and fables, so bad and ridiculous, that even the council of Trent were ashamed to acknowledge it divine. The book of Tobit, also, is a notorious fiction. How fabulous is the story of Sarah's seven husbands being successively killed on their marriage-night by an evil spirit, who was said to be driven away by the smoke and smell of the roasted heart and liver of a fish, and bound in the uttermost parts of Egypt! and of Tobit's blindness being cured by the stroke of the gall of a fish, and of such a meal of the rest being taken by himself and the angel! And many other tales, equally as ridiculous, are found in this book. The second book of Maccabees, part of which is the principal authority for purgatory, has many of the errors common to the other apocryphal books. It is a history of fifteen years, and an abridgment of the work of one Jason of Cyrene. The author concludes it, begging to be excused if he had said any thing unbecoming the story. How unlike the conduct of an inspired prophet or apostle! who, notwithstanding the meanness of his parentage, the paucity of his learning, or the opposition he may meet with from the world, stands up and boldly enforces his divine mission, with,-"Thus saith the Lord." But, indeed, this apology or request appears to be the best part of the work; for the author had much reason to beg pardon on consideration of the number of errors which he had committed. He asserts that Antiochus Epiphanes was killed at the temple of Nanea in Persia, whereas he died of a desperate disease on the frontiers of Babylon; and that Nehemiah built the

second temple and altar, when, on the contrary, they were built sixty years previously to his coming from Persia. And he commends Razis for murdering himself to escape the fury of the Syrians.*

Such are some of the fictions of those fabulous books properly called Apocrypha, which signifies doubtful or unauthorized, although they are held in much esteem by the Romish Church, because they favour her kindred errors.

Having thus carefully examined the foundation of purgatory, sounded its deepest intrenchments with the plummet of truth, viewed its darkest recesses and strongest holds with the gospel tube, and excavated its bulwarks by the force of reason, it now stands exposed to open danger, incapable of defence and unworthy of capitulation, and shall soon be shattered to pieces by the artillery of heaven. Those who hold the doctrine of purgatory, must of necessity reject Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and his word as their guide. And our Lord says, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." John xii, 48. Who can

say that he and his words are not rejected by the inventors and votaries of purgatory? As a holy and jealous God, he declares against every rival in the salvation of man, and calls the attention of the world to himself, as the only means of securing eternal happiness, saying, "Look unto me, and be

* For the whole of this account of the Apocrypha, see Wood's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 1, page 85.

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ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. Isa. xlv, 22. I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John xiv, 6. I am the door of the sheep: he that entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." John x, 1-7. Here Christ asserts his authority as the only Saviour of mankind, and rejects all others, by shewing the impossibility of salvation through any other medium but himself.

On the memorable day that he expired on the cross, he made a full and ample atonement to the Father for the sin of the world; and by his resurrection, ascension, and mediatorial office, he has opened a way for the vilest sinners, on their sincere repentance, to find pardon and access to the Father of mercies, and every necessary blessing both spiritual and temporal. For every thing we ask consistently with the divine will, we have a promise of receiving, but not through any other medium than Jesus Christ, who says, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." John xiv, 13. Where can we find place for any thing like purgatory here, when Christ himself is allsufficient for us, if we seek and serve him with all our hearts.

In short, to expect purgatory to complete our salvation, to expect a purging fire to accomplish a work after death, which the atonement of Jesus Christ and power of the Holy Ghost are supposed to be inadequate to in this life, is an idea that is

absonant in its nature, and repugnant to every ray of gospel revelation. In this case, Christ need not have come, when purgatory could have saved man without him. Hence, the Father's gift is despised, the Son's merits are rejected, and the Holy Ghost's power disregarded, when it is allowed by some, that a person dying in sin can be purified in purgatory, and made meet for heaven. If this is not rejecting Christ, sunshine is not light, nor night darkness.

But the judicious divines of the Romish Church are not content with sending their own people to this prison of purgatory, but also insist on Christ himself having been there. Their Christian Doctrine says, "While his body was in the tomb, his soul was in the hell of the holy patriarchs, called Limbus Patrim." But what a barefaced falsehood of the father of lies is this! In what place of the word of God do we read of the holy patriarchs having gone to hell or purgatory? If even such a place existed, the preceding epithet, holy, would prevent them from going thither. And Christ, the holy God-man, having no sins of his own to suffer for, or impurity to be cleansed from, had no need to go to purgatory after death for himself; and having made a sufficient atonement for man upon the cross, as a proof of which he exclaimed, "It is finished!" he had no need to go thither for us. Although it is said, that "He descended into hell," it was neither the region of the damned, nor the supposed hell of the patriarchs. That his soul ascended to heaven when he departed this life, is not only above all things the most reason

able, but also the most certain, according to his own infallible words to the penitent thief, "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Luke xxiii, 43. His body descended to the tomb; as he said to the Scribes and Pharisees,- "As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matt. xii, 40. Hence he is said to have descended into hell. Linguists tell us, that the Hebrew SHEOL, and Greek HADES, translated hell, sometimes signify the grave, a place of darkness, or the state of the dead. The prophet Jonah amply verifies this assertion: "Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said, "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice." Jonah ii, 2. Hence the word of God infallibly proves, that after the death of our Lord his soul ascended to Paradise, and his body descended to the grave.

Our opponents fancy that they discover a purgatory in the following passage: "By which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." 1 Pet. iii, 19, 20. Christ, by his spirit in Noah, was the preacher; so Noah is called "A preacher of righteousness." Christ preached by him to the Antediluvians in much long-suffering for a hundred and twenty years, waiting for their repentance and return from the prison of their sins in which they were