stroke: "And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard of these things."* In no other

case do we read of death being inflicted; and from Paul's declaration to the Corinthians on this subject, we learn that this authority which the Lord had given to the Apostles, was for "edification, and not destruction." That was, doubtless, the invariable design for which it was exerted; and, either to the offenders who suffered its effects, or to the church which witnessed them, the unfailing result.

The power, however, belonged exclusively to the apostolic, never to the priestly, office. Its exercise was connected with the possession of plenary inspiration and miraculous gifts; never with the discharge of priestly rites. If there were any persons in the church who could give us proof, that they have the gift of discerning spirits, and the power of inflicting supernatural diseases upon the refractory individuals who dispute their authority, we might on these grounds allow them to be the successors of the Apostles; but not even then could we admit, that they are the successors of the priests. The two offices were distinct and incompatible. That which we may be allowed to say excites our surprise, is, that men revered for their mental endowments, but making no pretensions to the possession of miraculous powers, should assume themselves to be the legitimate successors of the Apostles, and priests in

*Acts v. 11.

† 2 Cor. xiii, 10.

addition! Not a ray of special illumination, nor a particle of supernatural power, yet legitimate successors of the Apostles! Not a line of divine prescription for such an office, yet priests! Successors of the Apostles, and priests also! What a commingling, and confounding of differing dispensations, and differing and incompatible offices! What a dereliction of all sound principles of scriptural interpretation do these extraordinary assumptions display! Surely, softer names than schismatics and heretics should be applied to those, who unhappily cannot understand how the persons who make these assumptions have become, either their authorized teachers or infallible guides;-whose consciences (perhaps too scrupulous) cannot submit to claims which they imagine they can give good reasons to show, have no foundation in the word of God.

Besides, we think we can show, not only that these claims have no solid foundation in holy scripture, but also, that they are inconsistent one with another.

It should be remembered, that to the Jewish priesthood was never intrusted the power of absolution,— the word was never heard officially in the temple ;— was never expressed to a penitential worshipper by a priest who there officiated, though he could, and did, by divine appointment, offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. The word was first sounded in Jewish ears, from the lips of him who came to introduce another dispensation of religion; when, in the exercise of his divine prerogative, he said to the man who was sick of the

palsy, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee." So unusual and strange did this declaration appear to the scribes, whose occupation it was to write out copies of the law, and who must therefore have been familiar with its letter, that they said, "This man blasphemeth." "Who can forgive sins but God only?" He vindicated himself from the charge of blasphemy in the words which he employed, by the miracle of healing which he performed on the man whose sins he had forgiven. And we have shown, that when he gave to his Apostles the power of retaining or remitting sins, he enabled them to prove that they really possessed it, in a very similar way; by binding or loosing supernatural diseases, in the case of those on whom the power was exercised.

The inconsistency which we refer to, lies here; that while the power of absolution is claimed in virtue of an assumed succession from the Apostles, its exercise is limited to those who possess the title and office of priest. According to the theory of succession, so soon as the hands of a lineal representative of the Apostles have been laid upon the head of a candidate for holy orders, he is adopted into the ecclesiastical family ;the grace of an apostolic succession is devolved upon him; he has authority to discharge the apostolic work of teaching, baptizing, and conducting the devotions of the people; but then, he must not receive the confession of a penitent, and remove his fears by saying to him, "I absolve thee from all thy sins," until he can

also consecrate the elements of the supper, or present the sacrifice of the altar, by becoming invested with the full orders of the priesthood. So that, he must not exercise a power which he professes to derive from the Apostles, until he has obtained an office which they never possessed, and with which it can be demonstrated, that the work of absolution was never connected!

The unauthorized practice of absolution, and the inconsistency, if it is performed, of limiting it to the office of the priest, are only steps by which we approach a still more serious assumption, and what we cannot but consider a still more daring invasion of divine prerogative.

While the priest declares, that he has authority to say to a fellow sinner kneeling or prostrate before him, what it cannot be shown that the Apostles themselves ever ventured to affirm, and the power to say which there is good reason for believing was never meant to be included in the extraordinary commission which they received," I absolve thee from all thy sins ;". the bishop, in conferring the orders of the priest, raises his mitre to the throne of the Saviour himself, and uses the very language which the divine Redeemer employed in conferring the plenitude of miraculous powers and apostolic functions. "Pontifex com mitra sedens super faldistorium, ante medium altaris, imponit ambas manus super capita singulorum coram eo genuflectentium, dicens cuilibet.

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Accipe Spiritum Sanctum: quorum remiseris peccata, remittuntur eis; et quorum retinueris, retenta sunt."*

Whatever regret may be felt on its account, the fact cannot be concealed, that in this particular, there are Protestants, who closely follow in Roman-catholic steps. The passage which we have quoted from the Roman Pontifical, is in substance included, in the form of ordination still observed in the English episcopal church: "Then the bishop, with the priests present, shall lay their hands severally upon the head of every one that receiveth the order of priesthood, the receivers humbly kneeling upon their knees, and the bishop saying; Receive the Holy Ghost, for the office and work of a priest in the church of God, now committed unto thee, by the imposition of our hands: whose sins thou dost remit, they are remitted; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained: and be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God, and of his holy sacraments, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

*"The Pontiff, with the mitre, sitting upon the faldstool, before the middle of the altar, lays both hands upon the head of each of those who are kneeling before him, and says to each: 'Receive thou the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins thou remittest, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever thou retainest, they are retained."