3. That the persons suffering it are not the wicked, but the pious, i.e.
believers, God’s dear children, those to whom Christ would say, “Depart
in peace, thy faith hath saved thee.”
4. That the purpose of it is to expiate sin, or make an atonement for
transgression before they can be admitted to eternal glory.
So that if we are to believe Rome, we must abandon all our bright hopes
for our dear departed brethren. Our mothers, and fathers, and fond
friends, who have stuck closer to us than a brother, holy believers, who
full of faith, fell asleep in Jesus, are at this present moment, writhing
and gnashing their teeth, in the fierce agony of scorching heat; yet glad
even of the flame to hide them from the displeasure of that Saviour whom
they once delighted to trust and love.
Having thus stated the doctrine, I am well persuaded I might here safely
leave it. But it forms one of the bulwarks of the Romish system, and is
one of the great sources of Roman wealth. {36a} The parish priests are
ordered by their church frequently and diligently to discourse on it.
{36b} Let us examine then how the matter stands in the word of God.
I. And 1st, we would remark that there is not a shadow of foundation for
it in the Bible. We read of hell, and we read of heaven; we read
plainly, “That where the tree falleth there shall it lie.” But of
purgatory not a word is to be found.
There are, however, two texts generally quoted to which it may be well
briefly to refer.
The first is, 1 Cor. iii. 12–15. “Now if any man build upon this
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s
work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it
shall be revealed by fire; and the tire shall try every man’s work of
what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”
One glance is enough to shew that these words have no connection with the
subject. The apostle is speaking of the ministry, and compares the
ministers who followed him at Corinth to builders raising a temple on the
foundation he himself had laid. The temple then is the visible Church;
the material, the professing members of it: some of whom, like gold,
silver, and precious stones, are shining as true believers to the glory
of their Saviour: others, like wood, hay, and stubble, are worthless
professors, fit only to be burned. The day of revealing fire refers
either to the day of judgment, or the great fearful conflict with the
enemy, described by St. Peter as “the fiery trial which is to try you.”
{37} The effect will be to separate the tares from the wheat; the
precious from the vile; the false from the true; the gold, silver, and
precious stones, from the wood, hay, and stubble; and so to reveal the
character of the work. There is no allusion then to purgatory. The fire
of purgatory is to make expiation for the sins of believers; the day of
fire here described is to try the Church and reveal its character.
If possible the other passage has still less bearing on the subject. It
is, 1 Pet. iii. 18–20.
“Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit: by the
which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison: which
sometimes were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in
the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is,
eight souls were saved by water.” This is said to prove that our blessed
Lord preached to the spirits in purgatory at his burial. But it does
nothing of the kind. Those that had sinned against Noah’s preaching were
guilty of disobedience and unbelief. They, therefore, the Church of Rome
itself being witness, were not in purgatory but in hell. The true
meaning of the text is this: Christ was raised up by the divine power of
the Holy Ghost, by which as the eternal God, he preached even in the time
of Noah to those wicked persons, who having then rejected him, are now
fast bound in the miseries of hell. He preached then, not at the time of
the crucifixion, but, as the pre-existent God, at the time of Noah: and
preached not to dead souls, but to living men. These two texts are the
pillars on which Purgatory rests. They remind us of the two pillars on
which stood the house of Dagon. God grant that they may not be equally
destructive to the thousands of souls who rest on them!
There is therefore no support for the doctrine; let us now proceed to
show,