The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-19 00:00:00

pardoneth iniquity', and passeth by the franigression of the
remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever
because he delighteth in mercy." That is his glory : lie is a
God that pardoneth iniquity. Does he not then describe the
plenitude of his pardoning grace in the strongest figure that
earth can furnish—that he will cast the sins of his people be-
hind his back, that he will cast them in the depths of the sea ?

" He will turn again, he will have compassion upoh us ; he
will subdue our iniquities, and then cast all their sins into
the depths of the sea." Does he not assure us "he has
blotted out our transgression as a cloud, and our iniquities as
a thick cloud?" Where, then, is there room for further
punishment? Where are the tortures of purgatory; May
we not gladly say with the Apostle " who shall lay any
thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that
justifieth ; who is he that condemneth." "It is Christ
that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh interces-
sion for us." We therefore in Coto reprobate the doctrine
that there is any reservation of temporary punishment, for,
surely if the grace of God is free to forgive men everlasting
punishment, it is free to forgive men temporal punishments.
If it forgive the greater, why not forgive the less? Will God
dishonour the glory of his grace by reserving temporary
punishment, when he has delivered from everlasting woe?
The very thought is abhorrent to our ideas of God, and of
the glory of the gospel which he has given to poor fallen
sinners. So my christian friends I would further say, that
the idea of temporal punishment receives no sanction what-
ever in such expressions as these, where it is said, " Whom
the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every sin
whom he receiveth." We admit that while God pardons his
people, he punishes guilty backsliders, but what then? Not
in the way of satisfaction to his justice, not in the way of ex-
piation for iniquity, not in the way of making a supplement
to the finished work of Christ; but simply in the way of a
father's discipline. The corrections given are not therefore
by way of satisfaction, but by way of sanctification; they
are blessings intended to be the means in his fatherly hands
of restoring our souls to everlasting health.
But we object equally, earnestly, and entirely to the doc-
trine of purgatory, because it dishonours the finished work
of Christ. " There is now no condemnation to them who
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after
the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
bath made me free from the law of sin and death." Free
from all sin ; therefore no speck, not a stain is left to be ex-
piated in the purgatorial fire. He is said to be " the Lord
our righteousness, Jehovah our righteousness." What room
can there be for aught to be added to it; what reason can
there be for ought to be diminished from it? So again our
blessed Redeemer is represented as saying to the sinners that
came to him—" Son (or daughter) thy sins be forgiven thee,
go in -peace." But would the poor penitent go in peace if he
thought he was to enter upon the dark dreary dungeons of a
horrible purgatory? Can the Redeemer mock his people by
thus pretending entirely to forgive, and yet reserve a dark
measure of punishment beyond the grave ? Oh, shame,
shame upon those that thus dim the lustre of the crown of
redemption upon his brow, that thus tarnish his brightest
attribute, the fulness and freeness of his forgiveness through
his own blood !

My christian friends it cannot but be conceived that the
dishonour done to the Saviour is still more deep and awful,
when we remember that deliverances from the pains of pur-
gatory are ascribed to the masses, and prayers, and interces-
sions of mortal men, in so much as they are to proceed from
the authority of men paid for the purpose, who say masses,
and offer up intercessions for the spirits in purgatory, and
that these will avail for their deliverance?