in the third; who fervently prays for forgiveness with the help of brethren, as in the last. He, I say, makes sufficient confession who is so minded, and he has no need of any priest. But he who has not been taught after this fashion certainly has very great need of a priest. But of what sort of priest? Not of one who gets into the treasure chest with false keys, but of one who by the word of God teaches men to recognize their misery, and grace as well. Secret confession, therefore, is a consultation, the Keys are the expounding of the gospel, and all else is mere windy gabble of the Papalists. But there are those who say that many persons will perpetrate many misdeeds when they are not obliged to confess. To such I answer: You are either inexperienced or hypocrites; inexperienced, because you have not learned that nobody ever refrained from misdoing on account of confession, whereas we know that, on the contrary, if they were ashamed to confess, many have refrained from confessing what they had done; hypocrites, because no person ean help knowing how recklessly he conceals things and even feigns righteousness where he wishes to give the impression that he has made a clean breast of everything and has felt sincere sorrow. Yet, we stil venture to defend a thing which has been nothing but a means of getting men’s goods away from them; for unless the Lord of Hosts had left us the seed [cf. Isa. 6:13], i. e., had brought back again the light of the gospel, it would have been all over with everybody’s goods, earnings, and possessions. Was not the Pope of Rome saying that all realms are his? We have ourselves seen the legate of the Pope of Rome putting up the claim at Zurich that a certain house belonging to the priory, as they call it, was his. Let us, therefore, confess frequently to the Lord, let us begin a new life frequently, and if there is anything not clear let us go frequently to a wise scholar who looks not at the pocket-book but at the conscience!
[20]. The Other Sacraments
Confirmation had its beginning when the custom of baptizing infants became common, since among the earliest Christians only those infants were baptized who were engaged in a struggle for life. And yet why was this? Does the danger
of death make people more learned in Christian things? No, but an error had been imbibed which held that next after faith baptism washes away sins; and then this error, proceeding in the usual manner to harsher lengths, ventured even to deny salvation to infants, as if, forsooth, Christ were less merciful than Moses, under whom those that had been circumcised or initiated by offerings were counted among the children of Israel [cf. Gen. 17: 10-14; Exod. 12: 48], even if they did not yet emulate the faith of Abraham, which, indeed, they could not.
Extreme unction, as they call it, is a human office of kindness. The Apostles sometimes anointed the sick, and those began to feel better who just before had been in a poor state of health, Mark 6:13. This James, 5: 14, bids men do all the time; that is, visit the sick, and if occasion demands or the sickness allows, the older persons should rub the sick man, anoint him, and pray God to heal him.
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