much more the Creator of these? Yet, when they are under a feeling of shame, they are accustomed to use this wretched excuse, that by means of those men" [per istos] they can approach to God, as men approach a king by his courtiers.

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"Come. Is any one so foolish and forgetful of his own safety as to claim for the courtier the honour due to the king? Should any be found attempting such a thing, they would justly be condemned of high treason. And yet these men do not think themselves guilty, who transfer the honour of God to a creature, and, leaving the Lord, adore their fellow-servants; AS IF THERE WERE ANY THING FURTHER THAT COULD BE RESERVED FOR GOD. Men approach a king by his officers and courtiers, only because the king is a man, and knows not to whom he ought to entrust his government. But to secure God's favour, (from whom nothing is hid, for he knows the deserts of every one,) there is need, not of an intercessor, but of a devout mind; for, wheresoever such a one addresses Him, He will answer him."

Whoever was the author of these sentiments, they coincide entirely with those of St. Ambrose in his undisputed work on the death of Theodosius.

"Thou alone, O Lord, art to be invoked; thou alone art to be implored to cause him [the Emperor] to be represented in his sons. Do thou, O Lord, by guarding even the little ones in this humility, preserve those safe who hope in thee.”*

* Vol. ii. p. 1207. See also the strong language in which he repudiates all idea of any created being becoming our spiritual physician, or promoting by his good offices our restoration to God; vol. i. p. 1352.

PART V.

CHAPTER I.

ST. CHRYSOSTOM AND ST. AUGUSTINE.

Two of the brightest ornaments of the Christian world next offer themselves for our examination, -St. John Chrysostom, the glory of the Greek Church, and St. Augustine, equally the honour of the Latin. According to the most generally received accounts, these two luminaries of our holy faith were born into the world in the very same year, A. D. 354; though Chrysostom was called to his rest when he had scarcely passed the meridian of man's life as a labourer in Christ's vineyard, and his brother-confessor was left to toil successfully in the same field till he had passed the age after which the Psalmist bids us expect only labour and

sorrow.

SECTION I.—ST. CHRYSOSTOM, A.D. 405.*

John, surnamed from his extraordinary eloquence Chrysostom, or "the golden-mouthed," was born in Antioch of Cælosyria about the year A. D. 354.† His

* Thirteen vols. fol. Paris, 1718.

+ Writers are not agreed as to the time of Chrysostom's birth; some placing it as early as A.D. 347, others so late as A.D. 354.

*

father died soon after his birth, and he was baptized in his 23rd year. At the age of twenty-seven, he was ordained deacon, and at thirty-two priest: in his 44th year he succeeded Nectarius, who was the successor of Gregory of Nazianzum, as Bishop of Constantinople. From this office he was deposed, and he died in exile somewhere about the year 407. In our endeavours to ascertain the standard of doctrine, the habitual views, and ruling principles and sentiments of this noble Christian writer, the greatest care is necessary in distinguishing between his genuine works, and those productions which patient and enlightened criticism must pronounce to be spurious. The learned Benedictine editor represents the treatises to be innumerable which the fraud of booksellers and the absurd vanity of petty authors had combined to impose upon the world as Chrysostom's, but which had no pretensions to such a place in literature. The works, too, which upon the whole must be regarded as the genuine productions of his tongue or pen, (as the same authority teaches us to suspect, whilst our own observation can only increase the suspicion,) are by no means free from changes and interpolations. Would that a wide and careful research were instituted by men adequate to the task into the treasures which still remain unexamined! Next to the blessed Scriptures themselves, no department of theology so powerfully appeals to the Christian world for the united efforts of those to whom primitive truth is dear, as the text of the early writers both of the Greek and of the Latin Church; nor would any field more abundantly or satisfactorily repay the labour bestowed upon it. This remark, applicable in the case of all those ancient

* Innumeri pene Græculi.

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Fathers whose remains have been saved from the wreck of time, is forced upon us with especial interest in our examination of St. Chrysostom's testimony. The attempt to support a system, however ancient or however valued, by counterfeit witnesses, and by evidence which will not bear the light of day, even were it consistent with the principles of Christianity or of common honesty, cannot be long successful. long indeed already has dependence been placed upon translations made by persons incompetent to the task, or by men who professedly left the original when they fancied they could substitute something preferable of their own; and too long has the custom prevailed, even among the most celebrated champions of theological tenets, recklessly to quote, as genuine evidence of the earliest doctrines of the Church, the unworthy forgeries of a corrupt and ignorant age. The Benedictine editors have done much towards the purifying of the volumes of Chrysostom from the gross and palpable impositions with which age after age had loaded them. Were we engaged in ascertaining his evidence on some other points of doctrine, it would be necessary to speak somewhat more at large on this subject; but for the immediate object of our investigation we need dwell no longer upon it now. We shall cite no passage which the Benedictine editors have not admitted as genuine, nor exclude any which they have not pronounced to be spurious.

On the subject of our inquiry, the result of a thorough examination of the works of St. Chrysostom is the conviction, that from his first to his last page there is not the faintest intimation that he either addressed the Virgin Mary by invocation, or placed any confidence in her merits and intercession himself, or

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that he was at all aware that Christians, either individually or as a body in the Church, had ever prayed to her even for her prayers, or had prayed to God to hear them through her intercession.

But the testimony of St. Chrysostom is not merely negative; on the contrary, the evidence is clear, and strong, and manifold, that he addressed his prayers to Almighty God alone, in the name and through the mediation of Jesus Christ our only Saviour, never invoking the Virgin, never making mention of her name, even in a subordinate sense, as intercessor or mediator.

The sentiments of Chrysostom on the necessity, the dignity, and the blessed effects of prayer are so just, and at the same time so encouraging and uplifting, that, before we cite the proofs of these positions, we shall do well to reflect on some few of the passages which convey his views on prayer. We shall find him exhorting sincere Christians to approach with humble confidence to the throne of grace, taking with them faith, and repentance, and obedient love; and seeking then for no foreign aid or recommendation, looking for no intercessor in heaven but Christ only. These sentiments are not confined to any part of his voluminous remains, but are interspersed through them all the difficulty is not to discover them, but to select from those which offer themselves. In his comment on the 4th Psalm we read these beautiful remarks on the efficacy of prayer :*

"If I possess justice, some one will say, What need of prayer; for that will guide us right in all things, and He who gives knows what we need? Because prayer is no slight bond of love towards God, accustoming us to habitual intercourse with him, and leading

* Vol. v. p. 8.