including directions as to the fasts they should observe, and the sins they should openly acknowledge.  Under the guidance of the Penitentiaries the system of discipline for transgressors seems to have been still farther matured; and at length, in the beginning of the fourth century, the penitents were divided into various classes, according to their supposed degrees of unworthiness.  The members of each class were obliged to occupy a particular position in the place of worship when the congregation assembled for religious exercises. [497:1]

It must be obvious from these statements that the institution known as Auricular Confession had, as yet, no existence.  In the early Church the disciples, under ordinary circumstances, were neither required nor expected, at stated seasons, to enter into secret conference with any ecclesiastical searcher of consciences.  When a professing Christian committed a heinous transgression by which religion was scandalized, he was obliged, before being re-admitted to communion, to express his sorrow in the face of the congregation; and the revelations made to the Penitentiary did not relieve him from this act of humiliation.  It must also be apparent that the whole system of penance is an unauthorized addition to the ordinances of primitive Christianity.  Of such a system we do not find even a trace in the New Testament; and under its blighting influence, the religion of the Church gradually became little better than a species of refined heathenism.

The spiritual darkness now settling down upon the Christian commonwealth might be traced in the growing obscurity of the ecclesiastical nomenclature.  The power and the form of godliness began to be confounded, and the same term was employed to denote penance and repentance. [497:2] Bodily mortification was mistaken for holiness, and celibacy for sanctity. [497:3] Other errors of an equally grave character became current, for the penitent was described as making satisfaction for his sins by his fasts and his outward acts of self abasement, [497:4] and thus the all-sufficiency of the great atonement was openly ignored.  Thus, too, the doctrine of a free salvation to transgressors could no longer be proclaimed, for pardon was clogged with conditions as burdensome to the sinner, as they were alien to the spirit of the New Testament.  The doctrine that “a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law,” [498:1] reveals the folly of the ancient penitential discipline.  Our Father in heaven demands no useless tribute of mortification from His children; He merely requires us to “bring forth fruits meet for repentance.” [498:2] “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?” saith the Lord, “to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?  Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?  Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee:  the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.” [498:3]