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the mother held in her arms, changed colour; and several times was the divine infant seen to bend towards the glass which covered the picture, to signify, as it were, how acceptable was the devotion of the pious multitude that was present at the spectacle." (Ib. p. 411.)

In Roman Catholic countries, there seems to be no end to these marvellous tales, nor has the long-cherished confidence of the people, in images and relics, become at all lessened. But it is said that there are many minds of superior culture amongst them, who look down upon all this as a collection of absurdities, which they tolerate only because they see no way of breaking it down, without destroying all respect for religion along with it. How far this assertion is true, we have no means of ascertaining; but it is manifest, that in those countries where the Reformation has taken root, the champions of the Church of Rome, like Dr. Wiseman, pass over the whole of the subject in terms as general and slight as possible, and plainly show, that if it were practicable, they would gladly consign it to oblivion.

Let me now, brethren, in conclusion, ask how far we have discharged our own Christian duty in this matter—how far have we laboured to promote the salutary influence of Scriptural truth, amongst the multitudes who are in bondage to this yoke of superstition? Have we thought of them with kindness and good will-prayed for them with zeal and earnestness-and been careful to recommend our own purer system of Gospel truth, by a life of higher morality and more fervent devotion?

It is an age of effort for the cause of missions, and immense works are undertaken, and prosecuted with ardour, for the conversion of the distant heathen. Nor is it often, I trust, that the ministers of Christ, amongst the various Protestant Churches, offer up their public supplications to the throne of grace, without remembering the condition of those benighted

nations who are still sitting in the region and shadow of death. And this is all right, assuredly; for it well becomes the follower of Christ, who knows that He died for the sins of the whole world, to be constantly mindful of his blessed purpose, that the Gospel should be preached to every creature.

But brethren, I beseech you to say, whether the unity and well-being of the Church of God is not still more imperatively the object of our labours and our prayers. And believing that wherever the fundamental doctrines of the Christian creed are held, there must be a portion of that Church-believing therefore, that the Church of Greece, although greatly corrupted, is a branch of the Church Universal-that the Churches of Abyssinia, and Armenia, and Syria, are likewise branches of the same-that the Church of Rome, although the most corrupted of them all, is a most extensive and important part of the same Church Catholic or Universal; and that we are consequently bound to acknowledge them as members of the great family of Christ-are we at liberty to feel indifferent to their errors, to forget their dangers, to look upon them with ridicule or contempt, or to discharge ourselves of all responsibility with regard to them, as if we were quite sure that not the Reformation, but the destruction of that Church, is the proper object of our hopes, and that to pray for them, or labour in order to convince them of their errors, forms no part of our Christian duty?

Let us acknowledge, in humility, before the great Searcher of hearts, my brethren, that we are guilty in this thing. True, we may have nothing in our power. True, our lectures, and our kind wishes, and our prayers, may have no influence whatever. But what then? Was it not good for the apostle to long for the salvation of the Jews, since they were his brethren according to the flesh, although they had rejected and crucified the Lord of life and glory? Nay, did not his fervent zeal in their behalf induce him to say, that he could even con

sent to be accursed after the manner of Christ, that is, actually crucified, if he could thereby become the means of their salvation? How much more should we feel for the various Churches of Christ, who are our brethren through the principles of that faith which we hold in common? If they have added the corrupt doctrines of human invention to the sacred articles of the eternal Gospel-if those additions be full of impiety and peril— if they need to be enlightened, instructed, and led back to the pure fountains of unerring truth, and to the primitive Church of which they once formed so bright a portion-let us pray for them, with something like the spirit of the apostle, even if we fall immeasurably behind him in zeal. And let us not doubt, that if it should please the all-wise and all-powerful God to carry the principles of the Reformation into the Church of Rome, and through her extensive instrumentality, into the Church of Greece, the unity of Christendom would go farther to secure the conversion of the heathen, and the universal influence of holiness and virtue, than all the separate efforts of jarring and discordant sects can ever effect, though they could be multiplied an hundred-fold.

But no more. Our next subject, brethren, will be the doctrines of purgatory and indulgences, in addition to which, a few lectures more will bring us, I trust, to the close of the series. May the blessing of the King, eternal, immortal, and invisible, rest upon you; and may his Word go forth in its might, conquering and to conquer, until every form of error is banished from his Universal Church, until "the heathen shall be given to him for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession."

LECTURE XIII.

LUKE xvi. 22, 23.—And it came to pass that the beggar died, and he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died, and he was buried in hell. And lifting up his eyes when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (Doway version.)

AMONGST all those doctrines which are regarded as corrupt abuses in the Church of Rome, my brethren, there are none possessing greater interest, and none of higher practical importance to their system, than the doctrines of purgatory, satisfaction, and indulgences. To understand them aright, will require more than ordinary attention from those who have not already some familiarity with the controversy; but I shall take all the pains in my power to make my statements perspicuous and plain. To this end, I shall discuss the subject in the following order: first, the theoretical doctrine of purgatory; secondly, the doctrine of satisfaction; thirdly, the doctrine of indulgences. I shall next examine the arguments adduced from Scripture to sustain these articles of their creed, and demonstrate, as I trust, their utter insufficiency. translation used, will of course be understood to be their own Doway Bible, and their doctrines shall be stated from their own books of authority.

The

"Five receptacles are enumerated for the disembodied souls of the dead," saith the learned author who finished the Theological Summary of Thomas Aquinas, "in which they are

received according to their respective states; namely, paradise, the limbus of the fathers, purgatory, hell, and the limbus of children." (Sup. 3, p. 269, Art. 7.)

"These abodes," saith the Catechism of the Council of Trent," are not all of the same nature." Gehenna, the bottomless pit, or what is strictly called hell, "is that most loathsome and dark prison in which the souls of the damned are buried with the unclean spirits in eternal and unextinguishable fire." Next is "the fire of purgatory, in which the souls of just men are cleansed by a temporary punishment, in order to be admitted into their eternal country, into which nothing defiled entereth." (Cat. Trident. p. 63.)

And this punishment, though not eternal, is by fire, which, saith the Church of Rome, "is painful in a wondrous degree; surpassing every punishment which any one ever suffered in this life." (Philpot's Letters to Butler, 117.) Here then we see, that purgatory is not only a state, but a place of punishment for the departed soul: that the punishment is by fire, and that it exceeds all the pains known or ever experienced by the body.

It is to be especially observed, in order to a proper understanding of the doctrine, that the souls thus tormented in this purgatorial fire, are not the souls of the wicked, for they are consigned to the eternal fire of hell; but the souls of pious persons. The Council of Trent calls them "the souls of truly penitent and justified sinners;" and the Council of Florence pronounces them to be "the souls of those who, having truly repented, die in the love of God." (Ib.) You will not understand, however, that the Church of Rome condemns all departed souls to this purgatory. For persons of uncommon holiness, especially the apostles, martyrs, confessors, and saints, are placed, according to their doctrine, immediately in heaven; and made participators of the glory of Christ, without waiting for the resurrection of the body in the day of judgment. But

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