uman nature. Settle it in your minds, the absolving
power is the central secret of the Gospel. Salvation is unconditional;
not an offer, but _a Gift_; not clogged with conditions, but free as
the air we breathe. God welcomes back the prodigal. God loves without
money and without price. To this men reply gravely, It is dangerous to
speak thus; it is perilous to dispense with the safeguards of
restriction. Law! law! there is nothing like law--a salutary fear--for
making men holy. O blind Pharisee! had you ever known the spring, the
life which comes from feeling _free_, the gush of gratitude with which
the heart springs to duty when all chains are shattered, and it stands
fearless and free in the Light, and in the Love of God--you would
understand that a large trusting charity, which can throw itself on
the better and more generous impulses of a laden spirit, is the safest
as well as the most beautiful means of securing obedience.

So far however, there will not be much objection to the doctrine: it
will be admitted that absolution is true in the lips of Christ,
because of His Divinity. It will be said He was God, and God speaking
on earth is the same thing as God speaking in heaven. No my brethren,
it is _not_ the same thing. Christ forgiving on earth is _a new truth_
added to that of God's forgiving in heaven. It is not the same truth.
The one is forgiveness by Deity; the other is the declaration of
forgiveness by Humanity. He bade the palsied man walk, that they might
know that "the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins."
Therefore we proceed a step further. The same power He delegated to
His Church which He had exercised Himself. "Whosesoever sins ye
remit, they are remitted." Now perhaps, it will be replied to this,
that that promise belongs to the apostles; that they were
supernaturally gifted to distinguish genuine from feigned repentance;
to absolve therefore, was their natural prerogative, but that we have
no right to say it extends beyond the apostles.

We therefore, bring the question to a point by referring to an
instance in which an apostle did absolve. Let us examine whether St.
Paul confined the prerogative to himself. "To whom ye forgive
anything, I forgive also: for to whom I forgave anything for your
sakes, forgave I it in the person of Christ."

Observe now: it is quite true here that the apostle absolved a man
whose excommunication he had formerly required;