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
that they would suffer themselves as Children of Peace Domesticks of the Prince of Peace to be won into thoughts of Compassion and love for the Salvation of those who perish and not be afraid after the Example of our Saviour who came from Heaven and descended into the lower parts of the Earth to seek for the Children of wrath to become as his Apostle all things to all men that by all means he might save some When such a noble desire shall once possess mens Spirits inclining them not to endeavour the Conquest of their own glory but to procure as far as lies in them the Victory and Triumph of Truth for the glory of God it will be impossible but that cruel and murthering animosities the ordinary but ever-fatall Consequences of Debates concerning Religion which is thereby ruined must vanish as so many infernal shades chaced away by the amiable raies of the Sun of Righteousness who brings life and healing in his Wings Nor ought we whatever some Earthly Souls may conceive of their own carnal and violent Counsels hopeless then that in the extraordinary confusion of the last times some change for the better may happen Heretofore the Church soon after the departure of the Apostles had the misfortune that Hermas Papias Justin Martyr Athenagoras Theophilus of Antioch St. Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian in a word all the most excellent Persons of whom we have ought left led away by the extravagances and fantastick Imaginations of the counterfeit Sibyll believed themselves and perswaded others that the Souls of all men were from the departure out of the Body detained in Hell till the Resurrection that the just rising again before the others should reign with Jesus Christ upon Earth and live a thousand years in Jerusalem made glorious and flowing with corporeal enjoyments or at least in the Terrestrial Paradise and that the Bodies of the greatest Saints should pass through the last conflagration of the World as through a Refiner's Furnace The Fathers of the following Ages happily shook off these unmaintainable conceits but finding Prayer for the Dead in the publick Service of the Church they extended it as well to the blessed as the damned The Church of Rome who approves not of praying for either of those two States hath at last brought into credit her Purgatory a thing not known before why may we not hope it from the goodness of God that he will dispel this last Imagination as he hath done the precedent and every where establish his Truth in its full lustre Let therefore those who at the present quarrel at the simplicity of the Protestants who neither maintain the Hypotheses of the Fathers which the Opinion of Purgatory hath discredited nor hold Purgatory which is made up of the rubbish of the precedent suppositions for their discharge consider that they have on the one side learnt from the instructions as well of Scripture as of the Fathers and all the antient Liturgies even that of the Church of Rome that her Purgatory hath no sound foundation and on the other that the Church of Rome her self hath by her example given them the boldness to recede from the practise of the Fathers which she first relinquished And as I have made it my business as much as lay in my power to give an accompt of their demeanour searching into the true causes of the differences that have appeared in the Perswasions and Customs of the Christians who have passed through so long a revolution of Ages and shewing those who now live how deeply it concerns them to build on the firm and unmoveable foundation of the Scriptures and avoid the quick-Sands of humane apprehensions so shall I be the first to censure my self if contrary to my intention I may have chanced to be mistaken and so far from being displeased with those who shall charitably advertise me thereof that I shall highly celebrate their good Offices and acknowledg upon all occasions that as we can all of us do nothing against the truth so I shall never as to my own particular presume to attempt any thing to its prejudice but hold with St. Cyprian that we must not erre always because we have sometimes erred and make it my chiefest address to the Father of Lights from whom every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down that he would lift up the light of his countenance upon all his Children give them the grace to understand their errours and cleanse them from those which are yet secret and make the words of their mouth and meditations of their hearts acceptable in his sight and advantageoâ—is to their own and their Neighbours salvation Amen A TABLE Of the Chapters BOOK I. CHAP. I. THat the most earnest Pursuers of Truth are as others subject to Mistakes Page 1 II. Instances of certain Misapprehensions of Justine Martyr 2 III. The Writings pretended to be Sibylline discovered in several particulars to be Spurious and Supposititious 4 IV. The Judgment of Antoninus Possevinus concerning the Writings pretended to be Sibylline taken into Examination 6 V. The Recommendation of the Sibylline Writings attributed by Clemens Alexandrinus to Saint Paul brought to the Test 9 VI. An accompt of several instances of Dis-circumspection in Clemens Alexandrinus 12 VII Reflections on several Suppositious Pieces whereby many of the antient Christians have been imposed upon and abused 14 VIII The different Opinions of the Antients concerning the Sibyls 19 IX The precautions of Rome while yet in Paganism to prevent the reading of the Books which she believed really Sibylline 23 X. The Motives which he might have gone upon who was the first Projector of the Eight Books which at this day go under the Name of the Sibylline 27 XI A Discovery of the mistakes of the Emperour Constantine the Great concerning the Sibyl and her Writings 29 XII The Sentiment of Cicero concerning the Acrostick attributed to the Sibyl further cleared up 32 XIII The Sentiment of Virgil in his fourth Eclogue examined and cleared up and that it hath no relation to the Writings pretendedly Sibylline which were composed a long time after made apparent 34 XIV Remarks on some less considerable mistakes of the Emperour Constantine in the Explication of Virgil's fourth Eclogue 40 XV. That it cannot be said that Virgil in his fourth Eclogue disguised his own Sentiment 45 XVI That Apollodorus had no knowledg of the Eight Books which go under the name of the Sibylline ibid. XVII That Pausanias hath not writ any thing which may give credit to the Book unjustly called the Sibylline 47 XVIII That the Prohibition made to read the Books called the Sibylline and that of Hystasphes adds no Authority thereto 48 XIX That the Letter written by L. Domitius Aurelianus to the Senate gives no credit to the Sibylline Writings 50 XX. Other Discoveries shewing the Supposititiousness of the Sibylline VVriting so called 51 XXI That it cannot with any likelihood of Truth
Court might receive into the Mansions of the Blessed the Disciple of Peter the same day on which Peter had deserved to be placed in the Pastoral See And indeed we find that the former was Canonized by the Church of Rome and the latter is one of the most eminent among her Saints to whom she addresses her Prayers and thinks it were injurious to them to pray for them After the same manner is to be understood the Epitaph of Peter Leo which sayes that Heaven and Earth divided him at his death whence it follows that his Spirit reigned in Glory as his Body rested in the Grave which notwithstanding the Authour of the Epitaph forbore not to cry out for him Dei gratia parcat ei May God him Pardon grant We have abundance of such Passages in the Poems of Baldric who after he had been some time Abbot of Bourgueil was advanced to the Episcopal See of Dol in Britany and coâ—…ued in it from the 25th of December 1107. to the 21st of January 1131. about which time the Belief of Purgatory seems to have been received over all the West Yet is it hard to conceive that he made any great account of it himself since that numbring among the Patrones who were to be invocated many of those for whom he put up his Prayers according to the antient Custom which excepted neither Patriarchs nor Prophets nor Apostles nor Martyrs he shews that his meaning was to desire of God not the cessation of their Pains but the confirmation of their Glory which the Church of Rome cannot deny but she practised a long time the acknowledgment made of it by Hincmare and Innocent the Third assuring us on her behalf that in the antient Missals was this Prayer for one of the greatest and most eminent Popes viz. LEO the First deceased April the 11th 461. Annue quaesumus Domine ut animae Beati Leonis haec prosit oblatio Grant O Lord we beseech thee that this Oblation may benefit the Soul of Blessed LEO. From which Prayer three things necessarily follow all which are extreamly contrary to what the said Church teaches at this day The First That she prayed and presented Oblations for him whom she acknowledged to be in Bliss and accordingly glorified for all Eternity with God The Second That the Oblation she then made and does still dayly make in the Mass neither is nor can be a Propitiatory Sacrifice properly so called but a simple Sacrifice of Praise as it is expresly qualifyed by the Words of the Canon by which she consecrates and presents it to God The Third That neither her Prayer nor her Oblation could according to her own Sentiment be of any benefit to Pope Leo in order to his delivery out of Pain since she acknowledged him exempted from it and in Happiness but to obtain for him what he was most assured of viz. the Ratification and Confirmation of his Glory to its full accomplishment at the Resurrection of the Just But moved as it should seem at the apprehension of these three Consequences which might have forced those of her Communion not onely to confess with St. Fulgentius that the Eucharist is no more then a Sacrifice of Bread and Wine consecrated to serve as a Memorial of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our true Sacrifice offered up according to the particular Observation of the Apostle ONCE upon the Cross but also to stop up the Mine of her most certain Revenue by renouncing the Imagination of her Purgatory the Church of Rome hath raced that antient Prayer out of her Missal and yet as if she had been ashamed wholly to take it way she hath put in another Prayer instead of it which discovers some remainder of her former Sentiment The Words of it are these Sancti Leonis Confessoris tui atque Pontificis annua solennitas nos tibi reddat acceptos ut per haec Piae placationis Officia illum beata retributio comitetur nobis gratiae tuae dona conciliet that is to say May the annual Solennity of Leo thy Confessour and Pope render us acceptable to thee that by these Offices of pious pacification a blessed reward may attend him and confer the Gifts of thy Grace upon us Where we finde First That St. Leo for whom 〈◊〉 antient Prayer was before made is in the new constituted an Intercessour for those who celebrate his Memory Secondly That the Solennity and Service of his Festival are called Offices of pious pacification not onely to shew that they are acceptable to God looking on them with a propitious Eye but also to insinuate a pretense of offering therein a Propitiatory Sacrifice to God and yet where in the same Prayer the Church of Rome desires for Leo that a blessed reward may attend him she in some sort expresses the sence of her precedent Prayer and shews to what end Antiquity was induced to Pray for the Faithfull departed in the Lord viz. to desire the perpetual continuance of their Bliss and not to obtain their entrance thereinto and much less to deliver them out of any Torments as is at this day imagined But however the Case stand Baldric praying even for those of his Friends whom he believed to be in Happiness discovers that he was of the same Opinion with the Church of Rome when she prayed for Pope LEO the Great As for instance in the Epitaph of Natalis Abbot of Saint Nicholas of Angiers deceased about the year 1097. after he had addressed this Discourse to St. Nicholas Tuum Deus accersivit alumnum Cui dedit aeternum solenni funere somnum c. Thy Disciple hence The Lord hath called to Eternal rest And in another Epitaph Defunctus sacris hanc ossibus ornat c. This Church his sacred bones adorn Signifying that he believed Natalis glorified in Heaven He concludes his Epitaphs with these Words Hic modò Natalis pro carne jacet cineratus Cui noceat nullus pro carnis sorde reatus Natalis here dissolv'd to Ashes lyes Gainst whom no guilt or stain of flesh arise In like manner in the following Epitaph recommending him to the Protection of Saint Nicholas he says to him Servi nunc memor esto tui Christo commenda quem Mundo Christus ademit Húncque Patrocinii jure tuere tui Now mindfull of thy servant be Whom Christ took hence to Christ him recommend And him with thy Protection still attend Presupposing not that he was in any danger but that he stood in need of Saint Nicholas to be made fully assured of the perpetual enjoyment of his Felicity A Conception false indeed in it self but yet was passed from hand to hand for many Ages before and might have been confirmed by millions of Examples In those of Reynold Arch-Bishop of Rheims deceased the one and twentieth of January 1137. after he had ranked him among the Souls Salvandae that were to be saved and made this Wish Dispenset veniam
contracted thou out of thy goodness and compassion mayst mercifully wash away To the same end are referred also the following Prosopopoeias wherein the Soul of every deceased Person is represented with motions of fear suitable to such as it might have had during the couse of this Life As for instance Libera me Domine c. O Lord deliver me from eternal death in that dreadfull day when the heavens and the earth shall be shaken when thou shalt come to Judge the World by Fire I am become trembling and fear till the discussion and wrath to come shall be over That day is a day of wrath calamity and misery a great day and very bitter when thou shalt come Again this Domine quando veneris c. O Lord where shall I hide my self from the countenance of thy wrath when thou comest to Judge the Earth For I have sinned extremely during my life I am frightened at the things I have committed and blush before thee when thou comest to Judge do not condemn me And this Memento mei Deus c. O God have me in remembrance because my life is but wind let the eye of him that hath seen me see me no more Out of the depths have I cried unto thee O Lord Hear O Lord when I cry with my voice And this Hei mihi c. Wo unto me O Lord for I have sinned overmuch in my life What shall I do Wretch that I am Whither shall I flie if not unto my God Have compassion on me when thou shalt come at the Last day My soul is sore vexed but do thou Lord deliver it be mercifull c. And this Legem pone c. Teach me O Lord the way of thy Commandments and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies Deliver me not into the will of mine enemies for false Witnesses are risen up against me and iniquity hath belyed it self yet I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living And this Peccantem me quotidie c. Sinnning daily and not repenting the fear of death distracts me in regard There is no redemption in Hell O God be mercifull unto me and save me O God save me for thy Name sake and deliver me in thy Power And this other Domine secundùm actum meum noli me judicare c. O Lord Judge me not according to what I have done I have done nothing in thy presence worthy it I therefore beseech thy Majesty to do away mine iniquity O Lord wash me from my injustice more and more and cleanse me from my sin And this other Sitivit anima mea c. My soul thirsteth for God when shall I come and appear before the Lord Deliver not the soul of thy Turtle-dove unto the multitude forget not the Congregation of thy poor for ever Our Father c. And Lastly this Libera me Domine c. O Lord who hast broken the Gates of Brass and visited Hell and given light that they might see thee to those who were in the Torments of darkness crying and saying Thou arâ— come O our Redeemer deliver me out of the ways of Hell For there is not any Body so weakly instructed as not easily to comprehend that the Authours of these Complaints and Lamentations meant them rather for the advantage and edification of the living by putting them in minde of the fear and trembling wherein they should be in the presence of their Lord then to represent the State of the Dead which they have been forced to express after their Fancy as such as had some resemblance with that of poor Wayfaring-men who yet walk in the Flesh because they had not any manifest knowledg thereof but onely Conjectures and presumptions and those many times not very conformable to the Rule of Faith and the Sentiments of the purest Antiquity Since it is absolutely impossible that he who makes a Prayer for his Soul should be any other thing then that Soul for which he Prays and that the Wish he makes that God would teach him the way of his Statutes which is onely in this Life and the Confession of sinning daily and the Prayer to be delivered out of the ways of Hell should suit with any but Travellers who walk yet in the Flesh struggling as they go with their own imperfections and the Infernal Powers and by continued endeavours tending to their rest whereof the separated Souls of the Faithfull departed who have finished their course in Faith and Hope must necessarily be possessed from the very moment of their separation The same moderation is required to finde out the true sense of the Prayers which seem to presuppose a certain deliverance out of Infernal pains wherein the deceased are ready to be tormented as when we read in the Missal Domine Jesu Christe c. O Lord Jesus Christ King of Glory deliver the Souls of all the Faithfull departed out of the power of Hell and out of the bottomless Lake deliver them out of the mouth of the Lyon Let not Hell swallow them up let them not fall into the obscure places of darkness but let the Standard-bearer St. Michael bring them into that holy light which thou didst sometime promise to Abraham and to his Seed We offer unto thee O Lord â—…oasts and Prayers for them receive the same for those Souls whom we this day commemorate grant them O Lord to pass from Death to an holy life And in the Office of the Dead A portâ inferni erus Domine animas eorum requiescant in pace Amen c. O Lord deliver their Souls from the Gate of Hell may they rest in peace Amen For though upon the first glance these words seem to revive the Hypothesis which Justin Martyr had drawn up out of the Quagmire of the counterfeit Sibyl imagining that the Soul of the greatest Saints were afer their departure out of the body sent to Hell and were subject to the power of evil Spirits yet must they necessarily have another signification and onely induce that God alone preserves those whom he calls so as that they fall not into the power of Hell but are by the Ministery of his holy Angels introduced into celestial light and that they are delivered not as escaping out of some Torment which they had for some time indured but as avoiding the necessity of enduring it And whereas it is said that the Hoasts mentioned in those Prayers are offered to Jesus Christ it necessarily induces that they neither are nor can be Jesus Christ himself as the Church of Rome imagines at this day but Gifts presented to God by his people as an expression of their gratitude And since what is said without any exception viz. That they are offered for the Souls of all the departed whose commemoration is celebrated it demonstratively proves that they are and were according to the intention of the Antients
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
of the particular devotion which Augustus had for Apollo to whom not many years after he dedicated a magnificent Temple in the Mount Palatine and that in his secret Debauches as for instance in his Banquet sirnam'd Of the twelve gods he had represented Apoâ—… and that with the greater Analogie in regard of his being the great King among men as the Sun amongst the Starrs and was then in the prime of his age being four and twenty years old as the Sun who never growing old looks always with the same countenance According therefore to his first mis-representation Constantine imagin'd that Virgil had by the multitude of new men meant the Christian Church But it is clear that his imagination ran onely upon that race which he supposed was under the Consulship of Pollio to begin the Golden-Age after the expiration of that of Iron From thence the Emperour comes to make this Remark What can there be more manifest for he adds The Oracle of the Cumaean Prophecy is come to its period clearly signifying the Cumaean Sibyl And I acknowledge that Virgil speaking of the coming of the last Age of the Cumaean Prophecy reflected on that of the Cumaean Sibyl but I affirm withall First That to alledge any such thing is manifest to shoot wide from the Mark and not to say any thing pertinent to the Discourse which had preceeded that is to say that Cicero had copied out and translated the Acrostick attributed to the Erythraean Sibyl Erythraea and Cumae are they the same thing And to persuade people that those who had spoken of the Inhabitress of one of those two places are at no difference with the Authours who maintain the other was it not necessary to make it appear before-hand that she made her residence in both successively Secondly I say that this supposition being allow'd it would not follow from the words of Virgil that he had or could have read the Sibylline Prophecy since he was neither Patrician nor Quindecem-vir to whose Colledge that priviledge was reserv'd nay indeed not of a competent age to be entertain'd into that Society which consisted onely of antient men and not of young men such as Virgil then was as being about the thirtieth year of his Age. Thirdly That though he had been one of the Quindecem-viri yet can it not be granted he could have any knowledg of those Cumaean Oracles which had been brought to Tarquin for they were destroyed fourty three years before in the time of Sylla those which Rome was possessed of in the time of Cicero and Augustus were according to the observation of Dionysius Halicarnassaeus certain Collections gotten out of a thousand several places and went under the name of the Cumaean improperly onely in as much as they were disposed into the place of the real Cumaean ones Fourthly That though it were granted that the true Cumaean Writings which had nothing common with those reputed such at this day had been preserv'd entire and that Virgil had been of the number of those to whom the reading thereof was allow'd yet had he according to what is suppos'd discover'd therein any thing of Prediction concerning the Saviour of the World he would not as he hath done wholly have adapted the Sence of the Oracle to Pollio and his Son and principally to Augustus not onely in that place but also above sixteen years after in the sixth Book of the Aeneids where he introduces Anchises saying to his Son Aeneas of the Prince so highly qualified in the â—…ucoliks and called Heav'nly race great progeny of Jove c. There there 's the Prince oft promis'd us before Divine Augustus Caesar who once more Shall Golden days bring to th' Ausonian Land I' th Kingdoms where old Saturn did command All therefore that can be with any reason gather'd from the allegation which he hath in a word made of the Cumaean Prophecy is that being carry'd away as well as others of his time with the common perswasion that the Oracles which were kept at Rome in the place of the Cumaean and upon that occasion went under their name contained the Fate as well of that City which pretended to Eternity as of the Universe and consequently were to regulate both till the return of the great Platonical year which should reinstate the world in the felicity of the Age of Saturn and accordingly to flatter the growing power of Augustus and to heighten with extravagant hopes the Ambition of Pollio one of his greatest Benefactours and most intimate Friends he seems to have held it as a thing most manifest that that Age crown'd with peace and glory would be restored under the Monarchy of Augustus and take its Commencement from the Consulship of Pollio The Emperour prosecuting his design saies Virgil is not satisfied with this but pressing farther there being a necessity of his Testimony what hath he more to say This sacred Order of Ages is rais'd for us the Virgin comes the second time conducting the desirable King Who then shall be the returning Virgin but she who is full of and hath conceived by the Divine Spirit And who hinders but that the Virgin who hath conceived and is full of the Divine Spirit still is and continues a Virgin He will also come the second time and upon his coming will comfort the Universe To this I answer First That there is a great distance between the Greek and the Latine which as it were particularly to point at the great Revolution of the Platonick-Year and the Restauration of the Saturnian Age and to discard all other speculations spoke thus much Now Time's great order's born again The Maid returns and the Saturnian reign So that to render it exactly it should have been written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly That though the perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Mother of our Lord and Saviour and the Conception of that great Saviour by the Holy Spirit and his happy return at the last Judgment ought to be acknowledg'd by all the World yet doth it not thence follow that Virgil had any knowledg thereof and much less that he spoke ought of it Besides that in rigour it cannot be said of the Blessed Virgin-Mother that she return'd into the World when she Conceiv'd our Saviour so as that having been before upon Earth she had been absent from it to the end she might return thither again in the fulness of time or haply that having been brought forth once before she was snatch'd out of it and then return'd again into the World by a second Production and consequently That which way soever it be taken this Imagination will still have a savour of Origenism if not some thing worse To conclude therefore since it is impossible without great Inconveniences to adapt to the sacred Virgin this Discourse of Virgil who neither did nor could have thought of her there will arise a â—ecessity to acknowledg that the Phantasie of this poor
the earth to the end that be might there communicate his presence to the Patriarchs and Prophets c. You have enough to put by those who insolently enough think not that the souls of the Faithfull justly go to hell by telling them they are Servants above their Master conceiving it not much it may be in the bosom of Abraham to reap the comfort of the resurrection which is to be expected c. Heaven is not opened to any one while the Earth is entire c. We have in our Book Of Paradise made it good that every soul is sequestred in hell till the day of the Lord. And in the fifty sixth Chapter Why do you not judge worthy hell those souls which are pure and innocent And in the fifty eighth Chapter All souls say you are whether you will or no in hell there you have already both the Punishments and the Refreshments there you have the poor man and the rich c. By that prison we mean hell which also the Gospel shews and the utmost farthing we interpret to be any light offence which is to be punished there by the delay of the resurrection And in his third Book Against Marcion and the twenty fourth Chapter Marcion having said that he expected after this life ended Refreshment in hell in the bosom of Abraham Tertullian inferrs thence against him that God is mercifull and makes this Exclamation Oh God! mercifull even in hell And in the thirty fourth Chapter of the fourth Book I say that Abraham's Bosom is a Region though not celestial yet higher then hell which in the interim shall afford refreshment to the souls of the Just till such time as all things being accomplished all receive the fulness of their reward at the general resurrection c. And in his Scorpiacum in the twelfth Chapter In the mean time the souls of the Martyrs rest quietly under the Altar c. Novatian that famous Priest of the Romane Church who in the year 250. was opposed to Pope Cornelius doth in the first Chapter of his Book Of the Trinity follow the Track of Tertullian saying That even those very things which lie under the earth are not void of certain powers being placed every one according to its rank and order for there is one place into which are brought the souls as well of the godly as the wicked feeling before-hand the sentence of the future Judgment Lastly Origen that famous Priest of Caesarea whom St. Hierome in his Preface before his Interpretation of Hebrew Names sometime acknowledged Master of the Churches after the Apostles and whom he observes to have departed this life in the year 254. or thereabouts expresses himself to the same effect saying in his fourth Book Of Principles Those who withdraw out of this world according to the death common to all are disposed of according to their acts and merits as they shall be judged worthy some to the place which is called Hell others into Abraham's Bosom into several Mansions Where it is to be noted that by Hell he means the lower parts of Hell and by Abraham's Bosom the place of sequestration where the dead in his judgment are detained before the final Judgment and not celestial glory which in his seventh Homily upon Leviticus he pretends that none of the Saints are admitted to since he formally excludes from the enjoyment thereof the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles saying that they have not yet received their joy that they expect ours and that they mourn for our sins It is therefore manifest from the unanimous consent of the precedent Testimonies that all the Authours we have left us of the second and as far as the middle of the third Age were all of the same Opinion as being imbued with the Doctrine contained in the Sibylline Books and proposed by each of them as the common sentiment of the whole Church Somewhat to the same purpose may analogically be said of those who followed them in the after-ages as for instance of the Authour of the Constitutions attributed to St. Clement in the fourty second Chapter of his eighth Book of the Authour of the Recognitions in his first Book of the Authour of the Liturgie which goes under the Name of St. James of Victorinus Bishop of Poictiers and Martyr upon the sixth Chapter of the Apocalyps of Lactantius in the twenty first Chapter of his seventh Book of St. Ambrose in the second Chapter of his second Book of Cain and Abel and the tenth Chapter of his Book De bono Mortis of Saint Chrysostome in his fourth Homily upon Genesis and the thirty ninth Homily upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians and the seventh and twenty eighth Homilies upon the Epistle to the Hebrews of Prudentius in his Hymn upon the Obsequies of the dead and of the eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa of St. Augustine upon the thirty sixth Psalm and the seventh Chapter of the eleventh Book De Genesi ad Literam and the thirty fifth Chapter of the twelfth Book and in the hundred and eighth Chapter of his Enchiridion and in the ninth Chapter of his twelfth Book Of the City of God and the fourteenth Chapter of the first Book of his Retractations of the Authour of the Questions attributed to Justin Martyr in the sixtieth and seventy sixth Question of Basil of Seleucia in his tenth Oration of Theodoret Theophylact and Oecumenius upon the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews of Andrew and Aretas of Caesarea in Cappadocia upon the sixth Chapter of the Apocalyps of Euthymius upon the twenty third Chapter of Saint Luke of the Authour of the Imperfect Work upon Saint Matthew in the thirty fourth Homily of St. Bernard in his third and fourth Sermon upon the Feast of All-Saints and of Pope John the two and twentieth For though many of these later moderating after their manner the Opinion of those who preceeded the year 300. do either forbear making any specifical designation of the place where the Saints are entertained after their death contenting themselves to call it indefinitely with St. Augustine secret and hidden receptacles or with Primasius the secret of God as it were to insinuate that it is known to God only or are so confident as to affirm it to be out of Hell not precisely determining what other habitation it pleased God to assign them yet all agree in this that they often make use of those Expressions which seem to defer the Glory and Beatitude of their souls till the Day of the general Resurrection CHAP. X. The second capital Tenet of the Sibylline Writings THe second Point of Doctrine advanced by the Author of the Sibylline Writings concerning the State of the dead is that all without any exception shall pass through the last Conflagration of the Universe which shall purge the just and shall refine them in such as we say that Gold is melted or refined in the Crucible To this effect is what we read in the second Book page 17.
the fourty Martyrs are entred in the assurance of their Combats having without suffering passed through the Flame which we also having undaunted passed through may be received into Paradise And thence it comes that in his Funeral Orations upon Pulcheria and Flacilla her Mother he says of the former The Plant hath been removed hence but it hath been replanted in Paradise and of the later By that that is by Faith was she carried hence into the Bosom of the Father of Faith Abraham near the Fountain of Paradise Saint Ambrose upon the twentieth Section of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm according to the Greeks lays it down as hath been already shewed for certain that it is necessary those who desire to return into the Paradise out of which Adam had been driven should pass through the Fire of Judgment Paulinus having forsaken the World to lead a Religious Life afterwards Bishop of Nola in his second Fpistle to Severus his intimate Friend This is acceptable and well-pleasing in the sight of God that our good should be voluntarily that we might receive the things which are ours that is to say the house of Paradise and eternal Life wherein we were created and which if we purged from the possession of this earth whereinto we came through condemnation regain then may we as truly recalled from Banishment into our Country or returned after a long Pilgrimage into the house we were born in say God is our Portion in the land of the living c. Prudentius in the tenth of his Hymns While thou O God recallest and reformest thy body subject to dissolution in what Region wilt thou command the pure Soul to rest it self Hidden in the bosom of the Blessed Old man it shall lodge there where Eleazar is whom the rich man burning sees from afar off encompassed with flowers all about O Redeemer we follow thy Sayings whereby Triumphing over black Death Thou commandest the Thief who was Companion of thy Cross to come after thee Behold already the lightsom way of spacious Paradise opened to the Faithfull and it is lawfull to go into that Grove of which man had been deprived by the Serpent The Authour of the Homily upon the Thief unjustly attributed to Eusebius Emissenus This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise as in thy hereditary and paternal seat which at thy entrance shall be opened though upon the expulsion thence of Adam nay of two to wit Adam and Eve it had been shut up to innumerable people Enter thou therefore the first of all but with a happier entrance then the first into Paradise it being not required thou shouldest with Adam see hell Fear not thou shalt there meet with any mortal Viand any Law any Tree I will be to thee both Food and Life And that thou mayst not have the least apprehension that there may haply be some enemy in that blessed Grove and that the antient Thief may lay Ambushes for thee I will bring thee into it and confirm the possession thereof to thee The Authour of the Questions attributed to Justin Martyr in the seventy fifth Question The souls of the Just are carried into Paradise where they have the conversation and sight of the Angels and Archangels and the Vision of Christ our Saviour And in the seventy sixth Question It was profitable for the Thief at his entrance into Paradise to learn by the effects the advantage of Faith by which he had the honour to be admitted into the Assembly of the Saints where he is kept till the day of the Resurrection and retribution Now he hath that Sentiment of Paradise which is called Cogitative according to which the Souls see themselves the things that are below them and moreover the Angels and Daemons It were no hard matter to add to this number those Authours who have followed the same prejudicate Opinion as the Monk Caesarius in his third Dialogue St. Hierome in his hundred twenty ninth Epistle c. But the fourteen before cited are sufficient to shew that till after the year 450 their Opinion which had its first rise from the pretended Sibylline Books was so common in the Church that it met not with any Contradiction CHAP. XII The fourth Capital Tenet proposed by the Sibylline Writing THe fourth Supposition advanced by the Authour of that Counterfeit Piece concerning the State of the departed is That Jerusasalem rebuilt and made more glorious then ever the Son of God being descended from heaven shall establish a reign of a thousand years full of sensible enjoyments and a miraculous fertlity and abundance of corporal goods He spreads his Fiction before us in these Terms in the second Book page 14. The fruitfull earth shall again bring forth several Fruits And page 18. The Angels raising the Good out of the midst of the burning River shall convey them into light and bring them to a life free from care There is the immortal way of the great God and three Fountains of Wine Honey and Milk the earth also common to all and being divided by neither walls nor hedges shall then of it self bring forth several Fruits And in the third Book page 32. Then shall God give uno men a very great joy For the earth the Trees and the innumerable flocks of Sheep shall furnish men with the true fruit of Wine sweet Honey white Milk and the best Corn that ever mortals had And page 35. The Wolves upon the Mountains shall eat grass with the Lambs the spotted Lynxes shall feed with the Goats the Bears with the Calves and all Mortals the flesh-devouring Lion shall eat straw in the Manger c. And the Dragons shall rest themselves with the motherless little ones And in the six and fourtieth page of the fifth Book The Land of the Hebrews shall be holy and bring forth all things viz. the River of the Rock that distills Honey and the immortal Milk shall fall down upon the tongues of all the Just And in the fourtieth page All those who live a godly life shall live again upon the earth And in page the nine and fourtieth God hath made the City he delighted in more bright then the Stars the Sun and the Moon So that it is without all question it was the design of this Impostour who in imitation of the second Book of Esdras in the 19th Verse of the second Chapter and the 35th Verse of the fourteenth Chapter would needs entertain us with such extravagant Narrations to abuse the words of Esay and Saint John who in the twentieth and one and twentieth Chapters of his Apocalyps mystically represents the Church under the Name of the holy City the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven built of Gold and precious Stones having no need of Sun or Moon and in the midst of it and of either side of the River was there the Tree of Life which bare twelve manner of Fruits yielding its fruit every Moneth and the leaves of
put him into the Catalogue of the Millenaries Not long after came Lactantius who in magnificent Terms entertains us with all the particulars of their Opinion saying Cum deleverit injustitiam c. When God shall have taken away Injustice and kept Sovereign Judgment and restrored to life the Just who were from the beginning he will converse among men for the space of a thousand years and shall rule over them with Justice Which is no more then what the prophecying and distracted Sibyl somewhere proclaims Mortals attend th' eternal King does reign And then those who shall be found alive in their Bodies shall not dy but during the said thousand years shall propogate an infinite multitude and their progeny shall be holy and dear to God Those also who shall be raised out of Hell shall as Judges command the living c. The holy City shall be established in the midst of the earth in which God the Founder thereof shall make his abode with the Just who govern After which he supposes all we have said of the fruitfulness of the earth of the peace which there shall be in it and of the change of the natures of cruel and savage Beasts alledging to that purpose though with some little diversity the words of the third Book of the pretended Sibyl in the thirty second and thirty fifth pages and those of the fifth Book in the fourty sixth page cited by us already Dionysius of Alexandria who had undertaken the Refutation not of Saint Irenaeus as Saint Hierome thought but of Nepos in two Books entituled Of the Promises was about one hundred years after engaged by Apollinarius of Laodicea as we learn from the same Saint Hierome saying Duobus voluminibus respondit Apollinarius c. That is to say Apollinarius answered in two Volumes whom follow not onely the men of his own Sect but also a great multitude of ours as to that particular onely So that I now see with a spirit foreseeing what will happen what considerable Persons will be exasperated against me Much about the same time lived Tychonius the learned African of the Donatist Party of whom Gennadius writes in his Catalogue Mille annorum quoque regni in terra Justorum post resurrectionem futuri suspicionem intulit c. He also gave some suspicion of imagining a Reign of the Just upon Earth for the space of a thousand years after the Resurrection To which may be added that in the confused Collection of Homilies which is attributed to Saint Augustine and was indeed extracted out of the Writings of Tychonius upon the Apocalyps we read these words Retulit Spiritus dum haec scriberet regnaturam Ecclesiam mille annos in hoc saeculo usque ad finem mundi That is to say The Spirit while he writ these things delivered that the Church should reign a thousand years upon Earth even to the end of the World The same Gennadius observes of one Commodianus De divinis repromissionibus adversùs illos Paganos agens vili satis crasso ut ità dixerim sensu disseruit illis stuporem nobis desperationem incutiens Tertullianum Lactantium Papiam sequutus c. Treating against the Heathens concerning the divine Promises he discoursed thereof in a sence sufficiently flat and unpolished casting them into Insensibility us into Despair wherein he followed Tertullian Lactantius and Papias for his Authours We have it also upon the account of St. Hierome that our Severus Sulpitius who writ the Life of St. Martin had committed the same Errour in his Dialogue entituled Gallus wherein yet there is not at this day any thing of that nature to be found Nay the same St. Hierome himself though not chargeable with the Errour which to his grief he saw generally followed by the Christians of the fifth Age betrays himself guilty of so great a respect towards those who first maintained it that he dares not condemn it saying about the year 415. Licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quia multi Ecclesiasticorum virorum Martyres ista dixerunt unusquisque in suo sensu abundat Domini cuncta judicio reservantur c. In regard many Ecclesiastical Persons and Martyrs have said these things as also that every man aboundeth in his own sence and that all is reserved for the Judgment of the Lord though I do not follow them yet can I not condemn them CHAP. XIII Inducements of Praying for the Dead arising from the Hypotheses proposed in the pretended Sibylline Writing BY this means had the Opinion of the Millenaries with a success equal to that of the other Supposiâ—…s of the pretended Sibylline Writing not onely found Partisans among the Christians but also gained the applause of many of the most eminent among them and all had conceived this apprehension thereof that it was impossible to maintain all the Hypotheses contained in it without inducing by a necessary consequence Prayer for the Dead whom they imagined to stand so much the more in need of the Assistances of the living by how much they imagined them exposed as well to the disturbances which those might be subject to who are reduced to the expectation of their Happiness as to the Temptations and Assaults which the Faithfull are exercised with through the implacable malice of Evil Spirits and are obliged at last to stand to the rigorous Judgment of the God of glory We cannot make a better representation of the State whereto the Christians of that Time conceived their deceased Brethren to be reduced then by copying-out what Justin Martyr who had seen the Eruption of the first Sibylline Imposture hath written of the condition of our Saviour himself to whom he very justly applied those words of the two and twentieth Psalm according to the Hebrews Save me from the Lyon's Mouth That he prayed his Soul might be delivered from the Sword from the Lyon's Mouth and the Paw of the Dog was a request that none should prevail over his Soul to the end that when we come to depart this life we should desire the same things as he did of Almighty God that every wicked bold Spirit may be prevented from taking our Souls as being what the Souls expect I have shewn as much in that Saul required that the Soul of Samuel might be evocated by the Witch It appears also that the Souls of all those who have been Just and Prophets are subject to such Powers as by the effect it is manifest was that wherewith the Witch was Possessed Whence it is that he teacheth us by his Son that we for whose sake it is clear that that was done should Fight all manner of waies and desire at our Departure out of this life that our Souls may not fall under any such Powers for as much as when he gave up the Ghost upon the Cross he said Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit From which Discourse
369. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He receives the Rewards of his new-created Soul which the Spirit had reformed by Water And of his Sister Gorgonia who died not long after viz. on the ninth of December 372. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The things which are now present to thee are much more precious then those which are seen The noise of those which make a Feast the Quires of the Angels the Order of Heaven the contemplation of Glory and more then all this the Irradiation of the Trinity which is above all things and of all things the most pure and most perfect And â—f St. Athanasius who died May the second 371. That thou wouldest he pleased to look on us from on high Of Gregory his Father who died the year following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Make known unto us in what place of Glory thou art and the light which encompasseth thee Of his dear Friend St. Basil who died January the first 378. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is now in Heaven St. Gregory Nyssenus of St. Ephraim who died on the 28th of the same Moneth of January 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He expired in the quiet Haven of the Eternal Kingdom and is kindly received into it But where otherwise may it be conjectured that his Soul hath been deposited if not as indeed it is manifest in the Celestial Tabernacles where are the Batallions of Angels a Populace of Patriarchs Quires of Prophets the Thrones of the Apostles the Joy of the Martyrs the Exultation of Saints the Splendour of the Doctours the Assembly of the First-born the perfect Noise of those that are a Feasting To those good things in which the Angels desire to rest themselves that they may see them into that sacred place the most blessed in all kinds and most holy soul of our Blessed and worthy-to-be-celebrated Father is passed Of the great Meletius Arch-Bishop of Antioch who died on the twelfth of February 381. before he could have enjoyed the Communion of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. No longer as through a Glass and obscurely but face to face he prays to God Of Pulcheria Daughter to the Emperour THEODOSIUS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She was transferred from one Kingdom to another Of Flavilla first Wife to the same Prince who died in the year 385. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her conversation is in the Royal Palaces of Heaven St. Ambrose of his Brother Satyrus who dyed September the seventeenth 383. De istius Beatitudine dubitare nequaquam debemus c. We ought not to doubt of his Beatitude Of the Emperour VALENTINIAN the Second two Moneths after his Assà ssination which happened on Saturday Whitsun-Eve May the fifteenth 382. before that Prince had received Baptism Ille etiam talis ut ei nihil timeatis c. He is now in such a condition that you need not fear what may happen to him as before c. I ask whether there be any Sentiment after death or not If there be he lives or rather because he lives he is already in possession of Eternal Life c. That he was so soon snatched from us we are to grieve that he is passed into a better Estate it should be our comfort c. Thou lookest on us Holy Soul from an high place as casting thy sight on things that are below c. Now borrowing light from the Sun of Righteousness thou enjoyest a clear day c. His going hence was most noble as a Flight into Heaven c. What thou hast sown upon Earth reap it there c. The stain of Sin being done off he whom his Faith washed his Prayer consecrated is gone up cleansed into Heaven c. joyned with his Brother Gratian he enjoyes the pleasures of eternal Life c. Of the Emperour THEODOSIUS who dyed January the seventeenth 395. Regnum non deposuit sed mutavit c. He hath not layd by but exchanged the Royal Dignity being admitted by the Prerogative of Piety into the Tabernacles of Christ into that Jerusalem which is above where being now placed he saith As we have heard so have we seen in the City of the LORD of Hosts c. Having gone through a doubtfull combat Theodosius of famous Memory does now enjoy perpetual Light and a Tranquility of long continuance and hath the self-satisfaction of what he did in his â—…ly in the Fruits of divine remuneration c. He hath deserved admittance into the Society of the Saints c. His abode is in light c. He is over-joyed to be in the Assemblies of the Saints c. There he now embraces Gratian c. Who enjoyes the rest of his Soul c. Being pious he hath passed from the obscurity of this World to eternal Light c. Now does he know that he reigns since that he is in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus and considers his Temple c. Constantinople thou art evidently happy who receivest a Guest of Paradise and shalt entertain in the narrow Inn of a Sepulchre an Inhabitant of that City which is on high c. And of Ascholius Arch-Bishop of Thessalonica who dyed about the year 385. Est Superorum incola possessor civitatis aeternae illius Hierusalem quae in caelo est videt illis facie ad faciem c. He is an Inhabitant of the places which are above a Possessour of the Eternal City of that Jerusalem which is in Heaven there he sees face to face St. Hierome of Blaesilla who died in the year 382. Postquam sarcinâ carnis abjectâ c. Having layd down its burthen of Flesh the Soul is fled back to her Authour after a long Pilgrimage she is ascended into her antient possession c. Me-thought then when her Coffin was making ready she cryed from Heaven I know not those Garments that Covering is not mine c. Blaesilla now followeth Jesus she is now in the society of the holy Angels c. She is passed from Darkness to Light c. She lives with Christ in the Heavens c. Of Lea who died March the two and twentieth 384. Universorum gaudiis prosequenda c. She is to be attended with the joy of all who having trod Satan under foot hath received the Crown of Security c. For a short trouble she now enjoyes eternal Beatitude she is received into the Quires of Angels she is cherished in the Bosom of Abraham c. she follows Christ and saith All the things which we have heard of the same we have also seen in the City of our God c. Of Nepotianus a Priest of Altinum who died in the year 397. Scimus Nepotianum nostrum esse cum Christo Sanctorum mixtum Choris c. Corpus terra suscepit anima Christo reddita est c. We know that our Friend Nepotianus is with Christ and among the Quires of the Saints c. The Earth received his Body his Soul
was restored to Christ c. And of Paulina the Wife of Pammachius departed this life in the year 393. Illa Blaesilla cum sorore Paulina dulci somno fruitur tu duarum medius leviùs ad Christum subvolabis c. Blaesilla with her Sister Paulina rests in a quiet sleep thou being between both shalt have a more easie flight to Christ c. Of Paula the Mother of Blaesilla and Paulina departed in Beth-lehem on the twenty eighth of January 404. Fides opera tua Christo te sociant praesens quod postulas facilius impetrabis c. Thy Faith and Works associate thee to Christ being present O Paula thou shalt more easily obtain what thou desirest c. Aspices angustum praecisâ rupe Sepulchrum Hospitium Paulae coelestia regna tenentis c. Seest thou a Rock t' a narrow Coffin hewn 'T is Paula's Mansion who to Heav'n is flown Of Lucinus departed about the year 410. Obsecro te c. I beseech thee Theodorus that thou wouldest bewail thy Lucinius as a Brother yet so as to rejoyce withall that he reigns with Christ c. Confident and Conquerour he looks from on high c. Of Fabiola departed in the year 401. Depositâ tandem sarcinâ levior volavit ad Caelum c. Having lay'd down her burthen she is fled with more ease towards heaven Saint Chrysostome of Berenice and Prosdoce who were drowned during the Persecution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moreover these were with the Souldiers of Christ the heavenly Angels Of Pelagia who had cast her self down Headlong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. She ran not towards the top of a mountain but towards the highest heaven c. The threatning of the Judg c. pressed her to flie with greater haste towards heaven c. She went out of her Chamber out of the Woman's Closet into another Chamber that is to say heaven c. Which is as much as he could have said and what he had said in substance of the greatest Martyrs St. Ignatius of Antioch St. Romanus St. Julian St. Juventinus St. Maximus and others whose Elogies he writ The same St. Chrysostome says also of Philogonius Arch-Bishop of Antioch deceased the twentieth of December about the year 322. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ascending into heaven he hath no need of the Praises of men since he is gone to a greater and more happy portion c. He is transferred to the Society of Angels c. Of Eustathius who had held the same See and died about the year 359. upon the sixteenth of July 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transferred to heaven he is gone towards Jesus whom he had desired and almost in the same Terms of Meletius his Ordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is gone towards Jesus whom he had desired St. Augustine of Verecundus who had entertained him and all his Company at his Countrey-House Retribues illi Domine in resurrectione Justorum quia jam ipsam sortem retribuisti ei c. O Lord thou shalt reward him in the Resurrection of the Just because thou hast already cast that Lot upon him And of Nebridius who was come out of Africk into Italy to live with him Nunc ille vivit in sinu Abrahae c. Now he lives in Abraham ' s Bosom whatsoever it be that is understood by that Bosom There my Nobridius lives that dear Friend of mine and thy adopted Son O Lord who had once been a Bond-slave but was after freed There he liveth for what other place can be fit for such a Soul In that place he liveth whereof he was wont to ask me miserable and unexperienced man so many Questions Now he no longer laies his Ear to my Mouth but applies his spiritual mouth to thy Spring and drinks Wisdom after the rate of his greedy Thirst happy to all Eternity Paulinus of Rusina the Wife of Alethius Habes jam in Christo magnum tui pignus c. Thou hast already in Christ a great pledge of thy self an earnest Suffr age thy Wife who prepares as much favour for thee in the Heavenly Places as thou furnishest her with abundance from those upon Earth c. She abounds by the supplies of thy Wealth being clad in a Golden Vesture and cloathed all over with variety viz. precious light c. Paulinus the African of St. Ambrose Ubi corpus Domini accepit c. After be had received the Body of our Lord he gave up the Ghost taking along with him a good provision that his Soul being more refreshed by the strength of that Viand should be now rejoycing in the Society of Angels and Elias whose Life he lived here Sulpicius Severus of St. Martin who died on Sunday November the eleventh 400. Spiritum coelo reddidit c. He resigned his Spirit to Heaven c. There was an holy rejoycing at his Glory c. The Heavenly Company singing Hymns accompanies the Body of the Blessed man to the place of his Enterment c. Martin hath the Acclamations of divine Psalms Martin is honoured with Ecclesiastical Hymns c. Martin is entertained with joy in Abraham ' s Bosom Martin who had been here poor and beggarly enters Rich into Heaven c. And it is to be noted by the way that that Great Man a little before he gave up the Ghost had answered those who would have had him to lie on his side Sinite me Fratres coelum potius respicere quà m terram ut suo jam itinere iturus ad Dominum Spiritus dirigatur Suffer me Brethren rather to look up towards Heaven then down upon the ground that my Spirit which is now taking its journey to God may be directed in its way Palladius writes of St. Chrysostome who dyed November the seventh 407. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Passing hence to Christ c. Ennodius Bishop of Pavia of Epiphanius his Praedecessour deceased January the twenty first 496. Cùm beatissimus cerneret Pontifex c. The blessed Prelate seeing c. that he was ready to fly to the pure brightness of Heaven c. assured of his perfection he added My heart is confirmed in the Lord c. So as that heavenly Soul resounding with Hymns and Songs even at the point of Death returned to her Lord c. He whose departure we bewail upon Earth is in possession of the high places with God c. And of Anthony the Hermit of Valtelina afterwards a Monk in the Monastery of Lerina deceased December the twenty eighth 488. Mundi istius sarcinam deponens c. Laying down the burthen of this World and having overcome the Ambushes laid by the craft of the old Serpent he hath exchanged our day and the light of this present World for that which is perpetual If the Harmony of all these Testimonies which have been produced suffice not to satisfie and perswade the most-prepossessed Spirits that the most eminent and best-informed Antiquity reforming the
Opinion which the Sibylline Writing falsly so called had introduced among Christians hath unanimously embraced and constantly taught the Protestants the Sentiment which they with one accord follow concerning the State of the Faithfull departed in Jesus Christ it were no hard matter for them to make a more ample Production of Instances since that in a manner all we have left of the Lives of Persons who have made profession of Piety assures us that all without any distinction Martyrs Confessours Prelates Religious Persons Laicks c. even to the Catechumens whom an invincible necessity deprived of the Baptism they had earnestly desired were upon their dissolution translated to Heaven where they have been and still are in Rest Happiness and Glory expecting the Resurrection of the Bodies they have deposited in Earth And as we might justly rely on the grave Remonstrance which Saint Hierome made above one thousand two hundred and seventy years ago even in Rome it self to Paula excessively lamenting the death of her Daughter Blaesilla speaking of himself and of all Christians in general Nos quorum exitum Angelorum turba comitatur quibus obviam Christus occurrit gravamur magis si diutiùs in isto mortis Tabernaculo habitamus c. In Jesu mortem gaudia prosequuntur c. We whose Departure the Assemblies of Angels accompany whom Christ comes to meet are more grieved that we dwell any longer in this Tabernacle of Death c. Joys attend the death which is in Jesus c. So might we with good reason summon those who hold the contrary to let us know what they have of greater Consequence then the unanimous Consent of Eusebius's Athanasius's Gregory's Ambrose's Hierome's Chrysostome's c. and might induce them not to embrace it and force us to change our Opinion CHAP. XXXIX The same Sentiment further confirmed from Sepulchral Inscriptions BUt though we should be willing out of a Design to gratify our Adversaries not to bring into any accompt at all the Depositions of all these Great Persons and make a voluntary loss of their Writings and Judgments yet would the Epigrams and Inscriptions of antient Monuments which Rome and her Correspondents preserve for us be enough to keep us from falling into so great a weakness as the renouncing of our present Opinion concerning the State of the Faithfull departed Nay though all the Doctours of the Church were silent and their Testimonies cast out of all respect the Stones as long as they shall remain will not cease publishing and that very loudly the truth of the perswasion maintained by us Let us then consult those half consumed Epitaphs which the Providence of God hath made to triumph over so many ruins and make our advantage of the hardness of Marbles which have hitherto stood out against the injury of Times to confound the insensibility of those who seem desirous injuriously to smother a most evident Truth Let us propose it to their own Consciences whether it be not a very strong presumption against them that not any one of those Antient Inscriptions whereof they are the Preservers and Admirers can without violence be applied to their Sentiment and that all of them presuppose ours which yet they charge I know not upon what accompt with Novelty Which to make so much the more manifest I shall begin with the most simple which I shall reduce into Classes alledging of every one some Instance then conclude with those which being of greater length make a clearer discovery of the Design of their Authours The Book entituled Roma Subterranea in as much as it contains a Description of the Vaults and Cemiteries digged under ground in and about that City furnishes us with about ninety Examples of Epitaphs which say simply In Pace c. In Peace as that of Proclus Interred under the eighth Consulship of Honorius that is to say in the year 409. that of Hilara deceased under the Consulship of Opilio that is to say in the year 453. those of Crescentina Honoraius Pelagia Ulpius Festus Quartina c. Others had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Place of Rest As that of Ammonius and of Eutyches Locus GerontI Presbyteri c. The Place of Gerontius the Priest deceased the seventeenth of June under the Consulship of Avitus that is to say in the year 456. Hîc habet sedem Leo Presbyter c. The Priest Leo hath his Seat here Others which in some sort savour of the Style of the Heavens As Domus aeterna Ex. Tyres in Pace c. The eternal house of Ex. and Tyre in peace and that of Valeriana in like manner Others had onely this word Quiescit c. He rests As that of Victoria that of Pancratius the Bishop deceased in the year 493. and that of Alix the Daughter of Pipin Interred at St. Arnoul-de-Mets Or Requiescit which signifies the same thing As that of Gordianus Interred the ninth of September under the Consulship of Symmachus that is to say in the year 485. That of Aemiliana Interred the eleventh of October under the Consulship of Probinus viz in the year 489. That of Pelagius the First deceased the fourth of March 558. That of Augustine Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deceased the twenty fifth of May 604. That of Boniface the Fourth deceased the eighth of May 614. That of Theodore who died in the year 619. That of Theobald Bishop of Ostia That of Roderick last King of the West-Goths in Spain who died on Sunday the eleventh of November 714. That of Alcuin deceased the nineteenth of May 804. That of Bernard King of Italy deceased April the 17 th 871. and Interred at Milan that of the Abbot Vintila deceased at Leon the three and twentieth of December in the year 928. Others Quievit c. He is at rest As that of Susanna deceased the seven and twentieth of July under the Consulship of Caesarius and Atticus in the year 397. Or Requievit as that of Leo the Neopâ—yte deceased the four and twentieth of June under the Consulship of Philippus and Sallea in the year 348. and that of Leontius the Spanyard deceased the four and twentieth of June 510. Others Depositus c. He is left as a Pledge c. As those of Macedonia and Fortunula Others Quiescet in pace c. He shall rest in Peace As that of Marinus deceased the thirtieth of November under the Consulship of Arbaethio and Lollianus in the year 355. Others Requiescet in pace which signifies the same thing as that of Felix Others Requievit in pace c. He is at rest in peace as that of Litorius deceased at Talabriga or Talavera della Reina the four and twentieth of June in the year of the Aera 548 or 510 of Christ That of Primus deceased at Evora the thirteenth of March according to the Aera 582. or 544 of Christ That of Paulina deceased the eighteenth of November under the Consulship of Datianus and Cerealis in the year 318. That of
year 398. Nunc requiem sentit coelestia regna potitus c. Now got to Heav'n he does his rest enjoy That of Celsus a young Lad a Spaniard deceased about the year 394. and celebrated by Paulinus since Bishop of Nola Laetor obîsse brevi functum mortalia saec'lo Ut citò divinas perfrueretur opes c. Placidam Deus aethere Christus Arcessens merito sumpsit honore animam c. Spiritus Angelico vectus abit gremio c. Superno in lumine Celsum Credite vivorum lacte favisque frui c. Glad that he 's soon discharged hence I am That sooner he Riches divine might claim c. Christ hath his peacefull Soul to Heav'n receiv'd With its deserved honour To Angels Bosoms his spirit is convey'd c. Celsus in light above doubt not though dead With living Milk and Honey-combs is fed That of Clarus deceased the 8th of November about the year 402. Libera corporeo mens carcere gauder in astris Pura probatorum sedem sortita piorum c. Spiritus aethere gaudet Discipulúmque pari sociat super astra Magistro c. Emeritus superis Spiritus involitas Sive Patrum sinibus recubas Dominive sub ara Conderis aut sacro pasceris in nemore Qualibet in regione Poli siâ—â—s aut Paradisi Clare sub aeterna pace quietus agis c. Among the Just his Habitation is Of Body free'd possess'd of Heav'nly bliss c. His Soul to Heav'n is flown The Scholar to the Master equal grown c. Thou a discharged Spirit to Heav'n fly'st And whether thou i th' Patriarch ' s Bosom ly'st Or under the Lord ' s Altar art detain'd Or an aboad i th' Sacred Grove hast gain'd What part or place of Paradise thou 'st got Eternal Peace and Rest is Clarus lot That of Paula deceased in the year 404. Aspicis angustum praecisa rupe Sepulchrum Hospitium Paulae coelestia regna tenentis c. Seest thou a Rock into a Coffin hewn 'T is Paula ' s Mansion who to Heav'n is flown That of Concordius of Arles deceased about the same time Integer â—tque que pius vitáque corpore purus Aeterno hîc positus vivit Concordius aevo c. Hunc citò sideream raptum Omnipotentis in Aulam Et Mater bland 〈◊〉 Fratres in funere quaerunt c. Here Pious Good of Life and Body pure Coâ—…dius of Eternity lies sure c. Him snatch'd to the Almighty's starry Hall A Mother kind and Brethren do bewail That of Pope BONIFACE the First deceased the 25th of October 423. Membráque clausit Certus in adventu glorificanda Dei c. Quis te Sancte Parens cum Christo nesciat esse c. His Members he did lay Assur'd of Glory on the last great day c. Who doubts thy being with Christ Great Man That of Pope CELESTINE gathered to the rest of the LORD April the 6th 432. Vitam migravit in illam Debita quae Sanctis aeternos reddit honores c. Mens nescia mortis Vivit aspectu fruitur bene conscia Christi c. He to that life is gone Where blessed Saints eternal Honours crown c. The Mind immortal lives And guiltless Christ contemplates That of St. Hilary of Arles departed this world to a better Life May the 5th 449. Hîc carnis spolium liquit ad astra volans c. Nec mirum post mortem tua limina Christe Angelicásque domos intravit aurea regna Divitias Paradise tuas fragrantia semper Gramina nitentes divinis floribus hortos Subjectásque videt nubes sidera coeli c. To Heav'n flown his Fleshy Robe lies here c. Nor is it much if after Death To Angels Mansions he admittance hath And of the Golden Kingdoms is possest And with thy Wealth O Paradise is blest Where ever-fragrant Verdures he may tread And Gardens with divinest Flow'rs or'espread And Clouds and Stars beneath him c. That of the Abbot ABRAHAM deceased the 15th of June about the year 480. in Auvergne Jam te circumstant Paradisi millia sacri Abraham jam te comperegrinus habet Jam patriam ingrederis sede qua decidit Adam Jam potes ad fontem fluminis ire tui c. Thousands of Paradise now round thee are With Abraham thy Fellow-traveller Thou art possessed of that whence Adam fell Thou mayst of thine own Streams go to the Well That which Ennodius the Deacon and afterwards Bishop of Pavia made in Honour of Bonus Exemplum terris linquens ad sidera raptus c. The World he leaves Taught by 's Example him the Sky receives That of Abundantius composed by the same Ennodius Non sentit damna Sepulchri c. Feels not the Losses of the Grave That of Rustica writ by the same Hand Purior aethereas graderis sine carne per arces c. Disrob'd of flesh thou walk'st th' ethereal Tow'rs That of Melissa due to the same Authour De vita ad vitam transitus iste placet c. From life to life to pass is my delight That whereby he celebrated the Memory of Victor Bishop of Novara Spiritus aetherea congaudet lucidus arce c. His lightsom Soul sports in the Starry Vault That which he hath left in Honour of Euphemia Mens niveis quà m bene juncta choris c. How well her minde suits with the snowy Quires Of Blessed Spirits That of Atolus of Rheims Contemporary with Saint Remy Proprium censum coelum transvexit in altum In quo suscepit quod miserendo dedit c. Praerutilum detinet ipse Polum Heav'ns Treasure he to Heav'n ha's reassign'd Where what he here in pity gave does finde c. Of Heaven he 's possest That of the Consul BOETHIUS Beheaded in the year 524. by the command of Thierry King of the Ostrogoths Probitas me vexit ad auras c. Ecce Boethus adest in coelo magnus c. My piety to Heaven me brought c. Behold in Heav'n the great Boethius is c. That of Petronius Corpus humo animam Christo Petroni dedisti Nam justae mentes foventur luce celesti Sidereásque colunt sedes mundóque fruuntur c. Thy Body earth does finde Thy Soul Petronius th' hast to Christ assign'd Just minds celestial Light surrounds the Sky Their Seat they onely what is pure enjoy That of Liberius Praefect of that Part of the Gauls now called Languedoc under Theodorick King of the Ostrogoths Cùm membra recedunt Nescit fama mori lucida vita manet c. Thy Limbs may rot Thy Fame remains a brighter Life's thy lot That of Pope FELIX the Fourth deceased February the 29th 528. Certa fides justis coelestia regna patere Antistes Felix quae modo laetus habet c. Felix in Heaven hath felicity Whose Courts unto the Just ev'r openly That of Florentinus Abbot of Saint Croix d'Arles deceased April the 25th Indict 1. in the 12th year after
the Consulship of Basilius that is to say in the year 553. Fulgida regna petens coelesti sorte vocatus Lucis aeternae penetrans fastigia laetus Optimus atque pius nunc Florentinus in isto Resplendot Tumulo c. Hinc celsa Poli capiens jam praemia felix Sanctorum socius fruitur cum laude coronam c. Good Florentinus fam'd for Piety Call'd hence by a celestial Lot does hy Joyfull to th' Palace of eternal Light Shining ev'n in his Tomb Heav'n's high rewards he happy does obtain And with the Saints an equal Crown does gain That of Pope PELAGIUS the First deceased March the 2d 559. Vivit in arce Poli coelesti luce beatus c. In th' Starry Tow'rs Blest with celestial light he spends his hours That of St. Germain of Paris deceased the 28th of March 576. Carne tenet Tumulum mentis honore Polum c. Jure triumphali considet arce Poli c. The Tomb with Flesh he fills the Heav'n his Mind Adorns c. He sits in Heav'n by a Triumphal right That of Chlodobert the Son of King Chilperïcus and Fredegonda Non fleat ullus amor quem modo cingit honor c. Perpetui regni se favet arce frui c. Whom Honour now surrounds no Love bewail c. He Joyes possess'd of the eternal Throne That of Dagobert Brother of Chlodobert Rapte Polis c. Lux tenet alta Throno c. To Heav'n snatch'd c. an Heav'nly light detains Him on the Throne That of Andrew of Caieta deceased in the year 585. Pande tuas Paradise fores sedémque beatam Andreae meritum suscipe Pontificis c. Quae meditata fides credita semper inhaesit Haec te usque ad coelos super astra tulit c. For Andrew's Merit open'd Heav'n prepare A blessed Seat The constant Faith which ever was in thee Hath rais'd thee above Heav'n's sublimity That of Gregory Bishop of Langres deceased January the 4th about the year 540. Post Tumulos implet honore Polos c. Nunc super Astra manet c. Death once o'recome he fills the Heav'n with praise c. His Mansion is above the Stars That of Tetricus Son and Successour of Gregory deceased about the year 570. Dignus in Astris Mentis honore nites Thou by an exc'llent mind Among the Stars to shine a place dost finde That of Evemerus Bishop of Nantes deceased about the year 550. Aeternum locum missus ad Astra tenet c. Felix ille abîit c. Sent to the Skies his everlasting Seat c. Blest man he 's gone That of the two Ruricius's Bishops of Limoges Grand-father Grand-childe the former deceased about the year 500 the later about the year 550. Inter Apostolicos credimus esse Choros c. Among th' Apostles we believe they are That of Chronopius Bishops of Perigueux deceased about the year 540. Tua Coelis stat sine labe domus c. Nunc tibi pro meritis est sine fine dies c. Thy House in Heaven stands c. For thy good Works an endless day 's thy lot That of Chalacterius or Cales Bishop of Chartres deceased the eighth of October about the year 570. Abreptus terris justus ad Astra redis c. Ad Paradisiacas Epulas te cive reducto Unde gemit mundus gaudet honore Polus c. Snatch'd from the Earth thou dost to Heav'n retire c. While thou at heav'nly Feasts art entertain'd The Earth bewails what Heaven hence ha's gain'd Where by what makes the Farth bewail must needs be understood the Translation of that Prelate into Glory That of Esocius Bishop of Limoges deceased about the year 580. Non decet hunc igitur vacuis deflere lamentis Post tenebras mundi quem tenet aula Poli c. Who this world darkness left to heav'n's Court 's gone Needs not our fruitless Lamentation That of Victorinus Abbot of Agaunum or St. Maurice de Chablais Contemporary with Esocius Nunc fruitur vultu quem cupiebat amor c. The Face which was the Object of his Love H 'as now the Bliss to see That of Hilarius the Priest Corpore qui terras tenet Astra Fide c. Whose Body Earth whose Faith the Skie contains That of Servilio Coelis gaudia vera tenet c. Raptus ab Orbe quidem laetus ad Astra redit c. He 's fill'd in Heav'n with certain Joys Snatch'd hence he joyfull to the Stars returns That of Praesidius Inter Angelicos fulget honore Choros c. Mong Quires of Angels he in honour shines c. That of Aegidius Nulli flendus erit quem Paradisus habet c. Whom Heav'n enjoys no man needs lament c. That of Basilius Patriam Coeli dulcis Amice tenes c. Of heav'n thy Countrey Friend thou art possess'd That of Avolus Gaudia Lucis habet Felix post Tumulos possidet ille Polos c. Luce perenè fruéns felix cui mortua mors est c. H enjoys the Joys of Light To Heav'n after death he blessed is transferr'd c. How happy he Who blest with light o're Death hath Victory That of Euphrasia the Wife of Namatius Bishop of Vienna deceased the seventeenth of November about the year 560. Inclyta Sydereo radias Euphrasia regno Nec mihi flenda manes nec tibi laeta places Terrae terra dedit sed Spiritus Astra recepit Pars jacet haec Tumulo pars tenet illa Polum c. Thou now Euphrasia shin'st in Heaven bright My grief no longer nor thy own delight Earth went to Earth the Stars her spirit have This part 's in Heav'n th' other in the Grave That of Vilithura the Wife of Dagulph Quae larga dedit haec modò plena metit c. What freely given was she fully reaps That of Queen Theodechilda the Daughter of Thierry King of Mets Son to the Great Clodoveus Felix cui meritis stat sine fine dies c. Happy whose Works eternal day attends That of Gelesventha second Wife of King Chilpericus the First Non hunc flere decet quam Paradisus habet c. T were ill the Blest in heaven to lament c. That of Eoladius of Nevers deceased about the year 570. Adventum gaudens sustinet hic Domini c. He glad expects the coming of the Lord. That of Pope Gregory the First deceased the 4th of March 604. Spiritus Astra petit c. Mercedem operum jam sine fine tenes c. His spirit to Heaven flies c. Thou of thy Works hast now thy endless Meed That of Vincent Abbot of Leon deceased the eleventh of March according to the Julian Period 668. or 630 after Christ Sua sacratenet anima coeleste His sacred Soul is in an heavenly Mansion c. Raptus ad aetherias subitò pervenit ad auras c. Snatch'd hence thou soon t' th' heav'nly parts
c. He rejoyces with the Angels in the Kingdom of heaven I acknowledg that the Opinion of Purgatory crept in among the Latines about the end of the sixth Age having by little and little gained credit many were easily induced to compose Epitaphs containing certain Wishes and Prayers for the Dead Yet did not their scrupulous manner of proceeding hinder any that would from attributing to them the possession of Celestial glory immediately upon their departure out of this life Thus the Epitaph of Pope Stephen the Sixth deceased the one and twentieth of May 891. hath these express Terms Aethera scandit spiritus almus ovans c. His milde Spirit ascends heaven triumphing That of the Kings Conrade the First Otho the First and Second and Zuentibold of Adalberon Bishop of Mets of Count Hugh and his Wife of the Countess Eve and her Sons of Arnoul and Rembal of Oudri Arch-Bishop of Rheims of Beatrix and Warin Abbot of Saint Arnoul de Mets express that their Souls In Coelis aeternâ pace fruuntur c. In heaven enjoy eternal Peace That of Reynold Abbot of S. Cyprian in Poictiers deceas'd in the year 1100. Rainaldi pars promptior Astra petivit c. Reynold's more willing part to heav'n is gone That of the Nun Benedicta Spiritus Astra tenet c. Of heav'n her Spirit 's possest That of Ranulphus the Priest her Contemporary Protinus ad Superos carne solutus abis c. Spiritus ecce tuus gaudens fuper Astra perennat c. Flesh once lay'd by to heav'n thou streight dost go c. Thy Spirit above eternal Joy attends Again Dans animam Coelo reddidit ossa solo c. To heav'n thy soul to earth thy bones return That of King Philip the First deceased in the year 1108. Augusti ternis conscendit in aeth'ra Kalendis c. He on the third of the Calends Of August unto heav'n ascends That of Reynold de Martigni Arch-Bishop of Rheims deceased in the year 1137. Hunc duodena dies Februi praeeuâ—do Kalendas Destituit mundo substituitque Polo c. On January's one and twentieth day He left the world and went to heav'n to stay That of Gerald first Abbot of Selue-Majour in Bourdelois deceased in the year 1094. the sixth of April En felix anima Coeli laetatur in Aula c. Coelorum civis dormîit in Domino c. Liber Coelos spiritus obtinuit c. Spiritus Abbatis vindicat Astra sibi c. Spiritus alta tenet c. His blissfull soul in Heav'n rejoycing is c. Heav'n's Citizen rests in the Lord c. His unconfin'd spirit in Heav'n is fix'd c. The Abbot's soul does challenge heav'n c. His spirit is on high That of Berenger Arch-Deacon of St. Maurice's of Anger 's deceased the sixth of January 1088. In Jano patuit tibi Janua vitae c. In Janus Moneth Life's Gate receiv'd thee And again Coelos animâ corpore ditat humum c. His Body Earth his Soul does Heav'n enrich That of the Empress Agnes deceased the 14th of December 1077. Die XIV Mensis Decembris animam bonis operibus foecundam Lateranis Salvatori suo atque omnium bonorum Authori reddidit hic quintâ die Mensis Januarii expectans spem Beatae Resurrectionis adventum Magni Dei membra carnis commendavit in pace Amen Vpon the fourteenth of December at Lateran she returned to her Saviour and God the Authour of all good things her soul fruitfull in good Works and on the fifth of January she recommended to this place her fleshly Members expecting the hope of a blessed Resurrection and the coming of the Great God Amen That of Bruno first General of the Carthusians deceased the sixth of October 1101. Ossa manent Tumulo Spiritus Astra petit c. Earth hath his bones to heav'n his spirit flies That of Geoffrey Bishop of Amiens deceased the eighth of November 1118. Hic jacet Astra petens c. Here going to Heav'n he lies That of Peter of Placentia Cardinal Terra suum Corpus Animámque recepit Olympus The Earth his body Heav'n his soul receiv'd That of Burohard Arch-Bishop of Vienna deceased about the year 1035. August the twenty ninth Cum quo perpetuò pace viget placidâ c. Sanctus Spiritus Astra petit c. Curribus ignicomis ad Superos gereris c. With him he lives in undisturbed peace c. His Holy Spirit to Heav'n flies c. In fiery Chariots to Heav'n thou' rt convey'd That of Alberic Arch-bishop of Bourges deceased in the year 1140. Modò major in arce Polorum c. In Heav'n he greater is That of Peter Leo in the year 1144. Junius in Mundo fulgebat Sole secundo Separat hunc nobis cùm Polus atque Lapis c. June's second day shone bright when joyless we Lost him between Earth and Felicity That of Peter Bishop of Poictiers deceased in the year 1115. unjustly reduced by Cardinal Baronius to the year 1130. Nunc dives liber stabilis sua praemia Christum Astra petit sequitur possidet iste Petrus c. Promovit privavit eum profugúmque recepit Papa Comes Christus ordine sede Polo c. This Peter rich freed firm rewards Christ Heav'n Now seeks pursues possesses freely giv'n c. A Pope Count Christ him rais'd depriv'd with love Receiv'd to Prelacy of 's See above That of Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury Assassinated the nine and twentieth of July 1170. Ab Orbe Pellitur fructus incipit esse Poli c. Forc'd hence in Heav'n he begins to grow That of Stephen Bishop of Meaux deceased the 12th of January 1187. Liber vivit terrâ divisus Astris Quae dederat Coelum Terráque solvit eis c. He freely lives 'tween Heav'n and Earth bestow'd And pay'd what unto Heaven and Earth he ow'd That of Robert Arch-bishop of Vienna deceased in the year 1195. June the seven and twentieth Junius aethereis mensis te reddidit oris c. Thee to thy Heav'nly Countrey June hath brought That of Mauricius Bishop of Paris deceased the eleventh of September 1196. Migrat Parisii Pater ad patriam Paradisi Mauricius c. Father of Paris Mauricius is hence To Paradise transferr'd That of Humbert Arch-bishop of Vienna deceased the twentieth of November 1125. Spiritus aeth'ra Praesulis Umberti petit c. The Prelat Umbert's Soul to Heav'n is gone That of Raoul Bishop of Arras deceased in the year 1220. Coeli Civis meritorum pondere vivis c. The weight of thy Good Works do thee sustain Thou Citizen of Heav'n That of Peter of Doway Arch-bishop of Sens deceased the twelfth of June 1222. Qui Spei certae suberat modò cernit apertè c. Who what he surely hop'd now clearly sees That of Hervey Bishop of Troyes deceased July the second 1223. Reddo Polo Spiritum ossa Solo c. My soul to heav'n my bones to
Souls which the Church of Rome pretends to be so confined in her Purgatory that they cannot merit there much less be converted to God He takes for good the Testimony of Origene who believed not any Pains eternal and that of St. Gregory Nyssenus who was lightly led away into that Errour He summons in also Ephraim Deacon of Eâ—…a Diadochus Bishop or Photice Maximus and Oecumenius who speak of no other Fire then that of the last Conflagration Synesius Bishop of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica who Treats of the Pains inflicted by Devils and consequently of those of the damned Procopius of Gaza who proposing to us a Purgative Fire which the Seraphim brings from Heaven to Earth to sanctifie as well the Ministers of the Church as the sinners for whom they pray clearly discovers he never thought on the Romish Purgatory which does not sanctifie any one and which cannot be in Heaven for this very Reason that it is placed in Hell Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople who speaks of the Efficacy of our Saviour's Passion to deliver out of Limbus those whom Antiquity believed to have been there confined in expectation of his coming as also of the Purgatory of those who die daily says nothing to his purpose He makes great ostentation of a Fragment unjustly attributed to Theodoret which is not to be found any where in his Works of Gennadius Scholarius drawn into the Church of Rome's Party by the Caresses and kindnesses of Pope Eugenius the Fourth and of Zagazabo an Abyssine Bishop whom the Portuguez deceitfull Interpreters of his Sentiments made to say what they pleased directly contrary to the common Belief of his Countrey-men He further brings in the Depositions of that Impostour who had in the year 1595. taken upon him the Name of Gabriel Patriarch of the Cofti and who hath been since acknowledged by the Doctours of the Church of Rome to be what he was as also those of Hypatius Arch-Bishop of the Black-Russians who to comply with the King of Poland Father of the last-deceased had submitted to the Church of Rome and in consequence thereof had made such a profession of Faith as she desired he should In a word he shuffles together all he met with of one I know not what Eusebius of Alexandria unknown to Antiquity of Eusebius of Caesarea of the Arabian Canons of Timothy of Alexandria of St. Epiphanius of Palladius of John sirnamed Cassian of Justine Justinian and Leo the Wise Emperours of John sirnamed Climacus of Gregory the Priest of Leontius of Sophronius of Damascene of Anastasius of Simeon Metaphrastes of Constantine sirnamed Manasses of Nicetas of Nicholas Cabasilas of Athanasius of Constantinople of Nicephorus Gregoras of the Greeks deputed to the Councel of Basil of those who reside at Venice and of Jeremy Patriarch of Constantinople not omitting any of the Authours alleged by Cardinal Bellarmine and never minding whether from any one of the Testimonies he draws from this long Catalogue of Witnesses any thing more can be gathered then Prayer for the dead Then turning to the Latine Fathers and bringing in all those whom Cardinal Bellarmine had cited he produces over and above Arnobius who simply says that the Church prays for all both living and dead and Zeno of Verona blaming the VVidows who by their lamentations interrupt the prayers whereby the Souls of their deceased Husbands are recommended to God and shews even in that that he thought they no way deserved those lamentations which yet were but the just and necessary Effects of the compassion of the living if they presupposed with any certainty of their departed Friends that they burn in an Infernal Fire Besides all this he shuffles in the Depositions of Lactantius of Hilarius the Deacon of Eucherius of Lyons of Caesarius of Arles and of Boethius who speaks of the Conflagration of the World at the Last day of Prudentius who speaks of the Hell of the damned of Philip the Priest who Treats Of the Absolution and Remission of Sins which shall be solemnly given to every Believer at the Last day of St. Hilary of Poictiers who discourses Of the Tribulations of this Life of Bacchiarius who to confute those who made any difficulty to allow the peace of the Church to their Brethren that were fallen alledges the care which Saul's Concuhine had taken of the bodies of his children hanged upon occasion of the Gibeonites and that of Judas Maccabaeus for those of his Army who after their Death had been found seized of the prey taken in the Temple of Jamnia of Primasius and Faustus Religious Men of the Monastery of St. Maurus who are pleased to approve Prayers and Offerings for the dead and to give us good measure when we are to be cheated he cites us a Writing lately Fathered on Pope Sixtus the Third an Homily of the Lord's Supper stuffed with passages out of St. Hilary St. Hierome St. Augustine St. Prosper Isidore of Sevil Bede and Alcuin and consequently unjustly attributed to Saint Eloy deceased the first of December 663. before the birth of Bede who was more antient by Fifty years then Alcuin the Commentary which Sedulius not as he thinks the antient who writ the Opus Paschale but another of the same Nation dressed up since the year 700. out of the Writings and abundance of other Authours of later date whom I forbear to bring into the Accompt out of a consideration that in regard they lived since St. Gregory and have had a great Veneration for the Writings and Authority of that Renowned Prelate it may be they might have some Thoughts of the Purgatory whereof he was the first Founder when they writ what is alledged out of them though they contain not any formal mention thereof So that to make good the Protestant Cause against the Church of Rome it is sufficient if I maintain First That she hath nothing expresly affirmed on the behalf of her Purgatory among the Latines before Gregory the First Secondly That that onely reflection may give the more simple light enough to comprehend that that Point of Doctrine being so new that it was not known for the space of six Ages together even among the Doctours of the Western Church who have not neither any one of them in particular nor all together anything determinate to induce the reception of it and justifie that they had received it can by no means be an Article of Faith Thirdly That such as alledge unto us the Greeks who never believed nor can to this day believe what is proposed to them concerning it by the Church of Rome deal very unhandsomly and are more worthy reproach then refutation which their Supposition doth not deserve And lastly That Coccius who hath made no difficulty to bring in as Witnesses the Greeks sojourning at Venice and Jeremy Patriarch of Constantinople who in those very Places which he cites deny what he pretends to prove did not any way consider what he ought either his own Cause or the sincerity of
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
earth I leave That of Bernard of Suilli Bishop of Auxerre deceased the sixth of January 1246. Meruit Christo se reddere Mundum c. He undefil'd returns to Christ That of Philip Arch-bishop of Bourges deceased the sixth of January 1260. Sacratâ sede sedentis Philippi Bituris ossa beata jacent c. Of Philip Prelate of the sacred See The blessed Bones at rest in Bourges be That of Reinold of Corbeil Bishop of Paris deceased the seventh of June 1268. Fatali ad Superos sorte vocatus obit c. Call'd by the fatal Lot to heav'n he goes That of Guermond de la Boissiere Bishop of Noyon deceased in the year 1272. Cum Christo scandit in Astra c. With Christ he heav'n ascends That of William de Chanac Bishop of Paris deceased the third of May 1348. Transivit ad atria lucis c. He to the Courts of Light is gone That of William de Boisratier Arch-bishop of Bourges deceased the nineteenth of July 1421. Carne subactus homo sidera mente rapit c. Who weak in Flesh in Spirit the Stars transcends That of John Des Charliers sirnamed Gerson Chancellour of the University of Paris deceased the twelfth of July 1424. Petit Superos c. He goes to them above That of Peter de Fontenay Bishop of Nevers deceased the third of June 1499. Pius aethereo spiritus axe viget c. His pious Soul lives in the Skies That of Peter Carre deceased after the year 1509. January the fifth Mens fruitur Coelis c. His minde does heav'n enjoy It would have been no hard matter to have produced many Epitaphs more to the same Effect but the precedent may suffice to force the most prepossessed with their own Apprehensions to acknowledg that even those who lived since the Opinion of Purgatory became more common have upon occasions by their using the Expression of the more Antient discovered that they followed their Sentiment and were fully perswaded that as to those who died in the Profession of Christianity and had not lead a wicked Life without Repentance their Glory and Felicity was not any way retarded but that immediately upon their departure they are ascended to heaven above the Stars above the Skies in the Courts of Light and Glory in Abraham's Bosom in Eternal Peace in Paradise c. which is as much as could be said of the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Evangelists Martyrs and the most eminent Confessours So that as to this particular there is no Distinction to be made of either Ecclesiasticks or Laicks Males or Females Kings Princes Lords or private Persons Which Consideration should me thinks have some influence on their spirits who prepossessed with the contrary Sentiment and carried away with the Torrent of the common Errour imagine that an immediate admission to Beatitude is to be restrained onely to those Persons whose Names by reason of the great reputation of their Sanctity are put into the Martyrologies of the Church of Rome and whose Spirits are by those of her Communion invocated as Patrons of the Living For the Epitaphs of the Prefect Probus of the Consul Boëthius of Queen Gelesventha of the Kings Ceadwalla Zuentibold Conrad Otho Father and Son and Philip the First who never passed in their time for Saints and such as were Exemplary for Mortification and extraordinary Piety justifie that the conceptions according to which some at present would have Christian People directed either were not then framed or seemed not such as deserved great credit Upon which accompt it is I should wish that the maintainers of the Opinion now in vogue would vouchsafe to take the business earnestly into their thoughts and afford us but one Example sufficient to satisfie us that during the first six Centuries of Christianity any one had embraced it with so much resolution as that he durst express his perswasion in the Inscription of the Tombs of his deceased Friends For though we are not to live by Examples but by Laws nor obliged absolutely to depend on the Authority and Actions of any man whatsoever yet had we such as were Antient we neither might nor would refuse to entertain them with the esteem due thereto though it were onely to divert us from speaking so disadvantageously in respect of those who follow them that we equally deny them both Truth and Antiquity not seeing any reason inducing us to grant that the first Ages were imbued with a Belief whereof there appears not any Track in the Monuments they have left us as also supposing as there seems reason to do that it is impossible to perswade men guided by common sense that the Christians of Antiquity should conspire in the same imaginations with those who live in the Communion of the Modern Church of Rome and not any one among them upon any occasion whatsoever vouchsafe to make the least discovery of what he thought CHAP. XLI Of the Prayers contained in the Epitaphs of the Faithfull whom the Surviving presupposed already received into Glory ALthough the Prayer which is dayly made at the Celebration of the Mass for the Faithfull departed cannot any way be accommodated to the Opinion of Purgatory which the present Church of Rome numbers among the Articles of her Faith Though there be not any ground to attribute to the State of the Souls which they pretend confined in a place of extreme Torment the Name of Sleep much less to attribute to the conflict of those Souls condemned by the absolute rigour of Heaven's Justice to the incomprehensible sufferance of that Torment which is inflicted on them by way of Punishment for the sins they have committed meriting and incurring by those Transgressions the displeasure of the God of Glory the Title of Sleeping a Sleep of Peace Though the dolefull resenting so great Pain as that of an Infernal Fire cannot in those that are to endure it consist with any kinde of Sleeping nor suffer them to be in Peace while they are overwhelmed by the wrath of the Living God and by the weight of his Hand into which St. Paul tells us it is a fearfull thing to fall In a word though from all what hath been hitherto represented it necessarily results that according to the constant Belief of Antiquity for six Ages the eternal Glory and Felicity of the Faithfull dying in the Lord is not at all deferred after the moment of their departure Yet since the Christians who now live in the Communion of the Church of Rome might think that the Prayers which are found in certain Epitaphs express something not dissonant from the Sentiment she maintains it lyes upon us in order to their undeceiving First To make a report of the said Epitaphs Secondly To make it appear that there neither follows nor can follow any thing from them in as much as those very Epitaphs expresly presupposed the admission of those to whose Memory they were dedicated into Life and celestical Glory And Thirdly To make