Chapter III · 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.