many just ones attone for the sins of the multitudes
and the people; exhort
Peter, excite
Paul,
and also
John the divine and beloved disciple,
that they may be sollicitous for the Churches which
they have erected, for which they have been in chains,
for which they have undergone dangers and deaths; that
the worship of idols may not lift up its head against
us, that heresies may not spring up like thorns in
the vineyard, that tares grown up may not choak the
wheat, that no rock void of the fatness of true dew
may be against us, and render the fruitful power of
the word void of a root; but by the power of the prayers
of thyself and thy companions, O admirable man and
eminent among the Martyrs, the commonwealth of
Christians
may become a field of corn_. The same
Gregory
Nyssen, in his sermon upon the death of
Meletius
Bishop of
Antioch, preached at
Constantinople
the same year, A.C. 381, before the Bishops of all
the
East assembled in the second general Council,
spake thus of
Meletius.
The Bridegroom,
saith he,
is not taken from us: he stands
in the midst of us, tho we do not see him: he
is a Priest in the most inward places, and face to
face intercedes before God for us and the sins of
the people. This was no oratorical flourish,
but
Gregory’s real opinion, as may be
understood by what we have cited out of him concerning
Ephraem and
Theodorus: and as
Gregory
preached this before the Council of
Constantinople,
you may thence know, saith [6]
Baronius, that
he professed what the whole Council, and therewith
the whole Church of those parts believed, namely, that
the Saints in heaven offer prayers for us before God.
Ephraem Syrus, another eminent Monk, who was
contemporary with Basil, and died the same
year; in the end of his Encomium or Oration upon Basil
then newly dead, invokes him after this manner:
Intercede for me, a very miserable man; and recal
me by thy intercessions, O father; thou who art strong,
pray for me who am weak; thou who art diligent, for
me who am negligent; thou who art chearful, for me
who am heavy; thou who art wise, for me who am foolish.
Thou who hast treasured up a treasure of all virtues,
be a guide to me who am empty of every good work.
In the beginning of his Encomium upon the forty Martyrs,
written at the same time, he thus invokes them:
Help me therefore, O ye Saints, with your intercession;
and O ye beloved, with your holy prayers, that Christ_
by his grace may direct my tongue to speak_, &c. and
afterwards mentioning the mother of one of these forty
Martyrs, he concludes the Oration with this prayer:
I entreat thee, O holy, faithful, and blessed woman,
pray for me to the Saints, saying; Intercede ye that
triumph in Christ_, for the most little and miserable
Ephraem, that he may find mercy, and by the
grace of Christ may be saved_. Again,