was for the obtaining of something for them
at Gods hands, after their death; because after he had Fasted to procure
the recovery of his owne child, assoone as he know it was dead, he
called for meate. Seeing then the Soule hath an existence separate from
the Body, and nothing can be obtained by mens Fasting for the Soules
that are already either in Heaven, or Hell, it followeth that there be
some Soules of dead men, what are neither in Heaven, nor in Hell; and
therefore they must bee in some third place, which must be Purgatory.
And thus with hard straining, hee has wrested those places to the proofe
of a Purgatory; whereas it is manifest, that the ceremonies of Mourning,
and Fasting, when they are used for the death of men, whose life was
not profitable to the Mourners, they are used for honours sake to their
persons; and when tis done for the death of them by whose life the
Mourners had benefit, it proceeds from their particular dammage: And so
David honoured Saul, and Abner, with his Fasting; and in the death of
his owne child, recomforted himselfe, by receiving his ordinary food.

In the other places, which he alledgeth out of the old Testament, there
is not so much as any shew, or colour of proofe. He brings in every text
wherein there is the word Anger, or Fire, or Burning, or Purging, or
Clensing, in case any of the Fathers have but in a Sermon rhetorically
applied it to the Doctrine of Purgatory, already beleeved. The first
verse of Psalme, 37. "O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath, nor chasten me
in thy hot displeasure:" What were this to Purgatory, if Augustine had
not applied the Wrath to the fire of Hell, and the Displeasure, to that
of Purgatory? And what is it to Purgatory, that of Psalme, 66. 12. "Wee
went through fire and water, and thou broughtest us to a moist place;"
and other the like texts, (with which the Doctors of those times
entended to adorne, or extend their Sermons, or Commentaries) haled to
their purposes by force of wit?

Places Of The New Testament For Purgatory Answered

But he alledgeth other places of the New Testament, that are not
so easie to be answered: And first that of Matth. 12.32. "Whosoever
speaketh a word against the Sonne of man, it shall be forgiven him; but
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not bee 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 sinnes may be forgiven,