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A62638
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Several discourses of repentance by John Tillotson ; being the eighth volume published from the originals by Ralph Barker.
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Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing T1267; ESTC R26972
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169,818
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480
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business of Confession The Second Text they alledge to this purpose is 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins Here indeed is Confession but general not particular as appears by the opposition If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us but if we confess our sins that is if we acknowledge our selves to have been sinners And then here is not a word of confessing to the Priest the Confession here meant is plainly to God because it follows he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins that is God who is necessarily understood in the former part of the sentence as if it had run thus if we confess our sins to God he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins The Third Text is Jam. 5.16 Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another And here again there is only mention of Confession but not a word of the Priest and for another Reason if I had been to advise them they should not have prest this Text for their service in this cause because it does them as much hurt as good for it is certain the Duty of Confession here enjoyned is reciprocal and mutual confess your sins one to another So that if by virtue of this Text the People are bound to confess their sins to the Priest the Priest is hereby as much obliged to confess his sins to the People which I dare say is more than they have a mind to prove from this Text. The plain meaning whereof is this that as Christians should be ready to perform all mutual Offices of Charity so to assist and comfort one another by their Counsel and Prayers and therefore the Apostle adviseth Christians when they are sick if at the same time they be under any spiritual trouble by reason of the Guilt of any sin lying upon their Consciences to lay open their case to one another that so they may have the help of one anothers Advice and Prayers confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed both of your bodily and spiritual distemper not that the Priest or Minister is here excluded St. James had spoken of that particular before that when any was sick he should send for the Elders of the Church that he might in the first place have the benefit of their Counsel and Prayers and then because private Christians may also be useful to one another in this kind he adds that they should also lay open their condition and troubles to one another that so they might have the help of one anothers Advice and Prayers and very probably all the Confession here meant of private Christians to one another is of the offences and injuries they may have been guilty of one towards another that they should be reconciled upon this occasion and as a testimony of their Charity should pray one for another whereas they are bound to send for the Elders of the Church and they are to pray over them as an act not only of Charity but of Superiority and by virtue of their Office in the Church a more especial blessing being to be expected from their Prayers These three Texts are the main Arguments from Scripture which they of the Church of Rome bring to prove their auricular or secret Confession to be of Divine Institution and woful proofs they are which shews what miserable shifts they are reduced to who resolve to maintain a bad cause I proceed in the Second place to discover the Falshood of their other Pretences that this kind of Confession hath always been practised in the Catholick Church and not only so but believed absolutely necessary to the remission of mens sins and their eternal salvation The truth of the whole matter is this publick Confession and Penance for open and scandalous Crimes was in use and with great strictness observed in the first Ages of Christianity and there was then no general Law or Custom that exacted secret Confession of sins to the Priest as a necessary part of repentance and condition of forgiveness afterward publick Penance was by degrees disused which plainly shews that in the opinion of the Church this Discipline how useful soever was not of absolute necessity to restore men to the favour of God In place of this came in private Confession to the Priest particularly appointed to this Office and call'd the Penitentiary but upon occasion of a scandal that hapned this also was abrogated by Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople which shews that neither was this necessary And this act of Nectarius was justified by his Successor St. Chrysostom who does over and over most expresly teach that Confession of our sins to men is not necessary to the forgiveness of them but that it is sufficient to confess them to God alone so that St. Chrysostom does plainly stand condemned by the Decrees of the Council of Trent And thus for several Ages the matter rested till the degeneracy of the Church of Rome growing towards its height about the IX and X. Centuries some began to contend for the necessity of secret Confession and this in the year 1215. in the IV. Council of Lateran under Pope Innocent III. was decreed and establish'd And this is the first publick Law that was made in the Christian Church concerning this matter notwithstanding all the boasts of the Council of Trent about the antiquity of this Institution and Practice for Gratian who lived about 50 years before this Council tells us that in his time several wise and religious men were of the contrary opinion and did not hold Confession necessary by virtue of any Divine Law Afterwards in the Council of Florence and especially in that of Trent this Decree of the Council of Lateran was confirmed and enlarged in many particulars of which I have already given some account And whereas they pretend for themselves the universal Practice not only of the past but present Church we are able to shew from clear Testimony of their own Writers that Confession as taught and practised in the Church of Rome is no where else in use at this day neither among the Abyssines nor Indians of St. Thomas nor the Nestorians nor the Armenians nor the Jacobites Churches of great antiquity and vast extent And as for the Greek Church if we may believe Gratian and the Author of the Gloss upon the Canon Law the Greeks had anciently no Tradition concerning the necessity of Confession nor do they at this day agree with the Roman Church in all points concerning it So that in short there is no Nation nor Church throughout the whole world that bear the name of Christian the Roman Church only excepted that doth fully embrace and maintain the whole Doctrine of the Council of Trent concerning Confession and yet according to their principles the whole is of equal necessity to be believed as any part of it
With what face then do they declare that this manner of Confession always was and still is observed in the Catholick that is in the whole Christian Church I have not time to shew the great and manifold inconveniences and mischiefs of this practice How infinite a torture it is to the Consciences of men by entangling them in endless doubts and scruples and how great a scandal it is to the Christian Profession in the lewd management of it by the Priests is evident from the two Bulls of Pope Pius the IV. and Gregory XV. which mention things too shameful to be declared not to insist upon other horrible abuses of it to the vilest and wickedest purposes not so much to direct the Consciences of men as to dive into their Secrets of which there are so many plain and notorious Instances that they are past denyal The other thing pretended for it is that it is a great restraint upon men from sin And very probably it is so to modest and well disposed persons but experience shews how quite contrary an effect it hath upon others who are the far greatest part of mankind Does not all the world see in the Popish Countries in the time of their Carnival just before Lent the Anniversary season of Confession how scandalous a liberty men take of doing lewd and wicked things and that for this very Reason because their Consciences are presently to be eased and scoured as they call it by Confession and Absolution And they therefore take the oportunity to gratifie their lusts and fill up the measure of their iniquity at that time because with one labour they can set their Consciences right and clear them of all guilt and they look upon this as a special piece of spiritual good husbandry to quit their scores with God at once that so they may have no occasion to trouble him nor the Priest nor themselves again for a good while after So that Confession instead of being a restraint from sin gives great encouragement to it by deluding men into a vain hope of obtaining the pardon of their sins from time to time tho they still continue in the practice of them by which device mens sins are at once remitted and retain'd the Priest remits them by Absolution and the penitent retains them by going on still in the Commission of them in hope of obtaining a new Absolution as often as occasion shall require I proceed to the II. Enquiry namely How far the disclosing and revealing our sins to the Ministers of God may be convenient upon other accounts and to other purposes of Religion To which the Answer is very plain and short so far as is necessary either to the direction or the ease of mens Consciences There are many Cases wherein men under the guilt and trouble of their sins can neither appease their own minds nor sufficiently direct themselves without recourse to some pious and prudent Guide in these cases men certainly do very well and many times prevent a great deal of trouble and perplexity to themselves by a timely discovery of their condition to some faithful Minister in order to their direction and satisfaction without which they shall never perhaps be able to clear themselves of the obscurity and entanglement of their own minds but by smothering their trouble in their own breasts shall proceed from one degree of melancholy to another till at last they be plunged either in distraction or despair whereas the discovery of their condition in time would prove a present and effectual remedy And to this purpose a general Confession is for the most part sufficient and where there is occasion for a more particular discovery there is no need of raking into the particular and foul circumstances of mens sins to give that advice which is necessary for the cure and ease of the Penitent a thing so far from being desirable that it must needs be very grievous to every modest and good man And thus far Confession is not only allowed but encouraged among Protestants In the Lutheran Churches Chemnitius tells us that private geneneral Confession is in use and practice And Calvin freely declares that he is so far from being against peoples repairing to their Pastors to this purpose that he earnestly wisheth it were every where observed before the receiving of the Sacrament And the same is the sense of our own Church laying no necessity upon men in this matter but advising especially before the SaSacrament those who have any trouble upon their Consciences to repair to some discreet and faithful Minister of God's Word for advice and satisfaction And thus all the good use which can be made of Confession may be had in our Church without the ill Effects and Consequences of the Romish Confession and without laying a Yoke upon the Consciences of men which our Saviour never laid And now I have as briefly and as plainly as I could stated this Controversie between us and the Church of Rome concerning the necessity and use of secret Confession to the Ministers of God as the proper Guides and Directors of our Consciences But it is granted on all hands that Confession of our sins to God is necessary and there is no doubt but it is here intended in the Text viz. a Penitent acknowledgment of our sins the nature whereof I shall briefly explain to you And it must not only be a general Confession that we are sinners but there must be a particular acknowledgment of our sins to God so far as upon a particular discussion and examination of our Consciences we can call them to remembrance especially our most heinous sins which our Consciences will not suffer us to forget must be particularly acknowledged with the several aggravations of them And this Confession must be accompanied with such a shame and sorrow for our sins as produceth in us a sincere resolution to leave them and to betake our selves to a better course These are the principal ingredients of a Penitent Confession 1. There must be shame without which there is no hope of amendment Confession always supposeth conviction of a fault and he that is truly convinced that he hath done amiss cannot but be ashamed of what he hath done And thus the Penitents in Scripture were wont to make Confession of their sins to God Ezra 9.6 O my God says he I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God So Jeremiah Ch. 3.25 We lie down in our shame and our confusion covereth us for we have sinned against the Lord. And so likewise Daniel Ch. 9.5 We have sinned and have committed Iniquity and done Wickedly unto us belongeth confusion of Face And thus our Saviour describes the Penitent behaviour of the Publican as ashamed to look up to that God whom he had offended Luke 18.13 He would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven but smote upon his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner 2. Confession must be always