Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/367

 Cv. XI.] Pz NANC E---SAT!BIACTIO N. 359 ehosm Keum-fucum. This is charged upon them by Grayinn, a Do- minican, and the same policy is described in a Spanish memorial pre- sented to Philip IV., king of Spain, by the friars of the Philippine islands, as reported by Thomas Hurlado, in his book of Martyrology, p. 427. The cardinals of the society de propaganda ft were obliged expressly to forbid the Jesuits, upon pain of excommunication, to allow the worship of idols under any pretext whatever, and to conceal the mystery of the cross from those whom they instructed in the faith, po- sitively commanding them to admit no one to baptism till after such instruction, and enjoining them to ehibit a crucifix in their churches; as is amply detailed in a decree of the congregation on the ninth of July, 1646, signed by Cardinal Cappani. "In this manner they have spread over the whole world, by their doctrine of Probahia opinions, which is the spring and foundation of all this disorder. You must learn what it is from their own testimony, for they take no more pains to conceal it than they do the facts I am now stating, with this difference only, that they justify their/roman and litieal prudence under the p. retext of divine and C!wistian prudence, as if faith, supported by tradition, were not invariable in all times and places; as if the rule were to bend to the accommodation of the per- son who was to submit to it; and as if there were no other means for sinners to purify their stains of guilt than corrupting the law of God: whereas ' the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul,' to conform to its salutary directions." The foregoing picture, though drawn in 1656, will but too well cor- respond to the present state of the Church of Rome, which has incor- porated into her system the doctrines of the Jesuits; not indeed by formal articles of religion, but by the more effectual way of permitting the followers of Loyola to teach as they choose. 17. The penances and satisfactions enjoined in the Church of Rome furnish no adequate restraints or proper �/uts on sin. They do not lend to reform sinners. Indeed, they do not appear to be enjoined for the purpose of turning men fwm sin, or of encouraging and aiding them in righteousness. To secure submission to the clergy, and adherence to their church, seem to be the principal ends in view in the penances enjoined; but to reform men from sin to holiness seems to be a secondary or remote thing in the penitential of Rome. And though they teach that penances are vindictive, medicinal or curative, and pre- tzrvative,* nevertheless their doctrine of tOeey operaturn paralyzes the effects in general of what sound teaching give concerning amend- ment of life. But if we consider the or/roes for which penances are enjoined, and the kinds of the penances, it will appear that they impose but slight restraints on the commission of sin. As it regards the A-/rids of penance, we will present a list of them made ready to our hand by Dens, in his System of Divinity, which is the text-book used at the Maynooth College in Ireland, and is pro- nounced as a standard work by all Roman Catholics, except whe.n. they find it convenient to evade or deny its authority when pressed by Pro- estants. He divides satisfactory works, as he calls ruere, into thre kinds, viz., prayer, footing, and almsoratio, jejuneurn, et ,. �Deno de Satisfac., [%0. 175, Con. Trid., sess. xiv, c. 8. l

�