to the king himself. In this sense a son respects the image or picture of his parent; a parent that of his child; a friend that of his friend; not for any intrinsic virtue in the material substance, or work of art, but because it relates to, and brings to his mind, the object of his respect and affection.

To condemn this relative regard for images or pictures, would be to condemn the very feelings of nature. To charge the Catholic with idolatry because the term worship, meaning only an inferior and relative regard, is found in the ancient and modern liturgies of his church, is not consistent with candour or charity.

The charge that the Catholic Church sanctions the praying To images, is a calumny, and carries with it an imputation of stupidity too gross to be noticed. Catholics sometimes pray BEFORE images, because they serve to collect their thoughts, and fix their attention in their meditations and prayers; but they are not, on that account, to be supposed to be so void of reason and sense as to pray To the image: for they know that in it there is no virtue or power; and that it can neither see, nor hear, nor help them.

Catholics do solicit the intercession of the angels and saints reigning with Christ in heaven. But in this, when done according to the principles and spirit of the Catholic Church, there is nothing of superstition, nothing which is not consistent with true piety. For the Catholic Church teaches her children not to pray to the saints as to the authors or givers of divine grace; but only to solicit the saints in heaven to pray for them, in the same sense as St. Paul desired the faithful on earth to pray for him.

Catholics, according to the faith and pious practice of the Christian Church from the age of the Apostles, do

pray for the release and eternal rest of departed souls who may be detained for a time in a state of punishment on account of their sins, but in this we cannot discover even the shadow of superstition.

By invoking the intercession of the saints in heaven, and by praying for the suffering souls in purgatory, Catholics exercise acts of that communion of charity which subsists between the members of the mystical body of Christ; the principle of which communion they profess to believe when they say, "I believe the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints.”

After this explanation and declaration, we hope that our countrymen will never be so unjust or so uncharitable, as to charge Catholics with idolatry or superstition, nor be so illiberal as to attempt to give a colour to these injurious charges, by fixing an exclusive meaning to terms, which in the language of Scripture, Christian antiquity, and common usage, bear different senses in different cir

cumstances.

SECTION V.

On the power of forgiving Sins, and the precept of Confession. The Catholic Church is charged with impiety in usurping the power of forgiving sins, and with spiritual tyranny in imposing on the people the yoke of confession.

The Catholic Church cannot be charged with impiety for exercising powers given by Christ to his apostles, and to their lawful successors; nor with tyranny in enforcing the observance of the precept of Christ.

Catholics believe that Christ granted to his apostles, and to the priests of his Church, power to forgive sins, by the administration of the sacraments of baptism and penance, to those who are duly disposed to receive this grace.

They believe that the sacrament of penance is an institution of Christ, no less than the sacrament of baptism. The belief of both rests on the same foundation.

In both these sacraments, sin is forgiven by the ministry of man. Be baptized every one of you, for the remission of sins; (Acts ii. 38) whose sins YOU SHALL FORGIVE, they are forgiven. (John xx. 23.) But no actual sin can be forgiven at the mere will of any Pope, or any priest, or any person whomsoever, without a sincere sorrow for having offended God, and a firm resolution to avoid future guilt, and to atone for past transgressions. Any person who receives absolution without these necessary dispositions, far from obtaining the remission of his sins, incurs the additional guilt of hypocrisy and profanation. .. The obligation of sacramental confession to a priest is not an imposition of the Church, but a precept of Christ. Without the voluntary confession of the penitent, the power of forgiving, or retaining sins, could not be exercised with discretion and judgment by the minister of the sacrament of penance. The confession of sins could never have been introduced, had it not been received from the beginning as a divine ordinance for the remission of sin. It has been practised from the earliest ages of Christianity. It is attended with the most salutary effects. Besides being a means of obtaining the remission of sin, it affords relief to the troubled conscience, and opportunities of reclaiming deluded sinners from mischievous projects, and of causing reparation to be made for injuries done to persons, property, or character. It may be ridiculed by such as blaspheme those things which they know not (2 Pet. ii. 12), but will be ever cherished as a merciful and salutary institution by those who are sincerely sorry for their sins, and earnestly sue for pardon.

SECTION VI.

On Indulgences.

The Catholic Church is charged with encouraging guilt, by giving leave to commit sin, and granting an anticipated pardon for sins to come by indulgences.

The Catholic Church rejects with abhorrence the imputation, that by granting an indulgence, she grants permission to commit sin, or a pardon for sins to come. An indulgence, in the sense of the Catholic Church, is no pardon for sin at all; it is only a remission of the whole or of a part of the temporal punishment, which the justice of God often reserves to be undergone by the sinner, after the guilt of the sin has been remitted. The power of granting the remission of this temporal punishment was given by Christ to St. Peter and his successors, and has been exercised from the earliest ages. An indulgence, so far from exempting sinners from works of penance and piety, is an encouragement to the performance of such works, since they are prescribed as conditions for gaining the benefit of an indulgence.

Surely, therefore, the doctrine of the Catholic Church concerning the sacrament of penance, confession and indulgences, does not tend to relax Christian morality, nor to encourage guilt, nor facilitate the commission of crime, but rather to put an end to sin, and to promote the exercise of every Christian virtue amongst men.

SECTION VII.

On the Obligation of an Oath.

CATHOLICS are charged with holding that they are not bound by any oath, and that the Pope can dispense them from all the oaths that they may have taken.

We cannot sufficiently express our astonishment at such a charge. We hold that the obligation of an oath is most sacred: for by an oath man calls the Almighty searcher of hearts to witness the sincerity of his conviction of the truth of what he asserts; and his fidelity in performing the engagement he makes. Hence, whosoever swears falsely, or violates the lawful engagement he has confirmed by an oath, not only offends against truth or justice, but against religion. He is guilty of the enormous crime of perjury.

No power in any Pope, or council, or in any individual or body of men, invested with authority in the Catholic Church, can make it lawful for a Catholic to confirm any falsehood by an oath; or dispense with any oath, by which a Catholic has confirmed his duty of allegiance to his sovereign, or any obligation of duty or justice to a third person. He who takes an oath, is bound to observe it, in the obvious meaning of the words, or in the known meaning of the person to whom it is sworn.

SECTION VIII.

On allegiance to our Sovereign, and obedience
to the Pope.

Catholics are charged with dividing their allegiance between their temporal sovereign and the Pope.

Allegiance relates not to spiritual but to civil duties; to those temporal tributes and obligations, which the subject owes to the person of his sovereign, and to the authority of the state.

By the term spiritual, we here mean that, which in its nature tends directly to a supernatural end, or is ordained to produce a supernatural effect. Thus the office of teaching the doctrines of faith, the administration of the sacra