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The forms of falsehood by which the minds of men are now pre-occupied are many and various, and consequently many and various are the controversies in which the bold, the faithful, and determined, and persevering advocates of true religion must be involved. There is no new thing under the sun. We have around us at this day counterparts of the ancient Sadducees, who, not knowing the Scriptures, neither the power of God, dare to deny the first principles of revelation; we have counterparts of the Herodians, who, by raising the cry of political parsons, endeavour to neutralize our advocacy because they cannot answer our arguments; and we have counterparts of the Scribes and Pharisees, who being destitute of spirituality, and yet desirous of credit for religion, endeavour to uphold outward formality by human authority, teach for doctrines the traditions of men, and so make void the glorious gospel of the blessed God. So situated, what shall we do? Shall we withhold our testimony for our Lord Jesus Christ altogether, and thereby avoid all contention? Shall we modify, and soften, and adulterate our testimony with the lax principles of its enemies, and dignify our temporizing trimming with the name of judicious prudence?

Shall we become useless, in order to continue peaceable? Shall we walk in cowardice, or supineness, or paralyzing worldliness, and deceive ourselves and others by calling this Christian meekness? Shall we be really traitors to God, in order to seem to be charitable among men? Or, repudiating all this as utterly unworthy of us, shall we stand forth and speak out, in the strength of the Lord Jesus; in imitation also of his high example, in true meekness-not whining, mawkish sentimentality; but the genuine gentleness of calm, determined, dignified self-possession? Shall we thus stand against the sneers of the scoffer, while we expose the hollowness of his objections; against the craftiness of the wily politician, while we refuse to confine ourselves to the saying, "Render unto God the things that are God's," seeing that our glorious Lord said also, Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's;" and against the formality and hypocrisy of apostate Scribes, who make clean the outside of the cup and platter, while within they are full of rottenness and corruption? Our course is plain. We are put in trust with the gospel, for the preaching of it, and the propagation of it, and the defence of it; and as ministers of the church we have no choice.

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THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARY AND OF THE POPES OF ROME. Facts and Evidences demonstrating the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Church of Rome, derived from the Testimonies of her Reputed Saints and Doctors, from her Breviary and other Authorized Romish Formularies of Devotion, confirmed by the Attestation of Travellers.

BY THOMAS HARTWELL HORNE, B.D., D.D.

Author of "An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures," &c. &c.
"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him ONLY shalt thou serve.”

Or all the systems of spiritual tyranny ever devised for subjugating the human mind, popery, or the system of doctrines and practices of the Romish church, whose head is called the Pope, stands unrivalled and alone for its admirable adaptation to the heart of fallen man. If we examine this complex system, we shall find that every possible temperament has been consulted in it. In order

to "quiet the conscience, it has doctrines of human merit and supererogation; to alarm the indifferent, it has fears of purgatory; to give ease to the conscience of the man of the world and of pleasure, each sin has its penance." All men, at times, are under fears of God's wrath; their conscience is touched; they are in anxiety; and at such times popery intervenes, lulls them for the moment, and

sends them.... into eternity! On the other hand the lovers of music are tempted by compositions the most sublime and beautiful, which can charm or delight the ear; while the admirers of painting and sculpture are fascinated by the most exquisite productions of those arts. To those who are fond of pageantry, the Romish church presents a gorgeous ritual; to the devout and sentimental she offers incessant prayers, very many of which are clothed in the most impassioned, not to say amatory language.

Among these impassioned prayers the devotions directly addressed to the Blessed Virgin are very conspicuous: and as it is an artifice of papists to deny what is not very agreeable to them to admit, as the actual practice of their section of the universal church, we indulge the hope that we shall render some service to the cause of pure and undefiled religion, by exhibiting proofs and evidences of the MARIOLATRY, Or Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as practised in and by the Church of Rome, derived from the testimonies of her reputed saints and doctors, and from her breviary and other authorized formularies of devotion.

It can scarcely be necessary to apprise our readers, that there is not a single text in the New Testament which affords any pretext whatever in favour of Maryworship. Our Saviour, in his personal intercourse with the Blessed Virgin, from the very commencement to the close of his ministry, manifested an anxious desire of precluding, especially in regard to her, the belief that any intercession with him might be expected. At the marriage-feast, which immediately preceded his ministry, he checked her interference, even with some severity, when she intimated her expectation that he would work a public miracle for the accommodation of the company; though he immediately afterwards performed the same privately, for the conviction, as it appears, of his disciples. (John ii. 1-11.) In the progress of his ministry, he publicly disclaimed her right of concerning herself with his conduct, even for his personal welfare: demanding, "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?" Who are the persons urging, under these

titles, claims on my attention, while I am engaged in proclaiming the doctrine of salvation? (Matt. xii. 48-50.) And in the concluding scene of suffering, we may well believe that, when he again addressed his mother with the cold appellation woman, and directed his beloved disciple to behold in her his mother, (John xix. 26, 27,) his intention was to abdicate for ever the human relationship of his earthly parent, as terminated with his earthly existence, that she might not, by superstitious worship, be exalted, as she has been, to the throne of heaven.* The silence of the apostles John, Peter, James, Jude, and Paul, is a clear proof that no honours were paid by them, or in their time, to the Virgin Mary. Equally silent are the genuine writings of the apostolical fathers (as those who immediately succeeded the apostles are ordinarily termed), and of the subsequent ecclesiastical authors to the time of Athanasius. It is indeed, a well attested fact, that no divine honours were given, earlier than the fourth century, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, of whom no "true member of the Anglican branch of the Catholic Church either can or will speak disparagingly or irreverently." The first persons upon record, as offering divine honours to her, were the Collyridians, who derive their names from the xoupides, or certain cakes, which they offered annually to Saint Mary, in sacrifice, upon her festival, when they worshipped her as a goddess. This superstition came from Thrace, and the yet more distant regions of Scythia and Arabia. While they were mere pagans, they had been accustomed to bake and present similar cakes to the goddess Venus, or Astarte (the moon); and after they professed Christianity, they thought that this honour might now be best shown to Mary.t This superstition was condemned by Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis and a canonized saint of the Romish Church, in as strong terms as if he had foreseen

• Miller's "Letter to the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D.," p. 62. London, 1840, 8vo.

† Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Cent.

iv., Book II., Part ii., ch. v., § 25. (Vol. ii., pp.

414, 415, of Dr. Murdock's accurate translation, edited by Mr. Soames).

the hyperdulia or transcendent kind of service with which Romanists would one day worship the Virgin Mary. "What scripture (he says) has delivered any thing concerning this? Which of the prophets have permitted a man to be worshipped, that I may not say a wo man? For a choice vessel she is indeed, but yet a woman."......... "The body of Mary was holy indeed, but NOT God. The Virgin, indeed, was a virgin and honourable, but not given to us for adoration, but one that did herself worship Him who was born of her in the flesh, and [who] came down from heaven out of the bosom of His Father." After censuring the Collyridians at considerable length for invoking the Virgin as a goddess, he sums up the whole in the following very emphatic terms:-"LET MARY BE IN HONOUR; but let the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit be worshipped. LET NO ONE WORSHIP MARY."

The worship of the Virgin Mary, which had continued to spread between the fourth and ninth centuries, was in the tenth century carried much further than before. Towards its close the custom became prevalent, in the Latin or Western church, of celebrating masses and abstaining from flesh on Saturdays, in honour of Saint Mary. In the next place, the Daily or Lesser Offices of Saint Mary was introduced, which was subsequently confirmed by Urban II. in the Council of Clermont. And lastly, tolerably distinct traces of the Rosary and Crown of Saint Mary, as they are called, or of praying according to a numerical arrangement, are to be found in this century. The Rosary consists of fifteen pater nosters, or repetitions of the Lord's Prayer, and one hundred and fifty ave marias, or salutations of the Virgin Mary; and the Crown of Saint Mary consists of six or seven repetitions of the Lord's Prayer, and sixty or seventy salutations. Succeeding ages have wit nessed the inventions of additional super

Εν τίμη έστω Μάρια· ὁ δὲ Πατηρ και Υιός, και * Αγιον Πνέυμα, προσκυνείσθω. ΤΗΝ ΜΑΡΙΑΝ ΜΗΔΕΙΣ ΠΡΟΣΚΥΝΕΙΤΩ. (Ephiphanius adversus Ha lib. iii., Hær. 79.)

reses,

† Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. by Murdock and

stitious services in honour of the Blessed Virgin.

We now propose to show, from the irrefragable evidence of her reputed saints and doctors of the Romish Church, as well as from her authorized formularies of public devotion, and from accredited manuals of private devotion, that the worship of the Virgin Mary is taught and enforced by the modern Church of Rome; and the practice of it shall then be demonstrated from the testimonies of modern travellers.

I. Our first class of evidence shall be drawn from a few of the principal reputed SAINTS and DOCTORS of the Romish Church.

1. We commence with the Blessed PETER DAMIAN, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, about the middle of the eleventh century. In his first sermon on the nativity of the Virgin Mary, he thus identifies the Almighty with her. Having asserted that God is (or exists) in all created things in four ways, he says "In a fourth manner he exists in one creature, viz., the Virgin Mary, by identity; because he is the same as she is."* And in his apostrophe to the Virgin, he actually ascribes omnipotence to her; "He that is mighty has done great things in thee; and ALL power is given unto THEE in heaven and on earth.Ӡ

2. Saint BERNARD was abbot of Clairvaux, in France, at the close of the eleventh and in the former half of the twelfth century: he wrote numerous homilies in honour of the Blessed Virgin, besides making very frequent mention of her in his other writings. Having affirmed that the word Mary signifies Star of the Sea, and endeavoured to show how appropriate it is to the Virgin, he proceeds thus to exhort his hearers to the worship of her :—

"If the waves of temptation arise, if thou runnest against the rocks of tribulation, look Soames, vol. ii., p. 229. (Cent. x., part. ii., ch. iv., § 3.)

*Quarto modo inest uni creaturæ, videlicet Mariæ Virgini, identitate, quia idem est quod illa. Surius, de probatis sanctorum historiis."-(Tom. v., p. 113).

"Fecit in te magna, qui potens est; et data est TIBI omnis potestas in cœlo et in terra." -(Ibid., p. 114).

to the star called Mary. If thou art tossed on the waves of pride, ambition, detraction, or emulation, look to the star called Mary. If passion, or avarice, or the allurement of the

flesh, toss the little bark of [thy] mind, look to Mary. If, disturbed by the heinousness of [thy crimes, confounded by the filthiness of thy conscience, dismayed with horror of judgment, thou beginnest to be swallowed up in the gulf of sorrow, the abyss of despair, think on Mary. In dangers, in difficulties, in doubtful affairs, think on Mary-call upon Mary. Let her not depart from [thy] mouth, let her not depart from [thy] heart; and, in order that thou mayst obtain the suffrage of her prayer, forsake not the example of her conversation. If thou follow her, thou dost not deviate; if thou supplicate her, thou dost not despair; if thou think of her, thou dost not err. If she uphold thee, thou dost not fall; if she protect thee, thou hast no cause for fear; if she be thy leader, thou art not fatigued; if she be propitious, thou obtainest [thy requests; and thus thou dost experience in thyself how deservedly it is said-And the name of the Virgin was Mary.”*

Elsewhere, Bernard terms the Virgin a mediator to the Mediator [Jesus Christ], and adds that there is none more useful to us than Mary;t to whom we are to have recourse as an advocate with Him, and as the woman who was to bruise the serpent's head. This application of Gen.

• "Si insurgant venti tentationum, si incurras scopulos tribulationum, respice stellam, voce Mariam. Si jactaris superbiæ undis, si ambitionis, si detractionis, si æmulationis, respice stellam, voce Mariam. Si iracundia aut avaritia, aut carnis illecebra naviculam concusserit mentis, respice ad Mariam. Si criminum immanitate turbatus, conscientiæ fæditate confusus, judicii horrore perterritus, baratro incipias absorberi tristitiæ, desperationis abysso, cogita Mariam. In periculis, in angustiis, in rebus dubiis, Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca. Non recedat ab ore; non recedat a corde; et, ut impetres ejus orationis suffragium, non deseras conversationis exemplum. Ipsam sequens, non devias: ipsam rogans, non desperas; ipsam cogitans, non erras. Ipsa tenente, non corruis; ipsa protegente, non metuis; ipsa duce, non fatigaris; ipsa propitia, pervenis; et sic in temetipso experiris quam merito dictum sit-Et Nomen Virginis Mariæ. "—(Bernarda Opera à Mabil lon, vol. i., col. 743, C. D. Paris. 1690).

"Opus est enim Mediatore ad Mediatorem istum: nec alter nobis utilior quam Maria."(Col. 1006. E.)

"Advocatum vis habere et ad ipsum? Ad Mariam recurre."-(Col. 1014. F.)

"Quam tibi aliam prædixisse Deus videtur, quando ad serpentem ait Inimicities ponam

iii. 15, to the woman, rather than to the seed of the woman-the Lord Jesus Christ-by Bernard (we may incidentally remark), proves how ancient is the corruption, in this passage, of the Latin Vulgate version of the Scriptures, which reads ipsa for ipse. That this rendering of the Romanists is false, is proved by the evidence of the Septuagint version, the Chaldee paraphrase on the Pentateuch, and by the old Syriac version, all of the woman, and not to the woman herwhich refer the pronoun it to the seed of self.* The very ancient manuscript of the Latin Vulgate version in the British Museum, which is acknowledged to be that version, and which was written one of the copies of Alcuin's recension of about the middle of the eighth century, has this corrupt reading, which was most probably introduced in order to support the growing superstition of the age in favour of the Virgin Mary. The following "Prayer of Saint Bernard to the Blessed Virgin" is extracted from the "Little Office, Litany, and Mass, of the Sacred Heart of Jesus:"t

"Remember, O most pious Virgin! it is a thing unheard of, that thou ever forsakest those who have recourse to thee. Encouraged with this hope and confidence, my most dear Mother, I, a most miserable sinner, cast myself at thy sacred feet, humbly begging that thou wilt adopt me as thy son for ever, and take upon thee the care of my eternal salvation. Do not, Mother of the Word Incarnate, reject my petition, but graciously hear and grant it. Amen." (page 35.)

3. An interpretation of Gen. iii. 15, similar to that just cited from Bernard, was written by the Blessed ALBERT the Great, Bishop of Ratisbon, about the middle of the thirteenth century; who, in

inter te et mulierem. Et si adhuc dubitas quod de Maria non dixerit, audi quod sequitur, Ipsa conteret caput tuum. Cui hæc servata victoria est, nisi Mariæ? Ipsa procul dubio caput contrivit venenatum, quæ omnimodam maligni suggestionem tam de carnis illecebra, quam de mentis superbia, deduxit ad nihilum."(Col. 738. A.)

46

Bp. Beveridge's Works, vol. ii., p. 193; and vol. ix., pp. 233, 234. 8vo. edit.

"Praise be to Jesus! the Little Office, and Litany, and Mass of the Sacred Heart of JePublished by "Ferguson, 108, Patrick street, Cork.-1836." 24mo.

sus."

his "Biblia Marialia," affirms that the Virgin Mary is the Heaven and the Light which the Almighty created, and the Throne of Mercy to which the sinner comes for pardon.* The limits necessarily assigned to this tract prohibit even the smallest selection of passages from his twelve books in praise of the Virgin Mary, which fill nearly the entire twentyfirst volume of the folio edition of his works printed at Lyons in 1651.

4. Saint BONAVENTURE, Cardinal Bishop of Albano, is accounted one of the most eminent saints of the Romish Church; he lived in the middle and latter part of the thirteenth century. In the fifth lesson of the special service in his honour, appointed for the 14th July (on which day he died in 1474),† we are informed that he wrote many things; in which, combining the greatest learning

"Gen. i. 1. In principio creavit Deus cælum et terram. Cœlum, scilicet, empyreum, per quod intelligitur Domina Mundi, Virgo Maria.

"Ipsa etiam dicitur Lux. Gen. i. Tenebræ erant super faciem abyssi. TENEBRE ignoran tiæ et cæcitatis super faciem cordis humani. Dixitque Deus, Fiat Lux, id est, Maria generetur et nascatur."-(Biblia Marialia, page 1, col. 1., Op. Tom. 21. Lugduni, 1651).

“Job xxiii. 3. Item ipsa est misericordiæ solium, ad quod veniens peccator, absolvitur. Quis mihi tribuat ut veniam ad solium ejus? id est, usque ad Mariam, quæ solium est misericordiæ."-Ibid, p. 12., col. 2.

The following are the prayers in use in the Romish Church on the 14th of July, the feast of "Saint Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor." We give them in the translation printed in page 630 of "The Missal for the Use of the Laity." . . . . . "Newly arranged, and in great measure translated by the Rev. F. C. Husenbeth. Third edition, improved, with the approbation of all the Right Revs. the Vicars Apostolic of England." London: C. Dolman, 61, New Bond-street. 1840. 12mo.

"SECRET. We beseech thee, O Lord, that the annual solemnity of holy Bonaventure, thy confessor and bishop, may render us acceptable to thy mercy; that, by these offices of pious expiation, while our blessed retribution attends him, he may procure for us the gifts of thy grace: through our Lord," &c.

POSTCOм: Deus fidelium.-"O God the rewarder of faithful souls, grant that we may obtain pardon by the prayers of blessed Bonaventure, thy confessor and bishop, whose venerable festival we celebrate: through our Lord," &c.

with ardent piety, he affects the reader while he instructs him."* Bonaventure wrote many pieces in honour of the Virgin Mary: particularly the "Mirror of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (Speculum Beatæ Mariæ Virginis), the "Office on the Compassion of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (De Compassione B. Mariæ Virginis Officium), the "Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (Corona B. Mariæ Virginis), the "Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (Laus B. Mariæ Virginis), the "Lesser Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (Psalterium Minus B. Mariæ Virginis), and the "Psalter of the Blessed Virgin" (Psalterium B. Mariæ Virginis).

Of these various treatises the "Psalter" is, perhaps, much the best known. Taking every one of the hundred and fifty Psalms of David, the "Seraphic Doctor" Bonaventure so changes the commencement of each as to address them, not, as the inspired Psalmist did, to the Lord Jehovah, the one only Lord God Almighty, but to the Virgin Mary; inserting much of his own composition, and then adding the Gloria Patri to each. So offensive to Papists are these specimens of direct invocation to the Virgin Mary, that some of them have affirmed that this Psalter has been put into the Roman Index of prohibited books, while others have not hesitated to assert that it never was written by Bonaventure.

In reply to these false assertions, it is sufficient to state, that a careful examination of all the Indexes of prohibited books, issued under the auspices of the Romish church, has demonstrated, that the Psalter of Bonaventure is not to be found in any one of them. And in disproof of its pretended spuriousness we may remark, that its genuineness is proved by the facts, first, that it is included in the body of the Vatican edition of Bonaventure's works,

"Multa scripsit, in quibus summam eruditionem cum pari pietatis ardore conjungens, lectorem docendo movet." (Brevarium Ro manum. Pars. Estiva., p. 485., Edidit F. C. Husenbeth. Norvici. 1830.)

King's "Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, illustrated by extracts from the works of ecclesiastical writers," (Dublin, 1840,) pp. 83, 84. Rev. H. T. Powell's" Roman Fallacies and Catholic Truths." Appendix, pp. 15-17.

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