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
and I doubt not to make it evident that there is no such pleasure in sin as can make it a reasonable Temptation to any Man to venture upon it The Vices which pretend to bring the greatest pleasure are Lewdness and Intemperance and Revenge The two first of these are the highest Pretenders to Pleasure but God knows and the sinner himself knows how thin and transitory this pleasure is how much trouble attends it and how many sighs and groans follow it and whatever pleasure they may minister to the sense they bring a great deal of anguish and perplexity to the mind so that the trouble which they cause does more than counter-vail the pleasure which they bring and they do not only disturb the mind but they disease the Body How many are there who for the gratifying of an inordinate Lust and for the incomprehensible pleasure of a drunken fit have endured the violent burnings of a Feaver or else have consumed the remainder of their days in languishing sickness and pain And the reason of all this is plain because all the pleasures of sin are violent and forced and unnatural and therefore not like to continue they are founded in some Disease and Distemper of our minds and therefore always end in pain and smart And as for Revenge it is indeed a very eager and impatient desire but so far surely from being a pleasure that the very thoughts of it are extreamly troublesome and raise as great storms in the mind of a Man as any passion whatsoever and I never heard of the pleasure of being in a Storm it is pleasant indeed to be out of it when others are in it And when Revenge hath satisfied it self and laid its enemy bleeding at its foot the Man that executed it commonly repents himself the next moment and would give all the World to undo what he hath done so that if there be any pleasure in Revenge it is so flitting and of so short a continuance that we know not where to fix it for there is nothing but tumult and rage before the execution of it and after it nothing but remorse and horror so that if it be a pleasure it is but of one moment's continuance and lasts no longer than the act is a doing and what Man in his wits would purchase so short a pleasure at so dear a price This is most certainly true and if it were well considered sufficient to convince any reasonable Man of the unreasonableness of this passion Cain is a fearful instance of this kind who after he had drawn his Brother into the Field and slain him there how was he tormented with the guilt of what he had done and forced to cry out my punishment is greater than I can bear or as some Translations render the words mine iniquity is greater than that it can be forgiven Gen. 4.13 From thy face says he to God in the anguish of his Soul from thy face shall I be hid and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me v. 14. Every one that findeth me how fearful did his guilt make him When probably there was then but one Man in the World besides himself And I may say of this sort of men as St. Jude does of those in his time Jude v. 11. Wo unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain they are guilty of his Crime and his doom shall be theirs And here I cannot but take notice of a great Evil that grows daily upon us and therefore deserves with the greatest severity to be discountenanced and punish'd I mean that of Duels than which what can be more unchristian And what can be more unreasonable than for men upon deliberation and after the heat of Passion is over to resolve to sheath their Swords in one anothers Bowels only for a hasty word And which is yet more unreasonable that because two men are angry and have quarelled with one another and will fight it out that therefore two more who have no quarel no kind of displeasure against one another must fight too and kill one another if they can for no reason and upon no provocation These false Rules of Honour will not pass in another World in the highest and greatest Court of Honour from whence there is no Appeal I shall conclude this whole Argument with that excellent saying of Cato reported in A. Gellius Cogitate cum animis vestris c. Consider says he with your selves if ye be at any trouble and pain to do a good action the trouble will be soon over but the pleasure and comfort of what ye have done well abides with you all your days but if to gratifie your selves you do any thing that is wicked the pleasure will quickly vanish but the guilt of it will stick by you for ever And is it not then much better to prevent all this trouble by denying our selves these sinful pleasures which will follow us with guilt while we live and fill us with horror and despair when we come to die I shall now make some reflections upon what hath been delivered and so conclude First What hath been said upon this Argument ought particularly to move those who have so great a consideration of this present life and the temporal Happiness of it that the Practice of all Virtues is a friend to their temporal as well as eternal welfare and all Vice is an Enemy to both Secondly This likewise takes off all manner of excuse from Sin and Vice It pretends not to serve the Soul and to profit our future happiness in another World and if it be an Enemy also to our present welfare in this world what is there to be said for it Thirdly which I desire to insist a little longer upon all the Arguments which I have used to convince men of the folly of a wicked course are so many strong and unanswerable Reasons for Repentance for when a Man is convinced that he hath done foolishly and to his own prejudice that he hath sinned and that it profited him not what can he do less than to be heartily sorry for it and ashamed of it and resolved to do better for the future Nothing surely is more reasonable than Repentance and yet how hard is it to bring men to it Either men will mistake the Nature of it and not do it effectually or they will delay it and not do it in time I. Men mistake the Nature of Repentance and there are two great mistakes about it 1. Of those who make the great force and virtue of it to consist not so much in the Resolution of the Penitent as in the Absolution of the Priest And this the Church of Rome in their Doctrine concerning Repentance does For their Sacrament of Penance as they call it they make to consist of two parts the Matter of it which consists in these three acts of the Penitent
Confession Contrition and Satisfaction and the Form of it which is the Absolution of the Priest in which they make the main virtue and force of Repentance to consist in quâ proecipuè ipsius vis sita est are the very words of the Council of Trent And here is a wide difference betwixt us for tho' the comfort of the Penitent may in some case consist in the Absolution of the Priest yet the Virtue and Efficacy of Repentance does not at all consist in it but wholly in the Contrition and sincere Resolution of the Penitent as the Scripture every where declares and to think otherwise is of dangerous Consequence because it encourageth Men to hope for the benefit of Repentance that is the Pardon and forgiveness of their sins without having truly repented And indeed the Council of Trent have so framed their Doctrines in this point that any one may see that they did not matter how much they abated on the part of the Penitent provided the Power of the Priest be but advanced and kept up in its full height 2. The other Mistake is of those who make Repentance to consist in the bare Resolution of Amendment tho' it never have its effect that is tho' the sinner either do not what he resolved or do it only for a fit and during his present Trouble and Conviction There is one case indeed and but one wherein a Resolution not brought to effect is available and that is when nothing hinders the performance and execution of it but only want of time and oportunity for it when the Repentance is sincere and the Resolution real but the Man is cut off between the actual Reformation which he intended and which God who sees things certainly in their Causes knows would have followed if the Man had lived to give Demonstration of it but this is nothing to those who have the oportunity to make good their Resolution and do not for because the resolution which would have been perform'd had there been time and oportunity is reckoned for a true Repentance and accepted of God as if it had been done therefore the Resolution which was not brought to effect when there was time and oportunity for it hath not the Nature of true Repentance nor will it be accepted of God I will add but one thing more upon this Head because I doubt it is not always sufficiently considered and that is this that a sincere Resolution of a better course does imply a Resolution of the means as well as of the end he that is truly resolved against any sin is likewise resolved against the occasions and temptations that would lead and draw him to it otherwise he hath taken up a rash and foolish Resolution which he is not like to keep because he did not resolve upon that which was necessary to the keeping of it So he that resolves upon any part of his Duty must likewise resolve upon the means which are necessary to the discharge and performance of it he that is resolved to be just in his dealing and to pay his debts must be diligent in his Calling and mind his business because without this he cannot do the other for nothing can be more vain and fond than for a Man to pretend that he is resolved upon doing his Duty when he neglects any thing that is necessary to put him into a capacity and to further him in the discharge of it This is as if a Man should resolve to be well and yet never take Physick or be careless in observing his rules which are prescribed in order to his health So for a Man to resolve against Drunkenness and yet to run himself upon the temptations which naturally lead to it by frequenting the Company of Lewd and Intemperate persons this is as if a Man should resolve against the Plague and run into the Pest-house Whatever can reasonably move a Man to be resolved upon any End will if his Resolution be wise and honest determine him as strongly to use the Means which are proper and necessary to that End These are the common Mistakes about this matter which Men are the more willing to run into because they are loth to be brought to a true Repentance the Nature whereof is not difficult to be understood for nothing in the world is plainer only men are always slow to understand what they have no mind to put in practice But II. Besides these Mistakes about Repentance there is another great Miscarriage in this matter and that is the delay of Repentance men are loth to set about it and therefore they put it upon the last hazard and resolve then to huddle it up as well as they can but this certainly is great folly to be still making more work for Repentance because it is to create so much needless trouble and vexation to our selves 't is to go on still in playing a foolish part in hopes to retrieve all by an after-game this is extreamly dangerous because we may certainly sin but it is not certain we shall repent our Repentance may be prevented and we may be cut off in our sins but if we should have space for it Repentance may in process of time grow an hundred times more difficult than it is at present But if it were much more certain and more easie than it is if it were nothing but a hearty Sorrow and Shame for our sins and an asking God forgiveness for them without being put to the trouble of reforming our wicked lives yet this were great folly to do those things which will certainly grieve us after we have done them and put us to shame and to ask forgiveness for them It was well said of Old Cato nae tu stultus es homuncio qui malis veniam precari quam non peccare thou art a foolish man indeed who chusest rather to ask forgiveness than not to offend At the best Repentance implies a fault it is an after-Wisdom which supposeth a Man first to have plaid the fool it is but the best end of a bad business a hard shift and a desperate hazard which a Man that had acted prudently would never have been put to it is a Plaster after we have dangerously wounded our selves but certainly it had been much wiser to have prevented the danger of the wound and the pain of curing it A wise Man would not make himself sick if he could or if he were already so would not make himself sicker tho' he had the most Effectual and Infallible Remedy in the world in his power But this is not the case of a sinner for Repentance as well as Faith is the gift of God Above all let me caution you not to put off this great and necessary work to the most unseasonable time of all other the time of sickness and death upon a fond presumption that you can be reconciled to God when you please and exercise such a Repentance as will make your peace with him at any