But he allegeth other places of the New Testament that are not so easy to be answered.And first that of Matthew,12.32,"Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man,it shall be forgiven him;but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost,it shall not be 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 sins 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 be destroyed by fire;and the third,which shall be from the day of judgement forward,everlasting,which is called "the world to come";and in which it agreed by all there shall be no purgatory:and therefore the world to come,and purgatory,are inconsistent.But what then can be the meaning of those our Saviour's words?I confess they are very hardly to be reconciled with all the doctrines now unanimously received:
nor is it any shame to confess the profoundness of the Scripture to be too great to be sounded by the shortness of human understanding.
Nevertheless,I may propound such things to the consideration of more learned divines,as the text itself suggesteth.And first,seeing to speak against the Holy Ghost,as being the third person of the Trinity,is to speak against the Church,in which the Holy Ghost resideth;it seemeth the comparison is made between the easiness of our Saviour in bearing with offences done to him while he himself taught the world,that is,when 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 crucify me,shall be pardoned by me,as often as you turn unto me by repentance:but if you deny the power of them that teach you hereafter,by virtue 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,unless 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 prediction concerning the times,as they have long 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,"What shall they do 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 infer,as some have done,that in St.Paul's time there was a custom,by receiving baptism for the dead,(as men that now believe are sureties and undertakers for the faith of infants that are not capable of believing)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 forgiveness 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 thoroughly versed in the Scripture,to inquire if there be no clearer place that contradicts them.Only of thus much,I see evident Scripture to persuade me that there is neither the word nor the thing of purgatory,neither in this nor any other text;nor anything that can prove a necessity of a place for the soul without the body;neither for the soul of Lazarus during the four days he was dead;nor for the souls of them which the Roman Church pretend to be tormented now in purgatory.For God,that could give a life to a piece of clay,hath the same power to give life again to a dead man,and renew his inanimate and rotten carcass into a glorious,spiritual,and immortal body.
Another place is that of I Corinthians,3,where it is said that they which build stubble,hay,etc.,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 Zechariah,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 tried":which is spoken of the coming of the Messiah in power and glory;that is,at the day of judgement,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,singed 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 pass through it to salvation;but so as to see and relinquish their former errors.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 precious 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 incorporeal,that is to say,impatible souls.