or honest? Is it right to leave on the mind of the reader the impression, that the author quoted says precisely the contrary of what he does really say? Is not the suppressio veri almost as dishonest a device, as the suggestio falsi?

We have yet one more remark to offer concerning Mr. Palmer's polemical tactics, as displayed in these "Letters on Romanism" He often makes a very strange use of his index and second-hand learning; in fact, he sometimes wastes it entirely. Thus he devotes no less than fifteen closely printed pages of his fifth Letter' to a mass of testimony from the ancient fathers, all showing, according to his opinion, that modern Romanism is idolatrous! And what, think you, is the drift of nearly all those passages ? Almost all of them go to prove, what no one denies, that divine honors are to be given to God alone, and not to any creature! Every modern "Romanist in the world admits this; it is explicitly stated in all our catechisms and prayer books; and it was surely a work of supererogation in Mr. Palmer to attempt to prove it by so great an array of learning. He might as well have undertaken to accumulate passages from the fathers proving the divinity of Christ, with a view to show that Roman Catholics of the present day are guilty of idolatry!

But does Mr. Palmer deny - can he deny that, during the first ages of the Church, the honor and invocation of saints and martyrs were almost universal; and that the holiest men of that period adopted the practice, without ever once dreaming that it was idolatrous? Does he not himself admit that, as early at least as the fourth century, this practice was not unusual with the " 'pious fathers;" and that "the same affection, the same veneration, with which the spirits of the saints and martyrs were regarded by the early Christians, attended their earthly remains ?" 2 And with what show of reason can he blame modern Catholics for imitating examples so illustrious and so hallowed? Can he, in a word, refute the evidence accumulated by an able writer in a late number of the Dublin Review, who conclusively proves the following positions on the subject: "That for a long time prior to the council of Chalcedon, (A. D. 451) Christians believed that it was lawful,

"1. To invoke the saints, not only asking their prayers, but in the direct manner which in modern Catholics is considered idolatrous.

"2. To have confidence in their patronage and protection.

"3. To make pilgrimages to their tombs, and to expect both temporal and eternal blessings in consequence.

4. To believe that miracles were wrought by their relics.

"5. To show their veneration for their relics by external actions, as prostrations, &c.

"6. To address the Blessed Virgin in particular as the greatest of all saints; in other words, to give her the worship of hyper-dulia.

"And finally, that these things were then as universally and as frequently practised as in our own times."'

1 Pp. 29-44.

2 Compendious Ecclesiastical History, p. 68 seq. New York, 1841.

8 Dublin Review, vol. xvi, pp. 343, 344. We refer our readers to the mass of patristic learning thrown together in the article of which the above extract is a summary. Those who will read the paper must be convinced that every one of the above positions has been triumphantly sustained.

If these facts be true, and they cannot be refuted, one of two things must be said; either that the Church of Christ was generally infected with idolatry from the very earliest period, or that the Catholic Church of the present day is not idolatrous in her faith or in her worship:—there is no alternative. Mr. Palmer may take which horn of the dilemma he chooses; but one or the other he must take. His ready learning will not here serve him; nor will it do again to prefer the refuted charge, that Dr. Wiseman had quoted from spurious works.

In conclusion, we would entreat Protestants, should these pages ever fall under the eye of any such, seriously to reflect for a moment on the sublime beauty of the Catholic doctrine concerning the honor and invocation of saints, and on the many signal advantages resulting from it to the Christian community.

To begin with the latter; how useful is it to keep continually before our eyes the virtues, the heroic struggles, and the glorious victories of the saints and martyrs of God! How the thought stimulates us to resist temptation, and to imitate examples so bright! And then how cheering to us, in our dreary earthly pilgrimage, to cast our eyes heavenward, and to catch a glimpse of that immortal glory which has already crowned the trials and sufferings of the saints; who were once pilgrims, like ourselves, encompassed with infirmity, but who are now shining, like the stars, in the glorious firmament of God! How the splendid vista encourages us to imitate their virtues on earth, that we may share their crowns in heaven! How powerfully and how eloquently it appeals to the noblest feelings of our nature! How strongly it attracts us to heaven! How it consoles us amidst all our tribulations! How many additional motives does it not give us "to praise God in his saints," and to love that heavenly Father, who, in crowning His servants, crowns only His own mercies! And, how strongly, and with what dramatic effect, does not the Catholic Church call forth all these noble feelings, by her perpetual round of festivals and anniversaries! Is there, in the cold and dreary land of Protestantism, any thing half so stimulating or ennobling, any thing at all calculated to elicit such feelings, or to prompt to such noble emulation of saintly virtue? Protestantism has, alas! virtually abolished, if it has not wholly stricken from the Apostles' Creed, the beautiful article which professes to believe in the "communion of saints!"

The communion of saints! how sublime the idea it unfolds! How it annihilates time, annihilates distance, and causes the hearts of all the friends of Christ and favorites of heaven to beat in unision of hallowed feeling! How it reaches, like a golden chain, from earth to heaven, and binds both together in indissoluble love and unity! How it makes us, poor exiles on earth, already "fellow-citizens of the saints, and the domestics of God!" How it makes the strong succor the weak, the rich succor the poor, those who abound in merits succor those who are needy, and those who are in glory succor those who are in tribulation !

1 Ephesians, ii, 19.

How beautifully it carries out the scriptural ideas, that "God is love," that "love is the fulfillment of the law," and that " charity never faileth!" How it lifts us up from this dull earth, and binds us all together, by binding us strongly to God! How, in fine, it irradiates the earth with the smiles of heaven, with those of the saints, of the angels, of the pure and spotless Mother of God, of God himself! "Fingant quid tale hæretici!-Let heretics produce any thing like this."

Can there be aught of idolatry in a doctrine, which thus plainly elevates human nature, adorns and ennobles Christianity, gives us new and more expansive views of the divine goodness, and redounds to the honor and glory of God himself? Can there be idolatry in a doctrine, which thus plainly leads us to God, the bestower "of every good gift" whether in heaven or earth, and causes us to fall down reverently at the footstool of His heavenly throne? Can He be offended with the honors which we pay to his own servants and favorites, for His sake, and precisely because they are His servants and favorites? Will the Son be jealous of the honor paid to His blessed Mother, and paid to her only because she is His Mother? Can He who was obedient to her, and who refused her nothing on earth, refuse her any thing in heaven? Can He be unmindful of her sufferings on earth for the love of Him, and of the sword of grief which transpierced her soul on His account? No, no. The Catholic doctrine is as reasonable and scriptural, as it is ennobling and sublime.

We here dismiss Mr. Palmer for the present, reserving to ourselves the privilege of examining, on some future occasion, his objections to the Catholic doctrine of satisfaction, with its adjuncts-indulgences and purgatory.

1 Tertullian.

30

XXIII. THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF

SATISFACTION.*

FAITH AND WORKS.

Harmony of Catholic doctrines-Their scope and influence-The great Physician-His religion medicinal-The Doctrine of Satisfaction intimately connected with that of the Atonement-Standing at the foot of the cross-The center of the religious system-Source of light and heat-The Atonement sufficient-And made for all-Our co-operation necessary for its application to us-Denying ourselves, and entering into the sacrificial spirit of Christ-Scriptural proofs-Practice of the saintsMotive for corporal austerities-The cross ever-present to the Christian mind-The sacrifice of the altar and that of the cross-Protestant view of the Atonement-Faith and works-Halting half way-The more comfortable and the safer way-Caustic passage of Tertullian-Two roads to heaven -Palmer's view-His arguments superficial and captious-Temporal punishment for sin already forgiven-Scriptural examples-Palmer's explanation of them refuted-His paltry quibbling -Charge of absurdity answered-Reasons for the temporal penalty remaining-Palmer grows pathetie -Troubling the peace of consciences-Unearthly character of the doctrine-The blessings it has produced.

PERHAPS the most beautiful feature in the Catholic religion, and, at the same time, one of the most striking evidences of its divine origin, is the wonderful harmony which pervades its entire system of faith, worship, and morals. One doctrine naturally leads to another, and this again to a third; and the whole series of principles thus forms one unbroken chain of truth, which reaches from earth to heaven, and binds man strongly to his God. Remove but one link, and you break the connection, and destroy the integrity and usefulness of the chain itself. Add but one link to it, and you uselessly cumber its divine simplicity, and greatly diminish its heavenly beauty, if you do not even wholly mar its lofty purpose.

Whoever has studied well the philosophy of the Catholic system, and sounded its inmost depths, must have been forcibly struck by the intimate. connection of its various parts, and the singular adaptation of the whole to the great purposes of the Christian religion: the purification and regeneration of fallen human nature, the restoration in the human soul of the partially defaced image of God, and the leading of man back to his Creator. To these sublime ends every thing in Catholicity directly tends. Its doctrines enlighten the understanding, dispelling its clouds, and unfolding to it both the origin and the remedy of sin. Its moral principles guide the will and control the emotions of the heart; while its sacraments are the divinely appointed channels of grace, through which flow, in a

*LETTERS TO N. WISEMAN, D. D.. on the Errors of Romanism, &c. By the Rev. William Palmer, M. A., of Worcester College, Oxford. Baltimore: Joseph Robinson, 1843. Letters II, III, and IV. On the foundation of the doctrine of Satisfaction Indulgences, &c. and on Satisfaction or Penances.

perennial stream, the abundant waters of life eternal, "for the healing of the nations." In this wonderful economy of grace, no want of humanity is left unprovided for, no ill is without its proper remedy.

Man, created originally to the image and likeness of his God, and constituted in a state of innocence and sanctification, became, by his fall, a victim of cruel wounds and of deeply seated hereditary infirmities, both of soul and body. Christ came to restore him to the high estate from which he had fallen, and to heal his multiplied, aggravated, and inveterate spiritual maladies. For this purpose He established His religion, which was thus essentially medicinal, both in its character and in its object. It presented a balm for every disease, a panacea for every malady. The blessed Saviour accordingly represents himself as a heavenly physician, divinely sent to heal the sick: They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are sick."''

The Catholic religion possesses, in a remarkable degree, these distinctive characteristics of primitive Christianity. All its institutions are eminently healing in their nature and influence. They are founded on so deep a knowledge of human nature; they manifest so clear an insight into the hidden labyrinths of the human heart; they are so unearthly in their nature, so clearly supernatural in their means of action, so far remote from the senses, and so completely at war with the darling passions of fallen man: and, withal, they harmonize together so admirably in all their parts, that man could not, by possibility, have devised such a system; clearly the work of God. In viewing the sublime character and the beautiful blending together of the various parts composing it, we are forced to exclaim with the royal psalmist: "The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves. This heavenly system flatters not the pride of man, it panders to no passion of corrupt human nature:- it declares war against all that is perverse, and bows down "every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God."

- it is

A striking illustration of this divine harmony and admirable adaptation of the Catholic system to human needs, is presented in its DOCTRine of BATISFACTION. This doctrine, besides being the basis of many other Catholic tenets and observances, flows itself directly from the great and cardinal principle of the ATONEMENT. It is but a carrying out, an application, and a perpetual embodiment of this great mystery of redemption; it is but a constant preaching of "Christ and of Him crucified." It is the spirit of the great sacrifice of Calvary still lingering upon earth, in the bosom of Christ's cherished disciples ;- a spirit, however, not inert

or disembodied, but vigorous and displaying itself by constant external acts of heroic self-denial and mortification. The CROSS, the CROSS of Jesus! -How many saving truths, how many soul-stirring remembrances, how many thrilling associations, cluster around the cross!

To take an enlarged and adequate view of Christianity, we must stand at the foot of the cross, with the blessed Mother of the Crucified, and look

1 St Matthew ix, 12.

2 Psalms xviii, 10.

3 Corinth. x, 5.