auricular confession hath not the warrant of God’s word. * * * I do not say but that, if any do find themselves troubled in conscience, they may repair to their learned curate or pastor, or to some other godly learned man, and show the trouble and doubt of their conscience to them, that they may receive at their hand the comfortable salve of God’s word; but it is against the true Christian liberty that any man should be bound to the numbering of his sins, as it hath been used heretofore in the time of blindness and ignorance."[53] It is clear that both the Articles and the Book of Homilies deny the power of absolution and the necessity of confession as essential conditions, in the ordinary course of things, for the forgiveness of sin.

The Book of Common Prayer—­the Liturgy of the Anglican Communion—­in the office for visiting the sick, does urge the confession of the sick person, and gives the form of absolution to be used by the minister.  It also bids the minister to exhort those approaching communion, who cannot quiet their conscience, to seek absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice.  In the Book of Common Prayer used by the Episcopalians in the United States, these directions concerning confession and absolution are omitted.

The result of the teaching of the Articles was the complete destruction, in the mind of the people of England, during three centuries, of the need of confession and absolution.  And, until some fifty years ago, it was unknown for Anglicans to go to confession.  They lived and died without the faintest conception that such an ordinance was divinely instituted, or that it was necessary or even advisable.  A change came, and certain of the clergy of the Established Communion began to teach the necessity of confession.  This produced open revolt in their camp; the matter became so serious that the Convocation sitting in 1873 gave it consideration, and the Bishop of Salisbury boldly said:  “Habitual confession is unholy, illegal, and full of mischief.”  The Bishop of Lichfield, in indignation, declared:  “I would rather resign my office than hold it, if it was supposed that I was giving young men the right to practice habitual confession.”  The Archbishop of Canterbury said:  “I am ready to revoke the license of any curate charged with hearing confessions.”  And the Bishop of Ely declared:  “In no other communion would it be possible for a man to set himself up as the general confessor of a district, without any other authority than his own.”

The assembled bishops, who of course represented the living teaching body of the Establishment, published a formal document, wherein they declare:  “The Church of England, in the Twenty-fifth Article, affirms that penance is not to be counted for a sacrament of the Gospel, and, as judged by her formularies, knows no such words as Sacramental Confession.”  And in this same declaration, commenting on the two instances wherein the Book of Common Prayer recommends