(?fIAP. VIII.] PBNANCE?&BSOL?rTIOt?. 307 grievous, no crime, however enoFmous, or however frequently repeated, which penance does uot redtit," p. 243. "Without the intervention of penance we cannot obtmin, or even hope for pardon,'* p. 244. "The penitent must also submit himself to the judgment of the priest, who is the vicegerent of C-,od, to ena51e him to award a punishment propor.- tiened to his guilt,"p. 245. From the form of absolution it will appear that the power claimed by the priest is us stated above. The form is as follows: Ego t? ?olvo a peac? tuis, in horninc Parris, et Filii, et SpiritOs $ancti : [ absolve tl?epom ray sin?, in t?e nan? of the Failer, and of the 8on. and of t? Holy Glwst. But the essential part of the form is, te salvo, I absolve thee. The forms, Absolvat te Christus, May C?ri?t absolve t&e, or, Abecivet te Deus, May God absolve t?e, are allowed to be invalid by most Roman Catholic divines, because the priest does not pray for pardon, but, on the contrary, bestows pardon authorita- tively and olticially. In confirmation of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, teaching that the priest has the power of remitting and retaining sins, we will quote the opinions of some of their acknowledged sound di- vines. From Dens we make the following quotation: "What is sense of the sacramental form, Ego te absolve, &c. ? Ans. The sense is this: I judicially bestow on thee the grace of the remission of all thy sins, or grace of itself remissire of all thy sins, as far as is in the power of my ministry. This sense of the form cannot be admitted. I &dare tl? absolved, because it is condemned by the Council of Trent, seas. 14, can. 9." Bishop Hay declares as follows: "Jesus Christ gave to the pastors of his church the power of forgiving and retaining sins, and passed his sacred word that when they forgive penitent's sins, by pronouncing the sentence of absolution upon him, �ey are actually forgiven, that is, are washed away from his soul by the grace of God then poured down into it.'l?' Bishop Milner says: "This church has uniformly taught that confession and the priegt's ab- solution, where they can be had, are required of the penitent sinner, as well as contrition and a proper purpose of amendment."? 2. We will now examine the passages of Scripture which am usu- ally quoted to establish'this doctrine. For this purpose Matthew xviii, 18 is ?dduced: "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on e&nh shall be loosed in heaven." The words b/m/and ? are employed in the sense of obiigin gaud dissolving, according to the customary phraseology of the Jews, when they would refer to an thing that was lawful or.unlawful to be done. These phrases of/dr ?and leona occur nowhere in the New Testament except in I?' w, who is said to have written originally in Hebrew, which seco for the use of these Hebraisms, and gives them peculiar force. passage gave the apostles authority to d?clare what was obliger dispensed with in the Jewish law; and thus, by the authority Holy Spirit, of declaring what was to be ret?in?i or omitu?' C, hristian church. The following text i? also brecht, forward for the purlins �Tract. dz 8?r. Profit., No. 14. ,, Q?is ?t sense," &?.
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