Lazarus does not go to the rich man, nor the rich man to Lazarus; neither Abraham sends the poor man to labour that he may grow rich, nor does the rich man obtain, though with prayers entreating merciful Abraham. Then, the garners are sealed, the time is ended, the combat finished, the lists are empty, and the crowns distributed. Those that have not yet encountered have no more opportunity; and they who have been overcome in the lists are cast out. In short, all is perfectly ended, when once we are departed hence." And now having thus prepared the way to the following inquiry, let us see whether his Fathers will prove any better advocates for their cause, than this loose and imperfect state of the question between us seems to promise. And, 1st, I must take notice, that the greatest part of those he has here cited, say only in general, that they were wont to pray for the dead, that God would forgive them their sins, and instate them in the light and land of the living; or something of the like kind. Now it is evident, from what has been before observed, that all these argue nothing more than what we have already confessed to have been the practice of the primitive church, but gives not the least authority to those prayers which are made in the church of Rome, to deliver the souls departed out of purgatory. So Dionys. Areopag. 8: "The venerable prelate coming prays over the dead body, he implores the Divine clemency to pardon all the sins committed by the deceased party, through human frailty, and that he may be received into the state of bliss and region of the living." This is indeed the sense of what the pretended Dionysius says h, though not his words: but then I must observe, 1st, that this prayer is made over those who "having lived holy lives, are now come to the end of their combats, and therefore rest in joy, and in a certain hope, and are already received into those most holy seats, to which all those in time shall be promoted, who are here endued with a Divine perfection i." So that it must be an intolerable presumption to pretend that this prayer was designed to deliver the deceased out of a place g Nubes Test. p. 85. Natalis Alex. sec. 4. tom. 3. p. 392. Dionys. Hierarch. Eccl. p. 354. A. h Dionys. ibid. p. 348. C. of torments, nothing inferior to those of hell fire, such as we are told purgatory is. 2dly, The author inquiring to what purpose these prayers were made, answers k, "That the holy bishop, knowing the promises of God to those who had lived well, now prayed that those sins which by human frailty had been committed by the person deceased, being forgiven, the rewards promised to the just might be accomplished in him." Here then is a plain account of the design of their praying, but no way favourable to the business of purgatory. 3dly, Pachymeres in his Paraphrase, explaining what the meaning of those hymns and lessons was, which were read at the funeral of such a one for whom they thus prayed, says, "It is to signify those eternal mansions to which the party deceased is gone, and to exhort the living to strive after the like holy end." Now surely these eternal mansions of the blessed were not the Roman purgatory; and it would have been but an uncomfortable exhortation, to have proposed to the living, that they should use their utmost endeavours that they might come into this place of torments. 4thly, In his account of the prayers themselves, he says, "That the bishop knows from the holy scriptures, that by the just judgment of God, a blessed and divine life is prepared for the just, the Divine goodness mercifully overlooking the spots which by human frailty we contract, and from which no man is free. And therefore knowing this, he prays that whatever spots of this kind he by his frailty may have contracted, that God would mercifully overlook them, and give him his sacred reward m." And the same was the language of the ancient liturgies of the church, which we have before cited; in which, having named the holy apostles, martyrs, and confessors, which even the Romanists themselves will not send to purgatory, they pray that they may "rest in the country of the living," in the "delights of paradise," in "God's kingdom," in the "bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;" as St. James's Liturgy has it in the very words of Dionysius": " Make them k Dionys. Hierarch. Eccl. p. 356,357. ζώντων, ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ σοῦ, ἐν τῇ τρυφῇ 1 Ibid. p. 366. D. m Ibid. p. 370. τοῦ παραδείσου, ἐν τοῖς κόλποις ̓Αβραάμ, Ἰσαάκ, καὶ Ἰακώβ. Litur. Jacob. Bibl. η Ἐκεῖ αὐτοὺς ἀνάπαυσον, ἐν χώρᾳ Patr. rest in the tabernacles of thy saints," says St. Mark°; in the "light of thy countenance," says St. Basil and St. ChrysostomP; "give them rest," says St. Cyril 9. Now if these prayers for this rest were to this end, that God would deliver them out of purgatory, and set them at ease, as the church of Rome pretends, then certainly the holy apostles and the blessed Virgin must have been in a very ill condition, who after 400 years (for so late some of these prayers must be confessed to have been) were still esteemed by the church to lie in those purgatory flames; and it was great uncharitableness in St. Peter and his successors, that they would not all this while open the treasure of the church, and by some powerful indulgence set them at liberty. Conclude we therefore, that there is no manner of consequence in this argument: The primitive Fathers prayed for the rest of the souls departed; therefore they thought them in torment in a purgatory fire, suffering the temporal punishment due to their sins, and by these prayers believed they could deliver them from thence. And yet is this the most that the greatest part of the testimonies which are offered to us say; and by consequence are, as we see, wholly impertinent to the purpose of the church of Rome: I shall need only name them, since the same answer I have given to this first will, by application, serve for all the rest. So Tertullian, whose words our collector thus renders; "We make oblations for the dead, and keep the anniversary of their births."He is speaking in that chapter of several customs of the church, which tradition and long usage had established, but for which there was no authority of holy scripture; and this he gives as one instance. But were these oblations to deliver them out of purgatory? I shall only desire him to consider the interpretation which their own editor gives of the natalitia, which he renders anniversaries, and then affirm it if he can. By the natalitia, says he, “is meant the solemnities used to be kept in honour of the martyrs every ο Τὰς ψυχὰς ἀνάπαυσον ταῖς τῶν ἁγίων σоû σкnvaîs. Lit. Marc. ν Ανάπαυσον αὐτοὺς ὅπου ἐπισκοπεί τὸ φῶς τοῦ προσώπου σου. Lit. Basil. et Chrys. q "Da illis requiem," Cyril. Hieros. Liturg r Natalis Alex. diss. 41. tertii sæc. p. 394. Nubes Test. p. 85. s "Oblationes pro defunctis, pro natalitiis annua die facimus." De Corona, c. 3. p. 102. A. year, on the day when by dying to the world they were born to heaven "." It seems then these solemnities Tertullian here speaks of, were for those who were already born to heaven, for the holy martyrs; and not, as is pretended, to deliver their souls out of purgatory. Nor does Arnobius" add any thing more: "What reason was there that our churches should be so outragiously thrown down, in which prayers were offered to our sovereign God, peace and mercy was implored for all, for magistrates, armies, kings, friends and enemies, whether alive or dead. Here is mention of praying for the dead; but as for purgatory, ovdè γρύ. What Eusebius speaks concerning the death of Constantine is no way more pertinent. He tells us that "they offered up prayers to God for the soul of the emperor;" but that these prayers were to deliver his soul from the temporal pains of purgatory, he says not one word. I have already considered Epiphanius, and we find in his reprehension of Aerius much against them, but nothing in their favour: as for what Theodorety relates of Theodosius the younger, that he prayed for his father and mother, "begging that they might obtain pardon for all their sins of frailty;" it still confirms that they did in those days pray for the dead, and for the forgiveness of their sins; but for the remis sion of any present temporal punishment, which they thought they were undergoing for them, this we do not find that they prayed for. For St. Ambrose 2, had his whole words been transcribed, we should have seen at first view that they were nothing to the purpose. He exhorts Faustinus, "not so much to bewail his sister, as to pray for her." What! to deliver her soul out of purgatory? No surely, for in the words immediately foregoing he tells him, "that being taken for a time from us, she doth pass a better life there a." But this little oversight, x Natalis Alex. ibid. p. 398. Nubes Test. p. 88. t Le Prieur. Annot. in loc. p. 102. u Natalis Alex p. 395. Nub. Test. p. 86. "Cur immaniter conventicula dirui (meruerunt) in quibus summus oratur Deus, pax cunctis et venia postulatur, magistratibus, exercitibus, regibus, familiaribus, inimicis, adhuc vitam degentibus, et resolutis corporum vinctione," lib. 4. y Natalis Alex. p. 401. Nubes Testp. 92. ź Natalis Alex. p. 402. Nubes Test p. 93. ought not in justice to be imputed to our Collector; who transcribes Natalis, and not the Fathers themselves; and could therefore give us no more than what he found in him. The next from whom he supposes may be inferred the doctrine of praying souls out of purgatory is St. Jerome b; who in the epistle mentioned to Pammachius some time after the death of his wife Paulina, particularly commends him that he had sold all his goods and given them to the poor, and taken up the resolution of leading a monastic life. "Other husbands," says he, "dress their wives' tombs with violets, roses, and purple flowers, and by these services ease their disturbed mind: but our friend Pammachius pays no other duty to the holy ashes and venerable bones but by giving alms, cherishing them by this sweet odour, because he knows it is written, As water extinguishes the fire, so do alms blot out sin." This is in some measure St. Jerome's sense, but by no means suitable to the elegance of his expressions: but not to insist on that, was this charity to deliver her soul out of purgatory? Nay, but St. Hieromd in the close of that very epistle says, that she was with her sister Bloesilla" already with the Lord:" that they both enjoyed a "sweet and pleasant sleep:" and in the very words cited, there are so many expressions of her present quiet, as can never be reconciled to the purgatory torments. But this the translator left out: "Cherishing them," says he, "by this sweet odour:" St. Hierom's words are these: "With these figments and these odours he cherishes her dead ashes Now AT REST:" which plainly enough shews that he thought her in a state and place vastly different from the condition of souls in purgatory. All that St. Hierom then meant by this was only thus much : that this charity of Pammachius was most pleasing to Paulina; that her soul rejoiced in it, as in a fragrant and delightful odour; and that hereby he should engage the mercy of God, not for himself alone, but for his wife too, in whose name he did it, and to whose salvation it should therefore not a little conduce. As to what is alleged of St. Austin's praying for his mother Monica e, nothing certainly could have been more inauspicious b Natalis Alex. p. 402. Nubes Test. P-93. e Vid. Arg. Eras. p. 73. tom. J. d Fol. 76. edit. Eras. tom. !. e Natalis Alex. p. 402. Nubes Test. P. 94. |