ART. III.-LETTERS ON ROMISH ERRORS AND CORRUPTIONS.

LETTER II.

TO THE REV. T. W. COIT, D. D., LL. D.,

Rector of St. Paul's Church, Troy, New York.

MY DEAR DOCTOR :

In my previous Letter, I have shown how fundamentally the Modern Church of Rome differs from the Church of Primitive and Apostolic times, in its Organization, Ministry, and Government. I come now to describe another, and not less important feature of that Church ;-I mean, its Doctrines and Discipline; everything, in short, which constitutes the Inner Life of that System. If we have found reasons before for rejecting Modern Romanism, the Errors and Corruptions which I am now to describe must deepen that aversion, in the estimation of every candid and conscientious Christian.

V.

I CANNOT BE A PAPIST, BECAUSE THE ROMISH CHURCH IS GUILTY OF GROSS IDOLATRY IN HER WORSHIP.

That the Idolatry of which the Romish Church is guilty, is contrary to Holy Scripture, and to the practice of the Church in the first five Centuries, I do not deem it necessary to prove. That it is thus contrary, is demonstrable. All that I am now to show is, that the Romish Church is fairly chargeable with this confessedly enormous sin. Her writers and learned doctors attempt to make a distinction between what they term, Latria and Dulia; the former being the worship due only to God; the latter, the reverence paid to inferior objects. In the first place, this is a wire-drawn distinction, which the common people are not capable of apprehending. In the next place, the

*The reader will find all the evidence he needs in J. E. Tyler's Worship of the Virgin Mary. London: 1851, 8vo. pp. 425.

Worship which is actually offered in that Church, is, as a matter of fact, grossly idolatrous. To exhibit the full enormity of this sin, we need to quote at length; we can give only brief specimens. Take the following, from the Psalter of Bonaventure, published at Rome under the auspices of Pope Sextus V., and between A. D. 1476 and 1823, passing, it is said, through twenty-eight Editions:

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Blessed is the man that loveth thy name, Oh Holy Virgin Mary, thy grace shall strengthen his soul."*

"We praise thee, the Mother of God,—we acknowledge thee Mary the Virgin."+

"To thee the whole angelic creation, with never ceasing voice, cry aloud."

"Holy, Holy, Holy, Mary, the Parent of God, Mother and Virgin.” "Thou, with thy Son, sittest at the right hand of the Father."§

"Oh Lady, save thy people, that we may be partakers of thy Son's inheritance."||

Vouchsafe, Oh sweet Mary, to keep us now and forever without

sin."¶

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In thee do we hope, Oh sweet Mary, do thou defend us eternally."

We quote next from the "Glories of Mary," by Alphonso Liguori, and approved by Pope Pius VII., A. D. 1803.

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Dispensatrix of the Divine Grace, you save whom you please, to you then I commit myself, that the enemy may not destroy me."tt We, Holy Virgin, hope for grace and Salvation from you, and since you need but say the word, Oh do so, and you shall be heard, and we shall be saved."‡‡

The following extracts are made from a long prayer used by the "Confraternity of the Holy Scapular," in Ireland.

"Oh Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, dearest Mother of God, Queen of angels, Advocate of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, extend, Oh glorious Virgin, the ear of your pity, to the prayers of me your most humble servant. Purify my heart, Oh immaculate Virgin, from every sin, take away and banish from me all, everything, that can offend your chaste eye," &c., &c."

In the Book of Devotions, usually known as "Devotions to the Sacred Heart of Mary"-the following are specimens of blasphemous addresses to the Virgin Mary.

"Oh Holy Mother of God, Glorious Queen of Heaven and Earth! I choose thee this day for my Mother, my Queen, and my Advocate at the Throne of thy divine Son."*

"Oh Holy Mary, our Sovereign Queen, as God the Son has endowed thee with so much knowledge and charity, that it enlightens all Heaven, so in the hour of our death, illustrate and strengthen our souls, with the knowledge of the true Faith, that they be not perverted by error or pernicious ignorance."+

We close this list of extracts, to which hundreds might be added from other sources, by selecting two or three from a Book of Devotions, called the "Month of Mary," and approved by an American Bishop.‡

"Obtain for me, Oh Glorious Virgin, a sincere conversion; strength and resolution in the hour of trial; and the Grace of final perseverance."§ "Oh Sacred Refuge of Sinners! How many sinners hast thou rescued from the power of Hell! How many hast thou brought over to penance and change of life."||

"Oh amiable and powerful Mother! Graciously assist us and rescue us from all misery and affliction. Protect the Church of thy Son, that her enemies may not prevail over her."¶

Disguise it as the Romanists may, such language is nothing more or less than that homage and worship paid to a finite creature, which belongs to the Supreme Majesty of Heaven;— for it implies the possession by the Virgin Mary of all the attributes and perfections of the Deity. It places her with the Son on the Throne of God, at the right hand of the Father on high. How different from all this is the manner in which our blessed Lord once spoke of His mother. It was told Him, on one occasion, that His mother and brethren were without, desiring to speak with Him. He replied, "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,"

The development of Idolatry in the Worship of the Blessed Virgin, has of late made rapid strides. In the Encyclical Letter of Pius IX., to which we have already alluded, see who it is that he places as Mediator at the right hand of the Father,

* P. 201.
SP. 72.

† P. 212.
P. 153.

Bp. Francis Patrick Kenrick. [ P. 162. **Matt. xii. 49, 50.

instead of that ONE MEDIATOR "Who ever liveth to make intercession for us."*

"But, in order that God may accede more easily to our prayers and our wishes, and to those of all His faithful servants, let us employ, in all confidence, as our mediatrix with Him, the Virgin Mary, who has destroyed all heresies throughout the world, and who, the wellbeloved Mother of us all. "is very gracious and full of mercy

allows herself to be touched by all, shows herself very clement towards all, and takes under her pitying care all our miseries with unlimited affection," (St. Bernard, Germ. du duodecim prerogativis B. M. V., on verbis Apocalypti)-and who, sitting as Queen upon the right hand of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in a golden vestment, shining with various adornments, knows nothing which she cannot obtain from the Sovereign Master."

Idolatry, as it is one of the most glaring, so it has ever been one of the most besetting sins of the Romish Church.

The Cardinal Bellarmine, in attempting to exalt the power of the Pope, as being above the Church, aims to prove, that all the names which in the Scriptures are given to Jesus Christ, ARE GIVEN TO THE POPE. We quote briefly from his work, De Conc. et Eccl. Book ii. Ch. 17.

"Thou art the Shepherd, thou art the Physician; finally, thou art another God upon earth."

"We acknowledge the Supremacy of the Holy Father the LORD GOD THE POPE, and he is Peter's successor in the Chair."—

“We are bound to believe that Christ's Vicar, our LORD God the POPE, can absolve all men, (heretics excepted,) and has given the like power to all his inferior Clergy."

Other epithets have been given him, as "The Saviour that was to come," as the "Lord's Christ," and others of equal profanity. At the tenth Session of the Fifth Lateran Council, in A.D. 1515, the following address was made to Pope Leo X.:—

"Seize, therefore, the two edged sword of DIVINE POWER delivered unto thee . . . . FOR ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO THEE, in HEAVEN AND ON EARTH."t

In this feature of the Romish Church, then, we have the strongest possible reason why no conscientious Christian, who remembers how jealous God is of His honor, how fearfully He has guarded it by His threatenings, can or will dare be guilty

Heb. vii. 25.

Lab. et Cos. Conc. tom. xiv. p. 271.

of engaging in such Worship. Well may the genuine Catholics of France say :

"We cannot but recognize, in the bosom of the Catholic Church, the existence of a sect, which has for its purpose the substitution for God and for His Christ, of the Virgin Mary. This sect, which saps the very corner-stone of Christianity, is already designated, and with justice, by the name of Marianism. The Marianists attribute to Mary the salvation and redemption of the world. According to them, nothing comes to mankind but by Mary. Mary, in their system, is a fourth person to the Trinity; in power and splendor she surpasses the Three, of whom, in fact, there is scarcely any mention in the journals of this sect."*

And yet, as we have already seen, the leader of that Sect is the Pope himself!

VI.

I CANNOT BE A PAPIST, BECAUSE THE CHURCH OF ROME HAS ADDED NEW ARTICLES OF FAITH AS NECESSARY TO SALVATION.

Here is one of the weakest, least defensible, and worst points in the whole Romish system. In nothing has she more entirely forfeited her claim to genuine Catholicity. The American and Anglican Branches of the Church Catholic maintain, that—

"Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an Article of Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation."+

In their interpretation of Holy Scripture, and in deciding Articles of Faith, these Churches have simply taken the testimony of the men who wrote the New Testament, and who compiled the Articles of Faith, the things necessary to be believed, the "Form of sound words," the APOSTLES' Creed, and who published and preached that Creed, before a single. word of the New Testament was written. And when, at the Council of Nice, that Creed was more distinctly and fully expressed and defined against the Early Heresies, not a single. new Article of Faith was added. It was still, what Irenæus had before described; "the Faith received from the Apostles. and their disciples."‡ "This rule," Tertullian declares,

* Observateur Catholoque, Vol. I. pp. 3, 52. Edit. Paris, 1845.

+Article VI.

VOL. XVII.

47*

Iren. lib. i. Cap. 3.