The one that he telis the story to have passed in Cyprus whereas St. John lived in Alexandria Secondly that whereas other stories of the same nature in Pope Gregory and Venerable Bede make the Bands remain loose this story makes them to be supernaturally bound again which seems to be against the nature of Gods gifts which are given without repentance but much favours the Doctrin of Relief in Hell Wherefore it is vehemently to be suspected that those words then and when come from his Paraphrase and that the Saint's words reached no farther then what we read in others that this story argued that prayers relieved the dead As truly no more can be gather'd out of such Histories which are Parabolical and it were very absurd to parallel small circumstances betwixt corporeal Allegories spiritual things signify'd by them Howsoever the Authority can be no greater then of Metaphrastes who is held in a Rhetorical way to fain many things and it is to be noted that he lived after Gregory the Third's dâ—ys and peradventure after the time of the Oration De dormientibus was written 13. Being freed from these sleight stories we may see what Testimonies of solid Fathers he brings for his opinion He cites St. Denys but never a word which brings the Testimony home to our Controversy he speaking but in common of the remission of the sin His second Authour is St. Athanasius The words that The souls of sinners feel some benefit when good works and offerings are performed for them This Testimony has three faults First the Authour is not St. Athanasius as is so manifest by the work it self that it is a gross mistake to cite it as his though this Divine be not the first who objected it to me and farther it is clear the Authour wrote since the Turks were Masters of Greece by the phrase of calling the Romans French-men His second fault is that he distinguishes not dead but pronounces of all dead mens souls which argues the opinion of those who hold relief in Hell Thirdly these words When good works c. are equivocal and may be as well interpreted that good works are the causes of relief as they do the time unless other words force them to be taken emphatically which do not appear here St. Ephrem is also cited but not in what work nor of what certainty for his works are very ambiguous Besides that he is cited out of another Authour named Severus Alexandrinus who what he was I know not One I read of but an Arch-heretick The Testimony it self smells of the intervalls which the comforters of Hell invent and the works attributed to St. Ephrem are so uncertain that no guess can be made of what value this Authority is 14. The Testimonies he cites out of St. Epiphanius and St. Chrysostom are more certain but they favour my opinion not his For to help and not cancel the sin and that some comfort accrues to the dead by the sacrifice of the Mass are the very expressions which we use But the other words to wit that it may happen that a total pardon may be obtained for them by our prayers comes out of a false Translation The true Translation is that it is possible to gather pardon from all sides by prayer that is that abundance of prayers may be gotten either from all sorts of persons or all sorts of actions towards getting of pardon for St. Chrysostom makes mention of both And these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies motion from the circumference to the centre His last place of St. Chrys. out of the 21 Homily upon the Acts I must tell him if he had not another Text then I he hath much abused the good Saint The words as I read them are est enim si voluerimus leve ipsi supplicium facere If we will it is possible to make his punishment light Which he translates lighter to which he adds as his own descant to make out the Testimony then it was at first Much from the Saints mind who though he be earnest to perswade to prayers and good works yet never descends to more particulars then that they will do some good or else that the Living shall get good by them nobis Deus placatior erit which St. Austin also glances at to wit when the soul is damned Now if the torment of the dead be sooner ended your Divine will not doubt but that it is lighter 15. But I must not forget his citation of St. Greg. Nazianzen of which he seems to make great esteem and it is least of all to the purpose For as it is true St. Gregory speaks of a Purging before Resurrection so is it clearly to be understood of that which is made by death as is evident by that expression either purged or lay'd aside For nothing can be understood to be layd aside but the body and what is layd aside with it So that all his expression is of the effect of death and nothing touching what is to be done in the pure spirit And so I am quit of this troublesome Chapter without any mention of delivering souls out of Purgatory in the Greek Fathers 16. As for the Greek Church he brings me a Letter from some Town wherein there lived many Catholick and Learned Grecians from whom his friend received this Character that all the Grecian Catholick Church approves and admits priviledged Altars and Indulgences for the souls in Purgatory the which they believe go streight to Heaven as soon as they have satisfyed And I am so far from discrediting this Letter as that I sincerely believe it and yet think what I sayd to be true For this word Catholick Greek Church is not exempt from the Law of other words to wit that it may be understood in divers senses by divers speakers so that if this City he speaks of signifies either Rome or Venice which are the likeliest Cities of Christendome to have Grecians of that quality living in them and the Greeks in those two Cities communicate with none but such as either live under Latin Governours and so do easily follow their customs or otherwise are instructed by such Missionaries as go from the Greek Colledg in Rome I do not wonder that they should answer that the Catholick Grecians hold Indulgences as they do in Italy Nay peradventure may think the rest no Catholicks even upon this score But when I spake of the Greek Church I spake of the descendents from the Greeks which made the Union in the Council of Florence without receiving any new Doctrin since THIRD DIVISION Containing an Answer to his sixth Chapter Testimonies from Latin Fathers before St. Austin either savouring of Millenarism or opposit to the Alledger or not found but fram'd to his purpose by Additions of his own and lastly his onely express Testimony uncertain 1. IN the sixth Chapter he pretends to shew that the Latin Church before St. Austin held the delivery of
which he says to be â—…isfactory Which I believe if he takes 〈◊〉 comparatively for of the three it is the least faulty but if he means truly satisfactory he must first clear me a doubt or two before I can be of his mind First in it is supposed that we must necessarily say that Venial Sins are remitted after this life Which is true but unless the time be specify'd it may be at the Day of Judgment and so nothing to our present question What he adds that the remission of sin doth take away all impediment of going to Heaven but abateth nothing of their pains I do not understand for three Reasons First because it is onely sayd and no other cause rendred but because the state of merit ceaseth after this life But why to take away the guilt of sin and the impediment of going to Heaven is not the effect of merit is not declared and seems that it cannot be deny'd Secondly there is no reason given why it abates nothing of the Souls pain For why should this be accompted a merit more then the other Seeing it increaseth not Charity nor the reward of Charity and is but a removâ—ns prohibens as well as the other Why then is one admitted the other rejected Thirdly since the Council of Florence it is not to be tolerated to say that to a Soulâ—…ins â—…ins any impediment of going to Heaven And this answer puts the Soul to be pure 9. Another difficulty I have about that Proposition We must hold that in the life to come there is no essential change in the will to wit for that which belongs to the increase of Charity First about the Truth of it For I doubt not but by the Beatifical Vision whensoever it begins Charity is increased and likewise that at the re-union of our Bodies Charity and the reward of it shall both increase Neither do I take it to be spoken consequenter to put many acts of Charity and not put them to increase the habit though you put the acts to be of the same degree of intension For we cannot deny but one and one makes two and that two are more then one and ad hominem if the same pain put in a new time makes the pain greater much more two acts of Charity are more Charity If it be answered the time of merit is pass'd I reply then you must put no more merit But with one breath to put merit and cry the time of merit is passed is to oblige us to believe Opposites 10. A third difficulty I have how it is prov'd that in Purgatory there is an act of Charity with detestation of a Venial sin inconsistent with the affection of Venial sin For onely to say it is so is not to answer the Argument but to repeat your conclusion or ask the question It is confess'd by both parties that Charity not onely in habit but also in act stands with venial sin for otherwise every time we make an act of Charity we should revoke our affection to Veâ—ial Objects St. Thomas's known Doctrine is that a will once taken resolutely in the next World is unchangeable and truly that one act remains until a contrary be put out We must therefore either say that the Soul hath a new deliberation at her going out of the body or that she keeps the same she had in the body until she return to it If we put a new deliberation it may be as well of the End as of Venial Objects and so the Soul shall change her state of Salvation after Death and all place of merit will not be deny'd It follows then that there can be no act in the Soul incompossible to the affection of venial sin until Resurrection Wherefore I doubt not but to a man of a not-preoccupated Judgment this Answer will be so far from being satisfactory that it will manifestly appear that the holders of your Divine's Opinion as much as they cry up that there is no room for merit with one breath so much they pull it down by their inconsequent positions on the other side Besides another thing which in a Divine is a manifest defect that they render no rational cause of the impotency to merit which in our opinion is most manifest 11. In his sixth number he falls upon another question not properly against us but amongst his own Divines which I must a little rip up because it so clearly shews the huge weakness of their Doctrin and Doctours The Question arises out of this difficulty that it seems inconsequent that if the Souls in Purgatory may be helped by others they cannot be helped by themselves And it is as true an absurdity as it seems to be and rises out of the denying of our Opinion He seems to give an answer by saying that they have deserved in this life time to be helped in the next World But this doth rather aggravate the difficulty then solve it For it shews they are helpable and then the difficulty is greater why they cannot help themselves For to say it is precisely because God will not give them leave to help themselves is to call God unreasonable and wilful and cruel instead of playing the Divine and giving an accomâ—t why to do so is conformable to God's Goodness and Government But to fall to the Question Some of their Doctours seem to deny to the Souls of Purgatory power to pray which how it can fall into a Christian's head much less a Divine's I am not capable Are not the Acts of Faith Hope and Charity prayers Will any body deny them these Are not the acknowledgment of their sins and the desire of forgiveness prayers Do they doubt of this Can they wish the relaxation of torments from men and not from God How absurd a Position is this that God whose whole endeavour is to bring mens hearts to him should send abstracted Souls from himself to men The very absurdity of this saying to an impartial man would condemn the whole Opinion And yet more that they can impetrate that the Living may pray for them nay impetrate Graces for the Living but none for themselves whereas we are taught that God grants us easilier for our selves then for other men These sayings are so empty of all Divinity and Solidity that depending as they do meerly from this uncertain and unlikely ground of the Souls present delivery from Purgatory they make it like to themselves uncertain and unlikely also 12. In his seventh Number he tells us that perhaps God was mov'd by his Justice to ordain that the pains due in the other life be not ordinarily remitted but by satisfaction made either by themselves or others An excellent piece of Divinity to ground so substantial a point as whether the Souls in Purgatory pray for themselves or no which every man of any Judgment cannot doubt but that they can no more cease from doing then they can cease from loving themselves from hoping and desiring Beatitude and from
Divine bring in promising to pray longer for one soul then one Mass comes to 4. By occasion of the great Letters of This very day our Divine remembred there wanted great Letters in a former citation of the commendation of the soul and therefore repeats it adding great Letters that the soul might shew a patent to go out of Purgatory that day But he had forgot that the soul which is there pray'd for is taken to be not yet in Purgatory nor to have received her judgment And if he look into the Fathers and see how hopefully they speak of dying Christians he will not wonder at such prayers 5. Into which Doctrin if he had looked he would not have been so confident of his next citation out of St. Ambrose as if St. Ambrose had intended to starve himself in Prayer for the delivery of Theodosius his soul. For he may find that St. Ambrose thought Theodosius to be in Heaven when he pronounced the words he cites Wherefore if the answer I gave to this Testimony in my Notes on the fourth Chapter of the Result does not please him let him distinguish the two goods that belong to the soul the one beginning at death the other at the day of Judgment and take notice that he that has the one may be prayed for to come to the other as St. Austin seems to do for Verecundus So then these words he cites belongs to the good to be received by Judgment as likewise those in the same Oration Da requiem perfectam servo tuo Theodosio requiem illam quam praeparasti Sanctis tuis And let these others Regnum mutavit non deposuit in tabernacula Christi jure pietatis ascitus in illam Hierusalem supernam c. And again Manet ergo in lumine Theodosius sanctorum caetibus gloriatur And again Nunc se augustae memoriae Theodosius regnare cognoscit quando in regno Domini Jesu est Let these and such others explicate that he was not in Purgatory or Torment of which there is no mention nor of delivering him from them but not as yet corporally in Heaven whither nevertheless St. Ambrose expected his prayers should bring him So that nothing can be more direct and plain for my opinion then this Oration of St. Ambrose 6. His last witness is St. Paulinus who could not speak home enough and therefore our Divine teacheth him his duty that he should not pray onely that the dew of Grace should refrigerate the souls which lay scorched in burning darkness as the Saint spoke but that this change should be presently made for else it is nothing to his purpose 7. And thus have we got through his sixth Chapter where there is nothing more for this purpose then that there was an uncertain tale of St. Martin told in St. Gregory of Tours his days and unwarily accepted of by him St. Ambrose notoriously for my side and the rest common for both sides and inched out by our Divines devices FOURTH DIVISION Containing an Answer to his sixth Chapter Pretended Testimonies for St. Austin ' s opinion partly abusing that Father making himself-contradicting and blasphemous partly inefficacious without the Alledgers assistances opposit to the teâ—et they are brought for or utterly unauthentick The great rarity of Mr. J. M's unanswerable demonstration coming off very unfortunately 1. HIS seventh Chapter is wholly spent about St. Austin to make him for the present delivery or at least refreshment of souls in Purgatory A hard task but truly he behaves himself manfully in it For he sticks not to give St. Austin the ly to his teeth and tell him and us that he says what St. Austin in plain terms sayes he knows not Two places then he draws out of St. Austin in the front which the rest must second The former is in the Chapter 109. of his Enchiridion His words The time that is place'd between the death of man and his last resurrection contains souls in hidden receptacles according as each one of them is worthy either of rest or of misery as she has made her fortune when she lived in her flesh And after some words of his own he adds And of these souls he sayth It is not to be deny'd that then when the Sacrifice of our Mediatour is offer'd for them they are eased He adds the Latin words Relevari cumâ—proâ—eâ—s offertur He tells us farther that the Conclusion of the Chapter is that to whomsoever they prayers are available they avail to make the forgiveness compleat or at least to make the pain it self more tolerable This is the main place for the second is but as it were a repeating of the last words of this in his Book of eight Questions to Dulcitius So that it is a confirmation that St. Austin spoke the first words not slightly but upon a constant resolution 2. He adds divers caveats to make his argument sure and some replyes upon answers which I shall not give him The which therefore I shall partly omit partly touch as far as they shall open the question For the present I onely ask whether if any man being ask'd whether Mr. J. M. were gone to London should answer truly I do not know but if he be gone to London 〈◊〉 am sure he went by Dunstable for there is no other way whether I say that man could take it well at one's hands who would take his oath he had said Mr. J. M. was gone to London by Dunstable and justify it to his face Now my Answer is that Mr. J. M. doth so to St. Austin He brings two places in which he tells St. Austin he says souls are released or refreshed in Purgatory And St. Austin in the very same Books in precedent Chapters expressly professes he doth not know whether there be any such purgation or no. The one place is in the 19 Chapter of the Enchiridion he cites whereas his Chapter is the 109th The second is in the resolution of the first question to Dulcitius whereas his is in the second question The words are these in his own Translation about the end of this Chapter It is not incredible also that some such thing may be after this life And whether it be so or no it may be examined and either be discovered or continue hidden to wit that some of the faithfull are by a certain Purgatory fire so much sooner or later saved by how much more or less they set their affections upon transitory goods And the same words has he in his Eâ—chiridion out of the which he repeats them in this I might take notice that St. Austin's word being quâ—ri potest it may be inquired or sought for which signifies that as yet it had not been look'd into he interprets it examined as if it had been doubted of Secondly that whereas St. Austin expresseth the question to be whether some faithfull People be sooner or later saved by his own Translation and therefore this was that which might be found or
Day of their Judgment and another thing to be presently crowned by our Lord. In this Translation He puts in two words the first before the Tribunal of Mercy the other Their which break the sense of St. Cyprian for other faults I mark not We must first note that all this is spoken of the next World as the antithesis proves For to come presently to Glory is in the next World so then must also be the waiting for Pardon which he explicates to stand before the Tribunal of Grace for Pardon whereas it signifies no more then as yet not to be pardoned Again what the Saint calls to pendere in die Judicii ad sententiam Domini which signifies plainly to depend of the sentence our Lord shall give in the Day of Judgment he translates to hang in suspence concerning the Sentence of our Lord in the Day of their Judgment So that by false translating and adding he changes the whole mind of St. Cyprian because it will not fail with his opinion And against all sense puts one part of the Antithesis in this world and the other in the next What Saint Cyprian speaks plainly of the Day of Judgment by adding their he makes it to be spoken of the Day of Death For it is plain the Day of Judgment taken without determination signifies the last Day the private Judgment being called so neither properly nor at all without one explicate himself to signify so much He objects to excuse his violence by necessity that the Souls of Purgatory are not in suspence of their Sentence It is answer'd not S. Cyprian but he only uses that expression And that there is no doubt but that the Souls in Purgatory depend for their delivery from the Sentence of that Day which is the natural sense of the place He would fain persuade his Auditory that this place is against us because there is an expression of length of time as if I held that time stood still betwixt the death of a Sinner and the Day of Judgment 9. In the next testimony cited out of Saint Chrysostom telling us that One siphorus should have his reward in that dreadful day when we shall stand in need of much mercy his Solution does so waver that 't is hard to find where it lyes As to that part that One siphorus shall then receive his reward he seems to say nothing but rather to deny that most faithful men shall need mercy at that day whereas it is not onely St. Chrysostom's nor onely Saint Hierom's or Saint Hillary's whom he cited when he would persuade us that we should not pray for the acceleration of that day chap. 17 Nu 21. but the apprehension of all the Christian World and for this reason because 〈◊〉 must then render an accompt of â—ll our actions Saint Hillary specifies of every idle word And here denying their standing in need of mercy he infers that then they must be in a sad condition until then How will he excuse this from being a contradicting the general apprehension of the Church But the good man seems to be afraid that if we pray for mercy at that day we should pray to have none before a very superficial and weak consequence seeing the means â—o have mercy then is to have mercy in other things before-hand and that the mercy there will not hinder the fore-going mercies but rather compleat and increase them 10. Lastly he comes to St. Augustin and first to a place in which St. Augustin says that at the Day of Judgment those who have not Christ as a Foundation are condemned those who build upon that Foundation Wood Hay and Stubble are punished for that is the force of the Latine emendantur that is purged His answer is that they are sayd to be purged by that fire because that last fire by not touching them shews them to be formerly sufficiently purify'd Is not this a very curious explication they are punished id est not touched they are purged id est purify'd If these be good explications let that pass for good also that a Poet making an Argument to the first Chapter of Saint Matthew wrote Priâ—â—ipium vita Christi libâ—r aâ—stinetiste and set in the margin Abstiâ—et i. e. câ—â—tinet 11. The next Text of St. Austiâ— tells us that the fire of Judgment divides betwixt the carnal People who are to be dâ—…ed and the carâ—al who are to be saved Yes says your answerer by not touching them or if it doth touch some quickly dispatchiâ—g But this fine Solution is against the word Carnal which signifyes that there is in them purifying matter which is not in spiritual ones His second Solution by not refuâ—ing the universality of the word carnales admits that this fire belongs to all câ—râ—ales salâ—â—ndâ—s as well as to all carnales â—…s 12. There follow two places out of St. Austin in which St. Austin sayth that in the Day of Judgment the sins of some are to be remitted which he easily puts off by saying those some are such as dy so lately that they have not been purged But the evil luck is that St. Austin makes this Argument in the later place that unless this were so there would be no remisâ—in of siâ—s in the next world Which is to say that all that are remitted in the next world are remitted in the Day of Judgment which is invincibly to say there iâ— no reâ—ission of 〈◊〉 before that dâ—y iâ— the â—â—xt woâ—ld Aâ—…â—aâ—â— Argument is repeâ—… in the neâ—t â—itation to which he â—nswers he verily thinks that it is spoken not of remission bâ—t of â—aâ—â—festatiâ—n How rationally he thinks so you may judge ouâ— of Christ s words which are shall not be remitted in this world nor in the next Did any man ever hear such a hobling construction as to make the same word remittetur not as much as repeated joyn'd to in this world to signifie true remission and joyn'd to in the next world to signify â—â—nifestation Have we not need to study Grammar again to understand so obscure speeches As for Pope Gregory I cannot remember his very words yet as far as I do remember them they reach onely to prove that there is a râ—…ion in the next world but not that it is made at the Day of Judgment 1â— The last Text of St. Austin is that in what state a man dyes in that he will be found the last Day This â—e says we esteem much and I think with good reason for the words are plain His Solution is that after this life there is no more merit nor demerit which he proves to be St. Austin's opinion but needed not for we not onely agree but hold it more rigorously thâ—â— he and his Bellâ—rmin whom he cites But we question what has that position to do with these words Iâ— what condition every 〈◊〉 lâ—st day fiâ—ds him in the same shall the worlds last day catch him For these words signify no kind of change to be
Yet I may deliver one Doctrin which I know not whether he has reflected on or no which is that before Christ Miracles belonged to the Ordinary Government of the Church by God Almighty since Christ and his Apostles time these are become parts of Extraordinary Providence This I speak by reason of his great insisting upon pains in the Old Testament which followed not connatural to the sins For no small part of the motives proposed to the Jews were temporal Commodities which are propounded unto Christians meerly as accidents not to be sought for according to that saying Quâ—rite primum regnum Dei caetera adjicientur vobis And St. James tells us Siquis indiget sapientia postâ—let a Deo dabitur ei but for any thing else he does not tell us so but we know they are sometimes granted and sometimes denyed But in the Old Law the Prophets fore-told both punishments and rewards and they failed not Now that sort of Government is turned into a better and we have order to govern our selves by Reason and Faith is given us to help and strengthen our Reason that it may reach the motives propounded to us out of the state of the next World and to expect rewards and punishments there which spring out of our lives here according to the words of the Apostle that Afflictions here do work glory in Heaven and the other that their works follow them And this to those who use understanding Divinity is signified by the word meritorious After this he makes a repetition of some Arguments many times told over and at last Number 12. he tells us that he never sayd that after that God is in part pacified there still remains in him a boyling of his fury not quite allayed But says he we speak of a most just and rational proceeding in God c. What mood the good man was in when he wrote this I know not For the words express as if he meaned that before God is in part pacified there were in God a boyling of fury and not a just and rational proceeding 6. I told you somewhat of the signification of this word Meritorious but I fear I must eat it again For in his 24. Chapter Number second he tells us that when Nature by Death hath put a man out of this World she hath put his soul out of her reach c. So that now in this state the nature of a meritorious cause occurs to be consider'd by Divinity and Aristotle his Philosophy must stand in great part out of doors Farewel then poor Aristotle and his Philosophy Yet because he is a Philosopher he will ask a cause why he should be turn'd out of doors Let us then look into this Mystery If that a Work-man hath bestow'd a days work upon another man's ground he receives at night what according to the manner of living in that Countrey and the quality of the work is esteemed equal to his labour If a Souldier in a Battle or Siege did eminent service towards the winning of the â—attle or Town his General consults what is fitting to stir up others to dare the like and the Souldier receives it And both the Work-man and the Souldier are sayd to have deserved their rewards Another Work-man for example a Watch-maker makes a Watch and hath it and the fruit of it to know the hour of the day but is not sayd to deserve the Watch. And another Souldier goes out upon his enemies and getteth a good booty and is not sayd to have deserved it What is the reason of this variety of language Why the later used the natural causes of the effect which by their own force produc'd it The other got not this particular reward by a natural but by a rational means that is by pleasing one in whose power it was to bestow it upon him If this be well discoursed then also concerning Souls rewards if they be such as follow not out of the force of the disposition which their works have made the Soul to have in the next world but God by his arbitrary will determins to give them what he thinks best out of the General Principles by which he governs the World these rewards will be sayd properly to be deserved On the other side if the rewards are necessarily consequent to the disposition on which the Soul departs out of her body they will be properly called Effect improperly to be deserved 7. Applying this to our case that is to the pains of Purgatory let us see what is to be said And first I ask what pains doth the fire of Purgatory inflict upon the Souls I suppose your Divine will answer Griefs and Sorrows The next question are the griefs of Objects that deserve to be grieved for as it is fit for Holy Souls to have I suppose he will again say Yes The third question Would not she of her self have all those griefs I think he cannot chuse but say Yes and not put a new fault in the Souls not to have a grief which they ought to have The fourth Question is If she have this grief is it not a punishment layd upon her by God notwithstanding that it proceeds from their natural inclination which God gave them amongst other Reasons to punish their faults I know not what he can deny The fifth Question What then does the fire do make the same over again or increase it The former answer is absur'd To the later we ask the sixth Question Is not the grief of a holy and separate Soul proportionable to the offence or ill it did in this World If it be God's Justice requires no greater If it be not a probable cause must be rendred why a less sorrow would have quitted the sin in life and now such an excess will not Or else for any thing that I see Aristotle will claim a share for his Reasons in the next VVorld as well as in this which if your Divine will grant us we will in silence pass over his two first N. N. 8. In his third Number he cuts out a new piece of work to his friends which is that an act of contrition which they put in the first instant of it's nature taketh away pain as well as guilt therefore say we it must take away the pâ—ins of Purgatory if it hath there power to take away the guilt as in this World it usually does and would do if that act were here done seeing it springs out of the whole Heart and power of the Soul His first answer is that Bellarmin hath say'd much to this difficulty which your Divine passes over with a Besides and upon so good an authority I cannot doubt but that it deserves to be lay'd aside His second Solution is out of Saint Thomas which neither your Divine does stand to nor as it seem Saint Thomas himself making no mention of it in a later work where he handleth the question largely Wherefore omitting it let â—…me to the third
the poor man who gives but a shilling or has but the hearty will to do what were fitting for the Church of God towards the good of his Soul shall find as much relief as the rich man who distributes an hundred pound in all hast for four thousand Masses Yet do I not say the like to rich men For in a Rich man a small thing is no Charity The Charity which dilates not his heart towards his Neighbour is no Charity to give that which he would not stoop to take up is no Charity If what he gives be not sensible to him if it doth not diminish his love to Money if greediness doth not miss it it is no Charity Therefore the Richer man must give more then the less Rich or poorer that it may do him first good in this life and thereby to his Soul in the next 15. He objects that if the Opinion which hath prevailed for five hundred years be true it cannot be but solid prudence to procure the Souls delivery as soon as may be But he mistakes the question which is not nâ—… Whither the Soul be deliverable before the Day of Judgment but by what means she comes to gain the good she may receive Whether by the pure execution of the External action or by the internal Charity which is where it can be the necessary and unfailing cause of the exteriour act And as for the opinion that the external act gains the remission I am afraid it is subject to that curse Pecunia tua sit tecum in perditionem For who can doubt but the remission of sin or pain and the coming to Heaven are Dona Dei and cannot pecunia possideri I abhor to hear that where there is no difference of Charity and internal goodness there should be a difference in remission of sins and purchasing of Heaven Now in this hudling of Masses regularly there is less internal vertue then when they are dispensed with choice and commodity of the Church 16. By what is sayd his second and third Arguments are annulled for the value of the gift and the good of the Soul is the same whether the Masses be sayd a hundred years hence or upon the obit day or even not at all so there be no fault in the Donour And if you object that then the Prayers are not sayd I answer that is an harm to those who should have sayd them and peradventure to the Church if God's Providence doth not supply it other ways but no hurt to the Donour whose work that is the Prudence and Charity by which he ordered it shall follow him and procure by their own sâ—rength what is due to him What then Do the prayers no good or impetrate nothing to him We know that impetration fâ—r others is uncertain depending from God's Providence no ways due to the prayers but as much and how and when they agree to God's Providence and therefore not to be rely'd upon for any effect but every one must look to bear his own burthen and to receive according to his deserts He tells us in the end of his fourth Paragraph that if he had ten thousand pounds at his death to leave for his Souls good he would expresly order that none should be touch'd by them who think it indifferent whether they pray for him this year or next c. I answer that I am of that mind also For who will take Alms must follow the Donour's conditions not his own knowledg But if I had but five shillings to leave for Masses I would rather seek out the Priest on whom I thought it best employ'd though he should say never a Mass for it then another who had a priviledge to say two Masses that very morning but who was not so prudently relieved by my Alms. It was my fortune to have recommended to me by a Gentlewoman upon her Death-bed about 4â— for the good of her Soul She dy'd in poverty in a strange Countrey yet had saved this to be prayed for according to the course of Piety she had been instructed in She had a Child to be put to Nurse without means to pay for the nursing I openly confess I procur'd her not one Mass in vertue of her money but caused it all to be bestow'd on the keeping of the Child out of opinion that in this I did supply the imprudence of the Mother and that to do so was to employ the money best for the Soul of the Mother And such a mind I pray God I may have for my self at my death if I have any thing to leave to make my last Act of the greatest Charity to my Neighbour that I can and I hope I shall do mine own Soul the greatest good that lyes in my power to do by disposing of Temporal Goods 17. In his fifth and sixth Paragraphs he takes that Souls are chiefly to be helped by the Sacrifice of the Mass according to the Council of Trent But if one can help saith he many much more What says he can be here deny'd by any Catholick I answer easily that nothing is to be deny'd but something to be understood And first because that out of the Principle lay'd Charity is the ground of all impetration therefore to understand how it is true that the Mass is the greatest help for souls inPurgatory we ought to understand how the Mass is the greatest act of Charity Which to do we must remember the Mass to have these two relations The one that it is the Christian Sacrifice The other that it is the Commemoration of the Passion of our Saviour The first Consideration stirs up our Intellectual power towards the Admiration and Adoration of his Essence and Thanksgiving for all the benefits which we have received and are to receive from his Almighty hand and to vow all our love and affection to him upon that score The later stirs up the man the Compound of Reason and Passion to the apprehension and esteem of the Mystery of our Redemption of the good received by it and of the penal course Christ took to do us this good Both these considerations are help'd by an awful reverence to the Action we do of handling Christ's own real Body and of presenting to God not our temporall goods as in Alms nor our own bodies as in Penal Exercises but the true and real Body of Jesus Christ accompany'd with his Soul and Divinity If all this raises not Charity to the heighth that Charity can have in this life it is not the fault of the Work but of the Person Wherefore clearly if Souls can be helped by nothing but Prayers and that Alms-deeds and Satisfactions can have no place but as they are Suffrages or impetrations who can require greater evidence that of all exteriour actions the Mass of its nature is the most impetrative and helpful to the deceased faithful But presently you see that Masses are to be weighed not numbred to increase the power of prevailing I might add
to all this that the very procuring of Masses is the greatest Act of Charity that a Lay-man can do speaking of exteriour acts and regularly For the procuring of Masses discreetly performed and of its own nature works not onely that Priests be maintain'd but also makes them devout and good The goodness of the Priest is the very health and happiness of the Parish The Spiritual good of the Parish is the greatest good that speaking of regular and not extraordinary heroical Works is found in Man's life therefore the procuring of Masses is the greatest extern Charity that any private Lay-man can do when it is done with prudence and discretion 18. I believe the rest of his Chapter is already answered For we scoff not at the multitude of Masses but at the indiscretion of using them and procuring them Nor do your Arguments perswade us that Rich-men are in any thing in better state then the Poor not onely for accidental considerations but for the very substance The Rich may do greater-acts of Charity but not acts of greater Charity they may relieve other Bodies and Souls more then poor men but poor men have as much power to help their own as the richest The Rich may procure more to pray for them but the Poor can pray for themselves as well as the Rich which is the certain and essential good And if you ask me whether these be not great enticements of Avarice I answer no Avarice but keeps its goods until death these men for the most part do their Alms while they live which makes no Avarice though they should procure Riches for such an end the which I believe is rare Our Wise-men have a saying I will make my own Hands my Executours and my Eyes my Overseers Whose Estates permit them this is their way for this perfects the heart extirpates or moderates the love of Temporalities in them which is the main good But the hope of good by what Nature takes away from them leaves the desires as great as ever to the last gasp St. Austin advances an Opinion that he who fears God and behaves himself like a Christian onely upon the fear of Torments in the next World is no good Christian and shall not reach to Heaven He says it is the love of Heaven and not the fear of Hell makes a good Christian. I will not interpose my verdict in this Controversie but will not he say the like of those who onely for fear of the pains of Purgatory part with their Goods to the Church when they cannot keep them when by Nature they are their Heirs Goods not theirs Will he not say it is no act done out of Charity and therefore doth them no good And as for the prayers of them who pray for the Donour besides the uncertainty of whether how and when they shall have effect let us but reflect that we cannot doubt but that if prayers can do the effect they cannot want the prayers of all Saints and Angels which must needs be more acceptable then ours But the difference is that they pray for nothing but what they know shall take effect by their prayers because they see what God's Providence and determination bears We pray blindly and many times for that which is not decreed by the Eternal Providence and so cannot be granted And this many times thorough concupiscence like to St. James's phrase Petitis non accipitis quia petitis ut in concupisâ—…s vestris insumatis So do we through natural desires or love without sufficient resignation and so give cause on our own parts to be deny'd 19. In his eleventh Number he answers the abuse of multiplying Priests to ferve in dead Masses to the devotion of the people by saying that if the Decrees of the Council of Trent were observed notwithstanding these Opinions Priests would not be over multiplyed The which as I will not contest so I may well say your Divine doth not consider that the maintaining of these Opinions is the cause why the Orders of the Councils cannot be observ'd thorough the importunity of credulous People which leaves not Bishops free to look to the observation of the Holily instituted Canons chiefly to thiâ— Incerta etiam quâ— speciâ— falsi laborant evulgari ac tractari non permittant The Council forbids uncertain opinions to be handled before the People your Divine teaches the People to leave the Ancient and Apostolical devotion to pray for a happy Day of Resurrection to fix their thoughts upon the uncertainty of being freed from imaginary pains which the Holy St. Catharine of Genua commended by my Adverâ—aries for one of the most illuminate Saints of our Age says they would not be freed from but by satisfying God's Justice Towards the end he cites us a speech of Gâ—nadius to say that it whatsoever that relates for the doth not declare iâ— but I think t is praying for the Dead was not decreed that the Priests might thereby gain their maintenance but for the good of the Dead which is to be understood with discretion as not to deny the one but to prefer the other For seeing St. Paul and God himself tells us that the Priests are to live by the service of the Altar it would be a very unadvised speech to deny the maintenance of Priests to be a secondary intention of the Church though the first and chiefest were the good of the Dead 20. He begins his last Chapter with telling us how inviâ—cible Arguments he has brought out the practice of the Church which makes me think the good man means honestly and verily perswades himself he hath done wonders His Arguments and my Answer may be compared together and the Reader thereupon give judgment As to what is particular in this Chapter in his second Number he not content with the translation made before him of those words Donum fac Remissionis himself mends it so Thy Pardons grant not to delay until the last accompting day Where he puts in the word last and in stead of saying Give Pardon he puts not to delay the Pardon The which though they leave the true sense yet they change the face of the speech and make shew as if until the very last day there were place for remission of which in the Latin there is no appearance but onely a desire of pardon while time is to wit in this life insinuating nothing whither after death there is place for Pardon until the Day of Judgment or no which his words make shew of such craft there is in dawbing 21. He seeks many ways of solving the plain prayers of the Church as saying the Church imagins this to be yet before the Soul is departed or that they are not spoken by the Dead but by him who prays And I cannot deny that if such explications be admitted to be the explications of men who proceed sincerely to understand the mind of the Church and not who seek to draw the words of the Church to their