thanksgiving to Almighty God alone, and ending with daily prayers both
to saints and angels; one deviation from the strict line of religious
duty, and the pure singleness of Christian worship, successively gliding
into another, till at length the whole of Christendom, with a few
remarkable exceptions, was seen to acquiesce in public and private
devotions, which, if proposed, the whole of Christendom would once with
unanimity have rejected.

Before I offer to you the result of my inquiries as to the progressive
stages of degeneracy and innovation in the worship of Almighty God, I
would premise two considerations:

First, I would observe, that the soundness of my conclusion on the
general points at issue does not depend at all on the accuracy of the
arrangement of those stages {66} which I have adopted. Should any one,
for example, think there is evidence that two or more of those
progressive steps, which I have regarded as consecutive, were
simultaneous changes, or that any one which I have ranked as subsequent
took rather the lead in order of time, such an opinion would not tend in
the least to invalidate my argument; the substantial and essential point
at issue being this: Is the invocation of saints and angels, as now
practised in the Church of Rome, agreeable to the primitive usage of the
earliest Christians?

Secondly, I would observe, that the places and occasions most favourable
for witnessing and correctly estimating the changes and gradual
innovations in the worship of those early times, are the tombs of the
martyrs, and the Churches in which their remains were deposited; and at
the periods of the annual celebration of their martyrdom, or in some
instances at what was called their translation,--the removal, that is,