distant parts of the world, invoked the name and
assistance of Stephen or of Martin. The confidence of their petitioners
was founded on the persuasion, that the saints, who reigned with Christ,
cast an eye of pity upon earth; that they were warmly interested in
the prosperity of the Catholic Church; and that the individuals, who
imitated the example of their faith and piety, were the peculiar and
favorite objects of their most tender regard. Sometimes, indeed, their
friendship might be influenced by considerations of a less exalted kind:
they viewed with partial affection the places which had been consecrated
by their birth, their residence, their death, their burial, or the
possession of their relics. The meaner passions of pride, avarice, and
revenge, may be deemed unworthy of a celestial breast; yet the saints
themselves condescended to testify their grateful approbation of the
liberality of their votaries; and the sharpest bolts of punishment were
hurled against those impious wretches, who violated their magnificent
shrines, or disbelieved their supernatural power. Atrocious, indeed,
must have been the guilt, and strange would have been the scepticism,
of those men, if they had obstinately resisted the proofs of a divine
agency, which the elements, the whole range of the animal creation,
and even the subtle and invisible operations of the human mind, were
compelled to obey. The immediate, and almost instantaneous, effects
that were supposed to follow the prayer, or the offence, satisfied the
Christians of the ample measure of favor and authority which the
saints enjoyed in the presence of the Supreme God; and it seemed
almost superfluous to inquire whether they were continually obliged
to intercede before the throne of grace; or whether they might not be
permitted to exercise, according to the dictates of their benevolence
and justice, the delegated powers of their subordinate ministry.
The imagination, which had been raised by a painful effort to the
contemplation and worship of the Universal Cause, eagerly embraced such
inferior objects of adoration as were more proportioned to its gross
conceptions and imperfect faculties. The sublime and simple theology of
the primitive Christians was gradually corrupted; and the Monarchy of
heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was degraded by the
introduction of a popular mythology, which tended to restore the reign
of polytheism.

IV. As the objects of religion