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LECTURE XIX.

ROMISH WORSHIP.

"And I John saw all these things, and heard them; and when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book."-Revelation xxii. 8, 9.

THIS angel must have been clothed with unearthly glory. The beams and coruscations which radiated from him so dazzled and bewildered the seer, that he concluded it was the same being who appeared in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, our High-Priest and Saviour, and accordingly fell down to worship him. It is evident he did not give the adoration, but it is just as evident that he intended to do so. Some think that this, like many other acts recorded in the Apocalypse, was purely symbolic, and that John personated another on this occasion. It may be So. We have an instance of this in Rev. x. 4: "I was about to write, and he said unto me, Write them not;" in which scene, as I have shown in previous lectures, John represented Luther at the era of the Reformation. So in Acts x. 9-15, we find Peter used to personate the Jew: "Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, and he became very hungry and would have eaten; but while they made ready he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet, knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him-Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that

call not thou common." But in whatever light we may regard this scene in the Apocalyptic drama, we gather this conclusion, that it is unlawful to give religious worship to saint or angel, or any other creature in heaven or earth, however exalted; and that the Church of Rome sins grievously, if not fatally, in giving it. The Council of Trent has come to a conclusion opposite to that of Scripture; for it has decided that "it is good and useful to invoke in prayer the saints reigning with Christ, and to have recourse to their prayers and aid:" a decision which is repeated in the creed of Pope Pius IV., and carried out in all its details in the practical worship of the Roman Catholic communion. If praying to saints or angels be so useful as the Council of Trent alleges, it is, to say the very least, exceedingly strange that the apostles never discovered it, and that the Old and New Testament give nothing like a hint either on the usefulness, the principle, or the expediency of it. Roman Catholics, however, allege that Scripture sanctions this practice. Let us weigh with respect and candour the evidences which they quote. Luke xv. 10 is a favourite appeal: "Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." But this does not, surely, prove that angels hear us when we pray; or, if they know what is transacted upon earth, it does not prove that they acquire such knowledge directly by the inherent excellency of their nature. On the contrary, a comprehensive view of the language of our Lord in this beautiful chapter proves the fact to be just the reverse of that which the Romanist assumes. The shepherd tells his friends and neighbours, who are otherwise ignorant, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." The woman "calls her friends and neighbours together, saying," (what was news to them,) "Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost.” "Likewise," adds our Lord, that is, after the same manner, God tells the angels that a lost sinner is found, and a hardened sinner repenteth; and they, receiving the intelligence, rejoice.

Rev. v. 8 is also quoted by Romish divines, as evidence confirmatory of the worship of angels: "And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden.

vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." First, let it be observed, that if these be angels, and if it can be proved that they here offer unto God the prayers of his people upon earth, which they address to God, this would not prove that it is lawful for us to pray to them. It is plainly, however, a vision of the church or congregation of the saints in glory, and not of angels; for angels cannot sing the new song which these living ones are declared to sing, "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth." The prayers, in fact, which they offer are their own prayers; they are described as "the prayers of saints," or, literally translated, prayers of holy ones, i. e. of themselves, the holy ones before the Lamb.

Rev. viii. 3 is another alleged evidence of the lawfulness of angel worship: "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." The whole scene, and the imagery with which it is clothed, proves that this angel was the Angel of the Covenant, and not a creature. The imagery is that of Christ, the High-Priest of his people. The high-priest alone had a golden censer, and this would prove that Christ is the personage here referred to. The high-priest alone could officiate at the golden altar, as the angel does here; and the work assigned him, viz. to offer up the prayer of all saints in heaven and earth, is confessedly such as Omnipotence alone can do.

In Heb. i. 14 it is written, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" This proves that angels minister to us, but does not furnish the least evidence that we ought to pray to them. In Ps. xci. 11, it is written, "He shall give his angels charge concerning thee;" but he who is thus guarded does not pray to the angel, but, on the contrary, is represented in verse 15 as praying exclusively to God: "He shall call upon ME, and I will deliver him."

Gen. xlviii. 15 is quoted as a proof that the patriarch sup

plicated an angel: "And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads;" but the most ordinary reader must perceive that "the angel" is simply the expletive of "the God which fed me;" and this explanation is confirmed by a reference to Hos. xii. 2: "The Lord hath a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways, according to his doings will he recompense him. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept and made supplication unto him; he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us, even the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord is his memorial." This proves that the angel was the Angel of the Covenant-Jehovah, the Lord God of the prophets.

Num. xxii. 31 is also quoted by the Romish Church as sanctioning the invocation of angels: "And the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed down his head and fell flat on his face." If this be an instance of the worship the vindication of which is quoted, Balaam is surely not a happy precedent! But the truth is, bad as Balaam was, there is no proof here that he worshipped the angel who appeared to him; for bowing and prostrating were acts of Eastern homage totally disconnected with any thing like religious worship.

Another passage quoted in favour of this worship is Josh. v. 13:"And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand; and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so." This was plainly and undeniably religious worship; but the circumstances in which it was given, prove that it was offered, not to a human,

but to a divine being. The Captain of the Lord's host is the same who is elsewhere called the Captain of our salvation: the leader of the Israelites-for such this angel was-is declared by the apostle in 1 Cor. x. 9, to have been Christ: "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." And the peculiar language, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot," is the same language which was addressed to Moses from the burning bush, by him who is expressly called Jehovah. Not one, therefore, of the passages alleged, proves that the worship rendered by the Church of Rome to saints and angels has any warrant or precedent in the word of God.

The presumptive disproofs of the propriety of the worship of the Church of Rome are as numerous as they are conclusive. One flashes from the face of the Decalogue itself: "I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them."

It may be asked how the Roman Catholic Church continues to escape the force of so decided a prohibition. She meets it in her worship by keeping it from the eyes of the people, and in her popular teaching by banishing it from the schools and catechisms of the young.

It is also written, Matt. iv. 10, "Thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve;" on which the Romanist remarks, that only modifies serve, but not worship. If so, Satan would have said, Worship God and me, but serve God alone: what Satan required was worship-what the Saviour reprobated in his answer was the worship of any creature, which was what he demanded. If the pope's explanation of the answer were the right one, Satan might well reply, This is no reason at all for your not worshipping me

In Col. ii. 18 we read, "Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by