ADORATION

This word signifies a particular sort of worship, which the Pagans gave to their deities: but, amongst Christians, it is used for the general respect and worship paid to God . The heathens paid their regard to their gods, by putting their hands to their mouths, and ki ing them. This was done in some places standing, and sometimes kneeling; their faces were usually covered in their worship, and sometimes they threw themselves prostrate on the ground. The first Christians in their public prayers were wont to stand; and this they did always on Sun days, and on the fifty days between Easter and Pentecost, in memory of our Lord’s resurrection, as is still common in the Eastern Churches. They were wont to turn their faces towards the east, either because the East is a title given to Christ in the Old Testament, (as by Zachariah, vi. 12, according to the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate,) or else to show that they expected the coming of Christ at the last day from the east.