Popery Another Gospel

by Rev John Willison, Dundee

(Continued from page 26)

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed, or be under an anathema.” Gal. 1: 8.

Besides what I have said to prove Popery another gospel, let me add, in the next place.

An Eighth argument. That religion which teacheth men to make graven images, to worship and bow down before them, or directs men to worship any other but the one only living and true God, is another gospel than Christ’s, and falls under the anathema of the text: but Popery is such a religion; therefore, &c.

The holy scriptures teach us, that religious worship is only due to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and to him alone; but not to any creature whatsoever, Exod. 20: 3; Mat. 4: 10; John 5: 23; 2 Cor. 13: 24; Rom. 1: 25. They teach us, that God is not to be worshipped by images, or under any visible representation; nor in the mediation of any other, but of Christ alone, the one Mediator, Exod. 20: 4; Deut. 4: 15; Rom. 1: 23; John 16: 6; 1 Tim. 2: 5; Col. 3: 17.

But the church of Rome, in direct opposition to God’s command, pay religious worship to images, angels, saints’ relics, the cross, Pope, and bread. I shall say a few things of each of them.

1. Of Image-worship. They make images for religious worship, bow down and kneel before them, pray, confess, burn incense to them, &c. And they are so sensible that all this is against the second command, that they leave it out in their catechisms and books of devotion, alleging that the second is only a part or pendicle of the first command; and therefore they call the third command the second, and the fourth the third and so on. And because the people had always heard there were ten commands, they, to blind them, would keep up the number, by splitting the tenth into two: and so with them the ninth commandment is, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house;” and the tenth is, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife,” &c. A poor blind indeed! Our Lord, not only in the second command, but in several other texts, forbids all idolatry and image-worship, and tells us, that God is a Spirit, so he must be worshipped in a spiritual manner, and not by images. The primitive church, for six hundred years after Christ, abhorred image-worship and all appearance of idolatry; and there was nothing of it in the church, until the man of sin brought it in near the end of the seventh century: soon after that, images

of all kinds were introduced, as of the blessed Trinity, of angels, the virgin Mary, apostles, martyrs, saints, &c., all which images men were enjoined by the church of Rome to worship and bow down to. They blasphemously pictured the glorious Trinity: the Father as a reverend old man; the Son as a man on a cross, or as a lamb; and the Holy Ghost as a dove; and these do Papists fall down before, contrary to God’s express prohibitions; see Deut. 4: 15,16. “Take ye good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner of similitude in the day the Lord spake unto you in Horeb: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of any beast,” &c. Since God chose no similitude to appear in, to the people of Israel, they must not presume to make one for him. Why? The making of such images or similitudes is highly disparaging and injurious to an infinitely glorious God: “For this,” saith the Spirit of God, “is to change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image, like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts,” &c, Rom. 1: 23. It is very remarkable how closely the Papists have imitated the Pagans in this matter, and yet are not ashamed.

“But,” say Papists, “the Pagans made images of false gods, and worshipped them.”

Ans. The making and worshipping images of the true God is forbidden, as well as those of false gods. The Israelites did not design the worship of a false god, when they made the golden calf, Exod. 32: 5. Nor did Micah and his mother design it in the graven image they made; Judg. 17: 3, 17; nor did the ten tribes in worshipping the calves of Dan and Bethel: yet God was highly provoked against the worshippers of those images.

Romanists would excuse themselves, by saying, “They do not worship the images; they only worship God, and pray to him before them.”

Ans. The idolatrous Jews had the same excuse for their worshipping before the golden calf, Exod. 32: 5, “Tomorrow is a feast,” said they, “to Jehovah.” But God discharges us to bow down before an image; see 2 Chron. 25: 14.

II. Of Angel-worship. As Papists worship the Trinity by images, so they worship angels and saints before images which they make for them, and all this contrary to God’s repeated commands and threatenings. Yea, God so much abhorreth idolatry, that he is jealous of every thing that hath a tendency to it; therefore he forbiddeth us so much as to set up an image, Deut. 16: 22, “Neither shalt thou set thee up any image, which the Lord thy God hateth.” Yet Papists, in spite of all these prohibitions, set up many images, and commit idolatry with them too, in defiance of the authority of the great and dreadful God. But to screen themselves a little

from the charge of idolatry, they would make a distinction between Latria and Dulia, two Greek words used in scripture for worship. Latria, they say, is the worship they give to God; and Dulia is the worship they give to angels and saints. But it is well known that the vulgar make no distinction between the worship they give to one or other of them, and the learned of them are at a loss to show wherein the difference lies: nay, we see the scriptures make none, for they use the two words promiscuously for the worship due to God, and condemn the giving either Latria or Dulia to creatures. Look to the original language in Gal. 4: 8; Rom. 1: 25.

As for angels, the Papists teach and direct men to worship them, and pray to them, as they undertake the care of our salvation: and as every man, say they, hath a guardian angel, so it is fit that he commit himself more particularly to him. But though we are to honour angels, as they are God’s ministers sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation: yet we dare not worship them, seeing our Lord expressly forbids us to worship any but God, Mat. 4: 10, and condemns angel-worship, Col. 2: 18. We see also, angels, when worship hath been offered to them, reject it with abhorrence, because derogatory to God the only object of worship; which is recorded for our direction, Rev. 19: 10, “See thou do it not; worship God.” Yet, in defiance of all these prohibitions, Papists will have men to worship both angels and saints.

III. Of Saint-worship. They worship saints departed, pray to them, offer incense, make confessions and vows to them; and so fond are they of this worship, that they make many more applications to saints than to God, and have many ave Marias for one pater noster. They even put the Virgin Mary and other saints in Christ’s room, by praying to God to hear them for the merits and intercession of the saints. Also they say mass for the honour and memory of saints, as of the blessed Virgin, the apostles, &c. And the Council of Trent pronounce an anathema against them who blame them for it. What an impious perverting of the Lord’s supper is it, to celebrate that in remembrance of saints, which our Lord instituted in remembrance of himself! Yea, they conclude the service with praying that this their sacrifice of the mass may be accepted and made effectual for the merits and intercession of saints. O horrid blasphemy! to plead that the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood, as they make it, may be accepted and made effectual for the merits of saints! But all this blasphemy is the more easily swallowed by the people, that the service is performed in a language they do not understand.

But to what a blasphemous height do they carry their worship to the Virgin Mary! They call her, in their public litanies and prayers, the mother

of grace and mercy; the queen, the gate of heaven; the refuge and advocate of sinners, &c. And in their prayers to her, they have these words, That by thy intercession and merits, all our works may be directed according to Thine and thy Son’s will; where they put her will before our Saviour’s will: — yea, they use these blasphemous words, By thy authority as a mother, command thy Son; which cannot but fill Christian ears with horror.

“But,” say Papists, we only address saints as intercessors to pray for us.

Ans. 1. Even this is unlawful, seeing we have no command, example, or warrant for such addresses in the bible: but, on the contrary, we are told that God only is the object of worship, and are commanded to call upon God in the day of trouble, not upon saints; when we want wisdom, to ask it of God, and to put our trust in God, and pour out our hearts before him, not before departed saints; see Psal. 50: 15; 62: 8; Jam. 1: 5. It is but a voluntary humility, Col. 2: 18, not required nor accepted of God, to pretend unworthiness to come into his presence, and, as it were, from a sense of this, to go about to employ creatures to be our mediators with God, when God requires us to come immediately to himself. Should a king think fit to command his subjects to come straight to himself with their petitions, and not to any of his courtiers; graciously assuring them that he was delighted with them, always at leisure to hear them, and a thousand times more compassionate than any about him: what would be thought of a man that would despise the king’s command and gracious assurance, and would spend his time in addressing this and the other servant to introduce him to the king? Every one would judge him guilty of great folly, as well as contempt for authority.

1. To choose creatures for our mediators is sinful, because God hath appointed his eternal Son for that office, who is every way fit for it, and infinitely preferable to all others; being one with God: and it must be highly disparaging to this great Mediator, to pass by him, and employs others not authorised for that office. It is in vain for Papists to make a distinction between a mediator of redemption and intercession; for the scripture makes none, but asserts that he is the one Mediator between God and man, who gave himself to be a ransom for us, 1 Tim. 2: 5, 6, and that he only is our intercessor with God, who died and rose again, and sits at the right hand of God, Rom. 8: 34. So that there is no other mediator that hath right to our addresses, but Jesus Christ alone.

“But,” say they, “what more idolatry or sin is there in addressing saints departed, than for one to employ his friend in this life to pray for him?”

Ans. 1. It appears from Popish missals and books of devotion, that

they not only address saints to pray for them, but that they also pray directly to them, to bestow blessings on them both spiritual and temporal.

1. We have both scripture-precepts and examples for addressing living saints to pray for us, but none of these have we for addressing the dead.

2. We know the living hear our requests, but have no ground to think the dead do so, but that they do not, from Isa. 63: 16, “Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledgeth us not.” Nay, we are assured that it is God’s incommunicable prerogative to know the heart, and to know and hear secret prayer, 2 Chron. 6: 30; Mat. 6: 6, and it must be sinful in any to give his glory to another.

3. We do not address the living in such a manner as the Papists do the dead. They kneel, and invoke an absent invisible being, a being in another world, in an adoring posture and disposition, and with the same abstraction of thought as they worship God, and to pray to him: which is nothing like our desiring living saints to pray for us.

4. What else is it but a deifying of creatures for men to worship them, as if they could search their hearts, know their own secret desires, hear the petitions of thousands or millions at one time, who may be thousands of miles distant from one another! Should all the world address one saint at once, as possibly the Popish world may do the Virgin Mary, it would require omniscience or ubiquity in that creature to know and hear all their requests. Which plainly shows us that Papists by their practice make gods of men, and so are guilty of idolatry.

(To be continued)