39? s. UzO,?TOZ?. [Boos: I! "We beseech thee, Lonl, that by the intercession of blessed Leo, this oblation may be profitable to us." The following extract from Dens may satisfy the curiosity of the. inquisitive reader, respecting the foolish distinctions and immoral pre- cepts which are connected with praying for the dead in purgatory. After stating thai prayers, alms, and other good works, performed by the living in behalf of the dead, ex c/?sr/tat? facts, must zp?ng charity, he proceeds thus: "It is said; don? out of�Imrity; for if the doer be not in a state of charity, or a state of grace, his works are not properly satisfactory, nor meritorious, ex opere oi?rantis , (through merits of the performer,) nevertheless the sacrifice of the mass is pro- .mof? to the dead, although it may be offered by a priest in a state of sin: because it is effective ex opere operate, (by the very act of being offered,) independently of the merit of the priest. In like manner, suffrages made in the name of the church are always effective in the act of doing them; that is, while the priest in the church chants the funeral service of the dead, as Saint Thomas Aquinas says, Suppl. 9, 71, art. 1. In like manner in the same place Aquinas saith, that the suffrages done by a sinner may profit the dead, if the sinner does that as the instrument of him who procured or comm'tnded that these things should be done while he was alive and in a state of grace: because the work of the instrument is the work of the principal agent. But these suffrages may have effect after the manner of an impetration, satisfaction, or merit of congruity. Observe, however, that a work done for a dead person can profit the doer for the purpose of augmenting his ?mCe and roeriling eternal life, in proportion as the deed proceeds grace and charity, and thus the doer does not lose the reward of glory. Thus Saint Thomas, as cited above, art. 4. Nay, as Steyert says, God often in this life remunerates suffrages done in behalf of th? dead with some temporal good. Yet these suffrages do not avail for the doer in the way of satisfaction directly; because the doer hath applied this satisfaction for the dead: for the same satisfaction is not sufficient to discharge two debts. But if it were necessary fixat it would exceed the debt of another, then that excess, in the way of satisfaction, go to the account of the doer."* The shocking impiety and iramot.',! sentiment of this passage must strike every one on reading it. wickedness of the priest, or of the offerer, seems to present no obstacle.s to the traffic carried on between the souls in purgatory and their friends on earth. Besides, the z?t?lus of merit necessary to atonefor sin, anti the precise meritorious valt? of human performances are so calculated and treated as if men could really do more than is commanded them, and as if God ?rere'such a one as the?nselves, with whom they could cosmmt?, and change their meritorious deed, and obtain from the Al- mighty, as by a common bargain, a precise amount of benefit of exact value of that with which they repay him ! Nor is this a Potes?- ant misrepresentation. The book itself is the class-book used at many of the Remain Catholic theological seminaries, and is approved of by' the most prominent men in the Church of Rome, even to the ninth edition, published in Mechlin in 1830, which is the one in our posses- sion, and from which we quote.
- Dkitur gz charirate fanta; si enim operans, &c.?Dou, dz Pwg., No. $1, Vol.
vii, p. 407. 1 ,Goocle
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