the sharpest censure unless we pin our faith upon them in a Theological point If thou hast leisure Reader let us more particularly take cognizance of some few There are three Revelations of this nature in S. Gregory two of souls condemned to the Bathes the third of a Proprietary Monk For the first if we regard the Doctrine of following School-men we must absolutely reject them S. Thomas teacheth us that separated souls are not active because their proper substantially united body is the sphere of their activity and the instrument by which they move other things and they were Angels if they could work upon separated bodies Again how should such services be penal unto them Do we think the Angel Raphael was design'd to punishment whilst he waited on Tâ—bie Moreover how could these new auxiliaries in the Bath be concealed to their fellow-servants unknown to their Masters Had they meat and wages with the rest Lastly if these examples be received for Precedents why may not all Mettal-mines â—e full of departed Ghosts What Romances what old wives tales may we not expect Certainly such inventions were either designed or of their own nature tend to the vilifying the belief of all Purgatory pains The other example is of the Monk He declares that it were well with him he had now received the Communion though formally tormented in fire It seems he was restored to the Church not to Heaven But if his sin were absolved why was he deny'd Heaven according to our modern definitions Again why was he not admitted to receive the Communion after the first as well as after the thirteenth mass Certainly the excommunication ceased when liberty was given to pray for him and in other Revelations both of S. Gregory and Bede the celebration of the very first mass hath power to loosen those bands And indeed the remission of sins after thirty dayes is neither agreeable to the ancient nor modern stile this supposing it to be in the first moment that in the day of the last Judgment Finally what an uncouth thing is an excommunication reaching to the next world would they have us believe that those who dy'd in mortal sin were snatch'd out of the jawes of Hell No man doubts but the souls in Purgatory are holy and partakers of Ecclesiastical Communion but these fables which lead to errour what sway can they bear with a true believer There is but one little sentence as I remember in Venerable Bede l. 5. c. 13. which makes for the cessation of Purgatory pains before the day of Doome and that so cast in by the bye into the Angel's discourse and explication of those sufferings that it seems rather according to the perswasion of some following Age thrust in by some other having no relation to any part of the Vision which of it self makes an excellent and neat allegory But it is to be remark'd that though they are said to be freed from their pains yet are they not admitted to the joyes of Heaven which notwithstanding somewhat varies from the modern opinion from the degrees of the Florentine Councel and Benedict XI both which joyntly seem to pronounce nothing but sin debars and secludes abstracted souls from the Beatifical Vision The same may be said of all other Revelations for if they are not meerly frivolous and insignificant they commonly in some particular or other shock the purity of Ecclesiastical Doctrine Some of them will tell you of souls kept in Purgatory for the payment of debts among the living others that a prefixed time was set them for begging and procuring assistance The great Odilo and strong asserter of this opinion is said by his own and the prayers of his Monks to have freed Benedict the eighth out of Purgatory upon condition that a second alms should be given by his successor John because the first was out of treasure ill gotten What can we make of this Are the prayers of Religious men frustrated and in effectual if their Alms come out of an Usurers purse 't is very hard to oblige them to search into and discover this unless perhaps it want not its convenience if they be in like manner permitted to retain the first and demand the second benevolence in case it be found to be so But to speak ingenuously all this passage is inextricable For what shall we say That the rich man shall in three dayes redeem his Purgatory which must cost the poor as many years Without doubt a convenient motive for accumulating riches but such a one as I have not yet met with in all the Gospel or Christian directions And yet what else do they seem to regard who make it either only care and business to accompany the Dead with a multittude of Masses some such conceits as these the Schools have already exibitated and immediately they have disappear'd in all succeeding Visions and Revelations that you may see they wholly depend upon vulgar opinion From whence it happens that the Greeks though otherwise more addicted to them then the Latines having nothing of this nature though much more then we of refrigerating the damned themselves because this sort of Purgatory runs not in their fancies The one and twentieth Accompt Whence wonderful Events came to be foretold without any supernatural assistance BUt what am I doing shall I charge so many grave and holy persons with Forgery or at least being deluded by the Devil I cannot easily determine which were more criminal and therefore shall by no means be transported with that arrogance From whence then this plentiful Harvest of Apparitions The notion of Apparition must be divided One kind happens to those who are awake and have their eyes about them the other to those whom sleep or extacy hath oppressed The first gives a jealousie of some defective or vitiated organ especially if the Phantasme appear to one only either alone or in company and that in the night when ill-disposed or after some misfortune or long continued grief something is probably amiss in the Brain though it be not altogether impossible that a meer preoccupation of mind may work that effect The other is more obvious and intelligible the soul contemplates many things as they were proposed from without when the senses are by sleep or extasie lock'd up which not withstanding have no other being than in the Phantasy But against this are very admirable examples by which we are assured that in these sleeps or extasies things future secret at a distance in fine such as no sense could reach to are often seen and foretold All cannot rationally be deny'd nor all promiscuously admitted I observe therefore that for the most part some falsity mingles with these revealed truths which commonly gives the occasion of their being imputed to the black Art But we must examine how far Nature can herein play her part It hath been said that the soul lull'd as it were a sleep with dreams or extasy finds the stroaks or
third an explication of the ancient practise of the Church in praying for the Saints Pag. 13 IV. That S. Pernard only excepted all the rest of the Fathers deâ—y'd not to the faithful departed the Beatifical Vision before the day of Judgment Pag. 25 V. The fifth proof from Scripture is again urged and two others added Pag. 34 VI The eighth and ninth Texts are considered Pag. 42 VII Some places of Scripture apply'd by holy Fathers to confirm the same truth Pag. 51 VIII Testimonies from all antiquity maintaining the same truth Pag. 55 IX That the proofs of the opposite opinion are modern and betray their novelty Pag. 69 X. The first exception against the opposite Tenet from pure revenge Pag. 78 XI Two other Exceptions from the supposition of these pains to be involuntary and corporeal Pag. 92 XII Four other exceptions from those pains being to no purpose unproportioned to the sins of an Indivisible duration and endless Pag. 100 XIII Two other exceptions from the non-connexion of such pains with the sins and their being supposed to remain due after the fauls forgiven Pag. 110 XIV Of the punishments which we meet with in the sacred Scriptures and of the remission of sins Pag. 120 XV Three other exceptions that they neither truly take off the punishments nor rightly make them due nor in sine make any real Purgatory Pag. 136 XVI The thirteenth exception that their opinion is opposite to the expressions of Scriptures of Fathers of the Church of the Councel of Florence and Benedict XI Pag. 144 XVII That the ignorance of spiritual natures begâ—t this opinion Pag. 151 XVIII Objections from the holy Fathers against our Doctrine answered Pag. 158 XIX Of the authority of Apparitions and Visions Pag. 166 XX Of the authority of Visions compar'd with that of History together with a particular examination of some of them Pag. 17S XXI Whence wonderful events come to be foretold without any supernatural assistance Pag. 38 XXII What is the benefit of prayer for the dead Pag. 197. XXIII That the Practise of the Church as far as its words make known it's sense favours the ancient opinion Pag. â—07 XXIV That the Practise of the Church as it is visible in action makes likewise for the same truth Pag. 218 XXV The nature and history of Indulgences Pag. 225 XXVI That Indulgences generally taken make nothing against the ancient Doctrine Pag. 234 XXVII That particular Indulgences granted for he dead argue not the universal practise of the Church Pag. 243 XXVIII That the Vulgarity of the opposite opinion ought not to prejudice the true one Pag. 251 The First Accompt The Introduction and state of the Question THough such be the beauty of reason and such its soveraignty over humane nature when rightly disposed that no force of authority can be capable to weaken conclusions once demonstrated for what can authority presume unless reason pre-assures us of its veracity or how can reason give it that testimony having a demonstration against it yet is it not lawful for me to treat the question I have now in hand without first consulting the sentiments of antiquity I am endebted to the unwise as well as the wise and see them far more numerous who pin themselves upon authority few being able to sustain the esclat of discourse evidently and rigorously connected Besides it well becomes the dignity of the Church in which I live and is requisite for the satisfaction of those without her to make it clear that our forefathers generally do not dissent for me in this controversie This then shall be my aime in the following Treatise First to illustrate the nature of Purgatory from the sacred Scriptures and monuments of holy Fathers next immoveably to establish it by Faith or Principles evident in Nature but before all give me leave to summe up and state the whole controversie as it is on both sides asserted For the Church her self hath herein defined nothing more then that there is a Purgatory and that the souls there detained are reliev'd by the prayers and suffrages of the faithful The Vulgar modern Divines embrace in a manner generally this position That the deficiences of men are some mortal and punishable with eternal misery others venial and expiable by temporary sufferings Mortal lapses if repented they absolve from eternal condemning them notwithstanding to time-limitted torments So that suppose an imperfect Christian departed whose venial sins no satisfaction at all hath cancelled whose mortal an imperfect one hath diminished these Doctors admit him not to the beatifical vision but provide for him a subterraneous cave fill'd with flames and horrid instruments of torture which his there confined and imprison'd soul must till expiated endure And these pains they thus far suppose like to those we here experience that they are inflicted by extrinsecal Agents and against the will of the patient conceâ—ving moreover that they take their proportion from the measure and nature of the crimes committed in the body according to the estimate of Divine Justice Nor can these torments by any industry or force of the soul it self be evaded though by our prayers who survive they may be mitigated and before the otherwise due and prefixed time determined The same relief they fancy from the satisfaction or merits of the Saints if by the Church to that intent apply'd Thus these later Divines from whom in this discourse I must for the most part take leave to dissent I acknowledg in humane faylings a difference betwixt mortal and venial nor do I deny an imperfect remission of mortal impurities But I place not this imperfection in that the Sin is totally cancelled the pain only remaining but in the change of an Absolute into a conditional affection as it were instead of I will substituting I will not buâ— Oh that I lawfully might This sinner therefore concludes that an eternal good is to be preferr'd before that which he abandons and in his life and actions preferrs it but looks notwithstanding back upon it as amiable with a wishful glance not unlike the Cowes which bearing the Ark did bellow to their Calves shut up at home The affection or inclination he had to temporal good is restrain'd not extinguish'd of mortal become venial changed not destroy'd Being therefore by the operation of death as it were new moulded and minted into a purely spiritual substance he carries inseparably with him the matter of his torment in the like manner as he also doth who takes leave of the body with his affections only venially disordered Wehave no occasion here to employ infernal Architects to invent strange racks and dungeons since the innate and intimately inhering strife and fury of the affections teâ—t against reason perform alone that execution which is therefore proportioned to the sins because springing and resulting from them nor ever otherwise possibly capable to â—eâ—se and determine unless the soul by a new conjunction with the body become again susceptible of
and eminent then the whole mass of Quantity so every act of a pure Spirit reflected on it self being of its own nature out of the reach of time is not subject thereto but greater then the whole extension of time as being to be estimated by the necessity of its inexistence not by the succession of its own or any other's parts Nor is it unworthy our observation that corporeal griefe or pleasure is therefore greater the longer it continues because it consists in motion for motion is integrated of parts and the more parts there are which constitute it the greater is the Whole On the contrary let us consider if to a thing which coexists with a longer space of time nothing be thereby added or to that whose duration is less nothing diminished there can be no reason why duration should affect that more sensible this less there being in them no plurality of parts by which the excess of ones pain or pleasure above the others is measured So that whatsoever grief of a separated soul is by the quality and force of its essence greater the same let its coexistence with time be what it will must be more vehement and that which is less less intense nothing being gain'd or lost by the perpetuity or interruption of the motions of the Sun or other celestial bodies And hence again it is apparent that this opinion totally mistakes the propriety of spiritual nature From whence we may further infer that the grief or any other act of a separated soul is no less indefectible then the state of it's separation and consequently that its pain beginning after death must continue till a new conjunction with the body if the ordinary bounds and progress of Nature be observed For having no parts of succession or duration of its own nature it must either continue but one moment that is not at all or ever For as Points in quantity so instants in time not being of the nature of the whole but pure terms and negations it is evident that a spiritual act to which the duration of one only instant is assigned hath no duration at all but if an indivisible duration be assigned it equal to any part of time the very supposition it self constitutes it of a superiour and more noble order and exalts it above the reach of all or any time assignable For the comparison between them being to be made abstractedly from parts what can be considered as common to them both but meerly their necessity of existing That is that a spirit can have no causes of its defect a body more or fewer but alwayes some So that we must confess every spirit whatsoever outvyes the most solid and durable of bodies since evidently in this necessity of existing every spirit transcends all bodies as in our * Philosophy is demonstrated But imagine that one indivisible act should out-last another and this indivisibly without addition of duration to duration is it intelligible in what this out lasting should consist or how it can be any thing extrinsecal It is then irresistibly true that every duration of such an Act of its own nature is eviternal To conclude experience tells us that Resolutions or Determinations made upon the full view of circumstances are of their own nature immutable for reason alone or consideration can be the motive of change in Wills and it was supposed no new reason could present it self It having therefore been demonstrated * in Philosophy that spirits segregated from the dreggs of matter break forth into every act upon distinct knowledg perfect consideration of all motives it is also convinc'd that their acts are of their own nature inalterable Besides we observe the cause of all changes to reside in things active communicating and participating the same matter and with opposition one to the other pertinaciously strugling to possess themselves of it and master it Of which kinde of contention and rivalship spirits now infanchised being wholy void nothing appears which may destroy or alter their acts The Thirteenth Accompt Two other Exceptions from the non-connexion of such pains with the sins and their being supposed to remain due after the fault forgiven BUt because the Philosopher hath instructed us that for the utter eradication of any Errour it is necessary we should retrive the causes of it that is whence and by what steps the assertors were led into its snare we must not desist our pursuit till we have obey'd his commands In order whereunto let us first reflect that God in the Government of humane things may be considered either as a Monarch with precepts and punishments ruling his people or as an Artificer or expert Engineer so contriving every part and movement of his machin that of it self it may perform and attain the end for which he designed it The first way though one of the most eminent within our ken yet by reason of the imperfection of the subject the weakest of all intellectual substances Man whose providence is short-sighted is also weak and imperfect For Princes amongst men ordain such rewards both for well and ill deserves of the Common-wealth as of their own nature have no relation to the quality of merit or demerit but are meerly connected with their Wills and commands and which they are forced to execute with their own that is their ministers strength And besides commands of that nature suppose in the subject an ignorance of his Prince's reasons and an acceptation of what is to be done or suffered by him from the sole motive of his commanders power The latter proclaims the incomparable wisdome of that Architect who could so artificially frame at once his work that it should of it self perform all operations without supplement or future minute alterations in any of its members or organs His fabrick is in all respects compleat rewards and punishments therein being not only conformable to but also originiz'd from their merits the precepts which are given are directed to the promoting nature and increase of science and are accepted through a sight and knowledg of their causes and utilities Evident therefore it is that however the first way which involves the truth in Allegory may be more adopted to those understandings which being but moderately enamour'd of truth bend not their whole strengths to obtain it yet the latter is both necessary and much more satisfactory to those who rending the parabolical veyl fix their contemplations on the naked discovery of the thing as it is in it self For they easily perceive that God being the Author of Nature which flows from him as from its proper cause must contradict himself if he act any thing against it and guide not every thing according to its own nature especially men to Beatitude But it is clear that voluntary assignâ—tion of punishment bearing no connexion with the fault is not an action of Nature but of our imperfect reason not sufficiently qualifi'd to govern and steer nature
as most commonly it happens then is the sin simply remitted but in part remains and in this world it is punished by evils following this debility of mind either sins or conflicts or whatsoever other griefs proceeding from them but in the future by the fruit offspring of those evils till in the last Judgment day that tepidness and as it were rust with which the soul by contagion of that sin was infected be burnt off From whence you easily see that in a perfect repentance God remembers no longer the sin but in an imperfect one accommodates and adopts the pains to the state of the soul From what hath been declared it likewise appeareth how God revengeth the sins of parents to wit external ones upon their posterity and this sometimes intriâ—secally when the children become themselves wicked by example of their parents but for the most part extrinsecally Which laâ—â—er punishments are threefold first immediate as when the son of David was punished with death secondly as it were eternal as when for the same sin it was threatned that the sword should never depart from his house and likewise for the adoration of the golden calfe that they should be punished in the day of visitation For these expressions import that those very sins should cause a total destruction of that people Of which sort is likewise that prediction of Christ our Lord that all the innocent blood which had been spilt from the just Abel to his time should fall upon the Jewes The third degree is betwixt these two as a standing rule of the divine chastisements to wit to the fourth generation All this is evident in the examples which we hinted at For the punishments of Adam Moses Aaron and David also in the death of his son belong to that rank which we have called miraculous in which it was requisite they should seem to proceed not from the order of causes but the especial judgment of God But for the posterity of Adam their punishments whether internal or external are * clearly shewn in our Theology to flow from the order of causes where it is likewise evident that that sin * can never be remitted till the Resurrection and last Judgment The crime of adoring the golden Calf became in like sort almost eternal thâ—â— is lasted till the extirpation of the whole people Which Ezekiel testifies Chap. 20. reproaching the Jews that from their departure out of Egypt they persisted by continual relapses in the sins of their forefathers who came from thence Whence it may be seen that the stiffness of neck which Moses so oft exprobrated and complained of continued in that people till their utter extermination and that as Christ our Lord assures us all the just blood spilt through the world was punished in that last generation The very same discovers it self in the sin of David whose Love to Bersheba preferred Solomon before the rest of his Children to the succession of his Crown which was the apparent cause of emulation between Absolom and Adoniaâ— and of both their deaths and of all the crimes of Absolom From the same fountain through Solomons disorders sprung the schism of the ten tribes and all the subsequent warrs with the defection of the house of Israel from God and the corruption and wickedness of the house of Judah and consequently all their mutual chastisements and final overthrow the sons still inheriting the vices of their Parents Lastly from the same principles it appears why for the most part the sins of private persons cease in the third or fourth Generation to wit because their memory and imitation is for the most part lost the respect of kindred growing weak and the permixion of forreign blood in the several Mothers rarely suffering the great Grand-fathers blood to boyl with any notable vigour in the veins of his Great-grandchild From this explication it is easily gathered that according to the natural series of Agents and Patients the punishment of sin whether external or internal is nothing else but the increase and exaggeration of sins in those who are perverse and the decrease and diminution of them in those who amend For both the internal sin in the wicked is punished by greater sins and their external punishments are the extensionâ—nd propagation of the sin into new subjects or into more parts of the same subject that is encreases it extensively or intensively And on the contrary in those that are good the strugglings and dolorous affections which wrestle with the affection to sin are their punishments as to the internal and their external ones are the dimintiuon of the dying sin weakly derived into other subjects The Fifteenth Accompt Three other Exceptions That they neither truly take off the punishments nor rightly make them due nor in fine make any real Purgatory FRom hence we may observe another mistake of our Divines in their model Purgatory For though they determine the sufferings there to be certain pains inflicted by torments yet when these pains cease they neither require nor think of any pleasures or at least good acts which may succeed them parallelled to which kind of Philosophy neither the whole variety of Nature nor Grace that I know of affords one experiment For in vegetativâ— nature griefs are asswaged by a certain congruous and self cherishing disposition of nature and in supernatural works sin is not extinguished but by infusion of grace and affections opposite to sin To assert therefore certain pains which must be determin'd and asswaged by a pure cessations and not by the entrance and subinter mission of any contrary wholly misbecomes a Philosopher is altogether repugnant to the ground work of natural action which requires an opposition of causes severally challenging to themselves the common subject Our eleventh exception takes notice of another absurdity They affirm that in the instant of death whether in the body or out of the body I know not by an act of contrition all guilt whatsoever which during the whole life had been contracted is immediately wash'd off I urge since the efficacy of contrition is by both sides acknowledged to be such that it not only abolishes the crime but equalizes and consequently is of its own nature capable to extinguish also the punishment and the act of contrition we now treat of must needs be strong and perfect why doth it not by its equivalence supersede all punishment Certainly if it be made by the soul now discharged from the body we cannot doubt but it must be of the highest degree and much more intense and vehement then any contrition which here with ardency of affections were able even to set the very body on fire as some pious Histories relate to have happened But if it be put to be made in the body being endowed with so eminent a prerogative as not to leave uncancelled any one slight stain upon what grounds or how shall we deny it the power
the sight of God That which puts God to inflict punishment not to better the creature but to revenge himself That which violates all Philosophy by confounding the natures of Spirit and Body That which makes the evil of pain spring not from the sinful defects of creatures but from the all-good-Will of God That which is impossible to be maintain'd but by legitimating extrinsecal imputation which is fundamentally opposite to Catholicism That which by making Purgatory not purge at all destroyes it's very notion and nature and makes even it's name breath contradiction Hath I say that Doctrine which is the ground of these and innumerable other absurdities no appearance of falshood And lastly as for their uncertainty is there so much as one Demonstration pretended on their behalf by their Patrons Or are they or any part of them of the substance of the Church's Doctrine If unawares they affirm it let them or at least the whole world besides take notice how a passionate affection to make good their credit and the reputation of their Authors transports them to destroy and violate at once the whole rule of Christian Faith and so become more fatal to the cause they own then all the enemies it ever had or can have that Rule of Faith I say which admits nothing as such into it's sacred liâ—t but what universal tradition assures us to have been unanimously deliver'd by our respective immediate fore-fathers as deliver'd by the Apostles as reveal'd by Christ But God be thanked they do not they cannot they dare not They confess at last that nothing of all this is of Faith that is that all is but probable that is possible to be otherwise that is uncertain that is expresly prohibited by the Church whose commands if Duty prompt them not to obey I know no sweeter force then that of Reason to compel them I come now to the second point the advantage of those who are heterodox and their farther abalienation from the Catholick Communion the reduction of whom I conceive to have been the Author's I am sure is my principal intention Can any one lay a greater slumbling-block in their way then is the confounding of Faith with Opinion certainty with uncertainty Can on the contrary any thing more invite a rational and well-meaning Protestant then throughly to observe how the great latitude in opinion amongst Catholicks establishes and confirms the unity of their Faith How impossible it is that any new Tenet should creep out of one Catalogue into the other whilst every minute question is ventilated with so much contention and scrutinie whilst the Almighty Providence makes use of the animosities of Thomist and Scotist Jansenist and Jesuit to demonstrate that what such dissenting Brethren perfectly agree in must have a higher principle then human invention let all those whom education or perhaps the indiscreet zeal of school men hath hitherto abused understand in Gods name that the Church as a Church has no partiality no adhesion to no obstinacy for any opinion whatsoever She is the Guardian of saith she permits none to add to or detract from the Divine truths committed to heâ— custody but admits all into her tuition who acknowledg them Let them look to it who see other bounds for my part I shall ever value that excellent Analysis of our learned Patriot Dr. Holden now as I hear happily rendered into his native language wherein that it may flourish more vigorously he hath lopp'd off and segregated all circumstantial excrescencies from the stock of Faith beyond all the nice productions of the Schools Thus much I have thought good to say in my own vindication One word more in behalf of the book it self and I have done It hath been wondered at by some and look'd on as an argument of it's falling short of the evidence it promiseth that in five years time it hath gained no greater applause or rather that in the way of Demonstration it hath not been able in that time to silence all opposition I shall say nothing of the progress it hath made but only desire thee Reader to reflect that the satisfaction of those who love science is ever silent and within themselves the opposition of those that seek it noâ— for the most part clamorous and disquieting others as well as themselves May it be thy fortune to farewell and hold thy peace To the most Reverend F. in Christ RICHARD Ld. Bishop of Calcedon MY LORD I Was much perplext when it was told me that some censure was past upon my poor Works by your Lp whose Ecclesiastical Government for so many years of the Catholick part of England hath deservedly so much influence upon our faith whose most innocent life exercised with continual fears at home and combats abroad hath begot in us a Veneration of your Dictates but above all whose many and excellent writings in defence of Catholick Tradition and neer fourscore years exhausted in perpetual study render your Judgment to us new-men of this Age as it were an oracle of Antiquity I was therefore about to apologize and beg pardon for my too much precipitation But your Lord-ships assurance by letter dated Jul. 6. 1652. that you had pass'd no censure at all and in effect the non-appearance of any such thing satisfy'd me of the unnecessariness of that pains It was a fiction contrived by the envy of some narrow Hearts and propagated by the unwary credulity of such as took all for Gospel which they said You declar'd that you had no other thoughts then so to dissent from my opinion as Divines without the least breach of Charity are laudably wont to do But yet even thus the weight of so great an Authority overburthen'd me and forc'd me to seek some support for my innocence And I would to God you had been pleas'd to remark in your Letter whatsoever you dislik'd of mine I would have spar'd no pains to give your Lord-ship satisfaction in every particular now I have singled out one point but that which being in every one's discourse I thought I could least be deceived in Be you Judg my Lord whether without the suffrages of the ancient Fathers or against the sence of the sacred Scriptures or unassisted by the Maximes of true Theology I have undertaken what may seem exotick to this Age we live in If I clear my self that I have opposed none of these as I am not ambitious of Victory so I despaire not of Pardon However it may succeed you have an ACCOMPT by detail as less subject to deceipt of my Stewardship Please you cast it up and if you find it Just give your Blessing to him who prostrates himself at your knees in quality of MY LORD Your Lordships most humble and most obedient servant THO. WHITE THE TABLE OF ACCOMPTS ACCOMPT I The introduction and state of the Question Pag. 1 II. Two proofs front the sacred Scripture favouring the truth we advance Pag. 7 III. Three other Texts and by occasion of the
I conceive him to speak indefinitely not intending that any one in particular remaines doubtful whether she shall be happy or otherwise but that all are not to be happy but some happy some miserable The place is taken out of the 10. Chapter of his Book De bono mortis where treating more at large of this Doctrine he seemes to explain this part of his opinion in this sort Therefore whilst the plenitude of time is expected saith he the souls waite their just remuneration some shall have punishment some glory Besides what he had before affirmed of the soul of Valentinian Gratian Theodosius and his Brother gives ample satisfaction concerning his Judgment To which you may adde if you please out of his 59. Epistle de obitâ— Acolij he sees perpetual light without a Sun now face to face And in Com. Ep. ad Philip Thinking it better to be present with God And on 1 Cor. Ep. 13. The Saints going out of this world shall behold him as he is Theophilact's speech is likewise somewhat difficult maintaining the Saints to have yet obtained nothing of the celestial promises But S. Chrysostom's piety which he adheres to relieves him giving us occasion to understand by Celestial those promises which are to be accomplished in Heaven and which Oecumenius calls the term or period of goods S. Chrysostom himself declares that the souls unless the body rise again shall remain excluded from the Celestial Beatitude that is shall indeed have its happiness but not that which makes or followes it's place in Heaven So that at last it appears to have been not a famous Doctrine of the Fathers of the Church but an infamous calumny against them to impose upon them the denyal of the sight of God before the universal resurrection S. Bernard alone neither having nor seeking an Example ventured to assert it for as to John XXII since his writings are not extant we cannot legally pasâ— sentence upon him The Fifth Accompt The Fifth proof from Scripture is again urged and two others added NOtwithstanding all which I should think my pains well rewarded if I could learn the reason why the holy Doctors with so much earnestness have inculcated to us the rewards and punishments of the last judgment since they well enough understood that pure souls might have an immediate fruition of God The first Motive may be that the Beatifical Vision is more perfect with the body resum'd then without it which S. Chrysostom exceedingly favours Yet I am not convinced by it first because nothing of this reason appears amongst most of them though the Thesis be common to them all and secondly because no proof thereof is brought by him nor by S. Augustine himself though he affirms it certain that the soul of man devested of the body cannot so behold the incommutable goodness as the Angels do and the said souls expect the redemption of their bodies since in his Retractations he seems to acknowledg the obscurity of the Consequence The reason we have given for it in our Theological Institution is singular and by few valued or comprehended The next Motive may be because Corporeal goods which are first attained by the Resurrection are more esteemed by the generality of Christians then spiritual as being better understood by them But this reason is too disadvantageous to Christianity it self for it being the designe of it's profession and task of its Doctorin to take off the minds of men from terrene goods and place them on celestial 't is altogether improper to permit corporeal advantage to be preach'd and inculcated more vehemently then spiritual nor doth it stand with those encomiums of Beatitude That eyes have not seen eares not heard c. That the passions of this time are not condign to the future glory that there is good measure heaped together pressed down and overflowing c. Lastly Because we are taught that they compared to spiritual pleasures principally to the Beatifical Vision have the proportion of finite to infinite so that it little imports the satisfaction and contentment of the person whether he hath then or not The third reason then must take place That therefore the Retributions of the last day are so inculcated because they are universal whereas the rewards which before that are given are particular and as it were priviledges I shall endeavour to explicate my self Mankind or humane nature is not integrated by a few wise or extraordinarily religious persons but by the commonalty and universality of Christians Them therefore God and Christ in the predication and propagation of the Gospel hath respect to These things then in the bulk and body of Catholick faith are to be promised which concern the generality of Mankind And truly whether we cast our eyes on the old or new Testament we shall find our Faith founded and rooted in the resurrection Let us examine the hopes of Job the threats of Ecclesiastes the menaces or promises of the Prophets the comfort of Toby and instructions given to his Son Lastly either the valour of the Machabees fighting or their patient suffering every where we meet with the Resurrection Is the New stile different Do not all the exhortations parabies promises denuntiation of Christ our Lord sound forth the Resurrection S. Paul cryes out that all Faith is at an end and frustrated if you take away the Resurrection S. S. Peter Jude James and John repeat the same lesson This is the Theam which both affrighted and allured all the world this made the proudest necks to bow and both already hath and shall subjugate all Nations to the obedience and Laws of Christ And now behold us on a sudden revolved I know not how to the solution of the difficulty which begat this discourse for by this clue we readily acquit our selves of all intricacy in the Apostles wish of mercy to Onesiphorus not simply in the next world but expresly in the day of Judgment For though the vertues of the person permitted him to hope no less then that his last breath would wafte him to the regious of Beatitude yet he chose rather to express his affection in terms sit to explicate to all the Brethren and Faithful the common condition of retribution least he might be thought to have entertain'd too good an opinion of Onesiphorus's well-doing And that this was the form of prayer for the dead among the Jews those that are conversant in their rights do testifie and our selves have a manner of speech not much unlike when challenging our due we threaten to demand it at the day of Judgment if it be not restored And if I mistake not Christ our Lord gave us the hint advising us to agree with our adversary in the way least he deliver us to the Judg and the Judg to the Executioner who shall with rigour exact the debt You see then that both Matthew 5. 26. Luke 12. 58. we are taught that we must smart for
other way of attaining Beatitude but that great and Royal high-way of charity since Christ our Lord his Apostles and all other Fathers preach no other Doctrine to introduce any obstacle of Beatitude without their authority were clearly to controul the discipline of all Christian institution and put a bold exception to their general Rule Besides true Theology assures us that perfect charity is a disposition necessitating or determining Almighty God to communicate himself to those that bring it so that he can no more deny himself to be the object of a soul in perfect charity then forbear the concreation of a Rational soul when the Embrio is fully formed or the infusion of existence when the actions of inferiour causes requires it But it is manifest that those who put the soul in the first instant of its separation to be endowed with the same eminence of charity which it hath or shall have when it is admitted to the fruition of God and yet notwithstanding for sometime debar it thereof must needs suppose that disposition of soul not sufficient and adequate but require something else whereof neither the Scripture nor holy Fathersâ—â—ve us the least hint who all unanimously acknowledg no other partition-wall betwixt God and us but our Sins Finally the Florentine Councel and Benedict the eleventh seem clearly enough to have condemned this their Doctrine the latter determining that the souls of the Faithful which have nothing to be purged or expiated do immediately after their departure and before the General Day see the face of God the former adding thereto that the souls of such as dye presently after Baptism or such as after death are purged are immediately received into Heaven By both which expressions this may indubitably be concluded to be meant That nothing but what may be purged that is what stains and contaminates that is sin can deprive a soul from its admission to Heaven and the full sight of God Let us subsume But according to our Adversaries all who dye not in mortal sin after the first moment in which they are said to be perfectly converted to God have nothing now remaining to be expiated but are already after death cleansed Therefore they are all immediately after the first moment received into Heaven Is it not evident that the determination of this Pope and Councel subverts their whole fabrick of Purgatory For though they endeavour to equivocate yet the proper and dogmatical signification can be no other then that which we have given and the secondary explication of purging for enduring pains which do not cleanse the soul from any filth is harsh and improper and by themselves avoided when they come to explain themselves though in familiar conversation with those especially who understand not the different senses they make use of it that they may not seem to vary from the language of the Church and their Fore-Fathers The Seventeenth Accompt That the Ignorance of spiritual natures begat this Opinion FOr a conclusion at length of this part I shall observe to the Reader that this mistake of the school men proceeds from a higher principle Their not adhering to a certain Doctrine delivered by Saint Thomas of Aquine and by his school received He teaches that in abstracted spirits there is neither discourse nor any manner of composition but purely a simple apprehension so that errour and falsity can have no place in them That holy Doctor understood that all these were originally in us from the body and therefore could not in immaterial substances be expected For we find by experience that composition and discourse are begotten by the successive beatings of the memory on the Phantasie which intercourse if once you bar it is impossible that indivisibles should be capable of succession It is therefore certain that pure spirits contemplate all things as it were with one sight or glance and since with them all that relates to science is transacted by naked Definitions which no wordish equivocation can obscure it is evident that falshood cannot reach them there being no precipitation where no delay is required Nither the principles then nor their connexion can be concealed from them nor consequently the truths depending on them This may perhaps become more intelligible if we reflect that the Soule when first infused into the Body is such as the quality of the Matter it is united unto exacts and determines it to be because a natural action that is which doth not exceed the rank and limits of causes cannot but act according to the existence of the subject and do that which is conformable thereto and apt to be produced thereof But Death also is a natural action making that which of a man can be made to wit a spiritual substance which we call a soul And as the disposition of the Embrio or seminal concreation delineats the future man so that man to have had in the course of his whole life these and these thoughts and affections designes and points out by the impressions left the future condition of his Soul So that death produceth such an Entity as from the man so disposed is naturally producible and the Entity so made continueth such till it be aâ— it were new moulded which is the worke of the Resurrection For the spiritual being of the soul is what the whole course of map's life hath made it and bears that respect to the antecedent life which the being at Rome hath to the travelling to Rome or the being in health hath to the cure which was wrought by the Physician's hand Whence it appears that in the next world there can be no more motion since rest and not motion is the terme and period of motion So that for the soul to know to be joyful or to be sad in the future world is nothing else but to remain in that act of knowledge joy or sadness into which by the force of Death and dissolution it was translated And this is the very reason why every resolution made is from thencesorâ—h immutable because there are no instruments no diversity of parts whereof some may act on others no distinctioâ—matter and Agent all which are requir'd to effect a mutation But some may wonder how the soul can be disengaged from the false opinions with which she was here possessed and not have power to devest herself of the affections depending on those erroneous judgements To whom we must answer that this happens not through any discourse but by the precise stroak of death For it being impossible to a spiritual nature at one and the same time to assent to two contradictories seeing and comprehending the contradiction and nothing as hath been said being able to escape the knowledge of a separated soul it is evident that truth must overcome falsâ—â—y and since one of them only can take possession truth must abide and errour give place and this through the very disposition of the soul it self by Death But the affections
THE MIDDLE STATE OF SOULS From the hour of DEATH to the Day of JUDGMENT BY THOMAS WHITE of Essex Gent. Impetremus si possumus à Fratribus nostris ne nos insuper appellent Haereticos quod eos talia disputantes nos appellare possimus forsitan si vellemus nec tamen appellamus S. Aug. MDCLIX To the RIGHT HONORABLE the LADY MARY TUCHET c MADAM AS all Translations are without farther address consecrated to your sex so all that I do in this or any other kind naturally and of it's own accord is dedicated to your Lap. especially this Piece which makes as it were it's proper appeal to the integrity of your un-biassed soul singling you forth as the most competent Patrone not only of your sex but Nation You have often Madam whilst his forrain language rendred him unfit for your conversation heard much discourse about this Treatise and it's Author for what English man is there concerned never so little in the behalf of science whose heart and mouth is not filled either with Admiration or Censure of this great Country-man of ours whom if none hitherto hath presumed to vindicate to your Lap. he is therein nothing the less happy being now to speak for himself a task scarce manageable by any but himself Madam If I may have the honour to be his Introduce into your noble acquaintance I shall boldly passe my word that you will find the subject of his discourse truly grave and important and such as may enrich the mind not with trifling and unprofitable curiosities but admirable and practical Truths The middle state of Souls cannot rightly be apprehended without a just measure of the other extreams nor can we duly reflect on them without a knowledg of our present order to them and the inevitable influence which every thought action and affection here hath to our state hereafter But Madam to enlarge herein were not to advance but retard your progress in which if your Lap. meet with some one passage less promptly obeying your first summons I am confident there is none impervious to your resolute attaque be not discouraged God and your eminent vertues have furnished you with a noble and expert guide whom according to S. Pauls advice you may at home apply to where you are at a loss seeking no further then your own Husband To conclude Madam this small Treatise having served me for an excellent Country-pastime I could not but take the boldness to recommend it to you both at your entrance into the same state of Vacancy assureing my self that when you have maturely perused it you will avow with me that they have little reason who tax the Author with requiring his readers assent purely and barely upon the accompt of his own credit for in my poor judgment never any assertions were better fortifyed at least I heartily wish it were in my power as solidly to demonstrate the truth of my being MADAM Your Laps most humble servant and most affectionate Brother T W. THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER READER I Shall entreat thee to believe that had I the ambition or vanity to entertain thee with something of my own I should not have taken this occasion when I am to present thee with an employment so much more advantagious to thy self so disadvantagious to me The Painter that hath some petty design of his own to put off suffers it not to appear with a master piece of Raphael or Titian Nothing but necessity could have extorted these few lines at least in this place which two dedicatory addresses already take up and overburthen a necessity I say of giving the world some account of this my enterprize It is now about five years since this small Treatise first came forth in the Latine tongue I was a witness of the manisold contradictions it then encountred and consequently ought in reason to foresee that it must now expect farre greater If it were then a crime to treat somewhat severely though as it were behind the curtain and in sight of few only that is the learned a certain luxuriant Devotion what temerity may it not be thought to unveil now and expose it's nakedness to the weak and soon scandalized eyes of the vulgar They from whom I expect this reprehension are persons many of them so generally friends to vertue so particularly to my self that I am bound not only to receive it with modesty but thanks and in requital commending their zeal to endeavour to lend some light to it's Warâ—â—â— I beseech therefore both them and thee gentle Reader in the first place to observe how through the opposite means they of suppressing I of publishing this little Volume we all pursue the same end that is labour to wipe off a scandal from our common Mother the Cath. Church led thereto by the same motives the welfare first of those within secondly of those without Her As to the first they contend that it savors of pride not to submit our private reasons upon pretence of never so much demonstrative evidence to the opinion of the Church of Disobedience to vary from Her common Practise consequently that it must needs inure Catholicks to the neglect of their long gloried-incaptivation of their understandings and this by degrees from matters of opinion to matters of Faith As to the second they urge that all discovery of divisions in the Catholick Church more and more occasions and legitimates the common reproach of her adversaries to wit that no greater union is to be found amongst Her children then amongst those whom she styles Hereticks consequently well may they be disheartned from expecting any secure repose in her bosome Both these charges I shall briefly and I hope clearly satisfie First as to the disedification of Catholicks from ill example of pride and disobedience I answer that an humble and obedient duty to the Church could not decline this present task Obedience consists in execution of her known commands her commands in this matter are pronounced Con. Trid. Sess. 25. That the sound Doctrine of Purgatory DELIVER'D BY HOLY FATHERS AND SACRED COUNCELS be believed held taught and Preach'd but that UNCERTAIN points and such as have APPEARANCE OF FALSHOOD be not permitted to be divulged or treated I ask are the material place of or flames in Purgatory with all the pious revelations relating thereto the application of Indulgences to the souls there detain'd the magazine of Christ's merits and his Saints for that purpose erected the spontaneous delivery from time to time of souls before the day of Judgment or any part of them delivered by Holy Fathers and sacred Councils Whereas neither any Councel mentions such points nor any Father speaking as a Father that is testifying the present Doctrine of the Church of his time avowes them Again has that Doctrine which takes away all the extrinsecal authority of the Fathers interpreting places of Scripture which relate to Purgatory That which debars souls granted to be perfect in charity from