ecclesiastical sacraments does really minister to it, not only by consigning it; but as instruments, of the divine appointment, to convey proper mercies to worthily-disposed persons.

60. But the other great thing, which I was to say in this article, is this, that the judicial absolution of the priest does effect no material event or change in the penitent as to the giving the pardon, and therefore cannot be it which Christ intended in the giving those excellent powers of remitting and retaining sins. Now upon this will the whole issue depend. Does the priest absolve him whom God condemns? God is the supreme judge; and though we may minister to his judgment, yet we cannot contradict it;-or can the priest condemn him whom God absolves? That also is impossible, He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me;' and 'If God be with us, who can be against us? Or will not God pardon unless the priest absolves us? That may become a sad story: for he may be malicious, or ignorant, or interested, or covetous, and desirous to serve his own ends upon the ruin of my soul,-and therefore God dispenses his mercies by more regular, just, and equal measures, than the accidental sentences of unknowing or imprudent men: if then the priest ministers only to repentance, by saying, 'I absolve thee,' what is it that he effects? For since God's pardon does not go by his measures, his must go by God's measures; and the effect of that will be this, God works his own work in us; and when his minister observes the effects of the Divine grace, he can and ought to publish and declare, to all the purposes of comfort and institution, that the person is absolved; that is, he is in the state of grace and divine favour, in which if he perseveres, he shall be saved. But all this while the work is supposed to be done before; and if it be, the priest hath nothing left for him to do, but to approve, to warrant, and to publish.-And the case in short is this:

61. Either the sinner hath repented worthily, or he hath not. If he hath, then God hath pardoned him already, by virtue of all the promises evangelical: if he hath not repented worthily, the priest cannot, ought not to absolve him; and therefore can, by this absolution, effect no new thing. The work is done before the priestly absolution, and therefore cannot depend upon it. Against this, no sect of men op

poses any thing that I know of, excepting only the Roman doctors; who yet confess the argument of value, if the penitent be contrite. But they add this, that there is an imperfect contrition, which by a distinct word they call' attrition,' which is a natural grief, or a grief proceeding wholly from fear or smart, and hath in it nothing of love; and this, they say, does not justify the man, nor pardon the sin of itself. But if this man come to the priest, and confess and be absolved, that absolution makes this attrition to become contrition, or, which is all one, it pardons the man's sins; and though this imperfect penitent cannot hope for pardon upon the confidence of that indisposition, yet, by the sacrament of penance or priestly absolution, he may hope it, and shall not be deceived.

62. Indeed, if this were true, it were a great advantage to some persons, who need it mightily. But they are the worst sort of penitents, and such which though they have been very bad, yet now resolve not to be very good, if they can any other way escape it; and by this means the priest's power is highly advanced; and to submit to it, would be highly necessary to most men, and safest to all. But if this be not true, then to hope it, is a false confidence, and of danger to the event of souls; it is a nurse of carelessness, and gives boldness to imperfect penitents, and makes them to slacken their own piety, because they look for security upon confidence of that, which will be had without trouble, or mortification; even the priest's absolution. This therefore I am to examine, as being of very great concernment in the whole article of repentance, and promised to be considered in the beginning of this paragraph.

SECTION V.

Attrition, or the imperfect Repentance, though with Absolution, is not sufficient.

63. By attrition they mean the most imperfect repentance; that is, a sorrow proceeding from fear of hell, a sorrow not mingled with the love of God: this sorrow newly begun, they say, is sufficient for pardon, if the sins be confessed,

and the party absolved by the priest. This indeed is a short process, and very easy; but if it be not effectual and valid, the persons that rely upon it, are miserably undone. Here therefore I consider,

64. I. Attrition being a word of the schools, not of the Scripture, or of antiquity, means what they please to have it; and although they differ in assigning its definition, yet it being the least and the worst part of repentance, every action of any man, that can, in any sense, be said to repent upon consideration of any the most affrighting threatenings in the Gospel, cannot be denied to have attrition. Now such a person, who being scared, comes to confess his sin, may still retain his affections to it; for nothing but love to God can take away his love from evil; and if there be love in it, it is contrition, not attrition. From these premises it follows, that if the priest can absolve him that is attrite, he may pardon him who hath affections to sin still remaining; that is, one who fears hell, but does not love God. If it be said, that absolution changes fear into love, attrition into contrition, a Saul into a David, a Judas into a John, a Simon Magus into Simon Peter; then the greatest conversions and miracles of change may be wrought, in an instant, by an ordinary ministry; and when Simon Magus was affrighted by St. Peter about the horror of his sin, and told that he was in the gall of bitterness, and thereupon desired the Apostle to pray for him,-if St. Peter had but absolved him, which he certainly might upon that affright he put the sorcerer in, he had made him a saint presently, and needed not to have spoken so uncertainly concerning him; Pray, if, peradventure, the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee.' For without peradventure he might have made a quicker dispatch, and a surer work, by giving him absolution upon his present submission, and the desire of his prayers, and his visible apparent fear of being in the gall of bitterness;—all which must needs be as much or more than the Roman schools define attrition to be. But,

65. II. The priest pardons upon no other terms than those, upon which God pardons; for if he does, then he is not the minister of God, but the supreme lord, and must do it by his own measures, if he does it not by the measures of God. For God does never pardon him that is only attrite;

and this is confessed, in that they require the man to go to the priest, that he may be made contrite: which is all one, as if he were bidden to go to the priest to be made chaste or liberal, temperate or humble, in an instant.

66. III. And if it be said, that although God does not pardon him that is attrite, unless it be together with the keys, that is, unless the priest absolves him; but then, it being all that God requires in that case, the priest does no more than God warrants; it is done by God's measures; the attrition or imperfect repentance of the penitent, and the keys of the church, being all which God requires: this indeed, if it could be proved, were something, but there is no tittle of it in Scripture or antiquity; it being no where said, that attrition and absolution alone are sufficient, and is an unreasonable dream but of yesterday.

67. IV. For if attrition be good of itself, and a sufficient disposition to receive pardon from the church, then it is also sufficient to obtain pardon of God without the church, in case of necessity. For unless it be for him, in case of necessity, sufficient to desire absolution, then the outward act does more than the inward; and the ceremony were more than the grace; and the priest could do more than God would; for the priest would and could pardon him, whom God would not pardon without the priest; and the will could not be accepted for the deed, when the deed were impossible to be done; and God would require of us more than we have, more than he hath given us; and a man should live or die not by himself, but should be judged by the actions of others. All which contain in them impossible affirmatives, and therefore proceed from a false principle.

68. V. But then if attrition, in some cases, without the sacrament, were good, it is as good to all intents and purposes of pardon, as contrition; for contrition (say the Roman schools) is not sufficient of itself without the keys; that is, unless it contain in it a resolution to confess and beg absolution. Now this resolution is no resolution, unless it be reduced to act, when it can; it is a mockery, if it does not; and it is to be excused in no case, but in that of necessity. And just so it is in attrition, as I have proved. In vain therefore it is for any good man to persuade his penitent to heighten his repentance, and to be contrite; for he may, at

a cheaper rate, be assured of his pardon, if he makes the priest his friend but as for contrition, by his doctrine, it is more than needs.

69. VI. But then it is strange, that attrition, which, of itself, is insufficient, shall yet do the work of pardon with the priest's absolution; and yet that which is sufficient (as contrition is affirmed to be in the council of Trent), shall not do it without absolution, in act or desire; that is in act always, unless it be impossible: this encourages the imperfect, and discourages the perfect, tying them both to equal laws, whether they need it, or need it not.

70. VII. But I demand; can the priest hearing of a penitent man's confession, whom he, justly and without error, perceives only to be attrite, can he, I say, refuse to absolve him? can he retain his sins, till he perceives him to be contrite? Certainly in the primitive church, when they deferred to give him the peace for three, for seven, for ten, for thirteen years together, their purpose then was to work in him contrition, or the most excellent repentance. But however, if he can refuse to absolve such a man, then it is, because absolution will not work for him what is defective in him; it will not change it into contrition; for if it could, then to refuse to absolve him, were highly uncharitable and unreasonable. But if he cannot refuse to absolve such a person, it is because he is sufficiently disposed; he hath done all that God requires of him to dispose himself to it; and if so, then the sacrament, as they call it, that is, the priest's absolution, does nothing to the increasing his disposition; it is sufficient already. Add to this, if, in the case of attrition, the priest may not deny to absolve the imperfect penitent, then it is certain God will absolve him, in case the priest does not; for if the priest be bound and refuses to do it, this ought not, it cannot, prejudice the penitent, but himself only. He therefore shall not perish for want of the priest's absolution ; and if it could be otherwise, then the parishioner might be damned for the curate's fault; which to affirm were certain blasphemy and heresy. What the priest is bound to do, God will do, if the priest will not. The result is this. That if this imperfect repentance, which they call attrition, be a sufficient disposition to absolution, then the priest's ministry is

c Sess. 14. c. 4.