11. Finally, when David's heart smote him, after he had num bered the people, the Lord, in pardoning him, offered him by his prophet, Gal, the choice of three temporal punishments, war faire, and pestilence. Ibid. xxiv. III. The Catholic church tea hes that the same is still the common course of God's mercy and wisdom, in the forgiveness of sins committed after baptism sine she has formally condemned the proposition, that “ every penitent sinner, who, after the grace of Justification, obtains the emission of his guilt and eternal punishment, is also the remission of all temporal punishment."" The essential guilt and eternal punishment of sin, she declares, can only be expated by the precious merits of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ; but a certain temporal punishment God reserves for the penitent Lin self to endure, "lest the easiness of his pardon should make him careless about falling back into sin." llence satisfaction for this temporal punishment has been instituted by Chris: as a par: of the sacrament of penance; and hence "a Christian life," as the council has said above," ought to be a penitential life.” This council at the same time, declares, that this very sacifiction for temporal punishment is only efficacious through Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, as the promise of Christ to the apostles, and St. Peter in particular, and to their successors, is unlimited: WHATSOEVER you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven, Mat. xviii. 18-xvi. 19; hence the church believes and teaches that her jurisdiction extends to this very satisfaction, so as to be able to remit it wholly or partially, in certain circ an stances, by what is called an INDULGENCE.§ St Paul exercised this power in behalf of the incestuous Corinthian, at his Conversion and the prayers of the faithful. 2 Cor. ii. 10; ant the church has claimed and exercised the same power ever since the time of the apostles down to the present.||| V. Still this power, like that of absolution, is not arbitrary; there must be a just cause for the exercise of it, namely, the greater good of the per: ent, or of the faithful, or of Christer dom in general; and the must be a certain proportion between the punishment remited and the good work performed. Hence no one can ever be sure that he has gained the entire benefit of an indulgence, though he has performed all the conditions appointed for this end :** and hence, of course, the pastors of the church will have

་

* Conc. Trid. Sess. vi. can. 30.

+9ess. vi. cap. 7 cap. 11. Sess. xiv. cap. 8.

t Fess. xiv. 8.

Trid. fie s. XXI. ↑ Tertul. in Lib.

A wyr. &c.

De Indulg.

! Martyr. c. i. S. Cypr 1 3. Epist. C Leil. i Na Bellarm. Lib. i. De Indulg. c. 12.

** fbid.

o answer for it, if they take upon themselves to gran indulgen ces for unworthy or insufficient purposes. VI. Lastly, it is the received doctrine of the church that an indulgence, when truly gained, is not barely a relaxation of the canonical penance e joined by the church, but also an actual remisson by God of the whole or part of the temporal punishment due to it in his sight The contrary opinion, though held by some theologians, has been condemned by Leo X,* and Pius VI :† and indeed, without the effect here mentioned, indulgences would not be heavenly treasures, and the use of them would not be beneficial, but rather pernicious to Christians, contrary to two declarations of the last general council, as Bellarmin well argues.‡

The above explanation of an indulgence, conformably to the doctrine of Theologians, the decrees of Popes, and the defintions of Councils, ought to silence the objections and suppress the sarcasms of Protestants a this head: but if it be not suffi cient for such purposes, I would gladly argue a few points with them concerning their own indulgences. Methinks, Rev. sir, I see you start at the mention of this, and hear you ask, what Protestants hold the doctrine of indulgences?-1 answer you; all the leading sects of them, with which I am acquainted. To begin with the church of England: one of the first articles I meet with in its canons, regards indulgences and the use that is to be made of the money paid for them."§ In the synod of 1640, a canon was made which authorized the employment of commutation money, namely, of such sums as were paid for indulgences from ecclesiastical penances, not only in charitable, but also in public uses. At this period the established clergy were de

*Art. 19. inter Art. Damn. Lutheri. + Const. Auctor. Fid

L. i. c. 7, prop. 4

§"Ne quæ fiat posthac solemnis penitentiæ commutatio nisi rationibus, gravioribus que de causis, &c. Deinde quod mulcta illa pecuniaria vel in rele vam pauperum, vel in alios pios usus erogetur." Articuli pro Clero, A. D. 1554, Sparrow, p. 194. The next article is, "De moderandis quibusdam indulgentiis pro celebratione matrimonii," &c. p. 195. These indulgences were renewed, under the same titles, in the Synod held in London in 1597. Sparrow, pp. 248. 252.

That no Chancellor, Commissary or Official, shall have power to commute any penance, in whole or in part; but either, together with the bishop, &c that he shall give a full and just account of such commutations, to the bishop, who shall see that all such moneys shall be disposed of for charitable and public uses, according to law-saving always to ecclesiasti cal office their due and accustomable fees." Canon 14, Sparrow, p. 368In the s strance of grievances presented by a committee of the Irish parlias to Charles 1, one of them was, that " Several bishops received great sums of money for commutation of penance (that is for indulgences) which they converted to their own use." Commons Journ. quoted by Curry, Vol. i. p. 169.

o ng all the money they could any way procure to the wat which Charles I. was preparing in defence of the church and state against the Presbyterians of Scotland and England: sc that, in fact, the money then raised by indulgences was employed in a real crusade. It has been before stated that the second offspring of Protestant m, the Anabaptists, claimed an induigence from God hinself, in quality of his chosen ones, to despoi! the impious, namely, all the rest of mankind, of their property: while the genuine Calvinists, of all times, have ever maintained hat Christ has set them free from the observance of every law

:

of God as well as of man. Agreeably to this tenet, sir Richard Hill says, "It is a most pernicious error of the schoolmen to distinguish sins according to the fact, and not according to the person." With respect to patriarch Luther, it is notorious that he was in the habit of granting indulgences, of various kinds, to himself and his disciples. Thus, for example, he dispensed with himself and Catharine Boren from their vows of a religious life, and particularly that of celibacy and even preached up adultery in his public sermons.† In like manner he published Bulls, authorizing the robbery of bishops and bishoprics, and the murder of Popes and cardinals. But the most celebrated of his indulgences is that which, in conjunction with Bucer and Melancthon. he granted to Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, in consideration of the latter's protection of Protestantism, for so it is stated, to marry a second wife, his former being living But if any credit is due to this same Bucer, who, for his learning. was invited by Cranmer and the duke of Somerset into England, and made the divinity professor of Cambridge, the whole business of the pretended Reformation was an indulgence of libertinism. His words are these: "The greater part of the people seem only to have embraced the Gospel, in order to shake off the yoke of discipline and the obligation of fasting, penance &c. which lay upon them in Popery, and to live at their pleasure, enjoying their lusts and lawless appetites, without controul. Hence they lent a willing ear to the doctrine that we are saved by faith alone, and not by good works, having no relish for them." I am, &c. J. M

Fletcher's Checks, vol. iii.

"Si nolit Domina, veniat ancilla, &c." Serm. De Matrim. t. v. This infamous indulgence, with the deeds belonging to it, was pub tished from the original by permission of a descendant of the Landgrave and republished by Bossuet. Variat. book vi

Bucer, De Regn. Chris 1. i c. 4

283

REV. SIR.

LETTER XLIII.

To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A.

ON PURGATORY AND PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD.

In the natural order of our controversies, this is the proper place to reat of purgatory and prayers for the dead. On this subject, bishop Porteus begins with saying, "There is no Scripture proof of the existence of purgatory: heaven and hell we read of perpetually in the Bible; but purgatory we never meet with though surely, if there be such a place, Christ and his apostles would not have concealed it from us.' I might expose the inconclusiveness of this argument by the following parallel one; the Scripture nowhere commands us to keep the first day of the week holy we perpetually read of sanctifying the Sabbath, or Saturday; but never meet with the Sunday, as a day of obligation; though, if there be such an obligation, Christ and his apostles would not have concealed it from us! I might likewise answer, with the bishop of Lincoln, that the inspired Epistles (and I may add the Gospels also) are not to be considered as regular treatises upon the Christian religion." But I meet the objection in front, by saying, first, that the apostles did teach their converts the doctrine of purgatory, among their other doctrines, as St. Chrysostom testifies, and the traditon of the church proves secondly, that the same is demonstratively evinced from both the Old and the New Testament.

66

To begin with the Old Testament; I claim a right of considering the two first Books of Machabees as an integral part of them; because the Catholic church so considers them,‡ from whose tradition, and not from that of the Jews, as St. Austin signifies, our sacred canon is to be formed. Now in the second of these books, it is related that the pious general, Judas Machabeus, sent twelve thousand drachmas to Jerusalem for sacrifices, to be offered for his soldiers, slain in battle, after which narration, the inspired writer concludes thus: It is therefore a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may loosed from their sins. 2 Mac. xii. 46. I need not point out the inseparable connexion there is between the practice of praying for the dead and the belief of an intermediate state of souls, ince it is evidently needless to pray for the saints in heaven

Conint. p. 48.

↑ Elem. of Theol. vol. i. p. 277. Concil. Cartag ii. St. Cyp. St. Aug Innoe I Geias, e

§ Lib. 19. De Civ Dei.

be

pray for the reprobate in hell.

as

and useless Bu, even Protestants, who do not receive the Books of Machabees, as canonical Scripture, venerate them as authentic and holy records : such, then, they bear conclusive testimony of the belief of God's people, on this head, one hundred and fifty years before Christ. That the Jews were in the habit of practising some religious rites for the relief of the departed, at the beginning of Christi anity, is clear from St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, who mentions them, without any censure of them;* and that this people continue to pray for their deceased brethern, at the present time, may be learned from any living Jew.

To come now to the New Testament: what place, I ask, musi that be, which our Saviour calls Abraham's bosom, where the soul of Lazarus reposed, Luke xvi. 22, among the other just souls, till he by his sacred passion paid their ransom? Not heaven, otherwise Dives would have addressed himself to God instead of Abraham; but evidently a middle state, as St. Austin teaches. Again, of what place is it that St. Peter speaks, where he says, Christ died for our sins; being put to death in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit; in which also coming, he preached to those spirits that were in prison. 1 Pet. iii. 19. It is evidently the same which is mentioned in the apostles' creed : He descended into hell: not the hell of the damned, to suffer their torments, as the blasphemer, Calvin, asserts, but the prison above-mentioned, or Abraham's bosom, in short, a middle state. It is of this prison, according to the holy fathers, our blessed Master speaks, where he says, I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite. Luke xii 59. Lastly, what other sense can that passage of St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians bear, than that which the holy fathers affix to it. where the apostle says, The day of the Lord shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work be burnt, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. 1 Cor. iii. 13, 15. The prelate's diversified attempts to explain away these Scriptural proofs of purgatory, are really too feeble and inconsistent

* Else what shall they do who are baptized for the not at all? Why are they then baptized for them? + De Civit. Dei, 1. xv c. 20.

dead, if the dead rise 1 Cor. xv. 29. Instit 1. ii. c. 16.

Tertul. St. Cypr. Origen, St Ambrose, St. Jerom, &c. Origen, Hom 14 in Levit. &c. St Ambrose in Ps. 118. St. Jerom 1. 2. contra Jovin St Aug. in Ps. 37, where he prays thus: "Purify me, ↑ Lord, in this life, that I may not need the chastising fire of those who w saved, yet so as by fire'

"