c. 13. we read this exhortation,--"Let us remember the
holy martyrs, that we may be counted worthy to be partakers of their
conflict." [p. 404.]
Does this sound any thing at all like adoration or invocation? The word
which is used in the above {179} passage, _honour_ [[Greek: time] p.
241], is employed when (book ii. c. 28.) the respect is prescribed which
the laity ought to show to the clergy.
To the very marked silence as to any invocation or honour, to be shown
to the Virgin Mary, I shall call your attention in our separate
dissertation on the worship now offered to her.
* * * * *
SECTION XI.--SAINT ATHANASIUS.
The renowned and undaunted defender of the Catholic faith against the
errors which in his day threatened to overwhelm Gospel-truth, Athanasius
(the last of those ante-Nicene writers into whose testimony we have
instituted this inquiry), was born about the year 296, and, after having
presided in the Church as Bishop for more than forty-six years, died in
373, on the verge of his eightieth year. It is impossible for any one
interested in the question of primitive truth to look upon the belief
and practice of this Christian champion with indifference. When I first
read Bellarmin's quotations from Athanasius, in justification of the
Roman Catholic worship in the adoration of saints, I was made not a
little anxious to ascertain the accuracy of his allegations.
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