for ever, but for the trump of God. (Butler, Anal. c. i. part i. p. 17, Oxford Ed. 1836.)

And if we are in heaven even here on earth, received to glory, (Rom. xv. 7,) in heavenly places," (Ephes. i. 3,) arrived at Zion and living in the midst of celestial things and beings, (Heb. xii. 22,) "partakers of the divine nature," "temples of the Holy Ghost," and brethren of Christ;" if we are justified by such privileges in looking upon our dwelling within the Church militant, as an inhabiting of heaven, how much more shall safety from the power of sinning, and rest for contemplation, and the sensible society of all saints, and the calm of Abraliam's bosom, and "to be with Christ" in an higher sense, be justly termed a heaven, better than the heaven which is, although not the heaven which shall be?

We will conclude our statement of this doctrine in the words of Mr. Palmer:

"The righteous, after death, are immediately translated to a region of peace, refreshment, and joy, while the wicked are consigned to a place of torment, from whence there is no escape."—Orig. Lit. vol. ii. p. 97.

And now it may be permitted us to say a few words upon the probable occupations of the Intermediate State; which, although they cannot be very definite or certain, may, at least, make it appear that Mr. Morris's statement deserves more mercy than it obtained. We have already quoted the account of Polycarp's martyrdom, and the Te Deum, as witnesses to the consciousness of departed souls; but those same statements, it will be recollected, spoke of the deceased saints as occupied in praise. Again, we have already cited the wellknown passage in the Apocalypse, which represents the saints as praying for a speedy accomplishment of all things, and for the hastening of Christ's kingdom. To us, indeed, it seems next to impossible that spirits which on earth continually prayed "Thy kingdom come," and which offered here the effectual fervent intercession of righteousness, in behalf of the Church which they so dearly loved, should cease their supplications when existing in that calm and leisure state, which follows upon the troubles of this life. If heavenly contemplation, spiritual intercourse, and praises of the Godhead, are admitted to form part of the occupations of the dead in Christ, surely we cannot thus arbitrarily exclude the office of intercession by which they most resembled their Saviour while they lived, and which, if it should seem the work of an imperfect state, must be remembered to be the gracious office of our Redeemer even now, and therefore surely not involving too much incompleteness in those who have not yet ascended into heaven.

Admit the intercession of the saints, the Romanist then will say, and why not request that intercession? If they do pray for us, and if it were not wrong to have asked of them this boon, while living, how can it be sinful now?

It seems to us, that this is a question which the moral sense will decide better than the reason. It is hard to say how the one petition is a prayer, and the other not; but it is not hard to feel that there is this difference; and a child would vanquish the divine by showing him that it felt it impossible to ask anything of a person with whom it

had no sensible means of communication, without approaching too nearly to that address which is the property of God alone. But it would be only fair to ask of the Romanist why he does not supplicate all saints living, as well as those departed? He never dreams of asking those to pray for him on earth whom he knows will never hear of his petition. If he betake himself to such speculations as those of the schoolmen, we answer at once that we know nothing of what he speaks; and although we cannot agree with Bucer that it is a sin to pray for that which we do not know will be granted; yet to offer petitions which we cannot tell whether they even be heard or no, seems wholly inconsistent with the confidence which should attend every act of Catholic worship.

Whether, indeed, we believe that the "claritas Dei,"† or the “speculum Trinitatis," or any other such fancy, is an adequate account of the knowledge which invocation presupposes, it does seem to us certain that the majority of people are unable to divorce the notion of omniscience from such an idea, and so are incapable of regarding those to whom they pray, otherwise than as, in some sense, and that a very full sense, ubiquitous and divine. We hold it to be practically impossible to invoke the saints, and, at the same time, to remember that they are but men.

We have said nothing of scriptural or Catholic teachings upon this subject, because we have only touched upon it incidentally, and in a cautionary manner. Enough, however, it is hoped, has been said to convince the reader, that they who believe in the fact of the intercession of departed saints, as well as of living, do yet shrink from all idea of addressing them, as much as any Protestant can desire. But we undertook to show the practical influence of which the true doctrine of the middle state is capable, and which we are bound to give to it. Before, however, we state two reasons which principally weigh with us, it may be permitted us to remind our readers, that the best method of correcting or warding error is to establish truth; and that no defence, therefore, against the doctrine of Purgatory can be so sound, so likely to remain, so free from the evils attendant upon controversial statements, as the clear affirmative practical teaching of our Church's doctrine upon this subject. And, moreover, to know the truth, whatever it be, is a thing in itself desirable; and when that truth is a doctrine of Scripture, and of the Church, so that our minds cannot be in unison with their teaching unless they receive it, it is surely no indifferent thing whether men are right or wrong upon this point.

First, then, to believe in this doctrine of the Middle State, is to see (which has been already noticed,) the parallel between our Redeemer's history and our own. It is only by believing that as He died, was buried, descended into Hades-which was a paradise or blessed place, a boon to the penitent thief, and a meet dwelling for the souls of the righteous and rose again in the flesh, a perfect man, with human soul and human body reunited, before he ascended into heaven; so we shall follow in His steps, rising as He rose, and because He rose, and as part

He argued against prayers for the dead, on the ground that "whatsoever is not of faith, is sin."-Tracts for the Times, vol. iii. p. 58.

+ See Bramhall's Answer to M. De La Milletiere.

of Him, and therefore resembling Him throughout; it is only by this belief that we can recognise the completeness of our regeneration in Him, of the gradual restoration of our fallen race through the incarnation, and life, and death, and grave, and resurrection of the First-born among many brethren; it is only thus that we can feel that He was indeed as we are, that we might be as He is.

III. Against the notion of the sleep of the soul, we would urge its probable effect upon many minds. To bad men, distance of punishment seems security; and, in the same way, as Aristotle justly affirms, that death comes to be less feared from its remoteness, so vengeance loses much of its power of terrifying, if it is deferred. There may seem to be little in this to many of our readers, but if they have stood by the death-bed of a sinner, whose earthly agonies almost prevent all thought of future sufferings, they will know that, to a man in this state, it is not the same thing to speak of an immediate transition to greater misery, and of a state of unconsciousness which may last for ages, and which seems like a blessed sleep to the fevered frame.

To good men, also, it is a different thing to speak to them of immediate happiness after death; to tell them of friends conscious, and blessed, and waiting to receive them, and to speak to them of a long time of waiting, even though it should pass away as a moment. We cannot expect all fully to sympathize with us in these remarks, but with ourselves they are the result of a long standing, and deep feeling upon the subject.

It may be hoped, also, that the feeling that there is a communion of saints, would be strengthened by a right belief of this doctrine, as often as the thought of departed friends, martyrs, and apostles, and of all whom we have loved in history or by personal intercourse, crosses our hearts, as of those who are caring for us, and waiting for us, and are incomplete without us.

We will meet one more possible objection, and conclude. It may be feared, by some, that to hold out the existence of a conscious state after death, would be to suggest hopes of improvement and of a preparation for the Judgment neglected to be made on earth. But if it be distinctly stated in the language before-quoted, that each is gone to "his own place," a place from which there is no removal, and which is but a foretaste of that eternity of joy or woe which shall follow upon the promulgation of our everlasting sentence, there can surely be nothing to be feared. It may be stated, too, that punishment, as distinguished from chastisement, estranges the wicked yet more from God; and that despair, and not repentance, will ever be the fearful consequence of sufferings which cannot be removed. To show that they who believed the doctrine for which we have been contending believed this sad truth also, we can accompany our teaching with the powerful words of S. Clement (Epist. ii. § 8); "We are clay in the hands of the maker; for, like as the potter, if he form a vessel, and have twisted it in his hands, or crushed it, remoulds it quite afresh ; but if he have previously cast it into the furnace of the fire, he can no longer do any good to it; so, also, we, whilst we are in this world, let us repent, from the bottom of our hearts, for all the evil deeds

which we have done in the flesh, that we may be saved by the Lord, while we have time for repentance; for after we have left this world we can no longer confess ourselves there, or repent any more."

We subjoin an extract from some anonymous lines which are in the possession of a friend, and are illustrative of some of the points for which we have been contending, and would refer our readers to Archbishop Tillotson's Sermons on 2 Cor. v. 6, and Rev. xiv. 13, and to Mr. Newman's most interesting Discourse on Rev. vi. 11, in vol. iii. of the Parochial Sermons :

"The world has triumph'd o'er the will,
And closed the watchful eye;

Th' uplifted hands have fall'n, and still
Are clasp'd in apathy.

The head has sunk upon the breast,

And soft successive breath
Alone declares that fearful rest
Is not the sleep of death.

Sleep, sleep, worn frame; but far away
Thy spirit freed hath fled;

And pass'd before her joyful day,

To th' home of th' happy dead.

She rests beside the gentlest stream;
She breathes the softest gales;
She is glad beneath the pale moon-beam,
Which gilds those peaceful vales.

Nor piercing cold, nor scorching heat,
Nor time of drear decay,

Break in upon that summer sweet

Which shall not pass away.

Nor wrath, nor care, nor pain, nor dread,

Disturb the peace of Love,

And holy joy for ever shed

By angel hands above.

Pure spirits dwell with spirits pure,

In closest unity;

And fond hearts, of each other sure,'

There hold communion high.

Sweet is the peace of Paradise,

The weary race is run;

But when, O when will day arise,

With one perpetual dawn?

'How long? How long?'*-O calmly rest,

Ye spirits of the Lord!

Yours is the peace of Abraham's breast,

And yours th' unfailing word.

The summer moons are waning fast;
The fields are glistening white;t
Long time the midnight watch is past,
And see-the East is bright."

Rev. vi. 10.

+ Rev, xiv. 15,16.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

ORDINATIONS APPOINTED.

ORDINATIONS.

B. & W...... W. Long
Exeter...... ..............................

Chester...... R.E.E.Warburton, Esq.

Norwich.... The Crown .................

Sarum....... Trustees

B. & W...... Mrs. Frobisher............
Durham..... D. & C. of Durham
Lincoln...... C. of Coll.Ch.,Southwell

Chell, J.........ton, V.............
(Kneesal-cum-Bough-
Clarke, J............. Clifton, P.C................
Coates, S............. Sowerby, P.C........... York......... Archbishop of York....
Cockin, M.
Norton, P.C................ G. & B...... D. & C. of Glouc. & Br.
Cosens, W. B....... Berry Pomeroy, v....... Exeter....... D. of Somerset...
Cross, R............. Broomfield, P.C.......... B. & W...... Col. Hamilton
Du Pré, S. ...................... Highley, V. ...................................... Hereford.... Rev. S. Burrows.........

Chester...... The Manor

Hadfield, W........ Alsager, P.C.......
Heriot, G............ {St. Anne, Newcastle, Durham..... Rev. Robert Green
P.C......................$

Holmes, J. W...... New-Mill, P.C............ Ripon........ V. of Burton Kirk.......
Jones, J..... Repton, P.C................ Lichfield.... Sir George Crewe ........
Carlton Miniott, P.C..... York......... Abp. of York
Furtho, R......... Peterboro'.. Jesus College, Oxford..
Benwell, P.C.......... Durham..... Rev. H. W. Wright.....
(St. Paul's, Maryle-London..... The Crown

Hereford.... Rev. T. Prosser..........

bone, P.C. ............... Powell, T............ Dorstone, v....... Pym, F.......... Bickley & Sheepster, v. Exeter....... Sir R. Lopes........ Pyne, A...... London..... Hn.W.P.T. L. Wellesley Rawlings, W....... Thenford, R............. Peterboro'.. Lord Chancellor Roberts, R. J....... Denbigh, R...............

Sharp, T............. Newport, c... Exeter....... Dean of Exeter.
Sherwood, H. M... Broughton Hackett, R.. Worcester.. Lord Chancellor
Shilcott, W. F..... Monksilver, R............. B. & W...... D. & C. of Windsor
.......... Alderbury, v.............. Sarum
Smart, N..
Bishop of Salisbury.....