in the way with him least at any time the adversary deliver thee to the Judge and the Judge deliver thee to the officer and thou be cast into Prison verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing This prison our Saviour speaks of has been always received by the Church for Purgatory Again our Saviour says in S. Mat. 12.32 Matthews Gospel that whosoever speaketh against the holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come By which it is manifest that some sins are to be purged and forgiven in the next world S. Paul is likewise very plain in this in his Epistle to the Philippians Phil. 2.10 wherein he tells them that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Here are cleerly three sorts of persons spoken of as for those under the earth it is impossible should be meant of those in hell no the damned souls are so far from paying a reverence to the name of Jesus that they are always busie in blaspheming of it it must then of necessity be the faithful souls that are in Purgatory In the like manner we finde in the Revelation of S. Revel 5.13 John how the Apostle saw every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and sea and all that are in them and heard them saying blessing hnour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Now observe how the Apostle makes a threefold order of the prayers of God first of the blessed in heaven then of the righteous upon earth than of those that remain to be purged under the earth and it must be so understood for the damned in hell as I said before are so far from praysing and glorifying of God and blessing him that fits upon the Throne that their malice does wholely imploy it self in cursing and blaspheming of his divine Majesty and all the blessed souls with him Again 2 Mach. 15. Mat. 17. Mark 9. Luke 9.24 a great evidence of the truth of Purgatory and a convincing one indeed may be taken from the frequent apparitions of many departed souls to pass by those in the Machabees of Onias and Hieremias that appeared to Judas we finde that Moses and Elias did appear to Christ when he was transfigured and the disciples themselves after the resurrection of our Saviour when he appeared to them thought that they had seen a spirit which they would never have thought unless they had known that the spirits of some departed did make usual apparitions now granting such a thing as the apparition of a spirit which I take to be already proved it must follow that those souls must be reposed in some place that is not in heaven for then they would never wander here to so great a loss nor can they be in hell from whence there is no redemption Again we finde the Theif upon the Cross saying to our Saviour Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom which he had never said but that he thought that Jesus Christ had a power to pardon sins after this Life S. Paul likewise was certainly of this opinion where he tells the Corrinthians thus else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for the dead which plainly shews that it was a practised course amongst the Christians then to undertake duties and voluntary afflictions in the behalf of the dead which sure was imagined to be for their advantage and yet you think much to pray for them Now the reason of all this is very cleer for we know that a man who sins mortally may have the mortality of that sin forgiven him and consequently be freed from the guilt of eternal punishment and yet may be obnoxious to some temporal penalties which if he does not satisfie in this life he must expect to do it in the next As for example we see a King does often pardon an offender his life which he has forfeited to the Law and deserved to loose and yet he may inflict banishment or imprisonment upon the same person and this very course we finde taken by God in Scripture Num. 20 12. Deut. 32.48 2 Sam. 12.13 14. 2 Sam. 24.10 First we see the sin of unbelief forgiven by God to Moses and Aaron that is as to the eternal punishment and yet they were punisht with a temporal death Again we finde King David after he had obtained a pardon for his fins of Adultery and Murder was punisht yet with the death of his son nay after the prophet Nathan had declared that the Lord had put away his sin he should not dye yet his son must and again the same King David for his sin of pride in numbring the people was pardoned as to the eternal guilt and yet we see what a temporal punishment followed upon it and he was forced to choose one of the three Plagues for it I might be infinite in examples of the like kinde but I have something else to say to this point so must not insist too long in that particular of it We know again that a righteous man may sometimes happen to dye with a great many venial sins about him especially if he be prevented with any sudden death so cannot possibly have time enough to bethink himself much less to repent of them so must still remain obnoxious to the temporal punishment that is due to those sins certainly in such a case that person cannot be admitted into the joyes and glory of heaven till he be freed from those venial sins and the guilt of that temporal punishment that is due for them So we finde in the Revelation that there shall in no wise enter into it Rev. 21.27 any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye c. now such a person is possible to be and we may very well suppose it that he cannot be freed in this life therefore after it it must be nor can this be in Heaven or in Hell therefore it must be in Purgatory Over and above all this the undeniable practise of the Church in praying for the dead is a most invincible argument for Purgatory and no man can deny but that custome is much ancienter than Christianity and has continued ever since That it was ancienter then Christianity we finde in the Machabees which book though you shut out of the Cannon of holy Scripture with as much reason as you do other things yet you allow it more credit than any ordinary Author 2 Mach. 12.43 44 45. how then should it fail so grossy as to make a lye in matter of fact as well as matter of faith We are told there of a sacrifice offered for the
then for them and in another place tells them that unless they repent Luke 15. they shall all likewise perish as those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and to conclude all this least I again endanger to bring an obscurity upon this truth by too great a cloud of witnesses appearing for it S. Paul exhorts us all to approve our selves as the Ministers of God in patience 2 Cer. 6.4.5 in watching and in fastings so I presume you will not still deny that satisfaction is very requsite nay necessary to a perfect penitent To what you alledge against the doctrine of our Church in point of the Liberty of the will I answer thus To the first I answer by granting that all good comes from God the donor but some of those good things he gives through the action of our free-will and others he gives cleerly without it So we humbly confess our merits to be the gifts of God and given by God preventing cooperating and following us in all our thoughts words and actions but this does not at all follow that therefore our freewill cannot actively concurre to make a merit To the Second and Third I say in like maner that God of his great mercy prevents our freewills by moving them and mercifully cooperates assisting them and our Church prays Prevent us O Lord in all our actions c. so that when people do sin God Almighty cannot be made to be the Author of the sin or errour and when we read the text you urge thou hast made us to erre it is to be understood thou hast suffered us so to do or that thou hast hardned it is to be understood thou hast permitted our hearts to be hardned and by this the activity of the free-will is so far from being hindred or deprived that is plainly implied and proved To the fourth I must most cleerly acknowledge with the Prophet that the way of a man is not in himself as to the executions of all his elections in which whether he will or no he may be many ways hindred but the elections themselves are in man with the supposition of divine help and therefore mans will is said to be free not of his actions but action which consists in his judgement and his determination to do or not to do To the fifth I confess it to be an extravagant thing for a man to rebell against or expostulate with his Creator as for any thing formed to do the same thing with or against the workman that formed it or an instrument with the Artificer for every creature is an instrument of the divine power but by all this I cannot see how the liberty of mans actions in a concurrence with the Creator is at all infringed but seems to me rather confirmed the Creator making the Creature instrumentally to cooperate with him To the sixth What our Saviour there adviseth not to take thought how or what to speak for it should be given in the same hour c. was only to take away all anixiety and solicitude of fore thniking Now the case of the Apostles knowledge and ours are very different for theirs was altogether infused and their freewill was meerly passive in the execution of divine dictats it is to be understood far otherwise with us who are bound by our good works freely to cooperate with divine grace To the seventh I humbly conceive that text of the falling of sparows not to concern the matter of free will at all but only that our Saviour would have us cleerly to understand and beleive how all things are Subject to the providence of God To the eighth and Last We must grant that there is no man saved but by grace not by his works excluding grace because works signify nothing without grace For as S. Paul tells us Rom. 8. the sufferings of this present world are nothing to the future glory that shall he revealed in us And to that text that none can come to him unless the father draw him we do acknowledge that there must be such a drawing by the divine grace preventing and coopperating but how to acquiesce in and submit to that divine drawing and not to harden our hearts against his divine drawing nor to shut our ears if we mean for to hear his voice calling to us that is the part of our own free-wills So I beseech you good Mirs N. to have a care least you be found resisting to those divine ealls and attractions which his divine grace is always offering to you and consult with those cleer texts of Scripture that I shall here recommend to you We finde the Lord saying to Cain Gen. 4.6 why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance fallen if thou do well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door c. does not our Lord her cleerly convince Cain of his freewill How more plainly yet does God Almighty expostulate with the Isralites and require their obedience to his law Deut. 30.10 11 12 13 14 15. and the freedomes of their wills For this commandment saith he which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee neither is it far off it is not in heaven that thou shouldst say who shall go up for us c. neither is it beyond the Sea c. But that word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayst do it See I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evill c. can any thing be cleerer for the liberty of mans will The Prophet Jeremy tells us Jerm 5. that these which remain of this last and worst generation shall chuse death rather than life There is choice given to the Jews whether they will serve the Lord Josh 24.15.21 2 Sam. 24.13 Num. 30 or no and the people said nay but we will serve the Lord. There was a choyce given to David which of the three plagues he would have There was a choyce given to the husband in the old law concerning the vow of his wife now there can be no choyce at all without liberty of will Job tells us Job 5. Numb Deut. Psal 107 108 118 that the righteous shall be saved but in the cleaness of his own hands How much do we read of the freewill offerings in the old Testament and David declares that he will freely sacrifice to the Lord again my soul O Lord is always in my hands my heart is ready O Lord my heart is ready and nothing more frequent than such expressions clean throughout the Psalmes The Prophet Isay yet more largely speaks to this purpose Isay 1.16 v. 19. wash ye make ye clean put away the evill of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evill c. and then presently after if ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebell Isay 46.12 ye
shall be devoured with the Sword c. and again hearken unto me ye stout hearted that are far from righteousness c. The Prophet Ezekiel declares Ezek. 18.27.28.30 that when a wicked man turnes away from his wickedness that he hath committed doth that which is lawfull and right he shall save his soul alive c. Therefore Ezek. 18.31.32 I will judge you O house of Israel every one according to his ways c. Repent and turn your selves from your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruin cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will you dy O house of Israel For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth saith the Lord God wherefore turn your selves and live ye does not God Almighty heer plainly require the operation of his peoples wills towards their own good and this sence runes at large through all the Prophets calling us to turn to our God and then assuring us that he will turn to us But the new Testament is yet more full of this sence Mat. 23.37 Luke 13.34 Mat. 11. Our Saviour in those bleeding words he utters over Jerusalem speaks it out thus O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy childeren together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not c. Heer it is plain that God was willing man onely unwilling and resisting to his own ruin Our Saviour adviseth freequently that if we would enter into life we must keep the commandements and such like expressions are abounding in the gospells but in the parable of the Talents Mat. 25.16.17 when he that had received five Talents went and traded with the same and made them other five Talents and so he that had two did likewise now the servant could not be said to gain unless his freewill had actively concurred to the gaining of them other wise he should only have said that he had received his ten Talents S. Paul speaks it plainly to the Corinthians I have planted 1 Cor. 3.6 7 8. and Apollo watered but God gave the increase but heer is a working still with God nay the Apostle expresseth it in the next verses for we are labourers together with God And every man shall recieve his own reward according to his own labour c. and this doctrine he perfectly explaines in the other Chapter where he tells them 1 Cor. 15 10. that the grace which was bestowed on him was not in vain but that he laboured more abundantly then they all and yet not he but the grace of God which was with him so then grace may very well cooporate with the freewill of man Nay yet more punctually the Apostle professeth this great truth 1 Cor. 7.37 in another chapter of the same epistle Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart haveing no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin doth well c. S. John S. Iames S. Jude S. Peter 1 John 2.3 1 Pet. 1.22 c. and all the rest of Apostolicall writtings are full of nothing more than perswasions to a good life to turn from sine to purify our selves as he is pure to be righteous as he is righteous now to what purpose were all this if man had not a power to cooperate with divine grace by the freedome of his will To conclude all 2 Tim. 3.16 17. S. Paul tells us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reprofe for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnisht to all good works Now if all our actions be by necessity and constraint to what purpose is it to teach reprove correct or instruct if a man have not some liberty of will how should he be furnisht to all good works Phil. 14. and the same Apostle tells Philemon that he would advise him nothing against his consent that his benefit should not be as it were of necessity but willingly I could produce infinite testimonies more to establish this truth but I fear I have been too large already in a business that common sense it self me thinks were able to convince for if all things do come to us by an absolute necessity and our wills have no power of action there will be nothing lest to be done by the power of prayers preachings counsels publick governments There would be no rewards due to virtue or punishment to vice all Laws Statutes Orders Precepts must be to no purpose all admonitions reproofes persaw asions must cease for all these require a liberty to be understood and are utterly nullified by a necessity and in short it would amount to this that all wickednesses blasphemies and villanies would be cast upon God For who can justly tax Judas of his wicked treasons if he did commit it by an inevitable necessity But these are the most difficult questions that we can pick out of the whole body of Divinity so I shall be bold to desire you good Mrs. N. not to offer any more of these subtilties to me and though in order to your commands I have endeavoured to satisfie your doubts yet I must tell you that it hath been full sore against my will and if I have by this bold adventure committed any errours as I fear I have too many I do humbly beg God and his holy Church to pardon me This Paper was no sooner perfected but my Lady called for her Coach where her Ladiship was no sooner sat and the welcome of the house presented but they thus fell into their old discourse and my Lady began after this manner Lady M. I am come now dear Mrs. N. to wait on you and to make you a double payment first for your late kinde visits which have not lyen in my power since to return then to make a payment of the thanks best satisfaction that lay within my power for your last too learned paper though sweet Mrs N. I must beg your pardon if I never do the like again for in earnest it is too hard a task for us to ingage in those sublime points that the learnedst Doctors in the world of one side or t'other may be foiled in and sure we that cannot swim as those divine Doctors can must not dare to wade in those unfathomable depths Mrs. N. I most heartily thank you sweet Madame for your kinde correction of me in this particular and I faithfully promise never to offend in that more And truly Madame if I had read your first paper before I had sent my last I had not given your Ladiship any further trouble at all for indeed I have perceived enough by that to convince me of some