ly 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
benefits throughout the universe, whose good offices we must secure by
acts of attention and worship. I anticipate 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 practice 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 evidence 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 adoration of
saints and angels," yet does not refer to a single passage in any one of
these remains for establishing 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 {99} agreed, of some
centuries later; and he cites a pious sentiment of Ignatius, expressing
his hope that by martyrdom 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. [Epist. ad Rom. c. iv. See above, p.
90.] But Bellarmin cites no passage whatever from these remains to
countenance the doctrine and practice of the adoration of saints and
angels. {100}

* * * * *

CHAPTER IV.

SECTION I.--THE EVIDENCE OF JUSTIN MARTYR.

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 th