Is It Honest? [pp. 239-255]

Is it Honest?
others: i. What sort of honors do the
heathen pay to images? 2. What sort of
honors do Roman Catholics pay to them?
When we have got answers to these two, we
can compare them, and shall be able to say
whether they are the same."
We respectfully submit that neith er of these questions need be asked;
for so far as pertinent, both are an swered in the tract itself. The ac cusation against Catholics which the
tract implies cannot be honestly
made, is that we pay divzine worship
to images and pictures, as the heathen
do; what the tract then denies is
that Catholics pay divine worship to
images and pictures; and what it asserts is, that the heathen do pay them
divine worship; but this assertion is
simply illustrative, and should it be
found inexact, it would not affect the
formal denial that the worship Catholics pay them is divine. As to what
sort of worship Catholics do render to
images and pictures, the answer in the
tract is explicit, that it is a "certain tribute of veneration paid them in honor
of their original. The worship is not
divine worship, and the honor paid is
not paid to them for any virtue in
them, but is referred solely to their
originals." The catechism puts this
clearly enough. " Q. And is it allowable to honor relics, crucixes, and
holy pictures? A. Yes; with an inferior and relative honor, as they relate to Christ and his saints, and are
the memorials of them. Q. lfay
we then pray to relics and images?
A. No; by no means, for they have
no life or sense to hear or help us."
The preacher labors to show that
this inferior and relative honor is
precisely what the heathen pay to the
images of their gods; but this, if
true, would not prove that we do, but
that the heathen do not, pay divine
honors to images. He cites various
authorities, Christian and heathen, to
prove that it is not the brass and
gold and silver, when fashioned into
a statue, that the heathen worship,
but that through the statue or image
they worship the invisible gods; that
is, they worship the image as the
visible representation of the invisible
divinity. This is, no doubt, in some
respects, the actual fact; nobody pre tends that they worship precisely the
material statue, but the numen or
god, the prayers, invocations, incan tations, and the other ceremonies of
the consecration of the statue by the
priests compelled to enter the statue
and take up his abode in it. But to
this image, which for them contains
the god, the heathen offer sacrifices
and other acts of worship which are
due to God alone, which makes all
the difference in the world, though we
have no doubt that the type copied,
perverted, corrupted, and travestied
in heathen worship is the Catholic
type; as all heathenism is a corruption, perversion, or travesty of the
true religion, or as Protestantism is
a corruption, perversion, or travesty
of the Catholic Church.
The heathen images and pictures
represent no absent reality, and are
not memorials of an absent truth,
like our sacred images and pictures
and the heathen, then, can honor
only the material substance or the
supposed indwelling numen or tlamon. The gods they are supposed to
bring nigh, represent, or render visible, are either purely imaginary, or
evil spirits; hence the Scripture tells
us that "all the gods of the heathen
are devils." And finally, to these
idols, which are nothing but wood
and stone, brass and silver, or gold,
which represent, if anything, demons
or devils, the heathen pay divin.e
honors; while we simply honor and
respect images and pictures of our
Lord and his saints for the sake of
the originals, or the worth to which
they are related. Here is a differ
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