HE IS ADORED.

Among all he is equally distributed. With him, a king has no especial favour: to him, an imperious barbarian is no matter of exultation. In his eyes, personal dignity and high nobility of birth possess no peculiar merit. To all, he is equal: to all, he is their King: to all, he is their Judge: to all, he is their God and their Lord1.

Finally, with respect to the expression An Eternal Throne, such an expression agrees better with Christ the Son of God, than with Solomon a temporal king who reigned only over Israel. For, AT THIS DAY,

NATIONS, WHICH ONCE KNEW HIM NOT, INVOCATE

CHRIST: and, at this day, tribes flee for refuge to Christ, of whom formerly they were ignorant 2.

IX. We now come to the evidence of Clement of Alexandria, who flourished about the year 194,

:

1 Christi autem regnum et nomen ubique porrigitur. Ubique creditur ab omnibus gentibus supra enumeratis colitur: ubique regnat ubique adoratur: omnibus ubique tribuitur æqualiter: non regis apud illum major gratia: non barbari alicujus imperiosi lætitia non dignitatum aut natalium cujusquam discreta merita omnibus, æqualis; omnibus, rex; omnibus, judex; omnibus, Deus et Dominus est. Tertull. adv. Jud. Oper. p. 126. See also Tertull. Apol. adv. Gent. Oper. p. 848.

2

Denique et Thronus in ævum magis Christo Dei Filio competit, quam Salamoni temporali scilicet regi qui soli Israel regnavit. Christum enim hodie invocant nationes, quæ eum non sciebant: et populi hodie ad Christum confugiunt, quem retro ignorabant. Tertull. adv. Jud. Oper. p. 142. Nearly the same passage occurs also in Tertull. adv. Marcion. lib. iii. § 14. Oper. p. 210, 211.

L

and who claims to have personally received the apostolic seed of his doctrine and practice from those holy men who had themselves been instructed by Peter and James and John and Paul'.

Believe, O man, him, who is at once both man and God : believe, O man, him, who suffered, and wHO YET AS THE LIVING GOD IS WORSHIPPED 2.

For the Lord perfected not, in a short time, so great a work, without the divine providence: in appearance, despicable; IN FACT, WORSHIPPED; the purifier, and the saviour, and the benignant; the divine Word, who is truly God most manifest, who is equalled to the Lord of all things, because he was his Son, and the Word was in God3.

As for what remains in such a panegyric of the Word, TO THE WORD LET US THUS OFFER UP OUR

PRAYERS.

* Οἱ μὲν τὴν ἀληθῆ τῆς μακαρίας σώζοντες διδασκαλίας παράδοσιν, εὐθὺς ἀπὸ Πέτρου τε καὶ Ἰακώβου, Ἰωάννου τε καὶ Παύ λου, τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων, παῖς παρὰ πατρὸς ἐκδεχόμενος· ὀλίγοι δὲ οἱ πατράσιν ὅμοιοι· ἧκον δὲ σὺν Θεῷ καὶ εἰς ἡμᾶς τὰ προγονικὰ ἐκεῖνα καὶ ἀποστολικὰ καταθησόμενοι σπέρματα. Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. i. Oper. p. 274, 275. Colon. 1688.

2

• Πίστευσον, ἄνθρωπε, ἀνθρώπῳ καὶ Θεῷ· τῷ παθόντι, καὶ προσκυνουμένῳ Θεῷ ζῶντι. Gent. Oper. p. 66.

πίστευσον, ἄνθρωπε, Clem. Admon. ad

* Οὐ γὰρ ἂν οὕτως ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ τοσοῦτον ἔργον, ἄνευ θείας κηδεμονίας, ἐξήνυσεν ὁ Κύριος, ὄψει καταφρονούμενος, ἔργῳ προσκυνούμενος, ὁ καθάρσιος καὶ σωτήριος καὶ μειλίχιος, ὁ θεῖος Λόγος, ὁ φανερώτατος ὄντως Θεὸς, ὁ τῷ δεσπότῃ τῶν ὅλων ἐξισωθείς· ὅτι ἦν υἱὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἦν ἐν τῷ Θεῷ. Clem. Admon. ad Gent. Oper. p. 68.

O thou, the instructor, be propitious to thy children: FATHER, CHARIOTEER OF ISRAEL, SON AND FATHER, BOTH ONE, O LORD! Grant unto us, who follow thy commandments, to accomplish the likeness of thy image, and to apprehend, according to our strength, the good God and the clement Judge: and grant universally, that, when, in tranquil agreement with the Holy Spirit, we shall wavelessly have sailed over the flood of sin, we, living in thy peace, may be translated to thy city. BY NIGHT, BY DAY, EVEN TO

THE PERFECT DAY, LET US OFFER PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING, TO THE INEFFABLE WISDOM, TO THE ALONE FATHER AND SON, TO THE SON AND THE FATHER, TO THE SON THE INSTRUCTOR AND TEACHER, AND TOGETHER ALSO WITH THEM TO THE HOLY GHOST. All things are to the One: in whom are all things: on account of whom, all things are one : on account of whom, is eternity: whose members we all are: whose are the glory, the worlds. To the Good are all things: to the Excellent are all things: to the Wise are all things: to the Just are all things. To whom be glory, both now and for ever. Amen1.

1

Ὅπερ μὲν λοιπὸν ἐπὶ τοιαύτῃ πανηγύρει τοῦ Λόγου, τῷ Λόγῳ προσευξώμεθα.

Ἰλάθι τοῖς σοῖς, παιδαγωγέ, παιδίοις, Πάτερ, ἡνίοχε Ἰσραὴλ, Υἱὲ καὶ Πατέρ, ἓν ἄμφω, Κύριε. Δὸς δὲ ἡμῖν, τοῖς σοῖς ἑπομένοις παραγγέλμασι, τὸ ὁμοίωμα πληρῶσαι τῆς εἰκόνος, αἰσθάνεσθαί τε, κατὰ κράτος, ἀγαθοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ κριτοῦ τε μὴ πικροῦ· καὶ παρασχε ἅπαντα αὐτὸς, ἐν εἰρήνῃ τῇ σῇ πολιτευομένους, ἐν τῇ σῇ μετατιθεμένους πόλει, ακυμάντως τῆς ἁμαρτίας τὸν κλύ

X. From the testimony of Clement, let us ascend to that of Melito of Sardis, who flourished about the year 170.

We are worshippers, not of stones which possess no sensation, but of the only God who is before all things and above all things. And WE ARE WORSHIPPERS LIKEWISE OF HIS CHRIST, TRULY, BEFORE THE WORLDS, GOD THE WORD '.

XI. I shall next, in the regular order of retrogressive chronology, cite a competent pagan witness to the naked FACT: that The adoration of Christ was the uniform practice of the early Church.

Lucian of Samosata is commonly thought to have been born in the year 90 and to have died in the year 180. Hence, at the lowest computation, we may view him as flourishing about the year 150 or about the middle of the second century.

δωνα διαπλεύσαντας, γαληνιῶντας ἁγίῳ συμφέρεσθαι Πνεύματι. Σοφίᾳ τῇ ἀνεκφράστῳ, νύκτωρ, μεθ ̓ ἡμέραν, εἰς τὴν τελείαν ἡμέραν, εὐχαριστοῦντας αἰνεῖν, αἰνοῦντας εὐχαριστεῖν, τῷ μονῷ Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ, Υἱῷ καὶ Πατρὶ, παιδαγωγῷ καὶ διδασκάλῳ Υἱῷ, σὺν καὶ τῷ ̔Αγίῳ Πνεύματι πάντα τῷ ἑνί ἐν ᾧ τὰ πάντα δι' ὃν τὰ πάντα ἕν· δι ̓ ὃν τὸ ἀεί· οὗ μέλη πάντες· οὗ δόξα, αἰῶνες" πάντα τῷ ἀγαθῷ, πάντα τῷ καλῷ, πάντα τῷ σοφῷ, τῷ δικαίῳ τὰ πάντα· ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ νῦν καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. ̓Αμήν. Clem. Pædag. lib. iii. c. 12. Oper. p. 266.

1

Οὐκ ἐσμὲν λίθων οὐδεμίαν αἴσθησιν ἐχόντων θεραπευταὶ, ἀλλὰ μόνου Θεοῦ τοῦ πρὸ πάντων καὶ ἐπὶ πάντων· καὶ ἔτι τοῦ Χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ, ὄντως Θεοῦ Λόγου πρὸ αἰώνων, ἔσμεν θρησκευταί. Melit. Apol. in Chron. Pasch. ad A. D. 164, 165. apud Routh. Relig. Sacr. vol. i. Ρ· 112.

This man resided, for a considerable time, at Antioch where a flourishing Church had been planted by the Apostles themselves, and where the disciples of our Lord were first called Christians.

He may be considered, therefore, as an important witness, because a concurring and uncontradicted witness, to the doctrine and to the practice of the primitive believers his contemporaries and fellow-citizens.

CHRISTIANS STILL WORSHIP THAT GREAT MAN, WHO WAS CRUCIFIED IN PALESTINE; because he introduced into life these new mysteries.-For this first lawgiver of theirs persuaded them: that, when they should once have rejected the gods of Greece, and should have agreed TO WORSHIP THEIR CRUCIFIED SOPHIST, and should have undertaken to live according to his laws, they would all become brethren to each other1.

The testimony of Lucian, we may observe, vouches for the ecclesiastical practice, not only of the middle of the second century, but likewise of a period yet more early. Speaking of his own times, this writer attests: that Christians, renouncing the

1 Τὸν μέγαν γοῦν ἐκεῖνον ἔτι σέβουσιν ἄνθρωπον, τὸν ἐν τῇ Παλαιστίνῃ ἀνασκολοπισθέντα, ὅτι καινὴν ταύτην τελετὴν εἰσή γαγεν ἐς τὸν βίον.—Ἔπειτα δὲ ὁ νομοθέτης ὁ πρῶτος ἔπεισεν αὐτοὺς, ὡς ἀδελφοὶ πάντες εἶεν αλλήλων· ἐπειδὰν, ἅπαξ παραβάντες, θεοὺς μὲν τοὺς Ελληνικοὺς ἀπαρνήσωνται, τὸν δὲ ἀνεσκολοπισμένον ἐκεῖνον σοφιστὴν αὐτῶν προσκυνῶσι, καὶ κατὰ τοὺς ¿kɛívov vóμovs Bio. Lucian. de mort. Peregrin. Oper. vol. iii. p. 333, 334, 337, 338. Reitz. Amstel. 1743.