PURGATORY.
FROM the Romish doctrine of Transubstantiation, I shall pass on to the
Romish doctrine of Purgatory.
I. Respecting a Purgatory, into which the souls of all, save those who
are immediately conveyed to Hell, pass forthwith after death; in order
that, by its fiery pains, they may be purified from the remainder of
their corruption, and at the same time by personal suffering may make
satisfaction to God for their hitherto unexpiated offences: the Church of
Rome, speaking through her organ the Council of Trent, thus defines and
pronounces.
_There is a Purgatory_: _and the souls_, _there detained_, _are assisted
by the suffrages of the faithful and most especially by the acceptable
sacrifice of the altar_. {24}
II. Such is the authorised doctrine of the Roman Church: let us now see,
whether the existence of a Purgatory in the unseen world be revealed in
Scripture.
1. On this point, we may begin with very safely remarking: that, from
the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of the Revelation, God’s
written word, whether jewish or christian, SAYS NOT A SINGLE SYLLABLE
concerning the existence of any such place as a romish Purgatory.
Whence, of course, it is EQUALLY SILENT, respecting the extraordinary
alleged fact: that, _Souls_, _there detained_, _are assisted by the
suffrages or prayers of the faithful and most especially by the
acceptable sacrifice of the altar_.
2. But Holy Scripture is not merely SILENT on this subject: by
anticipation, it even FLATLY CONTRADICTS the popish doctrine before us.
_I heard a voice from heaven_, _saying unto me_: _Write_; _Blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth_: _Yea_, _saith the
Spirit_, THAT THEY MAY REST FROM THEIR LABOURS; _and their works do
follow them_. {25}
If, as the Romish Clergy teach, even those, who die in the Lord, pass
into Purgatory, where they suffer pains equal to those of Hell in
intensity and inferior to them only in duration: certainly, such souls
can with no truth be said henceforth to rest from their labours.
3. In reality, the very notion of a Purgatory stands irreconcileably
opposed to the whole scheme and analogy of Scripture.
For the doctrine of a Purgatory holds out the speculation: that, _By
penal suffering_, _we both may be purified from our sins_, _and likewise
may make personal meritorious satisfaction to God for them_.
Whereas Scripture teaches us: that _We are justified from our sins by the
sole merits of the Son_, and that _We are sanctified from our pollutions
by the exclusive ordinary operation of the Spirit_.
On the present point, then, are we to believe the Bible, or the Council
of Trent and the Latin Priesthood?
4. Finding it impossible to establish the existence of a Purgatory from
the genuine written word of God, the Romish Clergy attempt to
substantiate it from a text in the Apocrypha.
_When Judas had made a gathering throughout the __company to the sum of
two thousand drachms of silver_, _he sent it to Jerusalem_, _to offer a
sin-offering_; _doing therein well and honestly_, _in that he was mindful
of the resurrection_ (_for_, _if he had not hoped that they that were
slain should have risen again_, _it had been superfluous and vain to pray
for the dead_), _and also in that he perceived that there was great
favour laid up for those that died godly_. _It was a holy and good
thought_. _Whereupon_, _he made a reconciliation for the dead_, _that
they might be delivered from sin_. {26a}
Now this text, even if we could admit the canonical authority of a book
which _praises self-murder_, and which _apologises for its own defects_,
{26b} would stand the Latin Priesthood in small stead: for _it never once
mentions any Purgatory_; and the persons, moreover, for whom Judas
attempted to make reconciliation, were actually men who had died _in the
mortal sin of idolatry unrepented of_, and consequently were men who (by
the determination of the Council of Trent) had passed not into Purgatory
but into Hell. {26c}
In truth, however, for the too evident purpose of serving a turn, the
doctors of the Council of Trent, in defiance of the universal testimony
of the early Church as expressed most distinctly by Melito and Cyril and
Ruffinus and Jerome and Epiphanius and Athanasius, have foisted into the
genuine canon of inspired Scripture, those mere unauthoritative human
compositions, which are commonly styled _apocryphal_, and for the simple
quoting of which about the close of the sixth century, Pope Gregory the
great absolutely makes a regular formal apology. {26d}
As one out of our many witnesses against these daring innovators, let us
hear, from the fourth century, the venerable Cyril of Jerusalem, while
officially instructing his Catechumens in order to their baptism.
_Read the twenty and two books contained in the Old Testament_: _but_
WITH THE APOCRYPHA HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON. _Study diligently those
twenty and two books_ ALONE, _which also with confidence are read in the
Church_. _The Apostles and the ancient Bishops_, _who delivered those
books to us_, _were much wiser than you_. _As children of the Church_,
_therefore_, _set not upon her authorised documents the adulterating seal
of a false impression_. {27a}
This _adulterating seal of a false impression_, so strongly reprobated by
Cyril in the fourth century, was, in the sixteenth century, employed,
without the least scruple, for the impious corruption of God’s written
word, by the Romish Clergy at the Council of Trent.
III. From Scripture, let us proceed to the early Fathers of the Church.
I. In the way of _negative_ evidence, Polycarp the disciple of St. John,
Athenagoras, and Irenèus, who collectively flourished during a period
which extends from the latter end of the first to the latter end of the
second century, are TOTALLY SILENT respecting the existence of a
Purgatory; even when the nature of their subject is such, that, had they
been acquainted with the doctrine, they _must_ have mentioned it. {27b}
2. In the way of _positive_ evidence, Clement of Rome the disciple and
fellow-labourer of St. Paul, Ignatius the disciple of St. John, Justin
Martyr, Hippolytus, and Cyprian, who collectively flourished during a
period which extends from the year 63 to the year 258, either by
anticipation EXPRESSLY CONTRADICT, or else use language PALPABLY
INCOMPATIBLE WITH, the doctrine of a Purgatory. {28a}
3. When this doctrine began to creep into the Church, the individuals,
who started it, could not agree among themselves, either as to _its
nature_, or as to _its certainty_, or as to _its chronological location_:
and, what is sufficiently whimsical, not one among them agreed with the
present Church of Rome. {28b}
Now, if the doctrine of a Purgatory had been _uniformly_ and
_universally_ and _constantly_ held in the Church Catholic from the very
beginning, as the Romish Clergy would persuade us: it is quite clear,
that this curious discrepance could never have occurred.
4. At _present_, the members of the Latin Church pray for the dead,
_with the avowed object that their souls may be delivered from
Purgatory_: but, when prayers for the dead _first_ came into use, those
prayers were offered up _with no such purpose and intention_.
Let it be known and observed (for many are ignorant of the circumstance):
that, at the commencement of the practice, supplication was made, not
_that souls might be delivered from Purgatory_, but _that they might be
partakers of the first resurrection_: {28c} and the notion itself
evidently originated from a gratuitous interpretation of a well known
obscure text in the Apocalypse. {29a}
5. The unauthorised practice of praying for the dead, under _any_
aspect, being thus plainly a mere innovation upon the primitive
simplicity of the Gospel; its utility, as we learn from Cyril of
Jerusalem, was questioned by MANY, even so late as the middle of the
fourth century. Finding not a vestige of the thing in the whole Bible,
and naturally judging that we can know nothing about the matter save from
a distinct revelation, they very sensibly asked: _How is the soul
benefited by any such mention of it_, _whether it depart from this world
with sin or without sin_? {29b}
It were well, if the Romish Clergy, when they boast of the immutability
of their doctrine and practice, would account of these odd variations.
IV. Meanwhile, let the sober inquirer judge for himself, whether there
be even a shadow for the idle plea: that the doctrine of Purgatory is
revealed in the Bible, and that it was maintained from the beginning by
all the early Fathers.