AEs. 603, 604.]
Now, on what authority does this doctrine rest? On what foundation stone
is this religious worship built? The holy Scriptures are totally and
profoundly silent, as to the time, the place, the manner of Mary's
death. Once after the ascension of our Lord, and that within eight days,
we find mentioned the name of Mary promiscuously with others; after
that, no allusion is made to her in life or in death; and no account, as
far as I can find, places her death too late for mention to have been
made of it in the Acts of the Apostles. The historian, Nicephorus
Callistus, refers it to the 5th year of Claudius, that is about A.D. 47:
after which period, events through more than fifteen years are recorded
in that book of sacred Scripture.
But closing the holy volume, what light does primitive antiquity enable
us to throw on this subject?
The earliest testimony quoted by the defenders of the doctrine, that
Mary was at her death taken up bodily into heaven, is a supposed entry
in the Chronicon of Eusebius, opposite the year of our Lord 48. This is
cited by Coccius without any remark; and even Baronius rests the date of
Mary's assumption upon this testimony. [Vol. i. 403.] The words referred
to are these,--"Mary the Virgin, the mother of Jesus, was taken up into
heaven; as some write that it had been revealed to them." {304}
Now, suppose for one moment that this came from the pen of Eusebius
himself, to what does it amount? A chronologist in the fourth century
records that some persons, whom he does not name, not even stating when
they lived, had written down, not what they had heard as matter of fact,
or received by tradition, but that a revelation had been made to them of
a fact alleged to have taken place nearly three centuries before the
time of that writer.
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