partly with tears, partly with other external signs, it hath been thought, that in these things contrition doth chiefly consist: whereas the chiefest thing in contrition is, that alteration whereby the will, which was before delighted with sin, doth now abhor and shun nothing more. But forasmuch as we cannot hate sin in ourselves without heaviness and grief, that there should be in us a thing of such hateful quality, the will averted from sin must needs make the affection suitable; yea, there is great reason why it should so do: for since the will by conceiving sin hath deprived the soul of life; and of life there is no recovery without repentance, the death of sin; repentance, not able to kill sin, but by withdrawing the will from it; the will unpossible to be withdrawn, unless it concur with a contrary affection to that which accompanied it before in evil; is it not clear that, as an inordinate delight did first begin sin, so repentance must begin with a just sorrow, a sorrow of heart, and such a sorrow as renteth the heart; neither a feigned nor slight sorrow: not feigned, lest it increase sin; nor slight, lest the pleasures of sin overmatch it.

Wherefore of grace, the highest cause from which man's penitency doth proceed; of faith, fear, love, hope, what force and efficiency they have in repentance; of parts and duties thereunto belonging, comprehended in the schoolmen's definitions; finally, of the first among those duties, contrition, which disliketh and bewaileth iniquity, let this suffice.

And because God will have offences by repentance not only abhorred within ourselves, but also with humble supplication displayed before him, and a testimony of amendment to be given, even by present works worthy repentance, in that they are contrary to those we renounce and disclaim; although the virtue of repentance do require that her other two parts, confession and satisfaction, should here follow; yet seeing they belong as well to the discipline as to the virtue of repentance, and only differ for that in the one they are performed to man, in the other to God alone, I had rather distinguish them in joint-handling, than handle them apart, because in quality and manner of practice they are distinct.

Of the discipline of repentance instituted by Christ, practised by the fathers, converted by the schoolmen into a sacrament; and of confession, that which belongeth to the virtue of repentance, that which was used among the Jews, that which papacy imagineth a sacrament, and that which ancient discipline practised.

OUR Lord and Saviour in the sixteenth of St. Matthew's Matt. xvi. Gospel giveth his apostles regiment in general over God's 19. church. For they that have the keys of the kingdom of heaven are thereby signified to be stewards of the house of God, under whom they guide, command, judge, and correct his family. The souls of men are God's treasure, committed to the trust and fidelity of such as must render a strict account for the very least which is under their custody. God hath not invested them with power to make a revenue thereof, but to use it for the good of them whom Jesus Christ hath most dearly bought.

And because their office therein consisteth of sundry functions, some belonging to doctrine, some to discipline, all contained in the name of the keys; they have for matters of discipline, as well litigious as criminal, their courts and consistories erected by the heavenly authority of his most sacred voice, who hath said, Dic ecclesia, Tell the church; against Matt. xviii. rebellious and contumacious persons, which refuse to obey their sentence, armed they are with power to eject such out of the church, to deprive them of the honours, rights, and privileges of Christian men, to make them as heathens and publicans, with whom society was hateful.

17.

John xx. 23.

1 Tim. i. 20.

Furthermore, lest their acts should be slenderly accounted Matt. xviii. of, or had in contempt, whether they admit to the fellowship 18. of saints or seclude from it, whether they bind offenders or 1 Cor. v. 3. set them again at liberty, whether they remit or retain sins, 2 Cor. ii. 6. whatsoever is done by way of orderly and lawful proceeding, the Lord himself hath promised to ratify. This is that grand original warrant, by force whereof the guides and prelates in God's church, first his apostles, and afterwards others following them successively, did both use and uphold that discipline, the end whereof is to heal men's consciences, to cure their sins, to reclaim offenders from iniquity, and to make them by repentance just.

Neither hath it of ancient time, for any other respect, been accustomed to bind by ecclesiastical censures to retain so

bound till tokens of manifest repentance appeared, and upon apparent repentance to release, saving only because this was received as a most expedient method for the cure of sin.

The course of discipline in former ages reformed open transgressors by putting them into offices of open penitence, especially confession, whereby they declared their own crimes in the hearing of the whole church, and were not from the time of their first convention capable of the holy mysteries of Christ, till they had solemnly discharged this duty.

Offenders in secret knowing themselves altogether as unworthy to be admitted to the Lord's table, as the other which were withheld, being also persuaded, that if the church did direct them in the offices of their penitency, and assist them with public prayers, they should more easily obtain that they sought, than by trusting wholly to their own endeavours; finally, having no impediment to stay them from it but bashfulness, which countervailed not the former inducements, and besides was greatly eased by the good construction, which the charity of those times gave to such actions, wherein men's piety and voluntary care to be reconciled to God did purchase them much more love than their faults (the testimonies of common frailty) were able to procure disgrace, they made it not nice to use some one of the ministers of God, by whom the rest might take notice of their faults, prescribe them convenient remedies, and in the end, after public confession, all join in prayer unto God for them.

The first beginner of this custom had the more followers, by means of that special favour which always was with good consideration shewed towards voluntary penitents above the

rest.

But as professors of Christian belief grew more in number, so they waxed worse; when kings and princes had submitted their dominions unto the sceptre of Jesus Christ, by means whereof persecution ceasing, the church immediately became subject to those evils which peace and security bringeth forth; there was not now that love which before kept all things in tune, but every where schisms, discords, dissensions amongst men, conventicles of heretics, bent more vehemently against the sounder and better sort than very infidels and heathens themselves; faults not corrected in charity, but noted with delight, and kept for malice to use when the deadliest opportunities should be offered.

Whereupon, forasmuch as public confessions became dangerous and prejudicial to the safety of well-minded men, and in divers respects advantageous to the enemies of God's church, it seemed first unto some, and afterwards generally requisite, that voluntary penitents should surcease from open confession.

Instead whereof, when once private and secret confession had taken place with the Latins, it continued as a profitable ordinance till the Lateran council had decreed that all men, once in a year at the least, should confess themselves to the priest.

So that being a thing thus made both general and also necessary, the next degree of estimation whereunto it grew, was to be honoured and lifted up to the nature of a sacrament; that as Christ did institute baptism to give life, and the eucharist to nourish life, so penitence might be thought a sacrament ordained to recover life, and confession a part of the sacrament.

q. 1. art. 1.

They define therefore their private penitency to be a sa- Scot. in iv. crament of remitting sins after baptism: the virtue of re- sent. d. 14. pentance, a detestation of wickedness with full purpose to amend the same, and with hope to obtain pardon at God's hands.

q. 2. art. 1.

Wheresoever the prophets cry repent, and in the gospel In ead. dist. Saint Peter maketh the same exhortation to the Jews as yet unbaptized, they would have the virtue of repentance only to be understood; the sacrament, where he adviseth Simon Magus to repent, because the sin of Simon Magus was after baptism.

Now although they have only external repentance for a sacrament, internal for a virtue, yet make they sacramental repentance nevertheless to be composed of three parts, contrition, confession, and satisfaction. Which is absurd; because contrition, being an inward thing, belongeth to the virtue and not to the sacrament of repentance, which must consist of external parts, if the nature thereof be external. Besides, which is more absurd, they leave out absolution, Scot. sent. whereas some of their school-divines, handling penance in l. iv. d. 14. the nature of a sacrament, and being not able to espy the least resemblance of a sacrament, save only in absolution, (for a sacrament by their doctrine must both signify and also confer or bestow some special Divine grace,) resolved them

q. 4.

selves, that the duties of the penitent could be but mere preparations to the sacrament, and that the sacrament itself was wholly in absolution. And albeit Thomas, with his followers, have thought it safer to maintain, as well the services of the penitent, as the words of the minister necessary unto the essence of their sacrament; the services of the penitent, as a cause material; the words of absolution, as a formal, for that by them all things are perfected to the taking away of sin; which opinion now reigneth in all their schools, since the time that the council of Trent gave it solemn approbation, seeing they all make absolution, if not the whole essence, yet the very form whereunto they ascribe chiefly the whole force and operation of their sacrament; surely to admit the matter as a part, and not to admit the form, hath small congruity with reason.

Again, forasmuch as a sacrament is complete, having the matter and form which it ought, what should lead them to set down any other parts of sacramental repentance, than confession and absolution, as Durandus hath done?

For, touching satisfaction, the end thereof, as they understand it, is a further matter which resteth after the sacrament administered, and therefore can be no part of the sacrament.

Will they draw in contrition with satisfaction, which are no parts, and exclude absolution (a principal part), yea, the very complement, form and perfection of the rest, as themselves account it? But for their breach of precepts in art it skilleth not, if their doctrine otherwise concerning penitency, and in penitency touching confession, might be found true. We say, let no man look for pardon, which doth smother and conceal sin, where in duty it should be revealed.

The cause why God requireth confession to be made to him is, that thereby testifying a deep hatred of our own iniquity, the only cause of his hatred and wrath towards us, we might, because we are humble, be so much the more capable of that compassion and tender mercy, which knoweth not how to condemn sinners that condemn themselves.

If it be our Saviour's own principle, that the conceit we have of our debt forgiven, proportioneth our thankfulness

a Sect. 14. c. 3. Docet Sancta Synodus Sacramenti Pœnitentiæ formam, in qua præcipue ipsius vis sita est, in illis ministri verbis positam esse, Ego te absolvo Sunt autem quasi materia hujus sacramenti, ipsius pœnitentis actus, nempe contritio, confessio, et satisfactio.