and who everywhere loudly proclaimed His resur rection, even before the chief council who had condemned Him to death, although by this conduct they drew upon themselves nothing but mortal hatred and persecution.

It is true that the soldiers who guarded the grave, being bribed with a large sum of money, spread the report that, while they were asleep, the Disciples of Jesus came and stole His body. But 1. If they were asleep, how could they see, then, that His Disciples stole the body? 2. Whence did the timid Disciples, who expected now nothing more from their deceased Master, get on a sudden such undaunted courage? 3. How did it happen that not even one of the sleeping guards awoke at the rolling away of the heavy stone? 4. Why were the guards not punished for the neglect of their duty? (Comp. Acts xii. 19)

If the evidence of the Apostles and the Disciples had not been so certain and quite unexceptionable, they would never have convinced the world, in opposition to the most powerful and crafty enemies of Jesus, that He who, like a malefactor, had been publicly executed and buried, had on the third day risen again glorious from the dead. They have nevertheless so firmly convinced the world of this truth that countless Christian converts endured the most painful martyrdom in testimony of their firm belief in it.

9. What effect ought the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ to produce in us?

It ought 1. To strengthen our belief in His Divinity, and our hope of our own future resurrection ; and 2. To incite us to rise from the death of sin to a new and holy life.

1. God raised Him up from the dead, and hath given Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God' (1 Pet. i. 21). 2. We are buried together with him by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life' (Rom. vi. 4).

Application. He who is still deeply buried in the grave of sin-i.e., in evil habits or sinful desires-is not risen yet to a new life. All our thoughts, all our exertions, should tend towards Heaven. If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth' (Col. iii. 1, 2).

THE SIXTH ARTICLE.

'He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.'

(See Short Hist. of Religion, § 27.)

1. What is meant by 'He ascended into Heaven' ? That Jesus Christ, by His own power, with soul and body, went up into Heaven. (Feast of the Ascension of our Lord.)

2. Did Christ ascend alone into Heaven?

No; He took also with Him into Heaven the souls of the just whom He had liberated from Limbo. 'Ascending on high, He led captivity captive' (Eph. iv. 8). 3. For what purpose did Christ ascend into Heaven? 1. To take possession of His glory as conqueror of death and hell (Phil. ii. 8-11). 2. To be our Mediator and Advocate with His Father (Hebr. ix. 24). 3. To send the Holy Ghost to His Disciples (John xvi. 7); and 4. To open Heaven, and to prepare a place for us also (John xiv. 2.)

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4. What means, Sitteth at the right hand of God'? It means that Christ, as man also, is exalted above all created things, and participates in the power and glory of the Divine Majesty.

'He hath raised Him up from the dead, and set Him on His right hand in the heavenly places, above all principality, and power, and virtue, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. He hath subjected all things under His feet, and hath made Him Head over all the Church (Eph. i. 20-22).

And

5. Is Christ, then, not present in all places? As God He is everywhere; but as God-Man He is only in Heaven, and in the Holy Eucharist.

Application. Consider frequently, especially in your

troubles and temptations, that we are pilgrims and strangers on the earth,' and that our true country is Heaven, whither Christ has gone to prepare a place for you also. Be therefore not wearied, fainting in your minds,' but look on Jesus, who endured the cross, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God' (Hebr. xi. 13, and xii. 2, 3).

THE SEVENTH ARTICLE.

'From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.' 1. What does the Seventh Article of the Creed teach us?

That Jesus Christ at the end of the world shall come again with great power and glory to judge all men, both the good and the wicked (Acts i. 11).

2. What do you call this judgment?

The general judgment, the last judgment, or the judgment of the world.

3. When will the day of the judgment of the world come ?

Of that day and hour no one knoweth, no, not the Angels of Heaven' (Matt. xxiv. 36).

Nevertheless, Christ and His Apostles have foretold us many things which shall come to pass on the earth before the end of the world (Matt. xxiv., Mark xiii., and 2 Thess. ii.), that the faithful may be on their guard, and not be seduced to fall away. For there will rise up false Christs and false prophets, and they shall show signs and wonders, to seduce (if it were possible) even the elect' (Mark xiii. 22).

4. How shall we be judged?

We shall be judged according to all our thoughts, words, works, and omissions.

'I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment' (Matt. xii. 36).

5. How will the last judgment be held?

1. Christ will come in the clouds of Heaven, and gather all nations together before His throne, placing

the good on His right hand, and the wicked on His left (Matt. xxiv. and xxv.) 2. He will then make manifest the good and the evil that every man has done, even his most secret thoughts, and also the graces which He has given to each one; and finally He will pronounce judgment upon all (2 Cor. v. 10).

'And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne, and the books were opened; and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works' (Apoc. xx. 12). For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; nor hidden, that shall not be known' (Luke xii. 2, and Mark iv. 22). The Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts' (1 Cor. iv. 5).

6. What will be the sentence, and the end of the last judgment?

Christ will say to the good: 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' But to the wicked He will say: 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just into life everlasting' (Matt. xxv.)

7. Is there not, besides the general, another judgment ?

Yes, there is also the particular judgment, in which every man shall be judged immediately after his death.

Therefore the Holy Scripture says: 'It is easy before God in the day of death to reward every one according to his ways' (Ecclus. xi. 28).

8. Why will there be a general judgment besides the particular?

For three principal reasons: 1. That God's wisdom and justice may be acknowledged by all men; 2. That Jesus Christ may be glorified before the whole world; and 3. That the good may receive the honor due to them, and the wicked the dishonor they have deserved.

1. And the heavens shall declare His justice; for God is judge' (Ps. xlix. 6). 2. They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven, with much power and majesty' (Matt.

xxiv. 30). 3. Then shall those that have afflicted them be amazed at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation, saying within themselves, repenting, and groaning for anguish of spirit: These are they whom we had some time in derision, and for a parable of reproach. We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honor. Behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the Saints,' etc. (Wisd. v. 1–5).

9. Whither does the soul go after the particular judgment?

Either to Heaven, or to Hell, or to Purgatory.

10. Who go to Purgatory?

1. Such souls as have departed this life, not in mortal, but in venial sin; and 2. Such also as have died without any sin, but have still to suffer the punishment deserved for their past sins.

11. How do we know that there is a Purgatory? 1. From the Holy Scripture,' and from the Tradition of the Church."

In the Holy Scripture-namely, the Old Testament-it is said (2 Mac. xii. 46): 'It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.' In the New Testament, Christ speaks (Matt. xii. 32) of sins which shall be forgiven in the world to come; and (Matt. v. 26) of a prison in the other world, from which there shall be no release till the last farthing has been paid. And St Paul speaks (1 Cor. iii. 12-15) of such as on the day of judgment 'shall be saved, yet so as by fire.'

2 That Tradition teaches it, follows from the constant practice of the Church to pray for the dead, as well as from the unanimous testimony of the Holy Fathers and of the Councils.

2. Also in some measure from Reason; for as no one goes to Heaven except those who are perfectly undefiled (Apoc. xxi. 27), and no one to Hell but those who die in mortal sin, we cannot but admit a place between Heaven and Hell where those souls that are not quite clean, but nevertheless died in the state of grace, suffer until they are worthy of entering Heaven.

12. Will there still be a Purgatory after the gen eral judgment?