At the same time I am not aware of
a single expression which can be so construed as to imply the doctrine
or practice among Christians of invoking the souls of the faithful. He
speaks of public and private prayer; he offers prayer, but the prayer of
which he speaks, and the prayer which he offers are to God alone; and he
alludes to no advocate or intercessor in heaven, except only the eternal
Son of God himself. In his first Apologia (or Defence addressed to the
Emperor Antoninus Pius) he thus describes the proceedings at the baptism
of a convert:--
"Now, we will explain to you how we dedicate ourselves to God, being
made new by Christ.... As many as are persuaded, and believe the things
which by us are taught and declared to be true, and who promise that
they can so live, are taught to pray and implore, with fasting,
forgiveness of God for their former sins, we ourselves joining with them
in fasting and prayer; and then they are taken by us to a place where
there is water, and by the same manner of regeneration as we ourselves
were regenerated, they are regenerated; for they undergo this washing in
the water in the name of God the Father and Lord of all, and of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost." [Apol. i. sect 61, page
79.]
The following is his description of the Christian {105} Eucharist,
subsequently to the baptism of a convert: "Afterwards we conduct him to
those who are called brethren, where they are assembled together to
offer earnestly our united prayers for ourselves and for the enlightened
one [the newly baptized convert], and for all others every where, that
we, having learned the truth, may be thought worthy to be found in our
deeds good livers, and keepers of the commandments, that we may be saved
with the everlasting salvation.
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