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Now it seems I have satisfied him | then it must follow that he was infrom the Fathers that "the seven vested with omnipresence and omnispirits" mean the one Holy Spirit, potence, being able to present the as we read that there are seven prayers of all saints; all the prayers churches to represent the whole of the Virgin; all the prayers of Church. Our Lord is also repre- Peter; all the ten thousand prayers sented with seven eyes, to show his of ten thousand saints, scattered perfect wisdom. The number seven, throughout the whole world, and in fact, is received and recognised existent in every age. Can he have "the symbol of perfection." "been finite to have done this? No; Hence the seven spirits are descrip- he must have been infinite in power tive of the Holy Spirit. These to have presented the prayers of parallel passages most distinctly show-unless I am to reject them, and thus to imitate the example of my learned opponent, who casts Augustine overboard when he of fends him-these passages show that the seven spirits are the Holy Spirit, and not angels or saints before the throne. The next passage be quoted was Apocalypse viii. 3 :

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all saints," from the Fall down to the close of the Gospel history. And therefore the very act in which the angel is engaged before God, at the altar, and with the golden censer, is a fair demonstration to me, that he must be the Angel of the Covenant, the Angel Jehovah, Jesus Christ, "God over all, blessed for

ever.

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Another angel stood before the The next reference made was to altar, having a golden censer, and the words, "There is joy in the there was given to him much in- presence of the angels of God over cense, that he should offer up the one sinner that repenteth." Now, prayers of all saints upon the golden I showed you before that the conaltar which is before the throne of text shows the intimation to have God." (Douay Bible.) Now, said been conveyed to these angels of the he, here is a proof, at once, that salvation and penitence of the sinner. worship is to be given to angels. You will find that it is not stated in Now, observe, in the first place, it the passage, that the moment the is not asserted in the passage, that lost sheep was found, the angels reyou are to pray to this or any other joiced. But it is said it was God angel. But let that go. In the the Father who first rejoiced, and next place, can we show who was afterwards we read of the angels the angel with the golden censer? rejoicing. I therefore contend that This question is solved in the Epistle God the Father rejoices over the to the Hebrews, ix. 24:-"For Jesus restitution of the lost; that God the is not entered into the Holies made Son, when he sees the travail of his with hands, the pattern of the true, soul, is satisfied; and that the Holy but into heaven itself, that he may Spirit is glad when another sinner is appear now in the presence of God added to the company of the blest, for us." The Holiest of all had the and that then the tidings circulate golden censer. (Heb. ix. 4, Douay through heaven, and angels are also version.) Christ is also called "the bidden to rejoice. But it is a most Angel of the Covenant," the Angel extraordinary logic that would infer Jehovah, as I explained again and from this passage a proof of the again, last Tuesday evening. In point under discussion, namely, the the next place, if it be one of the propriety of the invocation or worangels merely that is here mentioned, ship of angels. There is not one

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other remarks and ideas, which exist nowhere on the face of the earth, and in nobody's judgment, except in his own wild fancy, which, like Jerome's, as I read you from Dupin, seems to be rather warmly inclined to " orientalism" and oratory tonight. I shall not, therefore, touch them. In reference to the worship of the Virgin Mary, on which I have already made some remarks, I shall lay before you some scriptural passages most surely rather opposed to it. Luke i. 16:-"My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour." She did not say, I am his "wife," I am "Queen of Heaven," I am the

particle here about the worship of angels. My learned friend next related a chapter of his own transactions. He was pleased to go to a Bible meeting, and to interrupt a dissenting minister at the meeting, who told the audience that "angels rejoiced over the circulation of the Bible." If the orator in question chose to say so, and to perpetrate such an "orientalism," I am surely not to blame for it. Christianity is not answerable for all that men say. Were I the superior of the minister who said so, I would bring him to book. Neither he nor others are my rule of faith; the oracles of the living God alone are binding on me. We next had a disquisition upon Spouse of the Holy Spirit;" but the merits of the Jesuits and other Mary felt her position the loftiest Papal missionaries who had gone to when she became an humble worChina. I could give you startling shipper of Christ, and said, "My facts about these gentlemen, if time soul doth magnify the Lord, and my only permitted. He talks about the spirit rejoiceth in God MY SAVIOUR. priests of the Church of Rome rush- My opponent quoted, with secming ing out by storm and calm, and by triumph, the succeeding passage, in night and day, to the assistance of which it is said, "Henceforth all persons in sickness and disease, and generations shall call me blessed.” that they will attend at any hour Every Protestant in the Church of you wish them to come. I can England reads these words in the solemnly declare, that if word were Prayer-book every Sunday evening; sent me from a dying widow or and every Protestant, when he reads orphan, at any hour of the night or them in the Bible, admits them to day, I would go and pray with and be chaste and just. But then every solace them, whatever the personal Protestant feels that the inference inconvenience, though I must con- my opponent draws from the words fess I cannot promise either of them is most extravagant. He says these a viaticum to heaven. [Laughter.] words, "all generations shall call And I believe there is not a Pro-me blessed," mean, "all generations testant minister before me who are to give me worship," as is exwould not deem it his duty, no less pounded in the "Sacred Heart," than his privilege, to go in similar which my Roman Catholic auditors circumstances, whether he be a can refer to at home. My friend Church-of-England man, or Baptist, complained of my figurative lanor a Wesleyan; for he is unworthy guage. Who is there that now the name of a minister of the Gospel uses oriental licences? Surely it is if he will not go forth when God's the man who says that these words, providence calls him, and when" God's grace may enable him.

Again my friend referred to the ancient liturgies, accompanied with

All generations shall call me blessed," mean, "You shall offer me hyper-doulian adoration," such as is recommended in Liguori. I refer

to Matthew v. 3, and we find there

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insert Jael in her room and niche.

the Bible, though it falls infinitely

others blessed as well as the Virgin. It will be at least a step nearer to Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.short of it. Blessed are they that mourn, for In the next place, to show you they shall be comforted. Blessed how little precedent or encourageare the meek, for they shall inherit ment for worship to be given to the earth. Blessed are they which Mary is to be gathered from the do hunger and thirst after right-statement of our Lord, I will read eousness, for they shall be filled. Luke xi. 27:-"And it came to Blessed are the merciful, for they pass as he spake these things, a shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the certain woman of the company lifted pure in heart, for they shall see up her voice, and said unto him, God. Blessed are the peace-makers, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, for they shall be called the children and the paps which thou hast of God." If my opponent's logic is sucked." But he said, "Yea, rather good, and "blessed" means worthy blessed are they that hear the word of of worship, we find in these words God, and keep it." In other words, reason for falling down and worship-our Lord said to those who, accordping the "peace-makers," them that mourn," or them that are "persecuted for righteousness' sake." But mark the disastrous consequences it necessarily involves. My friend says, “All generations shall call me blessed," means, "all generations shall worship me;" and "blessed art thou among women," proves that she is to have the worship of hyper-doulia. Pray follow me to the book of Judges, v. 23:-" Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty. BLESSED ABOVE WOMEN SHALL JAEL, THE WIFE OF HEBER THE KENITE, BE; blessed shall she be ABOVE women in the tent." Now if Mary being pronounced "blessed among women" implies that Mary is to be worshipped, à fortiori, Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, ought to be worshipped, for "BLESSED shall she be ABOVE women;" and therefore I would recommend the Church of Rome, in these reforming times, in times when all sorts of corruptions may be removed, to remove Mary from the calendar, and, with more consistency and scriptural force,

ing to the Roman Catholic superstition, were inclined to give homage to Mary, "Yea, rather blessed are they who hear the word of God and do it." And, therefore, I pronounce every Protestant in this assembly who hears the word of God and does it, more blessed than the Virgin; I pronounce every Roman Catholic who does so, more blessed than the Virgin; and if more can be said, I should say that "she was more blessed (according to a quotation which I might bring from the fathers) for having believed in Christ, than for having been the mother of Christ." Again, in John ii., at the turning water into wine, I find our Lord saying, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" You observe, this is language as it is recorded, not of disrespect, I admit, but still language which gives not the least foundation for the hyper-doulia given to the Virgin in the Church of Rome. Again; there is a passage in St. Augustine on that very question; but my friend has forbidden me to read the fathers this evening.

Mr. FRENCH.-You can do what you like.

Rev. J. CUMMING.-Augustine

says, "It is written in the Gospel, | and in virtue of his perfect humanity, that when the mother and brethren he lays his left hand on the poorest of Christ, that is, his relations after and most abject of the children of the flesh, were announced to him, men, thereby bringing together and waited without, he answered, earth and heaven, men and God. Who is my mother, and who are He is Job's perfect "Daysman" be my brethren?' and, pointing to his tween God and us. He is so high disciples, he said, "These are my that the loftiest archangel is not brethren; and whosoever shall per- beyond his control, and yet he form the will of my Father, he is comes down so low that the poorest my brother, and mother, and sister.' orphan and the humblest widow may What else did he teach us by this, share in his sympathy and love. but that we should prefer our spiri- Whilst he listens to the archangel's tual to our carnal relationship? MARY song, offering to him the tribute of THEREFORE WAS MORE BLESSED IN adoring homage, let it never be forADOPTING THE FAITH OF CHRIST gotten that he hears the humblest THAN CONCEIVING HIS FLESH; for orphan's prayer. In the natural p when some one said to him, ' Blessed world there are the telescope and is the womb that bare thee,' he the microscope. Now the Roman answered, 'Yea, rather blessed are Catholic Church allows the use of they that hear the word of God, and the telescope, to show you the far keep it.' Thus, also, Mary's maternal distant and mighty works in which relationship would have profited Mary Christ is employed. She withholds nothing, if she had not borne Christ from you the microscope, to enable more blessedly in her heart than in you to see minute things the objects her flesh."-Upon Holy Virginity, of his care, and to see that, amid all ch. iii. Jar. 6, p. 342. his greatness and amid all his glory, That is the testimony of St. he nevertheless condescends to the Augustine; "more blessed in believ-lowliest creature upon earth. Whilst, ing the testimony of Christ than in conceiving his flesh." There is salvation in no other name but that exalted name, the name of Christ Jesus, at which every knee shall bow. And to show you the high privileges with which Christ has invested us, we read:-"Let us therefore come with boldness to a throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help us, in time of need.' "Because ye are the sons of God; God hath sent forth the spirit of adoption into your hearts, saying, Abba, Father." Let me add, in conclusion, that there is no reason in the world why we should have recourse to Mary's mediation cr intercession; for, our Lord being God and man, we contend that, in virtue of his Godhead, he lays his right hand on the throne;

in the natural world, he weaves the gossamer wing of the insect, and adorns the violet with tints of loveliness, he also wields worlds in their orbits. While he listens to the prayers of the afflicted, and the sighs of the widow and the orphan, he also receives the anthem peal of worshipping cherubim. The least and the loftiest are alike under his cognizance. Look by faith at God in NATURE, and you cannot see him, you cannot reach him, he is shrouded in almost impenetrable darkness; look at God in the LAW, and you dare not approach him, he is "a consuming fire;" but look at God in the countenance of Christ, through his mediatorial work, and there you find him Immanuel, God with us. In heaven he "appears for us:" as it is stated in the language of the

body-"

You

Book of Revelations, "I saw a lamb, | spouse is his Church; and therefore as it were newly slain," the marks the wife may go with boldness to of death and crucifixion still being the husband without troubling visible about him. We may, there- saints, and ask for grace to help fore, well say of Christ, what a great her in her time of need. poet makes Antony say of Cæsar, are aware of this, that by the law when he pointed to the wounds that of the country, when a man marries had been inflicted on the emperor's a wife, the husband becomes respon-"Show you sweet Cæsar's sible for all her debts-it is the law wounds, poor dumb mouths." So of the land, that the husband bethose dumb mouths, which Christ comes responsible for all her debts. has borne into his Father's presence, Now let me tell you, my dear have each "a tongue in them," and Roman Catholic friends, that you plead with piercing and prevailing have only to go and take Christ, eloquence for all who come unto by faith, as your spiritual husband, God through him. What can injure your only husband, to whom alone us if Christ be our advocate? Can you will render soul obedience and sin? "His blood cleanses from all worship, and He will be answersin." Can the law? "It is mag-able for all your past, debts; He nified.” Can Satan? He is "bruised will cancel them with his blood; under our feet, and fallen like light-yea, he will nail the hand-writing to ning from heaven." "If God is for the cross: and rest assured, with us, who can be against us?" Who such a husband, "neither death nor can condemn? it is God that justi-life, nor principalities nor powers fieth. Moreover, it is the especial shall be able to separate you from office of Christ to plead for us. It the love of God, which is in Christ is the office of the law to condemn; it is the office of Satan to accuse; but it is the office of Christ to intercede and to plead for us. And, according to the quotation made also by my learned opponent, "Christ is our advocate, not our petitioner." My opponent knows, the office of the advocate is to make clear the law of a case, to make patent all the claims of a case. If Christ is the advocate, whom besides want we? and who can doubt but that every sinner who goes by faith to Christ shall have a verdict of acquittal?

Christ is represented as the husband of his Church. Now what would you think of a wife being so afraid of her husband that she dare not ask for money for domestic purposes, and for her family, unless by the intervention of a neighbour? You would say, This cannot be the husband, or she cannot be the wife. But Christ is the husband, and his

Jesus our Lord." Again; Christ is called "the Head," and we are called "the members." Now if my little finger is injured, the sensation is immediately carried to the brain, and all the members of the body sympathize with it. It is so with Christ the head of the Church, and the members, who are believers. If the weakest and the poorest member suffer, that suffering is carried to heaven, and Christ sympathizes with his suffering member. I might show you many other passages of a similar nature. You have in the Lord Christ Jesus a perfect Mediator, a Mediator acceptable to the Father, a Mediator possessed of infinite and boundless love. And if you wish to know what is the sight of God, you may realize that wish by seeking him in Christ. I will refer you to a passage in Exodus, xxxiv. 6. Moses said unto God, "Show me thy glory;" and