Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/320

 312 PZNWC*-.-CONrEOOMr. [Bose I[. fiens, although no particular person is ofF,;nded; we are bound to con- fess such sins to men as publicly" as our sin8 are. Such confession is highly necessary', th,,t the offending person nmy, as far as in him lies, do away the mischief which his bad example occasioned. And such was the practice of the primitive church. For when a man became immoral, if, upon admonition, he did not reform, he was immediately east out of the communion of the faithful; and there was no way to obtain readminion into the Christian church but by a confession and repentance as public as his crime wus. Such is the doctrine of Protestants concerning confession, and it is such as may be justified to all the world. But the popish doctrine is quite different from this, and serves quite different purposes. After stating their doctrine, we will consider the arguments and Scripture passages which they bring to support it, and then give our reasons for rejecting their kind of confession. 2. By confession they mean, not confession to� nor confession to an injured person; nor confession to the church in cases of public they offence or scandal; but//vate conJzon to a pr/, which ceil mrrJzular am..of% because it s whispered in his ear. The person is bound to confess all his sins, especially moFtal sins, as they call them, as far as he can remember them, together with all their cireumstanoes. This kind of confession they make a necessary part of repentance, and indeed necessary' to obtain pardon and salvation. We will give their doctrine on confession, as it was established by two of their general councils; the decisions of which they hold to be infallible and unalter- able. The Council of Lateran decrees: "That every man and woman, alter they come to years of discretion, should privately confeas their 8ins to their own priest, at least once a year, and endearour faithfully to perform the penance enjoined on them; and after this they should come to the sacrament at least at Easter, unless the priest, for some reasonable catme, judges it fit for them to abstain for that time. And hoever does not perform this is to be excommunicated out of the church, and if he die, he is not to be allowed Christian burial." The Council of Trent decrees, sess. xiv. :-- "Ca, wn 6. Whoever 8hall deny that sacramental confession was instituted by di,ine command, or that it is necessary to salvation; or shall affn*m that the practice of secrefiy confessing to the priest alone, us it has been ever observed by the Catholic Church, and is still ob- served, is foreign to the institution and command of Christ, and is a human invention; let him be accursed." "Cawn 7. Whoever shall airh'm that, in order'.te obtain �orgiveness of sins in the sacrament of penance, it is not necessary* by divine command to confess all and every mortal sin which occurs to the. memory after due and diligent premeditationsincluding sect offences, and those which have been committed against the two last precepts of' the decalogue, and those circumstances which change the species of sin; but that such confession is only useful for the instruction and consolation of the penitent, and waz formerly observed merely as a canonical satisfaction imposed upon him; or shall atom that those who labour to confess all their 8ins wish to leave nothing to be pardoned by the divine mercy; or finally, that it is not lawful to confess venial sins; let him be accursed." 1 oigitize by Goodie

�