"by this, that our veneration is not paid to the "wood, but to the figure which reminds us of Him "that was crucified." We will tell them with St. Jerome in the life of Paula: "Prostrate before the

cross, as if she still saw the Saviour suspended "there, she adored." We will say with St. Gregory the Great: "We prostrate, it is true, be"fore the cross, but not as before the divinity." We will say to them with Leontius, bishop of Napoli: "When you see Christians adoring the "cross, know that they pay this adoration to Jesus "crucified, and not to the wood; and that their "adoration is not directed to a cross they plainly " evince, when, having separated the two pieces of "wood of which it is composed, they not only re"frain from adoring it, but even cast the pieces on "the ground or in the fire." We will tell them, in fine, with St. Ambrose : "Helen discovered the 66 cross of our Saviour; she adored Jesus Christ, "and not the wood, which would have been to "imitate the error of the pagans: but she adored "him who had been suspended on this wood."

And yet, as it is incontestable that these same Fathers and many others have spoken of adoring the cross, and as we ourselves call one of the ceremonies of Good-Friday the adoration of the cross, we will reply to you with the Fathers of the second

'Cited in the 2nd Council of Nice, Act. IV. and VII,-2 Disc. on the Death of Theod.

3 Helen acted with wisdom by placing the cross on the crown, "in order that the cross of our Saviour might be adored upon the "the head of kings." St. Ambrose, Ibid.

Flecte genu, signumque crucis venerabile adora,

Lactantius.

council of Nice and all well-informed and candid theologians, that these words adore, adoration and worship, are general expressions, the precise signification of which depends upon the object that is adored; when applied to any of the persons of the Trinity, it denotes our entire dependance, the supreme dominion of God, the worship of latria; but when applied to the saints, their relics or images,

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'I said that the general expressions adore, adoration, worship, are taken in various signification: here are some examples of them, Abraham, as soon as he saw three men standing near him, ran "to meet them from the door of his tent, and adored down to the "ground, (Gen. XVIII. v.2.)"-Lot, when he saw the two angels who went to Sodom, “rose up and went to meet them, and worshiped prostrate to the ground, (Gen. XIX. v. 1.)"-" Abraham adored "the people of the land, (Gen. XXIII. v. 12.)"-"Juda, the sons "of thy fathers shall adore thee, (Gen. XLIX. v. 8.)" It is written that David adored Saul, that Chusi adored Joab, that Achimaas adored the king, that Arrena adored David, that Bethsabee adored David, that Adonias adored Solomon, that the children of the prophets adored Eliseus, falling prostrate on the ground: that the Sunamite fell at his feet and adored him; that all the servants of Assuerus adored Aman, that Mardocheus alone refused to adore him: so far with illustrations from the Bible -Josephus, the historian, (Antiq. B. XIII.) says that the Jews of Samaria and Alexandria adored the temple of Garizim. Gregory of Nazianzum (Dis. XXII.) says that the mother of the Macchabees adored the members of her martyred children. St. Basil exhorts to the adoration of the crib, although he elsewhere says: "It is impossible for me to "adore any thing created." Chronicles and histories (a) mention that Charlemagne was adored as emperor by Leo. II., and that he was adored after the manner in which emperors were usually adored.

From the acknowledgment of the learned of all communions, the word which, in Hebrew and Greek, signifies to adore, when it is applied to God, is the same that is employed to indicate the honour rendered to angels and men, in the passages of Scripture that

(a) "Summus eumdem præsu adoravit." Poet sèx. See His. of the Icono., B. IV. Maimbourg.

the crucifix or cross, to the altar, the sovereigns or their statues, &c., it is there nothing more than a relative veneration, a civil or religious honour. Who are better calculated to pronounce upon the

I have quoted, and in a great number of others that I have omitted. For the translation to be faithful, the word adore, or worship, adorare, should every where have been used, as the vulgate has done. But protestant translators, who were anxious to prevent Catholics from demonstrating by these passages that they were borne out by the Scripture in applying this expression to angels, to men and to venerable things, have substituted in its place the expression to bow down before. In their first versions they had left the word adore, or worship, in two of these passages, where it is said of Miphiboseth and Joab that they adored David (II. Kings, alias II. Samuel, C. IX.) But in the version of 1588, which is followed now, the word has been suppressed. Wherever the word adore or worship is taken in ill part, they have not heeded to change it for example, the angel rejects the honour offered by St. John (Apocal. Ch. XIX.) and they render it by worship; but, when the angels receive and approve of these same honours, they render them by bow down before. It is to be observed however, that in all these passages the word is the same both in Greek and Hebrew. Why is it not the same in the protestant versions ? Is it not plain that their object is to excite the people against the Church, whenever they hear the word applied to creatures? But how pitiful is such a trick! and how desperate must that cause be, which, to preserve its ground amongst the people, is compelled to submit to and adopt so erroneous a version of the sacred text! This remark has been made by an able writer (Desmahis) who, after having been a Calvinist minister, wrote against that communion a work that will never be refuted.

The minister Aubertin, so much esteemed by his own party, has proved at considerable length from some of the examples that I have produced, and from others also, that " the word adore or wor"ship is often employed in the sacred books and the writings of "the Fathers, to express the veneration due to creatures and to "religious and inanimate things; and that it is not exclusively used "to express either civil homage or the adoration due to God."

sense of a general expression than those who employ it? Do they pretend to know better than ourselves what we mean to express ? Is it not strange that they absolutely will have us to adore the wood of the crucifix, whilst we know and incessantly declare that, when we prostrate before it, it is Jesus Christ alone whom we adore ?. We represent him then to our eyes and minds, and behold him in his image, as if he were actually present we fall at his feet, kiss his wounds, and water them with our tears: less favoured than Magdalen and Thomas, for us the scene is all in imagination; we can do no more. Where is the excess in all this? How can our homage and adoration be said to rest upon the sensible matter of the cross, whilst our mind and heart are fixed on Jesus Christ?

Oh! if the Reformers had been desirous of correcting and reforming the real faults of Catholics, why did they not say to them on this matter: "Are "you not ashamed to call yourselves disciples of "Jesus Christ, and with so much levity to abuse "his cross? How comes that precipitation with "which you multiply the sign of it upon your"selves? How comes it that the priests at the

altar during the most august action of their ministry "make it, if they can be said to make it at all, with

a most indecent and scandalous rapidity? In such

hasty and ill formed crosses, in such unmeaning "and quickly repeated movements of the hand, "how are we to discover either intention or form

or figure? People know not, scarcely can you "yourselves know, what you are about. You surely "cannot know the sacred sign that you profane :

you cannot know that it comprises an abridged "profession of your faith, the trinity of persons in

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one God, the incarnation, the sufferings and "death of Jesus Christ, your redemption and that "of the whole world. Is not this sufficient to make you enter into yourselves, to make you more "deliberate in your motions, to inspire you with greater recollection, and caution you to proceed "to the forming of this venerable sign with becom"ing decorum and gravity?" Such are the reproaches they should have addressed to Catholics; reproaches, which unfortunately are even to this day two well merited. Catholics, feeling themselves guilty, must have replied by acknowledging their fault. But to forbid this profession of faith, to abolish a practice as antient as the Church; to forbid Christians to employ the sign which announces Christianity, the sign that fortifies us against temptations and dangers, which is the support of the sick man at the approach of death, of the martyr at the sight of the sword or the faggot; to condemn to the flames the crucifix, the image of our Saviour expiring upon the cross for us; to pull down the cross, the trophy that forms our glory and our hope,' the cross which saved the world, the cross which will judge it when it shall appear more resplendent than the sun; what an inconceivable blindness! what a delirium! Is is possible that Christians should ever have so far outraged the principles of reason and common sense, and the feelings of nature, as to think and to act in a manner which to this day excites our astonishment and consternation!

"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our "Lord Jesus Christ."-Ep. to Galat. C. VI. v. 14.