Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	earth_n	live_v	4,806	5	5.4600	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59894	A short summary of the principal controversies between the Church of England, and the church of Rome being a vindication of several Protestant doctrines, in answer to a late pamphlet intituled, Protestancy destitute of Scripture-proofs.	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1687 (1687)	Wing S3365; ESTC R22233	88,436	166

Confession and the Absolution of the Priest yet there remains a temporal punishment to be undergone by the penitent either in this World or in Purgatory So that if Men die under any venial sins or mortal sins whose guilt is remitted which they have not made compleat satisfaction for in this World they must bear the temporal punishments of these sins in Purgatory and therefore as very good Men who have neither any venial nor mortal sins to satisfie for go directly to Heaven when they die and bad Men who are under the guilt of mortal sins go directly to Hell so those who are indifferently good i. e. who have only venial sins or the temporal punishment of mortal sins to make satisfaction for what is wanting of a compleat satisfaction for these sins while they lived must be made up in Purgatory For we must not think that this fire of Purgatory is for the purging or reforming sinners that they may ascend more pure and refined into Heaven but only and meerly to bear that Temporal punishment which is due to sin For the Cardinal industriously proves That the Souls in Purgatory can neither merit nor sin that they are perfect in Charity and consequently in all other Graces and come no more perfect out of Purgatory than they went in but when they have paid the uttermost Farthing have undergone all that Temporal punishment which is due to their sins then they shall be released and received into Heaven But because this is a very uncomfortable Doctrine That Men must lie many Hundred or Thousand Years in Purgatory which differs from the torments of Hell only in the continuance of them for Purgatory is as hot as Hell but one is Temporal and the other Eternal which is a very terrible consideration that we must be tormented for many Hundred Years though not for ever therefore they tell us that the Souls in Purgatory may be relieved by the Prayers and Alms of the living and by the Sacrifice of the Mass and principally by Indulgences which the Pope dispenses and applies to particular Persons out of the Treasury of the Church which consists of the Merits of supererogating Saints This short account I have given of the Doctrine of Purgatory not that I intend to spend time to confute it now to show how groundless it is how injurious to the Goodness of God and to the Merits of Christ how contrary to the Sense of the Primitive Church and of most if not all Christian Churches at this day excepting the Church of Rome but to let our People see what kind of proofs they must demand for Purgatory which alone will be sufficient to secure them from the attacques of their wittiest Adversaries As to show this particularly First to prove a middle state between Death and Judgment which is neither Heaven nor Hell does not prove a Popish Purgatory Who ever is acquainted with the Writings of the Fathers of the first four Ages must confess that this was a received Opinion among them that no Man excepting Christ himself was received into Heaven till the day of Judgment I shall not multiply Quotations to this purpose which the Learned know where to find Irenaeus and Tertullian prove this from the example of Christ to which we must be conformed For Christ himself did not ascend into Heaven till after his Resurrection but as his Body rested in the Grave so his Soul went into the place of Souls departed and when he arose again then he ascended into Heaven And thus we must do also When we die our Souls shall live in those places which God has prepared for separate Souls and there they must remain till the Resurrection and when we have re-assumed our Bodies we shall be admitted into the highest Heavens whither Christ is ascended This they affirm in opposition to those Gnostick Hereticks who taught that as soon as they died they should ascend above the Heavens to him whom they called the Father which Irenaeus says is to exceed the order of promoting just Men as being ignorant of the regular gradations and advances to Incorruption And this he attributes to their denial of the Resurrection of the Flesh for it is no wonder that such Men should not know the order of the Resurrection who deny the Resurrection From whence it is plain that in Irenaeus his Opinion no Man who believed the Resurrection of the Flesh could reasonably think that the Souls of good Men did ascend into Heaven till Soul and Body was united at the Resurrection since Christ himself did not ascend into Heaven till after his Resurrection though he grants that some did believe so who were Orthodox in the Article of the Resurrection though herein they agreed with Hereticks That this was the Opinion of Iustin Martyr Lactantius Hilary S. Ambrose S. Chrysostom and divers others is at large proved by the learned Mr. Dally and vindicated from the exceptions of Cardinal Bellarmine But how this differs from a Popish Purgatory will appear in these three particulars First That they affirmed this of all separate Souls That none were received into Heaven before the Resurrection Patriarchs Prophets Apostles whatever they were they continue in the state of separate Souls and have not their full reward and are not received into the highest Heavens till the Resurrection of their Bodies This is the Lex Mortuorum as Irenaeus calls it the Law of the Dead the ordo promotionis justorum the order in which just Men shall be advanced For as S. Chrysostom affirms If the Body do not rise the Soul remains uncrowned out of that state of blessedness which is in Heaven Whereas the Popish Purgatory is not for all Souls but only for those who have not made a perfect satisfaction for their sins in this life and therefore must indure the temporal punishments due to them in Purgatory Whereas the Souls of all Children who die after Baptism before the commission of any actual sin and the Souls of good Men who have completed their satisfaction in this life according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome ascend directly into Heaven which is expresly denied by these Ancient Fathers and was taught by few in those days but by such Hereticks as denied the Resurrection of the Body Secondly According to these Ancient Fathers this separate state wherein the Souls of good Men continue till the Resurrection is not a state of punishment as the Popish Purgatory is but of Joy and Felicity They were divided indeed about the place where the Souls of good Men lived till the Resurrection some placed it in secret receptacles within the Earth and therefore called it the Infernum as Tertullian did others thought it was above the Earth in some Celestial Region but below the highest Heavens but they all agreed that it was not Heaven and that it was not a state of punishment but of rest and happiness and therefore they called it Abraham's

Bosom and Paradise which they distinguish from Heaven Tertullian calls it a place of Divine pleasantness appointed for the Spirits of holy Mon. The Author of the Questions and Answers to the Orthodox in Iustin Martyr expresly tells us That when the Soul goes out of the Body there is a great difference made between the Righteous and the Wicked For they are carried by Angels to such places as are proper for them The Souls of just Men into Paradise where they have the conversation and sight of Angels and Archangels and the vision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Saviour Christ as it is written being absent from the body we are present with the Lord. From hence Bellarmine concludes That by Paradise this Author understands Heaven because there we shall have the Vision of Christ and therefore that Paradise must signifie that place where Christ is present Which is directly contrary to the Doctrine of this Author who makes Paradise only a receptacle of separate souls till the Resurrection But though it be not Heaven there is he says a great communication between Heaven and Paradise for they have the frequent visits and conversation of Angels and Archangels whom they see and converse with as they do with one another but when he speaks of Christ he expresly makes a distinction between their sight of and conversation with Angels and Christ for this latter is only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Vision as we see things which are absent and at a distance but yet this does so strongly affect them that he thinks that of S. Paul may be applied to it being absent from the Body we are present with the Lord. And certainly this is no Popish Purgatory but as they thought the very next degree of happiness to Heaven it self Thus S. Hilary expresly asserts that the state of Souls departed is a state of happiness and S. Ambrose tells us that while the fulness of time comes the Souls are in expectation of such a Resurrection as they deserve Punishment expects some and Glory others and yet neither bad Souls are in the mean time without punishment nor the good without reaping some fruits of their Vertue But I need not multiply Quotations to prove that which no modest Man who is acquainted with the Doctrine of the Fathers can deny Thirdly Another difference is That this is an unalterable State till the day of Judgment and therefore no Popish Purgatory out of which as the Church of Rome pretends Souls may be redeemed by the Prayers and Alms and Masses of the Living and ascend immediately into Heaven This is evident from what I have already said that this State is to last till the Resurrection according to the sense of the ancient Fathers as Tertullian expresly affirms that Heaven is open to none while this Earth lasts but the Kingdom of Heaven shall be opened with the end of the World And S. Chrysostom observes from the Parable of Dives and Lazarus that the Souls of Men after their depature out of these Bodies are carried to a certain place from whence they cannot go out when they will but there expect the terrible day of Judgment Which plainly shows what his belief was that they must continue in that State which they enter upon at Death till the Resurrection And this I think is sufficient to show the difference between a Popish Purgatory and that middle state between Death and Judgment which the ancient Fathers taught Secondly Nor is it sufficient to prove a Popish Purgatory that the Ancient Fathers did believe that all Men must pass through the Fire at the day of Judgment That those who were perfectly good should receive no hurt nor damage by it that those who had any remains of corruption about them should be detained a longer or shorter time in that last Fire till they were purged from their sins and that bad Men should irrecoverably sink down into endless burnings This was a received opinion among the Ancient Fathers that at the day of Judgment all Men should be tried by Fire which is so universally acknowledged that I need not prove it by particular Quotations But yet there is an irreconcileable difference between this opinion and the Popish Doctrine of Purgatory as will appear in these particulars 1. That the Popish Purgatory is now and has been in being at least since the time of our Saviour and that those who deserve the fire of Purgatory fall into it when they go out of these Bodies whereas the Fire which the Fathers speak of is not till the day of Judgment This was the opinion of Lactantius Hilary Ambrose and S. Augustin himself who expresly tells us that this Fire is at the end of the World in fine seculi and therefore not the Popish Purgatory which as they would perswade us is already kindled and has been for many hundred Years Indeed S. Augustin though he owns that fiery trial at the last Judgment as the Fathers before him did yet he has something peculiar in this matter which none of the Fathers before him ever taught and therefore having no Authority of Tradition it must rest wholly upon his own Authority who had no more Authority to invent any new Doctrine in his Age than we have in ours There are three or four places in S. Augustin which do speak of some Purgatory fires which some Men must undergo between Death and Judgment which looks most like the Popish Purgatory of any thing in the Ancient Fathers and I believe was the first occasion of it which may be the reason why this Doctrine has so much prevailed in the Latin Church which was acquainted with S. Austin's Writings when it has been always rejected by the Greeks as is evident from the Council of Florence But there are two things to be said to this First That St. Austin speaks very doubtfully about it That there may be such punishments after this life he says is not incredible and we may examine whether there be any such thing or not and it may either be found or may still continue a secret whether some Christians according to the degree of their love and affection for these perishing enjoyments be not sooner or later saved by a certain Purgatory fire and in another place he says he does not reprove this opinion for it may be it is true now redarguo quia forsitan verum est De C. D. l. 21. c. 25. And elsewhere he says That though such speculations may serve for his own or other Mens instruction yet he does not attribute any Canonical authority to them and therefore he was very far from making it an Article of Faith as the Church of Rome has done Secondly And yet though St. Austin speaks of a Purgatory fire after death and before the day of judgment he seems by his whole discourse never to have thought of such a Purgatory as the Church of Rome has invented The occasion