remark, the word "venerate" refers to the Angels, and "adore" (#роσкνvoûμev) to God. In another place Justin expressly says, "We adore (πрoσKU"voûμev) God only"."

Thus then it appears, that you have been unable to produce either from Scripture or Antiquity, any language which can justify Romanists in addressing at the same moment the same homage and prayers to created beings and to God.

(2) Your second question (p. 41.) is: "Can it "be idolatrous to desire or pray that the blessed "Virgin and the Saints should receive our souls "when we expire, or assist us at the hour of "death?"

In proof of the lawfulness of this practice you observe, that St. Ambrose says the blessed Virgin will receive virgins when they die, and present them to her Son. You next refer to what St. Gregory the Great relates on the authority of a person named Probus, whose sister beheld a vision of the Virgin as she was dying, and addressed her in the words, "Behold, Lady, I come'." We are

• Σέβομεν καὶ προσκυνοῦμεν, colimus et adoramus. Nam primum quidem ad angelos ipsos refertur, habita ratione discriminis quod inter Creatorem et rem creatam intercedit. Alterum autem nequaquam angelos necessariò comprehendit. Sæpe duo verba simul conjuncta non ad unam et eandem rem, sed ad diversas judicio legentium referuntur. Just. Mart. ed. Benedict. p. xxii. Justin. Mart. Apol. i. p. 26. ed. Thirlby.

1 Ambros. de Virgin. lib. ii. c. ii.

next favoured with a spurious prayer of St. Ephrem, and with the language of Maximus in an Oration on St. Eusebius of Vercelli, in which he expresses a wish, that when we depart from this world, he may "receive us into his abode and his bosom'," as Abraham received Lazarus into his bosom. Other passages from the same writer follow, in which it is said that the Martyrs "receive us," when we go forth from the body.

All this may be more or less right, probable, or true; but I cannot see how it meets the objection offered to your prayers. The real objection which I advanced was, that Jesus, Joseph, and Mary are placed on an equality, by being invoked in common at the same moment, to receive our souls. would lead one to think that they are equal: that

they are a Trinity of some sort Gods, or three human beings.

This

that they are three

It is no answer to

this objection to say, that the saints or angels receive our souls at the hour of death.

(3) Your third question (p. 43.) is: "Does the ''serving of Jesus and Mary' necessarily imply a "division of service or allegiance between them; and not a bestowing on each a different species " of it?"

In proof that it does not, you refer to the answer to the first question. It has been shewn, I think, that you will not find much help in that quarter.

As to the passage from Ildephonsus, which is adduced (p. 44.) in further proof, I need only remark, that it makes a broad distinction between the Virgin and God: "Ideo ego servus tuus, quia "tuus Filius Dominus meus. Ideo tu Domina "mea, quia tu ancilla Domini mei'." Thou art

my mistress, because thou art the handmaid of my "Lord." These latter expressions you have thought proper to omit. In no part of the passage does Ildephonsus say, "I serve Jesus and Mary," or use any expressions like those that have been objected to.

Such then is the result of your defence of the prayers and homage offered to the blessed Virgin by the most eminent authorities in the Roman Communion. You have not attempted to deny that they attribute Divine powers to creatures; that they solicit from them favours which God alone can bestow; that they place created beings on a level with their Creator. You have entirely failed to bring from Scripture or Tradition any instances of similar forms. I have a right therefore to re-assert that they are idolatrous; that your Communion is deeply tinged with idolatrous practices; and that those idolatries are openly defended and justified by the very persons, whose office (if it was legitimately acquired) would compel them,

'Ildephonsus, ap. Patres Toletanos, p. 158. ed. 1782.

under pain of damnation, to oppose every thing that is connected with Idolatry.

It is to the nature of the prayers and other honours offered by you to the Virgin that we object, so that we shall not attempt to dispute the right of the Roman Church to use such prayers frequently (p. 45.) if they may be used at all. There is not the slightest evidence that the primitive Church ever practised such worship. We have no reason to think that any ancient devotional works (p. 45.) contained expressions like those which you employ. There is no trace of them in the ancient liturgies; none in the genuine writings of the Fathers. They only appear in the writings of heretics, in spurious and apocryphal writings, or in the figurative language of poetry.

I shall only make a few remarks on the remainder of your third section, in which a theory, which I have not time to examine, (p. 45-53.) is propounded to account for the greater veneration paid to the blessed Virgin in later than in earlier times. I cannot but wonder that you should appeal (p. 47.) to the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, in proof that "devotion towards the martyrs began from "the earliest ages." I shall reserve the passage for future consideration: it is decisively opposed to you. You observe (p. 52.) that "Christian monu"ments of the age of the Catacombs represent the

Virgin as superior to the Apostles themselves." This is quite consistent with a sound faith, and yet it does not warrant our giving Divine honours either to one or the other. The figures to which you allude " may be as ancient as you imagine, but they resemble those found in manuscripts of a much later date.

In allusion to the Collyridian heresy, which elevated the blessed Virgin into a Deity, you remark, that "this foolish idolatry could hardly have sprung up, where no sort of veneration had ever "been paid." (p. 52, 53.) Very true: but who supposes that " no sort of veneration had ever been paid," or that no sort of veneration is due? All that we contend against, is what the Collyridian heretics practised, and what Romanists follow them in practising, i. e. worshipping the Virgin with Divine honours; offering to her the same homage and worship which is offered to God. How you can venture to quote the language of Epiphanius, "Let honour be given to Mary, but let only Father, "Son, and Holy Ghost be adored," (p. 53.) after having so systematically justified prayers and addresses in which the Virgin is placed on a level with the Trinity, is a matter of no small surprise

to me.

"Sedulii Opera, ed. Arevalo, p. 351.