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and preserved, not by any human counsel, but by divine command. For neither could the people have been ever brought, by any human authority, to pour out in the ear of another, who could divulge them if he pleased, their most secret sins, of which their conscience gave them a horror, and which it was so much their interest to conceal, with so much confusion, and yet so readily nor could it happen, that whereas so many Priests, good and bad, are promiscuously employed in hearing Confessions, even those should keep them secret who keep nothing else; unless God, who instituted this Sacrament, protected by a special grace so salutary an institution. I am persuaded, therefore, whatever Luther may say, that Confession comes not from any popular custom or institution of the Fathers, but owes its establishment and preservation to God himself." Thus wrote our royal" Defender of the Faith" against the patriarch of the Reformation.

From Confession, Mr. White, after a sentence or two about the unscriptural encroachments of Romanists, passes on to the subject of Relics and Images. He thus questions his reader:-" Did you ever find mention of Relics in the Bible ?” The reader is made to answer- "Certainly not." We suppose, then, that the obsequious reader never looked into the Fourth, or, as it is called in the Protestant Translation, the Second Book of Kings, ch. xiii, v. 21, where it is mentioned that a dead body was raised to life by having touched the bones of the Prophet Eliseus, or Elisha and that he never saw, in the second chapter of the same Book, that the same Prophet had used a Relic, namely, the cloak of Elias or Elijah, to divide the waters of the Jordan.

He

never read, we presume, the 19th chapter of the Acts, where it is stated that diseases and wicked spirits were driven out by the application of handkerchiefs and aprons from the body of St. Paul. Who can say, with these passages before him, that the Bible never mentions Relies ?

Mr. White next amuses his reader with assuring him that Rome has long "carried on a trade in bones," and recounting numerous abuses and impostures, with false relics, &c. &c.; as also with various Images, Pictures, and the like, which he winds up with this sweeping conclusion :- "This I can assure you, before the whole world, that whoever submits entirely to the guidance of Rome, must become a weak superstitious being, unless his natural temper should dispose him to join with superstition the violence and persecuting spirit of the bitterest bigotry."

We shall not trouble ourselves to examine the truth or falsehood of Mr. White's pretty stories; but we must say, that the gross and multiplied misrepresentations in which he has been already detected, gives a strong presumption against his accuracy in such reports as these. If all the abuses exist which he enumerates, and if many more exist, they are still abuses; and till it can be shewn that our Church gives countenance to them, they will make nothing against the veneration of Relics and Images, properly understood and practised. If Mr. White means to assert that Relics are not to be had in a proper degree of veneration, the evidence of Scripture, of all tradition, and the Holy Fathers, is against him; and. St. Jerome will condemn him in the remarkable language he used against Vigilantius : "The Pope then does wrong when he offers sacri

fice to the Lord over what we account the venerable bones, but what you call the vile dust of the dead men, Peter and Paul, and considers their tombs as the Altars of Christ ?-Oh, impious assertion, to be denounced to the ends of the earth!" The Pastors of the Catholic Church have always watched with the greatest care to prevent and correct every kind of abuse in the veneration of relics and holy images. The use of them is not of obligation upon any Catholic; yet we are unsparingly reproached, as if we placed our hopes of salvation in the possession of them. We cannot better conclude than in the feeling language of the pious and learned Dr. Milner on this subject-" It is a point agreed upon among Catholic Doctors and Divines, that the memorials of Religion form no essential part of it. Hence, if you should become a Catholic, as I pray God you may, I shall never ask you, if you have a pious picture or relic, or so much as a crucifix in your possession; but then, I trust, after the declarations I have made, that you will not account me an idolater, should you see such things in my Oratory or Study; or should you observe how tenacious I am of my crucifix in particular. Your faith and devotion may not stand in need of such memorials; but mine, alas do. I am too apt to forget what my Saviour has done and suffered for me; but the sight of his representation often brings this to my memory, and affects my sentiments. Hence, I would rather part with most of the books in my library, than with the figure of my crucified Lord.”—End of Rcligious Controversy, Letter 34.

* S. Hieron. adv. Vigilm.

K

CHAPTER IV.

MR. WHITE'S ABSURD CARICATURE OF CATHOLIC PRACTICES. -TRUE MEANING OF SUPERSTITION HIS MISREPRESENTATION OF THE NATURE OF REPENTANCE, AND OF FASTING. HIS INSIDIOUS ATTACK UPON THE ROMAN BREVIARY. -ITS REAL TENDENCY THE OPPOSITE TO THAT CHARGED UPON IT BY MR. WHITE.-HIS FALSE ACCOUNT OF OUR DOCTRINE RESPECTING GOOD WORKS. OUR DOCTRINE TRULY STATED.-PRESUMPTION OF LUTHER.-DEFENCE OF CELIBACY AND RELIGIOUS VOWS.-CONCLUSION.

MR. WHITE having advanced, in the conclusion of his third Dialogue, that every Catholic "must become a weak, superstitious being," if not a violent and bigotted persecutor-proceeds in the beginning of the fourth to attempt some proof of his assertion. For this purpose he collects together a number of pious practices of Catholics, and some which probably no Catholic ever thought of; and mixes them up in one monstrous caricature of a "Romanist retiring to bed at night." He falsely asserts that the Catholic Church encourages a superstitious state of mind similar to that which makes people afraid of witches, charms, omens, and such things; and We must say, that if Mr. White's account of Catholic practices were any thing like truth, there would be some ground for the assertion. But what are the practices he describes, and what does he wish his reader to infer? We cannot afford

space for a copy of his picture, though it would be highly amusing to a Catholic to see how Mr. White has ridiculously worked it up. These, however, are the leading features: the Romanist lights up two candles near his crucifix, beats his breast till it rings again-takes a skull out of a cupboard and kisses it! gives himself a discipline, mutters several prayers, turning to every picture in his room, sprinkles the bed and room with holy water to keep the devil off, and to wash away his own venial sins, which, according to Mr. White, holy water has the power of clearing away then he has an Agnus Dei made in a mould, says Mr. White, "not unlike a large butter-pat;" what he does with this, Mr. White omits to tell us, but he says that every kiss impressed upon it strikes off the amount of fifty or an hundred days from the debt he has to pay in purgatory. Then he feels for his rosary and scapular about his neck, says a prayer to his good angel, and makes the sign of the cross the last thing. These are some of the strokes in Mr. White's laboured caricature; upon which we shall briefly remark 1st,-That many of the practices may be done with a proper intention, and assist a person to retire to rest in a Christian manner; particularly begging the prayers and protection of our guardian angel, and the holy sign of the cross, which has been in use from the very days of the Apostles. 2d,-That the use of holy water is very ancient in the Church, as a means of drawing down a blessing of God, which we hope to obtain through the prayers which the Church has appointed to be used in blessing it; but that we do not believe, as Mr. White falsely asserts,

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