Wesley Corpus

11.) Again: “If thou shalt bless by the Spirit,” (by the gift of an unknown tongue,) “how shall the unlearned say Amen?” (Verse 16.) How can the people be profited by the Lessons, answer at the Responses, be devout in their Prayers, confess their faith in the Creeds, when they do not understand what is read, prayed, and confessed? It is manifest, then, that the having any part of divine worship in an unknown tongue is as flatly contrary to the word of God as it is to reason. 2. From the manner of worship in the Church of Rome, proceed we to the objects of it. Now, the Romanists worship, besides angels, the Virgin Mary and other saints. They teach that angels, in particular, are to be “worshipped, invoked, and prayed to.” And they have Litanies and other Prayers composed for that purpose. In flat opposition to all this, the words of our Saviour are, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” To evade this, they say, “The worship we give to angels is not the same kind with that which we give to God.” Vain words ! What kind of worship is peculiar to God, if prayer is not? Surely God alone can receive all our prayers, and give what we pray for. We honour the angels, as they are God’s Ministers; but we dare not worship or pray to them; it is what they themselves refuse and abhor. So, when St. John “fell down at the feet of the angel to worship him, he said, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant: Worship God.” (Rev. xix. 10.) 3. The Romanists also worship saints. They pray to them as their intercessors; they confess their sins to them; they offer incense and make vows to them. Yea, they venerate their very images and relics. Now, all this is directly contrary to Scripture. And, First, the worshipping them as intercessors. For, as “there is but one God to us, though there are gods many, and lords many;” so, according to Scripture, there is but one Intercessor or Mediator to us. (1 Cor. viii. 5, 6.) And suppose the angels or saints intercede for us in heaven; yet may we no more worship them, than, because “there are gods many on earth,” we may worship them as we do the true God.