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 invocations 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." [Benedictine Ed. lib. ii. c. 32.
Sec. 5. p. 166.] It has been said that, by angelic invocations, Irenaeus
means the addresses to evil angels and genii, such as the heathen
superstitiously made. Be it so; though that is a mere assumption, not
warranted by the passage or its context. But, surely, had Irenaeus known
that Christians prayed to angels, as well as to their Maker and their
Saviour, 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
Irenaeus to a close. The passage occurs in the fifth book, chapter 31.
[Benedict. lib. v. c. 32. Sec. 2. p, 331.] The principal and most
important, though not the longest, part of {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
Irenaeus 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 have been altogether unsuccessful. I
believe the view here presented to us by the plain and obvious sense of
the words of Irenaeus, 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[45] 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[46]
place assigned to them by God, and there remain till the resu