the second is manifested by the confession of the Romanists themselves; who reckon this for one of their Catholic verities, that suffrages should not be offered for the dead that reign with Christ: and therefore that ancient "form" of praying for the apostles, martyrs, and the rest of the saints, is by disuse deservedly abolished," saith Alphonsus Mendoza. Nay, to offer sacrifices and prayers to God for those that are in bliss, is "plainly absurd and impious," in the judgment of the Jesuit Azorius: who was not aware that thereby he did outstrip Aerius in condemning the practice of the ancient Church, as far as the censuring it only to be unprofitable (for τί ὠφεληθήσεται Ó TεOVEWS; what shall the dead be profited thereby? was the furthest that Aerius durst to go) cometh short of rejecting it as absurd and impious. And therefore our adversaries may do well to purge themselves first from the blot of Aerianism, which sticketh so fast unto them, before they be so ready to cast the aspersion thereof upon others.

In the mean time, the reader who desireth to be rightly informed in the judgment of antiquity, touching this point, is to remember, that these two questions must necessarily be distinguished in this inquiry. Whether prayers and oblations were to be made for the dead? and, Whether the dead did receive any peculiar profit thereby? In the latter of these he shall find great difference among the doctors in the former, very little, or none at all. For "howsoever all did not agree about the state of the

Fr. Suarez. tom. 4. in 3. part. Thom. disp. 48. sec. 4. num. 10.

u Illa formula precandi pro apostolis, martyribus et cæt. merito per desuetudinem exolevit. Alphons. Mendoz. controvers. theologic. quæst. 6. scholastic. sec. 7.

▾ Græci sacrificia et preces offerunt Deo pro mortuis; non beatis certe, neque damnatis ad inferos, quod plane esset absurdum et impium. Jo. Azor. institut. moral. tom. 1. lib. 8. cap. 20.

w Quamvis de statu illo animarum, quibus hæc prodessent, non satis constaret, nec inter omnes conveniret: omnes tamen hoc officium, ut testimonium charitatis erga defunctos, et ut professionem fidei de immortalitate animarum et futura resurrectione, Deo gratum et Ecclesiæ utile esse judicarunt. Cassand. consultat. ad Ferdinand. I. et Maximilian. II. artic. 24.

souls," saith Cassander, an indifferent papist, "which might receive profit by these things; yet all did judge this duty as a testimony of their love toward the dead, and a profession of their faith touching the soul's immortality and the future resurrection, to be acceptable unto God, and profitable to the Church.". Therefore for condemning the general practice of the Church herein, which aimed at those good ends before expressed, Aerius was condemned; but for denying that the dead received profit thereby, either for the pardon of the sins which before were unremitted, or for the cutting off or mitigation of any torments that they did endure in the other world, the Church did never condemn him. For that was no new thing invented by him; divers worthy men before and after him declared themselves to be of the same mind, and were never for all that charged with the least suspicion of heresy. "The narration of Lazarus and the rich man," saith the author of the questions and answers in the works of Justin martyr, "presenteth this doctrine unto us that, after the departure of the soul out of the body, men cannot by any providence or care obtain any profit." Then", saith Gregory Nazianzen, "in vain shall any one go about to relieve those that lament. Here men may have a remedy, but afterwards there is nothing but bonds," or, "all things are fast bound." For, "after" death the punishment of sin is remediless," saith Theodoret; and, "thea dead," saith Diodorus Tarsensis, "have no hope of any succour from man;" and therefore St. Hierome doth con

* "Εστι δὲ τὸ περὶ τοῦ Λᾳζάρου καὶ τοῦ πλουσίου διηγήμα, ὑποτύπωσις λόγου διδασκαλίαν ἔχοντος, τοῦ μὴ δύνασθαι μετὰ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ἔξοδον τῆς ψυχῆς, κατὰ πρόνοιάν τινα ἢ σπουδὴν, ὠφελείας τινὸς τυχεῖν TоÙÇ ȧvěρáπоνç. Justin. resp. ad orthod. quæst. 60. Op. pag. 466.

* Τῆμος ὀδυρομένοισιν ἐτώσια τίς κεν ἀμῦναι.

Ενθάδ ̓ ἄκος μερόπεσσι, τὰ δ ̓ ὕστατα δέσμια πάντα.

Greg. Nazianz. in carm. de rebus suis. Op. tom. 2. pag. 36.

2 Post mortem pœna peccati est immedicabilis. Theodoret. quæst. in lib. 2. Reg. cap. 18, 19.

* Οἱ νεκροὶ ἐλπίζουσιν οὐκέτι βοήθειαν ἀνθρωπίνην οὐδεμίαν. Diodor. caten. Græc. in Psalm. 87. ver. 5. MS. in publica Oxoniensis academiæ bibliotheca.

clude: "that", while we are in this present world, we may be able to help one another, either by our prayers or by our counsels; but when we shall come before the judgment-seat of Christ, neither Job, nor Daniel, nor Noah, can entreat for any one, but every one must bear his own burden."

Other doctors were of another judgment; that the dead received special profit by the prayers and oblations of the living, either for the remission of their sins, or the ceasing of their punishment: but whether this were restrained to smaller offences only, or such as lived and died in great sins might be made partakers of the same benefit; and whether these men's torments might be lessened only thereby, or in tract of time quite extinguished; they did not agree upon. Stephanus Gobarus, whom before I alleged, made a collection of the different sentences of the fathers: whereof some contained the received doctrine of the Church, others the unallowable opinions of certain of the ancient that varied therefrom. Of this latter kind he maketh this sentence to be one: "that such sinners, as be delivered unto punishment, are purged therein from their sins, and after their purging are freed from their punishment': albeit not all who are delivered unto punishment be thus purged and freed, but some only; whereas the true sentence of the Church was, that none at all was freed from punishment." If that were the true sentence of the Church, that none of those, who suffered punishment in the other world, were ever freed from the same;

b Obscure licet docemur, per hanc sententiolam, novum dogma quod latitat: dum in præsenti sæculo sumus, sive orationibus sive consiliis invicem posse nos coadjuvari; cum autem ante tribunal Christi venerimus, non Job, non Daniel, nec Noe rogare posse pro quoquam: sed unumquemque portare onus suum. Hieronym. lib. 3. commentar. in Galat. cap. 6.

· ὧν αἱ μὲν τὸ ἐκκλησιαστικὸν φρόνημα, αἱ δὲ συνεκρότουν τὸ ἀπόβληPhot. biblioth. volum. 232. op. tom. 3. pag.

του.

« Ότι οἱ τῷ κολάσει παραδιδόμενοι τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν καθαίρονται τὰς κακίας ἐν αὐτῷ, καὶ μετὰ τὴν κάθαρσιν ἀπολύονται τῆς κολάσεως· καὶ τοι οὐ πάντες παραδοθέντες τῇ κολάσει καθαίρονται καὶ ἀπολύονται, ἀλλὰ τινὲς. καὶ ὅτι, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἀληθὲς τῆς ἐκκλησίας φρόνημα, οὐδεὶς ἀπολύεται τῆς κολάσεως. Ibid.

then the applying of prayers to the helping of men's souls, out of any such punishments, must be referred to the erroneous apprehension of some particular men, and not to the general intention of the ancient Church; from which in this point, as in many others beside, the latter Church of Rome hath swerved and quite gone astray. The ancient writer of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, handling this matter of praying for the dead professedly, doth by way of objection move this doubt: "To what purpose should the bishop entreat the divine goodness to grant remission of sins unto the dead, and a like glorious inheritance with those that have followed God?" seeing by such prayers he can be brought to no other rest, but that which is fitting for him, and answerable unto the life which he hath here led. If our Romish divinity had been then acknowledged by the Church, there had been no place left to such questions and doubts as these. The matter might easily have been answered, that, though a man did die in the state of grace, yet was he not presently to be admitted unto the place of rest, but must first be reckoned withal; both for the committal of those smaller faults, unto which through human frailty he was daily subject, and for the not performance of full penance and satisfaction for the greater sins into which in this life he had fallen: and purgatory being the place wherein he must be cleansed from the one, and make up the just payment for the other; these prayers were directed unto God for the delivery of the poor soul, which was not now in case to help itself out of that place of torment.

But this author, taking upon him the person of St. Paul's scholar, and professing to deliver herein "that

• Φαίης δ' ἀν ὅπως, ταῦτα μὲν ὀρθῶς εἰρῆσθαι παρ' ἡμῶν· ἀπορεῖν δὲ ὅτου ἕνεκα τῆς θεαρχικῆς ἀγαθότητος ὁ ἱεράρχης δεῖται, τῶν ἡμαρτη μένων αἰτῶν τῷ κεκοιμημένῳ τὴν ἄφεσιν, καὶ τὴν τοῖς θεοειδέσιν ὁμοταyň kai pavorárηv åñokλýpwoiv. Dionys. eccles. hierarch. cap. 7. op. tom. 1. pag. 267.

1 Περὶ δὲ τῆς εἰρημένης εὐχῆς ἦν ὁ ἱεράρχης ἐπεύχεται τῷ κεκοιμη μένῳ, τὴν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐλθοῦσαν ἐκ τῶν ἐνθέων ἡμῶν καθηγεμόνων παράδοσιν, εἰπεῖν ἀναγκαίον. Ο θεῖος ἱεράρχης ἐκφαντορικός ἐστιν, ὡς τὰ

VOL. III.

T

tradition which he had received from his divine Masters," saith no such thing; but giveth in this for his answer: "The divine bishop, as the Scriptures witness, is the interpreter of the divine judgments, for he is the angel of the Lord God Almighty. He hath learned therefore out of the oracles delivered by God, that a most glorious and divine life is by his just judgment worthily awarded to them that have lived holily: his divine goodness and kindness passing over those blots which by human frailty he had contracted; forasmuch as no man, as the Scriptures speak, is free from pollution. The bishop therefore, knowing these things to be promised by the true oracles, prayeth that they may accordingly come to pass, and those sacred rewards may be bestowed upon them that have lived holily." The bishop at that time belike did not know so much as our popish bishops do now, that God's servants must dearly smart in purgatory for the sins wherewith they were overtaken through human infirmity he believed that God of his merciful goodness would pass by those slips, and that such after-reckonings as these should give no stoppage to the present bestowing of those holy rewards upon the children of the promise. "Therefore the divine bishop," saith our author, "asketh those things which were promised by God, and are grateful to him, and without doubt will be granted; thereby as well manifesting his own good disposition unto God, who is a lover of the good, as declaring like an interpreter unto them

:

λόγια φησὶ, τῶν θεαρχικῶν δικαιωμάτων· ἄγγελος γὰρ κυρίου παντοκράτορος θεοῦ ἐστί· μεμάθηκεν οὖν ἐκ τῶν θεοπαραδότων λογίων, ὅτι τοῖς ὁσίως βιώσασιν, ἡ φανοτάτη καὶ θεία ζωὴ κατ ̓ ἀξίαν ὑπὸ τῶν δικαιοτάτων ζυγῶν ἀντιδίδοται παρορώσης ἀγαθότητι τῆς θεαρχικῆς φιλανθρωπίας, τὰς ἐγγενομένας αὐτοῖς ἐξ ἀνθρωπίνης ἀσθενείας κηλίδας. ἐπείπερ οὐδεὶς, ὡς τὰ λόγια φησὶ, καθαρὸς ἀπὸ ῥύπου. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ὁ ἱεράρχης οἶδεν ἐπηγγελμένα πρὸς τῶν ἀληθῶν λογίων· αἰτεῖ δὲ αὐτὰ γενέσθαι, καὶ δωρηθῆναι τοῖς ὁσίως βιώσασι τὰς ἱερὰς ἀντιδόσεις. Id. ibid. pag. 268.

5. Οὐκοῦν ὁ θεῖος ἱεράρχης ἐξαιτεῖ τὰ θειωδῶς ἐπηγγελμένα καὶ φίλα θεῶ, καὶ πάντως δωρηθησόμενα, καὶ τὰ τῆς οἰκείας ἀγαθοειδοὺς ἕξεως ἐπιδεικνὺς τῶ φιλαγάθῳ θεῷ, καὶ τοῖς παροῦσιν ἐκφαντορικῶς ἐμφαίνων τὰ τοῖς ὁσίοις ἐσόμενα δῶρα. οὕτω καὶ τὰς ἀφοριστικὰς ἔχουσιν οἱ ἱεράρχαι δυνάμεις, ὡς ἐκφαντορικοὶ τῶν θείων δικαιωμάτων, &c. Id. ibid. pag.