this which himself is â—ain to confess and I think against his own opinion who puts if I am not mistaken no stain or blemish in the souls of Purgatory and therefore no purging nor Purgatory and so all the Fathers he repeats anew be plainly against himself 5 In his fifth Number he imposes a new falsity upon me to wit that I say the souls at the day of Judgment pittifully burn in their Bodies but that that fire purgeth nothing that can be called sin I wonder where he found this imagination For my Doctrin is that the fire of Judgment is ministerial to the Angels framing the Bodies to Resurrection and by this precedent service is instrumental cause of what is done in the instant of Reunion and Resurrection in that instant all the Action of fire ceases and is turned into the Purgatum esse which Purgatum esse is the sight of Christ and God in the very first instant of Reunion And this Doctrin may he find in my second tome of Institutiones sacrae pag. 244. and in my book De medio statu by pieces here and there So that all this good mans discourse is built upon a fancy of his own and touches not my Doctrin 6. In his sixth Number he argues from the difference betwixt Baptism and Penance that the one takes away all the punishment due to sin the other leaves some punishment to be expiated by satisfaction And puts the case of an old man who comes to Baptism after a wicked long life with an imperfect sorrow and disposition yet says he all the punishment is remitted to him though there remains many vitious inclinations in him Now if this man dyes soon after with some small Venial sin he shall ly in great torments untill the day of Judgment according to my Doctrin This is his Argument which he repeats now the second time and therefore it requires an answer I tell him therefore that it is very true that Baptism being taken with a fitting disposition to the nature of the Sacrament remits all pains and the Sacrament of Penance does not as is plain seeing Satisfaction is one part of this Sacrament But I would gladly know by what Authority your Divine changeth the Councils Definition and that which the Council speaks of men coming to Baptism with a disposition conformable and proportionable to the nature of the Sacrament he enlarges it to them who come with an imperfect and unproportionable disposition All men know Baptism is a Regeneration in which we are made nova creatura in which our Vetus Homo is buried And therefore the connatural disposition is that a man come with a resolution of a perfect change of life such an one as we see in St. Austin at his conversion which made him feel no more tentations of his former imperfections such as we acknowledge in people perfectly contrite such as is supposed to be in men who relinquish the world to be Carthusians Eremites Anachorites c. in all which we acknowledge that their repentance cancels all pains but likewise we acknowledg it takes away all inclination to former Vices at least out of the spiritual part of men and so leaves no matter for the fire of Purgatory to work upon which burneth onely ill affections 7. In his seventh Number he cryes out against this Principle that the Soul now become a pure Spirit should retain her Affections to Bodily Objects and thinks this misbeseems a Philosopher to say therefore I think my best play is to say I speak as a Divine For I hope so to have the protection of all those who say that in Hell the Souls are unrepentant and obstinate in their sins and sinful desires Nevertheless if he will needs appeal to Philosophy let him consider what Plato 10. de Rep. What Cebes what the Pythagoreans teach and Virgil out of Philosophers Conjux ubi pristinus illi Respondet curis aequatque Sichaeus amorem And again Quae gratia currum Armorumque fuit vivis quae cura nitentes Pascere equos eadem sequitur tellure repostos But let us see what he objects against this received Doctrine of Divines and Philosophers Is saith he such a Soul purging her self I answer Yes forsooth I pray if you ever looked into the strife betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh either how a man purgeth himself in his whole life or in some great Battail and Pitch'd-Field see whether both are not compounded of vicissitudinary Victories now of the Spirit now of the Flesh. Reflecting now that the eminency of the separated Soul contains in it self at once more then the whole life-time of an incorporated Soul what must or can we think but that all this contradiction of Wills must be at once in an imperfect separated Soul which is in our life in parts and separated in time 8. He says again Philosophy teaches him that no body loves evil clearly apprehended to be evil that no disguise of good can cheat a separated Soul I must confess both these Propositions to be true and therefore I am forced to say that in Purgatory their love is not about evil objects but truly good and conformable to Nature and their fault consists onely in excess of love which makes them apt to follow their objects where and when they should not 9. His third Objection is How we know the Soul will embrace this wilfulness since it is voluntary and therefore in her liberty not to accept of it or chuse it This Objection hath two faults the one that it doth not distinguish betwixt Voluntary and Free their own Philosophy teaching them that the love of our last End or good in common is a voluntary act but not free The like they teach of the accepting of a medium when there is but one to gain the fore-embraced End The other is that he thinks that this wilfulness begins at Death whereas it doth but continue and began in the Body As the very words of remaining and being conserved do signifie 10. His last Objection is that there is in Purgatory an efficacious repentance and therefore no will to do the like again I answer this word repentance doth stick in my stomack for if it means onely an act of a contrary affection I easily accord it to him for in this consists the torment of a Soul that is vitious either in this World or in the next that she has contrary Affections in her self one fighting against the other for the general inclination to her last Good can never be rooted out and no Vice can be but contrary to this inclination But if Repentance be taken for the revoking cancelling or blotting out of the unlawful desire I doubt it would prove an Heresie to put that and that the Soul shall remain in Purgatory for then she would have no blemish in her 11. In his eighth Number he prosecutes the same but against all Divinity and himself For whereas he puts that after this life there is no place for
his twelfth Number ne seems something to stumble at his fire because the Grecians explicate it a fire not combustive and the good man does not perceive that that signifies no corporeal fire For as if one should say a knife but not made to cut a beetle but not made to maul an eye but not made to see it were plain he must needs take away the essence of the thing signified by the word and by consequence the property of the speech so he that says a fire but not a burning one clearly speaks of no material fire For Fire is as properly an instrument of Burning as a Beetle of knocking or a Knife of cutting 13. In this thirteenth Number he pretends to reveal a mystery as he calls it of surceasing frâ—m action by pure cessation An high mystery that surceasing is cessation Well But let us seek to understand this mystery if we can reach to it Painfully purging fire says your Divine being elevated as an instrument of God's revenging will to produce in such intensness that afflictive spiritual quality with which the Soul is tortured acteth so long and no longer then his Justice moves his Will to apply it Then that fire that acted onely as obedientially elevated by his Will can now act no farther Behold the mystery c. And I submit for what is sayd passes all understanding Philosophers which use commonsense in their Philosophy tell us that a Knife of it self hath a fitness to cut But when a Carver takes it to make a Statue or other pretty Work Art doth elevate the Knife to an higher work then it hath by the proprieties of its Nature which make it onely able and fit to cut Likewise a Pipe or Recorder of its own qualities is fit by the inspiration of air to make one sound as we see in the drone of a Bag-pipe but when a Musician useth it there comes from it a song which the Art of the Musician makes dependently from the natural sound of the Pipe This now understanding Philosophers call elevating the Knife or Pipe that is to make the natural Action of the Pipe more perfect and excellent then their proper qualities did dispose to But in later ages Mysterious Divinity by the assistance of canting Philosophy is soar'd beyond all wisdom and tells you That all Creatures have in them an Obediential power to do what God will have them As for example If God will have a Knife to create an Angel the Knife will presently do it in vertue of its Obediential power And if you say a Knife signifies an instrument or power to cut and look that it shall make an Angel by cutting as it makes a Statue they take you for a dull fellow and repeat to you that it doth not this by its nature but by its obediential virtue So that if you will stick to the solemn Principle that nothing doth but what it can do and nothing can do but what is virtually in it this Knife must be by Obediential power which nevertheless they say to be the very Entity of the Knife the nature of all things which it may be elevated to make to wit a Man a Horse an Eagle an Angel and all sorts of Angels O height of Learning Is not this a pure MYSTERY Truly it seems to me no less But yet his Mystery is higher for when the time comes that the punishment is enough God and Fire and Soul remaining unchanged the fire leaveth to work by a deep understanding of God's Judgment and without changing becomes changed from an actour to a thing not able to act Is not this pretty stuff to beat poor Pulpits withall Are not the Schollers brought up in such Principles like to be great Lights of the Church and their Masters worthily held for the Masters of the World Who shall tell us that every thing is all things and the same thing without any change now able to work now not against common sense and the first notions common to Mankind SIXTH DIVISION Containing an Answer to his twenty first Chapter Our Saviour's sufferings not forc'd More mistakes of our Doctrin The improportion of the pains he puts Places from Scripture answered His success in impugning of our Opinion concorning the indivisible duration of Souls His Ignorance of the Ground of Eviternity 1. HIs 21. Chapter beginneth with that question Whether the pains his way pâ—…ts are to any purpose In which it is explicated already how by the name of Pains are understood the Instruments which are proper to his way For as to the griefs seeing we both put the same no question can be between us Now to shew any utility in their proper explication he never goes about it he penetrates the matter so little Nor is there any fruit imaginable to the Souls there to be reaped out of this that the pains come from an extrinsecal Agent but rather they are more profitable if they come from an intrinsecal source Nor to us can there come any profit seeing they cannot be known but by Revelation of which there is none since it is constantly known that the Latin Church consented to the Greek Church to hold without opposition there was no true fire besides so the torments be the same what matter is it how they are made But he presses that whether the Fire be corporal or no concerns not the main question The which though it be true immediatly because to be corporeal fire may stand without the ending of the torments before the Day of Judgment yet peradventure the ending of Torments before the Day of Judgment is not necessary yet rationally is joyn'd with the succession of the pains and that with the corporiety of the causes 2. My Objection went higher and sayd such kind of pains would prove no pains but pleasures to the Souls of Purgatory being they could not but rejoyce at the means of gaining Beatitude and even in this World great courage takes away the force of the torment which they could not want His Answer is that our Saviour's courage was greater then any man's and the good to be obtained by his Passion motive enough to rejoyce yet hindered not either sorrow in his soul or that his pains were unparallel'd This Objection I answer'd already in Religion and Reason pag. 146. wherefore I may be shorter here onely admonishing him that the divinity which says our Saviour had those griefs by force and that his Soul was not able to have hindered them even by the natural perfection it had is too low for a Champion of his Company Let him look upon the Transfiguration and there see what the power of Christ's Soul was over its Body Let him look how he dy'd cum clamore which moved the Assistants to knock their breasts and say Vere Filius Dei â—rat Which your Divine may do well also to do for divulging this Doctrin so prejudicious to Christ's honour as to put him to have been forced by natural causes to the sorrow
and pains which he suffer'd Out of which Doctrin depends a very ill consequence that not onely Christ's fancy but even his concupiscible part was subject to tentation and passion Now if your Divine doth not hold this why doth he apply it here to shew that the constancy of the Souls in Purgatory cannot abate their sufferings from extern causes and turn them to pleasures Another pitiful answer he adds that 〈◊〉 Torments of Purgatory do not cause the entrance to Heaven but onely remove what hinders it As if he that destreth Heaven were not glad to have the hinderances taken away 3. In his third Number he pâ—etends to answer the improportion betwixt corporeal pains and spiritual offences but by his great skil in missing of the question his first Answeâ— returns the question upon us as if we held that some are burned more grievously or longer then others at the Day of Judgment The which is a pure mistake of our Doctrin as I have often repeated His second Objection is of the bodies of the blessed and damned the which he mistakes also thinking those pains and glories to be immediatly proportioned to the Acts of Vertue or Vice which they are not But the immediate proportions are of the Acts of the blessed or damned Souls in their lives and in their ending states Now as these Acts are stronger so do they diffuse into their bodies different qualities and hence it followeth that the bodies are proportionably rewarded not that the good or ill of the body hath any proportion to the merits or demirits but because the dispositions of the bodies follow 〈◊〉 of the final acts and dispositions of the souls which have proportion 4. He presses Scripture First out of the Apoâ—alyps where there is no mention of corporeal and spiritual but meerly of demerits and punishments Secondly from Job Chap. 〈◊〉 desiring that his offences and punishments â—…ight be weighed in a pair of Sâ—ales What shall I say If your Divine were asked whether the least venial sin be not worse then all the Torments Job suffered he would say questionless Yes What then doth he mean to make of this saying of Job That Job was a Fool to make such a proposition Surely in his way no less can be understood But that we may not onely confute simplicity but deliver true Doctrin we must tell him that Job cast his eyes upon the Providence God useth over the good and bad in this World to shew to his unpitiful friends that those harms were not come upon him for his excess of misbehaviour beyond others but out of God's special pleasure So that this example is nothing at all to our question since it speaks nothing but of God's external Providence in this World 5. Like to this is his next out of Levititus where to several sins several offerings were parallel'd the which it seems he would have to be understood as if the gifts were the true worth of the offence which I believe our Casuists and Ghostly Fathers will not allow of Another Objection is from the Proposition made by our Divines to the Greeks and by them not admitted which in great words he vents saying All the Latinâ— Church stands accused of folly Here the force of the Objection lyes in the word folly a worthy Objection as the most of his are For no man doubts but every speculative proposition which is false may be in rigour called folly but civility gives this name onely to such falsities as are avoided by the most of that Art or Science to which the discovery of such follies appertain Now to make an Argument this Proposition must be termed folly though in the same breath he professes few do avoid it He repeats divers other Authorities which as far as we got the books we examin'd in the places in which they were first urged He adds the practice of Indulgences But every man knows they are proportioned to the Poenitential Canons not the Laws of Purgatory when it is sayd so many days or years pardon and for the plenary delivery it hath been heretofore discussed At last he comes to reason and there he tells us that God looks not on the Physical Nature of the Acts but upon the Moral But what this Moral signifies he declares not Now according to my skill I must profess that I take it to be a meer nonsensical expression when it is apply'd to spiritual acts For an act of the will is Morality it self and how much it is physically harmful to the soul so much is it morally naught and how far profitable so much is it morally good so that to distinguish moral and physical in intrinsecal acts of the will is but to give a bob instead of a bit a name instead of a thing a covered mess without any meat in it 6. In his fourth Number your Divine as it seems feels himself in some streights for he crys for room and not without effect for he hath found a matter of twenty Leaves to examin one discourse yet I fear he has not made room in his brain for truth which is so elevated that a fancy stuft with corporeal imaginations and the sounds of unexamin'd words can afford it no place Nevertheless I must try to break in if not into his yet into our common Auditours apprehension Si qua fata aspera rumpam 7. In his fourth and fifth Number he explicates my Arguments for the most part truly whether sufficiently or no our encounter must declare Number sixth he begiâ—â— his hattery with telling us that he hath shew'd it to be contrary to the Doctrin both of the Church and of our own profession Ch. 17. N. 12. and 13. Where our answer also is given as far as depends not from this place The substance of it is that a present relief of the dead by prayers is neither the expectation of the Church or understanding Persons of their own opinion who all teach we must remit circumstances and substance also to Gods high Counsels and will And besides it is declared how the unchangeableness of spirits hinders not that the souls have relief in Purgatory and that Relief at the very time of prayers is contrary to the very sence of their own Divines 8. After this your Divine is equivocated something strangely not distinguishing between the duration of a Spirit and our measuring of that duration For no man disputes this with him whether we apprehend the duration of Angels or Souls as we do the durations of Bodies and so say that such a thing or action endured so many days weeks moneths or years But whether their proper duration be conformable to our apprehensions or that our apprehensions be as to the truth a weak babling fit for us but far below the truth of the thing and no more like it then a Body is to a Spirit So he need not trouble himself whether our expressions be by true time for they are by that same time by which we measure our
an unknown Authour 1. WE are now come to the so often promised two and twentieth Chapter and hope to have the happiness to see the Mysteries worthy of so great expectation but they ly not in the first four Numbers whereof the first contains no more then a weak explication of my Tenets the which I will take notice of as occasion and his Errours themselves shall present In the second Number your Divine wonders to see all School-men taxed of Ignorance So should I to see his wonderment if I did not know the cause of it For every School-man who thinks himself sure of his conclusion cannot chuse but tax all that be against him of ignorance in that point But those Divines who think nothing to be certain or which is all one true for what is not certain is not true to him to whom it is uncertain have no reason to tax others of Ignorance knowing themselves to be ignorant in verity thinking there is no Science upon this Argument which to them seems evident We have as much knowledg as any body but we have no Science therefore no body has any The Major Pride and Vanity makes evident to them The minor experience demonstrates to them and others And the conclusion is not onely the Condemnation of all School-men but of human Nature it self But this must be born withall because they say it who call themselves All the world the whole Church c. though never so impudently I that do nothing but what every good Divine doth and is obliged to do that is to say who apprehend that all who hold not that which I conceive to be true are amiss in this point am unsufferable and to be condemned upon the score of many being against me Again your Divine wonders to see St. Thomas stand accused to have mistaken somewhat that followed out of a former Verity acknowledged by him And because it was apparent that this bore no blame but is a thing necessarily befalling to any Divine who writes very much and arises from the weakness of our nature your Divine adds out of his own Treasure that he is accused of missing grosly the which all who know my respect to that great Doctour know I would not say even if I thought it true His third and fourth Numbers are but a repeating of the same Doctrin and Testimony of St. Thomas 2. In his fifth Number he proposeth to shew that Angels and Spirits have change of Intellections and Affections And first he tells us how Angels and Souls come to know to wit by Gods infusing of certain Entities called Specieses of the which he bestows upon every one what is conformable to their natures and this in his first Number he takes for my Doctrin Which because it is not so I am constrained to lay forth a short declaration of my Doctrin in this point Which is that in an Angel out of the force of his creation his Essence is actually in his intellective Power that is is actually underderstood Now to understand a thing connected to his Essence the Essence it self is cause enough as the hollow of a bowl seen is sufficient to make us understand what globosity is necessary to the filling of that vacuity So out of the Essence of an Angel is to be understood both the quality of the cause which is to make it and the quality of such matters upon which the Angel can or is made to act that is God above him and Bodies below him as far as they have connexion with him And these two parts we think to be connected with all other Creatures whatsoever Whence the extent of his knowledg we conceive to be all existeâ—t substances and all their actions which follow the substances As for the manner of his knowledg instead of syâ—â—ogistical discourse we conceive to be such an intuition as sometimes we have after we have found a truth by discourse and for the most part have in the assenting to those Verities which we call per se nota So that an Angel sees in his Essence that there is a God as clearly as we see the verity of this truth that the whole is greater then its part And in the same manner he sees in God that God hath made the world and so every other verity as it hangs to these by a connexion in vertue of which we might draw the same consequences if we had Science time which he draws without time by force of pure intuition and intuitive strength He cannot then know the farther conclusion without knowing the nearer nor any other without knowing his Essence 3. You will easily see by this that an Angel cannot have the knowledg of a particular thing or accident without having the actual knowledg of all the causes on which it doth depend and therefore that his actual knowledg is extreamly large To which if we joyn that whatsoever is foreknown strengthneth and prepareth the understanding towards the succeeding knowledg you wil not fear the understanding's being clogged with too many objects And out of that you will see a necessity that the Angel must see all things at once unless there be some that have no connexion with those which are linked to his Essence and that such he can never see unless by some unnatural means And so you have my thoughts of the manner and extent of Angelical knowledg And the like apprehension I frame of separated Souls though there be some differences which concern not our present quarrel In his sixth seventh eighth and ninth Numbers he pretends that this our Doctrin is against many verities which we know by Faith Whether these that Angels know not future things depending of hazard or the present secrets of mens Hearts or the number of elect or damned be any of these which he thinks to be of Faith I know not but I well know that I know no ground why they should by any understanding Divine be so accounted and since there is nothing for them but some places of Scripture enlarged beyond the intention of Scripture and one prayer of the Church and all these in common without any special mention of Angels attributed to God alone in which kind of speeches God is commonly understood to include his Ministers and to be contradistinguished onely against the knowledg of Men without entring into the nature of Spirits unknown to us and not concerning our government in way of Christian life to be curious of The like is of the souls knowing what their posterity do in the Earth taken out of the 14. of Job Which out of the Hebrew Text we understand to be that the dead man takes no notice of his posterity non advertit eis to wit he meddles not with it or them which is also a legitimate sence of the word ignoravit when it is said Esay 6â— Abraham nescivit nos Israel ignoravit nos See Muscariâ—m Ventilatio 7. 4. In his tenth Paragraph he cites out of St. Thomas that
comparison to Aristotl's demonstration and saying that in Aristotl's way there be insuperablr difficulties which uses to be the saying of those who understand not this Demonstration of Aristotle which is fundamenta to Philosophy and acknowledged by all who deserves the name of Philosophers And so you may see I did well to promise him no demonstrations who know not what they signify but thinks every Anthropomorphitical explication of Scripture to be Demonstrative EIGHTH DIVISION Containing an Answer to his twenty third and twenty fourth Chapters Our Opinion avouch'd by true Philosophy Hiâ— Calumny of our Teâ—ets God's Gâ—… of the Synagogue different from that of the Church The notion of the word Merit The connaturalâ—ess of the pains we put and the needlesness of his The many ill-consequences and absurdities of the Opinion that all Venial affections are blotted out by Contrition in the first Act of Separation The â—illiness of his Opinion that souls in Purgatory cannot help themselves His probable Divinity His non-sâ—… that lyability to be punisht without Fault is 〈◊〉 blem isâ— refuâ—ed 1. I cannot but complain of your Divine that having promised such wonders in the last discussed Chapter he came off so pitifully that where he had the advantage of human apprehension against me he gave me not as much as occasion to explicate my Doctrin unless I should have gone and stray'd from his Text. His oppositions were pure opinions without any sight of Evidence His Authority for the most part of St. Thomas from whom in this point we professedly recede His Scripture such as he himself is bound to solve in respect of Almighty God So that in its words it has no force and all the force must come out of this whether the nature of Angels requires to have the words explicated improperly or no which he may suppose but goes not about to prove otherwise then from uncertain Authority His solutions to admit contradiction or else propose some Argument by halfs The rest of his Chapter high words 2. Howsoever I hope his three and twentieth Chapter will make amends for the question is not so Metaphysical as the other was It begins with an explication of my Doctrin disguis'd in high terms yet true ones for the greatest part In his second Number he accuseth it of being against Philosophy to say that God so order'd all things in the beginning that he need not since put his hand to it By which if he understands that God doth not continue conserving of his creatures it is not my Doctrin If he grants Conservation to God though the truth is that Conservation is but the very Act of first Creation though in name and notion it be divers then I must see how he proves it against Philosophy For saith he no natural cause can produce the soul of a man and therefore God must do some new action when there is an exigence of creating a soul. I grant no creature can create a â—oul but affirm that the first act of Creation creates every soul when time is without farther or greater Influence of God He may reply he understands not this To which my answer is that I beleeve him but cannot help him seeing it is not here place to explicate Mysteries of incident Philosophical points He may help himself if he pleases with my Institutiones both Peripaticae and Sacrâ— He adds two other Philosophical necessities he finds one of the necessity of Gods actual concourse with second causes the other of Gods choosing Individâ—…s for the second causes to produce The former as far as it hath sence in it is done by the Action of Creation or Conservation by which God sets the Angels on work to move celestial Bodies from whose motion actual motion flows into all other causes and this is the true either premotion or concourse of God with creatures plain and visible The other which I fear he means hath no kind of Philosophy nor Divinity in it The choosing of Individâ—… is the rascallest and the ridiculousest Position that ever was affirmed by any scum of Philosophers You see what sound maximes â—e takes to impugn the perfection of God's Wisdom 3. In his fourth Number he begins to employ his Divinity And first he asks what natural cause can raise dead bodies and give them due torments And I must answer with a reply of a question to wit when this is to be done While the Fabrick of Nature holds or when it is ended If when it is ended how comes it to our purpose Or is not he grosly mistaken to put this amongst the workings of Nature Yet that the course of Natural Causes does prepare the World even to this unmaking of Nature you may find in the last book of my Institutiones Sacrâ— For the proportionable pains the Soul of themselves will cause those as you may see in the same book To fill up here a Page with his own opinion of Purgatory was besides the matter for we doubt not but that he puts more Wilfulness then Wisdom in God Almighty's Actions 4. His main Answer begins N. 3. where he tells us that it is Heresie to make natural causes to have vertue sufficient to bring man by themselves alone to his final end of Eterâ—… Bliss And then he tells you that our prime Argument is the same that Pâ—…gius's to wit that every natural Agent ought to have power given it from the Author of Nature to bring it self to its natural perfection But first I would enquire where â—e sound in any Writing of mine the Proposâ—â—on he condemns If I say that God hâ—th ordain'd second causes to do all effects which are not to be seen to be miraculous do I exclude supernatural causes Are not Christ's coming and Preaching the coming of the Holy Ghost the Habits of Faith Hope and Charity the Prayers and Preaching and good Works proceeding from men thorough such Habits the Sacraments the whole â—orm of the Church all Supernatural causes interwoven with natural To what purpose then doth this man talk that natural causes are not sufficient to bring a man to Heaven Is it not plain he knows neither what I say nor what himself See how just our Argument is the same with the Pelagâ—â—n's Out of this you see his Answer is like to be a good one and so it is For Numb 8. he hath so I answer As man's last 〈◊〉 cannot be reâ—ched by Nature so is it out of the reach of natural causes by their natural operation to chastise man's sinning proportionably to his voluntary acting against his supernatural end My Reply is that he must seek out to whom to answer for I never talked of purely natural causes but natural and supernatural together as they compound all second causes But the good man could think of no supernatural causes but God himself working immediately and so strayed to seek out why such actions were not miraculous which we will not follow him to because it is not concerning to our Theme 5.
Yet I may deliver one Doctrin which I know not whether he has reflected on or no which is that before Christ Miracles belonged to the Ordinary Government of the Church by God Almighty since Christ and his Apostles time these are become parts of Extraordinary Providence This I speak by reason of his great insisting upon pains in the Old Testament which followed not connatural to the sins For no small part of the motives proposed to the Jews were temporal Commodities which are propounded unto Christians meerly as accidents not to be sought for according to that saying Quâ—rite primum regnum Dei caetera adjicientur vobis And St. James tells us Siquis indiget sapientia postâ—let a Deo dabitur ei but for any thing else he does not tell us so but we know they are sometimes granted and sometimes denyed But in the Old Law the Prophets fore-told both punishments and rewards and they failed not Now that sort of Government is turned into a better and we have order to govern our selves by Reason and Faith is given us to help and strengthen our Reason that it may reach the motives propounded to us out of the state of the next World and to expect rewards and punishments there which spring out of our lives here according to the words of the Apostle that Afflictions here do work glory in Heaven and the other that their works follow them And this to those who use understanding Divinity is signified by the word meritorious After this he makes a repetition of some Arguments many times told over and at last Number 12. he tells us that he never sayd that after that God is in part pacified there still remains in him a boyling of his fury not quite allayed But says he we speak of a most just and rational proceeding in God c. What mood the good man was in when he wrote this I know not For the words express as if he meaned that before God is in part pacified there were in God a boyling of fury and not a just and rational proceeding 6. I told you somewhat of the signification of this word Meritorious but I fear I must eat it again For in his 24. Chapter Number second he tells us that when Nature by Death hath put a man out of this World she hath put his soul out of her reach c. So that now in this state the nature of a meritorious cause occurs to be consider'd by Divinity and Aristotle his Philosophy must stand in great part out of doors Farewel then poor Aristotle and his Philosophy Yet because he is a Philosopher he will ask a cause why he should be turn'd out of doors Let us then look into this Mystery If that a Work-man hath bestow'd a days work upon another man's ground he receives at night what according to the manner of living in that Countrey and the quality of the work is esteemed equal to his labour If a Souldier in a Battle or Siege did eminent service towards the winning of the â—attle or Town his General consults what is fitting to stir up others to dare the like and the Souldier receives it And both the Work-man and the Souldier are sayd to have deserved their rewards Another Work-man for example a Watch-maker makes a Watch and hath it and the fruit of it to know the hour of the day but is not sayd to deserve the Watch. And another Souldier goes out upon his enemies and getteth a good booty and is not sayd to have deserved it What is the reason of this variety of language Why the later used the natural causes of the effect which by their own force produc'd it The other got not this particular reward by a natural but by a rational means that is by pleasing one in whose power it was to bestow it upon him If this be well discoursed then also concerning Souls rewards if they be such as follow not out of the force of the disposition which their works have made the Soul to have in the next world but God by his arbitrary will determins to give them what he thinks best out of the General Principles by which he governs the World these rewards will be sayd properly to be deserved On the other side if the rewards are necessarily consequent to the disposition on which the Soul departs out of her body they will be properly called Effect improperly to be deserved 7. Applying this to our case that is to the pains of Purgatory let us see what is to be said And first I ask what pains doth the fire of Purgatory inflict upon the Souls I suppose your Divine will answer Griefs and Sorrows The next question are the griefs of Objects that deserve to be grieved for as it is fit for Holy Souls to have I suppose he will again say Yes The third question Would not she of her self have all those griefs I think he cannot chuse but say Yes and not put a new fault in the Souls not to have a grief which they ought to have The fourth Question is If she have this grief is it not a punishment layd upon her by God notwithstanding that it proceeds from their natural inclination which God gave them amongst other Reasons to punish their faults I know not what he can deny The fifth Question What then does the fire do make the same over again or increase it The former answer is absur'd To the later we ask the sixth Question Is not the grief of a holy and separate Soul proportionable to the offence or ill it did in this World If it be God's Justice requires no greater If it be not a probable cause must be rendred why a less sorrow would have quitted the sin in life and now such an excess will not Or else for any thing that I see Aristotle will claim a share for his Reasons in the next VVorld as well as in this which if your Divine will grant us we will in silence pass over his two first N. N. 8. In his third Number he cuts out a new piece of work to his friends which is that an act of contrition which they put in the first instant of it's nature taketh away pain as well as guilt therefore say we it must take away the pâ—ins of Purgatory if it hath there power to take away the guilt as in this World it usually does and would do if that act were here done seeing it springs out of the whole Heart and power of the Soul His first answer is that Bellarmin hath say'd much to this difficulty which your Divine passes over with a Besides and upon so good an authority I cannot doubt but that it deserves to be lay'd aside His second Solution is out of Saint Thomas which neither your Divine does stand to nor as it seem Saint Thomas himself making no mention of it in a later work where he handleth the question largely Wherefore omitting it let â—…me to the third
to all this that the very procuring of Masses is the greatest Act of Charity that a Lay-man can do speaking of exteriour acts and regularly For the procuring of Masses discreetly performed and of its own nature works not onely that Priests be maintain'd but also makes them devout and good The goodness of the Priest is the very health and happiness of the Parish The Spiritual good of the Parish is the greatest good that speaking of regular and not extraordinary heroical Works is found in Man's life therefore the procuring of Masses is the greatest extern Charity that any private Lay-man can do when it is done with prudence and discretion 18. I believe the rest of his Chapter is already answered For we scoff not at the multitude of Masses but at the indiscretion of using them and procuring them Nor do your Arguments perswade us that Rich-men are in any thing in better state then the Poor not onely for accidental considerations but for the very substance The Rich may do greater-acts of Charity but not acts of greater Charity they may relieve other Bodies and Souls more then poor men but poor men have as much power to help their own as the richest The Rich may procure more to pray for them but the Poor can pray for themselves as well as the Rich which is the certain and essential good And if you ask me whether these be not great enticements of Avarice I answer no Avarice but keeps its goods until death these men for the most part do their Alms while they live which makes no Avarice though they should procure Riches for such an end the which I believe is rare Our Wise-men have a saying I will make my own Hands my Executours and my Eyes my Overseers Whose Estates permit them this is their way for this perfects the heart extirpates or moderates the love of Temporalities in them which is the main good But the hope of good by what Nature takes away from them leaves the desires as great as ever to the last gasp St. Austin advances an Opinion that he who fears God and behaves himself like a Christian onely upon the fear of Torments in the next World is no good Christian and shall not reach to Heaven He says it is the love of Heaven and not the fear of Hell makes a good Christian. I will not interpose my verdict in this Controversie but will not he say the like of those who onely for fear of the pains of Purgatory part with their Goods to the Church when they cannot keep them when by Nature they are their Heirs Goods not theirs Will he not say it is no act done out of Charity and therefore doth them no good And as for the prayers of them who pray for the Donour besides the uncertainty of whether how and when they shall have effect let us but reflect that we cannot doubt but that if prayers can do the effect they cannot want the prayers of all Saints and Angels which must needs be more acceptable then ours But the difference is that they pray for nothing but what they know shall take effect by their prayers because they see what God's Providence and determination bears We pray blindly and many times for that which is not decreed by the Eternal Providence and so cannot be granted And this many times thorough concupiscence like to St. James's phrase Petitis non accipitis quia petitis ut in concupisâ—…s vestris insumatis So do we through natural desires or love without sufficient resignation and so give cause on our own parts to be deny'd 19. In his eleventh Number he answers the abuse of multiplying Priests to ferve in dead Masses to the devotion of the people by saying that if the Decrees of the Council of Trent were observed notwithstanding these Opinions Priests would not be over multiplyed The which as I will not contest so I may well say your Divine doth not consider that the maintaining of these Opinions is the cause why the Orders of the Councils cannot be observ'd thorough the importunity of credulous People which leaves not Bishops free to look to the observation of the Holily instituted Canons chiefly to thiâ— Incerta etiam quâ— speciâ— falsi laborant evulgari ac tractari non permittant The Council forbids uncertain opinions to be handled before the People your Divine teaches the People to leave the Ancient and Apostolical devotion to pray for a happy Day of Resurrection to fix their thoughts upon the uncertainty of being freed from imaginary pains which the Holy St. Catharine of Genua commended by my Adverâ—aries for one of the most illuminate Saints of our Age says they would not be freed from but by satisfying God's Justice Towards the end he cites us a speech of Gâ—nadius to say that it whatsoever that relates for the doth not declare iâ— but I think t is praying for the Dead was not decreed that the Priests might thereby gain their maintenance but for the good of the Dead which is to be understood with discretion as not to deny the one but to prefer the other For seeing St. Paul and God himself tells us that the Priests are to live by the service of the Altar it would be a very unadvised speech to deny the maintenance of Priests to be a secondary intention of the Church though the first and chiefest were the good of the Dead 20. He begins his last Chapter with telling us how inviâ—cible Arguments he has brought out the practice of the Church which makes me think the good man means honestly and verily perswades himself he hath done wonders His Arguments and my Answer may be compared together and the Reader thereupon give judgment As to what is particular in this Chapter in his second Number he not content with the translation made before him of those words Donum fac Remissionis himself mends it so Thy Pardons grant not to delay until the last accompting day Where he puts in the word last and in stead of saying Give Pardon he puts not to delay the Pardon The which though they leave the true sense yet they change the face of the speech and make shew as if until the very last day there were place for remission of which in the Latin there is no appearance but onely a desire of pardon while time is to wit in this life insinuating nothing whither after death there is place for Pardon until the Day of Judgment or no which his words make shew of such craft there is in dawbing 21. He seeks many ways of solving the plain prayers of the Church as saying the Church imagins this to be yet before the Soul is departed or that they are not spoken by the Dead but by him who prays And I cannot deny that if such explications be admitted to be the explications of men who proceed sincerely to understand the mind of the Church and not who seek to draw the words of the Church to their
own Errour any words may be so coloured As I remember my Master of Philosophy taught all to explicate Aristotle when he was against us by saying Aristoteles loquitur cum vulgo But if this be an unworthy practise let us see what his fourth Number offers us To wit that whereas we object to them how the whole face of the Churches prayers is directed to the Day of Judgment and not one word insinuated of remission of pains before that day which is an irrefragable testimony of the Churches meaning he seeks to retort the same Argument by saying Why does not the Church pray for the acceleration of the Day of Judgment To which we answer she does it perpetually For he that prays for good at the Day of Judgment prays for the Day of Judgment and he that prays for the Day of Judgments coming prays it may come as soon as possibly So that the Church prays perpetually for it when she prays for the Dead but their fixedness on their Opinion permits them not to see it 22. In his fifth Number he answers our Argument from Foundations for prayers until the Day of Judgment because those who made them were notoriously of their Opinion opposite to ours But we must expect more ground to believe that For such Foundations are sayd to be in France ever since the Children of Charles the Great 's time who were instructed by Alcuinus And therefore were of his and our English Saxon Opinion And later Foundations were made by the imitation of the former and though since the University of Paris got a great Vogue this new Opinion hath been amongst the Doctours yet it cannot be doubted but for a great while the Churches governed themselves by their anâ—ient Customs and by little and little admitted the Opinions of learned men Wherefore it is not to be admitted without proof that the Authours of perpetual Foundations proceeded out of an Opinion contrary to their practice He wonders how the Church should prefix a time to praying for the same soul. I answer by Revelation if she did accept of Opinions by private Revelations for why might not some Saint have a Revelation that no Soul lay in Purgatory more then 100 years as well as that such a Soul layd but three days What discretion of Prelates can provide that particular souls may have proportionable prayers I understand not for where there is not knowledg enough to found a ghess there discretion has no place 22. Here we might have made an End had not a saying of our Holy Bishop of Rochester stuck in his stomach I do not remember where I have made uâ—â— of that place But I less find to what purpose he brings it more then to frame an irreverent Interpretation of his own and impose it upon me and to take occasion to leave the Reader 's mouth season'd with a scandalous â—alumny againstâ— me as if that I favour'd Luther Whereas it is one of the greatest signs of Truth to be betwixt two opposite Errours Luther's and his and therefore no wonder if he cryes it sâ—ells of Luther's Doctrin as ever the middle Truth is wont to be calumniated by the extream Errours He repeats here that I deny the three Propositions he mention'd in his proof against me because I understand them like a Divine and not in his gross Market-way He tells us that supposing the Pope's Definitions be not infallible yet it is rashness not to admit such determinations and for so much he cites Veron But this â—olly to think Propositions and the like is of actions to be temerarious in common I have spoken of before In particular an Action is rash when it is not done upon good grounds But to say there cannot be good grounds to oppoâ—… a Proposition supposed to be false is beyond Logick As likewise it is against my Divinity to say that a true Proposition may have opposition to Principles solidly deduced from Fâ—… Which if it be not directly condemned in the Later an Council under Leo the tenth it is by consequence The words are these Sâ—…g that one truth is not contrary to another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Propositions contrary to a truth known by Faith to be wholly false and do strictly coâ—… it not to be lawful to teach any otherwise And decree that all such as adhere to such Propositions are to be avoided and punished as Hereticks And so leaving him and the Divulgers of his Book this Bit to chaw upon I remit what is sayd on both sides to yours and all judicious Readers Judgments POSTSCRIPT SIR I have teceived the second part of Mr. M's remembrance to pray for the dead but to what purpose you sent it I do not know I cast my view over it and find it divided into two parts The one contains the Motives of praying for the dead the second â—…e Practise As to the first saving that he supposes his falsity for truth and the Divines imagination of the separable vertues of Satisfaction and Merit and Impetration in every charitable act which hath been sufficiently discoursed of his whole Doctrin is common to both opinions The proper Motives are contained in the three first Chapters in which there is no difference more then some applications of the same words diversly The seven following Chapters comprehend Motives common to all charitable actions and so unless it be in some considerable passages are common to all good books that exhort to any good work The five last Chapters lay forth a petty manner of devotion fit enough for weak souls and therefore not to be hindered What he says of Indulgences hath been twice answered in the book Some things there are in these last Chapters which deserve to be excepted against but because they require the declaration of some Principles of Devotion which I have not as yet explicated I hold it better to speak nothing then to speak without profit Those who understand any thing of devotion and perfection know that Charity is the end of it all and therefore know that those good acts whatsoever they be that increase Charity in our own souls are the best and that Charity is the love of God or of Bliss for so St. Thomas out of St. Austin defines Charity that it is motus Animi ad Deum ut fruendum The minds moving it self to the enjoyment of God Who then will understand what acts are best let him consider how much they advance this Love of God and whether he be onely a Christian or also a Directour let him select to his charge such actions as have the greatest power to make the soul he looks to more solid and fervent in the Love of God as of his last end For the substance of actions the nobler actions fit the nobler souls and fo are to be proposed unto them and as no body can doubt but it is better to hinder a soul from going to Purgatory and much more from going to Hell then to free it out of Purgatory so
actions which cause men to be good in this world are more to be recommended to comprehensive souls But if any one thorough subjectness to passion and shortness of discourse is more moved to Charity by corporeal apprehensions then by strength of reason this praying for the dead is well proposed to him Though the truth is it doth enervate the perfection of Charity not onely in it self by entrenching upon true resignation but also concerning the special fruit of praying for the dead of which the wise man admonishes us saying it is better going to the house of wayling then to the house of banqueting because in the former we are put in mind of the end of all men And J. M. himself cites out of St. Austin that when we celebrate the days of our dead Brethren we ought to have in our mind that which is to be hoped and that which is to be feared that is to say the day of Judgment What a strange humour then is this of men who pretend to devotion to cast away the substantial certain and ever in all Antiquity practised part of praying for the dead to set up a new fallacious uncertain way against the orders of the Church forbidding vncertainties to be taught publiâ—…y to the people against the perfection of those who pray to whom they preach to determin God and to desire a particular effect of which we neither have any promise that it shall be granted nor know whether it stands with Gods providence and even common rules of Government Let then Priests say their Masses and Offices according to the words they find in their Missals and Ceremonials and not frame sences that are not in the words Let them pray as all the former Church hath done and not frame out of Origenical or Chiliastical Principles new inventions to magnify themselves by having some priviledges or more power then others Let them first make it plain that what they profess hath better grounds then such as the Popes call the dreams of devout Persons in their prayers before they impose upon our belief new Articles of Faith Let them not oblige Divines to think that falsities may be solidly connected with Faith and such like Doctrins destructive of Truth and Religion and Devotion I pray also inquire where he found those words in St. Austin whence he father'd that gross absurdity upon him that some should be damned for want of time to be prayed for For I read the Chapter he cites twice over and could espy nothing like it Your Servant T. W. Errata PAg. 28. l. 25. as this is 48. l. 1â— in these 〈◊〉 63. l. â—8 swoun 65. l. 19. struggle 66. l. ult alter the story 67. l. 〈◊〉 â—…ir Inquisition 68. l. 11. severe l. 20. consider how much the torments of this 77. l. 27. we acknowledg 109. l. 28. that the Pope 154. l. 28. If this way 160. l. 18. for fear of being l. 28. knowing 180. l. 6. then we â—udg 181. l. 23. if mine 182. l. 15. Alcuinus 183. l. 24. essence of 184. l. 6. one whether 190. l. 20. not sute p. 19â— l. 6. by â—s 24â— l. 23. change but. 249. l. 16. Peripateticae 253. l. 2. for we FINIS A short Letter sent after the former SInce I writ the former I have found commodity to see the cited Books which before I wanted And can give this accompt of them The Authour of the Oration imposed upon St. John Damascen is an unexcusable Heretick The intent of the Oration to perswade men that however they live they may come to Heaven by other mens Prayers He puts Infidels to have been deliver'd out of Hell by our Saviour Jesus Christ at his descâ—â—sion which St. Gregory declared to be Heresie He puts perfect good works without Faith against the constant Doctrin of St. Paul which is perfect Pelagianism He puts that the Heathen Philosophers knew almost all the Mysteries of our Faith as much as we hear of the Sibyls And to make it wholly fure that he is an Heretick he doth more then half profess his Doctrin is his own invention and that he has evinced against the Prophet saying In inferno quis confitebitur tibi and against the present persuasion of Christians that there is confession in Hell As for Gennadius whom he presses likewise he is of the same stamp He teaches St. John Damascen found this Doctrin of praying for the damned He takes the whole sum of Doctrin out of that Oration He onely cousen'd the Latin Fathers in pretending in common to hold prayer for the dead And being returned into Grece joyn'd with Marcus Ephesinus to annul the Union made in the Council of Florence The work of St. Isidor I find to be none of his but of some Authour who lived about the beginning of the Schools he so perfectly useth the School-terms and so his Authority is no more then of a School-Doctor As for St. Julian of Toledo it is true that he holds the opinion of our Adversaries but so that he confutes their intention For having proposed the question he is so far from saying it was the opinion of the Church that he resolves it as upon his own head and that uncertainly with a Puto I think alleadging St. Austin for his saying whose sentence you have heard examined already So that his Authority is no greater then his ghess that so it is as St. Austin ghessed there might be some such thing So that we have out of St. Julian that it was not the credulity or received opinion in his days By which you will understand how small performances accompany the good mans great boastings And see the growing of their opinion St. Austin ghessed it possible at most for he professes onely not to oppose it The Authour of the Dialogues credited unlikely Revelations St. Julian ghessed it positively St. Odilo and those who follow'd him took it up for certain upon private Revelations The later Greeks upon the like Revelations took praying for damned souls And upon the combining of these two your great Doctour seeks to make it an Article of Faith These short Notes I thought fit to acquaint you with to compleat your satisfaction which done I rest Your Servant Tho. White FINIS