14. What are the Protestant arguments against auricular confession f
1st. It has no warrant in Scripture. The command is to " confess one to another."
2d. It perverts the whole plan of salvation, by making neces- sary the mediation of the priest between the Christian and Christ, which has been refuted above, Chap. XXL, questions 8 and 21.
3d. We are commanded to confess to God immediately, Matt. xi., 28 ; 1 Tim. ii, 5 ; 1 John i., 9.
4th. The practical results of this system have always been evil, and this gross invasion of all the sacred rights of personality is revolting to every refined soul.
15. What is the nature of that absolution ivhich the Bomish priests claim the power to grant ?
It absolves judicially, not merely declaratively, from all the penal consequences of the sins confessed by the authority of Jesus
380 KEPENTANCE.
Christ. They appeal to Matt. xvi.? 19 ; xviii., 18 ; John xx., 22, 23.— Cat. Kom.; Part II., Chap. V., Qu. 13 and 17. Council of Trent, Sess. XIV., De Pcenitentia Can. IX.
16. What are the arguments against the possession upon the part of the Christian ministry of such a power to absolve f
1st. The Christian ministry is not a priesthood. — See above, Chap. XXI., question 21.
2d. But even if it were, the conclusion which the Papists draw from it would not follow. Absolution is a sovereign, not a priestly act. This is plain, from the definition of the priesthood given, (Heb. v., 1-6,) from the Levitical practice, and from the very nature of the act itself.
3d. The grant of the power of the keys, whatever it was, was not made to the ministry as such, for in Matt, xviii., 1-18, Christ was addressing the body of the disciples, and the primitive min- isters never either claimed or exercised the power in question.
4th. The power of absolute forgiveness is incommunicable in itself, and was not granted as a matter of fact ; the words in ques- tion will not bear that sense, and were not so understood. The practice of the apostles shows that their understanding of the words was that they conveyed merely the power of declaring the conditions on which God would pardon sin, and in accordance with that declaration, of admitting or excluding men from seal- ing ordinances.
5th. This one false principle makes Christ of none effect, and perverts the whole gospel. — Bib. Kep., Jan. 1845.
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17. What is the Bomish doctrine concerning i part of penance ?
By satisfaction is meant such works as are enjoined by the priest upon confession, which being set over against the sins con- fessed, for which contrition has been professed, are supposed to constitute a compensation for the breach of God's law, and in consideration of which the sins are forgiven. — Cat. Rom., Part II., Chap. V., Qu. 52 and 53. Council of Trent, Sess. XIV., De Pcenitentia Cans. XII.-XIV.
18. What are the objections to that doctrine ?
APPLICATION OF KEDEMPTION. 381
This doctrine logically involves two great errors.
1st. That Christ's atonement does not render perfect satisfac- tion for all sins, original and actual, those committed as well after as before baptism.
2d. That any thing we can do or suffer temporarily can satisfy for sin. Every sin incurs the penalty of the law, which is eter- nal death. These works of satisfaction are, moreover, com- manded duties, or they are not. If they are, then the perform- ance of one duty can never satisfy for the neglect of another, nor for the transgression of the law. If they are not, then they are only a form of will- worship, which God abhors, Col. ii., 20-23.
C HAP T E R XXX.
JUSTIFICATION.
1. What is the sense in which the word SUaiog, just, is used in the New Testament f
Its fundamental idea is that of perfect conformity to all the requirements of the moral law.
1st. Spoken of things or actions, Matt. xx., 4 ; Col. iv., 1.
2d. Spoken of persons (1.) as personally holy, conformed to the law in character, Matt, v., 45 ; ix., 13. (2.) In respect to their possessing eminently some one quality demanded by the law, Matt, i., 19 ; Luke xxiii., 50. (3.) As forensically just, i. e., as conformed to the requirements of the law as the condition of the covenant of life, Kom. i., 17. (4.) Spoken of Grod in respect to his possession of the attribute of distributive justice in adminis- tering the provisions of the law and the covenants, Kom. iii., 26 ; 1 John i., 9. (5.) Spoken of Christ in respect to his character as the only perfect man, and to his representative position in satis- fying all the demands of the law in behalf of his people, Acts iii., 14 ; vii., 52 ; xxii., 14.
2. What is the usage of the verb dcfcatou, to justify, in the New Testament f
It means to declare a person to be just.
1st. Personally conformed to the law as to moral character, Luke vii., 29 ; Kom. iii., 4.