fore from all divinely appointed
external penalties. They are to worship in spirit and in truth; to yield
the obedience of the heart; and all their outward manifestations of
devotion are of human appointment;--salutary, no doubt, and even
necessary to the maintenance of piety, but still optional, possessing
only a derived value, and in their very nature incapable of being made
atonement for sin. Spiritual atonement, _i. e._ repentance, is the only
atonement which the Gospel prescribes or supposes possible for
spiritual guilt. Reparation indeed is to be made by the guilty to the
injured person, when the case admits of it; but this reparation does not
constitute the atonement, nor does it partake of the nature of penance.
It is only an external atonement for an external injury, and is an
evidence that the spiritual atonement,--repentance, has been already
made. It bears a relation to that class of offences only which
immediately respects our fellow-men, and is impracticable in cases where
the offence is against God and ourselves. In such cases, external
penance bears no other relation to the offence than such as the weak
will of man has originated;--a relation arbitrary, unsanctioned by God,
and therefore perilous to man.

This relation, being thus arbitrary, fails of the object for which it
was established. Their belief in the efficacy of penance is thus stated
by Catholics. (We copy from the universally accredited work, entitled
'Roman Catholic Principles in reference to God and the King,' first
published in 1680, and ever since acknowledged as a faithful
exposition.) 'Though no creature whatsoever can make condign
satisfaction, either for the guilt of sin, or the pain eternal due to
it, this satisfaction being proper to Christ our Saviour only, yet
penitent sinners, redeemed by Christ, may, as members of Christ, in some
measure satisfy by prayer, fasting, alms-deeds, and other works of
piety, for the temporal pain which, in the order of Divine justice
sometimes remains due, after the guilt of sin and pains eternal have
been remitted. Such penitential works are, notwithstanding, no otherwise
satisfactory than as joined and applied to that satisfaction which Jesus
made upon the cross, in virtue of which alone all our good works find a
grateful acceptance in the sight of God.'

As we have already stated our opinion respecting the nature of the
sacrifice of Christ, we have only to inquire, in our examination of this
pass