had not the prophane licentiousnesse of hereticall curiositie by inventing I know not what new opinion spotted and discredited all his former labours whereby his doctrine was accounted not so much an edification as an ecclesiasticall tentation CHAP. VII HEre some man perhaps requireth to know what heresies these men above named taught that is Nestorius Appollinaris Photinus This pertaineth not to the matter whereof we now intreat for it is not our purpose to dispute against each mans particuler error but only by a few examples plainly and clearly to prove that to be most true which Moyses saith that if at any time any ecclesiasticall doctour yea and a Prophet for interpreting the misteries of the prophetical visions goeth about to bring in any new opinion into the Church that the providence of God doth permit it for our proofe and triall But because it will be profitable I will by a little digression briefely set down what the forenamed hereticks Photinus Apollinaris and Nestorius taught This then is the heresie of Photinus he affirmeth that God is as the Jewes beleeve singular and solitary denying the fulnesse of the Trinitie not beleving that there is any person of the word of God or of the holy ghost he affirmeth also that Christ was only man who had his begining of the virgin MARY teaching verie earnestly that we ought to worship only the person of God the father and to honour Christ only for man This then was Photinus opinion now Apollinaris vaunteth much as though he beleved the unitie of Trinitie with full sound faith but yet blasphemeth he manifestly against our Lords incarnation For he saith that our Saviour either had not mans soul at all or at least such a one as was neither indued with mind or reason furthermore he affirmeth that Christs body was not taken of the flesh of the holy virgin MARY but descended from heaven into the wombe of the Virgin holding yet doubtfully inconstantly some time that it was coeternall to the word of God some time that it was made of the divinitie of the word for he would not admit two maner of substances in Christ the one divine the other humane the one of his Father the other of his Mother but did think that the verie nature of the word was divided into two parts as though the one remained in God and the other was turned into flesh that wheras the truth saith that Christ is one consisting of two substances he contrary to the truth affirmeth of the one divinitie of Christ to be two substances and these be the assertions of Apollinaris But Nestorius sicke of a contrarie disease whilest he faineth a distinction of two substances in Christ suddenly bringeth in two persons and with monstrous wickednes will needs have two sonnes of God two Christs one that was God and another that was man one begotten of the Father another begotten of his Mother And therefore he saieth that the holy Virgin MARY is not to be called the mother of God but the mother of Christ because that Christ which was borne of her was not God but man And if any man think that in his books he saith there was one Christ and that he preached one person of Christ I must needs confesse that he lacketh not ground to say so for that he did either of craftie pollicie the rather to deceave that by some good things he might the more easely perswade that which is evill as the Apostle saith By the good thing he hath wrought me death R. 7. Wherfore either craftely as I said in certaine places of his writings he vaunteth to beleeve one person in Christ or else surely he did hold that after our Ladies deliverie two persons became in such sort one Christ that yet in the time of our Ladies conception or deliverie and for some time after there were two Christs and that Christ was born first like unto another man and only was man and not yet joyned in unitie with the person of God the word and that afterward the person of the word descended down assuming and joyning him self to that man in unitie of person and although he now remaine in glorie assumpted for some time yet there seemeth to have been no difference betwixt him and other men Thus then Nestorius Apollinaris Phatinus like mad doggs barked against the Catholick Church Photinus not confessing the Trinity Apollinaris maintaining the nature of the Word convertible and not confessing two substances in Christ denying also either the whol soul of Christ or at least that it was indued with mind and reason beleeving for his pleasure what he liked of the second person in Trinitie Nestorius by defending either alwayes or for some time two Christs But the Catholick Church beleeving aright both of God and of our Saviour neither blasphemeth against the misterie of the Trinitie nor against the incarnation of Christ for it worshipeth one Divinitie in Trinitie reverenceth the equalitie of the Trinitie in one and the same majestie confessing one Christ not two and the self same both God and man beleeving in him one person yet acknowledging two substances but yet beleeving one person two substances because the word of God is not mutable that it can be turned into flesh one person least professing two sonnes it may seeme to worship a quaternitie and not to adore the Trinitie CHAP. VIII BUt it is worth the labour to declare this matter more plainly more substantially more distinctly In God is one substance and three persons in Christ be two substances but one person In the Trinitie there is another and another but not another and another thing In our Saviour is not another and another but another another thing How is there in the Trinitie another and another but not another and another thing Marry because there is another person of the father another of the sonne and another of the holy ghost But yet not another another nature but one the self same How is there in our Saviour another and another thing not another and another because there is another substance of the divinitie and another substance of the humanitie but yet the deitie and the humanitie is not another and another but one and the selfe same Christ one and the same sonne of God and one and the selfe same person of the selfe same Christ and sonne of God As in a man the body is one thing and the soule is another thing but yet the body and the soule are but one and the selfe same man In Peter Paul the soule is one thing the body is another thing and yet the body and the soule are not two Peters nor the soule is not one Paul and the body another Paul but one and the selfe same Peter one and the selfe same Paul subsisting of a double divers nature of the body and the soule So therefore in one and the selfe same Christ there are two substances but one a divine
substance the other humane the one of God the Father the other of the Virgin his Mother the one coeternall and equall to the Father the other substantiall to his Mother yet one and the same Christ in both substances Therefore there is not one Christ God another Christ man not one increated another created not one impassible another passible not one equal to the Father another lesse then the Father not one of the father another of the mother but one and the selfe same Christ God and man the same increated and created the same incommutable and impassible the same changed suffered the same equall and inferiour to the Father the same begotten of his Father before all times the same conceived of his Mother in time perfect God and perfect man in him as God is perfect Divinitie in him as man is perfect humanitie perfect humanitie I say because it had both soule and body yet a true body such as our body is and such as his mothers was and a soule indued with understanding with mind reason There is therefore in Christ the Word the Soul the Flesh but yet all these together is one Christ one son of God our onely Saviour and Redeemer One I say not by any I know not what corruptible confusion of the divinity and humanity together but by a certain perfect and singular unity of person for that conjunction did not change or convert either into other which is the proper errour of the Arians but did rather so unite both in one that as the singularity of one and the same person remayneth alwayes in Christ so likewise the properties of both natures do for ever continue so that neither God ever beginneth to be a body nor now at any time ceaseth to be a body which thing is also more apparent by some humane example for not onely in this world but also in the next every man shall consist of body and soul yet never shall either the body be changed into the soul or the soul ever converted into the body but as every man shall live for ever so for ever of necessity in each man the difference of either substance shall continue So likewise in Christ each property of either substance shall continue for ever saving alwayes and reserving the unity of person And when we often name this word Person and say that the Sonne of God was made man we must take great heed that we seeme not to say that God the Word the second person in Trinitie tooke upon him our actions onely in imitation and and rather in shew and shadow and not as a perfect and very man practised humane conversation as we see used in Theaters and Stages where one man in a little time taketh upon him many parts of which notwithstanding himselfe is none for as often as we counterfeit another mans actions we so exercise his office that yet we be not those men whose actions we take upon us for neither a tragedie player to use prophane examples and such as the Maniches alledge when he playeth the Priest or King is therefore a priest or king for so soon as the tragedie endeth that person also which he played forthwith ceaseth God keep us from this horrible and wicked mockerie Let this madnesse be proper to the Maniches which preaching abroad their owne fantasies affirme God the sonne of God not to have been substantively the person of man but to have fained the same by supposed action and conuersation But the Catholick faith affirmeth that the word of God was so made man that he took upon him our nature the proprieties belonging to the same not deceitfully and in shew but truely and verily and did such things as belong to man as his owne and not as one that imitated other mens actions and was verily that which in life and conversation he did shew himselfe to be as we our selves also in that we speak understand and subsist do not counterfeit our selves to be men but are verily men For neither Paul and John to speak of them especially for example sake were men by imitation but by subsistence neither likewise did Paul counterfeit the Apostle or faine himselfe Paul but was in veritie an Apostle and was Paul by subsistence In like maner God the Word by assuming and having flesh in speaking doing and suffering in flesh yet without any corruption of his nature vouchsafed perfectly to performe this to wit not that he should imitate or counterfeit but exhibit himself a perfect man not that he should seem or be thought a very man but should in veritie so be and subsist Therefore as the soule joyned to the flesh and yet not turned into the flesh doth not imitate a man but is a man and not a man in shew and appearance but in substance so God the Word without any conversion of himself uniting himself to man was made man not by confusion not by mutation but by subsisting Let that exposition therefore of a fained counterfeit person utterly be rejected in which alwayes one thing is in shew another in deed inw eh he that doth ought is never the same person whom he representeth for God forbid that we should believe that God the Word took upon him the person of man after such a deceitfull manner but rather in this sort That his substance remaining incommutable in it self and yet taking upon him the nature of perfect man was himself flesh was himself a man was himself the person of a man not deceitfully but truly not in imitation but in truth and substance not finally after that sort which with action should desist but after that manner which perfectly in substance should persist This unity therefore of person in Christ was not framed and finished after the Virgins delivery but in her very womb For we must diligently take heed that we confesse Christ not onely one but also to have been alwayes one because it is an intolerable blasphemy to grant him now to be one and yet contend that once he was not one but two that is one after the time of his Baptisme but two in the time of his Nativitie which great sacriledge we cannot otherwise avoid but by confessing that man was united to God in unity of person not in his Ascention not in his Resurrection not in his Baptisme but in his mothers womb and immaculate conception by reason of which Unity of Person both the Proprieties of God are indifferently and promiscually attributed to man and the proprieties of man ascribed to God hence cometh that which is written in the Scripture That the Son of man descended from Heaven and the Lord of Majesty was Crucified upon earth Joan. 6. hence also it proceedeth that we say that when our Lords flesh was made when our Lords body was framed that the very Word of God was made the very wisdome of God was replenished with created knowledge as in the foresight of God His hands and feet are
said to be digged Psalm 21. From this unity of Person I say it proceedeth by reason of like mystery that when the flesh of the Word of God was born of his pure and immaculate mother we do most Catholickly believe that God himself the Word was born of the Virgin and most impiously the contrary is maintained Which being so God forbid that any one should go about to deprive the holy Virgin Mary of the priviledges of Gods favour as her especiall glory For she is by the singular grace of our Lord and God her son to be confessed most truly and most blessedly to have been the mother of God but yet not in such sort as impious hereticks imagine and suspect who affirm that she is to be reputed in name onely and appellation the mother of God as she forsooth which brought forth that man which afterward became God as we say such a woman is the mother of a Priest or Bishop not because she brought him that then was either Priest or Bishop but by generating that man which afterward was made a Priest or Bishop not in that manner I say the blessed Virgin is to be called the mother of God but rather because as hath been said that most holy mystery was finished in her sacred womb wherein by reason of a singular and one onely unity of person as the Word in flesh is flesh so man in God is God CHAP. IX BUt now what hath already been said touching the foresaid heresies or concerning the Catholick faith let us in few words and compendiously for memory sake repeat them over again that thereby with more facility they may be understood and with greater certainty retained Accursed therefore be Photinus not admitting the fulnesse of the Trinity and affirming our Saviour Christ to have been onely man Accursed be Appollinaris maintaining in Christ corruption of changed divinity and bereaving him of the propriety of perfect humanity Accursed be Nestorius denying God to have been born of a Virgin teaching two Christs and so abandoning the faith of the Trinity bringing in a quaternity But blessed be the Catholick Church which adoreth one God in perfect Trinity and likewise worshipeth equality of Trinity in one Divinity so that neither singularity of substance confoundeth propriety of Persons nor distinction of Trinity separateth unity of Deity Blessed I say be the Church which believeth in Christ two true and perfect substances but one onely person so that neither distinction of natures doth divide the unity of person nor unity of person doth confound the difference of substances Blessed I say be the Church which to the end she may confesse Christ alwayes to be and to have been one acknowledgeth man united to God not after our Ladies delivery but even then in his mothers womb Blessed I say be the Church which understandeth God made man not by any conversion of nature but by reason and means of person and that not a fained and transitory person but substantially subsisting and permanent Blessed I say be the Church which teacheth that this unity of person hath so great force that by reason thereof by a mystery strange and ineffable she ascribeth unto man the proprieties of God and attributeth to God the proprieties of man For by reason of this unity of person she confesseth that man as he was God descended from Heaven and God as he was man was made upon earth suffered and was Crucified Blessed therefore is that venerable happy and sacred confession and comparable to those supernall praises of the Angels who do glorifie one onely Lord God yet with a triple Hagiologie For this is the principall reason why the Church teacheth the unity of Christ lest otherwise she should exceed the mystery of the Trinity And let this suffice touching this matter spoken by way of digression hereafter if it please God I will intreat and declare these points more copiously Now to return to our former purpose CHAP. X WE have said in the premises that in the Church of God the errour of the master is a great tentation to the people and the more learned he were that erred so much the greater was the tentation Which we shewed first by the authority of holy Scripture afterward by the examples ecclesiasticall of those men which for some time were reputed and accounted sound in faith yet at last fell either into some other mans error or els coined a new heresie of their own This surely is a great matter profitable to be learned â—â—d necessary to be remembred which once again we must inculcate and make plain by great store of examples that all Catholicks may know that with the Church they ought to receive Doctours and not with Doctours to forsake the faith of the Church But I suppose that although I could bring forth many to shew this kind of tentation yet there is almost none which can be compared to the tentation of Origen in whom were very many gifts â—o rare so singular so strange that in the beginning any would have thought that his opinions might have been believed of all men For if life procureth authority he was a man of great industry of great chastity patience and labour if family or learning who more noble being of that house which was honourable for Martyrdome himself afterward for Christ deprived not of father onely but also spoiled of all his patrimony and so much he profited in the mysteries of holy poverty that as it is reported for the confession of Christs name he often indured much affliction Neither was he only adorned with these gifts all which afterward served for tentation but was indued also with a force of wit so profound so quick so elegant that he far excelled almost all other whatsoever A man of such wonderfull learning and erudition that there were few things in Divinity in humane Philosophy haply nothing which he had not perfectly attained who having gotten the treasures of the Greek tongue laboured also about the Hebrew And for his eloquence what should I speak of it whose talk was so pleasant so delectable so sweet that in mine opinion not words but hony flwed from his mouth What things were so hard to beleeve which with force of argument he made not plaine what so difficult to bring to passe which he made not to seem easie But perchance he maintained his assertions by arguments only Nay without question there was never any Doctour which used more examples of sacred scripture But yet happelie he wrote not much No man living more yea so much that in mine opinion all his works are so far from being read over that they can not possiblie all be found who not to lack anie furtherance to learning lived also untill he was passing old But yet perchance unfortunate in his scholers What man ever more happie having trained up and been master to infinite Doctours to Priests without number to Confessours and Martyrs Now who is able to prosecute with words in what admiration
whom all things are subject For unless there were some Angells which conversed both with the dead and the living our Lord Jesus would not have sayd it came to pass that the beggar dyed and was carryed of the Angels into Abrahams bosome Therefore they could be now here now there seeing as God would have it they were used to carry him from hence unto the place of his rest The souls of the dead also may know some things by divine Revelation either of such things as be necessary for them to know or at least not necessary to be unknown and this not only of things past or present but of those also which are to come even as in times past not all men in generall were made acquainted with the Secrets of God but only Prophets and such other holy men while they lived and they not every one of them knowing all things but every one some according as the Divine Providence was pleased to reveale And that some of the dead also may be sent unto the living the Scripture it self doth testifie as contrarily S. Paul from among the Living was rapt up into Paradise for so we read the Prophet Samuel after he was dead appeared unto King Saul yet living and foretold him things to come 'T is true there are some that say it was not Samuel himself that appeared who could not they think have been so feecht up with magicall charmes but rather some evill Spirit ready and apt for such business borrowed his shape But the book we call Ecclesiasticus written as 't is commonly said by Jesus the Son of Sirach but for resemblance of stile and eloquence not unlike to be Solomons own work in the praises of holy men sayes of Samuel that being dead he Prophecyed But if again you extenuate the authority of this book with the Jewes because they say it is not in their Canon yet at least concerning Moyses no doubt can be made Deut. 34.5 but that in Deuteronomy he is related to be both dead and buryed and yet in the Gospell to have appeared unto the living togither with Elias who as yet is not dead CHAP. XVI HEnce also we answer an other question viz what may be said of the Martyrs who by the favours which are granted unto such as pray unto them do declare themselves both to understand and to have care of our affairs 7 favours obteined by prayer to Saints if the dead know not at all what the living do for 't is certain and we know it by report of witnesses beyond exception that when the City of Nola was besiedged by the Barbarians the Blessed Confessour Felix Saints appear miraculously sometimes when invocated not onely by the effects of his particular favours but even personally and in plain view did appear unto many good people inhabiting that City whom he had formerly dearly loved But it must be said that such things as those happen miraculously and are farre different from the usuall course which God hath appointed unto the nature of all sorts of things For because our Lord turned once water into wine we must not therfore forget what the nature of water is and what its proper virtue in the order of elements is not because Lazarus rose again from death that therefore every man that dyeth may rise again when he will or that a dead man is raised by no greater power then another is awakened out of sleep For to speak according to the limits and condition of mans nature in it self is one thing and to speak according as God is pleased to demonstrate his divine power in it is another and the things which come to passe naturally and as it were by constant course are of one sort and those which are done miraculously by God are of an other yet is God alwayes assistant unto nature without whom it could not be and in miracles themselves nature is not absolutely excluded because at least in her though not by her they are wrought We must not therefore imagine that the dead do ordinarily and of course mix themselves in the affairs of the living because the Martyrs do somtimes shew themselves present How miracles are wrought by praying to Saints for the curing or help of some particular persons But rather we are to know it is by divine power of priviledge dispensation that the Martyrs themselves are present with us at any time because the dead generally by any vertue of their own nature cannot be so Although I confesse to determine in what particular manner the Martyrs do help them Here he inquires the maner how miracles are obteined by praying to Saints who for certain are helped by the Martyrs is a mater farre above my capacity that is to say whither the Martyrs be present in their own persons at the same time in so divers and farre distant places as their Memories are or that they otherwise happen to shew themselves or whither that God Almighty the Martyrs abiding alwayes in that place which is appointed for their merits farre remote from the conversation of men yet praying generally for the necessities of those who pray unto them in the same manner as we pray for the dead to whom we are never present nor know where they be or what they do or I say whither that God Almighty himself who is every where present though not as joyned to us nor as divided from us hearing the prayers which the Martyrs make doth by the ministery of Angels which he sends abroad into all places exhibite such comforts unto people against the miseries of this life as he seeth to be most expedient who by his wonderfull power and goodnesse giveth testimony unto the merits of his Martyrs both where Merits of the Martyrs acknowledged by S. Austin and when and how he pleaseth but chiefly at their memories as knowing this in his divine wisdome The Memory and mediation of Saints expedient for confirmation of faith to be most expedient for the Confirmation and Exaltation of the Faith of Christ for which the Martyrs suffered This I say is a thing much higher then I can reach unto more abstruse and difficult then I can search out and therfore which of the two it be or whither perhaps both of thē may not be true viz. that sometimes by the very presence of the Martyrs themselves and sometimes again by Angels personating the Martyrs these things may be done I dare not determine I desire rather to learn such things of those who know them For some there are surely who do know them as there be some others also perhaps who think they do but do not For doubtlesse such things as these are the Free Guifts of God who liberally bestoweth them as he pleaseth some to one some to another according to that of the Apostle saying The manifestation of the spirit is given to every one for their profit 1 Cor. 12.7 c. To one saith he is
given by the spirit the word of wisdome and to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit To an other faith in the same spirit to another the grace of doing cures in one spirit to an other working of miracles to an other kinds of tongues to an other prophesie to an other discerning of spirits to an other interpretation of tongues And all these worketh one and the same spirit dividing to every one according as he will Of all which spirituall Gifts reconed up by the Apostle he that hath the discerning of spirits he onely is the man who knoweth the things we speak of as they ought to be known CHAP. XVII ANd such most probably was that Holy Person John the Monk whom the good Emperour Theodosius the Elder was pleased to consult concerning the event of the civill war for this man had also the gift of Prophesie as I doubt not concerning those gifts but as every one might have any one in particular and alone so How S. Aug. reverenced monks as it pleased God some one had many as this John for example of whom it is recounted that a certain woman very devout and religious being as it were passionately desirous to see him and labouring by her husband to procure it some way or other with the Holy man it not being his manner to admit the conversation of women upon any terms he refused but yet Go saith he tell your wife she shall see me at night but it shall be in her sleep and so she did The good man appeared to her and instructed her in all the duties of a faithfull wife as she her self as soon as she did awake told her husband describing the man of God to him in such form and shape as he knew him to have This truly I have heard reported by one who had it from the parties themselves The manner how apparitions are made a grave and honourable personage and worthy I think of all credit But as to the matter if I my self had ever seen that Saintly Monk as report of him that he was a man of most sweet conversation and wont most patiently to hear what men propounded to him and most wisely to give answer I would have enquired of him something pertaining to this question that is Whither himself or which is all one his spirit in the figure of his body did indeed come unto that woman in her sleep in such manner as we men dream of our selves in the shape of our bodies or else that himself being otherwise busied or sleeping yea perhaps dreaming too this vision happened to the woman by an Angel or by some other means and that he by the spirit of prophecy knowing before-hand when such a vision should be vouchsafed unto her was pleased by a kind of promise thereof to gratifie the desires of that good woman For if himself in person were present at the time of that vision certainly it was by speciall nay by wonderfull grace and priviledge that he so was not by nature or any proper faculty of his own And whither the woman saw him personally and really present or no yet surely something of like nature it was to that we reade of in the Acts of the Apostles concerning Saul Act. 9.11 of whom our Lord Jesus speaking to Ananias tells him that Saul had seen Ananias coming to him c. when as Ananias himself as yet knew not Saul nor any thing of the businesse Yea and which way soever of these that man of God should have answered me I would yet have proceeded further with him concerning the Martyrs and asked him in what manner it is that they are present either in mens sleep or otherwise to such persons as have the favour to see them sometimes viz. when and how they please and chiefly how they are present when devils in mens bodies do cry out confessing that they are tormented by them and do beseech the Martyrs to spare them Why God Almighty dispenseth his favours at the memory and intercession of Martyrs or whether such things be done indeed and immediately by Angelicall powers onely yet in the honour and commendation of Martyrs as God is pleased to command for the good of us men the Martyrs themselves in the mean time remaining in perfect rest attending wholly unto an other and much better vision wherein though separated from us yet their charities cease not to pray for us For of a truth at the Martyrs S Devils tormented by the relicks of Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius in Millain the devils did expresly and by name confesse besides sundry persons that were deceased Saint Ambrose Bishop of the place who was then alive Saints living absent torment devils in possessed bodies and entreated that he would spare them yet was he at that time busied elsewhere about other matters and knew nothing of that which passed Now supposing these things to be done sometimes as I have said by the Martyrs themselves present and sometimes by the presence of Angels by what signs they may be discerned or distinguished the one from the other none I suppose can certainly know or determine but he onely who hath the proper gift thereof which gift is distributed unto every one who hath it by the Spirit of God according as himself pleaseth That holy man John A wonderfull humility in S. Aug. mixed with great Christian piety 't is very like would have satisfied me in all these points at least thus far that either by his teaching me I should have learnt and perceived the things I heard to be true or else not being able to perceive them my self I should yet believe them upon his credit who did both know them and affirm them to be so Nay if perchance he should answer me out of holy Scripture and say Enquire not of things too high for thee Ecclus. 3 search not after things that be too hard but what our Lord hath commanded thee think on that alwayes yet even this also I should take in good part For surely there being many things so obscure and intricate that we can hardly expect to attain them perfectly in this life it should be no small advantage but to know clearly and certainly that they are not to be enquired further after as when a man studies hard to learn a thing which he supposeth perhaps will be much for his profit yet I think it doth him no harm when an other man rightly informs him how to do as well without it CHAP. XVIII TO conclude therefore things standing thus as hath been said we are not to imagine that any thing we do for the dead doth profit them save that onely which we beg for them of Almighty God by the sacrifices which we make to him on their behalf Masse Almes and Prayer profitable for the dead accord to S. Austin that is to say by the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar by Almes or by our own prayers yea even these advantage not all for whom they are made but such onely Prayers and Masses for the dead profit onely such who died in Gods Grace whose former life hath deserved that such good offices should profit them after death But because we our selves discern not certainly among the dead who are such and who are not such it is thought more expedient to do these things in generall for all the faithfull departed A pious and prudent discourse to the intent that none be omitted to whom such favours may of right belong For it is much better if it so fall out that some thing superfluous be done in regard of those who receive neither good nor harm by them then that any thing necessary should be wanting to those who have need Howbeit every man performeth these things with more diligence and devotion for his particular friends then otherwise as expecting the same measure of Charity afterwards from his own But as to this matter of Funerall and all that solemnity which we use about interring the body whatsoever is spent or done that way it is no succour or salvation to the soul but an office of pure humanity agreeable unto and issuing from that affection whereby all men naturally love their own flesh The final resolution of the question that it is good carefully to bury the dead and also to bury them in places consecrate to Martyrs and when their reliques are the reason of it yea and think it reasonable that in some cases a man should have care of his neighbours body as well as of his own and in this case especially when the spirit is gone to whom it did belong when time was to uphold and govern it And truely if they who believe not the resurrection of the flesh do yet perform such things to their dead how much more ought we to do so who believe not onely that the dead body shall rise again and live for ever but that the performance of such good offices towards them is it self in some sort a testimony of that Faith But that we bury them at the Memories of the Martyrs as I have said before in this respect onely it seems to me to advantage the dead namely that thereby the affection of his friends praying for him and commending him to the Patronage of these martyrs may be increased Thus have you my answer framed as well as I could unto such points as you thought expedient to enquire of me if it seems overlong I desire you would pardon me and impute it to the delight and affection I have to hold discourse with you As for the book it self I intreat your venerable Charity would let me know by your letters ere long what you think of it I believe it will be much more welcome for the bearer's sake viz. our Brother and fellow-Priest Candidianus whom for the report your letters gave of him I received with all affection and dismissed again as much against my will For verily he much comforted us with his presence in Christs Charity and to speak but the truth I complied with your desires much upon his instance For indeed your letters found me so distracted with other cares that you may attribute not a little to his daily solliciting and minding me thereof if you receive any competent answer to your question Deo Gratias