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
the Criticks of his Age would go about to discredit unless he takes the descriptions he meets with in Bede for things actually done not for Visions that is corporal representations of spiritual pains or allegorical expressions of the intellectual state of those souls My exception against their dictates is no other then this That the obedience which is to be rendred to the same persons is different when they are considered as pious Historians from that which is given them as holy Doctors Historie cannot challenge the same Authority which is due to Theological conclusions But these Saints do of their own accord profess that they receive this Doctrine from Historical Narrations and consequently it can have no stronger support then History can lend it They cannot therefore in this Question challenge the name and Authority of Doctors and Fathers but of Historians only whose credit depends upon their Authors But from these Historians as far as can be conjectured the whole strength and continuance of this opinion is derived For from that time forward reports and Visions of souls freed from Purgatory have multipli'd without end especially since that Odilo Abbot of Clugny a very famous person did through all his Monasteries by a special command of commemorating all the souls departed on the second day of November disperse far and near this opinion The Nineteenth Accompt Of the Authority of Apparations and Visions THe next thing which occurres is to examin what perswasive power is to be attributed to Visions And immediately a vast discrepancy appears betwixt such Visions as these and those which are Prophetical in that Prophetical ones simply and by their proper design tend to the instruction of the people that is the Church But these as far as can be gather'd from their stories seem only to be directed to the benefit of the distressed souls which is not a publick but private good and so unknown that the Revealer only is conscious to it From which consideration I infer that Prophetick Visions do not communicate any veneration at all to these but on the contrary that these compared to them loose much of their credit by the disproportion the end for which generally they are supposed to be being ambiguouâ— and undiscoverable And really if we aim never so little above the levell of sense and demand why this soul amongst a thousand hath the favour allow'd it of appearing to the living of begging their suffrages Why it obtain'd it not immediately after it's separation but rather after some dayes months and sometimes years Why it should beg assistance from such certain persons and not from others Why for a limited time and not till they are absolutely free Lastly why particular prayers and satisfactions are required What can with any shadow of reason be answered All is to be referâ—'d to the secret judgement of God to his good pleasure no wayes from reason deducible and so finally resolved into obscurity The second thing which in these Visions may be observed is they are not armed with the publick testimonials of Events and Miracles For all that is pretended to be seen being acted by invisible substances no event can confirm the truth of the vision nor is it proper any miracle should be wrought to that end Nor for the most part is there any occasion of demanding them or any custome in history of alledging them And the vision is of its own nature such that it admits no witnesser but passes wholly within the soul of the seer and consequently entirely depends on his veracity who sometimes is a Peasant sometimes a Women or at best one little capable of judging what passeth with in our souls And if at any time it be a man of great sanctity or famous for that prudence which is esteemed in the world although to confess the truth few such are pretended what miracle is it that a prudent man should be once deceived And for the pions man it is so frequent that no body wonders at it To which we may add this reflection that when such Novelties are once received by the itching ears of a multitude they are magnified beyond measure and the further they are carry'd the greater they appear Yea the very memory of the first deliverer is confounded with a multiplicity of interrogatories from such as are curious and inquisitive into things of that nature so that he begins not well to know what it was that he saw but to beleeve he saw truth and when any circumstance less favourable thwarts it he easily applies himselfe to rectifie something presuming he might in that particular be abused And the suspicion which this sort of Revelations are obnoxious to is more justifiable in that Divines cannot agree upon any Rules by which false ones may be distinguished from true Which shews that neither they themselves in whom they are wrought have any clear tokens whereby to discern them or if they have as S. Augustin seems to believe of his Mother that the discrimination is not explicable to another So that as we cannot doubt but that private Revelations are communicated sometimes to Gods favorites so we must no less avow that the whole complex of them is subject to unspeakeable obscurities and ambiguities and altogether insufficient to administer any firm ground of argumentation to those at least who have not themselves received and experienc'd them And this exception becomes yet less unjust by the consideration of the quality of the Persons who are for the most part Women sometimes simple men either melancholy or dozed with assiduous musing and solitary pensiveness sometimes by sickness indispos'd or upon their death-beds or recover'd from a Traunce Each of these hath need enough of some artificial help to secure them from lapsing in point of prudence and wariness And the more ancient the Revelations are pretended to be the more necessary is this care and vigilance all beginnings of such things being more suppos'd to mistakes till experience by degrees opens a window to the discovery and dispersion of the mists of errour But nothing so enervates and invalidates this sort of proofs as the power of Phantasy whose prodigious delusions few and those only who have experienc'd them can perfectly avoid and detest The power I say of that faculty is such that it compells us to believe divers things to be acted without us which have no other stage then our own Brain This our Dreams and the extravagant delusions of feaverish and hypocondriacal persons sufficiently convince I remember that ruminating long since on an accident which at that time I was very sensible of and casting by chance my eye on a Beam in the House the end thereof seem'd to me perfect to resemble a head cut off insomuch that though conscious of the illusion I was forced to turn away my eyes horrour seizing me as often as I fix't them upon it In the twilight of the evening and not unfrequently in the day time men
the spirit of our Brother that the mercy of our Lord may place him in the bosome of Abram Isaac and Jacob that when the day of Judgment shall come he may resuscitate him on the right hand among his Saints and Elect. Again We pray thee to command the soul of thy servant N to be carryed by the hands of thy Angels into the bosome of thy Friend Abraham the Patriarch to be resuscitated in the last day of Judgment that whatsoever vices by the deceipt of the Devil he hath contracted thou pious and merciful maist blot out by indulgence In the office of the dead in like manner in the Roman Breviary Lord when thou shall come to judg the Earth where shall I hide my self from the countenance of thy anger When thou comest to judg do not condeâ—n me Again be merciful unto me when thou shalt come to judg in the last day Again Remember not my sins O Lord when thou shalt come to judg the world by fire Lastly free me O Lord from eternal Death in that dreadful day when the Heavens and Earth shall be shaken when thou comest to judg the World by fire I tremble and fear whilest that discussion and future anger comes that day of anger that day of misery and calamity c. To this you may add the publick Litanies instituted as it is thought by Gregory the Great himself or at least by him recommended where you find In the day of Judgment deliver us O Lord And in the commendation of the soul departed In the day of Judgment deliver him O Lord Finally if we have yet any judgment left us and are not wholly transported and fascinated with the opposite opinion let us consider with our selves what a strange blindness and absurdity it had been in the composers of our sacred Liturgy if they intend to pray in the Mass and Offices for the delivery of souls before the day of Judgment not to express it in one clear sentence throughout so many and large prayers but perpetually to fix the Readers thoughts and expectations upon the last judgment What shall I say of so many who have not only used but corrected them yet never durst take the boldness to violate the ancient and received style Since then in Ecclesiastical Ceremonies the significations of the actions depends on the expressions and the expressions are so clear for purgation in the day of Judgment it is beyond dispute evident that this is the practise and intention of the Holy Church in all publick Prayers and Masses that is in all that are hers The four and Twentietth Accompt That the Practise of the Church as it is visible in action makes likewise for the same truth FRom what we have said the temerity and precipitation of those appears who from the denial of a sudden and capricious delivery of souls â—ye immediately to the refusal of supplicating any longer for them whereas on the contrary they ought more assiduously yea perpetually and without end to pray both because their torments are more durable because our own goods are so strictly conjoyned with theirs Our method therefore instructs us never to abandon never to remit or slacken the charity which we profess towards our friends lately departed and consequently by this new temporary motive fastens our souls upon the love and contemplation of the future world whereas the contrary opinion begets a short memory and long oblivion And here behold we are naturally put in mind of surveying the other branch of Practise which no less attests ours to be the Church's sense and perfectly conformable to her practise I mean the procurement of prayers for the souls of the Dead Let us reflect herein on the consequences which are apt to follow from either opinion If it be true that souls are from Purgatory conveigh'd to Beatitude before the day of Judgment though we know not how long the time may be of their durance yet this is certain that every one hath a limited time let us suppose ten years as a Divine famous enough hath opined the Church ought in reason to prescribe a cessation from thenceforward of duties for that soul that others may be benefited by what to it is now superfluous You reply that it is not done because the Church is uncertain how long the time may be Very well but how long I beseech you shall she continue uncertain till the day of Judgment And this of every one that is of all where then lies our quarrel I may perhaps affirm it to be certain that they are not dismiss'd before the day of Judgment and consequently that we ought alwayes to pray for them you affirm it to be uncertain whether they are sooner freed or no and consequently conclude the same thing to wit that we ought alwayes to pray for them The practise then of praying alwayes for them is common to us both More strongly indeed on our side from motives both of reason and antiquity which ever prayed for all without exception You reply it is so uncertain of every one in particular that notwithstanding it is indefinitely certain of some Let it be so because you are resolute what is that to the practise that remains common to both sides Can you from practise possibly convince that some indeterminately are exempted when you pray for every one as though he were detained Practise is an action and action is of Individuals that is of particular Agents about particular Patients But to proceed Imagine with your self some practise which may infer that some are freed ought there not to be a change in the Tenor of prayer and a thanksgiving succeed to supplication rather then that the self-same supplication should still continue Shew any such custome and you have won the day But if you cannot and on the contrary I can and do produce men pious and prudent who with their last breaths pray for their Grand-fathers and Great-Grand-fathers and when themselves come to dye build Churches Hospitals and the like eternal institutes with obligation to have themselves and their ancestors for ever pray'd for two things I shall esteem my self to have clearly prov'd first That Ecclesiastical Practise stands with us secondly that our Adversaries cannot bring the least shadow of proof from thence They quit not yet their station but threaten us with sorks now that their arrowes are spent Practise say they consists not only in the external action but in it with the intention opinion and hope conjoyn'd therewithall But it is evident that the opinion and hope with which men now adayes pray for the departed is that of a speedy delivery therefore the Church-practise concludes it In which first we deny the Major For when some action is handed down to us from our fore-fathers in the Church it doth not follow their intention must necessarily be derived to us by the same succession for though we know not in particular what they intended yet do we
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.