the sharpest censure unless we pin our faith upon them in a Theological point If thou hast leisure Reader let us more particularly take cognizance of some few There are three Revelations of this nature in S. Gregory two of souls condemned to the Bathes the third of a Proprietary Monk For the first if we regard the Doctrine of following School-men we must absolutely reject them S. Thomas teacheth us that separated souls are not active because their proper substantially united body is the sphere of their activity and the instrument by which they move other things and they were Angels if they could work upon separated bodies Again how should such services be penal unto them Do we think the Angel Raphael was design'd to punishment whilst he waited on Tâ—bie Moreover how could these new auxiliaries in the Bath be concealed to their fellow-servants unknown to their Masters Had they meat and wages with the rest Lastly if these examples be received for Precedents why may not all Mettal-mines â—e full of departed Ghosts What Romances what old wives tales may we not expect Certainly such inventions were either designed or of their own nature tend to the vilifying the belief of all Purgatory pains The other example is of the Monk He declares that it were well with him he had now received the Communion though formally tormented in fire It seems he was restored to the Church not to Heaven But if his sin were absolved why was he deny'd Heaven according to our modern definitions Again why was he not admitted to receive the Communion after the first as well as after the thirteenth mass Certainly the excommunication ceased when liberty was given to pray for him and in other Revelations both of S. Gregory and Bede the celebration of the very first mass hath power to loosen those bands And indeed the remission of sins after thirty dayes is neither agreeable to the ancient nor modern stile this supposing it to be in the first moment that in the day of the last Judgment Finally what an uncouth thing is an excommunication reaching to the next world would they have us believe that those who dy'd in mortal sin were snatch'd out of the jawes of Hell No man doubts but the souls in Purgatory are holy and partakers of Ecclesiastical Communion but these fables which lead to errour what sway can they bear with a true believer There is but one little sentence as I remember in Venerable Bede l. 5. c. 13. which makes for the cessation of Purgatory pains before the day of Doome and that so cast in by the bye into the Angel's discourse and explication of those sufferings that it seems rather according to the perswasion of some following Age thrust in by some other having no relation to any part of the Vision which of it self makes an excellent and neat allegory But it is to be remark'd that though they are said to be freed from their pains yet are they not admitted to the joyes of Heaven which notwithstanding somewhat varies from the modern opinion from the degrees of the Florentine Councel and Benedict XI both which joyntly seem to pronounce nothing but sin debars and secludes abstracted souls from the Beatifical Vision The same may be said of all other Revelations for if they are not meerly frivolous and insignificant they commonly in some particular or other shock the purity of Ecclesiastical Doctrine Some of them will tell you of souls kept in Purgatory for the payment of debts among the living others that a prefixed time was set them for begging and procuring assistance The great Odilo and strong asserter of this opinion is said by his own and the prayers of his Monks to have freed Benedict the eighth out of Purgatory upon condition that a second alms should be given by his successor John because the first was out of treasure ill gotten What can we make of this Are the prayers of Religious men frustrated and in effectual if their Alms come out of an Usurers purse 't is very hard to oblige them to search into and discover this unless perhaps it want not its convenience if they be in like manner permitted to retain the first and demand the second benevolence in case it be found to be so But to speak ingenuously all this passage is inextricable For what shall we say That the rich man shall in three dayes redeem his Purgatory which must cost the poor as many years Without doubt a convenient motive for accumulating riches but such a one as I have not yet met with in all the Gospel or Christian directions And yet what else do they seem to regard who make it either only care and business to accompany the Dead with a multittude of Masses some such conceits as these the Schools have already exibitated and immediately they have disappear'd in all succeeding Visions and Revelations that you may see they wholly depend upon vulgar opinion From whence it happens that the Greeks though otherwise more addicted to them then the Latines having nothing of this nature though much more then we of refrigerating the damned themselves because this sort of Purgatory runs not in their fancies The one and twentieth Accompt Whence wonderful Events came to be foretold without any supernatural assistance BUt what am I doing shall I charge so many grave and holy persons with Forgery or at least being deluded by the Devil I cannot easily determine which were more criminal and therefore shall by no means be transported with that arrogance From whence then this plentiful Harvest of Apparitions The notion of Apparition must be divided One kind happens to those who are awake and have their eyes about them the other to those whom sleep or extacy hath oppressed The first gives a jealousie of some defective or vitiated organ especially if the Phantasme appear to one only either alone or in company and that in the night when ill-disposed or after some misfortune or long continued grief something is probably amiss in the Brain though it be not altogether impossible that a meer preoccupation of mind may work that effect The other is more obvious and intelligible the soul contemplates many things as they were proposed from without when the senses are by sleep or extasie lock'd up which not withstanding have no other being than in the Phantasy But against this are very admirable examples by which we are assured that in these sleeps or extasies things future secret at a distance in fine such as no sense could reach to are often seen and foretold All cannot rationally be deny'd nor all promiscuously admitted I observe therefore that for the most part some falsity mingles with these revealed truths which commonly gives the occasion of their being imputed to the black Art But we must examine how far Nature can herein play her part It hath been said that the soul lull'd as it were a sleep with dreams or extasy finds the stroaks or
matter upon and about which he did work Again he shall suffer damage must signifie he will be troubled or sorrowful but that the rather by impotency to sin a new and freshly then to be amended Lastly He shall be saved yet so as by fire Shall regret and sorrow for the loss of things temporal save him Or the loss it self by means of that sorrow It must be then understood that this tribulation must conect and reform him which though sometime it happens yet not alwayes or indeed for the most part which nevertheless is requisite to make the truth of the Text apparent Whosoever having throughly contemplated this passage and finding the interpretations given it by others to be scarce reconcileable with the Letter whereas ours in every particular wonderfully agrees with it shall notwithstanding profess himself unsatisfi'd in what we have offered I shall be much surpriz'd if he ever find conviction from any of the sacred writings My last Testimony shall be from S. Matth. 12 where Christ our Lord declares that the sin against the holy Ghost shall neither be remitted in this world nor in the next Which S. Mark in like manner expressing saith it shall not be remitted for ever Holy Fathers gather from hence not impertinently that there is a remission of sins after this life and some of our Moderns make use thereof to confirm the Doctrine of Purgatory as it is vulgarly described But in truth therein they fail for whatever venial stains the departed soul had contracted those they absolutely declare to be by a perfect conversion to God in the very first instant cancelled Purgatory therefore according to them doth not remit but chastise sins and consequently they have no right to alledg this place since remission of sins there is none according to them But on the contrary if the affections to sin remain after death and in the day of Judgment are rectifi'd 't is evident there must be a remission of sins in the next world And thus by the whole series of this discourse it is made appear that no one text of holy writ is or can be urged for Purgatory which by some circumstance or other does not at the same time prove that it is no otherwise a part of Christian belief then as we have already explicated The seventh Accompt Some places of Scripture applyed by holy Fatâ—â—â—s to confirm the same truth IT is now time to take the votes of antiquity and observe whether the suffrages of the holy Fathers are more numerous and propitious to our adversaries or us And first let us interrogate those who by application of holy Writ rather then by their own proper motion or design declare this Purgation to be made in the day of Judgment S. Basil Ch. 15. on Esay calls the baptisme of fire that probation which is made in the day of Judgment S. Hierome upon the third of Matthem saith In this world we are baptized with the spirit in the future with fire the Apostle also giving testimony that of what sort every ones works are the fire shall try Theodoret Ephrem and Rufinus explicate the prophecy of Malachy wherein Christ is said to purge the sons of Levi of the last judgment S. Augustine lib. 20. c. 25. de Civit. Dei conjoynes the place of Esay and Malachy and applies them both to the same day and lib. 16. c. 24. de Civ. Dei he in like manner explicates the passage of the fifteenth of Genesis of the smoaking furnace and flashes of fire passing through the midst of the divided carcases to be the fire of the last day which shall discriminate the carnal persons who are to be saved by fire from the carnal ones to be damned in fire From hence we may thus argue The Fathers interpret those places of holy Writ which speak clearly of the purgation of sins and that by fire to be meant of the day of Judgment therefore they teach that the purging of souls from their sins by fire is performed in that day and consequently that that is the Purgatory fire Whoever then confesses and acknowledges the purgation of souls in the day of Judgment by the general conflagration defends Purgatory in the sense of the Holy Fathers nor can any thing from their Testimonies be alledged for the cessation of or exemption from Purgatory before that day when they teach that souls are purged by fire And hence also are they easily silenc'd who cry out that such like Testimonies are to be understood of some few remaining alive to the very last hour For the maintainers of Purgatory waving those passages which speak so in general termes will find it no small difficulty to make a Father or two speak out for them and so the whole extrinsecal authority fit to maintain Purgatory will be lost both the Scriptures themselves as hath been shewn being a verse to that conceit and absolutely respecting the day of Judgment and the holy Fathers refusing to own it Besides most of the Patrons of this intermedial fire conceive that all men shall be dead before the day of Judgment so that the same flames may serve to expiate them without the help of those of the conflagration and Judgment and whatever is otherwise affirmed by them clearly is not a consequence of their Doctrine but an invention to elude the evidence of the Fathers Let as therefore dispel this mist also with the clear attestation of such of them as speak plainly and positively in the case The Eighth Accompt Testimonies from all Antiquity maintaining the same truth St. Denys of Areopagus shall usher them in who tells us that those Psalms were wont to be sung for the Dead which make mention of the Resurrection as also such lessons as contain the promises thereof And speaking of the secure estate of good men departing he saith they perfectly understand that all will go well with them in the life everlasting through their total resurrection From whence it is evident that the hope which they generally had for the dead and which was therefore fit to be expressed in the Office for the dead depended on the resurrection for its effect and this in the very beginings of Christianity Origen is yet more clear in his third Homily on the 36. Psalm As I conceive saith he we must all be brought to that fire it went a little before which is prepared for sinners though he be a Peter or a Paul he must come to that fire but such as they shall hear it said though you pass through it the flame shall not burn you But when such a sinner as my self shall come to the fire as Peter and Paul did he shall not pass through it as Peter and Paul did In the end of the eighth book of his Commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans he saith But he who neglects to be purged by the word of God and Evangelical Doctrines is reserv'd for sad and penal purifications that the flames of Hell
often in belief of our Parents as the vulgar term it do the same thing which they did So the unlearned receiving or administring Sacraments through the confidence they have of the Church's sanctity do with good intention receive and administer them though ignorant what intention is properly due to the action It is not therefore necessary the Practise attest that which the private intention of every actor apprehends but only that which he intends joyntly with the Church though in particular ignorant of it Again it is manifestly one thing to be a practise and another to be the ground of a practise or reason for which it was instituted For a practise is received by custome or command and may have several motives or ends for its origin so that no one end can be evinced since any one may suffice much less doth pure opinion belong to practise which every Age may vary or oftener according to the greater or lesser science of Doctorâ— whereas the Practise may remain the same The five and twentieth Accompt The Nature and History of Indulgences THere lies yet another accusation against us from the use of Indulgences which we have not satisfy'd and it is also two-fold For they both urge in general that the whole force and fabrick of Indulgences falls to the ground if Purgatory-pains are not releas'd For what good do they do either in this world to the living or in the next to the departed if they neither abate nor discharge their present pains nor our future ones And again in particular what shall become of those concessions which grant expresly the releasment of a soul to every third thirtieth or single Mass Which with such and such fasts prayers alms visitations of Churches redeems or commutes so many dayes or years of sufferings Nothing can be said why all these should not declare the practise of the Church Thus they And indeed both the outward apparences and inward merit of the thing challenge a deep inspection and thorow-examination but let us at present content our selves briefly and according to the smallness of our volume and ability to discuss it No man that hath the least acquaintance and conversation with Ecclesiastical antiquity can be ignorant that all along even up to the very infancy of the Church Excommunications solemn increpations penitential ceremonies and rigorous satisfactions were in use That these rigours in diverse circumstances sometimes in consideration of the penitent himself sometimes of externs were not only abusively but canonically and profitably relaxed both the monuments of pious men and the vicissitude of humane nature assure us This relaxation was by the Latines in the Apostolical phrase called Indulgence And thus far no rational man questions their legitimate use These Indulgences being in order to such penalties as the Governours and Rulers of the Church conceived proportionable to the cancelling and extinguishing the sin they related to so that he who had legally performed them was supposed to have quitted that score before God it naturally became a question whether the remission granted by Bishops did free the penitent not only for those visible penalties which the visible Church was wont to exact or release but moreover discharge him from the account due to those sins in the sight of God and put him in the same condition as if he had actually performed the penalties themselves And S. Paul himself 2 Cor. 2. gives occasion of this question where treating of the penitent Fornicator he commands the Church to forbear to afflict him lest too much sadness should overwhelm him adding a general either truth or lenity that himself pardon'd whatsoever the Church should pardon And further giving his reason he saith For I my self if I have pardon'd any one any thing I have in the person of Christ pardon'd it for your sakes that Satan may not circumvent us for we are not ignorant of his arts To this purpose the Apostle wherein he unfolds to us the whole business of Indulgences That their matter is that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} rebuke or correption which it was fit the Church should exercise towards the sinner That there are two causes of remission the first the incapacity of the subject's bearing such Rigours who otherwise would be swallowed up by grief the second the good of the Church lest the Devil by pretext of too great severity or the like should provoke or stir up some to murmur and make a schism So that two things in the infliction and moderation of Ecclesiastical chastisements are to be regarded the good of the Person and the good of the Church But the Apostle explicates moreover the efficient cause which he makes to be three-fold the Church Himself us a Prelate of the Church and Christ our Lord For he saith that what he indulged he indulged in the person of Christ Had he spoken only of the Church and himself it would have pass'd for a Rule that as the Church knoweth not the interiour things so neither doth she judg of them or pretend to remit them But subjoyning that he did it in the person of Christ he seems to extend it to all that Christ our Lord doth or may remit and consequently to infer that the sinner is no longer as to that particular obnoxious to the Judgment of Christ This the fathers seem to countenance both universally in as much as they apply to Church-discipline that famous speech of Christ that sins are remitted or retain'd in Heaven proportionably to the severity or mildness of Apostolical proceedings upon earth And particularly S. Cyprian who affirms that Penitents may be aided before God in the abolition of their sins by the sollicitation and prerogative of Martyrs Yea Celerinus in his Epistle to Lucius beseeches those who were designed for Martyrdome which of them soever should first be crown'd to forgive the sin of two women who had deny'd their Faith Could any thing be more plain for this assertion that such sins are remitted also by God the punishments whereof the Church hath released But however that matter stood the use of Indulgences continued till the division of the Romane Empire and till the eleventh age as a certain Ecclesiastical Practise but without any special form or Court of Judicature In that age a new form was instituted Penitential Canons ordain'd which were partly redeem'd by Alms and other pious works partly by corporeal austerities and particularly by flagellation which thereupon took the name of Discipline In the XII Century their application was extended to Wars undertaken against Pirates and Infidels In the thirteenth Century the form of Jubile was instituted since which time the Harvest hath been too large for the Barns insomuch that it required the prudence of later Popes to restrain it Now in the XII Age the Schoolmen grew up a sort of men whilst closely adhering to the Fathers and Councels grave and learned whilest intent upon Philosophy and the Mysteries of
him to do all his Lord or Master might do but only act according to the limitations of the power entrusted to him yet this notwithstanding whatsoever he doth he doth it in the name and lieu of the person who employ'd him So S. Paul what he remitted of the integrity of Discipline he remitted in the person of Christ the sense being either prophetical importing that by Revelation he understood that Christ approved what he had done or natural signifying no more then that all power being from God whatsoever as the Minister of Christ he dispensed with he dispensed with upon the account of Christ The places of S. Cyprian are of more easie solution For he clearly seems to teach that Martyrs have power to obtain that remission be made in Heaven conformable to the Indulgence exercised by the Church upon Earth He doth not then imagine that by force of the Church's remission the sin is remitted also in the sight of God but that the prayers of Martyrs especially after their appearance before our Lord are effectual to that end And for those expressions of antiquity that remission made on earth is ratify'd in Heaven they suppose the Church made a right judgment of the Penitent which clears the dispute The design of those holy men was to insinuate that there is an obligation in conscience to comply with the Church's Laws and fulfil her injunctions But when through her Indulgence they are recall'd that then this divine obligation ceaseth And thus by Indulgences is the punishment from Heaven remitted which is forgiven on Earth and whatsoever is remitted here an obligation remains from Heaven and by the command of Christ to perform it We have then answer'd to Indulgences in general and shew'd that they do not much concern our Question The seven and twentieth Accompt That particular Indulgences granted for the Dead argue not the Universal practise of the Church TWO things may be disputed concerning particular Indulgences first what substance of truth they have in them secondly what they make against us And because we have mention'd Indulgences upon no other account then in defence of our explication of Purgatory against which they are no otherwise alledged then as inferring the Universal Practise of the Church we are concerned to examine them no further then to discover with what strength of Practise and Universality they are supported The measures whereof must be taken either from the Giver or Receivers First before the School men there was that I know of no noise of these Indulgences for what is reported of Gregory the Great 's granting the redemption of a soul to every thirty Masses is if I mistake not weak and grounded on no solid authority And for that other story of him that he should release seven years penalty to those who should visit certain Churches makes nothing to our purpose since the custome of following Ages shewes that Relaxation to have related only to penances enjoyned or to be enjoyned especially in the eleventh Age when the ordinary dispensation with Ecclesiastical penalties upon the death-bed or otherwise to such as were desirous to dye or live in the Church's peace and communion seems to have been instituted From that time forward how Ecclesiastical questions of Practises depending on Theology are handled at Rome take this account When any thing is demanded of the Pope the difficulties whereof surpass the ordinary administrations of his Courts a select Committee of Canon Lawyers and Divines is nominated to resolve it For the Canonists the Prince being to them the head and fountain of all law and Power it is no great marvel if they deny little or nothing to the Papal Commands For the Divines they are generally such as confusedly mingling authority with reason and so wandring up and down in uncertain Principles abhor certitude in things speculative as the apparitions of a frightful Ghost unless some Venerable authority define it Let the question now be put whether the Pope can do such a thing do you not perceive the scale already inclining to the affirmative Answer is return'd That since there neither appears in the thing it self manifest contradiction nor any exception against the general power given to S. Peter by Christ it is probable the Pope his successor may do it and that if he sees it expedient for the Church t is their advice he should do it If any one oppose that the resolution is doubtful and if the thing be in truth otherwise the Popes concession null he is soon silenc'd with the return of Valeat quantum valere potest Let it go as far as it can the Pope hath done his part This is the Courtstyle in things of this nature nor do I see much reason to quarrel at it The deliberation clearly is prudent the concession benign and liberal For the Pope himself he neither commands nor commends it to those that sue he grants it or rather denyes it not to those who urge and extort it He exhorts to exercises of piety his Indulgences are look'd on as rewards and purchased with pious and laborious austerities From the Granter then this sort of Indulgences hath no Universality since it depends not on him but on the receivers how many will accept them Nor can he be supposed to strengthen or authorize the practise who as hath been said behaves himself as purely passive and permissive sometimes restraining never extending it without compulsion The same degree of liberty hath the people He that hath a mind seeks them upon him who is not desirous of them they are not obtruded If then your plea be they are frequented by many by most I grant both But if you will have that which neither is confirmed by command nor long custome pass for a practise and that not of Individuals but an Universal one and of the whole Church I shall slowly consent Whence doth it appear to me how many they are who receive them of what rank with what intention they do it I know some that desire not to appear singular and therefore do as their Neighbours I know others that openly express their dislike There are those who are said to allow them only when there is some great cause some extraordinary Christian necessity and Cardinal Bellarmin himself is reckoned among these Others prefer quiet of mind before such less retired Devotions amongst whom I find S. Philip Nereus who is reported to have usually quitted the Roman magnificences and frequented those Churches where in silence he might pour forth his prayers to God You will urge That may justly be stiled a Practise of the Church which is done by many the Prelates seeing and not forbidding it I answer If the question only be whether they do well or ill that frequent them I easily admit they do well and according to their conscience For what can they be reproched for the worst you can say is they act ignorantly not wickedly Nor doth the câ—nnivence
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
in its right course it is therefore no less indubitable that it mis becomes God and ought not to be attributed to him You will object that the sacred stories overflow with Examples of chastisements which have no coherence with the crimes for which they are inflicted or at least grow not immediately out of them That David's son dy'd because he had made others blaspheme the name of the Lord That the Boys who scoffed at Elizeus were torn in pieces by a Bear That a Lyon destroy'd the disobedient Prophet and a thousand such like I answer in * the Theological Institutions it is sufficiently declared that there is then a necessity of a miracle or work beyond the usual and connatural course of causes when our good requires it should by us be thought that the order of Nature is shaken and overpower'd When this happens in order to punishments the connatural Government of men exacts that the usual connexion which is found in the ordinary series of things betwixt the fault and penalty should be omitted least the Revenge which God in those cases intends to signalize should seeme an effect of chance or Nature not of the uncontrouleable power of his Deity But these Examples are not to be drawn to the condition of ordinary punishments which are usual and customary in the common order of things The same humane frailty in point of discourse leads our Adversaries into another incongruity which it will not be amiss here to take notice of They affirm that God remits the guilt of sin but not the pain For as they experience in themselves when injur'd or exasperated a certain â—bullition or quick motion of spirits about the heart which though at the same time they forbear any violence yet can they not allay so do they perswade themselves that there is in God a certain aversion from a sinner which though upon his repentance it ceaseth yet do they conjecture that an intention of punishing him may still remain From whence they infer that all the guilt of the soul is pardon'd before it arrives at Purgatory but the pain is there notwithstanding to be endured But it seems they never consider that the passion or impetuosity spoken of is a corporeal motion unworthy a wise man much more unfit to be transâ—â—â—'d or apply'd to God For anger in God signifies no more then an intention to punish Whence necessarily it followes that as much as is remitted of the fault so much must be remitted of the punishment Again what can the sinner be guilty of if not of sin Of an Offence say you to God But that if Punishment ensue not thereon whom doth it prejudice The Man He is concern'd only in the Pain God against whom the offence is But God can receive no prejudice And indeed in our common speech we do not use to say sin deserves guilt but punishment so that the guilt of sin is the fault it self and not a guilt or obnoxiousness to fault but to punishment Impossible therefore it is that Pains purely upon the account of sins already remitted should be undergone in Purgatory Let them therefore consider whether the passion we experience in our selves be any thing else then a beginning or first motion of the Heart to Revenge that is to annoy the Offender that is in a spiritual substance a will to punish But though a will to punish be a different thing from an aversion to sin yet is it subsequent thereto and later then it and consequently according to the nature of the thing will first of the two cease It is therefore against Nature that the aversion should be taken away and yet the will to punish remain which is wholly grounded and originally dependent upon that aversion Whence those Divines are grosly mistaken who affirm the effect that is the Will to punish ceasing the Cause that is the aversion from the sinner is taken away and deny that the cause to wit the aversion being taken away the effect to wit the Will to punish ceases Finally if need were we could in our defence muster an army of Fathers and appeal to the common sense and Judgment of Mankind You will say perhaps at least it cannot be deny'd but that there is a previous dissimilitude betwixt God and the sinner antecedently to his Will of punishing him and that therein consists the point of offence It is answered no man explicates the nature of offence by dissimilitude but by action so that if the dissimilitude act not upon the offended party it is no offence at all And besides the dissimilitude it self is not so great as that of irrational creatures for though it disfigure yet doth it not cancel the image of God within us But all other things besides Man deserve not the honour of being called his image but his foot-step Lastly this aversion is the cause of his punishing whence without it there can be no liableness to Pain in Man no appetence thereof in God The Fourteenth Accompt Of the Punishments which we meet with in the sacred Scriptures and of the remission of sins TO what we have here delivered it may be objected that nothing is more frequent in the sacred Scripture then the account of punishments inflicted after the undoubted remission of the fault We his progeny feel yet the effects of the sins of our first Father Adam whom we no wayes doubt to reign with Christ our saviour in Heaven We read that the sins of Mâ—ses and Aaron were punished with death and yet at that same time that God familiarly conversed with them after the offence We read of the people sin which God threatens to remember in the day of Revenge and yet in the mean while acknowledg his great benificence to them and particularly his introduction of them into the Land of Promise Now Jeremiah tells us chap. 2. that the translation of the Tribe of Judah was that day of revenge Is not this saith he done unto thee because thou didst forsake the Lord thy God at that time when he led thee by the way And yet betwixt those two times how often was God reconciled to them especially in the dayes of Saâ—â—uel David and Solomon Of the sin of David we read that his son should dye and the sword never cease in his house yet are we confident of his being in favour with God and the text assures us that in the presence of Nathan his sin was transferred What then can be more evident than that punishment remains due after the sin is cancell'd So that it may well be concluded that mortal sins though remitted still challenge their reward in Purgatory and venial ones unrepented are there by those grudging flames to be expiated I answer Almost in all things which fall under our consideration we are forced to distinguish in the same propositions there being predicated sometimes simply sometimes secundum quid or according to some one respect or notion And
so in our present case treating of the remission of sins we must acknowledg an absolute and a respective remission which I shall presently descend to explicate If first I be permitted to admonish the readder of a danger he may easily incur of being drawn into errour by the manner of our conceptions or apprehensions of things For experiencing in our selves that we then properly forgive an injury when our exaspâ—rated minds return from their commotion to an even and calme temper we are apt to expect the same should happen in the remission of our sins in Gods part Which notwithstanding is quite otherwise For since there neither is nor possibly can be any temporary or indeed any relation at all in God to his creatures 't is evident that as well all relation as all change to which relation is subsequent is on the creature's side A sin therefore to be or to have been remitted signifies nothing else then that the sinner himself is or was converted From which animadversion we may easily secure our selves against the errour into which many are unâ—arily precipitated beleeving that sint are indivisibly remitted so that not by parts and in process of time but instantaneously by a certain conversion of the Divine disposition from malevolent to benign the said remission is effected But if we look upon this remission as made on the creatures side then by how much and by what degrees the soul is perfected and corrected as to the object of sin by so much and by the self-same degrees will the remission of the sin be wrought And since we have already said that the remission of sin is twofold simple and according to some respect it followes evidently that if sin be destroy'd as to that wherein its essence consists it is to be termed simply and perfectly destroy'd But if it be only destroy'd as to certain things which are accidental to the nature of the sin we must say that it is in some respects remitted but simply remaines and contrarywise it may perhaps remain in some regards though simply destroy'd sin essentially consists in an affection opposite to and incompossible or inconsistent with the love of God or Charity that is in such a disposition towards a created good as is apt to render it the ultimate end of that man so that during that affection he cannot have a will to relinquish it or esteem himselfe happy if deprived of it for ever All other affections towards the said good are not properly sin as for example the habitual inclination to desire it for it self and the conditional appetency by which we should be actually carried towards it unless it deprived us of our Beatitude and whatever other way a thing may be said to be a sin Now it is evident that this sin is divided into the internal affection and external operation both which are termed sin but so that though the extern act more vulgarly yet the intern more properly hath the nature of sin that is of evil since its nature is formally rooted in the mind and by participation only is communicated to the external action And from hence again a new equivocation springs which darkens the subject we have in hand unless we steadily fix our eye on the several senses which overshadow one the other We are then to enquire after the remission both of the internal and external sin and that both simply and comparatively It having therefore been said already that according to the well-ordere providence of God the punishments of sin signifie the evils which emerge from them and again that the guilt of sin consists in man's obnoxiousness to those punishments that is evil consequences of the sin it remains concluded that a sin is then remitted when the sinner is no longer liable to the evil fruits of his sin But it is apparent that upon every actual internal mortal sin an eternal privation of the Beatifical Vision must of its own nature ensue together with those griefs which spring either from the loss or impotence of obtaining the affected false goods or the consideration of the true ones neglected and that in the obnoxiousness thereto consists the essential guilt of mortal sin oâ— of sin properly taken whensoever therefore by true repentance the affections of the sinner are so changed that for the love of God and Beatitude he is ready to abandon the pleasures or profits which formerly he valued above all it is evident 〈◊〉 is no longer lyable to the griefs and evils springing from those affections and consequently his sin is substantially that is simply remitted Farther it is manifest that every affection to a created Good which though weakly indeed and so as not to overthrow the soul 's fix'd and setled appetency of Beatitude is yet carried towards it not purely as towardâ— a means but in some sort for its own sake must needâ— cause in the soul a privation of the Beatifical Vision and the griefs comitant therewith till it be retracted and consequently render the sinner obnoxious to thâ—se sufferings but not eternally because the love of preference of Beatitude above all things is a cause inexisting in the soul which in due circumstances is fit to rectifie that lesser inordinate affection Which affection may either primarily and originally be thus conversant about its object or be the remains of a precedent mortal distemper If the first it is not to be esteemed remitted if the second the sin may be said to be simply remitted but in some râ—spect to remaine Of external sin the same may be affirmed that through the well regulated providence of God it is punished by the ill effectâ— oâ—consequences thereof and by degrees remitted in the same proportion as by little and little those ill effects cease to flow from it And thus the sense of the holy Scriptures as to this point is â—lucidated and the seeming contrariety opens it self into a faire distinction For when God professes that in whatsoever hour the sinner shall repent of his wickedness in the self same he will remit and pardon him it is spoken of the internal sin and its proper punishments For the Church acknowledges that a perfect act of true contrition quits the scores of punishment as well as guilt I mean if it arrive at that degree that as demonstration chaseth away at once all doubtfulness and staggering incertitude so the firmness of its resolutions cuts off all manner of tendency towards the formerly beloved object Such seemes to have beene that noble one of holy St. Augustine who after that sharpe and violent conflict of the Flesh against the Spirit was suddenly translated into so perfect a quiet of mind that from thence forward he felt no attempts upon the superiour part of his soul But if the resolution be not so strong and generous but that new assaults of temptations shake it and though they cannot overthrow yet make the soul as it were to reel or stagger
Aristotle acute and sublime but when vex'd with the importunity of such as endlessly call'd upon them for answer they so confounded all that they neither throughout pursu'd the Allegory of Faith so necessary for the people nor yet were able streightned and urged by their importuners to attend the discovery of it's pure light which is only attainable by the faithful study of true and solid Philosophy and so bequeathed to their posterity an uneven incoherent and uncertain course of Doctrine These men therefore ravish'd with the consideration of the mâ—taphorical Laws of Justice betwixt God and sinners fancied certain pure pains after death and taught their followers the redemption of them by corporeal afflictions in this world And seeing with their own eyes the great fruits which some remission of penitential Canons did produce foreseeing also or rather already experiencing that Ecclesiastical Rules did or would by degrees lose their authority all beginning to subtilize and addict themselves to nice enquiries they concluded it fit to establish Indulgences upon a more solid basis and to that end pretended that the pains of Purgatory as they were extinguishable with penance so also with remissions or pardons And this they fell upon with such eagerness and numbers that they easily over perswaded Leo the Tenth then engaged against Luther to propose to the Christian World their whole fabrick with the treasures of Christ's merits and his Saints although they could never effect or extort any such thing from the Lâ—teran and Florentin Councels before him nor the Councel of Trent after him The six and twentieth Accompt That Indulgences generally taken make nothing against the ancient Doctrine THis is as far as I can comprehend the Historical progress and period of Indulgences From which it sufficiently appears that the School-men's conceit of them depends wholly upon the Metaphorical explication of Purgatory as the leaned Fisher Bishop of Rochester well observed when he said that men were first affrighted with the torments of Purgatory before they ran after those Indulgences and consequently that Indulgences are differently to be treated and explicated according to the different sentiments of Purgatory Those who believed pure pains in and successive deliveries out of Purgatory were necessitated to stretch Indulgences to the next world For what would such Indulgences signifie or with what spur would they quicken the Devotions and pious exercises of the faithful if no benefit accrue to those that accept them But on the contrary those who took not that way must go upon other grounds and suppose from what hath been said that the pains of Purgatory are not purely Vindicative but as their very nature imports Purgative and not to cease till that Purgation be perfected by the fire of conflagration They must suppose also that there is no proportion betwixt merits or prayers and the punishment due to sins and that this exchange and traffick of merits and pains smells too much of the Banquier's Laws to be formally transferred into Christian Divinity and apply'd to God But let us take a strict account of this new-found treasure They pretend a vast treasure and magazine of Merits laid up in Heaven What do they call merit Good works recompensed or not recompensed If recompensed how come they to superabound or why do they tell us of them If not recompensed what conceit would they frame in us of God who make him unable to reward his servants merits or leave him in their debt But we have shew'd in our * Theological Institutions that merit is nothing else but a good work fructifying to reward whence necessarily it ensues that it is either rewarded or no merit Besides what shall become of that Axiom God rewards beyond all merit drawn from the clear testimonies of the Apostle that the sufferings of this life are not proportionable to the future glory But go too heap sin upon sin will these Divines say that the punishments due to them exceed the merits of Christ nay even of one drop of his blood or of the least particle of a drop If they dare not to what end do they accumulate this treasure To what purpose do they add the merits of Saints to those of Christ For fear peradventure lest the punishment due to sin should exhaust the whole source of Christs merits Alas how can you value the least drop of his How can you assign a particle so minute as not to exceed the greatest debt imaginable If the least of Christs merits be dispensed it is too much and exceeds all punishment It is therefore consequent that Christ must long since have offer'd to his Father more merit then all the sins that ever shall be perpetrated can require nor indeed could he possibly do otherwise every least merit of his being perfectly infinite So that Christ's merits must absolutely be taken out of the scales if there must be an equality and exactness of communicative Justice For it is simply impossible even in respect of God's absolute power that so little should be offered to God of Christ's merits as not infinitely to overweigh all that enters the ballance with them It appears then that all this Doctrine is incoherent and incongruous and consequently to be rejected And if our discourse have hitherto been rightly pois'd we can no longer doubt of the two opinions concerning Indulgences which ballance sinks down with it's gravity which flyes up with its levity For first whereas they put Ecclesiastical penalties to be such as equalize the crime that may be understood two wayes The first that they should equalize the pains due in Purgatory which if it were in it self true what messenger could assure them of it For S. Gregory bears us witness that the Revelations which discover'd the state of souls at that time were new and consequently unknown to the Apostles and their successors But besides it being confessed that the lightest pain of Purgatory out-vyes all the sufferings of this world how can some determinate quantity of these be equivalent to those The other explication then of equivalence is that such a penance inflicted and performed would by its exemplarity cause such reparation in point of Ecclesiastical Discipline as the fault had caused miscarriage and transgression And this evidently may well be determin'd by the discreet arbitration of prudent censors of manners So that hence also it is apparent which opinion is to be embraced Let it be then established that Ecclesiastical Indulgence remits no more then what the Church imposed or thought fit to be imposed for the restauration of Discipline and that it affords no argument for remission of sin or pain either in this world or in the next other then the change which is made in the sinner himself or the Church scandalized by him As to that then of S. Paul it is answered that he who in some certain business is constituted Attâ—rney or procurator for another cannot thence take upon
lib. 1. lect. 5 The diminution of Gods honour what it signifies The true ground of well doing Of Pain and Punishment and Torment No extrinsecal Agent can annoy us but by our body Every act of will must needs be voluntary Corporeal Action that is Rarefaction and Condensation cannot reach indivisible subjects No not Instrumentally How man is notwithstanding subject thereto That fire is taken Motaphorically as well as Darkness gnashing of teeth worm of Conscience c. * Peripat Institutions Book 5. Lessons 3. 4. That souls in Purgatory would endure all their Torments with extreme pleasure There can be no proportion betwixt sin and fire Nor betwixt time and a spiritual Act Length of time augments corporeal grief or pleasure but hath no affect on pure spirits No act of a separated soul can bechanged without a new Conjunction with the body unless miraculousâ—ly * Peripat Inst. Book 5. l. 1. par 2. 3. Every Act of a separated soul is made upon full view of all circumstances and consequently inalterable * Peripat Just book 5. Lesson 2. 3 4. God governs his World not as a Prince but as a perfect Architect An Objection from Examples in Scripture of punishments which have no connexion with the fact Answer * Tom. 2. lib. 2. lect. â— par 2 3 4 5 6. The punishment of soul cannot outlâ—st their guilt Objection from the dissimilitude betwixt a sinner and God Answer Examples out of Scriptures of sins punished after remission sâ—ereof How sins are said to be remitted Simply and respectively What sin propeâ—iy consists in It's divisioâ— into internal and external Internal mortal sin when properly remitted Interâ—â—â— venial 〈…〉 when remitted Of the remission of external sin How children are punished for their parents sins Sometimes suddenly oâ— miraculously Sometimes to the 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 of their race or â—â—tion But most common 〈◊〉 to the 3d. and 4th generation * Tom. 1. lib. 1. lect 4. * Tom. 2. lib. 3. lect. 10 p. 1. 2. c. What the punishment of sin is No grief can cease without the admission of some pleasure A perfâ—ct act of contrition discharges punishment as well as guilt The souls iâ— Purgatory may as well merit for themselves as for others There can be no Purgation where there is no coinquiâ—â—ion Scripture and Fathers still inculcate a Purgation which the adversaries render impossible by cancelling all sin at the instance of separation The Greek Church had good reason to reject their explication of Purgatory Nothing but waâ—â— of Charity can debar separated soul from the Beatifical Vision A position acknowledged by all true Divines And â—â—â—â—â—ted by the Florenâ—iâ—â— Councel and Benedict 11th Spirits know not by discourse but by simple apprehension or intuition in which there can be no errour The thoughts and affections of the soul in this life point out it's future unchangeable state no less perfectly then the disposition of the Embrio in the womb determines the feature and complexion off the future man Why the soul cannâ—â— be dispossessed of her depraved affections as well as from her erroâ—eous Judgments in the stâ—â—eâ— of separaâ—â—on The Adversaries several mistakes in explicating the nature of the soul When the Scriptures speak of fire they arâ— either to be understood metaphorically or of the fire of conflagration A passage of S. Aug. cleared Eucheriâ—â— Lugd. explicated Gregory the Great and Veâ— â—edes Authority pondered who advance nothing herein as Doctors but meâ—rly as Historians The difference betwixt the Visions pretended by the Adversâ—ries and Prophetical ones That the former are not attested by any miracles That no Rules are givâ—… Divâ—â—â—s bâ—w 〈…〉 examine them The quality of the Persons that see theâ—… That the Danger of errour is greater at first then afterwards Of the force of Pantasy The impressions whereof are often more lively then any which are caused by our senses The reason thereof from the â—â—iding in of some one object whilst all the rest are by sleep shut one of doors Which may happen also at other times What is required in Visions to give them some credit Of Historical câ—râ—â—iâ—ty and it's degrees First Secondl Thirdl Fourth and last degree Of all which these pretended Visions fall short As appears by these related by â— Gregory And V. Bede And strange discourses of Apparitions received waking or sleeping How farre they may be natural Even to the sudden possessing of a science before unknown How passionate persons come to apprehend the condition of their absent friends Whose transport hath been the rise of most of our stories concerning the souls in Purgatory The Adversaries Objection of the usefulness of our prayers if this be true And chiefly from the predetermination of the Day of Judgment independently of our prayers Which is first answered By shewing that the means are predestinated as well as the end In what manner and sense our Prayers benefit the dead in general And in particular That it imports not what particular fancy they may have who pray for the dead as to the relief given thereby Not whether this Doctrine become a means of lessening the number of unworthy Priests The Vulgar opinion can neither claim Vniversality of place Nor time Nâ—r do the present Churches words or actions declare any suc practise at this day even in the western part of it As appears by her missalls Breviaries and Rituals Which unanimously respect the day of Judgment And have not one clear word throughout them all of any oâ—her delivery Their rashness who because they can no longer presume to free the souls departed at their own time and pleasure refuse to continue to pray for them The consequences of both opinions examined Which equally agree in continuing to supplicate to the worlds end Where it ought rather to be converted into thanksgiving for those who are set free if the vulgar opinion be true The intention is not alwayes visiblâ— iâ— every action Whether Indulgences either in general or particular make any thing against the truâ— Doctrine The first and proper use of remission or Indulgence in general The occasion of its being stretch't farther Fron S. Paul 2 Cor. 2. And some passages in the Fathers The posture of Indulgences in the 11th Age The design of the School men to establish them on a new basis Though they could never procure any Councel to favour it The School-men's Idea of Purgatory according to the Metaphorical explication thereof Lead them to stretch Indulgences to the next world And invent an imaginary treasure of Christs and his Saints merits * Tom. 1. lib. 1. lect. 14. Whereas every good work of the Saint is more then rewarded And every merit of Christ exceeds all proportion of demerit or punishment Of Ecclesiastical penalties How such a Penalty may be said to correspond or be equivalent to such a crime With a solution to the objection from S. Paul And some Fathers Particular Indulgences were not appâ—yed to the souls departed before the Schools How thiâ— come since to be applyed that way Which the Pope neither commands nor commends An Objection from the Prelates corn vence at least Aâ—sâ—… is a Vâ—… rather 〈…〉 Viâ—e in them And will be till the Demonstration of the contrary Doctrine be generally acknowledged The last objection from the universality of the vulgar opinion at least since the Schools Answer There are three degrees of them the first from suspicion The second from probabilities The third from Demonstration The first rather obliges the Church to a farther Inquiry The second still admits it The third is not pretended to in the Case An opinion may be held by all the men of the Church and yet not by the Church That is by them as believers that is grounded upon and preserving inviolate Tradition That the Vulgar opinion neither is nor ever was taught as a pâ—int of faith But as a pious credulity The Conclusion