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future time, which he knows he can do without any disgrace. This hope operates as an opiate to the conscience. Thus with a fatal facility he swerves from his integrity, and even pleases himself with the thought, that in the act of restitution he will be doing God service, by magnifying the virtue of the confessional. Is it not true that Roman Catholics are more given to petty theft than other people? This is fully accounted for by the secrecy of confession, and the doctrine of venial sins.* In Protestant countries, such as the United States of America, the inhabitants scarcely ever use locks except in the large towns, and yet their property is perfectly secure. There are no restitutions trumpeted through the press of that country. Why? Because no thefts are committed. They are guided by a principle of integrity, and restrained by the infamy which attaches to dishonesty.

But suppose all stolen property was fully restored by Roman Catholics through the medium of confession, why that would be no more than a farthing in the pound of the injury that may be done to our neighbours. Are unjust bargains nothing? Are false weights and measures

*For theft is a mortal sin only "when the thing stolen is of considerable value." What a convenient standard of morality!

nothing? Are contempt and insult nothing? Is it nothing to blight, with the foul breath of slander, the tender flower of a neighbour's char acter ? "He that steals my purse steals trash; but he that filches from me my good name, takes that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed." Can he make restitution for that? Such a restitution, of all others most important to the injured party, can never be made through the medium of confession, where names are suppressed, and murdered characters entombed.

I am constrained to state, as the result of my experience and reading, that the institution of auricular confession is wholly inefficient as an instrument of moral improvement; that it benefits neither the individual nor the community; that its natural tendency is to harden the sinner's heart, and to turn away his attention from the "fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness," to "a broken cistern that can hold no water." Or if it hold any (unlike the water which the Redeemer gives), whosoever drinks of it "shall thirst again." It may deaden the sense of guilt and damp the energy of passion for a moment, but it is only to enhance their power. The ab

solution of the Priest is not a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Like the fetid contents of the stagnant pool, it serves but

AURICULAR CONFESSION.

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to increase the defilement it was intended to remove. Indeed, the attempt to cancel our guilt in any other way than by faith in the blood of Jesus-by any penance or Priestly absolutions is the most perilous enterprize to which an accusing conscience can instigate the sinner. The confessional, instead of affording protection, will ensure destruction to him who has fled to it for refuge.

"The umbrageous oak, with pomp outspread,
When storms the welkin rend,

Draws down the lightning on the head

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LETTER XII.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

In discussing what has been called the sacrifice of the mass, I was led to advert to the Priesthood of Christ in connexion with the atonement. Of course my limits permitted only a very brief examination of this important subject, and the interesting doctrines that emanate from it, like sunbeams from the fountain of light. On satisfaction for sin, justification by faith, confession and pardon, I have slightly touched already. Permit me now to claim your attention, while I offer a few remarks on the intercession of Christ, which is an important part of his priestly office.

We Protestants believe that, according to the language of the apostle Paul (1 Tim. ii. 5), "There is but one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." We feel assured, moreover, that no other being is qualified to sustain the office of advocate before God the Father. His deity gives him the power of prevailing with him that sits upon the throne. interest in the court of heaven is unlimited. The

Father heareth him always.

all, blessed for ever; and to

His

He is God over

him is committed

SUB-MEDIATORS.

199

all power in heaven and earth. He therefore knows all our wants, and his means of removing them are inexhaustible.

But, perhaps, while admitting all this, you will argue that the Redeemer is too great, too highly exalted in glory, to attend to the sublunary scene on which we act our little parts, and pass away, like summer insects, to oblivion. Το justify the reasoning of your manuals of contro versy, you must assert that the Saviour is so absorbed in the contemplation of his own excellence that he has so faint à perception of the various cases of his people, and is so inattentive to their interests, as to require his repose to be broken, and his sensibilities awakened, by the importunity of saints and angels more intimately conversant with the affairs of the church which He redeemed with his own blood, and for which we are told" He ever liveth to make intercession!" This, it is said, is reasonable, and is favoured by analogies in human life. A tenant in danger of being ejected from his farm, is greatly distressed. His wife, however, bethinks of an expedient to relieve him. Her particular friend was nurse to the clerk in the agent's office. This same clerk has the agent's ear continually, and from his practical knowledge of the affairs of the estate, he is entrusted with the

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