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spirit_n	father_n	son_n	word_n	22,511	5	4.8766	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61434	Of prayers for the dead whether the practice and tradition thereof in the Church be truly Catholick, and a competent evidence of apostolick original and authority? : humbly tendred to the consideration of ...	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.	1699 (1699)	Wing S5432; ESTC R24617	43,790	52

this matter is so confirmed by this and by more ancient Authority that it cannot reasonably be questioned The other is S. Epiphanius Bishop of Salamis the Metropolis of the Isle of Cyprus a Man of good Reputation for Ability and Piety and particularly studied in all the Doctrines and Practices of the Church and the several Heresies contrary thereunto In him we have a double Testimony that of Aerius and his own in a Book of all the Hereticks and Heresies In that of Aerius is observable 1. The Matter of Fact and common Practice viz. commemorating the Names of the Dead and Praying for them 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The End for which it was done viz. That they might be benefitted by the Pardon of their Sins at the Prayers c. of their Surviving Friends and the Church Both these he opposeth and that is a Proof of both and by the Testimony of an Adversary which is reputed the most convincing 3. The Opposition without any denial or question of the Antiquity or Universality of the Practice or Observation or of the Tradition of either the Practice or the Intention and Doctrine which if he had had any colour or pretence for it he would certainly never have omitted but he is able to say nothing against either the Practice or Benefit of it but If it be so it is in vain to be pious it would be sufficient to get People to pray for the Pardon of ones Sins after his Death In all these respects is the Opposition of Aerius a very considerable Testimony of both the Practice and Intention and consequently of the Doctrine of the Church in this case But because our great Man useth his utmost Skill and very grossly to evade and elude these Testimonies I will here present them both intire according to his own Translation with Notes of the Pages where most of the distracted Parcels may be found in his Book that the Reader who hath a mind to entertain himself with a Prospect of his Ingenuity may the more plainly discern it The Objection of Aerius For what reason do you commemorate after Death the Names of those that are departed He that is alive prayeth or maketh Dispensation of the Mysteries what shall the Dead be profited hereby And if the Prayer of those here do altogether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profit them that be there then let no body be Godly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let no Man do Good but let him procure some Friends by what means it pleaseth him either by persuading them by Money or intreating Friends at his Death and let them pray for him that he may suffer nothing there and that those inexpiable Sins which he hath committed may not be required at his hands p. 238. Epiphanius his Answer and Testimony As for the reciting of the Names of those that are deceased what can be better than this What more commodious and more admirable that such as are present do believe that they who are departed do live and are not extinguished but are still Being and Living with the Lord and that this most pious Preaching might be declared that they who pray for their Brethren have hope of them as being in a Peregrination p. 240. But the Prayer also which is made for them doth profit altho' it doth not cut off All their Sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Objection Yet forasmuch as whilst we are in the World we oftentimes slip both unwillingly and with our Will it serveth to signifie that which is more perfect For we make a Memorial both of the Just and for Sinners For Sinners intreating the Mercy of God of the Just both the Fathers and Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists and Martyrs and Confessors Bishops and Anchoretes and the whole Order that we may sever our Lord Jesus from the Rank of all other Men by the Honour that we do vnto him and that we may yield Worship unto him while we thus judge p. 240. That our Lord is not to be compared unto any Man tho' a Man live in Righteousness a thousand times and more for how should that be possible considering that the one is God the other Man and the one is in Heaven the other in Earth by reason of the Remains or Reliques of the Body yet resting in the Earth p. 242. Except those who being raised from the Dead entred together into the Bride-Chamber as saith the Holy Gospel c. But forbearing these things I return to what I was about The Church doth necessarily perform this having received it by Tradition from the Fathers And who may dissolve the Ordinances of his Mother or the Law of his Father p. 237. as Solomon saith Hear my Son the Words of thy Father and reject not the Laws of thy Mother declaring by this that our Father that is God the Only begotten and the Holy Spirit hath taught us both in Scriptures and without Scripture But our Mother the Church hath Ordinances settled in her which are inviolable and may not be broken Seeing then there are Ordinances established in the Church and they are well and all things are admirably done this Seducer is again refuted p. 237. This is the Answer of Epiphanius the words inclos'd in Crochets are not in Vsher To this we may well apply what he saith before concerning Easter the Observation of which was another thing which Aerius quarrelled at But who knows these things best This seduced Fellow who is but newly sprung up and now living amongst us or they who were Witnesses before us and who held the same Tradition in the Church before us which they had received from their Parents and their Parents had learned from their Ancestors as the Church to this day observes the true and sincere Faith which it received with the Traditions from the Fathers In all this we may observe 1. The Practice of the Church both in the General Commemorations and in the Prayers agreed on both Sides 2. The End and Intendment of the Church that it was the Profit and Benefit of the Deceased also agreed 3. The Question between them Whether the Prayer of the Living could profit or benefit the Dead as the Church intended 4. That this was what Aerius did principally deny and therefore that the Practice was reasonable as a necessary consequence 5. His only reason was that it would make Piety and good Life needless 6. Epiphanius his Answer 1. from Reason 1. as it is a seasonable and excellent Declaraction of the Faith and Hope of the Church 2. as an Act of Charity for the Benefit of the Deceased 2. from Authority as received in the Church by Tradition from our Saviour and the Holy Spirit And now how does our great Man elude this Epiphanius saith he doth not Name this viz. That Prayers and Sacrifice profiteth not the depa ted in Christ an Heresie 2. Nor doth it appear that himself did hold that

to the Principal Doctrines of Religion Tertul and the first Montanists were of the same Opinion with the Church c. saith Du Pin p. 82 83. Montanism And what is this to the Prejudice of his Testimony concerning Prayers for the Dead It is so far from that that it is the greatest Confirmation and Amplification of it that this Practice and Tradition was no part of Montanism for nothing could have been a greater Prejudice to the Church of Rome against it and it had certainly been condemned by them nor peculiar to the African Church but the known Practice of the Catholick Church and of the Roman Church in particular quite contrary to what the Objectors would persuade us But such Infatuations are the greatest of Men subject to when they will obstinately persist in the Maintenance of an ill Cause We may here therefore fix upon as good ground as can reasonably be desired this Practice and Tradition of the Catholick Church And now it is time to consider how much we are short in our Evidence of the Apostles Age and from what Original this Practice did in truth proceed It is agreed that St. John wrote his Gospel about the beginning of the second Century and that Tertullian fell to the Sect of Montanus in the beginning of the third Vid. Du Pin p. 44. and p. 70. And S. Hierom informs us that he lived to a great Age usque ad decrepitam atatem and that after he had continued usque ad mediam aetatem a Presbyter of the Church invidia postea contumeliis Clericor Romanae Ecclesiae ad Montani dogma delapsus * After having continued in the Church 40 or 45 Years he separated from it in the beginning of the 3d Centutury c. saith Du Pin p. 70. So that he lived the greatest and best part of his Life in the same Age wherein St. John wrote his Gospel and did live some time And here comes as seasonably as unexpectedly to my hand at the very instant that this is at the Press a Book of a learned Opponent who seeing this too plain to be dissembled and supposing that he can otherwise evade the force of this Evidence presents us with a plain Confession of the Matter of Fact † Of the Sibyls l. 2. c 23. David Blondell I make no difficulty saith he to affirm that it might be practised some time before the Year 200 in as much as Tertullian the most ancient of all those that say any thing of it numbred it even then among the Customs received in his time writing in the Year 199. Oblationes pro Defunctis pro Natalitiis annua die facimus c. and recites also the other two Testimonies only in that de Monogamia mistakes the Husband for the Wife and then adds From the things which this great Person the most Ancient and most Learned of all the Latines that we have remaining does advance as to Matter of Fact concerning the Oblations which were publickly made and the Employment of the Priests the only Ministers of the publick Service as a thing Ordinary and grown into Custom it is manifest that Praying for the Dead was in his Time used not only by particular Persons but also in the Body of the Church and that the Liturgies thereof were full of it Thus we see not only by plain Proof but also by the * The same is confessed by John Dalle since recommended to me as one who hath written learnedly on this Subject but I find not any thing in him added to Blendel but such Pride Arrogance Insolence Contempt and reproachful Expressimso● the Anci●nt Holy Christians Martyrs as cannot but be very offensive to any true Christian Spirit being most apparently the common Spirit and Genius of all wicked and obstsnate Hereticks leading to Atheism and Ap st●cy and as contra ry to the Pare Word of God which they pretend as to the true Spirit of Christianty Confession of a learned Adversary that this was not only a Practice in the Church when Tertullian wrote but a Received Custom in his time and therefore of some standing before and of such standing as he knew no other Original of it but Apostolical Tradition and for such doth he alleadge it and not only so but for an unquestionable Proof of such unwritten Traditions as this Author also confesseth and asserts cap. 24. p. 142. And what other Original could it have in that little time and such a Man as he have been ignorant of it And had any other been known could He have been guilty of so great Weakness as to have alleadged this for an unquestionable Proof in such a Case if he had had so little Honesty But we have here a learned Man who under pretence of detecting an Imposture presumes by his Learning to impose upon the World How well he hath used his Learning in other Matters some Learned Men of the Church of England I think besides others have sufficiently shewed and how far his Judgment is to be relied upon In this I shall shew the like in a word He would perswade that not only Tertullian but the whole Church of Christ hath been imposed upon in this Matter by a counterfeit Sibyl written between the Years 138 and 151. and of Tertullian saith positively That he relied upon no other Hypothesis than those proposed by the Author of the pretended Sibylline Writings But in these few words there is no less than at least one notorious Fallacy and two Falsities a Fallacy in the word Hypothesis for he relied not upon any Hypothesis but upon the received Custom of the Church And that he did rely upon as is confessed But he did not in the least rely upon any thing at all of the pretended Sibyl Nor hath this Champion produced I think any one Proof that either Tertullian or any other of the Ancient or Modern Christians did at all rely upon any such Authority for that Practice but all unanimously relied upon Tradition from the Apostles His whole Book is full of Fallacy and Deceit and of the very Spirit and Genius of an Heretick who makes no scruple to abuse the whole Church of Christ and the most Excellent Persons in it to maintain his own Principles It is certain that divers of the great Truths of Christianity were known to the Gentiles long before and received by Tradition from the Common Parents of Mankind but received as Articles of Faith by Christians upon the Authority of Christ and his Apostles And such was this which he fathers upon an Impostor and pretends the Church received it from him without any Proof of either whereas if he was a Christian it is much more likely that he received the Hypothesis from the Practice of the Church at that time and is therefore rather an Evidence of it Other matters of this Book have been considered by learned Men of our own Country and I think I need say no more of this with any regard to