draw up such another supplication for them as this, which of late years Sir Thomas Moore presented in their name, "To all good Christian people. In most piteous wise continually calleth and crieth upon your devout charity and most tender pity, for help, comfort and relief, your late acquaintance, kindred, spouses, companions, playfellows, and friends, and now your humble and unacquainted and half-forgotten suppliants, poor prisoners of God, the silly souls in purgatory, here abiding and enduring the grievous pains and hot cleansing fire, &c." If St. Cyprian had understood but half thus much, doubtless he would have struck out the best part of that famous treatise which he wrote of mortality, to comfort men against death in the time of a great plague; especially such passages as these are, which by no means can be reconciled with purgatory.

"It is for him to fear death, that is not willing to go unto Christ: it is for him to be unwilling to go unto Christ, who doth not believe that he beginneth to reign with Christ. For it is written, that the just doth live by faith. If thou be just, and livest by faith, if thou dost truly believe in Christ, why, being to be with Christ, and being secure of the Lord's promise, dost not thou embrace the message whereby thou art called unto Christ, and rejoicest that thou shalt be rid of the Devil? Simeon said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation: proving thereby, and witnessing, that the servants of God

h The supplication of souls, made by Sir Thomas Moore: which seemeth to be made in imitation of Joh. Gerson's Querela defunctorum in igne purgatorio detentorum, ad superstites in terra amicos. part. 4. oper. edit. Paris. ann. 1606. col. 959.

i Ejus est mortem timere, qui ad Christum nolit ire: cjus est ad Christum nolle ire, qui se non credat cum Christo incipere regnare. Scriptum est enim, justum fide vivere. Si justus es, et fide vivis, si vere in Christum credis; cur non, cum Christo futurus, et de Domini pollicitatione securus, quod ad Christum voceris amplecteris, et quod diabolo careas gratularis? Cyprian. de mortalit. op. pag. 229.

k probans scilicet, atque contestans, tunc esse servis Dei pacem, tunc liberam, tunc tranquillam quietem, quando, de istis mundi turbinibus extracti, sedis et securitatis æternæ portum petimus, quando expuncta hac morte ad immortalitatem venimus. Ibid. pag. 230.

then have peace, then enjoy free and quiet rest; when, being drawn from these storms of the world, we arrive at the haven of our everlasting habitation and security, when this death being ended we enter into immortality." "The' righteous are called to a refreshing, the unrighteous are haled to torment; safety is quickly granted to the faithful, and punishment to the unfaithful." "We are not to put on black mourning garments here, when our friends there have put on white." "This" is not a going out, but a passage; and, this temporal journey being finished, a going over to eternity." "Let us therefore embrace the day that bringeth every one to his own house; which, having taken us away from hence, and loosed us from the snares of this world, returneth us to paradise, and to the kingdom of heaven."

The same holy father in his apology which he wrote for Christians unto Demetrian the proconsul of Africa, affirmeth in like manner, that "the end of this temporal life being accomplished, we are divided into the habitations of everlasting, either death or immortality." "When" we are once departed from hence, there is now no further place for repentance, neither any effect of satisfaction; here life is either lost or obtained." But if "thou","

1 Ad refrigerium justi vocantur, ad supplicium rapiuntur injusti: datur velocius tutela fidentibus, perfidis pœna. Ibid. pag. 233.

m

Nec accipiendas esse hic atras vestes, quando illi ibi indumenta alba jam sumpserint. Ibid. pag. 234.

a Non est exitus iste, sed transitus; et, temporali itinere decurso, ad æterna transgressus. Ibid. pag. 235.

• Amplectamur diem, qui assignat singulos domicilio suo; qui nos istinc ereptos, et laqueis secularibus exsolutos, paradiso restituit et regno cœlesti. Ibid. pag. 236.

P Donec, ævi temporalis fine completo, ad æternæ vel mortis vel immortalitatis hospitia dividamur. Id. ad Demetrian, pag. 222.

4 Quando istinc excessum fuerit, nullus jam pœnitentiæ locus est, nullus satisfactionis effectus; hic vita aut amittitur, aut tenetur. Id. ibid. pag. 224.

Tu, sub ipso licet exitu et vitæ temporalis occasu, pro delictis rogas ; et Deum, qui unus et verus est, confessione et fide agnitionis ejus implores; venia confitenti datur, et credenti indulgentia salutaris de divina pietate conceditur; et ad immortalitatem sub ipsa morte transitur. Hanc gratiam Christus impertit; hoc munus misericordiæ suæ tribuit; subigendo mortem trophæo crucis, redimendo

saith he, "even at the very end and setting of thy temporal life, dost pray for thy sins, and call upon the only true God with confession and faith; pardon is given to thee confessing, and saving forgiveness is granted by the divine piety to thee believing; and at thy very death thou hast a passage unto immortality. This grace doth Christ impart, this gift of his mercy doth he bestow; by subduing death with the triumph of his cross, by redeeming the believer with the price of his blood, by reconciling man unto God the Father, by quickening him that is mortal with heavenly regeneration."

Where Solomon sayeth', that "man goeth to his everlasting house, and the mourners go about in the streets" St. Gregory of Neocæsarea maketh this paraphrase upon those words, "The good man shall go rejoicing unto his everlasting house; but the wicked shall fill all with lamentations." Therefore did the fathers teach that men should rejoice" at their death: and the ancient Christians framed their practice accordingly; "not" celebrating the day of their nativity, which they accounted to be the entry of sorrows and temptations; but celebrating the day of death, as being the putting away of all sorrows, and the escaping of all temptations." And so being filled with "a" divine rejoicing, they came to the extremity of death as unto the end of their holy combats;" where they did "more clearly behold the way that led unto

credentem pretio sanguinis sui, reconciliando hominem Deo Patri, vivificando mortalem regeneratione cœlesti, Cyprian. ad Demetrian. pag. 224.

s Ecclesiast. chap. 12. ver. 5.

· Καὶ ὁ μὲν ἀγαθὸς ἀνὴρ εἰς αἰώνιον οἶκον τὸν ἑαυτοῦ χαίρων πορεύσε ται· οἱ δὲ γε φαῦλοι, πάντα τὰ αὐτῶν ἐμπλήσουσι κοπτόμενοι. Greg. Neocæsar, metaphras. in Ecclesiast.

" Aɛĩ dè ¿ñì Oaváry xaipeiv. Anton. Meliss. part. 1. serm. 58. &c.

▾ Nos non nativitatis diem celebramus, cum sit dolorum atque tentationum introitus; sed mortis diem celebramus, utpote omnium dolorum depositionem atque omnium tentationum effugationem. Author lib. 3. in Job, inter opera Origenis. Vide S. Basil. homil. in Psalm. 115. Op, tom. 1. pag. 374.

* Εν εὐφροσύνη θείᾳ πρὸς τὸ τοῦ θανάτου πέρας ἴασιν, ὡς ἐπὶ τέλος ἱερῶν ἀγώνων. et paulo post : 'Εν τούτοις μὲν οὖν ἡ τῶν ἱερῶν ἐστὶ κοίμησις ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ καὶ ἀσαλεύτοις ἐλπίσιν εἰς τὸ τῶν θείων ἀγώνων ἀφικ vovμévη πÉpas. Dionys. ecclesiast. hierarch. cap. 7.

* 'Αλλ' ὅλους αὐτοὺς ἀπολήψεσθαι τὴν χριστοειδῆ λῆξιν εἰδότες, ὅταν

their immortality, as being now made nearer, and did therefore praise the gifts of God, and were replenished with divine joy, as now not fearing any change to worse; but knowing well, that the good things which they possessed shall be firmly and everlastingly enjoyed by them."

The author of the questions and answers attributed to Justin martyr writeth thus of this matter: "After the departure of the soul out of the body, there is presently made a distinction betwixt the just and the unjust. For they are brought by the angels to places fit for them: the souls of the righteous to paradise, where they have the commerce and sight of angels and archangels, &c, the souls of the unjust to the places in hell." That "is not death,” saith Athanasius, “ that befalleth the righteous, but a translation: for they are translated out of this world into everlasting rest; and, as a man would go out of a prison, so do the saints go out of this troublesome life unto those good things that are prepared for them." St. Hilary, out of that which is related in the Gospel of the rich man and Lazarus, observeth, that as soon as this life is ended, every one without delay is sent over either to Abraham's bosom, or to the place of torment, and in that state reserved until the day of judgment. St. Am

ἐπὶ τὸ πέρας ἔλθωσι τῶν τῷ δε βίου, τὴν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν αὐτῶν ὁδὸν, ὡς ἐγγυτέραν ἤδη γεγενημενην, ἐμφανέστερον ὁρῶσι, καὶ τὰς δωρεὰς τῆς θεαρχίας ὑμνοῦσι, καὶ θείας ἡδονῆς ἀποπληροῦνται, τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω τροπὴν οὐκετι δεδοικότες, ἀλλ ̓ εὖ εἰδότες, ὅτι τὰ κτηθέντα καλὰ βεβαίως καὶ αἰωνίως ἕξουσιν. Ibid.

* Μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ἔξοδον, εὐθὺς γίνεται τῶν δικαίων τε καὶ ἀδίκων ἡ διαστολή. ἄγονται γὰρ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀγγέλων εἰς ἀξίους αὐτῶν τόπους. αἱ μὲν τῶν δικαίων ψυχαὶ εἰς τὸν παράδεισον, ἔνθα συντυχία τε καὶ θέα ἀγγέλων τε καὶ ἀρχαγγέλων, &c. αἱ δὲ τῶν ἀδίκων ψυχαὶ εἰς τοὺς ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ τόπους. Justin. respons. ad orthodox. quæst. 75. op. pag. 470.

· Οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ παρὰ τοῖς δικαίοις θάνατος, ἀλλὰ μετάθεσις· μετατίθενται γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, εἰς τὴν αἰώνιον ἀνάπαυσιν. καὶ ὥσπερ τὶς ἀπὸ φυλακῆς ἐξέλθοι, οὕτως καὶ οἱ ἅγιοι ἐξέρχονται ἀπὸ τοῦ μοχθηροῦ βίου τούτου εἰς τὰ ἀγαθὰ τὰ ἡτοιμασμένα αὐτοῖς. Athanas. de virginitate, Op. tom. 2. pag. 120.

a Nihil illic dilationis aut moræ est. Judicii enim dies vel beatitudinis retributio est æterna, vel pœnæ : tempus vero mortis habet unumquemque suis legibus, dum ad judicium unumquemque aut Abraham reservat aut pœna. Hilar. in Psalm. 2. op. pag. 51.

brose, in his book of the good of death, teacheth us that death" is a certain haven to them who, being tossed in the great sea of this life, desire a road of safe quietness; that it maketh not a man's state worse, but such as it findeth in every one, such it reserveth unto the future judgment, and refresheth with rest:" that thereby "a passage is made from corruption to incorruption, from mortality to immortality, from trouble to tranquillity." Therefore he saith, that where "foolsd do fear death as the chief of evils, wise men do desire it, as a rest after labours, and an end of their evils;" and upon these grounds exhorteth us, that "when that day cometh, we should go without fear to Jesus our Redeemer, without fear to the council of the patriarchs, without fear to Abraham our father; that without fear we should address ourselves unto that assembly of saints, and congregation of the righteous; forasmuch as we shall go to our fathers, we shall go to those schoolmasters of our faith; that, albeit our works fail us, yet faith may succour us, and our title of inheritance defend us."

Macarius, writing of the double state of those that depart out of this life, affirmeth, that when the soul goeth out of the body, if it be guilty of sin, the devil carrieth it away with him unto his place: but when the holy servants of God" remove out of their body, the choirs of

Et quia portus quidam est eorum qui, magno vitæ istius jactati salo, fidæ quietis stationem requirunt : et quia deteriorem statum non efficit; sed qualem in singulis invenerit, talem judicio futuro reservat, et quiete ipsa fovet, &c. Ambros. de bono mortis, cap. 4. Op. tom. 1. pag. 395.

• Transitur autem a corruptione ad incorruptionem, a mortalitate ad immortalitatem, a perturbatione ad tranquillitatem. Ibid.

d Insipientes mortem quasi summum malorum reformidant: sapientes quasi requiem post labores et finem malorum expetunt. Ib. cap. 8. pag. 403.

e His igitur freti, intrepide pergamus ad redemptorem nostrum Jesum, intrepide ad patriarcharum concilium, intrepide ad patrem nostrum Abraham, cum dies advenerit, proficiscamur: intrepide pergamus ad illum sanctorum cœtum, justorumque conventum. Ibimus enim ad patres nostros, ibimus ad illos nostræ fidei præceptores: ut, etiamsi opera desint, fides opituletur, defendat hæreditas. Ib. cap. 12. pag. 411.

• Όταν ἐξέλθωσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος, οἱ χοροὶ τῶν ἀγγέλων παραλαμβανούσιν αὐτῶν τὰς ψυχὰς εἰς τὸ ἴδιον μέρος, εἰς τὸν καθαρὸν αἰῶνα, καὶ оvтws ανтоÙÇ πрoσáɣovσi тý Kvpiq. Macar. Ægypt. homil. 22.