XXV. lation of a Greek word that fignifies a change, or renovation of ART. mind; which Chrift has made a neceffary condition of the New Covenant. It confifts in feveral acts; all which, when joined together, and producing this real change, we become then true penitents, and have a right to the Remiffion of Sins, which is in the New Teftament often joined with Repentance, and is its certain confequent. The first act of this repentance is, confeffion to God, before whom we must humble ourselves, and confefs our fins to him; upon which we believe that he is 1 John i. 9. faithful, and true to his promises, and just to forgive us our fins; and if we have wronged others, or have given publick offence to the Body, or Church, to which we belong, we ought to confefs our faults to them likewife; and as a mean to quiet inen's James v. 16. confciences, to direct them to complete their repentance, and to make them more humble and ashamed of their fins, we advise them to use fecret confeffion, to their Prieft, or to any other minifter of God's word; leaving this matter wholly to their difcretion. When these acts of forrow have had their due effect, in reforming the natures and lives of finners, then their fins are forgiven them in order to which, we do teach them to pray much, to give alms according to their capacity, and to fast as ofte as their health and circumftances will admit of; and moft indifpenfably to restore or repair, as they find they have finned against others. And as we teach them thus to look back on what is paft, with a deep and hearty forrow, and a profound fhame, fo we charge them to look chiefly forward, not thinking that any acts with relation to what is paft, can, as it were, by an account or compenfation, free us from the guilt of our former fins, unless we amend our lives and change our tempers for the future; the great defign of repentance being to make us like God, pure and holy as he is. Upon fuch a repentance fincerely begun, and honeftly pursued, we do in general, as the heralds of God's mercy, and the minifters of his Gofpel, pronounce to our people daily, the offers that are made us of mercy and pardon by Chrift Jefus. This we do in our daily fervice, and in a more peculiar manner before we go to the holy Communion. We do alfo, as we are a body that may be offended with the fins of others, forgive the fcandals committed against the Church; and that fuch as we think die in a ftate of repentance, may die in the full peace of the Church, we join both abfolutions in one; in the laft office likewife praying to our Saviour that he would forgive them, and then we, as the officers of the Church, authorized for that end, do forgive all the offences and scandals committed by them against the whole body. This is our doctrine concerning Repentance; in all which we find no characters of a Sacrament, no more than there is in XXV. ART. prayer or devotion. Here is no matter, no application of that matter by a peculiar form, no inftitution, and no peculiar federal acts. The fcene here is the mind, the acts are internal, the effect is fuch alfo; and therefore we do not reckon it a Sacrament, not finding in it any of the characters of a Sacra ment, The matter that is affigned in the Church of Rome, are the acts of the penitent; his confeffion by his mouth to the Prieft, the contrition of his heart, and the fatisfaction of his work, in doing the enjoined penance. The aggregate of all these is the matter; and the form, are the words, Ego te abfoivo. Now befides what we have to fay from every one of thefe particulars, the matter of a Sacrament must be fome vifible fign apInnoc. 3. in plied to him that receives it. It is therefore a very abfurd thing, to imagine that a man's own thoughts, words, or actions, can Can. 21, 22. be the matter of a Sacrament: how can this be fanctified or 4 Later. Con. Trid. Seff. 14. c. 5. Matth. iii. 6. 1 Tim. v. 20. 14. applied to him? It will be a thing no less abfurd to make the form of a Sacrament to be a practice not much elder than four hundred years; fince no ritual can be produced, nor author cited for this form, for above a thousand years after Chrift; all the ancient forms of receiving penitents having been by a bleffing in the form of a prayer, or a declaration; but none of them in these pofitive words, I abfolve thee. We think this want of matter, and this new invented form, being without any inftitution in Scripture, and different from so long a practice of the whole Church, are fuch reafons that we are fully juftified in denying Penance to be a Sacrament. But because the doctrine of Repentance is a point of the highest importance, there arife feveral things here that ought to be very carefully exa mined. As to Confeffion, we find in the Scriptures, that fuch as defired St. John's baptifm, came confeffing their fins, but that was previous to baptifm. We find alfo that fcandalous perfons were to be openly rebuked before all, and so to be put to fhame, in which, no doubt, there was a confeffion, and a publication of the fin but that was a matter of the discipline and or2 Theff. iii. der of the Church; which made it neceffary to note fuch perfons as walked diforderly, and to have no fellowship with them, 1 Cor. v. 11. fometimes not fo much as to eat with them, who being Christians, and fuch as were called Brothers, were a reproach to their profeffion. But befides the power given to the Apoftles of binding and loofing, which, as was faid on another head, belonged to other matters; we find that when our Saviour breathed on his Apoftles, and gave them the Holy Ghoft, he with that told them, that whofe foever fins they remitted, they were remitted; and whofe foever fins they retained, they were retained. Since a power of remitting or retaining fin was thus given to them, they John xx. 23 XXV. infer, that it seems reasonable, that in order to their difpenfing AR T. it with a due caution, the knowledge of all fins ought to be laid open to them. Acts viii. 23. Some have thought that this was a perfonal thing given to the Apostles with that miraculous effufion of the Holy Ghoft; with which such a difcerning of fpirits was communicated to them, that they could difcern the fincerity or hypocrify of thofe that came before them. By this St. Peter difcovered the fin of Ananias and Saphira; and he alfo faw that Simon of Samaria Acts v. was in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity: fo they 3,9. conclude that this was a part of that extraordinary and miraculous authority which was given to the Apoftles, and to them only. But others, who diftinguish between the full extent of this power, and the ministerial authority that is ftill to be continued in the Church, do believe that these words may in a lower and more limited fenfe belong to the fucceffors of the Apostles; but they argue very ftrongly, that if these words are to be understood in their full extent as they lie, a Priest has by them an abfolute and unlimited power in this matter, not reftrained to conditions or rules; fo that if he does pardon or retain fins, whether in that he does right or wrong, the fins muft be pardoned or retained accordingly: he may indeed fin in using it wrong, for which he must answer to God; but he seems, by the literal meaning of these words, to be clothed with such a plenipotentiary authority, that his act must be valid, though he may be punished for employing it amifs. An Ambassador that has full powers, though limited by fecret inftructions, does bind him that fo empowered him, by every act that he does, pursuant to his powers, how much foever it may go beyond his inftructions; for how obnoxious foever that may render him to his mafter, it does not at all leffen the authority of what he has done, nor the obligation that arifes out of it. So thefe words of Chrift's, if applied to all Priests, muft belong to them in their full extent; and if fo, the falvation or the damnation of mankind is put abfolutely in the Prieft's power. Nor can it be answered, that the conditions of the pardon of fin that are expreffed in the other parts of the Gofpel, are here to be understood, though they are not expreffed; as we are said to be faved if we believe, which does not imply that a fingle act of believing the Gofpel, without any thing elfe, puts us in a state of falvation. In oppofition to this, we answer, that the Gospel having fo defcribed faith to us, as the root of all other graces and virtues, as that which produces them, and which is known by them, all that is promised upon our faith, must be understood of a faith fo qualified as the Gofpel reprefents it; and therefore that cannot be applied to this cafe, where an unlimited au thority ART. thority is fo particularly expreffed, that no condition feems to be XXV. implied in it. If any conditions are elsewhere laid upon us, in order to our falvation, then, according to their doctrine, we may fay that of them which they say of contrition upon this occafion, that they are neceflary when we cannot procure the Prieft's pardon; but that by it the want of them all may be supplied, and that the obligation to them all is fuperfeded by it: and if any conditions are to be understood as limits upon this power, why are not all the conditions of the Gospel, faith, hope, and charity, contrition and new obedience, made neceffary, in order to the lawful difpenfing of it, as well as contrition, attrition, and the doing the penance enjoined? Therefore fince no condition is here named as a restraint upon this general power, that is pretended to be given to Priests by thofe words of our Saviour, they muft either be understood as fimple and unconditional, or they must be limited to all the conditions that are expreffed in the Gofpel; for there is not the colour of a reason to restrain them to fome of them, and to leave out the reft and thus we think we are fully juftified by faying, that by these words our Saviour did indeed fully empower the Apofties to publifh his Gospel to the world, and to declare the terms of falvation, and of obtaining the pardon of fin, in which they were to be infallibly affifted, fo that they could not err in dif charging their commiffion; and the terms of the Covenant of Grace being thus fettled by them, all who were to fucceed them were also empowered to go on with the publication of this pardon and of thofe glad tidings to the world: so that whatsoever they declared in the name of God, conform to the tenor of that which the Apostles were to fettle, fhould be always made good. We do also acknowledge, that the Paftors of the Church have, in the way of cenfure and government, a minifterial authority to remit or to retain fins, as they are matters of scandal or offence; though that indeed does not feem, to be the meaning of those words of our Saviour; and therefore we think that the power of pardoning and retaining is only declaratory, fo that all the exercises of it are then only effectual, when the declarations of the pardon are made conform to the conditions of the Gofpel. This doctrine of ours, how much foever decried of late in the Roman Church, as ftriking at the root of the priestly authority, yet has been maintained by fome of the best Authors, and fome of the greatest of their Schoolmen. Thus we have feen upon what reafon it is that we do not conclude from hence, that auricular confeffion is neceffary; in which we think that we are fully confirmed by the practice of many of the ages of the Chriftian Church, which did not understand these words as containing an obligation to fecret confeffion. It is certain, that the practice and tradition of the Church XXV. Church must be relied on here, if in any thing, fince there ART. was nothing that both Clergy and Laity were more concerned both to know, and to deliver down faithfully, than this, on which the authority of the one, and the falvation of the other, depended fo much. Such a point as this could never have been forgot or mistaken; many and clear rules must have been given about it. It is a thing to which human nature has so much repugnancy, that it muft, in the firft forming of Churches, have been infufed into them as abfolutely neceffary in order to pardon and falvation. A Church could not now be formed, according to the doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome, without very full and particular inftructions, both to Priefts and People, concerning confeffion and absolution. It is the most intricate part of their divinity, and that which the Clergy must be the most ready at. In oppofition to all this, let it be confidered, that though there is a great deal faid in the New Teftament concerning forrow for fin, repentance, and remiffion of fins, yet there is not a word faid, nor a rule given, concerning confeffion to be made to a Prieft, and abfolution to be given by him. There is indeed a paffage in St. James's Epiftle relating to confeffion; but it is James v. to one another; not restrained to the Priest; as the word ren- 16. dered faults feems to fignify thofe offences by which others are wronged; in which cafe confeffion is a degree of reparation, and fo is fometimes neceflary: but whatever may be in this, it is certain, that the confeffion which is there appointed to be made, is a thing that was to be mutual among Chriftians; and it is not commanded in order to absolution, but in order to the procuring the interceffions of other good men; and therefore it is added, and pray for one another. By the words that follow, that ye may be healed, joined with thofe that went before concerning the fick, it feems the direction given by St. James belongs principally to fick perfons; and the conclufion of the whole period fhews that it relates only to the private prayers of good men for one another; the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much: so that this place does not at all belong to auricular confeffion or abfolution. Nor do there any prints appear, before the apoftacies that happened in the perfecution of Decius, of the practice even of confeffing fuch heinous fins as had been publicly committed. Then arose the famous contefts with the Novatians, concerning the receiving the lapfed into the communion of the Church again. It was concluded not to exclude them from the hopes of mercy, or of reconciliation; yet it was refolved not to do that till they had been kept at a diftance for fome time from the holy communion; at last they were admitted to make their confeffion, and fo they were received to the communion. of |