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 true 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 ἐπαγγελίας. οὐκ ἔστιν οὖν, Κύριε, τοῖς δούλοις σου θάνατος, ἐκδημούν των ἡμῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος, καὶ πρὸς σὲ τὸν θεὸν ἐνδημούντων· ἀλλὰ μετάστασις λυπηροτέρων ἐπὶ τὰ χρηστότερα καὶ θυμηδέστερα, καὶ ἀνάπαυσις καὶ χαρά. Εἰ δὲ καὶ τι ἡμάρτομεν εἰς σὲ, ἵλεως γενοῦ ἡμῖν τε καὶ αὐτοῖς· δίοτι οὐδεὶς καθαρὸς ἀπὸ ῥύπου ἐνώπίον σου, οὐδ' ἂν μία ἡμέρα ἡ ζωὴ αὐτοῦ ἐστὶν, εἰ μὴ μόνος σὺ ὁ ἐπὶ γῆς φανεὶς ἀναμάρτητος, ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν ̓Ιησοῦς Χριστὸς, δι ̓ οὗ πάντες ἐλπίζομεν ἐλέους τυχεῖν καὶ ἀφέσεως ἁμαρτ τιῶν. Δία τοῦτο ἡμῖν τε καὶ αὐτοῖς, ὡς ἀγαθὸς καὶ φιλάνθρωπος θεὸς, ἄνες, ἄφες, συγχώρησον τὰ παραπτώματα ἡμῶν, τὰ ἑκούσια, καὶ τὰ ἀκούσια, τὰ ἐν γνώσει καὶ ἐν ἀγνοία, τὰ πρόδηλα, τὰ λανθάνοντα, τὰ ἐν πράξει, τὰ ἐν διανοίᾳ, τὰ ἐν λόγῳ, τὰ ἐν πάσαις ἡμῶν ταῖς ἀναστροφαῖς καὶ τοῖς κινήμασι· καὶ τοῖς μὲν προλαβοῦσιν ἐλευθερίαν καὶ ἄνεσιν δώρησαι. ἡμᾶς δὲ τοὺς περιόντας εὐλόγησον, τέλος ἀγαθὸν καὶ εἰρηνικὸν παρεχόμενος ἡμῖν τε καὶ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ σου. Ibid. fol. 176. b. one that is deceased may be added: "None', no not one man, hath been without sin, but thou alone, Ο Immortal. Therefore, as a God full of compassion, place thy servant in light with the choirs 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 kind of prosopopoeias, which they attribute to the party 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 command, 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, Ο Redeemer, that this thy faithful servant, · Οὐδεὶς ἀναμάρτητος, οὐδεὶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων γέγονεν, εἰ μὴ σὺ μόνε ἀθάνατε. διὸ τὸν δοῦλον σου, ὡς θεὸς οἰκτίρμων, ἐν φωτὶ κατάταξον σὺν ταῖς χοροστασίαις ἀγγέλων σου· τῇ εὐσπλαγχνίᾳ σου ὑπερβαίνων ἀνομήματα, καὶ παρέχων αὐτῷ τὴν ἀνάστασιν. Ibid. fol. 121. b. * Τὸν ἔχοντα κρίναι τὴν ταπείνην μου ψυχὴν, σὺν δάκρυσι Χριστὸν ἱκετεύσατε, ὅπως μὲ πυρὸς ἐξελῆται τοῦ ἀσβέστου. Ibid. fol. 134. b. · ἱκετεύω πάντας τοὺς γνωστοῦς καὶ προσφιλεῖς μου, μνείαν ποιεῖτε μου ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως, ἵνα εὕρω ἔλεος ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος ἐκείνου τοῦ φοβεροῦ. Ibid. m βεβορβορωμένος ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις, καὶ γεγυμνιόμενος κατορθωμάτων, κραυγάζω τῷ πνεύματι, ἡ βορὰ τῶν σκολήκων· μὴ μὲ τὴν τάλαιναν ἀποῤῥίψης ἀπὸ τοῦ σου προσώπου, μή με ἐξ εὐωνύμω στήσης ὁ χερσί σου με πλάσας. ἀλλ' ἀνάπαυσον ὃν προσελάβου τῆ προστάξει σου, Κύριε, διὰ τὸ μέγα σου ἔλεος. Ibid. fol. 138. b. ̓Αφράστῳ τῇ δόξῃ σου ὅταν ἔλθης φοβερῶς κρῖναι τὸν κόσμον ἅπαντα, ἐν νεφέλαις εὐδόκησον λυτρωτὰ φαιδρῶς ὑπαντῆσαι σοι, ὃν ἐκ γῆς προσελάβου, πιστὸν δοῦλον σου. Ibid. fol. 116. a. 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 ob • Τρόμῳ τῷ φρικτῶ καὶ φοβερῷ βήματι τῷ σῷ παρεστότες, οἱ ἀπ' αἰῶνος νεκροὶ, ψῆφον ἀναμένουσι τὴν σὴν δικαίαν, Σωτὴρ, καὶ τὴν θείαν ἐκδέχονται δικαιοκρισίαν. Τότε φεῖσαι τοῦ δούλου σου, πίστει τοῦ πρός σε μεταστάντος, καὶ τῆς ἀϊδίου τρυφῆς σου καὶ μακαριότητος ἀξίωσον. Ibid. fol. 122. a. • Οὐδεὶς ἐκφεύξεται ἐκεῖ τὸ φοβερὸν τῆς κρίσεως σου βῆμα. βασιλεῖς, δυνάσται ἅπαντες, σὺν τοῖς δούλοις άμα παρίστανται, καὶ φωνὴς κριτοῦ φοβέρας, τοὺς ἁμαρτήσαντας λαοὺς ἐις κρίσιν γεέννες ἐξ ἧς, Χριστέ, ρύσαι Tov dovλov σov. Ibid. fol. 130. b. 4 Τότε φεῖσαι, Λόγε, τοῦ ἔνθα μεταστάντος. Ibid. fol. 133. a. - Κύριε, μόνε βασιλεῦ βασιλείας οὐρανίου, ἀξίωσον ὃν νῦν μετέστησας πιστὸν σου δοῦλον, παρακαλοῦμεν σε, καὶ ἀκατάκριτον αὐτὸν τότε διατήρησον, ἡνίκα ἁπας βροτὸς παραστῇ σοι τῷ κριτῇ μέλλων κρίνεσθαι. Ibid. fol. 130. a. lations 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 flames of purgatory? but, forgetting as much as once to make mention of purgatory, the sole foundation of these suffrages for the dead, in our adversaries' judgment, doth trouble himself and his cause, with bringing in such far-fetched reasons as these; that they who performed this duty did intend to signify thereby, that their brethren departed were not perished, but remained still alive with the Lord; and to put a difference betwixt the high perfection of our Saviour Christ, and the general frailty of the best of all his servants. Take away popish purgatory on the other side, which in the days of Aerius and Epiphanius needed not to be taken away, because it was not yet hatched, and all the reasons produced by Epiphanius will not withhold our Romanists from absolutely subscribing to the opinion of Aerius; this being a case with them resolved, that, "if purgatory be not admitted after death, prayer for the dead must be unprofitable." But though Thomas Aquinas and his abettors determine so, we must not therefore think that Epiphanius was of the same mind; who lived in a time wherein prayers were usually made for them that never were dreamed to have been in purgatory, and yieldeth those reasons of that usage, which overthrow the former consequence of Thomas every whit as much as the supposition of Aerius. For Aerius and Thomas both agree in this; that prayer for the dead would be altogether unprofitable, if the dead themselves received no special benefit thereby. This doth Epiphanius, defending the ancient use of these prayers in the Church, shew to be untrue, by producing other profits that redound from thence unto the living; partly by Ad hoc etiam est universalis Ecclesiæ consuetudo, quæ pro defunctis orat: quæ quidem oratio inutilis esset, si purgatorium post mortem non ponatur. Thom. contr. Gentiles, lib. 4. cap. 91. the public signification of their faith, hope, and charity toward the deceased; partly by the honour that they did unto the Lord Jesus, in exempting him from the common condition of the rest of mankind. And to make it appear that these things were mainly intended by the Church in her memorials for the dead, and not the cutting off of the sins which they carried with them out of this life, or the releasing of them out of any torment; he allegeth, as we have heard, that not only the meaner sort of Christians, but also the best of them without exception, even the prophets, and apostles, and martyrs themselves, were comprehended therein; from whence, by our adversaries' good leave, we will make bold to frame this syllogism. They who reject that kind of praying and offering for the dead, which was practised by the Church in the days of Aerius, are in that point flat Aerians. But the Romanists do reject that kind of praying Therefore the Romanists are in this point flat The assumption or second part of this argument, for the first we think nobody will deny, is thus proved: They who are of the judgment, that prayers and oblations should not be made for such as are believed to be in bliss, do reject that kind of praying and offering for the dead, which was practised by the ancient Church. But the Romanists are of this judgment. Therefore they reject that kind of praying and of fering for the dead, which was practised by the ancient Church. The truth of the first of these propositions doth appear by the testimony of Epiphanius; compared with those many other evidences whereby we have formerly proved, that it was the custom of the ancient Church to make prayers and oblations for them, of whose resting in peace and bliss there was no doubt at all conceived. The verity of |