bound down to the lowest degree of human depravity. As they rejected God, he also rejected them, for he said to them, as he now does to all others, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." Gen. vi, 3. He strove with them by external preaching and internal influence, but to no purpose. Such was the horrible prison in which they were bound when Christ went to preach to them by his Spirit, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing. Hence this text affords no proof that ever Christ went to purgatory, or that such a place ever existed.

Probation in time is given us preparatory to retribution in eternity, where, without any intermediate place or state, we shall be rewarded or punished according to the deeds done in the body. Notwithstanding the various lines of distinction which separate the human family into the different ranks and denominations in which they are now placed, yet God pays no regard to human discriminations in matters relating to eternity, but sums up the whole race of mankind in two general classes of people, viz., the righteous and the wicked, whom he distinguishes in his word, in various places, by the different rewards and punishments which they shall receive according to their works. He thus addresses himself to the prophet Isaiah; "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings: woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him." Isa. iii, 10, 11. Solomon says, "The

wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death." Prov. xiv, 32. This passage proves that the righteous have nothing to fear, and also, that the wicked have no hope in their death, but a fearful looking for of fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversary. The Psalmist says,-"The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance, they shall flourish like the palm-tree; but upon the wicked shall God rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup, for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.' Psalms i, 6-xi, 6— xcii, 12-cxii, 6.

If

'The advocates of purgatory fly to the apocrypha as their strongest hold, yet it militates against them, for in it we read that the "souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them." Wis. iii, 1. This entirely supersedes the doctrine of praying for the dead, which in another place it commends. "no torment can touch the righteous," they need no prayers to deliver them from it; and those who are not righteous, are wicked, and such, the psalmist declares, Shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God." Psalm ix, 17. "Where the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." Rev. xiv, 11.

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Thus we find, according to the words of divine truth, that there is no such place as purgatory to be found. Hence it is vain as well as wicked to pray for the dead; for it is said in scripture, that after death "None can by any means redeem his

brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." Psalm xlix, 7. The Romish clergy oppose God and his servant in this declaration; but for what they do, is there not a cause? The money which they receive for celebrating masses for the dead, makes no small part of their benefice; and this may appear a strong reason why they plead so hard for purgatory, as they may say to each other, with Demetrius the silversmith, who made shrines for Diana the Ephesian goddess,-"Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth." Acts xix, 24, 25. Their own Christian Doctrine, if carefully examined, will be found to disagree with the doctrine of purgatory. It says, that those who live wickedly and die in mortal sin, shall be cast into hell, where they shall eternally burn along with the devils. And it says, that this sin is committed by breaking any of God's commandments; and unless it be removed by the priest, in the administration of the rites of the church, before they die, they are said to be lost to eternity. Now appears the mystery of iniquity. If the priest has power to remove the greater sin, why not to remove the lesser also, which they call venial or a light sin, which does not deprive them of the grace of God? Ah! but this would destroy that unknown place, "which brings no small gain to the craftsmen," (Acts xix, 24.,) and would make the priest's pocket pay for his honesty.

But what authority have they for saying that venial sin, as they call it, does not deprive them of the grace of God? as if they were to be coincident in the human heart, when our Lord has

declared that "No man can serve two masters;" and further says by the mouth of his servant, that "All unrighteousness is sin," and "He that committeth sin, is of the devil, who sinneth from the beginning." 1 John iii, 8,-v, 17. Yet the Romish doctors, as if wiser than our Lord and his apostles, say that this venial sin does not deprive them of the grace of God in this life, and then fill their pockets by pretending to remove the evil of it after death. Who can be so blind as not to dis

cover the imposition here!

It is stated as an infallible point of truth in the Christian Doctrine already referred to, that those who die in mortal sin, which is committed by breaking any of God's commandments, shall be cast into hell to burn eternally with the devils; yet this point of genuine doctrine is often violated through a love of gain. Some whose lives have been dissolute and wicked, and even some who have died in intoxication suddenly, without the benefit of the clergy, as it is termed, because they had been wealthy, which enabled their friends to employ the clergy in their behalf, have had high masses celebrated for them, and every hope entertained of their salvation, however wicked they might have died, and however strong the declarations of the Christian Doctrine were against them.

Such is the power of binding and unloosing which those Reverend Gentlemen seem to possess, that they can not only change the consistency of part of their own doctrine when pleasant occasions require, but also the irrevocable decrees of God in

eternal woe.

the destination of a finally impenitent sinner, to Although Christ has said, if we die in our sins, where he is we can never come, and the Christian Doctrine, that those who die in mortal sin are cast into hell to burn eternally; yet such is the powerful influence of money, that it can cause those reverend fathers to exert their power in overcoming all these difficulties!

Now, if the rich, however wicked, can be released, not only out of purgatory, but from hell itself, according to the doctrine and proceedings already stated, because they have left behind a sufficiency to employ the clergy for that purpose, is it not uncharitable to leave the poor to miserable sufferings because they can leave no money to deliver them from their pains? Their lot is deplorable, for poverty is their portion here, and purgatory hereafter. Having been first deprived of the use of the bible, after death they are forsaken by the priests, who refuse to help them without pay! O ye fleece-mongers! God will judge you for your imposition and oppression in grinding the face of the poor, whose privilege it is to have the gospel preached to them. Ye are blind leaders of the blind; ye call yourselves ambassadors of Christ, or messengers of the gospel, but ye have neither part nor lot in the matter. The meaning of the word gospel, is glad tidings, and by the declaration of Jesus Christ it is the privilege of the poor to have it preached unto them, whom you suffer to be destroyed for lack of knowledge. It is not glad tidings to tell them that they must not read the scriptures on penalty of incurring the