and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom, and with whom, be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. Scripture, but most of them from St. Ephraim,” &c.), especially as others precede these. He, however, used in- vocation freely, though some allowance must be made for his rich imagination, and his fondness for apostrophe. Thus he apostrophises Faith, adv. Scrut. Ser. vi. Gr. Lat. iii. 160, 161. “O Faith! I pray Thee adapt Thy vastness to our littleness! for while we may not see and measure thee, love can neither rest nor be silent!” “Come hither, O Faith, Gift of God to the Holy Church, and rest in this bosom!” Several spurious passages, as from the Christus Patiens attributed to St. Greg. Naz. l. 2582 (but rejected and objected to by the Ben. editor), are examined by Mr. Palmer, Letter v. to Dr. Wiseman. The real practice of St. Greg. Naz. appears in his funeral oration on St. Basil, Or. xx. fin. p. 373 (Ben. xliii. 82, p. 831). “But do thou, O divine and sacred head, look on us from above, and either remove by the intercessions the thorn in the flesh that chastises us, or persuade us to bear it with fortitude,” &c. Or. vi. ad Greg. Nyss. p. 140 (Ben. xi. 5, p. 245), he says, that martyrs are “Mediators for attaining a divine state” (θ™ωσις). St. Chrysostom is of the same date. St. Greg. Nyss. on St. Theodorus, speaks repeatedly of asking his intercession. “To touch his relics, if any chance give one the opportunity…Then, shedding on them the tear of piety and affection, as though to the martyr, appearing in full presence, they present their entreaty for intercession; beseeching him, as an attendant* upon God, and invoking him as one who obtains favors at will,” t. iii. p. 580, and so in other parts of the oration; and in p. 586, he begs him, if need be, to call his brother- martyrs to his aid. And in the close of his life of St. Ephraim, he both invokes him, “Remember us all, asking remission for our sins;” and speaks of a person having invoked his help, in circumstances of danger, with success. St. Ambrose, de Vid. c. 9, says, “The angels are to be entreated for us, who are given us for our guard; the martyrs are to be entreated, whose patronage we may in a manner claim by the pledge of their bodies. They can pray for our sins, who have washed in their own blood their own sins, if such they had.” These are most of the authors alleged down to the end of the fourth century, but in most of the later of them other passages of the same kind appear. Thus the practice of direct invocation seems to have come in by degrees, and that chiefly in the course of this century. Some passages relating merely to the intercession of the saints have been passed over, as they would rather confuse the view of the subject of seeking it. Bellarmine, De Sanctis, l. i. c. 19, and Coccius, Thesaur. l. v., art. 4, give collections of passages. See on Fleury, Book 19, c. 31, Tr. p. 202, note k. *δορυφόρῳ. A term which shows that an allusion to an earthly court is intended. 556 Homily VI