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truth_n	age_n	church_n	time_n	2,142	5	3.6322	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59251	A vindication of the doctrine contained in Pope Benedict XII, his bull and in the General Council of Florence, under Eugenius the III concerning the state of departed souls : in answer to a certain letter, printed and published against it, by an unknown author, under this title, A letter in answer to the late dispensers of Pope Benedict XII, his bull, &c., wherein the progress of Master Whites lately minted Purgatory is laid open and its grounds examined ... / by S.W.	Sergeant, John, 1622-1707.	1659 (1659)	Wing S2599; ESTC R12974	85,834	208

hath not wrought upon their inconstancy to abandon the Tents of the Church and to list themselves in this new Squadron to impugn their pious Mother to forsake a formerly received Beleef now to adhere to a new Doctrine which certainly at the first proposal checkt their former perswasion the holy Faith planted in their Souls Nor hath the contrary Assertion any thing but a bold confidence to warrant it for we know we feel we experience in our selves this Beleef We do beleeve the Councils can not misguide us We do beleeve the delivery of Souls before the Day of Iudgment This is our Faith as firm as a Rock not to be shaken by all the Sophistry of the world If it were possible as certainly it is not possible that it could be evidenced that our faith of both these is erroneous yet certainly it could never carry any f●ce of probability that we have not hitherto or even yet do not beleeve them every man being furnisht within his own brest with an irrefragable witness stronger then all the wit and Logick of the world The Protestants face us down that we make Idols of ●●ictures against our own souls and knowledge What impudence is this And shall this new School have the confidence against all mens experience thus to give the Lye to the Consciences of the whole Christian world So that I hope my Reader rests satisfied that even this Cour● to which he appeals hath given sentence against him even by this Question what we have seen and heard And how happily hath this our great Master Master White Arraigned himself as the first Author of our new Purgatory or any other the first Bro●cher of a new Doctrine under the person of Luther Sonus Buccinae Tract. 1. viii before the Tribunal of his Bishop or a Nuntius of the Apostolick See That his own condemnation might be the more solemn and the sentence pronounced against himself conceived in his own words Thus then he makes Luthers and his own Process And let him be asked sayes he of the Doctrine of which he stands suspected and much more if now he hath sustained in Print whether he believes this his new Doctrine of Purgatory to be that Doctrin which this present Age he now lives in received from their Fathers of the immediate foregoing Age Whether he received it in his childhood when he was first instructed in Christian belief and which till he now became a Doctor he followed And let him answer for himself for what other answer can he make then that this his new broached Purgatory is not that Doctrin he thus was taught whilst he was yet a Child But that it is better Doctrine then the former which he himself hath now evinced out of sacred Monuments Heathen Poets out of the Bowels and Principles of Nature by Demonstration And that the contrary Doctrine to which he had been bred took its rise onely from ignorance of the nature of separated substances And let the faithfull people says he encompass the Tribunal now educated in this faith that the Authority of things which 〈◊〉 stand bound to beleeve descends handel down from Christ our B. Saviour and is otherwise even till this Age Will they n● cry out upon him as an Innovatour a Prophane Person an Heretick will they not proclaim and invoque to Prisons Fire with him to rid such a plague out of the world And he pursues But let the people be silent and let the Iudge ●erge him And do you not know Sir this new Doctrine fights against the known Laws of your Country that such an Author as you are first thrust out of the sacred Communion of the faithful should expiate or pay for this his presumption with death Do you not know that you now fight against the Fathers and Monuments of Antiquity that you combate an immemorable custome that you now impugne that reverence due to our most dear Parents by whom above all things else the contrary Doctrine of Purgatory is recommended to us as most profitable both for soul and body And since it can not with any face be denyed but that he knows he contends against all these Let the Iudg further urge him From whence Sir can you hope to draw any Argument of that evidence which may inforce us and other prudent men to follow this noveltie with an obdurate soul And let him answer that out of the Scriptures And the Iudg reply and do not you know that wilfully you inhere to holy Scriptures Do you not know that words do not signifie naturally but by institution And therefore the construction of words is sub●ect to such variety that it is impossible to pick out any sence demonstratively at least any one expresly repugnant to the Doctrine of so many wise men who all of them indeavour the understanding of those sacred Texts as well as you Or can you pretend Christian Faith is directed by the ●ables of Heathen Poets or that you now can demonstratively shew out of the Principles of reason that to be false which we all have with unavoidable Authority hitherto believed to be true or that you now have attained to such a cleer understanding of the nature of separated souls that all the learning of mankind before you could not reach that which now you pretend to have demonstratively and scientifically proved Is it not evident sayes he that this large-wide mouth'd gaping promiser will produce nothing worthy the hearing but must needs b● esteemed as a meer frantick and mad person as he who Vaunts he will do that which all learned men know is impossible and the very unlearned see is improbable And further he pursues let the same or another Writer sayes he being now unmindful of his own weakness imagin to himself that either by his own reason or explication of Scriptures he hath now found out that which all former ages were ignorant of to wit that now in the third age or mans estate of the Church we shall be directed by faith no longer 〈…〉 for the future by his demonstrations which is the Position of this our Master as we shall presently see And that this truth was left by God to him to be revealed and manifested to the Church Of which Position the vulgar Christians as a sluggish Cattel not at all given to speculation know nothing and so he contemns them he laughs at the Doctours he styles the Saints lyars because men but that he himself is the first to whom God hath made known so great a mystery But though he be a most arrogant person let him weigh with him and consider Though I have hitherto contemplated this sublime and happy truth But when I come to propose this Doctrine to others they will presently object and ask whether Christian Faith hath any other ground of its security then a continued succession through all ages to our present time Do you Sir promise this new light of science of Demonstration If I deny it will they

A VINDICATION OF The Doctrine contained in Pope Benedict xii his Bull and in the General Councill of Florence under Eugenius the iiii concerning the state of departed SOVLS In answer to a certain Letter Printed and published against it by an unknown Author under this Title A Letter in Answer to the late Dispensers of Pope Benedict xii his Bull c Wherein the Progress of Master Whites lately minted Purgatory is laid open and its Grounds examined And in order to a further discovery a Prospect given to the Reader of this new School it's Method it's Design to evacuate Christian Faith and to establish a new Philosophical or a pretended demonstrative Religion Psal. 118. 85. The unjust have told me fables c. Coloss. 2. 8. Beware lest any man seduce you by vain Phylosophy c. By S. W. A Roman Catholick Printed at Paris 1659. TO THE UNKNOWN AUTHOR OF THIS LETTER In Answer to the late Dispensers of Pope BENEDICT his Bull c. SIR Sect. 1. I Gratefully Acknowledge my Obligations for the good will you shew to Instruct me The perusal of this Bull and Council had long since setled a full belief in my soul That the Purgation of separated Souls might be Compleated before Re-union with their Bodies and the General day of Iudgment So that in truth I was not a little surprised by your book It was my misfortune it fell into my hands just then when our expectations were at the height of those troubles which afterwards succeeded in our Nation and which have ever since much diverted me from things of this nature whilst in such nicities as you now have brought the question too our understandings ought to be perfectly calm And this I hope will plead for the delay that I have not presented you sooner with these Reflections on your book which I designed long agoe if my other occasions had not interposed themselves I found not that satisfaction I earnestly wished for in your Letter your Objections seemed not manly your Answers not home you will pardon me then if I mind you of my Exceptions against both which I shall endeavour to do with that just moderation that befits Brethren I cannot altogether approove of harshness in writing even against the professed adversaries of our holy Faith It was not unhappily said by one of them as I remember That writing of Controversies ought to carry as much sweetness as Love-Letters and that the other rudeness served but to chase away the game And since you have administred to me a just occasion to reprehend this in your Letter I shall be wary not to be justly taxable my self both to yours and your Masters person Master White whom you have now introduced into the scene I bear as much respect as any one whosoever upon so sleight an acquaintance It is not the Doctor but the Doctrine combat I cannot digest their boldness who usurp the Authority of the supream tribunal to brand any opinion with the title of Heresie whilst the Church hath not done it to their hands much less can I endure that the Author himself should be stigmatized with the infamous character of an Heretick And though in this present controversie I am fully convinced that this modern systeme of Purgatory stands condemned both by this Bull of Benedict the 12● and the Florentin Council and that of Trent and by consequence is Heretical yet I am very willing to believe those who sustain it do not see its condemnation And yet I think it will appear that the Author of it and those Schollars who are now able pro●icients in his school are armed even against the Authority it self This misfortune I regret that I know not how to address my self to you but in print and since things which pass the press are not confined to one or few mens view but exposed to many eyes and censures I am necessitated to satisfie even vulgar readers who certainly though perhaps now acquainted with the controversie it self never yet d●scovered the source and fountain of this new molded Purgatory And to the end I may do so I shall in the very introduction to my discourse lay open to my readers eye the first grounds and rise and the afterwards continued progress of this your new doctrin Nor could I otherwise acquit my self of it with just satisfaction to other readers whilst if I had spoken only in manuscript to you who are now raised as you say above your pitch and inabled to give any one satisfaction that is not before hand resolved to receive none by conferring with those solid men who are acquainted with every resort of Master Whites doctrine my business had received a much quicker dispatch For my Method I hope you will pardon me if leaving whatsoever you have urged either against the Publishers whom you are pleased to style Dispensers of this Bull and Council or any thing else not directly pertinent to our question to the latter end of my Discourse After your Doctrine laid open and its grounds and the Question stated between us I betake my self at first to our business in hand about the Bull and Council And for my Style since we are now in a Controversie much more proper for a Divinity Lecture then a Rhetorical Declamation the strength of the Sense rather then the quaintness of the Expression will best befit the subject This Preface will claim your pardon if you consider it gives some light to what I hereafter say But I will neither detain you nor my Reader any longer but fall to our work in hand Sect. 2. I have 〈◊〉 from a very Learned and Worthy Friend of mine that he himself being present at a Conference between Master White and another eminent Scholar of our Nation divers years before Master White appeared in Print among other things then discoursed of Master White advanced a Phylosophical Position which the other denied as inconsistent with our holy faith of the Blessed Sacrament to which Master White replied Let us find out the Truths in Phylosophy and the Mysteries of our Faith will square well enough with them to which the other Nay Sir by your favour let us in the first place presuppose the establisht verities of faith and then square our Phylosophy to them I have many times reflected often conferred with others of the different consequences of those different methods which these two great persons held in leading our understandings to truth I have often entertained my self with these thoughts what a dangerous method Master White prescribed and as now appears followed what a natural and new divinity it would prove which should be squared to those Phlyosophical truths which our weak understandings should be able to establish independent of divine revelation And at last Master White hath brought forth this his issue and made it publick to the world Sect. 3. It is not my design in this our present discourse to run through those many little books which this Author

hear what Pegna writes of him Eymericus sayes he A famous learned and holy man who was appointed the general Inquisitor of the Kingdome of Aragon in the year 1358. which is only 22. years after the Promulgation of this Bull from whence he was called to Avignon by Pope Gregory 11. and there being his Chaplain composed his excellent Directory gathers ten Heresies condemned by this Extravagant and most truly admonishes that so many Catholick verities contrary to those Heresies are thereby prooved and established The place at length out of this so Authentick a Writer I give my Reader at the end of my discourse Letter B. not to interrupt the continued threed of it for by it my Reader will easily observe with what strong confidence the youthful Scholars of this modern School appear in print And if you had been pleased to peruse the continuation of Baronius his Ecclesiastical Annals by Spondanus you would have rested satisfied in this our point for at the year 1333. he thus delivers the opinion of Pope Iohn the 22. then disputed which occasioned this Bull of Benedict his successour For sayes he in that year 1333. as Villanius Rebdorfius the continuator of Nangius and others witness Iohn the 22. then Pope began publickly to treat of what before he had conceived concerning the beatifical vision of Souls what not a few of the ancient both Greek and Latine Fathers Iustinus Ireneus c. did seem to hold That souls now severed from their bodies and duely purged from all stain of sin either in this present mortal life or in the next in Purgatory do not enjoy perfectly the beatifical vision of the divine essence before the last day of Iudgment but do expect the Resurrection of their bodies that together with them they may attain perfect beatitude and to this opinion not as yet altogether reproved or condemned by the holy Church this Pope John himself seemed to incline c. For which reason he gained himself very many Adversaries both among the Cardinals and Prelates and also of other Doctors of Divinity every where and Religious men of all orders And at the year 1334 the same Sp●ndanus delivers that this Pope John the day before he died published a constitution in which he condemned that opinion of which he stood suspected Now Sir when you have perused and weighed these things which I am confident you never dreamt of before for in truth you rested satisfied with what your Solid and cleer-sighted friends had told you of their new devised question of Charity as then disputed you will perhaps observe your error you will see it is not a little heat of youth which presses men of your years to appear in print or a little tickling vein which eggs young men forward to catch their Adversary with an O or an A and pass a witty jest upon him till age and experience hath ripened their discretion which can warrant a Book in the publick view of discreet persons You will be convinced that you were mistaken by your great good affection and esteem of your solid cleer-sighted friends and that in truth you have ingaged your credit a little too farr upon their authority Sect. 14. But this is not all I have to say to you The first fault of negligence and boldness even in this kind is perhaps pardonable in young men But I beseech you Sir how could those solid cleer-sighted persons give you the confidence to impose so grosly upon us to state us here a question of which the Bull delivers not one word of which Cherubinus to whom you appeal makes not the least mention and yet you confidently add All Learned Writers agree pag. 14. Where if you had not named Writers I should have judged you appeal'd to your solid clear-sighted Friends for in truth I cannot find any one Learned Writer who states this your new question as then disputed or defined And I cannot pardon this your so confident imposing on your Reader You tell us our present controversie concerning the delivery of souls out of Purgatory stands not here defined because the Word Purgatory is not in the Bull however it is sufficiently in the Council and the Pope decrees of soul● now purged And you require pag. 26. the Popes or Councils positive is or is not and unless I can shew this Position in terms Souls are purged before the day of judgment I run a hazard to contradict both the Pope and Council Which how to excuse from nonsence if compared with what you are pleased ou● of your kindness to allow p. 27. that the Pope was of the opinion that Purgatory might be finished before the last day which could not be contradictory to his faith is past my skill You know what it is to bring rods to whip himself And can you have the confidence Sir to tell us pag. 29. and elsewhere the onely and sole controversie was Whether perfect Charity brings an immediate heaven and all that the Pope intended to secure● by this present Bull Whilst the Word Charity is not in the Bull whilst there is not the least mention of it in the question even now related in Spondanus which occasioned this definition whilst neither in the Preface to the Decree nor in the Decree it self nor any thing that follows it the Pope pronounces of Charity I or no much less doth he declare either the affirmative or negative of this your new Question to secure it nor is there the least hint in Cherurbinus of it I gave my Reader his whole Compendium that he might see how far you were transported with the high esteem of your solid clear-sighted Friends when you appeal to him who thus agreeing with the Pope pronounces against you All Nor do your Arguments drawn from holy desires pag. 15. 16. or the future rewards and punishments which the Pope so earnestly inculcates in his Preface to this definition at all avail you Alas Sir the whole systeme of Christian Religion every part and parcell of it is directed to plant to kindle holy desires in our Souls and yet I think you will not easily avow there is nothing else defined or recommended to us in this whole fabrick but purely and precisely that perfect Charity brings an immediate heaven nor will it be any plea for you that this was then the question because the Pope ushers his Definition with this Exhortation to holy desires which might very well and properly introduce any Position of Christian Religion whatsoever and peculiarly this because by progress in vertue and holy desires our endeavours are rendred more effectual for souls in that distressed condition as very neer allyed to his Decrees concerning the state of departed souls For how neer a tye soever the one hath to the other though it were by an immediate necessary evident consequence yet it is highly unlawful to change the state of the present question and impose upon us that not it but some other thus allyed to it stands