Tradition faded and dwindled into this mysterious expression That the Errour of a Council though promulgated should not pass into an established Doctrine of the Church as delivered by Fathers and preached by Christ by which he brought all into his own power again And when he had thus as he thought cut all the sinews of Christian-Beleef the mystery of all the design is discovered We must be governed by Faith no longer Christ with his Doctrine hath possessed the Chair long enough Master White with his Demonstrations must now take place And least my Adversary should tell me I do him wrong in asserting That after the rest he hath now laid Tradition aside I desire him and his solid cleer-sighted Friends to give me a Catalogue of all those Doctrines he admits into his new Theology or prooves in his Institutiones sacrae which are to be our Scriptures Fathers Councils School-men for the future by Tradition or on the score of Authority Nor let him complain I impose a heavy task upon him Those who are acquainted with every Ressort of his Doctrine will quickly answer it The Catalogue will proove so slender so short it will cost him no considerable Pains I could comprehend them All in this one Word Nothing For in truth there is none at all So safe a truth it is that in lieu of Faith and Christian Religion we have nothing in this School but under the title of Peripatetick and Sacred Institutions an Epicurean Lucretian Phylosophy or rather a medley of both theirs and Aristotles Phylosophy and Pretended Demonstrations not of our Faith as Catholiques have hitherto understood it but as now changing quite the Notions of the Mysteries he is pleased to understand it Of which we shall see more hereafter Sect. 26. Why then should we wonder at the Issues of this Brain What should we wonder at these Productions which out of an absolutely erroneous Method were hatched and brought to light It is no marvel if a most Exotick Phylosophy being presupposed an equally or more Exotick Divinity is built upon it A little Errour in the beginning prooves a great one in the last end The attempt to square Theology to I know nor what pretended Demonstrations hath wrought this destruction Nor need we the help of Divinity Our own Experience and Reason sufficiently evince and discover this method to be ruinous There is no man who hath made even a moderate progress in Sciences but is sufficiently convinced how weak how feeble our Understandings are They are but Novices in Sciences who are puft into a vanity as if they were even now become Masters The better Proficients they grow the more daily and howrly do they cleerly discover their own Ignorance Let 's consider it in particular there is no knowledg so certain so connatural to our undexrstandings as that of Quantity the Object of Mathematiques and yet all the wit of men that ever yet have been in the world come so far short of the discovery that millions of Problemes might yet be proposed which no man can solve And now as to our knowledge of Natural Bodies it is far inferior to the former for of these we scarce understand any thing at all Who ever comprehended the Composition the Properties or even the Essential notion of a Fly What Physitian ever understood fully the Nature the operations the effects of any one Herb any one Simple Who ever knew how Rubarb works on the innumerable parts of our bodies how it purges how it refines how it abates how it heightens the several humours of it St. Basill understood our weakness much better who in his 168 Epist. to Eunom prosecuting this subject proposes above twenty questions to which twenty and twenty more may be added of a contemptible Emmet In none of which the wit of man can satisfie his curiosity And if we are thus short in those things we daily converse with which we touch and tast what will our knowledge amount to in Separated Substances in Souls in Angels in God himself The true ground of this our ignorance being this That our understandings in our present state of mortality being onely naturally moveable from our Phansies which depend wholly on the weak reports drawn from our Senses we have not in this state without Revelation any other notions but such as are abstracted from sensible Objects so that the peculiar properties of abstract Substances since we are not now possest of the peculiar essential notions of them can not now by us naturally be known And hence it is that finding our selves so feeble in things the most obvious even to our senses all the Wise men of the World have ever been struck dumb and ravisht in the consideration of that Omnipotent hand which built both us to honour and love him and them for our use to that end so that where his Authority is ingaged as certainly it is in all things that apperrain to Faith we abase our prying proud curiosity and square our weak apprehensions to them and not these stupendious supernatural Mysteries to our creeping groveling apprehensions of Nature It was then upon this mistake that this new Purgatory came to light it is one and but one of a thousand of those unheard of productions this new Phylosophical Theology is stuft with I could give my Reader many instances of Doctrines he never yet not indeed the world was acquainted with but I will conclude with that very Doctrin because it offers it self as neer allyed to this our present Subject with which he concluds his Demonstrative Divinity It is concerning the Damned Souls for we have not onely a Poetical Purgatory he hath also furnisht us with a most Romancical Hell and who can but smile to think of those ridiculous mimick postures he fancyes of Horse-coursers Dancers Fencers Bowlers and all other Brutals attempting now in Hell in all their several postures those very pleasures in which they constituted their final end in this life Thus then of those Souls he concludes Their misery sayes he depends on their present perverseness so that if they themselves would they might even yet be happy Out of the force and series of Nature of which they are parts nothing better to wit then to be damned could happpen to them neither to All of them in general nor to Any one of them in particular And least Nature or God should escape this Fatall Doctrin he adds And even Nature and God himself should have been worse if they had been otherwise dealt with Pagan Fatality Out of the force and Series of Nature nothing better could happen to Iudas then to be damn'd and if he had not been so God had ceased to be God as so forsooth Wisdom is justified against her children Thus he concludes his Prodigious Theology Sect. 27. And now I hope my Reader hath some light of the Method and Genius of this our great Master and his new School It will give him an introduction into the further discovery of
not presently hiss me out Will they not cry out to the faggot with me And shall we believe that in such a disposition of the faithful people that such an Innovatour will dare to print or publish his novelty or that he shall hope to find either buyers of his Book or followers of his Doctrine Thus he And thus Sir your great Master pleads the cause and arraigns himself and all the Proselytes of his new Purgatory thus he thunders and lightens and I think home to our purpose for the consciences of all the faithful bear witness against it the unlearned know it is improbable and the learned see it is impossible Having said this to the ingenuous Gentleman the Author of that Letter who is a very able proficient in this new School I hope he will pardon me if I make his Letter publick without his name I hope these short reflections on his and his Masters grounds without which he acknowledges this Purgatory can not be sustained will prove an effectual admonition to him both to see and repent that he hath entred himself a Scholar into this dangerous School and therefore out of hand to withdraw his name Sect. 20. And now Sir I hope this better proficients judgment will be of some weight since he is your School-fellow I think an unprejudiced understanding will be convinced by that evidence I have already brought the undoubted intention of the Pope was to deliver us our holy Faith in all the several conditions of souls which depart this mortal life either in the state of grace or out of it either which need or need not any Purgation in the next life and for the Council besides the strength of words of the Decree the very Process of it the several Doctrines of the Latine and Greek Churches in order to this Decree will evince that their intentions reach as home to our purpose as their words But because the Reverend Esteem of â—â—ur new Master and of those solid and cleer-sighted persons stop your eares against the voice of the Church Let us try that Musick which certainly would cure you of this Tarantula What if we could obtain your new Master to plead on the behalf of that Faith we now maintain this certainly would prevail Let us attempt it then if you are not as yet so good a proficient in your new School that you are ready to believe the Council erred in this particular question of Purgatory I doubt not to conclude you out of your Masters own grounds Master White then layes you down this fundamental Doctrine The Church sayes he in her definitions of Faith proceeds onely on tradition and declares to us that Depositum of Faith which was handed down from Christ and his Apostles by an innumerable number of Fathers and Pastors to their numberless children and flock through age to age even to any one detèrminate moment When then any controversie is to be decided and a Council is summoned to declare our Faith what course is then taken surely no other then this The Fathers there gathered lay down that Faith thus handed down to them which they received from their precedent teachers and was commended to them to deliver to posteriâ—y as a sacred treasure not to be violated since it is their light their guide in their way to Heaven This Doctrine presupposed let it not be denyed but the Florentin Council proceeded in that very way he hath chalked out for them in our present question and my work is done Let us take a view of the Council Both the Greek and Latine Fathers meet first at Ferrara afterwards at Florence their business there is to declare the Faith of the Church concerning the state of souls which depart this life and in particular concerning the Souls which are detained in Purgatory both sides lay down their hitherto received Faith in order to a decision Let us see how happily they agree with this new molded Purgatory And first as to the Latins They â—elieve a Purgatory Fire directly against Master White who pretends to demonstate that no material agent can work upon the soul in its state of separation they believe that souls guilty of venial impurities are purged by this fire directly against Master White who holds there is no purging of the soul in the state of separation neither by fire nor not by fire for this is reserved to the reunion when her now torment her irregular affections shall be changed They believe that souls there detained by this fire together with the help of the Church the Prayers of the Priests Masses Almes c. are Expiated directly against Master White in the point in Question both as to the indivisible duration of the state he pretends to demonstrate and the unchangeableness of it and the continuation of it till the day of Iudgment Being thus unfortunate with the Latins who must needs have thrust this new School out of their Communion let us see what favour it would find with the Greeks These then profess this belief That souls there are detained in a darksome place Directly against Master White who holds that souls in the state of separation doe not only abstract from place but comprehend and are in some manner governours of all place they believe souls are expiated and freed directly against Master White who holds there is no expiating and freeing of souls but at re-union with their bodies they believe souls are freed by the Prayers and Sacrifices of Priests Almes c. directly against Master White in all the wayes before mentioned both as to his indivisible measure or duration of souls the unchangeableness of their state and the continuation of it till the day of Iudgment And most especially both sides unanimously agree against him in asserting the efficacy of Prayers and Sacrifices of the Priests for the dead for in his new systeme as shall be evidenced hereafter these endeavours advantage not the souls any thing at all What wonder then if out of both the Greek and Latin Professions thus directly opposite to him should issue out a Decree directly destructive of this his Machin or whilst neither part would admit him into their Communion they should conspire to destroy his errour The sacred Council approving We define say they that the souls of them who after Baptisme received have contracted no blemish of sin as also those souls who after they have contracted the blemish of sin are purged either in their bodies or being uncloathed of their said bodies are presently received into heaven What wonders is it we should have a purging of souls uncloathed of their bodies and a pâ—esent Translation into Heaven in which both sides agreed against him destructive of all this new Doctrine And truly what to answer to this evidence but by those other grounds that the Council did not proceed with due Application and so erred I cannot imagine And now I think I have fulfilled my promise to my Reader that either this new model
regard the end of the World when time shall be no more but these circulations of the heavens shall receive their last end and Period he tells us that this Oath of the Angel and this devouring of the Book by S. Iohn belong to the preparation of the ensuing ruine of the World and consummation of all things And the Book though sweet to the tast and hearing yet was bitter in his stomack And could not be contained but forced him to preach the Doctrine of it to others Thus he But it is a good divertisement to see how after this sublime conception had fallen into his head how he huggs it and pleases himself with the fancied happiness of that state of the Church which thus shall be steered by evidence by his demonstrations and how far he prefers it before All whatsoever we have hitherto been acquainted with in Christianity and even Prophesies of our future happiness by it a All Phylosophy shall be new molded All Theology shall be refined by his and his Knights Demonstrations b Never were School-boyes so handled by an Imperious Master as He besides the correction bestowed on all the Fathers for a thousand years whips all the School-Doctours none excepted and with most exquisite contempt persecutes all their Learning And of the Church he foretels in this third age there shall be no persecution no Heresies but she shall flourish by his demonstrative Religion in perfect tranquillity She shall now be furnished with persons of most sublime and eminent sanctity and though there shall be no occasion of Martyrdom yet the supream Saints the first fruits to God and the Lamb shall adorn this mans estate or midday of the Church Persons of most sublime contemplation And further as to the Civil Governments of Magistrates and happiness under them he Prophesies Instit. Sac. lib. 3. lec 2. Since this sayes he is the supream state of humane nature it will also bring with it the bettering of the manners of men the Governments and commands of Soveraigns and supream Magistrates shall be more mild and moderate few warrs among Christians the commodities of life far greater All excellent arts cultivated and brought to the highest perfection And since the supream Governours shall find Forraign Warrs necessary for domestick security they shall disburden the turbulent and ambitious spirits among Christians in Wars upon Barbarous Nations and Infidels the enemies of this demonstrative Religion Whom since now they excell in Arts they will easily conquer by Arms and contain them in their duty by an even handed equal Government And shall convert them to Christianity and so Christ shall raign in the whole Globe of the Earth Nor is it to be doubted but that this state being the very Flower and vigour of humane Nature shall be of a most long continuance Thus he rapt in an extasie Prophesies such golden ages melancholy men in love with their own long setled apprehensions fancy and dream of And his Scholars will easily believe that He now having establisht an eternal Peace in our Nations by that admirable Doctrin in his Book of Government and Obedience ground 16. That a dispossest Magistrate is worse then an Infidel if he doe not renounce all his title and claim And that All his subjects are obliged to resist his attempts their Masters demonstrations marcht of late to the confines with the two great Ministers of State and have now concluded a Peace between France and Spain But this were tollerable if this were All Why should not every man enjoy his own thoughts Why should not this great Master be as happy as his own Imaginations and the Applause of his Scholars can make him But thus to betray Christian Religion to Atheists to Disbeleevers To display his Banner of Evidence to open his School of Demonstration to reduce all those stupendious Mysteries of Religion to the natural force of our too too weak understandings and as I now exemplified in the Aeternal Generation of the Son of God a Mystery naturally unknown to Men and Angels for even those Celestial Spirits in their now state of Fruition veil their faces with reverence when they cry Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus to the adorable and ineffable Trinity to tell us even in these sublime Mysteries we shall be furnisht with evident Demonstrations And after this the Production is a discourse so frivolous so unconcluding Assuming not onely what is false but what is erroneous and inferring quite another thing in the Conclusion then was in the Premisses so that no Phylosopher of two years course but sees the emptiness of it no Divine of one years standing but has learnt the Errour of it is to render our holy Faith ridiculous vain and contemptible to Naturalists to Disbeleevers Sect. 25. Why should we then wonder if we have a new Purgatory Alas Sir we have a new Systeme of a whole intire new Religion We have a Doctour who with long melancholy thoughts having fansied a world in the Moon perswades himself that all the Faith Christ taught us shall be evacuated all other Schools shall cease and he forsooth for the future be the sole Pole-star of the World It is not unworthy of our observation by what wary sters this new Divinity which fitted to the Genius of our times I never read but think I am in a Romance walkt into the world The first attempt was upon Scripture where by a long Catalogue of its uncertainties by the Transcribers Translators Printers mistakes or the wilfull corruptions of Iews Hereticks half-witted and bold Readers it would puzzle any mans Arithmetick to count how many to one it is there is not one true word of Scripture in Scripture Upon the sole score of the Transcribers mistakes in that supposition that there were Two thousand Copies writ of the Bible in a hundred years he concludes it sixteen to one against any determinate word that it is not the true word of Scripture this onely saved that the same errour might be in several Copies After this succeeded the infallibility of the Pope of which I have given my Reader his sense already Then followed that he should attaque the Authority of the Councils Which in truth with a better grace and a complement of a Non est impossibile he sent packing out of his School And yet all this while he bore us in hand that he would save All by manly sustaining Tradition the uninterrupted Doctrine handed down and delivered by the succession of Fathers to Children from Christ and his Apostles to any determinate Age But because this Tradition could not with any appearance be sustained but that it carried or supposed the Infallibility of Councils Since there is nothing more universally and constantly beleeved nor can we imagine any more Authentique proof of any Doctrine that it is delivered by Tradition then the Decree of a Council And yet he being resolved by the ruine of that Authority to make way for his Demonstrative Religion
Sunt purgatae are now purged in the preterpersect Tense either in their bodies which you do not deny compleatly perfected in some souls in this life or uncloathed of their bodies which still irrationally gratis and wilfully you deny though the Council defines of both in the same form and style of words Sunt purgatae they are now purged Which cleerly imports a Purgation now past and perfectly compleated But we Will take our rise a little Higher from the very process of both the Greek and Latin Fathers in this business of Purgatory now assembled at Ferrara where this Council though afterwards translated to Florence and so is called the Florentin Council began For there in the very beginning of the Council in order to this Decree this Question of Purgatory was handled See tom 4. Concil. Gen. oct. Synod Quaestio de Purgatorio And both the Latin and Greek Fathers lay down their several Positions of Purgatory And First the Latins thus begin We do believe in this world a Purgatory fire by which the souls guilty of lighter faults that is venial sins are purged For those who have confessed their sins and have received the most sacred Body of Christ and presently die before previous satisfaction without doubt in the above-named fire which is commonly called Purgatory are purged and together with the help of the Church the prayers of Priests Masses and Alms are expiated After this the Greeks lay down their perswasion of Purgatory in this manner We judge say they Purgatory not to be a fire but a darksome placee full of afflictions in which souls now being are deprived of Divine Light but that they are expiated and freed from this darksome place and torments by the help of the Church the Prayers of Priests Masses Alms c. Now Sir it were beyond all the degrees of modesty to assert that the question of Purgatory was not here disputed or defined Or that they talked onely of Charity as being an immediate disposition to bliss And it is most cleer that out of these several professions in which both sides agreed against you directly and home to our Point in question of an expiation and delivery from this Purgatory either a fire or a darksome place issued out this definition Being purged uncloathed of this body presently opposite to your Errour And I would have my Reader to observe how positively it was intended by the Council to deliver us the Faith of the Church conformable to the unanimous Doctrine of both parties both of the expiation or perfect Purging of Souls when uncloathed of their bodies and of their present delivery whilest uncloated for in all this both the Greek and Latin Fathers cleerly agreed against this new School which when he shall have considered I doubt not but he will rest satisfied it can not be an act of the Vnderstanding but of the Will which forces the word Presently to signifie if it signifie any thing at all by these moderns at the day of Iudgement which was not the time either the Latin or Greek Fathers ever thought of but of the intermediate time of separation which is our business now in hand But because this Point is excellently well handled by an eminently Learned Person of out Nation who with unavoidable strength pursues it more at large in a Paper which came lately to my hands I will presume to give it my Reader in his own words at the end of my discourse Letter C. And further Sir for your more compleat and full satisfaction since with confidence enough you strongly assert That it is Incomparably false that either the Pope or Council ever intended to settle this Point of the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory before reunion I will add to the Paper of this great Divine the answer of a School-fellow of yours yet if I mistake not a much better proficient in your Masters Doctrine certainly much more ingenuous who vanquished with the evidence of this Truth acknowledges what indeed he could not with any modesty deny That this your new Doctrine of Purgatory stands condemned by both the Bull and Council and yet he was so captivated that he endeavours to sustain it by other grounds he had now learnt in your School My Reader shall find his Letter at large Letter D. Sect. 17. But before I pass any further since I have already told you that both Master White the Author of this Purgatory and his abler Scholars are armed against the Authority both of Popes and Councils it will not be out of my Readers way but very much conducing to my design of giving him a prospect of this School if now by some short reflections on the Doctrine delivered both by this ingenious Gentleman and Master White himself I make good that charge For by them it will appear to what unavoidable exigencies the defence of new Fabricks in Religion drive those who wedded to their preconceived Phylosophical fancies are resolved ro square their belief to them This ingenuous Scholar confesses That truly according to the opinion that the Holy Ghosts assistance in Councils and Consistories it without restriction or limitation the Paper delivered Letter C. seems to him 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 the Apostles delivered as so taught there appears onely that the Council of Florence and Pope Benedict did think it to be so which may raise opposition to a disobedience but not to an Heresie c. So that unless We shew that the Council of Florence and Pope Benedict determined conformably to Tradition Mr. Blacklowes that is Master Whites calling the doctrine and practice new will not savour the least of Heresie c. But foreseeing the strange consequences of this Doctrine he therefore Adds This puts all to a loss for how shall it be known that Councils and Consistories apply themselves aright Easily says he by examining Tradition of what you have seen and heard This is the common light and plain way promised to keep even fools from straying from Christs Doctrine Thus he Now Sir this Exterminating Doctrine was learnt in Master Whites School where it is but too too frequent And first as to the infallibility of the Pope without which no submission as to Faith can take place Master White * now being constituted by God a speculatour proclaims against it with sound of trumpet and tells us That to maintain the Pope to be infallible is Heretical Son Buâ— and Tabulae Suffragiales tab. 19. nay Archiheretical tab. 20. nay the most Horrid of all sins the sin of sins and for fear we should want Examples worse then violating sacred virgins on Altars then treading the ever B. Sacrament of Christs body under foot Or bringing the Turk or Antichrist into the Christian Dominions Son Buc. tract.
2. 22. Tab. Suff. tab. 21. And having thus rid his hands of the Pope he proceeds against the infallibility of the Councils in his Tab. Suff. tab. 22. This being his signal Doctrine Non est impossibile c. It is not impossible that the Pope or Council should attempt to establish that as now of Faith which was some time before not of Faith and by that very attempt fall into an error and even promulgate that error c. And further he tells us As to a certain prophetick inspiration immediately and miraculously enlightning the Council or Pope if constantly and by the ordinary Law of God it be asserted to be required it is altogether fabulous and asserted without any solid ground Thus he Upon these grounds I say did this good proficient in this his Masters School endeavour to sustain your otherwaies ruinous Fabrick of Purgatory for in truth there is no other means left to support it but by the destruction of all the Authority of both Popes and Councils to deliver us our holy Faith And now I desire my Reader to consider for his just and full satisfaction of the design of this School that if these grounds be once admitted Christian Faith which they now combat is a meer mockery For if after all the Canons of Councils all the Anathmaes pronounced against any Opinion the very Anathema it self carrying with it and being an exercise of that power invested in the Church to oblige us to submission and beleef it still remains to be showen that the Pope or Council determined conformably to Tradition or else Master Whites styling the doctrine and profession new will not savour the least of Heresie or that it is not impossible a Council may err and promulgate an errour we are at an irrecoverable loss For no Catholick claims any other assurance of his Faith then upon this firm foundation that our holy Mother the Church is his infallible Directress That the Councils her mouth are the unerring Deliveres of Truth Which if it stand no firm absolutely but upon a supposition of a due application it being impossible we should have any higher or more authentique proof of this supposition then the Council it self there is no security no assurance left of any thing delivered by them Not so says he We may easily know when Councils and Consistories apply themselves aright by examining tradition of what we have seen and heard And shall I a private an illiterate Christian not yet acquainted with these solid and cleer-sighted Persons recall all the decrees of Councils to a new examine is there still a higher Court to which I may and ought to appeal from their sentence as to a superiour Iudg and Umpire over them shall I take this liberty upon me to censure their Proceeds to admit to reject their definitions as my weakness shall find them consonant to or dissonant from what I have seen and heard and if they were to receive their approbation from this Court How can I unless a senseless pride blind me hope that my industry in the search my ability to find shall not only equallize but even exceed that of five hundred perhaps a thousand Bishops and Prelates and the scrutiny of numberless Divines assisting them in this Inquest And even to ease us of this sollicitude you see what exact care is taken in these proceeds Pope Benedict here tells you of the holy Church that she teaches nothing rashly brings in nothing unwarily introduces nothing in faith unadvisedly And hence it is that all such sacred decisions are still ushered in with some such expressions as these After an humble invocation of the holy Ghost After a careful examination of the matter After a diligeâ—â— deliberation with our brethren c. But if all this sollicitude in truth signifie nothing if we must not acquiesce here but re-examine all in a higher tribunal iâ— not this the utter Extermination of all that authority we hitherto have believed the Church is furnished with to deliver us our holy Faith Is not this to resolve finally en dernier resort our Creed into our own brests to make every idle head competent Judge of Popes Councils Consistories All And them Judges of just nothing wherein do those loose bands of disagreeing Protestants all disagree from us and all agree against us but in this that we acquiesce and submit to the holy Church as the faithful keeper and dispenser of our Faith and Tradition and so submit that from her sentence we admit no Appeal against her decrees we admit no Contradiction whilst they by a supereminent pride assume to themselves a power to judg this Pillar of Truth and resolve All into their own capriccioes private reason spirit fancies pride and nothing And yet I pray you consider whether by this appealing from the Church to Tradition what we have seen and heard we are not sunk into a deeper sink of Errour of Independancy then they for they appeal to Scripture which though irrationally they accept as Canonical they admit their Translations as authentick and contest the sense onely with the Church whilst this Doctrine affoords us a far more full and ample reserve to evacuate all Faith at our pleasures since it is still in our power and we competent Judges what is Tradition what not where the Council proceeded with due Application upon the depositum of Faith where upon the uncertain wavering opinions of Schoolmen or pretended assistance of the Holy Ghost which extends to Creeds Catechismes Definitions yea the very Canon of Scriptures and indeed All that any way belongs to Christian Religion Nor will it avail if this Gentleman should tell me that I do him wrong to rank his Doctrine with that of the Protestants or indeed hold it worse then theirs for the Protestants down right tell us the Church hath erred de factâ— in these these Points in particular He and Master White more modestly and shily mince the matter and teach us that possibly onely or not impossibly the Council may err and promulgate an errour And perhaps he will say that these inconveniencies are saved by this his succeeding Doctrine in the same place Tab. 22. For there having delivered this his Doctrine against the infallibility of Councils he presently adds But it is impossible that such an errour thus promulg'd by the Council should pass into an establisht Doctrine of the Church and be accepted as a Doctrine delivered by the Fathers and preached by Christ For as to the first it will presently appear even in this our question that if their new model of Purgatory be subsistent not only possibly or not impossibly but de facto the Florentin Council and Church hath erred in this particular And since to say even not impossibly the Council may err the foundation of all assurance is now pulled up I know not but this Doctrine is as high and higher Independancy then theirs And as to those words of Master Whites I answer that they
notwithstanding it is still in his power by his former Doctrine that it is not impossible the Council may err and promulgate an error to evacuate all the Canons of all the Councils at his pleasures for however the Authority of the Council now stands ingaged in the definition of any Doctrine however the Decree is now published to the whole world however the Church accept of the Decree however all Catholiques submit to the Decree yet it remains still in his power to say It never passed into an established Doctrine of the Church whilest he or his cleer-sighted Scholars intend to shake it And how far this his reserve of an establisht Doctrine delivered by Fathers and preached by Christ extends will sufficiently appear in his very attempt of the Faith of the Church in our Question of Purgatory For I have reason to beleeve he had a special regard to his beloved Purgatory when he renounced thus the Authority of Councils The consciences of all the illiterate Catholiques bear witness that the delivery of Souls from Purgatory is now their received Faith from their present Pastors and Teachers no Divine but knows that for Three hundred years and upwards ever since the promulgation of Pope Benedict his Bull no Orthodox Writer but submits to his Decree as unquestionable Master White himself tells us That St. Gregory the great was the first Founder of that Faith we now fight for a thousand years ago pursued and sustained by the numberless number of incomparably eminent Doctors and Saints In sum if there be any Article of our Faith witnessed any establisht it is this not any one carrying after it a more ample continued practise not any one testified by so many Foundations Prayers Masses Almes c. as this And yet this is no establisht Doctrine of the Church It is not a Truth delivered by Fathers as preacht by Christ And therefore he being overwhelmed with the consent of the whole Church for a thousand years appeals with the Protestants to the Primitive Ages immediate to Christ their plea and his being just the same differing onely in this that they say the substance of Purgatory is not the establisht Doctrine of the Church as delivered by Fathers preacht by Christ He that the delivery of Souls from thence is not even yet established Sect. 18. This Doctrine then is not the way as our ingenious Scholar says to keep fools from straying but the way to make fools stray and supposes a high folly in him who accepts it who leaves the received Doctrine of the holy Church to gadd after new models of a modern Divine But the way to keep both fools and wise men from straying is that which all the wise men in the world have hitherto followed to acquiesce to submit to the Church the Pillar of Truth without further dispute or reserve without further examination of her Decrees by what we have seen and heard We know assuredly that he shall never have God his Father in Heaven who hath not the Church his Mother on Earth And how injurious would he shew himself sayes the pious Emperour Marcianus to the most Reverend Synod who should attempt to question anew and publickly dispute and controvert such points as are once judged and rightly determined For who will grant says Pegna more authority to the Opinions of single persons disputing of Faith according to their own Fancy then to the definitions of Councils lawfully called and congregated where the Fathers hearts are governed by the Holy Ghosts dictamen T is already excellently well decreed for many Reasons That things once defined should be no more called in question For if such Doctrines as are thus constituted and decreed should be again brought under doubt and disputation surely no Iudgment or Sanction would remain firm and strong against any Errours what soever every establisht Truth and Definition of the Church being troubled afresh with the same Furies Thus Gelasius the First related by Gratian By which my Reader will observe how far a different road that ancient piety of Christians walkt in to Heaven then what is now chalked out to us by this School armed against the Authority of Popes and Councils Sect. 19. But before I leave this Point I will mind my Reader That if it were as he supposes it lawfull for every man to call the Decrees of Popes and Councils to a new trial by this Touchstone of Tradition by asking his very Question What we have seen and heard my Adversary hath lost his cause For to this Question being proposed in our present controversie of Purgatory what can we with truth answer but that we have seen innumerable Masses Dirges Alms c and that we have constantly heard that souls are delivered out of Purgatory by these powerfull helps before the Day of Iudgment And what can we with truth answer but that we have hitherto beleeved this and if we are still our selves and are not so inconstant as to be carried away wiâ—h the wind of a new Doctrine we do beleeve it and shall continue to believe it And for the proof of this Assertion I appeal safely even to the Consciences of those few Proselytes this new Master Master White hath gained Whether till of late this new Systeme of Purgatory came to light they ever entertained the least doubt of it Whether it were not their full perswasion A Doctrine which they beleeved to have been delivered with as firm and constant an Authority as any other whatsoever Whether ever they divided this from the rest of their Faith and allowed it a less degree of assurance onely as of Opinion Nor will it avail my Adversary to say That it was indeed his full perswasion buâ— not his beleef he never understood it though delivered to him from his present Pastors as the Faith of the Church but onely as the generally received Opinion of Divines and that in truth he never ranked it among the Articles of his Creed but in a lower form of I know not what consent of Schoolmen For the Experience of all Mankind will refute this falshood And confident I am if a long perswasion of his now received Doctrine hath not effaced the memory of his past disposition of soul his own conscience bears witness against him For as to the whole Universality of Catholiques they still assert and sustain this Faith they hear not of this novelty without horrour And for that handfull of persons who are thanks be to God not one in a million who have of late embraced the contrary let them for it highly concerns them duely examine their consciences Whether the private esteem of their Master Master White the Authour of this Doctrine the comfortable new apprehensions he introduces in lieu of that great terrour and fear they before were in of the sufferings of that state the easing their Consciences from the incumbent care of assisting their departed friendâ— for all this is immediately wrought by an acceptance of this Position
hath not wrought upon their inconstancy to abandon the Tents of the Church and to list themselves in this new Squadron to impugn their pious Mother to forsake a formerly received Beleef now to adhere to a new Doctrine which certainly at the first proposal checkt their former perswasion the holy Faith planted in their Souls Nor hath the contrary Assertion any thing but a bold confidence to warrant it for we know we feel we experience in our selves this Beleef We do beleeve the Councils can not misguide us We do beleeve the delivery of Souls before the Day of Iudgment This is our Faith as firm as a Rock not to be shaken by all the Sophistry of the world If it were possible as certainly it is not possible that it could be evidenced that our faith of both these is erroneous yet certainly it could never carry any fâ—ce of probability that we have not hitherto or even yet do not beleeve them every man being furnisht within his own brest with an irrefragable witness stronger then all the wit and Logick of the world The Protestants face us down that we make Idols of â—â—ictures against our own souls and knowledge What impudence is this And shall this new School have the confidence against all mens experience thus to give the Lye to the Consciences of the whole Christian world So that I hope my Reader rests satisfied that even this Courâ— to which he appeals hath given sentence against him even by this Question what we have seen and heard And how happily hath this our great Master Master White Arraigned himself as the first Author of our new Purgatory or any other the first Broâ—cher of a new Doctrine under the person of Luther Sonus Buccinae Tract. 1. viii before the Tribunal of his Bishop or a Nuntius of the Apostolick See That his own condemnation might be the more solemn and the sentence pronounced against himself conceived in his own words Thus then he makes Luthers and his own Process And let him be asked sayes he of the Doctrine of which he stands suspected and much more if now he hath sustained in Print whether he believes this his new Doctrine of Purgatory to be that Doctrin which this present Age he now lives in received from their Fathers of the immediate foregoing Age Whether he received it in his childhood when he was first instructed in Christian belief and which till he now became a Doctor he followed And let him answer for himself for what other answer can he make then that this his new broached Purgatory is not that Doctrin he thus was taught whilst he was yet a Child But that it is better Doctrine then the former which he himself hath now evinced out of sacred Monuments Heathen Poets out of the Bowels and Principles of Nature by Demonstration And that the contrary Doctrine to which he had been bred took its rise onely from ignorance of the nature of separated substances And let the faithfull people says he encompass the Tribunal now educated in this faith that the Authority of things which 〈◊〉 stand bound to beleeve descends handel down from Christ our B. Saviour and is otherwise even till this Age Will they nâ— cry out upon him as an Innovatour a Prophane Person an Heretick will they not proclaim and invoque to Prisons Fire with him to rid such a plague out of the world And he pursues But let the people be silent and let the Iudge â—erge him And do you not know Sir this new Doctrine fights against the known Laws of your Country that such an Author as you are first thrust out of the sacred Communion of the faithful should expiate or pay for this his presumption with death Do you not know that you now fight against the Fathers and Monuments of Antiquity that you combate an immemorable custome that you now impugne that reverence due to our most dear Parents by whom above all things else the contrary Doctrine of Purgatory is recommended to us as most profitable both for soul and body And since it can not with any face be denyed but that he knows he contends against all these Let the Iudg further urge him From whence Sir can you hope to draw any Argument of that evidence which may inforce us and other prudent men to follow this noveltie with an obdurate soul And let him answer that out of the Scriptures And the Iudg reply and do not you know that wilfully you inhere to holy Scriptures Do you not know that words do not signifie naturally but by institution And therefore the construction of words is subâ—ect to such variety that it is impossible to pick out any sence demonstratively at least any one expresly repugnant to the Doctrine of so many wise men who all of them indeavour the understanding of those sacred Texts as well as you Or can you pretend Christian Faith is directed by the â—ables of Heathen Poets or that you now can demonstratively shew out of the Principles of reason that to be false which we all have with unavoidable Authority hitherto believed to be true or that you now have attained to such a cleer understanding of the nature of separated souls that all the learning of mankind before you could not reach that which now you pretend to have demonstratively and scientifically proved Is it not evident sayes he that this large-wide mouth'd gaping promiser will produce nothing worthy the hearing but must needs bâ— esteemed as a meer frantick and mad person as he who Vaunts he will do that which all learned men know is impossible and the very unlearned see is improbable And further he pursues let the same or another Writer sayes he being now unmindful of his own weakness imagin to himself that either by his own reason or explication of Scriptures he hath now found out that which all former ages were ignorant of to wit that now in the third age or mans estate of the Church we shall be directed by faith no longer 〈…〉 for the future by his demonstrations which is the Position of this our Master as we shall presently see And that this truth was left by God to him to be revealed and manifested to the Church Of which Position the vulgar Christians as a sluggish Cattel not at all given to speculation know nothing and so he contemns them he laughs at the Doctours he styles the Saints lyars because men but that he himself is the first to whom God hath made known so great a mystery But though he be a most arrogant person let him weigh with him and consider Though I have hitherto contemplated this sublime and happy truth But when I come to propose this Doctrine to others they will presently object and ask whether Christian Faith hath any other ground of its security then a continued succession through all ages to our present time Do you Sir promise this new light of science of Demonstration If I deny it will they
that she hath satisfied the divine Justice for her irregularites in this mortal life The Publisher hath not one word of this in his book you pretend to answer You are like a Romancical Knight you make Gyants and kill them but if he truely did hold this Doctrin which you impose upon him yet will your Argument be of no force against him For this question being proposed Whether souls immediately upon separation rectifie all their affections Your Adversary may take which side of the contradiction he pleases and still sustain with the Pope and Council this their Doctrin of Purgatory against you And first let us suppose he should asserâ— with you That inordinate affections do accompany the soul into the next life yet he may sustain those Affections are purged and rectified before re-union and what crime should he be guilty of but of opposing your pretended Demonstrations and so your mock Victory and Pageant Triumph whilst you would perswade him p. 35. to acknowledge with regret that the Pope and Council pronounce against him is at an end the strength of your proof depending on An Imposition on the Pope An Imposition on your Adversary and a non-concluding Argument drawn out of them both I had almost forgot that in this case he should withstand the authority of Virgil whose Phylosophy your Master magnifies above that of the Church though the Poet describes both corporal punishments inflicted on the Souls which your master will needs understand after his too frequent Metaphorical manner and admits their passing into Elysium his feigned heaven before Resurrection of which the Poet never dreamt Nor even as to the proof that Affections to corporal pleasures do remain in Separated Souls for which end it is introduced doth this place of this Poet reach home nec funditus omnes Corporea excedunt pestes penitusque necesse est Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris For these words doe not clearly carry this sense Do all evils cease all plagues all strifes Contracted in the body many a stain Long time inured needs must even then remain But however to do him right if this place do not reach home this Doctrin is frequent with the Heathen Poets in their Fables as in that of Narcissus 3. Metamor where he stands condemned to gaze upon himself in the next life because he passed out of this in a doting self-love But if we should suppose the Publisher to approve That such souls immediately upon separation rectifie all disordered affections how will you justifie that this or perfect Charity is an immediate disposition to Beatifical Vision What do you think of Lumen Gloriae the Light of Glory which is farther required And if you fancy with your Master lib. 5. Perip Lect. 15. That God is a Sun darting out existencies according to the several dispositions of Creatures What doctrin shall we have from you of the Saints in this life will you pronounce That never any Saint had perfectly regulated his affections but just in that very moment he passed out of this life What do you conceive of the holy Apostles of the Baptist what in particular of St. Paul when he tels us I live now not I but Christ lives in me What of the holy Fathers ofx the old Law What of the ever Blessed Virgin even when she bore the Saviour of the world in her sacred womb did all these injoy Beatitude or were they imperfect in Charity or did this Sun not dart forth his existencies as perfect Charity the immediate disposition to heaven required But let us consider your Argument you tell us that your Adversary conceiving the Souls now perfect in Charity delayes their Beatitude and condems them to a dry and arbitrary punishment pag. 35. This dry and arbitrary punishment you have out of your Masters Doctrin for he prosecutes it at length in his Middle Stateâ— Acc. 10 11 c. And first he tells us God doth not punish sinners upon the score of Revenge nor for the satisfaction of Iustice since he suffers no injury by our offences Nor can the punishments of Souls be involuntary or springing from an external much less from a material Agent but from within That such pains neither avail Them nor Vs Lastly That these sufferings have no connexion with the sins and yet God being a perfect Architect hath so artificially framed his work that of it self it performs all operations without supplement or future minute alterations in any of its Members or Organs And so he excepts against punishments which are supposed to remain due after the fault forgiven Acc. 13. All which is but to retrive what the Heterodox party alledged long since in their impugnations of Purgatory and Penance and which stands condemned by this the 30 Canon of the Council of Trent Sess. 6. de Iustif. occasioned by this Doctrine If any one shall say That to every penitent sinner after the grace of Iustification received that so the fault is forgiven and the guilt of eternal punishment that there remains no guilt of temporal punishment to be payd either in this life or in the future in Purgatory before the passage to Heaven may be opened let him be Anathema Thus the Council Where by the way you may observe a temporary punishment in Purgatory against your Systeme and after the remission of the fault a punishment due But because this Truth is so fundamental in the Sacred Council all its Doctrine of Satisfaction the third part of Penance depending on it Let us compare its Sacred Oracles with the Doctrine of our new Master And first Sess. 14. cap. 8. Of the necessity and fruit of Satisfaction The Council declares this Doctrine of Satisfaction to have been the constantly received Faith of the Church by Divine Tradition and is impugned now by those who have an outside of Piety but have denied the vertue of it Directly opposite to our new School which teaches That Pains remain not due after the fault forgiven under pretence of promoting solid Devotion And the Council pronounces That it is altogether false and against the Word of God that the fault is never remitted but that All the punishment is also forgiven For besides Divine Tradition there are illustrious examples in holy Writ which most manifestly convince this Errour Thus the Council directly against our new Master as will presently appear by his answer to this Doctrine Further the Council pursues Nay the order of the Divine Iustice doth seem to require that in an other manner sins should be pardoned in them who before Baptism offended by ignorance then in those who after Baptism violate the Temple of God And it becomes the Divine Clemency that sins should not be pardoned in Penance without any satisfaction Directly against our Master who tells us No Punishments are inflicted upon the score of satisfying the Divine Iustice since God suffers no injury by our offences The Council holds on Let the Priests of God have before their eyes that the
himself when I find it so brought down to our capacities that it is pretended The examples of Logick and Natural Phylosophy equalize this Mystery when I am taught That the Father and Son in Divinis are Metaphors I have a great apprehension that this Doctrin and my hitherto received Faith agree but in words not in the things signified by them I do believe That God most freely and of his own goodness built this Vniverse I believe He is not necessarily tyed to the order or course of Nature And when I am now taught That God must contradict himself if he Act any thing against Nature That Out of the force and series of Nature nothing could happen better to Iudas then to be damned In fine God should cease to be God if this Flye should not now be in nature I fear though we agree in this word God our apprehensions jump not at all Christians apprehend and adore the liberal free hand of their Maker but a God tyed to any thing besides himself is not a Christian God but a Pagan Iupiter I do believe upon Christs words That if I keep the Commandments I shall enter into life and this is the foundation of my Doctrin of manners And when I am now taught That God neither commands nor forbids any thing However we agree in these words Thou shalt not Steal Thou shalt not commit Adultery my whole Doctrin of Morality is banished by this assertion It will hereafter appear your Master hath furnished us with a faâ— other Morality then ever Escobar thought of What do you think of this Position of your Master in his book of Government and Obedience ground 6. speaking of himself An other man says he is no otherwise to me then a peece of Cloath or Wood which I cut and shape after my own will fittingly for my use Even though I do him harme or seek his ruine It follows not I wrong him How well doth this agree with that Principle of Nature That we ought so to do to others as we would have them do to us In summ where I see a pretender to Demonstrate all the Mysteries of our holy Faith and that Faith shall cease and Evidence take place I justly fear though the words are still retained this is but to supplant Christ and his Doctrin our notions and significations of words must be changed or else these stupendious Mysteries can not be levelled to our weak capacities But though these be my apprehensions yet I wish I were mistaken I wish these new Doctrines may receive such Explications that they may appear no less Catholick then those I profess and shall be as happy to receive satisfaction as you to give it me but withal I must frankly promise you that I shall require your satisfaction both in these and many other Doctrines I do acknowledge with thankfulness that one may be instructed by Master White whose excellent Wit and Pen if duly applyed is admirable but if I mistake not he hath flown beyond the bounds fixed by an unerring hand and therefore desire you to accept of this serious Protestation That I have an intire respect for his Person and if any harsh word hath escaped my Pen it is the Doctrine not He that is concerned in the Epithete the same I speake and intend to your self Though if you consider the case aright where not only whatsoever is sacred to Catholicks but what the Heterodox-Party agree with them in is thus attaqued Where the foundations of Christianity and of all Religion the Liberty of God and Contingency of Creatures is thus attempted by a Lucretian Galamawfry Phylosophy to make way for a new Demonstrative Religion such an exotick design deserves not a more mild censure then what I have fixed upon it and yet I hope you will nor find your too too frequent Calumniating Adversaries or any thing like it in my whole booke If you think there is any animosity in my Discourse I heartily beg your pardon we daily say Sicut nos dimittimus where these heats are easily allayed and for our present Controversie of Purgatory let us patiently expect the determination of our undoubted Superior the Present soveraign Pastor who as the Florentin Council here tell us holds the Primacy over the whole World Who 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 who finally had full power delivered unto him by our Lord Iesus Christ in St. Peter to Feed to Rule and to Govern the Vniversal Church To whom we will Candidly Fairly and Religiously and not by any false suggestions or surprising friends as you most strangely suspect pag. 40. and thereby at once condemn both that Supream Court of Weakness if not of Corruption and your adversaries of Dishonesty remit the whole Controversie and humbly submit to his Judgment both in this Particular and in all other Disputable Points whatsoever FINIS THe Publisher desires my Adversary to take notice That if there be any thing in this Discourse which depends on matter of Fact in which he desires to be satisfied he is ready to give him intire satisfaction before any Person of Honour by undoubted Witnesses A THE BULL OF Pope BENEDICT the Eleventh Otherwise called the Twelfth Promulgated in the Year 1336. Concerning the State of Departed SOULS Faithfully Translated as it is in the Roman Bullary Printed at Rome Anno Dom. 1638. Benedict Bishop the Servant of Gods Servants To the perpetual memory of Posterity BLessed be God in his Gifts and Holy in all his works who through his mercy forsakes not the Sacred Roman Catholique and Apostolical Church which his right hand hath planted as his Vineyard and which he hath raised up as chief and Conqueress to be the head of all Churches our Lord saying to Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church but by his blessed Apostles especially Peter and Paul the singular Defenders of the same Church keeps her through his compassionate Benignity and continual Piety that she being governed by these Rulers may remain stable in her self as founded upon the firm Rock and that all the believers of the Christian Faith may obey her may yield to her may intend to her may live under her authority may be under her discipline and correction That in her nothing may be taught rashly nothing brought in unwarily nothing in Faith unadvisedly introduced and that so men may decline from evil and do good that they may walk in the right paths and make progress to better things by their holy desires that they may hopefully expect the neer approaching rewards of the eternal life of just men and fearfully dread the not far off calamities of Hell appointed for the wicked For it is written Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to render unto every one according to his works But if it shall