Name evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most high Amen THou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy Pleasure they are and were created Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God by thy Blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation Blessing Honour Glory and Power be unto Him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever Then turning toward the People Let us pray for the whole State of Christ's Church Militant here on Earth And turning again toward the Altar ALmighty and Everliving God who by thy holy Apostle hast taught us to make Prayers and Supplications and to give Thanks unto thee for all Men We humbly beseech thee most mercifully to accept these our Oblations and to receive these our Prayers which we offer unto thy Divine Majesty beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal Church with the Spirit of Truth Vnity and Concord and grant that all they who do confess thy Holy Name may agree in the Truth of thy Holy Word and live in Vnity and Godly Love †We beseech thee also to save and defend all Christian Kings Princes and Governours and especially thy Servant N. our King that under him we may be godly and quietly governed and to grant unto his whole Council and to all that are put in Authority under him that they may truly and indifferently minister Iustice to the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintenance of thy true Religion and Vertue †Give Grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops Priests and Deacons and more particularly of this Church and Diocess that they may both by their Life and Doctrine set forth thy true and lively Word and rightly and duly administer thy Holy Sacraments And to all thy People give thy Heavenly Grace that with meek Heart and due Reverence they may hear and receive thy holy Word truly serving thee in Holiness and Righteousness all the Days of their Life And we commend especially unto thy merciful Goodness the Congregation which is here assembled in thy Name to celebrate the Commemoration of the most precious Death and Sacrifice of thy Son our Saviour Iesus Christ And we most humbly beseech thee of thy Goodness O Lord to comfort and succour all them who in this transitory Life are in Trouble Sorrow Need Sickness or any other Adversity And we also bless thy holy Name for all thy Servants * C. departed this Life in thy Faith Fear beseeching thee to give us Grace so to follow their good Examples that with them we may be Partakers of thy Heavenly Kingdom who having finished their Course in Faith do now rest from their Labours And we render unto thee most hearty Thanks and Praise for thy wonderful Grace and Vertue declared in all thy Saints who have been the choice Vessels of thy Grace and the Lights of the World in their several Generations a And chiefly in the glorious and most blessed Virgin Mary Mother of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord God and in thy Holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs Ed. 6. most humbly beseeching thee that we may have Grace to follow the Example of their Stedfastness in thy Faith and Obedience to thy Holy Commandments b We commend unto thy Mercy O Lord all other thy Servants which are departed hence from us with the Sign of Faith and now rest in the Sleep of Peace Grant unto them we beseech thee thy Mercy and Everlasting Peace and that at the Day c. Ed. 6. v. H. Lestr c. 6. T. V. that at the Day of the General Resurrection we and all they who are of the Mystical Body of thy Son may be set on his Right Hand and hear his most joyful Voice Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Grant this O Father for Iesus Christ's Sake our onely Mediatour and Advocate Amen Then the Prayer of Consecration ALmighty God our Heavenly Father who of thy tender Mercy didst give thine onely Son Iesus Christ to suffer Death upon the Cross for our Redemption who made there by his own Oblation of himself once offered a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World and did institute and in his Holy Gospel command us to continue and celebrate a Perppetual Memory of that his precious Death and Sacrifice until his Coming again Hear us O merciful Father we most humbly beseech thee and of thy abundant Goodness vouchsafe to bless and sanctifie with thy Word and holy Spirit these thy Gifts and Creatures of Breat and Wine that they may be unto us the Body and Blood of thy most dearly beloved Son our Saviour Iesus Christ so that we receiving them according to His Holy Institution in Remembrance of his Death and Passion and Recognition of our Redemption thereby may be Partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood who in the same Night that he was betrayed (a) Here the Priest is to take the Paten into his Hands took Bread and when he had given Thanks (b) And here to break the Bread he brake it and gave it to his Disciples saying Take eat (c) And here to lâ—y his Hand upon all the bread This is my Body which is given for you do this in Remembrance of me Likewise after Supper (d) Here he is to take the Cup into his Hand he took the Cup and when he had given Thanks he gave it to them saying Drink ye All of this for This (e) And here to lay his Hand upon every Vessel be it Chalice or Flaren in which there is any Wine to be Consecrated is my Blood of the Now Testament which is shed for you and for many for the Remission of Sins Do this as often as ye shall drink it in Remembrance of me Amen The Memorial or Prayer of Oblation WHerefore O Lord and Heavenly Father according to the Institution of thy dearly beloved Son our Saviour Iesus Christ we thy humble Servants do celebrate and make here before thy Divine Majesty with These thy Holy Gifts the Memorial which He hath willed us to make having in Remembrance his Blessed Passion Mighty Resurrection and Glorious Ascension rendering unto thee most humble and hearty Thanks for the innumerable Benefits procured unto us by the same And we humbly beseech thee of thy Fatherly Goodness mercifully to accept this our Sacrifice of Praise and Chansgiving and graciously to grant that by His Death Merits and Intercession and through Faith in his Blood we and all thy whole Church may obtain Remission of our Sins and all
Jesus And I pray God to grant the same to me and all Faithful People whatsoever Life and Death of the Holy Jesus Sect. 16. § 1. 2. Of Prayers for the Dead WE find in the History of the Maccabees that the Jews did pray and make Offerings for the Dead which also appears by other Testimonies and by their Forms of Prayer still extant which they used in their Captivity It is very considerable that since our blessed Saviour did reprove all the evil Doctrines and Traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees and did argue concerning the Dead and the Resurrection against the Sadducees yet he spake no word against this publick Practice but left it as he found it which He who came to declare to us all the Will of his Father would not have done if it had not been Innocent Pious and full of Charity To which by way of Consociation if we add That St. Paul did pray for Onesiphorus That God would give him Mercy at that Day that is according to the Stile of the New Testament the Day of Judgment the result will be That altho' it be probable that Onesiphorus was at that time dead because in his Salutations he salutes his Houshold without naming him who was Major domo against his Custom of Salutations in other places yet besides this the Prayer was for such a Blessing to him whose Demonstration and Reception could not be but after Death which implies clearly that there is a Need of Mercy and by consequence the Dead People even to the Day of Judgment inclusively are the Subject of a Misery the Object of God's Mercy and therefore fit to be commemorated in the Duties of our Piety and Charity and that we are to recommend their Condition to God not only to give them more Glory in the Re-union but to pity them to such purposes in which they need Which because they are not revealed to us in particular it hinders us not in recommending the Persons in particular to God's Mercy but should rather excite our Charity and Devotion For it being certain that they have a Need of Mercy and it being uncertain how great their Need is it may concern the Prudence of Charity to be more earnest as not knowing the Greatness of their Necessity And if there should be any Uncertainty in these Arguments yet its having been the Vniversal Practice of the Church of God in all Places and in all Ages till within these Hundred Years it is a very great Inducement for any Member of the Church to believe that in the first Traditions of Christianity and the Institutions Apostolical there was nothing delivered a ainst this Practice but very much to insinuate or enjoin it because the Practice of it was at the first and was Universal And if any Man shall doubt of this he shews nothing but that he is ignorant of the Records of the Church it being plain in Tertullian and S. Cyprian who were the eldest Writers of the Latin Church that in their time it was ab Antiquo the Custom of the Church to pray for the Souls of the Faithful departed in the dreadful Mysteries And it was an Institution Apostolical says one of them and so transmitted to the following Ages of the Church And when once it began to be contested against by Aerius the Man was presently condemn'd for a Heretick as appears in Epiphanius Thus far in the Person of a Romanist to which he adds But I am not to consider the Arguments for the Doctrine it self Note This was written in those times when it was not safe too plainly to profess such an Opinion altho' the Probability and fair Pretence of them may help to excuse such Persons who upon these or the like Grounds do heartily believe it But I am to consider that whether it be true or false there is no manner of Malice in it and at the worst it is out a wrong Error upon the Right side of Charity and concluded against by its Adversaries upon the Confidence of such Arguments which possibly are not so probable as the Grounds pretended for it And if the same Judgment might be made of any more of their Doctrines I think it were better Men were not so furious in the condemning such Questions which either they understood not upon the Grounds of their proper Arguments or at least consider not as subjected in the Persons and lessened by Circumstances by the Innocency of the Event or other Prudential Considerations He had said before No. 2. These Doctrines that have had long Continuance and Possession in the Church cannot easily be supposed in the present Possessors to be a Design since they have received it from so many Ages and it is not likely that all Ages should have the same Purposes or that the same Doctrine should serve the several Ends of divers Ages But however long Prescription is a Prejudice oftentimes so insupportable that it cannot with many Arguments be retrenched as relying upon these Grounds That Truth is more ancient than Falshood That God would not for so many Ages forsake his Church and leave her in an Error That whatsoever is New is not only suspicious but false which are Suppositions pious and plausible enough Liberty of Profesying § 20. The Judgment of Mr. Thorndike in his Learned Judicious and Honest Book Entituled Just Weights and Measures c. 16. I Have shewed out of the Revelation That the Souls of Martyrs appearing before the Throne of God in the Court of the Tabernacle to wit in the Jerusalem which is above the Throne appears to St. John indeed but it is to be understood in the Holy of Holies and therefore is not seen in the Court of the Tabernacle But those 144000 that were sealed and preserved from the Destruction of Jerusalem appear not in the Court of the Tabernacle but on Mount Sion a Place of inferior Holiness and sing not the Martyrs Song but are only able to learn it which no body else could do Sufficient Arguments of Difference in the State of Blessed Souls tho' all beneath that which the Resurrection promiseth which all of them earnestly desire Suppose the Place to be the third Heaven suppose that it is called Paradice because of necessity it answers the Figure of the Earthly Paradice suppose that in respect of the Saints that died under the Law it is called Abraham's Bosom there may be inferior Mansions in the mean time before the Resurrection for Souls of inferior Holiness tho' they depart in the State of Grace For how oft do the Apostles signifie a solicitous Expectation of the Day of Judgment in those whom they suppose to die Christians a thing which can by no means stand with the Estate of those that are before the Throne of God praising Him Day and Night in the Court of the Tabernacle And therefore S. Ambrose and S. Augustin had great Reason to follow the Fourth Book of * 2 Esd 4.41 42 7.32 Esdras placing the
with the Spiritual Food of the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son our Saviour Iesus Christ as Members incorporate in His Mystical Body and Heirs through Hope of thy Everlasting Kingdom by the Merits of His most Precious Death and Passion And we most humbly beseech thee O Heavenly Father so to assist us with thy Grace that we may continue in that Holy Fellowship and do all such Good Works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in through Iesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen Then this Hymn GLory be to God on high and on Earth Peace Good Will towards Men. We Praise thee we Bless thee we Worship thee we Glorifie thee we give Thanks unto thee for thy great Glory O Lord God Heavenly King God the Father Almighty O Lord the onely begotten Son Iesu Christ O Lord God Lamb of God Son of the Father that takest away the Sins of the World have Mercy upon us Thou that takest away the Sins of the World have Mercy upon us Thou that takest away the Sins of the World receive our Prayer Thou that sittest at the Right Hand of God the Father have Mercy upon us For thou onely art Holy thou onely art the Lord thou onely O Christ with the Holy Ghost art most high in the Glory of God the Father Amen Then the Priest or Bishop if he be present may let them depart with this Blessing THe Peace of God which passeth all Vnderstanding keep your Hearts and Minds in the knowledge and Love of God and of his Son Iesus Christ our Lord And the Blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost be amongst you and remain with you always Amen COLLECTS To be said as occasion may serve at the Discretion of the Minister ACcept us graciously O Lord in these our Supplications Prayers and Thanksgivings and dispose the Way of Servants towards the Attainment of Everlasting Salvation that among all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life they may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready Help through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen O Almighty Lord and everlasting God vouchsafe we beseech thee to sanctifie direct and govern both our Hearts and Bodies in the Ways of thy Laws and in the Works of thy Commandments that through thy most mighty Protection both here and ever we may be preserved in Body and Soul through our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Amen GRant we beseech thee Almighty God that the Words which we have heard this Day with our outward Ears may through thy Grace he so grafred inwardly in our Hearts that they may bring forth in us the Fruit of good Living to the Honour and Praise of thy Name through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious Favour and further us with thy continual Help that in all our Works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen ALmighty God the Fountain of all Wisdom who knowest our Necessities before we ask and our Ignorance in Asking We beseech thee to have Compassion upon our Infirmities and those things which for our Vnworthiness we dare not and for our Blindness we cannot ask vouchsafe to give us for the Worthiness of thy Son Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen ALmighty God who hast promised to hear the Petitions of them that ask in thy Sons Name We beseech thee mercifully to incline thy Favour to us who have made now our Prayers and Supplications unto Thee and grant that those things which we have faithfully asked according to thy Will may effectually be obtained to the Relief of our Necessity and to the setting forth of thy Glory through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen In these Forms thus disposed is so much both of the Substance and of the Order of the most ancient Liturgies that a small matter more would make it One of the Compleatest Liturgies in the World In the First Part should be more of the Scriptures which may either be left to the Discretion of the Priest or some of the Lessons for the Day be used And the Prayers which are preposterous before the Creed or the Epistle and Gospel v. Heb. 11.6 should either be after the Creed and the Te Deum or be reserved to the Second Part which is most agreeable to the most ancient Office for the Catechumens and Penetents who were not admitted to the Prayers of the Faithful And in the Second Part the Eucharist or Thanksgiving is much shorter than they anciently used and the Commemorations for the Communion of Saints of the whole Mystical Body of Christ are not so express as anciently they were in all the Liturgies now extant I shall conclude with these Observations concerning Liturgies 1. That Prescribed Forms in the Publick Worship of God and also for Private Use are of Divine Original and Institution 2. That there is not any good and clear Evidence of the Ordinary Solemn Worship of God ever performed in any Christian Church or other Religious Society in any part of the World without them 3. That therefore it is great Ignorance and Inconsiderateness at the best but usually great Presumption and Impiety in those who dare to speak against them in general 4. That the Jews did use Forms before our Saviours Time and the most ancient Christian Liturgies are so conform to them that it is highly probable they were of Apostolical Original as to the Substance and Order or rather that our Saviour himself who certainly retained the Rite retained also the Forms with such Variations as were proper for the Christians Use 5. That these things consider'd and the Use of the Word Liturgy in the Christian Church so ancient universal and appropriate to this Purpose it is very disingenuous to deny that St. Luke Act. 13.2 did use that Word which we translate Ministring being joyned with Fasting for Solemn Prayer by Liturgy after the manner aforesaid comprising more in that Word than ordinary Praying by reason of the Solemnity of the Eucharist and Christian Sacrifice In the Preface p. 9. l. 6. for January r. June A PREPARATIVE For the Reception of Truth for a Prologue to certain Discourses design'd for a True Reformation and Restitution of Primitive Christianity TRUTH is what in its own Nature is very Excellent and Powerful is of Divine Original of great Importance to Mankind and greatly opposed by the Powers of Darkness and all Evil Spirits And therefore it is the Duty Interest and Wisdom of Man to have a great Esteem Veneration and Reverence for it in all things but more especially in things of greatest Importance Matters of Religion And because it is certain and manifest to all Men who will but consider it that there is not any more common visible Obstacle to it than Prejudice of Education
Blessed being it self a Receptacle of Holy Souls made illustrious with Visitations of Angels and happy by being a Repository for such Spirits who at the day of Judgment shall go forth into Eternal Glory In the interim Christ hath trod all the Paths before us and this also we must pass through to arrive at the Courts of Heaven Justin Martyr said it was the Doctrine of Heretical Persons to say that the Souls of the Blessed instantly upon the Separation from their Bodies enter into the highest Heaven And Irenaeus makes Heaven and the intermediate Receptacle of Souls to be distinct Places both blessed but hugely differing in degrees Tertullian is dogmatical in the Assertion that till the Voice of the great Arch-Angel be heard and as long as Christ sits at the right-hand of his Father making Intercession for the Church so long blessed Souls must expect the Assembling of their Brethren the great Congregation of the Church that they may all pass from their outward Courts into the inward Tabernacle the Holy of Holies to the Throne of God And as it is certain that no Soul could enter into Glory before our Lord entred by whom we hope to have Access So it is most agreeable to the proportion of the Mysteries of our Redemption that we believe the Entrance into Glory to have been made by our Lord at his Glorious Ascension and that his Soul went not thither before then to come back again to be contracted into the Span of Humanity and dwell Forty days in his Body upon Earth But that he should return from Paradice that is from the common Receptacle of departed Spirits who died in the Love of God to Earth again had in it no lessening of his Condition since Himself in Mercy called back Lazarus from thence and some others also returned to live a Life of Grace which in all Senses is less than the least of Glories Sufficient it is to us that all Holy Souls departing go into the hands that is into the Custody of our Lord that they rest from their Labours that their Works shall follow them and overtake them too at the day of Judgment that they are Happy presently that they are visited by Angels that God sends as he pleases excellent Irradiations and Types of Glory to entertain them in their Mansions that their Condition is secured but the Crown of Righteousness is laid up against the great Day of Judgment and then to be produced and given to St. Paul and to all that love the Coming of our Lord that is to all who either here in Duty or in their Receptacles with Joy and certain Hope long for the Revelation of that day At the Day of Judgment Christ will send the Angels and they shall gather together the Elect from the four Winds and all the Refuse of Men evil Persons they shall throw into Everlasting Burning Then our Blessed Lord shall call to the Elect to enter into the Kingdom and reject the Cursed into the Portion of Devils for whom the Fire is but now prepared in the interval For we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ saith St. Paul that every Man may receive in his Body according as he hath done whether it be Good or Evil. Out of the Body the Reward is not And therefore St. Peter affirms that God hath delivered the Evil Angels into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment And St. Jude saith that the Angels which kept not their first Estate but left their first Habitation he hath reserved in everlasting Chains under Darkness unto the Judgment of the Great Day And therefore the Devils expostulated with our Blessed Saviour Art Thou come to Torment us before the Time And the same also he does to Evil Men Reserving the Vnjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished For since the Actions which are to be judged are the Actions of the whole Man so also must be the Judicature And our Blessed Saviour intimated this to his Apostles In my Father's House are many Mansions but I go to prepare a Place for you And if I go away I will come again and take you unto me that where I am there ye may be also At Christ's second Coming this is to be performed Many outer Courts many different Places or different States there may be and yet there is a Place whither holy Souls shall arrive at last which was not then ready for us and was not to be entred into until the Entrance of our Lord had made the Preparation and that is certainly the Highest Heaven called by St. Paul the third Heaven because the other Receptacles were ready and full of holy Souls Patriarchs and Prophets and holy Men of God concerning whom St. Paul affirms expressly that the Fathers received not the Promises God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made Perfect Therefore certain it is that their Condition was a State of Imperfection and yet they were placed in Paradice in Abraham's Bosom and thither Christ went and the blessed Thief attended Him And then it was that Christ made their Condition better For tho' still it be a Place of Relation in order to something beyond it yet the Term and Object of their Hope is changed They sate in the Regions of Darkness expecting that Great Promise made to Adam and the Patriarchs the Promise of the Messias but when He that was promised came He preached to the Spirits in Prison He communicated to them the Mysteries of the Gospel the Secrets of the Kingdom the things hiddea from eternal Ages and taught them to look up to the Glories purchased by his Passion and made the term of their Expectation be his second Coming and the Objects of their Hope the Glories of the Beatifick Vision And altho' the State of Separation is sometimes in Scripture called Heaven and sometimes Hell for these Words in Scripture are of large Significations yet it is never called the third Heaven nor the Hell of the damned For altho' concerning it nothing is clearly revealed or what is their Portion till the Day of Judgment yet it is intimated in a Parable that between Good and Evil Spirits even in the State of Separation there is a Distance of Place Certain it is there is a great Distance of Condition and as the holy Souls in their Regions of Light are full of Love Joy Hope and Longing for the Coming of the Great Day so the Accursed do expect it with an insupportable Amazement and are presently tormented with Apprehensions of the Future Happy are they that through Paradice pass into the Kingdom who from their highest Hope pass to the greatest Charity from the State of a blessed Separation to the Mercies and gentle Sentence of the Day of Judgment which St. Paul prayed to God to grant Onesiphorus and more explicitly for the Thessalonians that their whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the Coming of our Lord