XXV.

ART. Photius got it to be decreed in a synod at Constantinople, that the chrism being hallowed by a Bishop, it might be administered by Presbyters: and Photius affirmed, that a Presbyter might do this, as well as baptize or offer at the altar. But Pope Nicholas, with the confidence that was often assumed by that see upon as bad grounds, did affirm, that this had never been allowed of. And upon this many of the Latins did, in the progress of their disputes with the Greeks, say, that they had no confirmation. This has been more enlarged on, than was necessary Cont. Flo- by the designed shortness of this work, because all those of the Roman communion among us have now no confirmation, unless a Bishop happens to come amongst them. And therefore it is now a common doctrine among them, that though confirmation is a Sacrament, yet it is not necessary.

In Decr.

rent.

About this there were fierce disputes among them about sixty years ago, whether it was necessary for them to have a Bishop here to confirm, according to the ancient custom, or . not? The Jesuits, who had no mind to be under any authority but their own, opposed it; for the Bishop being by Pope Eugenius declared to be the ordinary minister of it, from thence it was inferred, that a Bishop was not simply necessary. This was much censured by some of the Gallican Church. If confirmation were considered only as an ecclesiastical rite, we could not dispute the power of the Church about it; but we cannot allow that a Sacrament should be thus within the power of the Church; or that a new function of consecrating oil, without applying it, distinct from confirmation, and yet necessary to the very essence of it, could have been set up by the power of the Church; for if Sacraments are federal conveyances of grace, they must be continued according to their first institution, the grace of God being only tied to the actions with which it is promised.

We go next to the second of the Sacraments here rejected, which is Penance, that is reckoned the fourth in order among them. Penance, or Penitence, is formed from the Latin translation of a Greek word that signifies a change or renovation of mind; which Christ has made a necessary condition of the New Covenant. It consists in several acts; by all which, when joined together, and producing this real change, we become true penitents, and have a right to the Remission of Sins, which is in the New Testament often joined with Repentance, and is its certain consequent. The first act of this repentance is, confession to God, before whom we must humble our

XXV.

selves, and confess our sins to him; upon which we be- ART. lieve that he is faithful, and true to his promises, and just to forgive us our sins; and if we have wronged others, or 1 John i. 9. have given public offence to the body, or church, to which we belong, we ought to confess our faults to them likewise; James v.16. and as a mean to quiet men's consciences, to direct them to complete their repentance, and to make them more humble and ashamed of their sins, we advise them to use secret confession to their Priest, or to any other minister of God's word; leaving this matter wholly to their discretion.

When these acts of sorrow have had their due effect, in reforming the natures and lives of sinners, then their sins are forgiven them in order to which, we do teach them to pray much, to give alms according to their capacity, and to fast as often as their health and circumstances will admit of; and most indispensably to restore or repair, as they find they have sinned against others. And as we teach them thus to look back on what is past, with a deep and hearty sorrow, and a profound shame, so we charge them to look chiefly forward, not thinking that any acts with relation to what is past can, as it were, by an account or compensation, free us from the guilt of our former sins, unless we amend our lives and change our tempers for the future; the great design of repentance being to make us like God, pure and holy as he is. Upon such a repentance sincerely begun, and honestly pursued, we do in general, as the heralds of God's mercy, and the ministers of his Gospel, pronounce to our people daily, the offers that are made us of mercy and pardon by Christ Jesus. This we do in our daily service, and in a more peculiar manner before we go to the holy Communion. We do also, as we are a body that may be offended with the sins of others, forgive the scandals committed against the Church; and that such as we think die in a state of repentance, may die in the full peace of the Church, we join both absolutions in one; in the last office likewise praying to our Saviour that he would forgive them, and then we, as the officers of the Church, authorised for that end, do forgive all the offences and scandals committed by them against the whole body. This is our doctrine concerning Repentance; in all which we find no characters of a Sacrament, no more than there is in prayer or devotion. Here is no matter, no application of that matter by a peculiar form, no institution, and no peculiar federal acts. The scene here is the mind, the acts are internal, the effect is such also; and therefore we do

ART. not reckon it a Sacrament, not finding in it any of the characters of a Sacrament.

XXV.

Sess. 14. c. 5.

The matter that is assigned in the Church of Rome, are the acts of the penitent; his confession by his mouth to the Priest, the contrition of his heart, and the satisfaction of his work, in doing the enjoined penance. The aggregate of all these is the matter; and the form, are the words, Ego te absolvo. Now besides what we have to say from every one of these particulars, the matter of a Sacrament must be some visible sign applied to him that Innoc. 3. in receives it. It is therefore a very absurd thing, to imagine 4 Later. that a man's own thoughts, words, or actions, can be Can.21, 22. Con. Trid. the matter of a Sacrament: how can this be sanctified or applied to him? It will be a thing no less absurd to make the form of a Sacrament to be a practice not much elder than four hundred years; since no ritual can be produced, nor author cited for this form, for above a thousand years after Christ; all the ancient forms of receiving penitents having been by a blessing in the form of a prayer, or a declaration; but none of them in these positive words, I absolve thee. We think this want of matter, and this new invented form, being without any institution in Scripture, and different from so long a practice of the whole Church, are such reasons, that we are fully justified in denying Penance to be a Sacrament. But because the doctrine of Repentance is a point of the highest importance, there arise several things here that ought to be very carefully examined.

6.

20.

14

1 Cor. v. 11.

As to Confession, we find in the Scriptures, that such as Matth. iii. desired St. John's baptism came confessing their sins; but that was previous to baptism. We find also that scanda1 Tim. v. lous persons were to be openly rebuked before all, and so to be put to shame; in which, no doubt, there was a confession, and a publication of the sin: but that was a matter of the discipline and order of the Church; which made it 2 Thess. iii. necessary to note such persons as walked disorderly, and to have no fellowship with them, sometimes not so much as to eat with them, who being Christians, and such as were called Brothers, were a reproach to their profession. But besides the power given to the Apostles of binding and loosing, which, as was said on another head, belonged to other matters; we find that when our Saviour breathed on his Apostles, and gave them the Holy Ghost, he with that told them, that whose soever sins they remitted, they were remitted; and whose soever sins they retained, they were retained. Since a power of remitting or retaining sin was thus given to them, they infer, that it seems reason

John xx.

23.

ART.

able, that, in order to their dispensing it with a due caution, the knowledge of all sins ought to be laid open to XXV. them.

Acts viii.

Some have thought that this was a personal thing given to the Apostles with that miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost; with which such a discerning of spirits was communicated to them, that they could discern the sincerity or hypocrisy of those that came before them. By this St. Acts. v. Peter discovered the sin of Ananias and Sapphira; and 3, 9. he also saw that Simon of Samaria was in the gall of 23. bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity: so they conclude that this was a part of that extraordinary and miraculous authority which was given to the Apostles, and to them only. But others, who distinguish between the full extent of this power, and the ministerial authority that is still to be continued in the Church, do believe that these words may in a lower and more limited sense belong to the successors of the Apostles; but they argue very strongly, that if these words are to be understood in their full extent as they lie, a Priest has by them an absolute and unlimited power in this matter, not restrained to conditions or rules; so that if he does pardon or retain sins, whether in that he does right or wrong, the sins must be pardoned or retained accordingly: he may indeed sin in using it wrong, for which he must answer to God; but he seems, by the literal meaning of these words, to be clothed with such a plenipotentiary authority, that his act must be valid, though he may be punished for employing it

amiss.

An Ambassador that has full powers, though limited by secret instructions, does bind him that so empowered him, by every act that he does, pursuant to his powers, how much soever it may go beyond his instructions; for how obnoxious soever that may render him to his master, it does not at all lessen the authority of what he has done, nor the obligation that arises out of it. So these words of Christ's, if applied to all Priests, must belong to them in their full extent; and if so, the salvation or the damnation of mankind is put absolutely in the Priest's power. Nor can it be answered, that the conditions of the pardon of sin that are expressed in the other parts of the Gospel, are here to be understood, though they are not expressed; as we are said to be saved if we believe, which does not imply that a single act of believing the Gospel, without any thing else, puts us in a state of salvation.

In opposition to this, we answer, that the Gospel having so described faith to us, as the root of all other graces and

f

ART. virtues, as that which produces them, and which is known XXV. by them, all that is promised upon our faith, must be understood of a faith so qualified as the Gospel represents it; and therefore that cannot be applied to this case, where an unlimited authority is so particularly expressed, that no condition seems to be implied in it. If any conditions are elsewhere laid upon us, in order to our salvation, then, according to their doctrine, we may say that of them which they say of contrition upon this occasion, that they are necessary when we cannot procure the Priest's pardon; but that by it the want of them all may be supplied, and that the obligation to them all is superseded by it: and if any conditions are to be understood as limits upon this power, why are not all the conditions of the Gospel, faith, hope, and charity, contrition and new obedience, made necessary, in order to the lawful dispensing of it, as well as confession, attrition, and the doing the penance enjoined? Therefore since no condition is here named as a restraint upon this general power, that is pretended to be given to Priests by those words of our Saviour, they must either be understood as simple and unconditional, or they must be limited to all the conditions that are expressed in the Gospel; for there is not the colour of a reason to restrain them to some of them, and to leave out the rest and thus we think we are fully justified by saying, that by these words our Saviour did indeed fully empower the Apostles to publish his Gospel to the world, and to declare the terms of salvation, and of obtaining the pardon of sin, in which they were to be infallibly assisted, so that they could not err in discharging their commission; and the terms of the Covenant of Grace being thus settled by them, all who were to succeed them were also empowered to go on with the publication of this pardon and of those glad tidings to the world: so that whatsoever they declared in the name of God, conform to the tenor of that which the Apostles were to settle, should be always made good. We do also acknowledge, that the Pastors of the Church have, in the way of censure and government, a ministerial authority to remit or to retain sins, as they are matters of scandal or offence; though that indeed does not seem to be the meaning of those words of our Saviour; and therefore we think that the power of pardoning and retaining is only declaratory, so that all the exercises of it are then only effectual, when the declarations of the pardon are made conform to the conditions of the Gospel. This doctrine of ours, how much soever decried of late in the Roman Church,