f rewards; to
whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." [Cotel. vol. i. p. 304.]

In the same book and in the following chapter we find an exceedingly
interesting dissertation on the general resurrection, but not one word
of saint or martyr being beforehand admitted to glory; on the contrary,
the declaration is distinct, that not the martyrs only, but all men will
rise. Surely such an opportunity would not have been lost of stating the
doctrine of martyrs being now reigning with Christ, had such been the
doctrine of the Church at that early period.

In the eighth chapter is contained an injunction to honour the martyrs
in these words: "We say that they should be in all honour with you, as
the blessed James the bishop and our holy fellow-minister Stephen were
honoured with us. For they are blessed by God and honoured by holy men,
pure from all blame, never bent towards sins, never turned away from
good,--undoubtedly to be praised. Of whom David spake, 'Honourable
before God is the death of his saints;' and Solomon, 'The memory of the
just is with praise.' Of whom the prophet also said, 'Just men are taken
away.'" [p. 309.]

And in book viii. 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