Devils what pretence can there be to continue the Prayers which infinuate such a perswasion And if the Ground-work of such Prayers be taken away what reason can be alledged sufficient to authorise the continuance of them Can it be said It is lawful and consistent with the Piety of the Church to put up to God Requests that are erroneous according to her own Sentiment and impossible according to the perswasion she hath of the merciful disposal of her Saviour in respect of his Elect whom he hath taken away from the Evil to come to sleep in a sleep of Peace and to rest from their Labours And supposing these things grounded upon the express Text of the Scripture and the Canon of the Mass whâ—ch makes commemoration to God onely of those who sleeping a sleep of Peace are accordingly in Peace should not men think themselves obliged either to discard those Prayers which contain a formal expression of what is contrary to Peace in respect of those for whom they are made and prove so much the more fruitless and inconvenient by how much the Foundations thereof are undermined by rejecting the Hypotheses as well of the pretended Sibyllmâ— Writing as of Justine Martyr or by retaining them to run into the Inconvenience of a Contradiction and that so much the more inevitable the more unadvisedly they engage themselves upon the maintaining of both the Terms of it at the same time affirming on the one side that those who are to be delivered out of the Bonds of a dreadful death and from the Gates of Hell a place of Trouble and as the Text of the Prayer bears it of Pains are neither in Death nor in Bonds nor in Hell that those far from whom must be driven away the Princes of Darkness are not onely not engaged in any War against them but are in a condition to sleep the sleep of Peace to be in possession of Peace to rest in the enjoyment of that Peace from their Labours And on the other side that those who are taken away from the evil to come so as they sleep in Peace and rest from their Labours are in the most dreadful Abyss of Miseries in the horrour of the most irrevocable War and the extremity of Troubles And what does this amount to less then to affirm that they are and are not either in Peace and Rest or in Trouble and War and consequently that they both can and cannot be delivered out of them Time was when those who followed the Party of the Millenaries imagining that during the term of a thousand years which they assigned for the Earthly Kingdom of our Saviour in Jerusalem there should be a Resurrection preceding the general one of the Last-day and upon that accompt be called the First thought they had just ground to beg that their deceased Friends might have their part in that first Resurrection But as soon as their Imagination lost to all credit came of it self to be absolutely laid aside the use of that kind of Prayers came upon this very score that every one thought them ill-grounded 〈◊〉 to be so far abolished that there is no Track of them in any of the Formularies that are come to us but onely in the â—â—othick Which if who sees not there is the same Obligation to â—brâ—gâ—te the Praâ—ers which are as hath been clearly demonstrated formally contradicted by the Canon of the Mass whereby the Church of Rome is wholly directed at the present CHAP. XXXI That the Passage in the twelfth Chapter of the second Book of the Maccabees hath no relation to the Opinion of Purgatory nor to the Service of the Churches THe Doctours of the Romane Communion pretend that the Christians of the second Age grounded their Prayers for the Dead upon the Authority of the second Book of the Maccabees unknown as we have observed to the Jews who were contemporary with the Apostles or at least slighted by them and looked upon with so much indignation by the Christians that not any one of them before St. Augustine cited it with any respect to the Offices rendred by the surviving Faithfull to their departed Brethren Nay indeed none among them could without destroying his own presuppositions concerning the State of the Dead make any advantage of that Testimony which notoriously wrests the action and intention of Judas Maccabaeus to a wrong sence and applies it to the false Hypothesis which the Jews of the last times did and do still maintain so much the more obstinately the more they are perswaded that it may be derived from the words of the first Psalm in the fifth Verse saying that the wicked shall not stand or as the Greek Version and the antient Latine hath it shall not rise up in Judgment Since therefore they were of this extravagant Opinion that the Resurrection of the Last-day should be onely for the Just and that those who had concluded a criminal Life in the Wrath of God should not participate thereof it must needs be that having perswaded thereto either Jason the Cyrenaean or his Abridger the said Jason or other man had conceived it necessary that Judas should make a Prayer for a sort of unhappy wretches whom he acknowledged destroyed in their Sacrilege to the end that being freed from their sin they might be made capable of the Resurrection which according to their prejudicated judgment was to be peculiar onely to those who had continued and concluded their lives in piety This Imagination could not relate to any of the Opinions of the antient Christians assured by St. Paul that every one should appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ to receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad and unanimously presupposing that Judgment should be given of all good and bad according to their works and consequently believing that there would be a double Resurrection that is to say that of the righteous to eternal life and glory and that of the wicked to death and shame and everlasting contempt But let us put the Case that the Sentiment whether of the Authour of the Second Book of the Maccabees or of his Abridger was absolutely conformable to so manifest and so known a Truth and that he alledged this onely end of the Prayer attributed by him to Judas that the Dead for whom onely he pretends that he made it being freed from their sins were thereupon conveyed to the enjoyment of Beatitude which shall have its full accomplishment in the Resurrection which the Fathers call the proper Faith of Christians and the consummation of the glory which they expect Nay let us put the Case that the Latine Church had from the beginning a great esteem for the Testimony of that Person if as is supposed she drew up her Service according to the President of Judas Maccabaeus whence comes it that in the Canon of the Mass she hath made no mention of the Resurrection
Resurrection the Presupposition whereof does not in â—…e either that the Faithfull depart this Life to go into a place of Torments or that there is any necessity of Bewailing them or Praying for them after their Death the consequence being not good He shall rise up in Glory therefore He is in a place of Pains and must be delivered thence by Prayers Thirdly There is read the thirteenth Verse of the fourteenth Chapter of the Apocalyps where the Spirit of God advertising St. John by a voyce from Heaven that from henceforth those who die in the Lord are blessed and rest from their Labours demolishes the very Foundation as well of Prayer for the Faithfull departed as of Purgatory where it is pretended they suffer the temporal Punishment due to their Sins For if they are Blessed and upon that accompt in possession of what might be desired on their behalf they stand in no further need that any thing should be desired for them And again if they are Blessed and rest from their Labours from henceforth they are from henceforth exempted from Pain it being impossible that to be Blessed and to rest should signifie to be Tormented and on the contrary that to endure the burning of an infernal Fire should be to rest from one's labour and enjoy the Bliss consequent thereto Fourthly There is read from the one and fiftieth Verse of the fifteenth Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians to the fifty seventh inclusively expressing the Assurance which the Apostle gives the Church of her Blessed Resurrection whereby Death shall be swallowed up in Victory and every Believer cloathed with Immortality and every one knows that from this Proposition he shall rise again in Incorruption the Law of Ratiocination will never suffer this Inference to be drawn Therefore he is tormented and stands in need of being prayed for before he rises again Fifthly There is read the fourth Verse of the three and twentieth Psalm and the second third and fourth of the Two and fourtieth which onely represent the State of the Faithfull Person during the course of this Life and not that which is to follow upon his departure hence Sixthly There is read out of the eleventh Chapter of St. John from the one and twentieth Verse to the seven twentieth inclusively where the Son of God calling himself the Resurrection and the Life testifies that he who believes in him shall live and shall never die which to a Person that hath but the least use of Reason will never give any ground to Inferr that he who shall live and shall never die shall for a certain time after the dissolution of his Body be confined to a place of Torment where he shall stand extremely in need of the Prayers of the surviving Seventhly There is read out of the 6th Chapter of St. John the three and fiftieth and four and fiftieth Verses where the Son of God recommending the Eating of his Flesh and the Drinking of his Blood promises him who shall eat and drink thereof that he shall have eternal Life and shall be raised up again at the Last day Eighthly Immediately after there are read the second time as well the same Words as the precedent beginning from the one and fiftieth Verse which hath I know not how made shift to gather this Preface In illo tempore dixit Jesus Discipulis suis turbis Judaeorum c. Then Jesus said to his Disoiples and to the multitude of the Jews upon which I have further to observe that there is not the least necessity of concluding from the Promise made by the Son of God that those who participate of his Flesh and of his Blood should after Death be destined to endure the Punishment of a Subterranean Fire and therein tormented expect to be relieved by the Prayers of their surviving Brethren Ninethly There are read with the same Preface which yet is not to be found in any Part of the Chapter the 21 22 23 and 24th Verses of the fifth Chapter of St. John where our Saviour in as much as he affirms by Virtue of the power of Judging which he received of his Father that he who believes in him hath eternal life and shall not come into Judgment but shall pass or rather as the Greek the Syriaok and the Latine Version recommended by the Councel of Trent have it is passed from Death to Life in as much I say as our Saviour obliges the Believer to be certainly perswaded that he shall not after this Life be liable to any Pains whatsoever for his Sins since they are things absolutely incompatible that being passed from Death he should have eternal Life as the inviolable Promise of his Saviour expresses and that he should be to endure for ever so short a space of time the Torments of Death and Hell as the present Church of Rome supposes that he shall not come into Judgment as the Gospel expresly declares and that he shall come to Judgment to be therein condemned for a time according to what the Church of Rome teaches those of her Communion Tenthly and Lastly With a Preface taken up I know not whence there are read the thirty seventh the thirty eighth the thirty ninth and the fourtieth Verses of the sixth Chapter of St. John where our Saviour promising to raise up at the Last day those who believe in him gives them such comfort by the assurance of their final felicity as might raise them out of all fear that between the Moment of their Death and the day of Judgment they should suffer any Punishment and be sensible of any need they should stand in of the Suffrages of the Living In fine there are read as on the second of November and with the same Preface the twenty fifth the twenty sixth the twenty seventh the twenty eighth and the twenty ninth Verses of the fifth Chapter of Saint John which we have already observed to make nothing to the Business either of Purgatory or Prayer for the Dead On the Contrary from all these Lessons it is necessarily manifest First That the Church of Rome who at the present make use of them as inducements to the Living to take care of the Dead hath not haply any thing more Answerable to her Intentions and makes a silent Confession that her Service for the Departed and the Belief of her Purgatory have not any Foundation in the Word of God are the voluntary Devotions of men intruding into those things which they have not seen and for that Reason branded with the Censure of the Holy Spirit speaking by the mouth of St. Paul 2 Coloss xviii 22 23. Secondly That the Primitive Church who had introduced into her Liturgie the Commemoration of the Faithfull Departed many Ages before any of her children had conceived the least thought of Purgatory which is at this day maintained by Superstition and Interest had no other Design in it then by all these Lessons which Treat of the general
and afford them our assistance to deliver them out of the pretended Purgatory And yet these are in a mâ—â—ner all the materials which have been shuffled into the composure of all that piece of Worship which goes under the name of The Office of the Dead though they have not any relation to their state and do no more induce a necessity of praying for them or believing a Purgatory that should purifie them as is pretended then they do that of making boast of our own praises a vanity even though we were tempted thereto Christian moderation would not suffer us to be guilty of Nor can it be said with any more reason that the words of the Psalms which are recited in the said Office are to be considered as Prosopopoeias whereby the Faithfull deceased are represented speaking of their condition after death I. In as much as the whole Contexture of every Psalm requires that the words of it be applyed to those who live in the flesh so as that it were a manifest abuse to wrest them to any other sence II. For that it was never allowed any one to cast into the divine Worship Fictions whereby men of quick Imaginations might presume to become the mouths of their Brethren departed not having to that end either order from them or calling from God And lastly for that though it were left to any man's discretion to make after his own fancy representations of those whom God hath called to himself yet should not any one take the liberty to do it e're he were well informed and satisfied whether they might pass for true and certain especially seeing that when they should be urged out of a design to infer thence the necessity of praying for them they would prove so much the more unmaintainable for as much as in the same Office where it is pretended they are employed to that end there are those Texts alledged which absolutely destroy the use thereof For instance that of the 14th Chapter of the Apocalyps Verse 13. where the holy Spirit declares Blessed are those that die in the Lord for what rational inducement is there either to desire bliss absolutely for those who are already possessed thereof or the cessation of torments for those who do not onely not suffer any but are not subject to suffer any in as much as from henceforth they are blessed and in rest That of the sixth Chapter of St. John and the thirty seventh Verse where the Son of God attests that he will in no wise cast out him that cometh to him and that of the eleventh Chapter and the five and twentieth and six and twentieth Verses where calling himself the Resurrection and the Life he promises life and exemption from eternal death to whosoever believes in him For if he does not cast out any of the Faithfull if on the contrary he saves them all from death and puts them into possession of life the surviving believers who to express their belief of his words insert them into their publick Form of Service do thereby confess that they are obliged to give him thanks for them and not to make Requests which presuppose that they enjoy not the effect of his promise Thus is there not any Lesson in the Service of the Church of Rome which effectually induces or hath so much as the appearance of inducing any thing of what those of her Communion at this day pretend to CHAP. LII Of the Prayers contained in the Missal and Breviary used by the Church of Rome and that Purgatory cannot be necessarily inferred from any one of them FOr as much as in the Book intituled Ordo Romanus there is not any mention made of the Dead that in the Canon of the Mass which is inserted into it the Memento is not to be found and that in the other Ritual Books of the Latines there is not any Lesson obliging to the belief of Purgatory screwed up since the year 1439. by the Councels of Florence and Trent into an Article of Faith the Church of Rome who hath at this day in favour of Prayer for the Dead but one onely Lesson to wit that of the second of Maccabees a Book held by her self to be Apocryphal till after the year 590. the Church of Rome I say is forced to confess that it must have been inserted so much the later into her Missals and Breviaries though upon no other accompt then this that the Greeks use it not in their Office even to this day and that from her whole service it necessarily results that she met not in the holy Scriptures with any foundation of the opinion either of Purgatory which she maintains or of the custom which she practises in praying for the Dead upon Motives unknown to Primitive Antiquity It remains therefore that we see what can be gathered of any consequence from the Prayers which we read in the publick Forms of Service of her prescription We have in the first place such as desire of God that the sins of the deceased Person may be pardoned as for instance this Fidelium Deus omnium conditor Redemptor animabus famulorum famularúmque tuarum remissionem cunctorum tribue peccatorum ut indulgentiam quam semper optaverunt piis supplicationibus consequantur c. O God Creatour and Redeemer of all the Faithfull grant unto the Souls of thy Servants of the one and the other Sex the remission of all their sins that by pious Supplications they may obtain the indulgence they have ever desired And this We beseech thee O Lord that this Supplication of ours may be beneficial to the Souls of thy Servants of both Sexes intreating thee that thou wouldest cleanse them of all their sins and make them partakers of thy Redemption And this We beseech thee O Almighty God that the Soul of thy Servant purged by these Sacrifices may obtain admission to indulgence and eternal remedy And this Vouchsafe O Lord we beseech thee that the Soul of thy Servant and the Souls of thy Servants of both Sexes the Anniversarie-day of whose Interment we now commemorate being purged by these Sacrifices may be received as well into indulgence as eternal rest And this O God who hast commanded that we should honour our Father and Mother be pleased out of thy mercy to have compassion on the Souls of my Father and Mother and pardon their sins and make me to live with them in the joy of eternal light And this We beseech thee O Lord be mercifull unto the Soul of thy Servant and being freed from the contagion of Mortality restore her to the portion of eternal salvation And this We beseech thee O Lord that by these Sacrifices without which no man is guiltless the Soul of thy Servant may be cleansed from all sins that by these offices of pious placation she may obtain eternal mercy And this O God in whose mercy the Souls of the faithfull are at rest be graciously pleased to pardon the sins of thy Servants
contradictory affirmative Some person to wit the Sibyl hath been seiz'd by a Divine fury 3. That what he observes of the Acrostick and the Poëm which was full of ambiguity and artifice signifies that it was in his judgement an attempt of subtil knavery and not the effect of any Divine inspiration CHAP. XII The sentiment of Cicero concerning the Acrostick attributed to the Sibyl further clear'd up BUt I proceed further and say That though it were granted that Cicero could have been perswaded that the Pieces kept at Rome in the custody of the Quindecimviri were Divine yet would he never have made that judgement either of the eight Books now extant among us nor yet of the thirty three Verses taken by Constantine out of the eighth He would not have made it of the whole body of the eight books for all the Sibylline Oracles were as being not much unlike the Centuries of Nostradamus little fragments of Poetry writ down one after another but distinguish'd as well in regard of the form as subject and disposed by way of Acrosticks Whence it is that Dionysius Halicarnassaeus writing under Augustus and some few years after the death of Cicero sayes that The Verses attributed to the Sibyl are discover'd by the Acrosticks And Cicero himself who had spoken of an Acrostick in the singular number shews that the artifice of it was common to all the Poëms that went under the name of the Sibylline In the Sibylline books saith he of the first verse of every sentence is made the beginning of the contexture of all the Poëm by the first Letters of that sentence this is the work of a person that writes not of one in a fury of a man that does things with circumspection not of one that is extravagant So that it might be saïd of these Pieces that there was in them not a simple but a double artifice as wherein the first verse was written as it were in the frontispeece and down along sideways making the begining of the Poem and containing in order the first letters of every of the following verses Of that kind was that forc'd Preface which Athelme Bishop of Sarisbery writ about the year 705. and put at the begining of this Poem Of the praise of Virgins the first verse which was Metrica tyrones nunc promant carmina castos contains an Acrostick of all the rest of the work so that as the first Letter that is M begins the whole body of the Preface the second E is the first Letter of the second verse the third which is T of the third and so of the rest And hence it is apparent that though the Acrostick of thirty three or thirty four verses copied by Constantine as also by St. Augustine had been truly Sibylline the rest of the eight books according to the presupposition of Cicero and Dionysius Halicarnassaeus could not be the like since that there is not any Tract of an Acrostick elsewhere But that those thirty three verses whereof the Capitall letters make up the name of our Saviour neither have been nor could be such as the ancient Christians believ'd them is further apparent from this that the first verse contains not the Acrostick of all that follows and does not any way express the artifice of the Sibylline verses observ'd by Cicero Whence it must necessarily follow First that the person who was the Author as well of this part of the eighth book as of all the rest of both that and the other books which many upon such triviall grounds would have us entertain for Divine Oracles had onely heard so much of the Acrostick mention'd by Cicero as that he never understood it Secondly that it may with much more reason be believ'd that he never had any sight or knowledge of the Sibylline books celebrated by the ancient Heathens Thirdly that Constantine the Great and those Fathers who were later then Justine Martyr as Tertullian and Optatus dazled with the false lustre of an imposture which carried some appearance of piety were deceiv'd not onely when they receive'd with open arms for Divine and Propheticall what was not such but also when critically endeavouring to find something of mystery in it and striving to go beyond the Acrostick which they so much though without any just cause admir'd they shuffled together the capitall Letters of these five Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to raise out of them the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Fish and to gather thence that our Saviour is the onely Fish of Salvation and that the Christians are Pisciculi the little fishes whom he nourishes and enlivens in the Fish-pond of his Baptisme For though it be most certain that Baptisme is the washing of regeneration and that our Lord and Saviour who was the Author and consecrator thereof is the Fountain of our spirituall life yet was the ground whence they thought to derive this truth most false Nor do I make this remark out of any design to cast a blemish on those holy persons who made their advantage of it for who is not subject to be surpized but out of compassion to see their plain dealing and want of caution so unworthily play'd upon and their piety so insolently abused by a sort of persons who without any shame or conscience have presum'd to lodge their own fantasticall imaginations in the most honourable places of Gods Sanctuary one while as Propheticall Oracles pronounc'd immediately after the Deluge another as Apostolicall Predications added some 2400. years after to confirm and raise them into greater veneration CHAP. XIII The sentiment of Virgil in his fourth Eclogue examin'd and clear'd up and that it hath no relation to the Writing pretendedly Sibylline which was composed a long time after made apparent HAving made the best advange he could of this Certificate of Cicero's on the behalf of the Sibyl the Emperor Constantine produces that of Virgil to the same purpose the gravity of which second Witness deserves a more particular examination of what is alledged by him I take no notice of the conceit which the Prince who produces his testistimony had when he thought that this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby he would express the Latine Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto is out of some other place of the Bucolicks then that which begins Sicelides musae for though it be indeed out of that very Eclogue and clearly discovers that Constantine either had not read it exactly or had it onely upon the report of some other I shall not I say make any advantage of this mistake of little consequence but intreat the Reader to remember that whether he be pleased to reflect on the occasion of the Poem or on the whole contexture of it he shall not find any thing in it which does not favour of Paganisme and accordingly is so much the further from Divine or may shew that the Author had his thoughts fixt
the Birth of men so they shew'd that Pollio's Wife who had been very much indisposed during her Pregnancy should after her Delivery make her self known to her childe by her joy that that Joy was as it were the Earnest of the child's Blessing as it were a signification of Misfortune to him if his Parents were not joyfull at his Birth But the Emperour transforming the Discourse of Virgil according to his own way makes him say Begin laughing and lifting up thy sight to know thy Mother who should be dear to thee for she hath carried thee in her womb many years thy Parents have not smiled on thee at all thou hast not been put in a Couch nor had splendid Banquet Whereupon he adds by way of Comment upon it How have not the Parents smiled on this childe Certainly it was because he who begot him is a certain Power that hath no Qualities nor can be figured by the delineation of other things nor hath a humane body Now who knows not that being a holy Spirit it can have no experience of Coitions And what inclination and desire can be imagined in the disposition of that good with a greediness whereof all things are inflamed Or what compliance is there between Wisdom and Pleasure But let these things be said onely by those who introduce I know not what humane generation of God and endeavour not to cleanse their minds of every bad Word and Work What a small matter needs there to divert men from the Truth since the pure Imagination of a Mystery where there is not any is able to do it Certain it is that as God the Father hath neither Qualities nor Figure nor Body nor Passions nor Desires so the eternal Generation of his Word hath nothing common with that of men But nothing of all this coming to the knowledg of Virgil and his words neither expressing nor capable of expressing it since the Greek properly speaking is a corruption of the Latine which tended to no other end then to promise Happiness to Pollio's young Son to what purpose have some thought to Philosophize as they have done For there had been no occasion given had they not altered the Sense by supposing as many have done that Pollio's little childe had laughed assoon as he was born and that upon that extraordinary Laughter the whole Prediction of his Happiness had been grounded and imagining that Virgil had said of the child's Laughter what he meant of the Mother's as also that she had born him several years and that he was not descended of Parents subject to either any inclination to Laughter or the natural necessity of Sleep and Rest For should that Great man have returned to Earth again he might with reason have said to Constantine what St. Augustine said since to Julian the Pelagian Restore me my Words and thy dreaming Imaginations will vanish CHAP. XV. That it cannot be said That Virgil in his Fourth Eclogue disguised his own Sentiment THe same thing may also be said of the same Emperour 's supposing that the Poet spake Figuratively and disguised the Truth out of a fear that any of the Potentates of the Royal City should charge him with writing against the Laws of his Country and dcrogating from what had sometime been the sentiment of his Ancestours concerning the Gods and that he wished the prolongation of his own life to see the coming of our Saviour For as it happened about three hundred years since that the Poet Dante mov'd by an Admiration of that incomparable Wit would needs deliver him out of his Hell in like manner the good opinion Constantine had conceived of him hath made him read in his Poem what indeed is not in it out of such an Imagination as those have who looking up to the Clouds think they see such and such Figures therein And thence comes it that he hath spoken so much to his advantage though without any ground either in Truth it self or indeed in the very outward Dress of his Work which was not done according to the certain Pattern of any antient Oracle of the Sibyls nor yet to the eight Books now extant among us and which were writ above one hundred fourscore and six years after the Consulship of Pollio but was design'd onely to express the desire which Virgil had to comply with Augustus and Pollio and to insinuate more and more into their Favour Whereupon I conclude That the antient Paganism what Opinion soever Constantine and others may have had to the contrary hath not given any Testimony either in favour of these pretended Sibylline Oracles which openly oppose Idolatry or yet to confirm the perswasion which the Fathers have had thereof CHAP. XVI That Apollodorus had no knowledg of the Eight Books called the Sibylline FOr to think with the generality of modern Christians that Apollodorus the Erythraean had seen the Third Book because as Lactantius observes from Varro he had affirmed of the Erythraean Sibyl That she was of his City and that she had Prophecied to the Greeks going to Ilium that Troy should be destroyed and that Homer should write Lies is a manifest abuse The Words we read to this purpose are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Troy I compassionate thy Miseries A fair Erinnys shall from Sparta rise Which Europe and the Asian Realms will vex But thee 'bove all with many Woes perplex Her self much crown'd with Fame that never dies An Aged Man Authour of many Lies Shall flourish next of unknown Country blind His Eyes but of a clear quick-sighted Mind He his conceptions into Verse shall frame And what he writes stile with a double Name Profess himself a Chian and declare Th' Affairs of Ilium not as they were Yet clear both in my Words and Verse for he The first that looks into my Works shall be This I say is a manifest Mistake For First It is no hard matter to imagine that the Impostour who composed the Eight Books of the Sibyls and had impudently taken upon him the name of Wife to Noah ' s Son two hundred years after the Death of Varro who died according to Eusebius in the seven hundred twenty and sixth year of Rome might at his ease and long enough before have read what he had alledged out of Apollodorus who was more antient whether in his Latine or in the Greek Text of Apollodorus and that he could do no less for his own Reputation then produce as a probable Argument of his pretended Antiquity what he had found in him Secondly For that Apollodorus who attests of the Erythraean Sibyl that she was born in his City and acknowledged a Native thereof whether by common Report or upon the Credit of her Writings could not have said any such thing of our Counterfeit Sibyl who says she came from Babylon and was Noah's Daughter-in-law and formally denyes that she was by Country an Erythraean and charges the Greeks with Imposture for
put him into the Catalogue of the Millenaries Not long after came Lactantius who in magnificent Terms entertains us with all the particulars of their Opinion saying Cum deleverit injustitiam c. When God shall have taken away Injustice and kept Sovereign Judgment and restrored to life the Just who were from the beginning he will converse among men for the space of a thousand years and shall rule over them with Justice Which is no more then what the prophecying and distracted Sibyl somewhere proclaims Mortals attend th' eternal King does reign And then those who shall be found alive in their Bodies shall not dy but during the said thousand years shall propogate an infinite multitude and their progeny shall be holy and dear to God Those also who shall be raised out of Hell shall as Judges command the living c. The holy City shall be established in the midst of the earth in which God the Founder thereof shall make his abode with the Just who govern After which he supposes all we have said of the fruitfulness of the earth of the peace which there shall be in it and of the change of the natures of cruel and savage Beasts alledging to that purpose though with some little diversity the words of the third Book of the pretended Sibyl in the thirty second and thirty fifth pages and those of the fifth Book in the fourty sixth page cited by us already Dionysius of Alexandria who had undertaken the Refutation not of Saint Irenaeus as Saint Hierome thought but of Nepos in two Books entituled Of the Promises was about one hundred years after engaged by Apollinarius of Laodicea as we learn from the same Saint Hierome saying Duobus voluminibus respondit Apollinarius c. That is to say Apollinarius answered in two Volumes whom follow not onely the men of his own Sect but also a great multitude of ours as to that particular onely So that I now see with a spirit foreseeing what will happen what considerable Persons will be exasperated against me Much about the same time lived Tychonius the learned African of the Donatist Party of whom Gennadius writes in his Catalogue Mille annorum quoque regni in terra Justorum post resurrectionem futuri suspicionem intulit c. He also gave some suspicion of imagining a Reign of the Just upon Earth for the space of a thousand years after the Resurrection To which may be added that in the confused Collection of Homilies which is attributed to Saint Augustine and was indeed extracted out of the Writings of Tychonius upon the Apocalyps we read these words Retulit Spiritus dum haec scriberet regnaturam Ecclesiam mille annos in hoc saeculo usque ad finem mundi That is to say The Spirit while he writ these things delivered that the Church should reign a thousand years upon Earth even to the end of the World The same Gennadius observes of one Commodianus De divinis repromissionibus adversùs illos Paganos agens vili satis crasso ut ità dixerim sensu disseruit illis stuporem nobis desperationem incutiens Tertullianum Lactantium Papiam sequutus c. Treating against the Heathens concerning the divine Promises he discoursed thereof in a sence sufficiently flat and unpolished casting them into Insensibility us into Despair wherein he followed Tertullian Lactantius and Papias for his Authours We have it also upon the account of St. Hierome that our Severus Sulpitius who writ the Life of St. Martin had committed the same Errour in his Dialogue entituled Gallus wherein yet there is not at this day any thing of that nature to be found Nay the same St. Hierome himself though not chargeable with the Errour which to his grief he saw generally followed by the Christians of the fifth Age betrays himself guilty of so great a respect towards those who first maintained it that he dares not condemn it saying about the year 415. Licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quia multi Ecclesiasticorum virorum Martyres ista dixerunt unusquisque in suo sensu abundat Domini cuncta judicio reservantur c. In regard many Ecclesiastical Persons and Martyrs have said these things as also that every man aboundeth in his own sence and that all is reserved for the Judgment of the Lord though I do not follow them yet can I not condemn them CHAP. XIII Inducements of Praying for the Dead arising from the Hypotheses proposed in the pretended Sibylline Writing BY this means had the Opinion of the Millenaries with a success equal to that of the other Supposiâ—…s of the pretended Sibylline Writing not onely found Partisans among the Christians but also gained the applause of many of the most eminent among them and all had conceived this apprehension thereof that it was impossible to maintain all the Hypotheses contained in it without inducing by a necessary consequence Prayer for the Dead whom they imagined to stand so much the more in need of the Assistances of the living by how much they imagined them exposed as well to the disturbances which those might be subject to who are reduced to the expectation of their Happiness as to the Temptations and Assaults which the Faithfull are exercised with through the implacable malice of Evil Spirits and are obliged at last to stand to the rigorous Judgment of the God of glory We cannot make a better representation of the State whereto the Christians of that Time conceived their deceased Brethren to be reduced then by copying-out what Justin Martyr who had seen the Eruption of the first Sibylline Imposture hath written of the condition of our Saviour himself to whom he very justly applied those words of the two and twentieth Psalm according to the Hebrews Save me from the Lyon's Mouth That he prayed his Soul might be delivered from the Sword from the Lyon's Mouth and the Paw of the Dog was a request that none should prevail over his Soul to the end that when we come to depart this life we should desire the same things as he did of Almighty God that every wicked bold Spirit may be prevented from taking our Souls as being what the Souls expect I have shewn as much in that Saul required that the Soul of Samuel might be evocated by the Witch It appears also that the Souls of all those who have been Just and Prophets are subject to such Powers as by the effect it is manifest was that wherewith the Witch was Possessed Whence it is that he teacheth us by his Son that we for whose sake it is clear that that was done should Fight all manner of waies and desire at our Departure out of this life that our Souls may not fall under any such Powers for as much as when he gave up the Ghost upon the Cross he said Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit From which Discourse
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
contracted thou out of thy goodness and compassion mayst mercifully wash away To the same end are referred also the following Prosopopoeias wherein the Soul of every deceased Person is represented with motions of fear suitable to such as it might have had during the couse of this Life As for instance Libera me Domine c. O Lord deliver me from eternal death in that dreadfull day when the heavens and the earth shall be shaken when thou shalt come to Judge the World by Fire I am become trembling and fear till the discussion and wrath to come shall be over That day is a day of wrath calamity and misery a great day and very bitter when thou shalt come Again this Domine quando veneris c. O Lord where shall I hide my self from the countenance of thy wrath when thou comest to Judge the Earth For I have sinned extremely during my life I am frightened at the things I have committed and blush before thee when thou comest to Judge do not condemn me And this Memento mei Deus c. O God have me in remembrance because my life is but wind let the eye of him that hath seen me see me no more Out of the depths have I cried unto thee O Lord Hear O Lord when I cry with my voice And this Hei mihi c. Wo unto me O Lord for I have sinned overmuch in my life What shall I do Wretch that I am Whither shall I flie if not unto my God Have compassion on me when thou shalt come at the Last day My soul is sore vexed but do thou Lord deliver it be mercifull c. And this Legem pone c. Teach me O Lord the way of thy Commandments and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies Deliver me not into the will of mine enemies for false Witnesses are risen up against me and iniquity hath belyed it self yet I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living And this Peccantem me quotidie c. Sinnning daily and not repenting the fear of death distracts me in regard There is no redemption in Hell O God be mercifull unto me and save me O God save me for thy Name sake and deliver me in thy Power And this other Domine secundùm actum meum noli me judicare c. O Lord Judge me not according to what I have done I have done nothing in thy presence worthy it I therefore beseech thy Majesty to do away mine iniquity O Lord wash me from my injustice more and more and cleanse me from my sin And this other Sitivit anima mea c. My soul thirsteth for God when shall I come and appear before the Lord Deliver not the soul of thy Turtle-dove unto the multitude forget not the Congregation of thy poor for ever Our Father c. And Lastly this Libera me Domine c. O Lord who hast broken the Gates of Brass and visited Hell and given light that they might see thee to those who were in the Torments of darkness crying and saying Thou arâ— come O our Redeemer deliver me out of the ways of Hell For there is not any Body so weakly instructed as not easily to comprehend that the Authours of these Complaints and Lamentations meant them rather for the advantage and edification of the living by putting them in minde of the fear and trembling wherein they should be in the presence of their Lord then to represent the State of the Dead which they have been forced to express after their Fancy as such as had some resemblance with that of poor Wayfaring-men who yet walk in the Flesh because they had not any manifest knowledg thereof but onely Conjectures and presumptions and those many times not very conformable to the Rule of Faith and the Sentiments of the purest Antiquity Since it is absolutely impossible that he who makes a Prayer for his Soul should be any other thing then that Soul for which he Prays and that the Wish he makes that God would teach him the way of his Statutes which is onely in this Life and the Confession of sinning daily and the Prayer to be delivered out of the ways of Hell should suit with any but Travellers who walk yet in the Flesh struggling as they go with their own imperfections and the Infernal Powers and by continued endeavours tending to their rest whereof the separated Souls of the Faithfull departed who have finished their course in Faith and Hope must necessarily be possessed from the very moment of their separation The same moderation is required to finde out the true sense of the Prayers which seem to presuppose a certain deliverance out of Infernal pains wherein the deceased are ready to be tormented as when we read in the Missal Domine Jesu Christe c. O Lord Jesus Christ King of Glory deliver the Souls of all the Faithfull departed out of the power of Hell and out of the bottomless Lake deliver them out of the mouth of the Lyon Let not Hell swallow them up let them not fall into the obscure places of darkness but let the Standard-bearer St. Michael bring them into that holy light which thou didst sometime promise to Abraham and to his Seed We offer unto thee O Lord â—…oasts and Prayers for them receive the same for those Souls whom we this day commemorate grant them O Lord to pass from Death to an holy life And in the Office of the Dead A portâ inferni erus Domine animas eorum requiescant in pace Amen c. O Lord deliver their Souls from the Gate of Hell may they rest in peace Amen For though upon the first glance these words seem to revive the Hypothesis which Justin Martyr had drawn up out of the Quagmire of the counterfeit Sibyl imagining that the Soul of the greatest Saints were afer their departure out of the body sent to Hell and were subject to the power of evil Spirits yet must they necessarily have another signification and onely induce that God alone preserves those whom he calls so as that they fall not into the power of Hell but are by the Ministery of his holy Angels introduced into celestial light and that they are delivered not as escaping out of some Torment which they had for some time indured but as avoiding the necessity of enduring it And whereas it is said that the Hoasts mentioned in those Prayers are offered to Jesus Christ it necessarily induces that they neither are nor can be Jesus Christ himself as the Church of Rome imagines at this day but Gifts presented to God by his people as an expression of their gratitude And since what is said without any exception viz. That they are offered for the Souls of all the departed whose commemoration is celebrated it demonstratively proves that they are and were according to the intention of the Antients
a little Season to rest above and further consider as the highest point of their pretension that admirable perfection which the first shall not attain without the last one and the same day to wit that of the General Resurrection and the Last Judgment being appointed to make an eternal assurance of the full Perfection of their Glory The Antients I say upon these Considerations might and after their Example the Faithfull still may and do continually desire and beg it as well for themselves as for all those who before them had served their generations by the will of God and happily finished their course in this life Fourthly It may be observed that in this kinde of Prayer they seem to follow the Example of the Apostle praying for Onesiphorus that the Lord would grant that he might finde mercy with the Lord in that day in which he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe For whatever may be presupposed concerning the State of Onesiphorus and whether it be said that that good Person was or was not discharged as to the necessities of this life when the Wish set down in the Second Epistle to Timothy was made for him it will make no difference in the main and it will still be certain that the good expressed by St. Paul's Prayer hath not been hitherto accomplished in any one that it is of no less importance at this day to Onesiphorus then when St. Paul prayed for him that St. Paul and Onesiphorus and all the Saints who are with God wait for as much as we do who are saved by Hope onely the Day of the Lord and the Mercy which Onesiphorus and all the rest of the Elect shall finde when that day comes and that he who prays his Friend may obtain what cannot be conferred on him till many Ages after his Introduction into celestial Beatitude seems necessarily to pray for one that is Blessed if not effectually when he conceived his Prayer at least for one considered as such when he shall see the Effect thereof so that whensover a man undertakes to pray for him whether while he is alive or after his death or both before and after his death he still makes the same Prayer for him which not onely does not but canot change its nature in the revolution of Ages since that its foundation still unchangeably subsists and that it is impossible it shall have its Effect in any but a Person that hath been already a long time in Glory with God and who stands in need not of Beatitude in it self which he is already possessed of but the last Perfection of it and as it may be expressed in vulgar Terms the Over-weight which is necessarily to be added thereunto Thus the Fathers not without some Ground conceived they had pertinent Reasons to pray for those whom they thought gathered into the eternal Rest of God nay some out of a Motive of extraordinary compassion took the liberty to pray and advised others to make Prayers and give Alms for the Damned yet so as that for ought we know it hath not happened that for the space of six hundred years together any one of them laid it down as a Tenent of Catholique Faith That the Souls of those who ended their Lives in the Profession of that Faith were reduced immediately upon their departure to endure any temporal Punishment for their sins and to make full satisfaction to the Justice of God before they took possession of their Bliss The Antient Liturgies are so far from teaching any such thing that they have formally expressed the contrary and even to this day the Form of Prayer for the Recommendation of Persons in Agony expresly presupposes that their Souls at their departure out of the Bodies are to be carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom a Mansion of Rest and Felicity and not of Torment For after the Litanies whereby the Mercy of God is implored they say to the sick Person Proficiscere anima Christiana de hoc Mundo c. Depart out of this World O Christian Soul in the Name of God the Father Almighty who hath created thee in the Name of Jesus Christ the Son of God who hath suffered for thee in the Name of the Holy Ghost which is shed into thee c. May thy place be this day in Peace and thy habitation in Holy Sion through the same Christ our Lord. Amen To this Wish there is added a Prayer which demands for the sick Person the Remission of his sins the Renewing of whatever there was corrupt in him and his reconciliation with God and then this Discourse is addressed to him Commendo te c. I recommend thee most dear Brother to God Almighty and cōmit thee to him whose creature thou art that when by the interposition of death thou shalt have cancelled the Obligation of humanity thou mayst return to thy Authour who hath formed thee out of the slime of the Earth May therefore a bright Assembly of Angels meet thy soul at its departure out of the body c. May the embraces of the Patriarchs confine thee to the Bosom of a blissfull rest c. Mayest thou be delivered from Torment by Christ who was crucified for thee mayst thou be delivered from eternal death by Christ who vouchsafed to die for the May Christ the Son of the living God place thee in the ever-pleasant verdures of his Paradise and may that true Shepheard own thee among his Sheep May he forgive thee all thy sins and place thee in the portion of his Elect on his right hand Mayst thou face to face see thy Redeemer and being ever present behold with thy blessed eyes the most manifest truth Being then placed among the Quires of the blessed mayst thou enjoy the sweetness of divine contemplation world without end Amen After such a Discourse there is made this Prayer Suscipe Domine servum tuum c. O Lord Receive thy servant into the place where he is to hope salvation from thy mercy Amen O Lord deliver the soul of thy servant from all dangers of Hell and from the snares of Torments and from all Tribulations Amen Then having made a recital of the Deliverances of Enoch and Elias of Noë Abraham Joab Isaac Lot Moses Daniel and his three Companions David Saint Peter and Saint Paul they conclude with these words And as thou hast delivered from three most grievous Torments the most blessed Virgin and Martyr Thecla in like manner mayest thou be pleased to deliver the soul of this this thy servant and grant that he may rejoyce with thee in the enjoyment of celestial goods Amen At last follow two Prayers whereof the former begins with these words Commendamus animam Famuli tui c. O Lord we recommend unto thee the soul of thy servant and we humbly beseech thee O Jesus Christ Saviour of the World that thou wouldest not refuse to
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
according to them at such a point as immediately after their departure out of the Body to be at the self-same time exempted from the Pains of Restraint Obscurity or Grief through which it is affirmed they are to pass and deprived of the Rest which after the Pains they are to obtain so as that they are for the least space of time imaginable in a Neutral State which admits not the qualification of either Good or Bad of either Light or Darkness Rest or Torment and consequently of either Joy or Grief if not by accident And in Case that by the Place of Torment where it is feigned they fear being confined some may understand the Hell of the Damned is it possible they should ever be exposed thereto since it is presupposed they are of a middle Conditition and upon that very accompt as being chargeable onely with Venial Sins neither do nor can deserve Eternal damnation Be this therefore one unmaintainable and unimaginable Absurdity which must needs press hard upon our Forgers of Descriptions according to the Dictates of their own Fancies They make the deceased Priest further say Why O man dost thou trouble thy self thus unseasonably There is one onely hour and all passes away for in Hell there is no Repentance There is no Releasment in that place there is the Worm which never sleeps there is the darksom land and the obscure matter to which I am to be condemned c. Is this Discourse attributible to a Faithfull Person that had had here in this World the least taste of the Promise made by the Son of God assuring us that whoever believes in him is in such manner passed from death to life as that though he be dead yet shall he live through him that he shall not come into Condemnation and that there is not indeed any for those that are in him Are the Souls imagined to be in a middle Condition subject to the stingings of the Worm which never dies and liable to Damnation Which if it be supposed they neither are nor can why should they be feigned to say so and necessarily Lie in saying so This must then be a second Impertinence and a new Piece of Forgery committed by the Corrupters of the Ritual not onely against the Word of God but also against their Sentiment who in the same Ritual inserted this Confession which is both most true and Diametrically contrary to the Discourse before confuted Lament not all you who are departed in the Faith for as much as Christ hath suffered the Cross and was buried for us in the Flesh and hath made all those who call upon him children of Immortality For this once lay'd down does it signifie less then a total Eclipse of understanding and circumspection to make the children of Immortality for whom the Saviour of the World died and who consequently cannot perish say that they shall be Damned Nay the Prayers of the Living for their departed Brethren would be still chargeable with inconvenience even though they were taken literally For instance this O Lord as thou saidst unto Martha I am the Resurrection by the Effect accomplishing thy Word and calling Lazarus out of Hell so also mercifully raise this thy servant out of Hell For besides that it is a little too freely supposed that our Lord's Friend was confined in Hell from the moment of the Death of his Body to that of his Resurrection it is also false that our Saviour raises out of Hell whence the Ritual confesses that none is delivered any of his Servants Whoever once enters there never comes out again nor is there any raising up to be expected by him But these words may be maintained if they meet with a favourable Interpretation which might admit Hell to signifie not the place of the Damned in which sence it is ordinarily taken but the Grave whence our Saviour who called forth Lazarus will at the Last day raise up the Bodies of all his Servants With the help of the same favourable way of Interpreting it were possible to finde a sence conformable to the apprehension of Antiquity in those Prayers whereby the Greeks do at this day Beg the Remission of Sins for their Dead taking care to make them to relate to the Absolution which shall be solemnly pronounced by the Great Judg at the last day as may be deduced from this that most of them expresly mention it among others this Vouchsafe O Redeemer that when thou shalt come with ineffable glory in the Clouds after a dreadfull manner to Judge the whole World that thy Faithfull Servant whom thou hast taken from the Earth may joyfully meet thee which words are Grounded on 1 Thess Chap. iv Verse 17. In like manner this Vouchsafe O God to be mindfull of our Father who is now at rest and be pleased to deliver him from the corruption of sin at the day of Judgment through the good odour of thy goodness mercy and love towards men Again O Lord from whom the Spirits of those who serve thee do come and to whom they return we beseech thee to cause to rest in a place of light in the Region of the Just the Spirit of N. thy Servant now lying in his Grave and raise him up at thy second and dreadfull coming not to be condemned after the Resurrection but to be Absolved for no man living shall be justified in thy sight Again Let not thy Servant O Lord be confounded at thy coming When thou shalt discover all things that are hidden and shalt O Christ reprove our sins spare him whom thou hast taken hence being mindfull of his Preaching Again Forgive O Saviour the sins of him who hath been translated hence in Faith and vouchsafe to admit him to thy Kingdom there shall not any escape the dreadfull Tribunal of thy judgment Kings and Potentates and the Hireling all shall appear together and the dreadfull Voice of the Judge shall call the People that have sinned to the condemnation of Hell from which O Christ deliver thy servant Again Out of thy mercy O Christ exempt from the Fire of Hell and the dreadfull Sentence thy Servant whom thou hast now taken hence in Faith and let thy Domestick praise thee as God the mercifull Redeemer c. Brethren how dreadfull is the hour which sinners are to expect O what fear is there Then the Fire of Hell devours and the ravenous Serpent swallows wherefore mercifull Lord Christ deliver him from the day of dreadfull Gehenna O how great shall be the Joy of the Just which they shall be possessed of when the Judge comes for the Nuptial room is prepared and Paradise and the whole Kingdom of Christ into which O Christ receive thy Domesticks to rejoyce with thy Saints eternally Who O Christ shall bear the dreadfull threatning of thy coming Then shall Heaven be rolled up together as a Book after a dreadfull manner and the Stars will fall the whole
1 Cor. 13. 7. 13. Rom. 8. 20. Matth. 10. 16. Tertul. loco ciâ—to Ibid. Matth. 3. 16. Luke 1. 78. Tertul. loc citat Semo Sangus Simon Magus Lib. 3. c. 26. Catech. 4. De Civit Dei l. 18. c. 42. In Ezech. l. 10. c. 33. Epist 104. Lib. 5 advers Cels. * Tatian sayes that he dedicates his three books of the Chaldaick History to Antiochus Soter who began hisreign in the year of Rome 472. or the 472. after the death of Cyrus Phâ—cai lib. 10. Of the same opinion is Plutarch De Pythiae Orac. i Lib. 1. ad finem Lib. 3. ad finem Lib. 2. Lib. 7. ad finem Lib. 1. p. 7. * ΑΔΑΜ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. p. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 1. p. 8. The Hebrew letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 produce but 41. Lib. 1. p. 12. Lib. 2. p. 58. Lib. 1. p. 10. Lib. 1. p 9. 11. 7. p. 53. Lib. 1. p. 11. Lib. 2. p. 14. 17. 18. 3. p. 34. 49. Lib. 3. p. 22. Lib. 3. p. 26. Ibid. Lib. 5. p. 41 43 44. 49. Lib. 8. p. 57. Lib. 2. p. 15. Lib. 5. p. 41. Lib. 5. p. 46. Lib. 5. p. 41. Lib. 8. p. 57. Lib. 8. p. 57. Lib. 8. p. 59. Lib. 8. p. 66. Appar Sacr. verbo Sibyllarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apoc. 18. 8 21 Lib. 2. Annal. 15. Marcus was born in the year 121. and Lucius in the year 128. Lib. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ga'en de praecogn post c. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. lib. 6. p. 136. Baron Appar 19. Sixt. Sen. Bibl lib. 2. Possevin Appar Bib. Sel. lib. 2. c. 71. Lib. 17. c 20. Psal 147. 19 20. Joh. 4. 22. Acts 14. 16. Acts 17. 30. Rom. 3. 1 2. Rom. 9 4. Rom. 10. 19. Isai 44. 28. and 45. 1. Paedag l. 1 c. 2. p. 80. Strom l 7. 695. 702. 3. Lib. 3. c 2. Strâ— l. 3 p. 450 lib 4 p 550 Padag l. 3 c. 3. Ibid c 11 Strom. lib 1. p 280. 309. 18 19 lib 6 636 63â— 48 Strom lib 1. p 304. 5 p. 548. Lib. 1. p. 307. P 310 P 311. Lib 5 p 615. Lib 6 p 662 Lib 1. p 324. P 325. p. 326. P. 327 P. 328. P. 332. P. â—43 â—ib 〈◊〉 p. 428. P 349. lib 4 p 529 Lib. 4 p. 488. Lib. 5. p. 564. Lib. 6. p 637. 638 639. P. 649. P. 650. 51 54. Lib. 7. p. 706. 47. Lib. 6. p. 667. P. 669. Lib. 7. p. 730. P. 748. P. 676. Paedag. l. 1. c. 5. Strom. l. 5. 549. * Pag 688. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Pag. 690 91. Pag. 692. P. 695. P. 696. P. 647. Can. 53. P. 698. P. 696. P. 678. * In this placeis inserted a Discourse of 20. lines concerning St. John his Baptisme death and the defeat of Herod Advers Cels. lib. 1. Euseb Hist lib 2. c. 23. Hieron Catal. Antiq lib. 20. cap. 2. Oros lib. 7. c. 6. Phil. 1. 13. 3. 8. 4. 22. De Civit. Dei lib. 6. c. 11. Tacit. Annal 15. Jo. 8. 44. Lib. 4. Aeneid 10. Baeotic lib. 4. Lib. 1. cap. 6. Lib. 1. 4. 6. 10. Lib. 13. 17. Lib. 7. c. 33. 13. cap. 13. Antiq. l. 1. c. 5. Apol. Legal Exhort ad Autolyc lib. 2. Apud Orig l. 7. In Peregrino Pseudomanti Lib. 34. c. 5. Cap. 7. De Var â—â—ist l. 12 c. 35. Strom. 1. Lib. 2. 1. 6. Tivoli Tâ—veron Orig l. 8. c. 8. Constantine the Great in his Oration to the Assembly of the Saints follows Pausanias in that he maintains that the Erythraean Sibyl was at Delphi but he leaves him again when with Diodorus Siculus he calls her Daphâ—â— Saint Cyril in his first book against Julian places the Erythraean Sibyl under the 9 Olympiad and distinguishes her from Herophila whom he makes to flourish in the 17. Olympiad Strom 1. p. 304. 323. * Noct. Attick lib 1 c 14. * Servius in Aeneid lib 6. Suidas verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tres libros à Sibylla Erythraea Romam allatos ait sive sub Tarquinio sive sub Consulibus itaque sibi non constat Lib. 4. Dionys l. 4. Val. Max. l. 1. c. 1. Lactant. lib. 2. cap. 6. ex Fenestella Lib. 4. Lib. 23. Lib. 2. Quamvis sedecies denis mille peractis Annus praetere jam libi nonus eat August de Civit Dei lib. 18. cap. 53. Cap. 54. Idem Epist 201 2. 53 54 67. De promis l. 3. c. 38. Cod. Theod. lib. 16. tit 10. c. 15. 16 17 18. Dion lib. 46. Sueton. in Caesare Plutar. in Caesare Cicer. de Divin lib. 2. Dio. lib. 54. In Octavio cap. 13. Dio. lib. 57. Tatit. Annal. 6. Sam 2. Annal. 15 Dio. lib. 6. Suet. in Noâ—…on See in Lucian the supposititious Oracles advanced in favour of Alexander Abonotichites and Peregrinus notorious cheats Epiph. haeres 26. calls her Barthenos Colos 1. 20. Philo Biblianus from Sanchomathon a Reritian called de Saturno Euseb praep l. 1. c. 20. Bibl. De Civit. Dei l. 8. c. 23 24 26. De Promiss l. 3 c. 38. Orat. ad Sanct. coet c. 18. Lib. 1. p. 8. Ibid. p. â—1 Ibid. De civit Dei â— 18. c. 23. De promis l. 3. c. 6. 14. From the â—7 of Novem. in the year 711. to the 29. of August in the year of Rome 767. De Divin l. 2. c. 110. Cap. 111. Cap. 112. C. 12. Aiqui in Sibyllinis ex primo versu cujusque sententiae primis literis illius sententiae carmen omne praeiexitur The same thing may be said of the verses which Zosimus attributes to the Sibyls and for the same reason Tertul. de Bapt. c. 1. Optat. l. 3. August de civ Dei l. 18. c. 23. Tit. 3. 5. Psal 36. 9. * Servius upon the ninth Eclogue sayes that the Inhabitants of Cremona having entertain'd the forces of Brutus Cassius and Anthony Augustus overcoming Anthony gave away their lands but he is mistaken since that donacton had been made ten years before the war against Antâ—ony Ecl 9. Georg. l. 2. Ecl. 1. * For that Augustus born in Sept. 23. 691. was then in the 22 year of his age Donatus in Virgils life writes that Cicero had seen his Bucolicks but it is more likely he took from the recovery of his estate occasion to write them two years after Cicero's death As when he says in the 6. of the Aeneidâ—… Longa â—tas meaning a thousand years J. O. * To keep close to Virgil it should have been rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Virgil had indeed said Our crime out of a reflection that he and all those who had preceeded the Consulship of Pollio had been under the Iron-Age and participated of the crime thereof * Saturn lib. 1. cap. 17. * Marcellus whose Death is bewayl'd by Anchises in the sixth Book of the Aeneids died in the year of Rome 731. Ec. 4. Aen. 6. Gal. 4. 4. Metam l.