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SOme Platonists there are who though they assigne a punishment to euery sinne, yet hold they that all such inflictions, be they humaine or diuine, in this life or in the next, tend onely to the purgation of the soule from enormities. Where-vpon Virgil hauing said of the soules;
Hinc metunt cupiuntque, &c. Hence feare, desire, &c,
And immediatly:
They that hold this, affirme that no paines at all are to be suffered after death, but onely such as purge the soules, and those shall be cleared of all their earthly con∣tagion by some of the three vpper elements, the fire, the ayre, or the water. The ayre, in that he saith, Suspensae ad ventos: the water, by the words Sub gurgite vasto; the fire is expresly named, aut exuritur igni. Now indeed wee doe confesse that there are certaine paines during this life, which do not properly afflict such as are not bettred but made worse by them, but belong onely to the reforming of such 〈◊〉〈◊〉 take them for corrections. All other paines, temporall and eternall are laid vp∣on euery one as God pleaseth, by his Angells good or bad, either for some sinne past, or wherein the party afflicted now liueth, or else to excercise and declare the vertue of his seruants. For if one man hurt another (a) willingly, or by chance, it is an offence in him to doe any man harme, by will or through igno∣rance, but God whose secret iudgement assigned it to be so, offendeth not at all. As for temporall paine, some endure it heere, and some here-after, and some both here and there, yet all is past before the last iudgement. But all shall not come in∣to these eternall paines, (which not-with-standing shall bee eternall after the last iudgment, vnto them that endure them temporally after death.) For some shal be pardoned in the world to come that are not pardoned in this, and acquitted there and not here from entring into paines eternall, as I said before.Quin vt supremo cum lumine vita reliquit, Non tamen omne mal•…•…m miseris, nec funditùs omnes Corporeae excedunt pestes, penitùsque necesse est, Multa diù concreta modis inolescere miris. Ergo exercentur poenis, veterum{que} malorum Supplicia expendunt, aliae panduntur inanes Suspensa ad ventos, aliis sub gurgite vasto Insectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni.For when the soules do leaue the bodies dead, Their miseries are not yet finished: Nor all their times of torment yet compleate: Many small crimes must needes make one thats great. Paine therefore purgeth them, and makes them faire From their old staines: some hang in duskie ayre, Some in the deepe do pay the debt of sinne, And fire is chosen to cleanse others in.
Willingly (a) or by] Willingly, that is, of set purpose, or through a wrong perswasion that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 doth him good when he hurteth him, as the torturers and murtherers of the martyrs beleeued. These were all guilty, nor wa•…•… their ignorance excuseable: which in what cases it may be held pardonable, Augustine disputeth in Quaest. vet. & Nou. Testam.