and thus it went Seint Marie clane Uirgine Moder Jesu Christ Nazarene Onfo seild thin Godrich On fang haali widh the in Gods rich Seint Marie Christs burr Meidens clenhad Moders flur Dielie men sinnen rixe in min mod Bringe me to pinne widh self God He that would master the Original must study Chaucer a long time but in our Matthew's plain Latin it sounds thus Sancta Maria Christi Thalamus Virginalis Puritas Matris Flos Dele mea Crimina regna in me Due me ad foelicitatem Cum solo Deo And in my plainer English thus Holy Mary Christ's Bed Virginal Purity Flower of thy Mother Blot out mine Offences reign in me Guide me to Felicity where God only is Whether this were likely to be either sent from Heaven or fit to be sent towards Heaven let the Reader judge We must return to our Hermite The Parents of one only Daughter his Neighbours brought in a sack their dead Child beseeching him to trie if he could not restore its life The humble man far from holding himself worthy to work such a miracle seemed not to heed and went out to his accustomed work They had shak'd the Corpse out on the floor finding it at his return he fell to his Prayers and continued his importunities till on the third day he perceived the Girl coming towards him as he was prostrate at the Altar and delivered her to her joyful Father and Mother This was done at our Lord's Altar but lest our Ladies Altar be thought to come short know that having laid another dead male Child on it their Son came smiling off to the admiring old people Poor Godric having lived threescore long years in this Wilderness had two sore bouts more with Beelzebub He betook him to his Bed the last eight not able to stir without lifting Two Divels come suddenly and haleing his bed and all said they would hurry him into Hell for a doting old man that had out-lived all his wisdom and was become a fool But he fortified himself with the sign of the Cross and upon his prayer they quit the place The last Encounter I find recorded was thus He laid one day all alone upon his Bed those that used to be about him heard him though then at some distance calling aloud They found him lying all along on the floor naked after they had laid him in bed again they askt him Why he would do so He replied The Devil came on me so suddenly that I had not time to hold up my Cross shewing them a lump upon his head which he had got by that Malignant's so violent thrusting him against a Block At length he found Death there and lies buried in the North-side of his Oratory below the Steps of St. John Baptist's Altar The same Author affords us a trim relation concerning a certain Monk of Evesham who having by a voluntary abstinence and watchings not only neglected but done outrage to his body fell at last into a Temptation as Matthew styles it and so he might well He must needs know by some extraordinary Revelation what the treatment of Souls was presently upon their dissolution To this end he makes importunate Applications to Christ to the blessed Virgin but with special expectation from St. Nicholas his intercession At length that Saint manuducts him into three or four sorts of Purgatories where he finds several of his known friends under divers sorts of inexpressible Punishments which as some of them said they must undergo till the day of Judgment unless before that either the Justice of God were fully satisfied by their sufferings or the munificent Devotions of the living gave them freedom Then going on to describe for such as had attained that immunity pleasant Fields c. just like those the Philosophical Poets or Poetick Philosophers long since made for the old Heathen But in order to this Discovery and to confirm the poor delirous Monk in a belief that what he should see touching this was infallible he must first find behind the Altar dedicated to St. Laurence in their Oratory a Cross which they used to adore on such a day With joy enough it comes to pass even so He falls a kissing the mouth and eyes of this Crucifix when by and by he felt something with a grateful warmness trickle down upon his face and wiping it off with his hand he found it Pure blood Well beyond measure now transported he saw flow from the Image full as much as a Phlebotomist would ordinarily take when he had struck a Vein Whereupon though he were not sure whether he might sin in so doing yet he could not chuse but swallow down a little thereof but the rest he carefully preserved What is let me tell you very strange this weak decrepid Man could not merit to have all these Celestial discoveries till he had not only undergone the usual Discipline of Rods from the Fraternity but not till he had received I know not how many lashes six times over from the hands of St. Nicholas himself who it seems or else the Monk was mistaken afforded him both Instruction and Correction in manner and form aforesaid Vide Matth. Paris circa Annum 1196. Regis Richardi Primi Tempore I cannot but here insert what I find our Author very intent upon in two several places The Fate of William Rufus This King had indeed not only a close hand but something an heavy hand towards the Clergy especially Abbots and in time of their Vacancies would often keep them long in his own hands induced perhaps thereto by what he had seen in the days of his Father when he of St. Albans put fair for the depriving William the first of his newly setled Royalty For this these Men from whom nothing of God's secret Judgment must be concealed tell us That the very night before Rufus received his deaths wound by the glance of an Arrow from a Tree in the new Forest Anselm the Archbishop had an admirable Vision and thus it was All the English Saints in Heaven put up a complaint against the King Almighty God in wrath bids St. Alban draw near gives into his hand a burning Dart and bids him take revenge for himself and all the rest upon the Tyrant He takes it throws it down to the Earth and gives Satan commission to put all in execution Well William is slain and his dead Body at the same hour met two days journey from the place by the Earl of Cornwal I do not remember any such Title on foot at that time on the back of a shag-hair'd ugly black Goat The Earl adjur'd the beast to speak what that was It replied He was carrying William Rufus to his Judgment Yet we are informed too by honest Matthew as well as by all other Historians That his body was solemnly interr'd the very next day after he was slain at Winchester Do but lie all this together and you will find somewhat I can tell you worth your noting
and therefore several Patrons are there sought out the more effectually to inform them Since we are sure there 's no Mediator betwixt God and man but the Man Christ Jesus Since to be adored is so peculiarly due to our great Creator Since to intercede is exclusively to all others in things pertaining to God the Office of our Saviour We dare not make the Angels or Saints departed the Objects of our Devotions especially since it is written certainly for our instruction See thou do it not Revel 22. 9. But they will give us or at least we must take lieve to view a little by the perspective of their own Authors those immediate down-right Applications they would have it believed St. Hierom for they are publisht with the third part of his Epistles though the style plainly speaks them five hundred years younger had not only accepted but rewarded being now in Heaven a favourite 1. Therefore we must make no question but St. Hierom is equal to any of the Apostles John the Baptist having accompanied him soon after his departure out of this life unto St. Augustine's Cell purposely to assure that Father he would not take it ill if St. Hierom were as much venerated as himself and to be feared above the rest of the Saints having more power to prevail with God for whatsoever he please than almost any other has We must understand too that Christ himself with all the glorified Souls and the Blessed Virgin went out to meet the Spirit of St. Hierom the same instant it left the flesh to conduct it with more honour into Heaven 2. Where it had not been long before three men dying all about a time were brought before the Judgement Seat of God and were upon the point of being condemned to everlasting Chains when St. Hierom accompanied by John Baptist and St. Peter desired those three might be given back to him for the reverence and devotion I use the very words I find they had always born him His suit would not be denyed He then takes them shews them Heaven Hell yea and Purgatory then joyns them to their bodies again and sends them unto earth for twenty days under this condition that if in that space they could perform the Penance due to their sins they should then be admitted into Heaven 3. During which twenty days they conversed with several persons here told many strange and wonderful things particularly one of them said That whilst he was dying many Devils beset his bed till St. Hierom came to send them away and gave him a better guard of Angels at the time prefixed departed this life over again and were buried together in the Yard of that Church where St. Hierom's body lyes And our Author is confident of their Salvation 4. Thither upon a certain day when his body was to be removed from its first earthy into a Marble Tomb an innumerable company of people came crowding The restoring of sight to the blind the freeing of Demoniacks upon the touch of his Reliques were at that time nothing But a certain poor Widow having one only little Son was there and the Child pressed to death in the throng In a sad taking she carries her lifeless darling to the Grave whence St. Hierom had been taken with these words Holy Glorious Hierom I will never go hence till thou restorest me my boy As soon as ever his body touch'd the ground the Soul return'd again And the like befel another also that had been no less than three days before buryed whom his father took up and cast into the Sepulchre of St. Hierom receiving him immediately from thence alive whole and sound 5. We are reminded that St. John the Baptist made one expedition more on his Birth-day into the Church of Alexandria accompanied by St. Hierom both clad alike in rich and precious Garments In great State and Majesty they came hand in hand through the body of the Church top-full of people and in two golden Chairs placed there by something like two most beautiful Youths for the very nonce set themselves directly before the Altar a good while they remain'd silent civilly offering to each other the precedence of speech at last it was agreed that because the day was solemn for St. John's Birth the other should first chaunt his Praises which he did succinctly and elegantly beyond humane expression But then St. John fell to work and so extol'd his Companion that he left in the good Bishop Cyril whose Vision this was a great deal of joy and admiration and he published what he had seen unto all the people 6. A certain man was infinitely troubled to think what condition his Nephew's soul a fine but wild young man lately dead was in at last by importunities St. Hierom set him before his eyes manacled all in burning fetters because he had forgot at his last Confession to acknowledge how vainly he had been addicted to Plays 7. Subjoyn to this another story of an excellently featured young man who had entred into the Monastical life but was by his elder Brother over-perswaded to marry which having done the same brother of his abused his Bed and both he and the offending wife were slain by the hand of this youngster After which he fled the City turn'd High-way-man committed many flagitious Acts but in the midst of all forgot not to recommend himself to St. Hierom and let scarce any day go over his head but once before night he would perform something that was good to his honour Well at last St. Hierom catcht him by this device He put himself on the way where this Votary of his used with his Companions to play his pranks habited like a travelling Merchant is assaulted by him but the lifted-up arm and drawn sword both remain'd unmoveable in the Air at which being strangely inraged the Robber call'd his fellows to fall on The seeming Merchant besought him even for St. Hierom's sake to hear him which words being uttered by St. Hierom himself wrought so as they all listned to his advices and became new men 8. Let us fetch our next remarque as my Author has done out of Egypt One of the same long Robe a Monk I mean had for twelve years been an example of singular Piety to all his fellows and so chaste he was that he abhor'd the sight of a woman worse than of a Toad The Devil though that old Serpent made many assaults upon and grievously tempted him night and day for two months he valiantly resisted him by fasting prayer and providently putting himself under St. Hierom's protection At length it so fell out that his Father fell desperately sick and above all things desired to have one sight of this long absented son before his death which would infallibly be hastned and ascertained to him if he had it not The scrupulous vertue of the man was such as had not all the Convent perswaded him he would sooner have suffered his father to dye for sorrow
God who super-added the word to the sign The Relation is mutual betwixt the Word and the Sign as betwixt the Form and the Matter The Word as the Form the Sign as the Matter Conjoyn them and they are a Sacrament By the Word we are to understand the Mandate of Christ enjoyning us to use them and to expect spiritual Grace thereby So we think we have good right to root out the other two and whole five supernumerary Sacraments since Confirmation and Extreme Unction have indeed the Element but wanting the Word ought not to be accounted Sacraments since Absolution and Ordination have no Element since Matrimony has no promise of Grace And thus we may more than ghess at the just number of Sacraments Wherefore laying aside the Supposititious we find but two Sacraments of the Gospel Baptism and the Lord's Supper In the first of these we have no Dispute with the Church of Rome but will I hope in some sort be cleared by our Disquisitions concerning the latter save about such trifles as their mixing of Salt and Spittle their Exorcisms their suffering Women sometimes to administer it c. Come we then to that which is commonly called the Communion How far the real Presence of Christs Body is allowed by us I shall in the first place declare We are then to distinguish betwixt the outward and inward Act of the Communicant In the outward with our bodily mouths we receive really the Elements of Bread and Wine In the inward we do by Faith really receive the Body and Bloud of the Lord that is We are truly and indeed by Vertue of the Covenant where the Sacrament is a Seal made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthening of our souls Our Adversaries of the Roman Perswasion have made such a confusion of these things that for the former they deny that after Consecration there remains any Bread or Wine at all to be received though Paul does in my mind give a strong intimation 1 Cor. 11. 26. 10. 16. That it is Bread at breaking or distribution at eating or participation Then for the second they affirm That the body and blood of Christ is in such a manner present under the outward shewes of Bread and Wine as whosoever receives the one be he good or bad Believer or Infidel does therewith really receive the other A Tenent not consistent with that place in John 6. where our Saviour saith He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath Eternal life abiding in him and I will raise him up at the last day Hence hath that Reverend Usher often before quoted in that Answer to the Jesuits Challenge where you may find many clear testimonies out of the Fathers to this purpose framed this Syllogism The Body and Blood of Christ is received unto Life by all that do receive it and by none unto condemnation But that which is outwardly delivered in the Sacrament is not received by all unto Life but by many unto Condemnation Therefore that which is outwardly delivered in the Sacrament is not really the Body and Blood of Christ. What was his last shall be my first proof out of St. Augustin handling this very place The Sacrament of this thing viz. of eating the flesh of Christ is taken from the Lord's Table by some unto life by some unto destruction but the thing it self whereof it is a Sacrament is received by every Man that doth receive it unto Life and by none that is made Partaker thereof unto destruction Now seriously if Protestants could adde no more Arguments to this and my self were as much an Adorour of that Way and Church as ever I was I am perswaded that it alone had been sufficient by the blessing of God to have gained me to the Reformed Belief But let us ponder well the Words of Institution 'T is true This is my Body and This is my blood is the Phrase used But were not the Sacraments of the Old Testament instituted with the same manner of Speech This is my Covenant and the slaying of the Lamb called the Passover The former is presently expounded by God himself when he says It shall be a Sign of the Covenant The other is known to have been the Commemoration of passing by the Israelites when the first-born of Egypt were slain Thus our Saviour having said This is my body goes on This do in Remembrance of me Luke 22. 19. The Disciples having been trained up to the meaning of the Old Sacraments could not and we if we will compare them with the New need not think the Expression at all obscure As the Lamb was the Passover As the Sign of the Covenant was the Covenant As the Rock was Christ So we acknowledge the Bread to be his body In the Institution of the other part of this Sacrament the Words are clear Matth. 26. He took the Cup blessed and gave it them saying Drink ye all of this for it is my Blood of the New Testament or as St. Paul and Luke relate it This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood How is the Cup or that conteined therein the New Testament otherwise than as a Sacrament of it And generally for all Sacraments the Rule is thus laid down by St. Augustin If Sacraments did not some way resemble the things whereof they are Sacraments they should not be Sacraments at all for this resemblance they do often bear the names of the things As therefore the Sacrament of the Body of Christ is after a certain manner the Body of Christ c. In another place he tells us the seven Ears of Corn were seven years and the Blood is called the Soul of Man after the manner of Sacraments It 's Evident the Fathers though they delighted to imitate our Saviour's manner of locution yet their meaning even when they followed the Metaphor through large discourses were not dissonant from that of Origen who after he had playd the Rhetorician in this sort concludes Et haec quidem de typico symbolicóque Corpore If you will but observe what strange relations my Authour gives you have full lieve to examine the truth of them though for my part I believe them What can you think but that some by-ended Priests the better to increase their esteem with the People such as Marcus Radbertus Damascen and Amalalarius there named wrought up the Vulgar Ignorance to an amazed Admiration of those mens power who could perform such great wonders and were the Makers of that they were taught to adore In Charles the Bald's time this Phansie had got some ground and several Questions and Debates arose about it That Emperour required Ratrannus to deliver his thoughts upon it whereunto he obeyed in such terms as Turrian the Jesuite is forced to say That to cite Bertram so is Ratrannus more usually named What is it else but to say The Heresie so he thinks fit to phrase it of
once-enjoyed comforts thou wilt soon confess thy best pleasing or most gainful sin to have been full dear bought and that sweet condition of peace and joy in believing far to fetch So that thy self shall ever after be a witness That the Doctrine of Perseverance rightly understood brings along with it what is as proper to the repelling of sin as it is to the establishing of Consolation Since the fear of losing Gods favourable Aspect hath something more of terrible in it than the unconverted who never had any feeling of such matter can apprehend I will fold up this sheet with the words of St. John Whosoever is born of God sinneth not for his seed remaineth in him 1 Joh. 3. 9. And leave it to you to find out his meaning if it import any thing less than the being sealed unto the Day of Redemption Ephes. 1. 13. 4. 30. LETTER VIII HAving made some reflections upon those words of yours when in our last discourse we rambled over many things very immethodically you named a great and pious Doctor of the Protestant Church who from the Pulpit had long since told you that the difference betwixt the Papists and us lay principally in this That we believed not so much as they So great an inadvertencie was then upon me that I made but little reply not indeed reaching so far as to deduce any objection which might concern us from the Doctors words nor I dare answer for him did he dream of such an acception of them as might represent the choice betwixt the Religions any way indifferent But by the manner of your speech I have since conjectured you perhaps thought there might be some weight in a surmise which would flow from the assertion as if they went beyond us in credible things or that our belief consisting more in Negatives were not sure but it might come short of what it ought to be whilst theirs taking in all might be look'd upon as safe I hope the former Letters if you please to re-view them will give you some satisfaction and may serve to demonstrate that we who dare not go beyond the Pillars set up by God himself in the holy Scriptures to bound our Faith are in a far safer way and posture than they who leap over or trample them down at their pleasures And that if we leave not them till they forsake the guidance of Gods Word and primitive practice of his Church we run no hazard at all nor ought to find less esteem upon that score but do indeed shun and avoid the danger of Will-worship than which there is nothing more prejudicial to man nor more displeasing to God because of ill consequence to his Truth 1. We do know That no man is made a Believer without a freeness of Will that is he is not drawn up to Heaven whether he will or no and all along by meer compulsion or without acting in the Duty as the Papists with other adversaries of the Protestant Doctrine seem to mistake us But he is made a Believer by Gods Grace that frees the Will and inables it to act according to the motions of the Spirit and to follow him in the way of his Precepts Promises Threats and Exhortations But we acknowledge not That the will of man on which in its natural capacity the Apostle James hath fixt the Appellations of Sensual and Devilish can of it self chuse the better part being only help'd forward by some perswasions or probable inclinations such as the outward Preaching of the Word may effect till God by an act of Renovation without any compulsion other than such as wherewith the Soul cannot chuse but willingly go along so sweetly are his operations tempered and suitable to the disposition of the Will hath brought to pass a work which never would be effected but by his exceeding great and mighty power Ephes. 1. 18 19. 2. We do know That in the Lords-supper all Christ with all the benefits of his Life and Passion are not barely represented but really and truly yet spiritually exhibited to every Faithful Penitent Humble Charitable Communicant But we acknowledge not That all Receivers do in a corporal and carnal manner John 7. 37 38. tear their Redeemer with their teeth since the Sacramental way of locution in the Old Testament leads us to the true understanding of This is my body in the New Compare Gen. 17. 10 11. Exod. 12. 11. with John 6. 47 48. 63. We do know That the act of Justification passeth not upon the Soul without a work of Sanctification in the Soul That good works are of such necessity in the business of Justification that there can be no Justification where the practice of them is contemned That the good works of the Regenerate so far as they are good and the product of Gods own Spirit are not displeasing to him nor of their own nature sin yet that in regard of much imperfection which the best of men will confess is adherent to their works in this life we take a safe course not to place confidence or set any value upon them but on him who is the Lord our Righteousness and our Advocate with the Father Jer. 23. 6. 1 John 2. 1. But we acknowledge not That the good works of just persons do truly merit and deserve Grace in this world and glory in the next Nor that such good works are of themselves without any Covenant or acceptation on God's part worthy of Eternal Life and have an equal value of condignity to the obtaining of everlasting Glory Nor that that is the just stipend crown or recompence answering to the weight and time of our labours rather than a free gift Nor that no accession of Dignity comes to the works of the Just by the Merit or Person of Christ which they should not have if they were done by the same Grace bestowed liberally by God alone without Christ Nor that it 's vain after Grace received or infused to expect a continued imputation of Christs Righteousness According to the best Definitions of that Grace which the Romanist allow to be procured for us by Christ their plea for Heaven must run after this manner Lord by the strength of that Grace which because thou didst foresee I would use it well thou hast extended to me I have so performed my duty in doing or suffering for thee as thou canst not in justice deny me for that the Kingdom of Heaven See the Rhemish Annotations upon 2 Tim. 4. 8. 1 Cor. 3. 8. But let them consider what Reply they could make if God should enter the lists with them and say I have a Law that requires perfect unerring universal constant perpetual obedience a Law that exacts Truth in the inward parts that is a discerner of the thoughts and spirit that is not satisfied without the whole heart I have said not one jot or tittle of it shall pass away till all be fulfilled Matth. 5. 17 18. 22. 37 38. These
Oratio ad M. V. Mariam pro Cordis Puritate Per sanctam Virginitatem immaculatam Conceptionem tuam Purissima Virgo Emunda Cor Carnem nostram In nomine Patris ✚ Filii ✚ Spiritus sancti ✚ Amen Juxta Exemplar Romae incisum This is subscribed to a Cut black and white which serves for a Chimney Piece at a Gentleman's house I know very well Touching it I cannot but make two Observations 1. That it is not true what some Papists when they would insinuate to such as they endeavour to make Proselytes that their Doctrine concerning Prayer to Saints is an innocent safe thing do affirm viz. That they never pray to them for spiritual Grace immediately 2. That it is a strange thing they should publickly authorize in a prayer such a Clause as is very stiffly denied by one half I believe of their Church viz. That the blessed Virgin was not born with Original sin or That her own Conception was immaculate Such a Reverence towards the Saints departed as exerts it self in thanks to God for them and excites in us a desire to follow their good examples all Christians doubtless are bound to retain But with such Sacrifices as the voluntary and culpable humility of Multitudes have it seems obtruded on them 't is as certain they themselves are far from being well or at all pleased If the present Romanists will owne practices like these above their next Task is to defend them If they disclaim them they must disprove the relations In both Cases we are not without something more to say Of Prayer for the Dead THere is no Controversie wherein I found it more difficult to give my thoughts a settlement than this It was strongly the dictate of my Nature not to omit any Office which might possibly avail a dear departed friend It was hugely my inclination to subject my Judgment to the Dictates of Antiquity And indeed the Writings of some justly to be reputed Fathers old enough are not without Expressions such as taken in gross and at first view may seem to lean towards the practice of the Romish Church But upon the most sollicitous scrutinies I have been able to make little is the Conformity betwixt its Doctrine and the Notions of those Venerable Persons Bellarmine in his second Book and 18th Chapter of Purgatory will have it to be most certain that Prayers bring no advantage either to the blessed or damned only then to such as he places in Purgatory But a man with half an eye may discover That those laudatory Nominations those gratulatory Commemorations those benevolent Options which here and there occurr in the Antient Doctors with reference to the deceased had no design to kindle that imaginary Fire which hath since been made so terribly to Flame in the faces of departing Souls unless by a liberal Donation they would make the Pot to boil lustily in the Pope's Kitchin St. Augustine seems lib. 9. cap. 13. of his Confessions rather to indulge himself newly got from under some extraordinary transports upon the death of his Mother than to give determinate Laws for a necessary rite For having signified his full belief that the thing he prayed for was done already He intreats Almighty God not without something of hesitancy to approve Voluntaria cordis sui words too feeble to sustain half the superstructures that Rome would rear thereupon In another place he solemnly professeth That having wearied themselves to find out what manner of sins those could be which should impede our Admission into Heaven and yet receive pardon by the Intercessions of our friends remaining on this Earth he was not able to attain the knowledge thereof and gives us lieve elsewhere to dissent from him where there is not evident Scripture to resolve our Faith into of which sort their own Bredenbachius doth acknowledge the Oblations and Sacrifices for the dead to be Vide Morton's Appeal lib. 2. cap. 8. Since Nazianzen praying for Caesarias since Ambrose praying for Theodosius do at the same time profess a confidence that the Persons did possess Christi requiem Nay since we read of certain Liturgies wherein not only Supplications for Patriarchs Prophets Apostles but even for the blessed Mother of our Lord were inserted yea and termed Sacrifices too what can we judge but that those addresses were either merely gratulatory or proceded more from the Zeal they had of expressing their Affections to those parties than from any settled opinion of their necessity The truth is a Phancie had then got some footing which will not now generally pass for Orthodox either with them or us viz. That Souls of best Saints departed were reserved in an outward Court of Heaven not in the Verge of Hell nor under Satan's Jurisdiction let this be noted by the way before they were admitted to the full fruition of God nay even till the Resurrection of the Body This might occasion some modes of Prayer which yet do not at all justifie that sort of Orasons Oblations Sacrifices Indulgences which we condemn in the present Romanists To conclude Though we should suffer it to pass among the Credibilia That some access of Felicity might accrew to a dead Relation though I need not disclaim that Opinion which tells me a better Resurrection may be procured for him by the multiplied prayers on his behalf made against that time when his Body now in the dust or dust it self shall be reunited to the Soul Yet can I not think well of that Doctrine whereby so dark a Cloud is drawn betwixt the Eye of my Faith and him in whose blood I must be cleansed from all Sin or whereby I may be seduced by a deceivable hope of succour from other hands after death to venture upon the pleasures of Sin for a season under that most deluding expectation of having my Lamp lighted with the Oyl of such Devotions as are not at all mine own Of Purgatory BEcause we find not in sacred Writ a Fire penal after this Life but what is kindled with Brimstone for evermore Therefore we exhort all men to beware they entertain not a vain hope of escaping everlasting Burnings by dwelling in an imaginary Flame for a time Of Penance WHether it be a Sacrament or no is not here the Question The Learned on our side have drawn many Arguments both from its Constitution and Institution which sufficiently evince that it cannot properly be so esteemed nor come within either the nature or number of Sacraments Amongst the Genuine Concomitants of Repentance St. Paul enumerates with godly sorrow indignation fear also Revenge And in some other places and cases we understand Restitution Reparation Satisfaction to take place but in reference to all these there may be a dead flie to make them justly stink in the nostrils of God yea there may be and 't is to be feared the thing falls out too often Death in the Pot. Where the conscience is guilty of and the Church scandaliz'd by enormous crimes