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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: solemnity, rite, and commerce connected with it, is to be
regarded as nothing but a specter of the devil. For it
conflicts with the chief article [which teaches] that only
Christ, and not the works of men, are to help [set free]
souls. Not to mention the fact that nothing has been
[divinely] commanded or enjoined upon us concerning the dead.
Therefore all this may be safely omitted, even if it were no
error and idolatry.
The Papists quote here Augustine and some of the Fathers who
are said to have written concerning purgatory, and they think
that we do not understand for what purpose and to what end
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