in power, and in the holy Ghost, and in much assurance. For God hath added a special beauty to the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, that howsoever others may bring glad-tidings of good things to the penitent sinner, as truly as they do: yet neither can they do it with the same authority, neither is it to be expected that they should do it with such power, such assurance, and such full satisfaction to the afflicted conscience. The speech of every Christian (we know) should be imployed to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers; and a private brother in his place may deliver sound doctrine, reprehend vice, exhort to righteousness very commendably: yet hath the Lord notwithstanding all this, for the necessary use of his Church, appointed publick officers to do the same things, and hath given to them a peculiar power for edification, wherein they may boast above others; and in the due execution whereof God is pleased to make them instruments of ministring a more plentiful measure of grace unto their hearers, than may be ordinarily looked for from others... These are God's angels, and ambassadors for Christ, and therefore in delivering their message are to be received as an angel of God, yea as Christ Jesus. That look how the prophet Esay was comforted when the angel said unto him, 'Thy iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged ;' and the poor woman in the Gospel, when Jesus said unto her, 'Thy sins are forgiven :' the like consolation doth the distressed sinner receive from the mouth of the minister; when he hath compared the truth of God's word faithfully delivered by him, with the work of God's grace in his own heart. For as it is the office of this messenger, to pray us in Christ's stead, that we would be be reconciled unto God: so when we have listened unto this motion, and submitted our selves to the Gospel of peace, it is a part of his office likewise to declare unto us in Christ's stead, that we are reconciled to God: and in him Christ himself must be acknowledged to speak, who to us-ward by this means is not weak, but mighty in us."

Having now shewn what the Lord Primate hath said in that treatise; that the absolution of the priest, or minister, tho it be declarative, yet is still authoritative, by virtue of that power which Christ hath committed unto him. But that this is no absolute power, but still only declarative, I shall prove in the next place, as well from what the Lord Primate hath here laid

n Works, vol. iii. pag. 149.

down, as from the nature of the absolution it self, the Lord Primat having before declared, "that the prayer of the priest is one great means of obtaining remission of sins," I shall now shew you that the Doctor did not so well peruse the Lord Primate's book as he might have done, when he so confidently affirms, "that tho the Lord Primat has spoken somewhat of the declarative and optative forms of absolution, yet he hath taken no notice of the indicative, or that which is used in the absolution of the sick:" of which sort take the Lord Primat's words; "in" the days of Thomas Aquinas there arose a learned man among the Papists themselves, who found fault with that indicative form of absolution then used by the priest, I absolve thee from all thy sins, and would have it delivered by way of deprecation; alledging that this was not only the opinion of Guliel. Altisiodorensis, Guliel. Paris. and Hugo Cardinal; but also that thirty years were scarce passed since all did use this form only, absolutionem & remissionem tribuat tibi Omnipotens Deus, Almighty God give unto thee absolution and forgiveness.' This only will I add, that as well in the ancient Rituals, and in the new Pontificial of the Church of Rome, as in the present practice of the Greek Church, I find the absolution expressed in the third person, as attributed wholly to God, and not in the first, as if it came from the priest himself." And after the Lord Primate hath there shewn, "that the most ancient forms of absolution both in the Latin and Greek Church, were in the third and not in the first person, he proceeds thus: "Alexander of Hales, and Bonaventure, in the form of absolution used in their time, observe that prayer was premised in the optative, and absolution adjoined afterward in the indicative mood. Whence they gather that the priest's prayer obtaineth grace, his absolution presupposeth it, and that by the former he ascendeth unto God, and procureth pardon for the fault; by the latter he descendeth to the sinner, and reconcileth him to the Church. For although a man be loosed before God, (saith the master of the sentences) yet is he not held loosed in the face of the Church but by the judgment of the priest. And this loosing of men by the judgment of the priest, is by the Fathers generally accounted nothing else but a restoring them to

• Works, vol. iii. pag. 130.

P Ibid. pag. 135.

That all the antient forms of absolution in the Greek Church were till of late only declarative, or optative, and always in the 3d, not first perSee Dr. Smith's learned Account of the Gr. Church, pp. 180. 181.

son.

the peace of the Church, and admitting of them to the Lord's Table again which therefore they usually express by the terms of bringing them to the Communion; reconciling them to, or with the Communion; restoring the Communion to them; admitting them to fellowship; granting them peace, &c. Neither do I find that they did ever use any such formal absolution as this, I absolve thee from all thy sins: wherein our Popish priests notwithstanding, do place the very form of their late-devised sacrament of penance, nay hold it to be so absolute a form, that (according to Thomas Aquinas his new divinity) it would not be sufficient to say, Almighty God have mercy upon thee, or God grant unto thee absolution and forgiveness because, forsooth, the priest by these words doth not signifie that the absolution is done, but entreateth that it may be done. Which how it will accord with the Roman Pontificial, where the form of absolution is laid down prayer-wise, the Jesuits who follow Thomas may do well to consider."

Now how near the Doctor approaches to this opinion of the Papists when he urges these words, "I absolve thee from all thy sins," as an argument of the priests power to forgive sins authoritative, and as if this form had something more in it, or could work further towards the remission of the sins of the penitent than any of the rest, I shall leave it to the reader. Whereas whosoever will consider the office of the priest, will find that it is not like that of a Judg, or a Vice-roy (as the Doctor would have it) under a Soverain prince; who has power not only to declare the person absolved from his crimes, but also may reprieve, or pardon him when guilty, or condemn him tho innocent, neither of which perhaps the prince himself, by whose commission he acts, would do: whereas the priest, whatever power he has delegated from God, (which I do not deny) yet it is still only declarative, and conditional, according to the sincerity of the repentance in the person absolved. For as his absolution signifies nothing, if the repentance of the penitent, or dying person, be not real or sincere; so neither can he hinder God from pardoning him, if it be so indeed, tho he should be so wicked, or uncharitable, as to deny him the benefit of this absolution, if he desire it: so that the office of the priest in this matter, rather resembleth that of an herald, who has a commission from his Prince to proclaim and declare pardon to a company of rebels who have already submitted themselves, and promised obedience to their Prince; which pardon as it signifies nothing, if they still continue in their re

bellion; so tho the herald alone has the power of declaring this pardon, yet it is only in the name, and by the authority of his Prince, who had passed this pardon in his own breast before ever the herald published it to the offenders: so that it is in this sence only that the priest can say thus," By his authority (viz. of our Lord Jesus Christ) committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins," since he does this not as Christ's Vicar, or Judg under him, but as his herald or ambassador, or, as St. Paul words it, “In the person of Christ forgives our offences;" yet still conditionally, that we are really penitent, and consequently is not effective, but only declarative of that forgiveness.

I shall now in the last place shew you, that the Church of England understands it in no other sence but this alone: and that if it did, it would make it all one with that of the Papists. First, that the form of absolution which follows the general Confession, is only declarative the Doctor himself grants; so likewise that before the Communion is only optative, in the way of prayer and intercession, and consequently no other than declarative or conditional; and therefore that the absolution to particular penitents both in order to receive the Communion, as also in the Visitation of the Sick, are no other likewise than declarative, appears from the great tenderness of the Church of England in this matter, not enjoining, but only advising the penitent in either case to make any special confession of his sins to the priest, (in which case alone this absolution is supposed to be necessary) unless he cannot quiet his conscience without it, or if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter, after which confession the priest shall absolve him. But our Church does not declare that either the penitent is obliged to make any such special confession to the priest either before the Sacrament, or at the point of death, or that any person cannot obtain remission of their sins without absolution, as the Church of Rome asserts; so that it seems our Church's absolution in all these cases is no other than declarative, and for the quieting of the conscience of the penitent, if he find himself so troubled in mind, that he thinks he cannot obtain pardon from God without it tho the priest (as the herald above-mentioned, whose office it is to proclaim the King's pardon) still absolves authoritative, and could not do it unless he were authorized by Jesus Christ for that purpose. And if the Doctor, or any other, will maintain any higher absolution than this, it must be that of the Church of Rome, where a small attrition, or sorrow for sin, by virtue of the keys (that is, the absolution of the priest) is made

contrition, and the penitent is immediately absolved from all his sins; tho perhaps he commit the same again as soon as ever he has done the penance enjoyned. And that the pious and judicious Mr. Hooker (who certainly understood the doctrine of the Church of England as well as Dr. H.) agrees fully with the Lord Primate in this matter, appears from his sixth book of Ecclesiastical Policy, where after his declaring (with the Lord Primate) "that for any thing he could ever observe, those formalities the Church of Rome do so much esteem of, were not of such estimation, nor thought to be of absolute necessity with the ancient Fathers, and that the form with them was with invocation, or praying for the penitent, that God would be reconciled unto him;" for which he produces St. Ambrose, St. Hierom, and Leo, &c. p. 96. he thus declares his judgment, viz. "As for the ministerial sentence of privat absolution, it can be no more than a declaration what God hath done; it hath but the force of the Prophet Nathan's absolution, [God hath taken away thy sins;] than which construction, especially of words judicial, there is nothing more vulgar. For example, the Publicans are said in the Gospel to have justified God; the Jews in Malachy to have blessed the proud man, which sin, and prosper; not that the one did make God righteous, or the other the wicked happy; but to bless, to justifie, and to absolve, are as commonly used for words of judgment, or declaration, as of true and real efficacy; yea even by the opinion of the Master of the sentences, &c. priests are authorized to loose and bind, that is to say, declare who are bound, and who are loosed."

The last point in which the Doctor taxes the Lord Primate as differing from the Church of England, is in the Article of Christ's descent into hell; "The Church of England (says he) maintains a local descent; that is to say, that the soul of Christ, at such time as his body lay in the grave, did locally descend into the nethermost parts, in which the Devil and his angels are reserved in everlasting chains of darkness, unto the judgment of the great and terrible day. This is proved at large by Bishop Bilson in his learned and laborious work, entitled, The Survey of Christ's Sufferings. And that this was the meaning of the first Reformers, when this Article amongst others was first agreed upon in the first Convocation of the year 1552, appears by that passage of St. Peter, which is cited by them touching Christ's preaching to

* Respon. Petrus, sect. 10. § 7.