My desire is that all persons should be
made aware of the excesses into which even celebrated teachers have been
tempted to run, when they once admitted the least inroad to be made upon
the integrity of God's worship; and I am anxious also, without offence,
but with all openness, to caution my countrymen against encouraging that
revival of the worship of the Virgin in England, to promote which the
highest authorities in the Church of Rome have lately expressed their
solicitude, intimating, at the same time, their regret that the worship
of the Virgin at the present time has, in England, degenerated from its
exaltation in former ages, and that England is now far behind her
continental neighbours in her worship. Though these excessive departures
from Gospel truth and the primitive worship of one God by one Mediator
may not be the doctrines of all who belong to the Church of Rome, yet
they are the tenets of some of her most {368} celebrated doctors, of men
who were raised to her highest dignities in their lifetime, and solemnly
enrolled by her among the saints of glory after their death. Their words
and their actions are appealed to now in support of similar tenets and
doctrines, though few, in this country at least, are found to put them
forth in all their magnitude and fulness. But even in their mildest and
least startling form these doctrines are awfully dangerous.
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