road can lead you to it but the road of the cross. You must Contend to enter in with the small number of the elect at the narrow gate of penance and mortification; for the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, as our Saviour says, Mat. c. xi. v. 12. and it is not to be carried but by curbing and counteracting the vicious inclinations of corrupt nature. I do not pretend, however, that you are bound to live up to the rigour of the wonderful austerities of St. Nicholas, because they are not proportioned to every one's strength, nor suitable to every condition; but, to be crowned with him in glory, you must follow his example by an imitation of those virtues which are within your reach, and centered in the sphere of your duty; for it is certain that a life which is a flat contradiction to his life, and the very reverse of it, neither has the Gospel for its pattern, nor will be able hereafter to stand the test of it on the terrible day of judgment. O what will then become of those half Christians, who, intent only on the gratification of their senses, let loose the reigns to their disorderly passions, and spend their days in a continual circle of criminal pleasures, pampering, indulging, and idolizing their corruptible bodies, without taking any pains to decorate their immortal souls with the real ornaments of virtue? What will become of those nominal Catholics who, by their detestable habits of drunkenness, cursing, swearing and blaspheming, are a scandal to the Church, a reproach to religion, a dishonour and disgrace to Christianity? They believe indeed like saints, but alas! many of them live worse than Turks, in an open violation of the commandments of God and the precepts of the Church. But let us at present draw a veil over such deplorable scandals, and take a more pleasing view of St. Nicholas of Tolentine, who not only adorned the Catholic Church by the sanctity of his life as you have aiready heard, but likewise by the splendour of his miracles, as I promised to shew you in the second point.

As sanctity is one of the distinguishing characters of the true Church of Christ, so in like manner the gift of miracles is another character and mark, whereby the true Church and religion of Christ is distinguished and discerned from all other sects and religions on earth. It is well known that all the illus trious saints who have flourished in different nations these seventeen hundred years past, have lived and died in the bosom of the Catholic Church, which plainly shews that she must be the true Church of God and the real spouse of Jesus Christ, since she has always been the Church of the Saints, and the mother and fertile nursery of the children of God. It is no less evident, and the world must acknowledge it, that her religion has been founded, confirmed and propagated by miracles, which was one of the motives that attracted that great luminary, St. Augustine, to her communion. This holy doctor assures us, in his Book of the City of God, that he was himself an eye-wit

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ness to various miracles wrought in the Catholic Church by means of the relics of saints. Hence he urges the following dilemma against the unbelievers of his own days: The Catholic religion either was confirmed by miracles or it was not; if by miracles, then it is a divine religion, and has God for its author, because God being essentially true, could not set his hand and seal to a lie, or authorize error by real miracles. If you deny that it was confirmed by miracles, you still prove it to be a divine religion, and you acknowledge a greater miracle than you deny; for to convert the world to the Catholic religion without a miracle, would be the greatest and most divine of all miracles; so that whatever way you consider its establishment, you must admit its veracity, and confess that it has the divine authority stamped upon it in the clearest characters. Unbelievers, in general, explode and ridicule miracles, because they were never vested with such power, nor favoured with the like prerogative; but to deny the miracles which have been wrought in confirmation of the truth of the Catholic religion, is not only to discredit the most authentic records and annals of all nations and ages, but also to falsify the Scriptures, to contradict the word of God, and to give the lie openly to Jesus Christ, who positively assures us, John, c. xiv. that those who would believe in him should work greater miracles than he himself had wrought; and again, Mark, c. xvi. that they should cast out devils, and heal all kind of disorders in his name. Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament were gifted with the like power of working various miracles, which served as credentials to prove the legality of their mission, and to shew that they did not come of their own accord without being sent, like the false Prophets, of whom the Prophet Jeremy complains in c. xxiii. The apostles also proved their mission by a multitude of miracles, and Christ himself, though his heavenly Father and the Prophets bore testimony of him, declared to the Jews that they would not have sinned in not receiving him, if he had not done such works among them as no one else had done, John, C. xv. v. 24. So necessary has it been always judged for those who came to found a new religion, or to preach up any novelty in faith and morals, to prove their doctrine by miracles, in order to shew that it was not an human invention, nor the idle production of their own brain, but a divine revelation which had God himself for its author, and was stamped with his divine approbation. It was for this reason, that in all ages such as have set up for new lights, sent immediately from God, or have pretended to an extraordinary mission, and taken upon themselves to commence preachers and fabricators of new-fangled systems of religion, were justly challenged to produce their patents and credentials, stamped with the broad seal of Heaven and ratified by some evident miracle, which, if they were not able to do, they were always held by the faithful in no other light than that of usurpers, cheats and impostors, prompted

on by the father of lies, as was the case of the Prophets of Baal, in the famous contest between them and the Prophet Elias, mentioned in the 3d Book of Kings, c. xviii. And really God, who is the sovereign wisdom and the sovereign justice, does not expect that we should receive or give credit to any such new gospellers upon their own bare word or assertion; otherwise we should be constantly exposed to the danger of being led astray by false Prophets, who never fail to cry out, The Lord, The Lord, though the Lord never sent them. Christ himself charges us to beware of such preachers and teachers, as wolves that come in sheep's clothing; and the Apostle goes so far as to say, that though an Angel should come from Heaven to preach up a new Gospel, we are to look upon him as an anathema, Galat. c. i. v. 8.

Among the many saints of the New Testament, to whom the Almighty has been pleased to communicate the power of working miracles, St. Nicholas of Tolentine obtains one of the first places; for, according to the declaration of Eugenius IV. who canonized him in the year 1446, No Saint since the days of the Apostles, ever adorned or confirmed the Church of God with more miracles than Nicholas of Tolentine. He therefore stiled him The Patron of the Church, and honoured him with the title of Thanmaturgus, by excellency, that is to say, The Worker of Miracles. The bull of his canonization alone contains upwards of three hundred renowned miracles, strictly examined, well attested, and juridically proved by the testimonies of three hundred and seventy-one witnesses, amongst whom are reckoned no less than five-and-twenty persons who had been raised to life by his intercession. As to the wonderful effects that are attributed to the blood of St. Nicholas, and to the small breads which he was accustomed in his life-time to give to the sick as a remedy for various distempers, I shall, for brevity's sake, pass them over in silence. Let the four elements, and the four parts of the earth to which the fame and sanctity of his miracles reached in a short time, so as to induce several cities to choose him for their patron and protector under God, speak now for me, and relate what they have often beheld with astonishment. However, to disabuse those who seem to glory in ridiculing and making a jest of such matters, I must beg leave to observe, that the Almighty has been frequently pleased to unite grandeur with simplicity, and to make choice of things, mean and contemptible in themselves, in order to demonstrate his power and magnificence, goodness and mercy. We read in the Old Testament, that he made choice of the rod of Moses to fill all Egypt with prodigies, and of the mantle of Elias to divide the waters of the River Jordan, and of the bones of Elisæus to raise a dead man to life, and of the brazen serpent in the desert, to work a great number of miraculous cures. The New Testament informs us also, that the Almighty had made use of the shadow of St. Peter to heal all kind of disorders, and of

the handkerchiefs and aprons which had touched the body of St. Paul, to banish spirits, and of a little clay moistened with spittle, to restore sight to a blind man. If all this be true, as

no Christian can deny, why should it be deemed ridiculous to give human credit to the authentic records of different nations, and to the united testimonies of numberless learned, pious and credible witnesses and writers all over Christendom? Why should it he counted absurd to believe piously, upon so respectable an authority, that the Almighty, whose arm is not shortened, has been pleased to shew the greatness of his goodness, mercy and power in his faithful servant, Nicholas of Tolentine, in order to rouze sinners from their lethargy, and encourage them to be more submissive and attentive to his sacred laws? By rendering his saint so wonderful and so conspicuous, both for the lustre of his virtues and the splendor of his miracles, the Lord manifested to the world the truth and divine origin of the Catholic faith and religion which he professed, enriched the Church with a new ornament, and furnished all succeeding ages with an illustrious model of piety, penance and mortification.

O Almighty and Eternal God, we thank, praise, and glorify thee for all the wonders of thy grace, mercy and power, which tby adorable goodness hast been pleased to display in favour of thy Saints. Grant that by following their example we may find acceptance in thy sight, and after having experinced the wonderful effects of thy tender mercies in this life, we may partake of thy eternal glory in the next. Which is the blessing, my brethren, that I sincerely wish you all, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST. On the Nature of Indulgences and Jubilees.

Confide, fili, remittuntur tibi peccata.—Mat, c. ix. v. 2.

Son, be of good heart, thy sins are forgiven thee,-Mat. c. ix. v. 2.

WE do not find that the power of remitting sin was ever conferred on any human creature before the Son of God be came man. This signal blessing was reserved for the children of God under the new Law of Grace. Christ our Lord, as man, being at the same time true God, was the first who received this power from his heavenly Father, and the Scripture informs us that he exercised it on several occasions. We

read in the Gospel of this day, that he wrought an illustrious miracle to convince the incredulous Jews that he had power on earth to forgive sins. The Scribes and Pharisees, a set of carping hypocrites, who made it their constant practice to censure his doctrine, to misconstrue his words, and to traduce his most innocent actions, were scandalized, and charged him in their own hearts with blasphemy, on hearing him say to a man who had been brought to him, lying on a bed, and ill of the palsy, Son, be of good heart, thy sins are forgiven thee. Wherefore our Divine Redeemer, knowing their thoughts, and willing to confirm his words and doctrine, replied with his usual meekness and charity, Which is it easier to say, thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say, rise up and walk? But that you may know the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, I say to thee, addressing himself then to the sick man, Rise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house, which the sick man accordingly did in an instant, to the great astonishment of the crowd of the people who were eye-witnesses hereof, and who began immediately to glorify God for having given such power to men.

It is true, God alone has power of himself to forgive sins; but Christ, who is both God and man, could and did communicate this power of remitting sins, in his name, and by his au thority, to his Apostles and their lawful successors, as his ministers and instruments. (See Sermon on Low Sunday, Vol. I. p. 260.) It is in virtue of this power and commission that the pastors of the Church have been accustomed, ever since the earliest years of Christianity, to exercise a spiritual and judiciary authority in the sacred tribunal of penance, and not only to absolve the faithful from the guilt of their sins upon a sincere repentance, but likewise to grant them indulgences occasionally, when a just cause required it, for the purpose of releasing them from the debt of temporal punishment, which generally remains to be discharged, either in this life or in the next, even after the sins themselves are forgiven, both as to the guilt and the eternal punishment due to them in hell. This practice, and the doctrine of absolution, when dispassionately considered, fairly represented, and rightly understood, far from being any way derogatory or injurious to the honour of God, will be found to redound very much to it, and to be a great curb to sin. Instead of promoting sin, or being an encouragement to a sinner, to persevere in iniquity upon the confidence of being absolved whenever he pleases, nothing contributes more to the real conversion of sinners, as nothing lays corrupt nature under so many severe restraints, nothing subjects it to more humiliating or more. penal conditions, nothing encourages the practice of works of piety and religion, charity and penance more effectually. To imagine, then, that by an absolution, or by an indulgence, is meant a leave or license to commit sin, or at least a pardon