Hey on Article XXII: Of Purgatory

John Hey, 1796

Commentaries on Article XXII: Rogers (1607)Ellis (1660)Burnet (1699)Beveridge (d. 1708)Welchman (1713)Practical Exposition (1716)Veneer (1725)Madan (1772)Hey (1796)Tomline (1799)Wilson (1821)Jones (1849)Trollope (1850)Browne (1850)Forbes (1867)Boultbee (1871)Maclear & Williams (1895)Green (1896)Gibson (1896)Jackson (1900)Bicknell (1919) · Article 22: text, context and Study

Article XXII. Of Purgatory
The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping, and Adoration, as well of Images as of Reliques, and also invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.
Text: Book of Common Prayer (1662)

Cleaned OCR; [...] marks passages cut for illegibility. See the scan. Text: Lectures in Divinity, delivered in the University of Cambridge, by John Hey, Norrisian Professor, Book IV (on the Thirty-nine Articles), vols 2–4 (Cambridge, 1796–98). Cleaned OCR from the Internet Archive scans of the Eighteenth Century Collections copies; passages too garbled to recover are marked [...]. Public domain.

I, Although this Article is intitled, Of Pur- gatory,” it contains several other subjects. We will make some ///fforical remarks on them in the order in which they occur; but it may be ob- served of every one of them, that it began in a time of Superstition ; that it became popular be- cause it flattered or interested mens feelings and imaginations; that 1t got fixed in the dark ages; that it became lucrative to the sacred orders, or advanced their power; and therefore, as well as because it had become associated with religious principles and sentiments, at the revival of learn-

ing, it was not given up.

With regard to Purgalory in particular, though it may not be founded in either reason or scripture, it is not unnatural: who can bear the thought of dwelling in everlasting torments* ? yet who can say, that a just God will not inflict them?

the

2 If, xxxiii. 14.

112 BOOK IV. ART. XXII. SECT, 11.

the mind of man seeks some resource; it finds one only in conceiving that some temporary pu- nishment after death, may purify the soul from its moral pollutions, and make 1t at last accept- able even to a Deity perfectly pure. Hence the notion of the soul’s !ran/mipration ; and hence it is, that the Epic* Poets represent departed Spirits as uttering complaints at the continuance of their sufferings. —Yet some make a difference between men profesledly wicked, and such as only are com- passed about with ifirmities; the wicked they give up to punishment eteraal; but the weak they hope may be made perfect by temporary sufferings ; or, in other words, they conceive, that those who have committed mortal fins, and not repented of them, will be punished for ever in Hell; but that those who have committed only*® verial sins, will only suffer for a time in Purgatory.—We have already * mentioned the last Article of 1552 concerning the final salvation of all men; containing Dr. Hariley’s doctrine; and that of Origen : but that relates to all kinds of fins, and to a termination of all kinds of punishment.

Some have fixed upon the element of Fire as the instrument by which men were to be purified from their venial fins. That element was little understood, and is exceedingly powerful; which is

enough

d Homer, Virgil, mentioned by Burnet, who also mentions a platonic notion to the purpose; but he refers to no passage. — Forbes, 13. 2, refers to Plato, Cicero, Virgil, &c. but not to Homer, that I see.

4 Art. xV III. Sec. v.

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