crees, and formularies. And unhappily of that
which directly contravenes the Gospel-rule and primitive practice, far
more than enough is found in her authorized rituals to compel all who
hold to the Gospel and the integrity of primitive times, to withdraw
their assent and consent from her worship. But with this principle
before us, surely common justice and common prudence require that we
should see for ourselves the practical workings of the system. "By their
fruits ye shall know them," is a principle no less sanctioned by the
Gospel than suggested by common sense and experience And, indeed, the
shocking lengths to which priests, bishops, cardinals, and canonized
persons have gone in this particular of the worship of the Virgin, might
well {348} cause every upright and enlightened Roman Catholic to look
anxiously to the foundation; to determine honestly, though with tender
caution and pious care, for himself, whether the corruption be not in
the well-head, whether the stream do not flow impregnated with the
poison from the very fountain itself; whether the prayers authorized and
directed by the Church of Rome to be offered to the Virgin be not in
themselves at variance with the first principles of the Gospel--Faith in
one God, the giver of every good, and in one Mediator and Intercessor
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, whose blood cleanseth from
all sin: in a word, to see whether all the aberrations of her children
in this department of religious duty have not their prototype in the
laws and ordinances, the rules and injunctions, the example and practice
of their mother herself.

Indeed I am compelled here to say, that, however revolting to us as
believers in Jesus, and as worshippers of the one true God, are those
extravagant excesses into which the votaries of the Virgin Mary have
run, I have found few of their most unequivocal ascriptions of divine
worship to her, for a justification of which they cannot with reason
appeal to the authorized ritual of the Church of Rome.

In leaving this point of our inquiry, I would suggest two
considerations: 1st, If it was intended that the invocation of the
Virgin should be exclusively confined to requests, praying her to pray
and intercede by prayer for the petitioners, why should language be
addressed to her which in its plain, obvious, grammatical, and common
sense interpretation conveys the form of direct prayers to her for
benefits believed to be at her disposal?