robability; And thence also he inferreth the utility of Prayer for the
Dead. For if after the Resurrection, such as have not heard of Christ,
or not beleeved in him, may be received into Christs Kingdome; it is
not in vain, after their death, that their friends should pray for them,
till they should be risen. But granting that God, at the prayers of the
faithfull, may convert unto him some of those that have not heard Christ
preached, and consequently cannot have rejected Christ, and that the
charity of men in that point, cannot be blamed; yet this concludeth
nothing for Purgatory, because to rise from Death to Life, is one thing;
to rise from Purgatory to Life is another; and being a rising from Life
to Life, from a Life in torments to a Life in joy.

A fourth place is that of Mat. 5. 25. "Agree with thine Adversary
quickly, whilest thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the
Adversary deliver thee to the Officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till
thou has paid the uttermost farthing." In which Allegory, the Offender
is the Sinner; both the Adversary and the Judge is God; the Way is
this Life; the Prison is the Grave; the Officer, Death; from which, the
sinner shall not rise again to life eternall, but to a second Death,
till he have paid the utmost farthing, or Christ pay it for him by his
Passion, which is a full Ransome for all manner of sin, as well lesser
sins, as greater crimes; both being made by the passion of Christ
equally veniall.

The fift place, is that of Matth. 5. 22. "Whosoever is angry with his
Brother without a cause, shall be guilty in Judgment. And whosoever
shall say to his Brother, RACHA, shall be guilty in the Councel. But
whosoever shall say, Thou Foole, shall be guilty to hell fire." From
which words he inferreth three sorts of Sins, and three sorts of
Punishments; and that none of those sins, but the last, shall be
punished with hell fire; and consequently, that after this life, there
is punishment of lesser sins in Purgatory. Of which inference, there is
no colour in any interpretation that hath yet been given to them: Shall
there be a distinction after this life of Courts of Justice, as there
was amongst the Jews in our Saviours time, to hear, and determine
divers sorts of Crimes; as the Judges, and the Councell? Shall not
all Judicature appertain to Christ, and his Apostles? To understand
therefore this text, we are no