of their City dissents from the common perswasion viz. that the Cumaean Sibyl did not onely speak her Verses but also writ them upon Leaves which the Wind carried away upon which occasion Virgil brings in Aeneas making this Prayer Blest Virgin not to Leaves thy Verse commit and Javenal says to his Readers to excite their Attention Credite me vobis folium recitare Sibyllae Secondly He makes but an ill Parallel between the Stories which the Cumaeans had entertained him with concerning their Prophetess and these spurious and upstart Oracles which he said were preserved all over the World never considering that the Cumaeans never knew any thing of them and their very being so common as he imagines should as well have raised a distrust in him as in the Greeks who knew there was not any thing more carefully kept at Rome then the Sibylline Oracles which had been got together from all places as far as the power of the Empire extended Suidas also thinking to alledg sufficient excuses for the Poems attributed to the Chaldaean Sibyl hath onely made a Discovery of his own Impertinence For First Upon what score would he have the Transcribers to be so ignorant Is there any likelihood that the Heathens who thought them Divine Sentences would employ the simplest among them to put together things which they accounted so precious and Sacred Secondly Is it not a great mistake to think that God whose Works are ever suitable to his own Majesty that is to say Divine and Perfect could ever have pronounced Verses that were imperfect both as to their Sence and Measure to those whom he inspired Thirdly Could the want of Measure and Sence which was obvious to all the world hinder the knowledg of the unworthy more then of the worthy Or are the later in a greater capacity to finde sence and order where there is not any then the former Fourthly Can any one say that this manifest and by-all-acknowledged imperfection proceeds from God but he must withall sacrilegiously accuse him of having by his dispensation opposed his own intention by making fruitless at least in part what he had as is supposed vouchsafed to reveal for the advantage of men Fifthly What disorder could length of time and frequent Transcriptions have occasioned in the pretended Oracles of the Sibyls when they were in the time of Justin Martyr that is at their very Hatching imperfect And as for the Copies which some Christians deceived by their own credulity with abundance of Zeal dispersed abroad who sees not that besides their being absolutely unknown to the Heathens who received them onely from their hands they were taken out of one another with great care and by persons who professed Letters as Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Lactantius c. so as that they they should rather have diminished then multiplied the Faults as indeed it is evident that the Different Lections which are found in the citations of these Fathers are not Corruptions that have disfigured and defaced the Work pretendedly Sibylline but Corrections which have bettered it and made it less imperfect then it was And certainly what hath really occasioned the Blanks and other Defaults that are in it hath been nothing else but the affectation of that incomparable Antiquity which the Impostour who first advanced it made so great ostentation of with an Impudence and malicious vanity as great as what was one hundred and sixty years since betrayed by Johannes Annio a Jacobine afterwards Master of the Sacred Palace at Rome who would needs fill the Universe with Supposititious Books under the Names of Berosus Megasthenes whom he transforms into a Chimaerical Metasthenes Zenophon Archilochus Philo c and scatter up and down Italy especially in the Places about Viterbo Pieces of Marble made infamous by the Inscription of his Invention and Forgery For the Counterfeit Sibyl to bring her Name into greater Veneration and instead of absolutely smothering the Discoveries of her Imposture to shift all the blame upon the Transcribers Progress of time and the irretrivable loss it hath occasioned in the most precious things of Antiquity put out her ill-digested collection maimed and imperfect imagining what indeed the event hath confirmed that the Readers would entertain it as the wretched Ruins of a great Wrack with more compassion then rigour and rather hug and cherish the miserable remainders thereof then censure it according to its deserts Thus having confuted all the Suppositions of Suidas I have with the same labour destroyed those which Antimachus borrowed out of his Dictionary to make a present of them to Lactantius so that all I have to do is to advertise by the way that as this man had no reason to imagine Lactantius taken out of the College of the Capitol-Priests and brought to the Profession of Christianity by the reading of the pretended Oracles so was it most weakly done of him to look for them at the Capitol in the Time of Constantine since that three hundred years before Augustus had transferred them thence under the Basis of Apollo Palatinus where they continued till twenty five years after the Death of Constantine according to the Observation of Ammianus Marcellinus CHAP. XXV The common Sentiment of the Fathers concerning Enthusiasts COme we now to see whether true Theologie and the Sentiment of the Fathers clear and confirmed from Age to Age may permit that the pretended Sibyl who said of her self what the Idolatrous Heathens writ of their Prophetesses should have been taken by some of the antient Christians for a Prophetess and truly inspired of God It was so certain among the Heathens that their Sibyls had been possessed and when they Prophecyed cast into such an alienation of Spirit that according to the Testimony of Diodorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to act the Sibyl signified among them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to act the part of a person inspired and transported And Suidas himself acknowledges that to say of a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He Sibyllizes hath the same sence as if it were said of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is seduced He behaves himself like one that hath the Gift of Divination Now it might seem that the Prophets felt some motion like that of those who foretold things to come since that as we read of Saul when the evil Spirit from God was come upon him he Prophecied whereas the Scripture gives us expresly to observe that the Spirit of God was also upon him as upon Samuel and David adding that he went on and Prophecyed untill he came to Naioth in Ramah that he stripped off his cloaths also and Prophecied before Samuel in like manner and lay down naked all that day and all that night Besides the LORD threatning the Israelites by Hosea says The Prophet is a fool the Spiritual man is mad So the Captains sitting with Jehu in Ramoth-Gilead spoke no less disadvantageously of the Prophet sent by Elisha to anoint Jehu King
does not concern him at all yet he does or endures something he either rejoyceth in Abraham's Bosom or he begs a drop of Water in everlasting Fire Now as according to this Doctrine the two Conditions of eternal misery and Abraham's Bosom and everlasting Fire are immediately opposite so is it necessary that whoever departs this life must immediately enter either into the Joy which is unspeakable and glorious which shall never be taken away from him or into a Misery incapable of Comfort and such as shall never end Secondly It is no less certain from the Testimony of St. Augustine formerly alledged that Abraham's Bosom is the rest of the Blessed where there is no place for Temptation Thirdly It is not possible he should have thought his Mother after her Departure any where but in Abraham's Bosom since he thought it not fit to celebrate her Funeral with Tears that he was of this Opinion that she could not die miserably or rather that she could not die at all that he acknowledged that being quickened and renewed in Christ she had so lived as that the Name of God had been praised both in her Belief and Life that he thought himself obliged to give God Thanks with Joy for her good actions that he numbered her among the Children of God and Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem who have the privilege to answer the Accuser that their Debts are discharged and who have done works of Mercy and have freely from their hearts forgiven their Debtours All this which cannot any way be contradicted presupposed I ask what Consideration of danger could prevail upon the Spirit of Saint Augustine to make him shed Tears for a Mother whom he thought so dead in Adam as that she rested in the Lord since that if he conceived he ought to say she was dead in Adam in regard of the dissolution of her Body he was withall as much obliged to confess that she was also dead in the Lord in as much as she had ended her Life in the Faith of his Name and that the dissolution of her Body in some manner changing its Nature was become to her an happy passage to the true Life of her Spirit which he acknowledged had been before quickened in Christ and by him discharged of all Sins For what danger can there be for those who dying in the Lord do according to the saying of the Holy Spirit thenceforth rest from their labours Are not the Gifts and Calling of God without repentance And as it is not possible to separate from the love of God those whom he hath loved in Jesus Christ so is it also true that None can pluck them out of his hand nor lay any thing to their charge nor condemn them and consequently that There is no condemnation for tham that They shall not see death and that They are already passed from Death to Life Saint Augustine confesses it and proclaims it saying in the fourty eighth Treatise upon St. John Quid potest Lupus c. What can the Wolf do What can the Thief and Robber do They destroy onely those that are predestinated to Death c. Of those Sheep such as was according to his own description his good Mother St. Monica neither shall they be the prey of the Wolf nor shall the Thief take them away nor the Robber kill any of them he who knows what they cost him is secure as to their Number I most willingly acknowledg that the ensuing Considerations of St. Augustine are most just and well-grounded Non audeo dicere c. I dare not affirm that from the time that thou didst regenerate her by Baptism there issued no word out of her mouth against thy Commandment and it is said by thy Son who is Truth it self that If any one call his Brother Fool he shall be guilty of Hell-fire nay wo be even to those who lead commendable lives if thou examine them without Mercy For since St. John protests of himself and all the Faithfull If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us and we make God a Lyar since the Prophet to whose Oracle St. Augustine expresly refers himself cryes out Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified since Job a man according to the judgment of God himself upright and just fearing God and shunning evil since Job I say being come to himself found himself obliged to make this humble Confession I have uttered that I understood not c. wherefore I abhor my self that I spoke in that manner and repent in Dust and Ashes who would be so far out of himself as to deny either of St. Monica or any other of the Blessed Saints that he ever sinned in speaking against the Commandment of God since his Baptism or imagine that his Life in the profession of Christianity hath been so perfect as might stand to the disquisition of a judgment without mercy But allowing all the pious and necessary Considerations made by St. Augustine upon the course of his Mother's Life I am still to seek and cannot finde the reason of the Consequence he would have drawn thence to think himself obliged as one shaken by the fear of some imminent danger to pray for her who by his own confession had obtained a discharge for all her sins and as St. Cyprian said of all the Faithfull delivered out of the Tempests of this world had reached the Haven of eternal safety Nay what sin soever she might be supposed to have committed after her Baptism having seriously repented of it and deplored her condition with a faithfull recourse to the good Ointment of Christ whose Blood as St. John declares cleanseth us from all Sin her Conscience being purged by that precious Blood and fully purified from dead Works is so absolutely discharged in the sight of God as St. Augustine himself expounding the Words of St. John acknowledges saying Magnam securitatem dedit Deus c. God hath given us a great assurance with good reason is it that we celebrate the Pasch since the Blood of our Lord whereby we are cleansed from all sin hath been shed for us let us fear nothing The Devil kept the Writing of Slavery against us but it hath been cancelled by the Blood of Christ c. If through the infirmity of Life sin hath crept unawares upon thee discover it immediately be offended at it immediately condemn it immediately and when thou shalt have condemned it thou wilt come confidently before the Judg there thou hast an Advocate be not afraid to lose the Cause of thy Confession Since then St. Monica expired recommending her Soul to her faithfull Creatour and imploring his Mercy through the eternal Merit of that blessed Blood the pure Oblation whereof had already washed off her Original Sin and consecrated her for ever nothing could
might come near us that while Christ illuminates them the obscurity of darkness may flie away from us resting therefore with the Holy Martyrs we escape the darkness of Hell through their Merits indeed yet as their companions in Sanctity From which words it is manifest First That maintaining as Tertullian did the first Hypothesis of the pretended Sibylline Writing he conceived that all the Souls of the Faithfull those onely of Martyrs excepted descended into Hell where by the Merit of the Saints with whom their Bodies were Interred they remain without any Torment till the day of Resurrection Secondly That according to the Sentiment of St. Ambrose and Paulinus he thought that from the Bodies of Saints there issues a certain Virtue which preserves and exempts from Torment the Faithfull Interred near them Which Prejudications we are so much the more strictly obliged to oppose in as much as even those who have followed them as Paulinus were ashamed thereof confessing that in effect they were never satisfied thereof Besides the Church of Rome her self Teaching at this day that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by his Passion upon the Cross hath merited justification for us and on our behalf satisfied God the Father who for his sake forgives with the Guilt the eternal Pains of Hell to lay down after Maximus that by the Merit of the Saints we escape the darkness of â—ell which stands in fear of them were to lay down the Contradictory Affirmative of the Negative which God himself writ with the Hand of St. Peter saying There is no salvation in any other for there is no other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and on the contrary to maintain There is salvation in some other fâ—â— there are other names under Heaven whereby we must be saved to wit those of the Martyrs CHAP. L. A Reflection on certain Followers of the Sentiment of the foresaid Maximus I Am willing to Believe that Maximus was so desirous to comply with the Custom of his Predecessours that he took not the Leisure to consider what might be the consequence thereof Others have Imitated him in that Particular relying on the Example of their Ancestours without examining the just weight of its Authority as Theodimus a Spanish Sub-Deacon upon whose Tomb are to be read these Words addressed to St. Andrew Tuis adjutus auxiliis disruptis vinculis Inferni hinc resurgere caro misera possit in die examinationis calcatis facinorosis peccatis gaudia divina percipiat te interprecante Martyr Andrea c. O Martyr Andrew assisted by thy help having broken in pieces the Chains of Hell may his wretched body be raised hence and 〈◊〉 the day of Examination his deadly sins being trod under foot may he take possession of divine glory through the intermediation of thy Prayers And Kindasvind King of the West-Goths in the Epitaph of his Wife Reciverga Ego te conjux quia vincere fata nequivi Funere perfunctam Sanctis commendo tuendam Ut cùm flamma vorax veniet comburere terras Coetibus ipsorum merito sociata resurgas c. Since death on my desires would not thee spare Of thee departed may the Saints take care That thou with them mayst rise again that day When of the fire the earth shall be the prey And Paul the Deacon in the Epitaph of Arichis Duke of Beneventum Profit huic sacro membra dedisse lari c. May 't be to 's good his body to have laid Within this sacred place And Dungalus who in the year 826. objected to Claudius Bishop of Turin the before-mentioned Epitaph of Satyrus acquiescing in the Sentiment which St. Ambrose seems to have been of concerning the sanctification of his Brother's body by its nearness to that of the Martyr Victor and the affluence of his blood and clearly justifying that that Hypothesis though inconvenient and unmaintainable in it self and notwithstanding that it had been disavowed 36. years after by Paulinus and refuted by St. Augustine had not yet lost its credit 540. years after the name and memory of St. Ambrose acquiring it such Sectatours as took it from his good meaning without any examination and by a kind of implicit submission which ought not at this day be any hinderance but that the Lovers of Truth should open their eyes to her light to follow her with their hearts and confess with their mouths that it sometimes happens even to the greatest men to speak with less caution then was consistent with their reputation whether they were transported by heat of dispute or that their spirits were charmed by their partiality to the matter they treated as it should seem St. Ambrose was prepossessed in this particular and St. Gregory Nazianzene in his first Invective against Julian when he says That the Souls of Martyrs and their bodies considered severally and every drop of their blood and the least Signs of their passion chace away evil spirits and heal diseased persons and St. Basil cited by Pope Adrian in his Treatise for Images when upon the 115. Psalm he maintains that whoever touches the bones of a Martyr derives some participation of sanctity by the grace residing in the body of the said Martyr and St. Chrysostome when in the 26th Homily on the second Epistle to the Corinthians he says that the bones of Saints allay and torment evil Spirits and unbind those that are bound in those unhappy fetters and St. Hierome when he maintains to Vigilantius that if the Lamb be every where they therefore the Saints who are with the Lamb are to be believed to be also every where and St. Gregory of Rome chap. 21st of the third Book of his Dialogues that the dead bones of the Saints live in the many miracles wrought by them and chap. 14th of the twelfth of his Morals upon Job That it is not to be believed that those who within them see the clearness of Almighty God should be ignorant of any thing without them and chap. 33d. of the fourth of his Dialogues that there is nothing which they know not who know him that knows all things For there is not any one of these kinds of speaking but is chargeable with inconvenience and falsity if understood according to its literal sense and without acknowledging what there may be in them of abuse and hyperbole For 1. The vertue of Sanctifying and healing Diseases without any application of Remedies operating naturally as also that of driving away and tormenting evil Spirits does not properly and of it self belong to any but to God alone and is not a quality that any nature in it self corporeal can be affected with 2. It is absolutely impossible the Spirit of any Saint can be every where as St. Hierome seems to affirm whose discourse therefore is to be explicated with the help of the same moderation as is used by him when he speaks of evil spirits who wandering all over the World and that with an
A TREATISE OF THE SIBYLS So Highly Celebrated As well by the Antient HEATHENS as the Holy FATHERS of the CHURCH GIVING An Accompt of the Names and Number of the SIBYLS of their Qualities the Form and Matter of their Verses As also of the BOOKS now Extant under their Names and the Errours crept into Christian Religion from the Impostures contained therein Particularly concerning the State of the Just and Unjust after Death Written Originally by DAVID BLONDEL Englished by J. D. LONDON Printed by T. R. for the Authour MDCLXI To the worthy of all Honour Sir EDVVARD MAUNSELL of Margam in the County of Glamorgan AND Sir EDVVARD MAUNSELL of Mudlescomb in the County of Carmarthen Baronets Most Honoured THE Favours receiv'd from Men have this Allyance with those descend from Above That how secretly soever they may have been conferred we may without the least hazard of Modesty make the most Publick Acknowledgments we can of them Nor is it unlikely that Addresses of this Kinde were the Issue of some such Reflection They who make them being desirous they should rather be thought the Effects of a Duty then the Satisfaction Men are apt to conceive from their acquainting the World how highly they are obliged to Great Persons Hence those excessive Celebrations frequent in Dedicatories a Custome I am the more unwilling to comply with out of a Caution lest what I should say might be thought Advanced to Commend my own Choice And yet what could I not say of two Persons the Glory of a most Noble and Antient House One heightned with all the Advantages of a Princely Education and Travel The Other so Transcendent in the Constancy of a Noble Passion as known would reconcile our Faith to Romances and make us confess it possible that Representation may be indebted to Reality As to the Present Treatise What Importance it may be of I rather leave to be seen in the Perusal of it then insist on here 'T is a Discovery of the Pious Frauds and Impostures which having crept into Christian Religion even in its Infancy have ever since poisoned it more or less by their Continuance therein a Design may justly be termed Great if out of no other Consideration yet this at least that it imposed a Necessity on the Authour to unravel all Antiquity to find them out and bring them to the Tribunal of a Rational Disquisition For my own Endeavours herein they are left to the success Time and Mens Censures shall afford them with all my Wishes summ'd up in this That my addressing of them to so Noble a Name may be look'd on as an Eternal Testimony of my humblest Respects thereto and the greatest Expression I can at present make of my being Most Honoured Your Most Obedient and Most Obliged Servant J. DAVIES A TREATISE OF THE SIBYLS BOOK 1. CHAP. I. That the most earnest Pursuers of Truth are as others subject to mistakes THough according to the judgement of Tertullian it be much better for a man to be less knowing then to know that which is worse and to erre then deceive it being the Characteristick of that Charity which is recommended by St. Paul as the greatest of the Vertues to believe and hope all things so far as concurrence and compliance with reason may permit yet ought not the credulity which accompanies Charity nor its hope what latitude soever we may imagine to allow it as it were out of a design to be enslav'd to impostures and circumventions put out its eyes for fear lest it should be in a condition to discover and elude them And if it be requisite it should be free from all servile stupidity since it is the principall effect of the holy Spirit who calls and conducts us by the liberty of his Grace to that of Glory it may with much more reason be expected it should be far from being subject to blindness because it presupposes the conduct of Faith which is in some sort the eye of the regenerate soul in whom the simplicity of the Dove which is of it self inclin'd candidly to interpret what there might be some difficulty to exempt from the censures of persons not easily satisfi'd is ever attended by the prudence of the Serpent whose vigilancy is employ'd to foresee and prevent surprises The same profession of piety which encourages sincere souls to walk in an innocent confidence is also their perpetuall remembrancer that Truth perswades by teaching whereas on the contrary Impostors who are loth to communicate themselves even to their own Disciples till such time as they have gain'd them artificially endeavour to perswade before they instruct and discovering that they make it their main business to conceal what they preach if so it may be said of those who smother what they would have the world acquainted with that they preach it make it appear that they are therein diametrically opposite to the Truth which blushes at nothing so much as the regret she conceives at her being undiscovered Hence comes it to pass that the just and vertuous having their brests open and void of all dissimulation are according to the saying of the same Tertullian likened to the Dove which is the Figure of the holy Spirit and loves the East the Figure of Christ and are willing to leave to Impostors the shamefull imitation of the Serpent who arrogates to himself the image of God the beast which shuns the light hides himself as much as may be that smothers all the prudence it hath in obscure places that lurks in blind holes that eludes those who would see it by decietfull contractions of its own length and goes in folds and wrinckles and is never at once wholly seen For after the manner of Serpents those who think it a glory to deceive are never reduc'd to any complyance with truth but by force and can hardly avoid being at difference even with themselves nor will express themselves to others the malice which they are ever guilty of who are engag'd in a design to surprize others to make the event of their attempts the more certain putting on all manner of masks and leaving no wayes unsought to prepossess the minds of the good who thinking there cannot be a greater subtilty then to live without subtilty imagine it somewhat unreasonable to conceive at the first sight any suspicion of those by whom they had not as yet been over-reached And thence it comes to pass that the best men have this misfortune upon no other ground then that they are the best to be the more credulous and inclining rather to security then diffidence easily give advantage to those who by their craft and insinuations make it their design to triumph over their simplicity CHAP. II. Instances of certain misapprehensions of Justin Martyr THough there be no Age which cannot furnish us with severall examples what effects Imposture hath had on such as have been most ardently zealous for the Truth yet were
made thereof at Rome if so any were desirous to do it If the books of all the Sibyls were equally sought for up and down were all committed to the oversight of the same Guardians who kept them lock'd up altogether in the same place and all preach'd one only God especially those of the Erythraean esteem'd the most famous and most noble among them what reason or likelihood is there they should not be as highly valu'd and priviledg'd as those of the Cumaean And if he cite Verses out of the Erythraean with this particular remark thereupon That she inserted her own reali name into her Poëm and foretold that she was to be call'd Erythraea though she were originally of Babylon shewing that he speaks of the pretended Authoress of that Rhapsody which we have at this day how came it into his imagination that the Heathens extraordinarily jealous of the secret of their Mysteries would have been so careless of a piece which they thought the noblest of all and that was in effect so opposite to them as that should it have fallen into the hands of the Christians they must needs expect it would have been publish'd to their confusion But observe by the way that he speaks of the Quindecimviri for that between the year of Rome 671. wherein the Capitol was burnt and the 675. in which Sylla laid down the Dictatorship fifteen men had been appointed to keep that collection which the Senate and People of Rome had made of the Oracles they had met with up and down through the diligence of their Embassadors For though since that time according to the observation of Servius the number of these Guardians was augmented to fourty there wasâ—…o alteration either as to their former Title or their Function nay after the coming of Christian Princes to the Empire the fall of Paganisme the cessation of the priviledges of its Ministers the prohibition of sacrifices and the desolation of Temples had not abolished either the Sibylline books transferr'd by Augustus to the Temple of Apollo Palatinus nor yet the ancient regulation made for the custody thereof among the Inâ—idels who notwithstanding the loss of their credit abated nothing of their courage in maintaining their inveterate customes Ammianus Marcellinus relates that in the year of our Lord 363. The Sibylline books were consulted at Rome by the command of Julian and that the twentieth of March in the night time Apronianus being Praefect the Temple of Apollo Palatinus was set on fire in the eternall City where had it not been for the assistances of all sorts of people the greatness of the flames had consum'd the Cumaean Poëms In like manner from the Itinerary of Rutilius Claudius Numatianus it appears that they had been preserv'd even to the year of our Lord 389. since that that Author who writ in the year of Rome 1199 or the 416. of our Lord objects to Stilico kill'd by the command of Honorius on the three and twentieth of August 408. that he had not onely committed his rapines against Rome by the arms of the Goths but that he had before burnt the Destinies of the Sibylline assistance as not presuming to fasten that execution on Honorius who had commanded it out of revenge for that the Idolaters had forg'd I know not what Greek Verses as if they had been communicated by the Divine Oracle to some person that consulted it wherein they made Christ really innocent as to the Religion they abhorred as of a sacriledge but that Peter had by Magick founded the worship of the Name of Christ for 365 years and that at the expiration of that number of years there should be no more heard of it But certain it is that the Emperour justly incensed at the impudence of a rascally sort of people that durst presume to bark at the Dignity of the Religion he profess'd and terminate the continuance thereof to 365. years expiring under his fourth Consulship with Eutychianus in the year of our Lord 398. issu'd out his commands the year following that the Sibylline books whence the pretended Prophesie had been taken should be burnt and the Temples demolish'd The year following saith St. Augustin Manlius Theodorus being Consul the time being already come wherein according to that Oracle of evil spirits or humane fiction there should have been no longer any profession of Christian Religion c. in the most eminent and known City of Africk namely Carthage Gaudentius and Jovius Governours under the Emperour Honorius did upon the ninteenth of March cause to be pulled down the Temples of the false gods and their Images to be broken Prosper Africanus confirms the same thing though he attributes that command to Theodosius who dy'd at Millain the seventeenth of January 395. and the Edicts of the nine and twentieth of January directed to Macrobius Praefect of Spain of the thirteenth of July to Eutychianus Praefect of the Praetorium in the East and of the twentieth and twenty ninth of August to Apollodorus Proconsul of Africk do yet satisfie the world of it But however the case stands it matters not while the Sibylline books were in the custody of the Heathens and they possessors of the Empire the provision made on that behalf was that they should never be consulted without express command from the Senate the sight and reading thereof was absolutely forbidden all but the Quindecimviri and all the places whence they had been gotten depending on the Roman Monarchy must necessarily have been oblig'd to the same Law Whence it came that as nothing more sharpens the edge of curiosity then the rigour of prohibitions and that the dis-satisfaction men conceive at their being incapable to exercise it openly makes them beyond all reason daring so were they not a few who endeavour'd to sift the secret out of the Quindecimviri or made their brags that they had learn'd part thereof of themselves Nay sometimes it came to that heighth that the State became engag'd in the distractions occasion'd by that superstitious passion Of that nature was what happen'd in the 710. year of Rome when to gratifie Caesar and compell the Senate to honour him with the royall Diadem those who were the Guardians of the Oracles scatter'd abroad of themselves this false report that according to the saying of the Sibyl the Parthians could not be destroy'd nor the Common-wealth be secure from their arms but by a King which no doubt had been put to the triall of experience had it not been for the murther committed in the person of Caesar the fifteenth of March the same year which was the four and and fourtieth before our Saviour Twenty years after under the Consulship of the two Lentulus's Augustus gave command to the Priests to copy out with their own hands those of the Sibylline Verses which time had defac'd to the end that no other should read them And to the same effect Suetonius relates that after he had taken upon him
of Israel asking Why is this mad fellow come to thee And Schemaiah the Nehelamite stirring up Zephaniah and the other Priests against Jeremiah writ to them The Lord hath made thee c. that ye should be Officers in the House of the Lord for every man that is mad and maketh himself a Prophet And Saint Ambrose doth in appearance acknowledg it by this Discourse There are certain Madnesses and alienations of spirit which are true and it may be of the Prophets who being transported as to their understanding Prophecied being so filled with the Spirit of God that to some they seemed mad when not minding their own safety many times naked and bare-foot as Esay the Prophet did they ran among the People crying not what they would themselves but what the Lord commanded them But for the beter understanding of all these Passages the Christian Reader is onely to remember that as the Prophets though they did not any action that was irregular or void of reason passed for Mad men in the apprehension of the profane such as might be the Captains at Ramoth-Gilead and Shemaiah the Presecutour of Jeremiah so the Devils egged on their Foretellers of things to come to play the Apes and imitate the Prophets and to brag even when they were at the height of their Extravagance of Inspirations equal with theirs So that if the true Prophets moved by Celestial Grace discovered the operations of it by some action suitable to their condition upon which account Saul being among them stripped himself of his Royal Robe and lay upon the ground humbling himself before God and celebrating the glory of his Infinite Power according as the Spirit gave him to speak on the contrary when he was overpressed with Melancholy and tormented by the evil Spirit which put him into Madness and Ecstasie he spoke also in that condition as if he had Prophecyed And Saint Ambrose minds us of the difference there is between the servile transportation of Possessed Persons which darkens the light of their minds binds up its Faculties makes their Reason unprofitable and forces them to violent motions and that holy Ravishment of the Prophets which filling them with admiration and joy refined their understanding and left them the free use of their ratiocination yet in such manner as to diver them from all humane Considerations and bend their thoughts to an extraordinary submission to God Upon which account he said They cryed not what they would themselves but what he commanded intending to express thereby the violence they did themselves by renouncing their own will that they might the more freely pursue the motions of his Grace and observed further that they minded not their own safety representing that they regarded not the preservation of their Lives nor their own convenience but were always ready to Sacrifice themselves and protest with St. Paul None of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self Nor did he absolutely pronounce that the action of the Prophetick Spirit upon the Person who was thereby inspired made him a Fool or so drew him out of himself as that he was without reason and had no other motion then what was forced but that inclining him to do not what his own ratiocination suggested to him but what it self advised him to it many times put him upon such extraordinary actions that those who vouchsafed not to consider the signification thereof were by their own corrupt judgment induced to attribute them to Madness and Extravagant Transportation which obliged him to say not that He was but that To some he seemed Mad. Tertullian went yet much further when drunk with the cup of Montanus he esteemed highly of those Ecstasies and Transportations which so ravish a man out of himself that he looses either wholly or in part the freedom of his Ratiocination But in regard Justin Martyr as well as he was of opinion That those Alienations which he pretended to have been in the Cumaean Sibyl might proceed from Divine Inspiration it is of some consequence as well to clear up his sentiment as to consider what judgment Antiquity hath made thereof and that the rather for that we have now some Divines who imagine That God does sometimes send such strong and violent Irradiations of his Love as strike through the Hearts of men like Thunder-bolts force those who receive them to cry out and do so cast them down that they are as it were dead Further That the Persons who are honoured with such an Illumination have motions of Piety so impetuous that they cannot pray unto God and when they attempt it suffer incredible pains their Bodies not being able to bear the vehement motions of so great a Devotion In his Book Of the Soul he hath this Discourse which Pamelius unjustly applies to Prisca or Maximilla dead fifty years before There is at this day among us a Sister on whom are fallen the Gifts of Revelations which she endures in spirit in the Church during the Divine Solemnities by Ecstasie And in another place having supposed that the Ecstasis that is to say the deep sleep that fell upon Adam was the force of the holy Spirit working Prophecy he adds God sent him an alienation of spirit which is a spiritual force wherein Prophecy consists and lower We say That Ecstasie is a sally out of sound sence somewhat like Madness Item This shall be the property of the said alienation of spirit that it comes not through any injury done to health but according to natural reason for it does not exterminate the understanding but force it out of the way It is one thing to shake another to move it one thing to overturn it another to exercise it What therefore proceeds from the Memory argues the sound constitution of the Mind if the soundness of the Soul be stupified the Memory remaining entire it is a kinde of Madness Wherefore we are not said to be Mad but to Dream and so it is then if ever that we are wise for our knowledge though in Umbrage yet is not extinct save that it may then seem to be wanting And elsewhere wresting to a wrong sence the words of the Gospel concerning Saint Peter's not knowing what he said he put this Question How not knowing was it through simple errour or want of reason Wresting also the sence of Saint Paul's Discourse he hath these Expressions Let him take out some Psalm some Vision some Prayer in a spiritual way onely that is in Ecstasie in alienation of spirit And against Praxeas Neither Peter nor John nor James were sensible of the Vision of God without a denial of Reason and alienation of spirit for which we maintain in the cause of new Prophecy that Ecstasie that is alienation of spirit is consistent with Grace For it is necessary that the man ravished in spirit especially when he sees the glory of
Maccabees Thus Tertullian in the year 199. in the third Chapter of his Book De Corona tells us Quaramus an Traditio c. Let us enquire whether the not-written Tradition is not also to be received No doubt we shall deny that it ought to be received if no prejudice arise from the Examples of other Observations which we challenge to our selves without any recommendation from Scripture onely upon the accompt of Tradition fortified by the Patronage of Custom c. Upon anniversary-days we make Oblations for the departed and for their Birth-days c. viz. Of the departure of Martyrs In like manner St. Epiphanius in the year 376. concludes his Disputation against Aërius with the Allegation of Tradition saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Next I shall again take the consequence of this that the Church accomplishes this thing necessarily having taken the Tradition of the Fathers Now who can violate the Ordinance of his Mother or the Law of his Father according to the words of Salomon My Son hear the Instruction of thy Father and forsake not the Law of thy Mother shewing that the Father that is to say God the onely Son and the Holy Spirit hath taught as well by writing as without writing and that our Mother the Church hath Laws made in her self such as are indissoluble and cannot be destroyed Denys the pretended Areopagite about the year 490. follows the same track in the seventh Chapter of his Ecclesiastical Hierarchy saying It is necessary to speak of the Tradition come even to us from our conductours inspired by God concerning the said Prayer which the Hierarch pronounces over the Deceased The like may be said of St. Augustine who had first of any alledged the pretended example of the Maccabees for distrusting what Arguments might be drawn thence he flies to the Authority of the Church and thereby shews his main strength lay on that side The same thing is further insinuated as well by the ingenuous confession which the Fathers make of the doubts of many of the Christians in their times concerning the advantage of Prayer for the dead as by the answers given by them thereto For Aërius in St. Epiphanius in the year 376. put this difficulty asking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Upon what accompt do you name after their death those who are dead For whether the surviving prays or dispenses his goods what advantage accrews thereby to the deceased If the Prayers of those who are here be any way beneficial to those who are there let not any one live religiously nor do well but so behave himself as he would have Friends whether it be by procuring them for many or intreating them at his death to pray for him to the end he may not suffer there and that there be no inquisition made into the incurable sins he hath committed Some twenty years before St. Cyril of Jerusalem had acknowledged in his fifth Mystagogical Catechesis that in Palaestine there were many persons troubled about the difficulty made by Aërius in Armenià crying out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I know many say thus What advantage is it to the Soul transported out of this World with sins or without sins that you remember her in your Prayers And about one hundred years after Denys the pretended Areopagite writing in the seventh Chapter of his Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It may be will you say that these things are well said by us but that you are in doubt as to the Hierarch ' s desiring of the Sovereign goodness of God for the deceased the remission of his Sins and the portion of light assigned for those who are like God For if every one shall receive from the justice of God the reward of all the good things and others which he hath done in this life and the deceased hath accomplished all Functions suitable to the life which is led here by what Hierarchical Prayer shall he be transferred beyond his merit and the reward due to the life he hath led here into another lot From this diversity of Questions renewed from time to time it is apparent that the first answers made to those who could not conceive any benefit arising from Prayer for the dead had not given them satisfaction and that neither they nor those who answered them saw any Text of Scripture that could decide the difficulty proposed by them For who could expect from a Christian that he durst bring into question what he knew to have been resolved by the Oracles of God On the contrary who will not be easily induced to doubt of things whereof he findes no other confirmation then that of Custom and that not fortified by any Command of God to whose Worship it is pretended that Custome relates Nay when we do not finde in the Fathers Answers to the Objections whereby that Custom was opposed any mention either of the second of the Maccabees or of any place of Scripture concerning the State of the dead ought we not of necessity to conclude that not onely they had not any to alledge but also that they made not in their Offices for the dead any reflection on the second of the Maccabees or any of the Books justly or unjustly reputed Canonical but onely on the example of their Predecessours CHAP. XXV Whether there be any reason to ground Prayer for the Dead upon the Second Book of the Maccabees I Have hitherto made it my business onely to prove that praying for the Dead never was as to matter of fact grounded by the first that practised it among the Christians upon the second of the Maccabees nor any other Book either Canonical or Apocryphal I am to shew that as to matter of right it could not have been grounded thereon and to that purpose I am in the first place to give a relation of the fact of Judas Maccabaeus and secondly an accompt of the application made of it by Jason the Cyrenian or his Abridger The fact is set down in these Terms So Judas gathered his Host and came into the City of Odollam and when the seventh day came they purified themselves as the Custom was and kept the Sabbath in the same place And upon the day following as the use had been Judas and his Company came to take up the Bodies of them that were slain and to bury them with their Kinsmen in their Father's Graves Now under the Coats of every one that was slain they found things consecrated to the Idols of the Jamnites which is forbidden the Jews by the Law Then every man saw that this was the cause wherefore they were slain All men therefore praysing the Lord the righteous Judg who had opened the things that were hid Betook themselves unto Prayer and besought him that the sin committed might wholly be put out of remembrance Besides the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin for so much as they saw
refreshing and of the restitution of all things on the contrary I say the Person so wishing considered his Frienâ— as aspiring to the plenary enjoyment of that happy State whereof he expected the absolute accomplishment on the day of the general Resurrection at the end of the World though he were already by way of advance possessed of the Earnest thereof according to the Saying of the Authour of the Book of Wisdom who affirms that Though the righteous be prevented with death yet shall he be in rest where the Latine Version hath it in refrigerio c. in a place of refreshment Which shews that the Interpreter had found in his Copy not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Text hath it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that in the Discourses of the Antients the begging of refreshments for their departed Friends could not signifie any other thing then what is expressed in the Liturgy attributed to Saint James in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do thou cause them to rest there in the Land of the living in thy Kingdom in the Delights of Paradise in the Bosoms of Abraham Isaac and Jacob our Holy Fathers where trouble and sorrow and Lamentation have no place Which indeed is no more then is required in the Liturgy which goes under the name of Saint Mark and more at large in that which is attributed to Saint Clement and those of Saint Basil and Saint Chrysostome all which concur in the demand of the Celestial Beatitude which they design by the several Expressions used in the Scripture to represent it and suppose that God hath communicated it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even there where the departed Person whose Memory is celebrated hath been already placed And in this sence is it confirmed by Tertullian the most antient of the Latines who speaking of Prayer for the dead does in the fourth Chapter De testimonio animae call eternal Beatitude a refreshment and saith Affirmamus expectare diem judicii proque meritis aut cruciaâ—ui destinari aut refrigerio utrique sempiterno c. We affirm that the Soul expects the day of Judgement and that according to her Works she is destined either to Torment or to Refreshment both which are eternal Which had made so deep an Impression upon some mens spirits that about the year 960. Hildegarius Bishop of Limoges Founder of the Abbey of St. Peter protested that the Motive of his Founding it was Ut pius clementissimus Deus in Die Judicii refrigerium praestare dignetur c. That God out of his compassion and clemency would be pleased to give to his own Soul and those of his Friends refreshment at the day of Judgment Some conceive that the Epitaphs which run thus In pace c. Quiescit in pace c. Depositus in pace c. Dormit in pace c. do not signifie that the Departed Person is in absolute possession of that sovereign Peace which is that of God but simply that he departed in the Peace of the Church For my part I am willing to believe that those who gave order for such Inscriptions intended thereby to comprehend the Peace of the Church remembring that as to be grafted into the Body of the visible Church is naturally an external mark of the Believer's admission into the society of the Saints whose Names are written in Heaven so the participation of her Peace is many times a Pledge of the Peace of God But it is impossible it should be the intention of the Authours of those anâ—ient Epitaphs to speak of the Peace of the Church and to insinuate that the Faithfull departed were not when God called them out of this world excommunicated And that for these reasons First These very Forms are indifferently used upon the Tombs of Martyrs little Children and Persons newly-baptized who every one knows could not have deserved the Censures of the Church but were without dispute passed from the troubles of this life into the rest of Heaven which onely may be denoted by the name of Peace inscribed upon their Monuments Secondly It may be said that neither being possessed of the Peace of the Church is an infallible assurance of the participation of that of God out of which are excluded Hypocrites whom the Church must of necessity entertain in her Communion as not knowing their interiour nor does the privation of the Church's peace necessarily infer the denyal of that of God it being possible that many good people through Errour in matter of Fact may be treated in the society of the Faithfull otherwise then they should as for Example a Meletius whom the Church of Rome never honoured with her Communion though now she acknowledges by the Celebration she annually makes of his Memory that he was most worthy of it and a Person precious in the sight of God Whence it follows that the Faithfull departed should not carry hence with them a truly perswasive Testimony of the Piety in which they ended their dayes if the surviving saying onely They died in Peace thought it enough to attribute to them an advantage many times common to those who have through their own fault been deprived of the Grace of God to their Dying-day Thirdly Because the Antients have by several Forms expressed their Sentiment and declared that when they assigned Peace to their deceased Brethren they specifically limited themselves to the peace of God which onely is able to make them happy Thus not to mention the Inscription of the Tombs of Severus of Badajox and the Inhabitant of Elvas which hath expresly Pacem Domini The peace of the Lord the Epitaph of Junius Bassus cited by Cardinal Baronius says that Neophytus îit ad Deum VIII Calend. Septemb. Eusebio Hypatio Coss c. Being newly-converted to the Faith he went to God on the eighth of the Calends of September Eusebius and Hypatius being Consuls that is to say August the twenty fifth 359. That of Eusebia Copied by Father Sirmond in his Notes upon Sidonius runs thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here lieth Eusebia who is in peace c. under the eighth Consulship of Honorius and the first of Constantine in the year 409. That of Gaudentia thus Gabina Gaudentia c. perpetuâ quiescit in pace c. Gabina Gaudentia resteth in perpetual peace That of Timothea thus Timothea in pace D. Kal. Nov. Cons D. N. Aviti c. Timothea hath been deposited in the peace of the Lord Nov. 1. Avitus our Lord being Consul in the year 456. That of Marius thus Satis vixit dum vitam pro Christo cum signo consumpsit in pace tandem quievit c. He hath lived long enough since he hath spent his life for Christ with the Sign of Faith and is at length deposed in peace That of Placidus thus Tandem in Caelo quiescit He is at length rested in
he saw him returned and understood that the Councel who was not of his Opinion and had reduced him to quit it and by a second Deputation sent Brother John de Raguse a Domiuican afterwards Bishop of Argos Henry Menger Canon of Constance and Simon Freron Canon of Orleans who as to his particular had Order to pass through Rome to aquaint the Court with the occasion of his Message instead of being satisfied with this submission which seemed absolutely to secure his Interest he conceived a greater jealousie thereof and taking it very ill that as he thought the Councel should think to get the glory of the Reconciliation with the Greeks he so far prevailed with them by his sollicitations and the sums of Money he paid them out of his own Purse which was better furnished then that of the Councel that they broke their Word with the Deputies suffered the House where John de Raguse the chiefest among them was lodged to be set upon by a Party of Cross-bowsiers who attempted to force it and openly took their resolution to go to Ferrara where the Pope was in Person and was drawing together all his Partisans It were impossible to avoid being importunate to the Reader if we should trouble our selves to give a particular Relation of all the complaints reciprocally made by the Pope and Cauncel It shall therefore suffice to observe that the Councel defeated of their Hope saw another convened as it were in defiance of it at Ferrara where the Greeks to the number of about twenty Metropolitanes and a dozen others of their Clergie made their appearance with their Emperour at the Pope's Charges upon the fourth and eighth of March 1438. sojourned there without any thing done till Wednesday the fourth of June at which time were begun some private Conferences upon the Questions of Purgatory and the State of Souls after their departure out of the Body yet so as that on the Part of the Greeks till Thursday the seventeenth of July there passed no other decision save that the Souls of the Saints enjoy immediately after Death the perfect felicity competent to them though they expect upon the compleating of their Persons a more full perfection After two Moneths delay laying aside that kinde of Dispute when the General Sessions of the new Councel began they were taken up in debating concerning the Addition made by the Latines to the Creed and the manner of the Procession of the Holy Ghost which they pretend to be not from the Father and the Son but from the Father by the Son About this there passed at Ferrara from that time to the eighth of January 1439. sixteen Sessions and the Plague having made the place not onely incommodious but also dangerous the Pope resolved to leave it transferred the Assembly to Florence on the eleventh defrayed the charges of the Greeks by paying nineteen thousand Florens for the Garison of Constantinople and on the nineteenth following departed with the Greeks who made their entrance into Florence on Friday the fourteenth and Sunday the sixteenth of February began their Sessions on Thursday the twenty sixth of the same Moneth and continued them to no purpose till the seventeenth of March Two days after the Emperour weary of Disputing and seised with an apprehension of his own danger pressed his People to capitulate with the Latines addressing himself to them in these pitifull Terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Time is spent to no purpose and we have done nothing as to the furtherance of our Affair remember our House what hazard it runs amongst the wicked If any thing happen alass how heavy will it fall upon us I hold the Persecution will be more intolerable then that of Diocletian and Maximian wherefore let us lay aside Discourses and Debates and finde out some Mean so to pass into the same Sentiment Mark and Anthony Arch-Bishops of Ephesus and Heraclea notwithstanding those Deplorations making some difficulty to comply were by him forbidden to come into the two following Congregations and the rest yielding the Pope was not awanting to take his advantage and to extort from those poor People a forced Acquiescence the Patriarch Joseph having upon the thirtieth of March being Munday in the Passion-Week given them this sad accompt of the Pope's Pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we should resolve to do of two things one either finde out by Easter falling that year on the fifth of April the means of an Union with him or take some course to return into our Countrey And notwithstanding that Isidore and Bessarion Arch-Bishops of Russia and Nicaea who had engaged in the Party of the Latines and given their Hands saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is more expedient for us to unite in body and soul then to go hence without having done any thing for it is no hard matter to be gone but how we should go or to what place or when I know not Dositheus Bishop of Monembasia cried out immediately 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What would you that our departure hence may be defrayed by the Pope would you have us betray our Doctrine I will die rather then ever Latinize The Arch-bishop of Heraclea added that the Antient Fathers were for his Opinion that of Ephesus that the Latines were not onely Schismaticks but also Hereticks And the Nobility who had an Aversion for the Agreement so exasperated those of their Party that being met the first of April at the Patriarch's Lodgings who was then so indisposed that on the Saturday following they were forced to administer the Extreme Unction to him as soon as the poor Patient had opened his Mouth to ask what they had to say made him this short answer by the Arch-bishop of Heraclea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There are four things demanded of you First Whether you are satisfied with the most clear and solid Demonstration according to which we have shewn you by the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and by the Son if you are so be it if not tell us what you doubt of and why you are not satisfied that we may finde out some remedy and way clearly and purely establish that in very truth the same Procession is also from the Son Secondly If you have any Proofs from the Holy Scriptures maintaining the contrary to what we affirm Produce them Thirdly If you have any strong places out of the Scriptures proving that what you hold is better and more holy then our Doctrine Fourthly If you will not stand to these things let us meet together in an Assembly Let the Hierarch celebrate the Divine Service Let us all as well Latines as Greeks take an Oath Let the Truth be boldly discovered by the Oath and what shall appear most clear to the Major part be embraced by both sides For among Christians an Oath is not violated After this Overture all that remained was to press those poor People by bitter Reproaches
that we are made partakers of their Dignity that they are to be honoured by way of imitation and not adored upon any religious accompt In a word that neither the Blessed Virgin Mother of our Saviour nor any of the Saints of either Sex can pretend to any part of that religious homage Saint Epiphanius one of the most earnest maintainers of Prayer for the Dead hath left to them and the whole Church of these last times these remarkable Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Indeed the Body of Mary was holy but it was not God the Virgin was indeed a Virgin and honoured but she was not given us to be adored on the contrary she adored him who was begotten of her as to the flesh c. If God will not have the Angels to be adored how much rather will he not that she who was born of Ann should be c. God came from Heaven and the Word was clad in flesh taken from the holy Virgin but the Virgin is not adored c. Let Mary be honoured but let the Father Son and Holy Spirit be adored Let no man adore Mary though Mary be excellent and holy and honoured it is not that she should be adored c. Let Mary be honoured but let the Lord be adored But not to press any further this notorious defect which we finde at present in the Service of the Greeks we are to observe that among them the Office of the Dead is full of Prayers whereby is desired as in the Latine Service the mercy of God the remission of the sins of the deceased his absolution his blessed resurrection his introduction into rest into Abraham ' s Bosom into the Mansion of the blessed into refreshment into Paradise into the Tabernacle of God into his Kingdom glory light to the right hand of the great Judge into the Society of the Saints and Angels all which Expressions according to the Hypotheses of Antiquity may be applied to the Spirits already received into glory Which is so much the more evident for that the particular Office which concerns the Obsequies of Children is full of these Prayers that God would number the deceased among the Children to whom he hath promised his Kingdom that he would place him among the just who are acceptable in his sight that he would make him partaker of the good things which are above this World that he would let him enter into the joys of the Saints that in his holy Mountain he would gratifie him with celestial goods that he would write his name in the Book of those who shall be saved that he would make his face to shine upon him that he would lodge him in Abraham ' s Bosom that he would grant him the enjoyment of his Kingdom c. Yet were not these Desires made without a presupposition of his Beatitude as First when it is said to him He who hath taken thee from the Earth and gives thee place among his Saints shew◠that thou O truly blessed Childe art a Citizen of Paradise The Sword of Death falling on thee hath cut thee off as a tender Branch O blessed art thou who hast made no tryal of worldly pleasures but behold Christ opening the Gates of Heaven to thee numbring thee◠out of his great goodness among the Elect◠Secondly When he is brought in making this Discourse Why do you bewail me a Childe translated out of the World for I am not a Subject to be bewailed The joy of all the just is required for those Children who have not done works worthy Tears Thirdly When he acknowledges that Death is a freedom to Children that they are thereby exempted from the miseries of life and that they are gone to rest that they rejoyce in Abraham ' s Bosom in the divine Quires of Blessed Children and assuredly dance because their departure hence was a deliverance from the corruption which loves sin If then the Ritual of the Creeks be full of Prayers for the Children whom they unanimously acknowledge to be among the Blessed what inconvenience can there be to attribute to them that they had the same apprehension for persons of age of whose felicity they no way doubted But though reason should not lead us to think so yet does their formal confession obliges us to believe as much for there is not any deceased person for whom they say not to God Mercifully receive the faithfull person departed who hath holily quitted this life and is O Lord passed towards thee and whose Funeral Solemnities they do not conclude saying to him three several times Our Brother worthy to be ever blessed and always remembred thy memory is eternal To every Monk without any exception they address these words Brother thè way thou art in is that of bliss for that a place of rest is prepared for thee adding to that purpose the sixteenth Verse of the one hundred and sixteenth Psalm Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt kindly with thee and a little after He who is taken hence hath passed through the ever-troubled Sea of Life and by Faith is arrived at his Port conduct him O Christ with the Saints into thy tranquillity and ever-living pleasures In like manner to every Priest Thou hast piously signalized thy self in Faith Charity Hope Gentleness Purity of life and in the Sacerdotal dignity and therefore O Brother of eternal memory God who is before all Ages whom thou hast served will himself dispose thy Spirit into a place full of light and pleasure where the just are in rest and will make thee obtain of Christ at the day of Judgment pardon and great mercy And the deceased Person is introduced using these words I am now at rest and have found great favour for that I have been transferred from the corruption of life glory be to thee O Lord c. Thy divine Servant Deified in his Transportation by thy now-enlivening Mystery is come towards thee To every Woman departed Detain not any longer O malicious Hell the Souls of the Elect in the condemnation of the Transgression for all being now made assuredly conformable to Christ instead of Death receive divine life In a word she is made to say the same words as had been attributed to the Priest I am now at rest c. All these Confessions grounded on the Lessons of Scripture which for the most part contain assurances of the Love of God towards those who serve him and promises of their future Beatitude and glorious Resurrection demonstratively prove that the first Compilers of the Greek Office agreeing in what is most substantial with the Protestants believed that whoever dies in the Faith of the Lord does from the moment of his Death enjoy rest and glory in him and with him But for as much as from time to time the purity of belief and worship receiving adulteration among them there rose up a sort of people apt to feign any
thing and to affirm for true all they had feigned and that from that source are derived abundance of things inconvenient and contradictory which are at this day as so many Black-Patches in the face of their Service reason calls upon us to direct our hand to the most remarkable and discover the Scars and Imperfections which lie under them For as much then as the Greek Fathers taught by St. Paul even in that very place which is copied in the Ritual advertised the Christian People committed to their charge not to be sad for their Brethren departed after the manner of the Heathens who are without hope and St. Chrysostome threatned to excommunicate as impious those who took a glory in grieving upon such occasions it is impossible those should have been well informed in their duty and the Sentiments of their fore-Fathers who making a Virtue of a Vice and stuffing the publick Forms of Service with their Deplorations have had the boldness to introduce the Faithfull deceased pressing those whom they left behind them to lamentations at their misfortune that is to say at what according to the Scriptures neither is nor can be As for instance when they inserted at the end of the common Formulary this extravagant half-Heathenish Discourse absolutely contradictory to the Exhortation of St. Paul to the Thessalonians Brethren and Friends Kinred and Acquaintance now that you see me laid without Voice and without Breath lament all over me for yesterday I spoke with you and suddenly the dreadfull hour of Death surprized me But come ye all who are desirous of my Company and kiss me with the last kiss for I shall have no further conversation with you nor ever speak to you again I am going to the Judg with whom there is no respect of persons since the Servant and the Master the King and the common Souldier the rich man and the begger are to appear before him in an equal condition and every one shall be either glorified or made ashamed by his works But I intreat and conjure you all without ceasing to pray for me to Christ God c. And in the Office of the Priest My Brethren Children and Friends I remember you before the Lord forget me not when you pray learn I conjure beseech and require you these things that they may serve you for a memorial and bewail me night and day Again In great compassion weep for me O ye Lovers of Christ and earnestly petition the God of all that he would grant me to rest with the Saints And in that of the Woman Come Fathers and behold how Beauty fades come Mothers and see how the Flesh moulders away and cry with Tears Lord grant that by thy Command she may rest whom thou hast taken hence But as those carnal sallies of Spirit are palpably contrary to the advice of the Apostle and upon that accompt not to be endured so the absurdity thereof is so evident that the Authour of the Ritual could not forbear expressing the dislike it might occasion saying in the Office of the Priest O men why do you so earnestly bewail me Why do you give your selves this vain trouble He who is transferred from Life saith to all Death is become a Rest to all Nor do I think it strange the Formulary should swell with the descriptions of the Miseries and Vanity of this Life for since the Prophet hath vouchsafed to give us a Draught thereof to the end that Learning to number our days we might apply our hearts to Wisdom we cannot be too often touched with the sting of so necessary an Advertisement yet is it not expected from us that to shew our selves smitten and humbled before God we should presume to act the Disconsolate contrary to the Instruction of St. Paul and make such Discourses as these notoriously false in respect of any one of the Faithfull Alass What a combat is the Soul separated from the Body engaged in Alass How does she then lament and there is not any Body hath pity on her Turning her eyes to the Angels she beseeches to no purpose and reaching forth her hands to men no body relieves her For if there be any Combat in the Soul before its separation as soon as that is over she is passed from the Combat to the Triumph since that according to the Instruction of the Spirit her being with the Lord is upon this accompt that she absent from the body Secondly There is not from thence forward any Tears to be shed for her in as much as she is in fulness of joy and pleasures and that his Goodness promises to wipe away all Tears from the eyes of those who stand before his Throne Thirdly There is no further necessity she should call upon either Angels or Men in regard she is in the blessed Society of Millions of Angels and in the Congregation and Assembly of the First-born who are written in Heaven And should she stand in any need of Relief she would remember that her Help was even during this Life in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth that he alone is our Refuge Glory and the Rock of our Srength that we are at all times to put our Trust in him and that if all the men in the World should be put together into a balance they would be found lighter then Vanity it self But to excuse the frequent Prosopopoeias which in these Forms of Service represent separated Souls as seised with horrour and reduced to deplorations and desires of Relief it may be pretended that these Descriptions made at discretion are Instructions to the Living as to what lies upon them to do To answer that and whatever else may be alledged to extenuate their Offence who have shuffled those things into the Greek Service it need onely be said that we are to take for Lessons of our Duty not Imaginations of what never either was or will be but the pure Will of God our onely Rule in Life and Death and if it were lawfull for us to use Fiction it were but requisite we had the Judgment not to advance any thing absurd and contrary to our Principles shewing our selves in that more Prudent then the Modern Greeks who transported by I know not what Stupidity do almost every where run against their own Hypotheses But to make it clear by certain Examples Their common Principle is That good Souls pass at the very Instant of their separation into the possession of their Rest the bad are immediately confined to Hell of those in a middle Condition onely the Salvation is deferred Let us now hear what pretty Discourses they attribute to them I beseech you all and conjure you that without ceasing you pray for me unto Christ God to the end that I may not according to my sins be confined to place of Torment but that he would place me where is light of Life The middle-conditioned Souls are they ever