tion, Prayer, Sacrifice, Vows, Oaths, and the Sanctification of Holy Days. But of these, Prayer will be spoken of in explaining the Lord's Prayer, Sacrifice will be treated of under the Holy Eucharist, Vows and Oaths form the special subject of the second commandment, and the Sanctification of Holy Days of the third; so that it remains to speak here of the first, the duty of Adoration.

Adoration, in its ordinary sense, has been already explained to mean all that homage which we owe to God as His creatures; but here it is taken in a more restricted sense, and means those acts of reverence and worship which we pay to Almighty God. For sometimes we use the word "worship' in reference to others besides God. In its oldest meaning it simply implied, like the word adoration, that reverence or respect which any one might show to his superior, or to one whom he desired to honour. Thus it was applied to the honour paid to the Saints, and especially to that paid to the Blessed Virgin, and in its highest sense it was used in reference to God Himself. These three degrees of worship have been distinguished by three separate words. The highest kind of religious worship, which is paid to God alone, is called Latria, a Greek word, meaning the duty or obedience a slave owes to his lord. That worship which was paid to the Saints was described by the word Doulia, or service;" while that which was paid to the Blessed Virgin, as being something higher than this, was called Hyperdulia, or super-service. it is a part of the worship that we owe to God to "praise Him in His saints" (Ps. cl.), and still more in His Blessed Mother. As we may blaspheme or dishonour God by showing disrespect to His name or any thing belonging to Him, so it is part of the homage which we owe to God to honour every thing that belongs to or is connected with Him. But that worship which we pay immediately to God Himself is called Divine worship, or worship of Latria.*

For

As Protestants do not recognise any worship' as due to the saints as the friends of God, or to the Blessed Virgin as His Mother, they mean by that word divine worship, and thus infer that we give divine worship' to creatures. Hence, to avoid any

6

CHAP. XLVIII.

The First Commandment. What it forbids. Idolatry. THUS far what is commanded by the first commandment; next we come to what it forbids. As it commands faith, hope, and charity, by implication it forbids, as has been shown, any thing contrary to these virtues. But sins against religion are some of them forbidden, not by implication only, but expressly, by reason perhaps of the great proneness of the Israelites to fall into them. Now the sins against religion are of two sorts, either by way of excess or defect. For religion not having for its object Ğod, but the worship of God, is not a theological but a moral virtue; and all moral virtues consist in doing what is to be done, neither too much nor too little, but just what we ought. Religion, therefore, being a moral virtue, consists in worshiping God precisely as we are commanded to worship Him, neither neglecting on the one side what is enjoined, nor on the other putting our trust in what is forbidden.

The sins against religion by way of excess are sometimes described in general by the word 'superstition.' The word is then taken in its widest sense, and means worship paid to any thing that it ought not to be paid to, or in any way that is unauthorised. There are, therefore, many sorts of superstition; but they may be reduced to three heads, (1) idolatry, (2) divination, and (3) vain observation, which last is what is commonly meant by the word 'superstition.'

The word Idolatry is derived from two Greek words, idolon, an image, and latria; hence in its original meaning it signifies the worship of an idol, or image of a false god. But in a more extended sense idolatry means giving to any creature, animate or inanimate, the worship of latria, or that worship which is due to God alone. Hence it may be committed in two ways, either, first, by giving worship to that which is not deserving of any, as for example, to

ambiguity, it is becoming more common to use the word 'adoration' for that worship which is due to God alone.

idols or false gods, to our fellow-men, or to animals; or secondly, by giving divine worship to the Saints and Angels, or to holy things, instead of that inferior worship which properly belongs to them.

As to the first, the origin of it is not very clear; but it is mentioned in the book of Josue (chap. xxiv.) that men served strange gods in the time of Thare, the father of Abraham. And the book of Wisdom (chap xiv.) describes how men were led into this sin from making representations of their deceased relatives, or those whom they desired to honour, and then came to attribute power and virtue to the images themselves, and to worship them with religious rites. We have also frequent mention in Scripture of men adoring the sun, the moon, and the host of heaven, and also of their sacrificing to devils. In Egypt, as we learn from profane history, animals of all sorts used to be worshiped as gods, and thus it was from their early impressions that the children of Israel derived their rooted inclination to worship idols, and especially under the form of a calf, the chief Egyptian deity. But it would be endless to enumerate the different ways in which men have fallen into this sin. There seems to have been scarcely any thing that men, in one place and time or another, have not worshiped. This would seem to show how natural, and almost necessary, it is for men to have some object of worship.

The other way in which men may be guilty of idolatry is by honouring with divine worship that which is only deserving of a lower kind of worship. It has been already explained, that our duty to God binds us to honour and reverence every thing belonging to Him,-the Blessed Virgin, the Saints, the Angels, persons and things dedicated to God, churches, images, relics, crucifixes,-these and every thing else that is related to Him. But to worship any of these with divine worship would be idolatry, since it would be giving to a creature that supreme honour which is due to God alone.

Are not Catholics then, heretics ask, guilty of the sin of idolatry in this second way, since they worship the Blessed Virgin, the Saints, the Angels,-they worship

images, crucifixes, and relics? It has been already explained, when speaking of the virtue of religion, that it is part of the homage we owe to God to honour every thing belonging to God. It is not, therefore, a sin, but a virtue, to honour the Blessed Virgin as the mother of God, the Saints as His friends, and the Angels as those who stand in His presence (Luke i. 19). The sin would be if we were to worship them with that sort of worship which properly belongs to God, and to Him only. But this is not done by any thing which the Church authorises. We are taught to pray to the Saints and Angels, and above all to the Blessed Virgin, as being near the throne of God, and having power with Him which we do not possess. Our Lord tells us that the angels of His little ones behold the face of His heavenly Father, and that there is joy among the angels of God over one sinner who does penance (St. Luke xv. 10). Again, we find in Scripture that God desired Job's friends to get Job to offer sacrifice for them, for He would accept him, but not them. But we do not offer sacrifice to the Saints, nor use expressions of devotion which imply the highest kind of worship. If we use some expressions of devotion that we also use to God, yet we know that expressions, whether in words or actions, take their meaning from the intention of the person who uses them. Protestants, for instance, kneel before their parents, and on some occasions before their sovereign, as well as before God. They use the word 'worship' in their marriage service with a different intention to that which they have when they apply it to God. So then, in the same way, there is no harm in using expressions towards the Saints which in their highest sense might be properly attributed to God only.

But is it not a sin to honour with religious worship inanimate things, relics, crucifixes, pictures, and images? Here we must make a distinction between what is called absolute and relative worship. Absolute worship is that which we pay to persons and things themselves. There are different degrees of this sort of worship, as already explained, but relative worship is of an altogether different character; for we do not pay it any honour for its own sake, but only because of its being related to something

else. Now this latter is the sort of worship which is paid to relics and images. To worship them with absolute worship, "as if they had any life or sense to help us,' would be a sin of idolatry; but to worship them with that inferior worship which is called 'relative,' is both natural and right. We cannot love or reverence any person without also showing a regard for what is nearly related to him. And in the same way we cannot love God without honouring and worshiping, with a relative worship, what is nearly related to Him, or what puts us in mind of Him.

It is objected that the first commandment forbids the making of any graven image. Is not, therefore, the very use of them wrong? No; for as St. Augustine observes, the commandment does not simply forbid the making of graven images, but their being made, in order to be adored or served. Those who are best acquainted with the Hebrew idiom know that this would be the natural mean

ing of the passage; and it is, moreover, evident that it was not forbidden to make images without reference to their being worshiped from this, that Moses, by God's own command, made two images of cherubim, which were to stand over the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies (Exod. xxv.), and set up the brazen serpent in the desert, which was only destroyed when in after-times the children of Israel burnt incense to it (4 Kings xviii.). The object, too, of this command was to prevent the Israelites from that which would lead them away from the worship of the true God. They had not seen God, and so could not make any true similitude (Deut. iv. 15). If they made any images, it was to represent the gods of the heathen nations, and thus to lead them away from the true God. But when we make images, it is not to adore them, but only to pay them that relative honour which belongs to them, because they represent Christ or the Saints. It is for the sake of enlivening our faith and enkindling our devotion towards those whom they represent, and thus leading us to God, not away from Him. So, too, with regard to relics; it is impossible for men to have a lively faith, and not to set a value on any thing that is a memorial of our Lord, of His sufferings for us,