ver. 8.

1 Cor. xv.

41.

ART. forth (or immediately); yea, faith the fpirit, that they may XXII. reft from their labours, and their works do follow them. From the folemnity with which these words are delivered, they carry in them an evidence fufficient to determine the whole matter. So that we must have very hard thoughts of the fincerity of the writers of the New Teftament, and very much difparage their credit, not to say their infpiration, if we can imagine that there are scenes of fuffering, and thofe very difmal ones, to be gone through, of which they gave the world no fort of notice; but fpoke in the fame ftyle that we do, who believe no fuch difmal interval between the death of good men and their final bleffedness. The Scriptures do indeed speak 2 Ep. John, of a full reward, and of different degrees of glory, as one fiar exceeds another. They do alfo reprefent the day of judgment upon the refurrecton of the body, as that which gives the full and entire poffeffion of bleffednefs; so that from hence fome have thought, upon very probable grounds, that the bleffed, though admitted to happiness immediately upon their death, yet were not fo completely happy as they fhall be after the refurrection: and in this there arose a diverfity of opinions, which is very natural to all who will go and form fyftems out of fome general hints. Some thought that the fouls of good men were at reft, and in a good measure happy, but that they did not fee God before the refurrection. Others thought that Chrift was to come down and reign vifibly upon earth a thousand years before the end of the world; and that the faints were to rife and to reign with him, fome fooner and fome later. Some thought that the last conflagration was fo to affect all, that every one was to pafs 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 Chriftians that any had been, they fhould feel the lefs of the pain of that laft fire. Thefe 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 difturb the Church even in the days of the Apoftles: which made St. Paul charge the Coloffians to beware of vain philofophy. Plato thought there was a middle fort of men, who though they had finned, yet had repented of it, and were in a curable condition, and that they went down for fome time into hell, to be purged and absolved by grievous torments. The Jews had alfo a conceit, that the fouls of fome men continued for a year, going up and down

down in a state of purgation. From these opinions fome- ART. what of a curiofity in defcribing the degrees of the next XXII. state began pretty early to enter into the Church.

As for that opinion of the Platonifts, and the fictions of Homer and Virgil, setting forth the complaints of fouls departed, for their not being relieved by prayers and faerifices, though these perhaps are the true fources of the doctrine of Purgatory, and of redeeming fouls out of it, yet we are not fo much concerned in them, as in what is represented to us by the author of the fecond book of the Maccabees, concerning the facrifice that was offered by Judas Maccabeus, for those, about whom, after they were killed, they found fuch things as fhewed that they had defiled themselves with the idolatry of the heathens. All this is of lefs authority with us, who do not acknowledge that book to be canonical: according to what was fet out in its proper place. And although we fet a due value upon fome 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 modefty to ask his readers pardon for his defects, fo 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 leaft 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 occafion too long a digreffion, we are to make a difference between the ftory that he relates, and the author's own reflections upon it; for as we ought not to make any great account of his reflections, thefe being only his private thoughts, who might probably have imbibed fome of the principles of the Greek philofophy, as fome of the Jews had done, or he might have believed that notion which is now very generally received by the Jews, that every Jew fhall have a fhare in the world to come, but that fuch as have lived ill must be purged before they arrive at it. It is of much more im- 2 Maccab. portance to confider what Judas Maccabeus did; which xii. 40. even by that relation feems to be no more than this, that he finding fome things confecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, about the bodies of thofe 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 befought God that the fin might be wholly put out of remembrance: he exhorted his people to keep themfelves,

by

ART. by that example, from the like fin; and he made a collecXXII. tion of a fum of money, and fent it to Jerufalem to offer a fin-offering before the Lord. So far the matter agrees well enough with the Jewish difpenfation. It had appeared in Joshua vii. the days of Jofhua, how much guilt the fin of Achan, though but one perfon, had brought upon the whole congregation; and their law had upon another occafion prefcribed a fin-offering for the whole congregation, to expiate blood that was fhed, when the murderer could not be discovered: that fo the judgments of God might not come upon them, by reafon of the cry of that blood. And by a parity of reafon, Judas might have offered fuch an offering to free himself and his men from the guilt which the idolatry of a few might have brought upon greater numbers; fuch a facrifice as this might, according to the nature of that law, have been offered: but to offer a fin-offering 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 ftory is true, Judas offered this fin-offering for the living, and not for the dead. If they had been alive then, by their law no fin-offering could have been made for them; for idolatry was to be punished by cutting off, and not to be expiated by facrifice: what then could not have been done for them if alive, could much lefs be done for them after their death. So we have reafon to conclude that Judas offered this facrifice only for the living: and we are not much concerned in the opinion which fo flight 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 inftance of the Maccabees, men who died in a state of mortal fin, and that of the highest nature, had facrifices offered for them: whereas, according to the doctrine of the Church of Rome, Hell, and not Purgatory, is to be the portion of all fuch: fo this will prove too much, if any thing at all, that facrifices are to be offered for the damned. The defign of Judas's fending to make an offering for them, as that writer states it, was, that their fins might be forgiven, and that they might have a happy refurrection. Here is nothing of redeeming them out of mifery, or of fhortening or alleviating their torments: fo that the author of that book seems to have been poffeffed with that opinion, received commonly among the Jews, that no Jew could finally perish; as we find St. Jerome expreffing himfelf with the like partiality for all Chriftians. But whatever the author's opinion was, as that book is of no authority, it is highly

probable

probable that Judas's defign in that oblation was mifun- ART. derstood by the hiftorian; and we are fure that even his XXII. fense of it differs totally from that of the Church of

Rome.

10. to 16

A paffage 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. Epiftle to the Corinthians is reflecting on the divifions 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 Jerufalem, of gold and filver, and noble ftones, called precious flones; whereas others upon the fame rock raised a mean hovel of wood, hay, and ftubble; of both he fays, every man's work fhall be made manifeft. For the day fhall reveal it; because it shall be revealed by fire; for the fire fhall try every man's work of what fort 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 fhall be burnt, he fhall fuffer lofs; but he himself shall be faved, yet fo as by fire. From the firft view of these words it will not be thought ftrange if fome 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 fuffer more or lefs 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 foon 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 manifeft. So this can have no relation to a secret Purgatory fire. The meaning of it can be no other, but that whereas fome with the Apoftles were building up the Church, not only upon the foundation of Jefus Christ, and the belief of his doctrine, but were teaching men doctrines and rules that were virtuous, good, and great others at the fame time were daubing with a profane mixture, both of Judaifm and Gentilifm, joining thefe with fome of the precepts of Chriftianity; a day would foon appear, which probably is meant of the deftruction of Jerufalem, and of the Jewish nation; or it may be applied to the perfecution that was foon to break out; in that day thofe who had true notions, generous principles, and fuitable practices, would weather that ftorm: whereas others that were entangled with weak and fuperftitious conceits, would then run a great risk, though their firm believing that Jefus was the Meffias would preferve them: yet the weakness and folly of those

teachers

ART. teachers would appear, their opinions would involve XXII. them in fuch danger, that their escaping would be diffi cult; like one that gets out of a houfe that is all on fire round about him. So that these words cannot poffibly belong to Purgatory; but must be meant of fome fignal difcrimination that was to be made, in fome very dreadful appearances which would diftinguish between the true and the falfe Apoftles; and that could be no other but either in the deftruction of Jerufalem, or in the perfecution that was to come on the Church; though the first is the more probable.

ad 22.

It were eafy to purfue this argument further, and to fhew, that the doctrine of Purgatory, as it is now in the Roman Church, was not known in the Church of God for the first fix hundred years; that then it began to be doubtfully received. But in an ignorant age, vifions, legends, and bold ftories prevailed much; yet the Greek Church never received it. Some of the Fathers speak indeed of the laft probatory fire; but though they did not think the faints were in a state of confummate bleffedness, enjoying the vifion of God, yet they thought they were Aug. de in a state of eafe and quiet, and that in heaven. St. AuCivit. Dei, ftin fpeaks in this whole matter very doubtfully; he varies 1. 21. c. 18. often from himself; he feems fometimes very positive only Enchir. c. for two ftates; at other times as he afferts the laft proba67, 68, 69. tory fire, fo he feems to think that good fouls might fuffer Ad Dulcid. fome grief in that fequeftered ftate before the last day, upon the account of fome of their past fins, and that by degrees they might arife up to their confummation. All these contests were propofed very doubtfully before Gregory the Great's days; and even then fome doubts feem to have been made: but the legends were fo copiously played upon all those doubts, that this remnant of paganifm got at laft into the Western Church. It was no wonder, that the opinions formerly mentioned, which began to appear in the fecond age, had produced in the third the practice of praying for the dead; of which we find Tertul. de fuch full evidence in Tertullian and St. Cyprian's writCor. Mil. c. ings, that the matter of fact is not to be denied. This 3.de Exhor. 3.13. Cypr. appears alfo in all the ancient Liturgies: and Epiphanius Ep. 34, 37. charges Aerius with this of rejecting all prayers for the Epiph. dead, afking, why were they prayed for? The opinions Hær. 75.1. that they fell into concerning the ftate of departed fouls,

quaft.

prima.

3. n. 3.

in the interval between their death and the day of judg ment, gave occafion enough for prayer; they thought they were capable of making a progrefs, and of having an early refurrection. They alfo had this notion among

them;