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A41435 A discourse concerning auricular confession as it is prescribed by the Council of Trent, and practised in the Church of Rome : with a post-script on occasion of a book lately printed in France, called Historia confessionis auricularis. Goodman, John, 1625 or 6-1690. 1684 (1684) Wing G1104; ESTC R6771 36,206 60

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it is very evident that all things of this Nature ought to be appointed very plainly and expresly or else they can carry no obligation with them for seeing the whole Reason of their becoming matter of Law or Duty lies in the will of the Legislator if that be not plainly discovered they cannot be said to be instituted and so there can be no Obligation to observe them because where there is no Law there can be no Transgression and a Law is no Law in effect which is not sufficiently promulged Is it not therefore a very strange thing to tell us of an Institution by implication only and yet at the same time to tell us that the matter so pretended to be instituted is no less then absolutely necessary to the Salvation of Sinners 2. The second of these will easily be resolved by considering what we observed before from the Council of Trent viz. that this Sacrament of Penance consists of Matter and Form the Form is the Priests Absolution but the Matter or Materials of this Sacrament are Contrition Confession to a Priest and Satisfaction or Performance of the Penance enjoyn'd by him now it is evident that not only Auricular Confession of which we have spoken hitherto but also Contrition and Satisfaction are wholly omitted and past over in silence by the Evangelist in this passage of Scripture from whence they fetch their Sacrament of Penance and is it not a wonderfully strange thing that our Saviour should be supposed to institute a Sacrament without any Materials of it at all Surely therefore this must be either a very Spiritual Sacrament or none at all Let us guess at the probability of this in proportion to either of the other undoubted Sacraments Suppose our Saviour instead of that accurate form in which he instituted the Eucharist had only said I would have you my Disciples and all that shall believe on my Name to keep a Memorial of me when I am gone Or suppose he said only as he doth Joh. 6. 55. My Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed would any one have concluded here that our Saviour in so saying had appointed Bread and Wine to be consecrated to be received in such a manner and in a word that he had without more ado instituted such a Sacrament as we usually celebrate No certainly and therefore we see our Saviour is the most express and particular therein that can be for he takes Bread blesses it breaks it gives it to them saying Take eat this is my body c. and after Supper he takes the Cup blesses it gives it to them saying Drink ye all of this for this is the New Testament in my Blood c. and then adds do this in remembrance of me Now who is there that observes this accuracy of our Saviour in the Eucharist can imagine that he should intend to institute a Sacrament of Penance and that as necessary to Salvation in the Opinion of the Romanists as the other only with this Form of words Whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted c. and without the least mention of Confession Contrition or any other Material or necessary Part of Circumstance of it 3. But in the third and last place let us suppose that our Saviour had in the Text before us instituted Penance and had appointed particularly all those things which they call the Material parts of it as it is evident he hath not yet even then and upon that Supposition Penance would not have proved to be a Sacrament properly so called I confess according to a loose acceptation of the word Sacrament something may be said for it for so there are many things have had the name of Sacrament applied to them Tertullian somewhere calls Elisha's Ax the Sacrament of Wood and in his Book against Marcion he stiles the whole Christian Religion a Sacrament St. Austin in several places calls Bread Fish the Rock and the Mystery of Number Sacraments for he hath given us a general Rule in his Fifth Epistle viz. That all signs when they belong to divine things are called Sacraments And in consideration hereof it is acknowledged by Cassander that the Number of Sacraments was indefinite in the Church of Rome it self until the times of Peter Lombard But all this notwithstanding and properly speaking this Rite of Penance taking it altogether and even supposing whatsoever the Romanists can suppose to belong to it cannot be reputed a Sacrament according to the allowed definitions of a Sacrament delivered by their own Divines Some of them define a Sacrament thus Sacramentum est corporale elementum foris sensibiliter propositum ex similitudine repraesentans ex institutione significans ex Sanctificatione continens invisibilem gratiam And the Master of the Sentences himself describes it somewhat more briefly but to the same effect in these words Sacramentum est invisibilis gratiae visibilis forma ejusdem gratiae imaginem gerens causa existens both which definitions are acknowledged and applauded by the Jesuite Becanus And the plain truth is a Sacrament cannot be better exprest in so few words then it is by St. Austin when he calls it verbum visibile a visible Word or Gospel For it pleased the Divine Wisdom and Goodness by this institution of Sacraments to condescend to our weakness and thereby to give us sensible Tokens or Pledges of what he had promised in his Written word to the intent that our dulness might be relieved and our Faith assisted forasmuch as herein our Eyes and other Senses as well as our Ears are made Witnesses of his gracious intentions Thus by Baptismal washing he gives us a sensible token and representation of our regeneration and the washing away of our sins by the Blood of Christ and by the participation of Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper we have a Token and Symbol of our Union with Christ our Friendship with God and Communion with each other But now it is manifest there is no such thing as this in their Sacrament of Penance as even Bellarmine himself confesses For they do not say or mean that the Absolution of the Priest is a Token or Emblem of God's forgiveness but that the Priest actually pardons in God's stead by Virtue of a Power delegated to him So that according to them here must be a Sacrament not only without any material parts instituted but also without any thing Figurative Symbolical or Significative which seems to be as expresly contrary to their own Doctrine in the aforesaid definitions as to the truth it self Nay further to evince the difference of this Rite of Penance from all other proper Sacraments it deserves observation that whereas in those other acknowledged Sacraments the Priest in God's Name delivers to us the Pledges and Symbols of Divine Grace Here in this of Penance we must bring all the material Parts and Pledges our selves and present them to God or to the