 in it which had not come in my way before. From them I made several extracts, and to gratify my reader's curiosity a little, I will here favour him with one of them.
The first book I chanced to open in this library, was the second volume of Severin Bini's edition of the Councils,(3)

(edit. Paris, 1630) and over-against a very remarkable passage from Cyril, (p. 548) I found several written leaves, bound up in the volume, and these leaves referred to by an asterisk. The passage I call remarkable, is part

of a homily pronounced by the Alexandrian Patriarch before the council of Ephesus on St. John's day, in a church dedicated to his

names. In rehearsing his discourse to the Holy Fathers, the Saint cites Heb. i. 6. and then addresses himselfe to the apostle.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. — "When he

bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him." — 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.—O blessed

John the Evangelist, explain this mystery: Who is this first-begotten—how came he into the world? Mysterium hoc aperi, effare

etiam nunc, qui voces habes immortales. Resera nobis puteum vitae. Da, ut nunc quoque de salutis fontibus hauriamus.

This passage of Cyril I have heard several learned Roman Catholic gentlemen call a prayer, and affirm it was a proof of the Father's

Invocation of saints, in the beginning of the 5th century; for St. Cyril succeeded his uncle Theophilus in the see of Alexandria,

October 16, 412. But to this it may be answered,—
1. That Binius, though a zealous pleader for the catholic cause, (as the monks of Rome miscall it) was of another opinion, for he takes no notice of this passage in his notes (in calce part. 3, Concil, Ephesini, tom. 2. p. 665, &c.) and most certainly, he would not have failed to urge it, if he had considered it as a prayer, and believed it did prove the invocation of saints.

2. Nor does Bellarmine, in his treatise de sanctorum beatitudine, Henricus Vicus, de sanctorum invocatione, Gabriel Vasquez, de adoratione, or Gregorius de Valentia, de oratione, make use of this passage of Cyril, tho' they do, ex professo, and datâ, diligently quote all the councils and fathers they can, to prove invocation of saints.
3
