the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection. (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."

Let us compare this record of the nation concerning a fact which occurred more than two thousand years ago, with the facts which we ourselves now observe amongst the same people; their prayers and their offerings for the dead; and let Bishop Kemp and his associates answer whether prayers and suffrages for the dead were not previous to the days of the Apostles considered as useful to obtain pardon for their lesser transgressions. Nor can it be pretended that this was a corrupt usage which had crept into the Jewish Church, because Judas Machabeus was himself not only the protecting champion of his nation. and of the true religion, but also the High Priest of the regular lineage of Aaron, who only did that which he knew to have been usual and lawful. I shall dwell a little upon the import of this passage: it contains the following conclusions: first, that it was the belief of the then Jewish spiritual authority that lesser sins might be remitted after death; and since no person having any unremitted sin can enter heaven, it is a manifest corollary that the person who dies guilty of a sin which is subsequently remitted, suffers temporary exclusion from heaven, and is thus in a state of purgation until that remission takes place: secondly, that the prayers and suffrages of the living were useful to the dead who were not utterly rejected for grievous crimes which deserved the punishment of hell: thirdly, that all the penalty of sin was not remitted at the hour of death, even though the guilt might be blotted out and the punishment of hell remitted, for they still might be held in captivity for a temporary punishment, which would be substituted for the eternal, such as we find from many places in Scripture to be the usual mode of God's providential and merciful dispensation; and therefore a person might die with godliness and have great grace laid up for him, but not to be obtained until after the endurance of this temporary pain, or its remission upon intercession.

I believe it may now be safely stated that I have shown that the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer for the relief of the dead, was in the true Church of Judea, was known as such by the Saviour and his Apostles, was alluded to and admitted by them; was never reprobated, never undervalued, but as being a correct and true doctrine of heaven,

formed as much a portion of the new law as did the doctrine of the immortality of the soul; and it was as unnecessary for our blessed Lord and his Apostles to make any new revelation upon the subject, as upon the subject of the existence of God himself and a future state of rewards and punishments. Hence we find it acted upon uniformly by the Jew and the Christian, save those of the latter, who, in the fourth century, adhered to Aerius, in the twelfth century to Peter De Bruis, and in the sixteenth century to Martin Luther and to John Calvin.

There was a custom amongst the Jews, which was also amongst the early Christians, as is testified amongst others by St. John Chrysostom, (Hom. xxii in Matt.) of inviting the poor, and the pious to a banquet upon the occasion of a death, that after having partaken of the bounty they might pray for the repose of the soul of the deceased: and in some places, the food was after the interment placed upon the grave, that the person who there found relief for his body, might pray for the relief of the soul of the individual for whose sake the benefaction was given. In many places we may yet observe much of the remains of those customs. But as we are not by our adversaries allowed to quote the book of Tobias as canonical, I shall adduce from it historical evidence of the custom which I have described.

In the advice which that holy man gives to his son as recorded in chap. iv. is the following passage:-verses 17, 18,

"Eat thy bread with the hungry and the needy; and with thy garments cover the naked. Lay out thy bread and thy wine upon the burial of a just man; and do not eat and drink thereof with the wicked."

In the II Kings, otherwise II Samuel-chapter xii, verse 16, and so forth, we distinctly find the objects of the fasting of King David.

"And David besought the Lord for the child: and David kept a fast, and going in by himself lay upon the ground. And the ancients of his house came to make him rise from the ground; but he would not: neither did he eat meat with them. And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died: and the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead. For they said; Behold, when the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he would not hearken to our voice; how much more will he afflict himself, if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw his servants whispering, he understood that the child was dead: and he said to his servants: Is the child dead? They answered him: He is dead. Then David arose from the ground, and washed, and anointed himself: and when he had changed his apparel, he went into the house of the Lord, and worshiped: and then he came

into his own house, and he called for bread, and ate. And his servants said to him: What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive: but when the child was dead, thou didst rise up, and eat bread. And he said: While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept for him: for I said: Who knoweth whether the Lord may not give him to me, and the child may live. But now that he is dead, why should I fast; shall I be able to bring him back any more? I shall go to him rather: but he shall not return to me."

The King then did not fast through grief or affliction of regret, but by way of prayer, and for the purpose of impetration or obtaining favor and his answer shows his estimate of the folly of fasting through grief or regret. Upon this principle the venerable Bede very properly explains other passages of the same divine records in conformity to what the whole of the preceding testimony assures us is their meaning. Thus in chap. iii of the same book, upon the occasion of the death of Abner: after David lamented and mourned for his death, he fasted to entreat mercy from God, for his soul: so too in the xxxi chapter of the preceding book, the brave men who buried Saul and Jonathan, fasted seven days, not in idle grief, but in profitable intercession for their souls and in chap. ii of book ii, it is recorded that David expressed his gratitude to those good men for their corporal and spiritual mercy to Saul.

Another custom of patriarchal times was founded upon the doctrine which I am at present exhibiting, for that doctrine was known in those days and gave to the venerable fathers of the faithful in ancient times. equal consolation, as it did to the Christian of after ages, and as it does to the Catholic of to-day. There is a marked difference between Catholics and Protestants upon the subject of interments. The former always desire to be buried near their Church, or at least in the place common to the members of their communion. They are often said to be superstitiously fond of what is too often sneered at, consecrated ground. Whilst persons of other denominations are generally above this vulgar prejudice, and think their bodies just as well provided for in a corner of their plantation, or field, or any other place; the Catholic expects to have his soul benefited by the prayers offered on its behalf by those who seeing the spot where the body is buried, intercede for him: hence the origin of cemeteries about the Churches: the Catholic believes that when the Church solemnly prays for the repose of the souls of those persons whose bodies might be interred within the inclosure, he will be made partaker of the benefit of the prayer when his body is so in

terred: hence we value highly interment in ground so consecrated; strangers to our Church may, if they will, call this superstition; but it is one of a very ancient date. We find such superstition in Jacob as we read in Genesis, xlvii, verse 29, and so forth.

"And when he saw that the day of his death drew nigh, he called his son Joseph, and said to him: if I have found favor in thy sight, put thy hand under my thigh and thou shalt show me this kindness and truth, not to bury me in Egypt: But I will sleep with my fathers, and thou shalt take me away out of this land, and bury me in the burying place of my ancestors. And Joseph answered him: I will do what thou hast commanded. And he said: Swear then to me. And as he was swearing, Israel adored God, turning to the bed's head."

Also in chapter 1, regarding Joseph, it is written, verse 23, and so forth.

"After which he told his brethren: God will visit you after my death, and will make you go up out of this land, to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he made them swear to him, saying: God will visit you, carry my bones with you out of this place: And he died, being a hundred and ten years old. And being embalmed, he was laid in a coffin in Egypt."

The testimony of the whole body of interpreters, as well as of other witnesses, has been uniformly given to inform us that the great object of the patriarchs was to have their bodies brought amongst their kindred to have the benefit of commemoration and participation in their sacrifices and suffrages, even after their death.

To these proofs I might add passages from the sacred writers of the old law, which the earliest Christians testified to have been always understood of purgatory. Thus Psalm xxxvii, (Prot. ver. xxxviii,)

"Rebuke me not, O Lord, in thy indignation, nor chastise me in thy

wrath."

St. Augustine, Bede, and many others tell us that it means, "Do not, O Lord, punish me after death by the passing rebuke even of your (lighter) indignation: nor by the (heavier) wrath which endures for ever."

Origen, St. Ambrose and others, in like manner find the testimony of the doctrine in Psalm lxv, (Prot. ver. lxvi, 12,)

"We have passed through fire and water and thou hast brought us out into a refreshment."

Where the water is baptism, and the fire purgatory.

St. Augustine in his book xx Of the City of God, chapter 25, informs

us that the prophet Isaias speaks of purgatory in the spiritual meaning of verse 4, chapter iv.

"If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion, and shall wash away the blood of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning."

St. Basil informs us that the doctrine was also exhibited by the same prophet, in his chapter ix-in the spiritual meaning of verse 18. St. John states that the doctrine was found also according to many persons in the spiritual meaning of Micheas, chapter vii, 8, 9.

"Rejoice not, thou my enemy, over me, because I am fallen: I shall arise, when I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light. I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he judge my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth into the light, I shall behold his justice."

St. Augustine and several other fathers explain the passage of the prophet Zacharias, chapter ix, verse 11, of the release of souls from purgatory by the merits of the shedding of the blood of the New Testament, as well as the release of the fathers from limbo by the same blood.

"Thou also by the blood of thy testament hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water.'

I believe the doctrine to have been taught in those several passages: but my argument does not rest upon the correctness of that assertion. I will suppose all those interpreters to have erred in their comments. This conclusion must still be unshaken. Those earliest lights of Christianity knew and taught that it was a doctrine of the pure Jewish Church, that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein detained are aided by the suffrages of the faithful; in this there could not have been a mistake on their parts: add this to my other documents, and it is manifest that this was a doctrine of true religion before the epoch of Christianity. I remain, yours, and so forth,

LETTER XLV.

B. C.

CHARLESTON, S. C., Nov. 5, 1827.

To the Roman Catholics of the United States of America.

My Friends,-Since writing my last letter, I have with feelings of pain and sorrow read the account of Bishop Kemp's unexpected and melancholy death. I deeply regret that my last letter contains a call upon him, and that call written at a time when he had paid the debt of nature, though I did not and could not have known it when I wrote.