This Section teaches —

1st. That every man should make private confession of all his sins to God, and that God will certainly pardon him when his sorrow and his renunciation of his sins are sincere. This is all included in what has already been said as to the nature and effects of genuine repentance; and it is expressly declared in Scripture: " If we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John i. 9.

2d. That when a Christian has personally injured a brother, or scandalized by his unchristian conduct the Church of Christ, he ought to be willing, by a public or a private confession, as the case may be, to declare his repentance to those that are offended, is also a dictate alike of natural reason and Scripture. If we have done wrong, we stand in the position of one maintaining a wrong until, by an expressed repentance and, where possible, redress of the wrong, we place ourselves on the side of the right. The wrong-doer is plainly in debt to the man he has injured to make every possible restitution to his feelings and interests, and the same principle holds true in relation to the general interests of the Christian community. The duty is expressly commanded in Scripture. Matt. v. 23, 24; James v. 16; Matt, xviii. 15-18.

3d. That it is the duty of the brethren or of the Church, when offended, to forgive the offending party and restore him fully to favour upon his repentance, is also a dictate of natural conscience and of Scripture. All lionourable men feel themselves bound to act upon this principle. The Christian is, in addition, brought under obligations to forgive others by his own infinite obligations to his Lord, who not only forgave us upon repentance, but died to redeem us while we were unrepentant. As to public scandals, the Church is bound to forgive them when the Lord has done so. As genuine repentance is the gift of Christ, its evident exercise is a certain indication that the person exercising it is forgiven by Christ and a Christian brother. liuke xvii. 3, 4; 2 Cor. ii. 7, 8; Matt. vi. 7.

The E-omish Church teaches that, as an element of penance and evidence of true repentance, the Christian must confess all his sins without reserve, in all their details and qualifying circumstances, to a priest having jurisdiction ; and that if any mortal sin is unconfessed it is not forgiven ; and if the omission is wilful, it is sacrilege, and greater guilt is incurred.* And they maintain that the priest absolves judicially, not merely declaratively, from all the penal consequences of the sins confessed, by the authority of Jesus Christ.

This is an obvious perversion of the scriptural command to confess. They bid us simply to confess our faults one to another. There is not a word said about confession to a priest in the Bible. The believer, on the contrary, has immediate access to Christ, and to God through Christ (1 Tim. ii. 5 ; John xiv. 6 ; v. 40 ; Matt. * Cat. B >m., Part ii., ch. v., Qs. 33, 34, 42.

xi. 28), and is commanded to confess his sins immediately to God. 1 John i. 9. No priestly function is ever ascribed to the Christian ministry in the New Testament. The power of absolute forgiveness of sin belongs to God alone (Matt. ix. 2-6), is incommunicable in its very nature, and has never been granted to any class of men as a matter of fact. The authority to bind or loose which Christ committed to his Church was understood by the apostles, as is evident from their practice, as simply conveying the power of declaring the conditions on which God pardons sin, and, in accordance with that declaration, of admitting or of excluding men from sealing ordinances.

No man can reckon up all his sins in order; for " who can understand his errors ? " But it is not enough to acknowledge in general terms that we are sinners; we should, by a strict and impartial examination of our hearts and ways, endeavour to obtain a discovery of those jjarticular sins by which Ave have oifended and dishonoured God, and should " mourn, every one for his iniquity." Thus, when David was brought to the exercise of true repentance, he not only acknowledged in general that he had sinned, but he had his eye upon that particular sin by which he had in a special manner dishonoured God : " My sin is ever before me Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done tJiis evil in thy sight." — Ps. li. 3, 4. " I will declare lynne iniquity ; I will be sorry for my sin." — Ps. xxxviii. 18.