The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-08 00:00:00

errors spring up ; we grieve to see this semi-popish, if I
should say semi, doctrine of justification insisted upon by
some learned, clever, and laborious minister of the church.
They .have written it, they have preached it, they have per-
severed in it ; they have glossed it over and explained it
away ; they have puzzled their hearers, and I may say with-
out untruth, they have puzzled themselves in the manner
they have treated this subject. But hold to the beginning—
to the first foundation—of your confidence, my Protestant
friends. (Cheers.)
I have to request you not to be impatient at. such an ad-
dress as this. When I said I liked to take all opportunities
of preaching the gospel, both in season and out of season,
you approved of it. I put your patience in this to the test.
Some possibly would prefer more exciting topics—they would
wish lee to touch upon matters which are all in good time ;
but it is more useful to give such instruction as 1 am giving
you now.

I proceed to our third grand Protestant principle. I will
state it first in the language of Scripture, an-4 then I will
read you the article of our church, condemning its opposite.
" God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth."

" See that ye make no graven image to bow down to it,
for ye saw no manner of similitude in the day that the Lord
thy God spake to you in the Mount."
" Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image"
thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them.
" The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, P
Worshipping and Adoration, as well of Images as of P

and also invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented,
and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather re-
pugnant to the Word of God."
You have already heard the word of God it is.repugnant
to ; and you are aware of the practice of the Romish church.
Upon this point we have the singular advantage that the
practice is one that cannot be denied. This is indeed a sin-
gular advantage, for there 'is 'Scarcely ankthing we say about
Romanism that is not denied ; but, observe, it, is not denied
by themselves. You do not find Romish priests coming
forward and denying what we allege. What we allege is
taken from documents to which they have sworn. Some of
them venture to disclaim in a newspaper what. they have
sworn to at their institution to their benefices, but, generally
speaking, their denials come froth their apologists in the liberal
press.. (Hear.) If I were to say they worship images, that
would be denied •, and we should hear before the week is out
of this " most base, unchristian, uncharitable, and bigotted
charge against our atholic fellow-subjects',"being advanced
by that " everlasting bigot, who will not let the town be
quiet at this winter season, but gets his Protestant fellow-
subjects together to abuse their neighbours." (Hear, hear,
hear.) And yet, if I were to say that they worship images,
I might be able to defend the saying ; but I am not going to
say that now. I will, however, tell you what lam going to
say, and it will require a man of a brazen front to deny it—
that,is, that they bow down to images. (Hear, hear.) They
bow down to them. (Cheers.) The Holy 'Spirit in the

Holy Scriptures has put the two things—" Thou shalt not
bow down to them, nor worship them." I hope you will all
teach your children the commandments. I hope you will all
teach your children the creed, the Lord's prayer, the ten
commandments, and the church catechism, set forth for their
instruction in the vulgar tongue. lam glad to mention that.
There has been a neglect of this. Let all your young people
know the catechism—every word of it. Gather them about
the fireside every Saturday night before going to bed—make
them stand up—and examine them upon every question in
the catechism from first to last ; and when they have gone
through it, make them change places and go through it again.
(Cheers.) Let me now call your attention to this—" Thou
shalt not bow down to them." The Romanists have a very

curious scale t

which they graduate the state of m

minds in worship. There is -what we may call low-water
mark-4hat is, the subdulia ; here, higher up, is the dulia ;
and higherup still is the labia. Now the subdulia expresses
a state of mind which it is very proper to give to an image ;
the dulia expresses a state of mind which it is lawful and
right to leave to the Virgin Mary ; and the latria is a state
of mind fit only for God himself. You can imagine a Ro-
manist—John, Thomas, Peter, or any name you please to
give him—in the mass-house, upon his knees—it may be his
bare knees—kneeling before the .If I were to say
" He is worshipping the image," I should he told, " Not
at all; he is only giving the image subdulia." If I were to
say " He is worshipping the Virgin Mary, for he calls upon
her as the Mother of God to have mercy upon him,"
" Pooh !" I should be told, " you are a Protestant bigot :

give any rest worship- of the !atria description except to God
himself." (Hear, hear.) It is hard for any man to get
at the state of another man's, mind, hut it is easy to

see what he is doing with his body;" and in this case the
commandment of God extends to the undeniable attitude
of the body, as well as to the invisible state of the mind.

Who has the hardihood to deny that tt

Popish worshipper

and our God, and the God Of the whole world has said, as
plain as language can say it, " thou shalt not bow down to
them." (Hear, bear.) So that in the outward act, without
any quibbling about the state of mind, the whole body of the
Popish people in this town, in the sister island, and in every
country where Popery has come, are in the outward act of
bowing down, deliberately defying and disobeying the living
God 1 (Loud cheers.)
. I have in my hand now a specimen of the sound Protestant
doctrine put forth for the instruction of your forefathers in
this country at the time of the Reformation or soon after.
I hold in my hand the book of Homilies of the Church of

England, and I will read you in connection with what I have
just said, a specimen of early Protestant preaching upon the
subject of these images :

What meaneth it, that Chri;;tiati men, after
the Gentile idolaters, cap and knee, before image

the use of

which,

if they had any sense and gratitude, would kneel
carpenters, masons, plasterers, founders, and goldsmiths,
their .makurs and framers, by whose means they have attained

,etore men,