INVOCATION OF SAINTS

The thirty-fifth canon of the Council of Laodicea runs thus: “It does not behove Christians to leave the Church of God , and go and invoke angels, and make a emblies; which things are forbidden. If, therefore, any one be detected idling in their secret idolatry, let him be accursed, because he has forsaken our Lord Jesus Christ , the Son of God , and gone to idolatry.” This plain testimony of the fathers of the primitive Church, against the invocation and worshipping of angels, which is denounced as idolatry, is not to be set aside by all the ingenuity of the Roman writers.—See their attempts, Labbe and Co art , i. 1526. The subtle distinctions of Latria , Dulia , and the rest, had not entered the imagination of Theodoret when he cited this canon as condemning the worshipping of angels, σύνοδος ἐν Λαοδικείᾳ τῆς Φρυγίας νόμῳ κεκώλυκε τὸ τοῖς ἀγγέλοις προσεύχεσθαι ( Comm. Colo . ii. 18); nor into that of Origen, who expre ly says, that men ought not to worship or adore the angels, for that all prayer and supplication, and interce ion and thanksgiving, should be made to God alone, ( Contra Celsum , v. § 4,) and that right reason forbids the invocation of them.— Ibid. § 5. But in the twenty-fifth se ion of the Popish Council of Trent, the synod thus rules: “Of the invocation, veneration, and relics of the saints, and the sacred images, the holy synod commands the bishops and others who have the office and care of instruction, that according to the custom of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, which has been received from the first ages of the Christian religion, the consent of the holy Fathers, and the decrees of the sacred councils, they make it a chief point diligently to instruct the faithful concerning the interce ion and invocation of saints, the honour of relics, and the lawful use of images, teaching them that the saints reigning together with Christ , offer to God their prayers for men; that it is good and useful to invoke them with supplication, and, on account of the benefits obtained from God through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord , who alone is our Redeemer and Saviour, to have recourse to their prayers, aid, and a istance; but that they who deny that the saints enjoying eternal happine in heaven are to be invoked, or who a ert either that they do not pray for men, or that the invoking them that they may pray for each of us, is idolatry; or that it is contrary to the word of God , and opposed to the honour of the one Mediator between God and man; or that it is folly, either by word or thought, to supplicate them who are reigning in heaven; are impious in their opinions. “Also that the holy bodies of the holy martyrs and others living with Christ , which were living members of Christ , and the temple of the Holy Ghost , and are by him to be raised to eternal life, and glorified, ought to be venerated by the faithful; by means of which the faithful receive many benefits. So that they who declare that veneration and honour are not due to the relics of the saints, or that the honour which the faithful pay to them and other sacred monuments is usele , and that it is in vain to celebrate the memory of the saints for the sake of obtaining their a istance, are utterly to be condemned, as the Church already has condemned them, and does so at the present time. “Moreover, that the images of Christ , of the Virgin Mother of God , and other saints, are to be especially had and retained in the churches; and due honour and veneration to be given to them, not because it is supposed that there is any divinity or virtue in them on account of which they are to be worshipped, nor because anything is to be asked of them, nor that confidence is to be placed in images, as of old was done by the heathens, who placed their hope in idols, but because the honour which is shown to them is referred to the prototypes which they represent; so that by the images which we ki , and before which we uncover our heads and fall down, we worship Christ , and venerate the saints, whose likene they bear. That is what has been sanctioned by the decrees of the councils against the opposers of images, especially those of the second Nicene Synod. “But let the bishops diligently teach that by stories of the mysteries of our redemption, expre ed in pictures or other representations, the people are taught and confirmed in commemorating and carefully bearing in mind the articles of faith, as also that great advantage is derived from all the sacred images, not only because the people are thereby reminded of the benefits and gifts which Christ has conferred upon them, but also because the miracles of God by the saints, and their wholesome examples, are submitted to the eyes of the faithful, that they may give thanks to God for them, and dispose their lives and manners in imitation of the saints; and may be excited to adore and love God , and to cultivate religion. “Canon. If any shall teach or think contrary to these decrees, let him be accursed.” The first council which decreed this invocation and interce ion, is denounced by the Romanists themselves as schismatical and heretical; it was the Council at Constantinople, under Const an tine Copronymus. Nor have all the researches of the Romish advocates availed to adduce from the early ages one single writer, layman or ecclesiastic, who has enjoined this practice as a duty. All that they have succeeded in showing is, that in the course of the first five centuries several individual writers are to be found who commend the practice as useful. Against these we will cite the following; and from a comparison of the pa ages cited on both sides, it will be clear that although, notwithstanding the reproof of the apostle, (Col. ii. 18,) the invocation of angels, and afterwards of saints, obtained in some places in the Christian Church, it was always an open point which men were free to reject or not, as they might think fit; and that, therefore, both the Council of Copronymus in the eighth century, and the Council of Trent in the sixteenth, were violating ecclesiastical tradition, when by their anathemas they sought to abridge Christian liberty by confirming a corrupt and foolish custom; especially when the caution of the apostle Paul, and the decree of the Council of Laodicea, are taken into consideration. It is a remarkable thing that, among all the liturgies which Me rs. Kirke and Berrington have cited in their volume, entitled, “The Faith of the Catholics,” Lond. 1830, amounting to eleven, only one is to be found, and that of the Nestor i an heretics, containing an invocation to a saint for interce ion:—thus showing how wide a distinction is to be drawn between the excited expre ions of individual writers, and the authorized practice of the Church. All the other liturgies do no more than the Roman canon of the ma ; viz. 1st, a ume, generally, that the saints departed pray for the saints militant; and, 2ndly, pray to God to hear their interce ions. This is no more tantamount to an invocation of the saints, than a prayer to God for the a istance of the angels would be tantamount to a prayer to the angels themselves.— Perceval.