[In the last Review we gave an article on the Decalogue from the Wesleyan. The writer gives articles on each of the commandments in that paper which are, with a very few exceptions, excellent. But our space will not allow us to copy them entire. We give the following extract from the article on the second commandment, and much of the article on the fourth commandment.—Ed.]
“It is a significant fact that the Roman Catholic Church has left out of all her catechisms this commandment. They profess indeed to give ten, but do so by making two out of one of the others. This is readily accounted for in the fact that Popery in all its essential doctrines is a system of the basest idolatry, and in its arrogant presumption claims the right to pervert, alter or expunge the truth of God.187
How early in the history of the world idol worship began to be practiced, or how it was introduced, we have now no means of knowing. The natural heart in its state of alienation from God soon became captivated by objects of sense rather than faith, and gave the supremacy to the susceptibilities rather than reason, and man lost all knowledge of the worship of the Almighty. With that loss arose the demand for something to fill the void thus created. If God be not worshiped, some other object will receive the homage of the heart of man. The idea generally prevalent that the most grand and useful objects as the sun, moon, stars, and such like, were among the first to engross the religious attention of men is doubtless correct. After these, most probably, the spirits of the departed dead regarded as sacred and objects of reverence were esteemed to be gods, then followed the worship of idols, formed by men's hands. Job xxxi, 26, 28, has a reference to the worship of the heavenly bodies, showing that in his day the practice must have been common. Hesiod informs us that early in the history of the world demons or departed men who were supposed to inhabit the middle regions between earth and heaven, amounted to more than thirty thousand, all of which were regarded as objects of worship. Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, on the authority of God, passed sentence of death upon those who consulted departed spirits. And John the Revelator, (ix, 20,) notes it as one of those fearful iniquities which brought the swift judgments of God upon men. What first led men to the practice of the worship of demons we are not informed, but it is not improbable that it was a state of mind somewhat similar to that into which those now denominated spiritualists, are brought. From the act of consulting spirits to obtain knowledge of the spirit world the distance is not great to the act of worshiping them.
The violation of the second commandment is a sin probably much more prevalent and of much greater magnitude than will seem at first thought. The entire pagan world which is more than three-fourths of the inhabitants of the globe; the Romish church dominant throughout the greater part of Europe and powerful in the remaining portions of Europe and America; and all those of the Protestant world who pervert the truth of the Bible—in reference to God's character and attributes are idolaters. A large proportion of the remainder worship and serve the creature more than the Creator; still other thousands bow at the shrine of Mammon and the vain pleasures and honors of the world captivate the hearts of very many more so that the number of the human family who are worshipers of the true God, is exceedingly small, and but a remnant can be saved.
“Beside worship paid to saints and angels, relics, images, &c., this church authorizes that worship be paid to the virgin Mary and to the Pope. Dr. Cumming, of England, makes mention of a book called the ‘Psalter of the blessed St. Bonaventura,’ in which Bonaventura brings out most fully and practically the decree of the Council of Nice to render worship to the virgin Mary. To do so he took the Psalms of David, and wherever in any Psalm the word Lord or God occurred he expunged it and substituted for it the name of the Virgin. An extract from that reads as follows: ‘Take the 19th Psalm. The heavens declare the glory of Mary and the perfume of thine ointment is diffused among the nations. Pant after her ye lost sinners and she shall lead thee to the haven of indulgences. Let the heaven of heavens praise her and let all the earth glorify her name.’ Again in the 95th Psalm. ‘O come let us sing unto our lady, let us heartily rejoice in Mary the Queen of our salvation,’ &c., to the end. This is not an obsolete work, confined to the dark ages, and discarded by the church. A collect of the church used every year, containing a prayer that the worshipers may be instructed in the doctrine of the blessed St. Bonaventura. Beside this Dr. Cumming states that he had procured ten successive editions of this Psalter, one dated 1836 and one dated 1844.
Again. A creed was set forth in 1838 to be subscribed by Hungarian converts from Protestantism to Popery, the fifth article of which reads, ‘We confess that the most holy Pontiff ought to be honored by all, with divine honor, with more than even what is due to Christ himself.’ And the 11th article is, ‘We confess the Pope has power of altering Scripture, or increasing or diminishing it at his will.’ This is not what Popery used to be but what it now is in the 19th century.
The same author above referred to says, that in the year 1839, Lignori, a Roman Catholic theological writer was canonized after twenty different examinations of his writings, in all of which they were pronounced faultless. Four (4) Popes declared them absolutely perfect, hence, his doctrines are of the highest authority. This author teaches as follows: On the fourth commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day, &c., the Pope can decree that the observance of the Sabbath shall continue only a few hours. On the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ Lignori says, ‘Those who are confined in prisons may slay themselves, or commit suicide for the purpose of avoiding the certain sentence of death.’ On the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ he says, ‘A servant can according to his own judgment compensate himself for his labors if he thinks that he deserves more wages than he has received.’ Thus the Papal power annuls the commandments of God setting itself above God, and pronouncing that to be void which God has declared to be eternal and unchangeable.”