pains of Purgatory by his prayers; and that the same sister had appeared unto him, begging of him that relief and favour.

"And St. Bernard himself by his intercession freed another, who had suffered a whole year the pains of Purgatory; as William, Abbot, writes in his life."-Flowers of the Lives of the Saints, p. 830.

These instances among others are adduced by Bellarmine: and he adds, " plura similia legi possunt apud, &c. . . . . sed quæ attulimus, sunt magis authentica.”—i. 11.

2. Proofs from the Old and New Testaments.

Bellarmine adduces the following texts from the Old and New Testaments; in doing which he must not be supposed to mean, that each of them contains in itself the evidence of relevancy and availableness, or could be understood without some authoritative interpretation; only, if it is asked, "is Purgatory the doctrine of Holy Scripture, and where?" he would answer, that in matter of fact it is taught in the following passages, according to the explanations of them found in various writers of consideration.

1. 2 Macc. xii. 42—45. "Besides that noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forsomuch as they saw before their eyes the things that come to pass for the sins of those that were slain. And when he had made a gathering throughout the company to the sum of two thousand drachms of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem, to offer a sin offering, doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the Resurrection; for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. And also, in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin."

2. Tob. iv. 17. "Pour out thy bread on the burial of the just, but give nothing to the wicked; that is, at the burial of the just, give alms; which were given to gain for them the prayers of the poor.

3. 1 Sam. xxxi. 13. "And they took their bones," [of Saul and his sons,]" and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days." Vid. also 2 Sam. i. 12. iii. 35. This fasting was an offering for their souls.

4. Ps. xxxviii. 1. "O LORD, rebuke me not in Thy wrath; neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure." By wrath is meant Hell; by hot displeasure, Purgatory.

5. Ps. lxvi. 12. "We went through fire and through water, but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place" (refrigerium). Water is Baptism; fire is Purgatory.

6. Is. iv. 4.

"When the Lord shall have washed away the

filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning."

7. Is. ix. 18. "Wickedness burneth as the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns."

8. Mic. vii. 8, 9. "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness."

9. Zech. ix. 11. "As for Thee also, by the blood of Thy covenant, I have sent forth Thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water." This text is otherwise taken to refer to the Limbus Patrum.

10. Mal. iii. 3. "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver," &c.

From the New Testament he adduces the following texts:

1. Matt. xii. 32. "Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come;" that means, "neither in Purgatory," for in hell the very supposition of forgiveness is excluded.

2. 1 Cor. iii. 15.

fire."

66

He himself shall be saved; yet so as by

3. 1 Cor. xv. 29. "Else what shall they do, which are bap tized," i. e. who undergo the baptism of tears and humiliation, who pray, fast, give alms, &c. for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?"

4. Matt. v. 25, 26.-Luke xii. 58, 59. "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." By the way, is meant this present life; by the adversary, the Law; by the Judge, our Saviour; by the officer, or executioner, the Angels; by the prison, Purgatory.

5. Matt. v. 22. "Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the Council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Here are three kinds of punishments spoken of. Hell belongs to the next world; therefore also do the other two. Hence there are in the next world, besides eternal punishment, punishments short of eternal.

6. Luke xvi. 9. "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." To fail, is to die; the friends are the Saints in glory, and they receive us, i. e. from Purgatory, in consequence of their prayers. 7. Luke xxiii. 42. 66 Lord, remember me, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." That is, there is a remembrance and a remission of sin, not only in this life, but after it, in Christ's future kingdom.

8. Acts ii. 24. "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death (inferi); because it was not possible that He should be holden of it." Christ Himself was released from no pains on being raised, nor were the ancient Fathers in the Limbus; nor were lost souls released at all. Therefore the pains which God loosed, were those of souls in Purgatory.

9. Phil. ii. 10. "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." Vid. also Rev. v. 3. "And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon."

Now as to many of these texts, we who have not been educated in the belief of Purgatory, may well wonder how they come to be enlisted in support of Purgatory at all. This may be explained in some such way as the following,-which may be of use in helping us to understand the state of mind under which the Romanists view them. It is obvious, as indeed has been already remarked, that they do not of themselves prove the doctrine, nor are they chosen by Bellarmine himself, but given on the authority of writers of various times. Could indeed competent evidence be brought from other quarters, that the doctrine really was true and Apostolical, we should not unreasonably have believed that some of them did allude to it; especially if writers of name, who might speak from tradition, so considered. We could not have taken upon ourselves to say at first sight that it cer tainly was not contained in them, only we should have waited for evidence that it was. Some of the texts in question are obscure, and seem to desiderate a meaning; and so far it is a sort of gain when they have any meaning assigned them, as though they were unappropriated territory which the first comer might seize. Again, the coincidence of several of them in one and the same mode of expression, implies that they have a common drift, whatever that drift is,-that there is something about them which seems to have reference to secrets untold to man. Amid these dim and broken lights, the text in the Apocrypha first quoted, comes as if to combine and steady them. All this is said by way of analysing how it is that such a class of texts, though of so little cogency critically, has that influence with individuals, which

it certainly sometimes has. The reason seems to be that the doctrine of Purgatory professes to interpret text which God's word has left in obscurity. Yet, whatever be the joint force of such arguments from Scripture, in favour of the doctrine, it vanishes surely, at once and altogether, before one single clear text, such as the following: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours." Or again, if any one is destined to endure Purgatory for the temporal punishment of sins, one should think it would be persons circumstanced as the thief on the cross,-a dying penitent; yet to him it is expressly said, " Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in Paradise."

3. Proofs from Antiquity.

After Scripture, Bellarmine brings the testimony of early Churches in Council, as follows:

1. The African Church: "Let the Altar Sacrament be celebrated fasting; if, however, there be any Commendation of the Dead made in the afternoon, let prayers only be used."-Conc. Carth. IV. c. 79.

2. The Spanish enjoins that suicides should not be prayed for, &c.-Conc. Bracar. I. c. 39.

3. The Gallic: "It has seemed fit, that in all celebrations of the Eucharist, the Lord shall be interceded with in a suitable place in Church, for the spirits of the dead.”—Conc. Cabilon.

4. The German defines, (Conc. Wormat. c. 10.) that prayers and offerings should be made even for those who are executed.

5. The Italic declares (Conc. VI. under Symmachus), that it is sacrilege to defraud the souls of the dead of prayer, &c. 6. The Greek in like manner.

Moreover, the Liturgies of St. James, St. Basil, &c. all contain prayers for the dead.

Now these professed instances are here enumerated in order to show how plainly and entirely they fall short of the point to be proved. Not one of them implies the doctrine of Purgatory; or goes beyond the doctrine which Archbishop Ussher (vide Tract 72.) has shown to have existed in the early Church, that the Saints departed were not at once in their full happiness, and that prayers benefitted them. One of these instances indeed is somewhat remarkable, the allowing prayers for malefactors executed; but all were the subject of prayer who were not excluded from hope, and malefactors are, even by us, admitted to Holy Communion, and are allowed the Burial Service. To pray for them was merely the expression of hope.

Next, Bellarmine appeals to the Fathers, of whom I shall only

cite those within the first five hundred years; viz. Tertullian, Cyprian, Eusebius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Jerome, Chrysostom, Paulinus, Augustine, Theodoret, and one or two others. Now in order to keep the point in controversy elearly in view, let it be recollected that we are not disputing the existence in the Ritual of the Church, of the custom of praying for the dead in Christ; but why prayer was offered was a question in dispute, a point unsettled by any Catholic tradition, but variously treated by various Doctors at various times. There is nothing contrary to the genius of religion, natural and revealed, that duties should be prescribed, yet the reasons for them not told us, as Bishop Butler has abundantly showed; and the circumstance that the ancients do agree in the usage, but differ as to the reasons, shows that the reasons were built upon the usage, not the usage on the reasons. And while this variety of opinions in the early Church, as to the meaning of the usage, forfeits for any one of these any claim to be considered apostolical, of course it deprives the doctrine of Purgatory of authority inclusively, even supposing for argument's sake it was received by some early writers as true. Purgatory is but a violent hypothesis to give meaning to a usage, for which other hypotheses short of it and very different from it, and equally conjectural with it, may be assigned, nay, and were assigned before it, and far more extensively. Let it be remembered then, when the following list of passages, professedly in behalf of Purgatory, is read, that, what we have to look for, is, not evidence of a certain usage, which we grant did exist, but of an opinion, of a particular opinion explaining it; not of Prayer for the dead simply, nor of the opinion that Prayer for the dead profits, but that such Prayer is intended and tends to rescue them from a state of suffering. Further what we look for is not the testimony of one or two writers to the truth of this opinion, even if one or two could be brought, but an agreement of all in its favour. If, however, it be said that the usage of Prayer in itself tends to the doctrine of Purgatory, I answer, that so far from it, in its primitive form it included prayers for the Virgin Mary and Apostles, which, while retained, were an indirect but forcible standing witness against the doctrine.

Tertullian, in his de Corona, 3. speaks of "oblationes pro defunetis," offerings for the dead.

Again, "Let her" [the widow] "pray for the soul of" [her deceased husband] "and ask for him a place of refreshment in the interval before the judgment, and a fellowship in the first resurrection, and let her offer on the anniversary of his falling to sleep."-De Monogam. 10. Vid. also de Pudicit.

Cyprian. "The Bishops our predecessors... decreed that no one dying should nominate clerics as guardians or executors, and if any one had done this, no offering should be made for him, or