Arnobius

“ Thus “the foolishness of God is wiser than men,” and “the love of Christ constraineth us.”
“Talk they of morals? O Thou bleeding Lamb!
The grand morality is love of Thee.”
The world may sneer at faith, but only they who believe can love; and who ever loved Christ without copying into his life the Sermon on the Mount, and, in some blest degree, the holy example of his Master?
IV.
(For those freed from the bondage of the flesh, p. 488 and note 11.)
The early Christians prayed for the departed, that they might have their consummation in body and spirit at the last day. ”

“ It must be felt that Arnobius here lays himself open to a severe retort. The God of Christians is the author of sacrifice, and accepts the unspeakable sufferings of the innocent Lamb for the sins of the whole world. ”

“ Thus, these prayers for the faithful dead supply the strongest argument against the purgatorial system, which supposes the dead in Christ (1) not to be in repose at first, but (2) capable of being delivered out of “purgatory” into heaven, sooner or later, by masses, etc. Thus, their situation in the intermediate state is not that of Scripture (Rev. xiv. 13) , nor do they wait for glory, according to Scripture, until that day (2 Tim. iv. 8) . Archbishop Usher, therefore, bases a powerful argument against the Romish dogma, on these primitive prayers for the departed. ”