although the workers in them may, because they are sincere, be anwd; yet not without the greatest difficulty and hazard. Peter de Soto, a distinguished Eomanist, allows that purgatory can- not be proved from this text. His words are, "It is not p?o,?, but vain doctrines, called wood, hay, stubble, which some well meaning, but nd?tmt? teac/?, added to the true, that shall, in the day of judg- ment, be tried by fire, and be burned, and themselves shall hardly escape, even as one escapeth out of the fire." 7. The following passage is adduced as a principal one to support the doctrine of p.urgatory: "Being put to death in the flesh, but quick- ened by the Spirit; by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison," &c., 1 Pet. iii, 18, 19, 20. That their doctrine of purga- tory cannot be legitimately derived from this text will funy appear, if the following considerations are taken into view: 1. The soul of Christ did not, in the interval between his death and resurrection, go to hell, or purgatory; for it is stated plainly that it went to that is, one department of hades, or the invisible world, the place where the spirits of just men are, to which the penitent thief went. This will be farther con6rmed, by the two following considerations: 2. The pe,'zoa.v to whom this preaching was sent were the antediluvians, who were ?rore, forvnerly, at that t/me, disobedient. The time was tAe of Noai, wi//e tle ar? wa? a pre/m?ng. 3. The ? was the earth on which they then lived, in which they were preserved one hundred and twenty years, that the long-suffering of God might be fully mani. feated. Indeed, a state of sin is frequently in Scripture represented under the figure of a prison. Isa. xlii, 7; xlix, 9; lxi, 1, 2. Now the antediluvians, who lived about the time of Noah, were in/w'/.um, upon a double account. First, by reason of their bondage to sin, for then all flesh had corrupted their ways, their wickedness was great upon the earth, and every imagination of their heart was evil continually. Secondly, they were in prison as having from God received the sen- fence of destruction, if they repented not within a hundred and twenty years. Gan. vi, 3. Thus "the long-suffering of God waited for them in the days of Noah," expecting their repentance, and keeping them as it were in prison, for the day of slaughter, if they did not repent. 4. Christ is said to have preached to the Jews and Gentiles. Eph. ii, 17. Now it is certain that our Lord did not go personally to preach to the Gentiles: he preached to them only by his apostles. And if Christ is said, by Paul, to do what he did by his apostles, he may be said, with equal propriety, by Peter, to go and do what he did by his prophets. And the words ?ropevOe?c envimfev, having gone Ie prmcAed, or, Ie ,vent and preacied, are a pleonasm for Ie preacied. So the Syraic version, Et pre. dicavit, and preacied. So alsp Eph. ii, 17: Ka? ruay,[eAi?aro, trod cam? a?d?eao?d; or simplypreacied. Besides, Christ is said not to have gone personally to the antediluvians, but by his Spirit; the Spirit which quickened him, as is clear from the construc- tion, rv �, by w/gel, referring to Spirit as its antecedent. His Spirit inspired Noah to preach to them, as is proved from Gan. vi, 3: "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." Hence Noah is called "a preacher of righteousness," 2 Pet. ii, 5. Enoch also preached to the antediluvians. Jude 14. Accordingly, the Spirit which was in the cient prophets is said to be the Spirit of Christ. I Pet. i, 11. Christ, 1
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