should be palmed on the superstitious multitude as true and sacred, to the enriching of the churches, which were destitute of every claim to that character. In the fifth century so rapid had been the growth of this superstition, that the religious veneration at first shown to the relics of the cross, and of the saints, extended itself to clothes, stones, and ashes.* In the twelfth century, it had so greatly prevailed, that it gave rise to many vices and crimes. A great profusion of wealth and pomp was laid out in honouring them, and new devotions were invented for them :-they were deposited in gold and silver cases in the churches; and those churches which possessed the most precious relics were most frequented by the larger number of devotees, and most enriched by their offerings. "Relics were considered so valuable, that to beg, borrow, or steal them, were common occurrences, when they could not be had for money such instances of superstition are numerous. Many important discoveries respecting relics were made in this century, (twelfth,) which are faithfully recorded by contemporary writers. A portion of the blood of Christ was found, and brought from the east, and the vest of Christ without seam was obtained in France," &c.†

* Spanheim, p. 326.

+ Spanheim, p. 480. "I have before me a catalogue of some hundreds of relics, which are objects of popish devotion in several

The arguments by which papists attempt a justification of image worship, have less weight and plausibility than those which they urge in sup port of their other superstitions. They plead, as favouring their practice of setting up images, that various figures of cherubim, &c. were made by the command of God as symbolical representations in the Jewish temple :-but there is no proof whatever alleged, that these figures were for the purposes of worship and adoration. Much stress is laid on the erection, by divine command, of the "brazen serpent," in the wilderness, in support of images and pictures. The idolatrous use which

churches in France, Spain, and Italy. Many of them are too gross to appear in a modern publication. The least offensive are the arms, fingers, legs, and toes, of certain saints; and some of them must have had as many limbs as a centipede; for in Flanders, Spain, and France, there are no fewer than eight arms of St. Matthew, which would of course produce forty fingers, and these would enrich as many churches. The author of one catalogue in my possession assures his readers that he himself had seen three arms of St. Luke: and he could not tell how many St. Thomas à Becket had. Such relics are considered the treasure of the churches to which they belong, and in fact they bring no small gain to the church, as great sums are received annually from devout pilgrims, who come hundreds of miles to feast their eyes and warm their devotion by looking upon those limbs which would have been more honoured by being allowed to rest quietly in the earth. These pious relics are solemnly certified to be what they are said to be; and many have proved themselves genuine by most stupendous miracles; all which is piously believed by their devout worshippers."-Protestant, vol. ii. p. 10.

the Jews in a short time made of that representation, shows the fatal tendency of the practice of the Romish church, in justification of which it is adduced. The Jews, overlooking the design of God in the erection of the brazen serpent, converted it into an object of idolatrous veneration :-" The children of Israel did burn incense unto it;" therefore, by the divine command, Hezekiah "brake it into pieces, and called it Nehushtan," i. e. brass-work. (2 Kings xviii. 4.) This fact alone will go far to show the fallacy of the pretext usually assigned in justification of the setting up of images and pictures in the worship of God; namely, that it assists in fixing the wandering thoughts of the worshippers, and in raising their affections towards the objects of worship represented by them. That must be a languid and morbid piety indeed, which needs as auxiliaries to fix and enliven it, what is in direct violation of the command of God, and the direct tendency of which is to the commission of idolatry.

By whatever pleas it may be attempted to justify the practice, nothing appears more evident than this, that the reverential bowings, bendings of the knee, and prostrations before images and relics, in the church of Rome, is a direct violation of the express words of the second commandment. In the first precept of the decalogue, Jehovah interdicts acts of religious worship to any being, whether existing in reality or in the imagination, besides himself, the

one, only, and true God:-" Thou shalt have none other gods before me." In the second command, every material representation of the true object of religious worship, whether by images, statues, or pictures, and every thing expressing an act of worship to such representation, are as clearly prohibited :-"Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them." (Exod. xx. 3, 4.)* How careful God was to guard the Jews against such idolatry may be inferred from the repetition of this command: (Levit. xvi. 1:) "Ye shall make you no idols, nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it; for I am the Lord your God." That these commands were not merely ceremonial, and confined to the Jews, is clear from the language of our Lord when tempted by the devil to an idolatrous act of worship; he rebuked the tempter, by saying, " It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." The bowing of the head, bending of the knee, the prostrations of the body, and other expressions of adoration, to the pictures of Christ, of the Virgin, and other saints, as practised in the church of Rome, are clearly in direct violation of these express commands of God,

* See Appendix E.

and as clearly convict that church of the guilt of idolatry. Among the many proofs which might be adduced in proof of this grave charge, it will be sufficient to name only one-the adoration of the cross on Good Friday. The following extract from the office used on that day will show this:

"After the prayers, the priest puts off his vestment, and taking from the altar the cross covered with a veil, he goes to the corner of the epistle, where he uncovers the top of it, and shows it to the people, singing the antiphon :-Ecce lignum crucis-behold the wood of the cross. Then the deacon and sub-deacon join with him in singing the rest-In quo salus mundi pependit-on which the salvation of the world was hanged. And the choir, prostrate on the ground, answers,-Venite, adoremus―come, let us adore. From thence the priest proceeds to the side of the epistle, where he uncovers the right-arm of the cross, singing a second time, Ecce lignum, as before. Lastly, he goes to the middle of the altar, and uncovers the whole cross, singing a third time, as before, Ecce lignum. After which he carries it to a place prepared before the altar, where he adores first himself, and then the clergy and laity, two and two, all kneeling thrice on both knees, and kissing the feet of the crucifix." To remove all mistake as to the nature of the worship thus rendered to the cross, the Roman pontificale declares, that the