ed sin, undergo a process of tormenting purification, and from which they are at length delivered through the purchased prayers and intercessions of the priest; thus rendering it a matter of comparative indifference, whether religion has been made the subject of serious regard before death or not!

These are a few out of a multitude of particulars that might be mentioned, exhibiting the entire opposition that there is between the leading doctrines of Christianity and those of the Papacy, and the awful corruption to which Christian truth has been subjected, even in those instances in which something like the shadow of it has been retained. And if, from the Doctrines, we were to pass to the Institutions of Christianity, we would find that there is scarcely one of them that has not experienced the unhallowed and defiling touch of this "mother of abominations."Where, in the grand record of our holy institutions, will you find authority for dispensing ordinances in an unknown tongue, for devoting unbaptised persons to everlasting perdition, for the absurdity of transubstantiation, for the blasphemous massa sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead, for withholding the symbol of the blood of Christ from the people in the holy communion, for the worshipping of angels and departed saints, for offering up prayers on behalf of the dead; in short, for accounting confirmation, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony, to be sacraments-affirming that they have power to confer grace, and devoting to an everlasting curse

those by whom they are denied?* Are these the institutions of genuine Christianity? No, my brethren; these are corruptions of Christianity, by which its simplicity is perverted, its sublimity debased, its glory trampled in the dust. These are corruptions, by which the religion of the blessed Saviour is degrad, ed down to the level of Pagan superstition, and the house of God converted into a synagogue of Satan,

II. THE WORSHIP OF THE PAPAL CHURCH 18 IDOLATRY.

This is a solemn and awful charge ;-if it is made in consistency with truth, it excludes the community, respecting which it is affirmed, from all right to lay claim to the character of a Church of Christ. Alas! it is a charge, than which there is not one more easily substantiated.

Idolatry is the giving that adoration and worship to creatures which belongs to the true God, the Creator of all things. It is expressly forbidden in the first commandment-"Thou shalt have no other Gods before me;" and still more expressly in the second

* The Council of Trent, (Sess. 7. Can. 1') decreed in the following terms "If any one saith that the sacraments of the new law were not all appointed by Jesus Christ our Lord or that they are more or fewer than seven, namely-Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders, and Matrimony, or that any one of these is not truly and properly a sacrament, let him be ANATHEMA."

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." Who sees not that this is a most unambiguous prohibition? Who feels not that its terms are most awful and alarming, and that the guilt of those must be fearful, by whom it is violated? Who could have expected that a Church professing to venerate the authority of God, and to yield obedience to his blessed word, would have dared its infringement? Yet is most direct and awful violation of this part of the divine law, one of the striking features in the character of the Antichristian Church. Images of angels and departed saints, and of the divine Saviour, and even of Him, whom no eye hath seen, or can see, who is the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, have been used in all ages of the Papacy, and are used by her even unto this day. Before these images her votaries prostrate themselves—

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"I myself," says Mr Cunningham, author of an excellent work on the apostacy of the Church of Rome, saw a picture of this kind, (of God the Father) in one of the churches of Antwerp, about twenty-five years ago; and the existence of such abominations is acknowledged in an abridgement of sacred history, by L'Abbe Fleury, which is in my possession. "These images," says he, "which represent the divine persons, are derived from the sacred scripture. God hath, not unfrequently, appeared to his prophets under the form of a venerable old man."

to them they pray-to them they give divine homage, and from them they implore blessings which only God can bestow. If ever there was such a thing as idolatry in the world, it is this!

In vain is it asserted by the defenders of the Church of Rome, that, in adoring images of the Saviour and of God, they employ them merely as the medium of worship; that the honour which they give is not intended for the image, but for the great Being whom it represents. Even in this case, the practice is still gross idolatry-a flagrant violation not only of the whole spirit, but also of the very letter of the second commandment. Are not "the making of any graven image," and "the bowing down before it," expressly prohibited? And to illustrate the import of the prohibition, is there not in the Holy Scripture this solemn caution?" Take ye, therefore, good heed unto yourselves, (for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,) lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure; the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth; and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them and serve them,

which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven."*

It is not necessary, in order to constitute idolatry, that the object before which adoration is given, be supposed to be really God. In the sight of Jehovah, those are truly idolaters, who present, before a creature, the homage which is due to "the living and true God." When Aaron and the children of Israel made the golden calf in the wilderness, and fell down before it, and worshipped, they intended it merely as a representation of the God who had "brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage." Nevertheless, in the sight of God they were guilty of idolatry, and their "turning aside from the way which he had commanded them," was followed by the fearful tokens of his displeasure. In like manner, amid all the idolatry with which the Jews were chargeable in the subsequent periods of their history, they were never guilty of totally rejecting the true God. They introduced images-the idols of the surrounding nations-into their worship; but they intended them simply as emblems of their own God, and as the medium through which they presented to him their adoration and their praise. Yet, in the sight of God, this was idolatry. For this they were challenged, threatened, punished. For this their ten tribes were devoted to final rejection. For this Judah was given up to desolation and captivity during seventy

D Deut. iv. 15. 19.