Chapter XXIV: Section I: Present Service in the Church of Rome

In submitting to the reader's consideration the actual state of Roman Catholic worship at the present hour, I disclaim all desire to fasten upon the Church of Rome any of the follies and extravagancies of individual superstition. Probably many English Roman Catholics have been themselves shocked and scandalized by the scenes which their own eyes have witnessed in various parts of continental Europe. It would be no less unfair in us to represent the excesses of superstition there forced on our notice as the genuine legitimate fruits of the religion of Rome, than it would be in Roman Catholics to affiliate on the Catholics of the Anglican Church the wild theories and revolting tenets of all who assume the name of opponents to Rome. Well indeed does it become us of both Churches to watch jealously and adversely as against ourselves the errors into which our doctrines, if not preserved and guarded in their purity and simplicity, might have a tendency to seduce the unwary. And whilst I am fully alive to the necessity of us Anglican Catholics prescribing to ourselves a {242} practical application of the same rule in various points of faith and discipline, I would with all delicacy and respect invite Roman Catholics to do likewise. Especially would I entreat them to reflect with more than ordinary scrutiny and solicitude on the vast evils into which the practice of praying to saints and angels, and of pleading their merits at the throne of grace, has a tendency to betray those who are unenlightened and off their guard; and unless my eyes and my ears and my powers of discernment have altogether often deceived and failed me, I must add, actually betrays thousands. Often when I have witnessed abroad multitudes of pilgrims prostrate before an image of the Virgin, their arms extended, their eyes fixed on her countenance, their words in their native language pouring forth her praises and imploring her aid, I have asked myself, If this be not religious worship, what is? If I could transport myself into the midst of pagans in some distant part of the world at the present day; or could I have mingled with the crowd of worshippers surrounding the image of Minerva in Athens, or of Diana in Ephesus, when the servants of the only God called their fellow-creatures from such vanities, should I have seen or heard more unequivocal proofs that the worshippers were addressing their prayers to the idols as representations of their deities? Would any difference have appeared in their external worship? When the Ephesians worshipped their "great goddess Diana and the image which fell down from Jupiter," could their attitude, their eyes, or their words more clearly have indicated an assurance in the worshipper, that the Spirit of the Deity was especially present in that image, than the attitude, the eyes, the words of the pilgrims at Einsiedlin for example, are indications of the same {243} belief and assurance with regard to the statue of the Virgin Mary? These thoughts would force themselves again and again on my mind; and though since I first witnessed such things many years have intervened, chequered with various events of life, yet whilst I am writing, the scenes are brought again fresh to my remembrance; the same train of thought is awakened; and the lapse of time has not in the least diminished the estimate then formed of the danger, the awful peril, to which the practice of addressing saints and angels in prayer, even in its most modified and mitigated form, exposes those who are in communion with Rome. I am unwilling to dwell on this point longer, or to paint in deeper or more vivid colours the scenes which I have witnessed, than the necessity of the case requires. But it would have been the fruit of a morbid delicacy rather than of brotherly love, had I disguised, in this part of my address, the full extent of the awful dread with which I contemplate any approximation to prayers, of whatever kind, uttered by the lips or mentally conceived, to any spiritual existence in heaven above, save only to the one God exclusively. It is indeed a dread suggested by the highest and purest feelings of which I believe my frame of mind to be susceptible; it is sanctioned and enforced by my reason; and it is confirmed and strengthened more and more by every year's additional reflection and experience. Ardently as I long and pray for Christian unity, I could not join in communion with a Church, one of whose fundamental articles accuses of impiety those who deny the lawfulness of the invocations of saints.

But I return from this digression on the peril of idolatry, to which as well the theory as the practice of {244} the Roman Catholic Church exposes her members; and willingly repeat my disclaimer of any wish or intention whatever to fasten and filiate upon the Church of Rome the doctrines or the practice of individuals, or even of different sections of her communion. Still, in the same manner as I have referred to the extravagancies which offend us in many parts of Christendom now, I would recall some of the excesses into which renowned and approved authors of her communion have been betrayed. I seek not to fix on those members of the Roman Church who disclaim any participation in such excesses, the folly or guilt of others; but when we find many of the most celebrated among her sons tempted into such lamentable departures from primitive Christian worship, we are naturally led to ascertain whether the doctrine be not itself the genuine cause and source of the mischief;--whether the malady be not the immediate and natural effect of the tenet and practice operating generally, and not to be referred to the idiosyncrasy of the patient. A voice seems to address us from every side, when such excesses are witnessed, Firmly resist the beginnings of the evil; oppose its very commencement; it is not a question of degree, exclude the principle itself from your worship; give utterance to no invocation; mentally conceive no prayer to any being, save God alone; plead no other merits with Him than the merits of his only Son. Then, and then only, are you safe. Then, and then only, is your prayer catholic, primitive, apostolic, and scriptural.

The[92] most satisfactory method of conducting this {245} branch of our inquiry seems to be, that we should examine the Roman Ritual with reference to those several and progressive stages to which I have before generally referred; from the mere rhetorical apostrophe to the direct prayer for spiritual blessings petitioned for immediately from the person addressed. I am neither anxious to establish the progress historically, nor do I wish to tie myself down in all cases to the exact order of those successive stages, in my present citation of testimonies from the Roman Ritual. My anxiety is to give a fair view of what is now the real character of Roman Catholic worship, rather than to draw fine distinctions. I shall therefore survey within the same field of view the two fatal errors by which, as we believe, the worship of the Church of Rome is rendered unfit for the family of Christ to acknowledge it generally as their own: I mean the adoration of saints, and the pleading of their merits at the throne of grace, instead of trusting to the alone exclusive merits of the one only Mediator Jesus Christ our Lord, and addressing God Almighty alone.

[Footnote 92: I believe the method best calculated to supply us
with the very truth is, as I have before observed, to trace the
conduct of Christians at the shrines of the martyrs, and follow
them in their successive departures further and further from
primitive purity and simplicity, on the anniversaries of those
servants of God. What was hailed there first in the full warmth
of admiration and zeal for the honour and glory of a national or
favourite martyr, crept stealthily, and step by step, into the
regular and stated services of the Church.]

I. In the original form of those prayers in which mention was made of the saints departed, Christians addressed the Supreme Being alone, either in praise for the mercies shown to the saints themselves, and to the Church through their means; or else in supplication, that the worshippers might have grace to follow their example, and profit by their instruction. Such, for instance, is the prayer in the Roman ritual[93] on St. {246} John's day[94] which is evidently the foundation of the beautiful Collect now used in the Anglican Church,--"Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, that it being enlightened by the doctrine of thy Apostle and Evangelist St. John, may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting life, through Jesus our Lord. Amen." Such too is the close of the Prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here on earth, offered in our Anglican service,--"We bless thy holy name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear, beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom. Grant this, O Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen."

[Footnote 93: The references will generally be given to the
Roman Breviary as edited by F.C. Husenbeth, Norwich, 1830. That
work consists of four volumes, corresponding with the four
quarters of the ecclesiastical year--Winter, Hiem.; Spring,
Vern.; Summer, _Æstiv_.; Autumn, Aut.; and the volumes will be
designated by the corresponding initials, H. V. Æ. A.]

[Footnote 94: "Ecclesiam, tuam, Domine, benignus illustra, ut
beati Johannis Apostoli tui et evangelistæ illuminata doctrinis,
ad dona perveniat sempiterna. Per Dominum."--Husen. H. p. 243.]

II. The second stage supplies examples of a kind of rhetorical apostrophe; the speaker addressing one who was departed as though he had ears to hear. Were not this the foundation stone on which the rest of the edifice seems to have been built, we might have passed it by unnoticed. Of this we have an instance in the address to the Shepherds on Christmas-day. "Whom have ye seen, ye shepherds? Say ye, tell ye, who hath appeared on the earth? Say ye, what saw ye? Announce to us the nativity of Christ[95]."

[Footnote 95: Quem vidistis, Pastores? Dicite, Annunciate nobis.
In terris quis apparuit? Dicite quidnam vidistis? Et annunciate
Christi nativitatem.--H. 219.] {247}

Another instance is seen in that beautiful song ascribed to Prudentius and used on the day of Holy Innocents:

"Hail! ye flowers of Martyrs." [Salvete flores martyrum. H. 249.]

It is of the same character with other songs, said to be from the same pen, in which the town of Bethlehem is addressed, and even the Cross.

"O Thou of mighty cities." [O sola magnarum urbium. H. 306.]
"Bend thy boughs, thou lofty tree...."
[Flecte ramos arbor alta, &c. Aut. 344.]
"Worthy wast thou alone
To bear the victim of the world."

Thus, on the feast of the exaltation of the Cross, this anthem is sung,--"O blessed Cross, who wast alone worthy to bear the King of the heavens and the Lord." [O crux benedicta, quæ sola fuisti digna portare Regem coelorum et Dominum. Alleluia. A. 345.] Though unhappily, in an anthem on St. Andrew's day, this apostrophe becomes painful and distressing, in which not only is the cross thus apostrophised, but it is prayed to, as though it had ears to hear, and a mind to understand, and power to act,--"Hail, precious Cross! do thou receive the disciple of Him who hung upon thee, my master, Christ." [Salve, crux pretiosa suscipe discipulum ejus, qui pependit in te, magister meus Christus. A. 547.] The Church of Rome, in this instance, gives us a vivid example of the ease with which exclamations and apostrophes are made the ground-work of invocations. In the legend of the day similar, though not the same, words form a part of the salutation, which St. Andrew is there said to have addressed {248} to the cross of wood prepared for his own martyrdom, and then bodily before his eyes. There are many such addresses to the Cross, in various parts of the Roman ritual. (See A. 344.)

In such apostrophes the whole of the Song of the Three Children abounds; and we meet with many such in the early writers.

III. The third stage supplies instances of prayer to God, imploring him to allow the supplication of his saints to be offered for us. Of this we find examples in the Collects for St. Andrew's Eve and Anniversary, for the feast of St. Anthony, and various others.

"We beseech thee, Almighty God, that he whose feast we are about to celebrate may implore thy aid for us," &c. [Quæsumus omnipotens Deus, ut beatus Andreas Apostolus cujus prævenimus festivitatem, tuum pro nobis imploret auxilium. A. 545.]

"That he may be for us a perpetual intercessor." [Ut apud te sit pro nobis perpetuus intercessor. A. 551.]

"We beseech thee, O Lord, let the intercession of the blessed Anthony the Abbot commend us, that what we cannot effect by our own merits, we may obtain by his patronage [Ejus patrocinio assequamur. H. 490.]: through the Lord."

These prayers I could not offer in faith. I am taught in the written word to look for no other intercessor in heaven, than one who is eternal and divine, therefore I can need no other. Had God, by his revealed word, told me that the intercessions of his servants departed should prevail with Him, provided I sought that benefit by prayer, I should, without any misgiving, have implored Him to receive their {249} prayers in my behalf; but I can find no such an intimation in the covenant. In that covenant the word of the God of truth and mercy is pledged to receive those, and to grant the prayers of those who come to him through his blessed Son. In that covenant, I am strictly commanded and most lovingly invited to approach boldly the Supreme Giver of all good things myself, and to ask in faith nothing wavering, with an assurance that He who spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, will, with Him, also freely give us all things. In this assurance I place implicit trust; and as long as I have my being in this earthly tabernacle, I will, by his gracious permission and help, pray for whatever is needful for the soul and the body; I will pray not for myself only, but for all, individually and collectively, who are near and dear to me, and all who are far from me; for my friends, and for those who wish me ill; for my fellow Christians, and for those who are walking still in darkness and sin;--I will pray for mercy on all mankind. And I will, as occasion offers, desire others among the faithful on earth to pray for me; and will take comfort and encouragement and holy hope from the reflection that their prayers are presented to God in my behalf, and that they will continue to pray for me when my own strength shall fail and the hour of my departure shall draw nigh. But for the acceptance of my own prayers and of theirs I can depend on no other Mediator in the world of spirits, than on HIM, whom his own Word declares to be the one Mediator between God and men, who prayed for me when He was on earth, who is ever making intercession for me in heaven. I know of no other in the unseen world, by whom I can have access to the Father; I find no other offered to me, I seek no {250} other, I want no other. I trust my cause,--the cause of my present life, the cause of my soul's eternal happiness,--to HIM and to his intercession. I thank God for the blessing. I am satisfied; and in the assurance of the omnipotence of his intercession, and the perfect fulness of his mediation, I am happy.

On this point it were well to compare two prayers both offered to God; the one pleading with Him the intercession of the passion of his only Son, the other pleading the prayers of a mortal man. The first prayer is a collect in Holy Week, the second is a collect on St. Gregory's Day.

We beseech thee, Almighty God, that we who among so many
adversities from our own infirmity fail, the passion of thy only
begotten Son interceding for us, may revive. V. 243.

O God, who hast granted the rewards of eternal blessedness[96]
to the soul of thy servant Gregory, mercifully grant that we who
are pressed down by the weight of our sins, may, by his prayers
with Thee, be raised up. V. 480.

[Footnote 96: I can never read this, and such passages as this,
without asking myself, can such an assertion be in accordance
with the inspired teaching?--"Judge nothing before the time,
until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden
things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." I Cor. iv.
5.]

IV. The next form of prayer to which I would invite your serious attention, is one from which my judgment and my feelings revolt far more decidedly even than from the last-mentioned; and I have the most clear denouncement of my conscience, that by offering it I should do a wrong to my Saviour, and ungratefully disparage his inestimable merits, and the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction of his omnipotent {251} atonement: I mean those prayers, still addressed to God, which supplicate that our present and future good may be advanced by the merits of departed mortals, that by their merits our sins may be forgiven, and our salvation secured; that by their merits our souls may be made fit for celestial joys, and be finally admitted into heaven.

Of these prayers the Roman Breviary contains a great variety of examples, some exceeding others very much in their apparent forgetfulness and disregard of the merits of the only Saviour, and consequently far more shocking to the reason and affections of us who hold it a point of conscience to make the merits of Christ alone, all in all, exclusive of any other to be joined with them, the only ground of our acceptance with God.

We find an example of this prayer in the collect on the day of St. Saturnine. "O God, who grantest us to enjoy the birth-day of the blessed Saturnine, thy martyr, grant that we may be aided by his merits, through the Lord." [Ejus nos tribue meritis adjuvari per Dominum. A. 544.]

Another example, in which the supplicants plead for deliverance from hell, to be obtained by the merits and prayers of the saint together, is the Collect for December 6th, the day of St. Nicolas.

"O God, who didst adorn the blessed Pontiff Nicolas with unnumbered miracles, grant, we beseech Thee, that by his merits and prayers we may be set free from the fires of hell, through," &c. [Ut ejus meritis et precibus à gehennæ incendiis liberemur. H. 436.]

Another example, in like manner specifying both the merits and intercession of the departed saint, contains {252} expressions very unacceptable to many of those who are accustomed to make the Bible their study. It is a prayer to Joseph, the espoused husband of the Virgin Mary. Of him mention is made by name in the Gospel just before and just after the birth of Christ, as an upright, merciful man, to whom God on three several occasions made a direct revelation of his will, by the medium of a dream, with reference to the incarnate Saviour. Again, on the holy family visiting Jerusalem, when our Lord was twelve years of age, Mary, his mother, in her remonstrance with her Son, speaks to Him of Joseph thus: "Why hast Thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing." Upon which not one word was uttered by our Saviour that would enable us to form an opinion as to his own will with regard to Joseph. Our Lord seems purposely to have drawn their thoughts from his earthly connexion with them, and to have raised their minds to a contemplation of his unearthly, his heavenly, and eternal origin. "How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" After this time, though the writings of the Holy Book, either historical, doctrinal, or prophetic, at the lowest calculation embrace a period of fourscore years, no allusion is made to Joseph as a man still living, or to his memory as one already dead. And yet he is one of those for the benefit of whose intercession the Church of Rome teaches her members to pray to God, and from whose merits they are taught to hope for succour.

On the 19th of March the following Collect is offered to the Saviour of the world:--

"We beseech thee, O Lord, that we may be succoured by the merits of the husband of thy most holy mother, {253} so that what we cannot obtain by our own power, may be granted to us by his intercession. Who livest," &c. [V. 486.]

It is anticipating our instances of the different stages observable in the invocation of saints, to quote here direct addresses to Joseph himself; still it may be well to bring at once to a close our remarks with regard to the worship paid to him. We find that in the Litany of the Saints, "St. Joseph, pray for us," is one of the supplications; but on his day (March 19) there are three hymns addressed to Joseph, which appear to be full of lamentable superstition, assigning, as they do, to him a share at least in the work of our salvation, and solemnly stating, as a truth, what, whether true or not, depends upon a groundless tradition, namely, that our blessed Lord and Mary watched by him at his death; ascribing to Joseph also that honour and praise, which the Church was wont to offer to God alone. The following are extracts from those hymns:

First hymn. "Thee, Joseph, let the companies of heaven celebrate; thee let all the choirs of Christian people resound; who, bright in merits, wast joined in chaste covenant with the renowned Virgin. Others their pious death consecrates after death; and glory awaits those who deserve the palm. Thou alive, equal to those above, enjoyest God, more blessed by wondrous lot. O Trinity, most High, spare us who pray; grant us to reach heaven [to scale the stars] BY THE MERITS OF JOSEPH, that at length we may perpetually offer to thee a grateful song." [Te Joseph celebrent agmina coelitum. V. 485.]

Second hymn. "O, Joseph, the glory of those in heaven, and the sure hope of our life, and the safeguard {254} of the world, benignly ACCEPT THE PRAISES WHICH WE joyfully sing TO THEE.... Perpetual praise to the most High Trinity, who granting to thee honours on high, give to us, BY THY MERITS, the joys of a blessed life." [Coelitum, Joseph, Decus. V. 486.]

Third hymn. "He whom we, the faithful, worship with joy, whose exalted triumphs we celebrate, Joseph, on this day obtained by merit the joys of eternal life. O too happy! O too blessed! at whose last hour Christ and the Virgin together, with serene countenance, stood watching. Hence, conqueror of hell, freed from the bands of the flesh, he removes in placid sleep to the everlasting seats, and binds his temples with bright chaplets. Him, therefore, reigning, let us all importune, that he would be present with us, and that he obtaining pardon for our transgressions, would assign to us the rewards of peace on high. Be praises to thee, be honours to thee, O Trine God, who reignest, and assignest golden crowns to thy faithful servant for ever. Amen." [Iste, quem læti colimus fideles. V. 490.]

It is painful to remark, that in these last clauses the very same word is employed when the Church of Rome applies to Joseph to assign to the faithful the rewards of peace, and when she ascribes glory to God for assigning to his faithful servants crowns of gold. Indeed these hymns contain many expressions which ought to be addressed to the Saviour alone, whose "glory is in the heavens," who is "the hope of us on earth," and "the safeguard of the world."

* * * * *

Under this fourth head I will add only one more specimen. Would it were not to be found in the Roman {255} Liturgies since the Council of Trent: God grant it may ere long be wiped out of the book of Christian worship! It is a collect in which the Church of Rome offers this prayer to God the Son:--

"O God, whose right hand raised the blessed Peter when walking on the waves, that he sank not; and rescued his fellow-apostle Paul, for the third time suffering shipwreck, from the depth of the sea; mercifully hear us, and grant that by the merits of both we may obtain the glory of eternity." [H. 149.]

Now suppose for a moment it had been intended in any one prayer negatively to exclude the merits of Christ from the great work of our eternal salvation, and to limit our hopes of everlasting glory to the merits of St. Peter and St. Paul, could that object have been more effectually and fully secured than by this prayer? Not one word alluding to the redemption which is in Christ can be found in this prayer. The sentiment in the first member of the prayer refers us to the power exercised by the Son of God, and Son of man, when he was intabernacled in our flesh; and the second expression teaches us to contemplate the providence of our Almighty Saviour in his deeds of beneficence. But no reference, even by allusion, is here made to the merits of Christ's death--none to his merits as our great Redeemer; none to his merits as our never-ceasing and never-failing Intercessor. We are led to approach the throne of grace only with the merits of the two Apostles on our tongue. If those who offer it hope for acceptance through THE MEDIATION of Jesus Christ, and for the sake of his merits, that hope is neither suggested nor fostered by this prayer. The truth, as it is in Jesus, would compel us in addressing {256} Him, the Saviour of the world, to think of the merits of neither Peter nor Paul, of neither angel nor spirit. Instead of praying to him that we may obtain the glories of eternity for their merits, true faith in Christ would bid us throw ourselves implicitly on his omnipotent merits alone, and implore so great a blessing for his own mercy's sake. If we receive the whole truth, can it appear otherwise than a disparagement of his perfect and omnipotent merits, to plead with Him the merits of one, whom the Saviour himself rebuked with as severe a sentence as ever fell from his lips, "Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence to me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men;" [Matt. xvi. 23.] and of another who after his conversion, when speaking of the salvation wrought by Christ, in profound humility confesses himself to be a chief of those sinners for whom the Saviour died, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief?" [1 Tim. i. 15.] We feel, indeed, a sure and certain hope that these two fellow-creatures, once sinners, but by God's grace afterwards saints, have found mercy with God, and will live with Christ for ever; but to pray for the same mercy at his gracious hands for the sake of their merits is repugnant to our first principles of Christian faith. When we think of merits, for which to plead for mercy, we can think of Christ's, and of Christ's alone.

V. Our thoughts are next invited to that class of prayers which the Church of Rome authorizes and directs to be addressed immediately to the Saints themselves. {257} Of these there are different kinds, some far more objectionable than others, though all are directly at variance with that one single and simple principle, to which, as we believe, a disciple of the cross can alone safely adhere--prayer to God, and only to God. The words of the Council of Trent are, as we have already observed, very comprehensive on this subject. They not only declare it to be a good and useful thing supplicantly to invoke the saints reigning with Christ: but also for the obtaining of benefits from God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our only Redeemer and Saviour, to fly to their prayers, HELP, and ASSISTANCE. Whether these last words can be interpreted as merely words of surplusage, or whether they must be understood to mean that the faithful must have recourse to some help and assistance of the saints beyond their intercession, is a question to which we need not again revert. If it had been intended to embrace other kinds of beneficial succour, and other help and assistance, perhaps it would be difficult to find words more expressive of such general aid and support as a human being might hope to derive, in answer to prayer from the Giver of all good. And certainly they are words employed by the Church, when addressing prayers directly to God. Be this as it may, the public service-books of the Church of Rome unquestionably, by no means adhere exclusively to such addresses to the saints, as supplicate them to pray for the faithful on earth. Many a prayer is couched in language which can be interpreted only as conveying a petition to them immediately for their assistance, temporal and spiritual.

But let us calmly review some of the prayers, supplications, invocations, or by whatever name religious addresses now offered to the saints may be called; and {258} first, we will examine that class in which the petitioners ask merely for the intercession of the saints.

We have an example of this class in an invocation addressed to St. Ambrose on his day, December 7; the very servant of Christ in whose hymns and prayers no address of prayer or invocation to any saint or martyr can be found.

"O thou most excellent teacher, the light of the Holy Church, O blessed Ambrose, thou lover of the divine law, deprecate for us [or intercede for us with] the Son of God[97]."

[Footnote 97: H. 438. "Deprecare pro nobis Filium Dei." This
invocation to Ambrose is instantly followed by this prayer to
God: "O God, who didst assign to thy people the blessed Ambrose
as a minister of eternal salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that
we may deserve to have him as our intercessor in heaven, whom we
had as a teacher of life on earth."]

The Church of Rome has wisely availed herself of the pious labours of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan; and has introduced into her public worship many of the hymns usually ascribed to him. Would she had followed his example, and addressed her invocations to no one but our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier! Could that holy man hear the supplications now offered to him, and could be make his voice heard in return among those who now invoke him, that voice, we believe, would only convey a prohibitory monition like that of the Angel to St. John when he fell down before him, See thou do it not; I am thy fellow-servant; worship God.

It is needless to multiply instances of this fifth kind of invocation. In the "Litany of the Saints" more than fifty different saints are enumerated by name, and are invoked to pray and intercede for those who join in {259} it. Among the persons invoked are Raphael [Æ. cxcii.], Gervasius, Protasius, and Mary Magdalene; whilst in the Litany [Æ. cxcvi.] for the recommendation of the soul of the sick and dying, the names of Abel, and Abraham, are specified.

Under this head I will call your attention only to one more example. Indeed I scarcely know whether this hymn would more properly be classed under this head, or reserved for the next; since it appears to partake of the nature of each. It supplicates the martyr to obtain by his prayers spiritual blessings, and yet addresses him as the person who is to grant those blessings. It implores him to liberate us by the love of Christ; but so should we implore the Father of mercies himself. Still, as the more safe course, I would regard it as a prayer to St. Stephen only to intercede for us. But it may be well to derive from it a lesson on this point; how easily the transition glides from one false step to a worse; how infinitely wiser and safer it is to avoid evil in its very lowest and least noxious appearance:

"Martyr of God [or Unconquered Martyr], who, by following the only Son of the Father, triumphest over thy conquered enemies, and, as conqueror, enjoyest heavenly things; by the office of thy prayer wash out our guilt; driving away the contagion of evil; removing the weariness of life. The bands of thy hallowed body are already loosed; loose thou us from the bands of the world, by the love of the Son of God [or by the gift of God Most High]." [H. 237.]

In the above hymn the words included within brackets are the readings adopted in the last English edition of the Roman Breviary; and in this place, when we are about to refer to many hymns now in use, it may be well to observe, that in the present day we find {260} various readings in the hymns as they are still printed for the use of Roman Catholics in different countries. In some instances the changes are curious and striking. Grancolas, in his historical commentary on the Roman Breviary (Venice, 1734, p. 84), furnishes us with interesting information as to the chief cause of this diversity. He tells us that Pope Urban VIII., who filled the papal throne from 1623 to 1644, a man well versed in literature, especially in Latin poetry, and himself one of the distinguished poets of his time, took measures for the emendation of the hymns in the Roman Breviary. He was offended by the many defects in their metrical composition, and it is said that upwards of nine hundred and fifty faults in metre were corrected, which gave to Urban occasion to say that the Fathers had begun rather than completed the hymns. These, as corrected, he caused to be inserted in the Breviary. Grancolas proceeds to tell us that many complained of these changes, alleging that the primitive simplicity and piety which breathed in the hymns had been sacrificed to the niceties of poetry. "Accessit Latinitas, et recessit pietas." The verse was neater, but the thought was chilled.

VI. But the Roman Church by no means limits herself to this kind of invocation; prayers are addressed to saints, imploring them to hear, and, as of themselves, to grant the prayers of the faithful on earth, and to release them from the bands of sin, without any allusion to prayers to be made by those saints. It grieves me to copy out the invocation made to St. Peter on the 18th of January, called the anniversary of the Chair of St. Peter at Rome; the words of our Blessed Lord himself, and of his beloved and inspired Apostle, seem to rise up in judgment against that prayer, and condemn it. It {261} will be well to place that hymn addressed to St. Peter, side by side with the very word of God, and then ask, Can this prayer be safe?

1. Now, O good Shepherd, 1. Jesus saith, I am the good merciful Peter, Shepherd. John x. 11.

2. Accept the prayers of us 2. Whatsoever ye shall ask in
who supplicate, my name, that will I do. That
whatsoever ye shall ask the
Father in my name, he may give
it you. John xiv. 13; xv. 16.

3. And loose the bands of our 3. The blood of Jesus Christ sins, by the power committed to his Son cleanseth us from all sin. thee, 1 John i. 7.

4. By which thou shuttest 4. These things saith he that heaven against all by a word, is holy, he that is true, he that and openest it[98]. openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. Rev. iii. 7.

I am he that liveth and was
dead, and am alive for evermore,
and have the keys of hell and of
death. Rev. i. 18.

[Footnote 98: This hymn is variously read. In the edition of Mr.
Husenbeth (H. 497.) it is: "O Peter, blessed shepherd, of thy
mercy receive the prayers of us who supplicate, and loose by thy
word the bands of our sins, thou to whom is given the power of
opening heaven to the earth, and of shutting it when
open."--"Beate pastor, Petre, clemens accipe voces precantum,
criminumque vincula verbo resolve, cui potestas tradita aperire
terris coelum, apertum claudere." H. 497.]

Let it not be answered that many a Christian minister is now called a good shepherd. Let it not be said that the very words of our ordination imply the conveyance of the power of loosing and binding, of opening and shutting the gates of heaven. When prayer is contemplated, we can think only of One, HIM, who has appropriated the title of Good Shepherd to {262} himself. And we must see that Peter cannot, by any latitude of interpretation, be reckoned now among those to whom the awful duty is assigned of binding and loosing upon earth.

The same unsatisfactory associations must be excited in the mind of every one who takes a similar view of Christian worship with myself, by the following supplication to various saints on St. John's day:

"Let the heaven exult with praises[99],
Let the earth resound with joy; {263}
The sacred solemnities sing
The glory of the Apostles.
O ye Just Judges of the age,
And true lights of the world,
We pray you with the vows of our hearts,
Hear the prayers of your suppliants.
Ye who shut the heaven by a word,
And loose its bars,
Loose us by command, we beseech you,
From all our sins.
Ye to whose word is subject
The health and weakness of all,
Cure us who are diseased in morals,
Restore us to virtues.
So that when Christ shall come,
The Judge at the end of the world,
He may make us partakers
Of eternal joy.
To God the Father be Glory,
And to his only Son,
With the Spirit the Comforter,
Now and for ever. Amen[100]."

[Footnote 99: Having inserted in the text a translation of this
hymn from a copy with which I had been long familiar, I think it
right to insert here the two forms side by side. They supply an
example of the changes to which we have already alluded.

_Lille_, 1823. _Norwich_, 1830.

OLD VERSION. POPE URBAN'S VERSION.

Exultet coelum laudibus, Exultet orbis gaudiis,
Resultet terra gaudiis, Coelum resultet laudibus,
Apostolorum gloriam Apostolorum gloriam
Sacra canunt solemnia. Tellus et astra concinunt.
Vos sæcli justi judices Vos sæculorum judices
Et vera mundi lamina, Et vera mundi lumina,
Votis precamur cordium Votis precamur cordium
Audite preces supplicum. Audite voces supplicum.
Qui coelum verbo clauditis Qui templa coeli clauditis
Serasque ejus solvitis, Serasque verbo solvitis,
Nos a peccatis omnibus Nos a reatu noxios
Solvite jussu, quæsumus. Solvi jubete quæsumus.
Quorum præcepto subditur Præcepta quorum protinus
Salus et languor omnium, Languor salusque sentiunt,
Sanate ægros moribus, Sanate mentes languidas,
Nos reddentes virtutibus. Augete nos virtutibus.
Ut cum judex advenerit Ut cum redibit arbiter
Christus in fine sæculi, In fine Christus sæculi,
Nos sempiterni gaudii Nos sempiterni gaudii
Faciat esse compotes. Concedat esse compotes.
Deo Patri sit gloria, Jesu, tibi sit gloria
Ejusque soli Filio, Qui natus es de virgine,
Cum Spiritu paracleto, Cum Patre et Almo Spiritu,
Et nunc et in perpetuum. In sempiterna sæcula.

Amen. Amen.
(H. 243.)
]

[Footnote 100: Or as in the present Roman Breviary:--

Let the world exult with joy,
Let the heaven resound with praise;
The earth and stars sing together
The glory of the Apostles.
Ye judges of the ages
And true lights of the world,
With the prayers of our hearts we implore,
Hear the voices of your suppliants.
Ye who shut the temples of heaven,
And loose its bars by a word,
Command ye us, who are guilty,
To be released from our sins; we pray.
Ye whose commands forthwith
Sickness and health feel,
Heal our languid minds,
Increase us in virtues,
That when Christ, the Judge, shall return,
In the end of the world,
He may grant us to be partakers
Of eternal joy.
Jesus, to thee be glory,
Who wast born of a virgin,
With the Father and the Benign Spirit,
Through eternal ages. Amen. {264}
]

Many a pious and humble Catholic of the Roman Communion, I have no doubt, would regard these prayers as little more than an application to Peter and the rest of the Apostles for absolution, and would interpret its several clauses as an acknowledgment only of that power, which Christ himself delegated to them of binding and loosing sins on earth. But the gulf fixed between these prayers, and the lawful use of the power given to Christ's ordained ministers on earth, is great indeed. To satisfy the mind of this, it is not necessary to enter upon even the confines of the wide field of controversy, as to what was really conveyed by Christ to his Apostles. I would ask only two questions. Could any of us address these same words to one of Christ's ministers on earth? And could we address our blessed Saviour himself in stronger or more appropriate language, as the Lord of our destinies--the God who heareth prayer--the Physician of our souls?

Suppose for example we were celebrating the anniversary of Christ's Nativity, of his Resurrection, or his Ascension, what word in this hymn, expressive of {265} power, and honour, and justice, and mercy, would not be appropriate? What word would not apply to Him, in most perfect accordance with Scripture language? And can we without offence, without doing wrong to his great Name, address the same to our fellow-servants, even though we may believe them to be with Him in glory?

Let the heaven exult with praises--
Let the earth resound with joy;
The sacred solemnities sing
The glory of the Lord.
O Thou just Judge of the age,
And true light of the world,
We pray Thee with the supplications of our hearts
Hear the prayers of Thy suppliants,
Thou who shuttest the heavens by a word,
And loosest its bars.
Loose us by command, we beseech Thee,
From all our sins.
Thou to whose word is subject
The health and weakness of all,
Cure us who are diseased in morals,
Restoring us to virtue.
So that when Thou shalt come,
The Judge at the end of the world,
Thou mayest make us partakers
Of eternal joy.
Glory to Thee, O Lord,
Who wast born of a virgin,
With the Father and the Holy Spirit,
For ever and ever. Amen.

Only for a moment let us see how peculiarly all these expressions are fitting in a hymn of prayer and praise {266} to our God and Saviour, recalling to our minds the words of inspiration; and then again let us put the question to our conscience, Is this language fit for us to use to a fellow-creature?

Let the heaven exult with praises, Let the heavens rejoice, and
Let the earth resound with joy: let the earth be glad ... (exultet
is the very word used in the Vulgate
translation of the Psalm)--before
the Lord, for He cometh
to judge the earth.--Ps. xcvi
(xcv). 11.

The holy solemnities sing Ye shall have a song, as in the
The glory of the Lord. night when a holy solemnity is
kept ... And the Lord shall cause
His glorious voice to be heard.
Isa. xxx. 29. Let the heaven
and earth praise Him. Ps. lxix
(lxviii). 34.

Thou just Judge of mankind, All judgment is committed
And true light of the world, unto the Son. John v. 22. That
was the true Light, which lighteth
every man that cometh into
the world. John i. 9.

With the prayers of our hearts we With my whole heart have I
pray Thee, sought Thee. Ps. cxix (cxviii).
Hear the prayers of Thy suppliants. 10. Hear my prayer, O God.
Ps. lxi (lx). 1. Whom have I in
heaven but Thee? Ps. lxxiii
(lxxii). 25. And this is the
confidence that we have in Him,
that if we ask any thing according to
His will, He heareth us. 1 John
v. 14.

Thou who shuttest heaven by I have the keys of death and of
Thy word, hell. These things saith He that
And loosest its bars, is holy, He that is true: He
that hath the key of David. He
that openeth and no man shutteth,
and shutteth and no man {267}
openeth. I have set before thee
an open door, and no man can
shut it. Rev. i. 18; iii. 7,8

Release us by command, we pray Thy sins be forgiven thee.
Thee, Matt. ix. 22. Bless the Lord, O
From all our sins. my soul ... who forgiveth all
thine iniquities. Ps. ciii. 2. This
is your blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many
for the remission of sins. Matt.
xxvi. 28. Have mercy upon me,
O God ... according to the
multitude of Thy tender mercies,
blot out my transgressions. Wash
me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my
sin. Ps. li (l).

Thou to whose word is subject Bless the Lord, O my soul ... The health and weakness of all, who healeth all thy diseases. Ps. ciii (cii). 2, 3.

Do Thou heal us who are morally Create in me a clean heart, O diseased, God, and renew a right spirit Restoring us to virtue; within me. Ps. li. 10 (4.) That when Thou, the Judge, shalt appear in the end of the world, Thou mayest grant us to be partakers of eternal joy.

This would be a Christian prayer, a primitive prayer, a scriptural prayer, a prayer well fitting mortal man to utter by his tongue and from his heart, to the God who heareth prayer; and him who shall in sincere faith offer such a prayer, Christ will never send empty away. But if this prayer, fitted as it seems only to be addressed to God, be offered to the soul of a departed saint--I will not talk of blasphemy, and deadly sin, and idolatry,--I will only ask members of the Church of Rome to weigh all these things well, one by one. These are not subjects for crimination and recrimination. {268}

We have had far too much of those unholy weapons on both sides. Speaking the truth in love, I should be verily guilty of a sin in my own conscience were I, with my views of Christian worship, to offer this prayer to the soul of a man however holy, however blessed, however exalted.

The next part of our work will be given exclusively to the worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. {269}

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