their learning But because his pretended Demonstrations are now so cryed up by that little handful of his Scholars whose itch after novelties hath rendred Proselites of his Doctrin and since in the Entry to my Discourse I have laid down those as they would have us believe unshakable grounds of this new minted Purgatory my Reader may justly challenge that we should take a Survey of them And though this might seem weakly to anticipate what I heare far abler Pens have undertaken at large yet why should we not take a short view of them and that even in the very order they lye And first then leaving his Gibberish Notion of a Separated Soul how Ridiculous is this Position That the proper accidents that is those things that are in the Soul according to the Soul its practical judgments Its affections to friends and acquaintance even to Corporal pleasures are the Soul it self Since that they are so is not onely Indemonstrable but Incomparably false for the Soul is both Created without them remains in the Body without them in such as by grace have subdued these Inordinations and much more in Heaven both with and without the Body before and after the Resurrection And even in his Systeme of Purgatory the Soul shall be divested of them at the re-union and yet all the Peripateticks or Lucretian Phylosophy in the world can never evince that the Soul can be separated from it self Therefore nor from these Affections if they be the Soul it self And how came these immediately insuing words to escape his wary Pen That the Soul without them were more imperfect Are those very Affections which constitute Purgatory and Hell too perfections of the Soul Or when she comes to divest her self of them at the Re-union does she remain more imperfect in Heaven then when she was in the state of suffering by Them or is she then not her selfe because she is without them or had she been less Perfect if she had passed out of this life by perfect mortification without them But because this Doctrin That the Soul were more imperfect without these Affectinos is very neer allyed to an other excellent Doctrin of our great Master and which will much promote solid devotion of the Corporal Pleasures themselves let us compare them together they agree very happily and will illustrate one an other Since Corporal life sayes he is made in order to the attaining of Beatitude and Corporal pleasures are conformable to corporal life and therefore of necessity that Corporal life in its kinde is the best which hath the most and greatest Corporal pleasures as elsewhere is shewn more at large And further since the best Corporal life doth best serve to the attaining of Beatitude it is also necessary that the Christian discipline which is the Mistriss of Beatitude should even fill our lives with the pleasures of the Body and those who live piously should enjoy a hundred fold of those Corporal pleasures more then those who live ill Might not this excellent Sermon very well become a St. Austen or a St. Paul No truly Sir they never were acquainted with this Demonstration They lived in the Non-age of the Church they were steered by Faith not by this Evidence and Science And so they walkt in Austerities Tenances Mortifications They never fancyed That that Corporal life was best in its kind which abounded with most and greatest Corporal pleasures much less That such an one was best adapted to attain that Beatitude they thirsted after They looked on Corporal Pleasures as the Bane of the Soul But our Great Master being still himself might well teach us That the Soul without these Affections were more imperfect since he placed the Perfection of a Corporal life best adapted to attain Beatitude in the injoyment of the Pleasures themselves In earnest Sir I have a scruple to Translate such Doctrines as these are which onely befit Epicurus his School and the life of Hogs though you would perswade us they are truths which promote solid Devotion if I were not confident of my Readers vertue and that they will beget a just horror in his Soul both against the Doctrines themselves and those Principles that lead to them Sect. 28. Secondly How frivolously he concludes That the affections to corporal pleasures accompany the soul in her state of separation Their rise their origin is the Body The Soul were untouchable by them if it were not by reason of that union it hath to that clay which now incloses her How could the Soul be concerned to see to hear to touch if she had neither eyes ears hands or any other corporeal organs by which these pleasures could be conveyed to her especially if she enjoyed her fill of those far more noble and excellent satisfactions such as he puts of eminent compleat knowledge proportionable to that state of separation And what Purgatory could a Scholar indure who should pass out of this life with all his Affections regulated save onely that to learning since in that state his soul should even be ravisht with the injoyment of all that knowledge which he inordinately long'd for in this mortal life How then is not the soul divested of those base affections when she passes out of the body which have their source from this earthly habitation But let us compare this Doctrine with an other admirable Non-sence of our Master He tells us in his Peripateticks lib. 5. lec 1 n. 6. That the separation of the soul from the body is of that efficacy that the soul even in substance is changed and that a separated soul is in truth an other thing in substance then it was in the body As if forsooth it were this thing this soul which now informs my body that offends God in this life and an other thing an other soul shall be punished for it in the next And doth not this Doctrine evacuate all the fear of Purgatory Judgment and Hell too And let not my Adversary tell me he says it is an other thing but says not that it is an other soul For I desire him to tell me what other thing it is if it be not an other soul for still it is a soul and nothing but a soul A thing is a notion more universal then a soul and what are distinguished in a notion that is more universal can not be the same in a notion that is less universal No Logician ever fancied that those things which are distinguished in the notion of Animal can be the same in the notion of Homo If then the separation render the soul an other thing an other soul how should it not have other accidents and affections which according to him are the soul it self or must it not of necessity have so But let this too be supposed Sect. 29. Thirdly Whoever fancied That a separated soul shall be tormented with a vast grief by reason corporal pleasures are now impossible to be injoyed Who ever was concerned or tormented
from any body had the rest of souls departed their bodies many ages agoe no greater duration then this their even now created companion What if the same Hand of God should now destroy one of those separated souls shall the rest of them which shall co-exist to all future time have therefore no longer duration then she What if there were no body no motion no time at all could not God create a Soul and destroy it at his pleasure and yet not this in the same indivisible moment For then it would follow the Soul is and is not in the same instant Therefore in some other posteriour moment What if God should again repair this thus annihilated soul We could not imagine that this new second existence would be measured with the same duration that the first for this would exclude the very supposition of an interruption Besides Sir Christian Theology teaches us that Angels whose duration is as indivisible as that of Souls were not created in Termino but in Viâ The holy Angels were not Created in the State of Fruition nor the Devils in the State of Damnation but both in the way to these several States And that first they were in the State of Grace in which the good by adhering to God were afterwards translated to Glory whilst the Devils by their pride and disobedience were deservedly afterwards thrust out headlong into Hell Who hath rendred it evident that all this could be effected in one indivisible moment And further Sir as to this point that my Reader may be cleared more fundamentally in it We must observe That since Eternity which is devoid of all Succession is the measure of a Perfectly Permanent being that is of God himself as far forth as any thing recedes from a Permanent being so far it recedes from Eternity and comes to Succession Now though the being of Angels does not consist in motion and therefore is not measured by our Time Yet since the Essence of an Angel is neither its Vnderstanding nor its Will much less is it the Acts of these Powers The substance of an Angel is not measured by Eternity since it hath Transmutation adjoyned to it and so hath a proper duration or measure between it and time And further since the Operations of Angels have a real and true succession they are measured by a true succession and time not that of bodies or the motions of them but by a time proper to the succession of those Operations and if holy Writ deliver us any other then Metaphorical truths of separated Substances it delivers this succession in them Your Master himself takes notice in his Med. Stat. acc. 22. Of the Souls of the slain described in the Apocalyps resting under the Altar and crying out to have the day of Iudgement hastned which reaches home to our purpose that they are concerned in the length of the stay and that it is absolutely false that there is no succession of Acts even in Beatified Souls or that to coexist to a greater or less part of time adds or diminishes nothing to them Though it fals much short of rendring our Prayers onely available for the hastning of that day as we shall presently see for which end he there introduces it And if you please to consider in the 10th Chap. of Daniel where the Angel appearing tels him That the Prince or Angel of the Kingdome of the Persians resisted him one and twenty dayes And behold Michael one of the first Princes he who stands for the Children of the Jewish Nation came to his help You will easily observe there is not this comprehension of all time your Master fansied in the workings or beings of Separated Substances Sect. 31. Fifthly As to his grounds of the Immutability of that state it is groundlesly assumed That a Soul can suffer no alteration from a Body but by identification or by being the same thing with that body And indeed who ever fanfied that the soul could thus be identified or become the very self-same thing with the body Who ever believed that now in this life our Souls are really and truly our Bodies and our Bodies are our Souls Or if they were thus Identified or the same thing how were it possible they should ever be severed since nothing can be imagined to be served from it self Christian Phylosophy never admitted this position it is evidently destructive of the Immortality of our Souls and of all Religion For if the Soul be Identified or the same thing with the body it must of necessity be resolved into dust with the body For no man can conceive how any thing should supervive it self so that this will put an end to Purgatory Heaven Hell and All Religion We that walk by Christian Faith and not by new Lights this Ignis Fatuus of Demonstrations alwayes believed That the Soul and Body as two distinct parts concurred to the building up of one Man who is one not by simplicity not by Identification of the parts or I know not what strange fancyed Transubstantiation of the Soul into the Body but by substantial Vnion or Composition Further Sir It can never be evidenced That not onely such an Inimaginable Identification should be necessary to the end that a Soul may be passive from the Body but that even a Substantial union is requisite We see that the Soul in the state of Vnion even Naturally suffers by the Bodies Indisposition as in Frensies caused by Feavours or other distempers And who shall render it evident that in the state of separation not naturally but by the Omnipotent Hand of God she may not be passive by Fire or some other External Agent by some way our Vnderstandings now reach not to Sect. 32. Sixthly It is a purely voluntary and false Assertion That a separated soul knows all things together and perpetually The very holy Angels do not thus know all things Our Blessed Guardians of new know daily and howrly our actions and represent our sighs and devotions in the sight of God and since in these we are free and not tyed necessarily to any thing but our selves it is impossible they should know them till we our selves have determined our selves to them Nor even then immediately for God alone is the searcher of hearts till they have sallied out into some effect And our B. Saviour himself tells us The holy Angels themselves know not of that day and howr to wit of Judgment but onely the Father Matth. 24. and they rejoyce at the new conversion of a sinner Sect. 33. Seventhly Who ever rendred it Evident that No Alteration can befall a separated Soul from any other Spirit without the interposition of the Body For Spirits can act on Spirits immediately without such interposition and the contrary Doctrine is destructive of all the conversation of the holy Angels for all Aeternity is destructive of the Doctrine holy Writ delivers us of the fall of the Devils where the Dragon is described to have drawn after him the
principles and consequences to be true that there is no Error no Ignorance no Succession in Separated Substances now in their present state of Separation How inconsequent is it as he there tels us That they are now just that as to their affections which this state of union with their bodies and mortality made them What a frivilous discourse he introduces arguing in the same 17 Acc. As an Embriâ— sayes he or seminal Mushrom delineates a future man so the thoughts and affections of this life design by their impressions the future condition of the Soul So that death produces such an Entity as from the man so disposed is naturally producible thus to remain till Resurrection For this hath no Connexion with the precedent Doctrine of the Immutability of Souls in the state of Separation If we should suppose that there is no variety in them no succession in that single state of Separation how will it follow there is no change of affections in these two and those so different States of Separation and Vnion Besides Sir if the Antecedent of this his Argument reach home to his purpose it is a Position destructive of all Christianity if this Embrio or seminal Mushrom delineate the future man if the Soul be such as the quality of the matter exacts and determines it to be as he tells us it is at the first infusion into the body and remains so or else he tels us nothing to his purpose Our liberty is destroyed There remains no hopes that these his Determinations by the matter or body should be changed by education by vertue should be corrected by Grace Since then this his Doctrin is absolutely false and since souls in truth by the assistance of Divine Grace do perfectly overcome even whilst in their Bodies what they contract or are determâ—nod by their Bodies as our holy Faith teaches how excellently is it concluded That Souls now in Separation do not Correct what was in them by the commerce of that unworthy Clay which before inclosed them And how will it not be as well or more effectually concluded that Souls at their Re-union too passing now from Separation to Union as well as before from Union to Separation carry with them their unchangable Affections and so never get out of his Purgatory neither before nor at the day of Iudgment By these short reflections my Reader will easily observe how far these Adamantin unshakeable grounds fall short of that so much boasted Evidence even of Truth some of them being most perfect falshoods the rest groundless uncertain dreaming Assertions and yet they are such as shall serve the levity of some men to abandon the authority of the whole Catholick Church and upon these shall be Errected a new modled Purgatory as upon other the like they have built us a whole new faithless Religion of which they are so fondly inamoured and peremptory that now they boldly pronounce The hither to received Faith of the Church proceeded out of Ignorance of the Nature of Separated Substances Sect. 35. But to conclude my Adversary and our business if this his Position be true That no Souls are delivered out of Purgatory before the day of Iudgment What serve for all our Devotions Prayers Alms Offerings Doth the holy Sacrifice of the Altar which the Church hath defined to be Propitiatory even for the Dead avail those distressed Souls nothing at all No my Adversary dares not as yet venture upon this The Councils are so cleer so home to this Point his credit were ruined if he should attempt to deny it His new Purgatory then must be furnished with some new way by which our endeavours may be beneficial to those poor Souls or else no Catholiques Ears could be open to his new Divinity Is it perhaps the intermitting at some times or abating of the fury of their torments O no this Doctrin finds no admission in his School His indivisible duration admits of no intermission and where the Soul by her now unchangable affections is her own executioner no Allay or Abatement of torment can be hoped for till Reunior What then perhaps shall our Prayers be of force to obtain their Release O no this the least of all It were against all their Demonstrations and therefore is reserved to his new changeable state at the Resurrection What then is the effect of all our tears and prayers What benefit doe Separated Souls receive by them This and onely this That the day of Iudgment is hastned by them And is this all Yes truly this is all our new Systeme of Purgatory can admit of as to the Assisting of the Souls detained in it But what if this accelerating the day of Iudgment prove no advantage no help at all to those distressed souls Would not all Christians be justly charged with an intollerable folly Would nâ—t the Church be unavoidably guilty of a â—upereminent Error in a Doctrin which draws so much practice after it Whilst both the Florentin Council here and that of Trent pronounce and all Christians agree That the Souls detained in Purgatory are assisted delivered by the Prayers and Suffrages of the Faithful yet living And yet certain it is that the hastning of the day of Iudgment is no advantage to them in these their Positions and grounds Let this great Master himself plead the Cause Let him fairly deliver us his sublime sense in his own words Whether our devotions assist those souls or no Whether the hastning of the day of Iudgment be any way beneficial to them and that by his very â—bylosophical grounds the basis and foundation of the duration of souls now detained in his new minted Purgatory In spiritual acts says he whether they bring happiness or misery there is no proportion to time so as to make pain which lasts longer to be greater or that which ends sooner to be less for these are the properties of corporal things Every act of a pure Spirit reflected on it self being of its own nature out of the reach of time not subject thereto but greater then the whole extension of time c If then to a thing or separated soul which co-exists to a longer part of time nothing be thereby added or to a thing that is a separated soul which coexists with a less part of time nothing be diminished there can be no reason why duration should represent either more or less grievous in these respective cases So that whatsoever grief of a separattd soul is by the quality and force of its essence greater the same grief let its co-existence to time be what it will must be more vehement and that which is less by the force of its essence less Nothing being gained or lost by the perpetuating or contracting of the motions of the Sun or other Celestial bodies So that whatsoever time intervenes between death and the Restauration of the world at the day of Judgment is to separated souls as one moment This doctrin presupposed What can separated
hath given us on several occasions And the rather because the authority of our supream Pastor hath already taken notice of and interposed his sharp but justly deserved censures against divers of them and doubtless will proceed against the rest according to their demerits I shall then as to the present concern my self only with this one controversie of the state of those souls which leave this life in the state of Grace but so that they are not as yet fully purged and with those positions and grounds on which this new molded Fabrick of Purgatory stands unless some one Doctrine or other of the Author of it having a neer alliance with the business in hand so offer it self that our discourse and the Subject would be illustrated by it Sect. 4. And first as to the opinion it self he thus delivers it of the middle State acc. 1. I acknowledg sayes he in humane failings 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 but Oh that I lawfully might c. the affection or inclination he had to temporal good is restrained not extinguished of mortal become venial changed not destroyed Being therefore by the operation of death as it were new molded and minted into a purely spiritual substance he carries inseparably with him the matter of his torment in like manner as he also doth who takes leave of his body with his affections only venially disordered we do not then anywhere imagine a place filled with hellish dishes by which the soul as from an external tormentor suffers a butchery but we are in horrour of the strife and fury of innate affections which is therefore proportioned to the sâ—ns because springing from them nor ever otherwise possible to be defaced unless the soul by a new conjunction to the body become passive or susceptible of contrary affections c. These are his new apprehensions of the State of Souls in their separation perfectly squared to those Phylosophical grounds he had long before layed in his Peripatetick Institutions Sect. 5. Now as to the order in which this new fabrick of Purgatory and indeed a whole new system of Philosophy and Divinity was made publick it was as I take it this after the Book of the immortality of of the soul fathered on Sir Kenelm Digby Master White appeared himself on the Stage under the name of Thomas the Englishman of the Albiâ— of the East Saxons where in a moderate volume intituled Peripatetick Institutions to the mind of that most eminent man and most excellent Philosopher Sir Kenelm Digby c. He discovers the great mine of this Phylosophy here the suttleties of Logick the secrets of nature the hidden properties of bodies both heaven and earth are layed open and not only that but we are further led on by an undisolvable chain of unavoidable consequences as is pretended to the abstract notions of metaphysicks to the clear understanding of separated souls intelligences even the existence and attributes of God himself And All this if the Reader hath faith enough to believe for otherwise I am confident he will find but slender satisfaction by most clear and evident demonstrations by a long chain of consequences or a series of Patets Fits sequiturs clarum ests consequens ests confectum ests and the like The Foundations thus laid conformable to this incomparable and I think incomprehensible Peece for never Daughter was liker her Mother issued out some time after his Divinity under this Title Institutiones Sacrae built as he professes in or on Inaedificatae his former Peripatetick Institutions This now containing a perfect Sum or Model of his Divinity as that had formerly done of his Phylosophy And certainly happy it was the Author divided them to our hands and gave us them in several Volumes and under several titles for else it hd been impossible to know where the first ended or the second began this being so perfectly squared to that that in the very entry to his Divinity he banisheth the a Notion of Supernaturality though not the word out of his School the whole design of his new Theology being now in the third age of the Church to evacuate Christian Faith and out of his Phylosophical grounds to mould us up a new demonstrative Religion for nothing is upon any other grounds admitted into this new Theological School of which I give my Reader a full Account Sect. 23 24. c. Sect. 6. In his Peripatetick Institutions then or Philosophy 5 book lesson 1. he lays the foundations of his future Purgatory or the state of Souls in separation and having in the first place laboured to evince That Rational Souls such as those of men are may exist or be without their Bodies He delivers that notion which he desires to imprint in us of a separated Soul in these words nu 9 10 11. Now he who desires to frame to himself in some sort a notion of a separated Soul let him ponder with himself that Object which corresponds to the word Man or Animal as such which when he shall see Abstracts from Place and Time and is a substance by the only necessity of the terms let him conceive the like of a separated soul Then let him attentively consider some self evident and most Natural Proposition in which when he shall have Contemplated That the Object is in the Soul with its proper existence and as it were by it let him think a separated Soul is a Substance that is all other things by the very Connexion of Existencies Lastly When in bodies he shall observe that motion proceeds from the quality of the mover and a certain impulse and that this impulse is derived again from another impulse and so even up to that which is first moved and beyond Let him imagine the soul is a kind of Principle of such impulse whatsoever thing that must be And so he holds on nu 12. What is said of the substance of the soul undoubtedly must be understood too of its proper accidents for since they depend onely on the soul being something of it nay even the very soul it self and it would be more imperfect without them they must run the same fortune with it unless some special reason interpose Out of which he deduces immediately num 13. Whatsoever things then were in the man according to his soul at the instant of his death remain inseparably in the state of separation Wherefore all his resolutions or judgments whether speculative or practical shall remain in it Out of which he deduces in the same Book less 4. num 1. And because the affections in the soul are nothing else but judgements upon which operation does or is apt to follow c. it comes to pass
that our affections to acquaintance and friends and the rest we cultivated in this life shall remain in the future And more fully in the same place num 2. The affections shall remain and that in the same proportion they were during life Out of which he concludes there num 3. Those who have given themselves up wholly to corporal pleasures will be affected with a vast grief through the impossibility of those pleasures there that is because corporal pleasures cannot now be injoyed by the soul in her state of separation This is the essence the substance of his Purgatory this is his whole chain or deduction of it this is the grief he admits in separated souls for accusing them of ignorance who conceive fire or any other material or external agent hath power to afflict them in that state he conceives them sufferers from these remaining affections to corporal pleasures which therefore torment the souls because they now are in a state where these pleasures are impossible to be injoyed Sect. 7. Now as to the measure or duraration of separated souls and the continuation of that state till the day of judgment the foundations are laid in the same Book less 3. num 5. Again sayes he it is plain that a separated soul in an other manner excels place and time then in the body since in that it only abstracts from them but out of that it comprehends them For this universal and actual knowledg places all place and all time within the soul so that it can act in every place at once and together as far as concerns this respect and provide for all time wherefore it is in a manner a maker and governour of time and place out of which he deduces fully of the middle state acc. 12. in spiritual acts whether they bring happiness or misery there is no proportion to time so as to make pain which lasts longer to be greater or that which ends sooner to be less for those are the properties of corporal things c. 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 c. And in the next Sect. more fully If to a thing that is a separated soul which coexists to a longer part of time nothing be thereby added or to a thing which coexists to a shorter part of time nothing be thereby diminished there can be no reason why duration should represent either more or less grievous in these respective cases c. So that whatsoever grief of a separated soul is by the quality and force of its essence greater the same let its Co-existence to time be what it will must be more vehement and that which is less less intense nothing being gained oâ— lost by the perpetuating or shortning of the motions of the Sun or other caelestial bodies c. And from this ground in the same book account 22. he concludes Whatsoever time intervenes betwixt it that is the prayer now powred out for a departed soul or death and the restauration of the world that is the day of general judgment is to departed souls but as one moment Sect. 8. And further as to the Immutability of that state of separation and the unchangeableness of the acts of Souls now severed from their Bodies his grounds are laid down in the afore-cited Perepatetick Institutions book 5. less 4. num 6 7 8. Moreover says he out of what hath been said 't is deduced That in the state of separation no variety can happen to Souls from any body or the change of Bodies for since 〈◊〉 change passes not from any body into the soul but through the Identification of the soul with its own body and this Identification ceaseth by the state of separation it follows that no action nor mutation can be derived from any Body to the Soul Nor has the Soul of it self a principle of change in it self not from hence only because an indivisible cannot act on it self but also because since a mutation of the Soul cannot be any other then either according to the Vnderstanding or according to the Will But the Vnderstanding is supposed to know all things together and for ever whence by the course of Nature there is no room left either for Ignorance or new Science And the Will is either not distinct from the Vnderstanding or at least is adequately governed in the state of separation it follows that naturally no mutation can happen to a separated soul from within or caused by it self Nor yet from any other Spirit without the Interposition of the Body for since all Spirits are indivisible their operations too will be such but an indivisible effect supposing all the causes of necessity exists in the same instant wherefore if any thing be to be done between Spirits t is all in one instant so done and perfected that afterwards an other action cannot be begun for if it begin either the causes were before adequately put or not if they were the effect was put if they were not some of the causes is changed that it may now begin to act and not this bâ—â— the former is the first mutation whereof it is to be urged Whether the causes were put before These are the eternal truths as they would perswade us the unshakable foundations of Phylosophy on which this whole new Fabrick of Purgatory stands and I have been the more careful to deliver them fully to my reader even in this beginning of my discourse that he may with one cast of his eye see on what firm foundations this new school hath abandoned the hitherto received faith of our holy mother the Church and now dares pronounce That what she hath hitherto taught us proceeded but out of ignorance of the nature of separated substances Of the Mid. State Acc. 17. Sect. 9. But because Master White the Author of this new Purgatory and our faithless demonstrative Religion was sufficiently conscious to himself that these novelties would call upon the vigilancy and care of the Shepheards of Christs flock he stood ready prepared to receive their incounter And no sooner had the late Bishop of Calcedon his then superior admonished him of this and other his new Doctrines in this new pretended Demonstrative Theology but in defence of his new molded Purgatory issued out his premeditated as it seems book Of the Middle State of Souls directed to the same Bishop which book if it had remained in the Authors obscure and mysterious Dialect which he above all modern Writers seems to affect and reason enough he hath to come Mascaradoed into the world and to involve himself had layed deservedly neglected But it having been by the indiscreet care of some one of his Proselytes put into an English dress and exposed to the weak capacities even of Vulgar Readers lest this new erroneous Doctrine contained in it might spread among those whose infirmity betrayed them to be
defined by the Decree When the Church combated the Eutychian Heresie which denyed two natures in Christ no Christian dare affirm it onely then defined the plurality of Wills against the Monothelites because these two questions have so necessary and immediate a connexion And can you hope to perswade an ignorant Reader that when the Pope defines That after purgation even before the re-assumption of their bodies departed souls are received into heaven he defines nothing at all about Purgatory but onely this that perfect Charity brings an immediate heaven though he hath not any thing like this Position in his Bull and that this should be fixed on the Pope and Cherubinus and all Learned Authors to boote I hope then Sir you will pardon my boldness if I challenge you fairly with this If you do not make it appear by those unknown Learned Authors in terms that yours was the question and not that of Purgatory we shall judg you have wrong'd them as much as now to our eyes you have imposed on the Pope and Cherubinus And I justly challenge it of you that you bring us it in terms and not by a consequence of a second or third remove or else your sincerity in citing Authors will be highly questionable by your Reader or indeed now past Question And truly I wondred at the first perusal of this part of your Book why you should use this sleight to prepossess the unwary Reader but afterwards by the rest of your discourse I easily observed it was but made use of to render by this art of changing the question a plawsible answer to this Bull and Council otherwise unavoidable and yet I discovered at last a further design which no man but a Prophet could have foreseen to wit that you might fix upon your Adversary that he not you stands guilty of disowning these sacred authorities and that forsooth because he opposes the efficacy of holy charity the Queen of vertues which you and your Master indeavour to sustain of which your slye accusation I shall have occasion to speak hereafter but I hope to render this your craft wholly unsuccessful Sect. 15. But how unfortunate a Writer you are will be rendred evident and how unfit you are to catechise and instruct others this Grave and Learned Eymericus shall tell you because you do not explicitely believe this Doctrine of Purgatory now in question For having distinguished all the Credibilia or matters of faith into three Classes according to St. Thomas and shewed what the vulgar and simple sort of Christians as also what Superiours Prelates and Doctours are bound to believe both explicitely and implicitâ—ly he there concludes concerning the middle sort of Christians under which name he comprehends Priests CuÌ„rates and all Religious Persons who have undertaken to instruct the ignorant in faith and good manners The middle sorts sayes he who are to teach the simple people are obliged to believe some of these points that is such as are determined by the holy Church in her Councils and Consistories Explicitely though not all these Points singly nor all these Persons equally but according to their several state and learning whereby they are to instruct the ignorant As for example they are all bound to believe explicitely that the souls of just men departed without sin as of little Infants or if they have sinned have here or in Purgatory fully satisfied are pass'd into Heaven before the day of Iudgment according to the Church's determination making it a matter of faith in the extravagant of Pope Benedict xii beginning Blessed be God Sect. 16. And having said this as to the intention of the Pope in our present Bull before I proceed further in your Answer let us take a short survey of the Florentin Council of which I can not but blame you of neglect in that you give your Reader so slender an account And if I must not flatter your sloth I know not how otherwise to excuse it then that you were not conversant at all in it and so you rested satisfied with what your cleer-sighted friends told you or Cherubinus his Vbi hoc idem firmatum fuit since if it were possible the Council seems more full and home to our Question And first In the Third Article which the Publishers gave you it defines If truely penitent Souls shall depart this life before they have satisfied for their Commissions and Omissions by worthy fruits of Penance that their Souls are purged by the punishments of Purgatory after their bodies death c. Which Doctrine can finde no admittance in your new modell for all the sufferings of souls which you fancy by their irregular and now unchangeable affections avail nothing as to the Purging or cleansing of Souls in their state of Separation since that is wholly reserved by you to the change of those affections at the re-union And secondly when Art 4. upon this Doctrine of the Council so said down it pursues to declare unto us That Souls which are purged either in their bodies ar being uncloathed of their bodies as is above said are presently received into heaven I would have you to observe how this further Doctrine of the delivery of them and the compleating of this purging being uncloathed of their bodies is by this Parenthesis as is above said wholly built on the former Doctrine of the purging itself And it will be unavoidable since there is a Purgation of souls by the punishments of Purgatory against you that there also is as effectually concluded a compleat Purgation of them whilst uncloathed of their bodies and an immediate delivery perfectly condemning and destructive of your Doctrine in the very point in Question But that my Reader may have a cleerer view of this unavoidable Truth let us set together and compare this Doctrine of the Council with yours The Council defines That truly penitent souls which depart this life before they have satisfied for their sins are purged by the punishments of Purgatory after death and being thus purged uncloathed of their bodies are presently received into Heaven Or as the Pope more expresly pronounces before the reassumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment Now how happily do you and your new Master agree with this Doctrine when you tell us Souls which depart this life with affections to corporal pleasures suffer a vast grief by reason those pleasures are now impossible to be enjoyed but they are now in an unchangeable condition both as to the affections their torment and the state it self So that there is no hope they should ever be released before reunion with their bodies for though they suffer by their inordinate unchangeable affections yet not possibly as to any purging or change of their state or sufferings whilest uncloathed of their bodies and therefore can not Presently be received into Heaven or before the Re-assumption of their said bodies and the general Day of Iudgment And I would have you further to observe and weigh the words
not presently hiss me out Will they not cry out to the faggot with me And shall we believe that in such a disposition of the faithful people that such an Innovatour will dare to print or publish his novelty or that he shall hope to find either buyers of his Book or followers of his Doctrine Thus he And thus Sir your great Master pleads the cause and arraigns himself and all the Proselytes of his new Purgatory thus he thunders and lightens and I think home to our purpose for the consciences of all the faithful bear witness against it the unlearned know it is improbable and the learned see it is impossible Having said this to the ingenuous Gentleman the Author of that Letter who is a very able proficient in this new School I hope he will pardon me if I make his Letter publick without his name I hope these short reflections on his and his Masters grounds without which he acknowledges this Purgatory can not be sustained will prove an effectual admonition to him both to see and repent that he hath entred himself a Scholar into this dangerous School and therefore out of hand to withdraw his name Sect. 20. And now Sir I hope this better proficients judgment will be of some weight since he is your School-fellow I think an unprejudiced understanding will be convinced by that evidence I have already brought the undoubted intention of the Pope was to deliver us our holy Faith in all the several conditions of souls which depart this mortal life either in the state of grace or out of it either which need or need not any Purgation in the next life and for the Council besides the strength of words of the Decree the very Process of it the several Doctrines of the Latine and Greek Churches in order to this Decree will evince that their intentions reach as home to our purpose as their words But because the Reverend Esteem of â—â—ur new Master and of those solid and cleer-sighted persons stop your eares against the voice of the Church Let us try that Musick which certainly would cure you of this Tarantula What if we could obtain your new Master to plead on the behalf of that Faith we now maintain this certainly would prevail Let us attempt it then if you are not as yet so good a proficient in your new School that you are ready to believe the Council erred in this particular question of Purgatory I doubt not to conclude you out of your Masters own grounds Master White then layes you down this fundamental Doctrine The Church sayes he in her definitions of Faith proceeds onely on tradition and declares to us that Depositum of Faith which was handed down from Christ and his Apostles by an innumerable number of Fathers and Pastors to their numberless children and flock through age to age even to any one detèrminate moment When then any controversie is to be decided and a Council is summoned to declare our Faith what course is then taken surely no other then this The Fathers there gathered lay down that Faith thus handed down to them which they received from their precedent teachers and was commended to them to deliver to posteriâ—y as a sacred treasure not to be violated since it is their light their guide in their way to Heaven This Doctrine presupposed let it not be denyed but the Florentin Council proceeded in that very way he hath chalked out for them in our present question and my work is done Let us take a view of the Council Both the Greek and Latine Fathers meet first at Ferrara afterwards at Florence their business there is to declare the Faith of the Church concerning the state of souls which depart this life and in particular concerning the Souls which are detained in Purgatory both sides lay down their hitherto received Faith in order to a decision Let us see how happily they agree with this new molded Purgatory And first as to the Latins They â—elieve a Purgatory Fire directly against Master White who pretends to demonstate that no material agent can work upon the soul in its state of separation they believe that souls guilty of venial impurities are purged by this fire directly against Master White who holds there is no purging of the soul in the state of separation neither by fire nor not by fire for this is reserved to the reunion when her now torment her irregular affections shall be changed They believe that souls there detained by this fire together with the help of the Church the Prayers of the Priests Masses Almes c. are Expiated directly against Master White in the point in Question both as to the indivisible duration of the state he pretends to demonstrate and the unchangeableness of it and the continuation of it till the day of Iudgment Being thus unfortunate with the Latins who must needs have thrust this new School out of their Communion let us see what favour it would find with the Greeks These then profess this belief That souls there are detained in a darksome place Directly against Master White who holds that souls in the state of separation doe not only abstract from place but comprehend and are in some manner governours of all place they believe souls are expiated and freed directly against Master White who holds there is no expiating and freeing of souls but at re-union with their bodies they believe souls are freed by the Prayers and Sacrifices of Priests Almes c. directly against Master White in all the wayes before mentioned both as to his indivisible measure or duration of souls the unchangeableness of their state and the continuation of it till the day of Iudgment And most especially both sides unanimously agree against him in asserting the efficacy of Prayers and Sacrifices of the Priests for the dead for in his new systeme as shall be evidenced hereafter these endeavours advantage not the souls any thing at all What wonder then if out of both the Greek and Latin Professions thus directly opposite to him should issue out a Decree directly destructive of this his Machin or whilst neither part would admit him into their Communion they should conspire to destroy his errour The sacred Council approving We define say they that the souls of them who after Baptisme received have contracted no blemish of sin as also those souls who after they have contracted the blemish of sin are purged either in their bodies or being uncloathed of their said bodies are presently received into heaven What wonders is it we should have a purging of souls uncloathed of their bodies and a pâ—esent Translation into Heaven in which both sides agreed against him destructive of all this new Doctrine And truly what to answer to this evidence but by those other grounds that the Council did not proceed with due Application and so erred I cannot imagine And now I think I have fulfilled my promise to my Reader that either this new model
his 16 dimens De med. Stat. And I answer That it is not altogether unhappy in an ill Cause to be able to say any thing without blushing I have seen Criminals deride the Court scorn the Iudge but I never yet heard any of that eminent Confidence that he durst Vaunt the Court had pronounced in his favour when he stood condemned by the Sentence But because you have learnt to say so too after your Master an ordinary Reader will judge That you verily beleeve you have no Credit to lose when you will venture your rest at this disadvantage The Pope defines Souls being purged even before the re-assumption of their bodies and before the general Iudgment were are and shall be in Heaven The Council defines Souls being now purged uncloathed of their Bodies are Presently received into Heaven I sustain this Faith That Souls may be purged uncloathed of their bodies and that such are received presently into Heaven before the re-assumption of their bodies and general Iudgment You maintain the contradictory of this Position and yet you have the confidence to tell your Reader and even hope he beleeves you That the Sentence is pronounced in your favour and that I stand condemned by it Fourthly You quarrel pag. 10. at the Title of their Book which is Concerning the state of departed Souls You fancy a Mystery which they never meant and tell us this is a false Title the true one is A definition of certain Articles concerning the blessed vision of God and the beatitude and damnation of Souls Which yet is the very self-same with the other in this onely differing that what they comprehended in the word state is here declared by this division Of beatitude and damnution Sect. 37. Fifthly You tell us pag. 11. the word Verbatim made you smile Surely Sir you do not smile without some special grace since you mind us so often of it And presently you triumph about the gender of Synodus which you insinuate the Publisher was ignorant of he having added to it an Adjective in the Masculine gender and you pursue your sport amain and tell us The Printer must take the fault upon him or else the publisher will be suspected to be better skilled in transcribinâ— Three hundred lines of Latin then making three and yet you safely pass this censure upon him since the Printer was exact enough in all the Popes and Councils Latin And further you read us a Grammar Lesson that some words in us are of the Feminine some in a of the Masculine gender Now Sir we will suppose that you were very carefull to examine the Print and yet for all your care Sacrâ—sanctum Ecclesiam escaped your eye For since you came so lately from Grammar I do not suspect you have forgot that Ecclesiaâ— and Musa are of the Feminine gender though Poeta indeed is as you tell us of the Masculine But these are meer seven-years-old-School-boys imployments unworthy your reflections now you write Man and would be tampering in Divinity But it unbeseems your Youth thus to attaque a person of Merit and Learning who long before your new minted Purgatory appeared in the world both read and sustained Orthodox Divinity in a famous University and I hope I may say it without vanity with Dignity and Honour to that Chair which was not every ones good fortune even after their Conclusions had passed the Press as I am informed out of Portugal Sixthly You laugh pag. 18. at your Adversaries as if they were afraid to produce their Reasons against Master White and therefore you must guess at their whispering Objections by their stalking in great Letters And elsewhere you tell us We can not weild Reason and therefore our weapons are Authority What Goliath is this that exprobrates the Hoast of the Living God The Church Sir is both armed with Authority against Novelties and is not unfurnished with Reason to sustain her Faith against all the Pagan Phylosophy of the world If my indeavours receive your approbation I shall proceed to further discoveries in this your faithless pretended Theology And as to your complaint That some words in their little Book stalkt in great Letters 't is grounded on your little conversation with Books where Capital Letters are frequent especially in citing Authorities For there where the force of the proof lies in two or three words they are pointed out thus to the Readers eye and observation You may if you please print in Capital Letters Monachi subditi Episcopis and Notent Monachi and then you will onely publish a little yet undigested Choler in a Controversie again and again decided by that Tribunal from which there is no appeal Seventhly You tell us pag. 14. Master Whites opposers acknowledge that this Question of Purgatory was not handled in Pope Benedict his dayes since they accuse Master White for the first starter of this doubt Your Adversary the Publisher of the Bull hath nothing at all of this If his other Opposers accuse him of it I know not how they can justifie the Accusation New Opinions are raked out of hell every day by the Heterodox party of which we yet finde obscure footsteps in Antiquity Many opinions were choaked by the authority of the Church even in their birth and broached again Your self acknowledge Pope Benedict and many Doctors of the Latin Church were of opinion That Purgation might be perfected before Reunion pag. 19. and it will not be improbable if it was onely their Opinion as you pretend that others with Master White held the contrary But how can you parallel pag. 17. Master White according to your Adversary with him who brake a Law before it was made if Master White now breaks one three hundred years after it was made unless you will suppose that no one Article of our Faith was establisht till some one or other impugned it for otherwise his now Crime or erroneous Doctrin might stand condemned long agoe Sect. 38. Eightly You would perswade your Reader pag. 34 35. that not You but We stand condemn'd by this Bull and Council because the sole design of the Pope was to secure this sacred verity That perfect Charity brings an immediate heaven And since your Adversary holds That every soul immediately upon her separation converts her self perfectly to God and yet he detains her still in Purgatory to suffer a dry and arbitrary punishment which doth not redress the already rectified affections of the soul It follows He contradicts the Popes design and stands condemned by this his Sentence I answer first That I have already charged you with imposing on the Pope and if it were true that the Pope doth here define That perfect Charity brings an immediate Heaven which when you shew we shall be thankful for the miracle yet does not your argument against us at all conclude for where does your Adversary tell you That immediately upon separation all the affections of the soul are rectified and she in perfect Charity much less
themselves to have God for the last end and sâ—le good having now received this plentitude of knowledg out of that that they more strongly and evidently know this truth do infinitely increase in the affection to see God and since the Will is a reflection of existence upon essence by which the vertue of the entity is exercised and applyed to the desired effect such a Saint not to be any other thing then a man exercised according to the whole vertue and Entity in respect of the Vision of God Since that then as to know himself is to be himself to be so to know God is to be God that is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be of to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} esse esse but since the vertue of a thing to be is nothing but a potentiality especially in respect of to be subsistent which is both essence and to be it is concluded such a Saint by all which is in him not to be any thing else but an actual and exercised potentiality of being God Since therefore on the part of God out of that that he is to be it self or speaking more especially it is to be understood in act it self or to be in act understood which is to be his own to understand passively so that to be understood is not in him a denomination but a real quality that very quality which constitutes the Father and this quality or property is subsistent and by consequence proper to no power but to any one accommodated nothing can be wanting which appertains to the reason of act and actuality it is concluded That the Saints and God are one by power and act that is that the Saints cleerly see God And now truly Sir if my Readers patience hath held out as mine hath to Translate this long Demonstration just as it lyes for fear of spoiling the Non-sense I think he desires me to make it his humble request to that Ingenious Gentleman who Translated your Masters Middle State of Souls who hath so well delivered us Virgils sense to put this admirable Demonstration in Rhime it will go rarely to a Jewes Trump And I desire you to tel me when you Write again in what Moode and Figure this Syllogisme concludes But now having Demnostratively understood That the Saints perfect in Charity immediately see God Let us see how you pursue the way that Separated Souls attain to this perfection by Re-union And so Sect. 40. Ninethly You tell us pag. 37. Master White endeavours to finde a state in which the soul may be changeable to more holy desires and a connatural cause to give her those desires to wit the corporal and mental sight of her dearest Saviour c. For what state more fit for changeableness then a corporeal one and what more powerful to ravish the whole affections of a soul then the divine face of her Spouse My Reader will not wonder at the inventions your Master finds out now he is a little acquainted with the head that finds them Yet this invention is worth our observation which I suspect you will hardly shew in any former writer and so justly he may be proud of it The Souls then have been all the time of their separation in a state of suffering only by their irregular affections which being wholly unchangeable in that state they are as yet not purged or cleansed at all but perfectly the same they were at the moment of death but now by reunion with the body they are put into a new state of changeableness Now Sir Christians that have hitherto walked by Faith do all conceive that the way or Pilgrimage of men to the future life is ended at death They never heard that Souls at the Resurrection are returned to Act again in order to Eternity If that state do render Souls changeable and free and their actions then have such an influence on their future state it will justly be feared that many of them may drop out of Purgatory into Hell Nor will the sight of the Divine face of their Spouse quite evacuate this apprehension For if the Soul be not necessarily but freely and voluntarily ravisht the doubt will remain Whether she will still continue her inordinate affections or avert her self wholly from God and so either remain in his Purgatory still or nowpass into Hell And how happily Sir doth this change of affections which is your sole and onely purging or cleansing of the Soul wrought by the sight of the Divine face of Christ which sight is doubtless an incomparable pleasure and such an one as ravishes the whole affections of the Soul agree with the Decrees of these Councils That of Florence when it defines The Souls are purged by the pains of Purgatory That of Trent when it teaches After the sin remitted temporary pains are due in Purgatory When now we are taught that souls are purged by pure pleasures the sight of their dear Spouse And in earnest Sir I know not why the world is not more inamoured of your Doctrine You have now filled our lives with the pleasures of the body you have quite turned the pains and afflictions of Souls in the state of separation into Pure pleasures And now at the Re-union you fancy the Souls affections changed that is her self purged by an incomparable pleasure which even ravishes all her affections And to compleat a most pleasant Divinity I could pursue it even to your Masters pleasant Hell who Instit. Sac. lib. 3. lec 9. describes the damned so pleased with their torments that they are in love with them and would not be without them But I reserve that to an other discovery Onely I will for the present mind you that since the inordinate Affections of the damned are their torment according to your Master in that same place and those affections remain in them in the same proportion they were in this life and since doubtless where pleasures are possible and easie to be attained and we continually pressed by our bodies to the enjoyment the refraining from them is a far greater torment then where the temptations are not so impetuous or none at all and the injoyment represented as impossible which at one blow outs off all the Wills pursuit It will follow That those who restrain themselves from these pleasures are in a greater Hell in this life then those who are damned in the next And therefore it would not seem very rational that any man should precipitate himself voluntarily now into a greater Hell where is duration and succession to avoid a less in the future life the duration of which is but as one moment And let me further beg of you to render us a cleer account How it should happen that the Souls of the damned at the re-union should not all of them rectifie their now disordered affections and fly to Heaven For since your Master hath already taught us That the damned Souls are now furnished with all
because he could not do that which he knew to be impossible Who ever was intollerably afflicted because he could not Fly or render his body as incorruptible as a Diamond or become an Angel Stay you 'l say I suppose an ardent â—â—ffection to pleasures not impossible absolutely but onely by reason of the present state And what then The Soul is now Mistress of perfect Reason euen of all knowledge according to you They are â—hreneticks onely who torment themselves because they can not do that which they see is impossible in their present state whilst they cannot transfer themselves into an other state in which the pleasure they so much covet may be possible How ardent a thirst soever you have to the knowledge of all truth yet since you see such knowledge is in this life impossible to be attained and you hope for it in the next yet do I not beleeve you indure any vast grief or even are much tempted to rid your self out of this world that you may injoy it in the next Besides your Master tells us The Will is either not distinct from the Vnderstanding or at least is adequately governed in the state of separation How then can the Will be tormented with a vast grief because of the impossibility of those pleasures whilst the Understanding shall cleerly represent to it the Baseness Vileness Vnworthiness of such Pleasures and which at one blow cuts off all the Wills pursuit shall represent them as Impossible But the truth is this Doctrine is grounded upon a pure mistake For the absence much less the impossibility of corporal pleasures doth not torment with any vast or considerable grief those souls even in this life which are most of all immerst in the affections to them and by consequence not separated souls for he tell us they remain in the state of separation even in that same proportion they were in this life but just then when the body prompts or calls for an injoyment Let us consider the most luxurious the most gluttonous person in the world when the present capacity of his body is satiated with those pleasures he indures no considerable torment till the body again call for a reiterated enjoyment It is not then rational to say That a Soul which passes out of this life by a long continued Feaver and therefore carries with it into the next world a great affection to drink shall be tormented in the next life with a vast grief because she now can not injoy the pleasure of drinking whilst in truth she can never suffer any thirst And how sordid and low a fancy he had of Spiritual Substances in their state of separation to conceive them thus tortured because Corporal pleasures can not now be inâ—ayed Which pleasures pious Christians abominate even in this their Pilgrimage which the Pride and Ambition of Worldlings easily overcome which the wiseâ— sort of Pagans scorn which Heathen Phylosophers would not stoop to which Avicen though a Turk contemned and his Master Mahomets Heaven built up and fancied for Swine It had been pious and worthy a Phylosopher to conceive them as good Christians do tormented with a vast grief because they had so ungratefully offended Almighty God and delayed their beatitude for such low contemptible transitory Pleasures But this satisfied not his design it reacht not home to build us up a Purgatory out of which no delivery could be hoped for till the Day of Iudgment This grief was rather a disposition for Heaven and therefore he must find us out some unworthy and unchangeable Affection which must detain Souls there till he please to release them Besides it is frequent that vicious men detest at their deaths those brutalities the excess of which hath ruined their Bodies Fame and Fortunes and yet pass out of this life without true Repentance to be punisht for them in the next for all Eternity But let us also compare this with an other signal Doctrine of this our Maâ—â—er De Med. Stat. dim 12. He there disputing against those afflictions which he supposes his Adversary asserts that the Souls suffers by some external Agent delivers us this unexpected Doctrine thus arguing against him From whence sayes he an unexpected Truth breaks forth That all those pains inflicted by an external Agent on the Soul are Purely Pleasures For since on the one side the souls thus to be purged are supposed to be perfect in Charity and extremely thirsting of the eternal good which they are certain to attain and on the other side cleerly understand that corporeal punishments are the onely means by which they may attain beatitude it is evident they to these pains are as a man of an invincible courage in whom no weakness of mind can take place who being highly inflamed to attain some good ventuâ—es on things of great difficulty either in acting or suffering In which both Experience and Reason teach us he would feel unspeakable pleasure As if forsooth Pains and torments cease to be such and become purely pleasures whilst the soul now perfect in charity faints not in suffering them As if with perfect conformity to the Divine Will and an absolute desire to satisfie the Divine Justice an earnest longing after the ending of these griefs and the enjoyment of beatitude were inconsistent which necessarily includes and carries with it a high affliction But how by this sudden and unexpected Doctrin all our apprehensions are changed in the sufferings of our B. Saviour Who by a most perfect charity inflamed with the thirst of redeeming mankind under went all with an invincible courage for in him no weakness of mind could take place We must now change all our pious meditations no more must we consider the Scourges Whips Contempts the Nails and Cross to have been any other thing but pure pleasures to him An excellent Doctrin to increase our Love to our deer Saviour who to redeem mankind was patient and resigned to suffer pure pleasures and to incourage penance according to S. Paul si compatimur conglorificabimur This is an other truth to promote solid devotion Now then as to the Souls in Purgatory which certainly being perfect Masters of Reason and now in charity and see their own affections to be unchangeable can not be conceived to faint in their sufferings let us now learn this unexpected sudden truth which now breaks out that we have been hitherto quite mistaken their sufferings are so far from being pains that in truth they are nothing but purely pleasures O happy model of Purgatory But let this be supposed too Sec. 30. Fourthly to come to the other fundamental stone of this fabrick It is incomparably false that separated Souls or Angels both as to their substance and operations are measured by this indivisible duration or moment or that to co-exist to a greater or less part of time adds or diminishes nothing to them What if the Omnipotent Hand of God should create in this moment a new Soul separated
knowledge all erroneous judgments corrected in them their grief depending on this that their affections to corporal pleasures are greater then in proportion to other desires which ought to be preferred it would not be inconsequent to tâ—is Doctrine That those damned souls now seeing most evidently that other desires ought to be preferred before these affections to corporal pleasures since this errour is now rectified and they in a condition by re-union with the body of changeableness they should also rectifie their affections which are but these judgments and by consequence become now Denizons of Heaven which also might seem to become the Mercies of God and render the state of the Blessed more happy there by their company Sect. 41. Tenthly You entertain your Reader pag. 36 c. with scoffing at hallowed Grains sanctified Beads the extending of Indulgencies to the next World which you style External devices Vtensils of a thriving Devotion deluding Priviledges c. which perfectly befits a Scholar trained up in Luthers School thus he began And you are not content with this you retrive again in the same place and fix upon your Adversary that signal calumny long since fixt upon the Church for the use of such things That she goes to Heaven by such things not by holy desires Nor even pretends that such things promote souls in holy desires or increase sanctity in them In which you speak against your own Soul and Conscience For you very well know the Church is not guilty of this nor your Adversary who will tell you that he beleeves with St. Paul that if he had faith able to remove mountains yet it would not avail him without charity and further tells you That such things as you here enumerate do increase sanctity and holy desires in us and render our prayers more effectual for the Souls in Purgatory Eleventhly You tell us in your Postscript That private calumnies are whispered against Master White as holding strange Opinions which his own Books contradict I have also heard something of this and I think our informations jump you may peradventure find it hinted at in this discourse Nor need that Gentleman fear your title of a Calumniatour or that his Authority will not carry it nor indeed will it be engaged in the Quarrel he is provided of a Defence I have shewed him that very Doctrine in terms in your Masters Book which he had told him in Private it is ready for you you shall have it when you please to call for it And I wonder those solid persons acquainted with every ressort of his Learning did not see it Lastly You add Your Master hath this comfort That his carriage needs neither fear the exemplarity of his Adversaries lives nor his unparalled Learning the force of their Arguments In which your Reader will be perswaded that you were not a perfect Scholar in Galateus his School The Publisher against whom you write is a Person of eminent exemplarity and for my part where your Masters Pen is not engaged I have been edified by him even in his Writings I find some things most excellent but why comparisons should be made I do not understand You and I being private persons hope still the best and pray for all those whom we desire to better by our example But because it is both laudable and lawfull to magnifie the good and pious lives of men I joyn heartily with you in this Encomium of your Master And if you now design to advance in order to his Canonization and can make good his Faith which is the first Quaere of that Court I shall very willingly give testimony to the exemplarity of his Life I wish from my Soul his Doctrine would appear intirely and fully Catholick and for the rest you have my Vote he may be beleeved as holy as St. Iohn Baptist Sect. 42. And now Sir I hope to have given you some satisfaction in our point in controversie We as yet have proceeded upon this unshakeable ground That the Councils are unerrable in their Decrees and upon this I have received a very ample and full one my self I do beleeve That Souls are purged uncloathed of their Bodies and presently received into Heaven before re-union with them And that the Council and Pope deliver this Position I must see if I have eyes and I hope you will by what is said And this hope is heightned in me because my Conscience tell me I have proceeded with as even a hand as I could in balancing what you have said against it with that which I have said for it If I am byassed naturally on either side it is on yours Nature prompts me still to wish the Church and her Faith were not engaged against you Your opinion would at one blow ease me of that incumbent care to assist my dead Friends But I have learnt this work of mercy from a Child to pray for the Dead which in your Systeme as I have evinced is fruitless But alas Sir this business of Purgatory is not that which so much troubles my head though it be one I have a deeper fear I am pressed with the consideration of this new molded Theology I see this demonstrative Doctrine this pretence of reducing the mysteries of Faith to our narrow brains this hope of introducing Science in lieu of Faith into the World strikes much deeper then yet You imagine Nor am I at all confident of your solid cleer-sighted Friends who are acquainted with every resort of Master Whites Doctrine I fear and I think not without Reason the Church and He have nothing common but words for the notions and significations are quite different But our Faith lies not in the sound of words but in the sense and meaning of them When I am told Souls are not purged in the state of separation but onely at re-union though the word Purgatory yet remain my Faith remains not of this Article And so it will fare with the rest I do beleeve Faith Hope and Charity are infused by the Holy Ghost into our souls in Baptism I do beleeve holy Iustifâ—ing Grace by which we are the Sons of God is something inhaerent in our souls and my notion of these things which are supernatural is that they are of a different order and series then Nature But when I am now taught God is the Author of Nature but showrs not down into us an other series of things of an other or differing order Reason is Nature to us and the perfection of Reason is Demonstration Though at the same time we are taught That God perfects Nature by supernatural things yet I suspect the word supernatural being still the same that now it is become aequivocal and signifies an other thing with him then it does with me I do believe the ever Blessed Trinity to be Three real Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost Yet where I find this most sublime mystery pretended to be Demonstrated by what is Essential in God to know and love