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

LOCAL NEWS

Lord Sandon and a deputation from the Cimmi;er of Com-
merce at Plymouth on the subject of " grinding foreign corn
in bond " had an interview with Sir R. Peel on Friday.
Mr. LENTON'S PICTURES.—We recommend an early visit
to the collection of this clever artist's pictures, now exhi-
biting in the Postoffice-rooms. It is the most interesting
series the public have had an opportunity of inspecting for
some time.

MISS ADELAIDE KEMIII.E.—We hear that Ilellini's fa-
vorite opera " Norma" will be produced in Dublin, in the
course of the next month, with unusual attractions, when the
justly celebrated vocalists, Miss Adelaide Kemble and Miss
Rainforth, will perform in this and other operas. The con-
ductor will he Mr. J. L. Hatton, who has gained a high re-
putation in the metropolis as a pianiste and composer. We
understand that they have engagements at Birmingham and
Manchester.

Mn. POPJOY AGAlN.—Popjoy was noticing a man pre-
paring his material to paint a table. The wag observed that
it put him in mind of a little fat porker ready for roasting.
On being asked why, he said that it was a pig ment to put
on a board.

TEMPLETON'S CONCERT.-It will be seen, that in conse-
quence of the success attendant upon Mr. Templeton's con-
cert on Wednesday last, that he intends giving another on
Friday next. Our Scotch friends will notice in the programme
that " mony a bonny sang" will be given by this accom-
plished vocalist ; a very great treat may therefore be
expected.—The concert at Birkenhead will take place in the
Albion Hotel.

STEALING A WATcn.—Ann Bennett, a girl of the town,
was yesterday charged at the Police-court with stealing a
watch from the person of Owen M`Mahon, who pursued
her and detained her in Albion-street. She was committed
for trial.

STEALING PICTURES.—TWO boys, William M`Neill and
James Turner, were yesterday brought before Mr. Rushton
on a charge of stealing two framed pictures in a public house.
They called for some ale, and one of them went out, taking
one of the pictures. The other was seen in the act of taking
down the other picture from the wall. They were each com-
mitted to gaol for two months.
THEFT FROM A TILL.—A. boy, named George Bradley,
was yesterday charged, at the Police-court, with an attempt
to steal a quantity of copper money from the counting-house
of a lime-burner in Toxteth-park. He was seen by the clerk,
dropped the money back into the drawer, and was afterwards
found concealed behind a water-cask, under a stair on the
premises. He was committed for trial.
The Rev. Hugh M'lsieile leaves this morning for Paris,
where he will remain until the 10th May. He will after-
wards spend a few days at Jersey. The rev. gentleman will
preach in Paris on Sunday next. We arc sure we only speak
the sentiments of all our fellow townsmen, in fervently
praying that the change of scene, and salubrity of climate,
may be the means of restoring the spirits of himself, his
lady, and family.

THEFT FROM A VESSEL.—A lumper named Patrick King,
who was employed in discharging a vessel, was yesterday
charged before Mr. Rushton with having taken 22 lbs.
weight of horse hair, part of the cargo, which was found
upon him by a police-officer. He said it was only the re-
mains of the cargo, and he thought there was no harm in
taking it. Mr. Rushton said the practice must be put down,
and committed him for three months.
A LARGE MANUFACTURING TOWN RUINED BY A RAIL-
WAY, AND BY THE PARLIAMENTARY AND MUNICIPAL
FRANCHISE ! !—The borough of Stockport, above 'all other
manufacturing places, is at this moment steeped in poverty
and widely-spread and almost universal distress ; and again
and again we have been told that the cause of all this is—the
corn laws ! How stand the facts ? Within the last two
years that borough has been connected with Manchester by
the Manchester and Birmingham Railway ; and, as the re-
sult, a correspondent of the Stockport Advertiser states, on,
the authority of a circular issued by the drapers of Man-
chester, that " since the opening of the railway it has become
general for the inhabitants of Stockport to make their chief
purchases in Manchester." In fact, this town, containing
90,000 inhabitants, has now become a mere suburb of Man-
chester; and its shopocracy is at present on the brink of
despair. In addition to the operation of this cause, how-
ever, the feuds and bitterness created by the borough and
municipal elections have given rise to a system of exclusive
dealing, which is severely prejudicing the trade of the bo-
rough. Parties prefer going to Manchester to make their
purchases, to dealing with their political opponents. It is
painful to contemplate such results from measures otherwise
of such beneficial tendency, as the opening of a railway and
the acquisition of the elective franchise. We are afraid,
however, that the facts are too true.
GARDNER BOGGS AND CO.—On Friday, at the Court
of Bankruptcy, London, the bankrupts appeared to pass
their final examination, and, as their accounts were not ob-
jected to, were declared passed. An abstract of the balance-
sheet of the joint estate will at once present their position
with respect to debts and assets. The debtor side of the
sheet shows—sundry creditors at £99,819 6s 3d ; capital in-
troduced by William Taylor, £7,337 ; capital introduced by
William Shand, £5,000 ; making a total of £112,186 63 3d.
The creditor side shows the debts at £31,406 Ils 8d ; the
good debts being estimated at £13,515 3s 10d ; the doubtful
at £7329 5s Bd, and the bad at £10,132123 9d. By property,
£10,132 12s 9d; Bruce, Shand, and Co., £5,466 18s 4d; by
ship James Scott, £1,000; by charges, £10,791 8s lid ; by
losses including liabilities, &c., £26,992 13s 3 ; drawn out by
Gardner Boggs £8,207 is 3d ; drawn out by William Taylor,
£3,373 18s sd, drawn out by William Shand, £14,71511s 6d ;
making an equivalent total of £112,186 6s 3d. These ac-
counts include the period from the Ist January, 1840, to the
date of the fiat, NI arch, 1842.

SIR HOWARD DOUGLAS.—On Thursday there was a
Court and an Investiture of the Batis. Sir Howard Douglas
was made a Civil Grand Cross of the Bath, and Admirals Sir
John Talbot and Sir Henry Digby were made Military Grand.
Crosses. Generals Sir John Wilson and Sir John Wood-
ford, and Admirals Sir John White, Sir C. Richardson, and
Sir Arthur Farquhar, received the insignia of Knights' Com-
manders. The making Lieutenant-General Sir H. Douglas
a Civil Grand Cross, would seem to cast a reflexion on his
military services and character, and is altogether one of those
puzzling circumstances that occasionally occur in high places.
The only way to account for it at all, is that Sir Howard
having been appointed Lord High Commissioner of the
lonian Islands, by the conservative influence, and there bay-
ingaen a great outcry against certain acts of his administra-
tion, the present ministry were determined to give him a dis-
tinction which should especially mark the sovereign's appro-
bation of his civil services. The army must, however, not
forget that the Order of the Bath is essentially military—its
title is the " most honourable Military Order" ; and the in-
troduction of civilians into it is altogether a modern inven-
tion : the army then should watch with some jealousy the
first symptoms of a notion that any superiority can exist in
the Civil Grand Cross over the Military Grand Cross; for
the selection of a General Officer of the Civil dignity instead
of the Military, might be construed into something of the
sort if not explained.—Looker-on. [We know not Sir
Howard's feelings on the subject, and are therefore not aware
whether he has any preference to the military over the civil
badge, but his claims to either are undeniable.—E. L. S.]

NORTHERN HOSPITAL.—We received at the close of last
week the report of this institution for the past year. We
gather from it that during the last twelve months 1493 patients
have been admitted into the hospital, of which number 1203
have been cured, and only 65 have died. 502 of the patients
were labourers, 437 sailors, and the remainder were me-
chanics, women, and children. The accidents are, as may
be presumed, chiefly of the nature of fractures, of which there
were 185. and wounds and contusions, of which there were
336. 384 of these occurred in \iarions parts of the town, 108
amongst the shipping, and the rest at the various docks,
manufactories, and warehouses, with the exception of 12,
which took place at the canals. We are sorry to see that
there is a balance against the institution of £143 14s. 6d.
But two sermons were preached for the charity in the whole
year, and these only realised £ll 6s. Bd.
ROBBERY FROM THE PERSON.—A young man of unpre-
possessing appearance, named Thomas Berry, was yesterday
charged with having robbed a decent-looking woman, named
Hannah Bennett, in the street. The complainant said, that
on Saturday night the prisoner came up to her in Upper
Parliament-street, and asked her if she wanted a husband.
She told him to go along about his business, and he then,
while a man who was with him stood by, threw her down,
covered her face, and deliberately rifled her pockets of a
shilling, sixpence in copper, two thimbles, a penknife, a to-
bacco-box, and some keys and shells. She pursued him,
and succeeded in giving him into custody in Back Parlia-
ment-street. The articles were found upon him. The pri-
soner told a long story, which was evidently a tissue of false-
hoods, alleging that she had given him the tobacco box, but
not accounting for his possession of the other articles. Mr.
Rushton said the robbery was a cruel and disgraceful one,
and committed him for trial.
ALLEGED ROBBERY OF A CONSIDERABLE SUM OF
MONEY.—A female named Ann Daley was, yesterday,
charged before Mr. Rushton with having robbed a man
named Peter Courtney of a sum of £67. The complainant,
a rough-looking man, said, he was a cart owner, and that the
prisoner, who had lived with him for twelve years as his
housekeeper, had, the previous day, broken open a chest in
which the money was placed, and carried it off. Part of the
money was found in her pocket when she was apprehended,
and part on her person at the Bridewell. A purse containing
50 sovereigns, which had been in the chest, was also re-
covered from her son. The prisoner did not deny taking the
money, but strongly asserted that it was her own property.
She said she had been an unfortunate woman when she first
knew the prisoner, and that she had given him all the money
she got for years in the streets, he having promised to marry
her as soon as he could live without working a day's work
himself. She added that they had lived together as man and
wife for seventeen years, and that they had eight children in
that time; but that as he had threatened to turn her out of
house and home, and said she was too old for him, and that
he was going to marry another, she had taken the money
which she considered her own, as she had earned it. The
complainant said her statement was totally untrue, and the
prisoner was committed for trial at the'sessions.

ROBBERY FROM A SHOP.—Yesterday, John Marratt,
second mate of a ship, and Samuel Johnson Stubbs, a shop-
keeper, were placed at the bar of the Police-court on a
charge of stealing several articles from two different shops.
Mr. Benjamin Dickins, foreman to Messrs. Bandies & Co.,
boot and shoe-makers, Castle-street, said that, on Saturday
night, about nine o'clock, the prisoners came together to
the shop. Marratt requested to be fitted with a pair of
shoes, but after trying several pairs, declined to buy any of
them. Meantime the prisoner Stubbs remained in the shop
at some little distance. Mr. Dickins's suspicions were ex-
cited when they were about to leave the shop, and, observ-
ing Stubbs's person to be somewhat bulky, he felt him, and
found one pairisi
eisr s
j.aoef
kHes hte.owe saA,s
owdoel
detained
acehi
rn
epldiaaiacrl
nbadfeteegnri
,Avl,evanirndgisnotdnor
otchpuriesectdooduoyno -t;
otter, r ,h
iusn
trousers.
and Marratt was then allowed to go, but was afterwards ap-
prehended also. A witness stated that he was employed in
Mr. Clemesha's hat shop, South Castle-street ; and having
occasion to leave it for a short time on Saturday evening, to
go across the street, he observed the two prisoners enter it,
and kept his eye upon them. On going to them, Stubbs re-
marked to him that they might have robbed the shop in his
absence, and he replied that they could not have done so, as
he was looking at them. Marratt tried some hats, but made
no purchase, and they went away. When Stubbs was after-
wards apprehended at the shoe shop, he had a new cap on of
a peculiar make, similar to a number of caps that were lying
on a frame near the door of the hat shop. The witness,
however, could not positively swear that it was one of the
number. A police-officer said that he could find but one
other shop in the town where such caps were sold. Marratt
was afterwards taken into custody, and in the house where
he lodged, in Queen-street, was found another new cap pre-
cisely similar, which he had given to Mr. Jones, who kept
the house, to take care of for him. The prisoner Stubbs,
when taken, had a similar cap on his head. He said, in his
defence, that he was very drunk at the time, and did not
take the shoes with an intention to steal them. Marratt
said that he was a stranger in the town, and had gone with
the other, who said he knew the shops, and could help him
to make-cheap purchases. He added, that Stubbs had, on
their way to the shoe shop, made him a present of the cap
which was found at his lodgings.
MANCHESTER AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.—On Wed-
nesday the directors and principal engineers made an exper-
imental trip over the line from
satisfactory,Stock porptreptoaraCtroerwyet, ao
nd
e
found every thing perfectly
examination of it by Colonel Pasley, the government
inspector of Railways, which we hear will take place in a few
fromdays.Manchester
notto heardcrewb
the euxtawc te dayult
understand
openingtaod v e
rtyh the
littlelin e
remains now to be done; and it is probable that the opening
We
have
will take place by or before Chester races.

LECTURES ON THE CItEgD OF POPE PIUS

THE FOURTH

The sixth of the course of lectures ot; the Creed of Pope
Pius the Fourth, was delivered in the Music•hall, Bold-
street, on the evening of Friday last, by the Rev. I-lust►
STOWELL, of Christ Church, Salford, Manchester. There
was a highly respectable and numerous auditory.

C. S. M IDDLETON, Esq., was called to the chair, and the
proceedings were opened by prayer.
Mr. STOWELL then proceeded to deliver his lecture, which
was on the sixth article of the creed—" I do firmly believe
that there is a purgatory, and that the souls detained therein
are helped by the prayers of the faithful ; " or, as it stands
in the original Latin—" Constanter teneo purgatorium esse,
animasque ibi detentas fidelium suffragiis juvari." The rev.
gentleman said,—My Christian friends, the subject which
bespeaks our attention this evening is one which falls very
appropriately immediately after that solemn and sublime fes-
tival of our own reformed Catholic church, the holy season
of Easter. At that season we justly commemorate the death
and glorious resurrection of the Prince of Life, who, in the
beautiful language of our own church, " by his death de-
stroyed death, and by his rising to life again restored to us
everlasting life,"—who illumined the dark valley and encir-
cled the gloom of the grave with a rainbow bright with pro-
mise and with hope,—or, in the more appropriate, because
inspired, language of the apostle, " who hath abolished death,
and brought life and immortality to light through the gos-
pel." The dark shadows that obscured the world to come
he has rolled aside; the thick veil, emblematised by the fall
of the temple, rent at the moment he said " It is finished,"
he has drawn aside; and we can now, with the eye of faith,
look at the things which are not seen, and which are eternal.
Nevertheless, in the disclosures made by the Prince of Life
of the future scene of existence for immortal men, there is
enough to support and satisfy the faith ; there is nothing,
however, to gratify and excite prurient and presumptive cu-
riosity. Indeed, it is remarkable that the discoveries of that
future world are for the most part general and indefinite,
more especially with regard to that solemn interval which
interposes between the departure of the spirit from its tene-
ment of clay and its final consummation and bliss, when it
shall be reunited to the body, a glorified body like to Christ's
glorified body. Of that solemn interval Scripture says com-
paratively nothing at all. Indeed it is worthy of observa-
tion, that throughout, the New Testament the hope and the
attention of the believer is not fixed upon death, but fixed
upon life,—is not fixed upon putting off his tabernacle, but
putting it on,—is not fixed upon the dark twilight, the dim
, shadows between his death and his resurrection, but upon
the bright rays of that everlasting day, when the Sun of
Righteousness shall appear, and when all his people
appear with him in the fulness and completeness
nature and of bliss. Hence, however Christians may
differ with regard to the precise import of the claming of
Christ, the precise period, the precise manner, whether
pre-millennial or post-millennial, vt!rhether before the final
judgment day or after the final judgment day,—all, in so
far as they are Scriptural in their views, conform in looking
for his coming as the great head of the church, for his coming
as the grand consummation of his people, as that to which
all events are hastening, as that which awakens the respon-
sive echo from the breast of all his belieiing people, " even
so, home, Lord -Jesus ; come quickly." The Scriptures,
therefore, cast the interval between death and the resurrec-
tion into shadow ; they, as it were, had the eye of faith across
the space, and fasten it upon the bright and blessed consum-
mation beyond it. Our own reformed Catholic church in
this as in all her tenets in harmony with the voice of revela-
tion, respecting the silence not less than the voice of the
lively oracles, says little to her children upon the subject of
the intermediate state ; yea, she simply swallows it up in this
petition,—" that it may please thee shortly to accomplish the
number of thine elect, and hasten thy kingdom, that we, with
all those that are departing in the faith and fear of thy holy
name, may have our perfect consummation and blessing, both
in body and soul, in thine everlasting glory." But that terra
incognita, that unknown land, which the church of England
following the teachings of holy Scripture thus presumes not
to enter, presumes not to intermeddle with, presumes not to
explore, simply teaching her sons to rest satisfied in the
blessed assurance that God has taken to himself the soul of
our dear departed brother or sister—that terra incognita the
church of Rome fixes upon as her darling spot, her peculiar
inheritance, her appropriated territory, where she plants her
most powerful machinery in order to wield the conscience
and the fears and the hearts of her dupes and her slaves.
Now, the church of Rome in occupying this intermediate
space between death and the resurrection, with the fiction of
purgatory, has discovered, as she has in so many other re-
spects, the deepest craft of the serpent, alas, how divorced
from the harmlessness of the dove 1 She has discovered the
most complete and the most consummate subtlety in the in-
vention of the purgatorial system, because, if she merely
taught her disciples to believe in the two great final states—
heaven for the righteous and hell for the wicked—that no
sooner were men passed from the church militant, than they
were passed from her power and the power of her priesthood,
that she could no longer wield any influence borrowed from their
condition,—a decided state, a final and a fixed state immedi-
ately upon death, would not subserve the purposes of Popery
to arm the sacerdotal order with a fearful power, a dreadful
power, a dim, mysterious, ambiguous, and therefore tremen-
dous power ; for Popery loves to dwell in twilight and amid
shadows. Such a power could be best derived to the priest-
hood by means of the intermediate and uncertain state,
where there was play for change, scope for the interposition
of priestly mediation and priestly operation, and where, con-
sequently, there was scope to wield the fears of the living,
and to mulct and tax the dead through the living. It was,
therefore, such an administration as this that was best fitted
to arm the priesthood of Rome with power to stretch be-
yond the grave, telling most effectually upon the fears of the
living as it pretended to tell upon the condition and destinies
of the dead. For such a figment as that of purgatory, the.
Church of Rome wanted not the type and the notion, because
they found it ready to their hands in the fictions of the
Rabbinical writers. Among the Jews there was the notion
of an intermediate state where all Israelites (for they believe
that all must ultimately go to the kingdom of God) were
purified and pardoned, and at last admitted into heaven.
Rome borrowed, filched this fond notion from the Rabbinical
writers, as one most dear to her notions. Romanism is
nothing else but Christianity half paganised, half judaised,
and almost wholly unchristianised. (Loud cheers.) It were
a very interesting study, and it is one in part done by some
ingenious writers, to trace up to Judaism, upon the one hand,
all that Rome borrowed from her, and to Paganism, upon
the other hand, all that Rome borrowed from her. If, then,
we were to ask what she had borrowed from Chritianity, we
should find the amount comparatively small indeed. The
great fundamental truths that she does hold in common with
ourselves—such as the Trinity in Unity and the satisfaction
offered by Christ—she does so overlay and bury by the ac-
cumulation of some Judaical and some Pagan superstitions,
that the pearl is almost unknown and lost. As some writer
has well observed, she " has folded the head of the babe in the
arms of Mary, and buried his atonement in his sepulchre,
and rolled a great stone to the door."
My Christian friends, we have thus, then, introductorily,
traced the origin of the doctrine of purgatory in the Church
of Rome. We have seen what facility was afforded for its
introduction ; we have seen how this unscriptural, unde-
scribed middle state between death and judgment presented
itself as the proper sphere and field for Rome to occupy in
order to subserve her own purposes. We have seen, that to
subserve those purposes nothing was more necessary than
that her priesthood should be armed with a certain indefinite
power over the future destinies of mankind, and that this
power should not extend, indeed, to the directly final states,
because Rome herself had not the unblushing presumption,
in the face of Scripture, to pretend that men can ever be
lost from heaven and rescued from hell ; but an intermedi-
ate state saved her from this dilemma, and enabled her
and offered to her a very fit occasion and opportunity to in-
troduce that monstrous fiction purgatory which we shall find,
as we proceed, to trace it out, one of the most monstrous
and mighty powers with which the Church of Rome arms
herself. Indeed if you take away purgaiory from the Romish
system, you take away the very mainspring of her machinery ;
you disarm the Romish priesthood of their power if you strip
from them the fond notions of purgatory. Let us then allow
the Church of Rome to speak for herself, and ascertain what
are her own views of the intermediate state of purgatory.
We shall first of all appeal to her own authorized and ac-
credited standard ; afterwards we shall have recourse to some
her standard writers in order to have further light thrown
upon this, at the best, dim and obscure subject; for she has
felt it her interest to aid you, as far as possible, through the
misty obscurity. In the creed of Pope. Pius the Fourth,
which is made, very fitiy, the platforms for a series of lectures,
of which the present is one, the sons are taught, each one
for himself,—" I do firmly believe that there is a purgatory,
and that the souls detained therein are helped by the prayer
of the faithful." We have here, indeed, a bare naked state-
ment of fact, that there is a purgatory, but where that
purgatory is, where located, and of what description it is,
we ere not told. We are also told that the suffrages of the
faithful avail for those in that place, purgatory ; but what
those suffrages are we are not told, and in what manner they
avail we are not informed. We shall now have recourse to
the Council of Trent, and see what further light is,thrown
upon the subject by that notorious council.—The reverend
gentlemen then quoted a decree enacted at the 25th (and
last) session of the Council of Trent, which states that
masses, prayers, and alms are to be continually offered up for
the relief of the souls detained in purgatory, and that all
bishops and priests are to preach this " wholsome doctrine."
Here, proceeded the reverend gentlemen, we find some slight
light thrown upon the subject, though after 'all it is a very
cloudy light ; we are taught that there is not only a place
called purgatory, but that the suffrages of the faithful
which avail for the relief of those confined in purgatory,
are masses, prayers, and alms, and other works of piety,
which the faithful have' been accustomed to perform for
the departed believers. We are referred here to the
bishops who are to inculcate this wholesome doctrine;
and we find in the catechism of the Council of Trent
which is of equal authority with the enactments of tlra council
itself, somewhat more respecting purgatory. Mr. Stowell
then read passages from the Catechism of the Council of
Trent, the catechism for children, and the Douay catechism,
in which it was alleged that purgatory is a doctrine founded
upon the scriptures and upon the traditions of the fathers ;
and that it is a prison for-the purification of departed spirits.
We have here (the rev. gentleman continued) some little
more light reflected upon,this dim and uncertain subject, for
we find purgatory designated a prison, therefore it is a place
which has " a local habitation and a name." We find, too,
somewhat respecting those that are confined in purgatory—
that they are persons who either have been guilty of venial
sins which have not been expiated, or persons who having
committed mortal sins, and having been forgiven those mor-
tal sins, in so far as everlasting punishment is concerned,
yet have not rendered that satisfaction for sin which the
Church of Rome requires even in the case of mortal sin,
although the venial guilt, has been pardoned. Such are the
persons she reports as going into purgatory, in order to ren-
der that additional satisfaction which is required by the jus-
tice of God before they can enter into heaven. But let us
refer to her most celebrated doctor, Cardinal Bellarmine,
and ascertain what further light he may throw upon the sub-
ject. Bellarmine was then quoted ; and he defined purga-
tory to be a certain place; where as in a prison, souls de-
parted from this life were purified, because without such
purification they could not enter into heaven ; that_the pains
of purgatory were most horrible, the greatest sufferings on
earth bore no comparison to them ; and that if men knew
what they were they would never go there, but would rather
go into the torments of the eternal tire of hell. Now Car-
dinal Bellarmine has thrown his additional light upon the
mysterious subject we are investigating, and he distinctly
tells us not only who they are who enter into purgatory, but
what is the measure of suffering they endure. He tells us it
is most horrible, horrible beyond all comparison ; so that no
sufferings upon earth are to be compared with it. A
fearful and a wretched stage indeed for a child of God to
have to pass through to the land of final rest and glory !
What a fearful cloud is purgatory between the eye of faith
and that pure and bright abode which God has prepared for
them that love him ! The !Church of Rome, however, not
content with thus giving us general notions upon the subject
of purgatory has furnished us in the case of some of her ca-
nonised saints with fuller information : some of them have
returned from that world from which, we would imagine, ua
traveller was ever allowed to come back again. We'fina it-
in the case of St. Christina, and she thus relates what she
witnessed in purgatory. The rev. gentleman then read St.
Christina's report of what she had seen and heard, from
which it appeared that she held a conversation with
Al-
mighty, and interceded with him on behalf of some friend of
hers. We here find (Mr. Stowell continued)
describing an individual
coming back from the purgatorial state and
nature, nevertheless the description of information its
furnished
by St. Christina is very superficial and unsatisfactory. We
find, however, something more upon the subject of purgatory
revealed to-us in the case of—who do you suppose ? -No less
a personage than one of the Popes of
mßome, no less than In-
nocent 111., who held the Lateran
represented as being in purgatory, and in purgation too, to

the last day ! But you shaff hear his own description of bi's
tate. Mr. Stowell then quoted from tic life of St. Lud-
gardis, written by the same hand as the hie of St. Christina,
an account of the visit of some One to purgatory, to whom the
pope stated he must be confined there till the day of judg-
ment, and that intercession with the Almighty for him was
useless. What evils (he continued) the wretched pope suf-
fered we are left to imagine for ourselves; but this is only
one of the many self-contradictions of which the Church of
Rome is perpetually guilty. Here then •we have this strang ,
and striking feature with regard to Popery, that one oft
most eminent popes—he that held the Lateran Coun t
should be himself consigned to purgatory, and consign d to
it even till the judgment of the last day.
We have, then, my dear hearers, examined as far as the
Church of Rome vouchsafes light to us upon, the subject,
her views of the purgatorial fire. It appears that the locality
of purgatory she has not fixed. The state of purgatory she
places between death and the resurrection. The pains of
purgatory she sometimes speaks of as fire, but how fire can
be applied to spirit it is impossible for us to conceive, and
we must leave it to her to explain ; and though she has seen
fit to speak of the fires of purgatory, she never enters into
minute detail of the nature of the torments inflicted there,
but she describes them as most horrible, immeasurably be-
yond anything ever suffered on earth. She'further tells us,
that those who are in prison there are not the wicked
who shall finally perish, but the righteous, whose satisfaction
for sins upon earth has been imperfect, or who, having been
guilty of venial sins, have had no ,opportunity of making sa-
tisfaction at all. She teaches, therefore, as you perceive,
the distinction between mortal and venial sins—sins of a
darker dye and sins of a lighter shade. She teaches also that
there is a distinction between pardon and punishment, inso-
much as though a man may be pardoned in so far as hell is
concerned, he may yet not be pardoned in so far as the
endurance of temporal punishment goes ; so that a man while
delivered from final and everlasting torment is not exempted-
from self-inflicted penances at his own hands, or from sore
suffering and visitation at the hands of God on account of his
sins, and from the powerful fear of purgatory after death, un-
less he has made satisfaction, in temporal punishment, for
his sins on this side the grave.
Take, then, the whole view ; and here you have what the
Church of Rome holds with regard to the existence of pur-
gatory, with regard to the nature of penance in purgatory,
and with regard to the persons who are engaged in, that pe-
nance. Now, upon what evidence does the Church of Rome
found this strange and, monstrous fabric? What authority
has she in the Word of God to declare that there be such a
place as purgatory, or to describe purgatory as being thus
peopled by individuals whose sins are forgiven them ? The
passages which the Church of Rome fixes upon in Scripture
are sundry ; but for the most part they are so utterly imper-
tinent and so utterly inapplicable that even one of her own
advocat s, and he one who died a martyr for the church,
flings thorn aside as untenable. The rev. gentleman then
quoted from Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who said, that
with regard to all the passages of Scripture usually adducred
in defence of the doctrine of purgatory, with the exception
of three, they are of little avail and of little applicability. The
three to which he refers (resumed Mr. Stowell) are those to
which I shall allude. The first passage is from the book of
Maccabees, in which Judas and those who taught with
him are represented as giving sacrifice and prayer for the
dead who had been killed in the battle, because certain
idolatrous charms were found beneath their garments after
death. Upon this passage Ido not intend to touch, because
we cast the book of Macabees and the whole Apocrypha al-
together aside. We do not recognise that book, though, with
the church, we regard it as useful for instruction in mo-
rals, and for example in life ; but we do not for one moment,
directly or indirectly, countenance the idea that it has any
right or place whatsoever in the canon of holy Scripture. We
conceive there never was a period since the canon of holy
Scripture was completed, when it became all scriptural mi-
nisters to take heed how they in any way allow either tradi-
tion, or the writings of the fathers in the Apocrypha, to be
brought into contact with the word of God. They should let
the word of God stand aloft in the firmament of the church,
like the sun in the sky, and got allow the damp, offensive
matter that arises from the marshes, if read at all, approach.
to, or mingle its dusky light with the sun of its pure splen-
dour. I conceive, therefore, I should be lending some slight
indirect sanction to the notion that the apocryphal writings
are to be regarded as authority, if I were to condescend to
waste your time by attempting to analyse a passage which,
whatever may be its import or its bearing upon the subject,
we hold as of no more authority than we hold the ipse dixit
either of Dr. Wiseman, Dr. Murray, or Dr. Doyle. We
hold the writings of the Apocrypha in no other light than as
the records of former nations, and therefore venerable. As
moral writings, or historical records, we take them for what
they are worth. What is true in them we do receive ; but
we test their truth as the truth of all, or any writings, by the
writings, by the only touchstone—the infallible word of the
living God.

Casting aside that quotation, the next upon which they
found their doctrine is the 12th chapter of Matthew, and 3rd
verse, where it pleased our blessed Redeemer to say, " who-
soever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be
forgiven but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it
shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the
world to come." Now, even supposing Christ had inti-
mated there was forgiveness in a future world, this does not
suggest, nor does it directly sanction, the idea of purgatory.
Further, that Christ should have taught forgiveness at all
in a future world, is utterly inconceivable, for it would
have been in the face of all he himself had previously de-
clared, in that he said, " The night cometh wherein no
man can work ; and again, by his apostle, " now is the ac-
cepted time, now is the day of salvation." But if we take
the parallel passages in the gospel of St. Mark and St. Luke,
we find this expression rendered more faithfully by the words
" hath never forgiveness," and " shall not be forgiven ;" and
therefore it is clear our blessed Redeemer used a common
mode of expression among the Jews, as there is ample evi-
dence of it, in order, in the strongest manner; to asseverate
that the sin agoinst the Holy Ghost was an unpardonable sin,
and never to be pardoned here, and therefore not for ever.
So much, then, for the passage upon which the Church of
Rome rests, as upon a pillar, the monstrous fabric of purga-
tory. We find it has no relation or bearing upon the point ;
that it was a declaration, common to the Jews, of a thing
impossible for ever.

The next passage upon which she founds this doctrine is in
the first of St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, from the
13th to the 15th verse. This is the passage where the apostle
guards the christian builders against building upon any other
foundation than on Christ, and with any other than sound
apd substantial materials ; that they should not build " wood,
hay, stubble," but gold, silver, and precious stones ;" and
reminds them that a day shall come which shall reveal their
work, when every man's work should be tried of what sort
it was, and that if any man's work stands he should receive
a reward, but if it were consumed he should suffer loss, yet
he himself should be saved " so as by fire." Let any person
read that passage and he will at once see that it is metapho-
rical, and therefore a plain man may find some difficulty in
coming to a determination, but he will never be led by it to
suppose there is a future intermediate state in which fire is
applied to test the souls of men. First of all he finds that it
is not the souls of men that are to be tested, but the works
of men that are to be tested ; it is the man's works that are
to be tried, but it is not to try the man's soul ; therefore
since the Romanist holds that the soul is to be tortured in
purgatory, it is clear the passage can have no searing what-
ever upon any such state. Further, it is the view of the
Church of Rome that the soul in purgatory is to be purified
by fire, but here it is the works of the man which are to be
tried by fire ; it is not the soul purified, but the works tried—
it is the works which are to be purified, tested, and tried,
and brought to the ordeal. Further, the Church of Rome
teaches that only the souls of those who have died under
eternal punishment not expiated, or who have been guilty of
venial sin, are those who go into the purgatorial flame ;
but this passage declares that fire shall try the works of all
men, apostles, prophets, and martyrs. Further, we are told
here that if the works be destroyed, the man himself shall
suffer loss—the builder shall suffer loss—but he himself shall
be saved, " so as by fire." The Church of Rome says, " by
means of the fire of purgatory ;" the apostle says, " so as by
fire," meaning, " as if it were by fire," an expression of fre-
quent use in those times, and in ours. We are told by the
Prophet Zechariah, that " Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments, and stood before the angel : and he answered and
spake unto those that stood before him, saying, take away
those- filthy garments from him ; and unto him he said, be-
hold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I
will clothe thee with just raiment." Here are parallel ex-
pressions. It is clear then that the whole passage is meta-
phorical ; therefore it is equally clear that to apply one part
of it metaphorically,, and the other part literally, is utterly
contradictory of the rules of sound interpretation, and makes
the apostle appear ignorant of what he was writing. The
Romanists themselves will admit that the foundation must
be metaphorical ; they will admit that the " gold silver, and
precious stones," and the " wood, hay, stubble;" must be
metaphorical. Why then, if the preceding part of the figure
be all metaphorical, are we to take the other as if it were not
metaphorical ? Is it not clear that the passage, though in-
volved in some obscurity, either means that men are to
beware what subordinate doctrines they build upon, or that
the ground of the doctrines of christianity creates the hope
of the sinner's soul, the only basis of a sinner's acceptance ;
that if they build upon erroneous doctrines, not vitally erro-
neous, but circumstantially erroneous, instead of upon that
true foundation, that in the final trial of the last great
day the falsity of their views shall be revealed, and their
views shall be, as it were, consumed. Nevertheless, be-
cause they built upon the true foundation themselves, though
they built " wood, hay, stubble" upon that foundation that
loss shall be suffered ; as to the measure of reward and en-
durance of their work they themselves shall be saved yet
hardly, scarcely, as it were by fire. Or to take another in-
terpretation which I confess commends itself to my jgdE-
merit, that the " wood, hay, subble" built upon the founda-
tion are not the doctrines but the professors of christianity ;
that ministers of religion are warned against too readily ad-
mitting. into the church, and acknowledging as brethren in
the fellowship of Christ all who take hastily and in consider-
ately its professions, lest haply they build upon the true
foundation what they imagine to be " gold, silver, precious
stones," vet which are in reality " wood, hay, stubble."
This appears to me to be the nearest and the.iiimplest inter-
pretation of a confessedly somewhat mysterious passage ;
but whatever the mystery which may, adhere to it, it affords
no curtain or shelter whatever fur the ffionstrous figments of
purgatory. I would defy any man that had not a purpose to
serve, or an end to gain, to have ever conceived how he could
torture and twist that passage of St. Paul into an argument
for purgatory. The last passage which the Romanists the
sober and sound reasoners among the Romanists themselves,
venture to retain in proof of purgatory is that also confes-
sedly dark passage in the Ist St. Peter, 3d ch. verses 18, 19,
and 20. where our blessed Redeemer is said to have " once
suffered Ear sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring
us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by
the spirit ; by which also he went and preached unto the
ospnicreitsthienlporniason;
suffering
which some time were disobedient, when
of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is eight, souls
were saved by water." The Church of Rome says, " here
are spirits in prison : the Saviour goes to preach to those
spirits, and therefore here is purgatory ; here are spirits in
prison capable of being preached to by Christ," and the in-
ference is, delivered by Christ. It will be sufficient to an-
swer to this, that the individuals in purgatory, as the Church
of Rome has it here, who are delivered by Christ, are
individuals cut off by the overwhelming wrath of God, in the
midst of their sins, unrepented, unconfessed, and unabsolved.
If there were sinners cast into hell, they must have been cut
off without room or opportunity for repentance. Thy
Church of. Rome holds that those who die in mortal sin
can never be forgiven, they do not therefore go into purga,.
tort', but at once to a place of torment; consequently, upon
her own showing, this passage can avail nothing for them.
The Church of Rome, therefore, driven from Scriptural evi-
dence falls back upon the usual alternative, tradition and the
fathers. Now, as for tradition, it is such a meteor of the
marsh, flitting every where and tangible nowhere, dancing
up and down, that, for my own part, unable to get their
traditions in any tangible shape or form, I will have
nothing whatever to, do with it. I do not know where
the tradition of the Church of Rome is to be found. I
do not know what good is to be derived from it ; and I
do not know any point upon which I should like to ask
questions upon than this—" Will you have the
. sir, to give me those traditions of yours? let
akipnrdines kindness,
s,orreeve
us handle and feel these "airy phantoms" you are cm., i-
neatly deluding and mocking us with, leading your votaries
with it so that we do not know whence they come, where
they are, or what they must be ; it is everything or anything,
just as suits your purpose, and we Protestants must regard
it as one of the objects which used to disturb our childhood."
But with regard to the fathers, then it will be said there ar
tangible tones, large, and venerable, and dusty. I grant
they are so large, and so venerable, and so dusty many of
them, that if we are to depend for our faith upon the inter-
pretation of the fathers, and much more upon their unani-
mous interpretation may God have mercy upon us—there is

not one that would eVetx get at the trutirat all. Ido not
see how any man, unless he devoted the entire of a life, and
what can we who are so busy in the active pursuits of life do ?
—get at the uanimous interpretation of alll the fathers. He
must go through and all over a multitude of volumes, digest
and collate them, then compare and condense the whole, and
then draw forth their responses thus collated, and thus con-
densed, and thus drawn out. If a man is not to find the
pearl of great price, or to know the way to happiness till he
has obtained it by going through all the fathers, it would be
melancholy indeed. Thank God, we may go not to the
fathers but to the grandfathers. (Applause.) Thank God
we can go not to Father Augustine, or Chrysostom, or
Jerome, but to Father Paul, and Peter, and John. (Cheers.)
Yes, my friends, we do not call them father, for we call no
man father spiritually but one, who is God ; he is our father
and our Lord, and we leave the Church of Rome to call any
man her father ; therefore, papa the Pope, and the Popes,
and the brands of Anti-Christ upon earth. We do not, there-
fore, speak even of the apostles as fathers ; nor do we speak
of the early fathers in any other sense than simply as words
conventionally used, for we hold no one father but the ever-
lasting father, the Lord upon high, who is the father of us
all. But with regard to the fathers themselves, I have read
to you already (having quoted it somewhat earlier than I: in-
tended) the opinion of a Roman Catholic bishop with regard
to the testimony of the early fathers. He admits, that until
a very late. period, in the church the doctrine of purgatory
was wholly unknown. I find it is clearly made out by seve-
ral of our distinguished controversialists, especially Mr.
Faber and. the present Bishop of Exeter, that nearly at the

close of the third century there is not the slightest intimation
or whisper in any one of the fathers about an intermediate
state of penalty and suffering between death and the resur-

. -
rection for those who depart in the Lord. There are upon
the contrarya multitude of passages in their writings that

r ..qt distinctly and flatly contradict any such notions. 'But
I shall hold myself excused, and I dare say you will, from at
. .

all entering into the views of the fathers upon this suhject,
because if all the fathers from Ignatius down to Origen, yea,
down to the last father that wrote were, with one unanimous
• • •

voice to give testimony to purgatory, it would not weigh
against one single part of a sentence of the word of God more
than a feather against the world. I know of no compaiison
by which I could fairly shadow forth the extent of difference
between the testimony of poor fallible worms and the deci-
sive voice of the spirit of the living God ; therefore I could
not allow, in my own mind, all the testimony of all the
fathers to weigh ought unless that testimony were endorsed
and authenticated by the word of God. As witnesses to
facts, as credible historians we respect and revere the fathers,
but as propounders of doctrine, as adding ought to revela-
tion, as sublimating as it were the records of God's word by
their own imaginations we do not receive them, and we say—
" 'Why shall the fathers act as Christ and the Apostles and
the Prophets ? The word of God is our sufficient rule, our
only rule ; and to that, by the help of God, we will stand to
our dyin,, day."
But whilst the Church of Rome has thus little or nothing to
appeal to in the Apostolical Fathers, has not the shadow of
.1

an appeal to the word of God, I gratit'thai she has a powerful
appeal to the carnal reason and to the deceived heart of fallen

I know it, and therefore conceive it to be of great im-

portance, that, in proceeding as I shall to repudiate altogether
and disprove the doctrine, that this should be distinctly and
frequently shown, not only on account of its beatingdown
one of the strongest pillars of Popery, but on account of the
congruity of its erroneous doctrines to the fallen henrt of
man

You will often have advocates for purgtitop, among

professing Protestants : they do not advocate it by name,
but they advocate it by insinuation. Those who are accus,-
tomed (thank God, I have little been) to profane and foolish
jesting with men, will often have heard them say, "'Well,
if we are not sood enough to go to heaven, we are too good
to go to hell.' What is this but an insinuation that there
may be some middle state for them ? The heart, therefore,
is prepared to wish for a middle state. The worldly man and
the wicked man, then, will be anxious to indulge their evil

passions yet with a quiet conscience ; they will wish tp have
their fill of earthly indulgence, yet to escape the penalty, for
they will continue to sin if conscience tells them that their

sin brings with it no punishment hereafter. To such men
what a harbour of refuge does purgatory present! If men
may by any measure of temporary punishment, by even thou-
sands of years of sore suffering, have the gratification of their
lusts and passions here, we know that man is so much a crea-
ture of sense he will do so. Aye, the mere fiction ofpurga-

tory upon the lusts and passions of the carnal man, will ope-
rate in order to restrain and curb, but as flax before the

flames, when temptation rages and evil passions assail. The
fear of everlasting torment is feeble to deter guilty man from
eating of the fruit of death ; but when you transmite the
terrors of hell into the mere presence of purgatory, hew fee-

ble will be its aim ! I will venture to say there is not a man
in this room, who speaks the honest sentiments of his mind,
who will not admit, if he followed his natural inclinations, he
would become an advocate for purgatory, and gladly lug the
. .

. _
fond idea to his heart. It is just what we want—the thfng that
will allow us to follow the bent of our dispositions and passions
upon earth, and rescue us from the eternity of woe beyond.
It is not only thus in the darker passions of the human heart
that the fiction of purgatory finds an advocate : it finds an
advocate even in the finer affections and in the more, refined
sentiments of the soul. Yes ; indeed, Popery works often
with fearful power and efficacy in this way ; and I know not
how I can better illustrate my meaning than by giving you a
simple instance that ' came under my own observation. A lady

at one time connected with my own flock, possessed of consi-
derable Christian knowledge, and not without strong religi-
ous feeling, married a medical man who was carelessland de-
voted to the world. What little better feeling she had was
much withered by such an unwarranted and unwise' union.

Their lot was cast in a neighbourhood where resided a;Romish
family of distinction, wealth, and great benevolende. Her
husband attended as a medical man upon the family, and
they showed kindness and attention to the strangers, for they
were comparatively such in the neighbourhood. In process
of time it pleased God in his mysterious Providence that the
medical man, in riding out to visit his patients, was seized
with some sudden attack of disease, which terminated fatally
before his wife could arrive to catch his last breath, When
he was committed to the grave, and her mind awoke from
the torpor in which the blow had at first stunned; her, her
former religious convictions and feelings rushed upon her
mind, and she felt a thrilling agony in the thoughti " What
has become of my husband's soul ? " That one agonising
idea so occupied and possessed her soul, that all her personal
bereavement and sense of desolation upon earth was absorbed
in its intensity. Whilst in this state of mental anguish, she
was invited into the bosom of the Romish family she was
treated there with the utmost tenderness, assiduity, and deli-
cacy,. nor was the slightest attempt made to insinuate their
peculiarities into her mind. But they watched, and discerned
the state of her bruised spirit ; and they availed themselves
of an occasion when she remarked—" Oh, could I but be as-
sured it were well with my husband's spirit, I could bow in
submission to the hand of God ! " They then gently and
kindly, smoothly and tenderly, insinuated " How dreary, and
cheerless and dismal is your faith ! It offers you no
hope; it allows you no intercession on behalf of departed
friends ; but ours is more Christian and more consolatory.
Our creed teaches us that, though our friends may have died
in the midst of guilt and sin, yet we may reach them by our
prayers, and preserve them by our services, and nourish their
very souls by masses to be celebrated ; and we may thus abate
their torments, and expedite their admission into heaven."
It touched the chord that vibrated in her desolate breast,
and she listened with avidity to that which promised her
some light in the midst of her gloom. She caught at this
straw, and clutched it convulsively. The consequence was,
she admitted the visits of the priest, she was gradually drawn
into the toil, and she was on the very eve of conforming to
the Church of Rome, when, at this crisis, her friends, hear-
ing of the state of her mind, immediately insisted upon her
leaving the family and returning to them. I had Several in-
terviews with her, and I found it no difficult task to disabuse
ber mind ; for she had too much of the light of Scripture,
and a too enlightened conscience, to be able to swallow the
absurdities of Popery when they were revealed to her in
their real nakedness. The priest had taken care to veil and
cloak them so that they did not startle her ; and when I
shewed them to her in their own writings, and told her in
what they believed,—when she really found what was in the
hack-ground, she started and said, " Oh ! they never told
me this." It was a simple saying; and I said, " No, they
would never have told you that till you were prepared to
receive it ; they must first administer an opiate till they
have stunned the conscience and stunned the understanding,
then they would reveal to you the darker mysteries of their
creed ; but they only give it to you drop by drop, as you are
capable of receiving the soporific draught." The conse-
quence was, she broke off from her connection with Roman-
ism, returned cordially to the bosom of the church, and is, I
trust, at this moment, a faithful and obedient servant of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now I think that illustration will make
manifest to you the subtle appeals of Popery to the tenderer
feelings and the more exquisite sensibilities, more plainly
than any statement or argument of my own could have done.
You see, then, how Popery takes advantage of the doctrine
of purgatory, not only in the craft and deceits and passions
of the natural heart, but also in the dearer sensibilities and
the more exquisite affections of thellpul. Hence it will not
be lost labour or a superfluous task, that I proceed to shew
you, by a few simple arguments, that the doctrine of the
Church of Rome touching purgatory is altogether and utterly
to be reprobated and rejected.
First of all, we reject the doctrine because it is founded
upon a most unscriptural distinction between sins venial and
mortal. If all sins were mortal, one of the principal reasons
for purgatory would be done away, because mortal sins,
unless expiated by the blood of Christ, and atoned for by
penance here, admit of no forgiveness hereafter; but venial
sins may be forgiven, either here by means of penance or
penalties, or hereafter by means of certain sufferings endured
in purgatory, and shortened by masses, in their satisfaction.
But where does the Church of Rome find, in the whole com-
pass of Scripture, anything about venial sins ? Where does
she find any countenance thus to make nought of the law of
God ? Where does she find any authority for instructing us
that God ever allows his holy law to be violated by trans-
gressors at small cost, and yet says with regard to the trans-
gression that it may be held as a venial sin in his sight ?
Upon the contrary, we are told that the thought of foolish-
ness is sin ; that for every idle word we utter, we must give
an account at the judgment ; that he who offends in one point
is guilty of the whole law, because be opposes the authority
that enforces the whole; that he who offends in one point
thereby offends in all, because it is not inclination that keeps
him from offending in all, but circumstances, convenience,
or something else than simple submission to the authority of
God. Again, are we not taught that " all unrighteousness
is sin" ? Are we not taught that " God's anger is revealed
from heaven against all the unrighteousness of man " ? The
distinction of sins, therefore, into lesser and greater, into
venial and mortal, is a distinction not only unsanctioned by
Scripture, but, in the face of the inexorable and immutable
character of the law of God, has a direct tendency to bring
that law into dishonour and disrepute, leads men to take a
fearful licence and liberty with God's indefeasible command-
ments, and set up the standard of their own righteousness,
on one side of which is slavery, and on the other is the
grave, so that each man will alter the standard, as
may suit his convenience or his purpose. I have no
doubt there are thousands and tens of thousands of poor
ignorant dupes of the Church of Rome, who are to be
pitied for their ignorance rather than blamed for their
errors, who are led to indulge in sin under the fond notion
that their sin is venial Their guilt lies more at the door of
the Church of Rome, than at the door of their own conscience,
because they have been brought up in the dark delusion, and
still retain it till the iron of it has destroyed their very souls.
But we reject the doctrine of purgatory, not only upon the
score of its being founded thus on an unhallowed distinction,
but we reject it on the score and upon the ground of the re-
striction of temporal punishment even where temporal punish-
ment is removed. This we conceive must be acknowledged
to be a Scriptural doctrine. Does not the word of God every
where tell us that the divine being is a pardoning God, not
partially and by halves and by un-Christianizing, but pardon-
ing them freely, fully, and completely, when he pardons them
at all ? This is beautifully described by the prophet_,, Let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrigteous man his
thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will
have mercy upon him, and to our God for he will abundantly
pardon." Again. " As far as the east is from the west, so
far bath he removed our transgressions from us." Again,
" Come now let us reason together saith the Lord : though
your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow ; though
they be red like crimson they shall be as wool." If whiter
what room is there for further
than wool, if purer than snow,
punishment ? What reason is there for temporal inflictions
from God or from man upon the sinner? My Christian
friends how does Popery take away the abundant grace of
God, representing him as pardoning like man, and not like
himself, for it is in his pardoning grace especially he sets
himself forth, for he says, " As the heavens are higher than
the earth so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts." Man would pardon partially
and reserve punishment also ; but God, infinitely above man,
" "
acts with no such partiality.- He forgives freely. Who;
exclaims the enraptured prophet, "is a God like unto thee, that

pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the
remnant of his heritage? be 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 Tarnish—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 Aostle " Who shall lay any
thing to the charge of Gods 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 toto 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 evodasting 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
hath 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?

WYE.. •• .• •
But we equally denounce also the doctrine of purgatory as
in the face of Scripture, upon the ground that it entirely con-
tradicts the declarations of the Word of God, touching the
immediate transition of the spirit of the just to the bosom of
his God. " To-day," said our Divine Masterto the penitent
thief upon the cross, " shalt thou be with me in paradise."
Surely if there was ever one that deserved to pass through the
purgatorial purifications it must have been one thus plucked
from the very verge of hell, with all his sins up to that time,
upon his soul. I say if there was any one in need of purga-
torial purifications it must have been he; yet Christ said not
" thou shall this day go with me into purgatory," but " this
day shalt thou be with me in paradise." How noble the tri-
umph ! lie took him at once from the cross of shame to the
throne of glory, the first fruits as it were of his power upon
earth to forgive sins. Then, my Christian friends, look at other
passages of similar import. Paul says, and not for himself
alone, for he might appear exempt from the ordinary fate of the
saints—" We are confident 1 say, and willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
There is no intermediate state here : the transition is at once
from the earthly house of the tabernacle to the bosom of the
Redeemer in heaven. The same truth is taught us in the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus : there was no interme-
diate state there. The beggar died, and angels carried him
into Abraham's bosom : the rich man also died, and when in
hell he lifted up his eyes in torments, but he could not pass
from thence to heaven, nor could Lazarus pass from heaven
to him. Their state was fixed for ever. Is not Scripture
then always the same? " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device,
nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou
goest"—" Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the
day of salvation." Blessed hope of the child of God ! At
once he leaves his tenement of clay, at once he wakes up in
the presence of the Saviour, amid the spirits of the just made
perfect ! Oh, let not the dark clouds of purgatory intervene
between the death of the believer and the presence of his
Lord and Master!
We reject, finally, the doctrine of purgatory, because it
places into the hands of the priesthood of Rome—of a poor
fallible worm like ourselves—a terrific power that has a most
mischievous and mercenary tendency. Take away purgatory
from the Church of Rome, I say again, and you take away
the most fertile source of her gains, the most fearful sword
that she brandishes over the crushed spirits of her votaries ;
you take away, in short, that which forms the very pivot
upon which her terrible power turns. Take away purgatory,
do away with masses for the dead, prayers and intercessions
for the departed, and you take away the gains of the priest-
hood—for, no money no mass, and no mass no money. It is
a terrific truth, that this doctrine of the Church of Rome is
not a mere harmless theory, is not a mere day-dream, is not
a mere notion, that we may let alone as of no practical im-
port or of no practical avail ; it is a doctrine that is wielded
with fearfully practical power by the crafty priesthood of
Rome. Therefore, my Christian friends, the doctrine of
purgatory, connected as it is with, and based upon, the dis-
tinction of venial and mortal sin, the distinction between
pardon for it and temporary punishment we have proved to
be unsupported by Scripture, and to be opposed to Scripture
by a variety of Scriptural arguments levelled-to the simplest
mind, and so dear and unequivocal, that I do not see how
any Romanist can resist them. In bringing, then; this mat-
ter to a close, suffer me to remind you, as members of the
Reformed Catholic Church of England, that if you are such,
not in name and profession only, but in spirit and in truth,
you may go to your homes, and lay upon your pillows to-
night with renewed gratitude and joyfulness for the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made you free. The rev. gentleman
then drew an eloquent comparison between the departure of
the Protestant in the full assurance of immediate reception
into his Saviour's bosom, and that of the poor Roman
Catholic dying in the expectation of going through the pur-
gatorial purification. It brought to his recollection the
verses of our early childhood,—

How fine has the day been ! How bright was the sun !
How lovely and joyful the course that he run !
Though he rose in a mist when his race he begun,
And there followed some droppings of rain :
But uow the fair traveller comes to the west,
His rays are all gold, and his beauties are best,
He paints the sky gay as he sinks to his rest,
And foretells a bright rising again.

Just such is the Christian. His course he begins,
Like the sun in a mist, while he mourns for his sins,
And melts into tears : then he breaks out and shines,
And travels his heavenly way :
But when he comes nearer to finish his race,
Like a fine setting sun, he looks richer in grace,
And gives a sure hope, at the end of his days,
Of rising in brighter array !
Yes, my friends, he added, this is the beautiful departure of the
child of God, like the summer's sun setting in cloudless radi-
ence, and leaving his perpetual track along the ocean and
athwart the heavens ; but the departure of the saint of, the
Church of Rome is, at the best, but as the sun going down
upon some wild and stormy evening, amidst the fitful glooms
of uncertain night, and with dark shadows brooding about his
departure. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, not
partial, not marred, not alloyed, but the fulness of unclouded
victory through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Cheers.)
The rev. gentleman then resumed his seat amidst loud ap-
plause.
The Rev. Dr. TArrERsHALL, seconded by Mr. Jour;
HOWARD, moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Stowell, for his
able and eloquent lecture. The motion was carried by accla-
mation.
The doxology, " Praise God, from whom all blessings
flow," was then sung ; and a blessing having been pro-
nounced, the meeting separated.

LIVERPOOL EASTER SESSIONS.-FRIDAY