^ lLI(;ilLll7 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN WORSHIP THE EVIDENCE HOLY SCRIPTURE AND THE CHURCH, CONCERNING THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS, AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. BY J. ENDELL TYLER, B.D. RECTOR OF ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS, AND LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. Speaking the truth in love. EPH. iv. 15. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 THESS. v. 21. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 1840. LONDON : GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. TO THE ONE HOLY, CATHOLIC, AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH, AS A TRIBUTE OF VENERATION AND LOVE, THIS WORK IS DEDICATED, BY HER DEVOTED SERVANT AND SON. Nov. 25, 1840. A2 PREFACE. MEMBERS of the Church of Rome, and members of the Church of England, have too long entertained towards each other feelings of hostility. Instead of being drawn together as brethren by the cords of that one faith which all Catholics hold dear, their sentiments of sympathy and affection have been absorbed by the abhorrence with which each body has regarded the characteristic tenets of its adversary ; whilst the terms " heretic" on the one side, and " idolater" on the oppo- site, have rendered any attempt to bring about a free and friendly discussion of 'each other's views almost hopeless, Every Christian must wish that such animosities, always ill-becoming the servants and children of the God of love, should cease for ever. Truth indeed must never be sacrificed to secure peace ; nor must we be tempted by the seductiveness of a liberality, falsely so called, to soften down and make light of those differences which keep the Churches of England and Rome asunder. VI PREFACE. But surely the points at issue may be examined with- out exasperation and rancour; and the results of in- quiries carried on with a singleness of mind, in search only for the truth, may be offered on the one side without insult or offence, and should be received and examined without contempt and scorn on the other. The writer of this address is not one in whom early associations would foster sentiments of evil will against members of the Church of Rome; or encourage any feeling, incompatible with regard and kindness, towards the conscientious defenders of her creed. From his boyhood he has lived on terms of friendly intercourse and intimacy with individuals among her laity and of her priesthood. In his theological pursuits, he has often studied her ritual, consulted her commentators, and perused the homilies of her divines ; and, withal, he has mourned over her errors and misdoings, as he would have sighed over the faults of a friend, who, with many good qualities still to endear him, had un- happily swerved from the straight path of rectitude and integrity. In preparing these pages, the author is not conscious of having been influenced by any motive in the least degree inconsistent with sentiments of charity and respect ; at all events, he would hope that no single expression may have escaped from his pen tending to hurt unnecessarily the feelings of any sincere Christian. He has been prompted by a hope that he may perhaps 13 PREFACE. Vll induce some individuals to investigate with candour, and freedom, and with a genuine desire of arriving at the truth, the subjects here discussed; and that whilst some, even of those who may have hitherto acquiesced in erroneous doctrines and practices, may be convinced of their departure from Christian verity ; others, if tempted to desert the straight path of primi- tive worship, may be somewhat strengthened and armed by the views presented to them here, against the cap- tivating allurements of religious error. Whether the present work may, by the divine favour, be made in some degree instrumental in forwarding these results, or in effecting any good, the author pre- sumes not to anticipate ; but he will hope for the best. He believes that the honest pursuit of the truth, under- taken with an humble zeal for God's glory, and in de- pendence on his guidance and light, is often made suc- cessful beyond our own sanguine expectations. With these views the following pages are offered, as the result of an inquiry into the doctrine and practice of the Invocation of Saints and Angels, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To prevent misconception as to the nature of this work, the author would observe, that since the single subject here proposed to be investigated is, " The In- vocation of Saints and Angels and the Blessed Virgin Mary," he has scrupulously avoided the discussion of many important and interesting questions usually con- Vlll PREFACE. sidered to be connected with it. He has not, for ex- ample, discussed the practice of praying for the Dead ; he has investigated no theory relating to the soul's intermediate state between our dissolution and the final judgment; he has canvassed no opinion as to any power in the saints and the faithful departed to succour either by their prayers or by any other offices, those who are still on earth, and on their way to God. From these and such like topics he has abstained, not because he thinks lightly of their importance, nor because his own mind is perplexed by doubts con- cerning them ; but because the introduction of such points would tend to distract the thoughts from the exclusive contemplation of the one distinct question to be investigated. He is also induced to apprise the reader, that in his work, as he originally prepared it, a far widet field, even on the single subject of the present inquiry, was contemplated than this volume now embraces. His intention was to present an historical survey of the doctrine and practice of the invocation of Saints and Angels, and the Virgin, tracing it from the first inti- mation of any thing of the kind through its various progressive stages, till it had reached its widest pre- valence in Christendom. When, however, he had arranged and filled up the results of the inquiries which he made into the sentiments and habits of those later writers of the Church, whose works he considered it necessary to examine with this specific object in view, PREFACE. IX he found that the bulk of the work would be swollen far beyond the limits which he had prescribed to himself; he felt also that the protracted investigation would materially interfere with the solution of that one independent question which he trusts now is kept un- mixed with any other. He has, consequently, in the present address limited the range of his researches on the nature of Primitive Christian Worship, to the writers of the Church Catholic who lived before the Nicene Council, or were members of it. In one department, however, he has been under the necessity of making, to a certain extent, an exception to this rule. Having found no allusion to the doctrine of the Assumption of the Virgin, on which much of the religious worship now paid to her seems to be founded, in any work written before the middle of the fifth century, he has been induced, in his examination of the grounds on which that doctrine professes to be built, to cite authors who flourished subsequently to the Nicene Council. The author would also mention, that although in substance he has prepared this work for the examination of all Christians equally, and trusts that it will be found not less interesting or profitable to the members of his own Church than to any other, yet he has throughout adopted the form of an address to his Roman Catholic countrymen. Such a mode of conveying his sentiments he considered to be less controversial, while the facts and the arguments would remain the same. His object a PREFACE. is not to condemn, but to convince : not to hold up to obloquy those who are in error, but, as far as he may be allowed, to diminish an evil where it already exists, and to check its further prevalence. CONTENTS. PART I. CHAPTER I. PAGE Introduction The duty of examining the grounds of our Faith Principles of conducting that examination Errors to be avoided Proposed plan of the present work 1 CHAPTER II. 1. Evidence of Holy Scripture, how to be ascertained 14 2. Direct Evidence of the Old Testament 17 3. Evidence of the Old Testament, continued 38 4. New Testament . 45 CHAPTER III. J . Evidence of Primitive Writers 61 2. Apostolic Fathers 72 CHAPTER IV. 1 . Evidence of Justin Martyr 100 See also Appendix 403 2. Evidence of Irenseus 115 3. Clement of Alexandria 124 4. Tertullian 127 Methodius 131 5. Origen 133 See also Appendix . 403 6. Supplementary Section on Origen 151 See also Appendix 404 7. Evidence of St. Cyprian 162 See also Appendix 408 8. Lactantius 170 9. Eusebius 171 See also Appendix 406 10. Apostolical Canons and Constitutions "176 11. Evidence of St. Athanasius 179 See also Appendix 411 13 Xll CONTENTS. PART II. CHAPTER I. PACK State of Worship at the time of the Reformation 193 1. " Hours of the Virgin" 194 2. Service of Thomas Becket 201 CHAPTER II. Council of Trent 230 See also Appendix 413 CHAPTER III. Present Worship in the Church of Rome 242 PART III. WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARY. CHAPTER I. 1. Introductory Remarks 271 2. Evidence of Holy Scripture 273 CHAPTER II. Evidence of Primitive Writers 289 CHAPTER III. Assumption of the Virgin Mary 298 CHAPTER IV. Councils of Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon .... 320 CHAPTER V. 1 . Present authorized Worship of the Virgin 332 2. Worship of the Virgin, continued 351 3. Bonaventura 356 4. Biel, Damianus, BernardinusdeBustis,BernardinusSenensis,&c. 369 See also Appendix 414 5. Modern Works of Devotion 382 See also Appendix 414 Conclusion 394 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. PART I. CHAPTER I. THE DUTY OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. FELLOW CHRISTIANS, WHILST I invite you to accompany me in a free and full investigation of one of those tenets and practices which keep asunder the Roman and the Anglican Church, I am conscious in how thankless an undertak- ing I have engaged, and how unwelcome to some is the task in which I call upon you to join. Many among the celebrated doctors of the Roman Church have taught their disciples to acquiesce in a view of their religious obligation widely different from the laborious and delicate office of ascertaining for them- selves the soundness of the principles in which they have been brought up. It has been with many ac- credited teachers a favourite maxim, that individuals will most acceptably fulfil their duty by abstaining 2 DUTY OF [PART i. from active and personal inquiries into the founda- tions of their faith ; and by giving an implicit cre- dence to whatever the Roman Church pronounces to be the truth l . Should this book fall into the hands of any who have adopted that maxim for the rule of their own conduct as believers, its pages will of course afford them no help ; nor can they take any interest in our pursuit, or its results. Whilst, however, I am aware, that until the previous question, (involving the grounds on which the Church of Rome builds her claim to be the sole, exclusive, and infallible teacher of Christians in all the doctrines of religion,) shall have been solved, many members of her body would throw aside, as preposterous, any treatise which pro- fessed to review the soundness of her instructions; I have been at the same time assured, that with many of her communion the case is far otherwise ; and that instead of their being averse to all investigation, a calm, candid, and friendly, but still a free and unre- served inquiry into the disputed articles of their creed, is an object of their sincere desire. On this ground I trust some preliminary reflections upon the duty of proving all things, with a view of holding the more fast 1 It is sometimes curious to observe the language in which the teachers and doctors themselves profess their entire, unlimited, and implicit submission of all their doctrines, even in the most minute particulars, to the judgment and will of the authorities of Rome. Instances are of very frequent occurrence. Thus Joannes de Car- thagena, a very voluminous writer of homilies, closes different parts of his work in these words, " These and all mine I willingly subject to the judgment of the Catholic Roman Church, ready, if there be written any thing in any way in the very least point contrary to her doctrine, to correct, amend, erase, and utterly abolish it." Horn. Cath. De Sacris Arcanis Deiparse et Josephi. Paris, 1615. page 921. CHAP. L] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 3 and sure what is good, may be considered as neither superfluous nor out of place. But just as it would belong to another and a separate province to examine, at such length as its importance demands, the claims of the Church of Rome to be acknowledged as that universal interpreter of the word and will of God, from whose decisions there is no appeal ; so would it evidently be incompatible with the nature of the present address, to dwell in any way corresponding with the magnitude and delicacy of the subject, on the duty, the responsibility, and the privi- lege of private judgment ; on the dangers to which an unchastened exercise of it may expose both an indivi- dual, and the cause of Christian truth ; or on the rules which sound wisdom and the analogy of faith may prescribe to us in the government of ourselves with respect to it. My remarks, therefore, on this subject will be as few and brief as I believe to be consistent with an acknowledgment of the principles upon which this work has been conducted. The foundation then on which, to be safe and bene- ficial, the duty of private judgment, as we maintain, must be built, is very far indeed removed from that common and mischievous notion of it which would encourage us to draw immediate and crude deductions from holy Scripture, subject only to the control and the colouring of our own minds, responsible for nothing further than our own consciousness of an honest intention. Whilst we claim a release from that degrading yoke which neither are we nor were our fathers able to bear, we deprecate for ourselves and for our fellow-believers that licentiousness which in doctrine and practice tempts a man to follow merely what is right in his own eyes, uninfluenced by the example, the pre- 4 DUTY OF [PART i. cepts, and the authority of others, and owning no sub- missive allegiance to those laws which the wise and good have established for the benefit of the whole body. The freedom which we ask for ourselves, and desire to see imparted to all, is a rational liberty, tending to the good, not operating to the bane of its possessors; ministering to the general welfare, not to disorder and confusion. In the enjoyment of this liberty, or rather in the discharge of the duties and trusts which this liberty brings with it, we feel our- selves under an obligation to examine the foundations of our faith, to the very best of our abilities, according to our opportunities, and with the most faithful use of all the means afforded to us by its divine Author and finisher. Among those means, whilst we regard the holy Scriptures as paramount and supreme, we appeal to the witness and mind of the Church as secondary and sub- sidiary ; a witness not at all competing with Scripture, never to be balanced against it ; but competing with our own less able and less pure apprehension of Scrip- ture. In ascertaining the testimony of this witness, we examine the sentiments and practice of the ancient teachers of the Church ; not as infallible guides, not as uniformly holding all of them the same opinions, but as most valuable helps in our examination of the evidence of the Church, who is, after all, our appointed instructor in the truths of the Gospel, fallible in her individual members and branches, yet the sure witness and keeper of Holy Writ, and our safest guide on earth to the mind and will of God. When we have once satisfied ourselves that a doctrine is founded on Scrip- ture, we receive it with implicit faith, and maintain it as a sacred deposit, entrusted to our keeping, to be delivered down whole and entire without our adding CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 5 thereto what to us may seem needful, or taking away what we may think superfluous. The state of the Christian thus employed, in acting for himself in a work peculiarly his own, is very far removed from the condition of one who labours in bondage, without any sense of liberty and responsi- bility, unconscious of the dignity of a free and ac- countable agent, and surrendering himself wholly to the control of a task-master. Equally is it distant from the conduct of one who indignantly casting off all regard for authority, and all deference to the opinions of others, boldly and proudly sets up his own will and pleasure as the only standard to which he will submit. For the model which we would adopt, as members of the Church, in our pursuit of Christian truth, we find a parallel and analogous case in a well-principled and well-disciplined son, with his way of life before him, exercising a large and liberal discretion in the choice of his pursuits ; not fettered by peremptory paternal mandates, but ever voluntarily referring to those principles of moral obligation and of practical wisdom with which his mind has been im- bued; shaping his course with modest diffidence in himself, and habitual deference to others older and wiser than himself, yet acting with the firmness and intrepidity of conscious rectitude of principle, and in- tegrity of purpose ; and under a constant sense of his responsibility, as well for his principles as for his conduct. Against the cogency of these maxims various objections have been urged from time to time. We have been told, that the exercise of private judgment in matters of reli- gion, tends to foster errors of every diversity of charac- ter, and leads to heresy, scepticism, and infidelity : it is represented as rending the Church of Christ, and totally 6 DUTY OF [PART i. subverting Christian unity, and snapping asunder at once the bond of peace. So also it has been often maintained, that the same cause robs individual Chris- tians of that freedom from all disquietude and per- plexity and anxious responsibility, that peace of mind, satisfaction, and content, which those personally enjoy who surrender themselves implicitly to a guide, whom they believe to be unerring and infallible. For a moment let us pause to ascertain the soundness of such objections. And here anticipating, for argument's sake, the worst result, let us suppose that the exercise of individual inquiry and judgment (such as the best teachers in the Anglican Church are wont to inculcate) may lead in some cases even to professed infidelity ; is it right and wise and justifiable to be driven by an abuse of God's gifts to denounce the legitimate and faithful employment of them ? What human faculty ? Which among the most precious of the Almighty's blessings is not liable to perversion ? What unques- tionable moral duty can be found, which has not been transformed by man's waywardness into an instrument of evil ? Nay, what doctrine of our holy faith has not the wickedness or the folly of unworthy men employed as a cloke for unrighteousness, and a vehicle for blas- phemy ? But by a consciousness of this liability in all things human, must we be tempted to suppress the truth ? to disparage those moral duties ? or to discoun- tenance the cultivation of those gifts and faculties? Rather would not sound philosophy and Christian wisdom jointly enforce the necessity of improving the gifts zealously, of discharging the moral obligation to the full, and of maintaining the doctrine in all its integrity ; but guarding withal, to the utmost of our power and watchfulness, against the abuses to which CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 7 any of these things may be exposed ? And we may trust in humble but assured confidence, that as it is the duty of a rational being, alive to his own respons- ibility, to inquire and judge for himself in things con- cerning the soul, with the most faithful exercise of his abilities and means ; so the wise and merciful Ruler of our destinies will provide us with a sure way of escap- ing from all evils incident to the discharge of that duty, if, in reliance on his blessing, we honestly seek the truth, and perseveringly adhere to that way in which he will be our guide. It is a question very generally and very reason- ably entertained among us, whether the implicit sub- mission and unreserved surrender of ourselves to any human authority in matters of faith, (though whilst it lasts, it of course affords an effectual check to open scepticism) does not ultimately and in very deed prove a far more prolific source of disguised infidelity. Doubts repressed as they arise, but not solved, silenced but not satisfied, gradually accumulate in spite of all external precaution ; and at length (like streams pent back by some temporary barrier) break forth at once to an utter discarding of all authority, and an irrecover- able rejection of the Christian faith. From unlimited acquiescence in a guide whom our associations have invested with infallibility, the step is very short, and frequently taken, to entire apostasy and the renuncia- tion of all belief. The state of undisturbed tranquillity and repose in one, who has divested himself of all responsibility in matters of religious belief and practice, enjoying an entire immunity from the anxious and painful labour of trying for himself the purity and soundness of his faith, is often painted in strong contrast with the 5 8 DUTY OF [PART i. lamentable condition of those who are driven about by every wind of novelty. The condition of such a man may doubtless be far more enviable than theirs, who have no settled fixed principles, and who wander from creed to creed, and from sect to sect, just as their fickle and roving minds suggest some transitory prefer- ence. But the believer must not be driven by the evils of one extreme to take refuge in the opposite. The whirlpool may be the more perilous, but the Chris- tian mariner must avoid the rock also, or he will equally make shipwreck of his faith. He must with all his skill, and all his might, keep to the middle course, shunning that presumptuous confidence which scorns all authority, and boldly constitutes itself sole judge and legislator ; but equally rescuing his mind from the thraldom which prostrates his reason, and paralyzes all the faculties of his judgment in a matter of indefeasible and awful responsibility. Here, too, it is questioned, and not without cause, whe- ther the satisfaction and comfort so often represented in warm and fascinating colours, be really a spiritual bless- ing ; or whether it be not a deception and fallacy, fre- quently ending in lamentable perplexity and confusion ; like guarantees in secular concerns, which as long as they maintain unsuspected credit afford a most pleasing and happy security to any one who depends upon them ; but which, when adverse fortune puts their responsi- bility to the test, may prove utterly worthless, and be traced only by losses and disappointments. Such a blind reliance on authority may doubtless be more easy and more free from care, than it is to gird up the loins of our mind, and engage in toilsome spiritual labour. But with a view to our own ultimate safety, wisdom bids us look to our foundations in time, and assure ourselves CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 9 of them ; admonishing us that if they are unsound, the spiritual edifice reared upon them, however pleasing to the eye, or abounding in present enjoyments, will at length fall, and bury our hopes in its ruin. On these and similar principles we maintain, that it well becomes Christians, when the soundness of their faith, and the rectitude of their acts of worship are called in question, " to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." Thus, when the unbeliever charges us with credulity in receiving as a divine revelation what he scornfully rejects, it behoves us all (every one to the extent of his means and oppor- tunities) to possess ourselves of the accumulated evi- dences of our holy faith, so that we may be able to give to our own minds, and to those who ask it of us, a reason for our hope. The result can assu- redly be only the comfort of a still more unshaken conviction. Thus, too, when the misbeliever charges us with an undue and an unauthorized ascription of the Divine attributes to our Redeemer and to our Sanctifier, which he would confine to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, exclusively of the Eternal Son and the Blessed Spirit, it well becomes every Catholic Christian to assure himself of the evidence borne by the Scriptures to the divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, together with the insepara- ble doctrines of redemption by the blood of Christ, and sanctification by the Spirit of grace; appealing also in this investigation to the tradition of the Church, and the testimony of her individual members from the earliest times, as under God his surest and best guides. In both these cases I can say for myself that I have acted upon my own principles, and to the very utmost of my faculties have scrutinized the foun- 10 DUTY OF [PART i. dations of my faith, and from each of those inquiries and researches I have risen with a satisfaction increased far beyond my first anticipations. What I had taken up in my youth on authority, I have been long assured of by a moral demonstration, which nothing can shake ; and I cling to it with an affection which, guarded by God's good providence, nothing in this world can dissolve or weaken. It is to engage in a similar investigation that I now most earnestly but affectionately invite the members of the Church of Rome, in order to ascertain for them- selves the ground of their faith and practice in a matter of vast moment, and which, with other points, involves the principle of separation between the Roman and Anglican branches of the universal Church. Were the subjects of minor importance, or what the ancient writers were wont to call " things indifferent," reason and charity would prescribe that we should bear with each other, allowing a free and large discretion in any body of Christians, and not severing ourselves from them because we deemed our views preferable to theirs. In such a case we might well walk in the house of God as friends, without any interruption of the harmony which should exist between those who worship the true God with one heart and one mind, ever striving to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. But when the points at issue are of so vast moment ; when two persons agreeing in the general principles of belief in the Gospel and its chief characteristic doc- trines, yet find it impossible to join conscientiously in the same prayer, or the same acts of faith and worship, then the necessity is imperative on all who would not be parties to the utter breaking up of Christian unity, nor assist in propagating error, to make sure of their CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 11 foundations ; and satisfy themselves by an honest in- quiry and upright judgment, that the fault does not rest with them. Such appear to me both the doctrine and the practice of the INVOCATION OF SAINTS. I have en- deavoured to conjecture in what light this doctrine and this practice would have presented itself to my mind, after a full and free inquiry into the nature and history and circumstances of the case, had I been brought up in communion with the Church of Rome ; the question to be solved being, " Could I continue in her communion?" And the result of my inquiry is, that I must have either discarded that doctrine at once and for ever, or have joined with my lips and my knees in a worship which my reason condemned, and from which my heart shrunk. I must have either left the communion of Rome, or have continued to offer prayers to angels, and the spirits of departed mortals. Unless I had resolved at once to shut my eyes upon my own personal responsibility, and to surrender myself, mind and reason, soul and body, to the sove- reign and undisputed control of others, never presum- ing to inquire into the foundation of what the Church of Rome taught ; I must have sought some purer portion of the Catholic Church, in which her members addressed the One Supreme Being exclusively, without contemplating any other in the act of religious invo- cation. The distinction invented in comparatively late years, of the three kinds of worship ; one for God, the secon^ for the Virgin Mary, the third for Angels and Saints; the distinction, too, between praying to a saint to give us good things, and praying to that saint to procure them for us at God's hand ; (or, as the dis- 12 DUTY OF [PART i. tinction is sometimes made, into prayer direct, abso- lute, final, sovereign, confined to the Supreme Being on the one hand ; and prayer oblique, relative, transitory, subordinate, offered to saints on the other,) would have appeared to me the ingenious and finely-drawn inven- tions of an advocate, not such a sound process of Christian simplicity as the mind could rest upon, with an undoubting persuasion that all was right. This, however, involves the very point at issue : and I now invite you, my Christian Brethren, to join with me, step by step, in a review of those several positions which have left on my mind the indelible conviction that I could never have passed my life in communion with that Church whose articles of fellowship main- tained the duty of invoking saints and angels ; and whose public offices were inseparably interwoven with addresses in prayer to other beings, than the Holy and undivided Trinity, the one only God. In pursuing this inquiry I have thought the most convenient and satisfactory division of our work would be, First, to ascertain what inference an unprejudiced study of the revealed will of God would lead us to make ; both in the times of the elder covenant, when " holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," and in that " fulness of time" when God spoke to us by his Son. Secondly, to examine into the belief and practice of the Primitive Church, beginning with the inspired Apostles of our Lord. Thirdly, to compare the results of those inquiries with the tenets and practice of the Church of Rome, with reference to three periods ; the first immediately preceding the Reformation ; the second comprising the CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 13 Reformation, and the proceedings of the Council of Trent ; the third embracing the belief and practice of the present day. In this investigation, I purpose to reserve the wor- ship of the Virgin Mary, called by Roman Catholic writers " Hyperdulia," and for various reasons the most important and interesting portion of the whole inquiry, for separate and distinct examination ; except only so far as our review of any of the primitive writers may occasion some incidental departure from that rule. May God guide us to his truth ! PART I. CHAPTER II. SECTION I. THE EVIDENCE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. HERE, Christian Brethren, bear with me if I briefly, but freely, recall to our thoughts on this first entrance upon a review of the inspired volume, the principles, and tone of mind, the temper and feelings, in a word, the frame both of the understanding and of the heart, with which we should study the sacred pages, on whatever subject we would try all things, and hold fast what should prove itself to be most in accordance with the will of God. Whether we would regard the two great parts into which the Holy Scriptures are divided, as the Old and the New Covenants ; or whether we would prefer to call them the Old and the New Testaments, it matters not. Although different ideas and associations are suggested by those different names, yet, under either view, the same honest and good heart, the same patience of investigation, the same upright and unprejudiced judgment, the same exercise of our mental faculties, and the same enlightened conscience, must be brought to the investigation. In the one case we must endea- vour to ascertain for ourselves the true intent and CHAP. II.] THE EVIDENCE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 15 meaning of the inspired word of God, on the very same principles with those on which we would inter- pret a covenant between ourselves, and a person who had made it in full and unreserved reliance on our in- tegrity, and on our high sense of equity, justice, and honour. In the other case we must bring the self- same principles and feelings to bear on our inquiry, as we should apply in the interpretation of the last will and testament of a kind father, who with implicit con- fidence in our uprightness and straightforward dealing and affectionate anxiety to fulfil his intentions to the very utmost, had assigned to us the sacred duty of executor or trustee. Under the former supposition, our sincere solicitude would be to ascertain the true intent and meaning of the contracting parties, not to seek out plausible ex- cuses for departing from it ; not to cull out and exagge- rate beyond their simple and natural bearing, expressions in the deed of agreement, which might seem to justify us in adopting the view of the contract most agreeable to our present wishes and most favourable to our own interests. Rather it would be our fixed and hearty resolution, at whatever cost of time, or labour, or pe- cuniary sacrifice, or personal discomfort, to apply to the instrument our unbiassed powers of upright and honest interpretation. Or adopting the latter analogy, we should sincerely strive to ascertain the chief and leading objects of our parent's will ; what were his intentions generally ; what ruling principles seemed to pervade his views in framing the testament ; and in all cases of obscurity and doubt, in every thing approaching an appearance of inconsis- tency, we should refer to that paramount principle as our test and guide. We should not for a moment 1 6 THE EVIDENCE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. [PART I. suffer ourselves to be tempted to seek for ambiguous expressions, which ingenuity might interpret so as to countenance our departure from the general drift of our parent's will, in cases where it was at variance with our own inclination, and where we could have wished that he had made another disposition of his property, or given to us a different direction, or trusted us with larger discretion. Moreover, in any points of difficulty, we should apply for assistance, in solving our doubts, to such persons as were most likely to have the power of judging correctly, and whose judgment would be least biassed by partiality and pre- judice ; not to those whose credit was staked on the maintenance of those principles which best accorded with our own inclination. Especially if in either case some strong feeling should have been raised and spread abroad on any point, we should seek the judgment and counsel of those w r ho had been familiar with the testa- tor's intentions, or with the views of the covenanting party, before such points had become matter of dis- cussion. Now only let us act upon these principles in the interpretation of THAT COVENANT in which the Almighty has vouchsafed to make Himself one of the contracting parties, and man, the creature of his hand, is the other. Only let us act on these principles in the interpretation of THAT TESTAMENT of which the Saviour of the world is the Testator ; and with God's blessing on our labours (a blessing never denied to sincere prayer and faithful exertions) we need not fear the result. Any other principle of interpretation will only confirm us in our prejudices, and involve us more inextricably in error. 17 SECTION IT. DIRECT EVIDENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. THE first step in our proposed inquiry is to ascertain what evidence on the doctrine and practice of the Invocation of Saints and Angels can be fairly drawn from the revealed word of God in the Old Testa- ment. Now let us suppose that a person of a cultivated and enlightened mind, and of a sound and clear judg- ment, but hitherto a stranger to revelation, were re- quired to study the ancient Scriptures with the single view of ascertaining what one object more than any other, subordinate to the great end of preparing the world for the advent of Messiah, seemed to be proposed by the wisdom of the Almighty in imparting to mankind that revelation ; could he fix upon any other point as the one paramount and pervading principle with so much reason, as upon this, The preservation in the world of a practical belief in the perfect unity of God, and the fencing of his worship against the admixture of any other, of whatever character, or form ; The announcement that the Creator and governor of the universe is the sole Giver of every temporal and spiri- tual blessing ; the one only Being to whom his rational creatures on earth should pay any religious service whatever ; the one only Being to whom mortals must seek by prayer and invocation for the supply of any of their wants ? Through the entire volume the inquirer would find that the unity of God is announced in every variety of expression ; and that the exclusive worship c lg DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. of HIM alone is insisted upon and guarded with the utmost jealousy by assurances, by threats, and by pro- mises, as the God who heareth prayer, alone to be called upon, alone to be invoked, alone to be adored. So to speak, he would find that recourse was had to every expedient for the express purpose of protecting God's people from the fatal error of embracing in their wor- ship any other being or name whatever ; not reserving supreme adoration for the supreme Being, and ad- mitting a sort of secondary honour and inferior mode of invocation to his exalted saints and servants ; but banishing at once and for ever the most distant approximation towards religious honour the veriest shadow of spiritual invocation to any other Being than Jehovah HIMSELF ALONE. In process of time, the heathen began to deify those mortals who had conferred signal benefits on the human race, or had distinguished themselves by their power and skill above their fellow-country- men. Male and female divinities were multiply- ing on every side. Together with Jupiter, the fabled father of gods and men, worshipped under different names am ong the various tribes, were associated those "gods many and lords many," which ignorance and superstition, or policy and craft had invented ; and which shared some a greater, some a less portion of popular veneration and religious worship. To the people of God, the worshippers of Jehovah, it was again and again most solemnly and awfully denounced, that no such thing should be. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve," is a mandate repeated in every variety of language, and under every diversity of circumstance. In some pas- sages indeed, together with the most clear assurances, 5 CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 19 that mankind need apply to no other dispenser of good, and can want no other as Saviour, advocate, or in- tercessor, that same truth is announced with such superabundance of repetition, that in the productions of any human writer the style would be chargeable with tautology. In the Bible, this repetition only the more forces upon the mind, and fixes there, that same principle as an eternal verity never to be questioned ; never to be dispensed with ; never to be diluted or qualified ; never to be invaded by any service, worship, prayer, invocation, or adoration of any other Being what- ever. Let us take, for example, the forty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, in which the principle is most strongly and clearly illustrated. " I am the LORD, and there is none else : there is no God beside me ; I girded thee, though thou hast not known me ; that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none beside me : I am the Lord, and there is none else. They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them ; they shall go to confusion together, that are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation : ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end : I am the Lord, and there is none else. I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. There is no god beside me ; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there is none else." But it is needless to multiply these passages; and members of the Church of Rome will say, that they themselves acknowledge as fully as members of the Anglican Church can do, that there is biit one supreme c2 20 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I- God and Lord, to whom alone they intend to offer the worship due to God ; and that the appeals which they offer by way of invocation to saints and angels for their services and intercession, do not militate against this principle. But here let us ask ourselves these few questions : First, if it had been intended by the Almighty to forbid any religious application, such as is now professedly the invocation of saints and angels, to any other being than Himself alone, what words could have been employed more stringently prohibitory ? Secondly, had such an address to saints and angels, as the Church of Rome now confessedly makes, been contemplated by our heavenly Lawgiver as an excep- tion to the general rule, would not some saving clause, some expressions indicative of such an intended excep- tion, have been discovered in some page or other of his revealed will ? Thirdly, if such an appeal to the angels of heaven, or to the spirits of the just in heaven, had been sanctioned under the elder covenant, would not some example, some solitary instance have been recorded of a faithful servant of Jehovah offering such a prayer with the Divine approbation ? Lastly, when such strong and repeated declarations and injunctions interspersed through the entire volume of the Old Testament, unequivocally show the will of God to be, that no other object of religious worship should have place in the heart or on the tongue of his own true sons and daughters, can it become a faithful child of our Heavenly Father to be seeking for excuses and palliations, and to invent distinctions between one kind of worship and another ? God himself includes all in one universal prohibi- CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 21 tory mandate, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." So far from accord- ing with those general rules for the interpretation of the revealed will of God, which we have already stated, and from which, in the abstract, probably few would dissent, an anxiety to force the word of God into at least an acquiescence in the invocation of saints and angels, indicates a disposition to comply with his in- junctions, wherever they seem to clash with our own view, only so far as we cannot avoid compliance ; and to seek how we may with any show of propriety evade the spirit of those commands. Instead of that full, free, and unstinted submission of our own inclinations and propensities to the Almighty's will wherever we can discover it, which those entertain whom the Lord seeketh to worship him ; to look for exceptions and to act upon them, bears upon it the stamp of a reserved and grudging service. After so many positive warn- ings, enactments, and denunciations against seeking by prayer the aid of any other being whatever, surely a positive command would have been absolutely neces- sary to justify a mortal man in preferring any prayer to any being, saint, angel, or archangel, save only the Supreme Deity alone. Instead of any such com- mand or even permission appearing, not one single word occurs, from the first syllable in the Book of Genesis to the last of the prophet Malachi, which could even by implication be brought to countenance the practice of approaching any created being in prayer. But let us now look to the examples on this subject afforded in the Old Testament. Many, very many a prayer is recorded of holy men, of inspired men, of men, to whose holiness and integrity and acceptance 22 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. the Holy Spirit bears witness ; yet among these prayers there is not found one invocation addressed to saint or angel. I will not here anticipate the obser- vations which it will be necessary to make in conse- quence of the extraordinary argument which has been devised, to account for the absence of invocations to saints before the resurrection of Christ, namely, that before that event the saints were not admitted into heaven. Although pressed forward with such unhe- sitating confidence in its validity, that argument is so sin- gular in its nature, and so important in its consequences, and withal so utterly groundless, as to call for a separate examination, on which we will shortly enter : mean- while, we are now inquiring into the matter of fact. The whole Book of Psalms is a manual of devo- tion, consisting alternately, or rather intermixedly, of prayers and praises, composed some by Moses, some by other inspired Israelites of less note, but the greater part by David himself; and what is the force and tendency of their example ? Words are spoken in collaudation of " Moses and Aaron among the saints of the Lord," and of " Samuel among such as called upon his name ;" and mention is made with becoming reverence of the holy angels ; but not one word ever falls from the pen of the Psalmist, addressed, by way of invocation, to saint or angel. In the Roman Ritual supplication is made to Abel and Abraham as well as to Michael and all angels. If it is now lawful, if it is now the duty of the worshippers of the true God to seek his aid through the mediation of those holy men, can we avoid asking, Why the inspired patriarchs did not appeal to Abel for his mediation ? Why did not the inspired David invoke the father of the faithful to intercede for him with God ? If the departed spirits CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 23 of faithful men may be safely addressed in prayer ; if those who in their lifetime have, to their fellow-mortals, (who can judge only from outward actions, and cannot penetrate the heart) appeared accepted servants and ho- noured saints of our Creator, may now be invoked by an act of religious supplication either to grant us aid, or to intercede with God for aid in our behalf, why did not men whom God declared to be partakers of his Spirit of truth, offer the same supplication to those departed spirits, who, before and after their decease, had this testimony from Omniscience itself, that they pleased God ? Why is no intimation given in the later books of the Old Testament that such supplications were offered to Moses, or Aaron, or Abraham, or Noah ? When wrath was gone out from the presence of the Lord, and the plague was begun among the people, Aaron took a censer in his hand, and stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed. If the soul of Aaron was therefore to be regarded as a spirit influen- tial with God, one whose intercession could avail, one who ought to be approached in prayer, were it only for his intercession, could a stronger motive be conceived for suggesting that invocation, than David must have felt, when the pestilence was destroying its thousands around him, and all his glory and strength, and his very life too, were threatened by its resistless ravages ? But no ! neither Abel, nor Abraham, nor Moses, nor Aaron, must be petitioned to intercede with God, and to pray that God would stay his hand. To God and God alone, for his own mercy's sake, must his afflicted servant turn in supplication. We find among his prayers no "Holy Abraham, pray for us," "Holy Abel, pray for us." His own Psalm of thanksgiving describes full well the object and the nature of his 24 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. prayer : " When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid, the sorrows of hell compassed me about, the snares of death pre- vented me ; in my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God ; and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears." Abraham, when on earth, prayed God to spare the offending people ; but he invoked neither Noah, nor Abel, nor any of the faithful departed, to join their intercessions with his own. Isaac prayed to God for his son Jacob, but he did not ask the mediation of his father Abraham in his behalf ; and when Jacob in his turn supplicated an especial blessing upon his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh, though he called with gratitude to his mind, and expressed with his tongue, the devotedness both of Abraham and of Isaac to the Almighty, yet we do not find him appeal- ing to them, or invoking their intercession with Jehovah. When the conscience-struck Israelites felt that they had exposed themselves to the wrath of Almighty God, whose sovereign power, put forth at the prayer of Samuel, they then witnessed, distrusting the efficacy of their own supplication, and confiding in the inter- cession of that man of God, they implored him to intercede for them ; and Samuel emphatically re- sponded to their appeal, with an assurance of his ear- nestly undertaking to plead their cause with heaven : " And all the people said unto Samuel 2 , Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not The 1 2 Sam. (2 Kings Vulg.) xxii. 5. or Ps. xviii. 2 1 Sam. (1 Kings Vulg.; xii. 19. CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 25 Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake Moreover, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you." Samuel is one whom the Holy Spirit numbers among those " who called upon God's name ;" and when Samuel died, all Israel gathered together to lament and to bury him, but we read of no petition being offered to him to carry on the same intercessory office, when he was once removed from them. As long as he was entaber- nacled in the flesh and sojourned on earth with his brethren, they besought him to pray for them, to inter- cede with their God and his God for blessings at His hand ; but when Samuel's body had been buried in peace, and his soul had returned to God who gave it, the Bible never records any further application to him ; we no where read " Holy Samuel, pray for us." Again, what announcement could God himself make more expressive of his acceptance of the persons of any, than he actually and repeatedly made to Moses with regard to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? How could he more clearly intimate that if the spirits of the faithful departed could exercise intercessory or mediatorial influence with him, those three holy patriarchs would possess such power above all others whoever had lived on the earth? "I am the God of your fathers ; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob : and Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God." " Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial throughout all generations V Did Moses in his alarm and dread when he was afraid 1 Exod. iii. G. 15. 26 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. to look upon God, call upon those holy and accepted servants to aid him in his perplexity, and intercede for him and his people with the awful Eternal Being on whose majesty he dared not to look ? Did he teach his people to invoke Abraham? That was far from him. When Moses, that saint of the Lord, was himself called hence and was buried, (though no mortal man was allowed to know the place of his sepulture,) did the surviving faithful pray to him for his help and intercession with God ? He had wrought such great miracles as never had been before witnessed on earth ; whilst in the tabernacle of the flesh he had talked with God as a man talketh with his friend; and yet the sacred page records no invocation ever breathed to his departed spirit. The same is the result of our inquiry throughout. I will specify only one more example Hezekiah, who "trusted to the Lord God of Israel, and clave to the Lord, and departed not from follow- ing him, but kept his commandments," when he and his people were in great peril, addressed his prayer only to God. He offered no invocation to holy David to intercede with the Almighty for his own Jerusalem ; he made his supplication directly and exclusively to Jehovah ; and, yet, the very answer made to that prayer would surely have seemed to justify Hezekiah in seeking holy David's mediation, if the intercession of any departed mortal could ever have been sanctioned by Heaven : "Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father ; I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears ; I will heal thee. I will save this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake V Of what saint in the calendar was ever such a thing as this spoken ? 1 2 Kings (Vulg. 4 Kings) xix. 34. CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 27 I have already intimated my intention of referring, with somewhat more than a cursory remark, to the position assumed, and the argument built upon it by writers in communion with Rome, for the purpose of escaping from or nullifying the evidence borne by the examples of the Old Testament against the invo- cation of saints. The writers to whom I refer, with Bellarmin at their head, openly confess that the pages of the Old Testament afford no instance of invocation being offered to the spirits of departed mortals; and the reason which they allege is this, No one can be invoked who is not admitted to the presence of God in heaven ; but before Christ went down to hell l and released the spirits from prison, no mortal was ad- mitted into heaven ; consequently, before the resur- rection of Christ the spirit of no mortal was invoked. The following are the words of Bellarmin at the close of the preface to his " Church Triumphant :" " The spirits of the patriarchs and prophets before the coming of Christ were for this reason not worshipped and in- voked, as we now worship and invoke the Apostles and martyrs, because they were yet shut up and detained in prisons below 2 ." Again, he says, " Because before the coming of Christ the saints who died did not 1 The word Hell, signifying, in Saxon, a hidden-place, alto- gether corresponding in its etymology with " hades," is now used for the place of torment called by the Hebrews " Gehennah ;" and we must perhaps regret that the same Saxon word is employed to signify also the unseen region of departed spirits. This circum- stance has been the source of much difficulty and confusion. 2 " Nam idcirco ante Christi adventum non ita colebantur neque invocabantur spiritus patriarcharum atque prophetarum, quemadmo- dum nunc Apostolos et martyres colimus et invocamus, quod illi adhuc infernis carceribus clausi detinebantur." Ingolstadii, 1601. vol. ii. p. 833. " The last edition, enlarged and corrected by the Author." 28 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. enter heaven and saw not God, nor could ordinarily know the prayers of suppliants, therefore, it was not customary in the Old Testament to say, * Holy Abra- ham, pray for me,' &c. ; but the men of that time prayed to God only, and alleged the merits of the saints who had already departed, that their own prayers might be aided by them." Now let us examine this statement thus broadly made, and ascertain for ourselves whether the point assumed and the argument built upon it can stand the test of examination. Is this argument such as ought to satisfy the mind of one, who would humbly but honestly follow the apostolic rule, " Prove all things : hold fast that which is good ?" Is this such an exposition as that the reason of a cultivated mind, and the faith of an enlightened Christian, can acquiesce in it ? Let it be examined neither with prejudice in its favour, nor with any undue suspicion of its soundness, but with candour and impartiality throughout. It is not necessary to dwell at any length on the in- consistencies and perplexities involved in this assumed abstract theory with regard to the souls of the faithful who died before the resurrection of Christ, and which require to be cleared away before its advocates can reasonably expect to obtain for it any general accept- ance among thinking men. I do not wish to contra- vene the theory, far less to substitute another in its stead. On the contrary, I am fully content, in company with some of the most valuable among Roman Catholic writers, following the example of Augustin \ to leave the subject where Scripture has left it. To the argu- 1 Aug. De Pecc. Orig. c. 23. torn. vii. page 338. Quoted by De Sacy. 2 Kings (Vulg. 4 Kings) ii. CHAP. IT.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 29 ments alleged, I would wish to reply* independently of any opinion, as a matter of Christian belief, with regard to the place, the condition, and the circum- stances of the souls of the patriarchs and prophets before our blessed Lord's resurrection. It may, never- theless, materially facilitate an inquiry into the sound- ness of the reasons alleged for the total absence of invocation to those souls, if we briefly contemplate some of the difficulties which surround this novel theory. At all events, such a process will incline us to abstain from bold assumptions on a point upon which the Almighty has been pleased to throw so little light in his Holy Word, or at least avoid all severity of condemnation towards those who may differ from our views. It is very easy to assert, that all the souls of the faithful departed were kept in the prison-house of Hades, and to allege in its behalf an obscure passage of St. Peter, to which many of the most learned and unprejudiced Christian teachers assign a meaning totally unconnected with the subject of de- parted spirits. But surely the case of Enoch (whose translation from this life to heaven, making, as it has been beautifully expressed, but one step from earth to glory ; and which St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, cites with a most important comment of his own,) requires to be well and patiently weighed. He was taken from the earth by an immediate act of Providence, that he should not see death ; and before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Surely the case of Elijah too, when we would ascertain the soundness of this theory, must not be dismissed summarily from our thoughts, of whom the book of eternal truth declares, that Jehovah took him 30 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. in a whirlwind into heaven; his ascent being made visible to mortal eyes, as was afterwards the ascen- sion of the blessed Saviour himself. Indeed the ac- counts of Elijah's translation, and of our Lord's ascen- sion, whether in the Septuagint and Greek Testament, the Vulgate, or our own authorized version, present a similarity of expression very striking and remarkable. On this subject we are strongly reminded, first, with what care and candour and patience the language of Holy Scripture should be weighed, which so posi- tively declares, that Moses and Elijah, both in glory, appeared visibly to the Apostles at the transfiguration of our blessed Saviour, and conversed with him on the holy mount : " And behold there talked with Him two men, who were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory (in majesty, as the Vulgate renders the word), and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusa- lem l ;" and, secondly, how unwise it is to dogmatize on such subjects beyond the plain declaration of the sacred narrative. Moreover, how very unsatisfactory is the theory which we are examining as to the state of the souls of the faithful who died before Christ, even the words of Jerome himself prove, who comment- ing on the transfiguration of the blessed Jesus, is unhappily led to represent the Almighty as having sum- moned Elijah to descend from heaven, and Moses to ascend from Hades to meet our Lord in the Mount 2 . Strange and startling as is this sentiment of Jerome, it is, you will observe, utterly irreconcileable with the theory, that the reason why the ancient Church did not 1 Luke ix. 30. J " Elia inde descendente quo conscenderat, et Moyse ab inferis resurgente." Hieron. in Matt. xvii. 1. Paris, 1700. vol. iv. p. 77. CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 31 pray to the saints departed, was because they were not yet in heaven. On this point, among Roman Catholic writers themselves, there prevails a very great diversity of opinion, arising probably from the difficulty which they have experienced in their endeavours to make all facts and doctrines square with the present tenets and practices of their Church *. Thus, whilst some maintain that Elijah was translated to the terres- trial paradise in which Adam had been placed, not enjoying the immediate divine presence ; others cite the passage as justifying the belief that the saints departed pray for us 2 . But not only are different authors at variance with each other on very many points here; the same writer in his zeal is betrayed into great and palpable inconsistency. Bellarmin, anxious to enlist the account given by our Lord of the rich man and Lazarus, to countenance the invocation of saints by the example of the rich man appealing to Abraham, maintains that section of Holy Writ to be not a para- ble, but a true history of a matter of fact which took place between two real individuals; and of his asser- tion he adduces this proof, that " the Church worships that Lazarus as verily a holy man 2 ;" and yet he denies that any of the holy men were in heaven before the 1 See De Sacy on 4 Kings i. 1. See also Estius, 1629. p. 168. Pope Gregory's Exposition; Rome, 1553. p. 99. Stephen's Bible in loc. 1557, &c. The Vulgate ed. Antwerp, 1624, cites a note, " Thy prayers are stronger than chariots and horsemen." 3 Gaspar Sanctius, Antwerp, 1624. p. 1360, considers the fable not improbable, that Elijah, living in the terrestrial paradise, wrote there the letters to Joram (mentioned 2 Chron. xxi. 12.) and sent them by angels. 2 Colit Lazarum ilium ut vere sanctum hominem. Bellarm. De Eccl. Triumph, p. 864. 32 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. death of Christ. Either Abraham was in heaven in the presence of God, or not ; if he was in heaven, why did not his descendants invoke his aid ? if he was not in heaven, the whole argument drawn from the rich man's supplication falls to the ground. Another very extraordinary inconsistency, arising from the same solicitude, forces itself upon our notice, when the same author urges a passage in Leviticus T to prove, that the saints are now ad- mitted at once into the enjoyment of the presence of God in heaven, without waiting for the day of final judgment*. "God (such are his words) commanded it to be written, ' The work of the hireling shall not remain with thee till the morning;' therefore, unless God would appear inconsistent with himself, he will not keep back the reward of his saints to the end of the world." How strange, that in the same treatise 3 this author should expressly maintain, that the reward of Abel and Abraham, and the holy pro- phet and law-giver Moses, the very man who was com- manded to write that law in Leviticus, was kept back, the last for a longer period than a thousand years ; the first well nigh four thousand years. I mention these particulars merely to point out how very unsatisfactory and unsound is the attempted solution of the difficulties which surround on every side the theory of those who maintain, that the rea- son why we have no instance of the righteous departed being invoked in the times of the elder covenant is, that they were not as yet admitted into heaven, but were kept in prison till the resurrection of Christ. I would here also observe, even at the risk 1 Levit. xix. 13. ' Bell. vol. ii. p. 865. s Ibid. p. 833. CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 33 of repetition, that I am here not maintaining any opi- nion as to the appointed abiding-place, the condition, and circumstances, the powers of consciousness, volition or enjoyment of the departed before Christ's resurrec- tion ; on the contrary, I am rather urging the considera- tion of the great and serious caution requisite before we espouse, as an article of faith, any opinion which rests on so questionable a foundation, and which involves such interminable difficulties. But whilst we need not dwell longer on this immediate point, yet there are two considerations which appear to me to be altogether decisive as to the evidence borne against the Invocation of Saints by the writers of the Old Testament. If the spirits of the saints departed were not invoked before the resurrection of Christ, purely be- cause they were not then admitted into heaven ; the first consideration I w : ould suggest is this : Why did the faithful and inspired servants of Jehovah not invoke the angels and archangels who were in heaven ? The second is this : Why did not the inspired Apostles and faithful disciples of our Lord invoke the spirits of those saints after his resurrection ; that is, (according to the theory before us) after those saints had been taken by Christ with him into his Father's presence ? I wish not to anticipate here our inquiry into the testimony borne by the writers of the New Testament as to the doctrine and practice of the Roman Church in this particular ; and I will only add, that whatever be the cause of the absence from the Old Testament of all worship and invocation of Abel and Abraham, whom the Roman Church now invokes, the alleged reason that it was because they were not in heaven till after Christ's resurrection, is utterly set aside by the conduct of the Apostles and disciples of our Lord recorded in the New D- 34 DIRECT EVIDENCE QF [PART I. Testament, for more than half a century after his re- turn to his Father's glory. This, however, seems to be the proper place for en- tertaining the first consideration, Why did not the holy men of old, under the elder Covenant, invoke angels and archangels, as the Roman Church now does? Writers, indeed, who have declared themselves the defenders of that doctrine and practice, refer us to passages, which they cite, as affording examples of the worship of angels; and we will not knowingly allow- any one of those sections of Holy Writ to remain un- examined. We must first endeavour to ascertain the testimony borne by the books of the Old Testament : and that presents to us such a body of evidence as. greatly increases our surprise at the perseverance with which the invocation of angels has been maintained by any community of men acknowledging the inspiration of the sacred volume. The inspired writers of the Old Testament, and those to whom through their mouth and pen the Divine word was addressed, were as fully as ourselves acquainted with the existence of angelic beings. They were aware of the station of those angels in the court of heaven, of their power as God's ambassadors, and agents for good. Either their own eyes had seen the mighty operations of God by the hands of those celestial messengers ; or their ears had heard their fathers tell what HE had done by their instrumentality in times of old. Why then did not God's chosen people offer to the angels the same worship and invocation which the Church of Rome now addresses to them, in common with the patriarchs and prophets of the elder covenant, and with saints and martyrs under the new? In the condition of the holy angels no one ever suggests that CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 35 any change, affecting the argument, has taken place since the time when man was created and made. And as the angels of heaven were in themselves the same, equally in the presence of God, and equally able to succour men through that long space of four thousand years, which intervened between Adam's creation, and the birth of HIM who was Son of Adam and Son of God, so was man in the same dependent state, needing the guidance and protection of a power above his own. Nay, surely, if there was in man any difference affecting the argument, it would all add weight to the reason against the invocation of angels by Christians. The Israelites of old had no clear knowledge, as we have, of one great Mediator, who is ever making intercession for us ; and yet they sought not the mediation and in- tercession and good offices of those superhuman beings, of whose existence and power, and employment in works of blessing to man, they had no doubt \ This is a point of great importance to our argument, and I will refer to a few passages in support of it. When David, who had, as we know 2 , visible demon- stration afforded him of the existence and ministration of the angels, called upon them to unite with his own soul, and with all the works of creation through all places of God's dominion, in praising their merciful, glorious, and powerful Creator, he thus conveys to us the exalted ideas with which he had been filled of their nature, their excellence, and their ministration. " The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his 1 A small section indeed of their countrymen in our Saviour's time denied the reality of a future state, and the existence of angels and spirits ; but the sect was of then recent origin, and the over- whelming majority believed as their fathers had believed. 2 1 Chron. xxi. 16. D 2 36 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I kingdom ruleth over all : Bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure V David knew moreover that one of the offices, in the execution of which the angels do God's pleasure, is that of succouring and defending us on earth. For example, in one of the Psalms used by the Church of Rome at complin, and with the rest repeated in the Church of England, and prophetic of the Re- deemer, David, to whom this Psalm is probably to be ascribed, declares of the man who had made the Most High his refuge and strength, " There shall no evil befal thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling ; for he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways ; they shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone V And again, with exquisitely beautiful imagery, he represents those same blessed servants of heaven as an army, as a host of God's spiritual soldiers keep- ing watch and ward over the poorest of the children of men, who would take refuge in his mercy : " The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them 3 ." And yet David, the prophet of the Lord, never addresses to these beings, high and glorious though they are, one single invo- cation : he neither asks them to assist him, nor to pray for him, nor to pray with him in his behalf. 1 Ps. ciii. 1921. 2 Ps. xci. 1012. 3 Ps. xxxiv. 7. (Vulg. xxxiii. 8.) " Immittet angelus Domini in circuitu timentium eum, et eripiet eos." In the Vulgate the beauty of the figure is lost ; which, however, Roman Catholic writers restore in their comments. Basil makes a beautiful use of the me- taphor. See De Sacy in loc. CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 37 Isaiah was admitted by the Holy Spirit to witness in the fulness of its glory the court and the throne of heaven ; and he heard the voices of the seraphim pro- claiming their Maker's praise ; he experienced also personally the effect of their ministration, when one of them said, " Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged V Still, though Isaiah must have regarded this angel as his benefactor under God, yet neither to this seraph, nor to any of the host of heaven, does he offer one prayer for their good offices, even by their intercession. He ever ascribes all to God alone ; and never joins any other name with His either in supplication or in praise. Let us also take the case of Daniel. He acknowledges not only that the Lord's omnipotent hand had rescued him from the jaws of the lions, but that the deliverance was brought about by the ministration of an angel. "My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me 2 ." Yet when we look through Daniel's prayers, we find no allusion to any of the highest angels. He had seen Gabriel before his prayer; he had heard the voice, and felt the hand of that heavenly messenger who was commissioned to reveal to him what should be done in the latter end ; and immediately after the offering of this prayer, the same Gabriel announces himself as one who was come forth to give the prophet skill and understanding. And yet neither towards Gabriel, nor any other of the angels of God, does one word of invocation fall from the lips of Daniel. In the supplications of that holy, in- trepid, and blessed servant and child of God, we search in vain for any thing approaching in spirit to the invo- cation, " Sancte Gabriel, ora pro nobis." 1 Isaiah vi. 7. " Dan. vi. 22. SECTION III. EVIDENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (continued.) WE must now briefly refer to those passages, by which Roman Catholic writers have endeavoured to maintain that religious adoration was paid to angels by the faithful sons of God. The two principal instances cited are, first, the case of Abraham bowing down before three men, whom he recognizes as messengers from heaven; and, secondly, the words of Jacob when he gave his benediction to his grandsons. With regard to the first instance, how very far the prostration of Abraham was in itself from implying an act of religious worship, being as it was the ordi- nary mode of paying respect to a fellow mortal, is evident from the very words of Scripture. The He- brew word, which we translate by "bowed himself," and which the Vulgate unhappily renders " adoravit" (" adored"), is, letter for letter, the same in the case of Abraham saluting his three heavenly visitors, and in the case of Jacob saluting his brother Esau. The parallelism of the two passages is very striking. GEN. xviii. 2. GEN. xxxiii. 1 & 3. And he [Abraham] lift up And Jacob lifted up his eyes, his eyes, and lo ! three men stood and looked, and behold ! Esau by him ; and when he saw them, came. . . And he passed over, and he ran to meet them from the bowed himself to the ground seven tent door ; and boned himself times until he came near to his toward the ground. brother. CHAP. II.] EVIDENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 39 By rendering the Hebrew word J , which means to " bow or bend oneself," by the word " adoravit," which is lite- rally " to pray to," the Latin Vulgate has laid the foun- dation for much unsound and misleading criticism. But suppose the word had meant, what it does not mean, an act of solemn religious worship ; and let it be granted (as I am not only ready to grant, but prepared to maintain) that Abraham paid religious adoration at that time, what inference can fairly and honestly be drawn from that circumstance in favour of the invocation of angels ? The ancient writers of the Christian Church, and those whom the Church of Rome habitually holds in great respect, are full and clear in maintaining that the per- son whom Abraham then addressed, was no created being, neither angel nor seraph ; but the Angel of the Covenant ; the Word, the eternal Son of God, himself God 2 . Before the visible and miraculous presence of the God of heaven, who for his own glory and in carry- ing on the work of man's salvation, sometimes deigned so to 'reveal Himself, the patriarchs of old bowed them- selves to the earth. Can this, with any shadow of 1 Not only is the Hebrew word precisely the same, letter for letter and point for point, Hllt^, but the Septuagint in each case employs the same, TrpoatKvvTjffev ; > and the Vulgate in each case renders it by the same word, "adoravit." The Roman Catholic commentator De Sacy renders it in each case, " se prosternavit," which corresponds exactly with our English version. The Douay Bible in each case renders it " adored." 2 Many early Christian writers may be cited to the same purpose : it is enough, however, to refer to Justin Martyr and to Athanasius ; who are very full and elaborate in maintaining, that the angel here mentioned was no created being, but was the Angel of the Covenant, God, in the fulness of time manifested in the flesh. The passage from Athanasius will be quoted at some length, when we come to examine that father's testimony. For Justin Martyr, see Dial, cum Tryph. ch. 56, &c. p. 150, &c. (Paris, 1742.) 40 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. reason, be employed to sanction the invocation of Michael and all the myriads of angels who fill the court of heaven ? The only other instance to which it will be necessary to call your attention, occurs in the forty-eighth chapter of Genesis. The passage, however, is so palpably and on the very face of it inapplicable, that its examination needs not detain us long. "And he [Jacob] blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abra- ham and Isaac did walk, the God who fed me all my life long unto this day, the ANGEL which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads V Here the patriarch speaks of God as the Angel, and the Angel as God : being the Angel or Messenger of the Covenant God manifested to man. He speaks not of Michael or Gabriel, or archangel or seraph, or any created being ; but of the Lord Himself, who appeared to him, agreeably to the revelation of God himself recorded in a previous chapter, and thus communicated by the patriarch to Rachel and Leah 2 . " And the ANGEL of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob ; and I said, Here am I. And he said . . . / am the GOD of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and vowedst a vow unto me." The Angel whose blessing he desired for the lads was the God 3 , to whom he had vowed a vow in Bethel, the Lord himself. Independently, however, of this conclusive considera- tion, if the latter member of this sentence had merely expressed a wish, that an angel might be employed as 1 Gen. xlviii. 15. 2 Gen. xxxi. 11. 3 It may not be superfluous to add, that this is the interpretation of the passage adopted by primitive writers. Among others see Eusebius Demonstr. Evan. lib. v. ch. 10 : who declares that the Angel spoken of by Jacob was God the Son. CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 4 1 an instrument of good in behalf of Ephraim and Manasseh, I could readily offer such a prayer for a blessing on my own children. My prayer would be addressed to the angel neither immediately nor transi- tively, but exclusively to God alone, supplicating him graciously to employ the service of those ministering spirits for our good. Such a prayer every Catholic in communion with the Church of England is taught and directed to offer. Such a prayer is primitive and scrip- tural ; and such is offered in the Church on the anni- versary of Saint Michael and all angels. " Everlasting God, who hast ordained and consti- tuted the services of angels and men in a wonderful order, mercifully grant that as thy holy angels alway do Thee service in heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." Such is the prayer of the Church Catholic, whether of the Roman or the Anglican branch ; it is in spirit and in truth a Christian prayer, fit for faithful mortals to offer on earth to the Lord of men and of angels in heaven. ' Would that the Church of Rome, preserving, as she has preserved, this prayer in all its original purity, had never been successfully tempted to mingle in the same service, supplications, which appear to rob the one only God of his exclusive honour and glory, as the, God " who heareth prayer ;" and to rob Christ of his exclusive honour and glory, as our only Mediator and Advocate ! Here, though unwilling, by departing from the order of our argument, to anticipate our examination in its place of the Roman ritual, I cannot refrain from contrasting this prayer, the genuine offspring of Chris- tian faith, with some forms of invocation contained in 42 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. the Roman service on St. Michael's day, in which I could not join, and the adoption of which I deeply lament. The first is appointed to be said at the part of the Mass called " The Secret :" " We offer to Thee, O Lord, the sacrifice of praise, humbly beseeching thee, That by the intervention of the prayers of the angels for us, Thou, being appeased, mayest both accept the same, and make them profitable for our salvation. Through ..." The second is offered at the Post Com- munion : " Supported [propped up, suffulti] by the intercession of Thy blessed archangel Michael, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord, that what with honour we follow \ we may obtain also in mind. Through. . ." Still, though here the Christian seems to be taught to rest on a broken reed, to support and prop himself up by a staff which must bend and break ; yet I ac- knowledge that so much violence is not done to my Christian principles, nor do my feelings, as a believer in God and his ever-blessed Son, meet with so severe a shock by either of these prayers, as by the invocation addressed to the archangel himself in the " Gradual" on that same day : " O holy Michael, O archangel, defend us in battle, that we perish not in the dreadful judgment." Christians of the Church of Rome ! for one moment meditate, I beseech you, on this prayer. It is not ad- dressed to God ; in it there is no mention made of 1 I do not understand the exact meaning of these words, which however contain none of that sentiment, the presence of which in this prayer I deplore. The original is this : " Beati archangeli tui Michaelis intercessione suffulti, supplices te Domine deprecamur, ut quod honore prosequimur, contingamus et in mente. Per. . ." Pro- bably the general sense is, that what we reverently seek we may actually realise. CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 43 Christ : having called upon the angels, and on your own soul in the words of the psalmist, to praise the Lord, you address your supplication to Michael himself; not even invoking him for his intercession, but imploring of him his protection. If it be said, that his interces- sion is all that is meant, I request you with most un- feigned sincerity to judge for yourselves, whether any prayer from poor sinful man, putting his whole trust in the Lord and imploring his help, could be addressed to our God and Saviour more immediate and direct than this ? In the place of the name of his servant Michael, substitute the highest and the holiest name ever uttered in heaven or on earth, and can words form a prayer more direct to God ? " O Lord God Almighty, O Lord Jesus our only Saviour, defend us in battle, that we perish not in the dreadful judgment. Hallelujah !" Can this be right ? Were the archangel allowed now, by his Lord and ours, to make his voice heard upon earth by Christians offering to him this prayer, would he utter any other words, than the angel, his fellow- servant and ours, once addressed to Saint John, when he fell down to worship before him, " See thou do it not ; for I am thy fellow-servant : worship God." Such then is the evidence borne by the writers of the Old Testament. No prayer to angel or beatified spirit occurs from its first to its last page. The theory which would have us account for the absence of all prayer to the saints before the advent of Messiah, by reason of their not having been then admitted into their everlasting habitations, and the immediate presence of God, proves to be utterly groundless. The holy angels were confessedly in heaven 1 , beholding the face of 1 Matt, xviii. 10. 44 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. God ; but no invocation was ever addressed to them, by patriarch, or prophet, or people, as mediators or in- tercessors. God, and God alone, the one eternal Jeho- vah, is proclaimed by Himself throughout, and is ac- knowledged throughout to be the only object of any kind of spiritual worship ; the only Being who heareth prayer, to whom alone therefore all mankind should approach with the words and with the spirit of invo- cation. It has been argued by some writers, that in the times of the Old Testament, prayer was not offered to God through a mediator at all ; and that as the one Mediator was not then revealed in his person and his offices, the subsidiary intercessors could not of course act ; and therefore could not be invoked by man. The answer to this remark is conclusive. That Mediator has been revealed in his person and his offices ; and has been expressly declared to be the one Mediator between God and man : we therefore seek God's cove- nanted mercies through Him. Those subsidiary in- tercessors have never been revealed ; and therefore we do not seek their aid.* To assure us that it was the mind and will of our Heavenly Father that we should approach him by other secondary and subsidiary medi- ators and intercessors, as clear and unquestionable a revelation of their persons and their offices as mediators would have been required, as he has vouchsafed of the mediation of his Son. Had God willed that the faithful should approach him by the intercessions of the saints and martyrs, is it conceivable that he would not have given some intimation of his will in this respect ? If believers in the Gospel were to have unnumbered mediators of intercession in heaven, as well as the one Mediator of redemption, would not the CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 45 Gospel itself have announced it ? Could such declara- tions as these have remained on record without any qualifying or limiting expression, " He ' is able also to save to the uttermost them who come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." " There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." But this in- volves the question to which the next section must be devoted. All I would anticipate here is, that if the irresistible argument from the Old Testament is sought to be evaded on the ground that no mediator at all was then revealed, we must require a distinct revelation of the existence and offices of other mediators and inter- cessors, before we can be justified in applying to them for their intervention in our behalf. And the question now is, are they so revealed ? SECTION IV. EVIDENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. THOUGH such is the evidence borne against the invo- cation of saints and angels by the Old Testament, yet it has been said that we are living neither under the patri- archal, nor the Mosaic dispensation, but under the Gos- pel, to whom therefore as Christians neither the pre- cepts nor the examples of those ancient times are appli- 1 Heb. vii. 25. 1 Tim. ii. 5. Unde et salvare in perpetuum potest accedentes per semetipsum ad Deum, semper vivens ad interpellandum pro nobis. fulg. 46 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. cable : the injunctions consequently given of old to preserve the chosen people from idolatry and paganism cannot be held to prohibit Christians from seeking the aid of those departed saints who are now reigning with Christ. But, surely, those precepts, and denuncia- tions, and commands, are most strictly applicable, as conveying to us a knowledge of the will of our Hea- venly Father, that his sons and daughters on earth should associate no name, however exalted among the principalities and powers in heavenly places, with his own holy name in prayer, and spiritual invocation. I am throughout this address supposing myself to be speaking to those whose heart's desire is to fulfil the will of God in all things ; not those who are contented to depa-rt from the spirit of that will, whenever they can devise plausible arguments to countenance such de- parture. The cases both of precept and example through the Old Testament affording so stringent and so universal a rule against the association of any name with the name of the Almighty in our prayers ; before we can conclude that Christians have a liberty denied to believers under the former dispensations, we must surely produce a declaration to that effect, clear, unequivocal, and precisely in point. Nothing short of an enactment, rescinding in terms the former pro- hibitory law, and positively sanctioning supplications and prayers to saints and angels, seems capable of satis- fying any Christian bent on discovering the will of God, and resolved to worship him agreeably to the spirit of that will as it has been revealed. But let us read the New Testament from its first to its very last word, and we shall find, that the doctrines, the precepts, and the examples, the pervading reigning spirit of the entire CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 47 volume, combine in addressing us with voices loud and clear, Pray to God Almighty solely in the name and for the sake of his dear and only Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and offer no prayer, no supplication, no intreaty, to any other being or power, saint or angel, though it be only to ask for their intercession with the great God. But this involves the whole question, and must be sifted thoroughly. Let us then review the entire volume with close and minute scrutiny, and ask our- selves, Is there a single passage, interpreted to the best of our skill, with the aid of those on whose integ- rity and learning we can rely, which directly and un- equivocally sanctions any religious invocation of what- ever kind to any being except God alone ? And then let us calmly and deliberately resolve this point : In a matter of so vital importance, of so immense interest, and of so sacred a character as the worship of the Supreme Being, who declares himself to be a jealous God, ought we to suffer any refinements of casuistry to entice us from the broad, clear light of revelation ? If it were God's good pleasure to make exceptions to his rule a rule so repeatedly, and so positively enacted and enforced surely the analogy of his gracious deal- ings with mankind would have taught us to look for an announcement of the exception in terms equally forci- ble and explicit. Instead, however, of this, we find no single act, no single word, nothing which even by implication can be forced to sanction any prayer or reli- gious invocation, of whatever kind, to any other being save to God alone. Let us first look to the language and conduct of our blessed Lord, whose prayers to his Father are upon record for our instruction and comfort, and whose precepts and example form the best rule of a Chris- 13 48 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. tian's life. So far from repealing the ancient law, he repeats in his own person its solemn announcement, " Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord V Whilst the same heavenly Teacher commands us with authority, " When thou prayest, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly 2 ." No allusion in any word of his do we find to any prayer from a mortal on this earth to an angel or saint in heaven. And yet occa- sions were multiplied on which a reference to the invo- cation of angels would have been natural, and apparently called for. He again and again places beyond all doubt the reality of their good services towards mankind, but it is as God's servants, and at God's bidding, not in answer to any supplication or invoking of ours. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus has been cited 3 to bear contrary evidence : but, in the first place, that parable does not offer a case in point ; in the second place, were it in point, it might be fairly and strongly urged against the practice of invoking the spirit of any departed mortal, even the father of the faithful himself. For what are the circumstances of the parabolic repre- sentation? A lost spirit in the regions of torment prays to Abraham in the regions of the blessed, and the spirit of the departed patriarch professes himself to have no power to grant the request of the departed and condemned spirit 4 . The practice indeed of our Roman Catholic brethren would have been exemplified, had our blessed Lord represented the rich man's five bre- thren still on earth as pious men, and as supplicating Abraham in heaven to pray for themselves, or to mitigate 1 Mark xii. 29. 2 Matt. vi. 6. 3 Bellarmin, p. 895. 4 Luke xvi. 19. CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 49 their lost brother's punishment and his woes. But then it would have afforded Christians little encouragement to follow their example, when they found Abraham declaring himself unable to aid them in attaining the object of their prayer, or in any way to assist them at all. Without one single exception, we find our blessed Lord's example, precepts, and doctrines to be decidedly against the practice of invoking saint or angel ; whilst not one solitary act or word of His can be cited to countenance or palliate it. Next it follows, that we inquire into the conduct and the writings of Christ's Apostles and immediate followers, to whom he graciously promised that the Holy Spirit should guide them into all truth. In the Acts of the Apostles, various instances of prayer attract our notice, but not one ejaculation is found there to any other being save God alone. Neither angel nor saint is invoked. The Apostles prayed for guidance in the government of Christ's infant Church, but it was, " Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men '." They prayed for their own acceptance, but it was " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit 2 ." They prayed for each other, as in behalf of St. Peter when in prison ; but we are expressly told, that the prayer which was made with- out ceasing by the Church for him was addressed to Goo 3 . To deliver St. Peter from his chains, an angel was sent on an especial mission from heaven ; but though St. Peter saw him, and heard his voice, and followed him, and knew of a surety that the Almighty had employed the ministration of an angel to liberate him from his bonds, yet we do not hear thereafter of 1 Acts i. 24. * Acts vii. 59. 3 Acts xii. 5. E 50 EVIDENCE OF [FART T. Peter having himself prayed to an angel to secure his good offices, and his intercession with God, nor has he once indirectly intimated to others that such suppli- cations would be of avail, or were even allowable. He exhorts his fellow-Christians to pray, "Watch unto prayer," but it is because " The eyes of the LORD are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers '." He himself prays for them, but it is, that the God of all grace might make them perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle them. He suggests no invocation of saint or angel to intercede with God for them. He bids them cast all their care upon GOD, on the assurance that God himself careth for them. Precisely the same result issues from a contempla- tion of the acts and exhortation of St. Paul. He too experienced in his own person the comfort of an angel's ministration, bidding him cast off all fear when in the extreme of imminent peril 2 . Many a prayer of that holy Apostle is upon record ; many an earnest exhorta- tion to prayer was made by him ; we find many a declara- tion relative to his own habits of prayer. But with him God and God alone is the object of prayer through- out : by him no saint or angel or archangel is alluded to, as one whose intercession might be sought by him- self or by us. He could speak in glowing language of patriarchs, prophets, and angels, but unto none of these would he turn. " Be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God 3 ." And let any one receive, in the plain meaning of his words, his prohibitory monition ', and say, could St. Paul have 1 I Peter iv. 7 ; iii. 12 ; v. 7. 2 Acts xxvii. 23, 24. * Phil. iv. 6. 4 Col. ii. 18. CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 51 uttered these words without any qualifying expression, had he worshipped angels by invocation, even asking them only to aid him by their prayers. " Let no one beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels ; not holding the Head," which Head he had in the first chapter (v. 18) declared to be the dear Son of God, " in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of our sins." The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews could bring before our minds with most fervent uplifting eloquence Abel and Abraham and David, that goodly fellowship of the prophets, that holy army of martyrs ; he could speak as though he were an eye- witness of what he describes, of the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. And, surely, had the thought of seeking the support or intercession of saint or angel by invo- cation addressed to them, been familiar to him ; had the thought even occurred to his mind with approbation, he would not have allowed such an occasion to pass by, without even alluding to any benefit that might arise from our invoking such friends of God. So far from that allusion, the utmost which he says at the close of his eulogy is this, " These all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise ; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect 1 ." The beloved Apostle who could look forward in full assurance of faith to the day of Christ's second coming, and knew that " when He shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is," has left us this record of his sentiments concerning prayer : 1 Heb. xi. 39. E2 62 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. ** This is the confidence that we have in HIM, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us ; and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him V St. John alludes to no intercessor, to no advo- cate, save only that "Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is also the propitiation for our sins 2 ." St. John never suggests to us the advocacy or intercession of saint or angel ; with him God in Christ is all in all. I will only refer to one more example, that of St. James : the instance is equally to the point, and is strongly illustrative of the truth. This Apostle is anxious to impress on his fellow Christians a due sense of the efficacy of our intercessions : "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much 3 ." He instances its power with God by the case of Elijah, a man so holy, that the Almighty suffered him not to pass through the regions of death and the grave, but translated him at once from this life to glory : " Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed that it might not rain ; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months ; and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." And yet St. James is very far from suggesting the lawfulness or efficacy of any invocation to the hallowed spirit of this man, to whose prayer the elements and natural powers of the sky and the earth had been made obedient. He exhorts all men to pray, but it must be to God alone, and directly to God without applying for the intervention of any 1 1 John v. 14. * 1 John ii. 1. 3 James v. 16,17. CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 53 mediators or intercessors from among angels or men. " If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally to all men, and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him ; but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering '." Like the writer to the Hebrews, he would have us come ourselves " boldly" and directly " to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Surely, these Apostles, chosen vessels for conveying the truths of salvation throughout the world, knew well how the Almighty could best be approached by his children on earth ; and had the invocation of saint or angel found a place in their creed, they would not have kept so important a truth from us. Before leaving this part of our subject, I would propose the patient and unprejudiced weighing of the import of two passages in the New Testament, often quoted on this subject; one in the Acts of the Apostles, the other in the Apocalypse. The holy Apostles, Barnabas and Paul, by the performance of a striking miracle, had excited feelings of religious reverence and devotion among the people of Lystra, who prepared to offer sacrifice to them as two of their fabled deities 2 . The indignant zeal with which these two holy men rushed forward to prevent such an act of impiety does not, however admirable and affecting, constitute the chief point for which reference is here made to this incident. They were men, still clothed with the taber- nacle of the flesh, and the weakness of human nature ; and the priests and people were ready to offer to them the wonted victims, the abomination of the heathen. Now, I am fully aware of the wide difference, in many 1 James i. 5. 2 Acts xiv. 1118. 54 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. particulars, between such an act and the act of a Christian praying to their spirits after their departure hence, and supplicating them to intercede with the true God in his behalf: and on this difference Roman Catholic writers have maintained the total inapplica- bility of this incident to the present state of things. But, surely, if any such prayer to departed saints had been familiar to their minds, instead of repelling the religious address of the inhabitants of Lystra at once and for ever, they would have altered the tone of their remonstrance, and not have suppressed the truth when a good opportunity offered itself for imparting it. And, supposing that it was part of their commission to announce and explain the invocation of saints at all, on what occasion could an explanation of the just and proper invocation of angels and saints departed have been more appropriate in the Apostles, than when they were denouncing the unjustifiable offering of sacrifice to themselves when living ? But whether the more appropriate place for such an announcement were at Lystra, in Corinth, at Athens, or at Rome, it matters not ; nor whether it would have been more advan- tageously communicated by their oral teaching, or in their epistles. Doubtless, had the Apostles, by their example or teaching, sanctioned the invocation of saints and angels, in the course of fifty years or more after our blessed Saviour's resurrection, it would infal- libly have appeared in some page or other of the New Testament. Instead of this the whole tenor of the Holy Volume breathes in perfect accordance with the spirit of the apostolical remonstrance at Lystra, to the fullest and utmost extent of its meaning, "We preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities to serve the living God." CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 55 Of the other instance, which is in the Apocalypse, it well becomes every Catholic Christian to ponder on the weight and cogency. John, the beloved dis- ciple of our Lord, when admitted to view with his own eyes and hear with his mortal ears the things of heaven, rapt in amazement and awe, fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed him these things \ If the adoration of angels were ever justifiable, surely it was then ; and what a testimony to the end of the world would have been put upon record, had the adoration of an angel by the blessed John at such a moment, when he had the mysteries and the glories of heaven before him, been received and sanctioned. But what is the fact ? " Then said he, See thou do it not. I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them who keep the sayings of this book. Worship God." I cannot under- stand the criticism by which the conclusiveness of this direct renouncement of all religious adoration and worship is attempted to be set aside. To my mind these words, uttered without any qualification at such a time, by such a being, to such a man, are conclusive beyond gainsaying. The interpretation put upon this transaction, and the words in which it is recorded, and the inference drawn from them by a series of the best divines, with St. Athanasius at their head, presents so entirely the plain common-sense view of the case to our minds, that all the subtilty of casuists, and all the ingenuity of modern refinements, will never be able to substitute any other in its stead. " The angel (such are the words of that ancient defender of the true faith), in the Apocalypse, forbids John, when desiring 1 Rev. xxii. 8, 9. 56 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. to worship him, saying, ' See thou do it not ; I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them who keep the saying of this book. Worship God.' Therefore, to be the object of worship belongs to God only ; and this, even the angels themselves know : though they surpass others in glory, but they are all creatures, and are not among objects of wor- ship, but among those who worship the sovereign Lord V To say that St. John was too fully illuminated by the Holy Spirit to do, especially a second time, what was wrong ; and thence to infer that what he did was right, is evidently an untenable position. He did wrong, or the angel would not have chided and warned him. And to say that the angel here forbade John personally to worship him, because he was a fellow- servant and one of the prophets, and thus that the prohibition only tended to exalt the prophetic cha- racter, not to condemn the worship of angels, is proved to be also a groundless assumption, from the angel's own words, who reckons himself as a fellow-servant with not St. John only, but all those also who keep the words of the book of God, thus equally forbidding every faithful Christian to worship their fellow-servants the angels. They are almost the last words in the volume of inspired truth, and to me, together with those last words, they seem with " the voice of a great multitude, and of many waters, and of mighty thun- derings," from the very throne itself of the Most High, to proclaim to every inhabiter of the earth, Fall down before no created being ; adore no created being ; pray to, invoke, call upon no created being, whether saint or angel: worship and adore God only; pray to God 1 Athan. Orat. 2. Cont. Ar. vol. i. p. 491. CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 57 only. Trust to his mercy ; seek no other mediator or intercessor than his own only and blessed Son. " He who testifieth these things saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen V Thus the New Testament, so far from mitigating the stringency of the former law, so far from counte- nancing any departure from the obligation of that code which limits religious worship to God alone, so far from suggesting to us invocation to sainted men, and to angels as intercessors with the eternal Giver of all good, reiterates the injunction, and declares, that in order to be Christian invocation it must be addressed to God alone; and that there is one and only one Mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of his Father, a merciful High Priest sympathizing with us in our infirmities, ever making intercession for us, able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God through him. The present seems to be a convenient place for observing, that however the distinction is strongly insisted upon, or rather implicitly acquiesced in by many, which would admit of a worship or service called dulia (the Greek SouXsm) to saints and angels, and would limit the worship or service called latria (Xar/oE/a) to the supreme God only, yet that such dis- tinction has no ground whatever to rest upon beyond the will and the imagination of those who draw it. The two words are used in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, and in the original Greek of the New promiscuously, without any such distinction what- 1 Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 58 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. ever. The word which this distinction would limit to the supreme worship of the Most High, is used to express the bodily service paid by the vanquished to their conquerors, as well as the religious service paid by ido- laters to their fabled deities, and by the true worshippers to the Most High. The word which this distinction would reserve for the secondary worship paid to saints and angels, is employed to express not only the service paid by man to man, but also the service and worship paid to God alone, even when mentioned in contra- distinction to other worship. It will be necessary to establish this by one or two instances ; and first as to " latria." One single chapter in the Book of Deu- teronomy supplies us with instances of the word used in the three senses, of service to men, service to idols, and service to God, xxviii. 36. 47, 48 : " Because thou servedst ' not the Lord thy God with joyfulne*ss and gladness of heart ; Therefore thou shalt serve 2 thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee in hunger and in thirst and nakedness." " The Lord shall bring thee unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known ; and there shalt thou serve 3 other gods, wood and stone." Next as to the word, " dulia." The first book of Samuel (called the First of Kings) alone supplies us with instances of this word being used in each of the same three senses of service from man -to man, from man to idols, and from man to his Maker and God. 1 Sam. xvii. 9. " Ye shall be our servants, and serve * us." xii. 24. " Only fear the Lord, and serve 5 him in truth with all your heart." xxvi. 19. J Xarpeuffcif. 3 Xarpeueme. In each case the Vulgate uses the same verb, " servire." CovXevtrsTf CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 59 " They have driven me out from the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go, serve l other gods." It is worthy of remark, that the same word " dulia 2 " is employed, when the Lord by his prophet speaks of the most solemn acts of religious worship ; not in gene- ral obedience only, but in the offerings and oblations of their holy things. Ezek. xx. 40. " In mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve 3 me ; there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first- fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things." St. Matthew also uses the same word when he records the saying of our blessed Lord, " Ye cannot serve 4 God, and mammon." I will only detain you by one more example, drawn from two passages, which seems the more striking be- cause each of the two words " dulia," and " latria" is used to imply the true worship of God in a person, who was changed from a state of alienation to a state of holiness. The first is in St. Paul's 1st Epistle to the Thessalonians, i. 9. " How ye turned to God from idols, to serve 5 the living and true God." The second is in Heb. ix. 14. " How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself In this case also the Vulgate translates all the three passages alike by the same verb, " servire." 2 It is also remarkable that in all these cases, whether the Septuagint employs the word " dulia," or " latria," the word in the Hebrew is precisely the same, 13V 3 SovXfvffovai. Vulg. " serviet." 4 Matt. vi. 24. OV\IVEIV. Vulg. " servire." Qey 60 EVIDENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. [PART I. without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve ' the living God." The word " hyperdulia," now used to signify the worship proper to the Virgin Mary, as being a worship of a more exalted character than the worship offered to saints and angels, archangels, and cherubim and sera- phim, will not require a similar examination. The word was in later times invented on purpose to signify the worship of the Virgin, and is of course found neither in the Scriptures, nor in any ancient classical or eccle- siastical author. 1 \arpevEiv Qey '(,//u'paj' yevidXiov, etc re rHv , Kal rS>v pt\\6v T ui> aoncijo-tV TE /cat 13 CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 95 their example to encourage and prepare other soldiers of the cross thereafter to fight the good fight of faith ; assured that they would be more than conquerors through Him who loved them. We have now examined those works which are regarded by us all, whether of the Roman or Angli- can Church, as the remains of apostolical fathers, Christians who, at the very lowest calculation, lived close upon the Apostles' time, and who, according to the firm conviction of many, had all of them con- versed with the Apostles, and heard the word of truth from their mouths. I do from my heart rejoice with you, that these holy men bear direct, clear, and irre- fragable testimony to those fundamental truths which the Church of Rome and the Church of England both hold inviolate the doctrine of the ever-blessed Tri- nity, with its essential and inseparable concomitants, the atonement by the blood of a crucified Redeemer, and the vivifying and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Supposing for a moment no trace of such fundamental doctrines could be discovered in these writings, would not the absence of such vestige have been urged by those who differ from us, as a strong argument that the doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity was an innova- tion of a later date ; and would not such an argument have been urged with reason ? How, in plain honesty, can we avoid coming to the same conclusion on the subject of the invocation of saints ? If the doctrine and the practice of praying to saints, or to angels, for their succour, or even their intercession, had been known 96 THE EVIDENCE OF [PARf I. and recognised, and approved and acted upon by the Apostles, and those who were the very disciples of the Apostles, not only deriving the truth from their written works, but having heard it from their own living tongue, in the nature of things would not some plain, pal- pable, intelligible, and unequivocal indications of it have appeared in such writings as these ; writings in which much is said of prayer, of intercessory prayer, of the one object of prayer, of the subjects of prayer, of the nature of prayer, the time and place of prayer, the spirit in which we are to offer prayer, and the persons for whom we ought to pray ? Does it accord with common sense, and common experience, with what we should expect in other cases, with the analogy of history, and the analogy of faith, that we should find a profound and total silence on the subject of any prayer or invocation to saints and angels, if prayer or invocation of saints and angels had been recognised, approved, and practised by the primitive Church ? At the risk of repetition, or surplusage, I would beg to call your attention to one point in this argument, am far from saying that no practice is apostolical which cannot be proved from the writings of these apostolical fathers : that would be a fallacy of an oppo- site kind. I ground my inference specifically and directly on the fact, that these writers are full, and copious, and explicit, and cogent on the nature and duty of prayer and supplications, as well for public as for private blessings ; and of intercessions by one Chris- tian for another, and for the whole race of mankind no less than for mercy on himself ; and yet though openings of every kind palpably offered themselves for a natural introduction of the subject, there is in no one single instance any reference or allusion to the CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 97 invocation of saint or angel, as a practice either ap- proved or even known. When indeed I call to mind the general tendency of the natural man to multiply to himself the objects of religious worship, and to create, by the help of superstition, and the delusive workings of the imagi- nation, a variety of unearthly beings whose wrath he must appease, or whose favour he may conciliate ; when I reflect how great is the temptation in un- enlightened or fraudulent teachers to accommodate the dictates of truth to the prejudices and desires of those whom they instruct, my wonder is rather that Chris- tianity was so long preserved pure and uncontaminated in this respect, than that corruptions should gradually and stealthily have mingled themselves with the sim- plicity of Gospel worship. That tendency is plainly evinced by the history of every nation under heaven : Greek and Barbarian, Egyptian and Scythian, would have their gods many, and their lords many. From one they would look for one good ; on another they would depend for a different benefit, in mind, body, and estate. Some were of the highest grade, and to be worshipped with supreme honours ; others were of a lower rank, to whom an inferior homage was addressed ; whilst a third class held a sort of middle place, and were approached with reverence as much above the least, as it fell short of the greatest. In the heathen world you will find exact types of the dulia, the hyper- dulia, and the latria, with which unhappily the prac- tical theology of modern Christian Rome is burdened. Indeed, my wonder is, that under 'the Christian dispen- sation, when the household and local gods, the heathen's tutelary deities, and the genii, had been dislodged by the light of the Gospel, saints and angels had not at a much H 98 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. earlier period been forced by superstition to occupy their room. We shall be led to refer to some passages in the ear- liest Christian writers, especially in Origen, which bear immediately on this point, representing in strong but true colours the futility of deeming a multitude of inferior divinities necessary for the dispensation of bene- fits throughout the universe, whose good offices we must secure by acts of attention and worship. I anti- cipate the circumstance in this place merely to show that the tendency of the human mind, clinging to a variety of preternatural protectors and benefactors, was among the obstacles with which the first preachers of the Gospel had to struggle. In the proper place I shall beg you to observe how hardly possible it would have been for those early Christian writers, to whom I have referred above, to express themselves in so strong, so sweeping, and so unqualified a manner, had the prac- tice of applying by invocation to saints and angels then been prevalent among the disciples of the Cross. We may, I believe, safely conclude, that in these primitive writings, which are called the works of the Apostolical Fathers, there is no intimation that the present belief and practice of the Church of Rome were received, or even known by Christians. The evi- dence is all the other way. Indeed, Bellarmin, though he appeals to these remains for other purposes, and boldly asserts that " all the fathers, Greek and Latin, with unanimous consent, sanction and teach the ad- oration of saints and angels," yet does not refer to a single passage in any one of these remains for establish- ing this point. He cites a clause from the spurious work strangely ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, which was the forged production, as the learned are all CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 99 agreed, of some centuries later; and he cites a pious sentiment of Ignatius, expressing His hope that by mar- tyrdom he might go to Christ, and thence he infers that Ignatius believed in the immediate transfer of the soul from this life to glory and happiness in heaven, though Ignatius refers there distinctly to the resurrection 1 . But Bellarmin cites no passage whatever from these re- mains to countenance the doctrine and practice of the adoration of saints and angels. 1 Epist. ad Rom. c. iv. See above, p. 90. PART I. CHAPTER SECTION I. THE EVIDENCE OF JUSTIN MARTYR 1 . JUSTIN, who flourished about the year 150, was trained from his early youth in all the learning of Greece and of Egypt. He was born in Palestine, of heathen parents ; and after a patient examination of the evidences of Christianity, and a close comparison of them with the systems of philosophy with which he had long been familiar, he became a disciple of the Cross. In those sys- tems he found nothing solid, or satisfactory ; nothing on which his mind could rest. In the Gospel he gained all that his soul yearned for, as a being destined for immortal life, conscious of that destiny, and longing for its accomplishment. His understanding was convinced, and his heart was touched; and regardless of every worldly consideration, and devoted to the cause of truth, he openly embraced Christianity ; and before kings and people, Jews and Gentiles, he pleaded the religion of the crucified One with unquenchable zeal and astonish- ing power. The evidence of such a man on any doctrine 1 Benedictine eel. Paris, 1742. CHAP. IV.] THE EVIDENCE OF JUSTIN MARTYR. 101 connected with our Christian faith must be looked to with great interest. In the volumes which contain Justin's works we find " Books of Questions," in which many inquiries, doubts, and objections, as well of Jews as of Gentiles, are stated and answered. It is agreed on all sides that these are not the genuine productions of Justin, but the work of a later hand. Bellarmin appeals to them, acknowledg- ing at the same time their less remote origin. The evidence, indeed, appears very strong, which would lead us to regard them as the composition of a Syrian Chris- tian, and assign to them the date of the fifth century ; and as offering indications of the opinions of Christians at the tima of their being put together, they are cer- tainly interesting documents. When fairly quoted, the passages alleged in defence of the invocation of saints, so far from countenancing the practice, assail irresistibly that principle, which, with other writers, Bellarmin himself confesses to be the foundation of that doctrine. For these Books of Questions assert that the souls of the faithful are not yet in glory with God, but are re- served in a separate state, apart from the wicked, await- ing the great day of final and universal doom. In answer to Question 60, the author distinctly says: " Before the resurrection the recompense is not made for the things done in this life by each individual 1 ." In reply to the 75th Question, inquiring into the condition of man after death, this very remarkable answer is returned : " The same relative condition which souls have with the body now, they have not after the departure from the body. For here all the circumstances of the union 1 Qusestiones et Responsiones ad Orthodoxos, p. 464. 102 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. are in common to the just and the unjust, and no dif- ference is in them in this respect, as to be born and to die, to be in health and to be in sickness, to be rich and to be poor, and the other points of this nature. But after the departure from the body, forthwith takes place the distinction of the just and the unjust: for they are conducted by the angels to places correspond- ing with their deserts : the souls of the just to paradise, where is the company and the sight of angels and arch- angels, and also, by vision, of the Saviour Christ, accord- ing to what is said ' Being absent from the body, and present with the Lord ;' and the souls of the unjust to the places in hades, according to what is said of Nebu- codonosor king of Babylon, ' Hades from beneath hath been embittered, meeting thee.' And in the places corresponding with their deserts they are kept in ward unto the day of the resurrection and of retribution 1 ." I much regret to observe that Bellarmin omits to quote the latter part of this passage, stopping short with an " &c." at the words hades, or inferorum loca, although the whole of the writer's testimony in it turns upon the very last clause 2 . The next question (76) runs thus : " If the retribu- tion of our deeds does not take place before the resur- rection, what advantage accrued to the thief that his soul was introduced into paradise; especially since paradise is an object of sense, and the substance of the soul is not an object of sense ? " Answer. It was an advantage to the thief entering into paradise to learn by fact the benefits of the faith by which he was deemed worthy of the assembly of the 1 Page 469. 3 Bellarmin, c. iv. p. 851. " Improborum autem ad inferorum loca." CHAP. IV.] JUSTIN MARTYR. 103 saints, in which he is kept till the day of judgment and restitution ; and he has the perception of paradise by that which is called intellectual perception, by which souls see both themselves and the things under them, and moreover also the angels and demons. For a soul doth not perceive or see a soul, nor an angel an angel, nor a demon a demon ; except that according to the said intellectual perception they see both themselves and each other, and moreover also all corporeal objects 1 ." On this same point I must here subjoin a passage from one of Justin's own undisputed works. In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, sect. 5, he says 2 , " Nevertheless I do not say that souls all die ; for that were in truth a boon to the wicked. But what ? That the souls of the pious remain somewhere in a better place, and the unjust and wicked in a worse, waiting for the time of judgment, when it shall be : thus the one appearing worthy of God do not die any more ; and the others are punished as long as God wills them both to exist and to be punished." Not only so; Justin classes among renouncers of the faith those who maintain the doctrine which is now acknowledged to be the doctrine of the Church of Rome, and to be indispensable as the groundwork of the adoration of saints. In his Trypho, sect. 80, he states his sentiment thus strongly: " If you should meet with any persons called Christians, who confess not this, but dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and say there is no resurrection of the dead 3 , but that their souls, at the very time of their death, are taken up into heaven ; do not regard them as Christians 4 ." 1 Page 470. 2 Page 107. * vticpuv. 4 Page 178. 104 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. This, according to Bellarmin's own principle, is fatal evidence : if the redeemed and the saints departed are not in glory with God already, they cannot inter- cede with him for men. On the subject, however, of worship and prayer, Justin Martyr has left us some testimonies as to the primitive practice, full of interest in themselves, independently of their bearing on the points at issue. At the same time I am not aware of a single expression which can be so construed as to imply the doctrine or practice among Christians of invoking the souls of the faithful. He speaks of public and pri- vate prayer ; he offers prayer, but the prayer of which he speaks, and the prayer which he offers are to God alone ; and he alludes to no advocate or intercessor in heaven, except only the eternal Son of God himself. In his first Apologia 1 (or Defence addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius) he thus describes the pro- ceedings at the baptism of a convert : " Now, we will explain to you how we dedicate ourselves to God, being made new by Christ .... As many as are persuaded, and believe the things which by us are taught and declared to be true, and who promise that they can so live, are taught to pray and implore, with fasting, forgiveness of God for their former sins, we ourselves joining with them in fasting and prayer ; and then they are taken by us to a place where there is water, and by the same manner of regeneration as we ourselves were regenerated, they are regenerated ; for they undergo this washing in the water in the name of God the Father and Lord of all, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost." The following is his description of the Christian 1 Apol. i. sect. 61. page 79. CHAP. IV.] JUSTIN MARTYR. 105 Eucharist, subsequently to the baptism of a convert ' : " Afterwards we conduct him to those who are called brethren, where they are assembled together, to offer earnestly our united prayers for ourselves and for the enlightened one [the newly baptized convert], and for all others everywhere, that we, having learned the truth, may be thought worthy to be found in our deeds good livers, and keepers of the commandments, that we may be saved with the everlasting salvation. Having ceased from prayers, we salute each other with a kiss ; and then bread is brought to him who presides over the brethren, and a cup of water and wine ; and he taking it, sends up prayer and praise to the Father of all, through the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit ; and offers much thanksgiving for our being thought by him worthy of these things. When he has finished the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present respond, saying, ' Amen.' Now, Amen in the Hebrew tongue means, ' So be it.' And when the presider has given thanks, and all the people have responded, those who are called Deacons among us give to every one present to partake of the bread and Vine and water that has been blessed, and take some away for those who were not present." The following is Justin's account of their worship on the Lord's day 2 : " In all our oblations we bless the Creator of all things, through his Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Spirit. And upon the day called Sunday, there is an assembly of all who dwell in the several cities or in the country, in one place where the records of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets are read, as time allows. When the reader has ceased, 1 Sect. 65. p. 82. * Sect. 67. p. 83. 106 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. the presider makes a discourse for the edification of the people, and to animate them to the practice of such excellent things [or the imitation of such excellent persons]. At the conclusion we all rise up together and pray ; and, as we have said, when we have ceased from prayer, the bread and wine and water are brought for- ward, and the presider sends up prayer and thanksgiving alike, to the utmost of his power. And the people respond, saying, Amen. And then is made to each the distribution and participation of the consecrated elements '. And of those who have the means and will, each according to his disposition gives what he will ; and the collected sum is deposited with the presider, and he aids the orphans and widows, and those who through sickness or other cause are in need, and those in bonds, and strangers ; and, in a word, he be- comes the reliever of all who are in want." In Justin Martyr I am unable to find even a single vestige of the invocation of Saints. With regard to Angels, however, there is a very celebrated passage 2 , to which Bellarmin and others appeal, as conclusive evi- dence that the worship of them prevailed among Chris-' tians in his time, and was professed by Justin himself. Justin, in his first Apology, having stated that the Christians could never be induced to worship the demons, whom the heathen worshipped and invoked, proceeds thus 8 : " Whence also we are called Atheists, 1 V'%aptffTr)df.t'T(i>i'. 2 Page 47. 1 The genuineness of this passage has been doubted. But I see no ground for suspicion that it is spurious. It is found in the manu- scripts of Justin's works ; of which the most ancient perhaps are in the King's Library in Paris. I examined one there of a remote date. CHAP. IV.] JUSTIN MARTYR. 107 [men without God] ; and we confess that with regard to such supposed gods we are atheists, but not so with regard to the most true God, the Father of justice and temperance, and of the other virtues without any mix- ture of evil. But both HIM and the SON, who came from Him, and taught these things to us, and THE HOST OF THE OTHER GOOD ANGELS ACCOMPANYING AND MADE LIKE, and the PROPHETIC SPIRIT, we reverence and wor- ship, honouring them in reason and truth ; and, without grudging, delivering the doctrine to every one who is willing to learn as we were taught." Governing the words " the host of the other good angels," as much as the words " Him" and " His Son," and " the prophetic Spirit," by the verbs " we reverence and worship," Bel- larmin and others 1 maintain, that Justin bears testi- mony in this passage to the worship of angels. That this cannot be the true interpretation of Justin's words will be acknowledged, I think, by every Catholic, whether Anglican or Roman, when he contemplates it in all its naked plainness ; all will revolt from it as im- pious, and contrary to the principles professed by the most celebrated and honoured among Roman Catholic writers. This interpretation of the passage, when analysed, implies the awful thought, that we Chris- tians pay to the host of angels, God's ministers and our own fellow-servants, the same reverence, worship, and honour which we pay to the supreme Father, and his ever-blessed Son, and the Holy Spirit, without any difference or inequality. No principles of interpre- tation can avoid that inference. 1 The Benedictine Editor puts this note in the margin, " Justin teaches that angels following the Son are worshipped by Christians." Preface, p. xxi. 108 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. "Him the most true Father of righteousness we reverence and worship, honouring him in reason and truth." " The Son who came from him, and taught us these things, we reverence and worship, honouring him in reason and truth." " The army of the other good angels accompanying and assimilated, we reverence and worship, honouring them in reason and truth." " The Prophetic Spirit we reverence and worship, honouring him in reason and truth." Is it possible to conceive that any Christian would thus ascribe the same religious worship to a host of God's creatures, which he would ascribe to God, as GOD ? " We are accused," said Justin, " of being atheists, of having no God. How can this be ? We do not worship your false gods, but we have our own most true God. We are not without a God. We have the Father, and the Son, and the good Angels, and the Holy Spirit." If Justin meant that they honoured the good angels, but not as GOD, that would be no answer to those who called the Christians atheists. The charge was, that " they had no God." The answer is, " We have a God ;" and then Justin describes the God of Christians. Can the army of angels be included in that description ? If they are, then they are made to share in the adoration, worship, homage, and rever- ence of the one only God Most High ; if they are not, then Justin does not answer the objectors '. 1 And surely if Justin had intended to represent the holy angels as objects of religious worship, he would not so violently have thrust the mention of them among the Persons of the ever-blessed Trinity, assigning to them a place between the second and third Persons of the eternal hypostatic union. CHAP. IV.] JUSTIN MARTYR. 109 To evade this charge of impiety, some writers (among others, M. Maran, the Benedictine editor of Justin,) have attempted to draw a distinction between the two verbs in this passage, alleging that the lower degree of reverence expressed by the latter applies to the angels ; whilst the former verb, implying the higher degree of worship, alone relates to the Godhead. But this dis- tinction rests on a false assumption ; the two words being used equally to convey the idea of the highest religious worship l . But in determining the true meaning of an obscure passage, grammatically susceptible of different accepta- tions, the author himself is often his own best inter- preter. If he has expressed in another place the same leading sentiment, yet without the same obscurity, and free from all doubt, the light borrowed from that pas- 1 For example, the first word (aefioptda), " we reverence," is used to mean the whole of religious worship, as well with regard to the true God, as with reference to Diana*; whilst the second word (^f>oaKvvoi>jjLf.v\ "we worship," is constantly employed in the same sense, of divine worship, throughout the Septuagint f, (with which Justin was most familiar,) and is used in the Epistle to the Hebrews to signify the worship due from the angels themselves to God, " Let all the angels of God worship him." The very same word is also soon after employed by Justin himself (sect. xvi. p. 53) to mean the whole entire worship of the Most High God : " That we ought to worship (npoaKwelv} God alone, Christ thus proves," &c. More- over, the word which Justin uses at the close of the sentence, " honouring them" (jifjuSyreg) is the identical word four times em- ployed by St. John ^, in the same verse, to record our Saviour's saying, " That all men might honour the Son, even as they honour the Father ; he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, who hath sent him." * Acts xviii. 7. 13 ; xix. 27. j" Exod. xxxiv. 14. Ps. xciv. (xcv.) 6. 1 Sam. (1 Kings) xv. 25. 2 Kings (4 Kings) xvii. 36. Heb. i. 7. John v. 23. 110 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. sage will frequently fix the sense of the ambiguous expression, and establish the author's consistency. On this acknowledged principle of criticism, I would call your attention to a passage in the very same treatise of Justin, a few pages further on, in which he again defends the Christians against the same charge of being atheists, and on the self-same ground, " that they worship the Father who is maker of all ; secondly, the Son proceeding from Him ; and thirdly, the Holy Spirit." In both cases he refers to the same attributes of the Son as the teacher of Christian truth, and of the Holy Ghost, as the Prophetic Spirit. His language throughout the two passages is remarkably similar, and in the expressions on the true meaning of which we have already dwelt, it is most strikingly identical ; but by omitting all allusion to the angels after the Son, his own words proving that the introduction of them could have no place there, (for he specifies that the third in order was the Holy Spirit,) Justin has left us a comment on the passage under consideration conclu- sive as to the object of religious worship in his creed. The whole passage is well worth the attention of the reader. The following extracts are the only parts necessary for our present purpose : " Who of sound mind will not confess that we are not Atheists, reverencing as we do the Maker of the Universe. . . . and Him, who taught us these things, and who was born for this purpose, Jesus Christ, cru- cified under Pontius Pilate .... instructed, as we are, that He is the Son of the True God, and holding Him in the second place ; and the Prophetic Spirit in the third order, we with reason honour '." 1 Sect. xiii. p. 50. JUSTIN MARTYR. 1 1 I The impiety apparently inseparable from Bellarmin's interpretation has induced many, even among Roman Catholic writers, to discard that acceptation altogether, and to substitute others, which, though involving no grammatical inaccuracy, are still not free from diffi- culty. After weighing the passage with all the means in my power, and after testing the various interpre- tations offered by writers, whether of the Church of Rome or not, by the sentiments of Justin himself, and others of the same early age, I am fully persuaded that the following is the only true rendering of Justin's words : " Honouring in reason and truth, we reverence and worship HIM, the Father of Righteousness, and the Son (who proceeded from Him, and instructed in these things both ourselves and the host of the other good angels following Him and being made like unto Him), and the Prophetic Spirit." This interpretation is strongly confirmed by the pro- fessed sentiments both of Justin and of his contempo- 1 Le Nourry (Apparatus ad Bibliothecam Maximam Veterum Pa- trura. Paris, 1697. vol. ii. p. 305), himself a Benedictine, rejects Bellarmin's and his brother Benedictine Maran's interpretation, and conceives Justin to mean, that the Son of God not only taught us those truths to which he was referring, with regard to the being and attributes of God, but also taught us that there were hosts of spiri- tual beings, called Angels ; good beings, opposed to the demons of paganism. Bishop Kaye, in his excellent work on Justin Martyr, which the reader will do well to consult (p. 53), tells us he was some- times inclined to think that Justin referred to the host of good angels who should surround the Son of God when he should come to judge the world. The view adopted by myself here was recommended by Grabe and by Langus, called The Interpreter of Justin ; whilst Petavius, a Jesuit, though he does not adopt it, yet acknowledges that the Greek admits of our interpretation. Any one who would pursue the subject 13 112 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. raries, with regard to the Son of God and the holy angels. It was a principle generally received among the early Christians, that whatever the Almighty did, either by creation or by the communication of his will, on earth or in heaven, was done by the Eternal Word. It was God the Son, the Logos, who created the angels ', as well as ourselves ; it was He M 7 ho spoke to Moses, to Abraham, and to Lot ; and it was He who conveyed the Supreme will, and the know- ledge of the only true God, to the inhabitants of the world of spirits. Agreeably to this principle, in the passage under consideration, Justin affirms (not that Christians revered and worshipped the angels, but), that God the Son, whom Christians worshipped as' the eternal Prophet, Angel, and Apostle, of the Most High, instructed not only us men on earth, but also the host of heavenly angels 2 , in these eternal verities, further may with advantage consult the preface to the Benedictine edition referred to in this work. Lumper Hist. Part ii. p. 225. Augustae Vindelicorum, 1784. Petavius, Theologicorum Dogmatum torn. vi. p. 298. lib. xv. c. v. s. 5. Antwerp, 1700. The whole passage is thus rendered by Langus (as read in Lum- per), " Verum hunc ipsum, et qui ab eo venit, atque ista nos et aliorum obsequentium exaequatorumque ad ejus voluntatem bonorum Angelorum exercitum docuit, Filium, et Spiritum ejus propheticum, colimus et adoramus." Thus Tatian (p. 249 in the same edition of Justin), " Before men were prepared, the Word was the Maker of angels." 1 " The OTHKR good angels." Justin (Apol. 1. sect. Ixiii. p. 81.) reminds us that Christ, the first-begotten of the Father, Himself God, was also an Angel (or Messenger), and an Apostle ; and here Christ, as the Angel of the Covenant and the chief Apostle, is represented as instructing THE OTHER ANGELS in the truths of the economy of grace, just as he instructed his Apostles on earth," As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." CHAP. IV.} JUSTIN MARTYR. 113 which embrace God's nature and the duty of his crea- tures ! . It is evident that Justin himself considered the host of angels to be equally with ourselves in a state of probation, requiring divine instruction, and partaking of it. It is also evident that many of his contempo- raries 'entertained the same views; among others, Ire- nseus and Origen 2 . I will not swell this dissertation by quoting the passages at length ; though the passages referred to in the margin will well repay any one's careful examination. But I cannot refrain from ex- tracting the words in which each of those writers confirms the view here taken of Justin's sentiments. Irenseus, for example, says distinctly, " The Son ever, anciently and from the beginning co-existing with the Father, always reveals the Father both to angels and archangels, and powers, and excellencies, and to all to whom God wishes to make a revelation 3 ." And not less distinctly does Origen assert the same thing, " Our Saviour therefore teaches, and the Holy Spirit *, 1 Trypho, 141. p. 231. 2 Irenaeus, bookii. c. 30. p. 163. Origen, Horn, xxxii. in Joann, 10. vol. iv. p. 430. 3 So far did some of the early Christians include the hosts of an- gels within the covenant of the Gospel, that Ignatius (Epist. ad Smyrn. 6. p. 36.) does not hesitate to pronounce that the angels incur the divine judgment, if they do not receive the doctrine of the atonement : " Let no one be deceived. The things in heaven, and the glory of angels, and the powers visible and invisible, if they do not believe on the blood of Christ for them is judgment." They seem to have founded their opinion on the declaration of St. Paul (Eph. iii. 10): "That now to the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God." 4 Origen, Horn, in Luc. xxiii. vol. iii. p. 961. I 114 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. who spake in the prophets, teaches not only men, but also angels and invisible excellencies." I will only add one more ancient authority, in con- firmation of the view here taken of Justin's words. The passage is from Athenagoras l , and seems to be the exact counterpart of Justin's paragraph. " Who would not wonder on hearing us called Atheists ? we who call the Father God, and the Son God, and the Holy Ghost, showing both their power in the unity, and their distinction in order. Nor does our theology rest here ; but we say, more- over, that there is a multitude of angels and ministers whom God, the Maker and Creator of the world, BY THE WORD PROCEEDING FROM HIM, distributed and appointed, both about the elements, and the heavens, and the world, and the things therein, and the good order thereof 2 ." I have already stated my inability to discover a single word in Justin Martyr which could be brought to sanction the invocation of saints ; but his testimony is far from being merely negative. He admonishes us strongly against our looking to any other being for help, or assistance, or intercession, than to God only. Even when speaking of those who confide in their own strength, and fortune, and other sources of good, he says, in perfect unison with the pervading principles and associations of his whole mind, as far as we can read them in his works, without any modification or any exception in favour of saint or angel : " In that 1 Athenagoras presented his defence, in which these words occur, to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and his son Commodus, in the year 177. 1 Sect. 10. p. 287. edit. Just. Mart. 13 CHAP. IV.] IREN^EUS. 115 Christ said, * Thou art my God, go not far from me,' He at the same time taught, that all persons ought to hope in God, who made all things, and seek for safety and health from Him alone 1 ." SECTION II. IREN^EUS 2 . Justin sealed his faith by his blood about the year 165 ; and next to him, in the noble army of martyrs, we must examine the evidence of Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons. Of this writer's works a very small proportion survives in the original Greek ; but that little is such as might well make every scholar and divine lament the calamity which theology and literature have sus- tained by the loss of the author's own language. It is not perhaps beyond the range of hope that future researches may yet recover at least some part of the treasure. Meanwhile we must avail ourselves with thankfulness of the nervous though inelegant copy of that original, which the Latin translation affords ; im- perfect and corrupt in many parts, as that copy evi- dently is. This, however, is not the place for recom- mending a study of the remains of Irenseus ; and every one at all acquainted with the literature of the early Church, knows well how valuable a store of ancient Christian learning is preserved even in the wreck of his works. On the subject of the invocation of saints, an appeal 1 Trypho, 102. p. 197. 2 Ed. Paris, 1710. 12 116 THE EVIDENCE OF [ PART I. has been made only to a few passages in Irenaens. With regard, indeed, to one section, I would gladly have been spared the duty of commenting upon the unjustifiable mode of citing his evidence adopted by Bellarmin. It forces upon our notice an example either of such in- accuracy of quotation as would shake our confidence in him as an author, or of such misrepresentation as must lower him in our estimation as a man of integrity. Bellarmin asserts, building upon it as the very foun- dation-stone of his argument for the invocation of saints, that the souls of the saints are removed immediately on their dissolution by death, without waiting for the day of judgment, into the presence of God, and the enjoyment of HIM in heaven. This point, he says, must first be established ; for if they are not already in the presence of God, they cannot pray for us, and prayer to them would be preposterous 1 . Among the authorities cited by him to establish this point is the evidence of Irenseus 2 (book i. c. 2). Bellarmin quotes that passage in these words : " To the just and righ- teous, and to those who keep his commandments, and persevere in his love, some indeed from the beginning, but some from repentance, he giving life CONFERS by way of gift incorruption, and CLOTHES them with eter- nal glory." To the quotation he appends this note : " Mark ' to some? that is, to those who presently after baptism die, or who lay down their life for Christ ; or finally to the perfect is given immediately life and eter- nal glory ; to others not, except after repentance, that is, satisfaction made in another world 3 ." 1 Bell. lib. i. c. 4. vol. ii. p. 851. 1 See Benedictine ed. Paris, 1710. book i. c. 10. p. 48. 3 Agreeably to the principles laid down in my preface, I will not here allude to the doctrine of purgatory, on which Bellarmin con- CHAP. IV.] IREN^EUS. 117 Here I am compelled to confess that I never found a more palpable misquotation of an author than this. I will readily grant that Bellarmin may have quoted from memory, or have borrowed from some corrupt version of the passage ; and that he has unintentionally changed the moods of two verbs from the subjunctive to the indicative, and inadvertently changed the entire construction and the sense of the passage. But then what becomes of his authority as a writer citing testi- mony ? Irenseus in this passage is speaking not of what our Lord does now, but what he will do at the last day ; he refers only to the second coming of Christ to judg- ment at the final consummation of all things, not using a single expression which can be made by fair criticism to have any reference whatever to the condition of souls on their separation from the body. I have consulted the old editions, some at least published before the date of Bellarmin's work ; the suggestion offering itself to my mind, that perhaps the ancient translation was in error, from which he might have quoted. But I cannot find that to have been the case. The old Latin version of this passage agreeing very closely with the Greek still preserved in Epiphanius ] , and quoted by Roman Catholic writers as authentic, conveys this mag- nificent though brief summary of the Christian faith : " The Church spread throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, received both from the Apostles and their disciples that faith which is in one siders this passage to bear ; nor will I say one word on the inter- mediate state of the soul between death and the resurrection, on which I am now showing that the words of Irenaeus cannot at all be made to bear. 1 Haeres. xxxi. c. 30. 118 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. God omnipotent, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things therein, and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for our salvation made flesh, and in the Holy Ghost, who by the prophets announced the dispen- sations (of God J ), and the Advent, and the being bora of a Virgin, and the suffering, and the resurrection from the dead, and the bodily ascension into heaven of the beloved Jesus Christ our Lord, and his coming from heaven in the glory of the Father for the consummation of all things, and for raising again all flesh of the human race, THAT, in order that 2 , to Christ Jesus our Lord and God, and Saviour and King, according to the good pleasure of the invisible Father, every knee should bow, of things in heaven and in earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess to Him, and that he should execute just judgment on all : that he should send the spirits of wickedness, and the transgressing and rebel angels, and the impious and unjust, and wicked and blaspheming men into eternal fire ; but to the just and righteous, and to those who keep his com- mandments, and persevere in his love, some indeed from the beginning, and some from their repentance, he granting life, by way of gift, SHOULD CONFER incor- ruption, and SHOULD CLOTHE them with eternal glory." The words, " some from the beginning," " others from their repentance," can refer only to the two con- ditions of believers ; some of whom have grace to keep the commandments, and persevere in the love of God from the beginning of their Christian course, whilst others, for a time, transgress and wax cold in love, but by repentance, through God's grace, are renewed and 1 The words " of God" are in the Latin, but not in the Greek. ' tra, ut.' CHAP. IV.] IREN^US. 119 restored to their former state of obedience and love. On both these classes of Christians, according to the faith as here summed up by Irengeus, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when He comes in glory for the consummation of all things, and for the resurrection of the dead, will confer glory and immortality. No inge- nuity of criticism can extract from this passage any allusion to the intercession of saints, or to their being with God before the end of the world 1 . But I am not 1 It will be well to see the words of Bellarmin and those of the translation side by side : Bellarmin, lib. i. c. iv. p. 851. Quartus Irenaeus, lib. i. c. 2. " Justis, inquit, et aequis, et praecepta ejus servantibus et in dilectione perseverantibus, qui- busdam quidem ab initio, quibus- dam autem ex pcenitentia, vitam donans, incorruptelam loco mu- neris CONFERT, et claritatem aeter- nara CIRCUMDAT." Nota " qui- busdam," id est, iis qui mox a Baptismo moriuntur, vel qui pro Christo vitam ponunt ; vel deni- que perfectis statim donari vitam et claritatem aeternam ; aliis non nisi post pcenitentiam, id est, sa- tisfactionem in future saeculo ac- tam." Latin Translation. Et de ccelis in gloria Patris adventum ejus ad recapitulanda universa et resuscitandam omnem camera humani generis, UT Christo Jesu Domino nostro et Deo, et Salvatori, et Regi, secundum pla- citum Patris invisibilis, ' omne genu curvet ccelestium, et terres- triumi et infernorum, et omnis lingua confiteatur ej,' et judicium justum in omnibus faciat ; spiri- talia quidem nequitiae, et angelos transgresses, atque apostatas fac- tos, et impios et injustos et in- iquos, et blasphemes homines in aeternum ignem mittat ; Justis autem et aequis et praecepta ejus servantibus et in dilectione ejus perseverantibus, quibusdam qui- dem ab initio, quibusdam autem ex poanitentia, vitam donans, in- corruptelam loco muneris CON- FERAT, et claritatem aeternam CIRCUMDET. Irenaei liber i. cap. x. p. 48. Interpretatio Ve- tus. 120 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. here condemning Bellarmin's untenable criticism : what I lament is the negligence or the disingenuousness with which he misquotes the words of Irenseus, and makes him say what he never did say. To extract from an author's words, correctly reported, a meaning which he did not intend to convey, however reprehensible and unworthy a follower of truth, is one act of injustice ; to report him, whether wilfully or carelessly, as using words which he never did use, is far worse. Another expression of Irenasus 1 is appealed to by Bel- larmin, and continues to be cited at the present day in defence of the invocation of saints; the precise bearing of which upon the subject I confess myself unable to see, whilst I am very far from understanding the pas- sage from which it is an extract. Bellarmin cites the passage not to show that the saints in glory pray for us, that argument he had dismissed before, but to prove that they are to be invoked by us. The insulated pas- sage as quoted by him is this: "And as she (Eve) was induced to fly from God, so she (Mary) was persuaded to obey God, that of the Virgin Eve the Virgin Mary might become the advocate." After the quotation he says, " What can be clearer ?" In whatever sense we may suppose Irenseus to have employed the word here translated " advocata," it is difficult to see how the circumstance of Mary becoming the advocate of Eve, who lived so many generations before her, can bear upon the question, Is it lawful and right for us, now dwelling on the earth, to invoke those saints whom we believe to be in heaven ? I will not dwell on the argument urged very cogently by some critics on this passage, that the word " advocata," found 1 Benedict, lib. v. cap. xix. p. 316. CHAP. IV.] IREN^EUS. 121 in the Latin version of Irenaeus, is the translation of the original word, now lost ', which, by the early writers, was used for " comforter and consoler," or " restorer ;" because, as I have above intimated, what- ever may have been the word employed by Irenaeus, the passage proves nothing as to the lawfulness of our pray- ing to the saints. If the angels at God's bidding minister unto the heirs of salvation ; or further, if they plead our cause with God, that would be no reason why we should invoke them and pray to them. This dis- tinction between what they may do for us, and what we ought to do with regard to them, is an essential dis- tinction, and must not be lost sight of. We shall have occasion hereafter to refer to it repeatedly, espe- cially in the instances of Origen and Cyprian, I will now do no more than copy in a note the entire passage from which the sentence now under consideration has been extracted, that the reader may judge whether on such a passage, the original of which, in whatever words Irenaeus may have expressed himself, is utterly lost, any reliance can satisfactorily be placed 2 . paraclete. 2 Manifeste itaque in sua propria venientem Dominum et sua pro- pria eum bajulantem conditione quae bajulatur ab ipso, et recapitu- lationem ejus quae in ligno fuit inobedientiae per earn quae in ligno est obedientiam facientem, et seductionem illam solutara qua seducta est male ilia, quae jam viro destinata erat virgo Eva, per veritatem evangelizata est bene ab angelo jam sub viro virgo Maria. Quem- admodum enim ilia per angeli sermonem seducta est ut effugeret Deum praevaricata verbum ejus, ita et haec per angelicum sermonem evangelizata est ut portaret Deum obediens ejus verbo. Et si ea inobedierat Deo, sed base suasa est obedire Deo, uti virginis Evas virgo Maria fieret advocata. Et quemadmodum astrictum est morti genus humanum per virginem, salvatur per virginem, aequa lance disposita virginalis inobedientia per virginalem obedientiam. Adhuc 122 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. But passages occur in Irenseus, which seem to leave no doubt, that neither in faith nor in practice would he countenance in the very lowest degree the adoration of saints and angels, or any invocation of them. For example, in one part of his works we read, " Nor does it ' [the Church] do any thing by invoca- tions of angels, nor by incantations, nor other depraved and curious means, but with cleanliness, purity, and openness, directing prayers to the Lord who made all things, and calling upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, it exercises its powers for the benefit, and not for the seducing, of mankind." It has been said that, by angelic invocations, Irenseus means the addresses to evil angels and genii, such as the heathen supersti- tiously made. Be it so ; though that is a mere as- sumption, not warranted by the passage or its context. But, surely, had Irenseus known that Christians prayed to angels, as well as to God and Christ, he would not have used such an unguarded expression ; he would have cautioned his readers against so serious, but so natural, a misapprehension of his meaning. With one more reference, we must bring our inquiry into the testimony of Irenseus to a close. The passage occurs in the fifth book, chapter 31 2 . The principal and most important, though not the longest, part of enira protoplasti peccatum per correptionem primogeniti emenda- tionem accipiens, et serpentis prudentia devicta in columbae simpli- citate, vinculis autem illis resolutis, per quae alligati eramus morti. St. Augustin (Paris, 1690. vol. x. p. 500.) refers to the latter part of this passage, as implying the doctrine of original sin ; but since his quotation does not embrace any portion of the clause at present under our consideration, no additional light from him is thrown on the meaning of Irenaeus. 1 Benedictine Ed. lib. ii. c. 32, 5, p. 166. 1 Benedict, lib. v. c. 32. 2. p. 331. CHAP. IV.] IREN^EUS. 123 the passage is happily still found in the original Greek, preserved in the " Parallels " of Damascenus. In its plain, natural, and unforced sense, this passage is so decidedly conclusive on the question at issue, that various attempts have been made to explain away its meaning, so as not to represent Irenseus as believing that the souls of departed saints, between their death and the day of judgment, exist otherwise than in bliss and glory in heaven. But those attempts seem to have been altogether unsuccessful. I believe the view here presented to us by the plain and obvious sense of the words of Irenseus, is the view at present acquiesced in by a large proportion of our fellow-believers. The Anglican Church has made no article of faith whatever on the subject. The clause within brackets is found both in the Latin and the Greek. " Since the Lord l in the midst of the shadow of death went where the souls of the dead were, and then afterwards rose bodily, and after his resurrection was taken up, it is evident that of his disciples also, for whom the Lord wrought these things, [the souls go into the unseen 2 place assigned to them by God, and there remain till the resurrection, waiting for the re- surrection ; afterwards receiving again their bodies and rising perfectly 3 , that is, bodily, even as the Lord also rose again, so will they come into the presence of God.] 1 Bellarmin, rather than allow the testimony of Irenaeus to weigh at all against the doctrine which he is defending, seems determined to combat and challenge that father himself. " Non ausus est dicere," " He has not dared to say, that the souls go to the regions below," &c. 2 There is no word in the Greek copy corresponding with the Latin " invisibilem." , perfecte. 124 THE EVIDENCE OF - [PART I. For no disciple is above his master ; but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. As, therefore, our Master did not immediately flee away and depart, but waited for the time of his resurrection appointed by his Father (which is evident, even by the case of Jonah) ; after the third day, rising again, he was taken up ; so we too must wait for the time of our resurrection appointed by God, and fore-announced by the prophets ; and thus rising again, be taken up, as many as the Lord shall have deemed worthy of this." SECTION III. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA ' ABOUT THE YEAR 1 80. Contemporary with Irenseus, and probably less than twenty years his junior, was Clement, the celebrated Christian philosopher of Alexandria. I am not aware that any Roman Catholic writer has appealed to the testimony of Clement in favour of the invocation of saints, nor have I found a single passage which the defenders of that practice would be likely to quote ; and yet there are many passages which no one, anxious to trace the Catholic faith, would willingly neglect. The tendency of Clement's mind to blend with the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ, the philo- sophy in which he so fully abounded, renders him far less valuable as a Christian teacher ; but his evidence as to the matter of fact, is even rendered more cogent and pointed by this tendency of his mind. I would 1 Ed. Oxon. 1715. CHAP. IV.] CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. 125 willingly have transferred to these pages whole pas- sages of Clement, but the very nature of my address forbids it. Some sentences bearing on the subject immediately before us, we must not omit. Clement has left on record many of his meditations upon the efficacy, the duty, and the blessed com- fort of prayer. When he speaks of God, and of the Christian in prayer, (for prayer he defines to be " com- munion or intercourse with God,") his language becomes often exquisitely beautiful, and sometimes sublime. It is impossible by a few detached passages to convey an adequate estimate of the original ; and yet a few sen- tences may show that Clement is a man whose testi- mony should not be slighted. " Therefore \ keeping the whole of our life as a feast every where, and on every part persuaded that God is present, we praise him as we till our lands ; we sing hymns as we are sailing. The Christian is persuaded that God hears every thing ; not the voice only, but the thoughts. . . . Suppose any one should say, that the voice does not reach God, revolving as it does in the air below ; yet the thoughts of the saints cut not only through the air, but the whole world. And the divine power like the light is beforehand in seeing through the soul He" (the Christian whom he speaks of throughout as the man of divine knowledge) " prays for things essentially good. " Wherefore it best becomes those to pray who have an adequate knowledge of God, and possess virtue in accordance with Him who know what are real goods, and what we should petition for, and when, and how in each case. But it is the extreme of ignorance to ask 1 Stromata, lib. vii. 7- p. 851, &c. 126 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. from those who are not gods as though they were gods. . . . Whence since there is one only good God, both we ourselves and the angels supplicate from Him alone, that some good things might be given to us, and others might remain with us '. In this way he (the Christian) is always in a state of purity fit for prayer. He prays with angels, as being himself equal with angels ; and as one who is never beyond the holy pro- tecting guard. And if he pray alone he has the whole choir of angels with him." Clement has alluded 2 to instances alleged by the Greeks of the effects of prayer, and he adds, " Our whole Scripture is full of instances of God hearing and granting every request according to the prayers of the just." Having in the same section referred to the opinion of some Greeks as to the power of demons over the affairs of mortals, he adds, " But they think 3 it matters nothing whether we speak of these as gods or as angels, calling the spirits of such ' demons,' and teaching that they should be worshipped by men, as having, by divine providence, on account of the purity of their lives, re- ceived authority to be conversant about earthly places, in order that they may minister to mortals." Is it possible to suppose that this teacher in Christ's school had any idea of praying to saints or angels? In the last passage, the language in which he quotes the errors of heathen superstition, to refute them, so nearly approaches the language of the Church of Rome when speaking of the powers of saints and angels to assist the suppliant, that if Clement had entertained any thought 1 Section xii. p. 879. 2 Strom. iii. p. 753. * Lib. vi. iii. p. 755. * De Oratione, c. i. p. 370. CHAP. IV.] TERTULLIAN. 127 whatever of a Christian praying for aid and intercession to saint or angel, he must have mentioned it, especially after the previous passage on the absurdity and gross ignorance of praying for any good at the hands of any other than the one true God. In common with his contemporaries, Clement con- sidered the angels to be, as we mortals are, in a state requiring all the protection and help to be obtained by prayer; that the angels pray with us, and carry our prayers to God: but the thought of addressing them by invocation does not appear to have occurred to his mind. At the close of his Paedagogus he has left on record a form of prayer to God alone very peculiar and interesting. He closes it by an ascription of glory to the blessed Trinity. But there is no allusion to saint, or angel, or virgin mother. SECTION IV. TERTULLIAN ! . Tertullian, of Carthage, was a contemporary of Cle- ment of Alexandria, and so nearly of the same age, that doubts have existed, which of the two should take priority in point of time. There is a very wide dif- ference in the character and tone of their works, as there was in the frame and constitution of their minds. The lenient and liberal views of the erudite and accom- plished master of the school of Alexandria, stand out in prominent and broad contrast with the harsh and austere doctrines of Tertullian. Tertullian fell into errors of a very serious kind by joining himself to the heretic Montanus ; still on his 1 Ed. Paris, 1675. 128 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. mind is discoverable the working of that spirit which animated the early converts of Christianity; and his whole soul seems to have been filled with a desire to promote the practical influence of the Gospel. Jerome ', the oracle on such subjects, from whom the Roman Catholic Church is unwilling to allow any appeal, expressly tells us that Cyprian 2 , who called him the Master, never passed a single day without studying the works of Tertullian ; and that after Tertullian had remained a presbyter of the Church to middle age, he was driven, by the envy and revilings of the members of the Roman Church, to fall from its unity, and espouse Montanism. Bellarmin calls him a heretic, and says he is the first heretic who denied that the saints went at once and forthwith to glory. A decided line of distinction is drawn by Roman Catholic writers between the works of Tertullian writ- ten before he espoused the errors of Montanus, and his works written after that unhappy step. The former they hold in great estimation, the latter are by many considered of far less authority. I do not see how such a distinction ought to affect his testimony on the historical point immediately before us. If indeed he had held the doctrine of the invocation of saints whilst he continued in the full communion of the Church, and rejected it afterwards, no honest and sensible writer would quote his later opinions against the practice. But we are only seeking in his works for evidence of the 1 Hieron. edit. 1684. torn. i. p. 183. 8 The words of Jerome, who refers to the circumstance more than once, are very striking: " I saw one Paulus, who said that he had seen the secretary (notarium) of Cyprian at Rome, who used to tell him that Cyprian never passed a single day without reading Ter- tullian ; and that he often said to him, ' Give me the Master,' mean- ing Tertullian," Hieron. vol. iv. part ii. p. 115. CHAP. IV.] TERTULLIAN. 129 matter of fact, Is there any proof in the works of Tertullian that the invocation of saints formed a part of the doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church in his time ] . His works will be found in a note, under those two heads, arranged, as nearly as I can ascertain the preponderating sentiments of critics 2 . I will detain you only by a very few quotations from this father. In his Apology, sect. 30, we read this very re- markable passage, "We invoke the eternal God, the true God, the living God, for the safety of the em- 1 The reader, who may be induced to consult the work of the present Bishop of Lincoln, entitled, " The Ecclesiastical History of the second and third Centuries, illustrated from the writings of Tertullian," will there find, in the examination and application of Tertullian's remains, the union of sound judgment, diligence in research, clearness of perception, acuteness in discovery, and great erudition mingled with charity. 2 Works of Tertullian before he became a Montanist : Adversus Judaeos. The Tract ad Martyres. The two Books ad Nationes. The Apology, and the Tract de Praescriptione Hsereticorum. The Tract de Testimonio Animae. The Tracts de Patientia, de Oratione, de Baptismo, de Poeni- tentia. The two books ad Uxorem. Works written after he espoused Montanism : The Tracts de Spectaculis and de Idololatria, though others say these should be ranked among the first class. The Tracts de Corona and de Fuga in persecutione, Scorpiace, and ad Scapulam. The Tracts de Exhortatione Castitatis, de Monogamia, de Pudi- citia, de Jejuniis, de Virginibus Velandis, de Pallio, the five books against Marcion, the Tracts adversus Valentinianos, de Carne Christi, de Resurrectione Carnis, adversus Hermogenem, de Anima, adversus Praxeam, de Cultu Foaminarum. K 130 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. peror Thither (heavenward) looking up, with hands extended, because they are innocent ; with our head bare, because we are not ashamed ; in fine, with- out a prompter, because it is from the heart ; we Christians pray for all rulers a long life, a secure go- vernment, a safe home, brave armies, a faithful senate, a good people, a quiet world. . . . For these things I can- not ask in prayer from any other except Him from whom I know that I shall obtain ; because both He is the one who alone grants, and I am the one whom it behoveth to obtain by prayer ; his servant, who looks to him alone, who for the sake of his religion am put to death, who offer to him a rich and a greater- victim, which He has commanded ; prayer from a chaste frame, from a harmless soul, from a holy spirit So, let hoofs dig into us, thus stretched forward to God, let crosses suspend us, let fires embrace us, let swords sever our necks from the body, let beasts rush upon us, the very frame of mind of a praying Christian is prepared for every torment. This do ye, ye good presidents ; tear ye away the soul that is praying for the emperor 1 ." In the opening of his reflections on the Lord's Prayer, he says, " Let us consider therefore, beloved, in the first place, the heavenly wisdom in the precept of praying in secret, by which he required, in a man, faith to believe that both the sight and the hearing of the Omnipotent God is present under our roofs and in our secret places ; and desired the lowliness of faith, that to Him alone, whom he believed to hear and to see every where, he would offer his worship V The only other reference which I will make, is to 1 Page 27. 2 Page 129. CHAP. IV.] METHODIUS. 131 the solemn declaration of Tertullian's Creed ; the last clause of which, though in perfect accordance with the sentiments of his contemporaries, seems to have been regarded with hostile eyes by modern writers of the Church of Rome, because it decidedly bids us look to the day of judgment for the saints being taken to the enjoyment of heaven ; and consequently implies that they cannot be properly invoked now. " To profess now what we defend : By the rule of our faith we believe that God is altogether one, and no other than the Creator of the world, who pro- duced all things out of nothing by his Word first of all sent down. That that Word, called his Son, was variously seen by the patriarchs in the name of God; was always heard in the prophets ; at length, borne by the spirit and power of God the Father into the Virgin Mary, was made flesh in her womb, was born of her, and was Jesus Christ. Afterwards He preached a new law, and a new promise of the kingdom of heaven ; wrought miracles, was crucified, rose again the third day, and, being taken up into heaven, sat on the right hand of the Father ; and He sent in his own stead the power of the Holy Ghost, to guide believers ; that He shall come with glory to take the saints to the enjoyment of eternal life and the heavenly promises, and to condemn the impious to eternal fire, making a reviving of both classes with the restoration of the body 1 ." Some notice must here be taken of METHODIUS, a pious Christian, of the second century. A work 2 1 De Praescriptione Haereticorum, 13. p. 206. 2 Methodius, Gl. Combes. Paris, 1644. K2 132 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. formerly attributed to him has been quoted in proof of the early invocation of saints; but the work, among many others, has been long ago allowed by the best Roman Catholic critics to be the production of a later age l . Many homilies, purporting to have been deli- vered on the festival of our Lord's presentation in the temple, at so early a period, must be received as the works of a later age, because that feast began to be observed in the Church so late as the fifteenth year of Justinian, in the sixth century. Evidently, moreover, the theological language of the homily is of a period long subsequent to the date assigned to Methodius. In speaking of our blessed Saviour, for example, he em- ploys expressions to guard against the Arian heresy, and makes extracts apparently from the Nicene creed, " God of himself, and not by grace," " Very God of very God, very light of very light, who for us men and our salvation, &c." The general opinion indeed seems to be that this, and many other writings formerly ascribed to the first Methodius, were written by persons of a subsequent age, who either were of the same name or assumed his. Even were the work genuine, it would afford just as strong a demonstration that Methodius believed that the city of Jerusalem could hear his salu- tation, as that the saints could hear his prayer ; for he addresses the same " Hail " to Mary, Symeon, and the Holy City alike, calling it the " earthly heaven 2 ." 1 Fabricius, vol. vii. p. 268, and vol. x. p. 241. 6 eV/yttoc oi/pavdc. CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN 133 SECTION V. THE EVIDENCE OF ORIGEN 1 . Jerome informs us that Tertullian, whose remains we have last examined, lived to a very advanced age. Long, therefore, before his death, flourished Origen, one of the most celebrated lights of the primitive, Church. He was educated a Christian. Indeed his father is said to have suffered martyrdom about the year 202. Origen was a pupil of Clement of Alex- andria. His virtues and his labours have called forth the admiration of all ages ; and though he cannot be implicitly followed as a teacher, what still remains of his works will be delivered down as a rich treasure to succeeding times. He was a most voluminous writer ; and Jerome 2 asked the members of his church, " Who is there among us that can read as many books as Origen has composed?" A large proportion of his works are lost; and of those which remain, few are preserved in the original Greek. We are often obliged to study Origen through the medium of a translation, the accuracy of which we have no means of verify- ing. A difficult and delicate duty also devolves upon the theological student to determine which of the works attributed to Origen are genuine and which are spurious ; and what parts, moreover, of the works re- ceived on the whole as genuine came from his pen. Of 1 Benedictine edition, by De la Rue, Paris, 1733. De la Rue had completed only part of his preface to the third volume, when he was stricken for death. He died in 1739. This editor seems to have been as pious and benevolent, as he was learned and indus- trious. 2 Vol. iv. epist. xli. p. 346. 134 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. the spurious works, some are so palpably written in a much later age, and by authors of different religious views, that no one, after weighing the evidence, can be at a loss what decision to make concerning them ; in the case of others, claims and objections may appear to be more evenly balanced. I trust on the one hand to refer to no works for Origen's testimony which are not confessedly his, nor on the other to exclude any passage which is not decidedly spurious ; whilst in one particular case more immediately connected with our subject, I am induced to enter further in detail into a critical exami- nation of the genuineness and value of a passage than the character of this work generally requires. The great importance attached to the testimony of that passage by some defenders of the worship paid to angels, may be admitted to justify the fulness of the criticism. Lest, however, its insertion in the body of the work might seem inconveniently to interfere with the reader's pro- gress in our argument, I have thought it best to include it in a supplementary section at the close of our inquiry into the evidence of Origen. Coccius ', in his elaborate work, quotes the two fol- lowing passages as Origen's, without expressing any hesitation or doubt respecting their genuineness, in which he is followed by writers of the present day 2 . The passages are alleged in proof that Origen held and put in practice the doctrine of the invocation of saints ; and they form the first quotations made by Coccius under the section headed by this title : " That the saints are to be invoked, proved by the testimony of the Greek Fathers." The first passage is couched in these words : " I will 1 Thesaurus Catholicus. Colonise, 1601. Jodocus Coccius, a native of Bielfield, in Germany, was a canon of St. Juliers. 2 See Appendix A. CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 135 begin to throw myself upon my knees, and pray to all the saints to come to my aid ; for I do not dare, in con- sequence of my excess of wickedness, to call upon God. O Saints of God, you I pray with weeping full of grief, that ye would propitiate his mercies for me miserable. Alas me ! Father Abraham, pray for me, that I be not driven from thy bosom, which I greatly long for, and yet not worthily, because of the greatness of my sins." Coccius cites this passage as from " Origen in La- ment," and it has been recently appealed to under the title of " Origen on the Lamentations." This, however, is a very great mistake. Origen's work on the Lamen- tations, called also " Selecta in Threnos," and inserted in the Benedictine edition l , is entirely a different production from the work which contains the above extract. This apocryphal work, on the other hand, does not profess to be the comment of Origen on the Lamentations, but tne Lament or Wailing of Origen himself; or, as it used to be called, the Penitence of Origen 2 . That this work has no pretensions whatever to be regarded as Origen's, has been long placed beyond doubt. Even in the edition of 1545 3 , this treatise is prefaced by Erasmus in these words, " This Lamenta- tion was neither written by Origen nor translated by Jerome, but is the fiction of some unlearned man, who attempted, under colour of this, to throw disgrace upon Origen." In the Benedictine edition 4 no trace of this work is to be found. They do not admit it among the doubtful, or even the spurious works ; they do not so 1 Vol. Hi. p. 321. * In the Paris edition of 1519 it is called " Planctus, seu La- mentum Origenis." Pope Gelasius refers to it as " Poenitentia Ori- genis." 3 Basil, 1545. vol. i. p. 498. 4 Paris, 1733. ],36 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. much as give room for it in the appendix ; on the con- trary, they drop it altogether as utterly unworthy of being any longer preserved. Instead, however, of admitting the work itself, these editors have supplied abundant reason for its exclusion, by inserting the senti- ments of Huetius ', or Huet, the very learned bishop of Avranches. He tells us, that formerly to Origen's work on Principles used to be appended a treatise called, the Lament of Origen, the Latin translation of which Guido referred to Jerome. After quoting the passage of Erasmus (as above cited from the edi- tion of 1545) in proof of its having been " neither written by Origen nor translated by Jerome, but the fabrication of some unlearned man, who attempted, under colour of this, to throw disgrace on Origen, just as they forged a letter in Jerome's name, lamenting that he had ever thought with Origen," Huet proceeds thus : " And Gelasius in the Roman Council writes, 'The book which is called The Repentance of Origen, apcrcryphal.' It is wonderful, therefore, that without any mark of its false character, it should be sometimes cited by some theologians in evidence. Here we may smile at the supineness of a certain heterodox man of the present age, who thought the ' Lament,' ascribed to Origen, to be something different from the Book of Repentance." The Decree here referred to of Pope Gelasius 2 , made in the Roman Council, A.D. 494, by that pontiff, in conjunction with seventy bishops, contains these strong expressions, before enumerating some few of the books then condemned : " Other works, written by heretics and schismatics, the Catholic and Apostolic Church by 1 Vol. iv. part ii. p. 326. z Cone. Labb. vol. iv. p. 1265. CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 137 no means receives ; of them we think it right to sub- join a few which have occurred to our memory, and are to be avoided by Catholics." Then follows a list of prohibited works, among which we read, " the book called The Repentance of Origen, apocryphal," the very book which Huet identifies with the "Lament of Ori- gen," still cited as evidence even in the present day l . The second passage cited by Coccius, and also by writers of the present time, as Origen's, without any allusion to its spurious and apocryphal character, is from the second book of the work called Origen on Job. The words cited run thus : " O blessed Job, who art living for ever with God, and remainest con- queror in the sight of the Lord the King, pray for us wretched, that the mercy of the terrible God may pro- tect us in all our afflictions, and deliver us from all oppressions of the wicked one ; and number us with the just, and enrol us among those who are saved, and make us rest with them in his kingdom, where for ever with the saints we may magnify him." This work, like the former, has no claim whatever to be regarded as Origen's. It has long been dis- carded by the learned. Indeed so far back as 1545 2 , Erasmus, in his Censura, proved that it was written long after the time of Origen by an Arian. By the Benedictine editors 3 it is transferred to an appendix as the Commentary of an anonymous writer on Job; and they thus express their judgment as to its being a forgery : " The Commentary of an anonymous writer on Job, in previous editions, is ascribed to Origen; 1 See Appendix A. 2 Basil, 1545. vol. i. p. 408 ; and " Censura." 3 Vol. ii. p. 894. 138 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. but that it is not bis 1 , Huet proves by unconquerable arguments. This translation is assigned to Hilary, the bishop ; but although it is clear from various proofs of Jerome, that St. Hilary translated the tracts or homilies of Origen on Job, yet there is no reason why that man who wrote with the highest praise against the Arians, should be considered as the translator of this work, which is infected with the corruption of Arianism, and which is not Origen's." Erasmus calls the prologue to this treatise on Job " the production of a silly talkative man, neither learned nor modest." It is impossible not to feel, with regard to these two works, the sentiments which, as we have already seen, the Bishop of Avranches has so strongly expressed on one. " It is wonderful, that without any mark of their being forgeries, they should be sometimes cited in evi- dence by some theologians." Proceeding with our examination of the sentiments of Origen, I would here premise, that not the smallest doubt can be entertained that Origen believed the angels to be ministering spirits, real, active, zealous workmen and fellow-labourers with us in the moment- ous and awful business of our eternal salvation. He represents the angels as members of the same family with ourselves, as worshippers of the same God, as ser- vants of the same master, as children of the same father, as disciples of the same heavenly teacher, as learners of one and the same heavenly doctrine. He contemplates them as members of our Christian con- gregations, as joining with us in prayer to our heavenly Benefactor, as taking pleasure when they hear in our 1 The arguments of Huetius are found in the Benedictine edition of Origen, vol. iv. p. 324. CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 139 assemblies what is agreeable to the will of God, and as being present too not only generally in the Christian Church, but also with individual members of it l . But does Origen, therefore, countenance any invocation of them ? Let us appeal to himself. Celsus accused the Christians of being atheists, god- less, men without God, because they would not worship those gods many and lords many, and those secondary, subordinate, auxiliary, and ministering divinities with which the heathen mythology abounded : Origen answers, we are not godless, we are not without an object of our prayer ; we pray to God Almighty alone through the mediation only of his Son. " We must pray to God alone 2 , who is over all things ; and we must pray also to the only-begotten and first- born of every creature, the Word of God ; and we must implore him as our High Priest to carry our prayer, first coming to him, to his God and our God, to his 1 One or two references will supply abundant proof of this : " I do not doubt that in our congregation angels are present, not only in general to the whole Church, but also individually with those of whom it is said, 'Their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.' A twofold Church is here : one of men, the other of angels. If we say any thing agreeably to reason and the mind of Scripture, the angels rejoice to pray with us." And a little above, " Our Saviour, therefore, as well as the Holy Spirit, who spoke by the prophets, instructs not only men, but angels and invi- sible powers." Horn, xxiii. in Luc. vol. iii. p. 961. " Whoever, therefore, confessing his sins, repents, or confesses Christ before men in persecutions, is applauded by his brethren. For there is joy and gladness to the angels in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. By them, therefore, as by brethren (for both men and angels are sons of the same Creator and Father) they are praised." In Genes. Horn. xvii. p. 110. 2 Moi'w yap irpoaevKrlov ry iir\ iraai Qsu, &c. Cont. Cels. 8. c. xxvi. vol. i. p. 761. 13 140 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. Father and the Father of those who live agreeably to the word of God." But Celsus, well in this representing the weakness and failings of human nature, still urged on the Chris- tian the necessity, or at all events the expediency of conciliating those intermediate beings who executed the will of the Supreme Being, and might haply have much left at their own will and discretion to give or to withhold ; and therefore the desireableness of securing their good offices by prayer. To this Origen answers : " The one God * the God who is over all, is to be propitiated by us, and to be appeased by prayer ; the God who is rendered favourable by piety and all virtue. But if he (Celsus) is desirous, after the supreme God, to propitiate some others also, let him bear in mind, that just as a body in motion is accompanied by the motion of its shadow, so also by rendering the supreme God favourable, it follows that the person has all his (God's) friends, angels, souls, spirits, favourable also ; for they sympathize with those who are worthy of God's favour ; and not only do they become kindly affected towards the worthy, but they also join in their work with those who desire to worship the supreme God ; and they propitiate him, and they pray with us, and supplicate with us ; so that we boldly say, that together with men who on principle prefer the better part, and pray to God, ten thousands of holy powers join in prayer UNASKED 2 ," [UNBIDDEN, UNCALLED upon.] What an opportunity was here for Origen to have stated, that though Christians do not call upon demons and the subordinate divinities of heathenism to aid 1 "Eva ovv TOV i-rrl iraoi Qeov rjp~iv i^tVfJLtviariov. Cont. Cels. lib. viii. 64. vol. i. p. 789. CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 141 them, yet that they do call upon the ministering spirits, the true holy angels, messengers and servants of the most High God ! But whilst speaking of them, and magnifying the blessings derived to man through their ministry, so far from encouraging us to ask them for their good offices, his testimony on the contrary is not merely negative ; he positively asserts that when they assist mankind, it is without any request or prayer from man. Could this come from one who invoked angels ? Another passage, although it adds little to the evi- dence of the above extract, I am unwilling to pass by, because it beautifully illustrates by the doctrine and practice of Origen the prayer, the only one adopted by the Anglican Church, offered by the Church to God for the succour and defence of the holy angels. Speaking of the unsatisfactory slippery road which they tread, who either depend upon the agency of demons for good, or are distressed by the fear of evil from them, Origen adds, " How far better l were it to commit oneself to God who is over all, through Him who instructed us in this doctrine, Jesus Christ, and OF HIM to ask for every aid from the holy angels and the just, that they may rescue us from the earthly demons." In the following passage Origen answers the ques- tion of Celsus 2 : " If you Christians admit the existence of angels, tell us what you consider their nature to be ?" " Come," replies Origen, " let us consider these points. Now we confessedly say, that the angels are ministering spirits, and sent to minister on account of those who are to be heirs of salvation ; that they ascend, bearing with them the supplications of men into the most pure 1 Cont. Cels. lib. viii. vol. i. p. 786. 60. 7ro