Ca?,. XIII.] mJ?LemmBo. 480 with this, consequendy there is great deception in the matter; from which it is to be inferred that great danger accompanies the practice of the Church of Rome in the article of indulgences. This will pear, if the following th/nge are taken into view: for, when you have deserved great punishment for great 8ins, and the guilt is taken away by absolution, as you suppose, and the punishment by indnlgences, or the satisfactions of' others, there is great doubt and uncertainty still remaining. For, (1.) The remission of guilt depends much on the indulgence. SoU ? pose it is for a thousand years; yet, perhaps, according to the penitential rate, you have deserved the rate of lofty thousand. If the penance of forty years be taken off by your indulgence, it does the work as wes intended; but you can feel little ease, if there remains the debt of the remaining thousands to be paid. The abatement is illre the casting out a devil out of a miserable demoniac, when there still remain fifty more as bad es he that went away. (?.) But suppeas you have purchased so many quadragenes, or lents of' pardon; it my be your quedragenes are not carenes or the severer ?ance. Then if your demerit arise to so many catches, and yon e purchased only quedrsgenes, you may stay longer than you pacted. (a.) And suppose you obtain a plenary indulgence, you are not yet secure; for it my not do all you require. Because there is an indulg- ence still more full, and one most full, and it is not agreed upon among the doctors whether a plenary indulgence is to be extended beyond the removal of those penances enjoined by the confessor, or how far they go. (4.) But farther yet: all indulgences are granted for some cause, or on some condition; and if the cause be not reasonable, they are not valid; and whether the cause be sufficient is difficult to ascertain; and if there may be a just cause for the indulgence, yet if there be not � reasonable cause for the ?fan?ty of the indulgence, you cannot tell how much you get. (5.) When this difficulty'is overcome, another arises. The person my not be capa? of receiving the indulgence: for if he be not in the state of grace, all is nothing; and if he be, yet if he do not perform the conditions of the indulgence actually, his mere endearour or good desire is nothing: and if the conditions were actually done, it must be inquired whether in doing them you were in chari?, or, at least, thru the last act was done thus. And if there be any imperfection in the acts as dispositions, there is a proportionate subtraction from the value of the indulgence: and yet there is a new difficulty here, for if the indulgence avail only in proportion to the worthiness of the work done, then that will avail of itself, without any grant Dom the church; and then it is very questionable whether the pope's authority be of any use in this whole matter. (6.) You must be sure of the authority of him that gives the indulg* ence, and in this there are any doubtful questions; and when they are over, it is worth inquiry whether venial sins may not prevent the fruit of the indulgence, for if they do all the fruit is lost. (7.) If you take out an indulgence relating to the article of death, in 1
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