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
THE LITURGY OF THE ANCIENTS REPRESENTED As near as well may be IN English Forms WITH A PREFACE Concerning the RESTITUTION of the most Solemn Part of the Christian Worship in the Holy Eucharist to its Integrity and just Frequency of Celebration LONDON Printed for the AUTHOUR 1696. Bp. Andrews's Sermon on Gal. 3.4 p. 32. No Fulness there is of our Liturgy or Publick Solemn Service without the Sacrament Some part yea the chief part is wanting if that be wanting Dr. S. Patrick the present Bp. of Ely Our Worship must be confessed to be but imperfect when the Holy Communion is wanting Discourse of Frequency of Holy Communion p. 68. Id. ibid. p. 61. The Church in the best Times and the best Men in the Church in after-Ages look'd upon this as an Ordinary part of Christian Worship which Christ intended should be performed in his Church as oft as they assembled for Divine Service QUESTIONS Concerning the Proper and Peculiar Christian Worship 1. WHether the Divine Service or Liturgy as from Act. 13.2 we may conceive it to have been anciently termed as it hath been in all Ages since of the Christians hath not from all Antiquity been distinguished into two Parts The first consisting of Reading of the Scriptures and Explication thereof or Exhortation to the People with some few short Prayers called The Service of the Catechumens The other consisting principally of a Solemn Memorial of the Passion of our Saviour represented before the Father as the great Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World with Thanksgivings and Prayers for the Catholick Church and all Mankind for the particular Church and People of all Orders and Degrees where it was celebrated and for all the Necessaries of humane Life called The Service of the Faithful to which the Catechumens and Penitents were not admitted but were excluded 2. Whether this latter Part called The Service of the Faithful hath not been retained and celebrated in all Churches of the World from the Apostles Times to this Day except those called Reformed as the Peculiar and most solemn Part of the Christian Worship daily where they had any daily Worship as in most great Churches they had from whence it had the name of Sacrificium quotidianum in others three or four times in the Week and in all every Lords Day and the rest without it be any more than the Service of Catechumens and Penitents 3. Whether there be any plain Evidence or Appearance in the Holy-Scripture of any solemn Assembly of Christians in the Apostles times where this sacred Rite was not used or that any present at any such Assembly where it was used did ever depart without Communion or Participation And whether the Sacred History Act. 20.7 relating that the Disciples came together to break Bread as the End and Occasion of that famous Assembly of the Christians at Troas though Paul so eminent an Apostle was then to Preach there and to Preach his Farewell Sermon doth not thereby signify or imply that that was notwithstanding the principal Business of that and such settled Assembles And St. Paul himself 1 Cor. 11.20 speak of their coming together to eat the Lords Supper as the constant and Principal Business of such Assemblies and the same also be not strongly implied in those other Expressions Act. 2.42 46. and 1 Cor. 10.16 4. Whether by ancient Canons all the Faithful who came to Church and heard the Scriptures were not oblig'd to stay this Solemn Service of the Faithful and Communicate under the Penalty of Excommunication 5. Whether there was ever any Doubt or Question whether all the Faithful ought to Communicate every Day that is if where there was a daily Celebration till the time of St. Augustine And whether many did not continue to do so then 6. Whether this most Holy Solemn and Peculiar Worship of the Faithful Christians be not being duly performed most highly Honourable to the Father by Solemn Worship and Recognition of him as the Soveraign Lord of the Universe and also to the Son by like Solemn Worship and Recognition of him as our Lord and Redeemer and that we are all his Purchased Servants and to the Holy-Ghost by whose Presence and Virtue all Sacred Operations are perfected And moreover of very great Benefit to the Souls of the Faithful duly disposed by a Communication of Divine Virtue to them 7. Whether what some Learned Men have rightly observed à posteriori from matter of Fact That the Devil hath exercised and vented more Malice against this Holy Rite than against any other part of the Christian Religion except the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity be not also credible upon Considerations â priori from the Nature of the thing from the Honour and Worship therein performed to the Father and to our Saviour and to the Holy-Ghost and the Benefits communicated to Humane Souls but more especially because therein that Passion of our Saviour which the Devil had maliciously procured is solemnly Honoured and represented before the Father as the great Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World to the Confusion of that Proud Malicious and Envious Spirit 8. Whether great Elevation of Soul and Devotion to God and Enlargement of Souls in mutual Charity of one to another being principal Benefits ordinarily communicated to Souls duly disposed in the frequent and Reverend Use of this Holy Sacrament Deprivation of these Benefits and instead thereof Dissentions Contentions and Animosities and Decay of Piety and over-spreading of Wickedness may not be just and deserved Punishments of the Neglect of so great a Duty and Solemn Worship and of so Holy Means for the obtaining of those Benefits and may not therefore reasonably be believed to be Special Judgments of God for the same when we see them follow Notorious Neglect thereof at no great Distance 9. Whether therefore Neglect of Communion by the People in the Greek Churches where Chrysostom preached vehemently against it both at Antioch and Constantinople may not reasonably be believed to have been severely Punished by the Special Judgement of God and Malice of the Devil getting Advantage thereupon by the Divisions and Confusions which arose there not long after his Death and continued till almost all the Eastern Churches were first over-spread with them and at last over-run and enslaved by the Turks and Mohemetans And in the Latin-Churches by the abominable Corruptions Abuses Impostures and Usurpations of the Papacy 10. Whether the Neglect not only of Communion by the People but even of Celebration by the Clergy so that such of the People as would have Communicated could not and in a manner taking away of the daily Sacrifice in the Churches called Reformed may not also reasonably be believed to have been punished by the special Judgement of God and Malice of the Devil by their Divisions amongst themselves from the Beginning of their Reformation and by the great Decays of Piety and Over-spreading of Wickedness which hath by degrees increased amongst them
living amongst us or they who were Witnesses before us and who held the same Tradition in the Church before us which they had received from their Parents and their Parents had learned from their Ancestors as the Church to this day observes the true and sincere Faith which it received with the Traditions from the Fathers In all this we may observe 1. The Practice of the Church both in the General Commemorations and in the Prayers agreed on both Sides 2. The End and Intendment of the Church that it was the Profit and Benefit of the Deceased also agreed 3. The Question between them Whether the Prayer of the Living could profit or benefit the Dead as the Church intended 4. That this was what Aerius did principally deny and therefore that the Practice was reasonable as a necessary consequence 5. His only reason was that it would make Piety and good Life needless 6. Epiphanius his Answer 1. from Reason 1. as it is a seasonable and excellent Declaraction of the Faith and Hope of the Church 2. as an Act of Charity for the Benefit of the Deceased 2. from Authority as received in the Church by Tradition from our Saviour and the Holy Spirit And now how does our great Man elude this Epiphanius saith he doth not Name this viz. That Prayers and Sacrifice profiteth not the depa ted in Christ an Heresie 2. Nor doth it appear that himself did hold that they bring such Profit to the Dead as these Men Dream pag. 236. 3. He doth not at all charge him with forsaking the Doctrine of the Scripture or the Faith of the Catholick Church but with rejecting the Order p. 237. 4. Aerius his Argument would have been in force indeed if the whole Church had held as many did That the Judgment after Death was suspended until the General Resurrection and that in the mean time the Sins of the Dead might be taken away by the Suffrages of the Living But he should have considered as Gobarus as great an Heretick as himself did that the Doctors were not agreed upon the Point p. 238.5 It was a foolish part in him to confound the Private Opinion of some with the Common Faith of the Universal Church 6. That he reproved this particular Error he did well but that thereupon he condemned the General Practice of the Church he did like himself headily and perversly ibidem As to the first of these I must refer the Reader to Epiphanius himself for the Character he gives of the Person and Opinions of Aerius a very Vile man a thorough-pac'd Arian and who exceeded Arius himself in his new Opinions which he imputes to the operation of the Devil though he doth not particularly name them Heresies yet it is plain he and S Austin too accounted them such and of the rest the Reader may judge by what is here laid plainly before him S. Ephraem was not much before these but because he was neither Greek nor Latin but a Syrian and a Man of Parts and extraordinary Sanctity greatly esteemed by the most excellent Persons of that time and of so great Reputation that his Writings were read publickly in divers Churches after the Holy Scriptures I cannot pass him by without taking notice of his Testament his Discourse to his Disciples upon his Death-Bed wherein he tells them he is Dying and desires to be mentioned in the Commemoration of their Holy Prayers and bewailing his Sins and declaring his Sense of the terrible Judgment of God he doth admonish exhort and strictly enjoyn them to remember him constantly after his exit and passage in their Prayers and after some Admonitions to them and account of himself he again desires to be remembred in their Prayers Then he strictly forbids his being Buried under the Altar or in the House of God all Solemn Pomp and Funeral Orations and Encomiums and all cost of rich Vestments of Grave Cloaths of Spices of Odors of Candles and the like but desires that all that Cost may be bestowed upon the Poor and for himself that in the place of all such Pomp and Funeral Orations they will accompany him with Psalms and help and assist him with their Prayers and Bury him in the Church-yard where the contrite in heart are Buried Then he bids them come near and imbrace him for his Spirit fails him and again intreats them diligently to make Oblations for him and prettily represents the Communion of Saints by a Simile of the Sympathy of things in Nature the Wine which flowers in the Cellar when the Vine Buds in the Vineyard and the like And tells them that the Oblations of Priests under the Law were effectual for those who were slain in their Sins and how much more the Priests of Christ under the New Testament And gives great caution that when they come to his Memory I suppose he means the Thirtieth Day which he expressly mentioned before and his Anniversaries ne quisquam in Sancta peccet that none commit any thing unmeet for holy things by any Excess but that the Vigil be kept attentively and reverently and humbly and holily and purely for it would be a miserable thing for him if by occasion of his Memory he should be accountable to his God for their inordinate Actions Thus this Holy Man an Instance equal to a very ample Testimony of the Practice in those parts About the same time was S. Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem He in his Mystagogick Catechism concludes all with a Description and Scheme of the Liturgy then in use wherein after mention of the Holy Trisagium Hymn * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore saith he do we recite this Seraphick Theology delivered to us that in that Coelestial Hymnody we may communicate with the supra-mundain Militia the Heavenly Host and thus by such kind of Hymns sanctisying our selves we pray the most benign God that he will send out his Holy Spirit upon the proposited Elements that it may make the Bread the Body of Christ and the Wine the Blood of Christ. For certainly whatever the Holy Spirit doth touch it is sanctified and transmuted Then after that Spiritual Sacrifice that unbloody Worship is done that is after the Consecration and Oblation in Commemoration of the Passion of Christ over that very Host of Propitiation do we obsecrate God for the common Peace of the Churches for the Tranquility of the World for Kings for their Armies and Confederates for the Sick and Afflicted and in sum for all who need Help We commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us First the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs that God at their Prayers and Deprecations would accept ours Then we pray for the Holy Fathers and Bishops deceased and lastly for all who are deceased amongst us believing it to be a very great Help to the Souls for whom the Obsecration of that tremendous Sacrifice which is placed on the Altar is offered I will add but one instance more for the flourishing times of the Church
other Benefits of his Passion And here we offer and present unto thee O Lord our Selves our Souls and Bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively Sacrifice unto thee humbly beseeching thee that whosoever shall be Partakers of this Holy Communion may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Iesus Christ be fulfilled with thy Grace and Heavenly Benediction and made one Body with him that he may dwell in them and they in him And although we be Vnworthy through our manifold Sins to offer unto thee any Sacrifice yet we beseech thee to accept this our Bounden Duty and Service * And command these our Supplications Prayers to be by the Ministry of thy Holy Angels brought up into thy Holy Tabernacle before the Sight of thy Divine Majesty In the First Book of Ed. 6. but lese out afterward not weighing our Merits but pardoning our Offences through Iesus Christ our Lord by whom and with whom in the Vnity of the Holy Ghost all Honour and Glory be unto thee O Father Almighty World without end Amen AND we humbly beseech thee O Lord our God That it may please thee to give us Hearts to love dread and adhere unto thee and diligently to live after thy Commandments That it may please thee to preserve rule and govern thy Holy Church Vniversal in the Right Way That it may please thee to illuminate all Bishops Priests and Deacons and particularly of this Church and Diocess with true Knowledge and Vnderstanding of thy Word and that both by their Preaching Living they may set it forth and shew it accordingly That it may please thee to direct keep and strengthen in the true Faith and Worship of thee and in Righteousness and Holiness of Life thy Servant N. our King and Governour That it may please thee that he may ever have Affiance in thee ever seek thy Honour and Glory and have Victory over all his Enemies That it may please thee to bless and preserve all the Royal Family That it may please thee to endue the Lords of the Council and all the Nobility with Grace Wisdom and Vnderstanding That it may please thee to bless and keep the Magistrates giving them Grace to execute Iustice and to maintain Truth That it may please thee to bless and keep all thy People to give them increase of Grace to hear meekly thy Word and to receive it with pure Affection and to bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit That it may please thee to give to all Nations Vnity Peace and Concord That it may please thee to bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived That it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand and to comfort and help the Weak-hearted and to raise up them that fall and finally to beat down Satan under our feet That it may please thee to succour help and comfort all that are in Danger Necessity and Tribulation That it may please thee to preserve all that Travel by Land or by Water all Women labouring of Child all Sick persons and young Children and to shew thy Pity upon all Prisoners and Captives That it may please thee to defend and provide for the Fatherless Children and Widows and all that are Desolate and Oppressed That it may please thee to have Mercy upon all Men. That it may please thee to forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and to turn their Hearts That it may please thee to give and preserve to our Vse the kindly Fruits of the Earth so as in due time we may enjoy them We humbly beseech thee to hear us O Lord our God through the Merits and Intercession of thy dearly beloved Son our blessed Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus and as he hath taught and commanded us we are bold to say OUR Father who art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our Daily Bread And forgive us our Crespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into Temptation But deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom And the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Then after a little Pause for all to offer up their own private Prayers this Collect of humble Access to the Holy Communion Kneeling WE do not presume to come to this thy Table O merciful Lord trusting in our own Righteousness but in thy manifold and great Mercies We are not worthy so much as to gather up the Crums inder thy Table But thou art the same Lord whose Property is always to have Mercy grant us therefore Gracious Lord so to eat the Flesh of thy dear Son Iesus Christ and to drink his Blood that our Bodies and Souls being cleansed and our Sins part oned through his most precious Blood we may enjoy thy Favour be filled with thy Spirit and evermore dwell in Him and He in Vs Amen Note Concerning the Behaviour of the Communicants these things are to be observed that Anciently 1. They came Fasting to it v. Sparrow 2. They came in Purity from all not only Unlawful but Carnal Embraces whatsoever for some time before v. S. Hier. Apol. pro Lib. contra Jovin 3. They came up to the Rails v. Spar. to which they are called by these Words Draw near in the Invitation before the Confession 4. They answered Amen to the Words of the Priest at the Delivery of the Sacrament v. Spar. 5. They received the Consecrated Bread in their Hands v. Spar. 6. They were careful that none of it should fall to the Cround v. Tertul. de Cor. Mil Origen Hom. 13. in Exod. circa Med. Cyril Hierosol Cat. Myst 5. sub fi Aug. Hom. 26. l. 50 Hom. 7. They did but sip or tast of the Cup. So did the Jews before for it was a Rite of Thanksgiving to God in Use amongst them and so did the christians both using it as a Sacred Cup and not to be prophaned by pleasing the Palat which was the Fault of some of the Corinthians punished by the Judgments of God 1 Cor. 11.30 and savouring of the Temper and Disposition of those Jews whom our Saviour repremands Jo. 6.26 At the Communion this Benediction and Recognition THe Body of our Lord Iesus Christ †which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto Everlasting Life Ans Amen Take and eat this in Remembrance that Christ Died for thee And at the delivering of the Cup this THe Blood of our Lord Iesus Christ †which was shed for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto Everlasting Life Ans Amen Drink this in Remembrance that Christ's Blood was shed for thee and be thankful Then having decently covered what remaineth of the Consecrated Elements this Thanksgiving ALmighty and Everliving God we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost vouchsafe of thy Favour and Goodness towards us to feed us who have duly received these Holy Mysteries
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