required such a Saviour! Oh, Christians approach your infant God. Adore, in the manger, Him, who made the heavens. Bow down and kiss those helpless hands, which are one day to be pierced with nails for your redemption. Bathe them in your tears with love, clasp them to your bosom with gratitude. Who among you can hesitate to enter the stable of Bethlehem? Let all advance; let not a soul be absent. The crib, in which your infant Jesus lies, is the throne of his universal mercy. No child of fallen Adam is excluded. Come, then, all; Sinners and Saints! What do I say? Are we not all sinners? Were we not all doomed to eternal misery, if God this day had not given us his Son? Were we not all to be for ever the slaves of sin and hell, if Mary, the elected and pre-elected among the daughters of Eve, had not this day brought forth to us the virginal victim of our ransom? Brethren, then, in sin and in redemption! the Angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, announces to us all, this morning, in the person of the shepherds, "Fear not; behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people, for this day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David."

Shall we not all then accompany these pious peasants to the sacred stable? What! Though the crimes of years press heavy on our souls; though passions wage a ruinous war within our changing hearts; though despair fling his dark mantle over our affrighted consciences, shall we not still burst into the arms of our infant Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the whole

world? Shall we not confidently throw our heavy burthen upon Him, upon whom his Father hath aid the iniquities of us all? upon Him, who, even from his silent crib, already directs to our souls that melting call of love, which in the days of his preaching he addressed to the assembled multitude; "Come to me all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you."

Oh, Mary, Mother of our Jesus! present him, then, to our hearts this day. He came to call, not the just (there were none) but sinners to repentance. We renounce henceforward all our crimes. Henceforward, we will love, O Mary! thy infant Son of God. We will no longer, by our ingratitude, render fruitless to our souls, thy miraculous maternity, O Mother! and O Virgin! We will instantly wash away all our past iniquities, in that redeeming fountain of his blood, which flows through his holy institution of penance. We will feed upon that divine flesh, barn to-day of thee, which we still possess in the adorable sacrament of his altar. And-when the moment of dissolution approaches, hearing from the lips of the Angels, Guardians of our souls, "the good tidings of great joy that this day is born to us a Saviour," may we, through the infinitely superabundant merits of thy lovely babe, and through the loving intercession of thee, O Mother of our God! O Refuge of Sinners! may we be found worthy to join in that angelic hymn of praise and love, which, for the Incarnation of thine and our Jesus, shall resound throughout the realms of

bliss, Gloria in excelsis Deo, "GLORY TO GOD ON HIGH !" for never-ending ages!!! A blessing, &c.

THUS, my brethren, you see that I do not intend to confine myself to Controversy. When I first announced these Sermons to the public, I promised to embrace in them the whole system of Catholic Faith and Morals. This promise I am determined, as far as I am capable, to execute. Virtues, therefore, and vices; sanctity and repentance; mysteries which are admitted, and mysteries which are denied, by Protestants; the evidences of revelation, which are received by all who call themselves Christians, but which are rejected by Deists and other Infidels; the use of the sacraments; the practice of piety; in a word, all that men are bound to believe or do, all comes within the intended scope of these Sermons. The first Seven were controversial. The present Seven are, as you perceive, to be what are properly called moral Sermons. To these shall succeed Seven on the principal festivals of Easter, Pentecost, &c. Then, probably, Seven Panegyrics of Saints. Next, Seven historical Sermons, beginning with the Creation. Afterwards, Seven, controversial again, on -Which is the True Church? Seven critical, that is, Commentaries on the Scriptures generally, and on some books, in particular. Thus I shall go on, not forgetting that every eighth Sermon is to be a Review of the Protestant Pamphlets, which may come forth during each current quarter of the

year. Each volume will contain Sixteen Sermons, one to be published every fortnight.

By following this plan, I shall leave untold, very little of what I know, concerning the True Religion. I shall also consult by it, the respective wants and dispositions of my readers. Some admire what is awful in religion; others, what is mild; some need to be alarmed; others, to be soothed; some require to have their minds convinced; others, their hearts converted. The clash of controversy is too much for the nerves of one class; while it inflames the faith and zeal of a second. I shall, therefore, endeavor not to surfeit the one; while I administer the food of salvation to the other. I do not, however, mean to bind myself rigorously to the observance of this plan; nor are my readers to be surprized, if, now and then, I season a moral Sermon with a little of the spice of controrsy. For the Catholic Church, in whose name, as her Priest, I both publish and preach, has received from Christ her mission to "go and teach all nations." To all, then, like the Apostle, "am I a debtor; to Greeks and to Barbarians; to the wise and to the unwise;" to Catholics and to Protestants; to Saints and to Sinners. For "the word of the Lord is not bound;" and I must become "all to all, that I may gain all to Christ."

Some persons have complained of my controversial Sermons; particularly, the Seventh and the Eighth. I have been told that I have given "offence;" that I am not "attuned to the sweetness of the Gospel," &c. What has ever given so much offence, as the Gospel? What brought our Divine Redeemer to the cross?

What caused the murder of his Apostles, and the massacre of ten millions of his Martyrs? Was it not the Gospel? Was it not the Truth which they fearlessly preached; but which "offence," as it ever will give offence, to the vicious, the obstinate, the interested deluders of mankind.

gave

However, those who dislike controversy, quite mistake me, if they suppose that even I have a taste for it. Would to God! that controversy were not necessary. Would to God!

Ι say, that all, who glory in the name of Christ, were "careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. One body, and one spirit, as they are called in one hope of their vocation. One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Eph. c. iv. Controversy, therefore, has not been chosen by me; it has been forced upon me by the errors and obstinacy of those, whose salvation I seek. But the Catholic Church preaches "both in work and word." The word of her faith has been spoken in the former Seven Sermons; the work of her morality shall be inculcated in the present Seven. May Catholics practise that morality! and may Protestants, while they cannot but admire it, embrace the faith which inculcates it!

My last Sermon held forth the terrors of God's justice; the present exhibits the sweets of his mercy; and the next will point out the means, by which we may escape the one, and obtain the other.-Title, "CONFESSION.' Text-" Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose you shall retain, they are retained." St. John, c. xx. v. 23.