justice; with us God and not Mary is the Comforter of the afflicted; and we will content ourselves with the exclamation of David, "Unto THEE Will I cry, O Lord,

my

rock-unto THEE O God do we give thanks, unto Thee do we give thanks, for that Thy name is near Thy wondrous works declare." "Truly my soul waiteth upon God, from Him cometh my salvation, He only is my Rock and my salvation, he is my defence."

It will not avail for any Roman Catholic present to say, "I do not subscribe to those sentiments which you have this evening read respecting the Virgin Mary." I hold you to every sentiment that I can find in these or any other books which are sent forth by the authorities of your Church. You belong to a Catholic Church, your profession is that your doctrines, your ritual, your liturgies, your practice, are one; this is the boast of your great writer, Dr. Milner; if then, they are one, they cannot be diverse; if you are a Catholic, how dare you refuse to employ any authorized liturgy which I can produce? Will you resist the authority of your Saints, your Cardinals, your Bishops, your Pastors? If so, you are not obedient sons of the Church, and there rests upon you her bitterest anathema.

Before I proceed to the next step in the discussion, I would explain that I have confined your attention to the adoration of the Virgin because she is the most eminent Saint of the Roman Catholic Church. From other devotional publications, ecclesiastically authorized, I could have adduced passages to show that divine titles and works are ascribed to other saints. This subject, however, will be more fully expounded in a subsequent

lecture. I therefore resume the discussion, reminding you that we have shown, that to ascribe divine titles, attributes, and works, to any creature is idolatry; and that the Roman Catholic Church has done and is doing this to the Virgin Mary. We have shown that to offer sacrifice, prayer or praise to any creature is idolatry, and that the Roman Catholic Church has done and is doing this also to the Virgin Mary. And now we take another position.

That to bow down religiously, i. e. for religious purposes before images, pictures, or other representations, is idolatry.

And here I wish to refer to those refined distinctions of adoration or worship which Roman Catholic Divines have promulged. The following extract from the work Ferraris Bibliotheca Prompta, will convey to you the Roman Catholic exposition of this graduated worship: (Elliott p. 756).

"That it may be fully understood what worship or adoration is due to them, it is to be observed, that adoration is an act by which any one submits himself to another, in the recognition of his excellence. This is the common opinion. And this adoration or worship is civil or political, sacred or religious. Adoration merely civil or political, is that which may be offered to Kings and supreme Princes on account of the excellence of their station, or the excellency of human power which they possess beyond others; as is mentioned in Scripture, where some are said to have adored Kings. So David, falling on his face, adored three times. (1 Sam. xx 41.) All the assembly blessed the Lord God of

their fathers, and bowed themselves, and adored God, and then the King; (1 Chron. xxix, 20;) where, as you see, the same word adoration refers to God and the King; although, to God the worship is latria, to the King it is only civil respect. Sacred or religious adoration is that which is offered to any one on account of sacred or supernatural excellence, as the adoration which is rendered to God, the blessed Virgin Mary, and all the saints. Of sacred or religious adoration there are three kinds; namely. latria, hyperdulia, and dulia. The adoration or worship of latria, is that which is due to God alone, and is given on account of His uncreated supremacy and infinite excellency. The adoration or worship of hyperdulia is that which is due and rendered to the blessed Virgin on account of the maternity of God, and other excellent gifts, and her special supereminent sanctity beyond others. The adoration or worship of dulia is that which is due and given to the saints on account of the supernatural excellence of their sanctity and glory. These are common opinions."

I think we have a right to ask for the authority upon which these refinements have been introduced into the Christian ritual. We deny their Scriptural character, and require proof from our Catholic friends of the existence in the age of the Apostles of such distinctions and gradations. But we return to our position, viz.: that "to bow down religiously, i. e. for religious purposes, before images, pictures, or other representations, is idolatry."

In support of this position we adduce—

First. The teaching of the word of God in the second commandment. We have already read in the Douay Bible the following words :

"Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." (Exodus xx.)

And here I must enter my solemn protest against those mutilations of this sacred decalogue which have been allowed, by some authorities at least, in the Roman Catholic Church. Several authorized Roman Catholic Catechisms omit the second commandment altogether, others I admit present it entire; but one instance of mutilation which came under my own notice while residing in the Mediteranean, is worthy of more particular mention. On the lectern in the Cathedral of St. John's at Valetta there are two brazen tables, representing the two tables of stone upon which the law was written in the Mount; on these tables are engraved TEN (X) distinct paragraphs, professing of course to be the ten commandments which God gave to Moses. I will read them to you as I transcribed them into my memorandum book in the Cathedral.

I.

Diliges Dominum Deum ex toto corde tuo, ex tota anima tua, et ex tota fortitudine tua.

II.

Non assumes nomen Domini Dei tui in vanum.

III.

Memento ut diem sabbathi sanctifices.

[From the fourth to the eighth, inclusive, there is no variation from our commonly received version of the decalogue.]

IX.

Non concupisces domum proximi tui.

X.

Nec desiderabis uxorem ejus.

Here then is a direct mutilation of the ten commandments. It avails not to say, that instead of the first commandment we are furnished with an inspired epitome of the first table-those laws, namely, which relate to God: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength." This is no part of the record which the Divine Being incribed with his own finger upon the tables that were delivered to Moses on the Mount. That record contained a distinct and elaborate proscription against idolatry, and this proscription, the Church of Rome has not kept prominently before the eyes of her members. Where images and pictures abound as they do in Roman Catholic Churches and dwellings, there is the greater need of writing upon every wall of church, college, convent, and school, the distinct commandment against