mained 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, "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 bring 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 his 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

* ἐπὶ τὸ θεομίμητον ἀγαθοειδῶς ἐκτυπούμενος, καὶ τὰς ἑτέρων δωρεὰς ὡς οἰκείας ἐξαιτῶν χάριτας. Id. ibid,

* Περὶ τοῦ ὀνόματα λέγειν τῶν τελευτησάντων, τὶ ἂν εἴη τούτου προυργιαίτερον ; τί τούτου καιριώτερον καὶ θαυμασιώτερον; πιστεύειν μὲν τοὺς παρόντας, ὅτι οἱ ἀπελθόντες ζῶσι, καὶ ἐν ἀνυπαρξίᾳ οὐκ εἰσὶν, ἀλλὰ εἰσὶ καὶ ζῶσι παρὰ τῷ δεσπότῃ, καὶ ὅπως ἂν τὸ σεμνότατον κήρυγμα διηγή σοιτο, ὡς ἐλπίς ἐστιν ὑπὲρ ἀδελφῶν εὐχομένοις ὡς ἐν ἀποδημία τυγχαvóvrov. Epiphan. hæres. 75. pag. 911.

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 the 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

* τοὺς δὲ ὡς ζώντας ἀνακηρύττουσα, καὶ ὡς ἡ Θεολογία φησὶν, οὐ νεκ ρωθέντας, ἀλλ ̓ εἰς θειοτάτην ζωὴν ἐκ θανάτου μεταφοιτήσαντας. Dionys. eccles. hierarch. cap. 3. Οἱ γὰρ θεῷ πεπιστευκότες, ἐὰν καὶ κοιμησθῶσιν, οὐκ εἰσὶ νεκροί. Clem. constitut. apost. lib. 6. cap. 29.

2 1 Thess. chap. 4. ver. 13.

* Ωφελεῖ δὲ καὶ ἡ ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν γινομένη εὐχὴ, εἰ καὶ τὰ ὅλα τῶν αίτιαμάτων μὴ ἀποκόπτοι· ἀλλ ̓ οὖν γε διὰ τὸ πολλάκις ἐν κόσμῳ ἡμᾶς ὄντας σφάλλεσθαι ἀκουσίως τε καὶ ἑκουσίως, ἵνα τὸ ἐντελέστερον σημανθῆ, καὶ γὰρ [ὑπὲρ] δικαίων ποιούμεθα τὴν μνήμην, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτωλῶν· ὑπὲρ μὲν ἁμαρτωλῶν, ὑπὲρ ἐλέους θεοῦ θεόμενοι. (f. δεόμενοι.) ὑπὲρ δὲ δικαίων, καὶ πατέρων καὶ πατριάρχων, προφητῶν, καὶ ἀποστόλων, καὶ εὐαγγελισ τῶν, καὶ μαρτύρων, καὶ ὁμολογητῶν, ἐπισκόπων τε καὶ ἀναχωρητῶν, καὶ παντὸς τοῦ τάγματος, ἵνα τὸν κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἀφορίσωμεν ἀπὸ τὴς τῶν ἀνθρώπων τάξεως διὰ τῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν τιμῆς, καὶ σέβας αὐτῷ ἀποδῶμεν. Εpiphan. hær. 75. pag. 911.

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, sheweth 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, and the other man (as the praying to the one, and for the other, both discover): and the one is in heaven, the other in earth, by reason of the remains of the body yet resting in the earth," until the day of the resurrection, unto which all these prayers had spe

b Luke, chap. 17. ver. 7.

• Εν ἐννοίᾳ ὄντες, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἐξισούμενος ὁ κύριος τινὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων κἄν τε μυρία καὶ ἐπέκεινα ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ ὑπάρχη ἕκαστος ἀνθρώπων. πῶς γὰρ οἷόντε εἰη τοῦτο; ὁ μὲν γάρ ἐστι θεὸς, ὁ δὲ ἄνθρωπος. καὶ ὁ μὲν ἐν οὐρανῷ, ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς διὰ τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς λείψανα. Epiph. contr. Aer. hær. 75. pag. 911.

cial reference. This do I conceive to be the right meaning of Epiphanius his 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: "Afterd 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 Euchologe 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

* Οὔτε μὲν πορισμὸς εὐσεβείας, οὔτε μετανοίας, μετὰ θάνατον. οὐ γὰρ Λάζαρος ἀπέρχεται πρὸς τὸν πλούσιον ἐκεῖ, οὔτε ὁ πλούσιος πρὸς τὸν Λάζαρον, οὔτε Αβραὰμ ἀποστέλλει σκύλων τὸν πένητα πλουτῆσαι ὕστερον, οὔτε ὁ πλούσιος ὧν αἰτεῖται, καίπερ μετὰ ἱκεσίας τὸν ἐλεήμονα Αβραὰμ παρακαλέσας· ἐσφράγισται γὰρ τὰ ταμιεῖα, καὶ πεπλήρωται ὁ χρόνος, καὶ ὁ ἀγὼν ἐτελέσθη, καὶ ἐκενώθη τὸ σκάμμα, καὶ οἱ στέφανοι ἐδόθησαν, καὶ ἀγωνισάμενοι ἀνεπάγησαν, καὶ οἱ μὴ φθάσαντες ἐξῆκαν, καὶ οἱ μὴ ἀγωνισάμενοι οὐκέτι εὐπαροῦσι, καὶ οἱ ἐν τῷ σκάμματι ἡττηθέντες ἐξεβλήθησαν, καὶ τὰ πάντα σαφῶς τετελείωται, μετὰ τὴν ἐντεῦθεν ἐκδημίαν. Id. contra Cathar. hæres. 59. pag. 502.

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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: "Thes 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 peregrination 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 the 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.

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« Receive", Ο Lord, our prayers and supplications,

• Μακαρία ἡ ὁδὸς ἥν πορεύη σήμερον, ἄδελφε, ὅτι ἡτοιμάσθη σοι τόπος ἀναπαύσεως. Eucholog. Græc. edit. Venet. ann. 1600. fol. 118, et 125.

5 *Απνους ἐξῆλθε, ἀπῆλθεν ἐκ τῶν ἐνθένδε, ἐκεῖ ὅπου ὁ μισθὸς τῶν ἔρ γων ὑπάρχει· ἐκεῖ ὅπου ἡ χαρὰ πάντων τῶν ἁγίων· μεθ' ὧν ἀνάπαυσον τὸν κεκοιμημένον ὁ θεὸς ὡς ἐλεήμων καὶ φιλάνθρωπος. Ibib. fol. 126. Α. 5 ̔Ιερῶς τοὺς τὸν βίον ἀπολιπόντας πιστοὺς, καὶ πρὸς σὲ τὸν δεσπό την μεταχωρήσαντας, δέξαι προσηνῶς, ἀναπαύων ὡς εὔσπλαγχνος. Ibid.

fol. 116. b.

* Δέξαι, δέσποτα, δεήσεις καὶ ἱκεσίας ἡμετέρας, καὶ ἀνάπαυσον πάντας τοὺς πατέρας ἑκάστου καὶ μητέρας, καὶ ἀδελφοὺς καὶ ἀδελφὰς καὶ τέκνα, καὶ εἴτι ἄλλο ὁμογενὲς καὶ ὁμόφυλον· καὶ πάσας τὰς προαναπαυσαμένας ψυχάς, ἐπ' ἐλπίδι ἀναστάσεως αἰωνίου· καὶ κατάταξον πνεύματὰ τὰ αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ σώματα ἐν βίβλῳ ζωῆς, ἐν κόλποις ̓Αβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ ̓Ιακώβ, ἐν χώραις ζώντων, εἰς βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν, ἐν παραδείσῳ τρυφῆς. διὰ τῶν φωτεινῶν ἀγγέλων σου εἰσάγων ἅπαντας εἰς τὰς ἁγίας σου μονας. συνέγειρον καὶ τὰ σώματα ἡμῶν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἡ ὥρισας, κατὰ τὰς ἁγίας σου καὶ ἀψευδεῖς