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 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
third an explication of the ancient practise of the Church in praying for the Saints Pag. 13 IV. That S. Pernard only excepted all the rest of the Fathers deâ—y'd not to the faithful departed the Beatifical Vision before the day of Judgment Pag. 25 V. The fifth proof from Scripture is again urged and two others added Pag. 34 VI The eighth and ninth Texts are considered Pag. 42 VII Some places of Scripture apply'd by holy Fathers to confirm the same truth Pag. 51 VIII Testimonies from all antiquity maintaining the same truth Pag. 55 IX That the proofs of the opposite opinion are modern and betray their novelty Pag. 69 X. The first exception against the opposite Tenet from pure revenge Pag. 78 XI Two other Exceptions from the supposition of these pains to be involuntary and corporeal Pag. 92 XII Four other exceptions from those pains being to no purpose unproportioned to the sins of an Indivisible duration and endless Pag. 100 XIII Two other exceptions from the non-connexion of such pains with the sins and their being supposed to remain due after the fauls forgiven Pag. 110 XIV Of the punishments which we meet with in the sacred Scriptures and of the remission of sins Pag. 120 XV Three other exceptions that they neither truly take off the punishments nor rightly make them due nor in sine make any real Purgatory Pag. 136 XVI 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 Pag. 144 XVII That the ignorance of spiritual natures begâ—t this opinion Pag. 151 XVIII Objections from the holy Fathers against our Doctrine answered Pag. 158 XIX Of the authority of Apparitions and Visions Pag. 166 XX Of the authority of Visions compar'd with that of History together with a particular examination of some of them Pag. 17S XXI Whence wonderful events come to be foretold without any supernatural assistance Pag. 38 XXII What is the benefit of prayer for the dead Pag. 197. XXIII That the Practise of the Church as far as its words make known it's sense favours the ancient opinion Pag. â—07 XXIV That the Practise of the Church as it is visible in action makes likewise for the same truth Pag. 218 XXV The nature and history of Indulgences Pag. 225 XXVI That Indulgences generally taken make nothing against the ancient Doctrine Pag. 234 XXVII That particular Indulgences granted for he dead argue not the universal practise of the Church Pag. 243 XXVIII That the Vulgarity of the opposite opinion ought not to prejudice the true one Pag. 251 The First Accompt The Introduction and state of the Question THough such be the beauty of reason and such its soveraignty over humane nature when rightly disposed that no force of authority can be capable to weaken conclusions once demonstrated for what can authority presume unless reason pre-assures us of its veracity or how can reason give it that testimony having a demonstration against it yet is it not lawful for me to treat the question I have now in hand without first consulting the sentiments of antiquity I am endebted to the unwise as well as the wise and see them far more numerous who pin themselves upon authority few being able to sustain the esclat of discourse evidently and rigorously connected Besides it well becomes the dignity of the Church in which I live and is requisite for the satisfaction of those without her to make it clear that our forefathers generally do not dissent for me in this controversie This then shall be my aime in the following Treatise First to illustrate the nature of Purgatory from the sacred Scriptures and monuments of holy Fathers next immoveably to establish it by Faith or Principles evident in Nature but before all give me leave to summe up and state the whole controversie as it is on both sides asserted For the Church her self hath herein defined nothing more then that there is a Purgatory and that the souls there detained are reliev'd by the prayers and suffrages of the faithful The Vulgar modern Divines embrace in a manner generally this position That the deficiences of men are some mortal and punishable with eternal misery others venial and expiable by temporary sufferings Mortal lapses if repented they absolve from eternal condemning them notwithstanding to time-limitted torments So that suppose an imperfect Christian departed whose venial sins no satisfaction at all hath cancelled whose mortal an imperfect one hath diminished these Doctors admit him not to the beatifical vision but provide for him a subterraneous cave fill'd with flames and horrid instruments of torture which his there confined and imprison'd soul must till expiated endure And these pains they thus far suppose like to those we here experience that they are inflicted by extrinsecal Agents and against the will of the patient conceâ—ving moreover that they take their proportion from the measure and nature of the crimes committed in the body according to the estimate of Divine Justice Nor can these torments by any industry or force of the soul it self be evaded though by our prayers who survive they may be mitigated and before the otherwise due and prefixed time determined The same relief they fancy from the satisfaction or merits of the Saints if by the Church to that intent apply'd Thus these later Divines from whom in this discourse I must for the most part take leave to dissent I acknowledg in humane faylings a difference betwixt mortal and venial nor do I deny an imperfect remission of mortal impurities But I place not this imperfection in that the Sin is totally cancelled the pain only remaining but in the change of an Absolute into a conditional affection as it were instead of I will substituting I will not buâ— Oh that I lawfully might This sinner therefore concludes that an eternal good is to be preferr'd before that which he abandons and in his life and actions preferrs it but looks notwithstanding back upon it as amiable with a wishful glance not unlike the Cowes which bearing the Ark did bellow to their Calves shut up at home The affection or inclination he had to temporal good is restrain'd not extinguish'd of mortal become venial changed not destroy'd Being therefore by the operation of death as it were new moulded and minted into a purely spiritual substance he carries inseparably with him the matter of his torment in the like manner as he also doth who takes leave of the body with his affections only venially disordered Wehave no occasion here to employ infernal Architects to invent strange racks and dungeons since the innate and intimately inhering strife and fury of the affections teâ—t against reason perform alone that execution which is therefore proportioned to the sins because springing and resulting from them nor ever otherwise possibly capable to â—eâ—se and determine unless the soul by a new conjunction with the body become again susceptible of