learning, and eloquence, writes in these terms on this subject:"A Christian is either purified in this life by prayer, and an application to true wisdom; or after his death, by the furnace of a purifying fire1." Many other passages of the same import are found in the progress of the same discourse. To the same effect, the great St. Augustine, speaking of infants who die after baptism, says, "that so far from feeling eternal pains, they do not suffer any purgative torments." (Purgatoria tormenta.) In the same work, speaking of those who die under the guilt of minor transgressions, he asserts, that “at the period of the general resurrection, some will find mercy, and will not be consigned to eternal torments, after the penalties, which the spirits of the dead, are actually suffering." Can a man, possessed of the smallest share of candour, affirm, in the face of these decisive testimonies, that the primitive church did not admit the fire of purgatory? Let the catechist give the answer. 9. Again his appeal to the Greek church is unsuccessful. The testimony of St. Gregory of Nyssa is decisive as to the belief of the ancient Greek church. The declaration of the Greeks in the Council of Florence, demonstrates their religious sentiments after the schism; and the manner in which the question was settled, implies : 'St. Greg. Nyssen. Orat. pro Mort. vide hunc loc. ap. Bellarm. de Purgat, lib. i. c. 6. 2 St. Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. xxi. c. 16. 3 Lib. xxi. 24. that no real difficulty existed'. The sentiments of the more modern Greeks may be collected from the learned work before referred to2. I cannot however resist the temptation of going farther than a mere reference, and of transcribing a most forcible testimony, from the attestation of the patriarch of the Cophs, whose jurisdiction extends to Egypt, to Ethiopia, to Nubia, and to the principal part of the continent of Africa. His words on this point are", "we acknowledge, that when we die, and are then under the guilt of certain transgressions, we are conveyed to purgatory: from which we are delivered by the prayers and masses said both before and after death, and the particular supplications for the dead, which have been at all times used." After this, let the catechist talk of novelty just as much as he pleases, but to those only, whose ignorance, or whose patience, can endure the recital. 10. In this number a clear acknowledgment is made, that the primitive Church prayed for the dead; but then it is added, that they prayed not for those in the state of suffering. This additional clause is opposed to the testimony of St. Augustine, before referred to, but which I shall now transcribe at length in his own language. "Orationibus vero sanctæ ecclesiæ, et sacrificio 1 See Baron, ad Ann. 1439, tom. vii. p. 864, et seq. pp. 410-587. Ibid. vers. fin. salutari, et eleemosynis, quæ pro eorum spiritibus erogantur, non est dubitandum mortuos adjuvari, ut cum eis misericordius agatur a Domino, quam eorum peccata meruerunt. Hoc enim a patribus traditum universa observat Ecclesia, ut pro eis, qui in corporis et sanguinis Christi communione defuncti sunt, cum ad ipsum sacrificium loco suo commemoratur, oretur, ac pro illis quoque id offerri commemoretur1." This passage, which I beg to recommend to the most serious attention of the English reader, for whose benefit I subjoin a translation, will prove, what degree of credit is due to the statements of the catechist. "It cannot be made a subject of doubt, that the dead are benefited by the prayers of the holy church, and by the salutary sacrifice, and the alms, which are bestowed for the repose of their souls; and that in consequence, they are treated by the Lord with more mercy than their sins have deserved. This custom, which is derived from our fathers, is observed by the universal church, of praying in the commemorative part of the sacrifice, for those who have departed in the communion of the body and blood of Christ, and of testifying that the offering is also made in their behalf." After this noble testimony of the great St. Augustine, who, it must be remembered, died in the year 430, in the seventy-sixth 'St. Aug. Serm. de verb. Apost. ol. 39, edit. vero Ben. 172. year of his age, and the fortieth of his sacred winistry, the charge of novelty, and of a deviation from the practice of the Primitive Church will probably be abandoned for ever. K QUESTION XII. Why do not you invocate and worship, or pray to the Virgin Mary, and the saints departed? ANSWER. 1. Because the word of God is directly against it; for it saith, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve, Matt. iv. 10. 2. It is absurd and irrational to worship men and women, who are not present to receive our worship; or to speak to beings, when we neither are nor can be sure that they hear 3. Prayer is a spiritual sacrifice, and therefore must be offered to God only. External sacrifice, offered to creatures, by the confession of the Papists themselves, would be idolatry, and therefore much more a spiritual sacrifice, as it is much nobler, and of greater consequence than the other. 4. This invocation of saints is an innovation, for there is no example of it for the first three hundred years after Christ. 5. We are expressly commanded to come directly to God in prayer through our only mediator Jesus Christ, Psalm i. 15, 1 Tim. ii. 5, and to invocate saints departed to intercede for us, is to disobey his command. 6. It is a great dishonour to God, to beg that of saints which God only can give; for this is to ascribe to them divine power: such is their prayer in the office of the blessed Virgin Mary: "Mother of mercy, protect us from the enemy, and receive us in the hour of death.” 7. The excuse they make that they pray only to saints to pray for them; even this is injurious to the mediation of Jesus Christ; for this is to make innumerable mediators, and tacitly to accuse his mediation of imperfection, who is our only mediator, not only of redemption, but of intercession too. 4 |