<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0649" id="link2H_4_0649"></SPAN> The Immortality Of Mans Soule, Not Proved By Scripture To Be Of Nature, But Of Grace </h3>
<p>To prove that the Soule separated from the Body liveth eternally, not
onely the Soules of the Elect, by especiall grace, and restauration of the
Eternall Life which Adam lost by Sinne, and our Saviour restored by the
Sacrifice of himself, to the Faithfull, but also the Soules of Reprobates,
as a property naturally consequent to the essence of mankind, without
other grace of God, but that which is universally given to all mankind;
there are divers places, which at the first sight seem sufficiently to
serve the turn: but such, as when I compare them with that which I have
before (Chapter 38.) alledged out of the 14 of Job, seem to mee much more
subject to a divers interpretation, than the words of Job.</p>
<p>And first there are the words of Solomon (Ecclesiastes 12.7.) “Then shall
the Dust return to Dust, as it was, and the Spirit shall return to God
that gave it.” Which may bear well enough (if there be no other text
directly against it) this interpretation, that God onely knows, (but Man
not,) what becomes of a mans spirit, when he expireth; and the same
Solomon, in the same Book, (Chap. 3. ver. 20,21.) delivereth in the same
sentence in the sense I have given it: His words are, “All goe, (man and
beast) to the same place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again;
who knoweth that the spirit of Man goeth upward, and the spirit of the
Beast goeth downward to the earth?” That is, none knows but God; Nor is it
an unusuall phrase to say of things we understand not, “God knows what,”
and “God knows where.” That of Gen. 5.24. “Enoch walked with God, and he
was not; for God took him;” which is expounded Heb. 13.5. “He was
translated, that he should not die; and was not found, because God had
translated him. For before his Translation, he had this testimony, that he
pleased God,” making as much for the Immortality of the Body, as of the
Soule, proveth, that this his translation was peculiar to them that please
God; not common to them with the wicked; and depending on Grace, not on
Nature. But on the contrary, what interpretation shall we give, besides
the literall sense of the words of Solomon (Eccles. 3.19.) “That which
befalleth the Sons of Men, befalleth Beasts, even one thing befalleth
them; as the one dyeth, so doth the other; yea, they have all one breath
(one spirit;) so that a Man hath no praeeminence above a Beast, for all is
vanity.” By the literall sense, here is no Naturall Immortality of the
Soule; nor yet any repugnancy with the Life Eternall, which the Elect
shall enjoy by Grace. And (chap. 4. ver.3.) “Better is he that hath not
yet been, than both they;” that is, than they that live, or have lived;
which, if the Soule of all them that have lived, were Immortall, were a
hard saying; for then to have an Immortall Soule, were worse than to have
no Soule at all. And againe,(Chapt. 9.5.) “The living know they shall die,
but the dead know not any thing;” that is, Naturally, and before the
resurrection of the body.</p>
<p>Another place which seems to make for a Naturall Immortality of the Soule,
is that, where our Saviour saith, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are
living: but this is spoken of the promise of God, and of their certitude
to rise again, not of a Life then actuall; and in the same sense that God
said to Adam, that on the day hee should eate of the forbidden fruit, he
should certainly die; from that time forward he was a dead man by
sentence; but not by execution, till almost a thousand years after. So
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive by promise, then, when Christ spake;
but are not actually till the Resurrection. And the History of Dives and
Lazarus, make nothing against this, if wee take it (as it is) for a
Parable.</p>
<p>But there be other places of the New Testament, where an Immortality
seemeth to be directly attributed to the wicked. For it is evident, that
they shall all rise to Judgement. And it is said besides in many places,
that they shall goe into “Everlasting fire, Everlasting torments,
Everlasting punishments; and that the worm of conscience never dyeth;” and
all this is comprehended in the word Everlasting Death, which is
ordinarily interpreted Everlasting Life In Torments: And yet I can find no
where that any man shall live in torments Everlastingly. Also, it seemeth
hard, to say, that God who is the Father of Mercies, that doth in Heaven
and Earth all that hee will; that hath the hearts of all men in his
disposing; that worketh in men both to doe, and to will; and without whose
free gift a man hath neither inclination to good, nor repentance of evill,
should punish mens transgressions without any end of time, and with all
the extremity of torture, that men can imagine, and more. We are therefore
to consider, what the meaning is, of Everlasting Fire, and other the like
phrases of Scripture.</p>
<p>I have shewed already, that the Kingdome of God by Christ beginneth at the
day of Judgment: That in that day, the Faithfull shall rise again, with
glorious, and spirituall Bodies, and bee his Subjects in that his
Kingdome, which shall be Eternall; That they shall neither marry, nor be
given in marriage, nor eate and drink, as they did in their naturall
bodies; but live for ever in their individuall persons, without the
specificall eternity of generation: And that the Reprobates also shall
rise again, to receive punishments for their sins: As also, that those of
the Elect, which shall be alive in their earthly bodies at that day, shall
have their bodies suddenly changed, and made spirituall, and Immortall.
But that the bodies of the Reprobate, who make the Kingdome of Satan,
shall also be glorious, or spirituall bodies, or that they shall bee as
the Angels of God, neither eating, nor drinking, nor engendring; or that
their life shall be Eternall in their individuall persons, as the life of
every faithfull man is, or as the life of Adam had been if hee had not
sinned, there is no place of Scripture to prove it; save onely these
places concerning Eternall Torments; which may otherwise be interpreted.</p>
<p>From whence may be inferred, that as the Elect after the Resurrection
shall be restored to the estate, wherein Adam was before he had sinned; so
the Reprobate shall be in the estate, that Adam, and his posterity were in
after the sin committed; saving that God promised a Redeemer to Adam, and
such of his seed as should trust in him, and repent; but not to them that
should die in their sins, as do the Reprobate.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0650" id="link2H_4_0650"></SPAN> Eternall Torments What </h3>
<p>These things considered, the texts that mention Eternall Fire, Eternal
Torments, or the Word That Never Dieth, contradict not the Doctrine of a
Second, and Everlasting Death, in the proper and naturall sense of the
word Death. The Fire, or Torments prepared for the wicked in Gehenna,
Tophet, or in what place soever, may continue for ever; and there may
never want wicked men to be tormented in them; though not every, nor any
one Eternally. For the wicked being left in the estate they were in after
Adams sin, may at the Resurrection live as they did, marry, and give in
marriage, and have grosse and corruptible bodies, as all mankind now have;
and consequently may engender perpetually, after the Resurrection, as they
did before: For there is no place of Scripture to the contrary. For St.
Paul, speaking of the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15.) understandeth it onely of
the Resurrection to Life Eternall; and not the Resurrection to Punishment.
And of the first, he saith that the Body is “Sown in Corruption, raised in
Incorruption; sown in Dishonour, raised in Honour; sown in Weaknesse,
raised in Power; sown a Naturall body, raised a Spirituall body:” There is
no such thing can be said of the bodies of them that rise to Punishment.
The text is Luke 20. Verses 34,35,36. a fertile text. “The Children of
this world marry, and are given in marriage; but they that shall be
counted worthy to obtaine that world, and the Resurrection from the dead,
neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more;
for they are equall to the Angells, and are the Children of God, being the
Children of the Resurrection:” The Children of this world, that are in the
estate which Adam left them in, shall marry, and be given in marriage;
that is corrupt, and generate successively; which is an Immortality of the
Kind, but not of the Persons of men: They are not worthy to be counted
amongst them that shall obtain the next world, and an absolute
Resurrection from the dead; but onely a short time, as inmates of that
world; and to the end onely to receive condign punishment for their
contumacy. The Elect are the onely children of the Resurrection; that is
to say the sole heirs of Eternall Life: they only can die no more; it is
they that are equall to the Angels, and that are the children of God; and
not the Reprobate. To the Reprobate there remaineth after the
Resurrection, a Second, and Eternall Death: between which Resurrection,
and their Second, and Eternall death, is but a time of Punishment and
Torment; and to last by succession of sinners thereunto, as long as the
kind of Man by propagation shall endure, which is Eternally.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0651" id="link2H_4_0651"></SPAN> Answer Of The Texts Alledged For Purgatory </h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0652" id="link2H_4_0652"></SPAN> Places Of The New Testament For Purgatory Answered </h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0653" id="link2H_4_0653"></SPAN> Baptisme For The Dead, How Understood </h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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