[41b] Phil. i. 23.
[42] Phil. i. 21.
[44] Psalm xxiii. 4.
[47] “Si quis post acceptam justificationis gratiam, cuilibet peccatori pænitenti ita culpam remitti, ut reatum æternæ pœnæ deleri dixerit, ut nullus remaneat reatus pænæ temporalis exsolvendæ vel in hoc Sœculo, vel in futuro in Purgatorio, antequam ad regna cælorum aditus patere possit; anathema sit.”—Trent Sess. vi. Can. 30.
I never could understand how the Church of Rome reconciles this decree with its doctrine of extreme unction. The Council of Trent decrees, Sess. xiv., Extreme Unction, Chap. 2, “The matter of the Sacrament is the grace of the Holy Spirit, whose unction blots out all such offences, and remains of sin, as still require expiation.” “Cujus unctio delicta, si quæ sint adhuc expianda, ac peccati reliquias abstergit.” If this be true, what sins remain for expiation in purgatory? What can be the use of masses for the dead? Surely the priests of the Church of Rome cannot believe their own decree; for if they did, it would be nothing short of robbery to receive fees for extricating souls from purgatory. They are already free through extreme unction.
[49] How miserable is the confidence of a poor dying Roman Catholic! He trembles at the thought of purgatorial fire, and leaves money to the priest that masses may be said for his release. If the priest happen to forget him, in purgatory he must remain. Nay, more! If the masses are offered they may be worthless, for the Church of Rome declares the intention of the priest to be necessary to a sacrament. Trent, Sess. vii., Can. 11. “If any man shall say that the intention of doing that which the church does is not required in ministers while they perform and confer the sacrament, let him be accursed.” The priest, therefore, may perform all the masses, and get all the money, and yet if his intention happen to be wanting the poor soul would profit nothing. This places the soul in purgatory at the absolute mercy of the priest on earth. The Rev. James Page, in his “Letters to a Priest of the Church of Rome,” gives the following passage from the “Master Key of Popery,” written by D. Antonio Gavin, in which he, who was himself a priest, gives an extract from the private confession of a priest, being at the point of death, in 1710. “The necessary intention of a priest, in the administration of baptism and consecration, without which the sacraments are of none effect, I confess I had it not several times, as you shall see in the parish books; and observe there, that all those marked with a star, the baptism was not valid, for I had no intention; and for this I can give no other reason than my malice and wickedness; many of them are dead, for which I am heartily sorry. As for the times I have consecrated without intention, we must leave it to God Almighty’s mercy for the wrong done by it to the souls of my parishioners, and those in purgatory cannot be helped.” Oh! that we could persuade our poor Roman Catholic brethren to trust at once to the great High Priest, who blotteth out all sin by his own most precious blood!
[52] Mal. ii. 2.
[53a] Psalm lxix. 22.
[53b] Sess. xiii. De Eucharistia, Section 4, “Sancta hæc synodus declarat per consecrationem panis et vini conversionem fieri totius substantiæ panis in substantiam corporis Christi Domini nostri, et totius substantiæ vini in substantiam sanguinis ejus.”
[53c] Catm. Part ii. De Eucharistia, Sec. 32, “A pastoribus explicandum est non solum verum Christi corpus, et quidquid ad veram corporis rationem pertinet, velut ossa et nervos, sed etiam totum Christum in hoc sacramento contineri.”