with this view we must in the first instance proceed to ascertain what your tenets really are on this point, and to what practices they give rise.

1. It is your belief then, that after sin has been remitted as far as regards its guilt and eternal penalties, by the merits of Christ's sacrifice applied in the sacrament of Penance, a temporal penalty still remains due to the justice of an offended and angry God; and that this wrath and anger of avenging justice may be appeased, and your sin expiated and atoned for as regards its temporal penalty, by SATISFACTIONS, that is, penitential works, such as prayer, alms-giving, fasting, mortifications, &c.

2. You also believe, that Indulgences validly and effectually received, remit a portion or the whole of the temporal penalty due to remitted sin, and partially or wholly remove the necessity for satisfactions; but as it is impossible, generally speaking, to know whether the conditions on which alone Indulgences are valid, have been fulfilled in any particular case, you therefore hold that penitents ought to continue in the performance of works of satisfaction to the end of their lives, and never believe themselves relieved from the necessity of expiating and atoning for sin, although that sin may have been remitted and pardoned long before in the sacrament of Penance.

Such is your belief on this point, as I shall now shew by references to your own writings, and to

those of other eminent theologians of the Roman Communion.

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I. With reference then to the first point, you say,

"1. That God, after the remission of sin, retains

a lesser chastisement in his power, to be inflicted "on the sinner. 2. That penitential works [i. e. satisfactions], fasting, alms deeds, contrite weeping, and fervent prayer, have the power of averting that punishment. 3. That this scheme "of God's justice was not a part of the imperfect law, but the unvarying ordinance of his dispensa"tion, anterior to the Mosaic ritual, and amply "confirmed by Christ in the Gospel. 4. That it consequently becomes a part of all true repent"ance to try to satisfy this divine justice, by the voluntary assumption of such penitential works, as his revealed truth assures us have efficacy "before Him. These propositions contain the "Catholic doctrine concerning Satisfaction"." Again : "When God remits a weight of eternal "punishment, it seems but fair that the outrage "done to his Divine Majesty should be repaired

by outward acts, expressive of sorrow, and "directed to appease his wrath, and avert those

Scourges which He still reserves in his hand. "Hence in the sacrament of Penance, that third part which we call satisfaction"." Your doctrine

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a Wiseman's Lectures on the Doctrines, &c. of the Catholic Church, vol. ii. p. 47.

h Ibid. p. 48.

is afterwards described to be," that sin is forgiven, "but punishment still inflicted; that God will "chastise in his justice, but that the sinner may,

by punishing himself, by performing certain "works propitiatory before God, avert his anger, "and obtain remission of this lesser chastise"ment".".

Tournely lays down the following formal proposition.

"Penal satisfaction is necessarily to be exacted "of penitents, not merely to preserve them in "newness of life, to heal their infirmity, and to afford an example to others, as the Innovators

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imagine; but also in order to punish and chastise past sins, or to make real satisfaction, not only "to the Church but to God; as well to repair the

injury done to Him by sin, as to redeem the "temporal punishment, which after the guilt and "eternal punishment has been forgiven, remains "to be discharged by us, either in this life, or "anotherd."

Thus then it is plain, as I have said, that you believe satisfactory or penitential works necessary for the remission of the temporal penalty exacted by the justice of a wrathful and angry God, after the guilt and eternal punishment of sin have been remitted, and after the penitent has been placed in a state of grace.

c Ibid. p. 51.

Tournely, De Pœnit. t. ii. p. 4.

II. I now proceed to the second point-the necessity of continual penance, or of works of satisfaction during the remainder of life.

"We can never be certain," says Bouvier bishop of Mans," that we have obtained by many (even "most plenary) indulgences, the complete remission "of all the temporal punishment due to our sins; "for a plenary indulgence often becomes partial [i. e. remits only a part of the temporal punish"ment] either through want of a sufficient cause,

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or through want of a work proportioned to the "end designed, or through defect of dispositions "in the agent. Hence, first, an indulgence does "not exempt from the obligation of doing penance

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[by satisfactions]; and à fortiori, a believer can"not, of his own authority, omit a sacramental penance [satisfaction] enjoined to him, under pretext that he has gained or is about to gain an indulgence"." Indulgences of a hundred years or more, if there are such, may be insuf"ficient to compensate the whole temporal punish"ment which a sinner is bound to pay... Hence, thirdly, sinners truly converted ought to endeavour daily by good works [satisfactions] and indulgences, whether partial or plenary, to dimi"nish the debts which they owe to Divine justice, "and to compensate for them entirely in this life, lest they be sent to the prisons of purgatory, and "do not come out thence till they have paid the

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nor

"last farthing'." Dr. Milner, one of your nominal bishops, says, "We do not believe an indulgence "to imply any exemption from repentance "from the works of penance, or other good works, "because our Church teaches, that the life of a "Christian ought to be a perpetual penance.'

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6

(Concil. Trid. de Extr. Unct.) No one can ever "be sure that he has gained the entire benefit of an indulgence, though he has performed all the "conditions appointed for this creed." "

Thus it appears that even Indulgences and the execution of the works of satisfaction enjoined by your priests in confession, do not render you secure that sin has been remitted; and hence you recommend in addition, voluntary works of satisfaction, over and above those prescribed by the priest. To these the Council of Trent alludes in the expressions above cited by Dr. Milner; and the Catechism of the Council speaks thus of them, " Under "the same name [satisfaction] is signified also any

sort of punishment which we endure for our sins, "not imposed by the priest, but undertaken of our "own accord, and repeated by ourselves. This "does not by any means belong to Penitence as a "sacrament"." The use and necessity of such

f Bouvier, ibid. p. 301; See also Tournely, De Pœnit. t. ii. p. 299.

• Milner, End of Controversy, Lett. xlii.

↳ Eodem verò nomine quodlibet etiam pœnæ genus significatur, quam pro peccatis non quidem à sacerdote constitutam,