and eminent then the whole mass of Quantity so every act of a pure Spirit reflected on it self being of its own nature out of the reach of time is not subject thereto but greater then the whole extension of time as being to be estimated by the necessity of its inexistence not by the succession of its own or any other's parts Nor is it unworthy our observation that corporeal griefe or pleasure is therefore greater the longer it continues because it consists in motion for motion is integrated of parts and the more parts there are which constitute it the greater is the Whole On the contrary let us consider if to a thing which coexists with a longer space of time nothing be thereby added or to that whose duration is less nothing diminished there can be no reason why duration should affect that more sensible this less there being in them no plurality of parts by which the excess of ones pain or pleasure above the others is measured So that whatsoever grief of a separated soul is by the quality and force of its essence greater the same let its coexistence with time be what it will must be more vehement and that which is less less intense nothing being gain'd or lost by the perpetuity or interruption of the motions of the Sun or other celestial bodies And hence again it is apparent that this opinion totally mistakes the propriety of spiritual nature From whence we may further infer that the grief or any other act of a separated soul is no less indefectible then the state of it's separation and consequently that its pain beginning after death must continue till a new conjunction with the body if the ordinary bounds and progress of Nature be observed For having no parts of succession or duration of its own nature it must either continue but one moment that is not at all or ever For as Points in quantity so instants in time not being of the nature of the whole but pure terms and negations it is evident that a spiritual act to which the duration of one only instant is assigned hath no duration at all but if an indivisible duration be assigned it equal to any part of time the very supposition it self constitutes it of a superiour and more noble order and exalts it above the reach of all or any time assignable For the comparison between them being to be made abstractedly from parts what can be considered as common to them both but meerly their necessity of existing That is that a spirit can have no causes of its defect a body more or fewer but alwayes some So that we must confess every spirit whatsoever outvyes the most solid and durable of bodies since evidently in this necessity of existing every spirit transcends all bodies as in our * Philosophy is demonstrated But imagine that one indivisible act should out-last another and this indivisibly without addition of duration to duration is it intelligible in what this out lasting should consist or how it can be any thing extrinsecal It is then irresistibly true that every duration of such an Act of its own nature is eviternal To conclude experience tells us that Resolutions or Determinations made upon the full view of circumstances are of their own nature immutable for reason alone or consideration can be the motive of change in Wills and it was supposed no new reason could present it self It having therefore been demonstrated * in Philosophy that spirits segregated from the dreggs of matter break forth into every act upon distinct knowledg perfect consideration of all motives it is also convinc'd that their acts are of their own nature inalterable Besides we observe the cause of all changes to reside in things active communicating and participating the same matter and with opposition one to the other pertinaciously strugling to possess themselves of it and master it Of which kinde of contention and rivalship spirits now infanchised being wholy void nothing appears which may destroy or alter their acts The Thirteenth Accompt Two other Exceptions from the non-connexion of such pains with the sins and their being supposed to remain due after the fault forgiven BUt because the Philosopher hath instructed us that for the utter eradication of any Errour it is necessary we should retrive the causes of it that is whence and by what steps the assertors were led into its snare we must not desist our pursuit till we have obey'd his commands In order whereunto let us first reflect that God in the Government of humane things may be considered either as a Monarch with precepts and punishments ruling his people or as an Artificer or expert Engineer so contriving every part and movement of his machin that of it self it may perform and attain the end for which he designed it The first way though one of the most eminent within our ken yet by reason of the imperfection of the subject the weakest of all intellectual substances Man whose providence is short-sighted is also weak and imperfect For Princes amongst men ordain such rewards both for well and ill deserves of the Common-wealth as of their own nature have no relation to the quality of merit or demerit but are meerly connected with their Wills and commands and which they are forced to execute with their own that is their ministers strength And besides commands of that nature suppose in the subject an ignorance of his Prince's reasons and an acceptation of what is to be done or suffered by him from the sole motive of his commanders power The latter proclaims the incomparable wisdome of that Architect who could so artificially frame at once his work that it should of it self perform all operations without supplement or future minute alterations in any of its members or organs His fabrick is in all respects compleat rewards and punishments therein being not only conformable to but also originiz'd from their merits the precepts which are given are directed to the promoting nature and increase of science and are accepted through a sight and knowledg of their causes and utilities Evident therefore it is that however the first way which involves the truth in Allegory may be more adopted to those understandings which being but moderately enamour'd of truth bend not their whole strengths to obtain it yet the latter is both necessary and much more satisfactory to those who rending the parabolical veyl fix their contemplations on the naked discovery of the thing as it is in it self For they easily perceive that God being the Author of Nature which flows from him as from its proper cause must contradict himself if he act any thing against it and guide not every thing according to its own nature especially men to Beatitude But it is clear that voluntary assignâ—tion of punishment bearing no connexion with the fault is not an action of Nature but of our imperfect reason not sufficiently qualifi'd to govern and steer nature
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
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
contrary impressions This in the resurrection is performed by a twofold operation of fire one corporeal which aptly disposes the matter of bodies for the ministry of Angels and the reunion with their spirits the other spiritual to wit the judgment of Christ that is the bodily and mental intuition of him which transferrs the dispositi on of souls from the distortion acquired by the commerce of the body into that state which is the immediate aptitude for beatifical vision In this we conceive to consist the remission of pains or as the Scripture terms it sins for the procuring whereof in due time we acknowledg the efficacy of the prayers of Saints either such as are already glorifi'd or such as daily press on towards that happiness These to my best apprehension are the summary heads of both opinions Now to the work it self The Second Accompt Two Proofs from the sacred Scripture favouring the truth we Advance IN the very front whereof I fix two evident testimonies of the sacred Writ The first from 2 Mach. 12. where the discourse is that Judas Machabeus sent mony to Hierusalem to procure sacrifices for the sins of his Soldiers slain in battel the holy Writer testifying that he did this act Well and religiously thinking of the resurrection for unless saith he he had hoped they should rise again it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead For vain the Greek Text hath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} foolish or ridiculous It appears that even then when this book was written the errour of denying the resurrection had insinuated it self amongst the Jews by the commixtion of Gentiles so that the Writer was oblig'd to reprove it by occasion of this signal action of Machabeus His argument runs thus 'T is certain saith he that Prayers cannot avail the dead unless there be a resurrection But as by this illustrious Example of Machabeus we learn Prayers do avail them Therefore there must be a resurrection We affirm that from this Text it is easily convinc'd that souls before the resurrection are not delivered from their Purgatory-sufferings or State For if they are our prayers working that haypy effect it were great benefit and great wisdome to pray for them though there were never to be any resurrection Either the sacred Writer therefore is mistaken or they who free such souls before the resurrection Nor is their conjecture of any moment who suppose it may be therefore said unless he had hoped they should rise again because the denyal of the resurrection would have at once destroy'd the beliefe of the immortality of the soul at least as to the Jews first because 't is known that the Heathens by whose conversation the Jewish tenents were corrupted did many of them admit souls to be immortal notwithstanding they deny'd the resurrection of bodies and secondly because this explication is too frank and voluntary engaging a Writer without the least ground against an opinion which whether it had at that time any assertors is altogether unknown and that at the peril of making a frivolous consequence and the assuming a proposition in it self false Nor doth it advantage them to alledg that the Sadduces against whose Progenitors this disputation may be thought to be levell'd deny'd spirits The Stoicks did the like yet at the same time they acknowledged the soul's supervivency and transanimation after the decay of the body Clearly therefore if souls may be exempted from their suffering before the resurrection this proposition It is superfluous and vain to pray for the dead unless there be a resurrection is both false and to no purpose alledged Let the New Instrument keep time and harmony with the Old Let S. Paul be heard preaching to the same effect 1 Cor. 15. 29. What shall they do saith he who are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not again to what end are they baptized for the dead Some understood by baptizing affliction or mortification of the body others a certain ceremony of washing themselves for the dead which way soever you take it his discourse is the same with that of the Writer of the Machabees Where that Writer affirms it were superfluous to pray for the dead the Apostle cryes out What shall we do what benefit shall they reap how will they be dejected seeing themselves depriv'd of the hopes of assisting their friends What the one calls vain or foolish the other phrases To what end are they baptized what do they mean what do they aime at nothing they are fooles or mad men It is therefore apparent that pious and wise persons used this custome whatever it were of baptizing themselves whose action and example the Apostle commending it urgeth as of sufficient authority again the Corinthians Nor nâ—â—d wâ— further strain the nerves of this discourse it being perfectly the same with the first Text to wit that it were folly to be baptiz'd for the dead if they were not to rise again No benefit therefore is obtain'd by such Baptisme before the resurrection nor by so doing can the souls till then be released So that from this argument it appears that the solution offered to the first was of no consequence for no man that I know alledges that the Doctor of the Gentiles disputes here against the Sadduces with whom his arguments would not have any force at all For neither would they regard the Example of those who baptized themselves in behalf of the dead as being Pharises neither would what the Apostle urgeth of Christ's resurrection or his own predication make any the least impression in them Let these two Texts therefore remain inviolabled as first not to be resisted without manifest violence and secondly as directly pointing at the very knot of the controversie That souls once engaged are not capable of that eminent good of being delivered from their pains before the resurrection The Third Accompt Three other Texts and by occasion of the third an explication of the ancient practice of the Church in praying for the Saints LEt us from the same Epistle to the Corinthians 5. 5. adde a positive proof to two negative ones already alledged I saith the Apostle have already judged to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord He speaks of excommunicating a notorious fornicator that he might be made penitent and by repentance saved But when In the day of our Lord Jesus Christ His soul therefore was not to be saved till the last Judgment day But why not his as well as any others No soul therefore imperfectly and as it were compulsively repenting shall be saved till the day of Judgment Consonant and ally'd to this is that text Heb. 10 27. Sinning voluntarily after knowledg received of the truth we have now no other host or oblation left for sins but a certain terrible expectation of judgment in the interval of it
experssions are found But because the Roman Liturgy seemes to speak less clearly then the rest let us examine her own best interpreters S. Ambrose De ob Valent Prayes day and night for him and Gratian He commends the souls of Theodosius and his brother to God and begs rest for them all whom notwithstanding he doubts not to be in Bliss in the receptacles of eternal tranquillity in the Tabernacles of Christ in the supernal Hierusalem in the company of Saints in the Kingdome of our Lord Jesus S. Hierom in like manner affirms Paulina to be gone from hence to her Lord and to enjoy a sweet rest for whose sake notwithstanding he commends the giving of almes S. Gregory himself in his book of Sacraments saith We have received O Lord the divine mysteries which as they avail thy Saints to the encrease of glory so we beseech thee they may benefit us for the cure of our infirmities The same may be likewise gather'd from the Areopagite who teaches to pray for those who departed so holily that be affirmes them to be presented to the Priest as to the distributor of their crowns The same from S Chrysostome who describes at one and the same time weeping and alms-giving rejoycing and triumphs for the dead cleerly declaring it to descend from the Apostles Doctrine and command to offer sacrifices for the dead It was therefore anciently lawful and customary to pray for the Saints nor is it in our dayes less the Church her self instructing thus to pray Receive what we offer to the honour of thy Saints that to them it may be an increase of glory to us of safety Nor is it infrequent amongst the more pious when they name a Saint or Martyr to adde Whose glory God increase The Fourth Accompt That St. Bernard only excepted all the rest of the Fathers deny'd not to the faithful departed the Beatifical vision before the day of Judgment FRom what hath been said a clear light seems to discover it self though many hands labour to draw a dark curtain before it to the vindication shall I say of the Fathers of the Church or of the Church it self from a foul imputation laid upon them or her For I ponder with my self that if so great a multitude of Saints be supposed to have erred in this one Article we are almost at a loss how to excuse the Church from the same crime These calumniators muster up Fathers neither few in number nor those inconsiderable in value nor of one Nation nor of one age and the nature of the Article is such that we may not well exclude it from its concernment in order to piety or necessity in order to Faith They affirm not more unwarily then audaciously That most of the Ancient Fathers did promiscuously sequester from the face of God the perfect with the imperfect till the last day of judgment I dare not take upon me to justifie them in all circumstances but as to the substance I avow that setting S. Bernard aside and John the 22. if you please to reckon him amongst the Fathers not any one of them for ought may be gather'd out of their writings spoke even ambiguously in the case 'T is true many of them did deliberately deny the Saints to be in Heaven which by inadvertency is become our vulgar phrase to signifie Beatitude But S. Bernard reflecting on the difference affirm'd them to be in Heaven as to their substance but not so as to enjoy the vision of the Deity Whence it appears that he light upon this singularity whilst he wholly apply'd his speculation to the subtil reach of the mistical speeches in the Apocalypse not by the imitation of his predecessors so that unawares he let go the Churches sense retaining only her words We are to consider in the day of Judgment two retributions to be made good to all mankind the degree of reward due to their merits and the place design'd for their eternity Who denies the first makes it no Judgment for what kind of Judgment is that which hath no rewards or punishments attending it but actually finds all beforehand done for which it was intended The latter carries too much evidence to find an opposition since we are speaking of men and those who are never so little spiritualiz'd know that to be in place suites only with bodies These two things then those holy Fathers maintain and by their testimonies foreprize our exceptions When we hear them say that Saints or their souls are detained in certain receptacles or store-houses till the day of Judgment conceive them to mean that they have not yet received their material places of Beatitude S. Bernard alone to opine that they are indeed already possessed of their proper and material places but so that the humanity only of Christ is represented to them and made their object For as we term that to be in darkness which is not in the light and in a manner alwayes explicate prevationsby in compossible positives so those Doctors phrased the not being locally in Heaven by the being in other receptacles either accommodating their expressions to the vulgar capacity though conscious of the Privation or by the force of fancy being themselves beguil'd into that unwary perswation This reflection alone beats back most of the calumnies darted at those Saints For Ireneus Justin Tertullian Clemens Romanus Lactantius Origen Vistorinus Prudentius Chrysostom Theodoret Arethus Oecumenius pronounce no more then that the souls are detained out of Heaven and expect at the last day their remuneration and future glory Yea most of them follow those expressions with others which at least permissively insinuate that they enjoy God as to their souls So Ireneus explicating the compleat resurrection to be that of bodies So Justin affirming them to enjoy Paradice with the sense of Intelligence that is those joyes of Paradice which pure Intelligences are capable of So Tertullian allowing them rest and joy So Origen declaring them to be as it were in a Schoole or Auditory that they may make judgment of the future that it may sore-run and mentally taste the joyes they are awayting saving moreover that they expect those which can receive no further encrease So Victorinus confessing them to be in a state of repose free from pains and flames where they attend in the last times a perpetual that is not mutable or increasable reward Prudentius's words may well signifie Heaven unless the use and acceptation of his Age otherwise determine them The sentiments of S. S. Chrysostome and Augustine are elsewhere sufficiently cleared Arethus saith they have a certain conjecture that is prescience or pregustation of the future Having so great an evidence of the thoughts of most of them we are not to doubt but that the rest whose words are somewhat harsher were yet of the same judgment S. Ambrose speaks ambiguously when he saith that the soul after this life is still in suspence of the future Judgment but
I conceive him to speak indefinitely not intending that any one in particular remaines doubtful whether she shall be happy or otherwise but that all are not to be happy but some happy some miserable The place is taken out of the 10. Chapter of his Book De bono mortis where treating more at large of this Doctrine he seemes to explain this part of his opinion in this sort Therefore whilst the plenitude of time is expected saith he the souls waite their just remuneration some shall have punishment some glory Besides what he had before affirmed of the soul of Valentinian Gratian Theodosius and his Brother gives ample satisfaction concerning his Judgment To which you may adde if you please out of his 59. Epistle de obitâ— Acolij he sees perpetual light without a Sun now face to face And in Com. Ep. ad Philip Thinking it better to be present with God And on 1 Cor. Ep. 13. The Saints going out of this world shall behold him as he is Theophilact's speech is likewise somewhat difficult maintaining the Saints to have yet obtained nothing of the celestial promises But S. Chrysostom's piety which he adheres to relieves him giving us occasion to understand by Celestial those promises which are to be accomplished in Heaven and which Oecumenius calls the term or period of goods S. Chrysostom himself declares that the souls unless the body rise again shall remain excluded from the Celestial Beatitude that is shall indeed have its happiness but not that which makes or followes it's place in Heaven So that at last it appears to have been not a famous Doctrine of the Fathers of the Church but an infamous calumny against them to impose upon them the denyal of the sight of God before the universal resurrection S. Bernard alone neither having nor seeking an Example ventured to assert it for as to John XXII since his writings are not extant we cannot legally pasâ— sentence upon him The Fifth Accompt The Fifth proof from Scripture is again urged and two others added NOtwithstanding all which I should think my pains well rewarded if I could learn the reason why the holy Doctors with so much earnestness have inculcated to us the rewards and punishments of the last judgment since they well enough understood that pure souls might have an immediate fruition of God The first Motive may be that the Beatifical Vision is more perfect with the body resum'd then without it which S. Chrysostom exceedingly favours Yet I am not convinced by it first because nothing of this reason appears amongst most of them though the Thesis be common to them all and secondly because no proof thereof is brought by him nor by S. Augustine himself though he affirms it certain that the soul of man devested of the body cannot so behold the incommutable goodness as the Angels do and the said souls expect the redemption of their bodies since in his Retractations he seems to acknowledg the obscurity of the Consequence The reason we have given for it in our Theological Institution is singular and by few valued or comprehended The next Motive may be because Corporeal goods which are first attained by the Resurrection are more esteemed by the generality of Christians then spiritual as being better understood by them But this reason is too disadvantageous to Christianity it self for it being the designe of it's profession and task of its Doctorin to take off the minds of men from terrene goods and place them on celestial 't is altogether improper to permit corporeal advantage to be preach'd and inculcated more vehemently then spiritual nor doth it stand with those encomiums of Beatitude That eyes have not seen eares not heard c. That the passions of this time are not condign to the future glory that there is good measure heaped together pressed down and overflowing c. Lastly Because we are taught that they compared to spiritual pleasures principally to the Beatifical Vision have the proportion of finite to infinite so that it little imports the satisfaction and contentment of the person whether he hath then or not The third reason then must take place That therefore the Retributions of the last day are so inculcated because they are universal whereas the rewards which before that are given are particular and as it were priviledges I shall endeavour to explicate my self Mankind or humane nature is not integrated by a few wise or extraordinarily religious persons but by the commonalty and universality of Christians Them therefore God and Christ in the predication and propagation of the Gospel hath respect to These things then in the bulk and body of Catholick faith are to be promised which concern the generality of Mankind And truly whether we cast our eyes on the old or new Testament we shall find our Faith founded and rooted in the resurrection Let us examine the hopes of Job the threats of Ecclesiastes the menaces or promises of the Prophets the comfort of Toby and instructions given to his Son Lastly either the valour of the Machabees fighting or their patient suffering every where we meet with the Resurrection Is the New stile different Do not all the exhortations parabies promises denuntiation of Christ our Lord sound forth the Resurrection S. Paul cryes out that all Faith is at an end and frustrated if you take away the Resurrection S. S. Peter Jude James and John repeat the same lesson This is the Theam which both affrighted and allured all the world this made the proudest necks to bow and both already hath and shall subjugate all Nations to the obedience and Laws of Christ And now behold us on a sudden revolved I know not how to the solution of the difficulty which begat this discourse for by this clue we readily acquit our selves of all intricacy in the Apostles wish of mercy to Onesiphorus not simply in the next world but expresly in the day of Judgment For though the vertues of the person permitted him to hope no less then that his last breath would wafte him to the regious of Beatitude yet he chose rather to express his affection in terms sit to explicate to all the Brethren and Faithful the common condition of retribution least he might be thought to have entertain'd too good an opinion of Onesiphorus's well-doing And that this was the form of prayer for the dead among the Jews those that are conversant in their rights do testifie and our selves have a manner of speech not much unlike when challenging our due we threaten to demand it at the day of Judgment if it be not restored And if I mistake not Christ our Lord gave us the hint advising us to agree with our adversary in the way least he deliver us to the Judg and the Judg to the Executioner who shall with rigour exact the debt You see then that both Matthew 5. 26. Luke 12. 58. we are taught that we must smart for
though perhaps otherwise or by some other means he had as much or more If the latter I cannot perceive any diminution on Gods part since he hath thereby as much or more honour then if Peter had not sinned For the honour of God consists in this that his work that is the universal fabrick receive its ultimate perfection So that if that become more improv'd by occasion of Peters sin then otherwise it had been more honour redounds to God from Peters sinning then from his wel-doing and this from Peter himselfe But if the universe by this sin of Peter be supposed to become lesse perfect it cannot be understood that God should do better in permitting then impeding his sin the lawes of wisdome absolutely obliging him thereto But if the intent of the proposition be that Peter not simply but as much only as in him lay did derogate from the Divine honour then is there no necessity of restitution where though there wanted not will yet it took no effect You will urge that though in truth and rigour Peter took away no honour from God yet did he not effectually pay that honour to God which was due and consequently by reserving it to himself did in some sort deprive him of it I answer that properly speaking a sinner hath no other obligation then to live well and that because an evil life of its own nature leads him to eternal misery other expressions are metaphorical But to continue the metaphor however if it were true that the defect of Gods honour occasioned by Peter were supply'd and repayr'd by some other the argument would carry some shadow of strength But now that God from Peter himself either by exemplar punishments in this world or such as spring from the sin it self in the next or by drawing Peter by means of the said sin to do for him greater things hath made himself amends it can no wayes be thought that Peter is still tyed to restitution of Gods honour or that God was injur'd by him or can inflict any punishment on him upon the accompt of loss of honour It is therefore concluded to be unworthily and against all Theological evidence imposed on God that he inflicts or can by his wisdome and goodness be permitted to inflict pains purely vindicative that is such as our adversaries assert in their Purgatory The Eleventh Accompt Two other exceptions from the supposition of these pains to be unvoluntary and corporeal OUr next consideration must be whether pure spirits are truly capable of such pains as they stand committed to Purgatory there to undergo For if they really be found incapable thereof all this intermedial fire vanishes instantly into smoak Let us therefore examine what pains signifies to us here immers'd in our bodies and we shall presently discover that the notion of punishment differs herein from that of pain or torment that it does not necessarily include griefe as pain and torment do For we properly enough account it punishment if any one for his offence-be taken away by the hand of Justice though sleeping or insensible of pain But properly pain at least according to the Latine acceptation of the word imports some dolorous punishment inflicted on us against our wills in which torment agrees with it though it differ from both in regard of demerit or the hand of the inflicter For whatsoever griefe befalls us against our wills though it proceed not from our merit or the infliction of another but from nature or accident is still a torment These are the native and genuine differences of the words though they are oft by negligence confounded as in this occasion we may perceive For the nature of that pain which here we search after hath no respect to merit but consists of these two notions that it is dolorous and inflicted from an external Agent on a repugning and unwilling sufferer And from torment it either differs not at all or only in this that it requires an extrinsecal Agent whereas torment may take its rise from within us Contemplating then this sort of pains we find that by how much weaker and more obnoxious to griefe the minds of those that suffer them are the higher and more vehement they become Not only History but our own memory assures us that some have expired in the defence of secrets committed to them without consenting to reveal them others endured the Gout the Stone the twisting of the gutts without a sigh And Philosophy teaches us that grief is heighten'd by thinking on it the sharpest torments if there be constancy and manliness enough to employ the spirits upon other objects either vanishing or decreasing So that pain that is such an action as is apt to produce griefe in us no otherwise obtains that effect then by our unableness to busy and divert the spirits elsewhere From the body then and the course of its spirits it is that an extrinsecal Agent gets power to annoy us So that deliver but the soul from the body and you have secur'd it from outward passion and consequently the spirits of the departed which are to be purged are clearly exempt from all such pain as may be caused by any outward Agent Again let us inform our selves even of these very men who are the maintainers of this opinion whether the Will can by any violence be drawn to consent they perfectly disclaim it firmly building upon this fair ground that since the will of its own nature is a will or spontaneous inclination no act thereof can be but voluntary We subsume But in pure spirits griefe or pain is an act of the Will therefore all the suffering of abstract'd spirits is voluntary and consequently not from without seizing upon them against their wills as they use to imagine Again the pain of souls that are purged is either rational and flowing from the understanding by connexion of discourse corresponding to our syllogistical inferences or a pure affection of the Will by some other means instilled If the first it is genuine and the same which we assert there being a plenary knowledg in a separated soul and its nature requiring that it's motion follow the understanding If you maintain the second first you defend an impossibility because the Will clearly includes the understanding and volition or an act of Will an act of understanding either formally or at least by consequence Secondly the entity of the soul being one that is including in her self both the said powers it is manifest there cannot be in the soul an act of the Will without a preceding act of the understanding into which it is as it were ingrafted and without which it cannot be understood We have therefore evidently proved that pains extrinsecally inflicted and not as it were spontaneously springing from within cannot reach spirits devested of their bodies Our third exception against them is that they affirm these purging pains to be inflicted by fire and corporeal instruments which is a fiction
vain and altogether impossible For all corporeal action requiring space can by no means be exercised on an indivisible subject Again the quality of a Body extends not it self beyond its own subject whence no corporeal action is performed without a sallying forth of parts which touch and insinuate themselves into some other body which how it can be in relation to spiritual substances is above humane capacity Further the action of bodies is performed by division and involves Rarefaction and Condensation from which the very Patrons of the opinion we reject exempt and discharge pure spirits Nor is it any thing to the purpose to cry out that the corporeal action which they require is only instrumental for all that endeavour to speak intelligibly make that to be the instrumental action which is the principal action of the instrument abstracted from the principal Agent which being directed by the principal Agent or by the admixture of its action changed acts otherwise then naturally it would have done So that there being no principal action of bodies upon spirits neither can there be any instrumental one Nor need we fear least they urge a â—â—rity of the soul immured in the body For Man being truely one Entity the soul cannot in this life be actually divided from the body for so man would become two Entities or Hypostases And if Man be but one Entity he must be an Entity actually corporeal and virtually only spiritual so that there is no inconvenience in its being changed by a corporeal Agent And because the subject in which the change is wrought is virtually spiritual it may be altered as such by the said change because the whole is yet actually corporeal When Man therefore shall be resolved into Soul and Carcass both parts shall be found such as virtually they were in the pre-existing Man after and by the said immutation Thus whilst the soul inhabits the body it's immutation from corporeal Agents is not a change wrought by a body on a substance actually spiritual but actually corporeal and virtually only spiritual in which there is not the least shadow of inconvenience But those who put the soul whilest it is in the body to be actually distinct from it both render it an Assisting Form and are altogether at a loss to explicate how it is by the body changed The Twelfth Accompt Four other Exceptions from these Pains being to no purpose unproportioned to the sins of an indivisible duration and endless IT is now time we should ask our Adversaries to what end or for what good they suppose God should inflict such torments on these souls as neither avail them nor are visible to us Nay such as can have no effect upon them since it is evident by the loss of the things that were dear to them by the delay of their rewards by the repentance of their past deviations they really and naturally suffer whatsoever by the Metaphors of fire gnashing of teeth worm of Conscience and darkness useth to be explicated to us or to speak more properly being in its self inexplicable is insinuated to us by the severest punishments we are acquainted with that so raising our thoughts above them we may endeavour to discover things more sublime and subtile For that darkness is a faint expression of the privation of the Beatifical Vision it is superfluous to observe That fire and burning describe Love and Grief Poets and Chirurgeons can tell us the one observing inflammation to be the companion of pain the other calling Love a consuming flame and devouring fire The worm of Conscience and gnashing of teeth aptly betoken repentance since we find in our selves that collision of our teeth when we are ashamed and confounded at the foulness of some unhandsom action and the gnawing worm of the conscience by the very phrase represents the dictates and instinct of natural piety It being then apparent from what hath been said in * our Philosophy that all this from the very nature of the thing must needs be verify'd in the souls that are purged why presume we that fire alone is to be taken truly and literally all the rest Metaphorically And what can less be excus'd why should God since all this may be perform'd conformably to the order and government of Nature her self superadd to natural causes other improper unnecessary and disproportion'd ones From whence a sudden and unexpected truth breaks forth That all these pains are purely pleasures For the souls to be purged being on the one side truly in Charity and extremely thirsting after eternal Good which they are certain to attain and on the other side clearly understanding that corporeal punishments are the only means to capacitate and adopt them to the fruition of that Beatitude it is evident They look upon these pains as a man of invincible courage highly inflam'd and passionately enamoured of some atchievement would upon his adventurous actions or sufferings in the pursuit wherein reason and experience tells us he would feele unspeakeable pleasure Our fifth charge takes its rise from a principle in Logick though if I well remember deduced by the Philosopher in the fifth book of his Physicks He admonishes us that some things there are which will by no means suffer themselves to be compared each to other to wit such things as are rank'd under divers kinds or predicaments For it is madness to say a Horse runs as much as a Swan is white or Rome is as far distance from London as an Elephant is great These are the comparisons of fools But I beseech you can any corporeal thing so differ from another corporeal as it doth from a spiritual if then this be impossible what rule of proportion can we invent betwixt burning and willing that is sinning And yet upon this comparison stands all the fabrick of their Doctrine for take away the proportion betwixt the action of fire upon the soul and it's assent to sin and it is impossible that pains should be assigned to and compensate sins and such a duration in flames correspond to so much heynousness in the offence But on the contrary if voluntary griefs be understood to be the punishment of sin they being the very effects thereof they must also of necessity keep exactest proportion with it the sins themselves measuring out their own punishment From the same root shoots forth another objection that in spiritual acts whether they concern Beatitude or Misery there is no proportion to Time so as to make the pain which lasts longer to be greater or that which ends sooner less These are the proprieties of things corporeal whereas among spiritual substances the whole difference of their duration consists in the necessity of their â—eing or inexisting For as because spirits have no dimensions their substances cannot be compared to any quantitative bulk as this Angel to a Perch that to an Aâ—re the third to a mile but the very lowest of them is more noble
of discharging punishments also But they will chuse to put this act of contrition to be made in the term of separation where merit and satisfaction have no longer place and the inevitable necessity of suffering only remains And then I shall demand from whence they have learn'd that blemishes can there be rectifyed where penalties cannot be mitigated Nor is there more strength of reason in this that the merits of the living may avail them but their own not so For could their proper merits be regarded all Purgatory according their own grounds were at an end for the perfect charity and coâ—â—â—â—ition of separated souls being exercised with the whole force of their substance would in one moment set them free Again what Piety what Justice hath enacted this Law that the distressed souls may not pray for their own delivery Can any thing be more absurd They make them such Favorites of God that for us they can obtain many graces whilst for themselves they can procure none I remember to have heard a Divine whom a printed course of all Divinity had already raised above the lowest form prescribing this advice or receipt that whosoever had lost any thing should promise upon condition he receiv'd it to procure so many Masses for departed souls and failing of his hopes should fail also in the performance thereby to compel the souls to obtain of God the recovery of what had miscarried O pitiful and sordid Divinity such a train of absurdities follow the admission even of one unexamin'd Principle To make up the compleat dozen Let us reflect on the abuse of the name it-self and observe that whilst they vainly labour to establish their own they destroy and annihitate all manner of Purgatory For to purge cleanse and the like expressions clearly import a supposition of stain and blemish in whatsoever is said to be purgÌ„ed and cleansed and in like sort to amend and rectifie presupposes faults and imperfections if you then take away their stains these imperfections you take away all Purgatory For certainly to smart and suffer is not to be purged but finally to be condemned or undergo the last sentence of Damnation But the Patrons of this kind of Purgatory lay this for the very foundation of their doctrine That the imprisoned souls are already holy and full of charity and consequently incapable of being purged Much better therefore and more solidly then they did the Poet philosophise in the sixth book of his Aeneids who having after his manner made a description of â— the torments of the damned thus proceeds to that of Purgatory and its causes Nor when pâ—or souls they leave this wretched life Do all their evils cease all plagues all strife Contracted in the Body many a stain Long time inur'd needs must even then remain For which sharp torments are to be endur'd That vice inveter are may at last be cuâ—'â— Some empty souls are to the piercing winds Expos'd whilst others in their several kinds Are plung'd in icy or Sulphureous lakes Each hath its doome cach one its fortune takes From whence â—e to the Elisian fields is lead Where few alas the pleasant alleys tread What could any Phylosopher meditate more sublime and noble That corporeal affections by depraved habits penetrate into and infect the soul that they are not by death extinguish'd but carry'd along to the next world whereby the souls are punished and their punishments become truly Purgatory or expiating that their torments are proportionate and of several degrees which degrees are taken from the division of Elements that is corporeal Agents from whence the disordered affections themselves have their roots The pursuers of Honour and Vanity are tormented by the wind that is their being puff'd up with Pride Those who delighted to wallow in sordid pleasures by the fluidness and momentariness of their fleeting enjoyments Lastly the Potent and ambitious affectors of Tyranny with their own ardent and truly enflamed desires That finally after this state of Purgatory they are made Denizons of Paradise and those speaking of the times he liv'd in but few the multitude whose sins were mortal and irretractable remaining engulf'd in eternal miseries The Sixteenth Accompt The thirteenth Exception That their opinion is opposite to the expressions of Scriptures of Fathers of the Church of the Councel of Florence and Benedict XI ANd I would to God the inconsequence of discourse and defect of right ratiocination were the only inconvenience and that their errour stretch'd not it self to the violation of sacred truths and contradiction of the holy Scriptures Machabeus offers sacrifice that the dead may be absolved from their sins Christ affirms that in the world to come sins are remitted The Apostle assures us that every ones works are to be try'd by fire and some persons to suffer detriment as though he should say that some thing should by fire be taken off from the party as dross from the pure mettal Nor do the expressions of Holy Fathers grounded on the Scripture any wayes disagree For whether they speak of Baptisme by fire of purging flames of fire correcting and amending of passing through the flames of the last Judgment which shall burn the sinner spare the Saint of a suspension in the day of Judgment and a kind of uncertainty of the Judge's sentence or whatsoever other expressions heretofore mentioned they make use of from whence any thing can be gathered towards the explication of Purgatory nothing can be drawn to establish pure pains but the whole discourse runs constantly of sins and of the purgations of sins and depraved affections so that nothing can be more clear then that these later Divines change the style of the whole Church a manifest token of their Novelty Let it therefore be acknowledg'd that this vulgar conceit as it is opposite to the sense of the Church really and effectually abolishing Purgatory and in lieu thereof presenting us a slaughter-house of barbarous executions destroying the tender mercy of God whose aim is alwayes the utmost good of every creature and instead thereof offering us a barren apprehension of Pure Justice and unbenefical pains so is it also dissonant and in a manner perfectly repugnant to the phrase both of the holy Scripture and of the Fathers explicating either it or the sense and belief of the Church Which if they are the marks of the ancient faith and perswasion then is this other new And if proposed to the Greeks under the notion of a Tradition and not only of an opinion they certainly had ground to object against the Latines that they endeavoured to superseminate tares and bring into the Church new Tenents and such as were recommended by no ancient Tradition The last but not the least of our exceptions against this vulgar opinion shall be their putting another impediment to the Beatifical Vision of souls freed from the body besides the want of charity For since the Church neither knows nor holds forth any
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 Criticks of his Age would go about to discredit unless he takes the descriptions he meets with in Bede for things actually done not for Visions that is corporal representations of spiritual pains or allegorical expressions of the intellectual state of those souls My exception against their dictates is no other then this That the obedience which is to be rendred to the same persons is different when they are considered as pious Historians from that which is given them as holy Doctors Historie cannot challenge the same Authority which is due to Theological conclusions But these Saints do of their own accord profess that they receive this Doctrine from Historical Narrations and consequently it can have no stronger support then History can lend it They cannot therefore in this Question challenge the name and Authority of Doctors and Fathers but of Historians only whose credit depends upon their Authors But from these Historians as far as can be conjectured the whole strength and continuance of this opinion is derived For from that time forward reports and Visions of souls freed from Purgatory have multipli'd without end especially since that Odilo Abbot of Clugny a very famous person did through all his Monasteries by a special command of commemorating all the souls departed on the second day of November disperse far and near this opinion The Nineteenth Accompt Of the Authority of Apparations and Visions THe next thing which occurres is to examin what perswasive power is to be attributed to Visions And immediately a vast discrepancy appears betwixt such Visions as these and those which are Prophetical in that Prophetical ones simply and by their proper design tend to the instruction of the people that is the Church But these as far as can be gather'd from their stories seem only to be directed to the benefit of the distressed souls which is not a publick but private good and so unknown that the Revealer only is conscious to it From which consideration I infer that Prophetick Visions do not communicate any veneration at all to these but on the contrary that these compared to them loose much of their credit by the disproportion the end for which generally they are supposed to be being ambiguouâ— and undiscoverable And really if we aim never so little above the levell of sense and demand why this soul amongst a thousand hath the favour allow'd it of appearing to the living of begging their suffrages Why it obtain'd it not immediately after it's separation but rather after some dayes months and sometimes years Why it should beg assistance from such certain persons and not from others Why for a limited time and not till they are absolutely free Lastly why particular prayers and satisfactions are required What can with any shadow of reason be answered All is to be referâ—'d to the secret judgement of God to his good pleasure no wayes from reason deducible and so finally resolved into obscurity The second thing which in these Visions may be observed is they are not armed with the publick testimonials of Events and Miracles For all that is pretended to be seen being acted by invisible substances no event can confirm the truth of the vision nor is it proper any miracle should be wrought to that end Nor for the most part is there any occasion of demanding them or any custome in history of alledging them And the vision is of its own nature such that it admits no witnesser but passes wholly within the soul of the seer and consequently entirely depends on his veracity who sometimes is a Peasant sometimes a Women or at best one little capable of judging what passeth with in our souls And if at any time it be a man of great sanctity or famous for that prudence which is esteemed in the world although to confess the truth few such are pretended what miracle is it that a prudent man should be once deceived And for the pions man it is so frequent that no body wonders at it To which we may add this reflection that when such Novelties are once received by the itching ears of a multitude they are magnified beyond measure and the further they are carry'd the greater they appear Yea the very memory of the first deliverer is confounded with a multiplicity of interrogatories from such as are curious and inquisitive into things of that nature so that he begins not well to know what it was that he saw but to beleeve he saw truth and when any circumstance less favourable thwarts it he easily applies himselfe to rectifie something presuming he might in that particular be abused And the suspicion which this sort of Revelations are obnoxious to is more justifiable in that Divines cannot agree upon any Rules by which false ones may be distinguished from true Which shews that neither they themselves in whom they are wrought have any clear tokens whereby to discern them or if they have as S. Augustin seems to believe of his Mother that the discrimination is not explicable to another So that as we cannot doubt but that private Revelations are communicated sometimes to Gods favorites so we must no less avow that the whole complex of them is subject to unspeakeable obscurities and ambiguities and altogether insufficient to administer any firm ground of argumentation to those at least who have not themselves received and experienc'd them And this exception becomes yet less unjust by the consideration of the quality of the Persons who are for the most part Women sometimes simple men either melancholy or dozed with assiduous musing and solitary pensiveness sometimes by sickness indispos'd or upon their death-beds or recover'd from a Traunce Each of these hath need enough of some artificial help to secure them from lapsing in point of prudence and wariness And the more ancient the Revelations are pretended to be the more necessary is this care and vigilance all beginnings of such things being more suppos'd to mistakes till experience by degrees opens a window to the discovery and dispersion of the mists of errour But nothing so enervates and invalidates this sort of proofs as the power of Phantasy whose prodigious delusions few and those only who have experienc'd them can perfectly avoid and detest The power I say of that faculty is such that it compells us to believe divers things to be acted without us which have no other stage then our own Brain This our Dreams and the extravagant delusions of feaverish and hypocondriacal persons sufficiently convince I remember that ruminating long since on an accident which at that time I was very sensible of and casting by chance my eye on a Beam in the House the end thereof seem'd to me perfect to resemble a head cut off insomuch that though conscious of the illusion I was forced to turn away my eyes horrour seizing me as often as I fix't them upon it In the twilight of the evening and not unfrequently in the day time men