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Answer Of The Texts Alledged For Purgatory
Upon this Doctrine of the Naturall Eternity of separated Soules, is
founded (as I said) the Doctrine of Purgatory. For supposing Eternall
Life by Grace onely, there is no Life, but the Life of the Body; and no
Immortality till the Resurrection. The texts for Purgatory alledged by
Bellarmine out of the Canonicall Scripture of the old Testament,
are first, the Fasting of David for Saul and Jonathan, mentioned
(2 Kings, 1. 12.); and againe, (2 Sam. 3. 35.) for the death of Abner.
This Fasting of David, he saith, was for the obtaining of something
for them at Gods hands, after their death; because after he had Fasted
to procure the recovery of his owne child, assoone as he know it was dead,
he called for meate. Seeing then the Soule hath an existence separate
from the Body, and nothing can be obtained by mens Fasting for the Soules
that are already either in Heaven, or Hell, it followeth that there be
some Soules of dead men, what are neither in Heaven, nor in Hell;
and therefore they must bee in some third place, which must be Purgatory.
And thus with hard straining, hee has wrested those places to the proofe
of a Purgatory; whereas it is manifest, that the ceremonies of Mourning,
and Fasting, when they are used for the death of men, whose life was
not profitable to the Mourners, they are used for honours sake to
their persons; and when tis done for the death of them by whose life
the Mourners had benefit, it proceeds from their particular dammage:
And so David honoured Saul, and Abner, with his Fasting; and in the death
of his owne child, recomforted himselfe, by receiving his ordinary food.

In the other places, which he alledgeth out of the old Testament,
there is not so much as any shew, or colour of proofe. He brings in
every text wherein there is the word Anger, or Fire, or Burning,
or Purging, or Clensing, in case any of the Fathers have but in a Sermon rhetorically applied it to the Doctrine of Purgatory, already beleeved.
The first verse of Psalme, 37. "O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath,
nor chasten me in thy hot displeasure:" What were this to Purgatory,
if Augustine had not applied the Wrath to the fire of Hell, and the
Displeasure, to that of Purgatory? And what is it to Purgatory,
that of Psalme, 66. 12. "Wee went through fire and water, and thou
broughtest us to a moist place;" and other the like texts,
(with which the Doctors of those times entended to adorne,
or extend their Sermons, or Commentaries) haled to their purposes
by force of wit?

Places Of The New Testament For Purgatory Answered
But he alledgeth other places of the New Testament, that are not
so easie to be answered: And first that of Matth. 12.32. "Whosoever
speaketh a word against the Sonne of man, it shall be forgiven him;
but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not bee
forgiven him neither in this world, nor in the world to come:"
Where he will have Purgatory to be the World to come, wherein
some sinnes may be forgiven, which in this World were not forgiven: notwithstanding that it is manifest, there are but three Worlds;
one from the Creation to the Flood, which was destroyed by Water,
and is called in Scripture the Old World; another from the Flood
to the day of Judgement, which is the Present World, and shall bee
destroyed by Fire; and the third, which shall bee from the day of
Judgement forward, everlasting, which is called the World To Come;
and in which it is agreed by all, there shall be no Purgatory;
And therefore the World to come, and Purgatory, are inconsistent.
But what then can bee the meaning of those our Saviours words?
I confesse they are very hardly to bee reconciled with all the Doctrines
now unanimously received: Nor is it any shame, to confesse the
profoundnesse of the Scripture, to bee too great to be sounded
by the shortnesse of humane understanding. Neverthelesse, I may
propound such things to the consideration of more learned Divines,
as the text it selfe suggesteth. And first, seeing to speake against
the Holy Ghost, as being the third Person of the Trinity, is to speake
against the Church, in which the Holy Ghost resideth; it seemeth
the comparison is made, betweene the Easinesse of our Saviour,
in bearing with offences done to him while he was on earth,
and the Severity of the Pastors after him, against those which should
deny their authority, which was from the Holy Ghost: As if he should say,
You that deny my Power; nay you that shall crucifie me, shall be
pardoned by mee, as often as you turne unto mee by Repentance:
But if you deny the Power of them that teach you hereafter,
by vertue of the Holy Ghost, they shall be inexorable, and shall not
forgive you, but persecute you in this World, and leave you without
absolution, (though you turn to me, unlesse you turn also to them,)
to the punishments (as much as lies in them) of the World to come:
And so the words may be taken as a Prophecy, or Praediction concerning the
times, as they have along been in the Christian Church: Or if this be not
the meaning, (for I am not peremptory in such difficult places,) perhaps
there may be place left after the Resurrection for the Repentance of some
sinners: And there is also another place, that seemeth to agree therewith.
For considering the words of St. Paul (1 Cor. 15. 29.) "What shall they
doe which are Baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?
why also are they Baptized for the dead?" a man may probably inferre,
as some have done, that in St. Pauls time, there was a custome by
receiving Baptisme for the dead, (as men that now beleeve, are Sureties
and Undertakers for the Faith of Infants, that are not capable
of beleeving,) to undertake for the persons of their deceased friends,
that they should be ready to obey, and receive our Saviour for their King,
at his coming again; and then the forgivenesse of sins in the world
to come, has no need of a Purgatory. But in both these interpretations,
there is so much of paradox, that I trust not to them; but propound
them to those that are throughly versed in the Scripture,
to inquire if there be no clearer place that contradicts them.
Onely of thus much, I see evident Scripture, to perswade men,
that there is neither the word, nor the thing of Purgatory,
neither in this, nor any other text; nor any thing that can prove
a necessity of a place for the Soule without the Body; neither for
the Soule of Lazarus during the four days he was dead; nor for the Soules
of them which the Romane Church pretend to be tormented now in Purgatory.
For God, that could give a life to a peece of clay, hath the same power
to give life again to a dead man, and renew his inanimate, and rotten
Carkasse, into a glorious, spirituall, and immortall Body.

Another place is that of 1 Cor. 3. where it is said that they
which built Stubble, Hay, &c. on the true Foundation, their work
shall perish; but "they themselves shall be saved; but as through Fire:"
This Fire, he will have to be the Fire of Purgatory. The words, as I
have said before, are an allusion to those of Zach. 13. 9. where he saith,
"I will bring the third part through the Fire, and refine them as Silver
is refined, and will try them as Gold is tryed;" Which is spoken of
the comming of the Messiah in Power and Glory; that is, at the day
of Judgment, and Conflagration of the present world; wherein the Elect
shall not be consumed, but be refined; that is, depose their erroneous
Doctrines, and Traditions, and have them as it were sindged off;
and shall afterwards call upon the name of the true God.
In like manner, the Apostle saith of them, that holding this Foundation
Jesus Is The Christ, shall build thereon some other Doctrines
that be erroneous, that they shall not be consumed in that fire
which reneweth the world, but shall passe through it to Salvation;
but so, as to see, and relinquish their former Errours.
The Builders, are the Pastors; the Foundation, that Jesus Is The Christ;
the Stubble and Hay, False Consequences Drawn From It Through Ignorance, Or
Frailty; the Gold, Silver, and pretious Stones, are their True Doctrines;
and their Refining or Purging, the Relinquishing Of Their Errors.
In all which there is no colour at all for the burning of Incorporeall,
that is to say, Impatible Souls.

Baptisme For The Dead, How Understood
A third place is that of 1 Cor. 15. before mentioned, concerning Baptisme
for the Dead: out of which he concludeth, first, that Prayers for the Dead
are not unprofitable; and out of that, that there is a Fire of Purgatory:
But neither of them rightly. For of many interpretations of the word
Baptisme, he approveth this in the first place, that by Baptisme
is meant (metaphorically) a Baptisme of Penance; and that men are
in this sense Baptized, when they Fast, and Pray, and give Almes:
And so Baptisme for the Dead, and Prayer of the Dead, is the same thing.
But this is a Metaphor, of which there is no example, neither in
the Scripture, nor in any other use of language; and which is
also discordant to the harmony, and scope of the Scripture.
The word Baptisme is used (Mar. 10. 38. & Luk. 12. 59.) for being
Dipped in ones own bloud, as Christ was upon the Cross, and as most of
the Apostles were, for giving testimony of him. But it is hard to say,
that Prayer, Fasting, and Almes, have any similitude with Dipping.
The same is used also Mat. 3. 11. (which seemeth to make somewhat
for Purgatory) for a Purging with Fire. But it is evident the Fire
and Purging here mentioned, is the same whereof the Prophet Zachary
speaketh (chap. 13. v. 9.) "I will bring the third part through the Fire,
and will Refine them, &c." And St. Peter after him (1 Epist. 1. 7.)
"That the triall of your Faith, which is much more precious than of Gold
that perisheth, though it be tryed with fire, might be found unto praise,
and honour, and glory at the Appearing of Jesus Christ;" And St. Paul
(1 Cor. 3. 13.) The Fire shall trie every mans work of what sort it is."
But St. Peter, and St. Paul speak of the Fire that shall be at the Second Appearing of Christ; and the Prophet Zachary of the Day of Judgment:
And therefore this place of S. Mat. may be interpreted of the same;
and then there will be no necessity of the Fire of Purgatory.

Another interpretation of Baptisme for the Dead, is that which
I have before mentioned, which he preferreth to the second place
of probability; And thence also he inferreth the utility of Prayer
for the Dead. For if after the Resurrection, such as have not heard
of Christ, or not beleeved in him, may be received into Christs Kingdome;
it is not in vain, after their death, that their friends should pray
for them, till they should be risen. But granting that God,
at the prayers of the faithfull, may convert unto him some of those
that have not heard Christ preached, and consequently cannot have
rejected Christ, and that the charity of men in that point,
cannot be blamed; yet this concludeth nothing for Purgatory,
because to rise from Death to Life, is one thing; to rise from
Purgatory to Life is another; and being a rising from Life to Life,
from a Life in torments to a Life in joy.

A fourth place is that of Mat. 5. 25. "Agree with thine Adversary
quickly, whilest thou art in the way with him, lest at any time
the Adversary deliver thee to the Officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence,
till thou has paid the uttermost farthing." In which Allegory,
the Offender is the Sinner; both the Adversary and the Judge is God;
the Way is this Life; the Prison is the Grave; the Officer, Death;
from which, the sinner shall not rise again to life eternall,
but to a second Death, till he have paid the utmost farthing,
or Christ pay it for him by his Passion, which is a full Ransome
for all manner of sin, as well lesser sins, as greater crimes;
both being made by the passion of Christ equally veniall.

The fift place, is that of Matth. 5. 22. "Whosoever is angry
with his Brother without a cause, shall be guilty in Judgment.
And whosoever shall say to his Brother, RACHA, shall be guilty
in the Councel. But whosoever shall say, Thou Foole, shall be
guilty to hell fire." From which words he inferreth three sorts
of Sins, and three sorts of Punishments; and that none of those sins,
but the last, shall be punished with hell fire; and consequently,
that after this life, there is punishment of lesser sins in Purgatory.
Of which inference, there is no colour in any interpretation that hath
yet been given to them: Shall there be a distinction after this life
of Courts of Justice, as there was amongst the Jews in our Saviours time,
to hear, and determine divers sorts of Crimes; as the Judges,
and the Councell? Shall not all Judicature appertain to Christ,
and his Apostles? To understand therefore this text, we are not to
consider it solitarily, but jointly with the words precedent,
and subsequent. Our Saviour in this Chapter interpreteth the
Law of Moses; which the Jews thought was then fulfilled,
when they had not transgressed the Grammaticall sense thereof,
howsoever they had transgressed against the sentence, or meaning
of the Legislator. Therefore whereas they thought the Sixth Commandement
was not broken, but by Killing a man; nor the Seventh, but when a man
lay with a woman, not his wife; our Saviour tells them, the inward Anger
of a man against his brother, if it be without just cause, is Homicide:
You have heard (saith hee) the Law of Moses, "Thou shalt not Kill,"
and that "Whosoever shall Kill, shall be condemned before the Judges,"
or before the Session of the Seventy: But I say unto you, to be Angry
with ones Brother without cause; or to say unto him Racha, or Foole,
is Homicide, and shall be punished at the day of Judgment,
and Session of Christ, and his Apostles, with Hell fire: so that
those words were not used to distinguish between divers Crimes,
and divers Courts of Justice, and divers Punishments; but to taxe
the distinction between sin, and sin, which the Jews drew not from
the difference of the Will in Obeying God, but from the difference
of their Temporall Courts of Justice; and to shew them that he that had
the Will to hurt his Brother, though the effect appear but in Reviling,
or not at all, shall be cast into hell fire, by the Judges,
and by the Session, which shall be the same, not different Courts
at the day of Judgment. This Considered, what can be drawn from
this text, to maintain Purgatory, I cannot imagine.

The sixth place is Luke 16. 9. "Make yee friends of the unrighteous Mammon,
that when yee faile, they may receive you into Everlasting Tabernacles."
This he alledges to prove Invocation of Saints departed.
But the sense is plain, That we should make friends with our Riches,
of the Poore, and thereby obtain their Prayers whilest they live.
"He that giveth to the Poore, lendeth to the Lord. "The seventh is
Luke 23. 42. "Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome:"
Therefore, saith hee, there is Remission of sins after this life.
But the consequence is not good. Our Saviour then forgave him;
and at his comming againe in Glory, will remember to raise him
againe to Life Eternall.

The Eight is Acts 2. 24. where St. Peter saith of Christ,
"that God had raised him up, and loosed the Paines of Death,
because it was not possible he should be holden of it;"
Which hee interprets to bee a descent of Christ into Purgatory,
to loose some Soules there from their torments; whereas it is manifest,
that it was Christ that was loosed; it was hee that could not bee
holden of Death, or the Grave; and not the Souls in Purgatory.
But if that which Beza sayes in his notes on this place be well observed,
there is none that will not see, that in stead of Paynes,
it should be Bands; and then there is no further cause to seek
for Purgatory in this Text.

CHAPTER XLV

OF DAEMONOLOGY, AND OTHER RELIQUES OF THE RELIGION OF THE GENTILES

The Originall Of Daemonology
The impression made on the organs of Sight, by lucide Bodies,
either in one direct line, or in many lines, reflected from Opaque,
or refracted in the passage through Diaphanous Bodies, produceth
in living Creatures, in whom God hath placed such Organs,
an Imagination of the Object, from whence the Impression proceedeth;
which Imagination is called Sight; and seemeth not to bee
a meer Imagination, but the Body it selfe without us; in the same manner,
as when a man violently presseth his eye, there appears to him
a light without, and before him, which no man perceiveth but himselfe;
because there is indeed no such thing without him, but onely a motion
in the interiour organs, pressing by resistance outward, that makes
him think so. And the motion made by this pressure, continuing after
the object which caused it is removed, is that we call Imagination,
and Memory, and (in sleep, and sometimes in great distemper of the
organs by Sicknesse, or Violence) a Dream: of which things I have
already spoken briefly, in the second and third Chapters.

This nature of Sight having never been discovered by the ancient
pretenders to Naturall Knowledge; much lesse by those that consider
not things so remote (as that Knowledge is) from their present use;
it was hard for men to conceive of those Images in the Fancy,
and in the Sense, otherwise, than of things really without us:
Which some (because they vanish away, they know not whither, nor how,)
will have to be absolutely Incorporeall, that is to say Immateriall,
of Formes without Matter; Colour and Figure, without any coloured
or figured Body; and that they can put on Aiery bodies (as a garment)
to make them Visible when they will to our bodily Eyes; and others say,
are Bodies, and living Creatures, but made of Air, or other more subtile
and aethereall Matter, which is, then, when they will be seen, condensed.
But Both of them agree on one generall appellation of them, DAEMONS.
As if the Dead of whom they Dreamed, were not Inhabitants of their
own Brain, but of the Air, or of Heaven, or Hell; not Phantasmes,
but Ghosts; with just as much reason, as if one should say,
he saw his own Ghost in a Looking-Glasse, or the Ghosts of the Stars
in a River; or call the ordinary apparition of the Sun, of the quantity
of about a foot, the Daemon, or Ghost of that great Sun that enlighteneth
the whole visible world: And by that means have feared them,
as things of an unknown, that is, of an unlimited power to doe them good,
or harme; and consequently, given occasion to the Governours
of the Heathen Common-wealths to regulate this their fear,
by establishing that DAEMONOLOGY (in which the Poets, as Principal
Priests of the Heathen Religion, were specially employed, or reverenced)
to the Publique Peace, and to the Obedience of Subjects necessary
thereunto; and to make some of them Good Daemons, and others Evill;
the one as a Spurre to the Observance, the other, as Reines to withhold
them from Violation of the Laws.

What Were The Daemons Of The Ancients
What kind of things they were, to whom they attributed the name
of Daemons, appeareth partly in the Genealogie of their Gods,
written by Hesiod, one of the most ancient Poets of the Graecians;
and partly in other Histories; of which I have observed some few before,
in the 12. Chapter of this discourse.

How That Doctrine Was Spread
The Graecians, by their Colonies and Conquests, communicated
their Language and Writings into Asia, Egypt, and Italy; and therein,
by necessary consequence their Daemonology, or (as St. Paul calles it)
"their Doctrines of Devils;" And by that meanes, the contagion
was derived also to the Jewes, both of Judaea, and Alexandria,
and other parts, whereinto they were dispersed. But the name of Daemon
they did not (as the Graecians) attribute to Spirits both Good,
and Evill; but to the Evill onely: And to the Good Daemons they gave
the name of the Spirit of God; and esteemed those into whose bodies
they entred to be Prophets. In summe, all singularity if Good,
they attributed to the Spirit of God; and if Evill, to some
Daemon, but a kakodaimen, an Evill Daemon, that is, a Devill.
And therefore, they called Daemoniaques, that is, possessed by
the Devill, such as we call Madmen or Lunatiques; or such as had
the Falling Sicknesse; or that spoke any thing, which they for want
of understanding, thought absurd: As also of an Unclean person
in a notorious degree, they used to say he had an Unclean Spirit;
of a Dumbe man, that he had a Dumbe Devill; and of John Baptist
(Math. 11. 18.) for the singularity of his fasting, that he had
a Devill; and of our Saviour, because he said, hee that keepeth
his sayings should not see Death In Aeternum, (John 8. 52.)
"Now we know thou hast a Devill; Abraham is dead, and the Prophets
are dead:" And again, because he said (John 7. 20.) "They went about
to kill him," the people answered, "Thou hast a Devill, who goeth
about to kill thee?" Whereby it is manifest, that the Jewes
had the same opinions concerning Phantasmes, namely, that they
were not Phantasmes that is, Idols of the braine, but things reall,
and independent on the Fancy.

Why Our Saviour Controlled It Not
Which doctrine if it be not true, why (may some say) did not
our Saviour contradict it, and teach the Contrary? nay why does he
use on diverse occasions, such forms of speech as seem to confirm it?
To this I answer, that first, where Christ saith, "A Spirit hath not
flesh and bone," though hee shew that there be Spirits, yet he
denies not that they are Bodies: And where St. Paul sais,
"We shall rise Spirituall Bodies," he acknowledgeth the nature
of Spirits, but that they are Bodily Spirits; which is not difficult
to understand. For Air and many other things are Bodies,
though not Flesh and Bone, or any other grosse body, to bee discerned
by the eye. But when our Saviour speaketh to the Devill,
and commandeth him to go out of a man, if by the Devill, be meant
a Disease, as Phrenesy, or Lunacy, or a corporeal Spirit,
is not the speech improper? can Diseases heare? or can there be
a corporeall Spirit in a Body of Flesh and Bone, full already
of vitall and animall Spirits? Are there not therefore Spirits,
that neither have Bodies, nor are meer Imaginations? To the first
I answer, that the addressing of our Saviours command to the Madnesse,
or Lunacy he cureth, is no more improper, then was his rebuking
of the Fever, or of the Wind, and Sea; for neither do these hear:
Or than was the command of God, to the Light, to the Firmament,
to the Sunne, and Starres, when he commanded them to bee;
for they could not heare before they had a beeing. But those speeches
are not improper, because they signifie the power of Gods Word:
no more therefore is it improper, to command Madnesse, or Lunacy
(under the appellation of Devils, by which they were then
commonly understood,) to depart out of a mans body. To the second,
concerning their being Incorporeall, I have not yet observed any
place of Scripture, from whence it can be gathered, that any man
was ever possessed with any other Corporeal Spirit, but that of his owne,
by which his body is naturally moved.

The Scriptures Doe Not Teach
That Spirits Are Incorporeall
Our Saviour, immediately after the Holy Ghost descended upon him
in the form of a Dove, is said by St. Matthew (Chapt. 4. 1.)
to have been "led up by the Spirit into the Wildernesse;"
and the same is recited (Luke 4. 1.) in these words, "Jesus being full
of the Holy Ghost, was led in the Spirit into the Wildernesse;"
Whereby it is evident, that by Spirit there, is meant the Holy Ghost.
This cannot be interpreted for a Possession: For Christ, and the
Holy Ghost, are but one and the same substance; which is no possession
of one substance, or body, by another. And whereas in the verses
following, he is said "to have been taken up by the Devill into
the Holy City, and set upon a pinnacle of the Temple," shall we conclude
thence that hee was possessed of the Devill, or carryed thither
by violence? And again, "carryed thence by the Devill into an exceeding
high mountain, who shewed him them thence all the Kingdomes of the world:"
herein, wee are not to beleeve he was either possessed, or forced
by the Devill; nor that any Mountaine is high enough, (according
to the literall sense,) to shew him one whole Hemisphere.
What then can be the meaning of this place, other than that he went of
himself into the Wildernesse; and that this carrying of him up and down,
from the Wildernesse to the City, and from thence into a Mountain,
was a Vision? Conformable whereunto, is also the phrase of St. Luke,
that hee was led into the Wildernesse, not By, but In the Spirit:
whereas concerning His being Taken up into the Mountaine, and unto
the Pinnacle of the Temple, hee speaketh as St. Matthew doth.
Which suiteth with the nature of a Vision.

Again, where St. Luke sayes of Judas Iscariot, that "Satan entred
into him, and thereupon that he went and communed with the Chief Priests,
and Captaines, how he might betray Christ unto them:" it may be answered,
that by the Entring of Satan (that is the Enemy) into him, is meant,
the hostile and traiterous intention of selling his Lord and Master.
For as by the Holy Ghost, is frequently in Scripture understood,
the Graces and good Inclinations given by the Holy Ghost;
so by the Entring of Satan, may bee understood the wicked Cogitations,
and Designes of the Adversaries of Christ, and his Disciples.
For as it is hard to say, that the Devill was entred into Judas,
before he had any such hostile designe; so it is impertinent to say,
he was first Christs Enemy in his heart, and that the Devill entred
into him afterwards. Therefore the Entring of Satan, and his Wicked
Purpose, was one and the same thing.