all that is necessary for the forgiveness of the guilt of sin: so that, in fact, instead of being, as some persons have rashly said, an encouragement to sin, it becomes to those who avail themselves of it, a powerful incentive to virtue and religion.

An indulgence is still less "a license to commit sin," as others have falsely represented. The doctrine of the Catholic Church is, that no power on earth can give a license to sin. Again, it has been misrepresented as "a pardon for sin beforehand." But an indulgence, so far from being a pardon for sin beforehand, has no concern whatever with the pardon of sin in any form: it is confined solely to the temporal punishment which may be due after the guilt has been committed. As little can it be an encouragement to sin, when its very condition is true repentance: otherwise, God might be said to encourage sin by promising exemption from eternal punishment to the repentant sinner.

EXTREME UNCTION.

Catholics believe that extreme unction is a sacrament, ordained for the benefit of those who are dangerously sick, both in remitting their sins, and alleviating their sufferings, according to the hidden designs of God's providence, and to the different degrees of faith and preparation in those who receive it.

It is administered in the manner described by St. James: "Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil, in the name of the Lord."

Its effects are also declared by the same

apostle : "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him."

"I acknowledge," says Calvin, "that extreme unction was used by the disciples of Christ, as a sacrament; for I am not of the opinion of those who imagine, that it was a corporal remedy." (Comment. in Ep. Jac.)

HOLY ORDER.

bishops, priests, and others are ordained to the ministry of the altar, and receive grace to perform their respective duties. The Scriptures inform us that our blessed Lord appointed his apostles to spread his religion and worship through the world; that they appointed others to aid them in this great work, ordaining such persons with fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands; and that this ordination conferred on the ordained certain spiritual graces, adapted to their respective duties.

"As the Father hath sent me, I also send you." (John xx. 21.) "Let a man so account of us, as of ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God." (1 Cor. iv. 1.) "He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors and teachers, . . . . that henceforth we be no more children, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine," (Eph. iv. 11, 14.) "Stir up the grace of God, which is in thee, by the imposition of my hands." (2 Tim. i. 6.) Neglect not the grace that is in thee, which was given to thee hands of the priesthood." (1 Tim. iv. 14.) by prophecy, with the imposition of the

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As the New Testament contains no detailed account of the constitution of the Christian ministry, nor of the exact form of ordination: we must have recourse for information on those subjects to the most ancient ecclesiastical historians; and when we find in their pages the same gradation of office and authority in the sacred ministry, which still prevails in the Catholic Church, described as existing in every particular church, the only conclusion that can be reasonably drawn from such antiquity and universality is, that it was established by the apostles themselves, in conformity with the will of their hea venly Master. No other authority could have established it every where.

MATRIMONY.

two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament but I speak in Christ and the church." (Eph. v. 31, 32.)

"Matrimony," says Luther, "is called a sacrament, because it is the type of a very noble and very holy thing. Hence," he adds, "the married ought to consider, and respect the dignity of the sacrament."(De Matrimonio.)

The Catholic Church teaches that the marriage covenant cannot be dissolved by human authority. "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." (Matt. xix. 6.)

THE HOLY EUCHARIST.

Catholics believe that, in the sacrament of the holy eucharist are the body and blood of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, under the outward appearance of bread and wine; that they are received in memory of his death for our redemption; that the soul is thereby filled with grace, and that a pledge is given to us of future glory.

Our blessed Lord, at his last supper, took bread and wine into his hands, blessed them successively, and gave them to his apostles, saying of the bread, "Take ye, and eat; this is my body;" and of the wine, “Drink ye all of this; for this is my blood." (Matt. xxvi. 26-28.) The real signification of these words is a subject of controversy between Catholics and Protestants. The Protestant, arguing from the appearance of the elements to the meaning of the words, contends that, as there is no visible change in the bread and wine, the words must be taken in some figurative sense the Catholic, arguing from the literal meaning of the words to the real state of the elements, contends that, as the meaning is obvious and positive, the bread and wine must have undergone some invisible change. He asks if such a change is impossible, and bids us look at Him who utters these mysterious words. Who is He? To judge from our senses, he is, indeed, a mere man, like ourselves. To-day he is sitting at table with his disciples,-to-morrow we shall see him in the agonies of death, hanging, like a malefactor, on the cross. But what says our faith? That he is not only man, by God; that God who inhabiteth eter

nity,-who by a single word called the universe into existence,-whose will all things must obey. Shall we then dispute the power of this God to work a change in the bread and wine, unless it be perceptible to our senses? Shall we dare to give him the lie, by denying that to be his body and blood, which he has declared to be so? The men of Capernaum did this, when they exclaimed, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat? It is a hard saying, and who can hear it?" (John vi. 60.) But then the men of Capernaum took him for a mere man; we believe that he is our God.

Hence it appears, that the real point in dispute regards the power of God. Unless you deny that it is possible for him so to change the substance of the elements, that Christ may say of them lite. rally and with truth that they were his body and blood; or maintain that, if such change were wrought, it must of necessity fall under the cognizance of the senses: it will follow that you are bound to admit, with the Catholic, the conversion of the elements into the body and blood of Christ. The Scripture says, it is his body and his blood: who that believes the Scripture will dare to say, it is not his body, it is not his blood?

To escape from the difficulty, some theologians have sought shelter behind certain expressions of our Saviour, which they call parallel passages; because in them the verb to be has reference to a fig urative meaning. But this is a miserable subterfuge. The most important in our Saviour's words, at the supper, is the demonstrative pronoun this :—this, which I hold in my hand, is my body. He has indeed said, I am the door, I am the vine; but when did he lay his hand on a door or a vine, and say, This door, or this vine, am I?

There cannot be a doubt that the apostles would teach the real meaning of these words to their disciples. Now we have, fortunately, the means of ascertaining what was the belief of the Christians about half a century after the death of St. John, from the apology of Justin Martyr. It was his object to describe the acknowledged doctrines and practices of the converts, and to place them in the

most favorable light before the eyes of his infidel sovereign. Now, if the eucharist had been considered nothing more than a figure, most certainly he would have said so at once: for there could be no need of concealment, where there was nothing which might be thought singular or unintelligible. But of the figurative doctrine, he appears never to have heard. He states openly, that the consecrated elements are the body and blood of Christ; and accounts for a belief of a doctrine so extraordinary and startling, because it was the doctrine of our Lord at his last supper. The following are his words:

"With us, this food is called the eucharist, of which it is not allowed that any other man should partake, but he who believes in the truth of our doctrines, and who has been washed in the laver for the remission of sins and for a new birth, and who lives according to the precepts which Christ has left us. For we do not receive these things as common bread and common drink; in the same manner as our Saviour Jesus Christ, becoming incarnate, through the word of God, had flesh and blood for our salvation: so have we been taught that the food, with which by transmutation our flesh and blood are nourished, is, after it has been blessed by the prayer of the word that comes from him, the body and blood of him, the same incarnate Jesus. For the apostles, in the commentaries written by them, and called gospels,' have delivered to us that they were so commanded to do by Jesus, when, taking the bread, and having blessed it, he said, Do this in remembrance of me: this is my body; and in like manner, taking the chalice, having blessed it, he said, This is my blood: and distributed it among them only."-Just. Mart. 97.

Assuredly, if the Catholic doctrine be false, the error must have introduced itself among Christians before that race of men, who had been instructed by the apostles, had become entirely extinct.

The change, effected by Almighty Power, of the substance of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, has, with great propriety, been termed transubstantiation; a word introduced to distinguish the real doctrine of the Catholic Church from the heterodox opinions of

successive innovators. The term, indeed, is of more recent origin; but the doctrine designated by it is as ancient as Christianity. "Learn," says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, (Catech. Myst. iv.) "that the bread which we see, though to the taste it be bread, is nevertheless not bread, but the body of Christ; and that the wine which we see, though to the taste it be wine, is nevertheless not wine, but the blood of Christ." (See also pp. 281-289, ed. Oxon.) It would be difficult to express the doctrine of transubstantiation in clearer terms.

"I should have wished," says Luther, "to have denied the real presence of Christ in the eucharist, in order to incom mode the papists. But so clear and so strong are the words of Scripture which establish it, that in spite of my inclination so to do, and although I strained every nerve to reach the point, yet, never could I persuade myself to adopt the bold expedient." (Epist. Car. Amic.) Again: "Among the fathers, there is not one who entertained a doubt concerning the real presence of Christ Jesus in the holy eucharist." (Defens Vers. Cana.) He calls the contrary opinion "blasphemy, an impeachment of the veracity of the Holy Ghost; an act of treachery against Christ, and a seduction of the faithful." (Ibid.)

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"Many Protestants," says Bishop Forbes, (A. D.) " deny too boldly and too dangerously, that God can transubstantiate the bread into the body of Christ. For my part, I approve of the opinion of the Wittemburg divines, who assert that the power of God is so great, that he can change the substance of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ." (De Euch.)

INVOCATION OF THE SAINTS.

When Catholics pray to the saints, they do no more than when they pray for their fellow-men upon earth; of the one and the other they ask the same thing-that they would pray to the common God and Father of all, both with them and for them.

If Catholics be asked, "Whether they do not make the saints their mediators?" their answer will be, "We make them so

in no other sense, than we are mediators one for another." Nor does the passage of Scripture so often quoted, apply here: "There is but one mediator between God and man," because by mediator is here signified, one" who gave himself a ransom for all." (1 Tim. ii. 6.) In that sense, Jesus Christ is our only mediator. Did the mediatorship of Christ receive any injury, or disparagement, from the prayers addressed to the saints, then would it also be violated in like manner by the prayers which Christians reciprocally offer up for each other's benefit. When the Catholic says to his brother in Christ, "Pray for me to our common Father, to obtain for me those blessings which I myself may be unable or unworthy to obtain:" the same he says to the blessed mother of Christ, to St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome, or any other of those holy persons, whose acknowledged sanctity has procured for them, through the grace and merits of Christ, the friendship of God, and the happiness of heaven. Surely there is nothing wrong or unreasonable in this. The earthly trials of those holy persons are past, the veil of mortality is removed from their eyes, they behold God face to face, and enjoy without reserve his friendship and his love. May the pious Catho lic not reasonably hope that their prayers will be more efficacious than his own, or those of his friends here upon earth? At least, there is nothing in reason or revelation to forbid him to do so. Let a case be supposed. A child has been deprived by death of a parent, who through life offered for him the most fervent supplications. Is it likely that the anxiety of a parent for the welfare of a beloved child wholly ceases in death? Should the child think not, and under this persuasion say, "O! my parent, think of me, love me, pray for me still. Forget not in your happy country your exiled child." Would this be impiety? Would this be robbing God of his glory, or Christ of his mediation? Would this be transferring to creatures, the honors and privileges due to God alone? Would this justify a man in judging harshly, speaking contemptuously, or acting, unkindly towards his Christian brother?

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The following texts are offered to the notice of those who would more closely examine the subject. "The angel Raphael said to Tobias: When thou didst pray with tears, and didst bury the dead, I offered up thy prayer to the Lord." (Tobias, xii. 12.) This," says Judas, relating his vision, "this is Jeremiah, the prophet of God, who prays much for the people, and the holy city." (2 Mach. xv. 12, &c.) "I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God, upon one sinner that repents." (Luke, xv. 10.)

"And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures, and the four and twenty ancients, fell down before the Lamb; having each of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints." (Apocal. v. 8.)

In the early, we may say the earliest, ages of the church, the saints were invocated. Listen to St. Augustine. "Christians celebrate with religious solemnity the memory of the martyrs, that they may excite themselves to imitate their constancy, that they may be united to their merits, and may be aided by their prayers.

But it is not to any martyr, but to the very God of the martyrs, that we raise our altars. To God alone, who crown the martyrs, is the sacrifice offered." (Cont. Faust.xx.18.)

And here be it observed, that to God it is said, " Have mercy upon us;" to the saints it is said, "Pray for us." It is surely not difficult to discriminate between these two forms of address: the difference is immense.

On the subject of the invocation of the saints, that learned Protestant, Bishop Montague, has the following remarks: "It is the common voice, with general concurrence and without contradiction, of reverend and learned antiquity. And I see no cause to dissent from them [the Catholics,] touching intercession of this kind. Christ is not thus wronged in his mediation. And it is no impiety to say, as the Catholics do, Holy Mary, pray for me.'" (Invoc. of Saints.)

"I allow," says Luther, "with the whole Christian church, and believe, that the saints in heaven should be invoked." (De Purgat. Quorund.)

ON GOOD WORKS. Good works are twofold: religious works,