* * * * *

In Justin Martyr I am unable to find even a single vestige of the invocation of Saints.  With regard to Angels, however, there is a very celebrated passage, to which Bellarmin and others appeal, as conclusive evidence that the worship of them prevailed among Christians in his time, and was professed by Justin himself.

Justin, in his first Apology, having stated that the Christians could never be induced to worship the demons, whom the heathen worshipped and invoked, proceeds thus[33]:  “Whence also we are called Atheists, {107} [men without God]; and we confess that with regard to such supposed gods we are atheists, but not so with regard to the most true God, the Father of justice and temperance, and of the other virtues without any mixture of evil.  But both him and the son, who came from Him, and taught these things to us, and the host of the other good angels accompanying and made like, and the prophetic spirit, we reverence and worship, honouring them in reason and truth; and without grudging, delivering the doctrine to every one who is willing to learn as we were taught.” [Page 47.] Governing the words “the host of the other good angels,” as much as the words “Him” and “His Son,” and “the prophetic Spirit,” by the verbs “we reverence and worship,” Bellarmin and others[34] maintain, that Justin bears testimony in this passage to the worship of angels.  That this cannot be the true interpretation of Justin’s words will be acknowledged, I think, by every Catholic, whether Anglican or Roman, when he contemplates it in all its naked plainness; all will revolt from it as impious and contrary to the principles professed by the most celebrated and honoured among Roman Catholic writers.  This interpretation of the passage, when analysed, implies the awful thought, that we Christians pay to the host of angels, God’s ministers and our own fellow-servants, the same reverence, worship, and honour which we pay to the supreme Father, and his ever-blessed Son, and the Holy Spirit, without any difference or inequality.  No principles of interpretation can avoid that inference.

[Footnote 33:  The genuineness of this passage has been doubted.  But I see no ground for suspicion that it is spurious.  It is found in the manuscripts of Justin’s works; of which the most ancient perhaps are in the King’s Library in Paris.  I examined one there of a remote date.]

    [Footnote 34:  The Benedictine Editor puts this note in the
    margin, “Justin teaches that angels following the Son are
    worshipped by Christians.”—­Preface, p. xxi.] {108}

“Him the most true Father of righteousness we reverence and worship, honouring him in reason and truth.”

“The Son who came from him, and taught us these things, we reverence and worship, honouring him in reason and truth.”