person was directed to confess his sins, at least once in every year, to the priest of his parish. A ritual was drawn up for this purpose, which is still used by Papists, and in which the priest absolves without any qualification or reserve; and it was decreed by the Council of Trent, that all were to be anathematized who maintained "non requiri confessionem pœnitentis ut sacerdos eum absolvere possit;" or who asserted "absolutionem sacramentalem sacerdotis non esse actum judicialem, sed nudum ministerium pronunciandi et declarandi remissa esse peccata.' It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the Penance of the church of Rome is totally different from the Gospel doctrine of repentance, which consists in an inward sorrow for past sins, and a firm resolution of future amendment. This pretended sacrament has no foundation whatever in Scripture; we are not commanded to confess our sins to priests, nor are they empowered to dispense absolution upon their own judgment. St. James indeed says, "Confess your faults one to another ();" but no mention is here made of priests; and the word "faults" seems to confine the precept to a mutual confession among Christians, of those offences by which they may have injured each other; but, certainly, the necessity of auricular confession, and the power (1) James, c. 5. v. 16. of of priestly absolution, cannot be inferred from this passage. And though many of the early ecclesiastical writers earnestly recommend confession to the clergy, yet they never represent it as essential to the pardon of sin, or as having any connexion with a sacrament; they only urge it as entitling a person to the prayers of the congregation; as useful for supporting the authority of wholesome discipline, and for maintaining the purity of the Christian church. But Chrysostom condemns all secret confession to men (m), as being obviously liable to great abuses; and Basil (n), Hilary (o), and Augustine (p), all advise confession of sins to God only. And M. Daillé has proved, in his elaborate work upon this subject, that private, auricular, sacramental confession of sins, was unknown in the primitive church (q). But though there is not the slightest ground for considering Penance as a Sacrament, nor any authority for requiring auricular confession to priests; yet confession of sins to God is an indispensable duty, and confession to priests may sometimes be useful, by leading to effectual repentance, and therefore our church encourages its members to use confidential confession to their priest, or to any other minister of God's holy word; (n) In Psalm 37. v. 8. (m) Hom. 31. in Heb. word (r); but this is very different from its being an essential part of a Sacrament instituted by Christ or his Apostles. A contrite sinner may feel relief in unburdening his mind to his spiritual pastor, and may receive advice and consolation, which may soften the pangs of a wounded conscience; his scruples may be removed; his good resolutions may be confirmed; and, instead of falling a victim to religious melancholy, he may be enabled to work out his salvation by a life of active virtue, and by an humble faith in the merits of the blessed Jesus, who, as he himself assures us, came into the world "to call sinners to repentance." The only absolution, which our church authorizes its clergy to pronounce, is ministerial, or declaratory of God's pardon upon the performance of the conditions which he has been pleased to require in the Gospel; it always supposes faith and sincere repentance, of which God alone is judge. Nor was any absolution, except declaratory and precatory, known among the early Christians, as fully appears from the antient liturgies and rituals, and from the authors who have written upon these subjects; particularly from the treatise of Morinus de Pœnitentiâ, in which he has proved that the indicative form of absolution, as it is called, (r) Exhortation in Communion Service. called, Ego te absolvo, was introduced into the church as late as the twelfth century. Previous to that period, only some such prayer as this was used, Absolutionem et remissionem tribuat tibi omnipotens Deus. The right of requiring confession, and of absolving sins, as exercised in the church of Rome, must necessarily be the source of an undue and dangerous influence to the clergy, and must at the same time operate as a great encouragement to vice and immorality among the people. Our church, in imitation of the primitive church, for certain offences imposes public penance as a part of its discipline; but it by no means considers or represents divine forgiveness as a certain consequence of that outward and involuntary act. The third of the Popish sacraments rejected in this article is ORDERS. We have shewn under a former article, that there has been an uninterrupted succession of ministers since the days of the Apostles. But though it is perfectly conformable to Scripture, and to the practice of the primitive church, that certain persons should be set apart for the public service of religion, that there should be different ranks of these persons, and that they should be regularly appointed by men who have public authority given them in the congregation for that purpose, yet there is no ment. no ground for considering ordination as a SacraNeither Christ nor his apostles prescribed any particular form of ordaining ministers, to be observed in succeeding ages; but they left this, with other things of a similar nature, to be regulated by the church. Prayer, and imposition of hands, have been always used upon this occasion; but these are not sufficient, as was before observed, to constitute a Sacrament. And, therefore, as ordination wants the essential properties of a sacrament, we esteem it only as a solemn mode of appointing ministers to their sacred office. The Papists make use of many ceremonies in the ordination of their ministers, which were unknown in the church for at least ten centuries, and during that period Orders were never mentioned by any ecclesiastical writer as a Sacrament. These new ceremonies were probably added, and the name of a Sacrament given to ordination, for the purpose of raising the importance of the clerical character in the eyes of the common people, and of promoting by those means the influence and authority of the Roman pontiffs. MATRIMONY is the fourth of the Popish sacraments rejected in this article. Matrimony is not only "a state of life allowed by the Scriptures," but it is an ordinance of God instituted at the |