her money may be taken, but the prayers may not be said for some twenty or thirty years. And all this time the poor soul is said to be immersed in boiling oil, or freezing in prisons of ice, in that dreadful place!

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What a picture does this present, of the God of the Popish system. "If I ascend up into heaven," says the Psalmist, “ thou art there : if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there also." Surely this is a truth which even a Papist will not venture to deny. But will he seriously assure us, that Christ, who, in his omnipresence, must pervade purgatory as well as all other places, will yet calmly witness hundreds or thousands of souls whom he has redeemed, and who are left to be tortured in that frightful place for scores of years, merely because certain priests on earth, who have been paid to say some Latin prayers for their release, have not yet found time to repeat them?

But if this blasphemous doctrine dishonours God, it may also fairly be asked, in what sort of light does it place the priesthood?

They believe, or at least they teach, that the friends of their flock are lying weltering in a lake of fire, from which they could deliver them, by saying masses for them, and recommending them to the prayers of the congregation; and yet they will not say these masses, nor so recommend them, unless they be regularly paid for it! How can a man represent himself as such a monster, and yet hold up his head in civilized society? What! shall I believe that a single soul is suffering torments so dreadful; that it may continue to suffer them for ages; that I have the means in my power of relieving it; and yet

shall I coolly wait till I be paid, before I use these means? By what process of reasoning can men be brought to believe that this is the religion given to us for our salvation, by our kind and merciful father in heaven? By what arguments can the poor be convinced that a system of extortion, which gives so manifest a preference to the rich, can be that gospel which was to be preached peculiarly to the poor?'

'Survey the whole transaction. A self-elected incorporated body declare, that they alone are commissioned by God, to teach what he chooses should be known, respecting eternity and the world of spirits; and that the truth of what they teach, nay, and the reality of their commission, are not to be examined, further than they themselves think fit to submit them to examination. Among many other doctrines equally profitable to themselves, they teach that the souls, even of those who listen to them implicitly, must go to a place of torment for a time, to be purified, before they enter on the infinite rewards of their implicit faith and obedience: that they, by performing certain mystical ceremonies and incantations, which they call Mass,' can shorten this torturing purgation, or release the soul from it altogether; that they are warranted, nay, for aught I know,.commanded by God, to exact money for performing these masses, which money is to be appropriated to their own use; and they countenance their people in forming societies to raise money for the purpose of purchasing masses from the most necessitous among themselves. I appeal to any man of common discernment, if he ever met with a transaction, that bore fraud and imposture so legibly written on the face of it, as this does!'

But does not the 'holy father,' as he is impiously called, himself occupy rather an unenviable eminence in this matter?

The proclamation of the indulgence granted at the jubilee of 1825, commences thus:

'Leo, bishop, servant of the servants of God, To all the faithful of Christ who shall see these presents, health and apostolical benediction.

'We have resolved, in virtue of the authority given to us by heaven, fully to unlock that sacred treasure, composed of the merits, sufferings and virtues of Christ, our Lord, and of his virgin-mother, and of all the saints, which the author of human salvation has intrusted to our dispensation. . .

'We proclaim that the year of atonement and pardon, of redemption and grace, of remission and indulgences is arrived... during which year of the jubilee, we mercifully give and grant in the Lord a plenary indulgence.'

Thus does this potentate boldly assume the entire power to open, or to keep closed, the prison-doors of purgatory. It is at his behest alone, (or at least it is assumed to be altogether in his power to grant release,) that so many thousands or millions of wretched beings are there suffering excruciating torments, which one word from him would terminate. Is this a distinction which a good man would covet? Is it not a responsibility from which any man, knowing his own sinfulness, would revolt with horror?

But the word of God at once sweeps away all these refuges of lies. "No man can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him." Psalm xlix. 7. The salvation proclaimed in the scriptures is not a scheme devised for the special use and relief

of the prosperous and the wealthy. On the contrary, it is again and again offered, and in the most explicit terms, to the poor and the needy. "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk, without money and without price." Isaiah lv. 1. Is it possible for words to be devised more decidedly condemnatory of the Romish system ? "To the POOR the gospel is preached." But Rome offers no gospel, for to the poor she has nothing to say. The old proverb which described her rule in her most palmy days, describes her practice still, 'NO PENNY, NO PATERNOSTER.'

XX.

ROMISH DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES.

PERSECUTION.

THERE is no topic in the whole course of this enquiry, on which the falsehood of the Romish controversialists has been so largely displayed as this; and the reason is sufficiently obvious. The broad and notorious facts of the case are such, as to require the most reckless and unblushing disregard of truth to evade their force. The general voice of history declares, that the believers in Jesus, the adherents to the faith of the Bible, have been persecuted to the death, and destroyed by myriads, alike by Heathens, Mahometans, Romanists, and Infidels; while on the other hand, with the slight exceptions to which we shall presently allude, these Christians, when themselves possessed of power, have not used the sword or the faggot, either to Pagan, Infidel, Mahomedan, or Romanist. The inference is unavoidable: as cruelty and persecution are from beneath, and not from above, it follows that Heathenism, Mahomedanism, Romanism, and Infidelity are all devices of Satan; and that