"exhort men to it as a thing highly convenient in many cases," and that "in all cases no Protestant who understands his religion, is against private confession." The "comfort" of Confession, however, depends entirely on the reality of the Absolution. Whence Archbishop Sharpe concludes, " and lastly upon the full examination of his state and his judgment thereupon, to give him the absolution of the Church."

I

I have already explained that, for the most part, I have been simply passive in this matter. have not preached upon the subject, except before the University, eight years after persons had first come to me to open their griefs. I have been thankful to minister to distress or anxiety whenever it has come to me. To myself, also, it has been a comfort to be thus employed (as I trust) by our Lord, to bind up the broken-hearted. I have been thankful to have been thus occasioned to exercise a pastoral office, instead of being confined to studies or teaching mainly intellectual. But I have not (as I said), " enjoined confession;" I have " encouraged" it mainly, by readily receiving those who applied to me by virtue of the direction of the Church. I have very rarely recommended it to individuals; and that as a single act, on the ground of special circumstances of the case. But your Lordship's published statement far more than covers any thing which I have done, when you say, "It seems to me that men are not to be exhorted, or even invited to per

form it, except in the specific instances for which provision is made in the offices of the Church."

But having already spoken of this more fully in my recent Postscript, I will now only explain two expressions, upon which your Lordship has observed, "the Sacrament of penance," and "auricular confession."

I stated fully, twelve years ago in my letter to the then Bishop of Oxford, and subsequently in that to Dr. Jelf, that the language of the Church of England on the Sacraments, seemed to me to imply these two things: 1. That she, with ancient fathers, distinguished from every thing else, two great Sacraments of the Gospel, those Sacraments "whereby," in the language of St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom," the Church consists," the two Sacraments which flowed from our Blessed Lord's pierced Side, whereby we are united with Him. 2. That there were some other Ordinances, distinguished from these, in that our Lord had appointed no visible sign of them, or had not appointed them at all, or which were not necessary for all, or not of necessity for salvation, in the right use of which, however, grace was received.

4

I said, "Since the Homilies call marriage a 'Sacrament,' it follows that the Articles do not reject the five rites as being in any sense ‘Sacraments.' There is a remarkable correspondence between the Articles and the Homilies, in that both

2

p. 97-106.

4 Letter to Dr. Jelf, p. 34, 35.

3

p. 33-42.

6

5

use qualifying and guarded expressions in speaking of the title of these rites to be called 'Sacraments.' Our Articles do not introduce words at random. It has then some meaning when our Articles say, they are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel,' that they have not like nature of Sacraments;' or the Homilies, that in the exact signification of a Sacrament there be but two,' or that 'Absolution is no such Sacrament as Baptism and the Lord's Supper are,' or that neither it [Absolution] nor any other Sacrament else be such Sacraments as Baptism and the Communion are,' or that 'the ancient writers in giving the name not only to these five, but also to divers other ceremonies, did not mean to repute them as Sacraments in the same signification as the two,' or that St. Augustine, in the exact meaning of the word, makes mention expressly of two.' And with this coincides the definition of our Catechism, that there are two only generally [i. e. in genere, generically, and so universally to the whole class spoken of] necessary to salvation,' the others so entitled, not being of universal obligation, but relating to certain conditions and circumstances of life only. Certainly, persons, who denied these rites to be in any way Sacraments, (according to those larger definitions of St. Augustine, 'a sacred sign,' or a sign applied to things of God,' or of the Schoolmen a sign of a sacred thing,') would have said so at once, and not have so uniformly and

5

6

Homily ix., Of Common Prayer and Sacraments.

guardedly said on each occasion, that they were not such, in the exact' or 'the same signification,' the 'exact meaning,'' such,' 'of the like nature;' nor, of one which they regarded as in no sense a Sacrament, would they have said 'neither it, nor any other Sacrament else." "

Again, the homily lays down what it considers "the exact signification of a Sacrament," namely, "visible signs, expressly commanded in the New Testament, whereunto is annexed the promise of free forgiveness of sins, and of our holiness and joining in Christ, there be but two, namely, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord."

And it then proceeds to say that it is on this very ground, not that it has not true inward grace, but that "this promise is not annexed and tied to the visible sign," that it does not consider Absolution a Sacrament, "in the exact signification of a Sacrament." "For although Absolution hath the promise of forgiveness of sins, 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 Lord's Supper are."

I may add the sequel of this passage of the homily, both in order to give, in the context, words which I

have already quoted from it, as also because it illus. trates the statement of the 25th Article.

"But, in a general acceptation, the name of a Sacrament may be attributed to anything whereby an holy thing is signified. In which understanding of the word, the ancient writers have given this name not only to the other five, commonly, of late years, taken and used for supplying the number of the Seven Sacraments, but also to divers and sundry other ceremonies, as to oil, washing of feet, and such like; not meaning thereby to repute them as Sacraments, in the same signification that the two forenamed Sacraments are. And therefore St. Augustine, weighing the true signification and exact meaning of the word, writing to Januarius, and also in the third book of Christian doctrine, affirmeth that the Sacraments of Christians, as they are most excellent in signification, so are they most few in number;' and in both places maketh mention expressly of two, the Sacrament of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. And although there are retained by the order of the Church of England, besides these two, certain other rites and ceremonies about the institution of Ministers in the Church, Matrimony, Confirmation of Children, by examining them of their knowledge in the Articles of the Faith, and joining thereto the prayers of the Church for them, and likewise for the Visitation of the Sick; yet no man ought to take these for Sacraments in such signification and meaning as the Sacraments of