faithfully the abundant Alms by Legacy left to Monasteries for the souls of the deceased which uniformly agrees with the Modern practise of both Churches and therfore doubtless the sense of both Churches as now they appear evidently to be the same so in all antiquity they were uniform as to hope of relief by prayers especially by Masses as there is clear and in many private Latine Synods Neither can it be other than a great Sophism to accuse the Roman Churches Offertory as if in praying to deliver the souls of the Faithfull a poenis inferni which is a general term signifying both and so used it should import any thing else here than from the pains of Purgatory to life which cannot have any other sense than of Purgatory since there is no redemption in Hell and the souls for which they pray die no otherwise Again the Church in the Collects prayes to give them refrigerii sedem c. a seat of refreshment which speaks our Purgatory These and all other Texts assure us of the Churches sense of praying to deliver them before the great day however by strengh of wit the clearest actions may be in order to weaker judgements made dubious as we see in Courts the best causes by corrupted advocates so clouded that they seem unjust But the knowledge of this is so universal that here may be said what St. Augustine lib. de duabus anim c. 12 saith of liberty Nonne ista cantant in montibus pastores theatris Poetae indocti in circulis doctiâ— in Bibliothecis Magistri in scholis antistites in locis sacris in orbe terrarum genus humanum All sorts of Christians each in their several postures and vocations witness this truth CHAP. V. Traditions alone cannot prove faith in all Articles THis was S. Hieroms and all the Fathers one though not only constant test of new doctrines And you professedly esteeming the testimony of the present age to conveigh certainly the sense of the precedent do and must consequently hold it to be an infallible test to discern even matters of Faith so that ad hominem this were strong if we had onely the present age But surely Scriptures and Traditions are the adequate source of Christian truths in the received opinion of Doctors And the Councel of Trent in the first Session seems to suppose it in order to the general And truly all the former Councels did no less Neither can I see that your Topick alone will salve all occurrences and therefore St. Paul refers the Thessalonians to his Epistles and Sermons joyntly and S. Irenaeus l. 3. c. 4. shews the necessity of both So S. Aug. and the rest But by endeavouring to infringe any pretence of a definition as to this of helping souls in Purgatory before Doomsday you struck upon a medium which if not rightly understood is of an ill consequent CHAP. VI. Charity consists with Purgatory The various operations of charity Wherein consists the chiefest penalty of Purgatory FOr the purport of your discourse seems to hint at this that a necessity of retention of souls out of heaven till due penal expiation be accomplisht will enervate the dignity of charity Cicero lib. 3. de finibus saith notably speaking of Philosophy Hujusmodi dicere ornare velle puerile est plane autem perspicue expedire posse docti intelligentis est viri Your almost connatural obscurity renders you sometimes to be misconstrued to your prejudice It is true that charity if perfect is a sufficient disposition to glory at least as far as relates to exclusion of punishment for former transgressions which easily concludes a soul dying in that perfect condition not to need any other temporary expiation But the midle sort of Christians who onely have their concernment in Purgatory according to Saint Augustine and the Councel of Florence though they die indeed in charity yet is supposed not to be so intense as wholly to dispose their souls for present blisse And therefore in order to such the Church asserts further expiation and penal detention necessary for a longer or a shorter terme according to the secret rules of Gods wisdom wherein though our time is not the measure of spiritual substances or sufferings which have no parts to answer to the parts of our time and therefore are not greater or lesse for the extrinsecal and disparate consideration of a shorter or longer continuance precisely as to time yet their inward necessity of existing in that condition of separation not only from their bodies but from the sight of God in the dregs of sin till God changeth them is highly penable as being alwaies present to their intuition and affection whereas in bodies where every thing is measured by motion it would be far less as having succession of parts than now being altogether according to the nature of eviternity which surely renders it incomparably greater than if it were by one part after another And though it is indivisible as to its essence and existence being spiritual and therefore cannot be measured otherwise than by a proportionable in-divisible measure as now I will suppose against some others yet it hath co-existence with the parts of our time as Aristotle 4. Phys saith Idem nunc secundum substantiam differt secundum esse that is although an instant is the same indivisible in order to it self yet it differs as compared to time And hence a soul which hath been in Purgatory twenty years is truly said to have been longer there than another which was seperate from the body yesterday and consequently hath suffered the hard consequences of it even altogether so long If we speculate this a little further we find that as indeed the soul being in-divisible it hath an in-divisible measure yet as that instant or measure called Aeviternity is alwaies and altogether present so there is alwaies present in it a priority which we call of nature As Agents which are free in the same real instant when they resolve to do any thing have a priority of nature wherein it is not affirmable that they do resolve but are as it were about to do it and this continues so long as the real instant it self doth And therefore Aristotle will tell us that the will even when it doth decree any thing it hath power not to do it that is as referring to that priority of nature Whence followes even in your own principles that the soul which went to Purgatory many years agoe is now as capable to have an act which it never had as then and therefore it may be as truly said to have an act this day which it never had and consequently may as truly be said to be changed But this whole matter is fitter for the Schooles to dispute then for Chatechizers to instruct in matter of Faith of which more hereafter You seem under a pretence of putting a due estimate upon an abstracted or a Metaphysicated charity for such yours almost seems
THE RESULT OF A DIALOGVE concerning the MIDLE-STATE of SOULS Wherein is asserted The Ancient Doctrine of their Relief obtainable by Prayers Alms c. before the Day of Judgment By F. D. Professor of Divinity Printed at PARIS Permissu Superiorum For the Right Honorable and Learned Henry Lord Arundel of Warder c. The Mecoenas of all Learning and Vertue May it please your Lordship SOme Aristophanes removing the controversy of the Midle-state of Soules out of the Schools and improvid ently thrusting it in English into the hands of Ladies whose curiosity is not alwayes proportioned to their capacity hath been instrumentall of great Scandall Hence upon intreaty of such who may command I interposed endeavouring to clear the state of the Question as I thought without violence it might import this occasioned a reciprocation of Epistles wherein I would gladly prevent all misunderstandings as also in the Synopsis of our Tenets which I formerly gave in such matters which were esteemed proper for the times The Result I present to your Lordships most judicious view also to your noble Patronage If it conduce to any good I shall be sure of the guerdon I hope for Your Lordships hereditary goodnesse will pardon my boldnesse encouraged by your known Vertue and great love of Truth who ambitiously subscribe what by many titles my duty obligeth me to be My Lord Your Lordship 's most devoted servant in all duty F. D. A Table of the Chapters CHap. 1. Relief in Purgatory is the Doctrine of holy Church 1 Chap. 2. It is not matter of Opinion 11 Chap. 3. Why the Resurrection is inculcated 15 Chap. 4. The senses of Greek and Latine Liturgies and Fathers 24 Cha. 5. Traditions alone cannot prove faith in all Articles 45 Chap. 6. Charity consists with Purgatory The various operations of Charity Wherein consists the chiefe penalty of Purgatory 48 Chap. 7. How a soul according to others can change Of the horror of Doomsday Whether it is to be prayed for 67 Chap. 8. Whether a soul can be changed by God and how in Purgatory The true state of the controversie explicated 89 Chap. 9. The state of the Question further explicated The difference betwixt an instant of time and aeviternity declared The resolution of the Question fully given as to change of souls 99 Chap. 10. Scriptures and Traditions must be obeyed How one can satisfie for another Whether and how other vertues besides charity avail towards Heaven 117 Chap. 11. How corporal afflictions can satisfie for sins Whether a probable Opinion may be followed 127 Chap. 12. The designe of the Treatise 140 The Result of a DIALOGVE concerning the MIDLE-STATE of SOULES CHAP. I. Relief in Purgatory is the Doctrine of holy Church IN our last Epistolary Conference concerning the sense of the General Councel of Florence and of Pope Benedict the eleventh his Bul against those who hold that none went to Heaven till the day of Judgement you much insisted that neither of them defined a Redemption out of Purgatory before the great day The Greeks there called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be confess'd that their principall design was the condemnation of Joh. 22. his error which though he recanted yet to prevent any resuscitation of it it was judged necessary conciliarly to condemn it In discussing or rather explicating the latitude of this they descended to particulars Who and When each sort went to Heaven either at or after their deaths according to their several conditions and therein delivered their sence of this as being in part involved in the former So that it was a Conciliary Declaration of the Churches Doctrine as to this that is of the whole Christian World as all prior or posterior Doctors not violented for it is easie to mis-apply and even elude the Fathers with voluntary glosses out of Chamier and other such like blasted Authors and the universal tradition orally delivered and the constant practice of all Catholiques declare See in S. John Damascen almost all the Greek Fathers even inclusively from great Dyonisius to himselfe and some of the Latines also are recorded in him who all assert this and say that from our Lords Disciples it descended obtained in and through the whole Church of God with great profit to the dead And that you may clearly by one understand the received interpretation of the rest see there the story of great Macarius who had from God this Answer Quo tempore inquit mortuorum causa preces offers tum sane nonnullius solatii sensu afficimur Thus a dead man's skull answered him We must not then expect Dooms-day for an answer of our Prayers Nay S. Damascen saith it is a new absurd doctrine suggested by the Devil Pia omnia opera quae mortem sequuntur nullam omnino defunctis utilitatem afferre truly his ingenuous sense is that to deny any profit by them before the day of Judgment to the dead descends from the Devil I refer you to all the Fathers in him whence you will see how they are violented for the contrary by others It is a most unquestionable rule in this matter as to the affirmative though a posteriori as we speak amongst all probable Doctors who have the honour to have their memories celebrated in the Fasts of the Schools That whatsoever is declared in a Generall Councel which is received or not impunè resisted by Catholique Doctors of the age wherein it is celebrated is by all Christians to he admitted in the same degree in which it is there declared Which Rule comes home to all points by Sectaries now controverted as I have particularized in my System and especially compels us to an acceptance of this present Article according to the same place it obtained in the Councel of Florence and the age wherein it was celebrated The first I have specified as far as this place permits The later is evident by all Writers then and ever since in the Church though Marcus Ephesius an eminent Greek Schismatique if not rather an Heretique who was present in the Councel recalcitrated in vain against it in some particulars but not against this at all which still confirmes us in it Gennadius the Patriarch saith this Councel was ubique promulgatum ab omnibus gentibus receptum only vulgares quidam homines indocti did contradict He adds if any capable of reason resisted it was pravity of mind not learning but foolish presumption and vain glory which moved it Here he glances at Marck and others deceived by him All this faithfully applied irrefragably declares our obligation to accept this truth accordingly And moreover as to us in particular the general resistance made against this new Purgatory by all at the very first dawning of it in our insulary Hemisphere as being a novilty opposite to what all from their infancies had learned convinces the same Nay Mr. Whites Sonus Buccinae will inferre so much and alone suffice according to him to prove matters even
to be very much to undervalue her operations in such penal acts or passions as holy Church presents to our belief in the dead Nay even all other corporal afflictions and austerities in this life voluntarily undertaken you are thought to judge superfluous if not superstitious and derogatory to charity You know how far our neighbours have by urging this reduced all Christian duties of this kind to such a pure worshipping of God in spirit that there is no visible footstep of any old austerities amongst them and even all these old symptomes of Christianity are with them by a new sort of Chymistry evaporated It seems certain according to the received doctrine of great Divines wherein you doe not wholly dissent that all souls which depart from their bodies in a capacity of Heaven at their separation do appretiate God above all and do heartily desire that they had never placed any created object in his room which is never to have sinned mortally Which doctrine methinks is consequent to St. Thomas his opinion of infants in their first act of reason applying themselves to God And this act as I said is esteemed naturally indelible in the dead according to their state with which is consistent a desire of fulfilling Gods Laws in order to expiation of former sins nay that is inconsistent with it self without a desire of complyance with Gods ordinances in this and every other kind Whence follows that their sufferings after death are voluntary as relating to their former acts of conformity to Gods orders and the virtual or habitual durance of it howsoever by some so palpable a truth is denied The whole universe therefore having been deformed in some manner by our deordinations it must be reform'd by our pennances For according to Divines Infligitur poena ut ordinetur culpa and it is so even following nature So that the order of the Universe by Gods original position of causes exacts this method of us Therefore there is no necessity which some are affrighted at so much to attribute their penal detention to revenge in God though it is but quaestio de nomine as diversly taken since it is consequent to our peccaminous acts to be liable to it especially holding as truth seems to convince that the reliques of the sinnes themselves or those very sins of which the souls were guilty in death remain till the change of the souls after Purgation Which doctrine is very conformable to Scotus who holds that venial sins after proportionable punishment in hell it self cease to be that is after the remorse and punishment proportionable to such sin cease which as I have noted elsewhere is Origen's and Gregorie Nissenes clear doctrine for they both seem to admit that only Purgatory I said punishments for which we now call punishments as to the minds remorse for sin in time of nature we would call effects of sin as I shewed de Mundo It s true we have not injured God in our sins who is above and beyond the spheres of our most malitious activity but our selves are principally endamaged in mortal sins by losing all title to Heaven or at least by diminishing it as in venial Which losse caused by violation of his Lawes must be repaired by charity directing to submit to and to keep Gods Commandments according to that Text of our Saviour If you love me keep my Commandements whereof one is to submit to his orders in Purgatory wherein this voluntary due chastisement at last will procure remission of those sins which remain at the least in their dregs Charity indeed hath God himself under the noblest motives for its immediate object but it is exercised not onely in a naked wishing or willing well to God which is to love him but it breaks out into a hearty complyance with all his orders Hence St. Peter John the last Chapter v. 15. being demanded whether he loved God to his triplicated affirmation was as often subnected Feed my sheep c. So that this love hath a great extent though it alwaies terminates in God as it begins in him St. Paul also 1 Cor. 13.4 tells us summarily but pathetically the further operation of charity Charitas patiens est benigna est c. whence will follow that charity can be exercised in following any of Gods orders in respect of the living or the dead as in those St. Paul speaks of 1 Cor. 15.29 who were baptized that is suffered for the dead as the Text clearly speaks It is not then any indignity to charity that good Christians dying invested with it should be exercised afterwards in expiation of former deordinations by their passive complyance with Gods orders which dying in charity they could not but desire This divine order being fulfilled and expiation being effected the soul is rendred through Gods mercy capable of her hoped supervestition of eternity CHAP. VII How a soul according to others can change Of the horror of Doomes-day Whether it is to be prayed for I will now suppose that borrowed principle out of Aristotles Schooles that the soul is not capable of any change once separated from the body as having not the fancy whence the changes were occasioned Which doctrine although I have taught in my System and so do St. Thomas in his School Henricus de Gandavo and others as to natural causes yet it will not reach so far as I conceive as to build a consequence so remote from the common sense of Christians as this of all soules which do not immediately go to Heaven or to Hel their prestolation of the last day in Purgatory and that then upon the reunion of their bodies our blessed Lord shall represent to our corporal eies his most blessed humanity of which he made us not capable during our long expectation in the soules separation upon sight whereof they shall fall into raptures of divine love c. The whole complex taken altogether is the product of a great wit possessed of much learning and if kept within the Schooles as we use frequently impossible suppositions might exercise wits with profit and applause as I believe was intended but where it toucheth upon a noble particle of our Religion as here the putting it into a vernacular Idiome is dangerous and against the Councel of Trent in in this particular Sess 25. Apud rudem verò plebem difficiliores ac subtiliores quaestiones quaeque ad aedificationem non faciunt ex quibus plerunque nulla fit pietatis accessio a popularibus concionibus secludantur incerta item vel quae specie falsi laborant evulgari ac tractari non permittant c. This comes home We are forbidden to move these questions in English Prayer for the Dead as for such as are helped by it being in an indigent condition is one of the most universal most constant and most solemn practises of holy Church as all Monuments declare which by this your speculation is rendred speaking really of no use as being resolved by