Liturgia utrinsque St. Jacobi St. Math. St. Marci St. Clem. ep 1. St. Dion Eccles. hier c. 7. prayer for the dead prescribed in all the ancient liturgies of the Apostles Besiâ—es St. Clement tels us it was one of the chief heads of St. Peters sermons to be dayly inculcating to the people this devotion of praying for the dead and St. Denis sets down at large all the solemn ceremonies and prayers which were then used at funeralls and receaves them no otherwise then as apostolical traditions grounded upon the word of God and certainly it would have done you good to have seen with what gravity and devotion that venerable Prelate performed the divine office and prayer for the dead and what an ocean of tears he drew from the eyes of all that were present Let Tertullian speak for the next 2. Age. age He tells us how carefully devout people in his time kept Tertul. de cor mil. c. 3. the Aniversaries of the dead and made their constant oblations for de monogam c. 10. the sweet rest of their souls Here it is says this grave Author that the widow makes it appear whether or no she had any true love for her husband if she continue yearly to do her best for the comfort of his soul to neglect so necessary a peece of service were to tell the world how she joys in his death and was certainly long since divorced from him in affection Believe it all love is not expressed in setting out the solemnities of a noble fâ—â—eral hanging roomes in black and shutting out the sun at noonday to lye buried in darknes or appearing abroad with Coach and Lackies all in compleat Mourning Howling and crying and the like there is often more â—eremony or vanity in all this then love It is all rather to amuse the world then to benefit the poore Soule who God knows has more need of other helps then these vain shews of Pride and Ostentation All the day long you do nothing but whine and cry your deare Husband is gone and has left you such a debt and so great a charge of children to provide for that you know not which way to turn your self and all this while it is not in your thoughts what is become of this dear Husband of yours or what he suffers in the other world and what need he has of better comfort then can spring from your unnecessary lamentations Let your first care be to ransome him out of Purgatory and when you have once placed him in the Empireall heaven he will be sure to take care for you and yours I know your excuse is that having procured for him the accustomed Services of the Church you need doe no more for him for you verily believe he is already in a blessed state But this is rather a poore shift to excuse your own sloath and lazinesse then that you believe it to be so in good earnest For there is no man saye Origen l. 8. in Rom. c. 11. 3 d. age â—ut the Sonne of â—od can guesse how long or how many ages a soul may stand in need of the Purgation of fire Mark the word ages he seems to believe that a soul may for whole ages that is for so many hundred years be confined to this fiery lake if she be wholy left to her self and her own sufferings It was not without confidence 4 th â—ge Euseb l. 4. c. 60. 71 sayes Eusebius of reaping more fruit from the Prayers of the faithfull that the honour of our Nation and the first Christian Emperour Constantine the great took such care to be buried in the Church of the Apostles whether all sorts of devout people resorting to perform their Devotions to God and his Saints would be sure to remember so good an Emperour Nor did he faile of his expectation for it is incredible as the same Authour observes what a world of sighs and prayers were offered up for him upon this occasion Saint Athanasius brings an eligant q. 34. ad Antiochum comparison to expresse the incomparable benefit which accrews to the Souls in Purgatory by our Prayers As the Wine sayes he which is lockt up in the Cellar yet is so recreated with the sweet Odour of the flourishing Vines which are growing in the fields as to flower a fresh and to leap as it were for joy so the soules that are shut up in the center of the Earth feele the sweet incense of our Prayers and are exceedingly comforted and refreshed by it We do not busie our selves saies Saint Cyrill with plating crowns Cyril Hieros in Catechesi 5. mystag or strowing flowers at the Sepulchers of the dead but we lay hold on Christ the very sonne of God who was sacrificed upon the Crosse for our sins and we offer him up again to his eternal Father in the dreadfull Sacrifice of the Masse as the most efficacious means to reconcile him not only to our selves but to them also Saint Epiphanius stuok not to Heresi 7 5. blast Aerius for this damnable Heresie amongst others that he held it in vain to pray for the dead as if our prayers could not availe them Saint Ambrose prayed heartily S. Ambr. in Orat. in Fun. Theodosii for the good Emperour Theodosius as soon as he was dead and made open profession that he would never give over praying for him till he had by his Tears and Prayers conveyed him safe to the holy Mountain of our Lord whether he was called by his merits and where there is true life everlasting He had the same kindnesse for Oratione in Fun. Valent. in fun Satyr the soules of the Emperour Valentinian the same for Gratian the same for his Brother Satyrus and others he promised them Masses Tears Prayers and that he would never forget them never give over doing charitable Offices for Conc. Carth 3. can .. 29. them And much about this time it was that some out of too much care that the dead should as soon as might be have all the comfort they could afford them were grown into an abuse of making no scruple of saying Mass for them after Dinner so that it was sound necessary that the Church should make a severe decree against it Will you honour the Dead 5. Age. sayes Saint Chrysostome do not spend your selves in unprofitable lamentations chuse rather to sing Psalms to give Alms and to lead holy lives Doe for them that which they would willingly do for themselves were they to return again into the world and God will accept it at your hands as if it came from them Saint Augustine is every where very full of this subject but it may abundantly suffice here to set down a part of the ardent prayer which he made for his good Mother after her death Hearken to me I beseech thee O my God for Lib. 9. Confesse c. 13. his sake who is the true medicine of our wounds who hung
mount above all the Quires of Angels and possibly soare up to the highest Seraphims O that I might but have leave to suffer here a while in her place how willingly would I do it that so my God might be the sooner and better glorified in heaven by this happy soul and a million of other souls upon earth receive comfort and protection from her powerfull intercessions I willingly resign up unto her all the right I have of being set free my self and if God permit I am ready to make her a deed of gift of all the suffrages which my dear friends have sent me for sure all the pains which shall fall upon me by this bargain can not but be amourously sweet since they are the cause of so great a good in the empirial Court of Heaven St. Christina was already lodged in Heaven says Cardinall Bellarmine l. de gemitu col c. de Purg. when she quit the glory of Paradise to exchange it for the flames of a thousand and a thousand most cruel Martyrdomes why may we not believe that so charitable soules would willingly yet remain in their flames that others more worthy then themselves may be sent out in their roomes to glorify God in Heaven VVhether God accept of these holy desires or no may be a question but at least it seems very credible that the souls who are so replenisht with perfect charity make such tenders of their service as farr as God gives them leave and as farr as it may stand with the laws of the Church patient But enough of what passes in the other world of which we have no certain revelation nor other clear light to guide us by Let us now turn our speech to the living and see what they are able to perform for the benefit of the dead §. 3. That the dead may receive help from us that are living and how we must be qualified to doe them good BE pleased to take notice what several meanings these 〈◊〉 eans impetration satisfaction c. three words import Satisfaction Impetration and Suffrage Satisfaction implies a good work accompanied with some grief or pain answerable to the pleasure we unadvisedly took in sinning whereby we make an honourable amends and satisfie the Laws of Justice by repairing the injury we have done Impetration is a kind of letter of request which we present to the mercy of God beseeching him to pardon those for whom we offer up the sacrifice of our devotions and the incense of our sighs and prayers so that our prayers addresse themselves to the sole mercy of God and crave an obsolute pardon or abolishment of the crime as a pure gift without offering any proportionable satisfaction save only that of our blessed Saviour or in general of the Church militant Suffrage is a tearm which comprehends both whether it be a penal work or a prayer only or both luckily united together The Church triumphant to speak properly cannot satisfie because there is no place for penal works in the court of Heaven whence all grief and pain are eternally banished Wherefore the Saints may well proceed by way of impetation and prayers or at most represent their former satisfactions which are carefully laid up in the treasury of the Church in lieu of those which are due from others but as for any new satisfaction or payment derived from any penal act of their own it is not to be lookt for in those happy mansions of eternal glory The Church militant may do either as having this advantage above the Church triumphant that she can help the souls in Purgatory by her prayers and satisfactory works and by offering up her charitable suffrages wherewith to pay the debts of those poor souls who are run in arreare in point of satisfaction due for their sins Had they but fasted prai'd labor'd or suffer'd a little more in this life they had gone directly into Heaven what they unhappily neglected we may supply for them and it will be accepted for good payment as from their bayles and sureties You know he that stands surety for another takes the whole debt upon himself this is our case for the living as it were entering bond for the dead become responsable for their debts and offer up fast for fast tears for tears in the same measure and proportion as they were liable to them and so defray the debt of their friends at their own charge and make all clear This then is the general sense The living may help the dead 〈◊〉 how 〈◊〉 of the Church that the living may help the afflicted souls all these several ways either by satisfying for them or by their prayers or by interposing the satisfactions of Christ Jesus who has left them at the disposition of the holy Church his beloved spouse And what rational person can deny this since they are all members of the same mistical body and consequently are tied in charity to yeild mutual assistance and comfort to one another and the rather for that every one in his turn may stand in need of the same friendship and look to be requited I am pertaker said Ps 118. 63 holy David with all those that fear God and holy Church to this purpose repeates that doleful ditty so full of tenderness out of Job take pitty on me at least you that are my friends for the Job 19. 21. hand of God has falne heavily upon me And otherwise we must discredite a world of good Authors a world of authentical records a world of most pregnan◠proofes and blast the reputation or venerable Antiquity which has ever held it as one of the maine points of Christian charity to pray fervently for the faithful departed to pay their debts and to strive by all means possible to help them out of their flames To which purpose by special favour almighty God has somtimes permitted souls to shew themselves visibly to their friends and kindred and to beg relief by Masses Prayers and other good works whereby to shorten and diminish the sharpness of their torments So did Pope Innocent the third and a thousand others as appears by unquestionable relations of grave Authors What they cannot of themselves they beg of us and beg it as an alms for charities sake and it were both sin and shame to deny them That which often costs us but little they esteem at a high rate and could they but give us a clear sight of the wonderful effects of our smal endeavours we should questionless take their cause more to heart then we do Howsoever St. Thomas and other divines assure us that even in rigour of justice our satisfactions are accepted in lieu of theirs since God has so ordain'd and past his word for it to his dear spouse the Church who really believes it to be so and proceeds accordingly So that we may rest confident that whosoever undertakes to provide for those distressed souls so he be qualified with the conditions which
all For say they how can you require more of them then to be two years miserably tormented in a burning furnace That which here might have been redeemed with a tear of true contrition or with a sigh of ardent charity can it not be purged with flames of fire in two whole years in the other world The most barbarous cruelty in this life is scarce ever seen to reach beyond a few houres and what shall we then say of two years in Purgatory which are as it were two ages or two little eternities so great are the torments shall it not be enough to purifie the most unclean soul in the world so she be in the state of Grace But yet this opinion is not received in the Church and it is a great madnesse to attempt any thing contrary to the common judgment of the Church and her Learned Doctors Sotus held a singular opinion of his own that no soule Sect. in 4. d. 17. q. 3. remains in Purgatory above ten years For said he we must set some bounds to the rigour of Gods justice who doth all things in number weight and measure and is said to dispose all things sweetly And is not ten years of most bitter pains a great number a grievous weight and an everflowing measure to say nothing of so many prayers so many masses so many tears so many priviledged altars and Plenary indulgences so many almes and other good deeds of the living and then the most powerful intercession of the whole court of Heaven but especially of our blessed Lady and her beloved son who is the Atturney general of the whole Church and who pleads for her with a most perswasive and divine Rhetorique Yet for all this I must tell you many divines lay heavy censures upon this opinion sticking not to call it not only temerarious but also erroneous and the common sense of the church is quite contrary as appears by the immemorial custome of perpetual foundations of set Masses to be yearly said for such particular persons and to continue to the worlds end all which would be needless if almighty God put a period to their punishments after ten years for to what purpose are those Masses after the ten years are expired And though the most learned of this age will not take upon them to condemne this opinion of errour yet they all accuse it of much temerity No certain time beyond which a soule may not be tormented because in truth this whole business is very uncertain as being a secret lockt up in the cabinet of God himself and letters sealed up which our Saviour would not hitherto open to his Spouse the church so that whilst it remains in the nature of a secret we must not presume to define any thing precisely Only this we know that many soules do but touch Purgatory as it were with their finger and away others lie there whole houres dayes months and years and as we are not easily to credit those visions which threaten the soules in Purgatory with a continuance of their torments untill the last day so are we to believe that God can well punish some of them so long that the space of ten years in comparison should seem little or nothing to it Hence it is a very laudable and pious custome to found Masses to perpetuity because alas who knows whether he may not be of the number of those unfortunate souls who are to be kept there so long How few know truly the state of their own soules and the debts they are to pay to the severity of our most just judge who is indeed ful of clemency but such as is ever accompanied with an impartial justice worthy of God I may adde here that the piety of the founders looks not only upon the releasing of their own soules out of torments which they are assured will have an end sooner or later but they open their hearts and bowels of charity and extend it to others who from time to time shall be in Purgatory and very possibly have no body to remember them in their devotions This certainly is a worke of charity well becoming a good Catholick and a well disposed soule to provide so as to co-operate even after his death to the help and salvation of other soules and to be ever and anon sending some into Heaven by antedating the time of their deliverance and encreasing the number of the glorious Saints Mean time what an inconsolable grief is it to the poor soules to see themselves plunged over head and eareâ— in flames of fire and condemned to remain there ten twenty a hundred years and perhaps to the worlds end if their friends upon earth do not afford them their best assistance middle State of Souls lately censured by his Holiness There are some few of late are faln so far into the contrary extream that they cannot afford a soule once in Purgatory should ever get out before the day of judgment But as this strange Paradox took its rise chiefly from a false conceipt of the nature of a spiritual substance and other wilde principles of a new minted Philosophy so is it generally cryed down and not only contradicted by many known apparitions revelations which the Reader will meet with in this Treatise attested by such grave Authours and Fathers of the Church that he has little reason to suspect them for old wives tales or melancholly dreams as these men would have them but seems to have been blasted long In Bullar Rom. Conc. Flor. in lit vnionis act 4. agoe and condemned in a particular Bull of Pope Benedict the eleaventh and in the holy Council of Florence where it was expresly defined that those soules which after they have contracted the blemish of sin are Purged either in their bodies or being uncloathed of their bodies are presently received into heaven And since the Author of this extravagance will have Tradition to be the sole rule of our Faith of which Tradition we can have no clearer proof then from the testimony of the Church let him but look into the general doctrine and practice of the church both now at this present and time out of minde and he shall discover as cleare a Tradition for this common perswasion of the soules being released out of Purgatory some sooner some later according to their own deserts and the relief of our suffrages as for any other thing in the world Do not good people generally ground themselves upon this when they offer up their prayers give almes procure Masses and Diriges apply Indulgences for the present relief of their deceased friends Is not the whole practise of Christians for as much as concernes their piety to the faithfull departed built so wholly upon this that were it not true we must conclude that the whole Catholick church has been all along fooled by her Pastors and Doctors Who has ever hitherto so much as fancied it in a dreame that his suffrages
comfortable news of eternal bliss that he was not at all sensible of any oppression of nature nor seem'd to be the least concerned for it For said he what can any thing else availe me since I am one day to have Paradise with all the delights of Heaven Now if we Suar. d. 47. S. 3. credit the holy doctours of the Church and best divines of the Christian world the Souls in Purgatory are most certaine of their salvation For no sooner is the Soul departed this life but she is brought to a particular judgment where she receives an award of her eternal state of glory or confusion and from the mouth of God hears the irrevokable sentence from which there is no appeal no civil request no review of process no writ of errour for this decree of Gods justice must immediately be put in execution They say further that in the same moment that a Soul sees her selfe condemned to Purgatory she sees also the precise time prescribed her to continue there according to the ordinary strain of Gods justice But whether she know also by divine revelation who will pray for her and what assistance in particular they will give her or how much will be cut of of the time determined for her punishment is a nicer question which I purposely leave untouched for others to excercise their wits in as they please and make hast to take up the thred of my discourse I was letting fall in which I am to lay before your eyes the ineffable joyes of the soules in purgatory when they seriously reflect upon the certainty of their salvation and how soon they shall be drowned in the Divinity and yet swim in an Ocean of all heavenly comforts When Jacob knew for certaine that he was to have the fair Rachel he was content to be espoused first to Lia though she were blear-eyed and ill favoured and besides a world of heats and colds frights and fears and fourteen years toylesome service seemd scarse an hour to him so much was his heart inchanted with a holy love of his dearly beloved Rachel and so true it is that for the enjoyment of that which a soul loves in good earnest she makes no reckoning of fire and flames and a thousand Purgatories So that a Soul that is confident of espousing one day Rachel that is the Church triumphant sticks not to be first espoused to Lia that is the Church suffring with all the pains in Purgatory so long as it shall please God and fourteen years are unto her but as an houre such is the excess of her love to heaven O with what a good heart do I drink up my tears said the royal Prophet Ps 41. when I remember I shall pass into the heavenly Tabernacle were I to make my passage thither through Hell it selfe how willingly would I runn that way And to the same tune cried out St. Chrysostome with a masculine voice and a heart which was all heart If I were to pass through a thousand Hells so I might in the end of all meet with Paradise and my God how pleasing would these Hells seem unto me And certainly there are infinite soules would be ready to signe it with their heart blood that they would be willing to dwell in the flames of Purgatory till the day of judgement upon condition to be sure of eternal Glory at the last for believe it they that know well the meaning of these four words God Eternity Glory and Security can not but have a moderate apprehension of Purgatory fire be it never so hot and furious Another heavenly comfort They are impeccable which rejoyces these happy souls in the midst of their torments is an infallible and certain assurance which they have that although their pains be never so insupportable yet shall they never offend God neither mortally nor venially nor shew the least sign of impatience or indignation A true lover of God understands this language and if he do not shall in a moment learn it in Purgatory and find by experience that a soul there had rather be plunged in the deepest pit of Hell then be guilty of the least voluntary misdemeanour So that seeing her selfe to be grown impeccable and that no evils can have the power to make her offend God and that all impatience dies at the gates of Purgatory from whence all sins and humane failings are quite banished O God what a solid comfort must this needs be unto her The greatest affliction that good people can have in the suffrings of this life is the fear of â—ffending God or to think that the violence of their torments may make them subject to break out into a thousand foolish expressions and to tosse in their heads as many foolish thoughts filling their imaginations with a world of Chimeras and idle fancies of frightful objects or in a word because they appreâ—end either death or sin or the loss of their merit and labour or that God is angry with them For griefe with the Devils help strives to snatch out of our hands the victorious palme of our sufferings or at least to make us stoope to some frailties and imperfections which imbitter our hearts And were it not for this just fear Saints would not stick at the greatest evils they can endure in this world What a joy then must it be to these holy innocent Souls to see themselves become altogether impeccable The reason of this is clear because the particular judgment being once over the final senteâ—â—e is also pronounced and the Soul is no longer in a capacity to merit or demerit not so much as to satisfie by any voluntary sufferings of her own but only to submit to the sweet rigour of Gods justice who has taxed such a proportion of pains answerable to her demerits and so to clear her conscience and blot out the remainder of her frailties and impurities Make hast to do well before Eccl. 9. 10. death is the counsel of Almighty God for the appointed time wherein to heape up treasures of justice merits is before you appear in judgement for after that it will be too late The very instant that a soul leaves the body according to Gods law there is no more time for merit or demerit and therefore the souls that are sent into Purgatory are most certain they shall never more commit the least sin that can be imagined When St. Anthony was so furiously assaulted with a whole rabble regimâ—nt of Devils he was not greatly daunted at all their hideous shapes terrible howlings and rude blows all his fear was of offending God he apprehended more the stroaks of impatience then all the wounds of hell he called upon Christ for help and having obtained the favour of a personal visite he made him this amourous complaint and sweet expostulation O good Jesu where were you alass where were you even now my dear Saviour when your enemies and mine conspired so cruelly against me why came
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
what cannot so many millions of Angels and Saints do what can they be denied in so favourable a request for persons of so high merit I answear that they pray for them and pray iâ— good earnest and I say further that they are not content with a quarant hour now and then as our custome is in occasions of pressing necessity but they keep a perpetual and constant course of prayer in heaven in favour of these holy Souls This I take to be the pious belief Vid. Su. d. 48. Sect. 9 of the Catholick Church as delivered by the whole sacred Torrent of Doctors Nor is there the least reason why they should not do it being not only powerful but full of charity especially when they remember that the like charity was bestowed on many of them that their necessity is extream urgent that they are all Members of one body that they do not only concur to the glorification of their dear brethren but are themselves to receive an additional increase of accidental glory for having advanced the delivery of those precious souls who perhaps may be holier then some of their own blessed company Besides this is a charitable office sutes well with their happy state and there appears not the least inconvenience in it in this World And yet if this be so one would think they might soon turn all the souls loose and empty Purgatory so that it were impossible for any soul to make any long stay there Hold you must pardon me and not flatter your selves too much with this vain credulity You are to know that the Saints are not such strangers to the decrees of divine justice as to beg the souls release without punishment for that were the way to destroy all justice no they accommodate themselves to the Laws of heaven and willingly submit to the most equitable resolves of Gods justice amongst which it stands irrevocably decreed that this life should be the place for mercy but that justice should bear the sway in Purgatory Do not then wonder that the Saints do not obtain so extra vagant a favor the souls themselves who are the most nearly concerned in their own sufferings would be ashamed to demand it Is it not reason that God should be God in all his attributes and exercise his justice as well as his mercy We must take heed how we employ or rather abuse his clemency so as to break down the Laws of his justice Will you then know what the Saints do First They pray God to inspire The saints have many wayes to help them the living to offer up their satisfactory works for the dead and to find out a thousand inventious to help them Secondly They labour to shorten their time by procuring that the intension or sharpness of their pains may supply for the length and extension thereof wherein there is no wrong done to justice but only an exchange made of a long pain into a shorter one but more violent and yet this is an extraordinary favour for you cannot imagine what an incomparable treasure is one day in heaven advanced before the ordinary prefixed time Thirdly Many Saints have left behind them a great treasure of satisfactions above what was due for their sins so many holy innocent hermits so many chast Virgins so many great Saints of all orders in Gods Church who lead such austere lives Now is it not very likely that these good Saints may pray God to apply the superbundance of these their merits and satisfactions to the poor souls in Purgatory and who knows whether the infinite goodness of God may not accept it for good payment Fourthly Why may we not piously imagine that even those Saints who have no such remainder of merits pray those that have it to bestow it as an almes to relieve the poor souls Sure they are so courteous as not to deny any thing to one another especially in a case of so great commiseration and why should they hoard up these precious treasures which cannot availe them or how can they bestow them more charitably Fifthly What harme were it to say that the Saints beseech our blessed Lady and even Christ himself who has an infinite treasure of satisfactions in store to apply some of their precious merits this way I know the severer divines will not have it that the Siants have recourse in this to our blessed Saviour who has determined what and how he will have this applied according to the ordinary straine and set Laws of his divine justice but there be other Doctors of a milder temper believe he may be drawn somtimes to wave the extremity of rigour to dispense with his own Laws so that by extraordinary priviledge we may hope for this favour of sweet Jesus and his Saints And if other Saints have so much charity for the poor Souls you will think it but reasonable that the Fathers and Mothers the same is to be said of other near relations who are in Heaven and know that the Souls of their dear children are lockt up in that fiery furnace will use all their possible endeavour as far as God will give them leave to fetch them out But what shall I say of those saints who were lifted up into Heaven before their time by the extraordinary assistance of the living whose turne now it is to be in Purgatory is it not very credible they will now requite their courtesie and with usury too For example there may be a soul in Purgatory has helpt above a thousand other Souâ—â— out of that place of torments can it be imagined but that that regiment of Saints will do all they can and more if it were possible to deliver this their deliverer and to place him in the court of Heaven who had so great a hand in their timely preferment But because we are mere strangers to the stile of that court and nothing acquainted with the constitutions of that divine Monarchy let us conclude only thus That whatsoever the Saints can do for the comfort of these languishing souls we may be sure they do it and do it punctually without neglecting the least moment and where they cannot prevaile without breaking the just decrees of their Soveraigne there they willingly acquiesce and with due submission adore the divine justice So much for the Saints Let us now speak of the Souls themselves and see §. 2. Whether they are capable of being relieved by one anothers Prayers IT may be justly questioned They help one another whether the Souls though altogether incapable of helping themselves in their extream misery may not at least be permitted to help one another by their devout prayers For if they have the priviledg to pray for the Saints in Heaven that God will be pleased to encrease their glory if they can pray for the living as I endeavoured to evince in the last § Nay if a damned soul may have liberty to pray for his friends as it seems to be clear
in the case of the rich glutton why may they not be so kind as to pray for one another If the flames of Hell said the Devout Sales that worthy Prelate of Geneva were not sullied with the smoake of sin were they but pure flames of holy love O what a pleasure were it to be swallowed up by such flames or to be thus damned eternally to love God What should hinder then but that the Souls in Purgatory where the fire of love triumphs over their tormenting flames may display their ardent charity and vigorously apply themselves to assist and comfort one another as far as Gods providence will give them leave May we not presume to fancy that out of an excess of charity they are willing to dispoil themselves of all those helps and advantages which they receive of their friends to throw theÌ„ upon others offering themselves freely to suffer for one another Tertul. Apolog. Tertullian admires how prodigal the first Christians were in this kind of charity of suffering and even dying for one another how ready they were to leap into the very flames and expose themselves to the most cruel tortures that could be devised and all to save others for whom they were prepared What shall frail mortals who are made up of flesh and blood thus willingly suffer for one another and shall not the souls who have cast of with their bodies all humane weakness and imperfection have as much charity for other souls especially being certain of their salvation of which men in this life can have no assurance without a particular revelation St. Ambros de Virgin Didymas offered to dye for St. Theodora and in conclusion both died for her and with her Elizeas being dead himself raised another from death to life which was more then he did for himself St. Paul seems to have been content to be damned to save the Jews alwayes reserved that it might be without sin David would willingly have met with death in her uggliest attire so he might have saved his son Absalon and yet he knew him to be but a graceless unnatural parricide Shall not holy souls have as much kindness for other souls whom they see upon the point of being metamorphosed into Seraphins as David had for a meer reprobate and lost creature Many Saints in this world have beg'd it as a favour of Almighty God that they might suffer for the souls in Purgatory and have done it in good earnest freely renouncing their own conveniences for the souls comfort by a most heroical act of supernatural charity Do not you believe that the souls in Purgatory have a more refined love and that they actuate themselves in more heroical transcendent acts of charity since they are not only grown to be inpeccable but have withal a far clearer insight into the nature of this divine vertue I but they can merite nothing True but do you take them to be so selfish as to do nothing purely for Gods sake without seeking their own interest what say you to our Angel Guardians is it for any private lucre or merit or purely to please God and to do us a work of singular charity that they have so sollicitous a care of us And when God himself loves us is it I pray you for any interest of his own or out of an excess of his overflowing bounty and charity which Math. 5. 48. well becomes him â—e perfect saith he as I am perfect now the means to do this is to be well versed in these acts of heroical love as to love God for God because he deserves it as being the only charming object of our love I love said St. Augustine because I love I am resolved to love because I am beloved of him that loves me only because he will needs love me To love for meer love is the quintessence of divine love What shall we be so niggardly so mercinary or so mechanical as not to excercise an act of pure love without hope of reward Is not our love well requited if we please God and those whom God loveth They say Appelles would give away his Pictures for nothing he had so great a valew for them he thought no set price could be equal to their worth and that gold it self was too mean a thing to purchase such precious labours which he therefore chose rather to give away gratis then to expose to an unworthy sale so that the bare pleasure he took in bestowing them upon his friends was all the recompence he lookt for for those incomparable pieces And certainly it is a most noble and truly royal thing to give and to give without hope of requital Seneca spoke a word which shew'd a magnanimous and true Sen. l. de benef generous heart To give and to loose all benefit by his gift is no wonder but to loose all benefit and yet to be still giving is a divine Master-piece and an act worthy of God indeed Now when these charitable soules can gratifie others by giving away the charities which are bestowed on them why should they not do it To do a pleasure for another without incommodating himself is no more then what you may expect of an Arabian or Barbarian but to incommodate himself to lye burning in fire groaning under excessive torments and all this to make others happy is certainly an act worthy of those noble and generous souls who are all inflamed with pure divine love When they had a minde to flatter their Caesars the people would cry out O Jupiter take away some of our years shorten our lives decimate our dayes and give it all to prolong the life of our good Prince let him live at the charge of our lives we are all ready to lay them down at his feet that he alone may live and raign happily in the flourishing greatness of his Empire Shall Infidels have more kindness for a mortal man perhaps a wicked Tyrant or a profane Atheist then holy souls have for those that are about to be Canonized for Saints in the Church Triumphant I have heard of great servants of God who when they saw some famous Preacher or Apostolical Person draw near to his end would expresse themselves to this purpose O that I were permitted to dye in his Roome for I alas am but an unprofitable member of the Church all my services avail but little to advance Gods cause whereas this worthy person may do a world of good and be a comfort to infinite souls What should hinder a soul in Purgatory from having the like feelings may she not and with truth cry out I am well acquainted with my own abilities and can have a nearer guesse what I am able to doe in Paradise where I am like to be one of the meanest servants in the whole house of God and therefore may be well spared but there is such a soul had she but once cleard the petty debts she stands yet engaged for she would instantly
souls yet your charity will supply your place and plead for you and the poore that partake of it will also pray for you and all this may possibly be to good purpose What your tongue cannot your hand will perform with greater advantage and what cannot proceede from your heart which is poysoned with deadly sin will out at your purse which is full of mercy and help to purchase some comfortable refreshment to take of the fury of those hungry flames which are incessantly preying upon the poor souls And here again taking upon me to be Proctour for this sufferring Commonwealth I conjure you to be liberal in distributing your almes and procuring Mâ—sses for the souls departed I can expect no less from their goodness but that their Angel gardians or yours or those of the poor will inspire them with good thoughts and move them to poure ouâ— their ardent and innocent prayers for you in recompence of so great a charity Mean while you shall be like the Crow that brought bread to St. Paul the Hermite without so much as tasting it or like the Whale that convay'd Jonas safe to the shoar without feeding on him or to use St. Gregory's comparison you shall be like the water in the Sacrament of Baptisme which falling upon the head of a child washes away the foul staine of original sin and entitles him heir to the Kingdom of Heaven and mean while glides away into some noysome sinke and there turnes to filth and corruption Now to the last Query for what What souls we ought most to pray for souls in particular we ought most to concern our selves I answer briefly thus 1. Without question all obligations of kindred promise gratitude rule command c. are to be served in the first place 2. You cannot do better then to offer up your devotions for those souls which are dearest to God or his blessed Mother 3. It is a singular charity to remember those that are in most need or most neglected 4. It is a pious and laudable piece of spiritual craft to do for thosâ— that will be soonest released for by this means you shall send into heaven good store of powerful advocates who will incessantly plead for you before the throne of mercy §. 6. How dangerous it is to trust others with what concerns the sweet rest of our souls in the next world AS I cannot but highly magnifie It is a folly to trust others and extoll their charity that have a sollicitous care to rescue out of Purgatory the Souls of their dear parents friends and acquaintance so I cannot forbear deploring and even laughing at their folly and meer madness as I may rightly tearm it that leave all to the discretion of their heirs and friends they leave behind them They must pardon me if I wrong them it is the zeal of their good transports me it is a just indignation sets my heart all on fire to see how the wisest often prove the veriest fools in this occasion which is the most important of all others How many wills never see any other light but that of the fire which consumes them to ashes How many false ones are dayly forged to fill up the others roome How few do we see at this day punctually performed or rather how many do we see not performed at all Having procured a Mass or two of Requiem and the Dirige to be said for decency sake and for the honour of their house who is there almost that will give himself any further trouble to pray even for his parents The good man is scarse cold in his Grave but his Children fall together by the Eares run into endless suits seaze upon what they can next lay their hands on right or wrong and will not be perswaded to forego it but by main force of Law or by the terrour of dreadful excommâ—nications One layes injustice â—â— his Fathers charge for doing so much to advance his eldest Sons fortune another cries out upon him for being so unnatural as to undo his own Child The Daughters think much their portions are no greater the whole house is up in armes and in continual alarums and in a word there 's nothing but a meer confusion and hurly burly amongst them Mean while the good man has leasure enough to fit at his taske of suffering and to lye frying in Purgatory not so much as one of his Children thinks on him unless it be to brand him with some injurious reproach The unfortunate soul almost killed himself with care and had like also to have damn'd himself to make his Children happy in this world and these barbarous harpies are so insatiable as to be raking at the bones and gnawing the very heart of their deceased father who must needs be very sensible if he know it to see himself so undutifully regarded by his own Children I will bring him in anon to speak for himself as best able to hold forth his own lamentable condition and sure it will break your very heart to hear him And yet tell me seriously does he not deserve all this who might so easily when time was have provided better for himself and prevented all this mischief by obliging the Chuch to offer up good store of Masses for him and was so indiscreet as to leave it wholly to the discretion of his Heirs and Executours who are little better then direct Barbarians For is there any likelihood they will stir to help him out of Purgatory they that cannot so much as afford him a stone upon his Grave worth a crown with a little inscription to put good people in mind who lies there that they may cast a good thought after him But I shall have occasion yet to enlarge my self more upon this subject and to make it appear what an irreparable folly is committed by the wisest in the world in neglecting one of the most important affaires in their whole life It would go hâ—rd with many Whether a soul must stay in Purg. till restitution be made were it true that a person who neglected to make restitution in his life time and only charged his heirs to do it for him in his last Will and Testament shall not stir out of Purgatory till restitution be really made let there be never so many Masses said and never so many satisfactory works offered up for him And yet St. Brigit whose revelations are for the most part approved by the Church sticks not to set this down for a truth which God had revealed unto her Nor are there wanting grave Divines that countenance this rigourous position and bring for it many strong reasons and examples which they take to be authentical and the Law it self which says that if a man do not restore anothers goods there will always stick upon his soul a kind of blemish or obligation of justice and since the fault lies wholly at his doore he cannot say they have the least reason to complaine of