accompany its present condition it is not expeditely disposed but at length according to Gods orders by presenting forceably some supernatural object or motive or some other way the obstacles are removed and the soul easily intended to such a charity rather charity to such a degree is intended in the soul which joynes it to glory each by waies unknown as being unnecessary to the Churches present condition to know Gods waies in the souls relief importing nothing to the advance of Piety which as you will confess is the border of revealed truths CHAP. X. Scriptures and Traditions must be obeyed How one can satissie for another Whether and how other vertues besides Charity avail towards Heaven THat learned persons use their abilities to declare the true sense of Church-customes where there may be mistakes is the office of Christian Divines and highly worthy their endeavours and the Councel of Trent enjoynes Prelates to do it in this particular as St. Thomas St. Bonav Scotus and the rest do But to call general old customes themselves into question or to bend them to our speculations is in St. Augustines esteem ep 118. the greatest madness in the world His words are insolentissimae insaniae est His reason is because Quae universa tenet ecclesia ab Apostolis praecepta bene creduntur quanquam scripta non reperiantur as he rightly teaches against the Donatists l. 5. c. 23. It is enough if holy Church avoucheth any thing yet you press this so far as you seem to censure the publike sence of all Christians of novelty St. Augustine and St. Hierome when they hapned upon any Texts of Holy Scripture which they found too hard for them which was frequent they imputed it to their want of reason and not to the Scriptures want of Truth Hence St. Hierome Q. 8. ad Algasiam speaking of St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans saith Totus hic Apostoli locus in superioribus in consequentibus imo omnis Epistola ejus ad Romanos nimiis obscuritatibus involuta est The whole Epistle was above his reach yet he durst not in the least question the truth but confest his own weakness and besides many other places in his thirtieth ep which is to Oceanus speaking of Fabiola her pious desire to understand some passages of holy Scripture in the book of Numbers he tells her questions to him To which he thus recounts his answer In quibusdam haesitavi in aliis inoffenso pede cucurri in plerisque ignorantiant confessus sum He confesseth he was not able to salve the proposals even of a woman by reason of the intricasies in the holy Text yet he submits to all And no less in holy Churches Traditions or universal customes as you have heard St. Augustine whereof this is one Most Christians therefore having not at their deaths as is supposed so intense a charity as could perfectly ordinate their faults as Martyrs and great Saints are justly believed to have hence after this life that every coinquination as St. John speaks may be expurged they are exercised in a due satispassion in conformity to Gods orders before entrance into Heaven Which though formally can onely be performed by themselves yet aequivalently by satisfaction tendred by the Church Militant and her children it may be estimated Theirs as all Courts of Justice especially where there is a commixtion of Mercy as in this case will admit Although I know no Law or express institution of God for this whereby it may be expected in rigor of justice or ex condigno as we speak That one mans Act shall be accepted for another but onely by way of Petition and impetration which the children of holy Church use especially for the faithful departed When therefore all Christians even from the time when charity it self in our blessed Lord dwelt amongst us did and do acknowledge Christian Religion to be a poenitential and humble Religion as the Roman Persecutors exprobrated to our Primitive Martyrs they did not neither do we prefer external Penances and Humiliations before Charity the Queen of Vertues which only amongst Theological Vertues stands the shock of Eternity and which qualifies and enhances our Acts in order to it insomuch that although Prayers Fastings or Alms-deeds do avail in order to Heaven and for satisfaction of sins as the Councel of Trent Ses 14. declares yet it is requisite that they be commanded or ordered by Charity though the wise Councel doth not expresly determine this Therefore we all desire according to the Laws of God that Charity which is free according to the Apostle may not be straightned in its operations but as circumstances invite let it be imployed 〈◊〉 one by curing souls in another by curing bodies in a third by corporal Pennances in a fourth by suffering for the dead or in the dead by suffering for themselves in each according as the Spirit of God directs As in the Collations of the Fathers Col. 14. C. 4. Nestorius the Abbot speaking of his Religious saith Some choosing the care of the sick some begging for people in misery or teaching the ignorant or giving alms to the poor c. were every one glorious in their severall pieties so that they were pieties that is operations of Charity CHAP. XI How corporal afflictions can satisfie for sinnes Whether a probable Opinion may be followed IF we admit not this we shall with Erasmus his Version content our selves with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is if wee will for the future commit no more Theft Adultery or the like there is no need of wearing sackcloth and ashes fasting or any penitential works though flowing from Charity to take away the dregs of sin and so appease God offended for them against all Scriptures and sense of all Christians which is indeed Calvin's Libertinism never known before in the world nor as I presume by you intended expresly also against the Councel of Trent Sess 13. 14. which I entreat you to peruse for it condemns with Anathema to say that Fastings Prayers and Alms or other pious works through Christ do not satisfie for temporal punishment due for our sins that is after the guilt of them is taken away by the Sacraments I do not say this as if corporal austerities or indeed any thing else of ours were in their own natures proportionable satisfactions in order to God for our violations of his Laws but as all sins even those which are purely mental or that have not proceeded further than the will are truly even in Aristotle's grounds operations of the whole man for Actiones sunt suppositorum Thus far Reason will carry us that even the Body should be instrumental in abolishing those guilts whereof it was partaker and sometimes a shrewd Suggestor Whereupon we know the most speculative Divines as Scotus his School and Cajetan with many others teach that even the sensitive that is the corporeal part of a man hath a capacity of venial sin in it selfe and as of
of Faith But let us go further if every person from hence to Cades in Spain and from thence to Rome and from thence to Constantinople and from thence to Jerusalem through both Churches were asked whether in their prayers for the dead they do not hope to help them to Heaven before the last day every one would assert it CHAP. II. It is not matter of Opinion THerefore most certainly the hope of present easing them was not grounded on matter of Opinion which intrinsically involves actuall fear or doubt of the truth else they would have praied faintly but it is a traditionary doctrine and under that notion by all understood Hence we never read in Scriptures Councels or Fathers any one clear assertion as sufficiently appears in those which are most urged That all those that go to Purgatory must be necessarily detained there without any relief till the day of judgement which sure were impossible if there had been any fluctuation in it or if they had been of that opinion as some gently perswade us That some things have been delivered to posterity in the Church which could never obtain more authority then opinion I have made evident in my System even in grave Subjects of which number this was not but how to distinguish such from doctrines of a higher nature in case Holy Church did not conveigh clearly their qualifications with them as in some cases evidently it did and in others it did not as there I give instances then the onely way is to return to general Councels that they according to their office may conquisitione facta after the example of the Apostles juridically appoint to each their seats where all must acquiesce as here was done conformable to all antiquity as I have declared and shall more CHAP. III. Why the resurrection is inculcated THe Holy Scriptures indeed our B. Lord and especially B. St. Paul and since them holy Church and Fathers most pressingly inculcates the truth of the general resurrection as being the basis of our hope the motive of piety and good works all which would be adjudged fruitless by the generality of men if it were not for this though even Aristotle who with the rest of his friends of Athens would have laughed to have heard Saint Paul Preach and assert it yet they would judge vertue to carry and bring with it a present reward for which it should be embraced but our expectations are infinitely higher by our believed and hoped for resurrection and therefore it alwaies produced proportionate effects in Gods holy Martyrs and Saints especially in those first times as the course of Gods providence required and therefore there was a necessity effectually to settle this radical doctrine as also of the last judgement to inculcate a just fear as S. Paul did This other of relief of souls in and out of Purgatory being of far less concernment as to the generality of mankind and being as it were a particular of it or subalternate to it needed not so strong frequent inculcation though holy Church did not take it up upon vulgar and light hear-sayes but with and by the Apostles Praedications which according to S. Augustines Rule are sufficiently proved by the Churches Doctrine and practice The holy Scriptures themselves as interpreted by antiquity also declare it which are obviously knowne Neither do the Texts though brought with violence touch the contrary nor were ever so interpreted Some mistake also ariseth in this business from not observing that holy Scriptures and from thence holy Church and the Fathers frequently understand by Resurrection even the assumption of souls to Heaven without the bodies and therefore S. Aug. calleth the later of soul and body the perfect resurrection as condistinct from the former in his care of the dead c. 6. But here we treat of the Churches practice and doctrine which are cleare even amongst the Greekes as well as Latines You know that according to Mr. Rushworth and Mr. White whose authority cannot be denied by you the publique practice or oral conveyance demonstrates universal Tradition and consequently Christian Truths Therefore when I look upon the anxious solicitude with which now and in all former ages good Christians Greeks and Latines have prosecuted their friends deceased with their Prayers Alms-deeds which all Christian Monuments declare methinkes it were strange now at length to have all resolved into a cold Oblation or Prayer for Doomsday wherin their particular Allies are no more concerned than all others so all the pious indeavours of friends are of no effect as relating to what they intended in order to particular persons but might as well be contracted into a general Prayer for all the dead against not onely orall tradition but the manifest writings of the most ancient and learned in the bulke of the Fathers as S. Aug. is sufficient testimony for all the rest in his Treatise of this subject stiled by him A care of the dead where he supposeth it to be the common sense of the whole Catholique Church that particular persons dead who have acquired merit in their life time by which such things may be rendred profitable after death do receive benefit by what is done for them religiously after their decease and he speaks cleane through the whole Book of actual benefit profit help advantage availment and rest to be procured for the souls And lest we should glosse it for the soules in their reunion with their bodies he frequently speakes condistinctively of the soule as separated from the body or as it is when the body is dead and he saith that then it receiveth succour which as he shews and I have said was the practice of all Churches in their publique Liturgies I do not esteem it constancy but obstinacy to intort antiquity to our sense gainst their own CHAP. IV. The sences of Greek and Latine Lyturgies and Fathers AMongst the Greeks I observe in their Liturgies that sometimes they pray with Tertullian de Monogamia that the dead may have refrigerium that is some ease as S. Greg. Nazian his Liturgie p. 34 in the Rubrick Other times they pray that they may be put into a place of light sommess where sorrow is banisht and groaning c. as in S. Basils Liturgie Sometimes that they may rest in Abrahams bosome as in S. James his Liturgie All these intimate a change a present relief though not alwayes a release as the stile evidently imports which destroyes your very ground for you teach that no prayers can relieve or change them till Doomes-day S. James in his Lyturgie prayes that God would cause the souls to rest with the Saints You say he meanes that they may not rest or have ease or lightsomness c. till after the day of judgment Besides they constantly pray for the remission of their sins as in S. Basils and the rest this is not for the resurrection and finally they pray for all who died in communion of the faithful and for
faithfully the abundant Alms by Legacy left to Monasteries for the souls of the deceased which uniformly agrees with the Modern practise of both Churches and therfore doubtless the sense of both Churches as now they appear evidently to be the same so in all antiquity they were uniform as to hope of relief by prayers especially by Masses as there is clear and in many private Latine Synods Neither can it be other than a great Sophism to accuse the Roman Churches Offertory as if in praying to deliver the souls of the Faithfull a poenis inferni which is a general term signifying both and so used it should import any thing else here than from the pains of Purgatory to life which cannot have any other sense than of Purgatory since there is no redemption in Hell and the souls for which they pray die no otherwise Again the Church in the Collects prayes to give them refrigerii sedem c. a seat of refreshment which speaks our Purgatory These and all other Texts assure us of the Churches sense of praying to deliver them before the great day however by strengh of wit the clearest actions may be in order to weaker judgements made dubious as we see in Courts the best causes by corrupted advocates so clouded that they seem unjust But the knowledge of this is so universal that here may be said what St. Augustine lib. de duabus anim c. 12 saith of liberty Nonne ista cantant in montibus pastores theatris Poetae indocti in circulis doctiâ— in Bibliothecis Magistri in scholis antistites in locis sacris in orbe terrarum genus humanum All sorts of Christians each in their several postures and vocations witness this truth CHAP. V. Traditions alone cannot prove faith in all Articles THis was S. Hieroms and all the Fathers one though not only constant test of new doctrines And you professedly esteeming the testimony of the present age to conveigh certainly the sense of the precedent do and must consequently hold it to be an infallible test to discern even matters of Faith so that ad hominem this were strong if we had onely the present age But surely Scriptures and Traditions are the adequate source of Christian truths in the received opinion of Doctors And the Councel of Trent in the first Session seems to suppose it in order to the general And truly all the former Councels did no less Neither can I see that your Topick alone will salve all occurrences and therefore St. Paul refers the Thessalonians to his Epistles and Sermons joyntly and S. Irenaeus l. 3. c. 4. shews the necessity of both So S. Aug. and the rest But by endeavouring to infringe any pretence of a definition as to this of helping souls in Purgatory before Doomsday you struck upon a medium which if not rightly understood is of an ill consequent CHAP. VI. Charity consists with Purgatory The various operations of charity Wherein consists the chiefest penalty of Purgatory FOr the purport of your discourse seems to hint at this that a necessity of retention of souls out of heaven till due penal expiation be accomplisht will enervate the dignity of charity Cicero lib. 3. de finibus saith notably speaking of Philosophy Hujusmodi dicere ornare velle puerile est plane autem perspicue expedire posse docti intelligentis est viri Your almost connatural obscurity renders you sometimes to be misconstrued to your prejudice It is true that charity if perfect is a sufficient disposition to glory at least as far as relates to exclusion of punishment for former transgressions which easily concludes a soul dying in that perfect condition not to need any other temporary expiation But the midle sort of Christians who onely have their concernment in Purgatory according to Saint Augustine and the Councel of Florence though they die indeed in charity yet is supposed not to be so intense as wholly to dispose their souls for present blisse And therefore in order to such the Church asserts further expiation and penal detention necessary for a longer or a shorter terme according to the secret rules of Gods wisdom wherein though our time is not the measure of spiritual substances or sufferings which have no parts to answer to the parts of our time and therefore are not greater or lesse for the extrinsecal and disparate consideration of a shorter or longer continuance precisely as to time yet their inward necessity of existing in that condition of separation not only from their bodies but from the sight of God in the dregs of sin till God changeth them is highly penable as being alwaies present to their intuition and affection whereas in bodies where every thing is measured by motion it would be far less as having succession of parts than now being altogether according to the nature of eviternity which surely renders it incomparably greater than if it were by one part after another And though it is indivisible as to its essence and existence being spiritual and therefore cannot be measured otherwise than by a proportionable in-divisible measure as now I will suppose against some others yet it hath co-existence with the parts of our time as Aristotle 4. Phys saith Idem nunc secundum substantiam differt secundum esse that is although an instant is the same indivisible in order to it self yet it differs as compared to time And hence a soul which hath been in Purgatory twenty years is truly said to have been longer there than another which was seperate from the body yesterday and consequently hath suffered the hard consequences of it even altogether so long If we speculate this a little further we find that as indeed the soul being in-divisible it hath an in-divisible measure yet as that instant or measure called Aeviternity is alwaies and altogether present so there is alwaies present in it a priority which we call of nature As Agents which are free in the same real instant when they resolve to do any thing have a priority of nature wherein it is not affirmable that they do resolve but are as it were about to do it and this continues so long as the real instant it self doth And therefore Aristotle will tell us that the will even when it doth decree any thing it hath power not to do it that is as referring to that priority of nature Whence followes even in your own principles that the soul which went to Purgatory many years agoe is now as capable to have an act which it never had as then and therefore it may be as truly said to have an act this day which it never had and consequently may as truly be said to be changed But this whole matter is fitter for the Schooles to dispute then for Chatechizers to instruct in matter of Faith of which more hereafter You seem under a pretence of putting a due estimate upon an abstracted or a Metaphysicated charity for such yours almost seems