many and lords many. In both cases either imaginary beings are the objects of worship, or imaginary powers and attributes are ascribed to them. In both cases, also, the homage rendered, the blessings sought, the prerogatives attributed to the objects of worship and the affections exercised toward them, involve the as- sumption that they are truly divine. In both cases the hearts of * the people, their confidence and hopes, are turned from the Crea- tor to the creature. There is indeed, however, this great differ- ence between the two cases. The objects of heathen worship were unholy ; the objects of worship in the Church of Rome are regarded as ideals of holiness. This, in one view, makes an im- mense difference. But the idolatry is in either case the same. For idolatry consists in paying creatures the homage due to God.
Mariolatry.
The mother of our Lord is regarded by all Christians as " blessed," as " the most highly favoured of women." No mem- ber of the fallen family of man has had such an honour as she received in being the mother of the Saviour of the world. The reverence due to her as one thus highly favoured of God, and as one whose heart was pierced through with many sorrows, led the way to her being regarded as the ideal of all female grace and excellence, and gradually to her being made the object of divine honours, as the Church lost more and more of its spirituality.
The deification of the Virgin Mary in the Church of Rome was a slow process. The first step was the assertion of her per- petual virginity. This was early taken and generally conceded. The second step was the assertion that the birth, as well as the conception of our Lord, was supernatural. The third was the solemn, authoritative decision by the ecumenical council of Ephesus, A. D. 431, that the Virgin Mary was the " Mother of God." On this decision it may be remarked, (<z.) That it was rendered rather as a vindication of the divinity of Christ, than as an exaltation of the glory of the Blessed Virgin. It had its origin in the Nestorian controversy. Nestorius was accused ot teaching that the Logos only inhabited the man Jesus, whence it was inferred that he held that the person born of the Virgin was simply human. It was to emphasize the assertion that the " person " thus born was truly divine that the orthodox insisted that the Virgin should be called the Mother of God. (5.) There is a sense in which the designation is proper and according to the analogy of Scripture. The Virgin was the Mother of Christ ;