of these works, they could not, with any approach to fairness,
be all five placed without distinction under the same category.
The evidence for the genuineness of Clement, Ignatius in the
shorter copy, and Polycarp, is too valuable to be confounded
with that of the others, which are indisputably subject to much
greater doubt. But this question has only an incidental bearing
on our present inquiry, and will be well spared.]

[Footnote 21: The edition of the works of these Apostolic
Fathers used here is that of Cotelerius as revised by Le Clerc,
Antwerp, 1698.]

* * * * *

THE EPISTLE OF ST. BARNABAS.

In the work entitled The Catholic Epistle of Barnabas, which was written
probably by a Jew converted to the Christian faith, about the close of
the first century, or certainly before the middle of the second[22], I
have searched in vain for any thing like the faintest trace of the
invocation of saint or angel. The writer gives directions on the subject
of prayer; he speaks of angels as the ministers of God; he speaks of the
reward of the righteous at the day of judgment; but he suggests not the
shadow of a supposition, that he either held the doctrine himself which
the Church of Rome now holds, or was aware of its existence among
Christians. In his very beautiful but incomplete summary of Christian
duty [Sect. 18, 19. p. 50, 51, 52.], which he calls "The Way of Light,"
we perceive more than one most natural opening for reference to that
doctrine, had it been familiar to his mind. In the midst indeed of his
brief precepts of religious and moral obligation, he directs the