Another specimen of private absolution we find in the Kirchenordnung,
[Note 4] or Church Directory of Count _Wolfgang_, of the Palatinate,
on the Rhine, &c., published in Nuernberg, 1557.

"The Almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, will be gracious
and merciful to thee, and will pardon all thy sins, for the sake of his
dear Son Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for them. And in the name
of this, our Lord Jesus Christ, by his command, and in virtue of his
declaration, 'Whose sins ye remit they am remitted,' &c., _I pronounce
thee free and clear of all thy sins_, that they shall all be forgiven
thee, as certainly and completely, as Jesus Christ by his sufferings and
death merited the same, and in his gospel has commanded it to be
preached to all the world. Receive, therefore, this consoling promise,
which I have now made to thee in the name of the Lord Christ, let thy
conscience be at rest, and do thou confidently believe, that thy sins
are assuredly forgiven thee, for Christ's sake, in the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen."

2. The Plea affirms, that private confession may be useful as a means
of bringing the, members of the church into personal interview with
their pastor. The advantage of such interviews we freely admit; but
they can be and are secured in our churches without this rite; and as
it is confessedly destitute of Scripture authority, we have no right to
invent a _new ordinance_ in Christ's church for any purpose.

3. The Plea maintains that explanation of "the power of the Keys,"
which authorizes a minister to pronounces absolution of sins, and
appeals to Matth. xviii. 18, "Whatsoever ye shall bind one arth," [sic]
&c. But the previous context "tell it to the _church_" &c., clearly
shows that it refers to church discipline, and signifies "whatever acts