their immortality, as being now made nearer, and did therefore praise the gifts of God, and were replenished with divine joy, as now not fearing any change to worse; but knowing well, that the good things which they possessed shall be firmly and everlastingly enjoyed by them."

The author of the questions and answers attributed to Justin martyr writeth thus of this matter: "After the departure of the soul out of the body, there is presently made a distinction betwixt the just and the unjust. For they are brought by the angels to places fit for them: the souls of the righteous to paradise, where they have the commerce and sight of angels and archangels, &c, the souls of the unjust to the places in hell." That "is" not death,” saith Athanasius, “ that befalleth the righteous, but a translation: for they are translated out of this world into everlasting rest; and, as a man would go out of a prison, so do the saints go out of this troublesome life unto those good things that are prepared for them." St. Hilary, out of that which is related in the Gospel of the rich man and Lazarus, observeth, that as soon as this life is ended, every one without delay is sent over either to Abraham's bosom, or to the place of torment, and in that state reserved until the day of judgment. St. Am

ἐπὶ τὸ πέρας ἔλθωσι τῶν τῷ δε βίου, τὴν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν αὐτῶν ὁδὸν, ὡς ἐγγυτέραν ἤδη γεγενημένην, ἐμφανέστερον ὁρῶσι, καὶ τὰς δωρεὰς τῆς θεαρχίας ὑμνοῦσι, καὶ θείας ἡδονῆς ἀποπληροῦνται, τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω τροπὴν οὐκετι δεδοικότες, ἀλλ ̓ εὖ εἰδότες, ὅτι τὰ κτηθέντα καλὰ βεβαίως καὶ αἰωνίως ἕξουσιν. Ibid.

* Μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ἔξοδον, εὐθὺς γίνεται τῶν δικαίων τε καὶ ἀδίκων ἡ διαστολή. ἄγονται γὰρ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀγγέλων εἰς ἀξίους αὐτῶν τόπους. αἱ μὲν τῶν δικαίων ψυχαὶ εἰς τὸν παράδεισον, ἔνθα συντυχία τε καὶ θέα ἀγγέλων τε καὶ ἀρχαγγέλων, &c. αἱ δὲ τῶν ἀδίκων ψυχαὶ εἰς τοὺς ἐν τῷ ἅδη τόπους. Justin. respons. ad orthodox. quast. 75. op. pag. 470.

2 Οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ παρὰ τοῖς δικαίοις θάνατος, ἀλλὰ μετάθεσις· μετατίθενται γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, εἰς τὴν αἰώνιον ἀνάπαυσιν. καὶ ὥσπερ τὶς ἀπὸ φυλακῆς ἐξέλθοι, οὕτως καὶ οἱ ἅγιοι ἐξέρχονται ἀπὸ τοῦ μοχθηροῦ βίου τούτου εἰς τὰ ἀγαθὰ τὰ ἡτοιμασμένα αὐτοῖς. Athanas. de virginitate, Op. tom. 2. pag. 120.

a Nihil illic dilationis aut moræ est. Judicii enim dies vel beatitudinis retributio est æterna, vel pœnæ : tempus vero mortis habet unumquemque suis legibus, dun ad judicium unumquemque aut Abraham reservat aut pæna. in Psalm. 2. op. pag. 51.

Hilar.

66

brose, in his book of the good of death, teacheth us that death" is a certain haven to them who, being tossed in the great sea of this life, desire a road of safe quietness; that it maketh not a man's state worse, but such as it findeth in every one, such it reserveth unto the future judgment, and refresheth with rest:" that thereby ac passage is made from corruption to incorruption, from mortality to immortality, from trouble to tranquillity.” Therefore he saith, that where "fools" do fear death as the chief of evils, wise men do desire it, as a rest after labours, and an end of their evils ;" and upon these grounds exhorteth us, that "when that day cometh, we should go without fear to Jesus our Redeemer, without fear to the council of the patriarchs, without fear to Abraham our father; that without fear we should address ourselves unto that assembly of saints, and congregation of the righteous; forasmuch as we shall go to our fathers, we shall go to those schoolmasters of our faith; that, albeit our works fail us, yet faith may succour us, and our title of inheritance defend us."

Macarius, writing of the double state of those that depart out of this life, affirmeth, that when the soul goeth out of the body, if it be guilty of sin, the devil carrieth it away with him unto his place: but when the holy servants of God "remove out of their body, the choirs of

Et quia portus quidam est eorum qui, magno vitæ istius jactati salo, fidæ quietis stationem requirunt : et quia deteriorem statum non efficit; sed qualem in singulis invenerit, talem judicio futuro reservat, et quiete ipsa fovet, &c. Ambros. de bono mortis, cap. 4. Op. tom. 1. pag. 395.

c Transitur autem a corruptione ad incorruptionem, a mortalitate ad immortalitatem, a perturbatione ad tranquillitatem. Ibid.

d Insipientes mortem quasi summum malorum reformidant: sapientes quasi requiem post labores et finem malorum expetunt. Ib. cap. 8. pag. 403.

e His igitur freti, intrepide pergamus ad redemptorem nostrum Jesum, intrepide ad patriarcharum concilium, intrepide ad patrem nostrum Abraham, cum dies advenerit, proficiscamur: intrepide pergamus ad illum sanctorum cœtum, justorumque conventum. Ibimus enim ad patres nostros, ibimus ad illos nostræ fidei præceptores: ut, etiamsi opera desint, fides opituletur, defendat hæreditas. Ib. cap. 12. pag. 411.

* Όταν εξέλθωσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος, οἱ χοροὶ τῶν ἀγγέλων παραλαμβανούσιν αὐτῶν τὰς ψυχὰς εἰς τὸ ἴδιον μέρος, εἰς τὸν καθαρὸν αἰῶνα, καὶ οὕτως αὐτοὺς προσάγουσι τῷ Κυρίῳ. Macar. Ægypt. homil. 22.

angels receive their souls unto their own side, unto the pure world, and so bring them unto the Lord ;” and in another place, moving the question concerning such as depart out of this world sustaining two persons in their soul, to wit, of sin and of grace; whither they shall go that are thus held by two parts: he maketh answer, that thither they shall go, where they have their mind and affection settled. For" the Lord," saith he, "beholding thy mind, that thou fightest, and lovest him with thy whole soul, separateth death from thy soul in one hour, for this is not hard for him to do, and taketh thee into his own bosom, and unto light. For he plucketh thee away in the minute of an hour from the mouth of darkness, and presently translateth thee into his own kingdom. For God can easily do all these things in the minute of an hour ; this provided only, that thou bearest love unto him:” than which, what can be more direct against the dream of popish purgatory? "This present world is the time of repentance, the other of retribution: this of working, that of rewarding: this of patient suffering, that of receiving comfort :” saith St. Basil.

Gregory Nazianzen, in his funeral orations, hath many sayings to the same purpose; being so far from thinking of any purgatory pains, prepared for men in the other world, that he plainly denieth, that after the night of this present life there is any purging to be expected; and therefore he telleth us, " that it is better to be cor

5 Βλέπων ὁ Κύριος τὸν νοῦν σου, ὅτι ἀγωνίζῃ, καὶ ἀγαπᾶς αὐτὸν ἐξ ὅλης ψυχῆς, διαχωρίζει τὸν θανάτον ἐκ τῆς ψυχῆς σου μια ὥρᾳ (οὐκ ἐστὶ γὰρ αὐτῷ δυσχερές) καὶ προσλαμβανεται σε εἰς τοὺς κόλπους αὐτοῦ, καὶ εἰς τὸ φῶς. ἁρπάζει γὰρ σὲ ἐν ῥοπῇ ὥρας ἐκ τοῦ στόματος τοῦ σκότους, καὶ εὐθέως μετατίθησί σε εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν αὐτοῦ· τῷ γὰρ θεῷ ἐν ῥοπῇ ὥρας πάντα εὐχερῆ ἔστι ποιῆσαι, μόνον ἵνα τὴν ἀγάπην ἔχης πρὸς avròv. Id. hom. 26.

· οὗτος ὁ αἰὼν τῆς μετανοίας, ἐκεῖνος τῆς ἀνταποδόσεως· οὗτος τῆς ἐργασίας, ἐκεῖνος τῆς μισθαποδοσίας· οὗτος τῆς ὑπομονῆς, ἐκεῖνος τῆς παρακλήσεως. Basil. promm. in regulas fusius disputat. Εργασίας γὰρ ὁ παρὼν καιρὸς· ὁ δὲ μέλλων ἀνταποδόσεως. Greg. Nazianz. orat. 9. ad Julianum τὸν ἐξισώτην.

· Μηδὲ ὑπὲρ τὴν νύκτα ταύτην ἔστι τὶς κάθαρσις. Nazianzen. orat. 42. in pascha.

* ὡς βέλτιον εἶναι νῦν παιδευθῆναι καὶ καθαρθῆναι, ἢ τῷ ἐκεῖθεν βα

rected and purged now, than to be sent unto the torment there, where the time of punishing is, and not of purging." St. Hierome comforteth Paula for the death of her daughter Blæsilla, in this manner: "Let the dead be lamented; but such a one, whom Gehenna doth receive, whom hell doth devour, for whose pain the everlasting fire doth burn. Let us, whose departure a troop of angels doth accompany, whom Christ cometh forth to meet, be more grieved if we do longer dwell in this tabernacle of death; because, as long as we remain here, we are pilgrims from God."

By all that hath been said, the indifferent reader may easily discern, what may be thought of the cracking cardinal, who would face us down, that" all the ancients, both Greek and Latin, from the very time of the apostles, did constantly teach that there was a purgatory," whereas his own partners could tell him in his ear, that "in" the ancient writers there is almost no mention of purgatory; especially in the Greek writers, and therefore that by the Grecians it is not believed until this day." He allegeth indeed a number of authorities to blear men's eyes withal: which, being narrowly looked into, will be found either to be counterfeit stuff, or to make nothing at all to the purpose; as belonging either to the point of praying for the dead only, which in those ancient times had no relation to purgatory; as in the handling of the next article we shall see: or unto the fire of affliction in this life, or to the fire that shall burn the world at the

σάνῳ παραπεμφθῆναι, ἡνίκα κολάσεως καιρὸς, οὐ καθάρσεως. Id. orat. 15. in plagam grandinis, indeque in locis communib. Maximi, serm. 45. et Antonii, part. 2. serm. 94.

I Lugeatur mortuus; sed ille, quem gehenna suscipit, quem tartarus devorat, in cujus pœnam æternus ignis æstuat. Nos, quorum exitum angelorum turba comitatur, quibus obviam Christus occurrit, gravemur magis, si diutius in tabernaculo isto mortis habitemus. Quia, quamdiu hic moramur, peregrinamur a Domino. Hieronym. epist. 25. Op. tom. 4. par. 2. pag. 56.

m Omnes veteres Græci et Latini ab ipso tempore apostolorum constanter docuerunt purgatorium esse. Bellarmin. de purgat. lib. 1. cap. 15.

Alphons. de Castro, advers. hæres. lib. 8. tit. Indulgentia. Jo. Roffens. assert. Lutheran. confutat. artic. 18. Polydor. Virgil. de invent. rer. lib. 8. cap. 1.

last day, or to the fire prepared for the devil and his angels, or to some other fire than that which he intended to kindle thereby. This benefit only have we here gotten by his labours, that he hath saved us the pains of seeking far for the forge, from whence the first sparkles of that purging fire of his broke forth. For the ancientest memorial that he bringeth thereof, the 'places which he hath abused out of the canonical and apocryphal Scriptures only excepted, is° out of Plato in his Gorgias and Phædo; Cicero, in the end of his fiction of the dream of Scipio; and Virgil, in the sixth book of his Æneids: and next after the apostles' times, out of Tertullian, in the seventeenth chapter of his book De anima; and Origen in divers places. Only he must give us leave to put him in mind, with what spirit Tertullian was led, when he wrote that book De anima, and with what authority he strengthened that conceit of men's paying in hell for their small faults before the resurrection, namely of the Paraclete; by whom if he mean Montanus the arch-heretic, as there is small cause to doubt that he doth, we need not much envy the cardinal for raising up so worshipful a patron of his purgatory.

But if Montanus come short in his testimony, Origen, I am sure, pays it home with full measure; not pressed down only and shaken together, but also running over. For he was one of those, as the cardinal' knoweth full well, "who approved of purgatory so much, that he acknowledged no other pains after this life, but purgatory penalties only;" and therefore in his judgment hell and purgatory being the selfsame thing, such as blindly follow the cardinal may do well to look, that they stumble not upon hell, while they seek for purgatory. The Grecians

• Bellarmin. de purgator. lib. 1. cap. 11.

P Id. ibid. cap. 7, et 10.

4 Hoc etiam Paracletus frequentissime commendavit ; si quis sermones ejus ex agnitione promissorum charismatum admiserit. Tertull. de anima cap.

ult.

Non defuerunt, qui adeo purgatorium probarint, ut torias post hanc vitam agnoverint. Ita Origenes sensit. lib. 1. cap. 2.

nullas pœnas nisi purgaBellarmin. de purgator.