and rage of fire when it shall come which shall consume the adversaries the Greek text hath it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ready or about to eate those who are partly opposite not to consume but feed upon or gnaw them that is to take off the depraved affections of such as dye with an imperfect repentance He that denies this to be the Apostles meaning let him side with Novatus in rejecting lapsed penitents or fancy an extrajudicial remission contrary to the Apostle's design In the third place I cite the 2 Tim. 1. 8. Where the Apostle thus prayes for Onisiphoris Our Lord grant him to find mercy from our Lord in that day An Heretick may perhaps smile at the allegation of this text to justifie prayer for the dead and pretend a great difference between praying for those who are living that they may be saved after their departure and praying for their salvation who are already departed But I shall entreat him to reflect more advisedly on the expression Was it not said that he may find mercy in that day Is not that day confessed to be the day of judgment Let us consider Onisiphorus now dead will you affirm that he hath already found that mercy which the Apostle prayes he may find in the day of judgment Why do you hesitate If now he hath receiv'd it how shall he then find it If he have not yet receiv'd it the wish of the Apostle is not yet accomplished It hangs therefore still in suspence and if so may be reiterated and if it may be reiterated then must it be lawful to pray for the dead For Prayer is ever seasonable till the effect be granted and consequently prayer for the dead is from hence also cleerly proved But methinks I see our modern pretenders to Divinity full and longing to be delivered of this objection That if effectually this be so we must pray for the Saints also they being to obtain likewise a great advantage by that day as in our Sacred Institutions may appear which notwithstanding any one may perceive to differ from the common practice of the whole Church I am not of so weak a stomach as not to digest this morsel What do you expect I should reply That S. Paul presum'd Onisiphorus should not be happy before the last day whereas himself desired to be immediately dissolved and dismissed to the enjoyments of Christ I dare not How then Shall I say he prayed not that Onisiphorus might find mercy even after his soul was beatify'd The Text on all sides confess'd forbids me What then will our Adversaries say this was not to pray for the blessed Common sense permits them not S. Paul did it Antiquity did it Let S. James be our first witness in his Liturgy of the Hierosolymitan Church Be mindful saith he Lord God of the spirits and all their bodies whem we have commemorated or not commemorated who were Orthodox from the just Abel to this present day Thou grant them there to rest in the region of the living in thy Kingdome in the delights of Paradice S. Basil's Liturgy Be mindful also of all who have slept in the hope of a resurrection to life everlasting S. Chrysostom's Liturgy For the memory and remission of their fins who were the founders of this habitation worthy of eternal memory and of all who have slept in thy Communion in the hope of resurrection and life eternal our Orthodox Fathers and Brethren The Liturgy of S. Mark that is of Alexandria Give rest O Lord our God to the souls of our Fathers and Brethren who have slept in the faith of Christ mindful of our Ancestors from the beginning of the world Fathers Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Bishops Saints and just men all the souls of those who departed in the faith of Christ And moreover of those whose memory this day we celebrate and our holy Father Mark the Evangelist who taught us the way of salvation To the souls of all these give rest our suprâ—me Lord and God in the holy Tabernacles in the Kingdome bestowing on them the good things thou hast promised c. And he concludes To their souls I say grant rest and admit them to the Kingdome of Heaven Lastly The Romane or Gregory the Great 's Liturgy from whom it seems at last to have received its full perfection Remember also O Lord thy servants who have gone before us with the sign of faith and now rest in the sleep of peace To them O Lord and all that rest in Christ we beseech thee grant a place of ease and lighâ— and peace The sense is plain and obvious that he prayes for all who were baptized and departed in the Communion of the Church I am not ignorant that Liturgies from the bare consideration of antiquity have not that force which other writings of the same Authors have since as they are of publick use so can we not almost doubt but somethings in them might by succeeding prelates of the same Churches by additions or diminutions be altered as it were of course But give me leave withal to observe that this defect is more then supply'd by their being the publick instruments of Churches the Doctrine which in so many Liturgies is delivered being justly to be accounted as the constant tenet of all ages unless so great an authority can from elsewhere be undermined Let us then argue thus So many Patriarchal Churches continually in their publick Liturgies beseech God in general terms to give salvation to all the faithful departed assigning them a place of ease light and peace and where none are excepted all are included and in our case eminent Saints particularly named as it were by foresight and obviation to this objection We cannot therefore doubt but that prayer was anciently offered for the Blessed But let us consider more particularly The Hierosolymitan Church is by origine the chief she beginning from the just Abel cannot certainly be supposed to exclude any other and Cyril the heir of S. James in his fifth Catechesis will assure us she did not Next saith he for the holy Fathers and Bishops departed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and of all universally who are dead from amongst us The Church of Alexandria was second to the Roman she pray'd for the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and by name S. Mark S. Chrysostome or the Constantinopolitan Church prayed for the Builders of the said Church whether by that appellation intending the Apostle of Constantinople or the Fabricators or endowers of the material Church however we cannot reasonably doubt but he esteemed them Saints and enjoying God and himself commends this Liturgy in many of his Homilies The expressions of other Churches speaking in common may well by the determinations of these be understood literaily as they sonnd and not with restriction to any particulars as also Dionysius Areopagita Clemens Romanus Greg. Nazianzene c. in whom those universal
him to do all his Lord or Master might do but only act according to the limitations of the power entrusted to him yet this notwithstanding whatsoever he doth he doth it in the name and lieu of the person who employ'd him So S. Paul what he remitted of the integrity of Discipline he remitted in the person of Christ the sense being either prophetical importing that by Revelation he understood that Christ approved what he had done or natural signifying no more then that all power being from God whatsoever as the Minister of Christ he dispensed with he dispensed with upon the account of Christ The places of S. Cyprian are of more easie solution For he clearly seems to teach that Martyrs have power to obtain that remission be made in Heaven conformable to the Indulgence exercised by the Church upon Earth He doth not then imagine that by force of the Church's remission the sin is remitted also in the sight of God but that the prayers of Martyrs especially after their appearance before our Lord are effectual to that end And for those expressions of antiquity that remission made on earth is ratify'd in Heaven they suppose the Church made a right judgment of the Penitent which clears the dispute The design of those holy men was to insinuate that there is an obligation in conscience to comply with the Church's Laws and fulfil her injunctions But when through her Indulgence they are recall'd that then this divine obligation ceaseth And thus by Indulgences is the punishment from Heaven remitted which is forgiven on Earth and whatsoever is remitted here an obligation remains from Heaven and by the command of Christ to perform it We have then answer'd to Indulgences in general and shew'd that they do not much concern our Question The seven and twentieth Accompt That particular Indulgences granted for the Dead argue not the Universal practise of the Church TWO things may be disputed concerning particular Indulgences first what substance of truth they have in them secondly what they make against us And because we have mention'd Indulgences upon no other account then in defence of our explication of Purgatory against which they are no otherwise alledged then as inferring the Universal Practise of the Church we are concerned to examine them no further then to discover with what strength of Practise and Universality they are supported The measures whereof must be taken either from the Giver or Receivers First before the School men there was that I know of no noise of these Indulgences for what is reported of Gregory the Great 's granting the redemption of a soul to every thirty Masses is if I mistake not weak and grounded on no solid authority And for that other story of him that he should release seven years penalty to those who should visit certain Churches makes nothing to our purpose since the custome of following Ages shewes that Relaxation to have related only to penances enjoyned or to be enjoyned especially in the eleventh Age when the ordinary dispensation with Ecclesiastical penalties upon the death-bed or otherwise to such as were desirous to dye or live in the Church's peace and communion seems to have been instituted From that time forward how Ecclesiastical questions of Practises depending on Theology are handled at Rome take this account When any thing is demanded of the Pope the difficulties whereof surpass the ordinary administrations of his Courts a select Committee of Canon Lawyers and Divines is nominated to resolve it For the Canonists the Prince being to them the head and fountain of all law and Power it is no great marvel if they deny little or nothing to the Papal Commands For the Divines they are generally such as confusedly mingling authority with reason and so wandring up and down in uncertain Principles abhor certitude in things speculative as the apparitions of a frightful Ghost unless some Venerable authority define it Let the question now be put whether the Pope can do such a thing do you not perceive the scale already inclining to the affirmative Answer is return'd That since there neither appears in the thing it self manifest contradiction nor any exception against the general power given to S. Peter by Christ it is probable the Pope his successor may do it and that if he sees it expedient for the Church t is their advice he should do it If any one oppose that the resolution is doubtful and if the thing be in truth otherwise the Popes concession null he is soon silenc'd with the return of Valeat quantum valere potest Let it go as far as it can the Pope hath done his part This is the Courtstyle in things of this nature nor do I see much reason to quarrel at it The deliberation clearly is prudent the concession benign and liberal For the Pope himself he neither commands nor commends it to those that sue he grants it or rather denyes it not to those who urge and extort it He exhorts to exercises of piety his Indulgences are look'd on as rewards and purchased with pious and laborious austerities From the Granter then this sort of Indulgences hath no Universality since it depends not on him but on the receivers how many will accept them Nor can he be supposed to strengthen or authorize the practise who as hath been said behaves himself as purely passive and permissive sometimes restraining never extending it without compulsion The same degree of liberty hath the people He that hath a mind seeks them upon him who is not desirous of them they are not obtruded If then your plea be they are frequented by many by most I grant both But if you will have that which neither is confirmed by command nor long custome pass for a practise and that not of Individuals but an Universal one and of the whole Church I shall slowly consent Whence doth it appear to me how many they are who receive them of what rank with what intention they do it I know some that desire not to appear singular and therefore do as their Neighbours I know others that openly express their dislike There are those who are said to allow them only when there is some great cause some extraordinary Christian necessity and Cardinal Bellarmin himself is reckoned among these Others prefer quiet of mind before such less retired Devotions amongst whom I find S. Philip Nereus who is reported to have usually quitted the Roman magnificences and frequented those Churches where in silence he might pour forth his prayers to God You will urge That may justly be stiled a Practise of the Church which is done by many the Prelates seeing and not forbidding it I answer If the question only be whether they do well or ill that frequent them I easily admit they do well and according to their conscience For what can they be reproched for the worst you can say is they act ignorantly not wickedly Nor doth the câ—nnivence
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
in its right course it is therefore no less indubitable that it mis becomes God and ought not to be attributed to him You will object that the sacred stories overflow with Examples of chastisements which have no coherence with the crimes for which they are inflicted or at least grow not immediately out of them That David's son dy'd because he had made others blaspheme the name of the Lord That the Boys who scoffed at Elizeus were torn in pieces by a Bear That a Lyon destroy'd the disobedient Prophet and a thousand such like I answer in * the Theological Institutions it is sufficiently declared that there is then a necessity of a miracle or work beyond the usual and connatural course of causes when our good requires it should by us be thought that the order of Nature is shaken and overpower'd When this happens in order to punishments the connatural Government of men exacts that the usual connexion which is found in the ordinary series of things betwixt the fault and penalty should be omitted least the Revenge which God in those cases intends to signalize should seeme an effect of chance or Nature not of the uncontrouleable power of his Deity But these Examples are not to be drawn to the condition of ordinary punishments which are usual and customary in the common order of things The same humane frailty in point of discourse leads our Adversaries into another incongruity which it will not be amiss here to take notice of They affirm that God remits the guilt of sin but not the pain For as they experience in themselves when injur'd or exasperated a certain â—bullition or quick motion of spirits about the heart which though at the same time they forbear any violence yet can they not allay so do they perswade themselves that there is in God a certain aversion from a sinner which though upon his repentance it ceaseth yet do they conjecture that an intention of punishing him may still remain From whence they infer that all the guilt of the soul is pardon'd before it arrives at Purgatory but the pain is there notwithstanding to be endured But it seems they never consider that the passion or impetuosity spoken of is a corporeal motion unworthy a wise man much more unfit to be transâ—â—â—'d or apply'd to God For anger in God signifies no more then an intention to punish Whence necessarily it followes that as much as is remitted of the fault so much must be remitted of the punishment Again what can the sinner be guilty of if not of sin Of an Offence say you to God But that if Punishment ensue not thereon whom doth it prejudice The Man He is concern'd only in the Pain God against whom the offence is But God can receive no prejudice And indeed in our common speech we do not use to say sin deserves guilt but punishment so that the guilt of sin is the fault it self and not a guilt or obnoxiousness to fault but to punishment Impossible therefore it is that Pains purely upon the account of sins already remitted should be undergone in Purgatory Let them therefore consider whether the passion we experience in our selves be any thing else then a beginning or first motion of the Heart to Revenge that is to annoy the Offender that is in a spiritual substance a will to punish But though a will to punish be a different thing from an aversion to sin yet is it subsequent thereto and later then it and consequently according to the nature of the thing will first of the two cease It is therefore against Nature that the aversion should be taken away and yet the will to punish remain which is wholly grounded and originally dependent upon that aversion Whence those Divines are grosly mistaken who affirm the effect that is the Will to punish ceasing the Cause that is the aversion from the sinner is taken away and deny that the cause to wit the aversion being taken away the effect to wit the Will to punish ceases Finally if need were we could in our defence muster an army of Fathers and appeal to the common sense and Judgment of Mankind You will say perhaps at least it cannot be deny'd but that there is a previous dissimilitude betwixt God and the sinner antecedently to his Will of punishing him and that therein consists the point of offence It is answered no man explicates the nature of offence by dissimilitude but by action so that if the dissimilitude act not upon the offended party it is no offence at all And besides the dissimilitude it self is not so great as that of irrational creatures for though it disfigure yet doth it not cancel the image of God within us But all other things besides Man deserve not the honour of being called his image but his foot-step Lastly this aversion is the cause of his punishing whence without it there can be no liableness to Pain in Man no appetence thereof in God The Fourteenth Accompt Of the Punishments which we meet with in the sacred Scriptures and of the remission of sins TO what we have here delivered it may be objected that nothing is more frequent in the sacred Scripture then the account of punishments inflicted after the undoubted remission of the fault We his progeny feel yet the effects of the sins of our first Father Adam whom we no wayes doubt to reign with Christ our saviour in Heaven We read that the sins of Mâ—ses and Aaron were punished with death and yet at that same time that God familiarly conversed with them after the offence We read of the people sin which God threatens to remember in the day of Revenge and yet in the mean while acknowledg his great benificence to them and particularly his introduction of them into the Land of Promise Now Jeremiah tells us chap. 2. that the translation of the Tribe of Judah was that day of revenge Is not this saith he done unto thee because thou didst forsake the Lord thy God at that time when he led thee by the way And yet betwixt those two times how often was God reconciled to them especially in the dayes of Saâ—â—uel David and Solomon Of the sin of David we read that his son should dye and the sword never cease in his house yet are we confident of his being in favour with God and the text assures us that in the presence of Nathan his sin was transferred What then can be more evident than that punishment remains due after the sin is cancell'd So that it may well be concluded that mortal sins though remitted still challenge their reward in Purgatory and venial ones unrepented are there by those grudging flames to be expiated I answer Almost in all things which fall under our consideration we are forced to distinguish in the same propositions there being predicated sometimes simply sometimes secundum quid or according to some one respect or notion And
often in belief of our Parents as the vulgar term it do the same thing which they did So the unlearned receiving or administring Sacraments through the confidence they have of the Church's sanctity do with good intention receive and administer them though ignorant what intention is properly due to the action It is not therefore necessary the Practise attest that which the private intention of every actor apprehends but only that which he intends joyntly with the Church though in particular ignorant of it Again it is manifestly one thing to be a practise and another to be the ground of a practise or reason for which it was instituted For a practise is received by custome or command and may have several motives or ends for its origin so that no one end can be evinced since any one may suffice much less doth pure opinion belong to practise which every Age may vary or oftener according to the greater or lesser science of Doctorâ— whereas the Practise may remain the same The five and twentieth Accompt The Nature and History of Indulgences THere lies yet another accusation against us from the use of Indulgences which we have not satisfy'd and it is also two-fold For they both urge in general that the whole force and fabrick of Indulgences falls to the ground if Purgatory-pains are not releas'd For what good do they do either in this world to the living or in the next to the departed if they neither abate nor discharge their present pains nor our future ones And again in particular what shall become of those concessions which grant expresly the releasment of a soul to every third thirtieth or single Mass Which with such and such fasts prayers alms visitations of Churches redeems or commutes so many dayes or years of sufferings Nothing can be said why all these should not declare the practise of the Church Thus they And indeed both the outward apparences and inward merit of the thing challenge a deep inspection and thorow-examination but let us at present content our selves briefly and according to the smallness of our volume and ability to discuss it No man that hath the least acquaintance and conversation with Ecclesiastical antiquity can be ignorant that all along even up to the very infancy of the Church Excommunications solemn increpations penitential ceremonies and rigorous satisfactions were in use That these rigours in diverse circumstances sometimes in consideration of the penitent himself sometimes of externs were not only abusively but canonically and profitably relaxed both the monuments of pious men and the vicissitude of humane nature assure us This relaxation was by the Latines in the Apostolical phrase called Indulgence And thus far no rational man questions their legitimate use These Indulgences being in order to such penalties as the Governours and Rulers of the Church conceived proportionable to the cancelling and extinguishing the sin they related to so that he who had legally performed them was supposed to have quitted that score before God it naturally became a question whether the remission granted by Bishops did free the penitent not only for those visible penalties which the visible Church was wont to exact or release but moreover discharge him from the account due to those sins in the sight of God and put him in the same condition as if he had actually performed the penalties themselves And S. Paul himself 2 Cor. 2. gives occasion of this question where treating of the penitent Fornicator he commands the Church to forbear to afflict him lest too much sadness should overwhelm him adding a general either truth or lenity that himself pardon'd whatsoever the Church should pardon And further giving his reason he saith For I my self if I have pardon'd any one any thing I have in the person of Christ pardon'd it for your sakes that Satan may not circumvent us for we are not ignorant of his arts To this purpose the Apostle wherein he unfolds to us the whole business of Indulgences That their matter is that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} rebuke or correption which it was fit the Church should exercise towards the sinner That there are two causes of remission the first the incapacity of the subject's bearing such Rigours who otherwise would be swallowed up by grief the second the good of the Church lest the Devil by pretext of too great severity or the like should provoke or stir up some to murmur and make a schism So that two things in the infliction and moderation of Ecclesiastical chastisements are to be regarded the good of the Person and the good of the Church But the Apostle explicates moreover the efficient cause which he makes to be three-fold the Church Himself us a Prelate of the Church and Christ our Lord For he saith that what he indulged he indulged in the person of Christ Had he spoken only of the Church and himself it would have pass'd for a Rule that as the Church knoweth not the interiour things so neither doth she judg of them or pretend to remit them But subjoyning that he did it in the person of Christ he seems to extend it to all that Christ our Lord doth or may remit and consequently to infer that the sinner is no longer as to that particular obnoxious to the Judgment of Christ This the fathers seem to countenance both universally in as much as they apply to Church-discipline that famous speech of Christ that sins are remitted or retain'd in Heaven proportionably to the severity or mildness of Apostolical proceedings upon earth And particularly S. Cyprian who affirms that Penitents may be aided before God in the abolition of their sins by the sollicitation and prerogative of Martyrs Yea Celerinus in his Epistle to Lucius beseeches those who were designed for Martyrdome which of them soever should first be crown'd to forgive the sin of two women who had deny'd their Faith Could any thing be more plain for this assertion that such sins are remitted also by God the punishments whereof the Church hath released But however that matter stood the use of Indulgences continued till the division of the Romane Empire and till the eleventh age as a certain Ecclesiastical Practise but without any special form or Court of Judicature In that age a new form was instituted Penitential Canons ordain'd which were partly redeem'd by Alms and other pious works partly by corporeal austerities and particularly by flagellation which thereupon took the name of Discipline In the XII Century their application was extended to Wars undertaken against Pirates and Infidels In the thirteenth Century the form of Jubile was instituted since which time the Harvest hath been too large for the Barns insomuch that it required the prudence of later Popes to restrain it Now in the XII Age the Schoolmen grew up a sort of men whilst closely adhering to the Fathers and Councels grave and learned whilest intent upon Philosophy and the Mysteries of