into heaven, its gates must be opened to us by the power of the keys, confided by Almighty God to the care of his Church. This power should otherwise be nugatory: if heaven can be entered without the power of the keys, in vain shall they to whose fidelity they have been intrusted, assume the prerogative of prohibiting indiscriminate entrance within its portals. This doctrine was familiar to the mind of St. Augustine: " Let no man," says he, "say within himself; I repent in secret with God; God, who has power to pardon me, knows the inmost sentiments of my heart: was there no reason for saying: whatsoever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven; [1] no reason why the keys were given to the Church of God?" [2] The same doctrine is recorded by the pen of St. Ambrose, in his treatise on penance, when refuting the heresy of the Novatians, who asserted that the power of forgiving sins belonged solely to God: " Who," says he, " yields greater reverence to God, he who obeys or he who resists his commands? God commands us to obey his ministers; and by obeying them, we honour God alone. " [3]
As the law of confession was, no doubt, enacted and established by our Lord himself, it is our duty to ascertain, on whom, at what age, and at what period of the year, it becomes *" obligatory. According to the canon of the Council of Lateran, which begins: " Omnis utriusque sexus," no person is bound by the law of confession until he has arrived at the use of reason, a time determinable by no fixed number of years. [4] It may, however, be laid down as a general principle, that children are bound to go to confession, as soon as they are able to discern good from evil, and are capable of malice; for, when arrived at an age to attend to the work of salvation, every one is bound to have recourse to the tribunal of penance, without which the sinner cannot hope for salvation. In the same canon the Church has defined the period, within which we are bound to discharge the duty of confession: it commands all the faithful to confess their sins at least once a year. [5] If, however, we consult for our eternal interests, we will certainly not neglect to have recourse to confession as often, at least, as we are in danger of death, or undertake to perform any act incompatible with the state of sin, such as to administer or receive the sacraments. The same rule should be strictly followed when we are apprehensive of forgetting some sin, into which we may have had the misfortune to fall: to confess our sins, we must recollect them; and the remission of them we can only obtain through the sacrament of penance, of which confession is a part.
But as, in confession, many things are to be observed, some of which are essential, some not essential to the sacrament, the faithful are to be carefully instructed on all these matters; and the pastor can have access to works, from which such instructions
