Untitled - Electric Scotland

226 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. x.
in the congregation, but also to speak of pardon with authority
in Christ s name in the Church s service in a way in which other
men cannot speak, for the comfort of distressed souls. . . . The
claim, I say, of such authority for Presbyters of the Church of
England has hitherto been usually expressed with guarded
moderation even by those who thought most highly of it.
Isolated passages may be adduced from our great divines up
holding the Priest s absolving power ; but any dangerous appli
cation of such passages is guarded against by the whole tenor
of those more moderate sentiments which we find breathing
through the works quoted when we view them as a whole.
"At the risk of being tedious, I think it right to enter some
what at lensrth o into this matter. The silence of the Church of
England P ormularies, as compared with the fulness of the
Church of Rome, in treating of systematic Confession is itself,
to my mind, an irrefragable argument to show that the mind of
our Church is quite against the practices now sought to be
introduced. 1
. . .
"
Moreover, I would observe, for myself, that it is no wish of
mine to insist on other people adopting my own opinions as to
the exact nature of the Presbyter s office, and thus to narrow
those bounds of a wise comprehensiveness, according to which
the Church of England has always allowed her children, if they
chose, to believe that some very especial blessing
and comfort
to the penitent soul is to be derived from listening to the
promises of God s mercy, pronounced by his minister on those
limited occasions where alone the Formularies have authorised
him officially to pronounce them as Absolution. What I do
utterly disapprove of, and what I feel constrained most strongly to
protest against, is something very different from the common pas
toral intercourse which is indicated in the three passages of the
Prayer-Book I have cited, and which the Church always must
uphold. It has been said that I have not explained myself
when I have spoken against a systematic introduction of the
practice of Confession as opposed to such common pastoral
intercourse. But I really
objection will, when they
believe even
reflect, allow
those who make this
all men of common
discernment must know and distinctly recognise the difference
between the pastoral intercourse I have spoken of and that
1 The Charge contains at this point sixteen printed pages of elaborate refer
ence to authorities, ancient and modern, on the subject of Confession.