ing that the penitent, in confession, should expressly declare, that he believes "the forgiveness of the Priest, to be the forgiveness of God." (1) What can Bishop Porteus and other modern Protestants say to all this, except that Luther and his disciples were infected with Popery? Let us then proceed to inquire into the doctrine of the Church itself, of which he is one of the most distinguished heads.In The Order of the Communion, composed by Cranmer, and published by Edward VI., the Parson, Vicar, or Curate, is to proclaim this among other things: "If there be any of you whose conscience is troubled and grieved at anything, lacking comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned Priest, and confess and open his sin amd grief secretly, &c. and that of us, as a Minister of God and of the Church, he may receive comfort and absolution." (2) Conformably with this admonition, it is ordained in the Common Prayer Book, that when the Minister visits any sick person, the latter should be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feels his conscience troubled with any weighty matter; after which confession, the Priest shall absolve him, if he humbly and heartily desire it, after this sort: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy, forgive thee thine offences; and by his authority committed to me, I ABSOLVE THEE FROM ALL THY SINS, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." (3) I may add, that soon after

(1) In Catech. Parv. See also Luther's Table Talk, c. xviii. on Auricular Confession.

(2) Bishop Sparrow's Collect. p. 20.

(3) Order for the Visitation of the sick. N. B. To encourage

James I. became, at the same time, the member and the head of the English Church, he desired his Prelates to inform him, in the Conference at Hampton Court, what authority this Church claimed in the article of Absolution from sin; when Archbishop Whitgift began to entertain him with an account of the general Confession and Absolution in the Communion Service; with which the king not being satisfied, Bancroft, at that time Bishop of London, fell on his knees, and said: "It becomes us to deal plainly with your majesty; there is also in the book, a more particular and personal absolution in the visitation of the sick. Not only the Confession of Augusta, (Augsburg) Bohemia and Saxony, retain and allow it, but also Mr. Calvin doth approve both such a general and such a private confession and absolution." To this the king answered, "I exceedingly well approve, it being an Apostolical and Godly Ordinance, given in the name of Christ, to one that desireth it, upon the clearing of his conscience." (1)

I have signified that there are other passages of Scripture besides that quoted above from John xx. in proof of the authority exercised by the Catholic Church, in the forgiveness of sins; such as St. Mat. xvi. 19, where Christ gives the keys of the kingdom of heaven to Peter; and chap. xviii. 18, where he

the secret confession of Sins, the Church of England has made a Canon, requiring her Ministers not to reveal the same. See Canones Eccles. A. D. 1693, n. 113.

(1) Fuller's Ch. Hist. B. x. p. 9. See the defence of Bancroft's Successor in the See of Canterbury, Dr. Laud, who endeavoured to enforce auricular confession, in Heylin's Life of Laud, P. ii. p. 415. It appears from this writer, that Laud was Confessor to the Duke of Buckingham, and from Burnet, that Bishop Morley was confessor to the Duchess of York when a Protestant. Hist. of his own Times.

declares to all his Apostles: Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. But here also Bishop Porteus and modern Protestants distort the plain meaning of Scripture, and say, that no other power is expressed by these words, than those of inflicting miraculous punishments, and of preaching the word of God! Admitting, however, it were possible to affix so foreign a meaning to these texts, I would gladly ask the Bishop, why, after ordaining the Priests of his Church by this very form of words, he, afterwards, by a separate form, commissions them to preach the word, and to minister? (1)-" No one," exclaims the Bishop, "but God, can forgive sins." True; but as he has annexed the forgiveness of sins committed before baptism, to the reception of this sacrament with the requisite dispositions: Do penance, said St. Peter to the Jews, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, Acts ii. 38.; so he is pleased to forgive sins committed after baptism, by means of contrition, confession, satisfaction, and the priest's absolution.

Against the obligation of confessing sins, which is so evidently sanctioned in Scripture: Many that believed, came and confessed, and declared their deeds, Acts xix. 18; and so expressly commanded therein, Confess your sins one to another, James v. 16; the Bishop contends, that, "It is not knowing a person's sins, that can qualify the Priest to give him absolution, but knowing he hath repented of them." (2) In refutation of this objection, I do not ask: Why, then, does the English Church move (1) See the Form of Ordering Priests. (2) P. 46.

the dying man to confess his sins? but I say, that the Priest, being vested by Christ with a judicial power to bind or to loose, to forgive or to retain sins, cannot exercise that power, without taking cognizance of the cause on which he is to pronounce, and without judging in particular of the dispositions of the sinner, especially as to his sorrow for his sins, and resolution to refrain from them in future. Now this knowledge can only be gained from the penitent's own confession. From this may be gathered, whether his offences are those of frailty or of malice, whether they are accidental or habitual: in which latter case they are ordinarily to be retained, till his amendment gives proof of his real repentance. Confession is also necessary, to enable the minister of the sacrament to decide, whether a public reparation for the crimes committed, be or be not requisite; and whether there is or is not restitution to be made to the neighbour who has been injured in person, property, or reputation.— Accordingly, it is well known, that such restitutions are frequently made by those who make use of sacramental confession, and very seldom by those who do not use it. I say nothing of the incalculable advantage it is to the sinner, in the business of his conversion, to have a confidential and experienced pastor, to withdraw the veils behind which self-love is apt to conceal his favourite passions and worse crimes, and to expose to him the enormity of his guilt, of which before he had perhaps but an imperfect notion; and to prescribe to him the proper remedies for his entire spiritual cure.-After all, it is for the Holy Catholic Church, with whom the vord of God and the sacraments were deposited by er Divine. Spouse, Jesus Christ, to explain the nse of the former, and the constituents of the

latter; and this Church has uniformly taught, that Confession, and the Priest's Absolution, where they can be had, are required for the pardon of the penitent sinner, as well as contrition and a firm purpose of amendment. But, to believe the Bishop, our Church does not require contrition at all, for the justification of the sinner, though she has declared it to be one of the necessary parts of Sacramental Penance; nor "any dislike to sin or love to God."(') I will make no further answer to this shameful calumny, than by referring you and your friends to my above citations from the Council of Trent. In these, you have seen that she requires "a hatred and detestation of sin;" that is, "a contrite and humble heart, which God never despises ;" and, moreover, an incipient love of God, as the fountain of all justice."

Finally, his Lordship has the confidence to maintain, that "The Primitive Church did not hold Confession and Absolution of this kind to be necessary," and that "Private Confession was never thought of as a command of God, for 900 years after Christ, nor determined to be such till after 1200." (2)-The few following quotations from ancient Fathers and Councils, will convince our Salopian friends, what sort of trust they are to place in this Prelate's assertions on theological subjects. Tertullian, who lived in the age next to that of the Apostles, and is the earliest Latin writer, whose works we possess, writes thus: "If you withdraw from confession, think of hell fire, which confession extinguishes." (3) Origen, who wrote soon after him, inculcates the necessity of confessing our most private sins, even those of thought, (4) and

(1) P. 47. (2) P. 47. (3) Lib. de Pœnit. (4) Hom. 3 in Levit.