The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-18 00:00:00

and the, authorities of the church, I am persuaded,
are quite alive to the danger." After referring to
the Knightsbridge case, his lordship said :—" Now, •
my reverend brethren, with reference to the prac-
tice thus avowed and defended, I will first state my
own views—and secondly, how far I shall think
myself justified in interposing my authority to
prevent evil effects. I would remark, before we go
furthet, with respect to the whole of that depart-
ment of the pastor's office in which he has
to deal with the individual souls of his people
suffering under a sense of sin in the private minis-
tering of spiritual consolation, that this is almost
the most difficult, as it is the most delicate, part of
his functions. It would be very unlike the tact
and prudence usually displayed by the authorities
of the Church of Rome if they allowed any priest
to be a confessor without special license. And our
own church, warning us distinctly that the private
adviser of his people's souls must be discreet and
learned, holds out no encouragement to every raw
young man, the moment he received priest's
orders, to embark on duties for which he is not
fitted by age, character, and experience of life. But,
moreover, there is a good deal of confusion in men's
minds as to the questions at issue between the ad-
vocates and. opponents of confession, which it is
well to clear up. We who disapprove any ap-
proach to the introduction into the Church of Eng-
land of the confessional, as it is technically called,
of course do not forget the injunctions of our
Prayer-book. which called upon us all to make
public confession of our sins daily, as we approach
to receive comfort from hearing the declaration,
which the minister is authorised by the rules of the
Church to pronounce, of God's willingness to par-
don and absolve all those that truly repent and un-
feignedly believe His holy Gospel. Neither do we
shut our eyes to the fact that previously to their
receiving the holy communion ,those persons—who,
having tried, find that they cannot by self-exami-
nation and confession to Almighty God, with full
purpose of amendment of life and endeavours after
reconciliation with those whom they have offended,
attain to a full trust in God's mercy and quiet their
own consciences, but require further comfort and
counsel—are exhorted to seek the aid of some dis-
creet and learned minister of God's word, that they
may open their grief, and, having the comfort of
being distinctly assured of God s willingness to
pardon them, may receive ghostly counsel and ad-
vice, to the quieting of the consciences and avoid-
ing of all scruple and doubtfulness. Neither again
do we forget further that the pastor who visits any
member of his flock labouring under dangerous sick-
ness, if he finds the sick man troubled in conscience
with any weighty matter, is directed to move him
to make special confession of his sins, t hat thus
opening his heart, he may, if he seems truly peni-
tent, have the consolation of hearing from his pas-
tor's mouth before he dies that God of His great
mercy in Jesus Christ is ready. to pardon him, and
be assured that, great as his sins are, he is not ex-
cluded from the benefit of dying in communion with
that Church which is Christ's body. We are for-
getful of none of these points. The passages which
treat of confession and absolution in our Prayer-
book speak, I believe, in this language of comfort
which is in store for the repentant sinner's soul

when, either publicly or in'the congregation, or
alone before God, or calling in the aid of his spiri-
tual adviser, he confesses his sin and begs God for
pardon and reconciliation. God forbid that in this
controversy one word should ever escape from us
which seems to throw an obstacle in the way of
the overburdened soul, either in health or in sick-
ness, opening its griefs to a trusted pastor. God
forbid also that we should deny that much good
may be done by discreet pious men when their aid
is thus invited. My rev. brethren, on this subject
it is right that I should speak with great serious-
ness. Let each of us ask ourselves whether we are
quite alive to our duties, and by God's help are be-
coming equal to them, in this momentous inter-
course which is often required between pastors and
their people's souls. Beware lest in the din of un-
hallowed controversy we allow words to be lightly
spoken which may encourage the ungodly or care-
less pastor to feel contented with his want of power,
arising from his want of spiritual-mindedness, to
minister any consolation to distressed sinners. It
is the duty, however, of the ministers of Christ,
according to their ordination vows, seeking ' for
His sheep that are dispersed abroad, and His child-
ren that are in the midst of this naughty world,' to
use both ' public and private monitions and exhor-
tations as well to the sick as to the whole within
their cures, as need shall require and occasion shall
be given.' And we dare not with exactness
define the amount of plain speaking as to which,
in sues monitions, may be necessary to arouse
a slumbering conscience. A pastor, in his deal-
ings with sinners' consciences, must, indeed, be
very discreet and very reverent, but also he
must not flinch from being faithful. We bear all
this distinctly in mind, though it is certain that
these weighty matters have not unfrequently been
forgotten in the exciting discussions which this
subject of the confessional has of late raised. More-
over, I would observe, for myself, that it is no wish
of thine to insist on other people adopting my own
opinions as to the exact nature of the presbyter's
office, and thus to narrow those bounds of a wise
comprehensiveness, according to which the Church
of England has always allowed her children, if
they chose, to believe that some very especial bless-
ing and comfort to the penitent soul is to be derived
from listening to the promises of God's mercy pro-
nounced by his minister on those limited occasions
when alone the formularies have authorised him
officially to pronounce them as absolution. What I
do utterly disapprove of, and what I feel constrained
most strongly to protest against, is something very
different from the common pastoral intercourses
which is indicated in the three passages of the
Prayer-book I have cited, and: which the Church
always must uphold. It has been said that I have
not explained myself when I have spoken against
a systematic introduction of the practice of confes-
sion, as oppressed to such common pastoral inter-
course. But I really believe, even those who make
the objection will, when they reflect, allow—all
men of common discernment must know and dis-
tinctly recognise—the difference between the pas-
toral intercourse I have spoken of and that which
is now endeavoured to be set up amongst us under
the name of the Confessional. • If any clergyman so
preaches to his people as to lead them to suppose
that the proper and authorised way of a sinner's re•
conciliation with God is through confession to a
priest, and by receiving priestly absolution—if lie
leads them to believe (I use the illustration I have
found employed by an advocate of the Confes-
sional) that as the Greek Church has erred by
neglecting preaching, and the Church of Rome by
not encouraging the reading of the Scriptures, so
our church has hitherto been much to blame for riot
leading her people more habitually to private auri-
cular confession—if he thus stirs up the imaginat'on
of ardent and confiding spirits to have recourse
to him as a mediator between their souls and God,
and when they come to seek his aid receives them
with all the elaborate preparation which is so likely
unduly to excite their feelings, and for which there
is no authority in the church's rules of worship—
taking them into the vestry of his church, securing
the door, putting on the sacred vestments, causing
them to kneel before the cross, to address him as
their ghostly father, asking a string of questions as
to sins of deed, word, and thought, and imposing
his penance before he confers absolution—then the
man who thus acts, or—even if some of these par-
ticular circumstances are wanting—of whose gene-
ral practice this is no exaggerated picture, is in my
judgment unfaithful to the whole spirit of the
church of which he is a minister. And if it so ,
chance that the person thus brought -under his in- 1
fluence be a female, and the questions which he
asks—perhaps with the best intentions, but, under
such circumstances, with the most deVorable want
of sound discretion—include minute inquiries into
sins of impurity, he cannot be surprised if his con-
duct
is condemned as bringing grave scandal on the
Church. My reverend brethren, I know that I
carry you and the Church of England with me,
when I express my strong disapproval of such prac •
tires. Ido most earnestly trust that the zealous,
self-denying men, who have felt di,posed incautiously
, to encourage such practices, will seriously consider
with themselves, and before God, that they are not
acting as they ought. Depend upon it, real faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, such as the Church of England
holds to be the effectual cause of the soul's salvation,
is not strengthened by our people thus to lean
upon the unauthorised mediation of man. And let the
say plainly, also, to any who may be engaged in the
attempt to introduce such a system among us, that I
rejoice to have a full conviction that they are labour-
ing in a hopeless task. The overwhelming majority
of our pious and intelligent clergy, to whichsoever
of our acknowledged schools of theological senti-
ment they belong, as well a 3 of our laity, are deter-
mined b resist it. We may be ready to admit that
the clamour raised respecting the confessional is
often unwise ; but quite independently of any cla-
.uurr,
thoughtfull.eh eorrerestnda,nds a firm resistance of good and
Heal and Bible teaching,
who know:lha:lnd.,
nvalue the character
subject will be able toislead
Church, and love it for its aposto-
olfsotphhiersetry,w-eorne
atlnii37,
probability- of those who advoca.te these innovations
succeeding in their attempts to indoctrinate the
they
yy
NNo,fe
ul.thed csloeor„nrry,fina it-hscuccess would but be ruin;
but a very small minority-lolsfeltrs* deserted by all
flofocki s, and our
Church would socn become a Chu;lelh'
prob
strengtha leleirt gyet-oY.iinswe N:s\rttalel,
e is
wherein n n
such
our
the
et laity.elergy clergy, know
otwher
We trust to hold our ground from enjoying
con-
fidence of our people while -we teach. them Christ's
truth; we feel that we shall justly lose their confi-
d euce if we strain alter the unwarranted influence