reason that we have not dared tolerate superstition and idolatry?"

66

Why did the Jews, God's chosen people, through whom the Messiah was to come, and who were hourly expecting him and praying for his coming, crucify him between two thieves when he did come, but on the pretext that he had a devil and was a blasphemer? Did the fact that they falsely accused him, and then crucified him on that false accusation, supported by false witnesses, render them the less guilty?"

Do you mean to say that so many great and good men, so many pure and holy men, the glory of their age, their country, and their religion, have all conspired to bear false witness against the Romish Church? The thing is incredible."

"More so than that the Jewish nation conspired to crucify their God? I know nothing about your great and good men, your pure and holy men; but I know that whoever accuses the church of idolatry, or any species of superstition, utters as foul a lie as did the wicked Jews who told our Lord he had a devil, and that he blasphemed. No doubt, it is an easy matter to prove the church guilty, if all you have to do is to bring a false accusation, assume your own sanctity, and then conclude it must be well founded or you could not have made it. But your logic would be more respectable, if from the falsity of your accusation you concluded your want of sanctity. If the character of Protestants is a presumption against their conspiracy to bring a false accusation, the character of Catholics is a still stronger presumption against their having conspired to uphold and practise idolatry; for the great and pure and holy men who have lived and died in the Catholic faith, granting you all you can pretend to, are as a thousand to one to those of Protestant communions. But you forget that I was brought up a Protestant, and that to talk to me of Protestant sanctity is ridiculous. I am acquainted with Protestants, and with what they facetiously call their religion. Our dear mother, too, was brought up a Protestant, a Presbyterian, and yet what did she tell me on her deathbed?"

"What did she?"

"No matter now; but she did not die a Presbyterian." "Did not? What mean you?"

"Some day, I may tell you, but you are not now worthy to hear."

"Did my father know?"

"Do you mean to insinuate that a Popish priest was smuggled into our house?"

"O my wise brother, you do not know all things. Angels of mercy, messengers of grace, are sometimes sent even where the ministers of Satan fancy they do and can find no admission. All things are possible with God, and nothing is too good for him to do for those who are obedient to his grace.' "Am I to understand that my mother on her death-bed renounced Presbyterianism, and became a Papist?"

"She did not die a Presbyterian. You may recollect, that during the last week of her life she refused to see Mr. Grimface, her old Presbyterian pastor."

"True, and my father and I thought it strange ; but as we had no doubt of her being one of the elect, it gave us no great uneasiness. But there was no Romish priest within two hundred miles of us."

"I have no doubt that my mother died in a state of grace; but more I will not tell you, till you prove or withdraw your charge against the church."

"But why did not our mother tell us all, as well as you, of her apostasy?"

"She knew both your father and you, and that, if she had told you, she would have been denied the last consolations of religion; and after she had received them, there was no opportunity, till she became unable to do so. charge, prove or withdraw it."

"I will prove it, but you must excuse me now. versation has been long, and I am fatigued.

But your

Our con

But to-morrow,

God willing, I will prove that the Romish Church is an idolatrous church."

"Be it so. But remember and prove it, or I shall require you to own that Protestantism

"Is of the devil. I accept the alternative. If I fail to establish the charge of idolatry and superstition against the Romish Church, I will consent that the reformers be branded as calumniators, and that Protestants are and have been from the first acting under the delusion of Satan."

"See that you keep your word."

The brothers separated for the remainder of the day, and James, though pleading fatigue, betook himself to his library to look up his proofs and prepare for the morrow. He felt

that all depended on the issue he had joined, and that, if he failed to justify his charge, he could no longer pretend to uphold the reformers. Hitherto his brother had kept him discussing the law of the case; but now he thought he saw a chance of entering upon its merits, and of introducing his witnesses. How he succeeded will be related in the next chapter.

CHAPTER X.

"You will bear in mind, James," remarked John, on resuming the conversation the next day, "that you have pledged yourself to prove that the Catholic Church authorizes superstition and idolatry."

And if I do not prove it," replied James, "I will abandon the reformers and the reformation.”

"Since you prefer the charge, it devolves on you to prove it."

"That is not difficult. The fact is notorious."

"Assertions are easily made by the unscrupulous, my brother; but I ask for proofs."

"Proofs, proofs! I have them in abundance. What else are your prayers for the dead,-your invocation of saints,your worship of Mary,-adoration of crucifixes, pictures, images, relics of dead men and women? What is all this, but the most abominable idolatry and superstition? What else is your adoration of the mass, and all the vain and empty ceremonies of your church? O, it is frightful to think to what horrible lengths idolatry and superstition are carried among you! What more besotted, than for a full-grown man to believe that the priest can make his God at will, to fall down and adore a bit of bread, or to imagine that he is worshipping God by kissing the crucifix and telling his beads? I hope, John, you, at least, avoid the superstitious practice of telling your beads."

"I say my beads daily for your conversion."

"That is enough; my charge is proved. When a man like you can do that, there is no need of other evidence to prove that your church favors superstition."

"It requires strong faith, no doubt, to be able to regard your conversion as possible; but all things are possible with God, and he has never been known to deny his holy Mother any request, for she can request nothing not in accordance

VOL. VI-22

with his will. If she intercedes for you, your conversion is certain."

"Worse and worse. You confess all I need to prove my charge."

"Did you ever read the record of the trial of our Lord?" "Why do you ask that?"

66 Because you remind me of his accusers, who pretended to convict him of blasphemy out of his own mouth. Yet it is nothing strange or uncommon for children to resemble their parents. You say the church is superstitious?"

"The Romish Church, yes; and I prove it." "What is superstition?"

"A spurious religion or false worship; a false system of religion, credulity, vain observance."

"You would hardly be able to convict the church, or to attempt to convict her, of superstition, under that definition, without assuming that you have authority to determine, or by which you can determine, what is true religion; which we have seen is not the fact. Allow me to suggest a definition a little more to your purpose. Superstition is a vice opposed to true religion, as the schoolmen say, by way of excess, as irreligion is opposed to it by way of defect, and consists in rendering worship to an object to which it is not due, or an undue worship to the object to which it is due. It is, on the one hand, the worship of false gods, and, on the other, the false worship of the true God, and includes all you mean by both superstition and idolatry."

66

66

Very well; I say the Romish Church is guilty of superstition in the sense in which you have defined the term." Superstition, in this sense, divides itself into the worship of false gods, and the false worship of the true God. It will be well to consider each division separately. Let us begin with the first, that is, idolatry, or giving the worship due to God alone to that which is not God; or, in other words, worshipping as God what is not God."

"The Romish Church worships as God what is not God." "The proof?"

"She pays divine worship to the Virgin Mary." "The proof?"

"She authorizes prayers to her."

"Nonsense! prayer is nothing but a request or a petition, and may without sin or impropriety be addressed by one man to another. You might as well say, the constitution of the United States authorizes idolatry, because it recognizes the

right of petition, and forbids congress to make any law prohibiting the people from peaceably assembling and petitioning for a redress of grievances. As well say, every subject who petitions the king, or citizen who petitions the court or the legislature, is an idolater. Try again, brother."

"Your church honors her, a mere woman, as the mother of God."

"Well, if she is the mother of God, where is the harm in that, since it is only honoring her for what she is?"

"But she is not the mother of God."

"That is for you to prove. You must remember, however, that you are to convict the church of idolatry by the light of nature, and you can in your argument deny nothing the church teaches, unless it is forbidden by the natural law. Assuming the Blessed Virgin to be the mother of God,as she must be, if Christ is God,-does the law of nature forbid her from being honored as such? This is the question." "The law of nature, which, as you have agreed, forbids idolatry, forbids her being honored as God."

"Unquestionably; but does it forbid her being honored for what she is?""

"But Catholics worship her as divine, and pay her the worship which is due to God alone."

"The proof?"

"They call her our Advocate, our Mediatrix, and thus rob Christ of the glory which is his due; for he is the only Mediator between God and men.”

"The only mediator and advocate, in his own right; but, for aught the law of nature says, his mother may be an advocate and a mediatrix under him, by his will and appointment; for she would then advocate or mediate only by his authority, and he would still be our only advocate and mediator,since that which I do mediately by another, as my minister or delegate, I do myself as much as if I did it immediately. These terms, applied to the Blessed Virgin, no doubt imply that she is exalted above every other creature; but as her exaltation is that of a creature, and an exaltation not by her own natural right, but by grace, it by no means places her in the same rank with her Son, who is exalted above every creature, by his own right, the right of his own proper divinity which assumed humanity."

"But Catholics pray to her much more than they do to God."

"That may be questioned; but if so, it is nothing to your