that the saints, enjoying eternal happiness in heaven, are to be invoked, or who assert either that they do not pray for men, or that the invoking them that they may pray for each of us, is idolatry, or that it is contrary to the honour of God, and opposed to the honour of the one Mediator between God and man, or that it is folly, either in word or thought to supplicate them, are to be accursed! We admit, that in the creed of Pope Pius, and the canons of the council of Trent, the distinction between the different kinds of worship is fully maintained, but the charge we allege is, that those distinctions are unknown to the masses of the people, and that in the books used by them under the sanction of Popes and dignitaries of the church, a worship is given to the Virgin Mary, which can be characterised by no milder epithet than that of absolute and unequivocal idolatry; that the common people know nothing of the subtle evasions of their cautious divines. Dr. Smith in his "Reasons cf the Protestant Religion," gives the following striking proof. He says:-"M. Chateaubriand has painted and varnished the modern popery of France, the most enlightened of Catholic countries, with all the art in his power," yet he frequently has passages of this kind :-Does the believer suffer? he Does to his little image and is comforted. prays he want the return of his relative or his friend? he makes a vow, and takes the pilgrim staff; he

springs over the Alps or the Pyrenees, and visits our Lady at Loretto, or St. James in Galatia ; he prostrates himself; he prays the saint to restore him his son, (perhaps a poor sailor boy wandering on the seas,) to prolong his father's days, or to raise his good wife from the bed of sickness. His heart is lightened, he turns back to his hutcovered with shells, he makes the hamlet echo with his conch, and in wild and tender notes, he chants the condescension of Mary the mother of God."

St. Bernard, the chief boast of the Cistercian order of monks, as their great abbot and the latest of the fathers of the Infallible church, thus describes the office of Mary. He tells us that the history of Ahasuerus in Esther was a figure of God's bestowing half his kingdom upon the blessed virgin; that having justice and mercy as the chiefest goods of his kingdom, he retained justice to himself, and granted mercy to her. Hence if a man find himself aggrieved in the court of God's justice, he may appeal to the court of mercy of his mother, she being that throne of grace of which the apostle speaketh; Heb. iv. 16. Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace.'" "In respect of her after a sort God is more bound to us than we are to him. did greater things to God, for us and all mankind. mighty hath done great

And again

She in some respects than God himself did She only said, he that is things for me, but of her

we may say—she hath done greater things to him that is mighty; though she be subject to God inasmuch as she is a creature, yet she is said to be superior and preferred before him inasmuch as she is his mother." I am aware it will be pleaded that this is not modern popery; but has, then, the infallible and immutable church held different doctrines in different ages? Glad should we be, right glad to know that the worship of Mary had not been allowed in the Church of Rome since the days of St. Bernard. We should then, at least, have no need to lift the warning voice against one of her most pernicious and profane errors. The following however may be deemed modern instances. I shall first quote from a book entitled "The glories of Mary," the illustrious author of which was canonized and beatified in the year 1839, by the late Pope Gregory XVI. This same Pope Gregory XVI, in the year 1840, granted an indulgence of one hundred years to every one, who shall recite the following prayer :-O IMMACULATE QUEEN OF HEAVEN AND OF ANGELS! I ADORE YOU. IT IS YOU WHO HAVE DELIVERED ME FROM HELL. IT IS YOU FROM WHOM I LOOK FOR ALL MY SALVATION!!! We are informed in the preface, that the council of Rome, the sacred congregation of rites, having made the most rigorous examination of the writings of this Saint Alphonso Ligori, pronounced that there was nothing in them deserving of censure; and

yet this work contains the following awfully impious sentences :

Page 35.-"Queen of Heaven and of earth, Mother of God, my Sovereign Mistress, I present myself before you as a poor mendicant before a mighty Queen. From the height of your throne deign to rest your eyes upon a miserable sinner, and loose not sight of him till you render him truly holy. O, illustrious Virgin! you are Queen of the Universe, and consequently mine. I desire to consecrate myself more particularly to thy good pleasure. Direct me; I abandon myself wholly to your conduct. Chastise me if I disobey you. I am, then, no longer mine; I am all your's Save me, O powerful Queen, save me" we must admit it is added-"by the intercession of thy young Son."

In page 177 we read that "Bro Leo. once saw in a vision two ladders reaching to heaven; one red, at the summit of which was Jesus Christ, and the other white, at the top of which presided his blessed mother. He observed that many who endeavoured to ascend to heaven by the red ladder at the top of which was Christ, after mounting a few steps fell down, and on trying again were equally unsuccessful: but a voice having told them to make trial of the white ladder, at the top of which was his mother, they immediately got up to heaven, the blessed Virgin having held out her hand to receive them."

In several of the psalters used under the direct authority of the Vatican, the divine names are changed for that of Mary, as for instance in the 19th Psalm-"The heavens declare the glory of the Virgin," &c.

The same course is pursued with the litany; for example-The truly beautiful clause which few of us can have heard in any of our parochial churches without peculiar emotions, is thus awfully parodied—" In all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth, in the hour of death and in the day of judgment, from the torments of the damned deliver us, O Virgin Mary." "The Psalter of the blessed Virgin," as it is called, published at Rome in the year 1834, has the Psalms and the Te Deum altered in this way. We might quote similar prayers addressed to the saints, but we must not trespass further on your patience or your time by the recital of mere impieties and blasphemies. It may be asked how Roman Catholics justify a course so directly opposite to the plain tenor of Scripture? We answer, not merely by misappropriation, but by positive mutilation of the Word of God. This is a serious accusation, and ought to be sustained by unquestionable evidence, and that evidence is at hand.

In a catechism published by the four Roman Catholic Archbishops of Ireland, in that country practically substituted for the Bible, we read-Q. How many commandments hath God given to us?

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