would stand to the judgment of St. Hierome or St. Gregory, one of whom they make a cardinal and the other a pope of their own Church, the controversy betwixt us would quickly be at an end. For St. Hierome, expounding that speech of our Saviour, touching "the keys of the kingdom of heaven," in the sixteenth of St. Matthew; "the bishops and priests," saith he, "not understanding this place, assume to themselves somewhat of the Pharisees' arrogancy: as imagining that they may either condemn the innocent or absolve the guilty; whereas it is not the sentence of the priests, but the life of the parties that is inquired of with God. In the book of Leviticus we read of the lepers, where they are commanded to shew themselves to the priests; and, if they shall have the leprosy, that then they shall be made unclean by the priest: not that the priests should make them leprous and unclean, but that they should take notice who was a leper, and who was not; and should discern who was clean, and who unclean. Therefore, as there the priest doth make the leper clean or unclean; so here the bishop or priest doth bind or loose: not bind the innocent, or loose the guilty; but when according to his office he heareth the variety of sins, he knoweth who is to be bound, and who to be loosed." Thus far St. Hierome.

St. Gregory likewise, in the very same place from whence the Romanists fetch that former sentence, doth thus declare in what manner that principality of judgment, which he spake of, should be exercised; being therein also followed step by step by the fathers of the council of Aquis

• Istum locum episcopi et presbyteri non intelligentes, aliquid sibi de Pharisæorum assumunt supercilio; ut vel damnent innocentes, vel solvere se noxios arbitrentur : cum apud Deum non sententia sacerdotum, sed reorum vita quæratur. Legimus in Levitico de leprosis, ubi jubentur ut ostendant se sacerdotibus; et, si lepram habuerint, tunc a sacerdote immundi fiant : non quo sacerdotes leprosos faciant et immundos ; sed quo habeant notitiam leprosi et non leprosi, et possint discernere qui mundus quive immundus sit. Quomodo ergo ibi leprosum sacerdos mundum vel immundum facit; sic et hic alligat vel solvit episcopus et presbyter, non eos qui insontes sunt vel noxii, sed pro officio suo, quum peccatorum audierit varietates, scit qui ligandus sit quive solvendus. Hieronym. commentar. in Matt. cap. 16. op. tom. 4. par. 1. pag. 75.

gran: "The causes ought to be weighed, and then the power of binding and loosing exercised. It is to be seen what the fault is, and what the repentance is that hath followed after the fault: that such as Almighty God doth visit with the grace of compunction, those the sentence of the pastor may absolve. For the absolution of the prelate is then true, when it followeth the arbitrament of the eternal Judge." And this do they illustrate by that which we read in the gospel of the raising of Lazarus", that Christ did first of all give life to him that was dead by himself, and then commanded others to loose him and let him go. "Behold," say they, "the disciples do loose him being now alive; whom their Master had raised up being dead. For if the disciples had loosed Lazarus being dead; they should have discovered a stink more than a virtue. By which consideration we may see, that by our pastoral authority we ought to loose those, whom we know that our Author and Lord hath revived with his quickening grace." The same application also do we find made, not only by Peter Lombard, and another of the schoolmen; but also by Judocus Clichtoveus, not long before the time of the council of Trent. "Lazarus," saith Clichtoveus, "first

Causæ ergo pensandæ sunt, et tunc ligandi atque solvendi potestas exercenda. Videndum est quæ culpa, aut quæ sit pœnitentia secuta post culpam: ut quos omnipotens Deus per compunctionis gratiam visitat, illos pastoris sententia absolvat. Tunc enim vera est absolutio præsidentis, cum æterni arbitrium sequitur Judicis. Gregor. in evangel. homil. 26. op. tom. 1. pag. 1555. concil. Aquisgran. cap. 37.

"John, chap. 11. ver. 44.

▾ Ecce illum discipuli jam viventem solvunt, quem magister resuscitaverat mortuum. Si enim discipuli Lazarum mortuum solverent, fœtorem magis ostenderent quam virtutem. Ex qua consideratione intuendum est, quod illos nos debemus per pastoralem auctoritatem solvere, quos Auctorem nostrum cognoscimus per suscitantem gratiam vivificare. Greg. op. tom. 1. pag. 1556. et Eligius Noviomens. homil. 11. tom. 7. biblioth. patr. pag. 248. edit. Colon.

W

* P. Lombard, lib. 4. sent. dist. 18. lit. f. Alexand. de Hales. summ. part. 4. quæst. 21. membr. 1. &c.

* Sed ante prodiit redivivus Lazarus ex sepulchro, et deinde ut solveretur a discipulis, et sineretur abire a Domino jussum est: quia peccatorem, etiam consuetudine committendi reatus gravatum, prius Dominus intrinsecus per seipsum vivificat, postea vero eundem per sacerdotum ministerium absolvit. Nullus

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of all came forth alive out of the sepulchre; and then was commandment given by our Lord, that he should be loosed by the disciples, and suffered to go his way: because the Lord doth first inwardly by himself quicken the sinner, and afterwards absolveth him by the priest's ministry. For no sinner is to be absolved, before it appeareth that he be amended by due repentance, and be quickened inwardly. But inwardly to quicken the sinner, is the office of God alone who saith by the prophet, I am he that blotteth out your iniquities."

The truth therefore of the priest's absolution dependeth upon the truth and sincerity of God's quickening grace in the heart of the penitent: which if it be wanting, all the absolutions in the world will stand him in no stead. For example, our Saviour saith, "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but, if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses:" and in this respect, as is observed by Sedulius, " in other men's persons we are either absolved or bound:"

graviusquea soluti

Nectimur, alterius si solvere vincla negamus.

Suppose now that a man, who cannot find in his heart to forgive the wrong done unto him by another, is absolved here by the priest from all his sins, according to the usual form of absolution: are we to think that what is thus loosed upon earth shall be loosed in heaven? and that Christ, to make the priest's word true, will make his own false? And what we say of charity toward man, must much more be understood of the love of God, and the

quippe peccator absolvendus est, antequam per dignam pœnitentiam correctus, et intrinsecus appareat vivificatus. Vivificare autem interius peccatorem solius Dei munus est: qui per prophetam dicit, Ego sum qui deleo iniquitates vestras. Clichtov. in evangel. Joann. lib. 7. cap. 23. inter opera Cyrilli.

y Matt. chap. 6. ver. 14, 15. et chap. 18. ver. 35.

z In aliorum personis aut absolvimur aut ligamur. Sedul. lib. 2. Paschalis operis, cap. 11.

a Id. lib. 2. Paschal. carm.

love of righteousness; the defect whereof is not to be supplied by the absolution of any priest. It hath been always observed, for a special difference betwixt good and bad men, that the one hated sin for the love of virtue, the other only for the fear of punishment. The like difference do our adversaries make betwixt contrition and attrition: that the hatred of sin, in the one, proceedeth from the love of God and of righteousness; in the other, from the fear of punishment: and yet teach, for all this, that attrition, which they confess would not otherwise suffice to justify a man, being joined with the priest's absolution, is sufficient for that purpose: he that was attrite being, by virtue of this absolution, made contrite and justified that is to say, he that was led only by a servile fear, and consequently was to be ranked among disordered and evil persons, being by this means put in as good case for the matter of the forgiveness of his sins, as he that loveth God sincerely. For they themselves do grant, that such as have this servile fear, from whence attrition issueth, are to be accounted evil and disordered men, by reason of their want of charity: to which purpose also they allege that saying of Gregory, "Recti diligunt te, non recti adhuc timent te. Such as be righteous love thee, such as be not righteous as yet fear thee."

But they have taken an order notwithstanding, that non recti shall stand recti in curia with them; by assuming a strange authority unto themselves of justifying the wicked: a thing, we know, that hath the curse of God' and man' threatened unto it; and making men friends with God, that have not the love of God dwelling in them. For although we be taught by the word of God, that "perfect" love casteth out fear;" that we "have not received the

b Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore. Horat. lib. 1. epist. 16.

c Fatemur enim perfectum odium peccati esse illud, quod ex amore Dei justitiæque procedit; et ideo dolorem, sive odium ex timore pœnæ conceptum, non contritionem, sed attritionem nominamus. Bellarm. lib. 2. de pœnitent. cap. d Id. ibid.

18.

e Argumentum recte probat eos, qui timorem servilem habent, inordinatos ac malos esse, &c. Id. ibid.

Prov. chap. 17. ver. 15.

1 John, chap. 4. ver. 18.

Ibid. chap. 24. ver. 24. iRom. chap. 8. ver. 15.

spirit of bondage to fear again, but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father;" that mount Sinai, which maketh those that come unto it to fear and quake, engendereth' to bondage, and is to be cast out with her children from inheriting the promise; and that without love, both we ourselves are nothing and all that we have doth profit us nothing: yet these wonderful men would have us believe, that by their word alone they are able to make something of this nothing; that fear without love shall make men capable of the benefit of their pardon, as well as love without fear; that whether men come by the way of mount Sinai or mount Sion, whether they have legal or evangelical repentance, they have authority to absolve them from all their sins; as if it did lie in their power to confound God's Testaments at their pleasure, and to give unto a servile fear not the benefit of manumission only, but the privilege of adoption also; by making the children of the bondwoman children of the promise, and giving them a portion in that blessed inheritance, together with the children of her that is free.

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Repentance" from dead works is one of the foundations and principles of the doctrine of Christ. Nothing' maketh repentance certain but the hatred of sin, and the love of God;" and without true repentance all the priests under heaven are not able to give us a discharge from our sins, and deliver us from the wrath to come. "Except ye be converted, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven: Except ye repent, ye shall all perish :" is the Lord's saying in the New Testament: and in the Old: "Repent', and turn from all your transgressions: so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new

k Heb. chap. 12. ver. 18, 21.

1 Gal. chap. 4. ver. 24, 25, 31.

m 1 Cor. chap. 13. ver. 2, 3. Vid. authorem libri de vera et falsa pœnitentia, cap. 17. inter opera Augustini, tom. 6. app.

n Heb. chap. 6. ver. 1.

• Pœnitentiam certam non facit, nisi odium peccati et amor Dei. Augustin. serm. 117. app. tom. 5. pag. 213.

P Matt. chap. 18. ver. 3.

Ezek. chap. 18. ver. 30, 31.

Luke, chap. 13. ver. 3, 5.