The only rational principle which can regulate self-denial, and give it the stamp of a Christian virtue, would condemn the whole of the monkish system at once: Rome, therefore, cannot, will

in castris Christianæ pœnitentiæ... Infidelium et hæreticorum tenebras perpetuis deflebat lacrymis, atque ad placandam divinæ ultionis iram, voluntarios proprii corporis cruciatus Deo, pro eorum salute dicabat... Tam anxio castigandi corporis desiderio æstuabat, ut quamvis secus suaderent morbi, quibus afflictabatur, corpus ciliciis, catenis, urticarum manipulis, aliisque asperrimis flagellis sæpe cruciaret, et aliquando inter spinas volutaret, sic Deum alloqui solita: Domine, aut pati aut mori'... Ei morienti adesse visus est inter angelorum agmina Christus Jesus: et arbor arida cellæ proxima statim effloruit." Die 15 Octobris.

St. Rose of Lima... "Oblongo asperrimoque cilicio sparsim minusculas acus intexuit; sub velo coronam densis aculeis introrsus obarmatam, interdiu noctuque gestavit. Sanctæ Catharina Senensis ardua premens vestigia, catenâ ferreâ, triplici nexu circumductâ, lumbos cinxit. Lectulum sibi è truncis nodosis composuit, horumque vacuas commissuras fragminibus testarum implevit. Cellulam sibi angustissimam struxit in extremo horti angulo, ubi cælestium contemplationi dedita, crebris disciplinis, inediâ, vigiliis corpusculum extenuans, at spiritu vegetata, larvas dæmonum frequenti certamine victrix, impavidè protrivit ac superavit. . . Exinde cœpit supernis abundare deliciis, illustrari visionibus, colliquescere Seraphicis ardoribus. Angelo tutelari, sanctæ Catharinæ Senensi, Virgini Deiparæ inter assiduas apparitiones mirè familiaris, a Christo has voces audire meruit: Rosa cordis mei, tu mihi sponsa esto."" Die 30 Augusti.

not admit it. Make the good of mankind the only ground for voluntary endurance of pain; make the habit of rational self-denial (without which extensive usefulness is impossible) the object of certain slight privations, used as a discipline of mind and body; and a convent assumes the character of a mad-house. Penance is, consequently, erected into an independent virtue, and saints are made to appear after death, in glory, to proclaim the Indian doctrine of heavenly enjoyments purchased by bodily sufferings *.

The models which Rome presents for imitation, are not more removed from the spiritual simplicity of the Gospel, than they are from that soberness of devotional feeling which pervades the whole of the New Testament. Read the lives of saints who have lived since the beginning of the sixteenth century; and, whether male or female, you will find a sentimentality of devotion, a suspicious kind of tenderness, which from time to time, has alarmed the truly sincere sons of Rome,

* St. Peter of Alcantara is said to have appeared after death to St. Theresa, and exclaimed: O felix pænitentia, quæ tantam mihi promeruit gloriam! Die 31 Octobris.

under the grosser shape of devotional sensuality. There is, I am aware, a distinction between the raptures of St. Theresa, and the ecstatic reveries of the quietists; but on reading her own account of her feelings, and hearing the description which the church of Rome gives of her visions, it is imLone! Kaner, possible not to observe that both have some moral

elements in common. The picture of St. Theresa

fainting under the wound which an angel inflicts on her heart with a fiery spear, were it not for the nun's weeds worn by the principal figure; might easily be mistaken for a votive tablet intended for some heathen temple and her dying "rather of love than disease" is more worthy of a novel of doubtful tendency, than of a collection of lives prepared by a Christian church, to exemplify the moral effects of the Gospel *.

* "Tanto autem divini amoris incendio cor ejus conflagravit, ut merito viderit angelum ignito jaculo sibi præcordia transverberantem; et audierit Christum datâ dexterâ dicentem sibi: Deinceps ut vera sponsa meum zelabis honorem."-(I cannot venture any remarks on the apposition of these emblems.) "Intolerabili igitur divini amoris incendio potius, quam vi morbi...sub columbæ specie purissimum animum Deo reddidit." Ubi supra.—I must observe, without however insinuating any thing more than the dangerous

Does the Breviary produce effects analogous to the character of its contents, and commensurate to the extent of the use of it by the Roman Catholics? Does it everywhere degrade faith into credulity, and devotion into sentimentality? That it does so among Roman Catholics, in Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, and in all other countries where the religion of Rome predominates; is a matter of general notoriety. It would afford an additional praise of the reformed religion, if it could be proved that the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland, had been preserved from the injurious effects which the true book of their church, has so widely produced among their foreign brethren. It is possible that the class of Roman Catholics to whom I have addressed myself in these letters, and who alone are likely to read them, have never since their childhood exá

nature of this kind of devotion, that in male saints it generally has the Virgin for its object. The life of St. Bernard contains descriptions of visions, which would be unfit for the eye of the public in any other book. Hagiography, however, gives great liberty both to writers and painters. The picture of the vision I allude to, I have seen in a convent of Cistercian Nuns. The Breviary however omits the story which forms its subject.

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mined the devotional books published in England for the use of the sincerely pious among them. If they should be well acquainted with such books, they will not require any further proof of the perfect agreement between the minds and feelings of such persons, and those which I have instanced from the Breviary. Such as may have forgotten the character of their devotional books would do well to reperuse them. I will, however, in the mean time, give one or two specimens, from the TWELFTH London edition, of the DEVOTION AND OFFICE OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS*. I have so much exceeded the length which I proposed to give this letter, that I will not detain my readers much longer upon this subject.

The ostensible Roman Catholics of England, I mean such as appear in the character of specimens of their religious communion, are so dexterous in the use of theological distinctions, so practised in the pious work of throwing a cloak over the nakedness of their spiritual parent, that the Protestant public

*Extracts from this book will be found in an Appendix, after the Notes to these Letters.