Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/115

Rh place, called the world of spirits, where he would stir up a war against the saints, lay siege to the beloved city, but, on the first attempt to storm it, would be devoured by fire from heaven, and with his partisans again cast into hell, there to be tormented forever and ever. Immediately after which great events John adds, that the first heaven and the first earth, together with the sea, passed away; that a new heaven and a new earth succeeded; and that being carried in spirit to a great and high mountain, he saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.

We have been thus particular in adducing proofs from the Sacred Scriptures of the actual existence of an intermediate state and place between heaven and hell, because many have conceived it to be a mere device and groundless fiction, invented by the Romish church, for purposes of worldly gain; not considering that a revealed truth is one thing, and the perversion and abuse of it another. We have therefore only further to observe on this subject, that it is good to keep the mind always open to conviction.

IT being the opinion of some, that no other children are saved, than such as are born in the christian church, and baptized, it is of importance that so cruel a doctrine, which consigns to eternal misery the most innocent part of the human race, be expunged from the creed of every community, and that the real truth respecting the state of children after death be made known. The Lord by his prophet saith, "What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour