Cs&P. XI.] PintaricE :ATmrAOTHm. ?J61 merit: the principal error is in making it an atonement for sin. A per* son may suffer a great deal by fasting, if carried to excess; but so far as it i? a Christian duty, it is salutary both to body and mind. Alms- giving can be considered as a punishment only by those who worship their money, or who believe not the words of Christ: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." There may be suffering enough under the head of voluntary austerities; but to suppose that God is at all pleased with such things, much less as a satisfaction for sin, shows that false and degrading notions of the character of God are entertained by the Church of Rome. The character of popery in this article may be compared with the cruel rites of heathen idolatry; and though the worshippets of Juggernaut exceed in their austerities and self-tortures the voluntary or exacted tortures of the Church of Rome, both act on the same principle, and both are unscriptural and injurious to man. But as it regards the peculiar penances which are enjoined, they are reduced from the ancient canonical penances to private and arbitrary, from years to hours, from great severity to trivial observances, from fasting and public shame to saying over beads; and if 80me confessors hxppen to be severe, there are ways enough to be relieved. For the penitent may' have leave to go to a 1e88 severe confessor, or he may have his penances commuted for raghey or some easier penance, or he may get somebody else to do them for him, or his penances may be all supplied by indulgenoes, of which there is such great 8tore at Rome, that, as Pope Boniface has said, "No man is able to number them." An indulgence is frequently no great charge, and therefore the penances can easily be performed through their means. A little alms to a p. riest, a small oblation to a church, a pilgrimage to the image or relics of a saint, wearing St. Francis's cord, saying over the beads with a 10wed appendant, entering into a fraternity, praying at a privileged altar, leaving a legacy for masses, visiting a privileged cemetery, and a hundred other devices, will secure the sinner from suffering here or hereafter. It may be worth while to give some specimens of Roman Catholic Penances. In 1822, severe fasts and other austeritie8 were enjoined on T. Hogan for reading the Bible, as appears from the following com- munication, which was published in the Christian Advocate and Journal for July 31, 1835 :-- "RomsH PENANcs.--An article in the Protestant Vindicator of May 27, 1835, entitled 'Novelty in New-York,' brought to my recol- lection some circumstances in my own experience, that is not a novelty to me or to any true papist. I have endured more severe ansterities than parading through the streets; and I now give you one experience of penance which the priest commanded, and which was performed by myself. "About the close of the year 1822 1 always went to confession every week. At that time a very heavy penance was enjoined upon me by the bishop, who was my father confessor. I was kept kneeling twelve hours out of twenty-four for twenty-one days. All those twelve hours every day I was commanded to repeat the creed, the pater noster, tit, ave Mary', the psalter of Jesus, and parts of the vespers, &c. During the whole twenty-one days of penance I was kept from all flesh; and besides, fern' days of each week were allotted as total fast-?ys, whisk 1
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