DR. JOHNSON ON PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD.
BOSWELL. What do you, think, sir, of Purgatory, as believed by the
Roman Catholics?
JOHNSON. Why, sir, it is a very harmless doctrine. They are of opinion that the generality of mankind are neither so obstinately wicked as to deserve everlasting punishment, nor so good as to merit being admitted into the society of blessed spirits; and therefore that God is graciously pleased to allow of a middle state, where they may be purified by certain degrees of suffering. You see, sir, that there is nothing unreasonable in this.
BOSWELL. But then, sir, their Masses for the dead?
JOHNSON. Why, sir, if it be once established that there are souls in Purgatory, it is as proper to pray for them as for our brethren of mankind who are yet in this life.
BOSWELL. The idolatry of the Mass?
JOHNSON. Sir, there is no idolatry in the Mass. They believe God to be there, and they adore Him.
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BOSWELL. We see in Scripture that Dives still retained an anxious concern about his brethren?
JOHNSON. Why, sir, we must either suppose that passage to be metaphorical, or hold with many divines, and all purgatorians, that departed souls do not all at once arrive at the utmost perfection of which they are capable.
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BOSWELL. Do you think, sir, it is wrong in a man who holds the doctrine of Purgatory to pray for the souls of his deceased friends?
JOHNSON. Why, no, sir.
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He states, that he spent March 22, 1753, in prayers and tears in the morning; and in the evening prayed for the soul of his deceased wife, "conditionally, if it be lawful." The following is his customary prayer for his dead wife: "And, O Lord, so far as it may be lawful in me, I commend to Thy fatherly goodness the soul of my departed wife; beseeching Thee to grant her whatever is best in her present state, and finally to receive her into eternal happiness."—Boswell's "Life of Johnson," Pages 169, 188.