ever St. Peter's patrimony; and the dastardly monarch reaccepted his sceptre from the hands of the papal legate, to hold as a vassal of the holy see, at the annual rent of a thousand marks.

Another engine set on foot, or at least greatly improved, by the court of Rome, was a masterpiece of papal policy. Not content with the ample provision of tithes, which the law of the land had given to the parochial clergy, they endeavoured to grasp at the lands and inheritances of the kingdom, and (had not the legislature withstood them) would by this time have probably been masters of every foot of ground in the kingdom. To this end they introduced the monks of the Benedictine and other rules, men of sour and austere religion, separated from the world and it's concerns by a vow of perpetual celibacy, yet fascinating the minds of the people by pretences to extraordinary sanctity, while all their aim was to aggrandize the power and extend the influence of their grand superior the pope. And as, in those times of civil tumult, great rapines and violence were daily committed by overgrown lords and their adherents, they were taught to believe that founding a monastery a little before their deaths would atone for a life of incontinence, disorder, and bloodshed. Hence innumerable abbeys and religious houses were built within a century after the conquest, and endowed, not only with the tithes of parishes which were ravished from the secular clergy, but also with lands, manors, lordships, and extensive baronies. And the doctrine inculcated was, that whatever was so given to, or purchased by, the monks and friars, was consecrated to God himself; and that to alienate or take it away was no less than the sin of sacrilege.

ON THE IDOLATRY OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.

Christianity was doubtless intended to deliver the world from idolatry that principal work of the devil."-Scott's Bible, John i., 1-3.

It is a fundamental principle of the christian religion, that there is but one living and true God, and that He, and He only, is the proper object of religious worship: to worship or adore any other being besides Him constitutes idolatry, which is rebellion against Jehovah.

Throughout the sacred scriptures idolatry is denounced in the most vehement terms as that "accursed thing" which is the special object of God's abhorrence. Not only the act itself, but every attempt to seduce men to it, was visited under the Jewish law with the strictest rigour-(see Deut. xiii., 6-11); "no partiality for the dearest relative was to induce concealment; no dignity to silence accusation; no multitude of offenders to deter from

punishment," Men of the world, or merely nominal christians, have no adequate conception of the heinous character of this sin, or of its evil consequences: it is the true believer alone that appreciates its malignity, and scrupulously avoids all approaches to it.

Idolatry cannot be less offensive to God under the present, than it was under the former dispensation; for, as Bishop Burnet says, "The new dispensation does in all respects carry the ideas of God and of true religion much higher, and to a more spiritual way of worshipping him."

The remarks of Mr. Milner in his Church History, on the subject of idolatry, deserve attention. He observes:—

"The marvellous propensity of all ages to the sin of idolatry, which implies a departure of the heart from the living and true God, must originate in some steady principles existing in the nature of fallen man. "The species of idolatry are exceedingly various; but they differ not much either in their source or their tendency. In all circumstances man is miserable and blind, if he be not seeking and worshipping the true God in spirit and in truth. If in breach of the second commandment, he represent the glory of Jehovah by images, or if, in breach of the first, he set up a divinity opposite to Jehovah, in both cases he forms a deceitful basis of salvation and happiness, and directly affronts the perfections of God. Such practices are, therefore, forbidden throughout the scripture in the most positive manner.

"Whoever understands that idolatry implies the departure of the heart from the living God, and the fixing of it on something else— that to distrust his word, and to put confidence in some sensible object by which we would represent him to our minds-still further, that to glory in our own strength and righteousness, instead of seeking salvation by grace through faith-proceeds from pride, and pours all possible contempt on the divine majesty, will not wonder at God's indignation against this sin, will see how naturally it operates on the human mind, and how it affords a complete demonstration of the apostasy of man."

Having thus endeavoured briefly to point out the evil of idolatry, it remains to inquire whether the Church of Rome is justly chargeable with this sin. We will first cite the authority of our church and listen to the testimony which she bears upon the subject. In the homily against the peril of idolatry, the following

passages occur :—

"The opinion of all the rabblement of the Popish church maintaining images ought to be esteemed of small or no authority, for that it is no marvel that they which have from their childhood been brought up amongst images and idols, and have drunk in idolatry almost with their mothers' milk, hold with images and idols, and speak and write for them.

"The Bishops of Rome, being no ordinary magistrates appointed by God out of their diocese, but usurpers of princes' authority, contrary to God's word, were the maintainers of images against God's word, and stirrers up of sedition and rebellion, and workers of continual

treason against their sovereign lords, contrary to God's law and the ordinances of all human laws; being not only enemies to God, but also rebels and traitors against their princes. These be the first bringers in of images openly into churches; these be the maintainers of them in the churches; and these be the means whereby they have maintained them to wit, conspiracy, treason, and rebellion against God and their princes.

"Their rites and ceremonies, in honouring and worshipping of the images or saints, be all one with the rites which the Gentile idolaters used in honouring their idols. . . . . And to increase this madness, wicked men, which have the keeping of such images, for their greater lucre and advantage, after the example of the Gentile idolaters, have reported and spread abroad, as well by lying tales as written fables, divers miracles of images. Thus do our image maintainers in earnest apply to their images all such miracles as the Gentiles have feigned of their idols.

"The scriptures have for a warning hereof shewed that the kingdom of Antichrist shall be mighty in miracles and wonders, to the strong illusion of all the reprobates. But in this they pass the folly and wickedness of the Gentiles, that they honour and worship the relics and bones of our saints; which prove that they be mortal men and dead, and therefore no gods to be worshipped, which the Gentiles would never confess of their gods for very shame. But the relics we must kiss and offer unto specially on Relic Sunday.

"It is evident that our image maintainers have not only made images and set them up in temples, as did the Gentile idolaters their idols; but also that they have had the same idolatrous opinions of the saints to whom they have made images, which the Gentile idolaters had of their false gods, and have not only worshipped their images with the same rites, ceremonies, superstition, and all circumstances as did the Gentile idolaters their idols, but in many points also have far exceeded them in all wickedness, foolishness, and madness."*

From hence it appears that the Church of England, in the most unequivocal manner, accuses the Church of Rome of idolatry, and that too of the grossest description-as far surpassing in absurdity and wickedness the idolatry of the Gentiles.†

* A heathen was so struck with the monstrous absurdity of Papal idolatry, as exhibited in the doctrine of transubstantiation, that he is reported to have said"If christians eat their God as well as make him, let my soul remain with the philosophers." Thus shewing the tendency of Popery to promote infidelity.

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+ If the Church of Rome is a grossly idolatrous church; if she is " So far wide from the nature of the true church that nothing can be more "; and if she is not built upon the foundations of the apostles aud prophets,"—all which our church in her homilies, distinctly and in so many words, declares, (see Homily for Whitsunday, part 2);-how can she be a true, apostolic, and christian church, as many learned divines gravely contend? This hypothesis involves a manifest incongruity, and is repugnant to common sense. An undue attachment to system often leads men into great absurdities, and is the prolific parent of a numerous progeny of errors.

Bishop Burnet observes that

"Our church in her homilies has laid this charge of idolatry so severely on the Church of Rome, and this is so high an imputation, that those who think it false, as they cannot with a good conscience subscribe or require others to subscribe the article concerning the homilies, so they ought to retract their own subscriptions, and to make solemn reparation, in justice and honour, for laying so heavy an imputation unjustly upon that whole communion."

Bishop Burnet also observes:

"This we believe is plain idolatry, when an insensible piece of matter, such as bread and wine, has divine honours paid it, when it is believed to be God, when it is called God, and is in all respects worshipped with the same adoration that is offered up to Almighty God: this we think is gross idolatry. Many writers of the Church of Rome have acknowledged that if transubstantiation is not true, their worship is a strain of idolatry beyond anything that is practised amongst the most depraved of all the heathens."

Archbishop Secker, in speaking of worshipping images and pictures, remarks:

"But here the Church of Rome will say we wrong them; they do not worship images, but only Christ and his saints by these images. But, indeed, it is they who wrong themselves then; for not a few of their own writers (Aquinas, &c.) frankly own they do worship images, and with the same degree of worship that they pay to the persons whose images they are. And for the cross, particularly in their public offices, they expressly declare themselves to adore it, and, in plain words, petition it in one of their hymns, 'to give increase of grace to the righteous and pardon to the guilty."—Archbishop Secker's Five Sermons against Popery.

Bishop Bull observes :

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They are for ever damned by the Trent creed, who do not hold and practise the invocation of saints deceased; for this is one of the articles of that creed, without the belief whereof they tell us none can be saved,—that is, all are damned who pray unto God alone through Christ the mediator, as the scripture directs and the Catholic Church of the first and best ages hath practised. It is certain that the church of those days never allowed the use of images in her oratories or conventicles, much less the adoration and worship of them. . . . It is added in the creed, that not only the saints themselves but also their reliques are to be worshipped.

"But most extravagant is the invocation and worship of the blessed Virgin, used and practised in the Church of Rome. I will not urge here the hymn, in Cassander's time, sung in their churches,'Beseech thy mother, command thy Son, O happy parent, who maketh expiation for our wickedness by thy authority as a mother, command the Redeemer'; nor the psalter of our lady, mentioned also by Cassander, as that which was in use in his time, in which, through the whole book of psalms, wheresoever the name of the Lord occurred it was changed

into the name of our lady: though I know not whether those horrid blasphemies were ever censured and condemned by any public act of the Roman Church. But I do affirm that there are still such addresses and forms of prayer to the blessed Virgin, either enjoined or allowed by authority to be used in the Church of Rome, as no man who hath a due concern for the honour of his Redeemer can read or hear without abhorrence and detestation."

Bishop Bull then adduces instances of such prayers from the accredited formularies of the Roman Church.

"But the worst ceremony of all is, the elevation of the host to be adored by the people, as very Christ himself under the appearance of bread, whole Christ, God and man; while they neglect the old, the lifting up their hearts to heaven, where whole Christ indeed is. A practice this is, which nothing can excuse from the grossest idolatry, but their gross stupidity, or rather infatuation, in thinking that a piece of bread can, by any means whatsoever or howsoever consecrated and blessed, become their very God and Saviour."-Bishop Bull's Corruptions of the Church of Rome.

Bishop Burgess affirms that—

"In the scriptures we are taught that there is only one God, and in the Nicene creed we profess it; but the Church of Rome, by her adoration of angels and saints, and prayers to them for spiritual and temporal blessings, becomes the worshipper of many gods. The scriptures teach us that there is but one mediator between God and man, and only one name under heaven by which men must be saved; but in the Church of Rome every saint is a mediator, and every mediator a saviour. By the scriptures we are taught that Christ offered himself once on the cross for the sins of mankind; the Church of Rome professes in the mass to offer up Christ every day as a propitiatory sacrifice to God. In the gospel we are taught to honour the Son even as we honour the Father; but in the Church of Rome greater honour is paid to the Virgin Mary than to the Son or to the Father. Nothing more strongly shows the fundamental difference of the Church of Rome from the Church of England than the doctrine, that the bread and wine are changed by consecration into the body and blood of Christ, and the worship of Christ under the visible forms of bread and wine; the belief of which the Church of Rome declares to be necessary to every man's salvation; but which the Church of England pronounces to be idolatry, to be abhorred of all faithful christians.

"The charge of idolatry was applied (to the Church of Rome) by our reformers of the sixteenth century who were born and bred Papists, and knew by their own experience and knowledge what Popery was. It is so applied in our liturgy and homilies, and has been so applied by the best informed and most learned Protestants from their time to the present. It may be sufficient to quote the testimony of Bishop Jeremy Taylor: We know idolatry is a damnable sin; and we know that the Roman Church, with all the artifices she could use, never can justify herself, or acquit the common practice