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Then comes a prayer to Peter and Paul; and last of all JESUS CHRIST is coldly named, and a hope is faintly expressed that He will-not deliver him out of his troubles-but "console" him under them. Thus does the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the nineteenth century most unblushingly exalt the creature above the Creator, and place the crown of Immanual on the head of a woman!

In the next sentence, this head of the infallible church exhorts the hierarchy to resist the laying of any other foundation! If this be not antichristian, I ask you what is? The man that asserts that any being but Christ is the "whole foundation" of the sinner's hope, is certainly against Christ-that is, he is an Antichrist. Nay, he is equally an enemy to God and man. For if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do ?" Psalm xi. 3. There is no security for the believer if you remove "the chief corner-stone, elect, precious," which God himself has laid in Zion. This is the living stone spoken of by Peter (1 Epistle 20), on which is built a spiritual house, an holy Priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

Mariam, quæ sola universas haereses interemit, nos traque maxima feducia, imo tota ratio est spei nostrae.

1 beseech you, turn to 1 Cor. iii. 11, and read the language of the apostle Paul, (the very apostle whom Gregory supplicates to prevent the laying of any foundation but the Virgin!!) and contrast the words of the Holy Ghost with the words of the Pope ! "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is JESUS CHRIST." The Church of Rome has dared to lay another: let her abide the conséquences ! Read also, the language of St. Peter, and compare it with that of his soi-disant successor. "This is the stone which was set at nought by the builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved," Acts iv. 11, 12. Alas, the Church of Rome has invented many other names, to whose influence she teaches her votaries to appeal. But how tremendous is the responsibility which she has thereby iucurred!

If the Virgin Mary were permitted to meddle in the Redeemer's mediatorial kingdom-if she were exalted as a sort of queen-regent, to whom all power was given in heaven and on earth; how can you account for the fact that nobody ever prayed to her during her life-time? When Mary is announced to our Lord as his mother, "Matt.

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xii. 48, 42; Luke viii. 21," why does he seem to disclaim the relationship, and intimate so plainly, that thenceforth no one should "know him after the flesh," but that, as the Saviour of sinners, all believers were equally bound to him by the ties of kindred—that all were brethren? On your principles, should there not have been an exception in favour of her who is designated "mother of God?" Yet it is with pointed reference to her that the solemn statement is made by the REDEEMER himself! How do you ac

count for that?

Why is it that no person ever supplicated Mary to exert her authority, as mother, over Jesus, in order to obtain remission of sins? How is it that her name never appears in the Sacred Narrative in connexion with any of the deeds of mercy performed by the Saviour, except at the wedding at Cana, when she was rebuked for her interference? For, that the language employed on that occasion, although not disrespectful in its terms, was intended as a gentle rebuke, and as a check to such interference in future, will be evident to any body that consults the parallel passages in the Greek, or even in the Roman Catholic versions of the Bible. Can you give any reason for the profound, and seemingly studied, silence, in reference to Mary,

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observed by the sacred writers after our Lord's crucifixion? John took her home to his house as his adopted mother. Is it not strange, that we have no account of the multitudes that, on your principles, must have besieged her lodgings that she might intercede for them with her Son? These facts are perfectly unaccountable; indeed, they never could have existed, if the mother of our Lord's humanity sustained such an office, and possessed such power, as assigns her.

your Church

We are referred by Roman Catholic writers to examples of saints on earth praying to angels. To this test we are willing to appeal. It is quite natural that a man should ask questions, and make requests, of an angel sent to him from God when present and visible. But even in such cases, any thing approaching to divine homage would be highly reprehensible, and would be promptly rebuked by the heavenly visitants themselves. Witness Apocalypse xix. 10 and xxii. 9, where we read, that when John fell down before the angel to do him homage, he restrained him, saying, "worship God." It is with grief I remark, that these very passages have been quoted on your side of the question with a view to countenance creature-worship, omitting, however, the prohibitory clause and

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This is

the command to worship God alone! one of the most flagrant instances on record of "handling the Word of God deceitfully." And I regret that the late Dr. Doyle was guilty of it in his edition of the "Grounds of the Catholic Doctrine."

A passage, however, in Gen. xlviii. 16 is appealed to with more confidence. There Jacob prays, "The angel that delivered me from all evils bless these boys." And again, Hosea xii. 4, it is said that the same Jacob "wept and made supplication to an angel."

Other passages of similar import might be quoted from the Old Testament, but the same answer will apply to them all. The angel mentioned in these places is no less a person than the ANGEL of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus himself, who is the author of all spiritual blessings. The transaction referred to by Hosea is recorded in Gen. xxxii., and the name of the place where it occurred is called by the patriarch Peniel, "because," said he, "I have seen God face to face." Verse 30. This is the Angel with whom Abraham, Gen. xviii. 1. 13. 22, pleaded concerning the destruction of Sodom; who conducted Israel through the wilderness, Exod. xxiii. 20, 21; who appeared to Manoah, Judges xiii. 1522, where his name is said to be "Wonderful,”