The purgatories that God hath ordained. John xv. The purgatory of the heart. sent, that this their painful purgatory was but a vain imagination, and that it hath of long time but deceived the people, and milked them from their money. Notwithstanding, God hath left us two purgatories; one to purge the heart and cleanse it from the filth which we have partly received of Adam, (for we are by nature the children of wrath, Ephes. ii.) and partly added thereto by consenting unto our natural infirmity. This purgatory is the word of God, as Christ saith, (John xv.) Now are ye clean for the word which I have spoken unto you. This purgation obtaineth no man but through faith, for the unfaithful are not purged by the word of God, as the Scribes and Pharisees were nothing the better for hearing his word, but rather the worse, for it was a testimony against them unto their condemnation. And because we rethe heart is ceive this purgation only through believing the word, therefore is the virtue of this purging applied also unto faith; for Peter saith, (Acts xv.) That the Gentiles' hearts were purged through faith, that is to say, through believing the word. And what word is that? verily the preaching that Christ's death hath fully satisfied for our sins, and pacified for ever the Father's wrath towards us, &c. This faith purifieth the heart, and giveth us a will and gladness to do whatsoever our most merciful Father commandeth us. The pur gatory of faith. The pur gatory of the members. Nevertheless, because our infirmity is so great, and our members so weak and frail that we cannot eschew sin as our heart would, and as our will desireth; therefore hath God left us another Heb. xii. The pur gatory of the members to the cross of Christ. purgatory, which is Christ's cross: I mean not his material cross that he himself died on, but a spiritual cross, which is adversity, tribulation, worldly depression, &c. And this is called the rod or scourge of God, wherewith he scourgeth every son that he receiveth, that we may remember his law, and mortify the old Adam and fleshly lust, which else would wax so rebellious that it would subdue us, reign in us, and hold us thralled under sin. Whensoever we have committed a crime, then is God present with this rod, as he saith, (Psalm Ps. lxxxix. lxxxix.) If they defile my ceremonies and not observe my commandments, then with a rod shall I punish their sins, and with beatings shall I reward their iniquities, but yet my mercy shall I not take from him, neither will I deceive him of my promise. This cross must we receive with a glad heart, and thank our loving Father for it, for it is but a medicine to heal our infirmity, and to subdue our rebellious members. But when our members are fully mortified, that is, when death hath subdued our corruptible body, and our flesh committed to rest in the earth, then cease the purgatories that God hath ordained, and then are we fully purged in his sight. God nailthe cross to infirmities. eth us to heal our So evil was the Papists, the life of that they imagined If our clergy could have found in their hearts to have taken these purgatories upon them, they had never needed to imagine any other; but since their life began to wax so dissolute, specially since a purgatory they should be the salt of the earth and lanterns of light, it was necessary for them to imagine purgatory after this life, for else they might be for them selves. The wis dom of the world fool ishness afore God. sure that the most part of them were never like Judge, Christian reader, which hast the spirit to Judge, and confer the Scriptures which Sir Thomas More and my Lord of Rochester allege for their opinion, and I doubt not but that God shall open thine eyes to espy that thing which hath blinded them. Judge, and compare the Scriptures together which I have brought to confirm my purpose; ponder their reasons and my solutions unto them, and I am sure thou shalt perceive that my small learning hath condemned their high eloquence, that my folly hath brought to nought their wisdom, and that my youth hath disclosed their old and festered ignorance. And this is even the old practice of God: to choose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, to choose the weak to confound the mighty, and to choose the vile things, which are of no reputation, to confound them of high degree; that no flesh might boast itself in his sight, to whom only be praise and thanks for ever. Amen. H A PROLOGUE, WHEREBY A MAN MAY THE BETTER PERCEIVE THE OCCASION AND WHOLE CAUSE OF THIS BOOK. the maker of the book of the Supplication of Beggars. THERE was a brother of ours, named Simon Fish, Simon Fish (which now, I trust, resteth in God's hands) whose eyes God had opened, not only to espy the wily walking of hypocrites and ruin of the realm, which through their means was nigh at hand, but also to mark and ponder the peril of men's souls, and how that the ignorant people, by their seduction, was fallen into that frantic imagination, that they more feared the Pope and his decrees, which are but vanity, than God himself and his law, which are most righteous and eternal. This man, therefore, of a fervent and burning zeal that he bare to the wealth of the commonalty, brake out and touched these hypocrites, in a little treatise, which he called The Supplication of Beggars, willing that we should give the abundance of our riches unto the poor, to whom it is due by the law of God, and that we should no longer suffer ourselves to be despoiled and robbed of a sight of sturdy lubbers, which under a false cloak of virtue and prayer, deceive the poor of their living, and both the poor and the rich of their souls' health, if credence be given unto them. Our riches are to be be stowed on the poor. there is no And where these wily foxes would have pretended Either the cloak of purgatory, affirming that it were due unto purgatory, them, because they pray for their friends' souls that else the Pope is they might come to rest; he answered unto that point merciless. preventing their objection, and proved that either there could be no such purgatory, or else that the Pope were a merciless tyrant, which (as he saith himself) may deliver them from thence, and will not except he have Whereat M. More to fume against such as deny purgatory. Rastell fol loweth M. More. money. At this point began M. More to fume, and first began took upon himself to be proctor for purgatory, (I will not say that he was hired thereto of our spiritualty, although many men dare swear it,) and to confirm his purpose, he wrested sore the Scriptures, and triumpheth also that the very miscreants and idolaters believe that there is a purgatory. He addeth thereto (to establish his matter withal) that there is no man which believeth that there is a God, and that the soul of man is immortal, but he must needs grant that there is a purgatory. There took Rastell his hold, which is a Printer, dwelling at Paul's Gate in London, and of Master More's alliance, which also coveteth to counterfeit his kinsman, although the beams of his brains be nothing so radiant nor his conveyance so commendable in the eyes of the wise. Notwithstanding this, Rastell hath enterprised to dilate this matter, and hath divided it into three Dialogues, imagining that two men dispute this matter by natural reason and philosophy, secluding Christ and The names all scripture. The one of them (that should dispute this matter) he calleth Gingemin, and feigneth him to be a Turk, and of Mahomet's law. The second he nameth Comingo, an Almany, and of Christ's faith. And he maketh the Turk to teach the Christian man what he should believe. of the dis puters in the matter of purga. tory. The sum and contents of Rastell's three dialogues. The first Dialogue goeth about to prove by reason that there is a God, which is merciful and righteous. The second intendeth to prove, that the soul of a man is immortal. Against these two dialogues I will not dispute, partly because this treatise should not be over long and tedious, and partly because that those two points, which he there laboureth to prove, are such as no Christian man will deny; (although many of his probations are so slender, that they may well be improved.) But as concerning his third Dialogue, wherein he would prove purgatory, it is wholly injurious unto the blood of Christ, and the destruction of all Christian faith, if |