Romanist chiefly depends are 2 Macc. 12, 45, and 1 Cor. iii., 10-16; of which the former occurs in a book which (as we have seen in cap. i. of this series of articles,) was not received into the canon of Scripture by the early Church— which pretends to no inspiration, and even apologises for its defects, (c. xv. 38); and the latter will hardly seem to the intelligent reader to bear out the Roman Church in her doctrine, or even to bear any reference to the subject in question. We have not space in this number to enter into the consideration of these passages, which indeed, we must say, are scarcely deserving of consideration, as far as they tend to prove the truth of the doctrine of purgatory; and were they even worthy of much more attention than they are, they must give way before the plain teaching and the clear testimony of the Word of God, to which, as our article says, this doctrine "is repugnant."

A.-The Teaching of the Word of God.

"Heaven and Hell," says Archbishop Secker, "we read of perpetually in the Bible; but purgatory we never meet with; though surely, if there be such a place, Christ and His Apostles would not have concealed it from us." The testimony from Holy Scripture, therefore, upon this subject may be divided into two parts, which we may call negative and positive testimony respectively.

1. The Negative Testimony.

"When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.

"And before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

"And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

"Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, 'Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. . .

...

"Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.'

"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment;

but the righteous into life eternal." Matt. xxv. 31, 34, 41, 46.

"The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice.

"And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto ths resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." John v. 28, 29.

"We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

"We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." 2 Cor. v. 1, 8.

"I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better." Phil. i. 23.

2. The Positive Testimony.

Between us and you

"Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." Luke xxiii. 43. "But Abraham said, there is a great gulph fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence."

Luke xvi. 26.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Rom. viii. 1.

66

"By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Heb. x. 14.

"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John i. 7.

"I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours." Rev. xiv. 13.

"If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be." Eccles. xi. 3.

Or, if we may quote, as the Romanists do, from a book which is with us placed among the apocryphal writings, but with them is received into the canon of Holy Scripture,"The souls of the righteons are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them." Wisd. iii. 1.

B.-The Doctrine of the Primitive Church.

Clemens Romanus, A.D. 65:—“As long as we are in this

world, let us with all our heart repent of the evil deeds which we have done in the flesh, that we may be saved by the Lord while we have time for repentance; for when we have gone out of the world, we can no longer confess or repent.

Ignatius, A.D. 107:-"When then our affairs come to an end, there is set before us life, if we have been watchful, and death, if we are unprepared; and each will go to his proper place: let us then flee death, and choose life."

Justin Martyr, A.D. 140 :—“For of two advents have His prophets spoken; the one, which has already taken place, of a despised and suffering man; the second, when it has been proclaimed that He shall come with glory from heaven, with His army of angels, when the bodies of all men who have lived shall rise; and the worthy He shall clothe with immortality; but the unjust He shall send for ever into everlasting fire with the evil spirits."

And again, in a work which has long been attributed to the same author, and which is, in the edition we are now using, and, we believe, always, printed with his works :"The same condition which the soul has in this life, while united with the body, it does not retain when it has departed out of the body. For here, in this union, all things are common, both to the just and the unjust, and in this respect there is no difference between them; as for instance, the being born and dying, the being well and ill, the being rich and poor, and other similar things. But after the departure of the soul from the body, there is immediately a separation between the just and the unjust; for they are carried by the angels into places worthy of them: the souls of the just into paradise, where is intercourse with, and the sight of angels and archangels, and having a vision of their Saviour, Christ, as it is written, they are "absent from the body and present with the Lord;" but the souls of the unjust into the regions of Hades : and they are kept in their proper places, until the day of resurrection and retribution." Irenæus, A.D. 178:-"They who were disciples of the Apostles say that those who are translated, are translated to paradise (for for those who are just and have the Spirit is a paradise prepared, into which the Apostle Paul was carried and heard words which are unutterable, as far as regards us in our present state), and that they who are translated remain there until the time of consummation."

Clemens Alexandrinus, A.D. 194:-He who receives the angel of repentance, shall not repent when he leaves the body; neither shall he be ashamed when he sees his Saviour coming in glory with His heavenly host; neither shall he be afraid of the fire of hell."

The Clementine Liturgy in the Apostolic Constitutions, about A.D. 250 :—“ The souls of all live with Thee; and in Thy hand are the spirits of the just, whom torment shall in no wise touch."

Cyprian, A.D. 284:-" There is no confession in hell.” And again:- "When once the departure is made there is no longer place for penitence, nor effectiveness of satisfaction. Pardon is given to him who confesses; and to him who believes salutary indulgence is granted from divine goodness; and at the very moment of death he passes to immortality."

Gregory Nyssen, A.D. 371:— "For those who have departed this life, there is no confession in hell, nor moral correction."

Cyril of Jerusalem, A.D. 371 :—" "The dead shall not praise Thee, O Lord!' which shows that in this life only we have an appointed time for repentance and remission of sins. The righteous then offer praises, but they who have died in their sins have no opportunity left for confession."

The remaining part of the creed of Pope Pius IV., viz. :— "that the souls detained in purgatory are helped by the suffrages of the faithful," must of course stand or fall with the first part; but we shall have another opportunity of touching upon it. We will conclude this article in the words of the Homily, Concerning Prayer:-" If any man sin," saith St. John, "we have an Advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins; But we must take heed that we call upon this Advocate, while we have space given us in this life; lest when we are once dead, there be no hope of salvation left unto us. For as every man sleepeth with his own cause, so every man shall rise again with his own cause. And look in what state he dieth, in the same state he shall be also judged, whether it be to salvation or damnation. Let us not, therefore, dream either of purgatory, or of prayer for the souls of them that be dead: but let us earnestly and diligently pray for them which are expressly commanded in

Holy Scripture, namely for kings and rulers, for ministers of God's Holy Word and Sacraments, for the saints of this world, otherwise called the faithful; to be short, for all men living, be they never so great enemies to God and His people. Then shall we truly fulfil the command of God in that behalf, and plainly declare ourselves to be the true children of our Heavenly Father, Who suffereth the sun to shine upon the good and the bad, and the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust."

H. C. H.

KIMBERWORTH CHURCH MISSIONARY
MEETING.

"A READER AND SUBSCRIBER" has kindly called our attention to a letter signed "VERITAS," inserted in the Rotherham and Masborough Advertiser, touching a paragraph which appeared in the Guardian, stating that two Dissenting ministers had addressed a meeting of the Church Missionary Society, which was held in the church of St. Thomas, at Kimberworth. The cause of offence, given by the Guardian, to "VEBITAS" is contained in the following words:-"A large platform was raised in the centre of the church, about four feet from the ground, on which the speakers stood, all with their backs to the Altar. During the meeting, the usual accompaniments of the concert-hall or theatre, in the shape of 'hear, hear,' and clapping of hands, were heard."

It was quite natural for Dissenting ministers to be present at the meeting of a society which was founded by Dissenters, the ultra-low church party and the late Bishop Bathurst. It was founded in schism, and it is now partly supported by schismatics. The late Archbishop Howley and Bishop Blomfield made a Church Society of it, on the same principle as the Church of Rome employs all the wild spirits in her Communion, to keep them out of mischief.

These prelates, however, and all true Churchmen, gave their support to the Society in Pall Mall for the Propagation of the Gospel; but the so-called Evangelical Churchmen interest themselves in the "Church Missionary Society." In such a case we cannot see any impropriety in standing with backs to the Altar, or in expressing approbation, as it