Seeing
therefore they abound with such efficacy, and have so much friendship with
him; we also, when by continual attendance and perpetual visitation of them
we have insinuated ourselves into their familiarity, may by their
assistance obtain the mercy of God_.
_Constantinople_ was free from these superstitions till _Gregory Nazianzen_
came thither A.D. 379; but in a few years it was also inflamed with it.
_Ruffinus_ [7] tells us, that when the Emperor _Theodosius_ was setting out
against the tyrant _Eugenius_, which was in the year 394, he went about
with the Priests and people to all the places of prayer; lay prostrate in
haircloth before the shrines of the Martyrs and Apostles, and pray'd for
assistance by the intercession of the Saints. _Sozomen_ [8] adds, that when
the Emperor was marched seven miles from _Constantinople_ against
_Eugenius_, he went into a Church which he had built to _John_ the Baptist,
_and invoked the Baptist for his assistance. Chrysostom_ [9] says: _He that
is clothed in purple, approaches to embrace these sepulchres; and laying
aside his dignity, stands supplicating the Saints to intercede for him with
God: and he who goes crowned with a diadem, offers his prayers to the
tent-maker and the fisher-man as his Protestors._ And in [10] another
place: _The cities run together to the sepulchres of the Martyrs, and the
people are inflamed with the love of them_.
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