n
the dead carcase! Such is the peace of the confessional! The soul, the
intelligence, the honor, the self-respect, the conscience, are there
sacrificed. There they must die! Yes, the confessional is a veritable tomb
of human conscience, a sepulchre of human honesty, dignity and liberty; the
grave-yard of human soul! By its means, man, whom God hath made in his own
image, is converted into the likeness of the beast that perishes; woman,
created by God to be the glory and help-mate of man, is transformed into
the vile and trembling slave of the priest. In the confessional, man and
woman attain to the highest degree of popish perfection: they become as dry
sticks, as dead branches, as silent corpses, in the hands of their
confessors. Their spirits are destroyed, their consciences are stiff, their
souls are ruined.

This is the supreme and perfect result achieved, in its highest victories,
by the Church of Rome.

There is, verily, peace to be found in auricular confession--yes, but it is
the peace of the grave!

* * * * *

CHAPTER IX.

THE DOGMA OF AURICULAR CONFESSION A SACRILEGIOUS IMPOSTURE.

* * * * *

Both Roman Catholics and Protestants have fallen into very strange errors
in reference to the words of Christ: "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are
remitted unto them; _and_ whose soever _sins_ ye retain, they are
retained." (St. John xx. 23.)

The first have seen in this text the inalienable attributes of God of
forgiving and retaining sins transferred to sinful men; the second have
most unwisely granted their position, even while attempting to refute their
errors.

A little more attention to the translation of the 3rd and 6th verses of
chapter xiii. of Leviticus by the Septuagint would have prevented the
former from falling into their sacrilegious errors, and would have saved
the latter from wasting so much time in refuting errors which refute
themselves.

Every one knows that the Septuagint Bible was the Bible that was generally
read and used by Jesus Christ and the Hebrew people, in our Saviour's days.
Its language was evidently the one spoken by Christ and understood by his
hearers. When addressing his apostles and disciples on their duties towards
the spiritual lepers to whom they were to preach the ways of salvation,
Christ constantly followed the very expression of the Septuagint. It was
the foundation of his doctrine and the testimonial