Ep. Ecc. Smyrn. apud Eu seb. 1. 4. lib. vi. lib. in vita Edess. Hieron. lant. ART. their religion, believing the resurrection so firmly as they did, XXII. and having a high sense of the honour done to Christ and his religion by the sufferings of the martyrs; if, I say, they studied to gather their bones and ashes together, and bury them decently. They thought it a sign of their being joined with them in one body, to hold their assemblies at the places where they were buried: this might be also considered as a motive to enc. 15. Jul. courage others to follow the example that they had given them, Ap. Cyril. even to martyrdom: and therefore all the marks of honour x. Ennap. were put even upon their bodies that could be thought on, except worship. After the ages of persecution were over, a fondness of having and keeping their relics began to spread itself in many places. Monks fed that humour by carrying Aug. de them about. We find in St. Austin's works, that superstition operemo was making a great progress in Afric upon these heads, of nach.c.28. which he complains frequently. Vigilantius had done it to more purpose in Spain; and did not only complain of the excesses, but of the thing in itself. St. Jerome fell unmeradv. Vigi- cifully upon him for it, and sets a high value upon relics, yet he does not speak one word of worshipping them; he denies and disclaims it, and seems only to allow of a great fondness for them; and, with most of that age, he was very apt to believe, that miracles were oft wrought by them. When superstition is once suffered to mix with religion, it will be still gaining ground, and it admits of no bounds: so this matter went on, and new legends were invented; but when the controversy of image-worship began, it followed that as an accessary. The enshrining of relics occasioned the most excellent sort of images; and they were thought the best preservatives possible both for soul and body; no presents grew to be more valued than relics; and it was an easy thing for the popes to furnish the world plentifully that way, but chiefly since the discovery of the catacombs, which has furnished. them with stores not to be exhausted. The council of Trent did in this, as in the point of images; it appointed relics to be venerated, but did not determine the degree;* so it left the world in possession of a most excessive dotage upon them They are used every where by them as sacred charms, kissed. and worshipped, they are served with lights and incense. 19. Deut. xxxiv. 6. In opposition to all this, we think, that all decent honours are indeed due to the bodies of the saints, which were once 1 Cor. vi. the 'temples of the Holy Ghost:' but since it is said, that God took that care of the body of Moses, so as to bury it in such a manner that no man knew of his sepulchre, there seems to have been in this a peculiar caution guarding against that superstition, which the Jews might very probably have fallen into with relation to his body. And this seems so clear an indication of the will of God in this matter, that we reckon we * For the decree concerning relic-worship, see note, p. 313.-[ED.] XXII. xviii. 4. xiii. 21. are very safe when we do no further honour to the body of a ART. saint, than to bury it. And though that saint had been ever so eminent, not only for his holiness, but even for miracles wrought by him, by his shadow, or even by looking upon him; yet the history of the brazen serpent shews us, that a fondness even on the instruments, that God made use of to work miracles by, degenerates easily to the superstition of burning incense to them; but when that appears, it is to be checked, even by breaking that which was so abused. Hezekiah is commended for breaking in pieces that noble 2 Kings remain of Moses's time till then preserved; neither its antiquity, nor the signal miracles once wrought by it, could balance the ill use that was then made of it: that good king broke it, for which he might have had a worse name than an iconoclast, if he had lived in some ages. It is true, miracles were of old wrought by Aaron's rod, by Elisha's bones after his death, and 2 Kings the one was preserved, but not worshipped; nor was there any superstition that followed on the other. Not a word of this fondness appears in the beginnings of Christianity; though it had been an easy thing at that time to have furnished the world with pieces of our Saviour's garments, hair, or nails and great store might have been had of the Virgin's and the apostles' relics: St. Stephen's and St. James's bones might have been then parcelled about: and if that spirit had then reigned in the church, which has been in the Roman church now above a thousand years, we should have heard of the relics that were sent about from Jerusalem to all the churches. But when such things might have been had in great abundance, and have been known not to be counterfeits, we hear not a word of them. If a fondness for relics had been in the church upon Christ's ascension, what care would have been taken to have made great collections of them! Then we see no other care about the body of St. Stephen but to bury it; and not long after that time upon St. Polycarp's martyrdom, when the Jews, who had set on the prosecution against him, suggested, that, if the Christians could gain his body, they would perhaps forsake Christ and worship him; they rejected the accusation with horror; for in the epistle which the church of Smyrna writ upon his martyrdom, after they mention this insinuation, they have those remarkable words, which belong both to this head, and to that which follows it of the invocation and worship of saints. These men Ep. Euseb. know not that we can neither forsake Christ, who suffered for 1. iv. c. 15. the salvation of all that are saved, the innocent for the guilty, nor worship any other; Him truly being the Son of God we adore: but the martyrs, and disciples, and followers of the Lord, we justly love, for that extraordinary good mind, which they have expressed toward their King and Master, of whose happiness God grant that we may partake, and that we may learn by their examples. The Jews had so persuaded the XXII. ART Gentiles of Smyrna of this matter, that they burnt St. Polycarp's body; but the Christians gathered up his bones with much respect, so that it appeared how they honoured them, though they could not worship them; and they buried them in a convenient place,* which they intended to make the place where they should hold, by the blessing of God, the yearly commemoration of that birth-day of his martyrdom, with much joy and gladness, both to honour the memory of those who had overcome in that glorious engagement, and to instruct and confirm all others by their example. This is one of the most valuable pieces of true and genuine antiquity; and it shews us very fully the sense of that age both concerning the relics, and the worship of the saints. In the following ages, we find no characters of any other regard to the bones or bodies of the saints, but that they buried them very decently, and did annually commemorate their death, calling it their birth-day. And it may incline men strongly to suspect the many miracles that were published in the fourth century, as wrought at the tombs, or memories of the martyrs, or by their relics, that we hear of none of those in the former three centuries; for it seems there was more occasion for them during the persecution, than after it was over; it being much more necessary then to furnish Christians with so strong a motive as this must have been, to resist even to blood,' when God was pleased to glorify himself so signally in his saints. This, I say, forces us to fear, that credulity and imagination, or somewhat worse than both these, might have had a large share in those extraordinary things that are related to us by great men in the fourth century. He must have a great disposition to believe wonderful things, that can digest the extraordinary relations that are even in St. Basil, St. Ambrose, and St. Hom. xix. Austin; and most signally in St. Jerome: for instance, that in Sanct. after one had stolen Hilarion's body out of Cyprus, and quadra- brought it to Palestine, upon which Constantia, that went Martyr. in constantly to his tomb, was ready to have broke her heart; Hom. xxiii. God took such pity on her, that as the true body wrought Basil. gint. in Sanct. Mart. vita Civit. Dei, 6 * In reference to this subject, Dr. Milner, in his End of Religious Controversy,' thus writes: 'The whole history of the martyrs, from St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp, the disciples of the apostles, whose relics, after their execution, were carried away by the Christians, as more valuable than gold and precious stones," down to the latest martyr, incontestibly proves the veneration which the church has ever entertained for these sacred objects.' We might fairly conclude from these words that the early Christians held the popish doctrine of the worship of relics; and indeed Dr. Milner refers with such confidence to Eusebius, that one not acquainted with the sophistry and dishonesty of the advocates of popery would unhesitatingly conclude that the historian of the early church had clearly established this position. But what is the fact? Let Eusebius himself speak: So we gathered his (Polycarp's) bones, more precious than pearls, and better tried than gold, and buried them in the place that was fit for that purpose,' &c. This is the passage to which Dr. M. refers; and those marked are the words which immediately follow the Doctor's quotation from Eusebius, but which, in his defence of relic-worship, have been so carefully suppressed.-[Ed.] XXII. Hom. 6. in 1 ad Cor.ii. great miracles in Palestine, so likewise very great miracles ART. continued still to be wrought at the tomb, where it was at first laid. One, in respect to those great men, is tempted to suspect that many things might have been foisted into their writings in the following ages. A great many practices of this kind have been made manifest beyond contradiction.* Whole books have been made to pass for the writings of fathers, that do evidently bear the marks of a much later date, where the fraud was carried too far not to be discovered. At other times parcels have been laid in among their genuine productions, which cannot be so easily distinguished; they not being liable to so many critical inquiries, as may be made on a larger work. It is a little unaccountable how so many marvellous things should be published in that age; and yet that St. Chrysostom, who spent his whole life between two of Chrysost. the publickest scenes of the world, Antioch and Constantinople, and was an active and inquisitive man, should not so much as have heard of any such wonderful stories; but should have taken pains to remove a prejudice out of the minds of his hearers, that might arise from this, that whereas they heard of many miracles that were wrought in the times of the apostles, none were wrought at that time; upon which, he gives very good reason why it was so. His saying so positively, That none were wrought at that time, without so much as a salvo for what he might have heard from other parts, shews plainly, that he had not heard of any at all. For he was orator enough to have made even looser reports look probable. This does very much shake the credit of those amazing relations that we find in St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and St. Austin. It is true, there seems to have been an opinton very generally received both in the east and the west, at that time, which must have very much heightened the growing superstition for relics. It was a remnant both of Judaism and Gentilism, that the souls of the martyrs hovered about their tombs, called their memories; and that therefore they might be called upon, and spoke to there. and spoke to there. This appears even in the council of Elliberis, where the superstition of lighting candles about their tombs in daylight is forbidden: the reason given is, because the spirits were not to be disquieted. St. Basil, and the other fathers, that do so often mention the Basil. going to their memories, do very plainly insinuate their being in Sanct. present at them, and hearing themselves called upon. This quadramay be the reason why, among all the saints that are so much gint. magnified in that age, we never find the blessed Virgin so much as once mentioned. They knew not where her body was laid, they had no tomb for her, no nor any of her relics * The reader will find valuable information on this subject in Dr. James's Treatise of the Corruptions of Scripture, Councils, and Fathers, by the Prelates, Pastors, and Pillars of the church of Rome, for maintenance of Popery,' in which the bastardy of the false Fathers and the corruption of the true Fathers are demonstrated beyond the possibility of contradiction.-[ED.] Hom. xix. Martyr. ART. or utensils. But upon the occasion of Nestorius's denying XXII. her to be the mother of God, and by carrying the opposition to that too far, a superstition for her was set on foot; it made a progress sufficient to balance the slowness of its beginning; the whole world was then filled with very extravagant devotions for her. The great noise we find concerning relics in the end of the fourth century, has all the characters of novelty possible in it; for those who speak of it, do not derive it from former times. One circumstance in this is very remarkable, that neither Trypho, Celsus, Lucian, nor Cecilius, do object to the Christians of their time their fondness for dead bodies, or praying about their tombs, which they might well have alleged in opposition to what the Christians charged them with, if there had been any occasion for it. Whereas this custom was no sooner begun, than both Julian and Eunapius reproach the Ap. Cyr. Christians for it. Julian, it is true, speaks only of their callcon.Julian, ing on God over sepulchres: Eunapius writ after him; and it Eunap. in seems, in his time, that which Julian sets forth as a calling lib. 10. vita Edess upon God, was advanced to an invocation of them. He says, they heaped together the bones and skulls of men that had been punished for many crimes (it was natural enough for a spiteful heathen to give this representation of their martyrdom), holding them for gods: and after some scurrilous invectives against them, he adds, they are called martyrs, and made the ministers and messengers of prayer to the gods. This seems to be a very evident proof of the novelty of this matter. As for the adoring them, when Vigilantius asked, Why dost thou kiss and adore a little dust put up in fine linen? St. Jerome, though excessively fond of them, denies this very positively, and that in very injurious terms, being offended at the injustice of the reproach. Yet as long as the bodies of the martyrs were let lie quietly in their memories, the fond opinion of their being present, and hearing what was said to them, made the invocating thern look like one man's desiring the assistance of another good man's prayers; so that this step seemed to have a fair colour. But when their bodies were pulled asunder, and carried up and down, so that it was believed miracles abounded every where about them; and when their bones and relics grew to increase and multiply, so that they had more bones and limbs than God and nature had given them; then new hypotheses were to be found out to justify the calling upon them every where, as their relics were spread. St. Jerome, in his careless way, says, they followed adv. Vigi- the Lamb whithersoever he went, and seems to make no doubt lant. Aug. of their being, if not every where, yet in several places at Hieron. cura pro mortuis, c. 16. once. But St. Austin, who could follow a consequence much further in his thoughts, though he doubted not but that men were much the better for the prayers of the martyrs, yet he confesses that it passed the strength of his understanding to |