c

otherwise is accursed. a And accordingly the priest is to direct the people to them, that they may be worshipped.b They declare that the honour given to images and pictures, is referred to the prototypes, or the persons represented by them, whether God the Father, Christ, angels, or saints: and when they fall down before the image or picture, they worship God, or Christ, the angel, or saint. They think it lawful to represent God and the blessed Trinity by pictures and images, and to worship them. Such pictures are not only almost every where received in the Church of Rome, but universally tolerated, and are both recommended as expedient for the people, and proposed to them to be worshipped. f

d

Men are very prone to worship God otherwise than as he has appointed. The Church of Israel had a most excellent rule of worship given them by Moses, of immediate direction received from God; the ceremonial worship under the law was commanded and prescribed in every particular of it: yet, every one who reads the history of that church, will easily find how little they did observe or adhere to it; how often they not only deviated from it, but acted in direct contradiction to it; and how severely God animadverted on them for this conduct. The rule which Christians have for their direction in the worship of God, under the New Testament dispensation,

* Concil. Trid, Sess. 25. de invocat. Catech. Rom. par. 4. c. 6. n. 4. b Colantur Catech. Rom: par. 3. c. 2. n. 31.

c Concil. Trid. Ibid.

d Bellarm. de Imag. 1. 2. c. 8. § ultimo probatur.

e Concil. Trid. Sess. 25. de sacr. Imag. Catech. Rom. par, 3. c. 2. p. 20.

f Cajetan in Aquin. 9. 25, act. 3.

is also a plain, clear, and perfect rule; yet how many additions, since the apostles' days, have been made of mere human invention. How many various forms and modes of worshipping God are there at this day: how many symbolical ceremonies of mystical signification, invented by men, and added to the rule of divine institution. Now the addition of these, by whomsoever devised and commanded, is sinful and dangerous.

Of the impious and absurd practice of image worship, the Papists are awfully guilty. They make images of God, and of saints and angels, and then worship God by them, which is expressly forbidden in the second commandment. The excuse the Papists offer for defending themselves against the charge of idolatry, is vain and frivolous, namely, that they worship the true God by images, and not the images themselves, as the objects on which their worship terminates. But let it be considered, that the Israelites for worshipping the true God, by the golden calf at Horeb, and the ten tribes for worshipping the calves of Jeroboam, at Dan and Bethel, were charged with gross idolatry, nay, with worshipping the devil. Yet these were neither intended to represent false gods, nor to be worshipped as gods themselves. Representing God under sensible images, has always a tendency to lead men into a stupid idolatry, or into a mean, timorous, and abject superstition, which, for the most part, is attended with a great corruption of heart, and weakening all the obligations of true piety. The truth of this may be very clearly seen, from the event and issue to which things have been long ago reduced in the Church of Rome, where, by means of images, which were probably at first set up in churches only as emblems and historical memorials, as gross an idolatry and superstition, with all

the fatal effects of them are to be found, as were perhaps ever known to be in any parts of the heathen world. a

Rome.

Indulgences is a doctrine and practice of the Church of They were first instituted at the Council of Clermont, by Pope Urban II. as a recompense granted to those who went in person on the enterprize of conquering the Holy Land, and taking it out of the hands of infidels; and afterwards granted to those who hired a soldier for that purpose. Those that on the motion of

the pope took up arms against the Albigenses, had, by

an indulgence, the promise of an eternal reward. In process of time, indulgences were bestowed on persons who gave money for accomplishing any pious work enjoined by the pope. Pope Pius V. says, "I do affirm, that the power of indulgences was left by Christ in the

a In 1781, the late Sir Samuel Romilly visited the principal places in France. One of his letters of this period contains the following informa

tion. Being at Versailles, he says, "The service was very short, though it was on a Sunday; for kings are so highly respected in France, that even religion appoints for them less tedious ceremonies than what it enjoins the people to observe. The moment his Majesty appeared, the drums beat, and shook the temple, as if they had been to announce the approach of a conqueror. During the whole time of saying mass, the choristers sung, sometimes in chorus, sometimes in single parts. In the front seats of the galleries were ranged the ladies of the court, glowing with rouge and gorgeously apparelled, to enjoy and form a part of the showy spectacle. The king laughed and spied at the ladies. Every eye was fixed on the personages of the court, every ear was attentive to the notes of the singers, while the priest, who in the mean time went on with the exercise of his office, was unheeded by all. Even when the host was lifted up, none observed it; and if the people knelt, it was because they were admonished by ringing of the bell; and even in that attitude all were endeavouring to get a glance of the king. How can a king of France ever be brought to regard his subjects as his equals, when even before the throne of Heaven he maintains so high a superiority over all around him? What an idea must he not conceive of his own importance when he thus sees his God less honoured than himself!"

b Baron. ad A. D. 1179.

church; and that the use of them is very beneficial to Christian people."

d

c

This great absurdity is founded upon works of supererogation, that is, the overplus of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints, which is a treasury committed to the custody of the church, and to be disposed of as she sees meet. It is more fully stated by Pope Leo X, in a bull which he sent into Germany. He affirms, "That by the power of the keys given to St. Peter, and to his successors, the Bishop of Rome had a right to pardon the faithful all the guilt and punishment of their sins; to wit, the guilt, by means of the sacrament of penance, and the temporal punishment, by means of indulgences, whether in this life or in purgatory; and that by these indulgences he could apply to the living and the dead the superabundance of the merits of Jesus Christ, and the saints, either by way of absolution, or by way of suffrage, so that the living and the dead, participating of these indulgences, were delivered from the punishment that the divine justice would inflict on them for their actual sins." It is said, that the popes and prelates of this church are judges appointed by God to remit faults and punishments in his name by an indulgence, if so be justice be satisfied through the application of the satisfaction of Christ and his saints. e

There are indulgences to be obtained, by which persons, who have good works of their own, sufficient to merit for themselves, may be discharged from the punishment of sin here and in purgatory: and if any affirm these in

a Bellarm. de Indulg. 1. 1. c. 2. init.

b Concil. Trid. Sess. 21. c. 9.

• So Pope Clem. VI. Constit. extrav. in Bellarm. ibid. § ult.

d Bellarm. ibid. c. 3.

⚫ Bellarm. de Indulg. 1. 1. c. 1. 5. ss. Iam vero.

dulgences to be useless, or that the church has no power to grant them, he is accursed. a Pope Alexander VI. granted to those that recited this prayer to the blessed Virgin, and St. Ann her mother, 30,000 years indulgence" Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord be with thee, thy grace with me. Blessed be thou among women: and blessed be St. Ann thy mother, from whom, O Virgin Mary, thou hast proceeded without sin and spot but of thee hath Jesus Christ been born, the Son of the living God. Amen." b

The popes Paul III. and Julius III. by their bulls, granted to all such of the fraternity of the Holy Altar, as visit the church of St. Hilary of Chartres, during the six weeks of Lent, 775,700 years of pardon, besides fourteen or fifteen plenary indulgences. And since that, Urban VIII. and Clement X. d have granted by their indulgence a plenary remission of sins.

There are certain principles which clearly show, that indulgences are absurd, iniquitous, and useless. St. Paul says, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." Again ;-"Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God." If there be no comparison between the reward and our sufferings for it, then no one has merit to transfer to another; and if every man must give an account of himself, then no man can be saved by the merits of another. But suppose there is a superabundance of satisfactions in the saints; yet, what need is there of them, when there is such an infinite value in the

a Concil. Trid. Sess. 25. Decret. de indulg.

b Thesaur. Var. Exercit. in grat. Sodal. B. V. M. Bruxel Edit. 2. An. 1658, p. 287.

c Bullar. to page 74.

d A. D. 1671. Bull upon the canonization of five saints.