virtues or vices, shall we receive reward for our virtues, and those trespasses be forgiven to us which we knowingly committed; or shall we be punished for our faults, and not receive the reward of our virtues ?" that is, if there be in our account a mixture of good and evil, shall we be rewarded for the good, without any account being taken of the evil; or shall we be punished for the evil without an account being taken of the good? "Neither is true; because we shall suffer for our sins, and receive the rewards of our good actions. For if, on the foundation of Christ, you shall build, not only gold, and silver, and precious stones, but also wood, and hay, and stubble, what do you expect, when the soul shall be separated from the body? Would you enter into heaven with your wood, and hay, and stubble, to defile the kingdom of God; or, on account of those circumstances, remain without, and receive no reward for your gold, and silver, and precious stones? Neither is this just. It remains, then, that you be committed to the fire, which shall consume the light materials, for our God, to those who can comprehend heavenly things, is called a consuming fire.' But this fire consumes not the creature, but what he has built himself, the wood, and hay, and stubble. It is manifest, then, that the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions, and then returns to us the reward of our good works." Therefore, according to this most learned father, who lived two hundred years after Christ, when the soul is separated from the body, there are lighter transgressions to be condemned, and the fire will purge away these lighter materials as we call them, and thus prepares the soul for entering into heaven.

St. Basil writes upon the words of Isaiah, Through the wrath of the Lord is the land burned,' and says, "These words declare, that things that are earthly shall be made the food of a punishing fire, to the end that the soul may receive favour and be benefitted" and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire'-"This is not a threat of extermination, but it denotes expurgation, according to the expression of the apostle—' If any man's works burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.'" The same doctrine precisely as I have delivered, and which you see was delivered by one of the fathers—the fire is not one of extermination, but denotes expurgation, whereby the soul is cleansed from smaller stains.

St. Ephrem, of Edessa, the earliest writer that we have in the oriental church, writes thus in his Testament: "My brethren, come to me and prepare me for my departure, for my strength is wholly gone : go along with me in psalms and in your prayers, and constantly make oblations for me. When the thirtieth day shall be completed"-the very day that is observed with particular solemnity in the Catholic church at the present day in praying for the dead—“ when thirty days shall be completed, then remember me; for the dead are helped by the

offerings of the living. If also the sons of Mathathias, who celebrated their feast in figure only, could cleanse those from guilt by their offerings who fall in battle, how much more shall the priests of Christ aid the dead by their oblations and prayers." In the same century St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, says, speaking of the liturgy of the church, "Then we pray for the holy fathers and Bishops that are dead, and, in short, for all those who are departed this life in our communion; believing that the souls of those, for whom the prayers are offered, receive very great relief while this holy and tremendous victim lies upon the altar." St. Gregory, of Nyssa, contrasts the course which God pursues in this world with that which he follows in the next. He says, "In the present life God allows man to remain subject to what himself has chosen; that having tasted of the evil which he desired, and learned by experience how bad an exchange has been made, he might again feel an ardent wish to lay down the load of those vices and inclinations which are contrary to reason; and thus, in this life, being renovated by prayer and the pursuit of wisdom; or, in the next, being expiated by the purging fire, he might recover the state of happiness which he had lost. When he has quitted the body, and the difference between virtue and vice is known, he cannot be admitted to approach the Divinity till the purging fire shall have expiated the stains with which his soul was infected. That same fire, in others, will cancel the corruption and the propensity to evil." St. Ambrose, throughout the whole of his works, has innumerable passages almost on this subject, and quotes again the same text from the first epistle to the Corinthians, which you have heard quoted by two or three of the other fathers." If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." In writing his funeral oration upon the two Valentians, he says, "Blessed shall you both be, if my prayers can avail you any thing; no moment shall pass in which I will not make honourable mention of you-no moment in which you shall not partake of my prayers." St. Jerome writes, "As we believe the torments of the devil, and of those wicked men, who said in their hearts there is no God,' to be eternal; so, in regard to those sinners who have not denied the faith, and whose works will be proved and purged by fire, we conclude that the sentence of the Judge will be tempered by mercy." I only quote from one other father, St. Augustine, "The prayers of the church, or of good persons, are heard in favour of those Christians who departed this life, not so bad as to be deemed unworthy of mercy, nor so good as to be entitled to immediate happiness. So also, at the resurrection of the dead, there will some be found to whom merey will be imparted, having gone through those pains to which the spirits of the dead are liable." In another passage he quotes the words of St. Paul, and then observes," If they had built gold and silver, and

precious stones, they would be secure from both fires; not only from that in which the wicked shall be punished for ever, but likewise from that fire which will purify those who shall be saved by fire. But because it is said he shall be saved,' that fire is thought lightly of, though the suffering will be more grievous than any man can undergo in this life." These passages contain precisely, word for word, the same doctrine which the Catholic church holds; and had I introduced them in my discourse, without telling you from whom they were taken, I am sure that no one would, for a moment, have supposed, that I was delivering any thing but the doctrines taught by the Catholic church. Certainly, it is impossible to suppose the doctrine of these writers to be the same as that of any other religion than ours in this kingdom.

I observed, that there was one text which I passed over because I might make some remarks upon it hereafter; it is not so much for the purpose of discussing whether it applies to purgatory or not, as to show how easily misstatements may be made regarding the grounds of our doctrines. Four or five of the fathers, whom I have quoted, apply to purgatory that illustration given by St. Paul, of a man building upon the true foundation, which is Christ Jesus, either on the one hand gold, silver, and precious stones, or, on the other, wood, hay, and stubble; seeing that the fire shall try every man's work, and that which will burn will be destroyed, so that the foundation shall remain. The four or five fathers whom I have quoted refer this to purgatory; yet a very late writer, commenting upon the Catholic doctrine, quotes this very text as an example, he says, of how "the papists pervert Scripture to prove their doctrine, for they base their doctrine of purgatory upon this text of Scripture, which has nothing at all to do with any punishment hereafter, but only the tribulation and the sorrows which men endured on earth." This is a manifest misrepresentation, because it puts the author in this dilemma, either to say that the Papists were not the first to turn this text, or else it would prove the doctrine of purgatory, or else the whole of those fathers whom I have quoted are to be classified under this name, and that they are to be considered as holding also the Popish or Catholic doctrine in this regard. It is no matter whether the text may be referred to purgatory or not; but it is a very important text thus far, as showing St. Paul's doctrine, regarding the method of Providence, as to sin; that is, it distinguishes those more grievous errors or transgressions, which are completely in opposition to the foundation of Christ, from those which are of lesser moment; and it allows there are means of temporary probation, which have to do with purging or cancelling that which is less perfect, but which, at the same time, is not completely in opposition to God's law.

Such, therefore, are some of the many proofs which I might have brought in favour of this doctrine. I need hardly observe, that there is

not a single liturgy existing, whether we look back to the most ancient, or examine those used in the most distant parts of the world, in which the same doctrine is not laid down. In all the oriental liturgies there is a passage, as in our mass, in which the priest or bishop is desired to pray for the souls of the faithful departed. There was, in all the ancient churches, a table kept, whereon the names of the bishops were enrolled, and others in communion, for the express purpose, though they were dead, of being commemorated in the sacrifice of the mass, and the prayers of the faithful.

I need hardly make any observation on the word Purgatory; the very name itself is generally made one of the topics of abuse, because it is not to be found in Scripture. But I would ask, where is the term Trinity to be discovered in Scripture? Where is the term Incarnation to be found? Where are many other terms, which are held most sacred and most important in the Christian religion, to be found in Scripture? The doctrines are found, but the names were not given till there was a necessity for it. You have seen what the fathers call the purging with fire; you have seen what the fathers call the expiatory flames, or the expurgating flames. Surely the substance is the same, although the words may be somewhat different.

There remains another topic in connexion with the subject of this evening, and that is the doctrine of INDULGENCES, but it is not my intention to go into it, and that for more reasons than one. The first is, because I feel I have already detained you sufficiently, and still more, because I, on a former occasion, in another course of lectures which I delivered, entered very much at length into the subject. It being impossible for me to enter into it in the present course, I can only refer to what I then said as a proof, that if I do not now enter on the subject, it is not from any desire of shrinking from it, or feeling that there is the slightest reason to conceal any thing, or avoid going into it in the fairest and fullest manner.