Eucharist is given to them, when it is written, Whoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.'"-(App., Note 8.)

My third witness, Lactantius, A.D. 306, speaks of the remission of sins without any allusion to the system of public penitence, but urges the necessity of the penitent's being sincere :

"Great is his privilege of mercy, to whom the Lord promises the remission of sins. If thou hearest the prayers of thy suppliant, saith the Almighty, I also will hear thine; if thou takest pity on those who are in trouble, I also will take pity on thee; but if thou wilt not regard nor help them, I also will bear thy mind against thyself, and will judge thee by thine own rules of action."-(App., Note 9.)

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For God is mainly desirous to purge men from their sins, therefore He orders them to exercise repentance. But to exercise repentance is nothing else than to profess and affirm that we will not sin any more. Since, if our mortal condition does not allow us to be pure from all stain, our carnal sins should be abolished by a continual and abundant effort."—(App., Note 10.) For if we ourselves, when we perceive our children to have repented of their offenses, and believe them to be reformed, although they have been cast off and disowned, do nevertheless receive them again, and cherish and embrace them, why should we despair of obtaining the clemency of our heavenly Father by repentance? Therefore the same Lord, who is our most indulgent Parent, promises that He will remit the sins of the penitent, and will blot out all his iniquities, when he begins at length to follow righteousness."—(App., Note 11.)

Here we perceive at once that Lactantius treats of repentance, under its spiritual aspect, as the daily exercise of the Christian in confessing his sins to God, praying for pardon in the name of the blessed Redeemer, and constantly watching his heart and his life, in order that the fruits of a genuine faith might accompany his efforts, and bear testimony to his He makes no refergrowth in grace and holiness. ence to the public penitence of which Tertullian and Cyprian speak, when gross and mortal sins were com

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mitted, demanding the work of discipline, by which the offender was put away from the communion of the faithful, and obliged to remain prostrate in the vestibule of the church during the time of worship, with every mark of grief and self-abasement, until he was judged to have been sufficiently humbled and thoroughly reformed. We have already seen that it was

enough to have been once subjected to this public penitence, according to the practice of those early ages; for there was no hope of a second return to the Church if the offender fell away again. But the other exercise of penitence continued to be necessary through life, and was essential to the spiritual growth and inward sanctification of all men. Of both the fathers speak freely, as I shall show in many extracts. Not one of them, however, recognizes the doctrine of private confession and absolution, by which the papal Church in after ages superseded the ancient system.

It does not appear that the public discipline, described by Tertullian, was regulated by any formal code until the fourth century. In the year 313, the Council of Elvira set the earliest example on record, and I shall cite a few of their penitential canons as a specimen of the whole; although I think it more than doubtful whether the simplicity of the primitive Church, in leaving the periods discretionary, was not altogether preferable.

CANON I.

It pleased the Council that if any one, after the faith of saving baptism, and being of full age, should go to the temple for the purpose of playing the idolater, and should do so; for this principal crime, which is the highest wickedness, he shall be deprived of the communion to his life's end."—(App., Note 12.)

CANON VII.

"If any of the faithful, after having committed adultery, and

fulfilled the appointed time of penitence, shall again become a fornicator, let him be deprived of the communion to his life's end."-(App., Note 13.)

CANON VIII.

In like manner, those females who shall leave their husbands without any sufficient cause, and connect themselves with other men, shall be deprived of the communion until their life's end." -(App., Note 14.)

CANON XXXII.

"If any one shall pass from the Catholic Church to heresy, and shall again return, penitence shall not be denied to him, forasmuch as he acknowledges his sin. Let him, therefore, perform penance for ten years. After ten years he ought to be admitted to the communion. But if infants have been thus led away, they ought to be received without delay, because they did not sin by their own fault."-(App., Note 15.)

CANON LXXIV.

"A false witness, as perjury is a crime, shall abstain from communion. But if that of which he accused another was not a capital offense, and he can prove it, he shall abstain two years. If, however, he can not prove this to the council of the clergy, let him abstain five years."—(App., Note 16.)

CANON LXXIX.

"If any of the faithful shall play at dice for money, he shall abstain from the communion; and if, being reformed, he shall cease to transgress, he may be reconciled after one year."(App., Note 17.)

One specimen more, taken from the XII. Canon of the General Council of Nice, A.D. 325, will be enough for the present to show the nature of public penitence in the primitive Church.

"If any, being called through the grace of God, have at first manifested their faith by laying aside their military girdle, but afterward have returned to their own vomit, and seek, by offering money and by other means, to enter the army again, let them remain ten years among the penitents, after they have been three years first among the hearers. In all such, however, especial attention shall be paid to their disposition, and to the fruits of their penitence. For those who show, with all

fear, and persevering tears, and good works, that their conversion is not only in words, but in deed and in truth, when their appointed time of hearing is fulfilled, may begin to communicate in the prayers of the Church, and it shall also be lawful for the bishop to think of somewhat more lenient concerning them. But those who treat their fall with indifference, and deem it sufficient that they are allowed to enter the Church, must accomplish the full period appointed."—(App., Note 18.)

From these specimens, the system of public penitence is easily understood. But the private penitence practiced by every believer was a matter between the sinner and his God, and in vain shall we look for the slightest trace of the present doctrine of Rome, until long after the age of primitive purity. This assertion I shall fully establish by many other witnesses.

Thus Eusebius, the bishop of Cesarea, A.D. 325, writes as follows:

"The beginning of good is to abandon the former evil by true penitence and confession, which leads to a good end, namely, to God. For if there is none good but God, the beginning of the best way leading to God must be confession. fore it is written, It is good to confess to the Lord. it is meet that we utter our confession NOT TO MEN, BUT TO GOD, WHO SEARCHES THE HEARTS."—(App., Note 19.)

ThereMoreover,

On the text of the Psalmist, Confess to the Lord, and call upon his name, Eusebius gives this commentary :

"A great matter is here indicated; for if, saith he, you have confessed and forsaken your sins, by invoking His name with confidence, you will be able to produce great things. Nor is it without reason that He desires us first to confess, and afterward to invoke Him, but it is in order that, being cleansed through confession, we may offer our hymn of praise from a pure instrument.—(App., Note 20.)

"Confession is the beginning of our progress according to God, and joy in God is the end; but there are many things placed in the midst between these. It is first necessary, therefore, that men should confess to the Lord with sincere penitence, and with fruits agreeing with their confession; but after

ward, having advanced to better things, they may have confidence and call upon His name: and thus, when, after confession, they supplicate him, they may be endowed with divine graces," &c.-(App., Note 21.)

It is impossible to suppose that in these and many similar passages this eminent father could have written thus, without the slightest allusion to the modern Roman system, if auricular confession and private priestly absolution had been known in his day.

But I pass on to the testimony of the still more famous Athanasius, the patriarch of Alexandria, who flourished about A.D. 340. In answer to the question, “What law gives the pardon of all sins?" he makes the following response:

"The law of the Lord, saying: Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. And again, Forgive us our debts, like as we also forgive our debtors. Hence it appears that not to judge our neighbor gives pardon for all sins. The same applies to the not remembering offenses. Forgive, saith He, and you shall be forgiven."—(App., Note 22.)

In reply to another question, "If a man shall have committed a very grievous sin, and repented, how shall we learn whether he has been forgiven by God or no?" Athanasius gives this answer:

"This, truly, is made plain to few men upon earth: nevertheless, even as it is between the master and the servant, so is it between the conscience of a man and God. Thus, as the servant who has offended, may know, from the gestures and language of his master, that he is not in the same favor as he was before; in like manner the sinner loses the liberty of speaking which his conscience previously possessed in his prayBut when he has truly repented, God grants to him again the liberty of speaking with Him, which he had before his sin. And by this the man knows that God has pardoned his sin.”(App., Note 23.)

ers.

Here, again, the whole work of penitence, confession, and absolution, is presented as an internal matter between the soul and the Redeemer, without the