tity, Matrimony but too frequently becomes a source of scandal. Cases have been made public, in which women, after having had five or six husbands, in consequence of repeated divorces, at last returned to their first husband after a new divorce. Does not Marriage, in this way, come to have more the character of a brutal connection, than of a Christian alliance?

Indeed, Protestantism seems but too much inclined to sanction even polygamy, as was actually done by the Baptists in Luther's time, and by Luther himself, along with Melanchthon and Bucer, when these founders of Protestantism gave leave to the Landgrave Philip of Hesse to have two wives at the same time. Mormonism, too, is one of the noble plants grown in the hotbed of Protestantism.

GOOD WORKS.

By the grace of the Sacraments, and by the actual graces of the Holy Ghost, a Catholic feels himself strong enough to resist every temptation, able to overcome all obstacles to virtue, to become more virtuous every day, more and more like to Christ by the daily practice of good works, to increase in merit before God, every hour and moment, and to gain an ever increasing crown of glory by his

merits. This is truly a great consolation for a man who loves God, and is desirous of improving in virtue. "I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me."* I can do all things, if I only have the will to follow Christ with the fervor of the Saints. If I only have the will, "my present tribulation, which is momentary and light, will work in me above measure an exceeding weight of glory."

Protestantism deprives you of this consoling and powerful motive for practicing virtue, by teaching you that you can do no good works at all, even with the aid of Divine grace, and that what appears right in your eyes is a sin before God.

Many among you, unacquainted with the original doctrines of Protestantism, and Protestants only in name, may be disposed to accuse me of calumny. To prove my assertion, I make some quotations from the works of the early Reformers. Luther says, "Every good work, though performed as well as possible, is still a venial sin."+"Yea, every action of the just man is damnable and a mortal sin."

Philipp., iv. 4.

† Assert. Omn. Art. Opp. Tom. II., p. 325.

407,

Cp. Antilatom. (Confut. Luther. Rat. latom.) fol. 406,

Melanchthon is just as explicit. He says, "All our actions and exertions are sins."* "Yea, even to eat, to drink, to work, to teach, all this is sin." Calvin teaches the same doctrine: "Never yet has a pious person done a pious work, which was not damnable in the sight of God."+

How, with such a prospect before them, can men have any zeal for Christian sanctity or genuine virtue? The certainty of offending God by our best works, must inevitably deaden and destroy, in the very root, every desire for virtue. The doctrine, if generally acted on, must sweep every vestige of virtue from the earth. In all cases, when adhered to in any degree, it is enough to sadden and deject, and degrade in his own estimation, every honest man, who believes in God and longs to be pleasing in His sight.

If you ask the Reformers, What hope can a man have of saving his soul, if he is not able to do any thing towards saving it? You promise him salvation, and command him to hope; but on what ground is his hope to rest?

Melanchth. Loc. Theol., p. 108.

† Ibid, p. 92.

Calvin. Instit. 1. II. c. viii. 2 59; 1. III. c. iv. ? 28, and c. xiv. 2 11.

The early Reformers answer, and consistent Protestants at the present day agree with them, that man, as he is thoroughly wicked, can only be saved by faith. If he has the faith, sin cannot injure him, and he has no need of good works. Some of you may put this down as an unheard of calumny, and indignantly ask me when and where the Reformers ever uttered such abominable doctrines.

Open Luther's works, for instance his "De Captivitate Babylonica," and you will find this doctrine taught and inculcated.* In a letter to Melanchthon, his friend and coReformer, he uses the following language: "Sin as much as you can, but believe still more firmly. We must sin as long as we live. It is enough to believe firmly in Christ, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. From Him sin will not separate us, were we to commit murder and adultery a thousand times a day.†

Some of Luther's followers went so far as to assert that good works are dangerous to salvation, on the false ground that they impair the saving confidence of faith. Nicholas Amsdorf,

De Captiv. Babyl. 1. II., p. 26.

† Epist. Dr. Mart. Luth. a Joan. Aurifabro collect tom. I. Jena, 1556.

an old friend of Luther's, maintained this, in the year 1559, as genuine Lutheran doctrine. The doctrine is held by some Calvinist Protestants to this day. Some time ago, I met with one who defended it, a Swiss Calvinist preacher, with whom I happened to travel to St. Louis. As regards Americans, I hope there is not one among them who takes such abominable views of the Christian Religion. Yet it must always remain true that the Reformers inculcated them as the pure doctrine of Christ; and, with such leaders, Protestantism must, to say the least, look exceedingly suspicious.

THE STATE OF MAN AFTER DEATH.

PURGATORY.

Our life on earth will soon be past, and eternity will quickly begin for us. A Christian may not be conscious of any mortal sin unatoned for, yet he knows that the eye of God discovers imperfections even in His saints; he feels that he is not worthy of Christ, and has no resource except in God's infinite mercy, and

Cfr. Calv. Instit. 1. III. c. 12. 86. Item Luther. De Cfr. Bab. 1. ii., p. 284, and Edit. Lips. 1. xiv., p. 128.