intent these Obblations were made Tertullian teaches us elsewhere for lesser Faults for which the dead are imprison'd he GOD will cast thee into the infernal Goal Tertull. de Anima c. 35. Ille te in Carcerem mandet infernum unde non dimitteris nisi modico quoque delicto mora Resurrectionis expenso whence thou shalt not go forth until the smallest Fault be expiated in the delay of Resurrection And finally Tertullian affirms this middle state or prison where smaller Faults are to be expiated before the detained go to Heaven into the delay of Resurrection to be part of what the Church believ'd in these Words If you ask a Command for this in Scripture there is none to be found Lib. de Coron Mil. c. 4. Traditio tibi pretendetur auctrix consuetudo confirmatrix fides observator Tradition from the Apostles has increas'd this into a Precept Custom confirms it Faith observes it Dionysius Areopagita Makes mention of Three States of Men after death De Hierar Eccles. tom 1. c. 7. Edit Paris 1644. Pag 352. 357. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First are the Wicked who die miserably and go straightway to Hell and for whom the Priest never prays at the Altar For the Wicked deceased he never prays The Second State is of the Just who go straightway to Heaven and of these he recounts two degrees Some liv'd a divine Life upon earth others not so fervent in Charity a holy Life both after death enjoy the sight of God. The Prelate prays for neither They want not his Prayers For both of them he gives Thanks to God Ib. pag. 352. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who leads here a divine says S. Denis and most holy Life as much as 't is possible for man to imitate God shall in the next World enjoy divine and happy Rest And whose Life is inferiour to this divine one yet likewise holy he will receive equal recompence for his Merits The blessed Prelate giving Thanks for this divine Justice goes on with the holy Sacrifice Thus the Roman Catholick Church holds prayers offer'd with reference to the Saints a Thanks-giving to GOD. Besides these Two States we find mention of a Third This cannot be Hell the place admits of Mercy It cannot be Heaven the detained are not yet fully purg'd from sin or lesser Faults And it is for the remission of these that the Prelate prays The Prayer of the Holy Prelate implores the Divine Goodness to pardon the deceased of all his sins committed by humane frailty Ib. Parag. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to transfer him into the light and region of the Living and to seat him in the Bosom of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in a place where there is no more any pain sorrow or sighing S. Maximus in his exposition of this passage S. Max. in Dionys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calls these Faults of human frailty little Sins and these are those venial Offences which accompanyed the dead to Purgatory there to be expiated before the detained change sorrow grief or weeping into joy and eternal felicity and of which the Church of ROME begs pardon in her Prayers for Souls departed And lest succeeding Ages should be forgetful of the dead or oppose this pious Devotion of the Faithful for them S. Denis guided with a Prophetick Spirit left in few words Three strong Motives which are of themselves proper to remind the Forgetful of this duty and able to convince any unbyas'd Understanding of it First he says That this Doctrine is divinely reveal'd Secondly That it is grateful to Heaven Thirdly That these Prayers will prove effectual to relieve the Dead Ib. Pag. 357 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The holy Bishop concludes this ancient FATHER asks what is divinely promis'd what is acceptable to God and what will certainly be granted And after this can any one pretend to be exempted from praying with intent to help Souls departed in a middle state of pain sorrow and sighing or of Purgatory where lesser Faults are expiated This is the sense the Greeks gave of Dionysius Areopagite and they understood his Language Mich. in Ep. ad Nilum Mona 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You have says Michael Glyca chiefly Dionysius the Great banishing the Opinion of no middle State and openly teaching what sins may and what may not be pardon'd For discoursing of those who died in Sin he adds this if they be small they receive help from Good Works which are done for them if they be notorious Faults GOD has concluded against them And Gabriel Severus a Greek Schismatick writing against the Latins about the being of real Fire in Purgatory which is no matter of Faith declares the Greeks agree with the Latins In as much as we the Greeks likewise affirm That the Souls of those who piously departed are help'd in those places in which they are kept Gab. Tract de Purgat adu Lat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and set free by Alms-deeds and Prayers which are offer'd for them as Dionysius Areopagite says The Discourser apprehended very much the pressing of this ancient Father's Authority and therefore would have us doubt of his Works and calls him the pretended Dionysius But the two Greeks above-mentined call him the true Areopagite so does S. Gregory the Great S. Greg. hom 34. Evang. Conc. 6. Gen. Act. 5. Relatio est aliud Testimonium è Codicillo S. Dionysij Episcopi Atheniensis Martyris Apud Niceph. l. 15. c 14. S. Greg. Naz. orat 42. in Pascha so does the sixth OEcumenical Council Juvenalis Bishop of Jerusalem who Liv'd at the Time of the fourth OEcumenical Synod affirms the same S. Gregory Nazianzen makes use of this Authority Dionysius Alexandrinus Commented upon him in the Third Age as S. Maximus assures us And the Monotholite Hereticks citing his Authority 't was explicated by the Fathers of the Church as that of Dionysius And I think these grave and weighty Authorities will easily sink down the light Pretension of a Discourser CHAP. VIII Of Scriptures recommending Prayers for the DEAD HOly Scriptures have in many places recommended this pious Office to the Faithful I 'le content my self with three or four Instances The First shall be what we read in the Second Book and Twelth Chapter of The Maccabees And the day following Judas came with his Company to take away the bodies of them that were overthrown and with their Kins-men to lay them in the Sepulchres of their Fathers And they found under the Coats of the slain some of the Donaries of the Idols that were in Jamnia from which the Law forbideth the Jews therefore it was made plain to all that for that cause they were slain All therefore Blessed the just Judgment of our Lord who had made manifest the hidden things And turn'd to Prayers they beg'd of him that the Sin committed might be perfectly blotted out Then Judas exhorted the People to keep themselves from
rarely spoken of in ancient Times because less common 'T was compil'd sometime before our Saviours comming with the addition of those Books which were Written after the Collection of the First Canon Lib. 2. Cont. Appion Joseph the Jew assures us of such an addition made where he cites the Text of Ecclesiastick as part of their Scripture which Book is not found in the Collection of the First Canon of the Jews and was written near Two Hundred Years after it This suppos'd I am of the Discoursers mind that the Books of Maccabees were not by the Jews acknowledg'd as part of the First Collection of Canonical Scripture they were written near Three Hundred Years after the First Collection made by Esdras But can the Discourser prove to me that these Books were not by the Jews receiv'd as part of the Second Collection of Canonical Scripture If the Discourser notwithstanding this reasonable Distinction remains unsatisfied and still scruples their Authenticness and continues to say that the Jews did not receive them as Canonical I le humour him in this and grant him what he asks But are we Jews If the Jews did not the Church of Christ receiv'd them as Canonical Scripture S. Jerome 't is true says In Praef. Salom that the Church did not look upon them as part of that Canonical Scripture which was contain'd in the First Canon of the Jews and which was universally receiv'd from the beginning by all Christians So did S. Gregory the Great Lib. Moral 19. c. 13. Neither of them deny the Maccabees to be part of that entire Canon of Scripture which the Church of Christ appprov'd of and read in their dayes In this entire Canon of Scripture Canon 47. Sunt autem Canonicae Scripturae Maccabaeorum Libri duo the Third Council of Carthage which all well-meaning Christians alwayes look'd upon as Orthodox number'd the Maccabees So did Innocent the First Head of the Universal Church of Christ upon Earth in his Letter to Exuperius Bishop of Tholouse S. Austin in express Words says That the Jews do not receive the Books of Maccabees as Canonical S. Aug. l. 18. de Civit. Dei. c. 37. Maccabaeorum Libros non Judaei sed Ecclesia pro Canonicis habet but the Church does And in the Second Age the Valentinian Hereticks asserted That the Bible no where patroniz'd it to be lawful to venture their Lives for GOD ALMIGHTY's sake And Origen instanc'd that Famous Example of the Mother and seven Sons who died upon this Account out of the Second of Maccabees as part of Holy Scripture and confuted them Reasons without exception that if the Jews did not Christians number'd these Books with the rest of Canonical Scripture In S. Matthew We read an other Confirmation of this Truth where Christ himself says Chap. 12. v. 32. That the Sin against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven neither in this World nor in that to come I cannot chuse here but take Notice how wittily the Discourser Reasons upon the World to come He will have the World to come to be in this present World and not to be till this World end Thus he delivers himself They Catholicks suppose That the World to come Page 19. must signify the time between every mans Death and the General Resurrection The World to come cannot be till this World end i. e. till the time be That Purgatory shall be no more which now is in this Present World. I expected the acuteness of so sharp a Wit could have distinguished between Life and Death this World and the next especially when Scripture had done it before him We therefore following the distinction which Scripture gives understand by this World this present Life which all Mankind more or less enjoys and by that to come the State of Man after Death a middle State where some Sin is to be expiated 'T is certain that by this passage neither in this World nor in that to come is meant that the Sin against the Holy Ghost in which Man dies is never to be forgiven For if it were ever to be forgiven certainly it would be pardon'd in this World or that to come for no other place can be assign'd where Pardon is to be expected S. M. c. 3. v. 29. And thus S. Mark interprets the Phrase He hath not Forgiveness for ever and shall be guilty of an eternal Sin. From hence Roman Catholicks infer That there are some Sins not eternal to be pardon'd in the next World and if to be pardon'd without dispute in a middle state of Souls for whose delivery Prayers are offer'd by the Faithful living Our Reason is because Scripture assigns this World and that to come as the only two places where Sin may be pardon'd saying That the Sin against the Holy Ghost shall in neither of them or never be pardon'd Let those sayes S. Bernard who deny Purgatory ask of him S. Bern. super Cantica Serm. 66. Quaerant ergò ab eo qui dixit quoddam peccatum esse quod neque in hoc saeculo neque in futuro remitteretur Cur hoc dixerit si nulla manet in futuro remissio purgatione peccatis who said there is some Sin which shall neither be forgiven in this World nor in that to come Why did he say this if there remain in the World to come no forgiveness or purgation of Sin S. Isidore of Spain is more express Lib. 1. de off Eccles. c. 18. Nam cum Dominus dicit qui peccaverit in Spiritum sanctum non remitteretur ei neque in hoc saeculo neque in futuro demonstrat quibusdam illic dimittenda peccata quodam purgatorio igne purganda For when our Lord says whosoever shall sin against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this World nor in that to come he demonstrates that Sin is forgiven to some there and expiated in a certain Purgatory Fire And to the same Words of CHRIST S. Austin gives the like Interpretation S. Aug. Civit. Dei l. 2. c. 24. De Defunctis quibusdam vel ipsius Ecclesiae vel quorundam piorum exauditur Oratio neque enim de quibusdam veraciter diceretur quod non eis remittatur neque in hoc saeculo neque in futuro nisi essent quibus etsi non in isto tamen remittetur in futuro For some Souls departed the Prayers of the Church or pious Persons are heard for otherwise it would not be truly said of some that it should not be forgiven them neither in this World nor in that to come unless there were some to whom if not in this it shall be forgiven in the World to come And I am of opinion if the Discourser will but seriously consider our Saviours own Words that he will acknowledge some Sins to be pardon'd in this Life and some after Death I shall instance only one Example somewhat of the like nature to convince him If
some of the Discoursers Companions should tell him that he had a Law-suit in hand and that he was certain never to win it neither at the Kings-Bench nor Court of Chancery I am perswaded the Discourser or any man of sense would infer from this Person 's talk that Law-suits were pleaded both at the Kings-Bench and in Chancery And why will he not infer from these Words of our Saviours Some sins shall never be pardon'd neither in this World nor in that to come that there are some sins both pardonable in this World and in that to come And if there be some sins there to be forgiven I suppose he will allow of some Pain there to be suffered for all sin deserves some Punishment And 't is upon this account the Roman Church prays for the Dead that their pain may be eased and sins forgiven S. Paul 1 Cor. c. 15. v. 29. Makes use of two Arguments to verify the Resurrection of Man Devotion perform'd for the Dead and the exposing of his own Life which was in danger preaching this ineffable Mystery which is the Foundation of Christian Religion Otherwise says the Text what shall they do that are baptised for the Dead if the Dead rise not at all Why also are they baptised for them Why also are we in danger every hour I expect here the Discourser will exclaim against the hardness of this passage I am somewhat of his opinion 't is so difficult that if I were a Reformer I could make no sence of it Mark 10. Orat. in S. Lumina This Word Baptism as hard as 't is S. Mark interprets to be pain or austerity And S. Gregory Nazianzen calls Purgatory Fire the last Baptism But let the word Baptism signify whatever affliction the Discourser shall please to assign Penance or Prayer it will still Literally be true that it is performed to benefit the Dead For if the Dead are not hereby helped why does S. Paul urge again so earnestly Why also to what end are they baptised or afflicted for them If this Devotion profit not the Dead might not we answer the Apostle and say to no end at all And so void and silence his pressing Forwardness Far be it from me Divine APOSTLE to contend against thy Testimony S. John The beloved Disciple of Christ speaks of Two states of Sinners after Death He speaks of those who we know depart in mortal or deadly sin For these he forbids us to pray They are without Redemption abandon'd by God. S. John speaks of an other sort of Sinners whom we know by outward signs of Repentance die not in deadly sin For these he does encourage us if he do not command us with confidence to pray And this is says the Scripture Ep. Catho 1. Chap. 5. v. 14. the Confidence which we have towards him that whatsoever we shall ask according to His Will He heareth us He that knoweth his Brother to sin a Sin not to Death let him him ask and Life shall be given him sinning not to Death Here is Encouragement for us to pray for those who die with Repentance And Two strong Motives excite us hereunto First We are encourag'd thus to pray because we ask What is according to GOD's Will And Secondly God will hear us pardon the Delinquent and give him Life everlasting The Text continues There is a sin to Death for that I say not that any man ask Here is an Inhibition to pray for any of whom we have no signs no Hopes of Repentance at their Death I do not expect here that the Discourser will deny S. John speaks of Praying for the Dead The Text is too plain against him And what is convincing neither the Church nor any Man is disswaded here from praying for any Sinner yet living nor for the Remission of any Sin in this Life I know the Montanist Hereticks held some sins not pardonable But the Church of Christ before the Death of any Sinner prays and is often heard for the sins of Hereticks Jews Turks Apostates or what other Infidels or ill-Livers soever in the World so long as Life is all have hopes of Pardon But S. John speaks here of a Sinner now placed in such a state that Prayer for him will not be available therefore he speaks of praying for the sins of the Departed Of these some die without repentance These we are not to pray for Others duly repent for these we are encouraged to pray and God will hear us and give them Life everlasting CHAP. IX Of Purgatory IF the Word Purgatory be not found in Scripture no pious Reader ought upon this sole account to scruple at it the sense of it is delivered in Holy Writ Do we read any where in the Bible of the Word Trinity We all of us believe in the blessed Trinity one GOD and three divine Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost The Word Catholick is not written in Scriptures We all of us profess in the Creed I believe one Catholick Church By the Word Purgatory we not improperly signify a middle state after Death where Souls departed endure some Pain for smaller Offences not forgiven in this World. That there is such a state of Souls I have already from Fathers and Scripture demonstrated for if both these teach us to pray as I have shewn that God will be pleased to deal with some Souls departed more mildly than their sins deserve to forgive them and to seat them in the Kingdom of Heaven who can justly refuse the being of Purgatory This is all we mean by it This is our Belief and of this I will add one more Proof very plain and easy There are two sorts of sin Mortal and Venial I call a Mortal sin that Crime which breaks Charity between God and the Delinquent and for which hee 's to suffer eternal pain I mean by Venial sin that Fault which lessens Friendship between God and the Just for which he must undergoe some Penalty because he has transgres'd yet not that of eternal Damnation I know that God might have punished all sins and this too with Justice eternally But the Divine Goodness considering the weakness of human frailty which failes almost at every step it makes will'd all Offences should not be Mortal or lyable to everlasting Torments This he has revealed to us in S. Matthew where we read Math. 5.23 Whosoever is angry with his Brother shall be in danger of Judgment whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of Council whosoever shall say to his Brother thou Fool shall be guilty of Hell Fire Is not here an uncontroul'd difference of two sorts of sin Some are guilty of Hell Fire these I call Mortal Others are not guilty of Hell Fire but in danger of Judgment these I name Venial faults And they are these quotidian slips which the Prophet attributes to the Just who fails seven times a day If he be just hee 's GOD's Favourite and not guilty