to our God and Saviour, recalling to our minds the words of inspiration; and then again let us put the question to our conscience, Is this language fit for us to use to a fellow-creature?

Let the heaven exult with praises,
Let the earth resound with joy:

The holy solemnities sing
The glory of the Lord.

Thou just Judge of mankind,
And true Light of the world,

With the prayers of our hearts we pray Thee,

Hear the prayers of Thy suppliants.

Thou who shuttest heaven by
Thy word,

And loosest its bars,

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ... (exultet is the very word used in the Vulgate translation of the Psalm)before the Lord, for He cometh to judge the earth.-Ps. xcvi (xcv). 11.

Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept... And the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard. Isa. xxx. 29. Let the heaven and earth praise Him. Ps. Ixix (lxix). 34.

All judgment is committed. unto the Son. John v. 22. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. John i. 9.

With my whole heart have I sought Thee. Ps. cxix (cxviii). 10. Hear my prayer, O God. Ps. lxi (1x). 1. Whom have I in

heaven but Thee? Ps. lxxiii (lxxii). 25. And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask any thing according to His will, he heareth us. 1 John v. 14.

I have the keys of death and of hell. These things saith He that is holy, He that is true: He that hath the key of David. He that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man

That when Thou, the Judge, shalt appear in the end of the world, Thou mayest grant us to be partakers of eternal joy.

This would be a Christian prayer, a primitive prayer, a scriptural prayer, a prayer well fitting mortal man to utter by his tongue and from his heart, to the God who heareth prayer; and him who shall in sincere faith offer such a prayer, Christ will never send empty away. But if this prayer, fitted as it seems only to be addressed to God, be offered to the soul of a departed saint-I will not talk of blasphemy, and deadly sin, and idolatry,—I will only ask members of the Church of Rome to weigh all these things well, one by one. These are not subjects for crimination and recrimi

nation. We have had far too much of those unholy weapons on both sides. Speaking the truth in love, I should be verily guilty of a sin in my own conscience were I, with my views of Christian worship, to offer this prayer to the soul of a man however holy, however blessed, however exalted.

The next part of our work will be given exclusively to the worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

PART III.-CHAPTER I.

SECTION I.

THE VIRGIN MARY.

THE worship of the blessed Virgin Mary is so highly exalted in the Church of Rome, as to require the formation of a new name to express its high character. Neither could the Latin language provide a word which would give an adequate idea of its excellence, nor could any word previously employed by the writers in Greek, meet the case satisfactorily. The newly invented term Hyperdulia, meaning "a service above others," seems to place the service of the Virgin on a footing peculiarly its own, as raised above the worship of the saints departed, and of the angels of God, cherubim and seraphim, with all the hosts of principalities and powers in heavenly places. The service of the Virgin Mary thus appears not only to justify, but even to require a separate and distinct examination in this volume. The general principles, however, which we have already endeavoured to establish and illustrate with regard as well to the study of the Holy Scriptures as to the evidence of primitive antiquity, are equally applicable here; and with those principles present to our minds,