66

"Come to me," saith the Saviour: "him that cometh to me I will not cast out." "I am fearful that you will cast me out," replies the Roman Catholic: "I cannot trust to your own promise; I must first invocate the merits and intercessions of saints and angels to render you propitious to me!!"-"Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name," saith our Lord," he will give it you."*"I am too humble," replies the Roman Catholic, "to ask the Father for mercy in your name alone; I must join the names of your mother and the saints along with it, before I can dare to hope that God will hear me!!"-I appeal to your own judgments, to decide, whether the Roman Catholic doctrine, that the merits and intercession of the saints are necessary to our salvation, is not thus subversive of Gospel truth, and in direct contradiction to our Lord's own words.

And it is equally contradictory to the words of his inspired apostles. Paul assures us that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin;" and that his merits are, through "faith, imputed to us for righteousness." He declares, that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing our trespasses unto us;" and that "Christ is made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." He says, that we "have not received the spirit of bondage, again to fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby we say to God, Abba, Father." He tells us, that the Lord Jesus Christ hath opened unto us "a new and living way of approaching to God by his own blood:" and having this new and living way opened through the blood of Christ, and having "in him a merciful and faithful High Priest continually making intercession for us," he exhorts us to "come boldly, without fear, to the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

With these blessed words of Paul, therefore, I shall conclude my Lecture. Having now, as I hope, satisfactorily answered some of the principal arguments which the church of Rome advances in support of saint-wor

* John xv. 16.

ship, and proved the practice to be superstitious, absurd, and unnecessary; it only remains to show, that it is not merely unsanctioned and unprecedented in the word of God, but expressly forbidden by it, and in opposition to the practice of the primitive church in the purest ages. This I hope, with the Divine blessing, to prove in our next Lecture.

In the mean time, I now dismiss you, brethren, with the language of Paul, "Let no man seduce you, willing in humility, and religion of angels." I exhort you, as you value your immortal souls, not to waste your time in praying to angels and saints; but come, as the Apostle says, "boldly" to the Throne of God at once, trusting in the merits and intercession of his own dear Son, as sufficient to ensure you a gracious reception. This is that true humility, which consists in "repentance towård God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ;" this is that true humility, which places no dependence on its own merits, but rests with confidence on a crucified Saviour's love. In him, saith Paul, "we have boldness and access with confidence, by the faith of him." And again, John saith, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins." Amen.

SERMON II.

APOCALYSE XIX. 10. (Rhem. Ver.) And I fell down before his feet to adore him. And he saith to me, See thou do it not; I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren who have the testimony of Jesus: Adore God!

In our former lecture we assigned five reasons for protesting against the worship of angels and saints: first, because Paul commands us to "refrain from all appearance of evil," and the worship of these inferior spirits has greatly the appearance of idolatry, which is the worst of all evils ;-Secondly, because, even if it were not idolatrous, it is, however, absurd, being founded on a superstitious and fanciful hypothesis utterly incapable of proof;-Thirdly, because, even if it were not absurd, still it is unnecessary, forasmuch as our Lord Jesus Christ is declared to be the only and all-sufficient Saviour, Mediator, and Intercessor of all that put their trust in Him (These three reasons formed the subject of our last discourse. We now proceed, with the Divine assistance, to consider the two remaining ones, viz.)— Fourthly, because, even supposing that we thought it necessary to invoke the intercession of angels and saints, still the practice is unscriptural: it has no precedent, no authority, either of precept or example, in the word of God; and Fifthly, because it is not only unscriptural, but antiscriptural; it is not merely unsanctioned, but even expressly forbidden, by the word of God; and therefore must be condemned, by every one who draws his religion from that sacred source, as highly criminal in its nature, and highly dangerous in its tendency; leading, as we shall find it does, to the idolatrous worship of a multitude of inferior spirits, and thus robbing the Almighty of that glory which is due to Himself alone, according to his own declaration: "I am the Lord; that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."*

* Isa. xlii. 8.

4. First, the invocation of angels and saints, as taught and practised by the Roman Catholic Church, is unscriptural: it has no precedent, no authority, either of precept or example, in the word of God. That there was an honorary worship, or reverence, paid to these angelic. beings when they appeared to mortals in a visible form, is a truth which no attentive reader of his Bible can deny; but we may safely challenge the Roman Catholics to produce a single text, in any part of the word of God, in which the invocation of angels or saints in, glory is either directly or indirectly alluded to. And surely it must appear strange, if the assistance of these happy spirits be so needful to us, and if the worship of them form so important a part of true religion, as the Church of Rome teaches it does, that no example, no command, no direction, nay, not so much as a hint respecting it, can be found in any part of that blessed Book, which was "written for our learning," and of which we have the authority of an inspired Apostle in asserting that it is of itself alone "able to instruct (or make us wise) unto salvation."

Now, if, as Paul affirms, "whatsoever things were written in the sacred Scriptures, were written for our learning;"* and if, as he says again, "they are of themselves alone able to instruct us to salvation,'t, we cannot but conclude, that whatsoever is not learnt from the word of God, "Whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation."+

Where, then, let us ask, where do we "learn" that the worship of angels and saints formed any part of the religion of the people of God, either under the Old or New Testament dispensation? To what part of the Scriptures of truth does the Church of Rome direct us for those "instructions," respecting the invocation of these angelic beings, for which the man, who seeks to

* Rom. xv. 4.

t 2 Tim. iii. 15. Sixth Article of the Church of England.

be made scripturally "wise unto salvation," will naturally inquire? Does she direct us to those passages in which mention is made of veneration being rendered to them when they appeared on earth in a visible form? She might, with equal propriety, direct us to those passages in which mention is made of similar veneration paid to kings and persons in authority, as proving that they too are proper objects of religious worship.

The instances that are recorded of Abraham, and Lot, and Joshua, and Daniel, and other Patriarchs and Prophets, bowing down with their faces to the ground before the angels that appeared to them, are no arguments whatever in favour of the invocation of invisible spirits. These were merely the natural and customary marks of veneration, which the presence of those heavenly visitants called forth, and which was, we admit, due to their celestial dignity.

The prostration of the body, we know, was, and still is, in many countries, the usual mark of veneration paid to persons of royal and magisterial dignity. When the sons of Jacob were brought before Joseph, in his capacity of governor of the land of Egypt, we are informed "that they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground." It is related, in Ruth ii. 10, that when that pious young woman found favour with her kinsman Boaz, "she fell on her face at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground." And, again, we are informed, in 1 Sam. xx. 4, that David "fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times" before his kind friend Jonathan. Now, surely it will not be pretended that any of the individuals here mentioned intended to offer religious worship to the persons before whom they prostrated themselves. In like manner, then, we affirm, the instances, so much dwelt upon by Roman Catholics, of similar veneration paid to the angels that appeared to the Patriarchs and Prophets, or of Saul's bowing down before Samuel, cannot be regarded as examples of religious worship offered to them; but only as tokens of that profound reverence and awe, with which the pre