once more:

"Nor is there for any body any third place; for he who is not with Christ, must be with the devil." Such, Murphy, is the language of him who they say believed and taught the doctrine of purgatory. Did I attach much importance to human authorities on a subject of this kind, I could prove from the writings of many of the ancient Fathers, as they are called, that purgatory was no article in their creed.

The probability is, that purgatory and indulgences were introduced about the same time, the latter being dependent on the former; for take away purgatory, and indulgences are at an end. But when were indulgences introduced? They were first introduced in the eleventh century, by Pope Urban II., as a recompence for those who went in person to conquer the Holy Land. Bishop Fisher, the Popish Bishop of Rochester, who lived in the time of Henry VIII., speaks of them as having been only recently known in the Christian Church. "Many," he says, "are tempted not to rely much upon indulgences, for this consideration, that the use of them appears to be new, and very lately known among Christians. To which I answer, it is not certain who was the first author of them. The doctrine of purgatory was rarely, IF AT ALL, heard of among the ancients; and to this very day, the Greeks believe it not. Nor was the belief either of purgatory or indulgences so ne

very

cessary in the primitive church as it is now. So long as men were unconcerned about purgatory, nobody inquired after indulgences. Take away purgatory, and there is no more need of indulgences. Seeing, therefore, that purgatory was so lately known and received in the Church, who will wonder, that in the first ages indulgences were not made use of?”

Murphy. I thought the whole Christian world had always believed in purgatory; but now I find that, according to Bishop Fisher, who is considered a martyr in the Catholic Church, it was rarely, if at all, known in primitive times. Indeed, the Bishop does not seem to believe that the primitive church knew any thing about either purgatory or indulgences; which he says were not so necessary in the primitive church, as now. And even in his time he says, "To this very day, the Greeks," that is, I suppose, the whole Greek Church, "believe it not."

Paul. Can you tell me, Murphy, why purgatory and indulgences were not so necessary in the fourteenth, as in the second, century?

Murphy. Indeed I cannot; for I have always been taught to believe that purgatory lay directly in the road to heaven; that there was no getting there without passing through it; that our bodies left a few stains upon the soul, which the fire of purgatory must burn out; and that even Popes themselves must be singed and

frizzled a little, as well as other poor sinners. I cannot conjecture why there should be any difference. I shall be much obliged if you will explain it.

Paul. This, Murphy, I shall endeavour to do. 1st, In primitive times believers were purified, not with the fire of purgatory, but with the blood of Christ; not by a long residence in the shades, but through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, in the present world. 2d, When believers died in primitive times, they immediately rested from their labours, and, like Lazarus, were carried into Abraham's bosom, where being absent from the body, they were present with the Lord; and when wicked men died, they immediately, like Dives, lifted up their eyes in hell. 3d, Though the mystery of iniquity began to work even in apostolic times, yet there were none in those days sufficiently paganised and impudent to attempt the union of this part of Heathenism with the doctrines of Christ. Besides, the Christian church, had such a degrading and demoralizing innovation been attempted in those times, would have held up the impiety and ignorance of the innovator to universal execration. 4th, But when a dark night of ignorance overshadowed the church; when scriptural Christianity was nearly lost by the populace, and when the Priests, except in a few instances, were as ignorant as themselves;

when the religion of Christ had been nearly superseded by the puerilities of a most contemptible and childish superstition; when from the Papal chair, through all the descending grades of the Priesthood, with here and there an exception, the vilest abominations were committed; when Priests, who, under pretence of greater sanctity, abstained from the honourable estate of matrimony, either openly kept concubines, or secretly, in the sacrament of confession, debauched their female votaries, or converted their nunneries into extensive brothels ;then it was, in an age eminently ignorant and corrupt, that indulgences were introduced, and then it was that faith in them was required.

Murphy. I suppose you mean to say, that none but knaves taught the doctrine, and that only fools believed it.

And whilst the

poor fools have

Paul. Yes, Murphy, I do. knaves have profited by it, the been most miserably fleeced. Many an honest simpleton has been robbed of his last shilling by the horrible tales which these unprincipled hypocrites have told of the sufferings of their fathers and mothers, and husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters, and so on; and whose sufferings could only be relieved by prayers and masses, neither of which could be obtained without money or without price. I could furnish a volume of anecdotes on this subject. Of all

swindlers, the most infamous, and the most deserving of the pillory, are those who swindle both poor and rich out of their money, under what they themselves know to be an infamously false pretence of delivering souls from a place in which they are not. The Priests themselves, in general, no more believe in purgatory than I do; but, poor slaves, they are bound to say they believe as the Church does. Besides, this being a most, indeed the most, profitable article of their faith, they will cleave to it as long as the people will be gulled by them; for put out the fire of purgatory, and away go indulgences, and private confessions, and absolutions, with all the profits arising from them.

Murphy. Indeed, I believe you. But for the fear of purgatory I never should have paid them a single tenpenny for any of their pardons, nor for any of my dead relations, who they told me would get out all the sooner, in proportion to the number of masses which were performed for them.

Paul. But, Murphy, you are a man of good sense; how could you suppose that they could either pardon you or yours?

Murphy. To tell you the truth, I often had many doubts about it; but when I confessed these to the Priest, he told me it was wicked to doubt any thing which the Church taught, and enjoined a penance for my unbelief. This made