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believe that this remission is fully applied to us, and perfected in all respects, by the death of Christ, through faith alone. Wherefore they desire other sacrifices by which they may be cleansed from guilt; and for this purpose they make use of masses, in which they believe that a sacrifice is offered to God the Father-namely, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, truly, or as they say, really to obtain pardon of sin, and to procure salvation as well for the dead as for the living. To these they also attribute so great efficacy, as to affirm that the torments of purgatory are sometimes diminished by them, and sometimes altogether removed. By such imaginations they greatly depreciate that one sacrifice which Christ the Son of God paid as a ransom, and wholly offered to God the Father on the cross; and reduce the priesthood which is appropriate to Christ alone to the miserable rank of a human office. But the holy Scriptures point out to us the death of Christ alone as that which cleanseth from all sin, nor do they propound any other sacrifice as effectual to this purpose. With regard to their purgatory, indeed, not one syllable is to be found in holy writ.

Of the Condemnation of Unbelievers and Sinners. Chap. 11.

Horrible and vain is their audacity who contend, that salvation is to be hoped for in every religion and sect which men may profess, if they only endeavour to the best of their ability to pre

serve innocence and integrity of life, according to the light which they may derive from nature. These pernicious opinions are overthrown by the authority of holy Scripture; for the one only Name of Jesus Christ is given unto us whereby we may be saved. Nor is their madness less to be deprecated, who would revive, in this our age, the dangerous heresy of Origen-namely that all men, however they may have been contaminated by wickedness, shall eventually obtain salvation; when in a definite time they shall have satisfied the divine justice by suffering punishment for the crimes they have committed. But Sacred Writ repeatedly pronounces, that the damned shall be cast into perpetual torments and eternal flames.

Of the Destruction or Sleep of the Soul, and of the Resurrection. Chap. 12.

Some impiously feign, that the souls of men passing out of this life, when once they have departed from the body, are either wrapt in sleep, or suffer entire annihilation, till the time of the last Judgment; but then, when the Day of Judgment shall arrive, that they shall be roused from sleep, or raised again from death together with their own bodies. Very similar is the error concerning the Resurrection, which many (agreeing with Hymenæus and Philetus) say is past and perfected already; because it ought only to be referred to the soul, which Christ, having obtained grace for us by the merit of his death, actually raised from the death of sin. But this is a crude

and hasty doctrine. For even as Jesus Christ himself was recalled from death to life with an entire, real, and perfect body,-neither did his soul perish or sleep in the intermediate time-,so we, who are the members of Christ, shall live in the soul after death;, but, following our head, shall rise again with both body and soul at the last Judgment.

CHAPTER II.

Of Eternal Life.

SECTION I.

Eternal Life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord: and of this Life those who are justified and reconciled to God by the merits of his only-begotten Son, are made heirs through the same merits, and not on account of any works or deservings of their own.

Eternal Life, according to scriptural phraseology, is that future state in which those who are pronounced blessed of the Father shall immediately be placed, when the irrevocable sentence of the Judgment-day shall have confirmed their title to celestial happiness. By this term is not simply meant, never-ending existence; for of this the condemned shall also be partakers: but a life of pure and perfect happiness resulting from the absence of sin, the wages of which is death; and from uninterrupted access to the Fountain of Life. This state is also called Immortality;-not that perpetuity is confined to the inhabitants of heaven, for the prisoners of hell shall never die; but because it is the most perfect state of existence to which created beings can be exalted, because it is to be put in contra

distinction to that continued death or destruction of the soul, which is the portion of the wicked,-and because it was purchased by the Redeemer's victory over the spiritual enemy, who, as the author of sin, first subjected man to the punishment of mortality. It is spoken of as a state of Glory, not only because the bodies of those who shall be admitted into it, will be glorified, or cleansed from the infirmities of the flesh; but because their souls shall therein obtain that eternal'weight of glory which is to be revealed,-which cannot be fully comprehended by the earthly man, while his faculties are clogged and darkened by sen sual objects;-that glory which is the perfect consummation of bliss, both in body and soul, for which the faithful in all ages of the Church have earnestly prayed, and strenuously contended;-that glory to which they shall ultimately by the blessing of God attain, who have been endued with the excellent benefit of election in Christ-of being chosen to be made partakers of "the privileges and aids of the covenant of grace,— who, according to the eternal purpose of God to save those who embrace and perform the conditions of that covenant, have been called and admitted into the family of God, accounted righteous for the sake of Christ, and made heirs of the kingdom of heaven,— who having received regenerating and preventing grace, have sought and obtained a continuance of the co-operating grace of the Holy Spirit, by whom they have been sanctified and rendered more and more conformable to the image of the only-begotten Son;that glory to which they shall assuredly attain who have duly profited by these inestimable advantages, and continued in that exercise of faith, repentance, and good works unto the end, to which the Almighty has

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