The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

§;o28OF PENANCE AND CONFESSION.even the most secret."* Perrone lays it down as a proposition,that " the confession of every mortal sin committedafter baptism is of divine institution, and necessary to salvation."-|-The confession of venial sins, " by which we arenot excluded from the grace of God, and into which we sooften fall,'''the Church of Rome has not made obligatorynevertheless she recommends the practice as a pious andedifying one. For the confession of sins to man not eventhe shadow of proof can be produced from Scripture. Butthe Church of Rome proves to her own satisfaction the dutyof auricular confession, by that convenient logic of which shemakes such abundant use, and by which all her more difficultand extraordinary positions are established : she firstlodges in the priest the power to pardon sin, and arguesfrom that, that it is necessary to confess to the priest, in orderto obtain the pardon he is authorized to bestow.:): Heis a judge, says Dens ; he sits there to decide the questionwhether such a sin is to be remitted or retained. But howcan a judge pronounce sentence without hearing the case ?and he can hear the case only by the confession of the sinner,to whom alone the sin is known.Those sins only that are confessed can be pardoned.Concealmentis held to be mortal sin. And thus the sinnerconceals his offences at the peril of his salvation. HowRome, consistently with this doctrine, provides for the pardonof those sins which the memory of the penitent doesnot enable him to recollect, she does not explain. Nor isit only the bare fact the penitent is bound to mention :must state all the circumstances and peculiarities of hissin, whether these aggravate or extenuate it. Nor is thepenitent to be left to his own discretion : the confessor isbound to interrogate and cross-question, and, in doing so,he* Concil. Trid. sess. xiv. cap. v.+ Perrone's Proelectiones Theologies, torn. ii. p. 340.t Concil. Trid. sess. xiv. cap. v.§ Theol. Mor. et Dog. Petri Dens, torn. vi. p. 2.