persuade to and incourage publick Confessions and to apply them to Auricular or Clancular Confessions thus particularly the aforesaid Author does by Tertullian in his Citation of him 4. And Lastly Whereas it is also true that several of those Holy Men of Old do in some cases very much recommend Confession of secret sins and persuade some sorts of Men to the use of it namely those that are in great perplexity of Conscience and that needed Ghostly Counsel and Advice or to the intent that they might obtain the assistance of the Churches Prayers and make them the more ardent and effectual on their behalf whereas I say they recommended this as an expression of Zeal or a prudent expedient or at most as necessary only in some cases pro hîc nunc These great Patrons of Auricular Confession do with their usual artifice apply all these passages to prove it to be a standing and universally necessary duty a Law to all Christians this is a very common fault amongst them and particularly St. Cyprian is thus misapplied by the same forementioned Writer Lib. 3. Cap. 7. Hitherto inquiring into the most Ancient and Purest times of the Church by the Writings of the Fathers of those times we have not been able to discover any sufficient ground for such an Auricular Confession as the Church of Rome pretends to much less for a constant and uninterrupted succession of it But now after all I must acknowledge there is a passage in Ecclesiastical History which seems to promise us satisfaction herein and therefore must by no means be slightly passed over without due consideration it is the famous story of Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople and Predecessor to St. Chrysostom which happen'd something less then Four hundred years after our Saviour The Story as it is related by the joint Testimony of Socrates and Sozomen runs thus In the time of this Nectarius there was it seems a Custom in that Church as also in most others that one of the Presbyters of greatest Piety Wisdom and Gravity should be chosen Penitentiary that is be appointed to the peculiar Office of receiving Confessions and to assist and direct the Penitents in the management of their Repentance Now it happens that a certain Woman of Quality stricken with remorse of Conscience comes to the Penitentiary that then was and according to Custom makes a particular Confession of all such sins as she was conscious to her self to have committed since her Baptism for which he according to his Office appointed her the Penance of Fasting and continual Prayers to expiate her Guilt and give proof of the Truth of her Repentance But she proceeding on very particularly in her Confessions at last amongst other things comes to declare that a certain Deacon of that Church had lien with her upon notice of which horrid Fact the Deacon is forthwith cashier'd and cast out of the Church By which means the miscarriage takes Air and coming to the knowledge of the People they presently fall into a mighty commotion and rage about it partly in detestation of so foul an Action of the Deacon but principally in contemplation of the Dishonour and Scandal thereby reflected on the whole Church The Bishop finding the Honour of the whole Body of his Clergy extreamly concern'd in this accident and being very anxious what to do in this case at last by the Counsel of one Eudaemon a Presbyter of that Church he resolves thenceforth to abolish the Office of Penitentiary both to extinguish the present flame and to prevent the like occasion for the future and now by this means every Man is left to the Conduct of his own Conscience and permitted to partake of the Holy Mysteries at his own peril This is the matter of fact faithfully rendered from the words of the Historian but this if we take it in the gross and look no further then so will not do much towards the deciding of the present Controversy we will therefore examine things a little more narrowly by the help of such hints as those Writers afford us perhaps we may make good use of it at last and to this purpose 1. I observe in the first place that though at the first blush here seems to be an early and great example of that Auricular Confession which we oppose forasmuch as here is not only the Order of the Church of Constantinople for Confession to a Priest but that to be of all sins committed after Baptism and this to be made to him in secret notwithstanding upon a more thorough view it will appear quite another thing from that pleaded for and practised by the Church of Rome and that especially in the respects following First In the Auricular Confession in the Story there is some remainder of the ancient Discipline of the Church whose Confessions used to be open and publick as I have shewed in that here a publick Officer is appointed by the Church to receive them such an one as whose Prudence and Learning and Piety she could confide in for a business of so great nicety and difficulty and it is neither left to the Penitent to choose his Confident for his Confessor nor at large for every Priest to represent the Authority of the Church in so ticklish an Affair as that of Discipline but to a publick Officer appointed by the Church for this purpose so that Confession to him cannot be said to be private seeing it is done to the whole Church by him To confirm which Secondly This Penitentiary it seems was bound as there was occasion to discover the matters opened to him in secret to the Church as appears in the Crime of the Deacon in the Story there was no pretence of a Seal of Confession in this Case as in the Church of Rome by Virtue of which a Man may confess and go on to sin again secretly without danger of being brought upon the Stage whatsoever the atrocity of his Crime be and indeed without any effectual course in Order to his Repentance and Reformation Again Thirdly This Confession in the Story doth not pretend to be of absolute necessity as if a Mans sins might not be pardoned without it but only a prudent Provision of the Church to help Men forward in their Repentance to direct the Acts and Expressions of it and especially to relieve perplexed and weak Consciences and to assist them in their preparations for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and this appears amongst other things by the account which the Historian gives us of the consequence of abolishing it viz. That now every Man is left to his own Conscience about his partaking of the holy Mysteries but it is not said or intimated that he was left under the guilt of his Sins for want of Confession To which add in the last place that this Office whatever it was was not reputed a Sacrament but rather as I noted before an expedient to prepare men for it for doubtless neither that
Priests kneels to all holy people and intreats all the Brethren to be his Intercessors with God Almighty for his Pardon This is penitential Confession c. And in his Apology more plainly Coimus in Caetum c. ibidem exhortationes castigationes censura divina nam judicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu summumque futuri judicii praejudicium est si quis it a deliquer it ut à communione c. religetur we have saith he in our Ecclesiastical Assemblies a Spiritual Judicature and with great gravity censure offenders c. But I need say no more of this for we have the Testimony of Beatus Rhenanus one of the Roman Church and of great insight into Ecclesiastical Affairs who gives us this account of Tertullian and his times nihil illum de clancularia illa poenitentiâ loqui quae id temporis penitus ignorabatur there was no such thing as secret or Clancular Confession in use in Tertullian's time which was a thing not so much as known by the Christian Church in those days 5. To go a little lower such was the manner of proceedings in St. Cyprian's time as he himself describes it the sinner by outward gestures and tokens shew'd himself to be sorrowful and penitent for his sin and then made humble Confession thereof before the whole Congregation and desired all the Brethren to pray for him which done the Bishop and Clergy laid their hands upon him and so reconciled him So it was also in Origen's time and once for all to deliver the Custom of the Church in those times touching this particular I will add the words of the Historian Rei ad terram se pronos abjiciunt c. they that are Conscious to themselves to have offended fall down flat upon the ground with Weeping and Lamentations in the Church on the other side the Bishop runs to them with tears in his Eyes and falls down to the ground also in token of Sorrow and Compassion and the whole Congregation in the mean while Sympathizing with both is overwhelmed with tears c. 6. If we go lower yet to the times of St. Chrysostom and St. Austin we find those Holy Men speaking very slightly of Confessions to Men so little did they think of Auricular Confession being a Sacrament St. Austin's Judgment in the case we have heard before in the Tenth Book of his Confessions and third Chapter and for the other the Testimonies out of him are so many and so well known that I cannot think it necessary to transcribe them and as for St. Jerom who lived about the same time I think it sufficient to repeat the account of Erasmus who was very conversant in his Writings and indeed of all the other Fathers and who had no other fault I know but that he did use Mordaci radere vero to be too great a Tell-truth which sure will not invalidate his Testimony his words are these Apparet tempore Hieronimi nondum institutam fuisse secretam admissorum Confessionem Verùm in hoc labuntur Theologi quidam parum attenti quòd quae veteres scribunt de publica generali confessione ea trahunt ad occultam longe diversi generis i. e. It is evident saith he that in St. Jerom's time which was about Four hundred years after our Saviour there was no such thing as Secret Consession in use but the mistake is that some few later and inconsiderate Divines have taken the instances of general and publick Confession then practised for arguments of that Auricular Confession which is now used though quite of a different nature from it Thus we have traced the Current of Antiquity for Four or Five hundred years to search for the Head of this Nilus the source and rise of that kind of Confession which is so highly magnified by the Church of Rome but hitherto we have found nothing of it and this methinks should be sufficient to stagger an impartial inquirer at least it is as much as can be expected in so short a Treatise as this is intended to be and may satisfy the unprejudicate that there is as little of Antiquity to favour this Rite as there is of Divine Institution to be pleaded for it But yet I know on the other side that the Romanists pretend to bring abundance of Testimonies for it and Bellarmine particularly goes from Century to Century with his Citations to prescribe for the constant and uninterrupted use of it but I do sincerely think that these Four following short Observations will inable a Man to answer them all 1. I observe that whereas this word Exomologesis is commonly used by diverse of the Fathers as the Phrase whereby they intend to express the whole nature of Repentance in all the parts and branches of it as is evident by the passage I cited out of Tertullian de Poenit. even now and is acknowledged by Bellarmine himself nevertheless merely because that word signifies Confession properly and nothing else these Romish Sophisters where they find this word Exomologesis force it into an Argument for that Confession which they contend for and so several Discourses of the Fathers concerning Repentance in general are made to be nothing but Exhortations to or Encomiums of Confession in particular and that must be nothing else neither but Auricular Confession the thing in Question A cast of his skill in this way Bellarmine gives us in Irenaeus the very first Author he cites for Auricular Confession in the last quoted Book and Chapter of his Writings De Sacramentis 2. Whereas the Novatians excluded all hopes of Repentance or Pardon for sins committed after Baptism but the true Church contrariwise admitted to hopes of Pardon upon their Repentance upon this occasion when some of the Fathers justly magnify the advantages and comfortableness of the true Church above the Schismatical as that it set open a Door of Hope to those who confessed their sins and applied themselves to her Ministry Hence these witty men will persuade the World that every true Church had a Confessors Chair and such a formal way of pardoning as they now practise at Rome as if there was no remission of Sin where there was no Auricular Confession and as if all that excluded the latter rejected the former too and were no better than Novatian Hereticks whenas in Truth the Power of the Keys is exercised in all the Ministries of the Church and she Pardons and retains Sins otherwise than by the Oracle of a particular Confessor as we have seen already This piece of jugling the same Bellarmine is also guilty of in his Citation of Lactantius 3. Whereas the Ancient Writers are much in the Commendation of Confession of Sins whether it be to God or to the Church but generally intending that which is Publick it is common with those of the Church of Rome to lay hold of all such sayings as were intended to
Bishop nor that Church would have ever consented to the abolition of a Sacrament for the sake of such a Scandal as happen'd in the mismanagement of it or if they had done so much less can it be imagined that the greatest part of the Christian Church would have concurred with them in it as we shall by and by see they did 2. I observe concerning the beginning of this Penitentiary Office the time and occasion of this usage namely that the Historians do not pretend it to have been Apostolical much less of strictly Divine Institution but they lay the Heat of its first rise about the time of the Decian Persecution which was about Two hundred years after our Saviour I confess Nicephorus would persuade us of its greater Antiquity and that it was rather revived then instituted at that time for he speaking of the bringing it into use at the Decian Persecution saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Church pursuant of the Ancient Ecclesiastical Canons constituted a Penitentiary c. And Petavius is so addicted to the Roman Hypothesis as very unreasonably to favour this Conceit but the Truth seems to be as Valesius very ingenuously acknowledges only this that here was a mistake of the import of the words of the Historian who saith only that when the Church had chosen their Penitentiary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they added him to the Canon that is to the number of those in the Matricula or Roll of such as were to be maintain'd in and by the Church or as we would say they made him Canon of the Church not that he was Constituted in such an Office pursuant of an Ancienter Law or Canon as Nicephorus carelesly or willfully mistakes Besides afterwards when the Historian observes that the Novatians universally withstood this Order from the beginning of it he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d. this new Institution or Addition or Supplement of the Ancient Rites of the Church so that there is no reason we should date this Institution higher then the Historian doth namely after the Decian Persecution But what should be the ground and reasons of erecting this new Office and Officer in the Church then if it was not before Of this I give two accounts First The Church being now very numerous and the Zeal and Devotion very great and what by the compassionate reception which the Church gave to Penitents and her ardent Prayers for them what by the earnest harangues of Holy Men to move People to repentance abundance were inclined to confess their sins and this Confession being till that time accustomed to be open and publick in the face of the Congregation it must needs happen all those circumstances considered together that a great many things would be brought upon the Stage the Publication of which would be attended with great inconveniences for some sins are of that Nature that they scarce can take Air without spreading a Contagion some Confessions would make sport for light and vain Persons and besides abundance of other inconveniences easy to be imagined by any one the publication of some sins might expose the Penitents to the Severity of the Pagan Criminal Judge upon these and such like considerations the Church thought fit therefore I as have intimated before to appoint one wise and very grave Person in her stead to receive the Confessions who by his discretion might so discriminate matters that what things were fit for silence might have private Methods applied to them but what were fit to be brought upon the Stage might be made Publick examples of or receive a Publick remedy Secondly But the Historian leads us to a more special Reason of this Institution at that time namely that the rage of the Decian Persecution cruelly shook the Church and abundance of her weaker members fell off in the Storm and which was worst of all the Church was distracted about the restitution or final rejection of those that had so miscarried for though the best and wisest of the Church were so merciful and considerate of humane infirmity as to be willing to receive those in again upon Repentance over whom the Temptation of fear had too much prevailed yet the Novatians a great and Zealous part of Christianity looked upon such as desperate who had once broken their baptismal Vow and would rather separate from the Church themselves than suffer such to be restored to it Here the Church was in a great strait either she must be very severe to some or she shall seem very unkind to others she must either let the weak perish or she must offend them that counted themselves strong Now in this case she being both tenderly compassionate towards those that had fallen and withal willing to satisfie those Novatian Dissenters or at least to deliver her self from Scandal takes this course she requires that those who had fallen and desired to be restored again to her Society should acknowledge their faults and make all the Penitent satisfaction that was possible for them to perform that so neither they may be too easily tempted to do so again by the gentleness of the remedy nor the Novatians reproach her Lenity or take pet as if no difference was made between the sound and the lapsed for these causes though the most publick Penance was thought little enough to be undergone by the lapsed but yet on the other side considering wisely the inconveniences of publick Penance in some cases as I specified before she therefore took this middle course namely she appointed a publick Confessor who having first heard privately the several cases of the Penitents should bring into publick only such of them as without incurring any of the aforesaid dangers might be made exemplary And this appears to be the true reason of this Institution and the bottom of this affair by this remarkable passage in the Historian That whereas the generality of the Orthodox closed presently with this wife temperament the Novatians only those self conceited Non-conformists rejected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this expedient as a new invention they were too humoursome to comply with such a temperament But here another Question arises viz. How far this new expedient was imbraced by the Orthodox Churches for if it was only received by that of Constantinople the Authority would not be so great for it is possible to imagine that other Churches might allow every private Priest to confess and so admit of no publick Penitentiary To which I answer that by the History it seems plain enough that this was not the peculiar manner of the Church of Constantinople only but the usual Method in that time of most other Churches also but I must needs say I do not find that the Church of Rome complied with them herein though it was not much to her Honour to be singular where there was so much Prudence and Piety to have inclined her to Uniformity However this is gained which is my point that the Church
of Rome is not countenanced in her practice of private and clancular Confessions by the general usage of the Church as they pretend 3. I observe concerning this Office of Penitentiary that as it was erected upon prudential considerations so it was upon the same grounds abolished by the same Authority of the Church which first instituted it and that after about Two hundred years continuance in the time of Nectarius as we have seen therein he was followed saith Sozomen by almost all the Bishops and Churches in the World this therefore was far from being thought either a Divine or Apostolical Constitution Petavius would here persuade us that it was only publick Confession and not private which was upon this occasion so generally laid aside as we have seen but this is done by him more out of tenderness of Auricular Confession than upon good reason and Valesius goes beyond him and will needs persuade us that neither publick nor private Confession were put down in this juncture but only that the lately erected Officer of Penitentiary was cashier'd but I must crave leave to say there is no sufficient reason for either of these conjectures but on the contrary plain Evidence against them for Socrates who is the first and principal relater of this whole story saith he was personally acquainted with this Presbyter Eudemon who gave the advice to Nectarius to make this change in the Discipline of the Church and that he had the aforesaid relation of it from his own Mouth and expostulated with him about it giving his reasons to the contrary and suggested his suspicions that the state of Piety would be much endamaged by this change and in plain words tells him that he had now bereft men of assistance in the conduct of their Consciences and hindred the great benefit men have or might have one of another by private advice and correption Now this fear of his had been the absurdest thing in the World if upon this counsel and advice of his only one certain Man in the Office of publick Confessioner had been laid aside but both the use of publick and private Confessions had been kept up and retained But after all for ought appears the Church of Rome kept her old Mumpsimus she tenacious of her own customs especially of such as may advance her Interest and Authority complies not with this Innovation or Reformation be it for better or worse but her Priests go on with their Confessions and turn all Religion almost into Clancular Transactions in despight of the example of other Churches It may be she met with opposition sometimes but she was forced to disemble it till the Heroick Age of the School-men and then those lusty Champions with their Fustian-stuff of videtur quod sic probatur quod non make good all her pretensions After them in the year 1215 comes the Fourth Lateran Council and that decrees Auricular Consession to be made by every body once a year at the least and last of all comes the Council of Trent and declares it to be of Divine Institution necessary to Salvation and the constant and universal custom of the Christian Church And so we have the Pedigree of the Romish Auricular Confession Sect. 4. I come now to the third and last Stage of my undertaking which is to shew that Secret or Auricular Confession as it is now prescribed and practised in and by the Church of Rome is not only unnecessary and burdensom in it self but also very mischievous to Piety and the great ends of Christian Religion For the former part of this charge if it be not evident enough already it will easily be made out from the Premises for they cannot deny that they make this kind of Confession necessary to Salvation at least as necessary as Baptism it self is supposing a Man hath sinned after Baptism now if it be neither made so by Divine Institution nor acknowledged to be so by the constant Opinion of the Church what an horrible imposition is here upon the Consciences of Men when in the highest and worst sense that can be they teach for Doctrines the Commandments of Men and make Salvation harder than God hath made it and suspend mens hopes upon other terms then he hath done If it was prescribed by the present Church as a matter of Order and Discipline only or of convenience and expediency we should never boggle at it upon this account or dispute the point with them or if it was only declared necessary pro hîc nunc upon extraordinary emergency by the peculiar condition of the Penitent his weakness of judgment the perplexity of his Conscience his horrible guilt or extream Agonies we would not differ with them upon that neither but when it is made necessary universally and declared the indispensable duty of all men whatsoever who have sinned after Baptism when God hath required no such thing but declares himself satisfied with true contrition and hearty remorse for what is past and sincere Reformation for the time to come this I say is an intolerable Tyranny and usurpation upon the Consciences of Men. And that is not all neither for besides its burdensomness in the general it particularly aggravates and increases a Mans other burdens for instead of relieving perplexed Consciences which is the true and principal use of Confessions to Men this priestly Confession as it is prescribed by the Council intangles and afflicts them more for that injoyns that the Penitent lay open all his sins even the most secret although but in thought or desire only such as against the Ninth or Tenth Commandment according to their Division of the Decalogue now this is many times difficult enough but that 's not all he must also recount all the circumstances of these sins which may increase or diminish the guilt especially such as alter the species and kind of sin Now what sad work is here for a Melancholy Man All the circumstances are innumerable and how can he tell which are they that change the Species of the act unless he be as great a School-man as his Confessor Besides all this it may be he is not very skilful in the distinction between venial and mortal sins and if he omit one mortal sin he is undone therefore it is necessary for him by consequence to confess all venial sins too and then where shall the poor Man begin or when shall he make an end Such a Carnifieina such a rack and torture in a word such an Holy Inquisition is this business of Auricular Confession become And that Eminent Divine of Strasburgh of whom Beatus Rhenanus speaks seems very well to have understood both himself and this matter who pronounces that Scotus and Thomas had with their tricks and subtilties so perplexed this plain Business of Confession that now it was become plainly impossible And so much for that But as for the second part of this impeachment viz. That the Auricular Confession now used in the