, and
advocacy. Suppose, for another moment, the Roman Catholic theory to be
correct, then the whole general tenour and drift of Scripture must be
evaded; the clearest statements and announcements must be explained away
by subtle distinctions, gratuitous definitions, and casuistical
refinements, altogether foreign from the broad and simple truths of
Revelation; then, too, in ascertaining the sentiments of an author, not
his general and pervading principles, evidenced throughout his writings,
must be appealed to; but casual and insulated expressions must be
contracted or expanded as may best seem to counteract the impression
made by the testimony of those principles. We may safely ask, Is there
such evidence, that the primitive Church offered invocations to saints
and angels, and the Virgin, as would satisfy us in the case of any
secular dispute with regard to ancient usage? On the contrary, is not
the evidence clear to a moral demonstration, that the offering of such
addresses is an innovation of later days, unknown to the primitive
Christians till after the middle of the fourth century, and never
pronounced to be an article of faith, until the Council of Trent, more
than a thousand years after its first appearance in Christendom, so
decreed it.

The tendency, indeed, of some Roman Catholic writings, especially of
late years, is to draw off our minds on these points from the written
word of God, and the testimony of the earliest Church, and to dwell upon
the possibility, the reasonableness of the doctrines of the Church of
Rome in this respect, their accordance with our natural feelings, and
their charitableness. But in points of such vast moment, in things
concerning the soul's salvation, we can depend with satisfaction and
{396} without misgiving, only on the sure word of promise; nothing short
of God's own pledge of his own eternal truth can assure us, that all is
safe. Such substitution of what may appear to us reasonable, and
agreeable to our natural sentiments, and desirable if true, in place of
the assurances of God's revealed Will, may correspond with the arguments
of a heathen philosopher unacquainted with the truth as it is in Jesus,
but cannot satisfy disciples of Him who brought life and immortality to
light by his Gospel. Such questions as these, "Is there any thing
unreasonable in this? Would not this be a welcome tenet, if true?" well
became the lips of Socrates in his defence before his judges, but are i