(9.) Hail Mary, lady and mistress of the world, to whom all power has been given both in heaven and in earth! [49b]
II. After this ample statement of the doctrine and practice of the Roman Church, it will be useful for us to observe, both negatively what the Bible does not say, and positively what the Bible does say, on the subject now before us.
1. In the first place, then, so far as respects the negative part of the question, the Bible is TOTALLY SILENT, as to the Trent-inculcated duty, of invoking Saints, venerating Relics, and kissing and uncovering the head and falling prostrate before Images either in nitches or upon crucifixes.
It NO WHERE recognises or recommends any such practices and notions: as those, of invoking dead Saints, to aid us by their prayers, or to grant us purity of life, or to unloose the bands of the guilty, or to make us mild and chaste, or to defend us in life, or to assist us in the hour of death; of celebrating their memories, for the avowed purpose of obtaining their help and protection; of much benefit being derived, from God to man by the veneration of Relics; of worshipping Christ and venerating the Saints, through the medium of worship and veneration paid relatively to Images; of beseeching the cross, a mere dumb piece of wood even if any of its remains should now be actually in existence, to increase righteousness to the pious and to grant pardon to the guilty.
From beginning to end, NOT A SYLLABLE of sanction or approbation, in regard to any such phantasies can we discover in the Holy Scriptures.
Hence, even to say the very least of the matter, the doctrine, avowedly taught and liturgically introduced by the Church of Rome, has not the slightest support or warrant from the Written Word of God. Whatever be the ground, upon which it rests: at all events, it clearly rests not upon the Bible.
3. But this is not all. For, in the second place, so far as respects the positive part of the question, Holy Scripture is full and express AGAINST any worship or invocation of the creature, however disguised or modified or palliated by the closely harmonizing distinctions and definitions of Paganism and Popery: inasmuch as the Pagans, though slanderously misrepresented by the doctors of the Council of Trent, did in truth defend their Idol-worship against the primitive Christians, on the self-same plea and principle of relative adoration, as the said doctors themselves and their followers the Romish Clergy defend their Image-worship against us Reformed Catholics. [50]
(1.) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven. above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. [51a]
(2.) Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman. [51b]
(3.) They, that make a graven image, are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit: and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. [51c]