we learn that he had a certain persuasion of four things 1. That our Saviour at the time of his Passion for our salvation prayed that his Soul might not fall under the power of the Devils 2. That we are obliged upon our approaches to Death to imitate his Example 3. That the Prophets were after death exposed to the insolencies of Evil Spirits in such manner that the Soul of Samuel could be evocated by the Witch of Endor 4. That the Souls of the Faithfull who dayly depart this world are subject to the same inconveniences and consequently do all stand in extraordinary need of being relieved by the Prayers of the Living In like manner do we see that upon this mold must needs be fashioned those Antient Prayers which the Church of Rome makes at this day for the Faithfull departed saying Domine Jesu Christe Rex gloriae libera animas omnium Fidelium defunctorum de manu Inferni de profundo lacu Libera eas de ore Leonis nè absorbeat eas Tartarus nè cadant in obscura Tenebrarum loca Fac eas Doniâ—… transire te de morte ad vitam San ctam c. Liberatae de principibus Tenebrarum locis paena rum c. Repelle quaesumus Domine ab ea omnes Principe Tenebrarum c. That is to say O Lord Jesus Christ King of Glory deliver out of the hand of Hell and from the deep Lake the souls of all the Faithfull departed Save them from the mouth of the Lyon that Hell do not swallow them up and that they may not fall into the obscure places of Darkeness c. Lord make them to pass from Death to an Holy Life c. may they be delivered from the Princes of Darkness and the places of Torments c. Drive away from them all the Princes of Darkness O Lord we beseech thee Nay the tender Saint Augustine had such a kind of Letany in his Imagination when celebrating in his Confessions the Memory of Saint Monica his Mother who was dead at least six years before he hath this Language Nemo à protectione tua dirumpat eam non se interponat nec vi nec insidiis Leo Draco nec enim respondebit illa nihil se debere nè convincatur obtineatur ab Accusatore callido c. Let no body snatch her out of thy protection let not the Lion or the Dragon interpose themselves either by force or by ambush for she will not answer that she ows nothing lest she be convicted and carried away by the crafty Accuser CHAP. XIV The Motives proposed by Justin Martyr disallowed and those which St. Epiphanius had to pray for the Dead taken into Consideration BUt since the Hypothesis of Justin Martyr was not embraced by all Antiquity Tertullian telling us in general Absit ut animam cujuslibet Sancti nedum Prophetae à Daemonio credamus extractam c. Far be it from us to believe that the Soul of any Saint whatsoever much less of a Prophet hath been extracted by the Devil and Pionius Metaphrastes upon the first of February Methodius in a particular Treatise against Origen St. Basil upon the eighth Chapter of Esay and in an Epistle to Eustathius Saint Gregory of Nyssa in an Epistle to Theodosius Saint Gregory Nazianzene in the second Invective against Julian Saint Hierome upon the sixth Chapter of Saint Matthew St. Cyril of Alexandria in the sixth Book of Adoration in Spirit and Truth Procopius of Gaza upon the eight and twentieth Chapter of the first Book of Kings Georgius Syncellus in his History and others particularly charging with Imposture the pretended Evocation of Samuel and Philastrius numbring it expressly among Heresies we are now to examine upon what reasons Praying for the Dead hath been since grounded and to hear upon this Point St. Epiphanius disputing in the year 376. against Aerius who thinking it not enough to deny that there accrewed any advantage to the deceased from the Prayers made on their behalf by the living had withall upon that account left the Church of Sebaste He engages against him with these Considerations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Those who are here believe that those who are departed this world live and that they are not deprived of being but that they both are and live to the Lord. And to the end that this excellent Doctrine may be explained that there is an hope for those who pray for their Brethren as for persons in their journey the prayer made for them is also profitable although it does not cut all that may be alledged against them but in as much as many times while we are in this world we sin voluntarily and involuntarily to signisie what is accomplished For we make mention of the Just and pray for sinners for sinners directing our Eyes to the mercy of God which they have obtained for the Just for the Fathers Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Evangelists Martyrs Confessours Bishops Anachorets and the whole Battalion to the end that we might make a distinction between the rank of men and the Lord Jesus Christ because of the honour which is due to him and render him convenient Veneration as having this apprehension that our Lord is not to be parallelled with any of mankinde though every one of mankinde were possessed of Justice ten thousand times and more It is evident that the first Consideration of Saint Epiphanius could make nothing against Aërius who denyed the advantage of Prayer for the Faithfull departed the Ratiocination or Argument of this Father being not necessary either absolutely or in respect of his Adversary He is living Therefore he must be prayed for since that if this were allowed Prayers should be made for all the living Creatures that are Angels Men and Beasts without any exception and that for this reason that all these every one of these kindes is possessed of Being and Life in some degree Besides the Consequence of such a way of reasoning would go much beyond as well the intention of its Authour as the practice of the Church of Pontus in vindication whereof he had framed it since that no Community of Christians ever did or thought it self obliged to communicate its Suffrages to the Angels who live and stand in the presence of the Lord as supposing that Office could not be due to them nor be conceived a rational service in regard they neither stand in need thereof nor can receive any advantage thereby The second Consideration which concerns the Hope the Christians of the fourth Age conceived of the effect of their Prayers for their deceased Brethren could not be of greater weight then the former as far as it concerned Aërius who denyed not that the Faithfull of his Time had a certain hope of profiting the Dead by their Prayers for that they had was manifest but that their hope was well grounded and that their Prayers for the Dead were or could be of any advantage But as I
it hard in all the series of Time to meet with any one more remarkable then that of the mistake of Saint Justin a Person very recommendable if any may be admitted such First for his Antiquity since he dy'd but very little after the midst of the second Age of the Church Secondly for his knowledge as being one who before his reduction to the Christain Faith had by profession been a Philosopher Thirdly for his piety since he became so constant a maintainer of the true Religion as that he was at last honour'd with the Crown of Martyrdom All these advantages might have rais'd him above the ordinary rate of men yet have they not exempted him from being abus'd by certain advancers of foolish Stories who having perswaded him to take the Idol of Semo Sangus one of the false gods of the Sabini for the Statue of Simon Magus engag'd him I know not how to maintain his mistake in the presence even of some of the Heathens and that with so much confidence as clearly discover'd he said nothing but what he really believ'd He it was also who thought himself very much in the right when he boasted that he had seen at Pharos neer Alexandria the remainders of the LXXII Cells where the Interpreters of the Bible had been employ'd in that Work nay some others as Saint Irenaeus Saint Cyril and Saint Augustine have believ'd him and yet Saint Hierome who as well as the other had been upon the place and taken more particular notice thereof does not onely laugh at it but says I know not who by his glozing hath built them With the same security disputing against the Heathens who according to the observation of Origen by way of derision called the Christians Sibyllists he opposes thereto the Authority of Hystaspes a supposititious Author of whose Works there is at the present nothing extant as also the Oracles of the Cumaean Sibyl whom he pretends to have been the Daughter of Berosus who was later then Cyrus by 250 years and dyed in the 225 year of the foundation of Rome and the fourth of the reign of Tarquin to whom many hold that one call'd Amalthaea Sibylla sold at an excessive rate the books since known by the name of the Sibylline and preserv'd in Rome for the space of above 440 years till the civill wars of Sylla not minding it seems that according to the generall perswasion of the Romans the Cumaean Sibyl had entertain'd Aeneas who dyed 639 years before Cyrus possess'd himself of Babylon nor yet reflecting on what Pausanias an Author much about his own time observes from Hyperochus Cumanus and other Ancients 1. That the Sibyl who convers'd in that place was called Demo 2. That the Cumaeans had not any Oracle to shew of hers 3. That she had not been preceded by any but by Lamia the daughter of Neptune sirnamed by the Lybians Sibylla and Herophila the daughter of Jupiter and Lamia who had her residence sometimes at Ida in Phrygia sometimes at Mapessos sometimes at Samos sometimes at Claros of Colophon and sometimes at Delos and Delphi 4. That her Monument and her Epitaph grav'd upon a pillar was at Troas 5. That the Erythraeans would not onely have it that she was born among them of Theodorus a Shepherd and the Nymph Idaea but also that she gave Hecuba the interpretation of her dream and 6. That after the Cumaean Demo the Hebrews who live above Palestine set up Sabba the daughter of Berosus and Erimantha who went under the name of the Babylonian or Aegyptian Sibyl Nor lastly regarding that the very argument whereof he thought to make his greatest advantage in order to the conviction of Pagan Idolatry expresly maintains that she who compos'd it was wife to one of Noe's Sons and of neere kin to him who departed this life 1697. yeares before Antiochus Soter was established in Babylon and that Berosus whose Daughter they would have her to be meerely because her VVriting intimates her coming out of Babylon could have been allow'd the name of Father For these are her words O the great joy I have had since I have escap'd the destruction of the Deep having before undergone many misfortunes toss'd up and down by the waves with my husband my sisters-in-Law my Father and Mother-in-Law and those who were married together And elsewhere When the World was overwhelm'd with waters and that a certain man who had undergone the tryall was left alone exposed to the waters in a house cut out of the Forrest with the beasts and birds of the aire to the end that there might be a Restauration of the World to that man was I daughter-in-law engendred of his blood By which words she clearly destroyes what she had writ some lines before saying that the Greeks took her for the daughter of Circe and Gnostus or rather Ulysses whom she entitles known Father because of the reputation of his name never considering that 800. yeares and more were slipped away between the death of Noe and the arrivall of Ulysses at Cirâ—aeum She further affirmes that she came from Babylon in Assyria speaking so much the more improperly for that Babylon was neither built nor named till 153. yeares after the Deluge nor was it of Assyria properly so called but of another different Country that is to say of Sennaar and that it took not the name of Assyria till above 165. yeares afterwards Nay the impudence of the Imposture is so much the more palpable in that this pretended daughter-in-law of Noe describes her selfe as a notorious strumpet saying Ah wretch that I am what will become of me in that day for all the things I set my mind upon in my folly having no regard of either my Marriage or my reason And again What great evills have I heretofore committed wittingly and willingly and how many other things have I imprudently run after without the least remorse thereat I have taken my lustfull pleasure with ten thousand and have not had the least consideration of my marriage c. CHAP. III. The supposititiousnesse of the Writings pretended to be Sibylline exemplified in severall particulars IF St. Justin Martyr had been but pleased I will not say to look a little better about him but only to open his eyes and fasten them with ever so little recollection on what he read he had met with a thousand instances of imposture in those pleasant Oracles which he objected against the Heathens employing against them three Verses out of the first book as many out of the third and seven out of the fourth For he would upon the first sight have perceived that that ill-digested collection written in wretched Greek and coming from the hands of a person who discovers his ignorance of the Hebrew could not be attributed either to Noah's daughter-in-law who liv'd above 250. years before the confusion of Tongues and consequently before there was any Greek nor yet to the
daughter of Berosus born in the Metropolis of Chaldaea and later by almost 1700 years Nay he would have thought that the Impostor who had made it so much his business to gain reputation by a cheat of so great antiquity had sufficiently discover'd himself an upstart 1. In deriving Adam from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were a word of Greek extraction 2. In saying that the same word signifies East West South and North by its four letters though in the Hebrew and Chaldee it hath but three 3. In supposing that the letters of the Name of God make up the number of 1697 which cannot be true but onely writing it in Greek characters and that barbarously too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. In drawing from those of the Name of Jesus which he makes to consist of four vowels and two consonants the number of 888. which again cannot agree With the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is onely of five letters all consonants and exceed not the number of 391. unless it be in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. In affirming that the duration of Rome shall be 948 years because the number 948 arises from the Greek letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which make onely 251. 6. In placing Ararat where the Ark stay'd in Phrygia 7. In affirming that Phrygia was the first Countrey discovered after the Deluge and that Noe who continu'd in the Ark from the seventh day of the second Month to the twentieth day of the second Month in the year following stay'd there but one and fourty days 8. In imagining that the Fables of the Titans were true Histories 9. In supposing according to the heresie of the Chiliasts that Jerusalem shall not only be re-built again but shall be the Imperiall seat of the Son of God where the faithfull having pass'd through the purgatory fire of the worlds conflagration shall enjoy all manner of delights corporeall and spirituall 10. In feigning that the Eurotas a River of Laconia in Peloponnesus issues aut of Dodona in Epirus and mingles with the Peneus a river of Thessaly Again that Gog and Magóg are among the Aethiopians 11. In foretelling that the Italians shall become subject to the Asiaticks 12. In maintaining that Nero is the great Antichrist that he is retir'd into Persia and that returning from Babylon with an army of Jews he will destroy Rome and set it on fire 13. In confounding Alexandria with Memphis 14. In feigning that Eliah shall come down from Heaven in a Chariot That Joshuah rais'd again shall restore the Jews That Tyberius was to set upon Persia and Babylon That Trajan a native of Italica in the extremities of Spain was born among the Gauls That Adrian strangled himself with a string That under Antoninus sirnamed the Debonnaire whom he impertinently calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his two adoptive Sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus one whereof must necessarily survive the other would be the end of the world That Rome being destroy'd in the 948. year after its foundation should come to its period in the year of our Lord 195. which was the third year of Severus And lastly after all this in acknowledging himself to be a Christian by these words which absolutely take off all the precedent suppositions And yet we descended from the holy geniture of Christ are called of the same blood For from the consistency of all these remarks this consequence must necessarily â—e deduced that the Impostor who took upon him the name of Noës daughter-in-law and perswaded St. Justin that he was the daughter of Berosus was by Profession a Christian but ignorant of the Hebrew Tongue and true Theologie no less then of Geography and History and that he compiled his Rhapsody between the year 138. wherein Adrian was by death deliver'd of his disease on the twelfth of July and the year 142. or 151. in which Cardinall Baronius with divers others affirm that justin presented his Apology to the Emperor Antoninus and the Caesars his adoptive sons and consequently that this counterfeit piece was just come out of the Mint and was not quite cold when he undertook the dispersing of it and by his example recommended it to Athenagora Theophilus of Antioch Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian the Author of the Work called The Apostolicall Censtitutions Lactantius Constantine the Great Eusebius Optatus Hierom Augustin Prosper Palladius Sozomenus Junilius c who have all drunk out of the common shore of the Sibylline Imposture and that with so little difficulty and so strong a prejudice that nothing could ever offend their stomacks If therefore so many great men and Justin himself who first broke the Ice before them could find any relish in so unsavory a dish and if they have with a kind of emulation serv'd it up and commended it to others with so much assurance as begat an imagination that to express any horrour thereat was to quarrell with God himself who can think it strange that the example of their credulity should be able in as high a measure to injure others CHAP. IV. The judgement of Antonius Possevinus concerning the Wâ—itings pretended to be Sibylline taken into examination IT is no miracle to me if after the antiquity of the first Ages had been circumvented through the excess of their credulous sincerity ours though much refin'd from the scurf of ignorance and forc'd by the necessity of so many difficult experiments to be more cautious and diffident should not be wholly free from the remainders of the same misfortune in so much that we now find there are some very grave men such for instance as Onuphrius Sixtus of Sienna the Cardinalls Baronius and Bellarmine and the Bishop of Norwich Montague enslav'd by the tyranny of the popular errour fortifi'd by length of time and consent of such Christians as are admirers of inveterate opinions Yet can I not but express my dissatisfaction with the judgment of Antonius Possevinus a Divine of the Society of Jesus who having discover'd the Imposture of the Sibylline books hath chosen rather to think them corrupted then supposititious I shall therefore in the first place to make a full discovery of this forgetfulness in him lay down his censure with some observations thereupon and afterwards examine the ground of his Sentiment It is apparent saith he both from the Fathers and other Ecelesiasticall Writers that there was not any Sibyl before Moses to the end the world might know that if in the Oracles publish'd under the name of the Sibyls and compriz'd in eight Books there be any thing relative to what was before the Age of Moses it is counterfeit and false as having been since sown by Satan out of a design that falshood being thrust in together with truth might bring into
And then shall all pass through the burning River and the unextinguishable Flame all the just shall be saved but the wicked shall perish to all ages c. The Angels carrying them through the burning River shall bring them into Light c. He will give men the power to save themselves from the burning fire and eternal gnashings of Teeth c. And then shall God send from heaven the King and shall judge every man by blood and the splendour of Fire This Imagination considered by the most antient of the Fathers as taken out of a Book of divine Authority made so strong an Impression upon them that they took it for an infallible Lesson Hence Saint Irenaeus in the ninth Chapter of his Book having applied to the end of the world those words of Malachy The day of the Lord shall burn as an Oven adds John the Baptist tells us who that Lord is at whose coming there shall be such a day saying of Christ He shall baptise you with the holy Ghost and with Fire having his Fan in his hand to cleanse his Floor and he will put up the Corn into his Garner but shall burn the Chaff in unquenchable Fire He therefore who made the corn is no other then he who made the chaff but one and the same judging those things and separating them Origen in his third Homily upon the thirty sixth Psalm If in this life we slight the words of the Scripture admonishing us and will not be either healed or amended by the reprehensions thereof it is certain we must come to the Fire which is prepared for sinners even to that Fire 1 Cor. iii. 13. which shall try every mans work of what sort it is And as I conceive it is necessary that we all come to that fire though one be a Paul or a Peter he will nevertheless come to that fire But those who are such shall hear Though thou walkest through the Fire the Flame shall not kindle upon thee Isa xliii 2. But if any one be a sinner as my self he shall indeed come to that Fire as well as Peter and Paul And as the Hebrews came to the Red Sea so did also the Egyptians but the Isralites passed through the Red Sea and the Egyptians were overwhelmed therein In like manner we if we are Egyptians and follow Pharao who is the Devil obeying his commandments shall be overwhelmed in that fiery Lake or River when we shall be guilty of the sins which we are addicted to no doubt through the commandment of Pharao But if we are Israelites and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb without spot if we carry not about us the leaven of malice and wickedness we also must enter into the fiery River but as the Waters were to the Israelites a wall on the right hand and on the left so shall the Fire be as a Wall if we do as it is reported of them that is to say that they believed the Lord and his servant Moses that is to say his Law and Commandments and by that means follow the Pillar of Fire and the Pillar of the Cloud And in his fourteenth Homily upon Saint Luke I think that even after the Resurrection of the dead we shall stand in need of the Sacrament to cleanse and purge us for none will be able to rise again without Filth Lactantius in the twenty first Chapter of his seventh Book When he shall judge the just he shall also try them by Fire then shall those whose sins have prevailed either as to their weight or number be smitten by the Fire and burnt but those whom a fulness of Justice and maturity of Virtue shall have hardned shall not be sensible of that Fire Saint Hilary who in the second of his Canons upon Saint Matthew had observed in general that it lies even upon those who are baptised with the Holy Spirit to be consummated or accomplished by the Fire of the last Judgment in his third Sermon upon the one hundred and eighteenth Psalm according to the Greeks applies it particularly to the blessed Virgin to shew that in his judgment it cannot admit any exception saying Since we are to give an account Matthew xii 36. for every idle word do we desire to come to the day of Judgment wherein we are to pass through that indefatigable Fire wherein we are to suffer those grievous Torments which tend to the expiation of the soul from its sins If a sword did pierce through the soul of the Blessed Mary that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed if that Virgin who was capable of receiving God was to come to the severity of Judgment who will presume to desire to be judged of God Saint Gregory Nazianzene Orat. 26. The day of the revelation will declare manifestly whether it be through a sound Ratiocination that I please not as also the last Fire by which all our works shall be judged and purged And in the thirty ninth speaking of those who think themselves so pure that they think they have reason to bid their Brethren Stand at a distance from them It may be that there to wit at the end of the world they shall be baptized by Fire with the final Baptism which is the most grievous and most long which feeds on the matter as on grass and consumes the vanity of all wickedness And in the fourtieth where he bewails his own imperfection Who will secure me that I shall be saved at the end and that the judicial seat will not look upon me still as a debtour and one that stands in need of the Consâ—agration which shall be then Saint Basil upon the 4th of Esay Verse 4th where the Prophet treats of the cleansing of Jerusalem hath this consideration Are there not three Notions of Baptism The Purgation of the Filth the Regeneration by the Spirit and the Examination by the fire of Judgment And upon these words of the Tenth Howl for the day of the Lord is at hand by the day of the Lord he means that of the last Judgment Then adds If none be pure in respect of the works that are forbidden let every one fear that day for saith he to wit Saint Paul 1 Cor. iii. 15. If any man's work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by Fire And in the fifteenth Chapter of his Book Of the holy Ghost Saint John calleth Baptism of Fire the Trial which shall be made at the day of Judgment according to what the Apostle saith The Fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is And in the nine and twentieth speaking of Athenogenes a Man famous among the Antient Christians he says That he strove to arrive at the consummation or accomplishment which shall be made by Fire Saint Gregory of Nyssa Brother to St. Basil in his Oration upon the eight and twentieth Verse of the fifteenth Chapter of the first Epistle
John vi 31. concerning the Bread of heaven and Apocal. ii 17. concerning the Hidden Manna tells us in his Preface copied out by Theophilus of Antioch and Lactantius that Those who honour God inherit the true and eternal Life that is to say the time of Eternity having their abode in Paradise the flourishing Garden and eating the delicious Bread of heaven which at the end of the seventh Book page 56. he means of Manna saying All together eat of the bedewing Manna with their white Teeth This Doctrine was so much the more acceptable to the Fathers the more they thought themselves obliged to conceive an aversion for the extravagant Imagination of the Gnosticks who transformed Paradise into an Archangel and assigned for its station the fourth Heaven Thus Theophilus who gave Paradise the qualification of perpetual and hanging in the midst between heaven and the world grounded the perswasion he would give of it to Autolycus on the Authority of the pretended Sibyl and after his Example Lactantius in the twelfth Chapter of his second Book St. Irenaeus having in the thirty sixth Chapter of his fifth Book alledged these words of Esay out of the two and twentieth Verse of the sixty sixth Chapter As the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me assigns to each of them its Inhabitants saying Then shall those who are worthy the conversation of heaven pass thither others shall enjoy the pleasures of Paradise and others shall possess the Holy earth and the splendour of the City that is to say Jerusalem Tertullian in the fourty seventh Chapter of his Apologetick We know Paradise to be a place of Divine pleasure destined for the reception of the spirits of the Saints and separated from the knowledg of the common world by a certain inclosure of that fiery Zone And in the eighth Chapter of his Poem of the Last Judgment There is a place in the Eastern Parts wherein the Lord takes great deligâ—… where there is a clear Light c. it is a Region most rich in Fields c. thither comes every godly man But in the fifty fifth Chapter of his Book Of the Soul this Great man dazled by the delusions of the Montanists moderates the Opinion he had taken out of the Books of the Counterfeit Sibyl and reserving Paradise for the entertainment of the Martyrs onely excludes out of it all the rest of the Faithfull saying You say that our Sleep that is to say the place of our Repose is in Paradise whither the Patriarchs and Prophets upon the Resurrection of our Lord being Appendages thereof passed from Hell but how comes it that that Region of Paradise which is under the Altar revealed to St. John discovered no Souls but those of the Martyrs How came Perpetua that most couragious Martyr in the Revelation which was made to her of Paradise not long before her Suffering to see there onely her companions in Martyrdom but that the Sword which keeps the Entrance of Paradise suffers none to get in but those who are departed in Christ not in Adam Saint Cyprian after the Example of his Master Tertullian speaking of our Lord to Demetrian Proconsul of Africk a passionate Enemy of Christianity hath this expression He opens to us the way of Life he is the Authour of our return into Paradise And in his Book Of Mortality towards the end We account Paradise saith he to be our Country we have already begun to have for our Fathers the Patriarchs And in the Chapter of Exhortation to Martyrdom If it be glorious for the Souldiers engaged in common Wars after the Conquest of their Enemies to return Triumphant into their Country how much a nobler and greater Glory is it to return Triumphant to Paradise after we have overcome the Devil and to carry away victorious Trophies after we have subdued him who had foiled us before to the place whence the Sinner Adam had been thrust out Lactantius in the place above cited God having pronounced his Sentence against Sinners that every one should work out his own livelihood cast man out of Paradise and encompassed Paradise round about with Fire that man might not approach it till he had exercised sovereign Judgment upon Earth and recalled to the same place those Just men that worshipped him Death being taken away Saint Athanasius in his Treatise upon these Words Matth. xii 27. All things are given to me c. Death prevailed from Adam to Christ the Earth was cursed and Hell opened and Paradise shut c. But assoon as all things were given to him and that he was made man all was amended and accomplished The Earth in stead of the Curse it lay under before was blessed and Paradise opened and Hell daunted And in his Exposition of Faith Christ shewed the entrance into Paradise whence Adam had been thrust out and into which he is again entred by the Thief according to what our Saviour said This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise whither Paul also is entred Saint Cyril of Jerusalem in his Mystagogical Instruction The Paradise of God which he had planted towards the East is open to thee whence our first Parent was banished because of his Transgression And this is signified by thy turning from the West to the East the place of Light Saint Basil in his Treatise Of Paradise How shall I be able to bring thee into sight of thy Country to the end thou mayst recall thy self from banishment c. If thou art carnal thou hast the description of him that is corporal And in the seven and twentieth Chapter of his Book Of the Holy Ghost We all in our Prayers look towards the East but there are few of us that know we thereby seek our antient Country that is to say the Paradise which God planted in Eden Saint Gregory of Nyssa in his Oration of the fourty Martyrs That then which is demanded is Whether Paradise because of the Turning Sword is also inaccessible to the Saints and If the Champions of Christ are excluded Paradise what Promise there remains upon which they should undertake Combats for Piety and whether they should obtain less then the Thief to whom the Lord said This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise though the Thief came not voluntarily to the Cross but when he was come near Salvation that Eagle-sighted and generous Thief saw the Treasure and finding an opportunity stole Life honourably and happily abusing the nature of Theft and saying Lord have me in remembrance when thou comest into thy Kingdom He was honoured with Paradise and does the Flaming Sword keep the entrance of Paradise against the Saints But the Question resolves it self For thence it is that the Word hath not represented the Sword always placed against those that enter but Turning that it might be opposite to the unworthy and be behinde the worthy opening unto them the not-forbidden entrance of Life into which those that is to say
not oppose But in the tenth Chapter of his Manual copied-out by Isidorus Arch-Bishop of Sevil Offic. lib. 1. Chap. 18. by Julian Arch-Bishop of Toledo Prognost lib. 1. Chap. 21. by Bede in 2 Cor. v. by Eterius Bishop of Osmo Adversùs Elipand lib. 1. he makes a clearer discovery of his sentiment writing Cùm sacrificia sive Altaris sive quarumcunque Eleemosynarum pro Baptizatis defunctis omnibus offeruntur c. When the Sacrifices whether of the Altar or of Alms of what kinde soever they be are offered for all the Faithfull departed they are acts of thanksgiving for those that have been very good Propitiations for those who have not been very Bad consolations in some sort to the living for those who have been very wicked though there are no assistances of the dead and as for those who reap advantage by them they benefit them in this that either their sins are fully remitted or their damnation made more supportable The result whereof is that according to the Opinion of this Father whom so many others have followed as their Guid and Directour it was not impossible but that Alms might procure an Alleviation of the Torments of the damned for whom they had been offered to God by the Living Athanasius of Antioch in his Answer to the thirty fourth Question of Antiochus asking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. How then do not the Souls even of Sinners receive some benefit when Assemblies meet Good Deeds are done and Offerings are offered for them concludes that they do and says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they reap no good thereby there would be no mention made of them at their Intorment And note that he speaks of the Souls of those Sinners of whom he had said in his Answer to the two and thirty Question that they minded nothing but their punishment and in that to the thirty third that they could do neither good nor ill opposing them to the Souls of the Saints which seized by the Angels praise God From this Source sprang several ill-digested Stories and Relations about the year 416. Vincent Rogatista objected to St. Augustine that St. Perpetua had by her Prayers obtained the dismission of Dinocrates her Brother out of the place of Torments Nay after the year 730. Damascene undertook to deliver out three thence upon his Warrant the first taken out of the Legend of St. Thecla converted in Iconia by Saint Paul where the Authour who seems to have been very desirous to take upon him the Name of Basil Bishop of Seleucia upon this account that in his City rested the body of that Blessed Virgin says that Tryphaena a Kinswoman to the Emperour who after the death of her Daughter Falconilla though dead in the darkness of Paganism had entertained at her house Thecla persecuted by Alexander and upon his prosecution condemned to be torn in pieces by the Beasts in the Theatre of Antioch that this Tryphaena I say in a Dream saw her Daughter Falconilla earnestly begging of her to implore the assistance of the Saints Prayers that by her intercession she might be transferred into the abode of the Just and that her desire was immediately granted The Second is taken out of the History of Palladius Bishop of Helenopolis where there is no Track of any such thing to be found now to this effect that Saint Macarius the Hermite having made some question to the dry Skull of a certain Heathen God inspired that dry Bone with this true Discourse by way of Answer When thou offerest thy Prayers for the Dead we receive some little consolation The Third attested as he saies by the East and West though not any one of the Latines speak of it attributes to Saint Gregory the Great the deliverance of Trajan's Soul who was not onely an Infidel but a Persecutour also 470. years and above after his death and detention in Hell But it is to litle purpose to disturb the dust of an old Imagination frivolous enough and disclamed even by those who are at this day the most earnest Patrones of Prayer for the Dead CHAP. XVI The Third and Fourth Motives of Saint Epiphanius taken into consideration THe third Consideration of Saint Epiphanius to confirm the custom of Praying for the Dead viz. That the departed are in relation to the living as persons that Travell seems to presuppose the first Hypothesis of the pretended Sibylline Writing which gives occasion to imagine that those who dy arrive upon the dissolution of the Body not at the place of their sovereign Happiness but are transferred to some unpleasing receptacle under the earth where their patience is no less exercised then that of Travellers who have a long and tedious Journey to go through This Hypothesis indeed if so be it were maintained by Aërius might justly have been objected to him to induce him to admit Prayer for the Dead since it is evident that those who are at a distance from their Happiness and languish in the expectation of it stand in need of comfort and the Prayers requisite to obtain grace of him who is the author of Grace But it cannot be of any consideration as to what concerns the Protestants who unanimously Impugn it and constantly teach that the Souls of men at the very departure out of their Bodies enter either into Eternal fire whence there is no deliverance and where there is no comfort or into the Glory of God which for ever exempts them from all those exigencies which they are Subject to who are deprived thereof while they endeavour to attain it The fourth Consideration of the same Father to wit that those who dy have during the time of their Pilgrimage in this world Sinned both voluntarily and involuntarily is very Just and as Aërius never had any reason to deny it so is it not at all contradicted by any of the Protestants who by that which they have learnt of Saint John that those men who at any assignable time of their Life say they have no sin deceive themselves make God a Lyar and have neither his word nor truth in them do very well comprehend that it must of necessity follow that those who should deny they had any till the hour of Death would deceive themselves no less then others and with equal presumption charg with falsehood the God of truth But omitting what Aerius might have said according to his Hypothesis of which we have nothing certain the Protestants hold that there is no necessity of this consequence he hath whether voluntarily or involuntarily it matters not sinned during his life therefore we must Pray for him after his death Secondly that the Church of Rome grants it inasmuch as she acknowledging that this Antecedent he hath sinned is and shall eternally be as undeniably true in respect of the Saints which are and ever shall be in the Glory of God and the Damned who shall never come out of Hell torments as of the living who aspire
his sins be not granted him by thee We therefore beseech thee O Lord that thy Judgments may not by strange Sentences be rigorous towards him whom the true supplication of Christian faith recommends to thee but that through the assistance of thy grace he may be thought worthy to escape the Judgment of eternal vengeance he who while living was honoured with the Seal of the Holy Trinity through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Upon some such considerations was it that St. Cyril of Jerusalem in his fifth Mystagogical Catechesis speaking of the departed said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We offer prayers to God for the departed and if they are sinners we do not weave Crowns for them but offer up Christ sacrificed for our sins appeasing on their behalf and our own him who is the Lover of mankind Upon which passage it is to be noted by the way that the Text is disordered by the Transcriber who having found in his Copy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. thrust in a whole line after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 writing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the same Hypothesis also St. Augustine in the forecited place of his Confessions took occasion to make these Prayers for his Mother Dimitte illi tu debitu sua non intres cum ea in judicium superexaltet misericordia tua judicium c. Do thou also forgive her her Trespasses enter not into judgment with her Let thy mercy be above thy judgment c. But though it were granted this Hypothesis might do somewhat against Aërius who might have been drawn into the common Opinion that the departed being after death in an imperfect State were detained in a place by themselves till their resurrection yet does it not amount to any thing against the Protestants who are of a different Opinion since that if it be always lawfull to conclude He was guilty of sin Therefore we must pray for him the Church would be obliged to pray eternally for all its Members even after their Resurrection and the last Judgment which none hitherto hath conceived she ought to practise CHAP. XIX Saint Epiphanius's seventh Motive Considered IN the last place St. Epiphanius affirms that in his Time Men prayed for the Saints and the Just whoever they were upon this accompt that there might be a distinction made between them and our Saviour who interceding for all does not stand in need of any one's intercession and to shew that there ought not to be parallelled with him any of those who were most recommendable for their Piety Upon which last Hypothesis it may be said that from most certain Principles to wit that we must be tender of the honour of Jesus Christ and distinguish him from the men redeemed by him and by no means suffer that any one compare them to their Saviour it draws a false Consequence to wit that we must pray for them For if it were admitted it were also necessary to pray for the Faithfull as well after their Resurrection and the last Judgment as before since the honour proper to the Son of God will be no less due after the Resurrection then before and that it will be at all times impiously done to take away the distinction there is between him and men for whom he died and interceded by making any one equal to him Thence it appears how weak St. Epiphanius's Reason is even from this that it proves more then he had proposed to himself nay more then the Church of Rome at this day desires the Church of Rome I say which hath not onely for the space of 1200. years past left off Praying for the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Evangelists Martyrs c. but would look on that kinde of Devotion as injurious having grounded her proceeding on this Discourse of St. Augustine copied by Beda upon the twelfth Chapter to the Hebrews and others Habet Disciplina Ecclesiastica c. It is according to Ecclesiastical Discipline as the Faithfull know that when the Names of the Martyrs are recited before the Altar of God men pray not for them but for all others that are Commemorated Prayers are made For it is an injury to pray for the Martyr by whose Prayers we are to be recommended And yet what to use the Terms of this Father the Ecclesiastical Discipline of the Christians of Africk Rome and in a word of all the West thrust as injurious and ill-grounded out of the both Publick and Private Service after they had quitted the Hypotheses of those that had preceeded them is continued in the Offices of many other Churches Whence we read in the Liturgie of the Armenians Da aeternam pacem omnibus qui nos praecesserunt in fide Christi Sanctis Patribus Patriarchis Apostolis Prophetis Martyribus c. Give eternal peace to the holy Fathers Patriarchs Apostles Prophets Martyrs who have preceeded us in the Faith of Christ In that which goes under the Name of Saint Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O Lord our God give rest unto the Souls of our Fathers and Brethren who are departed before us in the Faith of Christ being mindfull of the first Fathers who lived in the beginning of the World the Fathers Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessours Bishops Saints Just men the spirits of all those that have had their accomplishment in the Faith of Christ of whom we this day make Commemoration as also of our holy Father the Apostle and Evangelist St. Mark who hath shewn us the way of Salvation In that of St. Chrysostome though very much altered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We offer unto thee this reasonable service for those who rest in Faith our Ancestours Fathers Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Preachers Evangelists Martyrs Confessours continent persons and every spirit accomplished in Faith especially for the absolutely-holy undefiled blessed above all things our glorious Lady the Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary In the Sacramentary of St. Gregory Divina mysteria Sanctis tuis prosint ad gloriam c. Let the divine Mysteries be profitable to thy Saints for their glory We might finde as much in that which St. Epiphanius had seen in use among the Christians of Cyprus Palestine Syria and all the other Provinces not excepting even Africk it self if we had them at present since that in the year 250. St. Cyprian in his 34th Epistle speaking of Celerina Grandmother to Laurentinus Uncle by the Father's side and of Ignatius Uncle by the Mother-side to Celerinus Confessour and Reader in the Church of Carthage said Palmas à Domino coronas illustri passione meruerunt sacrificia pro eis semper ut meministis offerimus quoties Martyrum passiones dies anniversariâ commemoratione celebramus c. They have by their illustrious sufferings obtained of the Lord Palms and Crowns We dayly offer sacrifices for them as you remember as often as we celebrate the Anniversaries of the Passions and Days of the Martyrs But they have been
enquiry into the Motives which might have induced the Authours of those Epitaphs to insert into them Prayers for their departed Friends and to place their Tombs near those of the Martyrs who had sealed with their Blood the Truth of Christianity The most antient Epitaph we finde containing a mixture of Wishes and Prayers is that which St. Gregory Nazianzene writ in Honour of St. Basil deceased the twelfth of January in the year 378. where we read these Words concerning that Great Prelate gathered to his Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God give him Happiness as if he had not been in the actual possession thereof and as if St. Gregory had not expresly required of him before that he would appear for the World and offer gifts to God and that in consequence of his being in Heaven as he had desired Again That he had quitted his Episcopal See as Christ would have it that he might become one among the Inhabitants of Heaven It seems then he believed him in Heaven and possessed of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven as soon as he had at his departure out of this World quitted his Episcopal See and yet he desires that God would give him Happiness meaning that he would confirm and improve the gift he had already made him which hath nothing common with the Hypotheses maintained at this day by the Church of Rome In the year 395. deceased the Prefect PROBUS and his Epitaph which loudly published that he was in the Plains of Heaven seated among the Saints possessed of perpetual Rest that he lived crowned with bliss in the Everlasting Mansions of Paradise concludes with this Prayer Hunc tu Christe Choris jungas Coelestibus oro Te canat placidum jugiter aspiciat Quique tuo semper dilectus pendet ab ore Auxilium soboli conjugióque ferat Joyn'd with Celestial Quires O Christ may he Thy praises sing thy constant favour see Whō ever-lov'd did ev'r on thee depend May he to 's Race and Widow some help lend Shall we say he was in Heaven and yet not joyned with the Celestical Quires That he was in any danger to see his Saviour incensed and that he could be possessed of Paradise without Happiness If not it must needs be that the Authour of his Epitaph prayed that he might enjoy it without any diminution and be eternally in the Favour and Peace of his Saviour in the Society of the rest of the Blessed Saints which hath nothing common with what is now desired by the Church of Rome We have such another Desire made in the Epitaph of Pope BENEDICT Hic Benedictus adest meritò sub rupe Sepulchri Quem tenet Angelicus Chorus in arce Poli Aurea saec'la cui pateant sine fine per aevum Sorte beatificâ scandat ut aetheria c. Here Benedict justly beneath this Stone Is plac'd whom Angels in the Heav'ns enthrone To whom be golden Ages without end That he the Skies may ever-bless'd ascend For who sees not that he who is enthroned by Angels in Heaven must of necessity be there and stood not in need of ascending thither nor that any golden Ages should be desired for him But in as much as he was to ascend thither in his Body after the general Resurrection the Authour of the Epitaph makes a Wish to that purpose and requires that the Happiness which he was then possessed of as to his Spirit might be ever continued to him that he might be eternally filled with Joy as well in body as soul thereby discovering that he reflected not in the least on the Purgatery held by the Church of Rome which none of her Followers ever yet placed in Heaven or any way thought on the delay of Benedict's Felicity whom he esteemed already received into the Society of the Angels The same accompt is to be given of the Epitaph of Marinian Arch-Bishop of Ravenna deceased in the year 601. where we finde these words Ipsius in locis sit tibi certa quies c. Mayst thou with God assured rest obtain As also of that of Venerable Bede deceased in the year 735. Dona Christe animam in Coelis gaudere per aevum c. Dáque illum Sophiae inebriari fonte Christ grant his soul in heav'n eternal joy c. And him inebriate with Wisdom's spring For it does not thence follow either that he was at the hour of his death deprived of the Joy of Heaven or that Wisdom had not filled him with the Effects of her Virtue or lastly that those who are once entred into the Joy of Heaven could ever forfeit it or be deprived of the communication of eternal Wisdom but that the Surviving thought they might rationally demand for their deceased Friends the perpetuity of their Happiness though they certainly knew it could never be taken from them That of Pope ADRIAN the First writ either by Charle-maign or in his Name by Alcuin notwithstanding he had presupposed that his Death was the entrance of a better Life yet forbore not to make these Wishes for him Cum Christo teneas regna beata Poli c. Quique legis Versus devoto pectore supplex Amborum mitis dic miserere Deus Haec tua nunc requies teneat charissime membra Cum sanctis Anima gaudeat alma Dei Ultima quippe tuas donec Tuba clamet in aures Principe cum Petro Surge videre Deum Auditurus eris vocem scio Judicis almam Intra nunc Domini gaudia magna tui Tum memor esto tui Nati c. Mayst thou with Christ a blessed Seat obtain c. Who humbly readst this Verse with pious heart May God his mercy say to both impart May here the precious body finde it's Rest May the fair soul rejoyce among the blest Since when the latest Trump shall summon thee God and the great Saint Peter for to see I know thou 'lt hear the Judge's gentle voyce Of thy Lord enter into the great Joys Remember then thy Son Now as the demand he made for Adrian that he might obtain a blessed seat with Christ in Heaven did not signify that he was not yet admitted into the Possession of that better Life whereof his death was the entrance so the Invitation to implore for him the Mercy of God was no argument that he had not obtained it since that even then he exhorted his Soul to rejoyce with the Saints of God and shewed that he thought it not tormented in a Fire such as were likely to deprive it of all Joy but that it was in Bliss reigning in the Company of the Saints of the Apostle St. Peter and our Saviour a felicity whereto nothing could be added by desire but the perpetuity of it which yet is so much the more certain in as much as it is grounded on the unchangeable counsel of God whose Gifts and Calling are without repentance That of Charle-maign of whom the Authour viz. Agobard Arch-Bishop of Lions said That he
whether it were so or not which also he but slightly advances as finding it not contributary to ought Impious yet without imposing any necessity to admit it and which in fine he lets pass under a Whether an It may be a Peradventure so that not presuming himself to approve it all the kindness he hath for it is expressed in his telling us that he does not disallow it Fourthly That the very thing which he proposes so doubtfully may be adjusted to the Opinion which the most Antient had had of the general Conflagration of the Universe at the end of the World whose Imagination it was that it should serve as a general Lustration through which the Spirits of the Saints even that of the Blessed Virgin were to pass and who reflected on nothing less then the Purgatory proposed to us at this day Fifthly That though he should assure us that that certain Fire of Grief whereof he speaks shall be a material Fire that it shall burn the Spirits of men and that the Torment which they shall endure thereby shall afflict them from their departure out of the Bodies they had cast off yet should not his assurance be of greater weight to the Protestants then to the Church of Rome which submits not to his Authority but onely in what she finds consistent with her own Opinions land confidently rejects what she quarrels at For if she think it just to dissent from him when he teaches that In the Deity there are three Substances that The Angels are corporeal that The sins of the Fathers make the Children liable to punishment that The souls of all the Departed are between the day of their departure out of this World and that of the Last Judgment shut up in secret Receptacles that the Prayers made for them are beneficial to them to the end that either the Remission may be full or that their Damnation be more tolerable and that those Prayers made on the behalf of the Damned are a kinde of consolation to the â—iving all which things the said Holy Prelate positively affirms why should she take it ill that after her Example we should refuse absolutely to depend on his Authority especially in a subject wherein he does not pretend any in as much as it is his own acknowledgment that he was not resolved what he should should hold What greater Necessity is there that we should determine for the Affirmative when he himself makes it a Question Whether there be after this life a Purgatory for the Spirits of the Deceased then when he doubts Whether the Sun Moon and Stars belong to the society of the blessed Spirits in Heaven Though we had read no other Lecture of Modesly then the reservedness which prevailed with him to forbear resolving ought upon these two Questions do we not deserve commendation for having in imitation of him kept the Scales in our Hands rather then Blame which we must never expect to avoid if without pregnant Proof we affirmed what he proposed onely Problematically and without any decision If it may with any colour be pretended that the Bent of his inclination was the Affirmative of a Purgatory of some kinde or other and that it should be a Pattern for us to do the like why should not his confidence in denying the Antipodes force us by a like Negative to dispute against our own Experience whose Testimony for these 150. years assures us he was mistaken Were it not much better that those who would make use of his Name in a Cause he never maintained should behave themselves according to his Moderation and protest with him I would if it might be or rather I will if it may be be overcome by the Truth which is not openly repugnant to the sacred Scriptures in as much as that which is repugnant to them cannot in any sort be either called or accompted Truth I therefore intreat them in the fear of God to take it into their serious Consideration First Whether it be possible their Belief such as they propose it to us can be the same with that of St. Augustine who never for ought we could ever learn determined in the Affirmative of any Purgatory much less of that which the Monastical Revelations have furnish'd us with in despight of the most Venerable Antiquity but hath expresly declared by his Sermons that he acquiesced in the common Sentiment of the Church of his Time which held that those whom God calls to himself are Translated at their Death either into the actual enjoyment of their Felicity or confined in the Place of their eternal Punishment To this Effect does he express himself to his Church upon the eleventh Chapter of St. John Receptus est Pauper receptus est Dives sed ille in sinu Abrahae ille c. The Poor man was received the Rich man was received but the former into Abraham ' s Bosom the later where he should be thirsty and not finde a drop of Water the souls of all men therefore that I may hence take occasion to instruct your Charity all souls have after their departure out of this World their several Retreats the Good are in Bliss the Wicked in Torments c. The rest which is given immediately after Death whoever is worthy of it receives it immediately when he Dies And upon the First of St. John Ille qui vixit mortuus est c. He who hath lived is also dead his Soul is transported into other places his Body is disposed into the Ground whether those words viz. those of his Last Will be put in execution or not it does not concern him he does he endures quite another thing he either rejoyces in Abraham ' s Bosom or in eternal Fire prays for a little Water I know Cardinal Bellarmine either thought or pretended to think that all could be deduced from those Words was that the Souls of the Faithfull are immediately after their Departure out of this World gathered into rest in as much as assured of their eternal Salvation and that thence they derive great Joy but that to some it is not given without the admixture of Temporal Pains But I maintain that his Commentary is a formal corruption of the Text to which he applies it in as much as S. Augustine gives us to observe therein as things immediately opposite the Good and the Wicked the Joy of the former in Abraham's Bosom and the Torments of the later in eternal Fire so that as the Torment of these is an absolute Privation of Joy and Rest so the Joy and Rest of the other is necessarily an absolute exemption from Torment Besides I do not see how long any can number among those who rejoyce and are in Bliss the Spirits of such as are supposed to suffer more then could be suffered in this Life and much less how the Believer dead in the Lord receives when he dies his Rest and Joy if he be then
and favour of God ever faithful in his promises and whose Gifts are without Repentance that in this very regard that he continually conserves them he seems to make a new distribâ—…on thereof every moment and by the perpetual influence of his benediction on those whom he hath received into glory to assure them more and more of their possession thereof others I say out of such or the like Considerations were perswaded that there was no inconvenience in demanding for the departed what they already had their own reason telling them that the Authour of so good a gift ceases not to give it in continuing and conserving it to those whom he had once made partakers thereof For as those on whom he here below bestows abundance of temporal goods are not less obliged to beg of him every day their daily Bread then if as he sometime did to the Israelites in the Desert he dealt them onely one day's Provision at a time the plenty which they had so liberally received from his hand though such as might suffice for their whole life and that with so much certainty in appearance as nothing could reduce them to want no way hindring but that they should acknowledg their indigence and natural insufficiency and have a constant recourse to his Grace to desire as the most unworthy that he would give them their Bread for as much as though they have enough lying by them yet is it their evident concernment that he who hath given them should every day renew his Donation in conserving them and sanctifying them to their use So the Saints who in the other life are possessed of Celestial goods are by the necessity of the same reason obliged to make perpetual acknowledgments notwithstanding that the immutability of the Counsel according to which he bestows them for ever and the nature of those very goods not subject to perish and decay seems not any way to hinder but that they should every one for himself and the surviving upon Earth for them all desire the conservation and continuance of them though that be so much the more certain and infallible in as much as it is grounded on the unchangeable Decree of the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning In this sense it might be thought that Jesus the Head and finisher of our Faith who was yesterday is to day and shall be the same for ever though he were confident of the issue of his combats and was so much the more certain that nothing could prevail against him that he sustained himself by his own Power yet forbore not to recommend himself to his Father and to desire of him the glory he was possessed of and had had with him before the World was and consequently that the antient Church neither made nor ought to have made any difficulty to pray for all the blessed whose State she knew to be unchangeable and whose Felicity unalterable and accordingly is it that as she does in general make a Commemoration of all those who sleep the Sleep of Peace so hath she particularly comprehended in her Prayers the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs without any regard to the inconvenience which some have alledged since that to pray for a Martyr is to be injurious to him Nay the Church of Rome her self to shew that she could not recede from the Sentiment of Primitive Antiquity as we have above represented it hath not ceased nor does to this day cease to make this Prayer contained in her Missal Deus cui soli cognitus est numerus Electorum in superna felicitate locandus tribue quaesumus ut univer sorum quos Oratione commendatos suscepimus omnium fidelium vivorum atque mortuorum nomina beatae praedestinationis liber adscripta retineat per Dominum c. O God to whom alone is known the number of the Elect who are to be placed above in Felicity we beseech thee to grant that the Book of blessed Predestination may retain written the name of all those whom we have taken upon us to recommend in our Prayers as also those of all the Faithfull both dead and living through our Lord c. I seriously ask whether it be possible any thing should be blotted out of the Book of Life which is God himself whose Counsel shall stand eternally And since there is no danger should make us fear that God will deny himself and that the Book of his Predestination should not retain the Names which his Hand hath written in it to desire of him that it might retain them is it not to pray him to do what it is absolutely impossible but he should and after the Example of the Antient Christians to make a Prayer for the Blessed that they might be blessed not indeed as if they were to pass from misery to the possession of Bliss but in persisting as it must of necessity be in the enjoyment of the Bliss which hath been once for all communicated to them Lastly The Antients considering that the Felicity which the Faithfull enjoy from the instant of their departure is not that absolute Fulness of Glory wherewith they expect to be Crowned at the Resurrection of the Just and that they might justly desire of God the accomplishment of what is expected according to the Word of his Grace as well for themselves as for others since it is a signification of the coming of his Kingdom that we are all taught by the Lord himself earnestly to desire and hasten it as much as may be by our Wishes Secondly That the Motion of all the Creation groaning and travelling till such time as it is delivered from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God is expressed to us by St. Paul as a great and violent desire inclining the Creatures to expect the manifestation of the Sons of God and incites us so much the more by how much we who have the first fruits of the Spirit are all together waiting for the Redemption of our Body Thirdly That in that Noble desire is shewn the principal Effect of the Sympathy which ought to be beween all the Saints Members of the same mystical Body and Members one of another for if the Holy Spirit to rejoyce the spirits of the Just in Glory and crying with a loud voyce that the Lord would judge and revenge their Blood on them that dwell on the Earth proposes to them as the principal Subject of their Joy the approaching accomplishment of their Fellow-servants and Brethren yet engaged against the Militia of Satan the world here below why should not these Champions who are still sweating and out of breath in the Field where they are all covered with Blood and Dust have their courage heigthned by reflecting on their advantages who had gone before them that as they aspire to those White Robes of Glory wherein their Brethren are for
is the second next the Pope then he of Alexandria after him that of Antioch then that of Jerusalem They had resolved not to acknowledge any thing further and to break off rather then be brought to it but the Pope delivered them out of all fear as to that accepting at least in appearance what they had written though granting him onely a primacy of Order over the other Patriarchs and absolutely quashing the dispute of his Predecessor Leo the First against Anatolius raised by the Councel of Chalcedon seconding in that the first of Constantinople to the second place This acceptation passed there seemed to be nothing to do but to sign and publish the Concordate or Agreement between both parties but there arises yet new difficulties For the Pope would have the Instrument drawn up in his own name onely but was therein formally opposed by the Greeks who after these words Eugenius Bishop Servant of the Servants of God required on Munday the nine and twentieth of June there should be added with the consent of the most serene Emperour of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the other Patriarchs He seemed also desirous to get inserted into it this Clause That he would have his priviledges according as the Holy Scripture defines and the expressions of the Saints which the Emperour withstood saying If any one of the Saints honour the Pope in a Letter he might write to him shall he take that for a priviledge Yet the next day it was granted him that he should have his priviledges according to the Canons the expressions of the Saints the holy Scripture and the Acts of Synods the Greeks on the other side having got into the same Decree that all the priviledges of their Patriarchs should be inviolably observed the Latines made no small difficulty on the second of July to let pass the word All which two days after they admitted Upon the fifth of the Moneth aforesaid the Concordate was signed by the Pope nine Cardinals two Titulary Patriarchs nine Arch-bishops forty nine Bishops and forty six Abbots on the one part and the Emperour seventeen Metropolitanes five Deacons one Arch-Priest and six Abbots and Religious Persons on the other On the sixth it was publickly read Eight days after the Pope having desired the Greeks to proceed to the Election of a Patriarch that might come into the place of the Patriarch Joseph deceased twenty six days before and that he whom they should choose might receive the Imposition of his hands was denyed as to both particulars and forced to suffer the Greeks to depart forsaken by Bessarion and Isidore Arch-bishops of Nicea and Russia and not long after Cardinals The rest heightned by the Example and Encouragements of Mark of Ephesus who would not by any means be drawn to subscribe or consent to the Concordate and withall troubled in Conscience that they had prostituted their Sentiment in the business of Religion for Bread prevented the disacknowledgment of the Body of their Countrey-men as soon as they were got to Constantinople declaring null all they had done and re-assuming their former Opinions with so much the greater readiness by how much they had onely quitted them in outward shew and to the regret of their whole Nation which would have treated them very harshly for having been so persidious to them From which proceedings it necessarily follows First That if the Church of Rome hath any reproach of Inconstancy wherewith to charge those among the Greeks who having received money from the Latines to acknowledg what they desired have since broken the Promises they had made them and disclaimed what they had done She hath nothing to say against Mark Arch-Bishop of Ephesus who never approved the management of that Affair nor yet against the others who had stay'd in the East without whose knowledg and contrary to whose intention the Concordate of Florence was drawn up as also that the said Church hath given them all great occasion to alienate themselves from Her inasmuch as instead of proving to them that they were in an errour Her design was to circumvent and surprise them and had so little regard I will not say to the glory of God to the Interest of his Truth and to that of Sincerity and publick Edification but even to her own Reputation aâ—â— theirs that she thought it a business of greater concernment to be defray'd the charges she had been at with them and in requital of that little Temporal Assistance which she offered them to draw them to an abjuration of the Belief which they had professed from Father to Son before they were convinced in Conscience Will it ever be thought just by the profusion of the things of this World to purchase Souls called by the Gospel to the hope of a Celestial Inheritance And if they prove more hard to be drawn in then was imagined will it be thought a rational kind of proceeding to frighten them by violences yet more inhumane and by the fears and tryals of those disgraces which may occasion the loss of the Body and its advantages boldly to thrust them upon the Precipices of Damnation as if it were ever left to our choice to force Religion by Religion to imprint the Sentiments thereof in the minds of men with Iron Bars and to promise our selves that we may bring men to Salvation by the shipwrack of good Conscience In the second place it is apparent that neither the Greeks nor Latines assembled at Florence have by their proceedings there discovered that they were very confident of what they should believe concerning the state of Souls after Death the former having as to that point quitted it without any Dispute and expressed their Union with the others in uncertain and indeterminate Terms as we have shewn before and the Latter who made account to bring over to them such as were of the contrary Opinion contenting themselves with what they were pleased to say though well examined it were such as could not give them any just satisfaction and that the Formulary of their Concurrence consisted onely in three words of a double meaning Lastly that the Church of Rome who had first set afoot the Conferences out of a consideration of the Question of Purgatory brought by her first upon the Stage hath made it appear by the event that her own perswasion of it was not very great forasmuch as immediatly after she in a manner shook off all further thoughts of it and towards the end of the Assembly thought it concerned her more to dispute the Privileges of her Pope thereby clearly discovering that it took up her thoughts more to plead for his Dignity then for the Salvation of the Greeks and that her endeavour was to enslave them to her self rather then to convert them to God However it be after their return into the East there was no difficulty made of taking the Concordate of Florence for a Tablature of their Sentiment The Oration which Bessarion had