ADVERTISEMENT TO VOLUME II.

In the Lectures which compose the following volume a slight deviation has been made from the order in which they were delivered. The tenth Lecture was upon the Real Presence, or Transubstantiation; but, as this subject was treated on three successive Sundays, on account of the great numbers who could attend on that day, while other topics were discussed on the Wednesdays and Fridays, it has been thought expedient to proceed with these, and place the three Lectures on the Real Presence together, at the close of the series.

This was not

A Discourse has been added on Indulgences. Idelivered at Moorfields from want of time. It had, however, been given at the Sardinian chapel, in a short course delivered there during Advent, 1835, and a strong desire having been expressed by many who heard it, that it should be published, the author has been induced to write it from his notes, and add it as a part of the present series.

54, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Eve of SS. Peter and Paul.

LECTURE X.

ON THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE.

"Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained."" John xx. 23.

I SHALL this day endeavor to explain to you, in the simplest manner, the doctrine of the Catholic church regarding the forgiveness of sins; and the grounds whereupon she maintains the practice of confession to be an institution of our Lord. It would, however, be necessarily unjust to the subject to enter into it alone, and detached from those other important institutions, which we consider an essential part of the remedy appointed by Christ, for the forgiveness of sins. It will, therefore, be necessary for me to enter, perhaps at some length, into other considerations connected with this subject, and endeavor rather to lay before you the entire form and substance of that sacrament, which the Catholic church maintains to be one of the most valuable institutions left by our Saviour to the ministration of his church-that is to say, the sacrament of penance-of which, indeed, confession is to be considered but a part.

Nothing is more common than to separate our belief and our practice; and then, placing the latter before public notice as though standing on independent grounds, and having no connection with the former, to represent it as a mere human invention, devoid of authority in the word of God. In order to remove any impression of this nature, it will be proper to show you this institution, prescribed in the church of Christ, as in close connection with other and still more important doctrines. I shall, therefore, endeavor to go through all the parts of this sacrament, comparing the institution believed by us to have been left by our Saviour, and preserved in the church of God, with the method supposed by other religions to have been instituted, and to be in operation there, for the attainment of the same objects.

I have again and again inculcated that in the works of God, or in all those institutions left by him to mankind, there will always be found a certain consistency or harmony of parts,-so that whatever has been demonstrated regarding one portion of the system which he left on earth, VOL. II.-1.

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