cannot but believe that in the hands of the Church lyes much of your Peace as well as of your safety considering the Power they have over you Heb. 13.17 and the Power they have for you John 20.21.22.23 and both these derived down to this present Age and shall so continue wheresoever the Church shall be though there be no necessity that they should be continued wheresoever Christians are by verof our Saviours promise even to the end of the World And these powers to be pleaded for by them and submitted unto by you as being of Divine right framed and appointed by the Holy Ghost the principal Administrator of Church-Government for the Advantage and Edification of the Bodie of Christ I doubt there be some and those no inconsiderable ones that believe this doctrine not sufficiently asserted by the Church of England there being in the Frame and Contexture of her Church-Government too much of the Lay and too little of the Clergy-man And though my Judgement tells me that there is not any Civil Magistrate on earth be he Emperour King or Prince that hath so Evident and Immediate a Commission for his Power and the Exercise thereof as hath the Church yet who sees not that both the Administration and the Administrators of this Government are despised save in such a subordinate way of dispensing this power that must needs render it precarious in the eyes of ignorant men and the Church Officers themselves no other things but such borrowed Hands as by pulling now this way now that way help to keep the carriage of the Civil State from overturning in rough and dangerous Descents OBJECTION IX But you say that could you have believed the point of Sacerdotal Absolution and the Obligation that seems to inferre to private Confession you had long since enjoyed your Peace at least you had not felt so great a trouble as now you do SOLUTION 14. OUr Judgements no whit differ in this for I clearly believe that on earth as there is no surer way to prevent mens falling into sin especially many close Enormities then the discreet and conscionable practise of the Duty of Confession so is there not a more proper and undoubted way for allaying the Troubles of minde flowing from the guilt of Sin then a grave and considerate Execution of the Power of Absolving Sinners I say the power of absolving Sinners for if this Clause in his Commission stand not good by Divine Right I know nothing a Priest can do more then other men and am well assured that in some part of their Office they can do many of them much less Not to signifie any thing of the grief I have for your not believing so evident Texts of Scripture as this Doctrine is built upon I shall endeavour to cut up your Infidelity in this point by the Roots by a very brief Examination of these few particulars 1. What the power of Absolving is 2 Whether it be conveyed down to the present Pastors of the Church in the ordinary way of commissioning them to that Function by the Imposition of the hands of Bishops and Presbyters 3. Of what concernment this Power is in the Execution thereof upon Penitent Sinners 1. The power of Absolving Sinners is comprehended in one branch of the power of the Keyes viz. remitting sin expressly mentioned in Christs Commission given to the Apostles and their Successors Matth. 16.19 and Joh. 20.23 which in the point in hand as it much differs from re-admitting into the Church that part of the power of the Keyes which seems and doth but seem to be the same with this so is it in a Priest or Presbyter to my Judgment no judicial but rather an Annuntiative act the Priest being none of that order to whom the promise of our Saviour is made Matth. 19.28 of sitting on twelve thrones and judging the twelve Tribes of Israel My reason for my opinion is because a Priest cannot be thought to Absolve otherwise then he can Retein else there will be more in one then in the other of the correlatives Now a Priest doth not retein sin judicially for that is the office of the Bishop and is onely done by the sentence of Excommunication but declaratively only shewing the Impenitents whether collectively or personally that by reason of such or such Impediments their sins are not forgiven but not binding their sins upon them judicially so that the Offender shall not only be obliged to repent but also as under the sentence of Excommunication to sue for the removal of the Censure Like as in the Law one who is sued to an Outlawry for Debt must as well procure the Writ of Outlawry against him to be reverst as take care to pay the Debt Neither do I by this make the pronouncing of a sinner absolved by a Priest to be of no more efficacy then if a Layman had done it for a power to pronounce or proclaim a Pardon in the name of a Prince by vertue of a Commission issued out to one for that purpose or by one to whose office it belongs so to do is quite another thing then the same Pardon reported by one who hath no power and authority to proclaim the Princes pardon But if I am thought by this to infringe the power and priviledge of the Sacerdotal Function and any way to lessen the Authority of that Order I must speak my minde freely I do not conceive that the same words in the Ordination of a Priest do in the Intention of the Church signify to the same latitude as they did in the Institution of Christ and therefore I believe a Presbyter or Priest doth no more but yet as much in this point as the Church hath invested him with in her Ordination of him to that Function which is the exercise of an Authority limited as I have already said However this is enough for the Penitent for if the Priest hath Judgment which in Reverence to the Church which hath had Inspection of his abilities we ought to believe to discern when the Penitent is pardonable you cannot deny but he hath authority committed unto him in Gods Name and from his Word to let the Penitent know not only that he is pardonable but that God will undoubtedly pardon him and all such as he is in case of their Perseverance in their Repentance 2. As for the second thing proposed viz. whether this power be so conveyed down c. it is strange me thinks it should be any matter of scruple to you For if you had not some prejudice to every thing that relates to pardon of Sin I would ask you and do verily suppose should go away without an answer whether you believe a Presbyter hath power to consecrate the Elements in the blessed Sacrament by vertue of this Ordination and whether a Lay-man can do as much therein if he should take the Common prayer Book and read over the Bread and Wine the Form of the Consecration I know you believe the
later as much as you believe the former What hinders then that this branch of power should not be conferred upon him in his Ordination The Authority conferred upon the Church by Christ is the same in both and both are by the Church with due Limitation invested on the Presbyter in his Ordination And good reason it should be so for I doubt not that the Sacrament ought regularly to be administred to none but absolved persons as none were to eat the Passover but those who were clean from all Legal pollutions We see that the Presbyterians and all other Sectaries amongst us are so tender of this point that they are so far from lessening the Authority of their Church-officers in this particular or at least of the whole Church as they please to terme it that they are much more rigid and severe in executing a Power like this of their own making then ever the Bishops were in putting the power Christ undoubtedly gave them in execution But I need not say much of this second branch to one of your perswasion 3. Lastly if you desire to know what advantage this is to a Penitent I answer that if a Penitent do but believe as much of the Priests authority though I shall be thought no very great friend to the inlargement of it as I have asserted viz. an Annnnciative power from God not only to declare men Pardonable as he doth in preaching the Gospel but to pronounce them pardoned upon inspection of their faith and repentance as he doth in giving them absolution he shall not only recieve comfort by the Preists assuring him of the safety of his condition and of his redintegration into grace and favour with God but shall enjoy the benefit of his prayers whom God hath appointed to that Duty most especially and whom he hath promised to accept together with the Blessing of the Priest Blessing him in Gods stead as well as in Gods name a favour which nothing but some lend Hophni's and Phinees's amongst the Clergie Numb 6.23.27 but multitudes of prophane Esau's amongst the Layety could have had the skill or luck to have rendered so contemptible as we see it is the punishment whereof as likewise of Despising the Persons and Offices of such whom God hath appointed to serve at the Altar of Blessing in many other particulars both this present and many future unreformed Ages shall as well as have some pass't times undoubtedly bear even to the removall of the Golden Candelstick from among them That thus a Priest is inabled to do is cleare from the Form of Absolution appointed in the Liturgie of our Church to be used in the Visitation of the sick wherein as the Authority of the Church in that point as also of the Priest are plainly asserted so is it matter of wonder that so many Legall Protestants have such a slender respect for an important and necessarie duty it is not to be believed that either that Power of the Priest that form of absolution and the Duty of Confession are reserved to be huddled up in so troublesome an hour and all the time of health past over without any inquiry into our Accounts the Church injoyns it to be used then but doth not forbid the use of it at other times My advice to you is that if you desire the recoverie of your own Peace of conscience you put this Duty in practise more frequently and see that your Ghostly Father do his Duty in this and no other forme of Absolution I mean any of his own making least by some error he may seem to do more then his power will permit him or not do as much as the Church hath enjoyned OBJECTION X. You will say perhaps what settlement of Conscience by a Sacerdotal Absolution seeing the Priest can but see with the eyes of a Man and hath no Knowledge of my heart which is so Deceitful that it is a very great difficulty for any man to finde it out though it lodg in his own breast and if he had knowledge thereof yet is the Act but Ministerial not Dispoticall and who knows whether God will confirme it or no. SOLUTION 15. THe Priest seeth but as man seeth but he may see what you see not and judge better of what he sees then every common person seeing the lips of the Priest do preserve knowledge If therefore he have understanding to discerne and judge aright of what he sees as you must suppose he hath else you will at least condemn your self of an unreasonable choyce it is your buisiness to lay your Soul before him and to acquaint him throughly and truly with your Condition if you fail in this and consequently the Act be done under an error the blame hereof will light on none but your self And as for the knowledg of your wayes there is no doubt but if St. Pauls Rule be true though nothing else without us but God doth yet the Spirit of a man doth know the things of a man 1 Cor. 2.11 and the heart may be Emptied to the very bottom by such rules as a judicious prudent and pious Confessor shall prescribe But in the later part of your Objection I am sorry to hear any question made of Gods confirmation of that due and necessarie Act of Absolution made in His name and by vertue of a Commission derived from him Any thing of this nature amongst men would sound too infamous especially if fixt upon such Persons who have the Power and Honour of Giving commissions to other men To question Gods faithfulness is a sin of infidelity and he that hath promised under the second covenant he will remember our Sins and Iniquities no more Heb. 8.12 i. e. of such as embrace the Gospel preach'd unto them 14. To conclude my Answer fully to these two last Objections I suppose that because we have no visible bloody Sacrifice nor a Mostholy on Earth into which the High-Priest may enter with blood for his own and our Sins it is therefore a matter of difficulty in your judgement to be ascertained of the way of obtaining pardon for Sinners under the Gospel the means of doing it being so secret and invisible and the Threatnings in case it be not done so open and terrible The Apostle tells us plainly That Iesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 which imports not only the immutability of Gods accepting Christ as the meritorious cause of Remission of Sins but also the unchangeableness of that method whereby this Kingdom of Christ under the Gosper is administred For this later which most concerns your case the Apostle tells you that Christ ever livâ—th to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 this being the most considerable part of his Office in the administration of his mediatory Kingdom This Iatercession for us i. e. the Church in general and each one in particular being his own immediate Act in Heaven and prefigured unto us by the High-priests going into the
their Works expresly contrary to that of Saint Paul Gal. 2.6 where the Apostle sayes that God respects no Mans person the Gentiles being as eligible in Gods eye as the lineal seed of Abraham of which the Jews could not easily be perswaded neither Iames nor Peter who seemed to be Pillars being preferred and respected before Saint Paul a late abortive Convert by Him who seeth not as Man seeth And therefore if God hath not elected some and reprobated others without prevision and Intuition of their Qualifications as foreseeing what good or what bad or what nouse men would make of Grace given and consequently thereby assure or divest themselves of the Advantages and Priviledges of Gods common Love to Mankinde your fear of not being accepted because God hath from all Eternity some Quarrel or No Love to your Person is not only frivolous but dangerous and in it self destructive of all your Labours and Endeavours for eternal Life keeping them under the dismal and false Apprehension of Tyranny in the Divine Majesty which the Heathens themselves rejected under the Notion of Superstition To be short I shall only confront the Answer of God to Cain Gen. 4.7 whom I believe the Assertors of that Doctrine have ever held to be a Reprobate against the strongest Argument that may be used for inducing and confirming the belief of this prosopoleptical way of electing and reprobating men without any intuition of their good or evil deeds If thou do well shall thou not be accepted from whence are inferred these two things First that Cain himself might have offered an acceptable Sacrifice to God as well as Abel and Secondly if he had done so he had been accepted by God as well as was his brother So that it was not any Quarrel and Hatred that God had to the Person of Cain irrespectively considered but either to the evil that he had formerly done for we cannot presume Cain to have lived without sin till the time of the offering that Sacrifice nor doth the Text assert that to be the first Sacrifice that either he or Abel offered or that which he had now committed in offering a Sacrifice not worthy Gods acceptance at his hands What reason therefore you should have to fear the success of your Labours in the Lord upon Misprision of Personal Acceptance with God you see by what hath been said as also of your groundless fears of not being able to enter in at the straight Gate our Saviour having if you mark it threatned not them who strive because he hath commanded that active industrious way of attempting but them who only seek Luk. 13.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way of getting Heaven very different from the former importing very little more though no more to the purpose than Balaams Wish that he might dye the death of the righteous Numb 23.10 OBJECTION VIII But though it will follow from hence that Personal Assurance of Remission and Pardon of Sin be not alwayes a necessary effect of Gods pardoning of us or our being in a way to be pardoned yet surely it is somewhat unlikely say you that the clean contrary viz. a perswasion that I shall not be pardoned should flow from so happy a condition as you would make me believe I am In. SOLUTION 13. IF you should throughly examine your self that you do thus perswade your self will undoubtedly appear to be false For to what purpose do you then pray fast and give alms lead a strict and severe life c. if you were indeed perswaded that you shall not be saved would any one but a mad man keep on his pace in rough and almost impassable wayes if he were certainly assured that he should never come to his journeys end his feet must needs be thought to confute his tongue if he should do thus Besides how preposterous a thing were it if you should take such sharp and severe courses as you do to enlarge your score supposing all these Actions of yours should be charged by God upon your account as so many guilded sins as you lately termed them But this I think you will have little reason to be afraid of seeing our Saviour hath told you that the Alms-deeds and Prayers of the Pharisees themselves were so rewarded as they desired they should be viz. with the Praises and Commendation of men Math. 6.16 and are not by him either stil'd sins or threatned with any punishment more then with the no-ground of expecting a Reward from God But as concerning the pardon of our sin it will be very useful to observe these four things 1. That the point of Faith concerning Remission of Sin is That by Christ Remission of Sins is given to Mankinde through Faith in his Blood 2. That this Remission is not absolutely though freely given but doth depend upon certain Conditions or Qualifications whereby men are made fit and capable of receiving it 3. That the Rules as well for the means of conveying this Donation to us as for our aptitude and capacity to receive the benefit thereof are to be sought out and taken from the Scriptures 4. That because many things of Importance concerning this doctrine are to be deduced from the Scriptures by the Mediation of humane understanding it is a mark both of Piety Wisdom and Humility to take the Catholique Church for our Guide and relyance therein False Interpretations of Scripture prove either full of Perplexity or Danger or both to our selves and others but most especially in such Doctrines so nearly importing our Salvation as this of Remission of Sin doth Therefore it is not to be regarded by what Medums or from what Principles your conclusions are drawn if they be only your own if you mean to sayl securely amidst the Tempests raised in the World by such diversity of Judgements and Imaginations embarque your self in the Vniversal Consentient and Ancient Interpretations and Doctrines of the Church and do not adventure so pretious a Fraught as is your soul redeemed with the bloud of Christ in the tottering Boat of your own or other mens private Interpretations of Scripture The Church teacheth you this doctrine viz. 1. That you are pardonable upon your Faith and Repentance 2. That God hath promised who cannot lye Heb. 6.18 that he will pardon you if you believe and and repent 3. That the Manifestation of Gods pardoning your sins is at present but imperfectly and inchoately wrought in your Heart by the Holy Ghost and the use of Sacraments but the full Evidence thereof is to be expected from Christ the Judge and to be patiently and chearfully waited for by Faith in the promises 4. That the Testimony of your own Spirit arising from your sincere conversation in the doctrines of the Gospel is the most certain Evidence that you or any man can ordinarily expect in this life and all this from pregnant Testimony of Scripture For you who hold a lawful and uninterrupted Succession of Ministers in the Church of Christh you