Christ and his Apostles would have taught it: whereas they have said nothing about purgatory, but only about heaven and hell, the eternal dwelling-places of the dead,-the former for those who die in the Lord, and the latter for those who die in their sins.

Paul. You are right, Murphy: when we are once dead, the period of our probation is ended, the die is cast, our eternal doom is fixed, and we are at once either

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"With the damn'd cast out,

Or number'd with the blest."

Then it is, "He that is holy, let him be holy still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still." You ask when the notion of purgatory found its way into the Catholic Church. This, Murphy, is a question which it is not easy to answer; for Popish writers themselves are not agreed in this particular. The author of the 'Papist misrepresented" says it was taught by St. Augustine, who, you must know, died in the beginning of the seventh century. Even he does not pretend to find it in the Church before that period. So that, were it admitted that Augustine taught the doctrine, as it cannot be carried higher than his time, it completely proves that it is not apostolical, and therefore not Christian, and therefore by all Christians should be rejected. Murphy, I attach very little

importance to what either St. Augustine or any other of their holy ones have said; for they either do, or do not, agree, with the Scriptures: if the former, then I agree with them; but if the latter, I pay no more deference to them than I do to the opinions of St. Mahomet, or St. Plato. But, after all, suppose I should be able to prove that St. Augustine, instead of teaching the doctrine of purgatory, taught the direct contrary, what would you think of the Popish writers who produce him as its advocate?

Murphy. Why, for sure, I should think them no better than they should be; and that, if there is such a place as purgatory, they should be sent to it to be soundly roasted in its fires, for telling lies and deceiving the people.

Paul. It is only a pious fraud, Murphy, to serve the Church; and you know the intention is every thing; and, if this only be right, the end will sanctify the means!

Murphy. So I have been taught; but I confess I now begin to think that this too is a novelty which was not known in the days of the Apostles; for the other day I was reading one of St. Paul's Epistles, where I met with the following passage, with which I was very much struck, and which led me to say, "Why, surely, the Jesuits and Priests of our Church never read this; or if they have, they are a set of im

pudent fellows for calling themselves the successors of the Apostles." The passage runs thus:-" Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, and not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world."

Paul. Yes, Murphy, if you test them by such passages as the one you have just quoted, you will annihilate their apostolical character. You might as soon prove that the bat is a descendant of the eagle, or that a mouse had a lion for its grandfather, as prove any family-likeness or relationship between those "pious-fraud men" and the Apostles. But now to the proof that Augustine, instead of teaching the doctrine of purgatory, taught the direct contrary. There was indeed a time when he manifested something like a desire to introduce this pagan fiction into Christianity,—a wish that it might turn out to be a true doctrine; and therefore he said, "that such a matter as a middle state for purgation might be inquired of." But after inquiring into this subject, he writes thus:-" We read of heaven and of hell, but the third place we are utterly ignorant of; yea, we find it is not in the Scriptures." And again: "Nor will any thing help thee, but what is done while thou art here. As the last day of man's life finds him, so the last day of the world shall hold him." And

frizzled a little, as well as other poor sinners. I cannot conjecture why there should be any difference. I shall be much obliged if you will explain it.

Paul. This, Murphy, I shall endeavour to do. 1st, In primitive times believers were purified, not with the fire of purgatory, but with the blood of Christ; not by a long residence in the shades, but through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, in the present world. 2d, When believers died in primitive times, they immediately rested from their labours, and, like Lazarus, were carried into Abraham's bosom, where being absent from the body, they were present with the Lord; and when wicked men died, they immediately, like Dives, lifted up their eyes in hell. 3d, Though the mystery of iniquity began to work even in apostolic times, yet there were none in those days sufficiently paganised and impudent to attempt the union of this part of Heathenism with the doctrines of Christ. Besides, the Christian church, had such a degrading and demoralizing innovation been attempted in those times, would have held up the impiety and ignorance of the innovator to universal execration. 4th, But when a darknight of ignorance overshadowed the church; when scriptural Christianity was nearly lost by the populace, and when the Priests, except in a few instances, were as ignorant as themselves;

when the religion of Christ had been nearly superseded by the puerilities of a most contemptible and childish superstition; when from the Papal chair, through all the descending grades of the Priesthood, with here and there an exception, the vilest abominations were committed; when Priests, who, under pretence of greater sanctity, abstained from the honourable estate of matrimony, either openly kept concubines, or secretly, in the sacrament of confession, debauched their female votaries, or converted their nunneries into extensive brothels ;then it was, in an age eminently ignorant and corrupt, that indulgences were introduced, and then it was that faith in them was required.

Murphy. I suppose you mean to say, that none but knaves taught the doctrine, and that only fools believed it.

And whilst the

poor fools have

Paul. Yes, Murphy, I do. knaves have profited by it, the been most miserably fleeced. Many an honest simpleton has been robbed of his last shilling by the horrible tales which these unprincipled hypocrites have told of the sufferings of their fathers and mothers, and husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters, and so on; and whose sufferings could only be relieved by prayers and masses, neither of which could be obtained without money or without price. I could furnish a volume of anecdotes on this subject. Of all