Whatever some may please to say, there is not a single instance to be found in the Acts of any Apostle using such absolution after confession. Above all, there is not a trace in the two pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus, of such confession and absolution being recom- mended, or thought desirable. In short, whatever men may say about private ministerial absolution, there is not a single precedent for it in God's Word.
Let us leave the whole passage with a deep sense of the importance of the minister's office, when that office is duly exercised according to the mind of Christ. No higher honor can be imagined than that of being Christ's ambassadors, and proclaiming in Christ's name the for- giveness of sins to a lost world. But let us ever beware of investing the ministerial office with one jot more of power and authority than Christ conferred upon it. To treat ministers as being in any sense mediators between God and man, is to rob Christ of His prerogative, to hide saving truth from sinners, and to exalt ordained men to a position which they are totally unqualified to fill.
Notes. John xx. 19—33.
19. — [Then the same day at evening, etc.] This verse describes our Lord Jesus Christ's first appearance to the Apostles, in a body, after He rose from the dead. It took place in the evening of the same Sunday when He had appeared to Mary Magdalene in the morning. Between that morning and that evening He had already appeared three times, — once to the company of women returning from the sepulchre, as described by St. Matthew, — once to Simon Peter, as we are told by St. Luke and St. Paul, — and once to the two disciples walking to Emmaus. (Matt, xxviii. 9 ; Luke xxiv. 34 ; 1 C'or. xv. 5 ; Luke xxiv. 13, etc.) This, therefore, was the fifth appearance which our Lord graciously vouchsafed. Each of the five appearances, we should observe, was peculiar in its circumstances, and unlike the others. We need not wonder that this Sunday, from the earliest ages, was always marked by the Ohurch as a day which ought to be had in remembrance, and kept with peculiar honor.
The beginning of the verse would be more literally rendered.