The Elf-Fire of Purgatory, Part 6
Bellarmines Arguments for Purgatory answered.
1. Out of the Old Testament.
2 Maccab. 12.45. It was a holy and good thought (saith the Authour) to pray for the dead,Bell. l. 1. de Purg. c. 3. that they might bee absolued from their sinnes. Whence it followeth (saith Bellarmine) that the dead after this life may be absolued, and may hauehave sinnes to satisfie for; whereof before their death they were not absolued. And this is done in Purgatorie.
1. Our generall reply to all such Arguments brought out of Apocripha is,Answere. that no disputation can bee, but out of principles mutually by both parties receiued: such as these Bookes are not by vsus as Canonicall. And therefore it is, that wee argue not with a Iew out of the New Testament.
2. Our reason of reiecting them as not Canonicall, is (beside the consent of the Primitiue Church with vsus, confessed by Bellarmine, and testified by Ierome) the proofe which wee hauehave out of Canonicall Scripture, and out of themselues: For all Scripture, 2 Tim. 3.16.saith Paul, is by immediate and by diuine inspiration: But these Books, as the Authour confesseth,c. 2.23.26.28. are not so, but a mediate abridgement of another mans Bookes done with great paines, which the Papists themselues hold not as Canonicall; and therefore so neither can their compend be.
3. The sinne of these men was mortall,Iosh. 7. (as is euident Deut. 13.7.) the eternall punishment and guilt whereof comes not to bee satisfied for in Purgatorie, (as the Papists affirme:) and as for the temporall, they had suffered for that already, (as v. 40. is cleare) being slaine for their sinne: euen as Bellarmine saith,Bell. lib. 1. de Purg. c. 12. That the thiefes violent death on the Crosse, was iustly his full temporall satisfaction; and so these men had nothing to suffer or satisfie in Purgatory.
Neither, saith the Text, that it was to deliuer them from any temporall punishment that then they were in; but hauing a regard to the resurrection, to absolue them from the sinne it selfe, which they had committed, that as Bellarmine himselfe saith, it might not bee imputed vntounto them in that day of the resurrection of all flesh.
To all the subsequent places adduced out of the old Testament,Bell. l. 1. de Purg. c. 3. Bellarmines owne confession sufficeth as an answere, Quod solum probabiliter suade…, but doe no wise necessarily inforce, as by a short touch of them we shall here shew.
As for that of Tobit. 4.17. Powre out thy bread vponupon the buriall of the iust▪ beside that the Booke is not Canonicall, it imports no wayes Purgatory, seeing the Primitiue Christians, (as witnesseth Augustine) on the dayes of the remembrance of the Martyrs,Aug. Confess. lib. 6. c. 2. & contra Faust. l. 2. c. 21. had their LoueLove-feasts, and Distributions vponupon the buriall places of the Martyrs; and yet this they did not to deliuer them out of Purgatory, seeing they grant that the Martyrs goe not thither.
As for Dauids mourning, and the men of Iabesh Gilead,1 Sam. last 31. 2 Sam. 1.12. for Saul and Ionathan, &c. it was not to deliuer Saul out of Purgatory, who dyed desperately, but as the Text shewes, that Israel for their sinnes was fallen before their enemies▪ as Ioshua for the like cause mourned. Iosh. 7.7.
As for Psal. 38.1. by correction in Gods wrath Purgatory cannot bee meant, because the Papists grant, that the partie is reconciled before hee goe thither: as also, In ira corripi, (saith Bellarmine) secundum Augustinum est, … pun…r… post hanc vitam, ad correctionem tamen & emendationem, which cannot be…-in-Purgatory neither.Bell. lib. 2. de indul. cap. 13. For the same Bellarmine confesseth, saying, Nemo negare potest poenam Purgatorij non spectare ad fructum noua vitae.
As for Psalm. 66.12. The two preceding verses shewe,1 Pet. 1.7. & 4.12. that by fire is meant the triall of the godly; and by water is meant affliction, when the Psalmist saith, Wee went thorow fire and water. And fire here is before water: but so is not Purgatory (which they meane by fire) before Baptisme, (which they meane by water.)
As for Isai. 44. which place (saith Bellarmine) Augustine expounds of Purgatory, Augustine in the place cited by him,Aug. l. 20. de Ciuit. Dei. c. 25 saith, that the meaning of Isai. is that same with that of Malac. 3.3. which Bellarmine lib. 1. de Purg. c. 1. expresly expounds to be Tribulationes hujus vitae.
Besides that, the purging spoken of by the Prophet, is said to bee by washing as well as burning, and in the middest of Ierusalem; but not vnderunder the earth.
As for Isai. 9.18. The Text speakes of deuouring, but not of purging; and that wickednesse burnes as fire; but not that fire burneth wickednesse. Nor is it vnremarkeable that this fire of theirs is by themselues called heere iniquitie; for so it is in deed, a maine poynt of the mysterie thereof.
As for Micha. 7.9. Gods indignation cannot be said to bee borne in Purgatory, because (as is confessed by the Papists themselues) the party being reconciled before he goe there, is freed therefrom.
As for Zechar. 9.11. Math. 21.5. sheweth, that by that pit, Aug. de Ciuit. Dei. l. 18. …. 35.is meant our spirituall captiuitie: and as Augustine expounds it, Humanae miseria sicca est profunditas. Neither is our deliuery therefrom by our owne suffering; but it is said to bee by the blood of the Couenant. Nor yet follow…s from the priuation of water, the position of fire.