his first question to Dulcidius*; where he inclines to think that they who have faith in Christ, but love the world too much, will be faved but fo as by fire; whereas they who, though they profess faith in Chrift, yet neglect good works, will fuffer eternally. In his treatise De Civitate Deit, he does not seem disposed to controvert the opinion of those who say that all would be faved at last, through the interceffion of the faints. The Gnoftics are faid to have maintained that the greatest part of mankind would be annibilated at the day of judgment, which was probably the fame thing that was meant by those who faid that they would be confumed in the fire that was to deftroy the world. Of the Opinions concerning the State of the Dead, from the Time of Auftin till the Reformation. IN the laft period we have seen some thing like the doctrine of Purgatory, but it is fo exceedingly unlike the prefent doctrine of the church of Rome on that fubject, that we can hardly imagine that it could ever ferve as a foundation for it. The antient Fathers only * Opera, vol. iv. p. 658. +Lib. xxi. cap. 18. thought thought that when this world would be destroyed by fire, that fire would purify the good, and deftroy the wicked. Whereas, this purgatory is fomething that is supposed to take place immediately after death, to affect the foul only, and to terminate fooner or later, according to circumftances, efpecially the pains that are taken in favour of the dead, by the maffes and other good offices of the living, as well as by their own benefactions and bequests for religious ufes before their death. On the whole, therefore, it looks as if this doctrine of purgatory had been built upon fome other ground; and nothing is fo likely to furnish a ground work for it, as the notions of the heathens concerning the ftate of fouls in the regions below, which were always fuppofed capable of being brought back again. Also the popular opinions of the northern nations concerning the state of fouls after death were, in many cafes, fimilar to thofe of the Greeks and Romans; and fuch opinions as these would not eafily quit their hold of the common people on their converfion to christianity; and being held together with the opinion of the Fathers above-mentioned, the prefent doctrine of purgatory might, in time, be the produce of both. It is generally faid that the foundation of the prefent doctrine was laid by Gregory the Great, who who lived in the fixth century, about 160 years after Auitin. But his opinions on the subject were very little different from thofe of Austin himself, and of others before him, of which an account has been given in the former period. Gregory, however, did fuppofe that there was a purgatory to expatiate the flight offences of which very good men might be guilty; but he does not say that this punishment would always be by means of fire, nor did he suppose this expiation to be made in the fame place, but fometimes in the air, and sometimes in finks, &c. or places full of filth and naftiness. He also fpeaks of fome good men whofe fouls went immediately to heaven. But in one way he certainly did greatly promote the doctrine, viz. by the many idle stories which he propagated about what happened to particular fouls after they had left their bodies, as concerning the foul of king Theodoric, which was boiled in the pot of Vulcan*. Narrow, however, as these foundations were, the monks were very induftrous in building upon them; finding it the most profitable businefs they were ever engaged in; and about the tenth century the prefent fyftem seems to have been pretty well completed. For then not even the best of men were fuppofed to be exempted from the fire of purgatory; and it was generally represented as not lefs fevere than that of hell * Sueur, A. D. 594. CC 4 itself. itself. But then fouls might always be delivered from it by the prayers and maffes of the living, which prayers and maffes might always be had upon certain pecuniary confiderations; and the fables and fictitious miracles that were propagated to fecure the belief of this new kind of future ftate, were innumerable. Thomas Aquinas fays that the place of purgatory is near to that in which the damned are punished, that the pains of purgatory exceed all the pains of this life, that fouls are not punished by dæmons but by divine juftice only, though angels or dæmons might conduct them to the place. By the pains of purgatory, he says, venial fins are expiated even quod culpam, or from the guilt of them, and that fome are delivered fooner than others*. The prefent doctrine of the church of Rome on the fubject of purgatory is, that every man is liable both to temporal and eternal punishment for his fins; that God, on account of the death and interceffion of Chrift, does indeed pardon fin as to its eternal punishment; but that the finner is ftill liable to temporal punishment, which he he must expiate by acts of penance and forrow in this world, together with fuch other fufferings as God fhall think fit to lay upon him t. But if Summa, vol. iii. p. 446. &c. + Petrarch fays, I pray God every day to make my purgatory in this world. Memoires pour la vie de Plutarch, vol. iii. p. 277. he he does not expiate these in his life, there is a ftate of fufferings and mifery in the next world, where the foul is to bear the temporal punishment of its fin, which may continue longer or fhorter till the day of judgment; and to the shortening of this punishment, prayers and works of fupererogation here on earth, or the interceffions of the faints in heaven, but above all things, the facrifice of the mafs, are of great efficacy. This is the doctrine of the church of Rome, as afferted in the councils of Florence, and of Trent*. Before this time, the opinions concerning purgatory were exceedingly various, with respect to the place of purgatory, the nature of the pains of it, and indeed every thing belonging of it. Eckius maintained that it was in the bottom of the fea. Others would have it to be in mount Etna, Vefuvius, or some other burning mountain. Sir Thomas Moore fays, that the punishment will be only by fire, but Fisher his fellow fufferer, by fire and by water. Lorichius fays neither by fire nor water, but by the violent convulfions of hope and fear. Fisher maintained that the executioners would be the holy angels, but Sir Thomas Moore thought they would be the devils. Some again thought that only venial fins are expiated in purgatory, but others that mortal fins are expiated there likewise. Dennis the Carthufian, thought that the pains of purgatory * Burnet on the Articles, p. 269. would |