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
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
other way of attaining Beatitude but that great and Royal high-way of charity since Christ our Lord his Apostles and all other Fathers preach no other Doctrine to introduce any obstacle of Beatitude without their authority were clearly to controul the discipline of all Christian institution and put a bold exception to their general Rule Besides true Theology assures us that perfect charity is a disposition necessitating or determining Almighty God to communicate himself to those that bring it so that he can no more deny himself to be the object of a soul in perfect charity then forbear the concreation of a Rational soul when the Embrio is fully formed or the infusion of existence when the actions of inferiour causes requires it But it is manifest that those who put the soul in the first instant of its separation to be endowed with the same eminence of charity which it hath or shall have when it is admitted to the fruition of God and yet notwithstanding for sometime debar it thereof must needs suppose that disposition of soul not sufficient and adequate but require something else whereof neither the Scripture nor holy Fathersâ—â—ve us the least hint who all unanimously acknowledg no other partition-wall betwixt God and us but our Sins Finally the Florentine Councel and Benedict the eleventh seem clearly enough to have condemned this their Doctrine the latter determining that the souls of the Faithful which have nothing to be purged or expiated do immediately after their departure and before the General Day see the face of God the former adding thereto that the souls of such as dye presently after Baptism or such as after death are purged are immediately received into Heaven By both which expressions this may indubitably be concluded to be meant That nothing but what may be purged that is what stains and contaminates that is sin can deprive a soul from its admission to Heaven and the full sight of God Let us subsume But according to our Adversaries all who dye not in mortal sin after the first moment in which they are said to be perfectly converted to God have nothing now remaining to be expiated but are already after death cleansed Therefore they are all immediately after the first moment received into Heaven Is it not evident that the determination of this Pope and Councel subverts their whole fabrick of Purgatory For though they endeavour to equivocate yet the proper and dogmatical signification can be no other then that which we have given and the secondary explication of purging for enduring pains which do not cleanse the soul from any filth is harsh and improper and by themselves avoided when they come to explain themselves though in familiar conversation with those especially who understand not the different senses they make use of it that they may not seem to vary from the language of the Church and their Fore-Fathers The Seventeenth Accompt That the Ignorance of spiritual natures begat this Opinion FOr a conclusion at length of this part I shall observe to the Reader that this mistake of the school men proceeds from a higher principle Their not adhering to a certain Doctrine delivered by Saint Thomas of Aquine and by his school received He teaches that in abstracted spirits there is neither discourse nor any manner of composition but purely a simple apprehension so that errour and falsity can have no place in them That holy Doctor understood that all these were originally in us from the body and therefore could not in immaterial substances be expected For we find by experience that composition and discourse are begotten by the successive beatings of the memory on the Phantasie which intercourse if once you bar it is impossible that indivisibles should be capable of succession It is therefore certain that pure spirits contemplate all things as it were with one sight or glance and since with them all that relates to science is transacted by naked Definitions which no wordish equivocation can obscure it is evident that falshood cannot reach them there being no precipitation where no delay is required Nither the principles then nor their connexion can be concealed from them nor consequently the truths depending on them This may perhaps become more intelligible if we reflect that the Soule when first infused into the Body is such as the quality of the Matter it is united unto exacts and determines it to be because a natural action that is which doth not exceed the rank and limits of causes cannot but act according to the existence of the subject and do that which is conformable thereto and apt to be produced thereof But Death also is a natural action making that which of a man can be made to wit a spiritual substance which we call a soul And as the disposition of the Embrio or seminal concreation delineats the future man so that man to have had in the course of his whole life these and these thoughts and affections designes and points out by the impressions left the future condition of his Soul So that death produceth such an Entity as from the man so disposed is naturally producible and the Entity so made continueth such till it be aâ— it were new moulded which is the worke of the Resurrection For the spiritual being of the soul is what the whole course of map's life hath made it and bears that respect to the antecedent life which the being at Rome hath to the travelling to Rome or the being in health hath to the cure which was wrought by the Physician's hand Whence it appears that in the next world there can be no more motion since rest and not motion is the terme and period of motion So that for the soul to know to be joyful or to be sad in the future world is nothing else but to remain in that act of knowledge joy or sadness into which by the force of Death and dissolution it was translated And this is the very reason why every resolution made is from thencesorâ—h immutable because there are no instruments no diversity of parts whereof some may act on others no distinctioâ—matter and Agent all which are requir'd to effect a mutation But some may wonder how the soul can be disengaged from the false opinions with which she was here possessed and not have power to devest herself of the affections depending on those erroneous judgements To whom we must answer that this happens not through any discourse but by the precise stroak of death For it being impossible to a spiritual nature at one and the same time to assent to two contradictories seeing and comprehending the contradiction and nothing as hath been said being able to escape the knowledge of a separated soul it is evident that truth must overcome falsâ—â—y and since one of them only can take possession truth must abide and errour give place and this through the very disposition of the soul it self by Death But the affections
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
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
same that the Schoolmens and consequently the opinion of the men of the Church the same that the School-mens it followes not that it is in the Church otherwise then in the School men So that if it be but opinion in the School-men and such as may be changed it 's being dispers'd through the Church will not add to its certainty but by consent of the whole Church it will be alwayes subject to change and if sufficient reason be brought justly to be changed It is then so far from following that an opinion by being the opinion of the whole Church cannot be changed that on the contrary very unexpectedly it appears to be mutable and that in fit circumstances it ought to be changed It is easie to gather from hence what answer is to be afforded them who go about to accuse the Church of circumventing us affirming they were taught as a point of faith thaâ— souls might be delivered out of Purgatory before the day of Doom both by other prayers and especially by those which have Indulgences annexed to them Of whom I demand were they taught that this was the perswasion of all the Pastors of the Church If they affirm it I cannot deny but they themselves were circumvented But let them not accuse me from whom they have received no such Doctrine I who have detected the Legierdemain if any such there be why must I suffer what they deserve who put the slâ—r upon them Let them complain of their own Doctors let them call upon them to prove what they have taught which if they cannot do let them find them guilty and accordingly punish them but withall give me thanks for the discovery of the cheat But if in truth they have been taught no otherwise then that it is a pious credulity that souls are before the day of Judgment delivered which if they take the pains well to examine them they shall find to be the meaning of their Doctors who hath circumvented them but their own selves through sloth and negligence consequently let them lay the guilt at their own doors What I have in this whole disputation performed let them in Gods name judg whom he hath been pleas'd to make fit Arbitrators in Theological Controversies What I have aimed at was this That antiquity did believe that men in the next world whether their souls are beatifi'd or no were not admitted locally to Heaven till the day of the final conflagration That then every ones works were to be examined that the workâ— of the imperfect whose foundation was on Christ were to burn and by that means their sins not without detriment to be remitted That the opinion which holds pure pains and those in the interval betwixt Death and Judgment either of their own nature or by prayers determinable is new in the Church built upon slight grounds such as are uncapable in things Theological to beget faith obnoxious to many and weighty objections and finally by it 's Patrons weakly defended These endeavours I have crowded into this small Volume for the benefit and conveniencies of such as take delight in Dissertations of this nature FINIS ERRATA Page 12. l. penult r. inviolable p. 28. l. penult r. privationâ—… p. 30 l. 9 r. Judgments and for it r. is ibid l. 11. r. saying 〈…〉 32. l. 26 r. soul p. 36. l. 5 r. advantages p. 38. l. 5. r. denunciatiâ—… p. 39. l. 3. r. regions p. 40. l. 11. r. eternal puni p. 41. l. 16. for 〈◊〉 r. that p. 43. l. 10. for are r. have p. 46. l. 1. r. lections p. 〈…〉 l. 2. r whole ibid l. 15. for the r. is ib. l. 23. r. correct p. 54. 〈…〉 20. r. us p. 75. l. 17. r. decision p. 83. l. 6. r. they ib. 7. r. imploy 20. r. others 23. r. connected 27. r. secures p. 87. l. 12. r. fetcht p. 103. l. 7. r. adapt p. 106. l. 18. r. sensible p. 121. l. 3. r. peoplâ—â— p. 122. l. 8. r. purging ib. 12. r. their p. 123. l. 6. r. on p. 126. l. 1â— r. ordered p. 128. l. 5. for of r. and p. 130. l. 23. r. adapt p. 1â—â— l 9. r. model of p. 137. l. 10. r. subintromission p. 153. l. 19. â— concresion p. 156. l. 16. r. informant p. 157. l. 16. r. stock p. 1â—1 l. ult. r. whole delay 166. l. 2. apparitions 168. l. 21. r. witnessâ—â— p. 171. l. 19. r. supposed p. 172. l. 2. r. detect â—b 16. r. perfectly p. 174. l. ult r. many 175. l. 26. r. sprightly p. 178. i. 16. r. sight p. 179. l. ult. r. foster p. 182. l. 26. r. were p. 184. l. 26. r. decrees p. 186. l. 18. r. Directories ib. 25. exibilated p. 187. l. 5. r. have p. 188. i' th title r. came ib. l. 9. r. least of p. 189. l. 19. r. are urged innumerable p. 190 l. 14. r. Cells p. 123. l. ult. r. distracted p. 212. l. 3. r. distribution p. 238. l. 9. r. commutative The Adversaries explication of Purgatory The Authors Explication of the same The first Text from 2 Mach. The Second Text 1 Cor. 15. examined The Third Text 1 Cor. 5. The Fourth Text Heb. 10. The Fift Text 2 Tim. 1. Ton 2. lib. 3. lect. 4. par 11. lect. 5. par 8. lect. 3. p. 15. 16 17. Proof of prayer for the blessed from ancient Liturgies And Fathers The importance of clearing Antiquity in this point How S Bernard came to be deceived therein Two effects of the Day of Judgment What the Fathers mean when they affirmed souls to be kept in certain receptacles till the last Day A particular vindication of most of them Why the rewards of the day of Judgment are so much inculcated First Reason Second Reason Third and chief Reason The Resurrection is the basis of all Faith S. Pau's prayer for Onesiphorus explicated The Sixt Text Mat. 5. The Seventh Text Luke 12. The Eighth Text 1 Cor. 3. Which must be understood of Venial sins and of the day of Judgment Though S. Augustine sometimes otherwise extounds The ninth Text Mat. 12. * By M. Whelock 1644. Nothing can be a part of our Beliefe but what is banded down to us by uninterrupted tradition from the Apostles Proofs thâ—â— the Adversaries opinion came not to us in that manner lib. 4. c. 22. The Adversaries suppose all venial sins to be remitted in the instant of dissolution by an act of Contrition The Authors explication So taat tâ—â— punishâ—… which remain 〈…〉 be infliâ—… purely 〈…〉 of revenge for past offences Of Publick Revenge Of Retaliation An ebjection answered Of priuâ—â—â— revenge The wisdom of Oâ—d cannot permit him to inâ—â—iâ— such pains as neither aâ—â—il the sufferer or any other Another objection from Gods attributâ— of justice answered All punishments which have no respect to some good are effects of cruelty noâ— justice A third objection from the injury done to God by robbing him of his honour Answer * Tom. 1.