R. neg. antec. Quia Sancti omnia cognoscunt in Verbo, quæ ad eorum statum pertinent, adeoque preces nostras ad eos directas, vident in l'erbo, sive in Deo tanquam in speculo omnia continente, sicuti Angeli preces nostras cognoscunt. Theologia, tom. v. p. 42. Many explanations to the same effect might be cited. But not so Gregory Nyssen. This sort of high abstraction would not have satisfied the imaginations of the eager crowd before him; and in anticipating the obvious objection of some caviller, or of some sufferer, who perhaps was whispering a comfortless surmise, "Perhaps the saint is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked;" he says, No! no! banish the unworthy suspicion-can we impute to our divinity so ungracious, so uncourteous a mode of behaviour as not to be present in his own fane, on his own commemoration day? Who could believe it? Is there a god so morose? certainly not the Megolomartyr Theodorus! Tu vero (o beate) huc jam ades ad nos, ubicumque tandem fueris, ut diei festo præsis: vocantem enim te, contra vocamus; ac sive in sublimi æthere habitas, sive per cœlestem aliquem circulum versaris, aut in choros angelorum cooptatus Domino adsistis, aut cum virtutibus et potestatibus, ut servus fidelis adorationis officio fungeris: parumper ab iis officiis vacationem deprecatus, veni ad hos qui te honorant, invisibilis amicus; cognosce ac vise ferias, quæ celebrantur, ut gratiarum adversus Deum conduplices actionem. . Multorum beneficiorum indigemus, intercede ac deprecare pro patria apud communem regem et Dominum . . . timemus afflictiones, expectamus pericula; non longe absunt scelesti Scythæ bellum adversum nos parturientes: ut miles propugna (pro nobis) ut martyr pro conservis utere libertate loquendi. Etiamsi superasti seculum at nosti affectus et usus necessitatesque humanæ conditionis; pete pacem ut hi publici conventus non desinant ... .. Nos enim etiam, quod incolumes et integri conservati sumus, tibi beneficium acceptum referimus. Petimus autem etiam futuri temporis præsidium atque securitatem. Quod si majori etiam opus fuerit advocatione ac deprecatione (do not take it as a slight) fratrum tuorum martyrum coge chorum: et cum omnibus una deprecare, multorum justorum preces multitudinum ac populorum peccata luant: admone Petrum, excita Paulum, Joannem item theologum ac discipulum dilectum, ut pro ecclesiis ... sed virtute tuæ sociorumque tuorum deprecationis r dvváμui τῆς σῆς πρεσβείας, καὶ τῶν σὺν σοὶ, θαυμαστὲ καὶ ὑπερλάμπον . . . The Those who are at all conversant with the scenes of antiquity will not find it difficult to bring before their imagination this remarkable scene, and they will feel that the orator's harangue must have had an effect of the most powerful kind upon those who listened to it. A spacious and richly decorated temple, the walls and pavements of which glowed with sacred subjects, was crowded to suffocation with a confluence of persons of all ranks, drawn from the surrounding region, far and near. ministers of this temple, in their richest attire, stood mute before, or moved in solemn procession up to, and around the sacred shrine which hid from the eye the wonder-working dust of the martyr, whose image or likeness, resplendent with the brightest pigments and jewels, and high raised, seemed benignly to wel come the awe-stricken multitude. At the same time a recent public danger, confidently believed to have been averted by the saint's intervention, and also an expected calamity, from which, it was hoped, he would deliver his votaries, stimulated to the utmost the fears and hopes of all. The orator comes forward, and charming the ear with his flow of words, and touching the deepest passions of the public mind, and appealing to the sorrows, the wants, the woes of individuals, at length, and in the style of the fullest assurance, invokes the PRESENT DIVINITYpassionately implores his interposition, in behalf of his trembling country-his church-his humble suitors, each and all!—all are prostrate upon the pictured pavement—all eyes are raised toward the image of the patron and advocate ;—all voices join in the acclamation-"O holy and blessed Theodorus, help us!" Such was catholic antiquity! "Read," says Bishop Newton, "the orations of Chrysostom, and you will be greatly astonished to find how full they are of this sort of superstition, what powers and miracles are ascribed to the saints, what prayers and praises are offered to them!" The evidence, on this point, furnished by Chrysostom's writings, (including none to which any definite critical doubt attaches) is ample, unambiguous, and, in the various forms of affirmation, and incidental illusion, is scattered over a very wide surface. Even if this evidence does not substantiate more than what may be gathered from other sources, it carries with it a peculiar weight. Whatever may be thought of the honesty of some of his distinguished contemporaries, and how much soever he himself may have been tainted by the vicious principles of the age in which he lived, it is impossible not to think of him as sincere, as well as fervent in his piety. He proves himself, moreover, to have possessed an extensive, and we might say, an intimate acquaintance with the inspired writings; and far from attempting to supersede their authority, or to thrust them into the background, as is done by modern romanists, and by the Oxford Tract writers, he appeals to them as the unique, ultimate, and sufficient rule of faith; and is most copious and animated in commending them to the perusal of the laity. Now inasmuch as the degrading superstitions with which we have now to do, not only receive no warrant from the Scriptures, but are sternly condemned by them, it passes the utmost bounds of credibility to imagine that a man like Chrysostom could, without question or remark, have seen errors so gross springing up fresh about him; or that, if recent, he could have fallen in with them, and promoted them zealously, as in fact he does. On no other supposition can we understand this great writer's approval of this corrupt system, than that of its high antiquity (in his time). He must have been bred in the midst of it: it must have acquired over his mind all the authority of immemorial prescription; it must have received the warrant, not only of established and universal custom, but of the explicit assent of the most venerable teachers. I do not see how it is possible to read the passages now to be cited (and there are very many of like import) and not believe that the entire church had long abandoned itself to these enormities, at the period of Chrysostom's ministrations. Some momentous consequences attach to the supposition which we adopt in relation to Chrysostom's testimony concerning the points now before us the reader's especial attention is therefore invited to the passages presently to be adduced, and which will, I think, put beyond doubt 1. Chrysostom's personal and cordial approval of demonolatrous worship. 2. The universality of these superstitions;-or the fact that the christianized people of the fourth century practised, in these respects, whatever is now characteristic of the greek and romish communions. And, 3. And by an unavoidable inference, that these practices were then not of very recent origin. It should be observed that the devotion paid to relics, and the miraculous benefits alleged to emanate from the shrines of the martyrs, constituted a sort of transition-ground between those more vague invocations of the saints with which the orators of this age usually conclude their commemoration harangues, and the direct worship of the images and pictures of these divinities. The common people, encouraged as they were to call upon a favourite saint for help, and to expect miraculous aid while bending before his shrine, would not fail to look up to the image, or basrelief, or gaudy picture itself, and to address to it their supplications, whenever the opportunity so to do was afforded them. Let it be considered what would inevitably be the popular practices resulting from declamations such as the following, when addressed to a people lately reclaimed from polytheism, and still surrounded by it; the passage occurs at the close of the long homily commemorative of S. S. Bernice and Prosdoce-saints, by the way, not included in the roman calendar. Alas! that a divine like Chrysostom should have believed it to be his duty to relate, and with commendation, such a story! A mother plunges with her two daughters, into a river, and thus, while "marrying them to Christ," she "baptized" them also, as well as obtained for them, and for herself, as by force, the crown of martyrdom! a story, both in itself, and in its principle, utterly to be reprobated: but whom the church had canonized, the preacher must commend; and commend them too at the cost of the first axioms of christian morality. "Let mothers listen, let virgins listen ;-those, that they may thus instruct their daughters; these, that they may thus obey their mothers!" By what means the church had obtained possession of the bones of these drowned martyrs does not appear: their shrines, however, were perpetually resorted to by the people, who thence derived innumerable benefits. Fortasse non mediocri erga sanctas illas amore exarsistis: cum hoc igitur ardore coram ipsarum reliquiis procidamus, ipsarum capsulas complectamur: multam enim possunt virtutem capsula martyrum obtinere, quemadmodum et ossa martyrum vim magnam habent. Neque die tantum hujus festivitatis, sed aliis etiam diebus, iis assideamus, eas obsecremus, obtestemur ut patronæ sint nostræ ; multam enim fiduciam obtinent, non viventes modo, sed et mortuæ; multoque majus cum sunt mortuæ. Jam enim stigmata ferunt Christi; cum autem stigmata hæc ostenderint, omnia Regi possunt persuadere. Quando igitur tanta illæ virtute pollent, tantaque apud eum amicitia, cum continua velut obsessione, ac perpetua illarum visitatione, in familiaritatem nos illarum insinuaverimus, ipsarum opera Dei misericordiam impetremus, quam nobis omnibus contingat, &c."-Tom. ii. p. 770. The English reader should have the benefit of this passage.— "You are inflamed, I warrant, with a passionate affection toward these saints! Let us then with this very fire of love fall down before their relics! Let us embrace their shrines; for in truth the shrines of the martyrs are of great efficacy, even as the bones of the martyrs possess great force. And not only on this the day of the (martyrs') festival; but on other days also, let us beset them, let us beseech them, let us invoke them, that they would deign to become our patrons. For great confidence (boldness) have they, not living merely, but as dead; aye, much more as dead. For now they bear the stigmas (marks of martyrdom) of Christ; and while showing these stigmas, they are able to persuade the King to any thing. Since then their power is such, and such their favour with God, when we have, with a continued assiduity, and a perpetual frequenting of their society (at their shrines) made ourselves, as it were, their familiar friends, by their means, we shall obtain for ourselves the loving-kindness of God; which, that we may all enjoy, &c." If only two or three insulated passages of this sort occurred in the writings of the nicene divines, we should peremptorily refuse to regard them as genuine; but in fact, the same pernicious sentiments, and the same evidence as to facts, meet the eye in more places than could soon be enumerated; while incidental allusions to the corresponding observances of the church, and to popular practices therewith agreeing, are equally frequent, and, if possible, still more conclusive. It is altogether a delusion to suppose that respectable roman catholic writers are used to say any thing more, in recommendation of the demonolatry of their church, than is here and else |