And that in Alcuinus :

"Let their souls sustain no hurt; but when that great day of the resurrection and remuneration shall come, vouchsafe to raise them up, O LORD, together with thy saints and thine elect."

And that in Grimoldus's Sacramentary :

"Almighty and everlasting GOD, vouchsafe to place the body and the soul and the spirit of thy servant N., in the bosoms of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that when the day of thy acknowledgment shall come, thou mayest command them to be raised up among thy saints and thine elect."

And that which the Syrians do use:

"Cause, LORD GOD, their souls and their spirits and their bodies to rest; and sprinkle the dew of mercy upon their bones."

But yet the Cardinal's answer, that the glory of the body may be prayed for, which the saints shall have at the day of the resurrection, cometh somewhat short of that which the Church used to request in the behalf of St. Leo: for in that prayer express mention is made of his soul, and so it is wished that profit may redound by the present oblation. And, therefore, this defect must be supplied out of his answer unto that other prayer, which is made for the souls of the faithful departed, that they may be delivered out of the mouth of the lion, and that hell may not swallow them up. To this he saith, that,

"the Church doth pray for these souls, that they may not be condemned unto the everlasting pains of hell; not as if it were not certain, that they should not be condemned unto those pains, but because it is God's pleasure that we should pray, even for those things which we are certain to receive."

The same answer did Alphonsus de Castro give before him, that

66 very often those things are prayed for which are certainly known shall come to pass as they are prayed for; and that of this there be very many testimonies."

And Johannes Medina, that

"GOD delighteth to be prayed unto for those things which otherwise he purposed to do. For GOD had decreed," saith he, "after the sin of Adam to take our flesh, and he decreed the time wherein he meant to come; and yet the prayers of the saints, that prayed for his incarnation and for his coming, were acceptable unto him. GOD hath also decreed to grant pardon unto every repentant sinner; and yet the prayer is grateful unto him, wherein either the penitent doth pray for himself, or another for him, that GOD would be pleased to accept his repentance. GOD hath decreed also and promised not to forsake his Church

and to be present with councils lawfully assembled; yet the prayer notwithstanding is grateful unto GOD, and the hymns, whereby his presence and favour and grace are implored both for the council and the Church."

And whereas it might be objected, that howsoever the Church may sometimes pray for those things which she shall certainly receive, yet she doth not pray for those things which she hath already received; and this she hath received, that those souls shall not be damned, seeing they have received their sentence, and are most secure from damnation; the Cardinal replieth, that this objection may easily be avoided :

"For although those souls," saith he, "have received already their first sentence in the particular judgment, and by that sentence are freed from hell, yet doth there yet remain the general judgment, in which they are to receive the second sentence. Wherefore the Church, praying that those souls in the last judgment may not fall into darkness, nor be swallowed up in hell, doth not pray for the thing which the soul hath, but which it shall receive."

Thus, these men, labouring to show how the prayers for the dead used in their Church may stand with their conceits of Purgatory, do thereby inform us how the Prayers for the dead used by the ancient Church may stand well enough without the supposal of any purgatory at all. For if we pray for those things. which we are most sure will come to pass, and the Church, by the adversary's own confession, did pray accordingly that the souls of the faithful might escape the pains of hell at the general judgment, notwithstanding they had certainly been freed from them already by the sentence of the particular judgment: by the same reason, when the Church in times past besought God to remember all those that slept in the hope of the resurrection of everlasting life," which is the form of prayer used in the Greek Liturgies, and to give unto them rest, and to bring them unto the place where the light of His countenance should shine upon them for evermore, why should not we think that it desired these things should be granted unto them by the last sentence at the day of the resurrection, notwithstanding they were formerly adjudged unto them by the particular sentence at the time of their dissolution?

66

For, as

"that which shall befall unto all at the day of judgment is accomplished in every one at the day of his death;"

so, on the other side, whatsoever befalleth the soul of every one at the day of his death, the same is fully accomplished upon the whole man at the day of the general judgment. Whereupon we find that the Scriptures every where do point out that great day unto us, as the time wherein mercy and forgiveness, rest and refreshing, joy and gladness, redemption and salvation, rewards and crowns, shall be bestowed upon all God's children. As in 2 Tim. i. 16. 18. "The LORD give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus: the LORD grant unto him that he may find mercy of the LORD in that day." 1 Cor. i. 8. "Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our LORD JESUS CHRIST." Acts iii. 19. 66 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD." 2 Thess. i. 6. 7. "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense unto you which are troubled rest with us, when the LORD JESUS shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels." Philip. ii. 16. “That I may rejoice in the day of CHRIST, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain." 1 Thess. ii. 19. "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? are not even ye in the presence of our LORD JESUS CHRIST at His coming?" 1 Pet. i. 5. "Who are kept by the power of Gor through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Cor. v. 5. "That the spirit may be saved in the day of the LORD JESUS." Ephes. iv. 30. "Grieve not the holy SPIRIT of GOD, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Luke xxi. 28. "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." 2 Tim. iv. 8." Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the LORD, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ;" and Luke xiv. 14. "Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."

And that the Church, in her offices for the dead, had special respect unto this time of the resurrection, appeareth plainly, both by the portions of Scripture appointed to be read therein, and by divers particulars in the prayers themselves, that manifestly disVOL. III.-72.

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cover this intention. For there" the ministers," as the writer of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy reporteth,

"read those undoubted promises which are recorded in the divine Scriptures of our divine resurrection, and then devoutly sang such of the sacred Psalms as were of the same subject and argument."

And so accordingly in the Roman Missal, the lessons ordained to be read for that time are taken from 1 Cor. xv. 66 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall all rise again," &c. John v. "The hour cometh wherein all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life," &c. 1 Thess. iv. "Brethren, we would not have you ignorant concerning them that sleep, that ye sorrow not, as others which have no hope." John xi. "I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me, although he were dead, shall live." 2 Maccab. xii. "Judas caused a sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, justly and religiously thinking of the resurrection." John vi. "This is the will of my FATHER that sent me, that every one that seeth the Sox and believeth in him, may have life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day." And, "he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath life everlasting: and I will raise him up at the last day." And, lastly, Apocal. xiv. "I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, blessed are the dead which die in the LORD, from henceforth now, saith the SPIRIT, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow them." Wherewith the sequence also doth agree, beginning,

Tertullian, in his book de Monogamia, which he wrote after he had been infected with the heresy of the Montanists, speaking

of a prayer of a widow for the soul of her deceased husband, saith, that

"she requesteth refreshing for him, and a portion in the first resurrection."

Which seemeth to have some twang of the error of the Millenaries (whereunto not Tertullian only with his prophet Montanus, but Nepos also, and Lactantius, and divers other doctors of the Church did fall), who, misunderstanding the prophecy in the 20th of the Revelation, imagined that there should be a first resurrection of the just, that should reign here a thousand years upon earth; and after that a second resurrection of the wicked at the day of the general judgment.

"They that come not to the first resurrection, but are reserved to the second, shall be burned until they fulfil the times betwixt the first and the second resurrection or if they have not fulfilled them, they shall remain longer in punishment. And therefore let us pray that we may obtain to have our part in the first resurrection,"

saith St. Ambrose. Hence, in a certain Gothic Missal, I meet with two several exhortations made unto the people to pray after this form the one that GOD would

"vouchsafe to place in the bosom of Abraham the souls of those that be at rest, and admit them unto the part of the first resurrection ;"

the other, which I find elsewhere also repeated in particular, that he would

"place in rest the spirits of their friends which were gone before them in the LORD's peace, and raise them up in the part of the first resurrection."

And, to come nearer home, Asserius Menevensis, writing of the death and burial of Ethelred, King of the West Saxons, and Burghred, King of the Mercians. saith that they

"expect the coming of the LORD and the first resurrection with the just." The like doth Abbo Floriacensis also write of our Cuthbert. Which, how it may be excused otherwise, than by saying that at the general resurrection the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then the wicked shall be raised after them, and by referring the first resurrection unto the resurrection of the just, which shall be at that day, I cannot well resolve.

For certain it is, that the first resurrection, spoken of in the