then for them and in another place tells them that unless they repent Luke 15. they shall all likewise perish as those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and to conclude all this least I again endanger to bring an obscurity upon this truth by too great a cloud of witnesses appearing for it S. Paul exhorts us all to approve our selves as the Ministers of God in patience 2 Cer. 6.4.5 in watching and in fastings so I presume you will not still deny that satisfaction is very requsite nay necessary to a perfect penitent To what you alledge against the doctrine of our Church in point of the Liberty of the will I answer thus To the first I answer by granting that all good comes from God the donor but some of those good things he gives through the action of our free-will and others he gives cleerly without it So we humbly confess our merits to be the gifts of God and given by God preventing cooperating and following us in all our thoughts words and actions but this does not at all follow that therefore our freewill cannot actively concurre to make a merit To the Second and Third I say in like maner that God of his great mercy prevents our freewills by moving them and mercifully cooperates assisting them and our Church prays Prevent us O Lord in all our actions c. so that when people do sin God Almighty cannot be made to be the Author of the sin or errour and when we read the text you urge thou hast made us to erre it is to be understood thou hast suffered us so to do or that thou hast hardned it is to be understood thou hast permitted our hearts to be hardned and by this the activity of the free-will is so far from being hindred or deprived that is plainly implied and proved To the fourth I must most cleerly acknowledge with the Prophet that the way of a man is not in himself as to the executions of all his elections in which whether he will or no he may be many ways hindred but the elections themselves are in man with the supposition of divine help and therefore mans will is said to be free not of his actions but action which consists in his judgement and his determination to do or not to do To the fifth I confess it to be an extravagant thing for a man to rebell against or expostulate with his Creator as for any thing formed to do the same thing with or against the workman that formed it or an instrument with the Artificer for every creature is an instrument of the divine power but by all this I cannot see how the liberty of mans actions in a concurrence with the Creator is at all infringed but seems to me rather confirmed the Creator making the Creature instrumentally to cooperate with him To the sixth What our Saviour there adviseth not to take thought how or what to speak for it should be given in the same hour c. was only to take away all anixiety and solicitude of fore thniking Now the case of the Apostles knowledge and ours are very different for theirs was altogether infused and their freewill was meerly passive in the execution of divine dictats it is to be understood far otherwise with us who are bound by our good works freely to cooperate with divine grace To the seventh I humbly conceive that text of the falling of sparows not to concern the matter of free will at all but only that our Saviour would have us cleerly to understand and beleive how all things are Subject to the providence of God To the eighth and Last We must grant that there is no man saved but by grace not by his works excluding grace because works signify nothing without grace For as S. Paul tells us Rom. 8. the sufferings of this present world are nothing to the future glory that shall he revealed in us And to that text that none can come to him unless the father draw him we do acknowledge that there must be such a drawing by the divine grace preventing and coopperating but how to acquiesce in and submit to that divine drawing and not to harden our hearts against his divine drawing nor to shut our ears if we mean for to hear his voice calling to us that is the part of our own free-wills So I beseech you good Mirs N. to have a care least you be found resisting to those divine ealls and attractions which his divine grace is always offering to you and consult with those cleer texts of Scripture that I shall here recommend to you We finde the Lord saying to Cain Gen. 4.6 why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance fallen if thou do well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door c. does not our Lord her cleerly convince Cain of his freewill How more plainly yet does God Almighty expostulate with the Isralites and require their obedience to his law Deut. 30.10 11 12 13 14 15. and the freedomes of their wills For this commandment saith he which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee neither is it far off it is not in heaven that thou shouldst say who shall go up for us c. neither is it beyond the Sea c. But that word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayst do it See I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evill c. can any thing be cleerer for the liberty of mans will The Prophet Jeremy tells us Jerm 5. that these which remain of this last and worst generation shall chuse death rather than life There is choice given to the Jews whether they will serve the Lord Josh 24.15.21 2 Sam. 24.13 Num. 30 or no and the people said nay but we will serve the Lord. There was a choyce given to David which of the three plagues he would have There was a choyce given to the husband in the old law concerning the vow of his wife now there can be no choyce at all without liberty of will Job tells us Job 5. Numb Deut. Psal 107 108 118 that the righteous shall be saved but in the cleaness of his own hands How much do we read of the freewill offerings in the old Testament and David declares that he will freely sacrifice to the Lord again my soul O Lord is always in my hands my heart is ready O Lord my heart is ready and nothing more frequent than such expressions clean throughout the Psalmes The Prophet Isay yet more largely speaks to this purpose Isay 1.16 v. 19. wash ye make ye clean put away the evill of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evill c. and then presently after if ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebell Isay 46.12 ye
of Indulgence that the residue of his satisfaction and sufferings should be added to the sufferings of Christ and applyed to the body of Christ that is his Church out of the treasury of Indulgencies And sure this satisfaction of the saints does turn to their greatest glory As for example if the satisfaction and suffering of Laâ—erence does pay the punishment due to John being a penitent will not Laurence have a kinde of additionall joy in heaven for that his satisfaction has paid for his brother John and so the works of the saints as they are sattisfactory and penall are perfectly remunerated to the Saints in that others enjoy the benefit of them being aplyed by the Churches indulgencies And this you may please to accept not onely for a sufficient answer but also a reply as to this particular To what you are pleased to alledge against our doctrine of Purgatory I answer thus To the first I grant that which those texts you urge requir which is that after the day of judgement there shall be but too places for those which are grown in years and that is all which can be enforced out of those Texts But as yet there are as also ther were in the old Testament more places or receptacles for souls And truly granting that there were but too I would fain have you or any man to tell me where the fouls of those were who died and were afterwards raised again to life I would fain know I say how the son of the widow of Sarepta was raised by Elias how the Shunamites son was raised by Elisha how the Son of the widdow in Naim and the daughter of Jarus the Ruler of the synagoge and Lazarus in Bethâ—ny were raised by Jesus Christ how Tabitha was raised by S. Peter and Euâ—yous by S. Paul I would fain know I say where the souls of these persons were between the time of their death and there raising to life They could not be in Hell for from thence there is no redemption Nor in heaven for then it had been so far from being a benefit as it would have proved a loss if from the joys beatitudes there they should return to miserable mortal life It must then follow of necessity that they were in some third place distinct from heaven and from Hell so call it what you will your argument is answered To the second I answer and grant what you collect out of those Scriptures which you quote that the righteous after this life ended are presently admitted into heavenly glory but I must tell you not all the righteous neither who leave nothing to be purged out of them after this life they questionless are admitted presently into heaven But they that have any thing to be expiated left in them shall be admitted in Gods good time but so as by fire as the Apostle tells us Nor are your testimonies out of Scripture any thing importing to the contrary Fâ—r that to day shalt thou be with 〈◊〉 in Paradice was a singular thing and particular priviledge indulged to the good Theife to whom Christ did most liberally forgive all his sins without any further obligation of temporall punishment after death â—ut this is not granted to all no more than the priviledge of one is to be drawn into a president for another Then out of that Text I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ nothing else can be collected then that the Apostle had a great desire to live with Christ which desire you and I may likewise have especially if we can truly say with the same Apostle I do chastise my body and bring it into subjection Such a mortification as that on earth may give us indeed a present life in heaven which God of his mercy grant us both and all the world besides if so be it may confist with his blessed will To what you say against our doctrine of praying for the dead which is a consequence of Purgatory I answer thus To the first To what you alledge out of the Prophet Jeremy I answer that the Prophet Jeremy does not speake it absolutly of all the dead but of one onely that was the King Joachas who died in captivity in Egypt so saith the Prophet Weep not for the dead neither bemoane him but weep for your following Kings undâ—er whom you are to suffer greater Tribullation To the Second I grant that Christ did forbid the widdow to weep for her Son but it was because he was immediately to raise him from the dead so she was not to weep for him as dead but to be comforted for the miraculous life which he was to receive I must profess that I see not a word against Purgatory or prayer for the dead in all this To the Third and Last I say that which you bring so confidently out of S. Paul as a most invinsible and unanswerable argument give me leave to tell you comes off but very lamely for you for the words of the Text do sufficiently cleer themselves that ye sorrow not for those that sleep as others which have no hope so we agree that to weep for the dead out of any dispaire of a future resurrection is so far from being the practice of our Church that we hold it to be a sin or to weep for a dead friend out of diffidence that we shall never see him again or a fear that we have for ever lost him is very injunious to God and Christianity but when we weep adâ—prayers to our tears in the behalf of our dead friends we are so far from weeping as those without hope that we testify our Christian Confidence and assurance in the Security of his condition for being in Purgatory he is sure of salvation though he may stay some time for it to pay the temporall punishment there due for his sins heer That there is a third place which we call Purgatory and that the prayers of the faithfull upon earth are very helpfull to them I prove thus First we finde it delivered at large by S. 1 Cor. 3.12 13 14 15. Paul in these words Now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every mans work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans work of which sort it is if any mans work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire Here it is most plain that though a man do works to be burnt as shall appear in the day of every mans particular judgement that is his death yet he shall be saved by fire that cannot be meant of infernal fire for from thence there is no redemption it must be then understood of Purgatory Our Saviour in the Gospels implys Purgatory plainly though under a Parable in these words Matth. 5.25.26 Luke 12.38 Agree with thine adversary quickly whilest thou art
in the way with him least at any time the adversary deliver thee to the Judge and the Judge deliver thee to the officer and thou be cast into Prison verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing This prison our Saviour speaks of has been always received by the Church for Purgatory Again our Saviour says in S. Mat. 12.32 Matthews Gospel that whosoever speaketh against the holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come By which it is manifest that some sins are to be purged and forgiven in the next world S. Paul is likewise very plain in this in his Epistle to the Philippians Phil. 2.10 wherein he tells them that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Here are cleerly three sorts of persons spoken of as for those under the earth it is impossible should be meant of those in hell no the damned souls are so far from paying a reverence to the name of Jesus that they are always busie in blaspheming of it it must then of necessity be the faithful souls that are in Purgatory In the like manner we finde in the Revelation of S. Revel 5.13 John how the Apostle saw every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and sea and all that are in them and heard them saying blessing hnour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Now observe how the Apostle makes a threefold order of the prayers of God first of the blessed in heaven then of the righteous upon earth than of those that remain to be purged under the earth and it must be so understood for the damned in hell as I said before are so far from praysing and glorifying of God and blessing him that fits upon the Throne that their malice does wholely imploy it self in cursing and blaspheming of his divine Majesty and all the blessed souls with him Again 2 Mach. 15. Mat. 17. Mark 9. Luke 9.24 a great evidence of the truth of Purgatory and a convincing one indeed may be taken from the frequent apparitions of many departed souls to pass by those in the Machabees of Onias and Hieremias that appeared to Judas we finde that Moses and Elias did appear to Christ when he was transfigured and the disciples themselves after the resurrection of our Saviour when he appeared to them thought that they had seen a spirit which they would never have thought unless they had known that the spirits of some departed did make usual apparitions now granting such a thing as the apparition of a spirit which I take to be already proved it must follow that those souls must be reposed in some place that is not in heaven for then they would never wander here to so great a loss nor can they be in hell from whence there is no redemption Again we finde the Theif upon the Cross saying to our Saviour Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom which he had never said but that he thought that Jesus Christ had a power to pardon sins after this Life S. Paul likewise was certainly of this opinion where he tells the Corrinthians thus else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for the dead which plainly shews that it was a practised course amongst the Christians then to undertake duties and voluntary afflictions in the behalf of the dead which sure was imagined to be for their advantage and yet you think much to pray for them Now the reason of all this is very cleer for we know that a man who sins mortally may have the mortality of that sin forgiven him and consequently be freed from the guilt of eternal punishment and yet may be obnoxious to some temporal penalties which if he does not satisfie in this life he must expect to do it in the next As for example we see a King does often pardon an offender his life which he has forfeited to the Law and deserved to loose and yet he may inflict banishment or imprisonment upon the same person and this very course we finde taken by God in Scripture Num. 20 12. Deut. 32.48 2 Sam. 12.13 14. 2 Sam. 24.10 First we see the sin of unbelief forgiven by God to Moses and Aaron that is as to the eternal punishment and yet they were punisht with a temporal death Again we finde King David after he had obtained a pardon for his fins of Adultery and Murder was punisht yet with the death of his son nay after the prophet Nathan had declared that the Lord had put away his sin he should not dye yet his son must and again the same King David for his sin of pride in numbring the people was pardoned as to the eternal guilt and yet we see what a temporal punishment followed upon it and he was forced to choose one of the three Plagues for it I might be infinite in examples of the like kinde but I have something else to say to this point so must not insist too long in that particular of it We know again that a righteous man may sometimes happen to dye with a great many venial sins about him especially if he be prevented with any sudden death so cannot possibly have time enough to bethink himself much less to repent of them so must still remain obnoxious to the temporal punishment that is due to those sins certainly in such a case that person cannot be admitted into the joyes and glory of heaven till he be freed from those venial sins and the guilt of that temporal punishment that is due for them So we finde in the Revelation that there shall in no wise enter into it Rev. 21.27 any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye c. now such a person is possible to be and we may very well suppose it that he cannot be freed in this life therefore after it it must be nor can this be in Heaven or in Hell therefore it must be in Purgatory Over and above all this the undeniable practise of the Church in praying for the dead is a most invincible argument for Purgatory and no man can deny but that custome is much ancienter than Christianity and has continued ever since That it was ancienter then Christianity we finde in the Machabees which book though you shut out of the Cannon of holy Scripture with as much reason as you do other things yet you allow it more credit than any ordinary Author 2 Mach. 12.43 44 45. how then should it fail so grossy as to make a lye in matter of fact as well as matter of faith We are told there of a sacrifice offered for the