458 AN" EXPOSITION, WITH KOTES, [JaS. Y. 16.
fore God continucth trouble ; therefore it is best to take David's course, Ps. cxix. 2G, ' I declared my ways, and thou heardest me/ He opened his whole estate to God, and then God gave him the light and comfort of grace.
Con/ess your faults one to another, i^ofiuXoyelade aXX.i]\oc<;. — This clause hath been diversely applied. The Papists make it the ground of auricular confession, but absurdly ; for then the priest must as well confess to the penitent person, as the penitent person to the priest. For James speaketh of such a confession as is reciprocal, as the words imply ; therefore some of the more ingenuous Papists have disclaimed this text.' Others apply it to injuries ; as the sick person must recon- cile himself to God that he may recover, so to his neighbour whom he hath wronged or offended. But TrapaTrrco/iara, faults, are of a larger sig- nification than to be restrained to injuries. Some understand it of those sins in which we have offended by joint consent, as if a woman hath humbled herself to the lusts of another, she must confess her sin to him, and consequently and reciprocally he must acknowledge his sin to her, that they may by mutual consent quicken themselves to repent- ance. But this intei-pretation and application of the words is too restrained and narrow. I suppose the apostle speaketh of such sins as did most wound the conscience in sickness as the special cause of it ; and therefore joineth this advice of confession with healing and prayer, this being a means most conducible to quicken others to actions of spiritual relief, as the application of apt counsels, and the putting up of fit prayers. Things spoken at random have not usually such an eflficacy and comfort in them. The note is : —
Obs. That there is a season of confessing our sins, not only to God, but to man. I will not digress into controversy ; I shall briefly show — (1.) The evils and inconveniences of that confession which the Papists require ; (2.) The seasons Avherein we must confess to man.
First, For auricular confession, or that confession which the Papists require, I shall describe it to you. The Papists call it the sacrament of penance, by which a man is bound, at least once a year, to confess to a priest all the sins he hath committed since he was last shriven, with all the circumstances of it, quis,quid,uhi, quibus, auxiUis,&c., and from this law none are exempted, neither prince nor king, no, not the Pope himself; in it they place a great deal of merit and opinion. The truth is, this is the great artifice and engine by which they Iceep the people in devotion to their interests, knowledge of secrets rendering them the more feared. 2 Now that which we disprove in it is — (1.) The absolute necessity of it ; confession to men being a thing only necessary in some cases ; in others confession to God may be enough. Necessity, indeed, is laid upon that, 1 John i. 9. (2.) The requiring of such a precise and accurate enumeration of tlieir sins, with all their circumstances, under the pain of an anathema, which, being impossible, maketh it one of those (popTca Sva-^uaTaKTa, those insupportable burdens which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. In short, this scrupulous enumeration is
^ ' Non liic est sermo de confessione eacramentali ; sacramentalis enira confessio non fit invicem ; sed sacerdotibus tantum.' — Cajetan, sic et alii citati a Loiino ct Paezio in locum.
* * Scire voliint secreta domus, atrjue inde tiraeri.' — Juvenal.
JaS. V. 16.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 459
nothing else but a rack to the conscience, invented and exercised witli- out any reason, no man's memory being so happy as to answer the requiry, Ps. xix. 12. (3.) Their making of it a part of a sacrament of divine institution. The jure-divinity of it they plead from this place, but wretchedly. One of the most modest of their own writers, Gregory de Valentia, reckoneth up many Papists that say the ground of it only was universal tradition, although indeed it was instituted twelve hun- dred years after Christ, among other superstitions, by Innocent the Third. (4.) The manner as it is used, and the consequences of it, make it justly odious. It is tyrannical, dangerous to the security and peace of princes, betraying their counsels, infamous and hazardous to all men. I know they talk of the seal of confession ; but let a man in Rome or Spain confess but an ill thought of the court of Rome, or any just scruple of the vanities there professed, and by bitter experience he will find how soon this seal is broken open, and the secrets of confession divulged. ^ Besides, it is profane, as appeareth by the filthy and immodest questions enjoined to be put by the confessarius, men- tioned in Bucharadus, Sanchez, and others.
Secondly, We are not against all confession, as the Papists slander us. Besides that to God, we hold many sorts of confessions necessary before men ; as : —
1. Some public. And so by the church in ordinary or extraor- dinary humiliation: Lev. xvi. 21, 'The congregation was to confess their sins over the head of the sacrifice.' So Neh. ix. 3, ' One part of the day they read the law, the other part they confessed.' Thus, by the church. So also to the church, and that either (1.) Be- fore entrance and admission, in which they did solemnly disclaim the impurities of their former life, professing to walk suitably to their new engagement for time to come : Mat. iii. 6, ' They were bap- tized of him, confessing their sins.' So also the apostles, in receiving members into the church, required the profession of faith and repent- ance, though there was not that scrupulous and narrow prying into their hearts and consciences which some practise ; as John did not take a particular confession from every one of that multitude, it was impos- sible. So Acts xix. 18, ' And many that believed confessed, and showed their deeds ;' that is, solemnly disavowed their former life and practice. Or (2.) upon public scandals after admission, for of secret things the church judgeth not ; but those scandalous acts, being faults against the church, cannot be remitted by the mmister alone ; the offence being public, so was the confession and acknowledgment to be public, as the apostle saith of the incestuous Corinthian, that ' his punishment was inflicted by many,' 2 Cor. ii. 6. And he biddeth Timothy ' Re- buke open sinners in the face of all,' 1 Tim. v. 20, which Aquinas re- ferreth to ecclesiastical discipline. Now this was to be done, partly for the sinner's sake, that he might be brought to the more shame and conviction ; and partly because of them without, that the community of the faithful might not be represented as an ulcerous, filthy body, and the church not be thought a receptacle of sin, but a school of holiness. And, therefore, as Paul shaked off the viper, so these were to be cast out, and not received again, but upon solemn acknowledgment. So