it in later ages, the Bernards, the Xaverii, the Teresas, and the Sales's. They are all members of the Catholic Church! Why should you not partake of this advantage?-Your soul, you com plain, dear Sir, is in trouble; you lament that your prayers to God are not heard; continue to pray to him with all the fervour of your soulbut why not engage his friends and courtiers to add the weight of their prayers to your own? Perhaps his Divine Majesty may hear the prayers of the Jobs, when he will not listen to those of an Eliphas, a Ballad, or a Zophar. Job xlii. You believe, no doubt, that you have a Guardian Angel, appointed by God to protect you, corformably to what Christ said of the children presented to him, Their Angels do always behold the face of my Father, who is in heaven, Matt. xviii. 10-address yourself then to this blessed spirit with gratitude, veneration, and confidence. You be lieve also, that among the saints of God there is one of supereminent purity and sanctity, pronounced by an archangel to be not only gracious, but, full of grace,' the chosen instrument of God in the incarnation of his Son, and the intercessor with this her Son in obtaining his first miracle, that of turning water into wine, at a period when his time for appearing to the world by miracles was not yet come.' John, iii. 4. It is impossi*ble, as one of the Fathers says, 'to love the son without loving the mother:'-beg then of her, with affection and confidence, to intercede with Jesus, as the poor Canaanites did, to change the tears of your distress into the wine of gladness by affording you the light and grace you so much want. You cannot refuse to join with me in the Angelie Salutation, Hail, full of grace, our Lord is wish thee; (1) nor in the subsequent ad

The Osthole version is here used as more conforms he Creek, as well as the Vulgate, than the Protestant, which > Je puissupt. He”, chon who at high y Favoured:

dress of the inspired Elizabeth, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Luke i, 42. Cast aside, then, I beseech you, dear Sir, prejudices which are not only groundless but also hurtful, and devoutly conclude with me in the words of the whole Catholic Church upon earth-Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, ners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

I am, &c.

sin

J. M.

LETTER XXXIV.

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. &c.

ON RELIGIOUS MEMORIALS.

DEAR SIR,

If the Catholic Church has been so grievously injured by the misrepresentation of her doctrine respecting prayers to the Saints, she has been still more grievously injured by the prevailing calumnies against the respect which she pays to the memorials of Christ and his saints, namely, to crucifixes, relics, pious pictures and images. This has been misrepresented from almost the first eruption of Protestanism, (1) as rank idolatry, and as justifying the necessity of a Reformation.

(1) Martin Luther, with all his hatred to the Catholic Church, found no idolatry in her doctrine respecting crosses and images; on the contrary, he warmly defended it against Carlostadius and his associates, who had destroyed those in the Churches of Wittenberg. Epist. ad Gasp. Guttal. In the title-pages of his volumes, published by Melancthon, Luther is exhibited on his knees before a Crucifix. Queen Elizabeth persisted for many years in retaining a Crucifix on the Altar of her chapel, till some of her Puritan courtiers engaged Patch, the fool, to break it, no wiser man,' says Doctor Heylin, (Hist. of Reform. p. 134,) daring to undertake such a service. James I. thus reproached the Scotch Bishops, when they objected to his placing pictures and statues in his chapel in Edinburgh: You can endure Lions and Dragons (the supporters of the Royal Arms) and Devils, (Queen Elizabeth's Griffins) to be figured in your Churches, but will not allow the like 'place to Patriarchs and Apostles.' Spotswood's History, p. 530.

representation, in our

1 postar, avaricious courtiers INTRE and a the costly shrines, statues, DUCIVE Teens of the ches and chapels, Timbrel the dam die or defacing of all EN ZIS DEDITls of whatever nature or TLS Tht walk, Dot emly in places of wor SUT, PIT LS: 1 mrker-places, and even in pri I support of this impious fraud, SES THE Cerupted in their dif PALESIMs api atomstill religious ProISUS THEIsames became disgusted with them, Amit te fer a new translation of the S TLS WAS scordingly made, at

became if the James's reign. In Sassage the Bible and every argu DEL VIRAL sense suggests against idolvis kyled a the decent respect which Daphs shown the memorials of Christianity.

i in question, still conen topic of Protestant conthe minds of the ignorant brethren. Accordingly, infact, who has not been

That the Emerises pray to images; nor is inded persint who has not been made I NEE Set the Forts worship wooden Gods. In bau y fe repetedly affirms that our mgr if Cs and his Saints are idols; that we

Yes Fish Blk Colos. iii. 5. Conetousness The Bees of 156, 137 and 1579 stood thus. WHEELS TỰ THer In like manner, where in the former editions we Fast & 4 vrstne if images. Instead of, What awi Car, FL, 16: it used to stand,

tin beings Instead of Little Children, Stan vi stood during the reigns of Lg was from Images. There alles sons in this as well as in other au Bles, some of which remain in the

10. HE ACE assed in this subject at the Conference 2 Get 1 Fuers sad. Other's Church Histories, and in

pray and ask of them what it belongs to God alone to give:' and that the images have beene and bee worshipped, and so, idolatry committed to them by infinite multitudes to the great offense of God's Majestie, and danger of infinite soules; that idolatrie cannot possibly be separated from images set up in churches, and that 'God's horrible wrath and our most dreadful danger cannot be avoided without the destruction and utter abolition of all such images and idols out of the Church and Temple of God.' (1) Archbishop Secker teaches that The Church of 'Rome has other Gods, besides the Lord,' and that there never was greater idolatry among 'heathens in the business of image-worshipping 'than in the Church of Rome.' (2) Bishop Porteus, though he does not charge us with idolatry, by name, yet he intimates the same thing, where he applies to us one of the strongest passages of scripture against Idol worship. They that make them are like unto them; and so is every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. Ps. cxiii. (3)

·

Let us now hear what the Catholic Church herself has solemnly pronounced on the present subject, in her General Council of Trent. She says, The images of Christ, of the Virgin-Mother of God, and the other Saints, are to be kept and 'retained, particularly in the churches, and due 'honour and veneration is to be paid them: not that we believe there is any divinity or power in

(1) Against the Perils of Idol. p. iii.-This admonition was quickly carried into effect throughout England. All statues, bas-relievos end crosses were demolished in all the Churches, and all pictures were defaced; whilst they continued to hold their places, as they do still, in the Protestant Churches of Germany. At length common sense regained it rights even in this country. Accordingly we see the cross exalted at the top of its principal church (St. Paul's,) which is also ornamented, all round, with the statues of Saints; most of the cathedral and collegiate churches now contain pictures, and some of them, as for example, Westminster Abbey, carved images.

(2) Comment. on Ch. Catech, sect. 24.

(3) P. 31.

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of the Catholic Church, in this article, as solemnly defined by the Pope, and near 300 Prelates of different nations, at the Council of Trent, in the face of the whole world: it is simply this, that The Saints reigning with Christ offer up their prayers to God for men; that it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, help, and assistance, to obtain favours from God, through his Son Jesus Christ our 'Lord, who is alone our Redeemer and Saviour.' (1) Hence the Catechism of the Council of Trent, published in virtue of its decree, (2) by order of Pope Pius V. teaches, that God and the Saints, are not to be prayed to in the same manner; for we pray to God that he himself would give us good things, and deliver us from evil things; but we beg of the Saints, because they are pleasing to God, that they would be our advocates, and 'obtain from God what we stand in need of.' (3) Our first English Catechism for the instruction of children, says, 'We are to honour saints and angels as God's special friends and servants, but not with the honour which belongs to God.' Finally, The Papist Misrepresented and Represented, a work of great authority among Catholics, first published by our eminent divine Gother, and republished by our venerable Bishop Challoner, pronounces the following anathema against that idolatrous phantom of Catholicity, which Protestant controvertists have held up for the identical Catholic Church: Cursed is he that 'believes the saints in heaven to be his redeem" ers, that prays to them as such, or that gives 'God's honour to them, or to any creature whatsoever. Amen.' Cursed is every goddess'worshipper, that believes the B. Virgin Mary to be any more than a creature; that worships her, or puts his trust in her more than in God; that

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ઃ

(1) Concil. Trid, Sess. 25. de Invoc.

(2) Soss. 24, de Ref. c. 7.

(3) Pars. IV. Quis orandus.