ner, wno has not incurred eternal punishment, is qualified for the enjoyment of God's glory. 1 pass over two or three other passages, that might be brought favour of purgatory, upon one of which I shall probably nave to comment a little later. All these texts, you will say, are, after all, obscure, and do not lead to any certain results. True; but we have enough said in them to guide us to some striking probabilities; these require further elucidation, and wnere shall we look for it, but in the Church, especially in ancient times? Take, as a similar instance, the Sacrament of Baptism, as now practised in the Church. The Apostles were simply told to baptise all nations; but how do you prove from this that baptism is to be administered to infants? And yet the English Church articles prescribe infant baptism. Or whence comes the warrant for departing from the literal meaning of the word, which means immersion, and the adoption of mere affusion or sprinkling of the water? There may have been infants in the families or houses spoken of as baptised—probably so; but this is only conjecture. and not proof; surelv not enough to base an important practice on, which, without better authority, should seem to contradict our Saviour's command, that faith should precede or accompany baptism." He that believeth, and is baptised, shall be saved." For in a positive institution, wholly depending on the will of the legislator, positive authority is requisite for any modification of the prescribed act. Where is the security for these modifications, if not in the explanation of the Church, conveyed to us by her ancient practices? And thus in like manner, if there be not clearly mentioned in Scripture a place of purgation, but still if we find forgiveness of sins in the next world spoken of,-if find that prayers are beneficial for those that have died,—that nothing defiled can enter the kingdom of Heaven,-and that it is incompatible with God's justice, that every sin should consign the offender to eternal punishment,—we have the germs of a doctrine which only require to be unfolded; we have the members and component parts of a complete system, which, as in baptism, we require only further explanation and combination from the Church of God. Now, nothing can be more simple than to establish the belief of the Universal Church on this point. The only difficulty is to select such passages as may appear the clearest. I will begin with the very oldest Father of the Latin Church, Tertullian, who advises a widow "to pray for the soul of her departed husband, entreating repose to him, and participation in the first resurrection, and making oblations for him on the anniversary day of his death, which, if she neglect, it may be truly said that she has divorced her husband."* To make a oblation on the anniversary day of his death; to pray that he may have rest,-is not this more like our language and practice, than those of any other religion in England? And does not Tertullian suppose that good is done to the faithful departed, by such prayer? And moreover, does he not prescribe it as a solemn duty, rather than recommend it as a lawful practice? St Cyprian thus writes:-"Our predecessors prudently advised, that no brother, departing this life, should nominate any churchman his executor; and should he do it, that no oblation should be made for him, nor sacrifice offered for his repose; of which we have had a late example, when no oblation was made, nor prayer, in his name, offered in the Church.”† It was considered, therefore, a severe punishment, that prayers and sacrifices should not be offered up for those who had violated any of the ecclesiastical laws. There are many other passages in this father; but I proceed to Origen, who wrote in the same century; and than whom no one can be clearer regarding this doctrine:-" When we depart this life, if we take with us virtues or vices, shall we receive reward for our virtues, and shall those trespasses be forgiven to us which we knowingly committed; or shall we be punished for our faults, and not receive the reward of our virtues?" That is, if there be in our account a mixture of good and evil, shall we be rewarded for the good without any account being taken of the evil, or punished for the evil without the good being taken into cont Ep. xlvi. p. 114. * De Monogamia, c. 10. sideration? This query he thus answers:-" Neither is true: because we shall suffer for our sins, and receive the rewards of our good actions. For if on the foundation of Christ you shall have built not only gold and silver and precious stones, but also wood, and hay, and stubble, what do you expect, when the soul shall be separated from the body? Would you enter into Heaven with your wood, and hay, and stubble, to defile the kingdom of God: or, on account of those encumbrances, remain without, and receive no reward for your gold and silver and precious stones? Neither is this just. It remains then, that you be committed to the fire, which shall consume the light materials; for our God, to those who can comprehend heavenly things, is called a consuming fire. But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the creature has himself built, wood, and hay, and stubble. It is manifest that, in the first place, the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions, and then returns to us the reward of our good works.”* Therefore, according to this most learned Father, (200 years after Christ,) when the soul is separated from the body, if there be smaller transgressions, it is condemned to fire, which purges away those lighter materials, and thus prepares the soul for entering into Heaven. St Basil, or a contemporary author, writing on the words of Isaiah, "Through the wrath of the Lord is the land burned," says, that "the things which are earthly shall be made the food of a punishing fire; to the end that the soul may receive favour and be benefited." He then proceeds,"And the people shall be as the fuel of the fire (Ibid.): This is not a threat of extermination; but it denotes expurgation, according to the expression of the Apostle: If any man's works burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. (1 Cor. iii. 15.)"† Now, mark well the word purgation here used. For it proves that our very term purgatory is not modern in the Church. St Ephrem of Edessa writes * Homil. xvi. al. xii. in Jerem. T. iii, p. 231. 232. thus in his Testament:-"My brethren, come to me, and prepare me for my departure, for my strength is wholly gone. Go along with me in psalms and in your prayers: and please constantly to make oblations for me. When the thirtieth day shall be completed, then remember me: for the dead are helped by the offerings of the living:"-the very day observed by the Catholic Church with peculiar solemnity, in praying and offering mass for the dead." If also the sons of Mathathias" (he alludes to the very passage which I quoted from Maccabees, 2 Maccab. xii.) "who celebrated their feasts in figure only could cleanse those from guilt by their offerings who fell in battle, how much more shall the priests of Christ aid the dead by their oblations and prayer ?"* In the same century, St Cyril of Jerusalem thus expresses himself: Then (in the liturgy of the Church) we pray for the holy Fathers and the Bishops that are dead; and, in short, for all those who are departed this life in our communion; believing that the souls of those, for whom the prayers are offered, receive very great relief while this holy and tremendous victim lies upon the altar." St Gregory of Nyssa thus contrasts the course of God's providence in this world with that in the next. In the present life, "God allows man to remain subject to what himself has chosen; that, having tasted of the evil which he desired, and learned by experience how bad an exchange has been made, he might again feel an ardent wish to lay down the load of those vices and inclinations, which are contrary to reason: and thus, in this life, being renovated by prayers and the pursuit of wisdom, or, in the next, being expiated by the purging fire, he might recover the state of happiness which he had lost... When he has quitted his body, and the difference between virtue and vice is known, he cannot be admitted to approach the Divinity till the purging fire shall have expiated the stains, with which his soul was infected.— That same fire, in others, will cancel the corruption of matter * In Testament. T. ii. p. 234, p. 371. Edit. Oxon. and the propensity to evil."* St Ambrose, throughout his works, has innumerable passages on this subject, and quotes St Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (iii. 15), which you have heard already cited by our Fathers,-"If any man's works burn, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." I will quote one passage out of many:-" But he shall be saved, yet so as by fire. He will be saved, the Apostle said, because his substance shall remain, while his bad doctrine shall perish. Therefore he said, yet so as by fire; in order that his salvation be not understood to be without pain. He shows, that he shall be saved indeed, but he shall undergo the pain of fire, and be thus purified; not like the unbelieving and wicked man who shall be punished in everlasting fire." And in his funeral oration on the Emperor Theodosius, he thus speaks:-" Lately we deplored together his death, and now, while Prince Honorius is present before our altars, we celebrate the fortieth day. Some observe the third and the thirtieth, others the seventh and the fortieth.— Give, O Lord, rest to thy servant Theodosius, that rest which thou hast prepared for thy Saints. May his soul thither tend, whence it came, where it cannot feel the sting of death, where it will learn, that death is the termination, not of nature, but of sin. I loved him, therefore will I follow him to the land of the living; I will not leave him, till, by my prayers and lamentation, he shall be admitted to the holy mount of the Lord, to which his deserts call him.”‡ St Epiphanius, in the same century:-"There is nothing more opportune, nothing more to be admired, than the rite which directs the names of the dead to be mentioned. They are aided by the prayer that is offered for them; though it may not cancel all their faults.—We mention both the just and sinners, in order that for the latter we may obtain mercy."§ St Jerome:-"As we believe the torments of the devil, and of those wicked men, who said in their hearts, there is no *Orat. de Defunctis. T. ii. p. 1066, 1067, 1068. † Comment. in 1 Ep. ad. Cor. T. ii. in App. p. 122 |