On the absolving power of the priesthood

Abstract

The Absolving Power: or the Sinner's Gate to Heaven.

Has Christ vested in his Church the power of absolving sinners, if truly penitent? It is what the whole Christian world said and believed for fifteen hundred years ; and it is what the whole Christian world still says and believes, with the sole exception of Protestants.

One of the most irreligious proceedings in modern times, is to overlook certain of the doctrines of our Divine Saviour, as if they were vague and unmeaning words, calculated solely to fill a printer's sheet. This is a principle so totally subversive of all Christianity, that none of us ,would dare to avow it in words. But the enemy of Truth will gladly spare us the horror of avowing it, provided he can make us apt upon it. And this he contrives to do without allowing us to suspect that we are guilty of doing so.

The country is cut up into a hundred different sects, and each sect has its own favourite doctrines ; and every thing that chimes or seems to chime with these, is set down as Gospel Truth, while everything at variance with them, is heard and read as if it were mere empty sound, no matter how vital may be its importance, or how clearly it may be expressed...[Excerpt]