shipped and adored, in the form of a piece of wafer:

2. Images of God, in the various representations of the cross, on which our salvation was wrought out, of the Virgin, and of various real or supposed saints :

3. A whole army of mediators and intercessors, in heaven, or in the upper regions of the air, who are to be prayed to, in the belief that they are more accessible, and have a readier sympathy with our wants and miseries, than either Christ or the Father:

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4. A priesthood endowed with miraculous powers! who can create God himself out of a piece of wafer-who can endow water or oil with medicinal or restorative or protective power by a word, and at whose sentence the sins of their votaries depart, and souls spring up out of purgatory into heaven.

Now all these inventions of Popery have a direct tendency to intercept and break off the spiritual intercourse which ought to be carried on between man and God. They all present to man other refuges, other reliances, other Saviours, than HIM" whom God hath exalted ;" and therefore they are all, intrinsically and practically, in nature and in effect, positively idolatrous.

Rom. You are but repeating a great part of your accusations at our last meeting.

Prot. I partly admit the charge, Let me turn, then, from my own views and opinions, and read to you the recent confessions of a Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. David O'Croly, of Cork, who, in his last work on the differences between Protestantism and Popery, thus laments the weight of superstition which has encumbered the worship of his own Church :

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Nothing can be more complicated than the Roman Catholic ceremonial. Simplicity, the original characteristic of Christianity, has been abandoned. The Roman

pontifical, containing the various ceremonies to be performed by bishops, is a volume of considerable bulk, larger by far than the New Testament. Catholic divines admit that this pontifical contains a great quantity of superfluous matter, which, however, is not to be passed over so long as it remains on the statute-book. The Council of Trent has even gone so far as to anathematize all such as should presume, of their own private authority, to retrench or to alter any portion of it. Bishops themselves, much less the clergy of the second order, have no choice or jurisdiction in such things. This law, however, is sometimes disregarded by refractory individuals, who, pressed by time or actuated by carelessness, or for other reasons best known to themselves, skip over many of the prescribed ceremonies, and hasten to the conclusion of their work.

"The ceremonies of the mass, how multifarious! Genuflections and crosses without number; complicated movements; the quarterwheel, the semicircular, and the circular, as the case may require; the repeated shifting of the book from side to side, and the blaze of candles amid the glare of the meridian sun. Doubtless the generality of priests attach little importance to these matters; not so the congregation, who would be highly scandalized if the mass suffered any defalcation in this respect.

distempers, cleanses the soul, expels Satan and his imps from haunted houses, and introduces the Holy Ghost as an inmate in their stead. It is generally believed that the holy water blessed at Easter and Christmas, possesses superior virtue, on which account several tubs or barrels full must be blessed upon these occasions, in order to supply the increased demand. Protestants being quite incredulous as to the miraculous virtues ascribed to boly water, have abolished the use of it, and are of opinion that it bears a strong resemblance to the lustral water that was commonly used in the rites of pagan superstition.

"Salt in like manner is pressed into the ceremonial of religion, probably because in the New Testament the apostles were called the salt of the earth. It is blessed for a variety of purposes. After being, first of all, duly exorcised itself, it is made use of in the administration of baptism and in the manufacture of holy water.

“The ceremonial of blessing the oils-the oleum infirmorum, the oil for the sick, the oleum cathecumenorum, the oil of catechumens, and the chrisma or chrism, is complicated beyond measure, and magnificent withal. On Maunday Thursday it is consecrated by the bishop, robed in his pontificals, in the presence of the diocesan clergy, robed in their vestments; who all, at the appointed times, while it is in progress of consecration, worship it by triple genuflection, salutation, and psalmody! The holy oil is adored on Maunday Thursday, just as the cross is on Good Friday; on which latter occasion also, a multiplicity of odd ceremonies takes place.

"The worship of inanimate things is justified on the score of its being merely relative; that is, referable to something really entitled to our adoration. There may be some reason in this. But

what object of this kind is there to which the adoration of the oils may be referred ?

"The efficacy of this benediction lasts but for one year; at the expiration of which, it is understood that the holy oil becomes unfit to communicate grace, and should be committed for combustion to the devouring element of fire. The solemn consecration by the bishop, backed by a multitude of crosses and insufflations, &c. performed by the body of priests in attendance, proves insufficient to protect it from the injuries of time and the decay of nature; just as happens to the consecrated host, which, when it happens to suffer decomposition, is acknowledged to be nothing more than decayed bread, unfit to nourish either body or soul.

"Nothing can exceed the complication and multitude of the ceremonies observed in the conferring of holy orders; which, though reckoned one individual sacrament and of a spiritual nature, is, like matter, divisible ad infinitum. You have particular ceremonies for the consecration of a pope, for the consecration of a patriarch, for the consecration of an archbishop, for the consecration of a bishop, for the consecration of an abbot, for the ordination of a priest, for the ordination of a deacon, for the ordination of a subdeacon, for the collation of the four minor orders of reader, of porter, of alcolite, of exorcist, and, finally, for giving the prima tonsura. What a tremendous ceremonial ! What a cumbrous machinery of religion!! and from such simple beginnings.

Religion, indeed, was overloaded with extravagancies at an early period. St. Augustine complains of the vast increase of whimsical ceremonies in his time. He says, things in this respect had arrived at such a pitch of absurdity, that Christianity, which

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was freed from the servitude of the ceremonial law, had become more enslaved than Judaism itself -that, in short, the simplicity of the gospel had been forgotten." If this saint were alive at the present day, he would have infinitely more reason to complain on this score. Many Catholic theologians are of the same opinion with the holy father; but have not the same honesty or courage to give publicity to their sentiments. Thus it is that, between the connivance or timidity of some and the interested imposture of others, the errors of the ignorant are confirmed, and true religion lies buried beneath an accumulated weight of extravagance, absurdity, and superstition." *

Inq. And is this really the account of the matter given by a priest of your Church?

Rom. Mr. O'Croly has been a priest, I believe, but is at present under suspension.

Prot. But not for ill conduct, I apprehend, or false doctrine; but merely or chiefly because, as you will perceive in this extract, his eyes have been partly opened to the errors and superstitions of the Romish Church. Let us, however, return to the subject. Here is a little book, which I purchased the other day, at the chief Roman Catholic booksellers' in London, called The Daily Companion; or, Little Pocket Manual. And here, in it, I find the rosary, exactly as Mr. O'Croly has described it. It is given as ordered by his holiness Pope Pius V.;' and it is so contrived as to be suited, by a succession of changes, for every day in the year. Each day's service contains five mysteries,' as they are called; and after every 'mystery' follows,

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Our Father,' &c. once.

Hail, Mary,' &c. ten times.

So that, in the morning's devotion,

* O'Croly's Inquiry, 8vo. pp. 139-146.

the little prayer beginning Hail, Mary,' would be repeated no fewer than fifty times. And this is, I have no doubt, actually performed, day by day, by hundreds of miserable devotees, even in this metropolis, in which we are now residing.

Inq. You say, I think, that in

this rosary there are fifty prayers put up to the Virgin, and only ten to God?

Prot. Yes, and this is by no means an exaggerated proportion. So ready is the human mind to run to any refuge rather than that salvation which God has provided, and to cling to any intercessor rather than to Him who is "exalted to give repentance and remission of sins;" that it is upon record that in the cathedral of Canterbury, in the days of England's darkness, "Whereas there used to be three offerings made by the people in that church: one to Christ, another to the Virgin Mary, and another to Thomas à Becket, the oblations made at the altar of Thomas à Becket did generally amount to eight hundred or a thousand pounds, those to our Lady's to two hundred pounds; while those to Christ's would be five marks, and sometimes hoc anno nihil!" certain is it, that if other intercessors or objects of worship are allowed at all, they will immediately draw away our hearts from Him who ought to be the great object of worship, and thus work our infinite loss and hazard. From which we see at once the wisdom and the necessity of that rule which puts down at once all other or subsidiary worship, and declares, that "to us there is but one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." (1 Tim. ii. 5.)

So

Rom. You are constantly adducing these and similar texts, regardless of our repeated disclaimers and explanations. How constantly has it been stated, in every

variety of form, and by all our writers, that we hold, as firmly as you can do, one sole Mediator of salvation; but that does not prevent our recognizing many mediators of intercession.

Prot. I am well aware of these subterfuges, by which, doubtless, many of your most sincere adherents contrive to delude themselves. But I leave any man of common sense to say, whether the great mass of mankind,-for whom, as much as for the intelligent and the learned, Christianity is intended,-whether these can be expected to understand these nice distinctions, or your other degrees and gradations, as of worship of dulia, and worship of latria, and the like. I met with an anecdote the other day, the truth of which is so internally apparent, that I shall make no excuse for reading it to you. The narrator says,

"A Protestant clergyman, personally known to the writer, once entered into conversation with a Romish priest in the gaol of Carrick. As religion was the subject, they did not speak much before controversy was introduced. The priest accused Protestants of want of candour in charging Roman Catholics with praying to the blessed Virgin. We don't pray to her, Sir,' said he; 'tis a calumny to assert it; we only ask her intercession.' But,' replied the minister calmly, the Council of Trent decreed that even the saints, whom it regards as entitled to a degree of worship inferior to that which is due to the blessed Virgin, are to be suppliantly invoked (suppliciter invocari) and it teaches, too, that this invocation may be mental: now to me it seems that the man who kneels to an invisible being, and presents his supplications to that being, in thought, may, without any abuse of language, be said to pray to him but even were I to admit that the difference which you wish

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to establish really exists, still I cannot but fear that the common people are incapable of making such nice distinctions. 'I tell you,' rejoined the priest, it is not the case; they can understand this matter as well as I do.' 'I should like,' said the minister, 'to be assured of this; however, I shall put it to the proof. Come here, my man,' addressing himself to one of the turnkeys who happened to cross the hall in which 'You are a Roman

they stood. Catholic?'

I am, your reverence,' said the turnkey respectfully, while he touched his forelock with his thumb and fore finger. And tell me now,' continued the minister, • Do you pray to the blessed Virgin? Oh, to be sure I do, please your reverence,' replied the man promptly. The priest's countenance and tone expressed any thing but that gentleness with which St. Paul commanded Timothy to administer reproof, as he vociferated, lie, you don't—you rascal!' This ended the controversy; for the poor turnkey sneaked off as fast as he could, observing, in a subdued tone, Sure your reverence knows best.'

• You

Rom. That story may do very well for a free discussion like this; but I would beg of you to tell me what you prove by it. This priest of Carrick may, or may not, have been so foolish as to deny that the Church prays to the Virgin, but no one is accountable for this piece of forwardness but himself. Our best writers, including those referred to in our last conversation, do all admit that in a restricted sense, we do address our prayers to the Virgin and the Saints. No one, therefore, was caught by the Protestant's ready retort at Carrick, but the priest himself. Nor do I perceive what help you derive from this story, in the present argument.

*Protestant Magazine, Vol. i. pp. 150.