308 PBNAN CE'?.AB8OLUTIO?. [Boo]; II blishing priestly absolution: "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever%ins ye retain, they are ret3ined," John xx, 2a. From this passage we gather that the apostles received i?om our Lord the doctrine of reconciliation and condemnation. They who believed on the Son of God, according to their preaching, had their sins remitted; and they who would not believe were declared to lie under condemnation. This is in accordance with Christ's commis- sion, "He that believerb shall be saved, and he that believerb not shall be damned." And the ministers of Christ in evep/age have this authority of proclaiming, according to the Scripture, the terms of reconciliation and of condemnation. That this is the Scriptural view of this subject will appear if we consider that this is the way in which the apostles and first ministers of Christ actually exercised this commission; that, according to Scrip- ture, no human being is qualified to exercise the power claimed by the Church of Rome; that God only can for?ve sins; that the primilive church, in its purest and best days, never referred the power of remit. ting or retaining sins, except declaratively or ministerially, to any except God alone. 3. That no such power as the Romish priests claim was ever in- vested in the apostles of Christ, or in the first ministers of Christiania', by the above cited commission, we have this indubitable proof: that they never 10retem/ed to e..wr?e such power, but always ascribed the ibrgiveness of sins to Cod alone. After the resurrection our Lord commanded his apostles to declare, "that repentance and remission of sins should be prephod in his name among all nations," Luke xxiv, 27. On the day of pentecost Peter preached, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of' .sins," Acts it, 38. And in his preaching on the occasion of the resto- ration of the blind man to sight, he instructs them in the same manner as before: "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins rnav be blotted out," Acts iii, 19. In the opening, therefore, of ?he ChriS- tian dispensation, we find nothing like priestly absolution. When Pe- ter opened the door of faith to the Gentiles he declares: "To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever be- lieveth in him shall receive remission of sins," Acts x, 43. To the same purpose is every other place where the forgiveness of sins is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. We will present only one text more, where Paul is represented to be sent to the Gentiles: "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheriunce among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me," Acts xxvi, lS. In the apostolical epistles there is certainly no countenance given ?o the modern doctrine of priestly absolution. The accounts too which we have in the Old Testament respecting the pardon of sin ascribe it to Cod alone, without any such ministry of man as that which is employed in the absolution of the Church of Rome. The passages of Scripture which declare this are too nume- rous to quote, and for the most part Ux, pls/n to be misunderstood. From all this the conclusion is inevitable, th? no such power as that embraced in priestly absolution has any countenance from Scrip- 1
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