Christ shewing that on the one side these things to be abjent from the body or from the Lord and being in the body or with the Lord are irreconcileably opposite on the other side these to be absent from the body and to be with the Lord and on the contrary to be present in the body and to be absent from the Lord are inseparably conjoined so that the very act of the separation of the body necessarily translates the Faithfull into the presence of the Lord of which their presence in the body deprives them Yet this Supposition though refuted as aforesaid had such a strange influence upon the spirits of many great Church-men in the Second and Third Age that they outvied one another in the maintaining of it Thus Hermas at the same time that the Counterfeit Sibyl made her first attempt upon the sincerity of the Christians became the Patron and Propagatour of it writing of the Apostles and Faithfull departed before The Apostles and Doctours who have preached the Name of the Son of God and are dead by the power of God and by Faith preached to those who were dead before and gave them the Seal of preaching They are descended with them into the water and they ascended again out of it but those who were dead before descended dead and ascended living Which words are so much the more observable in that they have been subscribed by Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. 2 and 6. inferring from them that the Apostles conformably to what had been done by our Saviour preached the Gospel to those who were in Hell and that it was necessary that the best of the Disciples should be imitatours of their Master there as they had been here supposing after Justin Martyr and St. Irenaeus that our Saviour being descended into hell after his Passion had preached the Gospel to those who were detained there in which Opinion he hath been followed by St. Athanasius St. Hilary of Poictiers Hilary Deacon of the Romane Church St. Epiphanius St. Hierome St. Cyril of Alexandria Oecumenius c. And secondly for that they insinuate not onely that the Apostles descended into hell after their death for to preach there but that the Faithfull departed after the Passion of our Saviour had been there taught and converted and consequently that all without any exception were there detained Presently after the publication of Hermas's Writings Pope Pius the First Brother to that pretended Prophet complies with him in his first Epistle to Justus of Vienna saying The Priests who having been nourished by the Apostles have lived to our days with whom we have divided together the word of Faith being called hence by the Lord are detained shut up in eternal Repositories sufficiently discovering by these words which denote a perpetual detention if not absolutely at least in some respect that he had embraced the same Opinion Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew writ some years after the presentation of his Apologie where he makes mention of the Sibyl endeavours all he can to maintain it as well by his Hypothesis of the Souls of the Just being exposed to the rage of evil Spirits as by an Apocryphal Passage he attributes to Jeremy and which Irenaeus sometime after cites one while under the name of Esay another under that of Jeremy and certainly with as little reason one as the other in these Terms The God of Israel hath remembred his dead lying in the slimy earth and descended to them to preach his salvation among them Which St. Irenaeus does five several times apply to the descent of our Saviour into hell after his Passion saying If the Lord that he might become the first-fruits from the dead Col. i. 18. observed the Law of the dead and continued to the third day in the lower parts of the Earth Ephes iv 9. c. since he went to the valley of the shadow of death Psal xxiii 4 where the souls of the dead were c. it is manifest that the souls of his Disciples for whose sake the Lord did those things shall also go to the invisible place designed them by God and remain there expecting the Resurrection till the Resurrection Whence it must needs be that the Latine Interpreter having found in the Original Text the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies Invisible and hath been taken by all the Heathens either for Hell or the God which they imagined presided there Literally translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Into an invisible place By which place the lovers of Truth are not as many at this day who to free St. Irenaeus form the Errour first proposed in the Sibylline Writing attribute to him Conceptions he neither ever had nor could have had to understand the State of the souls of the Saints departed which those Gentlemen conceive might be expressed by the Term of invisible place because Eye hath not seen the things which God hath prepared for those that love him wherever they may be laid up for them rather then the place properly so called where they effectually enjoy them For St. Irenaeus his manner of reasoning and the contexture of his Discourse expresly refutes their Glosses in as much as if the Disciples whom the Gospel assures us not to have been above their Master ought both in life and death to imitate him and if the Master according to the sentiment of St. Irenaeus and the Church of Rome at this day passed from the Cross to the lower parts of the earth and to the valley of the shadow of death that is to say to hell properly so called and remained there all the time from his Passion to his Resurrection it must of necessity follow that by the invisible place whither the Disciples go after their Death should according to the said Father be understood hell scituated in the lower parts of the earth and in the Valley of the shadow of Death and that they remain there till the time of their Resurrection It is apparent from the words before transcribed that Clemens Alexandrinus Contemporary with St. Irenaeus was of the same Opinion And Tertullian whom St. Cyprian acknowledges for his Master and whom Saint Hierome affirms to have died about the year 217. being arrived to a very great Age discovers in many places that all the Montanist Party had embraced it For instance in the seventh Chapter of his Book Of the Soul After the divorce saith he or separation of the body the soul is transferred to hell she is there detained she is there reserved â—ill the day of Judgment c. Christ at his Death descended to the souls of the Patriarchs And in the ninth Chapter The souls of Martyrs are understood to be under the Altar And in fifty fifth Chapter Hell is in an hollowness of the earth a vast space as to its depth and there is an undiscovered profundity in its entrails c. Christ descended into the lowest parts of
the earth to the end that be might there communicate his presence to the Patriarchs and Prophets c. You have enough to put by those who insolently enough think not that the souls of the Faithfull justly go to hell by telling them they are Servants above their Master conceiving it not much it may be in the bosom of Abraham to reap the comfort of the resurrection which is to be expected c. Heaven is not opened to any one while the Earth is entire c. We have in our Book Of Paradise made it good that every soul is sequestred in hell till the day of the Lord. And in the fifty sixth Chapter Why do you not judge worthy hell those souls which are pure and innocent And in the fifty eighth Chapter All souls say you are whether you will or no in hell there you have already both the Punishments and the Refreshments there you have the poor man and the rich c. By that prison we mean hell which also the Gospel shews and the utmost farthing we interpret to be any light offence which is to be punished there by the delay of the resurrection And in his third Book Against Marcion and the twenty fourth Chapter Marcion having said that he expected after this life ended Refreshment in hell in the bosom of Abraham Tertullian inferrs thence against him that God is mercifull and makes this Exclamation Oh God! mercifull even in hell And in the thirty fourth Chapter of the fourth Book I say that Abraham's Bosom is a Region though not celestial yet higher then hell which in the interim shall afford refreshment to the souls of the Just till such time as all things being accomplished all receive the fulness of their reward at the general resurrection c. And in his Scorpiacum in the twelfth Chapter In the mean time the souls of the Martyrs rest quietly under the Altar c. Novatian that famous Priest of the Romane Church who in the year 250. was opposed to Pope Cornelius doth in the first Chapter of his Book Of the Trinity follow the Track of Tertullian saying That even those very things which lie under the earth are not void of certain powers being placed every one according to its rank and order for there is one place into which are brought the souls as well of the godly as the wicked feeling before-hand the sentence of the future Judgment Lastly Origen that famous Priest of Caesarea whom St. Hierome in his Preface before his Interpretation of Hebrew Names sometime acknowledged Master of the Churches after the Apostles and whom he observes to have departed this life in the year 254. or thereabouts expresses himself to the same effect saying in his fourth Book Of Principles Those who withdraw out of this world according to the death common to all are disposed of according to their acts and merits as they shall be judged worthy some to the place which is called Hell others into Abraham's Bosom into several Mansions Where it is to be noted that by Hell he means the lower parts of Hell and by Abraham's Bosom the place of sequestration where the dead in his judgment are detained before the final Judgment and not celestial glory which in his seventh Homily upon Leviticus he pretends that none of the Saints are admitted to since he formally excludes from the enjoyment thereof the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles saying that they have not yet received their joy that they expect ours and that they mourn for our sins It is therefore manifest from the unanimous consent of the precedent Testimonies that all the Authours we have left us of the second and as far as the middle of the third Age were all of the same Opinion as being imbued with the Doctrine contained in the Sibylline Books and proposed by each of them as the common sentiment of the whole Church Somewhat to the same purpose may analogically be said of those who followed them in the after-ages as for instance of the Authour of the Constitutions attributed to St. Clement in the fourty second Chapter of his eighth Book of the Authour of the Recognitions in his first Book of the Authour of the Liturgie which goes under the Name of St. James of Victorinus Bishop of Poictiers and Martyr upon the sixth Chapter of the Apocalyps of Lactantius in the twenty first Chapter of his seventh Book of St. Ambrose in the second Chapter of his second Book of Cain and Abel and the tenth Chapter of his Book De bono Mortis of Saint Chrysostome in his fourth Homily upon Genesis and the thirty ninth Homily upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians and the seventh and twenty eighth Homilies upon the Epistle to the Hebrews of Prudentius in his Hymn upon the Obsequies of the dead and of the eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa of St. Augustine upon the thirty sixth Psalm and the seventh Chapter of the eleventh Book De Genesi ad Literam and the thirty fifth Chapter of the twelfth Book and in the hundred and eighth Chapter of his Enchiridion and in the ninth Chapter of his twelfth Book Of the City of God and the fourteenth Chapter of the first Book of his Retractations of the Authour of the Questions attributed to Justin Martyr in the sixtieth and seventy sixth Question of Basil of Seleucia in his tenth Oration of Theodoret Theophylact and Oecumenius upon the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews of Andrew and Aretas of Caesarea in Cappadocia upon the sixth Chapter of the Apocalyps of Euthymius upon the twenty third Chapter of Saint Luke of the Authour of the Imperfect Work upon Saint Matthew in the thirty fourth Homily of St. Bernard in his third and fourth Sermon upon the Feast of All-Saints and of Pope John the two and twentieth For though many of these later moderating after their manner the Opinion of those who preceeded the year 300. do either forbear making any specifical designation of the place where the Saints are entertained after their death contenting themselves to call it indefinitely with St. Augustine secret and hidden receptacles or with Primasius the secret of God as it were to insinuate that it is known to God only or are so confident as to affirm it to be out of Hell not precisely determining what other habitation it pleased God to assign them yet all agree in this that they often make use of those Expressions which seem to defer the Glory and Beatitude of their souls till the Day of the general Resurrection CHAP. X. The second capital Tenet of the Sibylline Writings THe second Point of Doctrine advanced by the Author of the Sibylline Writings concerning the State of the dead is that all without any exception shall pass through the last Conflagration of the Universe which shall purge the just and shall refine them in such as we say that Gold is melted or refined in the Crucible To this effect is what we read in the second Book page 17.
〈◊〉 c. I am perswaded by the Discourses of Wise men that every Soul which is good and loved of God after that being disengaged from the Body to which she was conjoyned she is retired hence that which clouded her being as it were purged or layed down or I know not how to express it immediately having a resentment of and in the contemplation of the happiness she is to be advanced to is in the possession of an admirable Pleasure and rejoyceth and joyfully passeth towards her Lord shunning as a loathsom Prison this present Life St. Epiphanius the most zealous Maintainer of Prayer for the Dead speaking about the year 375. of the closure of this Life and the consequences of it in relation to the Faithfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The time is accomplished the Combat is at an end the Lists are cleared and the Crowns are bestowed Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All is manifestly accomplished after the departure hence St. Chrysostome between the years 390. and 404. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Those who have carefully spent their Lives in the exercises of Virtue after they shall have been transported out of the present life shall truly be as if they had obtained a dismission after the Combats and as delivered out of Bonds for there is for those who live virtuously a certain transportation from worse things to better and from a temporal to a perpetual and immortal life and such as shall have no end Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Faithful depart to go with Christ and are with the King face to face Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After Death is once come then is the Wedding then is the Spouse Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be of good courage when thou art cut off by death for it exempts thee not onely from corruption and trouble but it also sends thee immediately to the Lord. And elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consider towards whom the departed Person is gone and take comfort thence there Paul is there Peter is there is the whole Quire of the Saints Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We give thanks unto God that he hath moreover crowned him who is departed hence that he hath exempted him from all troubles that delivering him out of all fear he keeps him near himself St. Augustine giving an account of the common Sentiment of the Churches of Africk about the year 400. Moritur aliquis Dicimus Bonus homo fidelis homo in pace est cum Domino c. Does any one dy We say The Good man The Faithfull man is in Peace with the Lord. Which shews that the Christians of that Time were fully perswaded of what Pope Pelagius the First about one hundred and fifty years after caused to be inserted into the Canon of the Mass viz. that Those who die in Christ sleep in Peace The Questions unjustly attributed to Justine Martyr since the Authour was contemporary with St. Augustine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Souls of the Saints are conveyed to Paradise there is the conversation there the sight of the Angels St. Cyril of Alexandria about the year 420. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I conceive it ought and that very probably to be held for certain that the Souls of the Saints leaving their earthly Bodies are for the most part committed to the indulgence and Philanthropie of God as resigned into the hands of a most loving Father and not as some Unbelievers suspect that they love to walk among dead men's Graves expecting Sepulchral Libations much less that they go as those of such as have loved sin to a place of unmeasurable Torment that is to Hell They rather run to be received into the hands of the Father of all and our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath also consecrated this way for us for he commended his Soul into the hands of his Father that we also taking Example thence as in it and by it may entertain noble hopes as being in that firm disposition and belief that having undergone the death of the Flesh we may be in the hands of God and in a better condition then when we were in the Flesh Whence it also comes that the wise Paul writes unto us that it is far better to be dissolved and to be with Christ Prosper about the year 450. Post hanc vitam succedit pugnae secura victoria ut Milites Christi laboriosâ jam peregrinatione transactâ regnent felices in patria c. After this life ended certain Victory is consequent to the Combat that the Souldiers of Christ their laborious Pilgrimage being over might reign happily in their Countrey c. Gennadius about the year 490. Exeuntes de corpore ad Christum vadunt c. The Faithful dislodging out of the Body go to Christ Andrew of Caesarea about the year 800. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The voice from Heaven does not beatifie all the Dead but those who die in the Lord those who are mortified to the World and bear in their Bodies the mortification of the Lord Jesus and who suffer with Christ for to those the departure out of the body is truly a releasment from labours To conclude of the same Sentiment was Aretas about the year 930. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon the vanishing away of Labours shall be introduced the reward of Works CHAP. XXXV The Sentiment of the Protestants further proved by the Description which the Father 's made of Abraham's Bosom FRom the Harmony of all the precedent Testimonies it may justly be inferred that according to the constant Doctrine of the Christian Church from the year 250. those who die in the Lord are with him and that to them the time which follows this life is a time of joy and marriage which from the moment of their Death brings them into the company of the Saints and Angels in the Paradise of God where they live and are in peace and are crowned and reign with him The same thing may be also deduced from the Description which the Fathers unanimously make of Abraham's Bosom the place assigned by all Christian Antiquity for the entertainment of the Souls of the Faithful after this Life For St. Gregory Nazianzene places it in Heaven saying to his Brother Caesarius who had dyed not long before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Mayst thou go to Heaven c. and rest in the Bosom of Abraham In like manner St. Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He named Bosom of Abraham for the Kingdom St. Ambrose tells us that Sinus Patriarcharum recessus quidam est requietis aeternae c. The Bosom of the Patriarchs is a certain retirement of Eternal Rest St. Augustine Sinus Abrahae requies est Beatorum c. The Bosom of Abraham is the rest of the Blessed Again Non utique sinus ille Abrahae id est secreta cujusdam quietis
hinder her from going with a joyfull Heart and certainty of Faith towards the Holy Places into which that truly-divine blood had purchased her the Privilege to enter Nor indeed could St. Augustine who had not when she dislodged out of the Body to be with Christ any just cause of fear conceive nine years after her admittance to the fruition of her happiness any necessity of requiring on her Behalf that God would forgive her Sins that he would not enter into Judgment with her that he would glorify his Mercy above his Judgment and in a word do what was already done And indeed he immediately acknowledges as much ingenuously saying Et credo jam feceris quod te rogo sed voluntaria oris mei approba Domine c. And I believe thou hast already done what I intreat thee to do but yet approve O Lord this Prayer which so willingly I make Thus we see by his own Confession what Office St. Augustine undertook to render his Mother amounting to no more then a demand purely arbitrary of what had been accomplished before and which for that reason was not to be demanded But what moved him after so long time to make such earnest and particular requests for his Mother who had always from her Infancy been an Example of a rare and constant Virtue and who had been enflamed with so great Zeal for Piety that she had gained to the Lord her whole House not to say ought of his Father who had been a man of a turbulent Humour and so little inclined to Godliness that he could not be won to embrace Christianity till towards his last days Not to make any mention of him I say but onely occasionally and by the way with this little Expression which shews that he thought him in Happiness May she be in peace with her Husband was Patricius more assured in the Possession of Peace and did he stand less in need of the Suffrages of his Son then Monica who had ever excelled him in good Endowments and had been the Instrument of his Conversion to God I answer that St. Augustine who hath given such a particular accompt of the different Dispositions of his Parents could not have fallen into so great an Errour as to imagine his Prayers more necessary for his Mother then for his Father who having been less recommendable should seem to stand in greatest need thereof and that he was induced to make particular Addresses for his Mother was not as might be imagined out of any compliance with the general Custom of the Church of his Time which being of equal Obligation towards all would as well have obliged him to speak of his Father as to make mention of his Mother but in obedience to the command which his Mother had expiring lay'd upon him and the desire he had to submit to her last Will whereof he would rather be an Executour then a Censour This desire I say prevailing with him above all other Considerations he not onely thought it a kinde of pleasure to weep for her the night after her Departure but nine years after engaging himself to Write the History thereof and to give an accompt of her last Words Which the more fully to satisfy he gave way to a tenderness so great as if he represented her to himself in some danger that he might accordingly address to God the same Supplications as might be made for those who were still engaged in the Combats of this Life though he confessed withall they had already been accomplished Then calling to minde the last Command he had received from her that was long before dead not questioning whether it were then seasonable to do what he did he conformed himself thereto as before and at last required his Readers to undertake in what time or place soever the execution thereof With a design therefore to give an accompt of his Prayer viz. that the Lord would vouchsafe to accept the voluntary Words or Offerings of his mouth he adds Namque illa imminente die c. For she whom the day of her Death drew near desired not that her Body might be sumptuously adorned or enbalmed with Spices and Odours nor desired she any curious or choice Monument or cared she to be conveyed into her Native Countrey These things she recommended not to us but onely desired to be remembred at thy Altar c. Let nothing separate her from thy Protection Let not the Lion and Dragon either by force or fraud interpose himself between thee and her For she will not answer that she hath no Sin lest she be convinced and overcome by that crafty Accuser but she will answer that her sins are forgiven by him to whom no Creature can repay what he lai'd out for us whilest himself owed nothing Let her therefore rest in peâ—cewith her Husband c. And inspire O Lord my God inspire thy servants my Brethren thy Children my Lords whom with Heart and Tongue and Pen I serve that whosoever reads these Confessions may at thy Altar remember thy servant Monica with Patricius her Husband through whom thou broughtest me into the world though in what sort I know not Let them with a Pious Affection remember those who were my Parents in this transitory life and who were my Brethren in respect of thee who art our common Father in the Catholick Church our Mother and who are to be my Fellow-Citizens in the eternal Jerusalem for which the Pilgrimage of thy People doth groan from their Birth unto her Death that what she made her last desire to me may be more abundantly performed to her through the Prayers of many as well by means of these my Confessions as particular Prayers I have hitherto alledged the Words of St. Augustine which justify in the first Place That the onely Motive which had in the year 398. prevailed with him to make Prayers for his Mother Dead nine years before and from that time according to his own Presuppositions in Happiness was onely the Injunction she had at her Death lai'd upon him to remember her Secondly That these Prayers by his own Confession neither were nor could be of any necessity or benefit to her for whom they were or might be made since she had reason to answer the Accuser That her Debts were discharged and accordingly she had nothing to fear as to the Consequences thereof For who can be separated from the Protection of God but by Sin which alone according to the Saying of the Prophet Esay does properly make a separation between man and his God causing him to hide his face and not to hear that he might protect But can Sin which hath no longer being assoon as it is once expiated and discharged any way prejudice him who hath been once delivered from it Or is any man able to conceive that what is not is or may be cause of any thing since that to be Cause does not onely imply Being but in some manner both Being and
of both Sexes whereever resting in Christ that being freed from all their sins they may rejoyce with thee world without end And this O mercifull God receive this Hoast offered for the Souls of thy Servants of both Sexes whereever resting in Christ that delivered by this super-excellent Sacrifice out of the Chains of dreadfull death they may obtain eternal life And this O God whose property it is ever to have mercy and to forgive be favourable unto the Souls of thy Servants of both Sexes and pardon all their sins that being loosed from the Chains of Death they may obtain passage into life And this Free O Lord we beseech thee the Souls of thy Servants of both Sexes from all the bands of sin that being raised up among thy Saints and Elect they may live again in the glory of the Resurrection And this O Almighty and everlasting God who rulest as well over the living as the dead and shewest mercy unto all those whom thy fore-knowledge seeth will be thine in faith and good works we humbly beseech thee that those for whom we have appointed to pour out our Prayers and whom either this world does still detain in the flesh or the next hath already received uncloathed of the body may through the greatness of thy clemency be made worthy to obtain the forgiveness of all their sins and joy everlasting And this O Almighty and most mercifull God we humbly beseech thee that the Sacraments which we have received may purifie us and grant that this thy Sacrament be not unto us an obligation to punishment but a comfortable intercession for pardon that it be the cleansing of crimes that it be the strength of the fainting that it be a Bulwark against the dangers of the World that it be the remission of all the sins of the faithfull living and dead through Jesus Christ It might seem at the first sight that all these Prayers in general and every one in particular upon this very accompt that they speak of the forgiveness of sins for those who are departed this life do presuppose if not a Purgatory such as the Church of Rome hath imagined and described it some Ages since at least a certain necessity incumbent on the deceased to make satisfaction to the justice of God after their death But we must necessarily infer the contrary For not to take notice that to punish an evil doer is not to purge him if according to the tenour of the Prayers contained in the Mass of the Dead God forgives the sin of the deceased he does not require he should be punished for it if he loose the Chains he suffers him not to be still bound thereby if he exercises towards him his mercy through Jesus Christ he does not execute against him the rigour of his Justice such as it is conceived is felt by the Souls which they pretend are to pass through the fire of Purgatory Whence it follows that the design of those prayers which desire of God the effect of his mercy in the remission of their sins whom he hath called hence never was nor could be to procure their deliverance out of the torment which they are imagined at this day to suffer and whoever would finde the true meaning thereof is to reflect on the perswasions of those who were the first Authours thereof for they held that all those of whom they made a Commemoration were in as much as they were dead in the Lord gathered by him into Abraham's Bosom where they rested in a sleep of peace as it is expresly set down in the Memento So that no man well-informed prayed for them as for wretched Criminals and such as are deprived of the felicity which God hath prepared for his Saints but as for Champions already triumphant and glorious And yet out of a consideration that the perpetuity of the bliss into which every one presupposed them introduced proceeded from the continuation of the mercy according to which God had at first bestowed it and that it comprehended in it self the ratification of the pardon once granted to the deceased in pursuance whereof they were entred into and continued in the possession of celestial peace and joy the surviving thought fit to desire on their behalf mercy and remission of sins not absolutely as if they were still under the weight of God's wrath but upon a certain accompt to wit in as much as it is necessary that even in Heaven the mercy of God should be perpetually communicated to those whom it had already visited incessantly assuring them of the free gift he had made them first of his grace and afterwards of his glory as believing that those who enjoy so great a happiness are nevertheless to expect a more solemn sentence of Remission and Absolution in that great Day whereof we are all obliged both for our selves and on the behalf of our Brethren living upon Earth and reigning in Heaven to desire the blessed coming In this sence indeed the Antients never made any difficulty to desire on the behalf of the Blessed in Heaven the Pardon they had already obtained in as much as they were to obtain it again after a more glorious manner at the Day of Judgment whereto are particularly referred many of their Prayers As for instance that which we have already cited wherein they desire that their Souls freed from all the Bands of sin may be raised up again among the Saints in the Glory of the Resurrection And again thus Non intres c. Enter not into Judgment with tthy servant O Lord for in thy sight shal no man be justified unless thou grantest him the remission of all his sins We beseech therefore that the Sentence of thy Judgment may not lie heavy on him whom the sincere supplication of Christian Faith recommends but grant that he who while he lived was signed with the Sign of the blessed Trinity may by the assistance of thy Grace avoid the Judgment of Vengeance Again Oremus Fratres charissimi c. Let us pray dear Brethren for the spirit of our Brother whom the Lord God hath been pleased to deliver out of the snares of this world whose body is this day put into the Ground that the Lord would out of his goodness vouchsafe to place him in the Bosom of Abraham Isaac and Jacob that when the day of Judgment comes he may be placed among the Saints and Elect raised up again on the right hand And this taken out of the Ceremonial Deus cui omnia vivunt c. O God to whom all things live and to whom our bodies though they die perish not but are changed for the better we humbly beseech thee that thou command that the soul of thy servant N. be carried into the bosom of the Patriarch Abraham by the hands of thy holy Angels to be raised up again the last day of the great Judgment that what imperfections soever it hath through the deceit of the Devil
secretly fearing he should be torn in Pieces by the People and proceeded with so much the more confidence in all this change in as much as the Sicilian Vespers advised by his Father and sung by the tumultuous People on Easter-Day the twenty ninth of March 1282. had set Sicily and Arragon against the Pope and France Besides Philip de Courtenay and Baldwin his Father being come near the End of their unfortunate Lives had no further thoughts of revenge against him that Charles the First King of Sicily dying of Grief the seventh of January 1285. left Charles the Second his Son a Prisoner to the Sicilians and Arragonois who kept him from the two and twentieth of June 1284. to the twenty ninth of October 1288. So as that he had not during that time any means either to help himself or prejudice others and that none that had Relation to the Latines was in any capacity to disturb the East Michael thought to have done much for himself by his submission to and taking from the Church of Rome the Model of his Belief and by his Compliance with her disarming the Princes combined against his Dignity but from that Counsel suggested by the Prudence of this World he reaped onely shame and misfortune as well during his Life as after his Death For both his Ecclesiastical and Secular Subjects conspired together to put the affront upon him frustrate his Intentions and confidently to subvert the Design of his Treaty by a formal Opposition and so unanimous a Rejection of the Expedient which he had taken to settle his Peace that his Cruelty against the most resolute and the setting up of a new Patriarch who took the Catechism of his Belief from the Court prevailed nothing upon spirits so much the more exasperated the more sensible they were of the violence done them Pope Martin the Fourth taking it heinously that he was fallen off in as much as he bore with some of his Subjects who were contrary to his Opinion in the first year of his sitting in the Chair upon the day of the Dedication of Saint Peter's Church falling on the eighteenth of November 1281. pronounced him in Orvieto Excommunicated as a favourer of the Antient Schism and Heresie of the Greeks And after his Death which happened at the beginning of the fourteenth Indiction 1285. near Selybria the publick Aversion was so violent against his Memory that his own Son was forced to leave it exposed to a kinde of Infamy Nicephorus Gregoras having left us his remarkable Accompt of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Emperour Andronicus his Son who was present not onely honoured not his Father with the Sepulture ordinarily bestowed on Kings but vouchsafed him not that which was fit for Smiths and Pioners He onely ordered that a small number of men having carried him away in the Night some distance from the Camp should cast a quantity of Earth upon him out of a fear lest the Royal Body might be torn in pieces by the wilde Beasts Thus have we a great Prince for having forced the Consciences of his People reduced to the burial of a Dog and finde the Church of Rome who would have made her advantage of his Despair to spread her Authority into the East become through this kinde of proceeding so odious that the Ostentation of her Power did onely stir up the contradiction of those minds which she was in hope to enslave and animated them in a resolution not to receed in the least from their former Sentiment About 150. years after the Empire of the East falling under the Power of the Turks who had taken away from it on the one side all Natolia except Trebisonda where there was kept up a little Empire apart and on the other such a part of Thrace that Constantinople was as it were blocked up between both Johannes Palaeologus descended from Michael was though much against his Humour forced to call to minde the Advertisement of his Father Manuel who had not left him any other Hope of recovery in the Land then what was to be procured by the Assistances of the Latines Which to obtain contrary to the Advice of Sultan Amurath who knew that in the Concord of the Christians consisted the onely means to oppose his Tyranny he took a resolution in the year 1430. to make his Addresses to the West and after the Example of his Father who had in Person sollicited Italy France England and other Kingdoms sent several Embassies to Martin and Eugenius the Fourth to desire the calling of a Councel to consist of the Prelates of both the Greek and Latine Churches and by means of the Councel to engage the Latine Church in the defence of the Greek We do not finde how far Martin bestirred himself to do any thing in that Cause but God having taken him out of this World the one and twentieth of February 1431. and Eugenius the Fourth being chosen in his stead on the third of March following the Jealousie he took at the Councel which had been appointed to meet at Basil by that of Sienna in the year 1424. and began on Thursday the nineteenth of July 1431. and the high and violent Procedures of it towards the Greeks in Florence ruined the success of what ever he had undertaken He had ever since the twelfth of March appointed Julian Cardinal of St. Angelo to preside at the Councel of Basil eight Moneths after seised with an apprehension that that Assembly would offer to diminish his Power he repealed the Commission of his Legat and under pretence of gratifying the Greeks appointed the eighteenth of December for the Prelates to separate and summoned another Councel at Boulogne la Grass for the year 1433. Now that of Basil thinking the affront indigestible and to be revenged resolving to question him put him into such a fright that he thought himself obliged to grant what it would have to issue out his Bull of the fifteenth of December 1433. to repeal three others contrary thereto given the twenty seventh of July and the thirteenth of September before and to joyn with the Cardinal of St. Angelo four other Legats to wit Nicholas Cardinal of Saint Croix John Arch-Bishop of Tarentum Peter Bishop of Padua and Lewis Abbot of Saint Justina of Padua who were admitted the six and twentieth of April 1434. From the fifteenth of October and the eleventh of November 1433. the Greeks answering to the Summons of the Councel who had Deputed to them Anthony Bishop of Tuy in Galicia and B. Albert de Crespes Master in Theologie had sent on their behalf Demetrius Palaeologus Proto-vestiary Isidore Abbot of St. Demetrius and Johannes Lascaris sirnamed Disypatus to Treat of the Conditions of the Interview of both Parties and the Pope for his Part had towards the end of the same year offered by Christopher Garathon one of his Secretaries to send his Legats into the East to prosecute the affair of the Re-union But when
〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his intention had been to tell us that Saint Irenaeus declared the Apocalyps rather then to give us to understand that according to the Declaration of that great Martyr St. John saw his Apocalyps not onely under Domitian but the fourteenth year of that Prince or to express it in his own Terms towards the end of his Reign But with this little distortion of the words of Eusebius St. Hierome in his Catalogue expresses their true sence saying Domitian in his fourteenth year raising after Nero the second Persecution John banished to the Isle of Patmos writ the Apocalyps which Justin Martyr interprets and Irenaeus So that we must not with Cardinal Baronius give that Interpretation to his Discourse as if Domitian had began his Reign fourteeen years after Nero. For though it be indeed true since Nero died the tenth of June 68. and Domitian came into his Brother's place on the eighteenth of September 81. thirteen years three moneths and eight days after the unfortunate End of Nero and consequently about the beginning of the fourteenth year yet was it not the intention of St. Hierome to acquaint us what number of years had passed between the Reign of Domitian and that of Nero but that Domitian in the fourteenth year of his Reign which was the twenty seventh after Nero's Death raised the second Persecution against the Church So that it was inconsiderately done of him who Translated the Greek Version of Sophronius the antient Interpreter of St. Hierome's Catalogue into Latine to make him say as he fancied The fourteenth year after the Death of Nero instead of turning it according to the proper expressions as well of St. Hierome as Sophronius The fourteenth year Domitian raising after Nero the second Persecution nor indeed could it have been without contradiction to St. Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius nay to himself and that so much the more notorious by how much the more he pretended to follow the last whose Discourse he hath Translated in a manner word for word The Arabian Prolegomena upon the Gospels published by Peter de Kirstein have these words in them John made his aboad at Ephesus seven and twenty years that is to say six under Nero ten under Vespasian two under Titus and nine under Domitian then was he Banished by Domitian into the Isle of Patmos where he stayed seven years till such time as he was called back by Nero the younger that is to say Nerva By this account the Apostle of God should have retired out of Palaestine into the Proconsulary Asia not as the Greek Fasti very probably suppose in the 68. of our Saviour because of the Revolt of the Jews from the Empire and the Eruption of the War brought into the Heart of their Country by Vespasian immediately upon the retreat of the Church of Jerusalem to Pella but in the year sixty three concurrent with the ninth of Nero and the time of St. John's Abode both at Ephesus and Patmos should have been thirty four years comprehending six years of Nero and the whole Reigns of Vespasian Titus and Domitian For Nero killed himself as hath been already observed the tenth of June 68. Vespasian having news brought him in Palaestina of the Murthering of Galba which happened on the sixteenth of January 69. as also of the Tragical End of Otho on the twentieth of April following and of the Rising of his Friends in Rome assumed the Empire and kept it till the twenty fourth of June 79. and Domitian who had succeeded his Brother Titus dying the 13th of September in the year 81. was violently forced out of the world on the 18th of September in the year 96. leaving the Empire vacant to Nerva who nulled all his Acts and by that means gave St. John the Liberty to return to Ephesus But if this Calculation be receivable in as much as it maintains the common Sentiment of the Fathers concerning the time of St. John's return yet can it not agree with the Relation of St. Irenaeus affirming that almost in his time Domitian began the Persecution towards the end of his Reign and leaving it to be inferred that the Persecution was of no long continuance which could not be said if according to the account of the Arabians we must assign it seven years that is to say a full half of Domitian's Reign and not onely the End whereto St. Irenaeus Eusébius and all the Fathers strictly limit themselves among whom Tertullian Contemporary with St. Irenaeus expresly observing the Violence of that Persecution to have made no great Havock says Domitian an Imp of Nero as to cruelty had designed a Persecution but being also himself a man he easily smothered what he had begun having re-established those whom he had Banished So that according to his Opinion the mischief was stayed by his very Order who had occasioned it But whereas by attributing to him the Re-establishment of the Banished he derogates from the Authority of the Tradition of the Antients which according to Eusebius delayed it till the Reign of Nerva whom the Prolegomena I know not why call Nero the younger I shall by no means presume so much upon his particular Opinion as to oppose it to the common belief of all the Fathers Which having forced us to reduce onely to one the seven years assigned by the Prolegomena for the Banishment of St. John imposes upon us yet a greater necessity to quit the Opinion of the Greek Fasti which place the return of St. John under the twelfth year of Domitian coincident with the ninety third of our Saviour and commit therein an Errour so much the more unmaintainable in that they make the Persecution cease as also the effect it had by the confession of all caused two years before it began and ridiculously presuppose that St. John was by the Decree for his Release restored to his former Liberty before he had been in a capacity to lose it by the unjust Decree for his Banishment He who hath busied himself in writing a Synopsis of the Lives of the Prophets and Apostles under the Name of Dorotheus having by mixture of his own Conceptions corrupted the words of the Synopsis of St. Athanasius imagines that St. John was Banished by Trajan that he lived one hundred and twenty years and returned from Patmos to Ephesus after Trajan's Death But all yet followed as it should seem by Suidas is contrary both to Tradition and the Truth since First Trajan came not to the Empire till the twenty eighth of July in the year 98. the very next to that wherein St. John was restored by Nerva Secondly St. John was according to the Opinion of St. Hierome honoured with the Apostleship in his Youth and while he was yet a Boy so that the hundredth year of our Saviour wherein he was Translated to Celestial glory could not have been much beyond the ninetieth of his Age to
Saint Paul was the Founder of that famous Church which hath been as it were the Mother of all her Neighbours that it is not likely St. John who seems to have been then teaching the Parthians to whom his first Epistle was according to the Opinion of some Antients directed should come thither during the aboad of Saint Paul and that after the Departure of Saint Paul hastened by the Insurrection of Demetrius Claudius Reigned but nine Moneths there is no likelyhood to presume that in so short a space of time there should come to pass all those things which Antiquity assures us happened to Saint John that is to say that he Confirmed the Church of Ephesus and Planted the Neighbour-Churches and Confessed the Name of Christ at Rome where having been cast into a Vessel of seething Oil he came forth more fair and more vigorous then he was when he went into it anointed indeed and no way burnt That afterwards pressing forward as a Champion of Christ to receive the Crown he was immediately Banished to the Isle of Patmos and that during the Time of his Banishment he was honoured with Visions from God Secondly Though a man should run the hazard of imagining that all these Accidents which require much longer time happened in the turning of his hand yet could he not thereby shift off the difficulty in asmuch as all Antiquity attributing the Banishment of St. John to Domititian who assumed the Empire twenty six years and eleven Moneths precisely after the Death of Claâ—…us does as it were by an unanimous consent contradict the particular Sentiment of Epiphanius which ought not what esteem soever we may have for him to be opposed either to Probability universal Tradition or the Authority of such as are more antient and more creditable then he upon this account that they lived nearer the Age of Saint John and might be more easily informed of the Truth Thirdly For that the Church hath always held it for certain First That full eleven years after the Death of Claudius the first Persecution was raised by Nero to derive upon the innocent Christians the Indignation of the Romanes exasperated by the resentment of their own Losses in the firing of the City which that Monster himself commanded to be done Secondly That the Banishment of St. John was consequent to some Persecution St. Hierome Contemporary with St. Epiphanius and his familiar Friend assuring us that because of the Martyrdom St. John immediately before his Transportation to Patmos was at Rome cast into the vessel of seething Oyl Thirdly That all Epiphanius onely excepted reduce the Banishment of St. John to the second Persecution which they would have break forth towards the end of Domitian's Reign Fourthly That with the same unanimity of Sentiments they attribute to Nerva who nulled the Acts of his Predecessour the calling back of St. John and that not any one no not St. Epiphanius himself ever charged Claudius whose Acts were confirmed by his Apotheosis with having ill-entreated the Christians Whence it must of necessity follow that the Banishment of St. John could not have been under his Reign and consequently that the Opinion of St. Epiphanius which we have demonstrated not to be maintainable in any of its parts neither can nor ought in this to be followed by any one CHAP. III. The Sentiment of the late Grotius concerning the time of the Apocalyps refuted FRom the year 375. wherein St. Epiphanius writ against the Alogians to the year 1640. the Opinion of that Father was not embraced but onely by one Person that made Profession of Letters a man indeed of extraordinary Endowments whether we consider the transcendency of his Wit the Universality of his Knowledg which cannot be too highly esteemed and the diversity of his Writings or reflect on the greatness of his Employments but still a Man and upon that account not free from the hazard of misapprehension and sometimes making the worst choice This man having published a little Treatise in Latine entituled Commentatio ad loca quaedam Novi Teslamenti quae de Antichristo agunt aut agere putantur expendenda eruditis makes this Remark well worth our Notice on the ninth Verse of â—…e seventeenth Chapter of the Apocalyps John went first to Patmos and began to be illuminated by Visions from God in the Time of Claudius which is the Sentiment of the more Antient Christians and not in the Time of Domitian as others would have it See Epiphanius in the Heresie of the Alogians Claudius had as appears by Acts xviii 2. forced out of Rome the Jews among whom at that time the Christians were also numbered as hath been observed by many learned men Which example there is no doubt but divers Governours of the Romane Provinces imitated by which means John was forced to leave Ephesus But I maintain in opposition to the Prejudice of this Great man First That not any one of the Antient Christians nor yet of the Modern either were of the Opinion of St. Epiphanius or favoured it Secondly That St. Epiphanius who was neither preceded nor followed by any one in his Sentiment says not any thing that is maintainable and is not peremptorily refuted as well by the Tradition universally received in the Church as by Reason it self Thirdly That the Singularity and Novelty of that Father's Sentiment being contrary to those of all the rest and in some manner to himself should rather have raised his Distrust then prepossessed him Fourthly That it cannot by any Monument of Antiquity be made good that the mistake of the Heathen taking the Christians for Jews had reduced in the Time of the Emperour Claudius under whom the Jews were the onely Persecutours of the Church any one of the Faithfull to suffer Banishment upon the account of his being of the Faithfull or a Christian and that to presuppose it onely by way of simple Conjecture without any Proof is no other then openly to prejudice one's credit and to abuse their plain dealing and easiness of perswasion who might comply therewith Fifthly That it is impossible to make it good that the Edict of Claudius which Banished the Jews onely out of Rome had been or could have been imitated by any of the Governours of the Romane Provinces who knew there was but one Rome in the World and that it was not within any of their Jurisdictions Sixthly That by the History of the Acts it is evident that after the Edict of Claudius the Jews enjoyed in all other places of the Empire as absolute Freedom and Toleration as they could have done before since St. Paul and Silas and Aquila and Priscilla his Wife lived without any trouble at Corinth where those of their Nation had their Synagogue and assembled as they were wont without any Disturbance Seventhly That though the Governours of the Romane Provinces should have been enclined in imitation of their Emperour to pack the Jews out of their Jurisdictions yet would it not be just
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
Beatitude writing in the nine and twentieth Homily upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Without the flesh the soul shall not receive those unspeakable goods in like manner shall she not also be punished c. If the body be not raised again the soul remains uncrowned deprived of that Beatitude which is in the Heavens c. And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. You also think what and how great a thing it is that Abraham and the Apostle Paul should sit down till such time as thou shalt be accomplished to the end that then they might receive their reward for if we also are not arrived the Saviour hath foretold that he would not give it c. What shall Abel do who overcame first of all and is sate down without being Crowned Thirdly From what is said by Prudentius who speaking of the Martyrs of Saragossa seems to deny their Souls admission into Heaven saying Sub Altari sita sempiterno turba c. The company seated under the Eternal Altar To which may be added that St. Augustine not content to have said That after this life ended we shall not be there where the Saints shall be as if he could not have designed by its proper Name the place of the Soul's habitation is forced in several places to make use of the most general Term of all viz. that of Receptacles And to that that of Paulinus who in his Epitaph upon Clarus as if he knew not where to assign him Entertainment makes this Discourse to him Sive Patrum sinibus recubas Dominive sub ara Conderis aut sacro pasceris in nemore Qualibet in regione Poli situs aut Paradisi Clare sub aeternâ pace quietus agis c. Whether in th' Patriarch's Bosom thou remain Or under the Lord's Altar art detain d Or an Aboad i' th' sacred Grove hast gain'd What part or place of Paradise thou hast got Clarus eternal Peace and Rest's thy Lot But all this is not enough to induce me to subscribe to the disadvantageous Censure given by Stapleton who not making any distinction of either Times or Persons or Expressions durst attribute to all Antiquity what the Authour of the pretended Sibylline Writing had perswaded those who had first consulted it Nor do I see that from the places above cited it may rigorously be inferred that the Fathers out of whose Writings they are extracted delayed the Beatitude of the Saints till after the Day of Judgment For though the words of Sain◠Ambrose seem to bear that they expect their Happiness with uncertainty and doubtfully yet he neither understood nor could have understood it so since that in the second of the places objected to him he writes that the Soul of the Faithfull Person departed Non busto tenetur sed quiete piâ fungitur c. is not detained upon the Funeral Pile where the Body had been consumed but enjoys a pious Rest His design then as it was also St. Chrysostom's who means by the Bosom of the Fathers the Kingdom of Heaven was to have it understood that the supreme Happiness and absolute accomplishment of the glory of the Saints departed was to be a Consequence of the Resurrection and Last Judgment at which time the souls already in Glory shall receive their true Crowns in the remuneration promised to compleat Persons whereof they before made the principal part and that in expectation of the Judgment which shall fully consummate their Glory they remain in suspense not as uncertain of the effect it shall produce but as ignorant of the time when it shall please God that so admirable an Event shall come to pass So that his particular Judgment reaches no further then that the souls freed from their bodies are transmitted to Hell but simply supposes that as to the Heathen it was enough to say so much As for Prudentius and Paulinus their conception of the Eternal Altar is not after a gross but after a refined and mystical manner Prudentius saying of the blessed souls that they shall rest in the Bosom of the blessed Old man where Lazarus is and in Paradise And Paulinus expressly declaring of Clarus Libera corporeo mens carcere gaudet in Astris Pura probatorum sedem sortita piorum c. Spiritus aethere gaudet Discipulúmque pari sociat super astra Magistro c. Among the Just his Habitation is Of Body freed possess'd of Heav'nly Bliss c. His soul to Heav'n is gone The Scholar to the Master 's equal grown So that according to these two Authours to rest under the Eternal Altar in the Bosom of Abraham in Paradise in Heaven above the Stars is one and the same thing as to the effect and design though by divers expressions the Beatitude and Glory of the children of God as well in general as in particular CHAP. XXXIV The Uniformity of the Sentiment of the Fathers and of the Protestants I Add that most of the Fathers who lived after Tertullian what Expressions soever they may make use of were of a Sentiment consonant to what is at the present held by the Protestants and firmly maintained that all the Souls of those of whose Names there was a Commemoration made in the Service of the Church were at the very hour of their death conveyed to the enjoyment of their Rest and Glory Hence was it that St. Cyprian even in the year 252. resolutely pronounces De istis mundi turbinibus extracti c. Having escaped the Tempests of this World we make towards the secure Haven of an eternal Mansion c. We are not to put on Mourning-Garments here when they there have already put on their White Robes c. It is not a departure but a passage and the Temporal journey being at an end a transportation towards the things That are Eternal c. Let us embrace the day which assigns to every one his own Mansion which restores us taken away hence and disingaged from the snares of this World to Paradise and the celestial Kingdom c. Again Lucrum maximum c. exemptum pressuris-urgentibus venenatis Diaboli faucibus liberatum ad laetitiam salutis aeternae Christo vocante prosicisci c. It is an exceeding great advantage c. to go Christ calling us to the Joys of Eternal Salvation after we are freed from those pressures which lie heavy upon us and delivered from the poisonous jaws of the Devil To the same effect Origene about fifteen years before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We hope to be above the Heavens after the Combats and Troubles which we have run through here St. Basil in the following Age about the year 370. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An eternal Rest is proposed to those who shall have lawfully maintained the Combat of the Life which is here St. Gregory Nazianzene in his tenth Oration pronounced about the year 369. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
whether it were so or not which also he but slightly advances as finding it not contributary to ought Impious yet without imposing any necessity to admit it and which in fine he lets pass under a Whether an It may be a Peradventure so that not presuming himself to approve it all the kindness he hath for it is expressed in his telling us that he does not disallow it Fourthly That the very thing which he proposes so doubtfully may be adjusted to the Opinion which the most Antient had had of the general Conflagration of the Universe at the end of the World whose Imagination it was that it should serve as a general Lustration through which the Spirits of the Saints even that of the Blessed Virgin were to pass and who reflected on nothing less then the Purgatory proposed to us at this day Fifthly That though he should assure us that that certain Fire of Grief whereof he speaks shall be a material Fire that it shall burn the Spirits of men and that the Torment which they shall endure thereby shall afflict them from their departure out of the Bodies they had cast off yet should not his assurance be of greater weight to the Protestants then to the Church of Rome which submits not to his Authority but onely in what she finds consistent with her own Opinions land confidently rejects what she quarrels at For if she think it just to dissent from him when he teaches that In the Deity there are three Substances that The Angels are corporeal that The sins of the Fathers make the Children liable to punishment that The souls of all the Departed are between the day of their departure out of this World and that of the Last Judgment shut up in secret Receptacles that the Prayers made for them are beneficial to them to the end that either the Remission may be full or that their Damnation be more tolerable and that those Prayers made on the behalf of the Damned are a kinde of consolation to the â—iving all which things the said Holy Prelate positively affirms why should she take it ill that after her Example we should refuse absolutely to depend on his Authority especially in a subject wherein he does not pretend any in as much as it is his own acknowledgment that he was not resolved what he should should hold What greater Necessity is there that we should determine for the Affirmative when he himself makes it a Question Whether there be after this life a Purgatory for the Spirits of the Deceased then when he doubts Whether the Sun Moon and Stars belong to the society of the blessed Spirits in Heaven Though we had read no other Lecture of Modesly then the reservedness which prevailed with him to forbear resolving ought upon these two Questions do we not deserve commendation for having in imitation of him kept the Scales in our Hands rather then Blame which we must never expect to avoid if without pregnant Proof we affirmed what he proposed onely Problematically and without any decision If it may with any colour be pretended that the Bent of his inclination was the Affirmative of a Purgatory of some kinde or other and that it should be a Pattern for us to do the like why should not his confidence in denying the Antipodes force us by a like Negative to dispute against our own Experience whose Testimony for these 150. years assures us he was mistaken Were it not much better that those who would make use of his Name in a Cause he never maintained should behave themselves according to his Moderation and protest with him I would if it might be or rather I will if it may be be overcome by the Truth which is not openly repugnant to the sacred Scriptures in as much as that which is repugnant to them cannot in any sort be either called or accompted Truth I therefore intreat them in the fear of God to take it into their serious Consideration First Whether it be possible their Belief such as they propose it to us can be the same with that of St. Augustine who never for ought we could ever learn determined in the Affirmative of any Purgatory much less of that which the Monastical Revelations have furnish'd us with in despight of the most Venerable Antiquity but hath expresly declared by his Sermons that he acquiesced in the common Sentiment of the Church of his Time which held that those whom God calls to himself are Translated at their Death either into the actual enjoyment of their Felicity or confined in the Place of their eternal Punishment To this Effect does he express himself to his Church upon the eleventh Chapter of St. John Receptus est Pauper receptus est Dives sed ille in sinu Abrahae ille c. The Poor man was received the Rich man was received but the former into Abraham ' s Bosom the later where he should be thirsty and not finde a drop of Water the souls of all men therefore that I may hence take occasion to instruct your Charity all souls have after their departure out of this World their several Retreats the Good are in Bliss the Wicked in Torments c. The rest which is given immediately after Death whoever is worthy of it receives it immediately when he Dies And upon the First of St. John Ille qui vixit mortuus est c. He who hath lived is also dead his Soul is transported into other places his Body is disposed into the Ground whether those words viz. those of his Last Will be put in execution or not it does not concern him he does he endures quite another thing he either rejoyces in Abraham ' s Bosom or in eternal Fire prays for a little Water I know Cardinal Bellarmine either thought or pretended to think that all could be deduced from those Words was that the Souls of the Faithfull are immediately after their Departure out of this World gathered into rest in as much as assured of their eternal Salvation and that thence they derive great Joy but that to some it is not given without the admixture of Temporal Pains But I maintain that his Commentary is a formal corruption of the Text to which he applies it in as much as S. Augustine gives us to observe therein as things immediately opposite the Good and the Wicked the Joy of the former in Abraham's Bosom and the Torments of the later in eternal Fire so that as the Torment of these is an absolute Privation of Joy and Rest so the Joy and Rest of the other is necessarily an absolute exemption from Torment Besides I do not see how long any can number among those who rejoyce and are in Bliss the Spirits of such as are supposed to suffer more then could be suffered in this Life and much less how the Believer dead in the Lord receives when he dies his Rest and Joy if he be then
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
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
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