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present with Christ as the immediate consequence of death, and far better * than this life: therefore, the state of those, who die in the Lord, is now a state, not of insensibility, but happiness: wherein they are blessed, in resting from their labours †; and doubtless rejoice, with joy unspeakable and full of glory, in the prospect of that completer felicity, which the righteous judge of all will hereafter give them.

For as to the pretence of a purgatory, where the greatest part of good persons are to suffer grievous temporal punishments, after death, for their sins, though the eternal punishment is remitted: it hath no ground in the least. Our Saviour's saying, that the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven in this world or that which is to come §, is merely saying, it shall not be forgiven at all, but punished both here and hereafter. The prison, out of which, he saith, the person, who agrees not with his brother, shall not come, till he hath paid the last farthing ||; is either a literal prison of this world, or the prison of hell in the next, out of which the contentious and uncharitable shall never come, for they can never pay the last farthing. The spirits in prison, to whom St. Peter saith, Christ by his spirit preached, he saith also, were the disobedient in the days of Noah *, with whom his spirit strovet, whilst they were on this earth : and who for their disobedience were sent, not to purgatory, but to a worse confinement. When St. Paul bids men take heed, how they build on the foundation of Christianity; adding, that the fire shall try every man's work; and if any man's work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss; but still shall be saved, yet so as by fire: he means, that persons must not mix doctrines of their own invention with the Gospel of Christ, which in this instance, amongst others, those of the Church of Rome have done; for when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire §, to judge the world, such notions will not stand the trial; they that hold them will be losers by them; and though still they may be saved, it will be with difficulty and danger: as a person escapes, when his house is burning. When, lastly, many of the ancient Christians prayed for the dead; besides that they had no warrant for so doing, it was only for the completion of their happiness, whom they apprehended to be already in Paradise: it was for the apostles, saints, and martyrs: for the blessed Virgin herself: whom they certainly did not think to be in purgatory. And observe, if they prayed for them, they did not pray to them. Purgatory then is nothing, but an imaginary place, invented by men, to give bad persons hope, and good persons dread of being put into it; that they may get what they can from both, by pretending to deliver them out of it again. Fear not, therefore, such vain terrors. The souls of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord : and there shall no torment touch them *.

*2 Cor. v. 8. ‡ 1 Pet. i. 8.

Phil. i. 23.

† Rev. xiv. 13.

§ Matt. xii. 31, 32.

|| Matt. v. 26.

* 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, 20.
$1 Cor. iii. 10-15.

† Gen. vi. 3.
§ 2 Thess. i. 7, 8.

Those of the wicked, on the contrary, as they are to be hereafter with the devils, we may justly believe are, like them, now delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment†; and though the worst of their sufferings shall not begin till the day of judgment comes, yet are they represented by our Saviour, as being, instantly after death, in a place where they are tormented; and undoubtedly the loss of their past pleasures and gains, remorse for their past follies and crimes, despair of pardon, and the fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour them §, cannot but make their intermediate state intensely miserable: and what then will their final one be! God grant, that thinking frequently and

* Wisd. iii. 1. Luke xvi. 25.

† 2 Pet. ii. 4. § Heb. x. 27.

seriously of these awful subjects, we may know and consider, in this our day, the things that belong to our peace, before they are for ever hid from our eyes*.

* Luke xix. 42.

CHAPTER XI.

BUTLER.

It is somewhat remarkable that two such eminent prelates in the English Church as Butler and Secker, the one born in 1692, the other in 1693, should both have been bred among Dissenters from that Church. Butler was intended by his father for the ministry among the Presbyterians. But whilst yet very young, he examined closely the principles of the Dissenters, and rejected them for the doctrines of the Church of England. The powers of his mind were great, clear, and comprehensive; and, from his deep learning and pious regard for virtue and religion, arose that excellent and immortal work entitled, The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed.

The first chapter of that work treats "Of a future Life," and, as from the continuous chain of argument which connects together the whole of this chapter, it is difficult, without grievous muti

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