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add further: "Neither have we received it from any of our doctors; and moreover no small fear doth trouble us, lest, by admitting a temporary fire both penal and purgatory, we should destroy the full consent of the Church." And thereupon they conclude very peremptorily : "Forf these reasons therefore, neither have we ever hitherto affirmed any such thing, neither will we at all affirm it.”

Yet within a year after, the pope and his ministers prevailed so far with them in the council at Florence, that they were content for peace sake to yield, that "thes middle sort of souls were in a place of punishment; but whether that were fire, or darkness and tempest, or something else, they would not contend." And accordingly was the pretended union betwixt them and the Latins drawn up: that "if" such as be truly penitent die in God's favour, before they have satisfied for their sins of commission and omission by worthy fruits of penance, their souls are purged after death with purgatory punishments;" neither fire, nor any other kind of punishment being specified in particular. But neither would Marcus the bishop of Ephesus, who was one of the legates of the patriarchs of Antioch and of Jerusalem, consent to this union: neither could the Greek Church afterwards by any means be drawn to yield unto it. And so unto this day, the Romish purgatory is rejected, as well by the Grecians as by the Muscovites and Russians, the Cophtites and Abassines, the Georgians and Arme

• Ότι μήτε παρὰ τινὸς τῶν διδασκάλων αὐτὸ παρειλήφαμεν, ἔτι τε καὶ φόβος οὐ μικρὸς ὑποθρύπτει ἡμᾶς, μὴ πῦρ πρόσκαιρον ὑποθέμενοι παράδικόν τε καὶ καθαρτήριον, τῷ παντὶ λυμηνάμεθα τῆς ἐκκλησίας πληρώματι. Ibid.

* Διὰ ταῦτα οὖν οὐδέποτε μέχρι τοῦ νῦν εἰρήκαμεν τοιοῦτον οὐδὲν, οὐδ ̓ ὅλως ἐροῦμεν. Ibid.

5 αἱ δὲ μέσαι ὑπάρχουσι μὲν ἐν βασανιστηρίω, καὶ εἴτε πῦρ ἐστὶν, εἴτε ζόφος καὶ θύελλα, εἴτέ τι ἕτερον, οὐ διαφερόμεθα. Concil. Florentin. sess. 25. Si vere pœnitentes in Dei charitate decesserint, antequam dignis pœnitentiæ fructibus de commissis satisfecerint et omissis, eorum animas pœnis purgatoriis post mortem purgari. Eugenii IV. Bulla Unionis. ibid. cujus avróypapov etiam inter Keμλia Cottoniana vidimus.

nians, together with the Syrians and Chaldeans that are subject to the patriarchs of Antioch and Babylon, from Cyprus and Palæstina unto the East-Indies. And this may suffice for the discovery of this new found creek of purgatory.

ON PRAYER

FOR

THE DEAD.

PRAYER for the dead, as it is used in the Church of Rome, doth necessarily suppose purgatory: and therefore whatsoever hath been alleged out of the Scriptures and fathers against the one, doth stand in full force against the other: so that here we need not actum agere, and make a new work of overthrowing that which hath been sufficiently beaten down already. But on the other side, the admittal of purgatory doth not necessarily infer prayer for the dead: nay, if we shall suppose with our adversaries that purgatory is the prison3, from whence none "shall come out until they have paid the utmost farthing;" their own paying, and not other men's praying, must be the thing they are to trust unto, if ever they look to be delivered out of that jail. Our Romanists indeed do commonly take it for granted, that "Purgatory and prayer for the dead be so closely linked together, that the one doth necessarily follow the other" but in so doing, they reckon without their host, and greatly mistake the matter. For howsoever they may deal with their own devices as they please, and link their prayers with their purgatory as closely as they list: yet shall they never be able to shew, that the commemoration and prayers for the dead, used by the ancient Church, had any relation

a Matt. chap. 5. ver. 26.

b Bishop against Perkins reform. catholic. part. 2. pag. 149.

unto their purgatory; and therefore, whatsoever they were, popish prayers we are sure they were not. I easily foresee, that the full opening of the judgment of the fathers, in this point, will hardly stand with that brevity which I intend to use in treating of these questions: the particulars be so many, that necessarily do incur into the handling of this argument. But I suppose the reader will be content rather to dispense with me in that behalf, than be sent away unsatisfied in a matter, wherein the adversary beareth himself confident beyond measure, that the whole stream of antiquity runneth clearly upon his side.

That the truth then of things may the better appear: we are here prudently to distinguish the original institution of the Church, from the private opinions of particular doctors, which waded further herein than the general intendment of the Church did give them warrant; and diligently to consider, that the memorials, oblations and prayers, made for the dead at the beginning, had reference to such as rested from their labours, and not unto any souls which were thought to be tormented in that Utopian purgatory, whereof there was no news stirring in those days. This may be gathered, first, by the practice of the ancient Christians, laid down by the author of the commentaries upon Job, which are wrongly ascribed unto Origen, in this manner. "We observe the memorials of the saints, and devoutly keep the remembrance of our parents or friends which die in the faith; as well rejoicing for their refreshing, as requesting also for ourselves a godly consummation in the faith. Thus therefore do we celebrate the death, not the day of the birth: because they which die shall live for ever: and we cele

c Propterea et memorias sanctorum facimus, et parentum nostrorum vel amicorum, in fide morientium, devote memoriam agimus ; tam illorum refrigerio gaudentes, quam etiam nobis piam consummationem in fide postulantes. Celebramus nimirum, religiosos cum sacerdotibus convocantes, fideles una cum clero ; invitantes adhuc egenos et pauperes, pupillos et viduas saturantes : ut fiat festivitas nostra in memoriam requiei defunctis animabus, nobis autem efficiatur in odorem suavitatis in conspectu æterni Dei. Lib. 3. commentar. in Job, inter opera Origenis, tom. 2. pag. 902.

brate it, calling together religious persons with the priests, the faithful with the clergy; inviting moreover the needy and the poor, feeding the orphans and widows: that our festivity may be for a memorial of rest to the souls departed, whose remembrance we celebrate, and to us may become a sweet savour in the sight of the eternal God." Secondly, by that which St. Cyprian writeth of Laurentinus and Ignatius: whom he acknowledgeth to have received of the Lord palms and crowns for their famous martyrdom; and yet presently addeth, "We offer sacrifices always for them, when we celebrate the passions and days of the martyrs with an anniversary commemoration." Thirdly, by that which we read in the author of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, set out under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite. For where the party deceased is described by him to have departed out of this life "replenished with divine joy, as now not fearing any change to worse," being come unto the end of all his labours; and to have been both privately acknowledged by his friends, and publicly pronounced by the ministers of the Church, to be a happy man, and to be verily admitted into the society of the saints that have been from the beginning of the world:" yet doth he declare, that the bishop made prayer for him, (upon what ground we shall afterward hear), that" Gods would forgive him all the sins that he had committed through human iufirmity, and bring him into the light and the land of the living, into the bosoms of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, into the place from whence pain and sorrow and sighing flieth." Fourthly, by the funeral ordinances of the Church, related by St. Chrysos

66

d Sacrificia pro eis semper, ut meministis, offerimus; quoties martyrum passiones et dies anniversaria commemoratione celebramus. Cyprian. epist. 34. op. pag. 47.

e Vid. supr. pag. 180, et 181.

† ὡς κοινωνὸν ὄντως ὄντα τῶν ἀπ' αἰῶνος ἁγίων, ἱερῶς ἀνακηρυττόμεvov. Dionys. Ecclesiast. hierarch. cap. 7.Op. tom. 1. pag. 266.

8 'Η μὲν οὖν εὐχὴ, τῆς θεαρχικῆς ἀγαθότητος δεῖται πάντα μὲν ἀφεῖναι τὰ δι' ἀνθρωπίνην ἀσθένειαν ἡμαρτημένα τῷ κεκοιμημένῳ, κατατάξαι δὲ αὐτὸν ἐν φωτὶ καὶ χώρα ζώντων, εἰς κόλπους ̓Αβραὰμ, καὶ Ἰσαὰκ, καὶ Ιακώβ, ἐν τόπῳ οὗ ἀπέδρα οδύνη καὶ λύπη καὶ στεναγμός. Ibid. pag. 267.

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