hurried away into thoughts and acts contrary to their vows by its perusal, and especially by putting to the other sex questions on which depend the validity of matrimony, the author points out to them an infallible means to preserve them from this danger —a prayer to the Virgin Mary.

The last work I shall refer to is a little book printed at Lyons, with the approbation of the VicarGeneral, and circulated by the missionaries. It is entitled Examination of the Conscience, Rule of Life, Remedies against Sin, Abridgment of our Faith; and is distributed among young people of both sexes at schools.

As to its morality and character, we shall refer the reader to the following extract from the Constitutionel, May 2nd, 1825 :-"We have looked into this book, and found to our surprise at the ninth page, appropriated to the sixth and ninth Commandments, obscene expressions, impure details, a complete exposé of the most monstrous combinations of licentiousness; in short, a treatise to teach debauchery and corruption; and this at a time when the Jesuits are making such an outcry about religion and morality. The reader may judge of its improper nature, when we say that it is so bad that we cannot, dare not copy it; and we are sure the Etoile and Drapeau Blanc dare not insert any portion of it in their pages, though it is approved by vicars-general,

and circulated by the missionaries. This book has been printed at various places, and in a short time will be distributed through the whole of France, and our youth will be instructed by a book to which the cases of conscience of Dr. Sanchez were pure. In looking at this gross abuse we must ask why the Procureurs du Roi, so sensible on other occasions, have no power when morality is thus outraged and justice violated? are they not fathers? have they no daughters at boarding schools? and are they content with this mode of insinuating into their minds a knowledge of debauchery, and acquainting them with the nomenclature of a series of vices of which, in ordinary circumstances, women remain ignorant all their lives? Are these magistrates deaf to the wishes of fathers? and must parents not attempt to save the honour of their families and the future honour of their country? Is there not a commission to examine books of devotion? Is it not time to overlook the theatre and examine what is taught at Church, to set 'Tartuffe at liberty and to put the Examen under constraint?" "

Though there are numberless other disgusting and immoral books for the use of Catholics, the reader may judge from these works, which were written for the instruction of priests and confessors, what are the principles of morality, religion, politics, and philo

sophy of the Jesuits (for all the principal clergy and bishops are now Jesuits, as was openly affirmed by Bouvier, bishop of Mans, the author of the Institutiones Philosophic), and what are likely to be the probable results of confession and education entrusted to men who publicly preach and inculcaté such doctrines.

ON THE PRACTICE, WORKING, AND MORALITY OF AURICULAR CONFESSION.

AURICULAR Confession is not of God, but a mere carnal invention to serve the purposes of man. It clearly formed no portion of that Christianity which our Lord and his apostles taught on earth, preserved and handed down to us in the writings of the New Testament, for no traces are to be found of it in its pages, nor was it practised till several centuries after the establishment of Christianity. It was first introduced about the ninth, though it was was not considered binding and obligatory till the commencement of the thirteenth century. Had it been, as the Romanists pretend it to be, of divine institution, and considered as such in the early ages of the Church,

it would have been mentioned numberless times in the works of that period handed down to us, as has been the case in the numerous writings which have since appeared. The hold which God wished to have on man was on his gratitude, his love and obedience, for God would reign in all our hearts by love; the Romish Church on the contrary, would reign by fear, by sin, and by ignorance: fear, therefore, is the legitimate hold it would have on man; its object being to make sin tempting and absolution easy. If men were holy, pure, and undefiled before God, there would be no cause for fear, and the Church of Rome with all its Popes, its prelates, and its confessors, must virtually cease to exist. Any one who will take the trouble of referring to the homilies of Saint Chrysostom, Saint Hilary, Saint Augustin, Saint Basil, Tertullian, and Irenæus, the early fathers of the Church, will clearly see that these all deny the power which priests would assume to forgive sins, and that God alone can remit them. Saint Ambrosius says expressly, that men have not the right to remit sins: "Men lend their ministry in the remission of sins, but not as having a right to absolve: they pray, and God pardons—isti rogant, Divinitas donat." St. Amb., lib. ix., c. 18, "De Spiritu Sancto." But what says Irenæus, who lived considerably before the time of the fathers, in lib. ii., c. 17?—" Nemo potest remittere peccata, nisi solus Deus."

Let us add, moreover, to these testimonies, that of a bishop who lived in the sixth century, who thus expresses the prevailing opinion of his time. "It follows that God has made you judge and arbitrator; he has given you intelligence, in order that you may discern by yourself good and evil; that is, what is good and what is sin. He has given you the remedy after baptism, and has made you your own master to obtain absolution by yourself, without having recourse to a priest. Being sufficiently enlightened on this subject, correct your errors within yourselves, and wash out your sins by penitence."*

An evident proof that Jesus Christ did not attach to the forgiveness of sins a confession of the kind so craftily devised by the Popes of Rome, is, that he never exacted such an act upon any occasion when he forgave sins. In the Gospel of St. Matthew it is written, “And Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." He required only faith and love towards himself; as we see, again, in the example of the adulteress, to whom he says, addressing those by him, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven." Are we to think that Jesus Christ, before he pardoned the numerous sins of this woman,

*Laurentius Novarens, Episcop. Homil. Bib. Patr., tom. ii., p. 129. + Matt. ix. 2. Luke vii. 47, 48.