 chapter 43 of Leviathan. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jessica Louise. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes chapter 43 of what is necessary for a man's redemption into the Kingdom of Heaven. The most frequent pretext of sedition and civil war in Christian commonwealths have a long time preceded from a difficulty not yet sufficiently resolved of obeying at once both God and man, then when their commandments are one contrary to the other. It is manifest enough that when a man receiveth two contrary commands and knows that one of them is God's he ought to obey that and not the other, there would be the command even of his lawful sovereign, whether a monarch or a sovereign assembly, or the command of his father. The difficulty therefore consists of in this that men when they are commanded in the name of God know not in diverse cases whether the command be from God or whether he that commandeth do but abuse God's name for some private ends of his own. For as there were in the Church of Jews many false prophets that sought reputation with the people by feigned dreams and visions so there have been in all times in the Church of Christ false teachers that seek reputation with the people by fantastical and false doctrines and by such reputation as is the nature of ambition to govern them for their private benefit. But this difficulty of obeying both God and the civil sovereign on earth to those that can distinguish between what is necessary and what is not necessary for their reception into the kingdom of God is of no moment. For if the command of the civil sovereign be such that it may be obeyed without the forfeiture of life eternal not to obey it is unjust and the precept of the apostle takes place. Servants obey your masters in all things and children obey your parents in all things and the precept of our savior the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chair and therefore they shall say that observe and do. But if the command be such as cannot be obeyed without being damned to eternal death then it were madness to obey it and the council of our savior takes place fear not those that kill the body but cannot kill the soul. All men therefore that would avoid both the punishments that are to be in this world inflicted for disobedience to their earthly sovereign and those that shall be inflicted in the world to come for disobedience to God have need be taught to distinguish well between what is and what is not necessary to eternal salvation. All that is necessary to salvation is contained in two virtues faith in Christ and obedience to laws the latter of these if it were perfect were enough to us but because we are all guilty of disobedience to God's law not only originally in Adam but also actually by our own transgressions there is required at our hands now not only obedience for the rest of our time but also a remission of sins for the time passed which remission is the reward of our faith in Christ that nothing else is necessarily required to salvation is manifest from this that the kingdom of heaven is shut to none but to sinners that is to say to the disobedient or transgressors of the law nor to them in case they repent and believe all the articles of Christian faith necessary to salvation. The obedience required at our hands by God that accepted in all our actions the will for the deed is a serious endeavor to obey him and is called also by all such names as signify that endeavor and therefore obedience is sometimes called by the names of charity and love because they imply a will to obey and our savior himself make of our love to God and to one another of fulfilling of the whole law and sometimes by the name of righteousness for righteousness is but the will to give to everyone his own that is to say the will to obey the laws and sometimes by the name of repentance because to repent imply of a turning away from sin which is the same with the return of the will to obedience whosoever therefore unfaithfully desired to fulfill the commandments of God or repent of him truly of his transgressions or that love of God with all his heart and his neighbor as half all the obedience necessary to his reception into the kingdom of God for if God should require perfect innocence there could be no flesh saved but what commandments are those that God has given us are all those laws which were given to the Jews by the hand of Moses the commandments of God if they be why are not Christians taught to obey them if they be not what others are so besides the law of nature for our Christ have not given us new laws but counsel to observe those we are subject to that is to say the laws of nature and the laws of our several sovereigns nor did he make any new law to the Jews in his sermon on the mount but only expounded the laws of Moses to which they were subject before the laws of God therefore are none but the laws of nature whereof the principle is that we should not violate our faith that is a commandment to obey our civil sovereigns which we constituted over us by mutual pact with one another and this law of God that command of obedience to the law civil commanded by consequence obedience to all the precepts of the bible which as I've proved in the precedent chapter is their only law where the civil sovereign hath made it so and in other places but counsel which a man at his own peril may without injustice refuse to obey knowing now what is the obedience necessary to salvation and to whom it is due we are to consider next concerning faith whom and why we believe and what are the articles or points necessarily to believed by them that shall be saved and first for the person whom we believe because it is impossible to believe any person before we know what he sayeth it is necessary he be one that we have heard speak the person therefore whom Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses and the prophets believed was God himself that spake unto them supernaturally and the person whom the apostles and disciples that conversed with Christ believed was our savior himself but of them to whom neither God the father nor our savior ever spake it cannot be said that the person whom they believed was God they believed the apostles and after them the pastors and doctors of the church that recommended to their faith the history of the Old and New Testament so that faith of Christians ever since our savior's time have had for foundation first the reputation of their pastors and afterward the authority of those who made the Old and New Testament to be received for the rule of faith which none could do but Christian sovereigns who are therefore the supreme pastors and the only persons whom Christians now hear speak from God except such as God speak it to in these days supernaturally but because there be many false prophets gone out into the world other men are to examine such spirits as Saint John advises us whether they be of God or not and therefore seeing the examination of doctrines belongeth to the supreme pastor the person which all they that have no special revelation are to believe is in every commonwealth the supreme pastor that is to say the civil sovereign the causes why men believe any Christian doctrine are various for faith is the gift of God and he worketh it in each several man by such ways as it seemeth good unto himself the most ordinary immediate cause of our belief concerning any point of Christian faith is that we believe the Bible to be the word of God but why we believe the Bible to be the word of God is much disputed as all questions must needs be that are not well stated for they make not the question to be why we believe it but how we know it as if believing and knowing were all one and thence while one side ground their knowledge upon the infallibility of the church and the other side on the testimony of the private spirit neither side concluded what it pretends for how shall a man know the infallibility of the church but by knowing first the infallibility of the scripture or how shall a man know his own private spirit to be other than a belief grounded upon the authority and arguments of his teachers or upon a presumption of his own gifts besides there's nothing in the scripture from which can be inferred the infallibility of the church much less of any particular church and least of all the infallibility of any particular man it is manifest therefore that Christian men do not know but only believe the scripture to be the word of God and that the means of making them believe which God is pleased to afford men ordinarily is according to the way of nature that is to say from their teachers it is the doctrine of saint paul concerning christian faith in general faith cometh by hearing that is by hearing our lawful pastors he saith also how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent whereby it is evident that the ordinary cause of believing that the scriptures are the word of God is the same with the cause of the believing of all other articles of our faith namely the hearing of those that are by the law allowed and appointed to teach us as our parents in their houses and our pastors and the churches which also is made more manifest by experience for what other cause can there be assigned why in Christian commonwealths all men either believe or at least profess the scripture to be the word of God and in other commonwealths scarce any but that in Christian commonwealths they are taught it from their infancy and in other places they are taught otherwise but if teaching be the cause of faith why do not all believe it is certain therefore that faith is the gift of God and he giveth it to whom he will nevertheless because to them to whom he giveth it he giveth it by the means of teachers the immediate cause of faith is hearing in a school where many are taught and some profit others profit not the cause of learning in them that profit is the master yet it cannot be then inferred that the learning is not the gift of God all good things proceed from God yet cannot all that have them say they are inspired for that implies a gift supernatural and the immediate hand of God which he that pretends to pretends to be a profit and is subject to the examination of the church but whether men know or believe or grant the scriptures to be the word of God is out of such places of them as are without obscurity i shall show what articles of faith are necessary and only necessary for salvation those men must needs know believe or grant the same the unum necessarium only article of faith which the scripture maketh simply necessary to salvation is this that jesus is the christ by the name of christ is understood the king which god had before promised by the prophets of the old testament to send into the world to rain over the jews and over such of other nations as would believe in him under himself eternally and to give them that eternal life which was lost by the sin of adam which when i've proved out of scripture i will further show when and in what sense some other articles may also be called necessary for proof that the belief of this article jesus is the christ is all the faith required to salvation my first argument shall be from the scope of the evangelists which was by the description of the life of our savior to establish that one article jesus is the christ the sum of st matthew's gospel is this that jesus was the stock of david born of a virgin which are the marks of the true christ that the magi came to worship him as king of the jews that herod for the same cause sought to kill him that john the baptist proclaimed him that he preached by himself and his apostles that he was that king that he taught the law not to subscribe but as a man of authority that he cured diseases by his word only and did many other miracles which were foretold the christ should do that he was saluted king when he entered into jerusalem that he forewarned them to be aware of all others that should pretend to be christ that he was taken accused and put to death for saying he was king that the cause of his condemnation written on the cross was jesus of nazareth the king of the jews all which tend to no other end than this that men should believe that jesus is the christ such therefore was the scope of st matthew's gospel but the scope of all the evangelists as may appear by reading them was the same therefore the scope of the whole gospel was the establishing of that only article and st john expressly makes it his conclusion these things are written that you may know that jesus is the christ the son of the living god my second argument is taken from the subject of the sermons of the apostles both wild star savior lived on earth and after his ascension the apostles in our savior's time were sent to preach the kingdom of god luke nine two for neither there nor matthew ten seven giveth he any commission to them other than this as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand that is that jesus is the messiah the christ the king which was to come that they're preaching also after his ascension was the same is manifest out of the ax seventeen six they drew seith st luke jason and certain brethren into the rulers of the city crying these that have turned the world upside down or come hither also whom jason heth received and these all do contrary to the decrees of caesar saying that there is another king one jesus and out of the second and third verses of the same chapter where it is said that saint paul as his manner was went in unto them and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures opening and alleging that christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that jesus is christ the third argument is from those places of scripture by which all the faith required to salvation is declared to be easy for if an inward ascent of the mind to all the doctrines concerning christian faith now taught whereof the greatest part of disputed were not necessary to salvation there would be nothing in the world so hard as to be a christian the thief upon the cross though repenting could not have been saved for saying lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom by which he testified no beliefs of any other article but this that jesus was the king nor could it be said as it is matthew 1130 that christ's yoke is easy and his burden light nor that little children believe in him as it is matthew 186 nor could saint paul have said it pleased god by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe nor could saint paul himself have been saved much less have been so great doctor of the church so suddenly that never perhaps thought of transubstantiation nor purgatory nor many other articles now obtruded the fourth argument is taken from places express and such as receive no controversy of interpretation as first john 539 search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they that testify of me our savior here speaketh of the scriptures only of the old testament for the jews at that time could not search the scriptures of the new testament which were not written but the old testament have nothing of christ but the marks by which men might know him when he came as such that he should descend from david be born at bethlehem and of a virgin do great miracles and the like therefore to believe that this jesus was he was sufficient to eternal life but more than sufficient is not necessary and consequently no other article is required again whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall not die eternally therefore to believe in christ is faith sufficient to eternal life and consequently no more faith than that is necessary but to believe in jesus and to believe that jesus is the christ is all one as appeareth in the verses immediately following for when our savior had said to martha believe is about this she answered yay lord i believe that thou art the christ the son of god which should come into the world therefore this article alone is faith sufficient to life eternal and more than sufficient is not necessary thirdly john 2031 these things are written that you might believe that jesus is the christ the son of god and that believing you might have life through his name there to believe that jesus is christ is faith sufficient to the obtaining of life and therefore nor other article it's necessary fourthly first john 4 2 every spirit that confesseth that jesus christ is come in the flesh is of god and first john 5 1 whosoever believeth that jesus is the christ is born of god and verse 5 who is he that overcomeeth the world but he that believeth that jesus is the son of god fifthly ax 8 36 37 c sayeth the eunuch here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized and philip said if thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest and he answered and said i believe that jesus christ is the son of god therefore this article believed jesus is the christ is sufficient to baptism that is to say to our reception into the kingdom of god and by consequence only necessary and generally in all places where savior saith to any man by faith has saved thee the cause he saith it is some confession which directly or by consequence imply the belief that jesus is the christ the last argument is from the places where this article is made the foundation of faith for he that holdeth the foundation shall be saved which places are first matthew 24 23 if any man shall say unto you lo here is christ or there believe it not for there shall arise false christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders etc here we see this article jesus is the christ must be held though he that shall teach the contrary should do great miracles the second place is galatians one eight though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you let him be accursed but the gospel which paul and the other apostles preached was only this article that jesus is the christ therefore for the belief of this article we are to reject the authority of an angel from heaven much more of any moral man if he teach the contrary this is therefore the fundamental article of christian faith a third place is first john four one beloved believe not every spirit hereby you shall know the spirit of god every spirit that confesseth that is come in the flesh is of god but which it is evident that this article is the measure and rule by which to estimate and examine all other articles and is therefore only fundamental a fourth is matthew sixteen eighteen where after saint peter had professed this article saying to our savior thou art christ the son of the living god our savior answered thou art peter and upon this rock i will build my church from once i infer that this article is that on which all other doctrines of the church are built as on their foundation a fifth this first Corinthians three eleven twelve etc other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid jesus is the christ now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work what sort it is if any man's work abide which he hath built there upon he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so is by fire which words being partly plain and easy to understand and partly allegorical and difficult out of that which is plain may and be inferred that pastors that teach this foundation that jesus is the christ though they draw from it false consequences which all men are sometimes subject to they may never last be saved much more that they may be saved to being no pastors but hearers believe that which is by their lawful pastors taught them therefore the belief of this article is sufficient and by consequence there is no other article of faith necessarily required to salvation now for the part which is allegorical as that the fire shall try every man's work and that they shall be saved but so as by fire or through fire for the original is dia puros it make it nothing against this conclusion which i have drawn from the other words that are plain nevertheless because upon this place there had been an argument taken to prove the fire of purgatory i will also hear offer you my conjecture concerning the meaning of this trial of doctrines and saving of men as by fire the apostle here seemeth to allude to the words of the prophet Zechariah who speaking of the restoration of the kingdom of god sayeth thus two parts therein shall be cut off and die but the third shall be left therein and i will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tried they shall call on the name of the lord and i will hear them the day of judgment is the day of the restoration of the kingdom of god and at that day it is that saint peter tells us should be the conflagration of the world wherein the wicked shall perish but the remnant which god will save shall pass through that fire unhurt and be therein as silver and gold are refined by the fire from their dross tried and refined from their idolatry and be made to call upon the name of the true god alluding where to saint paul here say effect the day that is the day of judgment the great day of our saviors coming to restore the kingdom of god in israel shall try every man's doctrine by judging which are gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble and then they that have built false consequences on the true foundation shall see their doctrines condemned nevertheless they themselves shall be saved and pass unhurt through this universal fire and live eternally to call upon the name of the true and only god in which sense there is nothing that accordive not with the rest of holy scripture or any glimpse of the fire purgatory but a man may here ask whether it be not as necessary to salvation to believe that god is omnipotent creator of the world that jesus is risen and that all men else shall rise again from the dead at the last day as to believe that jesus is the christ to which i answer they are and so are many more articles but they are such as are contained in this one and may be deduced from it with more or less difficulty for who is there that does not see that they who believe jesus to be the son of the god of israel and that the israelites had for god the omnipotent creator of all things do therein also believe that god is the omnipotent creator of all things or how can a man believe that jesus is the king that shall reign eternally unless he believed him also risen again from the dead for a dead man cannot exercise the office of a king in some he that holdeth this foundation jesus is the christ holdeth expressly all that he seeeth rightly deduced from it and implicitly all that is consequent there on two though he have not skill enough to discern the consequence and therefore it hold is still good that the belief of this one article is sufficient faith to obtain remission of sins to the penitent and consequently to bring them into the kingdom of heaven now that i have shown that all the obedience required to salvation consisteth in the will to obey the law of god that is to say in repentance and all the faith required to the same is comprehended in the belief of this article jesus is the christ i will further allege those places of the gospel that prove that all that is necessary to salvation is contained in both these joins together the men to whom st peter preached on the day of the pentecost next to the ascension of our savior asked him and the rest of the apostles saying men and brethren what shall we do to whom st peter answered repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy ghost therefore repentance and baptism that is believing that jesus is the christ is all that is necessary to salvation again our savior being asked by a certain ruler what shall i do to inherit eternal life answered thou knowest the commandments do not commit adultery do not kill do not steal do not bear false witness honor thy father and thy mother which when he said he had observed our savior added sell all the haste give it to the poor and come and follow me which was as much as to say rely on me that i'm the king therefore to fulfill the law and to believe that jesus is the king is all that is required to bring a man to eternal life thirdly st paul sayeth the just shall live by faith not everyone but the just therefore faith and justice that is the will to be just or repentance are all that is necessary to life eternal and our savior preached saying the time is fulfilled in the kingdom of god is at hand repent and believe in the evangel that is the good news that the christ was come therefore to repent and to believe that jesus is the christ is all that is required to salvation seeing then it is necessary that faith and obedience implied in the word of repentance do both concur to our salvation the question by which of the two we are justified is impertently disputed nevertheless it will not be important to make manifest in what matter each of them contributes there on two and in what sense it is said that we are to be justified by the one and by the other and first if by righteousness be understood the justice of the works themselves there is no man that can be saved for there is none that hath not transgressed the law of god and therefore when we are said to be justified by works it is to be understood of the will which god doth always accept for the work itself as well in good as evil men and in this sense only it is that a man is called just or unjust and that his justice justifies him that is gives him the title in god's acceptation of just and renders him capable of living by his faith which before he was not so that justice justifies in that sense in which to justify is the same as that to denominate a man just and not on the signification of just charging the law whereby the punishment of the sins should be unjust but a man is then also said to be justified when his plea though in itself insufficient is accepted as when we plead our will or endeavor to fulfill the law and repent us of our failings and god accepted it for the performance itself and because god accepted not the will for the deed but only in the faithful it is therefore faith that makes good our plea and in this sense it is that faith only justifies so that faith and obedience are both necessary to salvation yet in several senses each of them is said to justify having thus shown what is necessary to salvation it is not hard to reconcile our obedience to god with our obedience to our several sovereign who is either christian or infidel if he be a christian he allow with the belief of this article that jesus is the christ and of all the articles that are contained in or are by evident consequence deduced from it which is all the faith necessary to salvation and because he is a sovereign he requires obedience to all his own that is to all the civil laws in which also are contained all the laws of nature that is all the laws of god for besides the laws of nature and the laws of the church which are part of the civil law for the church that can make laws as the commonwealth there be no other laws to find whosoever therefore obeyeth his christian sovereign is not thereby hindered neither from believing nor from obeying god but suppose that a christian king should from this foundation jesus is the christ draw some false consequences that is to say make some superstructions of hay or stubble and command the teaching of the same yet seeing saint paul says he shall be saved much more shall he be saved that teaches them by his command and much more yet he that teaches not but only believes is a lawful teacher and in case the subject be forbidden by the civil sovereign to profess some of those his opinions upon what just ground can he disobey christian kings may err in deducing a consequence but who shall judge shall a private man judge when the question is of his own obedience or shall any man judge but he that is appointed there to by the church that is by the civil sovereign that represented it or if the pope or an apostle judge may he not err in deducing of a consequence did not one of the two saint peter or saint paul air in a superstructure when saint paul withstood saint peter to his face there can therefore be no contradiction between the laws of god and the laws of a christian commonwealth and when the civil sovereign is an infidel every one of his own subjects that resisted him sinned against the laws of god for such are the laws of nature and rejected the counsel of the apostles that admonished all christians to obey their princes and all children and servants to obey their parents and masters and all things and for their faith it is internal and invisible they have the license that neyman had and need not put themselves into danger for it but if they do they ought to expect their reward in heaven and not complain of their lawful sovereign much less make war upon him for he that is not glad of any justification of martyrdom has not the faithy professive but pretends it only to set some color upon his own contumacy but what infidel king is so unreasonable is knowing he has a subject that waited for the second coming of christ after the present world shall be burnt and intended to then to obey him which is the intent of believing that jesus is the christ and in the meantime think of himself bound to obey the laws of that infidel king which all christians are obliged and conscious to do to put to death or to persecute such a subject and thus much shall suffice concerning the kingdom of god and policy ecclesiastical wherein i pretend not to advance any position of my own but only to show what are the consequences that seem to me deducible from the principles of christian politics which are the holy scriptures in confirmation of the power of civil sovereigns and the duty of their subjects and in the allegation of scripture i have endeavored to avoid such texts as are of obscure or controverted interpretation and to allege none but in such sense as is most plain and agreeable to the harmony and scope of the whole bible which was written for the reestablishment of the kingdom of god in christ for it is not the bare words but the scope of the writer that give it the true light by which any writing is to be interpreted and they that insist upon single texts without considering the main design can derive no thing from them clearly but rather by casting atoms of scripture as dust before men's eyes make everything more obscure than it is an ordinary artifice of those that seek not the truth but their own advantage end of chapter 43 recording by jessica louise st paul minnesota chapter 44 of leviathan this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org recording by jay miash young leviathan by thomas hobs chapter 44 of spiritual darkness from misinterpretation of scripture besides these sovereign powers divine and human of which i have hitherto discoursed there is mention in scripture of another power namely that of the rulers of the darkness of this world aphesians 612 the kingdom of satan matthew 1226 and the principality of views above over demons ibid 934 that is to say over phantasms that appear in the air for which cause satan is also called the prince of the power of the air aphesians 22 and because he ruleth in the darkness of this world the prince of this world john 1611 and in consequence here on to they who are under his dominion in opposition to the faithful who are the children of the light are called the children of darkness foreseeing views above is prince of phantasms inhabitants of his domain of air and darkness the children of darkness and these demons phantasms or spirits of illusion signify allegorically the same thing this considered the kingdom of darkness as it is set forth in these and other places of scripture is nothing else but a confederacy of deceivers that to obtain dominion over men in this present world endeavor by dark and erroneous doctrines to extinguish in them the light both of nature and of the gospel and so to disrepair them for the kingdom of god to come as men that are utterly deprived from their nativity of the light of the bodily eye have no idea at all of any such light and no man conceives in his imagination any greater light than he hath at some time or other perceived by his outward senses so also is it of the light of the gospel and of the light of the understanding that no man can conceive there is any greater degree of it than that which he hath already attained unto and from hence it comes to pass that men have no other means to acknowledge their own darkness but only by reasoning from the unforeseen mischances that befall them in their ways the darkest part of the kingdom of satan is that which is without the church of god that is to say amongst them that believe not in jesus christ but we cannot say that therefore the church enjoyeth as the land of gaussian all the light which to the performance of the work enjoined us by god is necessary whence comes it that in christianum there has been almost from the time of the apostles such jostling of one another out of their places both by foreign and civil war such stumbling at every little disparity of their own fortune and every little eminence of that of other men and such diversity of ways running to the same mark felicity if it be not night amongst us or at least amiss we are therefore yet in the dark the enemy has been here in the night of our natural ignorance and sound the tears of spiritual errors and that first by abusing and putting out the light of the scriptures for we air not knowing the scriptures secondly by introducing the demonology of the heathen poets that is to say their fabulous doctrine concerning demons which are but idols or phantasms of the brain without any real nature of their own distinct from human fantasy such as our dead men's ghosts and fairies and other matter of old wives tales thirdly by mixing with the scripture diverse relics of the religion and much of the vain and erroneous philosophy of the Greeks especially of Aristotle fourthly by mingling with both these false or uncertain traditions and feigned or uncertain history and so we come to air by giving heed to seducing spirits and the demonology of such as speak lies in hypocrisy or as it is in the original of those that play the part of liars first Timothy 4 1 2 with a seared conscience that is contrary to their own knowledge concerning the first of these which is the seducing of men by abuse of scripture i intend to speak briefly in this chapter the greatest and main abuse of scripture and to which almost all the rest are either consequent or subservient is the resting of it to prove that the kingdom of god mentioned so often in the scripture is the present church or multitude of christian men now living or that being dead are to rise again at the last day whereas the kingdom of god was first instituted by the ministry of moses over the jews only who were therefore called his peculiar people and ceased afterward in the election of Saul when they refused to be governed by god anymore and demanded a king after the manner of the nations which god himself consented unto as i have more at large proved before in the thirty fifth chapter after that time there was no other kingdom of god in the world by any pact or otherwise that he ever was is and shall be king of all men and of all creatures as governing according to his will by his infinite power nevertheless he promised by his prophets to restore this his government to them again when the time he hath in his secret council appointed for it shall be fully come and when they shall turn unto him by repentance and amendment of life and not only so but he invited also the Gentiles to come in and enjoy the happiness of his reign on the same conditions of conversion and repentance and he promised also to send his son into the world to expiate the sins of them all by his death and to prepare them by his doctrine to receive him at his second coming which second coming not yet being the kingdom of god is not yet come and we are not now under any other kings by pact but our civil sovereigns saving only that christian men are already in the kingdom of grace in as much as they have already the promise of being received and is coming again consequent to this error that the present church is christ's kingdom there ought to be some one man or assembly by whose mouth our savior now in heaven speaketh giveeth law in which represented his person to all Christians or diverse men or diverse assemblies that do the same to diverse parts of christendom this power regal under christ being challenged universally by the pope and in particular commonwealths by assemblies of the pastors of the place when the scripture gives it to none but to civil sovereigns comes to be so passionately disputed that it put it out the light of nature and causes so great a darkness in men's understanding that they see not who it is to whom they have engaged their obedience consequent of this claim of the pope to vicar general of christ in the present church supposed to be that kingdom of his to which we addressed in the gospel is the doctrine that it is necessary for a christian king to receive his crown by a bishop as if it were from that ceremony that he derives the cause of deagratia in his title and that then only is he made king by the favor of god when he is crowned by the authority of god's universal vicerent of earth and that every bishop whosoever be his sovereign takeeth at his consecration an oath of absolute obedience to the pope consequent to the same is the doctrine of the fourth cancel of ladderin held under pope innocent the third chapter three de hereticus that if a king at the pope's admonition do not purge his kingdom of heresies and being excommunicate from the group and being excommunicate for the same do not give satisfaction within a year his subjects are absolved of the bond of their obedience whereby heresies are understood all opinions which the church of Rome hath forbidden to be maintained and by this means as often there is any repugnancy between the political designs of the pope and other christian princes as there is very often there arises such a mist amongst their subjects that they know not a stranger that thrusteth himself into the throne of their lawful prince from him whom they had themselves placed there and in this darkness of mind are made to fight one against another without discerning their enemies from their friends under the conduct of another man's ambition from the same opinion that the present church is the kingdom of god it proceeds that pastors deacons and all other ministers of the church take the name to themselves of the clergy giving to other christians the name of laity that is simply people for clergy signifies those whose maintenance is that revenue which god having reserved to himself during his reign over the israelites assigned to the tribe of Levi who were to be his public ministers and had no portion of land set them out to live on as their brethren to be their inheritance the pope therefore pretending the present church to be as the realms of israel the kingdom of god challenging to himself and his subordinate ministers the like revenue as the inheritance of god the name of clergy was suitable to that claim and hence it is that tithes and other tributes paid to the levites as god's right amongst the israelites have a long time been demanded and taken of christians by ecclesiastics during divino that is in god's right by which means the people everywhere were obliged to a double tribute one to the state and another to the clergy were of that to the clergy being the tenth of their revenue is double to that which a king of Athens and esteem the tyrant exacted of his subjects for the defraying of all public charges for he demanded no more but the twentieth part and yet abundantly maintained therewith the commonwealth and in the kingdom of the jews during the sacerdoto reign of god the tithes and offerings were the whole public revenue from the same mistaking of the present church for the kingdom of god came in the distinction between the civil and the canon laws the civil law being the acts of sovereigns in their dominions and the canon law being acts of the pope in the same dominions which canons though they were but canons that is rules propounded and but voluntarily received by christian princes to the translation of the empire to charlemagne yet afterwards as the power of the pope increased became rules commanded and the emperors themselves to avoid greater mischiefs which the people blinded might be led into were forced to let them pass for laws from hence it is that in all dominions where the pope's ecclesiastical power is entirely received jews turks and gentiles are in the roman church tolerated in their religion as far forth as in the exercise and profession thereof they offend not against the civil power whereas in a christian though a stranger not to be of the roman religion is capital because the pope pretendeth that all christians are his subjects for otherwise it were as much against the law of nations to persecute a christian stranger for professing the religion of his own country as an infidel or rather more in as much as they that are not against christ are with him from the same it is that in every christian state there are certain men that are exempt by ecclesiastical liberty from the tributes and from the tribunals of the civil state for so are the secular clergy besides monks and friars which in many places bear so great a proportion to the common people as if need were there might be raised out of them alone and armies sufficient for any war the church militants should employ them in against their own or other princes a second general abuse of scripture is the turning of consecration into conjuration or enchantment to consecrate is in scripture to offer give or dedicate in peace and decent language and gesture a man or any other thing to god by separating of it from common use that is to say to sanctify or make it gods and to be used only by those whom god hath appointed to be his public ministers as i have already proved at large in the 35th chapter and thereby to change not the thing consecrated but only the use of it from being profane and common to be holy and peculiar to god's service but when by such words the nature or quality of the thing itself is pretended to be changed it is not consecration but either an extraordinary work of god or a vain and impious conjuration but seeing for the frequency of pretending the change of nature in their consecrations it cannot be esteemed the work extraordinary it is no other than a conjuration or incantation whereby they would have meant to believe an alteration of nature that is not contrary to the testimony of man's sight and of all the rest of his senses as for example when the priest instead of consecrating bread and wine to god's peculiar service in the sacrament of the lord's supper which is but a separation of it from the common use to signify that is to put men in mind of their redemption by the passion of christ whose body was broken and blood shed upon the cross for our transgressions pretends that by saying of the words of our saviour this is my body and this is my blood the nature of bread is no more there but his very body notwithstanding there appear not to the sight or other sense of the receiver anything that appeared not before the consecration the egyptian conjurers that are said to have turned their rods to serpents and the water into blood are thought but to have diluted the senses of the spectators by a false show of things yet are esteemed enchanters but what should we have thought of them if there had appeared in their rods nothing like a serpent and in the water enchanted nothing like blood nor like anything else but water but that they had faced down the king that they were serpents that looked like rods and that it was blood that seemed water that had been both enchantment and lying and yet in this daily act of the priest they do the very same by turning the holy words into the manner of a charm which produces nothing new to the sense but they face us down that it had turned the bread into a man nay more into a god and requirement to worship it as if it were our saver himself present god and man and thereby to commit most gross idolatry for if it be enough to excuse it of idolatry to say it is no more bread but god why should not the same excuse serve the egyptians in case they had the faces to say the leeks and onions they worshipped were not very leeks and onions but a divinity under their species or likeness the words this is my body are equivalent to these this signifies or represents my body and it is an ordinary figure of speech but to take it literally is an abuse nor though so taken can extend any further than to the bread which christ himself with his own hands consecrated for he never said that of what bread so ever any priest whatsoever should say this is my body or this is christ's body that the same should presently be transubstantiated nor did the church of rome ever establish this transubstantiation to the time of innocent the third which was not above 500 years ago when the power of popes was at the highest and the darkness of the time grown so great as men discerned not the bread that was given them to eat especially when it was stamped with the figure of christ upon the cross as if they would have men believe it were transubstantiated not only in the body of christ but also in the wood of his cross and that they did eat both together in the sacrament the like incantation instead of consecration is used also in the sacrament of baptism where the abuse of god's name in each several person and in the whole trinity with the sign of the cross at each name make it up the charm as first when they make the holy water the priest sayeth i conjure the thou creature of water in the name of god the father almighty and in the name of jesus christ his only son our lord and in virtue of the holy ghost the thou become conjured water to drive away all the powers of the enemy and to eradicate and supplant the enemy etc and the same is the benediction of the salt to be mingled with it that thou become conjured salt that all phantasms and navery of the devil's fraud may fly and depart from the peace wherein thou art sprinkled and every unclean spirit to be conjured by him that shall come to judge the quick and the dead the same in the benediction of oil that all the power of the enemy all the host of the devil all assaults and phantasms of satan may be driven away by this creature of oil and for the infant that is to be baptized he is subject to many charms first as the church door the priest blows thrice in the child's face and goes go out of him unclean spirit and give place to the holy ghost the comforter as if all children till blown on by the priest were demoniacs again before his entrance into the church he saith as before i conjure the etc to go out and depart from the servant of god and again the same exorcism is repeated once more before he is baptized these and some other incantations are those that are used instead of benedictions and consecrations in administration of the sacraments of baptism and the lord supper wherein everything that served to the holy uses except the unhealed spittle of the priest have some set form of exorcism nor are the other rites as of marriage of extreme unction of visitation of the sick of consecrating churches and churchyards and the like exempt from charms in as much as there is in them the use of enchanted oil and water with the abuse of the cross and of the holy word of david as purges me domino isopo as things of efficacy to drive away phantasms and imaginary spirits another general error is from the misinterpretation of the words eternal life everlasting death and the second death for though we read plainly in holy scripture that god created adam in an estate of living forever which was conditional that is to say if he disobeyed not his commandment which was not essential to human nature but consequent to the virtue of the tree of life were of he had liberty to eat as long as he had not sinned and that he was thrust out of paradise after he had sinned lest he should eat thereof and live forever and that christ's passion is a discharge of sin to all that believe on him and by consequence a restitution of eternal life to all the faithful and to them only yet the doctrine is now and have been a long time far otherwise namely that every man had the eternity of life by nature in as much as his soul is immortal so that the flaming sword at the entrance of paradise though it hinder a man from coming to the tree of life hinders him not from the immortality which god took from him for his sin nor makes him to the need the sacrificing of christ for the recovering of the same and consequently not only the faithful and righteous but also the wicked and the heathen shall enjoy eternal life without any death at all much less the second and everlasting death to solve this it is said that by second and everlasting death is meant a second and everlasting life but in torments a figure never used but in this very case all which doctrine is founded only on some of the obscure places of the new testament which nevertheless the whole scope of the scripture considered are clear enough in a different sense and unnecessary to the christian faith for supposing that when a man dies the remaineth nothing of him but his carcass cannot god that raised inanimate a dust and clay into a living creature by his word as easily raise a dead carcass to life again and continue him alive forever or make him die again by another word the soul in scripture signifyeth always either the life or the living creature and the body and soul jointly the body alive in the fifth day of the creation god said that the waters produce reptile anime viventus the creeping thing that hath in it a living soul the english translated to that hath life and again god created wells at omnum anemum viventum which in the english is every living creature and likewise of man god made him out of the dust of the earth and breathed in his face the breath of life a fact is a homo in anemum viventum that is and man was made a living creature and after no one came out of the ark god saith he will no more smite omnum anemum viventum that is every living creature and eat not the blood for the blood is the soul that is the life from which places if by soul were meant a substance incorporeal with an existence separated from the body it might as well be inferred of any other living creature as of man but that the souls of the faithful are not of their own nature but by god's special grace to remain in their bodies for the resurrection to all eternity i have already i think sufficiently proved out of the scriptures in the 38th chapter and for the places of the new testament where it is said that any man shall be cast the body and soul into hellfire it is no more than body and life that is to say they shall be cast alive into the perpetual fire of gehenna this window it is that gives entrance to the dark doctrine first of eternal torments and afterwards of purgatory and consequently of the walking abroad especially in places consecrated solitary or dark of the ghosts of men deceased and thereby to the pretenses of exorcism and conjuration of phantasms as also of invocation of men dead and to the doctrine of indulgences that is to say of exemption for time or forever from the fire of purgatory where these incorporeal substances are pretended by burning to be cleansed and made fit for heaven for men being generally possessed before the time of our savior by contagion or the demonology of the greeks of an opinion that the souls of men were substances distinct from their bodies and therefore that when the body was dead the soul of every man whether godly or wicked must subsist somewhere by virtue of its own nature without acknowledging therein any supernatural gift of gods the doctors of the church doubted a long time what was the place which they were to abide it till they should be reunited to their bodies in the resurrection supposing for a while they lay under the altars but afterward the church of Rome founded more profitable to build for them this place of purgatory which by some other churches in this later age has been demolished let us now consider what texts of scripture seem most to confirm these three general errors I have touched as for those which cardinal bellarmine hath alleged for the present kingdom of god administered by the pope then which there are none that make a better show of proof I have already answered them I made it evident that the kingdom of god instituted by moses ended in the election of Saul after which time the priest of his own authority never deposed any king that which the high priest did to a thalia was not done in his own right but in the right of the young king joosh her son but Solomon in his own right deposed the high priest Abiathor and set up another in his place the most difficult place to answer of all those that can be brought to prove the kingdom of god by christ is already in this world is alleged not by bellarmine or any other of the church of Rome but by visa that will have it to begin from the resurrection of christ but whether he intend thereby to entitle the presbytery to the supreme power ecclesiastical in the commonwealth of Geneva and consequently to every presbytery in every other commonwealth or to princes and other civil sovereigns I do not know for the presbytery hath challenged the power to excommunicate their own kings and to be the supreme moderators in religion in the places where they have that form of church government no less than the pope challenged it universally the words are verily I say unto you that there be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of god come with power mark nine one which words if taken grammatically make it certain that either some of the men that stood before christ at the time are yet alive or else that the kingdom of god must be now in this present world and then there is another place more difficult for when the apostles after our saviors resurrection and immediately before his ascension asked our savior saying wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to israel he answered them it is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the father hath put in his own power but ye shall receive power by the coming of the holy ghost upon you and ye shall be my witnesses both in jerusalem and in all judaea and in samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth acts one six which is as much as to say my kingdom is not yet come nor shall you for know when it shall come for it shall come as a thief in the night but i will send you the holy ghost and by him you shall have power to bear witness to all the world by your preaching of my resurrection and the works i have done and the doctrine i have taught that they might believe in me and expect eternal life at my coming again how does this agree with the coming of christ kingdom at the resurrection and that which saint paul says that they turned from idols to serve the living and true god and to wait for his son from heaven first thecelonians one nine ten where to wait for his son from heaven is to wait for his coming to be king in power which were not necessary if his kingdom had been then present again if the kingdom of god began as visa on that place would have it at the resurrection what reason is there for christians ever since the resurrection to say their prayers let thy kingdom come it is therefore manifest that the words of saint mark are not so to be interpreted there be some of them that stand here saith our savior that shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of god come in power if then this kingdom were to come at the resurrection of christ why is it said some of them rather than all for they all lived till after christ was risen but they that require an exact interpretation of this text let them interpret first the like words of our savior to saint peter concerning saint john if i will that he tarry till i come what is that to thee john 21 22 upon which was grounded a report that he should not die nevertheless the truth of that report was neither confirmed as well as grounded nor refuted as ill grounded on those words but left as a saying not understood the same difficulty is also in the place of saint mark and if it be lawful to conjecture at their meaning by that which immediately follows both here and in saint luke where the same is again repeated it is not improbable to say that they have a relation to the transfiguration which is described in the verses immediately following where it is said that after six days jesus take it with him peter and james and john not all but some of his disciples and lead it them up into a high mountain apart by themselves it was transfigured before them and his raiment became shining exceeding white as snow so as no fuller on earth can white them and there appeared unto them a liest with moses and they were talking with jesus etc so that they saw christ in gloria majesty as he is to come in so much as they were sore afraid and thus the promise of our savior was accomplished by way of vision for it was a vision as may probably be inferred out of saint luke that recited the same story and say it that peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep luke 928 but most certainly out of matthew 179 where the same is again related for our savior charged them saying tell no man the vision until the son of man be risen from the dead how so ever it be yet there can from thence be taken no argument to prove that the kingdom of god take it beginning till the day of judgment as for some other texts to prove the pope's power over civil sovereigns besides those of bellarmine as that the two swords that christ and his apostles had amongst them were the spiritual and a temporal sword which they say saint peter had given him by christ and that of the two luminaries the greater signifies the pope and the lesser the king one might as well infer out of the first verse of the bible that by heaven is meant the pope and by earth the king which is not arguing from scripture but a wanton insulting over princes that came in fashion after the time the popes were grown so secure of their greatness as to condemn all christian kings and treading on the necks of emperors to mock both them and the scripture in the words of the 91st song thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder the young lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under thy feet as for the rites of consecration though they depend for the most part upon the discretion and judgment of the governors of the church and not upon the scriptures yet those governors are obliged to such direction as the nature of the action itself require with as that the ceremonies words gestures be both decent and significant or at least conformable to the action when moses consecrated the tabernacle the altar and the vessels belonging to them he anointed them with oil which god had commanded to be made for that purpose exodus 40 and they were holy there was nothing exercised to drive away phantasms the same moses the civil sovereign of israel when he consecrated erin the high priest and his sons did wash them with water not exercise water put their garments upon them and anointed them with oil and they were sanctified to minister unto the lord in the priest's office which was a simple and decent cleansing and adorning them before he presented them to god to be his servants when king salomon the civil sovereign of israel consecrated the temple he had built he stood before all the congregation of israel and having blessed them he gave thanks to god for putting into the heart of his father to build it and for giving to himself the grace to accomplish the same and then prayed unto him first to accept that house though it were not suitable to his infinite greatness and to hear the prayers of his servants that should pray therein or if they were absent towards it and lastly he offered a sacrifice of peace offering and the house was dedicated second kings eight here was no procession the king stood still in his first place no exercise water no asperges me nor other impertinent application of words spoken upon another occasion but a decent and rational speech and such as in making to god a present of his new built house was most conformable to the occasion we read not that st john did exercise the water of jordan nor philip the water of the river wherein he baptized the eunuch nor that any pastor in the time of the apostles did take his spittle and put it to the nose of the person to be baptized and say in the older rooms for vititas that is for a sweet savor unto the lord wherein neither the ceremony of spittle for the uncleanness nor the application of that scripture for the levity can by any authority of man be justified end of chapter 44 part 1 recorded by j. b. ash young chapter 44 of leviathan this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org leviathan by tom's hobs chapter 44 of spiritual darkness from the misinterpretation of scripture part 2 to prove that the soul separated from the body liveth eternally not only the souls of the elect by a special grace and restoration of the eternal life which adam lost by sin and our savior restored by the sacrifice of himself to the faithful but also the souls of reprobates as a property naturally consequence to the instance of mankind without other grace of god but that which is universally given to all mankind there are diverse places which at the first sight seem sufficiently to serve the turn but such as when I compare them with that which I have before chapter 38 alleged out of the 14th of Job seemed to me much more subject to a diverse interpretation than the words of Job and first there are the words of Solomon then shall the dust return to the dust as it was and the spirit shall return to god that gave it ecclesiastes 12 7 which may bear well enough if there be no other text directly against it this interpretation that only god knows but man not what becomes of a man's spirit when he expires and the same Solomon in the same book delivereth the same sentence in the sense I have given it his words are all go to the same place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again who knoweth that the spirit of man goeth upward and that the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth I bid three twenty twenty one that is none knows but god nor is it an unusual phrase to say of things we understand not god knows what and god knows where that of Genesis five twenty four Enoch walked with god and he was not for god took him which is expounded Hebrews 11 5 he was translated that he should not die and was not found because god had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased god making as much for the immortality of the body as of the soul proveeth that this his translation was peculiar to them that please god not common to them with the wicked and depending on grace not on nature but on the contrary what interpretation shall we give besides the literal sense of the words of Solomon that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them as the one dieth so the other yay they have all one breath so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast for all is vanity I bid three nineteen by the literal sense here is no natural immortality of the soul nor yet any repugnancy with the life eternal which the elect shall enjoy by grace and better is he that hath not yet been than both they I bid four three that is then they that live or have lived which if the soul of all of them that have lived were immortal were a hard saying for them to have an immortal soul were worse than to have no soul at all and again the living know they shall die but the dead know not anything I bid nine five that is naturally and before the resurrection of the body another place which seems to make for a natural immortality of the soul is that were our savior sayeth that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are living but this is spoken of the promise of God and of their certitude to rise again not of a life then actual and in the same sense that God said to Adam that on the day he should eat of the forbidden fruit he should certainly die from that time forward he was a dead man by sentence but not by execution till almost a thousand years after so Abraham Isaac and Jacob were alive by promise then when Christ spoke but are not actually till the resurrection and the history of dives and Lazarus make nothing against this if we take it as it is for a parable but there be other places of the New Testament where an immortality seemeth to be directly attributed to the wicked for it is evident that they shall all rise to judgment and it is said besides in many places that they shall go into everlasting fire everlasting torments everlasting punishments and that the worm of conscience never dieeth and all this is comprehended in the word everlasting death which is ordinarily interpreted everlasting life in torments and yet I can find nowhere that any man shall live in torments everlastingly also it seemeth hard to say that God who is the father of mercies that doth in heaven and earth all that he will that hath the hearts of all men in his disposing that worketh in men both to do and to will and without whose free gift a man hath neither inclination to good nor repentance of evil should punish men's transgressions without any end of time with all the extremity of torture that men can imagine and more we are therefore to consider what the meaning is of everlasting fire and other the like phrases of scripture I have shown already that the kingdom of God by Christ begineth at the day of judgment that in that day the faithful shall rise again with glorious and spiritual bodies and be his subjects in that his kingdom which shall be eternal that they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage nor eat and drink as they did in their natural bodies but live forever in their individual persons without the specific eternity of generation and that the reprobates also shall rise again to receive punishments for their sins as also that those of the elect which shall be alive in their earthly bodies at that day shall have their bodies suddenly changed and made spiritual and immortal but that the bodies of the reprobate who make the kingdom of satan shall also be glorious or spiritual bodies or that they shall be as the angels of God neither eating nor drinking nor engendering or that their life shall be eternal in their individual persons as the life of every faithful man is or as the life of Adam had been if he had not sinned there is no place of scripture to prove it save only those places concerning eternal torments which may otherwise be interpreted from once maybe inferred that as the elect after the resurrection shall be restored to the estate wherein Adam was before he had sinned so the reprobate shall be in the estate that Adam and his posterity were in after the sin committed saving that God promised a redeemer to Adam and such of his seed as should trust in him and repent but not to them that should die in their sins as do the reprobate these things considered the text that mentioned the text that mentioned eternal fire eternal torments or the worm that never died contradict not the doctrine of a second and everlasting death in the proper and natural sense of the word death the fire or torments prepared for the wicked in Gehenna Tofit or in what place so ever may continue forever and there may never want wicked men to be tormented in them though not everyone nor anyone eternally for the wicked being left in the estate they were in after Adam's sin may at the resurrection live as they did marry and give in marriage and have gross and corruptible bodies as all mankind now have and consequently may engender perpetually after the resurrection as they did before for there is no place of scripture to the contrary for st. Paul speaking of the resurrection understand if it only of the resurrection to life eternal and not the resurrection to punishment first Corinthians 15 and of the first he sayeth that the body is sown in corruption raised in in corruption sown in dishonor raised in honor sown in weakness raised in power sown a natural body raised a spiritual body there is no such thing can be said of the bodies of them that rise to punishment so also our savior when he speaketh of the nature of man after the resurrection meaneth the resurrection to life eternal not to punishment the text is Luke 20 verses 34 35 and 36 a fertile text the children of the world marry and are given in marriage but they that shall be counted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die anymore for they are equal to the angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection the children of this world that are in the estate which Adam left them in shall marry and be given in marriage that is corrupt and generate successively which is an immortality of the kind but not of the persons of men they are not worthy to be counted amongst them that shall obtain the next world an absolute resurrection from the dead but only a short time as inmates of that world and to the end only to receive condine punishment for their contumacy the elect are the only children of the resurrection that is to say the soul heirs of eternal life they only can die no more it is they that are equal to the angels and that are the children of God and not the reprobate the reprobate there remaineth after the resurrection a second and eternal death between which resurrection and their second and eternal death is but a time of punishment and torment and to last by succession of sinners there unto as long as the kind of man by propagation shall endure which is eternally upon this doctrine of the natural eternity of separated souls is founded as I said the doctrine of purgatory for supposing eternal life by grace only there is no life but the life of the body and no immortality till the resurrection the text for purgatory alleged by bellarmine out of the conical scripture of the Old Testament are first the fasting of David for Saul and Jonathan mentioned 2nd Samuel 1 12 and again 2nd Samuel 3 35 for the death of Abner this fasting of David he saith was for the obtaining of something for them at God's hands after their death because after he had fasted to procure the recovery of his own child as soon as he knew it was dead he called for meat seeing then the soul half an existence separate from the body and nothing can be obtained by men's fasting for the souls that are already either in heaven or hell it followeth that there be some souls of dead men that are neither in heaven nor in hell and therefore they must be in some third place which must be purgatory and thus with hard straining he has rested those places to the proof 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 honors sake to their persons and when it is done for the death of them by whose life the mourners had benefit it proceeds from their particular damage and so David honored Saul and Abner with his fasting and in the death of his own child reconforted himself by receiving his ordinary food in the other places which he alleged out of the Old Testament there is not so much as any show or color of proof he brings in every text wherein there is the word anger or fire or burning or purging or cleansing in case any of the fathers have but in a sermon rhetorically applied it to the doctrine of purgatory already believed the first verse of Psalm 37 oh Lord rebute me not in thy wrath nor chasing 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 Psalm 66 12 we went through fire and water and thou brought us to a moist place and other the like texts with which the doctors of those times intended to adorn or extend their sermons or commentaries hailed to their purposes by force of wit but he alleged other places of the New Testament that are not so easy to be answered and first that of Matthew 12 32 whosoever speaketh the 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 judgment which is the present world and shall be destroyed by fire and the third which shall be from the day of judgment forward everlasting which is called the world to come and in which it agreed by all there should be no purgatory and therefore the world to come and purgatory are inconsistent but what then can be the meaning of those our Savior'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 suggested 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 reside it it seemed that the comparison is made between the easiness of our savior in bearing with the fences 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 me my power nay you that 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 someplace 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 not rise at all why also are they baptized for the dead first currentians 1529 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 surities 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 savior for their king it has 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 a 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 evidence 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 had the same power to give life again to a dead man and to renew his inanimate and rotten carcass into a glorious spiritual and immortal body another place is that of first Corinthians three 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 illusion 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 and power and glory that is at the day of judgment 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 apostles saith of them that holding this foundation jesus is the christ shall build there on some other doctrines that be erroneous that they shall not be consumed in the 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 they're refining or purging the relinquishing of their errors in all which there is no color at all for the burning of the incorporeal that is to say impotentable souls a third place is that of first Corinthians 1529 before mentioned concerning baptism for the dead out of which he concluded first that prayers for the dead are not unprofitable and out of that that there is a fire of purgatory but neither of them rightly for of many of the interpretations of the word baptism he approved this in the first place that by baptism is meant metaphorically a baptism of penance and that men are in this sense baptized when they fast pray and give alms and so baptism for the dead and prayer for the dead is the same thing but this is a metaphor of which there is no example neither in the scripture nor in any other use of language and which is discordant to the harmony and scope of the scripture the word baptism is used for being dipped in one's own blood as Christ was upon the cross and as most of the apostles were forgiving testimony of him mark 10 38 and Luke 12 50 but it is hard to say that prayer fasting and alms have any similitude with dipping the same is also used Matthew 3 11 which seemeth to make somewhat for a purgatory for a purging with fire but it is evident the fire and purging here mentioned is the same whereof the prophet Zechariah speaketh I will bring the third part through the fire will refine them etc Zechariah 13 9 and Saint Peter after him that the trial of your faith which is made more precious than that of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ first epistle 1 7 and Saint Paul the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is first Corinthians 3 13 but Saint Peter and Saint Paul speak of the fire that shall be at the second appearing of Christ and the prophet Zechariah of the day of judgment and therefore this place of Saint Matthew may be interpreted of the same and then there will be no necessity of the fire of purgatory another interpretation of baptism for the dead is that which I have before mentioned which he preferred to the second place of probability and then also he inferred the utility of prayer for the dead for if after the resurrection such as have not heard of Christ or not believed in him may be received into Christ's kingdom 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 faithful may convert unto him some of those that have not heard Christ preached and consequently cannot have rejected Christ that the charity of men in that point cannot be blamed yet this concluded nothing for purgatory because to rise from death to life is one thing to rise from purgatory to life is another as being arising from life to life from a life in torments to a life in joy a fourth place is that of Matthew 5 25 agree with thine adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge and the judge 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 hast paid the utter most 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 eternal life 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 ransom for all manner of sin as well lesser sins is greater crimes both being made by the passion of Christ equally venial the fifth place is that of Matthew 5 22 whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be guilty in judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother rocker shall be guilty in the council but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be guilty to hellfire from which words he inferred three sorts of sins and three sorts of punishments and that none of those sins but the last shall be punished with hellfire and consequently that after this life there is punishment of lesser sins and purgatory of which inference there is no color in any interpretation that hath yet been given of them shall there be a distinction after this life of courts of justice as there was amongst the Jews in our Savior's time to hear and determine diverse sorts of crimes as the judges and the council shall not all judicature appertain to Christ and his apostles to understand therefore this text we are not to consider it solidarily but jointly with the words precedent and subsequent our Savior in this chapter interpreted the law of moses which the Jews thought was then fulfilled when they had not transgressed the grammatical sense thereof however they had transgressed against the sentence or meaning of the legislator therefore whereas they thought the sixth commandment was not broken but by killing a man nor the seventh but when a man lay with a woman not his wife our Savior tells them the inward anger of a man against his brother if it be without just cause is homicide you have heard sayeth he the law of moses thou shall not kill and that whosoever shall kill shall be condemned before the judges or before the session of the seventy but i say unto you to be angry with one's brother without cause or to say unto him rocker or fool is homicide and shall be punished at the day of judgment and session of christ and his apostles with hell fire so that those words were not used to distinguish between diverse crimes and diverse courts of justice and diverse punishments but to tax the distinction between sin and sin which the Jews drew not from the difference of the will and obeying god but from the difference of their temporal courts of justice and to show them that he that had the will to hurt his brother though the effect appear but in reviling or not at all shall be cast into hell fire by the judges and by the session which shall be the same not different courts at the day of judgment this considered what can be drawn from this text to maintain purgatory i cannot imagine the sixth place is luke sixteen nine make you friends of the unrighteous mammon that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting tabernacles this he alleges to prove invocation of saints departed but the sense is plain that we should make friends with our riches of the poor and thereby obtain their prayers whilst they live he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the lord the seventh is luke twenty three forty two lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom therefore sayeth he there is remission of sins after this life but the consequence is not good our savior then forgave him and at his coming again in glory will remember to raise him again to life eternal the eighth is ax two twenty four where saint peters sayeth of christ that god had raised him up and loosed the pains of death because it was not possible he should beholden of it which he interprets to be a dissent of christ into purgatory to lose some souls there from their torments whereas it is manifest that it was christ that was loosed it was he that could not beholden of death or the grave and not the souls in purgatory but if that which visa says in his notes on this place be well observed there is none that will not see that instead of pains it should be bands and then there is no further cause to seek for purgatory in this text end of chapter forty four