of discharging punishments also But they will chuse to put this act of contrition to be made in the term of separation where merit and satisfaction have no longer place and the inevitable necessity of suffering only remains And then I shall demand from whence they have learn'd that blemishes can there be rectifyed where penalties cannot be mitigated Nor is there more strength of reason in this that the merits of the living may avail them but their own not so For could their proper merits be regarded all Purgatory according their own grounds were at an end for the perfect charity and coâ—â—â—â—ition of separated souls being exercised with the whole force of their substance would in one moment set them free Again what Piety what Justice hath enacted this Law that the distressed souls may not pray for their own delivery Can any thing be more absurd They make them such Favorites of God that for us they can obtain many graces whilst for themselves they can procure none I remember to have heard a Divine whom a printed course of all Divinity had already raised above the lowest form prescribing this advice or receipt that whosoever had lost any thing should promise upon condition he receiv'd it to procure so many Masses for departed souls and failing of his hopes should fail also in the performance thereby to compel the souls to obtain of God the recovery of what had miscarried O pitiful and sordid Divinity such a train of absurdities follow the admission even of one unexamin'd Principle To make up the compleat dozen Let us reflect on the abuse of the name it-self and observe that whilst they vainly labour to establish their own they destroy and annihitate all manner of Purgatory For to purge cleanse and the like expressions clearly import a supposition of stain and blemish in whatsoever is said to be purgÌ„ed and cleansed and in like sort to amend and rectifie presupposes faults and imperfections if you then take away their stains these imperfections you take away all Purgatory For certainly to smart and suffer is not to be purged but finally to be condemned or undergo the last sentence of Damnation But the Patrons of this kind of Purgatory lay this for the very foundation of their doctrine That the imprisoned souls are already holy and full of charity and consequently incapable of being purged Much better therefore and more solidly then they did the Poet philosophise in the sixth book of his Aeneids who having after his manner made a description of â— the torments of the damned thus proceeds to that of Purgatory and its causes Nor when pâ—or souls they leave this wretched life Do all their evils cease all plagues all strife Contracted in the Body many a stain Long time inur'd needs must even then remain For which sharp torments are to be endur'd That vice inveter are may at last be cuâ—'â— Some empty souls are to the piercing winds Expos'd whilst others in their several kinds Are plung'd in icy or Sulphureous lakes Each hath its doome cach one its fortune takes From whence â—e to the Elisian fields is lead Where few alas the pleasant alleys tread What could any Phylosopher meditate more sublime and noble That corporeal affections by depraved habits penetrate into and infect the soul that they are not by death extinguish'd but carry'd along to the next world whereby the souls are punished and their punishments become truly Purgatory or expiating that their torments are proportionate and of several degrees which degrees are taken from the division of Elements that is corporeal Agents from whence the disordered affections themselves have their roots The pursuers of Honour and Vanity are tormented by the wind that is their being puff'd up with Pride Those who delighted to wallow in sordid pleasures by the fluidness and momentariness of their fleeting enjoyments Lastly the Potent and ambitious affectors of Tyranny with their own ardent and truly enflamed desires That finally after this state of Purgatory they are made Denizons of Paradise and those speaking of the times he liv'd in but few the multitude whose sins were mortal and irretractable remaining engulf'd in eternal miseries The Sixteenth Accompt The thirteenth Exception That their opinion is opposite to the expressions of Scriptures of Fathers of the Church of the Councel of Florence and Benedict XI ANd I would to God the inconsequence of discourse and defect of right ratiocination were the only inconvenience and that their errour stretch'd not it self to the violation of sacred truths and contradiction of the holy Scriptures Machabeus offers sacrifice that the dead may be absolved from their sins Christ affirms that in the world to come sins are remitted The Apostle assures us that every ones works are to be try'd by fire and some persons to suffer detriment as though he should say that some thing should by fire be taken off from the party as dross from the pure mettal Nor do the expressions of Holy Fathers grounded on the Scripture any wayes disagree For whether they speak of Baptisme by fire of purging flames of fire correcting and amending of passing through the flames of the last Judgment which shall burn the sinner spare the Saint of a suspension in the day of Judgment and a kind of uncertainty of the Judge's sentence or whatsoever other expressions heretofore mentioned they make use of from whence any thing can be gathered towards the explication of Purgatory nothing can be drawn to establish pure pains but the whole discourse runs constantly of sins and of the purgations of sins and depraved affections so that nothing can be more clear then that these later Divines change the style of the whole Church a manifest token of their Novelty Let it therefore be acknowledg'd that this vulgar conceit as it is opposite to the sense of the Church really and effectually abolishing Purgatory and in lieu thereof presenting us a slaughter-house of barbarous executions destroying the tender mercy of God whose aim is alwayes the utmost good of every creature and instead thereof offering us a barren apprehension of Pure Justice and unbenefical pains so is it also dissonant and in a manner perfectly repugnant to the phrase both of the holy Scripture and of the Fathers explicating either it or the sense and belief of the Church Which if they are the marks of the ancient faith and perswasion then is this other new And if proposed to the Greeks under the notion of a Tradition and not only of an opinion they certainly had ground to object against the Latines that they endeavoured to superseminate tares and bring into the Church new Tenents and such as were recommended by no ancient Tradition The last but not the least of our exceptions against this vulgar opinion shall be their putting another impediment to the Beatifical Vision of souls freed from the body besides the want of charity For since the Church neither knows nor holds forth any
the sight of God That which puts God to inflict punishment not to better the creature but to revenge himself That which violates all Philosophy by confounding the natures of Spirit and Body That which makes the evil of pain spring not from the sinful defects of creatures but from the all-good-Will of God That which is impossible to be maintain'd but by legitimating extrinsecal imputation which is fundamentally opposite to Catholicism That which by making Purgatory not purge at all destroyes it's very notion and nature and makes even it's name breath contradiction Hath I say that Doctrine which is the ground of these and innumerable other absurdities no appearance of falshood And lastly as for their uncertainty is there so much as one Demonstration pretended on their behalf by their Patrons Or are they or any part of them of the substance of the Church's Doctrine If unawares they affirm it let them or at least the whole world besides take notice how a passionate affection to make good their credit and the reputation of their Authors transports them to destroy and violate at once the whole rule of Christian Faith and so become more fatal to the cause they own then all the enemies it ever had or can have that Rule of Faith I say which admits nothing as such into it's sacred liâ—t but what universal tradition assures us to have been unanimously deliver'd by our respective immediate fore-fathers as deliver'd by the Apostles as reveal'd by Christ But God be thanked they do not they cannot they dare not They confess at last that nothing of all this is of Faith that is that all is but probable that is possible to be otherwise that is uncertain that is expresly prohibited by the Church whose commands if Duty prompt them not to obey I know no sweeter force then that of Reason to compel them I come now to the second point the advantage of those who are heterodox and their farther abalienation from the Catholick Communion the reduction of whom I conceive to have been the Author's I am sure is my principal intention Can any one lay a greater slumbling-block in their way then is the confounding of Faith with Opinion certainty with uncertainty Can on the contrary any thing more invite a rational and well-meaning Protestant then throughly to observe how the great latitude in opinion amongst Catholicks establishes and confirms the unity of their Faith How impossible it is that any new Tenet should creep out of one Catalogue into the other whilst every minute question is ventilated with so much contention and scrutinie whilst the Almighty Providence makes use of the animosities of Thomist and Scotist Jansenist and Jesuit to demonstrate that what such dissenting Brethren perfectly agree in must have a higher principle then human invention let all those whom education or perhaps the indiscreet zeal of school men hath hitherto abused understand in Gods name that the Church as a Church has no partiality no adhesion to no obstinacy for any opinion whatsoever She is the Guardian of saith she permits none to add to or detract from the Divine truths committed to heâ— custody but admits all into her tuition who acknowledg them Let them look to it who see other bounds for my part I shall ever value that excellent Analysis of our learned Patriot Dr. Holden now as I hear happily rendered into his native language wherein that it may flourish more vigorously he hath lopp'd off and segregated all circumstantial excrescencies from the stock of Faith beyond all the nice productions of the Schools Thus much I have thought good to say in my own vindication One word more in behalf of the book it self and I have done It hath been wondered at by some and look'd on as an argument of it's falling short of the evidence it promiseth that in five years time it hath gained no greater applause or rather that in the way of Demonstration it hath not been able in that time to silence all opposition I shall say nothing of the progress it hath made but only desire thee Reader to reflect that the satisfaction of those who love science is ever silent and within themselves the opposition of those that seek it noâ— for the most part clamorous and disquieting others as well as themselves May it be thy fortune to farewell and hold thy peace To the most Reverend F. in Christ RICHARD Ld. Bishop of Calcedon MY LORD I Was much perplext when it was told me that some censure was past upon my poor Works by your Lp whose Ecclesiastical Government for so many years of the Catholick part of England hath deservedly so much influence upon our faith whose most innocent life exercised with continual fears at home and combats abroad hath begot in us a Veneration of your Dictates but above all whose many and excellent writings in defence of Catholick Tradition and neer fourscore years exhausted in perpetual study render your Judgment to us new-men of this Age as it were an oracle of Antiquity I was therefore about to apologize and beg pardon for my too much precipitation But your Lord-ships assurance by letter dated Jul. 6. 1652. that you had pass'd no censure at all and in effect the non-appearance of any such thing satisfy'd me of the unnecessariness of that pains It was a fiction contrived by the envy of some narrow Hearts and propagated by the unwary credulity of such as took all for Gospel which they said You declar'd that you had no other thoughts then so to dissent from my opinion as Divines without the least breach of Charity are laudably wont to do But yet even thus the weight of so great an Authority overburthen'd me and forc'd me to seek some support for my innocence And I would to God you had been pleas'd to remark in your Letter whatsoever you dislik'd of mine I would have spar'd no pains to give your Lord-ship satisfaction in every particular now I have singled out one point but that which being in every one's discourse I thought I could least be deceived in Be you Judg my Lord whether without the suffrages of the ancient Fathers or against the sence of the sacred Scriptures or unassisted by the Maximes of true Theology I have undertaken what may seem exotick to this Age we live in If I clear my self that I have opposed none of these as I am not ambitious of Victory so I despaire not of Pardon However it may succeed you have an ACCOMPT by detail as less subject to deceipt of my Stewardship Please you cast it up and if you find it Just give your Blessing to him who prostrates himself at your knees in quality of MY LORD Your Lordships most humble and most obedient servant THO. WHITE THE TABLE OF ACCOMPTS ACCOMPT I The introduction and state of the Question Pag. 1 II. Two proofs front the sacred Scripture favouring the truth we advance Pag. 7 III. Three other Texts and by occasion of the
THE MIDDLE STATE OF SOULS From the hour of DEATH to the Day of JUDGMENT BY THOMAS WHITE of Essex Gent. Impetremus si possumus à Fratribus nostris ne nos insuper appellent Haereticos quod eos talia disputantes nos appellare possimus forsitan si vellemus nec tamen appellamus S. Aug. MDCLIX To the RIGHT HONORABLE the LADY MARY TUCHET c MADAM AS all Translations are without farther address consecrated to your sex so all that I do in this or any other kind naturally and of it's own accord is dedicated to your Lap. especially this Piece which makes as it were it's proper appeal to the integrity of your un-biassed soul singling you forth as the most competent Patrone not only of your sex but Nation You have often Madam whilst his forrain language rendred him unfit for your conversation heard much discourse about this Treatise and it's Author for what English man is there concerned never so little in the behalf of science whose heart and mouth is not filled either with Admiration or Censure of this great Country-man of ours whom if none hitherto hath presumed to vindicate to your Lap. he is therein nothing the less happy being now to speak for himself a task scarce manageable by any but himself Madam If I may have the honour to be his Introduce into your noble acquaintance I shall boldly passe my word that you will find the subject of his discourse truly grave and important and such as may enrich the mind not with trifling and unprofitable curiosities but admirable and practical Truths The middle state of Souls cannot rightly be apprehended without a just measure of the other extreams nor can we duly reflect on them without a knowledg of our present order to them and the inevitable influence which every thought action and affection here hath to our state hereafter But Madam to enlarge herein were not to advance but retard your progress in which if your Lap. meet with some one passage less promptly obeying your first summons I am confident there is none impervious to your resolute attaque be not discouraged God and your eminent vertues have furnished you with a noble and expert guide whom according to S. Pauls advice you may at home apply to where you are at a loss seeking no further then your own Husband To conclude Madam this small Treatise having served me for an excellent Country-pastime I could not but take the boldness to recommend it to you both at your entrance into the same state of Vacancy assureing my self that when you have maturely perused it you will avow with me that they have little reason who tax the Author with requiring his readers assent purely and barely upon the accompt of his own credit for in my poor judgment never any assertions were better fortifyed at least I heartily wish it were in my power as solidly to demonstrate the truth of my being MADAM Your Laps most humble servant and most affectionate Brother T W. THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER READER I Shall entreat thee to believe that had I the ambition or vanity to entertain thee with something of my own I should not have taken this occasion when I am to present thee with an employment so much more advantagious to thy self so disadvantagious to me The Painter that hath some petty design of his own to put off suffers it not to appear with a master piece of Raphael or Titian Nothing but necessity could have extorted these few lines at least in this place which two dedicatory addresses already take up and overburthen a necessity I say of giving the world some account of this my enterprize It is now about five years since this small Treatise first came forth in the Latine tongue I was a witness of the manisold contradictions it then encountred and consequently ought in reason to foresee that it must now expect farre greater If it were then a crime to treat somewhat severely though as it were behind the curtain and in sight of few only that is the learned a certain luxuriant Devotion what temerity may it not be thought to unveil now and expose it's nakedness to the weak and soon scandalized eyes of the vulgar They from whom I expect this reprehension are persons many of them so generally friends to vertue so particularly to my self that I am bound not only to receive it with modesty but thanks and in requital commending their zeal to endeavour to lend some light to it's Warâ—â—â— I beseech therefore both them and thee gentle Reader in the first place to observe how through the opposite means they of suppressing I of publishing this little Volume we all pursue the same end that is labour to wipe off a scandal from our common Mother the Cath. Church led thereto by the same motives the welfare first of those within secondly of those without Her As to the first they contend that it savors of pride not to submit our private reasons upon pretence of never so much demonstrative evidence to the opinion of the Church of Disobedience to vary from Her common Practise consequently that it must needs inure Catholicks to the neglect of their long gloried-incaptivation of their understandings and this by degrees from matters of opinion to matters of Faith As to the second they urge that all discovery of divisions in the Catholick Church more and more occasions and legitimates the common reproach of her adversaries to wit that no greater union is to be found amongst Her children then amongst those whom she styles Hereticks consequently well may they be disheartned from expecting any secure repose in her bosome Both these charges I shall briefly and I hope clearly satisfie First as to the disedification of Catholicks from ill example of pride and disobedience I answer that an humble and obedient duty to the Church could not decline this present task Obedience consists in execution of her known commands her commands in this matter are pronounced Con. Trid. Sess. 25. That the sound Doctrine of Purgatory DELIVER'D BY HOLY FATHERS AND SACRED COUNCELS be believed held taught and Preach'd but that UNCERTAIN points and such as have APPEARANCE OF FALSHOOD be not permitted to be divulged or treated I ask are the material place of or flames in Purgatory with all the pious revelations relating thereto the application of Indulgences to the souls there detain'd the magazine of Christ's merits and his Saints for that purpose erected the spontaneous delivery from time to time of souls before the day of Judgment or any part of them delivered by Holy Fathers and sacred Councils Whereas neither any Councel mentions such points nor any Father speaking as a Father that is testifying the present Doctrine of the Church of his time avowes them Again has that Doctrine which takes away all the extrinsecal authority of the Fathers interpreting places of Scripture which relate to Purgatory That which debars souls granted to be perfect in charity from
as little need we be sollicitous Let prayers let good works from henceforth cease Why so Because all things are accomplished by vertue of their being so decreed This they confess but they will not have us pray for those things which we are certain will come to pass We are still where we were For how ignorant soever we are whether what we ask be predestinated or no yet are we satisfi'd that unless it be predestinated we shall not obtain it We know then that only which is predestinated shall come to pass and consequently it alone is worth our asking So that the Apostle doth not vainly exhort us to endeavour by good works to render our Vocation and election certain that is to take care to put it in execution The errour then of the Argument or Arguer consisted herein that he so look'd upon the effect as predestinated that he saw not its causeâ— or the means by which it should come to pass were also predestinated So that pure Inadvertency begat this objection And from hence we may have an easie step to the other part of the Argument For when they urge that nothing ensues upon the account of their prayers for the Dead we reply all depends upon them For if their delivery from their pains whensoever it happens be a requital of their supplications and that delivery be nothing else then the communication of glory and celestial joyes all this is in the day of Judgment granted to their Prayers What then shall they have any thing more then what their pious conversation in this life promerited Not at all Behold the Riddle A great Lord saith to his servant behave thy self faithfully in my house seven years and at the marriage of my son I will make thee steward of his family The servant dischargeth his duty is he therefore Comptroler of his young Lord's house No unless his Master be first married He then that shall procure a Match for the young Gallant shall do a good office for the old servant and deserve great thanks at his hands So he that is chastised in Purgatory did in his life deserve to receive a reward at the coming of Christ but that Christ should come he did not deserve For that as it is an universal good so is it due to the merits and supplications of all and not of any one Particular For this reason it was answered to the souls of the slain resting under the Altar and crying out to have that day hasten'd that it depended upon the rest who had not yet suffered but were to compleat the number Whosoever then desires and loves the coming of our Lord either for his own sake or any others as every one does who prayes for the retribution of the dead accelerates that day And thus you see that the time which was said to be predestinated will notwithstanding never arrive till the number of the elect be perfected From whence it follows that whatsoever is predestinated so obtains the stability of it 's immutable arrest the liberty and contingency of second causes by which it is brought about not impeding that if any one of them should fail that very thing which we term predestinated could not come to pass And applying this assertion to our present purpose if Prayer should not be made for the Dead they would never be deliver'd notwithstanding the irresistible force of predestination through the imbecillity of causes by which their delivery is promoted He that prayes then supplies what was wanting to the sufferings of the departed without which supplement they could not be saved They reply this supposed it is all one to this particular friend departed whether fewer or more prayers are said for him since the last day will break assoon to one as to another It is answered they cannot deny but at least he who is the occasion that more prayers are offered to that intent hath as it were a greater right to that day then he for whom fewer are offered Whence to him it will arrive more grateful and honourable then to the other who less contributed to its advance But besides these pious offices and affections of others towards him being known by the person departed whom they concern beget a disposition in his soul by which when time shall serve his love to God and consequently his Beatitude shall be encreased Moreover by way of impetration they become occasions to the Divine Providence of so disposing many things which otherwise would be differently ordered that in the day of Harvest they may inlarge his either essential or accidental happiness If any thing of this happens through the good deeds of the person himself departed it is to be accounted amongst his merits or the rewards due to his merits but if such prayers spring not from any root which he himself did whilst living plant but purely from the charity of some propitious persons they are an effect of God's Providence whose mercies are numberless One objection only remains unanswer'd That this is not the thing which those who pray and are solicitous for their dead do look for But neither ought we regard what they expect but what they ought to expect The Apostle only admonishes us not to be afflicted as those who have no hopes but to retain and cherish an expectation of re-enjoying their society and that in the resurrection Yet if the metaphorical explications of fire and other pains be found more proper to excite affections then the truth metaphisically deliver'd use them if you please so you keep your self within the bounds which the Councels and Fathers have set viz. that souls are punished and by prayers relieved but for the time when this takes effect leave it as they do undetermin'd Are you still unsatisfi'd and urge an immediate releasment I am contented let it be the very next moment after your prayer For whatsoever time intervenes betwixt it and the restauration of the world is to them but as one moment If you still repine and fret I may with juster indignation protest you are not only ignorant but envious of their sublime state and condition which exalts them above the reach of time In fine if I be thought the occasion of restraining the profuse abundance of Alms in this particular I shall withall have the satisfaction to have check'd the daily increasing swarms of unworthy Priests who qualified neither with knowledg nor good manners live like droans upon this stock to the disgrace and contempt of their function to the abuse of souls and the common scandal both of those who live in and out of the Church Catholick Faith shall from henceforth be no longer the subject of the derision of externs whilst her children vainly labour to defend against Hereticks those things which have neither ground nor proof but are introduced from the customary expressions of Law-Courts and exchanges not from the Language of Nature or Christian Tenets But of this enough The three and
twentieth Accompt That the practise of the Church as far as it's words make known it's sense favours the ancient opinion FOr the last attempt they reserve the Practise of the Church which can neither deceive nor be deceived And this they drive on with great fury and clamour partly from the prayers which are said for the Dead partly from the concession and acceptation of Indulgences wherein their valour gains so much applause that it is worth our pains to give it a check Our first encounter shall be to demand of them when they talk of the Ecclesiastical Practise which do they mean an universal or a particular one Again if an universal one whether they intend only a present Universality or an universality including also the ancient practise If they admit an universality of place as they needs must if they will conclude any thing for otherwise by their own confession it will amount but to a probable that is fallible argument let them demonstrate to me that the practise they contend for either anciently was or at present is in the Grecian Church Sure I am neither in the Florentine Councel nor in the Union of the Armenians nor in the Profession of Faith prescribed by Urban VIII to the Oriental Churches any thing is expressed from whence this Doctrine may be deduc'd In like manner as to point of time it is evident that before S. S. Gregory and Bede there was no such notorious Practise even in the Roman Church and consequently that it became not general till after Odilo about six hundred years agoe But such a Practise no way deserves the title of Universal according to Time The question then is devolved to the Western Church for the four or five last ages for the universality cannot be stretch'd higher since the practise appears to have taken it's rise from the Devotions of the Clugniac Monks and the effect of those Devotions that is Revelations springing from them whereas before it was rare if not unknown Our next quaere is what they mean by practise For my part to avoid ambiguity I divide it into that of actions and of expressions both which if they apparently favour what we have delivered then is our adversaries last effort as in-effectual as the former The Churche's expressions are visible in her Missalls Rituals and Breviaries by which if I stand condemned I willingly yeild the cause To begin with the sequence of Dies irae Dies illa is it not throughout of the day of Judgment and the deliverance which is then to be made What else hath the Offertory Lord Jesus Christ King of glory free the souls of the faithful departed from the pains of Hell and the profound Lâ—ke free them from the Lions jawes that Hâ—ll may not devour them nor they fall into darkness but let the holy Ensign-bearer Michael conduct them into that happy light which thou hast heretofore promised to Abraham and his seed Thus far in general for all the Dead then in particular We offer up to thee O Lord sacrifices and thanksgiving prayers receive them for those souls which we this day commemorate grant them O Lord to pass from Death to Life These are the Church's prayers which to a Catholick what can they signifie but the examination and sentence of the last Judgment After the person is dead and that prayers begin to be said for him where is he in danger to perish but in the last Day If then the Church prayes not for what is past which seems to be unprofitable it prayes not for any other delivery of the Dead then what is to be in that final Judgment I easily foresee it may be objected that the Dead have in reality no incertitude or hazard even in that Day wherefore these Prayers must on both sides be acknowledged to have their improprieties My answer is twofold First in our way we coyn not a new Metaphor but prosecute that which Christ and Holy Scriptures have furnished us with For if they have styled it a Judgment not in order to an investigation or disquisition of things doubtful for what can be obscure when God himself is judg but meerly to signifiy the effect of the said Judgment that is the respective destribution of rewards and punishments to good and bad which then is made is it not evident that the Ecclesiastical manner of speech that it may be conformable to the sacred and Traditionary expressions must speak as it were of a dubious sentence whilst there is yet an affection to or expectation of punishment or reward These speeches then signifie just the same as if the Church should plainly say suffer them not to be cast into Hell but grant them eternal happiness And so is that particle also to be understood of passing from Death of life Though there be also another way in which the souls in Purgatory when they become partakers of the Beatifical Vision may not improperly be said to pass from Death to Life For those souls having according to what hath been explicated an impediment in themselves debarring them from true life which is perfect Beatitude clearly if death be opposite to life they are truely said to pass from death to life when they are freed from their sins and that impediment I am not ignorant that Divines taking it from the Lawyers suppose in these souls a certain Right to Beatitude by which they are rendred partakers of life But these expressions abuse us when besides an allegory we expect propriety in them Nor indeed doth right to a thing make a man owner of it but right in the thing and in reality those holy souls have not right to life but seeds of it to wit the faith of Christ which works by charity and which assuredly will through the last judgment fructifie to life eternal As then sâ—ea is not yet reckon'd among things living but dead so these souls also But we must observe the word dead hath a double sense being propounded abstractedly and privatively The damned are privatively dead because all possibility or root of eternal life is extinguished in them but those in Purgatory are only dead because they have not yet obtained life My second answer is that speeches of this kind are altogether inexplicable according to the contrary opinion which is a certain note that they mistake the Churches sense For proof hereof it were enough to charge them with it and put them to the trial But I can produce the express confession of an Author voluminous enough to appear great amongst them who paraphrasing upon the above cited words excuses their form Because saith he those who pray often use expressions which they are altogether ignerant what they signifie or whither they tend But surely the Rituals sufficiently declare whither these speeches tended Make him worthy by the assistance of thy Grace to escape the Judgment of revenge who living was signed with the seal of the Trinity Again Let us pray for
or permission of Prelates conclude any thing more For what reason have they to inhibit those who of their own accord perform good duties nothing can from hence be drawn for the remission of pains in Purgatory For what have the Prelates to meddle with things indifferent and unknown in which it is no crime to be ignorant or act mistakingly whilst the opinion stands probable that Purgatory-pains are discharged by Indulgences it is and will be lawful to use them What need the Prelates be troubled let it be first demonstrated that these pains are not releasable then take your liberty to accuse their backwardness whilst it is a thing indifferent commend their â—â—citurnity It is delivered to us Tradition assures us that we are to pray for the Dead and that our prayers are beneficial to them That their works are to be examined by fire in the day of Judgment and accordingly remunerated in the mean while that the condition of some is better then that of others But for the particular reasons of all these and how they are effected conformably to Nature and the progress of divine operation is a business of Theological disquisition That which shall be clearly demonstrated to consist with the Principles delivered will finally get the Victory Till then that is till the demonstration be not only found out but acknowledged it is and will be lawful for the Prelates of the Church to follow either opinion and accordingly to proceed to action The Eight and twentieth Accompt That the Vulgarity of the opposite Opinion ought not to prejudice the true one THey yet though gasping struggle and contend that the opinion which we have called Vulgar is and hath been the opinion of the whole Church at least ever since the Schools reigned and lest we deny our assent they argue thus The opinion of the people is the opinion of their pastors the opinion of the Pastors is the same with the Schoolmen for they either are or depend on the School-men The opinion therefore of the Schoolmen is the Church's opinion Either therefore the Church hath erred these 500 years or the vulgar opinion is plainly it's belief In this difficulty we are to enquire what opinion what Church signifies I observe that there are several degrees of assent in man The first may not improperly be called suspicion when there are some symptâ—mes which if you narrowly scan you easily perceive them to incline doubtfully to either part of the contradiction though at first they inclined you only to one These render a man suspicious that is more intent and propending to one side as it were expecting thence more light and satisfaction The second degree is when the verisimilitude or probabilities are very great and which perswade a man through their difficulties or multitudes that it is not worth his farther inquisition but according to the proportion of consideration which every thing challenges more or less in this life he hath bestowed pains enough in the question He therefore so satisfies his mind in that point that he rejects not him that shall oppose it but if he bring any thing new and unheard of is ready to give ear to him and if his proofs merit it assent also The third and last degree of assent is his who will not endure any opponent but is certain that nothing can solidly be alledged to the contrary Now I ask of my adversary whether the first degree be of that quality that if the Church be supposed upon any occasion to suspect one part of the contradiction to be true this suspicion must prejudicate the opposite I cannot think any one who is so much as fit to pretend to Divinity can be so foolish as to deny that hitherto it is lawful to opine the contrary For as yet there is properly no assent and the Church by the very position of the case resolves on a Meliùs inquirendum Nay he that should forbid an opposition would bind the Church to a most evident danger of erring and that even in her own Judgment by which she is carryed to a further enquiry This being setled we may observe the second degree is so compared to the first that as the first exacts so the second admits of an inquisition The same inconveniencies therefore recur again though their danger be less manifest and more remote It is then an injury also offered to the Church to prohibit investigation in this second degree or to alledg the said opination of the Church to the prejudice of the opposite Doctrine since by her very opining she confesses a readiness to thank those who shall take the pains to clear the truth For she ought not to be thought opiniastre but a Lover of truth whereever it be found The third degree cannot otherwise be attained to but by infallible authority or evident Demonstration for a professor of reason cannot resist the force of either of these If then our adversary shall be pleased the declare which of these degres he honours with the Churches opinion it will hence soon appear what answer he ought to receive As for the name of the Church that is of the Church supposing or opining any thing I thus distinguish that the Church may either be said to opine because she hath established something by a publick and solemn decree or by private suffrages If by private suffrage then she did it either as a Church or as so many men As when all her members acknowledg Columbus for the discoverer of the West-Indies they do it not as parts of the Church or as faithful for Turks and Idolaters do the same but meerly as so many persons Let the arguer amongst these three significations of the Church thinking or opining choose which he conceives most to his advantage If the first let him produce the decree which if he could do we should not hear so much of the Church's opinion If the third he exposes himself to derision for how doth it concern faith what the Church's sentiments are in matters of History or Philosophy The second as it were only useful to his intent so is it absolutely false the Church being a congregation of faithful that is of believers that is of such as have accepted the Doctrine of Christ and to this day conserved it But clearly this opinion began about Gregory the Great 's time was unknown and unthought of in the dayes of S. Augustine of little credit before the Schools not yet proposed to or if it were rejected by the Oriental Church So that by what other means soever it may have speciously insinuated it self into the men composing the Church it can challenge no sway over them as they are a Church that is as believers that is as grounded upon a perpetual Tradition Hence we see how vainly they laboured in forming the proposed argument For be it granted the peoples opinion is the same with their pastors and the pastors the
same that the Schoolmens and consequently the opinion of the men of the Church the same that the School-mens it followes not that it is in the Church otherwise then in the School men So that if it be but opinion in the School-men and such as may be changed it 's being dispers'd through the Church will not add to its certainty but by consent of the whole Church it will be alwayes subject to change and if sufficient reason be brought justly to be changed It is then so far from following that an opinion by being the opinion of the whole Church cannot be changed that on the contrary very unexpectedly it appears to be mutable and that in fit circumstances it ought to be changed It is easie to gather from hence what answer is to be afforded them who go about to accuse the Church of circumventing us affirming they were taught as a point of faith thaâ— souls might be delivered out of Purgatory before the day of Doom both by other prayers and especially by those which have Indulgences annexed to them Of whom I demand were they taught that this was the perswasion of all the Pastors of the Church If they affirm it I cannot deny but they themselves were circumvented But let them not accuse me from whom they have received no such Doctrine I who have detected the Legierdemain if any such there be why must I suffer what they deserve who put the slâ—r upon them Let them complain of their own Doctors let them call upon them to prove what they have taught which if they cannot do let them find them guilty and accordingly punish them but withall give me thanks for the discovery of the cheat But if in truth they have been taught no otherwise then that it is a pious credulity that souls are before the day of Judgment delivered which if they take the pains well to examine them they shall find to be the meaning of their Doctors who hath circumvented them but their own selves through sloth and negligence consequently let them lay the guilt at their own doors What I have in this whole disputation performed let them in Gods name judg whom he hath been pleas'd to make fit Arbitrators in Theological Controversies What I have aimed at was this That antiquity did believe that men in the next world whether their souls are beatifi'd or no were not admitted locally to Heaven till the day of the final conflagration That then every ones works were to be examined that the workâ— of the imperfect whose foundation was on Christ were to burn and by that means their sins not without detriment to be remitted That the opinion which holds pure pains and those in the interval betwixt Death and Judgment either of their own nature or by prayers determinable is new in the Church built upon slight grounds such as are uncapable in things Theological to beget faith obnoxious to many and weighty objections and finally by it 's Patrons weakly defended These endeavours I have crowded into this small Volume for the benefit and conveniencies of such as take delight in Dissertations of this nature FINIS ERRATA Page 12. l. penult r. inviolable p. 28. l. penult r. privationâ—… p. 30 l. 9 r. Judgments and for it r. is ibid l. 11. r. saying 〈…〉 32. l. 26 r. soul p. 36. l. 5 r. advantages p. 38. l. 5. r. denunciatiâ—… p. 39. l. 3. r. regions p. 40. l. 11. r. eternal puni p. 41. l. 16. for 〈◊〉 r. that p. 43. l. 10. for are r. have p. 46. l. 1. r. lections p. 〈…〉 l. 2. r whole ibid l. 15. for the r. is ib. l. 23. r. correct p. 54. 〈…〉 20. r. us p. 75. l. 17. r. decision p. 83. l. 6. r. they ib. 7. r. imploy 20. r. others 23. r. connected 27. r. secures p. 87. l. 12. r. fetcht p. 103. l. 7. r. adapt p. 106. l. 18. r. sensible p. 121. l. 3. r. peoplâ—â— p. 122. l. 8. r. purging ib. 12. r. their p. 123. l. 6. r. on p. 126. l. 1â— r. ordered p. 128. l. 5. for of r. and p. 130. l. 23. r. adapt p. 1â—â— l 9. r. model of p. 137. l. 10. r. subintromission p. 153. l. 19. â— concresion p. 156. l. 16. r. informant p. 157. l. 16. r. stock p. 1â—1 l. ult. r. whole delay 166. l. 2. apparitions 168. l. 21. r. witnessâ—â— p. 171. l. 19. r. supposed p. 172. l. 2. r. detect â—b 16. r. perfectly p. 174. l. ult r. many 175. l. 26. r. sprightly p. 178. i. 16. r. sight p. 179. l. ult. r. foster p. 182. l. 26. r. were p. 184. l. 26. r. decrees p. 186. l. 18. r. Directories ib. 25. exibilated p. 187. l. 5. r. have p. 188. i' th title r. came ib. l. 9. r. least of p. 189. l. 19. r. are urged innumerable p. 190 l. 14. r. Cells p. 123. l. ult. r. distracted p. 212. l. 3. r. distribution p. 238. l. 9. r. commutative The Adversaries explication of Purgatory The Authors Explication of the same The first Text from 2 Mach. The Second Text 1 Cor. 15. examined The Third Text 1 Cor. 5. The Fourth Text Heb. 10. The Fift Text 2 Tim. 1. Ton 2. lib. 3. lect. 4. par 11. lect. 5. par 8. lect. 3. p. 15. 16 17. Proof of prayer for the blessed from ancient Liturgies And Fathers The importance of clearing Antiquity in this point How S Bernard came to be deceived therein Two effects of the Day of Judgment What the Fathers mean when they affirmed souls to be kept in certain receptacles till the last Day A particular vindication of most of them Why the rewards of the day of Judgment are so much inculcated First Reason Second Reason Third and chief Reason The Resurrection is the basis of all Faith S. Pau's prayer for Onesiphorus explicated The Sixt Text Mat. 5. The Seventh Text Luke 12. The Eighth Text 1 Cor. 3. Which must be understood of Venial sins and of the day of Judgment Though S. Augustine sometimes otherwise extounds The ninth Text Mat. 12. * By M. Whelock 1644. Nothing can be a part of our Beliefe but what is banded down to us by uninterrupted tradition from the Apostles Proofs thâ—â— the Adversaries opinion came not to us in that manner lib. 4. c. 22. The Adversaries suppose all venial sins to be remitted in the instant of dissolution by an act of Contrition The Authors explication So taat tâ—â— punishâ—… which remain 〈…〉 be infliâ—… purely 〈…〉 of revenge for past offences Of Publick Revenge Of Retaliation An ebjection answered Of priuâ—â—â— revenge The wisdom of Oâ—d cannot permit him to inâ—â—iâ— such pains as neither aâ—â—il the sufferer or any other Another objection from Gods attributâ— of justice answered All punishments which have no respect to some good are effects of cruelty noâ— justice A third objection from the injury done to God by robbing him of his honour Answer * Tom. 1.
lib. 1. lect. 5 The diminution of Gods honour what it signifies The true ground of well doing Of Pain and Punishment and Torment No extrinsecal Agent can annoy us but by our body Every act of will must needs be voluntary Corporeal Action that is Rarefaction and Condensation cannot reach indivisible subjects No not Instrumentally How man is notwithstanding subject thereto That fire is taken Motaphorically as well as Darkness gnashing of teeth worm of Conscience c. * Peripat Institutions Book 5. Lessons 3. 4. That souls in Purgatory would endure all their Torments with extreme pleasure There can be no proportion betwixt sin and fire Nor betwixt time and a spiritual Act Length of time augments corporeal grief or pleasure but hath no affect on pure spirits No act of a separated soul can bechanged without a new Conjunction with the body unless miraculousâ—ly * Peripat Inst. Book 5. l. 1. par 2. 3. Every Act of a separated soul is made upon full view of all circumstances and consequently inalterable * Peripat Just book 5. Lesson 2. 3 4. God governs his World not as a Prince but as a perfect Architect An Objection from Examples in Scripture of punishments which have no connexion with the fact Answer * Tom. 2. lib. 2. lect. â— par 2 3 4 5 6. The punishment of soul cannot outlâ—st their guilt Objection from the dissimilitude betwixt a sinner and God Answer Examples out of Scriptures of sins punished after remission sâ—ereof How sins are said to be remitted Simply and respectively What sin propeâ—iy consists in It's divisioâ— into internal and external Internal mortal sin when properly remitted Interâ—â—â— venial 〈…〉 when remitted Of the remission of external sin How children are punished for their parents sins Sometimes suddenly oâ— miraculously Sometimes to the 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 of their race or â—â—tion But most common 〈◊〉 to the 3d. and 4th generation * Tom. 1. lib. 1. lect 4. * Tom. 2. lib. 3. lect. 10 p. 1. 2. c. What the punishment of sin is No grief can cease without the admission of some pleasure A perfâ—ct act of contrition discharges punishment as well as guilt The souls iâ— Purgatory may as well merit for themselves as for others There can be no Purgation where there is no coinquiâ—â—ion Scripture and Fathers still inculcate a Purgation which the adversaries render impossible by cancelling all sin at the instance of separation The Greek Church had good reason to reject their explication of Purgatory Nothing but waâ—â— of Charity can debar separated soul from the Beatifical Vision A position acknowledged by all true Divines And â—â—â—â—â—ted by the Florenâ—iâ—â— Councel and Benedict 11th Spirits know not by discourse but by simple apprehension or intuition in which there can be no errour The thoughts and affections of the soul in this life point out it's future unchangeable state no less perfectly then the disposition of the Embrio in the womb determines the feature and complexion off the future man Why the soul cannâ—â— be dispossessed of her depraved affections as well as from her erroâ—eous Judgments in the stâ—â—eâ— of separaâ—â—on The Adversaries several mistakes in explicating the nature of the soul When the Scriptures speak of fire they arâ— either to be understood metaphorically or of the fire of conflagration A passage of S. Aug. cleared Eucheriâ—â— Lugd. explicated Gregory the Great and Veâ— â—edes Authority pondered who advance nothing herein as Doctors but meâ—rly as Historians The difference betwixt the Visions pretended by the Adversâ—ries and Prophetical ones That the former are not attested by any miracles That no Rules are givâ—… Divâ—â—â—s bâ—w 〈…〉 examine them The quality of the Persons that see theâ—… That the Danger of errour is greater at first then afterwards Of the force of Pantasy The impressions whereof are often more lively then any which are caused by our senses The reason thereof from the â—â—iding in of some one object whilst all the rest are by sleep shut one of doors Which may happen also at other times What is required in Visions to give them some credit Of Historical câ—râ—â—iâ—ty and it's degrees First Secondl Thirdl Fourth and last degree Of all which these pretended Visions fall short As appears by these related by â— Gregory And V. Bede And strange discourses of Apparitions received waking or sleeping How farre they may be natural Even to the sudden possessing of a science before unknown How passionate persons come to apprehend the condition of their absent friends Whose transport hath been the rise of most of our stories concerning the souls in Purgatory The Adversaries Objection of the usefulness of our prayers if this be true And chiefly from the predetermination of the Day of Judgment independently of our prayers Which is first answered By shewing that the means are predestinated as well as the end In what manner and sense our Prayers benefit the dead in general And in particular That it imports not what particular fancy they may have who pray for the dead as to the relief given thereby Not whether this Doctrine become a means of lessening the number of unworthy Priests The Vulgar opinion can neither claim Vniversality of place Nor time Nâ—r do the present Churches words or actions declare any suc practise at this day even in the western part of it As appears by her missalls Breviaries and Rituals Which unanimously respect the day of Judgment And have not one clear word throughout them all of any oâ—her delivery Their rashness who because they can no longer presume to free the souls departed at their own time and pleasure refuse to continue to pray for them The consequences of both opinions examined Which equally agree in continuing to supplicate to the worlds end Where it ought rather to be converted into thanksgiving for those who are set free if the vulgar opinion be true The intention is not alwayes visiblâ— iâ— every action Whether Indulgences either in general or particular make any thing against the truâ— Doctrine The first and proper use of remission or Indulgence in general The occasion of its being stretch't farther Fron S. Paul 2 Cor. 2. And some passages in the Fathers The posture of Indulgences in the 11th Age The design of the School men to establish them on a new basis Though they could never procure any Councel to favour it The School-men's Idea of Purgatory according to the Metaphorical explication thereof Lead them to stretch Indulgences to the next world And invent an imaginary treasure of Christs and his Saints merits * Tom. 1. lib. 1. lect. 14. Whereas every good work of the Saint is more then rewarded And every merit of Christ exceeds all proportion of demerit or punishment Of Ecclesiastical penalties How such a Penalty may be said to correspond or be equivalent to such a crime With a solution to the objection from S. Paul And some Fathers Particular Indulgences were not appâ—yed to the souls departed before the Schools How thiâ— come since to be applyed that way Which the Pope neither commands nor commends An Objection from the Prelates corn vence at least Aâ—sâ—… is a Vâ—… rather 〈…〉 Viâ—e in them And will be till the Demonstration of the contrary Doctrine be generally acknowledged The last objection from the universality of the vulgar opinion at least since the Schools Answer There are three degrees of them the first from suspicion The second from probabilities The third from Demonstration The first rather obliges the Church to a farther Inquiry The second still admits it The third is not pretended to in the Case An opinion may be held by all the men of the Church and yet not by the Church That is by them as believers that is grounded upon and preserving inviolate Tradition That the Vulgar opinion neither is nor ever was taught as a pâ—int of faith But as a pious credulity The Conclusion