which are to stand the fire, refer to good and evil doc trines, truth, and error. We should be inconsistent if, in this simile, we were to interpret fire in a literal sense, and the expressions, temple, stone, wood, stubble, in an allegorical sense.

Henry. This passage certainly proves nothing, nor have I myself paid any regard to this proof; but you have not, however, found any thing in contradiction to the existence of purgatory.

Antonio. Indeed, I have found quite sufficient, and it is just this, that, to my extreme joy, has delivered me from my great fears. It would already suffice me, that Jesus and the Apostles, who so often and so explicitly speak of our future state, do not say one word of purgatory, for they could not have passed over it in silence. But they speak in terms that plainly shew, that for pious souls purgatory cannot exist. Of the beggar Lazarus, Jesus says, (Luke xvi. 22.) " and it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom;" therefore, not into purgatory. To the malefactor at the cross, he exclaims, (St. Luke xxiii. 43.) "To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise ;" and this malefactor had been a highway robber, whose soul had certainly more stains than the soul of a pious man. In this I put my trust, and I have, therefore, renounced all belief in purgatory, and have thrown aside all apprehensions on the subject. And what shall I think of the mercy of God? Can I bless the mercy of the Father who allows me to be tormented and purified in a cruel fire, although his Son has given his life as an expiation for my sins, and the priest has incessantly repeated this offering for me, and I have used my utmost exertions to keep his commandments? And how can we form an idea of this, without considering the soul as a material object? The whole conception is taken from metals, which are melted and purified in the fire. But the soul cannot be so gross as a piece of metal, which is passed through the fire.

Henry. We can certainly not view the subject in uch a light, although the Church has conceived it so. Antonio. I believe that we cannot form any idea of t. I see this from the manner in which I myself have been purified from the dross of sins which I brought rom Italy, by this invaluable book (holding up the New Testament). It was done without fire, without torments, though not without repentance. I learnt to feel the truth and excellence of the Gospel, I began to love it, I determined to act agreeably to its precepts; I did so, and I continue to do so, according to my best endeavours;-this is the history of my purification, and no man can be purified in a different manner. Repentance purifies him, as it purified the prodigal son in the eyes of his father, who did not make him pass through purgatory, before he received him again, but at once prepared a feast for him. Of this repentance, St. Paul says, 2 Cor. vii. 10. "For godly sorrow" (for past transgressions) "worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of." To salvation, therefore, not to purgatory. And the same Apostle says, Rom, vi. 7. "For he that is dead, is freed from

sin.

Henry. Oh, Antonio, what light has burst in upon your soul! You are a happy man!

Antonio. I feel this, and I am grateful to God. But I am so only through the Gospel, to which alone I will henceforth adhere. In me has been fulfilled, what our Saviour says, "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.'

Henry. Adhere to it, in the name of God, Antonio. I, at least, will not lead you into any other path than the one which you yourself tread, under the guidance of the Gospel.

Antonio. That you would attempt in vain.-How blind I was, when, on my arrival in Protestant countries, I was astonished that the pretended heretics were so prosperous, so industrious, so upright, and

moral! I see the Gospel effects daily in them by what it has effected in me; it makes them better and more contented. And such men are acceptable to our heavenly Father.

HENRY had not ended this conversation without a certain feeling of shame. Antonio, who had worked his way by the light of the Gospel, out of the erroneous conceptions which his education had engrafted upon his mind, was a mortifying reproach to Henry, who had suffered himself to be drawn from the Protestant truth into such erroneous conceptions. He acknowledged more and more his past precipitancy; his repentance became more and more sincere, and he would have given much to be able to undo what he had done. The thought of returning to the Protestant Church often recurred to him, but it was always suppressed by a feeling of shame, lest he should, by such a return, appear to the world a thoughtless and wavering character, or a weak-minded person, who could easily be over-persuaded. The usual method of finally composing this wavering state of mind, was the comfort that he might be a good Christian, as a Roman Catholic, let his creed be what it would. On the following evening, he gave his family an account of the change which the perusal of the Scriptures had produced in Antonio's mind. They were not entirely unacquainted with it, but did not think that he had already made such a progress. Henry acknowledged that he was not equal to him in producing Scriptural proofs, and that he had, only that morning, so convincingly proved the non-existence of purgatory, that he himself could no longer believe in it.

Bernhard. I only wonder, dear Henry, that you

1ever believed in it, as it is so evident a remnant of heathenism. The whole conception of it is founded on the system of Zoroaster, who lived, before Christ, in Media. He was a fire-worshipper, and taught, as his writings, which are still extant, shew, that, at the end of time, the world must pass through a stream of fire, whereby it will be purified into light. The Platonic philosophers among the Greeks, received from him the idea of a purification after death. From "these sources, the opinion flowed to a few Fathers of the Church, such as Origen and Augustin, both of whom, however, appear to have considered the matter rather as an image of moral improvement. But this opinion was not an article of the Church; it was only made so by Pope Gregory, in the sixth century, and spread itself, at first, only gradually in the Church. The fear of purgatory, from which the priest alone could deliver, was too profitable to the priesthood, and the masses for the dead, founded upon it, too lucrative to overthrow the notion when it had once existed. The Council of Trent has established it as an eternal article of faith to the Roman Catholic Church, and has thus sealed as a Christian doctrine, what was, in its origin, as foreign to Christianity as the worship of angels, saints, and martyrs.

Henry. What? do you declare this worship as foreign to Christianity? I trace in it the pre-eminence of the Roman Catholic Church, that she has such a number of saints and martyrs, who are her ornaments, and who are entirely wanting to the Protestant Church. These heroes of faith and humility afford an excellent testimony to the truth of Roman Catholic Christianity, and their example is a powerful stimulus to the faithful.

Father. As much as I know of the legends of the so called saints, we have no reason to envy you this advantage. But allowing that the saints of your Church were really saints, your boast of them is absurd. As your Church did not exist before the