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

work of his own hand

nestly by God's word ? Let such as so fall down before
images of saints, know and confess that they exhibit that ho-
nour to stocks and stone,,, which the saints themselves,
Peter; Paul, and Barnabas, would not to be given xo
them heino• aliva which the ancrei of Gntl fnrhirideth to

be giventobirn

And it they s.

hey exhibit

not to the image, but to the saint whom it r
they are convicted of folly, to believe that they y

with, that honour, which they abhor as a spoil of God's ho-
nour; for they be no changelings; but now both having
greater understanding, and more fervent love to God, do
more abhor to deprive him of his due honour : and being
now like unto the angels of God, do with angels flee to take

unto them by sacrilege the honour due to Cod : and here-
withal is confuted their lewd distinction of Latria and Balla ;
where it is evident, that the saints of God cannot abide,
that as much as any outward worshipping be done or exhi-
bited to them. But Satan, God's enemy, desiring to rob
God of his honour, desireth exceedingly that such honour
might be given to him. Wherefore those which give the
honour due to the Creator, to any creature, do service 'ac-
ceptable to no saints, who be th., friends of God, but unto
Satan, God's and man's mortal and sworn enemy. And to
attribute such desire of divine honour to saints, is to blot
them with a most odious and devilish ignominy and villany,
and indeed of saints to make them Satans and very devils,
whose property is to challenge to themselves the honour
which is due to God only."

Mark, I pray you, the spirit with which our Protestant fore-
fathers spoke upon the subject. Mark the energy of this
Homily. There is not an atom of milk and water speaking;
but it is a bold, plain, straight-forward denunciation of Popery.
It goes on thus—

What meaneth it that they, after the example of the
Gentile idolaters, burn incense, offer up gold to images, hang
up crutches, chains and ships, legs, arms, and whole men and
women of wax, before images, as thOugh by them, or saints
(as they say) they were delivered from lameness, sickness,
captivity, or shipwreck "
This is what the

_ are continually doing. Let me give you
one passage more from this admirable Homily. Here is a
reference to an old doctor of the church, who desired Chris-
tians not to attend to these images when they were first in-
troduced, St. Chrysostom—

" Do not regard the ashes of the saints' bodies, nor the
relics of their flesh and bones, consumed with time : but open
the eyes of the faith and behold them clothed with heavenly
virtue, and the grace of the Holy Ghost, and shining with
the brightness of the heavenly light."
But, adds the preacher of the Homily—

" Our, idolaters found too much vantage of relics and relic-
water, to follow St. Chrysostom's counsel. And because re•
lics were so gainful, few places were there but they bad relics
provided for them. And for more plenty of relics, some one
saint had many heads, one in one place, and another in ano-
ther place. Some had six arms and twenty-six fingers. And
where our Lord bare his cross alone, if all the pieces of the
relics thereof were gathered together, the greatest ship in
England would scarcely bear them."
How many ships would it take to carry them now, if three
hundred years ago they were so many, Archbishop Cranmer
being witness, that the greatest ship in England could scarcely
bear them? (Hear, hear.) But there is more here—
" And yet the greatest part of it, they say, doth yet re-
main in the hand -

their beads bidding, that they 'may- get it also into their
hands, for such godly use and purpose. And not only the
bones of the saints, but every thing appertaining to them
was a holy,relic. In some places they offered a sword, in
some the scabbard, in some a shoe, in some a saddle that
had bee❑ set upon some holy horse, in some the coals
wherewith St. Laurence was roasted, in some places the tail
of the ass which our Lord Jesus Christ sat on, to be kissed
and offered unto for a relic. For rather than they would
lack a relic, they would offer you a horse-bone, instead of a
virgin's arm, or the tail of the ass to be kissed and offered
unto for relics. 0 wicked, impudent, and most shameless
men, the devisers .of these things ! 0 silly, foolish, and
dastardly claws."

I protest I am reading from the Homily. This is not the
hasty, ill-advised, and angry language of a bigot : it is the
language of a real pretesting Church of England Homily.
sound and stedfast, and they cannot find fault with it. They
may find fault with me, but they sill not find fault with the
Homily—

" 0 silly, foolish, and dastardly daws, and more beastly
than the ass whose tail they kissed."
Now listen to how this terminates. This is not mere railing
in anger against them : it is holy indignation against their
And see how it ends, It ends thus—