them is idolatry; all the bowings and uncoverings of the head, and the prostration before images and pictures, and the bodies of martyrs and relics, are idolatry. Every adoration of the elements in the Eucharist is idolatry. The very popular excuse made by the Romanists that they only pray to the saints to intercede with God for them, is precisely that which most especially condemns the practice, as it robs Christ of his mediatorial office, and denies that we are complete in him.

But the whole soul of a Christian trembles at such blasphemy. Christ is "all and in all" to him. Christ is high as God, and needs none to come between ; for "he and the Father are one;" he is low as man, and needs none to come between for ; 66 we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones."

This worship of saints and angels, then, thus idolatrous in all its parts, is, I repeat, the grand abomination of popery. There are many steps leading to it, some more remotely, others more directly; but this is the last practical finish, as in the case of the nations of Israel and Judah of old, of the whole series of previous provocations.

I confess, when I contrast this tremendous structure of demonolatry with its feeble origin, its insidious but steady growth, its fatal ramifications into all the details of religious worship; its prevalence for so many ages over the larger part of Christendom; its present zealous and aggressive character; the devotion of its adherents; and its hold, by a judicial

blindness, as it were, on the minds of the wealthy, the learned, the powerful, the renowned of all classes from the prince to the peasant; I seem to behold the gigantic monster stand out in full relief, whom the series of predictions, to which we have before adverted, so exactly portrayed. Indeed, it would appear to me abstractedly a most unlikely thing, considering the general scheme of divine prophecy in all its other branches, that sixteen or seventeen centuries of such a portentous and insidious opposition to Christ and his glorious mediation, should have been unnoticed in the sacred records. And the strenuous but vain efforts of Roman Catholic writers to turn away these predictions from their seven-hilled city, abundantly confirm, as I think, the application of them, arising from the broad and undoubted historical facts of the case which I have now adduced.

LECTURE XXIII.

TENDENCY OF OXFORD TRACTARIANISM TOWARDS

POPERY.

COL. ii. 18, 19.

18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.

19. And not holding the head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

It is a mournful but imperative duty to turn, as we proposed, in the next place, to the evident tendency of the system of our Tract writers to favour popery, notwithstanding its worship of saints and angels, and infuse its spirit into our pure Protestant church.

Very little, alas, need be said on this melancholy and disgraceful subject. The rapid sketch we have given of the vast structure of the papacy, is sufficient to put us upon our guard against any systematic favour displayed towards it. And it was for this end that I took that view. Besides, the mighty evil is

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confessed; and, thank God, has been checked, as we have already observed, by the concurrent judgment of a majority of our bishops, by the decisive stand made by the University where the Tracts first appeared, by the masterly writings of our distinguished divines, by the piety and faithful preaching and prayers of a large proportion of our clergy, and by the alarm justly spread among the pious and most attached members of the laity of our church.

Still the inundation has been so wide and deep, and has extended itself so far, that, notwithstanding the barrier which has been reared, we have to fear the reflux of the back waters, as it were, of the torrent. Let us consider then the dangers we have escaped, and only just escaped.

It is enough for us that these writers, in the whole series of the Tracts and their other publications for ten or eleven years, have been engaged in lauding popery; sighing after re-union with her; lessening the differences between her doctrines and those of our reformed church; checking the old and salutary dread of her corruptions in the popular mind; describing her as the "Saviour's holy home," and declaring that she, and she only, retains the true, uncurtailed Catholic faith.

It is enough for us that they have at the same time been reviling the blessed Reformers, upbraiding one of the most eminent of them, Jewel, as an irreverent dissenter; declaring that the Reformation was a guilty, schismatical act, mutilating the tradi

tion of 1,500 years; that it was an upas tree and incubus on the church, and a judgment upon us for our sins; and that their aim is to unprotestantize the Church of England.

All this is more than sufficient for my argument. Out of their own mouth I judge them. They have written themselves down. I need assume nothing more as the basis of my remonstrance than what they profess and glory in, a disposition to union with Rome, a favourable aspect towards her, and a palliation of her general system. This is enough. The rest all follows. If Rome be what she is, a leaning towards her can have but one result.

But I stop not here. The case is too important. I must briefly remind you once again* of the system in some of its principles and practices, familiarly as you know them, in order that the frightful dangers which were impending over us may be better known.

We may first call to mind that the original scheme of the chief writers has been published, based on the grossly unscriptural doctrine, that the way of salvation is the partaking of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.

Again, we cannot forget that the too celebrated Tract No. 90, avowed the jesuitical design of showing that there is no irreconcilable opposition between the thirty-nine Articles and the leading principles of

* For I have entered pretty much into the detail in my Charges of 1838 and 1842, and my Ordination Sermon of 1841.