sent with the Lord." No doubt with St. Augustin there was a want of firmness, mingled perhaps with a feeling of pleasure to see this token of respect paid to his mother, which prevented him from suppressing the error in its commencement,-be it as it may, from this small beginning, 'prayers for the dead' became, in course of time, regularly established in the Church of Rome! Mr. B.-Prayers for the dead however only appear to be right and proper, if we admit the doctrine of Purgatory.

Mr. A.-The doctrine of Purgatory did not follow till long after this; at first it was very doubtfully received by the people, and it was not introduced into the Church till the time of Pope Gregory, in the 7th century, nor made an article of faith till the year 1563; but it will easily be seen, that having once succeeded in persuading the people that their relations and friends were in a state of torment, no doctrine could be better calculated to work upon the feelings of human nature therefore what could be more acceptable than the information, that by paying the priests for offering prayers and masses, they may obtain their deliverance, or at least shorten the period of their sufferings;—this must depend upon the number of prayers and masses paid for. The rich might also leave sums of money to the Church that masses might be offered regularly for them, and by this means, ensure the release of their souls, sooner or later, in case I suppose their relations should forget what they were suffering, or fail in liberality-the poor must of course remain their appointed time patiently. In this manner the superstition of the people was turned to account, and as the priests cannot exactly decide upon the number of masses required in Heaven for the release of a soul from Purgatory, the uncertainty serves to excite to greater exertions that larger offerings may obtain a speedy deliverance.

Mr. B.—Looking at it in this point of view, it seems undoubtedly any thing but fair dealing towards the poor.

Mr. A.—Certainly a better way could never have been devised to keep the people dependant on the priests, and to enrich the Church. But the Church of Rome cannot claim the credit of the invention-for Purgatory was a doctrine held by the Heathens of ancient Rome; you may read an account of it in the Eneid of Virgil; there you will find that souls were obliged to pass a certain time in an intermediate place of torment, to purify them before they could enter the Elysian Fields (their Heaven), and the Heathen priests pretended they could shorten this time of suffering by their prayers, for which

they required the offerings of the people; by this means they were partly supported; for who could refuse to give a little of what they possessed to help a parent, or friend, out of torment?

Mr. B.-Now, I understand partly, why some have compared our Church with Paganism.

Mr. A.-The very circumstance of Purgatory having been a doctrine of the heathen Romans, ought to make the Roman Catholic careful how he admits the truth of it;—is it probable that the Redeemer would adopt one of their superstitions into His Church, when His very object in coming into our world was to destroy the works of darkness, with all the vain devices of the heathen, by bringing in the glorious light of the Gospel? when you reflect upon the subject, you cannot suppose that this was possible.

Mr. B.-It does not seem so; but I should like to know if there are any passages which condemn and disprove the doctrine of Purgatory.

Mr. A.-Let us open the New Testament in St. Luke's Gospel, chap. xxiii. v. 43, we find the Saviour addressing the dying thief in these words: "Verily I say unto thee, this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." Again, the Saviour said, "It is finished." (St. John xix. 30.) He then offered on the cross a full, complete satisfaction and atonement for sin; therefore the Apostle Paul says to the believer,"Ye are complete in Him," (Col. ii. 10.) and again,-"The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. (1st Epist. St. John, i. 7.) But the doctrine of Purgatory directly contradicts both Christ and the Apostles-it asserts that all is not finished-that the believer is not complete in Christ, but that something remains to be done after death-that he is not cleansed from all sin, but requires further cleansing in the fire of Purgatory! In this manner the doctrines of the Church of Rome deprive the atonement of its efficacy, and Christ of the honour due to Him, by introducing some addition of her own invention, which implies that the sacrifice once offered upon the cross is incomplete and insufficient for the salvation of man, although we read that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them," (2 Cor. v.) And again, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world." (John i. 29.) "And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts xiii. 39.) "I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins; return

Mr. A.-No, the Church endeavours to prove it from the Gospel of St. Matthew. (v. 26.) Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out hence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."-She asserts that this passage refers to Purgatory; and all the force of the argument to prove that there may be deliverance from it, turns upon the word, till; but here the word till no more means a cessation of the state spoken of, than it does in other places where it occurs, for instance, Christ said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled."-Did He mean then that one jot or tittle shall ever pass from the law? certainly not. The law of God is eternal, and unchangeable. When the Saviour exhorts the Church of Thyatira thus, "Hold fast till I come," (Rev. ii. 25,) does He mean that then they may let go their attachment to Him? surely not. Neither does it prove then in this case that there is any deliverance from the prison here spoken of.

Mr. B.-What then do you understand by the passage?

Mr. A.-The true sense of these words of Christ to the Jews, is this-That the prison is the place of eternal punishment, to which all are condemned by the law of God on account of sin, and from which prison there is no means of escape; because when once there, the debt can never be discharged: for this reason we are to beware of coming to this place, and to avail ourselves quickly in this life of the means provided for escape through the propitiation of Christ our surety. Now, is the acceptable time-Now, is the day of salvation. (2 Cor. vi. 2.)

Mr. B.-Have our Catholic writers no other passage in support of Purgatory?

Mr. A.-Another passage cited by the Church of Rome in favour of Purgatory, is taken from the 2d of Maccabees, 12th chap. 44, 45 ver., one of the uninspired books called Apocryphal, which contain many superstitious and marvellous tales; but as these books formed no part of the canon of Scripture in the Jewish Church, the citation is of no value.

Mr. B.-How do you prove that the book of Maccabees is not inspired?

Mr. A.-St. Jerome, who lived in the end of the 4th century, made a Latin translation of the Scriptures from the original Hebrew; and this translation was so highly esteemed by the Church of Rome, at that time, that it was adopted as her standard Bible. In the preface to one of the books he observes, that the Church readeth the writings of Tobit, Judith, and the Maccabees, but she doth not receive them into the number of canonical Scriptures, and that the books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus might be read for purposes of edification in life, and good manners, but not for establishing any doctrine in the Church. Again he gives warning, that great heed be taken of all Apocryphal writings, and that they ought never to be read but with great wariness and caution; he adds much more to the same effect. Francis Ximenius, Cardinal of Toledo in Spain, also published a translation of the Bible, in which he gives a special admonition, that the Apocryphal books are not canonical. This Bible was published by authority of the Pope, to whom it was dedicated-for Rome herself had not then received these Apocryphal books into the canon. Cardinal Cajetan, of Rome, when writing his Commentaries on the Bible, tells Pope Clement the 8th, (whose authority he had,) that he would let pass the Apocryphal books, and spend no time in writing upon them, being excluded from the canon, and therefore they were insufficient to prove any matter of faith. Yet notwithstanding this testimony of St. Jerome and others, against the Apocrypha, which proves it had never been received by the primitive Christians, a Council was called at Trent, in the year 1545, for the purpose of adding them to the canon of Inspired Scripture: and although the innovation was warmly opposed, it was at length carried by a small majority, composed of persons under the influence of the Pope; and a decree was drawn up, and voted by them, That these Books of the Apocrypha, together with all unwritten Traditions, should be held in equal veneration with Scripture-and concluding

POPE JOHN XII.

WHEN the scandals and impurities of the Papal court were first represented to Otho, he was induced to hope that the vices of John might be corrected with his advance in years; and that the unlicensed passions of the Boy (such was the imperial appellation for the Head of the Church) would subside with his increasing age. But though, in this soothing hope, he listened with indifference to the debaucheries of the Lateran, he was aroused by a rumour which more immediately concerned himself. The deposed son of Berenger had landed at Civita Vecchia, and had been joyfully received by the Pope in Rome. Thither, therefore, the Emperor hastened, and in a solemn council the crimes of John were investigated. Homicide, perjury, sacrilege, and incest, were all included in the accusation; and the assembly heard with horror that the Pope in his orgies had drunk the health of the Devil, and in his gaming invoked the aid of Jupiter, of Venus, and of other diabolical powers. The summons to answer these charges was replied to by John with threats of excommunication: his deprivation was therefore pronounced, and Leo VIII. was elected in his place. At the same time the Romans bound themselves by oath never in future to consecrate a pope, until the election had received the approval of the Emperor.- Sir R. Comyn's History of the Western Empire.

PRIDE.

man. Pride was the corner-stone of the tower of Babel. Pride, doubtless, opened the heart of David to the sins of adultery and murder. Pride paved the way to St. Peter's base denial of his blessed Lord and Master. They were, at least in these instances, wise in their own conceit; they thought that they had found a sufficiency in themselves, and God left them to themselves, to their own imaginations. As it was then, so it has been ever since, and so it is now.-Bishop Ryder.

ORIGIN OF THE TERM
"PROTESTANT."

THE name of Protestant took its rise from the following circumstance. At a diet of the princes of the empire, held in Spires, in Germany, in the year 1529, it was decreed by the majority there present, "that in those places where the edict of Worms had been received it would be lawful for no one to change his religion; that in those places where the new religion (i. e. the Lutheran) was exercised, it should be maintained till the meeting of a council, if the ancient (the Popish) religion could not be restored without danger of disturbing the public peace; but that the mass should not be abolished, nor the Catholics hindered from the free exercise of their religion, nor any one of them allowed to embrace Lutheranism; that the Sacramentarians should be banished the empire; that the Anabaptists should be punished with death; and that no preachers should explain the gospel in any other sense than what was approved by the church." Six princes of the empire entered their protest against this decree, viz., John, elector of Saxony; George, margrave of Bradenburgh; Ernest and Francis, dukes of Brunswick and Lunenburg. Philip, landgrave of Hesse; and Wolffgang, prince of Anhalt; to these were joined the following free cities of Germany, viz., Strasburgh, Norimburg, Ulm, Constance, Lindaw, Memmingen, Kempen, Nordlingen, Halibrun, Reutlingen, Isne, St. Gall, Weissenburg, and Windscheim; and from this protest the Lutherans first obtained the name of Protestants, which was afterwards given in common to all who separated themselves from the tyrannical and idolatrous practices of the church of Rome.

POPERY IN TRINIDAD.

THE encouragement given by our Government to Popery is an obstacle to the spread of pure and undefiled religion; this support