Purgatory Survey▪ OR, A Particular account of the happy, and yet thrice unhappy state, of the Souls there. ALSO Of the singular Charity, and ways we have to relieve them. And of the Devotion of all Ages for the Souls departed▪ WITH Twelve excellent means to prevent PURGATORY. AND The Resolution of many Curious and Important Points. Printed at Paris, 166●▪ To the truly Noble and Virtuous Lady. Mrs. D. C. Madam, THough this Survey of Purgatory address itself to all Roman Catholics in general, yet is there not the person to whom it is more peculiarly devoted, nor indeed any, from whom it may with more confidence look for shelter and entertainment than yourself. For were it a mere stranger to you, yet am I so well acquainted with your noble humour, and civility to all your guests, as not to despair of a friendly welcome. But since it was so lucky as to receive its first birth, or at least to begin to breathe our English Air under your roof, it is certainly there it may best challenge countenance and protection, now it comes to appear abroad and expose itself to public view. And if I mistake you not, you are neither so wedded to the pleasures of this transitory life, as not to be more concerned for what passes in the other world, nor so taken up with Plays and Romances (the usual employment of your sex) but that you can lend an eye or an ear now and then (and with delight too) to spiritual discourses, though running in a lower strain, not so agreeable to the acquaint Palates of our times. Howsoever I dare promise you here no unpleasant entertainments; I am sure at least you are read a very pleasing lecture in the last Survey. For while you see the way for you to scape Purgatory chalked out, you will clearly find yourself already in it, as practising most of the twelve means there prescribed. To say nothing of the rest (in which no doubt you have a large share) I cannot but take notice of two of the most important, I mean your singular charity to the poor & your patiented suffering for a good cause. Your loyalty (and your noble Consorts) to God and your King, even when you saw others to renounce both, was very remarkable, and I think I may safely say (with proportion to your Estate) you were as great sufferers upon this score, as the worst of times could produce. And yet you were never so great loser's yourselves, but you could still have the heart to spare a very liberal proportion to relieve others. I could bring instances, and enlarge myself upon each particular, did not your modesty give me a silent check. I will only then conclude with leaving you this comfortable satisfaction to know you are in the ready way to redeem a good part of your Purgatory in this life, if not all, as he most hearty wishes you may, who must ever subscribe himself, Madam Your most obliged humble Servant. R. T. A Prefatory address to the Catholic Reader. Dear Reader, THe drift of this Treatise is not to prove Purgatory but taking it for granted as a prime maxim of Catholicism, that God has a suffering Church in the other world, besides that which triumphs in heaven and is militant here upon earth, the design is to set it forth in such lively colours, as may not only express its nature (as far as we are able to judge of it at so great a distance) but raise your thoughts, first to a compassionate care for the present, of procuring all possible relief for such distressed souls, as are already fallen under the lash of those merciless torments, and secondly to a provident prevention for the future, that the like mischief may not involve yourselves hereafter. Now this being the chief aim of these my labours, I am put upon a kind of necessity of giving you the trouble of this Prefatory address. For should this Survey of Purgatory fall into any other hands but yours, it could look for no better entertainment, then to be laid aside for waste paper, such as would be some strange Map, or Survey of another world which had no other subsistence but in the brains of the Painter. For why should the enemies of truth, whose belief reaches only to heaven and hell, amuse themselves with the consideration of a third place, for which they can find no place in their Creed. And yet, though I presume, this will be its common fate, when it meets with such persons, yet I am very confident the judicious Protestant, if he can but find in his heart to peruse these Papers, (especially the fifth Survey) will find more then enough to convince him of this middle state of Souls, which we call Purgatory. Now to say the truth of this Treatise, I know not well how to profess myself the Author, nor yet the Translator of it. Not Author, for I must acknowledge the main bulk and substance of what I offer to be borrowed of the Reverend Father Steven Binet of the Society of Jesus Not a bare Translator, because I am to do myself so much right, as to tell you, that I have not tied myself so wholly, to that worthy persons method, or matter, as not to yield a little now and then to my own genius, but have so made use of his learned pen, as to dispose, abridge or enlarge, where I took it to be more for your satisfaction, in this conjuncture of time and place wherein I was to puhlish it. As for the language, I have taken care, neither to have it so bald, as not to suit a little with this eloquent age we live in, nor yet so flourishing and luxuriant, as to dry up the fountains of devotion, which I seek to open. And if all my endeavours prove but so lucky, as to occasion the releasing of any one soul, out of Purgatory, or the conveying of any other into heaven, without passing that way, I have my end, which is only the greater glory of God, and the good of souls There was a Roman Emperor, would never dine, but he would be feeding his eyes, and his thoughts with the contemplation of the torments of hell, and the pleasures of the Elysian fields, which he had caused to be curiously painted, and exposed, for that purpose, in his dining room I do not press you to use any such devotion or pictures, I only offer you this Survey of Purgatory, which I beseech you to look often upon, and withal to have an eye still upon heaven, and the best meant how to send souls thither, and to follow them yourselves, without stepping a side into Purgatory, for believe it, if you come once there, you will find it a very restless and uncomfortable lodging which I pray God you may all timely prevent, and I earnestly beg your good prayers that the like mercy may not be devied. Your most devoted Servant R. T. The Contents. The First Survey. PVrgatory is laid open, with all the hellish pains, wherewith the souls are there tormented. Page 1. Sect. 1. Of the fire of Purgatory, and pain of sense. p. 5. Sect. 2. Of the worm and pain of loss. p. 21. Sect. 3. Other considerations much aggravating these pains. p. 44. Sect. 4. How long the souls are detained in Purgatory? p. 57 Sect. 5. Whether their pains grow less and less p. 72. Sect. 6. A notable Example in confirmation of all the preced ut doctrine. p. 76. The Second Survey. A glimpse of the Paradise of Purgatory, or of the ineffable joys and heavenly consolations of the souls there. p. 81. Sect. 1. How these excessive joys, can stand with their unspeakable torments? p. 83. Sect. 2. Two main grounds of their comfort, the double assurance they have of their salvation and impeccability. p. 90. Sect. 3. More grounds of comfort, arising from their voluntarily suffering, their disinteressed love of God, and exact conformity with his holy will. p. 100 Sect. 4. Another comfortable consideration, drawn from the desire they have to make themselves worthy of the sight of God p. 119. Sect. 5. Their suffering without merit & the free exercise of their virtues without impediment are to them special motives of comfort. p. 124. Sect. 6. They joy in the continual decrease of their pains, and influence of pure heavenly consolations. p. 133 The third Survey. That there is not in this world a more eminent, or prudent act of fraternal charity, then to help the souls in Purgatory. p. 142. Sect. 1. The greatness of the charity, to the souls in Purgatory, is argued from the greatness of their pains, and their helpless condition p. 148. Sect. 2. Our charity for the souls departed is preferred before all other works of mercy. p 155. Sect. 3. Of the great advantages we receive by this devotion for the souls in Purgatory. p. 168. The fourth Survey. Of the powerful means to quench the flames of Purgatory p. 186. Sect. 1. What succour they receive from the Angels and Saints in heaven? p. 188. Sect. 2. Whether they are capable of being relieved by one another's prayers? p. 196. Sect. 3. That the dead may receive help from us that are living, and how we must be qualified to do them good? p. 206. Sect. 4. Of the particular ways we have to help them. p. 216. Sect. 5. Certain questions resolved about the application and distribution of our suffrages. p. 233. Sect. 6. How dangerous it is to trust others with what concerns the sweet rest of our souls in the next world. p. 243 Sect. 7. Some motives fetched even as far as the other world, to stir us up to be mindful of the dead. p. 253. The fifth Survey. How all Antiquity was ever devoted to pray for the dead. p. 269. Sect. 1. Of the natural iustinct of all Nations to honour and comfort the dead. p. 273. Sect. 2. The constant practice of the Church in all Ages to pray for the dead. p. 284. Sect. 3. A continuation of the same subject from the sixth age after Christ unto our days. p. 295. The sixth Survey. Of twelve excellent means to prevent Purgatory, or to provide so for ourselves as not to make any long stay there. p. 308. Sect. 1. The first. Perfect contrition. p. 309. Sect. 2. The second. To die in Religion. p. 313. Sect. 3. The third. To be an Apostolical Preacher. p. 320. Sect. 4. The fourth. To serve the infected. p. 318. Sect. 5. The fifth. A tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin. p. 333. Sect. 6. The sixth. An humble Patience. p. 341. Sect. 7. The seventh. Devotion for the souls in Purgatory. p. 347. Sect. 8. The eighth. To be a great almesgiver. p. 350. Sect. 9: the ninth. Angelical purity. p. 360. Sect. 10. The tenth. A profound humility. p. 368. Sect. 11. The eleaventh. To communicate well and often p▪ 373. Sect. 12. The twelfth. A faithful and exact obedience. p. 382. The Conclusion. Many curious and important Questions are incidently resolved under the foregoing heads. Errata. PAge 29. l. 19 r. nobly, p. 41. l. 20. r. lovely, p, 45. l. 9 r. this p. 57 l. 21. r. last p. 61. l. 24. r. intention p. 63. l. 5. r. overflowing p. 85. l. 17. r. borne down p. 104. l. 24. r. not p. 113. l. 16. r. Agrippina p. 115. l. 11. r. deiformity p. 132. l. 22. r. Salvianus p. 133. l. 4. r. works l. 8. deal so, p. 134. l. 20. deal, his l. ult. r. rescue p. 135. l. 13. r. take p. 137. l. 17 r. say l. 19 r. possess p. 139. l. 17. and 18. r. greatest of your p. 141. l. 7. r. and pious endeavours p. 143. l. 10. r. where p. 144. l. ult r. fraternal p. 148. l. 2. r. and to p. 162. l. 4. r. little pains p. 165. margin r. pitied p. 174. l. 16. r. Angel-gardians p. 17●. l. 14. r. then p. 203. l. 20. and 21. r. near p. 210. l. 6. r. of p. 227. l. 12. r. vigorous p. 250. l. ult r. loath to be p. 266 l. 18. r. the truth p. 323. l. 6. r. to see l. 8. deal, he p. 330. l. 1. deal, poor p. 343 l. 20. r. good people p. 346. l. ult r. of dross p. 347. l. 21. r. in the same p. 359. l. 11. r. this p. 394. l. 12. r. swift. Be pleased to Correct these, and pardon some other literal faults. PURGATORY Surveyed, etc. The First Survey. Purgatory is laid open, with all the hellish pains, with which the Souls are there tormented. FOR fear, lest my discourses (Dear Reader) should not prove so lucky, as to raise up thy compassion, nor my words so prevalent, as to make a breach, or deep impression in thy heart, (which is the main thing I aim at, in this whole Treatise) I am resolved, to have recourse to that pious Stratagem, which the first Jesuits so happily made use of, in the conversion of the Indies. Those good Fathers were not at first well skilled in the language of the new world; and yet their zeal, would be still carrying them on to preach, whilst the Indians stood listening and staring at them, but could understand little or nothing. This would not have done their work, had they not withal used this device, to take with them into the Pulpit certain devout pictures, which they had carried out of Europe, in which the Passion of our Blessed Saviour, was very lively represented; here they fir●t shown the most bitter torments, which the Son of God endured for their sakes; and then they laboured to express, in their best Indian phrase, the name of God, Saviour of the World, most holy Prophet, and the like, pointing still at the picture, to tell them, that he whom they saw so cruelly misused, was the very man they spoke of. And this they followed with showers of tears, preaching Christ's Passion, more with their eyes then their tongues; and figuring their discourses with sighs and sobs, and a mournful voice, in lieu of other tropes, and Metaphors. Who would believe it? The Barbarians, at the sight of so lamentable a spectacle, out of a natural compassion, seconded by an interior impulse of divine grace, burst forth into fountains of tears, and became strangely concerned, for that poor patient, whom they beheld only in Effigy. The heart has this property to understand the language of hearts, let the expressions of the tongue be never so imperfect; and the eyes are of that sympathetic nature, that when eyes speak to them, in floods of tears, in lieu of full periods, they instantly melt also into tears; and so mingle their griefs, with a strange kind of Sympathy, and near alliance. What the tongue cannot utter, the eye speaks aloud, and the heart, and the very air of the whole countenance of a man, who seems to carry his very heart on his brow. Seeing therefore my discourses may fall short of what I pretend, I am now going about to lay Purgatory open, to represent I say, unto your view, as in a Map or Picture, that bloody tragedy which is acted there, not in sport & merriment, alas! but with horror and amazement. And if you dare not with the eye of faith, contemplate this sad and horrid spectacle in itself, at least refuse not to look upon this picture, which I am going to delineate, to give you a rude draught of the just rigour of Almighty God, in purging holy souls, and as it were distilling them by drops in a fiery limbeck. § 1. Of the fire of Purgatory, and pain of sense. IT was a strange piece of niceness, that of the Grecians in the Council of Florence, to boggle at the smoke and fire of Purgatory, and yet withal to confess it, to be a dark and dreadful dungeon, an abyss of mere gri●f and torments; as if they would have been content, all other engines of cruelty should have place there, to play the executioners, so they might but have leave to banish fire, from having any thing to do, in the purgation of souls. The Latin Fathers laboured to Real fire in Purgatory. undeceive them in this point of folly, and sore gravelled them, with that text of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 3. He shall be saved, yet so as by fire, which cannot be meant of hell fire, as the Grecians understood it, because there is no salvation or redemption to be expected, but well of the fire of Purgatory, which is designed only, for the purifying of saved souls. And though they thought fit afterwards to wave that controversy for peace sake, and not to press on to a definition; yet is it a doctrine very generally received, and taught by the holy Fathers, and Doctors of the Catholic Church, and very consonant to the dictates of the holy Ghost, in divine Scriptures, that there is a real and corporeal fire in Purgatory, and that the souls which depart this life, without first cancelling their many failings and imperfections, by satisfactory works, are necessarily plunged into merciless flames, which by little and little, eat away all that dross and impurity, which till expiated, obstructs their entrance into heaven. Nor is it possible to my thinking to raise any argument of substance, to discredit these purging flames, which will not also be leveled at the extinguishing of hell fire, which notwithstanding holy Writ assures u●, to be prepared for the devil and his Angels. Matth. 25. St. Augustin de civet 21. 10. I am sure St. Austin finds the same difficulty, how the devils and men's souls can be tormented with fire; and gives the same solution to both, with a Why should we not say, that incorporeal spirits may Veris sed miris modis. be truly tormented with corporeal fire, though after a strange and wonderful manner? Must we presently renounce the Oracles of God's Church, because we cannot fathom them with our narrow capacity? the very fundamentals of our Faith would be shrewdly shaken, should we measure them by this preposterous rule, of a seeming demonstration to the contrary. Believe it, it is one of the first rudiments, but main principles of a Christian, to captivate his understanding, and so regulate all his dictamen, that they be sure to run parallel with the sentiments of the Church. And this I take to be the case, when the question is started, about Purgatory fire, which I shall ever reckon, in the class of those truths, which cannot be contradicted, without manifest temerity, as being the doctrine generally preached and taught all over Christendom. You must then conceive Purgatory Purgatory described. to be a vast, darksome, and hideous Chaos, full of fire and flames, in which the souls are kept close prisoners, until they have fully satisfied for all their misdemeanours, according to the estimate of divine justice. For God has made choice of this Element of fire, wherewith to punish souls, because it is the most active, piercing, sensible, and insupportable of all others. But that which quickens it indeed, and gives it more life is this; that it acts as the instrument of God's justice, who by his omnipotent power, elevates and reinforces its activity as he pleases; and so makes it capable to act upon pure spirits. Do not then look only upon this fire, though in good earnest it be dreadful enough of itself, but consider the arm that is reached out, and the hand that strikes, and the rigour of God's infinite justice, who through this element of fire, vents his wrath, and powers out whole tempests of his most severe, and yet most just vengeance: So that the fire works as much mischief (as I may say) to the souls, as God commands, and he commands as much as is due, and as much is due, as the sentence bears; a sentence irrevocably pronounced at the high Tribunal of the severe and rigorous justice, of an angry God, and whose anger is so prevalent, that the holy Scripture styles it, a day of fury: Now you will easily believe, that Job, 20. 28. Esa. 13. 13. Thr. 1. 12. this fire is a most horrible punishment, in its own nature, but you may do well, to reflect also on that which I have now suggested, that the fury of Almighty God is as it were the fire of this fire, and the heat of its heat; and that he serves himself of it as he pleases, by doubling ●nd redoubling its sharp pointed forces; for this is that which makes it the more grievous and insupportable to the souls, that are thus miserably confined and imprisoned. They were not much out of It is a kind of hell. the way, that styled Purgatory a transitory kind of hell, for that the principal pains of the damned are to be found there, with this only difference, that in hell they are eternal, and in Purgatory they are only transitory and fleeting, for otherwise it is probably Suar. d. 45. Sect. 2. n: 14. S. Th. in 4. d. 21. q. 1. the very same fire, which burns both the holy souls & the damned spirits, & the pain of loss is in both places, the chief torment, as I shall declare hereafter. Now does not your hair stand an end? does not your heart tremble, when you hear that the poor souls, 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 souls, 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 fear of sullying their complexions, and if by chance, a spark had been so rude, as to light upon them, or a little smoke, it was not to be endured: Those, for whom down itself was too hard, and even ready to break their bones, one single grain of misfortune, a stone but as big as a nut, a rotten tooth, a sullen and malignant humour, stolen into the marrow of a bone, a cross word, an affront, an idle fancy, a mere dream, was enough to bury their whole felicity in a kind of hell. Alas! how will it far with them when they shall see themselves tied to unmerciful firebrands, or embodied as it were with flames of fire, surrounded with frightful darkness, broiled and consumed without intermission, and perhaps condemned to the same fire, with which the devils are unspeakably tormented? When Saul found himself beset on all sides, and in the midst of his enemies, and saw, that he must either die instantly, or fall into the hands of that base and accursed crew. Oh let me rather die (cried he) he will do me a favour that will cut my throat, 1. reg. 31. that so I may not see myself butchered by such wicked hands; and trailed away by them: death alas! 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 souls, designed to eternal 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 galley, or be hanged amongst felons, for it is not the death so much, as the dishonour, that makes them to die indeed. And can you doubt whether the souls 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 rabble 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 than the fire itself. Plut. Sen. There was a time when they would have forced a young Roman Cavalier into the bottom of a dark and stinking pit; but his heart was so filled with indignation at it, that he chose rather to dash out his brains against a door threshold, and so to let out his blood, and his life together, then to enter into so noisome a place. What a tearing grief must it be to those virtuous souls, when they shall see themselves border upon the very confines of hell; and in that accursed frontier, and more than this, to be shut up close prisoners in that unfortunate gulf; 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 Doctors astonish me, when they treat of this fire, and of the pain of sense as they tall it. For they peremptorily pronounce, that the fire that purges those both happy and unhappy Souls 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 clearly follows, that the furious fits of the stone, or raging gout, the tormenting colic, with all the horrible convulsions of the worst of diseases nay though you join racks, grid-Irons, boiling oils, wild beasts, and a hundred horses drawing several ways, and tearing one limb from another, with all the other hellish devices of the most barbarous and cruel 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 rank; for example, the air 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 reins lose, and punishes almost equally to the desert. And since those souls have preferred creatures before their Creator, 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 burns more, torments and afflicts more, than all the creatures of this life are able to do. But is it Aug. in Ps. 37. S. Th. sup. 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 fear, and my very hart friezes into ice with astonishment. And yet who dare oppose * St. Aug. St. Thomas, St. Anselme, St. Gregory the great, etc. Is there any hope of carrying the negative assertion against such a stream of Doctors, who all maintain the affirmative, and bring so strong reasons for it? Have patience to hear them yet once more; sin, 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 souls, 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 add unto all this a world of visions, and revelations, which seem to countenance the rigour of their position. What then will become of thee, poor idle soul, if the least pains in Purgatory surpass the greatest in this world, what I say, will become of thee that art so tender, that a little smoke is able to draw tears from thy eyes? But for thy comfort, there are Doctors in the Catholic church, that cannot away with so much severity, and namely St. Bonaventure, who is very peremptory S. Bonavent. in 4 d. 20. in denying it. For what way is there (says this holy Doctor) to verify so great a paradox, without wounding reason, and destroying the infinite mercy of the living God. I am easily persuaded there are torments in Purgatory far exceeding any in this mortal life, this is most certain, and it is but reasonable it should be so, but that the least there, should be more terrible than the most terrible in the world, cannot enter into my belief. May it not often fall out, that a man comes to die, in a most eminent state of perfection, save only, that in his last agony, out of mere frailty, he commits a venial sin, or carries along with him some relic of his former failings, which might have been easily blotted out with a Pater noster, or washed away with a little holy water: for I suppose, it is some very small matter, now, what likelihood is there, I will not say, that the infinite mercy of God, but that the very rigour of his justice, though you conceive it to be never so severe, should inflict so horrible a punishment upon this holy soul, as not to be equalled by the greatest torments in this life, and all this for some petty fault, scarce worth the speaking of? How! would you have God for a kind of trifle, to punish a soul full of grace and virtue, and so severely to punish her, as to exceed all the racks, cauldrons, furnaces, and other hellish inventions, which are scarce inflicted upon the most execrable criminals in the world? What do you make God to be! is he not a God of mercy in the other world as well as in this? He, says Tertullian, that is so sweet Tertul. Apol. and so good, that he darts the rays of his mercies into the darkest abyss of hell, shall he be so extremely rigorous in Purgatory which is so full of Saints? That which a sigh would have blown away here, or a tear have drowned, it was so small a matter, will you have God to power out his whole wrath for it, and to punish it with such a proportion of sufferings, as cannot be paralleled by all the torments in this world? Have a care least by making God too severe, you say not that which clashes with his infinite mercy. That nothing should remain unpunished, is no more than fitting, but that for a mere Peccadilio, or for some small remnant of a little penance, God should employ such tortures, is a most incredible paradox, and S. Bonaventure will not believe it, and are we not beholding to him for it? He confesses that the fire, the worm, and all the purging pain is of its nature far greater than the pains of this world, but that the least there should surpass the greatest here, he flatly denies; and I cannot think thou wilt need much entreaty to side with him. And thus much learned Suarez has prudently observed for thy Su. d. 40. 3, 4. purpose, that in truth the pains of Purgatory, and those of this life, are of quite different species' and can no more be compared together, than a flint with a Diamond, but that there may be so many flints put together as to exceed the worth of a Diamond, & so may the pains of this life be so multiplied, as to surmount the least of those in Purgatory. § 2. Of the Worm and pain of loss. BUt why do I entertain you so long, with the consideration of the fire and flames of Purgatory, as if it were the only or the greatest torment of the afflicted souls. Alas! there is a worm which knows them yet more to the quick, than those murdering flames, which make but an outward assault. It is this worm alas! it is this worm, that plays the tyrant over those captive souls. The worm of hell shall never die, Esai. 66. 24. Mar. 9 44. but that of Purgatory shall die indeed, but so long as it lives, it is not to be imagined how cruelly it bites. I know there are those among the learned, that believe, God has in store certain ravenous and devouring worms, that shall incessantly pray upon the carcases of the damned souls, and cause an endless martyrdom, by consuming them without ever yet consuming them. But as for Purgatory, where there are only naked souls, stripped of their bodies, there are no corporeal worms, but the worm, that knaws them, is a metaphorical worm, or a sharp and sensible grief, and deep resentment, which utterly undoes those miserable souls, by piercing and transpiercing them, with the sharp lances of a thousand and a thousand remorses. But to give you in fine a more particular description of this unsatiable, Love and gri●f are knawing Worms. and devouring Worm, which causes them so much mischief and vexation; Divines teach us, that it is either an Heroical Act of Charity, or a vigorous Act of Contrition, or finally a Holy kind of Impatience, and supernatural Act of Hope, but such a one, as does so importunely and powerfully check them, that it is not to be expressed. You may fancy Charity to be a golden File, which goes filing, and still filing away the dross of their imperfections, and as it were consuming them without intermission: Contrition to be a pair of hot biting Pincers, which doth so desperately pinch those poor Souls, that it is a kind of pity to God and his Angels to behold it: Hope retarded to be a kind of Rack, upon which those miserable Souls are so far extended, and stretched out with a desire that carries them to God, and so withheld by the impediment that lies in themselves, that it must needs be an unmerciful Torment. They seem as it were to be drawn in pieces by Wild-horses. Love draws, but pain withdraws, contrition spurs them on, but their misfortune pulls them back; Hope gives them wings, but Justice eclipse them off, and through the violence of these contrary Motions, these unfortunate Souls are in a most lamentable condition, and as the Holy Scripture expresses it, are knawn and torn in pieces, with Hungry, Devouring and tormenting Worms. It is not the fire, nor all the Brimstone and Tortures they endure, which murders them alive, no, no, it is the domestical cause of all these mischiefs, that racks their consciences and is their cruelest Executioner. This, this is the greatest of their evils, for a Soul that has shaked off the fetters of flesh and blood, and is full of the love of God, no more disordered with unruly passions, nor blinded with the night of ignorance, sees clearly, the vast injury she has done herself, to have offended so good a God, and to have deserved to be thus banished out of his sight, and deprived of that Divine fruition. She sees how easily she might have flown up strait to Heaven, at her first parting with her body, and what a trifle it was that impeded her. A moment lost of those inebriating joys, seems to her now worthy to be redeemed with an eternity of pains. Then reflecting with herself, that she was created only for God, and can not be truly satisfied, but by enjoying God, and that out of him all this goodly machine of the world, is no better than a direct Hell, and an abyss of evils, alas! what Worms? what Martyrdoms, and what nipping Pincers, are such pinching thoughts as these? The fire is to her but as smoke, in comparison of this vexing remembrance of her own follies, which betrayed her to this disgraceful and unavoidable misfortune. There was a King in an humour gave away his Crown and his whole Estate, for the present refreshment of a cup of cold water, but returning a little to himself, and soberly reflecting what he had done, had like to have run stark mad, to see the strange irreparable folly he had committed. To lose a year or two years, (to say no more) the beatifical vision, for a glass of Water, for a handful of Earth, for the love of a fading Beauty, for a little Air of worldly praise, a mere puff of Honour, ah! it is the Hell of Purgatory to a Soul that truly loves God, and frames a right conceit of things. Jephte Judic. c. 11 etc. 18. could have died for grief when he saw that by his own rashness he was to lose his only daughter, the light of his Eyes, the life of his Soul, and Soul of his life. And that poor youth, from whom they had stolen his gods, although they were mere Idols, yet did he take on most bitterly, and was become so disconsolate, there was no chiding him out of that humour. What! said he have you robbed me of my gods, and do you now question me, why I lament, as if he had not cause enough to grieve, who has lost his gods? And you may observe, it was not his fault that they were lost, and besides they were but gods of wood and stone, such as a skilful Artist would have made far better. The case here is different, for the Souls clearly see, they have lost God, through their own carelessness, and lost him for ten, twenty or perhaps thirty years, and this puts them out of the reach of all comfort. 'tis true, here below we are not able to taste the bitterness of this wormwood, but those pure Souls who are in the grace of God, and full of light, and well grounded discourses, see so clearly the grossness and foulness of this error, and taste so sensibly the gall and bitterness thereof, that it is a more vexing pain to them, then that of the fire. But you will say, it is but for a short time, that they are to be kept out of paradise. O God this is enough to break their hearts, for in that short time you speak of, they could have exercised a Million of most refined, heroical, and divine acts in Heaven and all this is lost. And if one act of virtue here on Earth, give so much glory to God, and so much joy to the whole Court of Heaven, what a loss is it, to have carelessly let slip the occasion of excercising a million of such acts in Heaven, which can never be recalled? I speak not for the merit, nor for the content there is in doing well, nor for the degrees of glory which are lost, no, I touch not yet what concerns their interest, but I only treat of the glory which they might have given to God, by their signal services of Love and Adoration; all which precious treasure is negligently cast away. When that Marc. 12. 42. Luc. 21. 2. good poor widow, cast her two brass mites into the Treasury; Christ Jesus was as well pleased, as if she had cast in both her eyes, or as many Worlds; and when St. Martin cut his Cloak in two, to give one half of it to a needy beggar, our Blessed Saviour vouchsafed to himself with that half garment, and turning to the Angels, who were about him in great numbers, and withal showing them that livery of his servant, behold said he, how noble this young Catechumen has attired me. If the Almighty Monarch of the world, makes so great a reckoning of one act of virtue, one small charity, what vexation will it breed in a Soul of the other World, to consider that other glorious souls, and perhaps some of her alliance, or acquaintance, are already daily spending themselves in acts of highest perfection, and that she has wilfully thrown away all this glory, which she might have given to Almighty God, and in place of acting so gloriously in the empireall Heaven, all resplendent with divine Fire, she is constrained to lie parching and frying in the flames of Purgatory, and undergoing a thousand inconsolable punishments. Now if you lay on the back of Their incredible loss. this, the consideration of interest, good God what a terrible grief will it be to holy Souls, to reflect on the loss of so many degrees of Grace and Glory, which they have foolishly and negligently cast away, for mere trifles, and without hope of recovery. One grain of Grace is certainly more worth than all the world, what a misery then? what a grief, and what a confusion will it be, to have prodigally sold for nothing, so many grains, so many graces, and so many worlds of true happiness? Since I have lost my Empire cried Nero, there is no living for me. Can I but one day arrive to be King of Athens, ●●d a Grecian, I could be content to walk barefoot to the bottomless pit of hell, so great a value do I set upon swaying the Sceptre but one day; and so precious is the least grain of glory in my estimation. Now if these ambitious souls, have such feelings for a little transitory and worldly glory, what will they have, who breath nothing but the pure love of God, and know how to set a true value upon glory, and celestial glory in those heavenly mansions? This in the opinion of learned Suarez: is a worm, the most sensible, and the most vexatious of all others, in that Church of patiented sufferers. But since these two Worms, Whether Love or grief torments most. Love and Grief combine together, to martyrise those poor Souls, which of the two is the most grievous charity, or contrition? They have neither of them teeth to by't with, but they conjure up such tempests of biting thoughts, in these unfortunate souls, as g●●e them a world of afflictions. Me thinks I hear them discourse in their turns much after this fashion. Love. O ungrateful and disloyal Soul, hast thou so easily lost the sight of thy merciful Redeemer? Grief. Dye for shame, unlucky Soul, and die for Grief, for having so easily merited, that God should thus banish thee, and punish thee in these base flames? Love? What hast thou got, by losing so good a God, whom thou wert already to have possessed 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 locked up under ground, in a furnace of Hellish Flames. Grief. In lieu of calling to mind, the benefits of this great God, thou art to be knawn to the very heart, with the sharp teeth of an infamous Grief, and to pass so many whole days in sighs and sobs, and unprofitable lamentations. Love. So many lesser Souls, have taken their flight strait up into Heaven, and what dost thou stick there below, in those loathsome pits of Fire? Grief. So many simple Idiots by leading innocent lives, are now in Glory, whilst thou idle wretch, liest there melting in unquenchable flames Love. What a Madness was it for thee, to cast away so many precious hours of seeing God, when one glimpse of that divine object is worth a million of worlds? Grief. Can 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 wear 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 shouldst have sung in Heaven, since thou art buried under ground, in a Sulphureous Laxe. Grief. 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 thyself in that eternal Mirror, and sparkling rays of his divine Countenance. Grief. Thou wert placed in the sublunary world to serve him, canst thou without bursting for spite, call to mind the life which thou hast lead, and is not the remembrance of thy debauches more frightful to thee, than the very sight of Hell itself. Love. Who loves God, had rather sink down into a thousand Hells, then lose him for a moment. Grief. 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 bosom of a mortal sin Thus violently do these two virtues of Love and Grief, make their several 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 mo●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 extreme painful. And since the sting of honour wounds deeper, pains sorer and goes more to the quick, than pain itself, 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 Souls are the most afflicted, with these voluntary kind of punishments, as I may term them, is, because they all actuate according to the uttermost Sphere and extent of their virtue, so that a Soul that has a greater proportion of Love, acts with more vigour, and plunges herself deeper in the profound abyss of Love, and in the Gall and bitterness of contrision, and as this proceeds out of mere love, notwithstanding their so sensible misfortune, they would not lose an ounce of it, so tender is their love to God, and so great the horror they have of all that is displeasing in his sight. But of this more at large hereafter. 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 God's 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 banished 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 blows the coals 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 yourself 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 pursuit of it. Now all this is extreme, 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 poor 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 wind, or lightning, or the Sun in his full career or flight itself flies away faster, I cannot believe that fire mounts up, or a stone sinks down to its centre with more vehemency, nor that the Heavens can be swifter in their motions, than these vigorous Souls are in running, flying, and precipitating themselves into God, when alas! they find their wings clipped, and their whole flight so unluckily stopped, 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 Martyrdom and will not have this privation, or pain of loss, to be so cruel as others make it, and in particular he maintains that it does not always exceed the greatest torments of this life. I will not take upon me the boldness, to make myself judge and umpire between St. Thomas and Saint Bonaventure, that is to say; between an Angel and a Seraphin, an angelical doctor and a Seraphical Doctor; in a word, between two famous oracles of Divinity, two glorious Suns placed in the several Spheres of their religious orders. But what remedy! whether of the two shall we believe? The one assures us, that the privation of the sight of God, is a martyrdoms beyond all the Martyrdom, of this world, the other tells us for a truth that it were certainly a most grievous torment but that it is sometimes so tempered and alleniated by other considerations, that it equals not the severest rigour of the Torments of this world. What? is there no means to reconcile these two heavenly Doctors? May we not say, they have both reason on their sides, they have both won, and both lost the field, and whilst the one looks as it were to the North, & the other to the South, they both meet in the Meridian line of charity, and rest securely in the bosom of the same truth. St Thomas would say, that if you look upon this privation, as it relates to God, the loss is incomparable, and he speaks the very truth; that the Soul has not a more violent instinct, then that which carries her to God, this is also an undoubted truth; that there cannot be a heavier loss, then that of God, and is not this also clear? That unless this grief be otherwise moderated, it is the most intolerable of all others; this is as evident as the rest: that you cannot deprive a Soul of a more lively object, and consequently that there is not the thing in this world whose absence is of its Nature so sensible, who can doubt of all this? certainly, if you state the case thus, and go no further, St. Thomas has clearly got the victory. Now let us hear St. Bonaventure. Who tells us that this evil of privation, being joined with a most certain hope of seeing God ere long, may be much lessened, that even in this world, we want the sight of God, and yet by reason of other diversions, are not so much concerned for it, that the holy Souls most contentedly submit themselves, to this piece of severity, and the more willingly they do it, the less are they burdened with sorrow: that many Saints out of pure charity, and for the glory of God, have offered themselves to be thus eternally deprived of the sight of God, and have taken great pleasure in it, with a world of other reasons, of which I shall treat in the next Survey, where I must 〈◊〉 up the comforts, of the Souls in Purgatory. Has he not reason for all this, I pray you? Nay, have they not both reason for what they teach? Me thinks they do like those that look upon your pictures, which are drawn after the Italian fashion, by Mathematical projection, one looks upon them this way, and sees a fair Picture of St Michael, another that way, and sees St Laurence upon a Gridiron, represented to life, the one vows, he sees an Angel, and he says true, the other is ready to swear he sees a Martyr, and he is not mistaken; mean while they contest about it, and neither of them will forsake his Opinion, whilst both are in the right, though they seem to wrong one another. Let us therefore conclude, that in truth there is something in this pain of loss, which surpasses all that can be imagined in this world, but that God is pleased in some cases to mingle certain Comfortable sweets with it, which take off much of the bitterness which the Souls would otherwise find in it. §. 3. Other Considerations much aggrevating these Pains. BUt that which adds new Life To lose God wilfully. and strength to these quick and piercing pains, is to see that they have not only wilfully lost for ever so many degrees of glory, whereof the least is an inestimable treasure, but are also estranged from the sight of God, by their own carelessness and tepidity. To want the sight of God out of charity, is to find a kind of Paradise in Hell, but to lose the sight of God by his own fault, though it be but for a moment, is a Hell indeed to a Soul that loves. Naturalists tell us of a little bird, th●● is so far in love with the sun, that she lives no longer than she can behold it, and so lives but a few hours, for no sooner does the sun set, but the poor bird seeing no longer the living rays of the sun, believing it to be really dead, dies also, as not being able to survive the sole object of his love. God is the Sun of our Souls, and therefore these worthy Souls, seeing this Sun quite eclipsed from their eyes, and overcast with the sable night of a suffering people, would doubtless die if they could, for God being the life of their life, having lost his life, how should they live? When the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph had lost the sight of the little Infant Jesus, what Tongue can express the affliction of their Souls? He only knows who has tried it by experience, and whose eyes God hath opened, what it is to lose the sight of God and to lose it through his own fault, and to be as it were poin●●d at, for a wretch that has lost 〈◊〉 God. I wept says holy David, and I Ps. 41. 4. wept night and day, when they would be still thus obrayding me, why David, where is thy God? the God for whom thou hadst so much love? Oh it is a dagger at my very Heart, and they kill me, when they ask me the question. Now this dagger is never from the hearts of those desolate, and languishing Souls. I will either die this day cried Caesar, or I will be the chief in Rome, for what likelihood is there that Caesar should live, and not be Caesar! live, and not live in the quality, which is due to his birth and courage? Oh how often does this thought assault & persecute these holy Souls, alas! how easily could I have purchased a million of degrees of essential Glory, and got Laurels upon Laurels, Crowns upon Crowns, and Trophies without number, and unfortunate wretch as I am, I have lost all this eternally, for mere sloth, for want of a little striving for it, am I not worthy to undergo the pains I suffer, though they were a thousand times more rigorous and intolerable. I do not wonder that Divines affirm this Heart-breaking to be far worse, than the privation of the sight of God, for to this they can find some ease and comfort, but the other is altogether inconsolable, since it is purely through their own faults. You may imagine all the virtues All the virtues charge them with reproaches. to come in upon this, and either voluntarily, or by a sweet kind of violence, to set upon these captive souls, with a new and fierce storm of reproaches. Faith. If you believed there was a Purgatory indeed, miserable creature, why did you not live so as to avoid its cruel torments. Hope. If you aimed to gain Paradise, why did you play the fool so as to amuse yourself with such trifles, and to lose so much precious time in them. Charity. Oh how well have you deserved to burn in these flames, since you often scorned to burn with mine, and to serve God with a heart all inflamed with divine fire; burn then at leisure, and die here for shame, since there was a time, thou wouldst neither live, nor die with sacred and holy love. Penance. Is it you that were so frighted with my rigours, so terrified with my sweet austerities, with which I would have preserved you from these cruel torments? Tell me now, where are your damask beds, your soft quilts, your down pillows, your fine sheets, that were smother and whiter than milk and cream, your sweet bags and perfumes, all your dainties, all your vanities, all that modish attire and bravery, which did so besot and inchant you. One sigh, one tear, one act of self denial, would have kept you out of this place of torments; answer me now, and let me hear, what you have to say for yourself. Prudence Foolish and senseless soul, how came you so to lose your wits, and even common sense too, as knowing the rigour of these flames, to use no caution to prevent them Oh? How well are these horrid punishments bestowed? This vile creature was so simple, as to believe, that continually offending God, without making him amends for it, in an honourable way, she should pass scotfree, and supply for all with a slight peccavi, and so enter into heaven. What an idle folly was this? As if it were a sufficient pretence to be wicked and rebellious, because God is full of mercy. Sat still then at the daily task of thy sufferings, and rather think of doubling them, for it is meet that God should show himself to be God, as well by justice as by mercy, and that both these divine attributes, should play their parts in their turns. Fortitude. How oft have I offered my service to strengthen you, O you careless a●d lazy soul, how oft have I offered to lend you my Arm, my Heart, and all my invincible power, to support and bolster up your pusillanimity and weakness, and you have disdained to employ it, now you are forced to bear the heavy burden of God's just vengeance, have I not just reason to withdraw my assistance? Temperance. I told you as much long since, that for want of bridling your unruly passions, the time would come, when you would curse the hours of all your excesses and disorders, without having power to redeem them, but by excessive torments. Do you look now, inconsiderate soul, that I should pour out water upon your flames, you that have ever slighted me? Thus all the holy Choir of God's darlings, the innocent virtues, come one after another, and beat upon this Anvil, laying whole loads of most heavy strokes, upon this miserable soul, that you cannot well imagine what more grievous fortune can befall her, in so much, that the soul so oppressed with evils, and so furiously battered on all sides, with a fresh supply of torments, is forced to cry out, miserable that I am, and a thousand times miserable? am I not wretched enough, but must the virtues themselves join their forces with my frailties, to persecute me, and complete my misery. How long alas! how long will you thus cruelly combine to undo me, you love, and you grief, you by a thousand sweets, and you by a thousand severities: You by flattering my pains, and you by redoubling them, you by showing me life, and you by showing me death, you by estranging me from Paradise, and you by conducting me to the very gates of hell; you by sweet expostulations, and you by bitter reproaches, which go to my very heart. How long I say once more will you be so cruelly kind, as to join your forces to embitter the martyrdom of a poor creature, now grown to ●e the most miserable wretch under Heaven. Forbear at length, forbear, it is not fit the severity of God's Justice, should eclipse all the rays of his infinite mercy. Whether the Devils torment them. All were lost, if the opinion of some were true, who will needs have the Devils play the executioners in Purgatory. Lord, what a terrible war would these wicked Aposta●a's raise, against the holy Souls, who are ere long to take possession of the places which they have lost in Heaven. With what a rage would they assault them, & wreak their barbarous fury upon them, were they to be treated at their mercy. But I had rather S. Tho. in 4. d. 20. & 21. Suar. d. 46. Sect. 3. follow the opinion of others, who with far more reason, me thinks, believe, that the Devils have no power to do them the least mischief. Tell me, what good would they get by it, since the souls can neither offend God, nor lose Paradise, which is the only Butt against which the Devils levelly their whole malice. Origen fancied the Devil, to be so sullenly proud, that having been once foiled by a soul, he will never after come near her, nor have any thing more to do with her. If this be so, the Devils will beware how they come near Purgatory where there are so many Victorious Souls. Besides God will not permit it, nor can we see what good can arise thence to God's glory. Possibly also, these punishments which the Devils would inflict, might shorten the term of the souls durance, and this may be the cause, why they are loath to meddle with them, lest they send them so much the sooner into heaven. However, some of the learned think, that these souls bordering so near upon hell, may very probably see the Devils, and Su. cit. n. 10. the damned souls, and hear their most execrable blasphemies, and that this is no small addition to their pains, to hear their good God, whom they entirely love, to be incessantly cursed, blasphemed, and renounced by those devilish and sacrilegious spirits. St. Catharine of Sienna was heard to say, she had rather suffer all the torments of Hell, then hear one blasphemy against God, for whom she had so much cordial love, and who is of himself so lovely. I confess this is a sweet kind of torment, as proceeding from supernatural and divine love, but I maintain withal, that it is a torment and a most grievous one, because though the Arrows of Love are guilded over, or made of pure gold, yet are they as sharp pointed, and as piercing to the quick, as those of Grief, though they be but of steel. Confusion is one of Their confusion. the most intolerable evils which can befall a soul, and therefore St. Paul speaking of our blessed Saviour, Ad Heb●. 12. 2. insists much upon this, that he had the courage and the love for us all to overcome the pain of a horrible confusion, which doubtless is an unsupportable evil, to a man of wit and courage. Tell me then if you can, what a burning shame, and what a terrible confusion it must needs be, to those noble and generous souls to behold themselves overwhelmed with a confused chaos of fire, and such a base fire, which affords no other light but a sullen glimmering, choked up with a sulphureous and stinking smoke, and in the interim to know, that the souls of many country clowns, mere idiots, poor women and simple religious persons, go strait up to Heaven, whilst they lie there burning, they, that were so knowing, so rich, and so wise, they that were Councillors to Kings, eminent Preachers of God's Word, and renowned Oracles in the world, they that were so great Divines, so great Statesmen, so capable of high employments. This confusion is much heightened by their further knowing, how easily they might have avoided all this, and would not. Sometimes they would have given whole mountains of Gold, to be rid of a stone in the Kidneys, or a fit of the Gout, Colic or burning . And for a handful of Silver, they might have redeemed many years' torments in that fiery Furnace; and alas, they chose rather to give it to their dogs and their horses, and sometimes to men more beasts than they, and much more unworthy. Me thinks this thought should be more vexing then the fire itself, though never so grievous. And yet there remains one The remembrance of their ungrateful Children. thought more, which certainly has a great share in completing their martyrdom, and that is the remembrance of their children, or heirs; which they left behind them, who swim in Nectar, and live jollily, on the goods which they purchased with the sweat of their brows, and yet are so ungrateful, so brutish, and so barbarous, that they will scarce vouchsafe to say a Pater noster in a whole month for their souls who brought them into the world, and who to place them in a terrestrial Paradise of all worldly delights, made a hard venture of their souls, and had like to have exchanged a temporal punishment for an eternal. The remnants and superfluities of their Lackeys, a cast at Dice, and yet less than that might have set them free from these hellish torments; and these wicked ungrateful wretches, would not so much as think on it. § 4. How long the Souls are detained in Purgatory? IF all these punishments passed away like a tempest, if the time of their continuance were but short, their case were not so deplorable. But how long think you does a soul dwell in Purgatory? First, it is most certain, that these pains are not eternal, otherwise it were not Purgatory, but hell itself; for in this chief lies the difference between hell and Purgatory, that the pains of Purgatory, lasts but for a time; those of hell for an eternity. Again, it is most certain, that they survive not the day of Judgement, and St. Augustine proves it evidently, because then all souls are to S. Aug. de. civet. c. 16. receive their last doom, and be immovably fixed, in an eternity of good or evil. Thirdly, it is most certain, that all the Souls shall not be there punished equally, neither for extent of time, nor proportion of torment, for as their crimes were not equal, so the punishment cannot be equal, where Justice bears the sway. Fourthly, It is also certain, says the Learned and Judicious Suarez, after others, Su●d. 46. Sect. 4. n. 6. that we must not apply the revelations of certain devout persons, to all the souls in Purgatory, All Visions and Apparitions of Souls, not to be credited. but rather ought to be very reserved in this kind, and not easily to give credit to all such stories, which pass for revelations, for though God in his secret judgements, may be pleased to punish some disloyal souls, after a particular manner, yet must we take heed, how we draw general conclusions, from particular cases. For since private revelations, are not Articles of Faith, we must be very cautious, and proceed warily in this matter, especially where we see such kind of revelations seemingly to clash one against another. We must therefore wave such extraordinary cases, and honour them with due respect, but not build so much upon them, as to draw thence universal maxims. Wherefore in this place I mean not to speak, but of the common and ordinary stile of God's providence, laying aside all particular visions, and personal exemplar punishments, which God has reserved to himself. Now there have been some so bold, as to maintain, that all the souls lie in Purgatory but a few hours, and are then quit and released of their pains. Their The Souls not so soon released as some imagine. grounds are, first, because the pains may be so doubled, and screwed up to such a height, as to equal any extension of pain what soever. Secondly, because the souls there do exercise such acts of love, and other sublime virtues, all which conspire to purify these poor creatures, so that the business is soon dispatched. Were this true, it were very good news, but the mischief is, that most divines censure this assertion as too bold and temerarious, and in truth it has very little or no probability, and were a way in effect to destroy Purgatory, since we may cut off half of those few hours they speak of, by redoubleing the pains, and another half of these by redoubling them again, and so go still halving the time, by doubling the pains till we reduce them to a quarter of an hour, or half a quarter, or possibly to an instant, or so little durance, as to be scarce begun but ended. Which kind of Purgatory, though it may have place in those souls which depart immediately before the day of judgement, when the intention of the pain must supply for the extent of time, which will be then wanting, in regard that there is to be no more Purgatory, after that general accounting day, yet to apply it commonly to other souls, where there is no need of such subtleties, were to confound all things. It is the ordinary strain of God's Justice, to proceed by degrees, and therefore there must be a competent time allotted for those punishments. And this is the general belief of the Church, that the souls are kept there for a time, some more, some less, each one according to his desert, and though happily some choice souls, do but as it were kiss the gates of Purgatory, and rather feel the smoke then the fire, yet the greater part of them, lie there for some considerable time, to satisfy the sweet rigour of divine justice. I am not ignorant, that some great Divines have believed, that if a soul stay there for a year or two it is all. For say they, how can you require more of them, then to be two years miserably tormented in a burning furnace? That which here might have been redeemed with a tear of true contrition, or with a sigh of ardent charity, can it not be purged with flames of fire, in two whole years in the other world? The most barbarous cruelty in this life, is scarce ever seen to reach beyond a few hours, and what shall we then say, of two years in Purgatory, which are as it were two ages, or two little eternities, (so great are the torments) shall it not be enough, to purify the most unclean soul in the world, so she be in the state of Grace. But yet this opinion is not received in the Church, and it is a great madness, to attempt any thing, contrary to the common judgement of the Church; and her Learned Doctors. Sotus held a singular opinion of his own; that no soul Sect. in 4. d. 17. q. 3. remains in Purgatory above ten years. For, said he, we must set some bounds to the rigour of God's justice, who doth all things in number, weight, and measure, and is said to dispose all things sweetly. And is not ten years of most bitter pains, a great number, a grievous weight and an everflowing measure, to say nothing of so many prayers, so many masses, so many tears, so many privileged altars, and Plenary indulgences, so many alms, and other good deeds of the living, and then the most powerful intercession of the whole court of Heaven, but especially of our blessed Lady, and her beloved son, who is the Attorney general of the whole Church, and who pleads for her with a most persuasive and divine Rhetoric. Yet for all this, I must tell you, many divines lay heavy censures upon this opinion, sticking not to call it, not only temerarious, but also erroneous; and the common sense of the church is quite contrary, as appears by the immemorial custom, of perpetual foundations of set Masses, to be yearly said, for such particular persons, and to continue to the world's end, all which would be needless, if almighty God put a period to their punishments, after ten years; for to what purpose are those Masses after the ten years, are expired? And though the most learned of this age, will not take upon them to condemn this opinion of error, yet they all accuse it of much temerity, No certain time beyond which a soul may not be tormented. because in truth this whole business is very uncertain, as being a secret locked up in the cabinet of God himself, and letters sealed up, which our Saviour would not hitherto open to his Spouse the church, so that whilst it remains in the nature of a secret, we must not presume to define any thing precisely. Only this we know, that many souls, do but touch Purgatory as it were with their finger and away, others lie there whole hours, days, months, and years, and as we are not easily to credit those visions, which threaten the souls in Purgatory, with a continuance of their torments until the last day, so are we to believe, that God can well punish some of them, so long that the space of ten years, in comparison should seem little or nothing to it. Hence it is a very laudable and pious custom, to found Masses to perpetuity, because alas! who knows whether he may not be, of the number of those unfortunate souls, who are to be kept there so long. How few know truly the state of their own souls, and the debts they are to pay to the severity of our most just judge, who is indeed full of clemency, but such as is ever accompanied, with an impartial justice worthy of God. I may add here, that the piety of the founders, looks not only upon the releasing of their own souls out of torments, which they are assured will have an end sooner or later, but they open their hearts and bowels of charity, and extend it to others, who from time to time shall be in Purgatory, and very possibly, have no body to remember them in their devotions. This certainly is a work of charity, well becoming a good Catholic, and a well disposed soul, to provide so, as to cooperate even after his death to the help, and salvation of other souls, and to be ever and anon sending some into Heaven, by antedating the time of their deliverance, and increasing the number of the glorious Saints. Mean time, what an inconsolable grief is it to the poor souls, to see themselves plunged over head and eared, in flames of fire, and condemned to remain there, ten, twenty, a hundred years, and perhaps to the world's end, if their friends upon earth do not afford them their best assistance? middle State of Souls, lately censured by his Holiness. There are some few of late, are fallen so far into the contrary extreme, that they cannot afford a soul once in Purgatory, should ever get out, before the day of judgement. But as this strange Paradox, took its rise chief, from a false conceit, of the nature of a spiritual substance, and other wild principles of a new minted Philosophy, so is it generally cried down, and not only contradicted, by many known apparitions, & revelations, which the Reader will meet with in this Treatise, attested by such grave Authors, and Fathers of the Church, that he has little reason to suspect them for old wives tales, or melancholy dreams, as these men would have them: but seems to have been blasted long In Bullar. Rom. Conc. Flor. in lit. unionis. act. 4. ago, and condemned, in a particular Bull of Pope Benedict the eleaventh, and in the holy Council of Florence, where it was expressly defined, that those souls which after they have contracted the blemish of sin, are Purged either in their bodies, or being unclothed of their bodies, are presently received into heaven. And since the Author of this extravagance, will have Tradition to be the sole rule of our Faith, (of which Tradition, we can have no clearer proof, then from the testimony of the Church) let him but look into the general doctrine, and practice of the church, both now at this present, and time out of mind, and he shall discover as clear a Tradition, for this common persuasion of the souls being released out of Purgatory, some sooner, some later, according to their own deserts, and the relief of our suffrages, as for any other thing in the world. Do not good people generally ground themselves upon this, when they offer up their prayers, give alms, procure Masses and Diriges, apply Indulgences, for the present relief of their deceased friends? Is not the whole practice of Christians (for as much as concerns their piety to the faithful departed) built so wholly upon this, that (were it not true) we must conclude, that the whole Catholic church has been all along fooled, by her Pastors and Doctors? Who has ever hitherto so much as fancied it in a dream, that his suffrages for the dead, were to be of no greater advantage to them, then as far forth as they had power, to advance the time appointed for the day of judgement? which for my part I apprehend so coldly, that, did I not rely upon better motives, I should soon lay a side all devotion for the souls departed. But I mean not here to dispute the question, since this Treatise is not intended so much, in a polemical, as in an affectuous and moving way, And therefore I leave it for others, who have already entered the lists, and are engaged in the quarrel. And so I take no notice, how it can stand with God's impartial justice, that, whereas many souls may leave this world, in the same condition, as to Purgatory, that is (in this Author's opinion) with the same bur●hen of depraved affections, some of them shall lie 1000 years in Purgatory, to wit, those that die 1000 years before the day of judgement, an● others but a day, or an hour, or a moment, to wit, those that die immediately before that general accounting day. For since he owns no other pain in Purgatory, but that which flows from the said crooked inclinations and affections bend against reason (which I suppose to be the same in all) why should some of them (as it must necessarily follow in these principles) shake them off so soon, and others groan so long under them? Again, I say nothing how harshly it sounds in a christians ear, that a holy soul in the other world, should not only still pursue the same wicke● inclinations, for example, to drunkenness, gluttony, and carnality, which she had in this life, but that this should be her only punishment. I say as little, how in this opinion, great sinners, that die immediately Trid. sess. 14. c. 2. Flor. act. 4. cit. after baptism (who certainly go directly into heaven) must needs carry their Purgatory with them into heaven. For since it is evident that baptism does not blot out their perverse inclinations, they cannot be dispossessed of them, but must of necessity carry them into the other world, as well as others, and consequently must have their Purgatory in Heaven, Purgatory being nothing else with him, but the inhering strife and fury of such irrational affections. I let slip a world of other absurdities, because my aim, as I told you, in publishing this Treatise, is not to canvas curious and impertinent questions of Purgatory, but to move the Reader, to a solid devotion for the poor souls, which I fear is not a little cooled, since these fond opinions came to light. But now me thinks, I hear my Reader very inquisitive to know. §. 5. Whether their pains-grow less and less? IT is pity to see sometimes how your greatest divines are entangled, and lost in their over subtle speculations. As for the pain of loss, which the souls endure by being deprived of the sight of God, they agree; that, it is daily much lessened, for seeing the time draw nearer, in which they are to be made happy with the sight of God, whom they love so ardently, it exceedingly rejoices them, and certainly they cannot choose but much sweeten, and consequently lessen their pains, by the frequent repetitions of that devout aspiration, which St. Teresia was wont to use, when she heard the clock strike. O lovely hour, how dost thou rejoice me, by bringing me the welcome news, that I am now a whole hour nearer to the sight of God. For a heart that loves, cannot but be overjoyed, to know, that, he approaches to the fair object of his love, though it be but a moment. But as for the pain of sense, your Doctors are divided, some hold, that as for the continuance, that is certainly shortened every day, by the day that is past, which is evident, and in particular, that the prayers of the faithful, obtain of God, an abridgement of the length of the time, which he taxed for their punishment, so that the more one preys for the souls, the more is cut off, of the time of their suffering, which by that means becomes the more tolerable. But as for the sharpeness, and intenseness of the pain, and the action or activity of the fire, as they speak in schools, that is as grievous in the last moment, as at the first, and as painful in the end, as at the beginning of their Purgatory. And they flatter the souls, as if this were best for them, because the greater the pains are, which they endure, the sooner are they purged, and made worthy to enjoy the presence of God. Others teach, that as well the pain, as the time, are continually lessened, according to the proportion of the relief, which they receive from the suffrages of the Church. And why not? since God's goodness is so great, such is the desire of the Church that begs it, the tears of the faithful pretend to no less, and we must not consider the fire as an Element working naturally, and equally at all times, but rather as an instrument of God's justice, who gives it more or less force and power, to work upon the souls, as he pleases. Why should Almighty God, who is so loving a Father, refuse to give this relief, at the earnest suit of children, in behalf of their Parents, Brothers, Sisters, and dearest friends, I say at their instance, who are so sensible of their torments, and so much concerned for their ease and relief. I willingly embrace this opinion, as more worthy of the bowels of mercy, more sympathising with the heart of Christ Jesus, and better suiting with the prayers of the Church, and the sighs of Christians. And certainly none can better clear this difficulty, than the souls themselves, who feel the pains we speak of, and these have often by God's permission appeared to their friends and devout persons, and born witness for this truth; that their pains were still lessened, as they received new succour, from the pious endeavours of their friends upon earth, until they came at length to cease and determine. And we must not here be too nice, and hard of belief, for, as it is an argument of too much rashness and folly, to give credit to all pretended visions, of what nature soever, so it argues too much brutishness, and profaneness, to believe none; especially, when they are authorized by the Church, and by persons of authority and credit beyond exception, that we must either believe them, or believe nothing in this World. § 6. A notable example in confirmation of all the precedent Doctrine. BEfore I leave off finishing this Picture, or put a period to the representation of the pains of Purgatory, I cannot but relate a very remarkable History, which will be as a living Picture before your eyes. But be sure you take it not to be of the number of those idle stories, which pass for old wives tales, or mere imaginations of cracked brains and simple souls. No, I will tell you nothing but what venerable Bede, so grave Beda hist. Angl. lib. 5. cap. 13. an 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 authentical, Bellarmin. de gemicu columbae, l. 2. c. 9 that Cardinal Bellarmine, a man of that judgement as the world knows, having related it himself, concludes thus. For my part I firmly 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 yield 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 ●rithelmus, being dead for a time, was conducted to the place of Purgatory by a guide, whose countenance and apparel was full of light; you may imagine it was his good Angel, Here he was showed 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 whirlwind, were tossed up and down, out of the intolerable scorching flames, into the insufferable rigours of cold, and out of these into those again, without a moment of repose or respite. This he took to be hell, so frightful were those torments, but his good Angel told him no, it was Purgatory, where the souls did penance for their sins; and especially such as had differred their conversion, until the hour of death; and that many of them were set free, before the day of Judgement, for the good Prayers, Alms, and Fasts of the living, and chief by the holy sacrifice of the Mass. Now this holy man being raised again from death to life by the power of God, first made a faithful 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 poor, and taking upon him the habit, and profession of a Monk, lead so austere a life, that though his tongue had been silent, yet his life and conversation spoke 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 sweetness, and incredible fervour, and if they had asked him, brother, alas! how can you suffer so much sharp and bitting cold? O my friends, would he say, I have seen other manner of colds than these. Thus when he even groaned under the voluntary burden of a world of most cruel mortifications; and was questioned, how it was possible, for a weak and broken bod●, like his, to undergo such austerities, Alas! my dear brethren would he still say, I have seen far greater austerities than 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 Paradise, 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 than we do. The second Survey. A Glimpse of the Paradise of Purgatory, or of the ineffable Joys, and Heavenly consolations of the Souls there. I Do not style that the Paradise No terrestrial Paradise in the way to heaven. of Purgatory, which some have fancied, as if the souls, having almost clean canceled out all those impurities, which they here contracted, were to be conveyed into a terrestrial Paradise, 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 sense. For although this fancy may appear to have something 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 Council of Florence, Flor. sess. ult. seems to take away all credit from this opinion of a terrestrial Paradise, and so down goes all that goodly fabric, built in the air. For, (says the Council) 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 lie 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 breathe, they so much magnify. Wherefore under the notion of the Paradise of Purgatory, I understand, the excessive joys of these captive souls, the incomparable acts of their will and understanding, and the continual favours shoured down upon them from Heaven, even amidst their most cruel torments. §. 1. How these excessive joys can stand with their unspeakable torments? TO make this good, we must A separate soul acts without control. 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 lump of flesh, drowned in blood and other humours, kept in thraldom 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 mark, when he compared a soul in this world, to a Coachman, that is to guide four unruly Horses, without Rains, a Soldier that has his Sword in his hand, but his Arms tied, a swift courser, that would run, but is tethered, a bird that would fly, but has his wings clammed up with Birdlime. Now when the soul is once set free from this bondage, and lives at liberty, this Coachman drives, this Soldier strikes, this Courser runs, this Bird flies, and this Soul does what she pleases without control. Besides, that which makes the actions of a Soul in this life, to be so weak and unperfect, is the necessary dependence, which she has of the body, into which she is so engrafted, that she seems, to be but one, and the self 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 g●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 Lions, Foxes, and the like, because their souls become brutish, by following the dictaments, and motions 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 herself, 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 obstacle●, nay though the body be borne, and sunk into the very centre 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 ●et be overwhelmed with the hellish torments of Purgatory? cast your eyes upon the holy Martyrs of God's Church, and observe their behaviour. They were torn, mangled, dismembered, flayed alive, racked, broiled, 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 leap 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 arms, and lift me up to my dear Redeemer. O death, how amiable art thou in my Eyes, and how sweet is thy cruelty? Your coals, your flaming firebands, and all St. Cec●ly. the terrors of death, are to me but as so many fragrant Roses, and Lilies, sent from Heaven. Shower down upon me whole deluges St. Stephen of stones, whilst I see the Heaven's open, and Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of his eternal father, to behold the fidelity of his Champion. Turn, O St. Laurence. turn the other side thou cruel Tyrant, this is already broiled, and cooked fit for thy Palate: O how well am I pleased to suffer this little Purgatory, for the love of my Saviour. Make haste, O my Soul, St. Agnes. to cast thyself, upon the nuptial bed of flames, which thy dear Spouse has prepared for thee. O St. Felicitus and the Mother of the Maccabees. 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, tigers, St. Ignatius Lions, 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 Lion's teeth. Now I begin indeed to be the disciple of Christ, O the lucky stroke 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 mastery, 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 re●olute, heroical and supercelestial acts▪ The holy Ghost tells us, that the body that Sap. 9 15. is corrupted, burdens the Soul, and the earthly habitation, presses down 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 persuasions 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 looked 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 ●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 extreme dereliction, when he not only seemed, to have been abandoned, by his eternal Father, but had even abandoned, and forsaken himself, by miraculously withholding, the superior part of his blessed Soul, from relieving, and assisting the inferior, yet even then, had all the comforts of Heaven, and saw God face to face, and consequently, was at the self same time most happy; by the fruition of the beatifical vision, and yet so oppressed with griefs, that he cried out himself, my soul is sorrowful unto death; and again, O my God, alas! why hast thou thus forsaken me! Conceive something like unto this, of the Souls in Purgatory, who are most miserably tormented, and yet replenished with heavenly comforts. §. 2. Two main grounds of their comfort, the double assurance they have of their salvation, and impeccability. THe better to unfold you this They are certain of ●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 joys 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 martyrs, by purchasing one Hell, with another. For if an Angel should come down from Heaven, and give this infallible assurance, unto an afflicted person, that undoubtedly he shall be saved, as being one of the choice number of the elect, certainly his very heart would leap for joy, nor would the severest usage, with death itself, and death represented in her most frightful, and ghastly 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 ecstasy of joy, and so ravished out of himself, that for eight days together, he did nothing but go up and down, crying out, Paradise, Paradise, O my soul, thou shalt have Paradise, 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 comfortable news, of eternal bliss, that he was not at all sensible, of any oppression of nature, nor seemed to be the least concerned for it. For, said he, what can any thing else avail me, since I am one day to have Paradise, with all the delights of Heaven. Now, if we Suar. d. 47. S. 3. credit, the holy doctors of the Church, and best divines of the Christian world, the Souls in Purgatory, are most certain of their salvation: For no sooner is the Soul departed this life, but she is brought to a particular judgement where she receives an award of her eternal state of glory, or confusion, and from the mouth of God, hears the irrevokable sentence, from which there is no appeal, no civil request, no review of process, no writ of error, for this decree of God's justice, must immediately be put in execution. They say further, that in the same moment, that a Soul sees herself condemned to Purgatory, she sees also, the precise time, prescribed her, to continue there, according to the ordinary strain of God's justice. But whether she know also by divine revelation, who will pray for her, and what assistance in particular they will give her, or how much will be cut of, of the time determined for her punishment, is a nicer question, which I purposely leave untouched for others to excercise their wits in, as they please, and make haste to take up the thread of my discourse, I was letting fall, in which I am to lay before your eyes, the ineffable joys of the souls in purgatory, when they seriously reflect, upon the certainty of their salvation, and how soon they shall be drowned in the Divinity, and yet swim in an Ocean of all heavenly comforts. When Jacob knew for certain, that he was to have the fair Rachel, he was content to be espoused first to Lia, though she were bleareyed, and ill favoured, and besides, a world of heats and colds, frights and fears, and fourteen years toilsome service, seemed scarce an hour to him, so much was his heart enchanted, with a holy love, of his dearly beloved Rachel, and so true it is, that for the enjoyment of that, which a soul loves in good earnest, she makes no reckoning of fire, and flames, and a thousand Purgatories. So that a Soul, that is confident, of espousing one day Rachel, that is, the Church triumphant, sticks not to be first espoused to Lia, that is the Church suffering, with all the pains in Purgatory, so long as it shall please God, and fourteen years, are unto her but as an hour, such is the excess of her love to heaven. O with what a good heart, do I drink up my tears said the royal Prophet, Ps. 41. when I remember I shall pass into the heavenly Tabernacle! were I to make my passage thither, through Hell itself, how willingly would I run that way? And to the same tune, cried out St. chrysostom with a masculine voice, and a heart which was all heart. If I were to pass through a thousand Hells, so I might in the end of all meet with Paradise, and my God, how pleasing would these Hells seem unto me? And certainly there are infinite souls, would be ready to sign it with their heart blood, that they would be willing to dwell in the flames of Purgatory, till the day of judgement, upon condition, to be sure of eternal Glory; at the last; for believe it, they that know well the meaning of these four words, God Eternity, Glory, and Security, can not but have a moderate apprehension of Purgatory fire, be it never so hot and furious. Another heavenly comfort, They are impeccable. which rejoices these happy souls, in the midst of their torments, is an infallible and certain assurance, which they have, that, although their pains be never so insupportable, yet shall they never offend God, neither mortally, nor venially; nor show the least sign of impatience, or indignation. A true lover of God, understands this language, and if he do not, shall in a moment learn it in Purgatory, and find by experience, that a soul there, had rather be plunged in the deepest pit of Hell, then be guilty of the least voluntary misdemeanour. So that seeing herself to be grown impeccable, and that no evils, can have the power, to make her offend God, and that all impatience dies at the gates of Purgatory, from whence all sins, and humane failings are quite banished, O God, what a solid comfort must this needs be unto her. The greatest affliction that good people can have, in the sufferings of this life, is the fear of offending God, or to think that the violence of their torments, may make them subject, to break out into a thousand foolish expressions, and to toss in their heads, as many foolish thoughts, filling their imaginations, with a world of Chimaeras, and idle fancies, of frightful objects, or in a word, because they apprehended, either death, or sin, or the loss of their merit, and labour, or that God is angry with them. For grief with the Devils help, strives to snatch out of our hands, the victorious palm of our sufferings, or at least to make us stoop to some frailties and imperfections, which embitter our hearts. And were it not for this just fear, Saints would not stick at the greatest evils they can endure in this world. What a joy than must it be to these holy innocent Souls, to see themselves become altogether impeccable. The reason of this is clear, because the particular judgement▪ being once over, the final sentence is also pronounced, and the Soul is no longer in a capacity, to merit, or demerit, not so much as to satisfy, by any voluntary sufferings of her own, but only to submit, to the sweet rigour of God's justice, who has taxed such a proportion of pains, answerable to her demerits, and so to clear her conscience, and blot out the remainder of her frailties, and impurities. Make haste to do well before Eccl. 9 10. death, is the counsel of Almighty God, for the appointed time wherein to heap up treasures of justice & merits is before you appear in judgement, for after that, it will be too late. The very instant that a soul leaves the body, according to God's law, there is no more time for merit or demerit, and therefore the souls, that are sent into Purgatory, are most certain, they shall never more commit the least sin, that can be imagined. When St. Anthony was so furiously assaulted, with a whole rabble regiment of Devils, he was not greatly daunted, at all their hideous shapes, terrible howl, and rude blows, all his fear was of offending God, he apprehended more the strokes of impatience, than all the wounds of hell, he called upon Christ for help, and having obtained the favour of a personal visit, he made him this amorous complaint, and sweet expostulation. O good Jesus, where were you, alas where were you even now my dear Saviour, when your enemies and mine, conspired so cruelly against me? why came 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 Hermit, do but assure me this, that I shall not sin, and let Lucifer, with all his accursed crew, 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 suffering, 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 evil that is forced and against ones will, is a true evil indeed, the constraint and violence it carries along with it, imbitters it above measure, and renders it insupportable; whereas if the evil be voluntary, it is a good evil, a lovely evil, an evil to be purchased at any rate: Witness the ho●y Martyrs of God's Church, who when they voluntarily shed their blood, and with a good will poured ou● their lives, for God's cause, though at the cost of the most inhuman 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 soars, others kiss 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 easy ladder, whereby to mount up strait into Heaven; another provokes Tigers, and Lions to dismember him. This tender Virgin, leaps into the fire prepared for her, without staying for the Executioners help; another casts herself into the Sea, to preserve her Virginity. See the force of Christian Resolution, which is steered by divine Maxims: They die and smile at it, they seem to court Death itself, they choose 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 Emperor, who may rob them of the Lilies 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 cruel punishments inflicted by a severe enemy: They kiss the rod, and the Fatherly hand, which makes use of it, for their Sovereign good: When a Chirurgeon makes a deep incifion, to let out the water of a dropsy, when he strikes his lancet into the arm, when he cuts of a Gangreend-member; the diseased person kisse● the hand that has made the wound, embraces the Suregon, though sprinkled with his blood, opens his mouth to give thanks, his purse to reward, his eyes to bathe in tears, and his very heart to love cordially this kind Murderer, who has so cruelly mishandled him, to do him good, and to save his life. What think you is the language of these holy Souls, 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 greatness, to take the pains to purify us poor Creatures, worthy of a thousand Hells. O the profuse goodness of the Almighty, who is pleased with the tenderness of a loving Father, to chastise his wicked Servants, and so to ado●● them for his dear children. W●● it necessary, that himself should take the trouble upon him, to stretch out the hand of his infinite Justice, to purify such disloyal 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 Creator, 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 ourselves 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 soul 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 Isaac saw the sword in Abraham's 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 lose, 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 souls, that burn in the flames of Purgatory, are much better disposed, to embrace whatsoever God shall ordain, than 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 Goodness, inspires these holy souls with a thousand heavenly lights, and such ravishing thoughts, that they cannot but take themselves to be extreme happy; so happy, that St. Catherine of Genua professed, she had learned of Almighty God, that, excepting only 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 sweetness they find 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 steal into their thoughts, to desire, to be any where, else then where they are, supposing God has so placed them, they are not at all troubled, that others get out before them, and they are so absorbed in this profound Meditation, that they are at God's disposal, in the bosom of his sweet Providence; that they cannot so much as dream of being any where else. So that me thinks, those kind expressions of Almighty God by his Prophets, to his chosen people, may be fitly applied to the unhappy, and yet happy condition, of these holy Souls. Rejoice you my people, says the living God, for I swear unto you by myself, that when you shall pass through flames of Fire, they shall not hurt you, I shall be there with you, I shall take of the Edge, and blunt the points of those piercing flames. I will raise the bright Aurora in your darkness, and the darkness of your nights shall outshine the midday. I will power out my peace into the midst of your hearts, and replenish your souls with the bright shining lights of Heaven. You shall be as a paradise of delights bedewed with a living fountain of heavenly waters You shall rejoice in your Creator, and I will raise you above the hi●ht of Mountains, and nourish you with Manna and the sweet inheritance of Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoke it, and it cannot fail, but shall be sure to fall out so, because he hath spoken it. Did we truly know what is the Love without intesest. pure love of God, a love without interest, and a heart that neither has, nor will have any other ends, feelings or designs, but those of Almighty God, happily we might be able to conceive, a good part of the paradise of the souls in Purgatory. Those good souls, see so clearly, how much it imports them, to have no other concern, or interest, but for God's cause, that without the least regard to their own sufferings, they had infinitely rather dwell in Purgatory, (since God will have it so) then be surrounded with the sweets of Paradise, without God's pleasure; nay more though they had not the least blemish, to wipe out, and the only question were, to comply with God's blessed will, who for some reason best known to himself, were pleased to treat them in this rude fashion. This pure love without all self interest, is more forcible, than any other consideration. For if St. Paul could wish himself in hell, if Moses could have been content, to be blotted out of the book of life, if others have offered themselves to remain in Purgatory till doomsday, to have the assurance of their own salvation, or to suffer for the good of others, and all this, either out of a kind of self love, or an excess of fraternal charity, and while they were yet entangled with the apprehensions of this wicked world, what may not a soul do, which is full of divine love, without any mixture of self interest, so purely refined, as not to desire any thing but God, and the execution of his inscrutable designs. And since all holy souls are of this temper, in the other world, I am confident, there is not any one soul, would quit Purgatory, where God has placed her, nor any that would not most willingly exchange Heaven for purgatory, should she discover the least inclination of God's will, that it should be so. The Saints are much perfecter than mortal men, who notwithstanding all the weakness of frail nature, could have the heart to cast themselves into burning flames, when they saw it made for God's greater glory, and could there sing out his praises. So happy did they take themselves to have the power of serving God, without any other interest, then that of his glory, nay with the ruin of their very lives, and all other worldly concerns. And when they had done all this, they would break out into tears, as the most eloquent, though silent expression of a favour, they never took themselves to deserve. Wherefore since all the souls in Purgatory, have not only a perfect, but also an experimental knowledge; of this pure love, and withal see such a world of devout souls, who are still pouring themselves out into such heroical acts, of pure love, how much think you does this encourage them to do their best in this kind. And can you think after all this; that God will suffer himself to be overcome in courtesy, or charity, and not be still furnishing them, with a fresh supply of new lights, and celestial comforts? And certainly, the Heavenly raptures. attractions of Almighty God, are not to be numbered amongst his least favours, they do so transport a soul, and so absolutely master her, that she neither feels nor cares for all the torments in the world which the body suffers, ●hile she is thus absorbed, and even lost in Almighty God. They applied caustics to St. Thomas of Aquin, while he was rapt in his profound speculations of Divinity, and he seemed not to feel the least smart, or at least took no notice of it, he was so ravished, and drowned in Almighty God. They tell the same of the seraphical St Francis, how when he was once gone out of himself, with an ardent affection of the love of Jesus Christ, they applied the button cautere, and the good Saint felt it no more, then if it had been a button of glass or crystal. Many other servants of God, in their extaticall raptures, and lofty meditations, of the joys of Heaven, have been pricked wi●h needles, wounded with lances, and persecuted with rude blows, cold water, hot irons, and the like, and yet for all this, could not be drawn out of their sweet quiet, and repose, to give the least attention, to these rough entertainments. What shall we say now, of those fair souls, lately flown out of their bodies, who are so forcibly carried away with the pure love of God, and his eternal glory; who see themselves so near it, and so certain to enjoy it, and to be swallowed up in the immense Ocean of the Divinity. So my son may be one day Emperor of Rome, (said the ambitious Agrippian) I shall most readily yield, to be soon after thrown headlong into the bottomless sea. And do you think those souls, who are most certain to reign for ever, in the Empireall heaven, can complain of the fire, wherewith they are tormented for a few hours, or years, which are but so many moments compared with eternity. St. Catherine of Genua assures us▪ that God does so violently, and withal so sweetly attract and draw after him, these happy souls, that it is impossible to find out words to express it, or any parallel to this, sweet and amorous violence. This pure love, which the souls Conformity with Gods will. have for Almighty God, goes not without a perfect conformity to his divine will: And this is the thing, which of all others metamorphoses Purgatory into Paradise. To have the same will with Almighty God, says holy St. Bernard is to be like God, but S. Bern. ep. ad fratres de monte die. not to have the power to have any other will, but Gods, is to be what God is, that is content, and happy, in whatsoever condition. If God, for some special reason, would have a soul to be a million of years in Purgatory, without fault, and without hope of any further merit, she would not much concern herself, neither for the extremity of the pains, nor for the length of the delay, but would rest satisfied, with a perfect resignation, to Gods holy will. Can there be any doubt of this, when we find souls even in this miserable life, so courageous, and so conformable to the divine pleasure, as to offer themselves, to be buried in Hell fire, so it might but add one single grain of increase to God's glory. No, this diformity or uniformity to the designs of God's providence, is so excessive great, in these devout souls, so vigorous, and so puissant, that it cannot be expressed, or conceived in this our gross ignorant world. The Ecclesiastical Euseb. Niceph. Baron. History assures us, that many of the holy Martyr's, whilst they were in flames of fire melting of their lives, by drops (as I may so say) were heard to profess, with a smiling countenance, & an invincible heart, that they took themselves to be at a nuptial feast, and to tread upon Roses. So well were they pleased, that God was so pleased, and that his blessed will was performed in them; nay more, that nothing grieved them, but the shortness of their torments, and the fleeting condition of their petty martyrdoms, as they would call them. Alas, would they say, were this to last to the world's end how happy were we, and how welcome were our flames, by the light whereof, one might clearly read the fidelity of our hearts, and their conformity to the heart of the great God of Heaven. This excessive conformity, and To cooperate with God's justice. sidelity of these holy souls, makes them willing, to cooperate with the sweet rigours of God's justice against their crimes. Who loves God purely for himself, loves all that belongs to make up his glory, and since God shows himself as much God, in the excercise of his justice, as in the sweet influences of his boundless mercy, a happy soul cannot choose but take pleasure, to cooperate with God's justice, in procuring his satisfaction, even at the charge of her own sufferings, and would most readily annihilate herself, for the honour of her God. If our hour be come; said the valorous Judas Machabeas, and if God have so disposed of us, let us die my brethren, and let us die bravely; it must be as the Heavens have decreed, and I will have it so, though at the cost of a hundred thousand lives. And holy Job, Is it not reason (said he) that we should as well receive what we call evils, at the hand of his justice, as favours, at the hand of his mercy? That noble Roman, that buried his Poniard in his own Sister's breast, whom he met foolishly bewailing, the good fortune of the City of Rome, had nothing to allege for his justification, but this; What (said he) shall not Rome be Rome, as well in the excercise of rigorous justice, as in the maintenance of her greatness, and demonstration of her absolute power. Can I offer a more pleasing holocaust, unto the Gods, then to sacrifice my Sister, when Rome's justice requires it? This Roman severity carries with it. I know not what masculine generosity, and this cruelty to a foolish Sister, argues much piety to his dear Country. In effect all the world cried up the fact, which at first sight, seemed too brutish, barbarous and inhuman. The holy souls that burn with ardent charity, seeing it necessary, that the divine justice should receive plenary satisfaction, and that God's interest is extraordinarlly concerned, that his justice should rule by course, as well as his mercy, goodness and charity, these holy souls, I say, seeing all this, have such a pleasure in their torments, as cannot be comprehended in this miserable life, which is so full of self-love, but by some few noble and generous souls; that love God only for himself; and that so purely, as not to make any reckoning of their own concerns or sufferings. §. 4. Another comfortable consideration, drawn from the desire they have to make themselves worthy of the sight of God. TAke another consideration, Their desire to remove all obstacles ●f seeing God. which will much illustrate that which has been already said, and reinforce the joy of the souls, in spite of their tormenting pains. You may believe, that a soul, having once taken leave of the body, has such a passionate inclination, to enjoy her end, that is to see God and be united with God; and finally to arrive unto that happiness, for which she clearly sees, she was created, that it can hardly be expressed. A bird newly stolen out of the Cage wherein she was detained captive, flies not away swifter, the furious Course of a torrent, that precipitates it self from the top of a mountain, rolls not along with a greater impetuosity; the enraged winds, broke lose ou● of their close caverns underground blow not with more violence, than the desire of seeing God, thrusts on a soul once freed from the thraldom of the body. Now as they see in Purgatory, that there is no other obstacle, but the rust and filth of sin, and the remainder of their former misdemeanours, and that Purgatory fire, is deputed by almighty God, to purify and refine them, and so to make them worthy of his presence, they are so far from grumbling or repining at this sweet rigour of God's justice, that on the contrary, they take it for a great favour and an extraordinary piece of mercy, of almighty God, their most loving Father. When they sawed off the Leg of that great Philosopher, he held it out with both his hands, he encouraged the operator, and perhaps also took hold of the Saw himself, to do the Surgeon that piece of service, saying withal, let u● thrust my friend let us thrust, and let us not fear to cut off this rotten and useless bone, the pain you give me, will procure me a great deal of good, and the sooner we have done, the better. Be not afraid then, my dear enemy, but strike in thy Saw boldly, the crueler thou art for the time, the sooner thou wilt put me out of pain. And thus the Surgeon cut off his Leg, with as little sense or feeling, as if it had been the Leg of a statue, or of a person, that had no relation to him, or was his mortal enemy. And that Japonian Virgin, who was to die by fire, could not hold from kissing the burning coals, and crying out joyfully, O lovely Hist. Jap●n. coals, O delicious flames, how much am I obliged to your sweet cruelty, since you put me in a condition of enjoying, within a few moments, the only spouse of my Soul, Oh, the souls in Purgatory say the same, with a far greater ardour of love. And I dare say more yet, that they have such a longing desire, to cooporate with God in their own purification, and to render themselves capable of the beatifical vision, that, if it were in their power, to heighten the rigour of their torments, it would be the first thing they would do, to advance their eternal felicity. And with reason, for if we were, says St. Austin, to take the pains of hell, in our way Serm. 2. in festo omnium sanct. to see God, in his glory, we ought to suffer them, with a good heart, for a good so great, that whatsoever it costs, it can never be too dear. Think well on these words, good Reader, Let God cost never so much, he cannot be too dear. St. Catherine of Genua was heard to say, she believed, that the greatest pain which the souls have in Purgatory, is to see, they have an obstacle within themselves, and some few blemishes, which hinder them for the time, from enjoying 〈◊〉 ●ight of their creator; in so much that their spite and anger, is not so much against the flames, though never so biting, as against these unlucky blemishes, and loathsome remainder of their sins. Nay they are in a manner in love with the fire, which by little and little helps to free them from this cruel pain, and do like the Patient, who kisses the razor, that is to cut out whole slices of putrified flesh, from a Gangrene, or mortal Ulcer, which would otherwise insensibly bereave him of his life, if that fierce remedy were not applied. §. 5. Their suffering without merit, and the free exercise of their virtues without impediment, are to them special motives of comfort. What a pleasure, think To exercise virtue without merit and to suffer without recompense. you, is it to suffer, or indeed to exercise any virtuous act, merely for the virtue itself, without casting about for any further recompense, then barely the doing, what is pleasing to him we love, and who loves us out of his pure bounty, without any desert of ours. A Roman Lady understanding that Caesar had condemned her dear Husband Petus, to stab himself, snatched up the dagger first herself, and struck it deep into her breast, and then with a smiling, but dying look, spoke thus to him; My dearest, this stab has done me no harm at all, upon my honour it has not, but alas! the stab that you are going to give yourself, it is that which bereaves me of my life, and with that she gave up the ghost. Those holy and enamoured souls, calling to mind, how Christ died for them, to pay the ransom of their sins, without looking for any return, by way of recompense, out of his pure charity, and obedience to his father, they would most willingly sacrifice themselves, for his glory, in satisfaction of justice, and imitation of his charity, and scarce feel their pains, when they compare them, with those of their dear redeemer. And though we can scarce apprehend this joy, we that are so selfish, as to relish nothing but earthly things, whose hearts are so wedded to our own interests, and so apprehensive of pain, yet have the patience, to listen to the pathetical expressions, of a man of this world, who certainly was not without his heavenly gusts, but could make a shift, to find out a Paradise even, in the Purgatory of the sufferings of a miserable life. You will soon discover by his golden eloquence, who it is that speaks. Had I the S. Choice. ho. 8. in c. ●● Ephes. choice, to be an Apostle, Prophet, Doctor, nay more, an Angel, and Potentate of heaven, were it in my power to be metamorphosed into a Cherubin, or Seraphim, and to be raised above their thrones, in a word, to be seated at the right hand of God, or rather to be thrown down into a dark, loathsome, and subterraneous gaol, there to be manacled, fettered, and greivously tormented for the sole love of my saviour Jesus Christ in company of the glorious Apostle St. Paul, with out all hesitation, or doubt; I should choose to be there, with St. Paul, and should prefer it before the joys of heaven. How do you feel your hearts, when you hear this kind of language? and what, think you, may not the souls in Purgatory have the like affections, and more heroical, if there can be any thing thought of more heroical, then to quit heaven for Purgatory, and to leave God for God, sacrificing themselves entirely to his glory, as a perfect holocaust, to please his divine will, and appease the sweet rigours of his justice. Blessed Father Francis Borgia, was wont to say, he would willingly go to Purgatory, and lie frying there, to the end of the world, to heap up a new treasure of grace, and glory, and to become a greater Saint in heaven, and a more acceptable servant to his divine Majesty. In earnest this was an act of a noble heart, and purified soul, aspiring to the highest pitch of perfection. The holy man took it for a most incomparable satisfaction to see himself every moment, to go on increasing in virtue, and heaping up graces upon graces, and at the last, to purchase so high a place in the Kingdom of heaven, as not to have cause to envy the highest Seraphin. And yet me thinks, if I may have leave to vent my own thoughts, there is something of a holy kind of self interest, in this point of perfection, holy I say, but withal interest. But why may we not believe, that those holy captive souls fly higher and offer themselves to God, to suffer there for one another, out of a divine kind of civility, and generous act of fraternal charity? For in this world, there have been Mothers have chosen rather to die themselves then see their dear children die before them. There have been also souls, as I have touched elsewhere, have wished to be damned (always understanding that it were without sin) to save others, and this without hope of grace, or glory, merely in obedience to perfect Charity. And why should we make such a wonder of it, since the very Tygress who has no heart, but what is made up of cruelty, has nevertheless love enough, to cast herself into flames, if she find no other expedient to save her young ones. Can we believe, that bruits have more love, and mortal men more charity, and courage, than the holy Souls of Purgatory have for the love of God, and of those Souls they passionately love. O sweet Purgatory, O amorous flames of charity, and pure trancendent charity, worthy of the souls, which are so pure? Sure this is that, which the holy servant of God meant, when she said, that the souls there are wholly despoiled of all self-interest, and do wholly devote themselves to God's interest, and that of pure charity. We should soon see wonders in The power ●● grace and virtue when they act freely and without impediment. ourselves, would we but give way to our virtues, and those divine graces, which are hourly showered down upon our souls from heaven, to work according to the full extent of their energy, and power. But alas, an infirm body, much passion, a faint heart, with a thousand other obstacles in this life; make us to do scarce half wha● we are able. And divines are of opinion, that, besides the mother of God, there hath hardly been one, amongst all other pure creatures, who has acted according to the full latitude of his power, and those gracious helps sent him from heaven. Others indeed, have sometimes made valiant attempts, but it was, as it were, but in a bravado, and by spurts, and they often came off but poorly, and failed of their designs. But the souls in Purgatory, who are as it were new minted, and cast into a pure spiritual substance, free from the body, and all corporeal and humane infirmities, nor are at all impeded by their torments, from the free exercise of all the powers of their souls, they I say, give full scope and liberty to all the quires of virtues to play their parts, and suffer grace to have her entire effect, and this doubtless affords them such unspeakable comforts, and advantages, as cannot well be expressed in this mortal life. O what ejaculations of their pure love? what submissions of their profound humility! what conformities of their wills? what submissive obedience, to the holy decrees of God's justice? what fidelity and justice, to satisfy the rigour of God's justice for all they own him? what passionate desire of purity, to see themselves without blemish, or hindrance from enjoying God? what incredible tenderness towards God, who treats them so sweetly in comparison of their ingratitude, and infidelity? what excess of joy, to see themselves, within two fingers breadth as it were of Paradise? In fine, what a Paradise of virtues, what divine endeavours of these happy souls? what attractions of almighty God, and heavenly allurements? who can worthily comprehend, such a medley, of so sweet a Paradise in Purgatory, so cruelly sweet, and so amorously bitter. And now I understand why St. Catherine said, that in case the souls did not meet with Purgatory, it would be a kind of Hell to them, to want the help of those purging flames, to cancel out the blemishes of their sins, and make them worthy to see God. I have not told you, what jaculatory prayers they make, what sweet aspiratious they breathe out, and what flaming darts of love, they shoot up into the heart of God. For if the Martyrs, in the greatest extremity of their torments, could cast out such gentle sighs, and break into such divine, and amorous speeches, as to draw tears, from the eyes of a hangman, or tyrant, what will not these holy souls do, since they have scarce any sweeter entertainment, then to converse with God, and implore his mercy. The afflictions Lib. de Provide. and sufferings of the body, says Solucanns, cannot hinder the Paradise of the soul, and her interior sweetness, much less, when the Soul is in the other world. §. 6. They joy in the continual decrease of their pains, and influence of pure heavenly consolations. THe fire of love, makes more sensibly with them, than their tormenting flames. The natural instinct, they have to be with God, and their longing thirst, so to take their fill of those inebriating joys when they see themselves forcibly detained, and bound fast to so base an Element as Fire, is a torment beyond expression. St. Ambrose St. Ambr. Ser. 1. maintains, that the fire of love, which had seized on St. Laurence his heart, was more active, then that which consumed his flesh, and melted the very marrow of his bones. Wherefore it must needs be great comfort, unto these sweet souls, to see that their sufferings, Their pains go still decreasing. are every moment diminished, if not otherwise, at least, for as much as concerns the prefixed time of their durance, which goes lessening itself more and more, as it draws nearer to an end. And, according to the probable opinion of holy men, the intenseness of the pain itself, is perpetually remitted, according to the proportion of the fresh supplies of succour, which the Church militant never fails, to administer unto them, by her prayers, and sacrifices, since there is not an hour neither by day, nor by night, where there is not Mass said, or some devout prayers offered up, in some part of the Christian world. Besides St. Catherine tells us, that God also grows still more and more liberal, in showering down his heavenly sweet favours, and gracious influences upon these his wretched, and yet happy souls. There was a young woman, Heavenly comforts increase upon them. Val. Max. had lived with her husband, with so much chaste love, that she was not more tender of her own life, and seeing him, one day, laid dead upon a burning pile and having a long time in vain cast about, how she might come to receive him, at length threw herself just upon his heart, and so chose willingly to die with him, and mingle her ashes with his. And who doubts but the Angel Guardians, those Eagles of Paradise, seeing the souls of their pupils, for whom they had so much tenderness, and care in this life, to lie burning in scorching flames, often casts himself in, to comfort them, and if not release them, at least entertain them, with such pleasing discourses as takes of much of the sense of their bitter torments. When the King asked Daniel, whether the Lyond had not devoured him, and whether his God had power to preserve him, from that inevitable death, he answered, yes sir, my God has sent his Angel, who is come down from Heaven, to protect me, and has tied up the mouths of the hungry Lions, who have not offered to touch me, nor had I ever so much comfort, in my whole life, as in this place of death, and despair, for Paradise is every where, where God and his Angels are. The same happened to those three innocent young men, who had leisure to sing in the middle of a burning furnace, which of a kind of Purgatory was become a terrestrial Paradise, or an empereal heaven. This being so, and the goodness of God comforting the Souls, with a world of good thoughts, you must know that Purgatory seems a great mercy to them, and so much the greater by how much they see clearly, the vast difference, between this condition of theirs, and that of the damned Souls, and what an unspeakable favour God has done them, to dispose things so sweetly, that they might be conveyed into Purgatory, they that so often deserved to be thrust into Hell fire, and possibly more than many of the damned souls, since there are certainly many damned but for one, or two mortal sins, whereas they may know themselves to have committed thousands: And who knows then, whether in their ecstasies of love, they may not cry out, with holy S. Gregory. O my God, increase my griefs, alas! I have deserved far more, but with all be pleased I beseech thee to remember in thy mercy, to increase also my courage, and to fortify my patience. there's nothing sure that is Nothing to pure heav●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 sufferance, and savour nothing but God alone, than it is, says the mystical divines, that we profess 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 ravished 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. chrysostom) 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 general dereliction, when he was surprised with those ravishing joys of heaven, and had such a feeling of God's greatness, that he seemed to be already seated at his right hand. When think 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, snatched 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: Hear the Prophet David, Ps 93. 19 according to the multitude of my bitter griefs, your consolations, O my God, have rejoiced my heart. And S. Paul, when I 2 Cor. 1. 5. am oppressed with evils, than 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 rays 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 guess by it, how it fares w●th the holy souls in Purgatory, and the rather, because a soul once severed from the body, has much more liberty, to actuate herself, and to couple an excess of torments with an excess 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 goodness, let's fall some of those drops into Purgatory, nor are the Angels sparing, but rather prodigal, in showering 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 cool your charity, and that, seeing the souls enjoy so much comfort in Purgatory, your compassion for them may grow slack, and so not continue equal to their desert. Remember then, that notwithstanding all these comforts here rehearsed, the poor creatures cease not to be grievously tormented, and consequently have extreme need of all your favourable assistance, pain and endeavours. When Christ Jesus was in his bitter Agony, sweeting blood and water, the superior part of his soul enjoyed God and his glory, and yet his body was so oppressed with sorrow, that he was ready to die, and was content to be comforted by an Angel. In like manner these holy souls, have indeed great joys, but feel 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 secure. Let us then here break off this discourse, and pass on to consider, what assistance we own, 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 Souls 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 abridgement of the Decalogue, the epitome of the whole Bible, the quintecense of all virtues, is finally reduced to this sole point of divine Love. Now fraternal charity, or the love of our neighbour, is cousin 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 sentinel 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 cries out in the Canticles, that they have Ca●●. 〈…〉. stolen away his heart, alas says he, my beloved, thou hast wounded my heart, and hast rob me of it, so powerful are thy innocent charms, and chaste allurements The more power the love of God has in us, the greater is the heat of fraternal charity, which burns the very heart of our souls, and like the Phoenix, takes delight to live and die in so noble a fire, and to consume in such harmless and yet murdering flames. My design 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 neighbour, in way of charity, is to fool himself 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 wind, or a mere natural love, or in a word selfe love, or rather an empty shadow, or Fantastical appearance of divine love. He that loves not his neighbour, whom he daily sees with both his eyes, says St. John, how can he make us believe 1 Jo. 4. 20. that he loves God, whom he never saw. That which I am to maintain, is that amongst all the acts of faternal charity, or works of mercy, the most sublime, the most pure, and the most advantageous of all others, is the service we perform for the souls in Purgatory. In the History of the incomparable A remarkable passage. order of the great St Dominick it is authentically related, that one of the first of those holy religious men, was wont to say, that he found himself not so much concerned, to pray for the Souls in Purgatory, because they are certain of their salvation, and that upon this account, we ought not in his judgement to be very solicitous for them, but ought rather to bend our whole care to help sinners, to convert the wicked, and to secure such souls as are uncertain of their salvation, and probably certain of their damnation, as leading very lewd lives. Here it is (said he) it is here that I willingly employ my whole endeavours. It is upon these, that I b●stow my Masses and Prayers, and all that little that is at my disposal, and thus I take it to be well bestowed. But upon souls that have an assurance of eternal happiness, and can never more lose God, or offend him, I believe not, said he, that one ought to be so solicitous. This certainly was but a poor and weak discourse, to give it no severer a censure, and the consequence of it was this, that the good man, did not only himself forbear to help these poor souls, but which was worse, dissuaded others from doing it, and under colour of a greater charity, withdrew that succour, which otherwise good people would have liberally afforded them. But God took their cause in hand, for permitting the souls to appear, and show themselves in frightful shapes and to haunt the good man, both by night and by day, without respite, still filling his fancy with dreadful imaginations, and his eyes with terrible spectacles, and withal letting him know who they were, and why with God's permission, they so importuned him with their troublesome visits, you may believe, the good Father became so affectionately kind to the souls in Purgatory, bestowed so many Masses and Prayers upon them, preached so fervently in their behalf, stirred up so many to the same devotion, that it is a thing incredible to believe, and not to be expressed with Eloquence. Never did you see so many, and so clear, and convincing reasons, as he alleged, to demonstrate, that it is the most eminent piece of fraternal charity in this life, to pray for the souls departed. Love and fear are the two most excellent Orators in the world, they can teach all Rhetoric in a moment, and infuse a most miraculous eloquence. This good Father, who thought he should have been frighted to death, was grown so fearful of a second assault, that he bent his whole wit, to invent the most pressing, and convincing arguments, to stir up the world, both to pity and piety, and so persuade souls, to help souls, and it is incredible what good ensued thereupon. The History does not set down the motives which he either invented, or had by inspiration, to evidence this truth, and therefore I will borrow them of St. Thomas, that angel for divinity of the same order, and of other Saints and doctors of the Catholic Church. § 1. The greatness of the charity to the Souls in Purgatory, is argued from the greatness of their pains, and their helpless condition. SInce there is no torment under Most charity to help tbc greater sufferers. Heaven, comparable to the pains of Purgatory, as you have already seen, those unhappy souls, must needs be the most afflicted creatures in the world, and consequently, there cannot be a greater charity then to relieve them. The loving mother runs always to her sickest child, not but that she is tender of them all, and has her heart divided into as many parcels, as she has children, and sick children, but where there is most need, there she makes a greater demonstration of her love, thither her heart is carried, with a greater violence, and tenderness of affection, where the greatest evil, or danger appears. As for the rest, their condition is not so pressing, she speaks to them at leisure, and by giving one of them a few comsits, a good word to another, a smile to a third, they are all well contented, but he that burns in the Purgatory of a violent it is he that has most need of his mother, and so you see her as it were nailed to his pillow, her heart her eyes, her hands, her mouth, and her very bosom lie open to this child, and she can think of nothing but him: so that where there is a greater share of misery, reason requires there should be more compassion, and more charity expressed. Cast but a morsel of bread to a needy beggar, send a good alms to a poor Hospital, visit a prisoner, give a word of comfort to a sick person, and they are very well satisfied, but he that lies burning in unmerciful flames alas, it is he that ought to move all the bowels of your compassion. When the image of Cleopatra, with the stinging Asps at her breasts, was carried in triumph before the Romans, though otherwise fierce and cruel enough by nature, yet could they not hold from shedding a few tears of compassion, (and truly such a Queen in so sad a condition, was not to be looked upon with dry eyes) the other captives yet living, did not move them at all, in comparison of that unfortunate Princess, for all she was only represented in colours, upon a painted cloth. You Angel-keepers of Purgatory, I conjure you to unlock your gates and lay your prison open, that I may discover those Kings and Queens, I mean those holy Souls of both sexes, who are shortly to have their share in the celestial empire, that I may lay before the Eyes of the whole Catholic Church, those Asps of grief, that lie so close at their hearts, those cruel flames, I say, that incessantly devour them, and withal the infinite modesty, and patience, with which they endure all, in so much that not one of them lets fall the least froward, or inconsiderate word, or makes the least complaint against the sweet rigour of God. Is there a heart, if it be the heart of a man indeed, and has but a drop of true Christian blood in it, that does not feel itself to be either broken or mollified, at so pitiful and lamentable a spectacle, to see I say, such noble and generous spirits in so deplorable a condition. Is there any thing within the whole circumference of the universe, so worthy of compassion, and that may so deservedly claim, the great'st share in all your devotions and charities, as to see our Fathers, our Mothers, our nearest and dearest relations, to lie broiling in cruel flames, and to cry to us for help, with tears, that are able to move cruelty itself? Whence I conclude, there is not upon the earth, any object deserves more commiseration than 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 themselves. pains, there is not any thing can so magnify 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 merely 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 virtue, which are as many degrees of grace and glory, if he do them as he ought. In fine he makes a virtue of necessity, by embracing that voluntarily, which he cannot avoid, and glories in this, that he can imitate his Saviour Jesu● 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 poor 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 poor 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 th● 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 poor souls alas, have no way left them, to decline or sweeten their martyrdom. Pliny reports that an Eagle seeing one day, the young maid his dear Mistress, who had cherished him in her bosom, 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 Air, have more pity of a dead carcase, that feels nothing, than 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 join souls and ashes together, and shall it be said, that a natural love, is more daring than a supernatural and that women have more love for the dead carcases of their husbands, than we for the precious souls of our Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters and others who are most worthy of incomparable love. §. 2. Our Charity for the souls departed is preferred before all other works of mercy. YOu shall be judge yourself, you that read this. If God at the same instant, should put you both in Purgatory, and in a common Gaol (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 than 〈◊〉 Ch●●●ty in spiritual 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 than bodies, to stretch out your hand, I say to help a poor soul out of scorching flames, then to comfort a sick person, that feels but a little heat of a , and may have a thousand sweets, and refreshments. Again, when you bestow an Alms on a poor body, 'tis true, Nothing lost that i● given to the Souls. you can never do amiss, if you look only upon God, but you may often fail of your aim, and lose both your money, and your labour, if you consider the men themselves who for the most part are Ungrateful, Deceitful, Wicked, and so far unsatisfied, that you have never done with them. Do them a thousand good turns, if you fail 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 than their due, they are as insolent a● if you were always bound to do for them▪ To say nothing, th●● 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 villains, both for body and soul. But the good you do for souls, so beautiful, so noble, & so holy, besides the rew●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 soul (though unhappy for the time) for a Saint, that is ready to be canonised in heaven, and happily after a few more moments of pain, shall be a greater Saint there, than many whose feasts we keep with great solemnity? Besides, it cannot but be an excessive comfort, to oblige 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 ●●hile shall be brighter than the sun, and a companion to the Angels, and shall exercise a world of most sublime acts of virtue, of thanksgiving to God, fraternal charity, and the like. And if you chance to go yourself into Purgatory, before they are released, you will be exceedingly joyed, to see what a grateful 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 fair occasions, of relieving 〈◊〉 many poor souls in their grievous torments. Our Blessed Saviour tells us, whosoever bestows 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 exten●s itself only to the living, let your motive be never so pure, and for the love of God, alas, you are often deceived, and think you do a good turn for an Apostle, and he is an Apostate, or another Judas, you take him for a great servant of God, and he often proves to be a most wicked fellow, ● ravenous wolf in a lambs skin, and this is seen daily, and every where, not but that you ought to do it, and shall never want your reward. But it falls out clear otherwise, when you place your charity upon the souls in Purgatory, for they are undoubtedly the disciples of Christ, they are Prophets and great Saints, and therefore whosoever shall do any charitable office for them, may well hope to have, the reward of Saint●. For so it is not only those that are thus relieved, shall be translated into heaven, but those also t●●t relieve them, shall be carried ●●●●her in ●ue time, to take possession of the glory of the Saints. St. Thomas tells us, there is an It is the ●●st ordered charity to help the Souls. St. Th. 2. 2. ●e●ord. ch●. order to be observed in our works of charity to our neighbour, ●hat is, we are to see, where there is a greater obligation, a greater necessity, a greater merit, and the like circumstances. Now where is there more necessity, or more obligation, then to run to the ●●re, and to help those that lie there, and 〈◊〉 not able to get out? Where can you have more merit, then to have a hand in raising up so great Saints, and Servants of God? where have you more assurance, then where you are sure to lose nothing? where can you find an object of more compassion, then where there is the greatest misery in the world? where is there seen more of God's glory, then to send new Saints into heaven to praise God eternally? Lastly, where can you show more charity, and more of the love of God, then to employ your tea●s, your sighs, your goods, your hands, your heart, your life, and all your devotions, to procure a good, that surpasses all other goods; I mean, to make souls happy for all eternity, by translating them into heavenly joys, out of insupportable torments. That glorious Apostle of the Indies, St. Francis Xaverius, could run from one end of the world to the other, to convert a soul, and think it no long journey, the dangers by Sea and Land seemed Sweet, the Tempests pleasing, the Labour easy and his whole time well employed. Good God What an advantage have we, that with so little and few prayers, may send a thousand beautiful souls into heaven, without the least hazard of losing any thing? St. Xaverius could not be certain, that the Japonians for example, whom he baptised, ●●uld persever in their faith, and though they should persever in it, he could have as little certainty of their salvation. Now it is an Article of our faith, that the holy souls in Purgatory, are in grace, and shall assuredly one day enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. But since I am entered upon the Nothing can more advance God's glory. point of seeking God's greater glory, and procuring that his Sacred Majesty be worthily Adored by his creatures, where can you find any thing among all the other works of mercy, more eminent in this kind, then to concur towards the peopling of Paradise, and increasing the number of those thrice happy souls? Let it be never so little that you advance, the term appointed for the eternal happiness of a soul, by recovering it out of Purgatory and placing it above the Firmament, O into what acts of Love will she break forth? what glory will she give to God? what excess of Love, what Transports, Visions, Unions, and miracles of heaven will ensue? And what a happiness is it, for you to have concurred to make up all these wonders, which would have been quite lost all this time, and by your occasion are now added as a superabundant increase of God's greatness. St. Ignatius, that glorious founder of the society of Jesus, stuck not to say, he should think his whole life well bestowed, should he but hinder an ungracious soul, from offending God one only night. Such an esteem he had of increasing Gods glory, and such an apprehension of diminishing the least grain thereof. What a mercy is it then, that by helping a Soul out of her purging flames, you are the cause of a million of most divine acts, which would never have been, had not the time of her delivery, been antedated by your charitable and devout prayers. Tell me, dear reader, what can you do here below comparable to this? How many thousand Beggars, Prisoners and sick persons may you relieve, without procuring the thousanth part of this ●nspeakable good? That which one does by another's means, he is accounted to do himself. So that all the new Saints, I mean, all the souls, who have been delivered by your assistance, shall be as it were your Lieutenants, and your Vicars-generall, or your Ambassadors, to do incomparable wonders in Heaven, whereof you are the cause, in whole, or in part. And what comparison is there now, between the good▪ we do for men upon earth, and what we do to relieve souls in the other world. There is but one only Case One 〈…〉 more to be spied then that 〈◊〉 Pur 〈◊〉▪ can be imagined, in which your Charity might seem clear better employed, then in comforting the poor▪ languishing souls in Purgatory. And it is this; Suppose you had but one instant of life at your disposal, and could either employ it, in the conversion of a desperate sinner, who must otherwise be infallibly damned, without redemption, or in releaving a Soul in Purgatory, whether you ought not in this case, to prefer the eternal salvation of a sinner, before the present ease of a soul in Purgatory? To this I answer, that in the first place, you put a very metaphysical case, far remote from all common practice, for it is not a thing that will probably ever happen, but should it really fall out, in God's name, do the one or the other, as God shall inspire you, and God will sooner multiply the bread in your hands, than you should want an occasion, of relieving the poor, whether living or dead. But to give you better satisfaction, put the case as you please, and I will make the Souls in Purgatory themselves, judges of the cause, that they may have no reason to complain, or appeal from my sentence. They will certainly tell you, that where there is question of a mortal sin, or of the eternal loss of a soul, that has been ransomed with the blood of Christ, they had rather lie still groaning under their torments, then purchase a little ease at so dear a rate. No, they are not so selfish, their love is more pure than so, their fidelity to God, will never suffer them, to seek their own glory, with the least diminution or, lessening of God's glory. St. Catherine of Sienna, be●●●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 than 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, than 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 Martyrdoms, 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 t● 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 than 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 th●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 increase of our Grace, Glory, and eternal happiness: in God's name, do all the good you can for your neighbour (I except only the case I lately spoke of) I defy 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 requited 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 lie, as it were, at pawn, 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 small thread, 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 thread, and then they will cry out, with holy David. Our souls are got lose like the innocent Sparrow, and are flown up to Heaven, having luckily broken the Iron nets that h●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 behalves. 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 perform this good office, which notwithstanding we have reason to expect of their charity, God himself would not fail to do it. For beholding the zeal, with which you burn, and the charity which impels you, to secure 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 choice of it, to ●erve God in the best manner by yourself, 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 style 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 mystical body, that which is the most oppressed with evils, and the most lamentably afflicted, are these dear souls, who are alas, most severely treated in the bosom 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 compassion, 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 thorn out of a lion's 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 wait upon this Saviour of his, who had ●● us preserved his life, and by way of requital, in a like occasion of danger, saved the 〈◊〉 life also, to the astonishment 〈◊〉 all the beholders. God plays the Lion of Juda below in Purgatory, permitting his justice to sway the Sceptre of rigour, now if you but pull out the thorn out of his foot, that is, 〈◊〉 you ease him in that part of 〈◊〉 mystical body which suffers t●e pains of Purgatory, this Lion will soon become a Lamb, he will not only save these poor souls, but when you yourself are in most need, as when you are struggling for life, he will show 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 plucked out the thorn 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 maintain 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 th● men of this world are commonly in an ill sta●● 〈◊〉 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, who are truly miserable, and yet holy, under a cruel restraint, and yet happy, not able to merit any thing, and yet gracious in the sight of his divine Majesty, no, I do not say, that when they are once got into Paradise, they will be so many Angels, Guardians of yours, so many Advocates, to plead your cause at the grand Tribunal of the most holy Trinity, so many patrons and sureties for you and yours. But I say, that even while they remain prisoners, they will do miracles for you. I said miracles. Now hear how they will do, that which cannot be done. They will effect that for you, which they cannot do for themselves, and were it necessary, to work a miracle in good earnest, they would sooner do it, then forsake you in your necessity's. I am not ignorant, that the Angelical S. Thomas▪ 2. 2 9 ●3. a. 〈◊〉. ad. 3. Doctor teaches, that those unhappy souls a●e in such a wretched state, that they have more need to beg our prayers, then to pray for us; that they are wholly taken up with paying their debts to God's justice, who exacts an account of them, to the last farthing: that this suffering Church, is rather in a condition, to suffer them to act any thing: that it is not now a time to merit, but to burn; not to secure those that are living, but to expect succour from them. A man that is drowning, has not leisure to think of others; a notorious malefactor, that swims in boiling Oil, is not in a place, where he ought, or can plead for another, his whole mind is so plunged in the Oil, and all his thoughts so overwhelmed with the boiling liquor, that torments him. Alas, those racked souls have more reason, to cry out with holy Job▪ Ah, you my Job. 19 21. friends, you abreast take pity of me, for the hand of God's justice so lovingly severe, hangs continually over me, and strikes me without intermission▪ cease not to pour out your prayers for me, to abate the rigour of his justice, with your charitable sighs, for a most miserable soul. They have I say more need, to beg our prayers, then to pray for us. I know well, that many Learned Doctors, are of opinion, that the souls in Purgatory do not pray for us, but it is no point of our faith, and therefore they must give me leave to side with other great Divines, who very probably maintain, that Bell. l. 2. de Purgatorio c. 17. Suac. d 47. Sect. 2. & l. ●. de oratione c. 11. those grateful souls, pray most ardently for those that pray for them. The rich glutton (though he were certainly damned) could after his fashion pray for his brothers, and shall not a holy soul have the power to do it? Abraham argued the case with him, called him lovingly son, and seemed to be upon the ●oint of doing Luke 16. something for him▪ at lest gave him the comfort, to tell him, that his brothers had Moses and the Prophets ●o instruct them, as if he would ha●e said, that if his brothers, had not been sufficiently provided of other means, he would peradventure have granted him his request, and sent Lazarus to preach to them. But to Math. ●. 31. give you yet a stranger instance. The devils themselves have put up their requests to God, & have been heard, and obtained that sorry comfort they desired, as when they begged not to be thrust down into Hell, and got leave to enter into the heard of Swine, and then to throw themselves into the Sea. What! shall the damned souls pray, and shall the devils be able to obtain their request, and shall not the Souls in Purgatory have the like privileges? St. Thomas does not deny, that they pray for us, but only affirms, that they have more need of our prayers, which is most true, but may well stand with their praying for us. A wicked Felon, that is going to be turned off the Ladder, has yet a care to pray for his whole family, for the King and the whole Bench, that condemned him, and many times for the very Hangman too, who is ready to strangle him. And shall this wretch have more power, or more zeal, or more grace, than those souls, who are so holy, and who in spite of their torments, are very present to themselves, and have their wits about them, free from all trouble and disquiet, which might rob them of the sentiment and feeling, which they ought to have, of the obligation they own, to their charity that pray for them! O no, they do the one and yet neglect not the other. They pray for themselves in suffering, they pray for us in sighing, and the one hinders not the other in Purgatory, since that even here upon Earth, the soul that is immersed in flesh and blood●▪ can perform both parts; that ●● satisfy for herself, and yet have a solicitous care of others. Did not Onias and Hieremius pray affectionately for the people of God, whilst they were in the dark prison of Abraham's bosom! And do not the Saints assure us, that God wrought a miracle, for the merits of St. S. Gre●●●dial. Paschasius, who yet nevertheless was not out of Purgatory. The same is reported of Saint Severin, and though there be some dispute who this St. Severin was, yet the Authors doubt not, but that a Saint in Purgatory, may work a miracle by God's permission Some that are damned have wrought miracles, and is it such a wonder that we should grant this to the Saints of Gods suffering Church? We read in the life of St Catherine They are powerful advocates. of Bolognia, whose Body, Flesh and Bone, is yet entire, and sits to this hour 〈◊〉 chair, exposed to the view of the world, though it be above sixty years since her death▪ we read I say, in her life (which has the approbation of the sea Apostolic,) that she had not only a strange tenderness for the souls, but a singular devotion to them, and was wont to recommend herself to them in all her necessities. The reason she alleged for it, was this: that she had learned of Almighty God, how she had frequently obtained far greater favours by their intercession, then by other means. And the story adds this, that it often happened, that what she begged of God, at the intercession of the Saints in Heaven, she could never obtain of him, and yet as soon as she addressed herself to the souls in Purgatory, she had her suit instantly granted. Can there be any question, but there are souls in that purging fire, who are of a higher pitch of sanctity, and of a far greater merit in the sight of God, ●hen a thousand and a thousan● Saints, who are already glorious in the Court of Heaven. Tell 〈◊〉 was not our Dread Soveraign● during his late Banishment, more puissant, and more mighty, than His Subjects, who lived still in their own Country, at their liberty, and at their ease, and perhaps in greater plenty, for we see Him, no sooner restored to His undoubted Right, but he is every way as great ● King, as His Predecessors, as richly Attired, as much Courted by Foreign Princes, and as gloriously attended at Whitehall, whereas the rest of his Nobility and Gentry, are but his creatures and most humble Servants. There are great souls, that for some slight misdemenours, are banished out of the Kingdom of Heaven (to which they are heirs apparent, as being the adopted Sons of God by Grace) nay more, are locked up in that burning furnace, which we call Purgatory, but they are scarse●●●●●ose, when you may see them 〈◊〉 out in triumph, and go soaring up above the Heavens so high, as to lose all sight of them. And when they are once there, what will they not do for you? And what did not our gracious King to his power, to honour and gratify, those that stuck close to Him in his misfortune; or were so lucky, as to have a great hand in restoring Him. King David at his death, recommending his good servants to his Son Solomon, spoke thus withal, My Son, there is such a one, and such a one, have well deserved death, for the crimes they have committed, but when I was generally deserted, and when they took the boldness upon them to throw stones at me, these men, took pity on me, and gave me secure. in my greatest affliction, and therefore I charge thee, O my dear son, to be mindful of them, and to favour them as thou lovest me. Have not holy souls as much charity as David? Is not the misfortune into which they are fallen, of a more sensible nature than His? In what a lofty strain, will they ●hen represent unto God, the good service you have done for them, in their extreme necessity, when they find themselves on●e securely seated in those heavenly mansions! And what will not that boundless mercy, be moved to grant, at the instance of so dear friends. Shall I tell you, there are many worthy persons, think these words of Jesus Christ, may be very properly applied to the souls in Purgatory. Do good (saith he) and make yourselves friends at the charge of your purses, and be good stewards of Mammon, the false god of Riches, that those whom you relieve, may assist you at the hour of your death; and lead you into eternal tabernacles. Among the poor, none so secure, of enjoying the delights of Paradise, as the souls in Purgatory, who are all predestinate, and all holy, for the present they are poor indeed, and helpless creatures, but if you contribute never so little to their ease, they will be sure to requite you in your necessities, if not before, at least when they are once possessed of the joys of Heaven. Cardinal Baronius, a man of credit, beyond exception, relates In annal. Eccles. how a person of rare virtue, found himself dangerously assaulted, at the hour of his death, and that in this Agony, he saw the heavens open, and about eight thousand Champions, all covered with white Armour, to descend, who fe●l instantly to encourage him, by giving him this assurance, that they were come to fight for him, and to disengage him, from that doubtful combat. And when with infinite comfort, and tears in his eyes, he besought them, to do him the favour, to let him know, who they were, that had so highly obliged him. We are (said they) the ●●uls whom you have saved and delivered out of Purgatory, and now to requite the favour, we 〈◊〉 come down, to convey you instantly into Heaven. And with that he died. We read such another story of 〈◊〉. ●erthus. ap●● P. Roam de Purg. c. 20. St Gertrude, how she was troubled at her death, to think what must become of her, since she had given away all the rich treasure of her satisfactions, to redeem other poor souls, without reserving any thing to herself; but that our Blessed Saviour gave her the comfort to know, that she was not only to have the like favour, of being immediately conducted into Heaven, out of this world by those innumerable souls, whom she had sent thither before her by her fervent prayers, but was there also to receive a hunderfold of eternal glory in reward of her charity. By which examples we may learn, that we cannot make better use of our devotion, and charity, than this way. But he that will 〈…〉 satisfy himself, that he can lose nothing, but gain excessively though he should offer up all his satisfactory works, for the souls in Purgatory, let him read over what F Eusebius Nerem●ergicus, and F. James Monford, have excellently well written upon this subject The Fourth Survey. Of the powerful means to quench the flames of Purgatory. COuld the poor souls, but They cannot help themselves. help themselves, or abate the cruelty of their torments, with all their devont aspirations, so pure, and so holy, they would soon free themselves. But alas, they cannot, and this is one of their greatest miseries, to see themselves in so desperate a condition, as to be overwhelmed with raging fire, and not to have the power, to get out, or to allay the fury of the flames, or to merit the least favour in this kind, not so much as de Congruo, as they speak in Schools, or by way of a certain congruity, conveniency, or decency. The time of meriting expired with their lives, what now remains, is wholly deputed for suffering, and it is not the least of their vexations, to see how easily they might have prevented all these mischiefs in their life time, and that now there's no remedy, but by suffering to supply for that negligence though they would never so fane. Howsoever, I love those divines, Su. in 3. p. d. 19 post. St. Tho. who are something more civil in this point, than their fellows, and am easily persuaded by them, that although the souls, cannot immediately contribute the least to their own ransom, or any way merit their own deliverance, yet may they be so happy, as to work upon the goodness of their Angels, and by their means, obtain some sweet refreshments, at the merciful hand of God, wherewith to allay the bitterness of their torments. And following their opinion, who teach, that they pray for us, and procure us heavenly favours, what inconsequence were it, to say further, that they move our good Angels, to inspire us efficaciously, to intercede for them, and to assist them with all the duties of Christian charity, it being a thing, to which they are otherwise of themselves so much inclined, without the solicitation, or importunity of others. §. 1. What succour they receive, from the Angels, and Saints in Heaven? IN the first place, you would be The Saints pray for them: resolved, whether the Angels, and Saints in Heaven, and above all the Mother of mercy, Pray really for them. If so, how comes it to pass, that they do not every hour, or indeed every instant, make a general Gaol delivery, and quite empty Purgatory? For what power has the Mother o● God? 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 answer, that they pray for them, and pray i● good earnest, and I say further, that they are not content, with a quarant hour, now and then (as our custom 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 Catholic 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 extreme 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 than some of their own blessed company: Besides, this is a charitable office, suits 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 lose, 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 yourselves 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 God's 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 favour, 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 ways 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 intention, 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 chaste Virgins, so many great Saints of all orders in God's 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 alms 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 avail them? or how can they bestow them more charitably. Fifthly, What harm 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 strain, and set Laws of his divine justice, but there be other Doctors, of a milder temper, believe, he may be drawn sometimes, to wave the extremity of rigour, & to dispense with his own Laws, so that by extraordinary privilege, 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 locked 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 turn now it is to be in Purgatory, is it not very credible, they will now requite their courtesy, and with usury too. For example, there may be a soul in Purgatory, has helped above a thousand other Sou●●; 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 prevail, without breaking the just decrees of their Sovereign, 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 another's Prayers? IT may be justly questioned, They help one another. whether the Souls, though altogether incapable of helping themselves, in their extreme misery, may not at least be permitted, to help one another, by their devout prayers. For if they have the privilege, to pray for the Saints in Heaven, that God will be pleased to increase 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, 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 smoke 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 God's 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 them 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 die, 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 than he did for himself. St. Paul seems to have been content, to be damned, to save the Jews, always 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 mere reprobate and lost creature? Many Saints in this world, have begged 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 virtue. I but they can merit nothing. True, but do you take them, to be so selfish, as to do nothing purely for God's 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 solicitous 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. ●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 mere love, is the quintessence of divine love. What? shall we be so niggardly, so mercenary 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 value for them, he thought no set price could be equal to their worth, and that gold itself 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 recompense he looked 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 showed a magnanimous, and true Sen. l. de benef. generous heart. To give, and to lose all benefit by his gift, is no wonder, but to lose all benefit and yet to be still giving, is a divine Masterpiece, and an act worthy of God indeed. Now when these charitable souls, can gratify 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, than what you may expect of an Arabian, or Barbarian, but to incommodate himself, to lie 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 mind to flatter their Caesars, the people would cry out, O Jupiter, take away some of our years, shorten our lives, decimate our days, 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 reign 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 Canonised 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 express themselves to this purpose, O that I were permitted to die in his Room, for I alas am but an unprofitable member of the Church, all my services avail but little to advance God's 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 guess, what I am able to do 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 cleared the petty debts, she stands yet engaged for, she would instantly mount above all the Quires of Angels, and possibly soar up to the highest Seraphims. O that I might but have leave, to suffer here a while in her place, how willingly would I do it, that so my God might be the sooner, and better glorified in heaven, by this happy soul, and a million of other souls upon earth, receive comfort, and protection, from her powerful intercessions. I willingly resign up unto her all the right I have, of being set free myself, and if God permit, I am ready to make her a deed of gift, of all the suffrages, which my dear friends have sent me, for sure all the pains which shall fall upon me by this bargain, can not but be amorously sweet, since they are the cause of so great a good, in the empirial Court of Heaven. St. Christina, was already lodged in Heaven, says Cardinal Bellarmine, l. de gemitu, col. c. de Purg. when she quit the glory of Paradise, to exchange it for the flames of a thousand and a thousand most cruel Martyrdoms, & why may we not believe, that so charitable souls, would willingly yet remain in their flames, that others more worthy than themselves may be sent out in their rooms to glorify God in Heaven. Whether God accept of these holy desires or no, may be a question, but at least, it seems very credible, that the souls who are so replenished with perfect charity, make such tenders of their service, as far as God gives them leave, and as far as it may stand with the laws of the Church patiented. But enough of what passes in the other world, of which we have no certain revelation, nor other clear light to guide us by. Let us now turn our speech to the living, and see what they are able to perform, for the benefit of the dead. §. 3. That the dead may receive help from us that are living, and how we must be qualified to do them good. BE pleased to take notice, what several meanings these 〈◊〉 eans impetration, satisfaction, etc. three words import, Satisfaction, Impetration and Suffrage. Satisfaction implies a good work, accompanied with some grief, or pain, answerable to the pleasure, we unadvisedly took in sinning, whereby we make an honourable amends, and satisfy the Laws of Justice, by repairing the injury we have done. Impetration is a kind of letter of request, which we present to the mercy of God, beseeching him to pardon those, for whom we offer up the sacrifice of our devotions, and the incense of our sighs and prayers, so that our prayers, address themselves to the sole mercy of God, and crave an obsolute pardon, or abolishment of the crime, as a pure gift, without offering any proportionable satisfaction, save only that of our blessed Saviour, or in general, of the Church militant. Suffrage is a term which comprehends both, whether it be a penal work, or a prayer only, or both luckily united together. The Church triumphant, to speak properly, cannot satisfy, because there is no place, for penal works in the court of Heaven, whence all grief, and pain are eternally banished. Wherefore the Saints, may well proceed by way of impetation and prayers, or at most, represent their former satisfactions, which are carefully laid up in the treasury of the Church, in lieu of those which are due from others, but as for any new satisfaction, or payment, derived from any penal act of their own, it is not to be looked for, in those happy mansions of eternal glory. The Church militant may do either, as having this advantage above the Church triumphant, that she can help the souls in Purgatory, by her prayers and satisfactory works and by offering up her charitable suffrages, wherewith to pay the debts of those poor souls, who are run in arreare in point of satisfaction due for their sins. Had they but fasted, prayed, laboured, or suffered a little more in this life, they had gone directly into Heaven; what they unhappily neglected, we may supply for them, and it will be accepted for good payment, as from their bails and sureties. You know, he that stands surety for another, takes the whole debt upon himself, this is our case, for the living as it were entering bond for the dead, become responsable for their debts, and offer up fast for fast, tears for tears, in the same measure and proportion, as they were liable to them, and so defray the debt of their friends, at their own charge, and make all clear. This then is the general sense The living may help the dead 〈◊〉 how 〈◊〉▪ of the Church, that the living may help the afflicted souls, all these several ways, either by satisfying for them, or by their prayers, or by interposing the satisfactions of Christ Jesus, who has left them at the disposition of the holy Church his beloved spouse. And what rational person can deny this, since they are all members of the same mystical body; and consequently are tied in charity, to yield mutual assistance, and comfort to one another, and the rather, for that every one in his turn, may stand in need of the same friendship, and look to be requited. I am partaker, said Ps. 118. 63 holy David, with all those that fear God, and holy Church, to this purpose repeats that doleful ditty, so full of tenderness, out of Job, take pity on me, at least you that are my friends, for the Job, 19 21. hand of God has fall'n heavily upon me. And otherwise we must discredit a world of good Authors, a world of authentical records, a world of most pregnant proofs, and blast the reputation or venerable Antiquity, which has ever held it as one of the main points of Christian charity, to pray fervently for the faithful departed, to pay their debts, and to strive by all means possible, to help them out of their flames. To which purpose, by special favour almighty God has sometimes permitted souls, to show themselves visibly to their friends, and kindred, and to beg relief by Masses, Prayers, and other good works, whereby to shorten and diminish the sharpness of their torments. So did Pope Innocent the third, and a thousand others, as appears by unquestionable relations of grave Authors. What they cannot of themselves, they beg of us, and beg it as an alms for charity's sake and it were both sin and shame to deny them. That which often costs us but little, they esteem at a high rate, and could they but give us a clear sight, of the wonderful effects of our small endeavours, we should questionless take their cause more to heart than we do. Howsoever St. Thomas, and other divines assure us, that even in rigour of justice, our satisfactions are accepted in lieu of theirs, since God has so ordained, and past his word for it to his dear spouse the Church, who really believes it to be so, and proceeds accordingly. So that we may rest confident, that whosoever undertakes to provide for those distressed souls, so he be qualified with the conditions which 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, Go●● friend, for how can God be pleased at the do of his mortal enemies? how can he relish, or approve actions which proceed from a heart envenomed with the deadly poison of mortal sin? Can I work miracles and wanted but a grain of true charity, all this, says 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 God's determination and choice. Besides the work must be good and virtuous of itself, 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, rejoicing 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 〈◊〉 avail 〈◊〉▪ 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 always a Mass, always Su. d. 48. Sect. 8. good and of an infinite value, that the Priest that says it, or sings it, as a Minister of God's church (let him be never so unworthy) is always acceptable for her sake, in whose name he acts, that if you take him as a private, and particular person, 'tis true, all his prayers and devotions, can avail nothing, but as he represents the Church, he cannot fail, to do the main 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 lose, or deboached Priest, then of another, for that which is common to both is, that th●y both offer up the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass, which is always 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 perform 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 lose by the bargain, 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 recompensed, 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, lest the Masses should come to be said by ungodly, and irreligious Priests. It were mere simplicity, to be afraid of clear crystal water, because forsooth, it issues out of the snout of a black marble serpent, or passes through the Jaws of a Lion of Brass. Would you refuse a million of Gold, if it were sent you out of Turkey, from some wicked renegado? or should the Pope send you a Cardinal's Cap, would you be so nice as not to accept it, because the messenger that brought it, were an ill conditioned fellow? Elias was not so dainty, as to forbear his meat, because it was brought by a Raven. Do a God's 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 ways 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 Priest's oblations & sacrifices. 2 The Prayers of devout people. 3. Alms 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 interred, not that the bare lying th●●e can so much avail 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 Tombs 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 customs of the Church, they bury their friends with honour, they clothe great numbers of poor people, they give liberal Alms, but as there is nothing so certain, nothing so efficacious, nothing so divine, as the holy sacrifice 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 expenses, in importune Feast, 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 Masses for them, nor yet only by offering up your Prayers, Fasts, Alms-deeds, & other such works of Piety, but you may bestow upon them, all the good you do, and all the evil you suffer in this world. If you offer up unto God, all the cruel frettings, and gripe you endure in a fit of the Stone, which tears up your very entrails, if all the bitter sting and gnawings of the raging gout when it buries you alive in a kind of Purgatory, if all the sensible tearings of a desperare Megrim, when it cleaves your head in pieces, if the sullen humour of a Quartan Ague, which steeps your very heart in the Gaul of a deep melancholy, if all the other evils, which murder you alive, and do not kill you out right, to be still killing you, with a lingering death. If I say, you offer up unto God, all that causes you any grief, or affliction, for the present relief of the poor languishing souls, you cannot believe, what ease and comfort they will find by it, and as in the buckets of a Well, while the one sinks down to the bottom, the other mounts up to the top, so the lower you humble yourself in your sufferings, the higher you will raise the souls in their flight towards heaven. Nor will you have cause to fear, forgetting yourself while you satisfy for them, for it will infallibly come to pass, as St. John chrysostom assures us, that God, who is always prodigal of his mercies, will be sure to remember you, and the holy Souls, soaring up to Heaven with the wings of your Charity, will there plead for you with so much eloquence, as to gain your cause, or at least obtain so much patience for you, as to defy the worst of your evils, which do so insult, and tyrannise over you, with so much insolence, Pliny would make us believe, there are certain fishes, that entertain so fair an amity, and faithful correspondence with one another, that if one of them chance to be hung in the net, the other strives all he can possibly to set him free, and having no other means to compass his design, presents his tail, or one of his sins, which the other lays fast hold on with his teeth, so that, while the one thrusts with all his might, and the other draws with all his force, they break the mash, make way for the prisoner to get out, and so swim away both triumphing in their liberty. Mean while the kind fish that was sorely bitten, bleeds fresh of his wounds, and yet is so well pleased to have purchased his friend's liberty, though at the cost of his blood, that he thinks not of his own mischief, for the joy he takes in his friend's safety. Do you the same for your friends, who are detained captives in Purgatory, lend them your Arms, your Head, your Blood, all your griefs, and pains, and they will be the sooner released out of their miserable thraldom, and you by their favour, shall in your turn pass through it with so much swiftness, that you shall scarce feel the scorching flames, with which they are so grievously tormented. You have another easy, but ●●●●lgences. most powerful means to help these unfortunate souls, and that is to dispense out liberally amongst them the inexhaustible treasure of indulgences, to cause Masses to be often sa●● 〈◊〉 privileged Altars, to gain Jubilies and other plenary Indulgences, which are appliable to the benefit of deceased souls. For though some extravagant writers, have been so bold, in their unwary speculations upon this subject, as to question, whether the Pope's power in granting Jubilies and other pardons, reach to Purgatory or be only confined to this world, yet the current of sober Doctors, must bear the sway, who all conclude, that as to the living, his Holiness proceeds by way of absolution, and as to the dead, by way of suffrages and satisfactions, but has full power over both, to lose or bind, open or lock up Heaven gates, and to distribute the treasure of the Church, and that he has his commission for all this, from the sacred mouth of Jesus Christ himself, Math. 16. Certainly there be thousands, deserve to lie in Purgatory, were it only for this strange neglect, that ha●●●g so rich a treasure in their han●s, wherewith to ransom poor captive souls, they were so careless, as to make little or no use of it, but let a thousand occasions slip in which they might have released them, and all for want of a little pains to gain Indulgences. And they are the less to be excused, because it is very probable, Prepos. de Indulg. q. 14 dub. 10. & Alii. passim: that they may gain Indulgences, which are appliable to the dead, whether they be in the state of grace or no, so they do but the work prescribed. What will they do (says the Apostle) ● Cor. 15. ●9 that are Baptised for the dead? What means this Baptism for the dead! I leave a dozen of Interpretations, to tell you, there were some fervent Christians in those days, that took a world of pains, and suffered a world of austerities for the faithful departed, and so were Baptised in the tears of contrition, and in the blood of a most rigorous and penitential life. I requi●● not so much of you, only a little care of applying such indulgences as you have in your power, to do them good, who by a little of your favourable assistance, would be soon set at liberty. Cruel heart! canst thou refuse so slight a courtesy to souls so holy, and yet in so lamentable a condition. And if thou hast the honour to get in thither thyself hereafter (I say the honour) dost thou not deserve to be let alone, to feel at leisure the smart of thy idleness and disloyalty. Who will take the pains to help a wretch, who would scarce stir a finger to help out souls, whose eternal happiness she might as easily have procured, as cut a small thread in two, or quench a little spark of fire? I have not the confidence, to Holy 〈…〉 ses 〈…〉 all 〈…〉 low. propose things of greater hardship, and therefore I will not exhort you to imitate the example of St. Catherine of Sienna, who offered to s●ffer the pains of Purgatory it s●lf, in place of her dear Mother, nor that of St. Catherine of Genua, who really suffered two years together, what flesh and blood is not able to endure in this mortal life, not that of St. Christina the wonderful, whose excesses Bellarm. Surius. Vitri●co. in this kind were incredible, if not attested by very credible persons. I know there is no persuading you, to devote yourself to such holy excesses, lest you should chance to be taken at your word, as some others have been. I hope at least I may without offence, mind you not to stick to apply this way all your fasts, hair girdles, disciplins and other corporal afflictions, and in a word all the evils you suffer in body or soul, whether they be voluntary or unavoidable. This I beg as a most welcome alms, to the poor souls in Purgatory, and a charity, which will be of no little comfort to yourself. Do but as Magdalen and Martha did, when they saw their brother Lazarus locked 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 Jaws of death. They are your brothers I entreat for, they are prisoners under ground, Christ Jesus has as tender a hart as ever, give yourselves 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 raising souls to life everlasting, and placing them above the firmament, that lie 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 rigorous 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 ear 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 void of charity, or is the blood that runs in your veins, and feeds your heart, so frozen up, as not to yield one drop of compassion, for God's 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 miss of her aim, 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 custom 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, than the government of whole Kingdoms. 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 yourself and others. Most part of mankind is so taken up, with building rich houses, or providing stately Tombs for their Rotten Carcases, they have no leisure 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 lie there frying whole years 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 bugbears in our weak sighted apprehensions. A man that is undone, by some cheat or surprise, may be pitied, but he that sees his own ruin, and will not stir a foot to prevent it, no creature can pity such a man, and certainly, he deserves not the least compassion. The world has generally a great esteem of Monsieur d' Argenton, Philip Commines, and many worthily admire him for the great Wisdom, 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 Chapel, 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 aloud, let us pray for the soul of Monsieur d' Argenton and then all shoul● 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 Creator, have pity on your poor servant John Gerson. For these innocent Souls, all the while the good man was a ●●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 magnify their charity, who less solicitous for themselves, employ their whole care to save others out of that dreadful fire. And sure I am, they can lose nothing by the bargain, who dare thus trust God with their own souls, while they do their uttermost to help others; Nay though they should follow that unpparalleled 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 avail 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 are applied to them. intention be to help any one in particular, who is really in Purgatory, so your work be good, it is infallibly applied, to the party upon whom you bestow it. For as Divines teach, it is the intention of the offerer, which governs all, and God of his infinite goodness accommodates himself to the petitioners reque●●, applying unto each one, what has been offered for his relief. If you have no body in your thoughts, for whom you offer up your prayers, they are only beneficial to yourself, and what would be thus lost, for want of application, God lays up in the Treasury of the Church, as being a kind of spiritual waif, or stray, to which no body can lay any just claim. And since it is the intention, which entitles one to what is offered, before all others, what right can others pretend to it, or with what justice can it be parted, or divided amongst others, who were never thought of. And hence I take my rise, to Better to pray for few then many. resolve your other question, that if you regard their best advantage, whom you have a mind to favour, you had better pray for a few, then for many together, for since the merit of your devotions, is always limited, and often in a very small proportion, the more you divide it, & subdivide it, amongst many, the lesser share comes to every one in particular, as if you should distribute a crown or an angel, amongst a thous●●● poor people, you easily see yo●● Alms would be so inconsiderable, they would be little better for it, whereas if it were all bestowed upon one or two, it were enough to make them rich in their conceits. Now to define precisely, whether it be always better done, to help one or two souls efficaciously, then to yield a little comfort to a great many, is a question I leave for you to exercise your wits in. I could fancy it to be your best course, to do both, that is, sometimes to single out some particular soul, and to use all your power, to lift her up to heaven, sometimes again, to parcel out your favours upon many, and now and then also to deal out a general Alms upon all Purgatory. And you need not fear exceeding in this way of charity, whatsoever you bestow, for you may be sure, nothing will be lost by it. And St. Thomas will tell you, for your comfort, that since all the souls in Purgatory, are perfectly united in charity, they rejoice exceedingly, when they see any of their whole number, to receive such powerful helps, as to dispose her for heaven, they every one take it as done to themselves, whatsoever is bestowed upon any of their fellows, whom they love as themselves, and out of a heavenly kind of courtesy, and singular love they joy in her happiness, as if it were their own. So that it may be truly said, that you never pray for one or more of them, but they are all partakers, and receive a particular comfort, and satisfaction by it. Me thinks this very consideration, should enkindle in your hearts a fresh desire, to be often ●olafing those happy souls, and to entitle yourselves their special benefactors, who will never suffer the remembrance of your tender mercies, to be blotted out of their grateful memories. But let us now state the case How if we employ other● to help the●▪ thus: suppose you should employ another, to do those good works for the souls, whether or no, will they have the same effect, as if you had done them yourself? again, should this other, whom you thus employ, be an ungracious fellow, whether would all his endeavours be able to give any ease to the souls, for whose sakes you procure them! I am so taken with the Angelical Doctrine of St. Thomas, I'll go no further for an answer. He tells us then, that if you be good, and he stark nought, by whom you procure for example the Dirge to be said, or any other good work to be performed, that can be done by a third person, (for there be some that be personal) it does not at all blast the fruit of your devotion, nor obstruct the souls benefit, for whom you procured it; That if he chance to be good, so much the better, the benefit will be the greater, though God look more upon the chief Agent, and principal cause, then upon the accessary, or instrument, he thinks fit to make use of. That if you be wicked yourself, and the other good, the good work will have its effect, and the soul will be assisted by it. That if you should be both so unlucky, as to be neither of you in the state of grace, (excepting Mass only, which can never fail of its effect) all other means you use, will be utterly void, and of no effect, because they proceed from so ungrateful hands, and worse hearts. Would you have God to accept of his enemy's presents, and while you refuse to give him your heart, to seal with his divine grace, would you have him to deliver you up his, to dispose of his mercies, for the benefit of others. No wicked wretch, no, till you altar your condition, do not look, that God will appear in his mercy, to bestow a Jubily, on those holy souls you entreat for, nay, it falls out sometimes, even in this world, th●● the pleading of an infamous advocate, or a sworn enemy of the Prince or State, makes the criminals case more odious and desperate, and in lieu of a Gibbet, procurcs him a wheel, or a worse punishment. Yet I must tell you, and I must conjure you, by all the obligations of humanity, that, be you never so lost a creature, never so covered with enormous crimes, you never fail at least to procure Masses, and to distribute liberal Alms, for the relief of the poor souls, and this for many reasons. First, Because the Mass is always to good purpose, as having its effect, ex opere operato, as they speak in schoools, or of itself, without any relation had to him that says it, or causes it to be said. Secondly, Because they use to say, that the last wholesome advice, we ought to give to a desperate soul, plunged over head and ears in sin, is to be sure always, to be good to the poor, for sooner or later, good will come of it Thirdly, It is truly said of alms-deeds, that they are good solicitors, and have a most charming Rhetoric, to obtain of God, and to extort as it were out of his hands, what they please. In so much, that if the sentence of condemnation, were already signed in the hands of God (it is the expression of St. Chrysologus) God Serm. 8. himself would tear it in pieces, and revoke the sentence, rather than refuse any favour to the merciful. Give Alms, says the Eccl. 29. holy Ghost, and hid it in the bosom of the poor, and your Alms will intercede for you. So that, although you wicked wretch, cannot say a good prayer for the souls, yet your charity will supply your place, and plead for you and the poor that partake of it, will also pray for you, and all this may possibly be to good purpose▪ What your tongue cannot, your hand will perform, with greater advantage, and what cannot proceed from your heart, which is poisoned with deadly sin, will out at your purse, which is full of mercy, and help to purchase some comfortable refreshment, to take of the fury of those hungry flames which are incessantly preying upon the poor souls. And here again, taking upon me, to be Proctor for this sufferring Commonwealth, I conjure you, to be liberal in distributing your alms, and procuring M●sses, for the souls departed. I can expect no less from their goodness, but that their Angel guardians, or yours, or those of the poor, will inspire them with good thoughts, and move them, to pour ou● their ardent, and innocent prayers, for you in recompense of so great a charity. Mean while you shall be like the Crow, that brought bread to St. Paul the Hermit, without so much as tasting it, or like the Whale that conveyed Ionas safe to the shore without feeding on him, or to use St. Gregory's comparison, you shall be like the water in the Sacrament of Baptism, which falling upon the head of a child, washes away the foul stain of original sin, and entitles him heir to the Kingdom of Heaven, and mean while glides away into some noisome sink, and there turns to filth and corruption. Now to the last Query, for what What souls we ought most to pray for. souls in particular, we ought most to concern ourselves? I answer briefly thus. 1. Without question, all obligations of kindred promise, gratitude, rule, command, etc. are to be served in the first place. 2. You cannot do better, then to offer up your devotions, for those souls, which are dearest to God, or his blessed Mother. 3. It is a singular charity, to remember those, that are in most need, or most neglected. 4. It is a pious and laudable piece of spiritual craft, to do for thos● that will be soon released; for by this means, you shall send into heaven, good store of powerful advocates, who will incessantly plead for you, before the throne of mercy. §. 6. How dangerous it is to trust others, with what concerns the sweet rest of our souls in the next world. AS I cannot but highly magnify, It is a folly to trust others. and extol their charity, that have a solicitous care, to rescue out of Purgatory the Souls of their dear parents, friends, and acquaintance, so I cannot forbear deploring, and even laughing at their folly, and mere madness, as I may rightly term it, that leave all to the discretion of their heirs and friends, they leave behind them. They must pardon me, if I wrong them, it is the zeal of their good transports me, it is a just indignation sets my heart all on fire, to see, how the wisest often prove the veriest fools, in this occasion, which is the most important of all others. How many wills never see any other light, but that of the fire, which consumes them to ashes? How many false ones are daily forged, to fill up the others room? How few do we see at this day punctually performed, or rather, how many do we see not performed at all? Having procured a Mass or two of Requiem, and the Dirige to be said, for decency sake, and for the honour of their house, who is there almost, that will give himself any further trouble to pray even for his parents. The good man, is scarce cold in his Grave, but his Children fall together by the Ears, run into endless suits, seize upon what they can next lay their hands on, right or wrong, and will not be persuaded to forego it, but by main force of Law, or by the terror of dreadful excommunications. One lays injustice ●● his Father's charge, for doing so much to advance his eldest Sons fortune, another cries out upon him, for being so unnatural, as to undo his own Child. The Daughters think much their portions are no greater, the whole house is up in arms, and in continual alarms, and in a word, there's nothing but a mere confusion, and hurly burly amongst them. Mean while, the good man has leisure enough, to fit at his task of suffering, and to lie frying in Purgatory, not so much as one of his Children, thinks on him, unless it be to brand him with some injurious reproach The unfortunate soul, almost killed himself with care, and had like also to have damned himself, to make his Children happy in this world, and these barbarous harpies are so insatiable, as to be raking at the bones, and gnawing the very heart of their deceased father, who must needs be very sensible (if he know it) to see himself so undutifully regarded, by his own Children. I will bring him in anon to speak for himself, as best able, to hold forth his own lamentable condition, and sure it will break your very heart to hear him. And yet tell me seriously, does he not deserve all this, who might so easily, when time was, have provided better for himself, and prevented all this mischief, by obliging the Church to offer up good store of Masses for him, and was so indiscreet, as to leave it wholly to the discretion of his Heirs and Executours, who are little better than direct Barbarians. For is there any likelihood, they will stir, to help him out of Purgatory, they that cannot so much as afford him a stone upon his Grave, worth a crown, with a little inscription to put good people in mind, who lies there, that they may cast a good thought after him. But I shall have occasion yet, to enlarge myself more upon this subject, and to make it appear, what an irreparable folly is committed, by the wisest in the world, in neglecting one of the most important affairs in their whole life. It would go h●rd with many, Whether a soul must stay in Purg. till restitution be made. were it true, that a person, who neglected to make restitution in his life time, and only charged his heirs to do it for him, in his last Will and Testament, shall not stir out of Purgatory, till restitution be really made, let there be never so many Masses said, and never so many satisfactory works offered up for him. And yet St. Brigit, whose revelations are for the most part approved by the Church, sticks not to set this down for a truth, which God had revealed unto her. Nor are there wanting grave Divines, that countenance this rigorous position, and bring for it many strong reasons, and examples, which they take to be authentical, and the Law itself, which says, that if a man do not restore another's goods, there will always stick upon his soul a kind of blemish, or obligation of justice, and since the fault lies wholly at his door he cannot (say they) have the least reason to complain, of the severity of God's justice, but must accuse his own coldness, and extreme neglect of his own welfare. Nay, even those, that are of the contrary persuasion, yet maintain, that it is not only much more secure, but far more meritorious, to satisfy such obligations while we live, then to trust others with it, let them be never so near, and dear unto us, let it be your Child, or your Wife, or the very half of yourself, yet you ought not to trust your other half in this case, where we see men are so daily cozened in their expectations. And you that read this, and think to take so good order, that the like inconveniences cannot befall you, let me tell you, you are like to be one of the first, that will be thus miserably cheated, and perhaps, far worse than your neighbours, if you do not seek to discharge all these obligations, while you are yet alive, and rather to day, then to morrow. And I beseech you, take the p●ins once more to read over this §. For it is unto you I direct my speech, or rather it is God that speaks to you by my mouth, if ●ou fail in it, you will have cause to repent, for my part, I hold myself discharged. But now to return from whence I have a little digressed, I told you, that these last Authors, though they do not believe, that a soul shall be necessarily tied, to dwell in Purgatory fire, till restitution be made, yet they hold, that it may accidentally fall out, that she may be kept there far longer, than she would have been otherwise. For the Creditors, who have received their due, the poor, yo● have made amends for what was wrongfully taken from them, and others, well satisfied, with your just proceed, will make it their business, to pray for your soul, for want of whose prayers, you may lie, God knows how long, neglected, and forgotten, in that fiery dungeon. And believe it, let the first opinion, be never so improbable in your judgement, it will not be very safe for you, to lie in Purgatory, till the case be decided, nor will it be your wisest course, to learn there, how egregiously you have played the fool, in not clearing your debts sooner, and providing better for the ease of your soul. I am clearly of the second opinion, but would advise you, to make use of the first, that the one serving you as a bridle, the other may be as a spurr to incite you to that which doth more import you then the dominion of the whole world. You would be loath to Emperor of the universe, upon condition to be perpetually tormented with the Stone, or the Gout, or to lie broiling upon a Gridiron, and are you so wilfully unwary, as to cast yourself into the flames of Purgatory, upon a vain confidence, that your friends, or your children, will fetch you out, who perhaps have scarce a thought of you once in a twelvemonth. You have no reason in the world, to expect others should love you better, than you love yourself, so that if you can find in your heart to neglect yourself, it is a folly to expect others will have more care of you. Sure it is not good going to heaven by proxy, nor standing to another's courtesy, in what concerns the necessary refreshment and ease of our souls. You that are so rich in worldly wealth, but bare enough of solid virtue give but a tolerable excuse, why you do not build a Chapel, or an Hospital, that good people, remembering their founder, may be daily pouring out their prayers for you, both living and dead. That which you often cast away, at an unlucky throw at Dice, would suffice, that which you bury in a capricious piece of building, or devour at an idle entertainment were more then enough. Why do not you get a privileged Altar in your own Parish, or at least cause frequent Masses to be said at such Altars, to release poor souls, that others may be as kind to you hereafter? Why do not you send good store of Alms to poor prisoners, that your charity may help to redeem souls out of Purgatory. You do nothing of all this, and yet would be thought to be in your right senses, which I look upon for my part as a mere paradox. §. 7. Some motives fetched even as far as the other World, to stir us up to be mindful of the dead. CArdinal Cajetan has a singular tenet, which will not a little help, to promote piety & deserves highly to be recorded, as a Doctrine, which suits well with the infinite goodness of our most just and merciful God. The question is, what becomes of all the merit, of those Masses, and other suffrages, which are offered for souls, which are not in Purgatory? some hold, it is applied to their Parents, Alliance, or Friends, others to those that are so frendless, as to have no body to remember them, others to them that stand in most need of help, others will have it hoarded up with the rest of the Church's treasure. A pious opinion of Cajetan. But this learned Cardinal maintains, that it goes all to relieve their souls, who in this world were particularly addicted to pray for the dead. And what can be more reasonable? According Math. 7. 2. to the measure, we deal out to others, it shall be measured to Luc. 6. 38. us again, give, and there shall be given to you, says Almighty God. Who can lay a better claim to it then they? For first, the founders themselves, were they but half acquainted, with what passes in the other world, cannot but be well pleased at it. Then, it is a powerful incentive, to increase devotion in the hearts of all good Christians, who may hope in their turns to reap the like fruit of their charitable labours, for the good of souls. And who can find fault, that such straggling suffrages, which of right belong to no body, should be so profitably employed? This opinion is no Article of faith, but is a very pious conjecture, worthy of that most eminent Cardinal. And me thinks I see the blessed souls themselves, for whom these holy suffrages were offered, to lie prostrate before the throne of God, beseeching him to apply them to those needy souls, who while they lived were so full of charity, as to forget themselves to be sure to remember them. Me thinks I see the other Saints in heaven, who were handed out of Purgatory by the arms of charity, to be joynt-petitioners, and their good Angels also, and all of them together, to become earnest suitors, to obtain this favour of Almighty God, who is easily overcome in a suit of this nature, which is so rational, that the granting it must needs cry up his ineffable wisdom and mercy. And I cannot but think, that if the case were to be decided by the souls in Purgatory, they would all unanimously agree, that such suffrages as these, which out of mere ignorance, were misapplied to those that could make no benefit of them, cannot be better disposed of, then to their companions, who in their life time were so charitable to other souls. This I take to be a very moving consideration, and yet I have just cause to fear, all I can say to you will hardly suffice to mollify that hard heart of yours, and therefore my last refuge shall be to set others on, though I call them out of the other world. And first, let a damned soul read you a Lecture, and teach you the compassion you ought to bear to your afflicted brethren. Remember Luk. 16. how the rich glutton in the Gospel, for all he was buried in hell fire, took care for his brothers, who survived him, and besought Abraham to send Lazarus back into the world, to preach, and convert them, lest they should be so miserable, as to come into that place of torments. A strange request for a damned soul and which may shame you, that are so little concerned for the souls of your brethren, who are in so restless a condition. In the next place, I will bring in the soul of your dear father, or mother, to make her own just complaints against you. Lend her then a dutiful, and attentive ear, and let none of her words be lost, for she deserves to be heard o●●▪ while she lays forth the state o● her most lamentable condition. Peace, It is a holy soul, (though clothed in flames) directs her speech to you after this manner. Am not I the most unfortunate The Complaint of Soul in Purgatory. and wretched parent that ever breathed! I that was so silly, as to presume, that having ventured my life, and my very soul also, to leave my children at their ease, they would at least have had some pity on me, and endeavoured to procure me some ease, and comfort in my torments. Alas, I burn unsufferably, I suffer infinitely, and have done so I know not how long, and yet this is not the only thing that grieves me, alas no, it is a greater vexation to see myself so soon forgotten, by my own children, and so slighted by them, for whom I have in vain taken so much care and pains. Ay, dost thou grudge thy poor Mother a Mass, a slight Alms, a sigh, or a tear; thy Mother, I say, who would most willingly have stolen bread out of her own mouth, to make thee swim in an Ocean of delights, and to abound with plenty of all worldly goods. See how proudly this unnatural Child struts up and down, as fine as hands can make him, as glorious as the sun, while I his poor Mother have no other robes left me but scorching flames of fire: See how he empties my Coffers, to cast it upon his Horses and his Dogs, or upon men worse than either, and cannot find the heart to lay out a penny in charitable uses for his poor Mother; his Gold flies about the table, as nimbly as the Dice, he plays with, and in mere sport and merriment, he throws away that, which cost me a world of pains, and perhaps was the occasion of my death, and my cruel confinement to this place of torments. He cannot afford me so much as a Cup of cold water, wherewith to quench my flames, while he gl●ts himself with all superfluous and choice dainties. Am I not well served, for having had so little wit, and so little of common sense in me, as to trust this wretch, who has not a spark of good nature in him, to have the least feeling of my deplorable condition. Who will not refuse me comfort, when my own Children, my very bowels, do their best to forget me. What a vexation is it to me, when my companions in misery, ask me whether I left no children behind me, and why they are so haggard natured as to neglect me, what can I say, or what answer can I make but this, that I thought I had brought forth Children, but find them to be mere Vipers and Tigers. When I was upon my death bed, struggling for life, these hypocritical villains, feigned themselves in despair, their pale looks, their counterfeit tear●, their sighs, their sobs, their kind expressions, delivered in soft and smooth language, made me verily believe, they loved me, and won me to play the fool thus, to rely upon them, when God knows, they longed for nothing more, then to close up my eyes, and were almost ready to burst for mere grief, that I died no sooner, that they might have sooner enjoyed the goods I had scraped together, with the hazard of my life, and poor soul too. I was willing to forget my own concerns, to be careful of theirs, and the ungrateful wretches have now buried me in an eternal oblivion, and clear left me to shift for myself, in these horrid tortures, without giving me the least ease, or comfort. O what a fool was I? had I given to the poor but the thousandth part of those goods, which I left this unlucky Child, I had long before this been joyfully singing the praises of my creator, in the Choir of Angels, whereas now I lie panting, and groaning under excessive torments, and am like still to lie by it, for any relief is to be looked for, from this undutiful, and ungracious Child, I made my sole heir Go you mortals, go hereafter, and trust your children, your kindred, and your heirs, that you may be treated by them, as I am by my son who was dearer to me, than the very apple of my eye. O it is the greatest piece of indiscretion in the whole world, to rely upon the discretion, of indiscrete, and undutiful children, who had rather be scuffling, and tugging one another, for a part of our inheritance, then striving to help us out of our pains: Sure parents are either bewitched; or grown senseless, to hazard their souls for such untoward, and ill natured children, who have not a drop of good blood in their hearts, nor a grain of true filial love. But am I not all this while strangely transported, miserable that I am, thus to amuse myself with unprofitable complaints against my son where as indeed I have small reason, to blame any but myself, since it is I, and only I, that am the cause of all this mischief. For did not I know; that in the grand business of saving my soul, I was to have trusted none but myself? did I not know, that with the sight of their friends, at their departure, men use to lose all the memory, and friendship they had for them? Did I not know, that God himself had foretold us, that the only ready way, to build ourselves eternal tabernacles, in the next world, is not to give all to our Children, but to be liberal to the poor? Did I not often hear it preached to me, that a cup of cold water, sometimes luckily bestowed, was sufficient to put out Purgatory fire? Did they not as often ring it in my ears, that a wise man sends his good works before him, and leaves them not for others to finish, as fools do, who by that means, come to carry nothing with them but a shameful remorse, which lies like an aspe, at their breast, continually knawing, and devouring them. I cannot deny then, but the salt lies at my door, and that I am deservedly thus neglected by my children. And were I disposed to wish harm to any body, I would wish them no greater mischief, then that their children should serve them, just as they have served me; I say, that the ungodly wretches may come hither, and be as much neglected, and forgotten as I am, and see when it is too late, what it is to trust to the kindness of children, which is commonly buried in the same grave with their parents. It is one of my greatest miseries, that I have not the face, to beg any comfort of God in my sufferings, for whereas he clearly promised me all favour, so I would but be good to the poor, I have done the clean contrary, putting more confidence, in the uncertain performance of unworthy children, then in the infallible truth of God's word. The only comfort I have left me in all my afflictions, is that others will learn at my cost this clear maxim, not to leave to others a matter of so near concern, as the ease, and repose of their own souls, but to provide for them carefully themselves. O God how dear have I bought this experience, to see my fault irreparable, and my misery without redress. One must have a heart of Steel, or no heart at all, to hear these sad regrets and not feel. some tenderness for the poor souls, and as great an indignation against those who are so little concerned for the souls of their parents, and other near relations. I wish with all my soul, that all those, who shall light upon this passage, and hear the soul so bitterly to deplore her misfortune, may but benefit themselves half as much by it, as a good Prelate did, when the soul of Pope Benedict the eighth, by God's permission, revealed unto him her lamentable state in Purgatory. For so the story goes Baron. an. 1024. (which is not to be questioned) This Pope Benedict appears to the Bishop of Caprea, and conjures him to go to his brother Pope John, who succeeded him in the chair of S. Peter, and to beseech him, for God's sake, to give great store of alms to poor people, to allay the fury of the fire of Purgatory, with which he found himself sorely tormented. He furthen charge● him, to let the Pope know withal, that he did, acknowledge, liberal alms had already been distributed for that purpose, but had found no ease at all by it, because all the money, that was then bestowed; had been acquired unjustly, and so had no power to pravaile, b●fore the just tribunal of God, for the obtaining of the least mercy. The good Bishop upon this, makes haste to the Pope, and faithfully relates the whole conference, that had passed between him and the soul of his predecessor, and with a grave voice, and lively accent, exaggetates the necessity and importance of the business, that in truth, when a soul lies a burning, it is in vain to dispute idle questions, the best course then, is to run instantly for water, and to throw it on with both hands, calling for all the help, and assistance we can to relieve her, that his Holiness should soon see truth of the vision by the wonderful effects which were like to follow. All this he delivers so gravely, and so to the purpose, that the Pope resolves out of hand, to give in charity vast sums, out of his own certain, and unquestionable revenue, whereby the soul of Pope Benedict was not only wonderfully comforted, but questionless soon released of her torments. In conclusion, the good Bishop, having well reflected with himself, in what a miserable condition he had seen the soul of a Pope, who had the repute of a Saint, and was really so, it worked so powerfully with him, that quitting his Mitre, Crosier, Bishopric, and all worldly greatness, he shut himself up in a Monastery, and there made a holy end, choosing rather to have his Purgatory, in the austerity of a Cloister, then in the flames of Pith. Baron. an. 874 the Church Patient. I wish again, they would in this but follow the example of King Lewis of France, who was son to Lewis the Emperor, surnamed the Pious. For they tell us, that this Emperor, after he had been 33. years in Purgatory, not so much for any personal crimes, or misdemeanours of his own, as for permitting certain disorders in his Empire, which he ought to have prevented, was at length permitted, to show himself to King Lewis his son, and to beg his favourable assistance, and that the King, did not only most readily grant him his request procuring Masses to be said in all the Monasteries of his Realm, for the soul of his deceased Father, but drew thence many good reflections, and profitable instructions, which served him all his life time after. Do you the same and believe it, though Purgatory fire is a kind of Baptism, and is so styled by some of the holy Fathers, because it cleanses a soul from all the dross of sin, and makes it worthy to see God, yet is it your sweetest course, here to baptise yourself frequently, in the tears of contrition, which have a mighty power to wash away all the blemishes of sin, and so prevent in your own person, and extinguish in others, those baptismal flames of Purgatory fire, which are so dreadful. The Fifth Survey. How all Antiquity was ever devoted to pray for the Dead. THis charitable devotion for the dead, is a thing so inbred and natural unto us all, that we seem, as it were, to suck it in with the very milk of our Nurses: Nor was there ever any people, I do not say Christian, but even Jewish, or Heat henish, which did not profess some Piety in this kind. As for the Jews, it is well known The Jews pray for the dead. to be their constant practice this day, to pray for Souls departed, and is confessed to be so by Purcas himself, and other Modern Protestants. And what their custom was, when they had the privilege of being the only chosen people of Almighty God, the Scripture itself bears witness; especially, where it relates the incomparable zeal, which that valiant invincible Champion of Heaven, Judas Machabeus, had for the good of 2. Mach. 12. their Souls, who had unfortunately been slain by their enemies. Take his story in brief, thus: Having in several fierce encounters, made such a slaughter of his enemies, as to strew the fields over with dead Carcases, and to slain the Rivers with blood, he caused a diligent search to be made, for all those that had fallen on his side, to have them honourably interred in the Sepulchers of their Fathers. But the mischief was, that in stripping them of their , they discovered under their coats some unlawful spoils, which they ought to have destroyed, according to their law, but had secretly reserved to themselves, a crime, for which they all instantly concluded, those unfortunate souls, had deservedly been cast away, and cut off by the hand of God. And some there were doubtless, that fell a cursing this their fordid avarice and high transgression, but the good Captain, takes this occasion, to exhort them to adore the just judgements of heaven, and to learn at the others cost to have the fear of God before their eyes, and to be more religious in their ways, and yet withal to be more reserved in their censures, and rather to have pity on the souls of their fellow soldiers, who probably might not die in so desperate a condition, as not to be relieved by their help. This done, he makes a collection, he raises a sum of 12000. drachms, he sends it to Jerusalem, to procure Sacrifices to be offered, for their sins that were slain, who for aught he knew, might die in a fair way to a hopeful resurrection. Now, whether shall we first admire, the tender heart of this noble Cavalier, or his religious piety, or his charitab●● liberality. He knew well, those miserable wretches had committed a most foul crime, and yet he would not despair of their salvation, but was willing to believe, they repent themselves of their frailty, and that God had sent them their deaths, only as a temporal punishment, for the terror of others: Nor had he the least doubt, but that our Lord would be well pleased with his charity, and accept of the Sacrifices which he thus offered, for the repose of their souls. And certainly, the fact is most highly commended by the sacred Text, which concludes the story, in these words. It is therefore a holy and healthful cogitation to pray for the Dead, that they may be loosed from their sins. O that so fair an example would teach all Christians, to be good and liberal to the Dead; for alas, the greatest part of mankind content themselves, with drawing two or three sighs, at a funeral, or saying a●●●●rt prayer or two at most, wher●●● this generous Captain (even before the clear light of the Gospel) did all this, and confirmed it with a noble Gift of 12000. drachms. §. 1. Of the natural instinct of all Nations to honour, and comfort the dead. IT may well put most Catholics to the blush, to consider what an incredible care, all nations have ever had of the dead, by the mere impulse of nature. Cesar takes notice, how superstitiously De bello Gall. pious, the ancient French were in this kind, who together with the dead corpse, which they burned upon a great pile of wood, were wont to consume all that had been precious, and dear to him when he lived, as all his rich moveables, his Dogs, his Horses, nay sometimes his very Servants also, who took it for a great honour, that they might be suffered, so to mingle their ashes, with those of their dear Lord and Master. And does not the Roman Tacit. Hist. History tell us, that, when Otho the Emperors, had 〈◊〉 himself with a Dagger, many ●● his Soldiers were seen to do the like, to show the affection they had for their Prince, and how-ready they were to sacrifice their lives for his honour, and service. I know these customs were not only very extravagant, but extreme rude, and barbarous, and yet they may serve to shame Christians, who are so far from expressing any such love for the souls of their friends, though they believe them to lie broiling in Purgatory. For what would not these others have done, or what would they not have given, to redeem the souls of their friends out of cruel torments (had they believed as much) since they were so prodigal, as to sacrifice their goods, and their very lives to their bare memories. What shall I say of those other Nations, whose natural piety lead them, to set burning Lamps at the sepulchres of the dead, and strew them over with sweet flowers, and Odoriferous perfumes? Herod. l. 2. do they not mind Christians, to remember the dead, and to cast after them, the sweet incense of their devout sighs, and prayers, and the perfumes of their alms deeds, and other good works. It was very usual with the old Romans, to shed whole floods of tears, to reserve them in viol glasses, and to bury them with the ●●●nes, in which the ashes of their de●d friends were carefully laid up, and by them to set Lamps, so artificially composed, as to burn without end By which Symbols, they would give us to understand that neither their love, nor their grief, should ever die, but that they would always be sure, to have tears in their eyes, love in their hearts, and a constant memory in their souls for their deceased friends Good God shall charity be overcome by vanity, shall Religion yield to Idolatry, and shall ●he Catholic Roman stoop to the Pagan Roman? shall a little vain glory, or a me●●●atural affection have the power to draw whole Glass fools of tears, from the eyes of idolatours, and shall not a Religious compassion prevail so far ●s to draw a single tear or a fie, or a good word from the mouth of a Christian? shall they take on so bitterly for dead carcases, that are not sensible of the flames, that consume them? & shall not we be more concerned for souls, that really feel the smart of a most cruel fire? sure they will one day rise up in judgement against us, and reproach us for believing as we do, and carrying our felves clear contrary to the belief we profess. They had another custom, not only in Rome, but elsewhere, to walk about the burning pile, where the dead Corpse lay, and with their mournful lamentations, to keep time with the doleful sound of their Trumpets, and still every turn, to cast into the fire some precious pledge of their friendship. The Women themselves, would not stick to throw in their Rings, Bracelets and other costly attires, nay their very hair also, the chief ornament of their Sex, and they would have been sometimes willing, to have thrown in both their eyes, and their hearts too. Nor were there some wanting, that in earnest Suet. in Aug. Dion. Alex. threw themselves into the fire, to be consumed with their dear spouses, so that it was found necessary, to make a severe law against it, such was the tenderness they had for their deceased friends, such was the excess of a mere natural affection. Now our love ●● infused from heaven, it is supernatural, and consequently aught to be more active, and powerful to stir up our compassion, for the souls departed, and yet we see the coldness of Christians in this kind, how few there are, that make it their business to help poor souls out of their tormenting flames. It is not necessary to make Laws to hinder any excess in this kind, it were rather to be wished, that a Law were provided, to punish all such ungrateful persons, as forget the duty they own to their dead parents, and all the obligations they have to the rest of their friends. It will help something to increase Diod. Sic. l. 17. c. 16. our confusion, to reflect how Alexander the great behaved himself at the Funerals of his dear Hephestion. They tell us, he spent at least twelve thousand Talents that is, above seven Millions, and two hundred thousand Crowns, upon his funeral pile. It was beautified with a world of rich, and goodly statues, made of Ivory, Ebony, or some precious Metal, amongst others, you might have seen curious Mermaids, with exquisite music, locked up within them Eagles, Dragons and other beasts represented to life, stately galleries hung with Scarlet richly embroidered, triumphant crowns of p●●e Gold, torches, fifteen cubits high, perfumes without end. O what an excess of love, and superfluity was this? what a st●r to make a handful of ashes, of the carcase of a miserable damned wretch? And yet all this was nothing, Justin. l. 1. Diod. Sic. l. 3. Bud. to the mad profuseness of that other infamous and desperate King, who yet living built his own funeral pile, and made himself and a world of treasure to the value of fifty millions of Gold to be all consumed to ashes. What reflections shall we make upon all this, we that are scarce willing to spare a shilling, to ease a soul that lies consuming in the flames of Purgatory. Tell me, dear Reader, what would they not have done for souls, they that bore so Religious a respect to the bones, ashes, and small remainder of dead carcases? They first clothed themselves with black cypress, washed their hands clean, quenched the fire with milk and wine, than they made a diligent search for the bones, carefully raking them up out of the ashes, they placed them in their bosoms, washed them with their tears, and their choicest wines, dried them again, and lapped them up in their finest linen, covered them over with roses, and o●her costly perfumes, and so reserved them in urns of glass, Ivory, or porphyry, and could never think they had done enough for them▪ And can we Christians, with the eye of our faith, pierce the Earth, and see poor souls burning in Purgatory fire, and see them with dry eyes, and with a frozen heart? Can we be so niggardly, as to grudge them a little comfort, or refuse to cast on our Wine, our Milk, and our flowers, the wine of our charity, the Milk of our innocency, and the flowers of our devout sighs, and prayers to help to quench their flames. Christ Jesus told the Jews, that the Queen of Saba would condemn them at the latter day, and I fear Queen Artemifia Strabo. l. 14. Diod. l. 16. will condemn u●, for having built one of the seven miracles of the world, in honour of her dear Lord and Husband, not content with this exterior demonstration, of the dutiful affection she had for him, she took a strange resolution, to drink up his ashes, and to lodge them in her heart, and so to make it good to the very letter, that man and wife are indeed but one flesh, one body and and soul, have but one life, and can die but one death. What would she not have done, to have lodged his soul in Heaven, she that took such care to lodge his ashes in her breast? What have you to say for yourselves, you unkind wives, or what answer can you make you unnatural Children, when she shall question you, what care you took, to provide a better mansion for the Souls of your Husbands, or your Parents, when they were lodged in the merciless flames of Purgatory fire? Sure you are not sprung, from that wicked race of barbarous people, who were wont to feast themselves with the flesh of their dead Parents, and to justify the fact, by saying, that it was Strabo. Val. Max. better their bodies should be their meat, than the meat of worms, and that they could not do better, then to lodge them in their own bodies, and so to return the courtesy they received, when they were heretofore lodged in theirs. I know this brutishness does not reign amongst us, at this present, but alas? there is another not unlike to it, which is much in fashion: for how many Childen, gourmandize themselves with the riches of their parents, drink up the sweat of their brows, and devour their goods, without so much as dreaming, what becomes of their Souls, whether they broyl in glowing fire or starve in freezing cold? Cruel wretches! Is this the gratitude with which they honour their Parents? Are they indeed children, or rather are they not direct vultures and Tigers? I should never make an end, should I go about here, to reckon up all the religious expressions of charity, which the Pagans are known to have made to their dead friends, and therefore I say nothing of the ten valiant captains, Xenoph. l. 1 Pausan. l. 2. that were slain, for not fishing for the bodies of their soldiers, and causing them to be buried, which was a crime they held unpardonable I say as little, of that pions' custom of the Athenians, who would confer no honour, or dignity, but upon those, who were well known to have been all ways very religious in burying their ancestors, and honouring their tombs. I take no notice of a world of sacrifices, prayers, and ceremonies, which were constantly performed by the vestal virgins, Priests, and whole pagan Clergy, nor of the stately mausoleums, pyramisses, colossuses, and other stately monuments, which were built in honour of the dead. It grieves me to the very heart, to consider, that there are scarce any to be found in the whole world, that make less reckoning of the dead, than some lose and idle Christians▪ and I know not how to be better revenged of them, then to wish that in punishment of their coldness, and want of charity, they may be just so served by their successors, as they dealt with their predecessors. It is the least they deserve, for neglecting a piety, which they might have learned of the Pagans, & of the very beasts themselves, for some have been so curious, as to observe in the Aunts, that in their little cells, they have not only a hall, and agranary, but a kind of churchyard also, or a place deputed for burying of their dead. §. 2. The constant practice of the Church in all ages, to pray for the dead. IT is a pleasure to observe, the 1. Age. constant devotion of the church of Christ in all ages, to pray for the dead. And first to take my rise from the Apostles time, there are many learned Interpreters, will have that baptism for the dead, of which the Apostle speaks. 1 Cor. 15. 29. to be meant only of the much fasting, prayer, almsdeeds, and other voluntary afflictions, which the first Christians undertook for the relief of their deceased friends. But I need not fetch in obscure places, to prove so clear an apostolical, and early custom in God's Church. You may see a set form of Liturgia utrinsque. St. Jacobi. St. Math. St. Marci. St. Clem. ep. 1. St. Dion. Eccles. hier. c. 7. prayer for the dead prescribed in all the ancient liturgies of the Apostles, Besides St. Clement tells us, it was one of the chief heads of St. Peter's sermons, to be daily inculcating to the people, this devotion of praying for the dead, and St. Denis sets down at large, all the solemn ceremonies, and prayers, which were then used at funerals, and receaves them not otherwise then as apostolical traditions, grounded upon the word of God, and certainly it would have done you good to have seen with what gravity, and devotion that venerable Prelate performed the divine office, and prayer for the dead, and what an ocean of tears, he drew from the eyes of all that were present. Let Tertullian speak for the next 2. Age. age. He tells us, how carefully devout people in his time, kept Tertul. de cor. mil. c. 3. the Aniversaries of the dead, and made their constant oblations for de monogam. c. 10. the sweet rest of their souls. Here it is, says this grave Author, that the widow makes it appear, whether or no she had any true love for her husband, if she continue yearly to do her best for the comfort of his soul, to neglect so necessary a piece of service, were to tell the world, how she joys in his death, and was certainly long since divorced from him in affection. Believe it, all love is not expressed in setting out the solemnities of a noble f●●eral, hanging rooms in black, and shutting out the sun at noonday, to lie buried in darkness, or appearing abroad with Coach and Lackeys all in complete Mourning, Howling and crying, and the like; there is often more ●eremony or vanity in all this then love. It is all rather to amuse the world, then to benefit the poor Soul, who God knows has more need of other helps, than these vain shows of Pride and Ostentation. All the day long you do nothing but whine and cry, your dear Husband is gone, and has left you such a debt, and so great a charge of children to provide for, that you know not which way to turn yourself, and all this while it is not in your thoughts, what is become of this dear Husband of yours, or what he suffers in the other world, and what need he has of better comfort than can spring from your unnecessary lamentations. Let your first care be to ransom him out of Purgatory, and when you have once placed him in the Empireall heaven, he will be sure to take care for you and yours. I know your excuse is, that having procured for him the accustomed Services of the Church, you need do no more for him, for you verily believe he is already in a blessed state. But this is rather a poor shift to excuse your own sloth and laziness, then that you believe it to be so in good earnest. For there is no man, say Origen, l. 8. in Rom. c. 11. 3 d. age. ●ut the Son of ●od can guess how long, or how many ages, a soul may stand in need of the Purgation of fire Mark the word ages, he seems to believe, that a soul may for whole ages, that is, for so many hundred years, be confined to this fiery lake, if she be wholly left to herself, and her own sufferings. It was not without confidence 4 th'. ●ge. Euseb. l. 4. c. 60. & 71 (says Eusebius) of reaping more fruit from the Prayers of the faithful, that the honour of our Nation, and the first Christian Emperor, Constantine the great, took such care to be buried in the Church of the Apostles, whether all sorts of devout people resorting, to perform their Devotions to God and his Saints, would be sure to remember so good an Emperor: Nor did he fail of his expectation, for it is incredible as the same Author observes, what a world of sighs and prayers, were offered up for him upon this occasion. Saint Athanasius brings an eligant q. 34. ad Antiochum comparison, to express the incomparable benefit, which accrues to the Souls in Purgatory by our Prayers. As the Wine (says he) which is locked up in the Cellar, yet is so recreated with the sweet Odour of the flourishing Vines, which are growing in the fields, as to flower a fresh, and to leap, as it were for joy; so the souls that are shut up in the centre of the Earth, feel the sweet incense of our Prayers, and are exceedingly comforted and refreshed by it. We do not busy ourselves (says Saint Cyrill) with plating crowns, Cyril. Hieros'. in Catechesi 5. mystag. or strowing flowers, at the Sepulchers of the dead; but we lay hold on Christ, the very son of God, who was sacrificed upon the Cross for our sins, and we offer him up again, to his eternal Father, in the dreadful Sacrifice of the Mass, as the most efficacious means, to reconcile him not only to ourselves, but to them also. Saint Epiphanius stuok not to Heresi 7 5. blast Aerius, for this damnable Heresy amongst others, that he held it in vain to pray for the dead, as if our prayers could not avail them. Saint Ambrose prayed hearty S. Ambr. in Orat. in Fun. Theodosii. for the good Emperor Theodosius as soon as he was dead, and made open profession, that he would never give over praying for him, till he had by his Tears and Prayers, conveyed him safe, to the holy Mountain of our Lord, whether he was called by his merits, and where there is true life everlasting. He had the same kindness for Oratione in Fun. Valent. in fun. satire. the souls of the Emperor Valentinian, the same for Gratian, the same for his Brother Satyrus and others; he promised them Masses, Tears, Prayers, and that he would never forget them, never give over doing charitable Offices for Conc. Carth 3. can .. 29. them. And much about this time it was, that some out of too much care that the dead should as soon as might be, have all the comfort they could afford them, were grown into an abuse of making no scruple of saying Mass for them after Dinner, so that it was sound necessary that the Church should make a severe decree against it. Will you honour the Dead 5. Age. (says Saint chrysostom) do not spend yourselves in unprofitable lamentations, choose rather to sing Psalms, to give Alms, and to lead holy lives. Do for them that which they would willingly do for themselves, were they to return again into the world, and God will accept it at your hands, as if it came from them. Saint Augustine is every where very full of this subject, but it may abundantly suffice here, to set down a part of the ardent prayer, which he made for his good Mother after her death. Harken to me I beseech thee (O my God) for Lib. 9 Confess c. 13. his sake who is the true medicine of our wounds, who hung upon the Cross, 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 judgement. Let thy Mercy overtop thy Justice, etc. And I verily persuade myself 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 near 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 recommended to us, but only she desired to be remembered at the Altar, whereat she used to assist, without pretermission of any one day, etc. Let her therefore rest in peace with her husband, etc. 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, etc. St. Paulinus, that charitable Prelate, who sold himself to redeem others, could not but have a great proportion of charity, for captive souls in the other world. No, he was not only ready to have turned slave himself, to purchase their freedom, but he became an earnest solicitor 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 cool the tongues of poor souls, that lie burning in the church which is all a fire. I am astonished, when I call to mind the sad regrets of the people of Africa, when they saw some of their Priests dragged away to Martyrdom. The Author says, they Victor utic. l. 2. de persec. Wandal flocked about them in great numbers, and cried 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 wont 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 days, that nothing is more to be desired in this world, then to leave those behind us who will do their best, to help us out of our torments. §. 3. A continuation of the same subject from the sixth Age, after Christ unto our days. 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 Monks 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 day's 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. Monk. He had given him at first for a lost creature, but upon second thoughts, having ordered Mass to be said for him, for thirty days 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 anathemas 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 disturb dead men's ashes, and to plunder their graves. And yet we read of dead carcases, that have risen up in their graves, to struggle for their sheets, with the wicked wretches, who would have stolen 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 persuaded 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. penult. practice of the Catholic Church in his time, to offer up sacrifices and prayers, and to distribute alms for the dead, and this not for any increase 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 full of wonderful stories, which he brings in confirmation of this Catholic doctrine and practice. St. John Damascene made an eligant Orat. quod ij qui. etc. ora●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 daily made in the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass, nor would the Church have so religiously observed anniverssaries and other days, set a part for the service of the dead. Were it but a dog (says Simeon 9 Age. In vita St. Pachom. St. Euseb. etc. Metaphrastes) that by chance were fallen 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 fallen into Purgatory fire? I say souls of our Parent●, and dearest friends, souls who are predestinate to eternal glory, and extreme precious in the sight of God? And what did not the Saints of God's 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 rigorous fasts, others dissolved themselves into tears, some passed whole nights in contemplation, others gave liberal alms 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 alms to be distributed, in lieu of other idle expenses, 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 Author 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 return from Jerusalem meets with a holy hermit in Sicily, he assures him, that he ofte● heard the Devils complain, that souls were so soon discharged of their torments, by the suffrages of the faithful, and particularly by the devout prayers, of the Monks of Clunie, who never ceased to power out their prayers for them. This the good man carries to Odilo, than Abbot of Clunie, he praises God for his great mercy, in vouchsafing to hear the innocent prayers of his monks, 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 custom which by degrees grew into such credit, that the Catholic Church thought sit to establish it all over the Christian world, to the incredible benefit of poor souls, and singular increase of God's 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 procurator general of the suffering Church, and furnished her people, with such a considerable supply of necessary relief, to alleviate the insupportable burden of their sufferings. St. Bernard would triumph, 12. Age. Ser. 66. in Cant. when he had to deal with Heretics, 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. though he knew him to have lived, and died in his Monastery, 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 rigorous 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 bosom. This holy Bishop, as he lay a sleep, hears a sister of his, lately dead, making lamentable moan, that for thirty days 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 than a dream, he concludes the meaning of the vision was to tell him, that just thirty days 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 ●●●●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, etc. whereas God knows heaven is not so easily purchased, as fools imagine: Howsoever, this worthy Prelate so plied 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 Cypress, 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 says Saint Bernard, is not the Kingdom of Heaven got by violence? Did not Saint Malachy force it by storming? were not his Prayers like strokes of a 〈◊〉 like engine, to make a breach in heaven, for his sister to enter at? Sweet Jesus, you that suffer this violence; are yourself the cause of it; the good Prelate breathes nothing but what you have inspired him; so sweet are you in your Mercies, so faithful in your Promises, and so powerful in your divine wonders. Thus far Saint Bernard But I cannot let pass in silence, one very remarkable passage, which happened to these two great servants of God. Saint Malachy had passionately desired to die at Claravallis, in the hands of devout Saint Bernard, and this on the day immediately going before All Soul's day, and it pleased God to grant him his request. It fell out then that while Saint Bernard was saying Mass for him, in the middle of Mass, it was revealed to him, that Saint Malachy was already glorious in Heaven, whether he had gone strait thither out of this world, or whether that part of Saint Bernard's Mass had freed him out of Purgatory, is uncertain, but Saint Bernard hereupon changed his note, for having begun Mass of Requiem, he went on with a Mass of a Bishop and Confessor, to the great astonishment of all the standers by. O 'tis good to have such devout Masses said presently after ones death, 'tis good to die in so good hands, as will not quit you till they have conducted you safe to the Choir of Angels. Saint Thomas of Aquin, that 13. Age. great Champion of Purgatory, gave God particular thanks at his death, for not only delivering a soul out of Purgatory, at the instance of his Prayers, but also permitting the same soul 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, than a mere natural friendship can have, with the civil 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 souls 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 chaste Virgin should present herself at the place of Execution, to beg a Felon for her husband, her request was granted, and the poor criminal was with great joy instantly conveyed from the gallows to a nuptial feast. This custom, though now out of date, may yet serve to tell us, that Almighty God will not deny to set a soul free, from the punishment of all her misdemeanours, if we beg it earnestly at the hands of his infinite mercy. And now we are come down to the fifteenth Age, where the 15. Age. Conc. Flor. in decreto. Fathers of the Council of Florence, both Greeks and Latins, with one consent, declare the same faith, and constant practice of the Church, thus handed down to them, from Age to Age, since Christ's and his Apostles time, as we have seen, viz. that the souls in Purgatory, are not only relieved, but translated into heaven, by the Prayers, Sacrifices, Alms, and other charitable works which are offered up for them, according to the custom of the Catholic Church. Nor did their posterity degenerate, or vary the least, from this received doctrine, until Luther's time, when the holy 16. Age. Trid. sess. 25 Council of Trent, thought fit again, to lay down the sound doctrine of the Church, in opposition to all our late Sectaries. And I wish all Catholics, were but as forward to lend their helping hands, to lift souls out of Purgatory, as they are to believe they have the power to do it, and that we had not oftener, more reason, than the Roman Emperor to pronounce the day lost, since we let so many days pass over our heads, and so many fair occasions slip out of our hands, without easing, or releasing any souls out of Purgatory, when we might do it with so much ease. The Sixth Survey. Of twelve excellent means to prevent Purgatory, or to provide so for ourselves, as not to make any long stay there. BEhold the most important point of all others, the secret of secrets, and the true knack of all state affairs in this world. They talk of certain water●, which have so strange a power, to dull the edge of fire, that if one wash his hands, with them, he can receive no prejudice, though he should thrust them afterwards into the fire, or into boiling lead. The preservatives I am here to treat of, are of a higher nature, they do not curb the restless activity of this our sublunary fire, which is bend only against dull bodies, but they arm us against the raging fire of Purgatory, which God has prepared, to torment our very souls in the other world. §. 1. The first perfect contrition. ONe of the surest means, to avoid Purgatory, is to die with tears in our eyes, and St. Th. sup▪ q. 5. a. 3. true contrition in our heart's. For Divines teach, that our contrition may be so great, ●s to wash away all those spots of sin, which Purgatory ●●re was otherwise to have words off. And therefore as I take it to be a gr●●t piece of folly, to defer the exercise of so precious ●n a●●, unto the hour of our death, so I esteem it, one of the most solid devotions of all others, to accustom ourselves to it all our life time, that by daily frequenting such acts, we may at length get such a habit, and facility in them, as with God's grace, to have them at our call, when we come to die. All must not look for the same privilege, which the good thief had at the last gasp. It was but little that he said, but he spoke it with so cordial an accent, that he deserved to hear those comfortable words, of our blessed Saviour, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise, and soon found them verified, by a present fruition of the beatifical vision. Almighty God is pleased sometimes, to make so forceable an entry into the heart of man, and to set it so desperately on fire, with his divine love, that there is no remedy, but to die between the arms of love, and grief, and thrice happy are those souls that lose their lives in this divine encounter, and die in the amorous flames of ardent charity, they are sure never to feel the murdering flames of Purgatory. Such was the death of our blessed Lady, St. John Evangelist, and infinite others, who have been strait carried into heaven out of this world, upon the wings of love, or contrition, so that a heart, that is well seasoned with contrition, or steeped in a bath of salt tears, is like the heart of Prince Germanicus, which Tacit. Ann. being washed over with a certain precious liquor, could not be consumed by the fire, which turned all the rest of his body to ashes. This is that they call a good Peccavi, but it must be a good one indeed, for it is not every ordinary, and trivial kind of sorrow, which can work such wonders. Those that have been long used, to actuate themselves in those generous acts of contrition, may be full of confidence, that the mercy of God, will not fail them at the hour of their death, and that their good Angels will be then ready, when it most imports, to inspire them with all the best motives of true contrition since they have gone all along with them, still furnishing them with such good thoughts, and with so much good success, that their hearts have been a thousand times broken with a lively, amorous, and cordial contrition, and repentance for their sins. And certainly, they that die, either in the fire of so ardent a love, or in the water of so piercing a grief, need not fear the fire of Purgatory, for that fire (says St. Bonaventure) was not made for them. So that methinks, this charity may be fitly compared, to the Seraphin at the gates of Paradise, brandishing his flaming sword, which Tertulian calls the por●er Romphae● janitrix Faradisi. of Paradise, grief is the edge, love the fire, wherewith it is inflamed, and he that has this flaming sword, has heaven gates at command, and goes straight thither when he leaves the world. § 2. The Second, to die in Religion. ANother safe way to escape Purgatory, is to live, and die in a good Religious order, and at his death, to renew, and Ad fratres de monte dei à coella in coelum, etc. ratify his Religious vows. To prove this, I first call St. Bernard to witness, who doubts not to assure us, that there is a ready, if not an uninterrupted passage into Heaven, out of a Religious cell. Next I appeal, to those learned and holy Doctors, who give it for a certain sign of Predestination, to die in Religion, because Christ has in a manner sworn, in his holy Gospel, to give a hundred fold, and life everlasting, Plat. de bon● stat. Relig. to all those, that shall leave Father, Mother, and other worldly concernments, for his sake. From whence it is, that holy Church permits, the superiors of divers Religious orders, to make this solemn promise, at the profession of their novicies, for they have no sooner made their Vows, of Poverty, etc. But the superior answers, And I Child do promise thee Paradise, and eternal life. 3. Many Popes have granted a sixth Greg. 13. Greg. 14. Plenary Indulgence, in form of a Jubily, to all Religious persons, that either by word of mouth, or in their hearts, call upon the sacred names of Jesus Maria, at the hour of their death. And what Religious person is there, that does it not, either when he dies, or not long before, not only once, but a thousand times. To say nothing, that many are of opinion, that they gain this Jul. 2. bull. Indulgence at the hour of their death, whether they pronounce the words or no. For as other Indulgences are gained, by visiting certain Churches, saying certain prayers, giving alm●●, or exercising such other acts of virtue, the supreme Pastor of the Church, thought no act more worthy of a Jubily, then to die in a Religious order, in the actual profession of voluntary poverty, chastity, and obedience, with final perseverance in the austerity of a Religious life, and a patiented acceptance of death, as from the holy hand of God. ●et us then suppose, a good Religious man to come to die, and besides the common benefit of the Sacraments, and other holy rites of the Catholic Church, let him gain this Plenary Indulgence, which the Popes grant as freely, and with as much assurance, as any other, have we not all the reason in the world to hope, that he goes immediately into Heaven, or at most does but make a swift passage through Purgatory, or rather, as we read of many in the Ecclesiastical History, takes it in his way, to have the company of some of his friends there, whom he has the privilege, to lead away with him in triumph into Heaven. 4. Who can better deserve, to go directly into heaven then they, whose lives are a continual Purgatory? They go in rough hair shirts, pine themselves with rigorous fasts, tear of their flesh with cruel disciplines, drink up their own tears, live of nothing but mortifications, and perpetual hardships, and thus abundantly satisfy, for all the sins they have committed, and for those they never dreamt of, but had rather dya thousand times then commit. They that have no will but that of their superior, they that breathe nothing but holy sighs, and burn with ardent charity, how can they burn in Purgatory fire? 5. Divines furnish me with another pregnant proof, and it is this. It is certain, (say they) that a solemn Profession in Religion, brings with it a plenary Indulgence; or remission of all their sin●, not only because it is a second Baptism, or a lingering kind of martyrdom, which is not completed in a few moments, as other Martydomes are, but also, because in the opinion of the angelical 2. 2. 4. ult. a. 3. Doctor, it is so sublime and eminent an act, as surpasses all other acts in this life, so that if Daniel, (says he) could say, that by giving a little alms, we may blot out our sins, what may we not say, of this supereminent act of liberality, by which, a man gives unto God, all his goods, and present possessions, with all his fair hopes of improving them, his body, his life, his honour, his will, his soul; with a million of worlds if h● had them in his power. The same holy Doctor says elsewhere that a man, who sacrifices his will unto God, the most noble portion of his soul, and makes it to become his eternal slave, gives God full satisfaction for all his misdem●●uours, since a pure creature, cannot present him with a more noble gift, then to make him an entire Holocaust, of that which is dearest unto him in this world, which is his will, and the absolute sovereignty over himself, and all his concerns. Others go yet Su. verb. Religio n. 27 etc. further, and assure us, that as often, as a good Religious man, renews this his profession, he makes a new purchase of the same favour, and obtains an entire pardon, of all the pain due to his sins, and that these, and the like privileges, are not tied only to solemn vows, but are common to all vows, that make up the substance of a Religious man, of what order soever in God's Church. And they say withal, that these favours are not in the nature of indulgences, granted by his Holiness, but are inseparably annexed unto the vows themselves, which are so generous, and so precious acts, in the sight of God, that they move his goodness, to blot out the remembrance of their sins, and to cancel out a great part, if not all the pain, which was due for them. Now put all this together; and it will necessarily follow, that since the Pope on the one side, grants a Jubily, unto all religious, at the hour of their death, and since they have it in their power, on the other side, to renew their vows, before they die, by which act they may fully satisfy, for all their sins, there cannot be a greater assurance of going directly into heaven than theirs, who have as I told you this double security of a general pardon, that one way or other, they can scarce sail to obtain it. What shall I say now of their perfect resignation, unto the will of God, their invincible patience, their love of God, their Virginal purity, their exact, and punctual obedience, with a million of other divine acts of virtue, which are so incident and connatural to a religious vocation, all which no doubt stand ready to assist them at the last hour, and to show them heaven gates open, and ready to receive them, and howsoever to assure them, that their stay cannot be long in Purgatory, since they leave behind them so many of their own order, who will be sure to ply them with Masses. Indulgencies, and other charitable works for their speedy deliverance, §. 3. The third. To b● an Apostolical Preacher. A Third means to redeem Purgatory, is to be a zealous, and apostolical Preacher, for as this is a life of eminent perfection, and incredible merit, so is it extreme painful, and may well pass for a Purgatory in this life. But observe, that I speak of an Apostolical Preacher, or of one that is full of divine fire, or a holy zeal for the good of souls. I mean not those that preach themselves, those that desire to be admired, and adored for Oracles, those that profane the word of God with their vain glosses, idle applications and affected eloquence, seeking nothing more than worldly applause, and really destroying by their life and conversation, all they build up in the pulpit. St. Paul compares such vain Preachers, to cracked trumpets, and broken bells, which make a noise indeed, but are altogether useless. They send others to heaven (said St. Xaverius) and go Gods knows whether themselves. St. Gregory likens them to the water of baptism which entitles children to the kingdom of heaven, and is itself conveyed into some noisome sink: and there turns to corruption. I speak then of a Preacher, who is a man of God, one that does what he says, and says what he does; one that aims at nothing, but the salvation of souls, preaches to a few, or to many, in Cities or Villages, Princes Courts, or poor Hospitals, with the same fervour of spirit. One that rends their hearts in sunder, and draws floods of tears from their eyes, one that preaches like another St. Paul, and draws his sermons out of the Pentatuke, of the five wounds of his redeemer; one that after he has done all he can, believes he is an unprofitable servant, unworthy to open his mouth, or to tread upon the earth. Such a one in my opinion, if he die in the exercise of his holy function, either goes not at all to Purgatory, or stays not there. This was the case of one Cherubin, a famous Hist. St. Fran. 3. p. l. 7. c. 2. Preacher of the Order of St. Francis, who before he died, had the comfort to see St. Hierome, whom he had chosen for his peculiar Pation, and with him three thousand souls, all saved by his means, who assured him, that they were sent expressly by Almighty God, to carry him into heaven, and so to requite him, for showing him the way thither, in his zealous sermons. Not unlike unto this, is that story which I touched elsewhere out of Cardinal Baronius. He tells us that Annal. Eccl. an. 716. St. Boniface, saw a holy Abbot at his death; surrounded with devils, and much terrified see them so insolent, as to cry out; his soul was theirs, when he behold his good Angel appears at the head of a white troop of blessed souls, who after a solemn profession, that they had been all saved by him, gave him the comfort to understand, that they had brought an express commission, to convey him instantly into heaven. But you long now, to have me paint you out such a Preacher, for though there may be many, that sooth themselves up, with a vain persuasion, that they are the men, yet if we sift a little narrowly into them, we shall possibly find so much vanity, so much care of esteem, so many by ends, and so many other imperfections to steal into their sermons, that we may safely say there are but very few Apostolical preachers indeed, and such as seek only God's cause, and the good of souls. Take an exact Idea from one The Idea of an Apostolical Preacher that lived but in the last Age. Father Gonzales Silveria, of the Society of Jesus, scarce ever went up into the pulpit without a hairshirt, and would say, a man must be well armed who goes to fight against vice. It was also very usual with him, to encounter Goliath with David's sling, to make a bloody discipline, and so to mount up into the Pulpit, and there like thunder, to carry all before him. He had for the most part, but five books for his Library, to wit, his breviary the Bible, the lives of Saints, a crucifix, and the picture of our Blessed Lady. In these five books, he studied for all his sermons, and certainly, the thunder bolt● of his admirable eloquence, were framed in the heart of his crucified Lord, the best furnace of divine love, the sweet flowers of his Rhetoric, were steeped in the milk of the Virgin, his trops and figures, and the whole variety of his sermons, were borrowed out of the word of God, and the admirable lives of his Saints; and lastly the religious, and devout performance of his daily task of divine office, and holy Mass, gave fire to his discourses, wherewith he did not only heat, but inflame the hearts of his auditors. He would preach you twice or thrice a day, and would do it the more willingly, in the meanest places, & to the poorest people. His common lodging was the Hospital, where he contented himself with a spare diet, and gross fare, he was never observed, to be over nice, and coy of his sermons, nor required he much time, to make them with applause. The only thing he had before his eyes, was the glory of God, and help of souls, and his life preached more than his tongue, for he really acted more in his own person than he taught others: As for his manner of preaching, it was rather powerful than charming, and fit to break their hearts then please their ears. Such was his fervour, that he poured his whole heart, and his whole zeal out of his mouth, and he would be so transported with this zeal, as not to take notice of any thing else. Once as he was Preaching, he struck his hand upon a sharp nail, which stuck out in the Pulpit, and made it bleed so extremely, that the whole Auditory took notice of it, and some of the devout women courteously offered their handkerchiefs, to bind up the wound, and stop the bleeding and all this while, the good man neither saw handkerchief, nor nail, nor blood, nor took the least notice of any thing till after his sermon, when the wound being grown cold, he was heard to wonder, how the blood came there, and to complain, that his hand put him to some pain. Another time, preaching in the Queen of Portugal's chapel, he had put himself into such a heat, that his mouth being clammed up, he could scarce get out his words, when the Queen perceiving it, called for an Ewer of water, which was instantly brought, and presented him by the young Princess, but the man of God, was so rapt in his devout thoughts, that he saw neither the Ewer, nor the Princess, nor the Queen; so that they were forced to pull him by the sleeve, that the Princess Royal might not stand thus waiting on him, with the Ewer in her hand; and then the Queen herself prayed him to make use of the water, to cool and refresh his dry mouth. With much a do, the good Father came to himself, and rising up, made a low obeisance to the Queen, and to the Princess, thanked them for their care, excused himself for being so uncivil, as not to mind them, but for all th●s, would not take a drop of water, but went on with his Sermon, to the great wonder and edification of all the standers by. This, this is to preach like a man full of God's Spirit, like one that has his heart so transported with zeal, and his Eyes so bend upon moving his auditors, that he can see nothing else. And would you have such a fiery man as this be condemned to Purgatory, one that has so much charity for others, that he forgets himself, and distils out his life into blood, sweat and tears and is consumed in the fire of Charity, which is the sweet Purgatory of the servants of God. §. 4. The fourth. To serve the infected. THose that charitably expose themselves, to serve the infected, and so come to get the Plague, and to die in the service, freely giving away their lives to save others, may have a great confidence, that they have served out, if not all, at least the greatest part of their Purgatory. For since an act of Contrition, or of perfect Charity, has power, to make a soul instantly fit for heaven, as it falls out in Martyrdom; why may we not hope, that the same privilege, follows these charitable souls we speak of, who though they die not, by the hands of a bloody Executioner, yet are cut off by a Martyrdom of incomparable Charity. Christ our Saviour said, that the greatest Charity that a man could have in this life was to give his life for his friends, where by the way, Saint Bernard notes, that his charity must needs be greater, than the greatest, since he gave his divine life, not only for his friends, but even for his enemies. What shall we then think of their charity, who voluntarily sacrifice their lives, for infected persons, whether friends or enemies, acquaintance, or no acquaintance rich or poor and do it generously, dying a thousand deaths for fear, danger and pain, before they come to die in good earnest? Does not the Church list them amongst other Saints, in the Roman martyrologue? Does she not keep their feast, and make an honourable commemoration, of their glorious death, on the 28 day of February? does she not withal tell us, that the faithful devout people, were accustomed to honour them as Martyrs? would you then have these kind of Martyrs, who die in the fire of charity, go to Purgatory? To what purpose? to Metamorphose it into heaven? For if a Virgin, who is violently dragged away to the stews, which is a kind of hell, where they make a Massacre of chastity, in the opinion of St. Ambrose, changes it into a kind of heaven, what can we think of those charitable souls, but that, if they were conveyed into the suffering church, they would suddenly change it into a Church Triumphant. Hear a comfortable story to this purpose. One Damian; of the holy order of Annal. St. Fran. St. Francis had devoted himself, to serve those that lay sick of the Plague with a burning desire to give them all the comfort he could, by his charitable visits. St. Francis met him one day, and said my Son, didst thou but know what a crown in heaven is prepared for thee, in reward of this charity of thine, thou wouldst be out of thyself, for mere joy, go on, in God's name, for it will not be long, before thou art translated into heaven to eternal glory. The good Friar, continued the employment, till one day being in fervent prayer, he rendered up his happy soul into the hands of his creator. Can you now believe, that a man, that sacrifices a good part of his life, on the Altar of the highest charity, which is in the world, next unto Martyrdom itself, one that loses his own life, to make others live, and dies in the flames of a devout prayer, that this man I say, goes to Purgatory, or rather do you not believe that heaven stoops to take him up, and to crown him with immortal glory. Eusebius takes a pleasure, to relate the high esteem they had of b. 1. c, 20. those good Priests, Deacons, and Secular persons, who thus exposed themselves to the Plague, and sometimes were seen to tumble into the same graves, where they had newly laid others. The fiery furnace (says St. chrysostom) was so Hom. de tribus pueris. astonished, to see those three innocent creatures there, that it durst not touch them, but vented all its fury, against the cords, and fetters which bond them. Let us then suppose, these holy souls, to be cast into the furnace of Purgatory, who chose rather to forsake their lives, then to forsake poor infected, and forlorn creatures, can we imagine any thing less, then that those subterraneous flames, should yield, and with reverence submit unto the flames of heaven, which have already seized on those holy souls, and that they should say with Ecclesiasticus, Thou hast delivered me according Eccl. 51. 6. to the multitude of thy mercies, from the oppression of the flame, which hath compassed me, and in the midst of fire I was not burnt. What! shall purity have the power to resist fire so that many chaste Virgins have received no harm by it, and shall not charity in its perfection, be as good a preservative against the fire of Purgatory? §. 5. The fifth. A tender devotion to the Virgin. I Cannot be persuaded, that a soul truly devoted to the honour, and service of the mother of God, can be long detained in Purgatory, if she go thither at all. For how should this be? does our blessed Lady want power, she that can do all things (says St. Anselme) or charity, she that has no bowels but of charity, she that has a heart so tender, that though you suppose a heart, to be made up of all the mother's hearts in the world, it could not be more tender than hers, which is all sweetness, and tenderness. St Brigit had a son, lived not so good a life, Osor. in cone. St. Brigit. revel. as to look for Heaven, without passing through Purgatory. This great servant of God, who was not without the passion of a loving mother, casts about, how to save the poor youth, who was grown careless enough of himself. She resolves therefore, to offer him up to the Blessed Virgin, and to trust her entirely with his salvation. She undertakes the trust, and carries it on so luckily, that in fine, she saves him, and at the hour of death, takes up his soul into Heaven. This she did, by first working him to a perfect act of contrition, which imped his wings for Heaven, and then cutting of the thread of his life, which should have held out one day longer. So that the Devil finding himself thus cozened, made his complaint to God, the just judge of the world, who returned this answer. Know, that my mother is Lady and Queen of Heaven, and therefore has liberty, to place there, whom she pleases, and what she does in this kind, is well done, and pleasing in my sight. There is a world of examples, of the like favours, graciously showered down from the mother of mercy, who has often taken the pains, to conduct her good Children, and faithful Servants into Heaven. And when it stands not with God's justice, but that a soul must into Purgatory, what does she not to help her out, as well by her own powerful intercession, which she will be sure to interpose, as far as it may stand with the just decrees of heaven, as by the prayers of her devout servants, into whose hearts she inspires a thousand good thoughts, of tenderness for their souls; who were particularly devoted to her. How many divine consolations, and refreshments does she send them, by their good Angels? And since it is certain, that she goes sometimes, to visit them on their death beds, why may we not piously imagine, that she gives them the like comfortable visits, when they lie tied to their beds of fire in cruel torments? The Lionness, and the Tigress, though never so fierce by nature, will leap into the fire, to save their young ones, or perish there; God forbidden, we should make any comparison between the Blessed Virgin, mother of the Lion of Juda, and these wild beasts, and yet, since we must allow so much tenderness to such cruel and savage Mothers, we may not doubt, but that the Mother of mercy, seeing her beloved Children in the fire of Purgatory, will fly thither to fetch them out. The devout and learned Richardus de Sancto victore, commenting Ps. 126. Rich c. 39 in Cant. upon these words of the Psalmist, ●e shall not be confounded, when he shall speak to his enemies in the gate: tells us, that this gate, is the blessed Virgin; to appear at the gate, is to die, and to be cited to Particular judgement, where no body (says he) is ever confounded that finds this gate, but favourably open, and to whom should the mother of God be favourable, but unto those, that were constant in her Service, and from what confusion does she deliver them, but from the dreadful fire of Hell and Purgatory. O God what assurance have we, when the Queen of Heaven is pleased to plead for us, and to procure us a favourable sentence; and since it is her well beloved Son, that is to be our judge, who denies her nothing, what may we not hope for? When St. John Damascene had lost his hand, he begged it again of the Queen of Heaven; and his Sur. in ej●s vita Metaphrast. suit was instantly granted, so sure it is, that she denies nothing to her dear Children; what favours then may not a devout soul look for, at her hands, when she departs out of this world. If Bern. he. 1. sup. mists est. Mary hold thee by the hand, fear not falling, cries St. Bernard, Mariae tenente non corruis etc. for if she be propitious, thou art sure to have thy share in the Kingdom of Heaven. Now to whom will she ●e propitious, if not to those, that while they lived, breathed nothing but her love and service, and when should she show herself more our friend, then when we are threatened with Purgatory fire which burns so dreadfully? The holy Abbot Guericus had Ser. 1. de assump. reason, to wish rather to be lodged in the bosom of the blessed Virgin, then in Abraham's bosom, O, it is no small security, to be under her protection, though it were but under her feet, for who should fetch a soul thence to throw her into Purgatory? God the Father? how? out of the hands of his beloved daughter? who then? God the Son? how, from his beloved mother? who then? God the holy Ghost? what, from his dearest Spouse? who then? St. Michael with his Sword and Buckler? that were pretty, that a creature should attempt, what the blessed Trinity forbears, out of love to the Mother of God. Who then? The Devil? what, the serpent, whose head she crushed under her feet, or any of his fellows, who tremble at the very found of her name? No, there is not the creature, dare meddle with a soul, that is once sheltered, under the royal mantle of her protection. So true it is, that one of the best preservatives against Purgatory, is to be very devout to the blessed Virgin, Mother of God. But it must be more than an ordinary devotion, as to make a vow of chastity in her honour, to devoce ones self entirely to her, to do her some signal piece of service, to call often upon her, and with a filial confidence, to bullil a goodly Chapel, or some house, where she may be served to the world's end, to give liberal, and frequent alms for her sake to compose some excellent work in her praise, and so to draw many others to her service. To maintain poor Scholars, in a way to be Preachers, or Religious men, with this obligation, that they shall make it their study, all their lives, to preach her greatness, to promote her service, and to draw all the world after her. To make her a present of Masses, communions, fasts, disciplines, and other mortifications, but above all, to imitate her glorious virtues, and to regulate our lives accordingly. If you do these, and the like things, and do them with a good heart, you need not fear, Purgatory will do you any great harm. She will obtain for you, such a measure of true contrition, such a proportion of love, and conformity to Gods will, so much patience in your last sickness, such holy and ardent desires to serve God, suc● profound humility, in a word, such Heroical acts of virtue, as blot out of your soul, what Purgatory was to have done and put you in a present capacity, to go directly into Heaven: And if an extraordinary pass should be necessary who can better procure it for you, than the Lady of the House, the mother of the Judge, the Empress of Paradise, and Princess of the Universe? §. 6. The sixth, an humble patience. YOu that suffer great miseries in this world, may comfort yourselves with such precious sufferings, for so you be faithful to God, so you voluntarily embrace what God sends, in spite of impatience, so you submit to the Laws of his sweet rigour, which chastices you, so you freely offer all your little All, to this great Lord, of all the great All of the whole universe, so from time to time you be still letting fall some good word, to testify that your soul, and your body play not at the same game, move not upon the same centre, but that while the one is oppressed, and cries out, the other secretly praises the paternal goodness of Almighty God, so you do all this, you may be confident, there will be little, or no Purgatory ●or you, for since you have a Purgatory in this world, there is no reason you should have another hereafter. I learn this secret, of St. Gregory, who admires a poor paralytique, that lay rotting on a straw Hom. 15. in Evang. bed, where he had lived so all his life, or rather, where he had died so all his life, his life being nothing else, but a mere concatenation of hourly deaths. Seruulus was the name of this poor wretch, who at his death, was comforted with angelical music, and carried away by Angels, to sing his own part in heaven for all eternity. One of those that were present, told St. Gregory that at the hour of his happy departure out of this life, so sweet a smell was spread all over the little Room, where he lay, that he never felt the like, and that this continued, and was perceived by all the standers by, until his holy body was laid in his grave, and the service ended. But you will say, every body cannot be so holy as this good man, certainly they may, by the grace of God; for St. Gregory observes but four things in him, which you may command as well as he. First he read often the holy Scriptures, to comfort his heart in his sufferings. Secondly, he gave a part of the Alms he received of God's people, unto other needy persons and lodged poor pilgrims in his poor Cottage. Thirdly, holy aspirations and devout breathe, were often heard to proceed from him which were like so many fiery darts shot into the heart of God, and bringing thence the sweet air of Paradise, to refresh his soul, which by such amorous entertainments, found less trouble in her afflictions. Fourthly, He was sensible enough of his pain, and would complain of it sometimes, I say complain, do you think Saints have bodies of Steel! but between one complaint and anoother, he would be often thus sweetly interposing. O my God, I desire thy will may be fulfilled in all things, and nothing else but thy will. I am willing that thou handle this my body, and all that belongs to me, according to thy divine pleasure, both in time and eternity. Now tell me, dear reader, canst thou not do all this, as well as this poor paralytic, who lived for no other end, but to be dying a lingering death, all the days of his miserable and yet thrice happy life. Will you have a soul so holy, and so pliable ●o Gods will, be thrown into Purgatory fire▪ Sure (said St. Austin) if he meant to damn us in the other world, he would not damn us in this, to a Hell of most loathsome and intolerable diseases, and I may say the like here, that if God meant to punish his servant's in Purgatory after this life, he would not punish them here in a Purgatory of miseries. His goodness is not wont to punish the same fault twice. Go into Hell and purgatory while you live (cried In illud descendant in infernam. St Bernard) and you will be sure not to go thither after your death; for it is not reasonable, that you should have two Purgatories, or two Hells: Alas! no, And this is the cause, why God, to save his friends from those horrible torments of Purgatory fire, sends them good store of crosses and afflictions in this world, which are nothing so painful, and yet are highly meritorious in his sight, Hom. 8. in c. 3. ad Colon. whereas the other are but pure sufferings. Hear Saint chrysostom. The tongue that praises God in the midst of afflictions, is not inferior to the tongues of Martyrs, and likely they may have both the same reward. If a man praise God, and give him thanks in his sufferings, it is reputed as a kind of Martyrdom, and would you have a Martyr go to Purgatory; he that finds heaven open, and ready to receive him. For as Emissenus says very well, the Heavens are not only open to Saint Steven, but unto all Martyrs, and unto all that suffer, and die with the name of Jesus in their mouths, constancy in their hearts, and fidelity in theirs souls. The works of patience according to St. James are perfect, and that which is perfect, Jac. 1. owes nothing to Purgatory, nor can Purgatory refine that, which is already perfect, no more than our fire can refine gold of twenty four carrats, that is so pure, as not to have the least mixture or dross or impurity. § 7. The seventh Devotion for the Souls in Purgatory. SHall I deal candidly with you; one of my chief motives of publishing this Treatise, was to persuade you this truth, that one of the best means to prevent Purgatory, is to have a great tenderness, and a particular care to comfort the souls there, to spare nothing that can further their deliverance; in a word, to make yourself a general Agent for this suffering Church, to solicit for their eternal rest. Take now the proofs of this Assertion, and the whole strength of my discourse. 1. Christ said in plain terms, In what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again; that is, you shall be dealt withal, in some manner, as you deal with others. Mat. 7. So that if you have beat your brains, and employed all your endeavours to help the souls in Purgatory, and have really delivered some before their time; it is but reason that this your charity should be requited with a like return, and with a hundred fold besides, and heaven at the end of it. Methinks ●our case is not unlike to that of the prudent Abigail. King David was so highly incensed 1 Reg. 25. against the ungrateful Nabal, that he swore to pursue him, and his whole Family with Fire and and Sword, and to turn all into ashes. For all this, Abigail ventured to meet him with a Present, and did it with so good a grace, that she soon made up the breach, and saved all. For David after some little dispute with his anger, grew calmer, forgave all, & so sent her away joyfully in peace. The application is easy. 'tis true, you have played the ungrateful Nabal, you have offended God, so far as to provoke his high displeasure, so that he may seem to deal favourably with you, if he sends you into Purgatory: But you have with all played Abigails part, in sending him as many grateful Presents, as you have breathed out fervent Prayers, for the souls in Purgatory, and with these you have made your peace, so as you may look to be dismissed in peace, into the Kingdom of Heaven. 2. Take a second reason of St. Peter, who exhorts us above all things to have charity for one another, because charity covereth the multitude of sins. For since it is the greatest Charity in the world to 1 Pet. 4. help poor souls out of Purgatory, as I proved at large in the third Survey; those that devote themselves wholly to this Service, may be confident so to cover their sins as to put them out of the reach of Purgatory fire. When Gibellin had straightly besieged Guelph Duke of Bavary, and forced him to surrender his Town, upon such hard Parud. l. 2. c. 70. terms, as that the women only were permitted to secure themselves, and to take away with them what they could carry upon their backs; but as for the men, they were to remain at mercy, exposed to the fury of the fire and sword: The good women laying their heads together; found out this strange expedient, to save their husbands, as well as themselves, for every one taking her husband upon her back, and what else she was able to carry about her, they marched out of the town. Never was man so struck with astonishment, as Gibellin was at this fight, and though he might have disputed their passage, as not consisting with the true meaning of the Articles, yet was he so taken with so rare astratageme, and strange example of a true conjugal love, that ●he suffered them all to pass freely to the admiration of the whole world. And surely we may hence conclude, that all those who have so much love for the poor souls in Purgatory, as to carry them, as it were, upon their backs out of their miserable thraldom will find heaven gates open, and all the blessed spirits ready to receive them with acclamations of joy, for so sweet an excess of charity. 3 It is not possible, that they who have been thus ransomed out of Purgatory, by the ardent zeal of their friends here, should not hold themselves obliged to restitution, to return I say the like charity to the souls of their benefactors, when they leave the world. How can those happy souls, that swim in the ocean of overflowing charity, choose but employ all their power, and interest, to make them so. But sure I need not go about to multiply reasons, in a case so clear of itself so full of piety, and heavenly decency. I will only mind you of what I told you elsewhere out of Cajetan, how reasonable a thing it is, that all those holy strays, or wand'ring suffrages, which are offered up for such souls as are not in Purgatory, should be applied unto them; that had a particular affection and devotion to help souls out of that fiery dungeon, and this certainly will be a means to fetch them out quickly, if they ever come there. §. 8, The Eighth, To be a great Alms-giver. THe Eighth means to prevent Purgatory, is to be very liberal, and tender hearted to the poor. The holy Ghost teaches us as much in most emphatical and comfortable words, some whereof I have chosen to lay down before you, with a desire to imprint them in your hearts. Blessed is the man, that understandeth concerning Ps. 40. the needy, and the poor, in the evil day our Lord will deliver him, our Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed in the land, and deliver him not to the will of his enemies. Our Lord help him in the bed of his sorrow. These words need no gloss. For what is this evil day, but the day of particular judgement, at the hour of death, since it is the great critical day, and the most considerable moment, upon which eternity depends. Now he ●●●ls us, that God will deliver him this day, from what I pray you, if not from eternal fire, and from the dreadful fire of Purgatory, according to the measure of his charity, and liberality to the poor. He tells us again, that he will make him happy in this day, out of which I conclude, that he shall not go into Purgatory, for how can he be happy that day, if he lie in flames of fire? Call you this to deliver a man from evil, to plunge him over head and ears in a fiery gulf. St. Chrysologus spoke with a Serm. 8. grace, when he said, that charity will not suffer a great almes-giver to be laid in fire, but will appeal from the sentence, and more God to cancel his own Decree, and in a word, will have him to be saved, and all this, with so sweet a violence, (says the same Saint) that God had rather alter his decree, than contristate mercy, and charity when they plead with such power for a great alms-giv●●. Let us hear the holy Ghost once more, I pray you. Water quenches burning fire, and alms resisteth sins, God is the Eccl. 3. & 4 beholder of him that rendereth grace, he remembreth him afterwards, and in the time of his fall he shall find a sure stay. Son bow down thy ear to to the poor without sadness, be merciful to pupils as a Father, and as a Husband to their Mother, and thou shalt be as the obedient son of the highest, and he will have mercy on thee more than a mother. O God, what sweet words are these! when he is about to fall; he shall find a sure stay, when he is ready to sink into Purgatory he shall be held up, he shall be strengthened, he shall be raised above the firmament, he shall be carried into Paradise. What would a loving Mother do less, if it were in her power? And since God has given us his word, that he will be more than a Mother to such charitable souls, that is, have a greater tenderness, and love for them, is it credible that he will suffer them to fall into Purgatory, or if justice require some satisfaction there, is it not likely, that all means will be used to remove them out of hand. The Caesar's crowned themselves with laurel, as fancying it to be a sure protection against fire from heaven, but I may safely say, that a merciful soul all covered over with laurels, olive branches, and refined gold of charity, cannot be struck with fire from heaven, and has as little reason to fear the fire of Purgatory. It is better (said St. chrysostom) Hom. 39 ad pop. to give an alms to the poor, then to work a miracle, or to raise a dead man, for in this you are beholding to God, but in that God is beholding to you. And therefore, since God is indebted to you, tell him plainly you will be paid with no other coin, but tha● of Paradise, if he think of sending you to Purgatory, tell him, you will be first paid, what he is pleased to owe you, for he has promised y●● life everlasting, and therefore let him first place you in Paradise, and you will have leisure there to talk of Purgatory. It was an answer worthy of eternal memory, that of the good Count Thiband of Champagne. A. poor Gentleman fell at his feet, with tears in his eyes, saying my Lord, you are the Father of the poor, I have two daughters to marry, and have no way to compass it, having nothing in the world to give them, those poor creatures are utterly lost, if you take not pity on them and me, your most humble servant, and therefore I beseech your honour, to have mercy on us. The two poor young women, were all this while on their knees, as beautiful as the sun, their eyes humbly cast down upon the ground, and their faces covered with a modest and virginal blush when out steps a ruffian like courtier. his name was Arrant, and rudely tells the poor Gentleman, it was a pretty fight indeed, to see him beg an alms with his sword by his side. Besides he was to know that the Count was not for nothing surnamed the bountiful, for he had given away so much, that he had no more left to bestow. How! replied the Count, that's not so, I have yet something left, God be thanked, and enough too to bestow upon the good Gentleman, for I am willing to part with thee, and to yield up unto him all the interest I have in thee. Take him friend, continued he, and be sure you do not part with him, till he has bestowed both your daughters This he said, and it fell out so in good earnest; for the Courtier was glad at his own charge, to provide competent portions for the two poor young women, and all France admired, and highly extolled the Count, for his purdent carriage of the whole business. Can you find in your heart to condemn such a brave Prince to Purgatory, after he has left many such charitable examples behind him, one I say, that has given so much away in pious uses, that he has no more to give, one that would willingly have sold himself after all, to make an alms of the price, to our blessed Saviour, in the person of those poor innocent doves. The Angel Raphael deserves credit, when he tells us in express terms, that it is better to give alms, then to lay up treasures of T●●. 12. gold, because that is it which purgeth sin, and maketh us find mercy and life everlasting. How does your heart feel 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 lead 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 terror 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 harm, that had so much love for their parents, whose age and feebleness would have otherways 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 hid you in her bosom, 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 Keys of Paradise. §. 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 boiling Oil 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 soars up to Heaven without singing her wings; these innocents' ●ing merrily in the furnace of Babylon, as if they were in a terrestrial Paradise. In earnest there is no reason, that persons as chaste as Angels, who were invincible, and untouched in the midst of the flames of concupiscence, which devour 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 the●r stains? 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 corpse, and when all were astonished to see her, she told 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 tells us, that, Cedrens. Annal. when in the heat of the Tyrant's persecution, Nicomendia fell to the plunder of the rude Soldiers, amongst others, they took a beautiful young Virgin, and having in vain laboured 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 A●ithim●● the Bishop. To him she proposed this ca●e of conscience, whether she might not rather choose to die, or to be accessary to her own death, then lose 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 herself 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 tells her therefore he was content to let her alone, so she could but make her words good. Sir, I have, says she, a precious Ointment, which is of so great virtue, that whosoever is anointed with it can receive no harm, a thousand rude blows, or desperate thrusts of a Sword, cannot do him the least hurt against his will 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 Oil of the next Lamp she meets with, returns instantly, shuts the door, bears her neck as white as Snow, rubs it well over with this miraculous Oil, that makes people immortal; then casts herself down on her Knees, and bids the Soldier be sure to take good aim, 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 amorous look towards heaven, begs of sweet Jesus her beloved spouse, that the Oil 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 st●a●agenie of the Virgin, this innocent murder, 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 young Lady to Purgatory fire, who was so chaste, as ●n choose 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 Bosom, or lie in the bosom of fire without hurt, cried Solomon? Answer, It is chastity: Again; which of you can walk Prov. 6. 27. 28. upon firebrands or tread upon glowing coals as upon a bed of flowers? Answer, It is a Virginal chastity. Witness St. Agnes, who lay smiling in the midst of a most cruel fire. Witness St. Thecla, who could walk as confidently upon hot burning coals, as if they had been Roses. Witness St. Apollonia, who made nothing of leaping into a dreadful fire which was prepared for her. Witness a thousand other Virgins, who were seen to triumph in flames of fire, as if they had been in the empireal Heaven. You may remember the Mart. Rom. 17. May. most chaste and incomparable virgin Restituta, who being condemned to be burnt alive, was for that purpose put into an old ship, full ●f Pitch, Brimstone and Fire, and thus exposed to the mercy of those merciless Elements. She appeared in the midst of the Sea, as in a floating fire, upon her knees and there breathed out her sweet soul into the hands of her heavenly spouse, leaving her Virginal bo●● still entire, and without suffering the least detriment, by the smoke or by the fire. Now it was the fire of love that gave her the mortal wound, no other fire durst touch, or consume that Virginal flesh, which was consecrated to her dear Saviour, by the fair hands of chastity. Go cast me such a soul into Purgatory fire, and let it do its worst and burn her if it can. No, Fire will sooner melt a Diamond, and all things that are the most impossible will sooner come to pass, than a pure and angelical Virgin shall feel the smart of tormenting fire; which has the discretion (says St. chrysostom) to Hom. de tribus innocent distinguish innocency from guilt, and to fly furiously upon the one, while with veneration and reverence it fawns upon the other. §. 10. The tenth. A profound humility. IT cannot enter into my ●●●d, that a soul which is truly humble, shall ever enter into this place of torments, much less be long detained there. They say there is a bird, that will be sure to save herself in all occasions of danger, by sinking down so low into the water as to be out of all reach. The soul of a man that is truly humble, sinks down so deep into the centre of her own nothing; that there is not the thing under heaven that can come near her, to annoy her, and if by chance a little Purgatory fire should be let down upon her, it would do by her, as, they say, the fire which falls from heaven does by a pe●ce of well disposed mould, which is so far from burning and destroying it, that it converts it into some precious stone. The great God of heaven, who loves to crush the heads of ambitious persons, to lay them levelly with the ground, and to grind them to powder, takes pleasure to raise humble souls out of the dirt, to make them prime potentates of Paradise, and to fit among the Princes of his heavenly kingdom. He that will be sure to find the glory of the Saints, (said St. Ser. 1. Dorotheus) must seek it in the bosom of humility, for there, and only there all true joy, content, and happiness are to be found: Paradise will sooner stoop down to Purgatory, then suffer an humble soul to lie burning in those merciless flames. Will you (says St chrysostom) pass quickly through the raging, and tempestuous ho. 38. ad pop. ocean, be sure that humility be your pilot. When St. Paul took himself for no better than the dust of the common streets, than it was that he was rapt up to the third heaven. True, And I may be bold to tell you, that if you be but humble, they will not easily make you stoop so low as Purgatory, but will rather lift you up above the wings of Seraphims. The royal Prophet made it his prayer to God, to look down upon his humility, to consider his labours, and to blot out all his sins and make him as innocent as an Angel, or a child of a year old. What has an Angel or an Infant to do in Purgatory? Some hold a man that is St. Doroth. ser. 2. the humil. very humble to be a kind of Martyr. Must Martyrs be sent like criminals to broyle in Purgatory? No, no, (says Climachus) rejoice Grad. 25. not that you have the gift of miracles like an Apostle, or that you tread all the devils in hell under your feet, it is a gre●ter advantage to be humble; and to have your names written in the golden book of humility, Shall such as stand in competition with Apostles be sent into Purgatory? There are stones of so happy a temper, that though they should lie a thousand years, in a hot furnace, they would not be the worse for it, but become still more fair and beautiful. Behold the true emblem of humility, Purgatory will be sooner turned into Paradise then do an humble soul the least prejudice. Ester (whose very name carries humility) was ready to die, when she saw the Majesty of King Assu●rus; she humbled herself, and lay prostrate at his feet, and what followed? They were so far from putting her to death, according to the laws of the kingdom, that they placed her in the Queen's throne, and made her on● of the greatest Princesses of her time; when God sees a soul that is humble in good earnest, to lie prostrate at his feet, he has not the heart to condemn ●er to death, or to torments, my friend, will he say, mount up higher, it is not your place to lie there melting in Purgatory, mount up higher, and do it boldly, for I love to raise those high that humble themselves low, and of the Children of Abraham who esteem themselves no better than a little dust, I make the stars of my firmament, and the Angels of my Paradise. It is a strange thing to see, that poor Lazarus as humble and contemptible as he was, comes no sooner to die, but the Angels do him the honour to conduct him into Abraham's bosom. And the good thief, who had scarce any other virtue to plead for him, but a little humility, to confess himself a vile wretch as he was, did scarce find himself in the other world, but he found himself in Paradise. So true it is, that God loves humility and that all the heavens stand open, to entertain those that are truly humble. §. 11. The Eleventh. To communicate well and often. I Should never make an end, should I go about to bring in all the heroical virtues, which are strong antidotes, and powerful preservatives, against the fire of Purgatory, and yet I cannot choose but vent a thought or two more, which with the rest, I submit to your discreet judgement. And First, I take those that communicate often, and do it well and worthily, to be pretty secure from feeling any great smart in Purgatory, St Ignatius Ep. ad. Eph. had reason to style the holy Eucharist the Antidote of immortality. The Romans used to put a piece of silver in the dead man's mouth, and verily believed, that by giving this for his passage, he should be conveyed safe to the Elysian fields. This was a vain superstition, but you must give me leave to fancy, that when a good Christian di●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 virtues, 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 stratagem. 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 ancestors. He was accordingly laid upon the bear, and covered like a dead corpse, a noble conv●y was prepared to ●●t●nd the Hearse, with torches in their hands, nothing was wanting to make up a complete Funeral. The Town mistrusting nothing, set open their gates to let them in, but my counterfeit dead man, was scarce got upon the draw bridge, ready to enter the Town, when behold he suddenly changes the whole scen, revives 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 terror and astonishment of their enemies, who found themselves gulled, and surprised with so unexpected, and unusual a ceremony. A grave Prelate terms 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 'twere incorporated into our hearts, and our hearts into God, so that God lying thus hidden within us, he that is ●ord of the celestial Jerusalem, to which our hearts have laid so close, and so loving a siege, 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 centre of their hearts and souls. Upon occasion of a hot contest at Florence, about Savanorola, when some would have him an Heretic, 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 bosom, 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 leisure in the History itself, I only bring this, to show the man's confidence in this powerful preservative, and then you may please to remember, how the sacred host has been sometimes seen, to hang in the air, 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 Sin, 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 withal 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 withal so transformed into God, upon whom he feeds, and feasts himself continually, he is so identified with him, and to use the phrase 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. de●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 till blood comes or read over daily 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, than the blessed Sacrament, which he left expressly, 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 merit 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 tells us, the blessed Sacrament is called 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, till 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 styles it, a parcel of eternal life, an Ambros. Opux. de sanct. sacram. essay or taste, a certain infallible assurance of enjoying it, and St. Cyprian calls it an infusion of the Cyp. the cen● dom. divine essence, and St. Bonaventure a wonderful deification, or Metamorphosing of the heart, by which a man that communicates often, is so deified, that he seems to be a little god upon Earth. And to such as he it is said, You Ps. 81. 6. are Gods and the Sons of the highest. Go now and bury these little gods in Purgatory, you will sooner work a miracle, and turn Purgatory into Paradise, for certainly Purgatory cannot be a fit place, for those that are gods by participation, or consorts of divine nature, as St. Peter terms them. If the sheep's teeth, that feed upon a certain herb in Candia, seem to be made of pure Gold, what must we think of those, that are daily nourished with this divine Plant of Paradise, Lilium convallium▪ but that they have hearts of Gold, consciences of Gold, and so pure and refined Gold, that the fire of Purgatory can find nothing more to purify and refine in them. §. 12. The twelfth, A faithful, and exact obedience. THe twelfth, and last means, to prevent Purgatory, which I intent here to propose, is an exact, and faithful obedience, for I cannot persuade myself, a true obedient person, will have much cause to fear Purgatory. Elias flew up to heaven in a fiery chariot, how could he do it without burning? very well, for he did it to obey God. The three Children went into the Babylonian furnace, alas? they are lost creatures. No, for they went in to obey God. This being so, be of good comfort, the fire knows not how, to arm itself against obedience. Ionas lies three days floating in a Whale's belly, sure he is undone, the poor man will never appear more. He will, he will, and quickly too, for though it was his disobedience, which made him a prey to that devouring monster of the Sea, yet he now willingly submits to the decrees of heaven, and were it to do again would as willingly cast himself in, to obey the will of God, and since it is so, he will infallibly recover his liberty, and not lose the least hair of his Head. Moses walks in the bottom of the read sea, while the waters stand like mountains on both sides, threatening death and destruction, alas, it were great pity so worthy a person should be thus lost in waves. Fear not, there is no danger, no, since he entered to obey God, neither the sea, nor death dare attempt any thing against him, all the elements, have two much respect to his obedience, to do him the least injury. Daniel▪ is in the Lion's jaws, who put him there? obedience, Fear nothing, he will not perish, the cruel lions, will be his lifeguard to protect him. Behold Susana under a cloud of stones ready to hail down upon her, who put her there! obedience to the law of God. And therefore do not fear, she will come off untouched. All creatures do so highly honour the commands of their Creator, that they will sooner forget their own nature, then forget to obey him, and honour all those, who had rather die then disobey. It is a kind of Martyrdom (says St. Thomas) to die for obedience, and without question Purgatory was not made for Martyrs. It is a perfect holocaust, to sacrifice his life upon the Altar of obedience, and why should a heart, thus burnt and consumed in obeying, be any more exposed to fire? St. Bernard, in his funeral sermon of Humbertus says, that if that holy Monk had any thing to suffer in Purgatory, it was for want of a little obedience, in that which concerned the care of his health and that otherwise, he could not but think, that he went immediately into heaven. Let us hear the great St. Ambrose. Whosoever In Ps. 39 (says he) does the will of God, who lived and died in obedience shall not die eternally, but at the hour of his death shall hear those comfortable words, which were spoken to the good thief, this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. Why so? Is it not sufficient, that St. Ambrose speaks it so roundly? But if you will have a pertinent reason for it, take this. 2 2. q. 186. a. 5. The Angelical doctor, having first laid this ground, that all eminent and Heroical virtues, put a soul into a most pure and perfect state; says further, a man can give God nothing, that is of more value in this miserable life, then to consecrate his will, and submit it not only to him, but for love of him to frail creatures perhaps ignorant, hasty and choleric, perhaps younger, and less witty than himself, perhaps his own Scholar, his own son, and if you will perhaps, his own servant. Is not this a sublime kind of Matryrdom which ends not in a moment, or with one dint of a sword, but must endure a thousand strokes of an indiscrete tongue, which go more to the quick, and this all the days of his life. Now is there any reason, that a man that has courageously suffered all these Martyrdoms, should be martyred again in Purgatory fire? When Abraham, out of pure obedience, would have sacrificed his dear Isaac, God seemed so well pleased, (I had almost said obliged to him for it) that by way of requital, he made a solemn Oath, to give him his only son, and the land of promise, flowing with all manner of delights. Tell me, is not every obedient person another Abraham? nay, is he not greater than Abraham, since it is a far harder task, for a man to sacrifice himself, then to sacrifice his son; to sacrifice, I say, his will, the noblest part of man, which is born to be sole empress of the universe, and has no other life, but to rule and command as well in the great, as the lesser world. Now let him be but another Abraham, and sure you will not think it fit to send him to Purgatory, who carries in his bosom the delights of Paradise. The Abbot Mutius, when he turned Monk, brought his only son with him to the Monastery, about eight years old, that he might begin betimes to learn the fear of God. The Abbot of the Monastery, to make trial of his obedience, peremptorily commands him, to take the Child, and throw him into the River, for he did nothing but disquiet the Monks. The holy man, without disputing the case, animated with an angelical obedience, and a heart like that of Abraham, takes up the Child, runs away with him to the River throws him in, and returns again with dry eyes, and without any sign of trouble, as if he were not at all concerned, for the loss of his own Child. And certainly, the Child had been drowned, had not certain Monks, who could swim well lain secretly there, by the Abots appointment, who took up this little Moses, saved this Isaac, and brought him back to the Monastery, where they all stood in admiration, of so perfect an example of blind obedience, and self denial, in so natural and lawful an affection, as is the love of a parent to his dear Child. The same day, it was revealed to the Cass. l. 4. c. 27. Abbot, that this fact of Matius, was as pleasing to God, as that of Abraham, and that he should be eternally blessed for it. Go now and cast this soul into Purgatory, who stuck not to cast his only Son into the River, at the command of his superior, and when you have done, will they not sooner think you cast in the whole River, which was thus blessed by a perfect act of obedience, and so quench the flames, then suffer her to lie burning there. Mutius did but once cast his son into the River, and how many Religious souls, out of the same spirit of obedience, expose themselves a thousand times, to all dangers both by Sea and Land, and after all this, must they needs visit Purgatory in their way to heaven? It seems boldly said of St, Austin, Tract. 10. in Joan. that the blessed Virgin was happier in obeying God, then in being the Mother of God, and yet Christ himself, said as much in express terms. For when by way of applauding him, they were crying up her Luc. 11. 27. & 28. happy, that had the honour to be his Mother, and to nourish him with the milk of her breasts, he suddenly replied, that he took them to be happy indeed, that heard his word, and put it in Practice; Luc. 8. 21. and another time, when they had told him, that his good Mother, and his brothers, stood without waiting for him, who (say he) are my brothers, and whom do you call my Mother, whosoever does the will of my Father, he is my Mother, my brothers, and my whole parentage. Now to our purpose, if an obedient person have the honour, to bear this honourable title, of being the brother, and even the Mother of God, can God so far neglect this brother, and mother of his, as to leave them in Purgatore fire. The Abbess one day commanded S. Catherine of Bolognia, that for the love of God, and the excercise of l. 1. vite ejus. obedience, she would enter into a burning furnace. The Saint runs away instantly, and doubtless would have thrown herself in, had not the Religious stood in the way to hinder her. It is not a crime 1 de civ. c. 1 (says St. Austin) to be thus prodigal of our lives; and even like Samson, to make ourselves away, when God requires it; No, this is no crime, but a pious holocaust, offered upon the Altar of obedience, and will you then kill a man that is already dead, will you burn him in Purgatory, that is already consumed in the holy flames of obedience, God does not use to punish, or purge the same fault twice; and therefore a soul that has been once purged in the fire of obedience, hath no need of being purged again in the fire of Purgatory. O what a thing it is to be obedient, cried Gerard, as he lay a dying, in St. Bernard's arms, I have been carried before God's high tribunal, and have seen the power of obedience, no body shall ever perish that is truly obedient; but when he comes to die, shall mount above the quires of Angels Archangels, and Apostles, according to the merit of his obedience, and with this he died. Must Angels, Archangels, Apostles, and those that are in the same degree of perfection, be thrust into Purgatory fire? Is it reasonable, that they should be confined to so loathsome a prison, that made themselves voluntary prisoners, under the severe government of obedience. I am resolved (said H. David) to fear no evils, of what ragged nature soever they be, Ps. 22. so long as thou my God dost lead me by the hand, though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, in the very suburbs of hell (which is Purgatory) I will fear nothing, for thy rod, and thy staff, wherewith thou dost govern, and direct me to do thy holy will, in all occasions, will be my sure comfort and protection. An obedient man speaks nothing but victories, says the holy Ghost in the Proverbs. What victories? Such as St. Dorotheus Pro. c. 21. 28 Doct. 1. describes, when he tells us, that a soul being seated in her triumphant chariot, drawn by humility and obedience, treads all underfoot, and with a swift motion steers her course up to heaven. If humility and obedience be her horses, they will not easily convey her into Purgatory, for they know not the way thither, but only into heaven, their own native country, where they will be sur● to leave this triumphant, and victorious soul; in the joyful fruition of eternal happiness. Take away self-will and there will be no hell, cries St. Bernard: If obedience can put out hell fire, Ser. 1. de. resur. she most needs have power to put out the fire of Purgatory. What a solid comfort must this be to religious souls, who have given themselves over to the practice of this virtue, and to all those, that living in the world, yet do nothing of their own heads, but are constantly ruled by the will of God. It is a strange, but very true observation Bonau. c. 13▪ reg. novi●▪ to. 7. of St. Gregory, and of St. Bonaventure, that God who is invincible, will yet suffer himself to be overcome, by the obedience of his servants, so far as even to obey them; I say obey, for it is the very expression, he uses himself, in the case of Josua, who is said to have stopped the sun in his full career, because God was pleased to obey the voice of his obedient servant. If this be so, that God will refuse nothing to an obedient soul; let her ask him to be freed from Purgatory, and she will not be denied it, who never denied him any thing. And without all doubt, it is as easy for her to curb the fire of Purgatory, as to stop the sweet motion of the heavens. You then that are obedient, know your power, you may appeal from God to God, in case he should sentence you to Purgatory, you may boldly claim his promise, of denying you nothing, and then you will be sure to make it in your bargain, to have nothing to do with Purgatory, but to go strait into heaven, there to enjoy him for ever. The Conclusion. IT is now high time to conclude this §. and with it the whole Treatise. And I cannot leave you better than in heaven, whether I have brought you, if you will yourself, for you see; it is in your power to make your way thither, without passing through Purgatory. Believe me, it is no trifling matter, but the most important business we have to do in this world, to purchase heaven, and to purchase it so, as to have right to take possession of it immediately after we have left this world. Christ our Saviour tells us, that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and that they must be both violent and valiant, that run away with it, where St. Ambrose observes well, S. Amb. in Luc. that God loves to be forced, and that they which importune him most, and use the greatest violence, are the men he makes most of. Take courage then dear Reader, take courage, imitate the good thief, snatch heaven out of his hands, steal away his Paradise, do something worthy of him, worthy of yourself, and worthy of Paradise▪ If no better means occur to you, at least strive to to be hugely concerned for the poor souls in Purgatory, pray often, devoutly for them, and procure that good store of Masses may be said for their relief. You have the ell in your hands, by which you may measure out your 〈◊〉 happiness, (says the devout Salvianus) be charitable to others: and they will be no less to you. The time is not long that is allowed you to sojourn in this world: in this little time, be sure you make the Saints in heaven, and the souls in Purgatory, your friends, that they be obliged to help you in your greatest need. Learn at least by these discourses, to have a tender heart for the poor souls, and to use your uttermost endeavours, to go yourself directly into heaven out of this wi●ked world. It is the thing I earnestly beg of God's infinite mercy for you, and for myself at the instance of your good prayers. For though I must acknowledge, I have de 〈◊〉 〈…〉 ●easo●●● take 〈…〉 ●our, to be sent●●●● 〈◊〉, to lie there as ●any months and years, a●●● shall please God, yet I confess ingenuously, I have no great mind to either place, ●ut only to heaven, which I beseech God by the merits of my dear Saviour, and by the plenary indulgence of his most infinite mercy, to grant us all, Amen. Et Fidelium animae per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace. Amen. FINIS.