mute, and sometimes release public penances? What do they here pretend to? Is this giving an indulgence?

SECT. IV.

Of the Jubilee.

WHAT is meant by a jubilee ? A. General indulgence. Q. When is a jubilee granted? A. Every twenty-fifth year, and oftener upon emergent occasions. Q. What is the difference between a jubilee and an indulgence? A. A jubileee is more solemn, with many privileges not granted on other occasions, and extends to the whole body of the faithful.

INSTRUC.-Jubilee means a time of joy and gladness, of remission and liberty. Thou shalt call it, says God, a time of mercy and remission for all the inhabitants of the land, Levit. xxv. 9. And if in the old law the jubilee brought universal joy, much more ought it in the new law to bring us an universal exceeding great joy; because their jubilee was but a figure of that spiritual joy and liberty we have in Christ, through our christian jubilee. In the old law, the Jewish slaves were, at the time of the jubilee, set at liberty; in the new law, such as have been slaves to sin, may at the jubilee be set free, and restored to the grace and friendship of God. In the old law, lands that had been sold returned to their ancient owners in the jubilee year; in the new law, such as have sold and forfeited their eternal inheritance, may, at this time of a jubilee, recover it again. In the old law, debts were forgiven at the jubilee; in the new law, by means of the jubilee, all our debts to God, may, through the plentiful redemption now offered, be cancelled and forgiven: all our debts, that is, our sins, and the penance due to our sins too; for our sins may, at this time, be forgiven by the sacrament of penance, and all the penance due to our sins, by the indulgence. And thus if we do our part, the jubilee leaves us pure and free from all the debt of sin we owe to God.

If any one doubt hereof, let him consider that the jubilee, which is a general indulgence, is grounded on the power which Christ gave to St. Peter, and the rest of the Apostles, when he said to them, Whatsoever ye shall unbind on earth, shall be unbound in heaven. These words being spoken without any reserve or restraint, plainly import a power to take off every impediment, whether sin or punishment, or any other spiritual obsta cle, that may hinder, retard, or delay our admittance into the kingdom of heaven; not forgetting that the ground-work of this is a true and cordial repentance.

As the church has a power from God to bind or remit sin, deserving of eternal death; so also to remit the temporal punishment due to sin, which is the much lesser debt and as Christ gave the church a power to lay penances upon us for our sins, so to take them off, for a just cause, and set us free; and this is called an indulgence. It is grounded also on the merits of Christ, as well as his doctrine; so that all grace, all merit, all pardon we gain by it is, through the merits of his death and passion, applied to our souls; insomuch that the merits of the most glorious saints, which we partake of, are no otherwise of virtue to us, but through him. In a word, it is founded upon the promise of Christ, who has assured us, his church shall teach all truth to the end of the world. What then the church does, commands, or remits, it is as if he did himself: He that hears you, hears me: they who rebel, let them be accounted as heathens.

To understand the nature of this and other indulgences, we must remember what was said above; that though by the sacrament of penance our sins are forgiven, and the pain of hell to them belonging, yet often are temporal punishments for our sins to be endured; because our contrition, though true, is often too weak and imperfect to merit a total forgiveness of all sin, and all punishment too. Which of us repents as King David? Yet we see that even he was grievously punished in this world, even after his sin was forgiven, and upon account of that sin as the prophet plainly told him. We read also of Manasses, that he repented bitterly, and heartily prayed, so that his prayer was heard, and sins forgiven; and yet,

after that, were severely punished temporally; and God, says the scripture, would by no means remit the punishment. How happy then are we; how ought we to rejoice in time of a jubilee, when we have a means of being delivered from all our sins, and the penance due to them ?

A jubilee differs from a plenary indulgence, inasmuch as it is more solemn, and accompanied with more priviJeges than the other: every pastor in time of the jubilee, has power to take of all excommunications, and to absolve in all reserved cases, and to commute private vows into other works of piety. The benefit of it extends to all the faithful, who in a body offer a holy violence to heaven by prayers and good works. Confession and communion are enjoined, and a general confession recommended, to render our pardon more secure and certain; which ends in the entire conversion of many souls, and the multiplying of all kind of good works among the faithful. O how much is God adored and honoured thereby !

As to the term between one jubilee and another, it is now fixed to twenty-five years, by Paul the 2d, and Sixtus 4th; that as the frailty of man to sin is very great, and man's life seems to shorten, every one, if possible, might enjoy this benefit. Besides there are jubilees sometimes published upon extraordinary occasions.

EXHOR. Give thanks, O christian, to God, for this his further clemency to you, in ordaining such ways and means, as not only by penance to forgive the guilt of sin, but by jubilee and indulgence to remit all the penance due to it the same divine power that pardons the sin committed, forgives the penance too. As then the benefit is great and ample, fail not, when occasion offers, to apply it to your indebted soul. The good works which are done to gain an indulgence, are of larger extent and value than your private prayers and works of penance; for here the prayers and good works of all the faithful concur together you may then at that time apply this saying to yourself, Lord, regard not my sins, but the faith of thy church, and be thereby propitious to me a sinner. O what greater blessing than to have applied, by

an indulgence, the merits of Christ's life and death to our souls; and through his, those of the holy saints and martyrs! Do all that is prescribed for the obtaining this great benefit; many by this means have gained a general pardon, and prevented a more heavy judgment from falling on them. Let no sin upon this occasion, escape your humble confession and contrition, that all your sins may be cancelled; remember the sin must be forgiven by the sacrament of penance, before the penance can be released by the indulgence. Then by a holy communion receive the Author of this great blessing into your soul: perform with great devotion the prayers enjoined; and if a fast is appointed, take that small penance, as laid upon you by the hand of God, to prevent more heavy judgments give as you are able, upon this occasion, more amply in charities to the poor, to relieve their temporal wants, as God now opens his hand to relieve your spiritual ones. As penances are much diminished from what they were in the primitive church, and you have seldom added to them, fail not at least to reap the benefit of indulgences. If we were but sensible how many and how great are our sins, with what speed should we run to penance? And if sensible still of the great debts we contract by them, O with what eagerness should we embrace indulgences and a general pardon! What is all the penance we do in this world, to what our sins deserve? Let us then receive indulgences, as christians, with the greatest respect, as believing they apply the merits of the passion of Christ to our souls. Let us receive them as sinners, with gratitude, as by them the treasure of God's mercy is received, our imperfect repentance supplied, and our justification compleated. Let us receive them as catholics, with obedience to the church: alas! what was it at first, but an open contempt of them, that began the present schism and heresy in Europe, which has brought so many calamities upon the world?

Q. WHAT

SECT. V.

Of Purgatory.

THAT do you mean by purgatory? A. A middle state of souls departed, who being not entirely purified from their sins here by penance and good works, are purified there by some means appointed by God, but unknown to us, and then are received into heaven, where nothing that is defiled can enter. Q. By what means can we comfort souls in purgatory? A. By our prayers, suffrages, and the sacrifice of the altar offered for them.

INSTRUC. When souls depart this life, there are some so pure and perfect as to be translated immediately into heaven: others die in their sins, without repentance; these descend into hell: others neither have lived so wickedly as to deserve hell, nor yet so perfectly pure as to be forthwith admitted to the state of bliss, but are to pass through a purging fire: but what that fire is, the church has not yet determined. Coun. Trent. Sess. 6. We only know that it is a state of suffering souls in the other world, who died in the state of grace, where, by some means known to God, they make that full satisfaction to him for their sins which they neglected here, and then are admitted into hea

ven

This doctrine was held in the old law, where we read that Judas Maccabeus sent to Jerusalem to have prayers and sacrifices offered for the dead that were slain in battle; the sacred writer concluding, that it is a wholesome and holy cogitation to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins, 2 Mach. xii. 43.

In the new law this doctrine is as ancient as the church; witness St. Augustin: "We read," says he, "in the books of Maccabees, of sacrifice offered for "the dead. And although no where in the old scrip"ture any such things we read, the authority of the "universal church, which is evidently for this practice, "is of no small weight; where, in the prayers which