in their works, with the privilege and patronage of the Pope and his censors of the press, and rewarded by the highest tokens of favour: and such claims advanced with horrid grossness under Leo X.* were a principal occasion of the Refor

* The form of the grant of absolution openly sold throughout Germany in 1516.

"Our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, and by the merits of his holy passion absolve thee! And I, by his authority and that of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and our Most Holy Father the Pope, granted and in this respect committed to me, do thee absolve: first, from all ecclesiastical censures by thee in whatsoever way incurred: and moreover, from all sins, crimes, and excesses by thee hitherto committed how enormous soever, even such as are reserved to the Apostolic See; so far as the keys of the Holy Mother Church extend; in remitting to thee by a plenary indulgence all punishment in purgatory due from thee for the aforesaid offences: and I restore thee to the holy sacraments of the Church and the unity of the faithful, and to the innocence and purity of thy baptism: so that, when thou departest, the doors of punishment shall to thee be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delights open; and if thou die not [soon], this indulgence shall be valid at whatsoever other time thou shalt be in the article of death. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. (Signed.)

Friar JOHN TETZEL, Sub-commissary." But the most dreadful exhibition of the depravity of the Papal court is in the "Taxa Cameræ Apostolicæ," (Rate Book of the Apostolical Chamber,) printed at Paris, 1500; Cologne, 1523; Lyons, 1549; and Venice, 1584. A scale of prices of absolution for parricide and other murders, incest and the most horrid crimes, is stated, running on an average at from 2s, to 5s. of English money. Bishop Jeremy Taylor,

mation.

But, while we consent to take the doctrine of modern Catholics upon their own statements; it is an incumbent act of justice also on their parts, (unless they can fly in the face of all history, and of innumerable volumes of their own accredited authors,) honestly to avow that their infallible church lay for some centuries under the most enormous ERROR and GUILT, and that it has now retracted and reformed. This concession we have a manifest right to require :-but it would be FATAL to their cause !and, therefore, I fear we shall not have it.

Taking, then, the catholic doctrine according to its most favourable and guarded representations, it declares, that sorrow for sin, detestation and forsaking of it, the purpose of a new and holy life, and the actual commencement of such reformation, previous to the absolution of the priest, are essential to the forgiveness of sins; *

whose fidelity none will dispute, says of this book, that it is "publicly printed and exposed to common sale; of which "their own Espencæus.(in Ep. ad Tit. c. 1.) gives this account, "That it is a book in which a man may learn more wicked

ness than in all the summaries of vices published in the "world.-Pope Innocent VIII. was either author or enlarger of "these Rules." Dissuasive from Popery, Part i. p. 94.: an admirable work, richly deserving to be republished.

* Concil. Trid. Sess. 14. cap. 4. But the value of this statement is greatly diminished, by the Council's going on to declare that "the imperfect contrition which is called attri "tion, because it is commonly felt either from the considera

and that whosoever comes without the due "preparation, without a repentance from the "bottom of his heart, and a real intention of "forsaking his sins, receives no benefit by the "absolution, but adds sin to sin, by a high

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contempt of God's mercy, and abuse of his "sacraments."-" Indulgences are a releasing "to such as are truly penitent, the debt of tem"poral punishment" (such as mortifying pe nances, and all the afflictions of this life,)" which "remained due on account of those sins, which, "as to their guilt and eternal punishment, had "been already remitted by repentance and con

fession:"*-and this relaxation called "indul"gence" is given for certain stipulated prayers, attending masses, almsdeeds, or contributions to churches.—It may save the trouble of a more ample exposition, to make the general remark that, on the subjects of the terms of acceptance with God, and the nature of justification,

"tion of the shame of sin, or the fear of hell and punishment," [i. e. without any better motive,]"if it exclude a wish to sin,

and be connected with the hope of pardon, not only does not "make a man a hypocrite and a greater sinner, but is even à "gift of God, and an impulse of the Holy Spirit, not indeed as

yet indwelling, but only stirring up, that the penitent by its "aid may prepare his way to righteousness: and though, with" out the sacrament of penance, it cannot by itself lead a sin"ner to justification, yet it disposes him to obtain the grace "of God in the sacrament of penance."

regeneration, grace, and sanctification, the doctrine of the Church of Rome (abstracting the ceremonial peculiarities,) is the very system which a living prelate of the English Church has, with no small assuming, and with most disgraceful ignorance of theology, laboured to make out to be the doctrine of the Church of England; in a book which he has been pleased to entitle, “A Refutation of Calvinism." The possessor of that book may felicitate himself on having a very fair compendium of Roman Catholic divinity.

Such are the doctrines of the Church of Rome as more cautiously professed during the two last centuries: doctrines liable, indeed, to many and serious objections, but yet widely different from those which are commonly imputed to them. It is an important duty ever to do justice to our adversaries; and the cause of truth is never more deeply injured, than when its defenders are unwilling or tardy to grant such fair and honourable terms.

But our charge of a tendency injurious to personal religion rests on the following grounds:

1. That the Roman Catholic Church denies salvation, in the absence of mere external and ritual observances. Not only do the best of its members hold as we have stated above; but it is a principle on which they lay the most awful stress, that repentance, faith, and holiness, how

ever sincere and fervent, will not avail to the salvation of any who refuse, though on the most conscientious grounds, the communion and sacraments of the Church of Rome.* Such a stress upon mere externals, cannot but proportionably diminish a sense of the importance of real and spiritual qualifications; and is directly opposed to the word of God, which teaches us that "he is not a Jew," and, by parity of reasoning, that he is not a christian, "who is one "outwardly" alone; "but he is such who is so inwardly," in the heart, in "the spirit,-whose praise is not of men but of God:" "for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy "Ghost.†

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66.

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2. That the Roman Catholic Church refuses the right of individual examination and private judgment, in the concerns of religion.

No Catholic can deny this. It is found in all their books, directly or by implication; out of which it would be easy to collect cases. The following may be a specimen. Infants dying unbaptized, unless they are put to death as martyrs, in which case they have the baptism of blood, cannot be saved. -Contrition, forsaking sin, faith and trust in Christ for the pardon of it, are of no avail to salvation,-unless followed by confession to the priest and absolution by him pronounced, or in cases of impossibility, a wish to have them.-An excommunicated person, dying so, is out of the possibility of salvation.--That the sacraments confer grace (ex opere operato) from the mere performance of their respective acts.

† Rom. ii. 28, 29. xiv. 17.