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who would otherwise have been excluded by their crimes; and then he gradually proceeded to the performance of the promise thus deliberately given. He said to Peter', 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. And again, to all the Apostles: VERILY I say unto you, wHATSOEVER you shall BIND on earth, shall be BOUND in Heaven; and WHATSOEVER you shall LOOSE on earth, shall be LOOSED in Heaven. After his resurrection, he redeemed this solemn pledge in the following manner: As my Father hath SENT me, even so I SEND you. And when he had said this, he breathed upon them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: WHOSESOEVER Sins yeremit, they are remitted unto them; and w HOSESOEVER sins ye retain, they are retained. Here our Redeemer, by the force of the grant, evidently constitutes his apostles, and consequently their lawful successors in the sacred ministry, physicians, to heal the wounds of sin, and judges, to pronounce on the cases that came under their cognizance. He does not, absolutely and without any restriction, direct them indiscriminately to absolve all sinners, without attention to their dispositions. The minister of Christ must provide

1 Matt. xvi. 19. 2 Matt. xviii. 18. 3 John xx. 22, 23.

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suitable remedies, analogous to the spiritual wants of his penitents; he must suggest means by which depraved habits may be overcome, relapses may be prevented, and every obstacle to divine grace be removed. By the nature of his office, established by this commission, he must, by a judicial act, determine wнo are to be BOUND, and WHO are to be LOOSED. Now let me ask the catechist, with a triumphant decision, which nothing under heaven can repress, how is all this to be accomplished without the use of confession? How is a physician to administer to the spiritual wants of his patient, unless these wants be revealed to him by the party concerned? How is the judge to pass sentence, either of BINDING OF LOOSING, without a knowledge of the cause, derived from the manifestation of the culprit? There is no possible mode, open to the ingenuity of man, of carrying into effect the institution of Christ in this most momentous concern, but that which arises from the voluntary, humble, plain, entire, and submissive declaration of the penitent. Hence St. John, evidently alluding to the distinct remedy instituted by Christ for forgiving sin after baptism, and addressing himself to those who had been baptised, has these remarkable words: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we CONFESS our sins, he is FAITHFUL and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous

ness1. If the passage be compared with the direction of St. James, Confess your faults one to another, for the obvious purpose of being forgiven, there will remain no doubt whatever that auricular confession was considered by the apostles as the regular and necessary mode, instituted by Christ, in order to obtain the remission of sin.

Here the catechist may possibly exclaim, I admit confession, but that kind only which consists in confessing to God alone, by true contrition, or, in the language of David, with a contrite and humble heart, which God will not despise. The reply to this trite objection is extremely simple and obvious. A real and sincere sorrow for past sin, with a full determination of not sinning in future, is an indispensable step to obtain a reconciliation with God; but yet this is not all that is required. The same holy dispositions are required in an adult before baptism; still that sacrament becomes necessary to salvation, because it is written, Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God3. In the same manner, a sincere sorrow, including a full and effectual resolution of avoiding all sin, and all the occasions of sin, is a previous disposition to confession, though it does not assuredly

1 1 John, i. 8, 9.

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2 James, v. 16. 3 John, iii. 5.

supersede its use. In fact, how can this power of forgiving sin, which my opponent admits to have been left by Christ to his church, be brought into operation, if the practice of confession be rejected? How is the minister to BIND or to LOOSE, according to the circumstances of the case, but by a knowledge of the state of his penitent, derived from his voluntary declaration? The duty of confession is, therefore, so intimately connected with the clear commission given by Christ to forgive sin, that their union must be pronounced to be inseparable and indissoluble.

This clear reply to an objection so ostentatiously produced by the catechist and his friends, I beg leave to confirm by the authority of the illustrious St. Augustine; who, let it be remembered, closed a long life in the year 430. This holy father, after specifying sins which are deemed mortal or deadly, thus expresses himself: "Do penance in such a manner, as penance is done in the church; that the church may pray for you. Let no one say to himself, I secretly do penance; I do penance before God: God, who pardons me, knows that I do it in my heart. Therefore it has been said without effect: WHATSOEVER shall be LOOSED on earth, shall be LOOSED in Heaven. Without effect, therefore, have the keys been given to the church. Do we set at nought the gospel of God? do we cancel the

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words of Christ ? Do we promise to you, what he refuses 1?" This decisive authority of St. Augustine clearly holds up to view the practice of the church at a bright era, of which that great father was a distinguished ornament, and as clearly overturns all the wretched sophistry, subterfuges, evasions, and inconsistencies, which are adopted by the catechist and his friends, on this most momentous affair.

If the catechist would wish to see a more ancient authority than that of St. Augustine, let him read the work of Tertullian on Penance, and particularly the tenth chapter, where, speaking of those who delay the manifestation of their crimes in the order of doing penance, he represents them as persons consulting their feelings rather than their salvation; and compares them to those who labour under some concealed disorder, and from fear of disclosing it to a physician, perish from an untoward bashfulness. On this interesting point he exclaims: "If we conceal any thing from the knowledge of man,

1 St. Aug. 49, Hom. in Verb. Apost. Legat. fungimur, &c. p. 181. tom. 10. edit. Colon. Agripp. 1616. Vid. etiam de pœniten. Dist. Can. agite. Agite pœnitentiam, qualis agitur in Ecclesiâ, ut oret pro vobis ecclesia. Nemo sibi dicat, occulte ago, apud Deum ago: Novit Deus, qui mihi ignoscit, quia in corde ago. Ergo sine causâ dictum est, quæ solveritis in terrâ, soluta erunt in cœlo? Ergo sine causâ sunt claves datæ Ecclesiæ Dei? Frustramus Evangelium Dei? Frustramus verba Christi? Promisimus vobis quod ille negat?

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