Indeed I am compelled here to say, that, however revolting to us as
believers in Jesus, and as worshippers of the one true God, are those
extravagant excesses into which the votaries of the Virgin Mary have
run, I have found few of their most unequivocal ascriptions of divine
worship to her, for a justification of which they cannot with reason
appeal to the authorized ritual of the Church of Rome.
In leaving this point of our inquiry, I would suggest two
considerations: 1st, If it was intended that the invocation of the
Virgin should be exclusively confined to requests, praying her to pray
and intercede by prayer for the petitioners, why should language be
addressed to her which in its plain, obvious, grammatical, and common
sense interpretation conveys the form of direct prayers to her for
benefits believed to be at her disposal? And, 2ndly, If the Church had
{349} intended that her members, when they suppliantly invoked the
Virgin Mary, and had recourse to her aid, should have offered to her
direct and immediate prayers that she would grant temporal and spiritual
benefits, to be dispensed at her own will, and by her own authority and
power, in that case, what words could the Church have put into the mouth
of the petitioners which would more explicitly and unequivocally have
conveyed that idea?
* * * * *
SECTION II.
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