place in the bosoms of thy Patriarchs her for whose sake thou mercifully didst descend upon Earth In the later it is said Be mindfull of him O Lord in the glory of thy brightness let the Heavens be open to him let the Angels rejoyce with him Lord receive thy Servant into thy Kingdom Let St. Michael the Arch-angel of God and General of the Celestial Militia entertain him let the holy Angels of God meet him and carry him into the Heavenly Jerusalem c. Loosed from the Chains of flesh may he be received into the glory of the celestial Kingdom c. If after all these Prayers the Agony continue there are at several times read the one hundred and sixth and one hundred and eighteenth Psalms according to the Greeks and Latines that is the one hundred and seventh and one hundred and nineteenth according to the Hebrews who are therein followed by the Protestants and when the Soul is departed they say Afford your assistance O ye Saints of God meet him O ye Angels of the Lord receiving his Soul and presenting it to the most high May Christ who hath called thee entertain thee and may the Angels conduct thee into the Bosom of Abraham c. O Lord give him eternal rest and let everlasting light shine upon him Lord deliver his Soul from the Gate of Hell let him rest in peace In the Mass for the sick who are in Agony besides two Lessons out of the Scripture whereof the former comprehends from the sixth Verse of the five and fiftieth Chapter of Isaiah to the twelfth with these words fastened in the beginning by I know not whom In diebus illis locutus est Esaias Propheta dicens and at the end Ait Dominus omnipotens and the later consists of the twentieth twenty first and twenty second Verses of the sixteenth Chapter of St. John with these words added at the beginning In illo tempore dixit Jesus Discipulis suis We have several Texts alledged containing Thanksgiving to God for his deliverances as the second sixth and seventh Verses of the eighteenth Psalm according to the Hebrews the fourth of the fifty seventh with Confessions of sins and Implorations of his mercy and assistance as the second Verse of the fifty seventh Psalm the first and second of the one hundred and thirtieth the eighth and ninth of the seventy ninth the first of the fifty first and the two and twentieth of the five and twentieth and in conclusion three Prayers in the first whereof we read these words Grant him O Lord thy grace that his Soul at the hour of its departure out of the body may be represented without the blemish of any sin by the hands of the holy Angels to thee who art the proper bestower thereof through our Lord c. The second is closed with this conclusion not much unlike the former That received by the Angels he may arrive at the Kingdom of thy glory through our Lord. And the third is laid down in these Terms O Lord we give thee thanks for thy manifold kindnesses wherewith thou art wont to satisfie the Souls of those who put their trust in thee we now confident of thy compassion do humbly beseech thee that thou wouldest vouchsafe to shew mercy on thy Servant lest at the hour of his departure out of the body the enemy prevail against him but that he may be thought worthy to pass to life through our Lord. If the Latine Church had from the beginning been imbued with this Sentiment that the Souls of the Faithfull are for the most part at their departure out of the Body confined to a place of Torment where they perfect the expiation of their sins through what misfortune is it come to pass that she so far forgot her self as not to have expressed any such thing in all their Service and that her Encouragements and Remonstrances to those that lie at the point of death who are as it is at this day presupposed in so great a necessity to prepare themselves for it and the Wishes and Prayers which she makes and appoints to be made as well for them as for the Dead whom a Superstitious perswasion imagines already set upon and invaded by Infernal flames in Purgatory do not onely not contain any remark thereof but formally teach the contrary And that they do so we are onely to instance out of what hath been newly alledged what they say of all without exception viz. that after death they have their place in Holy Sion that the Angels come to meet them that they convey them into the Kingdom of Glory into the bosom of a blessed Rest into the bosom of Abraham into the pleasant Verdures of Paradise that they might with the Quires of the Blessed contemplate Truth with their blessed eyes and enjoy the sweetness of divine contemplation eternally that the Lord places them in the Portion of the Elect in the place where they hoped for salvation opens the heavens to them gives them an eternal Rest and makes them pass into life which Expressions are such as that the Protestants could not according to the Hypotheses of their Belief either say or think any thing beyond them Shall we imagine her unfortunately seised by a Vertigo so extraordinary as that she would be guilty of such an Extravagance in favour of the Adversaries of her Sentiment so far as to furnish them with all the Expressions capable to ruine it and that she should be so unnatural and cruel towards those of her children whom death snatched away daily from her as not to vouchsafe to let them know by the last word that she had a Resentment of their Trouble or that it was her desire to procure their Deliverance out of it by her Prayers and to fortifie others whom she saw to fall into the like by communicating to them her Advertisements and Remonstrances and representing to them on the one side the necessity which the Justice of God imposed on them as is pretended to pass through the Fire and on the other the Hope which his Promise gave them to be preserved therein by his care till such time as his Goodness should grant them a glorious deliverance out of it Nay though we should be inclined to excuse in her so shamefull a want of compassion and memory could we free her from Prevarication charging her that instead of stirring up in her children the care of preparing themselves for Death and the temporal Pains which according to the Opinion of Purgatory were to follow upon it she hath treacherously permitted that to be rid of it with more ease they should run into erroneous perswasions and presume to promise themselves upon the very start out of this Life a passage into Abraham's Bosom and the Paradise of God or rather that she was resolved to lay them asleep her self by deceitfull Expressions in the Bosom of a prejudicial Security which smothers the apprehension they should have conceived of the Severity of that
in this third Volume to Probus held this Discourse The Gauls were antiently by reason of the Whiteness of their Bodies called Galatae and the Sibyl calls them so Which the Poet would express when he said Their Milkie Necks enchac'd in Gold when he might as well have said White For it is evident First That he attributes not to the Sibyl the Words which Virgil made use of but onely the Use of the word Galatae derived according to the common Opinion from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Milk Secondly That he would not say that Virgil took his Conception from the Sibyl but that he as well as the other reflected on the Etymologie of Galatae derived fron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and applied to the Gauls by reason of the Whiteness of their Bodies Besides in the pretended Sibylline Writing upon which Lactantius onely cast his eye the word Galatae is not used to signifie our Western Gauls who are therein called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to design the numerous Colony they had sent into the East of Gallo-Grecians or Asiatick Gauls and the Counterfeit Sibyl hath not any where insinuated that these Gauls derived their Name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Lactantius presupposed it as likely though without any necessity CHAP. XXVIII That the Conjecture of Cardinal Baronius concerning the Correspondence between Virgil and Herod is not maintainable CArdinal Baronius fixed in the Imagination that Virgil had learned from the Sibylline Verses the approaching Advent of the great King and that he had out of flattery wrested the Sence and applied it to Pohio's Son alledges the Authority of the Emperour Constantine whereto we have answeredalready then makes this Observation The said Maro might also have understood something from the Hebrews concerning this Business fâ—r Herod King of the Jews when he came to Rome had often as Josephus writes been entertained at the House of Pollio Virgil ' s great Friend Now I intreat the Reader to consider that all this is nothing but Wind. For First Josephus who acknowledges that Pollio was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the number of those who made greatest account of Herod ' s Friendship does not particularly denote of which Pollio he speaks and it is generally known that besides Virgil's great Friend mentioned by Pliny there was at the same time in Rome Vedius Pollio a man no less familiar with Augustus then Asinius as is observed by the same Pliny Secondly Though Herod came four several times to Rome yet is it impossible to make the conceit of Baronius to suit with any one of them For the first Journey he made thither was in the year of Rome 714 during the Consulship of Pollio to implore the assistances of the Senate against the Parthians and then he was in a private Condition made little stay had other Things in his thoughts then Discoursing with Virgil who was then onely beginning to come into Repute without minding ought of Religion and having his Imagination employed how to get as he afterwards did the Crown of Judaea he would have been more likely to entertain Virgil and Pollio with the Rising of his own Glory then of that of our Saviour whom the Scripture calls the King of the Nations and the Day-spring from on high As for the other three they were all of them some years after the Death of Virgil which happened on the two and twentieth of September in the year of Rome 735. For the first was in the year of Rome 738. to carry away the children of Mariamne into Judaea the second in the year 744. to accuse them before Augustus and the last in the year 746. to restore into favour Archelaus King of Cappadocia his Ally So that Virgil was not then in a Condition to learn any thing either of him or of any of his Retinue or yet of his Friend Pollio Thirdly Josephus does not say that Pollio was ever Host unto or entertained Herod at his House but that he lodged his Children from the year of Rome 733. at which time Virgil was in Greece to the year 738. which was the third after his Death And it is so far from being a good Consequence Pollio entertained in his House the Children of Herod therefore He received Herod himself into his House that the contrary seems rather to be inferred He lodged the Children of Herod therefore He could not at the same time lodg Herod himself their Father who had a Royal Retinue about him and was more vain-glorious then any Prince of his Time I press not that Cardinal Baronius directly contrary to the Emperour Constantine who commends the Piety of Virgil censuring his prophane Flattery renders him so much the more criminal for that having learned of the Jews the Mysterie of the Messias he out of a voluntary Malice applied the Prophecy to Pollio and his Son All which considered gives me the Confidence to affirm that the presumed communication of Virgil with the Jews is a groundless Imagination and no more CHAP. XXIX That the Opinion of Anthonius Possevinus concerning the Sibyls and their pretended Writings is not more rational then that of Cardinal Baronius ANthony Possevin carried away with the Tortent of the common Opinion makes as the rest no small Stir with the Sibyls saying That Plato Iamblichus Porphyrius and the other Academicks of whose Doctrine Petrus Crinitus hath written have treated of the Sibyls Cicero hath treated of them and Pliny and before them Varro in his Books Of Divine things To Caesar As also afterwards Cornelius Tacitus Solinus Fenestella Marcianus Capella Virgil Servius and others and of the Greeks besides the Platonists Diodorus Siculus Strabo Suidas Aelian in his Books De varia Historia nay among the Christians and antient Greek Fathers Eusebius Justin Clemens Alexandrinus Stratonicus Cumanus Theophilus in his Books to Autolycus and among the Latines Lactantius Hierome Augustine c. Now many of the Fathers have affirmed that these Sibyls had foretold things through the inspiration of God and the Apostle St. Paul exhorted the Gentiles to read their Oracles as Clemens Alexandrinus hath left in writing c. Peter Garcias Galarza hath so Treated of all this whole matter that comparing the Verses of the ten Sibyls with the Prophecies of the Holy Scripture he hath shewed the admirable Harmony between them But the Reader will be pleased once more to consider the inconsiderateness of this otherwise learned man who cites among the Authours that have spoken of the Sibyls Theophilus of Antioch and in his Apparatus questions whether he should be admitted into that number saying Theophilus of Antioch in Case that Theophilus ever writ of the Sibyls For First The Heathens knew not of any Sibyl but the Idolatrous as hath been already proved and cite not any thing of what the Christians thought Sibylline the Christians on the
some persons having observed that the Heathens called by the Name of Ollas Vulcanias or Kettles of Vulcan the gaping places through which the Mountains of Gibel Vesuvium Lipara Strongoli and other places full of sulphur disburthen themselves of the Flames which either by intervals or a constant burning devour their Entrails and taken either out of astonishment or of set purpose the crakings of those subterranean Fires for the groans and crys of Tormented persons and lastly met with men who had the confidence either out of the excess of their malice against some Persons Departed or a desire to make their advantage of the credulous simplicity of the Living to compose Histories of the Apparitions of Souls separated by Death from the Bodies which they had animated before would needs without any Oracle of Scripture or Tradition of the first Ages of the Church and without the Example of any of the Saints that lived in them suppose that the Souls of those Christians which during their life-time had been defiled with Sin were after their death as it were melted again in a subterranean Fire where they were purified some sooner others later and all before the Last Day And as we finde the Poet Dante by a Liberty truly Poetical confined to the Hell where the Damned were all his enemies advanced into Paradise the best of his Friends and reduced the rest to be content with Purgatory so were there about the midst of the sixth Age a sort of People that had the boldness to affirm upon the Authority of their own pretended Visions the damnation of the Greatest men About that time was it that the Hermit of Lipara had perswaded the Father of the Step-father of Julian one of the Agents of the Romane Church that he had seen Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths who died on the one and thirtieth of August 536. led between Pope John the First and Symmachus without a Girdle without Shoes his hands tyed and at last cast into the next Vulcanian Cauldron whence honest St. Gregory inferred in the year 593. that by the Eructations of Fire which happened many times in Sicily and other adjacent Islands the tormenting Cauldrons were discovered Thus also came it to pass that after the Death of Charles Martel which happened on the two and twentieth of October 741. the Monks of St. Tron having published that Eucherius Bishop of Orleans had seen in a Vision the eternal Torments of that Prince who had dealt very roughly with him and given Ecclesiastical Revenues to those who had assisted him in the War and that thereupon there had been found in his Sepulchre onely a Dragon with the visible marks of his Body's being Divinely consumed by Fire the Story though so much the more evidently false in as much as the Death of Eucherius who died the fifteenth of February 727. preceded by fifteen years eight Moneths and two days that of Charles Martel whom he is ridiculously supposed to have survived was so pleasing to the humour of the Clergie that the Writers of the Legends of Rigobert of Rheims of Eucherius and Peter the Library-keeper and Flodoard undertook the dispersing of it and in the year 858. in November the Prelats of the Provinces of Rheims and Rouēn gave it for certain to Lewis King of Germany whom they knew to be descended of Martel by Pipin his second Son who upon the twenty ninth of July 753. concurrent with the fourth of his Reign gave for his Father's sake Saint Michael's-Mount in Verdunois to the Abbey of Saint Denys and by Lewis the Debonnaire Grand-Son of Pipin who Writ in the year 836. to Hilduin Abbot of Saint Denys that Charles his Great-grandfather had religiously recommended himself and had for that end principally shewn his Devotion and confidence towards that his particular Patron a manifest Argument that the Fable of his Damnation was not yet invented and that those Gentlemen who two and twenty years before bragged they had heard the Relation of it from Lewis imposed upon him and very boldly abused the credulity of Lewis King of Germany and Charles the Bald his children And in the year 1090. In Saxony a Clergy-man Dead as was conceived dragged into Hell and returning thence three days after confirmed by the Prediction of his own Death and the discoveries of other things the Judgment he had before given concerning the Torments of Pope Gregory the Seventh and the Petty Kings Rodolph and Herman the first of whom died the twenty fourth of May 1085. the second the fifteenth of October 1080. and the third in the year 1088. These three Examples whereto a thousand others of equal authority might be added are sufficient to make it appear what a strange power malice hath over those who are once infected with its venome There may be produced also such as shall demonstrate what Impressions Interest can give for to raise an horrour against Schism there was spread up and down Rome this Discourse concerning Paschasius Deacon of the Romane Church who had been to his death engaged in the Party of the Anti-Pope Laurence put by his pretences the 23 of October 501. That notwithstanding the merit of his Person being such that the very touching of the Surplice placed upon his biere had while he was carrying to the ground healed a possessed person yet had his soul been condemned to endure the ardors of the boyling-waters in the Baths surnamed the Angulani whence it was afterwards delivered upon the Prayers of Germanus Bishop of Capua And to encourage men to liberality it was said of Dagobert who died January 19. 644. that the Devils beating him as they were carrying him away in a Boat towards the Isles of Vulcan St. Denys St. Maurice and St. Martin whom he continually called to his relief came with Thunder and Tempest to his rescue and disposed him afterwards into Abraham's Bosom all which passages John the Hermite who lived in a little Isle not far thence saw in a Vision and gave the Relation of it to Anseald then Agent and afterwards Bishop of the Church of Poictiers In like manner the Impostor who took upon him the name of Turpin for that of Tilpin Arch-Bishop of Rheims who died the third of September 789. never considering that Wolfarius Successour to Tilpin did in the year 811. subscribe the Testament of Charle-maigne feigned that that Prince dying on Saturday Jan. 28. 814. and Canonized by Paschal the Third Anti-Pope in the year 1166. had been carried up to the Celestial Kingdom by the assistance of St. James to whom he had built many Churches and that a certain Devil whom he had seen running after the Troops of his Companions and drawing towards Aix la Chapelle whither they were all going in hope to be present at Charles's death and afterwards to carry away his Soul to Hell had told him at his return that the headless Galician had put into the
Souls which the Church of Rome pretends to be so confined in her Purgatory that they cannot merit there much less be converted to God He takes for good the Testimony of Origene who believed not any Pains eternal and that of St. Gregory Nyssenus who was lightly led away into that Errour He summons in also Ephraim Deacon of Eâ—…a Diadochus Bishop or Photice Maximus and Oecumenius who speak of no other Fire then that of the last Conflagration Synesius Bishop of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica who Treats of the Pains inflicted by Devils and consequently of those of the damned Procopius of Gaza who proposing to us a Purgative Fire which the Seraphim brings from Heaven to Earth to sanctifie as well the Ministers of the Church as the sinners for whom they pray clearly discovers he never thought on the Romish Purgatory which does not sanctifie any one and which cannot be in Heaven for this very Reason that it is placed in Hell Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople who speaks of the Efficacy of our Saviour's Passion to deliver out of Limbus those whom Antiquity believed to have been there confined in expectation of his coming as also of the Purgatory of those who die daily says nothing to his purpose He makes great ostentation of a Fragment unjustly attributed to Theodoret which is not to be found any where in his Works of Gennadius Scholarius drawn into the Church of Rome's Party by the Caresses and kindnesses of Pope Eugenius the Fourth and of Zagazabo an Abyssine Bishop whom the Portuguez deceitfull Interpreters of his Sentiments made to say what they pleased directly contrary to the common Belief of his Countrey-men He further brings in the Depositions of that Impostour who had in the year 1595. taken upon him the Name of Gabriel Patriarch of the Cofti and who hath been since acknowledged by the Doctours of the Church of Rome to be what he was as also those of Hypatius Arch-Bishop of the Black-Russians who to comply with the King of Poland Father of the last-deceased had submitted to the Church of Rome and in consequence thereof had made such a profession of Faith as she desired he should In a word he shuffles together all he met with of one I know not what Eusebius of Alexandria unknown to Antiquity of Eusebius of Caesarea of the Arabian Canons of Timothy of Alexandria of St. Epiphanius of Palladius of John sirnamed Cassian of Justine Justinian and Leo the Wise Emperours of John sirnamed Climacus of Gregory the Priest of Leontius of Sophronius of Damascene of Anastasius of Simeon Metaphrastes of Constantine sirnamed Manasses of Nicetas of Nicholas Cabasilas of Athanasius of Constantinople of Nicephorus Gregoras of the Greeks deputed to the Councel of Basil of those who reside at Venice and of Jeremy Patriarch of Constantinople not omitting any of the Authours alleged by Cardinal Bellarmine and never minding whether from any one of the Testimonies he draws from this long Catalogue of Witnesses any thing more can be gathered then Prayer for the dead Then turning to the Latine Fathers and bringing in all those whom Cardinal Bellarmine had cited he produces over and above Arnobius who simply says that the Church prays for all both living and dead and Zeno of Verona blaming the VVidows who by their lamentations interrupt the prayers whereby the Souls of their deceased Husbands are recommended to God and shews even in that that he thought they no way deserved those lamentations which yet were but the just and necessary Effects of the compassion of the living if they presupposed with any certainty of their departed Friends that they burn in an Infernal Fire Besides all this he shuffles in the Depositions of Lactantius of Hilarius the Deacon of Eucherius of Lyons of Caesarius of Arles and of Boethius who speaks of the Conflagration of the World at the Last day of Prudentius who speaks of the Hell of the damned of Philip the Priest who Treats Of the Absolution and Remission of Sins which shall be solemnly given to every Believer at the Last day of St. Hilary of Poictiers who discourses Of the Tribulations of this Life of Bacchiarius who to confute those who made any difficulty to allow the peace of the Church to their Brethren that were fallen alledges the care which Saul's Concuhine had taken of the bodies of his children hanged upon occasion of the Gibeonites and that of Judas Maccabaeus for those of his Army who after their Death had been found seized of the prey taken in the Temple of Jamnia of Primasius and Faustus Religious Men of the Monastery of St. Maurus who are pleased to approve Prayers and Offerings for the dead and to give us good measure when we are to be cheated he cites us a Writing lately Fathered on Pope Sixtus the Third an Homily of the Lord's Supper stuffed with passages out of St. Hilary St. Hierome St. Augustine St. Prosper Isidore of Sevil Bede and Alcuin and consequently unjustly attributed to Saint Eloy deceased the first of December 663. before the birth of Bede who was more antient by Fifty years then Alcuin the Commentary which Sedulius not as he thinks the antient who writ the Opus Paschale but another of the same Nation dressed up since the year 700. out of the Writings and abundance of other Authours of later date whom I forbear to bring into the Accompt out of a consideration that in regard they lived since St. Gregory and have had a great Veneration for the Writings and Authority of that Renowned Prelate it may be they might have some Thoughts of the Purgatory whereof he was the first Founder when they writ what is alledged out of them though they contain not any formal mention thereof So that to make good the Protestant Cause against the Church of Rome it is sufficient if I maintain First That she hath nothing expresly affirmed on the behalf of her Purgatory among the Latines before Gregory the First Secondly That that onely reflection may give the more simple light enough to comprehend that that Point of Doctrine being so new that it was not known for the space of six Ages together even among the Doctours of the Western Church who have not neither any one of them in particular nor all together anything determinate to induce the reception of it and justifie that they had received it can by no means be an Article of Faith Thirdly That such as alledge unto us the Greeks who never believed nor can to this day believe what is proposed to them concerning it by the Church of Rome deal very unhandsomly and are more worthy reproach then refutation which their Supposition doth not deserve And lastly That Coccius who hath made no difficulty to bring in as Witnesses the Greeks sojourning at Venice and Jeremy Patriarch of Constantinople who in those very Places which he cites deny what he pretends to prove did not any way consider what he ought either his own Cause or the sincerity of
a good Conscience which in the Business of Religion cannot advance any thing either false or superfluous much less ought that is repugnant to what it hath undertaken to prove CHAP. XLVI Of the Reasons which might have moved the Antients to Interr their departed Friends in the Churches consecrated to the Memory of the Saints ALl this thus presupposed as it may well be in as much as the necessary result from it is that that Part of Antiquity which prayed for the dead had not any thought of either the Purgatory where the Church of Rome teaches that they burn or their deliverance out of that grievous Pain but intended onely to desire of God that he would be pleased to pardon their Sins at the day of his Son 's Last coming deliver them from the general Conflagration of the World and give their Bodies a glorious Resurrection it remains to discover what may have been their intention who have ordered their Friends to be Buried near the Martyrs or at least in the places and Edifices dedicated since the peace of the Church to their Memory To proceed in a more certain order and take things at their proper Sources I observe First That the Christians no more then the Jews had not at the beginning any common Cemiteries or Church-yards but that every one made choice of such place for his Sepulchre as he thought fit and that it was thus the most antient Monuments yet remaining among us give sufficient Testimony Secondly That according to the Politicks of the Jews and Romans Sepulchres were not within Cities but onely near and about them Thirdly That as among the Jews and Heathens there were certain particular Places of Sepulture for those of the same Family so the resentments of Christian Fraternity whereby all the Saints make up the Family of God and are Members one of another prevailed so far upon the Spirits of the Faithfull that they begat in them as far as the Extremities of those Times permitted a desire that their Bodies might be deposited near those of their Brethren who had before fought the good Fight of Faith and held fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end Fourthly That the Church during the rigour of the Persecutions having been forced to Assemble to serve God before day and to seek the safety of her Children in the silence of the Night and the Solitudes of Cemiteries Places not onely of no great shew but such as were if the Scituation permitted it for the most part under Ground as the Catatumbs about Rome and could not upon that accompt give any Jealousie to the Pagans the Faithfull who were there daily animated to Constancy by the Instruction of their Pastours and the sight of the Tombs which they considered as so many Trophies of their Brethren seeing the Mystical Table purposely placed towards that part where their bodies rested as it were to make unto them a literal Application of the Words of St. John who affirms that he saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held derived from all these Considerations that noble desire of remaining conjoyned with the Saints of God in Life and Death and when the time should come depose their own Bodies as it were into the Bosom of those Friends whose Examples they had followed in all the course of their Lives Fifthy That after the Conquest of Paganism under the Reign of Constantine the Great Constantius his Son who at the time he was most violent against the Orthodox bethought him of making the first Transportations of Saints bodies in as much as upon the first of June 356. he transferred to Constantinople the body of St. Timothy which he had taken out of Ephesus and the third of March following caused to be brought from Patras the bodies of St. Andrew and St. Luke Constantius I say raised in all those that came after him such a desire to attempt the like Translations that there can hardly be named any one of the antient Martyrs and Confessours whose body hath not been digged out of the Earth and torn in Pieces to be distributed into many several places In imitation of Princes private Persons began to exercise that Piece of Will-worship those who wanted Authority to countenance their Actions taking the liberty to make use of Violence and commit Robberies not to speak of the Adulterations and Impostures which in less then thirty years were come to that Excess that on the six and twentieth of February 386. it was thought necessary to repress it by an Express Law to this Effect Humanum corpus nemo ad alterum locum transferat nemo Martyrem distrahat nemo mercetur c. Let no man translate any man's body from one place to another let no man sell no man set to a Price any Martyr But since that time the Disease growing too violent for the Remedy what had been accompted an Execrable attempt became an Act of Religion and there wanted not an Emulation among those that practised it who should be most criminal and whereas at the beginning People thought it enough to consider the Monuments of Martyrs and Confessours onely as the glorious marks of their Christian Profession with such a respect as admitted not the violation of their bodies they came in time to exercise that rudeness upon them as is done on a Prey exposed to the covetousness of the first that lays hands on it every one endeavoured to keep his share their very bones were cut to Pieces and instead of honouring their Memory and celebrating their Virtues by a pious imitation thereof they turned their Veneration towards the Repositories into which they were disposed If on the one side Antiquity reduced to those Extremities as to keep its Assemblies in Cemeteries thought it a glory to place the Eucharistical Table under their Tombs to teach every one of her children that they belonged both living and dead to that Great Saviour who hath commanded us to shew forth his death till his coming again Posterity on the other which had the opportunity to build as many Temples as they pleased and where they pleased hath suffered their Liberty to degenerate into Superstition imagining that no Altar was to be erected but it must be made a Repository of Reliques and the disorder as it were by an universal Deluge spread it self so suddenly over all that the General Councel of all Africa Assembled at Carthage on the thirteenth of September 401. was forced to make Provision against it by this remarkable Decree Placuit ut Altaria quae passim c. It hath been thought fit that the Altars which are erected up and down the Fields and High-ways as Memorials of the Martyrs wherein there are not any Body or Reliques of the Martyrs interred be if possible demolished by the Bishops under whose Jurisdictions those Places are But if by reason
that we are made partakers of their Dignity that they are to be honoured by way of imitation and not adored upon any religious accompt In a word that neither the Blessed Virgin Mother of our Saviour nor any of the Saints of either Sex can pretend to any part of that religious homage Saint Epiphanius one of the most earnest maintainers of Prayer for the Dead hath left to them and the whole Church of these last times these remarkable Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Indeed the Body of Mary was holy but it was not God the Virgin was indeed a Virgin and honoured but she was not given us to be adored on the contrary she adored him who was begotten of her as to the flesh c. If God will not have the Angels to be adored how much rather will he not that she who was born of Ann should be c. God came from Heaven and the Word was clad in flesh taken from the holy Virgin but the Virgin is not adored c. Let Mary be honoured but let the Father Son and Holy Spirit be adored Let no man adore Mary though Mary be excellent and holy and honoured it is not that she should be adored c. Let Mary be honoured but let the Lord be adored But not to press any further this notorious defect which we finde at present in the Service of the Greeks we are to observe that among them the Office of the Dead is full of Prayers whereby is desired as in the Latine Service the mercy of God the remission of the sins of the deceased his absolution his blessed resurrection his introduction into rest into Abraham ' s Bosom into the Mansion of the blessed into refreshment into Paradise into the Tabernacle of God into his Kingdom glory light to the right hand of the great Judge into the Society of the Saints and Angels all which Expressions according to the Hypotheses of Antiquity may be applied to the Spirits already received into glory Which is so much the more evident for that the particular Office which concerns the Obsequies of Children is full of these Prayers that God would number the deceased among the Children to whom he hath promised his Kingdom that he would place him among the just who are acceptable in his sight that he would make him partaker of the good things which are above this World that he would let him enter into the joys of the Saints that in his holy Mountain he would gratifie him with celestial goods that he would write his name in the Book of those who shall be saved that he would make his face to shine upon him that he would lodge him in Abraham ' s Bosom that he would grant him the enjoyment of his Kingdom c. Yet were not these Desires made without a presupposition of his Beatitude as First when it is said to him He who hath taken thee from the Earth and gives thee place among his Saints shew◠that thou O truly blessed Childe art a Citizen of Paradise The Sword of Death falling on thee hath cut thee off as a tender Branch O blessed art thou who hast made no tryal of worldly pleasures but behold Christ opening the Gates of Heaven to thee numbring thee◠out of his great goodness among the Elect◠Secondly When he is brought in making this Discourse Why do you bewail me a Childe translated out of the World for I am not a Subject to be bewailed The joy of all the just is required for those Children who have not done works worthy Tears Thirdly When he acknowledges that Death is a freedom to Children that they are thereby exempted from the miseries of life and that they are gone to rest that they rejoyce in Abraham ' s Bosom in the divine Quires of Blessed Children and assuredly dance because their departure hence was a deliverance from the corruption which loves sin If then the Ritual of the Creeks be full of Prayers for the Children whom they unanimously acknowledge to be among the Blessed what inconvenience can there be to attribute to them that they had the same apprehension for persons of age of whose felicity they no way doubted But though reason should not lead us to think so yet does their formal confession obliges us to believe as much for there is not any deceased person for whom they say not to God Mercifully receive the faithfull person departed who hath holily quitted this life and is O Lord passed towards thee and whose Funeral Solemnities they do not conclude saying to him three several times Our Brother worthy to be ever blessed and always remembred thy memory is eternal To every Monk without any exception they address these words Brother thè way thou art in is that of bliss for that a place of rest is prepared for thee adding to that purpose the sixteenth Verse of the one hundred and sixteenth Psalm Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt kindly with thee and a little after He who is taken hence hath passed through the ever-troubled Sea of Life and by Faith is arrived at his Port conduct him O Christ with the Saints into thy tranquillity and ever-living pleasures In like manner to every Priest Thou hast piously signalized thy self in Faith Charity Hope Gentleness Purity of life and in the Sacerdotal dignity and therefore O Brother of eternal memory God who is before all Ages whom thou hast served will himself dispose thy Spirit into a place full of light and pleasure where the just are in rest and will make thee obtain of Christ at the day of Judgment pardon and great mercy And the deceased Person is introduced using these words I am now at rest and have found great favour for that I have been transferred from the corruption of life glory be to thee O Lord c. Thy divine Servant Deified in his Transportation by thy now-enlivening Mystery is come towards thee To every Woman departed Detain not any longer O malicious Hell the Souls of the Elect in the condemnation of the Transgression for all being now made assuredly conformable to Christ instead of Death receive divine life In a word she is made to say the same words as had been attributed to the Priest I am now at rest c. All these Confessions grounded on the Lessons of Scripture which for the most part contain assurances of the Love of God towards those who serve him and promises of their future Beatitude and glorious Resurrection demonstratively prove that the first Compilers of the Greek Office agreeing in what is most substantial with the Protestants believed that whoever dies in the Faith of the Lord does from the moment of his Death enjoy rest and glory in him and with him But for as much as from time to time the purity of belief and worship receiving adulteration among them there rose up a sort of people apt to feign any
Creation shall be shaken with fear and then shall the light be changed O Word spare him who is translated hence Again I beseech you all who were of my acquaintance and who love me be mindful of me at the Day of Judgment that I may finde mercy before the Dreadful Tribunal Again Let us cry to the Immortal King when thou shalt come to make inquisition into the secret things of men spare thy Servant whom thou hast taken to thy self O Mankind-loving God Again I am dead after that I have passed away my life with security and I lye without voice in the Grave and now I expect the last Trumpet to awake me cries he who is dead but my Friends pray unto Christ that he would number me among the Sheep on his right hand c. I have consumed my life in great negligence and being translated from it I expect the dreadfull Tribunal before which O Jesu preserve me free from condemnation cries thy Servant Again O Lord who art the onely King entertain into the Celestial Kingdom thy Faithfull Servant whom thou hast now transferred hence and we beseech thee preserve him free from condemnation at the hour when all mortal men being to be judged shall make their appearance before the Judge c. Disacknowledged by my Brethren and sequestred from my Friends I cry in spirit from the noisomness of the Grave Examine not my failings at the day of Judgment despise not my Tears thou who art the joy of Angels but grant me rest O Lord even me whom out of thy great mercy thou hast taken to thy self c. Stuck fast in the Myriness of sin and devested of good actions I who am a prey to Worms cry to thee in Spirit cast me not behind thee wretch that I am place me not at thy left hand thou who hast framed me with thy Hands but out of thy great mercy grant him rest whom thou hast taken to thy self by thy Ordinance Having now quitted my Kinred and Countrey I am come into a strange way and am as stinking rottenness in the Grave Alass none shall afford me any assistance in that hour but O Lord because of thy great mercy grant him rest whom thou hast taken to thy self by thy Ordinance Again O what an inquisition and judgment are we to expect what fear and trembling in which Brethren the Elements themselves shall be moved and the creation shake come now and let us cast our selves at the feet of Christ that he may save the Soul he hath transferred An intolerable sire and external obscurity and the Worm which never dies is prepared for us sinners in the day of inevitable necessity then spare thy Servant whom thou hast transferred For as much then as the Prayers for the remission of sins made by the Greeks under the names as well of the Surviving praying for the Dead as of the Dead putting up their Requests for themselves are for the most part restrained to the day of Judgement we are so far from having any thing that might oblige us to take them in such a sence as that they should insinuate that the Faithfull between the moment of their death and that of the Last Judgment were reduced to the suffering of any pains that the Hypotheses of Antiquity seem clearly to exact the contrary And the result thence is that the Modern Greeks though great opposers of the Purgatory maintained by the Church of Rome have not kept within the Terms prescribed them by their Fore-fathers but have changed their Sentiments by the Introduction of Novelties which none of them would ever have imagined It will be demanded whence they derived the perswasion that there were Souls of a middle condition which being properly neither good nor bad could not after their separation from the Body enter into the possession of Paradise without having for a certain time lain drooping in I know not what place of Sequestration where they were to endure grief terrour and the incommodity of darkness which as is pretended covered them when nothing of all this either hath or could have any ground in Scripture which does every where make as immediate an opposition between Paradise and Hell the good and the bad the Faithfull and the Reprobate the Children of God redeemed and consecrated for ever by one onely Oblation and that once made with the blood of the Covenant and the children of the Devil who have held as prophane that precious blood as between life and death light and darkness the right hand and the left of the great Judge teaching us expresly that all the faithfull dying in the Lord are blessed rest from thenceforth come not into condemnation are passed from death to life are at their departure out of the body with the Lord and that all the rest without any exception dying in Adam and having not believed are already condemned 2. That Antiquity having happily shaken of the strange imagination which the Fathers of the Second Age had swallowed out of the pretended Sibylline Writing insinuating to them that the Spirits of all men as well good as bad necessarily descended into Hell and were to be there detained under the power of Devils till the Resurrection of the Bodies they had animated it thereupon formally maintained that immediately upon the Death of the Faithfull are the Nuptials of the Spouse that it remains onely for the surviving to give thanks to God that he hath crowned him who is departed from them and having delivered him out of all fear receives him to himself that to all the good Death is an assured Port a deliverance from the combat and bonds a Transporation to better things and that as soon as it happens the Cabinets are sealed and the time accomplished and the combat at an end and the race run and the Crowns bestowed and all is manifestly brought to perfection 3. That the Ritual it self as it were endeavouring to bring into discredit as well the distinction of the middle-conditioned Souls as their pretended banishment for a time into a dark place indifferently affirms of all those who die in the Faith of Christ men and women Ecclesiasticks those of Religious Professions and Laicks that they are gone to the Lord that they rest that Hell detains them not that they exchange Death for the divine life and are made the Children of immortality absolutely denying all that the vulgar Opinion temerariously and without any reason shewn affirms of some and wholly destroying it by so formal a contradiction But we are not to imagine our selves reduced to a necessity of being over-Critical in discovering the Origine of this errour since the falsificatour as well of the Ritual as of the Sentiment of those of his Nation hath done it so palpably to our hands that he hath not made any scruple to publish his own ignorance even in things evident and such as the word of God the best
Resurrection the Presupposition whereof does not in â—…e either that the Faithfull depart this Life to go into a place of Torments or that there is any necessity of Bewailing them or Praying for them after their Death the consequence being not good He shall rise up in Glory therefore He is in a place of Pains and must be delivered thence by Prayers Thirdly There is read the thirteenth Verse of the fourteenth Chapter of the Apocalyps where the Spirit of God advertising St. John by a voyce from Heaven that from henceforth those who die in the Lord are blessed and rest from their Labours demolishes the very Foundation as well of Prayer for the Faithfull departed as of Purgatory where it is pretended they suffer the temporal Punishment due to their Sins For if they are Blessed and upon that accompt in possession of what might be desired on their behalf they stand in no further need that any thing should be desired for them And again if they are Blessed and rest from their Labours from henceforth they are from henceforth exempted from Pain it being impossible that to be Blessed and to rest should signifie to be Tormented and on the contrary that to endure the burning of an infernal Fire should be to rest from one's labour and enjoy the Bliss consequent thereto Fourthly There is read from the one and fiftieth Verse of the fifteenth Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians to the fifty seventh inclusively expressing the Assurance which the Apostle gives the Church of her Blessed Resurrection whereby Death shall be swallowed up in Victory and every Believer cloathed with Immortality and every one knows that from this Proposition he shall rise again in Incorruption the Law of Ratiocination will never suffer this Inference to be drawn Therefore he is tormented and stands in need of being prayed for before he rises again Fifthly There is read the fourth Verse of the three and twentieth Psalm and the second third and fourth of the Two and fourtieth which onely represent the State of the Faithfull Person during the course of this Life and not that which is to follow upon his departure hence Sixthly There is read out of the eleventh Chapter of St. John from the one and twentieth Verse to the seven twentieth inclusively where the Son of God calling himself the Resurrection and the Life testifies that he who believes in him shall live and shall never die which to a Person that hath but the least use of Reason will never give any ground to Inferr that he who shall live and shall never die shall for a certain time after the dissolution of his Body be confined to a place of Torment where he shall stand extremely in need of the Prayers of the surviving Seventhly There is read out of the 6th Chapter of St. John the three and fiftieth and four and fiftieth Verses where the Son of God recommending the Eating of his Flesh and the Drinking of his Blood promises him who shall eat and drink thereof that he shall have eternal Life and shall be raised up again at the Last day Eighthly Immediately after there are read the second time as well the same Words as the precedent beginning from the one and fiftieth Verse which hath I know not how made shift to gather this Preface In illo tempore dixit Jesus Discipulis suis turbis Judaeorum c. Then Jesus said to his Disoiples and to the multitude of the Jews upon which I have further to observe that there is not the least necessity of concluding from the Promise made by the Son of God that those who participate of his Flesh and of his Blood should after Death be destined to endure the Punishment of a Subterranean Fire and therein tormented expect to be relieved by the Prayers of their surviving Brethren Ninethly There are read with the same Preface which yet is not to be found in any Part of the Chapter the 21 22 23 and 24th Verses of the fifth Chapter of St. John where our Saviour in as much as he affirms by Virtue of the power of Judging which he received of his Father that he who believes in him hath eternal life and shall not come into Judgment but shall pass or rather as the Greek the Syriaok and the Latine Version recommended by the Councel of Trent have it is passed from Death to Life in as much I say as our Saviour obliges the Believer to be certainly perswaded that he shall not after this Life be liable to any Pains whatsoever for his Sins since they are things absolutely incompatible that being passed from Death he should have eternal Life as the inviolable Promise of his Saviour expresses and that he should be to endure for ever so short a space of time the Torments of Death and Hell as the present Church of Rome supposes that he shall not come into Judgment as the Gospel expresly declares and that he shall come to Judgment to be therein condemned for a time according to what the Church of Rome teaches those of her Communion Tenthly and Lastly With a Preface taken up I know not whence there are read the thirty seventh the thirty eighth the thirty ninth and the fourtieth Verses of the sixth Chapter of St. John where our Saviour promising to raise up at the Last day those who believe in him gives them such comfort by the assurance of their final felicity as might raise them out of all fear that between the Moment of their Death and the day of Judgment they should suffer any Punishment and be sensible of any need they should stand in of the Suffrages of the Living In fine there are read as on the second of November and with the same Preface the twenty fifth the twenty sixth the twenty seventh the twenty eighth and the twenty ninth Verses of the fifth Chapter of Saint John which we have already observed to make nothing to the Business either of Purgatory or Prayer for the Dead On the Contrary from all these Lessons it is necessarily manifest First That the Church of Rome who at the present make use of them as inducements to the Living to take care of the Dead hath not haply any thing more Answerable to her Intentions and makes a silent Confession that her Service for the Departed and the Belief of her Purgatory have not any Foundation in the Word of God are the voluntary Devotions of men intruding into those things which they have not seen and for that Reason branded with the Censure of the Holy Spirit speaking by the mouth of St. Paul 2 Coloss xviii 22 23. Secondly That the Primitive Church who had introduced into her Liturgie the Commemoration of the Faithfull Departed many Ages before any of her children had conceived the least thought of Purgatory which is at this day maintained by Superstition and Interest had no other Design in it then by all these Lessons which Treat of the general
â—ejurrection of the Saints to comfort the Faithfull cast down at the death of their Brethren setting before their eyes so many Certificates of the future Resurrection of him whose Memory they celebrated and inclining every one of them by the Meditation of so many celestial Documents to the expectation of that last deliverance wherein their Lord making them to triumph over Death shall cloath them with incorruption and crown their heads with eternal Glory If then the set Form of the Mass for the Dead cannot afford us any Text of Holy Scripture which may serve either for the confirmation of the Doctrine of Purgatory or the insinuation of the Custom of praving for the dead we are not to promise our selves that the Office of the Dead contained in the Breviary should furnish us with any thing more express In this later we meet with several Lessons out of the Book of â—ob the First taken out of the seventh Chapter from the sixteenth Verse to the end the Second out of the tenth Chapter from the first Verse to the seventh inclusively the Third out of the same Chapter from the eighth Verse to the twelfth the Fourth out of the thirteenth Chapter from the twenty second Verse to the twenty eighth the Fifth out of the fourteenth Chapter from the first Verse to the sixth the Sixth Lesson out of the same Chapter from the thirteenth Verse to the eighteenth the Seventh out of the seventeenth Chapter from the first Verse to the third and from the eleventh to the fifteenth Verse the Eighth out of the nineteenth Chapter from the twentieth Verse to the twenty seventh and the Ninth out of the tenth Chapter from the eighteenth Verse to the two and twentieth We finde there also the seventh and eighth Verses of the seventh Chapter and every where we have certain bewailings of that great Example of Patience groaning under the Scourge of God and forced to Lamentations under the greatness of his Chastisements but who from the cries and complaints of a man alive forcing their way from the Bottom of his Heart through the violence of his Anguish and the Dread he was in of the Judgment of God will conclude either that there is Purgatory or any necessity of Prayer for the dead Must the Expressions used by afflicted Persons reduced to bemoan themselves in this Life serve for a Precedent to the separated Souls which are supposed not simply to pass through but to be melted again after a certain manner in the Fire appointed to purge them Were it granted that some Blessed Soul crushed after its departure out of the Body under the Hand of the great Judge might make to her self some certain Application of the grievances of Job shall the Church of Rome take upon her without falling into the inconvenience of making her self ridiculous to attribute unto it the Lessons she hath extracted out of his Discourses which cannot suit but with the Condition of a man languishing in this World For example what he says in the First My days are vanity c. How long wilt thou not let me alone till I swallow down my spittle c. Now shall I sleep in the dust c. In the Second My Soul is weary of my life c. In the Third Thou hast made me as Clay and wilt thou bring me into dust again Thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh c. In the Fourth I am to be consumed as a thing that is rotten and as a Garment that is Moth-eaten In the Fifth Man that is born of a woman is of few days In the Sixth If a man die shall he live again In the Seventh My days are extinct the Graves are ready for me In the Eighth My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh hardly am I escaped with the skin of my Teeth And in the Ninth Are not my days few cease then c. These complaints proceed not from a Spirit destitute of Body but may well fall from a diseased Person suffering as well in Body as Spirit who makes accompt to die without any respite and who considers with horrour that his languishing life is as it were swallowed up in a Gulf of misery It is to be considered also that there are some Passages which discover so much disorder that Job being come to himself after he had been reproved not onely by Elihu but by God himself condemned them acknowledging that he spoke what he knew not abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes For who could endure in the second Lesson the bitter reproaches against God Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress me that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands and shine upon the counsel of the wicked And in the Seventh I have not sinned and my eye is fastened on bitterness To speak sincerely could the Church of Rome who holds as a thing decided by the Scripture and the Fathers that the Souls of the Faithfull are Impeccable from the moment of their departure out of the Bodies they animated without extravagance mold her Devotions on those slips of Discourse which God himself hath charged with Sin She hath therefore made an Extract of these Nine Lessons taken out of the Book of Job not to serve for a Draught of the dolefull state of the Souls which she pretends condemned into her Purgatory but to instruct every one of those whom she exhorts to relieve them with their Suffrages that to be well disposed to render them that office he should view himself in the example of Job religiously imitate his Virtues and Faith and be always carefull to avoid his miscarriages Upon the same accompt hath she inserted into the Office of the Dead abundance of Psalms containing not onely Lessons of Penance as the 6. 32 38 51 102 130 and 143. called upon that occasion the seven Penitential Psalms but also of Prayer as the 5 7 25 42 67 120 123. of Praise as the 65 121 126 127 128 131 132 133 134 135 146 148 149 150. of Thanksgiving as the 23 27 40 63 116 124 129 136. the Canticles of Ezechias and Zacharies of Blessing and Exhortations as the 41 122 125 131. the first verse of the 95th Psalm and the 8th Verse of the 113th For who could ever be perswaded that the Protestations which we make in the presence of God of our mortification and the Prayers whereby we beg his Protection and Favour towards our selves and the Praises whereby we celebrate the glory of his sacred Majesty and the Thanks we give him for the benefits which he daily communicates to us and the Benedictions which we pour out with joy being to publish the welfare as well of the whole State of his Church as of the Members whereof it consists and the Exhortations whereby we encourage them to well doing should rationally be looked on as Suffrages whereby we relieve our departed Brethren