8
not put in a napkin or hide in a fields but com«
mitted to St. Peter» the key-keeper of heaven,
and to his successors, his own vicars on earth,
to be prudently dispensed to the faithfiil; and,
for proper and reasonable causes, at one time
for the total, at another for the partial, remis-
sion of the temporal punishment dne for sin, as
well generally as specially, in conformity with
the known will of God, to be mercifully admi-
nistered to those who are truly penitent and
confess. To the accumulation of which trea-
sure the merits of the holy mother of God, ancjL
of all the elect, from the first just one to the
last, are known to contribute ; of the consump-
tion or diminution of which not the least fear
need be entertained, as well on account of the
infinite merits of Christy before stated, as firom
the consideration, that the greater the number
of persons attracted to righteousness by the
application of it, so much is the amount of the
merits increased." By this ingenious hypo-
thesis, the same pipe which drains, returns
into and replenishes, the reservoir.*
The original of the most considerable part
of the above is — Quern quidem thesaurum —
- The same view is given in the Dialogi, or Tiialogus, of
Wicliff, 1. iv. c. 32. De Indulgentiifl. 1525, or FntxwL 1752. .
