we look merely to the point of discipline, decency and order, or take higher and more controverted ground, the performance of these solemn ordinances does belong exclusively to the clerical office. Both the rites of baptism and of the eucharist require of necessity the superintendence of some one person to direct their due performance; and it appears to follow naturally from plain reason and the analogy of revelation, that such superintendence falls necessarily into the province of the duly ordained minister. Any interference of the laity on those points would appear, therefore, to be an act of unauthorized presumption, contumacious to the discipline and usefulness of the Church, and of course offensive to God. But still, what shall we say to the yet higher claim asserted by many theologians to the power of absolution? This is a far more difficult and more questionable point. My own views and opinions are as follow. I conceive the usage of confession of our sins and weaknesses to each other (if we suppose it done in full sincerity, for the purpose of

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obtaining an unbiassed opinion respecting our spiritual state, and of receiving consolation and encouragement in our attempts to recover our lost road to a holy life,) to constitute one of the best and most salutary exercises of which our nature is capable. No man is actually a good judge of his own spiritual condition. From an over-sanguine or an overanxious temperament, we are all apt to put either too high or too low an estimate upon ourselves. The mind of some indifferent person, if that person is one who is directed solely by kind, compassionate, yet firm and uncompromising Christian principles, is assuredly the best point of appeal to which we can have recourse for obtaining that reasonable degree of consolation and exhortation which our case requires. Is it then an improbable supposition that God has really annexed a blessing to a course of moral training thus salutary, as it undoubtedly would be where the sincerity, good intention, and sound judgment of both parties, of the penitent and of the referee, were such as they should be?

"What you loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven." Does not this expression authorize us to believe that the comfort and assurance of pardon which, relying upon the merciful tenour of Scripture, we venture to hold out to an erring but repentant brother, will really be ratified by the Almighty himself? I own, I see nothing arrogant in this assumption. It was just in this spirit that the Apostle Paul dealt with the incestuous person mentioned in his Epistles to the Corinthians. That man had been living in an open state of incest; and St. Paul, after severely reprimanding his church for their connivance at sin of this deep character, called upon them to show their own abhorrence of the guilt of the offender, as well as to hold out a salutary lesson to himself, by withdrawing for the present from all intercourse with him. The order was obeyed, and the culprit was accordingly brought to a deep sense of his own criminality. Then it was that the Apostle's language assumed another character. He did not, however, pronounce over him a

solemn and formal absolution, authoritatively remitting his sins, but he did what is much more seemly in a frail human being, and more in conformity with the tenour of Scripture he called upon the Corinthian brethren to restore to him the offices of friendship; to comfort him for what was past; and to prevent his falling into despair, by holding out to him the hopes of pardon as afforded by the Gospel. Let our Church, or let any Church adopt such reasonable and evangelical discipline as this, and the usage of confession and absolution will become one of its brightest and most valuable ornaments'. But not so has human arrogance on one hand, and super

1 The sentiments here expressed on the subject of confession and absolution, are in near accordance with those of Calvin, as conveyed in the third book of his Institutes, chap. 4. sect. 12. "Tametsi Jacobus (Jac. v. 16) neminem nominatim assignando, in cujus sinum nos exoneremus, liberum permittit delectum, ut ei confiteamur, qui ex ecclesiæ grege maximè idoneus fuerit visus; quia tamen pastores præ aliis utplurimum judicandi sunt idonei, potissimum etiam nobis eligendi erunt. Dico autem ideo præ aliis appositos, quòd ipsâ ministerii vocatione nobis a Domino designantur, quo

stition on the other, thought proper to adopt them. Mortal agency, and a new set of mediators between God and man, have been called in, as if for the sole purpose of inter

rum ex ore erudiamur ad subigenda et corrigenda peccata, tum consolationem ex veniæ fiduciâ percipiamus.

"Quemadmodum enim mutuæ admonitionis et correctionis officium Christianis quidem omnibus demandatum est, ministris tamen specialiter est injunctum: sic quum omnes mutuo nos debeamus consolari, et in fiduciâ divinæ misericordiæ confirmare, videmus tamen ministros ipsos, ut de remissione peccatorum certiores reddant conscientias, testes ejus ac sponsores constitui, adeo ut ipsi dicantur remittere Quum audis hoc illis tribui, in

peccata et animas solvere. usum tuum esse cogita.

Ergo id officii sui unusquisque

fidelium esse meminerit, si ita privatim angitur et afflictatur peccatorum sensu, ut se explicare nisi alieno adjutorio nequeat, non negligere quod illi a Domino offertur remedium; nempe, ut ad se sublevandum privatâ confessione apud suum pastorem utatur, ac ad solatia sibi adhibenda privatim ejus operam imploret, cujus officium est et publicè et privatim populum Dei Evangelicâ doctrinâ consolari. Verum eâ moderatione semper utendum est, ne, ubi Deus nihil certum præscribit, conscientiæ certo jugo alligentur. Hinc sequitur, ejus modi confessionem liberam esse oportere, ut non ab omnibus exigatur, sed iis tantum commendetur qui eâ se opus habere intelligent, &c."