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dipense all. The priest lendeth his tongue, and putteth to his hand." 652 His part only is to open his mouth; but it is God that worketh all." And the reasons whereby both he, and 53 Theophylact after him, do prove that the priests of the law had no power to forgive sins, are of as great force to take the same power from the ministers of the Gospel. First, because it is God's part only to forgive sins: which is the moral that Haymo maketh of that part of the history of the Gospel, wherein the lepers are cleansed by our Saviour, before they be commanded to shew themselves unto the priests; "because," saith he, "not the priests, but God doth forgive sins." Secondly, because the priests were servants, yea servants of sin, and therefore had no power to forgive sins unto others; but the Son is the Lord of the house, who was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin, saith St John. Upon which saying of his, St Augustine giveth this good note: 58 It is he in whom there is no sin, that came to take away sin. For if there had been sin in him too, it must have been taken away from him; he could not take it away himself.”

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To forgive sins, therefore, being thus proper to God only and to his Christ, his ministers must not be held to have this power communicated unto them, but in an improper sense, namely, because God forgiveth by them, and hath appointed them both to apply those means by which he useth to forgive sins, and to give notice unto repentant sinners of that forgiveness. 59 For who can forgive sins but God alone? yet doth he forgive by them also unto whom he hath given power to forgive," saith St Ambrose and his

52 Τὸ πᾶν τῆς χάριτός ἐστι· τούτου ἐστὶν ἀνοῖξαι μόνον τὸ στόμα. τὸ δὲ πᾶν ὁ Θεὸς ἐργάζεται σύμβολον οὗτος λnpoì μóvov. Id. in 2 Tim. cap. i. Homil. II.

53 Id. in Johan. viii. Homil. LIV. Græc. vel LIII. Latin.

54 Τὸ γὰρ ἀφεῖναι ἁμαρτίας Θεοῦ μόνου, Theophylact. in Johan, viii.

55 Juxta spiritualem intelligentiam leprosi, antequam ad sacerdotes veniant, mundantur; quia non sacerdotes sed Deus peccata dimittit. Haymo Halberstat. in Evang. Domin. xv. post Pentecost.

56 Δοῦλοι κακεῖνοι ὄντες οἱ ἱερεῖς ὑμῶν οὐκ ἔχουσιν ἐξουσίαν ἀφιέναι ἄλλοις άμαρTías. Theophylact. in Johan. viii. 57 1 John iii. 5.

58 In quo non est peccatum, ipse venit auferre peccatum. Nam si esset et in illo peccatum, auferendum esset illi, non ipse auferret. August. Tract. iv. in 1 Johan. iii.

59 Quis enim potest peccata dimittere nisi solus Deus? qui per eos quoque dimittit, quibus dimittendi tribuit potestatem. Ambr. lib. v. Comment. in Luc. v.

followers. And though it be the proper work of God to remit sins," saith Ferus, " yet are the Apostles" and their successors" said to remit also, not simply, but because they apply those means whereby God doth remit sins: which means are the word of God and the Sacraments." Whereunto also we may add the relaxation of the censures of the Church, and prayer; for in these four the whole exercise of this ministry of reconciliation, as the 62 Apostle calleth it, doth mainly consist. Of each whereof it is needful that we should speak somewhat more particularly.

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That prayer is a means ordained by God for procuring remission of sins, St Chrysostom observeth out of Job XLii. 8, and is plain by that of St James: The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed: for the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The latter of which sentences hath reference to the prayers of every good Christian, whereunto we find a gracious promise annexed, according to that of St John: 65 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. But the former, as the verse immediately going before doth manifestly prove, pertaineth to the prayers made by the ministers of the Church, who have a special charge to be the Lord's remembrancers for the good of his people. And therefore, as St Augustine out of the latter proveth, that one brother by this means may cleanse another from the contagion of sin, so doth St Chrysostom out of the former, that priests do perform this, not " 67 by teaching only and admonishing, but by assisting us also with their prayers." And the faithful prayers,

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both of the one and of the other, are by 6 St Augustine made the especial means whereby the power of the keys is exercised in the remitting of sins; who thereupon exhorteth offenders to shew their repentance publicly in the Church, 69 that the Church might pray for them," and impart the benefit of absolution unto them.

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In the life of St Basil, fathered upon Amphilochius, of the credit whereof we have before spoken, a certain gentlewoman is brought in coming unto St Basil for obtaining remission of her sins, who is said there to have demanded this question of her: "Hast thou heard, O woman, that none can forgive sins but God alone?" and she to have returned him this answer: "I have heard it, Father, and therefore have I moved thee to make intercession unto our most merciful God for me." Which agreeth well with that which Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure do maintain, that the power of the keys extends to the remission of faults, by way of intercession only and deprecation, not by imparting any immediate absolution. And as in our private forgiving and praying one for another, St Augustine well noteth, that “it is our part, God giving us the grace, to use the ministry of charity and humility; but it is his to hear us, and to cleanse us from all pollution of sins for Christ, and in Christ; that what we forgive unto others, that is to say, what we loose upon earth, may be loosed also in heaven:" so doth St Ambrose shew, that the case also standeth with the ministers of the Gospel, in the execution of that commission given unto them for the remitting of sins, John xx. 23: "They make request," saith he, "the Godhead bestoweth the gift; for the service is done by man, but the bounty is from the power

68 August. de Baptismo contra Donatist. lib. iii. cap. 17, 18.

69 Id. Homil. XLIX. Ex. 50. Agite pœnitentiam qualis agitur in ecclesia, ut oret pro vobis ecclesia.

70 Tom. II. Vit. Sanct. ab Aloysio Lipomano, edit. Venet. ann. 1553. fol. 298; Vit. Patrum, ab Her. Rosweydo, edit. Antuerp. ann. 1615. p. 160; Miscellan. a Gerardo Vossio, edit. Mogunt. ann. 1604. p. 136.

71 Alex. in Sum. part. IV. Quæst. 21. Membr. 1.

72 Bonaventur. in lib. iv. Sent. Dist. XVIII. Art. 2. Quæst. 1.

73 Nostrum est, donante ipso, ministerium caritatis et humilitatis adhibere; illius est exaudire, ac nos ab omni peccatorum contaminatione mundare per Christum et in Christo; ut quod aliis etiam dimittimus, hoc est, in terra solvimus, solvatur et in cœlo. August. in fine Tractat. LVIII. in Evang. Johan.

74 Isti rogant, divinitas donat. Humanum enim obsequium, sed munificentia supernæ est potestatis. Ambros. de Spir. Sanct. lib. iii. cap. 19.

above." The reason which he rendereth thereof is, because in their ministry it is the Holy Ghost that forgiveth the sin; and it is God only that can give the Holy Ghost. 6675 For this is not a human work," saith he in another place, "neither is the Holy Ghost given by man, but being called upon by the priest, is bestowed by God; wherein the gift is God's, the ministry is the priest's. For if the Apostle Paul did judge that he could not confer the Holy Ghost by his authority, but believed himself to be so far unable for this office, that he wished we might be filled with the Spirit from God, who is so great as dare arrogate unto himself the bestowing of this gift? Therefore the Apostle did intimate his desire by prayer, he challenged no right by any authority: he wished to obtain it, he presumed not to command it." Thus far St Ambrose, of whom Paulinus writeth, that whensoever any penitents came unto him, "the crimes which they confessed unto him he spake of to none, but to God alone, unto whom he made intercession; leaving a good example to the priests of succeeding ages, that they be rather intercessors for them unto God, than accusers unto men." The same also, and in the selfsame words, doth "Jonas write of Eustachius, the scholar of Columbanus our famous countryman.

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Hitherto appertaineth that sentence cited by Thomas Walden out of St Jerome's Exposition upon the Psalms, that the voice of God" cutteth off daily in every one of us the flame of lust by confession and the grace of the Holy Ghost, that is to say, by the prayer of the priest maketh

75 Non enim humanum hoc opus, neque quem intercedebat, loquebatur; bonum

ab homine datur; sed invocatus a sacerdote, a Deo traditur: in quo Dei munus, ministerium sacerdotis est. Nam si Paulus Apostolus judicavit quod ipse donare Spiritum Sanctum sua auctoritate non posset, et in tantum se huic officio imparem credidit, ut a Deo nos spiritu optaret impleri; quis tantus est qui hujus traditionem muneris sibi audeat arrogare? Itaque Apostolus votum precatione detulit, non jus auctoritate aliqua vindicavit : impetrare optavit, non imperare præsumpsit. Id. ibid. lib. i. cap. 7.

75 Causas autem criminum, quas illi confitebantur, nulli nisi Domino soli, apud

relinquens exemplum posteris sacerdotibus, ut intercessores apud Deum magis sint, quam accusatores apud homines. Paulinus, in Vita Sti. Ambrosii.

77 Jonas, in Vita Sti. Eustachii Luxoviensis Abbatis, cap. i. apud Surium, Tom. 11. Mart. 29.

78 Tho. Waldens. Tom. II. de Sacramentis, cap. 147.

79 Quotidie in unoquoque nostrum flammam libidinis per confessionem et gratiam Spiritus Sancti intercidit, id est, per orationem sacerdotis facit cessare. Hieronym. in Exposit. Psal. xxviii. in edit.

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it to cease in us:" and that which before hath been alleged out of Leo, of the confession offered first to God and then to the priest, " 80 who cometh as an intreater for the sins of the penitent." Which he more fully expresseth in another epistle, affirming it to be very profitable and necessary that the guilt of sins (or sinners) be loosed by the supplicacation of the priest before the last day." See St Gregory in his moral Exposition upon 1 Sam. ii. 25; Anastasius Sinaita, or Nicænus, in his answer to the 141st question, of Gretser's edition; and Nicolaus Cabasilas, in the 29th chapter of his Exposition of the Liturgy, where he directly affirmeth that "remission of sins is given to the penitents by the prayer of the priests.” And therefore by the order used of old in the Church of Rome, the priest, before he began his work, was required to use this prayer: "830 Lord God Almighty, be merciful unto me a sinner, that I may worthily give thanks unto thee who hast made me, an unworthy one, for thy mercies' sake, a minister of the priestly office; and hast appointed me a poor and humble mediator, to pray and make intercession unto our Lord Jesus Christ for sinners that return unto repentance. And therefore, O Lord the Ruler, who wouldest have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth, who dost desire not the death of a sinner, but that he may be reconciled and live, receive my prayer, which I pour forth before the face of thy mercy for thy servants and handmaids, who have fled to repentance and to thy mercy." Add hereunto the prayer of Damascen, which is still used in the Greek Church before the receiving of the Communion:

80 Qui pro delictis pœnitentium precator accedit. Leo, in fin. Epist. LXXX. ad Episc. Campan.

81 Multum enim utile ac necessarium est, ut peccatorum reatus ante ultimum diem sacerdotali supplicatione solvatur. Id. Epist. XCI. ad Theod. Episc.

82 Gregor. in 1. Reg. lib. ii. cap. 3, ad illud, Si peccaverit vir in virum, &c.

83 Domine Deus omnipotens, propitius esto mihi peccatori, ut condigne possim tibi gratias agere, qui me indignum propter tuam misericordiam ministrum fecisti sacerdotalis officii, et me exiguum humilemque mediatorem constituisti ad oran

dum et intercedendum ad Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum pro peccatoribus ad pœnitentiam revertentibus. Ideoque dominator Domine, qui omnes homines vis salvos fieri et ad agnitionem veritatis venire, qui non vis mortem peccatoris, sed ut convertatur et vivat, suscipe orationem meam, quam fundo ante conspectum clementiæ tuæ, pro famulis et famulabus tuis, qui ad pœnitentiam et misericordiam tuam confugerunt. Ordo Roman. Antiqu. de Officiis Divinis, p. 18. edit. Rom. ann. 1591; Baptizatorum et Confitentium Ceremoniæ Antiquæ, edit. Colon. ann. 1530; Alcuin. de Divin. Offic. cap. 13, in capite Jejunii.

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