Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 3.djvu/113



leaving our Popish doctors, with their profound speculations of the not limiting God's power by the Scriptures, and the promises which he hath made unto us therein, let us return to the ancient Fathers, and consider the differences that are to be found among them touching the place and condition of souls separated from their bodies. For according to the several apprehensions which they had thereof, they made different applications and interpretations of the use of praying for the dead; whose particular intentions and devotions in that kind must of necessity therefore be distinguished from the general intention of the whole Church.

1. St. Augustine, (that I may begin with him, who was, as the most ingenious, so likewise the most ingenuous of all others, in acknowledging his ignorance where he saw cause,) being to treat of these matters, maketh this preface beforehand unto his hearers:

And having occasion to speak of the departure of Nebridius, his dear friend:

But elsewhere he directly distinguisheth this bosom from the place of bliss into which the saints shall be received after the last judgment:

"After this short life," saith he, "thou shalt not as yet be where the saints shall be, unto whom it is said, Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world. Thou shalt not as yet be there: who knoweth it not? But now thou mayest be there, where that proud and barren rich man in the midst of his torments saw afar off the poor man, sometimes full of ulcers, resting. Being placed in that rest, thou dost