vention of purgatory with the primitive custom of praying for the dead, it is not in communion with her that any can seek comfort from this rite." * The early Christians prayed for the souls of Apostles and martyrs, whom they assuredly believed were already in heaven. It was not, therefore, for any alleviation of their suf- ferings, as Dr. Pusey argues, that such prayers were offered, but for the augmentation of their happiness, and the consummation of their blessedness at the last day.
3. The argument of most logical force to those who believe the premises whence it is derived, is drawn from the doctrine of satis- faction. The Romish doctrine on this subject includes the follow- ing principles : " (1.) That God, after the remission of sin, retains a lesser chastisement in his power, to be inflicted on the sinner. (2.) That penitential works, fasting, alms-deeds, contrite weep- ing, and fervent prayer, have the power of averting that pun- ishment. (3.) That this scheme of God's justice was not a part of the imperfect law, but the unvarying ordinance of his dispensa- tion, anterior to the Mosaic ritual, and amply confirmed by Christ in the gospel. (4.) That it consequently becomes a part of all true repentance to try to satisfy this divine justice by the vol- untary assumption of such penitential works as his revealed truth assures have efficacy before Him." 2 In connection with this is to be taken the doctrine of indulgences. This doctrine, we are told, rests on the following grounds : (1.) " That satisfaction has to be made to God for sin remitted, under the authority and regulation of the Church. (2.) That the Church has always considered herself possessed of the authority to mitigate, by diminution or commutation, the penance which she enjoins ; and she has always reckoned such a mitigation valid before God, who sanctions and accepts it. (3.) That the sufferings of the saints, in union with, and by virtue of Christ's merits, are considered available towards the granting this mitigation. (4.) That such mitigations, when
1 An earnest Remonstrance to the author of the "Pope's Pastoral Letter to certain Members of the University of Oxford," London, 1836, p. 25. The Hon. Archibald Campbell, whose work is quoted above, says that all the authorities to which he refers from among the English Bishops and theologians, side with him in defending prayers for the dead and in denouncing purgatory.
2 Wiseman, ut supra, vol. ii. p. 40. It will be observed that the Cardinal, in detailing the kind of satisfaction to be made, mentions fasting, alms-giving, and prayer, but says noth- ing of scourgings, hair shirts, spiked girdles, and all other means of self-torture so common and so applauded in the Romish Church. In this way he softens down and understates all " Catholic Doctrines and Practices," to render them less revolting to the reason and con- science of his readers. Purgatory with him is a bed of roses with here and there a thorn, instead of the lake of real fire and brimstone which glares through all Church history.
vol. m. 48
754 PART IV. Ch. L — STATE OF SOUL AFTER DEATH.
prudently and justly granted, are conducive toward the spiritual weal and profit of Christians." 1
We have thus a broad foundation laid for the whole doctrine of purgatory. God in the forgiveness of sin remits only the pen- alty of eternal death. There remain temporal pains to be en- dured in satisfaction of divine justice. If such satisfaction be not made in this world, it must be rendered in the next. The Church has the power of regulating these satisfactions, of directing what they shall be, of mitigating or commuting them in this life, and of lessening their severity or duration in the life to come. The infinite merit of Christ, and the superfluous merits of all the saints, gained by works of supererogation, form an inexhaustible treasury, from which the Pope and his subordinates may draw at discretion for the mitigation, or plenary dispensation, of all the satisfaction due for sin in the way of penance in this life, or the pains of purgatory in the life to come. Now when it is consid- ered that the pains of purgatory are authoritatively and almost universally represented by Romanists to be intolerably severe, it will be seen that no such engine of power, no such means of subju- gating the people, or of exalting and enriching the priesthood has ever been claimed or conceded by man. Men really invested with this power, of necessity, and of right, are the absolute masters of their fellow men ; and those who wrongfully claim it, who as- sume without possessing it, are the greatest impostors (consciously or unconsciously) and the greatest tyrants the world ever saw.
4. With Romanists themselves the greatest argument in favour of the doctrine of purgatory is tradition. They claim that it has always been held in the Church ; and in support of that claim they quote from the fathers all passages which speak of purifica- tion by fire, or of praying for the dead. They usually begin with the Second Book of Maccabees xii. 43, where it is said that Judas Maccabeus sent " 2,000 drachmas of silver to Jerusalem for sacri- fice, to be offered for the sins " of the dead. They cite Tertul- lian,2 who advised a widow to pray for her husband, and to offer oblations for him on the anniversary of his death ; Cyprian,3 who says that if a man committed a certain offence, " no oblation should be made for him, nor sacrifice offered for his repose ; " Basil, who says of Isaiah ix. 19, " The people shall be as the fuel of the fire,"
ovk a(f>avL<x jxbv cureiXiu., aXXa rr)v K(i0ap(TLV vwocfiaLvei, that is, " it does not
threaten extermination, but denotes purification ; " 4 Cyril of Je-
1 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 70. 2 De Monogamia, 10 ; Works, edit. Basle, 1562, p. 578.
« Ep. xlvi. p. 114. (?)
< In EsaicB, ix. 19; Works, edit. Paris, 1618, vol. i. p. 1039. d.