justly have claimed him as one of her children; but from what follows it is evident that he meant no more, by blotting out Eve's offence, than "that Mary brought forth Him who was to save even his murderers; and that Christ was to come of her for the salvation of men."

I will admit that this conceit of the fathers was exceedingly childish; and the churches were to be pitied whose pastors had forgotten the simplicity of the gospel so far as to amuse them with such reveries. I will even admit, that ascribing so much to Mary's agency, as opposed to Eve's transgression, laid the foundation, and prepared the way for all the idolatrous worship that has since been addressed to her; but none of the fathers whom I have mentioned seem ever to have taken it into their heads that Mary was to be invoked, or worshipped, in any sense whatever.— See a Discourse by Dr. Clagett, in Preservative against Popery, Tit. vi. p. 194.

From this able work it is shown very clearly, that Mary was by no means the first with whom the apostate church began to commit idolatry. Numerous martyrs had the start of her; but when she had once got her name in the list, she soon overtopped them all; and came, in the course of ages, to engross almost all the devotion of the church of Rome, as she does at this day in popish countries. Some, perhaps most of the apostles, and many of the pastors whom they appointed over churches, and many of the successors of these pastors, were honoured to be martyrs for the truth. The memory of such was cherished with peculiar veneration by the Christians who survived them; and perhaps they erred in attaching more respect to the memory of those who were put to death for the truth, than to that of those who were equally laborious and faithful, and who had really suffered more for it during their lives, but who happened to die a natural death. The memory of the just is blessed. It is of little importance to them what death they die; and the churches ought not to apportion the honour with which they remember them according to the manner of their death, but according to the activity of their lives.

What, however, was at first a very natural, and perhaps a very amiable feeling, in reference to those whose blood was shed for the truth, was, through human corruption, made an occasion of very great abuses; and, from venerating the memory of the martyrs, men came by degrees to call upon their names,-to address prayers and supplications to them. Matters came not to this detestable height of idolatry all at once. required ages of darkness to perfect the system, as it appeared in Europe at the time of the reformation, and as it still appears in a great part of what is called Christendom.

It

The first shade of departure from the simplicity of gospel worship that can be traced in ecclesiastical history, (for I speak of this as a matter of history,) was that of Christians meeting for prayer, and other religious exercises, at the graves of martyrs. The thing was perhaps quite harmless in itself; and under the direction of enlightened and spiritually minded men, it may have been profitable to many, as religious exercises may always be, at the burial, or over the graves, of Christian friends. But unless such exercises are conducted by enlightened men, they will almost to a certainty degenerate into superstition. Now there is reason to think that many of the earlier Christians were not very enlightened. They knew the truth by which they were saved; but, when

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we consider their scanty means of acquiring general knowledge, we may conclude that they knew little more than the first principles of Christianity. They had also their Jewish and their heathen prejudices to contend with; and were, in short, in circumstances to become an easy prey to false teachers, whatever name they might assume. It had been a very ancient custom," says the writer above quoted, page 200, "for Christians to meet at the cemeteries, or burying places of the martyrs, and the rest of the faithful, there to celebrate anniversary commemorations of the martyrs. Thus the church of Smyrna having intimated that they had buried the body of St. Polycarp in the usual place, they added, that in that place, God willing, they should assemble together to celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom, with all the joy they could express.' And the reason of this custom, they express in this manner: Both to commemorate those who had already undergone the trial of martyrdom, and to exercise, and to prepare those who were to follow, for the like conflicts.' But they did not meet here to celebrate the memories of the martyrs only, but at other times also for the celebration of divine service."

By and by, the graves of the martyrs came to be considered as places more holy than the ordinary places of worship. Churches were built over them; and, in course of time, he was reckoned the most pious man who should go the greatest length in advancing the glory of the martyrs, and the honour of the holy places built over their tombs, and consecrated to their memory.

If the places where the bodies of martyrs lay were thus believed to be holy, it was easy to believe that any remaining fragment of their bodies must be holier still. Then the graves were opened; the bones of the martyrs were dug up; they were kissed with religious reverence; miraculous powers were ascribed to them; many diseases they were believed to cure,not that the cures were at first ascribed to any virtue in the rotten bones, but to the power of God who thus honoured the relics of his saints;-the sale of these relics became a very lucrative employment to the multitudes of lazy monks who spread over the world; and the saints whose bones they were said to be, became as much objects of religious worship as heroes and demi-gods had been among the heathen. The reader will perceive, that by this time the glory was departed from the churches. ICHABOD was written upon them. All of them had apostatized; but that of Rome began to appear pre-eminent as the leader in the march towards perdition; and, like the serpent into which the rod of Aaron was transformed, she swallowed up almost all the rest.

During a great part of the period to which these remarks refer, the Virgin Mary was of comparatively little account. She was not a martyr, and therefore she was not entitled to that peculiar honour which belonged to the martyrs. But after objects of worship had begun to multiply to an indefinite extent, it was found that the popular devotion, so much divided, was in danger of languishing, for the want of some one individual saint, who should surpass all the rest in dignity, and possess some peculiarity to which no other could lay claim, and in whose favour all voices might be united. Exactly such a one was the Virgin Mary; and as the heathen had their Jupiter, father of gods and men, so the Papists adopted their virgin, queen of heaven, who has

been worshipped most devoutly during the dark ages, and who is declared at this very day, by the organ of our Glasgow Papists, to afford the most powerful intercession, in the sight of God, for obtaining his favour.

As early as the fourth century, it is related by Epiphanius, "that some Arabian women worshipped the Virgin Mary, by laying a cake before her for some days, and offering it up to her, and then eating it among themselves." This was evidently a relic of that idolatrous devotion to the queen of heaven, mentioned by Jeremiah, chap. xliv. 17, and the practice was strongly condemned by Epiphanius, in the following terms:-"Let us put on the spirits of men, and beat down the madness of these women. For who of the prophets ever allowed that a man should be worshipped, much less a woman? Though the virgin be a chosen vessel, she is yet but a woman. The old error shall not reign among us, to leave the living God, and to worship things that he has made for if he will not suffer the angels to be adored, how much less the daughter of Joachim and Ann, who was born to them as other mortals are born, of a father and a mother?" Preservative, &c. as above, p. 213.

The salutation, Ave Maria, which has been for ages reckoned as solemn a part of religious worship as the Lord's prayer, seems to have been quite unknown in the fourth century: and there is not in any genuine record the slightest hint of prayer being addressed to the virgin till long after that period. There are indeed many forgeries in the names of certain fathers, as early as the second century, which speak of Mary in the most fulsome style of adulation; but these forgeries detect themselves, as I showed in my last number. There is credible evidence, that about the end of the fifth, or beginning of the sixth century, the virgin was prayed to; and the innovation is ascribed to one Peter Fullo, a Eutychian heretic, who, according to Nicephorus, a later writer," found out four very profitable things, one of which was, that the holy name of the virgin should be called upon in every prayer." From this time, all that is recorded on the subject tends to show the growing reputation of this idol. The minds of all men were turned towards her. She took precedence of all the martyrs, not excepting the apostles, who were now reckoned to be sufficiently honoured by being allowed to follow in her train. Thus, about the middle of the seventh century, Pope Martin ordained, that "whoever does not honour and adore the blessed virgin, the mother of God, let him be accursed." Soon thereafter, she began to be addressed in such blasphemous titles as these-The queen of the world, the window of heaven, the gate of paradise, the tabernacle of God, the star of the sea, the heavenly ladder, &c. &c. Preservative, &c. pp. 214, 215.

It will reasonably be inquired, how was it possible to get the world, besotted as it was during the dark ages, to consent to such shocking impieties? There was, no doubt, much of judicial infatuation in it. Because they received not the love of the truth, God gave them up to strong delusion to believe a lie; and that the thing should happen in the dark ages is not so wonderful as that the infatuation should continue to this day, in the most enlightened country, and not the least enlightened city, in the world, even in our own city of Glasgow, where a congregation exists, with a priest at their head, out of which a committee was formed for the express purpose of recommending, and giv

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ing circulation to a work, which inculcates the worship of a mere creature, in such extravagant language as this:-" O virgin, in all times mother of God and Christ, offer up on high our prayer, with the elect of thy Son, that our sins may be remitted. Rejoice, O lady, who hast born to us the true light, Jesus Christ our Lord; pray for us to God, that he may have mercy on our souls; pray for us in the sight of the throne of thy Son Jesus Christ. Rejoice, Ŏ immaculate queen, O true mediatrix before our Lord Jesus Christ; we humbly beseech thee, that thou be mindful of us; pray for us, that our iniquities may be blotted out." Cath. Vind. col. 427.

The virgin came to be distinguished above other saints by a system of sheer lying and imposition; and yet it was such lying as scarcely to have the merit of originality or invention; for there was not much original invention in it. It consisted chiefly in the application to her, or more properly speaking, the misapplication of what is prophesied, and of what is recorded concerning Christ. I have before me a long narrative of what was thus attributed to her, such as her birth being foretold, its being announced by angels, her being presented in the temple, &c. all which is borrowed, or rather stolen, from what is related of our Saviour himself. Without going into the details of each particular, I shall content myself with giving a summary of about twenty articles, by which the virgin was said to be distinguished from all other saints: I. She was not only elected by God, but pre-elected before all others, Cant. vi. 8, 9. 2. That she was promised by Heaven to the fathers. 3. That she sprang by the kindness of God from barren parents, (of which a long and ludicrous history is given by monkish writers.) 4. That she only, of all the children of Adam, that descended from him by the ordinary way of propagation, was free from original sin. 5. That in the very beginning of her immaculate conception, she was so confirmed in grace, that ever after she was without stain of actual, though but venial sin. 6. That the fomes peccati was extinct in her. 7. That in her very conception she had the use of reason, and made a vow of virginity to God; from which instant also she began to merit, and that the merit of her works was never interrupted, no not so much as in her sleep. 8. That in the same conception of hers she was adorned with all the theological virtues. 9. That at the age of three years she was in the temple, according to her parents' vow, consecrated to God, and there most holily educated. 10. That this blessed person among women escaped all that curse, to which mankind, by reason of Adam's sin, was obnoxious. 11. That she alone did not undergo the irksomeness to which other women with child are subject. 12. That by a virgin birth she brought forth God without pain. 13. That the Lord's body exhibited in the eucharist, is formed of her blood. 14. That she, in a singular manner, did many ways co-operate to our salvation. 15. That the fruit of Christ's passion was, in a singular manner, communicated to her. 16. That she was the instructer and mistress of the apostles and teachers. 17. That her body did not see corruption, but was taken up into heaven. 18. That her presence brought a great deal of accidental joy to the blessed in heaven. 19. That she is queen of heaven, and lady of all the angels and saints. 20. That she is the common advocate of sin ners, the mother of mercy, the mediatrix to intercede for them; and that she is also the mother of the living, and promotes the salvation of all

men. 21. That she is so formidable and terrible to the devils, that they presently fly away at the mention of her name, and much more at her command; and that she hath powerfully broken their head. 22. That all the graces and privileges that are dispersed among other saints, are found united in her, after a far more perfect manner. Maria Thronus Dei, chap. xx. pp. 252, 253, as quoted from Spinellus, by Bishop Patrick, in his discourse on "the Virgin Mary misrepresented." I have used the freedom of abridging some of the articles which are indecently minute. The bishop tells us that one Paul Comitolus reckons up one hundred and thirty privileges peculiar to the virgin.

I have the pleasure of informing my readers that the Report of the Jury Trial is now in a considerable state of forwardness; but from its great length it will yet be some weeks ere it can be published. The manuscript, so far as I have received it, which is to the extent of above two hundred pages, is very minute as to the words of counsel in pleading, and the examination of the pursuer's witnesses. But I have to regret that from the excessive fatigue of constant writing for eleven hours, together with the suffocating heat of the place, the shorthand writer was taken ill, and obliged to retire at nine o'clock in the evening. I am thereby deprived of the advantage of his readiness and accuracy, with regard to the evidence in defence; the pursuer will be deprived of the advantage which his cause would derive from a detailed report of Mr. Jeffrey's eloquent speech; and both parties will lose the benefit of the lord chief commissioner's very impartial summing up. Of these there is a short report in some of the newspapers; but the business of many hours being huddled into a few paragraphs, which may be read in five minutes, it is impossible from this to obtain a correct view of the subject. The speech of Mr. Jeffrey alone occupied about two hours; and from his amazing rapidity, I suppose, it must have contained fifty thousand words, many of them entirely new and curiously compounded. I wish it were possible to recover them all, or even a tithe of them; and I hereby intimate, that if any of the gentlemen who were present, and took notes, will furnish me with a correct report, I shall cheerfully allow a handsome remuneration for his trouble, provided I receive it by the first of September. I am the more anxious to obtain this, from the consideration that my stick-at-nothing opponents will tell the world that I have purposely suppressed a speech that bore so hard upon myself. The speech of Mr. Cockburn, however, was much weightier; it will fill a space equal to about five numbers of The Protestant; and those who shall read it will not suppose that I would suppress the other if I had it.

CHAPTER CLXII.

THE AGE, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION, OF THE VIRGIN MARY, ACCORDING TO POPISH WRITERS. THE GROSS IDOLATRY OF POPERY. INFERENCE CONCERNING THE STATE OF MORALS IN THE ROMISH CHURCH. SINGULAR STORY OF THE VIRGIN AND A WICKED FRIAR. VINDICATOR'S DEFENCE OF THE ADORATION OF MARY.

SATURDAY, August 18th, 1821.

If I were to insert all that has been written upon the privileges of the Virgin Mary, enumerated in my last, it would occupy a large portion