by his superintending providence, will so watch over his church in her decisions, as never to suffer her to become the teacher of error in point of religious doctrine. THE SACRAMENTS. might die for our salvation, but also that | for any individuals; but mean, that God, He might establish a church to teach his doctrine, and to dispense to mankind the benefit of his death; it surely follows, as an indisputable consequence, that He would moreover preserve that church from falling into doctrinal or practical error; otherwise, we must suppose that a God of in inite power and wisdom, having a particular end in view, adopted, for the accomplishment of that end, means calculated to frustrate his own purpose; that he founded a church to teach truths and holiness, and yet permitted her, while she taught under his auspices, to become the propagator of error, and the corrupter of morality. Now, that he promised to preserve her from error, is manifest. 1. He promised to his apostles, that the Spirit of truth should abide with them,-how long? For the term of their natural lives! No, for ever (John xiv. 16); and therefore not with them only, but also with their successors. 2. He promised to remain with them himself,-how long? Only whilst they preached the gospel? No; but all days, even to the consummation of the world (Matt. xxviii. 20); a promise which must also extend to their successors. 3. He appointed Peter the rock, and declared that against his church, founded on that rock, the gates of hell should never prevail. (Matt. xvi. 18.) The infallibility of the church plainly follows from this text:* for it is manifest that, if the church ever fell into doctrinal error,-if she ever taught blasphemy, sacrilege, and idolatry, as is often stated in the "vain and profane babblings of men, who speak evil of things which they know not" (1 Tim. vi. 20; Jude i. 10),-then the gates of hell have prevailed against the church, and the declaratory promise of our Saviour has been falsified. It should, however, be remembered, that when we deduce from these premises, that the church cannot err in matters of faith, we claim no infallibility in such matters "The only difference between the Church of Rome and our national church, in respect to the certainty of their doctrine is, that the former thinks it is always infallible, and the latter that it is never in the wrong."-SIR RICHARD STEELE. Catholics believe that the sacraments of the Christian covenant are not only sacred signs representative of grace, but also seals which insure and confirm the grace of God to us, and the instruments of the Holy Spirit, by which they are applied to the souls of men. In other words, a sacrament is an external rite, ordained by Christ, the visible sign of an invisible grace or spiritual benefit bestowed by God on the soul. Every sacrament, therefore, imparts such grace, as often as it is received with due dispositions. The Catholic Church recognizes seven sacraments, viz., Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Order, Matrimony. Of these seven sacraments five are common to all: for, by baptism we are spiritually born again: by confirmation our weakness is strengthened; by the eucha rist we are fed with the bread which comes down from heaven; penance restores the soul from sickness to health; and by extreme unction it is prepared for its departure to another world. Of the remaining two, holy order supplies the church with ministers, and matrimony sanctifies the state of marriage. Thus has the blessed Founder of Christianity, by the institution of these means of grace, provided for all the wants of man in his passage through life. The sacraments are the fountains of the Saviour, at which the Christian is to slake his thirst during his earthly pilgrimage; the blessed sources whence, by divine appointment, he is to draw the waters of eternal life. "You shall draw waters with joy from the fountains of the Saviour." (Isaiah xii. 3.) And again: "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." (St. John vii. 37.) "He that shall drink of the waters that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever. It shall become in him a fountain of water springing up unto everlasting life." (Ib. iv. 14.) BAPTISM. Catholics believe that by the sacrament of baptism men are cleansed from sin, as well original as actual, and made members of the church of Christ, adopted children of God, and heirs to the kingdom of heaven, "God hath saved us, not by the works of justice which we have done, but according to his mercy, by the laver of regeneration, and the renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom he hath poured forth abundantly upon us, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour, that, being justified by his grace, we may be heirs, according to hope, of life everlasting." (Tit. iii. 5.) Except a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John iii. 5.) “Be baptized, every one of you; for the promise is unto you, and to your children." (Acts ii. 38, 99.) With respect to the ceremonies used by the Catholic Church in the administration of baptism, they allude either to the state of the pagan before, or to the duties of the Christian after, baptism, and were originally performed, some of them during the instruction of the catechumen, and some during the administration of the sacrament. Some modern sects have thought proper to reject them all, under the idea that they are useless, and, as some of them assert, superstitious. The Catholic Church has preserved the ancient ritual. Other churches betray the newness of their origin by the newness of their service. It is the pride of Catholics to practise the ceremonies practised by their forefathers; they are respected by them as having been established by the founders of Christianity, and are cherished as evidences of their descent from its first professors. CONFIRMATION. Catholics believe that, through the sacrament of confirmation, they receive the Holy Ghost, to enable them to overcome temptations to sin, and to suffer persecutions for the name of Christ. It is administered by the imposition of hands, with prayer, and the unction of the forehead with the holy chrism, accompanied by the words "I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Confirmation completes what was begun in baptism. In baptism we enrol ourselves under the banners of Christ; in confirmation we receive strength to fight with courage the battles of our leader. "Now, when the Apostles, that were in Jerusalem, had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John; who, when they were come, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For he had not yet come upon any of them; but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost." (Acts viii. 14-17.) "Having heard these things they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had imposed his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them." (Acts xix. 5, 6.) It is certain, from historical records, that what the Apostles then did, the bishops, in every age from that time to the present, have continued to do, and for the same purpose, that is, to give the Holy Ghost. The following is the testimony of St. Cyprian: "It is necessary that he who has been baptized, should be moreover anointed; in order that having received the chrism, that is the unction, he may be anointed in God, and possess the grace of Christ." (Ep. 1. 20.) "It was the custom," say the Centuriators," to impose hands upon those who were baptized, and to imprint upon their foreheads, with chrism, the sign of the cross." PENANCE. All the first Christians were converts from Judaism or Paganism, who, being instructed by the Apostles, had received the sacrament of baptism, and in that sacrament the remission of their former sins. They were of the number of those of whom our blessed Lord had said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." (Mark xvi. 16.) It is plain that for this blessing they were indebted, not to their own merits, but to the mercy of God. "Not by works of justice which we have done but according to his mercy. God has saved us by the laver of regen eration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost." (Tit. iii. 5.) Hence it is that St. Paul, in his epistles to Christians, thus received into the covenant through baptism, continually reminds them that they had been justified, not by the works which they had done whilst they were Jews or Pagans, but by faith in Christ, which had brought them to the grace of baptism. This, therefore, is the true meaning of "justification by faith and not by works." They had thus "been justified by the grace of God, and made heirs according to hope of eternal life." (Tit. iii. 7.) Hence, also, we may learn in what sense they were said to have been saved by the justification received in baptism. They had been taken out of the great mass of sinners, and placed amongst those who were heirs to eternal life: not heirs in actual possession, but heirs according to hope, Still it was possible that they might forfeit their inheritance. They would forfeit it if they relapsed into the sinful practices of their former life. Some did actually relapse, and "walk so as to be enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end would be destruction." (Phil. iii. 18.) Now these men had already obtained, in baptism, the remission of their sins committed before baptism. Could they be baptized again to obtain the remission of their sins committed after baptism? No; "for it was impossible for those who had once been enlightened, who had tasted the heavenly gift, and who had been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, if they then fell away, to be renewed (baptized) again unto repentance; having crucified again the Son of God, and make a mockery of him." (Heb. vi. 4, 6.) "It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they had known it, to turn back from the holy cornmandment delivered unto them." (2 Pet. ii. 21.) Were they then to despair of pardon? Certainly not; for, notwithstanding the severity of these warnings, they were still reminded that, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the just, who is a propitiation for our sins; and not for our sins only, but for those of the whole world." (John xi. 12.) How, then, without a second baptism, was the sinner to be reconciled a second time with God? To this most important question-and the query is calculated to startle the man who looks upon the Scripture as the sole and sufficient rule for all Christians-the inspired writings return. no direct or satisfactory answer. They repeatedly speak of the first reconciliation in baptism, but scarcely ever allude to reconciliation after baptism. For the manner on which this is to be effected there is no instruction in Scripture. For it we must have recourse to the practice of the Catholic Church in the more carly ages; which practice, as it prevailed universally, must have been founded on the doctrine taught by the Apostles. From it we learn that the second reconciliation required a longer and more laborious course than the first. Of the Jew or Pagan it was required, that he should believe, renounce his sins, and be baptized; but the offending Christian was excluded from the communion of the body and blood of Christ, was called upon to confess his sins, was made to undergo a long course of humiliation and self-denial, and then to sue for absolution, which was often deferred till the approach of death. By such absolution he was reconciled through the sacrament of penance. We, indeed, who have been baptized in infancy, could not have committed any actual sin to be forgiven in baptism: but, like them, we were made in baptism heirs of heaven, and, like them, may, after baptism, forfeit that inheritance by sin. If such be our misfortune, there remains to us no other resource than that which was left to them. We must seek forgiveness through the same sacrament of penance. SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. A slight acquaintance with the books of the New Testament will suffice to show, that the writers had no intention of defining, in them, the doctrines, or of regulating the practices, of the Christian religion. They presuppose in their readers a knowledge of both the one and the other. Hence, if they mention such practices, it is only incidentally, and without any full or minute description; so that, on the present subject of confession, though there can be no doubt that it was of divine | institution, yet the practice is no where expressly recorded. From the very earliest ages, however, it has been considered as included in the power given to the apostles of forgiving or retaining sins; for, how could they exercise that office in a rational manner, without a knowledge of the spiritual state of the applicant, or obtain such knowledge but from his free confession of his sins? To it St. Paul appears to allude, when, writing to the Corinthians, he says: "God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation... he has placed in us the word of reconciliation... for Christ we beseech you, be ye reconciled to God." (2 Cor. v. 18-20.) Where, it may be remarked, that he is writing to persons who had already been baptized, and exhorts them to make use of the ministry of reconciliation intrusted to the apostles, which, in their case, can refer only to the pardon of sins committed after baptism. In like manner, St. John says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins," (1 John i, 9,) where the confession of which he speaks is one, in virtue of which, God is bound, in faith and justice, to grant forgiveness. Moreover, St. James writes, "Confess, therefore, your sins one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be saved" (James v. 16); which passage many of the ancient fathers explain of confession to a priest; because it is connected with the preceding verses, in which the sick man is told to call in the priests of the church, to be anointed by them, and prayed for by them. If it be objected that there is nothing positive in these passages, and that the confession there spoken of may be a general acknowledgment of sinfulness, or a private confession to God, or a public confession in presence of the congregation: the objection might be met by a reference to the practice of the apostles; and of that there can be no doubt, when we find in the most ancient Christian documents, that confession to priests, sometimes in private, sometimes in public, universally prevailed. Undoubtedly, a practice so humbling to human pride, as that of confession, could never have been introduced and propagated throughout the whole church, on any authority less than that of the apostles. And what was the commission given to the apostles? Before his ascension into heaven, Christ breathed upon them and said, "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." (John xx. 23.) He had before said to the same apostles, "Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven," (Matt. xviii. 18,) and to St. Peter he had said, that he gave to him "the keys of the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. xvi. 19.) Catholics conclude from these texts that Christ gave to his apostles and their successors in the ministry the commission to remit, under certain conditions, the sins of his people. What are these conditions? The first is sincere sorrow for the offence committed, and a firm determination of mind never to commit it again. Without this condition, it is the doctrine of the Catholic Church, universally received as an article of her faith, that neither priest, nor bishop, nor pope, nor the whole church together, has power to forgive any sin whatever; and that should any priest, or bishop, or pope, presume to grant absolution to any sinner, who was not from his heart sorry for his sins, and fully determined not to commit them again, such absolution could have no effect, but to augment the sinner's guilt, and involve in a participation of it the rash minister who had presumed to absolve him. But, in addition to this, the Catholic Church requires that the sinner should confess his guilt to the minister of religion, in order that the latter may ascertain whether his penitent possesses the requi site dispositions, and that he may be enabled to prescribe the necessary reparation for the past and precautions against future transgressions. Unless a sinner is ready to make this full and undisguised acknowledgment of his offences, however painful, however humbling it may be the Catholic Church teaches, that her ministers have no authority to grant an absolution, and that should they presume to grant it, it would be of itself null and void. Nor are the above conditions sufficient. to Christ, while he at the same time admits, that no satisfaction which he can The sinner must, moreover, submit to make such atonement to his offended God, by prayer, by fasting, by works of self-make, can be of any avail, independently denial, and the like, as may be required of the satisfaction of Christ. As well of him; and if he has injured any neigh- might it be said that prayer for mercy is bor in his good name, his property, or his injurious to the mercy of God, or to the person, he must, to the utmost of his atonement offered by our Saviour. ability, resolve to make full and ample satisfaction. Without such a resolution, no Catholic priest in the world could or would consider himself authorized to give absolution to any penitent; and if he did presume to give it, his religion teaches, as an article of faith, that his absolution could be of no avail in the sight of God, but would add to the guilt both of the giver and the receiver. Now, it may be asked, is this a doctrine which relaxes Christian morality, which encourages guilt, and facilitates the commission of crime? What, then, must those doctrines be, which admit the sinner to reconciliation, upon the simple condition of repentance and a confession made to God alone? As to the charge of forgiving sins for money, or allowing the commission of future sins, on any condition whatever, it a simple calumny. The Catholic Church expressly forbids her clergy to receive money for absolution from sin, and would condemn, as guilty of simony, any priest who should commit such a crime. Accounts to the contrary, in which many works abound, and frequently such works as would appear least likely to admit them, -are, like other similar charges, fabricated for purposes best known to the authors. SATISFACTION. INDULGENCES. Indulgences grew out of the church discipline just spoken of. In every case, the bishops were accustomed to mitigate the rigor, or abridge the duration of the penitential course, as circumstances appeared to them to require. Both in the imposi tion and the relaxation of such penance, they had the same object in view, the benefit of the sinner; and in both they believed themselves to be justified by the promise of our Saviour, that "whatsoever they should bind upon earth, should be bound also in heaven; and that whatsoever they should loose upon earth, should be loosed also in heaven." (Matt. xviii. 18.) See 1 Corinthians, v. 3-5. In this passage St. Paul excommunicates the man who had been guilty of incest. the second chapter of the second Epistle, But in having been informed of the sorrow and repentance of the criminal-he tells the Corinthians, that he remits the punishment which he had lately deemed so salutary. "Wherefore," he says, "I beseech you, that you would confirm your charity towards him. And to whom you have forgiven any thing, even I also. For what I forgive, if I have forgiven any thing for your sakes, I have done it in the person of Christ." This mitigation by St. Paul, is precisely what the Catholic Church means by an indulgence. According to the doctrine of the ancient church, if the convert to Christianity relapsed into the sins which he had abjured, Most misrepresentation on the subject he was subjected to a course of penance, of indulgences has arisen from an ambipartly in satisfaction to God, for the breach guity of language, in which the term "reof his vows of fidelity to him, and partly mission of sin" has been made to include in satisfaction to the church, for the scan-" remission of the punishment due to sin ;" dal which he had given to it. In later in the same manner as we say, that a king ages, the severity of this discipline was has pardoned treason, when he has reabandoned; and only a portion of it re-mitted, on certain conditions, the penalties mains in the satisfaction still enjoined in of treason. the sacrament of penance. The sinner who voluntarily punishes his sin, can in no wise displease God, or offer an injury Every grant of indulgence requires in express terms, as a previous condition, true repentance, and the performance of |