What an opportunity was here for Origen to have stated, that though Christians did not call upon angels and the subordinate divinities of heathenism, yet that with other holy persons, objects of their prayers in heaven, they called upon the Virgin Mary, the mother of the Saviour, the queen of heaven, the gate of heaven, the way to heaven, in whom the Supreme God was well pleased, and who could succour and save whom she would! Instead of this, we find him in one place referring to Mary* just as we should ourselves speak of her, as one not like other mothers, but as a pure Virgin, and therefore not amenable to the Levitical law relating to matrons in another, he refers to "the announcement to Zacharias of the birth of John, and to Mary of the advent of our Saviour among men;"‡ making no difference of dignity between the father of the Baptist and the mother of our Lord. But not one word is found to intimate the belief of himself or of the Church in the influence and advocacy of Mary, or the practice of the Church or of himself in praying to her for her succour or intercession. But the positive testimony of Origen is very strong against the present doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome towards the Virgin Mary. Huet charges Origen with holding unsound tenets, "contrary to the doctrine at the present day of the Church of Rome, and to the Council of Trent." The third error with which he charges him is, that whereas "the Church and that Council maintain that the Virgin Mary never had sin, Origen holds that she was not only liable to sin, but actually was guilty of it." § p. 228. *In Levit. Hom. viii. vol. ii. + Levit. xii. 2. And in proof of this charge Huet quotes Origen's comment on Luke, c. ii." What is that sword that pierced through the hearts, not only of others, but of Mary also? It is plainly written that, at the time of the passion, all the Apostles were offended; the Lord himself saying, All you shall be offended this night.' Therefore all were offended to such a degree, that Peter also, the chief of the Apostles, thrice denied him. What! Do we suppose, that when the Apostles were offended, the mother of our Lord was free from feeling offence? If she did not feel offence in the suffering of our Lord, Jesus did not die for her sins. But if all have sinned and want the glory of God, being justified by his grace and redeemed, surely Mary too was offended at that time. And this is what Simeon now prophesies, saying, And through thy own soul, thou who knowest that without a husband thou broughtest forth, who didst hear the voice of Gabriel, 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,' the sword of unbelief shall pierce; and thou shalt be struck by the sharp point of doubt, when thou shalt see him whom thou heardest to be the Son of God, and whom thou knowest that thou broughtest forth without a husband, crucified and dying, and subject to human suffering."* Huet implicates, and not without reason, in the same charge Basil, Chrysostom, Cyril, and others. The fact is, that a large proportion of the ancient Fathers of the Church speak freely on the want of faith, or its imperfection and weakness, in the Virgin Mary. SECTION II.-GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, a.d. 245. Gregory, whose original name was Theodorus, and who was also called Thaumaturgus, or the Wonderworker, from the number of miracles ascribed to him, was Bishop of Cæsarea in Pontus.* His name is not found among those whom the canon law of Rome, or the council of Pope Gelasius, has admitted into the catalogue of approved and authoritative teachers; indeed, that decree makes no mention of him. Yet, since he is often quoted by Bellarmin and other Roman Catholic controversialists, it does not appear safe to omit all inquiry into his evidence. This Gregory was a disciple of Origen, on whom he wrote a panegyric, which Jerome reports to have been extant in his time; he also wrote a work on the Book of Ecclesiastes, mentioned likewise by Jerome, which has come down to the present day. In these works,† which are held by all to be genuine, not the slightest trace can be found of any supplication to the Virgin, or any reference to her intercession, or any praises to her name. To these genuine works Vossius added three or four others, which either had never before been brought to light, or had never been published as Gregory's, though He is said to have been advanced to the episcopate in the tenth year of Alexander Severus, i.e. A.D. 245. Among other wonderful acts this "Wonder-worker" is said by his prayer to have removed a mountain which prevented the building of a church; to have dried up a lake which had caused some discord; and by planting his staff on the bank of the river Lycus (the staff immediately growing into a tree) he prevented that river from ever after inundating the land, or extending its flood beyond that tree. In the prefatory matter of the edition of Vossius, a reference for these miracles is made to the Roman Breviary on Nov. 17. + Paris, 1622. one had been previously published as a work of Athanasius. Among these are one sermon on the Baptism of our Lord, and a dissertation on the Soul, together with three discourses delivered in honour of the Virgin on the festival of the Annunciation; though the origin of that festival cannot be referred with any show of reason to an earlier date than the seventh century, more than three centuries after Gregory's death.* SECTION III.—EVIDENCE OF ST. CYPRIAN,† A.D. 258. In the middle of the third century, Cyprian,‡ 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, soon raised him to the dignity, the responsibility, and in those days the danger of the episcopate. Many of his writings of undoubted genuineness are preserved, and they have in every age been appealed to as the works of a faithful son of the Catholic Church. On the subject of prayer he has written powerfully and affectingly; and had he addressed himself to the Virgin Mary, invoking her succour or urging her intercession, his line of argument, in many parts of his various productions, would have led naturally to an expression of his sentiments in that respect but no trace of such belief or practice These are beyond question supposititious. Some of the arguments by which their spuriousness is proved will be found in the Appendix. + Benedictine, Paris, 1726. 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. See Jerome, vol. iv. p. 342. is to be found. We need not be detained long by our inquiry into the evidence of Cyprian. Two extracts indicative of the tone and character of his views will suffice: one forming a part of the introduction to his Comments on the Lord's Prayer, fitted for the edification of Christians in every age; the other closing his treatise on Mortality, or The Mortality, one of those beautiful productions by which during the plague that raged in Carthage, A.D. 252, he comforted and exhorted the Christians, that they might meet death without fear or amazement, in sure and certain hope of eternal life in heaven. The sentiments in the latter passage will be responded to by every Christian, whether in communion with the Church of Rome or with the Church of England; whilst in the former we are reminded, that, to pray as Cyprian prayed, we must address ourselves to God alone, in the name, and trusting to the merits only, of his blessed Son. "He who caused us to live taught us also to pray, from that kindness evidently by which he designs to give and confer on us every other blessing; that, when we speak to the Father in the prayer and supplication which his Son taught, we may the more readily be heard. He had previously foretold that the hour was coming when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth; and he fulfilled what he before promised, that we who have received the spirit and truth from his sanctification, may from his instruction offer adoration truly and spiritually. For what prayer can be more spiritual than that which is given to us by Christ, by whom even the Holy Spirit is sent to us? What can be a more true prayer with the Father, than that which came from the lips of the Son, who is Truth? So that to pray otherwise than he |