put upon record, had the adoration of an angel by the blessed John at
such a moment, when he had the mysteries and the glories of heaven
before him, been received and sanctioned. But what is the fact? "Then
saith he to me, See thou do it not. I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy
brethren the prophets, and of them who keep the sayings of this book.
Worship God." I cannot understand the criticism by which the
conclusiveness of this direct renouncement of all religious adoration
and worship is attempted to be set aside. To my mind these words,
uttered without any qualification at such a time, by such a being, to
such a man, are conclusive beyond gainsaying. The interpretation put
upon this transaction, and the words in which it is recorded, and the
inference drawn from them by a series of the best divines, with St.
Athanasius at their head, presents so entirely the plain common-sense
view of the case to our minds, that all the subtilty of casuists, and
all the ingenuity of modern refinements, will never be able to
substitute any other in its stead. "The angel (such are the words of
that ancient defender of the true faith), in the Apocalypse, forbids
John, when desiring to worship him, saying, 'See thou {56} do it not; I
am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them who
keep the sayings of this book. Worship God.' Therefore, to be the object
of worship belongs to God only; and this even the angels themselves
know: though they surpass others in glory, but they are all creatures,
and are not among objects of worship, but among those who worship the
sovereign Lord." [Athan. Orat. 2. Cont. Ar. vol. i. p. 491.] To say that
St. John was too fully illuminated by the Holy Spirit to do, especially
a second time, what was wrong; and thence to infer that what he did was
right, is as untenable as to maintain, that St. Peter could not,
especially thrice, have done wrong in denying our Lord. He did wrong, or
the angel would not have chided and warned him. And to say that the
angel here forbade John personally to worship him, because he was a