Paul desired to be offered
up for himself, that by them a door of utterance to speak the mystery of
Christ might be opened unto him [Coloss. i. 2; iv. 2, 3.]--and with
those saints to whom the same Apostle wrote at Philippi: "To all the
saints in Christ Jesus:" and to whom he sent the greetings of the saints
who then surrounded him: "ALL the SAINTS salute you." [Phil i. 1; iv.
22.]
But before the closing words of this paragraph, whatever be its meaning,
be acknowledged as the genuine and undoubted production of Eusebius, I
would suggest the careful weighing of some considerations, which appear
to me to involve serious difficulties.
1. First, through all the voluminous works of Eusebius, I have found in
no single passage any allusion to the prayers of saints departed, or to
their ministering offices in our behalf, though numberless openings show
themselves for the natural introduction of such a subject.
2. Secondly, among all the various works and treatises of Eusebius, I
have not found one which is closed by any termination of the kind; on
the contrary, they all end with remarkable suddenness and abruptness,
precisely as this comment would end, were the sentence under
consideration removed. Each, indeed, of the books of his Ecclesiastical
History, is followed by a notice of the close of the book, in some cases
too that notice involving a religious sentiment: for example, at the
close of the 10th book we read: "With the help of God, the end of the
tenth book.
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