pass from the dwelling of this world, and permit him to be associated with the company of thine elect, that together with them he may remain in everlasting bliss without end."
"Eternal God, who in Christ thine only begotten Son our Lord hast given unto us the hope of a blessed resurrection; grant, we beseech thee, that the souls for which we offer this sacrifice of our redemption unto thy Majesty, may of thy mercy attain unto the rest of a blessed resurrection with thy saints."
"Let this communion, we beseech thee, O Lord, purge us from sin; and give unto the soul of thy servant N. a portion in the heavenly joy, that being set apart before the throne of the glory of thy Christ with those that are upon the right hand, it may have nothing common with those that are upon the left."
"Through Christ our Lord: at whose coming, when thou shalt command both the peoples to appear, command thy servant also to be severed from the number of the evil; and grant unto him that he may both escape the flames of everlasting punishment, and obtain the rewards of a righteous life," &c.
Lastly, Abbot Berengosius, speaking of Constantine the Great,
"Forasmuch," saith he, "as hitherto he hath not the full perfection of his future rest, but rather doth hope as yet with us to find a better resurrection, we are to pray that he who by his blood was pleased to sanctify the banner of the quickening cross, would hereafter bring unto perfect rest both us and him."
In these and other prayers of the like kind, we may descry evident footsteps of the primary intentions of the Church in her supplications for the dead; which was, that the whole man, not the soul separated only, might receive public remission of sins and a solemn acquittal in the judgment of that great day, and so obtain both a full escape from all the consequences of sin, the last enemy being now destroyed, and death swallowed up in victory, and a perfect consummation of bliss and happiness. All which are comprised in that short prayer of St. Paul for Onesiphorus, though made for him while he was alive. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. Yea, divers prayers for the dead of this kind are still retained in the Roman Offices; of which the great Spanish doctor, Johannes Medina, thus writeth:
"Although I have read many prayers for the faithful deceased which are contained in the Roman Missal, yet have I read in none of them that the Church doth petition that they may more quickly be freed from pains; but I have read that in some of them petition is made that they may be freed from everlasting pains."
