Part 28 (1/2)
”Propterea jacet exanimum tibi corpus amici, Heu nescis! totamque incestat funere cla.s.sem.
Sedibus hunc refer ante suis et conde sepulcre.”
[383]
”Animamque sepulchro Condimus, et magna supremum voce ciemus.”
[384]
”Romulus ut tumulo fraternas condidit umbras, Et male veloci justa soluta Remo.”
[385]
”Haec omnis, quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est.
Centum errant annos, volitantque haec littora circ.u.m.”
[386] Sall.u.s.t. Philos. c. 19, 20.
[387] Stol.u.s.t. lib. ii. de Bella Persico, sub fin.
[388]
”Sequar atris ignibus absens; Et c.u.m frigida mors animae subduxerit artus, Omnibus umbra lecis adero: dubis, improbe, poenas.”
[389] Homer, Iliad, XXIII.
[390] Ibid. Odyss. V.
[391]
”Infelix simulacrum etque ipsius umbra Creusae Visa mihi ante oculos, et nota major imago.” _Virgil, aeneid_ I.
[392] Tertull. de Anim.
[393] Ibid.
[394] Iren. lib. ii. c. 34.
CHAPTER XLIV.
EXAMINATION OF WHAT IS REQUIRED OR REVEALED TO THE LIVING BY THE DEAD WHO RETURN TO EARTH.
The apparitions which are seen are those of good angels, or of demons, or the spirits of the dead, or of living persons to others still living.
Good angels usually bring only good news, and announce nothing but what is fortunate; or if they do announce any future misfortunes, it is to persuade men to prevent them, or turn them aside by repentance, or to profit by the evils which G.o.d sends them by exercising their patience, and showing submission to his orders.
Bad angels generally foretell only misfortune; wars, the effect of the wrath of G.o.d on nations; and often even they execute the evils, and direct the wars and public calamities which desolate kingdoms, provinces, cities, and families. The spectres whose appearance to Brutus, Ca.s.sius, and Julian the Apostate we have related, are only bearers of the fatal orders of the wrath of G.o.d. If they sometimes promise any prosperity to those to whom they appear, it is only for the present time, never for eternity, nor for the glory of G.o.d, nor for the eternal salvation of those to whom they speak. It only extends to a temporal fortune, always of short duration, and very often deceitful.
The souls of the defunct, if these be Christians, ask very often that the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ should be offered, according to the observation of St. Gregory the Great;[395] and, as experience shows, there is hardly any apparition of a Christian that does not ask for ma.s.ses, pilgrimages, rest.i.tutions, or that alms should be distributed, or that they would satisfy those to whom the deceased died indebted. They also often give salutary advice for the salvation or correction of the morals, or good regulation of families.