CHIP. XII.] PIZItOATOItY. 37]. doctors the punishment of purgatory is represented as salutary' and necessary, in order to qualify persons for heaven; and yet they may be exempted from that salutary and necessary process on payment of money by their friends. It is declared by all their doctors, that men, without passing through the fire of purgatory, cannot go to heaven; yet money can purchase exemption from this fire, or mitigate it8 pains. What is this but to teach that money can open the gate of heaven, or procure admittance to persons who have not undergone the necessary' purgation ? 6. Again; the following text is frequently quoted in fayour of purga- tory: "Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself 8hall be saved; yet so as by fire." The following reasons will show that the apostle is not speaking of the supposod fire of purgatory: 1. Because he speaks of fire, as Origen says, not properly, but meta- phorically so called.* This appears from the particles of similitude, ?o ?, which show that St. Paul did not mean a literal escape out of fire, but .?ucA an escape as men make out of a place on fire. 2. The word day, whether it refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, the time of a man's death, or any great calamify, or the day of judgment, is inapplicable to purgatory, which presents a constant succession of periods, and not one fixed point of time, as is meant by the common use of the word day. 3. Because this fire is to try e?ery man's works, Paul's and Apollos's, as well as those who built on the foundation hay, wood, and stubble; and certainly it will not be said that Paul and Apollos went through the fire of purgatory. 4. This fire shall try men's works of what sort they are. But purgatory fire, according to them, does not trg, test, or deterre/n, tke character of every man's works, but pun/sA them for them. Besides, the ordeal of trial passes on all men's works, whether good or bad; whereas purgatory refers only to a/ns, and these not mortal, but venial. 5. To be saved as (?a ?po?, or through .fire, is a proverbial mode of expression concerning those who escape with great difficulty and hazard out of any very great danger. It is 8o used in the Old Testament. We ,vent through aftd through tvater, Psalm lx3'i, 12; that is, we were in the greatest danger. When ttum walkest through the.fire, thou shalt not ? burned, Isa. xliii, 2; /' have plucked them as a firebrand out of tke re, Amos iv, 11; ?rs not tlds a brand plucked out of the fire ? Zech. iii, 2. It is also used in the New Testament: Ot/?rs save with ?ar, plucking rl?;n out of tke .fire, Jude 23. So L..?Emilins in Livy saith, tA?t escaped the potndarflame , half burned. $e populm'e impendinch prior, (:on?ulatu zemiu.?tum e2%?dsse, lib. xxii, c. xl. This passage of Scripture, so far from patronizing the Church of Rome, gives them an awful warning not to build on the true foundation of Christianity hay ?nd ?ubbl?, whether unsound doctrine8 or ungodly church members; as the day of trial will utterly ruin such works,
- Contrm Cebum, 1. iv, p. 168.
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