unanimously affirmed that the souls of the saints go di- rectly from earth to in aven, never touching upon purga- tory. To these we may add Cennaditis. who asMires us that, "after the ascension of the Lord to heaven, the
souls of all the BaintS are with Christ, and. going out of
the body, go to Christ, expecting the resurrection of their body." Prosper tells us: "According to the language
of the Scriptures, the whole life of man upon earth is a temptation or trial. Temptation is to be avoided until the fight is ended; and the fight is to b. when, after this life, secure victory succeeds the fight; bo that when all the soldiers of Christ, being helped by God, have to the end of this present life unwearily resisted their enemies, their wearisome travail being ended, they may reign happily in their country." Evi- dently they do not, according to Prosper, go from one fight here to another in purgatory, but immediately from the Church militant on earth to the Church tri- umphant in heaven. lint whatever the views of some Church lathers en the subject, a- a doctrine it was un- known in the Christian Church for the lirst boo years, and it does not appear to have been made an article of faith until the loth century, when "the clergy," aaye Mo-Ik ini, "finding these superstitious terrors admirably adapted to increase their authority and promote their interest, used every method to augment them; ami by tin- most pathetic dis ses, accompanied with mon- strous fables and fictitious miracles, they labored to es- tablish the doctrine of purgatory, and also to make it appear that they had a mighty influence in that for- midable region" t Eccl. Hist. c< nt. x. pt, ii. ch. iii. i I). •• Purgatory as a burning-away of -ins." said Dollingei at the Bonn Conference of Old Catholics in bs7o. -was an idea unknown in the Mast as well as the West till Gregory the Great introduced it. What was thought was that after death those who were not ready for Ik av- en were kept for some time in a state of preparation, and that the prayers of the living were an advantage for them. Sirlwm itiono] Saints. Gregory th< Great added the idea of a tormenting tire. This the school- men gradually converted into doctrine which the} as- sociated with papal indulgence, till it came to apply to the dead generally, which, of course, made all seek indulgence. It went on to have degrees: some could receive indulgence for a few of their .-ins. others for all, and so on; so that eventually the pope, having already the keeping of heaven and the dominion on earth, ob- tained also sovereignty under the earth." Certain it is. and beyond reasonable dispute, that the doctrine of purgatory, in all its representations and forms, is a va- riation from scriptural authority: divine revelation af- fords it no countenance. The doctrine of an ,' ate state (q. v.), from which the merits of Jesus Christ cannot deliver man, is not only "grounded on no war- ranty of Scripture." but is so far positively "repugnant to the Word of God" as it is contrary to the absolute and unreserved offers of mercy, peace, and happiness contained in the Co-pel. and as it derogates from the fulness and perfection of the one expiatory sacrifice made by the death of Christ for the sins of mankind. For the Scriptures say, "The dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love and their hatred and their envy are now perished; neither have they any more a portion, forever, in anything that i- di ne under the sun" ( l'.ccles. ix. 5. 6); whereas this R< mish doctrine of an intermediate stale for purgation teach- es, quite to the contrary, that when they ate .lead they have a part or portion in the prayers oi the faith- ful and the sacrifices of the altar. Again, the Script- ure makes mention but of a twofold receptacle of souls after death- the one of happiness, the other oi misery (l Sam. xxv, 29; Mattvii, 13, 11: viii, 11 : Luke xvi, ■_''_'. 23); whereas this doctrine brings in a third, called purgatory, between heaven and hell, half happiness and half misery. Again, Scripture sa_\ s. "The blood of Je- sus Christ, his S..n. clean-, th | or purgeth | us front all -in" i i John i. 7); but this doctrine would persuade US there are some sin- which are to be purged awa\ by the prayers and good works of others. To name no mere, t be Co-pel represents Lazarus as at once con- voyed to a stale of comfort and joy (Luke xvi. 22, 23); Christ promised to the penitent thief upon thi •• 7"Am dag shalt thou lie with me in paradise" (Luke
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xxiii, 43) ; Paul exults in the prospect of a " crown of righteousness after death" (2 Tim. iv, 8) ; and he rep- resents " to depart and to be with Christ" (Phil, i, 23), and " to be absent from the body and present with the Lord" (2 Cor. v, 8), as states which were immediately to follow each other. On the contrary, this Romish doc- trine about purgatory bids him not to be so hasty, for he might depart and yet not be with Christ ; he might pass from death, and yet not to life ; he might and must be absent from the body a good while before he can be present with the Lord ; he might go from earth, yet not to heaven, but to purgatory, a place St. Paul never dreamed of.