should place our hope in Man Tom. 9. operum Augâ—st Scola Parad. cap. 3. And S. Austin if at least he be the author of the Scala Paradisi says The office of baptizing the Lord granted unto many but the power and authority of remitting sins in Baptism he retained unto himself alone wherefore S. John antonomasticè discretivè by way of distinction and singularity affirms that He it is who baptizes with the holy Ghost And I shall apply this to the power of the Keys in the ministery of repentance by the words of S. Cyprian De operibus Cardâ—nalibus Christi inter Cypriani opera sed varius Arnâ—lâ—i Bonaevalleâ—sis Remissio peccatorum sive per Baptismum sive per alia Sacramenta donetur propriè Spiritûs Sancti est ipsi soli hujus efficientiae privilegium manet As therefore the Bishop or the Priest can give the holy Ghost to a repenting sinner so he can give him pardon and no otherwise that is by prayer and the ministery of the Sacraments to persons fitly disposed who also can and have received the holy Ghost without any such ministery of man as appears in S. Peter's Question What hinders these men to be baptized who have received the holy Ghost as well as we And it is done every day and every hour in the Communion of Saints in the Immissions and visitations from heaven which the Saints of God daily receive and often perceive and feel Every man is bound by the cords of his own sins which ropes and bands the Apostles can loose imitating therein their Master who said to them Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Solvunt autem eos Apostoli sermone Dei Lib. 6. Comment in Isai. cap. 14. testimoniis Scripturarum exhortatione virtutum saith S. Hierom. For the word of God which is intrusted to the Ministery of the Church is that rule and measure by which God will judge us all at the last day and therefore by the word of God we stand or fall we are bound or loosed which word when the Ministers of the Gospel dispense rightly they bind or loose and what they so bind or loose on earth God will bind and loose in heaven That is by the same measures he will judge the man by which he hath commanded his Ministers to judge them by that is they preach remission of sins to the penitent and God will make it good and they threaten eternal death to the impenitent and God will inflict it But other powers of binding and loosing than what hath been already instanc'd those words of Christ prove not And these powers and no other do we find us'd by the Apostles 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. To us saith S. Paul is committed the word of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God Christ is the great Minister of Reconciliation we are his Embassadours to the people to that purpose and we are to preach to them and to exhort them to pray them and to pray for them and we also by our Ministery reconcile them and we pardon their sins for God hath set us over the people to that purpose but then it is also in that manner that God set the Priest over the leprous Lev. 13. 44. v. 5. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The priest with pollution shall pollute them and the priest shall cleanse him that is shall declare him so And it is in the same manner that God set the Prophet Jeremy over the nations Jer. 1. 10. to root out and to pull down and to destroy to throw down to build and to plant that is by putting his word into his mouth to do all this to preach all this to promise or to threaten respectively all this The Ministers of the Gospel do pardon sins just as they save men 1 Tim. 4. 16. This doing thou shalt save thy self and them that hear thee that is by attending to and continuing in the doctrine of Christ and he that converts a sinner from the errour of his way saves a soul from death and covers a multitude of sins Jam. 5. 20. Bringing the man to repentance persuading him to turn from vanity to the living God thus he brings pardon to him and salvation And if it be said that a lay-man can do this I answer It is very well for him if he does and he can if it please God to assist him but the ordinary ministery is appointed to Bishops and Priests so that although a lay-man do it extraordinarily that can be no prejudice to the ordinary power of the Keys in the hands of the Clergy which is but a ministery of prayer of the Word and Sacraments according to the saying of their own Ferus upon this place Christ in this word shews how and to what use he at this time gave them the Holy Ghost John 20. to wit for the remission of sins neither for the Apostles themselves alone sed ut eundem Spiritum eandemque remissionem peccatorum Verbo praedicationis Sacramentis verbo annexis distribuerent And again he brings in Christ saying I therefore chuse you and I seal your hearts by the Holy Ghost unto the word of the Gospel and confirm you that going into the world ye may preach the Gospel to every Creature and that ye may distribute that very remission by the word of the Gospel and the Sacraments For the words of Christ are general and indefinite and they are comprehensive of the whole power and ministery Ecclesiastical and in those parts of it which are evident and confessed viz. preaching remission of sins and Baptism a special enumeration of our sins is neither naturally necessary nor esteemed so by custom nor made so by vertue of these words of Christ therefore it is no way necessary neither have they at all proved it so by Scripture And to this I add only what Ambrosius Pelargus a Divine of the Elector of Triers said in the Council of Trent Hist. Concil Tâ—id A. D. 155. sub Julio Teâ—â—io That the words of our Lord Quorum remiseritis were perhaps not expounded by any Father for an institution of the Sacrament of Penance and that by some they were understood of Baptism by others of any other thing by which pardon of sins is received But since there is no necessity declar'd in Scripture of confessing all our sins to a Priest no mention of sacramental penance or confession it must needs seem strange that a doctrine of which there is no Commandment in Scripture no direction for the manner of doing so difficult a work no Office or Officer describ'd to any such purpose that a doctrine I say of which in the fountains of salvation there is no spring should yet become in process of time to be the condition of salvation And yet for preaching
ambiguous or obscure in case any Brother be a Doctor endued with the grace of knowledge but be curious with your self and seek with your self but at length it is better for you to be ignorant lest you come to know what ye ought not for you already know what you ought Faith consists in the rule Lib. de veland To know nothing beyond this is to know all things Virg. c. 1. Regula quidem fidei una â—mnino est sola immobilis irreformabilis To the same purpose he affirms that this Rule is unalterable is immoveable and irreformable it is the Rule of faith and it is one unchangeably the same which when he had said he again recites the Apostles Creed Lib. de veland Virg. c. â— he calls it legem fidei this law of faith remaining in other things of discipline and conversation the grace of God may thrust us forward and they may be corrected and renewed But the faith cannot be alter'd there is neither more nor less in that And it is of great remark what account Tertullian gives of the state of all the Catholick Churches and particularly of the Church of Rome in his time That Church is in a happy state into which the Apostles with their bloud pour'd forth all their doctrine De praescript c. 36. let us see what she said what she taught what she published in conjunction with the African Churches she knows one God the creator of the World and Jesus Christ of the Virgin Mary the Son of God the Creator and the resurrection of the flesh she mingles the Law and the Prophets with the Evangelical and Apostolical writings and from thence she drinks that faith she sings with Water she cloaths with the holy Spirit she feeds with the Eucharist she exhorts to Martyrdom and against this Institution receives none This indeed was a happy state and if in this she would abide her happiness had been as unalterable as her faith But from this how much she hath degenerated will too much appear in the order of this discourse In the confession of this Creed the Church of God baptiz'd all her Catechumens to whom in the profession of that faith they consign'd all the promises of the Gospel S. Hilar. l. 10. de Trinit vers finem For the truth of God the faith of Jesus Christ the belief of a Christian is the purest simplest thing in the world In simplicitate fides est in fide justitia est in confessione pietas est Nec Deus nos ad beatam vitam per difficiles quaestiones vocat nec multiplici eloquentis facundiae genere sollicitat in absoluto nobis ac facili est aeternitas Jesum Christum credimus suscitatum à mortuis per Deum ipsum esse Dominum confitemur This is the Breviary of the Christian Creed and this is the way of salvation lib. de Synodis saith S. Hilary But speaking more explicitely to the Churches of France and Germany he calls them happy and glorious qui perfectam atque Apostolicam fidem conscientiâ professione Dei retinentes conscriptas fides hûc usque nescitis because they kept the Apostolical Belief for that is perfect Thus the Church remaining in the purity and innocent simplicity of the Faith there was no way of confuting Hereticks but by the words of Scripture or by appealing to the tradition of this Faith in the Apostolical form and there was no change made till the time of the Nicene Council but then it is said that the first simplicity began to fall away and some new thing to be introduc'd into the Christian Creed True it is that then Christianity was in one complexion with the Empire and the division of Hearts by a different Opinion was likely to have influence upon the publick peace if it were not compos'd by peaceable consent or prevailing authority and therefore the Fathers there assembled together with the Emperour's power did give such a period to their Question as they could but as yet it is not certain that they at their meeting recited any other Creed than the Apostolical for that they did not In Antidoto ad Nicolaum 5. Papam Laurentius Valla a Canon in the Lateran Church affirms that himself hath read in the ancient Books of Isidore who collected the Canons of the ancient Councils Certain it is the Fathers believ'd it to be no other than the Apostolical faith and the few words they added to the old form was nothing new but a few more explicate words of the same sense intended by the Apostles and their Successors as at that time the Church did remember by the successive preachings and written Records which they had and we have not but especially by Scripture But the change was so little or indeed so none as to the matter that they affirmed of it Epiphan in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was the Creed deliver'd by the Holy Apostles and in the old Latin Missal published at Strasburgh An. Dom. 1557. after the recitation of the Nicene Creed as we usually call it it is added in the Rubrick Finito Symbolo Apostolorum dicat Sacerdos Dominus vobiscum So that it should seem the Nicene Fathers us'd no other Creed than what themselves thought to be the Apostolical And this is the more credible because we find that some other Copies of the Apostles Creed particularly that which was us'd in the Church of Aquileia hath divers words and amplifications of some one Article as to the Article of God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth is added invisible and impassible which though the words were set down there because of the Sabellian Heresie yet they said nothing new but what to every man of reason was included in the very nature of God and so was the addition of Nice concerning the Divinity of the Son of God included in the very natural Filiation expressed in the Apostles Creed and therefore this Nicene Creed was no more a new Creed than was that of Aquileia which although it was not in every word like the Roman Symbol yet it was no other than the Apostolical And the same is the case even of those Symbols where something was omitted that was sufficiently in the bowels of the other Articles Thus in some Creeds Christ's Death is omitted but his Crucifixion and Burial are set down The same variety also is observable in the Article of Christ's descent into Hell which as it is omitted in that form of the Apostolical Creed which I am now saying was us'd by the Nicene Fathers so was it omitted in the six several Recitations and Expositions of it made by Chrysologus and in the five Expositions made of it by S. Austin in his Book de Fide Symbolo and in his four Books de Symbolo ad Catechumenos and divers others So the Article of the Communion of Saints which is neither in the Nicene nor Constantinopolitan Creed nor
use of the power of the Keys it being truly and properly the intromission of Catachumens into the house of God and an admitting them to all the Promises and Benefits of the Kingdom and which is the greatest the most absolute and most evident remission of all the sins precommitted and yet towards the dispensing this pardon no particular Confession of sins is previous by any necessity or Divine Law Repentance in persons of choice and discretion is and was always necessary but because persons were not tied to confess their sins particularly to a Priest before Baptism it is certain that Repentance can be perfect without this Confession And this argument is yet of greater force and persuasion against the Church of Rome for since Baptizing is for remission of sins and is the first act of the power of the Keys and the evident way of opening the doors of the house of God and yet the power of baptizing is in the Church of Rome in the absence of a Priest given to a lay-man and frequently to a Deacon it follows that the power of the Keys and a power of remitting sins is no Judiciary act unless a Lay-man be declar'd capable of the power of judging and of remitting sins 5. 5 If we consider that without true repentance no sin can be pardon'd and with it all sins may and that no one sin is pardon'd as to the final state of our souls but at the same time all are pardon'd it must needs follow that it is not the number of sins but the condition of the person the change of his life the sorrow of his heart the truth of his Conversion and his hatred of all sin that he is to consider If his repentance be a true change from evil to good from sin to God a thousand sins are pardon'd as soon as one and the infinite mercy of God does equally exceed one sin and one thousand Indeed in order to counsel or comfort it may be very useful to tell all that grieves the penitent all that for which he hath no rest and cannot get satisfaction but as to the exercising any other judgment upon the man either for the present or for the future to reckon up what is past seems not very useful or at all reasonable But as the Priest who baptizes a Convert judges of him as far as he can and ought that is whether he hath laid aside every hindrance and be dispos'd to receive remission of sins by the Spirit of God in Baptism so it is in Repentance the man's conversion and change is to be considered which cannot be by what is past but by what is present or future And now 3 3 Although the judicial power of the Priest cannot inferre the necessity of particular Confession yet if the judicial power be also of another nature than is supposed or rather be not properly judicium fori the judgment of a tribunal coercive poenal and exterminating by proper effect and real change of state and person then the superstructure and the foundation too will be digged down And this therefore shall be consider'd briefly And here the Scene is a little chang'd and the words of Christ to S. Peter are brought in as auxiliaries to prove the Priest's power to be judicial and that with the words of Christ to his Apostles John XX must demonstrate this point 1. Therefore I have the testimony and opinion of the Master of the Sentences affirming that the Priest's power is declarative not judicial the Sentence of an Embassadour Sent. lib. 4. dist 18. lit F. not of a Judge Sacerdotibus tribuit potestatem solvendi ligandi id est ostendendi homines ligatos vel solutos The Priest's power of loosing and binding is a power of shewing and declaring who are bound and who are loosed For when Christ had cur'd the Leper he sent him to the Priest by whose judgment he was to be declar'd clean and when Lazarus was first restor'd to life by Christ then he bade his Disciples loose him and let him go And if it be inquir'd To what purpose is the Priest's Solution if the man be pardon'd already It is answer'd that Although he be absolv'd before God yet he is not accounted loosed in the face of the Church but by the judgment of the Priest But we have the Sentence of a greater man in the Church S. Hierom in Matth. lib. 3. ad cap. 16. than Peter Lombard viz. of S. Hierom himself who discourses this affair dogmatically and fully and so as not to be capable of evasion speaking of those words of Christ to S. Peter I will give to thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind â—n Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose in Earth shall be loosed in Heaven This place saith S. Hierom some Bishops and Priests not understanding take upon them something of the superstitiousness of the Pharisees so as to condemn the Innocent or think to acquit the Guilty whereas God inquires not what is the Sentence of the Priest but the life of the Guilty In Leviticus the Lepers were commanded to shew themselves to the Priests who neither make them leprous nor clean but they discern who are clean and who are unclean As therefore there the Priest makes the leprous man clean or unclean So here does the Bishop or the Priest bind or loose i. e. according to their Office when he hears the variety of sins he knows who is to be bound and who is to be loosed S. Ambrose adds one advantage more as consequent to the Priest's absolving of penitents but expresly declares against the proper judicial power Men give their Ministery in the remission of sins Homines in remissione peccatorum ministerium suum exhibent non jus alicujus potestatis exercent Neque enim in suo sed in Nomine Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti peccata dimittuntur Istâ—rogant Divinitas donat c. S. Ambrose de Spir. S. lib. 3. cap. 19. but they exercise not the right of any power neither are sins remitted by them in their own but in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Men pray but it is God who forgives It is mans obsequiousness but the bountiful gift is from God So likewise there is no doubt sins are forgiven in Baptism but the operation is of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Here S. Ambrose affirms the Priest's power of pardoning sins to be wholly Ministerial and Optative or by way of Prayer Just as it is in Baptism so it is in Repentance after Baptism Sins are pardon'd to the truly penitent but here is no proper Judicial power The Bishop prays and God pardons the Priest does his Ministery and God gives the gift Here are three witnesses against whom there is no exception and what they have said was good Catholick doctrine in their ages that is from the fourth age after Christ to the eleventh How it hath
Alexandria defines the Church to be Clem. Alex. strom lib. pag. 715. edit Paris A. D. 1629. the Congregation of the Elect. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the Church I do not mean the place but the gathering or heap of the Elect for this is the better Temple for the receiving the greatness of the dignity of God For that living thing which is of great price to him who is worthy of all price yea to whose price nothing is too great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is consecrated by the excellency of holiness But more full is that of Saint Austin De Papt contr Donatist lib. â— cap 51. 52. who spends two chapters in affirming that onely they who serve God faithfully are the Church of God The temple of God is holy which Temple ye are For this is in the good and faithful and the holy servants of God scattered every where and combin'd by a spiritual union in the same communion of Sacraments whether they know one another by face or no. Others it is certain are so said to be in the House of God that they do not pertain to the structure of the house nor to the society of fructifying and peace-making justice but are as chaff in the wheat For we cannot deny that they are in the house the Apostle Paul saying That in a great house there are not onely vessels of gold and silver but wood and earth some for honour and some for dishonour And a little before I do not speak rashly when I say Some are so in the house of God that they also are that very house of God which is said to be built upon a rock which is called the onely dove the fair spouse without spot or wrinkle the garden shut up a fountain sealed a pit of living water a fruitful paradise This is the house which hath received the Keys and the power of loosing and binding whosoever shall despise this house reproving and correcting him he saith let him be as an heathen and a Publican And then he proceeds to describe who are this house by the characters of sanctity S. Aug. lib. 2. câ—ntâ— Cresâ—n cap. 21. vide eund lib. â— contr Petâ— cap. ult l. â— de bapt cap. 3. l. 6. c. 3. of charity and unity Propter malam pollutámque conscientiam damnati à Christo jam in corpore Christi non sunt quod est Ecclesia quoniam non potest Christus habere damnata membra Those who are condemned by Christ for their evil and polluted consciences are not in Christs body which is the Church for Christ hath no damned members And this besides that it is expressly taught in the Augustan Confession Mali quidem sunt in Ecclesiâ— sed non de Ecclesiâ quia mali non suâ—t de regnâ—â— ei sed de regn Diaboli Vide etiam Gregor M. lib. 28. Moral c 9. it is also the Doctrine of divers Roman Doctors that wicked men are not true members of the body of the Church but equivocally So Alexander of Hales Hugo and Aquinas as they are quoted by Turrecremata so Petrus à Soto Melchior Canus Lib. 1. cap. 57. apud B. ll l. 3. cap. 9. De Ecclesiâ milâ—tante and others as Bellarmine himself confesses so that if it be said that evil men are in the Church it is true but they are not of the Church as S. John's expression is for if they had been of us they would have tarried with us which words seem to be of the same sense with those Fathers who affirm the Church to be The number of the predestinate whom God loves to the end But however the wicked are onely in the body of the Church Tract 3. in Epist. Johan Bellar. ubi suprà Sect. Idem Augustinus as peccant humours and excrements and hair and putrefaction so said S. Austin as Bellarmine quotes him and the same thing in almost the same words is set down by * Coster ap logpro parte 3â— Enchirid. c. 12. Sect. Qui non Coster the Jesuit and when Bellarmine attempts to answer this saying of S. Austin he says he means that the wicked are not in the Church in the same manner as the godly are that is not as living members which though it be put in the place of an Answer to amuse the young fellows that are captivated with the admirable method of Ob. and Sol. yet it plainly confesses the point in question viz. that the wicked are not members of Christs body and if they be not then to them belong not the Privileges and Promises which God gave and promised to his Church for they were given for the sake of the Saints onely Ibid. Sect. Respondeo Augustiâ—um saith S. Austin and Bellarmine confesses it But I need not be digging the Cisterns for this truth Christ himself hath taught it to us very plainly Joh. 15. 14. Joh. 14. 21. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you not upon any other terms and I hope none but friends are parts of Christs mystical body members of the Church whereof he is head and the onely condition of this ver 15. is if we do whatsoever Christ commands us And that this very blessing and promise of knowing and understanding the will of God appertains onely to the godly Christ declares in the very next words Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things I have heard from my Father I have made known unto you So that being the friends of God is the onely way to know the will of God None are infallible but they that are holy and they shall certainly be directed by Christ and the Spirit of Christ. Joh. 7 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self said our Blessed Lord. And S. John 1 Joh. 2. 27. said Ye have received the unction from above and that anointing teacheth you all things The Spirit of God is the great teacher of all truth to the Church but they that grieve the holy Spirit of God they that quench the Spirit they that defile his Temple from these men he will surely depart That he shall abide with men unto the end of the world is a promise not belonging to them but to them that keep his Commandments The external parts of Religion may be ministred by wicked persons and by wicked persons may be received but the secrets of the Kingdom the spiritual excellencies of the Gospel that is truth and holiness a saving and an unreprovable faith and an indefectible love to be United to Christ and to be members of his body these are the portions of Saints not of wicked persons whether Clergy or Laity The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom Prov. 10. 31. and the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable said
Castro Adrianus Petrus dae Aquilae and others before the Council of Trent 3. Though these men go several ways which shows as Scotus expresses it hoc verbum non est praecisum yet they all agree well enough in this that they are all equally out of the story and none of them well performs what he undertakes It is not mine alone but the judgement which * Qu. 90. in 3â— Thom. dub 2. Vasquez makes of them who confuted many of them by arguments of his own and by the arguments which they use one against another and gives this censure of them Inter eos qui planè fatentur ex illis verbis Joh. xx o necessitatem Confessionis supple elici vix invenias qui efficaciter deducat And therefore this place of S. John is but an infirm foundation to build so great a structure on it as the whole Oeconomy of their Sacrament of Penance and the necessity of Confession upon it since so many learned and acute men master-builders believe nothing at all of it and others that do agree not well in the framing of the Structure upon it but make a Babel of it and at last their attempts prove vain and useless by the testimony of their fellow-labourers There are some other places of Scripture which are pretended for the necessity of Confession but they need no particular Scrutiny Primum istorum esseâ— magis conveniens lenendâ—m si posset evidenter haberi istud praeceptum ex Evangelio Nec oporiet ad hoc adducere illud Matthaei 16. Tibi dabo claves regni coelorum quia non est nisi promissio de datione futura Sed si aliquid in Evangelio videlicet ad hoc videtur illud Joh. xx Accipiâ—e Spir. S. Quorum remiseritis c. not only because they are rejected by their own parties as insufficient but because all are principally devolved upon the twentieth of S. John and the Council of Trent it self wholly relies upon it Dicitur quod sic de illo verbo Jacob. 5. Confiremini alter utrum peccata c. sed nec per hoc videretur mihi quod Jacobus praeceptum hoc dedit nec praecepum à Christo promulgavit Scotus in l. 4. dist 17. Sect. De Secundo This therefore being the foundation if it fails them as to their pretensions their building must needs be ruinous But I shall consider it a little When Christ said to his Apostles Whose sins ye remit they shall be remitted to them and whose sins ye retain they shall be retained he made says Bellarmine and generally the latter School of Roman Doctors the Apostles and all Priests Judges upon earth that without their sentence no man that hath sinned after Baptism can be reconciled But the Priests who are Judges can give no right or unerring sentence unless they hear all the particulars they are to judge Therefore by Christs law they are tied to tell in Confession all their particular sins to a Priest This is the summe of all that is said in this affair Other light skirmishes there are but the main battel is here Now all the parts of this great Argument must be considered And 1. I deny the argument and supposing both the premisses true that Christ had made them judges and that without particular cognisance they could not give judgement according to Christs intention yet it follows not that therefore it is necessary that the penitent shall confess all his sins to the Priest For Who shall compel the penitent to appear in judgement Where are they oblig'd to come and accuse themselves before the judges Indeed if they were before them we will suppose the Priests to have power to judge them but how can it be hence deduc'd that the penitents are bound to come to this Judicatory and not to stand alone to the Divine tribunal A Physician may have power to cure diseases yet the Patients are not bound to come to him neither it may be will they if they can be cur'd by other means And if a King sends a Judge with competent authority to judge all the Questions in a Province he can judge them that come but he cannot compel them to come and they may make an end of their quarrels among themselves or by arbitration of neighbours and if they have offended the King they may address themselves to his clemency and sue for pardon And since it is certain by their own confession that a penitent cannot by the force of these words of Christ be compelled to confess his venial sins how does it appear that he is tied to confess his mortal sins For if a man be tied to repent of all his sins then repentance may be performed without the ministery of the Priest or else he must repent before the Priest for all his sins But if he may repent of his venial sins and yet not go to the Priest then to go to the Priest is not an essential part of the repentance and if it be thus in the case of venial sins let them shew from the words of Christ any difference in the case between the one and the other especially if we consider that though it may be convenient to go to the Priest to be taught and guided yet the necessity of going to him is to be absolved by his Ministery But that of this there was no necessity believ'd in the Primitive Church appears in this because they did not expect pardon from the Bishop or Priest in the greatest Crimes but were referred wholly to God for the pardon of them Non sine spe tamen remissionis quà m ab eo planè sperare debebit qui ejus largitatem solus obtinet tam dives misericordiae est ut nemo desperet So said the Bishops of France in their Synod held about the time of Pope Zephyrinus To the same purpose are the words of Tertullian Salvâ illâ poenitentiae specie post fidem quae aut levioribus delictis veniam ab Episcopo consequi poterit aut majoribus irremissibilibus à Deo solo The like also is in the 31 th Epistle of S. Cyprian Now first it is easie to observe how vast the difference is between the old Catholick Church and the present Roman these say that venial sins are not of necessity to be confessed to the Priest or Bishop and that without their Ministery they can be pardoned But they of old said that the smaller sins were to be submitted to the Bishop's Ministery On the other side the Roman Doctors say it is absolutely necessary to bring our mortal sins and confess them in order to be absolved by the Priest but the old Catholicks said that the greatest sins are wholly to be confessed and submitted to God who may pardon them if he please and will if he be rightly sought to but to the Church they need not be confessed because these were onely and immediately fit for the Divine Cognisance What is now a-days a reserved case