92 as these litanies should not be celebrated without | the bishop or the clergy; so the crosses to be used in these solemnities should not be reposited in any places but the churches, nor be carried by any but such as were appointed. And because in these solemn processions some were inclined to appear in pomp unsuitable to the occasion, with gay clothing, and on horseback; therefore both these things were were particularly forbidden. Sidonius notes it as a great absurdity for men to appear, castorinati ad litanias, dressed up in their rich beaver cloths at a litany, because sackcloth and ashes were more becoming such solemnities, which were intended for fasting, and mourning, and supplication, and humiliation, and confession of sins, after the example of the Ninevites, in their solemn addresses to God. And for this reason the canons forbade any one to appear on horseback or in rich apparel at the rogation solemnities, but rather discalceate in sackcloth and ashes, unless he had the excuse of infirmity to hinder him. For these rogations were intended to implore God's mercy in the most humble manner; and, with the most ardent affections of soul, to beseech him to avert all sicknesses, and plagues, and tribulations; to repel the evils of pestilence, war, hail, and drought; to compose the temper of the air, so that it may be for the health of men's bodies, and fertility of the earth; that he would keep all the elements in due order and harmony, and grant men peaceable times; as Eucherius" relates the chief heads of them in his sermon upon this subject. Whereas, yet, we may observe, no prayers or intercessions were made to saints or angels, as in the modern litanies of the Romish church, but to God only, as shall be showed at large in the following chapter, quiry necessary, which otherwise might have been omitted, is the prevalency of two contrary errors, too much reigning in these later ages; one of which asserts, that the Father alone was the sole object of true Divine worship, and not the Son or Holy Ghost; and the other, that saints and angels had also a share in it. To show the falseness of both which pretences, I shall a little detain the reader with the proofs and evidences of the contrary assertions. And first to show, that Christ, as the Son of God, and the second person of the ever blessed Trinity, was the object of Divine worship in all ages, we will begin with the original of Christian worship, and carry the inquiry through the three first centuries. For the first age, the Scripture is sufficient evidence of the Christians' practice. For not to insist on the precept of honouring the Son, as they honoured the Father; or the form of baptism, in which they are commanded to join the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in one act of worship; or the injunction to believe in the Son, as they believed in the Father; with many other acts of internal worship peculiar to God alone; I only argue from their example and practice. St. Stephen, the protomartyr, when he was sealing his confession with his blood, breathed out his last in a prayer to Christ, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit:" and, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," Acts vii. 59, 60. St. Paul professes he never baptized any but only in the name of Christ, 1 Cor. i. 13. And his common forms of blessing were with invocation of the name of Christ: "Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ;" and, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all:" as the solemn forms run almost in all his epistles, both in the beginning and the conclusion of them. Nay, so common was this practice, that among other titles of the believers, at their first rise and appearance in the world, they were distinguished by the character of those that called on the name of Christ, Acts ix. 14, 21; 1 Cor. i. 2; 2 Tim. ii. 22. Some critics, I know, would have the phrase, επικαλούμενοι τὸ ὄνομα Xpiorov, to be taken passively only for those who were named by the name of Christ, that is, Christians; but this criticism is of no weight; for they were called invokers, or worshippers of Christ, before the name Christian was known in the world: for this name was not used till some time after St. Paul's conversion, when, as St. Luke says expressly, Acts xi. 26, "the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." But they were worshippers of him before, and therefore were distinguished by the cha 93 Conc. Mogunt. can. 33. Sicut sancti patres nostri instituerunt, non equitando, nec preciosis vestibus induti, sed discalceati, cinere et cilicio induti, nisi infirmitas impedie rit. Vide Burchard. lib. 13. cap. 7. Eucher, Hom, de Litaniis. racter of the men that called upon his name. Many other such like evidences are obvious to any one that reads the New Testament: I only add that of Revelation v. 8–13, where the church in heaven and earth together is represented as offering both prayers and hymns to Christ: "When he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Sect. 2 Proofs of the same in the second century. We have here seen the model of the worship of Christ, as begun and settled in the practice of the church in the first age. And we shall find it continued in the same manner in those that followed immediately after. For Pliny, who lived in the beginning of the second century, and, as a judge under Trajan, took the confessions of some revolting Christians, says, They declared to him, they were' used to meet on a certain day before it was light, and among other parts of their worship, sing a hymn to Christ, as to their God. Which is a plain indication of their worship of Christ on the Lord's day. Not long after this lived Polycarp, who joins God the Father and the Son together in his prayers for grace and benediction upon men: The God and Father of 1 Plin. lib. 10. Ep. 97. Affirmabant, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire; carmenque Christo, quasi | Deo, dicere secum invicem. 2 Polycarp. Ep. ad Philip. n. 12. Deus autem et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi; et ipse sempiternus Pontifex, Dei Filius, Christus Jesus, ædificet vos in fide et veritate, et in omni mansuetudine, &c. ; et det vobis sortem et partem inter sanctos suos, et nobis vobiscum, et omnibus qui sunt sub cœlo, qui credituri sunt in Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum et in ipsius Patrem. • Martyrium Polycarpi, ap. Coteler. Patr. Apostol. t. 2. p. 199. Περὶ πάντων αἰνῶ σε, εὐλογῶ σε, δοξάζω σε, σὺν τῷ αἰωνίῳ καὶ ἐπερανίῳ Ἰησᾶ Χριτῷ, ἀγαπητῷ σε παιδί, μεθ' ξ σοι καὶ Πνεύματι Αγίῳ ἡ δόξα καὶ νῦν, καὶ εἰς τοὺς μéλλovтas alwvas 'Av. Eusebius, lib. 4. c. 15. ex Epist. our Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ himself, the eternal High Priest, the Son of God, build you up in faith and truth, and in all meekness, to live without anger, in patience, in long-suffering, and forbearance, and give you a lot and part among the saints, and to us with you, and to all them that are under heaven, who shall believe in Jesus Christ our Lord, and in his Father, who raised him from the dead. And so he begins his epistle, Mercy and peace from God Almighty, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, be multiplied unto you. And when he came to his martyrdom, he made a prayer to God at the stake, before he was burnt, concluding it with this doxology to the whole Trinity: I praise thee, I bless thee, I glorify thee for all things, together with the eternal and heavenly Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son; with whom unto thee, and the Holy Spirit, be glory both now and for ever, world without end. Amen. When Polycarp was dead, the church of Smyrna wrote a circular epistle to other churches, to give an account of his sufferings, wherein they relate this remarkable occurrence, that as soon as he was dead, the Jews suggested to the heathen judge, that he should not suffer the Christians to take Polycarp's body and bury it, lest they should leave their crucified Master, and begin to worship this other. Not considering, says the epistle, that we can never either forsake the worship of Christ, who suffered for the salvation of all those who are saved in the whole world, the just for the unjust; or worship any other. For we worship him as being the Son of God; but the martyrs we only love, as they deserve, for their great affection to their King and Master, and as being disciples and followers of their Lord, whose partners and fellow disciples we desire to be. This is an unanswerable testimony, to prove both the Divine worship of Christ, as the true Son of God, and that no martyr or other saint was worshipped in those days. Not long after this lived Justin Martyr, who, in his second Apology, to wipe off the charge of atheism, brought against them by the heathens, who objected to them, That they had cast off the worship of God; answers, That they worshipped and adored still the God of righteousness, and his Son, (that Ecclesiæ Smyrnensis, reads this with a little variation of the particles: Διὰ τῷ αἰωνία ἀρχιερέως Ιησέ Χρισᾶ τῶ ἀγαπητό σε παιδὸς· δι ̓ ᾧ σοι σὺν αὐτῷ ἐν Πνεύματι Αγίῳ ἡ δόξα, &c. But this makes no alteration in the sense; for still it concludes with a doxology to the three Divine persons: By whom and with whom unto thee and the Holy Spirit be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 4 Smyrn. Eccles. Epist. ap. Euseb. 1. 4. c. 15. et ap. Coteler. p. 200. Μὴ, φησὶν, ἀφέντες τὸν ἐταυρωμένον, τότον ἄρξωνται σέβεσθαι — ἀγνοῶντες, ὅτι ἔτε τὸν Χριστὸν ποτὲ καταλιπεῖν δυνησόμεθα, τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς τα παντὸς κόσμο τῶν σωζομένων σωτηρίας παθόντα, ἄμωμον ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτωλῶν, ἔτε ἕτερόν τινα σέβεσθαι τότον γὰρ, Υἱὸν ὄντα τῇ θεῖ, προσκυνᾶμεν· τοὺς δὲ μάρτυρας, ὡς μαθητάς καὶ μιμητὰς τε Κυρίε, ἀγαπῶμεν ἀξίως, &c. came from him, and taught both them and the host of good angels, who followed him, and were made like unto him,) as also the Holy Spirit of prophecy: to these they paid a rational and true honour, as they always frankly owned to all such as were disposed to learn. Bellarmine" very fraudulently urges this place, to prove the worship of angels: as if Justin had said, that they worshipped the Father, the Son, the angels, and the Holy Spirit; whereas he says nothing of the worship of angels, but that the angels were taught by the Son, and that the Son, together with the Father and Holy Spirit, were the object of Christian worship. Which he repeats again in his foresaid Apology,' saying, in answer to the same objection, that they could demonstrate, that as they worshipped God the Creator of all things, so with equal reason they worshipped Jesus Christ in the second place, and the Holy Spirit of prophecy in the third, knowing Jesus Christ to be the Son of the true God. For whereas the heathens objected further, that it was madness in them, next to the immutable and true God, Maker of all things, to give the second place to a crucified man, he tells them, They understood not the mystery of this practice. Which shows, that as they worshipped Christ, so they worshipped him as the true Son of God, and not as a creature: for he tells the emperors a little after, they held it unlawful to worship any but God alone. Therefore in their practice they also showed their belief of his true Divinity; since they worshipped him only upon this foundation and supposition, that he was truly God, and not a mere man; and to have done it upon any other supposition, had been gross idolatry by their own confession. Which I wish were duly considered by those who now write against the Divinity of Christ, and absurdly pretend that all the fathers of the three first ages were of their opinion. For this is only to make them guilty of the grossest idolatry, and involve them in a monstrous contradiction; whilst they pretended to worship none but God alone, and yet gave Divine honour to one, whom (if our mo 7 * Justin. Apol. 2. p. 60. Τὸν δημιουργὸν-καὶ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, Υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τοῦ ὄντως Θεοῦ μαθόντες, καὶ ἐν δευ τέρα χώρα ἔχοντες, Πνεῦμά τε προφητικὸν ἐν τρίτῃ τάξει, ὅτι μετὰ λόγου τιμῶμεν, ἀποδείξομεν. It. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 302, he styles him ɛòv lσxvρòv кai πроσкνvη. Tov, the mighty God that was to be adored. * Ibid. p. 64. θεὸν μὲν μόνον προσκυνοῦμεν, &c. Athenag. Legat. pro Christianis, Bibl. Patr. Gr. Lat. t. 1. p. 76. Οὐκ ἐσμὲν ἄθεοι, ἄγοντες τὸν ποιητὴν τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς, καὶ τὸν παρ ̓ αὐτοῦ Λόγον. 10 Minuc. Dial. p. 88. Quod religioni nostræ hominem dern representers say true) they did not believe to be truly God by nature, but only a creature. But to go on with the inquiry, as to what concerns the object of their worship in practice. Athenagoras answers the charge of atheism, after the same manner as Justin Martyr had done before him: We are no atheists, who worship the Creator of all things, and his Word that proceedeth from him. Minucius Felix, to another objection, That they worshipped a crucified man, answers, That they were mistaken in the charge; for he whom they worshipped" was God, and not a mere mortal man: miserable is he whose hope is only in man; for his help is at an end, when the life of man is extinct. About this time lived Lucian the heathen, who, in one of his Dialogues, takes notice of the Christian worship. For, bringing in a Christian instructing a catechumen," he makes the catechumen ask this question, By whom shall I swear? And he that personates the Christian, answers, By the God that reigns on high, the great, immortal, heavenly God, and the Son of the Father, and the Spirit proceeding from the Father, one in three, and three in one. Take these for your Jupiter, imagine this to be your God. Which evidently shows, that Lucian had learned this from the Christian institutions, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, were the object of their Divine worship. And he elsewhere objects to them the worship of their crucified impostor," as he blasphemously terms our blessed Lord. Not long after Irenæus, speaking of the miracles which the church wrought in his time, particularly in casting out devils, says, She did this" not by invocation of angels, nor by enchantments, nor by any other wicked piece of curiosity, but by directing her prayers, clean, and pure, and openly, to the God over all; and by invocating the name of Jesus Christ she works miracles for the benefit of men, and not for their seduction. And that this was so, appears further from some of the forms of prayer used then in the church for the energumens in the public service, one of which is recorded by the author of the Con noxium et crucem ejus adscribitis, longe de vicinia veritatis erratis, qui putatis Deum credi aut meruisse noxium, aut potuisse terrenum. Næ ille miserabilis, cujus in homine mortali spes omnis innititur: totum enim ejus auxilium cum extincto homine finitur. 11 Lucian. Philopatris, prope finem. Ὑψιμέδοντα θεὸν, μέγαν, ἄμβροτον, οὐρανίωνα, Ταῦτα νόμιζε Ζῆνα, τὸν δ ̓ ἡγοῦ Θεὸν. 12 Lucian. de Morte Peregr. p. 277. Tov àvETKOλOTICμένον ἐκεῖνον σοφιστὴν προσκυνεῖν. 13 Iren. lib. 2. cap. 57. Nec invocationibus angelicis facit, nec incantationibus, nec aliqua prava curiositate, sed munde et pure et manifeste orationes dirigens ad Dominum, qui omnia fecit, et nomen Domini nostri Jesu Christi invocans, virtutes secundum utilitates hominum, sed non ad seductionem perficit. stitutions," directed personally to Christ, under the title of the only begotten God, who binds the strong one, that is, the devil: which prayer I need not repeat here, because the reader may find it at length hereafter 15 in the service of the catechumens. About the same time with Irenæus lived Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, who, though he does not expressly mention the worship of Christ, yet he acknowledges him to be God of God," and says the world was made by him: For when the Father said, "Let us make man in our own image," he spake this to no other," but to his own Word and his own Wisdom, that is, the Son and Holy Spirit. Whom he expressly styles by the name of Trinity's in the Godhead; and says elsewhere, that God is to be worshipped, and nothing else besides him, who is the true God, the ordainer of kings; who may be honoured, but not worshipped, because they are only men, and not God. From all which it is easy to infer, that Theophilus thought Christ the object | of Divine worship, as the living and true God; and that it would be idolatry to give Divine worship to Christ, upon any other supposition, than that he is true God as well as man. 20 In the same age, Clemens Alexandrinus is an illustrious witness of this practice. For in his exhortation to the Gentiles, he styles him the living God, that was then worshipped and adored: Believe, says he, O man, in him who is both man and God: believe, O man, in him who suffered death, and yet is adored as the living God. In the end of his Pædagogue, he himself addresses his prayers to the Son jointly with the Father, in these words: Be merciful to thy children, O Master, O Father, thou Ruler of Israel, O Son, and Father, who are both One, our Lord." And in the conclusion of the book, he has this doxology to the whole Trinity: Let us give thanks to the only Father and Son, to the Son and the Father, to the Son, our Teacher and Master, with the Holy Spirit; one in all respects; in whom are all things; by whom all things are one; by whom is eternal existence; whose members we are; whose is the glory and the ages; who is the perfect good, the perfect beauty, all-wise, and all-just: to whom be glory, both now and for ever. Amen. 14 Constit. lib. 8. cap. 7. 15 Book XIV. chap. 5. sect. 7. 16 Theoph. ad Autolyc. lib. 2. p. 130. Oɛòs ŵv ó Aóyos, καὶ ἐκ Θεοῦ πεφυκώς. * Ibid. lib. 2. p. 114. Οὐκ ἄλλῳ δὲ τινι εἴρηκε, Ποιήσωμεν, ἀλλ ̓ ἢ τῷ ἑαυτοῦ Λόγῳ, καὶ τῇ ἑαυτοῦ Σοφίᾳ. 1s Ibid. lib. 2. p. 106. Τύποι Τριάδος τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τοῦ Λόγου αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς Σοφίας αὐτοῦ. 19 Ibid. lib. 1. p. 30. Θεῷ δὲ τῷ ὄντως θεῷ καὶ ἀληθεῖ προσκυνώ, &c. Clem. Cohort. ad Gent. p. 84. Edit. Oxon. ПíσTεVσOV, ἄνθρωπε, ἀνθρώπῳ καὶ Θεῷ· πίςευσον, ἄνθρωπε, τῷ παι θόντι, καὶ προσκυνομένῳ Θεῷ ζῶντι. 21 Id. Pædagog. lib. 3. c. 12. p. 311. "Ia0i rois σois, παιδαγωγέ, Πατέρ, ἡνίοχε Ισραήλ, Υἱὲ καὶ Πατέρ, ἓν ἄμφω, Κύριε. 25 Contemporary with Clemens was Athenogenes the martyr, who suffered about the year 196. St. Basil 23 says, He composed a sacred hymn, setting forth the glory of the Holy Ghost. From whence we may collect, that it did the same for Christ as the Son of God. The learned Doctor Cave," by a little mistake of what St. Basil says, supposes Athenogenes to have been the author of those two ancient hymns, called the Morning and Evening Hymns, which the reader will find related at length hereafter, under the titles of the Great Doxology, "Glory be to God on high," &c., and the Hymnus Lucernalis. But it is plain from St. Basil, that the hymn of Athenogenes was distinct from these. For he makes no mention of the Morning Hymn, and says expressly of the Evening Hymn, that he knew not who was the author of it. However, it was a hymn of ancient use in the church, addressed immediately to Christ, and containing this doxology to the whole Trinity, Υμνοῦμεν Πατέρα, καὶ Υἱὸν, καὶ "Αγιον Πνεῦμα Oo, We laud the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. Which St. Basil urges, as we do here, as a distinct testimony from that of Athenogenes, and as a further instance of the church's ancient practice in giving Divine honour and worship, not only to the Father, but to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. About the same time, suffered Andronicus the martyr: in the Acts of whose passion it is objected to him by the heathen judge," that Christ whom he invocated and worshipped, was a man that had suffered under the government of Pontius Pilate, and that the Acts of his passion were then extant. Their worship of Christ was so well known to the heathens, that at every turn, we see, it was objected to them. And their answer was always the same, that they worshipped him indeed, but not as a mere man, but God, the Son of God by nature, and of the same substance with the Father. Which is the answer that Tertullian (who is the last writer of the second age) makes to this objection. For whereas it was objected," that they were worshippers of a man, whom all the world knew to be a man, and the Jews had condemned as a man: to this he answers, not by denying that they worshipped him, but by explaining the reasons and foundation of 29 * Ibid. p. eadem. Τῷ μόνῳ Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ, Υἱῷ καὶ Πατρὶ, παιδαγωγῷ καὶ διδασκάλῳ Υἱῷ, σὺν καὶ τῷ ̔Αγίῳ Πνεύματι πάντα τῷ ἑνί· ἐν ᾧ τὰ πάντα, &c. ὦ ἡ δόξα καὶ νῦν, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας ̓Αμήν. Vid. Strom. lib. 7. cap. 7. p. 851. Σέβειν ἐγκελευόμεθα τὸν Λόγον, &c. 23 Basil. de Spir. Sancto, cap. 29. t. 2. p. 359. 24 Cave, Hist. Liter. vol. 1. p. 60. 25 See chap. 10. sect. 9. chap. 11. sect. 5. 26 Acta Andronici, ap. Baron. an. 290. n. 26. Non scis, quem invocas Christum, hominem quendam factum, sub custodia Pontii Pilati punitum; cujus extant Acta passionis? 27 Tertul. Apol. cap. 21. Sed et vulgus jam scit Christum, ut aliquem hominum, qualem Judæi judicaverunt, quo facilius quis nos hominis cultores existimaverit. Ibid. Hunc ex Deo prolatum didicimus, et prolatione their worship, because they knew him to be the true natural Son of God, by a spiritual generation, and therefore called God and the Son of God, because he was of one and the same essence or substance. For God was a Spirit; and the Son was Spirit of Spirit, and God of God, as Light is of Light. In that manner he was begotten of God, so as to be God and the Son of God, as they were both one. In another place, dissuading Christian women from marrying with unbelievers, among other arguments, he uses this," That in such a family there could be no mention of God, no invocation of Christ, no cherishing of faith by their joint reading of the Scripture. At the same time, he tells us," a Christian could pray to no other but the eternal, the living, and true God: he could not ask such things, as they were wont to ask in prayer, of any other but him, from whom he knew he could obtain them, and who alone was able to give them. Now, this had been absurd and ridiculous arguing to the heathens, had not Christians believed Christ to be the eternal, living, and true God. Their arguments might easily have been retorted, and charged with contradiction; and they would have stood self-condemned by their own practice, if, whilst they were arguing against the heathen idols upon this foot, that nothing was to be worshipped but the eternal, living, and true God, they themselves had worshipped one who fell short of that character. Therefore we must conclude, that as it is plain from the foregoing testimonies, that Christians did give Divine worship to Christ in this age, so they did it only upon this supposition, that he was the eternal, living, and true God, as the eternal Son of the eternal Father; and that however they differed, as far as it was necessary for a Father and Son to be distinct, yet they were but one Creator, and one God. We are now come to the third cen Sect. 3. Proofs of the wor ship of Christ in the tury, where we have first an illusthird century. trious testimony for the worship of Christ as God, in the Fragments of Caius, a Roman presbyter, preserved by Eusebius, out of his book called The Labyrinth, written against Artemon, one of the first that appeared against the Divinity of our Saviour. Here, among many other things, showing the novelty of that heresy, he observes," There were anciently many psalms and hymns com generatum, et idcirco Filium Dei, et Deum dictum ex unitate substantiæ: nam et Deus Spiritus.--Ita de Spiritu Spiritus, et de Deo Deus, ut lumen de lumine accensum,ita quod de Deo profectum est, Deus est, et Dei Filius, et unus ambo. 29 Tertul. ad Uxor. lib. 2. cap. 6. Quæ Dei mentio? que Christi invocatio? ubi fomenta fidei de Scripturarum interlectione ? 30 Id. Apol. cap. 30. Nos pro salute imperatoris Deum invocamus æternum, Deum verum, Deum vivum, &c. Hæc ab alio orare non possum, quam a quo me scio consecuturum, quoniam et ipse est qui solus præstat. posed by the brethren, and transcribed by the faithful, setting forth the praises of Christ as the Word of God, and ascribing Divinity to him. And that such sort of hymns were used in the service of the church, we learn from another passage in the same Eusebius, taken out of the council of Antioch against Paulus Samosatensis, the heretical bishop of Antioch, about the middle of this century. For there he is charged as giving orders to forbid the use of such psalms or hymns as were used to be sung in the church to the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ, under pretence that they were only the novel compositions of late and modern authors: whilst, in the mean time, he suborned women on the great day of the Lord's passion, (or the resurrection, for pascha will signify both,) to sing hymns composed to his own honour; where, among other things, he that would not allow Christ any other but an earthly original, was not ashamed to hear himself blasphemously extolled as an angel come down from heaven; which, as those holy fathers observe, was enough to make a hearer tremble. And for this insolent attempt against the Divinity and worship of Christ, that heretical bishop was anathematized and deposed. A little before this time, Nepos, an Egyptian bishop, composed psalms and hymns for the use of the church, which are commended by Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, as a useful work for the edification of the brethren. And, probably, they might be some of those hymns which Paulus Samosatensis discarded as novel inventions of modern authors, though hymns of the like nature had been in use from the first foundation of the church. Dionysius of Alexandria was one of those who opposed the practice of Paulus Samosatensis by his letters, though he was not present in the council; and he is commended by St. Basil," as one that always used this form of doxology: To God the Father, and the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, be glory and dominion now and for ever, world without end. Amen. But we have more pregnant testimonies from the works of Origen in the beginning of this century. In his fifth Book against Celsus, he tells us, That they could not lawfully worship angels, but they might and did worship the Son of God. All prayers, says he, and supplications, and interces 3 Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 28. Ψαλμοὶ δὲ ὅσοι καὶ ᾠδαὶ ἀδελ φῶν, ἀπαρχῆς ὑπὸ πιτῶν γραφεῖσαι, τὸν Λόγον τῷ Θεῷ τὸν Χριτὸν ὑμνεσι θεολογόντες. 32 Conc. Antioch. Epist. Synod. ap. Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 30. Ψαλμὸς δὲ τοὺς εἰς τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησέν Χριστὸν παύσας, ὡς δὴ νεωτέρες καὶ νεωτέρων ἀνδρῶν συγγράμματα, &c. Dionys. de Promission. ap. Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 24. ̓Αγαπώ Νέπωτα τῆς τε ψαλμῳδίας, ᾗ μεχρὶ νῦν πολλοὶ τῶν ἀδελφῶν εὐθυμῶνται. 34 Basil, de Spir. Sancto, cap. 29. 85 Origen. cont. Cels. lib. 5. p. 233. Hãσav pèv yàp δέησιν, καὶ προσευχὴν, καὶ ἔντευξιν, καὶ εὐχαριστίαν, |