviving
of both classes with the restoration of the body V
Origen, A.D. 230.
Jerome informs us that Tertullian lived to a very
advanced age. Long before his death, flourished
Origen, one of the most celebrated lights of the pri-
mitive Church. He was educated a Christian. In-
deed his father is said to have suffered martyrdom
about A.D. 202. Origen was a pupil of Clement of
Alexandria. His virtues and his labours have called
forth the admiration of all ages ; and what still remains
of his works will be delivered down as a rich treasure
to future ages. He was a most voluminous writer,
8 De Prsescript. Hseret sect, xiii. p. 206.
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 33
and Jerome 9 asked the members of his Church, Who
is there among us that can read as many books as
Origen composed ? A large proportion of his works
are lost ; and of those which remain few are preserved
in the original Greek. We are often obliged to study
Origen through the medium of a translation, of which
we have no means of verifying the accuracy. A diffi-
cult and delicate duty also devolves upon the theo-
logical student to determine which of the works
attributed to Origen are genuine, and which are spu-
rious ; and what parts moreover of the works received
as genuine came from his pen. While we trust in
this examination of his evidence to appeal to no
work which is not confessedly his, nor to exclude any
passage not decidedly spurious, we must refer the
reader for a statement of reasons for rejection or ad-
mission of the several writings in detail, to the work
above adverted to, " Primitive Christian Worship,"
lately adopted on the Catalogue of the Society,
p. 103, &c. and 151, &c.
Proceeding, then, in our inquiry into the testimony
of Origen, we would premise, that no doubt can be
entertained of his having believed angels to be
ministering spirits, fellow labourers with us in the
momentous work of our salvation. He represents the
angels as members of the same family with ourselves,
as worshippers of the same Lord, as servants of the
same Master, as children of the same Father, as dis-
ciples of the same heavenly Teacher, as learners of one
and the same heavenly doctrine. He contemplates
them as members of our Christian congregations, as
joining with us in prayer to our heavenly Benefactor,
and as taking pleasure when they hear in our assem-
blies what is agreeable to the will of God. But does
Origen, therefore, countenance any invocation of
angels ? Let his own words testify.
Celsus accused the Christians of being Atheists,
9 Vol. iv. Epist. 41, p. 346.
B 5
-.53:4 . ^vocation of Saints and Angels.
cgodlessoHien,' withtmfr God in the world, because they
-would riot worship those "gods many, and lords many,"
and '/those secondary, subordinate, and ministering
.divinities with' which the; heathen ^mythology abounded.
Origen ^answers, We are not godless, we are not
* without an object of our ^prayer; we pray 'to God
Almighty alone through the mediation of his only
-Son. ** We imust pray to God alone, who* is over all
; things ; sand we must pray also to- the only-begotten
-and rfirsteborn of 'every creature, the Word of God ;
;and we must ' implore Him, as our ;High Priest, to
carry our prayer, first coming to Him, to his; God and
four God, -to; liis Father and the Father of those ^who
live agreeably to the Word of God r ." But Celsus,' in
this . well representing the weakness and failings of
-human' -nature, still urged: on the Christian the neces-
>sity, at all events the expediency, of conciliating those
"intermediate beings, who executed the 'will of the
Supreme Being, and might haply have much left at
-their own will and discretion to give or to withhold;
and i securing their :good offices by prayer. To this
Origen answers, "The one God the God who
is over all is to be propitiated by us, and to be ap-
^peased by -prayer -the God* who is rendered favour-
able by piety and all virtue. But if he, Celsus, is
desirous to propitiate, after the Supreme God, some
others also, let him bear in mind, that just as a
body in motion is accompanied by the motion of
its shadow, so also it follows that a person, by render-
ing :the Supreme God favourable, has all God's
(his) friends, angels, souls, 'spirits, favourable also ;
for they sympathize with those who >are worthy of
-God's favour. And not only do they become kindly
affected towards the worthy, but they also join with
those in their work, who desire to worship the Su-
preme God: and they propitiate Him, and they pray
with us, and supplicate with us ; so that we boldly
1 Cont; r eels, vol. i. sect. 8, c. 26, p. 761.
Evide&c&.of the -Primitive, Church -against it. 35
say , that together with .men,' -who- -on iprineiple ; iprefex
the better party and >prayvto 0od s ;;ten -thousands of
;holy ^powers jam in >p>rayer UNIALLE*> ;UEON
If Christians innOrigen's ;time called upon, invoked,
asked the angels of > Heaven - ', to < aid them in their
pilgrimage, < what an ^opportunity .had Origen here
(not only naturally offering itself, but evens forced
'on him) to state, .that though Christians do not
icall itipon demons and the inferior ^divinities of <. hea-
thenism, yet that they do; call .upon the .ministering
spirits, i the holy : angels, .messengers, and ^servants of
:the Most High God ! But while -speaking of them,
and; magnifying the .blessings derived to iman through
.their ministry, : so far from reneouraging us to .ask
them 'for' their ;good offices, his testimony is not merely
negative against such a proceeding ; , }mt he. positively
asserts,* that when they assist ^mankind, it is without
;any request or prayer from man* .Could .these senti-
jnemits, have come from one who invoked angels a ?
:On Origen's testimony as . to the invocation ,of the
souls of saints departed, a. few words will suffice, for
; he plainly records his belief, that the faithful are still
waiting for us; and that -till ;w ,all rejoice together,
their joy will not be full. .
We must, however, first advert to a passage in
Origen's treatise on prayer, alleged with much; con-
fidencej-as important and explicit e\ddence in proof
of that father's having supported the -doctrine of the
invocation of saints. This supposed testimony of
Origen is: thus cited :
" He comments on 1 Tim. ii. 1, { I desire, there-
fore, that '. supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgiving, be made for all men.' He says, that
intercessions and thanksgiving may be made to men,
2 On this same point the reader is referred to many most convin-
cing passages in Origen's works, among the rest, Cont. Cels. vol. i.
lib. viii. sect. 60, p. 786 ; lib. v. sect. 4, p; 579 ; lib. viii.sect. 34, p. 766.
B 6
36 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
but that supplications are only to be offered to the
saints, whilst prayers are due to God alone. He
teaches that we may supplicate a Peter or a Paul to
assist us, and make us worthy to profit by the power
given to them to remit sin. And he argues a fortiori
from this that Christ is to be supplicated."
Now, in answer to this most strange perversion of
Origen's meaning, we need only put his own words
side by side with this comment, to show that the
commentator has laid before us a totally mistaken
view of the primitive father's sentiments. Origen
is here speaking not one word of the saints in glory
with Christ in heaven, or any supplication to them ;
he is referring solely to the addresses which a Chris-
tian may make to his fellow- creatures here on earth.
With the accuracy of his elaborate distinctions be-
tween the several words of St. Paul, and with the
soundness of his doctrine in another point of view
our argument has no concern. He refers in this
passage to the authority given to Christ's holy ones,
the ministers of his Church on earth, to absolve the
penitent ; and to the propriety of the penitent suppli-
cating at their hands such absolution ; but that this
passage has nothing whatever to do with the invoca-
tion or supplication of the saints in bliss by mortals
on earth, the words of the passage themselves will be
the best proof. Origen's words are these :
" Supplication, and intercession, and giving of
thanks, it would not be improper to offer even to holy
men ; yet the two, I mean intercession and giving of
thanks, may be offered not only to the holy, but also to
all men ; but SUPPLICATION only to the holy, IF ANY
ONE MAY BE FOUND a Paul or Peter, in order that
they may benefit us by making us worthy to partake
of the authoi'ity given to them for the remitting of
sins. Sfcil], however, even though a person be not
holy, and yet we have injured him, it is allowable for
us, becoming conscious of our wrong towards him, to
SUPPLICATE even such an one, to grant pardon to us
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 37
who have injured him, But if we ought to offer these
to HOLY MEN, how much more must we give thanks
to Christ, who hath, by the will of the Father, con-
ferred on us so great benefits ?"
And yet, in the present day, this passage is tri-
umphantly quoted as the crowning evidence of the
second and third century in favour of the invocation
by men on earth of the saints reigning with Christ in
heaven 3 !
But to proceed. In his seventh homily on Leviticus,
we read, " Not even the apostles have yet received their
joy ; but even they are waiting, in order that I also may
become a partaker of their joy. For the saints depart-
ing hence do not immediately receive all the rewards
of their deserts; but they are also waiting for us,
though we be delaying and dilatory. For they have not
r & , . 1 & xl ' f J
perfect joy, so long as they grieve for our errors, and
mourn for our sins." Then having quoted the Epistle
to the Hebrews, he proceeds, "You see, therefore,
that Abraham is yet waiting to obtain those things
that are perfect; so is Isaac and Jacob; and so are
the prophets all waiting for us, that they may obtain
with us eternal blessedness. Wherefore, even this
mystery is kept to the last day of delayed judg-
ment."
Again we may ask, Could the following passage
have come from the pen of one, who prayed to the
saints as already reigning with Christ in heaven, able
to succour us, and to forward the salvation of us on
earth ?
" Whether the saints who are removed from the
body, and are with Christ, act at all, and labour for
us, like the angels who minister to our salvation?
3 The two words in italics, " holy" and "all," are restored by the editors
of Origen's works, as necessary to be supplied : the addition of them
does not affect our argument. See Benedictine Ed., vol. i. p. 221.
See also the annotations in the same edition, copied from the edition
of a "Learned Englishman."
38 ..Invocation of Saints and Angels.
Let \ this be ^considered among the secret things of
-God,; mysteries not to be committed to writing 4 ."
These, <and very many other passages; of a: similar
tendency stand out in striking contrast with those
passages from; the spurious works attributed to Origen,
which have thoughtlessly and unjustifiably been cited
by:Roman Catholics of the present day, as evidences
of Qi?igen';on the other side. We .cannot but refer,
for example, to the citation made by Dr. Wiseman
in .his ; Lectures delivered in Moorfields' Chapel,
in 1836, of a passage from <a work ascribed to
Origen on The .Lamentations, of which Huet,
th learned and celebrated Roman -Catholic .Bishop
of Avxanches, quoted at large by the Bene-
dictine editors in 1733, thus pronounces his opi-
nion, " ; : It is wonderful that, WITHOUT ANY NOTICE
OF THEIR BEING FORGERIES, they should ,be some-
times cited in evidence by some theologians." To
the work thus condemned (and that not only by the
Bishop of Avranches, but. by all theological. scholars,)
an appeal is .now made in these words, ".Again he
(Origen) thus writes on The Lamentations, 'J will
fall down- on my knees, and not presuming on account
of my crimes to present my prayer to God, I will
invoke all the saints to my assistance. Oh, ye saints
of 'Heaven, I beseech you with: a sorrow full of sighs
and tears, fall at the feet of the Lord of mercies for
me, a miserable sinner ! ' "
As long as theologians in high station in the Church
of Rome will " cite in evidence, without any notice of
their being forgeries," such forgeries as these ; and as
long as people will receive such evidence, there can
be no end to controversy on any question. But is
not the time coming when such quotations, made
either in ignorance, or carelessness, or design, on
any side, will bring with them their own antidote ?
4 Epist. ad Rom., lib. ii. vol. iv. p. 479. See Horn. III. vol. iii.
against it.
*.St. Cyprian 5 , A,D. 258.
In*tlre middle of the third century,- Cyprian 6 , a man
of substance,, arid a rhetorician of Carthage, was con-
verted to Christianity. He was" then fifty years -of age,
and his learning, virtues, and devotedness to the cause
which he had espoused, soon raised him" to the dignity,
the responsibility, and the danger of the episcopate.
"Many of his writings, of: undoubted genuineness, are
preserved, and they have been appealed to in every
age as the works of a faithful son of the Church of
Christ. On the subject of prayer he has written
powerfully and affectingly ; but after the most careful
examination of his works, especially of those passages
to which H oman Catholics used to appeal, we are
unable to find a single expression, which can be made
to imply that he practised or countenanced the invoca-
tion of saints arid angels.
In one passage 7 , he exhorts certain living virgins to
encourage themselves by mutual exhortations, to re-
main firm, to conduct themselves spiritually, and gain
the end happily, finishing his exhortation thus, "Only
remember us then, when your virgin-state shall begin
to be honoured." Whatever be the meaning of the
last words, the persons addressed were still alive on
earth, and their case therefore does not bear on the
question, before us.
Another instance to which an appeal has been
made is equally inapplicable. Cyprian, at the close
.of his letter to Cornelius, puts before us a beautiful
act of friendship and brotherly affection, deserving the
imitation of every Christian brother and friend. The
'supporters of the invocation of saints consider Cyprian
as suggesting to his friend, that whichever of the two
should be first called away, he would continue, when
in heaven, to pray for the survivor on earth. Suppose
it for a moment to be so, the request-is made in writ-
5 Benedict. Paris,.-1726. 6 Jerom., vol. iv. p. 342. 7 P. 180.
40 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
ing, from a living man to a living man, and has nothing
whatever to do with our praying, on earth, to one who
is already dead, and gone to his reward. But Cy-
prian's words suggest a very different meaning,
namely, that the two friends should continue to pray
each in his place, mutually for each other, and for
their friends, and relieve each other's wants and neces-
sities whilst both survived ; and whenever death should
remove the one from earth to happiness, the survivor
should not forget their bond of friendship, but should
still continue to pray to God for their brothers and
sisters. The passage translated to the letter runs
thus 8 : " Let us be mutually mindful of each other,
with one mind and one heart. On both sides, let us
always pray for each other, let us by mutual love
relieve each other's pressures and distresses ; and if
either of us, from hence, by the speed of the Divine
favour, go on before the other, let our love persevere
before the Lord ; for our brothers and sisters, with the
Father's mercy, let not prayer cease. My desire,
most dear brother, is that you may always prosper "."
Bishop Fell thus comments on the passage, "The sense
seems to be, When either of us shall die, whether I,
who preside at Carthage, or you, who are presiding at
Rome, shall be the survivor, let the prayer to God, of
him whose lot shall be to remain longest among the
living, persevere and continue." " Meanwhile," con-
tinues the Bishop (whom the Benedictine editors call
" the most illustrious Bishop of Oxford"), " we by no
means doubt that souls admitted into heaven apply to
God, the best and greatest of beings, that He would
have compassion on those who are dwelling on the
earth. But it does not thence follow, that prayers
should be offered to the saints : THE MAN WHO PETI-
TIONS THEM MAKES THEM GODS 1 ."
. 8 Epist. 57, p. 96.
9 The reader will find this passage examined more fully in
" Primitive Christian Worship."
Decs qui rogat ille facit. Oxford, 1682, p. 143.
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 41
We have room here for only one of those beautiful
passages with which Cyprian's works abound, and to
the sentiments of which every Christian will respond.
It is at the close of the address by which he comforted
and exhorted his fellow-Christians during the plague
that raged at Carthage in the year 252.
" We must consider, most beloved brethren, and
frequently reflect, that we have renounced the world,
and are meanwhile living here as strangers and pil-
grims. Let us embrace the day which assigns each
to his own home ; which restores us to Paradise and
the kingdom of heaven, snatched from hence, and
liberated from the entanglements of the world. What
man, when he is in a foreign country, would not
hasten to return to his native land ? . . . We regard
Paradise as our country. We have begun already to
have the patriarchs for our parents. Why do we not
hasten and run, that we may see our country, and
salute onr parents ? There a large number of dear
ones are waiting for us, of parents, brothers, and chil-
dren ; a numerous and full crowd are longing for us,
already secure of their own immortality, and still
anxious for our safety. To come to the sight and the
embrace of these, how great will be the mutual joy to
them and to us ! What a pleasure of the kingdom of
heaven is there, without the fear of dying, and with
an eternity of living ! How consummate and never-
ending a happiness ! There is the glorious company
of the apostles, there is the assembly of the exulting
prophets, there is the unnumbered family of the mar-
tyrs, crowned for the victory of their struggles and
sufferings ! There are virgins triumphing, who, by
the power of chastity, have subdued the lusts of the
flesh and the body ! There are the merciful recom-
pensed, who, with food and bounty to the poor, have
done the works of righteousness, who, keeping the
Lord's commands, have transferred their earthly in-
heritance into heavenly treasures ! To these, O most
dearly beloved brethren, let us hasten with most eager
42 .Invocation of Saints and. Angels.
longing; let us desire that our lot; TOay.be to be with
them speedily, to come speedily, to Christ. Let God
see this to be our thought ; let our Lord Christ behold
this to be the (purpose of our mind and faith, who will
give more abundant rewards of his ; glory to them
whose desires for Himself have been :the greater."
Lactaniius*, A.D. 300.
t , v
Cyprian suffered martyrdom about the year 260.
Towards the close of the same century, and at -the
beginning of the fourth, flourished Lactantius. He
was intimately conversant with classical learning and
philosophy. As Jerome 3 informs us, before he appeared
as an author, 'he- taught rhetoric in Nicomedia ; and
afterwards, in extreme old age, he became tutor of
Caesar Crisp as, son of Constantine, in Gaul.
Among the writings of Lactantius enumerated by
Jerome, he -mentions the book " On the Anger of
God," as a most beautiful work. The supporters of
the adoration of spirits and angels allow that his testi-
mony is decidedly against them; they do not refer to
a single passage in their favour, and their chief 'desire
is to depreciate his merits. i We need quote only one
or two passages from this learned man : " God hath
created ministers whom we call messengers [angels]
but neither are they gods, nor do they wish to be
called gods, or to be worshipped, as being those who
do nothing beyond the command and will of God 4 ."
In his work on a Happy Life, we find this conclusive
evidence against the whole doctrine of the invocation of
saints : "Nor let any one think that souls are judged
immediately after death. For all are kept in one
common place of guard, until the time come when the
great Judge will institute an inquiry into their deserts.
Then those whose righteousness shall be approved
2 Ed. LongJet Dufresnoy, 1748.
3 Jerom., vol. iv. part 2, p. 119. Paris, 1706.
*Vol.i. p. 31.
Evidence. of tke^jPrimitive Ghtirch against it. 43
swill receive ;the reward of immortality; and those
whose <sins ; and ^crimes are: laid open shall not rise
again, ;but shall be hidden . -in; the same darkness with
the wicked appointed to fixed punishments 5 ." This
testimony, is; generally considered: to be;of the date 317.
Eusebius*, A.D. 314.
The evidence of Eusebius on any subject connected
with primitive faith and practice, cannot be regarded
without deep interest. He flourished about the
beginning of the /fourth century, and was Bishop of
Csesarea, in Palestine. His writings were volu-
.iriinous, and diversified in their character. But in -his
works, historical, biographical, controversial, ,or by
whatever other name any of them may be called,
overflowing ^as they are with learning, both philoso-
phical and scriptural, we find no one single passage to
countenance the doctrine of the invocation of saints
.or angels, whether the request were that .they would
grant us -any favour, or would pray for us.
IBellarmin and others indeed quote .three., passages
on the invocation of saints and angels. The first. is
cited <to show that, the souls of the saints are removed
forthwith from; earth to heaven. In this instance the
translation is entirely wrong ; the words of Eusebius
being "Arid such was the struggle of the celebrated
virgin, which she accomplished;" which .Bellarmin
^uotes thus, "In- this manner the blessed Virgin Pota-
misena migrated from earth to heaven T
In the second passage the misquotation is far more
serious. Eusebius, marking the resemblance, in many
-points, .between Plato's doctrine and Christianity,
makeSi this observation on the reverence due, as Plato
holds,, to the,,good departed. "And this corresponds
5 Ch. xxi. p. 574. Camb. 1720, and Paris, 1628.
7 Bellarmin, vol. ii. p.. 854. Eusebius, Cantab., vol. i. lib. vi. c. 5,
p. 263.
44 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
with what takes place on the death of those lovers of
God whom you would not be wrong in calling the
soldiers of the true religion. Whence also it is our
custom to proceed to their tombs, and AT THEM (the
TOMBS) to make our prayers, and to honour their
blessed souls, inasmuch as these things are with reason
done by us." This Bellarmin thus quotes, " These
things we do daily, who honouring the soldiers of true
religion as the friends of God, approach also to their
tombs, and make our PRAYERS TO THEM, as to holy
men, by whose intercession to God we profess to be
not a little aided V
The third quotation is from the letter from the
Church of Smyrna relating the martyrdom of Poly-
carp ; and the misquotation is for the purpose of taking
off the edge of the evidence borne by that letter against
the worship of saints. The Christians of Smyrna
declare, without any limitation or qualification, that
they could never worship any fellow mortal, however
honoured or beloved ; but the Paris edition interpolates
the word "as God" after "worship," implying that
they would offer a secondary worship to a saint.
Again, whereas Eusebius, in contrasting the worship
paid to Christ with the feelings of Christians towards
a martyr, employs the word "love," Bellarmin
(following in this Ruffinus) interpolates the word
"worship," <s we love and worship" (diligimus et ve-
neramur). The latter word, though often used by
ancient writers to mean the religious worship offered
by man to God, might undoubtedly be used to signify
the reverence properly shown towards holy men. Still,
how lamentable is it to attempt to maintain any cause
by such tampering with ancient testimonies !
Eusebius gives us the same view of the feelings and
sentiments of the primitive Christians towards the holy
angels as we have already found in Origen and the
other Fathers of the Church.
8 Bellarmin, vol. ii. p. 902. Euseb. Paris, vol. i. lib. xiii. c. 11,
p. 613. Cantab., vol. i. p. 163.
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 45
" In the doctrine of his Word we have learned that
there exist, after the Most High God, certain powers,
in their nature incorporeal and intellectual, rational
and purely virtuous, who keep their station around
the Sovereign King the greater part of whom, by
certain dispensations of salvation, are sent by the will
of the Father even as far as to men : whom indeed we
have been taught to know and to honour according to
the measure of their dignity, rendering to God alone,
the Sovereign King, the honour of worship:" " Know-
ing those divine Powers which serve and minister to
the Sovereign God, and honouring them as far as it
is becoming, but confessing God alone, and Him alone
worshipping V
Apostolical Canons and Constitutions.
The works known by the name of the Apostolical
Canons and Apostolical Constitutions, though con-
fessedly not productions of the Apostolic age, have
been^aiways held in much esteem. The most learned
writers fix their date at a period not more remote
than the beginning of the fourth century. A perusal
of these documents, especially the Constitutions, will
supply the reader with convincing evidence that the
invocation of saints was not then practised in the
Church. Minute rules are given for the conducting
of public worship ; forms of prayer are prescribed to
be used in the Church by the Bishops, and Clergy,
and by the people ; forms of prayer and thanksgiving
are recommended for the use of the faithful in private,
at night, in the morning, and at their meals; forms
too there are of creeds and confessions ; but not one
single allusion to any religious address to saint or
angel. Again and again prayer is directed to be
made to the one living and true God, and that exclu-
sively through the mediation and intercession of the
9 See Cotelerius, vol. i. p. 194. 424. Beveridge, in the same
o). p. 427. Cone. Gen. Florence, 1759, torn, i. p. 29. 254.
46- . Invocation of Saints,
one only Saviour Jesus Christ ;our Lord;: Honourable
mention is made * of the saints: of the OkkTestamentj-
and the Apostles : and Martyrs of the New. Directions-
are also given for ; the observance of- their festivals ; but
not the shadow of a thought appears that .; their good
offices could benefit us, much : less the most distant
intimation that Christians might invoke them for their
prayers and intercessions,
In Book/v. c. 7, we read an exceedingly interesting
dissertation .on the general resurrection, but not one
word of saint or angel being beforehand admitted to
glory ; on the contrary, the declaration is;distinct, that
not the martyrs only, but all men will rise. Surely
such an opportunity would not have been lost of
stating the doctrine, that the martyrs were already
reigning with Christ in heaven^ had such been at that
early period the doctrine of the Church.
In Book viii. e. 13, we find this exhortation, "Let
us remember the holy martyrs, that we may be counted
worthy to be partakers of their conflict." Not a word
occurs about Christians asking them* to pray in heaven
for their brethren on earth.
St. AtlianasiuS) A.D. 350*
Athanasius, the renowned and undaunted defender
of the Catholic faith, was born about the year '296,
and after presiding in the Church as Bishop for more
than forty-six years, died about A.D* 373, approaching'
his eightieth year.
It is impossible for any one interested in the ques-
tion, What is the truth on these subjects? to look : with
indifference on the belief and practice of this primitive
Christian champion. Oh ; the subject of our present
investigation, few among, the < early writers of : the
Church have been so seriously 'and recklessly misre-
presented as St. Athanasius* BeHarmin and, others
cite him, as a witness inv. favour of the in vocation, of
Evidence of thk, Primitive Chuvch against it. 47
saints 'x, . but- the ^passages- are -from, works* confessedly
spurious;, Since, . however, the principal . passage
relates s-.toi-. the, ! blessed Virgin Mary, it is: thought
desirable; tb postpone -our examination of I it till , the
evidence; against the ; Romish' worship of the Virgin:
conies -under: our review.
A careful, and' upright study of the remains of St.
A thanasiusveannot: but impress us with the right -and;
scriptural views taken by him of the Christian's ; hope
and confidence being in God alone. The glowing fer-
vour of ' his. piety centered only in: the Lord; his- sure
and; certain hope; in life and in death anchored only on
the mercies ofr God, through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ, our Saviour.
But while there is not found a single passage in
Athanasius- to countenance the invocation of saints,
many of his expressions and arguments go far to de-
monstrate that such a belief, and such a practicej as:
are now acknowledged and insisted upon by the
Church! of , Rome, were neither adopted nor sanctioned
by him; He repeatedly speaks of the exclusion of
angels and men from any share in the work of man's
restoration, without any expressions to qualify his
assertions, or to preserve them from .being misunder-
stood; Redirects our thoughts to holy men and holy
fathers 1 as our examples, in whose footsteps we ought
to tread, but not the least intimation, occurs that ithey
ought after death to be invoked: 2 .
We .have notj however, space for many extracts from
this; great authority; but to one the reader's patient
and' impartial thoughts are invited. It occurs in his
third oration against the Arians, -where he is proving
the unity of the Father and ; the Son from St. Paul's
expressions; (1 Thess. iii. 11). The argument at, large
wilt amply repay a careful examination ; its opening
sentences are these 1 :
s<i ;Thus then again, when he is. praying: for. the:
1 Bobkviii.p. 415; 2 See vol. i. part i. p. 58. 265;
43 Invocation of Saints and Angds.
Thessalonians, and saying, ' Now our God and Father
himself, AND the Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to
you,' he preserves the unity of the Father and the
Son. For he says not l may THEY DIRECT/ as though
a twofold grace were given from Him AND Him, Jaut
* may HE direct,' to show that the Father giveth this
through the Son. . . . Thus no one would pray to
receive any thing from God AND the angels, or from
any other created being : nor would any one say, May
God AND the angels give it thee ; but from the Father
and the Son, because of their unity and the oneness
of the gift. For whatever is given, is given through
the Son nor is there any thing which the Father
works except through the Son : for thus the receiver
has the gracious favour without fail. But if the
patriarch Jacob, blessing his descendants, Ephraim.
and Manasseh, said, * The God who nourished me
from my youth unto this day, the angel who delivered
me from all the evils, bless the lads ;' he does not join
one of created beings, and by nature angels, with God
who created them; nor, dismissing Him, God, who
nourished him, does he ask the blessing for his de-
scendants from an angel, but by saying, He who de-
livered me from all the evils, he showed that it was
not one of created angels, but the Word of God ; and
joining Him with the Father, he supplicated Him
through whom God delivers whom He wills. For he
used the expression, knowing Him, who is called the
Messenger of the great counsel of the Father, to be
no other than the very one who blessed and delivered
from evil. For undoubtedly he did not aspire to be
blessed himself by God, while he was willing for his
descendants to be blessed by an angel. But the
same whom he addressed, saying, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me* (and this was God, as he
says, I saw God face to face), Him he prayed to bless
the sons of Joseph. The peculiar office of an angel is
to minister at the appointment of God; and often he
went on before to cast out the Amorite, and was sent to
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 49
guard the people on the way ; but these are not the
doings of him, but of God who appointed him, and
sent him, and to whom it belongs to deliver whom He
wills."
" For this cause David addressed no other on the
subject of deliverance but God Himself. But if it
belongs to no other than God to bless and deliver, and
it was no other that delivered Jacob than the Lord
Himself, and the patriarch invoked for his descendants
Him who delivered him, it is evident that in his prayer
he joined no one except His Word, whom he called
an angel for this reason, because He alone reveals
the Father."
" But this no one would say of beings produced
and created; for neither when the Father worketh.
does any one of the angels, or any other of created
beings work the things ; for no one of such beings is
an effective cause ; but they themselves belong to
things produced. The angels, then, as it is written,
are ministering spirits sent to minister ; and the gifts
given by Him through the Word they announce, to
those who receive them."
Now, if the invocation of angels had been prac-
tised by the Church at that time, can it for a moment
be believed that a man of such a mind as was the
mind of St. Athanasius, clear, cultivated, logical,
with ardent zeal for the doctrines of the Church,
and fervent piety, would have sent forth such pas-
sages as these, without one saving or modifying
clause in favour of the invocation of angels? He
tells us, that they act merely as ministers, ready in-
deed and rejoicing to be employed on errands of
mercy, but not going one step or doing one thing
without the commands of God. Had the thought of
the lawfulness, the duty, the privilege, the benefit of
invoking them, been present to the mind of St.
Athanasius, could he have dispensed with the intro-
duction of some words to prevent his expressions from
being misunderstood and misapplied ?
[656] c
50 Invocation of Saints and Angels.
We close the catalogue of our witnesses down to the
Council of Nice with the testimony of St. Athana-
sius, whose genuine and acknowledged works afford
not one jot or tittle in support of the doctrine arid
practice of the invocation of saints and angels, as now
insisted upon by the Church of Rome ; and the direct
tendency of whose evidence is decidedly hostile both
to that doctrine and that practice.
It may be right in this place to observe, that
in order to escape from such a conclusive argument
against the invocation of saints, as Bishop Fell's would
be if left unanswered, viz. that it is making them
gods, investing them with the attribute of omnipre-
sence, the defenders of that doctrine have had re-
course to several expedients explanatory of the man-
ner in which the saints in heaven may be supposed to
become acquainted with the prayers addressed to
them by Christians on earth. Cardinal Bellarmine
(voL ii. p. 735) enumerates four chief modes adopted
by his fellow-believers, two of which he pronounces
to be inadequate, and therefore to be rejected ; of the
other two, that which he considers the less tenable
and right in itself, he recommends to be adopted, be-
cause heretics have less vantage ground from which
to assail it.
The first opinion, he says, is, That angels carry
up the prayers to the saints, and bring down the
answers and blessings.
The second is. That angels and glorified spirits are
endowed with such swiftness of motion, that they can
in a way be present and hear different prayers ut-
tered in different places at the same time.
But the Cardinal objectSj that neither of these
views can hold, because not swiftness of motion, but
true and real ubiquity would be necessary; and to
ascribe that property to saints and angels, he felt would
be to invest them with the attribute of God himself.
The third theory, and that which he most ap~
Evidence of the Primitive Church against it. 51
proves, is, That the saints, at the very commence-
ment of their blessedness, have imparted to them, by
God, a knowledge of all the prayers, that will be
addressed to them, together with all that can
happen relating to themselves; so that when the
prayer is afterwards at any time uttered, though
they do not hear it, they know it, and receive it, and
act upon it.
The fourth, he says, is, That the saints do not
thus see our prayers from the beginning of their own
blessedness, but that God reveals our prayers to
them when and as we utter them.
On these two last the Cardinal makes the following
remarkable reflections : The former, he says, seems
in itself simply the more probable; because, if
according to the latter supposition, the saints needed
a new revelation every time a prayer was addressed
to them, the Church would not so boldly say to all
the saints, "Pray for us," but would, sometimes, ask
of God to reveal our prayers to them. In the next
place, he says, were this latter theory held, a reason
could not be so easily given, why the saints should be
now invoked, though they were not invoked before
the coming of Christ ! Yet this latter opinion,
though not in itself the best, may, neverther-
less, be better calculated to convince heretics; for
they would not admit the former view, since they
think that the saints do not see God before the day of
judgment; but they cannot reject this latter view,
because though the saints do not see God, yet he
may still reveal our prayers to them.
To such unworthy expedients are men driven,
when they leave the word of God, as the only authority
without appeal, and teach as essential doctrines the
inventions of men !
GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
No. VIII.
ON THE
WORSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
MARY.
DOCTRINE, AND AUTHORIZED SERVICES
OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.
LONDON:
Printed for the
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
NO. 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE J
AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS,
[657] 1846.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE present Tracts form part of a series intended to be
issued, on some of the chief and most prevalent errors of the
Church of Rome. The following have already been published':
I. ON THE SUPREMACY OP THE POPE.
IT. ON PARDONS AND INDULGENCES GRANTED BY THE POPE'.
III. ON THE INVOCATION OP SAINTS AND ANGELS.
IV. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
V. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
VI. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT. .
VII. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT.
[continued],
VIII. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
DOCTRINE AND AUTHORIZED SERVICES OF THE
CHURCH OF ROME.
IX. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. PRACTICAL WORK-
ING OF THE SYSTEM.
X. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARY. EVIDENCE
OF HOLY SCRIPTURE AGAINST IT.
XI. ON THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MART.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
THE WORSHIP OF THE BLESSED
VIRGIN MARY.
Doctrine and Authorized Services of the Church of
Rome.
ON the title of the present number we would offer a
few prefatory words, to prevent any misunderstanding
of either the principles or the subject of our inquiry.
The word "worship" admits of various signifi-
cations, implying sometimes merely the respect
which one human being may entertain towards an-
other, and sometimes the highest religious and divine
honour which a creature can render to the supreme
Lord of the universe. We are consequently admo-
nished, on the ground of common justice, not to
charge the Romanists with a spiritual offence in pay-
ing " worship " to a creature, but rather to attach to
their words "worship" and "adoration" those ideas
only which are naturally suggested by what they say and
do. In the justice of this warning we acquiesce ; and, in
one point of view, our first proceeding in this treatise
is, we hope, a dispassionate inquiry into the very
nature and kind of worship which is actually offered
to the Virgin Mary in the Church of Rome.
In pursuing this subject honestly and reverently,
surely we need not lie under the suspicion of believ-
ing that " the cause of the Son of God is to be pro-
A 2
4 On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
moted, and his mediatorship and honour exalted, by
decrying the worth and dignity of his mother." This,
we are told, has been assumed 1 . But whatever per-
sons may have given occasion for that remark, they
cannot certainly be enlightened members of our com-
munion. No true son of the Reformed Church of
England can speak disparagingly or irreverently of
the blessed Virgin Mary. Our Church, in her Liturgy,
her Homilies, her Articles, and the works of her
standard divines and most approved teachers, ever
speaks of St. Mary the blessed Virgin in the language
of reverence and affection. She was a holy virgin,
and a holy mother, "highly favoured," u blessed
among women." The Lord was with her, and she
was the earthly parent of the only Saviour of the
world. She was herself blessed, and blessed was the
fruit of her womb. Should any person entertain a
wish to interrupt the testimony of every succeeding
age, and to check the continuous fulfilment of the
Virgin's own prophecy, " A 11 generations shall call me
blessed," we could not acknowledge that wish to
be the legitimate and genuine desire of a true
member of our Church.
But when we are required either to offer prayers
to God through the intercession and mediation of the
Virgin Mary, to plead her merits, to address our
supplications to her, imploring her prayers, and even
to seek at her hands temporal and spiritual blessings
which God alone can bestow, and to offer praises to
her ; or else to protest against the errors of our fellow-
Christians who still adhere to the faith and practice
of Rome, we cannot hesitate the case presents no al-
ternative to our choice our love of unity, however
strong and ardent, must yield to our love of the truth
as it is in Jesus. We cannot join in that worship
which we believe to give to a departed mortal
a share at least of the honour due to God alone,
1 See Dr. Wiseman's Lectures, vol. ii. p. 92.
On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 5
and to exalt the Virgin Mary into that office of
mediation, advocacy, and intercession between God
and man, which the written word of inspiration
and the doctrine and practice of the primitive
Church have taught us to ascribe exclusively to
that divine Saviour who was God of the substance of
his Father, begotten before the world, and man of the
substance of his mother, born in the world ; whose
" blood cleanseth from all sin," and who " is able also
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them 2 ."
We- now proceed with our proposed inquiry.
While the Church of Rome has departed so widely
and essentially from the scriptural and primitive
standard of belief and worship with regard to angels
and the souls of departed mortals, as we have seen
in the foregoing numbers, the full extent to which she
has carried her lamentable error, is witnessed chiefly
in her worship of the Virgin Mary; a worship which
exhibits in its most complete form the fundamental
error of that Church, as to the one object of religious
worship, and to the one Mediator between God and
man.
The practical doctrine of the Church of Rome is
this, that as the Virgin Mary surpasses inestimably
all saints and angels, cherubim and seraphim, and
all the powers of Heaven in authority, and purity, and
dignity, so a worship ought to be addressed to her
inestimably higher and more sacred than the worship
paid to them. To stamp this difference in a more
distinguishing manner, they have coined a new word
to signify it alone, neither the Greek nor the Latin
language supplying one adequate to this purpose.
The worship paid to saints and angels they call by
the Greek word dulia, i. e. " service ;" to the worship
paid to the one supreme God they assign the name
2 1 John i. 7. Heb. vii. 25.
A 3
6 On flie Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
of latria, also meaning "service ;" whilst to the wor-
ship of the Virgin they appropriate the newly invented
word " hyperdulia," implying " service above the other
services called dulia 3 ."
We are now to inquire in what that worship of the
Virgin Mary consists ; and then to ask our con-
sciences, and to suggest the same solemn inquiry to
any of our brethren who may be tempted to espouse
the doctrines and practices of Rome, Can such worship
be consistent with our duty to God, who has given to
us a revelation of his will ; or to his ever-blessed Son,
our only mediator and advocate? thai God, who will
not share his glory with another ; that Son, who has
most mercifully assured us that He is the only Medi-
ator we need, " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name
that will I do;" " If ye ask any thing in my name, I
will do it 4 ."
We will proceed then in our examination of the
same heads of inquiry with regard to the worship
of the Virgin Mary, which we adopted in our exami-
nation of the worship of saints and angels. Those
heads were chiefly the four following,
First, Prayers made to the Almighty in the name
3 It may be well to observe that this distinction has no ground
whatever to rest upon beyond the will and the imagination of those
who draw it. Both the words dulia and latria are used in the Greek
translation of the Old Testament, and in the original of the New,
as entirely equivalent expressions without any such distinction.
Whoever wishes to satisfy himself on this point will imme-
diately do so by examining Deuteronomy xxviii. 36. 47, 48;
1 Sam. xvii. 9, xii. 24, xxvi. 19; Ezekiel xx. 40, and especially
1 Thess. i. 9, in comparison with Heb. ix. 14, where we find the
two words "dulia" and "latria" in the form of verbs, used to signify
the true worship of God in a person changed from a state of aliena-
tion to a state of grace. " How ye turned to God from idols to
serve [dulia] the living and true God." " How much more then the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself with-
out spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve
[latria] the living God." And that, at least, down to the 5th century
the words were equally synonymous, is evident from Theodoret, i. 319,.
edit. Halle.
4 John xiv. 13.
On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 7
of the Virgin, .pleading her merits, and offered through
her mediation, advocacy, and intercession.
Secondly, Prayers to herself, beseeching her to
employ her good offices of intercession with the eternal
Father and with her Son.
Thirdly, Prayers to her, imploring directly at her
hands protection from bodily and spiritual evil, guidr-
ance and aid, and the influences of grace, from herself ;
blessings which God alone can bestow.
Fourthly, Ascription of divine praises to her, in
acknowledgment of her attributes and acf;of power,
wisdom, goodness, and mercy ; of her exalted state
above all the spirits of life and glory in heaven ; and
of her share in the redemption of mankind.
In this examination we will first consider the autho-
rized formularies and prescribed services in the Mis-
sals and Breviaries used in the Church of Rome ; and
then endeavour to ascertain the practical working of the
system, in the writings of her canonized saints, accredited
teachers, and devotional guides. In the Missal and
Breviary indeed we donot find thesamestartlingexpres-
sions of unqualified divine worship, butwe find the same
principles there ; and after a general survey of the
worship of the Virgin under its various aspects, the
unavoidable impression left on the mind is, that
deplorable as are those extravagant excesses into
which the votaries of the Virgin Mary have run, their
unequivocal ascriptions of divine homage to her may
be defended by an appeal to the authorized Ritual of
the Church of Rome.
I. Under the first head, the Roman Missal and
Breviaries supply too abundant a store of examples,
some more than others encroaching on the peculiar
office of our blessed Saviour as the one Mediator be-
tween God and man. To establish the fact, one or
two instances may suffice ; while the incessant
recourse to the advocacy of the Virgin cannot
but suggest a painful idea of a want of confidence
8 On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary v
in the sole mediation of our Lord Himself, or the
absence of implicit trust in his promise, that the
eternal Father will never reject any one, however
humble or unworthy, who comes to Him in faith by
his Son.
In the post-communion of the day of the As-
sumption this prayer is offered, "We, partakers of
the heavenly board, implore thy clemency, O Lord
our God, that we who celebrate the Assumption of the
Mother of God, may, BY HER INTERCESSION, be freed
from all impending evils."
We add a few more instances.
" We beseech Thee, O Lord, let the glorious inter-
cession of the blessed and glorious ever Virgin Mary
protect us and bring us to life eternal." Vern.-clv.
On the vigil of the Epiphany this prayer is offered
at the Mass, " Let this communion, O Lord, purge us
from guilt, and by the intercession of the blessed
Virgin Mother of God, let it make us partakers of the
heavenly cure." "O God, who hast granted to man-
kind the reward of eternal life by the fruitful virgin-
hood of the blessed Mary, grant, we beseech Thee, that
we may have experience of HER INTERCESSION,
through whom we were deemed worthy to obtain our
Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, as the Author of life, who
liveth with thee." Vern. clxv.
On the second Sunday after Easter we find, in the
service of the Mass, a still more lamentable departure
from true Christian worship, when the Church of
Rome declares, that the offerings made to God at the
Lord's Supper were marie for the honour of the Vir-
gin : " Having received, O Lord, these helps of our
salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may be
every where protected by the patronage of the blessed
Mary, ever Virgin, IN VENERATION OF WHOM we have
made these offerings to thy Majesty."
On the octave of Easter, in the Secret at the Mass,
the INTERCESSION of the Virgin is made to appear as
On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 9
essential a cause of our peace and blessedness as is tlie
PROPITIATION OF CHRIST JESUS our Lord ; or rather
the two are represented as joint concurrent causes, as
though the office of our blessed Saviour Himself were
confined to propitiation, and the office of intercession
were assigned to the Virgin. "By THY PROPITIA-
TION, O Lord, AND by the INTERCESSION of the
blessed Mary, ever Virgin, may this offering be pro-
fitable to us for our perpetual and present prosperity
and peace."
II. Of the second class, the Breviary abounds through-
out with so great a variety of instances, as 'to make
any selection difficult. These prayers are no longer ad-
dressed to God Almighty, but are offered to the Virgin
herself, imploring her to intercede for her worshippers,
yet still asking nothing beyond her intercession.
"Blessed Mother, Virgin undefiled, glorious Queen
of heaven, intercede for us with the Lord V " Blessed
Mother of God, Mary, perpetual Virgin, the Temple
of the Lord, the Holy Place of the Holy Spirit, thou
alone without example hast pleased our Lord Jesus
Christ; pray for the people, mediate for the clergy,
intercede for the female sex who are under a vow 6 ."
In the form of prayer called Litanise Lauritanse, be-
tween the most solemn prayers addressed to the ever-
blessed Trinity, and to the " Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world/' are inserted more than forty
addresses to the Virgin, invoking her under as many
varieties of title " Holy Mother of God, Mirror of
Justice, Cause of our joy, Mystical Rose, Tower of
David, Tower of Ivory, House of Gold, Ark of the
Covenant, Gate of Heaven, Refuge of Sinners, Queen
of Angels, Queen of all Saints, &c. &c., pray for us 7 ."
The following invocation seems to stand midway
between these appeals to the Virgin merely for her
intercession, and those prayers to her, which ask for
blessings temporal and spiritual at her own hands.
5 Autum. cxliv. G Vern. clxiii. 7 JEst. ccxxix.
10 On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
"Hail, O Queen, Mother of Mercy, our Life,
Sweetness, and Hope, hail ! To thee we sigh, groan-
ing and weeping in this valley of tears. xConae then,
our Advocate, turn those compassionate eyes of thine
on us ; and after this exile, show to us Jesus, the
blessed fruit of thy womb, O merciful, O pious, O
sweet Virgin Mary."
II L- But,, in the THIRD place, we find in the Roman
Ritual examples of prayer addressed directly to the
Virgin, for benefits as her own gifts, both spiritual and
temporal, without any reference to her prayers and
intercession. It is no reasonable defence of these
prayers to affirm, that all intended in these forms is to
ask for her advocacy and intercession 8 : for the mass of
the people will not, do not, cannot, understand it in
that light. That the people are led by these prayers
to look for the blessings as her gifts, and at her own
disposal, we shall have abundant evidence, when we
examine, in the works of divines, and in the present
practice of the people, the full extent to which the
worship of the Virgin has reached. And can it be right
and safe to lay such snares for the conscience ? If the
Virgin's prayers are the sole object of the petitioner's
invocation, why, in the solemn services of the Church,
is an example set him of prayers which make no allusion
to her intercession, but ask of herself for her aid and
blessing, as directly and unequivocally as the sup-
plications addressed to the supreme Being ask for
his ? In an act, ^of all human acts the most solemn
and holy, can recourse be had to such refined dis-
tinctions and subtleties, without awful spiritual
danger ? "
Among a great variety of prayers of this class, we
frequently find this supplication " Deem me worthy
to praise thee, O hallowed Virgin ! give me strength
against thy enemies !"
The following seems to rank among the most favour-
8 See Cardinal du Perron's " Replique a la Hep. du Hoy de la
G. Bretagne." Paris, 1620. p. 920.
On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 11
ite addresses to the 'Virgin- " Hail, Star of the Sea,
and kind' Mother of God, and ever Virgin ; Happy
Gate of Heaven ! Do thou, taking that c Hail ' from
the mouth of Gabriel, changing the name of Eve, es-
tablish us in peace. Do thou loose their bands for
the accused, for the blind bring forth a light, drive
away our evils, demand for us all good things. SHOW
THAT THOU ART A MOTHER ! Let Him who endured
for us to be thy son, through thee receive our prayers.
O excellent Virgin ! meek among all, DO THOU MAKE
US MEEK AND CHASTE, FREED FROM FAULT; MAKE
OUR LIFE PURE ; prepare for us a safe journey, that
beholding Jesus, we may always rejoice together.
Praise be to God the Father, Glory to Christ most
High, and to the Holy Ghost: one Honour to the
Three. Amen."
"SHOW THAT THOU ART A MOTHER !" Can
such a call upon the Virgin Mary, to show her in-
fluence and power over the eternal Son of the eternal
Father, be fitting in the hearts and in the mouths of
us poor sinners, for whose salvation He left his Fa-
ther's glory^ and came down on earth to die? "Show
thyself to be a mother," In later times, some versions
of this address have translated the passage as though
the prayer to Mary was, that she would show herself
to be OUR mother, by her maternal good offices in our
behalf. We rejoice to see such indications of a feeling
of impropriety in the sentiment, if received in its plain
and obvious meaning : but the change is inadmissible,
as not only doing violence to the sense, and militating
against the whole drift and plain meaning of the
passage, but being altogether at variance also with the
interpretation put upon it by Roman Catholic writersj
both before and after the Reformation. In the second
line, the Virgin is addressed as the MOTHER OF GODJ
the Lord Jesus is immediately mentioned" in the very
next line, and' through the entire stanza as her Son, and
9 Vein, cliii.
12 On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
the prayer to her is, that she would so show the exer-
cise of her maternal influence over that Being who
endured to be her Son, as that He would hear the
supplications of the worshippers. And this obvious
grammatical and logical meaning of " Show thyself
to be a mother," is the sense attached to it before the
Reformation, not incidentally, but of set purpose. In
a work dedicated to the " Youth of Great Britain stu-
dious of good morals," and written expressly for the
purpose of explaining the Ritual according to the use
of Sarum, the interpretation of the passage is thus
expressed " Show thyself to be a mother, that is, by
APPEASING THY SON, and let the Son, who endured
for us miserable sinners to be thy Son, take our
prsiyers through thee." Nor can any other meaning
be attached to the interpretation of the words as given
by Cardinal du Perron, in the work above referred to,
than this, " Use the authority of a Mother over a Son."
The other interpretation does not appear to havehada
place in any one book of former days. In the plain obvi-
ous sense of the prayer, we see in it, in softened colours,
an exact prototype of Bonaventura's broad and shock-
ing summons to the Virgin, to put forth her full ma-
ternal authority, and to command the Lord of Life
"BY THE RIGHT OF A MOTHER COMMAND THY
SON," and of Damianus 10 , " NOT ONLY ASKING, BUT
COMMANDING; A MISTRESS, NOT A HAND-MAID." To
these and similar instances we shall hereafter refer.
Another prayer in the authorized Ritual of Rome
is thus expressed : " Under thy protection we take
refuge, Holy Mother of God ; despise not our sup-
plications in our necessities, but from all dangers do
thou deliver us, O glorious and blessed Virgin."
JEst. cxlvi.
10 Peter Damiani was a Bishop and Cardinal, whose works received
the Papal sanction so late as the commencement of the seventeenth
century, though he lived somecenturies hefore. His words are " Non
solum rogans sed imperans ; domina non ancilla." Paris, 1743, vol.
ii. p. 107, ser. 44. Of Bonaventura we shall speak in the next numher.
On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 13
Let us suppose the object of these addresses to be
changed, and in place of the Virgin's, let the name of
the eternal Father of us all, the only God, the Al-
mighty One, be substituted, and we shall find the very
words here applied to the Virgin applied to Him
in some of the most affecting prayers and praises
in Holy Scripture.
But another hymn in the same ritual, addressed in
part to our blessed Saviour Himself, and in part to the
Virgin Mary, seems a still more lamentable and re-
volting departure from true Christian worship. In
this joint prayer, undoubtedly, glory is ascribed at its
close to the Holy Trinity, yet in its supplicatory
sentences the Redeemer is merely asked to re-
member his mortal birth; no blessing is petitioned
for at his hand ; his protection is not the subject of the
prayer; deliverance at the hour of death is sought not
from Him ; for these blessings supplication is made
exclusively to the Virgin. Can such a mingled
prayer, can such a contrast in prayer, be the genuine
fruit of that Gospel, which invites and commands us
to seek in prayer to God for all we need of temporal
and eternal good in the name and for the sake of his
blessed Son?
" O Author of our salvation, remember that
once being born of a spotless Virgin, Thou didst
take the form of our body. O Mary, Mother of
Grace, Mother of Mercy, do thou protect us from the
enemy, and receive us at the hour of death. Glory
to Thee, O Lord, who wast born of a Virgin with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, through eternal ages.
Amen." .ZEst. cxlv.
It has been asserted by Roman Catholic writers 1 ,
that at the altar, in the office of the Mass, prayer is not
made directly to any saint, but only obliquely, the
address being always made to God. But while this
assertion would suggest the most sound principle, that
a prayer which is not used in the service of the
1 See Cardinal du Perron, agreeably to the former reference,
[657] B
14 On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Mass, and for the use of which in other services
its absence from that office is pleaded as an excuse,
ought to have no place at all in the worship
of Almighty God; it is difficult to see what is
gained by such a plea, if in other parts of the ser-
vice prayer is offered directly to the Virgin. Surely
it is trifling in things concerning the soul to make such
distinctions. If priests about to officiate are to address
a prayer directly to the Virgin for HER ASSISTANCE,
that she would stand by them, and BY HER GRACE
enable them to offer a worthy sacrifice, how does this
become a less objectionable prayer, because it is not
repeated during the service of the mass ? Does not such
a plea intimate a misgiving in those who make it, as to
the lawfulness of any addresses of the kind. The
following is called in the Roman Breviary, " A Prayer
to the Blessed Virgin Mary, before the celebration of
the Mass," and is immediately followed by another,
called, "A Prayer to the Male or Female Saint,
whose feast is celebrated on that day," and from whose
merits the priest professes to derive his confidence,
and to whose honour and glory he declares that he
offers the holy sacrament :
" O Mother of pity and mercy, most Blessed Vir-
gin Mary, I, a miserable and unworthy sinner, flee
to thee with my whole heart and affection: and I
pray thy sweetest pity, that as thou didst stand by
thy sweetest Son upon the cross, so thou wouldest
vouchsafe of thy clemency to stand by me a miserable
priest, and by all priests who here and in all the
holy Church offer HIM this day, that, AIDED BY THY
GRACE, we may be enabled to offer a worthy and
acceptable victim in the sight of the Most High and
undivided Trinity. Amen."
" O holy one [sancte vel sancta], behold, I, a mis-
erable sinner, DERIVING CONFIDENCE FROM THY
MERITS, now offer the most holy sacrament of the
body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ FOR THY
HONOUR AND GLORY. I humbly and devoutly pray
On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 15
thee, that thou wouldest deign to intercede for ine
to-day," &c. Hyem. ccxxxiii.
IV. The FOURTH particular in the worship of the
Virgin Mary which we specified, was the ascription of
divine praises to her. This ascription pervades all
the services appointed for her honour ; and abundant
examples are at hand.
"The Holy Mother of God is exalted above the
choir of angels to the heavenly realms. The gates
of paradise are opened to us by thee, who, glorious
this day, triumphest with the angels." "Rejoice, O
Virgin Mary, thou alone hast destroyed all, heresies
in the whole world. Deem me worthy to praise thee,
hallowed Virgin. Give me strength against thy ene-
mies." JEst. dxcviii.
Substitute the name of our ever-adorable Redeemer,
and many of these expressions would become the
heart and the lips of a Christian worshipper. We will
only add one more instance : it is the prayer, the re-
petition of which Pope Leo X. prescribes as the con-
dition on which he three centuries ago (as we have
observed in a previous part) granted pardon to any
priest for defects and faults in celebrating divine ser-
vice, contracted by human frailty. "
" To the most holy and undivided Trinity, to the
manhood of our crucified Lord Jesus Christ, to the
fruitful purity of the most blessed and most glorious
ever Virgin Mary, and to the whole body of all the
saints, be everlasting praise, honour, virtue, and
glory from every creature, and to us forgiveness of
sins through the boundless ages of ages. Amen."
Thus to join the Holy Trinity with the Virgin Mary,
and the entire aggregate of the saints in one and the
same ascription of eternal praise, honour, and glory,
(even by those who are aware of the assumed distinc-
tion of dulia, hyperdulia, and latria,) must be re-
garded as utterly subversive of primitive worship, re-
pugnant to the plain sense of Scripture, and deroga-
tory to the dignity and majesty of the Supreme
On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary*
Being, who will not share his honour with another.
The attempt to justify these joint ascriptions of praise
and glory to the Creator and his creatures by such
passages as Hebrews xii. 22, is nugatory ; in the
only point now under consideration, there is not the
shadow of resemblance between the two cases.
We said that in the midst of the praises offered to
the Virgin Mary, we find a share in the work of the
salvation of lost and ruined man from sin and death
ascribed to her. In some instances this ascription is
made in such a manner as to lead the unwary to form
the same estimate of the debt of gratitude due from
us to Mary, as that which is due to the Saviour Him-
self; and in such a manner, too, as to countenance
and justify to the faithful that lamentable and shock-
ing union of the names " of Jesus and Mary," in the
devotional exercises which are now prepared for the
people. One example of this occurs in "the office
of the Virgin " on Saturdays in the month of June.
It purports to be from a sermon of S. Bernard Abbot.
'* Grievously, indeed, most dearly beloved, did one man
and one woman injure us ; but thanks be to God, not
the less by ONE 'MAN AND ONE WOMAN are
all things restored; and that not without great in-
crease [usury] of grace." Here the restoration of man-
kind from the danger and misery into which the fall had
plunged us, is just as much equally ascribed to our
blessed Saviour and to Mary, as that fall itself is re-
ferred equally to Adam and Eve. Mary is here repre-
sented just as much our joint saviour with Christ, as Eve
is regarded the joint source with Adam of our original
fall.
Such being the result of our inquiries into the
authorized and prescribed forms of public worship in-
the Church of Rome, can it be a matter of wonder
that individuals, high in honour with that Church,
and her accredited teachers, have carried on the same
system of worship to far greater lengths? Un-
doubtedly the principle should be ever present to our
On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 17
minds of fixing 1 upon a Church itself only what is to
be found in its canons, decrees, formularies, authorita-
tive teaching, and acknowledged practices: and un-
happily in the authorized and prescribed Liturgies
of Rome we find far more than enough of that
which directly contravenes the Gospel rule, and pri-
mitive faith and worship, to compel all who adhere to
Holy Scripture and the example of primitive times, to
withhold their consent from her worship. But with this
principle steadily before us, justice and prudence com-
bined require us to trace for ourselvesthe practical work-
ings of the whole system. And, indeed, the deplor-
able excesses to which priests, bishops, cardinals, and
canonized persons have run in the worship of the
Virgin Mary, might well induce upright and en-
lightened Roman Catholics to look anxiously for
themselves to their principles, in order to determine,
with tender caution, doubtless, and pious care, yet
still with an eye bent on the truth, whether the cor-
ruptions be not in the well-head; whether the
stream be not already impregnated with the poison as
it flows from the very fountain itself; whether the
prayers authorized and directed to be offered to the
Virgin in public worship, be not, in very truth, in op-
position to the first principles of the Gospel, faith
in one God, the Giver of every good, and in one Me-
diator and Intercessor between God and man, the
Lord Jesus Himself alone, whose blood cleanseth from
all sin ? in a word, to weigh well and reflect, whether
all the aberrations of her children, in this department
of religious duty, have not their prototypes in the
ordinances, the injunctions, the precepts, and practical
example of their Church itself. In point of princi-
ple, it will be hard to find any of the most unequi-
vocal ascriptions of divine worship made to the Virgin
Mary by her most zealous votaries, for which those vo-
taries would not be able to appeal, in justification, and
that not without reason, to the authorized ritual of the
Church of Rome.
18 On the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Before we proceed, as we shall do in the next num-
ber, to an examination of the practical workings of the
system, two considerations seem naturally to suggest
themselves.
First, Were it really and bona fide intended that
the invocation of the Virgin should be exclusively
confined to requests that she would pray and inter~
cede by prayer for her petitioners, why should language
be addressed to her, which in its plain, obvious, gram-
matical, and common-sense interpretation, conveys
in form and substance divine prayers to her for be-
nefits at her own disposal ?
Secondly, Supposing it had been the intention of
the Church of Rome to instruct her members, when
they " suppliantly invoke" the Virgin Mary, and
have recourse to her aid, that they should offer to her
direct and immediate prayers for temporal and spiritual
blessings to be dispensed to mortals on earth,at her own
will, and by her own authority and power, what words
could that Church have prescribed to the petitioners,
what expressions could have been put into their
mouths, which would have conveyed that intention
more explicitly and unequivocally than the very
words themselves which have been sanctioned and pre-
scribed ?
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No. IX.
ON THE
WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN.
PRACTICAL WORKING OF THE
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ADVERTISEMENT.
THE present Tracts form part of a series intended to be
issued, on some of the chief and most prevalent errors of the
Church of Rome. The following have already been published :
I. ON THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPE.
II. ON PARDONS AND INDULGENCES GRANTED BY THE POPE.
III. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS.
IV. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
V. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
VI. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT.
VII. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF TH<E PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT
[continued].
VIII. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
DOCTRINE AND AUTHORISED SERVICES OF THE
CHURCH OF ROME.
IX. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. PRACTICAL WORK-
ING OF THE SYSTEM.
X. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARY. EVIDENCE
OF HOLY SCRIPTURE AGAINST IT.
XL ON THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
On the Worship of the Virgin Practical Working of
the System.
FEW can be long engaged in any wide and varied
inquiry into the actual state of the worship of the
Virgin Mary in the Church of Rome, without being
surprised at the mass of error and corruptions which
presses itself into notice on every side. The extraor-
dinary excesses to which the adoration of the Virgin
has been carried, not by obscure individuals only, and
the general body of her worshippers, but by cele-
brated doctors, prelates, and canonized persons, seem
to introduce us to another religion, for the very germ
of which we search the Gospel in vain.
If, indeed, we could regard such instances as we
meet with of the worship of the Virgin in its most
shocking forms, as marks of ages long passed away,
and of times less enlightened than our own, we might
draw a veil over them, rather than contemplate, in any
persons calling themselves by the name of Christ, such
departures from primitive faith and worship. But
when we find the solemn addresses made to the peo-
ple by present chief authorities in the Roman Church^
and even the epistles of the Sovereign Pontiff him*
self, countenancing and encouraging the same super-
stitions, it becomes a duty in those who would rescue
or preserve the truth from such corruptions, to lay
bare the facts of the case without exaggeration or
disguise.
A2
4 On the Worship of the Virgin :
There is, however, one feature in the Roman wor-
ship of the Virgin, to which our thoughts will be espe-
cially drawn by the examination on which we are now
entering. Its direct tendency, as practically illustrated
in the works of accredited divines of the Church of Rome,
and in the devotional exercises prepared for the daily
use of the people, is to make the Almighty Himself an
object of fear, and the Virgin an object of love; to
invest Him, who is the Father of mercy and God of
all comfort, with unapproachable majesty and awe, and
with the terrors of eternal justice; and then, in direct
and striking contrast, to array Mary with mercy, and
benignity, and compassionate tenderness, and omni-
potence in her love. But so far is our heavenly Father
from terrifying us and repelling us from Himself by
alarming representations of his overwhelming and
unapproachable majesty, that his own word abounds
with assurances and representations of a directly op-
posite tenour: the Bible invites us to regard Him.
and to draw nigh to Him in full assurance of faith,
not only as a God of love, but as Love itself, and
moreover, as exercising his feeling of love toward us
individually. " The God of love shall be with you 1 ."
" The Father Himself loveth you 2 ." " God is love 3 ."
" In this was manifested the love of God towards us,
because that God sent his only begotten Son into the
world that we might live through Him." And so far
is the same holy Volume from suggesting to us the
necessity or expediency of our applying to some
mediator and advocate, who " not uniting the divine
with the human nature, as the Son of God and man
-does in his person, but, being simply human, might
more intimately sympathize with our weaknesses and
wants," that it is impossible for language to express
more strongly and plainly the entire completeness and
perfectness of our Divine Redeemer's advocacy and
1 2 Cor. xiii. 11. 2 John xvi. 27.
3 1 Johniv.8.
Practical Working of the System. 5
mediation, exclusive of all others. " If any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins*."
" He is able to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make in-
tercession for them 5 ." "If God be for us, who can
be against us?" " He that spared jiot his own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, 'how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things 6 ?" "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the:
Father in my name, He will give it you. Ask, and
ye shall receive, that your joy may be full 7 ." " There
is one God and one mediator between God 1 and man,
the man Christ Jesus 8 ." " I am the way, the truth,
and the life : no man cometh unto the Father, but
by me 9 ."
How entirely opposed to such blessed intimations
as these, breathing the spirit that pervades the Scrip-
tures throughout, are those doctrines which represent
the Virgin Mary as the mediator through whom and
by whom we must sue for the Divine clemency; as
the dispenser of all God's blessings and graces; as
the sharer of God's kingdom, leaving to Him the
department of vengeance, and taking mercy to her-
self; as the fountain of pity, as the moderator of
the Almighty's justice, and the appeaser of his wrath.
" Compel God to have mercy upon sinners." " Show
thyself to be a mother." " By thy right of mother,
command thy Son." "Calm the rage of thy hea-
venly husband." " If any one feels himself ag-
grieved by the justice of God, let him appeal to
Mary." " God is a God of vengeance, but tfeou,
Mary, dost incline to be merciful." " Thou ap-
proachest before the golden altar of human recon-
ciliation, not asking only, but commanding : a mis-
tress, not a handmaid."
4 1 John ii. 1. Heb. iv. 8, 9. 5 Heb. vii. 25. 6 Romans viii. 32.
7 John xvi. 23, 24. 8 Gal. iii. 20. 9 John xiv. 6.
A 3
6 . On the Worship of the Virgin :
Now,, in drawing attention to such results of the
Romish system as these^ which : shock our feelings,
ami from which our reason turns away, while we think
of God's perfections, and the full atonement and all-
powerful intercession of our blessed Redeemer, our
object is not to fasten such sentiments on any pro-
fessed Roman Catholic who may disavow them ; it is
to impress on all persons some idea of the excesses
into which even celebrated teachers are tempted to.
run, when once they allow the smallest inroad to be
made upon the integrity of God's worship ; and at the
same time to caution our countrymen against encou-
raging in any way that revival of the worship of the
Virgin, to promote which the highest authorities of the
Church of Rome have lately expressed their anxiety.
Though these excessive departures from Gospel
truth and the primitive worship of one God through
one Mediator, may be disowned by some who still pro-
fess to be in communion with the Church of Rome;
yet, as we shall now see, they are the tenets of her
chief doctors, who though dead yet still speak with
authority, men who were raised to her highest digni-
ties in their lifetime, and were solemnly enrolled
among her canonized saints after death, and to whose
words and actions appeals continue to be made at
the present day. But even in their mildest and least
startling forms, the doctrines and practices of Rome
in the worship of the Virgin are awfully dangerous;
and well does it become every one who loves the
truth in sincerity to avoid whatever may even seem to
countenance them*
Before we proceed to ascertain from the testimony
of men whose writings are in a measure stamped with
authority, the actual doctrine and practice of the
Church of Rome in the worship of the Virgin, one
more of the many examples, meeting us on every
side, which characterize her public worship, seems to
require some notice. The service adverted to appears
Practical Working of the System. 7
to take a sort of middle station between the enjoined
formularies, and the devotions of individuals, or family
worship. On the one hand it partakes too much of a
public character to be viewed in the light of private
religious exercises ; on the other, not being found
in the Breviary, it seems to be without that au-
thority which would rank it among the liturgical
offices of their Church. The service is per-
formed with great ceremony in the churches; a
priest presides ; the host is presented for the adora-
tion of the people, and a sermon is generally preached.
The service is performed (in Paris, for example) every
evening through the month of May, and is celebrated
expressly in honour of the Virgin. For not only is
the Saturday in every week (with some exceptions),
dedicated to her, but in every year the month of
May is called " Mary's month." Temporary altars:
are raised to her, surrounded by flowers and ever-
greens, and adorned with gar.lands and drapery, her
image usually standing in a conspicuous place before
the altar 10 . Societies or guilds are formed chiefly for
the celebration of the Virgin's praises, who bear the
chief parts in these religious festivities. A collection;
of religious poems used in the churches in Paris on
these occasions is dedicated, " To the glory of Jesus'
and Mary V* Many of its hymns are addressed ex-
clusively to the Virgin without a shadow of reference
either to the Son of God the only Saviour, or to the
Almighty, who will not share his glory with another.
The following is a literal translation of one of the
hymns :
"Around the altars of Mary, Let us her children press.
To that mother so endeared, Let us address the sweetest prayers.
Let a lively and holy mirth Animate us on this holy day :
10 The whole service painfully reminds' us, that the. Institution took
its rise in the Floralia of Pagan Rome.
1 Nouveau Recueil de Cantiques al'usagedes Confreries des Pa-
roisses de Paris, 1839.
A 4
8 On the Worship of the Virgin :
There exists no sadness For a heart full of her love.
Let us adorn her sanctuary with flowers ; Let us deck her revered
altars;
Let us redouble our efforts to please her. Be this month consecrated
;to her.
Let the perfume of these crowns Form a delicious incense,
"Which, ascending even to her throne, May carry to her both our hearts
and our prayers.
Let the holy name of Mary Be unto us a name of salvation ;
Let our softened soul Ever pay to her a sweet tribute of love;
Let us join the choir of angels The more to celebrate her beauty;
And may our songs of praise Resound in eternity.
O holy Virgin ! O our mother ! Watch over us from the height of
Heaven !
And when from this sojourn of misery We present our prayers to you,
O sweet, O divine Mary! Lend an ear to our sighs ;
And after this life, Make us to taste of deathless pleasures V
It is lamentable to find among these hymns shock-
ing proof that those corruptions of the faith which in
former years, as we shall now see, drew the contrast
in favour of the Virgin and against God, with refer-
ence to the attribute of mercy, are adopted by her
present worshippers. The hymn on the Assumption
represents the Eternal Father as Mary's husband
full of rage, who must be softened by her influence into
tenderness towards her votaries.
'" Vouchsafe, Mary, on this day To hear our sighs,
And second our desires. Vouchsafe, Mary, on this day
To receive our incense, our love :
OF THY HEAVENLY HUSBAND CALM THE IIAGE,
Let Him show Himself kind To all those that are thine 5
Of thy heavenly husband calm the rage 3 :
Let his heart be softened towards us 4 ."
The course of 5 oiii* argument now leads us to ex-
amine the works of some among the canonized saints
and acknowledged doctors of the Church of Rome.
; 2 Page 175.
3 The word here translated " rage " is in the original " courroux,"
which, as lexicographers tell us, "breathes highly of vengeance or
punishment."
* Page 183.
Practical Working of the System. 9
Bonaventura.
Among the most remarkable monuments of past
years are the devotional works of Bonaventura; and
it is difficult to conceive how any Church can give the
impress of its own name and approval in a fuller or
more unequivocal manner to the productions of any
human being, than by the process adopted by the
Church of Rome in stamping her authority on the
works of this her canonized saint.
In the " Acta Sanctorum V ' Bonaventura is said
to have been born in 1221, and to have died in 1274.
He was of the Franciscan order, and passed through
all the degrees of ecclesiastical dignities, short only
of the pontifical throne itself. Pope Clement IV. in
1265 offered to him the Archbishopric of York, which
he declined; but Gregory X. elevated him to the
dignity of cardinal- bishop. More than two centuries
after his death, his claims to canonization were urged
upon Sixtus IV., who pronounced him a saint in 1482.
That Pope in his diploma declares that the proctor
of the order of Minors had proved that the blessed
Trinity testified to the fact of Bonaventura being a
saint in Heaven ; the Father proving it by the
miracles wrought on him and by him, the Son by
the wisdom of his doctrine, the Holy Spirit by the
excellence of his life. The Pontiff then adds in his
own words, " He so wrote on divine subjects, that the
HOLY SPIRIT SEEMS TO HAVE SPOKEN IN HIM."
This testimony of Sextus IV. is referred to by
Pope Sextus V., who more than a century after
the canonization of Bonaventura, and more than
three centuries after his death, ordered his works
to be "most carefully emendated 6 .". This Pope's
decretal letter, 1588, pronounced Bonaventura to be
5 Acta Sanctorum, Antwerp, 1723, July 1.4, pp. 811823. 831.
837.
6 The edition of Bonaventura's works here used was published at
Mentz in 1609 ; and the passages referred to occur in vol. vi. be-
tween pp. 400 and 500.
A 5
10 On ffi& Worship ofjfae
an acknowledged doctor of holy Church, and directed
his authority to be cited in all places of education,
ands in all ecclesiastical discussions' and studies. Ple-
nary indulgence also is promised, in the same act, to
all who assist at the mass on his feast m certain speci-
fied places. In these documents Bonaventura is
called the " Seraphic Doctor;" and it may be again
asked whether it is possible for any human authority
to* give a more entire and unreserved sanction 'to the
works of any human being than the Church of Rome
has actually given to the works of Bonaventura ? And
what do these works present to us on the invocation
and worship of the Virgin Mary ?
Bonaventnra's Psalter.
In the first place, taking every one of the hundred
and fifty psalms singly, he so changes the commence-
ment of each as to address them, not as the inspired
Psalmist did to the Lord God Almighty, but to the
Virgin Mary, interspersing in some cases much of his
own composition, and then adding to each the " Gloria
Patri." A few examples will suffice.
In the 30th Psalm, "In Thee, O Lord, have; I
trusted?, let me not be confounded for ever," &c., this
Psalter of the Virgin substitutes these words :
"In thee, O< Lady, have I trusted, let me not be
confounded for ever; in thy grace take me.
"Thou art my fortitude and my refuge; my eonso^
lation and >my protection.
"To thee, O Lady, have I cried while my heart
was in heaviness ; and thou didst hear me from the tap
of the eternal hills.
" Bring thou me out of the snare that they have
hid for me ; for thou art my succour.
" Into thy hands, O Lady, I commend my spirit,
my whole life and my last day."
In Psalm 31 we read, "Blessed are they whose
hearts love thee, O Virgin Mary ; their sins shall
be mercifully blotted out BY THEE."
Practical fflorMng of the System,' 11
In Psalm 35, " Incline thou -the countenance of ; God
upon: us; COMPEI, HIM to/ have mercy .upon sinners.
O Lady, thy mercy is in the heayeB, and thy grace is
spread over the whole earth." '
In Psalm 67, instead of ? s Let God arise," &c. this
Psalter has, " Let Mary arise,, and let her enemies be
scattered:."
In the opening of the 93rd Psalm there is what we
cannot but regard as an impious and blasphemous
comparison of the supreme God and the Virgin, draw~
ing the contrast in favour of Mary and against God,
in reference to the very attribute which in HIM shines
first and last and brightest his eternal meie'y.
"The Lord is a God of vengeance; but thou, O.
Mother of Mercy, inclinest to be merciful." ,
The penitential Psalm : (129fch) is thus addressed to
Mary:
<{ Out of the depths have I called to, thee, O Lady :
O Lady, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attent to
the voice of my praise and glorifying: deliver me
from the hands of my enemies ; confound thek imagi-
nations and attempts against me. Rescue me in the
evil, day, and in the day of death forget not .my soul ;
ear^y me unto the haven of .salvation: let my name
be enrolled among the just."
As the penitentiaj. Psalms were thus turned from
HIM to whom the inspired penman addressed them* so
are his hymns of praise to God constrained through
the same channel to flow to the, Virgin. Thus in the
48th Psalm we read :
"Praise our Lady of Heaven; glorify her in the
highest. Praise her, all ye men and cattle, ye biuds of
the, heaven and fishes of the sea. Praise her, sun .and
moon ; ye stars and .circles of the planets. Praise lie**,
Cherubim and Seraphim, thrones, dominions* and
powers. Praise her, all ye legions of angeis. Praise,
her, all ye orders ,of Spirits on high/'
The last sentence of the Psalm is thus perverted,:
" Let every thing that hath breath praise our Lady."
A 6
12 On the Worship of the Virgin:
< May God hasten the time when the only reading
in Christendom shall again be in the words of the
sweet Psalmist of Israel :
" Let every thing that hath breath praise THE LORD !"
For various examples of the same perversion of
Holy Scripture, and of the miserable distortion of
Christian Hymns (especially the Te Deum) and
Creeds and Litanies, made by Bonaventura, substi-
tuting- as he does the Virgin Mary as the object of
belief and prayer and praise for the only God and his
only Son, we must refer to the work on the Catalogue
of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,
<* The Romish Worship of the Virgin." We would
only remark, that in his unhallowed parody on the
Athanasian Creed, the assumption of the Virgin
into heaven, which is proved to have no foundation
whatever in fact, is specified as one of the points to
be believed on pain of forfeiting all hopes of salvation.
At the close of one of his Canticles he thus ad-
dresses the Virgin :
" O thou blessed one, our salvation is placed in thy
hands. Remember bur poverty, O thou pious one;
Whom thou wiliest, he shall be saved ; and he from
whom thou turnest away thy countenance, goeth into
destruction."
In his Te Deum are these words :
" O Lady, SAVE THY PEOPLE, that we may partake
of the inheritance of thy Son ;
" And govern us and guard us for ever.
" Vouchsafe, O sweet Mary, to keep us now and
for ever without sin.
"Have mercy upon us, O pious one, have mercy
upon iis. Let thy mercy be magnified upon us, be-
cause in thee, O Virgin Mary, do we put our trust;
in thee, sweet Mary, do we hope. Defend us for
ever. Praise becomes thee. Empire becomes thee.
To thee be virtue and glory for ever and ever. Amen."
Can the most subtle refinement make this merely
a request to her to pray for us ?
Practical Working of the System. 13
To this catalogue of prayers and praises we will
only add the translation of one prayer more from the
same canonized Saint. Its existence has been denied,
but there it stands in his works, admitted as genuine
by the Vatican editors. Vol. vi. p. 406.
" Therefore, O Empress, and our most benign
Lady, BY THE RIGHT OF A MOTHER COMMAND THY
MOST BELOVED SON, our Lord Jesus Christ, that He
vouchsafe to raise our minds from the love of earthly
things to heavenly desires, who liveth and reigneth."
*' JURE MATRIS IMPERA tuo dilectissimo filio."
If such a man as Bonaventura, one of ifche most
learned and celebrated men of his age, could be
tempted by the seductive doctrine of the Roman
Church to employ such language, what can be fairly
expected of the large mass of persons who find that
language published to the world with the very highest
sanction which their religion can give, as the produc-
tion of a man whom the Almighty declared by miracles
to be a chosen vessel, and who was so under the guid-
ance of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit seemed
to speak by him; and concerning whom they are taught,
by the infallible 7 testimony of his canonization, that he
is now reigning with Christ in heaven, and himself
the lawful and appointed object of religious invoca-
tion ?
While the devotional works of Roman Catholic
writers abound to the overflow with such miserable
errors as these, the writings of their expositors and
accredited teachers are to the full as pregnant with
the same lamentable departures from Christian truths.
Referring for other examples to the work above-men-
tioned, The Romish Worship of the Virgin," we shall
here confine ourselves to two authors, whose partial
sameness of name has not unnaturally led to some
confusion as to the writings of each.
7 Cardinal Bellarmin, vol. ii. p. 871, states, that in the act of ca-
nonization the Church of Rome is infallible.
14 On the Worship of the Virgin:
Hismardinus De Bustis*
Bernardimis, called from a place in the country of
Milan, De Bustis, was the author of u The Office of
the Immaculate Conception of 'the Blessed "Virgin,"
which was confirmed? 'by the bull of Sixtus IV., and
has since been used on the Stli of December. He
composed various works in honour of the Virgin, to
one of which he gave the title Mariale. In this work,
among 1 a great variety of sentiments of similar im-
port, he thus expresses himself :
"Of so great authority in the heavenly palace is
that Empress, that, omitting all intermediate saints,
we may appeal to her from every grievance. With
confidence let every one appeal to her, whether he be
aggrieved by the devil or by any tyrant,, or by his own
body,, or by DIVINE JUSTICE." Then, having
illustrated the three other sources of grievance, he
proceeds : " In the fourth place he may APPEAL TO
HER, if any one feels himself aggrieved by the JUSTICE
OP GOD. The Empress Esther was a figure of this
Empress of the Heavens with whom God divided his
kingdom. For whereas God has justice and merey, ; He-
retained justice to Himself, to be exercised in -this
world, and granted mercy to his mother ; and thus, if
any one feels 'himself aggrieved in the court of God's
justice, let him appeal to the court of mercy of Ms
Mother 8 ." ; ^ '
ff we weigh the import of these words, is it
any thing short of robbing the Eternal Father of
his own eternal attribute, and sharing his glory
with another? Is it not encouraging us to turn our
eyes from the God of Mercy, as a stern and Mthless
judge, and -habitually to fix them on Mary, as the dis-
penser of all we want for the comfort and happiness of
our souls?
In another place this Beraardine thus exalts Mary:
" Since the Virgin Mary is Mother of God, and God
8 Cologne, 1607, Part iii. Serai, ii, p. 176.
Practical Working of , the System. 15
is; her Sou, and evescy issia. is nfifepally inferior to 4is
mother, and the mother is preferred above and is
superior to her son, it follows that the Blessed VIRGIN
IS HERSELF SUPERIOR TO GOD, and: GoD HlMSELF
is HER SUBJECT by reason of the bumajaifcy derived
from her;" And again: " O the unspeakable digaaity
of Mary, who was worthy to 8 command ;the CoMi'ma/ader
of all 9 !"
We cannot pass on without translating one more
passage from this famed doctor; it appears to rob
God of his justice and power, as well as of his mercy,
and to turn our eyes t> Mary for the obtaining- 01
all we can desire, and for safety from -.all we caa
dread.
{t We may say that the Blessed Virgin is Chancellor
in the Court of Heaven. For we see that in the.
Chancery of our Lord the Pope, three kioadis of letters
are granted : some are of simple justice, others are
pure grace s - an d the third mixed, combining* justice
and grace. . ..'.- . . The third Chancellor is he t&
whom it appertains to give letters of pure grace and
merey. And this office hath the blessed Virgin, and
therefore she is,caUied the Mother of Grace aad Merey;
but those letters of mercy she gives only in the present
Hie; for to some souls, as they are departing, she
gives letters of pure grace; toothers, of simple justice;
and to others, mixed, namely, of justice and grace.
For some have been very much devoted >to lier, and
to them she gives letters of pure grace, by which she
COMMANDS that glory be given to them without any
fear of purgatory j others are miserable sinners, not
devoted to her, and to them she gives letters of simple
justice, by which :he coMMANias that comdagn ven-
gieanee be done upon them; others were 'lukewarm
and remiss in their devotion, and to them ske gives
letters both of justice and of grace, by which .she
COMMANDS that grace be given unto them, and yet on
9 Part ix. Serm. ii. p. 605. Part.xii. Senim. ii. p. 816.
16 On the Worship of the Virgin:
account of their negligence and sloth some pain of pur-
gatory be also inflicted on them V
Bernardinus Sennensis,
This Bernardine, distinguished as " of Sienna," was
a canonized saint. A full account of his life, and of his
enrolment by the Pope among the saints of heaven, is
found in the " Acta Sanctorum," vol. v. May 20, the
day especially dedicated to his honour. This Roman
saint and doctor is explicit in maintaining that all the
blessings which Christians can receive on earth are dis-
pensed by Mary; that her princedom equals the Eter-
nal Father's ; that all are her servants and subjects who
are the servants and subjects of the Most High ; that
all who adore the Son of God should adore his Virgin
Mother; and that the Virgin has repaid the Almighty
for all that HE has done for the human race. Some
of these doctrines are truly startling, and it is painful
to rehearse them ; but it seems necessary to probe the
evil. A few examples however will suffice :
" So many creatures do service to the glorious
Mary as do service to the Trinity ; for He who is the
Son of God and of the Blessed Virgin, wishing (so to
speak) to make the princedom of his Mother equal in
a manner to his Father's, He who was God served his
Mother on earth. Moreover this is true, all things,
even the Virgin, are servants of the Divine empire ;
and again this is true, all things, even God, are ser-
vants of the Empire of the Virgin 2 ." "Therefore all
the angelic spirits are the ministers and servants of
this glorious Virgin V " To comprise all in a brief
sentence, J have no doubt that God granted all the
pardons and liberations in the Old Testament on ac-
count of his love and reverence for this blessed maid,
by which God pre-ordained from eternity that she
should by predestination be honoured above all his
1 Part xii. Serm. i. p. 825.
2 Paris, 1636, vol. iv. Serm. v. c. vi. p. 1 18.
3 Serm. iii. c. iii. p. 104.
Practical Working of the System* 17
works. On account of the immense love of the Virgin,
Christ Himself, as well as the whole blessed Trinity,
frequently grants pardon to the most wicked sinners *."
" By the law of succession and right of inheritance,
the primacy and kingdom of the whole universe is due
to the Blessed Virgin. Nay, when her only Son died
on the cross, since He had no one on earth of right
to succeed Him, his mother, by the laws of all, sue-*
ceeded, and by this acquired the principality of all. . .
But of the monarchy of the universe, Christ never made
any testamentary bequest, because that can; never be
done without prej udice to his mother. Moreover, He
knew that a mother CAN ANNUL THE WILL OF HER
SON, if it be made to the prejudice of herself 5 ."
" The Virgin-mother, from the time she conceived
God, obtained a certain jurisdiction and authority in
every temporal procession of the Holy Spirit, so that
no creature could obtain any grace of virtue from God,
except according to the dispensation of his Virgin-
mother. ... I fear not to say, that the Virgin has a
certain jurisdiction over the flowing of all graces. And
because she is the mother of such a Son of God, who
produces the Holy Spirit, therefore all the gifts, graces,
and virtues of the Holy Spirit are administered by the
hands of HERSELF, to whom she will, when she
will, how she will, and in what quantity she will V
" She is the Queen of Mercy, the Temple of God,
the habitation of the Holy Spirit, always sitting at the
right hand of Christ in eternal glory ; therefore she is
to be venerated, to be saluted, to be adored with the
adoration of hyperdulia ; and she therefore sits at the
right hand of the King, that as often as you adore
Christ the King, you may adore also the mother of
Christ."
" The Blessed Virgin Mary has done more for God,
or, so to speak, as much as God has done, for the
whole human race. I verily believe that God will
excuse me, if I now speak for the Virgin. Let us,
4 Serm. v. c. ii. p. 116. 5 Serm. v. c. vii. pp. 116. 118.
6 Serm. v. c, viii.j and Serm. vi. c. ii. pp. 120. 122. 119. 121.
18 On the Worship of the Virgin :
then, gather into one heap what things God hath done
for man; and let us consider what satisfaction the
Virgin Mary hath returned to the Lord*" Bernardine
then enumerates various particulars (many of which
the ordinary feelings of reverence and delicacy forbid
us to transfer into these pages), putting one against
another, in a sort of debtor and creditor account, and
then summing up the total thus :
. " Th erefore setting each individual thing one against
another, namely, what things God hath done for man,
and what things the Blessed Virgin has done for God,,
you will see that MARY HAS DONE MORE FOR GOB*
THAN GOD HAS FOR MAN; so that thus, on account
of the Blessed Virgin (whom, nevertheless He Himself
made), GOD is, IN A CERTAIN MANNER, UNDER
GHEATER OBLIGATIONS TO US THAN WE ARE f&
HIM!"
These are not the sentiments of some ordinary
writer, for the -soundness of which the Church of Rome
could not be held responsible ; they are the doctrines
of one whom the Pope (Nicholas V.), in full conclave,
enrolled among the saints of heaven, on the day of
Pentecost, 1450j and that, as we are expressly told,,
to the joy of all Italy ! Pius II. said, ten years after-
wards, that this Bernardine was taken for a saint, even
in his lifetime ; and soon after the end of another ten
years, Sextus IV. issued a bull, in which he extolled
this saint,, and authorized the removal of his body into
a new church, dedicated, as others had been, to his,
honour; and he is now a lawful object of invocation
himself to those who worship saints and the Virgin.
Theopliilus Raynaud.
In bringing these references to a close, we cannot
but invite especial attention to the work of Theophilus
Raynaud, a Jesuit of Lyons, which supplies us witk
evidence as singular and curious as it is conclusive, on
the enormous excesses to which the worship of the
Virgin Mary has been carried in the Church of Rome.
We: have already intimated, that those excesses and
Practical Working of the System. 19
extravagancies., when brought to light, exceed all that
we have been accustomed to meet with in books and
in: conversation. So revolting- are many of them, that
Romanist writers have not been wanting to regard the
exposure and refutation of them as a pious work, due
even to the Virgin herself, in order to preserve what
they deem her legitimate worship from disparagement
and ridicule. It is indeed curious to find these very
writers, while they bring before us a mass of super-
stition and idolatry and blasphemy, with the existence
of which we might not otherwise have become ac-
quainted, and while they expose and reprove what they
call unwarrantable excesses in the votaries of Mary,
yet themselves supplying us with the strongest and
most convincing evidence of the deplorable extent to
which, even with the countenance and support of their.
Own arguments and their own example, the worship of
the Virgin, in its most modified form, entrenches upon
the honour due to God only, and tempts Christians to
anchor on Mary that holy hope which should rest only
on Christ Himself.
One of the professed principles of this work of Ray-
naud> called Diptycha Mariana,. is to reduce withini
reasonable bounds the worship of the Virgin, and to
explode those excesses which, by exciting disgust or
suspicion, might endanger what he maintains as her
rightful praise and glory. But fearing lest his inten-
tion should be misinterpreted, he makes first an explicit
profession of his sense of the boundless merits of the
Virgin, to express which he adopts the words of a
former writer. "The torrents of heaven, and the
fountains of the great deep, I would rather open than
close, in homage of the Virgin. And if HER SON
JESUS HAS OMITTED any thing as to the pre-eminence
of the exaltation of his own mother, I, a servant, I, a
slave,, not indeed with effect, but with affection, would
delight in filling it up. Verily I had rather have no
tongue, than say one word against our Lady ; I would
rather have no soul, than diminish aught of her glory 8 ."
8 Lugduni, 1665, vol. vii. p. 4.
20 On the Worship of the Virgin :
Many of the dissertations examined by this author,
on which men have dared to enter, as to the mystery
of the incarnation of the Son of God, we cannot here
quote, even to reprove them, without setting at nought
both piety and delicacy. They warn us, at every step,
to avoid all curiosity on such mysteries, and never to
pry into those things which belong to the Lord our
God. And of the many vain questions savouring of
ensnaring superstition, we can refer only to a few.
Among those numerous tenets which Raynaud records
as having been maintained by the votaries of the
Virgin, but which he discountenances himself, are
these: " That the Virgin had rescued and snatched
some souls out of hell, that they might do penance 9 ."
"That the very flesh of the Virgin is adored daily in
the Church with supreme worship, and is a victim
offered to God, for a sacrifice of sweet savour to the
Lord, because her flesh is one with Christ's *," and " is
to be worshipped in the eucharist with the adoration
of hyperdulia V " That, by reason of her maternity,
the Virgin may be worshipped with the worship with
which God is Himself worshipped the adoration of
latria 3 ;" and he tells us that both Suarez and Men-
doza maintained this doctrine.
He disapproves of the sentiment (a sentiment by no
means confined to the author whom he cites, and whose
works he says had immense circulation), that Christians
love Christ on account of, and in consequence of, the
love which they bear to his mother. He quotes this
address to our Lord " I love Thee, O Christ God,
because of thy mother whom I love V
St. Ildefonsus, he tells us, "with a faithful pre-
sumption and pious boldness," extended the power of
the Virgin to hell, saying that " she granted to the
damned some remedy and refreshing, and freedom
from the vexation of the devils, on the day of her
Assumption V
9 P. 15. i- P. 237. 2 P. 65. 3 P. 229.
4 P. 235. 5 P. 228.
Practical Working of the System. 21
One of the main objects of this member of the Col-
lege of Jesuits was to condemn what he deemed
excessive and extravagant in the acts of worship and
adoration which he witnessed in his predecessors or
contemporaries; we must therefore infer, that while
his own practice, at all events, did not exceed the
average, it may fairly be supposed to fall below it.
And what does he profess to allow or to maintain ? or
what worship does he feel himself justified in offering
to the Virgin ? Although many more passages are
at hand, we need quote only two, one which he calls
"a pious daily form of worshipping and religiously
invoking the Blessed Virgin in private," supplied by
Richard of St. Lawrence ; the other the closing words
of his work, in which he declares it to be his delight
to address to the Virgin a hymn in imitation of the
Te Deum.
The first he thus explains : " The will of the Son
is, that we should bless his mother our Sovereign Lady
at all times, by night and by day, in prosperity and
adversity; and that her praise should ever dwell in
our heart and in our mouth, by meditating upon her,
by praising her, by praying, blessing, and giving thanks
to her, by preaching forth her greatness ; and that her
praise should ever be as a curb in our jaws, curbing
us in from the vices of the tongue. Wherefore SHE
ALSO HERSELF PROMISES WITH HER SON, to him
who praises her, * with my praise will I curb thee, that
thou perish not V Also that thou mayest fulfil that
Psalm, * All that is within me bless HER holy name V
And daily are her [bodily] members to be individually
blessed, that we may receive back a blessing to our
members individually from her. In the same manner
are her feet to be blessed, with which she carried the
Lord ; the womb in which she carried Him ; the heart
whence she courageously believed in Him and fervently
6 Isaiah xlviii.
? Ps. cii. The word 'ejus' is ambiguous; but the sense is fixed
by the ' ab ed ' in the next line.
22 On. the Worship of the Virgin .
loved Him ; the breasts with which she gave Him suck;
the hands with which she nourished Him ; the mouth
:amd tongue with which she gave to Him the happy kiss
of our redemption ; the nostrils with which she smelled
the sweet-smelling fragrance of his humanity ; the ears
with which she listened with delight to his eloquence ;
the eyes with which she devoutly looked upon Him;
the body and soul which Christ consecrated in her
with every benediction. And these most sacred mem-
bers must be saluted and blessed with all devotion, so
that separate salutations must be addressed to the
several members separately ; that is to say, ' Hail,
Mary ! ' two to the feet, one to the womb, one to the
heart, two to the breasts, two to the hands, two to the
mouth and tongue, two to the lips, two to the nostrils,
two to the ears, two to the eyes, two to the soul and
body. And thus in all there are twenty salutations,
which, after the manner of a daily payment, with sepa-
rate and an equal number of kneelings, if it can
foe done, before her image or altar, are to be paid to
the glorious Virgin, according to that Psalm, ' Every
day will I give thanks unto THEE, and praise THY
name for ever and ever V And as those persons say
who have experienced it, and have heard it from holy
men, scarcely can be found any other form of service
which would so much please the Virgin, or from which
so much devotion would flow back to those who love
her. Likewise through all her members separately,
after the kneeling, adoration, and salutation, this must
T)e said, ( Sweet Lady, I adore and bless those most
blessed feet, by which thctu didst carry the Lord upon
the earth ; I adore and bless that most blessed womb
in which thou didst carry Him ;' and so to the other
members and senses, commemorating their acts by
which they served the Lord ; and this will devotion
prescribe better than a discourse, grace better than
writing 9 ."
8 Ps, cxliv. ' P. 282.
Practical Working of the System. 23
This, be it remembered is a branch, of Mary's wor-
ship, approved and recommended by one whose pro-
fessed object was to shorten and limit and purify her
worship, and reduce it within reasonable bounds. Can
we any longer wonder at the dreadful blasphemies
which meet us on every side, too dreadful many of
them to be repeated, but still upon record? If one
who reproves those that indulge in extravagant and
excessive worship of the Virgin will himself calmly
and deliberately sanction such condensed superstition
as the above service involves, what must have been
the extravagancies and excesses which he condemned?
Here the worshippers of the Virgin are directed to per-
form daily a peculiar service to her, in order that they
might fulfil the prophetic measure of the Psalmist's
devotions, when he called upon his soul and all within
him to bless God the Lord Jehovah ! Here it is de-
clared that it was " Mary with her Son," who made
that promise to her votaries of safety from destruction,
which promise, whatever it be, the inspired word of
truth declares to have been made not by Mary, but
fcy the Lord omnipotent. In the passage of Isaiah
containing the promise now ascribed to the Virgin first
;( though her Son is joined with her), God, the speaker
and the promiser, announces Himself to be " the first
and the last." The Bible declares the speaker to be
God Almighty; this writer substitutes Mary for God;
and although her ever-blessed Son is named as joining
in the promise, yet it is to the offering of praise
to Mary and not to Christ, that the promise is applied
here.
In his accommodation of the Te Deum to the Vir-
gin Mary, Raynaudj following the example of Bona-
ventura, addresses to her these words :
" We praise thee, Queen of Heaven ; we honour
thee, Sovereign Lady of the world.
"All creatures of right praise thee, Mother of
immense splendour, Chamber ?o'f the Trinity most
TT 1
High.
24 On the Worship of the Virgin :
" Thou art the beloved daughter of the Eternal
Father; thouart the Elect Mother of the Son of God,
and also the Holy Bride of the Comforter.
" Thee all angels obey. Thee the heavens of heavens
love inestimably.
" To thee Cherubim and Seraphim cry aloud with
ineffable voice, * Hail, hail, hail, O Lady of Glory ; the
heavens and earth are full of the sweetness of thy grace.'
" Thou art the Queen of the Apostles, thou the
teaching of the Evangelists. Thee the praiseworthy
company of the Prophets, thee the band of Patriarchs
worship.
" Thou art the victory of martyrs, thou the glory
of confessors. Thee the roses of Paradise, glorious
virgins, praise ; as do the chaste in their choir, singing,
'Hail, O sweetest Queen; rejoice, O our most
worthy Mother, who pourest grace upon the Saints,
and deliverest souls from the depths.'
" We sinners, therefore, beseech thee, O Mother of
God, help that people whom the precious blood of thy
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, redeemed.
" MAKE us to be numbered with THY Saints in
glory most high.
" Through thee may we, O holy Mother, be deemed
worthy to be piously comforted.
" Thou who art crowned with so many prerogatives
of holiness in the glory of the Father, rejoicing by thy
right of Mother in so many privileges of dignity,
joy, rejoice, be glad, who art greater than all praise,
O merciful, O pious, O sweet Virgin Mary."
As his closing- expression, the author says :
" May these be my words through the whole of
this life ; and may I, with the holy angels, break forth
into the same through all eternity."
And then adopting the words of Damiani, he adds,
"I have treated concerning Christ; I have treated
concerning his mother. Sweet is the Lord; sweet is
the Lady : because He my God is my mercy, she my
Lady is my gate of mercy. May the mother conduct
Practical Working of the System. 25
us to her Son, the daughter to the Father, the bride
to her husband, who is blessed for evermore. Amen V*
Can any refinement take from these words the
character of a direct prayer to the Virgin for benefits
In her power to bestow ? Can Raynaud's address be
freed from an ascription of Divine attributes to Mary ?
In the very words in which the Christian Church has
been long wont to seek for God's mercy and to praise
Him, does this author ask for the Virgin's help, and
proclaim her praises !
And yet this is the worship offered to the Virgin by
one who puts himself forward as a pattern of modera-
tion and prudence in her worship. " Others among her
votaries," he says, " flew through the air, while he was
contented to walk on foot as long as he remained on
earth; others poured forth words like torrents in
her praise, he weighed his words in the balance of
judgment."
The writer's evidence is unexceptionable ; it cannot
be suspected, and it is conclusive.
1 P. 240.
[658] B
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
PRACTICAL WORKING OF THE SYSTEM.
PART II.
PRESENT SENTIMENTS AND PRACTICE
IN THE CHURCH OF ROME.
B 2
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
Present Sentiments and Practice in the Church of
Rome.
IT may, however, perhaps be surmised, that the
authors above cited having lived so many years ago,
the sentiments of those who profess the Roman faith
now have undergone many changes. Assurances
have, moreover, been given from time to time, that
the invocation of the Virgin implies nothing more than,
a request that she would intercede with God for her
supplicants, just as one Christian may ask a brother on
earth to pray for him *. We can, however, discover no
satisfactory method of reconciling with this represen-
tation the form of prayer and the sentiments which
meet us on every side. We have already seen what
the offices of the Virgin Mary in the Breviary and the
Missal still contain. We find the same sentiments
expressed towards her by the chief men in the
Roman Church ; the same forms of devotion both in
prayer and praise are provided for the use of indi-
viduals in their daily exercises. Whatever meaning
may possibly be attached to the expressions written
or uttered (and surely in the most holy and solemn of
all things, religious worship, it is dangerous and
unjustifiable to employ one language for the ear and
* See Sermon by Dr. Baines at Bradford, July 27> 1825, p. 15.
30 Present Sentiments and Practice
eye, and another for the understanding and the heart),
the prevailing expressions remain the same as we have
found them to have been in past ages.
At the head of these modern proofs we reasonably
place the circular letter of the present Pope, ad-
dressed to all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops,
and Bishops, through which the spirit of the Virgin's
worship seems to diffuse itself in its full strength.
When we' refer his words to a test which has been al-
ready applied to a similar case, it is difficult for us to
see how the spirit of this Pontiff's sentiments falls in
the least below the highest grade of religious worship.
In the third paragraph of this letter we read these
words 2 :
"But having at length taken possession of our see
in the Lateran Basilic, according to the custom and
institution of our predecessors, we turn to you without
delay, venerable brethren, and in testimony of our
feelings towards you, we select for the date of our
letter this most joyful day on which we celebrate the
festival of the most Blessed Virgin's triumphant as-
sumption into heaven ; that she, who has been through
every great calamity our patroness and protectress,
MAY WATCH OVER US WRITING TO YOU, AND LEAD
OUR MIND BY HER HEAVENLY INFLUENCE to tllOSe
counsels which may prove most salutary to Christ's
flock."
\ For the name of the Virgin let us substitute the
holiest name of all, and let us fix on Christmas day, or
Easter, or Holy Thursday ; and what word, expres-
sive of thankfulness for past mercies to the supreme
Giver of all good, or of hope and trust in the
guidance of the Spirit of counsel, and wisdom, and
strength, who alone can order the wills and ways of
men, might not a Christian pastor take from this de-
claration of the present Pope,, to use in its first and
2 We adopt the translation of the letter as circulated in the
Romanist Annual, called the "Laity's Directory," foe the year 1833.
in the Church of 'Home. . Si-
natural -sense, when he was speaking of "the "Lord God-
Almighty ? However direct and immediate the prayers
of any supplicants may be to the Virgin for her pro-*
tection and defence from all dangers, spiritual and
bodily, and for the guidance of their inmost thoughts
in the right way, such petitioners to Mary would be
sanctioned to the utmost by the principles and ex-
amples of the present Roman Pontiff. ; ? '
The next example of the worship of the Virgin/
at this day to which we would refer, is: that of a-
writer who was canonized by the present Pope so Te-
eentlyasthe year 1839, Alphonso LiguorL He died"
in 1787, and the Congregation of Rites at Rome;
pronounced his works uneensurable, and Pope Phis
VII. in 1803, approved of their sentence. In his
works we find sentiments the same with those already
cited from the Bernardines, Bonaventura, and others
of former days, and which show that the worship of
the Virgin is now what it was four or five centuries
ago.
Alphonsus Liguori, in the estimation of Roman
Catholics, is an authority of no ordinary value. Dr.
Wiseman speaks of him as a "venerable man," "a
pattern and a light," " whose life and writings in-
spire us," he says, " with an admiration scarcely sur-
passed by that which we feel towards the early lights
of the Church ;" and his work called, " The Glories
of Mary," is recommended in Ireland as a manuai.
for all the faithful. He must, therefore, be con-
sidered as speaking the sentiments, not only of the.
Court of Rome and of the Pope who canonized him,:
but also especially of the bishops and clergy of Rome
ministering at present in these islands. The following
passages, with numberless others of the same cha-
racter, occur in that work 3 : ' ;
" If Ahasuerus heard the petition of Esther through
3 " The Glories of Mary, mother of God, translated from the Italian
of blessed Alplionso Liguoyi," Dublin, 1833. '''"' ^ - : '
32 '-. -Present Sentiments and Practice
love, will not God, who has an infinite love for Mary,
fling away at her suit the thunderbolts which He was
going to hurl on wretched sinners? . . . Indeed, every
petition she offers is as a LAW emanating from the
Lord, by which HE OBLIGES Himself to be merciful to-
those for whom she intercedes *."
- " St, Anselm, to increase our confidence in Mary,
assures us that our prayers will often be more
speedily heard in invoking her name, than in call-
ing on that of Jesus Christ '."
" Dispensatrix of the .Divine grace, you save whom
you please : to you, then, I commit myself, that the
enemy may not destroy me V
" We, Holy Virgin, hope for grace and salvation
from you ; and since you need but say the word, Ah J
do so, you shall be heard, and we shall be saved V
The searcher after truth on the subject of our
present inquiry is often distressed on finding modern
writers making reference to works which have been,
long since condemned as spurious, and citing them
in evidence as genuine productions. But the most
perplexing cases of all occur, when persons of note-
and authority cite the testimony of the ancient fathers
without giving any clue to the passage in "which the
alleged testimony is contained. Of this, very striking
instances occur in the works of Alphonsus Liguori,
to a few of which it will not be out of place to point
here.
" Before Bonaventura, St. Ignatius had pronounced
that a sinner can be saved ONLY by having recourse
to the Blessed Virgin, whose INFINITE mercy obtains
salvation for those who would be condemned by in-
finite justice. Some pretend that the text is not
taken from Ignatius, but we know that St. Chrysos-
tom attributes it to him s ."
" With what efficacy, with what tender charity
does not Mary plead our cause ! From the considera-
* Pp. 16, 17. s P. 96. P. 100. i P. 137. 8 P. 19.
in the Church of Rome. 33
tion thereof, St. Augustine says to her, * Men have
but one sole advocate in heaven, and it is you, Holy
Virgin V ^
" Poor sinners, how lamentable would be your lot,
if you had not this powerful advocate ; this advocate
so wise, so prudent, and so tender, that her Son CAN-
NOT condemn those whom she defends 1 1"
" The glorious St. Gratian affirms, that though we
may ask as many graces as we please, we cannot ob-
tain them but through the intercession of Mary. St.
Antoninus says, 'To ask favours without interposing
Mary, is to attempt to fly without wings 2 .* "
" Mary," says St. Chrysostom, " has been elected
from all eternity as mother of God, that she may save
by HER mercy those to whom her Son, in justice, can-
not grant pardon 3 ."
This book, " The Glories of Mary," was not
written by a person living centuries ago, amidst those
whose excesses Theophilus Raynaud wrote his book
to check and discountenance; it contains the senti-
ments of one who has been dead not sixty years, and
to whose teaching the highest authority in the
Church of Rome only seve.n years since set its seal
by its most solemn act of all, even his canonization.
And what is the doctrine here proclaimed and spread
through the world? That the mercy of Mary is
infinite, and obtains salvation for those whom God in
his infinite justice would condemn: that the Lord Jesus,
whose own gracious lips assure us that the merciful
Father of us all sent Him into the world not to con-
demn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved, whatever be his will, CANNOT condemn
those whom she defends: and though the Holy
Scripture assures us that we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is also the
propitiation for our sins, yet here we are told that the
Virgin is our sole advocate in heaven. Whereas the
9 P. 170. 1 p, 171. 2 p. 154. 3 P. 179.
34 Present Sentiments and Practice
Lord Himself declares, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in
MY name, that will I do ;" " Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in MY name,
He will give it you 4 ;" this saint of the Roman Church
tells us we may ask what we will, but that without
Mary's intercession we can obtain no grace. The
warrant of the heavenly covenant is, " that the blood
of Christ cleanseth from all sin," and that "in Him we
have redemption through his blood, even the for-
giveness of our sins;" but here we are taught that
Mary is to save by HER MERCY those to whom her
Son cannot in justice grant pardon.
These are, indeed, very startling positions^ deplorable
departures from the trutn as it is in Jesus: and when we
find an appeal made to Stlgnatius, St. Chrysostom, and
St. Augustine, in defence of these doctrines, we can-
not conceal our feelings of astonishment and sorrow.
For the authorities here cited by Liguori most dili-
gent search has been made, and not a trace of either
of them can be found. In no one of the works of
Ignatius can any allusion to such a position be dis-
covered ; and though Liguori says, " We know that
St. Chrysostom attributes the text to Ignatius,"
every other part of the writings of St. Chrysostom,
as well as his biographical work on St. Ignatius, has
been ransacked for any allusion to such a statement,
but in vain. For the testimony also here directly
drawn from St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine, their
works have been searched with unremitting scrutiny,
but with the same result. Not a shadow of any such
doctrine can be detected. In neither of these, nor in
St Ignatius, is there found any the most distant allu-
sion to the mercy, the intercession, or the advocacy
and saving power of Mary. Their uniform teaching
is s that the Eternal Father is infinite in mercy, and
will freely pardon believing penitents who come to
Him by his ever-merciful Son.
. * John xiv. 13 ; xvi. 23.
'....'' in the Church of Rome. 35
We need add only a few more examples from de-
votional books which are in use at the present day.
Such examples might be multiplied exceedingly, but
the subject is too painful for us to dwell longer upon
it than the necessity of the truth requires.
In the devotional work called " The New Month of
Mary," this prayer is offered to the Virgin : " O
most powerful, because most faithful of God's crea-
tures, I presume to approach thee with a lively sen-
timent of my own unworthiness to address God, whose
indignation I have so much deserved, and with a
strong conviction in the efficacy of thy intercession
with Jesus, thy Divine Son, who has placed in thy
hands all power and strength. May these sentiments
always increase within me, that I may never presume,
but PLACE ALL MY CONFIDENCE IN THEE."
The " Hebdomas Mariana," a devotional work " for
every day in the week, in honour of the most glorious
Virgin Mother of God, in order to obtain the grace of
a happy death," in the midst of many other prayers to
the same effect, contains the following :
" O Holy Mary, merciful Queen of Heaven,
Daughter of God the Father, Mother of God the
Son, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Noble Couch of the
whole Trinity; elected by the Father, preserved
by the Son, loved by the Holy Ghost; overshadowed
by the Father, inhabited by the Son, filled with all
grace by the Holy Ghost; THROUGH THEE AND FOR
THEE may I be blessed by God the Father, who cre-
ated me ; may I be blessed by God the Son, who re-
deemed me by his most precious blood ; may I be
blessed by God the Holy Ghost, who sanctified me
in baptism; and may the most sacred Trinity, THROUGH
THY INTERCESSION,. receive my soul at the hour of
death."
" O Holy Mary, Mother of our Redeemer, say at
the hour of my death that thou art my mother, that I
may be blessed, and that my soul may live FOR THEE..
And if I shall be sent to that prison, of burning until
36 Present Sentiments and Practice
I pay the last farthing, may thy mercy descend with
me to refresh me in the flames, to solace me in my
torments, that I may say, c According to the multitude
of my sorrows in my heart, may THY consolations re-
joice my soul.' Thou, O Mother, then hasten to assist
me : let not thy Son depart until He shall have blessed
me, and remitted all my debts, BECAUSE THOU HAST
KEQUESTED HIM. Amen 5 ."
The following is found among the prayers published
for those who are admitted into the " Pious Con-
federation of the Most Holy Mary, Mother of Provi-
dence, the Auxiliatrix of Christians, canonically estab-
lished at Rome 6 ."
" O Mother of God, Most Holy Mary, how many
times have I by my sins deserved hell ! Already,
perhaps, would the sentence on my first sin have been
executed, if THOU HADST not compassionately delayed
the Divine justice ; and then overcoming my hardness,
hadst drawn me to have confidence in thee. And O !
into how many crimes, perhaps, should I have fallen
in the dangers which have happened to me, if thou,
affectionate Mother, hadst not preserved me with the
grace which thou hadst obtained for me."
In a work entitled " The Imitation of the Blessed
Virgin," London, 1816, we read the following prayer
to the Virgin. It is stained by the error with which
our inquiries have already made us but too familiar,
of contrasting the justice and stern dealing even of the
Saviour Himself with the mercy, and loving-kindness,
and fellow-feeling of Mary ; making God an object of
fear, Mary an object of love.
" Mother of my Redeemer, O Mary ; in the last
moments of my life, I implore thy assistance with
more earnestness than ever. I find myself, as it were,
placed between heaven and hell. Alas ! what will be-
come of me, if thou do not exert in my behalf thy
powerful influence with Jesus? .... I die with
SUBMISSION, because Jesus has ORDAINED it; but
_ s Pp. 13, 14. Rome, with permission, 1835. 6 Pp. 3, 4.
in the Church of Rome. 37
notwithstanding the natural horror which I have of
death, I die with PLEASURE, because I die under THY
protection." .
In the following passage 7 how unworthy of the
Christian faith is the thought, that we must pay reve-
rence to one saint in order to gratify and propitiate
another ! Joseph must be especially honoured, in
order to do what is acceptable to Mary, and con-
ciliate Mary to ourselves. And how miserable is the
expedient of attempting to give an appearance of
Scriptural sanction by quoting King Pharaoh's di-
rection to his starving subjects, to apply to Joseph,
Jacob's son, for food in Egypt, when the unscriptural
doctrine is urged of applying to Joseph, Mary's hus-
band, for his intercession in heaven !
"' It is giving to the Blessed Virgin a testimony of
love particularly dear and precious to her, to make
her holy spouse Joseph the first object of our devotion
next to that which consecrates us to her service. The
name of Joseph is invoked with singular devotion by
all the true faithful. They frequently join it with the
sacred names of Jesus and Mary. Whilst Jesus and
Mary lived at Nazareth, if we had wished to obtain
some favour from THEM, could we have employed a
more powerful protector than St. Joseph ? Will he now
have less power and credit ? GO THEREFORE TO
JOSEPH, Gen. xli. 55, that he may intercede for you*
Whatever favour you ask, God will grant it you at his
request. .... Go to Joseph in all your necessities ;
but especially to obtain the grace of a happy death*
The general opinion that he died in the arms of Jesus
and Mary has inspired the faithful with great confi-
dence, that through his intercession they will have aii
end as happy and consoling as his. In effect, it has
been remarked, that it is particularly at the hour of
death that those who have during their life been care~
ful to honour this great saint, reap the fruit of their
devotion."
I* Chap. xiii. p. 344 ; xiv, p. 34?.
38 Present Sentiments and Practice
In the " Little Testament of the Holy Virgin 8 , "we
find, among other devotional addresses, "A Prayer to
the Blessed Virgin." Can any words place on an en-
tire level with each other the Eternal Son of God
and the Virgin ? We can only quote a few passages.
'-" O Mary, what would be our poverty and misery*
if the Father of Mercies had not drawn you from his
treasury to give you to earth ! O my Life and Con-
solation, I trust and confide in your holy name. . . .
At the name of Mary my hope shall be enlightened,
my love inflamed. Oh that I could deeply engrave
the dear name, on every heart, suggest it to every
tongue, and make all celebrate it with me. Mary !
sacred name under which no one should despair.
Mary ! it shall be life, my strength, my comfort.
Every day shall I invoke IT AND THE DIVINE
NAME OF JESUS. The Son will awake the recol-
lection of the Mother, and the Mother that of the
Son. Jesus and Mary ! this is what my heart shall
say at the last hour, if my tongue cannot : I shall hear
them on my death-bed ; they shall be wafted on my
expiring breath, and I with them, to see THEM,
know THEM, bless and love THEM for eternity.
Amen."
When we read in the works of different ages and of
distant countries such tenets as these, expressed in the
solemn act of prayer :
That the sentence on our sins might ..have been
executed by our all-merciful Father, if Mary had not
stayed the Divine justice ;
That the Holy Spirit might have suffered us to fall
into sins, had not Mary preserved us from falling;: ;
That our prayers may be more speedily heard*
when we invoke Mary's name, than when we call on
the Lord Jesus ; .(:..:.>
That she is the way through which alone we can ga
, . ' .';'.,'.;
8 Dublin, 1836, p. 46.
in the Church of Rome. 3&
to Jesus,: 'and ;the only channel through which Divine
grace can reach our souls ;
That when our sins make us unworthy or afraid to
address God, we are to approach Mary, and place our
entire hope and confidence in her;
That God, for the infinite love He has to Mary,
will fling away at her suit the thunderbolt which He
was on the point of hurling on wretched sinners ;
That when the eternal and omnipotent Judge of all
the earth, who cannot but do right, WISHES TO CON-
DEMN THE GUILTY, MARY KNOWS HOW TO PREVENT 1
THE EXECUTION OF THE SENTENCE ; i >
That the self-condemned sinner finding death to be
at hand, and feeling himself to be placed between
heaven and hell, meets death with submission, because
God has ordained it, but despite of the natural horror
of death, will die with pleasure because he dies under
Mary's protection ;
When we find these, and unnumbered other senti-
ments of the same force and bearing, we are con-
strained to say, can the religion which sanctions and
prescribes these things be the Christian religion ? the
religion which the one Mediator brought down with
Him from the eternal and only God in heaven? In
these sentiments we hear no sound of the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus; in these representations we see no
sign of that Lamb of God whose blood cleanseth from
all sin, and who for the great love wherewith He loved
us, is gone before to prepare a place for us to be with
Himself in glory for ever.
Let, moreover, every refinement of distinction be
applied between the honour due to God and the
honour paid to the Virgin ; between the advocacy of
Christ and the intercession of Mary ; between prayers
direct and prayers oblique (as they have been called);
between the hope and confidence which the Apostles,
both by their example and teaching, bid the faithful
Christian rest on God's mercy in Jesus Christ, and the
hope and confidence which the canonized saints, and
the doctors, and Popes of the Church of Rome profess
40 Present Sentiments and Practice, 8fc
to place, and teacli their people to place, in the
power and mercy of Mary; let every explanation
which ingenuity can devise be applied here, and
still the practical result of the whole is a tendency
to dispossess our Saviour of his functions of saving
and redeeming lost mankind, and to leave to
Him only the severe and unapproachable character of
a judge; to wean our affections from God, and fix
them on Mary ; to make our personal application to
ourselves of his merits and atonement (whereby alone
we can stand in the place of sons, and realize the
spirit of adoption) dependent on her intercession;
to represent all the blessings and graces of the Holy
Spirit as shut up in a sealed fountain till her benign
and divine influence open it, and convey through her-
self such portions of the heavenly treasure as she wills
to those who have, by devotion to her, secured her
omnipotent patronage ; to tempt believers to regard
Mary as the way, and God in Christ as the truth and
the life approachable only by that way; in a word,
to hold forth the Lord God of heaven, the gracious,
merciful, loving Father, as an object of awe and terror,
as the inflexible dispenser of Divine justice, (inflexible
except when his love for Mary bends Him to be mer-
ciful to her votaries for her sake) ; and thus, though
not confessedly and theoretically, perhaps, yet in very
and practical truth, to make Mary the nearest and
dearest object of a Christian's love.
But what saith the Scripture to these things?
GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
No. X.
ON THE
WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
EVIDENCE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE
AGAINST IT.
v
LONDON:
Printed for the
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
NO. 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE ',
AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
[659] 1846.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE present Tracts form part of a series intended to be
issued on some of the chief and most prevalent errors of the
Church of Rome. The following have already heen published :
I. ON THE SUPREMACY OP THE POPE.
II. ON PARDONS AND INDULGENCES GRANTED BY THE POPE.
III. ON THE INVOCATION OP SAINTS AND ANGELS.
IV. ON THE INVOCATION OP SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
V. ON THE INVOCATION OP SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
VI. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT.
VII. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINT-S AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OP THE PiRIMITrVjE CaURCH AGAINST IT [cOJI-
tinued].
VIII. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
DOCTRINE AND AUTHORIZES SERVICES OP THE
CHURCH OP ROME..
IX. ON THE WORSHIP OP THE VIRGIN. PRACTICAL WORK-
ING OF THE SYSTEM.
X. ON THE WORSHIP OP THE VIRGIN MARY. EVIDENCE
OF HOLY SCRIPTURE AGAINST IT.
XI. ON THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
WHAT IS ROMANISM ?
On the Worship of the Virgin Mary. Evidence
J3.qly Scripture against it.
ON the principles by which persons, honestly search-
ing for the truth, should be .guided an their pursuit, we
spoke in a former number, when we were inquiring
into the evidence of Holy Scripture on -the Invocation
of Saints and Angels. In this place it will be enough,
to repeat generally the conclusions ; on the subject
before us, to which a careful study of the Word of
God cannot but lead.
IF, then, there is one .paramount and pervading
principle more characteristic of Revelation than any-
other, it seems to be the preservation of .a practical
belief in the perfect unity of God, and the fencing of
his worship against the admixture of any other, what-
ever be its character or form : it is the announcement
that the Creator and Governor of the universe is theole
giver, of every temporal and spiritual blessing, the one
only Being to whom his creatures should pay any
religious service whatever, the one only Being to "whom?
mortals must apply, by prayer and invocation, for the
supply of any of their wants* And to $his principle
the New Testament lias added -another equally essen*
tial, that there is one, and only one, Mediator between
God and man, through whom every blessing must be
A 2
4 On the Worship of the Virgin Mary.
sought and obtained, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
ever making intercession for us.
Through the entire Bible, the exclusive worship
of God alone is insisted upon, and guarded with the
utmost jealousy, by assurances, by threats, and by
promises, as the God who heareth prayer, alone to be
called upon, alone to be invoked, alone to be adored.
Recourse is had (if we may so speak) to every expe-
dient, for the express purpose of protecting the
sons and daughters of Adam from the fatal error of
embracing in their worship any other being or name
whatever, or of seeking from any other than the one
Supreme God the supply of their wants ; not reserving
supreme and direct adoration and prayer to Him, and
allowing some subordinate worship, some indirect and
inferior kind of invocation to be offered to his crea-
tures, even the most exalted among them, but ba-
nishing at once and for ever, the most distant approxi-
mation towards prayer and religious honour, and ex-
cluding with uncompromising universality, the veriest
-shadow of spiritual invocation to any other being
sthan the Most High, GOD HIMSELF ALONE.
With regard to the Gospel doctrine of the mediation
of Christ, we read, without any qualifying, or limiting,
or excepting expression whatever, these truths: "There
is one God, and one Mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus 1 ." "He is able also to save to the
uttermost them who come unto God by him, seeing he
, ever liveth to make intercession for them 2 :" nay, the
mouth of Him who spake as never man spake, thus so-
slemnly and graciously announces the completeness of
-his own mediation, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, what-
soeverye shall ask the Father IN MY NAME, he will give
it you 3 ." Many pages might be added to the same effect.
One Mediator has been revealed in his person and in
his office, and He is expressly declared to be the one
only Mediator between God and men ; we therefore
seek God's covenanted mercies through Him.
J 1 Tim. ii. 5. 2 Heb. vii. 25. 3 John xvi. 23.
Evidence of Holy Scripture against it. 5
But (it will be asked) is the mediatorship of the Son
of God exclusive of all other mediators in heaven ?
May there not be other mediators of intercession as well
as that one Mediator of redemption? We answer.
What might have been man's duty, had the Almighty
been pleased to give another revelation for man's
guidance, is not the question ; in the revelation which
He has given, we find mention made only of one
Mediator. And if it had been his will, that we
should approach the throne of mercy through any
secondary or subsidiary mediators and intercessors,
bur confidence in his mercy would teach us to expect
a revelation of that will as clear and unquestionable
as the revelation which we know He has vouchsafed
of the mediation and intercession of his blessed Son.
His own revealed will directs us to pray for our
fellow-creatures on earth, and to expect spiritual
benefits from the prayers made on our behalf by
the faithful on earth through that Mediator. To
pray for them, therefore, and to seek their prayers, and
to wait patiently for a gracious answer, are acts of
faith and of duty. But that He will favourably answer
the prayers which we might supplicate others as our
intercessors in the unseen world to offer, or-which
we might offer to Himself through their merits, and
by their mediation, is nowhere revealed. On the
contrary, we find no single act, no single word, nothing
which even by implication can be forced to sanction
any prayer or religious invocation of any kind to any
other than God Himself alone ; or any reliance what-
ever on the mediation or intercession of any being in
the unseen world, save only our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.
But is not that Mediator's holy mother an excep-
tion ? Does not Scripture lead us to infer that the
blessed Virgin has great influence and power? May
not her intercession and mediation, and her kind
offices be sought in prayer addressed to her? We
answer, that we can find no trace or intimation of
A 3
6 On tii& Worship ofthz Wirgin
any thing- of the. kind; on the? contrary, the evidence
o Holy Scripture, is not; merely negative: on this
point*, but it is decided and- conclusive against any such
doctrine and practice-.
TJ3M. OLD -TESTAMENT*.
The first intimation given, to us that a. woman -was*
in the providence of God,, appointed to. be the instru*-
xnent or channel through which the Saviour of mankind
should be brought intorthe worlds, was made immedi-
ately after the fall, and at the. very first dawn of the
day of our salvation. The authorized English version
renders the passage thus.: " I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and' her;
seed : IT shall bruise thy head,, and thou shalt bruise
Jus. heel 4 ." Instead of the word " IT," the Roman
Vulgate reads " SHE.;" the Greek Septuagint trans-
lates it. " HE," But whichever of the. renderings of
the Hebrew word be correct, for our present purpose
it matters little.. Whether the word originally dictated
By the Holy Spirit, to Moses,, be so translated as> to
refer to the seed of the woman generally,, or to the
male child the descendant of the woman, or to the
" woman," be this as it may, no. Christian can doubt*
that it was ordained in the counsels of the Eter-
nal Godhead,, that the Messiah,, the Redeemer
of mankind, should be born of a. virgin, and
that in the mystery of. that incarnation the serpents
head should be bruised. Equally indisputable is it, that,
this prophetic announcement was in progress towards,
its final; accomplishment when the Lord Jesus Christ
was born of the Virgin Mary.
The only other, reference made in the Old Testa-
ment to the mother of our Lord, seems to; be thei
celebrated prophecy of Isaiah,, about which, probably,,
no controversy can arise, affecting^ the question before
4 Gen. lit 15.
Evidence of Holy Scripture against if. f
u&: " A virgin shall conceive and1t>ear a so% and shall
call his name Emmanuel*."
To the many applications* of other passages, of the
Old Testament to- the Virgin Mar.y (however object
tionable and unjustifiable they are), which are made
both in the authorized services- of the Church of Home-
and in manuals of private devotion j we needtKBt here
refer, because they ean 1 never be cited in argument.
Suchj for example, are the addresses of the bride in?
the Song of Solomon, and that prophecy of the queen?
in the 45th Psalm, which has been of late applied;
to the Virgin as the Queen of Heaven; 6 . The
praise of wisdom, in the apocryphal book of Eccle
siasticus, is in the same manner applied 1 to the Virgin.
But through the Old Testament we find no passage
which can by any, however circuitous os inferential, ap*
plication be brought to countenance the doctrine,, that;
Mary is- a* proper object of religious invocation*
THE NEW TESTAMENT.
In the New Testament, mention by name is made
of the Virgin Mary by St. Matthew, Sk Mark, and
St. Luke^ and also, though not by name> yet as the 1
mother of the Lord, by St. John in his Gospel^ and by*
noi other of the sacred writers. Neither does Sfe* Pau%
in any one of his various Epistles, though he mentions;
by name many of our Lord's disciples, nor St. James;
nor St. Peter, who must often have seen the Virgin;
Mary during our Lord's ministry, and after his return!
to his Father,, nor St. Jude, mention her as living,, i?
allude to her as dead; nor St. John, though, as his own
Gospel teaches us, she had been committed to? his>
care of especial trust, in either of his three Epistles,
or in the Revelation, refer to the Virgin Mary*
The first occasion on whichj- in the New Testament,
5 Isaiah viii i'i'. G Manual of tlie Eiving Rosary.
A 4
8 On the Worship of the Virgin Mary,
any reference is made to the Virgin Mary, is the salu-
tation of the angel, recorded in the opening chapter
of St. Luke's Gospel; the last occasion 7 is, when she
is mentioned by the same Evangelist as " Mary, the
mother of Jesus," in conjunction with the brethren of
our Lord, and with the Apostles, and " the women," all
continuing in prayer and supplication, immediately
after Christ's ascension. Between these two events
the name of Mary occurs under a variety of circum-
stances, on every one of which we shall do well to
reflect.
On the first occasion (The Salutation), the angel an-
nounces to Mary that she should become the mother
of the Son of God. Doubtless, no daughter of Eve
was ever so distinguished among women; and well
does it become us to cherish her memory with affec-
tionate reverence. The words then addressed to her
on earth, with a change of expression, which many
critics pronounce to be inadmissible, and to convey
a meaning not warranted by the original, are daily
addressed to her by the Roman Catholic Church, now
that she is removed to the invisible world: "Hail,
thou that art highly favoured [the Roman or Italian
version renders it, " full of grace "]: the Lord is with
thee. Blessed art thou among women." On the
substitution of the phrase "full of grace," for "highly
favoured," or, as our margin suggests, "graciously ac-
cepted," or " much graced," little need be said. It is to
be regretted at all events that, since the Greek words
are different here and in the first chapter of St. John,
where the words "full of grace ." are applied to the
only Son of God, a similar distinction has not been
preserved in the Roman translation.
The other expression, "Blessed art thou among
women," is precisely the same with the ascription of
blessedness made by an inspired tongue to another
daughter of Eve, " Blessed above women 8 ;" or (as
* Acts iv. 13, 14. s Judges v, 24.
Evidence of Holy Scripture against it. 9
both the Septuagint and the Roman translations render
the word), "Blessed among women shall Jael, the wife
of Heber the Kenite, be." And in such ascription of
blessedness, we see no ground of justification for the
worship of the Virgin Mary.
; The same observation applies, with equal strictness, to
that .affecting interview between Mary and her cousin,
when Elizabeth, enlightened doubtless by an especial
revelation, returned the salutation of Mary, by ad-
dressing her as the mother of her Lord, and hailing
her visit as an instance of most condescending and
welcome kindness : " Whence is this to me, that the
mother of my Lord should come unto me 9 ?" Mem-
bers of the Church of England are taught to regard
this event in Mary's life with feelings of delight and
gratitude. It was on this occasion that she uttered
the beautiful hymn, " The Song of the blessed Virgin
Mary," which our Church has selected for daily use at
evening prayer.
These incidents bring before our minds the image
of a pure virgin, humble, pious, obedient, holy; a
chosen servant of God ; an exalted pattern for her
fellow-creatures; but still a fellow-creature, and a
fellow- servant ; a Virgin pronounced by an angel to be
blessed. But further than this we cannot go, because
further than this the Scripture does not lead us by
the hand. We read of no power, no authority (nei-
ther the office and influence of intercession, nor the
authority and right to command) being ever com-
mitted to her, and we dare not of our own minds ven-
ture to take for granted, and as the truth, a statement
of so vast a magnitude, involving associations so awful.
We reverence her memory as a holy and highly
favoured daughter of Eve, the Virgin-mother of our
Lord. We cannot supplicate any blessing at her
Jhand; we dare not pray to her for her intercession.
The angel's announcement to Joseph, whether be-
9 Luke i. 43.
A 5
10 On the Worship of the Virgin Mary.
fore or after the birth of Christ, the visit of the Magi,
the flight into Egypt and the return thence, in the re-
cord of all which events by St. Matthew the name of
Mary occurs, seem to require no especial attention with,
reference to the immediate subject of our inquiry,
however important in themselves and interesting these
events are. To Joseph the angel speaks of the Virgin
as ** Mary thy wife." la every other of those cases
she is called, "the young Child's mother," or "his
mother."
In relating the circumstances of Christ's birth, the
evangelist employs no words winch call for any parti-
cular examination. Joseph went up into the city of
David to be taxed, with Mary his espoused wife ;
and there she brought forth her first-born Son, and
wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in, a
manger. And the shepherds found Mary and Joseph,
and the Babe lying in a manger. Arid Mary kept
all these things and pondered them in .her heart.
Between the birth of Christ, and the flight of the
holy family into Egypt, St. Luke records an event to
have happened by no means unimportant the pre-
sentation of Christ in the Temple. " And when the
days of her purification, according to the law of Moses,
were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem,
to present him to the Lord V And Simeon " came
by the Spirit into the Temple"; and when the parents
brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the
custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms,
and blessed God, and said, Lord," &c. " And Joseph
and his mother marvelled at those things which were
spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said
unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for
the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a
sign which shall be spoken against (yea, a sword shall
pass through thy own soul also), that the thoughts of
many hearts may be revealed." In this incident it is
1 Luke ii. 23.
Evidence ^oflHoly Scripture against it. 1 1
worthy of remark, that Joseph and Mary are both
mentioned by name, that they are both called the
parents of the child Jesus, that both are equally
blessed by Simeon, and that the good old Israelite,
illuminated by the Spirit of prophecy, when headdresses
himself immediately to Mary, speaks only of her fu-
ture trials and sorrows, and does not even remotely or
faintly allude to any exaltation of her above the other
daughters of Abraham, " A sword shall pierce through
thine own soul also V
The next occasion on which the name of the Virgin
Mary is found in Scripture, is the memorable visit of
her husband, herself, and her Son, to Jerusalem, when
He was twelve years old. The manner in which this
incident is related by the inspired evangelist, so far from
intimating that Mary was destined to become an
object of worship to the believers in her Son, affords
evidence strongly bearing in the contrary direction*
Here, again, Joseph and Mary are both called his
parents. Joseph is once mentioned byname, and so
is Mary. If the language had been so framed as on
purpose to take away all distinction of preference and
superiority, it could not more successfully have effected
its object. And not only so; but of the three addresses
recorded as having been made by our blessed Lord
to his beloved mother (and only three are recorded in
the New Testament), the first occurs during this visit
to Jerusalem. That address was made in answer to
the remonstrance made by Mary, " Son, why hast
thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy father and I
have sought thee sorrowing." " How is it that ye
sought me ? Wist ye not that I must be about my
Father's business?" He makes no distinction here,
"Know YE not? " We may appeal to any dispassion-
ate reasoner to pronounce whether such a reproof,
couched in such words, countenances the idea that our
2 Luke ii. 35. See De Sacy, vol. xxxii. p. 128.
12 On the Worship of the Virgin Mary.
blessed Lord intended his mother to receive such di-
vine honour from his followers to the end of time as
the Church of Rome now pays to her; and whether
St. Luke, whose pen wrote this account, could have
been .cognisant of any such right vested in the Virgin ?
The Evangelist adds, " His mother kept all these
sayings in her heart."
The next passage requiring our consideration, is
that which records the first miracle of our Lord.
" And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of
Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, and both
Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
And when they wanted wine (when the wine failed),
the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no
wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to
do with thee ? Mine hour is not yet come 3 ." We need
make no remark on the comments which different
Roman Catholic writers have recommended for adop-
tion here. Let the passage be interpreted in any way
which fair and enlightened criticism, and the analogy
of Scripture will sanction, and we may ask, Could any
unprejudiced mind, after a careful weighing of the
incident, the facts, and the words, in all their bearings,
expect that the holy and beloved person, toward whom
the meek, and tender, and affectionate Jesus employed
this address, was destined by that omniscient
Saviour to become an object of those religious acts
with which (as we have seen) the Church of
Rome daily approaches her? Indeed, Epiphanius
considers our blessed Lord to have employed, on this
occasion, the word '* woman," for the express purpose
of preserving believers in the Gospel from an exces-
sive admiration of Mary : - *' Lest any one should
think that the holy Virgin was a being of superior
excellence 4 ."
We must now advert to an incident recorded with
little variety of expression, and with no essential dif-
3 John ii. 14. * Epiph. Paris, 1622, pp. 10561064,
Evidence of Holy Scripture against it. 13
ference, by the first three Evangelists. St. Matthew's,
which is the fullest account, is this : " While he yet
talked to the people, behold, his mother and his
brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy
brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.
But he answered and said unto him that told him,
Who is my mother, and who are my brethren ? And
he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and
said, Behold my mother and my brethren ! For who-
soever shall do the will of my Father which is in
heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and
mother 5 ." Or, as St. Luke expresses it, "And he
answered and said unto them, My mother and my
brethren are these who hear the word of God and
do it 6 ."
Humanly speaking, could a more favourable oppor-
tunity than this have presented itself to our blessed
Lord, of referring to his mother in such a manner
as to exalt her above her fellow-daughters of Eve;
in such a manner, too. as that Christians in after-
days, when the Saviour's bodily presence should have
been taken away from them, and the extraordinary
communications of the Spirit of truth should have been
withdrawn, might have remembered that He had spoken
such things, and have been countenanced by his words
in doing her homage ? But so far is this from the
plain and natural tendency of his words, that had He
intended to guard his disciples to the end of time
against supposing that the love and reverence which
they felt towards Himself should show itself in their
exaltation of his mother above all created beings,
language could scarcely have supplied words more
fitted for that purpose. Nothing in the communica-
cation made to Him should seem to have called for
5 Matt. xii. 46. Luke viii. 21.
6 Tertullian, De Carne Christi vii. Chrysostom, vol. vii. p. 467,
and others, comment in very strong and plain language against this
(as it appeared to them) unjustifiable intrusion of Mary.
14 Qn the Worship of the Wirgin
\
such a remark. A plain- message announces to Him,
as= a matter of fact, one of the most common occur-
rences of daily life, and- yet He fixes upon; the cir-
cumstance as the groundwork, not only of declaring
the close union, between Himself and faithful believers
in Him, but of cautioning all against any superstitious!
feelings towards? those who were nearly allied to Him
by the ties of human nature; With reverence we
would say, it is as though He desired to=record his fore-
knowledge of the errors into which; his disciples were
likely to be seduced, warning them beforehand to
shun and resist the temptation.
The evidence borne by this passage against the;
offering by Christians of any religious worship to the
Virgin, on the ground of her having been the mother 1
of our Lord, is clear and direct. She was the mother
of the Redeemer of the world, and blessed is she
among women; but that very Redeemer Himself,
with his own lips* assures us, that every faithful and!
obedient servant of his heavenly Father shall be
honoured equally with her, and possess all the privileges;
which so near and dear a relationship with Himself
might be supposed to convey. " Who is my raofeherj.
and who are my brethren ? Behold my mother and.
my brethren !" " Whosoever shall do the; will of my
Father in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister,
and mother."
We have equal reason, to take notice in this place
of that, most remarkable passage, in which our blessed;
Lord is recorded, under different circumstances* to
have expressed the same sentiment, but in words
which carry with them even stronger indications of
his desire to prevent any undue exaltation of his
mother. " As- he spake these things, a certain woman
of the company lifted up her voice and said unto him,
Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps
which thou hast sucked V On the: truth; or wisdom
7 Luke xL 27.
Evidence of Holy Scripture against it.
of that: exclamation our Lord makes no remark ;;
refers not to his mother at all; not even to assure his
audience that however blessed Mary might be in
having brought forth the Saviour bodily, yet far
more blessed was she (as St. Chrysostom 8 and others
remind, us), because she had borne Him; spiritually in
her heart. To his mother He does not allude, except
for the purpose of immediately fixing the minds of
his hearers on the. sure and greater blessedness of his
faithful disciples. " But he said, Yea rather [or as
some prefer to translate the words, c Yea, verily, and'],,
blessed, are they that hear the word of God, .and keep
it." Again, : it must be asked, Could suck an ex-
clamation have been met by such an answer, had our
Lord's will been to exalt his mother, as she is now
exalted by the Church of Rome? Rather, we would;
reverently ask, Would He have given this turn ta
suck an address, had He not desired to check any
such feelings towards her ?
That affecting and edifying, incident recorded by
St.. John as having taken place while the Lord Jesus:
was hanging on the cross (an incident which, speaks^
to every one that has an understanding to compre-
hend and a heart to feel)* brings before us the last
occasion on which the name of the Virgin Mary occurs,
in the Gospels.
No paraphrase could add force or clearness or
beauty to the narrative of the evangelist; no expo?-
sition could bring out its parts more prominently,
powerfully, or affectingly. The calmness and autho-
rity of our blessed Lord, his tenderness and affection,
his filial love in the midst of his agony, it isi impossi-
ble for the pen of man to describe with more heart-
stirring and heart-soothing pathos. But not one syl-
lable falls from the lips of Christ, or from the pen of
the beloved disciple, which can be construed to imply
that our blessed Lord intended Mary to be held by
his followers in such honour as would be shown in the
8 See Chrys. vol. vii. p. 467.
]6 On the Worship of the Virgin Mary.
offering of prayer and praise to her after her dissolu-
tion. He who could by a word have bidden the
whole course of nature and of providence to minister
to the health and safety, the support and comfort of
his mother, leaves her to the care of one whom He'
loves, and whose sincerity and devotedness to Him
He had, humanly speaking, long' experienced. He
bids John look to Mary as he would to his own mo-
ther ; He bids Mary look to John, as to her own Son,
for protection and solace. " Now there stood by the
cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister,
Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus, therefore, saw his mother, and the disci-
ple standing by whom he loved, he said unto his
mother, Woman, behold thy son : then said he to the
disciple, Behold thy mother." And he added no
more. If Christ willed that his beloved mother
should end her days in peace, removed equally
from the desolation of widowhood on the one
hand, .and from notoriety on the other, nothing
could be more natural than such conduct in sucK
a Being at such a time. But if his purpose had
been to exalt her into an object of religious worship,
that nations should kneel before her, and all people
do her homage ; and to teach all his followers to look
to her as the channel through which the favour and
blessings of heaven were to be conveyed to mankind,
then the words and the conduct of our blessed Lord
at this hour would be inexplicable; and so also would
be the words of the evangelist closing the narrative,
"And from that hour, that disciple took her unto his
own home V
Subsequently to this, not one word falls from the
pen of St. John whiqli can be made to bear on the
station, the person, or the circumstances of Mary.
After his resurrection, our Saviour remained on earth
forty days before He finally ascended bodily into hea-
ven. Many of his interviews and conversations with
9 John xix. 25.
Evidence of Holy Scripture against it. 17
the disciples during that interval are recorded. Every
oneof thefour Evangelists has told us of some actor some
saying of our Lord on one or more of those occasions.
Mention is made by name of Mary Magdalene, of the
other Mary, of the mother of James, of Salome, of Joanna,
of Peter, of Cleophas, of the disciple whom Jesus loved
(at whose home the mother of our Lord then was), of
Thomas also, of Nathanael, and generally of the eleven.
But "by no one of the Evangelists is reference made at
all in the gospels to Mary the mother of our Lord, as
having been present at any one of those interviews;
her name is not alluded to throughout.
On one solitary occasion, subsequently to Christ's
Ascension, mention is made of Mary his mother;
it is in company with many others, and without
any distinction to separate her from the rest.
*< And when they were come in, they went up into
an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James,
and John, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartho-
lomew and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and
Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
These all continued with one accord in prayer and
supplication, with the women and Mary the mother
of Jesus, and with his brethren V Not one word is
said as to Mary having been present to witness even
the ascension of her blessed Son : we read of no com-
mand from our Lord, no wish expressed by Him, no
distant intimation that they should show to her even,
marks of respect and honour; nor is any allusion
made to her superiority or pre-eminence.
Sixty years at the least we may consider to be
comprehended within the subsequent history of the
New Testament before the Apocalypse was written;
but neither in the narrative, nor in the epistles, nor
yet in the prophetic part of the sacred writings, is
there the most distant reference to Mary 2 . Of him
1 Acts i. 13.
2 We .need not allude to Rev. xii. 1, as a passage strangely per-
verted to apply to the Virgin in heaven, because Roman Catholics do
not at all agree together in such an application. See De Sacy, in loc.
18 On the Worship of the Virgin Mary.
to whose filial care our dying Saviour committed his
mother, we hear much. St. John we ; find putting
forth the miraculous power of -Christ at the Beautiful
Gate of the Temple; we see him imprisoned and ar-
raigned before the Jewish authorities ; but not one
word is mentioned as to what meanwhile became of
Mary. St. John we find confirming the Church in
Samaria ; we see him an exile in the island of Pat-
mos; .-but no mention throughout is made of Mary.
Nay, though we have three of his epistles, and the
second of them addressed to one whom he loved in
the truth, we can trace in them no allusion to the
mother of our Lord, alive or dead.
We have no reason to suppose that St. Paul had any
personal knowledge of the Virgin. At all events it
is a fact of which, neither do his own epistles, -nor does
the inspired history of his life and labours 'give the
slightest intimation. St. Paul does indeed refer to the
human nature of Christ derived from his human mother;
and had St. Paul -been taught by -direct revelation, or
by his fellow Apostles, older an the ministry than him-
self, to entertain towards her such sentiments as the
Roman Church ;now entertains, he could not have
found a more inviting (occasion to give utterance to
them. But instead of thus speaking of the Virgin
Mary, he does not even mention her name or con-
dition at all, referring only in the most general way to a
daughter of Adam, of whom the Son of God was
born : " But when the fulness of time was come, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
they might receive the adoption of sons 3 ."
This absence of evidence in Holy Scripture ms to
the birth, life, death, glories, and power of the Virgin
Mary, seems to have been sensibly felt by many
of her zealous votaries.^ To supply such want of
countenance and sanction t the honours now paid to
her in the Church of Rome, various expedients have
3 <5aL iv. 4.
Evidence of Holy Scripture against it. 19
been adopted. The doctrine of progressive develop-
ment has been relied on ; and revelations of her
influence and majesty have been alleged, as having
been supernaturally made by herself to many of her
most famous worshippers ; especially are we referred
to the revelations made by the Virgin to St. Bridget 4 .
But another solution of this difficulty has been sug-
gested, on which we shall make no comment, since
few probably of the most ardent propagators of the
doctrine of development will acknowledge that
solution as their own. " The silence of Holy Scrip-
ture as to Mary's birth and circumstances (less being
recorded of her than of John the Baptist) was
designed, and for this very purpose, to be an encou-
ragement to the votaries of Mary. God, wishing to
countenance and second their pious zeal, omitted the
record of those particulars which are now celebrated
by her worshippers, that they might have ample
room for the full exercise of their piety and for their
religious and reasonable invention and propagation of
novelties concerning her 5 ."
Others, however, affirm that though not in Holy
Scripture, yet in the works of the early Fathers
of the Church, the mediation of the Virgin is recog-
nized and taught, and prayers to her for blessings
from heaven are sanctioned and prescribed. An
honest and careful and thorough search into the
genuine remains of those early writers, must convince
every one, that for at least five hundred years the
worship of the Virgin had no place or name in the
Church of Christ. And this will be made the subject
of some future numbers.
* Diptycha Mariana, vol. vii. p. 20. 5 Dipt. Mar. vol. vii. p. 4.
GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
No. XI.
ON THE
ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
LONDON:
Printed for the
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
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ADVERTISEMENT.
THE present Tracts form part of a series intended to be
issued, on some of the chief and most prevalent errors of the
Church of Rome. The following have already been published :
I. ON THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPE.
II. ON PARDONS AND INDULGENCES GRANTED BY THE POPE.
III. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS.
]V. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AMD ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
V. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
VI. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT.
VII. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT
[continued]. '. , .
VIII. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
DOCTRINE AND AUTHORIZED SERVICES OF THE
CHURCH OF ROME. '
IX. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. PRACTICAL WORK-
ING OF THE SYSTEM.
X. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARY. EVIDENCE
OF HOLY SCRIPTURE AGAINST IT.
XI. ON THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
WHAT IS ROMANISM ?
On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, A.D. 47.
' ' '''.!
THE worship of the Virgin Mary seems to -be entirely
built upon a belief in the supernatural and miraculous
removal of her person, her body as well as her spul, from
earth into heaven. This is called in the Roman Church
her Assumption; the alleged event being celebrated
by an annual festival on the 15th of August. That
event is not represented by any one to have taken
place subsequently to the time when the Canon of
Holy Scripture closes : we are therefore induced to enter>
now upon an investigation into the evidence on which,
the belief in so marvellous a transaction rests, having
in a preceding number examined the testimony of the
Sacred Volume as to the worship of the Virgin; and
purposing in some subsequent numbers to carry on
our enquiries on the same subject, into the writings
of the Fathers of the Church through the first five
centuries. "
By the Church of England two festivals are observed
in commemoration of two events relating to the Virgin
Mary as the mother of our Lord, in the titles of both
of which her name occurs: one the announcement of
our Saviour's incarnation by the message of an angel,
called " The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin,
Mary ;" the other " The Presentation of Christ in
the T>mple," called also " The Purification of St.
Mary the Virgin." On ihe first of these solem-
nities we are taught to pray that as we have known
A 2
4 On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
the incarnation of the Son of God by the message of
an Angel, so by his Cross and passion we may be
brought to the glory of his resurrection. On the
second we humbly beseech the Divine Majesty, that,
as his only Son was presented in the Temple in the
substance of our flesh, so we may be presented unto
God with pure and clean hearts, by the same Jesus
Christ our Lord. These days are appointed to com-
memorate events made known to us on the sure warrant
of Holy Scripture ; and these prayers are primitive and
evangelical ; they address God alone, and only through
his Son. The second prayer was used in the Church
from very early times, and is retained in the Roman
Breviary 1 . But instead of the first, which has still a
place in the Missal, we now find in the Breviary a
prayer neither primitive nor evangelical, which sup-
plicates that those who use it, " believing Mary to be
truly the mother of God, may be aided by her inter-
cession with Him 2 ."
In the Roman Church, however, feasts are dedi-
cated to the Virgin Mary, in which we cannot join;
among others, her Immaculate Conception, and her
Assumption. By appointing a service 3 and a collect
commemorative of the immaculate conception of the
Virgin Mary in her mother's womb, and praying that
the observance of that solemnity may procure her
votaries an increase of peace, the Church of Rome has
not only acted without a shadow of countenance from
Scripture, or primitive times 4 ; but has herself given
countenance and sanction, affixed her seal to a novel
superstition, against which, at its commencement^ so
recently as the twelfth century, St. Bernard 5 strongly
remonstrated with the monks of Lyons. It is unhap-
pily, moreover, a superstition which has often been
defended by arguments, and explained by discussions,
1 H. 536. _ 2 V. 496. 3 H. 445. ;
4 Epiphanius says .distinctly, that Mary's birth was not out of the
oisual course of nature. Paris, 1622, p. 1003, &c.
-* Paris, 1632. Ep. 174. p. 1538,
Qn the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. 5
which have lost sight of all delicacy, and can in no
way be profitable to the understanding or the heart.
But of all the institutions in honour of the Virgin,
the Feast of the Assumption is regarded by the
Roman Church as the head and crown. " The As-
sumption of the Virgin Mary (we are told 6 ) is the
greatest of all the festivals which the Church cele-
brates in her honour. It is the consummation of all
the other great mysteries by which her life was ren-r
dered most wonderful. It is the birth-day of her true
greatness and glory, and the crown of all the virtues
of her whole life, which we admire singly in her other,
festivals." Before such a solemn office of praise and
worship as we find in the Church of Rome on the
15th of August were ever admitted among the institu-
tions of the religion of the Gospel, its originators and
compilers ought to have built upon sure ground:
careful too should those persons be now who join in
the service, and promote it by the countenance of
their example ; but more especially should the evi-
dence on which it rests be sifted well by all who
undertake to defend and uphold it, lest at last they
prove to have loved Rome more than the truth as it
is in Jesus. So solemn and marked a religious
service in the temple, and at the altar of Him
who is the Truth, ought to be founded on Holy
Scripture; or at the very least, on undisputed his-
torical evidence, the certain and acknowledged tes-
timony of the Church from the very time of the
actual occurrence of the fact on which it is based. Those
persons incur a fearful responsibility, who aid in
propagating for religious verities the inventions of
men.
But what is the doctrine and the practice of the
Church of Rome with regard to the Assumption of the
Virgin Mary ?
In the ritual of the Assumption, it is many
6 Alban Butler, vol. viii. p. 175.
A 3
6 On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary*
times reiterated in a brief space, and with a slight
variation of expression, that the Virgin was taken up in to
heaven: and this is asserted not on any general
and indefinite notion of her glorified state, but with
reference to one specific and single act of divine inter-
position;, performed at a fixed time, effecting her As-
sumption " to-day " "To-day, Mary the Virgin,
ascended the heavens. Rejoice, because she is reign-
ing with Christ for ever V " Mary the Virgin is taken
up into heaven, to the ethereal chamber, in which the
Ring of kings sits on his starry throne." " The Holy
Mother of God has been exalted above the choir of
angels, to the heavenly realms." "Come, let us wor-
ship the King of kings, to whose ethereal' heaven the
Virgin-mother was taken up to-day." And that it is
her bodily ascension, her corporeal assumption into
heaven, and not merely the transit of her soul from
mortal life to eternal bliss, which the Roman Church
maintains and proclaims by this service, is put beyond
doubt by the service itself. In the fourth and sixth
reading or lesson, for example, we find these sentences,
" She returned not unto the earth, but is seated in
the heavenly tabernacles. How could death devour ?
how could those below receive? how could corruption
invade THAT BODY in which life was received?
For it a direct, plain, and easy path to heaven was
prepared." Indeed, doctors of the Roman Church do
not scruple to affirm distinctly, that one object which
their Church had in view, was to condemn the heresy of
those who maintained that the reception of the Virgin
into heaven was the reception of her soul only, and
not also of hen body 8 .
Now on what authority does this doctrine rest? On
what foundation-stone is this religious service built?
It rests on no authentic history ; it is supported by no
* JEst. 595. 603, 604,
8 Lambecius, book viii. p. 306. See also, the: Lessons from John of
Damascus, now appointed to be read on the day of the Assumption.
Mst. 603.
On the \&ssmpi$on of the Virgin McEty/. 7
primitive tradition. The most celebrated^ defenders
of these 5 Roman tenets and practices, instead 1 of citing
Such evidence as would carry some faint semblance o
probability? appeal to histories written* more than a
thousand' years after the alleged event, to forced docu-
ments^ and vague rumours. It is quite surprising tb
find many of them, instead of establishing, by evidence
what they say God on'ce did, contenting themselves
with asserting his omnipotence in proof that their tenets
imply no impossibility ; dwelling on the fitness and
reasonableness of his working such a miracle in honour
of so distinguished a vessel of mercy; and while they
assume the fact as granted, substituting in place of
argument, glowing and poetical descriptions of what
must have been the joy in heaven, and what ought to be
the corresponding feelings of mortals on earth. At every
step of the inquiry into the merits of this casej that
most sound principle, which is lamentably neglected, is
brought again and again to our mind-, that- as men
really and in earnest looking onward to a life after
thisj we are bound to inquire, not what God could doi
nor what man might pronounce it fitting for God to
do,, but what He has done, and what He has revealed.
The moment a Christian writer betakes himself from
evidence to possibilities, he deserts the first principles
of Christian truth, and throws us back from the
sure and certain hope of the Gospel of Christ, to the
( ' { beautiful fable" of Socrates, and his exclamation
before his judges- " It were better to be there than
here, IF these things are true."
Now should any persons have resolved to adopt
implicitly, without allowing any examination, and
without admitting any appeal, the faith and present
practice of the Church of Rome, they will take no
interest in such an inquiry as we are now instituting;
and they will find, in the sentiments of St. Bernard;,
countenance for thus surrendering their judgment and
conscience. In the same letter in which, as we have
seen, he reproves the monks of Lyons for promoting
A 4
8 On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
the then rising 1 superstition as to the immaculate con-
ception of the Virgin Mary in her mother's womb, (a
superstition sanctioned by a solemn service of the
Roman ritual at the present day,) he professes him-
self to be not " over-scrupulous " in receiving what
the Church had taught him as to the Assumption
of the Virgin, " that the day was to be observed with
the highest veneration, on which she was taken up
from this wicked world." On the other hand, well-
informed members of that Church assure us, that a
general desire has gained ground among them, to have
this and other similar questions examined without pre-
judice, and the results of the inquiry to be calmly laid
open before them and before the world. To such
persons, the following pages may seem worthy of con-
sideration.
We would, however, here observe (before we en-
ter upon the evidence), that the Romanist writers on
this subject are by no means agreed as to the time
or place of the Virgin's death. While some have main-
tained that she breathed her last at Ephesus, others
affirm that her departure from this world took place at
Jerusalem ; and as to the time of her death, some have
assigned it to the year 48 (that is, about the time when
St. Paul and St. Barnabas returned to Antioch 9 ),
while others refer it to later dates; none, however,
fixing it at a period subsequently to the time when
the Acts of the Apostles closes. Epiphanius, indeed,
towards the end of the fourth century, reminding us
that Scripture is wholly and plainly silent on the sub-
ject of Mary's death and burial, as well as of her having
ever accompanied St. John in his travels or not, without
alluding to any known tradition as to her Assumption,
thus sums up his sentiments : " I dare to say nothing,
but after consideration am silent." And again he says
distinctly, " Her end is not known."
We now proceed to inquire into the evidence
on which so solemn a religious service in honour of
9 Acts xiv. 26. Epiph. vol. i. p. 1043 and 1003.
On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, as the Church of
Rome celebrates every year, is founded ; , a 1 service,
the spirit of which diffuses itself through the public
services of the whole year, and is mingled with the
daily devotional exercises of individual members of
that Church.
In the first place, the Holy Scriptures are utterly
and profoundly silent as to the time and the manner,
and even the fact of the Virgin Mary's death. We
then ask, if such an event, (witnessed, as this legend
says, by the Apostles,) so marvellous in itself, and
so important in its consequences, had actually taken
place, is it within the verge of credibility, that no
allusion to it should have been made in that in-
spired book, which records the actions and journeys
and letters of those very Apostles, especially in the
case of St. John, to whose filial care she had been
committed by our blessed Saviour? Once after the
ascension of our Lord, and that within eight days,
\ve find mentioned the name of Mary promiscuously
with others ; and after that no allusion to her is made
in life or in death ; and yet no account places her
death too late for mention to have been made of it in
the Acts of the Apostles.
But, when we have in vain searched the holy
volume, what light does primitive antiquity enable
us to throw on this subject ? The earliest testimony
quoted by the supporters of the doctrine is a sup-
posed entry in the Chronicon of Eusebius, written
about A.D. 815, opposite the year of our Lord, 48.
This is cited by Cocci us 1 without any remark, and
even Baronius rests the datGj of Mary's Assumption
on this testimony. The words cited are these :
" Mary the Virgin, the mother of Jesus, was taken
up into heaven, as some write that it had been re-
vealed unto them." Now, for one moment let us sup-
pose that this came from the pen of Eusebius himself;
and to what does it amount? A chronologist in the
1 Vol. i. p. 403.
A 5
JO On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
fourth century would then have been found to record
that some persons (whom he does not name, not even
stating when they lived), had written, not what they
had heard as a matter of fact, but that a revelation
had been made to them of an event having taken
place nearly three centuries before the time of the
chronologist.
But instead of this passage deserving; the name of
Ettsebius as its author, it is palpably and confessedly
an interpolation. Suspicions must have arisen at a
remote date as to its genuineness; for many manu-
scripts, especially the seven in the Vatican, were
known to contain nothing of the kind. Indeed, the
Roman Catholic editor 2 of the Chronicon at Bour-
deaux, so far back as A.D. 1604, confesses that he was
restrained from expunging it, only because nothing
certain as to the Assumption of the Virgin could be
substituted in its place ! Its spuriousness, however,
is no longer a question of dispute or doubt ; in 1818
it was excluded from the Milan impression edited by
Angelo Maio and John Zohrab ; and no trace of it is
to be found in the Armenian version, published that
same year, with anxious care to secure accuracy, by
the monks of the Armenian convent near Venice.
The next authority to which we must refer is a
letter 3 said to have been written by Sophronius the
presbyter about the commencement of the fifth cen-
tury. It used to be ascribed to Jerome, but Erasmus
referred it to Sbphronius* To many this is an un-
welcome document. Baronius shows great anxiety
to detract from the value of the writer's evidence,
whoever he was, sharply criticising him, because he
asserts that the faithful in his time still expressed
doubts as to the fact of the Virgin's Assumption.
It is, however, to be remarked that Baronius, by
2 P. 566.
3 The letter is entitled, " Ad Paulam et Eustochium de Assump-
tione B. M. Virginis." It is found in Jerome's Works, edit. J.
Martian, vol. v. p. 82.
On f/te Assumption of the Virgin Mary. 11
assigning to this letter a date still later than the works
of Soplironius, adds strength to the arguments for the
comparatively recent origin of the tradition. For be
sayg it was written by "an egregious forger of lies,"
who lived after the heresies of Nestoriusand Eutyches
had been condemned.
Be this as it may; that the letter is of very ancient
origin cannot be doubted: and whoever penned it$
whether we look to the sensible and pious sentiments
contained in it, or to its undisputed antiquity, the
following extract cannot fail to be interesting. What-*
ever other inferences may be drawn from it, it leaves
no question, that so far from the tradition- regarding
the Virgin's Assumption being general in the Church
when the writer lived;, it was a subject of grave doubt
and discussion among Christians, many of whom
thought it an act of pious forbearance to abstain
altogether from pronouncing any opinion on the sub-
ject. "* Many of our people doubt whether Mary
was taken up together with her body, or whether she
went away leaving the body. But how, or at what
time, or by what persons her holy body was taken hence
and to what place removed, or whether it rose again, is
not known ; although some will maintain that she is
already revived, and is clothed with a blessed im-
mortality with Christ in heavenly places. And this
very many affirm also of his servant the blessed John,
the Evangelist (to whom, being a virgin, the Virgin
was entrusted by Christ); because in his sepulchre, as
it is reported, nothing is found but manna, which
also is seen to flow forth. Nevertheless which of
these opinions should be thought the more true we
doubt. Yet it is better to commit all to God, with
whom nothing is impossible, than to wish to define
rashly by our own authority any thing which we do not
approve of. Because nothing is impossible with God,
we do hot deny that something of the kind was done
4 ' Baronius, Cologne, 1609y vol. i. p. 408. See also Fabricius
Hamburgh, 1804), vol. ix. p. 160. i
A 6
12 On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
with regard to the blessed Virgin Mary ; although
for caution's sake, preserving our faith, we ought with
pious desire to think rather than to define inconsider-
ately what without danger may remain unknown."
This letter, at the very earliest, was not written
until the beginning of the fifth century.
Subsequent writers were not wanting to supply
what this letter declares to have been, at its own date,
unknown, as to the fact, and the manner, and the time
of Mary's Assumption, and the persons connected with
the transaction. The first authority appealed to in
defence of the tradition, is usually cited as a well-
known work written by Euthymius, a contemporary
of Juvenal, Archbishop of Jerusalem. The earliest
author in whose reputed works the passage is found,
seems to have been John of Damascus, a monk of Je-
rusalem, who lived somewhat before the middle of the
eighth century. Much doubt exists as to the work
from which the passage professes to be taken : the
inonk does not quote from it as <s The history written
by Euthymius" nor as " The history concerning Eu-
thymius," but as " The Euthymiac History ;" and
Z-ambecius maintains, that it was not an ecclesiastical
work written by Euthymius, who died in 472, but a
biographical history concerning Euthymius himself,
written, as he thinks probable, by Cyril the monk,
who died 531. This opinion is combated by Cote-
Jerius the discussion only thickening the dense mist
which involves the whole, from first to last. But
whether Euthymius were the author, or the subject of
the work, or neither the one nor the otter, the work
itself is lost ; an epitome only survives ; and in that
abridgment, not a trace of the passage quoted by John
of Damascus is found.
That author having represented himself as holding a
conversation with the tomb of the Virgin, to which we must
again advert, thus appeals to the passage in question:
" Ye see, beloved fathers and brethren, what answer the
all-gracious tomb makes to us ; and, in proof that these
On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. 13
tilings are so, in the Euthymiac history, the third book,
and fortieth chapter, it is thus written, word for word :
" It has been above said, that the holy Pulcheria
built many churches to Christ, at Constantinople. Of
these, however, there is one built in Blachernse, in
the beginning of the reign of Marcian of divine me-
mory. Marcian and Pulcheria, therefore, when they
Lad built a venerable temple to the greatly-to-be-
celebrated, and most holy mother of God, and ever
Virgin Mary, and had decked it with all ornaments,
sought her most holy body, which had conceived
God. And having sent for Juvenal, Archbishop of
Jerusalem, and for the Bishops of Palestine, who were
living in the royal city, on account of the synod then
held at Chalcedon, they say to them, We hear that
there is in Jerusalem, the first and famous church of
Mary^ mother of God, and ever Virgin, in the garden
called Gethsemane, where her body, which bore the
Life, was deposited in a coffin. We wish, therefore,
her relics to be brought here for the protection of this
royal city. But Juvenal answered, In the true and
divinely inspired Scripture, indeed, nothing is re-
corded of the departure of the holy Mary, mother
of God : but, from an ancient and most true tradi-
tion, we have received, that at the time of her glorious
falling asleep, all the holy Apostles, who were going
through the world for the salvation of the nations, in
a moment of time borne aloft, came together to Jeru-
salem ; and when they were near her, they had a
vision of angels, and divine melody of the highest
powers was heard ; and then with divine and more
heavenly glory, she, in an unspeakable manner, de-
livered her holy soul into the hands of God. But that
which had conceived God, being borne with angelic
and apostolic psalmody, with funeral rites was depo-
sited in a coffin in Gethsemane. In this place, the
chorus and singing of the angels continued for three
whole days. But after three days, on the angelic
music ceasing, since one of the Apostles had been
14 On the Assumption of the Virgin
absent^ and came after the third day, and wished tb
adore the body that had conceived God, the Apostles
who were present opened the coffin; but the body,
pure and every way to be praised, they could not at
all find; And when they found only those things in
which it had been laid out and placed there, and were
filled with an ineffable fragrancy proceeding from,
those things, they shut the coffin. Being astonished
3f. the miraculous mystery, they could form no other
thought but that He who had in his own person^
deigned to be clothed with fleshj and to be made man
of most holy Virgin, and to be born in the flesh, God
the Word and Source of Glory, and who after birth had
preserved her virginity immaculate, had seen it good,
after she had departed from among the living, to
honour her uncontaminated and unpolluted body, by
a translation before the common: and universal resur-
rection 5 ."
Thisj then, is the account of the Virgin's Assumption
NEAREST to the time; and can any thing be more
vague, and, in point of evidence, more utterly wortb-
less? It stands thus: a preacher, in the eighth
century, refers to a work, (the character of which
is unknown, and to that part of the work of which
not a line is extant,) in which the writer, near the
middle of the sixth century, is said to have referred to a
conversation reported to have taken place at Constan-
tinople a hundred years before that writer's time, in
which conversation, the then Bishop of Jerusalem was
said to have informed the Emperor Marcian of
an ancient tradition, concerning a miraculous event
nearly four hundred years before that bishop's time,
namely, that the body of Mary was taken out of
the coffin, without the knowledge of those who had
deposited it there. Whereas, the primitive and in-
spired account (recording most minutely the jour-
5 Jo. Damas; Paris, 1712, vol. ii. p. 875. 877. 881,
On ifie Assumption of the Virgin Mary. 15
neys and proceedings of those very persons, before,
and subsequently to, the alleged event, and the let-
ters of others), makes: no mention at all of any
transaction of the kind ; whereas, also, of all the inter-
mediate historians and writers of every character,, not
one gives the slightest intimation that any rumour of
it had ever reached them.
Before we proceed to the next adduced testimony,
it may be well to advert to some particulars relative
to the sermon said to have been preached by this John
of Damascus. The passage occurs in, the second of
three homilies, on " The sleep of the Virgin," a; term
generally used by the later Greeks as an equivalent
for the Roman word Assumptio. The publication of
these homilies in Greek and Latin is of late date;
Lambecius 6 , A.D. 1655, say s^ that he was not aware of
any one having so published them before his time.
We wish, however, to raise no question now as to
their genuineness. But the preacher's introduction
of this passage into his homily is preceded by a sec-
tion that deserves the careful weighing of all who
would honestly ascertain the real sentiments of the
early writers of the Christian Church. It affords a
striking example of the manner in which Christian
orators used to indulge in addresses and appeals, not
only to the spirits of departed men, but even to things
which never had life. Here the speaker, in his ser-
mon, addresses the very tomb of Mary, as though it
had ears to hear, and an understanding to compre*-
hend ; and then he represents the tomb as having a
tongue to answer, and as calling forth from the
preacher and his congregation a response of admira-
tion and reverence. Such apostrophes as these can-
not be too steadily borne in mind, or too carefully
weighed, when any argument is drawn from similar
salutations offered by ancient Christian orators to
saint, or angel, or the Virgin.
6 Vol. viii. p. 281.
16 On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
Among other salutations, John of Damascus, if the
homily be his, thus addresses the tomb of the Virgin :
"Thou, O tomb, of holy things most holy (for I will
address thee as a LIVING BEING), where is the much-
desired and much-beloved body of the Mother of
God?" In this strange dramatic scene the answer of
the tomb begins thus : " Why seek ye her in a tomb,
who has been taken up on high to the heavenly taber-
nacles ?" In reply to this, the preacher, first delibe-
rating with his audience what reply he should make,
thus speaks to the tomb ; " Thy grace, indeed, is
never-failing and eternal/' &c.
By the maintainers of the invocation of saints and an-
gels and the Virgin, many a passage, far more equivocal
and indirect and less cogent than this, which a preacher
here addresses to stone and earth, is adduced now to
prove, that saints and martyrs and angels and the Vir-
gin were invoked by primitive worshippers.
Of the lessons appointed by the Church of Rome
for the Feast of the Assumption, to be read to be-
lievers assembled in God's house of prayer, three are
selected and taken entirely from this very oration of
John of Damascus.
Le Quien 7 , the editor of the works of John of Da-
mascus, offers some very interesting remarks bearing
immediately on the agitated question, as to the first
institution of the Feast of the Assumption, as well as
on the tradition itself. He infers from the words of
Modestus, patriarch of Jerusalem, that scarcely any
preachers before him had addressed their congrega-
tions on the departure of the Virgin out of this life ;
lie thinks that the Feast of the Assumption was, at
the commencement of the seventh century, only re-
cently instituted. While all later writers affirm, that
the Virgin was buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat,
Le Quien observes, that this could not have been
known to Jerome, who passed a great part of his life
7 Le Quien refers to earlier homilies on the Dormitio Firginis,
p. 857.
On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. 17
in Bethlehem, and yet preserves a total silence on
the subject; though, in his " Epitaph on Paula," he
enumerates all the places in Palestine distinguished
by any. remarkable event. Neither, he adds, could
it have been known to Epiphanius, who, though he
lived long in Palestine, yet declares that nothing was
known as to the death or burial of the Virgin.
Again, in his criticism upon the writings falsely
attributed to Melito 8 (their author being, on that ac-
count, generally referred to as the Pseudo-Melito),
Le Quien observes, that since that author says many
unworthy things of the Virgin (such, for example, as
her great fear when death approached of 'being ex-
posed to the wiles of Satan), the work was probably
written before the council of Ephesus (i. e. A.D. 449) ;
alleging this remarkable reason, that " after that time,
there BEGAN to be entertained, as was right, not only
in the east, but also in the west, a far better estimate
of the Mother of God." Could any one urge a
stronger proof that the worship of the Virgin Mary
"was neither apostolical nor primitive ?
The same editor, Le Quien, insinuates the possi-
bility of Juvenal (whose character he makes no scru-
ple to stigmatize) having invented the whole story, in
order, for his own sinister purpose, to deceive Marcian
and Pulcheria; just, he says, as Juvenal forged cer-
tain writings for the purpose of securing to himself
the primacy of Jerusalem, a crime laid to his charge
also by Leo the Great, in his letter to Maximus,
bishop of Antioch 9 .
But the maintainers of the story of the Virgin's
Assumption refer us with much confidence to the
works of Gregory of Tours, who died at the very
close of the sixth century, A. D. 595. On his testi-
mony we need add little to the comments of his own
8 Melito himself was Bishop of Sardis in the second century.
9 P. 879. See also Leo's Works, vol. i. p. 1215, Epist. cxix.
where we still find the charge referred to by Le Quien.
18 On ike Assumption of the Virgin Mavif.
.editor,, one of the Benedictines. In his chapter w On
the Apostles and the blessed Virgin," having- referred
to the ascension of our blessed Saviour, this Gregory
thus proceeds: "At length the course of this life
having been fulfilled by the blessed Mary, when she
.was now called from the world, all the Apostles were
gathered together from every region to her house ;
and when they heard that she was to be taken from
the world, they watched with her together. The
Lord Jesus then came with his angels, and receiving
her soul, delivered it: to Michael the archangel, and
withdrew. And at the dawn, the Apostles took up her
body, with the couch, and placed it in a tomb* and
guarded it, waiting for the arrival of the Lord. And*
ehold ! again the Lord stood by them, and the holy
corpse, taken up in a cloud, He ordered to be carried
away into Paradise ; where now, having resumed her
soul, exulting with her elect, she is enjoying the good
things of eternity, which will never end 1 ."
On this statement of Gregory of Tours, his Bene*
dictine editor makes these remarks : " What Gregory
here relates concerning the death of the blessed Virgin,
and its circumstances, beyond doubt he drew from
that book of the Pseudo-Melito, concerning the re-
moval of the blessed Virgin, which is classed by Pope
Gelasius among the apocryphal books, and which is
published in the Bibliotheca Patrum. Now that she
died at Ephesus, is the opinion; of learned men ; but
no one before Gregory of Tours is found to have
asserted in express words the resurrection of the
blessed Mary, and the Assumption of her body, and
also her soul into heaven. NeverthelesSy this opinion
not long after prevailed in Gaul, so that it was even
introduced into the Liturgy. Yet the Roman Sacra-
mentary of St. Gregory contains nothing of the kind."
This editor then refers to several previous authors,
among others to Adamnanus on Holy Places, to
- Greg. Tur., Paris, 1C99, p. 724.
QniRe Assumption of the Virgin Mary. 19
whose sentiments on the subject before us^ be adverts
in these words: "Of the sepulchre of the blessed
Virgin Mary, which was shown/ near Jerusalem, in the
Valley of Jehoshaphat, he thus speaks.' In which
sepulchre being entombed she rested. But as to the
same sepulchre in what way, or at what tinte, or by
what persons her holy corpse was removed, or else in
what place she is waiting for the resurrection, no one
as it is reported,, can know for certain.' "
On these passages from Gregory of Tours, and
his annotator y we would briefly remark,
That this Gregorjr is the first known to have
asserted the Assumption of the Virgin, body and soul,
as; it is now held in the Roman Church;
That this account he drew from a forged work , by one
who is called the False Melito* the very work which
just a century before (A.D. 494) the Roman Council,
with Pope Gelasius at its head, denounced as apo-
cryphal, and not to be read by the faithful, styling it
** The book called the Transitus, that is, the Assump-
tion of the Blessed Virgin 2 ;"
: And that only after the time of this Gregory, the
service of the Assumption crept into the Liturgy ; and
that there was nothing like the account of Gregory of
Tours in the Sacramentary of Gregory the Great.
To this latter point we shall have occasion again to
advert.
Another authority to which the writers on the As>-
sumptioi) of the Virgin appeal, is Nicephorus Callistus,
who at the end of the thirteenth, or beginning of the
fourteenth century dedicated his work to Andronicus
Palseologus. This Nicephorus was patriarch of Con-
stantinople about the reign of our Edward I. or Edward
II., and therefore cannot be quoted in any sense of
the word as an ancient author writing on the events
of the primitive ages; and yet the manner of citing
him by Roman Catholic writers would lead us to
2 p. 1264.
20 On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
suppose that lie was a person to whose evidence on
early ecclesiastical affairs we ought now to defer.
His account is as follows 3 :
" In the fifth year of Claudius, the Virgin, at the
age of 59, was made acquainted with her approaching
death. Christ himself then descended from heaven,
with a countless multitude, to take up the soul of his
mother, summoning his disciples, by thunder and
storm, from all parts of the world. The Virgin then
bade Peter first, and afterwards the rest of the Apostles,
to come with burning torches. The Apostles smv
rounded her bed, and an outpouring of miracles
flowed forth. The blind beheld the sun, the deaf
heard, the lame walked, and every disease fled away.
The Apostles and others sang as the body was borne
from Sion to Gethsemane, angels preceding, sur-
rounding, and following it. A wonderful thing then
took place 4 . The Jews were indignant and enraged ;
and one, more desperately bold than the rest, rushed
forward, intending to throw down the holy corpse to
the ground. Vengeance was not tardy, for his hands
were cut off from his arms. The procession stopped;
and at the command of Peter, on the man shedding
tears of penitence, his hands were joined on again, and
were restored whole. At Gethsemane she was put
into a tomb, but her Son translated her to the divine
habitation."
Nicephorus then refers to Juvenal, as the authority
on which the tradition was received, that the Apostles
opened the coffin to enable St. Thomas, the one stated
to have been absent, to embrace the body : and he
3 Nicephorus, Paris, 1630, vol. i. p. 168, lib. ii. c. 21. Baronius
also refers to lib. xv. c. 14.
4 This tradition seems to have been much referred to at the time
just preceding our English Reformation, In a volume called '''The
Hours of the most Blessed Mary, according to the legitimate rite of
the Chiirch of Salisbury," Paris, 1526, the frontispiece gives an exact
representation of the story at the moment of the Jew's hands being
cut off. They are severed at the wrists and lying on the coffin, on
which also his arms are resting. In the sky, the Virgin appears,
between the Father and the Son, the dove being seen above her.
On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. 21
proceeds to describe the personal appearance and looks
of the Virgin. ^ ^ .-,
It is unnecessary to dwell on such evidence as this;
and yet on this evidence, one of the most solemn
religious festivals in the Church of Rome, the crown
and consummation of others, is built. Palpably it is not
within the verge of credibility, that had such an event
as the Virgin Mary's Assumption, an event so miracu-
lous in its nature, and so important in its consequences,
taken place either under the extraordinary circum-
stances which now envelope the tradition, or under
any combination of circumstances whatever, there
would have been a total silence respecting 1 it in Holy
Scripture j that the writers of the first four centuries
should never have shown themselves cognizant of such
an event ; that the first writer who alluded to any thing
of the kind, should have lived in the middle of the
fifth century, or later ; and that even he should have
declared, in a letter to his contemporaries, that the sub-
ject was one on which many doubts were entertained ;
and that he himself would not deny it, not because
it rested on probable evidence, but because nothing is
impossible with God. Can any confidence, moreover,
be placed in the relation of a writer in the middle of
the sixth century, as to a tradition of what an arch-
bishop, attending the Council of Chalcedon, had told
the emperor at Constantinople, concerning a tradition
of what was said to have happened nearly four hundred
years before ? Whereas, in the Acts of that Council,
not the faintest trace is found of any allusion to the
supposed fact or the alleged tradition ; though the
transactions of that Council, in many of its most minute
details, are recorded ; and though its discussions brought
the naime and circumstances of the Virgin Mary conti-
nually, and with most lively interest, before the minds
of all who attended it. And what dependence can be
placed on the bare statement of a bishop of Francej at
the^very end of the sixth century, who is the first to
assert that the Virgin Mary was taken, body \ and soul,
22 On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
into -heaven, and whom his own Roman Catholic editor
and annotator professedly declares to have drawn his
account from the forged work of one, whose very name
proclaims the worthlessness of his testimony, the.
Pseudo-Melito ; the very -work, too, which Pope
Gelasius and the Roman Council pronounced, a cen-
tury before, to be apocryphal, and which they forbade
Christians to read.
But we mustxnot leave the present subject of in-
vestigation, without adverting to an argument which
is put forth in the present day with as much apparent
confidence in its eonclusiveness, as if it had undergone
the most severe test, and been acknowledged to be valid;
whereas, its titter worthlessness, in point of evidence, a
very few words would demonstrate. Since, however,
the nature of the evidence in question affects many
points of interest beyond the single subject of our
present inquiry, the time will not be lost which we
may now give to a fuller elucidation of the point at
issue.
The persons who put forth the argument to which
we refer, assert that all our reasonings drawn from the
total silence of the Fathers of the first five centuries,
both Greek and Latin, as to the Assumption of the
Virgin, with respect either to their own knowledge
and belief, or to the practice of the Christian Church
in their times, are worth nothing, so long as it can
be shown that the festival of the Assumption was
celebrated by the Church of Rome before the close
of the fifth century; and this they maintain to be
proved by our finding that festival in the Calendars and
Sacramentaries, or service-books of those days. Es-
pecially, it is urged, is this fact proved by the Sacra*
irientaries of Gregory the Great, >who died A.U. ; 604j
and of Pope Gelasius, who preceded him by a ben*
tury, and also by what has been called " The Roman
Calendar, of the fourth, or the early part of the fifth
century* published fey MarteneJ" T
On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. 28
How; utterly valueless, may worse, how deceitful
and misleading, are any conclusions drawn from -these
sources, ,Js known to every one at all conversant
with the subject, and is shown" by the very books
themselves, which are cited as depositaries of such
evidence;
IB the first place, we would observe, that we by no
means .dispute the fact, either that Gregory and Ge-
lasius themselves wrote, or, at least, superintended and
sanctioned each a Sacramentary, containing, as our
Calendars and Liturgy .contain, the Festival days, with
the Collects, Gospels, &c. But that additions were
made to these Sacramentaries or Calendars from time
to time, is not only capable of proof by ourselves,
but has been long acknowledged and asserted, and
maintained and reasoned upon,: by the best Roman
ritualists. Take, for example, Muratori himself, in
his preface to the Sacramentary of Gelasius. Having
urged what he regards as conclusive arguments, that
the work is correctly attributed to that pope, he pro-
ceeds to give an answer to objections which had been
made to his view; an answer which recognizes the
only correct mode of estimating the value of such
evidence as these Sacramentaries and old Calendars
contain on any subject to which it can be applied.
" But, it is said, additions were made to the Sa-
cramentary itself, after the time of Gelasius ! We
by no means, deny it. But this is no reason
why St. Gelasius' should not be called its au-
thor,. Why even the very Liturgy of Gregory is
not denied to be Ms, merely because other prayers,
and festivals, and rites were introduced into it after
St. Gregory's time." Muratori then refers to certain
feasts found in his time in the manuscripts of the
Sacramentary of Gelasius, which were festivals of the
GaHican and not the Roman Church; the appearance
therefore of < which proves that the document did not
continue as Gelasius left it. He adds, " In it is also
found the Mass for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,
On the Assumption of the Fire/in Mary.
a feast which, as all learned men know (ut omnes
eruditi norunt), was instituted after the time of
Gelasius." This, he says, shows that the manuscript
in question was written after the time, of Gelasius;
and since in the time of Charlemagne the . Gallican
Liturgy was suppressed and the Roman substituted,
lie concludes that the manuscript was written before
AiD. 800 5 . We need scarcely to remark that the
appearance of the Assumption as a festival of the
Roman Church in a Calendar at the close of the
eighth century, cannot affect our question as to the
worship of the Virgin through the first four centuries.
The Calendar published by Martene, as a Roman
Calendar of the end of the fourth or the commence-
ment of the fifth century, needs not detain us long.
Martene found two manuscripts which he judged to
be of that age; one of which was, as they say
(ut perhibent), given to a convent by Charlemagne.
But of the dependence to be placed on his judgment
and experience in such matters we know nothing;
and the value of the testimony depends wholly on the
age, not only of the manuscript itself generally, but
also of the very entry about which any question is
entertained. We have seen that the insertion of the
Virgin's Assumption into the Chronicon of Eusebius is
now no longer denied to be spurious ; and in those
days when Calendars were not, as Almanacs are now,
published annually, newly instituted feasts would
naturally be inserted in old Calendars. But, after all*
it is merely Martene's conjecture 6 that these manu-
scripts contained the Roman Calendar at all, whatever
were their age ; for neither of them was prefaced by any
heading or title to that effect. The high antiquity fixed
by Martene on those manuscripts cannot be maintained
without setting at nought the deliberately pronounced
judgment of critics and divines, of whose authority
no Roman Catholic will speak lightly. For i they
5 Muratori, De Rebus Liturgicis, p. 53.
- , c Thesaur. Ariec, vol. v. p. 76. . ; .
On the Assumption of tJie Virgin Mary. 25?
have both the feast of Hypapante on the 2nd
February, whereas Baronius 7 affirms that that feast
was not observed till the fifteenth year of the Empe-
ror Justinian, which was A.D. 542, nearly a century^
and a half later than the date assigned to these
insulated manuscripts by Martene.
But the testimony to which Christians are now not
only confidently but triumphantly referred for demon-
stration of the fact, that the Feast of the Assumption is
older than the time of Gregory the Great, is the
Sacramentary of that pontiff, in which it is found
August 15, the day now observed as that festival in the.
Church of Rome. This question of the antiquity of the
festivals does not involve merely a dry matter of fact,
but has an immediate bearing on a most important and;
interesting subject, rid less than the genuine or spurious
character of many works attributed to the Fathers
of the early Church. We would illustrate our mean->
ing by a plain example. If it is clearly established
that the festival of Hypapante, called also Simeon
and Anna, and in more recent times the Purification,
was not instituted till the fifteenth year of Justinian,
A.D. 542; a Homily ascribed to Methodius, who lived
in the third century, professing to have been preached
on that festival, is proved by the same argument to be
supposititious.
But, in our inquiry into the degree of dependence
which may be placed on the Sacramentary of Gregory
the Great, as an historical document to be employed:
in verifying dates, we must observe, in the first place,
that many centuries ago, at the close of the eighth, OP
the beginning of the ninth century, so great uncer-
tainty was felt as to what was the genuine work of
Gregory, and what were additions and interpolations
made to it subsequently to his time, that three divines 8
were appointed to distinguish the genuine from the
7 Baronius; Paris, 1607, p. 57. Feb. 2.
8 Du Pin, " Aucteurs Eccles." Mons, 1681, vol. v. p.. 143.
[660] B
26 On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
spurious part. But they could not agree as to what had
been added ; and naturally, if the manuscripts to which
they had access did not agree. These three divines were
Rodrade, a monk of Tours ; Alcuin, otherwise called
Albin, who was Charlemagne's master, and Grimoldas
the abbot. The labours of the latter were published
by Pamelius 9 nearly three centuries ago. Grimoldas
maintained, that neither the festival of the Virgin's Na-
tivity nor the Assumption was in Gregory's Sacramen-
tary, into which, as we have already seen (according to
Muratori's assertion), festivals, as well as prayers and
rites, were inserted since Gregory's time. Indeed
Muratori, though pleading for the antiquity of the
festival, distinctly says, that Gregory had not inserted
it himself in his Sacramentary.
Since that time, Menard published another copy of
Gregory's Sacramentary, which contained the festivals
of St. Prix 1 , or Prsejectus, who died about A.D. 672,
that is, sixty-eight years after Gregory's death, and
of Leo II., who died twelve years still later than
Prix. But it is a remarkable fact that, were all other
proofs wanting, the very edition * to which we are now
referred, bears in its forehead a palpably self-evident
demonstration, that whoever rests on Gregory's Sacra-
mentary as chronological evidence, builds on nothing
that can stand the test of truth. For on IV. Idus
Mart., the day now observed by the Church of Rome
as the anniversary of Gregory's death, the very Sacra-
mentary to which appeal is now made, contains the
service for the annual festival of Gregory himself,
including collects praying for the benefit of his inter-
cession. That is, the self-same evidence which is now
cited to prove the Feast of the Assumption to have
been celebrated before Gregory's death, proves, with
equal satisfaction, that the solemnities on the anni-
versaries of that pope's death were celebrated, and
. , 9 Pamelius; Cologne, 1571, vol. ii. p. 336. 388.
1 Acta Sanct. vol. ii. p. 629.
Oil the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. 27
that lie was a canonized saint 2 , and that the efficacy
of his intercession in heaven was prayed for while he
himself was still alive bodily on earth, discharging his
office as the sovereign pontiff of Rome.
And thus the Assumption of the Virgin, tried by
Holy Scripture, by the' testimony of the early Church,,
and on the very evidence proffered in its support by
its advocates, proves to be in truth "a fond thing,
vainly invented," built on no ground which reason
or faith can rest their foot upon.
2 Greg. Paris, 1705, p. 30.
THE END,
GILBERT & RIYINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London t
WHAT IS ROMANISM?
No. XII.
ON THE
WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN.
EVIDENCE OF THE EARLY CHURCH
AGAINST IT.
LONDON:
Printed for the
'SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
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ADVERTISEMENT.
THE present Tracts form part of a series intended to "be
issued, on some of the chief and most prevalent errors of the
Church of Rome. The following have already been published :
I. ON THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPE.
II. ON PARDONS AND INDULGENCES GRANTED BY THE POPE.
III. ON THE INVOCATION OP SAINTS AND ANGELS.
IV. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
V. ON THE INVOCATION OP SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE NE\V TESTAMENT AGAINST IT.
VI. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT.
VII. ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. EVI-
DENCE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT
[continued].
VIII. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
DOCTRINE AND AUTHORIZED SERVICES OF THE
CHURCH OF ROME.
IX. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. PRACTICAL WORK-
ING OF THE SYSTEM.
X. ON THE WORSHIP "OF THE VIRGIN MARY. EVIDENCE
OF HOLY SCRIPTURE AGAINST IT.
XI. ON THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
XII. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. EVIDENCE OF THE
EARLY CHURCH AGAINST IT.
XIII. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARY. EVIDENCE
OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT [continued].
XIV. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. EVIDENCE OF THE
PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT [continued],
XV. ON THE ROMISH WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. EVIDENCE
OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT [^continued].
XVI. ON THE ROMISH WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. EVIDENCE
OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AGAINST IT [concluded].
WHAT IS ROMANISM ?
On the Worship 'of the Virgin.-. Evidence of the Early
Church against, it.
BEFORE we proceed to examine the evidence con-
cerning the worship of the Virgin Mary, as it is sup*
plied by the works of the Fathers of the primitive
Church, we would repeat on this subject the sentiments
which we professed, before we entered on the corre-
sponding inquiry with reference to the. invocation of
saints and angels. We are led, then, to examine the
evidence of Christian antiquity not by any misgiving,
lest the testimony of Scripture on the point might ap-
pear defective or doubtful ; far less by any idea of God's
word needing the support of. man's suffrage. On
the contrary, the voice of God in his revealed word
gives to us no faint or uncertain sound, as it warns us
against offering prayers, or any yeligious worship,
or any invocation to the Virgin Mary; and it is a
fixed principle with all right-minded Christians, that
wherever God's written word is clear and certain,
no human evidence can be weighed against it. But
in. testing the soundness of our interpretation oi that
word, the works of the earliest writers of the Church
are most truly valuable; and in our investigation
A 2
4 On the Worship of the Virgin.
of the prevalence of any doctrine and practice of
primitive times, those ancient records are indispen-
sable.
Now let us here, too, for argument's sake, suppose,
that instead of the oracles of God having spoken, as we
have seen, clearly and certainly on this point, the ques-
tion had been left in Scripture an open question ; then
what evidence would be deducible from the writings
of the primitive Church as to the worship of the
Virgin Mary? What testimony do the first ages,
after the canon of Scripture is closed, bear upon
this point? When we, of the Church of England,
religiously abstain from presenting any address in the
nature of prayer, or supplication, entreaty, request, or
invocation of whatever kind, and from acts of re-
ligious worship and praise to the Virgin, are we, or
are we not, treading in the steps of the first Christians,
and adhering to the very pattern which they set?
And do the members of the Church of Rome by
such acts of worship directed to the Virgin Mary,
as we find in their authorized and appointed liturgies,
and in their works of private devotions, or do they
not, depart as far and as decidedly from the model
of primitive Christianity, as they do from the plain
sense of Holy Scripture ?
The result of a careful examination of the body of
Christian writers is an entire assurance, that, at the
least, through the first five centuries, the worship
of the Virgin now insisted upon by the decrees of
the Council of Trent^ prescribed by the Roman
ritual, and actually practised in the Church of Rome,
had neither name, nor place, nor existence among
Christians. No single remark of any of these
writers leads us to infer that the worship of the Virgin
was known in their times. On the contrary, their
silence, and that often on occasions when their silence
is irreconcilable with their possessing knowledge on the
subject, proves them to have been unconscious of any
such doctrine and practice as now prevail in the
Evidence of the Early Church against it. 5
Church of Rome. But.besi.des this, which may be .called
negative evidence, the principles which they habitu-
ally maintain, and the sentiments with which their
works abound, are utterly inconsistent .with such
belief and practice. This might be exemplified in
other cases, but more especially is it forced on our
notice when we find many of the most venerable
Fathers of the Church, in their comments on the
passages of Scripture which record the actions of the
Virgin, directly 1 charging her with errors and failings,
altogether incompatible with those views of her per-
fections, which the doctrines of the Church of Rome
put before us. It is also worthy of remark, that
the spurious writings ascribed to the Fathers 2 , of
a date not more remote at furthest than the seventh
century, abound with ascriptions of power, and mercy,
and glory to the Virgin, with declarations of implicit
belief in her influence and intercession, and with
pravers to her for temporal and spiritual blessings ;
I.M A. C -i. A.I. 1 r
while for any traces or such, the genuine works of
the same Fathers will be searched in vain.
Among those, indeed, who adhere to the Triden-
tine confession of faith, there are some on whom such
an investigation, as we are now instituting, would
have no influence. The sentiments of Huet, the
Roman Catholic commentator and bishop, wherever
they are adoptedj would set aside such inquiries alto-
gether. His words in his dissertations on Origen,
are of far wider application than the immediate oc-
casion on which he used them: "That the blessed
Mary never conceived any sin in herself is, in the
present day, an established principle in the Church,
and confirmed by the Council of Trent; in which it
1 This will hereafter be shown to be the case with Irenseus, T ertul-
. lian, Origen, Basil, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Cyril of
Alexandria.
2 This we find exemplified in the spurious works of Ignatius,
Methodius, Athanasius, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Gregory of Nazi-
anzum, Ephraim Syrus, Chrysostom, Augustine, Cyril of Alexandria,
.Pope Leo, &c.
A 3
6 On the Worship of the Virgin*
is our duty to acquiesce, father than in the dicta of
the ancients, should any of them appear to think other-
wise, among whom must be numbered (Mg-en V
In entering Upon our present inquiry, 1 we take for
granted that the reader is open to conviction, desirous
of arriving at the truth, and ; as one efficient mean's of
attaining it, ready to sift honestly and patiently the
evidence of the primitive Church.
Ancient Creeds.
At this stage of 'our inquiry it will not be out of place
to observe, that in the most 'ancient creeds there is BO
intimation whatever of any idea being entertained
when they were framedi as to the posthumous exal-
tation of the Virgin, her assumption into heaven,
the invocation of her name, reliance on her merits
and patronage, or beiief in her intercession. Many
creeds are recorded in the early writers, in which
the incarnation of the Son of God is an article in-
variably inserted, and in sonic cases largely dwelt
tipon; but the phrases employed refer to no dignity
of his mother's nature, no mediatorial office assigned
to her, no power granted to her of benefiting mam-
kind, nor any adoration of her name. The three
creeds now usually employed in the Church, afford
conjointly -a fair specimen of the language and senti-
ments ! of the rest; some of which mention the Virgin
Mary by name, while -others do not allude to her
further than does St. Paul, "God sent forth his Son
made of a woman V " He was conceived of the
Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary 6 ." "He
was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin
MaryV " God of the substance of his Father, be-
gotten before the worlds, and Man of the substance of
his mother, born in the world 7 ." Thus some of the
3 Origen, vol. iv. part ii. p. 156, Paris, 1733.
4 Gal. iv. 4. 5 Apostles' Creed. 6 Nicene. ' ' 7 A'thanasian.
. Ancient Creeds. 7
ancient creeds say, < who was incarnate and made
man," without any reference to his mother ; others,
** born of a Virgin 8 ;" others, " born of Mary ;" others,
born of the Virgin Mary 9 ;" not one referring to her,
except as the mother of the Incarnate 'Word, noli one
alluding at all to her dignity, her authority, or tier
present state. In this respect they all essentially
differ from the " creed of Pope Pius 1V./' to the
belief in the truth of which ministers of the Church
of Home are bound, as containing articles of faith,
without which there is no salvation *. That Creed not
only announces that the saints reigning with Christ
are to be worshipped, but while it assents generally
that due honour and worship must be paid to other
saints, it joins, in a, marked manner, the images of
" Christ and the Virgin Mary " together, in contra-
distinction to the others. Of such things as these
there is no more a trace to be found in any of the
ancient creeds, than ia the Holy Scripture itself.
Evidence of Primitive Christian Writers.
For a brief notice of the tinier the circumstances,
and the works of the Fathers, which are cited in the
course of our present inquiry, down to the middle of
the fourth century, the reader is referred to a former
Tract (No. 6 and 7 of this Series), in which the evidence
of primitive writers is examined as to the worship of
saints arid angels. Of those authors who flourished
after Athanasius, similar short notices will be pre-
fixed to their testimonies upon the subject under con-
sideration.
The Apostolic Fathers 2 .
Of the remains of those five writers who are usually
8 Ireneeus, lib. i. c. 2. 9 Tertullian, De Prsescr. c. 13.
1 Catechism, ad Parachos, Lugduni, 1686, p. 521.
2 Antwerp, 1698.
A 4
8 On the Worship of the Virgin.
called Apostolic Fathers, we have no means of affixing
the date to each with any confidence in its accuracy.
No reasonable doubt, however, is entertained that
they were all in existence long before the Council of
Nice, A.D. 325.
1. In the Epistle of St. Barnabas, which gives
directions on the subject of prayer, no mention is
made of the Virgin Mary.
2. In the Shepherd of Hermas, while the same
silence is observed with regard to the Virgin, the Son
of God is declared to be the GATE, and THE ONLY
WAY TO GOD 3 , in language which contrasts itself
very strongly with the prayers of modern Rome,
which address Mary as the " Gate of heaven," and
implores her to be " our way to God."
3. Clement, bishop of Rome. The writings of this
primitive father become perhaps the more interesting '
in our present inquiry, as containing the sentiments of
one of the earliest bishops of that Church, whose pre-
sent belief and practice we are now testing by the
evidence of primitive times. And so far from a single
word occurring which might lead us to suppose that this
Clement was cognizant of any invocation of the Virgin,
or any reliance on her intercession prevailing among
Christians, his evidence against it is more than nega-
tive. For though he speaks of angels and of holy
men of old who pleased God, such as Enoch, Abra-
ham, David, Elijah, and Job ; though he bids us think
of St. Peter and St. Paul, looking to them with reve-
rence and gratitude, in order that we may imitate
their good examples ; he never alludes to the Virgin
Mary ; and even when he speaks of our blessed Lord
having descended from Abraham according to the
flesh, he makes no mention of that daughter of Abra-
ham of whom the Christ was born.
4. In St. Ignatius we find no trace of any invoca-
tion of the Virgin, or of any dependence on her merits.
3 Sim. ix. sect. 12.
Apostolic Fathers. 9
This early martyr speaks of the twofold nature of
Christ again and again. Thus, he says, " there is one
physician both of a corporeal and of a spiritual nature ;
begotten and 'not begotten; God in the flesh; true
life in death ; both from Mary and from God V
" Our physician is the only true God, ungenerated
and unapproachable, the Lord of all things, the Father
and Generator of the only-begotten Son. We have
also for our physician, our Lord God Jesus Christ,
who was before the world, the only-begotten Son and
the Word, but also afterwards Man of the Virgin
<Mary, for the Word was made flesh V " Son of God,
and Son of Man according to the flesh of the seed of
David."
Unhappily we are thus early in our inquiry com-
pelled to advert to the unjustifiable expedient of quot-
ing for evidence spurious passages, and urging them
with all confidence, in support of a favourite doctrine.
Alphonsus Liguori, canonized by the present Pope
in 1839, thus quotes Ignatius, in defence of the pre-
sent Roman doctrine concerning the Virgin's attri-
butes and saving power :
" Before Bonaventura, St. Ignatius had pronounced
that a sinner can be saved ONLY by having recourse to
tiie blessed Virgin, whose IN FIN ITE mercy obtains sal-
vation for those who would be condemned by infinite
justice. Some pretend that the text is not taken from
Ignatius, but we know that St. Chrysostom attributes
it to him 6 ." i^J
After what we" have before said, it is scarcely neces-
sary to add, that in no one of the works of St.
Ignatius can any allusion to such a position be dis-
covered ; and though Liguori says, " We know that St.
Chrysostom attributes it to Ignatius," yet not only has
the work of that father on the life and character of
Ignatius, but also every other part of his works, been
carefully and repeatedly searched for any allusion
4 Epist. to Ephes. p 13. 5 P. 48. c Dublin, 1843, p. 190.
A5
10 On the Worship of the Virgin.
to such a statement, but not the slightest trace can be
discovered. In the course ;of our present investigation,
^we shall too often be remirrded of the recklessness and
eager anxiety with which the -system of quoting spu-
rious works as genuine, and of referring to works
which cannot be discovered, has been pursued.
5. In St. Pdlycarp, usually ranked as the last of the
Apostolic Fathers, we:find no -allusion to the merits or
intercession -of Mary.
In bringing to a close ; this brief reference to the
Apostolic Fathers, the same question offers itself to
us under different circumstances, but *with great -co-
gency under all. If the doctrine and practice of
worshipping the Virgin as Roman Catholics now do,
if the doctrine of her mediatorial office, if the practice
of ^praying to her even for her intercession, if reliance
on her power, ;and influence, and merits had been
known and acted upon by the Apostles themselves,
and those ^who were successors or ddsciples'of the Apos-
tles, would noisome plain unequivocal indications of
it appear in such writings as these, in which much is
said of prayer, and repeated reference is made to the
incarnation of the Son of God? Does it accord with
-common sense and 'Ordinary experience that there
should be in these writings a profound and total silence
on the subject of invoking the Virgin Mary for her
good offices, if invocation addressed to the Virgin had
been known, approved, and practised in the primitive
Church?
Justin Martyr., A.D. 150 7 .
Justin Martyr refers to the Virgin Mary in .her
character as the mother of our Lord 8 ; but we discover
no trace of any notion of her ipower >or influence, of
any invocation addressed to her, . of any thought of her
merits to be pleaded in our behalf, or of any regard to
her as a mediator and intercessor ; we find no epithet
T Ed. Pans, 1742. 8 Trypho, sect. 100, p. 195.
. Justin Martyr. ' * 11
expressive of honour, dignity, or exatetaon beyond
what we, as members of fee Church of England,
habitually use ourselves. " He therefore 'calls him-
self the Son of Man, either because of his Mrfch
of a virgin, who was of the race of David and
Jacob, and Isaac and Abraham ; or because Abraham
himself was the father of those persons enumerated,
from whom Mary drew her origin." And a little foe-
low he adds " For Eve -being a virgin, and uricorrupt,
Graving received the word from the serpent, 'brought
forth transgression and death ; but Mary, the Virgin,
having received faith and joy (on the angel Gabriel
announcing to her the glad tidings that iihe Spirit of
the Lord should come upon her, and the power of the
Highest overshadow her), answered, '* Be it unto me
according to thy word.' And of her was He born of
whom we have shown that so many Scriptures have
been spoken ; He by whom God destroys the serpent,
and angels -and men resembling [the serpent] ; 'but
works a rescue from death for such as repent of evil
and 'believe in Him/' In another place he -says, " Ae-
cording to the command of God, Joseph, taking Him
together with Mary, went into Egypt."
In the volume containing Justin's works are - M Ques-
tions and Answers to 'iihe Orthodox," which, as it is
agreed on all sides, are not his, but the productions
01 a later hand. The arguments appear strong, which
assign them to a Syrian Christian as their author, who
lived in the fifth century or even later. Among
the doubts and difficulties and objections which are
made and answered in these Questions, this inquiry
is proposed, " How could Christ be free from blame,
who so often set at nought his parents?" The
answer is, "He did not set his mother at nought;
He honoured her in deed, and would not hurt lier by
his words 9 ." But to this the respondent adds, that
Christ chiefly honoured Mary in that view of her
maternal character, under which all who heard the
9 Ques. 136, p. 500.
A 6
12 On the Worship of the Virgin*
word of God and kept it were his brothers, and sisters,
and mother ; and that she who surpassed all women in
virtue was therefore chosen to be the mother of the
Saviour.
Tatian, Atlienagoras^ Theophilus,
In the same volume with the works of Justin Mar-
tyr, the Benedictines have published the remains of
these three learned Christians of the second century;
and in defence of some doctrines of the Roman
Church, those editors appeal to the works of each of
these authors separately,
Tatian, by birth an Assyrian, and pupil of Justin
Martyr, led a life marked beyond others by severe
austerity. One work of his, ** An Address to the
Greeks," remains to the present time, in which he
exposes the follies and immoral tendencies of their
mythology. In the course of his argument, men^
tioning by name many of the females whom the Greek
poets had celebrated, he compares them with the
modest, chaste, and retired habits of Christian virgins 1 ,
who, he says, as they are occupied with their distaff,
speak of heavenly things, and of what they learn from
God's oracles, far more admirably than Sappho could
sing her immoral strains. The question forces itself
on our mind, as we read such portions of his address
as these, Could a Christian writer have here abstained
from speaking of the Virgin Mary, if she had been
the same object of his invocation, the same source of
his hope, the same theme of his praise as she now^is
with her worshippers in the Roman communion?
Could he have passed her by unnamed, without al-
luding to her honour on earth, or her exaltation to
heaven, and her influence there ?
In the two other authors, we find no reference made
to the Virgin Mary 2 . Theophilus, indeed, speaks of
i C. 33, p. 270. 2 Lib. ii. c. 22.
13
. God the Word begotten from everlasting of the
Father ;" and it is remarkable that in his translation
of the third chapter of Genesis, he applies the pro-
mise of bruising the serpent's head, not to the woman,
as the Roman version applies it, but to her seed.
St. Irenaus, A.D. 180.
Next to Justin, who sealed his faith by his blood,
about A.D. 165, we must examine the evidence of St.
Irenseus, bishop of Lyons. Of his works a very small
proportion is known to survive in the original Greek ;
and we must avail ourselves of the nervous, but in-
elegant Latin translation, corrupt and imperfect in
many parts as it unfortunately is. One passage 3 in
Irenseus, closely resembling a passage we have just
quoted from Justin Martyr, is cited by Bellarmin and
others, as justifying the invocation of the Virgin Mary;
but it is entirely beside the mark. The passage is
rendered word for word : " For as that one, (Eve,) by
the discourse of an angel, was seduced to fly from God,
running counter to his word, so also this one, (Mary,)
by the discourse of an angel, received the glad tidings,
that she should bear God. And as that one was
seduced to fly from God, in like manner also this one
was persuaded to obey God ; so that of the virgin Eve
the Virgin Mary might become the advocate ; and as
the human race was BOUND to death by a virgin, it
MIGHT BE LOOSED by a virgin, a virgin's disobedience 4
being disposed of in an equal scale by a virgin's obedi-
ence." Cardinal Bellarmin stops short at the word
advocate, and exclaims, f c What can be clearer ?"
Now in whatever sense Irenseus may be supposed
to have employed the Greek word here rendered in
the Latin version advocata, it is difficult to see how
the circumstance of Mary becoming the advocate of
3 Lib. v. c, 19, p. 316, 4 The closing sentence is imperfect.
14 On the Worship of the Virgin.
Eve, who so many generations before Mary's -birth,
had Wen removed to the other world, can bear upon
the question, whether it is lawful for a Christian now
^dwelling on "earth to invoke the Virgin Mary.
But in our own days another 'most startling sense is
applied to the closing words of Irenseus in the same
paragraph. The comment being founded on unques-
tionably an untenable 5 reading, to prove the unsound-
ness of the reading would have been enough, had not
the interpretation now given to the passage supplied
a palpable instance of the deplorable extent to which
the doctrine of the Virgin's merits as affecting man's
salvation is carried by pur contemporaries. We shall
scarcely find even in Bonaventura or the Bernardlnes
a more entire sacrifice of Christian truth to the theory
of the Virgin's exaltation and prerogatives. The
writer to whom we refer having maintained that the
words " Death by Eve,, Life by Mary," are frequently
found in the Fathers, and " imply that the Virgin had
more than a mechanical share in the world's redemp-
tion," afterwards proceeds to say, " Now observe the
very strong language of St. Irenseus : Quemadmodum
astrictum est morti genus humanum per Virginemj =SAT>
VATUR per Virginem, csqud lance disposita mrgincilis
inobedientia per mrginalem obedientiam. That is in
common, parlance, * THE MERITS OF MARY WERE so
GR'EAT AS TO COUNTERBALANCE THE SIN OF EVE T'"
We need not dwell on so monstrous and shocking a
perversion of the meaning of Irenseus as this would
have been, even had the reading been salvatur, be-
cause beyond all doubt the proper reading is solvettur.
Whether the passage be tried by the external evi-
dence of printed editions from a date further Track
than three hundred years ; or of the best manuscripts,
or of ancient quotations ; or by the internal evidence of
what the sense requires, and of the sentiments and
language of Irenseus in other parts of his work, the
5 Dublin Review, June, 1844.
old reading solvatur must be restored. The idea pre-
sent ito the mind of Irenaeus, and jepeatedly embodied
by him in words is, that the KNOT by which Eve's
unfaithfulness 6 BOUND the human race was LOOSED
fey the Virgin's faith-fulness in becoming the .mother
of the Saviour, The >old and true reading here pre-
serves the correlativeness of the terms of the passage ;
the new reading^ first introduced by Grabe in 1702,
at once destroys it.
How far Irenseus was from thus exalting Mary into
a Saviour, whose merits counterbalanced Eve's sin in
yielding to Satan, and involving mankind in her fall,
is evident to any one who reads .his remains. In
referring to the mother of our Lord, he speaks of
"-Mary" or " the Virgin," or " Mary, who hitherto
was a virgin," without any adjunct or term of rever-
ence, never alluding either to her influence with God,
or to any practice among Christians of invoking her.
Of the Incarnation he thus speaks: "This Son of
God is our Lord, being the Word of the Father and
the Son of Man \ since of Mary, who derived her
origin from man, and was herself a human being, he
had his generation according to man. Wherefore also
the Lord Himself -gave us a sign in the depth, and
height above, which ,man asked not for, because he
toped not that a virgin could conceive, remaining a
virgin, and bring forth a son ; and that child is Ood
with us."
Although the expressions of Irenseus as to Mary's
unworthy and unjustifiable haste for our Lord to display
his power at the marriage feast in Cana, are not so strong
in icondemnatiori of her as many which we shall here-
after find in various fathers of the early Church, yet
it may be asked would any one holding the doctrines
of modern Rome as to the Virgin's perfectness, have
given utterance to such sentiments as these which we
find in Irenseus 7 :
e See lib. iii. c. 22,, p. 220. ? Lib. iii. c. 18, p. 206. 2.
16 On the Worship of the Virgin*
tc
All these things were foreknown by the Father,
but are accomplished by the Son, .... at the fit
time. Wherefore when Mary hastened to the won-
derful miracle of the wine, and wished before the
time to partake of that cup 8 , the Lord repelling her
untimely hurrying, said, * What have I to do with
thee, woman ? mine hour is not yet come,' waiting for
that hour which was foreknown by the Father."
St. Clement of Alexandria, A.D. 190 9 .
On this father's testimony, we have little to add to
what has been already observed in our examination of
his evidence on the invocation of saints and angels.
He speaks of Mary, and of her virgin-state when she
became a mother, and of the mystery of Christ's birth;
but he speaks of her without one word of honour.
The language which we before quoted, as used by
Clement, to convince the Greeks of their unsoundness
in supposing that any beings in the unseen world
ought to be worshipped by men, because that for
.their exalted purity they were permitted by Providence
to be conversant about earthly places, and to minister
to mortals, is altogether irreconcilable with the idea
of his ever having invoked Mary, or sought by
prayer her aid.
Teriullian, A.D. 190.
Referring the reader to a former number l for Ter-
tullian's evidence generally against the invocation of
saints and angels, or any created being, we must here
confine ourselves to his testimony as to the worship of
8 The word is Compendii poculo meaning the cup of wine made
immediately by Christ, and not through the medium of the grape.
Lib. iii. c. 2, p. 219. 2.
9 Oxford, 1715. 1 No. VII. of these Tracts.
Clement of Alexandria. . Tertullian. 17
the Virgin Mary. He tells us in one passage, that
Christ was born of a virgin, who was also to be once
married after his birth, that in Him the two titles of
sanctity might be distinctly marked, by a mother who
was both a virgin and also once married ; but in no
passage can we discover any thing approaching the
modern doctrine. On the contrary, Tertullian's evi-
dence is not merely negative on this precise point ;
for, like Chrysostom's and others, his sentiments with
regard to the Virgin Mary are altogether conclusive
on the subject under investigation. It is inconceivable
that any man accustomed, as members of the Roman
Church now are, to confide in her merits, to seek her
protection and favour, to invoke her name in prayer,
and to offer her religious praises, could have enter-
tained such sentiments as we shall now quote, and
which Tertullian repeats in other places with only
some slight variation of language :
"But what reason is there for the 'answer which
disowned his mother and his brethren ? The brothers
of the Lord had not believed on Him, as it is con-
tained in the Gospel, which existed before Marcion's
time. His mother also is not shown to have adhered
to Him, whereas other Marys and Marthas were often
in his company. Finally, their unbelief is made
manifest by this : While He was preaching the way
of life, while He was preaching the kingdom of God,
while He was engaged in curing sicknesses and evils,
at a time when strangers were fixedly intent upon
Him, then persons so nearly related to Him were
absent. At last they come up, and stand outside
the door, and do not enter ; not thinking, forsooth,
of what was going on there : nor do they wait, just
as though they were bringing something more ur-
gent than the business in which He was then chiefly
occupied. Now, Apelles and Marcion, I ask you
if, perchance, when you were playing at chess, or
disputing about players or charioteers, you had been
called away by such a message, would you not have
18 On the Worship of the Virgin.
said, .' Who is my mother, and who are my brethren &
And while Christ was preaching and setting forth
God, fulfilling the law and the prophets, dispersing
the darkness of so many ages, did He, without rea-
sonable cause, employ this saying, to strike at the
unbelief of those who stood without, or to shake off
the importunity of those who were calling Him away
from his work 2 ?"
In another place 3 , commenting on the same transac-
tion, Tertulliati says, " Thy mother and thy brethren
stand without, desiring to speak with thee. Christ^
with 'reason, felt indignant, that while strangers were
bent intently on his discourse, persons so nearly re-
lated to Him should stand without; seeking, moreover,
to call Him away from his solemn work V
Qrigen s A.D. 280.
In our examination of the testimony of Origen on
the subject of invoking, by prayer, saints and angels,
we quoted the following passage, wliich we are in-
duced to repeat here, not only on account of its
intrinsic value, but also because it suggests an un-
answerable argument against our supposing that the
doctrine and practice of the worship of the Virgin de-
rives any countenance from Origen.
" The one God, the God who is over all, is to be
propitiated by us, and to be appeased by prayer the
God who is rendered favourable by piety and all
virtue. But if Celsus is desirous . to propitiate after
the Supreme God, some others, also, let him bear in
mind, that just as a body in motion is accompanied by
the motion of its shadow, so also by rendering the
Supreme God favourable, it follows that the person
2 De Carne Christi, vii. p. 315.
3 Ghrysostom employs stronger language than Tertullian, in .reflect-
ing on the conduct of Mary and the Lord's brothers on this .occa-
sion.
4 Adv. Marc. iv. ID, p. 433.
Orig/en. '19
has all his friends, angels, souls, spirits, favourable
also; for they sympathise with those who are worthy
of Gods favour ; and not only do they become kindly
affected towards the worthy, but they also join with
those in their work who desire to worship the Su-
preme Go'd; and &ey propitiate him, and pray with
us, and supplicate for uv We, therefore, boldly say,
that together with men who, on principle, prefer the
better part, and pray to God, ten thousands -of holy
powers join in prayer UNASKED " [UNBIDDEN,
UNCALLED UPON, UNINVOKED.]
What an opportunity had Origen here to state,
$hat though Christians did not call upon angels, and
the subordinate divinities of heathenism, yet that,
'together with other holy persons, objects of their
prayers in the unseen world, they called upon the
Virgin Mary, the mother of their Saviour, "The
-Queen of Heaven," "The Gate of Heaven," " The
Way to Heaven," in whom "the Supreme God was
well pleased," and who could " succour and save
whom she would 5 !"
Instead <of this we find Origen in one place referring
to the Virgin Mary 6 , just as we should ourselves speak
of her, as one not like other mothers, but as a pure
virgin, and, therefore, not subject to the Levitical law
concerning matrons 6 . In another he speaks of " the
announcement to Zacharias of the birth of John, and
to Mary, of the advent of our Saviour among men 7 ,"
making no difference of dignity between the father of
the Baptist, aad the mother of our Lord. But not
one word is found to intimate Origen's belief, or the
belief of the Church <at his time, in the influence
and advocacy of Mary, or the practice of the Church,
'or of himself, in praying to her for her succour and
intercession.
5 Cont. Gels. b. viii. 6<L, vol. d. p. 789. See also b. viii. vol. i. p.
786; b. v. p. 579; b. viii. p. 751.
6 In Levit. Horn. viii. vol. ii. p. 228.
. t Comment on John, sec. 24, vol. iv. p. 82. . ,
20 On the Worship of the Virgin.
But the positive testimony of Origen. is .very
strong against the present doctrine and practice of
the Church of Rome. The critic and divine M.
Huet, charges Origen with holding unsound tenets,
" contrary to the doctrine of the Church of Rome at
the present day and to the Council of Trent." The
third error laid to his charge is that, whereas " the
Church and that Council maintain that the Virgin
Mary never had sin, Origen holds that she was not
,only liable to sin, but was actually guilty of it 8 ;" and
in proof of this charge Huet quotes Origen's comment
of St. Luke, c. ii.
" What is that sword that pierced 'through the
hearts, not only of others, but of Mary also ? It is
plainly written that at the time of the passion all the
Apostles were offended, the Lord Himself saying,
6 All you shall be offended this night.' So all were
offended to such a degree, that Peter also, the chief
of the Apostles, thrice denied Him. What ! do
we suppose that when the Apostles were offended,
the mother of our Lord was free from feeling of-
fence ? If she did not feel offence in our Lord's suffer-
ing, Jesus did not die for her sins. But if all have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God, being
justified by his grace -"and redeemed, surely Mary,
too, was offended at that time. And this is what
Simeon now prophesies, saying, And through thy
own soul, thou who knowest that without a husband
thou broughtest forth, who didst hear the voice of
Gabriel, 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,'
shall the sword of unbelief pierce ; and thou shalt be
struck by the sharp point of doubt, when thou shalt see
Him whom thou heardest to be the Son of God, ;and
whom thou knowest that thou broughtest forth without
a husband, crucified and dying, and subject to human
sufferings V
In the same charge, and not without reason, Huet
8 Vol. iv. p. 156, Appendix. 8 Horn, in Luc. xvii. vol. iii. p. 952.
Gregory Thaumaturgus. 21
implicates Basil, Chrysostom, Cyril, and others.
The fact is, that a large portion of the ancient
Fathers of the Church speak freely on the want of
faith in the Virgin Mar}', or the imperfection and
weakness of her faith.
Gregory Thaumaturgus^ A.D. 245 l .
The name of this Gregory, a bishop of Csesarea, in
Pontus, was originally Tneodorus; and his name
Thaumaturgus, or the Wonder- Worker, was given
him in consequence of the number of miracles which
were ascribed to him. Much of what is doubtful
and unsatisfactory hangs over his life, and over the
writings now attributed to him. His miracles are
such as to have induced most persons to regard them
as merely fabulous exaggerations of some acts of
benevolence and Christian charity. Among other
supernatural works, he is said, by a prayer, to have
removed a mountain, which prevented the building of
a church; to have dried up a lake which had been
the cause of some discord; and by planting his staff
on the river Lycus (the staff immediately growing
into a tree), to have prevented that river from ever
after inundating the land, or extending its flood be-
yond that tree.
We have already referred to a catalogue of authors
and their works, drawn up by Pope Gelasius and a
Roman Council, at the close of the fifth century, which
admits some works as genuine, and orthodox, and
rejects others as apocryphal, or dangerous; and the
approved authors are recorded in the Roman canon
law as authoritative teachers. But in that catalogue
no mention whatever is made either of this Gregory
or his works. Still, since Bellarmin and other contro-
versialists often appeal to him, it is not safe to omit
all inquiry into his evidence.
1 Paris, 1622.
22 On the Worship of the. Virgin.
He was a disciple of Origen on whom he wrote &
panegyric, which Jerome reports to have been extant
in his time ; he also wrote a work on the, Book of
Eeelesiastes, also mentioned by Jerome, and whiebi
has come down to the present day. In these works,
the genuineness of which is not doubted, not the
slightest trace can be found of any reference to the
Virgin, or any praises to her name.
But to these Vossius added some others, including
three discourses delivered in honour of the Virgin,
upon the Feast of the Annunciation, which either had
never before been brought to light, or had never before;
been published as Gregory's, one having been pre-
viously circulated as a work of Athanasius. These
writings are beyond question spurious. In the first
place, neither does Jerome in his enumeration of the
works of this Gregory, nor does any other ancient
writer allude to them. Again, they profess to have
been delivered on the Festival of the Annunciation,
which is proved by satisfactory arguments not to have
been observed before the seventh century. This is
shown in the Appendix to the " Romish Worship of
the Virgin," p. 370, and the proofs need not be re-
peated here. Many celebrated critics also have pro-
nounced these homilies to be spurious, among whom,
are Cave and Dupin. Lumper also, at some length,
proves them to be of a much later date than Gregory's
age. Bellarmin himself rejects at once two of these
new works ascribed by Vossius to this Gregory ; and
of these very homilies he says, " I entertain no certain
opinion, for the ancients have made no mention of them,
and yet cannot it be proved that they are spurious."
Here we must observe, with surprise and pain,
that while Bellarmin 2 , in his zeal to maintain the
antiquity of the Feast of the Annunciation, cites the
homily (which Vossius here ascribes to Gregory) as
2 Bellarmin, Prague, 1721, vol. ii, p. 515. Bellarmin, Cologne,
1617, vol. vii. p. 50.
Gregory Thaumatttrgus, 23
a homily of St. Athanasius, delivered on that festival ;
yet in his work on ecclesiastical writers, he con-
demns the very same homily as a forgery, declaring
the evidence against it to be irresistible. But Vossius,
laying aside the character of a judge, and acting the
part of a panegyrist, converts his editorial preface into
a rhapsody, in which he implores the Virgin to make
him an ample return out of the abundant treasure of
her grae, in consideration of his having done so much
for her .in the way of encomiums and eulogies. We
might well have added extracts from his preface to
the instances which we have given in a former; Dumber,
of the practical working of the system of the worship of
the Virgin. He dedicates the edition to St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus and the Virgin Mary jointly, and
among his variously combined acts of prayer and
praise, are the following :
" My mind is astounded, my memory fails, my
utterance languishes, and my tongue cleaves to my
jaws, while I strive as a herald to celebrate thy
praise, O most holy Virgin, mother of God, Mary I
and hold before my mind the mirror of thy heroic
virtues.
" Here I will make an end ; and I pray and beseech
thee, O Gregory, together with the most glorious and
most holy mother of God, Mary the Virgin, that ye
will at all times undertake the patronage of me, that
ye will join your prayers with mine, and never cease
to intercede for me with the most merciful God, and
that THROUGH YOU, after this frail, sad, and short life
ended, I may be deemed worthy to reach the life truly
blessed and eternal.
" Hail, Mother, the Heaven, the Virgin, the
Throne, and of our Church the honour, and glory,
and strength ! Hail thou, the comfort and ready help
of those in danger, who have recourse to thee ! Hail,
refuge of sinners, help of all the good and afflicted*
the fountain of grace and OF ALL COMFORT. Hail,
best mediatrix between God and man ! Hail, sure
24 On the Worship of the Virgin.
and unfailing protection of us all ! Hail, ONLY relief
of the troubles and disturbances of this life ! Hail,
ONLY hope of the desponding, succour of the oppressed,
and present help of those who fly to thee ! Hail, gate
and key of heaven's kingdom, the ladder and the way
upwards of all the elect ! To thee we cry ; remember
us, O most holy Mother and Virgin; remember, I
say, and IN RETURN FOR THESE ENCOMIUMS AND
EULOGIES GIVE us BACK great gifts, out of the riches
of thy so abundant graces."
It is no longer matter of wonder that Vossius
should be anxious to make so early a writer as Gre-
gory Thaumaturgus the author of homilies in honour
of the Virgin, when we thus find him praying for great
gifts expressly in return for the abundance of his
praises of her ; but it is matter of wonder that such
homilies should be now appealed to, as containing
Gregory's testimony, though they had never been
published or enumerated among his works, or re-
ferred to as his, or even heard of, for at least thir-
teen hundred years !
Methodius 3 .
It is not less matter of wonder to find a work
formerly attributed to Methodius, a bishop of Tyre,
in the third century, still quoted as genuine, though
the best critics, some of them Roman Catholic edi-
tors, have long ago pronounced the homily now cited
as evidence of the early invocation of the Virgin, to
be the production of a much later age. It is indeed
surprising to see with what eagerness and pertinacity
the advocates of the worship of the Virgin enlist in
their service every work which has ever had the name
of an ancient writer attached to it not only treatises
of disputed and doubtful genuineness, but also works,
3 Methodius, Paris, 1644.
* 25
for centuries have been denounced by the most
enlightened writers even of their own Church as de-
cidedly spurious. We are reminded at every step of
; the confession of the Bourdeaux editor of the Chronicon
of Eusebius, that overpowered by the evidence against
the record contained in it of the Virgin's Assumption,
he would have expunged it from his edition, were it
not from his knowledge that nothing certain as to the
Assumption of the Virgin could be substituted in its
stead.
With regard to the homily of Methodius, now quoted
as genuine, we need only remark that the Benedictine
editor of Jerome * says, once for all, that the Sympo-
sium is the only entire work of Methodius extant;
'that Baronius 5 says expressly, " I do not hesitate to
say, that no Greek or Latin writer has left a sermon
delivered on the Feast of the Purification before
the fifteenth year of Justinian, on which feast this
homily, attributed to Methodius, purports to have
been delivered;" and that Lumper 8 shows beyond
question that this homily is of a much later* age
than Methodius. It is said that the style of this
sermon closely resembles the style of the Symposium;
but we all know that in writings, no less than in paint-
ings, resemblance is often a most fallacious criterion,
and never must be allowed to counterbalance clear
and decided evidence against the genuineness of a
work. Not only, however, does the argument from,
the Feast of the Purification exclude this homily from
the works of Methodius of Tyre, but the theological
language also of the homily itself proves it to belong
to a period much later; for the writer evidently em-
ploys expressions to guard against the Arian heresy,
and seems to make extracts from the Nicene Creed.
Even were the work genuine, instead of being pal-
4 Jerom. vol. ii. p. 910. 5 Baronius, Paris, 1607, p. 57.
6 Lumper, Part xiii. p. 474.
[661] B
26 On the Worship of the. Virgin.
pably spurious, its oratorical figures ^afford almbsfeas
strong a demonstration of his having believed that the
city of Jerusalem could hear his salutation, as that the
Virgin could listen to his prayers; for he addresses
the same "Hail" to the Holy City, as he does to
Mary and Simeon, calling it " The earthly .-Heaven."
St. Cyprian, A.D. 258 7 .
4
We have already seen how powerfully and affect-
ingly this celebrated father has written on the subject
of prayer ; and had he ever addressed himself to the Vir-
gin, invoking her succour or imploring her interces-
sion, his line of argument in many of his productions
would have led naturally to an expression of his sen-
timents in that respect. No trace, however, of such
belief or practice can be discovered in all his various
works ; nor can we find one word expressive of reve-
ren^e towards her, or referring to her merits, or 'her
influence with God ; nor is her name alluded to by
his correspondent Firmilian, bishop of Cappadociai
Lactantius, A.D. 280 317.
We have seen also, in a former number, how decidedly
the testimony of Lactantius bears against the doc-
trine of the adoration of any other being than God,
and of the intercession of any other mediator than
Christ. On our present subject, the following is
among the few passages to which we need make any
reference :
"Christ was, therefore, both God and man; ap-
pointed as mediator between God and man ; whence
the Greeks call Him Meatrrjv (Mediator), that he might
bring man to God, that is, to immortality; because
? Paris, 1726.
St. Cyprian. Lactantius. Eusebius. ; -2j7<.
had He been only God, He could not have given \a->
pattern to man ; if He had been only man, He could
nbt have compelled man to justice, had not a power
and authority greater than man's been added." , .
Lactantius speaks of a " Holy Virgin" chosen for the
office which she sustained, but not one word looking to
adoration. He dwells on the incarnation of the Son of
God; and had he or his fellow-believers paid reli-
gious honour to Mary, it is incredible that he would
have avoided all allusion to her advocacy and power.
This brings us beyond the close of the third century.
iuS) A.D. 314.
'The testimony of Eusebius on any subject con-
nected with primitive faith and practice has been
always appealed to as an authority not to be lightly
gainsaid. We have already seen how far removed
he is from giving any countenance to the invocation
of saints and angels ; and in his works, voluminous^
and diversified as they are in point of subject, we find
no single passage to justify the belief that the primi-
tive Church supplicated the Virgin Mary, either to
impart to the supplicants any favour, or to pray for
them.
Eusebius speaks of the Virgin Maryj but is alto-
f ether silent as to any religious honour of any kind
eing offered to her, and that in passages where he
could not have omitted all reference to it, had it at all
really existed.
In the oration of the Emperor Constantine, as it is
recorded by Eusebius 8 , direct mention is made of
"the chaste Virginity," and of "the maid who was
the mother of God, and yet remained a virgin." But
the object present to the author's mind was so exclu-
8 Aug. Taurin. (Triers), 1746, vol. i. p. 624.
B 2
28- On the Worship of the Virgin.
siyely -God manifest in the flesh, that he does not
throughout even mention the name of Mary, much
less does he allude to any religious honour due or paid
to her.
Apostolical Canons and Constitutions.
, These documents, though confessedly not of 'the
apostolic age, have been always regarded as in-
teresting monuments of the primitive Church ; and
probably we .shall not err in fixing their date at a
period not earlier than the beginning of the fourth
century. In these we find rules for the conduct
of public worship, and forms of prayer for private
use; forms also of creeds and confessions; but not
one single allusion appears in them throughout to any
religious address to the Virgin, or any reference to
ter power, influence, merits, or intercession. Occa-
sions most opportune for the introduction of such
doctrine and practice are repeatedly occurring. Again
and again is prayer directed to be made to the one
true God, exclusively of any other object of worship,
and exclusively too through the mediation and inter-
cession of the one only Saviour.
The Apostolical Constitutions, in which there is re-
ference made to the mother of our Lord, can scarcely
be read by any one without leaving a clear and strong
impression on the mind, that no religious worship was
paid to the Virgin Mary when they were written ; and
certainly not more of honour than is now cheerfully paid
to her by members of the Church of England. If, for
example, we take the prayer prescribed to be used on
the appointment of a deaconess, the inference from
it must be, that others, with whom the Spirit of the
Lord had dwelt, were held in equal honour with
Mary. "O eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, maker of male and female, who didst fill
with thy Spirit Miriam, and Hannah, and Huldah,
and didst not disdain that thy Son should be born of a
Apostfflicdl Canons and 'Constitutions. 29
woman , &c. 9 " In another passage the Virgin is spoken
^of; just as other women who had the gift of prophecy;
and of her equally and jointly with the others, it is
said that they were not elated by the gift. "But
even have women prophesied in ancient times,
Miriam, the sister of Aaron and Moses; after her,
Deborah; and afterwards, Huldah and Judith; and
the^mother of the Lord also prophesied, and Eliza-
beth, her kinswoman, and Anna; and in our days the
daughters of Philip ; yet they were not lifted up :
against the men, but observed their own measure.
Therefore, among you, should any man of woman
have such a grace, let them be humble, that God may
take pleasure in them V
-In the Apostolical Canons we find no allusion to the
Virgin Mary. The last clause of all contains the bene-
diction ; and gives us an example of a primitive prayer
offered to God alone, through Christ alone, without
any reference to the intercession and advocacy, or
merits and glory of his mother. "Now may God, the
only unproduced Being, the Creator of all things,
unite you all by peace in the Holy Ghost, make you
perfect unto every good work, not to be turned
aside, unblameable, not deserving reproof; and may
He deem you worthy of eternal life with us, by the
mediation of his beloved Son Jesus Christ, our God
and Saviour, with whom be glory to Him, the Sove-
reign God and Father in the Holy Ghost the Com-
forter, now and ever, world without end. Amen."
St. Athanasius, A.D. 350.
yfe have already seen what strong and decisive
testimony is borne by this renowned defender of.
the Christian faith against any invocation of saints
and angels. In what broad contrast does his uri-
> ' - f Book viii. c. 20. 1 Book viii. c, 2.
B 3
30 On the Wtirship of the Virgin.
qualified and uhlirnited declaration, that no Chris- -
tiaii> could ask a blessing from G^d AND ATCY
CREATED BEING, stand with a prayer, said to have
bee'b approved by Pope Pius VI.: " Jesus, Joseph,
ang Mary, I offer you my heart and my soul. Jesus,
Joseph, and Mary, assist me in my last agony. Jesus,
Joseph, and Mary, may my soul expire in peace with
you I" Such things are now in the Church of Rome,
but in the primitive and Catholic Church they were
not so. ;
St. Athanasius, ever bent on establishing the perfect
divinity and humanity of Christ, thus speaks : " The
general scope of Holy Scripture is to make a general
announcement concerning the Saviour, that He was
always God, and is a Son, being the Word, and the
brightness and wisdom of the Father; and that He
afterwards became man for us, taking flesh of the
Virgin Mary, who bare God."
On a careful examination of the works of St
Athanasius, not one singly passage can be discovered
indicative of any worship of the Virgin, or any belief
in her power and intercession, or any invocation of
her, even for her prayers.
Before we leave the testimony of Athanasius, we
have a duty to perform which the cause of truth com-
pels us not to neglect. We are anxious in these trea-
tises to avoid whatever might be so construed as to
savour of a personal charge; but we must here lay
open before -the world an instance of those many
unworthy expedients by which the worship of the
Virgin Mary is attempted to be upheld in our own
country, in our own times, and by persons whose
authority seems to have assumed a high place in the
Roman Church.
A homily, formerly ascribed to St. Athanasius, but
which has been 1 for centuries rejected as spurious and
apocryphal, continues to be quoted, even at the present
day, as his genuine testimony, without the slightest
31
of any doubt as to its author. Bellarmin so
appealed to it in his dayj and had he been the only
writer, ; pr the last writer, who had so cited it, we might
merely have referred to the judgment of the Benedictine
editors, who have, since Bellarmin's time, classed this
hpmily among those spurious works which had been
without reason attributed to Athanasius 2 : Or ratlier
we might have referred the whole matter to Bellarmin
iimself ; for it is no less true than extraordinary, that
whereas in his anxiety to enlist every ancient writer
in the cause of the invocation of saints and the wor-
ship of the Virgin, Bellarmin has cited this homily in
his Church Triumphant, as containing the words of
Athanasius, without alluding to its spuriousness, or
even to any doubt attached to it: yet in his review
of Ecclesiastical writers 3 , when pronouncing judg-
ment on the different works assigned to Athanasius,
he himself condemns this same homily as a palpable
forgery, declaring the evidence against it to be irresis-
tible. But in our own times, Dr. Wiseman, Roman
bishop of Melipotamus, thus introduces and com-
ments upon a passage, or rather different sentences
made into one passage, drawn from the same homily 4 :
" St. Athanasius, the most zealous and strenuous
supporter that the Church ever possessed of the di-
vinity of Jesus Christ, and consequently of his infinite
superiority over all the saints, thus enthusiastically
addresses his ever-blessed mother : * Hear now, O
daughter of David, incline thine ear to our prayers ;
we raise our cry to thee. Remember us, O most holy
Virgin, and for the feeble eulogiums we give thee,
grant us great gifts from the treasures of thy graces,
thou ,that art full of grace. Hail ! Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee. Queen, and Mother of God,
intercede for us.' Mark well these worda, * grant us
2 Vol. ii. p. 390. 401.
3 Bellarmin, de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, Cologne, 1617, vol. vii.
p; 50. .
*: Dr. Wiseman's Lectures, vol. ii. p. 108. London : Booker, 1836.
32 On the Worship jof the Virgin.
great gifts from the treasures ,o thy graces,' as if? he
hoped directly to receive them from her. Do Catho-
lics .use stronger words than these; or did Athanasitis
think or speak with us or with Protestants 5 ?" ; v
To these questions the direct answer is, that neither^
these words, nor the homily from which they are ex-r
traeted, ever came from the pen of Athanasius; and
moreover, that- the proofs of the spuriousness of -the
homily are drawn out at large by the Benedictine
editors, in the very edition and the identical volume of
the. works of Athanasius, to which Dr. Wiseman refers,
for his authority when he quotes the passage as genuine.
The above quotation (made up of different sen<- ;
tences, selected from different clauses, and put together
so as to make one paragraph) is found in a homily;
called " On the Annunciation of the Mother of God."
Two centuries and a half ago, and repeatedly since,
(how long before we know not,) it has been con-
demned as totally and indisputably spurious; and has:
been excluded from the works of Athanasius as? a
wretched forgery, not by members only of the Re- r
formed Church, but by most zealous adherents to the
Church of Rome.
The Benedictine editors, who published the remains
of Athanasius in 1698, declared this homily to be a
forgery, assigning their own reasons for their decir
sions, and fortifying their own verdict by quoting at,
length the letter written upon the subject more than
a century before by the celebrated Baronius to our
countryman Stapleton. Both these documents are
very interesting, and compel us at every turn to
renew our astonishment that such a homily should be
so quoted in the present day without any allusion to
its spurious character.
The principal arguments urged by the Benedictines,
and by Baronius before them, will be found in "The
Romish Worship of the Virgin," p. 168; we can only
make two or three extracts.
5 Dr. Wiseman's note refers us to " Serm. in Annuno, t, ii. p. 401."
St. Athanasius.
Benedictine editors thus begin their preface T: -
"That this discourse is spurious, THE RE is NO LEARNED-
MAN WHO DOES NOT NOW. ADJUDGE. The style
proves itself, more clear than the sun, to be different
from the style of Athanasius. Besides this, very
many trifles show themselves here, unworthy of any
sensible man, not to say of Athanasius ; and a multi-
tude of expressions unknown to Athanasius, so that it
savours of lower Greek. . . ." After stating facts which
entirely exclude the homily from the age of Athana-
sius, they add, " But we would here subjoin the dis-
sertation of Baronius on the subject sent to iis by our
brethren from Rome."
That dissertation is contained in a letter, dated'
Rome, Nov. 1592, to Stapleton, in consequence of
some animadversions and remonstrances of his, con-
veyed- through Cardinal Allen, against Baronius, for
having deprived the Church of such a testimony.
Baronius says, the little he had before written was
quite enough to show that the homily was spurious,
and he is sure that all persons of LEARNING, WHO
WERE DESIROUS OF THE TRUTH, would freely agree
with him. He adds, moreover, that many had ex-
pressed their agreement with him; congratulating
him on having separated legitimate froih spurious
children. He conceives that the homily could not
have been written till after the heresy of the Mono-
thelites had been spread abroad ; and this would fix
its date subsequently to the commencement of the
SEVENTH century, 300 years after Athanasius had
attended the Council of Nice.
Among the last words of Baronius in this letter, we
read a sentiment worthy of a sincere Christian and an
honest and enlightened critic, the neglect of which leads
to such proceedings as we are now lamenting; and the
uniform adoption of which, on all sides, would bring
controversy within narrower limits, and convert it from
angry warfare into a friendly comparison of opinions.
" I do not consider that these sentiments concerning
34 On the Worship of the Virgin.
Athanasius are affirmed with any injury to the Church:
the Church suffers no loss on this account ; who, being
the pillar and ground of the truth, very far shrinks
from seeking, like .ZEsop's jackdaw, helps and orna-
ments which are not her own; the bare truth shines
