prayeth much for the people and for all the holy city,
Jeremias the Prophet of God._[194]

As S. Jerome says,[195] Vigilantius's error lay in maintaining that
"while we live we can mutually pray for one another; but after we are
dead no one's prayer for another is heard, and this is especially clear
in the case of the Martyrs who were unable to obtain by their prayers
vengeance for their blood."

But this is altogether false; for since prayer for others springs from
charity, the more perfect the charity of those who are in Heaven the
more they pray for those wayfarers on earth who can be helped by their
prayers. And the more knit they are to God the more efficacious are
their prayers; for the Divine harmony demands that the superabundance of
those who are in the higher position should redound upon those who are
lower, just as the brightness of the sun renders the atmosphere itself
luminous. Whence Christ Himself is said to be _Approaching of Himself to
God to intercede for us_.[196] Whence, too, S. Jerome's reply to
Vigilantius: "If the Apostles and Martyrs, when they were still in the
body, and had still to be solicitous on their own account, prayed for
others, how much more when they have won the crown, when they have
gained the victory and the triumph?"

Yet some maintain that the Blessed in Heaven do not pray for us, thus:

1. A man's acts are more meritorious for himself than for another. But
the Saints who are in Heaven neither merit for themselves nor pray for
themselves, for they have already attained the goal of their desires.
Hence neither do they pray for us.

But the Saints who are in our Fatherland lack no
Blessedness--since they are Blessed--save the glory of the body,
and for this they pray. But they pray for us who still lack the
ultimate perfection of Blessedness; and their prayers are
efficacious by reason of their previous merits and of the Divine
acceptation of their prayers.

2. But once more: the Saints are perfectly conformed to the Will of God,
and consequently will nothing but what He wills. But what God wills is
always fulfilled. Hence it is idle for the Saints to pray for us.

But the Saints obtain that which God wills should come about
through the medium of their prayers; and they ask for what they
think is, by God's Will, to be fulfilled through their prayers.

3. And yet again: just as the Saints in Heaven are superior to us so
also are they who