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this our Brother departed, ---that when the Fudgment shall come, which Thou hast committed to Thy Well-beloved Son, both this our Brother, and we, may be found acceptable in Thy Sight, and we may receive that Bleffing, &c, And in the next Prayer, Grant, we beseech Thee, that at the Day of Judgment, his Soul, and all the Souls of Thy Elect, departed out of this Life, may with us, and we with them, fully receive Thy Promifes, and be made perfect altogether, &c. And as this is thus agreeable to the Doctrine of the Church of England, fo is it very contrary to the Romish Purgatory For we fuppofe all that die in the LORD to be in Peace, or at Reft in Chrift, and only pray for the Continuance of GOD's Mercy to them, that it may be perfectly confummated at the Refurrection. But how can they be faid to be at Peace, or at Reft in Chrift, who are fuppofed to fry in the fcorching Flames of Purgatory, and to endure the Pains of Hell, the Duration only excepted? Befides, the Doctrine of Purgatory fuppofes the Souls of fame Eminent Saints and Martyrs to go immediately to Heaven; and that the Souls of those who do fall into Purgatory (from which the Church of Rome exempts very few) may be delivered thence, and immediately carried to Heaven; and that the Souls of Thousands

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Thousands are daily fo delivered, and go forthwith to the Higheft Heavens: Whereas the Doctrine of the Middle State is, that all Souls are preferved there till the Refurretion; and that the greateft Saint, Apoftle, or Martyr, cannot be freed from this State of Expectance, and carried into the Higheft Heaven, till the laft Day. This Doctrine is therefore fo oppofite to the Popish Purgatory, as to be altogether uncapable of Standing together with it; and he that believes the Middle State, according to the Scriptures, and the Doctrine of the Church of England, agreeable to the Scriptures, can never believe the Popish Purgatory, which fuppofes that fome Pious Souls are already in Heaven, and may all be delivered out of Purgatory, and go directly to Heaven before the Refurrection. But we believe, that there is no Place of Torment, and fuch the Popish Purgatory is, for the Souls of thofe that die in the LORD, but that they are in Paradife, in Abraham's Bofom, and are at Reft from their Labours, and only need our Prayers, (not to free them from Pain, which they endure nothing of, but) that their Joy may be full, and that according to GOD's Gracious Promife, we with them, and they with us, may have a Happy Refurrection to Life and Glory Eternal. Another Popish Article,

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which is alfo entirely overthrown by this Doarine of the Middle State, is the Prayers to Saints. For if the Saints themselves do not yet reign with Chrift, but are referved in a Middle State of Reft till the Refurre&tion, then it is certain, that they cannot hear and help us; and therefore, as our Church expreffes it in the 22d Article, The Invocation of Saints is a fond Thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no Warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of GOD. This alfo overthrows that foolith Subterfuge of the Papifts, whereby they pretend that the Saints may fee, hear, and know our Wants; becaufe being in the Highest Heavens, they fee all Things, in Speculo Trinitatis, in the Glafs of the Trinity, as they exprefs it: For fince the Saints are not in the Higheft Heavens, according to this Doctrine of the Middle State, they cannot yet fee that Fulness of GOD's Glory which fhall be revealed hereafter, and therefore cannot fee our Wants in that Glass, to the Vision of which they are not yet admitted. This Doctrine of the Middle State is therefore fo far from being a Popish Doctrine, that nothing can be more directly oppofite to it: For it utterly confounds Two principal Articles of their New Creed concerning Purgatory, and the Invocation of Saints, and which are like

wife Two of their most profitable Articles, (I mean of moft Temporal Advantage to them) and therefore they are most renacious of them.

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THUS have I, according to your De fire, vindicated both myself and my DoEtrines from the Charge of Popery, to which, I know, you are as averse as myfelf; and I truft, this may be fufficient to undeceive thofe, who are unprejudiced, and only believed thefe Doctrines to be Popish, because they did not understand the Roman Creed, and what are the Diftinguishing Doctrines of that Corrupt Church; and who were, for that Reafon, eafily prevailed with to believe all Doctrines to be Popish, which they had not been accustomed to hear. But as for those who really know what is Popery, and yet will pretend that these Doctrines are Popisk, or Savouring of Popery, as fome have thought fit to exprefs it; I expect not, neither will I pretend to fatisfy them; for it is not Want of Light, but Want of Will, that keeps them from Seeing and Owning the Truth; and they must preferve their Cant of Popery, in order to impofe upon the Ignorant, who have many of them neither Skill nor Opportunity to learn better.

IT was the great Misfortune of this Na`tion, that when our own Bishops had reformed

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formed the Liturgy in an Excellent Manner, according to the Ancient Liturgies, and the Doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, and of the Primitive Church, in the first Year of King Edward VI. that we could not maintain that Reformation, but must fend for Foreign Presbyterian Reformers, to know how they approved of what we had done; that Calvin, Bucer, and Martyr must be confulted, to know whether it was to their Liking or not; and that when the whole Realm was fatisfied, that the firft Liturgy was compiled by the Aid of the Holy Ghost, they fhould yet be induced to fet it afide, and compofe another, to please the Fancies of thefe Novellifts; at the fame time that they acknowledged, as has been fhewn, there was nothing in it, but what was agreeable to the Word of GOD, and that there was no Reafon to alter it, but only to fatisfy the Curiofity of Mistakers. These Foreign Divines, Bucer and Martyr, being placed in the Divinity Chairs of our two Univerfities, propagated their Novel Opinions in those Places. After this, when Queen Mary came to the Crown, our Reformed Divines, being many of them forced to fly beyond the Seas for Refuge, and finding Entertainment at Geneva, Frankfort, Zurich, and other Calviniftical Places, they brought, at their Return, so strong a

Tincture

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