red the lowliness of faith, that to Him alone, whom he believed to
hear and to see every where, he would offer his worship." [Page 129.]

The only other reference which I will make, is to {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
produced 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." [De
Praescriptione Haereticorum, Sec. 13. p. 206.]

* * * * *

Some notice must here be taken of METHODIUS, a pious Christian, of the
third century. A work (Methodius, Gl. Combes. Paris, 1644) {132}
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. (Fabricius, vol. vii. p. 268, and vol. x. p. 241.) Many
homilies, purporting to have been delivered 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 p