with mutual love, and that too before the event afterwards
contemplated, namely, the removal of one of them by death.

[Footnote 62: Utrobique is rendered by Facciolati [Greek:
hekaterothi]--"in utraque parte, utrimque."]

Bishop Fell thus comments on the passage: "The sense seems to be, When
either of us shall die; whether I, who preside at Carthage, or you, who
are presiding at Rome, shall be the survivor, let the prayer to God of
him whose lot shall be to remain the longest among the living,
persevere, and continue." "Meanwhile," continues the Bishop[63], "we by
no means doubt that souls admitted into heaven apply to God, the best
and greatest of Beings, that he would have compassion on those who are
dwelling on the earth. But it does not thence follow, that prayers
should be offered to the saints. THE MAN WHO PETITIONS THEM MAKES THEM
GODS (Deos qui rogat ille facit)." [Oxford, 1682, p. 143.] Rigaltius,
himself {167} a Roman Catholic, doubts whether, when Cyprian wrote this
letter, he had any idea before his mind of saints departed praying for
the living. He translates "utrobique" very much as I have done, "with
reciprocal love, with mutual charity." His last observations on this
passage are very remarkable. After having confessed the sentiments to be
worthy of a Christian, that the saints pray for us, and having argued
that Cyprian could not have thought it necessary to ask a saint to
retain his brotherly kindness in heaven, for he could not be a saint if
he did not continue to love his brethren, he thus concludes: "In truth
it is a pious and faithful saying, That of those who having already put
off mortality are made joint-heirs with Christ, and of those who
surviving on earth will hereafter be joint-heirs with Christ, the Church
is one, and is by the Holy Spirit so well joined together as not to be
torn asunder by the dissolution of the body. They pray to God for us,
and we praise God for them, and thus with mutual affection (utrobique)
we always pray for each other." [Paris, 1666. p. 92.]

[Footnote 63: See the note of the Benedictine editors on this
passage (p. 467), in which they refer to the sentiments of
Rigaltius, Pamelius, and Bishop Fell, whom they call "the most
illustrious Bishop of Oxford."]

I will detain you only by one or two more extracts from Cyprian; one
forming part of the introduction to his Comment on the Lord's Prayer,
which is fitted for the edification of Christi