In it he speaks to his brother Christians
of prayer, constant, incessant prayer; but the prayer of which he speaks
is supplication addressed only to God [31]. He marks out for our
imitation the good example of St. Paul and the other Apostles; assuring
us that they had not run in vain, {91} but were gone to the place
prepared for them by the Lord, as the reward of their labours. But not
one word does he utter bearing upon the invocation of saints in prayer;
he makes no allusion to the Virgin Mary.
[Footnote 31: [Greek: deaesesin aitoumenoi ton pantepoptaen
Theon]. Sect. 7.]
Before we close our examination of the recorded sentiments of the
apostolical fathers on the immediate subject of our inquiry, we must
refer, though briefly, to the Epistle generally received as the genuine
letter from the Church of Smyrna to the neighbouring Churches, narrating
the martyrdom of Polycarp. It belongs, perhaps, more strictly to this
place than to the remains of Eusebius, because, together with the
sentiments of his contemporaries who witnessed his death and dictated
the letter, it purports to contain the very words of the martyr himself
in the last prayer which he ever offered upon earth. With some
variations from the copy generally circulated, this letter is preserved
in the works of Eusebius. [Euseb. Paris, 1628, dedicated to the
Archbishop by Franciscus Vigerus.
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