third an explication of the ancient practise of the Church in praying for the Saints Pag. 13 IV. That S. Pernard only excepted all the rest of the Fathers deâ—y'd not to the faithful departed the Beatifical Vision before the day of Judgment Pag. 25 V. The fifth proof from Scripture is again urged and two others added Pag. 34 VI The eighth and ninth Texts are considered Pag. 42 VII Some places of Scripture apply'd by holy Fathers to confirm the same truth Pag. 51 VIII Testimonies from all antiquity maintaining the same truth Pag. 55 IX That the proofs of the opposite opinion are modern and betray their novelty Pag. 69 X. The first exception against the opposite Tenet from pure revenge Pag. 78 XI Two other Exceptions from the supposition of these pains to be involuntary and corporeal Pag. 92 XII Four other exceptions from those pains being to no purpose unproportioned to the sins of an Indivisible duration and endless Pag. 100 XIII Two other exceptions from the non-connexion of such pains with the sins and their being supposed to remain due after the fauls forgiven Pag. 110 XIV Of the punishments which we meet with in the sacred Scriptures and of the remission of sins Pag. 120 XV Three other exceptions that they neither truly take off the punishments nor rightly make them due nor in sine make any real Purgatory Pag. 136 XVI The thirteenth exception that their opinion is opposite to the expressions of Scriptures of Fathers of the Church of the Councel of Florence and Benedict XI Pag. 144 XVII That the ignorance of spiritual natures begâ—t this opinion Pag. 151 XVIII Objections from the holy Fathers against our Doctrine answered Pag. 158 XIX Of the authority of Apparitions and Visions Pag. 166 XX Of the authority of Visions compar'd with that of History together with a particular examination of some of them Pag. 17S XXI Whence wonderful events come to be foretold without any supernatural assistance Pag. 38 XXII What is the benefit of prayer for the dead Pag. 197. XXIII That the Practise of the Church as far as its words make known it's sense favours the ancient opinion Pag. â—07 XXIV That the Practise of the Church as it is visible in action makes likewise for the same truth Pag. 218 XXV The nature and history of Indulgences Pag. 225 XXVI That Indulgences generally taken make nothing against the ancient Doctrine Pag. 234 XXVII That particular Indulgences granted for he dead argue not the universal practise of the Church Pag. 243 XXVIII That the Vulgarity of the opposite opinion ought not to prejudice the true one Pag. 251 The First Accompt The Introduction and state of the Question THough such be the beauty of reason and such its soveraignty over humane nature when rightly disposed that no force of authority can be capable to weaken conclusions once demonstrated for what can authority presume unless reason pre-assures us of its veracity or how can reason give it that testimony having a demonstration against it yet is it not lawful for me to treat the question I have now in hand without first consulting the sentiments of antiquity I am endebted to the unwise as well as the wise and see them far more numerous who pin themselves upon authority few being able to sustain the esclat of discourse evidently and rigorously connected Besides it well becomes the dignity of the Church in which I live and is requisite for the satisfaction of those without her to make it clear that our forefathers generally do not dissent for me in this controversie This then shall be my aime in the following Treatise First to illustrate the nature of Purgatory from the sacred Scriptures and monuments of holy Fathers next immoveably to establish it by Faith or Principles evident in Nature but before all give me leave to summe up and state the whole controversie as it is on both sides asserted For the Church her self hath herein defined nothing more then that there is a Purgatory and that the souls there detained are reliev'd by the prayers and suffrages of the faithful The Vulgar modern Divines embrace in a manner generally this position That the deficiences of men are some mortal and punishable with eternal misery others venial and expiable by temporary sufferings Mortal lapses if repented they absolve from eternal condemning them notwithstanding to time-limitted torments So that suppose an imperfect Christian departed whose venial sins no satisfaction at all hath cancelled whose mortal an imperfect one hath diminished these Doctors admit him not to the beatifical vision but provide for him a subterraneous cave fill'd with flames and horrid instruments of torture which his there confined and imprison'd soul must till expiated endure And these pains they thus far suppose like to those we here experience that they are inflicted by extrinsecal Agents and against the will of the patient conceâ—ving moreover that they take their proportion from the measure and nature of the crimes committed in the body according to the estimate of Divine Justice Nor can these torments by any industry or force of the soul it self be evaded though by our prayers who survive they may be mitigated and before the otherwise due and prefixed time determined The same relief they fancy from the satisfaction or merits of the Saints if by the Church to that intent apply'd Thus these later Divines from whom in this discourse I must for the most part take leave to dissent I acknowledg in humane faylings 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 buâ— Oh that I lawfully might This sinner therefore concludes that an eternal good is to be preferr'd before that which he abandons and in his life and actions preferrs it but looks notwithstanding back upon it as amiable with a wishful glance not unlike the Cowes which bearing the Ark did bellow to their Calves shut up at home The affection or inclination he had to temporal good is restrain'd not extinguish'd of mortal become venial changed not destroy'd Being therefore by the operation of death as it were new moulded and minted into a purely spiritual substance he carries inseparably with him the matter of his torment in the like manner as he also doth who takes leave of the body with his affections only venially disordered Wehave no occasion here to employ infernal Architects to invent strange racks and dungeons since the innate and intimately inhering strife and fury of the affections teâ—t against reason perform alone that execution which is therefore proportioned to the sins because springing and resulting from them nor ever otherwise possibly capable to â—eâ—se and determine unless the soul by a new conjunction with the body become again susceptible of
THE MIDDLE STATE OF SOULS From the hour of DEATH to the Day of JUDGMENT BY THOMAS WHITE of Essex Gent. Impetremus si possumus à Fratribus nostris ne nos insuper appellent Haereticos quod eos talia disputantes nos appellare possimus forsitan si vellemus nec tamen appellamus S. Aug. MDCLIX To the RIGHT HONORABLE the LADY MARY TUCHET c MADAM AS all Translations are without farther address consecrated to your sex so all that I do in this or any other kind naturally and of it's own accord is dedicated to your Lap. especially this Piece which makes as it were it's proper appeal to the integrity of your un-biassed soul singling you forth as the most competent Patrone not only of your sex but Nation You have often Madam whilst his forrain language rendred him unfit for your conversation heard much discourse about this Treatise and it's Author for what English man is there concerned never so little in the behalf of science whose heart and mouth is not filled either with Admiration or Censure of this great Country-man of ours whom if none hitherto hath presumed to vindicate to your Lap. he is therein nothing the less happy being now to speak for himself a task scarce manageable by any but himself Madam If I may have the honour to be his Introduce into your noble acquaintance I shall boldly passe my word that you will find the subject of his discourse truly grave and important and such as may enrich the mind not with trifling and unprofitable curiosities but admirable and practical Truths The middle state of Souls cannot rightly be apprehended without a just measure of the other extreams nor can we duly reflect on them without a knowledg of our present order to them and the inevitable influence which every thought action and affection here hath to our state hereafter But Madam to enlarge herein were not to advance but retard your progress in which if your Lap. meet with some one passage less promptly obeying your first summons I am confident there is none impervious to your resolute attaque be not discouraged God and your eminent vertues have furnished you with a noble and expert guide whom according to S. Pauls advice you may at home apply to where you are at a loss seeking no further then your own Husband To conclude Madam this small Treatise having served me for an excellent Country-pastime I could not but take the boldness to recommend it to you both at your entrance into the same state of Vacancy assureing my self that when you have maturely perused it you will avow with me that they have little reason who tax the Author with requiring his readers assent purely and barely upon the accompt of his own credit for in my poor judgment never any assertions were better fortifyed at least I heartily wish it were in my power as solidly to demonstrate the truth of my being MADAM Your Laps most humble servant and most affectionate Brother T W. THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER READER I Shall entreat thee to believe that had I the ambition or vanity to entertain thee with something of my own I should not have taken this occasion when I am to present thee with an employment so much more advantagious to thy self so disadvantagious to me The Painter that hath some petty design of his own to put off suffers it not to appear with a master piece of Raphael or Titian Nothing but necessity could have extorted these few lines at least in this place which two dedicatory addresses already take up and overburthen a necessity I say of giving the world some account of this my enterprize It is now about five years since this small Treatise first came forth in the Latine tongue I was a witness of the manisold contradictions it then encountred and consequently ought in reason to foresee that it must now expect farre greater If it were then a crime to treat somewhat severely though as it were behind the curtain and in sight of few only that is the learned a certain luxuriant Devotion what temerity may it not be thought to unveil now and expose it's nakedness to the weak and soon scandalized eyes of the vulgar They from whom I expect this reprehension are persons many of them so generally friends to vertue so particularly to my self that I am bound not only to receive it with modesty but thanks and in requital commending their zeal to endeavour to lend some light to it's Warâ—â—â— I beseech therefore both them and thee gentle Reader in the first place to observe how through the opposite means they of suppressing I of publishing this little Volume we all pursue the same end that is labour to wipe off a scandal from our common Mother the Cath. Church led thereto by the same motives the welfare first of those within secondly of those without Her As to the first they contend that it savors of pride not to submit our private reasons upon pretence of never so much demonstrative evidence to the opinion of the Church of Disobedience to vary from Her common Practise consequently that it must needs inure Catholicks to the neglect of their long gloried-incaptivation of their understandings and this by degrees from matters of opinion to matters of Faith As to the second they urge that all discovery of divisions in the Catholick Church more and more occasions and legitimates the common reproach of her adversaries to wit that no greater union is to be found amongst Her children then amongst those whom she styles Hereticks consequently well may they be disheartned from expecting any secure repose in her bosome Both these charges I shall briefly and I hope clearly satisfie First as to the disedification of Catholicks from ill example of pride and disobedience I answer that an humble and obedient duty to the Church could not decline this present task Obedience consists in execution of her known commands her commands in this matter are pronounced Con. Trid. Sess. 25. That the sound Doctrine of Purgatory DELIVER'D BY HOLY FATHERS AND SACRED COUNCELS be believed held taught and Preach'd but that UNCERTAIN points and such as have APPEARANCE OF FALSHOOD be not permitted to be divulged or treated I ask are the material place of or flames in Purgatory with all the pious revelations relating thereto the application of Indulgences to the souls there detain'd the magazine of Christ's merits and his Saints for that purpose erected the spontaneous delivery from time to time of souls before the day of Judgment or any part of them delivered by Holy Fathers and sacred Councils Whereas neither any Councel mentions such points nor any Father speaking as a Father that is testifying the present Doctrine of the Church of his time avowes them Again has that Doctrine which takes away all the extrinsecal authority of the Fathers interpreting places of Scripture which relate to Purgatory That which debars souls granted to be perfect in charity from
the sight of God That which puts God to inflict punishment not to better the creature but to revenge himself That which violates all Philosophy by confounding the natures of Spirit and Body That which makes the evil of pain spring not from the sinful defects of creatures but from the all-good-Will of God That which is impossible to be maintain'd but by legitimating extrinsecal imputation which is fundamentally opposite to Catholicism That which by making Purgatory not purge at all destroyes it's very notion and nature and makes even it's name breath contradiction Hath I say that Doctrine which is the ground of these and innumerable other absurdities no appearance of falshood And lastly as for their uncertainty is there so much as one Demonstration pretended on their behalf by their Patrons Or are they or any part of them of the substance of the Church's Doctrine If unawares they affirm it let them or at least the whole world besides take notice how a passionate affection to make good their credit and the reputation of their Authors transports them to destroy and violate at once the whole rule of Christian Faith and so become more fatal to the cause they own then all the enemies it ever had or can have that Rule of Faith I say which admits nothing as such into it's sacred liâ—t but what universal tradition assures us to have been unanimously deliver'd by our respective immediate fore-fathers as deliver'd by the Apostles as reveal'd by Christ But God be thanked they do not they cannot they dare not They confess at last that nothing of all this is of Faith that is that all is but probable that is possible to be otherwise that is uncertain that is expresly prohibited by the Church whose commands if Duty prompt them not to obey I know no sweeter force then that of Reason to compel them I come now to the second point the advantage of those who are heterodox and their farther abalienation from the Catholick Communion the reduction of whom I conceive to have been the Author's I am sure is my principal intention Can any one lay a greater slumbling-block in their way then is the confounding of Faith with Opinion certainty with uncertainty Can on the contrary any thing more invite a rational and well-meaning Protestant then throughly to observe how the great latitude in opinion amongst Catholicks establishes and confirms the unity of their Faith How impossible it is that any new Tenet should creep out of one Catalogue into the other whilst every minute question is ventilated with so much contention and scrutinie whilst the Almighty Providence makes use of the animosities of Thomist and Scotist Jansenist and Jesuit to demonstrate that what such dissenting Brethren perfectly agree in must have a higher principle then human invention let all those whom education or perhaps the indiscreet zeal of school men hath hitherto abused understand in Gods name that the Church as a Church has no partiality no adhesion to no obstinacy for any opinion whatsoever She is the Guardian of saith she permits none to add to or detract from the Divine truths committed to heâ— custody but admits all into her tuition who acknowledg them Let them look to it who see other bounds for my part I shall ever value that excellent Analysis of our learned Patriot Dr. Holden now as I hear happily rendered into his native language wherein that it may flourish more vigorously he hath lopp'd off and segregated all circumstantial excrescencies from the stock of Faith beyond all the nice productions of the Schools Thus much I have thought good to say in my own vindication One word more in behalf of the book it self and I have done It hath been wondered at by some and look'd on as an argument of it's falling short of the evidence it promiseth that in five years time it hath gained no greater applause or rather that in the way of Demonstration it hath not been able in that time to silence all opposition I shall say nothing of the progress it hath made but only desire thee Reader to reflect that the satisfaction of those who love science is ever silent and within themselves the opposition of those that seek it noâ— for the most part clamorous and disquieting others as well as themselves May it be thy fortune to farewell and hold thy peace To the most Reverend F. in Christ RICHARD Ld. Bishop of Calcedon MY LORD I Was much perplext when it was told me that some censure was past upon my poor Works by your Lp whose Ecclesiastical Government for so many years of the Catholick part of England hath deservedly so much influence upon our faith whose most innocent life exercised with continual fears at home and combats abroad hath begot in us a Veneration of your Dictates but above all whose many and excellent writings in defence of Catholick Tradition and neer fourscore years exhausted in perpetual study render your Judgment to us new-men of this Age as it were an oracle of Antiquity I was therefore about to apologize and beg pardon for my too much precipitation But your Lord-ships assurance by letter dated Jul. 6. 1652. that you had pass'd no censure at all and in effect the non-appearance of any such thing satisfy'd me of the unnecessariness of that pains It was a fiction contrived by the envy of some narrow Hearts and propagated by the unwary credulity of such as took all for Gospel which they said You declar'd that you had no other thoughts then so to dissent from my opinion as Divines without the least breach of Charity are laudably wont to do But yet even thus the weight of so great an Authority overburthen'd me and forc'd me to seek some support for my innocence And I would to God you had been pleas'd to remark in your Letter whatsoever you dislik'd of mine I would have spar'd no pains to give your Lord-ship satisfaction in every particular now I have singled out one point but that which being in every one's discourse I thought I could least be deceived in Be you Judg my Lord whether without the suffrages of the ancient Fathers or against the sence of the sacred Scriptures or unassisted by the Maximes of true Theology I have undertaken what may seem exotick to this Age we live in If I clear my self that I have opposed none of these as I am not ambitious of Victory so I despaire not of Pardon However it may succeed you have an ACCOMPT by detail as less subject to deceipt of my Stewardship Please you cast it up and if you find it Just give your Blessing to him who prostrates himself at your knees in quality of MY LORD Your Lordships most humble and most obedient servant THO. WHITE THE TABLE OF ACCOMPTS ACCOMPT I The introduction and state of the Question Pag. 1 II. Two proofs front the sacred Scripture favouring the truth we advance Pag. 7 III. Three other Texts and by occasion of the
and rage of fire when it shall come which shall consume the adversaries the Greek text hath it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ready or about to eate those who are partly opposite not to consume but feed upon or gnaw them that is to take off the depraved affections of such as dye with an imperfect repentance He that denies this to be the Apostles meaning let him side with Novatus in rejecting lapsed penitents or fancy an extrajudicial remission contrary to the Apostle's design In the third place I cite the 2 Tim. 1. 8. Where the Apostle thus prayes for Onisiphoris Our Lord grant him to find mercy from our Lord in that day An Heretick may perhaps smile at the allegation of this text to justifie prayer for the dead and pretend a great difference between praying for those who are living that they may be saved after their departure and praying for their salvation who are already departed But I shall entreat him to reflect more advisedly on the expression Was it not said that he may find mercy in that day Is not that day confessed to be the day of judgment Let us consider Onisiphorus now dead will you affirm that he hath already found that mercy which the Apostle prayes he may find in the day of judgment Why do you hesitate If now he hath receiv'd it how shall he then find it If he have not yet receiv'd it the wish of the Apostle is not yet accomplished It hangs therefore still in suspence and if so may be reiterated and if it may be reiterated then must it be lawful to pray for the dead For Prayer is ever seasonable till the effect be granted and consequently prayer for the dead is from hence also cleerly proved But methinks I see our modern pretenders to Divinity full and longing to be delivered of this objection That if effectually this be so we must pray for the Saints also they being to obtain likewise a great advantage by that day as in our Sacred Institutions may appear which notwithstanding any one may perceive to differ from the common practice of the whole Church I am not of so weak a stomach as not to digest this morsel What do you expect I should reply That S. Paul presum'd Onisiphorus should not be happy before the last day whereas himself desired to be immediately dissolved and dismissed to the enjoyments of Christ I dare not How then Shall I say he prayed not that Onisiphorus might find mercy even after his soul was beatify'd The Text on all sides confess'd forbids me What then will our Adversaries say this was not to pray for the blessed Common sense permits them not S. Paul did it Antiquity did it Let S. James be our first witness in his Liturgy of the Hierosolymitan Church Be mindful saith he Lord God of the spirits and all their bodies whem we have commemorated or not commemorated who were Orthodox from the just Abel to this present day Thou grant them there to rest in the region of the living in thy Kingdome in the delights of Paradice S. Basil's Liturgy Be mindful also of all who have slept in the hope of a resurrection to life everlasting S. Chrysostom's Liturgy For the memory and remission of their fins who were the founders of this habitation worthy of eternal memory and of all who have slept in thy Communion in the hope of resurrection and life eternal our Orthodox Fathers and Brethren The Liturgy of S. Mark that is of Alexandria Give rest O Lord our God to the souls of our Fathers and Brethren who have slept in the faith of Christ mindful of our Ancestors from the beginning of the world Fathers Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Bishops Saints and just men all the souls of those who departed in the faith of Christ And moreover of those whose memory this day we celebrate and our holy Father Mark the Evangelist who taught us the way of salvation To the souls of all these give rest our suprâ—me Lord and God in the holy Tabernacles in the Kingdome bestowing on them the good things thou hast promised c. And he concludes To their souls I say grant rest and admit them to the Kingdome of Heaven Lastly The Romane or Gregory the Great 's Liturgy from whom it seems at last to have received its full perfection Remember also O Lord thy servants who have gone before us with the sign of faith and now rest in the sleep of peace To them O Lord and all that rest in Christ we beseech thee grant a place of ease and lighâ— and peace The sense is plain and obvious that he prayes for all who were baptized and departed in the Communion of the Church I am not ignorant that Liturgies from the bare consideration of antiquity have not that force which other writings of the same Authors have since as they are of publick use so can we not almost doubt but somethings in them might by succeeding prelates of the same Churches by additions or diminutions be altered as it were of course But give me leave withal to observe that this defect is more then supply'd by their being the publick instruments of Churches the Doctrine which in so many Liturgies is delivered being justly to be accounted as the constant tenet of all ages unless so great an authority can from elsewhere be undermined Let us then argue thus So many Patriarchal Churches continually in their publick Liturgies beseech God in general terms to give salvation to all the faithful departed assigning them a place of ease light and peace and where none are excepted all are included and in our case eminent Saints particularly named as it were by foresight and obviation to this objection We cannot therefore doubt but that prayer was anciently offered for the Blessed But let us consider more particularly The Hierosolymitan Church is by origine the chief she beginning from the just Abel cannot certainly be supposed to exclude any other and Cyril the heir of S. James in his fifth Catechesis will assure us she did not Next saith he for the holy Fathers and Bishops departed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and of all universally who are dead from amongst us The Church of Alexandria was second to the Roman she pray'd for the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and by name S. Mark S. Chrysostome or the Constantinopolitan Church prayed for the Builders of the said Church whether by that appellation intending the Apostle of Constantinople or the Fabricators or endowers of the material Church however we cannot reasonably doubt but he esteemed them Saints and enjoying God and himself commends this Liturgy in many of his Homilies The expressions of other Churches speaking in common may well by the determinations of these be understood literaily as they sonnd and not with restriction to any particulars as also Dionysius Areopagita Clemens Romanus Greg. Nazianzene c. in whom those universal
I conceive him to speak indefinitely not intending that any one in particular remaines doubtful whether she shall be happy or otherwise but that all are not to be happy but some happy some miserable The place is taken out of the 10. Chapter of his Book De bono mortis where treating more at large of this Doctrine he seemes to explain this part of his opinion in this sort Therefore whilst the plenitude of time is expected saith he the souls waite their just remuneration some shall have punishment some glory Besides what he had before affirmed of the soul of Valentinian Gratian Theodosius and his Brother gives ample satisfaction concerning his Judgment To which you may adde if you please out of his 59. Epistle de obitâ— Acolij he sees perpetual light without a Sun now face to face And in Com. Ep. ad Philip Thinking it better to be present with God And on 1 Cor. Ep. 13. The Saints going out of this world shall behold him as he is Theophilact's speech is likewise somewhat difficult maintaining the Saints to have yet obtained nothing of the celestial promises But S. Chrysostom's piety which he adheres to relieves him giving us occasion to understand by Celestial those promises which are to be accomplished in Heaven and which Oecumenius calls the term or period of goods S. Chrysostom himself declares that the souls unless the body rise again shall remain excluded from the Celestial Beatitude that is shall indeed have its happiness but not that which makes or followes it's place in Heaven So that at last it appears to have been not a famous Doctrine of the Fathers of the Church but an infamous calumny against them to impose upon them the denyal of the sight of God before the universal resurrection S. Bernard alone neither having nor seeking an Example ventured to assert it for as to John XXII since his writings are not extant we cannot legally pasâ— sentence upon him The Fifth Accompt The Fifth proof from Scripture is again urged and two others added NOtwithstanding all which I should think my pains well rewarded if I could learn the reason why the holy Doctors with so much earnestness have inculcated to us the rewards and punishments of the last judgment since they well enough understood that pure souls might have an immediate fruition of God The first Motive may be that the Beatifical Vision is more perfect with the body resum'd then without it which S. Chrysostom exceedingly favours Yet I am not convinced by it first because nothing of this reason appears amongst most of them though the Thesis be common to them all and secondly because no proof thereof is brought by him nor by S. Augustine himself though he affirms it certain that the soul of man devested of the body cannot so behold the incommutable goodness as the Angels do and the said souls expect the redemption of their bodies since in his Retractations he seems to acknowledg the obscurity of the Consequence The reason we have given for it in our Theological Institution is singular and by few valued or comprehended The next Motive may be because Corporeal goods which are first attained by the Resurrection are more esteemed by the generality of Christians then spiritual as being better understood by them But this reason is too disadvantageous to Christianity it self for it being the designe of it's profession and task of its Doctorin to take off the minds of men from terrene goods and place them on celestial 't is altogether improper to permit corporeal advantage to be preach'd and inculcated more vehemently then spiritual nor doth it stand with those encomiums of Beatitude That eyes have not seen eares not heard c. That the passions of this time are not condign to the future glory that there is good measure heaped together pressed down and overflowing c. Lastly Because we are taught that they compared to spiritual pleasures principally to the Beatifical Vision have the proportion of finite to infinite so that it little imports the satisfaction and contentment of the person whether he hath then or not The third reason then must take place That therefore the Retributions of the last day are so inculcated because they are universal whereas the rewards which before that are given are particular and as it were priviledges I shall endeavour to explicate my self Mankind or humane nature is not integrated by a few wise or extraordinarily religious persons but by the commonalty and universality of Christians Them therefore God and Christ in the predication and propagation of the Gospel hath respect to These things then in the bulk and body of Catholick faith are to be promised which concern the generality of Mankind And truly whether we cast our eyes on the old or new Testament we shall find our Faith founded and rooted in the resurrection Let us examine the hopes of Job the threats of Ecclesiastes the menaces or promises of the Prophets the comfort of Toby and instructions given to his Son Lastly either the valour of the Machabees fighting or their patient suffering every where we meet with the Resurrection Is the New stile different Do not all the exhortations parabies promises denuntiation of Christ our Lord sound forth the Resurrection S. Paul cryes out that all Faith is at an end and frustrated if you take away the Resurrection S. S. Peter Jude James and John repeat the same lesson This is the Theam which both affrighted and allured all the world this made the proudest necks to bow and both already hath and shall subjugate all Nations to the obedience and Laws of Christ And now behold us on a sudden revolved I know not how to the solution of the difficulty which begat this discourse for by this clue we readily acquit our selves of all intricacy in the Apostles wish of mercy to Onesiphorus not simply in the next world but expresly in the day of Judgment For though the vertues of the person permitted him to hope no less then that his last breath would wafte him to the regious of Beatitude yet he chose rather to express his affection in terms sit to explicate to all the Brethren and Faithful the common condition of retribution least he might be thought to have entertain'd too good an opinion of Onesiphorus's well-doing And that this was the form of prayer for the dead among the Jews those that are conversant in their rights do testifie and our selves have a manner of speech not much unlike when challenging our due we threaten to demand it at the day of Judgment if it be not restored And if I mistake not Christ our Lord gave us the hint advising us to agree with our adversary in the way least he deliver us to the Judg and the Judg to the Executioner who shall with rigour exact the debt You see then that both Matthew 5. 26. Luke 12. 58. we are taught that we must smart for
our offences in the last day of Judgment and then make satisfaction to those we have injured Which passages if they be urged will convince us that there is a remission of sins and that not without fire and torments in the day of judgment Especially Catholicks who not believing punishment due for every the least breach of neighbourly charity are compell'd to admit an expiation of such lighter trespasses in the day of Judgment when the adversary will be together with us and Christ sitting the common Judg to whom he may deliver us These two Texts then conclude the same But what stand I enumerating every particular Text If the whole face of the Scripture if the universal Assembly of Saints and holy Doctors if the belief of all ages look upon the day of Judgment as the time of general reward certainly unless we avow that the greatest part of Mankind is then admitted to Beatitude the Majesty and utility of that grand day is annihilated and the ostentation of those great promises rendred inconsiderable in respect of what was conceived of it From the main stock therefore of Christian Faith springs the certainty of this truth That whoever are once in Purgatory that is the greatest portion of the faithful can never be possessed of the Kingdome prepared by the Father till they have presented themselves at the supreme and august Tribunal that it may be fitly said to them all what is to take effect in the greatest part of them The Sixth Accompt The eight and ninth Texts are considered THe next Text which occurrs is so special an evidence that I cannot omit it without the indignation of the Reader It is found 1 Cor. 3. 13 14. c. If any one saith the Apostle builds upon this foundation Christ or his Doctrine planted by the Apostle in their hearts gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every mans work shall be manifest for the day of our Lord will declare it because it shall be revealed in fire and the work of every one of what kind it is the fire shall try If any ones work shall abide which he built thereon he shall receive reward if any ones work burn he shall suffer detriment but himself shall be saved yet so as by fire Thus far the Apostle immediately befâ—re which he had rebuked them for making comparisons among their preachers to which also he ' afterwards returns From whence some are conjectured that these speeches refer rather to the Doctrine of the Teachers then works of the Auditors But the contrary appears first in that the Builder comes after the Apostle hath done his work whom we may well suppose to have delivered to the faithful the whole and intire Law of Christ as himself testifies bâ—dding adieu to the Asian Churches that he had withdrawn nothing that was profitable from them Secondly what kind of tryal can there be of Doctrines by the day of our Lord as the Latine Translation hath it or that day as the Greek reads if the Article be taken emphatically or simply Dâ—ey that is diuturnity or length of time wherein the builder may receive reward or detriment Thirdly who shall be saved by suffering detriment The Preacher or Hearer There is no work in the Preacher by conflagration whereof he may suffer detriment and if the Hearer suffer it then is he also the Builder and not only he but whoever destroyes the Temple of God within himself him will God overthrow that is severely punish But to return The Apostle proceeds to enumerate three sorts of good that is perfect works and as many which abide not the trial and adds that of which of these kinds every ones works are it shall be made manifest Why Because the day of our Lord will declare it How By being revealed in fire a fit examiner of the several alloyes After this he goes on If any ones work remain he shall receive reward that is more good shall be added to him But if any mans work burn he shall suffer loss that is he shall be punished and that which he seemes to have shall be taken from him But because his foundation is solid to wit the lively faith of Christ in him he shall be saved but as a brand snatch'd flaming and charred from the fire This is the literal sense of that place in which it is evident that the discourse runs of Venial sins it being plain that Mortal ones cannot be built upon Christ since by their very being in our souls they expel from thence life and Christ The next thing we are to reflect on is that according to the interpretation we have given the day of which the Apostle speaks musts be the day of Judgment which appears partly because the Latine Text hath the day of our Lord which shewes there have been various lection in the Greek though now all copies agree but more rationally from the context it self For if it be explicated thus Every ones works shall be apparent because the day of tryal will be revealed in fire a fit instrument of bringing them to the truth the discourse proceeds fair and smoothly But if it be brought to this Every ones work shall appear for Day that is length of time will clear the truth because the work shall be reveal'd in fire and the fire shall try every ones work of what kind it is the discourse is rendered obscure interrupted and with unnecessary repetition Finally can the distribution of rewards and sufferings be more properly refer'd to any other day then the Day of Judgment Or is salvation at least by fire given in any other I am not ignorant S. Augustine and that several times explicates this passage of the tribulations of this world But if I deceive not my self from the literal he falls to the moral sense a thing not unusual to the Fathers For if the Text be understood primarily of temporal afflictions it is too obscure and allegorical first to call tribulation the day of our Lord is an unusual phrase and though sometimes in the Prophets it may be so taken yet that is only when the glory and majesty of God and the declaration of his Justice in revenging wickedness is described Next this part of the Text because it shall be revealed in fire must be understood of the works themselves and so that which followes And of what quality every ones work is the fire shall try becomes a meere tautology and moreover there begins a new allegory of fire without any particle determining it And again what signifies this He shall receive reward That is properly called the reward which is given in the end of the day or accomplishment of the whole work not in every part or moment thereof as particular tribulations are to be accounted In like manner if any ones work burn he shall suffer damage what can it import That the pleasures which inveigled his affections are now taken away They were not his workes but the
other way of attaining Beatitude but that great and Royal high-way of charity since Christ our Lord his Apostles and all other Fathers preach no other Doctrine to introduce any obstacle of Beatitude without their authority were clearly to controul the discipline of all Christian institution and put a bold exception to their general Rule Besides true Theology assures us that perfect charity is a disposition necessitating or determining Almighty God to communicate himself to those that bring it so that he can no more deny himself to be the object of a soul in perfect charity then forbear the concreation of a Rational soul when the Embrio is fully formed or the infusion of existence when the actions of inferiour causes requires it But it is manifest that those who put the soul in the first instant of its separation to be endowed with the same eminence of charity which it hath or shall have when it is admitted to the fruition of God and yet notwithstanding for sometime debar it thereof must needs suppose that disposition of soul not sufficient and adequate but require something else whereof neither the Scripture nor holy Fathersâ—â—ve us the least hint who all unanimously acknowledg no other partition-wall betwixt God and us but our Sins Finally the Florentine Councel and Benedict the eleventh seem clearly enough to have condemned this their Doctrine the latter determining that the souls of the Faithful which have nothing to be purged or expiated do immediately after their departure and before the General Day see the face of God the former adding thereto that the souls of such as dye presently after Baptism or such as after death are purged are immediately received into Heaven By both which expressions this may indubitably be concluded to be meant That nothing but what may be purged that is what stains and contaminates that is sin can deprive a soul from its admission to Heaven and the full sight of God Let us subsume But according to our Adversaries all who dye not in mortal sin after the first moment in which they are said to be perfectly converted to God have nothing now remaining to be expiated but are already after death cleansed Therefore they are all immediately after the first moment received into Heaven Is it not evident that the determination of this Pope and Councel subverts their whole fabrick of Purgatory For though they endeavour to equivocate yet the proper and dogmatical signification can be no other then that which we have given and the secondary explication of purging for enduring pains which do not cleanse the soul from any filth is harsh and improper and by themselves avoided when they come to explain themselves though in familiar conversation with those especially who understand not the different senses they make use of it that they may not seem to vary from the language of the Church and their Fore-Fathers The Seventeenth Accompt That the Ignorance of spiritual natures begat this Opinion FOr a conclusion at length of this part I shall observe to the Reader that this mistake of the school men proceeds from a higher principle Their not adhering to a certain Doctrine delivered by Saint Thomas of Aquine and by his school received He teaches that in abstracted spirits there is neither discourse nor any manner of composition but purely a simple apprehension so that errour and falsity can have no place in them That holy Doctor understood that all these were originally in us from the body and therefore could not in immaterial substances be expected For we find by experience that composition and discourse are begotten by the successive beatings of the memory on the Phantasie which intercourse if once you bar it is impossible that indivisibles should be capable of succession It is therefore certain that pure spirits contemplate all things as it were with one sight or glance and since with them all that relates to science is transacted by naked Definitions which no wordish equivocation can obscure it is evident that falshood cannot reach them there being no precipitation where no delay is required Nither the principles then nor their connexion can be concealed from them nor consequently the truths depending on them This may perhaps become more intelligible if we reflect that the Soule when first infused into the Body is such as the quality of the Matter it is united unto exacts and determines it to be because a natural action that is which doth not exceed the rank and limits of causes cannot but act according to the existence of the subject and do that which is conformable thereto and apt to be produced thereof But Death also is a natural action making that which of a man can be made to wit a spiritual substance which we call a soul And as the disposition of the Embrio or seminal concreation delineats the future man so that man to have had in the course of his whole life these and these thoughts and affections designes and points out by the impressions left the future condition of his Soul So that death produceth such an Entity as from the man so disposed is naturally producible and the Entity so made continueth such till it be aâ— it were new moulded which is the worke of the Resurrection For the spiritual being of the soul is what the whole course of map's life hath made it and bears that respect to the antecedent life which the being at Rome hath to the travelling to Rome or the being in health hath to the cure which was wrought by the Physician's hand Whence it appears that in the next world there can be no more motion since rest and not motion is the terme and period of motion So that for the soul to know to be joyful or to be sad in the future world is nothing else but to remain in that act of knowledge joy or sadness into which by the force of Death and dissolution it was translated And this is the very reason why every resolution made is from thencesorâ—h immutable because there are no instruments no diversity of parts whereof some may act on others no distinctioâ—matter and Agent all which are requir'd to effect a mutation But some may wonder how the soul can be disengaged from the false opinions with which she was here possessed and not have power to devest herself of the affections depending on those erroneous judgements To whom we must answer that this happens not through any discourse but by the precise stroak of death For it being impossible to a spiritual nature at one and the same time to assent to two contradictories seeing and comprehending the contradiction and nothing as hath been said being able to escape the knowledge of a separated soul it is evident that truth must overcome falsâ—â—y and since one of them only can take possession truth must abide and errour give place and this through the very disposition of the soul it self by Death But the affections
twentieth Accompt That the practise of the Church as far as it's words make known it's sense favours the ancient opinion FOr the last attempt they reserve the Practise of the Church which can neither deceive nor be deceived And this they drive on with great fury and clamour partly from the prayers which are said for the Dead partly from the concession and acceptation of Indulgences wherein their valour gains so much applause that it is worth our pains to give it a check Our first encounter shall be to demand of them when they talk of the Ecclesiastical Practise which do they mean an universal or a particular one Again if an universal one whether they intend only a present Universality or an universality including also the ancient practise If they admit an universality of place as they needs must if they will conclude any thing for otherwise by their own confession it will amount but to a probable that is fallible argument let them demonstrate to me that the practise they contend for either anciently was or at present is in the Grecian Church Sure I am neither in the Florentine Councel nor in the Union of the Armenians nor in the Profession of Faith prescribed by Urban VIII to the Oriental Churches any thing is expressed from whence this Doctrine may be deduc'd In like manner as to point of time it is evident that before S. S. Gregory and Bede there was no such notorious Practise even in the Roman Church and consequently that it became not general till after Odilo about six hundred years agoe But such a Practise no way deserves the title of Universal according to Time The question then is devolved to the Western Church for the four or five last ages for the universality cannot be stretch'd higher since the practise appears to have taken it's rise from the Devotions of the Clugniac Monks and the effect of those Devotions that is Revelations springing from them whereas before it was rare if not unknown Our next quaere is what they mean by practise For my part to avoid ambiguity I divide it into that of actions and of expressions both which if they apparently favour what we have delivered then is our adversaries last effort as in-effectual as the former The Churche's expressions are visible in her Missalls Rituals and Breviaries by which if I stand condemned I willingly yeild the cause To begin with the sequence of Dies irae Dies illa is it not throughout of the day of Judgment and the deliverance which is then to be made What else hath the Offertory Lord Jesus Christ King of glory free the souls of the faithful departed from the pains of Hell and the profound Lâ—ke free them from the Lions jawes that Hâ—ll may not devour them nor they fall into darkness but let the holy Ensign-bearer Michael conduct them into that happy light which thou hast heretofore promised to Abraham and his seed Thus far in general for all the Dead then in particular We offer up to thee O Lord sacrifices and thanksgiving prayers receive them for those souls which we this day commemorate grant them O Lord to pass from Death to Life These are the Church's prayers which to a Catholick what can they signifie but the examination and sentence of the last Judgment After the person is dead and that prayers begin to be said for him where is he in danger to perish but in the last Day If then the Church prayes not for what is past which seems to be unprofitable it prayes not for any other delivery of the Dead then what is to be in that final Judgment I easily foresee it may be objected that the Dead have in reality no incertitude or hazard even in that Day wherefore these Prayers must on both sides be acknowledged to have their improprieties My answer is twofold First in our way we coyn not a new Metaphor but prosecute that which Christ and Holy Scriptures have furnished us with For if they have styled it a Judgment not in order to an investigation or disquisition of things doubtful for what can be obscure when God himself is judg but meerly to signifiy the effect of the said Judgment that is the respective destribution of rewards and punishments to good and bad which then is made is it not evident that the Ecclesiastical manner of speech that it may be conformable to the sacred and Traditionary expressions must speak as it were of a dubious sentence whilst there is yet an affection to or expectation of punishment or reward These speeches then signifie just the same as if the Church should plainly say suffer them not to be cast into Hell but grant them eternal happiness And so is that particle also to be understood of passing from Death of life Though there be also another way in which the souls in Purgatory when they become partakers of the Beatifical Vision may not improperly be said to pass from Death to Life For those souls having according to what hath been explicated an impediment in themselves debarring them from true life which is perfect Beatitude clearly if death be opposite to life they are truely said to pass from death to life when they are freed from their sins and that impediment I am not ignorant that Divines taking it from the Lawyers suppose in these souls a certain Right to Beatitude by which they are rendred partakers of life But these expressions abuse us when besides an allegory we expect propriety in them Nor indeed doth right to a thing make a man owner of it but right in the thing and in reality those holy souls have not right to life but seeds of it to wit the faith of Christ which works by charity and which assuredly will through the last judgment fructifie to life eternal As then sâ—ea is not yet reckon'd among things living but dead so these souls also But we must observe the word dead hath a double sense being propounded abstractedly and privatively The damned are privatively dead because all possibility or root of eternal life is extinguished in them but those in Purgatory are only dead because they have not yet obtained life My second answer is that speeches of this kind are altogether inexplicable according to the contrary opinion which is a certain note that they mistake the Churches sense For proof hereof it were enough to charge them with it and put them to the trial But I can produce the express confession of an Author voluminous enough to appear great amongst them who paraphrasing upon the above cited words excuses their form Because saith he those who pray often use expressions which they are altogether ignerant what they signifie or whither they tend But surely the Rituals sufficiently declare whither these speeches tended Make him worthy by the assistance of thy Grace to escape the Judgment of revenge who living was signed with the seal of the Trinity Again Let us pray for
or permission of Prelates conclude any thing more For what reason have they to inhibit those who of their own accord perform good duties nothing can from hence be drawn for the remission of pains in Purgatory For what have the Prelates to meddle with things indifferent and unknown in which it is no crime to be ignorant or act mistakingly whilst the opinion stands probable that Purgatory-pains are discharged by Indulgences it is and will be lawful to use them What need the Prelates be troubled let it be first demonstrated that these pains are not releasable then take your liberty to accuse their backwardness whilst it is a thing indifferent commend their â—â—citurnity It is delivered to us Tradition assures us that we are to pray for the Dead and that our prayers are beneficial to them That their works are to be examined by fire in the day of Judgment and accordingly remunerated in the mean while that the condition of some is better then that of others But for the particular reasons of all these and how they are effected conformably to Nature and the progress of divine operation is a business of Theological disquisition That which shall be clearly demonstrated to consist with the Principles delivered will finally get the Victory Till then that is till the demonstration be not only found out but acknowledged it is and will be lawful for the Prelates of the Church to follow either opinion and accordingly to proceed to action The Eight and twentieth Accompt That the Vulgarity of the opposite Opinion ought not to prejudice the true one THey yet though gasping struggle and contend that the opinion which we have called Vulgar is and hath been the opinion of the whole Church at least ever since the Schools reigned and lest we deny our assent they argue thus The opinion of the people is the opinion of their pastors the opinion of the Pastors is the same with the Schoolmen for they either are or depend on the School-men The opinion therefore of the Schoolmen is the Church's opinion Either therefore the Church hath erred these 500 years or the vulgar opinion is plainly it's belief In this difficulty we are to enquire what opinion what Church signifies I observe that there are several degrees of assent in man The first may not improperly be called suspicion when there are some symptâ—mes which if you narrowly scan you easily perceive them to incline doubtfully to either part of the contradiction though at first they inclined you only to one These render a man suspicious that is more intent and propending to one side as it were expecting thence more light and satisfaction The second degree is when the verisimilitude or probabilities are very great and which perswade a man through their difficulties or multitudes that it is not worth his farther inquisition but according to the proportion of consideration which every thing challenges more or less in this life he hath bestowed pains enough in the question He therefore so satisfies his mind in that point that he rejects not him that shall oppose it but if he bring any thing new and unheard of is ready to give ear to him and if his proofs merit it assent also The third and last degree of assent is his who will not endure any opponent but is certain that nothing can solidly be alledged to the contrary Now I ask of my adversary whether the first degree be of that quality that if the Church be supposed upon any occasion to suspect one part of the contradiction to be true this suspicion must prejudicate the opposite I cannot think any one who is so much as fit to pretend to Divinity can be so foolish as to deny that hitherto it is lawful to opine the contrary For as yet there is properly no assent and the Church by the very position of the case resolves on a Meliùs inquirendum Nay he that should forbid an opposition would bind the Church to a most evident danger of erring and that even in her own Judgment by which she is carryed to a further enquiry This being setled we may observe the second degree is so compared to the first that as the first exacts so the second admits of an inquisition The same inconveniencies therefore recur again though their danger be less manifest and more remote It is then an injury also offered to the Church to prohibit investigation in this second degree or to alledg the said opination of the Church to the prejudice of the opposite Doctrine since by her very opining she confesses a readiness to thank those who shall take the pains to clear the truth For she ought not to be thought opiniastre but a Lover of truth whereever it be found The third degree cannot otherwise be attained to but by infallible authority or evident Demonstration for a professor of reason cannot resist the force of either of these If then our adversary shall be pleased the declare which of these degres he honours with the Churches opinion it will hence soon appear what answer he ought to receive As for the name of the Church that is of the Church supposing or opining any thing I thus distinguish that the Church may either be said to opine because she hath established something by a publick and solemn decree or by private suffrages If by private suffrage then she did it either as a Church or as so many men As when all her members acknowledg Columbus for the discoverer of the West-Indies they do it not as parts of the Church or as faithful for Turks and Idolaters do the same but meerly as so many persons Let the arguer amongst these three significations of the Church thinking or opining choose which he conceives most to his advantage If the first let him produce the decree which if he could do we should not hear so much of the Church's opinion If the third he exposes himself to derision for how doth it concern faith what the Church's sentiments are in matters of History or Philosophy The second as it were only useful to his intent so is it absolutely false the Church being a congregation of faithful that is of believers that is of such as have accepted the Doctrine of Christ and to this day conserved it But clearly this opinion began about Gregory the Great 's time was unknown and unthought of in the dayes of S. Augustine of little credit before the Schools not yet proposed to or if it were rejected by the Oriental Church So that by what other means soever it may have speciously insinuated it self into the men composing the Church it can challenge no sway over them as they are a Church that is as believers that is as grounded upon a perpetual Tradition Hence we see how vainly they laboured in forming the proposed argument For be it granted the peoples opinion is the same with their pastors and the pastors the
same that the Schoolmens and consequently the opinion of the men of the Church the same that the School-mens it followes not that it is in the Church otherwise then in the School men So that if it be but opinion in the School-men and such as may be changed it 's being dispers'd through the Church will not add to its certainty but by consent of the whole Church it will be alwayes subject to change and if sufficient reason be brought justly to be changed It is then so far from following that an opinion by being the opinion of the whole Church cannot be changed that on the contrary very unexpectedly it appears to be mutable and that in fit circumstances it ought to be changed It is easie to gather from hence what answer is to be afforded them who go about to accuse the Church of circumventing us affirming they were taught as a point of faith thaâ— souls might be delivered out of Purgatory before the day of Doom both by other prayers and especially by those which have Indulgences annexed to them Of whom I demand were they taught that this was the perswasion of all the Pastors of the Church If they affirm it I cannot deny but they themselves were circumvented But let them not accuse me from whom they have received no such Doctrine I who have detected the Legierdemain if any such there be why must I suffer what they deserve who put the slâ—r upon them Let them complain of their own Doctors let them call upon them to prove what they have taught which if they cannot do let them find them guilty and accordingly punish them but withall give me thanks for the discovery of the cheat But if in truth they have been taught no otherwise then that it is a pious credulity that souls are before the day of Judgment delivered which if they take the pains well to examine them they shall find to be the meaning of their Doctors who hath circumvented them but their own selves through sloth and negligence consequently let them lay the guilt at their own doors What I have in this whole disputation performed let them in Gods name judg whom he hath been pleas'd to make fit Arbitrators in Theological Controversies What I have aimed at was this That antiquity did believe that men in the next world whether their souls are beatifi'd or no were not admitted locally to Heaven till the day of the final conflagration That then every ones works were to be examined that the workâ— of the imperfect whose foundation was on Christ were to burn and by that means their sins not without detriment to be remitted That the opinion which holds pure pains and those in the interval betwixt Death and Judgment either of their own nature or by prayers determinable is new in the Church built upon slight grounds such as are uncapable in things Theological to beget faith obnoxious to many and weighty objections and finally by it 's Patrons weakly defended These endeavours I have crowded into this small Volume for the benefit and conveniencies of such as take delight in Dissertations of this nature FINIS ERRATA Page 12. l. penult r. inviolable p. 28. l. penult r. privationâ—… p. 30 l. 9 r. Judgments and for it r. is ibid l. 11. r. saying 〈…〉 32. l. 26 r. soul p. 36. l. 5 r. advantages p. 38. l. 5. r. denunciatiâ—… p. 39. l. 3. r. regions p. 40. l. 11. r. eternal puni p. 41. l. 16. for 〈◊〉 r. that p. 43. l. 10. for are r. have p. 46. l. 1. r. lections p. 〈…〉 l. 2. r whole ibid l. 15. for the r. is ib. l. 23. r. correct p. 54. 〈…〉 20. r. us p. 75. l. 17. r. decision p. 83. l. 6. r. they ib. 7. r. imploy 20. r. others 23. r. connected 27. r. secures p. 87. l. 12. r. fetcht p. 103. l. 7. r. adapt p. 106. l. 18. r. sensible p. 121. l. 3. r. peoplâ—â— p. 122. l. 8. r. purging ib. 12. r. their p. 123. l. 6. r. on p. 126. l. 1â— r. ordered p. 128. l. 5. for of r. and p. 130. l. 23. r. adapt p. 1â—â— l 9. r. model of p. 137. l. 10. r. subintromission p. 153. l. 19. â— concresion p. 156. l. 16. r. informant p. 157. l. 16. r. stock p. 1â—1 l. ult. r. whole delay 166. l. 2. apparitions 168. l. 21. r. witnessâ—â— p. 171. l. 19. r. supposed p. 172. l. 2. r. detect â—b 16. r. perfectly p. 174. l. ult r. many 175. l. 26. r. sprightly p. 178. i. 16. r. sight p. 179. l. ult. r. foster p. 182. l. 26. r. were p. 184. l. 26. r. decrees p. 186. l. 18. r. Directories ib. 25. exibilated p. 187. l. 5. r. have p. 188. i' th title r. came ib. l. 9. r. least of p. 189. l. 19. r. are urged innumerable p. 190 l. 14. r. Cells p. 123. l. ult. r. distracted p. 212. l. 3. r. distribution p. 238. l. 9. r. commutative The Adversaries explication of Purgatory The Authors Explication of the same The first Text from 2 Mach. The Second Text 1 Cor. 15. examined The Third Text 1 Cor. 5. The Fourth Text Heb. 10. The Fift Text 2 Tim. 1. Ton 2. lib. 3. lect. 4. par 11. lect. 5. par 8. lect. 3. p. 15. 16 17. Proof of prayer for the blessed from ancient Liturgies And Fathers The importance of clearing Antiquity in this point How S Bernard came to be deceived therein Two effects of the Day of Judgment What the Fathers mean when they affirmed souls to be kept in certain receptacles till the last Day A particular vindication of most of them Why the rewards of the day of Judgment are so much inculcated First Reason Second Reason Third and chief Reason The Resurrection is the basis of all Faith S. Pau's prayer for Onesiphorus explicated The Sixt Text Mat. 5. The Seventh Text Luke 12. The Eighth Text 1 Cor. 3. Which must be understood of Venial sins and of the day of Judgment Though S. Augustine sometimes otherwise extounds The ninth Text Mat. 12. * By M. Whelock 1644. Nothing can be a part of our Beliefe but what is banded down to us by uninterrupted tradition from the Apostles Proofs thâ—â— the Adversaries opinion came not to us in that manner lib. 4. c. 22. The Adversaries suppose all venial sins to be remitted in the instant of dissolution by an act of Contrition The Authors explication So taat tâ—â— punishâ—… which remain 〈…〉 be infliâ—… purely 〈…〉 of revenge for past offences Of Publick Revenge Of Retaliation An ebjection answered Of priuâ—â—â— revenge The wisdom of Oâ—d cannot permit him to inâ—â—iâ— such pains as neither aâ—â—il the sufferer or any other Another objection from Gods attributâ— of justice answered All punishments which have no respect to some good are effects of cruelty noâ— justice A third objection from the injury done to God by robbing him of his honour Answer * Tom. 1.
of discharging punishments also But they will chuse to put this act of contrition to be made in the term of separation where merit and satisfaction have no longer place and the inevitable necessity of suffering only remains And then I shall demand from whence they have learn'd that blemishes can there be rectifyed where penalties cannot be mitigated Nor is there more strength of reason in this that the merits of the living may avail them but their own not so For could their proper merits be regarded all Purgatory according their own grounds were at an end for the perfect charity and coâ—â—â—â—ition of separated souls being exercised with the whole force of their substance would in one moment set them free Again what Piety what Justice hath enacted this Law that the distressed souls may not pray for their own delivery Can any thing be more absurd They make them such Favorites of God that for us they can obtain many graces whilst for themselves they can procure none I remember to have heard a Divine whom a printed course of all Divinity had already raised above the lowest form prescribing this advice or receipt that whosoever had lost any thing should promise upon condition he receiv'd it to procure so many Masses for departed souls and failing of his hopes should fail also in the performance thereby to compel the souls to obtain of God the recovery of what had miscarried O pitiful and sordid Divinity such a train of absurdities follow the admission even of one unexamin'd Principle To make up the compleat dozen Let us reflect on the abuse of the name it-self and observe that whilst they vainly labour to establish their own they destroy and annihitate all manner of Purgatory For to purge cleanse and the like expressions clearly import a supposition of stain and blemish in whatsoever is said to be purgÌ„ed and cleansed and in like sort to amend and rectifie presupposes faults and imperfections if you then take away their stains these imperfections you take away all Purgatory For certainly to smart and suffer is not to be purged but finally to be condemned or undergo the last sentence of Damnation But the Patrons of this kind of Purgatory lay this for the very foundation of their doctrine That the imprisoned souls are already holy and full of charity and consequently incapable of being purged Much better therefore and more solidly then they did the Poet philosophise in the sixth book of his Aeneids who having after his manner made a description of â— the torments of the damned thus proceeds to that of Purgatory and its causes Nor when pâ—or souls they leave this wretched life Do all their evils cease all plagues all strife Contracted in the Body many a stain Long time inur'd needs must even then remain For which sharp torments are to be endur'd That vice inveter are may at last be cuâ—'â— Some empty souls are to the piercing winds Expos'd whilst others in their several kinds Are plung'd in icy or Sulphureous lakes Each hath its doome cach one its fortune takes From whence â—e to the Elisian fields is lead Where few alas the pleasant alleys tread What could any Phylosopher meditate more sublime and noble That corporeal affections by depraved habits penetrate into and infect the soul that they are not by death extinguish'd but carry'd along to the next world whereby the souls are punished and their punishments become truly Purgatory or expiating that their torments are proportionate and of several degrees which degrees are taken from the division of Elements that is corporeal Agents from whence the disordered affections themselves have their roots The pursuers of Honour and Vanity are tormented by the wind that is their being puff'd up with Pride Those who delighted to wallow in sordid pleasures by the fluidness and momentariness of their fleeting enjoyments Lastly the Potent and ambitious affectors of Tyranny with their own ardent and truly enflamed desires That finally after this state of Purgatory they are made Denizons of Paradise and those speaking of the times he liv'd in but few the multitude whose sins were mortal and irretractable remaining engulf'd in eternal miseries The Sixteenth Accompt The thirteenth Exception That their opinion is opposite to the expressions of Scriptures of Fathers of the Church of the Councel of Florence and Benedict XI ANd I would to God the inconsequence of discourse and defect of right ratiocination were the only inconvenience and that their errour stretch'd not it self to the violation of sacred truths and contradiction of the holy Scriptures Machabeus offers sacrifice that the dead may be absolved from their sins Christ affirms that in the world to come sins are remitted The Apostle assures us that every ones works are to be try'd by fire and some persons to suffer detriment as though he should say that some thing should by fire be taken off from the party as dross from the pure mettal Nor do the expressions of Holy Fathers grounded on the Scripture any wayes disagree For whether they speak of Baptisme by fire of purging flames of fire correcting and amending of passing through the flames of the last Judgment which shall burn the sinner spare the Saint of a suspension in the day of Judgment and a kind of uncertainty of the Judge's sentence or whatsoever other expressions heretofore mentioned they make use of from whence any thing can be gathered towards the explication of Purgatory nothing can be drawn to establish pure pains but the whole discourse runs constantly of sins and of the purgations of sins and depraved affections so that nothing can be more clear then that these later Divines change the style of the whole Church a manifest token of their Novelty Let it therefore be acknowledg'd that this vulgar conceit as it is opposite to the sense of the Church really and effectually abolishing Purgatory and in lieu thereof presenting us a slaughter-house of barbarous executions destroying the tender mercy of God whose aim is alwayes the utmost good of every creature and instead thereof offering us a barren apprehension of Pure Justice and unbenefical pains so is it also dissonant and in a manner perfectly repugnant to the phrase both of the holy Scripture and of the Fathers explicating either it or the sense and belief of the Church Which if they are the marks of the ancient faith and perswasion then is this other new And if proposed to the Greeks under the notion of a Tradition and not only of an opinion they certainly had ground to object against the Latines that they endeavoured to superseminate tares and bring into the Church new Tenents and such as were recommended by no ancient Tradition The last but not the least of our exceptions against this vulgar opinion shall be their putting another impediment to the Beatifical Vision of souls freed from the body besides the want of charity For since the Church neither knows nor holds forth any