u

.)

P94-

entire absolution of the penitent.
SERMON II.
JUDGE THYSELF, THAT THOU BE NOT JUDGED OF THE LORD.

A SERMON

PREACHED

BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY,

CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF CHRIST, IN OXFORD,

ON THE FIRST SUNDAY TN ADVENT, 1846.

BY THE
REV. E. B. PUSEY, D.D.
REQIUS PROFESSOR OP HEBREW, CANON OP OHRIST CHURCH, AND
LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE.

OXFORD,
JOHN HENRY PARKER;
F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON.
1846.

Baxter, pointer, oxporb.

1 Cor. xi. 31.
If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
In my last Sermon, I dwelt upon that authoritative act,
whereby God, through the ministry of man, conveys His
own sentence of pardon to the soul of the penitent, sets him
free from the guilt of his past sins, opens to the blessed
influx of His grace the channels which sin had stopped,
and often pours at once large grace and love into the
soul. But, since the efficacy of Absolution depends upon
the penitence of him who receives it, the deeper that
penitence, the fuller will be the grace. And so, since
special confession, gathering into one before the soul all
its greater sins, until it shrinks and recoils and sickens at
the miserable sight, mostly brings with it a lowlier self-
abhorrence, deepens its cry for mercy, and issues in
greater love for Him Who loved it amid such loathsome
ness and misery, special confession will mostly obtain
more grace and have more assurance of pardon. And this
I say, not (God forbid !) to lessen the comfort of such as
have not been led by Him to desire any other than the
general Absolution of all true penitents in the whole con
gregation, when confession has been made to God only,
but as a source of increased comfort to laden or anxious
souls who feel that they need what is more special to
themselves. The Church (I am compelled to repeat)
allows us both ways. In particular cases, she recommends
special Confession, and Absolution jn form more authori
tative. For iu the Visitation of the Sick, she directs her
A 2

Priests to " move the sick person to make a special con
fession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled wit
any weighty matter;" and, as Bp. Sparrow" adds,
should be considered, whether every deadly sin be no
a weighty matter." She would, at least, secure, that they
who have, during health, neglected her warnings at the
Holy Communion, and shrunk from the shame, should not
pass", clogged with grievous sins, into the Presence of
their Judge. We, His Priests, are not to wait for the
sick man's wish ; we are (if we would obey her, and it has
been done of old also) ourselves to "move" the sick man,
and suggest to him, that if his conscience be troubled with
any weighty matter, he ought to confess it. Absolution is
to be given, only on such signs of lowly contrition as
betoken " true repentance," — " if he humbly and heartily
desire it," (for the Church could never command the
Priest to absolve indiscriminately,) but we are directed, in
all cases, to appeal to the sick man's conscience ; if he,
having need, despise or put it from him, he has to give
account of his deed at the Judgment-seat of Christ. And
can it be thought that the Church denies that in health,
which she recommends in sickness ? She who bids us
" often to put men in remembrance to settle their temporal
estates in health," lest worldly matters should distract the
sacred, precious, hours of sickness, would she have us put
off to their sick or death-bed, if they ever see it, those who
come to us in health, and tell us that they have a burthened
conscience ? They who would bid men delay il to such
an hour, know little of sickness or of wounded consciences,
or how difficult it is, while the body is enfeebled, and the
head confused by weakness, or by racking or wearing pain,
or strong fever, or sleepless nights, for the soul to gather
itself up for any duty, much less such a weighty task
as this. They who have known such hours, when the
* Rationale, ad loc.

mind, far from being able to use collected thought or
disentangle its maze of sins, sinks down exhausted with
any effort, and can only cry in the fewest words wherein
prayer can be formed, " Lord, have mercy," know well
that they would not, for the whole world, have to dis
burden their conscience then. It is, (as they well know,
who have either undergone, or, by witnessing, have shared
the healthful suffering,) it is enough often, even in health,
to turn the head dizzy, when the soul brings before itself
the dismal heap of all the heavier sins of a whole life, which
by God's grace it can recall. Even then, it must cry out,
" I should have fainted, but that I believed to see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." And
is this a task to be reserved to the death-bed ? Better
then, than to neglect it altogether ! But who that would
have it performed at all, (as the Church wisheth,) would
have it reserved to a time, when every power by which it is
to be discharged aright, is giving way or crushed in the
strong grasp of death ? Or is it to be supposed, that
penitents will have one " matter," one sin only, on their
conscience ? Does ,not our Gracious Lord recover His
lost sheep, when wearied out by wanderings ; find the
piece of silver, when well-nigh buried, and His Image
almost encrusted over in the mire of sin? Does He not
recover penitents from the very depths of Hell ? The
bosom, once unlocked, pours not out one sin only. The
penitent can find no rest, until he have emptied his whole
conscience of all the foul matter which has gangrened
there, to the very last drop. There may be some out
standing sins more prominent ; but take any, the most
common case of one who, through a series of years, has
fallen by habitual sin, can such a conscience, think you,
easily on a sick bed make " the special confession of
the sins" which " trouble" it during a whole life ?
Are not consciences sorely troubled by a dim, confused,

memory of countless sins which it strove to hide from
itself, strove often to persuade itself not to be sins, and
too well succeeded, or which, by the very force of sinning,
it came scarcely or not at all to regard as sins, but which,
when its sense is anew quickened by God's Holy Spirit,
seem to stand so thick, that the whole life seems one
intricate, manifold web of sin, one only in sinfulness. Is
it then so easy to recal the sins of ten, twenty, perhaps
sixty, or seventy years, of an unexamined, unsifted, con
science ? Ye know, if ye have ever tried it, how when
earnestly bent on the task, at one time one sin flashes
upon the conscience, then another ; these spots of dark
ness unfold themselves to the eye, one by one, as it gazes
stedfastly on them. " Often," says S. Gregory b, " what
escaped the unawakened, becomes known to the mourner.
Who, reckless, knew not their guilt, detect it, when,
within themselves, aroused against themselves." " The"
growing bitterness of penitence, not only heaps up against
our heart our greater sins, but even recals the very least.
And all these we pursue the more resolutely, the more
watchfully we strive to uproot from our heart every germ
of evil." Scarce one, probably, even in fullest possession
of his mind, with all the helps he can, has found that he
has reached at once the depth of this dark abyss. What
a task this, when perhaps the hours are numbered and the
soul bewildered with the thought of approaching judg-
b in Ps. 3. Pcenit. ». 19. §. 21.
c Id. in Ps. 4. Pcenit. v. 3. §. 3. on " Wash me more and more." " May
my fall profit me ; with this stain, may the spots of offences he washed out,
which I have hitherto neglected. For often while we bewail some things
done amiss, aroused by the very force of the bitterness to sift ourselves, we
find in us other things to be bewailed. 'Which, when done, we the more
easily give over to forgetfulness, as we think them either slighter or nothings.
The growing bitterness of penitence, not only heaps up against our heart our
greater sins, but even recals the very least. And all these we pursue the
more resolutely, the more watchfully we strive to uproot from our heart every
germ of evil."

ment, and Satan, as he often is, assailing him with all his
force and subtlety, to plunge him into doubt or despair.
Is there not enough to do in that last conflict with the
Evil one, that last moment of penitence, and imploring of
pardon, and faith, and hope, and love, not to burthen it
with aught which can be performed before ? It is a very
axiom, that what is good to be done, before we die, it is
good to do now, lest death surprise us. It were wantonly
to presume on the mercies of God, wilfully to delay to the
last hour any thing which ought to be done ere we part
out of life. What if there be no last hour for it ? What if
death come suddenly ? " Hed Who promiseth pardon to
the penitent, promiseth no morrow to the procrastinator."
In that the Church then bids us " move" the sick in body
and soul to special confession of sins, if their consciences
are " troubled with any weighty matter," she bids us
receive them now, if they come to us. In that she would
. have us, if we need it, " moved" thereto by God's ministers
in death, she must wish that God would, if we need it,
move us thereto in life. What, again, if after the oil and
.wine have been poured into the sick man's wounds, he
recover his bodily health also ? It is well known that one
who has once tasted " the benefits of absolution" for
heavier sins, and found good for his soul in the, special
counsels of God's ministers, longs mostly to continue to
" open his griefs" for slighter sins into which he after
wards falls, that he finds it a healthful discipline for his
soul, a safeguard often, by God's grace, against sin ; that
God gives him thereby lightness and gladness of heart, to
" go on his way," through the wilderness, " rejoicing."
Is such an one to be repelled ? Is he to be told that the
remedy he seeks for is only for those more deeply wounded,
or bid go into other folds, if he still would have it f Or,
again, in those most sorrowful and difficult cases of relapse
a See S. Aug. Serm. 82. §. 14. p. 264. Oxf. Tr,

into very grievous sin, are we to imitate the severity or the
Primitive Church, without her watchful care and tender
love for penitents, and put them off to their sick or death
bed, ere they can be admitted again to bear that sentence
of pardon, in which they once tasted the grace of God -
No ! the Church, our Mother, would not bring all her
children, with their varied tempers, -needs, languish-
ings, sicknesses, under one rigid, unbending, rule. She
shews, in the Exhortation to the Holy Communion, that
she would deal, not with laden consciences only, but with
timorous, scrupulous, doubting, tender, souls, the lambs of
the flock of Christ, otherwise than she would with those
who seem to themselves,, or are, the strong or the whole.
One thing only she excludes, when she excludes any thing,
compulsory confession; " that8 any man should be bound
to the numbering of his sins;" ** as if," adds Ho6feerr,
" remission of sins otherwise were impossible." But, short
of this, in that Exhortation, she strives, with an austere,
anxious love, to rouse tbe conscience, not only as to overt,
but as to secret, mental, sins, " if any of you be in malice,
envy, or any other grievous crime;" and then, after words,
which may well shake the soul through and through, w lest
after taking of that Holy Sacrament, the devil enter into
you, as he entered into Judas, aud fill you full of all
iniquities, and bring you to destruction both of body
and soul," she straightway insists on the necessity of " a
quiet conscience," and invites such as cannot otherwise
quiet theirs, to open their griefs, that by the ministry of
God's Holy Word, they may receive the benefit of abso
lution. " By the ministry," she says, " of God's Word,"
• Homily on Repentance. P. II.
' E. P. vi. 4. 15. quoted in " Entire Absolution of the Penitent," Serm.
i. p. 12. u. 6. " They" [the Fathers] " doe no* only leave it free for men to
confesseor not confesse their sinnes unto other 'which is the most that we would
have:) Abp. Ussher's Answer to a Jesuit. And so others.

" for," (as I said more at large before*,) " all forgiveness of
sin, by whomsoever, or howsoever it comes to us, is from
Him." " God Alone forgiveth sin." The Word of God is
the authority by virtue of which the Priest acts ; " men,"
S. Ambrose says ¦', " supply their ministry" only ; or as
he says again', " Sins are i'emitted through the word of
God, of which the Levite is the interpreter and a sort
of executor : they are remitted also through the office of
the Priest, and the sacred miuistry."
Nor can any argument as to the judgment of the Church
on this or any other subject be drawn from the mere
omission ofthe more direct injunctions of an earlier form
of our English Liturgyj. It had indeed argued a rashness
or fickleness in the Compilers, such as we may well shrink
from thinking possible, had they altered, as a matter
of principle, what a year before k, they had declared
lo have been done " by1 aid of the Holy Ghost." But
* Ibid p. 4. sqq.
h de Sp. S. iii. 10. see S. Ambrose more fully, Serm. i. p. 6 — 8.
' de Cain et Abel ii. 4. §. 15. (see, further, Note A. at the end.) Bp. Morton
accordingly substitutes " the office ofthe Minister" as equivalent; (Appeal,
p. 270. quoted by Bp. Montagu, Appeal to Csesar, c. 35.) " And indeed
the power of absolution, whether it be general or particular, whether in
public or in private, it is possessed in our Church, where both in our Public
Service is proclaimed pardon and absolution upon all penitents ; and a private
applying of particular absolution unto penitents by the office ofthe Minister.
And greater power than this, no man hath received from God." So then
Bp; Overall in substituting " by the Minister," (see below p 15, n. a.) did no
more, in fact, than Bp. Morton. The object of all is to express that the
authority is ministerial only.
s Book of Common Prayer A.I>. 1549. In the rubric on " special con
fession" in " the Visitation of the Sick," there then stood, " and the same
form shall be used in all private confessions." This was omitted in 1552.
k " The commissioners appear to have completed their revision of the
Book of Common Prayer before the end ofthe year 1551." The changes
began to be agitated a year after the publication of the first, Ib. p. xvi. from
Heylyn, Hist. Ref. p. 106.
' Act for the Uniformity of Service &c. A. 2 et 3 Edv. VI  "the Arch
bishop of Canterbury and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops
and other learned men of this realm having as well eye and respect to the
most sincere and pure Christian religion taught by the Scriptures, as to the

10
now, on the contrary, they again affirmed it to be a
very godly order," " agreeable to the Word of God and the
Primitive Church;" and so they bore witness to what they
were compelled to withdraw, even while they suppressed
its expression. Nor if we turn to the practice of her
most faithful sons, shall we think that a new thing, or
foreign to the meaning of the Church, or limited to certain
cases of gross sin, which the pious Hooker and Saravia
habitually used; and of Hooker and good Bp. Saunderson,
we hear, that at the eve'of death, after receiving Absolution,
" the mind of the one " seemed more cheerful," on the
other's" face there seemed " a reverend gaiety and joy."

usages of the primitive Church, should draw and make one convenient and
meet order, rite, and fashion of common and open prayer and administration
ofthe Sacraments, to be had and used in his Majesty's kingdom of England
and Wales, the which at this time, by the aid of the Holy Ghost with one
uniform agreement, is of them concluded."
m Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer &c. A. 5 et 6 Edv. VI.
" When there hath been a very godly Order set forth by authority of Par
liament, for common prayer and administration ofthe Sacraments, to be used
in the mother tongue, within this Church of England, agreeable to the Word
of God and the primitive Church, very comfortable to all good people desiring to
live in Christian conversation &c. And because thefe hath -risen, in the use
and exercise of the aforesaid common service in the Church, heretofore set
forth, divers doubts for the fashion and manner of the ministration of the
same, rather by the curiosity of the minister and mistakers, than of any other
worthy cause, therefore as well for the more plain and manifest explanation
hereof, as for the more perfection of the said order of common service, in
some places where it is necessary to make the same prayer and fashion of
service more earnest and fit- to stir Christian people to the true honouring of
Almighty God &c.'' Whatever these last words may be meant to apply to,
it is clear, 1) that the book in its earlier form is approved and the objections
treated as cavils; 2) that the concessions were made to a party, whose suc
cessors went out of the Church and trampled it under foot, 3) the most material
of these changes, (a very painful one) was subsequently rescinded.
n Walton's Life of Bp. Saunderson, Lives, ii. p. 258. Oxf. 1805.
0 Ib. i. p. 345, 6. He received it as a preparation for his last Communion,
after which this effect was seen. It was the day before his blessed death.
Bp. Andrewes also says of himself in his " private prayers," " Who hast
opened a door of hope to me, confessing and entreating, through the power
ofthe mysteries and ofthe keys. (John xx. 22. Matt. xvi. 19.)" p. 258 ed. Hall.
Bp. Taylor, again, even where he complains of the rareness of Confession

11
Nor, again, can it be said, that, in her meaning, the
solemn words " by His Authority committed unto me,
I absolve thee from all thy sins in the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," relate
to the removal of censures of the Church only. On the
contrary, the portion of the older form", which rather
relates to those censures, is omitted, and that part only
is retained which directly relates to the remission of sins.
Again, the sins which we are bid to urge men to confess,
are sins by which the penitent's conscience is troubled,
sins known to himself and to God only, and these are no
objects of the censure of the Church. They are sins,
which the Priest knows not of, whereas a Priest could
amongst us in his times, implies that it was practised, not in sickness only,
but in health. He is speaking of the easiness of absolution, in the modern
Church, whether iu England or the Roman Communion. " To confess and
to absolve is all the method of our modern repentance, even when it is most
severe. Indeed, in the Church of England, I cannot so easily blame that
proceeding ; because there are so few that use the proper and secret ministry
of a spiritual guide, that it is to be supposed he that does so, hath long
repented and done some violence to himself and more to his sins, before he can
master himself so much as to bring himself to submit to that ministry."
Doctrine and'raotice of Repentance, e. ix. «. 6. §. 68. And again, the
" advice concerning Confession'' in the Guide for the Penitent, which
is either Bp. Taylor's or that of a like-minded contemporary, implies
that it was a, recognised practice. " You are advised by the Church,
under whose discipline you live, that before you are to receive the holy
Sacrament, or when you are visited with any dangerous sickness, if you find
any one particular sin, or more, that lies heavy upon you, to disburden
yourself of it into the bosom of your confessor, who not only stands between
God and you to pray for you, but hath the power of the keys committed to
him, upon your true repentance, to absolve you in Christ's Name from those
sins which you have confessed to him." The fact that this has been a
received book among us, which since Bishop Taylor's time has accompanied
the Golden Grove, implies surely that the advice has been followed. A book
would not continue to be popular, if a main rule in it went against people's
practice. They would take what was more kindred with their practice.
It is said also by those who have read the notices of private habits before
the Revolution of 1688, that Confession and spiritual guidance were received
practices. ° '« Et sacramentis ecclesise te restituo." See Sarum Manual in Mr.
Palmer's Antiq. of Eng. Rit. ii. 226.

12
hardly be ignorant, whether one, committed to his charge,
had fallen under the public censures of the Church or no.
Nor, again, has the Church any where given to the Priest
the power of removing her censures, in cases of ordinary
sickness". But, in truth, the doctrine of the Church herein is very
clear and explicit. She distinctly says in her Homily,
"Absolution hath the promise of forgiveness of sins." At
our Ordination as Priests, she repeated to each of us our
Lord's words ", " Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are
forgiven." Upon the special confession of the sick, she
bids us absolve him; and the words of Absolution contain
a rehearsal of the authority through which we do it. " By
His Authority committed unto me, I absolve thee from all
thy sins" in the Name of the All-Holy Trinity, in Whose
Name we received our commission. She speaks of "the
benefit of Absolution," as distinct q from " ghostly advice
and counsel," both being needed for the penitent ; she
retains in her Ordinations, and Absolution of the sick, the
ancient words. What had this been but hypocrisy and
double dealing, had she not meant it in the#same sense
as of old ? What unreality and mockery were it of the
penitent's hopes, what ashes for bread, nay, rather a
scorpion, what waste of precious moments on which
eternity may hang, to move the sick to confess his sins,
then, in solemn words, which sinful men may well tremble
to use, to " absolve him," if truly penitent, " from all his
sins" if this solemn act is not of value to his soul, or
relates only to Church censures, under which these secret
» The instances mentioned in Bingham, 19. 3. are all cases of necessity.
i' " He" [the Jesuit] " hath done us open wrong in charging us to deny
that ' Priests have power to forgive sins,' whereas the very formal words
which our Ordination requireth to be used in the Ordination of a Minister
are these, ' Whose sins thou dost forgive, &c.' " Abp. Ussher Answer to
Challenge, p. 313
<i " The benefit of absolution, together with ghostly advice and counsel."
Exhort, and Order of Holy Comm.

13
sins do not fall. There is no middle way. Either the
Church speaks truly wherein she says, " our Lord Jesus
Christ hath left power with His Church to absolve all
sinners who truly repent and believe in Him," or those
her most solemn acts of Ordination and Absolution
would be, (as those without her have alleged,) year by
year arid day by day, accumulated blasphemy. Of her
own meaning there can be no doubt, that, deferring as she
does throughout to " the Primitive Church which," she
says1, " is especially to be followed as most uneorrupt
and pure," she, using its language, doth so in its meaning
also, and asserts her power of absolution in the same sense
as he whom she calls " the holy" father," " the" holy
Martyr of God, St. Cyprian," who, from our Lord's own
words", thus infers, "The power then of remitting sins
was given to the Apostles and to the Churches which they,
sent by Christ, established, and to the Bishops who suc
ceeded to them by vicarious ordination;" or in briefer
words and yet earlier times, by St. Cyprian's master1,
" Confession shall quench to them the fires of hell."
We may then (whether priests or penitents or both in
one) have full comfort that the Church of England has
r Homily against Peril of Idolatry, Serm. 3. add Serm. 2. twice.
' Horn, of Alms deeds.
' Horn, of Repentance, Serin. 3.
u " Again in the Gospel, when Christ breathed on the Apostles only
saying, ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosesoever sins ye remit, &c ' The
power then of remitting sins, &c. (Ep. 75. §. 17. p. 279. Oxf Tr.) St. Cyprian
is proving that " remission of sins can be given" in.the Church only, not " in
the synagogues of heretics." add Ep. 73. §. 7. p. 247.
x Tertull. de Pcenit. §. 12. p. 368. Oxf. Tr. " If thou drawest back from
Confession," [exomologesis, the whole course of the prescribed penitence,
ending in absolution,] " consider iu thine heart that hell-fire which
confession shall quench for thee, and first imagine to thyself the greatness
of the punishment, that thou mayest not doubt concerning the adoption of
the remedy." Comp. Abp. Bramball, pt. iv. Disc. 7. t. v. p. 222. Oxf. Ed.
" By a little shame which we suffer before our fellow-servant, we prevent
that great confusion of face, which otherwise must fall upon impenitent
sinners at the Day of Judgment." '

14
denied or abridged nothing of that " ministry of recon
ciliation" which God has committed to His Church. Not
to constrain Confession, is not to deny it ; to leave it o
the penitent's choice, is not to refuse it, if chosen ; weare
not set free one way, to be limited in the other; freed from
the necessity of confession, to be denied, if we crave it, the
comforts of special absolution — a freedom more like that
denounced by the prophet, "Behold*, I proclaim a liberty
for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, to
the famine,'' than to that " liberty wherewith Christ has
made us free." The Church leaves us free, yet fails not to
remind us of the responsibilities which that very freedom
entails upon us. A reverent, tender, mind may well pause,
ere he attempt to abridge, either way, that freedom, or call
in question that use of the keys, which as it hath never
been laid aside, but rather advocated at all times by
Bishops" and Divines of note, and recognised by our
Canons", so now has it been and is resorted to by thou-
y Jer. xxxiv. 17.
z See in Mr. Wordsworth's Appendix to a Sermon on Evangelical Repent
ance. The writers from which extracts are there given, are not from one
section of the Church. Bp. Morton and Bp. White and Archbishop Ussher
speak distinctly, as well as Bp. Overall and Abp. Bramhall and Bp. Taylor.
Add Bp. Cosin, who in the " points of agreement with the Church of Rome"
(in Hickes' Letters, t. i. App.) sets down, " In public or private absolution
of penitent sinners;" and Dean Comber ad loo. more at large.
» The extent of the practice of old is evinced by the Canon on the subject.
Can. 1 13. of our present Canons (A. 1603.) in permitting Ministers to join in
presentments, excepts the case of confession. But Canons are not made except
irith reference to existing practice. Its words are; " Provided alwavs, that
if any man confess his secret and hidden sins to the Minister, for the unbur
dening of his conscience, and to receive spiritual consolation and ease of mind
from him ; we do not any way bind the said Minister by this our Constitution
but do straitly charge and admonish him, that he do not at any time reveal
and make known to any person whatsoever any crime or offence so committed
to his trust and secresy, (except they be such crimes as by tbe laws of this
realm his own life may be called into question for concealing the same ) under
pain of irregularity." [Dr. Heylyn subjoins, Theol. Vet. (on the Creed )
p. 486. " And poena irregularitatis, as the Canonists tell us, not only doth
deprive a man of all his spiritual promotions for the present time but makes

15
sands in these later years, not exhorted thereto by man,
but impelled and constrained by God's voice within the
conscience, to seek therein, as they have found, pardon,
and grace, and peace. Rather we may well implore
persons, in the Name of " the God of peace," herein to
follow the charitable counsel of our first English Liturgy1',
<c requiring such as shall be satisfied with a general con
fession not to be offended with them that do use, to their
further satisfying, the auricular and secret confession to
the priest, nor those also which think needful or con
venient, for the quietness of their own consciences, parti
cularly to open their sins to the priest, to be offended with
him utterly uncapable of any for the time to come ; and therefore is tbe
greatest penalty, except degradation from his priesthood, which possibly a
clergyman can be subject to." He adds also, that the same exception, here
allowed, was made also " in the re-admission of the Jesuits into the University
of Paris." (Contin. of the Fr. Hist. p. 30.)] Bp. Overall accordingly in his
Visitation Articles 1619, {Art. 21.) enquired: " Whether doth your Minister
before the several times of the administration of the Lord's Supper, admonish
and exhort his parishioners, if they have their consciences troubled and dis
quieted, to resort unto him, or some other learned Minister, and open his
grief, that he may receive such ghostly counsel and comfort, as his conscience
may be relieved, and by the Minister he may receive the benefit of absolution^
to the quiet of his conscience, and avoiding of scruple. And if any man
confess his secret and hidden sins, being sick or whole, to the Minister, for
the unburdening of his conscience, and receiving such spiritual consolation,
doth or hath the said Minister at any time, revealed and made known to any
person whomsoever, any crime or offence so committed to his trust, contrary
to the 113th Canon P" (in Heylyn 1. c. and more fully in Bp. Montagu,
" Answer to late Gagger of Protestants," c. 12.) Bp. Montague, subjoins in
answer to his R. C. opponent, " Which is not like the injunction of those that
hold, ' We must confess our sins but only unto God.' " Heylyn further says :
" It was made one of the enquiries in the Book of Articles established in the
Convocation of the year 1640, for a perpetual rule and standard, in all
episcopal and archidiaconal visitations, (Canon 9.) and proposed thus to the
Churchwardens, viz. " Have you ever heard that your said Priest or Minister
hath revealed and made known at any time to any person whatsoever any
crime or offence committed to his trust and secresy, either in extremity of
sickness, or in any other case whatsoever, (except they be such crimes as by
the laws of this land, &c.) declare the name of the offender, when and by
whom you heard the same." (Article of Peril, c. 2. n. 25.)
b Second Exhortation, p. 278. ed. Cardwell.

16
them that are satisfied with their humble confession to
God, and the general confession to the Church, but in all
things to follow and keep the rule of charity, and every one
to be satisfied with his own conscience, not judging other
men's minds or consciences, whereas he hath no warrant
of God's word to the same." Would that in these days of
trouble and sorrow, we could more and more lay to heart
this loving counsel, "judging nothing before the time,"
"judging not Another's servant," but each labouring, with
what wisdom God gives to each, to save some, with himself,
out of a perishing world !
But does, then, in effect, this solemn act of Absolution
come to the same as that unearnest modern way in which
persons, with some slight acknowledgment of the frailty of
their nature, virtually absolve themselves ? or does frequent
absolution, like man's ordinary easy self-forgiveness, en
courage relaxed ways ? " If God bids man often repent,"
said the Novatian, " He allows him often to sin." " Per
chance," (is part of the answer of S. Pacian0,) " I might
allow this, if luxury were accounted penitence, on which
such toil is imposed, the destruction ofthe flesh enjoined,
continual tears, unending groans." And therefore the
Church of England wherever, in her Liturgy, she speaks
of repentance, is careful to speak also of "trued," "earnest,"
" unfeigned," " faithful," " hearty," " worthy," repentance,
nor ever names it without some word to express its reality;
well knowing how easily and how fatally we might mistake
c Ep. iii. 21.
4 "true repentance" (twice in the daily Absolution, thrice Visitation of
the Sick) being omitted in the prayers for " persons troubled in mind or in
conscience," " add seriousness to his repentance," (Visitation ofthe Sick )
" unfeigned repentance," (ib.) "earnest and true repentance," (Commination
Service,) "faithful repentance," (ib.) " with all contrition," (ib.) " if with
a true penitent heart, we— for then we, &c." (Service for H. Communion )
" repent you truly," (ib.) " ye that do truly and earnestly repent you,'"
" who with hearty repentance and true faith," (ib.) " all that truly turn
to Him," (ib.) " worthily lamenting our sins," (Collect for Ashwed.)

17
for it a false repentance, itself to be repented for, ever
lastingly, but hopelessly. David said, " I have sinned,"
and the Prophet said, " Therefore hath the Lord put away
thy sin." Saul said, " I have sinned," but the Prophet
answered, " Thou hast rejected the word ofthe Lord, and
the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel."
Judas said, " I have sinned," and went aud hanged him
self. All confessed alike ; but Saul had no humility, Judas
no hope". " What availeth," saith S. Gregory the Great,
?' to confess wickednesses, if the affliction of penitence
follow not the voice of Confession. For in every one
truly penitent, three things are to be considered, the con
version of the heart, the confession of the mouth, and the
revenge on sin'." And all these have, in hope, exceeding
sweetness, sweeter far than all the destructive pleasure for
which men sell their souls ; yet all have deep, searching,
pain.

, e " Let no man, dearest, propose to himself this sort of penitence [that for
graver sins], let no one prepare himself for this ; yet if it should be, let no one
despair. Judas tbe traitor, not so much the wickedness he committed as
despair of forgiveness, caused to perish utterly. He was not worthy of
mercy, therefore no light shone in his heart, that he should run speedily to
His mercy Whom he had betrayed, as did they who had crucified Him ; but
despairing he killed himself, he hung, he suffocated himself. — What he did
in his body, that had taken place in his soul. They who despair of the
forgiveness of God, by their very despair suffocate themselves within, so that
the Holy Spirit cannot visit them.'' S. Aug. Serm. 352. de Pcenit. ii. 8. So
also S. Chrys.
f S. Gregory ad loc. " He sheweth the quality of his confession in that he
added, ' But now honour me before the elders of ray people, and before Israel.'
It is clear what sort of penitence he hath, who still desires to be honoured.
For had he been truly penitent for his sin, he would have desired to be dis
honoured rather than honoured. Well may we marvel at the hardness of a
.rejected heart. When the Man of God, executing the command of the
Creator, said, ' The Lord hath rejected thee from being king,' he, on the
contrary, who receiveth the sentence of rejection, through desire of eminence
seeketh honour. What is then that he saith, ' I have sinned?' On confes
sion of sin, there should follownot honour or glory, but vileness and contempt.
For what avai'.etb, <fec." (as in text.) L. vi. in 1 Reg. c. 2. §. 33.

18
It is mostly through searching pain, some stunning blow
or sharp piercing stroke without, or strong inward mental
fear and agony, that the sinner is deadened to the world,
and made alive to God. Suspended life cannot flow again
without deep pain. "No one," says St. Augustine «,
" chooseth a new life, but who repenteth him of the old."
" Man must long to become what he hath not been, hate
what he hath been." What is repentance, but, out of
love to God, to will from the heart all undone which has
offended Him, with strong purpose never more to offend
Him ? Yet we cannot wish undone, what we do not hate ;
and so the first dealing of God with the soul mostly is, to
make it condemn itself, to place itself before the sinner's
face, bring before him all which he had hitherto striven to
put behind his back and hide from himself, and by a
lightning-flash to pierce his darkness and shew him the
pit of Hell which yawns beneath his feet. " If, we would
judge ourselves," says Holy Scripture, " we should not be
judgedh." Yet " judge ourselves" not with a slight super
ficial judgment, " after the manner of dissemblers with
God," but by a strict, searching, thorough, judgment, as
far as man is capable ; (8»sxg/vojtisv,) not judging only, but
sifting itself through and through ; its acts, motives, circum
stances ; the aggravations of its sins, and their endurance ;
the light against which he sinned, the checks of conscience,
or the motions of God's Holy Spirit ; the scandal to others,
or the peril of others' souls, which he hath injured, but
which he cannot restore. Strict must that judgment be,
which is to forestall and turn aside the Judgment of God.
s 1. c. §. 2.
h " He does not [here] say, ' if we punished ourselves,' ' if we were
revenged on ourselves,' but only if we would acknowledge our offence pass
sentence on ourselves, condemn the things done amiss, we should escape the
punishment both in this world and the next. For he that condemns himself
propitiates God in two ways, both by acknowledging his sins, and by being
more on his guard for the future." S. Chrys. ad loc.

19
Hitherto the sinner had hidden, like Adam, his sin,
invented excuses, silenced or stifled or drugged his con
science, rebuked it when it would speak, laid his sin to
outward circumstances, failure, perhaps, in others, neglect
of education, nay even of the Church, or the frailty and
powerlessness of nature, or the strength of temptation and
the impossibility of resisting it, in other words on God
Himself, the Author of that nature, and the Disposer of all
the accidents of our lives. And now he must be to himself
in God's stead, and judge himself as God would judge him.
He has hitherto been his own advocate to plead for
himself; now he must be his own judge, to condemn
himself. And what sort of judge ? Even, as far as he can
attain, like Him Who " trieth the very heart and reins,"
discerneth the thoughts and intents of the heart, before
Whose Eyes all is naked, Who shall bring every secret
thing into judgment, good or bad ; Him Whom Holy
Scripture calls, " The Judge," " The Righteous," " The
Just, Judge," " a Mighty and a Terrible, Which regardeth
not persons nor taketh rewards'," that Judge, " Who hateth
them that work iniquity" and " will by no means spare the
guilty," in Whose "judgment the ungodly cannot stand."
It is the majesty of human law, that the judge is the
Minister of God ; " he beareth not the sword in vain ;"
his sentence, when just, is a sort of " type and earnest of
the great Judgment-seat." What when the judge has to
enter into that inward court, where God Himself resides,
where He has often spoken, warned, pleaded, but in vain,
against the deed, ere it was committed, and now still
writes His' sentence there, if we will read it! " If our
heart condemn us," says Holy Scripture, " God is greater
than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our
heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards
' Deut. a. 1 7-
B 2

20
God." Every pang of the heart is a witness on behalf of
God against the sinner, His sentence bound up in the
soul itself, there to remain for ever, unless He Who wrote
it there, Himself efface it. And now, in that awful silence
of the soul, himself with himself, where no eye can reach
except his own and God's, with no patron, no plea, no
friend, he has to open that fearful book, wherein all the
evil he has ever done is written, retrace the faded character
of forgotten sin, revive what he had well-nigh blotted from his
own memory, and again and again pronounce "Guilty" against
himself, knowing that it is himself whom he is sentencing,
himself whom he is pronouncing worthy of eternal woe.
All pleas for his sin must fall off, like scales from his eyes,
as they will before the Eye of God. He must stand, as it
were, aloof from himself, and, quickened by God's Holy
Spirit, behold with stedfast gaze, himself, as God behold-
eth him, in all the deformity and vileness of his sins.
" Let man," says an old writer on this place k, " ascend
the judgment-seat of his soul against himself, let him place
himself before his face, and when in his heart the judg
ment is set, let memory stand forth the accuser, and
conscience the witness, and fear the executioner. So shall
the blood, as it were, of the confessing soul flow forth in
tears. Be there before his eyes an image of the Judgment
to come, and whatsoever he shall see in himself, which
can be sentenced and punished by Him Who shall come
to be our Judge, let him now in himself condemn and
punish." It is an aweful. office, to stand in God's stead;
it is an aweful, dreadful sight, for a sinner to see himself.
All, all his folly1, unthankfulness, hardness of heart, con-
k Comm. in S. Paul, Epp. ascribed to S. Anselm. Cave says they belong
to Herveus Dolensis, A. 1130. but this passage is quoted as S. -Augustine's
by Pet. Lombard, A. 1140.
' Bishop Andrewes, Latin Devotions in his deep " confession of sin '' p
301—320. ed. Hall. '

21
tempt ; all, in thought, word, and deed, against God, his
neighbour, or his own body ; all of childhood, youth, or
ripening years; secret or manifest; sins of his own or
occasioned to others; his besetting, repeated, sins, or sins
from very wantonness, without temptation, which he drew,
as it were, on himself, — well might the sinner shrink, as he
does, from such a sight as this, unless the sentence stood,
"judge thyself, that thou be not judged of the Lord."
Yet the knowledge of the sin in itself were, as yet, as
nothing. Heathen have seen their sins, and known them
to be hateful, and acted them anew. He must behold
them, as God sees them, not as sins only, but as a
Christian's sins. What has not the fallen Christian done,
against Whom has he sinned, what has he forfeited ?
Misery enough it is, to sit in darkness, to be cold to
heavenly things, to know not the sweetness of intercourse
with God ; but what intenser misery to have blinded,
chilled, deafened a man's own soul, that he cannot
" know" his Saviour's " Voice." Misery enough is the
bondage of Satan, the iron rule of custom, whereby man's
sins are multiplied against his will, when sin added to sin
are, S. Augustine"" says, " the links of that hard chain,
which hold the soul enthralled against its will." But
heavier is it yet, to pronounce against thyself that it is
" deservedly; since willingly" the soul forged these fetters
for itself, and for " the glorious liberty of the sons of God,"
chose the hard bondage and the toil in the miry clay from
which it had been freed. Misery is it, for the soul to feel
wholly a wreck of itself; what, itself to have made that
wreck ! What was it, as new born it arose in the brightness
of baptismal purity ? Fairer far, and more glorious, than
when it was first created, brighter than " the sun when he
goeth forth in his might," since it was clothed with Christ,
and the Eyes of God rested with love upon it, as bearing
m Conf. viii. 5, 6.

22
on it the likeness of His Well-beloved Sou, and the Holy
Trinity chose it, as a sanctuary wherein to dwell, " Ineie
will I rest, for I have a delight therein." Nay more still,
the depths of Heaven stood open to it ; " no good thing
will He withhold from him that leadeth a godly life." No,
not Himself, by Whose grace he leads it. He giveth grace
for grace; each grace well-used expands the soul to
receive more grace, and the enlarged soul containeth
more of God, and God filling the soul enlarges it, and
enlarging, fills it. No bound is there to the growth in
grace and love but that which is boundless, " the measure
of the stature of the Fulness of Christ." [No order, it
seems, of the Heavenly Hierarchy, but lost of its host in
the fall of the Apostate Angels °- No drder, it is believed,
but is to be filled out of that humanity, which God the
Son, by taking it, hath deified0.] Such might it have
been! What is it now? Holy penitents p have heaped
together all the most loathsome objects, from which the
eye turns sickened, to form some faint image of the
loathsomeness of their own soul when leprous from sin.
Yet all imaginable loathsomeness gathered in one, were
no shadow of that act, whereby unclean spirits dwell in
the temple of God, and man, the image of God, receives
in him, nay becomes, the image of the Evil One. " By
sin," says a holy man q, " man becomes alien from God,
a destroyer of himself, a child of hell, a mansion of con
fusion, a slave of the devil, a scoffer at grace, a despiser
of glory." And for what ? It is thought that it will be
n Satan himself is called a Cherub, (Ezek. xxviii. 16.) there are also
" Angels," " Principalities," " Authorities," " Powers," liWu, ilcutUi
imi/uis, among the evil spirits, Rom. viii. 38. Eph. vi. 12. Col. ii. 15
among the good, Eph. iii. 10. Col. ii. 10 2 Pet. iii. 22.
0 See S. Athan. c. Ariann. ii. 21. p. 380. and not, p. Oxf. Tr.
r Here too, in part, our own Bp. Andrewes, (Morning Prayers ) " an un
clean worm, a dead dog, a putrid corpse," " putredo et vermis," p. 300.
1 S. Laur. Justin, de perf. grad. a. 1.

23
one of the miseries of the damned, to know, that, when
they might for a few years' toil and self-denial have had
the bliss of heaven, they bartered it for that unutterable,
endless woe; and for what? For what too many know,
it would seem to defile this holy place to name ; for what
they cannot themselves bear to think of.
Such thoughts must the penitent soul have before it in
its hours of misery ; its own decay, the intensity of its
loss, the foulness of the deadly gain for which it sold
itself, its forfeiture of the brightness of grace, and its
glorious inheritance, the unutterable loathsomeness of
each single sin ! What when they are countless ! " Thou,
O Lord," says the great penitent' ofthe Christian Church,
" Thou didst turn me round towards myself, taking me
from behind my back where I had placed me, unwilling to
observe myself, and setting me before my face, that I might
see how foul I was, how crooked and defiled, bespotted
and ulcerous. And I beheld and stood aghast ; and
whither to flee from myself I found not. — And if I sought
to turn my eyes from off myself, Thou again didst set me
over against myself, and thrustedst me before my eyes
that I might find out my iniquity, to hate it."
Yet even this, although of all sights, to the human soul
the most unbearable, is as nothing still, compared to the
thought, "against Whom have I done this," "Whom have
I offended," Whose gift, alas ! Whose Blood have I tram
pled under foot ? It is the very depth of human misery,
and the very " mystery of iniquity," that a worm of earth
can resist, offend, do despite to, such Majesty, such Good
ness, Gentleness, and Love. It is a fearful power to be
able to cast away the gift of Infinite Love ; to set Almighty
Power at defiance, yet itself below all creatures, over
which He set us ; to use all the senses which He gave,
the whole body and soul, to rebellion against Him; to
r S. Aug. Conf. viii. 7.

24
have entered into His very Sanctuary, and there, in His
very Presence, to have marred His Image; perverted
Reason, which is His Attribute and Effluence; used Free
will, to will what He willed not; defiled memory, the
image of God's knowledge; warped Conscience, His Voice
and Representative. Fearful is it to have abused and
wasted His gifts of nature, of Providence, and of Grace;
but to have profaned His Name in ourselves, to have
wasted the price of His Blood, to have despised His
Voice speaking within the sinner's self, to have, wilfully,
not fled only from His Presence, but driven forth that
Gracious Presence from the soul, and for- Him Who is All-
Good to have received in exchange Him Who is All-evil —
well might the fathers call repentance a Baptism of tears ;
well might it draw forth tears of blood, and, were it
possible, the blessed Angels weep over such a wreck as
this, such misery undoing the work of so much mercy !
The mere beholding of a man's own sin might produce
remorse or despair; the thought of God's love against
Whom he had so sinned, while it deepensthe self-abhorrence
melts the sternness of self-hatred, into penitential love.
But when the soul has thus judged and (as it must)
condemned itself, will it be an idle sentence ? Will it not
be ready to avenge Him Whose sentence it has pronounced
against itself? Will this heavy review of sins be a mere
pageant, which shall last its hour, and issue in nothing ?
Shall a luxurious monarch have been ready to lay hands
on himself, that he had killed his friend, " so great," says
a heathen', "is the vehemence of repentance," and will
the Christian penitent, who has gone forth guilty from
the Judgment-seat of God and pronounced against itself
in His Name, that he has " crucified the Son of God
afresh," will he " say to his soul, Eat, drink, and be merry ?"
s Cic. Tusc. iv. 37. quoted by Bishop Taylor on Repentance, iv 6.
§• 75.

25
Not so Holy Scripture, nor nobler souls, to whom God
with renewed life, has restored the sense whence they had
fallen. " Revenge" is the last and summit of the goodly
array of the workings of that " penitence, whereof," St.
Paul says, " there shall be no repentance'." They are
not passing, but abiding fruits, lasting until with them
the soul be gathered into the garner of the Lord ; tears
gathered into His bottle, which through the Blood of
Christ shall at the Judgment-Day have been found to have
washed away the foulest stains ; seven-fold gifts to the
penitent from God the Holy Ghost, to replace and re
store the seven-fold gifts which he had lost. " Earnestness''
opens the blessed train, dissipating all sluggishness and
listlessness and security ; then " acknowledgment0 of its
offence ;" " indignation"' with itself; " fear" of damnation,
and of the loss of the sight of God, and of relapses into
sins, " longing" for its lost graces and the light of His
Countenance ; " zeal" for His glory and for future growth
in grace; aud lastly " revenge," (IxS/jhjo-jj,) the very property
of God. " Vengeance* is Mine," 'E/aoi IxS/xijo-ij, a word,
no where in the New, and scarcely in the Old Testament,
used but of the vengeance of God, or that which is taken
by the minister of His Justice, executing His sentence.
"Vengeance" on himself, or "the fulfilment of the
sentence of God," (IxSfxijcnj,) is the completion of the judg
ment on himself, (hsxglvopev.) In the mercy of God, he
was permitted to stand to himself in the place of God as
' " For no one," says St. Chrysostom, " will find fault with himself, that
he be grieved for his sin, that he mourn, and bruise himself." (ad loc.
Horn. 15. §. 2.)
u aVoXayia.
' In the New Testament ofthe agency of God's instruments, Acts vii. 24.
1 Pet. ii. 14. in the LXX of human beings, without direct reference to God,
only Jud. xv. 7 ; xvi. 29. (of Samson) Lam. iii. 59. Ezek. xxv. 15. (of
the heathen, in contrast with the vengeance of God, vers. 14. 17.)
" Rom. xii. 19. Heb. a. 30. " God of "Vengeance." (Ixhxwim,) Ps. xc-iii.
l.LXX.

26
Judge ; in the mercy of God, he is permitted to be to
himself as God, as the chastener of his sins, the executioner
of his own sentence. " Every one who is a penitent,
says that great penitent and doctor, St. Augustine",
" and in penitence confesseth his sins, is angry with
himself, and in a manner, by penitence avengeth in
himself what displeaseth himself. For God hateth sin.
If thou also hatest in thyself what God also hateth,
thou art in a degree united in will to God, in that
thou hatest in thyself what God also hateth. Exercise
severity on thyself, that God may intercede for thee, and
not condemn thee. For sin is certainly to be punished,
This is due to sin, punishment, condemnation. Sin is to
be punished either in thee or by thee. If it is punished
by thee, then it will be punished without thee ; but if it is
not punished by thee, it will be punished with thee."
And this punishment, God's written law, within the con
science or without, in the consent of all mankind, or in His
Providence, in His Word or in His Voice within the soul,
should bear some proportion to the sin. Not (technically)
to make satisfaction to the Justice of Almighty God, (for
this, the Blood of His Co-Equal Son Alone sufficed,) but as
belonging to that penitence, which through That Blood
shall be accepted. " A mighty wound," says St. Ambrose y,
" needeth a deep and lengthened cure. A mighty wicked
ness needeth mighty amends." " Whoso ' hath heaped up
the offence, heap he up also the penitence. For mightier
sins are washed away by mightier tears." For so says
God by the great preacher of repentance, " Bring forth
fruits (a£ love) worthy of repentance \" What doth repent-
x Serm. 29. fin. see other passages in Note K, on Tertullian. p. 376. Oxf.Tr.
-J de virg. laps. c. 8. §. 36.
z de pcenit. i. 2. see others, 1. u. p. 375.
» " It is one thing to bring forth ' fruits of penitence,' another, to bring
forth ' fruits worthy of penitence.' For the fruit of good works ought not to
be alike in him who has less, and him who has more, sinned, or in him who

27
ance ? It closeth the depths of Hell, it opens the heights
of Heaven. Itb places the sinner with the holy Angels,
restores His lost creature to the Creator. All, even the
slightest sin, is indeed worthy of more sorrow than we can
feel for it; and the holy have wept more bitterly the in-*
firmities from which oui nature is not yet freed, than most of
us, even deadly sin. Yet it were to apply the very
paradox of Stoical philosophy to Christian penitence, to
say that because all sin is deeply offensive to Almighty
God, the deepest sins need no deeper repentance than the
slightest. To be fretted or to be angered is no such sin as
to lie ; to lie is not to commit adultery. All sin does not
put man out of a state of grace ; efface the image of God ;
invite " seven spirits more wicked than the first, to dwell"
in the man ; " defile," in that fearful way, " the temple of
God ;" " trample under foot the Son of God." And fruits
which might be worthy of repentance of lesser sins, do
not betoken the deep, humbled, broken-hearted sorrow for
the greatest, " which God will not despise." We do not
sorrow for an acquaintance as for a parent, for a friend's
sickness as for his death ; no more then, for the sickness
of the soul as for its death. But, saith St. Cyprian,
" hapless" one, it is thine own soul thou hast lost; dead
in spirit, thou hast begun to survive thyself, and, a living
corpse, to carry about thee thine own death." If thou
wouldest measure what fruits are worthy of thy repent
ance, weigh well the grievousness of thy sins, the black
ness of thy ingratitude, the grace thou hast resisted and

has fallen in no, or in some, or many grievous sins. By these words then,
' bring forth fruits worthy of repentance,' the conscience of each is cited,
that one should seek so much the greater gain of good works through peni
tence, the greater losses he inflicted upon himself through sin." S. Greg, ad
loc. Horn. 20. in Evang. §. 8.
b " Haec est quae homines ad Angelos ducit, et creaturam reddit Creatori."
de vera et falsa pcenit. init. ap. S. Aug. t. vi. App.
« de laps. §. 19.

28
forfeited, the depth of hell from which, by God's mercy,
it shall raise thee.
" Take heed to thyself," says S. Basil d, " that in propor
tion to the fault thou admit also the restoration from the
remedy. Great and grievous is the sin, thou hast need of
much penitence, of bitter tears, of intense watching, of an
unbroken fast. Is the offence light and bearable? Be
the penitence also proportioned. Only take heed to thy
self, that thou know thy mind's health and disease."
Yet herein, if any where, is the advice of a physician of
the soul needed, lest, in the first fervour and. bitterness of
repentance, penitents use unwise means of that "chasten
ing of the body," which S. Paul commended and prac
tised; or with weaker frames they be unable to bear the
austerities of the early Church ; or with weaker wills they
grow weary of severities which they have riot yet obtained
grace to bear,.and give up altogether repentance and hopes
of life.
Yet repentance, although its outward expressions may
change, must be the same always; and even if we cannot
come up to them, it is well to set before us the austere
penitence of Holy Scripture and the early Church, to
quicken our laggard steps to something which may be an
earnest of our sorrow, and may, by outward action, stamp
the inward feeling more deeply into the soul. If we
cannot6, as S. Basil speaks, use " an unbroken fast," at
least we may keep penitentially the fasts of the Church ;
we may use food as medicine ibr the daily decays of
d Horn, in verba Attende tibi ipsi. §. 4. t. 2. p. 19.
• So, again, Bp. Andrewes, (although the writer knew it not,) " If not all
night, as Christ, yet for one hour. If not on the earth, if not in ashes, yet
not on couches. If not in sackcloth, yet not in purple and fine linen. If not
altogether from all, yet from pleasant morsels. If not, as Zaccheus, fourfold,
yet, as is the law, (Lev. v. 1 6.) adding a fifth. If not as the rich, yet as the
widow. If not half, yet the thirtieth. If not above my power, yet to my
power." Latin Prayers, p. 334.

29
nature, not for luxury ; we may cut off self-indulgence,
not " fare sumptuously every day," but feed the poor of
Christ. If we cannot use " intense watch ings," at least,
we may break off sloth, and be beforehand with the
morning, to " cry unto the Lord our God," or by night,
the image of death may come over us, with penitential
words f on our lips and in our heart. If a penitent cannot,
with Ahab and the penitents of Holy Scripture, gird hair
cloth around his loins, at least he need not " wear soft
clothing and live delicately ;" he can pray God to gird him
with continence, and " cut off from himself things lawful
as he remembereth that he committed things unlawful B."
If we may not with the Publican, " smite on the breast," at
least, we may seek the intense inward humiliation of the
Publican ; may love to be " abased" rather than to be
" exalted ;" take reproach gladly, shun aud dread respect
and praise; be the last, outwardly, when we can, and,
inwardly, ever. If we may not with St. Paul " bruise the
body," we maj by God's grace break in pieces our own
self-will. [Penitents of old scourged the body, in adoring
thought of Him by Whose stripes we were healed; we may
at least, with S. Augustine °, " lash our souls with scourges of
condemnation that they may follow us, striving to go after
God."] If we cannot lie in dust and ashes, at least we may
in contrition of heart, own ourselves to be " dust and
ashes." If duty forbids our retiring from the world, with
S. Jerome, at least, from time to time, we may, with
Jeremiah, "sit alone because of Thy Hand1," "sit alone
f As one of our Bishops fell asleep, night by night, saying the 51st Psalm.
s Si quis in fornicationem, vel fortasse, quod est gravius, in adulterium
lapsus est, tanto a se licita debet abscindere, quanto se meminit et illicita
perpetrasse. S. Greg, in Ev. 1. u.
•i Conf. viii. 7- §¦ 18. The passage was omitted in delivery, inasmuch as
the very mention must suggest a practice which may be very humbling and
hallowed, if done in memory of " The Scourging," but in which penitents
should not judge for themselves.
* Jer. xv. 17.

30
and keep silence k, bearing the yoke upon us," we " may
put our mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope."
If we may not use austerities which wear the body, at least
we may long, with S. Paul, " to spend and to be spent;"
we may lawfully wear ourselves in body and mind for the
souls and bodies of our brethren. The punitive measures
of the Ancient Church were in part to chastise the flesh
which sinned, in part, as the natural accompaniments of
sorrow. " If one member of the body is afflicted, all the
rest suffer with it." " And if," adds Bp. Taylor1, " the
heart be troubled, he that is gay in any other part, goes
about to lessen his trouble ; and that takes off, it does not
promote, repentance." We make all outward things to
harmonize with deep human sorrow ; are we sincere, if we
heap around ourselves every thing out of harmony with
Divine? True " sadness" of heart, whereby it " is made
better," heart-broken sorrow for having offended God, is
itself the truest, deepest, penance ; whatever besides, the
Ancient Church recommended to aid it, this, as it is the
end of all, so is it every where, in every form, enforced as
the very chiefest amends to God'°. Let any obtain it in
what way he can, it is a great gift of God ; let any in any
way obtain deep sorrow of heart out of haired for his sin
and love for his Redeemer, and he will fulfil the conditions
and bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.
Advent, like penitence itself, has a mingled character of
sorrow, and awe, and hope, and joy : sorrow for sin and
wasted grace; awe at Judgment to come; yet hope and
joy too, that He Who " shall come to be our Judge,"
at this time, " to deliver man, abhorred not the Virgin's
1 Lam. iii. 28, 29.
1 On Repentance, c. x. sect. vi. on Ecclesiastical Penance, or the Fruits
of Repentance.
m e. g. " tears which make amends to God," satisfacientibus Beo fletibus.
St. Cyprian. (Ep. 31. §. 8. see on Tertull. 1. c. p. 371 sqq.) Bp. Taylor 1. c.
§.74. " Sorrow and mourning," §. 80." prayers." The very title of repentance.

31
womb." Our own Liturgy, in every change which was
made, brings before us the stricter side", as if to say, "sow
in tears," that ye may " reap in joy." Earnestness in
Advent is the harbinger of Christmas joy; the Baptist's
preaching of repentance prepares the lieart to hear the
song of Angel-Choirs ; first we hear " Glory to God," then
"on earth peace, good-will towards men;" awe ofthe Day
of Judgment must make us fill up the low places of our
earthliness, and lower the eminences of our pride, make
straight our crooked ways, and soften our asperities and
all contrary to love, would we, in the end, "see the
Salvation of our God."
Nature itself dictates, at the closing year, to make up
our account with God; conscience feels an awe at this
yearly image of the close of all things; the Church brings
Judgment before us ; grace ever says in our inmost hearts,
" now is the accepted time." Well were it then, my
younger brethren, now, if ye never have before, to set
before you the Day of days ; when the earth and all that is
therein, its pomps, its vanities, its desires, all which would
now draw away your souls from God, shall be burned up, and
nothing shall remain but what can abide the searching fire
of God's judgment. Set before you that dread Judgment-
seat, where they who have riot before sued for mercy, shall
find none; imagine every thought, word, or deed of shame,
all which thou now wouldest hide from thyself, brought to
light before the whole company of heaven and earth ; set
before your eyes, with our own holy penitent", " the Just
Judge ; excuse unavailing ; proof unanswerable ; punish
ment inexorable ; hell unending ; Angels unpitying ; the
yawning pit ; the sweeping stream of fire ; fire unquench
able ; the prison-house dark ; the rayless darkness ; the
* n See Pref. to Avrillon Guide for Advent, p. xxviii sqq.
0 Bp. Andrewes. Meditation 1. (p. 234. ed. Hall.) It is thought to have
been his midnight prayer.

32
bed of living coals; the worm unsleeping; the chains
indissoluble ; the bottomless abyss ; ths wall impassable ;
the wailing unpitied ;" behold thyself there, trembling,
ashamed; all without, terror; conscience within, gnawing;
unable to hide thyself or to appear ; thy own darkness
more intolerable in that light ; Heaven, too late longed
for, and fading away ; the Face and the love of God lost
for ever; the misery of devils thy portion for ever; " none
to stand by thee, none to plead for thee, none to deliver
thee," and so " judge thyself, that thou be not judged of
the Lord ;" so, while there is yet time, say with that same
pious penitent, " I repent, 0 Lord, I repent ; help Thou
my unrepentance, and more and yet more, pierce, rend,
bruise my heart."
And when thou hast judged and condemned and humbled
thyself, then seek how thou mayest compensate past evils
by future good ; past neglect by future zeal. Shew that
thou prizest thine own soul, which thou hadst forfeited
aud God restores to thee, which thou hadst defiled,
and God anew cleanseth, by Thy love for the souls of
thy brethren. God can overrule to good even past evil.
Penitents have ever been among His chosen vessels.
When a chief Apostle had denied Him in the judgment
hall, a penitent confessed Him, even on the Cross; and
" beforep Apostles" was translated from his cross to
Paradise, the first-fruits of our redeemed race. When
Apostles fled, a penitent, with His Virgin Mother and
beloved Disciple, amid the scoffs of an unbelieving world,
stood beneath His Cross. The chiefest of the Apostles
were chief in penitence. He to whom first were given
" the keys ofthe kingdom of heaven," on whose, confession
the Church was built, the chosen instrument to bring both
Jew and Gentile converts inlo the fold, of all had fallen
deepest, and wept most bitterly ; [and it is thought, morning
P S. Chrys. Horn. 7. in Gen. §. 4.

33
by morning, his whole life long, wept his fall.] He who
was caught into the third Heaven, " iu labours more
abundant, in deaths oft," " not a whit behind the chiefest
Apostles," owns himself most lowlily, " the chief of sinners,"
" an abortive birth"." The " man after God's own heart"
even now perhaps wins more souls to God by his deep
penitence, than by the noble faith wherein he slew the
Philistine, or his long-tried unwearied trust in God. The
deep tones of sorrow wherein he poured out his soul to
God have been the voice of every later penitent whom
God has recalled, the parting words of Saints' within
sight of Paradise. In later times the chief Doctor of our
Western Church had been its most signal penitent.
Penitence was the garb of the mighty Prophet, who was
caught up in the chariot of fire, who knew not death ; the
image of the Ascension of our Lord : it was the life of him,
who came " in the spirit and power of Elias," the great
Forerunner, sanctified from his mother's womb, who
before his birth foretold the coming of his Lord : he who
was first Bishop of Jerusalem, and sat first in the Apostolic
Council, whom Jews and Christians alike entitled James
the Just, led a life of austerest penitence *. " The two
witnesses'," who shall have power given them in heaven

i 1 Cor. xv. 18.
r " He" [St. Augustine] " had been wont to say to us, in familiar converse,
that, after Baptism received, even esteemed Christians and priests ought not
to part out of the body without worthy and competent penitence. Which he
himself also did in the last sickness, whereof he deceased. For he had
directed that those very few Psalms of David on penitence [the seven
penitential Psalms] should be written out for him, and placed against tbe
wall. These leaves, as he lay in the bed, he stedfastly gazed upon and read
during the days of his sickness, and wept largely and continually. And lest
his attention should be distracted by any one, about ten days before he
departed from the body, he asked of us who weie present, that no one should
come in td him, except just when the physicians came to look at him, or
refreshment was brought him. This was observed and done ; and all that
time he gave himself to prayer." Life by Possidius, c. 31.
• Hegesipp. ap. Euseb. H. E. ii. 23. * Rev. xi. 3—12.
C

34
and earth, uniting the mighty deeds of those who were
seen with our Lord in His glory, who, like Elijah, " shall
have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the days of
their prophecy," and, like Moses, shall " have power over
waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with
all plagues" (not once only as in Egypt, but) " as often as
they will;" who shall be likened to their Lord in His
Resurrection and Ascension, shall through their whole
time of prophecy wear the garb of penitence".
So would God teach us how precious is penitence in
His sight. The beginning of the Christian life, it ac
companies it to the end. The groundwork of conversion,
the companion of faith, the enlargement of love, the sooth
ing fosterer of hope, the condition of holiness; it leads
to the mercies of Christ, it opens all the treasures of the
love of God. It restores from the lowest depths of sin ;
it increases with all real growth in grace ; it is intensest in
those in whom grace hath most wrought its work. Penitent
thyself, thou shalt learn to speak to the hearts of penitents.
Thou knowest too well the wounds which enter the soul ;
thou wilt know the healing wherewith the Great Physician
shall have healed thee. Thou knowest the sorrows and
plague of thine own heart ; thou wilt know the comfort,
wherewith thou shalt be comforted of God. Earnestness,
indignation, fear, longing, zeal, revenge, are the Apostolic
tokens of penitence, and, by the Apostle's mouth, won the
n " Clothed in sackcloth." The eixxos was " haircloth," (Zech. xiii. 4.
2 Kings i. 8. Matt. iii. 4. Jos. B. Jud. i. 17.) it was the prophet's garb, so that
even false prophets were compelled to assume it. (Zech.l. c.) see also Is. xxx.
2. " Holy preachers are hard, because they speak not soft things to sinners;
they are also hard, because, that they may amend others soundly, they shew,
in their own converse, the hardnesses which they recommend. For hard did
he seem who reproved the Jews, saying, " O generation of vipers, who &c.
Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance." But he who was hard to others was
not relaxed to himself. For, to shew that he held to the hardness of penitence
which he taught, the Evangelist said , " He had raiment of camel's hair &c J*
S. Greg, in 1 Reg. c. v. §. 20.

35
admiration of God Himself (»ro<ri)v). These must first
burn within, then without ; first, consume self as an
offering to God, then burst abroad in the burning longing
for His glory; first, His " Spirit of burning" within, then
that " fire upon the earth," which He would have
" kindled." So alone can the children of the Church,
scattered in the colonies without a shepherd, be gathered
into the fold of Christ ; so alone can the bitter waters of
infidelity and barbarism and heathenish sin, pent up in
our cities, be sweetened by the Cross of Christ. So, alone,
can we " prepare the way of the Lord, and make straight
in the desert a highway for our God." The grace of thy
God to thee shall not have been received in vain, but
shall overflow to the salvation of those for whom, with
thee,*- Christ died. " God Who made the light to shine
out of darkness," when He hath " shined in thy heart,"
shall let His light in thee or thy light in Him, so " shine
before men," in the " good works" which He shall work in
thee, that they shall "glorify thy Father which is in heaven1."
Sorrow for thy sins shall be to thee the Baptism of tears ;
to consume thine years " in labours more abundant" for
Christ's sake, " that where sin abounded, grace may much
more abound," has a portion of the Martyr's Baptism of
blood. " If," says an early Bishop and Martyr', " if any
move Him by his own amends, if by due entreaties, he
appease His wrath, and the displeasure of His indignation,
He too will again give arms to the conquered, renew
and strengthen his powers, quicken his recovered faith.
The soldier shall renew his warfare; enter the battle,
challenge the foe, wrought by his very pangs more valiant
for the fight. Who shall have thus made amends to God,
who by penitence for his deeds, by shame for his sin, shall,
from the very grief for his fall, have gained more of virtue
and of faith, he, heard and holpen by the Lord, shall
* 2 Cor. iv. 6. S. Matt. v. 16. » St. Cyprian de laps. fin.

36
gladden the Church which he lately saddened, and now
shall obtain of God not pardon only, but a crown."
To which He, of His Infinite mercy, bring us sinners,
Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and
reigneth, One God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Note A, page 9.
The original of the passages of S. A mhrose is " Rernittuutur peccata per
Dei verbum, cujus levites interpres et quid am executor est: remittuntur
etiam per offieium sacerdotis, sacrumque ministerium." The contrast in the
two sentences seems to be much the same as in the other places, before
quoted, between the authority of God and the ministry of man. Else
where, he says, " Sins are forgiven by the Holy Ghost, but men supply
their ministry (ministerium) yet do not exercise the right of any power
(jus alieujus potestatis), for they do not forgive sins in their own, but in
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. They
pray, God giveth; the service (obsequium)is through man, the richness of
the gift (munificentia) is from the Power on High." (de Sp. S. iii. 18. §.
137.) As there S.Ambrose contrasts the " right and power" and the " gift,"
on the part of God, with the ¦' obsequium" and " ministerium," on the
part of man, so here " per Dei verbum" as the authority, with the
" executor" and " offieium sacerdotis, sacrumque ministerium," as the
agency employed. The Levite, (more ordinarily the Deacon,) is by
S. Ambrose explained before to be the " Minister Dei." It is possible,
indeed, that by " Dei verbum" S. Ambrose meant, not " the word,"
but " the Word of God," (as he had just said, §. 13. auima in qua habitat
Dei Verbum,) and then " Remittuntur peccata per Dei Verbum" would
be equivalent to whathe says in the de Sp. S." per Spiritum Sanctum peccata
donantur." In this case the meaningwould be " Sins are remitted by the
Word of God, Whose minister and, as it were, executor the Levite is." In
this sense Gratian (de pcenit. dist. 1, c. 51. Verbum Dei) and P.Lombard
(4. dist. 18.) seem to have understood it, (although they quote but little of
the passage and that inaccurately, Verbum Dei dimittit peccata, and
blend with it words from the De Sp. S.) The Benedictines take it of
the word of Gud, as also does Bp. Jewel, (Def. of Apol. P. 2. p. 145.)
although he does not consider the whole passage, breaking off in the
middle, " Remittuntur peccata per verbum Dei, cujus Levites interpres."

37
The meaning of this passage of S. Ambrose is further illustrated by the
well-known passage of S. Augustine, which Bp. Jewel also quotes,
" Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken to you."
Why saith He not, Ye are clean through the Baptism wherewith ye
have been baptized? Saving that in water also the word cleanseth?
Take away the word, and what is water but water ? The word is added
to the element, and it hecomes a Sacrament, which itself also is a sort of
visible word." (in Joh. Tract. 80. §. 3.")
In the same sense S. Augustine defines " the Baptism of Christ," as
" Baptism consecrated by the words ofthe Gospel," (de Bapt. c. Don. vi. §.
47.) and again, (ib.) " God is present with His own Gospel words, without
which the Baptism of Christ cannot be consecrated, and Himself hallows
His own Sacrament." As then Baptism has its efficacy, according to
S. Augustine, not through any power of man, but through the words
which Christ appointed, " In the Name of the Father and" of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost," so also, according to S. Ambrose, has Abso
lution its efficacy, not through any right of man, but through the
" word" of Christ's commission, " Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are
remitted." Man, in either case, is the Minister only.
A third passage which Bp. Jewel and Bingham quote from S. Jerome
does not relate to the subject of absolution of sins into which Christians
fall, but to the forgiveness of sins through the first embracing of the
Faith of Christ. The whole passage is a comment on Is. xiv. 15. " We
all were bound and were held shut up in prison, to whom, being bound,
the Saviour said, ' Go forth,' and to those who were in darkness, ' Shew
yourselves.' ' For the Lord looseth the bound.' Who, being freed by
Him, return thanks, saying, ' Thou hast loosed my bonds.' For each
' is bound by the cords of his sins,' which cords and bonds, the Apostles
too can loose, imitating their Master, Who had said to them, ' Whatso
ever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.' But the
Apostles loose them by the word of God, and testimonies of Scriptures,
and exhortation to virtues. " This wider meaning of the words, (S. Matt.
xviii.) including the first entrance into the Christian covenant, does not,
of course, exclude the more special. S. Chrysostom, S. Ambrose, S Cyril
Alex., S. Leo, unite remission by Baptism and Penitence, yet as distinct
acts of the same Power. (See Sermon i. p. 32. n. s.)
Bp. Jewel himself, it should be said, denies the necessity only, not
the lawfulness of, private confession, nor does he limit " the office of
a S. Augustine, in the context, blends with the word of consecration, the
word as believed, (since without faith Baptism could avail nothing,) yet the
consecrating power he ascribes to the words used at Baptism, just as S. Chrys.
and the Greek fathers. " By what word ?" " In the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." See, further, Tracts on Holy
Baptism, p. 198. ed. 2. and note F. Additional Notes Ed. 1.

38
loosing" to " the preaching of the Gospel." He would restrain it to
" open crimes," yet, in such cases, he believes that " the Minister doth,
after the perfect amendment of such as, by their sins, had banished and
made themselves strangers from, the common fellowship, and from the
Body of Christ, reconcile and restore them to the Company and Unity
of the faithful," (A poi. 6. Dis. 2.) i. e. whereas they were before out of
Christ, they are thereby restored to be " in Christ," the highest spiritual
change which can be !

Note on p. 12. /. 6. " She distinctly says in her Homily "."
(Accidentally omitted.)
a " Of common prayer and Sacraments." And this declaration is the
stronger, because the writer of the Homily is, in that very place, con
tending, that " according to the enact signification of a sacrament,
namely for the visible signs, expressly commanded in the New Testa
ment, whereunto is annexed the promise of free forgiveness of our sin,
and of our holiness and joining in Christ, there be but two, namely
Baptism and the Supper of the Lord." The author of the Homily
continues: " For although absolution hath the promise of forgiveness of
sin ; yet by the express word of the New Testament it hath not this
promise annexed and tied to the visible sign, which is imposition of
hands. For this visible sign(I mean laying on of hands)is not expressly
commanded in the New Testament to be used in Absolution, as the
visible signs in Baptism and the Lord's Supper are : and therefore
Absolution is no such Sacrament as Baptism and the Communion are."

©fjanfes be
to ©oU.

Additional Note on p. 15.
The following additional evidence of the use of Confession and
Absolution in the English Church at the beginning of the 17th century
¦came to the writer's knowledge after this Sermon was printed off.
A few years only after the Visitation Articles of Bp. Overall, are
those of Bp. Andrewes, (Winchester A.D. 1625.) and Bp. Cosin (then
Archdeacon of York) A.D. 1627. They are almost verbally the same
as those of Bp. Overall. Bp. Andrewes omits the words " by the
ministry of God's holy Word" and " together with ghostly advice and
counsel." Bp. Cosin adds in explanation, " if they have consciences
troubled and unquieted with sin," and speaks, in the sequel, of "confes
sion and absolution." The whole passage stands thus, " 26. Doth he
-(as by the Communion-book he is bound to do) admonish and exhort
them, that, if they have consciences troubled and unquieted with sin,
they should resort unto him, or some other learned minister, from whom,
upon opening their grief unto him, they may receive such ghostly counsel
and comfort [in the margin, " if cause be, by confession and absolution"]
as their consciences may thereby be relieved, aud themselves receive the
benefit of absolution, to the quieting their minds, and the avoiding of all
scruple or doubt ?
" 27. And if any man, at that or any other time, being sick or whole,
wish to confess his secret and hidden sins to the priest, for the unbur-
thening of his conscience, &c." So then, shortly after the Canon of 1603,
enjoining Ministers, under heavy penalty, nut to reveal what was
disclosed to them in confession, we have Visitation Articles in three
different Dioceses, enquiring whether Ministers moved their people to
confession, if their cases required it, or whether any were known to have
betrayed what was so confided to him. All three also speak of this
confession being made by persons " whether sick or whole," and
Bp. Cosin adds " at that" (before the Holy Communion) or any other
time. All this implies a real, living, system of Confession and Absolution
in the Church.
In his Devotions, Bp. Cosin enumerates among " the precepts of
the Church," 5) " To receive the Blessed Sacrament of the Body
and Blood of Christ with frequent devotion, and three times a year at
least, of which time Easter to be always one. And the better preparation
¦thereunto, as occasion is, to dishurthen and quiet our consciences of those
sins that may grieve us, or scruples that may trouble us, to a learned or
discreet priest, and from him to receive advice, and the benefit of
absolution."

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