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
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
of their sensual and beastly appetites But you must observe that all The power of grace above nature this happens while a soul is left to her selfe and her own natural forces for when the divine goodness is pleased to furnish her with plenty of his grace even in this world as wicked as it is this grace has such an ascendant over nature and breathes such spirit and vigour into a soul that she can wrestle with all difficulties and remove all obstacleâ— nay though the body be borne and sunke into the very center of misery yet can she still hold up her head and steer her course towards heaven Now will you clearly see how the souls can at the same instant swim in a paradise of delights and â—et be overwhelmed with the hellish torments of Purgatory cast your eyes upon the holy Martyrs of Gods Church and observe their behaviour They were torn mangled dismembred flead alive rackt broyled burnt and tell me was not this to live in a kind of Hell and yet in the very height of their torments their hearts and souls were ready to leape for joy you would have taken them to be already transported into heaven Hear them but speak for themselves O lovely Cross made St. Andrew beautiful by the precious body of Christ how long have I desired thee and with what care have I sought thee and now I have found thee receive me into thy armes and lift me up to my dear Redeemer O death how amiable art thou in my Eyes and how sweet is thy cruelty Your coales your flaming firebands and all St. Cecâ—ly the terrours of death are to me but as so many fragrant Roses and Lillies sent from Heaven Shower down upon me whole deluges St. Stephen of stones whil'st I see the Heavens open and Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of his eternal father to behold the fidelity of his Champion Turne O St. Laurence turne the other side thou cruel Tyrant this is already broild and cookt fit for thy Palate O how well am I pleased to suffer this little Purgatory for the love of my Saviour Make hast O my Soul St. Agnes to cast thy selfe upon the nuptial bed of flames which thy dear Spouse has prepared for thee O St. Felicitus and the Mother of the Machabees that I had a thousand Children or a thousand lives to sacrifice them all to my God What a pleasure it is to suffer for so good a cause Welcome tyrants tygres St. Ignatius Lyons let all the torments that the Devils can invent come upon me so I may enjoy my Saviour I am the wheat of Christ O let me be ground with the Lyons teeth Now I begin indeed to be the disciple of Christ O the luckie stroak St. Paul of a Sword that no sooner cuts of my head but makes a breach for my Soul to enter into Heaven Let it be far from me to glory in any thing but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Let all evils band against me and let my body be never so overloaded with afflictions the joy of my heart will be sure to have the mastry and my soul will be still replenished with such heavenly consolations that no words nor even thoughts are able to express it You may imagine then that the Souls once unfettered from the body may together with their torments be capable of great comforts and divine favours and break forth into reâ—olute heroical and supercelestial acts The holy Ghost tels us that the body that Sap. 9. 15. is corrupted burthens the Soul and the earthly habitation presses downe the understanding So that a Soul by the infirmities of the body is violently kept from the free excercise of her functions whereas if the body were supple pliable and willing to follow the perswations of a resolute and generous Soul or the inspirations with which she is plentifully supplied from above what might we not be able to do even in this life Now that which is not done here but by very few who are lookt upon as so many miracles and prodigies of men is easily performed by those separate holy souls who are in the very porch of Heaven assured of their eternal salvation In fine will you have a most perfect exemplar and idea of this wonderful combination of â—oys and griefs in one simple person you may clearly see it in the most sacred person of our blessed Saviour who in the midst of his bitter passion and in the very height of his agony and extream dereliction when he not only seem'd to have been abandoned by his eternal Father but had even abandoned and forsaken himselfe by miraculously withholding the superiour part of his blessed Soul from relieving and assisting the inferiour yet even then had all the comforts of Heaven and saw God face to face and consequently was at the selfe same time most happy by the fruition of the beatifiâ—al vision and yet so oppressed with griefs that he cried out himself my soul is sorrowful unto death and againe O my God alas why hast thou thus forsaken me Conceive somthing like unto this of the Souls in Purgatory who are most miserably tormented and yet replenished with heavenly comforts §. 2. Two maine grounds of their comfort the double assurance they have of their salvation and impeccability THe better to unfold you this They are certain of â—heir salvation riddle I must tell you that possibly the most solid and powerful ground of their comfort is the assurance of their eternal salvation and that one day when it shall please God they shall have their part in the joyes of Paradise That which is the sorest affliction in this life unto the most refined Souls in the greatest torments is the fear of offending God and making an unhappy end for want of the gift of perseverance of which none can be assured without a particular revelation and so becoming the Devils martirs by purchasing one Hell with another For if an Angel should come down from Heaven and give this infallible assurance unto an affâ—â—cted person that undoubtedly he shall be saved as being one of the choyce number of the elect certainly his very heart would leap for joy nor would the severest usage with death it selfe and death represented in her most frightful and gastly attire seem cruel or irksome unto him but exceeding welcome and pleasant When almighty God was pleased once to reveal unto St. Francis his eternal predestination and to seal him as it were a deed of gift of Paradise this Seraphin incarnate was so transported with an extasie of joy and so ravished out of himselfe that for eight dayes together he did nothing but go up and down crying out Paradise Paradise O my soul thou shalt have Paradice and had so quite lost all memory of eating drinking sleeping suffering living dying and all things else as being inebriated with the sweet remembrance of that
griefs alas I have deserved far more but with all be pleased I beseech thee to remember in thy mercy to encrease also my courage and to fortify my patience Ther 's nothing sure that is Nothing to pure heavâ—nly consolations comparable to pure heavenly consolations When all creatures are wanting all other worldly satisfactions eclipsed from our hearts so that we remain in pure suffrance and savour nothing but God alone then it is says the mistical divines that we prosess the joy of all joys and the quintessence of all true and solid comfort God has done us the honour says St. Paul to ad Ephes 2. 6 make us sit by his divine Majesty and as it were side by side to his son Jesus Christ a favour that has so ravisht my soul that I cannot think on it without incredible St. Christ Homil. de laud Pauli joy Where do you imagine was S. Paul says S. Chrysostome when he spoke this For my part I believe he was lying in a dungeon in irons neck and heels together forsaken of all the world and that it was in this generall dereliction when he was surprised with those ravishing joys of heaven and had such a feeling of Gods greatness that he seem'd to be already seated at his right hand When thinke you says S. Thomas was he rapt up into the In ep ad Cor. third heaven I am apt to believe it was at his conversion when despoiled of all worldly comforts and all things failing him at once all mighty God snatcht up his soul into heaven and gave him a sweet relish of the delights of Paradise What shall I say then of the souls who seeing themselves besieged with fire and torments and a thousand Martyrdoms and having no humane consolation are put upon a sweet necessity to have their recourse unto God and to seek their contentment in him alone O what fervent aspirations what holy exstasies what cordial oblations what divine acts of uniformity How amorously doth God and his Angels inspire them what pure lights and affections do they instill Heare the Prophet David Ps 93. 19. according to the multitude of my bitter griefs your consolations O my God have rejoyced my heart And S. Paul when I 2 Cor. 1. 5. am oppressed with evills then it is that my soul swims in celestial joys and that I am as it were all can died with sweetness And the Prophet Esay in the greatness of our furies in the severest rigour of your anger O my Lord you have cast out some raies of your sweet mercies and have ravished me with admiration Now though all this be said of this mortal life yet may we in some proportion give a guesse by it how it fares wâ—th the holy souls in Purgatory and the rather because a soul once severed from the body has much more liberty to actuate her self and to couple an excess of torments with an excesse of joys since the same in some sort has been seen to have happened in this life Have you ever read in St Austin that if a drop of the Heavenly torrent should fall into Hell Hell would no longer seem to be Hell but a kind of Heaven Now certainly the divine goodnesse le ts fall some of those drops into Purgatory nor are the Angels sparing but rather prodigal in showring them down upon the souls there who within a few moments are to be exalted into Heaven as high and gracious as themselves and possibly more I begin to fear this discourse may debauch your devotions and coole your charity and that seeing the souls enjoy so much comfort in Purgatory your compassion for them may grow slack and so not continue equall to their desert Remember then that notwithstanding all these comforts here rehearsed the poor creatures cease not to be grievously tormented and consequently have extream need of all your favourable assistance pain and endeavours When Christ Jesus was in his bitter Agony sweating blood and water the superiour part of his soul enjoyed God and his glory and yet his body was so oppressed with sorrow that he was ready to dye and was content to be comforted by an Angel In like manner these holy souls have indeed great joys but feele with all such bitter torments that they stand in great need of our help So that you will much wrong them and me too to stand musing so long upon their joys as not to apply your best endeavours to afford them succour Let us then here break off this discourse and passe on to consider what assistance we owe and they expect of our charity and first let us see what a charity it is to help them The third Survey That there is not in this world a more eminent or Prudent Act of faternal Charity then to help the Soules in Purgatory THe Divine Apostle the Desciple of Paradise and 1 Cor. 13. Doctor of the universe reads us this lesson that the highest point of Christian perfection consists in Charity The abridgment of the Decalogue the epitome of the whole Bible the quintecense of all vertues is finally reduced to this sole point of divine Love Now fraternal charity or the love of our neighbor is cozen German to the love of God and upon these two holy loves as upon the two Poles of the World moves the Heaven of all perfections They are the two Angels that keep sentinell at the Gen. 3. 24. gates of Paradise the two Cherubins that cover the Ark when 3 reg 8. 7. the Manna of the felicity of this life is contained They are the two eyes of the spouse of the soul which wound the heart of God and pierce it so deep with their divine glances that he cryes out in the Canticles that they have Caâ—◠〈…〉 stolne away his heart alas says he my beloved thou hast wounded my heart and hast robbed me of it so powerfull are thy innocent charmes and chast allurements The more power the love of God has in us the greater is the heat of fraternal charity which burnes the very heart of our souls and like the Phenix takes delight to live and dye in so noble a fire and to consume in such harmlesse and yet murthering flames My designe here is not to treat of the love of God but only to suppose that the more one loves God the more he loves and desires to help his neighbour and to believe that a man loves God without doing his uttermost to assist his neighboure in way of charity is to fool him self directly Would you know how much you love God look with what courage you use to serve your neighbour for otherwise your charity is not fire but smoke and your affections are not divine love but winde or a meer natural love or in a word selfe love or rather an empty shadow or Phantastical appearance of divine love He that loves not his neighbour whom he daily sees with both his eyes says
in the case of the rich glutton why may they not be so kind as to pray for one another If the flames of Hell said the Devout Sales that worthy Prelate of Geneva were not sullied with the smoake of sin were they but pure flames of holy love O what a pleasure were it to be swallowed up by such flames or to be thus damned eternally to love God What should hinder then but that the Souls in Purgatory where the fire of love triumphs over their tormenting flames may display their ardent charity and vigorously apply themselves to assist and comfort one another as far as Gods providence will give them leave May we not presume to fancy that out of an excess of charity they are willing to dispoil themselves of all those helps and advantages which they receive of their friends to throw theÌ„ upon others offering themselves freely to suffer for one another Tertul. Apolog. Tertullian admires how prodigal the first Christians were in this kind of charity of suffering and even dying for one another how ready they were to leap into the very flames and expose themselves to the most cruel tortures that could be devised and all to save others for whom they were prepared What shall frail mortals who are made up of flesh and blood thus willingly suffer for one another and shall not the souls who have cast of with their bodies all humane weakness and imperfection have as much charity for other souls especially being certain of their salvation of which men in this life can have no assurance without a particular revelation St. Ambros de Virgin Didymas offered to dye for St. Theodora and in conclusion both died for her and with her Elizeas being dead himself raised another from death to life which was more then he did for himself St. Paul seems to have been content to be damned to save the Jews alwayes reserved that it might be without sin David would willingly have met with death in her uggliest attire so he might have saved his son Absalon and yet he knew him to be but a graceless unnatural parricide Shall not holy souls have as much kindness for other souls whom they see upon the point of being metamorphosed into Seraphins as David had for a meer reprobate and lost creature Many Saints in this world have beg'd it as a favour of Almighty God that they might suffer for the souls in Purgatory and have done it in good earnest freely renouncing their own conveniences for the souls comfort by a most heroical act of supernatural charity Do not you believe that the souls in Purgatory have a more refined love and that they actuate themselves in more heroical transcendent acts of charity since they are not only grown to be inpeccable but have withal a far clearer insight into the nature of this divine vertue I but they can merite nothing True but do you take them to be so selfish as to do nothing purely for Gods sake without seeking their own interest what say you to our Angel Guardians is it for any private lucre or merit or purely to please God and to do us a work of singular charity that they have so sollicitous a care of us And when God himself loves us is it I pray you for any interest of his own or out of an excess of his overflowing bounty and charity which Math. 5. 48. well becomes him â—e perfect saith he as I am perfect now the means to do this is to be well versed in these acts of heroical love as to love God for God because he deserves it as being the only charming object of our love I love said St. Augustine because I love I am resolved to love because I am beloved of him that loves me only because he will needs love me To love for meer love is the quintessence of divine love What shall we be so niggardly so mercinary or so mechanical as not to excercise an act of pure love without hope of reward Is not our love well requited if we please God and those whom God loveth They say Appelles would give away his Pictures for nothing he had so great a valew for them he thought no set price could be equal to their worth and that gold it self was too mean a thing to purchase such precious labours which he therefore chose rather to give away gratis then to expose to an unworthy sale so that the bare pleasure he took in bestowing them upon his friends was all the recompence he lookt for for those incomparable pieces And certainly it is a most noble and truly royal thing to give and to give without hope of requital Seneca spoke a word which shew'd a magnanimous and true Sen. l. de benef generous heart To give and to loose all benefit by his gift is no wonder but to loose all benefit and yet to be still giving is a divine Master-piece and an act worthy of God indeed Now when these charitable soules can gratifie others by giving away the charities which are bestowed on them why should they not do it To do a pleasure for another without incommodating himself is no more then what you may expect of an Arabian or Barbarian but to incommodate himself to lye burning in fire groaning under excessive torments and all this to make others happy is certainly an act worthy of those noble and generous souls who are all inflamed with pure divine love When they had a minde to flatter their Caesars the people would cry out O Jupiter take away some of our years shorten our lives decimate our dayes and give it all to prolong the life of our good Prince let him live at the charge of our lives we are all ready to lay them down at his feet that he alone may live and raign happily in the flourishing greatness of his Empire Shall Infidels have more kindness for a mortal man perhaps a wicked Tyrant or a profane Atheist then holy souls have for those that are about to be Canonized for Saints in the Church Triumphant I have heard of great servants of God who when they saw some famous Preacher or Apostolical Person draw near to his end would expresse themselves to this purpose O that I were permitted to dye in his Roome for I alas am but an unprofitable member of the Church all my services avail but little to advance Gods cause whereas this worthy person may do a world of good and be a comfort to infinite souls What should hinder a soul in Purgatory from having the like feelings may she not and with truth cry out I am well acquainted with my own abilities and can have a nearer guesse what I am able to doe in Paradise where I am like to be one of the meanest servants in the whole house of God and therefore may be well spared but there is such a soul had she but once cleard the petty debts she stands yet engaged for she would instantly
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
Author witnesses to have happened in his time and to have been generally believed all over England without contradiction to have been the cause of wonderful effects and which is so authenticall Bellarmin de gemicu columbae l. 2. c. 9. that Cardinal Bellarmine a man of that judgment as the world knows having related it himself concludes thus For my part I firmely believe this History as very conformable to the holy Scripture and whereof I can have no doubt without wronging truth and wounding my own conscience which ought readily to yeeld assent unto that which is attested by so many and so credible witnesses and confirmed by such holy and admirable events About the year of our Lord 690 a certain English man in the County of Northumberland by name â—rithelmus being dead for a time was conducted to the place of Purgatory by a guide whose countenance and apparrell was full of light you may imagine it was his good Angel Here he was shewed two broad Valleys of a vast and infinite length one full of glowing firebrands and terrible flames the other as full of Hail Ice and Snow and in both these innumerable souls who as with a whirlwinde were tossed up and down out of the intollerable scortching flames into the insufferable rigours of cold and out of these into those again without a moment of repose or respit This he took to be hell so frightfull were those torments but his good Angel told him no it was Purgatory where the souls did pennance for their sins and especially such as had differred their conversion untill the houre of death and that many of them were set free before the day of Judgment for the good Prayers Almes and Fasts of the living and chiefly by the holy sacrifice of the Masse Now this holy man being raised again from death to life by the power of God first made a faithfull relation of all that he had seen to the great amazement of the hearers then retired himself into the Church spent the whole night in prayer and soon after gave away his whole estate partly to his wife and children and partly to the poore and taking upon him the habit and profession of a Monke lead so austere a life that though his tongue had been silent yet his life and conversation spake a loud what wonders he had seen in the other world Sometimes they should have seen him as old as he was in freezing water up to the ears praying and singing with much sweetnesse and incredible fervour and if they had asked him brother alas how can you suffer so much sharpe and bitting cold O my friends would he say I have seen other manner of colds then these Thus when he even groaned under the voluntary burthen of a world of most cruel mortifications and was questioned how it was possible for a weak and broken bodâ— like his to undergo such austerities Alas my dear brethren would he still say I have seen far greater austerities then these they are but roses and perfumes in comparison of what I have seen in the subterraneous lakes of Purgatory And in these kind of austerities he spent the remainder of his life and made a holy end and purchased an eternal Paradice for having had but a sight of the pains of Purgatory And we dear Christians if we believed in good earnest or could but once procure to have a true sight or apprehension of them should certainly have other thoughts and live in another fashion then we doe The second Survey A Glimpse of the Paradice of Purgatory or of the ineffable Joyes and Heavenly consolations of the Soules there I Do not stile that the Paradice No terrestrial Paradise in the way to heaven of Purgatory which some have fancied as if the souls having almost clean cancelled out all those impurities which they here contracted were to be conveyed into a terrestrial Paradice or a most delicious garden of pleasure smiling with a divine amenity there to dispose themselves the better to see God without suffering any pain of sence For although this fancy may appear to have somthing of piety yet has it little or nothing of solidity and I am resolved to couch nothing here that is not very Massive Solid and substantially well grounded Now the Councel of Florence Flor. sess ult seems to take away all credite from this opinion of a terrestrial Paradice and so down goes all that goodly fabrick built in the ayre For says the Councell either the souls are quite purged and if so they are immediately received into heaven and made worthy to behold God or they want still more purging and refining and then they are still like to lye by it in Purgatory From whence it clearly follows that the souls departed can have no time left them to entertain themselves in those pleasant gardens and sweet breathings they so much magnifie Wherefore under the notion of the Paradice of Purgatory I understand the excessive joyes of these captive souls the incomparable acts of their will and understanding and the continual favours shour'd down upon them from Heaven even amidst their most cruel torments §. 1. How these excessive joyes can stand with their unspeakable torments TO make this good we must A separate soul acts without controule first suppose that the actions of a soul disengaged from the body are quite of a different nature from those which she exercises while she is chained to a lumpe of flesh drowned in blood and other humours kept in thraldome by her tyrannical passions and brutish affections overburthened with deadly frights and fears and leading a kind of slavish and miserable life Tertullian came near the marke when he compared a soul in this world to a Coach-man that is to guide four unruly Horses without Rains a Souldier that has his Sword in his hand but his Armes tied a swift courser that would run but is tethered a bird that would fly but has his wings clammed up with Bird-lime Now when the soul is once set free from this bondage and lives at liberty this Coach-man drives this Souldier strikes this Courser runs this Bird flies and this Soul does what she pleases without controule Besides that which makes the actions of a Soul in this life to be so weak and unperfect is the necessary dependance which she has of the body into which she is so ingrafted that she seems to be but one and the selfe same thing with it If the body be oppressed with pain the soul is so deeply plunged in it she can think of nothing else you must work a miracle to make her have so much as a good thought or gâ—ve you a good word she is grown so lumpish you would think her whole spirit were resolved into flesh And this may be the reason why the holy Scripture so often compares men to beasts as to Lyons Foxes and the like because their souls become brutish by following the dictaments and motions
you no sooner to relieve me I was here replied Christ beholding thee and preserving thy heart from sin If it be so said the invincible Hermite do but assure me this that I shall not sin and let Lucifer with all his accursed crue and hellish power nay let all the world besides band against me since my God stands by me and will secure me from offending him I make nothing of all the rest Pain is no more pain Hell is no more a hell but a mere Paradise since it helps me to gain Paradise which is worthy to be purchased with a Million of Hells §. 3. More grounds of Comfort arising from their voluntary suffring their disinteressed Love of God and exact conformity with his holy Will IN the next place take this most Voluntary suffering sweet and weighty Consideration An evill that is forced and against ones will is a true evill indeed the constraint and violence it carries along with it imbitters it above measure and renders it insupportable whereas if the evill be voluntary it is a good evill a lovely evil an evill to be purchased at any rate Witnesse the hoâ—y Martyrs of Gods Church who when they voluntarily shed their blood and with a good will poured ouâ— their lives for Gods cause though at the cost of the most inhumane torments imaginable seemed to make but little reckoning of the smart of them as you may observe by their carriage For some of them would throw back the worms that were crept out of their Ulcerous soâ—res others kisse the burning coals and by way of Honour place them on their heads This holy Martyr embraces the Gibbet as if he took it to be an easie ladder whereby to mount up straight into Heaven another provokes Tygers and Lyons to dismember him This tender Virgin leaps into the fire prepared for her without staying for the Executioners help another casts her self into the Sea to preserve her Virginity See the force of Christian Resolution which is steered by divine Maximes They dye and smile at it they seem to court Death it self they chuse rather to be under the hands of a bloody executioner who can at most bereave them of their lives then in the power of the Son of an Emperour who may rob them of the Lillies of their Virginal integrity Nothing can be grievous to him that acts vigorously and suffers voluntarily whatsoever falls in his way This then is one of the Souls chief Comforts in those fiery Dungeons They accept their pains as from the hands of their loving Father who out of his paternal care makes choice of those rough instruments to polish and refine them and so fit them for his presence They look upon them as love tokens sent from their beloved and esteem them rather as precious gifts of their loving lord then as cruell punishments inflicted by a severe enemy They kiss the rod and the Fatherly hand which makes use of it for their Soveraign good When a Chyrurgion makes a deep incifion to let out the water of a dropsie when he strikes his lancet into the arm when he cuts of a Gangreend-member the diseased person kisseâ— the hand that has made the wound embraces the Suregon though sprinckled with his blood opens his mouth to give thanks his purse to reward his eyes to bath in tears and his very heart to love cordially this kinde Murtherer who has so cruelly mishandled him to do him good and to save his life What think you is the language of these holy Soules these children of God in the midst of their severest torments Sweet rigours of heaven amorous cruelties alas why do you vouchsafe so to humble your greatnesse to take the pains to purifie us poore Creatures worthy of a thousand Hells O the profuse goodnesse of the Almighty who is pleased with the tenderness of a loving Father to chastise his wicked Servants and so to adoâ—â— them for his dear children Wâ—â— it necessary that himself should take the trouble upon him to stretch out the hand of his infinite Justice to purifie such disloyall Souls far unworthy of a love so cordial Oh let him burn let him strike let him thunder it is but reason he should do so for since he is our Father our Creatour our redeemer our dear All the sole Object of all our lives howsoever he handles us we shall still take it for a great favour and esteem our selves over happy to be treated though never so rudely by so good a hand Have they not reason Believe it they experience it to be so sweet and so reasonable nay they judge it so necessary for them to suffer in these flames that though they should discover a thousand gates open and a free passage for them to fly out of Purgatory into Paradise nor so much as one soule would stir out before she had fully satisfied the divine Justice Paradise would be to them a Purgatory should they carry thither but the least blemish in the world When Isaack saw the sword in Abrahams hand ready to strike off his head and reflected that he was to receive the deadly wound from the hands of his dear Father that good and virtuous young man could neither find tongue to plead for his life nor feet to run away and decline the stroke nor hands to defend himself nor so much as eyes to deplore his sad misfortune but yet was content to have a heart to love his good Father and a head to loose and a life to sacrifice upon the altar of Obedience and believed the fire which was prepared to destroy him was to be as the odoriferous flaming Pile of the Phoenix wherein she is consumed to rise again to a new and happy life The holy soules that burn in the flames of Purgatory are much better disposed to embrace whatsoever God shall ordain then Isaac was in regard of his Father But there is yet something of a To be where God has placed them higher nature to be said upon this point We have all the reason in the world to believe that God of his infinite Goodnesse inspires these holy soules with a thousand heavenly lights and such ravishing thoughts that they cannot but take themselves to be extream happy so happy that St. Catherine of Genua professed she had learnt of Almighty God that excepting onely the blessed Saints in heaven there were no joys comparable to those of the Souls in Purgatory For said she when they consider that they are in the hands of God in a place deputed for them by his holy Providence and just where God would have them it is not to be expressed what a sweetnesse they finde in so amorous a thought and certainly they had infinitely rather be in Purgatory to comply with his Divine pleasure then be in Paradise with violence to his Justice and a manifest breach of the ordinary laws of the house of God I will say yet more continued she it cannot so much as steale into
tears that are able to move cruelty it self Whence I conclude there is not upon the earth any object deserves more commiseration then this nor where fraternal charity can better employ all her forces Next to the grievousness of their More charity to help those that cannot help thâ—mselves pains there is not any thing can so magnifie your charity to deceased souls as the nature of their condition wherein they can neither help themselves nor one another For there is no more time for merit alas no nor any way left them to solace themselves in the least degree but meerly to suffer patiently the sweet rigours of the divine justice Here upon earth there is not so wretched a creature that cannot both help himself and receive help of others At least he has his comfort that he merits heaven by his sufferings and that his patience will prepare him a crown of glory He may excercise a thousand acts of vertue which are as many dâ—grees of grace and glory if he do them as he ought In fine he makes a vertue of necessity by embracing that voluntarily which he cannot avoid and glories in this that he can imitate his Saviour Jesuâ— Christ whereas the souls can receive no comfort by meriting which is the comfort of comforts in this life whence I conclude that our charity to them cannot be better employed When our blessed Saviour saw that poore creature and heard him say that he had lane there perishing at the Pond side for the space of thirty eight years for want of a man to help him in it went to the very heart of sweet Jesus and presently forsaking all others he cured this poore impotent creature and wrought that famous miracle in favour of this helpless wretch forsaken of the whole world besides and certainly this was a case of great commiseration but nothing comparable to thâ— case we treat of for those that are yet living though never so miserable have a thousand tricks and devices to shift and help themselves in their miseries but the poore souls alas have no way left them to decline or sweeten their martyrdome Pliny reports that an Eagle seeing one day the young maid his dear Mistresse who had cherished him in her bosome to be laid flat on a burning wood pile was so struck at the sight what with love and what with compassion that she immediately took wing and launching into the burning flames to deliver her was there consumed with her Good God! shall Savage beasts and that Tyrant of the Aire have more pity of a dead carcasse that feels nothing then we have of immortal souls who have so great a feeling of insupportable torments Your Indian women use to hold it for a great honour to throw themselves into the flames to their dead husbands so to joyn souls and ashes together and shall it be said that a natural love is more daring then a supernatural and that women have more love for the dead carcasses of their husbands then we for the preciouâ— souls of our Fathers Mothers Brothers Sisters and others who are most worthy of incomparable love §. 2. Our Charity for the souls departed is prefered before all other works of mercy YOu shall be judg your self you that read this If God at the same instant should put you both in Purgatory and in a common Gaole as it is most easy for him to do I conjure you to tell me in which of the two places would you desire to be first relieved and ought you not to do that for others which you would have them to do for you Besides the spiritual works of mercy are of a higher rank then 〈◊〉 Châ—â—â—ty in spirâ—tual then in corporeal works of mercy those that are corporal as St. Thomas proves excellently well Is it not then a more noble piece of Charity to relieve souls then bodies to stretch out your hand I say to help a poore soul out of scorching flames then to comfort a sick person that feels but a little heat of a Feavour and may have a thousand sweets and refreshments Again when you bestow an Almes on a poore body t is true Nothing lost that iâ— given to the Souls you can never do amisse if you look only upon God but you may often fail of your aime and loose both your money and your labor if you consider the men themselves who for the most part are Ungratefull Deceitfull Wicked and so far unsatisfied that you have never done with them Do them a thousand good turnes if you faile but once all is lost they do nothing but grumble and repine they quite forget all the good they have so plentifully received from your accustomed liberality they take notice of nothing but what you have omitted they believe all is no more then their due they are as insolent aâ— if you were alwaies bound to do for them To say nothing thâ—â— they often abuse your charity and serve themselves of your gracious benevolences to offend both God and man as being notorious gluttons Drunkards Blasphemers and abominable villans both for body and soule But the good you do for souls so beâ—utiful so noble so holy besides the rewâ—rd you shall be sure to receive from God it is not to be imagined how well it is bestowed and how grateful they are for it There is nothing lost though you give never so little they take themselves to be infinitely obliged for your charity they never forget it they never complain they never turn ungrateful Certainly it must needs be an unspeakable advantage to you to be assured that the good you do is for a happy soule though unhappy for the time for a Saint that is ready to be canonized in heaven and happily after a few more moments of pain shall be a greater Saint there then many whose feasts wee keep with great solemnity Besides it cannot but be an excessive comfort to oblidge a soul which God loves with all his heart and which will soon lodge in his very heart Lastly what an honour must it be thus to contribute to the glory of so happy a soul who within â—â—hile shall be brighter then the sun and a companion to the Angels and shall exercise a world of most sublime acts of vertue of thanksgiving to God fraternal charity and the like And if you chance to go your self into Purgatory before they are released you will be exceedingly joy'd to see what a gratefull remembrance they have of your charity and would not for all the treasures in the world but have done that little you have done for them and will scarce have a more sensible feeling for any thing then for having lost so many faire occasions of relieving 〈◊〉 many poor souls in their grievous torments Our Blessed Saviour tells us whosoever bestowes a charity on a disciple or on a Prophet shall be sure to have the reward of a disciple or of a Prophet Now as long as your charity
of Siena beâ—â—â—d two years together with tears in her Eyes that she might be damned for all mankind and that she alone might suffer all the pains of Hell rather then any one soul should be damned or her dearest spouse grievously offended And do you believe that a tender Virgin made of flesh and blood and as yet a sinner at least so far as to be guilty of certain venial transgressions can have less Self-love more courage and more of the love of God then the souls of the other world who are totally disengaged from all self-respects and love God only with a most perfect love No they had rather double and redouble their cruel Martyrdomes with a million of fresh torments then willingly give consent that for their sakes one should forbear to hinder the commission of a mortal sin or the damnation of a soul And therefore should the case fall in your way stick not tâ— bestow your time for the benefit of the living do not so much as think on the Souls in Purgatory who would most willingly melt themselves away in tormenting fire rather then permit such a horrible mischief §. 3. Of the great advantages we receive by this devotion for the Souls departed BUt to come nearer to you It makes most for our interest to pray for thâ—m seeing that interest rules the world most and is the spirit that moves the whole Universe if you are at all sensible of your own interest I mean a holy interest allowed of by God himself to wit an interest which we all have in the encrease of our Grace Glory and eternal happiness in Gods name do all the good you can for your neighbour I except only the case I lately spoke of I defie you to do the thing that can bring you so much true and solid good or be of so much advantage to you as is the striving to relieve the Souls in Purgatory with your pious endeavours And first though it were true Their 〈◊〉 angels 〈◊〉 strive to â—â—quite us as many will have it that the Souls in Purgatory are not able to obtain the least mercy of almighty God for themselves or us in respect of their present confinement in which they lye as it were at pawne and under a most severe restraint and strict seizure yet have we reason to believe their good angels will supply their defect and not fail to requite you for seconding them so well in delivering the Souls under their charge for whom they are in a kind of pain to see them endure so much pain and yet to be held back as it were only by a smal thred from enjoying their full liberty and becoming their companious and as glorious as themselves One sigh or sob one tear of yours shed for these captive Souls is enough to cut the thred and then they will cry out with holy David Our souls are got loose like the innocent Sparrow and are flown up to Heaven having luckily broken the Iron nets that hâ—ld them bound to hellish fire The holy name of God be ever blessed and they also who have been so kind as to call upon him in our behalfs It is you dear Reader to whom these holy souls address their speech whom you have comforted with a good wish or with a Tear or with a Mass or with a Communion But suppose the Angels should God will be sure to reward us neglect to performe this good office which notwithstanding we have reason to expect of their charity God himself would not fayl to do it For beholding the zeal with which you burn and the charity which impels you to succour those tormented souls whom he loves and for whom he has prepared eternal Laurels and rich Crowns of immortal glory can you doubt whether he takes it well that you love these his dear friends that you have a tender heart towards them he so tenderly loves that you do this good work believing as it is most true that this is faternal charity in the highest point of its perfection and that making choyce of it to â—erve God in the best manner by your self and by those holy souls his infinite goodness is highly pleased with your charity so well bestowed and on so good a subject Mark well the reason I am now going about to lay down before you Christ Jesus has vouchsafed to honour his Church so far as to stile her his body of which he is the divine head Now it is most certain that of all the members of this most sacred and mistical body that which is the most oppressed with evils and the most lamentably afflicted are these dear souls who are alass most severely treated in the bosome of the Church-suffering since there is not any torment in the world that is comparable to theirs as you have seen elsewhere If then our Blessed Saviour see your heart melt with coâ—passion for that part of his body which is the most comfortless and the most afflicted of all others sure he must needs love you with a paternal affection and give you a thousand benedictions for the ease and pleasure you give him in that part of his body which suffers most Historians tell us how a man having one day plucked out a thorne out of a lions foot the generous beast feeling himself eased in that part which was most grieved soon forgot his fierce nature and by force of love and gratitude metamorphosed himself into a Lamb to waite upon this Saviour of his who had â—â— us preserved his life and by way of requital in a like occasion of danger saved the 〈◊〉 life also to the astonishmeâ—◠〈◊〉 all the beholders God playes the Lyon of Juda below in Purgatory permitting his justice to sway the Scepter of rigour now if you but pul out the thorne out of his foot that is 〈◊〉 you ease him in that part of 〈◊〉 mystical body which suffers tâ—e pains of Purgatory this Lyon will soon become a Lamb he will not only save these poor souls but when you your self are in most need as when you are strugling for life he will shew himself he will fight for you and will give you the true life In a word he will make you clearly see how well he takes it that you have pluckt out the thorne out of his foot Now let us suppose the worst The souls themselves will pray for us Put case that neither God nor his Angels do requite you Yet I maintaine you cannot do an act of faternal charity wherein your gain is so great and so certain as this I do not say it because thâ— men of this world are commonly in an ill staâ—◠〈◊〉 which their prayers can do you no service I do not say it because though you suppose them to be in the state of grace yet is their devotion for you soon at an end and while it lasts is but a slender cold and untoward piece of service I do not say that these souls
what cannot so many millions of Angels and Saints do what can they be denied in so favourable a request for persons of so high merit I answear that they pray for them and pray iâ— good earnest and I say further that they are not content with a quarant hour now and then as our custome is in occasions of pressing necessity but they keep a perpetual and constant course of prayer in heaven in favour of these holy Souls This I take to be the pious belief Vid. Su. d. 48. Sect. 9 of the Catholick Church as delivered by the whole sacred Torrent of Doctors Nor is there the least reason why they should not do it being not only powerful but full of charity especially when they remember that the like charity was bestowed on many of them that their necessity is extream urgent that they are all Members of one body that they do not only concur to the glorification of their dear brethren but are themselves to receive an additional increase of accidental glory for having advanced the delivery of those precious souls who perhaps may be holier then some of their own blessed company Besides this is a charitable office sutes well with their happy state and there appears not the least inconvenience in it in this World And yet if this be so one would think they might soon turn all the souls loose and empty Purgatory so that it were impossible for any soul to make any long stay there Hold you must pardon me and not flatter your selves too much with this vain credulity You are to know that the Saints are not such strangers to the decrees of divine justice as to beg the souls release without punishment for that were the way to destroy all justice no they accommodate themselves to the Laws of heaven and willingly submit to the most equitable resolves of Gods justice amongst which it stands irrevocably decreed that this life should be the place for mercy but that justice should bear the sway in Purgatory Do not then wonder that the Saints do not obtain so extra vagant a favor the souls themselves who are the most nearly concerned in their own sufferings would be ashamed to demand it Is it not reason that God should be God in all his attributes and exercise his justice as well as his mercy We must take heed how we employ or rather abuse his clemency so as to break down the Laws of his justice Will you then know what the Saints do First They pray God to inspire The saints have many wayes to help them the living to offer up their satisfactory works for the dead and to find out a thousand inventious to help them Secondly They labour to shorten their time by procuring that the intension or sharpness of their pains may supply for the length and extension thereof wherein there is no wrong done to justice but only an exchange made of a long pain into a shorter one but more violent and yet this is an extraordinary favour for you cannot imagine what an incomparable treasure is one day in heaven advanced before the ordinary prefixed time Thirdly Many Saints have left behind them a great treasure of satisfactions above what was due for their sins so many holy innocent hermits so many chast Virgins so many great Saints of all orders in Gods Church who lead such austere lives Now is it not very likely that these good Saints may pray God to apply the superbundance of these their merits and satisfactions to the poor souls in Purgatory and who knows whether the infinite goodness of God may not accept it for good payment Fourthly Why may we not piously imagine that even those Saints who have no such remainder of merits pray those that have it to bestow it as an almes to relieve the poor souls Sure they are so courteous as not to deny any thing to one another especially in a case of so great commiseration and why should they hoard up these precious treasures which cannot availe them or how can they bestow them more charitably Fifthly What harme were it to say that the Saints beseech our blessed Lady and even Christ himself who has an infinite treasure of satisfactions in store to apply some of their precious merits this way I know the severer divines will not have it that the Siants have recourse in this to our blessed Saviour who has determined what and how he will have this applied according to the ordinary straine and set Laws of his divine justice but there be other Doctors of a milder temper believe he may be drawn somtimes to wave the extremity of rigour to dispense with his own Laws so that by extraordinary priviledge we may hope for this favour of sweet Jesus and his Saints And if other Saints have so much charity for the poor Souls you will think it but reasonable that the Fathers and Mothers the same is to be said of other near relations who are in Heaven and know that the Souls of their dear children are lockt up in that fiery furnace will use all their possible endeavour as far as God will give them leave to fetch them out But what shall I say of those saints who were lifted up into Heaven before their time by the extraordinary assistance of the living whose turne now it is to be in Purgatory is it not very credible they will now requite their courtesie and with usury too For example there may be a soul in Purgatory has helpt above a thousand other Souâ—â— out of that place of torments can it be imagined but that that regiment of Saints will do all they can and more if it were possible to deliver this their deliverer and to place him in the court of Heaven who had so great a hand in their timely preferment But because we are mere strangers to the stile of that court and nothing acquainted with the constitutions of that divine Monarchy let us conclude only thus That whatsoever the Saints can do for the comfort of these languishing souls we may be sure they do it and do it punctually without neglecting the least moment and where they cannot prevaile without breaking the just decrees of their Soveraigne there they willingly acquiesce and with due submission adore the divine justice So much for the Saints Let us now speak of the Souls themselves and see §. 2. Whether they are capable of being relieved by one anothers Prayers IT may be justly questioned They help one another whether the Souls though altogether incapable of helping themselves in their extream misery may not at least be permitted to help one another by their devout prayers For if they have the priviledg to pray for the Saints in Heaven that God will be pleased to encrease their glory if they can pray for the living as I endeavoured to evince in the last § Nay if a damned soul may have liberty to pray for his friends as it seems to be clear
are requisite on his part shall infallibly relieve them Well but you long now to know what these conditions are with which we may be morally certain that our suffrages are effectual towards the purifying and releasing of the poor souls in Purgatory He that will have his works acceptable We must be in the state of grace to do them any good in the sight of God for the obtaining of any mercy for himself or others must in the first place be sure to be in the state of Grace that is Goâ—â— friend for how can God be pleased at the doings of his mortal enemies how can he relish or approve actions which proceed from a heart envenomed with the deadly poyson of mortal sin Could I work miracles and wanted but a graine of true charity all this sayes St. Paul were but wind it 1 Cor. 13. were all unprofitable Next unto this he must not fail to have an intention of doing such a good work to relieve the soul he either names himself or leaves to Gods determination and choice Besides the work must be good and vertuous of it self that is accompanied with all due circumstances The more love humility contrition and devotion you bring and the more penal your work is the more precious will it be in the sight of God and the greater miracles will it do in Purgatory rejoycing the afflicted souls quenching their flames and converting Purgatory into Paradise But let us now look a little into Whether the Mass of a wicked 〈◊〉 Priest 〈◊〉 availe 〈◊〉 the consequence of this Doctrine Does it not hence follow that all lewd and ungodly Priests are unprofitably employed for the good of the souls for since they are supposed to be in a damnable condition all they do seems to be as good as nothing and then what a world of Masses shall we have quite cast away what a world of foundations utterly lost since they may often fall into such wicked hands Away with these discourses which are not only false but very prejudicial to Purgatory Good divinity teaches that a Mass is alwayes a Mass alwayes Su. d. 48. Sect. 8. good and of an infinite valew that the Priest that sayes it or sings it as a Minister of Gods church let him be never so unworthy is alwayes acceptable for her sake in whose name he acts that if you take him as a private and particular person t is true all his prayers and devotions can availe nothing but as he represents the Church he cannot fail to do the maine deed we pretend and we need not scruple it You would be amazed should I further tell you that it may very well fall out sometimes that you may gain more by hearing the Mass of a loose or deboach'd Priest then of another for that which is common to both is that thâ—y both offer up the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass which is alwayes pleasing in the sight of God they are both Ministers of the Church and under this qualification they are both acceptable persons both have the intention you require of relieving the soul you recommend unto them both performe all the holy rites and ceremonies which the Church prescribes in this case In this they differ that the one adds particular devotions of his own which are grateful to God because he is in the state of grace and one of his adopted children whereas the others personal actions are of no worth because we suppose him to be in an ill state Well but this is the cause why you that know it are fearful to loose by the bargaine bring so many Theological acts of Faith Hope and Charity of your own so many holy affections springing from a zealous devotion all inflamed with the love of God that the loss you were afraid of is abundantly recompenced and with no little advantage to your cause Be not then of the number of those fond persons who profess they are afraid to sound obits for their deceased kindred least the Masses should come to be said by ungodly and irreligious Priests It were meer simplicity to be afraid of clear cristal water because forsooth it issues out of the snoute of a black marble serpent or passes through the Jawes of a Lyon of Brass Would you refuse a million of Gold if it were sent you out of Turkie from some wicked renegado or should the Pope send you a Cardinals Cap would you be so nice as not to accept it because the messenger that brought it were an ill condition'd fellow Elias was not so dainty as to forbear his meat because it was brought by a Raven Do a Gods name what is fitting and leave the rest to God who out of his infinite goodness knows how to supply all these defects especially such as happen against your will and such as you know not how to prevent unless you were a Prophet §. 4. Of the particular wayes we have to help them THe holy Canons and Doctors of the Church comprehend all the means and advantages we have to relieve the dead under these four general heads 1. The Priests oblations sacrifices 2 The Prayers of devout people 3. Almes deeds 4. Fasting unto which you must reduce all kind of austerities all penal works that afflict the body what way soever and in a word all that goes under the common notion of suffrages For the enjoying of all which helps St. Augustin observes how greatly it may import to bury the dead in Churches where the bodies of Saints and holy Martyrs lie enterred not that the bare lying thâ—â—e can so much availe them but for this that devout people resorting more thither then to other places to perform their devotions to God and his Saints and seeing the Tombes of their deceased friends cannot but remember to apply their charitable suffrages for the help of such needy persons I am in love with that Religious Masses practice of Bolognia where upon funeral days they cause hundreds and thousands of Masses to be said for the soul departed in lieu of other superfluous and vain ostentations They stay not for the Anniversary nor for any other set day but instantly do their best to release the poor soul from her torments who must needs think the year long if she must stay for help till her anniversary day appears They do not for all this despise the laudable customes of the Church they bury their friends with honour they cloth great numbers of poor people they give liberall Almes but as there is nothing so certain nothing so efficacious nothing so divine as the holy sacrifie of the Mass they fix their whole affection there and strive all they can to relieve the souls this way and are nothing so lavish as the fashion is in other idle expences in importune Feastings which are often more troublesome to the living then comfortable to the dead But you may not only comfort the All kind of afflictions afflicted souls by procureing
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
upon the Crosse and sitting now at thy right hand makes Intercession for us I know she has willingly and from her heart forgiven such as offended her forgive thou also her sins O Lord forgive her I beseech thee and enter not with her into judgment Let thy Mercy overtop thy Justice c. And I verily perswade my self that thou hast already done what I desire but yet accept O Lord this prayer which I willingly make For she when the day of her death drew neer upon her did not crave that her body might be sumptuously adorned or embalmed with Spices and Odours nor desired she any curious or choice monument or cared she to be conveyed into her own Country They were not these things she recommeâ—ded to us but only she desired to be remembred at the Altar whereat she used to assist without pretermission of any one day c. Let her therefore rest in peace with her husband c. And inspire O Lord my God inspire thy servants my brethren that whosoever reads these my confessions may at thy Altar remember thy servant Monaca with Patricius her husband c. St. Paulinus that charitable Prelate who sould himselfe to redeem others cold not but have a great proportion of charity for captive souls in the other world No he was not only ready to have turnd slave himself to purchase their freedom but he became an earnest solicitour to others in their behalf for in a letter to Delphinus alluding to the story of Lazarus he beseeches him to have at least so much compassion as to convey now and then a drop of water wherewith to coole the tongues of poor souls that lye burning in the church which is all a fire I am astonisht when I call to mind the sad regrets of the people of Africa when they saw some of their Priests drag'd away to Martyrdome The Author says they Victor utic l. 2. de persec Wandal flocked about them in great numbers and cryed out alas if you leave us so what will become of us who must give us absolution for our sins who must bury us with the wonted ceremonies of of the church when we are dead and who will take care to pray for our souls such a general belief they had in those dayes that nothing is more to be desired in this world then to leave those behind us who will do their best to helpe us out of our torments §. 3. A continuation of the same subject from the sixth Age after Christ unto our dayes ALmighty God has often 6. Age. miraculously made it appear how well he is pleased to be importuned by us in the souls behalf and what comfort they receive by our prayers S. John Climacus In 4. gradu scalae writes that while the Monkes were at service praying for their good Father Mennas the third day after his departure they felt a marvellous sweet smell to rise out of his grave which they took for a good omen that his sweet soul after three dayes Purgation had taken her flight into heaven For what else could be meant by that sweet perfume but the odour of his holy and innocent conversation or the incense of their sacrifices and prayers or the primitiall fruits of his happy soul which was now flown up to the holy mountain of eternal glory there enjoying the odoriferous and never fading delights of paradise Not unlike unto this is that story which the great St. Gregory relates of one Justus a l. 4. dial c. 55. Monke He had given him at first for a lost creature but upon second thoughts having ordered Mass to be said for him for thirty dayes together the last day he appears to his brother and assures him of the happy exchange he was now going to make of his torments for the joys of heaven Pope Symmachus and his Council 6. Synod Rom. had reason to thunder out anathema's against those sacrilegious persons who were so frontless as to turn pious legacies into profane uses to the great prejudice of the souls for whose repose they were particularly deputed by the founders And certainly it is a much fouler crime to defrande souls of their due relief then to disturbe dead mens ashes and to plunder their graves And yet we read of dead carcasses that have risen up in their graves to struggle for their sheets with the wicked wretches who would have stolne them away And it were to be wished that more were permitted to do the like and that souls might have leave to appear sometimes to those that abuse them so unconsieonably happily they might fright them into reason who will not be otherwise perswaded to do them right St. Isidor delivers it as an apostolical tradition and general 7. Age. l. 1. de offic c. 18. l. 2. c. penuâ—t practise of the Catholick Church in his time to offer up sacrifices and prayers and to distribute almes for the dead and this not for any encrease of their merit but either to mitigate their pains or to shorten the time of their durance Venerable Bede is a sure witness 8. Age. for the following Century whose learned works are ful of wonderful stories which he brings in confirmation of this Catholick doctrine and practise St. John Damascene made an eligant Orat. quod ij qui. c. oraâ—ion on purpose to stir up this devotion where amongst other things he says it is impossible to number up all the stories in this kind which bear witness that the souls departed are relieved by our prayers and that otherwise God would not have appointed a commemoration of the dead to be dayly made in the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass nor would the Church have so religiously observed anniversaries and other dayes set a part for the service of the dead Were it but a dog says Simeon 9. Age. In vita St. Pachom St. Euseb c. Metaphrastes that by chance were faln into the fire we should have so much compassion for him as to help him out and what shall we do for souls who are faln into Purgatory fire I say souls of our Parentâ— and dearest friends souls who are predestinate to eternal glory and extream precious in the sight of God And what did not the Saints of Gods Church for them in those days some armed themselves from head to foot in course hair cloth others tore of their flesh with chains and rude disciplines some again pined themselves with rigourous fasts others dissolved themselves into tears some passed whole nights in contemplation others gave liberal almes or procured great store of Masses In fine they did what they were able and were not well pleased that they were able to do no more to relieve the poor souls in Purgatory Amongst 10. Age. Luitprand l. 4. c. 7. others Queen Melchtild is reported to have purchased immortal fame for her discreet behaviour at the death of the King her Husband for whose soul she caused
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
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