monarch of the universe. The moon, partially supplying the place of the sun by its constant motion, the great variety of its phases, and some mysterious connection which appeared to exist between its changes and the tides of the ocean; together with its own eclipses and those of the sun, soon came to be regarded with superstitious veneration. The stars, admired for their height, their magnitude, the peculiar order of their positions, and the celerity of their motions, had ascribed to them from the earliest period some celestial vigour, and a direct influence over all the affairs of the world. They were at length viewed as the abodes to which the souls of heroes and distinguished men were removed when they died. It is by no means wonderful that all the heavenly bodies should have been accounted deities. The nature of idolatry prevented it stopping at this point. The departure of man from God is a downward course, ever accelerating until it reaches its lowest depth. The fire, the air, the ocean, the plants and flowers and fruits of the earth,―birds, beasts, fishes, insects and reptiles, the beautiful and the loathsome soon came to be adored as deities. The priests and learned men, the sages of antiquity, reaped a rich harvest from the credulity of the people. Availing themselves of the strong desire of the human mind, to pry into the invisible and penetrate into futurity, they employed their superior knowledge to establish their

influence and secure dominion over the minds of men. They could predict the eclipses of the sun and moon with tolerable precision, and of course could represent them as indications of the divine will which they alone had authority to interpret. The literal fulfilment of these predictions inspired the uninitiated with astonishment and terror. The astronomer became the acknowledged minister and priest of the Gods, and was believed to have it in his power to affect mankind with happiness or misery.

One of the great designs of a written revelation from God, is to correct this tendency to idolatry; and to establish the claim of the one self-existent eternal Deity, by whom all things were created, to be universally regarded and adored, as the sole object of religious worship. The Scriptures utter the severest denunciations of wrath against all the forms and appearances of idolatry. The decalogue explicitly prohibits "all acts of religious worship offered to any being or beings, whether existing in reality or in the imagination, besides the one only and true God. This species of idolatry is a violation of the first commandment, “THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME." It equally forbids "the use of material representations of the true God and his attributes, whether by images, statues or paintings for the purpose of religious worship; or the use of material representations of any other objects for such purposes.

This is minutely and expressly forbidden in the second commandment, "THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN IMAGE." &c.

Such is the immateriality and infiniteness of the Divine Being, that it is impossible for man to conceive even in his imagination any suitable form or image by which to represent him. Hence the wisdom of the prohibition. It may well surprise you, that I should commence a lecture on a doctrine of a professedly Christian church by so plain an allusion to the idolatry of the heathen ;—it would naturally strike you in the first instance, that there could be no real affinity between the two cases;—that however proper such a reference might be, when stimulating the Church to missionary effort, here it would be quite irrevelant. Now I fear that the evidence I shall adduce in illustration of the subject of this lecture," the invocation of saints and the worship of the virgin," will establish against the Church of Rome the charge of idolatry, as palpable, and more criminal than that of the heathen. Notwithstanding her subtle and plausible theoretical distinctions on the worship of the saints, we contend that practically the church of Rome assigns to Mary the station and prerogatives of Christ, and which are alone due to him as a divine person, and that angels and departed saints are addressed by words and acts of devotion due alone to the Father of our spirits.

We are quite aware that all well-informed Roman Catholics warmly disclaim the imputation of idolatry; but it is only necessary to mention the exceedingly subtle and delicate distinctions by which they explain and justify the praying, kneeling, and burning incense before the images and pictures that adorn their chapels, to prove that the common people, the uneducated of their community, must be incapable of comprehending them. The advocates of such practices pretend that there are three kinds of worship or adoration. To these distinct species of worship three Greek names are applied. They say that the supreme worship that is to be given to God is Latria,—a term that means service, and is applied in Scripture to religious duty in general, as well as to the direct acts of worship. The lowest kind of worship they term Doulia, and apply it to the worship that may be given to saints and angels. The word itself literally represents a state of bondage; it is applied both to the service of God and sin, and conveys the idea of subjection rather than of devotion. The third they call hyperdoulia, the worship that is given to the Virgin Mary,-a kind of middle worship; but, as it has been well observed, The distinctions supported by these terms are perfectly gratuitous, and of no authority whatever, either on the principles of criticism or theology. Nay, such is their inconsistency in the use of them, that they are sometimes employed

by their own writers promiscuously, and even the word Latria is applied to the worship which they pay to the cross.

That you may be able to form your own opinion on the character of the worship paid by Romanism in the invocation of saints, I shall proceed to lay before you the sentiments of some of the highest authorities. In the creed of Pope Pius IV, it is said, "I believe likewise, that the saints, reigning together with Christ, are to be honoured and invocated;" and in the decree of the council of Trent on the invocation and veneration of saints, "The holy synod commands the bishops, and others, who have the office and care of instruction, that, according to the custom of the Catholic and apostolic church which has been received from the first ages of the Christian religion, the consent of the holy fathers, and the decrees of the sacred councils, they make it a chief point diligently to instruct the faithful concerning the intercession and the invocation of the saints, the honour of relics and the lawful use of images: teaching them that the saints, reigning together with Christ, offer to God their prayers for men, and that it is good and useful to invoke them with supplications, and on account of the benefits obtained from God through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, (who alone is our Redeemer and Saviour,) to have recourse to the prayers, aid, and assistance of the saints; but that they who deny