LECTURE THE THIRTEENTH.

INVOCATION OF SAINTS: THEIR RELICS AND IMAGES.

LUKE i. 28.

"And the Angel being come in, said, Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women.'

THE words which I have quoted to you, my brethren, are taken from the Gospel read in the festival of this day ;*—a festival which, as its very name imports, commemorates the great dignity bestowed on the mother of our blessed Redeemer, through a message communicated to her by an angel from God; a festival which stands registered in the calendar of every religious denomination, as a record and a monument of that belief which was once held by the forefathers of all, but which now has become the exclusive property of one, and for which that division of Christians is, more than for any other reason, most frequently and most solemnly condemned. For I am minded, this evening, to treat of that honour and veneration which is paid by the Catholic Church to the Saints of God, and, beyond all others, to her whom we call the Queen of Saints, and venerate as the mother of the God of the Saints. I intend then to lay before you the grounds of our doctrine and practice, in regard to this matter, as also with regard to some others which naturally spring from it.

Nothing, my brethren, seems so congenial to human nature, as to look with veneration and respect on those who have gone before us, holding up to us distinguished examples of any qualities, which we venerate and esteem. Every nation has its heroes and its sages, whose conduct or teaching is proposed to succeeding generations as models for imitation. The human race itself, according to Holy Writ, had, in olden times, its giants, men of renown;-those who made greater strides than *March 25. The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. VOL. II.

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their successors in the paths of distinction, whether in things earthly, or in those of a superior order; men whose fame seems the property of entire humanity, and whose memory it has become a duty, discharged with affection, to cherish and preserve, as a public and common good, at once honourable and cheering to our nature.

But, alas! only in religion is it otherwise the case. It would seem as though many thought that the religion of Christ may be best exalted, by depreciating their glory, who were its highest ornaments;-by decrying their merits, who were the brightest examples of virtue to the world; yea, and even by depressing below the level or standard of ordinary goodness, those great men who, preceding us here below in our belief, not only have left us the most perfect demonstration of its worth, but ensured us its inheritance by their sufferings, by their conduct, or by their writings. It jars most cruelly with all our natural affections, to see how such true heroes of the Church of God are not merely stripped of the extraordinary honours which we are inclined to pay them, but are actually treated with disrespect and contumely: how some should seem to think that the cause of religion can be advanced by representing them as frailer and more liable to sin than others, and ever descant, with a certain sort of gloating pleasure, on their falls and human imperfections.

Nay, it has been even assumed, that the cause of the Son of God was to be promoted, and his mediatorship and honour exalted, by decrying the worth and dignity of her whom he chose to be his mother, and by striving to prove that sometimes he had been undutiful and unkind to her; for it has been asserted, that we ought not to show any affection or reverence for her, on the blasphemous ground that in the exercise of even filial love towards her, our Saviour himself was wanting!* Nor yet, my brethren, is this the worst fea

* It is the reason given by more sermons than one, against our devotion to the Blessed Virgin, that our Saviour treated her harshly, especially on two occasions: John ii. 4; Matt. xii. 48. This is not the place to enter into the argument on these passages, especially the first; for which I hope soon to find a fitting opportunity.

ture of the case; for a graver and most awful charge is laid upon us, in consequence of our belief: we are even denounced as idolators, because we pay a certain reverence, and, if you please, worship, to the Saints of God, and because we honour their outward emblems and representations. Idolators! Know ye, my brethren, the import of this name? That it is the most frightful charge that can be laid to the score of any Christian? For throughout God's Word, the crime of idolatry is spoken of as the most heinous, the most odious, and the most detestable in His eyes, even in an individual; what then if committed in a mass, by millions of men ?

Then, gracious God! what must it be, when flung as an accusation upon those who have been baptized in the name of Christ, who have tasted the sacred gift of his body, and received the Holy Ghost; and of whom, therefore, St. Paul tells us, that it is impossible that they be renewed unto penance; *for this is what St. John calls a sin even unto death, for which men are not to pray !+ Assuredly they know not what they say, who deliberately and directly make this enormous charge; and they have to answer for misrepresentation,-yea, for calumny of the blackest dye,-who hesitate not again and again to repeat, with heartless earnestness and perseverance, this most odious of accusations, without being fully assured-which they cannot be in their consciences, and before God, that it really can be proved.

For, my brethren, what is idolatry? It is the giving to man, or to any thing created, that homage, that adoration, and that worship, which God hath reserved unto himself; and to substantiate such a charge against us, it must be proved that such honour and worship is alienated by us from God, and given to a creature.

Now, what is the Catholic belief on the subject of giving worship or veneration to the Saints or their emblems? Why, it is comprised in a definition exactly contradictory of the one I have just given of idolatry! You will not open a single † 1 John v. 16.

* Heb. vi. 6.