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two masters, and to curry favour with God and mammon together;-those who have good intentions, but are easily overcome in the hour of trial these are some of the classes of the wavering; they are tossed to and fro like a wave of the sea, and know not whether they should present themselves at God's table, or whether they should fly from it; neither absolute sinners without penitence, nor absolute penitents without sin. And what is said to these?

And because it is requisite, that
no man should come to the holy
Communion, but with a full
trust in God's mercy, and with
a quiet conscience; therefore if

there be any of you, who by this

means cannot quiet his own con-
science herein, but requireth
further comfort or counsel, let
him come to me, or to some other
discreet and learned Minister of

God's Word, and open his grief;
that by the ministry of God's
holy Word he may receive the
benefit of absolution, together
with ghostly counsel and advice,
to the quieting of his conscience,
and avoiding of all scruple and
doubtfulness.

In the dangers of our body, we consult the physician; in the intricacies of our estate, we consult the lawyer; in the case of our immortal souls, and the intricacies of our eternal salvation, shall we go in search of no adviser, no counsellor, no physician or friend, but pine away in solitary and secret misgivings until we perish? It is true that the Romanist has perverted this beautiful duty of consulting our pastor, and seeking ghostly counsel at the hands of the man of God, but that is no reason why there should not be under the perversion a great mine of spiritual blessing. Auricular confession is made by the Romanist a secret

and powerful engine of political as well as personal power; he who sins, has nothing to do but confess: pardon from man follows as though from God, and then he may sin again. This is an awful and a wicked perversion of a most sacred privilege; it has unhappily deprived us of one of the greatest comforts which the religion of Jesus can furnish. I say, in certain cases, that it is a privilege, for in the Epistle of St. James, we read:

"Confess your faults one to another."(James v. 16.)

What so comforting to the cast-down soul, as to seek counsel from the minister of God under whose direction he hears and prays, and receives his means of grace? But then he must lay open the sickness with which he labours, in order that right medicine may be administered-if there be sin, to confess the sin, in order that due shame and humiliation may oppress the soul for its chastisement, in order to its healing-if there be scruples, that a guiding judgment may be i