priests only; and sins can be forgiven only through the Sacraments, when duly administered. The Church has received no power otherwise to remit sin. [1]
But to raise the admiration of the faithful, for this heavenly gift, bestowed on the Church by the singular mercy of God to- wards us, and to make them approach its use with the more lively sentiments of devotion; the pastor will endeavour to point out the dignity and the extent of the grace which it imparts. If there be any one means better calculated than another to accomplish this end, it is, carefully to show how great must be the efficacy of that which absolves from sin, and restores the unjust to a state of justification. This is, manifestly, an effect of the infinite power of God, of that same power which we believe to have been necessary to raise the dead to life, and to summon creation into existence. [2] But if it be true, as the authority of St. Augustine assures us it is, [3] that, to recall a sinner from the state of sin to that of righteousness, is even a greater work than to create the heavens and the earth from nothing, though their creation can be no other than the effect of infinite power; it follows, that we have still stronger reason to consider the remission of sins, as an effect proceeding from the exercise of this same infinite power. With great truth, therefore, have the ancient Fathers declared, that God alone can forgive sins, and that to his infinite goodness and power alone is so wonderful a work to be referred: " I am he," says the Lord himself, by the mouth of his prophet, " I am he, who blotteth out your iniquities." [4] The remission of sins seems to bear an exact analogy to the cancelling of a pecuniary debt: as, therefore, none but the creditor can forgive a pecuniary debt, so the debt of sin, which we owe to God alone, (and our daily prayer is: " for give us our debts," [5] ) can, it is clear, be forgiven by him alone, and by none else.
But this wonderful gift, this emanation of the divine bounty, was never communicated to creatures, until God became man Christ our Lord, although true God, was the first who, as man, received this high prerogative from his heavenly Father: " That you may know," says he to the paralytic, " that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, rise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house." [6] As, therefore, he became man, in order to bestow on man this forgiveness of sins, he communicated this power to bishops and priests in the Church, previously to his ascension into heaven, there to sit for ever at the right hand of God. Christ, however, as we have already said, remits sin by virtue of his own authority; all others by virtue of his authority delegated to them as his ministers.
If, therefore, whatever is the effect of infinite power claims The great our highest admiration, and commands our profoundest reve-
