to produce and to support spiritual life among Christians, have been arbitrarily reduced to two. All the seven sacraments rest on express texts of Scripture, and on the constant tradition of all ages of the Christian era. Moreover, if the spiritual life of every Christian has need of Baptism to originate it, of the Eucharist to nourish it, and of Confirmation to increase and strengthen it in us, it has need no less of Penitence, to heal its infirmities and purify its pollutions; of the sacrament of Marriage, to perpetuate it in a holy manner, and to transmit the divine promises; of the Unction of the sick to re-establish the action of the soul upon the body; and finally of sacred Ordination, since every work here below, though divine, has need of workers to perform it.

But this is not all: from the first century of the Christian era, there were in the Christian world apocryphal gospels that is to say, gospels that were neither inspired nor authentic. Who taught us to distinguish them? By what authority has the Christian church recognized and preserved only four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, a limited number of their Epistles, and the Apocalypse of John? It is sacred tradition, kept alive in the apostolic sees, which alone can separate the dross from the pure gold: it is this which, traversing the darkness of time and the course of ages, warrants to us the integrity of the divine code of the New Testament, defined, at a later date, by the Canons of the Councils. The Apostle Paul praises the Thessalonians for their fidelity in preserving his instructions, whether by word or by writing. Elsewhere he exhorts the Christians of his time to preserve the traditions, saying, "Stand fast, and hold the traditions," placing them on a level with the Holy Scriptures [2d Thess., ii: 15]. But the leaders of the Reformation say to us: "Be ye rebellious, and despise the traditions." We must therefore choose between the Apostle of the Gentiles, and the Reformers of the xvith century. Without doubt there are false traditions: it is these which our Lord explicitly reproved in speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees. But if there are such spurious traditions, which are "mere commandments of men," is there not so much the more need that we be referred to the authority of the church, and to her constant testimony?

Christianity has need of a church composed of those who govern and those who obey; she has need, in order to furnish a legitimate vehicle for the written word, of a uniform and constant tradition, entrusted to the church, in order that the mysteries of divine revelation, and its salutary precepts contained in the Bible, may not become a dead letter, or rather a deadly letter to those who shall attempt to interpret them in the wantonness of their prejudices and their prepossessions.

IV. On the Worship of Veneration due to the Holy Cross, to the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, to the Angels, and to the Saints.

The prophet Isaiah saw the Lord long ago, in the Spirit, and represented Him as going to his propitiatory sufferings, with the sign of dominion upon his shoulder; οὗ ἡ ἀρχὴ ἐπὶ τοῦ

μov avtov [ch. ix: 6, 7]. This sign is the Holy Cross, on which Jesus Christ accomplished, by his voluntary death, the work of our redemption. On this account the Christian church of the first centuries thought that a certain worship [culte] ought to be paid to this glorious sign, in the first place, as an instrument of salvation, and a symbol of the most profound mysteries of the inward life; in the second place, after the true cross was discovered by the Empress Helena, as an earthly throne of the Lamb of God, immolated for the sins of the world; an humble throne, stained with the blood of Jesus, and consecrated by the touch of his flesh. If the hem of our Lord's garment healed the sick, who touched it in faith; if his spittle restored sight to one born blind; what can be more lawful than the worship of veneration paid to his cross, whatever be the material of which it is formed? We see in Cyril of Alaxandria, and in John Chyrsostom, that they had received the tradition to honor the Holy Cross, and to employ it as a shield against the temptations of evil spirits. Chrysostom, the eagle of Antioch, the most faithful disciple of Paul, with his powerful and persuasive eloquence, recommended to the Christians of his time to mark with the sign of the cross their habitations, their couches, their repasts, the streets and gates of their cities, to make this sign on their foreheads and their breasts as well as to engrave it on their in most hearts. After

such testimonies, what shall we say of the rage of the sectaries of the xvith century against the sign of the cross. They charge this worship with the guilt of idolatry; they carry their madness so far, as even to substitute, on the summits of their temples, instead of the cross, the cock, the rebuker of Apostle Peter's weakness. Even to this hour, they continue to regard with pity the Christians who adopt the sign of the cross as the visible seal of Christian prayer, and who have faith in the efficacy of this sign. Infancy and youth no longer enjoy, in protestant countries, this peaceful safegurd of innocence, this last prayer of the man whose lips are mute, and whose heart is chilled by the near approach of death.

In venerating the cross of our Divine Master, the orthodox Christian does not adore the material, any more than Moses, Aaron, and all the children of Israel, when they presented themselves before the Ark of the Covenant, adored the wood, the gold, and the purple, which had been used in its construction.

In fine, the holy and venerable cross is the very same glo rious sign which Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy [ch. xxix.], foretold to the rebellious Jews, as destined to meet their views incessantly, during their universal dispersion : and ye shall have your life constantly suspended before your eyes" [v. 66].* Is it then in order to falsify the predictions of the legislator of the Hebrews, that the innovators of the xvith century persist in withdrawing from the view of the faithful the august symbol of their salvation? - that salutary and yet terrible sign of the Son of Man, which, according to the Gospel, shall be seen in heaven at the last day.

We pass now to consider the worship of veneration which is due to the Most Holy Virgin Mary. This worship is only the fulfilment of the prophecy of the mother of the Lord: "for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."

Observe in the first place that this injunction of the church teaches us an important and consoling truth, namely, that the church militant on earth, and the church triumphant in

Where our version reads, " Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee," the Septuagint has, ἔσται ἡ ζωή σου κρεμαμένη σοι ἀπέναντι τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν σου (Tr).

heaven, are closely joined, and communicate with each other by prayer and by the sacrament of the altar. There is an intimate and mysterious interchange of benefits between these two churches; the one sends up to heaven the incense of prayer; the other sends down upon us the dews of grace. In accordance with this, the Gospel declares to us, that "there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety-and-nine just persons who need no repentance." Vain is the objection to the invocation of the Virgin, the Angels, and the Saints, that they are not everywhere present, as God is. They see, hear, and receive our prayers, by a dispensation of divine light, it matters not how. For the prophet-king exclaims: "in thy light we shall see light." Do you wish for more explicit testimonies? Call to mind the sweet words of the Apostle Peter to his disciples, a little before his martyrdom, "I know that I shall shortly put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance." The Apostle does not withdraw himself from his converts. He is certain of that angelic ministry, which is common to saints and to angels. These last, as Paul expressly teaches us, are so many "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." Moses shows them to us, even in his time, as appointed guardians of various regions and nations.* In fine, our Lord teaches us that the souls of children are especially entrusted to their care. "Take heed," he says, "that ye despise not one of these little ones; for verily I say unto you their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven." If such is then the intimate and perpetual correlation of the two churches, if the Most Holy Mother of the Lord is the most excellent of creatures, first on account of her election, then on account of her retired life on earth, and finally on account of the double privilege of her virginity and her ineffable maternity, what can be more lawful and beneficial than to invoke her intercession?

* In Deut. xxxii: 8, the last clause reads in the Septuagint, "according to the number of the angels of God," κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀγγέλων Θεοῦ.

But our opponents object that Paul explicity declares to us that there is but "one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." According to this text, is it not wrong to have recourse to other intercessors? Yes, it would be as they say, if the Apostle stopped there; but they mutilate the passage. Here it is in its completeness; "there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." This is what the Apostle teaches us; and far be it from us to take away anything from what the Holy Spirit has revealed to us by his mouth. We confess with Paul one only Mediator between God and men who gave himself a ransom for all. But we know that our Saviour's being the only Mediator who gave himself a ransom for all, does not exclude the intercession in our behalf of the Holy Virgin, of the Angels, of the Saints and Martyrs, who have walked here below in his footsteps, and who help us by their prayers to climb the steep path to our eternal mansion. "God is glorious in his saints,"* exclaims the prophet-king; and Paul, who was rapt even to the third heaven, teaches us, that we are no more strangers and pilgrims, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God."

But if causeless and culpable subtleties interpose, in the case of our brethren, between earth and heaven; if they will not allow themselves to invoke the aid of the prayers of perfected saints, although they have no scruple in recommending themselves to the prayers of sinners here below; if the fourand-twenty elders before the throne of the Lamb reveal nothing to them concerning the mystery of the intercession of martyrs and just ones; let them reserve, alas! the tribute of their homage for heroes of flesh and blood, but let them leave us to honor without molestation this radiant cloud of apostles, confessors, martyrs, and ascetics, "of whom," says Paul, "the world was not worthy."

The author probably attributes to David, by mistake, the words of Moses, "God is-glorious in holiness," (Exod. xv: 11,) which are rendered in the Septuagint, δεδοξασμένος ἐν ἁγίοις. (Tr.)