Primitive Christian Worship

o we find? For upwards of three centuries and a half (the limit put to our present inquiry) we discover in no

ence among the early Christians. Forgive my importunity if I again and again urge you to join us in weighing these facts well; and to take your view of them from no advocate on the one side or the other. Search the Scriptures for yourselves, search the earliest writers for yourselves, and for yourselves search with all diligence into the authentic and authorized liturgies of your own Church, your missals, and breviaries, and formularies. Hearsay evidence, t

e Confession of faith, there are many on whom this inve

der application than the immediate occasion on which he used them, "That the blessed Mary never conceived any sin in herself is in the present day an established principle of the Church, and confirmed by the

en to conviction, desirous of arriving at the truth, and, with that

a great variety of passages, in which mention is supposed to be made of those beings as objects of honour and reverential and grateful remembrance, the passages quoted with a similar view, as regards th

se earliest writers, whose testimony we have already examined on the general questio

nce of those five primitive writers, who are called the Apostolical Fathers; and, with re

ibed to BARNABAS we fi

irmed of the book calle

g descended from Abraham according to the flesh, no menti

hout any adjunct or observation whatever, "both of Mary and of God." In another place he speaks of her virgin state, and the fruit of her womb; and of her having borne our God Jesus the Chris

ns (Page 186), how they ought to walk with a spotless and ch

those persons enumerated, from whom Mary drew her origin." [Trypho, § 100. p. 195.] And a little below he adds, "For Eve being a virgin and incorrupt, having received the word from the serpent, brought forth transgression and death; but Mary the Virgin having received faith and joy (on the angel Gabriel announcing to her the glad tidings, that the Spirit of the Lord should come upon her, and the power of the Highest overshadow her

e from blame, who so often set at nought his parent? The answer is, that He did not set her at nought; that He honoured her in deed, and would not have hurt her by his words;-but then the respondent adds, that Christ ch

referred (page 120 of this work). In that passage there is no allusion to any honour paid, or to be paid to her, nor to any invocation of her. In every

rs to an opinion relative to her virgin-state, but w

is contained in the Gospel published before Marcion. His mother likewise is not shown to have adhered to him; whereas others, Marys and Marthas, were frequently in his company." (See Tert. De carne Christi, c. 7. (p. 364. De Sacy, 29.

. p. 315. De Monogamia, vii. p. 529. N.B. Both these tre

e ascribed to Methodius, but now prono

iv. p. 82.] In his eighth homily on Leviticus, he refers to Mary as a pure Virgin. [Vol. ii. p. 228.] In the forged work of later times, the wr

erence towards the Virgin Mary. Nor is her name mentioned in t

rd of honour, or tending to adoration; though whilst dwelling on the incarnation of the Son of God, had h

usebius), direct mention is made of the "chaste virginity," and of the maid who was mother of God, and yet remained a virgin. But the object present to the author's mind was so exclus

ofold announcement concerning the Saviour, that He was always God, and is a Son; being the Word and the brightness and wisdom of the Father, and tha

om the Lord's Spirit had dwelt, were at least held in equal honour with Mary: "O Eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of male and female, who didst fill with thy Spirit Miriam, and Hannah, and Holda, and didst not disdain that thy Son should be born of a woman," &c. [Book viii. c. 20.] Thus, too, in another passage, Mary is spoken of just as other women who had the gift of prophecy; and of her equally and in conjunction with the others it is said, that they were not elated by the gift, nor lifted themselves up agains

ough the mediation of Christ alone, without alluding to intercessions of angels saints, or the Virgin: "Now may God, the only unproduced Being, the Creator of all things, unite you all by peace in the Holy Ghost; make you perfect unto every good work, not to be turned aside, unblameable,

nd bearing testimony to any honour paid to the Virgin. The result of my research is, that I have not discovered one solitary expression which implies that