to felicity and desire to escape Damnation she I say neither prays nor thinks she ought to pray for either the Saints Glorified nor the Sinners Condemned but onely for the Faithfull whom she presupposes to expect their Glorification and that onely for a certain time Thirdly that if from this antecedent he hath sinned it did of necessity always follow We must Pray for him the Church of Rome would be obliged to Pray First For the Apostatized Angels who having quitted their first station sinned no less then men do but in such manner that their offence condemned by an irrevocable decree is absolutely incapable of remedy Secondly For the Damned who are not in a state capable of amendment Thirdly For those that are Glorified who have not any good to obtain and that as well after as before the last Judgment since that after the Pronuntiation of it this truth that men and Devils have sinned will remain evident and irrefragable as before though that after the retribution which shall be for ever made to every one according to his works it will not be any longer either necessary or convenient or rational to pray for him CHAP. XVII Saint Epiphanius's fift Motive considered FOr a fifth consideration Saint Epiphanius alledges that Prayers for the Dead are made by the surviving out of a design to signifie what is accomplished thereby insinuates that he conceived the state of the Faithfull from the moment of their death to the time of their resurrection to be imperfect and capable of melioration it is possible Aerius might have been of the same Sentiment and upon that account have been forced to acknowledg some necessity of praying for them untill the absolute accomplishment of their Glory But this imagination neither hath nor can have any force against the Protestants who believe that the Faithfull at the very demolition of the earthly Tabernacles of their bodies are received according to the saying of St. Paul into their celestial habitations and that at the very instant of their putting-off of Flesh God cloaths their souls with the glory which they are eternally to enjoy so that what till then was in part and imperfect in them is from thence absolutely abolished and that these Considerations that the Prayer does not cut off all that is layed in charge against the dead and that it is made to signifie what is accomplished cannot be any way seasonable in respect of those who as they are perswaded by the Scripture that to no purpose are alledged either the need which the Faithfull departed stand in of their accomplishment since they are already in actual possession thereof being present with the Lord and absent from the body particularly to that end or the charges which are pretended to remain against them after death since there can be no accusation nor any one to lay ought to their charge who are justified by the Lord who protesteth according to the tenour of his own Covenant that he will be mercifull to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will he remember no more CHAP. XVIII Saint Epiphanius's sixth Motive Considered IN the sixth place St. Epiphanius tells us That some in his Time prayed for Sinners departed having a respect or recourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Mercy of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imploring the Mercy of God and it may be said that upon this ground That sinners continued charged with sins and imperfections after their decease Antiquity was induced to demand by Prayers the remission of their sins and consequently their establishment in a place of rest To this purpose is what we read in the one and fourtieth Chapter of the eighth Book of the Constitutions attributed to Saint Clement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That God the lover of men having received his soul would turn away his face from all his sins voluntary and unvoluntary and out of his Graciousness and Mercy place him in the Region of the godly who enjoy themselves in the Bosom of Abraham c. whence trouble sadness and sighing are departed c. Look upon this thy servant whom thou hast chosen and taken to thy self to receive another lot and pardon him what he hath voluntarily or involuntarily sinned and place about him good Angels and dispose of him into the Bosom of the Patriarchs c. where there is neither sadness nor trouble nor sighing c. In the Liturgie of the Armenians Memento Domine miserere fac gratiam animabus requiescentibus pacifica illumina eas c. Remember O Lord shew Mercy and be Gracious unto the souls which are in rest pacify them and illuminate them c. In the Liturgy of St. Basily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the repose and remission of thy Servant In the Anaphora or Liturgie translated out of the Syriack and attributed to St. Basil whereof the Summary is alledged by Cassander That God would conduct the departed through the horrid receptacles and place them in habitations of light That God would deliver them out of the thick darkness of tribulation and grief that he would not enter into judgement with them c. If they have sinned in any manner as men clad in flesh that he would pardon them In the Missal of the Latine Church Animabus famulorum famularumque tuarum remissionem cunctorum tribue peccatorum ut indulgentiam quam semper optaverunt piis supplicationibus consequantur c. Grant O Lord unto the souls of thy Servants of what Sex soever the remission of all their sins that by devout supplications they may obtain that indulgence which they have always desired c. Do away by the pardon of thy most mercifull Piety the sins which he hath committed through the frailty of worldly conversation c. Do thou O God mercifully out of thy wonted Goodness wipe away the stains which the souls have contracted from the contagion of the World Amen Mercifully pardon them c. put them into perpetual oblivion Amen c. O Lord enter not into judgment with thy Servants for no man shall be justifyed in thy sight deliver their souls from the Gates of Hell c. Grant them the remission of all their sins c. free them from all their sins c. We beseech thee that thy judicial sentence fall not heavy upon them c. That what vices soever she hath through the subtlety of the Devil contracted thou wouldest out of thy compassion and mercy indulgently do away c. Free O Lord we beseech thee the soul of thy Servant from all chains of sin Which Prayers are for the most part repeated in the first Book of Sacred Ceremonies Sect. 15. chap. 1. and the ensuing is there added over and above by a late Cardinal Non intres in judicium tuum Domine cum servo tuo c. O Lord enter not into judgment with thy servant for no man shall be justifyed in thy sight if the remission of
a little Season to rest above and further consider as the highest point of their pretension that admirable perfection which the first shall not attain without the last one and the same day to wit that of the General Resurrection and the Last Judgment being appointed to make an eternal assurance of the full Perfection of their Glory The Antients I say upon these Considerations might and after their Example the Faithfull still may and do continually desire and beg it as well for themselves as for all those who before them had served their generations by the will of God and happily finished their course in this life Fourthly It may be observed that in this kinde of Prayer they seem to follow the Example of the Apostle praying for Onesiphorus that the Lord would grant that he might finde mercy with the Lord in that day in which he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe For whatever may be presupposed concerning the State of Onesiphorus and whether it be said that that good Person was or was not discharged as to the necessities of this life when the Wish set down in the Second Epistle to Timothy was made for him it will make no difference in the main and it will still be certain that the good expressed by St. Paul's Prayer hath not been hitherto accomplished in any one that it is of no less importance at this day to Onesiphorus then when St. Paul prayed for him that St. Paul and Onesiphorus and all the Saints who are with God wait for as much as we do who are saved by Hope onely the Day of the Lord and the Mercy which Onesiphorus and all the rest of the Elect shall finde when that day comes and that he who prays his Friend may obtain what cannot be conferred on him till many Ages after his Introduction into celestial Beatitude seems necessarily to pray for one that is Blessed if not effectually when he conceived his Prayer at least for one considered as such when he shall see the Effect thereof so that whensover a man undertakes to pray for him whether while he is alive or after his death or both before and after his death he still makes the same Prayer for him which not onely does not but canot change its nature in the revolution of Ages since that its foundation still unchangeably subsists and that it is impossible it shall have its Effect in any but a Person that hath been already a long time in Glory with God and who stands in need not of Beatitude in it self which he is already possessed of but the last Perfection of it and as it may be expressed in vulgar Terms the Over-weight which is necessarily to be added thereunto Thus the Fathers not without some Ground conceived they had pertinent Reasons to pray for those whom they thought gathered into the eternal Rest of God nay some out of a Motive of extraordinary compassion took the liberty to pray and advised others to make Prayers and give Alms for the Damned yet so as that for ought we know it hath not happened that for the space of six hundred years together any one of them laid it down as a Tenent of Catholique Faith That the Souls of those who ended their Lives in the Profession of that Faith were reduced immediately upon their departure to endure any temporal Punishment for their sins and to make full satisfaction to the Justice of God before they took possession of their Bliss The Antient Liturgies are so far from teaching any such thing that they have formally expressed the contrary and even to this day the Form of Prayer for the Recommendation of Persons in Agony expresly presupposes that their Souls at their departure out of the Bodies are to be carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom a Mansion of Rest and Felicity and not of Torment For after the Litanies whereby the Mercy of God is implored they say to the sick Person Proficiscere anima Christiana de hoc Mundo c. Depart out of this World O Christian Soul in the Name of God the Father Almighty who hath created thee in the Name of Jesus Christ the Son of God who hath suffered for thee in the Name of the Holy Ghost which is shed into thee c. May thy place be this day in Peace and thy habitation in Holy Sion through the same Christ our Lord. Amen To this Wish there is added a Prayer which demands for the sick Person the Remission of his sins the Renewing of whatever there was corrupt in him and his reconciliation with God and then this Discourse is addressed to him Commendo te c. I recommend thee most dear Brother to God Almighty and cōmit thee to him whose creature thou art that when by the interposition of death thou shalt have cancelled the Obligation of humanity thou mayst return to thy Authour who hath formed thee out of the slime of the Earth May therefore a bright Assembly of Angels meet thy soul at its departure out of the body c. May the embraces of the Patriarchs confine thee to the Bosom of a blissfull rest c. Mayest thou be delivered from Torment by Christ who was crucified for thee mayst thou be delivered from eternal death by Christ who vouchsafed to die for the May Christ the Son of the living God place thee in the ever-pleasant verdures of his Paradise and may that true Shepheard own thee among his Sheep May he forgive thee all thy sins and place thee in the portion of his Elect on his right hand Mayst thou face to face see thy Redeemer and being ever present behold with thy blessed eyes the most manifest truth Being then placed among the Quires of the blessed mayst thou enjoy the sweetness of divine contemplation world without end Amen After such a Discourse there is made this Prayer Suscipe Domine servum tuum c. O Lord Receive thy servant into the place where he is to hope salvation from thy mercy Amen O Lord deliver the soul of thy servant from all dangers of Hell and from the snares of Torments and from all Tribulations Amen Then having made a recital of the Deliverances of Enoch and Elias of Noë Abraham Joab Isaac Lot Moses Daniel and his three Companions David Saint Peter and Saint Paul they conclude with these words And as thou hast delivered from three most grievous Torments the most blessed Virgin and Martyr Thecla in like manner mayest thou be pleased to deliver the soul of this this thy servant and grant that he may rejoyce with thee in the enjoyment of celestial goods Amen At last follow two Prayers whereof the former begins with these words Commendamus animam Famuli tui c. O Lord we recommend unto thee the soul of thy servant and we humbly beseech thee O Jesus Christ Saviour of the World that thou wouldest not refuse to
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
contracted thou out of thy goodness and compassion mayst mercifully wash away To the same end are referred also the following Prosopopoeias wherein the Soul of every deceased Person is represented with motions of fear suitable to such as it might have had during the couse of this Life As for instance Libera me Domine c. O Lord deliver me from eternal death in that dreadfull day when the heavens and the earth shall be shaken when thou shalt come to Judge the World by Fire I am become trembling and fear till the discussion and wrath to come shall be over That day is a day of wrath calamity and misery a great day and very bitter when thou shalt come Again this Domine quando veneris c. O Lord where shall I hide my self from the countenance of thy wrath when thou comest to Judge the Earth For I have sinned extremely during my life I am frightened at the things I have committed and blush before thee when thou comest to Judge do not condemn me And this Memento mei Deus c. O God have me in remembrance because my life is but wind let the eye of him that hath seen me see me no more Out of the depths have I cried unto thee O Lord Hear O Lord when I cry with my voice And this Hei mihi c. Wo unto me O Lord for I have sinned overmuch in my life What shall I do Wretch that I am Whither shall I flie if not unto my God Have compassion on me when thou shalt come at the Last day My soul is sore vexed but do thou Lord deliver it be mercifull c. And this Legem pone c. Teach me O Lord the way of thy Commandments and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies Deliver me not into the will of mine enemies for false Witnesses are risen up against me and iniquity hath belyed it self yet I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living And this Peccantem me quotidie c. Sinnning daily and not repenting the fear of death distracts me in regard There is no redemption in Hell O God be mercifull unto me and save me O God save me for thy Name sake and deliver me in thy Power And this other Domine secundùm actum meum noli me judicare c. O Lord Judge me not according to what I have done I have done nothing in thy presence worthy it I therefore beseech thy Majesty to do away mine iniquity O Lord wash me from my injustice more and more and cleanse me from my sin And this other Sitivit anima mea c. My soul thirsteth for God when shall I come and appear before the Lord Deliver not the soul of thy Turtle-dove unto the multitude forget not the Congregation of thy poor for ever Our Father c. And Lastly this Libera me Domine c. O Lord who hast broken the Gates of Brass and visited Hell and given light that they might see thee to those who were in the Torments of darkness crying and saying Thou arâ— come O our Redeemer deliver me out of the ways of Hell For there is not any Body so weakly instructed as not easily to comprehend that the Authours of these Complaints and Lamentations meant them rather for the advantage and edification of the living by putting them in minde of the fear and trembling wherein they should be in the presence of their Lord then to represent the State of the Dead which they have been forced to express after their Fancy as such as had some resemblance with that of poor Wayfaring-men who yet walk in the Flesh because they had not any manifest knowledg thereof but onely Conjectures and presumptions and those many times not very conformable to the Rule of Faith and the Sentiments of the purest Antiquity Since it is absolutely impossible that he who makes a Prayer for his Soul should be any other thing then that Soul for which he Prays and that the Wish he makes that God would teach him the way of his Statutes which is onely in this Life and the Confession of sinning daily and the Prayer to be delivered out of the ways of Hell should suit with any but Travellers who walk yet in the Flesh struggling as they go with their own imperfections and the Infernal Powers and by continued endeavours tending to their rest whereof the separated Souls of the Faithfull departed who have finished their course in Faith and Hope must necessarily be possessed from the very moment of their separation The same moderation is required to finde out the true sense of the Prayers which seem to presuppose a certain deliverance out of Infernal pains wherein the deceased are ready to be tormented as when we read in the Missal Domine Jesu Christe c. O Lord Jesus Christ King of Glory deliver the Souls of all the Faithfull departed out of the power of Hell and out of the bottomless Lake deliver them out of the mouth of the Lyon Let not Hell swallow them up let them not fall into the obscure places of darkness but let the Standard-bearer St. Michael bring them into that holy light which thou didst sometime promise to Abraham and to his Seed We offer unto thee O Lord â—…oasts and Prayers for them receive the same for those Souls whom we this day commemorate grant them O Lord to pass from Death to an holy life And in the Office of the Dead A portâ inferni erus Domine animas eorum requiescant in pace Amen c. O Lord deliver their Souls from the Gate of Hell may they rest in peace Amen For though upon the first glance these words seem to revive the Hypothesis which Justin Martyr had drawn up out of the Quagmire of the counterfeit Sibyl imagining that the Soul of the greatest Saints were afer their departure out of the body sent to Hell and were subject to the power of evil Spirits yet must they necessarily have another signification and onely induce that God alone preserves those whom he calls so as that they fall not into the power of Hell but are by the Ministery of his holy Angels introduced into celestial light and that they are delivered not as escaping out of some Torment which they had for some time indured but as avoiding the necessity of enduring it And whereas it is said that the Hoasts mentioned in those Prayers are offered to Jesus Christ it necessarily induces that they neither are nor can be Jesus Christ himself as the Church of Rome imagines at this day but Gifts presented to God by his people as an expression of their gratitude And since what is said without any exception viz. That they are offered for the Souls of all the departed whose commemoration is celebrated it demonstratively proves that they are and were according to the intention of the Antients
God or when God speaks by him disclaim his own sentiment being overshadowed by the power of God concerning which there is a Dispute between us and the Psychici And indeed Saint Hierome expresly numbers among the Books written by him against the Church six Volumes Of Ecstasie and a seventh Against Apollonius wherein he endeavours to maintain whatever the other quarrels at his Design being to vindicate Montanus who had written thus Behold man is like a Viol and I am the Bow man lies him down to rest and I watch Behold the Lord who takes mens Hearts out of them and who also bestows Hearts on them and Maximilla who held this strange Discourse The Lord hath sent me c. forced me I being both willing and unwilling to learn the knowledg of God The Church therefore formally condemning the Opinion of those who believed that God made Ecstatick and transported such as he inspired and that he exercised violence on their spirits expressed her self By Claudius Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis to this effect Montanus through an insatiable covetousness of Primacy giving access in his Soul to the Adversary being of a sudden transported in mind and out of himself was inspired and began to speak and to pronounce strange words and his Prophetesses were filled with an adulterate spirit so as that they spoke with a transportation of their understanding unseasonably and after a strange manner and Theodotus his Complice was besides himself and delivered up to the spirit of Errour By Miltiades Disputing against the same Montanus b That false Prophet being in a Transport of spirit which is attended by Confidence and want of Fear began by a voluntary Ignorance which turned into an involuntary Madness of the Soul in which manner they cannot shew that any Prophet either of the Old or New Testament hath been transported By St. Irenaeus who set forth in the same colours one of the Prophetesses of the Marcosians Being foolishly swollen and puffed up by the said words and having her Soul warmed by the expectation of what she should Prophecy and her Heart beating more then it should she presumed to utter things Fantastick and whatever occurred to her thoughts vainly and audaciously in regard she is set on by a vain spirit according to what a better then we hath said of such People to wit that a Soul enflamed by vain air is a presumptuous and shameless thing By Clemens Alexandrinus giving the Impostours of his Time this Touch They Prophecied in Ecstasie as the servants of an Apostate By Origen who esteemed that kind of Emotion unworthy the Holy men of God The Prophets were not as some imagine alienated in spirit and spoke not through any violence of the spirit If any thing saith the Apostle be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace Whence he shews that he who speaks is at liberty to speak when he will and to hold his peace when he will By St. Basil who presses the same Doctrine in these Terms There are some who say that the Saints Prophecied being out of or besides themselves the humane understanding being shadowed by the Spirit but this is contrary to what the Divine presence doth promise that it should alienate in spirit him who is seised of God and that when he is full of Divine Instructions he should himself be deprived of Ratiocination and while he contributes to the advantage of others should reap no benefit from his own Discourses In a word How does it stand with Reason that through the Wisdom of the Spirit a man should become as one besides himself And that the spirit of Knowledg should deliver what is incohaerent For neither is light the Authour of Blindness but stirs up the Visual Faculty implanted by Nature nor does the spirit cause obscurity in mens minds but raises the Understanding to the contemplation of things intelligible cleansing it from the stains of sin Nor is it improbable that through the Design of the evil Spirit who lays his Ambushes to ensnare humane Nature the mind is confounded but to say that the same is effected by the presence of the Holy Spirit is impious By St. Epiphanius who strongly seconding him says When there hath been any necessity the Holy men of God have foretold all things with the true spirit of the Prophets and a strong Ratiocination and an understanding reaching the sence of what was said Again The Prophet spoke with a clear ratiocination and consequently saying all things with a certain vigour as Moses the servant of God who was faithfull in all his House The Prophet in the Old Testament is called the Seer The Vision of Isaiah the Son of Amos which he saw c. I saw the Lord c. And after he had heard what the Lord said unto him coming towards the people he saith The Lord saith these things Do you not see that this is the Discourse of one who comprehends and not of one who is besides himself and that he expressed not himself as one that was transported in his understanding In like manner Ezechiâ—l the Prophet hearing the Lord speak thus to him Take thou also unto thee Wheat and Barley and Beans c. and bake it with dung that cometh out of man answers Ah! Lord God behold my Soul hath not been polluted for from my youth up have I not eaten of that which dieth of it self or is torn in pieces neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth For knowing that the Oracle had come to him from the Lord to serve for a Threat he was so far from being distracted in his understanding that he delayed to do it but that he was of that Opinion is to be attributed to the settledness of his thoughts which may be argued from his expostulation Ah! Lord God c. This indeed being proper to the true Prophets to have their reason fortified by the Holy Spirit by Instruction and Discourse Daniel also had not he knowledg and skill in all Learning and Wisdom and comprehended his own imaginationsâ— He who resolved the Riddles of Nebuchadnezzar and explicated in such manner what the other had seen in his Dreams that he presently gave him the Interpretation thereof with a settled spirit and out of a superabundance of the gift of God having an intelligence of things above all men through the riches of the spirit truly instructing the Prophet and those who by the means of the Prophet were honoured with the Precepts of Truth But what these promise to Prophecy they declare being not well in their wits nor comprehending the meaning thereof for their words are elusive ambiguous and such as are uncapable of a right sence By St. Chrysostome who writes Hence we learn also another thing to wit That the Prophets were not as those who foretell things to come for there when the Devil breaks in upon
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.
And that among the Liturgies of the Greeks Armenians c. there are onely two viz. those of St. Basil and St. Chryâ—ostome drawn up one by the other which have onely this word of it by the way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resting in hope of Resurrection and eternal life Where it is evident to any one that hath but common sense that he who pronounces the Prayer desires not for the Dead either Resurrection or Life but onely declares that both of them have ever been the Object of their hope To be absolutely silent in it as the Canon of the Latine Mass is or to speak uncertainly of it without making any request is that proposing to one's self the pretended Example of Judas Maccabaeus and the Tradition of the antient Synagogue Or can it either enter into any man's Imagination to say they imitate who neither in their Discourses nor in their Actions express any thing of what is contained in the Original If it be said that the Latins in the Office of the Dead added to the Canon demand the Resurrection of the departed Person whom they recommend to God in their Prayers it will be easie to reply that of three and fourty Prayers whereof that Office consists one onely viz. the fifth proposes in one word that kinde of supplication saying Partem Resurrectionis accipiat Anima famuli tui c. That the soul of thy servant may participate of the blessed Resurrection three others which spake of the Resurrection presuppose it without making any demand and amount to no more then to require onely the effect of it as for instance the second layd down in these Terms Inter Sanctos Electos tuos resuscitati gloriâ manifestae contemplationis perpetuò satientur c. That thy servants being raised again may be perpetually silled among the Saints and Elect with the glory of a manifest contemplation the fourth which hath Ad propria corpora quandoque reversuras Sanctorum tuorum caetibus aggregari praecipias c. That thou wouldest command that the souls of all the Faithfull which are one day to return to their bodies may meet together in the Assemblies of thy Saints and the nine and thirtieth which contains these words In Resurrectionis gloria inter Sanctos Electos tuos resuscitati respirent c. That thy servants of both Sexes being raised up may live among thy Saints and Elect in the glory of the Resurrection From all which Forms it necessary follows that the Latine Church never thought of framing her Service according to the Example of Judas Maccabaeus and that it is vainly and without any shadow of Proof that any Venture at this day to maintain it never considering that if the first Authours of Praying for the Dead among Christians had had any design to build their Form of Service upon the pretended Pattern of the Maccabees they could not without prevarication from their own Intentions fo far have missed the Lineaments thereof as to have omitted in their Canon what they had proposed to themselves to put in Practice or not to insist on it but obliquely and perfunctorily not making it as they should have done their Principal business CHAP. XXXII That the Primitive Sence of the Prayers whereby the Remission of Sins is demanded for the Dead is not embraced by any THe Prayers which the antient Church made for Remission of Sins on the behalf of the Faithfull departed did not onely proceed from the Hypothesis of the Sibylline Writing concerning the consinement of all Souls in Hell and of Justine Martyr concerning the power of the Devils even over those of the greatest Saints but is also an effect of their Opinion who imagined that our Saviour and his Apostles after his Example being after their departure descended into Hell had preached there and in effect converted many of those who were gone thither in the state of Sin For looking upon as reduced to the Trial of some punishment those whose Beatitude was during their restraint in the common prison of the Dead deferred and conceiving that their Condition was capable of being changed into better they inferred very suitably to these Opinions that it was necessary to implore the mercy of God and to demand on their behalf the forgiveness of their Sins which for a time kept the Gates of glory shut against them and exposed them in some manner to the violences of Evil spirits till such time as that by their own supplications and the suffrages of their surviving Friends they might better their Condition We have already produced Examples of those Prayers and there is not any Expression so strong or efficacious which we finde not employed to make us comprehend that heretofore the surviving Faithfull were of a Belief that their departed Brethren were treated as Malefactours and in a manner covered with the wrath of God But from the beginning of the Third Age and afterwards those among the Fathers who had more attentively considered the Oracles of God affirming That There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus That No man is able to pluck them out of his hand That They are at the hour of death taken away from the evil to come That They depart out of the Body to be with the Lord That Their iniquity shall be sought for and there shall be none because God hath pardoned them That as soon as they are dead in the Lord they rest from their labours and according to what we finde in express Terms in the Canon of the Mass sleep a sleep of Peace as being actually in Peace and freed from Sin which deprives a man of it and makes a separation between the Lord and him that commits it the Fathers I say not discontinuing out of the respect they had for their Ancestours the Prayers inserted by them upon prejudications both ill-grounded and extremely mistaken into the Service of the Church do by the formal Confession of the insufficiency of those Principles make a certain disclaim of the Prayers enough to justifie that according to them being taken literally they are absolutely unprofitable as being destitute of Truth and a maintainable Foundation Hence is it that in the year 252. St. Cyprian tells us of the advantage which accrews to the Faithfull at their death Lucrum maximum jam nullis peccatis vitiis carnis obnoxium fieri c. It is a very great gain not to be any longer subject to sins and the lusts of the flesh St. Cyril of Jerusalem about the year 350. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remission having its Ordinance onely in this life St. Epiphamus in the year 375. in the nine and fiftieth Haeresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is not any progress either of Piety or Repentance after death St. Ambrose about the year 378. Qui hic non acceperit remissionem illic non erit c. He who shall not have received remission here shall not
c. He rejoyces with the Angels in the Kingdom of heaven I acknowledg that the Opinion of Purgatory crept in among the Latines about the end of the sixth Age having by little and little gained credit many were easily induced to compose Epitaphs containing certain Wishes and Prayers for the Dead Yet did not their scrupulous manner of proceeding hinder any that would from attributing to them the possession of Celestial glory immediately upon their departure out of this life Thus the Epitaph of Pope Stephen the Sixth deceased the one and twentieth of May 891. hath these express Terms Aethera scandit spiritus almus ovans c. His milde Spirit ascends heaven triumphing That of the Kings Conrade the First Otho the First and Second and Zuentibold of Adalberon Bishop of Mets of Count Hugh and his Wife of the Countess Eve and her Sons of Arnoul and Rembal of Oudri Arch-Bishop of Rheims of Beatrix and Warin Abbot of Saint Arnoul de Mets express that their Souls In Coelis aeternâ pace fruuntur c. In heaven enjoy eternal Peace That of Reynold Abbot of S. Cyprian in Poictiers deceas'd in the year 1100. Rainaldi pars promptior Astra petivit c. Reynold's more willing part to heav'n is gone That of the Nun Benedicta Spiritus Astra tenet c. Of heav'n her Spirit 's possest That of Ranulphus the Priest her Contemporary Protinus ad Superos carne solutus abis c. Spiritus ecce tuus gaudens fuper Astra perennat c. Flesh once lay'd by to heav'n thou streight dost go c. Thy Spirit above eternal Joy attends Again Dans animam Coelo reddidit ossa solo c. To heav'n thy soul to earth thy bones return That of King Philip the First deceased in the year 1108. Augusti ternis conscendit in aeth'ra Kalendis c. He on the third of the Calends Of August unto heav'n ascends That of Reynold de Martigni Arch-Bishop of Rheims deceased in the year 1137. Hunc duodena dies Februi praeeuâ—do Kalendas Destituit mundo substituitque Polo c. On January's one and twentieth day He left the world and went to heav'n to stay That of Gerald first Abbot of Selue-Majour in Bourdelois deceased in the year 1094. the sixth of April En felix anima Coeli laetatur in Aula c. Coelorum civis dormîit in Domino c. Liber Coelos spiritus obtinuit c. Spiritus Abbatis vindicat Astra sibi c. Spiritus alta tenet c. His blissfull soul in Heav'n rejoycing is c. Heav'n's Citizen rests in the Lord c. His unconfin'd spirit in Heav'n is fix'd c. The Abbot's soul does challenge heav'n c. His spirit is on high That of Berenger Arch-Deacon of St. Maurice's of Anger 's deceased the sixth of January 1088. In Jano patuit tibi Janua vitae c. In Janus Moneth Life's Gate receiv'd thee And again Coelos animâ corpore ditat humum c. His Body Earth his Soul does Heav'n enrich That of the Empress Agnes deceased the 14th of December 1077. Die XIV Mensis Decembris animam bonis operibus foecundam Lateranis Salvatori suo atque omnium bonorum Authori reddidit hic quintâ die Mensis Januarii expectans spem Beatae Resurrectionis adventum Magni Dei membra carnis commendavit in pace Amen Vpon the fourteenth of December at Lateran she returned to her Saviour and God the Authour of all good things her soul fruitfull in good Works and on the fifth of January she recommended to this place her fleshly Members expecting the hope of a blessed Resurrection and the coming of the Great God Amen That of Bruno first General of the Carthusians deceased the sixth of October 1101. Ossa manent Tumulo Spiritus Astra petit c. Earth hath his bones to heav'n his spirit flies That of Geoffrey Bishop of Amiens deceased the eighth of November 1118. Hic jacet Astra petens c. Here going to Heav'n he lies That of Peter of Placentia Cardinal Terra suum Corpus Animámque recepit Olympus The Earth his body Heav'n his soul receiv'd That of Burohard Arch-Bishop of Vienna deceased about the year 1035. August the twenty ninth Cum quo perpetuò pace viget placidâ c. Sanctus Spiritus Astra petit c. Curribus ignicomis ad Superos gereris c. With him he lives in undisturbed peace c. His Holy Spirit to Heav'n flies c. In fiery Chariots to Heav'n thou' rt convey'd That of Alberic Arch-bishop of Bourges deceased in the year 1140. Modò major in arce Polorum c. In Heav'n he greater is That of Peter Leo in the year 1144. Junius in Mundo fulgebat Sole secundo Separat hunc nobis cùm Polus atque Lapis c. June's second day shone bright when joyless we Lost him between Earth and Felicity That of Peter Bishop of Poictiers deceased in the year 1115. unjustly reduced by Cardinal Baronius to the year 1130. Nunc dives liber stabilis sua praemia Christum Astra petit sequitur possidet iste Petrus c. Promovit privavit eum profugúmque recepit Papa Comes Christus ordine sede Polo c. This Peter rich freed firm rewards Christ Heav'n Now seeks pursues possesses freely giv'n c. A Pope Count Christ him rais'd depriv'd with love Receiv'd to Prelacy of 's See above That of Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury Assassinated the nine and twentieth of July 1170. Ab Orbe Pellitur fructus incipit esse Poli c. Forc'd hence in Heav'n he begins to grow That of Stephen Bishop of Meaux deceased the 12th of January 1187. Liber vivit terrâ divisus Astris Quae dederat Coelum Terráque solvit eis c. He freely lives 'tween Heav'n and Earth bestow'd And pay'd what unto Heaven and Earth he ow'd That of Robert Arch-bishop of Vienna deceased in the year 1195. June the seven and twentieth Junius aethereis mensis te reddidit oris c. Thee to thy Heav'nly Countrey June hath brought That of Mauricius Bishop of Paris deceased the eleventh of September 1196. Migrat Parisii Pater ad patriam Paradisi Mauricius c. Father of Paris Mauricius is hence To Paradise transferr'd That of Humbert Arch-bishop of Vienna deceased the twentieth of November 1125. Spiritus aeth'ra Praesulis Umberti petit c. The Prelat Umbert's Soul to Heav'n is gone That of Raoul Bishop of Arras deceased in the year 1220. Coeli Civis meritorum pondere vivis c. The weight of thy Good Works do thee sustain Thou Citizen of Heav'n That of Peter of Doway Arch-bishop of Sens deceased the twelfth of June 1222. Qui Spei certae suberat modò cernit apertè c. Who what he surely hop'd now clearly sees That of Hervey Bishop of Troyes deceased July the second 1223. Reddo Polo Spiritum ossa Solo c. My soul to heav'n my bones to
for his Funeral-Oration and to stop their Mouths tell them that he denied not he had been there but that it was onely to take a Glass of Wine as he passed by which Discourse was to them an absolute Put-off and caused them to be laughed at whereever they came CHAP. XLII Of the true Motives which the Antients had to Pray for the Blessed Saints in Heaven BUt not further to mention Baldric or the Bishop of Mascon it will be demanded what Motive enclined those who since the year 500. are found to have made Prayers for the Dead to do so And here I am willing to acknowleg that there was no more noise of the Opinion which had so much distracted the Spirits of Christians of the Second and Third Age deceived by the Pretended Sibylline Writing and presupposing that all Souls without exception descended to Hell were there confined till the Resurrection of their Bodies and exposed not onely to the temptations but also to the violences of Evil Spirits which to prove Justine Martyr alledged to Trypho the Jew the pretended raising of Samuel by the Witch of En-dor For though the most antient Prayers as for Instance those which St. Augustine made for his Mother seem to have been drawn up by that Precedent and that the Libera if it be applied to the Departed rather then to the Faithfull in Agonies and preparing themselves for death requires we should think they were yet had they even from the Time of Tertullian seventy years or thereabouts after the first coming abroad of the Sibylline Writing so called begun to exempt the Martyrs from the necessity of descending into Hell and so by little and little the minds of the Christians strugling with and overcoming the Imposture that first Hypothesis was cast out of doors yet so as that it was done without a rejection of the Forms which those who maintained it had introduced into the Publick Service of the Church And thence comes it that St. Ambrose prays for his Brother Satyrus saying Tibi nunc omnipotens Deus innoxiam commendo animam c. Now O Almighty God I recommend unto thee his innocent soul And for Valentinian the Second and Gratian in these words Hîc adhuc intercessionem c. Should I still make Intercession here for him to whom I dare promise a reward Put into my hands the sacred Mysteries let us with a devout affection demand rest for him give me the celestial Sacraments let us attend his religious soul with our Oblations Lift up your hands with me in the Sanctuary O ye People to the end at least that by this Present we may recompense his merits c. No night shall go over my head but that I will make you some present of my prayers in all my Visitations I shall remember you c. And for the Great Theodosius Praesumo de Domino c. I so far presume of the Lord that he will hear the voyce of my cry wherewith I attend thy pious soul c. Grant perfect rest unto thy servant Theodosius even that rest which thou hast prepared for thy Saints May his soul return thither whence it descended where he cannot feel the sting of death where he may be satisfied that this death is the end not of Nature but of sin c. From which Prayers it is to be observed by the way First That this Holy Prelate expressing that he considered not his prayers for Valentinian who died a Catechumen but a Person very Religious and truly inclined to Piety as an Office whereof he stood in need but as a simple Effect of his good Wishes manifestly discovers that not any one of the Faithfull departed in the Lord stands in any necessity of the suffrages of the surviving and accordingly that the Protestants who believe that in matter of Religion nothing should be attempted without the express order of God himself speaking in his Word cannot be accompted criminals for their declining an act which is not even in their Judgment who practised it of any necessity or any way beneficial to those for whom the voluntary devotion or Will-worship of men designs it Secondly That St. Ambrose who calls the Eucharist celebrated in memory of Valentinian and upon his occasion a Present which he makes his Friend and by which he requites him could not have believed it to be either the Body of the Son of God or the Offering-up of that Body or in general a Propitiatory Sacrifice properly so called For who could without an impious Absurdity imagine that the real Body of our Saviour should be so much at our disposal as that we might make Presents of it to our Friends c. that the Proper Oblation of the same Body being infinitely more precious then we or any thing that can proceed from us is or could be a supplement which we adjoyn to our Prayers for our Friends and that this kind of Present is as the meanest kindness we can do them so as that we might say with St. Ambrose that at least by that Present we requite them It seems then he pretended not to do what the Church of Rome thinks to do at this day in the Masses of Requiem For she professes to present the Oblation she makes therein whatever it may be not to the deceased for whom she prays but onely to God for or on the behalf of the deceased She conceives also that her Host which she believes to be properly and really the Body of the Son of God surpasses in value not onely our Prayers but what ever is most excellent either in Earth or in Heaven among the Angels and Spirits of the glorified Saints And though she who cannot endure the Protestants because they are unwilling to submit their Consciences to any other Rule then that of Faith contained in the Sacred Scriptures hath born in her Bosom and suffered unreproved those inconsiderate Children who have had the boldness to write that the solemn Sacrifice might be offered to Creatures As when the Authour of the great Chronicle of the Low-Countries thrust in this into his History that on the 27th of October 1467. Charles last Duke of Burgundy who conquered the People about Liege Ecclesiae Lovaniensis universo Clero commisit omnipotenti Deo suaeque sanctae Genitrici offerre suo nomine sacrificium c. gave express Order to all the Clergy of the Church of Lovain to offer unto Almighty God and to his most Holy Mother the solemn Sacrifice in his name never considering either that the Oblation of the solemn Sacrifice is by the confession of all the act of Latria and sovereign adoration due to God alone as being the most proper Object and most worthy of it nor that the most Holy Mother of our Lord though blessed according to the saying of the Angel among Women never ceased being a Creature and that she is such now in Heaven as much as she was before she was crowned with Glory or
and afford them our assistance to deliver them out of the pretended Purgatory And yet these are in a mâ—â—ner all the materials which have been shuffled into the composure of all that piece of Worship which goes under the name of The Office of the Dead though they have not any relation to their state and do no more induce a necessity of praying for them or believing a Purgatory that should purifie them as is pretended then they do that of making boast of our own praises a vanity even though we were tempted thereto Christian moderation would not suffer us to be guilty of Nor can it be said with any more reason that the words of the Psalms which are recited in the said Office are to be considered as Prosopopoeias whereby the Faithfull deceased are represented speaking of their condition after death I. In as much as the whole Contexture of every Psalm requires that the words of it be applyed to those who live in the flesh so as that it were a manifest abuse to wrest them to any other sence II. For that it was never allowed any one to cast into the divine Worship Fictions whereby men of quick Imaginations might presume to become the mouths of their Brethren departed not having to that end either order from them or calling from God And lastly for that though it were left to any man's discretion to make after his own fancy representations of those whom God hath called to himself yet should not any one take the liberty to do it e're he were well informed and satisfied whether they might pass for true and certain especially seeing that when they should be urged out of a design to infer thence the necessity of praying for them they would prove so much the more unmaintainable for as much as in the same Office where it is pretended they are employed to that end there are those Texts alledged which absolutely destroy the use thereof For instance that of the 14th Chapter of the Apocalyps Verse 13. where the holy Spirit declares Blessed are those that die in the Lord for what rational inducement is there either to desire bliss absolutely for those who are already possessed thereof or the cessation of torments for those who do not onely not suffer any but are not subject to suffer any in as much as from henceforth they are blessed and in rest That of the sixth Chapter of St. John and the thirty seventh Verse where the Son of God attests that he will in no wise cast out him that cometh to him and that of the eleventh Chapter and the five and twentieth and six and twentieth Verses where calling himself the Resurrection and the Life he promises life and exemption from eternal death to whosoever believes in him For if he does not cast out any of the Faithfull if on the contrary he saves them all from death and puts them into possession of life the surviving believers who to express their belief of his words insert them into their publick Form of Service do thereby confess that they are obliged to give him thanks for them and not to make Requests which presuppose that they enjoy not the effect of his promise Thus is there not any Lesson in the Service of the Church of Rome which effectually induces or hath so much as the appearance of inducing any thing of what those of her Communion at this day pretend to CHAP. LII Of the Prayers contained in the Missal and Breviary used by the Church of Rome and that Purgatory cannot be necessarily inferred from any one of them FOr as much as in the Book intituled Ordo Romanus there is not any mention made of the Dead that in the Canon of the Mass which is inserted into it the Memento is not to be found and that in the other Ritual Books of the Latines there is not any Lesson obliging to the belief of Purgatory screwed up since the year 1439. by the Councels of Florence and Trent into an Article of Faith the Church of Rome who hath at this day in favour of Prayer for the Dead but one onely Lesson to wit that of the second of Maccabees a Book held by her self to be Apocryphal till after the year 590. the Church of Rome I say is forced to confess that it must have been inserted so much the later into her Missals and Breviaries though upon no other accompt then this that the Greeks use it not in their Office even to this day and that from her whole service it necessarily results that she met not in the holy Scriptures with any foundation of the opinion either of Purgatory which she maintains or of the custom which she practises in praying for the Dead upon Motives unknown to Primitive Antiquity It remains therefore that we see what can be gathered of any consequence from the Prayers which we read in the publick Forms of Service of her prescription We have in the first place such as desire of God that the sins of the deceased Person may be pardoned as for instance this Fidelium Deus omnium conditor Redemptor animabus famulorum famularúmque tuarum remissionem cunctorum tribue peccatorum ut indulgentiam quam semper optaverunt piis supplicationibus consequantur c. O God Creatour and Redeemer of all the Faithfull grant unto the Souls of thy Servants of the one and the other Sex the remission of all their sins that by pious Supplications they may obtain the indulgence they have ever desired And this We beseech thee O Lord that this Supplication of ours may be beneficial to the Souls of thy Servants of both Sexes intreating thee that thou wouldest cleanse them of all their sins and make them partakers of thy Redemption And this We beseech thee O Almighty God that the Soul of thy Servant purged by these Sacrifices may obtain admission to indulgence and eternal remedy And this Vouchsafe O Lord we beseech thee that the Soul of thy Servant and the Souls of thy Servants of both Sexes the Anniversarie-day of whose Interment we now commemorate being purged by these Sacrifices may be received as well into indulgence as eternal rest And this O God who hast commanded that we should honour our Father and Mother be pleased out of thy mercy to have compassion on the Souls of my Father and Mother and pardon their sins and make me to live with them in the joy of eternal light And this We beseech thee O Lord be mercifull unto the Soul of thy Servant and being freed from the contagion of Mortality restore her to the portion of eternal salvation And this We beseech thee O Lord that by these Sacrifices without which no man is guiltless the Soul of thy Servant may be cleansed from all sins that by these offices of pious placation she may obtain eternal mercy And this O God in whose mercy the Souls of the faithfull are at rest be graciously pleased to pardon the sins of thy Servants
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
Creation shall be shaken with fear and then shall the light be changed O Word spare him who is translated hence Again I beseech you all who were of my acquaintance and who love me be mindful of me at the Day of Judgment that I may finde mercy before the Dreadful Tribunal Again Let us cry to the Immortal King when thou shalt come to make inquisition into the secret things of men spare thy Servant whom thou hast taken to thy self O Mankind-loving God Again I am dead after that I have passed away my life with security and I lye without voice in the Grave and now I expect the last Trumpet to awake me cries he who is dead but my Friends pray unto Christ that he would number me among the Sheep on his right hand c. I have consumed my life in great negligence and being translated from it I expect the dreadfull Tribunal before which O Jesu preserve me free from condemnation cries thy Servant Again O Lord who art the onely King entertain into the Celestial Kingdom thy Faithfull Servant whom thou hast now transferred hence and we beseech thee preserve him free from condemnation at the hour when all mortal men being to be judged shall make their appearance before the Judge c. Disacknowledged by my Brethren and sequestred from my Friends I cry in spirit from the noisomness of the Grave Examine not my failings at the day of Judgment despise not my Tears thou who art the joy of Angels but grant me rest O Lord even me whom out of thy great mercy thou hast taken to thy self c. Stuck fast in the Myriness of sin and devested of good actions I who am a prey to Worms cry to thee in Spirit cast me not behind thee wretch that I am place me not at thy left hand thou who hast framed me with thy Hands but out of thy great mercy grant him rest whom thou hast taken to thy self by thy Ordinance Having now quitted my Kinred and Countrey I am come into a strange way and am as stinking rottenness in the Grave Alass none shall afford me any assistance in that hour but O Lord because of thy great mercy grant him rest whom thou hast taken to thy self by thy Ordinance Again O what an inquisition and judgment are we to expect what fear and trembling in which Brethren the Elements themselves shall be moved and the creation shake come now and let us cast our selves at the feet of Christ that he may save the Soul he hath transferred An intolerable sire and external obscurity and the Worm which never dies is prepared for us sinners in the day of inevitable necessity then spare thy Servant whom thou hast transferred For as much then as the Prayers for the remission of sins made by the Greeks under the names as well of the Surviving praying for the Dead as of the Dead putting up their Requests for themselves are for the most part restrained to the day of Judgement we are so far from having any thing that might oblige us to take them in such a sence as that they should insinuate that the Faithfull between the moment of their death and that of the Last Judgment were reduced to the suffering of any pains that the Hypotheses of Antiquity seem clearly to exact the contrary And the result thence is that the Modern Greeks though great opposers of the Purgatory maintained by the Church of Rome have not kept within the Terms prescribed them by their Fore-fathers but have changed their Sentiments by the Introduction of Novelties which none of them would ever have imagined It will be demanded whence they derived the perswasion that there were Souls of a middle condition which being properly neither good nor bad could not after their separation from the Body enter into the possession of Paradise without having for a certain time lain drooping in I know not what place of Sequestration where they were to endure grief terrour and the incommodity of darkness which as is pretended covered them when nothing of all this either hath or could have any ground in Scripture which does every where make as immediate an opposition between Paradise and Hell the good and the bad the Faithfull and the Reprobate the Children of God redeemed and consecrated for ever by one onely Oblation and that once made with the blood of the Covenant and the children of the Devil who have held as prophane that precious blood as between life and death light and darkness the right hand and the left of the great Judge teaching us expresly that all the faithfull dying in the Lord are blessed rest from thenceforth come not into condemnation are passed from death to life are at their departure out of the body with the Lord and that all the rest without any exception dying in Adam and having not believed are already condemned 2. That Antiquity having happily shaken of the strange imagination which the Fathers of the Second Age had swallowed out of the pretended Sibylline Writing insinuating to them that the Spirits of all men as well good as bad necessarily descended into Hell and were to be there detained under the power of Devils till the Resurrection of the Bodies they had animated it thereupon formally maintained that immediately upon the Death of the Faithfull are the Nuptials of the Spouse that it remains onely for the surviving to give thanks to God that he hath crowned him who is departed from them and having delivered him out of all fear receives him to himself that to all the good Death is an assured Port a deliverance from the combat and bonds a Transporation to better things and that as soon as it happens the Cabinets are sealed and the time accomplished and the combat at an end and the race run and the Crowns bestowed and all is manifestly brought to perfection 3. That the Ritual it self as it were endeavouring to bring into discredit as well the distinction of the middle-conditioned Souls as their pretended banishment for a time into a dark place indifferently affirms of all those who die in the Faith of Christ men and women Ecclesiasticks those of Religious Professions and Laicks that they are gone to the Lord that they rest that Hell detains them not that they exchange Death for the divine life and are made the Children of immortality absolutely denying all that the vulgar Opinion temerariously and without any reason shewn affirms of some and wholly destroying it by so formal a contradiction But we are not to imagine our selves reduced to a necessity of being over-Critical in discovering the Origine of this errour since the falsificatour as well of the Ritual as of the Sentiment of those of his Nation hath done it so palpably to our hands that he hath not made any scruple to publish his own ignorance even in things evident and such as the word of God the best