from the agonies of death; the dumb, the blind, the deaf, the lame have been cured, and all sorts of diseases and mortal wounds miraculously healed.”—“From the 9th July to the 9th August, the anniversary festival of the saint, they have always counted above an hundred thousand pilgrims, and many of them of the highest quality, who came from different parts of Europe to pay their devotions, and make their offerings to this picture."*

"Aringhus touching on this subject, in his elaborate account of subterraneous Rome, observes, that the images of the blessed Virgin shine out continually by new and daily miracles to the comfort of their votaries, and the confusion of all gainsayers. Within these few years, says he, under every Pope successively, some or other of our sacred images, especially the more ancient, have made themselves illustrious, and acquired a peculiar worship and veneration, by the exhibition of fresh signs, as it is notorious to all who dwell in this city. But how can I pass over in silence the image of St. Dominic; so conspicuous at this day for its never ceasing

* La Vie de St. Dominic, p. 599-602, 4to, Paris, 1647.

miracles, which attract the resort and admiration of the whole Christian world." "This image, which, as tradition informs us, was brought down from heaven about the year 1530, is a most solid bulwark of the church of Christ, and a noble monument of the pure faith of Christians, against all the impious opposers of image worship.

"Those who have written its history, assert, that the painters, in their attempts to copy it, have not always been able to take similar copies, because it frequently assumes a different air, and rays of light have been seen to issue from its countenance, and it has more than once removed itself from one place to another.""The worship of this picture has become so famous, through all Christendom, that multitudes of people, to the number of an hundred thousand and upwards, flock annually to pay their devotions to it."*

Such then is the nature of the worship which has been substituted in the church of Rome, for that of the One true God, through Jesus Christ the only mediator between God and man. I need not say, for the conviction

* Middleton's Letter from Rome, Preface, p. 50-56.

of the Protestant reader, that this worship is the most gross violation of the Divine law. -But if this volume should be read by any members of the Romish communion, I would earnestly beseech them to consider with attention, the Ten Commandments as they are to be found in the 20th chapter of Exodus, and are thence quoted in the former part of this chapter, and then to reflect how they will, at the judgment-seat of Christ, be able to justify their continuing members of a Church which practises and encourages such abominable idolatries.

Before I conclude the subject of the image worship of the Romish Church, it will be necessary that I should consider those passages of Scripture which are quoted in the Catechism of Dr. Butler, in support of that practice. The first text brought forward with this view, is Exod. xxv. 18. And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold: of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy-seat. Now if the cherubim were images, i. e. representations of beings whose real resemblance they bore, and if they were designed by God to be the objects of the worship of the children of Israel, it might be granted that at least there were

some plausibility in the argument which the Papists would thence deduce in favour of image worship. But the golden cherubim were not images. It seems quite evident, from the description of the living creatures seen in the vision of Ezekiel, that they were, as to their outward form, hieroglyphical. They had four faces, viz. that of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle: they had also four wings, and their feet were those of a calf. (Ezek. i. 7, 10.) Let us, however, for a moment suppose that the golden cherubim actually were images; then doubtless they were images of those things which they represented, i. e. of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle; and as the reason given in the Romish Catechism for kneeling before the images of the saints, is, that it is" to honour Christ and his saints whom their images represent." By parity of reason, therefore, it will follow that if the cherubim were images, and if they were the objects of worship, the reason of this worship was that the children of Israel might thereby honour, not only man, but also the lion, the ox, and the eagle, of which the cherubim were representations. Such then is the consequence which flows from the notion of the Romanists, that the

cherubim were images; it in fact makes the ancient people of God to have been worshippers of four-footed beasts and birds of the air.

But, secondly, that the cherubim neither were, nor were intended to be, objects of worship to the children of Israel is manifest from this, that they were placed within the veil, and in the Holy of Holies, and therefore inaccessible to the view both of the priests and people. On one day of the year only, the great day of atonement, the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies, with blood and incense, to make atonement for sin. (Levit. xvi. 29-34.) But upon this solemn. occasion it cannot be pretended he worshipped the cherubim, because his face was not directed to them, but to the Shekinah or visible glory of the Lord manifested above the mercy-seat and between the cherubim.

The next passage produced in the Catechism to justify image worship, is Matth. ix. The particular verse is not quoted, but I presume it is the 20th and two following, where the woman with an issue of blood, was cleansed upon touching our Saviour's garment. Now, it were surely better for the Church of Rome at once to confess her guilt