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The Mass? Penance? Purgatory?
(the following is from Spurgeon)
Where, then, did the mass come from, and of
what
avail is it? The Lord's Supper was intended to be
the remembrancer to us of our Lord's sufferings;
instead of which it has been prostituted by the
Church of Rome into the blasphemy of a pretended
continual offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ, a continual sacrifice. According to the Romish
doctrine the offering upon Calvary is not enough-
the atonement for sin is not finished- it has to be
performed every day, and many times a day, in the
Catholic churches, by certain appointed persons,
so that that sacrifice is always being offered.
Oh! brethren, the mass is a mass of abominations,
a mass of hell's own concocting, a crying insult
against the Lord of glory. It is not to be spoken
of in any terms but those of horror and detestation.
Whenever I think of another sacrifice for sin being
offered, by whoever it may be presented, I can
only regard it as an infamous insult to the
perfection of the Savior's work.
Popery swarms with worshipers of the god
whom the baker bakes in the oven, and whom
they bite with their teeth.
What of the Catholic sacrament of penance?
Is not penance in its essence an offering for sin?
I do not care who it is that prescribes the penance,
nor what it is, whether it is licking the pavement
with your tongues, or wearing a hair-shirt, or laying
on the whip- if it be supposed that by the mortification
of the flesh, men can take away sin, the Scripture
is like a two-edged sword to pierce the inmost heart
of such teaching. Take off your hair-shirt, poor fool!
Wash the stones with a dish-cloth, and keep your
tongue clean. There is no need for these fooleries!
Christ has completed the atonement, you need not
suffer thus. You need not, like Luther, go up and down
the stone staircase on your knees, and think that
your poor sore knees will find favor with God.
Christ has suffered, God exacts no more. Do not try to
supplement his gold with your dross. Do not try to add
to his matchless robes, the rags of your poor penance.
How these verses shut the gates of purgatory!
It is held that there are some who die who are believers,
but who are not quite purified from sin, and in an after
state they must undergo a purgatorial quarantine to be
purged by fire, so that they may become quite complete.
Beloved, when the thief died on the cross he had but
just believed, and had never done a single good work,
but where did he go to? Well, he ought to have gone to
purgatory by rights, if ever anybody did, but instead of
that the Savior said to him, "Today you shall be with
me in Paradise." Why? Because the ground of the man's
admission into Paradise was perfect. The grounds of
his admission there was Christ's work, and that is how
you and I will get into heaven, because Christ's work
is finished. The thief did not go down to purgatory,
nor, blessed be his name, neither shall you nor I if
we trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus.
"The death he died, he died to sin once for all..."
Romans 6:10
"He sacrificed for their sins once for all when
he offered himself." Hebrews 7:27
"He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his
own blood, having obtained eternal redemption."
Hebrews 9:12
"But now he has appeared once for all at the end
of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice
of himself." Hebrews 9:26
"so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the
sins of many people...." Hebrews 9:28
"we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the
body of Jesus Christ once for all." Hebrews 10:10
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