The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

PRACTICE IDOLATROUS.SG5says, receive an improper worship and adoration, whichpasses through them to their prototypes ; not so the venerationpaid the saints, which is not relative, but absohite.*Tried by the implicit principles and tho express declarationsof the Bible, this is idolatry. There is not, either in the Oldor in the New Testament, a solitary instance of such a worship; nay, on those occasions on which we find worship attemptedto be offered to the saints, it was promptly and indignantlyrejected. No doubt we are commanded to pray toithand/or one another, as is often pleaded by Papists : but thereis a wide difference between this and praying to the dead. Thevision in the Apocalypsef of the elders with the " vials fullof odours," which are said to be " the prayers of saints,"though often paraded by Homan Catholics as an unanswerableproof, has no bearing upon the point. Commentatorson the Revelations have shown by very conclusive reasonino-s, that the vision has no relation to heaven, but to theChurch on earth ;and Papists must overthrow this interpretationbefore the passage can be of any service to their cause.Right reason and the express declarations of Scripture combinein testifying that God alone is the object of worship,and that we cannot offer prayer or perform an act of adorationto any other being, however exalted, without incurringthe highest criminality. " Thou shalt have no othergods before me."| The reply of our Lord to the tempterseems purposely framed so as to include both latria anddulia. " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Himonly shalt thou serve."§ On the principles of the RomanCatholic Church, it is quite possible for a man to be savedwithout having performed a single act of devotion to Godin his whole life. He has simply to entrust the saints withhis case, who will pray for him, and with better success thanhe himself could obtain. And the tendency, not to say thedesign, of the Romish system is to withdraw our hearts and* Perrone's PrsDlectioues Tlieologiccc, torn. i. p. 1156.•\ Rev. V. 8. X Exod. xx. 3. § Matt. iv. 10,