penitents whose cor.fessions he heard, but never disclosed ther: sins to any but to God alone."* The great St. Austin writes. "Our merciful God wills us to confess in this world, that we may not be confounded in the other; and elsewhere he says, "Let no one say to himself, I do penance to God in private. Is it then in vain that Christ has said, Whatsoever you loose or earth, shall be loosed in heaven? Is it in vain that the keys have been given to the church?" I could produce a long list of other passages to the same effect, from fathers and doctors, and also from councils of the church, anterior to the periods he has assigned to the commencement and confirmation of the doctrinc in question but I will have recourse to a shorter, and perhaps more convincing proof, that this doctrine could not have been introduced into the church at any period whatsoever subsequent to that of Christ and his apostles. My argument is this: it is impossible it should have been at any time introduced, if it was not from the first necessary. The pride of the human heart would at all times have revolted at the imposition of such a humiliation. as that of confessing all its most secret sins, if Christians had not previously believed that this rite is of divine institution, and even necessary for the pardon of them. Supposing, however, that the clergy, at some period, had fascinated the laity, kings and emperors, as well as peasants, to submit to this yoke; it will still remain to be accounted for, how they took it up themselves; for monks, priests and bishops, and the Pope himself, ust equally confess their sins with the meanest of the people. And if even this could be explained, it would still be necessary to show how the numerous organized churches of the Nestorians and Eutychians, spread over Asia and Africa, from Bagdad to Axum, all of whom broke from the communion of the Catholic church in the fifth century, took up the notion of penance being a sacrament, and that confession and absolution are essential parts of it, as they all believe at the present day. With respect to the main body of the Greek Christians, they separated from the Latins much about the period which our prelate has set down for the rise of this doctrine; but though they reproached the Latin Christians with shaving their beards, singing Allelujah at wrong seasons, and other such like minutiæ, they never accused them of any error respecting private confession or sacerdotal absolution. To support the bishop's assertions on this and nany other points, it would be necessary to suppose, as I have aid before, that a hundred millions of Greek and Latin Chris tians lost their senses on some one ard the same day or night' * In Vit. Ambros. * Hom 49. + Hom. 20 In finishing this letter, I take leave, Rev. sir, to advert to the * of some of your respectable society, who, to my knowLodge, are convinced of the truth of the Catholic religion, but are deterred from embracing it, by the dread of that sacrament of which I have been treating. Their pitiable case is by no means singular: who continually find persons who are not only desirous of reconciling themselves to their true mother, the Catholic church, but also of laying the sins of their youth and their ignorances, Ps. xxiv. alias xxv. 7, at the feet of some one or other of her faithful ministers, convinced that thereby they would procure ease to their afflicted souls, yet have not the courage to do this. Let the persons alluded to humbly and fervently pray to the Giver of all good gifts for his strengthening grace, and let them be persuaded of the truth of what an unexceptionable witness says, who had experienced, while he was a Catholic, the interior joy he describes, where, persuading the penitent to go to his confessor "not as to one that can speak comfortable and quieting words to him, but as to one that hath authority delegated to him from God himself, to absolve and acquit him of his sins," he goes on, "If you shall do this, assure your souls, that the understanding of man is not able to conceive that transport, and excess of joy and comfort, which shall accrue to that man's heart, who is persuaded he hath been made partaker of this blessing.' On the other hand, if such persons are convinced, as I am satisfied they are, that Christ's words to his apostles, Receive the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall remit, they are remitted, mean what they express, they must know, that confession is necessary to buy off overwhelming confusion, as the fathers I have quoted signify, at the great day of manifes tation, and with this never-ending punishment. I am, &c. J. M REV. SIR, LETTER XLII. To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. ON INDULGENCES. I TRUST you will pardon me, if I do not send a special an swer to the objections you have stated against my last letter to you, because you will find the substance of them answered in his and my next letter concerning indulgences and purgatory. Bishop Porteus reverses the proper order of these subjects, by Chillingworth Sermon vii. p. 409. tresting first of the latter: indeed his ideas are much confused, and his knowledge very imperfect concerning them both. This prelate describes an indulgence to be, in the belief of Catholics, (without, however, giving any authority whatever for his de scription) "a transfer of the overplus of the saints' goodness, joined with the merits of Christ, &c. by the Pope, as head of the church, towards the remission of their sius, who fulfil, in their lifetime, certain conditions appointed by him, or whose friends will fulfil them, after their death." He speaks of it as "a method of making poor wretches believe that wickedness here may become consistent with happiness hereafter-that repentance is explained away or overlooked among other things joined with it, as saying so many prayers and paying so much money."† Some of the bishop's friends have published much the same description of indulgences, but in more perspicuous language. One of them, in his attempt to show that each Pope, in succession, has been the man of sin, or Antichrist, says "Besides their own personal vices, by their indulgences, pardons, and dispensations, which they claim a power from Christ of granting, and which they have sold in so infamous a manner, they have encouraged all manner of vile and wicked practices. They have contrived numberless methods of making a holy life useless, and to assure the most abandoned of salvation, provided they will sufficiently pay the priests for absolution." With the same disregard of charity and truth, another eminent divine speaks of the matter thus, "the Papists have taken a notable course to secure men from the fear of hell, that of penances and indulgences. To those, who will pay the price, absolutions are to be had for the most abominable and not to be named villanies and license also for not a few wickednesses." In treating of a subject, the most intricate of itself among the common topics of controversy, and which has been so much confused and perplexed by the misrepresentations of our opponents, it will be neces sary, for giving you, Rev. sir, and my other Salopian friends, a clear and just idea of the matter, that I should advance, step by step, in my explanation of it. In this manner I propose showing you, first, what an indulgence is not, and, next, what it really is. 1. An indulgence, then, never was conceived by any Catholic to be a leave to commit a sin of any kind, as De Coetlogon, * P. 53. + P. 54. Benson on the Man of Sin, republished by bishop Watson Tracts, vol. v. p. 273. Bishop Fowler's Design of Christianity, Tracts, vol. vi. p. 382. l'ha bishop Fowler and others charge them with believing Srst principles of natural religion must convince every rational being that God himself cannot give leave to commit sin. The idea of such a license takes away that of his sanctity, and, of course, that of his very being. II. No Catholic ever believed it to be a pardon for future sins, as Mrs. Hannah More, and a great part of other Protestant writers represent the matter This lady describes the Catholics as "procuring indemnity for future gratifications by temporary abstractions and indulgences, purchased at the court of Rome." Some of her fraternity, indeed, have blasphemously written, "Believers ought not to mourn for sin, because it was pardoned before it was committed;" but every Catholic knows that Christ himself could not pardon sin before it was committed, because this would imply hat he forgave the sinner without repentance. III. An indulgence, according to the doctrine of the Catholic church, is not, and does not include the pardon of any sin at all, little or great, past, present, or to come, or the eternal punishment due to it, as all Protestants suppose. Hence, if the pardon of sin is men. tioned in any indulgence, this means nothing more than the remission of the temporary punishments annexed to such sin. IV. We do not believe an indulgence to imply any exemption from repentance, as B. Porteus slanders us; for this is always enjoined or implied in the grant of it, and is indispensably necessary for the effect of every grace; nor from the works of penance, or other good works; because our church teaches that the life of a Christian ought to be a perpetual penance,§ and that to enter into life, we must keep God's commandments,|| and must abound in every good work."¶ Whether an obligation of all this can be reconciled with the articles of being "justified by faith only "** and that "works done before grace partake of the nature of sin," I do not here inquire. V. It is inconsistent with our doctrine of inherent justification,‡‡ to believe, Strictures on Female Education, vol. ii. p. 239. Eaton's Honeycomb of Salvation. See also Sir Richard Hill's Letters t Concil. Trid. Sess. vi. c. 4, c. 13, &c. Sess. xiv. De Extr. Unc. Sess. vi. can. 19. Ibid. cap 16.-N. B. There are eight Indulgences granted to Catholics at the chief festivals, &c. in every year; the conditions of which are, confession with sincere repentance, the H. Communion, alms to the poor, (without distinction of their religion) prayers for the church and strayed Bouls, the peace of christendom, and the blessing of God on this nation; finally, a disposition to hear the word of God, and to assist the sick. Sa aity's Directory, Keating and Brown. Art. XI. of 39 Art. #Trid. Sess. vi. can. xi. tt Art. XIIL 66 as the same prelate charges us, that the effect of an indulgenes is to transfer the overplus of the goodness," or justification of the saints, by the ministry of the Pope, to us Catholics on earth. Such an absurdity may be more easily reconciled with the system of Luther and other Potestants concerning imputed justification; which, being like a clean, neat cloak, thrown over a filthy leper,"* may be conceived transferable from one person o another. Lastly, whereas the council of Trent calls indulgences heavenly treasures, we hold that it would be a sacrile< gious crime in any person whomsoever to be concerned in buying or selling them. I am far, however, Rev. sir, from denying that indulgences have ever been sold‡-alas! what is so sacred that the avarice of men has not put up to sale! Christ himself was sold, and that by an apostle, for thirty pieces of silver. I do not retort upon you the advertisement I frequently see in the newspapers about buying and selling benefices, with the cure of souls annexed to them, in your church; but this I contend for, that the Catholic church, so far from sanctioning this detestable simony, has used her utmost pains, particularly in the general councils of Lateran, Lyons, Vienne, and Trent, to prevent it. To explain, now, in a clear and regular manner, what an induigence is; I suppose, first, that no one will deny that a sovereign prince, in showing mercy to a capital convict, may either grant him a remission of all punishment, or may leave him subject to some lighter punishment of course he will allow that the Almighty may act in either of these ways with respect to sinners. II. I equally suppose that no person, who is versed in the Bible, will deny that many instances occur there of God's remitting the essential guilt of sin and the eternal punishment due to it, and yet leaving a temporary punishment to be endured by the penitent sinner. Thus, for example, the sentence of spiritual death and everlasting torments was remitted to our first ather, upon his repentance, but not that of corporal death. Thus, also when God reversed his severe sentence against the idolatrous Israelites, he added, Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. Exod. xxxii. 34. Thus, again, when the inspired Nathan said to the model of penitents, David, The Lord hath put away thy sin, hedded, nevertheless the child that is born unto thee shall die. 2 Kings, alias Sam. xii. † Sess. xxi. c. 9. Becanus de Justifs. The bishop tells us that he is in possession of an indulgence, lately vrarted at Rome, for a small sum of money; but he does not say whe granted it. In like manner he may buy forged Bark notes and counterfei via in London very cheap, if he pleases. |