was affirmed, has done much more than was required for reconciling God and man. One single drop of his blood would have sufficed for that; but he shed his blood abundantly, that he might form for his church a treasury that eternity itself should never exhaust. The supererogatory merits of the saints, the reward of the works they have done beyond and additional to the obligations of duty, have still further enriched this treasury. Its guardianship and distribution are confided to the Vicar of Christ on the earth. He applies to every sinner, for sins committed after baptism, these merits of Christ and of his saints, in the measure and degree that his sins have made necessary. Who would dare to attack a custom of so high and holy an origin?

Rapidly was this almost inconceivable invention reduced to a system. The scale imposed ten, twenty years of penance, for such and such kinds of sin. "It is not merely for each kind of sin, but for each "sinful action, that this penance of so many years is "demanded," exclaimed the mercenary priests. Behold mankind, bowed down under the weight of a penance that seemed almost eternal.

"But for what purpose this long penance, when life "is so short-when can it take effect? How can man "secure the time requisite for its performance? You

are imposing on him centuries of severe discipline. "When death comes he will but laugh at you-for "death will discharge him from his burthen. Ah, "welcome death!" But this objection was provided against. The philosophers of Alexandria had spoken of a fire in which men were to be purified. Some ancient doctors in the church had received the no

tion. Rome declared this philosophic tenet the doctrine of the church; and the Pope, by a bull, added purgatory to his domain. He declared that man would have to expiate in purgatory all he could not expiate on earth; but that indulgences would deliver men's souls from that intermediate state in which their sins would otherwise hold them. Thomas Aquinas set forth this new doctrine in his celebrated Summa. Nothing was left undone to fill the mind with terror. Man is by nature inclined to fear an unknown futurity and the dark abodes beyond the grave; but that fear was artfully excited and increased by horrible descriptions of the torments of this purifying fire. We see at this day in many Catholic countries paintings exposed in the temples, or in the crossways, wherein poor souls engulphed in flames invoke alleviation for their miseries. Who could refuse the money that dropt into the treasury of Rome redeemed the soul from such horrible torments?

But a further means of increasing this traffic was now discovered. Hitherto it had been the sins of the living that had been turned to profit; they now began to avail themselves of the sins of the dead. In the 13th century it was declared that the living might, by making certain sacrifices, shorten or even terminate the torments their ancestors and friends were enduring in purgatory. Instantly the compassionate hearts of the faithful offered new treasures for the priests.

To regulate this traffic, they invented shortly after, probably in the pontificate of John XXII. the celebrated and scandalous tax of indulgences, of which more than forty editions are extant: a

mind of the least delicacy would be shocked at the repetition of the horrors therein contained. Incest was to cost, if not detected, five groschen, if known, or flagrant, six. A certain price was fixed to the crime of murder, another to infanticide, adultery, perjury, burglary, &c. Oh shame of Rome! exclaims Claudius of Espersa, a Roman divine; and we may add, Oh, shame to human nature! For no reproach can attach to Rome which does not recoil with equal force on mankind in general. Rome is human nature exalted, and displaying some of its worst propensities. We say this in truth as well as in justice.

Boniface VIII. the boldest and most ambitious of the Popes, after Gregory VII. effected still more than his predecessors had done.

He published a bull in 1300, by which he declared to the Church, that all who should at that time or thenceforth make the pilgrimage to Rome, which should take place every hundred years, should there receive a plenary indulgence. Upon this, multitudes flocked from Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, France, Spain, Germany, Hungary, and other quarters. Old men, of sixty and seventy, set out on the pilgrimage; and it was computed that 200,000 visited Rome in one month. All these foreigners brought with them rich offerings, and the Pope and the Romans saw their coffers replenished.

The avarice of the Pontiffs soon fixed this jubilee at intervals of fifty years, afterwards at thirty-three years, and at last at twenty-five. Then, for the greater convenience of the purchasers, and to increase the profits of the vendors, they transferred both the

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jubilee and its indulgences from Rome to the marketplaces of all the nations of Christendom. It was no longer necessary to abandon one's home: what others had been obliged to seek beyond the Alps, each might now obtain at his own door.

The evil was at its height,-and then the Reformer arose.

We have seen what had become of the principle which was designed to govern the history of Christianity; we have also seen what became of that which should have pervaded its doctrine. Both were now lost.

To set up a single caste as mediators between God and man, and to barter in exchange for works, and penances, and gold, the salvation freely given by God; -such was Popery.

Το open wide to all, through Christ Jesus, and without any earthly mediator, and without that power that called itself the Church, free access to the gift of God, eternal life ;-such was Christianity, and such was the Reformation.

Popery may be compared to a high wall, erected by the labour of ages, between man and God. Whoever will scale it must pay or suffer in the attempt; and even then he will fail to overleap it.

The Reformation is the power which has thrown down this wall, has restored Christ to man, and has thus made plain the way of access to the Creator.

Popery interposes the Church between God and

man.

Christianity and the Reformation bring God and man face to face.

Popery separates man from God:-the Gospel re-unites them.

After having thus traced the history of the decline and loss of the two grand principles which were to distinguish the religion of God from systems of man's devising, let us see what were the consequences of this immense change.

History shews that the grandest events, the most striking revolutions, often flow from one simple cause. We behold this truth in the subject we are contemplating. All the errors, and all the corruptions of the church, may be traced to one great and primary error, which has been already indicated, and to which the papal authority itself owed its power.

But before we proceed to sketch the state of Christendom at the period of the Reformation, let us do honour to the church of that middle period, which intervened between the age of the Apostles and the Reformers. The church was still the church, although fallen and more and more enslaved. In a word, she was at all times the most powerful friend of man. Her hands, though manacled, still dispensed blessings. Distinguished servants of Christ diffused during these ages a beneficent light; and in the humble convent-the sequestered parish-there were found poor monks and poor priests to alleviate bitter sufferings. The church Catholic was not the Papacy. This filled the place of the oppressor; that of the oppressed. The Reformation which declared war against the one, came to liberate the other. And it must be acknowledged, that the Papacy itself was at times, in the hands of Him who brings good out