Purgatory Survey OR A Particular accompt of the happy and yet thrice unhappy state of the Souls there ALSO Of the singular Charity and wayes we have to relieve them And of the Devotion of all Ages for the Souls departed WITH Twelve excellent means to prevent PURGATORY AND The Resolution of many Curious and Important Points Printed at Paris 166â— To the truly Noble and Vertuous Lady Mris. D. C. Madam THough this Survey of Purgatory address it self to all Roman Catholikes in general yet is there not the person to whom it is more peculiarly devoted nor indeed any from whom it may with more confidence look for shelter and entertainment then your self For were it a meer stranger to you yet am I so well acquainted with your noble humour and civility to all your guests as not to despair of a friendly wellcome But since it was so lucky as to receive its first birth or at least to begin to breath our English Aire under your roofe it is certainly there it may best challenge countenance and protection now it comes to appear abroad and expose it self to publick view And if I mistake you not you are neither so wedded to the pleasures of this transitory life as not to be more concerned for what passes in the other world nor so taken up with Playes and Romances the usual employment of your sex but that you can lend an eye or an ear now and then and with delight too to spiritual discourses though running in a lower strain not so agreeable to the quaint Palats of our times Howsoever I dare promise you here no unpleasant entertainments I am sure at least you are read a very pleasing lecture in the last Survey For while you see the way for you to scape Purgatory chalked out you will clearly find your self already in it as practising most of the twelve means there prescribed To say nothing of the rest in which no doubt you have a large share I cannot but take notice of two of the most important I mean your singular charity to the poor your patient suffering for a good cause Your loyalty and your noble Consorts to God and your King even when you saw others to renounce both was very remarkable and I think I may safely say with proportion to your Estate you were as great sufferers upon this score as the worst of times could produce And yet you were never so great loosers your selves but you could still have the heart to spare a very liberal proportion to relieve others I could bring instances and enlarge my self upon each particular did not your modesty give me a silent check I will only then conclude with leaving you this comfortable satisfaction to know you are in the ready way to redeem a good part of your Purgatory in this life if not all as he most heartily wishes you may who must ever subscribe himself Madam Your most obliged humble Servant R. T. A Prefatory address to the Catholike Reader Dear Reader THe drift of this Treatise is not to prove Purgatory but taking it for granted as a prime maxime of Catholicism that God has a suffering Church in the other world besides that which triumphes in heaven and is militant here upon earth the design is to set it forth in such lively colours as may not only express its nature as far as we are able to judge of it at so great a distance but raise your thoughts first to a compassionate care for the present of procuring all possible relief for such distressed souls as are already faln under the lash of those merciless torments and secondly to a provident prevention for the future that the like mischief may not involve your selves hereafter Now this being the chief aime of these my labours I am put upon a kind of necessity of giving you the trouble of this Prefatory address For should this Survay of Purgatory fall into any other hands but yours it could look for no better entertainment then to be laid aside for wast paper such as would be some strange Map or Survay of another world which had no other subsistance but in the brains of the Painter For why should the enemies of truth whose belief reaches only to heaven and hell amuse themselves with the consideration of a third place for which they can find no place in their Creed And yet though I presume this will be its common fate when it meets with such persons yet I am very confident the judicious Protestant if he can but find in his heart to peruse these Papers especially the fifth Survay will find more then enough to convince him of this middle state of Souls which we call Purgatory Now to say the truth of this Treatise I know not well how to profess my self the Author nor yet the Translator of it Not Author for I must acknowledge the maine bulke and substance of what I offer to be borrowed of the Reverend Father Steven Binet of the Society of Jesus Not a bare Translatour because I am to do my self so much right as to tell you that I have not tied my self so wholly to that worthy persons method or matter as not to yeeld a little now and then to my own genius but have so made use of his learned pen as to dispose abridge or enlarge where I took it to be more for your satisfaction in this conjuncture of time and place wherein I was to puhlish it As for the language I have taken care neither to have it so bald as not to sute a little with this eloquent age we live in nor yet so flourishing and luxuriant as to dry up the fountains of devotion which I seek to open And if all my endeavours prove but so lucky as to occasion the releasing of any one soul out of Purgatory or the conveying of any other into heaven without passing that way I have my end which is only the greater glory of God and the good of souls There was a Roman Emperour would never dine but he would be feeding his eyes and his thoughts with the contemplation of the torments of hell and the pleasures of the Elizian fields which he had caused to be curiously painted and exposed for that purpose in his dining room I do not press you to use any such devotion or pictures I only offer you this Survay of Purgatory which I beseech you to look often upon and withall to have an eye still upon heaven and the best meant how to send souls thither and to follow them your selves without stepping a side into Purgatory for believe it if you come once there you will find it a very restless and uncomfortable lodging which I pray God you may all timely prevent and I earnestly beg your good prayers that the like mercy may not be deuied Your most devoted Servant R. T. The Contents The First Survey PVrgatory is layd open with all the hellish paines wherewith the souls are there tormented Page 1.
comfortable news of eternal bliss that he was not at all sensible of any oppression of nature nor seem'd to be the least concerned for it For said he what can any thing else availe me since I am one day to have Paradise with all the delights of Heaven Now if we Suar. d. 47. S. 3. credit the holy doctours of the Church and best divines of the Christian world the Souls in Purgatory are most certaine of their salvation For no sooner is the Soul departed this life but she is brought to a particular judgment where she receives an award of her eternal state of glory or confusion and from the mouth of God hears the irrevokable sentence from which there is no appeal no civil request no review of process no writ of errour for this decree of Gods justice must immediately be put in execution They say further that in the same moment that a Soul sees her selfe condemned to Purgatory she sees also the precise time prescribed her to continue there according to the ordinary strain of Gods justice But whether she know also by divine revelation who will pray for her and what assistance in particular they will give her or how much will be cut of of the time determined for her punishment is a nicer question which I purposely leave untouched for others to excercise their wits in as they please and make hast to take up the thred of my discourse I was letting fall in which I am to lay before your eyes the ineffable joyes of the soules in purgatory when they seriously reflect upon the certainty of their salvation and how soon they shall be drowned in the Divinity and yet swim in an Ocean of all heavenly comforts When Jacob knew for certaine that he was to have the fair Rachel he was content to be espoused first to Lia though she were blear-eyed and ill favoured and besides a world of heats and colds frights and fears and fourteen years toylesome service seemd scarse an hour to him so much was his heart inchanted with a holy love of his dearly beloved Rachel and so true it is that for the enjoyment of that which a soul loves in good earnest she makes no reckoning of fire and flames and a thousand Purgatories So that a Soul that is confident of espousing one day Rachel that is the Church triumphant sticks not to be first espoused to Lia that is the Church suffring with all the pains in Purgatory so long as it shall please God and fourteen years are unto her but as an houre such is the excess of her love to heaven O with what a good heart do I drink up my tears said the royal Prophet Ps 41. when I remember I shall pass into the heavenly Tabernacle were I to make my passage thither through Hell it selfe how willingly would I runn that way And to the same tune cried out St. Chrysostome with a masculine voice and a heart which was all heart If I were to pass through a thousand Hells so I might in the end of all meet with Paradise and my God how pleasing would these Hells seem unto me And certainly there are infinite soules would be ready to signe it with their heart blood that they would be willing to dwell in the flames of Purgatory till the day of judgement upon condition to be sure of eternal Glory at the last for believe it they that know well the meaning of these four words God Eternity Glory and Security can not but have a moderate apprehension of Purgatory fire be it never so hot and furious Another heavenly comfort They are impeccable which rejoyces these happy souls in the midst of their torments is an infallible and certain assurance which they have that although their pains be never so insupportable yet shall they never offend God neither mortally nor venially nor shew the least sign of impatience or indignation A true lover of God understands this language and if he do not shall in a moment learn it in Purgatory and find by experience that a soul there had rather be plunged in the deepest pit of Hell then be guilty of the least voluntary misdemeanour So that seeing her selfe to be grown impeccable and that no evils can have the power to make her offend God and that all impatience dies at the gates of Purgatory from whence all sins and humane failings are quite banished O God what a solid comfort must this needs be unto her The greatest affliction that good people can have in the suffrings of this life is the fear of â—ffending God or to think that the violence of their torments may make them subject to break out into a thousand foolish expressions and to tosse in their heads as many foolish thoughts filling their imaginations with a world of Chimeras and idle fancies of frightful objects or in a word because they appreâ—end either death or sin or the loss of their merit and labour or that God is angry with them For griefe with the Devils help strives to snatch out of our hands the victorious palme of our sufferings or at least to make us stoope to some frailties and imperfections which imbitter our hearts And were it not for this just fear Saints would not stick at the greatest evils they can endure in this world What a joy then must it be to these holy innocent Souls to see themselves become altogether impeccable The reason of this is clear because the particular judgment being once over the final senteâ—â—e is also pronounced and the Soul is no longer in a capacity to merit or demerit not so much as to satisfie by any voluntary sufferings of her own but only to submit to the sweet rigour of Gods justice who has taxed such a proportion of pains answerable to her demerits and so to clear her conscience and blot out the remainder of her frailties and impurities Make hast to do well before Eccl. 9. 10. death is the counsel of Almighty God for the appointed time wherein to heape up treasures of justice merits is before you appear in judgement for after that it will be too late The very instant that a soul leaves the body according to Gods law there is no more time for merit or demerit and therefore the souls that are sent into Purgatory are most certain they shall never more commit the least sin that can be imagined When St. Anthony was so furiously assaulted with a whole rabble regimâ—nt of Devils he was not greatly daunted at all their hideous shapes terrible howlings and rude blows all his fear was of offending God he apprehended more the stroaks of impatience then all the wounds of hell he called upon Christ for help and having obtained the favour of a personal visite he made him this amourous complaint and sweet expostulation O good Jesu where were you alass where were you even now my dear Saviour when your enemies and mine conspired so cruelly against me why came
St. John how can he make us believe 1 Jo. 4. 20. that he loves God whom he never saw That which I am to maintaine is that amongst all the acts of faternal charity or works of mercy the most sublime the most pure and the most advantagious of all others is the service we perform for the souls in Purgatory In the History of the incomparable A remarkable passage order of the great St Dominick it is authentically related that one of the first of those holy religious men was wont to say that he found himself not so much concerned to pray for the Souls in Purgatory because they are certain of their salvation and that upon this account we ought not in his judgement to be very sollicitous for them but ought rather to bend our whole care to help sinners to convert the wicked and to secure such souls as are uncertain of their salvation and probably certain of their damnation as leading very leud lives Here it is said he it is here that I willingly employ my whole endeâ—vours It is upon these that I bâ—stow my Masses and Prayers and all that little that is at my disposal and thus I take it to be well bestowed But upon souls that have an assurance of eternal happiness and can never more loose God or offend him I believe not said he that one ought to be so sollicitous This certainly was but a poor and weak discourse to give it no severer a censure and the consequence of it was this that the good man did not only himself forbear to help these poor souls but which was worse disswaded others from doing it and under colour of a greater charity withdrew that succour which otherwise good people would have liberally afforded them But God took their cause in hand for permitting the souls to appear and shew themselves in frightful shapes and to haunt the good man both by night and by day without respit still filling his fancy with dreadful imaginations and his eyes with terrible spectacles and withall letting him know who they were and why with Gods permission they so importuned him with their troublesome visits you may believe the good Father became so affectionately kind to the souls in Purgatory bestow'd so many Masses and Prayers upon them preached so fervently in their behalf stirr'd up so many to the same devotion that it is a thing incredible to believe and not to be expressed with Eloquence Never did you see so many and so clear and convincing reasons as he alleaged to demonstrate that it is the most eminent piece of fraternal charity in this life to pray for the souls departed Love and fear are the two most excellent Oratours in the world they can teach all Rhetorick in a moment and infuse a most miraculous eloquence This good Father who thought he should have been frighted to death was grown so fearful of a second assault that he bent his whole wit to invent the most pressing and convincing arguments to stir up the world both to pitty and piety and so perswade souls to help souls and it is incredible what good ensued thereupon The History does not set down the motives which he either invented or had by inspiration to evidence this truth and therefore I will borrow them of St. Thomas that angel for divinity of the same order and of other Saints and doctours of the Catholick Church § 1. The greatness of the charity to the Souls in Purgatory is argued from the greatness of their pains and their helpless condition SInce there is no torment under Most charity to help tbc greater sufferers Heaven comparable to the pains of Purgatory as you have already seen those unhappy souls must needs be the most afflicted creatures in the world and consequently there cannot be a greater charity then to relieve them The loving mother runs always to her sickest child not but that she is tender of them all and has her heart divided into as many parcels as she has children and sick children but where there is most need there she makes a greater demonstration of her love thither her heart is carried with a greater violence and tenderness of affection where the greatest evil or danger appears As for the rest their condition is not so pressing she speaks to them at leasure and by giving one of them a few comsits a good word to another a smile to a third they are all well contented but he that burns in the Purgatory of a violent feavour it is he that has most need of his mother and so you see her as it were nail'd to his pillow her heart her eyes her hands her mouth and her very bosome lye open to this child and she can think of nothing but him so that where there is a greater share of misery reason requires there should be more compassion and more charity expressed Cast but a morsel of bread to a needy beggar send a good almes to a poor Hospital visite a prisoner give a word of comfort to a sick person and they are very well satisfied but he that lies burning in unmerciful flames alas it is he that ought to move all the bowels of your compassion When the image of Cleopatra with the stinging Aspes at her breasts was carried in triumph before the Romans though otherwise fierce and cruel enough by nature yet could they not hold from shedding a few tears of compassion and truly such a Queen in so sad a condition was not to be lookt upon with dry eyes the other captives yet living did not move them at all in comparison of that unfortunate Princess for all she was only represented in colours upon a painted cloth You Angel-keepers of Purgatory I conjure you to unlock your gates and lay your prison open that I may discover those Kings and Queens I mean those holy Souls of both sexes who are shortly to have their share in the celestial empire that I may lay before the Eyes of the whole Catholick Church those Asps of grief that lye so close at their hearts those cruel flames I say that incessantly devour them and withall the infinite modesty and patience with which they endure all in so much that not one of them lets fall the least froward or inconsiderate word or makes the least complaint against the sweet rigour of God Is there a heart if it be the heart of a man indeed and has but a drop of true Christian blood in it that does not feel it self to be either broken or mollified at so pitiful and lamentable a spectacle to see I say such noble and generous spirits in so deplorable a condition Is there any thing within the whole circumference of the universe so worthy of compassion and that may so deservedly clayme the great'st share in al your devotions and charities as to see our Fathers our Mothers our nearest and dearest relations to lye broyling in cruel flames and to crye to us for help with
mount above all the Quires of Angels and possibly soare up to the highest Seraphims O that I might but have leave to suffer here a while in her place how willingly would I do it that so my God might be the sooner and better glorified in heaven by this happy soul and a million of other souls upon earth receive comfort and protection from her powerfull intercessions I willingly resign up unto her all the right I have of being set free my self and if God permit I am ready to make her a deed of gift of all the suffrages which my dear friends have sent me for sure all the pains which shall fall upon me by this bargain can not but be amourously sweet since they are the cause of so great a good in the empirial Court of Heaven St. Christina was already lodged in Heaven says Cardinall Bellarmine l. de gemitu col c. de Purg. when she quit the glory of Paradise to exchange it for the flames of a thousand and a thousand most cruel Martyrdomes why may we not believe that so charitable soules would willingly yet remain in their flames that others more worthy then themselves may be sent out in their roomes to glorify God in Heaven VVhether God accept of these holy desires or no may be a question but at least it seems very credible that the souls who are so replenisht with perfect charity make such tenders of their service as farr as God gives them leave and as farr as it may stand with the laws of the Church patient But enough of what passes in the other world of which we have no certain revelation nor other clear light to guide us by Let us now turn our speech to the living and see what they are able to perform for the benefit of the dead §. 3. That the dead may receive help from us that are living and how we must be qualified to doe them good BE pleased to take notice what several meanings these 〈◊〉 eans impetration satisfaction c. three words import Satisfaction Impetration and Suffrage Satisfaction implies a good work accompanied with some grief or pain answerable to the pleasure we unadvisedly took in sinning whereby we make an honourable amends and satisfie the Laws of Justice by repairing the injury we have done Impetration is a kind of letter of request which we present to the mercy of God beseeching him to pardon those for whom we offer up the sacrifice of our devotions and the incense of our sighs and prayers so that our prayers addresse themselves to the sole mercy of God and crave an obsolute pardon or abolishment of the crime as a pure gift without offering any proportionable satisfaction save only that of our blessed Saviour or in general of the Church militant Suffrage is a tearm which comprehends both whether it be a penal work or a prayer only or both luckily united together The Church triumphant to speak properly cannot satisfie because there is no place for penal works in the court of Heaven whence all grief and pain are eternally banished Wherefore the Saints may well proceed by way of impetation and prayers or at most represent their former satisfactions which are carefully laid up in the treasury of the Church in lieu of those which are due from others but as for any new satisfaction or payment derived from any penal act of their own it is not to be lookt for in those happy mansions of eternal glory The Church militant may do either as having this advantage above the Church triumphant that she can help the souls in Purgatory by her prayers and satisfactory works and by offering up her charitable suffrages wherewith to pay the debts of those poor souls who are run in arreare in point of satisfaction due for their sins Had they but fasted prai'd labor'd or suffer'd a little more in this life they had gone directly into Heaven what they unhappily neglected we may supply for them and it will be accepted for good payment as from their bayles and sureties You know he that stands surety for another takes the whole debt upon himself this is our case for the living as it were entering bond for the dead become responsable for their debts and offer up fast for fast tears for tears in the same measure and proportion as they were liable to them and so defray the debt of their friends at their own charge and make all clear This then is the general sense The living may help the dead 〈◊〉 how 〈◊〉 of the Church that the living may help the afflicted souls all these several ways either by satisfying for them or by their prayers or by interposing the satisfactions of Christ Jesus who has left them at the disposition of the holy Church his beloved spouse And what rational person can deny this since they are all members of the same mistical body and consequently are tied in charity to yeild mutual assistance and comfort to one another and the rather for that every one in his turn may stand in need of the same friendship and look to be requited I am pertaker said Ps 118. 63 holy David with all those that fear God and holy Church to this purpose repeates that doleful ditty so full of tenderness out of Job take pitty on me at least you that are my friends for the Job 19. 21. hand of God has falne heavily upon me And otherwise we must discredite a world of good Authors a world of authentical records a world of most pregnan◠proofes and blast the reputation or venerable Antiquity which has ever held it as one of the maine points of Christian charity to pray fervently for the faithful departed to pay their debts and to strive by all means possible to help them out of their flames To which purpose by special favour almighty God has somtimes permitted souls to shew themselves visibly to their friends and kindred and to beg relief by Masses Prayers and other good works whereby to shorten and diminish the sharpness of their torments So did Pope Innocent the third and a thousand others as appears by unquestionable relations of grave Authors What they cannot of themselves they beg of us and beg it as an alms for charities sake and it were both sin and shame to deny them That which often costs us but little they esteem at a high rate and could they but give us a clear sight of the wonderful effects of our smal endeavours we should questionless take their cause more to heart then we do Howsoever St. Thomas and other divines assure us that even in rigour of justice our satisfactions are accepted in lieu of theirs since God has so ordain'd and past his word for it to his dear spouse the Church who really believes it to be so and proceeds accordingly So that we may rest confident that whosoever undertakes to provide for those distressed souls so he be qualified with the conditions which
Age where the 15. Age. Conc. Flor. in decreto Fathers of the Council of Florence both Greeks and Latins with one consent declare the same faith and constant practise of the Church thus handed down to them from Age to Age since Christs and his Apostles time as we have seen viz. that the souls in Purgatory are not only relieved but translated into heaven by the Prayers Sacrifices Almes and other charitable workes which are offered up for them according to the custome of the Catholick Church Nor did their posterity degenerate or vary the least from this received doctrine untill Luthers time when the holy 16. Age. Trid. sess 25 Council of Trent thought fit againe to lay down the sound doctrine of the Church in opposition to all our late Sectaries And I wish all Catholicks were but as forward to lend their helping hands to lift souls out of Purgatory as they are to believe they have the power to do it and that we had not oftner more reason then the Roman Emperour to pronounce the day lost since we let so many dayes pass over our heads and so many faire occasions slip out of our hands without easing or releasing any souls out of Purgatory when we might do it with so much ease The Sixth Survey Of twelve excellent means to prevent Purgatory or to provide so for our selves as not to make any long stay there BEhold the most important point of all others the secret of secrets and the true knack of all state affairâ—s in this world They talke of certain waterâ— which have so strange a power to dull the edge of fire that if one wash his hands with them he can receive no prejudice though he should thrust them afterwards into the fire or into boyling lead The preservatives I am here to treate of are of a higher nature they do not curbe the restless activity of this our sublunary fire which is bent only against dull bodies but they arme us against the raging fire of Purgatory which God has prepared to torment our very souls in the other world §. 1. The first perfect contrition ONe of the surest means to avoide Purgatory is to dye with teares in our eyes and St. Th. supp q. 5. a. 3. true contrition in our heâ—rts For Divines teach that our contrition may be so great â—s to wash away all those spots of sin which Purgatory â—â—re was otherwise to have words off And therefore as I take it to be a grâ—â—t piece of folly to defer the exercise of so precâ—ous â—n aâ—â— unto the houre of our death so I esteem it one of the most solid devotions of all others to accustome our selves to it all our life time that by daily frequenting such acts we may at length get such a habite and facility in them as with Gods grace to have them at our call when we come to dye All must not look for the same priviledge which the good thief had at the last gaspe It was but little that he sayd but he spoke it with so cordial an accent that he deserved to heare those comfortable words of our blessed Saviour This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise and soon found them verified by a present fruition of the beatifical vision Almighty God is pleased sometimes to make so forceable an entry into the heart of man and to set it so desperately on fire with his divine love that there is no remedy but to dye between the armes of love and griefe and thrice happy are those souls that loose their lives in this divine encounter and dye in the amourous flames of ardent charity they are sure never to feel the murthering flames of Purgatory Such was the death of our blessed Lady St. John Evangelist and infinite others who have been straight carried into heaven out of this world upon the wings of love or contrition so that a heart that is well seasoned with contrition or steeped in a bath of salt tears is like the heart of Prince Germanicus which Tacit. Ann. being washed over with a certain precious liqour could not be consumed by the fire which turned all the rest of his body to ashes This is that they call a good Peccavi but it must be a good one indeed for it is not every ordinary and triviall kind of sorrow which can work such wonders Those that have been long used to actuate themselves in those generous acts of contrition may be full of confidence that the mercy of God will not faile them at the houre of their death and that their good Angels will be then ready when it most imports to inspire them with all the best motives of true contrition since they have gone all along with them still furnishing them with such good thoughts and with so much good success that their hearts have been a thousand times broken with a lively amorous and cordial contrition and repentance for their sins And certainly they that dye either in the fire of so ardent a love or in the water of so piercing a grief need not feare the fire of Purgatory for that fire says St. Bonaventure was not made for them So that methinks this charity may be fitly compared to the Seraphin at the gates of Paradise brandishing his flaming sword which Tertulian calls the porâ—er Romphaeâ— janitrix Faradisi of Paradise grief is the edge love the fire wherewith it is inflamed and he that has this flaming sword has heaven gates at coâ—mand and goes strait thither when he leaves the world § 2. The Second to dye in Religion ANother safe way to escape Purgatory is to live and die in a good Religious order and at his death to renew and Ad fratres de monte dei à coella in coelum c. ratifie his Religious vowes To prove this I first call St. Bernard to witness who doubts not to assure us that there is a ready if not an uninterrupted passage into Heaven out of a Religious cell Next I appeal to those learned and holy Doctours who give it for a certain sign of Predestination to die in Religion because Christ has in a manner sworn in his holy Gospel to give a hundred fold and life everlasting Plat. de bonâ— stat Relig. to all those that shall leave Father Mother and other worldly concernments for his sake From whence it is that holy Church permits the superiours of divers Religious orders to make this solemne promise at the profession of their novicies for they have no sooner made their Vowes of Poverty c. But the superiour answers And I Child do promise thee Paradise and eternal life 3. Many Popes have granted a Sixt Greg. 13. Greg. 14. Plenary Indulgence in forme of a Jubily to all Religious persons that either by word of mouth or in their hearts call upon the sacred names of Jesus Maria at the hour of their death And what Religious person is there that does it not
either when he dies or not long before not only once but a thousand times To say nothing that many are of opinion that they gain this Jul. 2. bull Indulgence at the hour of their death whether they pronounce the words or no. For as other Indulgences are gained by visiting certain Churches saying certain prayers giving almâ—â— or exercising such other acts of vertue the supream Pastour of the Church thought no act more worthy of a Jubily then to die in a Religious order in the actual profession of voluntary poverty chastity and obedience with final perseverance in the austerity of a Religious life and a patient acceptance of death as from the holy hand of God â—et us then suppose a good Religious man to come to die and besides the common benefit of the Sacraments and other holy rites of the Catholick Church let him gain this Plenary Indulgence which the Popes grant as freely and with as much assurance as any other have we not all the reason in the world to hope that he goes immediately into Heaven or at most does but make a swift passage through Purgatory or rather as we read of many in the Ecclesiastical History takes it in his way to have the company of some of his friends there whom he has the priviledge to lead away with him in triumph into Heaven 4. Who can better deserve to go directly into heaven then they whose lives are a continual Purgatory They go in rough hair shirts pine themselves with rigourous fasts tear of their flesh with cruel disciplines drink up their own tears live of nothing but mortifications and perpetual hardships and thus abundantly satisfie for all the sins they have committed and for those they never dreamt of but had rather dya thousand times then commit They that have no will but that of their superiour they that breath nothing but holy sighs and burn with ardent charity how can they burn in Purgatory fire 5. Divines furnish me with another pregnant proofe and it is this It is certain say they that a solemne Profession in Religon brings with it a plenary Indulgence or remission of all their sinâ— not only because it is a second Baptisme or a lingring kind of martyrdom which is not compleated in a few moments as other Martydomes are but also because in the opinion of the angelical 2. 2. 4. ult a. 3. Doctour it is so sublime and eminent an act as surpasses all other acts in this life so that if Daniel says he could say that by giving a little almes we may blot out our sins what may we not say of this supereminent act of liberality by which a man gives unto God all his goods and present possessions with all his fair hopes of improving them his body his life his honour his will his soul with a million of worlds if hâ— had them in his power The same holy Doctour says else-where that a man who sacrifices his will unto God the most noble portion of his soul and makes it to become his eternal slave gives God ful satisfaction for all his misdemâ—â—uours since a pure creature cannot present him with a more noble gift then to make him an entire Holocaust of that which is dearest unto him in this world which is his will and the absolute soveraignty over himself and all his concernes Others go yet Su. verb. Religio n. 27 c. further and assure us that as often as a good Religious man renews this his profession he makes a new purchase of the same favour and obtaines an entire pardon of all the pain due to his sins and that these and the like priviledges are not tied only to solemne vowes but are common to all vows that make up the substance of a Religious man of what order soever in Gods Church And they say withall that these favours are not in the nature of indulgences granted by his Holiness but are inseparably annexed unto the vowes themselves which are so generous and so precious acts in the sight of God that they move his goodness to blot out the remembrance of their sins and to cancel out a great part if not all the pain which was due for them Now put all this together and it will necessarily follow that since the Pope on the one side grants a Jubily unto all religious at the houre of their death and since they have it in their power on the other side to renew their vowes before they dye by which act they may fully satisfy for all their sins there cannot be a greater assurance of going directly into heaven then theirs who have as I told you this double security of a general pardon that one way or other they can scarce sayl to obtain it What shall I say now of their perfect resignation unto the will of God their invincible patience their love of God their Virginal purity their exact and punctual obedience with a million of other divine acts of vertue which are so incident and connatural to a religious vocation all which no doubt stand ready to assist them at the last houre and to show them heaven gates open and ready to receive them and howsoever to assure them that their stay cannot be long in Purgatory since they leave behind them so many of their own order who will be sure to ply them with Masses Indulgencies and other charitable works for their speedy deliverance §. 3. The third To bâ— an Apostolical Preacher A Third meanes to redeem Purgatory is to be a zealous and apostolical Preacher for as this is a life of eminent perfection and incredible merit so is it extream painful and may well passe for a Purgatory in this life But observe that I speak of an Apostolical Preacher or of one that is full of divine fire or a holy zeal for the good of souls I mean not those that preach themselves those that desire to be admired and adored for Oracles those that profane the word of God with their vain glosses idle applications and affected eloquence seeking nothing more then worldly applause and really destroying by their life and conversation all they build up in the pulpit St. Paul compares such vaine Preachers to crackt trumpets and broken bells which make a noise indeed but are altogether useless They send others to heaven sayd St. Xaverius and go Gods knows whether themselves St. Gregory likens them to the water of baptisme which entitles children to the kingdom of heaven and is it self conveyed into some noysome sinke and there turnes to corruption I speak then of a Preacher who is a man of God one that does what he says and says what he does one that ayms at nothing but the salvation of souls preaches to a few or to many in Cities or Villages Princes Courts or poor Hospitals with the same fervour of spirit One that rents their hearts in sunder and draws floods of tears from their eyes one that preaches like another St. Paul