that "your redemption draweth nigh?" "Blessed is he," it is added, "who keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." Such keep them in their memory; sanctified by the Spirit of God, it becomes the storehouse of divine truths, the safeguard of precious sayings. They keep them also in their hearts. "I have hid thy word in my heart, that I offend not thee." They keep them, too, as a precious treasure, as "apples of gold in network of silver," defending them against all who would rob them of that which is to them more precious than gold. These are blessed in their souls. Peace is within them, and hope before them; and the blessing that maketh rich upon all they touch. They are blessed in their trials, for all things work together for good to them; and "their light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for them a far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory; while they look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen." They are blessed in their mercies, for God himself has promised, "I will bless thy bread." They are blessed in their labour, for it is promised, "Thou shalt eat of the fruit of thy labour." The blessing is on them in time of trouble, for they possess their souls in patience, and are kept from despair. It rests upon them also in the more perilous times of prosperity, for they are kept from presumption and forgetting God. Deut. xxviii. 1-15 is all realized in their experience. "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy store

houses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto: and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasures, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and to do them: and thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee." May this be our blessing also!

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LECTURE XIX.

ROMISH WORSHIP.

"And I John saw all these things, and heard them; and when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book."-Revelation xxii. 8, 9.

So.

THIS angel must have been clothed with unearthly glory. The beams and coruscations which radiated from him so dazzled and bewildered the seer, that he concluded it was the same being who appeared in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, our High-Priest and Saviour, and accordingly fell down to worship him. It is evident he did not give the adoration, but it is just as evident that he intended to do so. Some think that this, like many other acts recorded in the Apocalypse, was purely symbolic, and that John personated another on this occasion. It may be We have an instance of this in Rev. x. 4: "I was about to write, and he said unto me, Write them not;" in which scene, as I have shown in previous lectures, John represented Luther at the era of the Reformation. So in Acts x. 9-15, we find Peter used to personate the Jew: "Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, and he became very hungry and would have eaten; but while they made ready he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet, knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him-Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that

call not thou common." But in whatever light we may regard this scene in the Apocalyptic drama, we gather this conclusion, that it is unlawful to give religious worship to saint or angel, or any other creature in heaven or earth, however exalted; and that the Church of Rome sins grievously, if not fatally, in giving it.

The Council of Trent has come to a conclusion opposite to that of Scripture; for it has decided that "it is good and useful to invoke in prayer the saints reigning with Christ, and to have recourse to their prayers and aid:" a decision which is repeated in the creed of Pope Pius IV., and carried out in all its details in the practical worship of the Roman Catholic communion. If praying to saints or angels be so useful as the Council of Trent alleges, it is, to say the very least, exceedingly strange that the apostles never discovered it, and that the Old and New Testament give nothing like a hint either on the usefulness, the principle, or the expediency of it. Roman Catholics, however, allege that Scripture sanctions this practice. Let us weigh with respect and candour the evidences which they quote. Luke xv. 10 is a favourite appeal: "Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." But this does not, surely, prove that angels hear us when we pray; or, if they know what is transacted upon earth, it does not prove that they acquire such knowledge directly by the inherent excellency of their nature. On the contrary, a comprehensive view of the language of our Lord in this beautiful chapter proves the fact to be just the reverse of that which the Romanist assumes. The shepherd tells his friends and neighbours, who are otherwise ignorant, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." The woman "calls her friends and neighbours together, saying," (what was news to them,) "Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost." "Likewise," adds our Lord, that is, after the same manner, God tells the angels that a lost sinner is found, and a hardened sinner repenteth; and they, receiving the intelligence, rejoice.

Rev. v. 8 is also quoted by Romish divines, as evidence confirmatory of the worship of angels: "And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down. before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden

vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." First, let it be observed, that if these be angels, and if it can be proved that they here offer unto God the prayers of his people upon earth, which they address to God, this would not prove that it is lawful for us to pray to them. It is plainly, however, a vision of the church or congregation of the saints in glory, and not of angels; for angels cannot sing the new song which these living ones are declared to sing, "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth." The prayers, in fact, which they offer are their own prayers; they are described as "the prayers of saints," or, literally translated, prayers of holy ones, i. e. of themselves, the holy ones before the Lamb.

Rev. viii. 3 is another alleged evidence of the lawfulness of angel worship: "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." The whole scene, and the imagery with which it is clothed, proves that this angel was the Angel of the Covenant, and not a creature. The imagery is that of Christ, the High-Priest of his people. The high-priest alone had a golden censer, and this would prove that Christ is the personage here referred to. The high-priest alone could officiate at the golden altar, as the angel does here; and the work assigned him, viz. to offer up the prayer of all saints in heaven and earth, is confessedly such as Omnipotence alone can do.

In Heb. i. 14 it is written, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" This proves that angels minister to us, but does not furnish the least evidence that we ought to pray to them. In Ps. xci. 11, it is written, "He shall give his angels charge concerning thee;" but he who is thus guarded does not pray to the angel, but, on the contrary, is represented in verse 15 as praying exclusively to God: "He shall call upon ME, and I will deliver him."

Gen. xlviii. 15 is quoted as a proof that the patriarch sup