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GOD'S BUILDING. THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.

iv. 17, 18. When tribulation and persecution arise because of the Word, then all those combustible materials shall be consumed; and only those which are fire-proofthe gold, silver, and precious stone-will remain; and they will pass the ordeal, freed from their dross, and fused into more intimate union. Such, dear friend, is the meaning of this passage. There are many of a similar nature, to which I could refer you did my space permit. I entreat your attention to one concluding remark bearing on the doctrine of purgatory. From the analysis of the text which I have just submitted to your attention, it is quite clear that the apostle means persons, and not their principles or their actions, when he speaks of that which is built on the foundation. worthy members are represented by the wood, hay, and stubble. materials, in passing through the fire, are utterly destroyed-reduced to a heap of ashes. They are not cleansed, purified, or in any way improved, but totally consumed! But the purgatorial fire is not destructive, but corrective; its tendency is not to dissolve, but to purify–not to ruin, but to renovate. Therefore, the fire spoken of by Paul is not the fire of purgatory.

Un

Now these

One other assumed authority remains to be considered. This is 1 Peter iii. 19, 20—“ By which he went and preached to the spirits in prison." This prison, it is confidently alleged, is purgatory. But this interpretation is, according to a learned writer, " entirely modern, and was utterly unknown to the ancients. The exposition is not to be found in all the ponderous tomes of the Fathers."

،، The prison is hell, in which those who, in the days of Noah, were incredulous, were, in the time of Peter, incarcerated for their unbelief. These spirits were, prior to the flood, in the body and on earth; but in the apostolic age were consigned to the place of endless punishment. To these Jesus before his death preached, not in his humanity, but in his divinity: not by his own but by Noah's ministry. He inspired the antedeluvian patriarch to preach righteousness to a degenerate people. He officiated, says Calinet, not in person, but by his Spirit, which he communicated to Noah. Augustine among the ancients, and Acquinas among the schoolmen, were the great patrons of this interpretation; and the African saint and the angelic doctor have been followed by Beza, Hessel, Calmet, and many other commentators both in the Romish and Reformed communions."*

If the prison here spoken of mean purgatory, then these spirits must have been tortured 2,500 years! But one should think that it only required a glance to see that this text gives no countenance to a middle place of punishment. The disobedient spirits, that were not led to repentance by the longsuffering of God, and the preaching of Noah, but in the midst of their enormous guilt and iron-hearted impenitence, were swept from the earth by the deluge surely these spirits did not go to purgatory! They died in mortal sin, and must have gone to hell: for if they escaped the place of the damned, for what class of sinners was it intended? f

* Edgar's Variations of Popery, page 450.

This reasoning is fully borne out by the Douay version. What in our translation is rendered "disobedient" is there "incredulous." Now, incredulity is unbelief, and your Church declares that "without faith it is impossible to be saved;" therefore those who were

PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD.-PRAYERS FOR THE DAMNED.

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These remarks also apply to the quotation from Maccabees. A contribution was made to have prayers offered for the Jews who fell in battle in connexion with which it is said to be "a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." But these men died under the unrepented guilt of idolatry, which is a damning sin.

They found under the garments of the slain gifts consecrated to the idols of Jamnia; it was therefore evident to all that this was the cause of their destruction."* Surely, persons smitten by God for the crime of idolatry do not go to purgatory! But if not, this passage cannot be alleged in support of any such place, even were the book from which it is taken possessed of any authority, which I deny; but my reasons I must defer till another opportunity. During the first 200 years of the Christian era, many of the Fathers wrote on the state of the dead, and while they speak at large on the bliss of heaven and the woes of hell, they never mention an intermediate state of punishment. Prayers for the dead were, indeed, in use long before the modern purgatory was thought of. But these prayers were offered for the most eminent saints, for prophets, apostles, evangelists, and martyrs, and even for the blessed Virgin herself, as appears from the ancient liturgies. The object of these prayers was not to deliver them from the pains of a fancied purgatory, but to increase their enjoyment in the bowers of the celestial paradise. No Roman Catholic will say that Mary, the mother of Jesus, went to purgatory, she being, according to them, immaculate and sinless. Yet for many centuries her soul was regularly prayed for. It follows, that the practice of praying for the dead does not prove the belief of the early Christians in the existence of a purgatory.

The gradual introduction of superstition into the Christian Church was marked by the custom of praying, not only for the redeemed in heaven, but for the damned in hell, that the joys of the former might be augmented, and the tortures of the latter alleviated. But they had no notion that the sufferer could ever be released from his prison.

Something like the Papal purgatory may be traced among the ancient heathens-in the philosophy of Plato, the oratory of Cicero, and the poetry of Virgil.t But until the days of Origen, who flourished in the fourth century, it was unknown to the Church of Christ. And the visionary speculations of this erratic Father differed very much indeed from the dogmas on this point which the modern Church of Rome deems orthodox. He fancied that all saints and sinners alike, not excepting "the mother of God" herself, would be compelled to pass through the general conflagration at the last day. incredulous in the days of Noah were damned in the days of Christ. This is not merely an argumentum ad hominem; for it is clear from Rom. xi. 30, Gr. and other passages, that the word translated "disobedient" includes in it the idea of obstinate unbelief.

*"Invenerunt autem sub tunicis interfectorum de donariis idolorum, quæ apud Jamniam fuerunt omnibus ergo manifestum factum est, ob hane causam eos corruisse"-2 Mac. xii. In the next verse they bless "the just judgment of the Lord."

40.

† See particularly the 6th Book of Virgil's Æneid.

108 PRAYERS FOR THE DAMNED.-ST. HILARY'S PURGATORY.-IMAGES.

Thus his fiery ordeal would not commence till the time when the modern purgatory is supposed to terminate; and he fancied it would try and purify all the human family, with the single exception of the Son of God! Many of the most distinguished Fathers and schoolmen adopted this theory ; ̧ but is it not palpably unjust to quote their reveries on such a subject, in favour of the Romish purgatory? Does not the merest tyro at once perceive that such reasoning is grossly illogical. What think you, then, of the author of "Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion," who concludes his authorities on this point by the following sentence :-" With similar views it was maintained by St. Hilary (and Origen seems to have been of the same opinion) that, after the day of judgment, all—even the blessed VIRGIN HERSELF-must alike pass through this fire, to purify them from their sins What an admirable finishing argument in favour of Roman Catholic purgatory!! And so the blessed Virgin herself is, according to St Hilary,* to pass through purgatory after the day of judgment, in order to be purified from her sins! Verily, this is new doctrine for the "Catholics of Ireland!” I tremble for the orthodoxy of the "Bard of Erin." But poets do not make the best theologians; and there is in the Edinburgh Review an article on the ancient Fathers, ascribed to Mr. Moore, which shows that that gentleman has no more reverence for those personages than

Your faithful Friend.

LETTER XV I.

MY DEAR FRIEND,-You are asked, in the "Grounds of the Catholic Doctrine," ," "Do you not pray to images ?" And you are taught to answer, "No, we do not; because, as both our catechism and common sense teach us, they can neither see, nor hear, nor help us."

So your Church is ready to appeal to common sense when she fancies its evidence favourable to her claims; but she scruples not to thrust it out of court when it ventures to lift up its voice against her. This is not fair. If

a witness be entitled to a hearing on one side, why not on the other? If common sense teaches you that a picture can neither see, nor hear, nor help you, the same common sense teach that the host can "neither see, nor hear, nor help you." Your Church admits the authority of the senses, and pleads it in her favour in some cases; with what show of consistency, then, can she

*Such is the unanimous consent of the Fathers! An ignis fatuus!-which an Irish peasant must pursue, through hundreds of folios in Greek and Latin, before he can receive any meaning from such language as this:-"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." -1 John i. 7. Verily it is a guide "which leads to bewilder."

IMAGES. IMAGE OF GOD.

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place her interdict on their exercise in other cases which come immediately within their proper sphere?

The Greek Church, in the eighth century, strongly opposed the introduction of images as objects of religious veneration in the churches. But the superstitious Latins were determined, at all hazards, to decorate the sanctuary with those "helps to devotion." If the devotion be genuine, images can perform towards it only the part of the parasite, consuming the vitality of that which they are expected to cherish. But, indeed, they can help that devotion only of which the fruitful mother is Ignorance. This is frankly

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avowed, or at least implied, in the Roman Catholic apologies for their use. They are the books of the ignorant." Truly they are; and none but a grossly ignorant people could rely upon their assistance.

I have already adverted to the tendency of the human mind to frame for itself a palpable divinity. The thought of an INFINITE SPIRIT overpowers our feeble minds; and, immersed as we are in the cares of the world, we cannot, without a painful effort, rise to the contemplation of excellence in the abstract. Hence the children of fallen Adam "did not like to retain God in their knowledge." They "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things-Rom. i. 23. To this weakness of our nature, so prone to run out into criminal excess, God has graciously condescended in the gift of his Son. He is "the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person; but the effulgence of that glory is so softened and shaded by the veil of humanity, that, without dazzling the mind, it enlightens and cheers the heart. In the person of Christ, as GOD manifested in the flesh, we have a living illustration of the attributes and character of the Deity. In him GOD descends from his "topless throne," and, divesting himself of the "form" of his eternal Majesty, assumes the condition of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, humbles himself unto death, even the death of the cross. Here, then, is an impersonation of all that is lovely and excellent, on which the mind may dwell with never-ending delight! "Whom," says Peter, "having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory-1 Peter i. 8. Do you want an image an "express image "of the invisible God? Behold the man Christ Jesus! Do you want a memorial of the crucified Redeemer-a remembrancer of the triumphant but absent Mediator? Go to the table of the Lord, and consider what that meaneth. The bread broken and the wine poured out will affectingly remind you of the dying compassion of Him whom having not seen you love. Here is the only picture of Christ! How simple, yet how sublime, is this monument of redemption! More durable than brass, it can neither be corroded by time nor destroyed by power. The pyramids of Egypt have ceased to tell the story of their birth, or the fame of their founder; the ingenuity of the learned cannot extort the meaning of their hieroglyphic inscriptions. But this ordinance is established for perpetuity;

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THE LORD'S SUPPER.-HELPS TO DEVOTION.

and, so long as the sun and the moon endure, its motto—“THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME"-so simple in form, so pregnant in meaning, will be intelligible to every kindred, and tribe, and tongue, of the human family.

"This do in remembrance of me." Memory, my friend, refers to the absent and the past. To talk of remembering the present is absurd. You have just read that Peter speaks of Jesus as unseen. He cannot, therefore, be visible on the altar, as your Church contends. The priest offers up Christ to commemorate the offering of Christ! A father murders his son in remembrance of the murder of his son! What superlative absurdity! No, my dear friend; we walk by faith and not by sight. We know that Jesus is in heaven, crowned with glory; but his memorials are with us here below. By the senses we perceive bread and wine: there is no other substance; no human body concealed under their “accidents.” But we look through these shadows to the glorious Reality, "whom the heavens must receive till the restitution of all things." By faith we discern the Lord's body in this ordinance. We recognise its object, enter into its spirit, feel its sacredness, and realise the blessings so beautifully pourtrayed in its expressive emblems. If by discerning the Lord's body be meant a literal perception of it by the senses no such thing takes place. Roman Catholics do not pretend to see, or feel, or taste anything but a mixture of flour and water. These they discern, but nothing more. There is no real presence of the body of Christ in the Lord's Supper; that is in no sense or form anywhere present but in heaven. Some Protestants write vaguely on this subject; but if they attended more to Scripture than to old treatises on divinity, they would be more cautious in speaking of a "real presence." To discern the Lord's body is religiously to bear in mind the sacred commemorative character of the institution. The disorderly Corinthians failed to do this: they seem to have used the sanctified elements as a common meal, and were, therefore, strongly censured by the apostle.

Let Roman Catholics, then, abandon the untenable dogma of Transubstantiation; let them return to the primitive custom, and give bread and wine to the people; let them regard the ordinance as a remembrancer of the death of Christ—a remembrancer impressively significant of his atoning sufferings, and the effects which flow from them-reconciliation with God and the communion of saints. Let them do this, and they will require no other image of Christ.

Your Church is very inconsistent. At one time the senses are all naught -vile and treacherous deceivers: at another, they are the most excellent helps of devotion--the wings of the soul, by which she soars in her seraphic contemplations to the very gates of heaven. "The sight of a good picture or image, for example, of Christ upon the cross, helps to enkindle devotion in our hearts." So says the "Grounds of the Catholic Doctrine."

But where

The presence of Christ, and of the body of Christ, are distinct questions, but too often confounded.