Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, except in Passion Week. The third bull is called the compounding bull. By possessing one of these documents, and giving a certain sum at the discretion of any priest authorized to hear confessions, to the fund of the holy crusade; any property may be kept, which having been obtained by robbery and extortion, cannot be traced to its rightful owners for restitution. This composition with the Pope and the King is made by depositing the sum appointed by the confessor in an iron chest fixed outside the doors of churches. The fourth bull is to be purchased for the benefit of the deceased, and is called the defunct bull. The name of any dead person being entered on the bull, a plenary indulgence is by this means believed to be conveyed to his soul, if suffering in purgatory.

"Let us now turn to the worship of saints, relics, and images. With regard to the latter of these, nothing can be more clear, full, and distinct, than the expressions of Scripture forbidding the making and worship of images. But to get over this difficulty, the Papists upon the continent, in writing the Ten Commandments, leave out the second, and to keep up the number ten, divide the tenth into two.

"The Invocation of Saints was a practice unknown in the Church during the first three centuries, and the middle of the fourth century. The primitive Christians commemorated the

deaths of the first martyrs every year on the day on which they suffered; and the Invocation of Saints probably originated from the orations pronounced upon those occasions. In these orations, which were written with all the latitude of declamatory eloquence, there was at first a sort of rhetorical address to the dead person, who was considered as enjoying happiness in Heaven, and a kind of petition to intercede with God in favour of those who were paying that honour to his memory. The orators afterwards addressed the dead directly, and solicited their assistance without any reserve. Litanies were then appropriated to them; and at length, by an easy transition, prayers were offered to them in the same manner as to God and Christ.

"The Worshipping of Relics originated in the following manner. In the early ages of the Gospel, when its professors were exposed to every species of danger and persecution, it was natural for Christians to show every mark of respect both to the bodies and to the memory of those who had suffered death in its cause. They collected their remains, and buried them not only with decency, but with all the solemnity and honour which circumstances would allow. In the fourth century, when the pure and simple worship of the Gospel began to be debased by superstitious practices, we find strong proofs of an excessive love for every thing which had belonged to those who had distinguished themselves

by their exertions or their sufferings for the truth of Christianity, and especially for any part of their garments, hair, or bones. When superstition has once made its way into the minds of men, it gradually gains ground, and it is difficult to set limits to it, particularly when there is a set of persons respected for their piety who are studious to encourage it. Monks carried about relics; and with great ease, and no small advantage to themselves, persuaded that ignorant age of their value and importance. Under their recommendation and patronage they were soon considered as the best preservatives against every possible evil of soul and body; and when the worshipping of images came to be established, the enshrining of relics was a natural consequence of this doctrine. This led the way to absolute worship, which was now preached by the Romish clergy as a Christian duty.

"The advantages resulting to Rome from the combined effect of indulgences, relics, saints, and their images, are not, however, derived only indirectly through the deference enjoyed by her clergy. The bond thereby created between the Pope and the most distant regions which acknowledge his spiritual dominion is direct. Mexican and the Peruvian expects the publication of the annual bull, which allows him to eat eggs and milk in Lent, enables him to liberate by namé a certain number of his relations from Purgatory, and enlarges the power of his confessor

The

for the absolution of the most hideous crimes. Wherever he turns he sees a protecting saint, whose power and willingness to defend him could not be ascertained without the supernatural and unquestionable authority of the Pope. It is the Holy Father who, by a solemn declaration, allots every district to the peculiar patronage of a saint; it is he who by grants of indulgences, encourages the worship of those miraculous images which form central points of devotion over all the Roman Catholic world: it is he who warrants the supernatural state of incorruption of the body of one saint, and traces with unerring certainty, some straggling limb to another. Itis, finally, he who alone has the undoubted power of virtually furnishing the faithful with the relics of the most ancient or unknown patriarchs and martyrs, by bidding the fragment of any skeleton in the catacombs to be part of the body in request." -(See Bishop Tomline's Christian Theology, and White's Practical and Internal Evidences against the Church of Rome.)

III.

Doctrines of the Jesuits.

"THE leading doctrine of the Jesuit morality was called probabilism,--an extraordinary adapta

tion of all principles to the convenience of the party and the time, Probabilism is defined to be that doctrine by which, in the conflict of two opinions, one of which is the more probable and suitable to the moral law, and the other the more favourable to personal desires and purposes, the doubter is held justifiable in adopting the more convenient side.

"Of all the doctrines of the order, there was not one which received a more constant sanction of its leading authorities, than this monstrous perversion of common sense and common principle. Of this take the following examples.

"A man who has scruples on a particular matter, is safe, if he in defiance of his scruples, take a probable side, though he may think that the contrary side is the more probable; and in confession the confessor ought to adopt the opinion of the penitent on the matter in question, although contrary to his own, inasmuch as the penitent is excused before God!'-(Henriquez, Summa Theol. Mor.)

"In the case of a matter before a judge, where both sides are equally probable, the judge may lawfully decide in favour of his private friend. He may, moreover, decide first on one side, and then revoke his opinion, with the object of serving his friend, provided it can be done without incurring scandal!!!'-(De Valence, 1609, t. iii.)

"Men are never so little exposed to the viola