both voluntary and involuntary: deliver them from everlasting punishment. For thou art he who didst command us, saying; Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven; forasmuch as thou art our God, a God who art able to shew mercy, and save, and forgive sins: and glory becometh thee, together with the Father who is without beginning, and the Spirit the author of life, now and ever, and world without end. Amen."

Yea, in the days of Thomas Aquinas there arose a learned man among the papists themselves, who found fault with that indicative form of absolution then used by the priest, "I absolve thee from all thy sins," and would have it delivered by way of deprecation: alleging, that this was not only the opinion of Guilielmus Altisiodorensis, Guilielmus Parisiensis, and Hugo Cardinalis; but also that thirty years were scarce passed, since all did use this form only, "Absolutionem et remissionem tribuat tibi omnipotens Deus; Almighty God give unto thee absolution and forgiveness." What Thomas doth answer hereunto, may be seen in his little treatise of the form of absolution, which upon this occasion he wrote unto the general of his order. This only will I add, that, as well in the ancient rituals and in the new pontifical' of the Church of Rome, as in the present practice of the Greek Church, I find the absolution expressed in the third person, as attributed wholly to God; and not in the first, as if it came from the priest himself. One ancient form of absolution used among the Latins, was this: "Almighty God be merciful unto thee, and forgive thee all thy sins, past, present, and to come, visible and invisible, which thou hast com

* Addit etiam objiciendo, quod vix 30. anni sunt, quod omnes hac sola forma utebantur; Absolutionem et remissionem, &c. Thom. opusc. 22. cap. 5. y Pontificale Roman. edit. Rom. ann. 1595. pag. 567, 568.

z Absolutio criminum. Misereatur tui omnipotens Deus, et dimittat tibi omnia peccata tua, præterita, præsentia et futura, quæ commisisti coram eo et sanctis ejus, quæ confessus es, vel per aliquam negligentiam, seu oblivionem vel malevolentiam abscondisti: liberet te Deus ab omni malo, hic et in futuro, conservet et confirmet te semper in omni opere bono: et perducat te Christus filius Dei vivi ad vitam sine fine manentem. Confitentium ceremoniæ antiqu. edit. Colon. ann. 1530.

mitted before him and his saints, which thou hast confessed, or by some negligence or forgetfulness or evil will hast concealed: God deliver thee from all evil, here and hereafter, preserve and confirm thee always in every good work; and Christ, the son of the living God, bring thee unto the life which remaineth without end." And so among the Grecians: "Whatsoevera sins the penitent for forgetfulness or shamefacedness doth leave unconfessed, we pray the merciful and most pitiful God, that those also may be pardoned unto him; and we are persuaded that he shall receive pardon of them from God:" saith Jeremy the late patriarch of Constantinople. Where by the way you may observe no such necessity to be here. held, of confessing every known sin unto a priest, that if either for shame, or for some other respect, the penitent do not make an entire confession, but conceal somewhat from the notice of his ghostly father, his confession should thereby be made void, and he excluded from all hope of forgiveness: which is that engine, whereby the priests of Rome have lift up themselves into that height of domineering and tyrannizing over men's consciences, wherewith we see they now hold the poor people in most miserable awe.

Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure, in the form of absolution used in their time, observe that "prayer" was premised in the optative, and absolution adjoined afterward in the indicative mood;" whence they gather, that the "priest's prayer obtaineth grace, his absolution presupposeth it:" that by the former he ascendeth unto God,

• ὅσα δὲ διὰ λήθην ἡ αἰδῶ ἀνεξομολόγητα ἐάσειεν, εὐχόμεθα τῷ ἐλεήμονι καὶ πανοικτίρμονι θεῷ καὶ ταῦτα συγχωρηθῆναι αὐτῷ· καὶ πεπείσμεθα τὴν σvyxúρηow ToÚTwv ir 0εoũ Xýþεolat. Jerem. patriarch. C. P. respons. 1. ad Tubingenses, cap. 11.

b Secundum quod ascendit, habet se per modum inferioris et supplicantis: secundum quod descendit, per modum superioris et judicantis. Secundum primum modum potest gratiam impetrare, et ad hoc est idoneus: secundum secundum modum potest Ecclesiæ reconciliare. Et ideo in signum hujus, in forma absolutionis præmittitur oratio per modum deprecativum, et subjungitur absolutio per modum indicativum: et deprecatio gratiam impetrat ; et absolutio gratiam supponit. Alexand. Halens. summ. part. 4. quæst. 21. membr. 1. et Bonaventur. in. 4. sentent. dist. 18. art. 2. quæst. 1.

and procureth pardon for the fault, by the latter he descendeth to the sinner, and reconcileth him to the Church; for "although a man be loosed before God," saith the master of the sentences," yet is he not held loosed in the face of the Church, but by the judgment of the priest. "And this loosing of men, by the judgment of the priest, is by the fathers generally accounted nothing else but a restoring of them to the peace of the Church, and an admitting of them to the Lord's table again: which therefore they usually express by the terms of " bringing them to the communion, reconciling them to or with the communion, restoring the communion to them, admitting them to fellowship, grantingh them peace, &c. Neither do we find that they did ever use any such formal absolution as this, I absolve thee from all thy sins: wherein our popish priests notwithstanding do place the very form of their late devised sacrament of penance; nay, hold it to be so absolute a form, that, according to Thomas Aquinas his new divinity, "it would not be sufficient to say, Almighty God have mercy upon thee, or, God grant unto thee absolution and forgiveness ;" because, forsooth, "the priest by these words doth not signify that the absolution is done, but entreateth that it may be done;" which how it will accord with the Roman pontifical, where the form of absolution is laid down prayer-wise, the Jesuits who follow Thomas may do well to consider.

I pass this over, that in the days not only of St. Cy

c Quia etsi aliquis apud Deum sit solutus, non tamen in facie Ecclesiæ solutus habetur, nisi per judicium sacerdotis. Petr. Lombard. lib. 4. sentent. distinct. 18. Vid. Ivon. Carnotens. epist. 228. et Anselm. in Luc. 17.

4 προσάγεσθαι τῷ κοινωνίᾳ. Concil. Laodicen. can. 2.

e Communioni, vel communione reconciliari. Concil. Eliberitan. can. 72. f Reddi eis communionem. Amb. de pænitent. lib. 1. cap. 2. et lib. 2. cap. 9. op. tom. 2. pag. 391, et 434.

Ad communicationem admittere. Cypr. epist. 53. Communicationem dare. Id. epist. 54. Tribuere communicationem. Id. de lapsis. Op. pag. 186. h Pacem dare; concedere pacem. Id. ibid.

In sacramentali absolutione non sufficeret dicere, Misereatur tui omnipotens Deus; vel, Absolutionem et remissionem tribuat tibi Deus: quia per hæc verba sacerdos absolutionem non significat fieri, sed petit ut fiat. Thom. part. 3. quæst. 84. art. 3. ad 1.

prian*, but of Alcuinus' also, who lived eight hundred years after Christ, the reconciliation of penitents was not held to be such a proper office of the priest; but that a deacon, in his absence, was allowed to perform the same. The ordinary course that was held herein, according to the form of the ancient canons, is thus laid down by the fathers of the third council of Toledo; that the priest should "first suspend him that repented of his fault from the communion, and make him to have often recourse unto imposition of hands, among the rest of the penitents: then, when he had fulfilled the time of his satisfaction, as the consideration of the priest did approve of it, he should restore him to the communion." And this was a constitution of old, fathered upon the apostles: that bishops "should" separate those, who said they repented of their sins, for a time determined according to the proportion of their sin; and afterward receive them being penitent, as fathers would do their children." To this penitential excommunication and absolution belongeth that saying, either of St. Ambrose or St. Augustine (for the same discourse is attributed to them both), "He", who hath truly performed his repentance, and is loosed from that bond wherewith he was tied, and separated from the body of Christ, and doth live well after his repentance: whensoever after his reconciliation he shall

Cyprian. epist. 12. op. pag. 22.

Alcuin. de divin. offic. cap. 13. in capite Jejunii.

m Ut secundum formam canonum antiquorum dentur pœnitentiæ, hoc est, ut prius eum, quem sui pœnitet facti, a communione suspensum, faciat inter reliquos pœnitentes ad manus impositionem crebro recurrere; expleto autem satisfactionis tempore, sicuti sacerdotalis contemplatio probaverit, eum communioni restituat. Concil. Toletan. III. cap. 11.

ἢ τοὺς ἐφ ̓ ἁμαρτίαις λέγοντας μετανοεῖν ἀφορίζειν χρόνον ὡρισμένον κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τοῦ ἁμαρτήματος· ἔπειτα μετανοοῦντας προσλαμBaviola, we aтépes viovs. Constitut. apostolic. lib. 2. cap. 16.

• Qui egerit veraciter pœnitentiam, et solutus fuerit a ligamento quo erat constrictus, et a Christi corpore separatus, et bene post pœnitentiam vixerit; post reconciliationem quandocumque defunctus fuerit, ad Dominum vadit, ad requiem vadit, regno Dei non privabitur, et a populo Diaboli separabitur. Ambros. in exhortat. ad pœnitent. Augustin. serm. 393. op. tom. 5. pag. 1507. et inter Cæsarii Arelat. sermones, homil. 43, et 44.

depart this life, he goeth to the Lord, he goeth to rest; he shall not be deprived of the kingdom of God, and from the people of the devil he shall be separated." And that which we read in Anastasius Sinaita: "Bind him, and till thou hast appeased God do not let him loose; that he be not more bound with the wrath of God; for if thou bindest him not, there remain bonds for him that cannot be broken. Neither do we enquire, whether the wound were often bound; but whether the binding hath profited. If it have profited, although in a short time, use it no longer. Let the measure of the loosing be the profit of him that is bound:" and that exhortation, which another maketh unto the pastors of the Church: "Bind" with separation such as have sinned after baptism, and loose them again when they have repented, receiving them as brethren: for the saying is true; Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed in heaven."

That this authority of loosing remaineth still in the Church, we constantly maintain against the heresy of the Montanists and Novatians, who upon this pretence among others, that God only had power to remit sins, took away the ministerial power of reconciling such penitents as had committed heinous sins; denying that the Church had any warrant to receive them to her communion again, and to the participation of the holy mysteries, notwithstanding their repentance were ever so sound.

• Δῆσον οὖν αὐτὸν, καὶ ἕως ἂν ἐξιλεώσῃ τὸν θεὸν, μὴ ἀφῆς λελυμένον, ἵνα μὴ πλέον δεθῇ τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ ὀργῇ· ἂν γὰρ μὴ δήσῃ τὰ ἄῤῥηκτα αὐτὸν μένει δεσμὰ· &c. ἀλλ ̓ οὐδὲ γὰρ εἰ πολλάκις ἐπεδέθη τὸ τραῦμα, ζητοῦμεν, ἀλλ ̓ ἢ ὤνησέ τι ὁ δεσμὸς ; εἰ μὲν ὠφέληκε καὶ ἐν χρόνῳ βραχεῖ, μηκέτι προσκείσθω· καὶ ὅρος οὗτος ἔστω λύσεως τοῦ δεδεμένου τὸ κέρδος. Anastas, Sinait. quæst. 6.

4 δήσατε ἀφορισμῷ τοὺς μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα ἁμαρτήσαντας, καὶ λύσατε αὐτοὺς πάλιν μετανοοῦντας, ὡς ἀδελφοὺς αὐτοὺς προσδεχόμενοι. ἀληθὴς γὰρ ἔστιν ὁ λόγος· Οσα ἂν λύσητε ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἔσται λελυμένα ἐν τῷ oupavý. Homil. in illud: Quæcunque ligaveritis &c. inter opera Chrysost. tom. 9. pag. 845.

Hieron. epist. 54. contra Montanum, et lib. 2. advers. Jovinian. Tertullianus Montanizans, in lib. de pudicitia, cap. ult.

Ambros. lib. 1. de pœnit. cap. 2. Socrat. lib. 1. hist. cap. 7. Sozom. lib. 1. cap. 21.