of Faith But let us go further if every person from hence to Cades in Spain and from thence to Rome and from thence to Constantinople and from thence to Jerusalem through both Churches were asked whether in their prayers for the dead they do not hope to help them to Heaven before the last day every one would assert it CHAP. II. It is not matter of Opinion THerefore most certainly the hope of present easing them was not grounded on matter of Opinion which intrinsically involves actuall fear or doubt of the truth else they would have praied faintly but it is a traditionary doctrine and under that notion by all understood Hence we never read in Scriptures Councels or Fathers any one clear assertion as sufficiently appears in those which are most urged That all those that go to Purgatory must be necessarily detained there without any relief till the day of judgement which sure were impossible if there had been any fluctuation in it or if they had been of that opinion as some gently perswade us That some things have been delivered to posterity in the Church which could never obtain more authority then opinion I have made evident in my System even in grave Subjects of which number this was not but how to distinguish such from doctrines of a higher nature in case Holy Church did not conveigh clearly their qualifications with them as in some cases evidently it did and in others it did not as there I give instances then the onely way is to return to general Councels that they according to their office may conquisitione facta after the example of the Apostles juridically appoint to each their seats where all must acquiesce as here was done conformable to all antiquity as I have declared and shall more CHAP. III. Why the resurrection is inculcated THe Holy Scriptures indeed our B. Lord and especially B. St. Paul and since them holy Church and Fathers most pressingly inculcates the truth of the general resurrection as being the basis of our hope the motive of piety and good works all which would be adjudged fruitless by the generality of men if it were not for this though even Aristotle who with the rest of his friends of Athens would have laughed to have heard Saint Paul Preach and assert it yet they would judge vertue to carry and bring with it a present reward for which it should be embraced but our expectations are infinitely higher by our believed and hoped for resurrection and therefore it alwaies produced proportionate effects in Gods holy Martyrs and Saints especially in those first times as the course of Gods providence required and therefore there was a necessity effectually to settle this radical doctrine as also of the last judgement to inculcate a just fear as S. Paul did This other of relief of souls in and out of Purgatory being of far less concernment as to the generality of mankind and being as it were a particular of it or subalternate to it needed not so strong frequent inculcation though holy Church did not take it up upon vulgar and light hear-sayes but with and by the Apostles Praedications which according to S. Augustines Rule are sufficiently proved by the Churches Doctrine and practice The holy Scriptures themselves as interpreted by antiquity also declare it which are obviously knowne Neither do the Texts though brought with violence touch the contrary nor were ever so interpreted Some mistake also ariseth in this business from not observing that holy Scriptures and from thence holy Church and the Fathers frequently understand by Resurrection even the assumption of souls to Heaven without the bodies and therefore S. Aug. calleth the later of soul and body the perfect resurrection as condistinct from the former in his care of the dead c. 6. But here we treat of the Churches practice and doctrine which are cleare even amongst the Greekes as well as Latines You know that according to Mr. Rushworth and Mr. White whose authority cannot be denied by you the publique practice or oral conveyance demonstrates universal Tradition and consequently Christian Truths Therefore when I look upon the anxious solicitude with which now and in all former ages good Christians Greeks and Latines have prosecuted their friends deceased with their Prayers Alms-deeds which all Christian Monuments declare methinkes it were strange now at length to have all resolved into a cold Oblation or Prayer for Doomsday wherin their particular Allies are no more concerned than all others so all the pious indeavours of friends are of no effect as relating to what they intended in order to particular persons but might as well be contracted into a general Prayer for all the dead against not onely orall tradition but the manifest writings of the most ancient and learned in the bulke of the Fathers as S. Aug. is sufficient testimony for all the rest in his Treatise of this subject stiled by him A care of the dead where he supposeth it to be the common sense of the whole Catholique Church that particular persons dead who have acquired merit in their life time by which such things may be rendred profitable after death do receive benefit by what is done for them religiously after their decease and he speaks cleane through the whole Book of actual benefit profit help advantage availment and rest to be procured for the souls And lest we should glosse it for the soules in their reunion with their bodies he frequently speakes condistinctively of the soule as separated from the body or as it is when the body is dead and he saith that then it receiveth succour which as he shews and I have said was the practice of all Churches in their publique Liturgies I do not esteem it constancy but obstinacy to intort antiquity to our sense gainst their own CHAP. IV. The sences of Greek and Latine Lyturgies and Fathers AMongst the Greeks I observe in their Liturgies that sometimes they pray with Tertullian de Monogamia that the dead may have refrigerium that is some ease as S. Greg. Nazian his Liturgie p. 34 in the Rubrick Other times they pray that they may be put into a place of light sommess where sorrow is banisht and groaning c. as in S. Basils Liturgie Sometimes that they may rest in Abrahams bosome as in S. James his Liturgie All these intimate a change a present relief though not alwayes a release as the stile evidently imports which destroyes your very ground for you teach that no prayers can relieve or change them till Doomes-day S. James in his Lyturgie prayes that God would cause the souls to rest with the Saints You say he meanes that they may not rest or have ease or lightsomness c. till after the day of judgment Besides they constantly pray for the remission of their sins as in S. Basils and the rest this is not for the resurrection and finally they pray for all who died in communion of the faithful and for
faithfully the abundant Alms by Legacy left to Monasteries for the souls of the deceased which uniformly agrees with the Modern practise of both Churches and therfore doubtless the sense of both Churches as now they appear evidently to be the same so in all antiquity they were uniform as to hope of relief by prayers especially by Masses as there is clear and in many private Latine Synods Neither can it be other than a great Sophism to accuse the Roman Churches Offertory as if in praying to deliver the souls of the Faithfull a poenis inferni which is a general term signifying both and so used it should import any thing else here than from the pains of Purgatory to life which cannot have any other sense than of Purgatory since there is no redemption in Hell and the souls for which they pray die no otherwise Again the Church in the Collects prayes to give them refrigerii sedem c. a seat of refreshment which speaks our Purgatory These and all other Texts assure us of the Churches sense of praying to deliver them before the great day however by strengh of wit the clearest actions may be in order to weaker judgements made dubious as we see in Courts the best causes by corrupted advocates so clouded that they seem unjust But the knowledge of this is so universal that here may be said what St. Augustine lib. de duabus anim c. 12 saith of liberty Nonne ista cantant in montibus pastores theatris Poetae indocti in circulis doctiâ— in Bibliothecis Magistri in scholis antistites in locis sacris in orbe terrarum genus humanum All sorts of Christians each in their several postures and vocations witness this truth CHAP. V. Traditions alone cannot prove faith in all Articles THis was S. Hieroms and all the Fathers one though not only constant test of new doctrines And you professedly esteeming the testimony of the present age to conveigh certainly the sense of the precedent do and must consequently hold it to be an infallible test to discern even matters of Faith so that ad hominem this were strong if we had onely the present age But surely Scriptures and Traditions are the adequate source of Christian truths in the received opinion of Doctors And the Councel of Trent in the first Session seems to suppose it in order to the general And truly all the former Councels did no less Neither can I see that your Topick alone will salve all occurrences and therefore St. Paul refers the Thessalonians to his Epistles and Sermons joyntly and S. Irenaeus l. 3. c. 4. shews the necessity of both So S. Aug. and the rest But by endeavouring to infringe any pretence of a definition as to this of helping souls in Purgatory before Doomsday you struck upon a medium which if not rightly understood is of an ill consequent CHAP. VI. Charity consists with Purgatory The various operations of charity Wherein consists the chiefest penalty of Purgatory FOr the purport of your discourse seems to hint at this that a necessity of retention of souls out of heaven till due penal expiation be accomplisht will enervate the dignity of charity Cicero lib. 3. de finibus saith notably speaking of Philosophy Hujusmodi dicere ornare velle puerile est plane autem perspicue expedire posse docti intelligentis est viri Your almost connatural obscurity renders you sometimes to be misconstrued to your prejudice It is true that charity if perfect is a sufficient disposition to glory at least as far as relates to exclusion of punishment for former transgressions which easily concludes a soul dying in that perfect condition not to need any other temporary expiation But the midle sort of Christians who onely have their concernment in Purgatory according to Saint Augustine and the Councel of Florence though they die indeed in charity yet is supposed not to be so intense as wholly to dispose their souls for present blisse And therefore in order to such the Church asserts further expiation and penal detention necessary for a longer or a shorter terme according to the secret rules of Gods wisdom wherein though our time is not the measure of spiritual substances or sufferings which have no parts to answer to the parts of our time and therefore are not greater or lesse for the extrinsecal and disparate consideration of a shorter or longer continuance precisely as to time yet their inward necessity of existing in that condition of separation not only from their bodies but from the sight of God in the dregs of sin till God changeth them is highly penable as being alwaies present to their intuition and affection whereas in bodies where every thing is measured by motion it would be far less as having succession of parts than now being altogether according to the nature of eviternity which surely renders it incomparably greater than if it were by one part after another And though it is indivisible as to its essence and existence being spiritual and therefore cannot be measured otherwise than by a proportionable in-divisible measure as now I will suppose against some others yet it hath co-existence with the parts of our time as Aristotle 4. Phys saith Idem nunc secundum substantiam differt secundum esse that is although an instant is the same indivisible in order to it self yet it differs as compared to time And hence a soul which hath been in Purgatory twenty years is truly said to have been longer there than another which was seperate from the body yesterday and consequently hath suffered the hard consequences of it even altogether so long If we speculate this a little further we find that as indeed the soul being in-divisible it hath an in-divisible measure yet as that instant or measure called Aeviternity is alwaies and altogether present so there is alwaies present in it a priority which we call of nature As Agents which are free in the same real instant when they resolve to do any thing have a priority of nature wherein it is not affirmable that they do resolve but are as it were about to do it and this continues so long as the real instant it self doth And therefore Aristotle will tell us that the will even when it doth decree any thing it hath power not to do it that is as referring to that priority of nature Whence followes even in your own principles that the soul which went to Purgatory many years agoe is now as capable to have an act which it never had as then and therefore it may be as truly said to have an act this day which it never had and consequently may as truly be said to be changed But this whole matter is fitter for the Schooles to dispute then for Chatechizers to instruct in matter of Faith of which more hereafter You seem under a pretence of putting a due estimate upon an abstracted or a Metaphysicated charity for such yours almost seems
reason that the length or shortnesse of duration doth not at all change the measure in it self provided that it be altogether It is therefore a great disproportion rather a collusion to argue from the consideration of an instant of our time to aeviternity they both agree in this that they are indivisible that is they are not capable of succession of parts but the reason of this in each is wholly different The instant of time is therfore so because Physically speaking it is nothing else but a â—egation or termination of some thing and hath therefore no duration at all Aâ—vum or aeviternity is not capable of succession as being as the former is indivisible and altogether but yet hath infinite durance according to the way expressed vertually including infinite instances according to which it is conceivable to have mutation without contradiction because its durance or existence now though altogether or not by parts is not by vertue of the same conservation or influx it hath from God as applied before but it hath in a manner a new dependancy of him else both it and its measure would cease to be this is both Scotus and S. Bonaventures solid way of explication of this abstruse difficulty And truly I believe St. Thomas and Henricus their tempus discretum well weighed will fall into it And verily Aeviternity seems in this to differ from aeternity that it doth not necessarily involve an impossibility of ceasing to be or of requiring a continuated or as it were a new dependance of the divine influence without which it would cease Whereas whatsoever is essentially aeternal is repugnant to any imaginable change and therefore it can onely be asserted of God I could answer secondly that in the operations of Angels or souls considered as to the simple notion of their aeviternity there may be succession or mutation without contradiction which Scotus grants without restriction My reason is because the assertion or negation of any operation is in respect of divers instances or aeviternal measures For example the existance of a soul is its own measure as not being distinct from it the operations have or are each theirs as being indivisible as well as the soul Hence although the soul as to essence and existence is immutable as naturally its measure is and so each operation is whilst it is or its aevum is yet the soul as to operation or under operation may without contradiction admit some change as lying under other aeviternities or measures which accompany the Acts as I have said Whence follows that the soul is not rightly said to be not knowing and knowing in the same or in order to the same instant or aevum but it is not knowing as measured by the soul 's own aevum and it is knowing considered as to the measures of the Acts which as I declared must be distinct from that of the Soul and hence it may have new Acts. Thirdly I answer that rightly putting with Scotus that Aevum or how you will call the measure of Angelical or Animastick Natures is not distinct from the things measured You know in bodies the measures are extrinsecall as being from the motions of the bodies of the Heavens but here is no such extrinsecal Gnomon in respect of spiritual substances We need not therefore seek whether they may have succession of Acts in one instant to avoid contradiction which so much affrights us but we onely are to look upon the nature of the Acts themselves whether there is no implicacy in them to co-exist with one another or to succeed each other Which sure there is none imaginable Neither do you alledge any here It is not hard then to conceive that a Soul hath many Acts since also as I said above an aevum can co-exist to an infinity of instances namely as long as an Angel continues I hope out of all this I may safely conclude that a separated soul may have mutation in its Acts especially as S. Thomas speaks 2.2.9.58 a. 11. Quantum ad ea quae eis divinitus revelantur nihil prohibet intellectus Angelorum esse in potentia My solution therefore is that the Angels or Souls without contradiction are capable of revelations or whatsoever motions from God that is in any supernatural way in order whereunto nothing hinders them to be changeable and this as I said is sufficient for our principal assertion of the souls capacity of change in Purgatory To this may be objected that the soul is a pure act as admitting no composition and therefore the acts are not different from the essence and therefore not mutable It is as easie replyed that it is repugnant to the nature of a creature to be that which Divines call a pure act first as having a potentiality to a not being and having a dependance upon composition or having some actual composition or componibility Also to have been produced out of nothing carries with it a defect of that simplicity which is a pure act as having necessarily a quo and quod And truly in this very thing an Angel which is the noblest of creatures differs from God that it is not its own act and therefore in a potentiality to acts which can not be said of any but God This is as to the general Besides the considerations of a soul render it far inferior as being compounded Metaphysically which is real Besides as cannot be denied it is ordinable to a Physical composition as to be a part of the compositum or whole man which excludes the being a pure act for matter and forme are therefore not simple enough as to this though otherwise simpliciter simplices as Scotus speaks because they are componible betwixt themselves Being advanced thus far you will give me leave to tell you that I do not conceive it to be out of ignorance of the nature of a soul though it is thought so that all Divines grant this sort of mutability which is consonant to holy Scriptures Councels Fathers all Schoolmen and Christian reason but it is rather out of a non advertence of the inconsistency of holy Churches doctrine confirmed by universal practice of relief of souls out of Purgatory before the great day that now the contrary is so much pressed by some as not considering their subjection to Gods powerful mercy A modest man would rather say with St. Augustine treating almost of this matter for it is in his treatise of the Divination of Divels cap. 6. Rem dixi occultissimam audaciore asseveratione quam debui I have been more bold than wise to speak confidently in these remote subjects Let us therefore return to the souls proceeding in Purgatory For as to the other objections which ordinarily are alledged they have more Water than Salt In order indeed to increase of Charity the soul hath in Purgatory some disposition as being already invested with it but by reason first that it is extra viam by reason also of the dregs which cause and
THE RESULT OF A DIALOGVE concerning the MIDLE-STATE of SOULS Wherein is asserted The Ancient Doctrine of their Relief obtainable by Prayers Alms c. before the Day of Judgment By F. D. Professor of Divinity Printed at PARIS Permissu Superiorum For the Right Honorable and Learned Henry Lord Arundel of Warder c. The Mecoenas of all Learning and Vertue May it please your Lordship SOme Aristophanes removing the controversy of the Midle-state of Soules out of the Schools and improvid ently thrusting it in English into the hands of Ladies whose curiosity is not alwayes proportioned to their capacity hath been instrumentall of great Scandall Hence upon intreaty of such who may command I interposed endeavouring to clear the state of the Question as I thought without violence it might import this occasioned a reciprocation of Epistles wherein I would gladly prevent all misunderstandings as also in the Synopsis of our Tenets which I formerly gave in such matters which were esteemed proper for the times The Result I present to your Lordships most judicious view also to your noble Patronage If it conduce to any good I shall be sure of the guerdon I hope for Your Lordships hereditary goodnesse will pardon my boldnesse encouraged by your known Vertue and great love of Truth who ambitiously subscribe what by many titles my duty obligeth me to be My Lord Your Lordship 's most devoted servant in all duty F. D. A Table of the Chapters CHap. 1. Relief in Purgatory is the Doctrine of holy Church 1 Chap. 2. It is not matter of Opinion 11 Chap. 3. Why the Resurrection is inculcated 15 Chap. 4. The senses of Greek and Latine Liturgies and Fathers 24 Cha. 5. Traditions alone cannot prove faith in all Articles 45 Chap. 6. Charity consists with Purgatory The various operations of Charity Wherein consists the chiefe penalty of Purgatory 48 Chap. 7. How a soul according to others can change Of the horror of Doomsday Whether it is to be prayed for 67 Chap. 8. Whether a soul can be changed by God and how in Purgatory The true state of the controversie explicated 89 Chap. 9. The state of the Question further explicated The difference betwixt an instant of time and aeviternity declared The resolution of the Question fully given as to change of souls 99 Chap. 10. Scriptures and Traditions must be obeyed How one can satisfie for another Whether and how other vertues besides charity avail towards Heaven 117 Chap. 11. How corporal afflictions can satisfie for sins Whether a probable Opinion may be followed 127 Chap. 12. The designe of the Treatise 140 The Result of a DIALOGVE concerning the MIDLE-STATE of SOULES CHAP. I. Relief in Purgatory is the Doctrine of holy Church IN our last Epistolary Conference concerning the sense of the General Councel of Florence and of Pope Benedict the eleventh his Bul against those who hold that none went to Heaven till the day of Judgement you much insisted that neither of them defined a Redemption out of Purgatory before the great day The Greeks there called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be confess'd that their principall design was the condemnation of Joh. 22. his error which though he recanted yet to prevent any resuscitation of it it was judged necessary conciliarly to condemn it In discussing or rather explicating the latitude of this they descended to particulars Who and When each sort went to Heaven either at or after their deaths according to their several conditions and therein delivered their sence of this as being in part involved in the former So that it was a Conciliary Declaration of the Churches Doctrine as to this that is of the whole Christian World as all prior or posterior Doctors not violented for it is easie to mis-apply and even elude the Fathers with voluntary glosses out of Chamier and other such like blasted Authors and the universal tradition orally delivered and the constant practice of all Catholiques declare See in S. John Damascen almost all the Greek Fathers even inclusively from great Dyonisius to himselfe and some of the Latines also are recorded in him who all assert this and say that from our Lords Disciples it descended obtained in and through the whole Church of God with great profit to the dead And that you may clearly by one understand the received interpretation of the rest see there the story of great Macarius who had from God this Answer Quo tempore inquit mortuorum causa preces offers tum sane nonnullius solatii sensu afficimur Thus a dead man's skull answered him We must not then expect Dooms-day for an answer of our Prayers Nay S. Damascen saith it is a new absurd doctrine suggested by the Devil Pia omnia opera quae mortem sequuntur nullam omnino defunctis utilitatem afferre truly his ingenuous sense is that to deny any profit by them before the day of Judgment to the dead descends from the Devil I refer you to all the Fathers in him whence you will see how they are violented for the contrary by others It is a most unquestionable rule in this matter as to the affirmative though a posteriori as we speak amongst all probable Doctors who have the honour to have their memories celebrated in the Fasts of the Schools That whatsoever is declared in a Generall Councel which is received or not impunè resisted by Catholique Doctors of the age wherein it is celebrated is by all Christians to he admitted in the same degree in which it is there declared Which Rule comes home to all points by Sectaries now controverted as I have particularized in my System and especially compels us to an acceptance of this present Article according to the same place it obtained in the Councel of Florence and the age wherein it was celebrated The first I have specified as far as this place permits The later is evident by all Writers then and ever since in the Church though Marcus Ephesius an eminent Greek Schismatique if not rather an Heretique who was present in the Councel recalcitrated in vain against it in some particulars but not against this at all which still confirmes us in it Gennadius the Patriarch saith this Councel was ubique promulgatum ab omnibus gentibus receptum only vulgares quidam homines indocti did contradict He adds if any capable of reason resisted it was pravity of mind not learning but foolish presumption and vain glory which moved it Here he glances at Marck and others deceived by him All this faithfully applied irrefragably declares our obligation to accept this truth accordingly And moreover as to us in particular the general resistance made against this new Purgatory by all at the very first dawning of it in our insulary Hemisphere as being a novilty opposite to what all from their infancies had learned convinces the same Nay Mr. Whites Sonus Buccinae will inferre so much and alone suffice according to him to prove matters even
you onely into a Prayer for Doomsday which will be terrible whensoever it cometh as holy Church intimates in the Sequentia Cùm vix justus sit securus and quantus tremor est futurus I am sure S. Hierom had a formidable apprehension of it when he saith He heard perpetually the fearfull sound of the trumpet and you hear how holy Church describes it even in order to the just in respect of whom S. Paul in the 10. of the Hebrews cals it Terribilis quaedam expectatio judicii a terrible expectation of judgment and hence S. Hillarius in Psal 113. Quomodo desiderabile potest esse judicium in quo nobis est indefessus ille ignis obeundus c. How can that day be an object of our Prayers c. The very Saints themselves must passe through that last fire but as silver and gold which can stand against the severe test this being done they must be Judges of us sinners The Apostle saith both Out of which if we weigh the inexplicable severity of that day Desiderare quis audebit who with S. Hilary dare pray for it and yet your main position is that this is only prayed for and that till that great day the Saints though in an indigent condition are not capable to receive any refrigerium or ease as the Fathers speak and expresly prayed for in all the Churches Liturgies Which is indeed a comfortlesse tenet to all Christians and it toucheth too near upon the Church and her doctrine though most Sectaries will applaud it Shall I tell you how near it presseth upon this Article Truly besides what I said in the former Chapters I know not possibly how to render the prayers of holy Church for the dead of any considerable use at all as applied to and for them either in particular or in general as they are condistinct from the faithful living I spoke before that this tenet renders prayers for particular dead persons useless as not at all corresponding with the design of their friends which evidently was and is intended by all in order to obtaining of ease and relief of such souls for which they pray But now by further weighing the necessary consequences of this tenet it seems evidently to conclude all prayers for the dead in effect useless even as offered in general or for all in general as well as for particular persons The reason is first because if we pray only for the general Resurrection as you say this concerns them not any more nay less as being dead than if they were living because they are already sure of a happy resurrection in some degree though yet in a state of punishment as it were already possest of it or at least upon entring into it Secondly the concernment of the general resurrection in order to Heaven is so urgent in respect of the faithfull living and being yet wholly in the clouds in respect of our knowledg or any certainty of it that our Prayers in true charity ought to be far more fervent constant for all the faithful living as being in more necessity than for the dead or at least for them both together if this be all we are to pray for by the Churches definition Whence methinks it concludes that the Article of praying for the dead either for particulars or generals is upon very slight grounds pressed and observed by holy Church in your principles surely they convince that the same prayers which are offred for the dead ought to be offred either for the living and dead together or else principally for the living Whence follows that there is no need at all of this article referring to the dead as I said condistinct from the living if there be no hope of present reliefe or release till the general resurrection I do but give you a hint that you may further reflect upon it This done I proceed to the ground it self of your assertion Indeed the great Masters of the World and of the Schools S. Augustine Alexander Hales S. Bonaventure Scotus in his book de anima and many other eminent persons not esteeming themselves to desert Aristotle teach us the souls have a natural capacity of som change without the body One ground is they conceive the impossibility of change to be derived originally from the negation of matter which Aristotle asserts principium corruptionis which is supposed to accompany all spirituall things but if materiality be consistent with the limited simplicity of our souls as they endeavour to prove in Aristotles principles since they have individuation and some composition in their separated state from the bodies as they conceive to be clear in Metaphisical speculations which if true their consequence is easie for what relates to the nature of the soule Do you examine this it wants not great weight even the force of Demonstration in their judgements Again S. Bonaventure holds Aeviternity to have a sort of divisibility which I shall explicate in due place his reason is because otherwise it will argue souls and Angels to have actually infinite durance being their durance continues in infinitum as all suppose which he esteems a great absurdity to assert of any finite thing as arguing infinite vertue to require infinite durance together which will conclude them to be infinite in essence which is against all our suppositions In the same manner will as easily be concluded that a separate soul hath actually an infinite knowledge of things since the instant of aeviternity which is immutable and altogether continues in infinitum and consequently hath infinite objects present of all which the soul actually and by its connatural power produceth knowledge together which argues infinite vigor St. Bonavent and the rest esteem both these repugnant to a creature though you should say that each is derived from God for still it stands that the soul from its own nature though derived from God is infiniti vigoris which Aristotle justly appropriates to God Examine this and weigh well whether it doth not imply contradiction I assure you that these prest home will sooner be heightned to a demonstration than most of those which are urged for the contrary with loud intonations of demonstrations But if in Mathematicks which are rendred pervious to our sences we cannot reach to demonstrations but upon swallowing many suppositions without proof what can we vain-gloriously boast of in these remote objects It s true that a soul separate cannot produce new habits in it self by acts as now we do by reason it hath all possible disposition already as being determined by nature to it yet it is consistent with its aeviternity that the soul have some new acts at least in order to supernatural objects Thus far S. Thomas Scotus and all agree as Angels in holy Scriptures are recorded to have had in divers occurrences St. Thomas Henricus and others to make this good invent a sort of time which they call tempus discretum though Aristotle never heard of it