defined by the Decree When the Church combated the Eutychian Heresie which denyed two natures in Christ no Christian dare affirm it onely then defined the plurality of Wills against the Monothelites because these two questions have so necessary and immediate a connexion And can you hope to perswade an ignorant Reader that when the Pope defines That after purgation even before the re-assumption of their bodies departed souls are received into heaven he defines nothing at all about Purgatory but onely this that perfect Charity brings an immediate heaven though he hath not any thing like this Position in his Bull and that this should be fixed on the Pope and Cherubinus and all Learned Authors to boote I hope then Sir you will pardon my boldness if I challenge you fairly with this If you do not make it appear by those unknown Learned Authors in terms that yours was the question and not that of Purgatory we shall judg you have wrong'd them as much as now to our eyes you have imposed on the Pope and Cherubinus And I justly challenge it of you that you bring us it in terms and not by a consequence of a second or third remove or else your sincerity in citing Authors will be highly questionable by your Reader or indeed now past Question And truly I wondred at the first perusal of this part of your Book why you should use this sleight to prepossess the unwary Reader but afterwards by the rest of your discourse I easily observed it was but made use of to render by this art of changing the question a plawsible answer to this Bull and Council otherwise unavoidable and yet I discovered at last a further design which no man but a Prophet could have foreseen to wit that you might fix upon your Adversary that he not you stands guilty of disowning these sacred authorities and that forsooth because he opposes the efficacy of holy charity the Queen of vertues which you and your Master indeavour to sustain of which your slye accusation I shall have occasion to speak hereafter but I hope to render this your craft wholly unsuccessful Sect. 15. But how unfortunate a Writer you are will be rendred evident and how unfit you are to catechise and instruct others this Grave and Learned Eymericus shall tell you because you do not explicitely believe this Doctrine of Purgatory now in question For having distinguished all the Credibilia or matters of faith into three Classes according to St. Thomas and shewed what the vulgar and simple sort of Christians as also what Superiours Prelates and Doctours are bound to believe both explicitely and implicitâ—ly he there concludes concerning the middle sort of Christians under which name he comprehends Priests CuÌ„rates and all Religious Persons who have undertaken to instruct the ignorant in faith and good manners The middle sorts sayes he who are to teach the simple people are obliged to believe some of these points that is such as are determined by the holy Church in her Councils and Consistories Explicitely though not all these Points singly nor all these Persons equally but according to their several state and learning whereby they are to instruct the ignorant As for example they are all bound to believe explicitely that the souls of just men departed without sin as of little Infants or if they have sinned have here or in Purgatory fully satisfied are pass'd into Heaven before the day of Iudgment according to the Church's determination making it a matter of faith in the extravagant of Pope Benedict xii beginning Blessed be God Sect. 16. And having said this as to the intention of the Pope in our present Bull before I proceed further in your Answer let us take a short survey of the Florentin Council of which I can not but blame you of neglect in that you give your Reader so slender an account And if I must not flatter your sloth I know not how otherwise to excuse it then that you were not conversant at all in it and so you rested satisfied with what your cleer-sighted friends told you or Cherubinus his Vbi hoc idem firmatum fuit since if it were possible the Council seems more full and home to our Question And first In the Third Article which the Publishers gave you it defines If truely penitent Souls shall depart this life before they have satisfied for their Commissions and Omissions by worthy fruits of Penance that their Souls are purged by the punishments of Purgatory after their bodies death c. Which Doctrine can finde no admittance in your new modell for all the sufferings of souls which you fancy by their irregular and now unchangeable affections avail nothing as to the Purging or cleansing of Souls in their state of Separation since that is wholly reserved by you to the change of those affections at the re-union And secondly when Art 4. upon this Doctrine of the Council so said down it pursues to declare unto us That Souls which are purged either in their bodies ar being uncloathed of their bodies as is above said are presently received into heaven I would have you to observe how this further Doctrine of the delivery of them and the compleating of this purging being uncloathed of their bodies is by this Parenthesis as is above said wholly built on the former Doctrine of the purging itself And it will be unavoidable since there is a Purgation of souls by the punishments of Purgatory against you that there also is as effectually concluded a compleat Purgation of them whilst uncloathed of their bodies and an immediate delivery perfectly condemning and destructive of your Doctrine in the very point in Question But that my Reader may have a cleerer view of this unavoidable Truth let us set together and compare this Doctrine of the Council with yours The Council defines That truly penitent souls which depart this life before they have satisfied for their sins are purged by the punishments of Purgatory after death and being thus purged uncloathed of their bodies are presently received into Heaven Or as the Pope more expresly pronounces before the reassumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment Now how happily do you and your new Master agree with this Doctrine when you tell us Souls which depart this life with affections to corporal pleasures suffer a vast grief by reason those pleasures are now impossible to be enjoyed but they are now in an unchangeable condition both as to the affections their torment and the state it self So that there is no hope they should ever be released before reunion with their bodies for though they suffer by their inordinate unchangeable affections yet not possibly as to any purging or change of their state or sufferings whilest uncloathed of their bodies and therefore can not Presently be received into Heaven or before the Re-assumption of their said bodies and the general Day of Iudgment And I would have you further to observe and weigh the words
let it give testimony to this Faith We find the Priest at the Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead powring forth his Devotions in this manner Dread Iudge whose Iustice is severe Their long black score of sin make clear Ere the Accounting Day appear What new construction shall we have of this Ante diem rationis ere the accounting day and every where Grant them rest Eternall Receive O Lord the Sacrifices and Prayers for those Souls we make a memory of this day make them pass from death to life And more expresly in the Prayers and Post-communions Grant we beseech thee O Lord that the Soul of thy Servant being purged and discharged from his sins by these now offered Sacrifices may obtain mercy and Rest. What senseless Devotions are these whilst Separated Souls cannot be purged or discharged by any Sacrifice whatsoever since that is reserved to the state of Reunion Sect. 23. But to this Clowd of witnesses to all the Authority we can Imagin in the Catholick Church to the consent of all the Christian world Fathers Councils Popes to the Constant and Universal practice of all the faithful not any Church Chappel Altar Oratory but speaking it alowd in their continual Prayers Dirges Masses Almes Doales c. What is opposed but THOMAS ANGLVS E GENEROSA ALBIORVM IN ORIENTE TRINOBANTVM PROSAPIA ORIVNDVS THOMAS THE ENGLISHMAN DESCENDED OF THE GENEROUS PROGENY OF THE ALBII I think he Construes it Whites IN THE EAST OF THE TRINOBANTS Aâ— which in good modest English is Thomas White of Essex Together with the autority of the Heathen Poets Not so you willx say we have not this Thomas The Englishman with this frightful title but with his Reason with his Demonstration with that indisolvable Chaine of necessary conclusions pursued with Irrefragable evidence through the most abstruse properties of Bodies to the clear discovery of separated Substances not onely of Souls now severed from that Clay which before inclosed them but of Angels those clean pure Spirits which never had any allay of drossy matter Dives Promissis To be rich in Promises may accompany very poor men would your performance were answerable though much short of the full proportion This truly Sir is a very handsome invitation to your School But is this the onely entertainment there O no we have an incomparably higher and nobler feast prepared for us All this is but his Peripateticks the atchievment of Thomas the Englishman of the Albii of the East-Saxons What shall we hope for in his Theology now he hath gotten this much nobler Title What is it for the now great Trinobant to understand Men and Angels This towring soul flyes much a higher pitch by his Adamantine Chaine of Demonstrations he soars up to the a inaccessible light of the Divinity he leads us into the bosome of that incomprehensible essence and there evidences by cleer light the b Eternal Generation of the Word the Procession of the Holy-Ghost There he inlightens us cleerly to see an Eternal Father a Co-eternal Son a substantial love Generation Processions Nature Persons All In sum whatever our astonisht humble Faith hath hitherto only accepted by Revelation c And yet which is more admirable then All this and which never yet fell into any mans hopes or thoughts that it could be possible even of those contingent verities to which the Divine Will is free and where neither part of the contradiction determinately can have any necessary tye to the Cause as certainly all created truths are for God to any thing besides God can have no necessary connexion he with his incomparable Chain fixes even in such contingencies this determinat part of the contradiction And all this after our great Knight his standard bearer Sir Kenelm Digby d had now held forth his new Torch to the hitherto darkned World May Sir this your great Master be happy in his glorious undertakings may success attend and wait on his endeavours Phaetont youthful attempt to drive the Sun was nothing to this enterprise and yet magnis excidit ausis Happy we who are reserved to this third age of the Church which is no more to walk by Faith but by Science Happy we that now live when this new Sun appears from the East of the Trinobants who gives the second Wing of Knowledg to the Woman to the Church but especially happy we to whom the acquaintance of this Miracle for a Man I dare not style him nor an Angel since even to them but by Revelation these Mysteries are hidd hath not been denyed I May all other Doctrines be silenced all other Schools shut up they have hitherto led us in a Clowd in a submission of our understandings to obscure unseen verities upon the Authority of God the Revealer whilst he tearing this veile of ignorance which incumbred our understandings hath displayed with light and evidence and plac't All in the mid-dayes Sun whatsoever we have groped for hitherto in the dark obscurity of Faith Let us no more envy the happiness of those who conversed with our B. Saviour in Flesh who heard that heavenly voice who beheld that ravishing countenance beautiful above the Sons of Men who were eye-witnesses of those stupendious miracles he wrought in confirmation of that Doctrine which he brought from the bosome of his Father Let not an other bragg he received his Faith from the mouth of S. Peter the Rock of S. Paul the Vessel of Election of S. Iohn the beloved of Iesus but let all these worthily envy us who now have a Doctoâ—r as far excelling all them as Light excells Darkness as Day the Night as Evidence Obscurity it self For alas what did Peter Paul or Iohn or our B. Saviour himself They layed down obscure Positions abstruse hidden mysteries and in confirmation of the truth of what they delivered wrought Miracles which certainly inforce no Assent but leave us to our former liberty leave the Object it self in the same obscurity it was before For since they are neither its cause nor effect but purely extrinsecal to it they enlighten not at all the object in it self What then was begotten in the souls of those holy Apostles and Disciples who followed our B. Saviour by his Preaching but a free voluntary submission of their understandings to those obscure truths he deliver'd upon the Authority only of their heavenly Teacher But our great Master promises a far other proceed Not by an Attestation extrinsecal to the Object will he confirm those truths which he delivers to us but out of the cleare principles and intime notions of the Objects out of the very bowels of the Mysteries themselves he will render all cleer evident and perspicuous and ravish our souls even whether our selves will or no into an Assent not any more of an obscure dark Faith but of a cleer apparent Science even to the a full content and satiety of our truth-thirsty understandings Let him then possess the Chair Let him
be otherwise attempted by any one that she forthwith by her authority adding also punishments thereunto as she shall judge it expedient totally root it out For which Church to the end that she subsisting in her self might inform others our Saviour Christ Jesus prayed to his Father in the time of his Passion saying Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may fift you as Wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith may not fail and when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren 1. There arose indeed a matter of question not long since in the time of Iohn the 22 our Predecessor of happy memory between some Doctors of Divinity concerning the Vision of the Souls of just men after their death in which there was nothing to be purged when they departed out of this world or if there were it was now totally purged Whether they see the Divine Essence before the assumption of their Bodies and the generall Judgement and also concerning other matters some of them holding the negative some the affirmative others according to their own imaginations endeavouring to shew divers things and in divers manners concerning the Vision of the Divine Essence by the Souls aforesaid as it is known apparently by their words and writings and by their rejected Disputations which we here omit for brevities sake because they so differed amongst themselves from our determinations And whereas our aforesaid Predecessor to whom the determination of the above-mentioned Questions did belong had prepared himself in his publick Consistory as well before his Brethren the Cardinals of the holy Roman Church of whose members we our selves then were as before the Prelates and Doctors in Divinity many of them being present strictly charging and commanding them that each one should deliberately deliver his opinion concerning the matter of the aforesaid Vision when he should require it from them But being prevented by Death as it pleased God he could not effect it 2. We therefore after the death of our aforesaid Predecessor being assumed to sit in the Apostolical Seat more seriously considering how great dangers of Souls might be incurr'd and how many scandals might arise if the aforesaid contentions were left unresolved to the end that the diversity of opinions may perish and the solidity of truth may plainly appear having first made use of a careful examination of the matters aforesaid and having diligently deliberated with our Brethren the Cardinals of the said Roman Church Do with the advice of those our Brethren by the Apostolicall authoritie Define by this constitution to be valid for ever 3. That according to the common ordination of God The Souls of all the Saints which departed out of this world before the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ as also the Souls of the holy Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins and of the other faithfull departed after they had received Christs sacred Baptism in whom there was nothiâ—g to be purged when they departed nor also shxall be when heâ—eafter they shall depart this life or if there then be or shall be any thing to be purged in them when after Death they shall be purged And That the Souls of Infants regenerated with the said Christian Baptism and to be baptized when being baptized they shall depart this life before they have the use of their free will PRESENTLY after their departure and after the aforesaid Purgation in such as stood in need thereof EVEN BEFORE THE RESUMPTION OF THEIR BODIES AND BEFORE THE GENERAL JUDGEMENT since the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus into Heaven WERE ARE AND SHALL BE IN HEAVEN in the heavenly Kingdome in the celestial Paradise with Christ aggregated to the fellowship of the holy Angels and since the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ they have seen and do see the Divine Essence by an intuitive vision and even face to face without the mediation of any creature interposing it self by way of a visible object but the Divine Essence shewing it self immediately unto them nakedly clearly and openly And That they thus seeing the Divine Essence do enjoy the same Moreover That by such a vision and fruition the Souls of them who are already departed out of this life are truly blessed and have eternal life and rest and so shall their Souls be which shall hereafter depart this life when they shall see the same Divine Essence and enjoy it before the general Judgment And That this Vision and Fruition of the Divine Essence doth evacuate in them and cause to cease the Acts of Faith and Hope as Faith and Hope are properly Theological Vertues And That after such an intuitive and facial Vision and Fruition shall be begun in them the same Vision and Fruition without any interruption evacuation or cessation hath remained continued and shall be continued even to the final Judgment and afterwards even to all Eternity 4. Moreover We Define That according to Gods common ordination the souls of such as die in actual deadly sin descend PRESENTLY into Hell after their death where they are tormented with infernal punishments and That nevertheless in the Day of Judgment all men shall appear before the Tribunal of Christ with their bodies to render an account of their own actions that every one may bear the proper things of his body according to what he hath done whether good or evil 5. Decreeing That our Definitions or Determinations aforesaid and every of them be held by all faithfull people And that whosoever shall hereafter presume wittingly and pertinaciously to hold affirm preach teach and defend by Word or by Writing contrary to these our aforesaid Definitions or Determinations and every of them It be proceeded against him in due manner as AGAINST AN HERETICK 6. Let it not therefore be lawfull for any man to violate this Page of our Constitution or by a rash boldness to do against the same But if any one shall presume to attempt it let him know that he shall incur the wrath of the Almighty God and of the blessed Peter and Paul his Apopostles Given at Avinion on the Fourth of the Calends of February in the Second Year of Our Popedome In like manner it was decreed in the Eighth General Synod held at Florence under Eugenius the Fourth as appears in the Letters of the holy Union between the Latin and Greek Church In these terms Out of the Eighth Geneneral Synod held at Florence under Eugenius the Fourth In the Letters of the holy Union between the Latin and Greek Churches The Sacred Council aprooving We Define Artic. 3. IF truly penitent Souls shall depart this Life before they have satisfied for their Commissions and Omissions by the worthy Fruits of Penance That their Souls are purged by the punishment of Purgatory after their Bodies Death And that to relieve them from such their punishments the Suffrages of the faithfull yet living do profit them to wit Sacrifices of the Mass Prayers Alms-deeds and other offices of piety
which are used to be performed by the faithfull for other faithfull according to the institute of the Church Art 4. And that the Souls of them who after Baptism received have contracted no blemish at all of any Sin as also those Souls which after they have contracted the blemish of sin are purged either in their Bodies or being UNCLOATHED OF THEIR BODIES as is above-said are PRESENTLY received into Heaven and clearly behold God himself in Trinity and Unity as he is yet according to the diversity of Merits one more perfect then another Art 5. But that the Souls of them who depart this life in actual deadly sin or onely in Original sin do PRESENTLY descend into Hell to be there punished though with unequal punishments We also define That the holy Apostolical Sea and the Roman Bishop holds the Primacy over the whole World and that he the Roman Bishop is the Successor of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and the true Vicar of Christ and the Head of the whole Church and the Father and Teacher of all Christians and that full power was delivered unto him by our Lord Jesus Christ in St. Peter to feed to rule and to govern the universal Church As it is also contained in the Acts of General Councils and in the sacred Canons Given at Florence in the publick Synodical Session In the year 1439. And subscribed by the Emperour of Constantinople and the Greek and Latin Fathers there and then present as it appears in the Books of the Councils B The Ten Heresies condemned by this Bull of Pope Benedict gathered by Eymericus in his Directory of the Inquisitors approved by Gregory xiii cited Pag. 29. IN the Extravagant of Pope Benedict xii says Eymericus which begins Blessed be God These following Heresies are condemned and their contraries are proved to be Catholick verities and to be held as matters of Faith The first Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of Just men departed before the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ in which nothing was to be purged presently after the said Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ before the resumption of their Bodies and the general Iudgment did not see nor do see nor shall see cleerly and openly the Divine Essence nor do enjoy it No◠after the Ascension of our Lord Iesus Christ were are nor shall be in Heaven in the Heavenly Kingdome and celestial Paradise with Christ aggregated to the fellowship of the holy Angels The Second Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of Just men departed before the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ in which something remained to be purged the purgation being totally compleated presently after the said Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ before the resumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment did not see nor do see nor shall see the Divine Essence clearly and openly not do enjoy it Nor after the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ were are nor shall be in Heaven c. The Third Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of Just men departed after they had received the sacred Baptism in which nothing is to be purged when they depart before the resumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment do not see nor shall see the Divine Essence clearly and openly nor do enjoy it nor are nor shall be in Heaven in the Heavenly Kingdome c. The Fourth Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of Just men departing after they have received the sacred Baptism in which there is somthing to be purged when they depart their purgation being also totally compleated before the resumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment do not see nor shall see clearly and openly the Divine Essence nor do nor shall enjoy it nor are nor shall be in Heaven c. The Fifth Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of Infants regenerated by sacred Baptism departing before the use of their Free-will before the resumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment do neither see nor shall see clearly and openly the Divine Essence nor do enjoy it nor shall enjoy it nor are nor shall be in Heaven c. The Sixth Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of all the aforesaid Just men departed before the resumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment shall not be blessed with the Divine Vision and Fruition nor shall have eternal life and rest The Seventh Heresie is That the Vision which the blessed Souls have of the Divine Essence is not an intuitive and facial Vision The Eighth Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the intuitive and facial Vision and Fruition of the Divine Essence shall be evacuated in the Blessed nor shall be continued until the final Judgment nor from thence unto all Eternity The Ninth Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls departed in mortal Sin presently after death do not descend into Hell nor are tormented with infernal punishments The Tenth Heresie is That in the day of Judgmen◠all men shall not appear with their bodies before the Tribunal of Christ to render an account of their actions 2 Cor. 5. 10. that every one may receive the things done in his bodie according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad C. The Discourse of an Eminently Learned Divine of our Nation to prove the delivery of Souls before the Resurrection Cited pag. 42. The Condemnation of Blacklow or White by a Pope and General Council THe sense of the Florentin Council of the admission of some Souls even those that now are in Purgatory to Eternal Beatitude before the day of General judgment The Definition of the Council In the Name of the most holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost This Sacred and Vniversal Florentin Council approving we define That the Souls of those who after Baptism received have contracted no Blemish at all of sin as also the souls of those which after the blemish of sin contracted are now purged either in their bodies or uncloated of their said bodies as is above said presently are received into Heaven and do behold God himself in Trinity and Vnity as he is Thus the Council Though the very Text it self of the Florentin Council seemes abundantly sufficient to evince what we here aime at and intend yet that the Stubborness of some persons who are not the most knowing in the Ecclesiastical doctrin may more powerfully be repressed It is to be noted That when any doubt arises concerning the meaning of a Council we are diligently to seek out what occasioned such a Decree and find what was then chiefly agitated and debated The matter here in dispute between the Latins and the Greeks was this What Souls were admitted 〈…〉 to eternal Beatitude before the day of
general Iudgement Let us hear the Latins in this question concerning the fire of Purgatory presently in the beginning of the Council The Latins acknowledge both in this world a fire and a Purgatory by fire and also in the future world they acknowledg a fire yet not purging but eternal They confess also That souls are cleansed and freed by that first named Purgatory Fire and that he who hath committed many offences is freed after a long time of purgation but he who hath committed a few is sooner delivered Let us now heare the Greeks The Greeks are of opinion That the Fire is in the future onely and that in this world The temporary punishment of sinful Souls consists in their being imprisoned in a darksome place where they remain for a time but that they are purged that is freed and delivered from that obscure and afflicting place by the Prayers and Sacrifices of the Priests but not by Fire Hitherto the Council of the Souls in Purgatory It proceeds to declare the opinions of both Churches concerning the souls of Just men which have no debt at all to be paid The Latins say That the souls of holy and just men are in Heaven and that without any medium they see and enjoy the Sacred Trinity The Greeks imagine that the souls of just men have indeed obtain'd Beatitude but not perfectly and that they shall perfectly enjoy it when they shall be reunited to their Bodies in the Resurrection And that in the mean while they remain in a separated place where they interiorly rejoyce entertaining their thoughts with the fore-seen and fore-known perfect Beatiude and Adoption which is prepared for them You see the Question cleerly and plainly propounded You see wherein the Eastern and Western Churches agree wherein they disagree What after their frequent disputations was at last concluded Surely no other thing then The sacred Councill approving We define That the souls of them who after Baptism received have contracted no blemish at all of sin as also those souls which after they have contracted the blemish of sin are purged either in their Bodies or being vncloathed of their said Bodies are presently received into Heaven and cleerly behold God himself in Trinity and Vnity as he is Behold a Categorical Definition directly determining the proposed difficulty The Question was How many sorts of souls were admitted to the intuitive Vision of God before the general day of Judgment The Councill answers Three Sorts The first sort such as after Baptism contracted no sin The second such as although they contracted sin yet fully satisfied for them before their death by worthy fruits of Pennance The third such as contracted sin and did not fully satisfie in this life but were purged afterwards in Purgatory Our Aversary dares not deny an admittance of the First and Second sort of Souls to the fruition of God presently before the day of general Judgment But he most inconsequently rejects the Third sort now in Question For what an absurd Exposition of the Council would this be The souls of Just men having no sin at all are received presently befor the day of general Judgment to the cleer Vision of God In like manner the souls which have fully satisfied for their sins before their departure are admitted presently before the day of Judgment to eternal Beatitude the souls cleansed in Purgatory are admitted presently that is in the day of Judgment When as this Third Sort of Souls is contained in the same period under the self same form of words And which is to be taken special noâ—ice off the Particle Mox presently wherein is the greatest force is joyned onely to this Third sort of Souls though it is also necessarily understood in the two former Surely none of the Latins none of the Greeks did either question or controvert Whether the Souls of Just men or the Souls in Purgatory were admitted to eternal Beatitude in the Day of general Iudgment But the sole difficulty was of the time preceding as manifestly appears by the Declaration of both Churches and as concerning Purgatory the difference between them was onely this That the Latins admitted the operation of a material Fire the Greeks a darksome place but not Fire Now for that the Adversary is pretended to be a Catholick and acknowledges that he ought to submit himself not onely to General Councils but also to the Judgment of the Chief Pastor Let him attentively read and consider the solemn Decree of Pope Benedict the xii above related where he shall find his Assertion in most plain terms condemned For by that Constitution he may easily perceive in what sense this particle Mox presently inserted in the Florentin Council is to be explicated where the same matter almost in the self-same words is handled and where it most manifestly signifies immediately and before the day of general Judgmeâ—t This Decree is extant in Sanderus de visibili Monarchia and it is also mentioned in the 7th Tome of the Councils in the life of the said Benedict in these terms He defined That the Souls of holy men sufficiently expiated from their sins were blessed and enjoyed the cleer sight of God before the day of Iudgment And he is there highly praised as a vertuous man and one perseverantly constant till his death in pious actions What think you may we now judge of him who calls the Definition of such a Pope and of so great a Council a new Doctrine supported by no foundation and opposite to the Churches practise D The Answer to the Precedent discourse by one of Master Whites Scholers now a very able Proficient in his School SIr I have perused your Papers which truly according to the Opinion That the Holy Ghosts assistance in Councils and Consistories is without restriction or limitation seems to me to evidence a deliverance of Souls out of Purgatory before the Day of Iudgment But according to the Opinion That the assistance of the Holy Ghost in Councils and Consistories is no longer then there is a diligent search to find out what Christ taught and his Apostles delivered as so taught there appears onely that the Council of Florence and Pope Benedict did think or judge it to be so which may raise opposition to a Disobedience but not to an Heresie For according to this later Opinion that opposition and no other is to be termed Heretical that gain-says apparent Tradition So that unless you shew that the Council of Florence and Pope Benedict determined conformably to Tradition Mr. a a That is Master Whites Blacklowes calling the Doctrine and Practice new will not savour the least of Heresie For certainly that Doctrine and Practice must be new that took beginning after Christ and the Apostles O! but where is this restriction In Christs own words Docebit vos omnia quaecunque dixero vobâ—s Not all truths but such as I shall reveal to you This restriction Vincentius Lirinensis understood when he imputed the Erring of
hath given us on several occasions And the rather because the authority of our supream Pastor hath already taken notice of and interposed his sharp but justly deserved censures against divers of them and doubtless will proceed against the rest according to their demerits I shall then as to the present concern my self only with this one controversie of the state of those souls which leave this life in the state of Grace but so that they are not as yet fully purged and with those positions and grounds on which this new molded Fabrick of Purgatory stands unless some one Doctrine or other of the Author of it having a neer alliance with the business in hand so offer it self that our discourse and the Subject would be illustrated by it Sect. 4. And first as to the opinion it self he thus delivers it of the middle State acc. 1. I acknowledg sayes he in humane failings a difference betwixt mortal and venial nor do I deny an imperfect remission of mortal impurities but I place not this imperfection in that the sin is totally cancelled the pain only remaining but in the change of an absolute into a conditional affection as it were instead of I will substituting I will not but Oh that I lawfully might c. the affection or inclination he had to temporal good is restrained not extinguished of mortal become venial changed not destroyed Being therefore by the operation of death as it were new molded and minted into a purely spiritual substance he carries inseparably with him the matter of his torment in like manner as he also doth who takes leave of his body with his affections only venially disordered we do not then anywhere imagine a place filled with hellish dishes by which the soul as from an external tormentor suffers a butchery but we are in horrour of the strife and fury of innate affections which is therefore proportioned to the sâ—ns because springing from them nor ever otherwise possible to be defaced unless the soul by a new conjunction to the body become passive or susceptible of contrary affections c. These are his new apprehensions of the State of Souls in their separation perfectly squared to those Phylosophical grounds he had long before layed in his Peripatetick Institutions Sect. 5. Now as to the order in which this new fabrick of Purgatory and indeed a whole new system of Philosophy and Divinity was made publick it was as I take it this after the Book of the immortality of of the soul fathered on Sir Kenelm Digby Master White appeared himself on the Stage under the name of Thomas the Englishman of the Albiâ— of the East Saxons where in a moderate volume intituled Peripatetick Institutions to the mind of that most eminent man and most excellent Philosopher Sir Kenelm Digby c. He discovers the great mine of this Phylosophy here the suttleties of Logick the secrets of nature the hidden properties of bodies both heaven and earth are layed open and not only that but we are further led on by an undisolvable chain of unavoidable consequences as is pretended to the abstract notions of metaphysicks to the clear understanding of separated souls intelligences even the existence and attributes of God himself And All this if the Reader hath faith enough to believe for otherwise I am confident he will find but slender satisfaction by most clear and evident demonstrations by a long chain of consequences or a series of Patets Fits sequiturs clarum ests consequens ests confectum ests and the like The Foundations thus laid conformable to this incomparable and I think incomprehensible Peece for never Daughter was liker her Mother issued out some time after his Divinity under this Title Institutiones Sacrae built as he professes in or on Inaedificatae his former Peripatetick Institutions This now containing a perfect Sum or Model of his Divinity as that had formerly done of his Phylosophy And certainly happy it was the Author divided them to our hands and gave us them in several Volumes and under several titles for else it hd been impossible to know where the first ended or the second began this being so perfectly squared to that that in the very entry to his Divinity he banisheth the a Notion of Supernaturality though not the word out of his School the whole design of his new Theology being now in the third age of the Church to evacuate Christian Faith and out of his Phylosophical grounds to mould us up a new demonstrative Religion for nothing is upon any other grounds admitted into this new Theological School of which I give my Reader a full Account Sect. 23 24. c. Sect. 6. In his Peripatetick Institutions then or Philosophy 5 book lesson 1. he lays the foundations of his future Purgatory or the state of Souls in separation and having in the first place laboured to evince That Rational Souls such as those of men are may exist or be without their Bodies He delivers that notion which he desires to imprint in us of a separated Soul in these words nu 9 10 11. Now he who desires to frame to himself in some sort a notion of a separated Soul let him ponder with himself that Object which corresponds to the word Man or Animal as such which when he shall see Abstracts from Place and Time and is a substance by the only necessity of the terms let him conceive the like of a separated soul Then let him attentively consider some self evident and most Natural Proposition in which when he shall have Contemplated That the Object is in the Soul with its proper existence and as it were by it let him think a separated Soul is a Substance that is all other things by the very Connexion of Existencies Lastly When in bodies he shall observe that motion proceeds from the quality of the mover and a certain impulse and that this impulse is derived again from another impulse and so even up to that which is first moved and beyond Let him imagine the soul is a kind of Principle of such impulse whatsoever thing that must be And so he holds on nu 12. What is said of the substance of the soul undoubtedly must be understood too of its proper accidents for since they depend onely on the soul being something of it nay even the very soul it self and it would be more imperfect without them they must run the same fortune with it unless some special reason interpose Out of which he deduces immediately num 13. Whatsoever things then were in the man according to his soul at the instant of his death remain inseparably in the state of separation Wherefore all his resolutions or judgments whether speculative or practical shall remain in it Out of which he deduces in the same Book less 4. num 1. And because the affections in the soul are nothing else but judgements upon which operation does or is apt to follow c. it comes to pass