Practice and set up themselves against the Authority of the whole Catholick Church I come now to consider the Opposition it self their Allegations and Reasons Such is the Wit of Man and the Subtilty of Satan that scarce any Truth is so evident but they can find out some specious Appearances to set up against it But such is the Mercy and Wisdom of God that he hath provided sufficient means for Direction for all such as keep within the Bounds of Humility and Obedience that is in Subjection not only of their Wills but also of their Intellects and Understandings to his Orders Ordinances and Prescriptions the very Business of their Lives in this World for Preparation for another And to such besides the Common Means he will kindly vouchsafe a special Guidance sufficient for their Circumstances Of the Danger our Saviour and his Apostles have given to all fair Warning and great Caution acquainting us with the End why the most Wise and Gracious God permits it for Tryal and Exercise the Danger and Subtilty of the Ministers of Satan such as should deceive if it were possible the very Elect the special Marks to know and avoid them viz. Their Fruits specious Pretences Sheeps Clothing and Distraction and Disagreement among themselves crying Here is Christ and There is Christ and special Directions Believe them not Go not out after them All this Provision hath the Devil attempted to undermine partly by raising real Scandals and Offences and partly by strongly representing Imaginary ones But against all this Humility and Charity will fortifie us and the Grace special Guidance and Mercy of God will preserve us if we be careful to continue in those Graces It was Pride and Arrogance and Discontent in Aerius which gave the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epiphan p. 905. a. Devil Advantage to instigate him to the first Opposition of such a Catholick Practice It was Pride Vanity and Ostentation of Parts by which he set Gobarus to work to shew his Learning and Acuteness in finding out Differences of Opinions among them who perhaps in many of those things differed no more than the Writers of the Sacred Scriptures seem to do For I do not find that he made any special Opposition against this Practice But I doubt it was not imaginary but real Scandal and gross Abuses of a good Practice by which Waldo and his Followers and the Albigenses were moved to oppose all without Distinction tho' there seems to have been in him with a Zeal for God but without Knowledge a Mixture of Pride and Conceitedness And it was real and not imaginary Scandal by which Luther was at first moved to oppose Indulgencies and his Followers at first to oppose even this innocent and commendable Practice But in such Men as Vsher and Bucer it was the Reputation of the Cause they had espoused in gross and Compliances with the Times and their particular Interests by which they were moved But let us but carefully follow our Saviour's Admonitions and Directions wisely distinguish the Ingredients of the Composition of Truth and Falsehood and honestly imbrace hold fast and own the Truth when we have the Opportunity and we shall not want sufficient Light and Evidence to find it The specious Appearances set up against this Catholick Practice of the Church of Christ are these 1. That there is no Scripture Authority for it 2. That the Ancient Practice was to Pray for all such as were at Rest 3. That the Ancients were not agreed in their Opinions concerning the State of Separate Souls or the general Intention of the Church in those Prayers To detect the Fallacy Falsity and Impertinence of these Allegations as briefly as may be To the first I say it is a meer Fallacy and grounded upon a false Supposition that nothing is to be admitted in Doctrine or Worship but what there is Scripture Authority for if it be understood of a special Authority and their usual Pretences of not Adding or Diminishing are to be understood of those particular Parts or Books of the Scripture as is plain by the Additional Writings and Practices of Holy Men afterwards 2. It is inconsistent with the Tradition of the Doctrine and Institutions of the Gospel and of the Ordinances of the Apostles which were all by Word and Deed without Writing as the Common Laws of this Nation were at first settled and much of what was written was written upon special Occasions and much with that Brevity and Conciseness by the special Providence of God as was sufficient for them for whom it was intended and yet so as should need an Authentick Explication to preserve the Authority of the Catholick Church 3. It is contrary to the express Directions of the Scripture to contend for the Doctrine once delivered to the Saints in general and to hold the Traditions they had received whether by Word or Epistle c. And if it be understood of a general Authority the Allegation it self is false For it is contrary to all those Scriptures which declare the Authority of the Church and require Obedience to Superiors And either way it is contrary to the Sentiments Testimony and Practice of the Ancient Christians who in Questions of Difficulty and Contests with Hereticks always inquired not only what was written by the Apostles but also or principally what was delivered by them to the Churches which they founded in all Parts of the World of which the Catholick Church doth consist which the Scripture it self stiles the Pillar and Basis of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 v. Grot. not only for the Sense and Meaning of the Scripture as Lawyers with good reason do when in doubts about the Construction of Writings they inquire how the Usage hath gone for in that case the Writing is the Principal Evidence but in this case what was delivered to the Churches which were compleatly and plainly instructed and ordered by the Apostles was the principal Inquiry and the Scriptures but an accessory Evidence as our Year-Books are of the Common Law in Questions concerning the Common Law But I doubt not but there was a special Providence in it that so much was written and no more and that it was written in such a manner Lastly This hath been the Practice and Pretence of Hereticks and Schismaticks in all Ages to the intent with the better colour to set aside the Authority of the Catholick Church that they might so make way to set up their own private Opinions and Conceits in the Place thereof but never more grossly nauciously and scandalously than by some of the Principal of the late Reformers Calvin especially on the one side inculcating and crying up The Pure Word of God The Pure Word of God and on the other abusing it by straining wresting it to serve their own turns and eluding and evading what is plainly contrary to them which is now past all doubt not only by the Confessions of Mr. Baxter and Le Blank but the many of 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
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
got in Gaming and on Harlots They denied also the Baptism of Infants the Christian Sacrifice Publick Churches c. against them Petrus Cluniacensis a Man eminent for Learning and Sanctity wrote and St. Bernard preached and confirmed his Doctrine with so great a Miracle as convinced Multitudes who had been seduced by them After these arose one Waldo a Citizen of Lions very rich but unlearned who probably had a Zeal for God but not according to Knowledge and attributing too much to his own Opinion procured certain Books to be written in his own Language and distributing his Estate among the Poor took upon him the Apostolick Office of Preaching and began the Sect called after his own Name Waldenses and from their Place and Quality The Poor of Lions Among other Heterodox Opinions whereof some were peculiar to their own Sect and disallowed by all others this of rejecting Prayers for the Dead was one The Apostolici of that time I suppose were not a distinct Sect but the same who assumed that Name And the Albigenses who in the next Century encreased very much till by the secular Power and force of Arms they were suppressed seem to have been a Branch of the same Root however in this particular they agreed as they did in most others Since those I know not any Sect which hath arisen and which questioned or contradicted Prayers for the Dead till those which have sprung out of what is called the Reformation For I do not find that Wickelif and his Followers here the Lollards or John Huss or Hierom of Prague who carried his Books and Doctrines into their own Country and were all three Men of Parts and Learning ever opposed Prayers for the Dead tho' among the Opinions attributed to Huss one is that there is no Purgatory Fire which is denied by others who yet are for Prayers for the Dead But by all the several Sects of the later Reformers since Luther began they have been questioned opposed and left out of their Publick Prayers Only here in England in the first Liturgy composed by English Clergy in the Reign of King Edward 6. which I therefore call The True English Liturgy the ancient Prayers for the Dead were retained both in the most Solemn Office of the Daily Sacrifice and at Funerals But these and other principal Parts of the Liturgy were soon after new-modelled in a clandestine manner by Cranmer Bucer and other Foreigners and Calvinian Sectaries and craftily imposed upon the Church and Nation And the Abuse is continued to this day This is the true Original and Succession of all the Opposition which hath ever been made to this Practice of all Mankind in general and of the whole Catholick Church of Christ by Hereticks Sectaries and Schismaticks and the meanest of all those not a Man amongst them of any Eminence for Piety or any Virtue or so much as Parts or Learning much less any Man of Note in the Church much less any Church Party or Part of the Catholick Church who were or who continued in Communion with The Catholick Church or any Particular Catholick Church as they anciently distinguish'd them from the Assemblies and Associations of Hereticks and Schismaticks in the same City It is very observable wonderful and a great Evidence of unquestionable or undeniable Truth that in so many Ages when there had been so many so considerable Parties of Hereticks and Schismaticks and so malicious spiteful and inraged as many of them were against the Church that none of the most considerable of them should ever seek to advantage their Cause by such a Question which doubtless they would not have failed to have done had they apprehended any color of Truth or Advantage in it that none in all the Parts of the World should ever oppose it but such an obscure inconsiderate and inconsiderable Generation of People till the late Reformers sprung up who thought they could never reform enough or pick quarrels too much till they had brought that which might have been a considerable Cause if well laid and managed to an indefensible brable Amongst them indeed there have been many Men of sufficient Learning but but few of that Ingenuity Impartiality freedom from Prejudice temporal Interest or Fear of Displeasing and of that Generosity as to assert the Truth plainly without respect of Persons or Parties and those few have been very much born down among us especially by the Violence and Headiness of Parties and Factions Yet such is the Power and Evidence of Truth in this Case that it hath found Advocates amongst the most learned of all Parties Of this I think it not improper to produce an instance or two in this Place The first shall be an eminent Person both for Learning and Virtue Bishop Forbes the first Bishop of Edenburg promoted by King Charles 1. who is reported to have said of him That he had found out a Bishop who deserved that a See should be made for him In his Considerationes Modestae Controversiâ de Purgatorio cap. 3. § 17. coming to speak of Prayers and Oblations for the Dead Sed hic primum c. But here first saith he is to be reproved the Opinion of some rigid Protestants who do altogether censure and condemn Prayers for the Dead because they find no Precept or Example of such Prayers in the Old or New Testament Certainly even those who are most against it dare not deny that it is a most ancient Custom and most universally received in the whole Church of Christ that in the Publick Prayers of the Church Commemoration should be made for the Dead and Rest be prayed for to God for those who died piously and in the Peace of the Church And having cited divers of the Ancients for it he adds This most ancient Custom was full of Piety and most truly did Cassander say This was always fixt in * Note Then this was agreed among All. All Christian Minds That the Spirits of those who being initiated in the Sacrament of Christ departed this Life in the Confession of his Name with signification of Repentance should be commended to the Mercy of God that Remission of Sin Eternal Rest and a Part with the Elect might be intreated for them †This second part is so cited in Vsher p. 246. as is apt to lead the Reader into mistake as if they were not agreed in more than the Author did intend And altho' concerning that State of Souls for which those things were profitable it was neither sufficiently manifest nor agreed among all yet all judged this Office as a Testimony of Charity toward the Deceased and a Profession of Faith concerning the Immortality of Souls and Resurrection to come to be grateful to God and profitable to the Church Then he saith This most Ancient and Vniversal Custom of the Church very many and most learned Protestants do not disallow and cites the Apology of the Augsburg Confess Chemnicius Mentserus Luther Gerard Vrbanus
relied not upon any Hypothesis but upon the received Custom of the Church And that he did rely upon as is confessed But he did not in the least rely upon any thing at all of the pretended Sibyl Nor hath this Champion produced I think any one Proof that either Tertullian or any other of the Ancient or Modern Christians did at all rely upon any such Authority for that Practice but all unanimously relied upon Tradition from the Apostles His whole Book is full of Fallacy and Deceit and of the very Spirit and Genius of an Heretick who makes no scruple to abuse the whole Church of Christ and the most Excellent Persons in it to maintain his own Principles It is certain that divers of the great Truths of Christianity were known to the Gentiles long before and received by Tradition from the Common Parents of Mankind but received as Articles of Faith by Christians upon the Authority of Christ and his Apostles And such was this which he fathers upon an Impostor and pretends the Church received it from him without any Proof of either whereas if he was a Christian it is much more likely that he received the Hypothesis from the Practice of the Church at that time and is therefore rather an Evidence of it Other matters of this Book have been considered by learned Men of our own Country and I think I need say no more of this with any regard to him But as to the Practice besides all this positive and Affirmative Evidence I do deny that any competent Evidence can be produced among all the Churches of the World of any where the Christian Religion was planted without it or where it was introduced by any particular Person upon any special Occasion at any different time after the first planting of Christianity there in all those Ages since the Apostles being verily persuaded that no such thing can be produced but what will strongly confirm and illustate the contrary Evidence like Mr. Vsher's Flourish with his most ancient Manuscript Missals wherein the Commemoration of the Dead doth no where appear which yet were but two in all if not all but one mentioned by two several Authors and that no compleat Missal neither but only Liber Sacramentorum an Abstract and it self at last not to be found as his expression habebatur seems to imply a good Argument of the Agreement of all or most others in that particular that so industrious a Searcher into ancient Records and Monuments of Antiquity of that kind especially could neither see nor hear of any other either at home or abroad wherein it was not Such another Exception may perhaps be met with which may serve to confirm the general Rule but not any thing considerable I believe to any other purpose Certain it is it must either have been settled in all those several Places in the World where Churches were planted together with the rest of the Christian Doctrines and Institutions and then it must have proceeded from the same Founders who agreed as unanimously in this as they did in other necessary things of which sort this may therefore be concluded to be one or it must have had a several distinct particular Introduction by it self in all or most of those several Places and be derived from several Authors Originals Occasions and Times and then the Accounts of its special and particular Introduction in all probability would have very much varied in several places at least have remained upon Record or by Tradition in some But not a word of any such thing can I find that was ever heard of in any part of the World but a Unanimous Agreement in all both in the Practice continued by Custom and Original by Tradition from the Apostles And thus much for Proof à posteriori from Evidence of Matter of Fact which I think enough to satisfie any reasonable Man of competent Ability and to convince any Man of Modesty and Sincerity yet because simple genuine Truth is always consistent with all that is such it may ex abundanti gratifie an honest ingenuous Reader to observe briefly the Vniversal Agreement of this Catholick Practice of the Church of Christ 1. With common Reason and the Nature of things 2. With the common Sentiments of the Primitive Christians concerning the middle State of Souls 3. With divers plain Texts of the Holy Scriptures And 4. with the common Practice of the Jews in and before our Saviour's time never reprehended by him or any of his Apostles and therefore allowed by all and indeed practised by them and on the contrary the Inconsistence of the obstinate Opposition with Truth and Justice in divers respects As for Common Reason The Universe is of vast and unconceivable extent in it we see are many great Bodies Orbs and Regions the Life of Man upon this of the Earth is very short the Time from the Resurrection of our Saviour to this is near 1700 years and how much more it may be to the General Judgment no Mortal knows in the mean time the Souls of Mortals go out of their Bodies in infinitely various States of Purity and Impurity And certainly it is most reasonable that there should be not only one general Distinction of Souls but moreover many distinct Places States and Conditions wherein the separate Souls are disposed according to their several Qualifications when they go out of the Body And as that curious Observer of the Works of Nature as well of the Holy Scriptures the late Lord Chief Justice Hale speaking of towardly Plants by Death transplanted into another Region a Garden of Happiness and Comfort adds And possibly by continuance of time as they received Improvement and Perfection here so in that other Region they add to their Degrees of Perfection and are promoted to farther Accessions and Degrees and Stations of Happiness and Glory till they come to the State of Spirits of just Men made perfect Now in all these Varieties of States is there nothing capable of receiving Benefit by the Prayers of the Living Is there no Communion of Saints between those in the Body and those out of the Body But if there be how can it better be exercised or expressed than in the solemn Offices of the Church For the Common Sentiments of the Primitive Christians because it would be too long to recite so many Testimonies in this place and they are collected already to my hand by Sixtus Senensis and others I need but refer the Reader to them But this also is confessed and asserted by Blondel and Dalle but they would have us believe that they received them from an Impostor a Counterfeit Sibyl a groundless impudent and impious Calumny The Agreement with plain Scriptures is observable in that expression of our Saviour concerning the Sin which shall not be forgiven neither in this World neither in the World to come Mat. 12.32 and that which agrees with this of being cast into Prison and not coming out by any means till
Payment of the last Farthing Mat. 5.25 Prisoners of Hope Zechar. 9.11 12. Sins blotted out when the times of Refreshing shall come Act. 3.19 Such as shew the Incertainty of many Souls in their separate State even such as were Professors of a high Form in this World of what their final Doom shall be at that Day as Mat. 7.22 23. and 25.44 45. c. And the Recompence of Rewards at that day 2 Thess 1.6 7. 1 Cor. 5.5 Luk. 14.14.2 Tim. 4.8 c. Which if our confident Opposers had sufficiently considered one would think they should not have presumed to make so light of that middle State as for the maintaining of Parties to deprive so many Souls there of all Benefit they might receive by their surviving Friends here which many Apparitions even among Protestants do frequently signifie The Practice of the Jews I have noted already and shall add only here That in Discourse lately with one of them he assured me that the Form they now use for that purpose is generally believed by all to have been composed by Eâ—ra and the Great Congregation I there also remembred an instance of the Practice of the Apostles themselves in St. Paul's Prayer for Onesiphorus in such a Form as is hardly to be met with for any Person living however proves it not in vain to Pray for any Person of whom there is Hope but not Certainty till that day So that tho' our great Man with more Considence I doubt than Conscience and without any Proof or Reason at all doth positively affirm him then living p. 210. he gets nothing at all by it Thus we see in this a Universal Agreement in all things but on the contrary if we examine the Obstinate Opposition of it throughout we shall find nothing solid and consistent in it neither with Truth nor Honesty nor any good Consequence but a plausible Pretence of the Pure Word of God to cover an impure Inclination and Desire to set aside the Authority which God instituted and set up themselves and their own Conceits in the place of it 2. Inconsistent with it self first denying or cavilling at the Antiquity or Universality of the Practice and then when they thought they had found out an Evasion confessing that which they could no longer for shame deny and betaking themselves to their new Invention 3. Inconsistent with the Sincerity Simplicity and Ingenuity of the Gospel in their shameless Shuffles Cavils and Evasions of which I have noted divers and many more might be observed but there is one not to be omitted here their alleadging the Writings of Epiphanius Chrysostome Augustin and others against not only their own but the confessed ancient Practice of the Church in their time in this Case Inconsistent with that Modesty Respect and Decency which the Gospel requires toward all in their Censuring as delirous not only some particular Persons but generally all the most Holy Ancient Christians in what was their common Sentiments and is believed by the most learned of the Church of England to be plainly taught in the Holy Scriptures 5. Inconsistent with that Reverence and Regard that Christians should have for the Honour of the Church of Christ his Promises to it and Care of it in so foul and scandalous an Imputation as that they received their common Notions of the present State of separate Souls in the other World from an Impostor which was not their Impudence therein as notorious as it is groundless and destitute of any proof at all might prove a Tentation to unsettled Souls to suspect all to be no better And for other Consequences it is plain they lead the way to all others to reject their own usurped Authority with the same Ease and Impudence that they do that of the Church of Christ and to set up their own Conceits against theirs and pretend Scripture for it and so to an endless Course of Separations Schisms Sects and Confusions and in conclusion set up that Authority over others which they themselves in the mean time reject as by their Synod of Dort and others in France appears And besides all this it is much to be feared that they lead multitudes of Souls into that miserable Security and Presumption wherewith our Saviour hath acquainted us that many will find themselves deceived at that day Mat. 7.22 And therefore if these be not pertinacious Schismaticks and Hereticks speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them and therefore carefully to be avoided I know not who are or what so many Cautions in the Scripture to that purpose do signifie FINIS The Doctrine of the Scriptures concerning The Middle State of Souls And the Tradition of the Church for Prayers for the DEAD Summ'd up by Dr. Jer. Taylor late Bishop of Down and Conner With the Judgment of Mr. Herbert Thorndike a late most Learned Prebend of Westminster ALtho' there hath been lately Printed a Discourse of Prayers for the Dead proving the Practice and Tradition thereof in the Church to be truly Catholick and a competent Evidence of Apostolick Original and Authority wherein divers Learned Protestants are alleadged to have been of the same Opinion yet for the Readers farther Satisfaction in that respect it hath been thought fit to Print the Discourse of these two other eminent Persons of the Church of England more at large than was thought proper for that place And first that of the late Bishop Dr. Jer. Taylor 1. Of the Middle State of Souls THE Holy Jesus promised to the blessed Thief That he should that Day be with Him in Paradice which therefore was certainly a Place or State of Blessedness because it was a Promise and in the Society of Jesus whose penal and afflictive part of his Work of Redemption was finished upon the Cross Our Blessed Lord did not promise he should that day be with him in his Kingdom for that day it was not opened and the everlasting doors of those interior Recesses were to be shut till after the Resurrection that himself was to ascend thither and make way for all his Servants to enter in the same Method in which he went before us Our Blessed Lord descended into Hell saith the Creed of the Apostles from the Sermon of St. Peter as he from the Words of David that is into the State of Separation and common Receptacle of Spirits according to the Style of Scripture But the Name of Hell is no where in Scripture an appellative of the Kingdom of Christ of the Place of final and supream Glory But concerning the Verification of our Lord's Promise to the beatified Thief and his own State of Separation we must take what Light we can from Scripture and what we can from the Doctrine of the Primitive Church St. Paul had two great Revelations he was wrapt up into Paradice and he was wrapt up into the third Heaven and and these he calls Visions and Revelations not one but divers for Paradice is distinguished from the Heaven of the