ENTITLED FIAT LUX. 157
ing down three principles of the saints' invocation, whereof the first itself is true, but nothing to his pui-pose ; the second is true in the substance of it, but false, in an addition of merit to the good works of the saints, and not one jot more to his purpose than the other; the third is, that " God cannot dislike the reflections of his divine nature diffused in the saints, out of the fulness of his beloved Son, when any makes use of them the easier to find mercy in his sight." These are o-Qod Avords, and make a very handsome sound. Wilt thou, reader, know the meaning of them, and withal discern how thy pretended teacher hath colluded with thee in this whole discourse? The plain Enghsh of them is this: " God cannot but approve our pleading the merits of the saints for our detaining mercy with him;" a proposi- tion as destructive to the whole tenor of the gospel and mediation of Jesus Christ as, in so few words, could well be stamped and divulged.
CHAPTEE XX.
Purgatory.
Sect, xxviii. We are at leng-th come to Purgatory, which is the pope's Indies, his subterranean treasure-house, on the revenues whereof he maintains a hundred thousand fighting men, so that it is not jDrobable he will ever be easily dispossessed of it. This is the only root of Dirges, though our author flourishes as though it would grow on other stocks. It is their prayer for the dead which he so entitles; and in the excellency of their devotion in this particular he is so confident, that he deals with us as the orator told Q. Cfficilius, Hortensius would with him, in the case of Verres,— bid him take his option and make his choice of what he pleased, and it should all turn to his disadvantage. Hortensius, by his eloquence, would make any thing that he shoidd fix on turn to his own end. He bids us, on the matter, choose whether to think the souls they pray for to be in hea- ven, hell, or purgatory. All is one; he will prove praying for them to be good and lawful. Suppose they be in heaven, what then? " What then! may we not as well pray for them as for sanctifying the name of God, which will be done whether we pray or no?" Sup- pose they are in hell ? " Yet we know it not, and so may show our charity towards them." But suppose they be in purgatory? " It is the only course we can take to help them." (Of purgatory we shall speak anon.) If there be no other receptacle for saints departed but heaven and hell, it is but a flourish of our author, to persuade us that prayers for them in the Roman mode would be either useful or ac- ceptable to God. Suppose them you pray for to be in hell, the best
158 ANIMADVERSIONS ON A TREATISE
you can make of your prayers is but a vain babbling against the v/ill and righteousness of God, — an unreasonable troubling of the Judge after he hath pronounced his sentence. " Yea, but you do not know them to be in hell." Then neither do you suppose them to be there; Avhich yet is the case you undertake to make good, " Suppose they be in hell, yet it is well done to pray for them ;" and to say they may not be there is to suppose they are not in hell, — not to suppose they are ; unless you will say, suppose they are not in hell, you may pray for them, suppose they are in hell. Hereunto doth this subtilty bring us. But it is not the will of God that you should pray for any in hell, no, not for any in heaven, unless it be the will of God that you should oppose his will in the one, and exercise yourselves in things needless and unprofitable in the other; both which are far enough from his mind, and that word which, I believe, at last will be found the only true and infallible rule of worship and devotion. When we pray for the sanctifying of God's name, the coming of his kingdom, the doing of his will, we still pray for the continuance of that which is, as to outward manifestation, in an alterable condition, — for the name of God may be more or less sanctified in the world, — and for that which is future. But to pray for them that are in heaven is to pray for that for them which they are in the unalterable enjoyment of; and besides, to do and practise that in the worship) of God which we have no precept, no precedent, no rule, no encouragement for in the Scripture, nor the approved examples of any holy men from the foundation of tlie world. Whatever charity there can be in such prayers, I am sure faith there can be none, seeing there is neither precept for them nor promise of hearing them.
But it is Purgatory that must bear the weight of this duty. " This," saith our author, " need not to be so condemned, being taught by Pagans and ancient rabbis, and so came down from Adam by a l^opular tradition through all nations;" a great many of whose names are reckoned up by him, declaring, by the way, which of them came from Shem, which from Ham, which from Japheth, to whom the Hebrews are most learnedly assigned. For the Pagans, Virgil, Cicero, and Lucretius are quoted as giving testimony to them. This testimony is true; in the first esj^ecially lies the whole doctrine of purgatory. Some Platonic philosophers, whom he followed, have been the inventors of it. That some of the Pagans invented a pur- gatory, and that Roman Catholics have borrowed their seat for their own turn, is granted. What our author can prove more by this argument, I know not. The names of the old Hebrew rabbins that had taught, or did believe it, he was pleased to spare; and I know his reason well enough, though he is not pleased to tell us,— and it is only this, that there are no such old rabbins, nor ever Avere in the world : nor was purgatory ever in the creed of the Judaical church,