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 TWO 'SERMONS 
 
 /«. . &A ft 1 "* « - 
 
 ON CONFESSION, 
 
 PRLACHED IV 
 
 QUEBEC CHAPEL, 
 
 EDWARD MEYRICK GOULBURN, D.D, 
 
 PREBENDARY OP ST. PAUL'S, AND 
 CH API AIM IN ORDINARY TO THE QUEEN. 
 
 ILonton : 
 
 RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE. 
 RUGBY : CROSSLEY AND BILLIVgTON. 
 
 MDCCCLVI1I. 

 
 £a 
 
 Sir 3amcs 3. Hamilton, Bart., 
 
 3 member of tjje congregation of ©ueoec (Chapel, 
 
 Ojrse Sermons are inscribed, 
 
 in acknofoUogmcnt 
 
 of mucfj fcintmcss recciueo from rjim.
 
 £ 
 
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 UiUC
 
 PREFACE 
 
 These Sermons are published in compli- 
 ance with a wish expressed to me by 
 some members of my congregation, who 
 have thought that at the present crisis 
 they might be useful. 
 
 In sending them forth, I cannot help 
 observing that the most painful particu- 
 lars of the Controversy, which gave rise 
 to the publication, might have been sup- 
 pressed, if the question had been treated 
 both by plaintiffs and defendants as one 
 of principle. The sole point at issue is, 
 whether we, the Clergy, are commissioned 
 and authorised to examine and sit in 
 judgment on the consciences of the
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 people ; — a function totally different from 
 that of receiving, and advising them upon, 
 any disclosures of their spiritual state, 
 which they may see fit to make to us. 
 If so, the Seventh Commandment, no 
 less than the Fourth and Fifth, must be 
 made a head of Examination ; for it can- 
 not be for a moment pretended that we 
 may dispense with the application of any 
 part of God's Law. But if, on the other 
 hand, we are not Examiners or Judges of 
 the conscience at all, but simply advisers 
 in cases of perplexity and distress, then 
 we have no right to ask questions on any 
 commandment, and we pass out of our 
 province, when we do so. 
 
 The English mind, however, is given 
 to deal with practical details rather than 
 with theory. And accordingly it seems
 
 
 PREFACE. VII 
 
 not to have taken the alarm about the 
 Confessional, until the principle of it was 
 applied (or said to be applied) to subjects 
 of a particular class, which had much 
 better alwa) r s remain under the veil which 
 delicacy throws over them. The writer 
 of these Sermons cannot help avowing 
 his conviction that those, who first pre- 
 sented the question to the Public under 
 this aspect, have much to answer for. 
 While, intellectually, this manner of 
 dealing with it draws off the attention 
 from the real point at issue, it does a 
 moral wrong to the defendants and to the 
 public ; to the defendants, because it 
 raises a prejudice against them, throws 
 into the background the principle on 
 which they act, and hazards a judgment 
 unfavourable to them, from passion rather
 
 VIII PREFACE. 
 
 than from reason ; to the public, because 
 it ministers to that morbid curiosity 
 which finds a place in all impure minds, 
 and risks the corruption of others, who 
 were heretofore simple and guileless. 
 
 E. M. G.
 
 CONFESSION; 
 
 AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE ENGLISH 
 CHURCH THEREUPON.
 
 22 
 
 CONFESSION ; 
 
 and the 
 DOCTRINE OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 
 
 " H foe confrss our sins, $?e ts fattljful nno just to 
 *' iorcjibc us our sins."— I Ifoljit t. 9. 
 
 "DPiAYER (in the wide sense of the 
 word) is a varied melody, now rising, 
 now falling upon the ear. It has its bass 
 notes and its high notes, its plaintive 
 cadences and its jubilant cadences, or, (to 
 transfer the imagery from the domain of 
 sound to that of sight) it has its gleams 
 of sunlight and its depths of shadow. 
 The Psalms supply us with an illustration 
 of this chequered aspect of Prayer. The 
 Psalmists run their lingers, in that won- 
 derful Book, over the whole key-board of
 
 4 CONFESSION ; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 devotional utterance. At one moment 
 the harp gives forth a plaintive note of 
 humiliation and almost despondency. 
 " By the waters of Babylon we sat down 
 " and wept, when we remembered thee, 
 " Sion." " Why art thou so vexed, my 
 "soul; and why art thou so disquieted 
 " within me ?" At another it is strung 
 up to a symphony with the harps of 
 angels, and the singer summons all crea- 
 tures from the height above, and from the 
 depth beneath, rational and irrational, 
 animate and inanimate, to swell the chorus 
 of God's high Praise : "0 praise the 
 ' Lord of heaven : praise Him in the 
 ' height. Praise Him, all ye angels of 
 ' His : praise Him, all His host. Praise 
 ' Him, sun and moon : praise Him, all 
 ' ye stars and light. Praise the Lord 
 ' upon earth, ye dragons and all deeps ; 
 ; Fire and hail, snow and vapours : wind 
 1 and storm, fulfilling His word." 
 
 It is with the low and plaintive caden-
 
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 5 
 
 ccs of Prayer that we purpose to deal 
 this morning; in other words, we shall 
 speak to you of Confession of Sin. It is 
 a- subject appropriate to the season of 
 Lent, when humiliation is the key-note of 
 our Services. 
 
 May God, according to the just and 
 well-considered terms of our Lenten 
 Collect, enable us worthily to lament our 
 sins and acknowledge our wretchedness ! 
 
 I. Our first remark is, that confession 
 of sin should be a real element in the de- 
 votional system of each one of us. Are you 
 prepared to admit this, and to admit it to 
 its full extent ? It is very simply proved. 
 Confession is nothing more nor less than 
 the practical recognition of our sinfulness 
 and of our sins. Now both our sinful- 
 ness and our -in- arc always with us in 
 this life. "The infection of nature," 
 say- the ninth Article, " doth remain, yea 
 k> in them that are regenerated." Holy 
 Baptism does not remove this infection.
 
 O CONFESSION; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 Renewal by the Holy Ghost does not 
 remove it. Sincere conversion does not 
 remove it. And being always with us, 
 and abiding as a dark plague spot in our 
 heart, it must come out in definite acts. 
 The outcomings of sinfulness are sins ; 
 and therefore, as we unquestionably retain 
 sinfulness, notwithstanding all the pro- 
 cesses of grace upon us and within us, 
 we cannot but commit sins and carry them 
 with us to our grave. As saith the Scrip- 
 ture; "There is no man that sinneth 
 " not." " A just man falleth seven times 
 " a day;" (i.e., a perfect number of times, 
 seven being accounted a perfect number 
 in Scripture, from the circumstance of 
 the creation of the world in six days). 
 And again, in the context of the passage 
 which I read as my text ; "If we say 
 "that we have no sin, we deceive our- 
 " selves, and the truth is not in us." The 
 fact then of our being both sinful and 
 sinners being indisputable, the just echo to
 
 OF THE BNGLI9H CHURCH THEREUPON. 7 
 
 this fact in our religious system is con- 
 fession of sin. Such confession would 
 not enter as an element into the religion 
 of unfallen angels. Not that even their 
 religion is without its lower and more 
 suhdued cadences. For although not 
 sinful creatures, they are yet creatures, 
 and so momentarily dependent upon God 
 for their preservation in existence, and 
 nothings in the eyes of the Infinite ; the 
 echo to which truth in their religion is 
 simply reverence and awe (" with twain of 
 " their wings they cover their face, and 
 " with twain they cover their feet"). But, 
 guilt does not throw its deep and fearful 
 shadow upon the homage of angels, as it 
 must necessarily do upon ours. Their 
 humiliation stands simply in the relation 
 which they naturally hold as creatures 
 towards their Creator ; ours alas ! in the 
 manner in which we have violated and 
 ruptured that relation. 
 
 The Psalms, to which we have already
 
 8 CONFESSION; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 referred, are the great Prayer Book of the 
 Bible, comprising all the devotional utter- 
 ances of the heart. x\.nd we find among 
 these devotional utterances, (what less 
 could we expect to find a priori?) constant 
 confessions of sin in its clinging power, 
 and in its morbid deadly outward symp- 
 toms. Witness the following figurative 
 expressions, the first which suggest them- 
 selves: "My loins are filled with a sore 
 " disease, and there is no whole part in 
 " my body. My wickednesses are gone 
 " over my head, and are like a sore bur- 
 " den, too heavy for me to bear." 
 
 The Roman Church (whose very serious 
 error in this matter I shall presently jjoint 
 out) has at all events seen vividly the truth 
 which I am contending for; viz. that con- 
 fession must enter as an essential element 
 into every system of Religion designed 
 for man in his present state. In the 
 Sacrament (as she calls it) of Penance, 
 she has dealt with Confession as with
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEEEUPON. 9 
 
 many other godly doctrines and practices, 
 crystallizing it into a formality. Pro- 
 testants are in danger of the opposite 
 extreme, that of taking a superficial view 
 of the necessity of Confession (or at least 
 of the necessity of it as concurrent with 
 our daily life). The Church of England, 
 rightly interpreted, has I believe hit the 
 true mark ; in this, as in most other mat- 
 ters of doctrine and practice, the true 
 exponent of Scriptural moderation and 
 good sense. 
 
 II. Our second remark is, that if Con- 
 fession is to become in reality part and 
 parcel of the religious system of each 
 individual, — if it is to enter as an element 
 into his devotion, — it must not be point- 
 less and vague, but definite and precise. 
 It must turn upon those particular faults 
 of conduct and character, of which we 
 are personally conscious. Every one is 
 ready to assent to a general self-accusa- 
 tion. Such an accusation means nothing
 
 10 CONFESSION ; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 — implies nothing in the heart of the 
 person making it ; and indeed implies 
 nothing in his mind beyond a cold and 
 barren assent to the Scriptural statement 
 that all men (and therefore he as one of 
 the number) are sinners. If Confession 
 is to lose this vagueness and to acquire a 
 significance, it must be the result of close 
 and sifting self-examination, a self-exa- 
 mination which shall probe the conscience 
 to its depths. And this self-examination 
 must turn not upon our actions simply ; 
 it must go deeper, and scrutinize the 
 motives, or what the Apostle calls those 
 " secrets of the heart, which shall be 
 " made manifest at the last day." It must 
 aim, not merely at bringing to light erron- 
 eous conduct, but at ascertaining the 
 general drift and current of our character. 
 It must not rest contented with a general 
 survey of our faults ; but must unmask, 
 if possible, the ruling passion. 
 
 Let me ask (before we pass on) of each
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 11 
 
 one of my hearers, whether they are even 
 attempting to practise such a self-exami- 
 nation? Do they make the attempt more 
 or less daily? Do they make it at all 
 events before each reception of the Holy 
 Communion ? I do not hesitate to say 
 that in the absence of self-examination, 
 self-discipline there can be none, or (to 
 put the same assertion in more Scriptural 
 phraseology) watchfulness there can be 
 none, and even prayer there can be none; 
 for the mere repetition of a form of pra; 
 irrespective of our particular wants and 
 temptations, hardly deserves the name of 
 Prayer. I do not hesitate to say that the 
 man who has never searched his own 
 conscience at all, neither as a duty, nor 
 from being turned in upon himself by 
 some providential dispensation, has n 
 really confessed his sins at all. 
 
 But it may be asked, — Does not our 
 Church place in the forefront of her Pub- 
 lic Worship a general Confession ; a con-
 
 12 CONFESSION i AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 fession whose ample terms embrace all 
 mankind universally, and which seems to 
 eschew all details of wrong sentiment 
 and wrong action ? No doubt she does 
 so ; but her intention, here and elsewhere 
 in her formularies, is that under the 
 general expression should be represented 
 in the mind of each individual that indi- 
 vidual's case. Each man is to glance 
 mentally at his own sins, as he repeats 
 the General Confession ; at his own 
 wants, as he follows the Collects and 
 Lord's Prayer; at his own mercies, as he 
 follows the General Thanksgiving. Do 
 you desire to hear the Old Testament 
 tvne of a Christian congregation confess- 
 ing their sins ? It is to be found in that 
 ordinance of the Levitical Law, which 
 prescribes the expiation of the sin of the 
 whole congregation of Israel. " The con- 
 ; ' gregation," it is said, " shall offer a 
 " young bullock for the sin, and bring 
 " him before the tabernacle of the con-
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 13 
 
 " gregation. And the elders of the 
 " congregatioD shall lay their hands upon 
 "the head of the bullock before the 
 
 " Lord ; and the bullock shall be killed 
 " before the Lor J.." 
 
 The victim stood in the midst; and 
 towards his head, as to a common centre, 
 the hands of the ciders, who represented 
 the people, converged from every quarter. 
 The One True Victim, slain in the coun- 
 sels of eternity from the foundation of the 
 world, is the Lord Jesus Christ. The 
 special presence of that great Victim is in 
 the midst of the two or throe gathered 
 together in His Name. In every genuine 
 act of Public Confession, hearts from all 
 quarters encircle the Victim, and bring 
 each one its own burden, and each one 
 its own bitterness, to lay it with the 
 outstretched hand of faith on that 
 sacred and devoted Head. Accordingly, 
 where in our Authorised Translation 
 of the Bible we read. " The Lord
 
 14 CONFESSION; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 " hath laid on Him the iniquity of 
 " us all," the more literal rendering in 
 the margin runs thus, — " The Lord 
 " hath made to meet on him the iniqui- 
 " ties of us all." Each man's iniquity, of 
 which he and he alone is conscious, is 
 made to meet with his neighbour s in the 
 common centre of Christ's Atonement ; — 
 this is Public Confession ; — after which 
 the Priest rising from his knees, while 
 the congregation remain kneeling, an- 
 nounces to each burdened heart that the 
 Victim has been slain for it, and that His 
 Blood cleanseth from all sin the penitent 
 and believing; — this is Public Absolution. 
 Remember, then, that beneath those com- 
 pr< hensive terms of humiliation, there 
 should be a special subaudi in each indi- 
 vidual case, — a tacit mental reference on 
 the part of each Christian to those parti- 
 cular faults of character and conduct, 
 which self-examination conducted in pri- 
 vacy has in him brought to light.
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 15 
 
 III. But it may be asked, (and the con- 
 troversial times on which we are thrown 
 make it necessary to meet this question 
 with a very unequivocal answer), does 
 the Church of England recommend to 
 her sons and daughters, in the matter of 
 confession, nothing of a more specific 
 character than what we have announced ? 
 I answer, nothing more as a general rule, 
 nothing more as the normal state of 
 things, though for exceptional cases, which 
 will from time to time arise, a special 
 provision is wisely made. 
 
 The exception is stated, and the speci- 
 fic provision made, in the following terms : 
 " And because it is requisite that no man 
 " should come to the Holy Communion, 
 " but with a full trust in God's mercy, and 
 " with a quiet conscience ; therefore, if 
 " there be any of you who, by this means/' 
 (the means of self-examination by the 
 Commandments) " cannot quiet his own 
 " conscience herein, but require th further
 
 16 CONFESSION; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 ' comfort or counsel, let liira come to me 
 4 or to some other discreet and learned 
 ' minister of God's Word, and open his 
 c grief, that by the ministry of God's 
 ' holy Word, he may receive the benefit 
 1 of absolution, together with ghostly 
 1 counsel and advice, to the quieting of 
 1 his conscience, and avoiding of all 
 ' scruple and doubtfulness." 
 
 I do not know any passage of the 
 Prayer Book, which, rightly understood, 
 more wears the aspect of common sense 
 than this. To exhibit it figuratively, the 
 counsel given is as follows : A minister 
 of Christ may be regarded as a spiritual 
 physician, entrusted with that healing balm 
 of God's Word, which is the great restora- 
 tive of diseased and troubled consciences. 
 What the Prayer Book says, in the passage 
 I have quoted, amounts exactly to this ; 
 " If, on examination of your state of 
 " health, you find yourself sick, I recom- 
 ' ' mend your seeking out and resorting to
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON, 17 
 
 a discreet and learned physician." The 
 implication clearly is, whatever some de- 
 vout and good men may have conceived 
 to the contrary, that, if we find ourselves 
 well, or at least able to treat our own case, 
 we shall not resort to him. Is not this 
 the plain rule of reason in the analogous 
 case of the treatment of the body ? 
 Would any one in his sound mind recom- 
 mend regular and habitual consultation 
 of a physician, where a person is on the 
 whole in good health ? Would not such 
 consultation be very probably attended 
 with mischievous results, leading to a 
 morbid magnifying of little symptoms, a 
 resort to nostrums, and generally to the 
 formation of invalid habits, which habits 
 engender constitutional weakness more 
 often than they cure it ? And, in the 
 analogous case of the soul, why run, 
 without special cause immediately calling 
 for it, to the human spiritual physician ? 
 Is it not far better, healthier, sounder, if
 
 18 CONFESSION; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 you can do so without perturbation of 
 mind, to walk alone with your God. 
 resorting only to that Divine Physician, 
 who holds in his hand the balm of Aton- 
 ing Blood and Sanctifying Grace ? Would 
 not a regular and habitual resort to a 
 merely human minister, in the way of 
 confession, be attended with the great 
 peril of encouraging a sickly, dwarfish, 
 puny, stunted form of religion, unable to 
 walk without crutches, — unable to breathe, 
 through faith in Christ, the fresh air, and 
 to bask in the warm sunshine, of accept- 
 ance with the Father ? 
 
 I am not ignorant of the specious 
 answer which may be made to this reason- 
 ing, and which may seem at first sight to 
 subvert it. It may be said, that the pro- 
 posed analogy breaks down in one very 
 material point, and therefore cannot safely 
 be argued upon. Is there any one of 
 us, our opponents ask triumphantly, who 
 enjoys spiritual health, who has not a
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 19 
 
 sin- sick soul, — any one of us, who has not 
 to take up into his mouth this testimony 
 respecting himself; " There is no health 
 " in me ?" Then, if all be spiritual in- 
 valids, all should resort regularly and 
 habitually to the physician. 
 
 We reply by admitting fully that 
 every soul of man is sinful, and as such, 
 has in it the seeds of spiritual disease. 
 But this is a totally different thing from 
 saying that every conscience of man is 
 morbid, perplexed with scruples, agitated 
 with timid doubts, and unable by God's 
 grace to guide itself. We maintain, 
 moreover, that the analogy does hold good, 
 and may be legitimately argued upon. 
 Just as every soul is sinful, so every body 
 of man carries its death wrapt up within 
 it, — has in it the seeds of a disease, which 
 will ultimately prove fatal. There is not 
 one of us, however young, however strong, 
 who has not some organic defect, which, 
 putting casualties out of the question ,
 
 20 CONFESSION ; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 will surely, if even slowly, cause a wreck of 
 the whole physical structure. But this is 
 a totally different thing from saying that 
 all the world are at present invalids, — 
 that there is not a single man alive, who 
 is able to walk without crutches, or to 
 keep up his health without regularly 
 recurring advice from a physician. Such 
 persons of course there are, and we fully 
 admit that for them medical advice is a 
 great resource, and in certain more serious 
 cases, absolutely essential ; but they are 
 happily the exception, not the rule ; and 
 the majority still consist of those, whose 
 constitutions, although of course there is 
 a seed of death and decay within them, 
 are still in a state too remote from active 
 disease to derive any benefit from constant 
 advice. 
 
 It may still be thought, however, that, 
 explain our Church -of- England doctrine 
 in this matter of confession as we may, 
 it is not fundamentally different from
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 21 
 
 that of the Church of Rome. The 
 Roman Church, it may be said, recom- 
 mends regular confession to a priest at 
 stated intervals ; the English Church re- 
 commends occasional confession to a 
 priest under certain circumstances ; here 
 is not a difference of principle, but 
 dimply a question of more or less. 
 
 My Brethren, in what I shall say on this 
 point, I trust that I shall not be under- 
 stood as making an unmanly and un- 
 generous attack on controversialists, who 
 are not here to answer for themselves. 
 With such attacks, so often heard upon 
 the platform at so-called religious meet- 
 ings, I, for one, have no sympathy what- 
 ever. I am cpiite aware, that among 
 Roman Catholics, just as among Dis- 
 senters, have been found Christians 
 eminent for learning and piety, and that 
 many of those who have been made saints 
 by a bull of the See of Rome, can show 
 that securer title to saintliness, which is
 
 22 CONFESSION ; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 conferred by the Blood and Grace of Jesus 
 Christ. I know that over the pulpit 
 should be written as one of its mottoes ; 
 " Speaking the truth in love'' and indeed 
 that doctrinal error need never be there 
 challenged and combated, as of set pur- 
 pose, except when it crosses the path of 
 that regular instruction in Divine Truth, 
 which the great Shepherd and Bishop of 
 Souls has commissioned us to give to His 
 Flock. These admissions having been 
 frankly and heartily made, I am bound to 
 say in the most emphatic manner, that 
 Anglicanism, however it may be repre- 
 sented (or rather misrepresented,) is not 
 modified Romanism. The difference here 
 as elsewhere, is fundamental, and goes to 
 the root of the question. We have our 
 principles, and they have theirs ; and the 
 two, rightly interpreted, cannot co-exist; 
 they must as certainly destroy one another 
 as an alkali destroys an acid. The differ- 
 ence is seen best in the tendencies of the
 
 
 OP THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 23 
 
 two systems. The tendency of the system 
 of regular and stated confession to a 
 human spiritual adviser, is to throw the 
 soul upon man, upon man's wisdom, upon 
 man's counsel, upon man's prayers, upon 
 man's help. It is to enthrone the chosen 
 confessor in the place which Christ alone 
 should hold in the heart, and so to set up 
 an Antichrist; for be it remarked that, 
 according to its true etymology, the word 
 Antichrist signifies not — One set up in 
 opposition to Christ) but One set up in 
 the stead or place of Christ. And Our 
 Lord is a jealous Lord, who will not give 
 His glory to another; He is jealous of 
 our confidence, jealous of our affections, 
 jealous of our secrets, jealous of our un- 
 reserved confessions, jealous of the bur- 
 dens under which at times every heart 
 doth groan. He is the Bridegroom (and 
 the only Bridegroom) of souls, jealous of 
 the Bride's leaning on another's arm, 
 jealous (as what bridegroom is not?) of
 
 24 CONFESSION ; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 her confidences in another, jealous of a 
 whispered secret communicated to His 
 ambassadors rather than to Himself; and 
 His commissioned ministers, who are but 
 friends of the Bridegroom, should rejoice 
 to see men trooping in flocks to His con- 
 fessional, whither indeed it is the one 
 great office of their ministry to send them ; 
 as it was said by one of old, when he 
 heard that the people were drawing off 
 from his school, and resorting to that of 
 Jesus : " He that hath the bride is the 
 " Bridegroom ; but the friend of the 
 " Bridegroom, who standeth and heareth 
 " Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the 
 " Bridegroom's voice ; this my joy there- 
 " fore is fulfilled. He must increase, but 
 " / must decrease" 
 
 But to admit confession to a Priest as 
 an exception, is a totally different thing, 
 in point of principle, with admitting it as 
 a rule. Admitting anything under cir- 
 cumstances confessedly exceptional, is
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 25 
 
 virtually saying that the rule is against 
 admitting it. If it were stated in a reli- 
 gious treatise that remaining in one place 
 on Sunday was a proper method of ob- 
 serving the day, but that, seeing the 
 Sabbath is made for man, and love 
 supersedes the letter of the law, a phy- 
 sician might take a journey on that day 
 to visit his patients, we should at once 
 conclude from hence that Sunday travel- 
 ling generally was unjustifiable and to be 
 avoided. View the resort to the Priest, 
 recommended under certain circum- 
 stances in our Communion Office, as a 
 bona fide exception, and not as a loophole 
 designed to let in the whole corrupt prac- 
 tice of Auricular Confession, and the 
 minister then falls into his proper and 
 legitimate place. He is commissioned to 
 expound God's Word, and to apply the 
 balm of it to troubled consciences. When 
 from the testimony of the Living Oracles a 
 conscience cannot for itself obtain peac<
 
 2b CONFESSION; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 or disentanglement from perplexities, it is 
 a natural and just recognition of the 
 Divine Ordinance of the Ministry, and 
 one likely under God's blessing to be 
 attended with great and solid benefit, that 
 such a conscience should resort to " some 
 " discreet and learned minister of God's 
 " Word and open its grief." Observe, in 
 order that you may see the extreme cau- 
 tion with which this cruelly misinterpreted 
 document has been drawn up, that the 
 qualifications of the chosen counsellor are 
 to be personal as well as official. Official 
 character indeed he must have ; he must 
 be " a minister of God's Word," for none 
 but a minister has received the Divine 
 Commission to treat with the conscience 
 in the Name of Christ. But, just as we 
 seek experience, and ability, and know- 
 ledge of tactics, in the general who is to 
 command our armies, and would not 
 commit our national interests in war to 
 every raw young ensign, who might hap-
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 27 
 
 pen to hold the Queen's commission, so 
 in matters of much higher concernment 
 we feel that something besides official 
 character is necessary to ensure a safe 
 and profitable guidance. The adviser 
 must be " discreet" and " learned," — the 
 latter term signifying " well versed in the 
 " Holy Scriptures and in such studies " (to 
 use the language of the Ordination Ser- 
 vice) " as help to the knowledge of the 
 same ;" the former implying that, to be 
 competent as a spiritual adviser, the minis- 
 ter must have some knowledge of his own 
 heart, and of human character, and human 
 society, without which the perusal of all 
 the treatises and large tomes ever written 
 on Theology, from St. Clement of Rome 
 in the first century down to St. Bern aid 
 of Clairvaux in the twelfth, would avail 
 very little, and perhaps be so much cum- 
 brous lumber, hampering rather than 
 helping the judgment.
 
 28 CONFESSION ; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 But, in tracing the false principles of 
 the Church of Rome, it is with no feel- 
 ings of triumph that we of the Church of 
 England need speak of our differences 
 with her. Our theory no douht is pure, 
 rational, and Scriptural (would that we all 
 felt how pure, rational, and Scriptural it 
 is) hut what shall we say, in the court of 
 conscience, of our practice ? Are we not, 
 perhaps, in our Pharisaical highminded- 
 ness, looking down upon some poor devout 
 Bomanist, who is earnestly struggling on 
 a false system after that personal spiritual 
 discipline, which we will not even seek 
 on a sound one ? " Each man's con- 
 " science, under the administration of the 
 " Spirit of Christ, is the safest guide for 
 " him." Doubtless, doubtless, doubtless. 
 But are you, who refuse so confidently 
 the guidance of a priest, guiding yourself 
 thus ? Is self- discipline, — (carried on by 
 close self-examination, by earnest prayer, 
 by self- application of God's Word in
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 29 
 
 meditation upon it, by constant com- 
 munion with your own heart in the pri- 
 vacy of your chamber) — an element in 
 your religion at all ? Or is there nothing 
 at all personal in your religion, nothing 
 that might not be the religion of another 
 man quite as well as your own ? Does it 
 consist merely of general confessions of 
 sin which mean nothing, of a series of 
 ordinances respectfully attended, and of 
 good impressions occasionally received 
 on Sunday, which, having nattered you 
 into a conceit of your own goodness, are 
 obliterated by the pursuits of the ensuing 
 week, just as marks on the sand are 
 effaced by the stealthy rising tide ? 
 Boasting, as you do, that the Priest to 
 whom you resort is a Heavenly One, 
 " after the order of Melchisedech," do 
 you really resort to Him day after day 
 with the special burdens which lie upon 
 your conscience, and having laid them 
 down at His feet in penitence and faith ,
 
 30 CONFESSION ; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 do you rise refreshed by His absolving 
 word in your conscience, more ener- 
 getically to do battle with those faults of 
 character and conduct, which may indeed 
 be patent to the world around us, but 
 which, until a devout self-examination 
 brings them to light, very often lie hid 
 from their possessors ? 
 
 One word more seems necessary, in a 
 Sermon avowedly on Confession, addres- 
 sed, not to the careless and lukewarm, 
 but to the scrupulous and perplexed, — 
 sad souls and sorrowful, whom yet the 
 Lokd hath not made sad. Confession to 
 Our Loed Jesus Christ, and that self- 
 scrutiny which must precede it, are most 
 healthful practices ; but they require to 
 have their tendencies counterbalanced 
 and held in equipoise by devotional exer- 
 cises of a contrary kind. Self-introspec- 
 tion may easily, and will certainly, become 
 morbid, if it be not checked by a constant 
 outlooking of the mind. True religion is
 
 OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 3i 
 
 all comprised in two precepts, Look into 
 yourself to see your own vileness, Look 
 out of yourself to Christ. Little enough 
 health, comfort, peace, and satisfaction, 
 shall we derive from the first of these 
 precepts, unless we constantly couple 
 with it the second in parallel columns. 
 Anatomy-schools, and the nauseating 
 operations performed in them, are abso- 
 lutely essential to the maintenance of 
 health. Unless our medical students 
 acquaint themselves by dissection with 
 the structure of the human frame, their 
 practice will be all in the dark, — uncer- 
 tain, empirical, blundering. But to live 
 in an anatomy- school would be to inhale 
 a pernicious atmosphere. Nay, open the 
 windows, and let in the air and light of 
 heaven; and, the study of the subject 
 having been completed, let the student 
 walk abroad and drink into his constitu- 
 tion the genial influences of nature. To 
 be ransacking the human structure all
 
 32 CONFESSION ; AND THE DOCTRINE 
 
 day, useful as the results may be, is an 
 exercise which has morbid tendencies 
 that require counteraction. Learn a 
 lesson, my hearer, respecting that self- 
 inspection which both reason and the 
 Gospel recommend. Live not too much 
 with thyself in the close chamber of 
 spiritual anatomy. Doubt and dis- 
 quietude, and subtle metaphysical diffi- 
 culties, and over- canvassing of motives, 
 and splitting of hairs, will be the least 
 mischief resulting from such a system. 
 The knowledge and deep consciousness 
 of thy dark guilt is only valuable as a 
 background, on which to paint more 
 vividly to thy mind's eye the rainbow 
 colours of the Love of Jesus. Walk 
 abroad ever and anon, and expatiate freely 
 in the sunlight of God's grace and love 
 in Christ. It is free as the air to those 
 who would inhale it, bright as the sun- 
 light to those who place no obstructions 
 in its way. Breathe it, bask in it, walk
 
 OP THE ENGLISH CHURCH THEREUPON. 33 
 
 in it; there is no other mode of really- 
 invigorating the spiritual system. A re- 
 ligion, if it is to be strong, must be joyous ; 
 and joyous it cannot be, without the light 
 of God's Love in Christ shining freely into 
 every corner of the soul. 
 
 " Wherefore laying aside every weight" 
 (every burden on the conscience) " and 
 " the sin which doth so easily beset us, 
 " let us run with patience the race that 
 " is set before us, looking unto Jesus the 
 " Author and Finisher of our faith." 
 " Looking unto Jesus ;" it is His own 
 exhortation, no less than that of His 
 inspired Apostle. From the Cross He 
 stretches forth to us His Hands of invi- 
 tation, and cries aloud to every burdened 
 soul, " Look unto Me, and be ye saved, 
 " all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, 
 " and there is none else." " Come unto 
 " me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
 " laden ; and I will give you rest."
 
 °s 
 
 ^ 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, WHICH LEAD 
 MEN TO THE CONCESSIONAL. 
 
 " Bear ge otic another's buttrerts, ano so fulfil tfjc Iafo of 
 " £fjrist"-GaIattans bt. 2. 
 
 " Confess gout faults one to another, ano prag one for 
 " another, tijat ge mag oe fjealeD."— 3ames b* 16. 
 
 117E like to speak to you from this place 
 of the current events of the day. 
 Religion is not to be kept apart from our 
 common interests, but to intermingle with 
 them, to pervade them, to guide them 
 into a right channel. And perhaps the 
 reason why the pulpit exerts so very little 
 influence upon the age, and the general 
 tone of society, may he, that by a mistaken 
 conventionalism (meant to be reverent, 
 but in point of fact formal,) it stands 
 aloof from those topics which, in the
 
 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, WHICH LEAD MEN, &C. 35 
 
 general ferment of mind, rise to the sur- 
 face now and then, and occupy the 
 thoughts, and are in the mouths of all. 
 This conventionalism is very freezing, 
 and one of its least evil effects is to 
 make Sermons wanting in vivacity, and 
 to associate them, as in many minds it is 
 to be feared they are associated, with 
 dulness and monotony. 
 
 Recent circumstances, to which I need 
 do no more than barely allude, have brought 
 the subject of Confession before the public 
 mind. It is a subject on which I spoke 
 at large to you during the season of Lent, 
 endeavouring to point out the very clear 
 and tangible difference of principle on 
 this head, which separates the Church of 
 England from that of Rome. And, if an 
 argumentative treatment of the subject 
 were all that was required, I should have 
 little more to add to that Discourse. 
 But so it is, that, especially to young and 
 enthusiastic minds (which are the minds
 
 36 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 most open to danger on this side) nothing 
 is less satisfying than a dry argument. 
 It may be logical ; it may be conclusive ; 
 the premises may seem unanswerable, 
 and the inference to be drawn fairly and 
 legitimately from the premises ; but it 
 lacks that one merit of an argument on 
 practical subjects, — power to produce, (I do 
 not say conviction, but) persuasion. Con- 
 viction and persuasion are totally different 
 things. A man may have nothing to say 
 in answer to your argument ; you may 
 have stopped every avenue by which he 
 can extricate himself from the dilemma, 
 in which your reasoning has placed him ; 
 but you have not carried his will with 
 you, in whatever straits you have placed 
 his understanding ; and he will show that 
 this is the case, by simply disregarding 
 your advice, and following out his own 
 views, as heretofore. And this, I believe, 
 is uniformly the penalty of contenting 
 ourselves with argument on moral and
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFE9SIONAL. 37 
 
 religious subjects. On such subjects 
 argument has little weight with men, — 
 is generally impotent. They are governed 
 by the heart rather than the understand- 
 ing. And therefore the only method, 
 under God's Grace, of carrying them with 
 us on these subjects, is to address oneself 
 to the heart. In dissuading from any 
 erroneous and unscriptural practice, let 
 us carefully avoid dogmatising, and much 
 more anathematising ; let us seek quietly 
 to get at those moral instincts, in which 
 the practice has its root, to admit all that 
 is good and right in these instincts, and, in 
 a sj)irit of gentle Christian expostulation, 
 to show them their proper outlet. Our 
 policy in eradicating error from the souls 
 of others should be that of the wise 
 householder in the Parable. We must 
 look to it that, while we gather up the 
 tares, we do not root up also the wheat 
 with them. Good and evil are strangely 
 intermingled, not only among us, as a
 
 38 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 community, but within us, as individuals; 
 and many a wrong system has its fibres 
 grappled below the soil into innocent 
 and pure feelings. The weeding it up 
 therefore asks great carefulness, lest we 
 should, even if we succeeded, tear away 
 from the mind that which is good, as well 
 as that which is evil. The result, how- 
 ever, will much oftener be, as I have said, 
 failure. The heart will cling tenaciously 
 to all its good and true instincts, assured 
 that they will not mislead it, and shut the 
 door upon logic, and follow its own im- 
 pulse at all hazards rather than the judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Auricular Confession, as practised by 
 the Roman Church, and as attempted, I 
 fear, to be introduced into our own, is as 
 unscriptural as it is unnatural, and as 
 foreign to the genius of the English 
 Church, as it is to that of the English 
 nation. 
 
 This being the case, how is it that
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 39 
 
 in the largest section of Christendom, it 
 obtains so widely, and forms so essential 
 a feature of the Ecclesiastical system? 
 How is it that divines of unquestionable 
 ability, learning, and piety (for such have 
 been many of the Komish Theologians) 
 have lived and died in the practice of it; 
 and have advocated it (as St. Francis of 
 Sales continually does) as a very signal 
 means of Grace ? How is it (to come 
 nearer home) that in our own Communion 
 many men of refinement, cultivation, 
 and even pure and saintly minds, for 
 such we must grant them to be, (however 
 a popular clamour may misrepresent and 
 blacken them) are seeking to graft it into 
 our system, evidently under a deep feeling 
 that it is one of the great wants of the 
 English Church ? Let us be assured 
 that there is some truth which they are 
 craving after, which they cannot find in 
 the English system as at present ad- 
 ministered, and which they do find made
 
 40 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 ready to their hands in the Church of 
 Rome, crystallised and formalised, and 
 set in hard fixed outlines. 
 
 What are the instincts which, when 
 Confessionals are open, induce people to 
 resort to them in crowds, and to submit 
 implicitly to a scrutiny of conscience by 
 a fellow sinner, the warmest advocate of 
 which must admit that, if not conducted 
 with the utmost tact and delicacy, it 
 hazards occasionally the corruption of 
 the innocent ? 
 
 I. The first of these instincts is a 
 desire to be true. Of all the burdens, 
 under which the heart of man groans, 
 one of the sorest is an inward conscious- 
 ness of hypocrisy. It is unbearable to a 
 true mind, to feel that the world gives us 
 credit for more than we are. We are 
 sensible, it may be, of much inward cor- 
 ruption; possibly of evil tendencies, not 
 only alive in us, but secretly indulged. 
 Men are not aware what we are, or how
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 41 
 
 deeply we have fallen ; or they would 
 shrink from us, and look coolly upon us. 
 Friends walk by our side unsuspiciously, 
 quite guileless as to the sin which is in 
 us. We wear the livery of religion, as it 
 is usual to do in our circle ; we attend 
 upon its ordinances, and are included in 
 the number of its supporters. We are 
 praised of men, because our faults are 
 such as do not involve any injury to 
 Society. They even overpraise us, and 
 this overpraise is sickening. We make a 
 few fruitless efforts to meet this overpraise 
 by exaggerated terms of self-depreciation 
 and general acknowledgments of our own 
 vileness ; but these are so far from suc- 
 cessful in lowering us in general estima- 
 tion, that they are set down to humility. 
 The burden of constantly deceiving others 
 is too great for us to bear; we writhe 
 under it; there would be a satisfaction in 
 inducing men to think of us as we are, 
 but we have not the moral courage to
 
 42 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 disabuse society of its old estimate of us ; 
 nor do we know how to set about doing 
 so. The task might become easier to us, 
 and we might gain some amount of relief, 
 if we were at liberty to make the dis- 
 closure to one man, under a condition 
 imposed upon him of perpetual silence. 
 For such a disclosure as this we might 
 possibly muster the requisite nerve. 
 Thus, not unfrequently, Confession to a 
 priest assumes the aspect of a homage 
 done to truth by a guilty heart. If such 
 a Confession is free, full, and unreserved, 
 the penitent feels that he has done some- 
 thing to redeem his life from being a 
 standing hypocrisy. The minister of 
 God, at least, — who is to him the repre- 
 sentative of the whole Church, — is privy 
 to his guilt. 
 
 My Brethren, is any one who hears me 
 conscious of an indulged tendency to 
 some sin, the revelation of which would 
 materially lower him in the eyes of those,
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 43 
 
 with whom at present he stands fair? I 
 will put a supposable case — that of long 
 neglect of Private Devotion, while from 
 habit, or compliance with the customs of 
 society, or deference to fashion, we attend 
 (more or less) upon the public ordinances 
 of religion. "What a hollow void, what a 
 consciousness of untruth, there must be, 
 or at least ought to be, in the hearts of 
 those, who never pour out their souls 
 before God in private, though their place 
 in His house of prayer is seldom vacant ! 
 This was the very hypocrisy of the Phari- 
 sees ; they loved to pray " standing in the 
 ' ; synagogues and in the corners of the 
 " streets, that they might be seen of men;" 
 but to enter into their closet, and shut 
 their door, and pray to their Father which 
 is in secret — this they did not love. Is the 
 world mistaking us for men of prayer, 
 while in truth we are only men of forms 
 of prayer? And if so, do we writhe at 
 all, and feel uneasy under that false esti-
 
 44 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 mate ? Possibly not. Possibly we are 
 well contented to live a false life. Possi- 
 bly we have no strong love of truth, — no 
 desire to tear awav the mask and disclose 
 our true features to those around us. Yet 
 surely it were well for us if we had this 
 strong instinct, however much discomfort 
 it might involve. To love and long for 
 Truth, even though the Truth should 
 condemn us, shows that there is still a 
 divine spark in the heart, which we, it 
 may be, have suppressed. Auricular con- 
 fession may be erroneous in principle ; yet 
 we are hardly in the position, if this be 
 our case, to be judges of it. It ill be- 
 comes us, whatever others may have a 
 right to do, to throw a stone at him who 
 resorts to his confessor with this penitent 
 acknowledgment : " Father, you have 
 " thought well of me, because you have 
 " seen me much in your Church of late ; 
 " but, sooth to say, I have hardly lifted 
 " up my heart to God this month past."
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 45 
 
 II. The second instinct which drives 
 men to the confessional is a desire of 
 sympathy. They have many struggles in 
 their inward life ; encounters with strong 
 temptation, in which they are often de- 
 feated, even if sometimes they come off 
 from them victorious. It is a long weary- 
 ing irksome battle which the Christian 
 has to keep up all his days, — not the less 
 wearying and irksome, even if the less 
 acutely painful, because his lot is not 
 marked by any great suffering or calamity, 
 but is the fair average lot of common men. 
 The little trials of an ordinary career, — 
 the trials which involve nothing loftier or 
 more sublime than the rubs and collisions 
 of every- day life, — the trials in short, 
 which range themselves under the heads 
 of tongue and temper, — make a larger 
 demand upon our patience, and are per- 
 haps a greater drain upon our fortitude 
 and endurance, than even those in which 
 God makes our flesh quiver with the tear-
 
 46 THE MOKAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 ing of the pincers of affliction. "Wolves 
 " and bears," says an ancient writer, when 
 giving a comparative estimate of great 
 and small trials, " are without doubt more 
 " dangerous than flies ; yet do they not 
 " vex and importune us so much, nor 
 " exercise our patience so often." When 
 this petty warfare with the flies is con- 
 tinued month after month with varying 
 and doubtful success, the mind begins to 
 be fatigued and to look out for some relief. 
 We at once feel that there is no such re- 
 lief to be had as sympathy. So long as 
 our little trials are locked up in our own 
 bosom, we cannot be very strong or very 
 zealous in opposing them. If we could 
 find another, whose state of mind exactly 
 tallied with our own, who was himself 
 meeting our difficulties and so could fully 
 understand them, — even supposing him 
 to be no stronger and better than our- 
 selves, what a help might we not derive 
 from a little conference with him, and
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 47 
 
 occasionally, when we were in a state of 
 collapse, what a stimulus ! This instinct 
 of the heart it is, which furnishes the 
 key to the amazing success of the Tem- 
 perance Association. It has been proved 
 to demonstration, that an habitual drunk- 
 ard can make a stand against his vice in 
 the strength of brotherhood with those 
 who are leagued against the same foe. 
 Under ordinary circumstances drunken- 
 ness draws in its victim again and again, 
 with the same ease and power as the 
 Maelstrom sucks in a cockboat; but 
 drunkenness itself is no proof against the 
 banding together of man and man with 
 mutual understanding and fellow-feeling. 
 
 Now as the above are true instincts of 
 the human heart, it follows that Chris- 
 tianity, which is a Divine Religion, adapted 
 by God's wisdom to all the needs of man, 
 must supply something to meet them. 
 
 In the first place, and before all other 
 considerations, it holds forth to the latter
 
 48 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 of these two instincts the sympathy of 
 Christ. This is a point which is not 
 definitely enough considered, even by 
 those who admit the truth theoretically. 
 The tendency of all Romish and Roman- 
 izing theology is to regard Our Lord ex- 
 clusively on the side of His Divinity. 
 While far safer than the other extreme, 
 the effects of this partial view are ex- 
 tremely prejudicial. Christ being simply 
 substituted for God in the Theological 
 System, and His Humanity being thrown 
 in the shade, a want is immediately felt 
 of mediation between Him and us, by 
 some one, whose common nature puts 
 them on a level with our infirmities. 
 Hence, the Virgin and the Saints are 
 most unscripturally, or rather anti-scrip- 
 turally, resorted to. and asked to aid men 
 with their sympathy and their prayers. 
 Now the Scripture never speaks of the 
 sympathy of the Virgin ; but it speaks 
 largely of the sympathy of Cheist. And
 
 TTHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 49 
 
 a very simple process of reasoning may 
 satisfy us that this sympathy is strong, 
 tender, and considerate, beyond any which 
 ever found place in the heart of sinful 
 man. The perfect purity of our Lokd's 
 Humanity necessarily makes it so. No 
 sinner is duly alive to the evil of sin ; 
 and therefore no sinner has as much 
 tenderness of feeling for a sinner as the 
 case really demands. Live in the gloom 
 of a dungeon for a few hours, and your 
 eye will accommodate itself to the gloom, 
 so that you will cease ere long to appre- 
 ciate the evil of privation of light. 
 Similarly, every will which has once 
 admitted sin, accommodates itself in the 
 act of so doing to the atmosphere of sin. 
 Its sensibility to the real evil of a sinner's 
 case is thenceforth immediately impaired. 
 Add to this, that Our Blessed Lord was 
 partaker of all our temptations, though 
 exempt from all our sins ; and you have 
 the other condition essential to qualify
 
 50 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 Hhn for a true and perfect sympathy with 
 sinners. An angel of light might pity 
 and compassionate our fallen estate ; 
 but he could not sympathise with us, 
 because he has no experience of our 
 trials. A mere man, on the other hand, 
 might feel that element of sympathy 
 which is involved in community of trials ; 
 but, for the reason which I have just 
 explained, he could not possess that other 
 element in perfect sympathy, — a sensibility 
 adequate to the case. Perfect sympathy 
 is the perfect sensibility of one, who has 
 had a perfect experience of our trials. 
 The perfection of sympathy therefore can 
 reside only in Jesus Christ. And those 
 who crave for sympathy in their secret 
 struggles, will do well to set the great 
 doctrine of His perfect Humanity steadily 
 before the eyes of their minds, and, while 
 making an endeavour to realise it, to pour 
 out their hearts before Him. 
 
 But I seem to hear some one say ;
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 51 
 
 " This does not quite satisfy me. What 
 " you say may be argumentatively true ; 
 " but it does not altogether meet the 
 " instinct for sympathy, which I discover 
 " in myself. Our Lord, though perfectly 
 " Human, is exalted so far above me by 
 " the Divinity of His Person, that I find 
 " a difficulty, from the narrowness of my 
 " mind, in realising the lower and more 
 " comfortable conception of Him. More- 
 " over, I have never seen Him ; and by 
 " the infirmity of my nature, I cling to 
 " those whom I have seen. St. John, you 
 " know, himself seems to recognise this 
 " frailty, when he says, ' He that loveth 
 " ' not his brother whom he hath seen, 
 " ' how can he love God whom he hath 
 " ' not seen ?' And then again, I cannot 
 " literally hold a conference with Christ 
 "upon my trouble. It is true inde d 
 " that He communicates with me by His 
 " Word and Spirit, but the guidance so 
 " obtained is rather of a general charact
 
 52 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 " than one which singles out and indivi- 
 " dualises my case ; I cannot talk with 
 " Him face to face, as a man talketh with 
 " his friend. Such high communion may 
 a perchance be reserved for very high 
 " saintliness ; but alas! I am on a very 
 " low level at present, the sport of every 
 " wayward infirmity, and every warring 
 "lust." 
 
 Now the question is, whether senti- 
 ments such as these are faulty, and 
 whether we are required to discard them ; 
 or on the contrary, whether they are part 
 and parcel of our humanity, in which 
 case we may expect Almighty God to 
 respond to them. We choose unhesi- 
 tatingly the latter alternative. We think 
 that such feelings have a real ground in 
 human nature as human nature, and not 
 as fallen; and we believe that God meets 
 them in His Holy Word. For we find in 
 St. James this admonition to penitents, 
 " Confess your faults one to another, and
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 53 
 
 " pray for one another that ye may he 
 " healed." And we find in St. Paul this 
 admonition to the Christian friends of 
 penitents, " Bear ye one another's burdens, 
 " and so fulfil the law of Christ." What 
 burden is so heavy in its pressure, — under 
 what burden do we so much need sym- 
 pathy, as under that of conscious guilt ? 
 This is the one great burden, which in 
 those precious words of exhortation Our 
 Blessed Lord invites us to lay down at his 
 own feet ; " Come unto me, all ye that 
 " labour and arc heavy laden, and I will 
 " give you rest." And his people under 
 Him are to be burden-bearers to one 
 another, willing to have the tale of frailty 
 and shortcoming poured into their ears, 
 and to intercede for one another, when 
 that tale has been told out. 
 
 Let it be abundantly conceded that 
 Religion would thrive among us more, 
 and would wear a far mure genial, warm, 
 sympathetic, and attractive aspect, if these
 
 64 THE MOTtAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 inspired recommendations were fully 
 carried out, if Christian friends (and 
 English Christians need the admonition 
 particularly) would throw off more that 
 freezing reserve, which locks up every 
 secret of their spiritual life in their own 
 bosom, and expose themselves a little 
 more freely to one another, asking of 
 each other mutually counsel and prayers. 
 This would of course only he done to 
 those in whom we repose a sacred con- 
 fidence, and is as different a thing as 
 possible from the general divulging of 
 religious experiences, than which no 
 practice can be conceived more mischiev- 
 ous and blighting to the spiritual life. 
 It should be carefully borne in mind that 
 what we are to divulge one to another is 
 not our religious experiences, but our 
 " faults ;" not our frames of mind, except 
 so far as they are connected with our in- 
 firmities of character and conduct. And 
 this unburdening of the conscience
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. OO 
 
 should be resorted to, not in a spirit of 
 religious gossip (which is the most dis- 
 gusting of all sorts of gossip) but as a species 
 of Ordinance, — as a help granted by the 
 Lord to our infirm faith, ministered to us 
 through the medium of our brethren, and 
 to be employed with seriousness and 
 devotion. A conference, based upon the 
 principle of reciprocal confession, has 
 actually been grafted into the system of 
 the Wesleyan Methodists ; and whether 
 or not the working of such a system 
 be judiciously guarded and discreetly 
 managed, the authors of it certainly 
 deserve credit and consideration for 
 endeavouring to carry out a Scriptural 
 principle, and to meet a want painfully 
 felt by religious minds of a certain cast. 
 My Brethren, and especially my younger 
 brethren, who may have been attracted 
 by what I will call the sympathetic 
 element in the Confessional, observe, I 
 pray you, that all this may be had without
 
 56 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 straying one step from the doctrine or 
 practice of the English Church; hut that 
 at the same time, all this is along distance 
 off from Auricular Confession. As far as 
 we have yet gone, we have seen nothing 
 whatever which should make the priest a 
 particularly apt depository of confession. 
 The Scripture distinctly says, " Confess 
 " your faults one to another ;" but here (if 
 the passage may be isolated from its con- 
 text) there is an absolute silence resj)ectiDg 
 the priest. 
 
 Is there anything in the heart then, 
 (let us enquire in pursuance of our investi- 
 gation,) which particularly inclines us to 
 ask the advice and prayers of a Clergyman, 
 when a burden of guilt or perplexity lies 
 upon the conscience? I think there is; 
 but assuredly what there is does not lead 
 us up to the system of the Church of 
 Rome. The spiritual relation in which a 
 minister stands to his flock points him 
 out (granted his own spirituality and
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 57 
 
 recognition of the relation) as an appro- 
 priate person to whom to open our grief ; 
 while the fact that his counsel is 
 given under the seal and commission of 
 the Most High invests him with an 
 authority, which cannot possibly attach 
 to a person of any other vocation. And 
 there is something more and deeper than 
 this in our preference of a Clergyman. 
 The function of the minister is to guide 
 men in the way of righteousness. In the 
 fulfilment of this function, he is often 
 baffled by the impenetrable reserve of 
 those to whom he ministers. Knowing 
 really nothing of their interior history, 
 the shafts which he aims from his pulpit 
 at the conscience must be, like the arrow 
 which killed King Ahab, shot at a venture 
 and not at a mark. Hence a painful 
 generality in our preaching, and high 
 doctrinal flights, and efforts after immedi- 
 ate impressions, without any particular 
 advices as to the method of leading a
 
 58 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 holy life. If he is called upon to attend 
 a death-bed, the minister labours under 
 the same ignorance of the character of 
 the patient, and is obliged to fall back on 
 vague exhortations and pointless prayers. 
 These considerations do unquestionably 
 lead every reflecting mind to regret that 
 far greater openness does not exist between 
 the minister and his flock, and to regard 
 some amount of such openness as a con- 
 dition of ministerial success. 
 
 And we think that in the context of 
 the Scriptural precept, although not in 
 the precept itself, the Clergy are not 
 obscurely pointed at as the persons to 
 whom, under ordinary circumstances, 
 Confession should be made. Observe 
 how the last clause of the passage con- 
 nects it with the case of the Christian in 
 sickness, for which case St. James gives 
 counsel in the preceding verses. " Confess 
 " your faults one to another, and pray one 
 " for another, that ye may be healed"
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 59 
 
 This is evidently part and parcel of the 
 counsel for the sick immediately fore- 
 going, which runs thus; (v. 14) " Is any 
 "sick among you? let him call for the 
 "elders of the church ; and let them pray 
 " over him, anointing him with oil in the 
 " name of the Lord :" (v. 15) "And the 
 " prayer of faith shall save the sick, and 
 " the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he 
 " have committed sins, they shall be for- 
 " given him." The " healing" of verse six- 
 teen, is the " saving and raising up" of verse 
 fifteen, which is procured by the interces- 
 sion of " the elders" of verse fourteen ; and 
 therefore, although the expression is," Con- 
 " fess your sins one to another" (the In- 
 spired Writer giving a certain breadth to the 
 precept, which goes beyond the scope of its 
 immediate occasion), the contextual appli- 
 cation of the passage obliges us to under- 
 stand " the Elders" as the persons to 
 whom the confession is to be made. 
 Now, by the Elders (or Presbyters) of the
 
 60 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 Church must clearly -be meant its clergy. 
 They are those ordained or appointed 
 by Bishops for the government of the 
 Church, as where St. Paul directs Titus ; 
 " For this cause left I thee in Crete, :;: :: * 
 " that thou shouldst ordain elders in every 
 " city, as I had appointed thee." 
 
 And now, to draw these considerations 
 to a head. 
 
 The point which we have reached is 
 just this, that where a burdened, per- 
 plexed, or weak conscience needs counsel 
 and sympathy, it is both reasonable and 
 Scriptural that it should communicate its 
 state to some Christian friend, the more 
 experienced and the more advanced the 
 better ; — that it is doubly satisfactory and 
 appropriate that this friend should be 
 invested with the responsibilities and 
 authority of the Christian Ministry; — 
 and that a lack of such communications 
 between private Christians and between 
 the Pastor and his flock, deprives us of
 
 TTHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 61 
 
 much of that sympathy and help from 
 one another's prayers, which we might 
 enjoy, if we more freely and unreservedly 
 resorted to them. 
 
 We can and dare go no further. This 
 is the extreme point to which Scripture 
 and our Church conduct us. We have 
 seen that whatever is really demanded hy 
 a longing after sympathy, an inward affi- 
 ance to truth, and a desire for the effi- 
 ciency of the Christian Ministry, may be 
 had upon our own ground ; and yet we 
 are as far as ever from the Confessional. 
 The Confessional is based altogether upon 
 a different principle, the principle that 
 the Priest is a Judge of the Conscience. 
 Observe the difference of idea between a 
 spiritual counsellor and a judge. To the 
 spiritual counsellor we tender our confes- 
 sion voluntarily; the judge extracts it 
 from us by the examination of evidence. 
 We are criminals at his bar; and he takes 
 our consciences as a witness against our-
 
 62 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 selves, and adjures them to try the cause 
 well and truly. Then he proceeds to 
 elicit the truth by questioning, and with 
 the evidence thus gained before him, he 
 gives his judgment, rather than his advice. 
 You observe that this removes the whole 
 process into an entirely different sphere. 
 The scene is changed. Another picture 
 is before your eyes. The sympathising 
 bearer of a fellow Christian's burden, who 
 can say to him, " Take heart, dear bro- 
 " ther, or dear child, I myself have been 
 " a sharer of all your experiences, and 
 " have coped with all your difficulties, and 
 " by God's Grace, and if He lends me wis- 
 " dom, I can show you the clue which 
 " will guide you out of the labyrinth of 
 " your perplexity," — all this is vanished 
 into thin air like a dissolving view, and 
 other outlines are growing upon the eye, 
 strange terrifying shapes of a judgment 
 seat, and a bar, and an ermined magis- 
 trate, and a poor cowed criminal imploring
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 63 
 
 mercy. Men and brethren, this terrific 
 judgment of the individual conscience is 
 all to be ; it is waiting for each one of us 
 in the womb of futurity, as surely as there 
 is a God in heaven ; but the time is not 
 yet come, nor the Man. Suffice it that 
 the Day of Assize is hastening on, and 
 that the Man has even now set forth on 
 His second visit to this old weather-beaten 
 planet, and is coming in the clouds of 
 Heaven. Let us his sinful ministers, in 
 the narrowness of our understandings 
 and in the narrowness of our sympathies, 
 take heed that we judge nothing before 
 the time. Let us leave to Him to bring 
 to light the hidden things of darkness, 
 and to make manifest the counsels of the 
 hearts. "God hath appointed a day in 
 "which He will judge the world by that 
 " Man whom He hath ordained." Yes, 
 by that Man. But I know not any other 
 Man who is ordained to judge. AYe will 
 gladly be your burden bearers, for Jesus'
 
 64 THE MORAL INSTINCTS, 
 
 sake, so far as God shall give us wisdom 
 and grace to become so; but your judges we 
 will never be. And should you attempt to 
 make us judges, we will not treat with you 
 at all on those terms, but lifting you up, and 
 placing you on the same level with our- 
 selves, we will address you, as he who was 
 first entrusted with the power of the keys, 
 addressed a certain devout Gentile who 
 prostated himself before him ; " Stand up, 
 " I myself also am a man." 
 
 Such, brethren, we believe to be the 
 truth on the subject of Confession. With 
 regard to those who maintain other views, 
 whether within or without the pale of 
 our Communion, let us judge them can- 
 didly and charitably, looking to it that we 
 be not guilty of the meanness of joining 
 in a partisan cry against them, because 
 Public Opinion (which seems to be the great 
 idol god of this degenerate age) happens 
 to set in strong against them. There was 
 some bravery in hot and virulent anathe-
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 65 
 
 mas against the Confessional, and other 
 practices of the Church of Rome, in the 
 days of good Hugh Latimer, when a 
 stake and blazing faggots might at any 
 time silence the anathematizing tongue ; 
 but in the present day, when Romanism 
 and all approaches to it are in a very de- 
 cided minority, and it becomes abundantly 
 clear that the English mind will never 
 submit to a reimposition of the Papal yoke, 
 (thank God for it, if He only keeps us clear 
 of the other and more frightful extreme of 
 Rationalism), — at such a time to run 
 down Romanists and Romanisers with 
 virulence and party spirit, sore pressed as 
 they are already by the adverse suffrages 
 of an indignant public, savours as little 
 of courage as it does of love. 
 
 Our system, not as it exists in theory, 
 but as it is administered in practice, wants 
 something, both of definite guidance for 
 the conscience, and of sympathy with the 
 fallen ; and those Divines, who advocate 
 
 F
 
 66 THE MORAL INSTINCTS 
 
 the Confessional, have endeavoured to 
 supply the want. They are for the most 
 part devout men, strongly impressed with 
 a sense of the little hold which the 
 Church has of the mass of our people, and 
 of the general inefficiency of the Minis- 
 try, and hating with a just hatred that 
 spirit of worldly indifferentism, which, 
 while it pays a certain amount of formal 
 homage to Christianity, resents the idea 
 that every thought is to be brought into 
 captivity to the obedience of Christ. 
 Wholly possessed with these fixed ideas, 
 they have erred (as we think) in attempting 
 to carry them out, having not held suffi- 
 ciently fast perhaps to the guidance of 
 Inspiration. 
 
 Let us endeavour on our part to re- 
 medy those defects in the working of our 
 system, which first set some of its admi- 
 nistrators upon the plan of introducing 
 among us the Confessional. Let us, the 
 ministers, preach less vaguely, with more
 
 WHICH LEAD MEN TO THE CONFESSIONAL. 67 
 
 of definite point and aim, seeking not 
 merely to produce good impressions, but to 
 guide souls in their pilgrimage to Heaven. 
 Let the voluntary confession of a burdened 
 or perplexed conscience, which really longs 
 for and is relieved by it, be no longer re- 
 garded with suspicion and hooted out of 
 court, but admitted as reasonable, ortho- 
 dox, and Scriptural. Latimer, Cranmer, 
 Ridley, Hooker, and Taylor, all recognise 
 the species of Confession recommended 
 in our Communion Office ; and the first of 
 them, after declaiming in the strong terms 
 usual to him against the Auricular Con- 
 fession of the Papists, says of " the right 
 " and true Confession " (as he calls it), " I 
 " would to God it were kept in England, 
 " for it is a good thing." 
 
 Above all, let Christians be more un- 
 reserved with one another, and seek to 
 bear one another's burdens by sympathy 
 and intercessory prayer. Cherish an in- 
 terest in the spiritual state of others, and
 
 68 THE MORAL INSTINCTS WHICH LEAD MEN, &C. 
 
 let the freezing reserve which guards your 
 own inner life thaw a little occasionally be- 
 neath the kindliness of an intimate and 
 confidential friend. And then we shall soon 
 see an end of the Confessional, with all 
 its falsely claimed prerogatives ; it will die 
 away and drop off of itself, like an autum- 
 nal leaf, when the instincts which seemed 
 to call for it have been fully met and satis- 
 fied by a pure, and rational, and Scriptural 
 system. 
 
 Crowley and Billington, Printers, Rugby. 


 
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