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
dead parents and all the obligations they have to the rest of their friends It will help somthing to encrease Diod. Sic. l. 17. c. 16. our confusion to reflect how Alexander the great behaved himself at the Funerals of his dear Hephestion They tell us he spent at least twelve thousand Talents that is above seven Millions and two hundred thousand Crowns upon his funeral pile It was beautified with a world of rich and goodly statues made of Ivory Ebony or some precious Mettal amongst others you might have seen curious Mermaides with exquisite musick lockt up within them Eagles Dragons and other beasts represented to life stately galleries hung with Scarlet richly embroydered triumphant crowns of pâ—â—e Gold torches fifteen cubits high perfumes without end O what an excess of love and superfluity was this what a stâ—r to make a handful of ashes of the carcass of a miserable damned wretch And yet all this was nothing Justin l. 1. Diod. Sic. l. 3. Bud. to the mad profuseness of that other infamous and desperate King who yet living built his own funeral pile and made himself and a world of treasure to the valew of fifty millions of Gold to be all consumed to ashes What reflections shall we make upon all this we that are scarse willing to spare a shilling to ease a soul that lies consuming in the flames of Purgatory Tell me dear Reader what would they not have done for souls they that bore so Religious a respect to the bones ashes and smal remainder of dead carcasses They first cloth'd themselves with black cypres wash'd their hands clean quencht the fire with milk and wine then they made a diligent search for the bones carefully raking them up out of the ashes they placed them in their bosomes wash'd them with their tears and their choysest wines dried them again and lapped them up in their finest linnen covered them over with roses and oâ—her costly perfumes and so reserved them in urns of glasse Ivory or porphyry and could never think they had done enough for them And can we Christians with the eye of our faith pierce the Earth and see poor souls burning in Purgatory fire and see them with dry eyes and with a frozen heart Can we be so niggardly as to grudge them a little comfort or refuse to cast on our Wine our Milk and our flowers the wine of our charity the Milk of our innocency and the flowers of our devout sighs and prayers to help to quench their flames Christ Jesus told the Jewes that the Queen of Saba would condemne them at the latter day and I fear Queen Artemifia Strabo l. 14. Diod. l. 16. will condemne uâ— for having built one of the seven miracles of the world in honor of her dear Lord and Husband not content with this exteriour deâ—onstration of the dutiful affection she had for him she took a strange resolution to drink up his ashes and to lodge them in her heart and so to make it good to the very letter that man and wife are indeed but one flesh one body and and soul have but one life and can die but one death What would she not have done to have lodged his soul in Heaven she that took such care to lodge his ashes in her breast What have you to say for your selves you unkind wives or what answer can you make you unnatural Children when she shall question you what care you took to provide a better mansion for the Souls of your Husbands or your Parents when they were lodged in the merciless flames of Purgatory fire Sure you are not sprung from that wicked race of barbarouâ— people who were wont to feast themselves with the flesh of their dead Parents and to justifie the fact by saying that it was Strabo Val. Max. better their bodies should be their meat then the meat of worms and that they could not do better then to lodge them in their own bodies and so to returne the curtesie they received when they were heretofore lodged in theirs I know this brutishness does not raigne amongst us at this present but alas there is another not unlike to it which is much in fashion for how many Childen gourmandize themselves with the riches of their parents drink up the sweat of their browes and devoure their goods without so much as dreaming what becomes of their Souls whether they broyl in glowing fire or starve in freezing cold Cruel wretches Is this the gratitude with which they honour their Parents Are they indeed children or rather are they not direct vultures and Tygers I should never make an end should I go about here to reckon up all the religious expressions of charity which the Pagans are known to have made to their dead friends and therefore I say nothing of the ten valiant captains Xenoph. l. 1 Pausan l. 2. that were slain for not fishing for the bodies of their souldiers and causing them to be buried which was a crime they held unpardonable I say as little of that pions custome of the Athenians who would confer no honour or dignity but upon those who were well known to have been all wayes very religious in burying their ancestours and honouring their tombes I take no notice of a world of sacrifices prayers and ceremonies which were constantly performed by the vestall virgins Priests and whole pagan Clergy nor of the stately mausoleums pyramisses colossusses and other stately monuments which were built in honour of the dead It grieves me to the very heart to consider that there are scarce any to be found in the whole world that make less reckoning of the dead then some loose and idle Christians and I know not how to be better revenged of them then to wish that in punnishment of their coldness and want of charity they may be just so served by their successors as they dealt with their predecessours It is the least they deserve for neglecting a piety which they might have learnt of the Pagans of the very beasts themselves for some have been so curious as to observe in the Ants that in their little cells they have not only a hall and agranary but a kind of churchyard also or a place deputed for burying of their dead §. 2. The constant practise of the Church in all ages to pray for the dead IT is a pleasure to observe the 1. Age. constant devotion of the church of Christ in all ages to pray for the dead And first to take my rise from the Apostles time there are many learned Interpreters will have that baptisme for the dead of which the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 15. 29. to be meant only of the much fastâ—ng prayer almes-deeds and other voluntary afflictions which the first Christians undertook for the relief of their deceased friends But I need not fetch in obscure places to prove so clear an apostolical and early custome in Gods Church You may see a set forme of
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
end does not your heart tremble when you heare that the poore soules in Purgatory are tormented with the same or the like flames to those of the damned Can you hold from crying out with the Prophet Isay who c. 33. 14. can dwell with such devouring fire and unquenchable ardours Heavens what a lamentable case is this Those miserable soules who of late when they were wedded to their bodies were so nice and dainty forsooth that they durst scarce venture to enjoy the comfortable heat of a fire but under the protection of their skreens and their fans for feare of sullying their complexions and if by chance a sparke had been so rude as to light upon them or a little smoak it was not to be endured Those for whom down it self was too hard and even ready to break their bones one single grain of misfortune a stone but as big as a nutt a rotten tooth a sullen and malignant humour stoln into the marrow of a bone a cross word an affront an idle fancy a meer dream was enough to bury their whole felicity in a kind of hell Alas how will it fare with them when they shall see themselves tied to unmercifull firebrands or imbodied as it were with flames of fire surrounded with frightful darkness broyled and consumed without intermission and perhaps condemned to the same fire with which the divels are unspeakably tormented When Saul found himself beset on all sides and in the midst of his enemies and saw that he must either dye instantly or fall into the hands of that base and accursed crue Oh let me rather die cryed he he will do me a favour that will cut my throat 1. reg 31. that so I may not see my self butchered by such wicked hands and trail'd away by them death alass is not the thing I apprehend but that a King as I am should die like a slave ah is it that which gives me the fatal blow and even breaks my very heart O God! what a confusion what a sensible heart-breaking will it be to these noble and generous soules designed to eternall glory in the Kingdom of Heaven when they shall see themselves condemned to the same punishment and devoured by the same implacable flames with those of the damned and lodged in the very suburbs of hell A Prince had rather die a thousand deaths then be condemned to live amongst base slaves in a gally or be hang'd amongst fellons for it is not the death so much as the dishonour that makes them to die indeed And can you doubt whether the soules of the just have the same feelings when they see themselves involved in the same misfortune in the same place and in the same flames of fire with which the accursed rable of damned spirits is eternally tormented ah they take it for so high a dishonour that it may with reason be questioned whether this unhappy place and condition grieves them not more then the fire it self Plut. Sen. There was a time when they would have forced a young Roman Cavallier into the bottom of a darke and stinking pit but his heart was so fill'd with indignation at it that he chose rather to dash out his braines against a doore threshold and so to let out his blood and his life together then to enter into so noysome a place What a tearing grief must it be to those vertuous soules when they shall see themselves border upon the very confines of hell and in that accursed frontire and more then this to be shut up close prisoners in that unfortunate gulfe and to be condemned to suffer the same fire as the damned though their punishment be neither so terrible nor so lasting Good God! how the great Saints and Doctours astonish me when they treate of this fire and of the paine of sence as they tall it For they peremptorily pronounce that the fire that purges those both happy and unhappy Soules surpasses all the torments which are to be found in this miserable life of man or are possible to be invented for so far they go Out of which assertion it cleerly follows that the furious fits of the stone feavour or raging gout the tormenting chollick with all the horrible convulsions of the worst of diseases nay though you joyn racks grid-Irons boyling oyles wild beasts and a hundred horses drawing several waies and tearing one limb from another with all the other hellish devices of the most barbarous and cruell Tyrants all this does not reach to the least part of the mildest pains in Purgatory For thus they discourse the fire and the pains of the other world are of another nature from those of this life because God elevates them above their nature to be instruments of his severity Now say they things of an inferior degree can never reach to the power of such things as are of a higher ranke for example the ayre let it be never so inflamed unless it be converted into fire can never be so hot as fire Besides God bridles his rigour in this world but in the next he lets the reines loose and punishes almost equally to the desert And since those soules have preferred creatures before their Creatour he seems to be put upon a necessity of punishing them beyond the ordinary strength of creatures and hence it is that the fire of Purgatory burnes more torments and afflicts more then all the creatures of this life are able to doe But is it Aug. in Ps 37. S. Th. supp q. 100. a 3. in 4. d. 21. S. Greg. in 3. Ps Penitent S. Anselm in Elucydario really true that the least pain in Purgatory exceeds the greatest here upon earth O God! the very proposal makes me tremble for feare and my very hart freeses into ice with astonishment And yet who dare oppose * St. Aug. St. Thomas St. Anselme St. Gregory the great c. Is there any hope of carrying the negative assertion against such a stream of Doctours who all maintain the affirmative and bring so strong reasons for it Have patience to heare them yet once more sinne say they exceeds all creatures in malice and therefore let it be never so little it must deserve a punishment exceeding all the pain that can proceed from creatures Again creatures here below do nothing above their natural reach and capacity they act only within the sphere of their limited forces whereas the fire that is designed to purify guilty soules derives its vigour and force from God Who being Almighty and besides provoked to displeasure makes it so active and so prevalent that there is nothing can be compared with it And they adde unto all this a world of visions and revelations which seem to countenance the rigour of their position What then will become of thee poore idle soul if the least pains in Purgatory surpasse the greatest in this world what I say will become of thee that art so tender that a little smoak is able
them with reproaches to come in upon this and either voluntarily or by a sweet kind of violence to set upon these captive soules with a new and fierce storme of reproaches Faith If you believed there was a Purgatory indeed miserable creature why did you not live so as to avoid its cruell torments Hope If you aym'd to gain Paradise why did you play the foole so as to amuse your self with such trifles and to loose so much precious time in them Charity Oh how well have you deserved to burne in these flames since you often scorned to burn with mine and to serve God with a heart all inflamed with divine fire burne then at leasure and dy here for shame since there was a time thou wouldst neither live nor die with sacred and holy love Penance Is it you that were so frighted with my rigours so terrified with my sweet austerities with which I would have preserved you from these cruel torments Tell me now where are your damask beds your soft quilts your down pillowes your fine sheets that were smoother and whiter then milke and cream your sweet bags and perfumes all your dainties all your vanities all that modish attire and braverie which did so besot and inchant you One sigh one teare one act of self denial would have kept you out of this place of torments answer me now and let me heare what you have to say for your self Prudence Foolish and senseless soule how came you so to loose your wits and even common sense too as knowing the rigour of these flames to use no caution to prevent them Oh? How well are these horrid punishments bestowed This vile creature was so simple as to believe that continually offending God without making him amends for it in an honourable way she should passe scotfree and supply for all with a slight peccavi and so enter into heaven What an idle folly was this As if it were a sufficient pretence to be wicked and rebellious because God is full of mercy Sit still then at the daily task of thy suffrings and rather think of doubling them for it is meet that God should shew himself to be God as well by justice as by mercy and that both these divine attributes should play their parts in their turnes Fortitude How oft have I offered my service to strengthen you O you carelesse aâ—d lazy soul how oft have I offer'd to lend you my Arme my Heart and all my invincible power to support and bolster up your pusillanimity and weaknesse and you have disdained to employ it now you are forced to bear the heavy burthen of Gods just vengeance have I not just reason to withdraw my assistance Temperance I told you as much long since that for want of bridling your unruly passions the time would come when you would curse the hours of all your excesses and disorders without having power to redeem them but by excessive torments Do you look now inconsiderate soul that I should poure out water upon your flames you that have ever slighted me Thus all the holy Quire of Gods darlings the innocent vertues come one after another and beat upon this Anvil laying whole loads of most heavy strokes upon this miserable soul that you cannot well imagine what more grievous fortune can befall her in so much that the soul so opprest with evills and so furiously battered on all sides with a fresh supply of torments is forced to cry out miserable that I am and a thousand times miserable am I not wretched enough but must the vertues themselves joyn their forces with my frailties to persecute me and compleat my misery How long alas how long will you thus cruelly combine to undoe me you love and you griefe you by a thousand sweets and you by a thousand severities You by flattering my paines and you by redoubling them you by shewing me life and you by shewing me death you by estranging me from Paradice and you by conducting me to the very gates of hel you by sweet expostulations and you by bitter reproaches which go to my very heart How long I say once more will you be so cruelly kinde as to joyn your forces to imbitter the martyrdom of a poore creature now grown to â—e the most miserable wretch under Heaven Forbear at length forbear it is not fit the severity of Gods Justice should eclipse all the raies of his infinite mercy Whether the Devils torment them All were lost if the opinion of some were true who will needs have the Devils play the executioners in Purgatory Lord what a terrible warr would these wicked Apostaâ—a's raise against the holy Soules who are ere long to take possession of the places which they have lost in Heaven With what a rage would they assault them wreak their barbarous fury upon them were they to be treated at their mercy But I had rather S. Tho. in 4. d. 20. 21. Suar. d. 46. Sect. 3. follow the opinion of others who with farr more reason me thinks believe that the Devils have no power to do them the least mischief Tell me what good would they get by it since the soules can neither offend God nor loose Paradise which is the only Butt against which the Devils level their whole malice Origen fancied the Devil to be so sullenly proud that having been once foyled by a soul he will never after come neere her nor have any thing more to doe with her If this be so the Devils will beware how they come neare Purgatory where there are so many Victorious Souls Besides God will not permit it nor can we see what good can arise thence to Gods glory Possibly also these pâ—nishments which the Devils would inflict might shorten the terme of the souls durance and this may be the cause why they are loath to meddle with them least they send them so much the sooner into heaven However some of the learned think that these souls bordring so near upon hell may very probably see the Devils and Su. cit n. 10. the damned souls and hear their most execrable blasphemies and that this is no small addition to their pains to hear their good God whom they entirely love to be incessantly cursed blasphemed and renounced by those devillish and sacrilegious spirits St. Catharine of Siena was heard to say she had rather suffer all the torments of Hell then hear one blasphemy against God for whom she had so much cordial love and who is of himself so lovely I confesse this is a sweet kind of torment as proceeding from supernatural and divine love but I maintain withall that it is a torment and a most grievous one because though the Arrows of Love are guilded over or made of pure gold yet are they as sharp pointed and as piercing to the quick as those of Grief though they be but of steel Confusion is one of Their confusion the most intollerable evils which can befall a
of their sensual and beastly appetites But you must observe that all The power of grace above nature this happens while a soul is left to her selfe and her own natural forces for when the divine goodness is pleased to furnish her with plenty of his grace even in this world as wicked as it is this grace has such an ascendant over nature and breathes such spirit and vigour into a soul that she can wrestle with all difficulties and remove all obstacleâ— nay though the body be borne and sunke into the very center of misery yet can she still hold up her head and steer her course towards heaven Now will you clearly see how the souls can at the same instant swim in a paradise of delights and â—et be overwhelmed with the hellish torments of Purgatory cast your eyes upon the holy Martyrs of Gods Church and observe their behaviour They were torn mangled dismembred flead alive rackt broyled burnt and tell me was not this to live in a kind of Hell and yet in the very height of their torments their hearts and souls were ready to leape for joy you would have taken them to be already transported into heaven Hear them but speak for themselves O lovely Cross made St. Andrew beautiful by the precious body of Christ how long have I desired thee and with what care have I sought thee and now I have found thee receive me into thy armes and lift me up to my dear Redeemer O death how amiable art thou in my Eyes and how sweet is thy cruelty Your coales your flaming firebands and all St. Cecâ—ly the terrours of death are to me but as so many fragrant Roses and Lillies sent from Heaven Shower down upon me whole deluges St. Stephen of stones whil'st I see the Heavens open and Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of his eternal father to behold the fidelity of his Champion Turne O St. Laurence turne the other side thou cruel Tyrant this is already broild and cookt fit for thy Palate O how well am I pleased to suffer this little Purgatory for the love of my Saviour Make hast O my Soul St. Agnes to cast thy selfe upon the nuptial bed of flames which thy dear Spouse has prepared for thee O St. Felicitus and the Mother of the Machabees that I had a thousand Children or a thousand lives to sacrifice them all to my God What a pleasure it is to suffer for so good a cause Welcome tyrants tygres St. Ignatius Lyons let all the torments that the Devils can invent come upon me so I may enjoy my Saviour I am the wheat of Christ O let me be ground with the Lyons teeth Now I begin indeed to be the disciple of Christ O the luckie stroak St. Paul of a Sword that no sooner cuts of my head but makes a breach for my Soul to enter into Heaven Let it be far from me to glory in any thing but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Let all evils band against me and let my body be never so overloaded with afflictions the joy of my heart will be sure to have the mastry and my soul will be still replenished with such heavenly consolations that no words nor even thoughts are able to express it You may imagine then that the Souls once unfettered from the body may together with their torments be capable of great comforts and divine favours and break forth into reâ—olute heroical and supercelestial acts The holy Ghost tels us that the body that Sap. 9. 15. is corrupted burthens the Soul and the earthly habitation presses downe the understanding So that a Soul by the infirmities of the body is violently kept from the free excercise of her functions whereas if the body were supple pliable and willing to follow the perswations of a resolute and generous Soul or the inspirations with which she is plentifully supplied from above what might we not be able to do even in this life Now that which is not done here but by very few who are lookt upon as so many miracles and prodigies of men is easily performed by those separate holy souls who are in the very porch of Heaven assured of their eternal salvation In fine will you have a most perfect exemplar and idea of this wonderful combination of â—oys and griefs in one simple person you may clearly see it in the most sacred person of our blessed Saviour who in the midst of his bitter passion and in the very height of his agony and extream dereliction when he not only seem'd to have been abandoned by his eternal Father but had even abandoned and forsaken himselfe by miraculously withholding the superiour part of his blessed Soul from relieving and assisting the inferiour yet even then had all the comforts of Heaven and saw God face to face and consequently was at the selfe same time most happy by the fruition of the beatifiâ—al vision and yet so oppressed with griefs that he cried out himself my soul is sorrowful unto death and againe O my God alas why hast thou thus forsaken me Conceive somthing like unto this of the Souls in Purgatory who are most miserably tormented and yet replenished with heavenly comforts §. 2. Two maine grounds of their comfort the double assurance they have of their salvation and impeccability THe better to unfold you this They are certain of â—heir salvation riddle I must tell you that possibly the most solid and powerful ground of their comfort is the assurance of their eternal salvation and that one day when it shall please God they shall have their part in the joyes of Paradise That which is the sorest affliction in this life unto the most refined Souls in the greatest torments is the fear of offending God and making an unhappy end for want of the gift of perseverance of which none can be assured without a particular revelation and so becoming the Devils martirs by purchasing one Hell with another For if an Angel should come down from Heaven and give this infallible assurance unto an affâ—â—cted person that undoubtedly he shall be saved as being one of the choyce number of the elect certainly his very heart would leap for joy nor would the severest usage with death it selfe and death represented in her most frightful and gastly attire seem cruel or irksome unto him but exceeding welcome and pleasant When almighty God was pleased once to reveal unto St. Francis his eternal predestination and to seal him as it were a deed of gift of Paradise this Seraphin incarnate was so transported with an extasie of joy and so ravished out of himselfe that for eight dayes together he did nothing but go up and down crying out Paradise Paradise O my soul thou shalt have Paradice and had so quite lost all memory of eating drinking sleeping suffering living dying and all things else as being inebriated with the sweet remembrance of that
who are truly miserable and yet holy under a cruel restraint and yet happy not able to merrit any thing and yet gracious in the sight of his divine Majesty no I do not say that when they are once got into Paradise they will be so many Angels Guardians of yours so many Advocates to plead your cause at the grand Tribunal of the most holy Trinity so many patrons and sureties for you and yours But I say that even while they remain prisoners they will do miracles for you I said miracles Now hear how they will doe that which cannot be done They will effect that for you which they cannot do for themselves and were it necessary to work a miracle in good earnest they would sooner do it then forsake you in your necâ—ssities I am not ignoâ—ant that the Angelical S. Thomas 2. 2 9 â—3 a. 〈◊〉 ad 3. Doctor teaches that those unhappy souls aâ—e in such a wretched state that they have more need to beg our prayers then to pray for us that they are wholly taken up with paying their debts to Gods justice who exacts an accompt of them to the last farthing that this suffering Church is rather in a condition to suffer them to act any thing that it is not now a time to merit but to burn not to succour those that are living but to expect succour from them A man that is drowning has not leasure to think of others a notorious malefactour that swims in boyling Oyl is not in a place where he ought or can plead for another his whole minde is so plung'd in the Oyle and all his thoughts so overwhelmed with the boyling liquour that torments him Alas those racked souls have more reason to cry out with holy Job Ah you my Job 19. 21. friends you aâ—â—east take pity of me for the hand of Gods justice so lovingly severe hangs continually over me and strikes me without intermission cease not to poure out your prayers for me to abate the rigour of his justice with your charitable sighs for a most miserable soul They have I say more need to beg our prayers then to pray for us I know well that many Learned Doctors are of opinion that the souls in Purgatory do not pray for us but it is no point of our faith and therefore they must give me leave to side with other great Divines who very probably maintain that Bell. l. 2. de Purgatorio c. 17. Suac d 47. Sect. 2. l. â— de oratione c. 11. those gratefull souls pray most ardently for those that pray for them The rich glutton though he were certainly damned could after his fashion pray for his brothers and shall not a holy soul have the power to do it Abraham argued the case with him call'd him lovingly sonne and seemd to be upon the â—oint of doing Luke 16. something for him at least gave him the comfort to tell him that his brothers had Moyses and the Prophets â—o instruct them as if he would haâ—e said that if his brothers had not been sufficiently provided of other means he would peradventure have granted him his request and sent Lazarus to preach to them But to Math. â— 31. give you yet a stranger instance The devils themselves have put up their requests to God have been heard and obtaind that sorry comfort they desired as when they begged not to be thrust down into Hell and got leave to enter into the heard of Swine and then to throw themselves into the Sea What! shall the damned soules pray and shall the divels be able to obtain their request and shall not the Souls in Purgatory have the like priviledges St. Thomas does not deny that they pray for us but onely affirms that they have more need of our prayers which is most true but may well stand with their praying for us A wicked Fellon that is going to be turn'd off the Ladder has yet a care to pray for his whole family for the King and the whole Bench that condemned him and many times for the very Hangman too who is ready to strangle him And shall this wretch have more power or more zeal or more grace then those souls who are so holy and who in spight of their torments are very present to themselves and have their wits about them free from all trouble and disquiet which might rob them of the sentiment and feeling which they ought to have of the obligation they owe to their charity that pray for them O no they do the one and yet neglect not the other They pray for themselves in suffering they pray for us in sighing and the one hinders not the other in Purgatory since that even here upon Earth the soul that is immersed in flesh and bloodâ— can perform both parts that â—â— sâ—tisfy for her self and yet have a sollicitous care of others Did not Onias and Hieremius pray affectionately for the people of God whilst they were in the dark prison of Abrahams bosome And do not the Saints assure us that God wrought a miracle for the merits of St. S. Greâ—â—â—dial Paschasius who yet neverthelesse was not out of Purgatory The same is reported of St Severin and though there be some dispute who this St. Severin was yet the Authors doubt not but that a Saint in Purgatory may work a miracle by Gods permission Some that are damned have wrought miracles and is it such a wonder that we should grant this to the Saints of Gods suffering Church We read in the life of St Catherine They are powerfull advocates of Bolognia whose Body Flesh and Bone is yet entire and sits to this houre 〈◊〉 chaire exposed to the view of the world though it be above sixty years since her death we read I say in her life which has the approbation of the sea Apostolick that she had not only a strange tendernesse for the soules but a singular devotion to them and was wont to recommend her self to them in all her necessities The reason she alleadged for it was this that she had learnt of Almighty God how she had frequently obtained farr greater favours by their intercession then by other means And the story adds this that it often happened that what she begged of God at the intercession of the Saints in Heaven she could never obtain of him and yet as soon as she addressed her self to the souls in Purgatory she had her suit instantly granted Can there be any question but there are souls in that purging fire who are of a higher pitch of sanctity and of a farr greater merit in the sight of God â—hen a thousand and a thousanâ— Saints who are already glorious in the Court of Heaven Tell 〈◊〉 was not our Dread Soveraignâ— during his late Banishment more puissant and more mighty then His Subjects who lived still in their own Country at their liberty and at their ease and perhaps in greater plenty for we see Him
trouble in her afflictions Fourthly He was sensible enough of his pain and would complain of it sometimes I say complain do you think Saints have bodies of Steele but betweeen one complaint and anoother he would be often thus sweetly interposing O my God I desire thy will may be fulfilled in all things and nothing else but thy will I am willing that thou handle this my body and all that belongs to me according to thy divine pleasure both in time and eternity Now tell me dear reader canst thou not do all this as well as this poore paralytick who lived for no other end but to be dying a lingring death all the dayes of his miserable and yet thrice happy life Will you have a soule so holy and so plyable â—o Gods will be thrown into Purgatory fire Sure said St. Austine if he meant to damn us in the other world he would not damn us in this to a Hell of most loathsome and intollerable diseases and I may say the like here that if God meant to punish his servaâ—ts in Purgatory after this life he would not punish them here in a Purgatory of miseries His goodnesse is not wont to punish the same fault twice Go into Hell and purgatory while you live cried In illud descendant in infernam St Bernard and you will be sure not to go thither after your death for it is not reasonable that you should have two Purgatories or two Hels Alas no And this is the cause why God to save his friends from those horrible torments of Purgatory fire sends them good store of crosses and afflictions in this world which are nothing so painfull and yet are highly meritorious in his sight Hom. 8. in c. 3. ad Colon. whereas the other are but pure sufferings Hear Saint Chrysostome The tongue that praises God in the midest of afflictions is not inferiour to the tongues of Martyrs and likely they may have both the same reward If a man praise God and give him thanks in his sufferings it is reputed as a kinde of Martyrdome and would you have a Martyr go to Purgatory he that findes heaven open and ready to receive him For as Emissenus saies very well the Heavens are not onely open to Saint Steven but unto all Martyrs and unto all that suffer and die with the name of Jesus in their mouths constancy in their hearts and fidelity in theirs souls The works of patience according to St. James are perfect and that which is perfect Jac. 1. ows nothing to Purgatory nor can Purgatory refine that which is already perfect no more then our fire can refine gold of twenty foure carrats that is so pure as not to have the least mixture or drosse or impurity § 7. The seventh Devotion for the Souls in Purgatory SHall I deal candidly with you one of my chief moâ—ives of publishing this Treatise was to perswade you this truth that one of the best means to prevent Purgatory is to have a great tendernesse and a particular care to comfort the souls there to spare nothing that can further their deliverance in a word to make your self a general Agent for this suffering Church to sollicite for their eternal rest Take now the proofs of this Assertion and the whole strength of my discourse 1. Christ said in plain terms In what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again that is you shall be dealt withall in some manner as you deale with others Mat. 7. So that if you have beat your brains and employed all your endeavours to help the souls in Purgatory and have really delivered some before their time it is but reason that this your charity should be requited with a like return and with a hundred fold besides and heaven at the end of it Methinks â—our case is not unlike to that of the prudent Abigail King David was so highly incensed 1 Reg. 25. against the ungratefull Nabal that he swore to pursue him and his whole Family with Fire and and Sword and to turn all into ashes For all this Abigail ventured to meet him with a Present and did it with so good a grace that she soon made up the breach and saved all For David after some little dispute with his anger grew calmer forgave all so sent her away joyfully in peace The application is easie T is true you have played the ungratefull Nabal you have offended God so far as to provoke his high displeasure so that he may seem to deale favourably with you if he sends you into Purgatory But you have with all played Abigails part in sending him as many gratefull Presenâ—s as you have breathed out fervent Prayers for the souls in Purgatory and with these you have made your peace so as you may look to be dismissed in peace into the Kingdome of Heaven 2. Take a second reason of St. Peter who exhorts us above all things to have charity for one another because charity covereth the multitude of sins For since it is the greatest Charity in the world to 1 Pet. 4. help poore souls out of Purgatory as I proved at large in the third Survey those that devote themselves wholly to this Service may be confident so to cover their sins as to put them out of the reach of Purgatory fire When Gibellin had straightly besieged Guelph Duke of Bavary and forced him to surrender his Town upon such hard Parud l. 2. c. 70. terms as that the women onely were permitted to secure themselves and to take away with them what they could carry upon their backs but as for the men they were to remain at mercy exposed to the fury of the fire and sword The good women laying their heads together found out this strange expedient to save their husbands as well as themselves for every one taking her husband upon her back and what else she was able to carry about her they marched out of the town Never was man so struck with astonishment as Gibellin was at this fight and though he might have disputed their passage as not consisting with the true meaning of the Articles yet was he so taken with so rare astratageme and strange example of a true conjugal love that â—he suffered them all to pass freely to the admiration of the whole world And surely we may hence conclude that all those who have so much love for the poor souls in Purgatory as to carry them as it were upon their backs out of their miserable thraldome will find heaven gates open and all the blessed spirits ready to receive them with acclamations of joy for so sweet an excess of charity 3 It is not possible that they who have been thus ransomed out of Purgatory by the ardent zeal of their friends here should not hold themselves obliged to restitution to return I say the like charity to the souls of their benefactours when they leave the world How can those happy souls that
4. c. 27. Abbot that this fact of Matius was as pleasing to God as that of Abraham and that he should be eternally blessed for it Go now and cast this soul into Purgatory who stuck not to cast his only Son into the River at the command of his superiour and when you have done will they not sooner think you cast in the whole River which was thus blessed by a perfect act of obedience and so quench the flames then suffer her to lye burning there Mutius did but once cast his son into the River and how many Religious souls out of the same spirit of obedience expose themselves a thousand times to all dangers both by Sea and Land and after all this must they needs visit Purgatory in their way to heaven It seems boldly said of St Austin Tract 10. in Joan. that the blessed Virgin was happier in obeying God then in being the Mother of God and yet Christ himself said as much in express tearms For when by way of applauding him they were crying up her Luc. 11. 27. 28. happy that had the honour to be his Mother and to nourish him with the milk of her breasts he sudainly replied that he took them to be happy indeed that heard his word and put it in Practise Luc. 8. 21. and another time when they had told him that his good Mother and his brothers stood without waiting for him who say he are my brothers and whom do you call my Mother whosoever does the will of my Father he is my Mother my brothers and my whole parentage Now to our purpose if an obedient person have the honour to bear this honorable title of being the brother and even the Mother of God can God so far neglect this brother and mother of his as to leave them in Purgatore fire The Abbess one day commanded S. Catherine of Bolognia that for the love of God and the excercise of l. 1. vite ejus obedience she would enter into a burning furnace The Saint runs away instantly and doubtless would have thrown herself in had not the Religious stood in the way to hinder her It is not a crime 1 de civ c. 1 says St. Austin to be thus prodigal of our lives and even like Samson to make our selves away when God requires it No this is no crime but a pious holocaust offered upon the Altar of obedience and will you then kill a man that is already dead will you burn him in Purgatory that is already consumed in the holy flames of obedience God does not use to punish or purge the same fault twice and therefore a soul that has been once purged in the fire of obedience hath no need of being purged again in the fire of Purgatory O what a thing it is to be obedient cried Gerard as he lay a dying in St. Bernards armes I have been carried before Gods high tribunal and have seen the power of obedience no body shall ever perish that is truly obedient but when he comes to die shall mount above the quires of Angels Arch-angels and Apostles according to the merit of his obedience and with this he died Must Angels Arch-angels Apostles and those that are in the same degree of perfection be thrust into Purgatory fire Is it reasonable that they should be confined to so loathsome a prison that made themselves voluntary prisoners under the severe government of obedience I am resolved said H. David to fear no evils of what ragged nature soever they be Ps 22. so long as thou my God dost lead me by the hand though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death in the very suburbs of hell which is Purgatory I will feare nothing for thy rod and thy staff wherewith thou dost governe and direct me to do thy holy will in all occasions will be my sure comfort and protection An obedient man speaks nothing but victories says the holy Ghost in the Proverbs What victories Such as St. Dorotheus Pro. c. 21. 28 Doct. 1. describes when he tells us that a soul being scated in her triumphant chariot drawn by humility and obedience treads all underfoot and with a swift motion steeres her course up to heaven If humility and obedience be her horses they will not easily convey her into Purgatory for they know not the way thither but only into heaven their own native country where they will be surâ— to leave this triumphant and victorious soul in the joyful fruition of eternal happiness Take away self-will and there will be no hell cries St. Bernard If obedience can put out hell fire Ser. 1. de resur she most needs have power to put out the fire of Purgatory What a solid comfort must this be to religious souls who have given themselves over to the practice of this vertue and to all those that living in the world yet do nothing of their own heads but are constantly ruled by the will of God It is a strange but very true observation Bonau c. 13 reg noviâ— to 7. of St. Gregory and of St. Bonaventure that God who is invincible will yet suffer himself to be overcome by the obedience of his servants so far as even to obey them I say obey for it is the very expression he uses himselfe in the case of Josua who is said to have stopped the sun in his full carreere because God was pleased to obey the voice of his obedient servant If this be so that God will refuse nothing to an obedient soul let her aske him to be freed from Purgatory and she will not be denied it who never denied him any thing And without all doubt it is as easy for her to curb the fire of Purgatory as to stop the sweet motion of the heavens You then that are obedient know your power you may appeale from God to God in case he should sentence you to Purgatory you may boldly claim his promise of denying you nothing and then you will be sure to make it in your bargain to have nothing to do with Purgatory but to go straight into heaven there to enjoy him for ever The Conclusion IT is now high time to conclude this § and with it the whole Treatise And I cannot leave you better then in heaven whether I have brought you if you will your self for you see it is in your power to make your way thither without passing through Purgatory Believe mee it is no trifling matter but the most important business we have to do in this world to purchase heaven and to purchase it so as to have right to take possession of it immediately after we have left this world Christ our Saviour tells us that the kingdome of heaven suffers violence and that they must be both violent and valliant that run away with it where St. Ambrose observes well S. Amb. in Luc. that God loves to be forced and that they which importune him most and use the greatest violence are the men he makes most of Take courage then deare Reader take courage imitate the good thief snatch heaven out of his hands steal away his Paradise do something worthy of him worthy of your self and worthy of Paradise If no better means occur to you at least strive to to be hugely concerned for the poor souls in Purgatory pray often devoutly for them and procure that good store of Masses may be said for their relief You have the ell in your hands by which you may measure out your 〈◊〉 happiness says the devout Salvianus be charitable to others and they will be no less to you The time is not long that is allowed you to sojourn in this world in this little time be sure you make the Saints in heaven and the souls in Purgatory your friends that they be obliged to help you in your greatest need Learne at least by these discourses to have a tender heart for the poor souls and to use your uttermost endeavours to go your self directly into heaven out of this wiâ—ked world It is the thing I earnestly beg of Gods infinite mercy for you and for my self at the instance of your good prayers For though I must acknowledge I have de 〈◊〉 〈…〉 â—easoâ—â—â— take 〈…〉 â—our to be sentâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 to lye there as â—any months and years aâ—â—â— shall please God yet I confess ingenuously I have no great minde to either place â—ut only to heaven which I beseech God by the merits of my dear Saviour and by the plenary indulgence of his most infinite mercy to grant us all Amen Et Fidelium animae per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace Amen FINIS