Respecting confession to a priest, not one word is to be found in any portion of the New Testament; and with reference to absolution by a priest, there is not a passage which can be quoted with any semblance, of authority, except that one most difficult verse in the Gospel of St. John. I am not about to discuss that verse, or to endeavour to decide whether the words were spoken to the whole Church or to the Apostles, or whether, if to the Apostles, they describe a gift as one to be permanently transmitted, or to terminate with, the Apostleship. My object is to point out that if they referred to a gift to be transmitted through the Apostles to priests, if the transmission were to stop at priests and not descend to deacons, and if the forgiveness, and therefore the salvation of the whole Church were dependent on the exercise by a priest of the transmitted power,—it is to my mind perfectly inconceivable that the revelation of God should be completed and closed, without containing one single sentence either as to the law of transmission, or the exercise of so tremendous and mysterious a power. In the Acts we have the record of Apostolic missions. In the Epistles we have twenty-one addresses to Christian Churches, three of which were exclusively devoted to the subject of the ministry; while passages bearing on the relationship between ministers and people are perpetually recurring. From one end of the Book to the other, the great subject of forgiveness is mentioned again and again; and yet, with reference to what was termed at Nottingham, “sacramental confession and absolution,” though the application of life is supposed to depend on it, not a single hint is given. Should these words be ever brought to the notice of those earnest men with whom we have lately been recommended to cultivate union, I would earnestly intreat them to consider whether the Apostles placed absolution and confession in the same position that they are doing; and if not, I would suggest to those zealous men the further question, whether the difference may not be explained by their having completely mistaken the words of our Lord.