St. John how can he make us believe 1 Jo. 4. 20. that he loves God whom he never saw That which I am to maintaine is that amongst all the acts of faternal charity or works of mercy the most sublime the most pure and the most advantagious of all others is the service we perform for the souls in Purgatory In the History of the incomparable A remarkable passage order of the great St Dominick it is authentically related that one of the first of those holy religious men was wont to say that he found himself not so much concerned to pray for the Souls in Purgatory because they are certain of their salvation and that upon this account we ought not in his judgement to be very sollicitous for them but ought rather to bend our whole care to help sinners to convert the wicked and to secure such souls as are uncertain of their salvation and probably certain of their damnation as leading very leud lives Here it is said he it is here that I willingly employ my whole endeâ—vours It is upon these that I bâ—stow my Masses and Prayers and all that little that is at my disposal and thus I take it to be well bestowed But upon souls that have an assurance of eternal happiness and can never more loose God or offend him I believe not said he that one ought to be so sollicitous This certainly was but a poor and weak discourse to give it no severer a censure and the consequence of it was this that the good man did not only himself forbear to help these poor souls but which was worse disswaded others from doing it and under colour of a greater charity withdrew that succour which otherwise good people would have liberally afforded them But God took their cause in hand for permitting the souls to appear and shew themselves in frightful shapes and to haunt the good man both by night and by day without respit still filling his fancy with dreadful imaginations and his eyes with terrible spectacles and withall letting him know who they were and why with Gods permission they so importuned him with their troublesome visits you may believe the good Father became so affectionately kind to the souls in Purgatory bestow'd so many Masses and Prayers upon them preached so fervently in their behalf stirr'd up so many to the same devotion that it is a thing incredible to believe and not to be expressed with Eloquence Never did you see so many and so clear and convincing reasons as he alleaged to demonstrate that it is the most eminent piece of fraternal charity in this life to pray for the souls departed Love and fear are the two most excellent Oratours in the world they can teach all Rhetorick in a moment and infuse a most miraculous eloquence This good Father who thought he should have been frighted to death was grown so fearful of a second assault that he bent his whole wit to invent the most pressing and convincing arguments to stir up the world both to pitty and piety and so perswade souls to help souls and it is incredible what good ensued thereupon The History does not set down the motives which he either invented or had by inspiration to evidence this truth and therefore I will borrow them of St. Thomas that angel for divinity of the same order and of other Saints and doctours of the Catholick Church § 1. The greatness of the charity to the Souls in Purgatory is argued from the greatness of their pains and their helpless condition SInce there is no torment under Most charity to help tbc greater sufferers Heaven comparable to the pains of Purgatory as you have already seen those unhappy souls must needs be the most afflicted creatures in the world and consequently there cannot be a greater charity then to relieve them The loving mother runs always to her sickest child not but that she is tender of them all and has her heart divided into as many parcels as she has children and sick children but where there is most need there she makes a greater demonstration of her love thither her heart is carried with a greater violence and tenderness of affection where the greatest evil or danger appears As for the rest their condition is not so pressing she speaks to them at leasure and by giving one of them a few comsits a good word to another a smile to a third they are all well contented but he that burns in the Purgatory of a violent feavour it is he that has most need of his mother and so you see her as it were nail'd to his pillow her heart her eyes her hands her mouth and her very bosome lye open to this child and she can think of nothing but him so that where there is a greater share of misery reason requires there should be more compassion and more charity expressed Cast but a morsel of bread to a needy beggar send a good almes to a poor Hospital visite a prisoner give a word of comfort to a sick person and they are very well satisfied but he that lies burning in unmerciful flames alas it is he that ought to move all the bowels of your compassion When the image of Cleopatra with the stinging Aspes at her breasts was carried in triumph before the Romans though otherwise fierce and cruel enough by nature yet could they not hold from shedding a few tears of compassion and truly such a Queen in so sad a condition was not to be lookt upon with dry eyes the other captives yet living did not move them at all in comparison of that unfortunate Princess for all she was only represented in colours upon a painted cloth You Angel-keepers of Purgatory I conjure you to unlock your gates and lay your prison open that I may discover those Kings and Queens I mean those holy Souls of both sexes who are shortly to have their share in the celestial empire that I may lay before the Eyes of the whole Catholick Church those Asps of grief that lye so close at their hearts those cruel flames I say that incessantly devour them and withall the infinite modesty and patience with which they endure all in so much that not one of them lets fall the least froward or inconsiderate word or makes the least complaint against the sweet rigour of God Is there a heart if it be the heart of a man indeed and has but a drop of true Christian blood in it that does not feel it self to be either broken or mollified at so pitiful and lamentable a spectacle to see I say such noble and generous spirits in so deplorable a condition Is there any thing within the whole circumference of the universe so worthy of compassion and that may so deservedly clayme the great'st share in al your devotions and charities as to see our Fathers our Mothers our nearest and dearest relations to lye broyling in cruel flames and to crye to us for help with
are applied to them intention be to help any one in particular who is really in Purgatory so your work be good it is infallibly applied to the party upon whom you bestow it For as Divines teach it is the intention of the offerer which governs all and God of his infinite goodness accommodates himself to the petitioners requeâ—â— applying unto each one what has been offered for his relief If you have no body in your thoughts for whom you offer up your prayers they are only beneficial to your self and what would be thus lost for want of application God lays up in the Treasury of the Church as being a kind of spiritual waife or stray to which no body can lay any just claime And since it is the intention which entitles one to what is offer'd before all others what right can others pretend to it or with what justice can it be parted or divided amongst others who were never thought of And hence I take my rise to Better to pray for few then many resolve your other question that if you regard their best advantage whom you have a minde to favour you had better pray for a few then for many together for since the merit of your devotions is always limited and often in a very smal proportion the more you divide it subdivide it amongst many the lesser share comes to every one in particular as if you should distribute a crown or an angel amongst a thousâ—â—â— poore people you easily see yoâ—â— Almes would be so inconsiderable they would be little better for it whereas if it were all bestowed upon one or two it were enough to make them rich in their conceipts Now to define precisely whether it be alwaies better done to help one or two souls efficaciously then to yeald a little comfort to a great many is a question I leave for you to exercise your wits in I could fancy it to be your best course to do both that is somtimes to single out some particular soul and to use all your power to lift her up to heaven somtimes again to parcell out your favours upon many and now and then also to deal out a general Almes upon all Purgatory And you need not fear exceeding in this way of charity whatsoever you bestow for you may be sure nothing will be lost by it And St. Thomas will tell you for your comfort that since all the souls in Purgatory are perfectly united in charity they rejoyce exceedingly when they see any of their whole number to receive such powerfull helps as to dispose her for heaven they every one take it as done to themselves whatsoever is bestowed upon any of their fellows whom they love as themselves and out of a heavenly kind of curtesy and singular love they joy in her happiness as if it were their own So that it may be truly said that you never pray for one or more of them but they are all partakers and receive a particular comfort and satisfaction by it Me thinks this very consideration should inkindle in your hearts a fresh desire to be often â—olafing those happy souls and to entitle your selves their special benefactours who will never suffer the remembrance of your tender mercies to be blotted out of their gratefull memories But let us now state the case How if we employ otherâ— to help theâ— thus suppose you should employ another to do those good works for the souls whether or no will they have the same effect as if you had done them your self again should this other whom you thus employ be an ungratious fellow whether would all his endeavours be able to give any ease to the souls for whose sakes you procure them I am so taken with the Angelical Doctrine of St. Thomas I le go no further for an answer He tells us then that if you be good and he starke nought by whom you procure for example the Dirge to be said or any other good work to be performed that can be done by a third person for there be some that be personal it does not at all blast the fruit of your devotion nor obstruct the souls benefit for whom you procured it That if he chance to be good so much the better the benefit will be the greater though God look more upon the chief Agent and principal cause then upon the accessory or instrument he thinks fit to make use of That if you be wicked your self and the other good the good work will have its effect and the soul will be assisted by it That if you should be both so unlucky as to be neither of you in the state of grace excepting Masse only which can never fail of its effect all other means you use will be utterly void and of no effect because they proceed from so ungratefull hands and worse hearts Would you have God to accept of his enemies presents and while you refuse to give him your heart to seal with his divine grace would you have him to deliver you up his to dispose of his mercies for the benefit of others No wicked wretch no till you alter your condition do not look that God will appear in his mercy to bestow a Jubily on those holy soules you entreat for nay it falls out somtimes even in this world thâ—â— the pleading of an infamous advocate or a sworn enemy of the Prince or State makes the criminals case more odious and desperate and in lieu of a Gibet procurcs him a wheel or a worse punishment Yet I must tell you and I must conjure you by all the obligations of humanity that be you never so lost a creature never so covered with enormious crimes you never fail at least to procure Masses and to distribute liberall Almes for the relief of the poore souls and this for many reasons First Because the Masse is alwayes to good purpose as having its effect ex opere operato as they speak in schoools or of it self without any relation had to him that says it or causes it to be said Secondly Because they use to say that the last wholsome advice we ought to give to a desperate soul plunged over head and ears in sinne is to be sure alwayes to be good to the poore for sooner or later good will come of it Thirdly It is truly said of alms-deeds that they are good sollicitours and have a most charming Rhetorick to obtain of God and to extort as it were out of his hands what they please In so much that if the sentence of condemnation were already signed in the hands of God it is the expression of St. Chrysologus God Serm. 8. himself would teare it in pieces and revoke the sentence rather then refuse any favour to the mercifull Give Almes sayes the Eccl. 29. holy Ghost and hide it in the bosome of the poore and your Alms will intercede for you So that although you wicked wretch cannot say a good prayer for the
Purgatory Survey OR A Particular accompt of the happy and yet thrice unhappy state of the Souls there ALSO Of the singular Charity and wayes we have to relieve them And of the Devotion of all Ages for the Souls departed WITH Twelve excellent means to prevent PURGATORY AND The Resolution of many Curious and Important Points Printed at Paris 166â— To the truly Noble and Vertuous Lady Mris. D. C. Madam THough this Survey of Purgatory address it self to all Roman Catholikes in general yet is there not the person to whom it is more peculiarly devoted nor indeed any from whom it may with more confidence look for shelter and entertainment then your self For were it a meer stranger to you yet am I so well acquainted with your noble humour and civility to all your guests as not to despair of a friendly wellcome But since it was so lucky as to receive its first birth or at least to begin to breath our English Aire under your roofe it is certainly there it may best challenge countenance and protection now it comes to appear abroad and expose it self to publick view And if I mistake you not you are neither so wedded to the pleasures of this transitory life as not to be more concerned for what passes in the other world nor so taken up with Playes and Romances the usual employment of your sex but that you can lend an eye or an ear now and then and with delight too to spiritual discourses though running in a lower strain not so agreeable to the quaint Palats of our times Howsoever I dare promise you here no unpleasant entertainments I am sure at least you are read a very pleasing lecture in the last Survey For while you see the way for you to scape Purgatory chalked out you will clearly find your self already in it as practising most of the twelve means there prescribed To say nothing of the rest in which no doubt you have a large share I cannot but take notice of two of the most important I mean your singular charity to the poor your patient suffering for a good cause Your loyalty and your noble Consorts to God and your King even when you saw others to renounce both was very remarkable and I think I may safely say with proportion to your Estate you were as great sufferers upon this score as the worst of times could produce And yet you were never so great loosers your selves but you could still have the heart to spare a very liberal proportion to relieve others I could bring instances and enlarge my self upon each particular did not your modesty give me a silent check I will only then conclude with leaving you this comfortable satisfaction to know you are in the ready way to redeem a good part of your Purgatory in this life if not all as he most heartily wishes you may who must ever subscribe himself Madam Your most obliged humble Servant R. T. A Prefatory address to the Catholike Reader Dear Reader THe drift of this Treatise is not to prove Purgatory but taking it for granted as a prime maxime of Catholicism that God has a suffering Church in the other world besides that which triumphes in heaven and is militant here upon earth the design is to set it forth in such lively colours as may not only express its nature as far as we are able to judge of it at so great a distance but raise your thoughts first to a compassionate care for the present of procuring all possible relief for such distressed souls as are already faln under the lash of those merciless torments and secondly to a provident prevention for the future that the like mischief may not involve your selves hereafter Now this being the chief aime of these my labours I am put upon a kind of necessity of giving you the trouble of this Prefatory address For should this Survay of Purgatory fall into any other hands but yours it could look for no better entertainment then to be laid aside for wast paper such as would be some strange Map or Survay of another world which had no other subsistance but in the brains of the Painter For why should the enemies of truth whose belief reaches only to heaven and hell amuse themselves with the consideration of a third place for which they can find no place in their Creed And yet though I presume this will be its common fate when it meets with such persons yet I am very confident the judicious Protestant if he can but find in his heart to peruse these Papers especially the fifth Survay will find more then enough to convince him of this middle state of Souls which we call Purgatory Now to say the truth of this Treatise I know not well how to profess my self the Author nor yet the Translator of it Not Author for I must acknowledge the maine bulke and substance of what I offer to be borrowed of the Reverend Father Steven Binet of the Society of Jesus Not a bare Translatour because I am to do my self so much right as to tell you that I have not tied my self so wholly to that worthy persons method or matter as not to yeeld a little now and then to my own genius but have so made use of his learned pen as to dispose abridge or enlarge where I took it to be more for your satisfaction in this conjuncture of time and place wherein I was to puhlish it As for the language I have taken care neither to have it so bald as not to sute a little with this eloquent age we live in nor yet so flourishing and luxuriant as to dry up the fountains of devotion which I seek to open And if all my endeavours prove but so lucky as to occasion the releasing of any one soul out of Purgatory or the conveying of any other into heaven without passing that way I have my end which is only the greater glory of God and the good of souls There was a Roman Emperour would never dine but he would be feeding his eyes and his thoughts with the contemplation of the torments of hell and the pleasures of the Elizian fields which he had caused to be curiously painted and exposed for that purpose in his dining room I do not press you to use any such devotion or pictures I only offer you this Survay of Purgatory which I beseech you to look often upon and withall to have an eye still upon heaven and the best meant how to send souls thither and to follow them your selves without stepping a side into Purgatory for believe it if you come once there you will find it a very restless and uncomfortable lodging which I pray God you may all timely prevent and I earnestly beg your good prayers that the like mercy may not be deuied Your most devoted Servant R. T. The Contents The First Survey PVrgatory is layd open with all the hellish paines wherewith the souls are there tormented Page 1.
them with reproaches to come in upon this and either voluntarily or by a sweet kind of violence to set upon these captive soules with a new and fierce storme of reproaches Faith If you believed there was a Purgatory indeed miserable creature why did you not live so as to avoid its cruell torments Hope If you aym'd to gain Paradise why did you play the foole so as to amuse your self with such trifles and to loose so much precious time in them Charity Oh how well have you deserved to burne in these flames since you often scorned to burn with mine and to serve God with a heart all inflamed with divine fire burne then at leasure and dy here for shame since there was a time thou wouldst neither live nor die with sacred and holy love Penance Is it you that were so frighted with my rigours so terrified with my sweet austerities with which I would have preserved you from these cruel torments Tell me now where are your damask beds your soft quilts your down pillowes your fine sheets that were smoother and whiter then milke and cream your sweet bags and perfumes all your dainties all your vanities all that modish attire and braverie which did so besot and inchant you One sigh one teare one act of self denial would have kept you out of this place of torments answer me now and let me heare what you have to say for your self Prudence Foolish and senseless soule how came you so to loose your wits and even common sense too as knowing the rigour of these flames to use no caution to prevent them Oh? How well are these horrid punishments bestowed This vile creature was so simple as to believe that continually offending God without making him amends for it in an honourable way she should passe scotfree and supply for all with a slight peccavi and so enter into heaven What an idle folly was this As if it were a sufficient pretence to be wicked and rebellious because God is full of mercy Sit still then at the daily task of thy suffrings and rather think of doubling them for it is meet that God should shew himself to be God as well by justice as by mercy and that both these divine attributes should play their parts in their turnes Fortitude How oft have I offered my service to strengthen you O you carelesse aâ—d lazy soul how oft have I offer'd to lend you my Arme my Heart and all my invincible power to support and bolster up your pusillanimity and weaknesse and you have disdained to employ it now you are forced to bear the heavy burthen of Gods just vengeance have I not just reason to withdraw my assistance Temperance I told you as much long since that for want of bridling your unruly passions the time would come when you would curse the hours of all your excesses and disorders without having power to redeem them but by excessive torments Do you look now inconsiderate soul that I should poure out water upon your flames you that have ever slighted me Thus all the holy Quire of Gods darlings the innocent vertues come one after another and beat upon this Anvil laying whole loads of most heavy strokes upon this miserable soul that you cannot well imagine what more grievous fortune can befall her in so much that the soul so opprest with evills and so furiously battered on all sides with a fresh supply of torments is forced to cry out miserable that I am and a thousand times miserable am I not wretched enough but must the vertues themselves joyn their forces with my frailties to persecute me and compleat my misery How long alas how long will you thus cruelly combine to undoe me you love and you griefe you by a thousand sweets and you by a thousand severities You by flattering my paines and you by redoubling them you by shewing me life and you by shewing me death you by estranging me from Paradice and you by conducting me to the very gates of hel you by sweet expostulations and you by bitter reproaches which go to my very heart How long I say once more will you be so cruelly kinde as to joyn your forces to imbitter the martyrdom of a poore creature now grown to â—e the most miserable wretch under Heaven Forbear at length forbear it is not fit the severity of Gods Justice should eclipse all the raies of his infinite mercy Whether the Devils torment them All were lost if the opinion of some were true who will needs have the Devils play the executioners in Purgatory Lord what a terrible warr would these wicked Apostaâ—a's raise against the holy Soules who are ere long to take possession of the places which they have lost in Heaven With what a rage would they assault them wreak their barbarous fury upon them were they to be treated at their mercy But I had rather S. Tho. in 4. d. 20. 21. Suar. d. 46. Sect. 3. follow the opinion of others who with farr more reason me thinks believe that the Devils have no power to do them the least mischief Tell me what good would they get by it since the soules can neither offend God nor loose Paradise which is the only Butt against which the Devils level their whole malice Origen fancied the Devil to be so sullenly proud that having been once foyled by a soul he will never after come neere her nor have any thing more to doe with her If this be so the Devils will beware how they come neare Purgatory where there are so many Victorious Souls Besides God will not permit it nor can we see what good can arise thence to Gods glory Possibly also these pâ—nishments which the Devils would inflict might shorten the terme of the souls durance and this may be the cause why they are loath to meddle with them least they send them so much the sooner into heaven However some of the learned think that these souls bordring so near upon hell may very probably see the Devils and Su. cit n. 10. the damned souls and hear their most execrable blasphemies and that this is no small addition to their pains to hear their good God whom they entirely love to be incessantly cursed blasphemed and renounced by those devillish and sacrilegious spirits St. Catharine of Siena was heard to say she had rather suffer all the torments of Hell then hear one blasphemy against God for whom she had so much cordial love and who is of himself so lovely I confesse this is a sweet kind of torment as proceeding from supernatural and divine love but I maintain withall that it is a torment and a most grievous one because though the Arrows of Love are guilded over or made of pure gold yet are they as sharp pointed and as piercing to the quick as those of Grief though they be but of steel Confusion is one of Their confusion the most intollerable evils which can befall a
of their sensual and beastly appetites But you must observe that all The power of grace above nature this happens while a soul is left to her selfe and her own natural forces for when the divine goodness is pleased to furnish her with plenty of his grace even in this world as wicked as it is this grace has such an ascendant over nature and breathes such spirit and vigour into a soul that she can wrestle with all difficulties and remove all obstacleâ— nay though the body be borne and sunke into the very center of misery yet can she still hold up her head and steer her course towards heaven Now will you clearly see how the souls can at the same instant swim in a paradise of delights and â—et be overwhelmed with the hellish torments of Purgatory cast your eyes upon the holy Martyrs of Gods Church and observe their behaviour They were torn mangled dismembred flead alive rackt broyled burnt and tell me was not this to live in a kind of Hell and yet in the very height of their torments their hearts and souls were ready to leape for joy you would have taken them to be already transported into heaven Hear them but speak for themselves O lovely Cross made St. Andrew beautiful by the precious body of Christ how long have I desired thee and with what care have I sought thee and now I have found thee receive me into thy armes and lift me up to my dear Redeemer O death how amiable art thou in my Eyes and how sweet is thy cruelty Your coales your flaming firebands and all St. Cecâ—ly the terrours of death are to me but as so many fragrant Roses and Lillies sent from Heaven Shower down upon me whole deluges St. Stephen of stones whil'st I see the Heavens open and Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of his eternal father to behold the fidelity of his Champion Turne O St. Laurence turne the other side thou cruel Tyrant this is already broild and cookt fit for thy Palate O how well am I pleased to suffer this little Purgatory for the love of my Saviour Make hast O my Soul St. Agnes to cast thy selfe upon the nuptial bed of flames which thy dear Spouse has prepared for thee O St. Felicitus and the Mother of the Machabees that I had a thousand Children or a thousand lives to sacrifice them all to my God What a pleasure it is to suffer for so good a cause Welcome tyrants tygres St. Ignatius Lyons let all the torments that the Devils can invent come upon me so I may enjoy my Saviour I am the wheat of Christ O let me be ground with the Lyons teeth Now I begin indeed to be the disciple of Christ O the luckie stroak St. Paul of a Sword that no sooner cuts of my head but makes a breach for my Soul to enter into Heaven Let it be far from me to glory in any thing but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Let all evils band against me and let my body be never so overloaded with afflictions the joy of my heart will be sure to have the mastry and my soul will be still replenished with such heavenly consolations that no words nor even thoughts are able to express it You may imagine then that the Souls once unfettered from the body may together with their torments be capable of great comforts and divine favours and break forth into reâ—olute heroical and supercelestial acts The holy Ghost tels us that the body that Sap. 9. 15. is corrupted burthens the Soul and the earthly habitation presses downe the understanding So that a Soul by the infirmities of the body is violently kept from the free excercise of her functions whereas if the body were supple pliable and willing to follow the perswations of a resolute and generous Soul or the inspirations with which she is plentifully supplied from above what might we not be able to do even in this life Now that which is not done here but by very few who are lookt upon as so many miracles and prodigies of men is easily performed by those separate holy souls who are in the very porch of Heaven assured of their eternal salvation In fine will you have a most perfect exemplar and idea of this wonderful combination of â—oys and griefs in one simple person you may clearly see it in the most sacred person of our blessed Saviour who in the midst of his bitter passion and in the very height of his agony and extream dereliction when he not only seem'd to have been abandoned by his eternal Father but had even abandoned and forsaken himselfe by miraculously withholding the superiour part of his blessed Soul from relieving and assisting the inferiour yet even then had all the comforts of Heaven and saw God face to face and consequently was at the selfe same time most happy by the fruition of the beatifiâ—al vision and yet so oppressed with griefs that he cried out himself my soul is sorrowful unto death and againe O my God alas why hast thou thus forsaken me Conceive somthing like unto this of the Souls in Purgatory who are most miserably tormented and yet replenished with heavenly comforts §. 2. Two maine grounds of their comfort the double assurance they have of their salvation and impeccability THe better to unfold you this They are certain of â—heir salvation riddle I must tell you that possibly the most solid and powerful ground of their comfort is the assurance of their eternal salvation and that one day when it shall please God they shall have their part in the joyes of Paradise That which is the sorest affliction in this life unto the most refined Souls in the greatest torments is the fear of offending God and making an unhappy end for want of the gift of perseverance of which none can be assured without a particular revelation and so becoming the Devils martirs by purchasing one Hell with another For if an Angel should come down from Heaven and give this infallible assurance unto an affâ—â—cted person that undoubtedly he shall be saved as being one of the choyce number of the elect certainly his very heart would leap for joy nor would the severest usage with death it selfe and death represented in her most frightful and gastly attire seem cruel or irksome unto him but exceeding welcome and pleasant When almighty God was pleased once to reveal unto St. Francis his eternal predestination and to seal him as it were a deed of gift of Paradise this Seraphin incarnate was so transported with an extasie of joy and so ravished out of himselfe that for eight dayes together he did nothing but go up and down crying out Paradise Paradise O my soul thou shalt have Paradice and had so quite lost all memory of eating drinking sleeping suffering living dying and all things else as being inebriated with the sweet remembrance of that
you no sooner to relieve me I was here replied Christ beholding thee and preserving thy heart from sin If it be so said the invincible Hermite do but assure me this that I shall not sin and let Lucifer with all his accursed crue and hellish power nay let all the world besides band against me since my God stands by me and will secure me from offending him I make nothing of all the rest Pain is no more pain Hell is no more a hell but a mere Paradise since it helps me to gain Paradise which is worthy to be purchased with a Million of Hells §. 3. More grounds of Comfort arising from their voluntary suffring their disinteressed Love of God and exact conformity with his holy Will IN the next place take this most Voluntary suffering sweet and weighty Consideration An evill that is forced and against ones will is a true evill indeed the constraint and violence it carries along with it imbitters it above measure and renders it insupportable whereas if the evill be voluntary it is a good evill a lovely evil an evill to be purchased at any rate Witnesse the hoâ—y Martyrs of Gods Church who when they voluntarily shed their blood and with a good will poured ouâ— their lives for Gods cause though at the cost of the most inhumane torments imaginable seemed to make but little reckoning of the smart of them as you may observe by their carriage For some of them would throw back the worms that were crept out of their Ulcerous soâ—res others kisse the burning coals and by way of Honour place them on their heads This holy Martyr embraces the Gibbet as if he took it to be an easie ladder whereby to mount up straight into Heaven another provokes Tygers and Lyons to dismember him This tender Virgin leaps into the fire prepared for her without staying for the Executioners help another casts her self into the Sea to preserve her Virginity See the force of Christian Resolution which is steered by divine Maximes They dye and smile at it they seem to court Death it self they chuse rather to be under the hands of a bloody executioner who can at most bereave them of their lives then in the power of the Son of an Emperour who may rob them of the Lillies of their Virginal integrity Nothing can be grievous to him that acts vigorously and suffers voluntarily whatsoever falls in his way This then is one of the Souls chief Comforts in those fiery Dungeons They accept their pains as from the hands of their loving Father who out of his paternal care makes choice of those rough instruments to polish and refine them and so fit them for his presence They look upon them as love tokens sent from their beloved and esteem them rather as precious gifts of their loving lord then as cruell punishments inflicted by a severe enemy They kiss the rod and the Fatherly hand which makes use of it for their Soveraign good When a Chyrurgion makes a deep incifion to let out the water of a dropsie when he strikes his lancet into the arm when he cuts of a Gangreend-member the diseased person kisseâ— the hand that has made the wound embraces the Suregon though sprinckled with his blood opens his mouth to give thanks his purse to reward his eyes to bath in tears and his very heart to love cordially this kinde Murtherer who has so cruelly mishandled him to do him good and to save his life What think you is the language of these holy Soules these children of God in the midst of their severest torments Sweet rigours of heaven amorous cruelties alas why do you vouchsafe so to humble your greatnesse to take the pains to purifie us poore Creatures worthy of a thousand Hells O the profuse goodnesse of the Almighty who is pleased with the tenderness of a loving Father to chastise his wicked Servants and so to adoâ—â— them for his dear children Wâ—â— it necessary that himself should take the trouble upon him to stretch out the hand of his infinite Justice to purifie such disloyall Souls far unworthy of a love so cordial Oh let him burn let him strike let him thunder it is but reason he should do so for since he is our Father our Creatour our redeemer our dear All the sole Object of all our lives howsoever he handles us we shall still take it for a great favour and esteem our selves over happy to be treated though never so rudely by so good a hand Have they not reason Believe it they experience it to be so sweet and so reasonable nay they judge it so necessary for them to suffer in these flames that though they should discover a thousand gates open and a free passage for them to fly out of Purgatory into Paradise nor so much as one soule would stir out before she had fully satisfied the divine Justice Paradise would be to them a Purgatory should they carry thither but the least blemish in the world When Isaack saw the sword in Abrahams hand ready to strike off his head and reflected that he was to receive the deadly wound from the hands of his dear Father that good and virtuous young man could neither find tongue to plead for his life nor feet to run away and decline the stroke nor hands to defend himself nor so much as eyes to deplore his sad misfortune but yet was content to have a heart to love his good Father and a head to loose and a life to sacrifice upon the altar of Obedience and believed the fire which was prepared to destroy him was to be as the odoriferous flaming Pile of the Phoenix wherein she is consumed to rise again to a new and happy life The holy soules that burn in the flames of Purgatory are much better disposed to embrace whatsoever God shall ordain then Isaac was in regard of his Father But there is yet something of a To be where God has placed them higher nature to be said upon this point We have all the reason in the world to believe that God of his infinite Goodnesse inspires these holy soules with a thousand heavenly lights and such ravishing thoughts that they cannot but take themselves to be extream happy so happy that St. Catherine of Genua professed she had learnt of Almighty God that excepting onely the blessed Saints in heaven there were no joys comparable to those of the Souls in Purgatory For said she when they consider that they are in the hands of God in a place deputed for them by his holy Providence and just where God would have them it is not to be expressed what a sweetnesse they finde in so amorous a thought and certainly they had infinitely rather be in Purgatory to comply with his Divine pleasure then be in Paradise with violence to his Justice and a manifest breach of the ordinary laws of the house of God I will say yet more continued she it cannot so much as steale into
their thoughts to desire to be any where else then where they are supposing God has so placed them they are not at all troubled that others get out before them and they are so absorpt in this profound Meditation that they are at Gods disposall in the bosome of his sweet Providence that they cannot so much as dream of being any where else So that me thinks those kind expressions of Almighty God by his Prophets to his chosen people may be fitly applyed to the unhappy and yet happy condition of these holy Soules Rejoyce you my people sayes the living God for I sweare unto you by my self that when you shall passe through flames of Fire they shall not hurt you I shall be there with you I shall take of the Edge and blunt the points of those peircing flames I will raise the bright Aurora in your darkness and the darkness of your nights shall outshine the midday I will power out my peace into the mâ—dst of your hearts and replenish your souls with the bright shining lights of Heaven You shall be as a paradise of delights bedewed with a living fountain of heavenly waters You shall rejoyce in your Creatour and I will raise you above the hiâ—ht of Mountains and noâ—rish you with Manna and the sweet inheritance of Jacob for the mouth of the Lord hath spoke it and it cannot faile but shall be sure to fall out so because he hath spoken it Did we truly know what is the Love without intesest pure love of God a love without interest and a heart that neither has nor will have any other ends feelings or designs but those of Almighty God happily we might be able to conceive a good part of the paradise of the souls in Purgatory Those good souls see so clearly how much it imports them to have no other concern or interest but for Gods cause that without the least regard to their own sufferings they had infinitely rather dwell in Purgatory since God will have it so then be surrounded with the sweets of Paradise without Gods pleasure nay more though they had not the least blemish to wipe out and the only question were to comply with Gods blessed will who for some reason best known to himself were pleased to treate them in this rude fashion This pure love without all self interest is more forcible then any other consideration For if St. Paul could wish himself in hell if Moses could have been content to be blotted out of the book of life if others have offered themselves to remaine in Purgatory til doomesday to have the assurance of their own salvation or to suffer for the good of others and all this either out of a kind of self love or an excesse of fraternall charity and while they were yet intangled with the apprehensions of this wicked world what may not a soul do which is full of divine love without any mixture of self interest so purely refined as not to desire any thing but God and the execution of his inscrutable designes And since all holy souls are of this temper in the other world I am confident there is not any one soul would quit Purgatory where God has placed her nor any that would not most willingly exchange Heaven for purgatory should she discover the least inclination of Gods will that it should be so The Saints are much perfecter then mortal men who notwithstanding all the weakness of fraile nature could have the heart to cast themselves into burning flames when they saw it made for Gods greater glory and could there sing out his praises So happy did they take themselves to have the power of serving God without any other interest then that of his glory nay with the ruine of their very lives and all other worldly concerns And when they had done all this they would break out into tears as the most eloquent though silent expression of a favour they never took themselves to deserve Wherefore since all the souls in Purgatory have not only a perfect but also an experimental knowledge of this pure love and withall see such a world of devout souls who are still pouring themselves out into such heroicall acts of pure love how much think you does this encourage them to do their best in this kind And can you think after all this that God will suffer himself to be overcome in curtesy or charity and not be still furnishing them with a fresh supply of new lights and celestiall comforts And certainly the Heavenly raptures attractions of Almighty God are not to be numbred amongst his least favours they do so transport a soul and so absolutely master her that she neither feeles nor cares for all the torments in the world which the body suffers â—hile she is thus absorpt and even lost in Almighty God They applied causticks to St. Thomas of Aquin while he was rapt in his profound speculations of Divinity and he seemed not to feel the least smart or at least took no notice of it he was so ravished and drowned in Almighty God They tell the same of the seraphical St Francis how when he was once gone out of himself with an ardent affection of the love of Jesus Christ they applied the button cautere and the good Saint felt it no more then if it had been a button of glass or christall Many other servants of God in their extaticall raptures and lofty meditations of the joys of Heaven have been prickt wiâ—h needles wounded with lances and persecuted with rude blows cold water hot irons and the like and yet for all this could not be drawn out of their sweet quiet and repose to give the least attention to these rough entertainments What shall we say now of those faire souls lately flown out of their bodies who are so forcibly carried away with the pure love of God and his eternal glory who see themselves so near it and so certain to enjoy it and to be swallowed up in the immense Ocean of the Divinity So my son may be one day Emperor of Rome said the ambitious Agrippian I shall most readily yeeld to be soon after thrown headlong into the bottomless sea And do you thinke those souls who are most certain to raign for ever in the Empireall heaven can complain of the fire wherewith they are tormented for a few hours or years which are but so many moments compar'd with eternity St. Catherine of Genua assures us that God does so violently and withall so sweetly attract and draw after him these happy souls that it is impossible to find out words to express it or any paralell to this sweet and amorous violence This pure love which the souls Conformity with Gods will have for Almighty God goes not without a perfect conformity to his divine will And this is the thing which of all others metamorphoses Purgatory into Paradise To have the same will with Almighty God saies holy St. Bernard is to