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exclude the false invention of purgatory. Bishop Bull writes—
"In a word, let any understanding and unprejudiced person attentively observe the prayers for the dead in the most undoubtedly ancient liturgies, and he will be so far from believing the Romish purgatory on the account of those prayers, that he will be found to confess that they make directly against it. For (to omit other arguments) they all run (as even that prayer for the dead, which is unadvisedly left by the Romanists in their own canon of the mass as a testimony against themselves) in this form:—'For all that are in peace or at rest in the Lord.' Now how can they be said to be 'in peace or at rest in the Lord,' who are supposed to be in a state of misery and torment?"
I may add the following extract from the "Antient Liturgy of the Church of Jerusalem," which formed part of the devotions of Bishop Andrews[1]. As being an antient liturgy, it of course expresses all which could be meant in this reference to "Antient Liturgies."
"Grant that we may all find mercy and favour with all thy saints, who, from the beginning of the world, have pleased Thee in their several generations, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, and every just spirit made perfect in the faith of Thy Christ, from righteous Abel even unto this day; do thou give them and us rest in the region of the living in the bosom of our holy Fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whence sorrow, grief, and lamentation are banished away, where the light of Thy countenance shines continually; and vouchsafe to bring them and us to the full enjoyment of Thy heavenly kingdom."
I have dwelt the longer upon this subject, as being aware that you have reputed it a vulnerable point, and you have served your purpose well, by giving it a prominence, which it did not occupy in our Tracts, nor even in that one of our departed friend, wherein alone it was mentioned, and that but incidentally and of necessity. The object of his tract (and it was a very laudable one) being to point out the agreement as well as the antiquity of the existing liturgies, it would have been dishonest, wilfully to have suppressed any one point, wherein they so agreed. This, therefore, he stated; meanwhile he expressed no opinion on it, attracted no attention to it, but
- ↑ See Dean Stanhope's translation, p. 47, ed. Christian Knowledge Society.
