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SERMON XVIII.

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

JOHN XX. 22, 23.-Jesus breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.

CHRISTIAN Theology recognises a three-fold forgiveness, each of which is a worthy object of faith, and a worthy subject of confession. First, Jesus Christ offered a full and sufficient sacrifice for all the sins of the whole world; which is the warrant for our preaching to all people, forgiveness of sins. Secondly, of every one who truly believes this doctrine, and conforms his life and temper to its requirements, we are permitted to declare, that his sins are forgiven. But the church of Christ possesses yet, as her peculiar privilege, a third forgiveness of sins, additional and subsidiary to these two, consisting not merely in the actual state of her sons before God as pardoned sinners, but in a provision for their present comfort, and assurance in that pardon authoritatively conveyed

to them, with a sensible sign. In baptism, in the eucharist, and in absolution pronounced to worthy recipients, by the proper officers of the Church, we receive forgiveness, not merely as a future blessing of which we possess no sign or pledge, but as a sensible benefit, visibly and sensibly conveyed and assured to us. And this ministry of reconciliation being effectual to our present comfort and assurance, though it be but as the bud and promise of the full benefits of Christ's death, which we shall reap in heaven, is the pleasant and substantial fruit of that death in the present world.

Now there is nothing in the bare mention of THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS in the Apostles' Creed, which can determine whether it there means the forgiveness which is purchased for all men, by that blood which is said to have reconciled not the Church only, but the world also to the Father; or that final approval which every true member of Christ shall receive at the judgment of the great day; or the provision which there is in the world for the present application of this forgiveness to those who repent and are baptized, and who continue to live in communion with the Church, and to share all her privileges. But, on considering the place which this article holds in the Creed, we find that it refers neither to the forgiveness of sins offered to the whole world, nor to the final approval of all true Christians; for it comes before the mention of the resurrection of the body, which it would rather have followed, if it had been intended to declare our

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belief in the final approval of the just and the forgiveness of sins preached to a world reconciled to God by Christ's blood, had been already included in the article, "I believe in Jesus Christ who suffered, was crucified and died;" since thus to confess a belief in Christ's sacrifice, is to confess a belief in that atonement for the sins of the whole world, which he made upon the cross. It remains, therefore, that the article of the Forgiveness of Sins refers to the authority in the Church to apply remission of sins to the hearts and consciences of faithful penitents in this life and to this meaning its place in the Creed agrees; for it immediately follows the article concerning the Holy Catholic Church and the Communion of Saints; to which saints alone this privilege belongs, and to them only as members of the Holy Catholic Church.

But even thus limited, the article, I believe the forgiveness of sins, will have reference to every means, ministerial or sacramental, whereby the assurance of remission is applied to the heart and conscience of the penitent for his present comfort and benefit. But having already shewn, in two separate discourses, that the grace of remission attends both the sacrament of Baptism and the sacrament of the Eucharist, I shall now confine myself to the consideration of ministerial absolution, not through the medium of a sacrament, but by a direct exercise of the power which was committed to the Apostles in the words of the text, and is devolved from them upon the bishops and priests of the Holy Catholicand Apostolic Church, to the present day.

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The first passage on which the Scriptural proof of this assertion rests, is that in which Christ, pronouncing a blessing on Peter, after his remarkable confession of a true faith, commits to him the privilege of binding and loosing (that is, of retaining and remitting the guilt of sinners), under expressions from which that power has been called the Power of the Keys; and on which the church of Rome has erected her arrogant claim of universal supremacy. I shall not enter into the question between ourselves and the Romanists, but shall simply observe, from the occasion on which they were spoken, that these words certainly refer to a privilege which cannot be retained any longer than a sound faith is retained; while the words themselves expressly declare it to be a privilege of the true Church, as a visible body of men, and therein only to be exercised: I say also unto thee, said Christ, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it: and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Presently after, our Saviour, giving rules for the settling of disputes among the brethren, renews this charter of remission; still expressly speaking of the Church, and now not even in appearance or in any sense limiting this ministry to Peter: If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee,

thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church; but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto thee, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

And the last occasion on which Jesus spake upon this subject, was when he was especially engaged, in the interval between his resurrection and his ascension, in the institution of his visible Church on earth; accompanying, in this instance, the delegation of authority, with that gift of the Holy Ghost, which should fit those on whom he had conferred it to exercise it aright. Receive ye the Holy Ghost, said he; whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.

And to this privilege our Church, as a part of the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, still lays claim, in the persons of her bishops and presbyters; for she thus, through the bishop, commits the exercise thereof to the presbyter, at his ordination: "Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained. And be thou a