LETTER VI.

Mr. Butler's statement of the means of relieving those who are detained in Purgatory.—His citation from Augustine on this subject.-Dr. Milner's citations from Augustine-Mr. Butler's from Calvin.

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THE means of relieving the souls of the faithful, who are tormented in Purgatory, are thus briefly stated by you, after the Decree of the Council of Trent:-"The souls detained in

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Purgatory are helped by the suffrages of the "faithful"; and you proceed to say, that "the "nature and extent of these suffrages are thus

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explained by St. Augustine. • When the "sacrifice of the altar, or alms, are offered for "the dead, then, in regard to those whose "lives were very good, such sacrifices may be “' deemed acts of thanksgiving. In regard to "the imperfect, they may be deemed acts of propitiation; though they bring no aid to "the very bad, they may give some comfort "to the living.''

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Now, on this passage, you must forgive my remarking, that it appears to me singularly illfitted to the purpose for which you profess

to adduce it. If, indeed, you only wish to throw dust in the eyes of your readers, to have the appearance of saying something, while, in fact, nothing, or almost nothing, is really said, -above all, if you wish to cover an awkward tenet with the mantle of authority, and to obtain for it the seeming sanction of Augustine,

to any or all of these purposes the passage may

be exceeding well adapted. But as an explanation of the matter in question, it is only ludicrous. Two of the three cases supposed in it, the first and the last, those of the very good, and of the very bad, have absolutely nothing whatever to do with the subject: while the application of these suffrages to the remaining case, that of the imperfect, is as little explicit as can be devised.

But after all, Sir, what will you say when I tell you, that you have not the smallest right whatsoever to claim any service from this passage of Augustine? I hope this intimation will give you some surprise: it must do so, if you are as honest in these matters as I wish to consider you; if, in short, you have taken Augustine's supposed testimony, without examining it, at second hand. But I must plainly tell you, that whoever has knowingly given to this passage the form in which you now adduce it,

has been guilty of an artifice little short of forgery.

I have shewn, that, even as it stands, only one of the three cases exhibited in it will in any way apply to the question we are upon : and I have now to state, that this one apparently applicable case is produced by what may appear at first sight a trifling alteration, but will be found, in truth, a very material one, -I mean the substitution of the term imperfect for non valdè malis. You know quite well, Sir, that the Souls alleged to be detained in Purgatory are the Souls, as has been shewn, of pious men, of the truly penitent, of those who have died in the love of God, though they have not done all that was necessary in bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. Now, these may be very fitly designated by your term imperfect, and therefore it has been adopted; but they will not admit of Augustine's phrase non valdè malis, and, therefore, it has been rejected. The mere exhibiting of it must, you well know, have at once put you out of Court.

The truth is, that the real words of Augustine, though a most undeniable evidence in favour of Sacrifices of the Altar, and of Alms for the Dead, are a strong tetsimony against the Roman doctrine of Purgatory. On examining

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them with their context, particularly with the words which immediately precede and immediately follow them, it is plain, that the author contemplated the day of Judgment, as the time when the dead would be benefited by these pious services offered for them by their - surviving friends. For this is the course of his argument: Let not any one suppose that this ' notion of being assisted after death by the pious 'offices of surviving friends is contrary to the 'text of St. Paul, "We shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, that he may render "" to every one according to the things done in "the body, whether they be good or bad;" since it is by the conduct of a man while in the body that he has procured to himself the ability ' of deriving benefit from those offices of others. For it is the difference of men's conduct in life, which makes it possible, or impossible, for them to be thus benefited. When, therefore, the 'Sacrifices of the Altar, or Alms, are offered for the dead, then, in regard to those whose lives are very good, such sacrifices may be deemed acts of thanksgiving: in regard to those who are not very bad, they may be deemed acts of propitiation in the case of the absolutely bad, 6 though they afford no aid to such, they may give some comfort to the living. But they who

are benefited by them, (the non valdè mali) are • benefited to this end, that their pardon be com'plete, or their very damnation be made more tolerable.** And the succeeding chapters shew, that this damnation is that which will be awarded at the general Resurrection.†

So much for your citation from Augustine. I am aware, that Dr. Milner has referred to this same passage; but as he has not quoted it in words, I do not charge him with the same unfairness which must be ascribed to the production of it in the form it wears in your book. But it is more difficult to acquit him of unfairness of another kind, the extreme unfairness of affecting to discover in this passage, and others in the same tract, a testimony which he can hardly fail to know is not that, which on due consideration must be drawn from them. I say this, because the same plea will not be admitted

* Quibus autem prosunt, ad hoc prosunt, ut sit plena remissio, aut certè tolerabilior fiat ipsa damnatio. Ench. 110.

This is also shewn by chapter 93, where there is a remarkable similarity even of expression. Speaking of the general Resurrection, he says, Mitissima sanè omnium pœna erit eorum, qui præter peccatum quod originale traxerunt, nullum insuper addiderunt: et in cæteris qui addiderunt, tantò quisque tolerabiliorem ibi habebit damnationem, quantò hic minorem habuit iniquitatem.

P. 312.