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Purgatory and Masses

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 26, 1874

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 43, No. 24.

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Purgatory and Masses.

By John Norton Loughborough

In this article we call attention to the papal doctrine of purgatory. That we may understand the views of the Romish church upon this subject, we will quote from their catechisms. Butler says in his catechism:—
“Q. Where shall they go who die in mortal sin?”
“A. To hell for all eternity.”
“Q. Where do they go who die in venial sin?”
“A. To purgatory.”
“Q. What is purgatory?”
“A. A place of punishment in the other life, where some souls suffer for a time before they can go to Heaven.”
“Q. Do any others go to purgatory besides those who die in venial sins?”
“A. Yes; all who die indebted to God’s justice on account of mortal sin.”
“Q. When God forgives mortal sin, as to the guilt, and eternal punishment it deserved, does he require temporary punishment to be suffered for it?”
“A. Yes; very often, and for our correction to deter us from relapsing into sin; and that we should make some atonement to his offended justice and goodness.”
“Q. Can the souls in purgatory be relieved by our prayers and other good works?”
“A. Yes; being children of God, and still members of the church, they share in the communion of saints.”
The above sentiments of Butler’s Catechism are directly opposite to the Scriptures in two respects: First, Paul represents the forgiven sinner, under the new covenant, as having “no more conscience of sins.” Heb. 10:2. That is, their past forgiven sins are so fully cancelled by the blood of Christ that they are as though they had never been committed. The papist has the forgiven sinner remembering his forgiven sins and doing penance for them in this life, or “suffering” in purgatory to “expiate forgiven sins.” Secondly, They have the living performing works to save their friends in purgatory, while David says that no one “can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” Ps. 49:7.
Upon this doctrine of purgatory we will now quote from Weninger’s Catechism:—
“Q. Why does God change the eternal punishment into a temporal one?”
“A. That man, as the Council of Trent teaches, may not sin wantonly.”
“Q. How can we satisfy for this temporal punishment on earth?”
“A. By patience in affliction, and by works of penance.”
“Q. How is this temporal punishment atoned for in the next world?”
“A. By the pains of purgatory.”
“Q. Shall we not be judged before the end of the world?”
“A. Yes; every one shall be judged after his death, for the apostle says: ‘It is appointed for men once to die, and after this, the Judgment.’”
“Q. How do you call this judgment?”
“A. The particular judgment.”
“Q. What follows after the particular judgment?”
“A. The reward or punishment, so that every one will go immediately to Heaven, purgatory, or hell, according to his deserts.”
“Q. What is purgatory?”
“A. A place where those who die in the state of grace expiate their venial sins, and the temporal punishments due to their forgiven mortal sins.”
In Hughes’ Catechism we read:—
“Q. What do you mean by purgatory?”
“A. By purgatory I mean a middle state of souls, suffering for a time on account of their sins.”
“Q. In what case do souls go to purgatory?”
“A. Souls go to purgatory when they die in less sins, which we call venial, or when they have not satisfied the justice of God for former transgressions.”
“Q. How do you prove there is a purgatory?”
“A. We prove there is a purgatory, because the Scripture teaches that ‘God will render to every man according to his works; and that nothing defiled can enter Heaven,’ and that some Christians ‘shall be saved yet so as by fire,’ and that it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins.”
This doctrine of purgatory is not a Bible doctrine, and their texts and fathers are not sufficient to maintain it. The text quoted above, concerning their being “saved so as by fire,” does not refer to burning up the people’s sins in purgatory, but means if a sinner in the gospel has brought into the church “wood, hay, and stubble”—unprincipled individuals, they will be lost, being burned up, and so his work in the gospel will suffer loss. The fire will try it, but that fire will “burn up the chaff.” Matt. 3.
On the doctrine of purgatory we will quote from Kirwan: “The doctrine of purgatory, you know, sir, is one of the peculiar and most cherished doctrines of your church. Indeed, I do not know how your church could get along without it. My object now is, not to reason with you about it, nor to controvert it; but to state to you a few facts in reference to it that made in early life a strong impression on my mind. You know that, in Ireland, the custom of the priests is, at a certain point in the service of the mass, to turn his back to the altar, and his face to the people, and to read a long list of the names of deceased persons whose souls are in purgatory, and to offer up a prayer for their deliverance from it. This is done, or used to be done, in the chapels on every Sabbath. To obtain the name of a deceased relative on that magic list, the priest must be paid so much a year, varying, I believe, with the ability of the friends to pay. If the yearly payment is not made when due, the name of the person is erased from the list.”
“A circumstance arising out of this custom of your church, occurring in my boyhood, is distinctly before me. A respectable man in our parish died in mid-life, leaving a widow and a large family of children to mourn their loss. True to her religious principles, and to her generous instincts, the widow had her husband’s name placed on that list, and heard, with pious gratitude, his name read over from Sabbath to Sabbath, with a prayer offered for the deliverance of his soul from purgatory. After the lapse of two or three years, on a certain Sabbath, the name of her husband was omitted from the list. The fact filled her with mingled joy and fear—joy, thinking that her husband had escaped from purgatory; and fear, lest she had done something to offend the priest. On timid inquiry, she learned that his soul was yet in purgatory, but that she had forgotten to send in the yearly tax at the time it was due. The tax was promptly paid, and the name was restored on the next Sabbath. With this fact, sir, I am entirely conversant; for that widow was my own mother, who sought the release of the soul of my father from purgatory.”
“Another fact which early impressed me in reference to purgatory was this: Your church makes a distinction between mortal and venial sinners. The former go to hell forever—the latter go to purgatory, ‘whence they are taken by the prayers and alms offered for them, and principally by the holy sacrifice of the mass.’ Now I always saw that the most mortal sinners, that everybody would say went to hell, could always have mass said for them as if they went to purgatory: provided their friends could pay; and that the less mortal sinners, that people would say went to purgatory, were sent to hell, if their friends could not pay for masses for them. And their souls were kept in purgatory for a long while when their friends paid promptly every year; but their souls were soon prayed out whose friends could not pay long for them. Facts like these, sir, very early impressed my mind, and shook my faith in the religion of my parents and my priests.”
We would ask the papist in all candor, What has the blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sins to do with those middling Christians who die, not good enough to go to Heaven, nor bad enough to go to hell, if they can be got out of purgatory by the money paid for them?
We will quote from the works of William Tyndale, who died some three hundred years since, on the then prevailing custom in England of paying to have mention made before the public congregation of friends in purgatory. If the Romish church is infallible, and never changes, this must be her sentiment still, “only more lenience is granted to those who dwell among presumed heretics.” But to the quotations. “I will that mine executrice, at the time of the delivery of the aforesaid torches, give unto every church curate or curates deputy of the aforesaid named nine parishes four pence to the end that my soul and the souls above written may be remembered in the parish bede rolle by the whole space of a year after.” Fabin’s will, in Nicholas’ Testamenta Vetusta, p. 504.
Again, “Thomas Trethwitte, Esq., in his will, dated Sept. 20, 1528, bequeaths ten shillings to the intent that his name may be put in the bede rolle, and prayed for every Sunday in the pulpit by name as the custom of the country is.” Nicholas’ Testamenta Vetusta, p. 644. Again, “Church Wardens’ account of St. Mary’s Hill, in the city of London, Annotations 17 and 19 Edward IV. ‘Pd. to the Parish Priest to remember, in the pulpit, the soul of R. Bliet, who gave six shillings and eight pence to the church works.’”
J. N. Loughborough.
(Concluded next week.)