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Show INDULGENCES. It is a pity that many Protestants should be so ill-informed about the doctrine of indulgences as to suppose that it means the forgiveness of a sin, or a permission to commit a sin. By an indulgence is meant not the forgiveness of a sin, or a permission to commit a sin, but the remission, re-mission, through the merits of Jesus Christ, of the whole or part of the debt of temporal punishment due to a sin, the guilt and everlasting punishment of which have, through the merits of Jesus Christ, been already forgiven in the Sacrameut of Penan-e. Indulgences do not secure heaven, but hasten the time of entering it to those who have already secured heaven by having obtained forgiveness of their sins and put themselves in a state of grace before death. Catholics believe that the power of granting 'indulgences 'in-dulgences was left by Christ to the Church. It is included in the promise made by Jesus Christ to St. Peter: "And whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven" (Matt. :cvi. 19): These words contain an ample and universal power, given to St. Peter and his successors, of losing a properly disposed person from everything that may hinder him from going to heaven: and the debt of temporal punishment does hinder for a time at least a justified soul from going into eternal bliss; that is, until that debt be paid or remitted. It may be said, at least according to their principles, prin-ciples, that Protestants give, in their way. a kind of plenary or full indulgence to every one. when they say that w6rks of penance are not necessary: but Catholics believe that from all of us poor sinners works of penance are required, and that the power of binding and loosing, which includes that of granting grant-ing an indulgence, was left only to the legitimate successors of the apostlest iu whom alone this power is still vested. Thus the criminal Coriut hian was subjected to a very severe penance by St. Paul. At length, however, how-ever, upon the solicitation of the brethren the Apostle Apos-tle granted to that repentant sinner an indulgence, suspended the punishment inflicted upon him, and readmitted him to the communion of the faithful. (I. Corinth, v. and 2 Corinth, ii.) Experience proves that this granting of an indulgence in-dulgence is very useful; it encourages the faithful to deeper repentance, to have more frequent recourse to the Sacraments of Penance and Communion, and to exercise works of charity and devotion, for it is the doctrine of the Catholic Church that, in order to obtain an indulgence, the soul must be IYpp from mortal sin: and the conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence almost always are, that the applicant should worthily receive the Sacrament of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, as a preparation for the reception re-ception of the indulgence, and perform some outward out-ward works of piety. Therefore an indulgence granted only under such conditions, far from being an inducement to sin, encourages us to repent and do penance aud other works of piety. It is a happy corrective of sin and a -preservative against fallin'-again fallin'-again into sin. Freeman's Journal. |