really curious production commences with telling us what the writer of it is pleased to denominate reason; we have already seen enough of Popish reasons to satisfy our minds of the (to use the mildest term) unreasonableness of them; and from her mere deductions from her own premises, we gladly turn to the Scriptures, from which, as the Pope could not find any texts therein to prove that there is a place of Purgatory, we proceed to show that there is not.

Eccles. ix. 56. "For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also, their love and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.'

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Matt. xxv. 34, 41. "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."

Mark. xvi. 16. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned."

Luke xvi. 26. "And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from us to you cannot ; neither can they pass to us that would come from thence."

Luke xxiii. 42, 43. "And he [the penitent thief upon the cross] said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom? And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise."

John ix. 4. "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work."

authority, St. Jerome. The latter at the age of eighty died, Sept. 420: the former was Archbishop of Canterbury in the early part of the seventh century. St Jerome says, the Apocryphal Books were not to be accounted, and were not in the canons of the Church-Inter Apocrypha esse ponenda non sunt in canone. Prologus

Galeatus.

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

Rev. xiv. 13. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."

Are not these texts sufficiently plain, and clear proofs that mankind must be saved or condemned by their own works, and that the Pope's Purgatory will not avail? We could produce pages filled with similar evidences if they be not so. Works of supererogation are clearly forbidden: "Let no man beguile you of your reward," says St. Paul (Col. ii. 18), “in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." We have proved by the Scriptures (if Papists will admit scriptural proofs) that what the Pope is pleased to say he calls "Purgatory," is not the doctrine of Christ; and the reason we say less upon the subject than we should otherwise do, is, because the Pope's essay upon it is, we think, so very miserably managed. Christ said (Luke v. 20), "Man, THY SINS ARE forgiven thee," not that they shall be forgiven thee after thou hast been in Purgatory; and as all mankind are sinners, not one of whom can be saved by their own merits, but by the merits of Christ alone, it appears rather strange to us how Popery can supply herself with superabundant merits to release souls from the Purgatory she sends them to, as she cannot have more virtues than she absolutely requires upon her own account; since the greatest of saints could but be saved through DIVINE MERCY, "For in the sight of God shall no man living be justified. There is none righteous, no not one." Of this we are certain :-the sins which Popery in her charity is pleased to call veniul, and which she professes to burn out by her Purgatory after death, is a doctrine well calculated to cause a greater indifference to committing them in this life. After all, we are still inclined

to think the most effectual applications to the Church of Rome are by the "alms," and for these, in return, she releases all she sends to Purgatory by her prayers. We will not suppose her to be so uncharitable as to keep the "faithful" in torment afterwards.

In the fifth century, many who called themselves Christians, still preserved a great part of the rites and ceremonies of their pagan ancestors, "concerning departed souls, demons, heroes, temples, &c., deforming the religion they professed, by mingling with it these remains of paganism." In the tenth century, the bounty of the ignorant "faithful” had rendered the Romish priesthood as luxurious as corrupt; and Purgatory was one of their most fruitful sources of superstition and wealth. "The fears of Purgatory," says Mosheim, "of that fire which was to destroy the remaining impurities öf departed souls, were now carried to their greatest height, and exceeded by far the terrifying apprehensions of infernal torments; for they hoped to avoid the latter easily, by dying enriched with the prayers of the clergy, or covered with the merits and mediation of the saints; while from the pains of purgatory they knew there was no exemption. The clergy, therefore, finding these superstitious terrors admirably adapted to increase their authority and to promote their interest, used every method to augment them, and by the most pathetic discourses, accompanied with monstrous fables and fictitious miracles, they laboured to establish the doctrine of purgatory, and also to make it appear that they had a mighty influence in that formidable region."

CHAP. VIII. OF THE VENERATION AND INVOCATION OF SAINTS.

G

What is the Catholic doctrine touching the veneration and invocation of saints?

to God

We are taught, 1st., That there is an honour and veneration due to the angels and saints. 2dly. That they offer up prayers for us. 3dly. That it is good and profitable to invoke them; that is, to have recourse to their intercession and prayers. 4thly. That their relics are to be had in veneration. Motel surv

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SECT. I. Of the Veneration of the Angels and Saints cult of How do you prove that there is an honour and veneration due to the angels and saints? Because they are God's angels and saints, that is to say, most faithful servants, courtiers, friends, and favourites of the King of kings, who, having highly honoured him, are now highly honoured by him, as he has promised, 1 Sam. ii. 30. "Them that honour me I will honour." 212dly. Because they have received from the Lord most eminent and supernatural gifts of grace and glory, which make them truly worthy of our honour and veneration, and therefore we give it them as their due, according to that of the Apostle, Rom. xiii. 7. "Honour l to whom honour is due."

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3dly. Because the angels of God are our guardians, tutors, and governors; as appears from many texts of scripture, Ps. xci. 11, 12. b He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways: they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Matt. xviii. 10. "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father that is in heaven." Heb.i. 14. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." It is therefore evidently the will of God that we should have a religious veneration for these heavenly guardians. Exodus xxiii. 20, 21. “Behold I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared: beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not, for my name is in him.”

b

4thly. Because God has promised to his saints a power over all I nations, Rev. ii. 26, 27. "He that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron-even as I received of my Father." Rev. v. 10. "Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." Therefore all nations ought to honour the saints, as having received from God this kingly power over them.

5thly. Because we have instances in scripture of honour and veneration paid to the angels by the servants of God. See Joshua v. 14, 15.

6thly. Because the church in all ages has paid this honour and veneration to the saints, by erecting churches, and keeping holidays in their memory: a practice which the English Protestants have also retained.

Do you then worship the angels and saints as gods, or give them the honour that belongs to God alone?

1. No, God forbid; for this would be a high treason against his di

What is the difference between the honour which you give to God, and that which you give to the saints?

There is no comparison between the one and the other. We honour God with a sovereign honour, as the Supreme Lord and Creator of all things, as our first beginning and our last end: we believe in him alone; we hope in him alone: we love him above all things. To him alone we pay our homage of divine adoration, praise, and sacrifice but as for the saints and angels, we only reverence them with an inferior honour, as belonging to him, for his sake, and upon account of the gifts which they have received from him.

Do you not give a particular honour to the Virgin Mary?

Yes, we do, by reason of her eminent dignity of Mother of God, for which" all generations shall call her blessed," Luke i. 48. As also by reason of that fulness of grace which she enjoyed in this life, and the sublime degree of glory to which she is raised in heaven. But still, even this honour, which we give to her, is infinitely inferior to that which we pay to God, to whom she is indebted for all her dignity, grace, and glory.

As it was ever a custom of the heathen to offer adoration to the favourite idol wrought of his hand, so is it with Popery to place the Saints of her own making on an equal footing with those inspired by the Holy Ghost, and thus commanding of her votaries a sinful " veneration " to be paid to the very images of wretched "worms of the earth," many of whom when living, were the " accursed of God," and a disgrace to humanity.

When God sent his messenger to Eli, who prophesied against his (Eli's) house for its crimes, we defy Popery to twist into an allusion to the will-worship of saints a single expression of the whole chapter referred to; what has the part of God's message quoted, "them that honour me, I will honour," to do with the worshipping of Saints?" Honour to whom honour is due," is the next half-line selected; but does the Apostle who spoke it declare there is any worship "due to Saints?"-No such thing: the whole chapter consists in exhortations to various duties, and in the first verse says, "There is no power but of GOD; and the last (the 14th) runs thus: "But put ye on the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the