imple reverence and the use
of the image merely to render conception more vivid, and feeling more
intense, change into definite idolatry by the attribution of Power to
the image itself, is so difficultly determinable that we cannot be too
cautions in asserting that such a change has actually taken place in the
case of any individual. Even when it is definite and certain, we shall
oftener find it the consequence of dulness of intellect than of real
alienation of heart from God; and I have no manner of doubt that half of
the poor and untaught Christians who are this day lying prostrate before
crucifixes, Bambinos, and Volto Santos, are finding more acceptance with
God, than many Protestants who idolize nothing but their own opinions or
their own interests. I believe that those who have worshipped the thorns
of Christ's crown will be found at last to have been holier and wiser
than those who worship the thorns of the world's service, and that to
adore the nails of the cross is a less sin than to adore the hammer of
the workman.

But, on the other hand, though the idolatry of the lower orders in the
Romish Church may thus be frequently excusable, the ordinary subterfuges
by which it is defended are not so. It may be extenuated, but cannot be
denied; and the attribution of power to the image,[163] in which it
consists, is not merely a form of popular feeling, but a tenet of
priestly instruction, and may be proved, over and over again, from any
book of the Romish Church services. Take for instance the following
prayer, which occurs continually at the close of the service of the Holy
Cross:

"Saincte vraye Croye aouree,
Qui du corps Dieu fu aournee
Et de sa sueur arrousee,
Et de son sanc enluminee,
Par ta vertu, par ta puissance,
Defent mon corps de meschance,
Et montroie moy par ton playsir
Que vray confes puisse mourir."

"Oh holy, true, and golden Cross, which wast adorned with God's body,
and watered with His sweat, and illuminated with His blood, by thy
healing virtue and thy power, defend my body from mischance; and by
thy good pleasure, let me make a good confession when I die."

There can be no possible defence imagined for the mere terms in which
this prayer and other such are couched: yet it is always to be
remembered, that in many cases they are rather poetical effusions than
serious prayers; the utterances of imaginative enthusiasm, rather than
of reasonable conviction;