naked authority of the second Nicene Council in the eighth century and of the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century, but likewise to substantiate the alleged FACT of the chronological universality and the apostolical origination of the practice itself. I. Now this task, somewhat mercilessly imposed by the Roman Church upon her Priesthood, can only be accomplished, partly by the evidence of Scripture, and partly by the concurrent unbroken testimony of the three first ages up to the very time of the earliest promulgation of Christianity. Accordingly, the high enterprise of its accomplishment has, after this precise manner, been most magnanimously undertaken by Dr. Trevern and Mr. Berington'. Imagines porro Christi, deiparæ Virginis, et aliorum Sanctorum, in templis præsertim habendas et retinendas; eisque debitum honorem et venerationem impertiendam: non quod credatur inesse aliqua in iis divinitas vel virtus, propter quam sint colendæ ; vel quod ab eis sit aliquid petendum; vel quod fiducia in imaginibus sit figenda; veluti olim fiebat a gentibus, quæ in idolis spem suam collocabant: sed quoniam honos, qui eis exhibetur, refertur ad prototypa, quæ illæ repræsentant; ita ut, per imagines quas osculamur et coram quibus caput aperimus et procumbimus, Christum adoremus, et Sanctos, quorum illæ similitudinem gerunt, veneremur: id, quod, Conciliorum præsertim vero secundæ Nicænæ Synodi decretis contra imaginum oppugnatores, est sancitum. Concil. Trident. sess. xxv. p. 507, 508. 1 Discuss. Amic. lett. xiv.-xvii. vol. ii. p. 265-387. Faith of Cathol. p. 414-417, 430-434, 427, 428. 1. The proof from Scripture, or from what the Tridentine Council with a splendid disregard of antiquity has pronounced to be Scripture, is asserted to be contained in the following several passages. (1.) Now, therefore, when thou didst pray, and Sarah thy daughter-in-law, I (the angel Raphael) did bring the remembrance of your prayers before the Holy One: and, when thou didst bury the dead, I was with thee likewise 1. (2.) This was his vision: that Onias, who had been high-priest, a virtuous and a good man, reverend in conversation, gentle in condition, well spoken also, and exercised from a child in all points of virtue, holding up his hands, prayed for the whole body of the Jews. This done, in like manner there appeared a man with gray hairs and exceeding glorious, who was of a wonderful and excellent majesty. Then Onias answered, saying: This is a lover of the brethren, who prayeth much for the people and for the holy city, to wit, Jeremias the prophet of God 2. (3.) I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. Likewise I say unto you: There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth3. 1 Tobit xii. 12. 2 2 Maccab. xv. 12-14. 3 Luke xv. 7. 10. In this passage, Mr. Berington, after the (4.) And, when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of saints 1. (5.) And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him; and smote the waters; and said: Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And, when he had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither : and Elisha went over 2. (6.) And it came to pass as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men: and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and, when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet 3. (7.) And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment. For she said within herself: If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about: and, when he saw her, he said: Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour*. manner of his school of Theology, very ludicrously and very inaccurately translates μετανοοῦντι and μετανοίας, by the english doing penance and penance: just as if our Lord was enjoining one of the bodily penances of a modern roman devotee. The original Greek, as every schoolboy knows, has nothing to do with bodily austerities: it means, solely and exclusively, that change of mind which we call repentance. 1 Rev. v. 8. 32 Kings xiii. 21. 2 2 Kings ii. 14. 4 Matt. ix. 20-22. (8.) And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women: insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches; that, at the least, the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them1. (9.) And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons; and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. (10.) Thou shalt make two cherubim of gold: of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy-seat 3. (11.) And the Lord said unto Moses: Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole: and it came to pass, that, if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived *. (12.) He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made; for, unto those days, the children of Israel did burn incense to it and he called it A thing of brass. (13.) And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and 1 Acts v. 14, 15. 2 Ibid. xix. 11, 12. Numb. xxi. 8, 9. palm-trees and open flowers, within and withoutThe two doors also were of olive-tree: and he carved upon them carvings of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers; and overlaid them with gold1. (14.) And he made a molten sea-And it stood upon twelve oxen-And, on the borders that were between the ledges, were lions, oxen, and cherubim'. 2. The proof from the testimony of the three first centuries, the cogency of which obviously depends upon its distinctness, its copiousness, its universality, and its immediate contact with the apostolic age, is discovered in the several passages following, extracted from the narrative of the martyrdom of Polycarp and from the writings of Irenèus and Tertullian and Cyprian 3. 11 Kings vi. 29, 32. 3 2 Ibid. vii. 23, 25, 29. Dr. Trevern and Mr. Berington cite also certain passages from Origen: but, as they exist only in a latin translation, and as they are of themselves (even as they stand in that translation) of small evidential relevancy and importance; I omit them, agreeably to the plan which I have distinctly laid down and which I have invariably followed. I. They likewise cite Chrysostom and Eusebius and the Acts of the Martyrs in Ruinart, for the purpose of shewing; that the relics of Ignatius were carried back into the East after his martyrdom at Rome, and that the genuine chair of St. James was greatly reverenced in the fourth century. But such evidence as this, as it bears not upon the question of apostolically ordained relic-worship so it is far too late to be of any legitimate historical importance. Very probably, the bones of Ignatius might have been carried back to Antioch, decently wrapped up in a linen-cloth (iv Xiry karetion) as the unknown author of the Acts of his Martyrdom says, for the |