Another specimen of private absolution we find in the Kirchenordnung, [Note 4] or Church Directory of Count Wolfgang, of the Palatinate, on the Rhine, &c., published in Nuernberg, 1557.

“The Almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, will be gracious and merciful to thee, and will pardon all thy sins, for the sake of his dear Son Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for them.  And in the name of this, our Lord Jesus Christ, by his command, and in virtue of his declaration, ‘Whose sins ye remit they am remitted,’ &c., I pronounce thee free and clear of all thy sins, that they shall all be forgiven thee, as certainly and completely, as Jesus Christ by his sufferings and death merited the same, and in his gospel has commanded it to be preached to all the world.  Receive, therefore, this consoling promise, which I have now made to thee in the name of the Lord Christ, let thy conscience be at rest, and do thou confidently believe, that thy sins are assuredly forgiven thee, for Christ’s sake, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.  Amen.”

2.  The Plea affirms, that private confession may be useful as a means of bringing the, members of the church into personal interview with their pastor.  The advantage of such interviews we freely admit; but they can be and are secured in our churches without this rite; and as it is confessedly destitute of Scripture authority, we have no right to invent a new ordinance in Christ’s church for any purpose.

3.  The Plea maintains that explanation of “the power of the Keys,” which authorizes a minister to pronounces absolution of sins, and appeals to Matth. xviii. 18, “Whatsoever ye shall bind one arth,” [sic] &c.  But the previous context “tell it to the church” &c., clearly shows that it refers to church discipline, and signifies “whatever acts of discipline ye enact in regard to such an individual, I will ratify in heaven.”  But this has no bearing on private confession and absolution.  The other passage from John, xx. 23, “Whosoever’s sins ye remit,” &c., was uttered on a different occasion, after the Saviour’s resurrection; and either refers to a miraculous power bestowed on the apostles, to discern the condition of the heart, and to announce pardon to those whom they knew to be truly penitent and believing; or it confers on the ministry, in all ages, the power to announce in general the conditions on which God will pardon sinners.  But it contains no authority to uninspired ministers to apply these promises to individuals, the condition of whose hearts they cannot know, as is done in private absolution.

III.  We therefore feel constrained to maintain the positions of the Platform on this subject also.

1. That private confession and absolution were inculcated by the Augsburg Confession, is so evident, that it cannot be successfully denied.  Nor is this done only in the Abuses Corrected, as the Plea seems to suppose, p. 20.  In Art.  XI. of the Confession, we read:  “In regard to confession, they teach, that private absolution ought to be retained in the church; but that an enumeration of all our transgressions is not requisite to confession.”