their feet with his arms, let him cover them with kisses, let him wash them with tears, nor let him cease, that the Lord Jesus may say of him, His sins, which are many, are forgiven because he loved much."—(App., Note 45.)

"I have known some in their penitence who had wrinkled their face with tears, furrowed their cheeks with continual weeping, prostrated their bodies to be trodden on by all, and who presented in their living person the vacant and pallid appearance of death."-(App., Note 46.)

To a consecrated virgin, who had fallen into the sin of fornication, Ambrose addresses himself as follows: "But thou who hast already entered the struggle of penitence, persevere, O miserable woman; cling strongly, as if to a plank in shipwreck, hoping that by this thou mayest be delivered from the abyss of thy crimes. Adhere to penitence even to thy last hour, nor do thou presume that pardon can be given thee in the present life, for he who would promise thee this only deceives thee. Since thou hast sinned directly against the Lord, from himself alone canst thou expect the remedy in the day of judgment."—(App., Note 47.)

To her seducer, Ambrose gives this counsel:

"Thou mayest seek willingly the prison of penitence, bind thy bowels with chains, torment thy soul with groans and fastings, implore the help of the saints, lie down under the feet of the elect, that thine impenitent heart may not lay up for thee wrath in the day of wrath, and of the just judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works.”—(App., Note 48.)

These extracts show sufficiently the open manifestation of severe self-discipline expected in the case of public penitents; and we have next to hear the same witness on the subject of the absolution with which the bishop and the clergy admitted them to the communion after their course of penitence was accomplished; although, as we have already seen, there were many sins so aggravated, in the judgment of the primitive Church, that there was no possibility of return to the society of the faithful in the present life, but only a hope allowed that Christ might still for

give them in the great day. Our fourth head, therefore, will be,

4. The Absolution given by the Priesthood when the Public Penitent was restored.

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The Church keeps in both respects the rule of obedience, as well in binding as in loosing sin. Justly, therefore, does the Church claim this power, which has true priests; heresy can not claim it, because it has no priests of God."—(App., Note 49.) Behold this also, that he who receives the Holy Spirit, likewise receives the power of loosing and binding sin; for thus it is written, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins ye shall remit, they are remitted; and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained. Therefore, he who can not remit sin has not the Holy Spirit. The office of the priest is the gift of the Holy Spirit, but in loosing and in binding crimes, the right is of the Holy Spirit; how, therefore, should they claim the gift of Him, whose right and power they do not believe?"—(App., Note 50.)

"But men, in the remission of sins, only exhibit their ministry; they do not exercise the right of any power. For it is not in their own name, but in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that they remit sins. They ask, the Deity gives; for the ministration is human, but the conveyance of the gift is of divine power."-(App., Note 51.)

I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. What is said to Peter is said to the apostles. We do not usurp power, but serve His government, lest afterward, when the Lord shall come, and shall find those bound who ought to be loosed, He may be moved against the steward who has kept those servants bound whom the Lord had ordered to be loosed." -(App., Note 52.)

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Why, therefore, do you use the imposition of hands, and believe the efficacy of benediction, if, happily, any sick man has recovered? Why do you presume that any can be cleansed through you from the filth of the devil? Why do you baptize, if it is not lawful, through man, to remit sins? For truly, in baptism there is the remission of all sins; but what does it signifiy whether through penitence or through the font the priests claim this right to be given them? In both there is the one mystery."-(App., Note 53.)

Now in all this we perceive the same principle.

The first reception of the penitent believer in baptism was through the ministry; his confirmation and admission to the feast of the Eucharist were by the ministry; when his sins made it necessary to debar him from the communion, it was by the sentence of the ministry. And of course, when his penitence was deemed sufficient, and his offenses were to be absolved, it was also through the same ministry. But as all the other acts of the ministry were open, and in the face of the Church (the exigency of sickness and the peril of death being the only exceptions), so the reception of the penitent was public likewise; nor could it have been regarded as any thing short of absurdity to close a public penitence by a private absolution.

The last head of testimony from the eminent Ambrose yet remains, namely:

5. The General Results of the Divine Correction and Discipline

to the Penitent Sinner.

"To perform penitence is the true medicine which is then lawfully set forth, when the Physician comes from heaven, who would not exasperate our wounds, but heal them."—(App., Note 54.)

"And, therefore, let us who are in this body of death, pray that this Physician, beloved of God, may not desert us, whom the patriarch David prayed that He might not depart from him. Behold how the patient that would be healed yields to the Physician in every thing! Attend to the order. He first opens his wounds to the Physician, and saith, Heal me, but I pray thee not in thine anger, because my infirmities can not bear harsh medicine. The medicine of Christ is chastisement, for the Lord chastiseth whom He would convert."—(App., Note 55.)

"Take away, then, O Lord Jesus, with thy powerful knife, the rottenness of my sins: whilst thou holdest me tied with the bonds of love, cut away whatever is corrupted. I have found the Physician who inhabits heaven, and scatters His medicine upon earth. He alone can cure my wounds, who is himself undefiled: He alone can bear away the grief of the heart and

the paleness of the soul, who knows all secret things."-(App., Note 56.)

"He is not confounded, even although he may have committed shameful things, who asks the pardon of his sins from Christ. For so it is answered to him, Thy sins are forgiven. . . Go in peace. But then only he is not confounded, if the remission of sins is so wrought within him, that not only the sin, but even the desire of sinning, is taken away. Let righteousness remit iniquity; fortitude, fear; temperance, impurity; that the remission of his sins may be not merely temporary, but perpetual. Let Christ enter into thy soul, let Jesus inhabit thy thoughts, that there may be no place for sin in the tabernacle of virtue."-(App., Note 57.)

Thus we have the sentiments of this primitive witness at large, in which it is impossible to find a single expression favorable to the Roman doctrine in its peculiar and distinctive form. There is no allusion to the sacrament of penance, the exposition of which, as the Catechism of Trent declares, "demands greater accuracy than that of baptism." There is no confession of sins to the priest, other than the public confession which the penitent made likewise in the presence of all his brethren. The power of the priesthood to absolve the penitent is expressly and carefully stated to be ministerial, and not judicial, in direct contradiction to the Roman system. Sins of peculiar atrocity are considered beyond the reach of earthly absolution; and penitence, once allowed, is never repeated: whereas the Church of Rome undertakes to absolve from all sins, and accommodates the perpetrators with equal readiness, no matter how often they may have been absolved before; while the cases reserved are not left to the decision of Christ in the day of judgment, but are merely transferred from the priests to the bishops and the pope. Above all, however, there is here no secret tribunal of sacerdotal dictation and inquisition, where the confessor sits as in the place of God!

And yet it is obvious that in treating so largely on the very subject of penitence, it would have been impossible for Ambrose to have omitted all allusion to these things, were it not for the very sufficient reason that the Church of Christ was as yet a total stranger to the modern Roman system.

I pass next to the testimony of my thirteenth witness, Epiphanius, the bishop of Salamis, who was cotemporary with Ambrose, and died A.D. 403. His language is as follows:

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Truly, penitence is perfect in baptism. But if any one should fall, the holy Church of God does not will him to be lost; yea, she allows him to be received, after penitence and the opportunity of changing his will."-(App., Note 58.)

"As for those who have lapsed in time of persecution, even to them, if they weep before the Lord, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, and perform the full penitence appointed, the beneficent God is able to apply his mercy."—(App., Note 59.)

On these brief extracts I would only remark, 1st. That our witness agrees with all the rest in making the restoration of the penitent the act of the Church, and not the solitary, private function of the priesthood; and, 2d. That he requires the penitence to be completed before the reotoration.

My fourteenth witness will yield a large testimony, and a more important one, on account of his eminent authority in the primitive Church, and his remarkable character for learning and sanctity. I refer to the celebrated Jerome, who was another cotemporary, in part, of Ambrose, but survived him about twentyfive years, having died A.D. 422, at the advanced age of ninety.

"However grievous the sin of any one may be, if he be converted, he may be healed.". "—(App., Note 60.)

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Every one is bound by the cords of his sins, which cords and chains the apostles are able to loose, imitating their Master, who had said to them, Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth,