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 hath 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 wrested 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 honour’s 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 honoured Saul and Abner with his fasting; and in the death of his own child, recomforted himself by receiving his ordinary food.