By these benefits at first was meant the comfort and
encouragement of their good example, and the honour procured to the
religion of the cross by their bearing witness to its truth even unto
death; but in process of time the habit grew of attaching a sort of
mysterious efficacy to their merits; hence this third gradation in
religious worship, namely, prayers to God that "He would hear his
suppliants, and grant their requests for the sake of his martyred
servant, and by the efficacy of that martyr's merits."
4th. Hitherto, unauthorized and objectionable as the two last forms of
prayer are, still the petitions in each case were directed to God alone.
The next step swerved lamentably from that principle of worship, and the
petitioners addressed their requests to angels and sainted men in
heaven; at first, however, confining their petitions to the asking for
their prayers and intercessions with Almighty God.
5th. The last stage in this progressive degeneracy of Christian worship
was to petition the saints and angels, directly and immediately
themselves, at first for the temporal, and afterwards for the spiritual
benefits which the petitioners desired to obtain from heaven. For it
{69} is very curious, but not more curious than evident, that the
worshippers seem for some time to have petitioned their saints for
temporal and bodily benefits, before they proceeded to ask for spiritual
blessings at their hands, or by their prayers.
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