208 WOEaHLP OIF Ta n HOST. prove the host of the mass to be au idol ! For they carry it about from place to place to be worshipped, and there is one day in the year set apart for that purpose, namely, Corpus Christi day. And if we may believe history, this host has been likewise taken from the Chris finns and carried away captive by the Mohammedans. Iu the forty-fourth chapter of Isaiah we h?ve the following descrip- tion of an idol: "The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house. He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh: and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his ?'aven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god." The parallel between this and making the host and its worship is very striking. The farmer soweth wheat, it grows, it ripens, is reaped, and is thrashed; it is ground at the mill, it is sifted with a sieve; with a pan thereof the fowls and cattle are fed; another part is taken and baked by the baker, yet it is no god; it is brought forward and laid on the altar, and yet it is no god; the priest handles and crosses it, and yet it is no god; he pronounces over it a few words, when instantly it is the supreme God. He falls down before it and prays to it, saying, "Thou art my God." He lifts it up to th? people, and cries, "Ecce Agnus Dei, qui tollit mundi petters--Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." The whole congregation fall down and worship it, crying, Men culpa, mea culpa, rosa ?m ?ulpa--My fmdt, my fault, my very great fault. How exact the parallel between popish and heathen idolatry ! The following from Minutius Felix, in the year 230, may be pre- sented as furnishing an excellet parallel to the wobahip of the host: "Now would any one be pleased to consider the pains taken and en- gines that areemployed in the formation of images, he would be ashame to stand in such fear of a thing that the hand of the artist had been so long playing upon to make a god. For this wooden god, take, perhaps, out of some old fagot pile, or a piece of some forsaken stump, is hung up, hewn, pinned, &c.; or if it be a god of gold or sil- ver, it is ten to one but it derives its pedigree from a dirty ketfie, as happened with the Egyptian king: it is melted, hammered, and beat on anvils. But ff it happen to be a god of stone, then the mallets and chisels are set to work upon him; but as he is not sensible of any hardships in making, so'neither of your divine honom's when made, unless, perhaps, when you have named it a god, it ceases to be stone, or wood, or silver any longer. But when, pray, does it become divine ? Behold it is cast, fashioned, and filed; well, it is no god yet: behold it is soldered, put together, and set upon its legs; well, it is no god yet: behold it is decked, consecrated, and prayed to; then, the at last, behold a complete god, after man has youthssled to make and dedicate him."* �"Qmxl si iu anitaurn quis inducer, termsntis quibne, et quibus rnachinis cantin mane foramtin', smlxme? timbre as matmiata ab artifice, ut deum fanerot, ilia. 1
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