especially should my Vindicator proceed close and pertinently like a serious man and an ingenious Schollar for so I should have more time to attend on the weightier matters And most of all if he would enlarge himself a little upon the same Question in his next Vindication for I shall be glad to be directed and assisted by any one But if any be so unexperienc'd as to imagin all that is deliver'd or decreed is absolutely of Faith let him satisfie the instances commonly urg'd by Divines of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady of the souls being the Form of our body and many other such truths universally assented to but not admitted into the Catalogue of Articles In fine if this last be your opinion you will find very few wise men of your mind if the former you are equally concern'd with me to separate Catholike from Theologicall Faith or any other Proposition of inferiour qualification The Conclusion THus have you my Opinion on your Result as full and particular as can be expected from a weak understanding subject to negligence and oversight yet to my power sincere and captive to the love of truth I hope you cannot be offended at my oppositions for I have that esteem of you that you are a lover of truth and not sway'd by passion or interest but only prejudiced by the force of custom and the reverence of School-opinions Censures though I think they belong to the duty of a Divine fit to shew his works to the Sun yet in this piece I have used none And though the unwary compliance of this age with Error makes me esteem'd censorious yet my heart told me I was oblig'd to do so when ever I engag'd my Pen into it and that I spared far more Opinions justly blameable then I censured because I deemed them not so pernicious as to force me to it The style I have not much regarded holding that both the matter and my age warn me not to be sollicitous of it but rather to speak quinque verba in meo sensu quam decem millia verborum in lingua In a word if I gain your Opinion of my sincerity let the Controversy it self speak for the truth and the reasons which are on both sides I must acknowledge my self ever obliged to you that you have shewn our Catholiques how to demean themselves with moderation towards one another in litigious disputes and with these thanks make way to your credulity that I am Your cordiall Friend and Servant THOMAS WHITE Postscript BEing inform'd that some few scrupulous and I fear unsatisfiable persons object against my Religion and Reason that it takes no notice of those words even before the Resumption of their bodies c. on which they chiefly ground I could not I confess at first but wonder at their prejudice which had so imprinted those words in their fancyes in Capitall that they could not see or know them in a lesser Character For I not onely took notice of them in my 34 and 35 pages and put them down at large as in the Bull cited by themselves but addrest my self purposely there to show them as impossible to favour their Cause as 't is that the Subject of a Proposition should be the Predicate which every smatterer knows to be in Logick the highest absurdity imaginable Besides in divers other places of my Book where any thing was attempted or urg'd from those words I offer'd my satisfaction to their difficulties with what success the Books must shew In the mean time I crave the favour upon occasion of their miscarriage in this that none would lend too easie credit to objections whispered in corners which are afraid to appear and justifie themselves in writing under their hands If any such be offer'd I shall both take it as a favour and acknowledge it my duty to satisfie them If not 't is so like the way of clamour and detraction that all persons meanly prudent will I hope neglect them and so shall I. INDEX AEviternal things not changable by Time p. 37.38 S. Ambrose's Testimony not prejudiciall p. 29.30 The opinion of Ante judiciary Delivery by occasioning the multitude of unworthy Priests harmfull to the Church p. 5.6 impairing solid Devotion p. 6.7 injuring civill Duties if follow'd p. 7. Fraudulently practis'd by many ibid. The Effects of it is true uncertain p. 9.10 The Church not chargeable with these Abuses p. 10. Censures allowable among Divines p. 67. S. Chrysostom's Testimony not prejudiciall p 31 32. Charity to be used in managing Opinions and why p. 12 13. Composition how found in Spirits p. 51 52. Delivery in the day of Judgment not singular in being universally held yet but an Opinion p. 12.16 18.19.26.61 not prejudic'd by Priviledg'd Altars and Indulgences rightly understood and sincerely practis'd p. 65 66. Delivery from Hell pray'd for in the offertory p. 34 35. Devotions not warrantable glanc't at p. 63 64 65. Identity of Time why necessary to Contradiction p. 57. Iudgment-day desirable p. 43 44 45. Language concerning Spirits how verifiable p 21 22 23 c. Penance how held by the Authour p. 38 39. Prayer when perfectest p. 50 51. Prayer for the dead manifoldly beneficiall p. 45. to p. 50. of equall efficacy in the deniers as the holders of Ante judiciary Delivery p 30 31. Priority of Nature not found in a pure Indivisible p. 38. Relief in Purgatory in the Authors Doctrin from p. 20 to p. 28. Reuelations even of great Saints how errable p. 69. Those of Gregory and Bede generally contradicted p. 32 33.72 This later unconsonant to Faith p. 70.71 That of the dead Skull examin'd p. 14 15 16.72 Sins remoining in Purgatory granted p. 39. Seuls separate why unchangeable in true Peripatetick Doctrin p. 40 41. This Incapacity of change the Result of their nature p 55 56. In what sence supernaturally deliverable before Iudgment p. 73 74. Tradition alone sufficient for Faith p. 35 36. Translating the Middle State not criminally scandalous p. 4 5. but judiciously pious p. 10. occasioned by others p. 11. Not this but the Adversaries carriage forbid by the Council of Trent p. 42 43. FINIS
fail in that charge you with deceiving me Is not this case a little too near that unhappy scandal on which Luther took so fast hold that he pull'd down the Churches of whole Provinces by it What shall I say of the averting men from cultivating the inward affections of their hearts in which the Kingdom of God resides to the too much relying on works done by others what of the laying even to Gods own charge as it were a kind of Simony such practises being easily interpretable to a bad sence as if he dispensed his spirituall goods with a respect to the quantity of what is given and that the poor Widows mite cannot have so great an effect as a Dives's talent And though much of what I now am discoursing be chiefly applyable to Priviledg'd Altars and Scapulars and such like abus'd devotions yet is it in a degree true of those who to invite Customers boldly assure them if they shall procure so many Masses of a very delivery quick though not determinately known But suppose the Affirmative of intermedial Release be in it self true yet how does it appear to us the effects concern not any living person but are altogether invisible and out of our reach which till they are sufficiently evidenced to us must needs be uncertain to us and so continually disputable if not improbable whose settlement must depend on the determination of this Question before which final decision 't is not improper that Scholars try their utmost endeavours to examin and prepare both sides for discovery of the truth Nor is it in the least my intention to charge the Church with any of these irregularities but onely to refute the errours and reprove the abuses of particular persons wherein I have the sure warrant of the Council of Trent which while it forbids such incertain Doctrins commands to oppose them that preach'em These and many other such observations of which no subject that I know more plentifull well consider'd permit the Ingenious Gentleman to think the rescuing Ladies devotions from slight and hazardous practises to solid and assured pieties judiciously preferrable to the small and short dissentions that possibly may spring out of the more generall divulging such discourses Nor did he this till the loud and many clamours of some busy heads against the Opinion while it lay close wrapt up in its native dark Latin render'd the Translation in his judgment absolutely necessary For the Latin Book I am to answer for the English they who talk so much in English against it and were the People such as they should be those kind of Controversies might easily be managed without any breach of charity at all or the least diminution of their mutuall correspondence it being our duty as in matters of Faith to be zealous and exactly uniform so in other debates to be temperate and prudently condescending Let every one but seriously read the 13 Page of your Result and I doubt not they will proceed in this point as calmly and warily as you do There you tell us that some things have been deliver'd to posterity in the Church which could never obtain more authority then Opinion as is made evident in your System even in grave Subjects but how to distinguish such from Doctrins of a higher nature in case Holy Church did not convey clearly their qualification with them as in some cases evidently It did and in some cases It did not as there you give Instances then the onely way is to return to General Councils that they according to their Office may Conquisitione facta after the Example of the Apostles juridically appoint to each their Seats where all must acquiesce Thus you and excellently well and to this Tryall I freely submit all my Opinions how evident soever they may appear to my self You cite not the particular place and I happend to light on one which treated such businesses and finding it very proper I contented my self and 't is System c. 32. p. 335. c. where as indeed all over that Book it being a Magazine of curious Questions and Antiquities I met with some instances which as they satisfy'd me will I hope if diligently perus'd content my Reader too there he should see collected together not onely universall Catholick Perswasions but some Conciliary Definitions unallow'd by Divines to be Points of Faith But you say this Point is not among 'em and I say as tender Points as this are among 'em What think you of the Assumption of our Lady What of the Spirituality of Angels this embrac'd by all Scholars that by all People Besides do you not there your self acknowledge that very many Orthodox Divines hold though all the Fathers admit this or that Point it does not follow we should presently pronounce it of faith and this even when the matter is of weight and consequence To conclude this introduction I shall take leave to transcribe out of the same Place onely these few sayings recommending them to the serious Consideration of the passionate and byassed Reader The first shall be that of Bellarmin In Consiliis maxima pars Actorum ad Fidem non pertinet sed tantum ipsa nuda Decreta ea non omnia sed tantum quae proponuntur tanquam de fide Another of Innocent the third Judicium Ecclesiae nonnunquam opinionem sequitur quam fallere saepe continget falli The third of Saint Aug. Sentiat quisque quod libet tantum contra Apostolicam manifestissimam Fidem non sentiat And now Sir me thinks the Question betwixt you and me is reduced to so narrow a compass that we may see it all with one prospect and hope by that means to see it well whereas they that spread their view wildly at too much at once have many things before their eyes but nothing in their sight Notes on the first Chapter YOur first Chapter did somewhat surprise me for being used to expect in your writings Authorities express and driven home I was amazed to find the main question of your work past slightly over with a generall assertion that the Fathers say what you intend without directly producing Testimonies of sufficient either weight or number to evince your position The Council of Florence I have taken notice of sufficiently in my answer to the Vindicator which I shall endeavour to get presented to you The Result of my discourse there in short is that I acknowledg all the Council and Pope assert and shew they do not affirm what you pretend Your onely Testimony out of Saint John Damascen perplexed me for I know your goodness so great that you would not wittingly impose upon your Auditory and esteemed your Criticism in Fathers so exact that you would not permit such a notable mistake to gain credit upon you How then happens it that you so confidently cite an Oration of Saint John Damascen which Catholicks either doubt not to be his or make a shamefull excuse for writing it saying he was
be better both for the living and the dead even in the way of impetration though particulars were never thought on Nevertheless since the world is the world this Article of praying for the dead is as necessary as our imperfection which is not like to leave us must needs make it both in common and in particular as we see it used The rest of your Chapter is so speculative that I could willingly have omitted it but because you recommend it to be weighed I cannot neglect it I pray then take notice that in Saint Thomas his way the composition of spirits is not of materiality and spirituality but of essence and existence a composition whose separability or conjunction belongs purely to the activity of God and is not a potentia but a non repugnantia and so can have no cause under God whose essence is in the order of existence or rather the order it self no other substance reaching to that order Out of which is inferr'd that as to create and annihilate that is to change existence per se belongs only to God so likewise doth any change in a pure spirit which cannot have its source in a conjoyned body Those who put a kind of materiality which they do not explicate whether they speak consequently or no I cannot judge but I know Tully makes sport with the Epicureans for giving their gods quasi carnem and quasi sanguinem without being able to explicate them further Besides that a demonstration could be grounded upon propositions whose sense was not comprehended and explained I never read in Aristotle Saint Bonaventure if his ordinary citers do him no wrong makes duration to be truly divisible in infinitum which that it should agree to any thing but either quantity or by quantity Peripateticks or any other solid Logician think to imply as much as being divisible without divisibility To his Reason and the two following inconveniences St. Thomas's Scholars use the distinction of infinit in its particular kind and infinit simply or in all kinds and say this later onely belongs to God Almighty and that if there were an infinit quantity it would not therefore be God nor that if an Angel know all specieses of numbers or figures therefore he knows all things Nay that because the intellect is but a passive faculty of it self is there any infinit vigor required to knowledge though infinit so it be purely infused as likewise that the vigor of infinit duration is in the Conserver not in the thing conserved so that I doubt much how valuable these arguments can be made though you seem confident of them even more then of the Demonstration of Euclid and Archimedes whom you think apt to swallow suppositions without proof which is mistaken unless you speak of some self-known Axioms which I think you also will admit By the way I would intreat you to quote me some place of Scripture in which any Angel is recorded to have had a new internall act for I know no such though externall actions they have manifold and so I end this Chapter noting that whereas you cite my Peripateticall Institutions for my opinion of Purgatory that their testimony is not sufficient to declare my opinion in Divinity matters the necessity of good method forcing me to abstain from Theologicall resolution in a Philosophical Treatise I could rather have wisht you had taken more notice of the little book I wrote expresly concerning this very question where the whole business is largely treated the Objections rais'd and Answers offer'd many authorities produc'd and many Reasons to none of which can I any way conceive you have much applied your thoughts and so if they perhaps deserve no answer I am sure they have none Notes on the eighth and ninth Chapters IN your eighth Chapter you trouble your self whether it be possible for the souls in purgatory to see the humanity of Christ which I am so far from disputing with you that I willingly acknowledge it and withall that it raises a great heighth of charity in him so that their state in Purgatory is far beyond the state of this life for charity but yet that it takes not away the dregs of sin left in them at their death Not that I think Saint Paul speaks of any such matter in the place you cite but the meaning of those words In corpore an extra corpus nescio is that he knew not whether his body was truly carry'd locally into the third heaven or only that he had a sight of it as Saint Stephen had of Christ in the place where he stood and so the sense may be whether the rapture was in his body or only in his mind For else we must conceive him dead in the mean while which I know not that any affirm and otherwise these be two species of the three which Divines make of Visions To enquire then why the sins are not taken away in Purgatory though I could answer you that it is because they are in termino and you Divines tell us they cannot merit nor demerit Yet both I and you may ask how this is proved and whither we go consequently I could answer again that it is for want of fancy or of an intellectus agens But you would reply God supernaturally supplies that and I should think God doth not nor cannot prudently change his setled order of causes meerly by favour and because he will without the profit of the world Therefore I must briefly say it is the result of nature and that the coexistence of compossible desires impeaches not the duration of these weak affections since God acts not but by infusion of new existence as in the resurrection He that will assert miracles without proof plays not the Divine but puts all in confusion For this Interrogation Cannot God do it carries such an awfull aspect that it seems to lay the imputation of Atheism on him who dares so much as doubt it yet you and all good Divines know it signifies no more then whether the effect implies contradiction which may be disputed without horror nay peradventure not so much for if God cannot do in particular but what is best he that can shew a thing to be not best how possible so ever it be exempts it from the force of that Interrogation And although I could largely discourse of this later part even by your own occasion who grant the course of nature to be for me yet to make this speculative part as short as I can I will only insist upon contradiction how ever I fear few more then your self will be capable of the discourse I pray therefore reflect that when Philosophers agree Identity of Time is necessary to contradiction it is not out of the nature of Time it self which being an extrinsecall accident hath not power to make any thing compossible or incompossible in the subject where they imply contradiction but it must be the nature of the subject it self which being susceptive