ived close
upon the Apostles' time, and who, according to the firm conviction of
many, had all of them conversed with the Apostles, and heard the word of
truth from their mouths. I do from my heart rejoice with you, that these
holy men bear direct, clear, and irrefragable testimony to those
fundamental truths which the Church of Rome and the Church of England
both hold inviolate--the doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity, with its
essential and inseparable concomitants, the atonement by the blood of a
crucified Redeemer, and the vivifying and sanctifying influences of the
Holy Spirit.

Supposing for a moment no trace of such fundamental doctrines could be
discovered in these writings, would not the absence of such vestige have
been urged by those who differ from us, as a strong argument that the
doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity was an innovation of a later date;
and would not such an argument have been urged with reason? How, in
plain honesty, can we avoid coming to the same conclusion on the subject
of the invocation of saints? If the doctrine and the practice of praying
to saints, or to angels, for their succour, or even their intercession,
had been known {96} and recognised, and approved and acted upon by the
Apostles, and those who were the very disciples of the Apostles, not
only deriving the truth from their written works, but having heard it
from their own living tongue,--in the nature of things would not some
plain, palpable, intelligible, and unequivocal indications of it have
appeared in such writings as these; writings in which much is said of
prayer, of intercessory prayer, of the one object of prayer, of the
subjects of prayer, of the nature of prayer, the time and place of
prayer, the spirit in which we are to offer prayer, and the persons for
whom we ought to pray? Does it accord with common sense, and common
experience, with what we should expect in other cases, with the analogy
of history, and the analogy of faith, that we should find a profound and
total silence on the subject of any prayer or invocation to saints and
angels, if prayer or invocation of saints and angels had been
recognised, approved, and practised by the primitive Church?

At the risk of repetition, or surplusage, I would beg to call your
attention to one point in this argument. I am far from saying that no
practice is apostolical which cannot be proved from the writings of
these apostolical fathers: that would be a fallacy of an o