The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-12 00:00:00

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doctrine which was declared by the Church of England nut
to be founded on any warrants of Scripture, the question,
as he had before said, was, whether prayer for the dead
came under the same condemnation. The first argument
that suggested itself against the supposition that prayer lor
the dead was included in the condemnation of the Romish
doctrine of purgatory was, that praying for the dead was a
practice of an earlier date than the introduction of the doc-
trine of purgatory ; for it clearly appeared that the prac-
tice of praying for the dead prevailed amongst the earlier,
if not amongst the very earliest Christians—that in offer-
ing these prayers for the dead, therefore, it was per-
fectly clear they had at that time no notion of the
Romish doctrine of purgatory. Whatever notion there might
have been amongst some few of them, of a purgatory at
the last day, the Romish doctrine of purgatory at that
time did not enter into their lives. It would be a useless
waste of time if the Court were to travel through all the
authorities which might be cited, not only to prove the
prevalence of this practice of praying for the dead, long
antecedent to the introduction of purgatory, but also that
the prayers offered by the primitve Christians for the soul
of the departed, were offered with a different intention from
those who profess the Romish religion. The object of the
latter prayer was to release from the pains of purgatory the
souls of those who had not been completely purged frotn
their sins in this life. The object of the former, as is
stated by all the commentators and writers, was that the
souls might have rest and quiet in the interval to elapse
between their death and the resurrection at the last day ;
and that at the last day they might receive the perfect con-
solation of bliss. But, certainly, according to the opinions
of all the writers upon the subject, there was no proof that
the prayers had reference to the state of suffering in
which the souls of the pious were supposed to be. With
reference to this point, it might be right to state one or two
passages upon the subject, and the first of these to which
he would advert was that of Bishop Taylor, in his " Di;-
suasive against Popery." In discussing the subject, he en-
ters into the question as to the foundation upon which the
Romish doctrine of purgatory is supposed to rest. All the
Court could do was to look into these authoroties fer the
purpose of seeing in what view these authors considered
the practice of praying for the dead—their view, certainly,
not forming the law of the case, for the law of the case could
only be taken from the Articles of the Church and its
Canons—but showing the views which learned Divines and
others had taken of the subject of praying for the dead as
connected with the Romish doctrine of purgatory. Dr.
Taylor, after going at some length into the subject, said,
that such general prayers for the dead as he had referred to,
the Church of England never did condemn, by any express
article—the Church expressly condemned the doctrine of
purgatory, and consequently all the prayers for the dead
relating to it. The Bishop cited several authorities in sup-
port of this opinion. Archbishop Usher, in reference to
this point, said, " that prayer for the dead, as it is used by
the Church of Rome, doth necessarily suppose purgatory ;
but, on the other side, it is admitted that purgatory doth not
necessarily infer prayers for the dead. The Romanists
take it for granted that purgatory and prayer for the dead
is so closely linked together, that the one does necessarily
follow the other ; but however they may link their prayers
with their purgatory they shall never be able to show that
the commemoration of prayers for the dead used by the
National Church had no relation to their pur-
gatory ; and, whatever the prayers of the primitive
Christians, be asssured that Popish prayers they were
not." Speaking of the primary intention with which
prayers for the dead were offered by their fathers, he said
they offered prayers of thanksgiving for the blessed estate
on which the deceased had entered, that God would forego
his sins, keep him from hell, and place him in the kingdom
of heaven, which, however well meant at first, proved an
occasion, in the course of time, of confirming them in divers
habits. To this passage he added another :—" Thair
prayers were offered that the dead might rest in peace."
And that these prayers had reference to the general resur-
rection, he proved by the examples which he pro-
duced from the different authors who had written
on the subject. These all tended to show his opinion of the
motives with which prayers for the dead were offered up by
the primitive Christians, having no connection whatever
with the Romish doctrine of purgatory, and conveying the
idea .that those for whom the prayers were offered up were
subject to ao suffering during the interval which elapsed
between their death and the last day. These authorities
all showed that prayers for the dead had no necessary con-
nection with the doctrine of purgatory—that it could not
have any, was clear from the circemstance of its practice
having been so long antecedent to the other. But
whatever might have been the case with respect to the
practice of praying for the dead in early ages, it had been
contended that in later times the Church of England had taken
a different view of the subject ; and that, in refe-eence to what
passed at the earlier part of the Refermation and subse-
quently, that though in the first instance prayers for the
dead were not considered to be contrary to the principles
of the Christian religion, yet that they had, by the manner
in which they had been treated in later periods, been consi-
dered as opposed to those principles and to the doctrines of
the Church ; and this had been principally relied upon by
reference to the alterations which had taken place at differ-
ent times in the Liturgy prepared for the use of the Church.
Now, the earliest part of the practice referred to was in the
prayers of Henry VIII., namely, the three which had been
set forth by him upon the subject of the Burial of the Dead
and the Communion Service ; and, without going particu-
larly into the circumstances and prayers which were made
use of on these several occasions, iW the Communion Ser-
vice as well as the Burial of the Dead, it was sufficient to
state that there was no doubt that there were prayers for
the dead immediately and expressly inserted ; and this was
continued until the alteration took place in these public
services in the reign of Edward VI. It was also clear that
it was in the book referred to, namely, the " Formula of
Faith," in the time of Henry VIII., in 1536, 1.537, and
1543, prayers for the dead wers considered to be a pious
and proper work ; and it was clear, from the very manner
in which these prayers were set forth, that the prayers
supposed to be referred to in the Maccabees had
no connexion with purgatory, because in the
same article it was expressly declared that pur-
gatory was not an article received by the Church ; and
at the Reformation they disclaimed the doctrine of purga-
tory, though they mentioned it to be a pious and charitable
work to offer up prayers for the dead. So continued the
law until the 2d and 3d of Edward VI., and it is certainly
true that the Prayer Book, which was compiled for the
public use of the Church, had been prepared by persons
of very great eminence and learning, who were called to-
gether by the King for the purpose of taking into consi-
deration the alterations necessary to be made in the public
service of the Church, in consequence of the progress
which had been made towards the reformation of
the established religion. Now, it is not very im-
material to see the manner in which the first Book of
Prayer was compiled. He, did not know that he could
refer to anything more satisfactory than the Act of Par-
liament by which that book was established—the 2d and
3d of Edward VI., C. 1, entitled " An Act for the Uni-
formity of Service and the Administration of Sacraments
throughout the Realm," the recital of which Act showed
the view with which the persons were assembled together,
and the alterations they were to consider, and the prin-
ciples upon which they were to proceed, in compiling the
Book of Common Prayer for the public use of the Church.
The recital stated that his Majesty had appointed the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and certain of the most learned
and discreet Bishops, having as well an eye to the most
pure Christian religion taught by the Scriptures, as to the
usage in the primitive Christian Church, to make one meet
and right order of Common Prayer and administration of the
sacrament to be used in this realm of England and Wales.
They accordingly proceeded to draw up the form of prayer
which is contained in the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. in
reference to those principles upon which they were directed
to proceed. Now, in this Prayer Book of Edward VI.,
prayers for the dead are still to be used ; they were in
some degree altered from those which had been set forth
in those of Henry VIII., but they were still used, and,
therefore, it must be considered that those who were
called on to compile this form of prayar, that prayer
for the dead was not necessarily connected with the doc-
trine of purgatory. Now, the first Prayer Book of Edward
VI. was afterwards revised, and in those parts of the cere-
monies which refer to the Communion Service, as well as
.those in the Burial Service, were omitted those passages
which related to prayers for the dead ; and it had
been urged from this circumstance that they wc,re
omitted because the persons who were concerned in
revising the first prayer-book were of opinion they were not
consistent with the doctrines of the Church as then esta-
blished ; and, therefore, that it there is no express prohibi-
tion of praying for the (load, still by implication, the Church
has expressed its opinion that the practice was not consistent
with the doctrine of the Church. But it still seemed proper
to consider whether there were no means by which the
Court could arrive at the conclusion—what was the prin-
ciple upon which these prayers for the dead were no longer
considered as proper to be used in the Church. Various
authors had been referred to in snpport of the proposi-
tion, that it was in consequence of the belief that these
prayers were all consistent with the principles of the
Church of England, that the omissions were made.
Amongst writers on the book of Common Prayer, Wheat-
ley, Shepherd and Nicholls were cited. Many of them
stated that undoubtedly the Church did consider that these
prayers prayers were no longer proper to be used, as being •
001:1418.
tent with the do`_',:eines of the Chvacit of England,
'2.7ne established ; tut they all agreed in stating there
thathad been no express prohibition of the use of prayers for the
dead, and therefore it must be taken to ha a prohibition by
necessary implication. Now, in looking into the number ,
of historians upon the subject of the alteratieu which took I