rather signify the power and virtue, than the event" of the absolution. And therefore doth the master of the sentences rightly observe, that "God" doth not evermore follow the judgment of the Church: which sometimes judgeth by surreption and ignorance; whereas God doth always judge according to the truth." So the priests "sometimes" declare men to be loosed or bound, who are not so before God: with the penalty of satisfaction or excommunication they sometimes bind such as are unworthy, or loose them; they admit them that be unworthy to the sacraments, and put back them that be worthy to be admitted." That saying therefore of Christ must be understood to be verified in them, saith he, "whose merits do require that they should be loosed or bound. For then is the sentence of the priest approved and confirmed by the judgment of God and the whole court of heaven; when it doth proceed with that discretion, that the merits of them who be dealt withal do not contradict the same: whomsoever therefore they do loose or bind, using the key of discretion according to the parties' merits, they are loosed or bound in heaven, that is to say, with God: because the sentence of the priest, proceeding in this manner, is approved and confirmed by divine judgment." Thus far the master of the sentences: who is followed herein by the rest of the schoolmen; who generally agree, that the power of binding and loosing, committed to the ministers of the Church, is not absolute, but must be limited with Clave non errante, as being then only of force ▾ Ita et hic aperte ostenditur, quod non semper sequitur Deus Ecclesiæ judicium : quæ per surreptionem et ignorantiam interdum judicat ; Deus autem semper judicat secundum veritatem. Petr. Lombard. sentent. lib. 4. distinct. 18. f. Aliquando enim ostendunt solutos vel ligatos, qui ita non sunt apud Deum : et pœna satisfactionis vel excommunicationis interdum indignos ligant vel solvunt; et indignos sacramentis admittunt, et dignos admitti arcent. Sed intelligendum est hoc in illis, quorum merita solvi vel ligari postulant. Tunc enim sententia sacerdotis judicio Dei et totius cœlestis curiæ approbatur et confirmatur ; cum ita ex discretione procedit, ut reorum merita non contradicant. Quoscunque ergo solvunt vel ligant, adhibentes clavem discretionis reorum meritis, solvuntur vel ligantur in cœlis, id est, apud Deum : quia divino judicio sacerdotis sententia sic progressa approbatur et confirmatur. Id. ibid. h. Vid. Gabriel Biel, in eand. distinct. 18. quæst. 1. lit. b. when matters are carried with right judgment, and no error is committed in the use of the keys. : Our Saviour therefore must still have the privilege reserved unto him, of being the absolute Lord over his own house it is sufficient for his officers that they be esteemed as Moses was, 66 faithful in all his house as servants." The place wherein they serve is a steward's place: and the apostle telleth them, that" it is required in stewards, that the man be found faithful." They may not therefore carry themselves in their office, as the unjust" steward did, and presume to strike out their master's debt without his direction, and contrary to his liking. Now we know that our Lord hath given no authority unto his stewards, to grant an acquittance unto any of his debtors, that bring not unfeigned faith and repentance with them. "Neither angel nor archangel can: neither yet the Lord himself, who alone can say, I am with you, when we have sinned, doth release us, unless we bring repentance with us:" saith St. Ambrose; and Eligius bishop of Noyon, in his sermon unto the penitents, "Before all things it is necessary you should know, that, howsoever you desire to receive the imposition of our hands, yet you cannot obtain the absolution of your sins, before the divine piety shall vouchsafe to absolve you by the grace of compunction." To think therefore that it lieth in the power of any priest truly to absolve a man from his sins, without implying the condition of his believing and repenting as he ought to do, is both presumption and madness in the highest degree. * Quod in terra sacerdos, clave non errante, et recto judicio procedens, retinet, nec dimittit, Deus etiam in cœlo retinet, nec dimittit. Tolet. comment. in Johann. cap. 20. y Heb. chap. 10. ver. 5, 6. a Luke, chap. 16. ver. 6, 7, 8. 21 Cor. chap. 4. ver. 2. b Nec angelus potest, nec archangelus: Dominus ipse, qui solus potest dicere: Ego vobiscum sum, si peccaverimus, nisi pœnitentiam deferentibus non relaxat. Ambr. epist. 28. ad Theodosium imp. op. tom. 2. pag. 999. Ante omnia autem vobis scire necesse est; quia licet impositionem manuum nostrarum accipere cupiatis, tamen absolutionem peccatorum vestrorum consequi non potestis, antequam per compunctionis gratiam Divina pietas vos absolvere dignabitur. Eligius Noviomens. homil. 11, tom. 7. biblioth. patr. pag. 248. edit. Colon. Neither dareth cardinal Bellarmine, who censureth this conditional absolution in us for idle and superfluous, when he hath considered better of the matter, assume unto himself, or communicate unto his brethren, the power of giving an absolute one. For he is driven to confess, with others of his fellows, that when the priest "saith, I absolve thee, he doth not affirm that he doth absolve absolutely; as not being ignorant, that it may many ways come to pass that he doth not absolve, although he pronounce those words: namely, if he, who seemeth to receive this sacrament (for so they call it), peradventure hath no intention to receive it, or is not rightly disposed, or putteth some block in the way. Therefore the minister (saith he) signifieth nothing else by those words, but that he, as much as in him lieth, conferreth the sacrament of reconciliation or absolution; which in a man rightly disposed hath virtue to forgive all his sins." Now that contrition is at all times necessarily required for obtaining remission of sins and justification, is a matter determined by the fathers of Trente. But mark yet the mystery. They equivocate with us in the term of contrition and make a distinction thereof into perfect and imperfect. The former of these is contrition properly: the latter they call attrition; which, howsoever in itself it be not true contrition, yet, when the priest with his power of forgiving sins interposeth himself in the business, they tell us that "attrition' by virtue of the keys is made contrition:" that is to say, that a sorrow arising from a servile fear of punishment, and such a fruitless repentances d Nam qui dicit, Ego te baptizo, vel absolvo, non affirmat se absolute baptizare vel absolvere, cum non ignoret multis modis fieri posse, ut neque baptizet, neque absolvat, licet ea verba pronunciet: nimirum si is, qui sacramentum suscipere videtur, forte non habeat suscipiendi intentionem, vel non sit rite dispositus, aut obicem ponat. Igitur minister illis verbis nihil aliud significat, nisi se, quod in se est, sacramentum reconciliationis vel absolutionis impendere, quod vim habet in homine disposito peccata omnia dimittendi. Bellarmin. de pœnitent. lib. 2. cap. 14. sec. penult. e Concil. Tridentin. sess. 14. cap. 4. Romani correctores gloss. Gratiani, De pœnitent. distinct. 1. in principio: et alii passim. Matt. chap. 27. ver. 3, 4, 5. as the reprobate may carry with them to hell, by virtue of the priest's absolution, is made so fruitful, that it shall serve the turn for obtaining forgiveness of sins, as if it had been that "godly sorrow, which worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." By which spiritual cozenage many poor souls are most miserably deluded, while they persuade themselves, that, upon the receipt of the priest's acquittance upon this carnal sorrow of theirs, all scores are cleared until that day; and then, beginning upon a new reckoning, they sin and confess, confess and sin afresh, and tread this round so long, till they put off all thought of saving repentance; and so, the blind following the blind, both at last fall into the pit. "Evil and wicked, carnal, natural, and devilish men," saith St. Augustine, "imagine those things to be given unto them by their seducers; which are only the gifts of God, whether sacraments, or any other spiritual works concerning their present salvation." But such as are thus seduced may do well to listen a little to this grave admonition of St. Cyprian: "Let' no man deceive, let no man beguile himself: it is the Lord alone that can shew mercy. He alone can grant pardon to the sins committed against him, who did himself bear our sins, who suffered grief for us, whom God did deliver for our sins. Man cannot be greater than God; neither can the servant by his indulgence remit or pardon that which by heinous trespass is committed against the Lord; lest to him that is fallen this yet be added as a further crime, if he be ignorant of that which is said, Cursed is the man that putteth his trust in b 2 Cor. chap. 7. ver. 10. i Matt. chap. 15. ver. 14. Mali et facinorosi, carnales, animales, diabolici, a seductoribus suis sibi dari arbitrantur, quæ non nisi munera Dei sunt, sive sacramenta, sive spirituales aliquas operationes, circa præsentem salutem. Augustin. de baptism. contra Donatist. lib. 3. cap. ult. I Nemo se fallat, nemo se decipiat: solus Dominus misereri potest. Veniam peccatis, quæ in ipsum commissa sunt, solus potest ille largiri, qui peccata nostra portavit; qui pro nobis doluit, quem Deus tradidit pro peccatis nostris. Homo Deo esse non potest major; nec remittere aut donare indulgentia sua servus potest, quod in Dominum delicto graviore commissum est: ne adhuc lapso et hoc accedat ad crimen, si nesciat esse prædictum; Maledictus homo qui spem habet in homine. Cyprian. de lapsis, op. pag. 186. man." Whereupon St. Augustine sticketh not to say, that good ministers do consider that "they" are but ministers; they would not be held for judges, they abhor that any trust should be put in them :" and that the power of remitting and retaining sins is committed unto the Church, to be dispensed therein, "not" according to the arbitrament of man, but according to the arbitrament of God." Whereas our adversaries lay the foundation of their Babel upon another ground: that " Christ hath appointed priests to be judges upon earth with such power, that none falling into sin after baptism may be reconciled without their sentence; and hath put the authority of binding and loosing, of forgiving and retaining the sins of men, in their arbitrament." Whether the ministers of the gospel may be accounted judges in some sort, we will not much contend: for we dislike neither that saying of St. Hierome, that, "having the keys of the kingdom of heaven, they judge after a sort before the day of judgment:" nor that other of St. Gregory, that the apostles, and such as succeed them in the government of the Church, "obtain a principality of judgment from above; that they may in God's stead retain the sins of some and release the sins of others." All the question is, in what sort they do judge; and whether the validity of their judgment do depend upon the truth of the conversion of the penitent: wherein, if our Romanists Ministri enim sunt; pro judicibus haberi nolunt, spem in se poni exhorrescunt. Augustin, in evangel, Johann. tract. 5. op. tom. 3. par. 2. pag. 227. Non secundum arbitrium hominum, sed secundum arbitrium Dei. Id. de baptism. contra Donatist. lib. 3. cap. 18. • Christus instituit sacerdotes judices super terram, cum ea potestate: ut, sine ipsorum sententia, nemo post baptismum lapsus reconciliari possit. Bellarm. de pœnit. lib. 3. cap. 2, P Igitur in horum arbitrio munus solvendi et ligandi, et remittendi et retinendi peccata hominum, a Christo Domino, per Spiritum Sanctum fuisse positum, liquido constat. Baron. annal. tom. 1. ann. 34, sec. 197; a Qui, claves regni cœlorum habentes, quodammodo ante judicii diem judicant. Hieronym. epist. 5. ad Heliodorum. op. tom. 4, par 2. pag. 10. Principatum superni judicii sortiuntur; ut vice Dei quibusdam peccata retineant, quibusdam relaxent, Gregor. homil. 26, in evangel, op. tom. 1. pag. |