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as testified by Josephus,1 and also by the Greek church; and among the Fathers, we may reckon on our side Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Gregory Nazianzen, Athanasius, Chrysostom, Jerome, Ambrose, John Cassion, Sulpicius Severus, etc.2

4. This leads us to one of the gravest charges we have to bring against Roman Catholics, namely, the entire omission from the Decalogue of what we may now safely call the second commandment. This has been done in most of the catechisms, the exception being when the omission is not made, and, in that case, attention is pointedly called to the fact. For instance, in the catechism of Dr. Doyle, above quoted, in p. 26, the following question is asked :

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Q. Is any part of the commandments left out?

A. No.-But some words are omitted."

But in none of those catechisms which do omit the second precept or commandment is this question asked!

To quote all the examples and references would be need

1 Josephus' "Jewish Antiquities," book iii. c. v. Works, vol. i. p. 207. London, 1716.

2 Bishop Taylor, in his "Christian Law the great Rule of Conscience," (b. ii. c. ii. Rule vi. vol. xii. p. 360, et seq., Heber's edit. Lond. 1822), quotes Athanasius, Cyril, Jerome, and Hesychius, as making the introduction to be one of the commandments, and those which we call the first and second, to be the second only. Of the same opinion of uniting these two, he quotes Clemens Alexandrinus, Augustine, Bede, and Bernard, the ordinary Gloss, Lyra, Hugo Cardinalis, and Lombard. On the other side, two distinct commandments are made by the Chaldee Paraphrast, and by Josephus, Origen, Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine (or the author of The Question on the Old and New Testaments), Sulpicius Severus, Zonaras, and admitted as probable by Bede, followed by Calvin and other Protestants, not Lutherans. Athanasius, in his Synop. Scrip., gives the division as follows:-" The Book hath these Ten Commandments in tables the first is 'I am the Lord thy God;' the second, Thou shalt not make an idol to thyself, nor the likeness of anything." "And Cyril (lib. v. cont. Jul.) brings in Julian thus accounting them :- "I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt; the second after this'Thou shalt have no other gods besides me; thou shalt not make to thyself (simulacrum) a graven image.'

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lessly extending our work; we give only a few. Of catechisms published in England, we have to notice "The Catechism or Christian Doctrine by way of Question and Answer, illustrated by the Sacred Text and Tradition." We read :

"Q. How many commandments has God given?

"A. Ten.

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'Q. Say them.

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'A. [N.B. Placed in inverted commas as a quotation from the Bible] I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage; thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. Honour thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.' Exod. xx. 3, etc."

Again, in "A Catholic Catechism methodically arranged for the use of the uninstructed, translated from the Italian of the Very Rev. Antonio Rosmini-Serbati, D.D., Founder and General of the Institute of Charity, by the Rev. U. S. Agar," the commandments are thus given :—

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"1. I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have other gods before me.

"2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

"3. Remember thou keep holy the days appointed." [!] etc., etc., etc.

Of those published in Ireland, we may cite "Dr. James

1 Pages 25 and 26. London, C. Dolman, 61, New Bond Street, 1843. This book contains 249 pages, and is alleged to be, on the title-page, "permissu superiorum."

2 Pages 33 and 34. London and Dublin: Richardson and Son (containing 203 pages). There is no date, but it is now on sale. This translation is dedicated to Dr. Ullathorne, one of the [illegal] Romish bishops in this country.

Butler's Catechism, revised, enlarged, approved and recommended by the four R.C. archbishops in Ireland as a general catechism for the kingdom,”1 p. 36.

"A Catechism: or an abridgment of the Christian Doctrine. By the Most Reverend Dr. Reilly. Dublin: Richard Grace, Catholic bookseller, 1845," p. 20.

Butler's Catechism (title as before), " approved and recommended by the Right Rev. James Doyle, D.D., bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. Dublin: printed by Richard Grace and Son, 1848," p. 36.

The commandments in all these are thus given, at the several pages indicated:

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1. I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have strange gods before me.

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2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

"3. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

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"9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife.
"10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods."

With this evidence of the suppression of God's command against the worship of images, we may be spared the enumeration of examples from foreign catechisms. The curious on this subject may obtain further information by consulting the little pamphlet of the Rev. Dr. M'Caul before cited, where all these foreign catechisms are quoted, and the writer thus sums up his evidence :

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Here, then, are twenty-nine Catechisms in use in Rome and Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, Bavaria, Silesia, Poland, Ireland,

1 The edition before us is the "27th edition carefully corrected and improved with amendments. Dublin: John Coyne, 1844."

England, Spain, and Portugal, in 27 of which the second commandment is totally omitted; in 2 mutilated, and only a portion expressed. Is not, then, the charge proved, that the church of Rome hides the second commandment from the people ?"

Any further comment on this treatment of the word of God by Romanists would be superfluous.

CHAPTER IX.

PURGATORY.

"PURGATORY-The Priests' Kitchen."

Italian Proverb.

In conversation with an intelligent Italian, a man of eminent ability and professedly a Roman Catholic, we took occasion, among other topics, to speak to him of his religion. We asked him what he thought of the doctrine of purgatory? "Oh! (said he), we call purgatory here (Italy) the priest's kitchen!" The idea is a good one; for purgatory is the foundation for masses, indulgences, and prayers for the dead. Credulous people are taught to believe that the faithful departed are detained in torments, if not in actual flames, till they can be relieved and set free by the help of these religious performances; and priests are paid, and have death-bed bequests made them to do this work, under the representation that they can accelerate the transit of the sufferer from purgatory to heaven. The doctrine is one of very considerable importance to the Romish church, and worth maintaining at all hazards. Those who die in mortal sin go to hell; but those who die in what this

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church asserts to be venial sins, for which satisfaction has not been made in this life, or for which satisfaction has not been remitted by indulgences, go to purgatory. Again, we are told, "when a man's sins are forgiven him, and he is justified, there yet remains an obligation to the payment of temporal punishment, either in this world, or the world to come, in purgatory;" then by indulgences these temporal punishments can be remitted. The mass is also stated to be propitiatory," and "rightly offered," not only for the living, "but also for those who are departed in Christ, and who are not as yet fully purified and purged "2—namely, for those in purgatory. And the Trent Catechism tells us that purgatory is a purgatorial, literal fire, in which the souls of the pious, being tormented for a defined time, are purged of their guilt, by which means an entrance is gained into heaven. The system is a masterpiece of imposition and priestcraft: and the only surprise is, that men in the nineteenth century can be found to believe in it. There is, first, the arbitrary distinction between venial and mortal sins, the line where one ends and the other begins being judged of by the priest in the confessional: a system wholly unknown to the early Christian church. As God alone knoweth the heart, what an impious assumption in the priest to take upon himself to draw the line! Then comes the absolution from the sin, by the priest, leaving the punishment due to the sin, to be undergone in this life or in purgatory. Conceive for a moment a criminal, found guilty of some offence, being told that he received the Queen's most

1 Concl. Trident. Sess. vi. can. xxx.

2 Ibid. Sess. xxii. cap. ii.

3 "Est Purgatorius ignis, quo piorum animæ ad definitum tempus cruciate expiantur." Catech. Concl. Trid. Pars. i. s. v. Purg. Ignis. p. 61. Paris

Edit. 1848.

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