e highest pitch, when numerous orders of mendicant iars arose, who sought a peculiar merit in not doing y work, in seeking support by alms, and in living in e greatest uncleanliness.

1

Henry. But do you condemn such voluntary selfenials, which often sprang from a profound piety.

Bernhard. I allow that, in many cases, though by far ot in all, they originated in a pure religious feeling; but was evidently a false sanctity which was here aspired fter. For it sprang from wrong views of human ature and human life; and, to the great injury of Christianity, it cast into the shade the moral commandnents, on which the welfare of man depends. To ive in lawful wedlock, faithfully to discharge all the lomestic duties, to educate children for the State and For the Church, all this is of no value, according to this standard of perfection; but not to marry, to conduct no household affairs, to have no children, this is sanctity. To live among men, to labour for them, to carry on an art or a trade, to serve the state and society, avails nothing; but to retire into monasteries, to renounce the world, and to be employed in acts of piety, this is sanctity. But why should I enlarge upon this point? I will rather, at once, confess my principle to you, by which I must reject your whole system of perfection. What cannot be general, because, if it were so, it would extinguish all civil life, and the whole human race, and, consequently defeat the aim of the Creator, yea, would render the exten sion of the Church of Christ impossible, this cannot be proper, cannot be perfection; but must be error and fanaticism. You can offer no objection to this principle. But your so called Christian perfection, or the virtues of the saints, would inevitably produce an entire dissolution of Church and State, and is, therefore, destructive fanaticism.

Henry. But the Church does not intend it to become general, because all men are not capable of attaining

Bernhard. Then it is no perfection, no sanctity; and each of these, all men ought to cultivate, according to the precepts of Christ and his Apostles. What would prove folly and destruction, if it were general, cannot be virtuous when confined to a few. It is, therefore, only something to be tolerated, but not to be admired. The idea of a country, filled with holy monks and nuns alone, instead of with industrious fathers and mothers, will at once present to you the folly of monastic virtue. And do you mean to unite that blind obedience, which also forms a part of this perfection, with that morality which commands us absolutely to obey God rather than men? Has not this blind obedience been most scandalously abused in the monastic orders, especially by the Jesuits?

Henry. But the Church could not approve of such an abuse.

Bernhard. But she should not have approved of the principles from which such an abuse proceeded... Henry. And has she really sanctioned these principles concerning Christian perfection?

Bernhard. How can you ask such a question? Has she not approved of these principles in all the monastic orders? Has she not founded upon them her whole doctrine concerning acts of penance, which the Council of Trent declares as highly necessary? Has she not shewn her approbation of them, by her invocation of the so-called saints? and has she not, by these very principles, endeavoured to justify the celibacy of the priests? But this subject has another very se rious point of view, and one that is very destructive to morality. Your Church teaches, that your saints have, by their voluntary good works of Christian perfection, done more than God in general requires of men; that they have manifested a virtue beyond vir tue, or works of supererogation, (opera supereroga tionis,) and have, therefore, obtained in the sight of God a merit greater than they themselves require. This supra-merit, you further teach, is left with the

Church, and she possesses, in this superabundant merit of the saints, an inexaustible treasure, which the Pope has in his custody at Rome. All who lack in obedience to the moral law, and who, instead of merit, have only a debt of sin, can receive from the Pope, out of his treasure, as much merit as is necessary to cancel their debt of sin before God; that is, he can give them Indulgence, and the certificate with which he furnishes their wants from this treasure, is called a Ticket of Indulgence. How easy has your Church made virtue to man! What need has he to obey the moral law diligently and laboriously, since the multitude of saints has accumulated an inexhaustible treasure of merit, which he has only to appropriate to himself, and of which the Church has been always very liberal?

Henry. Bernhard, I cannot believe that this is the case. This would be a real traffic, which would deeply depreciate the value of morality.

Bernhard. Well, now you shall hear the Papal Bull, whereby the late Jubilee, and the distribution of Indulgences, were announced.

A

We have determined to avail ourselves of the power, which has been granted to us from above, to open the fountain of those heavenly treasures, which have accumulated by the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Virgin, his mother, and of the Saints, to distribute which we have been empowered by the Creator of men. We present and confer the grace of the Lord, the forgiveness and perfect absolution of all their sins, to such Christians as shall, during the Jubilee, confess with true penitence and contrition; as shall strengthen themselves by the Holy Communion, and shall, at least, once a day for thirty days successively, or at intervals, repair to the churches of St. Peter, and St. John Lateran, and St. Mary Major, and shall there fervently offer prayers for the splendour of the Catholic Church, for the extirpation

of heresies, the unity of Catholic princes, the salvation and peace of the Christian people."WA

Here you see from what sources the Pope distributes; not only from the treasures of the merit of Christ, but also from those of Mary and the Saints, which, we cannot tell why, the Pope represents as accumulated in Rome. You may likewise participate in this treasure, if you will go to Rome, and pray for the extirpation of your native Church.

Henry, (stung). O Bernhard, that was not kind. Bernhard. Forgive me! It really was not meant for you, but for the Bull of the Pope, which makes such demands of Christians. But you cannot approve of this use of the pretended sanctity of the saints, since it subverts all the principles of morality, and represents that virtue, which is the only virtue, viz. the fulfilment of the moral law, as of secondary importance, and thereby depreciates it.

Henry. I certainly do not approve of this use, and consider it an abuse; but if a man will follow the socalled evangelical counsels, I cannot blame him; and alms-giving, which is contained in them, is very profitable, and a work of Christian mercy.

Father. This is the only one of your good works which confers any benefit upon society, and which, certainly, has produced among you many excellent charitable institutions. But this you cannot deny, that the other virtues of the saints, as celibacy, fasts, and the monastic life, daily prayers of hours' length, blind submission to ecclesiastics, self contempt, selfchastisement, and the like, confer no benefit whatever upon society, and militate against the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." I cannot approve even of your alms-giving; with you the merit consists not in the gift, and the good you do by it, but you place it in this, that a man voluntarily strips himself of his property. You throw to the poor without choice or aim, and thereby make idlers and beggars,

in whom Italy so profusely abounds, that one might imagine, even beggary and idleness belonged to Christian perfection. We do not lay the merit in stripping ourselves of our property, but in assisting. We, there fore, do not support the idle, but the infirm, and those who are unable to labour; and, consequently, what we do, and certainly to a sufficient extent,-is not injurious, but conducive to the general interests of society.

Bernhard. Your worship of saints has also produced the worship of relics, which the Council of Trent has confirmed, and by which, as all the world knows, so much mischief and deception has been prac tised. The relic-service, together with the pretended miracles connected with it, only cherishes the superstition of the multitude, and tends also to render Christianity itself, as well as its history, a subject of suspicion, if not of contempt, in the eyes of the more enlightened Roman Catholics. I am only surprised that the enlightened part of the Bishops of your Church do not feel, that a relic, performing miracles, is nothing more than the magic charm of a negro in Africa.

Henry. I cannot contradict you, and must confess that I have frequently heard intelligent Roman Catholics express their disapprobation of relic-worship, and light-minded persons even turn it into ridicule.

*

Father. If you must own that the virtues of saints are incompatible with the spirit of genuine Christianity, you have here a still further proof that the Roman Catholic Church does not answer the chief aim of Christianity, which is to deliver men from the dominion of sin, and to lead them to Christian virtue.' This is sufficient for to-day: to-morrow I will direct your attention to some other point of the same kind.

K