"latria" is used to imply the true worship of God in a person, who was
changed from a state of alienation to a state of holiness. The first is
in St. Paul's 1st Epistle to the Thessalonians, i. 9. "How ye turned to
God from idols, to serve [Greek: douleuein theo zonti] the living and
true God." The second is in Heb. ix. 14. "How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself {60} without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve[17] the
living God."

[Footnote 17: [Greek: latoeuein theo zonti.] In each of these
two cases the Vulgate uses "servire."]

The word "hyperdulia," now used to signify the worship proper to the
Virgin Mary, as being a worship of a more exalted character than the
worship offered to saints and angels, archangels, and cherubim and
seraphim, will not require a similar examination. The word was invented
in later times, and has been used chiefly to signify the worship of the
Virgin, and is of course found neither in the Scriptures, nor in any
ancient classical or ecclesiastical author. {61}

* * * * *




CHAPTER III.

SECTION I.--THE EVIDENCE OF PRIMITIVE WRITERS.