Of the same spirit were all the ancient liturgies or missals, and particularly that under the name of St. Chrysostom is most full to this purpose: "Let us pray to the Lord for all, that before-time have laboured and performed the holy offices of priesthood: for the memory and remission of sins of them that built this holy house, and of all them that have slept in hope of the resurrection and eternal life in thy society of the orthodox fathers and our brethren. Piλávůρwπe Kúpiε, σvyxwpnoov, O thou lover of men, pardon them.""And again: "Moreover we offer unto thee this reasonable service for all that rest in faith, our ancestors, fathers, pa triarchs, prophets, and apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, &c. especially the most holy and unspotted Virgin Mary:" and after concludes with this prayer: "Remember them all who have slept in hope of resurrection to eternal life, and make them to rest where the light of thy countenance looks over them."-Add to these, if you please, the Greek mass of St. Peter: "To them, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, we pray that thou indulge a place of refreshing light and peace."-So that nothing is clearer, than that, in the Greek canon, they prayed for the souls of the best of all the saints, whom yet because no man believes they ever were in purgatory; it follows, that prayer for the dead used by the ancients, does not prove the Roman purgatory. To these add the doctrine and practice of the Greek fathers: Dionysius" speaking of a person deceased, whom the ministers of the church had publicly pronounced to be a happy man, and verily admitted into the society of the saints that have been from the beginning of the world, yet the bishop prayed for him, " that God would forgive him all the sins, which he had committed through human infirmity, and bring him into the light and region of the living, into the bosoms of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, where pain and sorrow and sighing have no place." To the same purpose is that of St. Gregory Nazianzen', in his funeral oration upon his brother Cæsarius, of whom he had expressly declared his belief, that he was "rewarded with those honours which did befit a new-created soul;" yet he presently prays for his soul, "Now, O Lord, receive Cæsarius." I hope I have said enough concerning the Greek church, their doctrine, and Eccles. Hier. cap. 7. in Theoria. i Naz. in Funer. Cæsarii, orat. 10. practice, in this particular: and I desire it may be observed, that there is no greater testimony of the doctrine of a church than their liturgy. Their doctors may have private opinions, which are not against the doctrine of the church; but what is put into their public devotions, and consigned in their liturgies, no man scruples it, but it is the confession and religion of the church. But now that I may make my reader some amends for his trouble in reading the trifling objections of these Roman adversaries, and my defences; I shall also, for the greater conviction of my adversaries, shew, that they would not have opposed my affirmation in this particular, if they had understood their own mass-book; for it was not only thus from the beginning until now in the Greek church, but it is so to this very day in the Latin church. In the old Latin missal we have this prayer; "Suscipe, sancta Trinitas, hanc oblationem, quam tibi offerimus pro omnibus in tui nominis confessione defunctis, ut, te dextram auxilii tui porrigente, vitæ perennis requiem habeant, et à pœnis impiorum segregati semper in tuæ laudis lætitia perseverent." And in the very canon of the mass, which these gentlemen, I suppose (if they be priests), cannot be ignorant in any part of, they pray, "Memento, Domine, famulorum famularumque tuarum, qui nos præcesserunt cum signo fidei, et dormiunt in somno pacis. Ipsis, Domine, et omnibus in Christo quiescentibus, locum refrigerii, lucis et pacis, ut indulgeas deprecamur." Unless all that are at rest in Christ, go to purgatory, it ispla in that the church of Rome prays for saints, who, by the confession of all sides, never were in purgatory. I could bring many more testimonies, if they were needful; but I sum up this particular with the words of St. Austin': "Non sunt prætermittendæ supplicationes pro spiritibus mortuorum, quas faciendas pro omnibus in Christiana et catholica societate defunctis, etiam tacitis nominibus quorumque, sub generali commemoratione suscepit ecclesia."-The church prays for all persons that died in the Christian and catholic faith. And therefore I wonder how it should drop from St. Austin's pen "Injuriam facit martyri, qui orat pro martyre." But I pose, he meant it only in case the prayer was made for them, * Missa Latina antiqua edit. Argentina, 1557. pag. 52. De Cura pro Mortuis, cap. 4. De Verbis Apostoli, serm, 17. sup as if they were in an uncertain state, and so it is probable enough; but else his words were not only against himself in other places, but against the whole practice of the ancient catholic church. I remember that when it was asked of Pope Innocent by the Archbishop of Lyons ", why the prayer, -that was in the old missal for the soul of Pope Leo, "Annue nobis, Domine, anima famuli tui Leonis hæc prosit oblatio," came to be changed into " Annue nobis, Domine, ut intercessione, famuli tui Leonis hæc prosit oblatio;" Pope Innocent answered him, that who changed it or when, he knew not; but he knew how, that is, he knew the reason of it, because the authority of the Holy Scripture said, he does injury to a martyr that prays for a martyr,' the same thing is to be done for the like reason concerning all other saints.-The good man had heard the saying some where; but being little used to the Bible, he thought it might be there, because it was a pretty saying. However, though this change was made in the mass-books, and prayer for the soul of St. Leo, was changed into a prayer to St. Leo; and the doctors went about to defend it as well as they could, yet because they did it so pitifully, they had reason to be ashamed of it; and in the missal reformed by order of the council of Trent, it is put out again, and the prayer for St. Leo put in again, "that by these offices of holy atonement" (viz. the celebration of the holy sacrament), "a blessed reward may accompany him, and the gifts of thy grace may be obtained for us.' Another argument was used in the Dissuasive, against the Roman doctrine of purgatory, viz. How is purgatory a primitive and catholic doctrine, when generally the Greek and many of the Latin fathers taught, that the souls departed, in some exterior place, expect the day of judgment; but that no soul enters into the supreme heaven, or the place of eternal bliss, till the day of judgment: but at that day, say many of them, all must pass through the universal fire? To these purposes respectively the words of very many fathers are brought by Sixtus Senensis; to all which being so evident and apparent, the gentlemen that write against the "Sacramentarium Gregor. antiquum. • Vide Missal. Roman. Paris, 1529. Cap. cum Martha. Extrav. de Celebrat. Missarum in Glossâ. P Missale Rom. in decreto Concil. Trid. restit. in festo S. Leonis. Dissuasive are pleased not to say one word, but have left the whole fabric of the Roman purgatory to shift for itself against the battery of so great authorities; only one of them, striving to find some fault, says, that the Dissuader quotes Sixtus Senensis, as saying, "that Pope John the Twenty-second not only taught and declared the doctrine (that before the day of judgment the souls of men are kept in certain receptacles), but commanded it to be held by all, as saith Adrian 'in 4. sent.' when Sixtus Senensis saith not so of Pope John, &c. but only reports the opinion of others." -To which I answer, that I did not quote Senensis as saying any such thing of his own authority. For besides that in the body of the discourse there is no mention at all of John the Twenty-second in the margent, also it is only said of Sixtus, "Enumerat S. Jacobum apostolum-et Johannem pontif. Rom.;" but I add of my own afterward, that Pope John not only taught and declared that sentence, but commanded it to be held by all men, as saith Adrian. Now although in his narrative of it, Adrian begins with "Novissime fertur," "It is reported," yet Senensis himself when he had said, “Pope John is said to have decreed this;" he himself adds, that Ocham and Pope Adrian are witnesses of this decree. 2. Adrian is so far a witness of it, that he gives the reason of the same, even because the university of Paris refused to give promotion to them, who denied, or did refuse to promise for ever, to cleave to that opinion. 3. Ocham is so fierce a witness of it, that he wrote against Pope John the Twenty-second for the opinion. 4. Though Senensis be not willing to have it believed; yet all that he can say against it, is, that "apud probatos scriptores non est undequaque certum." 5. Yet he brings not one testimony out of antiquity, against this charge against Pope John: only he says, that Pope Benedict the Eleventh affirms, that John being prevented by death, could not finish the decree. 6. But this thing was not done in a corner, the acts of the university of Paris and their fierce adhering to the decree, were too notorious. 7. And after all this, it matters not whether it be so or no, when it is confessed, that so many ancient fathers expressly teach the doctrine contrary to the Roman, as it is this day, and yet And these are the words of Senensis concerning Pope John XXII. and Pope Adrian. the Roman doctors care not what they say, insomuch that St. Bernard having fully and frequently taught, "that no souls go to heaven till they all go, neither the saints without the common people, nor the spirit without the flesh; that there are three states of souls, one in the tabernacles (viz. of our bodies); a second, in ‘atriis' or outward courts; and a third, in the house of God;" Alphonsus à Castro admonishes that this sentence is damned; and Sixtus Senensis adds these words," which thing also I do not deny ; yet I suppose he ought to be excused 'ob ingentem numerum illustrium ecclesiæ patrum,' 'for the great number of the illustrious fathers of the church,' who before by their testimony did seem to give authority to this opinion." But that the present doctrine of the Roman purgatory is but a new article of faith, is therefore certain, because it was no article of faith in St. Austin's time, for he doubted of it. And to this purpose I quoted in the margent two places of St. Austin. The words I shall now produce, because they will answer for themselves. In the sixty-eighth chapter of his Manual to Laurentius, he takes from the church of Rome their best armour in which they trusted, and expounds the words of St. Paul ", "He shall be saved, yet so as by fire," to mean only the loss of such pleasant things, as most delighted them in this world. And, in the beginning of the next chapter, he adds, "that such a thing may also be done after this life, is not incredible; and whether it be so or no it may be inquired, 'et aut inveniri aut latere,' ‘and either be found or lie hid.'"-Now what is that which thus may or may not be found out? This; that "some faithful, by how much more or less they loved perishing goods, by so much sooner or later they shall be saved by a certain purgatory-fire." This is it which St. Austin says" is not incredible, only it may be inquired whether it be so or no." And if these be not the words of doubting, "it is not incredible, such a thing may be,-it may be inquired after,—it may be found to be so, or it may never be found, but lie hid," then words signify nothing.-Yea' but the doubting of St. Austin does not relate to the matter or question of purgatory, but Enchirid. cap. 68, 69. Annot. 345. quæri potest. |