ver. 8. 1 Cor. xv. 41. ART. forth (or immediately): Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may XXII. rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. From the solemnity with which these words are delivered, they carry in them an evidence sufficient to determine the whole matter. So that we must have very hard thoughts of the sincerity of the writers of the New Testament, and very much disparage their credit, not to say their inspiration, if we can imagine that there are scenes of suffering, and those very dismal ones, to be gone through, of which they gave the world no sort of notice; but spoke in the same style that we do, who believe no such dismal interval between the death of good men and their final blessedness. The Scriptures do indeed speak 2 Ep. John, of a full reward, and of different degrees of glory, as one star exceeds another. They do also represent the day of judgment upon the resurrection of the body, as that which gives the full and entire possession of blessedness; so that from hence some have thought, upon very probable grounds, that the blessed, though admitted to happiness immediately upon their death, yet were not so completely happy as they shall be after the resurrection: and in this there arose a diversity of opinions, which is very natural to all who will go and form systems out of some general hints. Some thought that the souls of good men were at rest, and in a good measure happy, but that they did not see God before the resurrection. Others thought that Christ was to come down and reign visibly upon earth a thousand years before the end of the world; and that the saints were to rise and to reign with him, some sooner and some later. Some thought that the last conflagration was so to affect all, that every one was to pass through it, and that it was to give the last and highest purification to those bodies that were then to be glorified; but that the better Christians that any had been, they should feel the less of the pain of that last fire. These opinions were very early entertained in the Church: an itch of intruding too far into things which men did not thoroughly understand, concerning angels, began to disturb the Church even in the days of the Apostles: which made St. Paul charge the Colossians to beware of vain philosophy. Plato thought there was a middle sort of men, who though they had sinned, yet had repented of it, and were in a curable condition, and that they went down for some time into hell, to be purged and absolved by grievous torments. The Jews had also a conceit, that the souls of some men continued for a year, going up and down in a state of purgation. From these opinions somewhat of a curiosity in describing the degrees of the next state began pretty early to enter into the Church. ART. XXII. As for that opinion of the Platonists, and the fictions of Homer and Virgil, setting forth the complaints of souls departed, for their not being relieved by prayers and sacrifices, though these perhaps are the true sources of the doctrine of Purgatory, and of redeeming souls out of it, yet we are not so much concerned in them, as in what is represented to us by the author of the second book of the Maccabees, concerning the sacrifice that was offered by Judas Maccabeus, for those, about whom, after they were killed, they found such things as shewed that they had defiled themselves with the idolatry of the heathens. All this is of less authority with us, who do not acknowledge that book to be canonical: according to what was set out in its proper place. And although we set a due value upon some of the apocryphal books, yet others are of a lower character. The first book of Maccabees is a very grave history, writ with much exactness and a true judgment; but the second is the work of a mean writer: he was an abridger of a larger work; and as he has the modesty to ask his readers pardon for his defects, so it is very plain to every one that reads him, that he needs often many grains of allowance. So that this book is one of the least valuable pieces of the Apocrypha; and there are very probable reasons to question the truth of that relation, concerning those who were thus prayed for. But because that would occasion too long a digression, we are to make a difference between the story that he relates, and the author's own reflections upon it; for as we ought not to make any great account of his reflections, these being only his private thoughts, who might probably have imbibed some of the principles of the Greek philosophy, as some of the Jews had done, or he might have believed that notion which is now very generally received by the Jews, that every Jew shall have a share in the world to come, but that such as have lived ill must be purged before they arrive at it. It is of much more importance to consider what Judas Maccabeus did; which 2 Maccab. even by that relation seems to be no more than this, that xii. 40. he finding some things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, about the bodies of those who were killed, concluded that to have been the cause of their death: and upon this he and all his men betook themselves to prayer, and besought God that the sin might be wholly put out of remembrance: he exhorted his people to keep themselves, XXII. ART. by that example, from the like sin; and he made a collection of a sum of money, and sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin-offering before the Lord. So far the matter agrees well enough with the Jewish dispensation. It had appeared in Joshua vii. the days of Joshua, how much guilt the sin of Achan, though but one person, had brought upon the whole congregation; and their law had upon another occasion prescribed a sin-offering for the whole congregation, to expiate blood that was shed, when the murderer could not be discovered that so the judgments of God might not come upon them, by reason of the cry of that blood. And by a parity of reason, Judas might have offered such an offering to free himself and his men from the guilt which the idolatry of a few might have brought upon greater numbers; such a sacrifice as this might, according to the nature of that law, have been offered: but to offer a sinoffering for the dead, was a new thing without ground, or any intimation of any thing like it in their law. So there is no reason to doubt, but that, if the story is true, Judas offered this sin-offering for the living, and not for the dead. If they had been alive then, by their law no sin-offering could have been made for them; for idolatry was to be punished by cutting off, and not to be expiated by sacrifice: what then could not have been done for them if alive, could much less be done for them after their death. So we have reason to conclude that Judas offered this sacrifice only for the living and we are not much concerned in the opinion which so slight a writer, as the author of that book, had concerning it. But whatever might be his opinion, it was far from that of the Roman Church. By this instance of the Maccabees, men who died in a state of mortal sin, and that of the highest nature, had sacrifices offered for them: whereas, according to the doctrine of the Church of Rome, Hell, and not Purgatory, is to be the portion of all such: so this will prove too much, if any thing at all, that sacrifices are to be offered for the damned. The design of Judas's sending to make an offering for them, as that writer states it, was, that their sins might be forgiven, and that they might have a happy resurrection. Here is nothing of redeeming them out of misery, or of shortening or alleviating their torments: so that the author of that book seems to have been possessed with that opinion, received commonly among the Jews, that no Jew could finally perish; as we find St. Jerome expressing himself with the like partiality for all Christians. But whatever the author's opinion was, as that book is of no authority, it is highly probable that Judas's design in that : oblation was misunderstood by the historian; and we are sure that even his sense of it differs totally from that of the Church of Rome. ART. A passage in the New Testament is brought as a full 1 Cor. iii. proof of the fire of Purgatory. When St. Paul in his from ver. Epistle to the Corinthians is reflecting on the divi- 10. to 16. sions that were among them, and on that diversity of teachers that formed men into different principles and parties, he compares them to different builders. Some raised upon a rock an edifice like the temple at Jerusalem, of gold and silver, and noble stones, called precious stones; whereas others upon the same rock raised a mean hovel of wood, hay, and stubble; of both he says, every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall reveal it; because it shall be revealed by fire; for the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. And he adds, If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward; and if any man's work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. From the first view of these words it will not be thought strange if some of the ancients, who were too apt to expound places of Scripture according to their first appearance, might fancy, that at the last day all were to pass through a great fire; and to suffer more or less in it but it is visible that that opinion is far enough from the doctrine of Purgatory. These words relate to a fire that was soon to appear, and that was to try every man's work. It was to be revealed, and in it every man's work was to be made manifest. So this can have no relation to a secret Purgatory fire. The meaning of it can be no other, but that whereas some with the Apostles were building up the Church, not only upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, and the belief of his doctrine, but were teaching men doctrines and rules that were virtuous, good, and great others at the same time were daubing with a profane mixture, both of Judaism and Gentilism, joining these with some of the precepts of Christianity; a day would soon appear, which probably is meant of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish nation; or it may be applied to the persecution that was soon to break out; in that day those who had true notions, generous principles, and suitable practices, would weather that storm whereas others that were entangled with weak and superstitious conceits, would then run a great risk, though their firm believing that Jesus was the Messias would preserve them: yet the weakness and folly of those teachers would appear, their opinions would involve them in such XXII. ART danger, that their escaping would be difficult; like one that gets out of a house that is all on fire round about him. So that these words cannot possibly belong to Purgatory; but must be meant of some signal discrimination that was to be made, in some very dreadful appearances which would distinguish between the true and the false Apostles; and that could be no other but either in the destruction of Jerusalem, or in the persecution that was to come on the Church; though the first is the more probable. Aug. de Civit. Dei, 1. 21. c. 18. ad 22. Ad Dulcid. It were easy to pursue this argument further, and to shew, that the doctrine of Purgatory, as it is now in the Roman Church, was not known in the Church of God for the first six hundred years; that then it began to be doubtfully received. But in an ignorant age, visions, legends, and bold stories prevailed much; yet the Greek Church never received it. Some of the Fathers speak indeed of the last probatory fire; but though they did not think the saints were in a state of consummate blessedness, enjoying the vision of God, yet they thought they were in a state of ease and quiet, and that in heaven. St. Austin speaks in this whole matter very doubtfully; he varies often from himself; he seems sometimes very positive only Enchir. c. for two states; at other times as he asserts the last proba67, 68, 69. tory fire, so he seems to think that good souls might suffer some grief in that sequestered state before the last day, upon the account of some of their past sins, and that by degrees they might arise up to their consummation. All these contests were proposed very doubtfully before Gregory the Great's days; and even then some doubts seem to have been made: but the legends were so copiously played upon all those doubts, that this remnant of paganism got at last into the Western Church. It was no wonder, that the opinions formerly mentioned, which began to appear in the second age, had produced in the third the practice of praying for the dead; of which we find Tertul. de such full evidence in Tertullian and St. Cyprian's writCor. Mil. c. ings, that the matter of fact is not to be denied. This c. 13. Cypr. appears also in all the ancient Liturgies: and Epiphanius Ep. 34, 37. charges Aerius with this of rejecting all prayers for the Epiph. Hær. 75. 1.3. n. 3. quæst. prima. 3.de Exhor. dead, asking, why were they prayed for? The opinions that they fell into concerning the state of departed souls, in the interval between their death and the day of judgment, gave occasion enough for prayer; they thought they were capable of making a progress, and of having an early resurrection. They also had this notion among |