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you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God which made heaven and earth," &c.

Rev. xix. 10. "I (John) fell down at his (the Angel's) feet to worship him, and he said unto me, See thou do it not; I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; WORSHIP GOD; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." This command was repeated upon a similar occasion-(See Rev. xxii. 8, 9). If these proofs be not sufficient, our readers may readily multiply them, both from the Old and the New Testa

ments.

The ancient Bishops were decidedly against this idolatrous innovation: Epiphanius * says, it is a heresy practised by the Collyridians (an Arabian sect), so called from offering sacrifices of cakes (collyridæ) to the Virgin Mary—as they had done to the Moon, as Queen of Heaven, by which appellation they afterwards distinguished St. Mary. Chrysostom, Athanasius, and Augustine, were among those who streuuously opposed the praying to saints, &c. The latter says, when reproving the" heathens for their idolatrous worship of gods and demons, they defended themselves thus † :-" We do not worship evil dæmons (or spirits), we worship those whom you (the Christians) call Angels-the powers of the great God, the mysteries of the great God." But Augustine told them, the objects of their adoration must be evil spirits, because they required the worship of men; and he quotes the text from Revelations as we have done above (xix. 10.)

We have already spoken of the sin of coupling Popishmade Saints with those who were inspired by the Holy Ghost; and with other holy men and women whom these inspired

*He was Bishop of Salamis (Isle of Cyprus) in the fourth century, and wrote against the heresies of his own time; his writings, however, are considered by the learned to savour of the ignorance of the age in which he lived.

Non colimus mala Dæmonia, Angelos quos dicitis, ipsos et nos colimus, Virtutes Dei Magni, et Mysteria Dei Magni. August. in Psal. xcvi.

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writers have so denominated; but of those called saints by Popery, many of them are notorious only as the vilest of sinners. Those most guilty of disloyalty and rebellion to their lawful sovereigns, and others who could boast of having caused the greatest number of wholesale massacres-these are the description of wretches who are revered as the pet saints of Popery. Thus, Dominic was canonized for his atrocities in France; Becket, who was cruelly murdered, ought justly to have been hanged as a traitor to his king: but he was clapped into the calendar by the saintly despot, Alexander III.; and in the beginning of the last century, the Image of Pope Pius V. was manufactured into a means of grace (!), because, forsooth, he broke the communion of the Christian Church, absolved Englishmen from their allegiance to their Sovereign, and because he courageously professed to assist in person to "destroy" a queen, and liberally proffered to expend the whole revenue of his Popedom-yea, to the very chalices, crosses, and vestments-(surely this must have shown Popery in her nakedness ?)—so that he might but be. enabled to accomplish the destruction of Elizabeth *!

But the Roman Catholics of England are not generally aware of the very appropriate saints in their calendar who stand ready to be called upon in all cases of emergency. Not only has every Papal parish a patron Saint, but as the Heathens had gods, so have Romanists saints, for fire, water, cattle, &c. &c. &c. For the fire is St. Agatha; for the sea, Saints Clement and Christopher; Gregory and Nicholas for scholars; St. Loy presides over horses, and the peculiar care of pigs is the province assigned to St. Anthony. Particular.. Saints are also to be invoked under particular diseases: Cornelis cures the falling sickness, Apollonia is no less infallible in the tooth-ache:-we shall not particularize the malady

* See Mr. Townsend's Accus. of Hist., p. 204, with a reference to Catena's Life of Pius V., published at Rome, 1588.

peculiar to Saint Roche; but will hope Popish priests are too moral ever to feel the necessity of supplicating his assistance.

SECT. II. That the Saints and Angels pray to God for us.

How do you prove this?

1st, From Zachariah i. 12, where the prophet heard an angel praying for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah: "The angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years 's?"

2dly, From Rev. v. 8. "The four-and-twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odour, which are the prayers of saints." And Rev. viii. 4. " The smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand." From which text it is evident, that both the saints and angels offer up to God the prayers of the saints, that is, of the faithful upon earth.

3dly, Because we profess in the Creed the communion of saints ; and St. Paul, Heb. xii. 22, 23, 24, speaking of the children of the Church of Christ, tells them that they have a fellowship with the saints in heaven: "You are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator, &c." Therefore the children of the Church of Christ upon earth are fellow-members with the saints in heaven, of the same body under the same head, which is Christ Jesus. Hence the same apostle, Gal. iv. 26, calls the heavenly "Jerusalem our mother;" and Ephes. ii. 19, tells us, that we -are fellow-citizens with the saints." Therefore the saints in heaven have a care and solicitude for us as being members of the same body, it being the property of the members of the same body to be solicitous for one another, 1 Cor. xii. 25, 26. Consequently the saints in heaven pray for us.

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4thly, Because, according to the doctrine of the apostle, 1 Cor. iii. 8, it is the property of the virtue of charity not to be lost in heaven, as faith and hope are there lost: " Charity," saith St. Paul, never faileth." On the contrary, this heavenly virtue is perfected in heaven, where, by seeing God face to face, the soul is inflamed with a most ardent love for God, and for his sake loves exceedingly his children, her brethren here below: how then can the saints in heaven, having so perfect a charity for us, not pray for us, since the very first thing that charity prompts a person to do, is to seek to succour and assist those whom he loves?

5thly, Because we find, Luke xvi. 27, 28, the rich glutton in hell petitioning in favour of his five brethren here upon earth: how much

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more are we to believe that the saints in heaven intercede for their brethren here?

6thly, Because, Rev. vi. 10, the souls of the martyrs pray for justice against their persecutors who had put them to death: how much more do they pray for mercy for the faithful children of the church?

7thly, In fine, because our Lord, Luke xvi. 9, tells us, "make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." Where he gives us to understand, that the servants of God, whom we have helped by our alms, after themselves have got to heaven, help and assist us to enter into that everlasting kingdom.

Our readers have had a fair opportunity of judging for themselves if Popery does not invariably say the most when she is most at a loss what to say. This is the second long chapter about her Saints, and we have yet another to discuss upon the same subject; we shall therefore be as brief as we possibly can in noticing such scriptural lines as she has chosen, since, did we pass them by, she would insist upon her followers believing that she had not misapplied them. We again recommend (the chief object of these pages) an earnest perusal of the Scriptures to decide between the Pope and Doctor, and ourselves.

The quotation from Zachariah should have been followed by the next verse, which shows it to be very natural for the Angel to speak to the Almighty in prayer, when the Supreme was actually talking with him, as in the present case. Learned Divines have declared this Angel to be CHRIST before he took the flesh;-the same who wrestled with Jacob and blessed him; the same who said to Joshua (as quoted in the last chapter), that he was armed with the power of the Lord; HE who bade Moses take off his shoe, as the ground he then stood on was holy:-who appeared in the burning bush on Mount Horeb, saying, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, &c. To no mere Angel would these positive expressions apply :-we have already shown that to worship such beings is expressly forbidden by the Scriptures.

The chapters of Revelation referred to in the present Section, show that the prayers of saints ascend to Heaven. Christ himself taught that so do the prayers of sinners also, if sincerely offered; but it is not quite so "evident" that from these texts we learn the Angels pray for the most credulous Papist, because he goes to mass, as Popery has laboured to persuade him. seran

The third reason assigned is another of the Pope's logical curiosities; Angels must pray for Romanists, because Romanists believe in the communion of Saints !-Saints in ancient times were pious people; since Popery commenced making Saints of her own, any monsters, by her opus operatum, or ceremonial of canonization, answer the purpose, and Superstition worships them accordingly. The communion of Saints was and with Protestants still is-the fellowship and charity of true Christians, with each other here on earth; and this is the communion of which St. John assures us (1 John i. 3) to be the means entering into fellowship with God; and for which Christ himself prayed (John xvii. 20, 21). When Paul is exhorting the Hebrews to constancy in faith, in the extract given, is it because he tells them that they have come unto "the living God," &c., that it is to be understood that angels pray for them? But as angels are spoken of in the passage alluded to, that appears to be quite sufficient. Because Paul tells the Ephesians that through Christ we have "access by one spirit unto the Father," and are "no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with Saints and of the household of God," it is said, "consequently the saints pray for us!" The chapter of Corinthians alluded to treats of the Diversity of Spiritual Gifts; what this has to do with Saints and Angels praying for us we cannot see; we recommend the perusal of the whole chapter. "Charity" is a delicate theme for a Church to touch upon which has taken it upon herself to curse all the world who treat her

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