the four Roman Catholic Archbishops of Ireland, and find the following: "What is commanded by the first commandment? Answer, To adore one God, and to adore but him alone." I read again: "What else is forbidden by the first commandment? Answer, To give to any creature the honour due to God alone." In another catechism, I find this abhorrence of idolatry expressed yet more forcibly; and, though the copy of the work now in my hand does not appear to be sanctioned by ecclesiastical authority, I willingly quote from it, forasmuch as it is published in this city by a Roman Catholic bookseller, and, as I suppose, freely circulated and used by the members of that communion. I believe it indeed to be a reprint of an ecclesiastically authorised catechism, bearing the same title, and published and circulated in Ireland. On page thirty-seven I read "Do you then worship the angels and saints as God, or give them the honor that belongs to God alone?" Answer, "No; God forbid. For this would be high treason against his divine majesty." In all this, I need scarcely say, Protestants are at one with their Roman Catholic brethren. : At this stage of the discussion, it will be desirable to determine, What is idolatry? Its existence we all acknowledge. We acknowledge also the tendency of the human mind, or we would rather say heart, in its fallen state, to seek after visible objects of worship. This, indeed, is proved by all history. First, the more glorious created objects-the sun, the moon, the stars, were deified, were worshipped as gods: then, heroes, men of renown in various pursuits, after their departure into the spirit-world were deified, the localities of their birth, of their exploits, of their death, were venerated, rude likenesses of them were constructed in various substances, and multiplied, until they came to be reverenced and adored, not in one place merely, but in many places at the same time. Subsequently to this the doctrine of the metempsychosis led to the deification of the inferior animals, and thus to employ the language of St. Paul, the world "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds and of four-footed beasts and of creeping things." Thus originated the terrible, the God-dishonouring sin of idolatry, which has been the parent of so much cruelty and bloodshed, and moral degradation, and which, like a pestilence, has swept over the most august nations and the fairest spots of our earth, leaving upon them and upon their people, the impress of moral corruption and of spiritual death. I have witnessed idolatry in various forms and surrounded with different circumstances, but wherever I have seen it it has been attended with the same demoralizing influences-a thorough prostration of mental vigour, and an extinction of the moral perception, the influence of which extends over every grade of society and to every social relation. In what, then, does idolatry consist? FIRST. It does not necessarily consist in a denial of the existence of the true God. Such a denial is no part of the system of Paganism. In Pagan nations, as also in those which are Christian, you may now and then meet a professed Atheist, but scarcely any man, however ignorant, who worships an idol, doubts the being of an infinitely supreme and glorious Spirit. I grant that, in some of the ruder Heathen nations, the prevailing notions respecting the nature of God, are very crude and imperfect, but it is not to be forgotten, that in those countries in which Paganism has reached the magnitude and the refinement of a religious system; the people hold doctrines concerning the divine nature not very dissimilar from those which are entertained by ourselves. For example, the eternity, the omnipotence, the omnipresence, the omniscience, the holiness, the wisdom, the benevolence of the Supreme Being are held in their integrity by the Brahminical sects of Hindostan; but not less, on this account, are they idolaters, worshippers of images. Almost every form of man, of beast, of bird, of reptile, is worshipped as God by the intelligent, as well as by the ignorant Hindoo. In the course of my missionary labours amongst them, I do not remember meeting with more than two who denied or even doubted the being of a God. SECONDLY.-Idolatry does not necessarily consist in witholding from the Divine Being supreme adoration. That such an adoration of the true God is compatible with the commission of the sin of idolatry, may be gathered from the history of the children of Israel. I turn, in the Douay Bible, to the Fourth Book of Kings, and I read in the seventeenth chapter, at the twenty-ninth and following verses : "And every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the temples of the high places, which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities where they dwelt. "And nevertheless they worshipped the Lord. And they made to themselves, of the lowest of the people, priests of the high places, and they placed them in the temples of the high places. "And when they worshipped the Lord, they served also their own gods according to the custom of the nations out of which they were brought to Samaria :" THIRDLY.-Idolatry consists in the transfer of any religious adoration to other than God. "I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God." "The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve," is the language which our ever blessed Redeemer employed to resist the temptation of Satan, who had asked Him to "fall down and worship him." More particularly, (1.) You all acknowledge that to ascribe Divine names, titles, attributes, and works to any creature is idolatry. Now, the Reformed Churches protest against the Church of Rome, because she ascribes to the Virgin Mary such names, titles, attributes and works. In "the litany of our Blessed Lady of Loretto," I find the title "Refuge of sinners," applied to the Mother of our Lord. But David, in the forty-sixth Psalm says: "Our God is our refuge." I find in the same litany the title "Gate or door of heaven," applied to the Virgin. Christ says "I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be saved." "I am the way," he again saith ;-expressions which intimate most clearly that he regarded the title as solely applicable to him self. Other titles are ascribed to the Virgin which certainly partake of a divine character, such as "Most holy Mary," "Queen of Angels," "Queen of Heaven," "Seat of Wisdom," "Mirror of Justice." These may be found over and over again in the. devotional books of the Roman Catholic Church; and I ask, do they not savour too much of divinity to be applied to any creature, more than which I am not aware that any Catholic ever contended the Virgin to be. It is possible, however, that you may not consider the ground of our protest to have been made, as yet at least, sufficiently clear. You may imagine that it is necessary to adduce stronger proof of the ascription of divine titles and works to the Virgin Mary. Let me then refer you to another Roman Catholic publication, and as I wish to make sure the ground on which I stand, I will mention the name of the author, his reputation in the Church of Rome, the name of the work, the place in which it was printed, the date of its publication, and the authority upon which it is circulated amongst the adherents of the Church. The author then of the work from which I quote is St. Bonaventure; his position as a saint, should invest him with some authority; he was moreover a Cardinal Bishop. There is a special service to his honour in the Liturgical books of the Roman Church, from which service the following sentence is extracted: "he, St. Bonaventure, wrote many things; in which, combining the greatest learning with ardent piety, he affects the reader while he instructs him." In the same service there is the following prayer: "0 Lord, who didst give blessed Bonaventure to thy people |