souls were at rest with GOD: and to such as these alone did it wish the accomplishment of that which remained of their redemption; to wit, their public justification and solemn acquittal at the last day, and their perfect consummation of bliss, both in body and soul, in the kingdom of heaven for ever after. Not that the event of these things was conceived to be any ways doubtful, (for we have been told that things may be prayed for, the event whereof is known to be most certain ;) but because the commemoration thereof was thought to serve for special use, not only in regard of the manifestation of the affection of the living toward the dead, (he that prayed, as Dionysius noteth,

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desiring other men's gifts as if they were his own graces,")

but also in respect of the consolation and instruction which the living might receive thereby, as Epiphanius, in his answer to Aerius, doth more particularly declare.

The objection of Aerius was this: the commemorations and prayers used in the Church being no profit to the dead, therefore as an unprofitable thing they are to be rejected. To this doth Epiphanius thus frame his answer :

"As for the reciting of the names of those that are deceased, what can be better than this? what more commodious and more admirable? that such as are present do believe that they who are departed do live, and are not extinguished, but are still being and living with the Lord; and that this most pious preaching might be declared, that they who pray for their brethren have hope of them, as being in a peregrination."

Which is as much in effect as if he had denied Aerius's consequence, and answered him, that although the dead were not profited by this action, yet it did not therefore follow that it should be condemned as altogether unprofitable, because it had a singular use otherwise; namely, to testify the faith and the hope of the living concerning the dead: the faith, in "declaring them to be alive," (for so doth Dionysius also expound the Church's intention in her public nomination of the dead,)

"and as divinity teacheth, not mortified, but translated from death unto a most divine life;"

the hope, in that they signified hereby that they accounted their brethren to have departed from them no otherwise than as if they had been in a journey, with expectation to meet them afterward; and by this means made a difference betwixt themselves

and others which had no hope. Then doth Epiphanius proceed further in answering the same objection, after this manner : "The prayer also which is made for them doth profit, although it do not cut off all their sins; yet forasmuch as whilst we are in this world, we oftentimes slip both unwillingly and with our will, it serveth to signify that which is more perfect. For we make a memorial both for the just and for sinners; (for sinners, entreating the mercy of GOD; for the just, both the fathers, and patriarchs, the prophets, and apostles, and evangelists, and martyrs, and confessors, bishops also and anchorites, and the whole order,) that we may sever, our Lord JESUS CHRIST from the rank of all other men by the honour that we do unto him, and that we may yield worship unto him."

Which, as far as I apprehend him, is no more than if he had thus replied unto Aerius: Although the prayer that is made for the dead do not cut off all their sins, which is the only thing that thou goest about to prove, yet doth it profit notwithstanding for another purpose; namely, to signify the supereminent perfection of our Saviour CHRIST above the rest of the sons of men, who are subject to manifold slips and falls as long as they live in this world.

For as well the righteous with their involuntary slips, as sinners with their voluntary falls, do come within the compass of these commemorations; wherein prayers are made both for sinners that repent, and for righteous persons that have no such need of repentance: for sinners, that being by their repentance recovered out of the snare of the devil, they may find mercy of the Lord at the last day, and be freed from the fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for the righteous, that they may be recompensed in the resurrection of the just, and received into the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Which kind of prayer being made for the best men that ever lived, even the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, and martyrs themselves, CHRIST only excepted, showeth, that the profit which the Church intended should be reaped therefrom, was not so much the taking away the sins of the parties that were prayed for, as the honouring of their Lord above them; it being hereby declared,

"that our Lord is not to be compared unto any man, though a man live in righteousness a thousand times and more. For how should that be possible, considering that the one is GOD, the other man?"

as the praying to the one, and for the other, doth discover;

"and the one is in heaven, the other in earth, by the reason of the remains of the body yet resting in the earth,"

until the day of the resurrection, unto which all these prayers had special reference. This do I conceive to be the right meaning of Epiphanius's answer, as suiting best both with the general intention of the Church, which he taketh upon him to vindicate from the misconstruction of Aerius, and with the application thereof unto his objection, and with the known doctrine of Epiphanius, delivered by him elsewhere in these terms:

"After death there is no help to be gotten, either by godliness or by repentance. For Lazarus doth not go there unto the rich man, nor the rich man unto Lazarus; neither doth Abraham send any of his spoils, that the poor may be afterward made rich thereby; neither doth the rich man obtain that which he asketh, although he entreat merciful Abraham with instant supplication. For the garners are sealed up, and the time is fulfilled, and the combat is finished, and the lists are voided, and the garlands are given, and such as have fought are at rest, and such as have not obtained are gone forth, and such as have not fought cannot now be present in time, and such as have been overthrown in the lists are cast out, and all things are clearly finished, after that we are once departed from hence."

And for the general intention of the Church, beside what already hath been at large declared of the times past, let us a little compare the ancient practice of Praying for the dead maintained by Epiphanius, with the footsteps which remain thereof in the Euchologue used by the Grecians at this very day. For

First, that the parties prayed for are not supposed to be in any place of torment, appeareth by that speech which they apply to the party deceased, even in the midst of the prayers which they make for the forgiveness of his sins and the resting of his soul; "Blessed is the way wherein thou art going to-day, brother; for to thee is prepared a place of rest."

And by the prayer following:

"He is from hence departed breathless, thither where there is the reward of his works, thither where there is the joy of all the saints, with whom rest thou this deceased person, O GOD, of thy mercy and loving kindness."

Secondly, that they make these prayers as well for the righteous as for sinners, this orison, among others, doth demonstrate : "The faithful which have left this life holily, and removed to thee their Lord, receive benignly, giving them rest out of thy tender mercy."

Thirdly, that in these prayers they aim at those ends expressed by Epiphanius, as well the testifying their belief of the peregri

nation of their brethren and their living with the Lord, as the putting a difference betwixt CHRIST Our Saviour and all other men how blessed soever, (in respect the one is God, the other but men; the one after his glorious resurrection remaineth now immortal in heaven, the other continue yet in a state of dissolution, with their bodies resting in the earth in expectation of the resurrection; the purity and perfection of the one is most absolute, the manifold failings of the very best of the other such that they stand in need of mercy and pardon ;) this prayer following may witness:

"Receive, O Lord, our prayers and supplications, and give rest unto all our fathers, and mothers, and brethren, and sisters, and children, and all our other kindred and alliance; and unto all souls that rest before us in hope of the everlasting resurrection. And place their spirits and their bodies in the book of life, in the bosoms of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the region of the living, in the kingdom of heaven, in the paradise of delight, by thy bright angels bringing all into thy holy mansions. Raise also our bodies together with theirs in the day which thou - hast appointed, according to thy holy and sure promises. It is not a death then, O Lord, unto thy servants, when we flit from the body and go home to thee our GOD, but a translation from a sorrowful state unto a better and more delightful, and a refreshment and joy. And if we have sinned in any thing against thee, be gracious both unto us and unto them. Forasmuch as no man is clean from pollution before thee, no, though his life were but of one day, thou alone excepted who didst appear upon earth without sin, JESUS CHRIST our Lord, by whom we all hope to obtain mercy and pardon of our sins: therefore, as a good and merciful God, release and forgive both us and them: pardon our offences as well voluntary as involuntary, of knowledge and of ignorance, both manifest and hidden, in deed, in thought, in word, in all our conversations and motions. And to those that are gone before us grant freedom and release, and us that remain bless, granting a good and a peaceable end both to us and to all thy people."

Whereunto this other short prayer also for one that is deceased may be added:

"None, no, not one man hath been without sin but thou alone, O Immortal. Therefore, as a GOD full of compassion, place thy servant in light with the quires of thine angels; by thy tender mercy passing over his iniquities, and granting to him the resurrection."

Lastly, that these prayers have principal relation to the judgment of the great day, and do respect the escaping of the unquenchable fire of Gehenna, not the temporal flames of any imaginary purgatory, is plain, both by these kinds of prosopopoeias, which they attribute to the deceased:

"Supplicate with tears unto Christ, who is to judge my poor soul, that he would deliver me from that fire which is unquenchable."

"I beseech all my acquaintance and my friends, make mention of me in the day of judgment, that I may find mercy at that dreadful tribunal."

"Bemired with sins and naked of good deeds, I that am worms' meat, cry in spirit, Cast not me, wretch, away from thy face; place me not on thy left hand, who with thy hands didst fashion me; but give rest unto him whom thou hast taken away by thy commands, O Lord, for thy great mercy's sake."

And by these prayers, which are accordingly tendered for him by the living:

"When in unspeakable glory thou dost come dreadfully to judge the whole world, vouchsafe, O Redeemer, that this thy faithful servant, whom thou hast taken from the earth, may in the clouds meet thee cheerfully."

"They who have been dead from the beginning, with terrible and fearful trembling standing at thy tribunal, await thy just censure, O Saviour, and receive GOD's righteous judgment. At that time, O Lord and Saviour, spare thy servant, who in faith is gone unto thee, and vouchsafe unto him thine everlasting joy and bliss."

"None shall fly there the dreadful tribunal of thy judgment. All kings and princes with servants stand together, and hear the dreadful voice of the Judge condemning the people which have sinned into hell, from which, O CHRIST, deliver thy servant."

"At that time, O CHRIST, spare him whom thou hast translated hence."

"O Lord our only King, vouchsafe, we beseech thee, thine heavenly kingdom, to thy servant, whom thou hast now translated hence, and then preserve him uncondemned when every mortal wight shall stand before thee the Judge to receive their judgment."

We are to consider then, that the prayers and oblations, for rejecting whereof Aerius was reproved, were not such as are used in the Church of Rome at this day, but such as were used by the ancient Church at that time, and for the most part retained by the Greek Church at this present. And therefore as we, in condemning of the one, have nothing to do with Aerius or his cause, so the Romanists, who dislike the other as much as ever Aerius did, must be content to let us alone, and take the charge of Aerianism home unto themselves. Popish prayers and oblations for the dead, we know, do wholly depend upon the belief of Purgatory if those of the ancient Church did so too, how cometh it to pass that Epiphanius doth not directly answer Aerius, as a papist would do now that they brought singular profit to the dead by delivering their tormented souls out of the