third an explication of the ancient practise of the Church in praying for the Saints Pag. 13 IV. That S. Pernard only excepted all the rest of the Fathers deâ—y'd not to the faithful departed the Beatifical Vision before the day of Judgment Pag. 25 V. The fifth proof from Scripture is again urged and two others added Pag. 34 VI The eighth and ninth Texts are considered Pag. 42 VII Some places of Scripture apply'd by holy Fathers to confirm the same truth Pag. 51 VIII Testimonies from all antiquity maintaining the same truth Pag. 55 IX That the proofs of the opposite opinion are modern and betray their novelty Pag. 69 X. The first exception against the opposite Tenet from pure revenge Pag. 78 XI Two other Exceptions from the supposition of these pains to be involuntary and corporeal Pag. 92 XII Four other exceptions from those pains being to no purpose unproportioned to the sins of an Indivisible duration and endless Pag. 100 XIII Two other exceptions from the non-connexion of such pains with the sins and their being supposed to remain due after the fauls forgiven Pag. 110 XIV Of the punishments which we meet with in the sacred Scriptures and of the remission of sins Pag. 120 XV Three other exceptions that they neither truly take off the punishments nor rightly make them due nor in sine make any real Purgatory Pag. 136 XVI The thirteenth exception that their opinion is opposite to the expressions of Scriptures of Fathers of the Church of the Councel of Florence and Benedict XI Pag. 144 XVII That the ignorance of spiritual natures begâ—t this opinion Pag. 151 XVIII Objections from the holy Fathers against our Doctrine answered Pag. 158 XIX Of the authority of Apparitions and Visions Pag. 166 XX Of the authority of Visions compar'd with that of History together with a particular examination of some of them Pag. 17S XXI Whence wonderful events come to be foretold without any supernatural assistance Pag. 38 XXII What is the benefit of prayer for the dead Pag. 197. XXIII That the Practise of the Church as far as its words make known it's sense favours the ancient opinion Pag. â—07 XXIV That the Practise of the Church as it is visible in action makes likewise for the same truth Pag. 218 XXV The nature and history of Indulgences Pag. 225 XXVI That Indulgences generally taken make nothing against the ancient Doctrine Pag. 234 XXVII That particular Indulgences granted for he dead argue not the universal practise of the Church Pag. 243 XXVIII That the Vulgarity of the opposite opinion ought not to prejudice the true one Pag. 251 The First Accompt The Introduction and state of the Question THough such be the beauty of reason and such its soveraignty over humane nature when rightly disposed that no force of authority can be capable to weaken conclusions once demonstrated for what can authority presume unless reason pre-assures us of its veracity or how can reason give it that testimony having a demonstration against it yet is it not lawful for me to treat the question I have now in hand without first consulting the sentiments of antiquity I am endebted to the unwise as well as the wise and see them far more numerous who pin themselves upon authority few being able to sustain the esclat of discourse evidently and rigorously connected Besides it well becomes the dignity of the Church in which I live and is requisite for the satisfaction of those without her to make it clear that our forefathers generally do not dissent for me in this controversie This then shall be my aime in the following Treatise First to illustrate the nature of Purgatory from the sacred Scriptures and monuments of holy Fathers next immoveably to establish it by Faith or Principles evident in Nature but before all give me leave to summe up and state the whole controversie as it is on both sides asserted For the Church her self hath herein defined nothing more then that there is a Purgatory and that the souls there detained are reliev'd by the prayers and suffrages of the faithful The Vulgar modern Divines embrace in a manner generally this position That the deficiences of men are some mortal and punishable with eternal misery others venial and expiable by temporary sufferings Mortal lapses if repented they absolve from eternal condemning them notwithstanding to time-limitted torments So that suppose an imperfect Christian departed whose venial sins no satisfaction at all hath cancelled whose mortal an imperfect one hath diminished these Doctors admit him not to the beatifical vision but provide for him a subterraneous cave fill'd with flames and horrid instruments of torture which his there confined and imprison'd soul must till expiated endure And these pains they thus far suppose like to those we here experience that they are inflicted by extrinsecal Agents and against the will of the patient conceâ—ving moreover that they take their proportion from the measure and nature of the crimes committed in the body according to the estimate of Divine Justice Nor can these torments by any industry or force of the soul it self be evaded though by our prayers who survive they may be mitigated and before the otherwise due and prefixed time determined The same relief they fancy from the satisfaction or merits of the Saints if by the Church to that intent apply'd Thus these later Divines from whom in this discourse I must for the most part take leave to dissent I acknowledg in humane faylings a difference betwixt mortal and venial nor do I deny an imperfect remission of mortal impurities But I place not this imperfection in that the Sin is totally cancelled the pain only remaining but in the change of an Absolute into a conditional affection as it were instead of I will substituting I will not buâ— Oh that I lawfully might This sinner therefore concludes that an eternal good is to be preferr'd before that which he abandons and in his life and actions preferrs it but looks notwithstanding back upon it as amiable with a wishful glance not unlike the Cowes which bearing the Ark did bellow to their Calves shut up at home The affection or inclination he had to temporal good is restrain'd not extinguish'd of mortal become venial changed not destroy'd Being therefore by the operation of death as it were new moulded and minted into a purely spiritual substance he carries inseparably with him the matter of his torment in the like manner as he also doth who takes leave of the body with his affections only venially disordered Wehave no occasion here to employ infernal Architects to invent strange racks and dungeons since the innate and intimately inhering strife and fury of the affections teâ—t against reason perform alone that execution which is therefore proportioned to the sins because springing and resulting from them nor ever otherwise possibly capable to â—eâ—se and determine unless the soul by a new conjunction with the body become again susceptible of
lib. 1. lect. 5 The diminution of Gods honour what it signifies The true ground of well doing Of Pain and Punishment and Torment No extrinsecal Agent can annoy us but by our body Every act of will must needs be voluntary Corporeal Action that is Rarefaction and Condensation cannot reach indivisible subjects No not Instrumentally How man is notwithstanding subject thereto That fire is taken Motaphorically as well as Darkness gnashing of teeth worm of Conscience c. * Peripat Institutions Book 5. Lessons 3. 4. That souls in Purgatory would endure all their Torments with extreme pleasure There can be no proportion betwixt sin and fire Nor betwixt time and a spiritual Act Length of time augments corporeal grief or pleasure but hath no affect on pure spirits No act of a separated soul can bechanged without a new Conjunction with the body unless miraculousâ—ly * Peripat Inst. Book 5. l. 1. par 2. 3. Every Act of a separated soul is made upon full view of all circumstances and consequently inalterable * Peripat Just book 5. Lesson 2. 3 4. God governs his World not as a Prince but as a perfect Architect An Objection from Examples in Scripture of punishments which have no connexion with the fact Answer * Tom. 2. lib. 2. lect. â— par 2 3 4 5 6. The punishment of soul cannot outlâ—st their guilt Objection from the dissimilitude betwixt a sinner and God Answer Examples out of Scriptures of sins punished after remission sâ—ereof How sins are said to be remitted Simply and respectively What sin propeâ—iy consists in It's divisioâ— into internal and external Internal mortal sin when properly remitted Interâ—â—â— venial 〈…〉 when remitted Of the remission of external sin How children are punished for their parents sins Sometimes suddenly oâ— miraculously Sometimes to the 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 of their race or â—â—tion But most common 〈◊〉 to the 3d. and 4th generation * Tom. 1. lib. 1. lect 4. * Tom. 2. lib. 3. lect. 10 p. 1. 2. c. What the punishment of sin is No grief can cease without the admission of some pleasure A perfâ—ct act of contrition discharges punishment as well as guilt The souls iâ— Purgatory may as well merit for themselves as for others There can be no Purgation where there is no coinquiâ—â—ion Scripture and Fathers still inculcate a Purgation which the adversaries render impossible by cancelling all sin at the instance of separation The Greek Church had good reason to reject their explication of Purgatory Nothing but waâ—â— of Charity can debar separated soul from the Beatifical Vision A position acknowledged by all true Divines And â—â—â—â—â—ted by the Florenâ—iâ—â— Councel and Benedict 11th Spirits know not by discourse but by simple apprehension or intuition in which there can be no errour The thoughts and affections of the soul in this life point out it's future unchangeable state no less perfectly then the disposition of the Embrio in the womb determines the feature and complexion off the future man Why the soul cannâ—â— be dispossessed of her depraved affections as well as from her erroâ—eous Judgments in the stâ—â—eâ— of separaâ—â—on The Adversaries several mistakes in explicating the nature of the soul When the Scriptures speak of fire they arâ— either to be understood metaphorically or of the fire of conflagration A passage of S. Aug. cleared Eucheriâ—â— Lugd. explicated Gregory the Great and Veâ— â—edes Authority pondered who advance nothing herein as Doctors but meâ—rly as Historians The difference betwixt the Visions pretended by the Adversâ—ries and Prophetical ones That the former are not attested by any miracles That no Rules are givâ—… Divâ—â—â—s bâ—w 〈…〉 examine them The quality of the Persons that see theâ—… That the Danger of errour is greater at first then afterwards Of the force of Pantasy The impressions whereof are often more lively then any which are caused by our senses The reason thereof from the â—â—iding in of some one object whilst all the rest are by sleep shut one of doors Which may happen also at other times What is required in Visions to give them some credit Of Historical câ—râ—â—iâ—ty and it's degrees First Secondl Thirdl Fourth and last degree Of all which these pretended Visions fall short As appears by these related by â— Gregory And V. Bede And strange discourses of Apparitions received waking or sleeping How farre they may be natural Even to the sudden possessing of a science before unknown How passionate persons come to apprehend the condition of their absent friends Whose transport hath been the rise of most of our stories concerning the souls in Purgatory The Adversaries Objection of the usefulness of our prayers if this be true And chiefly from the predetermination of the Day of Judgment independently of our prayers Which is first answered By shewing that the means are predestinated as well as the end In what manner and sense our Prayers benefit the dead in general And in particular That it imports not what particular fancy they may have who pray for the dead as to the relief given thereby Not whether this Doctrine become a means of lessening the number of unworthy Priests The Vulgar opinion can neither claim Vniversality of place Nor time Nâ—r do the present Churches words or actions declare any suc practise at this day even in the western part of it As appears by her missalls Breviaries and Rituals Which unanimously respect the day of Judgment And have not one clear word throughout them all of any oâ—her delivery Their rashness who because they can no longer presume to free the souls departed at their own time and pleasure refuse to continue to pray for them The consequences of both opinions examined Which equally agree in continuing to supplicate to the worlds end Where it ought rather to be converted into thanksgiving for those who are set free if the vulgar opinion be true The intention is not alwayes visiblâ— iâ— every action Whether Indulgences either in general or particular make any thing against the truâ— Doctrine The first and proper use of remission or Indulgence in general The occasion of its being stretch't farther Fron S. Paul 2 Cor. 2. And some passages in the Fathers The posture of Indulgences in the 11th Age The design of the School men to establish them on a new basis Though they could never procure any Councel to favour it The School-men's Idea of Purgatory according to the Metaphorical explication thereof Lead them to stretch Indulgences to the next world And invent an imaginary treasure of Christs and his Saints merits * Tom. 1. lib. 1. lect. 14. Whereas every good work of the Saint is more then rewarded And every merit of Christ exceeds all proportion of demerit or punishment Of Ecclesiastical penalties How such a Penalty may be said to correspond or be equivalent to such a crime With a solution to the objection from S. Paul And some Fathers Particular Indulgences were not appâ—yed to the souls departed before the Schools How thiâ— come since to be applyed that way Which the Pope neither commands nor commends An Objection from the Prelates corn vence at least Aâ—sâ—… is a Vâ—… rather 〈…〉 Viâ—e in them And will be till the Demonstration of the contrary Doctrine be generally acknowledged The last objection from the universality of the vulgar opinion at least since the Schools Answer There are three degrees of them the first from suspicion The second from probabilities The third from Demonstration The first rather obliges the Church to a farther Inquiry The second still admits it The third is not pretended to in the Case An opinion may be held by all the men of the Church and yet not by the Church That is by them as believers that is grounded upon and preserving inviolate Tradition That the Vulgar opinion neither is nor ever was taught as a pâ—int of faith But as a pious credulity The Conclusion
experssions are found But because the Roman Liturgy seemes to speak less clearly then the rest let us examine her own best interpreters S. Ambrose De ob Valent Prayes day and night for him and Gratian He commends the souls of Theodosius and his brother to God and begs rest for them all whom notwithstanding he doubts not to be in Bliss in the receptacles of eternal tranquillity in the Tabernacles of Christ in the supernal Hierusalem in the company of Saints in the Kingdome of our Lord Jesus S. Hierom in like manner affirms Paulina to be gone from hence to her Lord and to enjoy a sweet rest for whose sake notwithstanding he commends the giving of almes S. Gregory himself in his book of Sacraments saith We have received O Lord the divine mysteries which as they avail thy Saints to the encrease of glory so we beseech thee they may benefit us for the cure of our infirmities The same may be likewise gather'd from the Areopagite who teaches to pray for those who departed so holily that be affirmes them to be presented to the Priest as to the distributor of their crowns The same from S Chrysostome who describes at one and the same time weeping and alms-giving rejoycing and triumphs for the dead cleerly declaring it to descend from the Apostles Doctrine and command to offer sacrifices for the dead It was therefore anciently lawful and customary to pray for the Saints nor is it in our dayes less the Church her self instructing thus to pray Receive what we offer to the honour of thy Saints that to them it may be an increase of glory to us of safety Nor is it infrequent amongst the more pious when they name a Saint or Martyr to adde Whose glory God increase The Fourth Accompt That St. Bernard only excepted all the rest of the Fathers deny'd not to the faithful departed the Beatifical vision before the day of Judgment FRom what hath been said a clear light seems to discover it self though many hands labour to draw a dark curtain before it to the vindication shall I say of the Fathers of the Church or of the Church it self from a foul imputation laid upon them or her For I ponder with my self that if so great a multitude of Saints be supposed to have erred in this one Article we are almost at a loss how to excuse the Church from the same crime These calumniators muster up Fathers neither few in number nor those inconsiderable in value nor of one Nation nor of one age and the nature of the Article is such that we may not well exclude it from its concernment in order to piety or necessity in order to Faith They affirm not more unwarily then audaciously That most of the Ancient Fathers did promiscuously sequester from the face of God the perfect with the imperfect till the last day of judgment I dare not take upon me to justifie them in all circumstances but as to the substance I avow that setting S. Bernard aside and John the 22. if you please to reckon him amongst the Fathers not any one of them for ought may be gather'd out of their writings spoke even ambiguously in the case 'T is true many of them did deliberately deny the Saints to be in Heaven which by inadvertency is become our vulgar phrase to signifie Beatitude But S. Bernard reflecting on the difference affirm'd them to be in Heaven as to their substance but not so as to enjoy the vision of the Deity Whence it appears that he light upon this singularity whilst he wholly apply'd his speculation to the subtil reach of the mistical speeches in the Apocalypse not by the imitation of his predecessors so that unawares he let go the Churches sense retaining only her words We are to consider in the day of Judgment two retributions to be made good to all mankind the degree of reward due to their merits and the place design'd for their eternity Who denies the first makes it no Judgment for what kind of Judgment is that which hath no rewards or punishments attending it but actually finds all beforehand done for which it was intended The latter carries too much evidence to find an opposition since we are speaking of men and those who are never so little spiritualiz'd know that to be in place suites only with bodies These two things then those holy Fathers maintain and by their testimonies foreprize our exceptions When we hear them say that Saints or their souls are detained in certain receptacles or store-houses till the day of Judgment conceive them to mean that they have not yet received their material places of Beatitude S. Bernard alone to opine that they are indeed already possessed of their proper and material places but so that the humanity only of Christ is represented to them and made their object For as we term that to be in darkness which is not in the light and in a manner alwayes explicate prevationsby in compossible positives so those Doctors phrased the not being locally in Heaven by the being in other receptacles either accommodating their expressions to the vulgar capacity though conscious of the Privation or by the force of fancy being themselves beguil'd into that unwary perswation This reflection alone beats back most of the calumnies darted at those Saints For Ireneus Justin Tertullian Clemens Romanus Lactantius Origen Vistorinus Prudentius Chrysostom Theodoret Arethus Oecumenius pronounce no more then that the souls are detained out of Heaven and expect at the last day their remuneration and future glory Yea most of them follow those expressions with others which at least permissively insinuate that they enjoy God as to their souls So Ireneus explicating the compleat resurrection to be that of bodies So Justin affirming them to enjoy Paradice with the sense of Intelligence that is those joyes of Paradice which pure Intelligences are capable of So Tertullian allowing them rest and joy So Origen declaring them to be as it were in a Schoole or Auditory that they may make judgment of the future that it may sore-run and mentally taste the joyes they are awayting saving moreover that they expect those which can receive no further encrease So Victorinus confessing them to be in a state of repose free from pains and flames where they attend in the last times a perpetual that is not mutable or increasable reward Prudentius's words may well signifie Heaven unless the use and acceptation of his Age otherwise determine them The sentiments of S. S. Chrysostome and Augustine are elsewhere sufficiently cleared Arethus saith they have a certain conjecture that is prescience or pregustation of the future Having so great an evidence of the thoughts of most of them we are not to doubt but that the rest whose words are somewhat harsher were yet of the same judgment S. Ambrose speaks ambiguously when he saith that the soul after this life is still in suspence of the future Judgment but
carnal people who are by fire to be saved and the carnal ones in fire to be damned And elsewhere in the Psalms and his Sermons de Tempore he repeats the same explication And that you may see he speaks not of those only who are just then to dye on the sixth Psalm above ciâ—ed he immediately addes Make me such a one O Lord as that I may not need the fire to mend me or the correcting fire And that you may further perceive he was herein constant to himself Lib. 20. de Civiâ— Dei cap. 25. From what we have alledged saith he it seâ—â—es evidently to appear that in that Judgment there will be certain purging punishments for some And whereas lib. 21. c. 26. he seemes to doubt whether such fire as consumes venial sins may not be admitted betwixt the day of Death and the day of Judgment that intrenches not upon the certitude of what he had already established but rather begins a new Question especially since he explicates himself not of material fire but of the fire of tribulation His intentions may perhaps be more illustrated if we adde the negative place De Civit. Dei l. 2. c. 24 As saith he in the resurrection of the dead there will not want those who after the pains which the spirits of the dead suffer shall find mercy that they be not precipitatid into eternal For it would not have been with truth affirmed that they should not be forgiven neither in this world nor the next unless there were some who though they founâ— it not here should notwithstanding obtain remission hereafter And in the fifth Chapter of the sixth book against Julian If no sin saith he were to be remitted in that last Judgment I suppose our Lord would not have said of a certain sin that it should neither be remitted in this world nor the next Finally Confess l. 9. c. 3. Grant him Verecundus in the resurrection of the just a recompensation for the good Offices he did us since thâ—â— hast already made him one of thy faithful Nor is his 80th Epistle to Hesichius to be omitted In what condition every mans last day finds him in the same shall worlds last day overtake him for such as in that day he departs such in the last day shall he be judged What can more throughly discredit all pretence of intermedial change Ruâ—â—inus if he be the Author of that work on the Psalms which is ascribed to him is to be explicated conformably when he saith By anger may be understood the trial by purging fire in which they shall be chastised who now build things unprofitable upon Christ their foundation as meaning by that purging fire the fire of the last day of Judgment and so he confirms our opinion To him we will joyn Eucherius Lugdunâ—nsis if the Homilies which carry the name of Eusebius Emissenus be his They who have committed things worthy of temporal punishment saith he to whom belongs that speech of our Lord that they shall not go free till they have paid the last farthing shall pass through a fiery River according to that of the Prophet a swift River ran before him through horrid gulfs of flaming metal And a good while after The just shall pass through them as through pleasant and refreshing baths the flames loosing their propriety and their untouched bodies shall be honour'd by the very Instruments of pain because they were not burthened with sin The description of the just passing through those flames with their bodies untouched and the fiery River running before the face of Christ give us sufficient light that the day of Judgment is here spoken of Nor need it any way trouble us that he saith the slowness in passing through shall be proportionable to the matter of sin for there may well in the compass of one day be diversity of torments and of their duration besides delay may not improperly signifie difficulty in passing The Ninth Accompt That the Proofs of the opposite opinion are Modern and betray their Novelty NOr hath the hasty progress of this vulgar perswasion concerning the cessation of punishments before the day of Judgment altogether Eclipsed the contrary For Venerable Bede himself doth not admit to Heaven those whom he supposeth to be freed and Alcuinus is positively against it Both S. Anselme and S. Thomas joyntly confess that the purging and saving fire mentioned by the Apostle may be understood of the fire of conflagration And the most eminent among our Modernes confess this to have been the sence of antiquity nor do themselves much labour to oppose or discredit it But nothing can be more clear then the Saxon Homilies lately set forth in the * Annotations upon Bede which having been purposely compiled that they might be read throughout all the Churches in England evidently declare the sence of the English Church till the beginning of the Schooles What shall I say of S. Gregory who first brought into the Church the contrary opinion from certain stories and relations of pious but timorous persons Not one word can be found in him of admitting those who were so pretended to be freed to the Beatifical Vision but one who had been excommunicated is reported to have received the Communion others to have quitted their painful prisons And here it may well be noted that our Modernists who admit the fire spoken of by S. Pâ—ul to be the fire of the last day cannot from that Text though none more clearly assert Purgatory draw the least advantage to the confirmation of theirs but on the contrary meere confusion and darkness And now let us cast up the total summe of this discourse which consists of these three constant asseverations of the holy Fathers first that some souls already enjoy God secondly that none are yet locally in heaven since to be in place requires a body thirdly that all the faithful expect the day of Judgment that they may receive the reward of what they acted in their life-time wherein all their works are to be try'd by fire and those who were not perfectly holy to be purged and suffer detriment From whence we may with the same constancy pronounce that since those who dye in sin provided their foundation be on Christ are in the last day to suffer purging flames there can be no other material ones after this liâ—e but they For if you substract those testimonies of the Fathers which either expresly speak of the day of Judgment or in such general terms that it is evident they ought to be applyed to it by consent and in complyance with the rest you must from them expect no authority at all for the establishing of Purgatory To which we may adde since all Christian belief or credulity is finally resolved into and totally depends on Christ and his Apostles Doctrine if any Tenet concerning a subject not otherwise then by revelation discoverable appear not to have been by un-interrupted succession from them derived unto
twentieth Accompt That the practise of the Church as far as it's words make known it's sense favours the ancient opinion FOr the last attempt they reserve the Practise of the Church which can neither deceive nor be deceived And this they drive on with great fury and clamour partly from the prayers which are said for the Dead partly from the concession and acceptation of Indulgences wherein their valour gains so much applause that it is worth our pains to give it a check Our first encounter shall be to demand of them when they talk of the Ecclesiastical Practise which do they mean an universal or a particular one Again if an universal one whether they intend only a present Universality or an universality including also the ancient practise If they admit an universality of place as they needs must if they will conclude any thing for otherwise by their own confession it will amount but to a probable that is fallible argument let them demonstrate to me that the practise they contend for either anciently was or at present is in the Grecian Church Sure I am neither in the Florentine Councel nor in the Union of the Armenians nor in the Profession of Faith prescribed by Urban VIII to the Oriental Churches any thing is expressed from whence this Doctrine may be deduc'd In like manner as to point of time it is evident that before S. S. Gregory and Bede there was no such notorious Practise even in the Roman Church and consequently that it became not general till after Odilo about six hundred years agoe But such a Practise no way deserves the title of Universal according to Time The question then is devolved to the Western Church for the four or five last ages for the universality cannot be stretch'd higher since the practise appears to have taken it's rise from the Devotions of the Clugniac Monks and the effect of those Devotions that is Revelations springing from them whereas before it was rare if not unknown Our next quaere is what they mean by practise For my part to avoid ambiguity I divide it into that of actions and of expressions both which if they apparently favour what we have delivered then is our adversaries last effort as in-effectual as the former The Churche's expressions are visible in her Missalls Rituals and Breviaries by which if I stand condemned I willingly yeild the cause To begin with the sequence of Dies irae Dies illa is it not throughout of the day of Judgment and the deliverance which is then to be made What else hath the Offertory Lord Jesus Christ King of glory free the souls of the faithful departed from the pains of Hell and the profound Lâ—ke free them from the Lions jawes that Hâ—ll may not devour them nor they fall into darkness but let the holy Ensign-bearer Michael conduct them into that happy light which thou hast heretofore promised to Abraham and his seed Thus far in general for all the Dead then in particular We offer up to thee O Lord sacrifices and thanksgiving prayers receive them for those souls which we this day commemorate grant them O Lord to pass from Death to Life These are the Church's prayers which to a Catholick what can they signifie but the examination and sentence of the last Judgment After the person is dead and that prayers begin to be said for him where is he in danger to perish but in the last Day If then the Church prayes not for what is past which seems to be unprofitable it prayes not for any other delivery of the Dead then what is to be in that final Judgment I easily foresee it may be objected that the Dead have in reality no incertitude or hazard even in that Day wherefore these Prayers must on both sides be acknowledged to have their improprieties My answer is twofold First in our way we coyn not a new Metaphor but prosecute that which Christ and Holy Scriptures have furnished us with For if they have styled it a Judgment not in order to an investigation or disquisition of things doubtful for what can be obscure when God himself is judg but meerly to signifiy the effect of the said Judgment that is the respective destribution of rewards and punishments to good and bad which then is made is it not evident that the Ecclesiastical manner of speech that it may be conformable to the sacred and Traditionary expressions must speak as it were of a dubious sentence whilst there is yet an affection to or expectation of punishment or reward These speeches then signifie just the same as if the Church should plainly say suffer them not to be cast into Hell but grant them eternal happiness And so is that particle also to be understood of passing from Death of life Though there be also another way in which the souls in Purgatory when they become partakers of the Beatifical Vision may not improperly be said to pass from Death to Life For those souls having according to what hath been explicated an impediment in themselves debarring them from true life which is perfect Beatitude clearly if death be opposite to life they are truely said to pass from death to life when they are freed from their sins and that impediment I am not ignorant that Divines taking it from the Lawyers suppose in these souls a certain Right to Beatitude by which they are rendred partakers of life But these expressions abuse us when besides an allegory we expect propriety in them Nor indeed doth right to a thing make a man owner of it but right in the thing and in reality those holy souls have not right to life but seeds of it to wit the faith of Christ which works by charity and which assuredly will through the last judgment fructifie to life eternal As then sâ—ea is not yet reckon'd among things living but dead so these souls also But we must observe the word dead hath a double sense being propounded abstractedly and privatively The damned are privatively dead because all possibility or root of eternal life is extinguished in them but those in Purgatory are only dead because they have not yet obtained life My second answer is that speeches of this kind are altogether inexplicable according to the contrary opinion which is a certain note that they mistake the Churches sense For proof hereof it were enough to charge them with it and put them to the trial But I can produce the express confession of an Author voluminous enough to appear great amongst them who paraphrasing upon the above cited words excuses their form Because saith he those who pray often use expressions which they are altogether ignerant what they signifie or whither they tend But surely the Rituals sufficiently declare whither these speeches tended Make him worthy by the assistance of thy Grace to escape the Judgment of revenge who living was signed with the seal of the Trinity Again Let us pray for