SPIRITS IN PRISON.

245

to a degenerate people. He officiated, says CALMET, not in person, but by his Spirit, which he communicated to Noah. Augustine among the ancients, and Aquinas among the school-men, were the great patrons of this interpretation; and the African saint and the angelic Doctor have been followed by Beza, Hessel, Calmet, and many other commentators both in the Romish and Reformed communions."*

If the prison here spoken of mean Purgatory, then these spirits must have been tortured 2,500 years! But one should think that it only required a glance to see that this text gives no countenance to a middle place of punishment. The disobedient spirits, that were not led to repentance by the long-suffering of God, and the preaching of Noah, but in the midst of their enormous guilt and iron-hearted impenitence were swept from the earth by the Delugesurely these spirits did not go to Purgatory! They died in mortal sin, and must have gone to hell, of course; for if they escaped the place of the damned, for what class of sinners was it intended?

These remarks also apply to the quotation from Maccabees. A contribution was made to

Edgar's Variations of Popery, page 450.

have prayers offered for the Jews who fell in battle; in connexion with which it is said to be "a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." But these men died under the unrepented guilt of idolatry, which is a damning sin.

"Invenerunt autem sub tunicis interfectorum de donariis idolorum, quæ apud Jamniam fuerunt:-omnibus ergo manifestum factum est, ob hanc causam eos corruisse," 2 Mac. xii. 40. "They found under the garments of the slain, gifts consecrated to the idols of Jamnia:—it was therefore evident to all, that this was the cause of their destruction." Surely, persons smitten by God for the crime of idolatry do not go to Purgatory! But if not, this passage cannot be alleged in support of any such place, even were the book from which it is taken possessed of any authority, which I deny; but my reasons I must defer till another opportunity.

During the first 200 years of the Christian era, many of the Fathers wrote on the state of the dead, and while they speak at large on the bliss of heaven and the woes of hell, they never mention an intermediate state of punishment. Prayers for the dead were, indeed, in use long before the modern Purgatory was thought of. But these prayers were offered for the most

PRAYERS FOR THE DAMNED.

247

eminent saints, for prophets, apostles, evangelists, and martyrs, and even for the blessed Virgin herself, as appears from the ancient liturgies. The object of these prayers was not to deliver them from the pains of a fancied Purgatory, but to increase their enjoyment in the bowers of the celestial paradise. No Roman Catholic will say that Mary, the mother of Jesus, went to Purgatory, she being, according to them, immaculate and sinless. Yet for many centuries her soul was regulary prayed for. It follows, that the practice of praying for the dead does not prove the belief of the early Christians in the existence of a Purgatory.

The gradual introduction of superstition into the Christian Church was marked by the custom of praying, not only for the redeemed in heaven, but for the damned in hell: that the joys of the former might be augmented, and the tortures of the latter alleviated. But they had no notion that the sufferer could ever be released from his prison.

Something like the Papal Purgatory may be traced among the ancient heathens-in the philosophy of Plato, the oratory of Cicero, and the poetry of Virgil.* But until the days of Origen,

See particularly the 6th Book of Virgil's Eneid.

who flourished in the fourth century, it was unknown to the Church of Christ. And the visionary speculations of this erratic Father, differed very much indeed from the dogmas on this point which the modern Church of Rome deems orthodox. He fancied that all, saints and sinners alike, not excepting "the mother of God" herself, would be compelled to pass through the general conflagration at the last day. Thus his fiery ordeal would not commence till the time when the modern purgatory is supposed to terminate; and he fancied it would try and purify all the human family, with the single exception of the Son of God! Many of the most distinguished Fathers and school-men adopted this theory; but is it not palpably unjust to quote their reveries on such a subject, in favour of the Romish Purgatory? Does not the merest tyro at once perceive that such reasoning is grossly illogical. What think you, then, of the author of "Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion," who concludes his authorities on this point by the following sentence:"With similar views it was maintained by St. Hilary (and Origen seems to have been of the same opinion), that after the day of judgment, all-even the blessed VIRGIN HERSELF-must alike pass through this fire, to purify them from

ST. HILARY'S PURGATORY.

249

their sins!" What an admirable finishing argument in favour of Roman Catholic Purgatory!! And so the blessed Virgin herself is, according to St. Hilary,* to pass through Purgatory after the day of judgment, in order to be purified from her sins! Verily, this is new doctrine for the "Catholics of Ireland!" I tremble for the orthodoxy of the "Bard of Erin." But poets do not make the best theologians; and there is, in the Edinburgh Review, an article on the ancient Fathers, ascribed to Mr. Moore, which shows that that gentleman has no more reverence for those personages than

Your faithful Friend.

* Such is the unanimous consent of the Fathers! An Irish peasant must hunt for this unanimous consent-an ignis fatuus!-before he can receive any meaning from such language as this.

..

The blood of Jesus Christ

cleanseth from all sin," 1 John i. 7.

He must compare

hundreds of folios in Greek and Latin, before he can un derstand this simple sentence !