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PART III.

CHAPTER I.

SECTION I.--THE VIRGIN MARY.


The worship of the blessed Virgin Mary is so highly exalted in the
Church of Rome, as to require the formation of a new name to express its
high character. Neither could the Latin language provide a word which
would give an adequate idea of its excellence, nor could any word
previously employed by the writers in Greek, meet the case
satisfactorily. The newly invented term Hyperdulia, meaning "a service
above others," seems to place the service of the Virgin on a footing
peculiarly its own, as raised above the worship of the saints departed,
and of the angels of God, cherubim and seraphim, with all the hosts of
principalities and powers in heavenly places. The service of the Virgin
Mary thus appears not only to justify, but even to require a separate
and distinct examination in this volume. The general principles,
however, which we have already endeavoured to establish and illustrate
with regard as well to the study of the Holy Scriptures as to the
evidence of primitive antiquity, are equally applicable here; and with
those principles present to our minds, {270} we will endeavour now to
ascertain the truth with regard to the worship of the Virgin as now