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Show CONFESSION ' v. A Divine Sacrament Instituted by Our Lord i Practic 3d by the Apostles jmrjdfyej. Early FathersThis ProverJ vFrorlifcy-f Revised Edition of the Protestan.V,i'ible ! A Sourje of the Greatest Joy to the True .Catholic. ! (Written for The Intermouutain . CatU-lic. Concession is the Gate -to Heaven; 'AbWiluiicm and Redemption are the Keys which are in ihe ios-session. ios-session. of 'the 'priest's of God's True Chun h. I can hear many of my non-Catholic friends Mt, on what' authority do you base such '-ii :'taie-meut :'taie-meut ! Oil the authority of our lxrl and Saior .ies.i Christ; of the Apostles and of the Farlv leathers. Surely our bitterest opponents will ac-laiowic'dgi.' ac-laiowic'dgi.' that our Lord had a meaning, iii every -1 lung. he said and a purpose in 'every thing .'ii'V Iid, That; I cing granted, let us examine carefully his words regarding.-Penance. Tn Matthew xvi. (all my scriptural quotations are from the Pro; octant oct-ant Fil le. Revised Edition) we' read: ''Tiou art Peter (from Greek Petros, a rock)'-ami upon-lms rock I will build my Church, and the gates of In H shnli. "not prevail against it. I will give uiu'6 ihro the keys of the kingdom of heaven and ami whrt-so&ver whrt-so&ver thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and. whatsoever thou shalt looso on earth shall be loosed: also in heaven." Again, in Mat-thew. Mat-thew. xviii. IS. addres?iug the other disciple.;, he says: "Whatsoever. things ye shall bind n earth shall be bound in heaven, and' what, thing.---'. soever ye .hall loose on earth shall h loose'J in beven.!' ."Here we have our Lord (Wf erring on Pfiter. as the head of . his Church the flower of biudl-ig and loosing and later 'the same power is 'giver -to the other -Apostles. AVe notice first that to 1 cer our Lord gave the keys. Ke33 were always the -'gn of authority, andin this instance the sign'" divine authority,'for they were ''the keys of the Ij'ngdom of heaven." In other veord-3 'the power of l selling or , shut t,ing the ji'fttes. of -.bea j ?v tH. sv.lfafc.; coui'cn'ed on' that; apostle as head of God's K'hnrch, for the words binding and loosing convey no other meaning. . Later we see the power of binding and locking, or remitting and retaining conferred on the other, Apostles, but, the keys were not conferred on tluni. -showing clearly that Peter and his successors j were to have the supreme power, but all the other Apostles and their successors were to bind or loose equally with him:.' . Again, as a proof that that binding and loosing meant remitting or retaining sins. let. us take John xx. 2 1-2,1, .where. '-'after the resurrection, appearing to his. Disciples,., he says: 'As the Father has sent me, so send I you .. . .. Receive ye the 'Holy Ghost :" whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven for-given unto them and whosesoever sins ye retain, klifcy sire retained.". From this we see that not only did our- Divine Lord empower his Disciples lo forgive for-give or retain sins, but he even went further and gave them and their successors Godly power. "As my 'Father hath , sent me, so send 1 you." "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." In other words HE had ALL power, and he conferred the same power on his Apostles and their successors.' Again, wXo; one. cometh to the Father except hy me," and -as he had conveyed the same power to 1 hem .'"'a 3 the Father hath sent me, so send T yon." so no o-.ie could come to him except through them, his Disciples, and their successors, and thus he gave them power to forgive sins or retain them. "i will 'be -with; you unto the consummation of the world." Here we have the clearest proof of our Lord's foresight-in providing for us of the present day. "Go ye into all the world, teaching others and baptizing in my name." He knew that his Disciples must-die, and in order to carry on ti( Divine Sacrament ' of Penance, he tells them to teach ethers and baptize them in his nemo, so that they in succession : might "remit and retain," and his last .words show that his Church and her priests should have that power till time should be no move -"I i;m with you until the consummation of the world." In other words, the Divine Power 1 Juw-" given on now will be your successors' till allTitings earthly shall cease. Ft fccems rather a "reductio ad ahsurduin" to state that, having proved Penance to be a Divine Sacrament to exclude Confession, for it naturally follows that there must be sins confessed. How, otherwise, can absolution be given if no sin is mentioned?.' men-tioned?.' We have so far shown or tried to show by Protestant authority that Confession is of Divine origin. Let us take a look at some of the writings writ-ings of the early Fathers and hear their evidence. St. Barnabas says, ''Confess your sins." St. Clement, in a letter to the Corinthians, wrote. ''Aft- ! er we have left this world we cannot any move there confess or do penance." In the second century cen-tury St. Irenens. a disciple of St. Polycarp, who w.as a disciple of St.' John, says of some women corrupted by a heretic: "These having been converted, con-verted, confessed." . In the third century. Oragen exclaimed, "Look carefully around to whom you' should confess your sin." Through penance is the remission of sin. whence the sinner should iii ihe ashamed to tell his sin to a priest of the Lord. ?Tn the fiixtlw' century John Climocus wrote ( The Thirty Degrees") : - "Come to confession, wit) out which, no one can obtain forgiveness of sins. . . In confession, with simplicity, the wounds are i , be opened to the' Ghostly Doctor as to God." G eg-ry eg-ry tho Great, who ascended Peter's chair in the year fiPO. says, referring. to certain priests: "They fulfilled the principality of tho Supreme Judges, |