Wesley Corpus

xiv. 12.) If there be no comparison betwixt the reward and our sufferings for it, then no one has merit to transfer to another; and if every man must give an account of himself, then no man can be saved by the merits of another. But suppose there is a superabundance of satisfactions in the saints; yet what need “Hail Mary ! full of grace : The Lord be with thee, thy grace with me ! Blessed be thou among women; and blessed be St. Ann thy mother, from whom, O Virgin Mary, thou hast proceeded without sin and spot; but of thee hath Jesus Christ been born, the Son of the living God. Amen.” Thesaur. War. Exercit. in Grat. Sodal. B. V. M. Bruxel. Edit. 2 An. 1658, p. 287. * “That supererogation is necessary to indulgence, no one can deny,” saith Bellarm. de Indulg. l. 1, c. 2, init. + So Pope Clem. VI., Constit. Extrav. in Bellarm. ibid. sec. ult, is there of them, when there is such an infinite value in the sufferings of Christ, who “by one offering hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified;” (Heb. x. 14;) or who gave the Church the power so to apply them? Q. 20. Whither do the souls of those go that die in a state of grace, but are not sufficiently purged from their sins, or have not had a plenary indulgence for the remission of them? A. Such go to purgatory, a place of torment in the other world, near to hell, (Bellarm. de Purg., l. 2, c. 6, sec. Quinta est,) where they are to continue till they have made full satisfaction for their sins, and are throughly purged and prepared for heaven, whereinto no unclean thing can enter. (Catech. Rom., par. 1, c. 6, n. 3.) Q. 21. How come those persons to be punished in the other world, who depart in a state of grace out of this ? A. Because they have not here fulfilled the penance imposed upon them, or due from them to God. (Bellarm. de Indulg, l. 1, c. 6, 7.) See Quest. 19. REPLY. That those that die in a state of grace are yet in a state of torment, and are to be purged in the other world, is contrary to Scripture and antiquity.