good. But when we speak and think of religious
adoration; of giving thanks; and ascribing eternal glory and honour, we
have only one object in our minds,--the supreme Sovereign Lord of all.

With regard to the gracious words of our Saviour in his prayer to the
Father, on the eve of his death, St. Peter's acts and words supply us
with a plain and conclusive comment. He was himself one of those to whom
Christ had declared that He had given the glory which his Father had
given to Him; and yet when Cornelius fell down at his feet to worship
him, he took him up, saying, "Stand up; I myself also am a man." [Acts
x. 26.] The Saviour was pleased to impart his glory to his Apostles,
dividing to them his heavenly gifts severally as He willed. We praise
Him for those graces which shone so brightly in them, and we pray to Him
to enable us by his grace to follow them, as they followed his blessed
steps. We reverence their memory, but we give God alone the praise.

As to the other instance, the words of our Lord (assuring us that the
angels should accompany Him at his second advent in their glory, the
glory which He assigned to them in the order of creation,) no more
authorize us to ascribe praise and glory by a religious act to them,
when we praise the God of angels and men, than would {391} the assurance
of an inspired apostle, that "there is one glory of the sun, another
glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars," sanction us in
joining those luminaries in the same ascription of glory with their
Almighty Creator and ours. Just as reasonably would a pagan justify his
worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars, by this passage of
Scripture, as our Roman Catholic brethren would justify themselves by
the former passage in their ascription of praise and glory to the holy
angels, and saints, and the blessed Virgin. We honour the holy angels,
we praise God for the glory which He has imparted to them, and for the
share which He has been pleased to assign to them in executing his
decrees of mercy in the heavenly work of our salvation; and we pray to
HIM to grant that they may by his appointment succour and defend us on
earth, through Jesus Christ our Lord. But we address no invocation to
them; we ascribe no glory to them as an act of religious worship. By
offering thanks and praise to God He declares that we honour HIM; by
offering thanks and praise, and by ascribing glory and honour to angel,
saint, or virgin, we make them gods.