angels; no one would rely
upon such evidence in points of far less moment, even were it
uncontradicted by the same witness.

* * * * *

SECTION VII.--ST. CYPRIAN.

In the middle of the third century, Cyprian [Jerom, vol. iv. p. 342.], a
man of substance and a rhetorician of Carthage, was converted to
Christianity. He was then fifty years of age; and his learning, virtues,
and devotedness to the cause which he had espoused, very soon raised him
to the dignity, the responsibility, and, in those days, the great
danger, of the Episcopate. (Cyprian is said to have been converted about
A.D. 246, to have been consecrated A.D. 248, and to have suffered
martyrdom A.D. 258.) Many of his writings of undoubted genuineness are
preserved, and they have been appealed to in every age as the works of a
faithful son of the Catholic Church. On the subject of prayer he has
written very powerfully and affectingly; but I find no expression which
can by possibility imply that he practised or countenanced the
invocation of saints and angels. I have carefully examined every
sentence alleged by its most strenuous defenders, and I cannot extract
from them one single grain of evidence which can bear the test of
inquiry. Even did the passages quoted require to be taken in the sense
affixed to them {163} by those advocates, they prove nothing; they do
not bear even remotely upon the subject, whilst I am persuaded that to
every unprejudiced mind a meaning will appear to have been attached to
them which the author did not intend to convey.

The first quotation to which our attention is called is from the close
of his treatise De Habitu Virginum, which contains some very edifying
reflections. In the last clause of that treatise the advocates for the
invocation of saints represent Cyprian as requesting the virgins to
remember him in their prayers at the throne of grace when they shall
have been taken to heaven. "As we have borne the image of Him who is of
the earth, let us also bear the image of him who is from heaven. This
image the virgin-state bears,--integrity bears it, holiness and truth
bear it; rules of discipline mindful of God bear it, retaining justice
with religion, firm in the faith, humble in fear, strong to endure all
things, gentle to receive an injury, readily disposed to pity, with one
mind and with one heart in brotherly peace. All which ye ought, O good
virgins, to observe, to love and fulfil;