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It does not appear to us that any Ecclesiastical Court can interfere with a clergyman for receiving Confessions in Church. As a matter of fact, we know that many do follow out this injunction. The injunction, however, was worded by a more cautious judgment than Mr. Shaw's. It is not universal. There is an exception for cases of necessity." Now it may frequently be morally impossible for a person, especially in the excited state of controversial feeling just now, to go with any calmness to so public a place. The whole benefit of absolution might in many cases be overthrown by the violence of the effort and the subsequent temptations arising from village talk upon the subject. We cannot conceive that any priest would willingly receive a confession elsewhere than in Church or in Chapel, including under those names the vestry or rooms attached, as may be most convenient for the purpose.

The authority of Bingham is brought forward to prove that absolution may be given without a complete confession. His argument is derived from the absolution in Baptism, where, of course, there is no confession ordinarily preceding. But first: the two cases are quite distinct. Sins before Baptism are not against grace. The whole life is tainted with the death of sin. It is a complete absolution of the whole man-an entire change. Subsequent absolution is the deliverance of the individual from special sins which had begun to eat away the life from him, although that life be not wholly lost. Secondly: it would be doubtful whether Bingham's words really apply at all to the present inquiry. They are directed against the Romanist doctrine of auricular confession being necessary for all. They do not therefore express any opinion as to what should be the method of confession, or what completeness should be required in those cases where individual consciences feel it to be necessary for themselves in particular. A special absolution implies a special sense of needing it; and it must surely be a dangerous thing for any one to come to confession with the intention of holding back some part. It would be difficult to conceive a more fatal snare of Satan. The argument of Bingham does indeed go to prove that, as in Baptism sins are forgiven without being confessed, so in absolution subsequently sins which cannot be remembered will be similarly forgiven. It is of value, therefore, with a view to removing the scruple which might otherwise arise. It is very important, however, to distinguish those two points, which Mr. Shaw continually jumbles up together; viz., (1) that there may be persons whose repentance is complete without confession; and (2) that if persons do come to confession, their confession must be complete to the best of their power, and that it is the priest's duty to help them both in their memory, their understanding, and their will, by suitable exercise of his own judgment in examining their conscience.

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"It may possibly be urged," says Mr. Shaw, "that the absolution is of all sins,' and hence that the confession must be equally complete. This would be a valid inference, as has been already conceded, from the pre-Reformational doctrine on the subject; but it is submitted, on the ground of the authorities already adduced, that there was a change of doctrine upon this head at the Reformation."-P. 32.

True: there was a change of doctrine. Confession was no longer taught to be absolutely necessary for all, or at least it was not enforced at any stated intervals. But there was no change of doctrine as to the necessity of the thing being well done, fully done, religiously done, if it were done at all. The priest, therefore, was to be diligent" to use both public and private monitions and exhortations, as well to the sick as to the whole within [his] cure, as need shall require and occasion shall be given." In visiting the sick he was still to urge the duty, "The sick man shall be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter." Having brought the penitent now to do of his own will what previously he was required to do by the imperious authority of the Church, he comes into the same position towards the penitent as the priest who carried out the Church's law under the old system. The words of absolution therefore run, "I absolve thee from all thy sins,"-words which would, of course, be a violation of the Third Commandment, if the priest supposed that any sin was willingly concealed. When the penitent has made the best use of his own memory, he receives from the priest the assurance that all is past from the memory of GOD,-"Thy sins and thine offences will I remember no more." Moral completeness of penitence brings absolute completeness of pardon. Take away the completeness of man's will, and the completeness of GOD's will is forfeited. If we are to judge ourselves, that we be not judged of the LORD, our act must be as complete as the act of GOD from which we would escape. The freedom of the act seems, indeed, a necessary part of its penitential character; but the completeness of the act is a necessary part of its acceptability. The Church knows nothing of a half pardon, and therefore nothing also of a half confession. In the Church of England confession must be voluntary, but it must be complete. The priest invites the heavy laden to confession by the words authoritatively put into his mouth in the public office. He is bound by private monitions to address the sick and the whole within his cure. He is bound to move the sick man to special confession, and therefore also to see that his confession is as far as possible complete. He is authorised to speak as the representative of GOD, and absolve him from all his sins in the Name of the Holy and Undivided TRINITY.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

Suffragan Bishops and Rural Deans. Some Suggestions relative to the Restoration of Suffragan Bishops and Rural Deans, made by THOMAS BRETT, LL.D., in the year 1711. Edited by JAMES FENDALL, M.A., Rector of Harlton, and Proctor in Convocation for the Diocese of Ely, and late Fellow of Jesus College. Cambridge: Macmillan and Co.

THE Isle of Ely which supplied the first President as well as the journalist of revived Convocation, provides here also a learned and laborious advocate for its increased activity. The hitherto unpublished treatise of the well known Non-juror has been exhumed by Mr. Fendall in support of a brother Proctor's motion for the appointment of Suffragan Bishops. There are undoubtedly several difficulties connected with this proposal. But there is one crying evil connected with the ordinary Diocesan Administration of our day, which seems to put it beyond all question that we ought to labour for some very considerable increase in the Episcopate. We mean the infrequency as regards both times and places, with which Confirmations are now held. We are ourselves persuaded that in Town Parishes this rite should be administered annually and parochially in the country annually in alternate villages. And we should like to see a Suffragan Episcopacy appointed for this single object. Mr. Fendall has our best thanks for his seasonable publication.

1. Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. By J. D. MACBRIDE, D.C.L., Principal of Magdalen Hall. Oxford: J. H. Parker.

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2. Manna in the House, or Daily Expositions of the Acts of the Apostles. By the Rev. BARTON BOUCHER, M.A. Wertheim, Mackintosh, and Hunt.

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HERE we have two Expositions of some part of Holy Scripture, by two representatives of the Low Church party. And most unfeigned is our surprise that any party of persons possessing an average amount of common sense, can allow themselves to be put off with such miserable productions. They profess indeed that they love the Bible, but in reality their teachers evacuate the Bible altogether of its sense. suffice to take a single example, the first Christian Sermon that was ever preached, S. Peter's Discourse, that is, on the Day of Pentecost; of which the practical summing up is, "Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the HOLY GHOST." Mr. Boucher takes this as one of his meals of daily manna, and yet (it will scarcely be believed) there is no mention whatever made by him of Baptism, nor yet of the remission of sins. The Principal of Magdalen Hall is scarcely less evasive. "They were pricked in their hearts by the conviction that they had crucified the MESSIAH," (this is his com

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ment on the passage,) and S. Peter's declaration (of forgiveness) was attested by the strangers hearing these uneducated men speak in their own language." Here, it will be observed, the Principal entirely passes over the application of the promise to "us and to our children," and limits the forgiveness to the act of those (only probably a small portion of his audience) who had "crucified the MESSIAH." And then having so robbed the Sacrament of Baptism of one of its characteristic graces, he proceeds to do the same by the other: assumes that it was of the extraordinary gifts of the HOLY SPIRIT that the LORD was speaking, and goes off in the very next line to a long and wordy disputation on them. Surely this is when people ask for bread, ("manna") to give them a stone !

Confession, a Tale of the Stars and Clouds. By S. HAWOCK. London: Wertheim, Mackintosh, and Hunt.

A SMALL volume with this alarming title contains a greater amount of trash of the most wild and ecstatic nature than we could have believed it possible to accumulate into so much space. The doctrine of Confession, for the promulgation of which the book appears to be written, is somewhat singular; but it serves to show how much a sentiment of religion, however deformed, leads the soul to seek this salutary discipline. It is to be a confession ignoring priest or absolution, and yet NECESSARY to salvation, according to the writer (who seems to be a Plymouth Sister.) Unless persons confess their faults to the assembled Plymouth brethren they will have to answer for them at the judgment day, which judgment on the contrary they may meet with impunity if they have made the prescribed "confession" in their life. The writer is not without power and a sufficient amount of religious feeling to make us sincerely desire that she would study the Catechism, and cease to denominate the Plymouth brethren "Christians" par excellence, to the exclusion of the whole Christian Church. Perhaps the worst feature, of the book is the extremely improper nature of the events recorded, which renders it quite unfit for female readers.

The Seven Deadly Sins. Lectures during Lent 1858. By the Hon. and Rev. R. LIDDELL. London: Hayes.

THESE Lenten Lectures on a subject of great importance, are thoroughly admirable and practical. They show with all the force of sound Catholic teaching the dangerous error into which persons are too prone to fall in failing to recognize the heinousness of some of the sins which rank in the deadly seven, such as pride and sloth, both of which are in the world scarce accounted sins at all. In the first sermon on uncleanness Mr. Liddell points out the true means of reconciliation with the Church from offences of this fatal nature, by her ordinance of confession, and at the close of each lecture he gives very excellent rules for the overcoming of each separate temptation. The series closes with three discourses in Holy Week and Easter, of which that on Easter Eve is very beautiful.

Marie Thérèse de Lamorous, Foundress of the House of La Miséricorde at Bordeaux. Abridged from the French, by the Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe." London: J. H. Parker and Son.

ANY record of a life so heavenly, and a character so unworldly, as that of Mad. de Lamorous, must always be deeply interesting. She was one of those whose history comes like a sunbeam to cheer and give us hope, when the depths of iniquity and godlessness around would lead us almost to despair; and all the more, that the work to which she was called is precisely that to which the thoughts of many are directed at present, in some discouragement. "La Miséricorde was begun with 15 penitents, and contained in 1858, a few years after the founder's death, 440; and her whole system of management has proved so eminently successful, that this little book may be very useful in our English Houses of Mercy.

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We regret that the Author should have thought it necessary to offer so many remarks of her own on this saintly lady's errors of faith ;" and still more that she should have allowed herself to speak lightly on such a subject as the discipline of conscience, as in the passage where she talks of "the fascinating pleasures of self-dissection." We would gently caution this charming writer, that literary success such as hers has been, is very apt to engender an unwomanly self-confidence.

1. Spiritual Destitution in Great Cities. Bell and Daldy.

2. The Parochial System: its Development and Results. A Sermon, by the Rev. HENRY MACKENZIE, Rector of Tydd S. Mary. Skeffington.

3. The Clergy Mission College Fund.

IT is a fact, quite beyond dispute, that the Church-Extension movement is drawing rapidly to a close. This may be owing in part to many causes. In the Diocese of London, probably, where only one Church was consecrated in all last year, and where Missions and Mission-Colleges languish for want of men, it is owing to the worldly, unjust, and tyrannical conduct of the Bishop. But the result which Bishop Tait, by his unworthy conduct has precipitated in London, is advancing generally, though with slower strides, throughout the country. The zeal shown in the cause of religion is not what it was ten or fifteen years ago; and besides that, a feeling has arisen that the mere subdivision of parishes will not effect all that is desired. The three publications indicated above are a proof of this opinion. The Author of the first pamphlet recommends a re-arrangement of the endowments of parishes, and the establishment of Colleges of unmarried Clergy in connection with our Cathedrals. Mr. Mackenzie advocates very eloquently a system of country missions; Mr. Nugee, the founding of mission colleges in the metropolis. Together we may take them as concurring in the conviction, that our parochial system, in its present starved condition of a single untrained and undisciplined Clergyman to sustain the Services of the Church, to instruct the young, and to

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