knowledge all erroneous judgments corrected in them their grief depending on this that their affections to corporal pleasures are greater then in proportion to other desires which ought to be preferred it would not be inconsequent to tâ—is Doctrine That those damned souls now seeing most evidently that other desires ought to be preferred before these affections to corporal pleasures since this errour is now rectified and they in a condition by re-union with the body of changeableness they should also rectifie their affections which are but these judgments and by consequence become now Denizons of Heaven which also might seem to become the Mercies of God and render the state of the Blessed more happy there by their company Sect. 41. Tenthly You entertain your Reader pag. 36 c. with scoffing at hallowed Grains sanctified Beads the extending of Indulgencies to the next World which you style External devices Vtensils of a thriving Devotion deluding Priviledges c. which perfectly befits a Scholar trained up in Luthers School thus he began And you are not content with this you retrive again in the same place and fix upon your Adversary that signal calumny long since fixt upon the Church for the use of such things That she goes to Heaven by such things not by holy desires Nor even pretends that such things promote souls in holy desires or increase sanctity in them In which you speak against your own Soul and Conscience For you very well know the Church is not guilty of this nor your Adversary who will tell you that he beleeves with St. Paul that if he had faith able to remove mountains yet it would not avail him without charity and further tells you That such things as you here enumerate do increase sanctity and holy desires in us and render our prayers more effectual for the Souls in Purgatory Eleventhly You tell us in your Postscript That private calumnies are whispered against Master White as holding strange Opinions which his own Books contradict I have also heard something of this and I think our informations jump you may peradventure find it hinted at in this discourse Nor need that Gentleman fear your title of a Calumniatour or that his Authority will not carry it nor indeed will it be engaged in the Quarrel he is provided of a Defence I have shewed him that very Doctrine in terms in your Masters Book which he had told him in Private it is ready for you you shall have it when you please to call for it And I wonder those solid persons acquainted with every ressort of his Learning did not see it Lastly You add Your Master hath this comfort That his carriage needs neither fear the exemplarity of his Adversaries lives nor his unparalled Learning the force of their Arguments In which your Reader will be perswaded that you were not a perfect Scholar in Galateus his School The Publisher against whom you write is a Person of eminent exemplarity and for my part where your Masters Pen is not engaged I have been edified by him even in his Writings I find some things most excellent but why comparisons should be made I do not understand You and I being private persons hope still the best and pray for all those whom we desire to better by our example But because it is both laudable and lawfull to magnifie the good and pious lives of men I joyn heartily with you in this Encomium of your Master And if you now design to advance in order to his Canonization and can make good his Faith which is the first Quaere of that Court I shall very willingly give testimony to the exemplarity of his Life I wish from my Soul his Doctrine would appear intirely and fully Catholick and for the rest you have my Vote he may be beleeved as holy as St. Iohn Baptist Sect. 42. And now Sir I hope to have given you some satisfaction in our point in controversie We as yet have proceeded upon this unshakeable ground That the Councils are unerrable in their Decrees and upon this I have received a very ample and full one my self I do beleeve That Souls are purged uncloathed of their Bodies and presently received into Heaven before re-union with them And that the Council and Pope deliver this Position I must see if I have eyes and I hope you will by what is said And this hope is heightned in me because my Conscience tell me I have proceeded with as even a hand as I could in balancing what you have said against it with that which I have said for it If I am byassed naturally on either side it is on yours Nature prompts me still to wish the Church and her Faith were not engaged against you Your opinion would at one blow ease me of that incumbent care to assist my dead Friends But I have learnt this work of mercy from a Child to pray for the Dead which in your Systeme as I have evinced is fruitless But alas Sir this business of Purgatory is not that which so much troubles my head though it be one I have a deeper fear I am pressed with the consideration of this new molded Theology I see this demonstrative Doctrine this pretence of reducing the mysteries of Faith to our narrow brains this hope of introducing Science in lieu of Faith into the World strikes much deeper then yet You imagine Nor am I at all confident of your solid cleer-sighted Friends who are acquainted with every resort of Master Whites Doctrine I fear and I think not without Reason the Church and He have nothing common but words for the notions and significations are quite different But our Faith lies not in the sound of words but in the sense and meaning of them When I am told Souls are not purged in the state of separation but onely at re-union though the word Purgatory yet remain my Faith remains not of this Article And so it will fare with the rest I do beleeve Faith Hope and Charity are infused by the Holy Ghost into our souls in Baptism I do beleeve holy Iustifâ—ing Grace by which we are the Sons of God is something inhaerent in our souls and my notion of these things which are supernatural is that they are of a different order and series then Nature But when I am now taught God is the Author of Nature but showrs not down into us an other series of things of an other or differing order Reason is Nature to us and the perfection of Reason is Demonstration Though at the same time we are taught That God perfects Nature by supernatural things yet I suspect the word supernatural being still the same that now it is become aequivocal and signifies an other thing with him then it does with me I do believe the ever Blessed Trinity to be Three real Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost Yet where I find this most sublime mystery pretended to be Demonstrated by what is Essential in God to know and love
from any body had the rest of souls departed their bodies many ages agoe no greater duration then this their even now created companion What if the same Hand of God should now destroy one of those separated souls shall the rest of them which shall co-exist to all future time have therefore no longer duration then she What if there were no body no motion no time at all could not God create a Soul and destroy it at his pleasure and yet not this in the same indivisible moment For then it would follow the Soul is and is not in the same instant Therefore in some other posteriour moment What if God should again repair this thus annihilated soul We could not imagine that this new second existence would be measured with the same duration that the first for this would exclude the very supposition of an interruption Besides Sir Christian Theology teaches us that Angels whose duration is as indivisible as that of Souls were not created in Termino but in Viâ The holy Angels were not Created in the State of Fruition nor the Devils in the State of Damnation but both in the way to these several States And that first they were in the State of Grace in which the good by adhering to God were afterwards translated to Glory whilst the Devils by their pride and disobedience were deservedly afterwards thrust out headlong into Hell Who hath rendred it evident that all this could be effected in one indivisible moment And further Sir as to this point that my Reader may be cleared more fundamentally in it We must observe That since Eternity which is devoid of all Succession is the measure of a Perfectly Permanent being that is of God himself as far forth as any thing recedes from a Permanent being so far it recedes from Eternity and comes to Succession Now though the being of Angels does not consist in motion and therefore is not measured by our Time Yet since the Essence of an Angel is neither its Vnderstanding nor its Will much less is it the Acts of these Powers The substance of an Angel is not measured by Eternity since it hath Transmutation adjoyned to it and so hath a proper duration or measure between it and time And further since the Operations of Angels have a real and true succession they are measured by a true succession and time not that of bodies or the motions of them but by a time proper to the succession of those Operations and if holy Writ deliver us any other then Metaphorical truths of separated Substances it delivers this succession in them Your Master himself takes notice in his Med. Stat. acc. 22. Of the Souls of the slain described in the Apocalyps resting under the Altar and crying out to have the day of Iudgement hastned which reaches home to our purpose that they are concerned in the length of the stay and that it is absolutely false that there is no succession of Acts even in Beatified Souls or that to coexist to a greater or less part of time adds or diminishes nothing to them Though it fals much short of rendring our Prayers onely available for the hastning of that day as we shall presently see for which end he there introduces it And if you please to consider in the 10th Chap. of Daniel where the Angel appearing tels him That the Prince or Angel of the Kingdome of the Persians resisted him one and twenty dayes And behold Michael one of the first Princes he who stands for the Children of the Jewish Nation came to his help You will easily observe there is not this comprehension of all time your Master fansied in the workings or beings of Separated Substances Sect. 31. Fifthly As to his grounds of the Immutability of that state it is groundlesly assumed That a Soul can suffer no alteration from a Body but by identification or by being the same thing with that body And indeed who ever fanfied that the soul could thus be identified or become the very self-same thing with the body Who ever believed that now in this life our Souls are really and truly our Bodies and our Bodies are our Souls Or if they were thus Identified or the same thing how were it possible they should ever be severed since nothing can be imagined to be served from it self Christian Phylosophy never admitted this position it is evidently destructive of the Immortality of our Souls and of all Religion For if the Soul be Identified or the same thing with the body it must of necessity be resolved into dust with the body For no man can conceive how any thing should supervive it self so that this will put an end to Purgatory Heaven Hell and All Religion We that walk by Christian Faith and not by new Lights this Ignis Fatuus of Demonstrations alwayes believed That the Soul and Body as two distinct parts concurred to the building up of one Man who is one not by simplicity not by Identification of the parts or I know not what strange fancyed Transubstantiation of the Soul into the Body but by substantial Vnion or Composition Further Sir It can never be evidenced That not onely such an Inimaginable Identification should be necessary to the end that a Soul may be passive from the Body but that even a Substantial union is requisite We see that the Soul in the state of Vnion even Naturally suffers by the Bodies Indisposition as in Frensies caused by Feavours or other distempers And who shall render it evident that in the state of separation not naturally but by the Omnipotent Hand of God she may not be passive by Fire or some other External Agent by some way our Vnderstandings now reach not to Sect. 32. Sixthly It is a purely voluntary and false Assertion That a separated soul knows all things together and perpetually The very holy Angels do not thus know all things Our Blessed Guardians of new know daily and howrly our actions and represent our sighs and devotions in the sight of God and since in these we are free and not tyed necessarily to any thing but our selves it is impossible they should know them till we our selves have determined our selves to them Nor even then immediately for God alone is the searcher of hearts till they have sallied out into some effect And our B. Saviour himself tells us The holy Angels themselves know not of that day and howr to wit of Judgment but onely the Father Matth. 24. and they rejoyce at the new conversion of a sinner Sect. 33. Seventhly Who ever rendred it Evident that No Alteration can befall a separated Soul from any other Spirit without the interposition of the Body For Spirits can act on Spirits immediately without such interposition and the contrary Doctrine is destructive of all the conversation of the holy Angels for all Aeternity is destructive of the Doctrine holy Writ delivers us of the fall of the Devils where the Dragon is described to have drawn after him the
which are used to be performed by the faithfull for other faithfull according to the institute of the Church Art 4. And that the Souls of them who after Baptism received have contracted no blemish at all of any Sin as also those Souls which after they have contracted the blemish of sin are purged either in their Bodies or being UNCLOATHED OF THEIR BODIES as is above-said are PRESENTLY received into Heaven and clearly behold God himself in Trinity and Unity as he is yet according to the diversity of Merits one more perfect then another Art 5. But that the Souls of them who depart this life in actual deadly sin or onely in Original sin do PRESENTLY descend into Hell to be there punished though with unequal punishments We also define That the holy Apostolical Sea and the Roman Bishop holds the Primacy over the whole World and that he the Roman Bishop is the Successor of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and the true Vicar of Christ and the Head of the whole Church and the Father and Teacher of all Christians and that full power was delivered unto him by our Lord Jesus Christ in St. Peter to feed to rule and to govern the universal Church As it is also contained in the Acts of General Councils and in the sacred Canons Given at Florence in the publick Synodical Session In the year 1439. And subscribed by the Emperour of Constantinople and the Greek and Latin Fathers there and then present as it appears in the Books of the Councils B The Ten Heresies condemned by this Bull of Pope Benedict gathered by Eymericus in his Directory of the Inquisitors approved by Gregory xiii cited Pag. 29. IN the Extravagant of Pope Benedict xii says Eymericus which begins Blessed be God These following Heresies are condemned and their contraries are proved to be Catholick verities and to be held as matters of Faith The first Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of Just men departed before the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ in which nothing was to be purged presently after the said Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ before the resumption of their Bodies and the general Iudgment did not see nor do see nor shall see cleerly and openly the Divine Essence nor do enjoy it No◠after the Ascension of our Lord Iesus Christ were are nor shall be in Heaven in the Heavenly Kingdome and celestial Paradise with Christ aggregated to the fellowship of the holy Angels The Second Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of Just men departed before the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ in which something remained to be purged the purgation being totally compleated presently after the said Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ before the resumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment did not see nor do see nor shall see the Divine Essence clearly and openly not do enjoy it Nor after the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ were are nor shall be in Heaven c. The Third Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of Just men departed after they had received the sacred Baptism in which nothing is to be purged when they depart before the resumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment do not see nor shall see the Divine Essence clearly and openly nor do enjoy it nor are nor shall be in Heaven in the Heavenly Kingdome c. The Fourth Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of Just men departing after they have received the sacred Baptism in which there is somthing to be purged when they depart their purgation being also totally compleated before the resumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment do not see nor shall see clearly and openly the Divine Essence nor do nor shall enjoy it nor are nor shall be in Heaven c. The Fifth Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of Infants regenerated by sacred Baptism departing before the use of their Free-will before the resumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment do neither see nor shall see clearly and openly the Divine Essence nor do enjoy it nor shall enjoy it nor are nor shall be in Heaven c. The Sixth Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls of all the aforesaid Just men departed before the resumption of their bodies and the general Iudgment shall not be blessed with the Divine Vision and Fruition nor shall have eternal life and rest The Seventh Heresie is That the Vision which the blessed Souls have of the Divine Essence is not an intuitive and facial Vision The Eighth Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the intuitive and facial Vision and Fruition of the Divine Essence shall be evacuated in the Blessed nor shall be continued until the final Judgment nor from thence unto all Eternity The Ninth Heresie is That according to the common ordination of God the Souls departed in mortal Sin presently after death do not descend into Hell nor are tormented with infernal punishments The Tenth Heresie is That in the day of Judgmen◠all men shall not appear with their bodies before the Tribunal of Christ to render an account of their actions 2 Cor. 5. 10. that every one may receive the things done in his bodie according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad C. The Discourse of an Eminently Learned Divine of our Nation to prove the delivery of Souls before the Resurrection Cited pag. 42. The Condemnation of Blacklow or White by a Pope and General Council THe sense of the Florentin Council of the admission of some Souls even those that now are in Purgatory to Eternal Beatitude before the day of General judgment The Definition of the Council In the Name of the most holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost This Sacred and Vniversal Florentin Council approving we define That the Souls of those who after Baptism received have contracted no Blemish at all of sin as also the souls of those which after the blemish of sin contracted are now purged either in their bodies or uncloated of their said bodies as is above said presently are received into Heaven and do behold God himself in Trinity and Vnity as he is Thus the Council Though the very Text it self of the Florentin Council seemes abundantly sufficient to evince what we here aime at and intend yet that the Stubborness of some persons who are not the most knowing in the Ecclesiastical doctrin may more powerfully be repressed It is to be noted That when any doubt arises concerning the meaning of a Council we are diligently to seek out what occasioned such a Decree and find what was then chiefly agitated and debated The matter here in dispute between the Latins and the Greeks was this What Souls were admitted 〈…〉 to eternal Beatitude before the day of
time and so took its rise and continued support by piâ—us but sillily credulous Monks for all those Lights of the Church are most severely whipt for their foolish credulity of Dreams Fansies Melancholy apprehensions and nothings And besides because it is provoked after the mode of our late cast-aways in Faith to the primitive Ages immediate to Christ I will for my Readers just satisfaction give him two or three of the most eminently learned Fathers of those Ages to which they appeal and the rather because it will appear how far different their sentiments were both as to the Substance of those sufferings as well as to the Coâ—tinuation of them from those of this modern School Let Great St. Augustine stand in the Front We may not doubt says he but that the dead are helped by the Prayers of the holy Church and by the wholsome Sacrifice and by the Almes which are distributed for their souls c. For this is a Doctrine delivered by the Fathers and observed by the whole Church And afterwards Now when works of Mercy are performed for their assistance who doubts but that they help them for whom prayers are not in vain offered up to the Divine Majesty c. This place I choose to stand in the Front because it strongly asserts the Essence of Purgatory derived by Tradition from the Fore-fathers and observed by the whole Church and because it is so home to the relief those souls receive by our Prayers and Alms. And now this great Father having told us what he hath thus received as to the Substance let him also tell us what he hath received as to their Sufferings there and Continuation of them Let no man say I care not how long I must tarry in the way if at last I come to aeternal life let no one say so dear Brethren For surely that Purgatory fire will be more severe then any punishment which can be felt or imagined in this world And again According to the greatness of the sin shall be the length of the stay And again We must so long remain in that Purgatory fire until the aforesaid small sins as it were Chips Hay Straw are consumed Let us add to him Learned Origen more ancient then St. Augustine who though he afterwards erred yet in all points stood cleer when he writ those Learned Commentaries I here cite The nature of the sin says he is like the matter which is consumed by the fire which as the Apostle affirms is built by sinners who upon the Foundation of Christ build Wood Hay Stubble Whereby is plainly declared That some sins are so light as they may be compared to Stubble to which if fire be applied it can not stay long in it Other sins are like Hay which the fire also consumes without much difficulty though it stayes somewhat longer then in the Stubble And other sins are compared to Wood in which according to the quality of the crimes the fire finds a lasting and great substance to feed upon Thus therefore each sin according to its quality or quantity is punished but for how long time or how many Ages this purgation which is by the punishmâ—nt of fire shall endure he alone knows to whom the Father hath committed all Iudgment Let 's hear pious and learned S. Greg. Nyss. in that excellent disputation he had with hâ—s Sister Macrina As they who purge Gold saves he from its drossie mixture by the fire do not onely melt that which is adulterate but must of necessity melt that also which is pure together with the counterfeit bad and corrupted matter which corruption being consumed the Gold remains purified In like sort it is also necessary that whilst the naughtiness and corruption is consuming in the fire of Purgatory the soul which is united to this naughtiness and corruption must continue in the fire until that adulterate gross impure and corrupt matter be wholly abolisht and consumed c. Wherefore the torment and sorrow there suffered is measured by the quantity of the Vitiosity as he terms it and naughtiness which is found in each one of the sufferers For it is not meet that both of them to wit he who for a long time hath wallowed in forbidden evils and he who hath faln into certain mean offences should be equally tormented and afflicted by the purgation of his viâ—ious custome and habitude but proportionably to the measure and quantity of the matter shall that pain-bringing flame be inkindled to continue for a longer or shorter space of time according as it shall find fewel to nourish it The Soul therefore that is clogg'd with a great inherent burthen of matter must necessarily suffer a great and longer induring flame which may waste that matter But the soul to which that consuming fire is applied for a less space of time the pâ—nishment doth remit so much of its vehement and severe operation by how much the subject hath a less measure of corruption vitiosity and naughtiness to be consumed I hope Sir when you have perused and duely weighed the how long which rendred St. Augustine so sollicitous his length of the stay in propottion to the greatness of the sin the whose Analogy of Wood Hay Stubble in which St. Paul had before delivered this Doctrine of Purgatory exactly answered by the time of their sufferings in Origen his how long time how many Ages The whole design of St. Greg. Nyssen in his discourse his kindling the flame for a longer or shorter time his so many times repeated a great and longer induring flame his apply'd for a less space of time you will see those Ages to which you appeal had far other apprehensions of Purgatory then are consistent with your new Systeme and perhaps a modest Christian Divine would have blusht to pronounce That all these Apprehensions proceed but out of ignorance of the nature of separated Souls De Med. Stat. dimens 17. And if He had had the least respect for Christian Religion he would have sunk with shame to appeal from all the Light of Christianity to the ancient Fables and Fictions of Heathen Poets How could those shameless words pass from his Pen Much better then and more solidly then they did the Poet Philosophyse in the sixth the Aeneads where he fansied to have found his Purgatory never admitted or thought of in Christs School Pardon me Sir if a zeal hath transported me I can not endure the confidence of a Christian Writer who should prefer a Fable of Virgil before the consent of all Christianity and that now in point of Faith of Purgatory It is to give an approbation to an infamous slander I have read in a modern Enemy of the Catholick Church That she hath pickt her Tenets out of the Poets and now their Fables stand canonized in her Creed But to the consent of these great Lights of the Church let us add the publique Lyturgy the great conveyer of Tradition to us
let it give testimony to this Faith We find the Priest at the Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead powring forth his Devotions in this manner Dread Iudge whose Iustice is severe Their long black score of sin make clear Ere the Accounting Day appear What new construction shall we have of this Ante diem rationis ere the accounting day and every where Grant them rest Eternall Receive O Lord the Sacrifices and Prayers for those Souls we make a memory of this day make them pass from death to life And more expresly in the Prayers and Post-communions Grant we beseech thee O Lord that the Soul of thy Servant being purged and discharged from his sins by these now offered Sacrifices may obtain mercy and Rest. What senseless Devotions are these whilst Separated Souls cannot be purged or discharged by any Sacrifice whatsoever since that is reserved to the state of Reunion Sect. 23. But to this Clowd of witnesses to all the Authority we can Imagin in the Catholick Church to the consent of all the Christian world Fathers Councils Popes to the Constant and Universal practice of all the faithful not any Church Chappel Altar Oratory but speaking it alowd in their continual Prayers Dirges Masses Almes Doales c. What is opposed but THOMAS ANGLVS E GENEROSA ALBIORVM IN ORIENTE TRINOBANTVM PROSAPIA ORIVNDVS THOMAS THE ENGLISHMAN DESCENDED OF THE GENEROUS PROGENY OF THE ALBII I think he Construes it Whites IN THE EAST OF THE TRINOBANTS Aâ— which in good modest English is Thomas White of Essex Together with the autority of the Heathen Poets Not so you willx say we have not this Thomas The Englishman with this frightful title but with his Reason with his Demonstration with that indisolvable Chaine of necessary conclusions pursued with Irrefragable evidence through the most abstruse properties of Bodies to the clear discovery of separated Substances not onely of Souls now severed from that Clay which before inclosed them but of Angels those clean pure Spirits which never had any allay of drossy matter Dives Promissis To be rich in Promises may accompany very poor men would your performance were answerable though much short of the full proportion This truly Sir is a very handsome invitation to your School But is this the onely entertainment there O no we have an incomparably higher and nobler feast prepared for us All this is but his Peripateticks the atchievment of Thomas the Englishman of the Albii of the East-Saxons What shall we hope for in his Theology now he hath gotten this much nobler Title What is it for the now great Trinobant to understand Men and Angels This towring soul flyes much a higher pitch by his Adamantine Chaine of Demonstrations he soars up to the a inaccessible light of the Divinity he leads us into the bosome of that incomprehensible essence and there evidences by cleer light the b Eternal Generation of the Word the Procession of the Holy-Ghost There he inlightens us cleerly to see an Eternal Father a Co-eternal Son a substantial love Generation Processions Nature Persons All In sum whatever our astonisht humble Faith hath hitherto only accepted by Revelation c And yet which is more admirable then All this and which never yet fell into any mans hopes or thoughts that it could be possible even of those contingent verities to which the Divine Will is free and where neither part of the contradiction determinately can have any necessary tye to the Cause as certainly all created truths are for God to any thing besides God can have no necessary connexion he with his incomparable Chain fixes even in such contingencies this determinat part of the contradiction And all this after our great Knight his standard bearer Sir Kenelm Digby d had now held forth his new Torch to the hitherto darkned World May Sir this your great Master be happy in his glorious undertakings may success attend and wait on his endeavours Phaetont youthful attempt to drive the Sun was nothing to this enterprise and yet magnis excidit ausis Happy we who are reserved to this third age of the Church which is no more to walk by Faith but by Science Happy we that now live when this new Sun appears from the East of the Trinobants who gives the second Wing of Knowledg to the Woman to the Church but especially happy we to whom the acquaintance of this Miracle for a Man I dare not style him nor an Angel since even to them but by Revelation these Mysteries are hidd hath not been denyed I May all other Doctrines be silenced all other Schools shut up they have hitherto led us in a Clowd in a submission of our understandings to obscure unseen verities upon the Authority of God the Revealer whilst he tearing this veile of ignorance which incumbred our understandings hath displayed with light and evidence and plac't All in the mid-dayes Sun whatsoever we have groped for hitherto in the dark obscurity of Faith Let us no more envy the happiness of those who conversed with our B. Saviour in Flesh who heard that heavenly voice who beheld that ravishing countenance beautiful above the Sons of Men who were eye-witnesses of those stupendious miracles he wrought in confirmation of that Doctrine which he brought from the bosome of his Father Let not an other bragg he received his Faith from the mouth of S. Peter the Rock of S. Paul the Vessel of Election of S. Iohn the beloved of Iesus but let all these worthily envy us who now have a Doctoâ—r as far excelling all them as Light excells Darkness as Day the Night as Evidence Obscurity it self For alas what did Peter Paul or Iohn or our B. Saviour himself They layed down obscure Positions abstruse hidden mysteries and in confirmation of the truth of what they delivered wrought Miracles which certainly inforce no Assent but leave us to our former liberty leave the Object it self in the same obscurity it was before For since they are neither its cause nor effect but purely extrinsecal to it they enlighten not at all the object in it self What then was begotten in the souls of those holy Apostles and Disciples who followed our B. Saviour by his Preaching but a free voluntary submission of their understandings to those obscure truths he deliver'd upon the Authority only of their heavenly Teacher But our great Master promises a far other proceed Not by an Attestation extrinsecal to the Object will he confirm those truths which he delivers to us but out of the cleare principles and intime notions of the Objects out of the very bowels of the Mysteries themselves he will render all cleer evident and perspicuous and ravish our souls even whether our selves will or no into an Assent not any more of an obscure dark Faith but of a cleer apparent Science even to the a full content and satiety of our truth-thirsty understandings Let him then possess the Chair Let him
that she hath satisfied the divine Justice for her irregularites in this mortal life The Publisher hath not one word of this in his book you pretend to answer You are like a Romancical Knight you make Gyants and kill them but if he truely did hold this Doctrin which you impose upon him yet will your Argument be of no force against him For this question being proposed Whether souls immediately upon separation rectifie all their affections Your Adversary may take which side of the contradiction he pleases and still sustain with the Pope and Council this their Doctrin of Purgatory against you And first let us suppose he should asserâ— with you That inordinate affections do accompany the soul into the next life yet he may sustain those Affections are purged and rectified before re-union and what crime should he be guilty of but of opposing your pretended Demonstrations and so your mock Victory and Pageant Triumph whilst you would perswade him p. 35. to acknowledge with regret that the Pope and Council pronounce against him is at an end the strength of your proof depending on An Imposition on the Pope An Imposition on your Adversary and a non-concluding Argument drawn out of them both I had almost forgot that in this case he should withstand the authority of Virgil whose Phylosophy your Master magnifies above that of the Church though the Poet describes both corporal punishments inflicted on the Souls which your master will needs understand after his too frequent Metaphorical manner and admits their passing into Elysium his feigned heaven before Resurrection of which the Poet never dreamt Nor even as to the proof that Affections to corporal pleasures do remain in Separated Souls for which end it is introduced doth this place of this Poet reach home nec funditus omnes Corporea excedunt pestes penitusque necesse est Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris For these words doe not clearly carry this sense Do all evils cease all plagues all strifes Contracted in the body many a stain Long time inured needs must even then remain But however to do him right if this place do not reach home this Doctrin is frequent with the Heathen Poets in their Fables as in that of Narcissus 3. Metamor where he stands condemned to gaze upon himself in the next life because he passed out of this in a doting self-love But if we should suppose the Publisher to approve That such souls immediately upon separation rectifie all disordered affections how will you justifie that this or perfect Charity is an immediate disposition to Beatifical Vision What do you think of Lumen Gloriae the Light of Glory which is farther required And if you fancy with your Master lib. 5. Perip Lect. 15. That God is a Sun darting out existencies according to the several dispositions of Creatures What doctrin shall we have from you of the Saints in this life will you pronounce That never any Saint had perfectly regulated his affections but just in that very moment he passed out of this life What do you conceive of the holy Apostles of the Baptist what in particular of St. Paul when he tels us I live now not I but Christ lives in me What of the holy Fathers ofx the old Law What of the ever Blessed Virgin even when she bore the Saviour of the world in her sacred womb did all these injoy Beatitude or were they imperfect in Charity or did this Sun not dart forth his existencies as perfect Charity the immediate disposition to heaven required But let us consider your Argument you tell us that your Adversary conceiving the Souls now perfect in Charity delayes their Beatitude and condems them to a dry and arbitrary punishment pag. 35. This dry and arbitrary punishment you have out of your Masters Doctrin for he prosecutes it at length in his Middle Stateâ— Acc. 10 11 c. And first he tells us God doth not punish sinners upon the score of Revenge nor for the satisfaction of Iustice since he suffers no injury by our offences Nor can the punishments of Souls be involuntary or springing from an external much less from a material Agent but from within That such pains neither avail Them nor Vs Lastly That these sufferings have no connexion with the sins and yet God being a perfect Architect hath so artificially framed his work that of it self it performs all operations without supplement or future minute alterations in any of its Members or Organs And so he excepts against punishments which are supposed to remain due after the fault forgiven Acc. 13. All which is but to retrive what the Heterodox party alledged long since in their impugnations of Purgatory and Penance and which stands condemned by this the 30 Canon of the Council of Trent Sess. 6. de Iustif. occasioned by this Doctrine If any one shall say That to every penitent sinner after the grace of Iustification received that so the fault is forgiven and the guilt of eternal punishment that there remains no guilt of temporal punishment to be payd either in this life or in the future in Purgatory before the passage to Heaven may be opened let him be Anathema Thus the Council Where by the way you may observe a temporary punishment in Purgatory against your Systeme and after the remission of the fault a punishment due But because this Truth is so fundamental in the Sacred Council all its Doctrine of Satisfaction the third part of Penance depending on it Let us compare its Sacred Oracles with the Doctrine of our new Master And first Sess. 14. cap. 8. Of the necessity and fruit of Satisfaction The Council declares this Doctrine of Satisfaction to have been the constantly received Faith of the Church by Divine Tradition and is impugned now by those who have an outside of Piety but have denied the vertue of it Directly opposite to our new School which teaches That Pains remain not due after the fault forgiven under pretence of promoting solid Devotion And the Council pronounces That it is altogether false and against the Word of God that the fault is never remitted but that All the punishment is also forgiven For besides Divine Tradition there are illustrious examples in holy Writ which most manifestly convince this Errour Thus the Council directly against our new Master as will presently appear by his answer to this Doctrine Further the Council pursues Nay the order of the Divine Iustice doth seem to require that in an other manner sins should be pardoned in them who before Baptism offended by ignorance then in those who after Baptism violate the Temple of God And it becomes the Divine Clemency that sins should not be pardoned in Penance without any satisfaction Directly against our Master who tells us No Punishments are inflicted upon the score of satisfying the Divine Iustice since God suffers no injury by our offences The Council holds on Let the Priests of God have before their eyes that the
himself when I find it so brought down to our capacities that it is pretended The examples of Logick and Natural Phylosophy equalize this Mystery when I am taught That the Father and Son in Divinis are Metaphors I have a great apprehension that this Doctrin and my hitherto received Faith agree but in words not in the things signified by them I do believe That God most freely and of his own goodness built this Vniverse I believe He is not necessarily tyed to the order or course of Nature And when I am now taught That God must contradict himself if he Act any thing against Nature That Out of the force and series of Nature nothing could happen better to Iudas then to be damned In fine God should cease to be God if this Flye should not now be in nature I fear though we agree in this word God our apprehensions jump not at all Christians apprehend and adore the liberal free hand of their Maker but a God tyed to any thing besides himself is not a Christian God but a Pagan Iupiter I do believe upon Christs words That if I keep the Commandments I shall enter into life and this is the foundation of my Doctrin of manners And when I am now taught That God neither commands nor forbids any thing However we agree in these words Thou shalt not Steal Thou shalt not commit Adultery my whole Doctrin of Morality is banished by this assertion It will hereafter appear your Master hath furnished us with a faâ— other Morality then ever Escobar thought of What do you think of this Position of your Master in his book of Government and Obedience ground 6. speaking of himself An other man says he is no otherwise to me then a peece of Cloath or Wood which I cut and shape after my own will fittingly for my use Even though I do him harme or seek his ruine It follows not I wrong him How well doth this agree with that Principle of Nature That we ought so to do to others as we would have them do to us In summ where I see a pretender to Demonstrate all the Mysteries of our holy Faith and that Faith shall cease and Evidence take place I justly fear though the words are still retained this is but to supplant Christ and his Doctrin our notions and significations of words must be changed or else these stupendious Mysteries can not be levelled to our weak capacities But though these be my apprehensions yet I wish I were mistaken I wish these new Doctrines may receive such Explications that they may appear no less Catholick then those I profess and shall be as happy to receive satisfaction as you to give it me but withal I must frankly promise you that I shall require your satisfaction both in these and many other Doctrines I do acknowledge with thankfulness that one may be instructed by Master White whose excellent Wit and Pen if duly applyed is admirable but if I mistake not he hath flown beyond the bounds fixed by an unerring hand and therefore desire you to accept of this serious Protestation That I have an intire respect for his Person and if any harsh word hath escaped my Pen it is the Doctrine not He that is concerned in the Epithete the same I speake and intend to your self Though if you consider the case aright where not only whatsoever is sacred to Catholicks but what the Heterodox-Party agree with them in is thus attaqued Where the foundations of Christianity and of all Religion the Liberty of God and Contingency of Creatures is thus attempted by a Lucretian Galamawfry Phylosophy to make way for a new Demonstrative Religion such an exotick design deserves not a more mild censure then what I have fixed upon it and yet I hope you will nor find your too too frequent Calumniating Adversaries or any thing like it in my whole booke If you think there is any animosity in my Discourse I heartily beg your pardon we daily say Sicut nos dimittimus where these heats are easily allayed and for our present Controversie of Purgatory let us patiently expect the determination of our undoubted Superior the Present soveraign Pastor who as the Florentin Council here tell us holds the Primacy over the whole World Who is the Successor of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and the true Vicar of Christ and the Head of the whole Church and the Father and Teacher of all Christians And who finally had full power delivered unto him by our Lord Iesus Christ in St. Peter to Feed to Rule and to Govern the Vniversal Church To whom we will Candidly Fairly and Religiously and not by any false suggestions or surprising friends as you most strangely suspect pag. 40. and thereby at once condemn both that Supream Court of Weakness if not of Corruption and your adversaries of Dishonesty remit the whole Controversie and humbly submit to his Judgment both in this Particular and in all other Disputable Points whatsoever FINIS THe Publisher desires my Adversary to take notice That if there be any thing in this Discourse which depends on matter of Fact in which he desires to be satisfied he is ready to give him intire satisfaction before any Person of Honour by undoubted Witnesses A THE BULL OF Pope BENEDICT the Eleventh Otherwise called the Twelfth Promulgated in the Year 1336. Concerning the State of Departed SOULS Faithfully Translated as it is in the Roman Bullary Printed at Rome Anno Dom. 1638. Benedict Bishop the Servant of Gods Servants To the perpetual memory of Posterity BLessed be God in his Gifts and Holy in all his works who through his mercy forsakes not the Sacred Roman Catholique and Apostolical Church which his right hand hath planted as his Vineyard and which he hath raised up as chief and Conqueress to be the head of all Churches our Lord saying to Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church but by his blessed Apostles especially Peter and Paul the singular Defenders of the same Church keeps her through his compassionate Benignity and continual Piety that she being governed by these Rulers may remain stable in her self as founded upon the firm Rock and that all the believers of the Christian Faith may obey her may yield to her may intend to her may live under her authority may be under her discipline and correction That in her nothing may be taught rashly nothing brought in unwarily nothing in Faith unadvisedly introduced and that so men may decline from evil and do good that they may walk in the right paths and make progress to better things by their holy desires that they may hopefully expect the neer approaching rewards of the eternal life of just men and fearfully dread the not far off calamities of Hell appointed for the wicked For it is written Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to render unto every one according to his works But if it shall
the Arim to their preferring their private reasonings before the proper rule and light Tradition appointed by Christ to steer by and the concurrence of Divines seems general holding that there is no new Revelation that the Church onely declares matters of Faith which supposes them delivered not newly found out else she might make matters of Faith and bring all Truths within the compass of Christianity whereas indeed Christianity can onely be a belief of those Truths Christ taught whilest he was conversant amongst men This puts all to a loss For how shall it be known when Councils and Consistories apply themselves aright Easily by examining Tradition of what you have seen and heard This is the common light and plain way promised to keep even fools from straying from Christs Doctrine Neither is Mr. b b White Blacklow taxable in point of Disobedience he having submitted himself both to the Pope and Council FINIS The principal Errours PAg. 70. line 4. leave very ill consequences behind it read draw very ill consequences after it p. 98. l. 11. I now draw hopes r. I now draw is hoped p. 150. l. 3. corporea r. corporeae Introduction This is not well 〈◊〉 by T. W. See Consilium Authoris a See ratio operis Scito Dâ—um naturae esse authorâ—m c. Know God is the Author of Nature and that he perfects and elâ—vates it by supernatural things not that he showrs into our souls a series of things of a different or unlike order or nature Reason is Nature to us and the perfâ—ction of Reason is demonstration Do not then despair of demonstration from God Page 3. Page 11 Page 31. Page 12 13 14 15 16. Peg. com 21. * Sonus Buccinae the Title of one of Mr. Whites Books In Edic consir Conc. Câ—lc act 3. Gâ—l Pap. 1. ad Ep. Dar. miratisumus Grat. cau 24. q. 1. C. majores Aug. Ser. 32. de verb Apostoli Aug. Ser. 41. de S. S. Hom. 16. de 50. Serm. 41. de S. S. Hom. 14. in Levit. lib. 8. in Ep. ad Rom. 11. Master Whites Name in his Instit. Sac. a See Institutiones Sacrae in the beginning Ratio operis where after a description of the Theology he delivers Vide c. saith he to the Reader See what an execrable thing it is in such matters as these after a proposition and a hope of Verity in them to feed our hungry Souls with vain and lying trifles Remember then thou art a man born capable of truth and that all these things are proposed to thee in a familiar language that thou mightst understand and enjoy them He who hopes this without Demonstration goes about to delude himself and thee They object the obscurity of Faith and the inaccessible darkness of the Divinity to our Reason But this hinders nothing for such Demonstrations may be given of the Mysteries as is given of God himself c. Courage then and dare thou to expect in Theology the full satiety of thy understanding Seek in it certainty and the evidence of Science and Demonstration And in the same Institut Sac. 2 Volume lib. 3. Lect. 2. And since Grace is so implanted in Nature that they draw each other with connected Members and interlaced links it is not to be doubted but most of the Mysteries of Faith may be Demonstratively known so that the Church now proceeding to the midday they are to be Demonstrated b See ibid Ratio operis Theology is planted in nature Faith is delivered to us in humane language What more sublime things are disputed in Theology then Father Son Generation Spiration Nature Person c. And yet we were taught all these things by Nature and Reason even before Christ But if these things now be rendered evident there will nothing at all remain obscure See more fully in the same Book lib. 2. where all these things are pretended to be demonstrated by the Principles of natural Reason c See ibid. Ratio operis A libertatis cavo sibilâ—t alter anguis The other Snake hisses out of the Denn of Liberty Where of these contingent Theological Truths he largely promises demonstrations and attempts is every where in his new Theology where these mysteries are treated d See ibid Ratio operis Eadem Labyrintho c. In the same Labyrinth with Divinity Phylosophy too grew old But Digby hath held forth his Torch If now they dispair of it is vanished Dare now greater things his foot-steps will lead thee to the fortress of Theology c. What then dost thou fear and trembling shunnest the Digbaean attempts If the things thou learnest are false reason it self will teach thee so if they are true the happy success will now provoke thee glad if they are uncertain dost thou loose any thing by seeking set then the right foot forward and gratefully hold on that path trodden by other mens labours Exeg on the Apocalyps Sec. xâ— a See Instit. Sac. Ratio operis Expect that full Satiety or surfet of thy Vaderstanding in Theology Inst. Sac. lib. 2 Lect. 1. Inst S. li 3. lec 2. alibi In the Letter of Vindication Exeg on the Apocalyps sect. xi a See Instit. Sac. Ratio operis Sulcus quem duco c. The trench I now draw hoped will serve to derive both truth and certainty in Theological matters b See ibid. neque tamen sustinet haec aetas c. Nor does the present age sustain that mention be made of demonstrations or infallible decisions that theology may be esteemed a science knit together and woven with the connexion of consequences or that it be believed to stand on other foundations then a meer habnab medley of waxen words or a certain juggling temerity of babling Crackers without any sence or meaning under the sir-name of Phylosophy on either side of the contradiction What further mischief can we expect or how long do we hinder Fire and Sword and adore this Idol of desolation in the Temple c. Exeg on the Apacalyps Sec. 14. Master Whites Prophesie of the happy state of the Church and civil Governments guided by his demonstrâ—tive Religion In Râ—shâ—orths Dialogues Dialog. 2. Instit. Sac. 1. 3. Lcct. xi Inst. Sac. lib. 3 Lect. 9. Inst. Sac. lib. 3. Lect. 1. Concilium Provinciale Senonense Decreta fidei cap. 12. Inst. Periâ— lib. 5. lec 4.