extenâ—s it self only to the living let your motive be never so pure and for the love of God alass you are often deceived and think you do a good turn for an Apostle and he is an Apostate or another Judas you take him for a great servant of God and he often proves to be a most wicked fellow â— râ—venous wolfe in a lambs skin and this is seen daily and every where not but that you ought to do it and shall never want your reward But it falls out clear otherwise when you place your charity upon the souls in Purgatory for they are undoubtedly the disciples of Christ they are Prophets and great Saints and therefore â—hosoever shall do any châ—ritable office for them may well hope to have the reward of Saintâ— For so it is not only those that are thus relieved shall be translated into heaven but those also tâ—â—t relieve them shall be carried â—â—â—â—her in â—ue time to take possession of the glory of the Saints St. Thomas tells us there is an It is the â—â—st ordered â—harity to help the Souls St. Th. 2. 2. â—eâ—ord châ— order to be observed in our works of charity to our neighbour â—hat is we are to see where there is a greater obligation a greater necessity a greater merit and the like circumstances Now where is there more necessity or more obligation then to runne to the â—â—re and to helpe those that lie there and 〈◊〉 not able to get out Where can you have more merit then to have a hand in raising up so great Saints and Servants of God where have you more assurance then where you are sure to loose nothing where can you find an object of more compassion then where there is the greatest misery in the world where is there seen more of Gods glory then to send new Saints into heaven to praise God eternally Lastly where can you shew more charity and more of the love of God then to employ your teaâ—s your sighs your goods your hands your heart your life and all your devotions to procure a good that surpasses all other goods I mean to make soules happy for all eternity by translating them into heavenly joyes out of insupportable torments That glorious Apostle of the Indies St. Francis Xaverius could run from one end of the world to the other to convert a soul and think it no long journey the dangers by Sea and Land seem'd Sweet the Tempests pleasing the Labour easy and his whole time well employed Good God! What an advantage have we that with so little and few prayers may send a thousand beautifull souls into heaven without the least hazard of loosing any thing St. Xaverius could not be certain that the Japonians for example whom he baptized â—â—uld persever in their faith and though they should persever in it he could have as little certainty of their salvation Now it is an Article of our faith that the holy souls in Purgatory are in grace and shall assuredly one day enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But since I am entred upon the Nothing can more advance Gods glory point of seeking Gods greater glory and procuring that his Sacred Majesty be worthily Adored by his creatures where can you finde any thing among all the other works of mercy more eminent in this kinde then to concur towards the peopling of Paradise and encreasing the number of those thrice happy souls Let it be never so little that you advance the tearm appointed for the eternal happinesse of a soul by recovering it out of Purgatory and placing it above the Firmament O into what acts of Love will she break forth what glory will she give to God what excesse of Love what Transports Visions Unions and miracles of heaven will ensue And what a happinesse is it for you to have concurred to make up all these wonders which would have been quite lost all this time and by your occasion are now added as a superabundant encrease of Gods greatnesse St. Ignatius that glorious founder of the society of Jesus stuck not to say he should think his whole life well bestowed should he but hinder an ungracious soul from offending God one onely night Such an esteem he had of encreasing Gods glory and such an apprehension of diminishing the least grain thereof What a mercy is it then that by helping a Soul out of her purging flames you are the cause of a million of most divine acts which would never have been had not the time of her delivery been antidated by your charitable and devout prayers Tell me dear reader what can you doe here below comparable to this How many thousand Beggars Prisoners and sick persons may you relieve without procuring the thousanth part of this â—nspeakable good That which one does by anothers means he is accounted to do himself So that all the new Saints I mean all the souls who have been delivered by your assistance shall be as it were your Lievtenants and your Vicar-generalls or your Embassadors to do incomparable wonders in Heaven whereof you are the cause in whole or in part And what comparison is there now between the good we doe for men upon earth and what we doe to relieve souls in the other world There is but one onely Case One 〈…〉 more to be â—pied then that 〈◊〉 Pur 〈◊〉 can be imagined in which your Charity might seem clear better employed then in comforting the poore languishing souls in Purgatory And it is this Suppose you had but one instant of life at your disposal and could either employ it in the conversion of a desperate sinner who must otherwise be infallibly damned without redemption or in releaving a Soul in Purgatory whether you ought not in this case to preferr the eternal salvation of a sinner before the present ease of a soul in Purgatory To this I answer that in the first place you put a very metaphysicall case farr remote from all common practise for it is not a thing that will probably ever happen but should it really fall out in Gods name do the one or the other as God shall inspire you and God will sooner multiply the bread in your hands then you should want an occasion of relieving the poore whether living or dead But to give you better satisfaction put the case as you please and I will make the Souls in Purgatory themselves judges of the cause that they may have no reason to complain or appeal from my sentence They will certainly tell you that where there is question of a mortal sinne or of the eternal losse of a soul that has been ransomed with the blood of Christ they had rather lye still groaning under their torments then purchase a little ease at so dear a rate No they are not so selfish their love is more pure then so their fidelity to God will never suffer them to seek their own glory with the least diminution or lessening of Gods glory St. Catherine
them with reproaches to come in upon this and either voluntarily or by a sweet kind of violence to set upon these captive soules with a new and fierce storme of reproaches Faith If you believed there was a Purgatory indeed miserable creature why did you not live so as to avoid its cruell torments Hope If you aym'd to gain Paradise why did you play the foole so as to amuse your self with such trifles and to loose so much precious time in them Charity Oh how well have you deserved to burne in these flames since you often scorned to burn with mine and to serve God with a heart all inflamed with divine fire burne then at leasure and dy here for shame since there was a time thou wouldst neither live nor die with sacred and holy love Penance Is it you that were so frighted with my rigours so terrified with my sweet austerities with which I would have preserved you from these cruel torments Tell me now where are your damask beds your soft quilts your down pillowes your fine sheets that were smoother and whiter then milke and cream your sweet bags and perfumes all your dainties all your vanities all that modish attire and braverie which did so besot and inchant you One sigh one teare one act of self denial would have kept you out of this place of torments answer me now and let me heare what you have to say for your self Prudence Foolish and senseless soule how came you so to loose your wits and even common sense too as knowing the rigour of these flames to use no caution to prevent them Oh? How well are these horrid punishments bestowed This vile creature was so simple as to believe that continually offending God without making him amends for it in an honourable way she should passe scotfree and supply for all with a slight peccavi and so enter into heaven What an idle folly was this As if it were a sufficient pretence to be wicked and rebellious because God is full of mercy Sit still then at the daily task of thy suffrings and rather think of doubling them for it is meet that God should shew himself to be God as well by justice as by mercy and that both these divine attributes should play their parts in their turnes Fortitude How oft have I offered my service to strengthen you O you carelesse aâ—d lazy soul how oft have I offer'd to lend you my Arme my Heart and all my invincible power to support and bolster up your pusillanimity and weaknesse and you have disdained to employ it now you are forced to bear the heavy burthen of Gods just vengeance have I not just reason to withdraw my assistance Temperance I told you as much long since that for want of bridling your unruly passions the time would come when you would curse the hours of all your excesses and disorders without having power to redeem them but by excessive torments Do you look now inconsiderate soul that I should poure out water upon your flames you that have ever slighted me Thus all the holy Quire of Gods darlings the innocent vertues come one after another and beat upon this Anvil laying whole loads of most heavy strokes upon this miserable soul that you cannot well imagine what more grievous fortune can befall her in so much that the soul so opprest with evills and so furiously battered on all sides with a fresh supply of torments is forced to cry out miserable that I am and a thousand times miserable am I not wretched enough but must the vertues themselves joyn their forces with my frailties to persecute me and compleat my misery How long alas how long will you thus cruelly combine to undoe me you love and you griefe you by a thousand sweets and you by a thousand severities You by flattering my paines and you by redoubling them you by shewing me life and you by shewing me death you by estranging me from Paradice and you by conducting me to the very gates of hel you by sweet expostulations and you by bitter reproaches which go to my very heart How long I say once more will you be so cruelly kinde as to joyn your forces to imbitter the martyrdom of a poore creature now grown to â—e the most miserable wretch under Heaven Forbear at length forbear it is not fit the severity of Gods Justice should eclipse all the raies of his infinite mercy Whether the Devils torment them All were lost if the opinion of some were true who will needs have the Devils play the executioners in Purgatory Lord what a terrible warr would these wicked Apostaâ—a's raise against the holy Soules who are ere long to take possession of the places which they have lost in Heaven With what a rage would they assault them wreak their barbarous fury upon them were they to be treated at their mercy But I had rather S. Tho. in 4. d. 20. 21. Suar. d. 46. Sect. 3. follow the opinion of others who with farr more reason me thinks believe that the Devils have no power to do them the least mischief Tell me what good would they get by it since the soules can neither offend God nor loose Paradise which is the only Butt against which the Devils level their whole malice Origen fancied the Devil to be so sullenly proud that having been once foyled by a soul he will never after come neere her nor have any thing more to doe with her If this be so the Devils will beware how they come neare Purgatory where there are so many Victorious Souls Besides God will not permit it nor can we see what good can arise thence to Gods glory Possibly also these pâ—nishments which the Devils would inflict might shorten the terme of the souls durance and this may be the cause why they are loath to meddle with them least they send them so much the sooner into heaven However some of the learned think that these souls bordring so near upon hell may very probably see the Devils and Su. cit n. 10. the damned souls and hear their most execrable blasphemies and that this is no small addition to their pains to hear their good God whom they entirely love to be incessantly cursed blasphemed and renounced by those devillish and sacrilegious spirits St. Catharine of Siena was heard to say she had rather suffer all the torments of Hell then hear one blasphemy against God for whom she had so much cordial love and who is of himself so lovely I confesse this is a sweet kind of torment as proceeding from supernatural and divine love but I maintain withall that it is a torment and a most grievous one because though the Arrows of Love are guilded over or made of pure gold yet are they as sharp pointed and as piercing to the quick as those of Grief though they be but of steel Confusion is one of Their confusion the most intollerable evils which can befall a
we but give way to our vertues and those divine graces which are hourely showred down upon our souls from heaven to work according to the full extent of their energy and power But alas an infirm body much passion a faint heart with a thousand other obstacles in this life make us to do scarse half whaâ— we are able And divines are of opinion that besides the mother of God there hath hardly been one amongst all other pure creatures who has acted according to the full latitude of his power and those gracious helps sent him from heaven Others indeed have somtimes made valiant attempts but it was as it were but in a bravado and by spurts and they often came off but poorly and failed of their designes But the souls in Purgatory who are as it were new minted and cast into a pure spâ—ritual substance free from the body and all corporeal and humane infirmities nor are at all impeded by their torments from the free exercise of all the powers of their souls they I say give full scope and liberty to all the quires of vertues to play their parts and suffer grace to have her entire effect and this doubtless affords them such unspeakable comforts and advantages as cannot well be expressed in this mortal life O what ejaculations of their pure love what submissions of their profound humility what conformities of their wills what submissive obedience to the holy decrees of Gods justice what fidelity and justice to satisfie the rigour of Gods justice for all they owe him what passionate desire of purity to see themselves without blemish or hinderance from enjoying God what incredible tenderness towards God who treats them so sweetly in comparison of their ingratitude and infidelity what excess of joy to see themselves within two fingers breadth as it were of Paradise In fine what a Paradise of vertues what divine endeavours of these happy souls what attractions of almighty God and heavenly allurements who can worthily comprehend such a medley of so sweet a Paradise in Purgatory so cruelly sweet and so amorously bitter And now I understand why St. Catherine said that in case the souls did not meet with Purgatory it would be a kind of Hell to them to want the help of those purging flames to cancel out the blemishes of their sins and make them worthy to see God I have not tould you what jaculatory prayers they make what sweet aspiratious they breath out and what flaming darts of love they shoote up into the heart of God For if the Martyrs in the greatest extreamity of their torments could cast out such gentle sighs and break into such divine and amourous speeches as to draw tears from the eyes of a hangman or tyrant what will not these holy souls do since they have scarse any sweeter entertainment then to converse with God and implore his mercy The afflictions Lib. de Provid and sufferings of the body says Solucanns cannot hinder the Paradise of the soul and her interiour sweetness much less when the Soul is in the other world §. 6. They joy in the continual decrease of their pains and influence of pure heavenly consolations THe fire of love makes more sensibly with them then their tormenting flames The natural instinct they have to be with God and their longing thirst so to take their fill of those inebriating joyes when they see themselves forcibly detained and bound fast to so base an Element as Fire is a torment beyond expression St. Ambrose St. Ambr. Ser. 1. maintains that the fire of love which had seized on St. Laurence his heart was more active then that which consumed his flesh and melted the very marrow of his bones Wherefore it must needs be great comfort unto these sweet souls to see that their sufferings Their pains go still decâ—easiâ—g are every moment diminished if not otherwise at least for as much as concernes the prefixed time of their durance which goes lessening it selfe more and more as it draws nearer to an end And according to the probable opinion of holy men the intensenes of the pain it self is perpetually remitted according to the proportion of the fresh supplies of succour which the Church militant never failes to administer unto them by her prayers and sacrifices since there is not an hour neither by day nor by night where there is not Mass said or some devout prayers offered up in some part of the Christian world Besides St. Catherine tells us that God also grows still more and more liberal in showring down his heavenly sweet favours and gracious influences upon these his wretched and yet happy souls There was a young woman Heavenly comforts encrease upon them Val. Max. had lived with her husband with so much chast love that she was not more tender of her own life and seeâ—ng him one day laid dead upon a burning pile and having a long time in vain cast about how she might come to receive him at length threw her self just upon his heart and so chose willingly to die with him and mingle her ashes with his And who doubts but the Angel Gardians those Eagles of Paradise seeing the souls of their pupils for whom they had so much tenderness and care in this life to lie burning in scorching flames often casts himself in to comfort them and if not release them at least entertain them with such pleasing discourses as takes of much of the sense of their bitter torments When the King asked Daniel whether the Lyond had not devoured him and whether his God had power to preserve him from that inevitable death he answer'd yes sir my God has sent his Angel who is come down from Heaven to protect me and has tied up the mouths of the hungry Lyons who have not offered to touch me nor had I ever so much comfort in my whole life as in this place of death and despaire for Paradise is every where where God and his Angels are The same happened to those three innocent yong men who had leasure to sing in the middle of a burning furnace which of a kind of Purgatory was become a terrestriall Paradise or an empereal heaven This being so and the goodness of God comforting the Souls with a world of good thoughts you must know that Purgatory seems a great mercy to them and so much the greater by how much they see clearly the vast difference between this condition of theirs and that of the damned Souls and what an unspeakable favour God has done them to dispose things so sweetly that they might be convayed into Purgatory they that so often deserved to be thrust into Hell fire and possibly more then many of the damned souls since there are certainly many damned but for one or two mortal sins whereas they may know themselves to have committed thousands And who knows then whether in their extasies of love they may not cry out with holy S. Gregory O my God encrease my
St. John how can he make us believe 1 Jo. 4. 20. that he loves God whom he never saw That which I am to maintaine is that amongst all the acts of faternal charity or works of mercy the most sublime the most pure and the most advantagious of all others is the service we perform for the souls in Purgatory In the History of the incomparable A remarkable passage order of the great St Dominick it is authentically related that one of the first of those holy religious men was wont to say that he found himself not so much concerned to pray for the Souls in Purgatory because they are certain of their salvation and that upon this account we ought not in his judgement to be very sollicitous for them but ought rather to bend our whole care to help sinners to convert the wicked and to secure such souls as are uncertain of their salvation and probably certain of their damnation as leading very leud lives Here it is said he it is here that I willingly employ my whole endeâ—vours It is upon these that I bâ—stow my Masses and Prayers and all that little that is at my disposal and thus I take it to be well bestowed But upon souls that have an assurance of eternal happiness and can never more loose God or offend him I believe not said he that one ought to be so sollicitous This certainly was but a poor and weak discourse to give it no severer a censure and the consequence of it was this that the good man did not only himself forbear to help these poor souls but which was worse disswaded others from doing it and under colour of a greater charity withdrew that succour which otherwise good people would have liberally afforded them But God took their cause in hand for permitting the souls to appear and shew themselves in frightful shapes and to haunt the good man both by night and by day without respit still filling his fancy with dreadful imaginations and his eyes with terrible spectacles and withall letting him know who they were and why with Gods permission they so importuned him with their troublesome visits you may believe the good Father became so affectionately kind to the souls in Purgatory bestow'd so many Masses and Prayers upon them preached so fervently in their behalf stirr'd up so many to the same devotion that it is a thing incredible to believe and not to be expressed with Eloquence Never did you see so many and so clear and convincing reasons as he alleaged to demonstrate that it is the most eminent piece of fraternal charity in this life to pray for the souls departed Love and fear are the two most excellent Oratours in the world they can teach all Rhetorick in a moment and infuse a most miraculous eloquence This good Father who thought he should have been frighted to death was grown so fearful of a second assault that he bent his whole wit to invent the most pressing and convincing arguments to stir up the world both to pitty and piety and so perswade souls to help souls and it is incredible what good ensued thereupon The History does not set down the motives which he either invented or had by inspiration to evidence this truth and therefore I will borrow them of St. Thomas that angel for divinity of the same order and of other Saints and doctours of the Catholick Church § 1. The greatness of the charity to the Souls in Purgatory is argued from the greatness of their pains and their helpless condition SInce there is no torment under Most charity to help tbc greater sufferers Heaven comparable to the pains of Purgatory as you have already seen those unhappy souls must needs be the most afflicted creatures in the world and consequently there cannot be a greater charity then to relieve them The loving mother runs always to her sickest child not but that she is tender of them all and has her heart divided into as many parcels as she has children and sick children but where there is most need there she makes a greater demonstration of her love thither her heart is carried with a greater violence and tenderness of affection where the greatest evil or danger appears As for the rest their condition is not so pressing she speaks to them at leasure and by giving one of them a few comsits a good word to another a smile to a third they are all well contented but he that burns in the Purgatory of a violent feavour it is he that has most need of his mother and so you see her as it were nail'd to his pillow her heart her eyes her hands her mouth and her very bosome lye open to this child and she can think of nothing but him so that where there is a greater share of misery reason requires there should be more compassion and more charity expressed Cast but a morsel of bread to a needy beggar send a good almes to a poor Hospital visite a prisoner give a word of comfort to a sick person and they are very well satisfied but he that lies burning in unmerciful flames alas it is he that ought to move all the bowels of your compassion When the image of Cleopatra with the stinging Aspes at her breasts was carried in triumph before the Romans though otherwise fierce and cruel enough by nature yet could they not hold from shedding a few tears of compassion and truly such a Queen in so sad a condition was not to be lookt upon with dry eyes the other captives yet living did not move them at all in comparison of that unfortunate Princess for all she was only represented in colours upon a painted cloth You Angel-keepers of Purgatory I conjure you to unlock your gates and lay your prison open that I may discover those Kings and Queens I mean those holy Souls of both sexes who are shortly to have their share in the celestial empire that I may lay before the Eyes of the whole Catholick Church those Asps of grief that lye so close at their hearts those cruel flames I say that incessantly devour them and withall the infinite modesty and patience with which they endure all in so much that not one of them lets fall the least froward or inconsiderate word or makes the least complaint against the sweet rigour of God Is there a heart if it be the heart of a man indeed and has but a drop of true Christian blood in it that does not feel it self to be either broken or mollified at so pitiful and lamentable a spectacle to see I say such noble and generous spirits in so deplorable a condition Is there any thing within the whole circumference of the universe so worthy of compassion and that may so deservedly clayme the great'st share in al your devotions and charities as to see our Fathers our Mothers our nearest and dearest relations to lye broyling in cruel flames and to crye to us for help with
4. c. 27. Abbot that this fact of Matius was as pleasing to God as that of Abraham and that he should be eternally blessed for it Go now and cast this soul into Purgatory who stuck not to cast his only Son into the River at the command of his superiour and when you have done will they not sooner think you cast in the whole River which was thus blessed by a perfect act of obedience and so quench the flames then suffer her to lye burning there Mutius did but once cast his son into the River and how many Religious souls out of the same spirit of obedience expose themselves a thousand times to all dangers both by Sea and Land and after all this must they needs visit Purgatory in their way to heaven It seems boldly said of St Austin Tract 10. in Joan. that the blessed Virgin was happier in obeying God then in being the Mother of God and yet Christ himself said as much in express tearms For when by way of applauding him they were crying up her Luc. 11. 27. 28. happy that had the honour to be his Mother and to nourish him with the milk of her breasts he sudainly replied that he took them to be happy indeed that heard his word and put it in Practise Luc. 8. 21. and another time when they had told him that his good Mother and his brothers stood without waiting for him who say he are my brothers and whom do you call my Mother whosoever does the will of my Father he is my Mother my brothers and my whole parentage Now to our purpose if an obedient person have the honour to bear this honorable title of being the brother and even the Mother of God can God so far neglect this brother and mother of his as to leave them in Purgatore fire The Abbess one day commanded S. Catherine of Bolognia that for the love of God and the excercise of l. 1. vite ejus obedience she would enter into a burning furnace The Saint runs away instantly and doubtless would have thrown herself in had not the Religious stood in the way to hinder her It is not a crime 1 de civ c. 1 says St. Austin to be thus prodigal of our lives and even like Samson to make our selves away when God requires it No this is no crime but a pious holocaust offered upon the Altar of obedience and will you then kill a man that is already dead will you burn him in Purgatory that is already consumed in the holy flames of obedience God does not use to punish or purge the same fault twice and therefore a soul that has been once purged in the fire of obedience hath no need of being purged again in the fire of Purgatory O what a thing it is to be obedient cried Gerard as he lay a dying in St. Bernards armes I have been carried before Gods high tribunal and have seen the power of obedience no body shall ever perish that is truly obedient but when he comes to die shall mount above the quires of Angels Arch-angels and Apostles according to the merit of his obedience and with this he died Must Angels Arch-angels Apostles and those that are in the same degree of perfection be thrust into Purgatory fire Is it reasonable that they should be confined to so loathsome a prison that made themselves voluntary prisoners under the severe government of obedience I am resolved said H. David to fear no evils of what ragged nature soever they be Ps 22. so long as thou my God dost lead me by the hand though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death in the very suburbs of hell which is Purgatory I will feare nothing for thy rod and thy staff wherewith thou dost governe and direct me to do thy holy will in all occasions will be my sure comfort and protection An obedient man speaks nothing but victories says the holy Ghost in the Proverbs What victories Such as St. Dorotheus Pro. c. 21. 28 Doct. 1. describes when he tells us that a soul being scated in her triumphant chariot drawn by humility and obedience treads all underfoot and with a swift motion steeres her course up to heaven If humility and obedience be her horses they will not easily convey her into Purgatory for they know not the way thither but only into heaven their own native country where they will be surâ— to leave this triumphant and victorious soul in the joyful fruition of eternal happiness Take away self-will and there will be no hell cries St. Bernard If obedience can put out hell fire Ser. 1. de resur she most needs have power to put out the fire of Purgatory What a solid comfort must this be to religious souls who have given themselves over to the practice of this vertue and to all those that living in the world yet do nothing of their own heads but are constantly ruled by the will of God It is a strange but very true observation Bonau c. 13 reg noviâ— to 7. of St. Gregory and of St. Bonaventure that God who is invincible will yet suffer himself to be overcome by the obedience of his servants so far as even to obey them I say obey for it is the very expression he uses himselfe in the case of Josua who is said to have stopped the sun in his full carreere because God was pleased to obey the voice of his obedient servant If this be so that God will refuse nothing to an obedient soul let her aske him to be freed from Purgatory and she will not be denied it who never denied him any thing And without all doubt it is as easy for her to curb the fire of Purgatory as to stop the sweet motion of the heavens You then that are obedient know your power you may appeale from God to God in case he should sentence you to Purgatory you may boldly claim his promise of denying you nothing and then you will be sure to make it in your bargain to have nothing to do with Purgatory but to go straight into heaven there to enjoy him for ever The Conclusion IT is now high time to conclude this § and with it the whole Treatise And I cannot leave you better then in heaven whether I have brought you if you will your self for you see it is in your power to make your way thither without passing through Purgatory Believe mee it is no trifling matter but the most important business we have to do in this world to purchase heaven and to purchase it so as to have right to take possession of it immediately after we have left this world Christ our Saviour tells us that the kingdome of heaven suffers violence and that they must be both violent and valliant that run away with it where St. Ambrose observes well S. Amb. in Luc. that God loves to be forced and that they which importune him most and use the greatest violence are the men he makes most of Take courage then deare Reader take courage imitate the good thief snatch heaven out of his hands steal away his Paradise do something worthy of him worthy of your self and worthy of Paradise If no better means occur to you at least strive to to be hugely concerned for the poor souls in Purgatory pray often devoutly for them and procure that good store of Masses may be said for their relief You have the ell in your hands by which you may measure out your 〈◊〉 happiness says the devout Salvianus be charitable to others and they will be no less to you The time is not long that is allowed you to sojourn in this world in this little time be sure you make the Saints in heaven and the souls in Purgatory your friends that they be obliged to help you in your greatest need Learne at least by these discourses to have a tender heart for the poor souls and to use your uttermost endeavours to go your self directly into heaven out of this wiâ—ked world It is the thing I earnestly beg of Gods infinite mercy for you and for my self at the instance of your good prayers For though I must acknowledge I have de 〈◊〉 〈…〉 â—easoâ—â—â— take 〈…〉 â—our to be sentâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 to lye there as â—any months and years aâ—â—â— shall please God yet I confess ingenuously I have no great minde to either place â—ut only to heaven which I beseech God by the merits of my dear Saviour and by the plenary indulgence of his most infinite mercy to grant us all Amen Et Fidelium animae per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace Amen FINIS
end does not your heart tremble when you heare that the poore soules in Purgatory are tormented with the same or the like flames to those of the damned Can you hold from crying out with the Prophet Isay who c. 33. 14. can dwell with such devouring fire and unquenchable ardours Heavens what a lamentable case is this Those miserable soules who of late when they were wedded to their bodies were so nice and dainty forsooth that they durst scarce venture to enjoy the comfortable heat of a fire but under the protection of their skreens and their fans for feare of sullying their complexions and if by chance a sparke had been so rude as to light upon them or a little smoak it was not to be endured Those for whom down it self was too hard and even ready to break their bones one single grain of misfortune a stone but as big as a nutt a rotten tooth a sullen and malignant humour stoln into the marrow of a bone a cross word an affront an idle fancy a meer dream was enough to bury their whole felicity in a kind of hell Alas how will it fare with them when they shall see themselves tied to unmercifull firebrands or imbodied as it were with flames of fire surrounded with frightful darkness broyled and consumed without intermission and perhaps condemned to the same fire with which the divels are unspeakably tormented When Saul found himself beset on all sides and in the midst of his enemies and saw that he must either dye instantly or fall into the hands of that base and accursed crue Oh let me rather die cryed he he will do me a favour that will cut my throat 1. reg 31. that so I may not see my self butchered by such wicked hands and trail'd away by them death alass is not the thing I apprehend but that a King as I am should die like a slave ah is it that which gives me the fatal blow and even breaks my very heart O God! what a confusion what a sensible heart-breaking will it be to these noble and generous soules designed to eternall glory in the Kingdom of Heaven when they shall see themselves condemned to the same punishment and devoured by the same implacable flames with those of the damned and lodged in the very suburbs of hell A Prince had rather die a thousand deaths then be condemned to live amongst base slaves in a gally or be hang'd amongst fellons for it is not the death so much as the dishonour that makes them to die indeed And can you doubt whether the soules of the just have the same feelings when they see themselves involved in the same misfortune in the same place and in the same flames of fire with which the accursed rable of damned spirits is eternally tormented ah they take it for so high a dishonour that it may with reason be questioned whether this unhappy place and condition grieves them not more then the fire it self Plut. Sen. There was a time when they would have forced a young Roman Cavallier into the bottom of a darke and stinking pit but his heart was so fill'd with indignation at it that he chose rather to dash out his braines against a doore threshold and so to let out his blood and his life together then to enter into so noysome a place What a tearing grief must it be to those vertuous soules when they shall see themselves border upon the very confines of hell and in that accursed frontire and more then this to be shut up close prisoners in that unfortunate gulfe and to be condemned to suffer the same fire as the damned though their punishment be neither so terrible nor so lasting Good God! how the great Saints and Doctours astonish me when they treate of this fire and of the paine of sence as they tall it For they peremptorily pronounce that the fire that purges those both happy and unhappy Soules surpasses all the torments which are to be found in this miserable life of man or are possible to be invented for so far they go Out of which assertion it cleerly follows that the furious fits of the stone feavour or raging gout the tormenting chollick with all the horrible convulsions of the worst of diseases nay though you joyn racks grid-Irons boyling oyles wild beasts and a hundred horses drawing several waies and tearing one limb from another with all the other hellish devices of the most barbarous and cruell Tyrants all this does not reach to the least part of the mildest pains in Purgatory For thus they discourse the fire and the pains of the other world are of another nature from those of this life because God elevates them above their nature to be instruments of his severity Now say they things of an inferior degree can never reach to the power of such things as are of a higher ranke for example the ayre let it be never so inflamed unless it be converted into fire can never be so hot as fire Besides God bridles his rigour in this world but in the next he lets the reines loose and punishes almost equally to the desert And since those soules have preferred creatures before their Creatour he seems to be put upon a necessity of punishing them beyond the ordinary strength of creatures and hence it is that the fire of Purgatory burnes more torments and afflicts more then all the creatures of this life are able to doe But is it Aug. in Ps 37. S. Th. supp q. 100. a 3. in 4. d. 21. S. Greg. in 3. Ps Penitent S. Anselm in Elucydario really true that the least pain in Purgatory exceeds the greatest here upon earth O God! the very proposal makes me tremble for feare and my very hart freeses into ice with astonishment And yet who dare oppose * St. Aug. St. Thomas St. Anselme St. Gregory the great c. Is there any hope of carrying the negative assertion against such a stream of Doctours who all maintain the affirmative and bring so strong reasons for it Have patience to heare them yet once more sinne say they exceeds all creatures in malice and therefore let it be never so little it must deserve a punishment exceeding all the pain that can proceed from creatures Again creatures here below do nothing above their natural reach and capacity they act only within the sphere of their limited forces whereas the fire that is designed to purify guilty soules derives its vigour and force from God Who being Almighty and besides provoked to displeasure makes it so active and so prevalent that there is nothing can be compared with it And they adde unto all this a world of visions and revelations which seem to countenance the rigour of their position What then will become of thee poore idle soul if the least pains in Purgatory surpasse the greatest in this world what I say will become of thee that art so tender that a little smoak is able
body and what a trifle it was that impeded her A moment lost of those inebriating joyes seems to her now worthy to be redeemed with an eternity of pains Then reflecting with her self that she was created only for God and can not be truly satisfied but by enjoying God and that out of him all this goodly machine of the world is no better then a direct Hell and an abisse of evills alas what Worms what Martyrdomes and what nipping Pincers are such pinching thoughts as these The fire is to her but as smoak in comparison of this vexing remembrance of her own follies which betray'd her to this disgracefull and unavoidable misfortune There was a King in an humour gave away his Crown and his whole Estate for the present refreshment of a cup of cold water but returning a little to himself and soberly reflecting what he had done had like to have run stark mad to see the strange irreparable folly he had committed To loose a year or two years to say no more the beatificall vision for a glasse of Water for a handfull of Earth for the love of a fading Beauty for a little Ayre of worldly praise a meer puff of Honour ah it is the Hell of Purgatory to a Soul that truely loves God and frames a right conceipt of things Jephte Judic c. 11 c. 18. could have died for grief when he saw that by his own rashnesse he was to loose his onely daughter the light of his Eyes the life of his Soul and Soul of his life And that poore youth from whom they had stolne his gods although they were meere Idols yet did he take on most bitterly and was become so disconsolate there was no chiding him out of that humour What! said he have you rob'd me of my gods and do you now question me why I lament as if he had not cause enough to grieve who has lost his gods And you may observe it was not his fault that they were lost and besides they were but gods of wood and stone such as a skilfull Artist would have made farr better The case here is different for the Souls clearly see they have lost God through their own carelesness and lost him for ten twenty or perhaps thirty years and this puts them out of the reach of all comfort T is true here below we are not able to taste the bitternesse of this wormwood but those pure Souls who are in the grace of God and full of light and well grounded discourses see so clearly the grossenesse and foulnesse of this errour and taste so sensibly the gall and bitternesse thereof that it is a more vexing pain to them then that of the fire But you will say it is but for a short time that they are to be kept out of paradise O God! this is enough to break their hearts for in that short time you speak of they could have exercised a Million of most refined heroicall and divine acts in Heaven and all this is lost And if one act of vertue here on Earth give so much glory to God and so much joy to the whole Court of Heaven what a losse is it to have carelesly let slip the occasion of excercising a million of such acts in Heaven which can never be recalled I speak not for the merit nor for the content there is in doing well nor for the degrees of glory which are lost no I touch not yet what concernes their interest but I onely treat of the glory which they might have given to God by their signal services of Love and Adoration all which pretious treasure is negligently cast away When that Marc. 12. 42. Luc. 21. 2. good poore widow cast her two brasse mites into the Treasury Christ Jesus was as well pleased as if she had cast in both her eyes or as many Worlds and when St. Martin cut his Cloak in two to give one half of it to a needy beggar our Blessed Saviour vouchsafed to cloath himself with that half garment and turning to the Angels who were about him in great numbers and withall shewing them that livery of his servant behold said he how noble this young Catechumen has attired me If the Almighty Monark of the world makes so great a reckoning of one act of vertue one small charity what vexation will it breed in a Soule of the other World to consider that other glorious soules and perhaps some of her alliance or acquaintance are alredy daily spending themselves in acts of highest perfection and that she has wilfully thrown away all this glory which she might have given to Almighty God and in place of acting so gloriously in the empireall Heaven all resplendent with divine Fire she is constrained to lye parching and frying in the flames of Purgatory and undergoing a thousand inconsolable punishments Now if you lay on the back of Their incredible losse this the consideration of interest good God! what a terrible grief will it be to holy Souls to reflect on the losse of so many degrees of Grace and Glory which they have foolishly and negligently cast away for meere trifles and without hope of recovery One grain of Grace is certainly more worth then all the world what a misery then what a grief and what a confusion will it be to have prodigally sold for nothing so many grains so many graces and so many worlds of true happiness Since I have lost my Empire cried Nero there is no living for me Could I but one day arrive to be King of Athens â—â—d a Grecian I could be content to walk barefoot to the bottomlesse pit of hell so great a valew do I set upon swaying the Scepter but one day and so pretious is the least grain of glory in my estimation Now if these ambitious souls have such feelings for a little transitory and worldly glory what will they have who breath nothing but the pure love of God and know how to set a true value upon glory and celestial glory in those heavenly mansions This in the opinion of learned Suarez is a worm the most sensible and the most vexatious of all others in that Church of patient sufferers But since these two Wormes Whether Love or grief torments most Love and Griefe combine together to martyrise those poore Soules which of the two is the most grievous charity or contrition They have neither of them teeth to bite with but they conjure up such tempests of biting thoughts in these unfortunate souls as gâ—â—e them a world of afflictions Me thinks I hear them discourse in their turnes much after this fashion Love O ungratefull and disloyal Soul hast thou so easily lost the sight of thy mercifull Redeemer Grief Dye for shame unlucky Soul and dye for Grief for having so easily merited that God should thus banish thee and punish thee in these base flames Love What hast thou got by loosing so good a God whom thou wert already to have
possest and enjoyed Grief What hast thou got but deadly heart-breakings for having preferred sin before his infinite favours Love In lieu of riding upon the wings of a Seraphin and burning with Love as they do in Heaven miserable creature thou art now to be lockt up under ground in a furnace of Hellish Flames Griefe In lieu of calling to minde the benefits of this great God thou art to be knawn to the very heart with the sharpe teeth of an infamous Grief and to pass so many whole dayes in sighs and sobs and unprofitable lamentations Love So many lesser Souls have taken their flight straight up into Heaven and what dost thou stick there below in those loathsome pits of Fire Griefe So many simple Idiots by leading innocent lives are now in Glory whil'st thou idle wretch liest there melting in unquenchable flames Love What a Madness was it for thee to cast away so many precious houres of seeing God when one glimpse of that divine object is worth a million of worlds Griefe Could there be a greater folly then for a slight pastime to offend so loving a Father and put him upon a necessity of punishing thee here like a criminal to weare of thy felonious and rebellious offences Love What is become of so many degrees of Glory so many exstatical acts so many divine Canticles which thou should'st have sung in Heaven since thou art buried under ground in a Sulphureous Laxe Griefe What is become of all thy cursed possessions which now persecute thy Soul with a fresh remembrance of thy sottish disloyalty Love Thou wert created for God canst thou live without him and without glassing thy selfe in that eternal Mirrour and sparkling rayes of his divine Countenance Griefe Thou wert placed in the sublunary world to serve him câ—nst thou without bursting for spight call to minde the life which thou hast lead and is not the remembrance of thy debauches more frightful to thee then the very sight of Hell it self Love Who loves God had rather sinke down into a thousand Hells then loose him for a moment Griefe Who loves God had rather eternally suffer all the torments of Hell then lie one instant in the Hell of Hells that is in the bosome of a mortal sin Thus violently do these two vertues of Love and Griefe make their severall on sets on this poor Soul thus terribly do they bate her one after another thus cruelly do they lay her under the heavy press of unavoidable reproaches This is not all for divines The greater Saints the moâ—e tormented with this worm teach and are very peremptory upon the matter that the more a Soul loves God and the greater Saint she is the more sensible is she of the biting of these un merciful worms And by the way you are to note that these holy Souls do not suffer these afflictions only to purge themselves No though there were no other motive but that of the Love of God and a certain honesty well becoming their noble nature though there were nothing to be got by it yet would they not desist from exercising these generous and heroical acts and from giving God a signal testimony of the dear affection of their Souls In the mean time this their honesty costs them dear and these acts of charity and contrition are extream painful And since the sting of honour wounds deeper pains sorer and goes more to the quick then pain it self hence it follows that these holy Souls whether for Love or for justice sake are upon a most cruel rack and so become an object of great commiseration and it cannot be expressed how beholding they take themselves to those that endeavour to comfort them and are mindful of their calamity Now the reason why divines believe that the most perfect Soules are the most afflicted with these voluntary kind of punishments as I may tearm them is because they all actuate according to the uttermost Sphere and extent of their vertue so that a Soul that has a greater proportion of Love acts with more vigour and plunges her self deeper in the profound abisse of Love and in the Gall and bitterness of contrision and as this proceeds out of meer love notwithstanding their so sensible misfortune they would not loose an ounce of it so tender is their love to God and so great the horrour they have of all that is displeasing in his sight But of this more at large hereaftâ—r Now I must tell you plainly all The greatness of the pain of loss that I have yet said is in a manner nothing to what I am going to say The Saints and Doctors of Gods Church as I have already insinuated unanimously agree that the most grievous pain in Purgatory is to be deprived for a time of the beatifical vision and to be laid aside and banisht as unworthy to contemplate the bright Sun of the divinity This pain of loss as they call it is the pain of pains it is the deepest pit of Purgatory and the very bellows that blowes the coales there This evil of the privation of the sight of God is according to St. Thomas of its own St. Th. in 4. d. 21. a. 1. nature far exceeding all the temporal punishments of this world and thus he proves it Will you know the full latitude of grief and take an exact survey of all its dimensions reflect with your self what the good is it deprives us of what the present evil we endure what powerful instinct we have to repossess that good which we have lost what obligation we have thereunto both by Grace and Nature and lastly what a violent application and vigour of Spirit we feel in our Souls in the pursuite of it Now all this is extream in the evil we now treat of For it is Gods precious sight which is lost who is the consummation of all bliss it is the very dregs of bitterness those poore Souls drink down at large draughts it is the only beautiful object for which they were Created and Redeemed with the most precious blood of Christ for which they breathed out so many sighs in this mortal life and which they do so passionately pursue when once delivered out of their bodies that there is nothing to be compared to that holy ardour No I do not think that an arrow shot from a bow or an Eagle upon the wing or the winde or lightning or the Sun in his ful careere or flight it selfe flies away faster I cannot believe that fire mounts up or a stone sinks down to its center with more vehemency nor that the Heavens can be swifter in their motions then these vigorous Souls are in running flying and precipitating themselves into God when alas they find their wings clipt and their whole flight so unluckily stopt that no tongue is able to express the resentment they feel at it I know St. Bonaventure strives to St. Bonav in 4. d. 20. a. 1. sweeten this Martirdome and will not
soul and therefore St. Paul speaking of our blessed Saviour Ad Hebâ— 12. 2. insists much upon this that he had the courage and the love for us all to overcome the pain of a horrible confusion which doubtlesse is an unsupportable evill to a man of wit and courage Tell me then if you can what a burning shame and what a terrible confusion it must needs be to those noble and generous souls to behold themselves overwhelmed with a confused chaos of fire and such a base fire which affords no other light but a sullen glimmering choakt up with a sulphureous and stinking smoak and in the interim to know that the souls of many country clowns meere idiots poore women and simple religious persons go straight up to Heaven whilst they lye there burning they that were so knowing so rich and so wise they that were Councellors to Kings eminent Preachers of Gods Word and renowned Oracles in the world they that were so great Divines so great Statesmen so capable of high employments This confusion is much heightned by their further knowing how easily they might have avoided all this and would not Somtimes they would have given whole mountains of Gold to be rid of a stone in the Kidnies or a fit of the Gout Collick or burning Feavour And for a handfull of Silver they might have redeemed many years torments in that fiery Furnace and alas they chose rather to give it to their dogs and their horses and sometimes to men more beasts then they and much more unworthy Me thinks this thought should be more vexing then the fire it self though never so grievous And yet there remains one The remembrance of their ungratefull Children thought more which certainly has a great share in compleating their martyrdome and that is the remembrance of their children or heires which they left behinde them who swim in Nectar and live jollily on the goods which they purchased with the sweat of their brows and yet are so ungratefull so brutish and so barbarous that they will scarce vouchsafe to say a Pater noster in a whole month for their soules who brought them into the world and who to place them in a terrestial Paradice of all worldly delights made a hard venture of their souls and had like to have exchanged a temporal punishment for an eternal The remnants and superfluities of their Lacquies a cast at Dice and yet lesse then that might have set them free from these hellish torments and these wicked ungratefull wretches would not so much as think on it § 4. How long the Souls are detained in Purgatory IF all these punishments passed away like a tempest if the time of their continuance were but short their case were not so deplorable But how long think you does a soul dwell in Purgatory First it is most certain that these pains are not eternal otherwise it were not Purgatory but hell it self for in this chiefly lies the difference between hell and Purgatory that the pains of Purgatory lasts but for a time those of hell for an eternity Again it is most certain that they survive not the day of Judgment and St. Augustine proves it evidently because then all souls are to S. Aug. de civit c. 16. receive their last doome and be immoveably fixed in an eternity of good or evil Thirdly it is most certain that all the Souls shall not be there punished equally neither for extent of time nor proportion of torment for as their crimes were not equall so the punishment cannot be equall where Justice bears the sway Fourthly It is also certain sayes the Learned and Judicious Suarez after others Suâ—d 46. Sect. 4. n. 6. that we must not apply the revelations of certain devout persons to all the souls in Purgatory All Visions and Apparitions of Souls not to be credited but rather ought to be very reserved in this kinde and not easily to give credite to all such stories which passe for revelations for though God in his secret judgments may be pleased to punish some disloyal souls after a particular manner yet must we take heed how we draw general conclusions from particular cases For since private revelations are not Articles of Faith we must be very cautious and proceed warily in this matter especially where we see such kind of revelations seemingly to clash one against another We must therefore wave such extraordinary cases and honour them with due respect but not build so much upon them as to draw thence universal maximes Wherefore in this place I mean not to speak but of the common and ordinary stile of Gods providence laying aside all particular visions and personal exemplar punishments which God has reserved to himself Now there have been some so bold as to maintain that all the souls lye in Purgatory but a few hours and are then quit and released of their pains Their The Souls not so soon released as some imagine grounds are first because the pains may be so doubled and scrued up to such a height as to equall any extension of pain what soever Secondly because the souls there do exercise such acts of love and other sublime vertues all which conspire to purify these poore creatures so that the businesse is soon dispatched Were this true it were very good news but the mischief is that most divines censure this assertion as too bold and temerarious and in truth it has very little or no probability and were a way in effect to destroy Purgatory since we may cut off half of those few hours they speak of by redoubleing the pains and another half of these by redoubling them again and so go still halving the time by doubling the paines till we reduce them to a quarter of an houre or half a quarter or possibly to an instant or so little durance as to be scarce begun but ended Which kind of Purgatory though it may have place in those souls which depart immediately before the day of judgment when the intention of the pain must supply for the extent of time which will be then wanting in regard that there is to be no more Purgatory after that general accompting day yet to apply it commonly to other souls where there is no need of such subtilties were to confound all things It is the ordinary strain of Gods Justice to proceed by degrees and therfore there must be a competent time allotted for those punishments And this is the general belief of the Church that the souls are kept there for a time some more some lesse each one according to his desert and though happily some choyce souls do but as it were kisse the gates of Purgatory and rather feel the smoak then the fire yet the greater part of them lye there for some considerable time to satisfy the sweet rigour of divine justice I am not ignorant that some great Divines have believed that if a soul stay there for a year or two it is
for the dead were to be of no greater advantage to them then as far forth as they had power to advance the time appointed for the day of judgement which for my part I apprehend so coldly that did I not relie upon better motives I should soon lay a side all devotion for the soules departed But I mean not here to dispute the question since this Treatise is not intended so much in a polemical as in an affectuous and moving way And therefore I leave it for others who have already entered the lists and are engaged in the quarrel And so I take no notice how it can stand with Gods impartial justice that whereas many soules may leave this world in the same condition as to Purgatory that is in this Authors opinion with the same burâ—hen of depraved affections some of them shall lye 1000 years in Purgatory to wit those that die 1000 years before the day of judgement anâ— others but a day or an houre or a moment to wit those that die immediately before that general accompting day For since he owns no other paine in Purgatory but that which flowes from the said crooked inclinations and affections bent against reason which I suppose to be the same in all why should some of them as it must necessarily follow in these principles shake them off so soon and others groan so long under them Again I say nothing how harshly it sounds in a christians eare that a holy soule in the other world should not only still pursue the same wickeâ— inclinations for example to drunkenness gluttony and carnality which she had in this life but that this should be her only punishment I say as little how in this opinion great sinners that die immediately Trid. sess 14. c. 2. Flor. act 4. cit after baptisme who certainly go directly into heaven must needs carry their Purgatory with them into heaven For since it is evident that baptisme does not blot out their perverse inclinations they cannot be dispossessed of them but must of necessity carry them into the other world as well as others and consequently must have their Purgatory in Heaven Purgatory being nothing else with him but the inhering strife and fury of such irrational affections I let slip a world of other absurdities because my ayme as I told you in publishing this Treatise is not to canvase curious and impertinent questions of Purgatory but to move the Reader to a solid devotion for the poore soules which I feare is not a little cooled since these fond opinions came to light But now me thinkes I heare my Reader very inquisitive to know §. 5. Whether their pains-grow less and less IT is pitty to see sometimes how your greatest divines are entangled and lost in their over subtile speculations As for the pain of loss which the soules endure by being deprived of the sight of God they agree that it is daily much lessened for seeing the time draw nearer in which they are to be made happy with the sight of God whom they love so ardently it exceedingly rejoyces them and certainly they cannot chuse but much sweeten and consequently lessen their pains by the frequent repetitions of that devout aspiration which St. Teresia was wont to use when she heard the clock strike O lovely houre how dost thou rejoyce me by bringing me the welcome newes that I am now a whole houre nearer to the sight of God For a heart that loves cannot but be overjoyed to know that he approaches to the faire object of his love though it be but a moment But as for the paine of sence your Doctors are divided some hold that as for the continuance that is certainly shortned every day by the day that is past which is evident and in particular that the prayers of the faithfull obtain of God an abridgement of the length of the time which he taxed for their punishment so that the more one prayes for the souls the more is cut off of the time of their suffering which by that means becomes the more tolerable But as for the sharpeness and intenseness of the paine and the action or activity of the fire as they speak in schools that is as grievous in the last moment as at the first and as painful in the end as at the beginning of their Purgatory And they flatter the soules as if this were best for them because the greater the pains are which they endure the sooner are they purged and made worthy to enjoy the presence of God Others teach that as well the paine as the time are continually lessened according to the proportion of the relief which they receive from the suffrages of the Church And why not since Gods goodness is so great such is the desire of the Church that begs it the tears of the faithful pretend to no less and we must not consider the fire as an Element working naturally and equally at all times but rather as an instrument of Gods justice who gives it more or less force and power to worke upon the soules as he pleases Why should Almighty God who is so loving a Father refuse to give this relief at the earnest suite of children in behalf of their Parents Brothers Sisters and dearest friends I say at their instance who are so sensible of their torments and so much concerned for their ease and relief I willingly embrace this opinion as more worthy of the bowels of mercy more sympathizing with the heart of Christ Jesus and better suiting with the prayers of the Church and the sighs of Christians And certainly none can better clear this difficulty then the soules themselves who feel the pains we speak of and these have often by Gods permission appeared to their friends and devout persons and born witnesse for this truth that their pains were still lessened as they received new succour from the pious endeavours of their friends upon earth untill they came at length to cease and determine And we must not here be too nice and hard of belief for as it is an argument of too much rashnesse and folly to give credite to all pretended visions of what nature soever so it argues too much brutishnesse and profaness to believe none especially when they are authorized by the Church and by persons of authority and credit beyond exception that we must either believe them or believe nothing in this World § 6. A notable example in confirmation of all the precedent Doctrine BEfore I leave off finishing this Picture or put a period to the representation of the pains of Purgatory I cannot but relate a very remarkable History which will be as a living Picture before your eyes But be sure you take it not to be of the number of those idle stories which passe for old wives tales or meere imaginations of crackt brains and simple souls No I will tell you nothing but what venerable Bede so grave Beda hist Angl. lib. 5. cap. 13. an
comfortable news of eternal bliss that he was not at all sensible of any oppression of nature nor seem'd to be the least concerned for it For said he what can any thing else availe me since I am one day to have Paradise with all the delights of Heaven Now if we Suar. d. 47. S. 3. credit the holy doctours of the Church and best divines of the Christian world the Souls in Purgatory are most certaine of their salvation For no sooner is the Soul departed this life but she is brought to a particular judgment where she receives an award of her eternal state of glory or confusion and from the mouth of God hears the irrevokable sentence from which there is no appeal no civil request no review of process no writ of errour for this decree of Gods justice must immediately be put in execution They say further that in the same moment that a Soul sees her selfe condemned to Purgatory she sees also the precise time prescribed her to continue there according to the ordinary strain of Gods justice But whether she know also by divine revelation who will pray for her and what assistance in particular they will give her or how much will be cut of of the time determined for her punishment is a nicer question which I purposely leave untouched for others to excercise their wits in as they please and make hast to take up the thred of my discourse I was letting fall in which I am to lay before your eyes the ineffable joyes of the soules in purgatory when they seriously reflect upon the certainty of their salvation and how soon they shall be drowned in the Divinity and yet swim in an Ocean of all heavenly comforts When Jacob knew for certaine that he was to have the fair Rachel he was content to be espoused first to Lia though she were blear-eyed and ill favoured and besides a world of heats and colds frights and fears and fourteen years toylesome service seemd scarse an hour to him so much was his heart inchanted with a holy love of his dearly beloved Rachel and so true it is that for the enjoyment of that which a soul loves in good earnest she makes no reckoning of fire and flames and a thousand Purgatories So that a Soul that is confident of espousing one day Rachel that is the Church triumphant sticks not to be first espoused to Lia that is the Church suffring with all the pains in Purgatory so long as it shall please God and fourteen years are unto her but as an houre such is the excess of her love to heaven O with what a good heart do I drink up my tears said the royal Prophet Ps 41. when I remember I shall pass into the heavenly Tabernacle were I to make my passage thither through Hell it selfe how willingly would I runn that way And to the same tune cried out St. Chrysostome with a masculine voice and a heart which was all heart If I were to pass through a thousand Hells so I might in the end of all meet with Paradise and my God how pleasing would these Hells seem unto me And certainly there are infinite soules would be ready to signe it with their heart blood that they would be willing to dwell in the flames of Purgatory till the day of judgement upon condition to be sure of eternal Glory at the last for believe it they that know well the meaning of these four words God Eternity Glory and Security can not but have a moderate apprehension of Purgatory fire be it never so hot and furious Another heavenly comfort They are impeccable which rejoyces these happy souls in the midst of their torments is an infallible and certain assurance which they have that although their pains be never so insupportable yet shall they never offend God neither mortally nor venially nor shew the least sign of impatience or indignation A true lover of God understands this language and if he do not shall in a moment learn it in Purgatory and find by experience that a soul there had rather be plunged in the deepest pit of Hell then be guilty of the least voluntary misdemeanour So that seeing her selfe to be grown impeccable and that no evils can have the power to make her offend God and that all impatience dies at the gates of Purgatory from whence all sins and humane failings are quite banished O God what a solid comfort must this needs be unto her The greatest affliction that good people can have in the suffrings of this life is the fear of â—ffending God or to think that the violence of their torments may make them subject to break out into a thousand foolish expressions and to tosse in their heads as many foolish thoughts filling their imaginations with a world of Chimeras and idle fancies of frightful objects or in a word because they appreâ—end either death or sin or the loss of their merit and labour or that God is angry with them For griefe with the Devils help strives to snatch out of our hands the victorious palme of our sufferings or at least to make us stoope to some frailties and imperfections which imbitter our hearts And were it not for this just fear Saints would not stick at the greatest evils they can endure in this world What a joy then must it be to these holy innocent Souls to see themselves become altogether impeccable The reason of this is clear because the particular judgment being once over the final senteâ—â—e is also pronounced and the Soul is no longer in a capacity to merit or demerit not so much as to satisfie by any voluntary sufferings of her own but only to submit to the sweet rigour of Gods justice who has taxed such a proportion of pains answerable to her demerits and so to clear her conscience and blot out the remainder of her frailties and impurities Make hast to do well before Eccl. 9. 10. death is the counsel of Almighty God for the appointed time wherein to heape up treasures of justice merits is before you appear in judgement for after that it will be too late The very instant that a soul leaves the body according to Gods law there is no more time for merit or demerit and therefore the souls that are sent into Purgatory are most certain they shall never more commit the least sin that can be imagined When St. Anthony was so furiously assaulted with a whole rabble regimâ—nt of Devils he was not greatly daunted at all their hideous shapes terrible howlings and rude blows all his fear was of offending God he apprehended more the stroaks of impatience then all the wounds of hell he called upon Christ for help and having obtained the favour of a personal visite he made him this amourous complaint and sweet expostulation O good Jesu where were you alass where were you even now my dear Saviour when your enemies and mine conspired so cruelly against me why came
the soules in Purgatory say the same with a far greater ardour of love And I dare say more yet that they have such a longing desire to cooporate with God in their own purification and to render themselves capable of the beatifical vision that if it were in their power to heighten the rigour of their torments it would be the first thing they would do to advance their eternal felicity And with reason for if we were saies St. Austin to take the pains of hell in our way Serm. 2. in festo omnium sanct to see God in his glory we ought to suffer them with a good heart for a good so great that whatsoever it costs it can never be too deare Think well on these words good Reader Let God cost never so much he cannot be too deare St. Catherine of Genua was heard to say she believed that the greatest paine which the souls have in Purgatory is to see they have an obstacle within themselves and some few blemishes which hinder them for the time from enjoying 〈◊〉 â—ight of their creatour in so much that their spight and anger is not so much against the flames though never so biting as against these unlucky blemishes and loathsome remainder of their sins Nay they are in a manner in love with the fire which by little and little helpes to free them from this cruel paine and do like the Patient who kisses the razour that is to cut out whole slices of putrified flesh from a Gangrene or mortal Ulcer which would otherwise insensibly bereave him of his life if that fierce remedy were not applyed §. 5. Their suffering without merit and the free exercise of their vertues without impediment are to them special motives of comfort VVHat a pleasure thinke To exercise vertue without merit and to suffer without recompence you is it to suffer or indeed to exercise any vertuous act meerly for the vertue it self without casting about for any further recompence then barely the doing what is pleasing to him we love and who loves us out of his pure bounty without any desert of ours A Roman Lady understanding that Caesar had condemned her deare Husband Petus to stab himself snatcht up the dagger first her self and struck it deep into her breast and then with a smiling but dying look spoke thus to him My dearest this stab has done me no harme at all upon my honour it has not but alass the stab that you are going to give your self it is that which bereaves me of my life and with that she gave up the ghost Those holy and inamour'd souls calling to mind how Christ died for them to pay the ransome of their sins without looking for any returne by way of recompence out of his pure charity and obedience to his father they would most willingly sacrifice themselves for his glory in satifaction of justice and imitation of his charity and scarce feel their pains when they compare them with those of their dear redeemer And though we can scarse apprehend this joy we that are so selfish as to relish nothing but earthly things whose hearts are so wedded to our own interests and so apprehensive of pain yet have the patience to listen to the patheticall expressions of a man of this world who certainly was not without his havenly gusts but could make a shift to find out a Paradise even in the Purgatory of the sufferings of a miserable life You will soon discover by his golden eloquence who it is that speaks Had I the S. Châ—ys ho. 8. in c. â—â— Ephes choyce to be an Apostle Prophet Doctor nay more an Angel and Potenâ—ate of heaven were it in my power to be metamorphosed into a Cherubin or Seraphim and to be raised above their thrones in a word to be seated at the right hand of God or rather to be thrown down into a dark loathsome and subterraneous gaole there to be manicled fetter'd and greivously tormented for the sole love of my saviour Jesus Christ in company of the glorious Apostle St. Paul with out all hesitation or doubt I should chuse to be there with St. Paul and should prefer it before the joyes of heaven How do you feel your hearts when you heare this kind of language and what think you may not the souls in Purgatory have the like affections and more heroicall if there can be any thing thought of more heroicall then to quit heaven for Purgatory and to leave God for God sacrificing themselves entirely to his glory as a perfect holocaust to please his divine will and appease the sweet rigours of his justice Blessed Father Francis Borgia was wont to say he would willingly go to Purgatory and lie frying there to the end of the world to heap up a new treasure of grace and glory and to become a greater Saint in heaven and a more acceptable servant to his divine Majesty In earnest this was an act of a noble heart and purified soul aspiring to the highest pitch of perfection The holy man took it for a most incomparable satisfaction to see himself every moment to go on encreasing in vertue and heaping up graces upon graces and at the last to purchase so high a place in the Kingdome of heaven as not to have cause to envie the highest Seraphin And yet me thinks if I may have leave to vent my own thoughts there is somthing of a holy kind of self interest in this point of perfection holy I say but withall interest But why may we not believe that those holy captive souls fly higher and offer themselves to God to suffer there for one another out of a divine kind of civility and generous act of fraternal charity For in this world there have been Mothers have chosen rather to die themselves then see their dear children die before them There have been also souls as I have touched elsewhere have wisht to be damned alwaies understanding that it were without sinn to save others and this without hope of grace or glory merely in obedience to perfect Charity And why should we make such a wonder of it since the very Tygress who has no heart but what is made up of cruelty has nevertheless love enough to cast her self into flames if she find no other expedient to save her young ones Can we believe that bruits have more love and mortal men more charity and courage then the holy Souls of Purgatory have for the love of God and of those Souls they passionately love O sweet Purgatory O amourous flames of charity and pure trancendent charity worthy of the souls which are so pure Sure this is that which the holy servant of God meant when she said that the souls there are wholly despoyled of all self-interest and do wholly devote themselves to Gods interest and that of pure charity We should soon see wonders in The power â—â— grace and vertue when they act freely and without impediment our selves would
no sooner restored to His undoubted Right but he is every way as great â— King as His Predecessours as richly Attired as much Courted by Forraign Princes and as gloriously attended at White-hall whereas the rest of his Nobility and Gentry are but his creatures and most humble Servants There are great souls that for some slight misdemenours are banisht out of the Kingdome of Heaven to which they are heirs apparent as being the adopted Sons of God by Grace nay more are locked up in that burning furnace which we call Purgatory but they are scarseâ—â—â—â—â—ose when you may see them 〈◊〉 out in triumph and go soaring up above the Heavens so high as to loose all sight of them And when they are once there what will they not do for you And what did not our gracious King to his power to honour and gratifie those that stuck close to Him in his misfortune or were so lucky as to have a great hand in restoring Him King David at his death recommending his good servants to his Son Solomon spoke thus withall My Son there is such a one and such a one have well deserved death for the crimes they have committed but when I was generally deserted and when they took the boldness upon them to throw stones at me these men took pitty on me and gave me succour in my greatest affliction and therefore I charge thee O my dear son to be mindful of them and to favour them as thou lovest me Have not holy souls as much charity as David Is not the misfortune into which they are faln of a more sensible nature then His In what a lofty strain will they â—hen represent unto God the good service you have done for them in their extream necessity when they find themselves onâ—e securely seated in those heavenly mansions And what will not that boundless mercy be moved to grant at the instance of so dear friends Shall I tell you there are many worthy persons think these words of Jesus Christ may be very properly applied to the souls in Purgatory Do good saith he and make your selves friends at the charge of your purses and be good stewards of Mammon the false god of Riches that those whom you relieve may assist you at the hour of your death and lead you into eternal tabernacles Among the poor none so secure of enjoying the delights of Paradise as the souls in Purgatory who are all predestinate and all holy for the present they are poor indeed and helpless creatures but if you contribute never so little to their ease they will be sure to requite you in your necessities if not before at least when they are once possest of the joyes of Heaven Cardinal Baronius a man of credit beyond exception relates In annal Eccles how a person of rare vertue found himself dangerously assaulted at the hour of his death and that in this Agony he saw the heavens open and about eight thousand Champions all covered with white Armour to descend who feâ—l instantly to encourage him by giving him this assurance that they were come to fight for him and to disengage him from that doubtful combate And when with infinite comfort and tears in his eyes he besought them to do him the favour to let him know who they were that had so highly obliged him We are said they the â—â—uls whom you have saved and delivered out of Purgatory and now to requite the favour we 〈◊〉 come down to convey you instantly into Heaven And with that he died We read such another story of 〈◊〉 â—erthus apâ—â— P. Roam de Purg. c. 20. St Gertrude how she was troubâ—ed at her death to think what must become of her since she had given away all the rich treasure of her satisfactions to redeem other poor souls without reserving any thing to her self but that our Blessed Saviour gave her the comfort to know that she was not only to have the like favour of being immediately conducted into Heaven out of this world by those innumerable souls whom she had sent thither before her by her fervent prayers but was there also to receive a hunderfold of eternal glory in reward of her charity By which examples we may learn that we cannot make better use of our devotion and charity then this way But he that will 〈…〉 satisfie himself that he can loose nothing but gain excessively though he should offer up all his satisfactory works for the souls in Purgatory let him read over what F Eusebius Neremâ—ergicus and F. James Monford have excellently well written upon this subject The Fourth Survey Of the powerful means to quench the flames of Purgatory COuld the poor souls but They cannot help themselves help themselves or abate the cruelty of their torments with all their devont aspirations so pure and so holy they would soon free themselves But alas they cannot and this is one of their greatest miseries to see themselves in so desperate a condition as to be overwhelmed with raging fire and not to have the power to get out or to allay the fury of the flames or to merit the least favour in this kind not so much as de Congruo as they speak in Schools or by way of a certain congruity conveniency or decency The time of meriting expired with their lives what now remaines is wholly deputed for suffering and it is not the least of their vexations to see how easily they might have prevented all these mischiefs in their life time and that now there 's no remedy but by suffering to supply for that negligence though they would never so fane Howsoever I love those divines Su. in 3. p. d. 19. post St. Tho. who are somthing more civil in this point then their fellows and am easily perswaded by them that although the souls cannot immediately contribute the least to their own ransome or any way merit their own deliverance yet may they be so happy as to work upon the goodness of their Angels and by their means obtain some sweet refreshments at the merciful hand of God wherewith to allay the bitterness of their torments And following their opinion who teach that they pray for us and procure us heavenly favours what inconsequence were it to say further that they move our good Angels to inspire us efficaciously to intercede for them and to assist them with all the duties of Christian charity it being a thing to which they are otherwise of themselves so much inclined without the sollicitation or importunity of others §. 1. What succour they receive from the Angels and Saints in Heaven IN the first place you would be The Saints pray for them resolved whether the Angels and Saints in Heaven and above all the Mother of mercy Pray really for them If so how comes it to pass that they do not every hour or indeed every instant make a general Gaole delivery and quite empty Purgatory For what power has the Mother oâ— God
mount above all the Quires of Angels and possibly soare up to the highest Seraphims O that I might but have leave to suffer here a while in her place how willingly would I do it that so my God might be the sooner and better glorified in heaven by this happy soul and a million of other souls upon earth receive comfort and protection from her powerfull intercessions I willingly resign up unto her all the right I have of being set free my self and if God permit I am ready to make her a deed of gift of all the suffrages which my dear friends have sent me for sure all the pains which shall fall upon me by this bargain can not but be amourously sweet since they are the cause of so great a good in the empirial Court of Heaven St. Christina was already lodged in Heaven says Cardinall Bellarmine l. de gemitu col c. de Purg. when she quit the glory of Paradise to exchange it for the flames of a thousand and a thousand most cruel Martyrdomes why may we not believe that so charitable soules would willingly yet remain in their flames that others more worthy then themselves may be sent out in their roomes to glorify God in Heaven VVhether God accept of these holy desires or no may be a question but at least it seems very credible that the souls who are so replenisht with perfect charity make such tenders of their service as farr as God gives them leave and as farr as it may stand with the laws of the Church patient But enough of what passes in the other world of which we have no certain revelation nor other clear light to guide us by Let us now turn our speech to the living and see what they are able to perform for the benefit of the dead §. 3. That the dead may receive help from us that are living and how we must be qualified to doe them good BE pleased to take notice what several meanings these 〈◊〉 eans impetration satisfaction c. three words import Satisfaction Impetration and Suffrage Satisfaction implies a good work accompanied with some grief or pain answerable to the pleasure we unadvisedly took in sinning whereby we make an honourable amends and satisfie the Laws of Justice by repairing the injury we have done Impetration is a kind of letter of request which we present to the mercy of God beseeching him to pardon those for whom we offer up the sacrifice of our devotions and the incense of our sighs and prayers so that our prayers addresse themselves to the sole mercy of God and crave an obsolute pardon or abolishment of the crime as a pure gift without offering any proportionable satisfaction save only that of our blessed Saviour or in general of the Church militant Suffrage is a tearm which comprehends both whether it be a penal work or a prayer only or both luckily united together The Church triumphant to speak properly cannot satisfie because there is no place for penal works in the court of Heaven whence all grief and pain are eternally banished Wherefore the Saints may well proceed by way of impetation and prayers or at most represent their former satisfactions which are carefully laid up in the treasury of the Church in lieu of those which are due from others but as for any new satisfaction or payment derived from any penal act of their own it is not to be lookt for in those happy mansions of eternal glory The Church militant may do either as having this advantage above the Church triumphant that she can help the souls in Purgatory by her prayers and satisfactory works and by offering up her charitable suffrages wherewith to pay the debts of those poor souls who are run in arreare in point of satisfaction due for their sins Had they but fasted prai'd labor'd or suffer'd a little more in this life they had gone directly into Heaven what they unhappily neglected we may supply for them and it will be accepted for good payment as from their bayles and sureties You know he that stands surety for another takes the whole debt upon himself this is our case for the living as it were entering bond for the dead become responsable for their debts and offer up fast for fast tears for tears in the same measure and proportion as they were liable to them and so defray the debt of their friends at their own charge and make all clear This then is the general sense The living may help the dead 〈◊〉 how 〈◊〉 of the Church that the living may help the afflicted souls all these several ways either by satisfying for them or by their prayers or by interposing the satisfactions of Christ Jesus who has left them at the disposition of the holy Church his beloved spouse And what rational person can deny this since they are all members of the same mistical body and consequently are tied in charity to yeild mutual assistance and comfort to one another and the rather for that every one in his turn may stand in need of the same friendship and look to be requited I am pertaker said Ps 118. 63 holy David with all those that fear God and holy Church to this purpose repeates that doleful ditty so full of tenderness out of Job take pitty on me at least you that are my friends for the Job 19. 21. hand of God has falne heavily upon me And otherwise we must discredite a world of good Authors a world of authentical records a world of most pregnan◠proofes and blast the reputation or venerable Antiquity which has ever held it as one of the maine points of Christian charity to pray fervently for the faithful departed to pay their debts and to strive by all means possible to help them out of their flames To which purpose by special favour almighty God has somtimes permitted souls to shew themselves visibly to their friends and kindred and to beg relief by Masses Prayers and other good works whereby to shorten and diminish the sharpness of their torments So did Pope Innocent the third and a thousand others as appears by unquestionable relations of grave Authors What they cannot of themselves they beg of us and beg it as an alms for charities sake and it were both sin and shame to deny them That which often costs us but little they esteem at a high rate and could they but give us a clear sight of the wonderful effects of our smal endeavours we should questionless take their cause more to heart then we do Howsoever St. Thomas and other divines assure us that even in rigour of justice our satisfactions are accepted in lieu of theirs since God has so ordain'd and past his word for it to his dear spouse the Church who really believes it to be so and proceeds accordingly So that we may rest confident that whosoever undertakes to provide for those distressed souls so he be qualified with the conditions which
be voluntary or unavoidable This I beg as a most wâ—lcome almes to the poor souls in Purgatory and a charity which will be of no little comfort to your self Do but as Magdalen and Martha did when they saw their brother Lazarus lockt up under ground and overwhelmed with Earth they wept and took on so bitterly that they drew tears from our blessed Saviour and rescued their brother out of the Jawes of death They are your brothers I entreate for they are prisoners under ground Christ Jesus has as tender a hart as ever give your selves then to acts of contrition let a tear steal now and then from your eyes and happily sweet Jesus will be so well pleased to see them that they may suffice to quench the flames of Purgatory and possibly work a miracle there in raysing souls to life everlasting and placing them above the firmament that lye now as it were buried in that subterraneous lake of fire But if you be so aride and barren or so niggardly as not to afford them a tear at least send them the sweet refreshment of a devout aspiration or some short but rigourous jaculatory prayer which as a fiery dart you may be still levelling at the heart of Almighty God give them a good thought or a cordial expression of sorrow that you are not able to afford them the relief you could wish Do never so little so you do it with a good heart and you will assuredly give them much ease in their implacable torments The people of God was condemned to be cruelly massacred or destroyed by fire when Queen Esther fetching but a deep sigh or two and whispering but a few words into the eare of King Assuerus did so charm him as to work the redemption of above a million of souls who must otherwise have been delivered over to the fury of fire and sword Are you so voide of charity or is the blood that runs in your veins and feeds your heart so frozen up as not to yeild one drop of compassion for Gods people who are most miserably handled by a most cruel inundation of Purgatory fire If so let 's conclude that nature was deceived for thinking to make you a man she missed of her aime and made you a very Tiger void of all humanity and common civility It was a pious invention that Baron An. 987. A sodality to help the 〈◊〉 of certain Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons of Rome An. 984. to erect a sodality of those that should particularly devote themselves to pray for the dead which custome continued a long time at Rome and is yet extant in some part of the Christian world When one of their number dies they all contribute their pious labours to help him out of Purgatory I say all not only those who remain yet alive but those also who are already got into heaven so that it is impossible for him to make any long stay there What a pleasure is it to see that a soul of this happy confraternity does no sooner enter into Purgatory but a good part of Heaven and Earth conspires to procure her enlargement This is to be wise indeed these are matters of state which all the world would be well versed in as importing them far more then the government of whole Kingdomes Methinks you that read this should now long to spread abroad this most excellent devotion by erecting one of these sodalities which would be of so great advantage to your self and others Most part of mankind is so taken up with building rich houses or providing stately Tombs for their Rotten Carcasses they have no leasure to think what will become of their souls or in what a fiery mansion they are like to be lodged at their first appearance in the other world Do they not in truth deserve to lye there frying whole yeares Without mercy they that had so little wit as not to endeavour the avoiding of an evil which only deserves the name if compared with the petty evils of this world which are such bug-bears in our weak sighted apprehensions A man that is undone by some cheat or surprize may be pittied but he that sees his own ruine and will not stir a foot to prevent it no creature can pitty such a man and certainly he deserves not the least compassion The world has generally a great esteem of Monsieur d' Argenton Phillip Commines and many worthily admire him for the great Wisdome and sinceraty he has laboured to express in his whole History but for my part I commend him for nothing more then for the prudent care he took here for the welfare of his own soul in the other world For having built a goodly Chappel at the Augustins in Paris and left them a good foundation he tied them to this perpetual obligation that they should no sooner rise from table but they should be sure to pray for the rest of his precious soul and he ordered it thus by his express will that one of the Religious should first say aloude let us pray for the soul of Monsieur d' Argenton and then all shoulâ— instantly say the Psalm de Profundis Gerson lost not his labour when he took such pains to teach little children to repeat often these words my God my Creatour have pitty on your poor servant John Gerson For these innocent Souls all the while the good man was a â—â—ying and after he was dead went up and down the Town with a mournful voice singing the short lesson he had taught them and comforting his dear soul with their innocent prayers Now as I must commend their prudence who thus wisely cast about how to provide for their own souls against they come into Purgatory so I cannot but more highly magnifie their charity who less sollicitous for themselves employ their whole care to save others out of that dreadful fire And sure I am they can loose nothing by the bargaine who dare thus trust God with their own souls while they do their uttermost to help others Nay though they should follow that unpparallel'd example of F. Hemando de Rbo Hist l. 1 c. 4. §. 3. Monsoy of the society of Jesus who not content to give away all he could from himself to the poor souls while he lived made them his heirs after death and by express will bequeathed them all the Masses Rosuries and whatsoever else should be offered for him by his friends upon Earth §. 5. Certain questions resolved about the application and distribution of our suffrages IT will not be amiss here to resolve you certain pertinent questions Whether the suffrages we offer up unto God shall really availe them for whom we offer them and whether they alone or others also may receive benefit by them Whether it be better to pray for a few at once or for many or for all the souls together And for what souls in particular To the first I answer if your How our suffer ages
souls yet your charity will supply your place and plead for you and the poore that partake of it will also pray for you and all this may possibly be to good purpose What your tongue cannot your hand will perform with greater advantage and what cannot proceede from your heart which is poysoned with deadly sin will out at your purse which is full of mercy and help to purchase some comfortable refreshment to take of the fury of those hungry flames which are incessantly preying upon the poor souls And here again taking upon me to be Proctour for this sufferring Commonwealth I conjure you to be liberal in distributing your almes and procuring Mâ—sses for the souls departed I can expect no less from their goodness but that their Angel gardians or yours or those of the poor will inspire them with good thoughts and move them to poure ouâ— their ardent and innocent prayers for you in recompence of so great a charity Mean while you shall be like the Crow that brought bread to St. Paul the Hermite without so much as tasting it or like the Whale that convay'd Jonas safe to the shoar without feeding on him or to use St. Gregory's comparison you shall be like the water in the Sacrament of Baptisme which falling upon the head of a child washes away the foul staine of original sin and entitles him heir to the Kingdom of Heaven and mean while glides away into some noysome sinke and there turnes to filth and corruption Now to the last Query for what What souls we ought most to pray for souls in particular we ought most to concern our selves I answer briefly thus 1. Without question all obligations of kindred promise gratitude rule command c. are to be served in the first place 2. You cannot do better then to offer up your devotions for those souls which are dearest to God or his blessed Mother 3. It is a singular charity to remember those that are in most need or most neglected 4. It is a pious and laudable piece of spiritual craft to do for thosâ— that will be soonest released for by this means you shall send into heaven good store of powerful advocates who will incessantly plead for you before the throne of mercy §. 6. How dangerous it is to trust others with what concerns the sweet rest of our souls in the next world AS I cannot but highly magnifie It is a folly to trust others and extoll their charity that have a sollicitous care to rescue out of Purgatory the Souls of their dear parents friends and acquaintance so I cannot forbear deploring and even laughing at their folly and meer madness as I may rightly tearm it that leave all to the discretion of their heirs and friends they leave behind them They must pardon me if I wrong them it is the zeal of their good transports me it is a just indignation sets my heart all on fire to see how the wisest often prove the veriest fools in this occasion which is the most important of all others How many wills never see any other light but that of the fire which consumes them to ashes How many false ones are dayly forged to fill up the others roome How few do we see at this day punctually performed or rather how many do we see not performed at all Having procured a Mass or two of Requiem and the Dirige to be said for decency sake and for the honour of their house who is there almost that will give himself any further trouble to pray even for his parents The good man is scarse cold in his Grave but his Children fall together by the Eares run into endless suits seaze upon what they can next lay their hands on right or wrong and will not be perswaded to forego it but by main force of Law or by the terrour of dreadful excommâ—nications One layes injustice â—â— his Fathers charge for doing so much to advance his eldest Sons fortune another cries out upon him for being so unnatural as to undo his own Child The Daughters think much their portions are no greater the whole house is up in armes and in continual alarums and in a word there 's nothing but a meer confusion and hurly burly amongst them Mean while the good man has leasure enough to fit at his taske of suffering and to lye frying in Purgatory not so much as one of his Children thinks on him unless it be to brand him with some injurious reproach The unfortunate soul almost killed himself with care and had like also to have damn'd himself to make his Children happy in this world and these barbarous harpies are so insatiable as to be raking at the bones and gnawing the very heart of their deceased father who must needs be very sensible if he know it to see himself so undutifully regarded by his own Children I will bring him in anon to speak for himself as best able to hold forth his own lamentable condition and sure it will break your very heart to hear him And yet tell me seriously does he not deserve all this who might so easily when time was have provided better for himself and prevented all this mischief by obliging the Chuch to offer up good store of Masses for him and was so indiscreet as to leave it wholly to the discretion of his Heirs and Executours who are little better then direct Barbarians For is there any likelihood they will stir to help him out of Purgatory they that cannot so much as afford him a stone upon his Grave worth a crown with a little inscription to put good people in mind who lies there that they may cast a good thought after him But I shall have occasion yet to enlarge my self more upon this subject and to make it appear what an irreparable folly is committed by the wisest in the world in neglecting one of the most important affaires in their whole life It would go hâ—rd with many Whether a soul must stay in Purg. till restitution be made were it true that a person who neglected to make restitution in his life time and only charged his heirs to do it for him in his last Will and Testament shall not stir out of Purgatory till restitution be really made let there be never so many Masses said and never so many satisfactory works offered up for him And yet St. Brigit whose revelations are for the most part approved by the Church sticks not to set this down for a truth which God had revealed unto her Nor are there wanting grave Divines that countenance this rigourous position and bring for it many strong reasons and examples which they take to be authentical and the Law it self which says that if a man do not restore anothers goods there will always stick upon his soul a kind of blemish or obligation of justice and since the fault lies wholly at his doore he cannot say they have the least reason to complaine of
a world of Masses to be said and a world of almes to be distributed in lieu of other idle expences and fruitless lamentations There is one in the world to 11. Age. whom I bear an immortal envy and such an envy as I never mean to repent It is the holy Abbot Odilo who was the Authour of an invention which I would willingly have found out though with the loss of my very heart blood Take the story as it passed thus Sigeb in Chron. an 998. A devout religious man in his returne from Hierusalem meets with a holy hermite in Sicily he assures him that he ofteâ— heard the Devils complaine that souls were so soon discharged of their torments by the suffrages of the faithful and particularly by the devout prayers of the Monkes of Cluny who never ceased to power out their prayers for them This the good man carries to Odilo then Abbot of Cluny he praises God for his great mercy in vouchsafing to hear the innocent prayers of his monkes and presently takes occasion to command all the Monasteries of his order to keep yearly the Commemoration of all souls next after the feast of all Saints A custome which by degrees grew into such credit that the Caâ—â—olick Church thought sit to establish it all over the Christian world to the incredible benefit of poor souls and singular encrease of Gods glory For who can sum up the infinite number of souls who have been freed out of Purgatory by this holy invention or who can express the glory which accrued to this good Abbot who thus fortunately made himself Procuratour general of the suffering Church and furnished her people with such a considerable supply of necessary relief to alleviate the insupportable burthen of their suffrings St. Bernard would triumph 12. Age. Ser. 66. in Cant. when he had to deal with Hereticks that denied this piviledg of communicating our suffrages and prayers to the souls in Purgatory And with what fervour he would apply himself to this charitable employment of relieving poor souls may appear by the care he took for good Humbertur Ser. de obitu Humberti thogh he knew him to have lived and died in his Monasteâ—â— so like a Saint that he could scarce find out the fault in him which might deserve the least punishment in the other world unless it were to have been too rigourous to himself and too careless of his health which in a less spiritual eye then that of St. Pernard might have passed for a great virtue But it is worth your hearing that In vita Malach which he relates of blessed St. Malachy who died in his very bosome This holy Bishop as he lay a sleep hears a sister of his lately dead making lamentable moane that for thirty dayes together she had not eaten so much as a bit of bread He starts up out of his sleep and taking it to be more then a dream he concludes the meaning of the vision was to tell him that just thirty dayes were now past since he had said Mass for her as probably believing she was already where she had no need of his prayers For this indeed is the ordinary excuse wherewith many use to â—â—â—â—ke their idleness God be with him he was a good soul he is certainly in Heaven ere this there is no more need to pray for him c. whereas God knows heaven is not so easily purchased as fooles imagine Howsoever this worthy Prelate so plyed his Prayers after this that he soon sent his Sister out of Purgatory and it pleased God to let him see by the daily change of her habit how his Prayers had purged her by degrees and made her fit company for the Angels and Saints in Heaven For the first day she was covered all over with black Cypresse the next she appeared in a Mantle something whitish but of a dusky colour but the third day she was seen all clad in white which is the proper Livery of the Saints What think you now sayes Saint Bernard is not the Kingdome of Heaven got by violence Did not Saint Malachy force it by storming were not his Prayers like stroaks of a 〈◊〉 like engine to make a breach in heaven for his sister to enter at Sweet Jesus you that suffer this violence are your self the cause of it the good Prelate breaths nothing but what you have inspired him so sweet are you in your Mercies so faithfull in your Promises and so powerfull in your divine wonders Thus far Saint Bernard But I cannot let passe in silence one very remarkable passage which happened to these two great servants of God Saint Malachy had passionately desired to dye at Claravallis in the hands of devout Saint Bernard and this on the day immediately going before All Souls day and it pleased God to grant him his request It fell out then that while Saint Bernard was saying Masse for him in the midle of Masse it was revealed to him that Saint Malachy was already glorious in Heaven whether he had gone straight thither out of this world or whether that part of Saint Bernards Masse had freed him out of Purgatory is uncertain but Saint Bernard hereupon changed his note for having begun Masse of Requiem he went on with a Masse of a Bishop and Confessour to the great astonishment of all the standers by O t is good to have such devout Masses said presently after ones death t is good to dye in so good hands as will not quit you till they have conducted you safe to the Quire of Angels Saint Thomas of Aquin that 13. Age. great Champion of Purgatory gave God particular thanks at his death for not onely delivering a soule out of Purgatory at the instance of his Prayers but also permitting the same soule to be the messenger of so good news Durand argues the case thus Sure Christian charity has more 14. Age. In 4. d. 45. power with Almighty God then a mere natural friendship can have with the civill Magistrate now it has been often seen that a condemned person has been quit at the earnest entreaty or voluntary satisfaction of their friends Stories are full of such courteous Civilities How can we then make any question but that God will as easily be moved to release holy soules out of Purgatory at the sweet importunity of their friends tears prayers sufferings here upon earth It was a laudable custom in some Countries that if a chast Virgin should present her self at the place of Execution to beg a Fellon for her husband her request was granted and the poor criminal was with great joy instantly conveyed from the gallowes to a nuptial feast This custome though now out of date may yet serve to tell us that Almighty God will not deny to set a soule free from the punishment of all her misdemeanours if we beg it earnestly at the hands of his infinite mercy And now we are come down to the fifteenth
Age where the 15. Age. Conc. Flor. in decreto Fathers of the Council of Florence both Greeks and Latins with one consent declare the same faith and constant practise of the Church thus handed down to them from Age to Age since Christs and his Apostles time as we have seen viz. that the souls in Purgatory are not only relieved but translated into heaven by the Prayers Sacrifices Almes and other charitable workes which are offered up for them according to the custome of the Catholick Church Nor did their posterity degenerate or vary the least from this received doctrine untill Luthers time when the holy 16. Age. Trid. sess 25 Council of Trent thought fit againe to lay down the sound doctrine of the Church in opposition to all our late Sectaries And I wish all Catholicks were but as forward to lend their helping hands to lift souls out of Purgatory as they are to believe they have the power to do it and that we had not oftner more reason then the Roman Emperour to pronounce the day lost since we let so many dayes pass over our heads and so many faire occasions slip out of our hands without easing or releasing any souls out of Purgatory when we might do it with so much ease The Sixth Survey Of twelve excellent means to prevent Purgatory or to provide so for our selves as not to make any long stay there BEhold the most important point of all others the secret of secrets and the true knack of all state affairâ—s in this world They talke of certain waterâ— which have so strange a power to dull the edge of fire that if one wash his hands with them he can receive no prejudice though he should thrust them afterwards into the fire or into boyling lead The preservatives I am here to treate of are of a higher nature they do not curbe the restless activity of this our sublunary fire which is bent only against dull bodies but they arme us against the raging fire of Purgatory which God has prepared to torment our very souls in the other world §. 1. The first perfect contrition ONe of the surest means to avoide Purgatory is to dye with teares in our eyes and St. Th. supp q. 5. a. 3. true contrition in our heâ—rts For Divines teach that our contrition may be so great â—s to wash away all those spots of sin which Purgatory â—â—re was otherwise to have words off And therefore as I take it to be a grâ—â—t piece of folly to defer the exercise of so precâ—ous â—n aâ—â— unto the houre of our death so I esteem it one of the most solid devotions of all others to accustome our selves to it all our life time that by daily frequenting such acts we may at length get such a habite and facility in them as with Gods grace to have them at our call when we come to dye All must not look for the same priviledge which the good thief had at the last gaspe It was but little that he sayd but he spoke it with so cordial an accent that he deserved to heare those comfortable words of our blessed Saviour This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise and soon found them verified by a present fruition of the beatifical vision Almighty God is pleased sometimes to make so forceable an entry into the heart of man and to set it so desperately on fire with his divine love that there is no remedy but to dye between the armes of love and griefe and thrice happy are those souls that loose their lives in this divine encounter and dye in the amourous flames of ardent charity they are sure never to feel the murthering flames of Purgatory Such was the death of our blessed Lady St. John Evangelist and infinite others who have been straight carried into heaven out of this world upon the wings of love or contrition so that a heart that is well seasoned with contrition or steeped in a bath of salt tears is like the heart of Prince Germanicus which Tacit. Ann. being washed over with a certain precious liqour could not be consumed by the fire which turned all the rest of his body to ashes This is that they call a good Peccavi but it must be a good one indeed for it is not every ordinary and triviall kind of sorrow which can work such wonders Those that have been long used to actuate themselves in those generous acts of contrition may be full of confidence that the mercy of God will not faile them at the houre of their death and that their good Angels will be then ready when it most imports to inspire them with all the best motives of true contrition since they have gone all along with them still furnishing them with such good thoughts and with so much good success that their hearts have been a thousand times broken with a lively amorous and cordial contrition and repentance for their sins And certainly they that dye either in the fire of so ardent a love or in the water of so piercing a grief need not feare the fire of Purgatory for that fire says St. Bonaventure was not made for them So that methinks this charity may be fitly compared to the Seraphin at the gates of Paradise brandishing his flaming sword which Tertulian calls the porâ—er Romphaeâ— janitrix Faradisi of Paradise grief is the edge love the fire wherewith it is inflamed and he that has this flaming sword has heaven gates at coâ—mand and goes strait thither when he leaves the world § 2. The Second to dye in Religion ANother safe way to escape Purgatory is to live and die in a good Religious order and at his death to renew and Ad fratres de monte dei à coella in coelum c. ratifie his Religious vowes To prove this I first call St. Bernard to witness who doubts not to assure us that there is a ready if not an uninterrupted passage into Heaven out of a Religious cell Next I appeal to those learned and holy Doctours who give it for a certain sign of Predestination to die in Religion because Christ has in a manner sworn in his holy Gospel to give a hundred fold and life everlasting Plat. de bonâ— stat Relig. to all those that shall leave Father Mother and other worldly concernments for his sake From whence it is that holy Church permits the superiours of divers Religious orders to make this solemne promise at the profession of their novicies for they have no sooner made their Vowes of Poverty c. But the superiour answers And I Child do promise thee Paradise and eternal life 3. Many Popes have granted a Sixt Greg. 13. Greg. 14. Plenary Indulgence in forme of a Jubily to all Religious persons that either by word of mouth or in their hearts call upon the sacred names of Jesus Maria at the hour of their death And what Religious person is there that does it not
said that the greatest Charity that a man could have in this life was to give his life for his friends where by the way Saint Bernard notes that his charity must needs be greater then the greatest since he gave his divine life not only for his friends but even for his enemies What shall we then thinke of their charity who voluntarily sacrifice their lives for infected persons whether friends or enemies acquaintance or no acquaintance rich or poor and do it generously dying a thousand deaths for feare danger and paine before they come to dye in good earnest Does not the Church list them amongst other Saints in the Roman Martyrologe Does she not keep their feast and make an honourable commemoration of their glorious death on the 28 day of February does she not withall tell us that the faithful devout people were accustomed to honour them as Martyrs would you then have these kind of Martyrs who dye in the fire of charity go to Purgatory To what purpose to Metamorphose it into heaven For if a Virgin who is violently dragd away to the stews which is a kind of hell where they make a Massacre of chastity in the opinion of St. Ambrose changes it into a kind of heaven what can we thinke of those charitable souls but that if they were conveyed into the suffering church they would sodainly change it into a Church Tryumphant Hear a comfortable story to this purpose One Damian of the holy order of Annal. St. Fran. St. Francis had devoted himself to serve those that lay sick of the Plague with a burning desire to give them all the comfort he could by his charitable visits St. Francis met him one day and said my Son did'st thou but know what a crown in heaven is prepared for thee in reward of this charity of thine thou would'st be out of thy self for meer joy go on in Gods name for it will not be long before thou art translated into heaven to eternal glory The good Frier continued the employment till one day being in fervent prayer he rendred up his happy soul into the hands of his creatour Can you now believe that a man that sacrifices a good part of his life on the Altar of the highest charity which is in the world next unto Martyrdom it self one that looses his own life to make others live and dyes in the flames of a devout prayer that this man I say goes to Purgatory or rather do you not believe that heaven stoops to take him up and to crown him with immortal glory Eusebius takes a pleasure to relate the high esteem they had of b. 1. c 20. those good Priests Deacons and Secular persons who thus exposed themselves to the Plague and sometimes were seen to tumble into the same graves where they had newly laid others The fiery furnace says St. Chrysostome was so Hom. de tribus pueris astonisht to see those three innocent creatures there that it durst not touch them but vented all its fury against the cords and fetters which bound them Let us then suppose these holy souls to be cast into the furnace of Purgatory who chose rather to forsake their lives then to forsake poor infected and forlorne creatures can we imagine any thing less then that those subterraneous flames should yeild and with reverence submit unto the flames of heaven which have already seazed on those holy souls and that they should say with Ecclesiasticus Thou hast delivered me according Eccl. 51. 6. to the multitude of thy mercies from the oppression of the flame which hath compassed me and in the midest of fire I was not burnt What! shall purity have the power to resist fire so that many chast Virgins have received no harme by it and shall not charity in its perfection be as good a preservative against the fire of Purgatory §. 5. The fifth A tender devotion to the Virgin I Cannot be perswaded that a soul truly devoted to the honour and service of the mother of God can be long detained in Purgatory if she go thither at all For how should this be does our blessed Lady want power she that can do all things says St. Anselme or charity she that has no bowels but of charity she that has a heart so tender that though you suppose a heart to be made up of all the mothers hearts in the world it could not be more tender then hers which is all sweetness and tenderness St Brigit had a son lived not so good a life Osor in cone St. Brigit revel as to look for Heaven without passing through Purgatory This great servant of God who was not without the passion of a loving mother casts about how to save the poor youth who was grown careless enough of himself She resolves therefore to offer him up to the Blessed Virgin and to trust her entirely with his salvation She undertakes the trust and carries it on so luckily that in fine she saves him and at the hour of death takes up his soul into Heaven This she did by first working him to a perfect act of contrition which impt his wings for Heaven and then cutting of the thred of his life which should have held out one day longer So that the Devil finding himself thus cozened made his complaint to God the just judge of the world who returned this answer Know that my mother is Lady and Queen of Heaven and therefore has liberty to place there whom she pleases and what she does in this kind is well done and pleasing in my sight There is a world of examples of the like favours graciously showred down from the mother of mercy who has often taken the pains to conduct her good Children and faithful Servants into Heaven And when it stands not with Gods justice but that a soul must into Purgatory what does she not to help her out as well by her own powerful intercession which she will be sure to interpose as far as it may stand with the just decrees of heaven as by the prayers of her devout servants into whose hearts she inspires a thousand good thoughts of tenderness for their souls who were particularly devoted to her How many divine consolations and refreshments does she send them by their good Angels And since it is certain that she goes somtimes to visite them on their death beds why may we not piously imagine that she gives them the like comfortable visits when they lye tied to their beds of fire in cruel torments The Lionness and the Tigress though never so fierce by nature will leap into the fire to save their young ones or perish there God forbid we should make any comparison between the Blessed Virgin mother of the Lyon of Juda and these wilde beasts and yet since we must allow so much tenderness to such cruel and savage Mothers we may not doubt but that the Mother of mercy seeing her beloved Children in the fire of
Purgatory will flye thither to fetch them out The devout and learned Richardus de Sancto victore commenting Ps 126. Rich c. 39. in Cant. upon these words of the Psalmist â—e shall not be confounded when he shall speak to his enemies in the gate tels us that this gate is the blessed Virgin to appear at the gate is to dye and to be cited to Particular judgement where no body sayes he is ever confounded that finds this gate but favourably open and to whom should the mother of God be favourable but unto those that were constant in her Service and from what confusion does she deliver them but from the dreadful fire of Hell and Purgatory O God! what assurance have we when the Queen of Heaven is pleased to plead for us and to procure us a favourable sentence and since it is her well beloved Son that is to be our judge who denies her nothing what may we not hope for When St. John Damascene had lost his hand he begged it again of the Queen of Heaven and his Sur. in ejâ—s vita Metaphrast suite was instantly granted so sure it is that she denies nothing to her dear Children what favouâ—s then may not a devout soul look for at her hands when she departs out of this world If Bern. he 1. sup mistes est Mary hold thee by the hand fear not falling cries St. Bernard Mariae tenente non corruis c. for if she be propitious thou art sure to have thy share in the Kingdome of Heaven Now to whom will she â—e propitious if not to those that while they lived breathed nothing but her love and service and when should she shew her self more our friend then when we are threatned with Purgatory fire which burns so dreadfully The holy Abbot Guericus had Ser. 1. de assump reason to wish rather to be lodged in the bosome of the blessed Virgin then in Abrahams bosome O it is no smal security to be under her protection though it were but under her feet for who should fetch a soul thencâ— to throw her into Purgatory God the Father how out of the hands of his beloved daughter who then God the Son how from his beloved mother who then God the holy Ghost what from his dearest Spouse who then St. Michael with his Sword and Buckler that were pritty that a creature should attempt what the blessed Trinity forbears out of love to the Mother of God Who then The Devil what the serpent whose head she crushed under her feet or any of his fellows who tremble at the very found of her name No there is not the creature dare meddle with a soul that is once sheltred under the royal mantle of her protection So true it is that one of the best preservatives against Purgatory is to be very devout to the blessed Virgin Mother of God But it must be more then an ordinary devotion as to make a vow of chastity in her honour to devoce ones self entierly to her to do her some signal piece of service to call often upon her and with a filiall confidence to bullil a goodly Chappel or some house where she may be served to the worlds end to give liberal and frequent almes for her sake to compose some excellent work in her praise and so to draw many others to her service To maintaine poor Schollars in a way to be Preachers or Religious men with this obligation that they shall make it their study all their lives to preach her greatness to promote her service and to draw all the world after her To make her a present of Masses communions fasts disciplines and other mortifications but above all to imitate her glorious vertues and to regulate our lives accordingly If you do these and the like things and do them with a good heart you need not fear Purgatory will do you any great harm She will obtaine for you such a measure of true contrition such a proportion of love and conformity to Gods will so much patience in your last sickness such holy and ardent desires to serve God sucâ— profound humility in a word such Heroical acts of vertue as blot out of your soul what Purgatory was to have done and put you in a present capacity to go directly into Heaven And if an extraordinary pass should be necessary who can better procure it for you then the Lady of the House the mother of the Judge the Empress of Paradise and Princess of the Universe §. 6. The sixth an humble patience YOu that suffer great miseries in this world may comfort your selves with such precious sufferings for so you be faithful to God so you voluntarily embrace what God sends in spight of impatience so you submit to the Laws of his sweet rigour which chastices you so you freely offer all your little All to this great Lord of all the great All of the whole universe so from time to time you be stil letting fal some good word to testifie that your soul and your body play not at the same game move not upon the same center but that while the one is oppressed and cries out the other secretly praises the paternal goodness of Almighty God so you do all this you may be confident there will be little or no Purgatory â—or you for since you have a Purgatory in this world there is no reason you should have another hereafter I learn this secret of St. Gregory who admires a poor paralytique that lay rotting on a straw Hom. 15. in Evang. bed where he had lived so all his life or rather where he had died so all his life his life being nothing else but a meer concatenation of hourely deaths Seruulus was the name of this poor wretch who at his death was comforted with angelical musick and carried away by Angels to sing his own part in heaven for all eternity One of those that were present told St. Gregory that at the hour of his happy departure out of this life so sweet a smel was spread all over the little Roome where he lay that he never felt the like and that this continued and was perceived by all the standers by until his holy body was laid in his grave and the service ended But you will say every body cannot be so holy as this good man certainly they may by the grace of God for St. Gregory observes but four things in him which you may command as well as he First he read often the holy Scriptures to comfort his heart in his sufferings Secondly he gave a part of the Alms he received of Gods people unto other needy persons and lodged poor pilgrims in his poor Cottage Thirdly holy aspirations and devout breathings were often heard to proceede from him which were like so many fiery darts shot into the heart of God and bringing thence the sweet air of Paradise to refresh his soule which by such amourous entertainments found lesse
trouble in her afflictions Fourthly He was sensible enough of his pain and would complain of it sometimes I say complain do you think Saints have bodies of Steele but betweeen one complaint and anoother he would be often thus sweetly interposing O my God I desire thy will may be fulfilled in all things and nothing else but thy will I am willing that thou handle this my body and all that belongs to me according to thy divine pleasure both in time and eternity Now tell me dear reader canst thou not do all this as well as this poore paralytick who lived for no other end but to be dying a lingring death all the dayes of his miserable and yet thrice happy life Will you have a soule so holy and so plyable â—o Gods will be thrown into Purgatory fire Sure said St. Austine if he meant to damn us in the other world he would not damn us in this to a Hell of most loathsome and intollerable diseases and I may say the like here that if God meant to punish his servaâ—ts in Purgatory after this life he would not punish them here in a Purgatory of miseries His goodnesse is not wont to punish the same fault twice Go into Hell and purgatory while you live cried In illud descendant in infernam St Bernard and you will be sure not to go thither after your death for it is not reasonable that you should have two Purgatories or two Hels Alas no And this is the cause why God to save his friends from those horrible torments of Purgatory fire sends them good store of crosses and afflictions in this world which are nothing so painfull and yet are highly meritorious in his sight Hom. 8. in c. 3. ad Colon. whereas the other are but pure sufferings Hear Saint Chrysostome The tongue that praises God in the midest of afflictions is not inferiour to the tongues of Martyrs and likely they may have both the same reward If a man praise God and give him thanks in his sufferings it is reputed as a kinde of Martyrdome and would you have a Martyr go to Purgatory he that findes heaven open and ready to receive him For as Emissenus saies very well the Heavens are not onely open to Saint Steven but unto all Martyrs and unto all that suffer and die with the name of Jesus in their mouths constancy in their hearts and fidelity in theirs souls The works of patience according to St. James are perfect and that which is perfect Jac. 1. ows nothing to Purgatory nor can Purgatory refine that which is already perfect no more then our fire can refine gold of twenty foure carrats that is so pure as not to have the least mixture or drosse or impurity § 7. The seventh Devotion for the Souls in Purgatory SHall I deal candidly with you one of my chief moâ—ives of publishing this Treatise was to perswade you this truth that one of the best means to prevent Purgatory is to have a great tendernesse and a particular care to comfort the souls there to spare nothing that can further their deliverance in a word to make your self a general Agent for this suffering Church to sollicite for their eternal rest Take now the proofs of this Assertion and the whole strength of my discourse 1. Christ said in plain terms In what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again that is you shall be dealt withall in some manner as you deale with others Mat. 7. So that if you have beat your brains and employed all your endeavours to help the souls in Purgatory and have really delivered some before their time it is but reason that this your charity should be requited with a like return and with a hundred fold besides and heaven at the end of it Methinks â—our case is not unlike to that of the prudent Abigail King David was so highly incensed 1 Reg. 25. against the ungratefull Nabal that he swore to pursue him and his whole Family with Fire and and Sword and to turn all into ashes For all this Abigail ventured to meet him with a Present and did it with so good a grace that she soon made up the breach and saved all For David after some little dispute with his anger grew calmer forgave all so sent her away joyfully in peace The application is easie T is true you have played the ungratefull Nabal you have offended God so far as to provoke his high displeasure so that he may seem to deale favourably with you if he sends you into Purgatory But you have with all played Abigails part in sending him as many gratefull Presenâ—s as you have breathed out fervent Prayers for the souls in Purgatory and with these you have made your peace so as you may look to be dismissed in peace into the Kingdome of Heaven 2. Take a second reason of St. Peter who exhorts us above all things to have charity for one another because charity covereth the multitude of sins For since it is the greatest Charity in the world to 1 Pet. 4. help poore souls out of Purgatory as I proved at large in the third Survey those that devote themselves wholly to this Service may be confident so to cover their sins as to put them out of the reach of Purgatory fire When Gibellin had straightly besieged Guelph Duke of Bavary and forced him to surrender his Town upon such hard Parud l. 2. c. 70. terms as that the women onely were permitted to secure themselves and to take away with them what they could carry upon their backs but as for the men they were to remain at mercy exposed to the fury of the fire and sword The good women laying their heads together found out this strange expedient to save their husbands as well as themselves for every one taking her husband upon her back and what else she was able to carry about her they marched out of the town Never was man so struck with astonishment as Gibellin was at this fight and though he might have disputed their passage as not consisting with the true meaning of the Articles yet was he so taken with so rare astratageme and strange example of a true conjugal love that â—he suffered them all to pass freely to the admiration of the whole world And surely we may hence conclude that all those who have so much love for the poor souls in Purgatory as to carry them as it were upon their backs out of their miserable thraldome will find heaven gates open and all the blessed spirits ready to receive them with acclamations of joy for so sweet an excess of charity 3 It is not possible that they who have been thus ransomed out of Purgatory by the ardent zeal of their friends here should not hold themselves obliged to restitution to return I say the like charity to the souls of their benefactours when they leave the world How can those happy souls that
gold because that is it which purgeth sin and maketh us find mercy and life everlasting How does your heart feele at this comfortable lesson since charity has the power to purge sin what need of another Purgatory and since she is so happy as to procure life everlasting have you not reason to hope she will at your death set heaven gates open and leade you in thither as it were by the hand When those dutiful children Val. max. took their parents on their backs to deliver them out of the flames which were furiously vomited out of Aetna to the terrour of all Sicily which seemed to be all on a light fire they say the flames out of respect to the natural affection parted themselves and made a lane for the youths to pass through without harme that had so much love for their parents whose age and feebleness would have otherwaies betrayed them to utter destruction and so all for company were luckily saved out of that furious Purgatory And certainly if your charity take you up if your mercy do but hide you in her bosome when you shall pass through Purgatory the fire will be so courteous as to retire and give way to your passage they will set all the gates open for you to get out when you please and bring you the Keyes of Paradice §. 9. The ninth Angelical purity THe ninth and a very efficacious preservative against Purgatory is a singular chastity or virginal purity I cannot think that a pure and humble heart a Soul that is newly divorced from a virginal body can ever be tied to purging flames This Diamond of chastity has I know not what that makes it victorious over flames this mount Libanus as white as Snow is never visited with fire from heaven this virginal Laurel which triumphs over the pleasures of this world fears not the fury of any subterraneous flames this St. John may be plunged into boyling Oyl without feeling the least smart this Royal Salamander can live untouched in the midst of fire this pure Gold suffers no detriment in the crucible this Eagle cuts her way through the element of fire and soares up to Heaven without singing her wings these innocents â—ing merrily in the furnace of Babilon as if they were in a terrestrial Paradice In earnest there is no reason that persons as chast as Angels who were invincible and untouch'd in the midst of the flames of concupiscence which devoure almost all the world there is no reason I say that those who were proof against these subtle alluring flames should not appear as good proof against those other cruel devouring flames or that they should ever feel the smart of the one that had so valiantly overcome the false flatteries of the other St. John says that Virgins follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes they are the ordinary courciers of Jesus Christ that have washed their Robes in the blood of the Lamb. And shall such clean innocent souls need the help of Purgatory fire to wash away theâ—r staines St. Teresia once seeing a Cannon in the Church ready to be laid in his grave and another time one of the society who was also laid upon the Beer ran instantly to kiss their dead corps and when all were astonished to see her she tould those whom it concerned that she was very certain that those two reverend persons were Virgins and that their happy souls had for that cause taken their flight into heaven just as they parted with their bodies The Greek History tels us that Cedren Annal. when in the heat of the Tyrants persecution Nicomendia fel to the plunder of the rude Soldiers amongst others they took a beautiful yong Virgin and having in vain labored to make her sacrifice unto Idols they put her into the hands of a wanton fellow to use her as he pleased She laughed at them only begged leave to speak a word or two to Aâ—ithimâ—â— the Bishop To him she proposed this caâ—e of conscience whether she might not rather chuse to die or to be accessary to her own death then loose the precious Pearl of her Virginity The good Bishop made her so doubtful an answer that not well understanding what he meant she consented to go along with the Soldier He hurries her away instantly into his own house where the poor Virgin seeing her self in his power speaks thus to him Friend do not touch me and I promise to teach thee a receipt that will make thee immortal whereby thou shalt become the most valiant and famous man living the secret is as dear to me as my honour and my very life As one Devil will sometimes overpower another so here the love of honour overcame lust He tels her therefore he was content to let her alone so she could but make her words good Sir I have says she a precious Oyntment which is of so great vertue that whosoever is anointed with it can receive no harme a thousand rude blowes or desperate thrusts of a Sword cannot do him the least hurt against his wil How shall I believe this Paradox replies the Soldier which you speak possibly only to amuse me or rather to abuse me Sure you will believe it says she when you see it tried before your eyes A way she goes borrows a little Oyl of the next Lamp she meets with returnes instantly shuts the door bares her neck as white as Snow rubs it well over with this miraculous Oyl that makes people immortal then casts herself down on her Knees and bids the Soldier be sure to take good ayme and strike boldly and spare not for he should soon see a fair trial of this wonderful experiment With this she smiles and stealing an amourous looke towards heaven begs of sweet Jesus her beloved spouse that the Oyl might have the effect she so much longed for to preserve her Virginity Mean time the Soldier lifts up his Sword and with all his might levels it at the neck of the innocent Virgin and in a trice strikes of her head which lay reeking in blood a good distance from the rest of her body Never was man so amazed and confounded as the Captain to see himself thus fooled But let us leave him to vent his sury by himself and fall to considering this prodigious courage this excessive love of purity this ingenious stâ—aâ—agenie of the Virgin this innocent murther or harmless contrivance of her own death in obedience to a particular instinct of the holy Ghost as we may piously imagine and having taken a full view of all these circumstances let us see whether we have the conscience to condemn the yong Lady to Purgatory fire who was so chast as â—n chuse rather to die then part with her Virginal integrity Which of you said the Prophet Isa 33. 14. Isay can dwell in devouring fire without burning Answer It is chastity Which of you can carry fire in his Bosome or lye in the bosome of fire without hurt cried
Antidoâ—e of immortality The Romans used to put a peecâ— of silver in the dead mans mouth and verily believed that by giving this for his passage he should be conveyed safe to the Elizian fields This was a vain superstition but you must give me leave to fancy that when a good Christian diâ—s with his saviour in his mouth or in his heart all Paradise lies open to receive him Open your gates you Princes of heaven open your gates for Ps 23. behold the King of glory is ready to make his entrance in the triumphant chariot of vertues sitting in a heart as white as Ivory which serves him for his royal throne Roger King of Sicily having long laboured in vain to Hist Neup p. 2. l. 1. make himself master of the Island Corfu at length tired out with so long a siege fell upon this noble stratageme He makes as if a certain Nobleman of the town were dead in his camp who desired to be buried within their walls with the rest of his ancestours He was accordingly layd upon the beare and covered like a dead corps a noble convâ—y was prepared to â—â—tâ—nd the Hearse with torches in their hands nothing was wanting to make up a compleat Funeral The Town mistrusting nothing set open their gates to let them in but my counterfeit dead man was scarse got upon the draw bridge ready to enter the Town when behold he sodainly changes the whole scen reviues and starts up with his sword in his hand which was a sign for all his attendants to throw away their torches and to betake themselves to their weapons and they managed them so well that they first took the Gate and then the Town and the whole Island to the great terrour and astonishment of their enemies who found themselves guld and surprized with so unexpected and unusual a ceremony A grave Prelate tearms the H. Paris lib. de Enchat Eucharist the incordiation of God as if he would have said that God in this holy Sacrament is as t' were incorporated into our hearts and our hearts into God so that God lying thus hidden within us he that is â—ord of the celestial Hierusalem to which our hearts have laid so close and so loving a seige if we present him to the blessed inhabitants as dead for the love of us they dare not but admit him and them also that carry him after this manner in the very center of their hearts and souls Upon occasion of a hot contest at Florence about Savanorola when some would have him an Heretick others not there were two amongst others took a strange resolution to put it to the trial of the fire and he that could endure the flames better was to be thought to have the better cause The day agreed on being come the fire prapared for the purpose and all the world longing to see the success of this strange challenge it was discovered that one of the parties had hid the blessed Sacrament in his bosome believing that the fire would not hurt him while he carried so precious a treasure about him What came of it and what was the conclusion of the whole business you may read at leasure in the History it self I only bring this to shew the mans confidence in this powerful preservative and then you may please to remember how the sacred host has been sometimes seen to hang in the ayre surrounded about with flames and thus to have been miraculously preserved I know we are not always to look for miracles of this nature and yet me thinks we may be confident that Purgatory fire will have nothing to do with a soul where Christ has been pleased to take up his constant lodging Where the King is there is the Court where Christ is says Sinesius there Syn Ep. 111. Ang. de gen ad litt must needs be good fortune and victory where God is says St. Austin there is Paradise ay though you were in the deepest pit of Purgatory God would not deny you entrance into Heaven who never refused to entertain him in your heart he never knocked at your door but you were still ready to receive him can you think he will be less courteous to you in the other world Besides all this he that receives often and devoutly receives withall such store of heavenly lights such a tenderness of heart such inflamed desires so much innocency in his conversation and so much purity of intention in all his actions he is withall so transformed into God upon whome he feeds and feasts himself continually he is so identified with him and to use the phraise of St. Dennis and St. Bonaventure he is so straightly united with God that as St. Paul speaks of them that cleave to God he becomes one spirit and as it were one thing with God This being so will you have this heart which is but one thing with Christ to be swallowed up in Purgatory and so to carry Christ thither They say Albertus Magnus held whether he held it or no I know many other worthy persons maintain that one single thought of the most bitter passion Granad deâ—rut du Pont. 4. p. Medit. of our Blessed Saviour is so powerful and so effectual that a man may gain sometimes more by it then if he had fasted with bread and water or disciplined himself every day til blood comes or read over dayly the whole Psalter I mean not to examine now the truth of this assertion according to the rigour of divinity I only say that in some sense it may be true and this makes very much for my present purpose For there is not the thing in the world that is a more lively representation of the Passion of Christ then the blessed Sacrament which he left expresly as an eternal memorial of his Passion commanding us to remember his death and bitter passion when we receive him and still acting in our hearts that sad tragedy though without the effusion of his blood and imprinting in our souls the several passages of his most precious death Good God of what merite then must a holy Communion be and a Communion which is often frequented and continued to the hour of death If such as these go to Purgatory sure there will be none free St. Thomas tels us the blessed Sacrament is call'd a pledge of eternal life now says he we never use to deliver up our pledge until we are possessed of the thing for which it was engaged see then saith he that you part not with the body of Christ unto his eternal father til he has received you into Paradise for which it was given you as a most precious and secure pledge Hence it is that St. Ambrose stiles it a parcel of eternal life an Ambros Opux de sanct sacram essay or tast a certain infallible assurance of enjoying it and St. Cyprian cals it an infusion of the Cyp. de cenâ— dom divine essence and St. Bonaventure a