# Second Helvetic Confession
## Chapter 26 - Of the Burial of the Faithful, and of the Care Which Is To Be Had For Such As Are Dead; of Purgatory, and the Appearing of Spirits
The Scripture directs that the bodies of the faithful, as being temples of the Holy Spirit, which we truly believe shall rise again at the last day, should be honorably, without any superstition, committed to the earth; and, besides, that we should make honorable mention of those who died in the Lord, and perform all duties of love to those they leave behind, as their widows and fatherless children. Other care for the dead we do not enjoin. Therefore, we do greatly mislike the Cynics, who neglected the bodies of the dead, or did carelessly and disdainfully cast them into the earth, never speaking so much as a good word of the deceased, nor any whit regarding those whom they left behind them.

Again, we disapprove of those who are too much and preposterously officious to the dead; who, like the heathen, do greatly lament and bewail their dead (although we do not censure that moderate mourning which the apostle does allow [[1 Thessalonians 4:13](/get-passage/1+Thessalonians+4:13)], since it is unnatural not to be touched with sorrow); and who do sacrifice for the dead, and mumble certain prayers, not without their penny for their pains; thinking by these prayers to deliver their friends from torments, wherein, being wrapped by death, they suppose they may be rid of them again by such lamentable songs.

For we believe that the faithful, after bodily death, do go directly unto Christ, and, therefore, do not stand in need of helps or prayers for the dead, or any other such duty of them that are alive. In like manner, we believe that the unbelievers are cast headlong into hell, from whence there is no return opened to the wicked by any offices of those who live.

But as touching that which some teach concerning the fire of purgatory, it is directly contrary to the Christian faith (‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins, and the life everlasting’), and to the absolute purgation of sins made by Christ, and to these sayings of Christ our Lord: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life’ ([John 5:24](/get-passage/John+5:24)). Again, ‘He that is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean’ ([John 13:10](/get-passage/John+13:10)).

Now, that which is recorded of the spirits or souls of the dead sometimes appearing to them that are alive, and craving certain duties of them whereby they may be set free: we count those apparitions among the delusions, crafts, and deceits of the Devil, who, as he can transform himself into an angel of light, so he labors tooth and nail either to overthrow the true faith, or else to call it into doubt. The Lord, in the Old Testament, forbade us to inquire the truth of the dead, and to have any thing to do with spirits ([Deuteronomy 18:10-11](/get-passage/Deuteronomy+18:10-11)). And to the glutton, being bound in torments, as the truth of the Gospel does declare, is denied any return to his brethren on earth; the oracle of God pronouncing and saying, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one arose from the dead’ ([Luke 16:29-31](/get-passage/Luke+16:29-31)).
