lutes the temple of God, through sinful living, him shall God destroy. As you profess to believe the Catholick Apostolick Church, let no persecution, nor even death, deter you from it; it is the Church which Christ established; remain then firm and constant in it to your last breath, and die with these words in your mouth: I :_I believe in the holy Catholick Church.

As you are in the communion of saints, join your prayers, charities, and good works with all faithful holy souls, and beg that all may partake of yours, and you of all. Join with the saints and angels in the praises of God, and implore their intercession through Jesus Christ our Lord. Forget not your departed brethren, but be daily mindful of them, and say often, Remember not, O Lord, ours, nor our parents offences. They are not able to help themselves, but through the suffrages of the faithful. O it is a wholesome and holy cogitation to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins, 2 Mac. xii. Let them rest in peace.

4.

WHAT

ART. X.

The forgiveness of sins.

AT is meant by this article? A. That God has promised remission of sins to all that repent, by the sacraments of baptism and penance. Q. What sin is forgiven by baptism? A. Original sin, which is the sin in which we are all born; and also the sins we have committed before baptism, after we came to the use of reason. Q. What sins are forgiven by the sacrament of penance? 4. All the sins we have committed after baptism. Q. Who are the ministers of the sacrament of penance? A. Bishops and priests only.

INSTRUC. This article, so necessary for salvation, may be drawn from those words of our Saviour: So it behoveth Christ to suffer, and to rise again the third day, and that in his name penance and remission of sins should be preached to all nations, Luke xxiv. 46. Hence we are to believe, that in the church there is remission of

sins, and that there is a real power given to the pastors of the church, of remitting them by the sacraments, to all that repent.

To

The first remission of sin we receive in baptism, is the remission of original sin, which is the sin we are all born in, by means of Adam's fall: As by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, so it passed unto all men, in whom all sinned. Rom. v. 12. those who receive it in riper years, if truly penitent, all the actual sins they have committed since the use of reason, and the temporal punishment due to them, is remitted in full; so that were they to die immediately after, there is nothing to hinder their entrance into heaven.

The second remission of sin we receive in the sacrament of penance: and highly necessary it was the church should have this sacrament from God, as well as baptism; because after baptism we are liable, through human frailty, to fall into sin as well as before, and then there is as much need as ever of a sacrament to free us from sin, and restore sanctifying grace. Now, the power to absolve sinners in the sacrament of penance, was given by Christ to his Apostles, when he said to them, Whose sins you remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose sins you retain, they are retained. John xx. 23. This power Christ, as man, first exercised himself, when he said to the paralytic, Thy sins are forgiven thee, Matt. x. 2. and when the Jews questioned, how he, being a man, could forgive sins, he took them up sharply, and worked a miracle before their eyes, to convince them that he, even in quality of man, had this power: That you may know, said he, that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, arise, he said to the paralytic, take up thy bed and go home. For though the power to forgive sin, is a power proper to God, who is offended by sin; yet it is plain in scripture, that God executes this power upon earth by the ministry of men; first, by our Saviour as man; then by his Apostles; now by the Bishops and Priests. There are none but them to whom this power was given, and to them it is given, as ministers of God, who work not

1

by their own, but by his almighty power, as instruments only of the remission of sins, which he gives, by their absolution, in the sacrament of penance. This great indulgence was acquired for us through the merits, death, and passion of Christ.

So great is this benefit to a christian soul, that there is no sin, though ever so heinous, no sins, though ever so numerous, though the sinner has remained ever so long in them, but what, through the application of the sacraments of baptism and penance may be forgiven. Hence it must be the greatest ingratitude to neglect, the greatest presumption to delay, repentance.

EXHOR.-Adore, O christian soul, and praise the divine mercy of God, who has left such sovereign means to promote and secure your salvation. As you have been freed in baptism from original sin, extol the divine mercy, and live as you then professed to do. O let not, through your sinful life, this fountain of life and salvation one day rise up against you!

But if by sin, you have lost your baptismal innocence; as Christ has left another sovereign remedy against all actual sins frail nature is prone to commit, fail not to apply it in due time, and with due preparátion, to your sinful soul; and never forget the promise of God, which assures you, That whatsoever day the sinner repents, he shall be forgiven. Think how many have miscarried through neglect, through unfortunate delays, and through want of true repentance. Behold those miserable souls bewailing their sins, and their neglect of penance, in torments for all eternity, and perhaps for less sins than you are guilty of: take warning from them and do penance under the hand of God's mercy, that you may avoid the hand of his justice. Think in time of the enormity of sin, the evils that attend it; the dismal consequences that follow it: put not off your conversion from day to day; all delays are dangerous. Neither take the liberty of offending God, in consideration that he is merciful, for this will render you unworthy of mercy. Be no lon ger ungrateful in the neglect of penance, no longer presumptuous in delays; To-day, if you hear his

Repent and sin no more,
As you believe remission

voice, harden not your hearts. lest some worse thing befall you. of sins, so practise.

ART. XI.

The Resurrection of the Flesh.

Q. WHAT is meant by this article? A. That these

very bodies, in which we now live, shall, at the day of judgment, be raised from death to life. Q By what power? A. By the omnipotent command of God, and the ministry of angels. Q. Shall the same bodies rise again? A. Yes, the same in substance, though different in qualities. Q. How can a body reduced to dust, rise again? A. By the same power which made it of dust, and framed it originally out of nothing, Q. What will be the qualities of a glorified body? A. Impassibility, brightness, agility, subtilty. Q In what space of time will all this be done? A. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 1 Cor. xv. 52.

INSTRUC. In this article you are taught that all the dead shall one day rise again. The same body will be united again to the same soul; the very same persons, the same men and women, shall come to life again, who lived here, and be rewarded or punished both in soul and body according to their deeds. As the body was partner with the soul in good or evil living, so it will be partaker of punishment or reward.

The resurrection of the body is clear in Job: I know that my Redemer liveth, and that in the latter day I shall rise again from the earth, and in my flesh I shall see God my Saviour, Job xxix. 25. The resurrection of the body is cleared in the similitude of seed: Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it first die; so the body is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption, 1 Cor. xv. This point our Saviour cleared to the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, Matt. xxii. 31. Of the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God spoke, saying to you, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,?

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: this proves that they are to rise again to life.

The resurrection of the body will be at the last day, when the Son of God shall command all, by the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of an angel, to arise out of their graves, through the same power by which he raised himself, by the same power by which he created heaven and earth, of nothing, and a man's body of dust: Dust thou art. As that was done by a word, Fiat, Be it made e; so will this be by a word, Surgite, Rise.

All and every one shall rise again, as all and every one shall die: As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive, 1 Cor. xv. 22. But the condition of all will not be alike; For those who have done good, shall rise to the resurrection of life, and they who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment, John v. 29.

The qualities of a glorified body are four, as may be observed from scripture. 1. Impassibility: they can never die or suffer any more. This mortal body shall put on immortality, I Cor. xv. 2. Brightness: they shall shine with glory, without spot or blemish. It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory; though not all in an equal degree of glory; but as one star differeth from another star in splendour, so shall be the resurrection of the dead. 3. Agility: the body shall be where the soul will, with unspeakable motion: It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power. 4. Subtilty: the body then shall obey the soul, and be subject to it; in which sense it is written, It is sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body.

As to immortality, this indeed will, after the resurrection, be common to the good and the bad; for the bad can never again die; but they will have no advantage from hence to comfort them, but their immortality will be their greatest torment; inasmuch as they will seek death to put an end to their suffering, and death will eternally fly from them: their bodies too, will rise entire, but is only that they may be punished in every part wherein they transgressed.

EXHOR-Learn O christian, in this article, to praise and adore the divine power of God, who, in the resur