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 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION
 
 SACRAMENTAL 
 CONFESSION 
 
 BY THE VERY REV. 
 
 JOHN S. HOWSON, D.D. 
 
 DEAN OF CHESTER 
 
 W. ISBISTER & CO. 
 
 56, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON 
 
 1874
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., 
 CITY ROAD. 
 
 AE 
 
 CANCELLED.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGK 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY j 
 
 II. DEFINITION I- 
 
 III. MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN 29 
 
 IV. THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO MAN . . .42 
 V. THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO GOD . .53 
 
 VI. CHURCH HISTORY 68 
 
 VII. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND . . . . . 8 1 
 
 VIII. ORDINATION AND ABSOLUTION' . . . .96 
 
 IX. PRACTICAL RESULTS . 11 
 
 1104486
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 A SLIGHT glance at the chapters which 
 ** compose this book will show that it is 
 intended merely for popular use. Elaborate 
 arguments on the subject to which they re- 
 late I leave to those who have more leisure : 
 exhaustive historical treatment of the sub- 
 ject to those who have larger learning. 
 This is a question which can be dealt with 
 very usefully without the possession of the 
 two great advantages of leisure and learning. 
 The Confessional Controversy is not like the 
 Eucharistic Controversy, for instance, which 
 can hardly be treated adequately without 
 touching on metaphysical subtleties, or with- 
 B
 
 2 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 out some considerable research. The doc- 
 trine and practice of Sacramental Confession 
 are in immediate and well-understood con- 
 tact with our social and domestic life : they 
 have certain broad general features, easily 
 elucidated from Holy Scripture and from 
 History ; and practical issues are raised by 
 them, which can be stated very clearly, and 
 can be readily apprehended by any person 
 of ordinary intelligence. 
 
 That the question before us has deeply 
 moved the public mind in England is quite 
 evident ; nor is it at all likely that general 
 interest in the subject will speedily decay. 
 Those who desire to re-introduce into the 
 Church of England the theory and habit of 
 Sacramental Confession are conspicuously in 
 earnest; and, meanwhile, the meetings held 
 in reference to this matter in various parts of 
 the country, whatever be the value of the 
 utterances made on such occasions, have 
 shown very clearly that the utmost repug- 
 nance is widely felt to the efforts which are 
 diligently made by some of our Clergy, with
 
 INTR OD UCTOR Y. 3 
 
 the acquiescence of some of our Laity, to 
 bring back amongst us a discarded system. 
 
 When any religious topic thus largely per- 
 vades the general mind, and is productive 
 everywhere of uneasy thoughts, if Clergymen 
 who hold positions of special responsibility 
 are silent regarding it, they create the im- 
 pression that they are glad to evade that 
 which is the main point for the moment, and 
 that they are wanting in proper courage. At 
 such a time the people at large look to the 
 Clergy, if not for guidance, at least for infor- 
 mation. Our chief guidance indeed must 
 come, of course, from the Bishops ; and we 
 have reason to express gratitude for several 
 Episcopal statements on the subject, which 
 are prudent and moderate on the one hand, 
 and explicit and reassuring on the other. 
 But all who are in the ministerial office have 
 their duty too in reference to these matters ; 
 and especially they are bound to call to mind 
 that ordination-vow which pledges them to 
 use their best endeavours to " drive away " 
 doctrines alien to the religious system which
 
 4 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 "this Church and Realm hath received."* 
 Under these circumstances I have felt it to 
 be right to preach on this subject in Chester 
 Cathedral, and now to publish the substance 
 of my sermons, with additions and improve- 
 ments, after well weighing what has appeared 
 in the local press on the other side, and indeed 
 on many sides, of the subject.! 
 
 This being an introductory chapter, it is 
 convenient that I should state in it more fully, 
 once for all, my reasons and excuses for such 
 preaching and such publishing. 
 
 I regard these diligent efforts for the re- 
 introduction of the Confessional System 
 amongst us as one of the most serious parts 
 of that great aggressive movement, which 
 one of our Bishops has justly called a 
 "counter-reformation." This movement, at 
 the point which it has now reached, no longer 
 derives its strength from its earlier principle 
 
 * " The Form and Manner of ordering Priests." 
 t A similar reference might with equal justice have been 
 made to the local newspapers of any neighbourhood in the 
 country ; and no stronger proof could be given of the prevailing 
 uneasiness to which the subject has given rise.
 
 INTR OD UCTOR Y. 5 
 
 that the Primitive Church ought to be kept 
 before us as our model. Many of our Clergy 
 have now palpably placed themselves under 
 the teaching of the Modern Church of Rome. 
 The manuals of that Church are largely used 
 in private, to supply materials for the public 
 instruction of the people. New habits of 
 thought are, by such methods, gradually 
 made familiar. New phraseology from this 
 source is successfully infiltrated into our cur- 
 rent divinity. This is peculiarly the case 
 in respect of the subject before us. The 
 very use of the phrase, " Sacramental Confes- 
 sion,"* will be seen, by any one who really 
 understands the meaning of the phrase, to be 
 an indication of the grave change that is 
 coming over us. 
 
 I know it will be said that there is injustice 
 in this way of stating the question that there 
 is a Roman and an Anglican view of the 
 
 * In illustration of the bold use of this term by those who 
 have signed our twenty-fifth article, it is enough to refer to the 
 notorious petition of the 483 , and to an article which appeared 
 in the " Contemporary Review "^for November, 1873.
 
 6 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 Confessional, and that it is not fair to confuse 
 the two together as though they were iden- 
 tical; and many of those who use this lan- 
 guage are perfectly sincere. But I am old 
 enough to recollect very similar expostula- 
 tions, which it was necessary afterwards to 
 withdraw. Not very many years ago the 
 teaching of the Earlier Church was presented 
 to us as that under the shadow of which 
 alone we could understand the New Testa- 
 ment ; and arguments to this effect were used 
 in combination with vehement protestations 
 against Romanism :' but in due time, under 
 such influences and after such protestations, 
 we lost, and Rome gained, a considerable part 
 of the flower of our Clergy. How well I 
 remember meeting Frederick Faber one day in 
 the streets of Edinburgh, about the time when 
 the ninetieth of the " Tracts for the Times " 
 was published, and asking him whether he 
 did not think that Romanism was the inevit- 
 able issue of the progress which had then been 
 made ; to which his reply was to this effect, 
 that joining the Church of Rome was the one
 
 INTR OD UCTOR Y. 7 
 
 thing most impossible. I am quite sure that 
 he was sincere ; but we all know the later 
 history of that attractive, but most admoni- 
 tory life. And as with him, so with many 
 others of both sexes. Those who have learnt 
 to listen for the teaching of " the Church," as 
 the one voice which is to guide them, will 
 be very apt to grow dissatisfied with indis- 
 tinct echoes coming to them confusedly from 
 remote early times, and to crave for an ever- 
 present Church which gives immediate direc- 
 tions for the wants of the moment. Men and 
 women, whose minds have been attuned to 
 Roman teaching, are likely to become impa- 
 tient of many things within our own Church 
 which must jar upon their feelings like dis- 
 cord. What has happened before may happen 
 again ; and especially is this probability great 
 in connection with such practical matters as 
 Confession and Absolution. When these risks 
 are very present to the mind, it is hardly pos- 
 sible to be silent. 
 
 Here a remark must be permitted, which 
 I am anxious so to express as to give no
 
 8 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 unnecessary pain and offence. Our danger 
 is much increased by the influence of party- 
 spirit. Reference has been made above to 
 some (probably not a very large number) who 
 see clearly the end towards which they are 
 moving, and who, in pursuing this end, dis- 
 play the utmost vigilance, tact, and perse- 
 verance.* Others (I hope they are still fewer) 
 are not very scrupulous in their methods of 
 promoting what they desire.f But with 
 
 * In a volume of "The Evangelist Library," edited by the 
 Mission Priests of St. John the Evangelist, I find such phrases 
 as the following : " The majority of our people have a great 
 
 dislike to Sacramental Confession The Mission priest 
 
 should be careful to explain that, when he invites persons to come 
 and see him on spiritual matters, it is not simply for confession, but 
 to assist those who do not wish to confess. . . .When he finds the 
 Mission ripe for it, he will give notice that he will begin to hear 
 confessions The priest, having gained as good a know- 
 ledge as he can of the spiritual condition of his visitor, will, in 
 most cases, have to recommend confession as desirable, if not 
 necessary, for him." Parochial Missions, ch. v. 
 
 t Several copies have reached me, by post, of a paper entitled 
 "Information on Confession," and professing to give a catena 
 of Church of England authorities for the practice. Among 
 these authorities is the Church Catechism. [When St. Paul 
 wrote, " Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that 
 bread and drink of that cup," what would he have thought of
 
 INTR OD UCTOR Y. g 
 
 such persons others, who differ from them 
 extremely, are associated by party ties, which 
 they have not the courage to break. A small 
 body of extreme men can be made very 
 strong and very dangerous by the apparent 
 union along with them, under some com- 
 mon designation, of large numbers, who are 
 really not at one with them at heart. We 
 sometimes see this fact made very evident 
 in political combinations ; and what is true 
 in the world of politics, is equally true in the 
 ecclesiastical world. I will venture to ex- 
 press my meaning by asking a very pointed 
 question : Is it right for " moderate High 
 Churchmen " to keep aloof from " Evangeli- 
 cals," whom they are tempted to dislike, but 
 of whom they probably know very little, and 
 to connect themselves, in all that attracts the 
 public eye, with those from whom they really 
 differ far more seriously ? And is it not 
 reasonable to hope that this question of 
 
 any one who should have interpreted the sentence to mean, 
 " Let a man confess to a priest, and so let him eat of that bread 
 and drink of that cup ? "
 
 io SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 " Sacramental Confession," at the height 
 which it has now attained, may become the 
 occasion for a braver and more consistent 
 attitude, and for some plain speaking on 
 behalf of the true interests of the Church 
 of England ? 
 
 Another argument, however, will be used, 
 and quite sincerely, to deprecate the writing 
 of a controversial book of this kind. It will 
 be said that among those who are the most 
 extreme in their view of the value of custo- 
 mary private Confession, and customary pri- 
 vate Absolution, there is a vast amount of 
 admirable work among the poor, and of high 
 religious devotion. This fact is not at all 
 denied : it is most thankfully acknowledged ; 
 but it does not in the least degree alter the 
 duty of speaking and writing strongly against 
 that which is felt to be erroneous and perilous. 
 On the contrary, it makes this duty all the more 
 imperative. In the course of the history of 
 the Church, some of the most serious devia- 
 tions from right doctrine and sound practice 
 have been helped forward by their association
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 11 
 
 with men of high and devoted character. 
 Will any one question the earnest missionary 
 exertion, the patient pastoral care, which are 
 found within the Church of Rome itself ? But 
 does it follow that the decrees of the Council 
 of Trent are in harmony with Holy Scripture ? 
 Will any one question the wide benevolence 
 and generous giving of many Unitarians ? But 
 does it follow that our Blessed Redeemer is 
 not Divine ? Perhaps when the present 
 period in the annals of the Church of England 
 is read hereafter, it will be seen that some 
 of our most pressing dangers had been closely 
 connected with names worthy of the utmost 
 honour. 
 
 For the reasons thus briefly stated, this 
 volume takes the form of protest and con- 
 troversy against the position of the Church 
 of Rome. There is the shore towards which 
 this current of English feeling is really 
 moving : there " Sacramental Confession " is 
 found in its mature form and consolidated 
 strength ; and thence even now the chief 
 instruction on the subject among ourselves
 
 12 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 within the Church of England is fetched. 
 It is indeed quite possible that absolute de- 
 fections from our own fold to the Roman 
 are not to be apprehended so much as here- 
 tofore. The decree of Papal Infallibility, 
 combined with the Syllabus, may possibly 
 have made a gulf where formerly stood a 
 bridge. But if we place ourselves under 
 the teaching of the Modern Church of Rome, 
 almost as much harm may be done as though 
 large numbers of our people were to join that 
 communion. Perhaps one of the evils, which 
 we have most reason to dread within our own 
 communion, is " Popery without the Pope." 
 
 At all events, there is a state of thought 
 and feeling among ourselves at this time, in 
 reference to the Confessional, very similar 
 to that state of thought and feeling, in the 
 earlier Christian ages, which gradually led to 
 the system of Compulsory Auricular Confes- 
 sion. Of that system it was said by Bishop 
 Blomfield, in his celebrated Charge of 1842, 
 that it is a practice " utterly unknown to the 
 Primitive Church, one of the most fearful
 
 INTR OD UCTOR Y. 1 3 
 
 abuses of that of Rome, and the source of 
 unspeakable abominations."* I propose to 
 take these words of a distinguished and most 
 sagacious prelate as a kind of text to be 
 commented on in the following pages. If the 
 sentence is even approximately true, it be- 
 comes us to weigh most seriously our existing 
 attitude in regard to this question. 
 
 As to the present position of the Anglican 
 Church in reference to this subject, we are 
 now in what may be called the Romance of 
 the Confessional ; and it cannot be out of 
 place to invite attention to its sober and 
 sad realities. The whole matter, with us, 
 at present, is incipient ; and it is well to 
 show what " Sacramental Confession " really 
 is in its maturity. I can quite understand 
 the attractiveness of the flowers in early 
 spring; but of far greater importance is the 
 ripe fruit in the late autumn. My conviction 
 is that, in the present case, the fruit on the 
 whole is unwholesome and bad. In expressing 
 
 * " Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of London." October 
 1842, p. 57.
 
 14 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 this strongly, and endeavouring to prove it, 
 I hope I shall write without giving needless 
 pain, without deviating from candour and 
 courtesy, and without forgetting that the pro- 
 moters of a mischievous system may them- 
 selves be honourable and earnest men.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DEFINITION. 
 
 r I ^HE subject of this book is "Auricular 
 *" Confession," or " Sacramental Confes- 
 sion ; " and I am desirous not to be drawn 
 aside from this main subject into any col- 
 lateral topic. Moreover, popular misappre- 
 hensions are widely prevalent regarding the 
 exact meaning of at least the second of these 
 phrases. I will therefore employ the pages 
 of this chapter chiefly for the purposes of 
 definition. 
 
 As to the former phrase, used by Bishop 
 Blomfield in the sentence quoted near the 
 end of the preceding chapter, only a very 
 slight explanation can be needed. The word
 
 1 6 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 "auricular" is a Latin word, though it belongs 
 rather to ecclesiastical, than to classical Latin. 
 It denotes that which has strictly and exclu- 
 sively to do with the ear. That part of 
 medical science, which is limited to this 
 organ, would properly be called auricular. 
 That confession of sin, which is told privately 
 into the ear of the priest, and to no one else, 
 is auricular. The great feature of this kind 
 of confession is that it is strictly confidential. 
 Where this system is the Church's rule, so as 
 to pervade the community, the Priest knows 
 what the wife does not tell to her husband, 
 what the daughter does not tell to her mother. 
 He knows more concerning crime than can 
 be known to the magistrate. In the high 
 places of the world he is in possession of 
 State secrets. He is acquainted likewise with 
 thoughts and desires, which have never found 
 utterance, except in such confession. This 
 minute acknowledgment, too, of sin in thought, 
 word, and deed, is made in the conviction 
 that the priest has the power of dealing 
 with it judicially. Hence his dominion over
 
 DEFINITION. 17 
 
 the conscience, his opportunities of directing 
 and controlling, are enormous, and yet ab- 
 solutely secret. 
 
 I am not at this moment saying how far 
 this system is desirable, or the contrary : 
 certainly not doubting that there must be, 
 and ought to be, confidential communication 
 between Pastor and People. One of our 
 own canons enjoins that " if any man confess 
 his secret and hidden sins to the Minister, for 
 the unburdening of his conscience, and to 
 receive spiritual consolation and ease of mind 
 from him," secrecy is to be observed by that 
 Minister.* I am only illustrating the force 
 of the word " auricular," and pointing out the 
 tremendous importance of the subject as 
 shown by the mere use of this word. Through 
 the ear every priest may become a king. 
 
 And before we quit this topic, let another 
 most serious aspect of it be remembered in 
 passing. Such secrets are not secrets for ever. 
 When He comes again, who is King over all, 
 then, whatever confessions have been made 
 
 Can. 113. 
 
 c
 
 1 8 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 at any time confessions of old men, of young 
 women, of saints, of sinners all will become 
 publicly known. " For there is nothing 
 covered that shall not be revealed ; neither 
 hid, that shall not be known. Whatsoever ye 
 have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the 
 light ; and that which ye have spoken in the 
 ear shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." * 
 But now we must turn to that other phrase, 
 which is more to our present purpose, which 
 is still more technical, and which, while the 
 former phrase is clear enough, is itself, I 
 imagine, often misunderstood. Many persons 
 in England probably suppose that " Sacra- 
 mental Confession " merely means the act or 
 the habit of confessing before taking part in, 
 the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. I dare 
 say that some who will read these pages 
 believe that nothing more is denoted by the 
 term than an extension of what we find in 
 one of the exhortations in the Prayer-Book. 
 There it is said that, inasmuch as it is re- 
 quisite that no one should come to the 
 
 * Luke xii. 2, 3.
 
 DEFINITION. 19 
 
 Lord's Table but " with a full trust in God's 
 mercy, and with a quiet conscience," if by 
 private self-examination this state of mind 
 cannot be attained, and " further comfort and 
 counsel is required," then let such a person 
 " come to some discreet and learned Minister 
 of God's Word, and open his grief, that by 
 the Ministry of God's Holy Word he may 
 receive the benefit of absolution, together 
 with ghostly counsel or advice, to the quiet- 
 ing of his conscience." * It is supposed 
 by many, I say, that if that which is 
 here set forth as exceptional, were to 
 become the rule, then we should have 
 " Sacramental Confession " in the Church of 
 England. 
 
 Even this would be a very serious change. 
 Hardly any change can be more serious, in 
 matters of religion, than to turn an exception 
 into a rule.f When a bottle is distinctly 
 
 * First Exhortation in the " Order of the Administration of 
 the Lord's Supper." 
 
 t The exceptional nature of such communications between 
 the penitent and the priest is made unequivocally manifest in the 
 " Service for the Visitation of the Sick," by the phrases " if he
 
 20 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 labelled "medicine," and when you remove 
 the label, and persuade people that the con- 
 tents of the bottle are wholesome and nutri- 
 tious food, useful for all persons under all cir- 
 cumstances, you have at least assumed a very 
 grave responsibility. But this is not what 
 is meant by " Sacramental Confession." The 
 phrase denotes something totally different. 
 Those who wish to re-introduce the thing 
 amongst us know full well what is meant by 
 the term; and it is right that the English 
 people should know it too. 
 
 What then is Sacramental Confession r 
 Conspicuous among the seven sacraments, 
 in the doctrinal and practical system of the 
 Church of Rome, is the Sacrament of Penance ; 
 and of this Sacrament " Confession " is an 
 essential part. The Sacrament of Penance 
 consists of three parts first, contrition of 
 heart ; * secondly, confession to a priest ; 
 
 feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter," and " it 
 he humbly and heartily desire it." 
 
 * The alternative of attrition, which seems to me a parody of 
 repentance, must not be altogether passed by. According to 
 the theory which is expressed by this word, a priest's absolution
 
 DEFINITION. 21 
 
 thirdly, absolution by a priest. The view 
 which is inculcated and acted upon is this, 
 that for sin after Baptism the Sacrament of 
 Penance is the appointed remedy, and that of 
 this sacrament private confession to a priest, 
 with the view of obtaining his private abso- 
 lution, is an essential part. 
 
 This, then, is the " Sacramental Confes- 
 sion" with which we have to deal; and in 
 dealing with it all exaggeration must be 
 avoided. Want of candour and want of care 
 are sure, in the end, to weaken a contro- 
 versial position. I will limit myself entirely 
 to three sentences which are found in the 
 Canons of the Council of Trent. That is an 
 authority which cannot be gainsayed. For 
 if it were alleged which, considering the 
 historical circumstances of the case, is hardly 
 likely that these Canons rest rather on the 
 voice of a pope than that of the Church, yet 
 now it has been ruled that the pope, speaking 
 
 may convey forgiveness, when sorrow for sin is merely a sense 
 of its consequences, without any resolution to sin no more. 
 See Dean Hook's " Church Dictionary."
 
 22 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 officially on a question of faith or morals, is 
 infallible ; and if one pope is infallible, all 
 popes in past time have been infallible ; and 
 if ever a pope spoke officially, it must have 
 been in adopting the results of that great 
 Council of Trent, which in fact, up to 1870, 
 denned the position of the Modern Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 The first of these sentences is as follows : 
 " If any one shall deny that Sacramental 
 Confession was instituted by Divine right, or 
 that by Divine right it is necessary to salva- 
 tion, or shall say that the manner of secretly 
 confessing to a priest alone, which the Church 
 Catholic hath always observed from the be- 
 ginning, and doth observe, is alien from the 
 institution and command of Christ, and is 
 invented by man, let him be accursed."* Now 
 let this sentence be looked at very carefully, 
 and each word of it well weighed, that the 
 amount of truth or error which it contains 
 may be accurately measured. I appeal to 
 any candid member of the Church of Eng- 
 
 * Sess. xiv. De Poen. Can. 6.
 
 DEFINITION. 23 
 
 land, well acquainted with his Bible and 
 moderately well acquainted with Church His- 
 tory, to say whether this sentence does not 
 contain five distinct deviations from truth. 
 
 First, Sacramental Confession was not in- 
 stituted by Divine right. You cannot point to 
 any command given by Christ to this effect. 
 He did appoint Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper ; and we see how the commands were 
 understood by the fact that they were ob- 
 served. But He did not appoint this at all ; 
 and nothing of this kind was observed. If 
 you say that, when He gave to Peter the keys 
 of the kingdom of heaven,* or when He ex- 
 tended a commission of the same kind to all 
 the Apostles, f or when He breathed on the 
 general body of the disciples, with those 
 solemn words concerning the Holy Ghost 
 and the retaining and remitting of sins, % 
 He then instituted secret compulsory auri- 
 cular confession, you assume the very point 
 which requires to be proved. There is not 
 the slightest evidence that the Apostles under- 
 
 * Matt. xvi. 19. f Matt, xviii. 18. % John xx. 22, 23.
 
 24 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 stood Him to mean this, but very strong 
 evidence to the contrary. 
 
 Secondly, as to the assertion that the ob- 
 servance of this kind of confession is neces- 
 sary to salvation how do you account for the 
 absolute silence of St. Paul on this subject, 
 both in what he says and writes to Christians 
 in general, and when he addresses those who 
 are in the clerical office ? 
 
 Thirdly, as to the assertion that what is ob- 
 served by the Roman Catholic Church now 
 was observed by the Catholic Church from 
 the beginning, this is obviously incorrect. 
 The characteristic of the system of the Modern 
 Church of Rome is that Sacramental Confes- 
 sion is imperative ; but we can give the very 
 date of the edict which made it imperative. 
 Let me now simply add, in regard to the 
 sentence just quoted from the Canons of the 
 Council of Trent, that, from what has been 
 already said, it follows, fourthly, that Sacra- 
 mental Confession is alien from the institu- 
 tion and command of Christ ; and, fifthly, that 
 it has been invented by man.
 
 DEFINITION. 25 
 
 The second of the two sentences to be ad- 
 duced from the Canons of the Council of Trent 
 is this : " If any one shall say that in the 
 Sacrament of Penance for the remission of 
 sins, it is not by Divine right necessary to 
 confess all and singular mortal sins, which 
 can be recalled by a careful exercise of 
 memory, even if they be secret sins and 
 moreover, the circumstances which modify 
 the character of sin let him be accursed."* 
 To the distinction between mortal and venial 
 sins I shall recur in the next chapter. But 
 we see immediately the power which this dis- 
 tinction gives to the priest ; and this prepares 
 us for the third quotation from these same 
 Canons : " If any one shall say that the 
 sacramental absolution of a priest is not a 
 judicial act, but merely the ministerial act of 
 pronouncing and declaring the remission of 
 
 
 
 his sins to the person confessing, if only he 
 believes that he is absolved, let him be 
 accursed." f Not a ministerial, but a judicial 
 act ! Let the reader weigh well this distinc- 
 
 * Sess. xiv. De Pcen. Can. 7. f Ib., Can. 9.
 
 26 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION, 
 
 tion with himselt. Combined with what has 
 been brought forward above concerning the 
 necessity of Confession, it presents to us 
 a power far more colossal and crushing than 
 any other that can be named. We are 
 accustomed to consider the Apostles as placed 
 at the highest point of the Christian Ministry : 
 but contrast such language with that used 
 concerning himself by St. Paul, who tells 
 those to whom he writes, concerning a case of 
 public church-discipline and public church- 
 censure, that he has not " dominion over 
 their faith," but is " the helper of their joy " ! * 
 And here, as regards this judicial position 
 claimed by the Roman Catholic Clergy, let 
 me ask that the matter may be viewed thus. 
 When we read in the Scripture those many 
 passages concerning the pardon of the peni- 
 tent and believing sinner, can we doubt that 
 he is immediately forgiven, when repentance 
 is sincere and faith is truly exercised ? Does 
 any man who believes the Bible doubt this ? 
 If then the Judge of all men has forgiven, 
 
 * 2 Cor. i. 24.
 
 DEFINITION. 27 
 
 where is the judicial function of the minister ? 
 Who would take an offender before the lower 
 court, when he has already been acquitted in 
 the higher ? 
 
 These remarks may suffice for the purposes 
 of definition, and for removing misconcep- 
 tions. A desire has been strongly expressed 
 that the system of Sacramental Confession 
 should be re-introduced into the Church of 
 England ; and yet many members of that 
 Church are not at all aware of what is meant 
 by the term. We find both the phrase in 
 its exact meaning, and the thing in its mature 
 form, in the theology and the working of the 
 Modern Church of Rome. I have referred, 
 therefore, to the Canons of the Council of 
 Trent. Of what has just been adduced from 
 certain of those Canons, the following re- 
 capitulation may be useful. In these authori- 
 tative documents it is asserted or implied 
 that man can distinguish between mortal and 
 venial sin, the former being the sin which 
 separates the soul eternally from God, the 
 latter involving merely the pains of Purga-
 
 28 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 tory ; that all mortal sin which can be re- 
 called in the memory must, with its atten- 
 dant circumstances, in order to be forgiven, 
 be privately confessed to a priest; that the 
 priest's action in this matter is not minis- 
 terial, but judicial ; that this system was 
 divinely instituted at the beginning of our 
 Holy Religion ; that it has been con- 
 tinuously maintained and always put in 
 practice by the Church ever since that time. 
 Believing each one of these propositions to 
 be untrue, I cannot but earnestly join the 
 general protest against the restoration of a 
 system resting on such a basis.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN. 
 
 ' I "HE quotations given in the preceding 
 ~* chapter, from the Canons of the Council 
 of Trent, show that the distinction between 
 mortal and venial sins is closely and essen- 
 tially connected with the question under dis- 
 cussion. Here we come across that which 
 appears to me one of the most serious parts 
 of the sacramental penitentiary system. To 
 this distinction in its reference to this system 
 I invite the most careful attention. It is really 
 a vital point in the whole controversy. I 
 will, therefore, limit the present chapter en- 
 tirely to this subject. 
 
 The theoretical difference is very clearly
 
 30 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 laid down in Roman Catholic Theology. 
 Mortal Sin separates from the favour of God. 
 Venial Sin does not. For Mortal Sin the 
 penalty is Hell. For Venial Sin the penalty 
 is Purgatory. Mortal Sin can only be for- 
 given through confession to a priest, and 
 through receiving his absolution. Venial Sin 
 it is not essential to confess, though for the 
 soul's health it may be very desirable to do so. 
 But how to distinguish between mortal and 
 venial sin ? A sin, which is venial under some 
 circumstances, may become mortal under 
 other circumstances. This momentous ques- 
 tion can be decided only by a Priest who has 
 been trained in Casuistical Divinity. The 
 reader perceives at once the point to which 
 all this leads up. 
 
 Let us first, however, look at this distinc- 
 tion in reference to its probable tendency to 
 raise or to lower the standard of Christian 
 moral feeling. 
 
 That all sins are equal in enormity, no one 
 asserts. That there is the gravest difference 
 between sins committed habitually, delibe-
 
 MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN. 31 
 
 rately, and knowingly on the one hand, and 
 sins committed through want of knowledge 
 and through infirmity on the other, no one 
 disputes. But the true seat of sin is in the 
 heart. If the rules set before a sinner are 
 tabulated human definitions which, even if 
 they were theoretically exact, must, in their 
 application to any particular case, be liable 
 to uncertainty, through human ignorance 
 will not the result be the creation of an 
 artificial morality, extremely different in its 
 method from what we find in the New Testa- 
 ment, and therefore unfavourable to the 
 formation of Christian character ? How can 
 such a system be otherwise than unsound 
 and dangerous ? All sin is so dreadful in 
 itself, so abhorrent to God, that it must be 
 harmful to draw distinctions of this kind, 
 especially if they run into minute detail. 
 What we want is an instinctive, God-like 
 abhorrence of all sin : and to divide sins 
 theoretically into venial and mortal, curiously 
 to study the fine and subtle lines by which 
 the two classes can be discriminated, and
 
 32 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 practically to lead men to connect their hopes 
 and fears with these distinctions, cannot be 
 conducive to this holy God-like instinct. 
 
 But when this distinction of mortal sins 
 from venial is used by a priesthood, whose 
 office it is to decide for a sinner between 
 temporary suffering and eternal separation 
 from God, then a new element of the most 
 terrible kind is introduced into the question. 
 A system of confession and absolution, regu- 
 lated according to such precarious lines of 
 demarcation, and involving such dread alter- 
 natives, I cannot but regard as both cruel and 
 deceiving ; and with all my heart I must 
 deprecate its re-introduction amongst us. 
 
 Anecdotes, which would be quite out of 
 place in a sermon, are allowable here, 
 especially as these pages, which are an 
 amplification and re-arrangement of what 
 was preached in Chester Cathedral, make no 
 pretence to elaborate or learned treatment 
 of the subject in hand. Anecdotes, too, are 
 often very useful illustrations of a practical 
 question of this kind. Nor need I make any
 
 MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN. 33 
 
 apology for following the train of thought 
 suggested, during a recent visit to the Con- 
 tinent, by intercourse with the "Old Catho- 
 lics" of Germany and Switzerland. More- 
 over, uneasiness caused by this subject of 
 Sacramental Confession is by no means 
 limited to England. It is one of the 
 causes of this very " Old Catholic " move- 
 ment ; and we. shall probably hear of some 
 serious discussions concerning it at the 
 Synod to be held in Germany at Whitsun- 
 tide. 
 
 The recent Congress at Constance was held 
 in the very room where John Huss was 
 condemned to death ; and the recollection of 
 that great crime came up very freshly in 
 the addresses of several of the speakers. It 
 is said of John Huss, when on his way to be 
 burnt, that he expressed a wish to confess 
 to a priest. This was denied to him, except 
 on the condition that he would first recant, 
 or, in other words, would first give the lie 
 to his honest convictions; on which he re- 
 plied, " I am not guilty of mortal sin, and 
 D
 
 34 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 therefore confession is not essential."* This 
 seems to me to illustrate forcibly, not only 
 that distinguishing between mortal and venial 
 sin, to which dogmatic authority was given at 
 Trent, but also what I have called cruelty 
 and deception in the Roman system of re- 
 ligion, and the terrible coherence with which 
 its various parts hang together. Huss might 
 have been in mortal sin ; but he could 
 not be delivered from Hell, except on con- 
 dition of saying what was false. If at the 
 last moment he had become a hypocrite, the 
 gates of Heaven would have been thrown 
 wide open to him. 
 
 I am reminded here of what a distinguished 
 man said to me, a few months ago, of the 
 putting of mere submission in the place of 
 faith. His Bishop was one of those German 
 Prelates who, before the Vatican Council, 
 pronounced the Infallibility of the Pope to be 
 untrue. On his return from the Council, he 
 at first desired to resign his bishopric; but 
 
 * This story is given in Canon Robertson's "History of the 
 Christian Church," vol. iv. p. 281.
 
 MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN. 35 
 
 the influence of the Jesuits was successfully 
 exerted upon him ; and then he required my 
 informant, who himself held the same view, 
 to give in his submission, on which this reply 
 was given to the Bishop : " I read in the 
 Bible, not of submission, but of faith : convince 
 me that what you said was false last year 
 is true this year, and I will thankfully 
 yield." 
 
 During the same journey, I was once 
 walking in Switzerland from one village to 
 another with a priest, when our conversation 
 fell upon the Confessional. I said to him, 
 that I thought this system, based as it is upon 
 the distinction between mortal and venial 
 sin, is both cruel and deceiving. " Yes," he 
 said, with a shrug of the shoulders ; " and no 
 one can draw the line between mortal and 
 venial sin." Then he added, with another 
 shrug, " The Casuists can." On this I asked 
 him what real effect resulted from the training 
 of the Clergy on the casuistical method of 
 Moral Theology. He answered, " It is the 
 destruction of all religion." I ought to add
 
 36 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 that this man was at that time surrounded 
 by the respect of his parishioners, and that 
 he himself had been a professor in an Eccle- 
 siastical Seminary. 
 
 For the sake of elucidating, to those who 
 have not studied this subject, some charac- 
 teristics of this system, I will state a case 
 which by others will be recognised as familiar. 
 Here is half-a-crown on a table. I desire to 
 possess it, though it is not mine ; and, no one 
 seeing me, I appropriate it, or, in the plain 
 honest language of the English people, I steal 
 it. Now is this a mortal or a venial sin ? 
 " Here," say the Casuists, " we must distin- 
 guish ; we must take into account to whom 
 the half-crown belonged." So far as I can 
 make out from Liguori,* whose moral theo- 
 logy is at present in very high honour and 
 officially approved, the sin in his view would 
 
 * Prebendary Meyrick's " Moral and Devotional Theology of 
 the Church of Rome, according to the Authoritative Teaching 
 of S. Alfonso de' Liguori," published in 1857, ought to be well 
 known and carefully studied. In one Diocese at least of our 
 Sister Church in America, I observe that it is made a text-book 
 for Theological Students.
 
 MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN. 37 
 
 be mortal if the coin were stolen from a 
 beggar, but venial if it were stolen from a 
 rich nobleman. Various opinions, however, 
 on such a subject would be considered pro- 
 bable ; * and yet we are concerned here with the 
 tremendous distinction between mortal and 
 venial sin, between eternal separation from 
 God and the temporary loss of His favour. 
 
 Now I say that a compulsory confessional 
 system based on such principles, or rather 
 such absence of principle, may easily cause 
 distress of mind when there ought to be 
 peace and joy, or may produce the belief that 
 we have been forgiven when there has been 
 no true repentance at all ; while in every case 
 it puts a fearful power into the hands of a 
 fallible priest in a matter really belonging 
 to the transactions of the human soul with a 
 Merciful Father, through a sufficient Saviour, 
 in the strength of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 I will conclude what I have to say under 
 
 * To the fifth and tenth of Pascal's famous Provincial Letters, 
 which exposed the immoral consequence of the Jesuit doctrine 
 of Probabilities, should now be added the sixth chapter of 
 Professor Huber's recent " Order of the Jesuits" (Berlin, 1873).
 
 38 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 this head with four remarks, which are par- 
 tially repetitions of what has been said before, 
 but which have the advantage of being very 
 definite. 
 
 First, let it be remembered that the decision 
 of the confessor in regard to these delicate 
 and difficult affairs of the soul is judicial. 
 Under this system the voice of God within 
 the Church is not the Holy Ghost, freely 
 instructing and training the conscience of 
 each separate person according to the diligent 
 use which is made of prayer and other means 
 of obtaining light ; but it is found in the pre- 
 carious utterances of a caste of men set apart 
 from their fellows, yet without having a per- 
 fect knowledge of the awful secrets with which 
 they have to deal. 
 
 Next, it is obvious that this system creates 
 a necessity for a minute casuistical training. 
 Such training must, in fact, preponderate over 
 everything else ; and thus the proportions of 
 a well-balanced theology must inevitably be 
 disturbed. It is probable that within the 
 Church of England inadequate attention is
 
 MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN. 39 
 
 given to the study of cases of conscience ; 
 and that in this respect we suffer, and have 
 some new and very useful lessons to learn. 
 But excess of this study is far more harmful 
 than the lack of it. Few things can be more 
 injurious than the overshadowing of the Bible 
 by a thick network of artificial divinity. I 
 well remember the earnestness with which in 
 Italy, a few years ago, a professor in a theo- 
 logical seminary told me privately of his 
 craving for a method of Biblical training 
 instead of the scholastic and casuistical 
 method which was there supreme : but then, 
 he added, he was, so far as he knew, alone in 
 having these thoughts ; and if he revealed 
 them, he would be a marked and ruined 
 man. 
 
 Again, it seems evident that when the 
 Clergy of a country are trained under this 
 system, there must grow up among the people 
 what may be called a quantitative morality 
 a morality not of principle and feeling, but 
 of less or more, and of nice rules and dis- 
 tinctions, and that thus the general tone of
 
 40 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 Christian sentiment must be lowered. The 
 adoption, too, of the doctrine of probabilities 
 as a theory, among the guides of the people, 
 must necessarily have its counterpart among 
 the people themselves in a habit of acting on 
 probabilities. It need not be doubted, indeed, 
 that when the confessor is saintly and the 
 penitent is earnest, a high spirit of devotion 
 may be generated under the practice of Sacra- 
 mental Confession. But can the average 
 conscience fail to be injured, when the stan- 
 dard books of morality direct attention, with 
 the most minute ingenuity, to the qualifica- 
 tions and reservations and excuses which 
 modify the character of sin ? 
 
 To conclude, this aspect of the subject is 
 very serious for us at this time ; for Roman 
 Catholic teaching on morals is sure to have 
 influence amongst us, in proportion as the 
 practice of auricular confession spreads ; and 
 Roman Catholic teaching on morals is now 
 Jesuit teaching. The genius of Pascal has 
 been in vain. Within a very few years we 
 hear that the text-books in nearly all Roman
 
 MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN. 41 
 
 Catholic countries have been changed. The 
 clerical seminaries are now pervaded by that 
 which Pascal opposed. The Jesuits have 
 been well described as being now "the 
 Church of Rome in commission." It is not a 
 light thing that the confessional is exposing 
 us to the danger of acquiring, in reference to 
 matters of right and wrong, habits of thought 
 inspired by that celebrated Order.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO MAN. 
 
 \\ 7" HEN the relation of Sacramental Con- 
 fession to the Holy Scriptures is set 
 down as the question to be considered, the 
 mind turns immediately and instinctively to 
 that familiar verse in the Epistle of St. James 
 " Confess your faults one to another, and 
 pray one for another, that ye may be healed : 
 the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man 
 availeth much." * 
 
 Confession is here enjoined, or, at least, 
 very strongly recommended. But what kind 
 of confession ? Not confession to a priest, for 
 the sake of obtaining absolution ; but mutual 
 
 * James v. 16.
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO MAN. 43 
 
 confession, that there may be the benefit of 
 mutual help, and that each may pray for the 
 other. 
 
 And the case is made stronger by the fact 
 that in the preceding verses the Elders of 
 the Church, or the Presbyters or the Priests, 
 if we prefer to use the Saxon abbreviation 
 of the Greek word * are very distinctly men- 
 tioned. St. James has been speaking of 
 them, and now he turns from them to the 
 relations of ordinary Christians one among 
 another. In reading through the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth verses consecutively, we ob- 
 serve a marked transition ; and in the six- 
 teenth verse the writer has passed over his line 
 of demarcation from one subject to another. 
 This transition gives all the greater emphasis 
 to what he says concerning reciprocal confes- 
 sion and reciprocal intercession. 
 
 Yet, strange to say, the text is confidently 
 used to authorise the system which is termed 
 " auricular confession," or " sacramental con- 
 
 * It cannot be too often repeated that "priest," to invert 
 Milton's phrase, is merely "presbyter writ short."
 
 44 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 fession," where the penitent confesses to the 
 priest, but the priest does not confess to the 
 penitent ; where nothing mutual, nothing reci- 
 procal takes place ; where all the confession is 
 on one side ; where one person makes known 
 the secrets of his life, and the other keeps both 
 those communicated secrets and his own. 
 Not long ago, for instance, I saw in a conti- 
 nental cathedral, in a series of pictures 
 representing what are called the Seven 
 Sacraments, this text appended to that which 
 indicated the " Sacrament of Penance." Such 
 unfair dealing with Holy Scripture suggests 
 the feeling of distrust; and one of the most 
 painful states of mind connected with this 
 whole subject is the feeling of distrust. 
 
 Let us see how a Roman Catholic com- 
 mentator of high repute contrives to make 
 this passage a justification for the theory and 
 practice of Sacramental Confession. These 
 words of St. James constitute a terrible 
 difficulty for Roman Catholics, and for 
 those who take the Roman Catholic view of 
 confession and absolution : and the difficulty
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO MAN. 45 
 
 must be, by them, somehow surmounted, 
 whether by ingenuity, or by violence. Thus 
 the Jesuit commentator, Cornelius a Lapide, 
 says on this passage : " One to another 
 means man to man, like to like, brother to 
 brother ; as, for instance, to a priest, who, 
 though superior in office, is equal in nature, 
 and himself bound to confess to a priest." * 
 This (to express my own feeling honestly) I 
 regard as merely an attempt to show that 
 when St. James said one thing, he meant 
 another; or, in plain English, an attempt, by 
 throwing a haze over the whole subject, to 
 show that black is white. 
 
 But now it is important to observe and 
 this circumstance may be expected to have 
 some weight with those who are pre-disposed 
 to accept Roman teaching upon the subject 
 before us that Roman Catholic writers are 
 not unanimous in their interpretations of this 
 passage in St. James. I turn to another 
 commentator, also a Jesuit. I take into my 
 
 * "Comment, in Sacram. Scripturam." Par., MDCCCLX, 
 Vol. x. p. 583.
 
 46 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 hand Lorinus ; and in his pages I find these 
 words, "That phrase, one to another, does not 
 justify the view of the heretics, or of Cajetan, 
 and other Catholics too, who, because of it, 
 deny that the reference in this place is to 
 Sacramental Confession." * And who was 
 Qajetan r He was the court theologian of 
 Leo X. He did more than any one man of 
 his day to move forward the doctrine of the 
 Pope's Infallibility from its previous position 
 of a floating opinion towards its present 
 state of fixed dogma. He it was who, though 
 he had seen Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII., and 
 Alexander VI., was the author of the saying 
 that, " The Catholic Church is the born hand- 
 maid of the Pope." f He it was that was sent 
 to Augsburg to demand the retractation of 
 Luther, who had dared to maintain that 
 Indulgences, consisting of the merits of Christ 
 and the Saints, are not at the disposal of the 
 Pope. This Cajetan, then, this Roman of the 
 Romans, takes the Protestant view of the 
 
 * "Comment, in Cathol. Epist." Lugd., MDCXIX. P. 293. 
 t See " Janus " (English Transl.), p. 375.
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO MAN. 47 
 
 text before us. I feel that this is more than 
 enough for my present purpose. With so 
 great a champion on my side I need not refer 
 to any others. 
 
 Observing, however, that Estius, another 
 .Roman Catholic commentator, has been 
 referred to with singular confidence in the 
 course of recent discussions on this subject, I 
 cannot resist the temptation of referring to 
 him likewise. I confess I was myself some- 
 what startled, when I took down his second 
 volume from my shelf, and found that he 
 leaves the interpretation of the passage an 
 open question. He states that three views 
 may be taken, either that St. James means 
 the acknowledgment of faults to those whom 
 we have offended, or the opening out of our 
 sins and difficulties to a friend for the purpose 
 of obtaining advice, or that he refers to 
 " Sacramental Confession : " and Estius con- 
 cludes, " Inasmuch as the two former mean- 
 ings, especially the second, are not without pro- 
 bability, and inasmuch as thoroughly Catholic 
 writers have advocated this meaning, there-
 
 48 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 fore let the reader have full liberty to choose 
 which he prefers of the two, or even of the 
 three."* I need not say more. Roman 
 Catholic commentators being divided, the 
 language of St. James is left free to receive its 
 natural interpretation. 
 
 In consequence of the obvious prominence 
 of this passage in its bearing on the present 
 controversy, and also of the boldness with 
 which it has been used for a purpose to which 
 it is clearly inapplicable, I have dwelt upon 
 it at some length, reserving other parts of the 
 Biblical argument for the next chapter. Nor 
 need I hesitate to repeat here, in substance, 
 what was said in preaching on this text. It 
 is very important, in debates of this kind, to 
 ascertain not only what a Scriptural text does 
 not mean, but what it does mean. If it can 
 be seen that the words of St. James, naturally 
 interpreted, have a copious significance, 
 directly available for the promotion of Chris- 
 tian life, the temptation to use them in another 
 way is much diminished. 
 
 * " Comment, in Epist. Apost." Par., MDCLXVI. Vol. ii. p. 1 107.
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO MAN. 49 
 
 Mutual or reciprocal confession of friends 
 among friends that there may be mutual 
 and reciprocal help and mutual and reci- 
 procal intercession, this is quite consistent 
 with confession to Almighty God, and quite a 
 different thing from confession to a priest, for 
 the sake of obtaining that priest's absolution. 
 There ought to be more of such confession 
 amongst us than there is. An Apostle 
 recommends it : and with good reason. 
 There is far too little acknowledgment of 
 our faults to one another. We are far too 
 proud, far too reserved, too unwilling to be 
 blamed, too ready to justify ourselves : and 
 thus we lose much help that would be in- 
 valuable for the progress of the Christian 
 life. 
 
 First, when we have done any wrong to 
 others, have erred in temper, have dealt 
 unfairly, have yielded to selfishness, there 
 ought to be a free and cheerful acknowledg- 
 ment. If our Lord says, "Tell thy brother 
 his fault between thee and him alone,"* surely 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 15. 

 
 50 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 He would approve of our saying, " Tell him 
 thy fault between him and thee alone." This 
 is a kind of auricular confession which is 
 thoroughly wholesome, thoroughly good. 
 
 Next, in our more public relations, we 
 ought to be willing to make a frank acknow- 
 ledgment, when we are aware that we have 
 been wrong. In the case of such discussions 
 as these, for instance, a mistake should be 
 admitted, if a mistake has been made. 
 Nothing is lost by this course. In most 
 cases, probably other men see very plainly 
 that we have been wrong ; and we only make 
 matters worse by pretending that we have 
 been right. By confession we shall gain 
 something in general esteem. A man who 
 can make an acknowledgment of error is 
 almost always respected. No one is surprised 
 that we should fall into error: no one expects 
 that we should always be right ; and the 
 world is commonly generous, if by confession 
 we do all that can be done to remedy our 
 mistake. 
 
 Above all, there should be confidential
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO MAN. 51 
 
 confession (with due discretion, of course) 
 of Christian friends among Christian friends. 
 By the mere fact that such persons are 
 Christ's true disciples, they are made to help 
 one another. Let faults and weaknesses 
 and follies be admitted. Let advice be 
 sought. Let sympathy have its appointed 
 and most blessed work. So will oil and wine 
 be poured into many a sore and festering 
 wound. So will feeble resolutions be 
 invigorated. So will the straight road to 
 Heaven be resumed with gladness of heart. 
 
 And, finally, this mutual help must espe- 
 cially take the form of prayer. The help 
 that is really given must come from God. 
 " Pray for one another, that ye may be 
 healed," is the second part, and not less 
 important part, of this apostolic precept. 
 And we are called upon most carefully to 
 observe how St. James concludes. His 
 closing words rivet and fasten down im- 
 movably the true meaning of the passage : 
 " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous 
 man availeth much." He does not say, " The
 
 52 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSIOA T . 
 
 absolution of a priest availeth much." If he 
 had meant this, he would have said this. In 
 a matter so important, it is incredible that 
 he could have led us wrong. We must at 
 least believe that St. James knew the use of 
 words ; or rather we ought to say, we are 
 sure that the Holy Ghost, who inspired him 
 so to write, does not deceive us. May it ever 
 be granted to us, in these sad and disturbing 
 times, to prefer " the words which," in the 
 Scriptures of truth, " the Holy Ghost 
 teacheth," to "the words which man's wisdom 
 teacheth," * wherever they are found ! 
 
 * I COT. ii. 13.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO GOD. 
 
 r I ^HE relation of our subject to Holy 
 -- Scripture is of such paramount import- 
 ance, that two chapters of this small volume 
 are not too much to give to it; and a con- 
 venient division can be made, with the Bible 
 before us, between Confession to Man and 
 Confession to God. 
 
 I will not dwell here on the relation which 
 subsists between the teaching of the Bible 
 and the teaching of the Church, or on the 
 limitation which we ought to give to the 
 meaning of the word " Church." This, on 
 the present occasion, may justly be treated 
 as a collateral topic ; for in the recent dis-
 
 54 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 cussions on " Sacramental Confession " which 
 have come before my notice, the Scriptures 
 have been referred to, on both sides, and on 
 all sides, boldly, freely, and directly. Some 
 who have written on the subject evidently 
 view the voice of Scripture as subordinate to 
 the voice of the Church ; others regard it as 
 giving the knowledge of our Religion in a far 
 clearer and more authentic form than any 
 which is found elsewhere. But in dealing 
 with this question we should really be consi- 
 dering the ground for being Christians at all, 
 rather than the matter which is actually before 
 us. I will not then attempt to decide between 
 those who, in the exercise of their private 
 judgment, accept Holy Scripture as suf- 
 ficiently containing a Divine Revelation, and, 
 in the exercise of that judgment, reverently 
 use all helps supplied by Christian antiquity 
 and Christian experience for interpreting 
 Holy Scripture ; and those, on the other 
 hand, who, in the exercise of their private 
 judgment, accept the Church as their one 
 authoritative teacher, and who, in the further
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO GOD. 55 
 
 exercise of that judgment, have decided 
 (since July i8th, 1870) that the Pope is the 
 Church. Those who have written on the 
 Roman Catholic side having appealed to 
 the Bible freely and unreservedly, I will do 
 the same. 
 
 Enough has been said concerning that 
 passage in the Epistle of St. James, where 
 he urges the benefit of mutual acknowledg- 
 ment of faults, and the benefit of mutual 
 help through intercessory prayer. No advan- 
 tage could be gained by further observations 
 on a text which, when looked at with sim- 
 plicity, stands out so clearly and definitely 
 in its natural meaning. Several other pas- 
 sages, however, of Scripture have been 
 adduced in the course of this controversy ; 
 some having a serious bearing on the matter 
 in hand, others so irrelevant, that it is diffi- 
 cult to avoid a smile, when they are brought 
 forward in this connection. Of the second 
 class are quotations from the Old Testament, 
 which sometimes surprise us by their appear- 
 ance in this connection. Thus, for instance,
 
 56 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 it is startling to find the public confession of 
 Achan before all the people of Israel brought 
 forward as an argument for another kind of 
 Confession, the great characteristic of which 
 is that it is secret.* Of similar value is a 
 reference to that passage in the Book of 
 Proverbs, where we are told that "he that 
 covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso 
 confesseth and forsaketh them shall find 
 mercy ; " f as though confession to God in 
 Jewish times could possibly be a precedent 
 for compulsory confession to a priest in 
 Christian times. Still, the Old Testament 
 has its instructive lessons for us in reference 
 to the subject but for this reason, that this 
 part of the Bible is replete with injunctions 
 that we should confess to God, while nothing 
 whatever is found there to enjoin the seeking 
 of private absolution from man. 
 
 * " Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory 
 to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto Him ; and 
 tell me now what thou hast done ; hide it not from me." Josh. 
 vii. 19. With this public confession to God in the time of Joshua, 
 compare similar instances in the times of Hezekiah and Ezra. 
 2 Chron. xxx. 22, Ezra x. n. 
 
 t Prov. xxviii. 13. See Ps. xxxii. 5, Dan. ix. 4.
 
 THE BIBLE: CONFESSION TO GOD. 57 
 
 But I turn to the New Testament, and I am 
 met by an argument for Sacramental Confes- 
 sion based on the words of St. Matthew, in 
 which he states that, during the preaching of 
 John the Baptist, " Jerusalem, and all Judaea, 
 and all the region round about Jordan, went 
 out to him, and were baptized of him in Jordan, 
 confessing their sins." * In this argument 
 St. John the Baptist is represented as receiv- 
 ing into his ear the private confessions of all 
 these people, and giving them private abso- 
 lution. I find it difficult to comprehend how 
 any one could present this supposition, except 
 with a desire to introduce the element of 
 laughter into a very serious subject. I do 
 not doubt, however, that some who reason 
 thus are quite in earnest. Let us then look at 
 the matter gravely. The chief stress of the 
 Roman Catholic case is laid upon the words 
 of our Saviour on the evening after His resur- 
 rection,! and presumed to be addressed to the 
 Apostles and their successors. But these 
 words had not been spoken in the days of 
 
 * Matt. iii. 5, 6. f John xx. 23.
 
 58 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 John the Baptist. How then could he exer- 
 cise a responsibility arising out of these 
 subsequent words ? He was not a successor 
 of the Apostles, but a predecessor. He was 
 great indeed as a prophet; none before him 
 ever greater ; but we are told by an infallible 
 Speaker that " he that is least in the kingdom 
 of God is greater" than the Baptist.* On the 
 Roman Catholic view of the authority for 
 sacramental binding and loosing, John the 
 Baptist, in exercising this function, would 
 have been an usurper ; and yet he is quoted 
 by Roman Catholics in illustration and in 
 defence of Sacramental Confession. Usurpa- 
 tion is brought forward to illustrate and to 
 justify legal authority. But still, let me add, 
 in this case, as above, when reference was 
 made to the Old Testament, the work and the 
 words of John the Baptist have an important 
 bearing upon the subject before us. He did 
 not sit as " a judge " in the private confes- 
 sional; but he openly pointed to "the Lamb 
 of God, which taketh away the sin of the 
 * Luke vii. 28.
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO GOD. 59 
 
 world ; "* and this is precisely what was done 
 by St. Peter, when he preached to the Jews 
 at Pentecost, and by St. Paul when he wrote 
 to his Heathen converts. The teaching and 
 conduct of the Baptist, in regard to this 
 matter, is in strict harmony with the general 
 analogy of the Bible. 
 
 A second passage in the New Testament, 
 the quoting of which in this connection is 
 almost equally startling, has reference to 
 the experience of this last Apostle at Ephe- 
 sus. A great commotion took place there 
 in consequence of his preaching and of the 
 miracles he was enabled to work. "Many 
 that believed came and confessed, and showed 
 their deeds," and magical books were publicly 
 burnt.f This, too, is adduced as a proof 
 that private compulsory Sacramental Confes- 
 sion was an Apostolic institution. There is, 
 however, in two respects, the most glaring 
 contradiction between the two cases. The 
 confession of evil deeds if, indeed, it was 
 not rather the confession of Christ, which is 
 
 * John i. 29, 36. f Acts xix. 18, 19.
 
 60 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 elsewhere denoted by the same Greek word * 
 was, first, spontaneous and voluntary, and, se- 
 condly, public and open. In preaching the first 
 of my sermons on the general subject in 
 Chester, I said that no one would dare to 
 bring forward this passage in justification of 
 imperative auricular confession ; but I have 
 found myself obliged to alter the sentence 
 in which I said this. All that need be added 
 on this point is, that if this passage is to be 
 pressed into the service of the present 
 question at all, it is a very strong argument 
 for the public acknowledgment of sin, and 
 public humiliation for sin, and, therefore, a 
 very strong argument against the secret 
 confessional. 
 
 But there remains a passage of serious 
 and solemn import, made more serious and 
 solemn by the occasion and the time, when 
 the words recorded by St. John were spoken. f 
 It was the evening of the first Easter Day 
 All being now accomplished that was neces- 
 sary for our Redemption, Christ, " having 
 
 * Phil. ii. II. t. John xx. 2123.
 
 THE BIBLE: CONFESSION TO GOD. 6r 
 
 died for our sins and risen for our justifica- 
 tion," proceeded to found that society which 
 was to bear His name, and to continue 
 through the ages till He should come again. 
 Speaking to His assembled Church, to the 
 Apostles and Disciples not to the Apostles 
 alone, as we see from St. Luke* and using 
 a form of words familiar to the members 
 of Jewish Synagogues,! though now with a 
 far higher than any merely Jewish meaning, 
 He invested His Church with the loftiest 
 powers that can belong to a religious society 
 on earth, and promised His ratification to 
 
 * When the two disciples returned from Emmaus, they found 
 not only "the eleven gathered together," but "them that were 
 with them." Luke xxiv. 33. See ver. 36. 
 
 t See " Excursus on the Power of the Keys," appended to 
 Professor Plumptre's recent University Sermon on " Confession 
 and Absolution," especially as regards Matt. xvi. 19 and 
 xviii. 1 8. I cannot indeed agree in the view which limits the 
 application of John xx. 23 to cases where a special prophetic 
 insight enables men to read the heart. The remark, how- 
 ever, is important (Sermon, p. 32), that it is to the prophet, 
 rather than to the priest, that the office belongs of saying, on the 
 one hand, "The Lord hath put away thy sin," as in 2 Sam. xii. 
 13, and on the other, "Thou hast rejected the word of the 
 Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee," as in i Sam. xv. 26.
 
 62 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 the exercise of those powers. To the grave 
 and reverential consideration of this passage 
 I shall return in a later chapter, having re- 
 ference to the position of the Church of 
 England in regard to this subject. At 
 present all I will say is this, that Christ 
 founded not only a new religion, but a new 
 society, and that all the ordinances and re- 
 gulations of this society have reference to 
 the salvation of the soul. We should expect 
 then His words on such an occasion to be 
 solemn and comprehensive. Let us add 
 together the admission of converts into the 
 Church by Holy Baptism ; the preaching* of a 
 
 * The solemn and sufficient meaning of these words, if limited 
 only to preaching, was forcibly urged by the present Dean of 
 Manchester in a recent ordination sermon. " I believe myself 
 that these words meant to convey the power to preach the 
 Gospel, to announce to men salvation from sin, which, if neglected, 
 would infallibly lead to destruction that these men, St. Peter, the 
 Apostles, and the body of faithful disciples, had entrusted to them 
 a Gospel, or Divine message, from Heaven, which, if accepted, 
 would lead to life, if neglected, would leave men in condemna- 
 tion; and, therefore, that they imply the overwhelming import- 
 ance of the Truth, to which they were ordained to bear testimony, 
 and the Authority by which they acted." The work of the 
 Apostles, he adds, was " to call men into the new covenant of
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO GOD. 63 
 
 Gospel, which to some is " a savour of life 
 unto life," to others " a savour of death unto 
 death ; " the reception of Christians to the 
 Holy Communion, or the debarring of them 
 from this sacrament; and the exercise of 
 discipline, which must vary in detail at 
 different periods ; and we shall not find it 
 difficult to assign to our Saviour's words an 
 ample and awful meaning, with a continuous 
 application to the Church in every age. 
 Only, this must be remembered that there 
 is not one single syllable in the passage to 
 sanction the belief that the office of Christ's 
 Ministers was to be "judicial," that they 
 were to divide sins into "mortal" and 
 " venial," and that they were to require the 
 "auricular" confession of the former in order 
 to forgiveness. 
 
 But collateral arguments from Scripture also 
 have been employed: and I quite admit the 
 force of such collateral arguments, if they are 
 
 regeneration : those who obeyed received new life ; those who 
 disobeyed remained under the wrath of God." I quote from 
 the Manchester Courier of March loth, 1873.
 
 64 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 consistent with themselves, and if they bring 
 forth the meaning of obscure texts through 
 combination with others that are more clear.* 
 I, too, will use a collateral argument : and it 
 is this : That nowhere in the New Testament 
 is there a trace that the words spoken by our 
 Lord on the evening of the first Easter Day 
 were understood by the Apostles to mean 
 what Roman Catholics suppose them to mean 
 
 * I have seen, for instance, a justification of Sacramental 
 Confession drawn from the mysterious notice of Melchizedek in 
 the Bible. The argument, if I rightly apprehend it, stands thus : 
 Christ is "a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek." 
 Christ says, in the passage quoted from St. John's Gospel, " As 
 my Father sent me, even so send I you : " the words thus 
 addressed to that assembly are also addressed to the successors 
 of the Apostles : therefore, the Clergy now are priests like 
 Melchizedek. But there is no evidence that Melchizedek was 
 appointed to receive private confessions and give private 
 absolution. This act, too, of absolving is not a priestly but a 
 judicial act, and is so set forth in the Canons of the Council of 
 Trent. Moreover, the argument proves too much. Melchize- 
 dek was a king as well as a priest, and certainly our Lord is 
 King. Hence the Clergy are kings as well as priests. And 
 indeed St. Peter, whom Roman Catholics must recognise as 
 the greatest of the Popes, does put these two thoughts together, 
 applying them both to the Christian Church, when he says, 
 " Ye are a royal priesthood." But then he assigns this double 
 designation to all Christians, Clergy and Laity alike.
 
 THE BIBLE: CONFESSION TO GOD. 65 
 
 now. The Pastoral Epistles relate specially 
 to the office of the Clergy, and we find no 
 such indication there: the Acts of the 
 Apostles give an account of the early found- 
 ing of the Church, and there, too, we search 
 in vain for anything of the kind; and the 
 same thing is true of the letters of the 
 Apostles, whether they be St. Peter or St. 
 Paul, St. John or St. James. Everything in 
 the New Testament, in reference to this 
 matter, shows consistency; but this con- 
 sistency is absolutely opposed to Vatican or 
 semi- Vatican Christianity. 
 
 And I will go one step further. There are 
 several passages in the New Testament, where 
 an allusion to Sacramental Confession must 
 have occurred, if Vatican or semi-Vatican 
 Christianity were the true expression of the 
 Gospel of Christ. Thus : " If any man lack 
 wisdom " would not, on this hypothesis, the 
 sentence have most naturally ended by advice 
 to have recourse to a confessor or director ? 
 Again, when St. Paul says, of preparation 
 for the Lord's Supper, " Let a man examine 
 F
 
 66 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 himself, and so let him eat of that bread, 
 and drink of that cup," is it credible, if the 
 necessity of privately confessing to a priest 
 were a Divinely-instituted law, that all re- 
 ference to this solemn fact should be omitted ? 
 Can we even read without perplexity our 
 Blessed Lord's own words " Come unto me, 
 all ye that labour and are heavy-laden" if 
 He Himself intended that recourse to a human 
 priest should be an essential preliminary to 
 the obtaining of relief and rest ? And what 
 are we to say of the Parable of the Prodigal 
 Son ? Surely that prodigal had been guilty 
 of mortal sin. Whence is it that the father 
 anticipates his return, and welcomes him 
 without any one to intervene ? Surely the 
 parable would have been more natural and 
 complete, on the Roman hypothesis, and less 
 likely to deceive us, if the younger brother 
 had been represented as first visiting the 
 elder brother in the confessional. But I will 
 not proceed in the enumeration of instances. 
 I will suggest that any one who has doubts 
 on this subject should read the New Testa-
 
 THE BIBLE : CONFESSION TO GOD. 67 
 
 ment carefully, with this one thought in his 
 mind, and should pause, whenever he comes 
 to a passage where he would expect some 
 allusion to Sacramental Confession to occur, 
 on the supposition of its being an essential 
 part of the Gospel. It will strike him as 
 remarkable that a system, asserted to be of 
 Divine institution, should have been unknown 
 to the Apostles ; and his natural conclusion 
 will be that this system was the product of a 
 later age. To this aspect of our subject we 
 shall come in the next chapter, where it will 
 be considered in connection with Church 
 History.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 T N the second part of the threefold sentence 
 *- which I have quoted, as a kind of text, 
 from Bishop Blomfield's Charge of 1842, it is 
 said that this system of compulsory auricular 
 confession is " one of the worst corruptions of 
 the Church of Rome." By the word "cor- 
 ruption " we mean that the thing to which it 
 is applied has been, more or less, vitiated, 
 depraved, debased ; so that, while originally 
 it may have been very good, it is now very 
 bad. Thus, in speaking of this system in the 
 Church of Rome as a corruption, we view it 
 as a spoiling of that which was primitive. 
 The most primitive Church of all, in re-
 
 CHURCH HISTORY. 69 
 
 ference to this matter, has already been 
 considered in the chapters on the Bible. 
 We must now think of the primitive Church 
 in another and secondary sense. Faithful 
 members of our communion are always in 
 the habit of referring cheerfully and con- 
 fidently to the few first centuries of the 
 Christian era, not as overruling the Scripture, 
 not as being exempt from the germs of a 
 gradually-spreading corruption, but as col- 
 laterally justifying our interpretation of 
 Scripture, and as adding great strength to our 
 religious position. In the present instance 
 there need be no hesitation in the cheerful 
 confidence of this appeal to the early ages. 
 
 In moving up towards these ages it is well 
 to secure some definite starting-points. When 
 we view the subject before us historically, our 
 attention ought to be fixed very closely and 
 carefully on the Fourth Lateran Council, 
 when, in 1215, private confession to a priest 
 was first made imperative, and on the Council 
 of Trent, when, in 1551, the theory and 
 practice of such Auricular Confession were
 
 70 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 dogmatically defined and prescribed. It is 
 of the utmost importance, in this contro- 
 versy, to observe the general characteristics of 
 these two ecclesiastical epochs. I will begin 
 with the later of the two, and thence move up- 
 wards in the direction of the primitive times. 
 
 The Council of Trent was, if I may 
 use such a comparison, the watershed of 
 all Modern Church History. The Roman 
 Catholic religion, in some of its essential 
 principles, was then first defined. Doctrines, 
 which may be said to have previously been 
 in a fluid state, were then crystallized. The 
 Roman Church then separated itself both from 
 the whole Protestant world, and from Oriental 
 Christianity, while yet in this very act of sepa- 
 ration it declared itself universal. With the 
 definition, too, of doctrine came the con- 
 solidation of practice. The hierarchy was 
 more strongly organized : discipline was 
 tightened : seminaries were established for the 
 training of the Clergy in strict principles ; 
 and the Papal power came out from the 
 conflicts of this Council, far greater than it
 
 CHURCH HISTORY. 71 
 
 had been in the previous century. It is 
 essential to take into account all these 
 things, when we wish to obtain a just view 
 of Sacramental Confession, as it emerged from 
 the hands of Pope Pius IV. That which had 
 been made a rule in the thirteenth century 
 was now formulated in systematic and authori- 
 tative teaching. A corrupt practice was now 
 developed into organized error and mischief. 
 To the ripe fruit of this Roman Confessional 
 System some reference will be made in the 
 concluding chapter of this little volume. I 
 will only add here, in regard to the topic 
 immediately before us, that the records of 
 the discussion which took place at the 
 Council of Trent, indicate very clearly two 
 currents of opinion, with various subordinate 
 streams on either side, struggling for the 
 mastery.* At length the definitions con- 
 cerning Sacramental Confession came forth 
 in the form which was the natural result of 
 the decree of 1215, after the opportunity 
 
 * See Paolo Sarpi's "Historic of the Councell of Trent" 
 (Brent's Translation, 1620), book iv. pp. 345-359.
 
 72 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 given by three centuries and a half for the 
 development of its legitimate effects. 
 
 Turning now to the decree of the Fourth 
 Lateran Council, again we are bound at- 
 tentively to consider the circumstances which 
 were associated with it. Only thus are we 
 able to see its true and full significance. The 
 very name of Innocent III. shows that the 
 change in question must have been an 
 advance in the power of the hierarchy. Let 
 it be remembered, too, that at this time first 
 the word " transubstantiation " itself an as- 
 sertion of the highest sacerdotal prerogative 
 began to be authoritatively used : let it be 
 remembered again that in this Council the 
 power of deposing a Sovereign Prince was 
 assumed by the Church, and that this epoch 
 " bequeathed to the Papacy its two great 
 standing armies," the Franciscans and Domi- 
 nicans ; * and it will easily be seen that the 
 
 * Dean Milman's "History of Latin Christianity," vol. vi. 
 p. 50. It should not be overlooked that a still more efficient 
 "standing army" of the Papacy was recruited at the later of 
 the two great dates_to which reference is here made.
 
 CHURCH HISTORY. 73 
 
 decree concerning Confession was no isolated 
 fact, but a part of a vast progress made at 
 that time in priestly usurpation. As regards 
 the decree itself, the obvious remark is sug- 
 gested, that if it made Auricular Confession 
 compulsory, such confession cannot have been 
 compulsory before. Hence the statement of 
 the Canons of the Council of Trent, that the 
 system as then observed had been established 
 at the beginning of Christianity, must be 
 erroneous. In fact Pope Innocent III. seems 
 to me to have refuted by anticipation Pope 
 Pius IV. 
 
 Not that this was really the beginning of 
 the observance of Sacramental Confession. 
 Some Protestants have written and spoken 
 on this subject in a wild and random way, 
 and have thus done harm to the cause they 
 have desired to help. A great ecclesiastical 
 change like that of 1215 does not come 
 without previous preparation. The recent 
 declaration of the Pope's Infallibility, to 
 adduce a similar instance, was prepared for 
 by the growth of opinion, by systematic
 
 74 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 teaching in Clerical Seminaries, by the alter- 
 ation of Catechisms,* and by the influence 
 of the Order of the Jesuits. So in an earlier 
 period the assertion of sacerdotal power by 
 the Clergy, the claim to supremacy on the 
 part of the Popes, the general ignorance 
 which promoted superstition, and the natural 
 craving for an absolution which was believed 
 to be efficacious, paved the way for a system 
 which had been unknown to primitive times. 
 Auricular Confession, once admitted to be 
 desirable, prevailed more and more, and that 
 which had been voluntary tended more and 
 more to become compulsory.f It is precisely 
 this historical train of circumstances, this 
 easy succession of cause and effect, which 
 
 * Some very remarkable evidence on this subject is furnished 
 by the Abbe Michaud, in his treatise " De la Falsification des 
 Catechismes Franfais et des Manuels de Theologie par le parti 
 Romaniste de 1670 a 1868 " (Paris, 1872). 
 
 f During the season of Lent last year, in the course of a cate- 
 chetical instruction to about fifty young women and three or four 
 young men, an English Clergyman appealed to them very 
 earnestly thus, " Suppose you were to die before Easter without 
 having confessed ! " If confession to a priest is of such value to 
 the soul, is it not a mercy to make it compulsory ?
 
 CHURCH HISTORY. 75 
 
 fills many thoughtful persons with anxiety 
 now in England, where ominous symptoms 
 of a preparatory kind are plainly to be 
 seen. 
 
 As to citations from the Fathers on the 
 subject of Auricular Confession, it would not 
 be difficult to make a " catena " on either side. 
 Two long chains of contrasted authorities, in 
 reference to this topic, might easily be hung 
 up over against one another. It would be 
 waste of space to fill these few pages with 
 matter of this kind. The readers, too, of much 
 that is written on this subject ought to be 
 warned against second-hand quotations. I 
 will simply adduce Chrysostom and Augus- 
 tine, who are almost worth all the other 
 Fathers put together; and from them I will 
 pass at once to an immediate successor of the 
 Apostles. 
 
 St. Chrysostom ought to have peculiar 
 weight with us, because of a scandal which 
 occurred in connection with the private con- 
 fessional during his predecessor's time at 
 Constantinople, and which resulted in dis-
 
 76 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 couragement of the auricular system.* In 
 harmony with this state of things we find him 
 writing thus, in his Homilies on the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews : " Let us persuade ourselves 
 that we have sinned ; but let us say this, not 
 in word only, but in our inmost thoughts. 
 Let us not simply call ourselves sinners, but 
 let us count up our sins, reckoning them 
 according to their kinds. I say not unto thee 
 that thou shouldst accuse thyself to other 
 men ; but I advise thee to follow the prophet's 
 counsel, and to make thy way known to the 
 Lord : in God's presence confess thyself : 
 confess thyself unto the Judge." f And other 
 
 * The original authorities for this affair, which occupied the 
 anxious attention of Nectarius, are Sozomen (vii. 16) and Socrates 
 (v. 19). It seems doubtful whether this case of confession in the 
 time of Nectarius can strictly be called auricular. Ed. Vales, 
 (Par., 1668), pp. 279, 727. 
 
 t " Sancti Chrysostomi Opera." Ed. Savil., 1612. Vol. iv. 
 p. 589. The "judge " here is not the priest, but Almighty 
 God. In a similar passage, adduced by Daille, where the 
 penitent is advised to " show his wound to the physician, no 
 one else being present," the " physician " is not the priest, but 
 God, " who knows all our sins before they are committed." 
 Dallaeus " De Sacramentali sive auriculariLatinorum Confessione 
 Disputatio " (Genev., 1 66 1), p. 151. In another part of this com-
 
 CHURCH HISTORY. 77 
 
 passages, even stronger, could be quoted to 
 the same effect from Chrysostom. Coupling 
 such words with the above-mentioned facts, 
 we are necessarily brought to the conclusion 
 that Compulsory Auricular Confession was 
 not then viewed at Constantinople as a part 
 of the Christian system. 
 
 Turning now from the East to the West, 
 from the Greek of Chrysostom to the Latin of 
 Augustine, I will refer to the celebrated 
 "Confessions" of the latter writer. There, 
 at the beginning of the tenth book, we find 
 St. Augustine saying : " God knows all, 
 whether I confess or not. What have I to do 
 with men, that they should hear my con- 
 fessions, as if they could heal my diseases 
 men, too, who are inquisitive into the lives of 
 others, but idle in correcting their own ? 
 Why do they seek to learn from me what I 
 am, who will not learn from Thee, O God, 
 
 prehensive work many quotations from Chrysostom are given. 
 Some may be conveniently read in Bingham's " Antiquities of 
 the Christian Church," bk. xviii. ch. 3 (Straker's Ed. vol. vi.) ; 
 see also Hooker's " Ecclesiastical Polity " (Keble's Ed.), vol. iii. 
 P- 54-
 
 78 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 what they themselves are ? Let me confess 
 what I know concerning myself: let me 
 confess also that which I do not know. For 
 what I know, I know by the shining of Thy 
 light upon me and what I know not, I know 
 not because my darkness, as yet, is not 
 turned by Thy light into the noonday."* 
 Now I venture to assert that such words 
 could not have been written by St. Augustine, 
 if all in his day were required to confess 
 privately to a priest. How many Roman 
 Catholic priests would dare to publish such 
 words now, and to adopt them as their own ? 
 
 The only other quotation I shall adduce is 
 from Clemens Romanus, whose words ought 
 to have great weight with us for a different 
 reason from that which gives weight to 
 Chrysostom and Augustine. If the Bishops 
 of Constantinople and Hippo were men of 
 commanding greatness, Clement lived at the 
 very threshold of the Apostolic age. Quoting 
 from an edition of the Earliest Fathers, 
 
 * " Sancti Augustini Opera." Ed. Benedict. Paris, 1689. 
 Vol. i. 171, 173.
 
 CHURCH HISTORY. 79 
 
 published by an eminent and learned German 
 prelate, who, after opposing the Pope's In- 
 fallibility, now seems to have acquiesced in 
 the Vatican decree, without having refuted 
 his own arguments, I ask the reader's atten- 
 tion to the following short extract from 
 Clement's First Epistle to the Corinthians : 
 "It is better that a man should confess his 
 sins than that his heart should be hardened. 
 
 My brethren, God requires nothing 
 
 from us except to confess to Him."* Such is 
 the view of the Confessional presented to us, 
 while the stream of Divine truth flowed fresh, 
 and as yet uncontaminated with any large 
 admixture of human error. St. Clement 
 seems to have known as little as the Apostles 
 themselves of any sacramental and impera- 
 tive system of private confession. 
 
 These are very scanty specimens of a mass 
 of early Christian literature, which might be 
 
 * " Pat. Apostolici." Ed. Hefele, p. 127. The passage will be 
 found in Bishop Jacobson's Edition, vol. i. pp. 186-188. It 
 should be added, in justice to Bishop Hefele, that, like Stross- 
 mayer, he does not appear to have yet published the Vatican 
 decree officially in his diocese.
 
 8o SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 brought forward in illustration of the point 
 before us : but, for the reasons above given, 
 these particular quotations have peculiar 
 force. It is not overlooked that besides 
 extracts from the writings of the Fathers, 
 elucidations of our subject are to be obtained 
 from liturgical materials. A fit place, how- 
 ever, for a reference to such sources will be 
 found in a chapter relating to Ordination and 
 Absolution ; and the same opportunity will 
 be convenient for some reference to that 
 ancient penitential system, of which the 
 modern Confessional is the " corruption." * 
 
 * The transmutation of the public discipline of the Early 
 Church into the auricular confessional of the Modern Church of 
 Rome is one of the most curious and most instructive changes 
 which Ecclesiastical History records. For details see the second 
 and third chapters of Marshall's "Penitential Discipline of the 
 Primitive Church for the first 400 years after Christ, together 
 with its Declension from the fifth century downwards to its pre- 
 sent state." (Oxford Anglo-Catholic Library, 1844.)
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 T T 7E come now to the consideration of the 
 * * doctrine of the Church of England in 
 respect of Confession and Absolution. Our 
 authorities must, of course, be the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, and the various services and rubrics 
 of the Prayer-Book. 
 
 And here a general remark, which, though 
 negative, is really of the utmost importance, 
 must be made at the outset. The entire 
 absence from any part of these Articles and 
 this Book of any of that instruction con- 
 cerning Sacramental Confession, which forms 
 a most conspicuous feature of the utterances 
 of the Council of Trent, shows that, in this 
 G
 
 82 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 matter, there is a gulf between the Churches 
 of England and Rome. Even at first sight it 
 is evident that this gulf is too broad to be 
 logically bridged over. But let us turn to 
 some particulars, which can be examined 
 separately. 
 
 Our Twenty-fifth Article states that Pen- 
 ance is not "a Sacrament of the Gospel," 
 that it has not " the like nature of a Sacra- 
 ment "with Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 Those then who advocate and urge on, within 
 our Church, the practice of Sacramental Con- 
 fession which, as we have seen, means 
 Confession viewed as an essential part of the 
 Sacrament of Penance when that Church has 
 asserted that Penance is not a Christian 
 Sacrament at all, would startle us extremely, 
 if the startling theological effects of the day 
 had not somewhat blunted our sense of 
 wonder. 
 
 But the Articles deal with this matter 
 indirectly as well as directly. In the Thirty- 
 fifth of them the Homilies are referred to with 
 more than approbation : and in one of these
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 83 
 
 old-fashioned sermons the subject of Con- 
 fession and Absolution is prominent. No one 
 supposes that every phrase in the Homilies is 
 to be quoted as of authority. It is their broad 
 and general teaching which the Church of 
 England accepts and inculcates : but that the 
 acceptance and inculcation of this broad and 
 general teaching ought to be a reality seems 
 evident from the reference made to the Homi- 
 lies in the rubric which follows the Nicene 
 Creed in our Communion Service.* And here 
 I cannot help referring with pain to the fact, 
 that in a most important communication on 
 the subject before us, made public a few 
 months ago, an incidental expression was 
 quoted from the Homilies, as being in the 
 interest of Sacramental Confession, and as 
 giving the sanction of our Church for the 
 practice, whereas no notice was taken of their 
 explicit, distinct, and direct declaration against 
 such Confession. This manner of citing 
 authorities seems hardly worthy of the can- 
 dour that might be expected from learned 
 
 * See also Art. xi.
 
 84 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 divines, such as are some of those who 
 attached their names to the document in 
 question.* 
 
 The words of the Homily on " Repentance," 
 which refer to this subject, have often been 
 quoted: but, as there seems to be a dispo- 
 sition in some minds to put these words out 
 of sight, it is desirable to quote them here 
 again ; and no commentary on them need be 
 added. "Whereas the adversaries go about 
 to wrest this place f for to maintain their 
 auricular confession withal, they are greatly 
 deceived themselves, and do shamefully de- 
 ceive others : for if this text ought to be under- 
 stood of auricular confession, then the priests 
 are as much bound to confess themselves unto 
 the lay-people, as the lay-people are bound 
 to confess themselves to them. And if to 
 
 * I refer to the "Declaration," which, after appearing in the 
 "Times," was afterwards printed in the "Guardian" of 
 December loth, 1873. The serious nature of this document 
 cannot be questioned. It bears the signatures, not only of the 
 Principal of a Theological College, but of three Divinity Pro- 
 fessors in one of our Universities, and among them the Professor 
 of Pastoral Theology. 
 
 t Viz., James v. ib.
 
 THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. 85 
 
 pray is to absolve, then the laity by this 
 place hath as great authority to absolve the 
 priests as the priests have to absolve the 
 laity." A later passage in the same Homily 
 is as follows : " I do not say, but that, if any 
 do find themselves troubled in conscience, they 
 may repair to their learned curate or pastor, 
 or to some other godly learned man, and 
 show the trouble and doubt of their conscience 
 to them, that they may receive at their hand 
 the comfortable salve of God's Word ; but it 
 is against the true Christian liberty that any 
 man should be bound to the numbering of his 
 sins, as it hath been used heretofore in the 
 time of his blindness and ignorance."* This 
 language is strictly in harmony with what we 
 
 * It is evidently right that this contemporary language should 
 be put side by side with that Warning in our Communion 
 Service, which is commented on below. We remark too that 
 it tends rather to dilute than to intensify the expressions in that 
 Warning. Thus, " the comfortable salve of God's Word " seems 
 synonymous with " comfort and the benefit of absolution " ; 
 and here it is suggested to those who are troubled in con- 
 science that they may repair, not necessarily to " some 
 discreet and learned minister," but to some "godly learned 
 man."
 
 86 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 find in the rubrics and services of the Prayer- 
 Book, to which we may now turn. 
 
 In examining the English Book of Common 
 Prayer there are three dates, to which every 
 intelligent student of English Church-history 
 gives his careful attention. These dates are 
 1549, 1552, and 1662. Very marked changes 
 took place in the book between the two 
 former of these years. It would not, however, 
 be quite fair to pause, in arguments of this 
 kind, at the second of these years, as, though 
 we obtained then the full and final expression 
 of the mind of the English Church, after 
 that date a reaction, to a limited extent, set 
 in : so that it is essential to consider not only 
 what was removed or changed in 1552, but 
 whether anything so removed or changed was 
 replaced or modified in 1662. A good illus- 
 tration of this point is furnished by the 
 liturgical history of the word " Altar," which 
 appears several times in the Prayer-Book of 
 1 549, but which was everywhere removed at 
 the second date, and nowhere replaced at the 
 third the phrase " Table," or " Lord's Table,"
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 87 
 
 or "Holy Table," being substituted, and 
 everywhere remaining.* Nothing can be 
 more emphatic than this deliberate and re- 
 peated testimony to the rejection of the 
 doctrine of a sacrificial priesthood. So with 
 the withdrawal and non-restitution of ex- 
 pressions which might be held to favour the 
 theory and practice of Sacramental Con- 
 fession. This can be shown very clearly 
 under two heads : the first having reference to 
 the Warning appointed to be read before the 
 administration of the Holy Communion, the 
 second to the form of Private Absolution 
 provided in 1549 for cases of Private Con- 
 fession. 
 
 Let us compare the Warning, as it stood in 
 
 * Nothing seems more strange than the attempt to meet this 
 argument by a reference to the use of the word "Altar " in the 
 Coronation Service. Even if a single exception had remained, 
 when the utmost pains had been taken to remove every trace of 
 this significant word, such an exception would have been of no 
 great weight against overwhelming evidence. But, further, the 
 Coronation Service is no part of the Prayer-Book at all : it never 
 received the sanction of Convocation; and an Erastian argu- 
 ment is of very little force, when used by those who vehemently 
 condemn Erastianism.
 
 88 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 that year, and as it stood in 1552 and 1662, 
 and still stands. In the first instance we read 
 thus : " If there be any of you, whose 
 conscience is troubled and grieved in any- 
 thing lacking comfort or counsel, let him 
 come to me, or to some other discreet and 
 learned priest taught in the law of God, and 
 confess and open his sin and grief secretly, 
 that he may receive such ghostly counsel, 
 advice, and comfort, that his conscience may 
 be relieved, and that of us, as of the Ministers 
 of God and of the Church, he may receive 
 comfort and absolution, to the satisfaction of 
 his mind and avoiding of all scruple and 
 doubtfulness." And then follows an injunc- 
 tion that those," on the one hand, who are 
 " satisfied with a general confession," are not 
 to be " offended with them that do use, to 
 their further satisfying, the auricular and 
 secret confession to a priest ; " nor those, on 
 the other hand, "which think it needful or 
 convenient, for the quietness of their own 
 consciences, particularly to open their sin to 
 the priest, to be offended with them that are
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 89 
 
 satisfied with their humble confession to God 
 and the general confession to the Church." 
 Now all this indicates very clearly a period 
 of transition. The question is : In what 
 direction did the stream begin to run from 
 this point, and in what direction is it running 
 still ? And the answer to this question is not 
 difficult. 
 
 In the first place all allusion to " auricular " 
 confession, as a permissible and probable 
 alternative along with " general " confession, 
 is entirely omitted from the latter part of this 
 Warning; and we never afterwards find 
 anything of the kind restored to the Prayer- 
 Book. Such an absolute banishment of a 
 most significant sentence is surely of some 
 weight for those who are disposed to be 
 convinced. As to the earlier part of the 
 Warning, we know that it is read now as 
 follows : " Because it is requisite that no 
 man should come to the Holy Communion 
 but with a full trust in God's mercy, and with 
 a quiet conscience, therefore, if there be any of 
 you who by this means cannot quiet his own
 
 go SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 conscience herein, but requireth further com- 
 fort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some 
 other discreet and learned Minister of God's 
 Word, and open his grief that by the Ministry 
 of God's Holy Word he may receive the 
 benefit of absolution, to the quieting of his 
 conscience and avoiding of all scruple and 
 doubtfulness." Even on a careless reading 
 we are conscious of the great alteration 
 which has taken place in the whole tone and 
 tenor of the passage. But when we look into 
 it closely, we become aware of the extreme 
 pains which must have been taken so to alter 
 the phraseology, that it should give no 
 countenance whatever to that system of 
 Sacramental Confession, which was about 
 that time receiving its mature form at the 
 hands of the Council of Trent. We mark 
 especially the six following verbal changes 
 the word "confess" in relation to private 
 intercourse with the priest is omitted, the 
 word " secretly " is omitted, the phrase 
 which describes " the particular opening of 
 sin ' is omitted, and not one of these
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 91 
 
 expressions has been restored ; and, further, 
 instead of " priest " we now read " minister of 
 God's Word ; " instead of " the opening of 
 sin and grief," we now read " the opening of 
 grief;" and, above all, we observe this most 
 important addition, that it is " the ministry 
 of God's Word," by which comfort and the 
 benefit of absolution are to be received.* 
 
 But, to pass now to our second head, it 
 seems likely, from the very nature of the case, 
 that so long as " auricular " confession was 
 contemplated as permissible and customary 
 for those who thought it conducive to their 
 spiritual good, some form of private absolu- 
 tion would be prescribed. And this, accord- 
 ingly, we discover to have been the case ; for 
 on turning to the Service for the Visitation of 
 the Sick we find in 1549, after the form of ab- 
 solution still provided there for exceptional 
 cases, the following rubric : " The same form 
 of absolution shall be used in all private 
 confessions." This part of the rubric was 
 removed between 1549 and 1552, and was 
 * See note above, p. 85.
 
 9 2 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 never restored ; nor has anything equivalent 
 to it been reintroduced into the Prayer-Book 
 subsequently. It is not, however, merely the 
 fact of this removal which requires our 
 thoughtful attention, but its removal coin- 
 cidently with the above-mentioned change in 
 the Warning, which withdraws all sanction 
 for the practice of Sacramental Confession. 
 If I may refer a second time to the document 
 which has recently been submitted, in so 
 marked a way, to public attention, I will here 
 express the surprise and regret caused by the 
 argument there used, that, Private Confession 
 being free in the Church of England to all 
 who desire it, some special form of Private 
 Absolution is requisite and sanctioned. Such 
 Private Confession was once encouraged, and 
 then there was an authorised form of Private 
 Absolution ; but this encouragement and this 
 authorisation were withdrawn simultaneously, 
 and neither has since been restored. And yet 
 these most significant changes are treated, in 
 the document in question, as if they had never 
 taken place.
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 93 
 
 On the whole it seems to me clear, from 
 what has been written above, that the Church 
 of England has decisively removed Private 
 Confession from its old sacramental position 
 that the services and rubrics in the Prayer- 
 Book are in harmony with the statement 
 in the Church Catechism, that Christ has 
 " ordained in His Church two Sacraments 
 only, as generally necessary to salvation" 
 and that any private absolution by an 
 English Clergyman is to be viewed, not as a 
 judicial act, but as the application of the 
 Divine Word to the special requirements of 
 an individual soul. 
 
 Two very important passages, however, in 
 the Prayer-Book still remain for considera- 
 tion ; one in that Service for the Visitation of 
 the Sick which has just been mentioned, the 
 other in the Service for the Ordaining of 
 Priests. Some remarks on both will find a 
 place in the next chapter, in connection with 
 some historical notices of Ordination and Ab- 
 solution. Meantime, strict attention may be 
 invited to the general principle which ought
 
 94 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 to control all our discussions on this subject. 
 Just as we are bound to interpret detached 
 passages of Scripture " according to the pro- 
 portion of the faith,"* so are we bound to 
 interpret detached sentences of the Prayer- 
 Book in harmony with the general analogy 
 and obvious intention of the whole. In the 
 very nature of things this must be the right 
 principle to be kept in view. It cannot be 
 otherwise. What is the fair way of en- 
 deavouring to ascertain the doctrine of the 
 Church of England on such a subject as this ? 
 Clearly not by taking separate phrases out 
 of their historical context not by isolating 
 them from the general spirit of the Book in 
 which they are found, and then erecting on 
 them a structure with building-materials 
 procured from Roman quarries, but by 
 embracing the aggregate of our official 
 Church-documents in one view, by making 
 just allowance for the conflicts through which 
 these documents passed to their present 
 shape, by treating the Prayer-Book as 
 
 * Rom. xii. 6.
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 95 
 
 reasonably as we should treat any other 
 composite work, and by requiring the whole 
 to interpret the part, and not the part to 
 interpret the whole.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ORDINATION AND ABSOLUTION. 
 
 HT^HIS chapter is to contain some remarks 
 -*- on Ordination and Absolution, with spe- 
 cial reference to the formula which our own 
 Bishops use in ordaining Priests, and to the 
 form of absolving, which though under 
 careful restrictions and avowedly for very 
 exceptional cases still is found in our Ser- 
 vice for the Visitation of the Sick. In conse- 
 quence both of the intrinsic importance of 
 these topics and the multitude of historical 
 and critical questions which immediately 
 arise when they are touched, there is great 
 difficulty in compressing what is written con- 
 cerning them. I will, however, confine myself
 
 ORDINATION AND ABSOLUTION. 97 
 
 within the limits prescribed for this small 
 book, taking my starting-point from the prin- 
 ciple laid down at the end of the preceding 
 chapter.* 
 
 Such a phrase as " I absolve thee," or " I 
 forgive thee," clearly admits of two interpre- 
 tations. It may denote a strictly judicial act, 
 according to the spirit and doctrine of the 
 Council of Trent ; or it may mean a purely 
 ministerial act, whereby some separate per- 
 son, presumed to be penitent and believing, 
 is assured that God's forgiving mercy is appli- 
 cable to his special case. This matter may be 
 illustrated by a passage which we find in the 
 Second Epistle to the Corinthians, though 
 that passage relates to a case rather of ex- 
 ternal discipline than of absolution in the 
 deeper sense. t 
 
 We have seen that Sacramental Confession, 
 
 * Viz., that the whole ought to be made to interpret the part, 
 and not the part the whole. 
 
 t It must not be forgotten that this was a case of public, not 
 private, absolution. Such too, was the character of those absolu- 
 tions of the early Christian centuries, of which the modern 
 sacramental system in the Church of Rome is a " corruption." 
 
 H
 
 98 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 in the Roman signification of the term, was 
 unknown to the Apostles. But in St. Paul's 
 dealings with the Church of Corinth we are 
 supplied with a very instructive instance of 
 the exercise of discipline. In his First Epistle * 
 he had directed, with the fullest weight of his 
 apostolic authority, that a certain gross offen- 
 der should be debarred from the privileges 
 of Christian communion. In this sense the 
 offender's sins were " retained." Since that 
 time there had been penitence : and now the 
 sins were " remitted :" now the moment was 
 come for the offender's restoration to such 
 communion ; and the act of restoration is ex- 
 pressed thus " To whom ye forgive any thing, 
 I forgive also." t Now either this is judicial 
 or it is ministerial : and on neither side of the 
 alternative does the Roman Catholic view 
 receive any support. If we take the former 
 view, then it appears that the judicial function 
 belongs to the Church, and not to the Apostle 
 only for St. Paul says, not merely "I for- 
 give," but " ye forgive." Then what becomes 
 
 * i Cor. v. 3-5. f 2 Cor. ii. 10.
 
 ORDINATION AND ABSOLUTION. 99 
 
 of the theory of a separate priesthood, to 
 whom alone the exercise of judicial powers 
 in absolution belongs ? But I contend that 
 according to the analogy of the teaching in 
 the whole of the New Testament, and, in 
 harmony with the general tenor of his own 
 language elsewhere, St. Paul would have dis- 
 avowed strictly judicial functions in the affairs 
 of the soul. 
 
 And if a similar question is asked in refer- 
 ence to the Prayer - Book : Have the words 
 " I absolve thee," which we find in the Visi- 
 tation Service, a ministerial sense, or a judi- 
 cial sense ? then I contend that, according 
 to the whole analogy of our official Church 
 documents, we must decide for the former. 
 How far it was wise in the compilers and 
 revisers of our Book of Common Prayer to 
 retain a phrase which is capable of two inter- 
 pretations, and which might easily be so inter- 
 preted as to contradict the rest of their work, 
 is a question into which I do not enter. 
 Perhaps it was not then known, so well as 
 it is known now, that the earlier forms of
 
 ioo SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 absolution in the West, down to the twelfth 
 century, were precatory,* and that in the 
 Eastern Church they are of that character 
 still ; and it is open to any English Church- 
 man to regret that the Catholic form was 
 not preferred to the local, the ancient to the 
 modern. But it is perfectly evident that the 
 modern form is not essential to a true abso- 
 lution ; otherwise there were no true absolu- 
 tions in the Church at all during more than 
 a thousand years. The point before us, how- 
 ever, is this : that the Articles and Prayer- 
 
 * The great work of Morinus, " De Disciplina in Adminis- 
 tratione Sacrament! Pcenitentiae " (Antv., 1862), had not then 
 been published. He was a Roman Catholic, and a man of vast 
 research. He says in the most explicit manner that he never 
 saw or heard of an absolution, till the Twelfth Century, that was 
 not precatory "Formulam ordinariam absolutionis sive re- 
 conciliationis Pcenitentiiim fuisse deprecatoriam testantur quot- 
 quot hactenus legi aut relata audivi antiquitatis Ecclesiastics 
 monumenta ad annum usque salutis ducentesimum supra millesi- 
 mum " (viii. 2). He tells us (p. 530) that about that period 
 some proposed to add " absolvo te," to make the grace obtained 
 by the priest's prayer more sure. By degrees it became cus- 
 tomary to combine the two forms together. Then it began to 
 be argued that the precatory form had nothing to do with the 
 true and substantial absolution.
 
 ORDINATION AND ABSOLUTION. 101 
 
 Book define the words, " I absolve thee," for 
 us in a ministerial sense, while the Council of 
 Trent defines them for Roman Catholics in 
 a judicial sense. 
 
 In passing now from the question of abso* 
 lution to that of ordination, it will be of 
 advantage to us to take and examine, by 
 the way, a specimen of the earlier forms of 
 absolution. That which I select is the 
 " Prayer for Penitents," in the Liturgy of 
 St. James,* which is read as follows : 
 " O Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living 
 God, who takest away the Sin of the World, 
 who didst graciously remit to the two Debtors 
 what they owed Thee, and to the woman who 
 was a Sinner didst give the pardon of her sins, 
 who with the forgiveness of the sins of the 
 Paralytick didst grant him also a cure of his 
 Disease ; remit, pardon and forgive the sins 
 committed, willingly or unwillingly, with 
 knowledge or through ignorance, by trans- 
 gression and disobedience : and whereinso- 
 
 * I quote from the edition of this Liturgy by Dr. Rattray, 
 Bishop of Dunkeld, (1744), p. 107.
 
 102 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 ever, as men clothed in flesh, and inhabitants 
 of this world, or by the fraud of the Devil, 
 they have been led astray in Word or Deed, 
 I pray and beseech thee of thy ineffable Love 
 to man that they may be absolved by thy 
 Word, and released according to thy great 
 goodness. Even so, O Lord, hear supplica- 
 tion for thy servants, and, as thou dost not 
 delight in the remembrance of evil, overlook 
 all their offence and deliver them from 
 Eternal Punishment. For thou art He who 
 hast enjoined us, saying, Whatsoever ye shall 
 loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven ; thou 
 art our God, a God who hast Power to have 
 mercy, to save, and to forgive sins ; and to 
 Thee, with thy unoriginate Father, and life- 
 giving Spirit, belongs Glory, now and ever, 
 world without end. Amen." Other early 
 forms, still more to our purpose as illustra- 
 tive of the precatory character of primitive 
 absolutions, might easily have been selected;* 
 but this form is interesting, from its manner 
 
 * Several specimens are given by Goar : " Rituale Grae- 
 corum," (Par., 1647), pp. 662-674.
 
 ORDINATION AND ABSOLUTION. 103 
 
 of quoting our Lord's words regarding the 
 binding and remitting of sins.* 
 
 Coming now, by the most natural of all 
 transitions, to the question of ordination, we 
 find ourselves, when we consider our own 
 ordaining formula, in the very same position 
 as in reference to our (exceptional) absolving 
 formula for penitents in sickness. The use 
 of these particular words at ordinations is, 
 in fact, very modern. The beginning of the 
 direct employment of the phrase, " Receive 
 the Holy Ghost," with the words that follow, 
 belongs to the same general period as the 
 beginning of the employment of the direct 
 form, " I absolve thee." The history of these 
 significant changes has been traced very 
 definitely to the short period between the 
 Master of the Sentences and the great St. 
 Thomas of Aquinum.t Under these circum- 
 stances there is nothing at all disloyal in the 
 preference of any English Churchman for 
 
 * The words here quoted are not from Johu xx. 23, but from 
 Matt, xviii. 18. This, however, does not affect the argument. 
 
 f See Prof. Plumptre's Sermon on " Confession and Absolu- 
 tion," pp. 17-19.
 
 104 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 the earlier form of ordaining over the later, 
 for the Catholic over the local. The prac- 
 tical question, however, for the moment, 
 relates to the interpretation which we in 
 the English Church ought to give to this our 
 comparatively modern and local formula. 
 The true inspiration of the Church of Rome 
 comes from that very period of the Middle 
 Ages to which reference has just been made. 
 That period gives to the Church of Rome its 
 proper point of departure. But is this the 
 case for us ? That Church has a medieval 
 form with a medieval, and more than medi- 
 eval, commentary. We have the same form 
 with a Protestant commentary. Is it not 
 evident that our natural attitude, in regard 
 to this matter, is quite contrary to the 
 Roman ? 
 
 But something more, and something of 
 great importance, remains to be said in 
 reference to our form of ordination. I firmly 
 believe paradoxical as this appears that 
 this part of the Prayer-Book is really, in its 
 honest intention, one of the most Protestant
 
 ORDINATION AND ABSOLUTION. 105 
 
 parts of the whole volume. The Reformers 
 found these words in customary use at ordi- 
 nations. They knew that they were our 
 Lord's own words. They dealt with them 
 as they dealt with His words at the adminis- 
 tration of the Holy Communion. They 
 quoted them literally and combined them 
 intimately with the visible act and gesture 
 employed on the occasion when they were 
 used. It was believed that in the Primitive 
 Church and in the Universal Church these 
 were the " sollennia verba " of ordination, 
 and (all additions that they regarded as 
 superstitious being removed) they concen- 
 trated the whole ceremony in the employment 
 of these words with the laying on of hands. 
 Thus Bishop Andrewes says that "Holy 
 Orders " were given of old, and are given 
 " to us even to this day, by these and no 
 other words." At that time the fact was not 
 known, which the investigations of Morinus 
 subsequently revealed, that the primitive 
 form of ordination as is now the Oriental 
 form was prayer with the laying on of
 
 io6 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 hands.* But as to the intention of the 
 Reformers, and therefore as to the natural 
 interpretation of our Ordination Service, I 
 think there cannot be a doubt. 
 
 But one thing more, and this too of some 
 consequence, remains to be added in reference 
 to this our formula of ordination. It is not 
 really the ordaining formula of the Roman 
 Church at all. In that Church the act of 
 ordination by the imposition of hands is fol- 
 lowed by the commission to "offer sacrifice 
 for the living and the dead." The utterance of 
 the words, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost," with 
 what follows, is subsequent to these parts of 
 the Service. Thus the Reformers really made 
 an extreme change in bringing those words of 
 
 * Bishop Andrewes continues : " Which words had not the 
 Church of Rome retained in their ordinations, it might well 
 have been doubted (for all their accipe protestatem sacrificandi 
 pro m-vis et mortuis] whether they had any Priests at all or no. 
 But, as God would, they retained them, and so saved themselves. 
 For these are the very operative -words for the conferring of this 
 power, for the performing of this act." I quote from p. 687 of 
 the third edition of his Sermons, published in 1635. The 
 second great work of Morinus, " Commentarius de Sacris 
 Ecclesiae Ordinationibus, " was not published till 1695.
 
 ORDINATION AND ABSOLUTION. 107 
 
 the Lord himself into combination with the 
 imposition of hands, and with the commission 
 " to preach the Word of God and to minister 
 the Holy Sacraments." This circumstance is 
 of no inconsiderable moment, when the 
 whole subject is to be dealt with contro- 
 versially.* 
 
 And that this is a perfectly fair way of look- 
 ing at the subject may be shown by an exa- 
 mination of various documents connected with 
 the Reformation. There was no disposition 
 at that time to evade the force of those solemn 
 words spoken by our Lord on the evening of 
 the first Easter Day. The question which 
 arose had reference, not to the weight and 
 binding nature of those words, but to their 
 interpretation. This might be confirmed by 
 
 * My attention was first called to this fact by Dr. Reichel's 
 pamphlet, " Shall we alter the Ordinal ? " (Dublin, 1872). His 
 accuracy can be verified by an inspection of the Roman Pon- 
 tifical. After the ordination is completed by the laying on of 
 the hands of the Bishop and attendant Presbyters, and after 
 power is given to consecrate the Eucharist, these words are 
 addressed to them in a supplementary part of the service : nor 
 is this supplement ancient. "Pontificate Romanum," (Par., 
 1664), pp. 42, 49, 53.
 
 io3 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 quotations from the various Protestant Con- 
 fessions. But perhaps it is more to the pur- 
 pose, and less commonplace, if reference is 
 made to John Knox's Liturgy. " The Order 
 of Excommunication and of Public Repent- 
 ance," in that most curious and instructive 
 composition, is very elaborate, and well 
 w6rthy of being studied in its bearing upon 
 our present subject.* It illustrates very use- 
 fully several points which have been under 
 our consideration. Thus the cases with 
 which it deals are public, as in the primitive 
 times ; and the discipline is exercised, not 
 by an exclusive body of priests, but by 
 the Church. "If a man be charged by 
 Christ Jesus to go to a man whom he hath 
 offended, and then by confession of his 
 offence require reconciliation, much more is 
 he bound to seek a whole multitude whom 
 he hath offended, and before them with all 
 
 * " The Liturgy of the Church of Scotland, as prescribed by 
 the General Assembly." Edited by the Rev. J. Gumming, 
 1840, pp. 140, 150. It is sometimes forgotten that the existing 
 Scotch " Standards" do not, for the most part, belong to the 
 period of the Reformation.
 
 ORDINATION AND ABSOLUTION. 109 
 
 humility require the same." The form of 
 absolution especially well deserves to be 
 quoted and read "If thou unfeignedly re- 
 pent thy former iniquity, and believe in the 
 Lord Jesus, then I, in His name, pronounce 
 and affirm that thy sins are forgiven, not only 
 on earth, but also in heaven, according to the 
 promises annexed with the preaching of His 
 Word, and to the power put in the Ministry 
 of His Church." It is difficult to discern in 
 this a weaker meaning than that which 
 belongs to our Ordination and Visitation 
 Services. 
 
 But the argument can be reinforced from a 
 period considerably subsequent to the Refor- 
 mation. It is a most remarkable circum- 
 stance that at the Savoy Conference no objec- 
 tions were alleged by the Puritans against our 
 Ordination Service. There was certainly no 
 hesitancy on their part in raising objections 
 generally, some of them being of the most 
 frivolous kind. In the exceptional absolution 
 for the Visitation of the Sick they did suggest 
 some alteration : but in regard to our Formula
 
 I io SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 of Ordination they were absolutely silent. 
 It would appear that, as regards this matter, 
 those whom our modern Nonconformists re- 
 gard as their spiritual forefathers were quite 
 content. Nor can we be surprised at this, 
 when we find in the Westminster Confession 
 such a sentence as the following : " The Lord 
 Jesus, as King and Head of His Church, hath 
 therein appointed a government in the hand 
 of Church officers, distinct from the civil 
 magistrate. To these officers the keys of 
 the Kingdom of Heaven are committed, by 
 virtue whereof they have power respectively 
 to retain and remit sins, to shut that Kingdom 
 against the impenitent, both by the Word 
 and censures ; and to open it unto penitent 
 sinners, by the Ministry of the Gospel, and 
 by absolution from censures, as occasion 
 shall require." * 
 
 I will not attempt to decide whether the 
 Presbyterian method of asserting this doctrine 
 
 * "The Confession of Faith, &c., with Acts of Assembly and 
 Parliament relative to, and approbative of, the same." Edinb., 
 1836, p. 166.
 
 ORDINATION AND ABSOLUTION. lit 
 
 in a body of abstract articles is better or 
 worse than our method of interweaving our 
 Lord's own words in our Ordination Service, 
 and impressing their general meaning on the 
 early part of our Morning and Evening 
 Prayer. All I say is that the Presbyterian 
 assertion is quite as strong as our own. For 
 my own part, I venture to think that our 
 General Confession and General Absolution 
 are a most fair and a most wise exhibition 
 of the teaching of the New Testament in 
 regard to this subject. Our acknowledg- 
 ment of sin here is public, and yet without 
 scandal. Our assurance of pardon is personal, 
 and yet without any secrets being made 
 known, except to God, who really can distin- 
 guish the quality and magnitude of every sin. 
 Each penitent can pour out through the 
 words of this confession the whole tale of 
 his sorrow and shame. The absolution comes 
 in all its fulness and reality, because it is 
 the absolution of God. We, the Clergy, are 
 His ministers, not the judges of the Christian 
 people. The blessing would be very great,
 
 112 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 if this controversy, which has been forced 
 upon us, were to result in a more heartfelt 
 value, and more self-abasing use, of these 
 parts of our Daily Service.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PRACTICAL RESULTS. 
 
 O OME years ago, very soon after the decla- 
 ^ ration of the doctrine of the Immaculate 
 Conception, I met at a friend's house in Paris 
 one of the then recent clerical converts from 
 the English Church to the Roman. Our con- 
 versation turned upon the new dogma ; and I 
 asked him some questions with the natural 
 desire to know how one in his position viewed 
 this fresh attitude of the Church of his choice. 
 He seemed desirous to avoid the subject, and 
 presently he proposed that we should take 
 a walk together. This we did ; and in the 
 course of this walk, behind the Madeleine, he 
 told me that he did not believe this new doc- 
 i
 
 H4 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 trine at all : that he knew it put the modern 
 Church in contradiction to the ancient Church : 
 but, he added, his daughters being in the 
 room when my questions were asked, he had 
 changed the subject, lest their minds should 
 be unsettled. 
 
 On this I ventured to ask him what course 
 he himself took in the confessional, whether 
 he acknowledged there this inability to be- 
 lieve what had been decreed and yet received 
 absolution, or whether he withheld from his 
 confessor information concerning what would 
 be held to be a mortal sin. His reply was 
 that, while residing in England (he gave me 
 the name of the place) he made this incredu- 
 lity known to his confessor, and asked whether 
 in spite of it he could receive absolution ; to 
 which the confessor replied that this was not 
 possible, seeing that such incredulity was 
 resistance to the Church. In consequence of 
 this, my informant told me further that he 
 changed his residence to Paris, where he went 
 to confession without making known this 
 state of unbelief, in regard to which his con-
 
 PRACTICAL RESULTS. 115 
 
 science acquitted him of all guilt, and that he 
 received absolution. 
 
 This anecdote appears to me to exemplify, 
 somewhat forcibly, the deceptiveness of the 
 system of Sacramental Confession, its liability 
 to break down, and its tendency to do harm 
 to our moral nature. Nor is it difficult to 
 multiply proofs of this, drawn from many 
 different quarters. Let the system be viewed 
 on various sides, and the result is the same. 
 As to anecdotes in illustration, some that 
 are the most conclusive as arguments cannot 
 with propriety be quoted such as the coarse 
 stories, for instance, which float about a place 
 of pilgrimage like Einsiedeln in Switzerland, 
 where the hearing of confessions is a sys- 
 tematic business. I will merely mention two 
 circumstances which on two different jour- 
 neys made a permanent impression upon me. 
 Long ago, in Algeria, I was thrown in close 
 contact with a French soldier, who was very 
 friendly and communicative, and who was 
 leading a life as bad as that with which we 
 are too familiar among our English soldiers.
 
 ti6 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 On my seriously begging him to consider the 
 peril in which his soul was placed by such a 
 course of life, he told me that once a year, 
 before Easter, he did change his course of 
 life, when he was preparing to confess and 
 to receive the Holy Communion.* More re- 
 cently, at Rome, an Italian layman told me 
 that he obtained his first knowledge of some 
 of the worst forms of evil, in early boyhood, 
 through questions put to him in the confes- 
 sional. He went in terror to his mother : and 
 she spoke to his father, whose indignation 
 was unbounded. A domestic shock of this 
 kind sets the case of the secret confessional 
 before us in an aspect which is very serious. 
 But let these personal elucidations of the 
 matter be now left on one side; and let us 
 look more generally at results, as they ap- 
 pear to us probable from the very nature of 
 the case. 
 
 In three points of view this system, as 
 
 * The decree of 1215, to which reference has been made 
 above, requires that sins be private! jf confessed at least once a 
 year.
 
 PRACTICAL RESULTS. 117 
 
 contemplated from the outside, seems likely 
 to lead to mischievous results. To the 
 coarsely - criminal it must afford a most 
 dangerous facility for lulling the conscience 
 without true repentance: in others, whose 
 spiritual sensibilities hav^ been highly 
 wrought, it must produce a scrupulous and 
 morbid state of mind, unfavourable to the 
 formation of mature Christian character ; 
 while in all cases it must foster the habit of 
 leaning on human help to the weakening of 
 the power of the personal conscience. As 
 to the first point, let it be remembered how 
 rapid and perfunctory is, for the most part, 
 the hearing of confessions in Roman Catholic 
 countries, and how easy a treatment, at wide 
 intervals of time, seems to be accorded to 
 " mortal " sins, which are certainly prevalent 
 on a large scale. In the second place it must 
 be carefully observed that, in such countries, 
 though theoretically it is not necessary to 
 confess "venial" sins, yet for the sake of 
 spiritual benefit it is viewed as very desirable 
 to confess them frequently. Hence there
 
 ii8 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 results, as we are told on very good authority, 
 an unhealthy habit of self-inspection and self- 
 torture, in order that the sins which are thus 
 to be made known to the priest may be dis- 
 covered, or perhaps invented. " There is a 
 well-known saying among priests which ex- 
 actly expresses the effects of this morbid self- 
 searching. It is said that a man would 
 rather be confessor to a regiment of dragoons 
 than to a convent of nuns."* The harm of 
 the confessional system, viewed on the first 
 of these two sides, is that it pretends to heal 
 by light treatment the wounds that are in 
 danger of being fatal ; the harm on the other 
 side is that it " makes the righteous sad whom 
 the Lord hath not made sad."t And in both 
 cases a third result is sure to follow, which is 
 singularly in contrast with the moral theology 
 of the New Testament. Men and women, 
 
 * " To Rome and; Back," by the Rev. JY M. Capes, M.A., 
 (1873), p. 324. Perhaps it is in this form that, for the present, 
 the harm of the confessional is most likely to spread among 
 ourselves. 
 
 f Ezek., xiii. 22.
 
 PRACTICAL RESULTS. 119 
 
 under this system, learn, more and more, to 
 depend upon a conscience which is not their 
 own. Advice that may furnish help to Chris- 
 tians to walk cheerfully in humble reliance 
 upon God is one thing ; recurrence to absolu- 
 tion, with satisfaction made through penance, 
 is quite another thing. Where this is the rule 
 of life, the dethronement of God's vicegerent 
 within us, which is in fact disloyal to Him, is 
 apt to be viewed as a high spiritual attain- 
 ment. What can be more contrary to the 
 teaching of St. Paul in regard to the conduct 
 of the spiritual life? What can be stronger 
 than his assertion, not simply of the supre- 
 macy of conscience, but of each man's con- 
 science, as that which, under the enlighten- 
 ment of the Holy Ghost, ought to be both 
 trained and obeyed that it may furnish the 
 law to himself ? * 
 
 There are other aspects of the Confessional, 
 of a darker character, which cannot with pro- 
 priety be touched here except very lightly. 
 
 * See, for instance, Acts xxiii. i ; xxiv. 16 ; Rom. xiv. 5 ; 
 I Cor. x. 29 ; I Tim. i. 5, 19.
 
 120 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 In the last part of the sentence, which has 
 been used as a kind of text for the remarks 
 made in these chapters, Bishop Blomfield 
 says that " auricular confession is the source 
 of unspeakable abominations." These are very 
 strong words ; but they were used by a man 
 of mark, holding a position of high responsi- 
 bility, and in a document deliberately printed. 
 Let us look at the words themselves. 
 
 An " abomination " is that which we dislike, 
 that against which our nature recoils, and 
 which we desire to remove far from us. The 
 word so used is common in the English Bible 
 in the Old Testament we are told that " a 
 false balance is an abomination to the Lord ; " 
 in the New Testament that " what is highly 
 esteemed among men is abomination in the 
 sight of God." But, further, we may look \vith 
 advantage at the derivation of the word. An 
 " abomination " is that which comes to 
 us with bad omen, and is attended with por- 
 tentous circumstances, like certain 'birds in 
 the sky, which according to popular fancy 
 are the precursors of mischief. I think we
 
 PRACTICAL RESULTS. 121 
 
 may justly use the word in its original sense, 
 of that which is before our thoughts. The 
 symptoms of coming evil in connection with it 
 are so serious as to suggest alarm. 
 
 And the abominations of Auricular Con- 
 fession are said in this sentence to be " un- 
 speakable." This strong adjective may have 
 been merely intended to be an expression of 
 high indignation. But in the present instance 
 it might with truth be literally applied. For, 
 inevitably and officially connected with the 
 system of Sacramental Confession, are some 
 things of which the Apostle says that it is " a 
 shame even to speak." If I were to translate 
 here what can be read in Latin treatises on 
 the subject, prepared for the use of the 
 Roman Catholic Clergy, far more harm than 
 good would be done, my readers would be 
 terrified and disgusted, and I should be liable 
 to be brought before the magistrate for the 
 publication of this volume. 
 
 We reach here what appears to me one of 
 the gravest parts of the whole subject. This 
 system must be mischievous and wrong, be-
 
 122 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 cause of the peculiar kind of training it 
 requires for the Clergy. Assuming this train- 
 ing to be thoroughly serious (and I throw 
 no doubt whatever on that point) the minds 
 of the Clergy must be occupied to a vast 
 extent w T ith cases of conscience ; and many of 
 these cases of conscience involve details which 
 are polluting. Observe that all mortal sin, 
 which can be recollected, and which can be 
 put into words, must be privately confessed. 
 Observe, too, that there may be mortal sin in 
 a thought, in a desire, in a look. Hence there 
 must be a very elaborate and minute study 
 to prepare for confessions of this kind. I 
 frankly acknowledge that I do not see how, 
 under such a system, this can be avoided ; 
 but this leads me to condemn the system 
 itself. On behalf of the purity of the minds 
 of the Clergy, the strongest protest possible 
 ought to be raised against it. The Ministers 
 of Religion, in the active discharge of their 
 duty, come into contact with a vast amount 
 of the practice of sin. Surely it cannot be 
 an advantage to them to be saturated early
 
 PRACTICAL RESULTS. 123 
 
 with the philosophy of sin. The Clergyman's 
 office and work should be a fountain and a 
 stream of pure water, to cleanse and sweeten 
 the bad lives of those around him. Can it 
 be a benefit to him or to any one, that he 
 should be the receptacle of all the foul pol- 
 lution in the minds of his parishioners? 
 This must be the result, if the system is 
 carried thoroughly into effect ; and if it is 
 not carried thoroughly into effect, then there 
 is trifling with mortal sin. 
 
 It will be urged that the private confession 
 of sin and misery has been found in many 
 cases to be of signal service towards the re- 
 covery from sin and misery.* That this is so, 
 I have not the slightest doubt. There is 
 nothing in this volume to contravene a fact 
 which is gladly and thankfully conceded. To 
 
 * A few years ago some very serious letters not at all more 
 serious than the case requires appeared in the " Times ' ' concern- 
 ing certain forms of vice which are supposed to be checked by 
 private confession and private absolution. I confidently believe 
 that if fathers would speak to their sons, at an early age, on 
 such subjects, and then would kneel down and pray with them, 
 more good would result than by the use of sacerdotal meaas.
 
 124 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 those who are troubled with perplexities of 
 conscience, even if those perplexities relate to 
 trivial points, to those who are under strong 
 temptations, against which every possible 
 help is needed, to those who have fallen into 
 shameful guilt, so as to feel as though re- 
 covery were impossible, to such sufferers it 
 must be very serviceable to open their griefs 
 privately, and to seek Christian sympathy and 
 spiritual advice, if only they go to the right 
 person. But this I would add, that the true 
 benefit in such cases is derived, not from abso- 
 lution, but from sympathy and advice. The 
 benefit may be found, and doubtless often is 
 found, in the midst of a great system of sacra- 
 mental confession ; but it may also be found, 
 and is found, without it. 
 
 It is the system as a whole, and the system 
 in its mature form, against which the present 
 argument is directed, for the purpose of sug- 
 gesting caution in reference to the course on 
 which many persons in this country are now 
 entering. The fruit which has ripened, where 
 Sacramental Confession has had the oppor-
 
 PRACTICAL RESULTS. 125 
 
 tunity of growing in full luxuriance, is not 
 concealed from us. Hitherto reference has 
 chiefly been made to effects produced in the 
 separate experience of individuals. Let us 
 end now by calling to mind the testimony 
 furnished by large communities. 
 
 Here again exaggeration must be carefully 
 avoided. Contrasts are drawn, as regards 
 civilisation, between Protestant and Roman 
 Catholic countries, to the disadvantage of 
 the latter : and, no doubt, the contrasts are, 
 on the whole, in accordance with truth.* Still 
 the law is not universal. Belgium may be ad- 
 duced as an exception. Moreover success in 
 this world's prosperity is not altogether to be 
 taken as a test of moral superiority. When, 
 however, we look below the surface, the 
 contrast between countries which have long 
 had the systematic confessional and coun- 
 tries destitute of that institution seems to 
 become more marked. 
 
 At the " Old Catholic" Congress at Cologne, 
 
 * See, for instance, Lord Macaulay's " History of England," 
 vol. i. pp. 47, 48.
 
 126 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 in 1872, it was stated by Von Schulte, the 
 President, that the purity of married life in 
 Northern Germany was three times better than 
 in Southern Germany : * and such a statement 
 from so eminent a jurist, once high in favour 
 with the Pope, after a judicial experience of 
 many years, has a weight which cannot be 
 gainsayed. The Papal States, which, -if the 
 confessional be the safeguard of morals, ought 
 to have been the abode of universal charity, 
 had, before the recent Italian changes, a 
 hideous pre-eminence in murder. The com- 
 parison of London with Paris, of Berlin with 
 Vienna, as regards vice tested by the usual sta- 
 tistics, leads to precisely the same conclusions.! 
 Or let the appeal be made, not simply to 
 statistics, but to the general course of modern 
 history. In Spain the Inquisition did its 
 work thoroughly ; no other form of Chris- 
 
 * " Verhandlungen des zweiten Altkatholik en-Congresses zu 
 Koln," p. 87. 
 
 f In the work of the Rev. M. Hobart Seymour on " The 
 Confessional " (18/0), statistics are given which can be sub- 
 mitted to scrutiny, as being drawn from official returns. Ch. xii. 
 and xiii.
 
 PRACTICAL RESULTS. 127 
 
 tianity, except the Roman, was there, until 
 lately, tolerated: the confessional there has 
 been unfettered in its action : that country 
 has produced some of the greatest writers on 
 the subject : and what is the result ? So in 
 France. Those who opposed this system 
 were slaughtered in the streets of Paris and 
 among the valleys of the Cevennes. The 
 Clergy had on their side all the influence of the 
 Monarchy and all the enthusiasm of the sons 
 of the Crusaders. Confession and absolution 
 had the fullest opportunity for diffusing their 
 benediction over the breadth of that fair land, 
 and yet where does history record so terrible a 
 revolt against all Religion as that which took 
 place in France at the end of the last century ? 
 Or look across the Atlantic to Mexico and 
 the South American Continent. A system 
 so Divine, and acting so freely, and with so 
 much power, and for so long a time, ought 
 to have produced in those regions a paradise 
 of holiness, corresponding with the paradise 
 of nature which travellers describe. But this 
 correspondence is not there t<? be found.
 
 128 SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. 
 
 In proportion as this serious subject is 
 closely scrutinised, the evidence accumulates 
 that the restoration of Sacramental Confession 
 through the action of the Established Church 
 would be, not a blessing, but a curse. And yet 
 the present assertion of sacerdotal claims, and 
 that tendency to lean on outward supports of 
 the religious life, which for the moment is 
 fashionable, are sufficient causes for grave 
 alarm. Already, too, we hear dark stories of 
 clandestine confessions without the sanction 
 of parental authority, and of questions which 
 raise a blush being set before those minds 
 which are the purest. Time can no longer be 
 afforded for trifling with the subject. To all 
 whose convictions are clear and strong against 
 this new invasion of an old enemy, resistance, 
 and resistance on the threshold, is an impera- 
 tive duty. 
 
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