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
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
for his Funeral-Oration and to stop their Mouths tell them that he denied not he had been there but that it was onely to take a Glass of Wine as he passed by which Discourse was to them an absolute Put-off and caused them to be laughed at whereever they came CHAP. XLII Of the true Motives which the Antients had to Pray for the Blessed Saints in Heaven BUt not further to mention Baldric or the Bishop of Mascon it will be demanded what Motive enclined those who since the year 500. are found to have made Prayers for the Dead to do so And here I am willing to acknowleg that there was no more noise of the Opinion which had so much distracted the Spirits of Christians of the Second and Third Age deceived by the Pretended Sibylline Writing and presupposing that all Souls without exception descended to Hell were there confined till the Resurrection of their Bodies and exposed not onely to the temptations but also to the violences of Evil Spirits which to prove Justine Martyr alledged to Trypho the Jew the pretended raising of Samuel by the Witch of En-dor For though the most antient Prayers as for Instance those which St. Augustine made for his Mother seem to have been drawn up by that Precedent and that the Libera if it be applied to the Departed rather then to the Faithfull in Agonies and preparing themselves for death requires we should think they were yet had they even from the Time of Tertullian seventy years or thereabouts after the first coming abroad of the Sibylline Writing so called begun to exempt the Martyrs from the necessity of descending into Hell and so by little and little the minds of the Christians strugling with and overcoming the Imposture that first Hypothesis was cast out of doors yet so as that it was done without a rejection of the Forms which those who maintained it had introduced into the Publick Service of the Church And thence comes it that St. Ambrose prays for his Brother Satyrus saying Tibi nunc omnipotens Deus innoxiam commendo animam c. Now O Almighty God I recommend unto thee his innocent soul And for Valentinian the Second and Gratian in these words Hîc adhuc intercessionem c. Should I still make Intercession here for him to whom I dare promise a reward Put into my hands the sacred Mysteries let us with a devout affection demand rest for him give me the celestial Sacraments let us attend his religious soul with our Oblations Lift up your hands with me in the Sanctuary O ye People to the end at least that by this Present we may recompense his merits c. No night shall go over my head but that I will make you some present of my prayers in all my Visitations I shall remember you c. And for the Great Theodosius Praesumo de Domino c. I so far presume of the Lord that he will hear the voyce of my cry wherewith I attend thy pious soul c. Grant perfect rest unto thy servant Theodosius even that rest which thou hast prepared for thy Saints May his soul return thither whence it descended where he cannot feel the sting of death where he may be satisfied that this death is the end not of Nature but of sin c. From which Prayers it is to be observed by the way First That this Holy Prelate expressing that he considered not his prayers for Valentinian who died a Catechumen but a Person very Religious and truly inclined to Piety as an Office whereof he stood in need but as a simple Effect of his good Wishes manifestly discovers that not any one of the Faithfull departed in the Lord stands in any necessity of the suffrages of the surviving and accordingly that the Protestants who believe that in matter of Religion nothing should be attempted without the express order of God himself speaking in his Word cannot be accompted criminals for their declining an act which is not even in their Judgment who practised it of any necessity or any way beneficial to those for whom the voluntary devotion or Will-worship of men designs it Secondly That St. Ambrose who calls the Eucharist celebrated in memory of Valentinian and upon his occasion a Present which he makes his Friend and by which he requites him could not have believed it to be either the Body of the Son of God or the Offering-up of that Body or in general a Propitiatory Sacrifice properly so called For who could without an impious Absurdity imagine that the real Body of our Saviour should be so much at our disposal as that we might make Presents of it to our Friends c. that the Proper Oblation of the same Body being infinitely more precious then we or any thing that can proceed from us is or could be a supplement which we adjoyn to our Prayers for our Friends and that this kind of Present is as the meanest kindness we can do them so as that we might say with St. Ambrose that at least by that Present we requite them It seems then he pretended not to do what the Church of Rome thinks to do at this day in the Masses of Requiem For she professes to present the Oblation she makes therein whatever it may be not to the deceased for whom she prays but onely to God for or on the behalf of the deceased She conceives also that her Host which she believes to be properly and really the Body of the Son of God surpasses in value not onely our Prayers but what ever is most excellent either in Earth or in Heaven among the Angels and Spirits of the glorified Saints And though she who cannot endure the Protestants because they are unwilling to submit their Consciences to any other Rule then that of Faith contained in the Sacred Scriptures hath born in her Bosom and suffered unreproved those inconsiderate Children who have had the boldness to write that the solemn Sacrifice might be offered to Creatures As when the Authour of the great Chronicle of the Low-Countries thrust in this into his History that on the 27th of October 1467. Charles last Duke of Burgundy who conquered the People about Liege Ecclesiae Lovaniensis universo Clero commisit omnipotenti Deo suaeque sanctae Genitrici offerre suo nomine sacrificium c. gave express Order to all the Clergy of the Church of Lovain to offer unto Almighty God and to his most Holy Mother the solemn Sacrifice in his name never considering either that the Oblation of the solemn Sacrifice is by the confession of all the act of Latria and sovereign adoration due to God alone as being the most proper Object and most worthy of it nor that the most Holy Mother of our Lord though blessed according to the saying of the Angel among Women never ceased being a Creature and that she is such now in Heaven as much as she was before she was crowned with Glory or
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
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
cunctipotens animae c. Pardon thy Soul he whom all things obey he takes him for an Intercessour as he in requital Prays for him saying Oramus pro te pro nobis quaesumus ora c. We pray for thee thou us thy Pray'rs afford And elsewhere he lays it down as certain that the one and twentieth of January the day of his Decease Destituit Mundo substituitque Polo Snatch'd him from hence to place him in the Skie which cannot stand without his being received into Heaven In those of Howel Bishop of Mans deceased in the year 1129. and of the Abbot Joel having said Morte pari modicò Deus attigit ambos Ut sint translati Sidera magna Poli c. In equal death God did them both conjoyn Translated hence in Heav'n great Stars to shine A Discourse representing them already possessed of Celestial Glory and and particularly of the former Coram Sancto Vota vovent Tumulo c. Before his Tomb their Vows they pour Whence it follows that they took him for their Patron and must of necessity think him in Happiness Yet does he nevertheless pray for him saying Praesulis obtineat Spiritus Astra Poli c. May Heav'n the Prelate's Soul obtain as if contrary to his precedent Protestations he had thought him at a great distance from it In those of Audebert Abbot of Bourg-dieux and Arch-Bishop of Bourges deceased in the year 1098. he is very liberal of his Wishes as Communem Patrem communi tangite voto Ut det Pastori sedem super aethera vestro Again Audeberte vale sit pax tibi lúxque perennis Again In Domino requiem Spiritus inveniat c. Omnipotens animam Pontificis foveat c. To th' common Father your joynt Vows address That he your Pastour bring to happiness c. Audebert be well Eternal peace and light Thy Portion be May's Soul in God finde rest Kindely may God the Prelate's soul receive Who hearing him talk after this rate would not say that he were out of Heaven deprived of light peace and rest But look upon the Reverse of the Medal and you shall finde he looks on him as his Patron already possessed of Heaven saying Tu Pater à Superis saepe revise tuos c. Vadis te Christo per idonea signa vocante Et velut emerito tibi praemia digna parante Omni momento nostrî Patrone memento Et succurre gregi mortali morte redempto Again Nunc quoque cum Christo nos saepè revisat ab alto Thou Father from on high revisit thine c. By Christ hence As a discharged Champion thou art Of great rewards call'd to receive thy Part O Patron ever-mindfull of us be And those relieve whom mortal death set free With Christ from Heav'n often revisit us What could he have said more to St. Peter or St. Paul according to the Theologie of that Time In that of William Bishop of Engoulesm having invited those of his Diocess to worship his Body he advises them to pray for him Artus venerare Paternos Dic quoque Transcendat Gulielmi Spiritus Astra Thy Father's body having worship'd pray That William's soul to Heav'n may finde the way What could have been more ridiculous then to have perswaded People to the Veneration of a Body whose Spirit should at the same time have been in a place of Pain and deprived of Glory In that of Gerald of Orleans he says Datur hîc sua portio Terrae Spiritus in tenues vivens elabitur auras Cui tamen è rebus lutulentis si quid inhaesit Expediat totum clemens miseratio Christi His Precibus Lector Amen adjiciendo faveto Here Earth hath had her share The Spirit lives dissolv'd to subtile Air Which yet if stain'd with ought terrestrial May Christ in his great Mercy pardon all T advance these Prayers Reader Amen let fall Since then he conceived that at the fall of the Body when it became the portion of the Earth the Spirit lived and was escaped who sees not that he believed it to be in some other place then that of a grievous punishment and that the Prayer he afterward makes tends rather to assure the Expiation of his Offences then to implore it for him in as much as the Mercy of God is not communicated after death but to those who obtained it while they lived In that of Durand Bishop of Cler-mont deceased the nineteenth of November 1095. during the time of the Councel or Croisado for the Conquest of the Holy Sepulchre was published he exhorts the People of Auvergn to worship him and thereby declares him to be in Happiness saying Arvernus sanctos cineres reverenter habeto Atque Patrocinio tutior esto suo Worship his sacred ashes Cler-mont and Thou shalt in his protection safer stand In those of Gerald Abbot of Selue Majour in Bourdelois he is yet more excessive as hath been observed in the precedent Chapter And though the Prayers he makes in the Epitaphs of his other Friends as Reynold Clere Guy Raoul Clerembant William of Mont-soreau Berenger Arch-Deacon of Anger 's Froden of Anger 's Peter Dean of Dol Reinould Canon of Poictiers Geoffrey of Rheims Alexander of Tours Eriland Peter Prior Eudes Abbot of St. John d'Angely Raoul Arch-Deacon of Poictiers Chevalier Bouchard Chevalier Rahier the Countess Osanna Guy Tourangeau William Abbot of Bourgueil and Herard of Loudun though I say those Prayers might presuppose the Belief of Purgatory yet since they are consistent with the other Presuppositions and that Baldric made the like for Persons whom he believed crowned with Glory in Heaven it cannot be safely concluded that he ever intended to apply any one of them to the common Opinion current in his Time and which the Church of Rome maintains at this day The same is to be said of those who after him and to this present have declared and do declare according to the Custom of the Church of Rome and even in her Communion that the Persons whose Memory they have celebrated by their Verses and Sepulchral Inscriptions are in Happiness and possessed of celestial Glory For though they do not openly impugn the Opinion of Purgatory as the Protestants do and though they use such Expressions as might seem to maintain it yet do they not oblige themselves to maintain it in Effect and without any injury done them it may be taken for certain that they believed no more of it then the Reverend Peter Chastellain Bishop of Mascon who having on the three and twentieth of May 1547. advanced into Glory the great King Francis and scandalized the College of Sorbonne which looked on his Discourse as a Piece of Lutheranism flatly contradicting the common Opinion of Purgatory and demanded of him either the formal Retractation or Explication of it thought it satisfaction enough to give the Complainers and that in the presence of King Henry the Second and all his Court a Jest instead of an Apologie
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
Beatitude writing in the nine and twentieth Homily upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Without the flesh the soul shall not receive those unspeakable goods in like manner shall she not also be punished c. If the body be not raised again the soul remains uncrowned deprived of that Beatitude which is in the Heavens c. And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. You also think what and how great a thing it is that Abraham and the Apostle Paul should sit down till such time as thou shalt be accomplished to the end that then they might receive their reward for if we also are not arrived the Saviour hath foretold that he would not give it c. What shall Abel do who overcame first of all and is sate down without being Crowned Thirdly From what is said by Prudentius who speaking of the Martyrs of Saragossa seems to deny their Souls admission into Heaven saying Sub Altari sita sempiterno turba c. The company seated under the Eternal Altar To which may be added that St. Augustine not content to have said That after this life ended we shall not be there where the Saints shall be as if he could not have designed by its proper Name the place of the Soul's habitation is forced in several places to make use of the most general Term of all viz. that of Receptacles And to that that of Paulinus who in his Epitaph upon Clarus as if he knew not where to assign him Entertainment makes this Discourse to him Sive Patrum sinibus recubas Dominive sub ara Conderis aut sacro pasceris in nemore Qualibet in regione Poli situs aut Paradisi Clare sub aeternâ pace quietus agis c. Whether in th' Patriarch's Bosom thou remain 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 hast got Clarus eternal Peace and Rest's thy Lot But all this is not enough to induce me to subscribe to the disadvantageous Censure given by Stapleton who not making any distinction of either Times or Persons or Expressions durst attribute to all Antiquity what the Authour of the pretended Sibylline Writing had perswaded those who had first consulted it Nor do I see that from the places above cited it may rigorously be inferred that the Fathers out of whose Writings they are extracted delayed the Beatitude of the Saints till after the Day of Judgment For though the words of Sain◠Ambrose seem to bear that they expect their Happiness with uncertainty and doubtfully yet he neither understood nor could have understood it so since that in the second of the places objected to him he writes that the Soul of the Faithfull Person departed Non busto tenetur sed quiete piâ fungitur c. is not detained upon the Funeral Pile where the Body had been consumed but enjoys a pious Rest His design then as it was also St. Chrysostom's who means by the Bosom of the Fathers the Kingdom of Heaven was to have it understood that the supreme Happiness and absolute accomplishment of the glory of the Saints departed was to be a Consequence of the Resurrection and Last Judgment at which time the souls already in Glory shall receive their true Crowns in the remuneration promised to compleat Persons whereof they before made the principal part and that in expectation of the Judgment which shall fully consummate their Glory they remain in suspense not as uncertain of the effect it shall produce but as ignorant of the time when it shall please God that so admirable an Event shall come to pass So that his particular Judgment reaches no further then that the souls freed from their bodies are transmitted to Hell but simply supposes that as to the Heathen it was enough to say so much As for Prudentius and Paulinus their conception of the Eternal Altar is not after a gross but after a refined and mystical manner Prudentius saying of the blessed souls that they shall rest in the Bosom of the blessed Old man where Lazarus is and in Paradise And Paulinus expressly declaring of Clarus Libera corporeo mens carcere gaudet in Astris Pura probatorum sedem sortita piorum c. Spiritus aethere gaudet Discipulúmque pari sociat super astra Magistro c. Among the Just his Habitation is Of Body freed possess'd of Heav'nly Bliss c. His soul to Heav'n is gone The Scholar to the Master 's equal grown So that according to these two Authours to rest under the Eternal Altar in the Bosom of Abraham in Paradise in Heaven above the Stars is one and the same thing as to the effect and design though by divers expressions the Beatitude and Glory of the children of God as well in general as in particular CHAP. XXXIV The Uniformity of the Sentiment of the Fathers and of the Protestants I Add that most of the Fathers who lived after Tertullian what Expressions soever they may make use of were of a Sentiment consonant to what is at the present held by the Protestants and firmly maintained that all the Souls of those of whose Names there was a Commemoration made in the Service of the Church were at the very hour of their death conveyed to the enjoyment of their Rest and Glory Hence was it that St. Cyprian even in the year 252. resolutely pronounces De istis mundi turbinibus extracti c. Having escaped the Tempests of this World we make towards the secure Haven of an eternal Mansion c. We are not to put on Mourning-Garments here when they there have already put on their White Robes c. It is not a departure but a passage and the Temporal journey being at an end a transportation towards the things That are Eternal c. Let us embrace the day which assigns to every one his own Mansion which restores us taken away hence and disingaged from the snares of this World to Paradise and the celestial Kingdom c. Again Lucrum maximum c. exemptum pressuris-urgentibus venenatis Diaboli faucibus liberatum ad laetitiam salutis aeternae Christo vocante prosicisci c. It is an exceeding great advantage c. to go Christ calling us to the Joys of Eternal Salvation after we are freed from those pressures which lie heavy upon us and delivered from the poisonous jaws of the Devil To the same effect Origene about fifteen years before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We hope to be above the Heavens after the Combats and Troubles which we have run through here St. Basil in the following Age about the year 370. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An eternal Rest is proposed to those who shall have lawfully maintained the Combat of the Life which is here St. Gregory Nazianzene in his tenth Oration pronounced about the year 369. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 c. I am perswaded by the Discourses of Wise men that every Soul which is good and loved of God after that being disengaged from the Body to which she was conjoyned she is retired hence that which clouded her being as it were purged or layed down or I know not how to express it immediately having a resentment of and in the contemplation of the happiness she is to be advanced to is in the possession of an admirable Pleasure and rejoyceth and joyfully passeth towards her Lord shunning as a loathsom Prison this present Life St. Epiphanius the most zealous Maintainer of Prayer for the Dead speaking about the year 375. of the closure of this Life and the consequences of it in relation to the Faithfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The time is accomplished the Combat is at an end the Lists are cleared and the Crowns are bestowed Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All is manifestly accomplished after the departure hence St. Chrysostome between the years 390. and 404. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Those who have carefully spent their Lives in the exercises of Virtue after they shall have been transported out of the present life shall truly be as if they had obtained a dismission after the Combats and as delivered out of Bonds for there is for those who live virtuously a certain transportation from worse things to better and from a temporal to a perpetual and immortal life and such as shall have no end Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Faithful depart to go with Christ and are with the King face to face Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After Death is once come then is the Wedding then is the Spouse Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be of good courage when thou art cut off by death for it exempts thee not onely from corruption and trouble but it also sends thee immediately to the Lord. And elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consider towards whom the departed Person is gone and take comfort thence there Paul is there Peter is there is the whole Quire of the Saints Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We give thanks unto God that he hath moreover crowned him who is departed hence that he hath exempted him from all troubles that delivering him out of all fear he keeps him near himself St. Augustine giving an account of the common Sentiment of the Churches of Africk about the year 400. Moritur aliquis Dicimus Bonus homo fidelis homo in pace est cum Domino c. Does any one dy We say The Good man The Faithfull man is in Peace with the Lord. Which shews that the Christians of that Time were fully perswaded of what Pope Pelagius the First about one hundred and fifty years after caused to be inserted into the Canon of the Mass viz. that Those who die in Christ sleep in Peace The Questions unjustly attributed to Justine Martyr since the Authour was contemporary with St. Augustine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Souls of the Saints are conveyed to Paradise there is the conversation there the sight of the Angels St. Cyril of Alexandria about the year 420. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I conceive it ought and that very probably to be held for certain that the Souls of the Saints leaving their earthly Bodies are for the most part committed to the indulgence and Philanthropie of God as resigned into the hands of a most loving Father and not as some Unbelievers suspect that they love to walk among dead men's Graves expecting Sepulchral Libations much less that they go as those of such as have loved sin to a place of unmeasurable Torment that is to Hell They rather run to be received into the hands of the Father of all and our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath also consecrated this way for us for he commended his Soul into the hands of his Father that we also taking Example thence as in it and by it may entertain noble hopes as being in that firm disposition and belief that having undergone the death of the Flesh we may be in the hands of God and in a better condition then when we were in the Flesh Whence it also comes that the wise Paul writes unto us that it is far better to be dissolved and to be with Christ Prosper about the year 450. Post hanc vitam succedit pugnae secura victoria ut Milites Christi laboriosâ jam peregrinatione transactâ regnent felices in patria c. After this life ended certain Victory is consequent to the Combat that the Souldiers of Christ their laborious Pilgrimage being over might reign happily in their Countrey c. Gennadius about the year 490. Exeuntes de corpore ad Christum vadunt c. The Faithful dislodging out of the Body go to Christ Andrew of Caesarea about the year 800. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The voice from Heaven does not beatifie all the Dead but those who die in the Lord those who are mortified to the World and bear in their Bodies the mortification of the Lord Jesus and who suffer with Christ for to those the departure out of the body is truly a releasment from labours To conclude of the same Sentiment was Aretas about the year 930. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon the vanishing away of Labours shall be introduced the reward of Works CHAP. XXXV The Sentiment of the Protestants further proved by the Description which the Father 's made of Abraham's Bosom FRom the Harmony of all the precedent Testimonies it may justly be inferred that according to the constant Doctrine of the Christian Church from the year 250. those who die in the Lord are with him and that to them the time which follows this life is a time of joy and marriage which from the moment of their Death brings them into the company of the Saints and Angels in the Paradise of God where they live and are in peace and are crowned and reign with him The same thing may be also deduced from the Description which the Fathers unanimously make of Abraham's Bosom the place assigned by all Christian Antiquity for the entertainment of the Souls of the Faithful after this Life For St. Gregory Nazianzene places it in Heaven saying to his Brother Caesarius who had dyed not long before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Mayst thou go to Heaven c. and rest in the Bosom of Abraham In like manner St. Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He named Bosom of Abraham for the Kingdom St. Ambrose tells us that Sinus Patriarcharum recessus quidam est requietis aeternae c. The Bosom of the Patriarchs is a certain retirement of Eternal Rest St. Augustine Sinus Abrahae requies est Beatorum c. The Bosom of Abraham is the rest of the Blessed Again Non utique sinus ille Abrahae id est secreta cujusdam quietis
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
refreshing and of the restitution of all things on the contrary I say the Person so wishing considered his Frienâ— as aspiring to the plenary enjoyment of that happy State whereof he expected the absolute accomplishment on the day of the general Resurrection at the end of the World though he were already by way of advance possessed of the Earnest thereof according to the Saying of the Authour of the Book of Wisdom who affirms that Though the righteous be prevented with death yet shall he be in rest where the Latine Version hath it in refrigerio c. in a place of refreshment Which shews that the Interpreter had found in his Copy not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Text hath it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that in the Discourses of the Antients the begging of refreshments for their departed Friends could not signifie any other thing then what is expressed in the Liturgy attributed to Saint James in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do thou cause them to rest there in the Land of the living in thy Kingdom in the Delights of Paradise in the Bosoms of Abraham Isaac and Jacob our Holy Fathers where trouble and sorrow and Lamentation have no place Which indeed is no more then is required in the Liturgy which goes under the name of Saint Mark and more at large in that which is attributed to Saint Clement and those of Saint Basil and Saint Chrysostome all which concur in the demand of the Celestial Beatitude which they design by the several Expressions used in the Scripture to represent it and suppose that God hath communicated it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even there where the departed Person whose Memory is celebrated hath been already placed And in this sence is it confirmed by Tertullian the most antient of the Latines who speaking of Prayer for the dead does in the fourth Chapter De testimonio animae call eternal Beatitude a refreshment and saith Affirmamus expectare diem judicii proque meritis aut cruciaâ—ui destinari aut refrigerio utrique sempiterno c. We affirm that the Soul expects the day of Judgement and that according to her Works she is destined either to Torment or to Refreshment both which are eternal Which had made so deep an Impression upon some mens spirits that about the year 960. Hildegarius Bishop of Limoges Founder of the Abbey of St. Peter protested that the Motive of his Founding it was Ut pius clementissimus Deus in Die Judicii refrigerium praestare dignetur c. That God out of his compassion and clemency would be pleased to give to his own Soul and those of his Friends refreshment at the day of Judgment Some conceive that the Epitaphs which run thus In pace c. Quiescit in pace c. Depositus in pace c. Dormit in pace c. do not signifie that the Departed Person is in absolute possession of that sovereign Peace which is that of God but simply that he departed in the Peace of the Church For my part I am willing to believe that those who gave order for such Inscriptions intended thereby to comprehend the Peace of the Church remembring that as to be grafted into the Body of the visible Church is naturally an external mark of the Believer's admission into the society of the Saints whose Names are written in Heaven so the participation of her Peace is many times a Pledge of the Peace of God But it is impossible it should be the intention of the Authours of those anâ—ient Epitaphs to speak of the Peace of the Church and to insinuate that the Faithfull departed were not when God called them out of this world excommunicated And that for these reasons First These very Forms are indifferently used upon the Tombs of Martyrs little Children and Persons newly-baptized who every one knows could not have deserved the Censures of the Church but were without dispute passed from the troubles of this life into the rest of Heaven which onely may be denoted by the name of Peace inscribed upon their Monuments Secondly It may be said that neither being possessed of the Peace of the Church is an infallible assurance of the participation of that of God out of which are excluded Hypocrites whom the Church must of necessity entertain in her Communion as not knowing their interiour nor does the privation of the Church's peace necessarily infer the denyal of that of God it being possible that many good people through Errour in matter of Fact may be treated in the society of the Faithfull otherwise then they should as for Example a Meletius whom the Church of Rome never honoured with her Communion though now she acknowledges by the Celebration she annually makes of his Memory that he was most worthy of it and a Person precious in the sight of God Whence it follows that the Faithfull departed should not carry hence with them a truly perswasive Testimony of the Piety in which they ended their dayes if the surviving saying onely They died in Peace thought it enough to attribute to them an advantage many times common to those who have through their own fault been deprived of the Grace of God to their Dying-day Thirdly Because the Antients have by several Forms expressed their Sentiment and declared that when they assigned Peace to their deceased Brethren they specifically limited themselves to the peace of God which onely is able to make them happy Thus not to mention the Inscription of the Tombs of Severus of Badajox and the Inhabitant of Elvas which hath expresly Pacem Domini The peace of the Lord the Epitaph of Junius Bassus cited by Cardinal Baronius says that Neophytus îit ad Deum VIII Calend. Septemb. Eusebio Hypatio Coss c. Being newly-converted to the Faith he went to God on the eighth of the Calends of September Eusebius and Hypatius being Consuls that is to say August the twenty fifth 359. That of Eusebia Copied by Father Sirmond in his Notes upon Sidonius runs thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here lieth Eusebia who is in peace c. under the eighth Consulship of Honorius and the first of Constantine in the year 409. That of Gaudentia thus Gabina Gaudentia c. perpetuâ quiescit in pace c. Gabina Gaudentia resteth in perpetual peace That of Timothea thus Timothea in pace D. Kal. Nov. Cons D. N. Aviti c. Timothea hath been deposited in the peace of the Lord Nov. 1. Avitus our Lord being Consul in the year 456. That of Marius thus Satis vixit dum vitam pro Christo cum signo consumpsit in pace tandem quievit c. He hath lived long enough since he hath spent his life for Christ with the Sign of Faith and is at length deposed in peace That of Placidus thus Tandem in Caelo quiescit He is at length rested in
art fled That of Pope Boniface the Fifth deceased the 25 th of October 625. Ad magni culmen honoris abit c. He 's gone of honour to th' accomplishment That of Pope Honorius deceased the twelfth of October 638. Aeternae luis Christo dignante perennes Cum Patribus sanctis posside jámque domos Thou who to ' th' holy Sires hast ta'ne thy flight Enjoy through Christ th' eternal Seats of Light That of Pope Benedict II. deceased the seventh of May 685. Percipe salvati praemia celsa gregis c. The high rewards of those are sav'd receive That of Ceadwalla King of the West-Saxons deceased the twentieth of April 689. Indict 2. Mente superna tenet Commutâsse magis sceptrorum Insignia credas Quem regnum Chrsti promeruisse vides c. His spirit in heaven soars Who to Christ's Throne is raised may be said But an exchange of Scepters to have made That of Theodore of Canterbury deceased the 19 th of September 690. Alma novae scandens felix consortia vitae Civibus Angelicis junctus in arce Poli c Advanc'd to a society of Bliss With Angel-Citizens h'in heaven is That of Wilfrid Arch-Bishop of York deceased October the 12 th 709. Gaudens coelestia regna petivit c. Rejoycing he to heav'n's gone That of Bede rsinamed Venerable deceased May 26th being Ascension-Day which argues his death to have happened in the year 735. Juni septenis viduatus carne Kalendis Angligena Angelicam commeruit Patriam c. May's twenty sixth of flesh uncloathed Bede Mongst Angels went to have a heav'nly meed That of Richard King of England deceased February the 7 th 750. Regnum tenet ipse Polorum c. Of heav'n's Kingdom he 's possess'd That of Fulrad Abbot of St. Denys deceased in the year 784. Credimus idcirco Coelo societur ut illis c. In heav'n we Believe him blest with their society That of Meginarius his Successour Post mortem meliùs vivit in arce Poli c. Death past he lives in heav'n a better life That of Arichis Duke of Beneventum deceased the six and twentieth of August 787. Te pro meritis nunc Paradisus habet c. For thy good Works heaven is thy reward That of Tilpin Arch-Bishop of Rheims deceased the second of September 789. Mortua quando fuit mors sibi vita maner c. When Death is dead Life his Portion is That of Pope Adrian the First deceased the 26th of December 795. Mors janua vitae Sed melioris erat Death was the entrance of a better Life That of Peter Bishop of Pavia deceased about the same time Admistus gaudet caetibus Angelicis c. Retinent te gaudia Coeli c. Rejoycing among Angels he Heav'n's joys thy entertainment are That of Hildegard first Wife of Charle-maign deceased in the year 783. April the thirtieth Pro dignis factis sacra regna tenes Thy worthy acts the sacred Kingdom gain'd That of Fastrada second Wife of the same Prince deceased in the year 794. Modò Coelesti nobilior Thalamo c. A heav'nly bed makes her more Noble That of Count Gerald deceased in the year 799. Sideribus animam dedit He rendred his Soul to heaven That of Hildegard Daughter by his first Wife Tu nimium felix gaudia longa petis c. Thou ever-happy to long Joys dost go That of Charle-maign himself deceased on Saturday the eighth of January 814. Meruit fervida saec'li Aetherei c. Aequora transire placidum conscendere portum c. That of Adelbard Abbot of St. Peter of Corbie deceased the second of January 822. Paradisi jure colonis c. Inhabitant of Pardise That of Ermengard Wife to the Emperour Lotharius deceased the twentieth of March being Good-Friday in the year 852. Linquens regna soli penetravit regna Polorum Cum Christo sanctis gaudia vera tenens c. Leaving Earth's Crowns to those of Heav'n she 's gone With Christ and 's Saints in exultation That of Lewis the Debonnaire who died on Sunday the twentieth of June 840. In pacis metas colligit hunc pietas c. Him Piety brings into the land of Peace That of Dreux Bishop of Mets deceased the eighth of November 857. Spiritus in requie laetus ovat Abrahae c. The joyfull spirit exults in Abra'm's Rest That of the Emperour Lewis the Second deceased the thirteenth of August 875. Gaudet Spiritus in Coelis Corporis extat honos c. The Body's honour is Apparent but the spirit 's in heave'nly bliss That of the Emperour Carolus Calvus deceased the sixth of October 877. Spiritum reddidit ille Deo c. He to God his Spirit return'd That of Ansegisus Arch-Bishop of Sens deceased the twenty fifth of November 883. Spiritus Astra tenet c. Of heav'n his Spirit 's possest That of John Scotus dead the same year Christi conscendere regnum Quo meruit sancti regnat per saecula cuncti c. He to ascend Christ's Kingdom did obtain Where all the Saints eternally do reign That of Pope John the Eighth deceased the fifteenth of December the year before Et nunc coelicolas cernit super Astra Phalanges c. Above the Skies Now he the heav'nly Batallions spyes That of Ermengard Daughter of Lewis King of Germany deceased the three and twentieth of December about the same time Bis denos octo vitae compleverat annos Migrans ad sponsum Virgo beata suum c. Twice eighteen years this Maid had liv'd compleat When happy she went hence her Spouse to meet That of Bruno Arch-Bishop of Cullen deceased the eleventh of October 969. Iam frueris Domino Thou now enjoy'st the Lord. That of Notger Abbot of St. Gal deceased the sixth of April 981. Idibus octonis hic carne solutus Aprilis Coelis invehitur c. Having laid down his fleshy burthen on The sixth of April he to heav'n is gone That of Gonzales cited by Prudentio de Sandoval Bishop of Pampeluna to the year of the Julian Period 1030. or of Christ 992. A qui reposa y en la gloria goza c. Here rests and glorious happiness enjoys That of Donna Sancia Dio fin glorioso a esta vida Par a gozar de la aeterna c. That she might gain eternal life in Bliss She gave a glorious Period unto this That of Sancia Countess of Castile Bis vinctum Comitem è carcere adduxit Coelicas sedes beata quae possidet c. She out of Prison twice her Count reliev'd To heav'nly Seats who happy now 's receiv'd That of Count Fernand of Gonzalva Belliger invictus ductus ad Astra fuit c. To heav'n th' undaunted Souldier was convey'd And Sebastian of Salamanca speaking of Ordonio the First places him in Heaven saying Felix stat in Coelo c. Laetatur cum sanctis Angelis in Coelestibus regnis c. He is happy in heaven
enquiry into the Motives which might have induced the Authours of those Epitaphs to insert into them Prayers for their departed Friends and to place their Tombs near those of the Martyrs who had sealed with their Blood the Truth of Christianity The most antient Epitaph we finde containing a mixture of Wishes and Prayers is that which St. Gregory Nazianzene writ in Honour of St. Basil deceased the twelfth of January in the year 378. where we read these Words concerning that Great Prelate gathered to his Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God give him Happiness as if he had not been in the actual possession thereof and as if St. Gregory had not expresly required of him before that he would appear for the World and offer gifts to God and that in consequence of his being in Heaven as he had desired Again That he had quitted his Episcopal See as Christ would have it that he might become one among the Inhabitants of Heaven It seems then he believed him in Heaven and possessed of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven as soon as he had at his departure out of this World quitted his Episcopal See and yet he desires that God would give him Happiness meaning that he would confirm and improve the gift he had already made him which hath nothing common with the Hypotheses maintained at this day by the Church of Rome In the year 395. deceased the Prefect PROBUS and his Epitaph which loudly published that he was in the Plains of Heaven seated among the Saints possessed of perpetual Rest that he lived crowned with bliss in the Everlasting Mansions of Paradise concludes with this Prayer Hunc tu Christe Choris jungas Coelestibus oro Te canat placidum jugiter aspiciat Quique tuo semper dilectus pendet ab ore Auxilium soboli conjugióque ferat Joyn'd with Celestial Quires O Christ may he Thy praises sing thy constant favour see Whō ever-lov'd did ev'r on thee depend May he to 's Race and Widow some help lend Shall we say he was in Heaven and yet not joyned with the Celestical Quires That he was in any danger to see his Saviour incensed and that he could be possessed of Paradise without Happiness If not it must needs be that the Authour of his Epitaph prayed that he might enjoy it without any diminution and be eternally in the Favour and Peace of his Saviour in the Society of the rest of the Blessed Saints which hath nothing common with what is now desired by the Church of Rome We have such another Desire made in the Epitaph of Pope BENEDICT Hic Benedictus adest meritò sub rupe Sepulchri Quem tenet Angelicus Chorus in arce Poli Aurea saec'la cui pateant sine fine per aevum Sorte beatificâ scandat ut aetheria c. Here Benedict justly beneath this Stone Is plac'd whom Angels in the Heav'ns enthrone To whom be golden Ages without end That he the Skies may ever-bless'd ascend For who sees not that he who is enthroned by Angels in Heaven must of necessity be there and stood not in need of ascending thither nor that any golden Ages should be desired for him But in as much as he was to ascend thither in his Body after the general Resurrection the Authour of the Epitaph makes a Wish to that purpose and requires that the Happiness which he was then possessed of as to his Spirit might be ever continued to him that he might be eternally filled with Joy as well in body as soul thereby discovering that he reflected not in the least on the Purgatery held by the Church of Rome which none of her Followers ever yet placed in Heaven or any way thought on the delay of Benedict's Felicity whom he esteemed already received into the Society of the Angels The same accompt is to be given of the Epitaph of Marinian Arch-Bishop of Ravenna deceased in the year 601. where we finde these words Ipsius in locis sit tibi certa quies c. Mayst thou with God assured rest obtain As also of that of Venerable Bede deceased in the year 735. Dona Christe animam in Coelis gaudere per aevum c. Dáque illum Sophiae inebriari fonte Christ grant his soul in heav'n eternal joy c. And him inebriate with Wisdom's spring For it does not thence follow either that he was at the hour of his death deprived of the Joy of Heaven or that Wisdom had not filled him with the Effects of her Virtue or lastly that those who are once entred into the Joy of Heaven could ever forfeit it or be deprived of the communication of eternal Wisdom but that the Surviving thought they might rationally demand for their deceased Friends the perpetuity of their Happiness though they certainly knew it could never be taken from them That of Pope ADRIAN the First writ either by Charle-maign or in his Name by Alcuin notwithstanding he had presupposed that his Death was the entrance of a better Life yet forbore not to make these Wishes for him Cum Christo teneas regna beata Poli c. Quique legis Versus devoto pectore supplex Amborum mitis dic miserere Deus Haec tua nunc requies teneat charissime membra Cum sanctis Anima gaudeat alma Dei Ultima quippe tuas donec Tuba clamet in aures Principe cum Petro Surge videre Deum Auditurus eris vocem scio Judicis almam Intra nunc Domini gaudia magna tui Tum memor esto tui Nati c. Mayst thou with Christ a blessed Seat obtain c. Who humbly readst this Verse with pious heart May God his mercy say to both impart May here the precious body finde it's Rest May the fair soul rejoyce among the blest Since when the latest Trump shall summon thee God and the great Saint Peter for to see I know thou 'lt hear the Judge's gentle voyce Of thy Lord enter into the great Joys Remember then thy Son Now as the demand he made for Adrian that he might obtain a blessed seat with Christ in Heaven did not signify that he was not yet admitted into the Possession of that better Life whereof his death was the entrance so the Invitation to implore for him the Mercy of God was no argument that he had not obtained it since that even then he exhorted his Soul to rejoyce with the Saints of God and shewed that he thought it not tormented in a Fire such as were likely to deprive it of all Joy but that it was in Bliss reigning in the Company of the Saints of the Apostle St. Peter and our Saviour a felicity whereto nothing could be added by desire but the perpetuity of it which yet is so much the more certain in as much as it is grounded on the unchangeable counsel of God whose Gifts and Calling are without repentance That of Charle-maign of whom the Authour viz. Agobard Arch-Bishop of Lions said That he
every where that all Souls are produced by God at the very instant of their infusion into the Bodies they are to animate and that for as much as they were not at all before they were united to their Bodies they could not either be or sin in Heaven or consequently descend thence as St. Ambrose presupposed that which is not absolutely neither having before it is any Being nor pre-existing nor capable of either Action or Motion from one place to another or of any Passion any way conceivable by us But as to the main point it is manifest that St. Ambrose and all the Church of his Time had absolutely rejected the first Hypothesis derived from the pretended Sibylline Writing maintaining that all Souls without exception descend into Hell after their departure out of the Bodies wherewith they every one as to its own particular constituted humane Persons and that that other Branch of Errour which had prepossessed the Spirit of Justine Martyr and his Contemporaries whereby they imagined that the Souls of the greatest Saints during their pretended detention in Hell were in some sort subject to the power of Evil Spirits and upon that accompt stood in need of being relieved by the Prayers of the Living imploring on their behalf the Protection of God and his good Angels was no longer held it being the perswasion even of those who continued to make the same Prayers as they who had been of that Belief that the true Christians departing out of the Body were with the Lord in an eternal rest and absolute safety In so much that these who recommended the Dead to God grounded not their so doing on either of these two Motives St. Ambrose telling us plainly concerning Valentinian the Second Requiescamus inquit anima pia in Castellis ostendens illic esse quietem tutiorem quae septo Coelestis refugii munita atque vallata non exagitatur soecularium incursibus Bestiarum c. Let us rest says the Faithfull soul in Towers shewing that there where she is received there is a more assured Repose which being encompassed and fortified with the Enclosure of celestial refuge is not disturbed by the Incursions of the Beasts of this World that is to say Evil Spirits and Wicked Men. And concerning Theodosius Lapsum sentire non poterit in illa requie constitutits c. Being seated in that Rest he cannot be subject to fall from it And Paulinus not long before the Death of St. Ambrose to Pammachius concerning his Wife Paulina deceased in the year 396. Satis docuit Rex Propheta c. The Royal Prophet hath sufficiently taught us how far we should be troubled at the departure of our Friends and Kinred to wit so as rather to think of our Journey after them then of that which they are already come to the end of It is indeed an Expression of Piety to be cast down at the taking away hence of Just men but it is also an Holy thing to be raised up into Gladness upon the Hope and Faith of God's Promises and to say to him that it is in trouble Why art thou sad Be it so that Piety bewail for a time yet is it necessary that Faith should always be joyfull Upon this Ground was it that all those who for the space of six hundred years made it their Business to write the Lives of the Faithfull accompted them among the Blessed not admitting any adjournment of their Peace and Felicity after their death In so much as Gregory Arch-Bishop of Tours deceased the seventeenth of November 592. about which time Pope GREGORY first of that Name was designing the first-draught of Purgatory should not have spoken of those Virtuous Persons whose memory he celebrated in other Terms then those who had preceeded him saying of Gregory Bishop of Langres of Nicetius Bishop of Lyons of Porcianus Ursus and Caluppa Religious Men Migravit ad Dominum c. He is gone hence to the Lord of Gullus Bishop of Cler-mont of Nicetius Bishop of Trier and of Lupicinus Spiritum coelo intentum proemisit ad Dominum c. He sent before his Body to the Lord his Soul imployed in Thoughts of Heaven of Friard Christus animam suscepit in Coelo c. Christ hath received his soul into Heaven of Martius Ad Coronam commigravit c. He is gone hence to receive a Crown of Venantius Vitam percepturus aeternam emicuit saeculo c. He is hurried hence to receive eternal Life of Leobord Manifestum est eum ab Angelis susceptum c. It is manifest he hath been entertained by Angels In a word the great number of those who admire the Novelties that have crept into the Opinion of Purgatory hath been no hindrance but that the Authours of Lives who have written since the year 600. have spoken and believed of their Dead consonantly to what had been done by the most Antient. If therefore even in the Time of St. Ambrose the Opinion of the Millenaries was so lost to credit that St. Hierome who out of respect towards the Great Persons that had followed it forbore to express his Thoughts thereof and to number it among Heresies thought it a great Tenderness towards it to assign it a place among the dreaming Imaginations of mis-informed Spirits it is not to be conceived that after the year 500. descending still it should have regained any Partizans and that there should have been any man whose Prayers for his deceased Friends proceeded from that Motive so as that he thought himself obliged to wish them their part in the First Resurrection which no man then understood in the sense wherein Tertullian and those of his Time had conceived it But indeed many even till after the year 600. relying on that Hypothesis partly extracted out of the pretended Oracles of the Counterfeit Sibyl that All Souls should pass through the last Conflagration of the World demanded on the Behalf of their departed Friends two things One that they might pass through that great Conflagration as through a Purgative Fire not to be prejudiced thereby no more then the Gold melted in the Crucible Another that they might have their part with all the Saints in the Resurrection to Glory Upon this perswasion Kindasvind King of the West-Goths in Spain who reigned between the year 642. and 649. had caused these Verses to be written on the Tomb of his Wife Reciberga Ego te Conjux quia vincere fata nequivi Funere perfunctam Sanctis commendo tuendam Ut cùm Flamma vorax veniet comburere Terras Coetibus ipsorum meritò sociata resurgas Since death on my desires would not thee spare Of thee departed may the Saints take care That thou with them mayst rise again that day When of the Fire the Earth shall be the prey The First of these Demands hath lost much of that Consideration with those who have embraced the New Opinion of Purgatory which seemed to require the Example of the
that we are made partakers of their Dignity that they are to be honoured by way of imitation and not adored upon any religious accompt In a word that neither the Blessed Virgin Mother of our Saviour nor any of the Saints of either Sex can pretend to any part of that religious homage Saint Epiphanius one of the most earnest maintainers of Prayer for the Dead hath left to them and the whole Church of these last times these remarkable Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Indeed the Body of Mary was holy but it was not God the Virgin was indeed a Virgin and honoured but she was not given us to be adored on the contrary she adored him who was begotten of her as to the flesh c. If God will not have the Angels to be adored how much rather will he not that she who was born of Ann should be c. God came from Heaven and the Word was clad in flesh taken from the holy Virgin but the Virgin is not adored c. Let Mary be honoured but let the Father Son and Holy Spirit be adored Let no man adore Mary though Mary be excellent and holy and honoured it is not that she should be adored c. Let Mary be honoured but let the Lord be adored But not to press any further this notorious defect which we finde at present in the Service of the Greeks we are to observe that among them the Office of the Dead is full of Prayers whereby is desired as in the Latine Service the mercy of God the remission of the sins of the deceased his absolution his blessed resurrection his introduction into rest into Abraham ' s Bosom into the Mansion of the blessed into refreshment into Paradise into the Tabernacle of God into his Kingdom glory light to the right hand of the great Judge into the Society of the Saints and Angels all which Expressions according to the Hypotheses of Antiquity may be applied to the Spirits already received into glory Which is so much the more evident for that the particular Office which concerns the Obsequies of Children is full of these Prayers that God would number the deceased among the Children to whom he hath promised his Kingdom that he would place him among the just who are acceptable in his sight that he would make him partaker of the good things which are above this World that he would let him enter into the joys of the Saints that in his holy Mountain he would gratifie him with celestial goods that he would write his name in the Book of those who shall be saved that he would make his face to shine upon him that he would lodge him in Abraham ' s Bosom that he would grant him the enjoyment of his Kingdom c. Yet were not these Desires made without a presupposition of his Beatitude as First when it is said to him He who hath taken thee from the Earth and gives thee place among his Saints shew◠that thou O truly blessed Childe art a Citizen of Paradise The Sword of Death falling on thee hath cut thee off as a tender Branch O blessed art thou who hast made no tryal of worldly pleasures but behold Christ opening the Gates of Heaven to thee numbring thee◠out of his great goodness among the Elect◠Secondly When he is brought in making this Discourse Why do you bewail me a Childe translated out of the World for I am not a Subject to be bewailed The joy of all the just is required for those Children who have not done works worthy Tears Thirdly When he acknowledges that Death is a freedom to Children that they are thereby exempted from the miseries of life and that they are gone to rest that they rejoyce in Abraham ' s Bosom in the divine Quires of Blessed Children and assuredly dance because their departure hence was a deliverance from the corruption which loves sin If then the Ritual of the Creeks be full of Prayers for the Children whom they unanimously acknowledge to be among the Blessed what inconvenience can there be to attribute to them that they had the same apprehension for persons of age of whose felicity they no way doubted But though reason should not lead us to think so yet does their formal confession obliges us to believe as much for there is not any deceased person for whom they say not to God Mercifully receive the faithfull person departed who hath holily quitted this life and is O Lord passed towards thee and whose Funeral Solemnities they do not conclude saying to him three several times Our Brother worthy to be ever blessed and always remembred thy memory is eternal To every Monk without any exception they address these words Brother thè way thou art in is that of bliss for that a place of rest is prepared for thee adding to that purpose the sixteenth Verse of the one hundred and sixteenth Psalm Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt kindly with thee and a little after He who is taken hence hath passed through the ever-troubled Sea of Life and by Faith is arrived at his Port conduct him O Christ with the Saints into thy tranquillity and ever-living pleasures In like manner to every Priest Thou hast piously signalized thy self in Faith Charity Hope Gentleness Purity of life and in the Sacerdotal dignity and therefore O Brother of eternal memory God who is before all Ages whom thou hast served will himself dispose thy Spirit into a place full of light and pleasure where the just are in rest and will make thee obtain of Christ at the day of Judgment pardon and great mercy And the deceased Person is introduced using these words I am now at rest and have found great favour for that I have been transferred from the corruption of life glory be to thee O Lord c. Thy divine Servant Deified in his Transportation by thy now-enlivening Mystery is come towards thee To every Woman departed Detain not any longer O malicious Hell the Souls of the Elect in the condemnation of the Transgression for all being now made assuredly conformable to Christ instead of Death receive divine life In a word she is made to say the same words as had been attributed to the Priest I am now at rest c. All these Confessions grounded on the Lessons of Scripture which for the most part contain assurances of the Love of God towards those who serve him and promises of their future Beatitude and glorious Resurrection demonstratively prove that the first Compilers of the Greek Office agreeing in what is most substantial with the Protestants believed that whoever dies in the Faith of the Lord does from the moment of his Death enjoy rest and glory in him and with him But for as much as from time to time the purity of belief and worship receiving adulteration among them there rose up a sort of people apt to feign any
from inconvenience But not to insist further hereupon and under pretense of putting them to yet a further loss how to make good their Tenet to digress from our Principal Subject we will keep close to it concluding from what hath been deduced that the common Opinion of the Modern Greeks must necessarily be New unknown to their Fore-fathers who lived in the Third Fourth Fifth and Sixth Ages contrary to the Word of God and to Reason full of Inconveniences and Suppositions contradictory one to another and consequently that it is with good Reason rejected as well by those of the Roman Communion as by the Protestants who can onely in this Particular allow them to have been circumspect and well-advised that they forbear telling us determinately where they think fit to place the Prison to which they condemn the Souls which they call the Middle-conditioned for what is not at all can neither be be defined nor found any where CHAP. LIV. The Conclusion of the whole Treatise WHereas then the Opinion of the Greeks is new and inconsistent whereas that of the Church of Rome upon this very Score that it goes beyond the other is subject to more Inconveniences and whereas all the Christians in the East and Southern Parts of the World agree with the Protestants in the rejection of it as particular new and opposed by Scripture Reason the Antiquity of the first Six Ages and by the Formularies of the Latine Service which through an extraordinary Happiness hath been more favourably Treated then the Greek which is horridly disfigured by those busie Spirits who have filled it with their bold alterations it were no better then to elude the Evidence of Truth and wittingly to renounce common sence to endeavour to make that which is particular and impure notwithstanding so many defaults pass for Catholick The Patrons of Purgatory out-vie one another in their attempts to prove it by Texts of Scripture as for Instance these Genesis iii. 24. xv 17. 1 Samuel ii 6 7 8. Job ix 26. and xiv 13. Psalms vi 1. xlix 16. lxvi 12. lxxxvi 123. Ecclesiastes xii 16. Esay iv 4. ix 17. Daniel vii 10. Micah vii 9. Zachary ix 11. Malachy iii. 3. Matthew iii. 12. v. 22 25 26. xii 32. Luke xii 5 48. xxiv 42. Acts ii 24. 1 Corinthians iii. 12 13 14 15. xv 29. 2 Corinthians v. 10. Philippians ii 10. Hebrews iv 4. xii 7. 1 Peter iv 17. Apocalyps v. 3 13. But one single Answer pertinent even in the judgement of the Church of Rome her self who of any makes the greatest ostentation of the Anquity and Universality of her Faith suffices to pull down all this Pile to wit this That the Application which they make of these Texts is so new that it hath no Example in all the Tradition of the Fathers and so singular that not agreeing among themselves the more Ingenuous as John Fisher Bishop of Rochester one of her Cardinals nay of her Martyrs acknowledge that Purgatory had for a long time been unknown and Franciscus Sonnius first Bishop of Bosleduc afterwards of Antwerp grants that the places out of the New Testament and Saint Paul about which the Church of Rome makes the greatest stir do not demonstrate it of themselves and are by some of the Fathers otherwise Interpreted The same thing may be said of what the same Church produces or causes to be produced in defence of Prayer for the Dead which is not found either in the Instructions and Actions of the Saints under the Old Testament or the Institution of the Son of God giving his Apostles and by them the Church the perfect Form and Model of Prayer or yet in the Practice of the Apostolical Church under the Gospel For if some at this day as with much earnestness it is done alledge these Texts Genesis xxiv 63. xlvii 30. Leviticus v. 20. Ruth i. 8. 1 Samuel xxxi 13. 2 Samuel i. 12. iii. 31. Esay viii 16. Luke xvi 19. Romans xii 13. 1 Corinthians xv 19. 1 Timothy ii 1. 2 Timothy i. 18. Hebrews v. 7. xiii 16. 1 John v. 16. Not omitting those taken out of Apocryphal Writers as Tobit iv 18. Ecclesiasticus vii 34. 2 Maccabees xii 43 c. It may be Answered That Antiquity which as we have shewn grounded its Customs onely on the not-written Tradition hath by its Procedure declared that it had not no more then the Protestants at this day eyes to perceive in those Texts the Doctrine which some pretend to derive from them it being onely Interest which is vigilant upon all occasions ready to make advantage of all things confident in feigning what is not and ingenious in the dressing-up of fond Imaginations that hath hitherto been capable of these fine Discoveries The same Church of Rome prides it not a little in that the same Antiquity hath no less then the Modern Greeks even from the first Ages practised and recommended Prayers for the Dead but she discovers not that while she condemns all the Hypotheses of that Antiquity and admits not any one of the Motives which inclined it to that Devotion she is in Effect retreated further from its Belief then the Protestants who so forbear doing what the Antients did as that they do all lies in their power to excuse it and to shew that as their Intention and Worship have been free from the Venome which the Ignorant malice of later Ages hath since scattered all over the West so the end they aim at is not either to dishonour them because of the Weaknesses they have been subject to or to make an odious discovery of their shame but onely take the remarks of their Discircumspections as so many Advertisements to Posterity never to forget it self through too much security and a blindly-excessive respect for the great Names that have preceded it After Notice taken of the success which attended the Impious presumption of those Impostours who in the Second Age of Christianity even while the Blood of the Apostles was yet boyling and the Memory of their Instructions and Examples more lively carried on their wicked Designs upon the simplicity and sincerity of Apostolical-men as also how charming those Delusions proved which incredibly dazzled many of those whom the Mercy of God honoured with the Crown of Martyrdom and whose precedent conversation had been looked on in the Church as a singular pattern of Piety and Sanctity after notice I say taken of these things it is an Obligation lies on every Christian at this day to bow down the head in humility to implore by continual addresses to Heaven the assistance of the Spirit of Grace that efficaciously insinuating it self into their hearts he may not onely divert them from the like Tryals but fill them with light assurance and joy and instead of arming themselves like Furies with the Thunder-bolts and Whirl-winds of a false Zeal which ever inspires them with malice and the utter ruine of those they think in an errour