to the performance of the Penance it ought to be exact and faithfully complied with there is an obligation to discharge ones self of this Duty First because it is a part and belongs to the perfection of the Sacrament 2ly because it is enjoyn'd by an authority which hath power to oblige since God hath declared that to be bound in Heaven which the Priest binds upon Earth 3ly because it is in vertue of that acceptance one receives absolution There is then an obligation of complying with that penance which one hath accepted and he who on set purpose or by willfull negligence fails to perform it commits a Sin and an offence against God and this more or less greivously according as the omission is more or less considerable for if it be but a slight omission it is but a venial Sin but if it be a notorious omission as of the whole penance or the greatest part of it it may be a mortal Sin which is to be understood if the Penance was enjoyn'd in satisfaction for a Mortal Sin. Acquit your self then faithfully Theotime of your Penance as obeying God in the person of your Confessour discharge your self of the promise you have made him and compleat the Sacrament But remember to perform it willingly devoutly and secretly Willingly to avoid the fault which those commit who never perform it but with pain and trouble whereby they loose the greatest part of the merit they might otherwise have It is a strange thing that men should run after Sin with so much earnestness and pleasure and should have such an Aversion and Horrour against Penance which is a remedy against it And this is the complaint which Tertullian makes of his time Nauseabit ad antidotum qui hiavit ad venenum We nauseate the Remedy and love the Poyson Perform it also devoutly but especially with a true Spirit of repentance and an acknowledgment that it is a certain satisfaction you make to God for the injury you have done him by your Sins Place them always before your eyes deplore them as David did iniquicatem meam ego cognosco peccatum meum contra me est semper Psal 50.4 In fine perform your Penance secretly if it be great and if it be given you for great Sins but which are altogether unknown to those amongst whom you live that you may neither scandalise any one nor defame your self It was for these two reasons we said in the precedent Chapter that the Preist ought to enjoyn such a penance that may be secretly comply'd with when the Sins are wholly secret and the Penitent also must keep his Penance secret that he may avoid the same inconveniences And yet this is a thing wherein Penitents and particularly young people are frequently faulty declaring indiscreetly their penances to others which cannot but be of very ill consequence when their penances are signall and notorious If the penance be enjoyn'd you for Sins that are known to others as you ought not to affect to publish it so neither ought you to avoid the making of it known being it may serve for the edification of others and satisfy for the scandal which your Sins have caused CHAP. VII Of the Works which may be enjoyn'd for Penance THe most ordinary works of Penance are prayer fasting almsdeeds and whatsoever may have a relation to any of these three such as in respect of Prayer are reading pious books Meditation Confession hearing Mass In respect of fasting all the Mortifications of the body Labour retrenching our selves even of lawfull Pleasures Abstinence from things either Hurtfull or Dangerous In regard of Alms all the Helps and Assistances one can give to their Neighbour These three sorts of works are very proper for Penance and agree with it admirably well For first by these three works we submit to God all the goods which we possess the goods of the Mind those of the Body and of Fortune The goods of the mind by Prayer which subjects the Spirit to God those of the Body by Fasting and other Mortifications and those of Fortune by Almsdeeds Secondly because almost all our Sins consist in the abuse of some of these three things Pride proceeds from the abuse of the goods or advantages of the mind Luxury from those of the goods of the Body and from the abuse of our Riches proceeds Covetousness We repair that abuse by the three above-mentioned works Prayer humbles the mind Fasting tames the body and Alms makes good use of Riches These three works are highly praised and commended in the Scripture as having a wonderfull force to appease Gods anger after Sin and obtain of him all manner of favours It is said of prayers Judith 9.16 That the Prayers of the humble and good have always been pleasing to God. Eccle. 35.21 That the Prayer of him that humbles himself penetrates the Clouds Peircing as I may say the Heavens to mount to the Divine Throne and make it self be understood and graciously heard This made St. Augustine say that it is the same for Prayer to ascend unto Heaven as for Mercy to descend from thence Ascendit Oratio descendit miseratio And he adds elsewhere thâ—t to make Prayer mount more easily up to Heaven it is good to give it two wings viz. Fasting and Alms. As for Fasting it is said Tob. 12.8 That Prayer is good with Fasting That the Fasting and Penance of the Ninevites appeased Gods wrath against them When God exhorts his People to penance he assignes fasting as one of the most efficacious means Convert your selves to me in Fasting Tears and Lamentations Joel 2.13 And as for Alms it is said Tob. 4.11 That it delivers from Sin and Death And that it will not permit that the Soul which gives it should be lost That Dan. 4.24 by it we must redeem our Sins That Eccl. 29.15 we must hide our almes in the bosome of the poor and it will Pray and obtain of God an exemption from all evil for him that does it There is a great number of other passages in the Holy Scripture to shew how powerfull these three works are to obtain the mercy of God and remission of Sins These three works have each of them three singular qualities which render them more amiable and commend them to our more frequent practise For they are Satisfactory Meritorious and impetratorious They are Satisfactorious in respect of the temporal punishment by reason of the trouble which they give of Sins past either to the Body or Mind and by these pains or trouble willingly undergone one Satisfies for the punishments which are due to the Sins he hath committed They are meritorious in respect of grace and glory which is common to all good works performed in the state of Sanctifying grace They are impetratorious that is they have a particular vertue whereby to obtain of God the favours which we demand and that according to the intention of those who do them and by how much better that
count not many from the time they return'd unto his favour before they return to the offences by which they lost it Thus they pass all their Life Confessing from time to time and continually returning to Mortal Sin after Confession So that their whole life seems to be but one as it were continued Series or Succession of Confession and Relapses into Mortal Sin Now and then to Confess to give their Conscience a little ease and free it from some heinous Crime by this way of proceeding seems to be only a disposition to enslave it in some other yet more enormous Sin As if the Sacrament were instituted only for the remission of past Sins and not at all to give us strength to avoid them for the future Good God Theotime Is it possible that Christians believing Christians should be guilty of this disorder That men endued with the light of Faith should treat God after this unreasonable and unworthy manner Is this to understand the nature of the Sacrament of Penance what it is Is this to believe that it is a Sacrament of reconciliation with God not only by way of truce or for a time but after the manner of a perpetual or eternal peace is this to form a right judgment of his unlimited power not to value his favour and Friendship or do they as indeed their repeated and customary offences speak it believe him only infinite in his attribute of Mercy but not of Justice so easily to withdraw themselves from that Grace to which by his only Mercy they have been admitted Did God only seldom and with much difficulty receive us again into his favour after we had offended him every one would stand upon his guard one would be afraid to fall again into his dis-favour and to hazzard his Eternal Salvation by an unfortunate relapse But being we think we shall be re-admitted into his favour when we please and that there is no more to be done than to present our selves to him in the Sacrament of Penance to receive remission of our Sins we take the freedom to offend him on all occasions Thus we treat our God and thus we take a motive from his goodness to continue to offend him and to neglect that Sacred tye of his Friendship to that degree as every moment to break its bonds An affront one would not offer to the most contemptible Person living See then Theotime and consider well of what great consequence this Subject is and how it deserves to be solidly treated and requires also your serious reflection CHAP. II. How the relapse into Sin is a very great evil ALL what I have said doth sufficiently evince the greatness and enormity of this evil yet that you may be the more fully persuaded of it it is necessary that you learn it from the Holy Ghost himself and by those lights he hath vouchsafed to shew us in Holy Writ First the Wise Man in the 26th Chapter verse 25 of Ecclesiasticus considering the greatness of this evil declares that he cannot behold it without a just indignation He saith then that there are two things which when they happen grieve him very much the one to see a great Warriour after he hath served a long time in the Campagne reduc't to Poverty the other to see a Wise Man despised instead of being esteemed according to his merit But he adds that the third he is not able to endure and that it causes in him a transport of the highest wrath that is to see a man who falls from the State of Justice and Sanctity to that of Sin and who abandons Virtue to follow Vice and he assures us that God will make that Person feel one day the effects of his Justice In another place he exclaims against those who forsake the path of Virtue and give themselves over to Vice. Eccle. 2.16 Woe be to you who have forsaken the right and have declined into perverse ways what will you do when God shall examine your ways and all the actions of your Life The Apostle St Peter 2. Ep. 2.20 inveighs with much zeal against those who return to sin after they have renounc't it by the Profession of Christianity and declares that they fall back into a far worse State or Condition than the former from whence they were deliver'd by their Conversion which was a State of darkness and Sin. That it had been better for them they had never known the Truth than to have forsaken it after they had known it That their relapse into Sin makes them resemble the Dog which returns to his vomit and the Hog which after he hath been wash'd wallows in the mire What could be more emphatically said against the relapse into Sin yet it is the Holy Ghost himself who speaks it Add also that which he hath spoken upon this Subject by the Council of Trent in those excellent words which we cited above in the Fourth Part the third Chapter in which he describes with much energy the enormity of their fault who relapse into Sin after Baptism He remarks four notorious circumstances which aggravate their first relapse The first is that they sin after that they have been once delivered from the Slavery of Sin and the Devil Mark this word Once 2. That they sin after they have received the Grace of the Holy Ghost 3. That they sin with knowledge or knowingly 4. That in sinning they violate the Temple of God and contristate his Holy Spirit CHAP. III. Of three great indignities which are found in the Sin of relapse The Ingratitude The Perfidiousness and the Contempt of God. THis is to shew you yet more clearly the grievousness of the Sin of relapse from three circumstances which it includes and which render it most enormous The first is a prodigious Ingratitude which it discovers towards God in offending him over and over after innumerable benefits received from his hand and above the rest after he hath been by God's pure Mercy deliver'd not only once or twice but many times from Sin and eternal death Ponder well upon this ingratitude Theotime judge what it is for a Slave to be ungratefull to his Lord his Redeemer to him to whom he owes all he hath in fine to God himself If the Councill of Trent exaggerate with such vigour the first sin which one commits after Baptism upon this only account that it offends God after one hath been once deliver'd from the captivity of Sin and the Devil Semel a peccati Daemonis Servitute liberate What would they say of those who fall back into sin after they have been delivered from it not once but many times only by the Sacrament of Penance Was there ever an ingratitude parallel to this Deut. 32.6 Haeccine reddis Domino Popule stulte insipiens O Christian Souls is it thus that you treat your God Must you not have lost all your judgment and understanding to be thus forgetfull of the infinite favours of your Creator and
you an amorous reproach of your blindness which moves you to run after your own destruction and shews you that you act not like a man but like a child one unwise and in a frenzy 2ly He exhorts you with a fatherly and admirable goodness to depart from your blindness and return to him by a true conversion 3ly Because you have heretofore sometimes resisted his divine admonitions and interiour motions of his grace he threatens you with his anger and severest indignation if you continue to despise his bounty 4ly He foretells the sad misfortunes which shall befall you in punishment of your obdurateness The only reading whereof is sufficient to make you tremble and quake with horror and apprehension In fine He opposes to these misfortunes the favours and blessings which he heaps upon those who hearken to his voice and follow his admonitions live according to his holy will. Weigh well dear Theotime all these things one after another they are of great importance to you if you regard them as in themselves but more if you consider them as they are propos'd by Allmighty God and in his own proper words CHAP. III. The Second Reflection upon the Goodness of God in Exhorting us himself to our Conversion COnsider first and weigh attentively that God who invites you to return unto him by repentance and a holy life is he himself whom you have most greivously offended by neglecting his friendship loosing his grace incurring his indignation To God you are become an Enemy by your Sin and he might justly destroy you for evermore Yet nevertheless he is the first that invites you to be reconcil'd unto him and urges you to return into his favour He himself seeks after you he prevents and exhorts you to reconcile your self unto him and this moves you not at all Seek amongst men an example like this of one who being offended goes to meet his Enemy and invites him to a reconciliation and you shall not find any And this example of God himself who does infinitely greater things for your sake does not move you so as to make you return unto him Is this possible can there be an obdurateness like this But consider in the second place the quality and greatness of the Person who Exhorts you to return unto him and enter again into his favour which is no less then that of God himself God who is infinite in Greatness Power and Majesty before whom all the Grandeurs of the World are but dust and ashes who makes the powers of Heaven and Pillars of the Firmament to tremble This God so great so powerfull doth humble himself so far as to go and meet a wretched creature an ungratefull and rebellious man who hath forgotten the favours of his Creator despised his commands and lost his friendship this God seeks for such a man even in the bottom of the abiss the state of mortal Sin wherein he is to exhort him to come forth and offers him his hand to withdraw him from that misfortune yet this insensible creature hearkens not at all choosing rather to continue in his misery then give ear to the voice of God that would deliver him This is you your self Theotime who treat in this manner almighty God when you refuse to obey his voice who calls you to your Conversion If a King should shew such bounty towards a criminal and that miserable creature should refuse the favour of his Prince would it not be a thing without example and would not men say that he had lost both his sense and reason what ought you not to say and judge of your self who perform the same in respect of God Thirdly if God did receive any benefit by your Conversion this might something tho' but little diminish the esteem which we ought to have for that excessive bounty which he manifests by seeking us first But the truth is he can receive no advantage for all that he seeks is your good and not his own He will not be more happy when you shall be sav'd nor less blessed if you shall be damned for he is glorify'd as well by the actions of his justice as by those of his mercy Quid prodest Deo si justus fueris aut quid ei confers si immaculata fuerit via tua what profit saith Job doth God receive from thy justice or what advantage doth thy holy life yield unto him Job 22. All the advantage is to your self and not to him it is your happiness and not his It is true he takes a great pleasure in shewing his mercy and exercising his bounty towards those who make not themselves unworthy of his favours but then it is also most certain that he is glorify'd by the punishment of the wicked This is that which he himself hath declared by his Prophet Moyses to his people of Israel As our Lord saith he hath before rejoyced upon you doing good to you and multiplying you so he shall rejoyce destroying and subverting you Deut. 28.63 Is it not then a strange blindness to resist the voice of God who seeks after us out of his pure bounty and for our only good What can we say of our selves Theotime if we are so obdurate and insensible in the concern of our Salvation Doubtless there is great reason to cry out with St. Hierome O clementia Dei O nostra duritia dum post tanta scedera nos hortatur ad poenitentiam nec sic quidem volumus ad meliora converti O the meekness of God! and the hardness of humane heart since after so many offences his mercy exhorts us to repentance and yet our heart is so obdurate that it refuses to submit to the word of God and be converted CHAP. IV. The Third Reflection upon the Injury which those do who refuse to be Converted or defer their Conversion AS the Bounty of God towards Sinners seems not to be able to advance farther then to court and seek after their friendship so the wickedness of man cannot reach to an higher pitch or do a greater injury to God then by despising and neglecting the wonderfull goodness he manifests in this occasion That we may rightly apprehend the greatness of this injury we shall make a small reflection upon the actions of God towards man and upon the actions of man towards God. The Divine Bounty performs that to man which man denies to his fellow-Servant It may sometimes happen that the offender begs pardon of the offended submissively request a reconciliation and a restitution to his favour but upon what extrinsick Motives proceeds this chance-acknowledgment of a fault will easily appear as either he is an Inferior and may justly expect the ill consequences of prejudiced Power or that an after thought fears a revenge from the provoked or that Interest consulted he seeks how advantageous his friendship may be for the future or some like reason brings him to this act of a specious humility But that a person by his
the crimes that caused them and have recourse to God for our deliverance but they ought not to serve as a motive to detest our sins because that would be only a pure natural sorrow which avails nothing to restore us unto the grace of God. We must have a higher motive and returning to God by afflictions detest our sins by reason of the danger to which they exposed our Eternal Salvation or the honour of God which they have infinitely offended Whosoever hath not these motives in view or one of them hath not the Contrition which disposes to grace In the third place we have said that Contrition must not be only supernatural but also Sovereign that is most powerfull The meaning hereof is that it doth not suffice to detest sin upon a supernatural motive but that this motive should over-rule and keep above the other which come into our mind so that we should rather detest the sin by reason of the damage it brings to our Salvation or the injury done to God then for any natural evils it may produce and be resolved to suffer them all rather then commit one Mortal sin This is what Divines call detesting sin supra omne detestabile that is above all that which in the world may stir up our hatred and detestation And the reason is most clear because sin is the Sovereign evil and the greatest of all evils For if we consider the offence there is none more heinous then that which it commits against God and if we cast our eye upon the punishment there is none more Dreadfull This is the reason why one cannot detest it sufficiently but by detesting it above all naturall misfortunes Herein yet we must mark well that this greater detestation doth not consist in being more sensible more lively or more vehement then the hate and detestation of other evils because that is not necessary nor always in our power but this is to be understood of the esteem or judgment which we make of Sin accounting it really the greatest of all evils as in effect it is and detesting it in this quality above all others and purposing firmly not to commit it any more upon any account whatsoever But we are yet to observe that to have that detestation of Sin above all evils in our heart it is not at all necessary that every evil in particular should be proposed as Death Torments Infamy and the like but it suffices that they should be proposed in general Likewise it is not convenient they should be propos'd severally lest their representation should make the mind to waver in its Resolution or make resolutions lightly and with presumption of its own forces which would not be perform'd when occasions were offered as it happened to St. Peter It is sufficient to esteem Sin the greatest of all evils which can ever befall us To hate and detest it as such to make a new resolution not to commit it any more but rather to undergo whatever misfortune may happen to us trusting in the mercy of God and hoping he will either free us from those mischiefs or that he will give us strength to support them by his Grace then offend him The 4th condition of Contrition is that it must be Universal in respect of all Mortal Sins that is by it we must detest all without excepting any and have a resolution never more to commit any one mortal Sin. The Holy Ghost pointed at this Condition when he said that we must do Penance for all the Sins we have committed If the Sinner shall do Penance for all his Sins he shall Live. Ezech. 18. We must convert our selves to God with all our hearts that is the heart must totally be offered to God and not divided so as to give one part to God and the other to Sin. Their hearts says he elsewhere are divided therefore shall they dye Hosea 10. The reason is evident because Mortal Sins cannot be remitted but altogether not one without the rest Man cannot reserve in his heart an affection to any one Mortal Sin but he will of necessity incur the hatred and displeasure of God. The Contrition which one may think he hath of other Sins if yet he affect any cannot justify him in the sight of God for it is absolutely false and imaginary because if he really hates any he hates all Sins there not being any one which doth not cause his damnation and infinitely offend God. Hence it is that those deceive themselves who pretend to do Penance and yet refuse to pardon injuries or to be reconciled to their Enemies those also who will not restore the goods they have unjustly gotten and those who are careless in avoiding the immediate occasions of Sin and such other like In a word all those whosoever they be that have any willfull tye upon them to any particular Sin which yet they are not fully resolved to break asunder are imaginary but not true Penitents CHAP. V. Of perfect and imperfect Contrition THis distinction is grounded upon that which we said even now of the two sorts of evils which are found in Sin to wit the one of the injury done to God and the other of the damage which thereby we bring to our own Souls When we hate Sin by reason of the Supernaturall goods which it deprives us of as of the Grace of God and Life eternal or because of the Punishment it draws upon us from Almighty God it is an act of Contrition but an imperfect one by reason we consider nothing in it so much as our own Interest and this act is called Attrition But when above this motive we raise our thoughts higher and hate Sin by reason it is an affront to the supreme goodness of God which deserves to be beloved above all things which we ought to affect more then our selves and which we are obliged to love altho' there were neither Paradice nor Hell it is an act of perfect Contrition which proceeds from Charity and the pure love of God. The first Contrition is good and profitable it is supernatural by reason of its motive and because it is an effect of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost but it doth not restore man unto Grace except it be assisted by the Sacrament because it is not of it self without the assistance of the Sacrament an act of Charity which can justify but only an act of the Virtue of Hope which is not able to confer Grace The Second is excellent and perfect and restores the Soul to the grace of God even before the receiving of the Sacrament but not without respect to the Sacrament because it includes a will or disposition of mind to receive it when occasion serves In either of them both there is a fear and love of God but differently For in Attrition there is a servile fear and an imperfect love which makes us only regard our own advantage In Contrition there is a filial fear and a perfect love or Charity
Salvation What good things ought he not to do who considers himself in this danger or rather I will not say what Evil but even what indifferent things ought he not to deny himself that by doing good and avoiding evil he may both prevent the misfortunes which environ him at present and avoid the eternal loss of his Soul which threatens him for the future Without question you see clear enough what he should do first that he should seek all means possible to appease the divine anger regain his favour which cannot be otherwise effected but by ceasing to offend him by performing acts of condign Penance and by pouring forth his Soul in hearty prayer that he may obtain from God the grace of Holy Contrition In the Second place that he should apply himself to consider the sins he hath committed meditate upon the motives which are capable to imprint in his Soul an horror of them then he should propose to himself the examples of true Penitents imitate them in their Penances and conquer Heaven by the force of tears and Contrition as they have done We shall discourse of these two general means in the following Chapters CHAP. VII Of the first means to obtain Contrition which are three avoiding sin works of Penance and Prayer I Put these three means togeher because they are so inseparable that they seem to make but one The first is to forsake sin or cease from offending God for how can you expect to gain the Spirit of Contrition or the Holy Virtue of Penance whilst you persist actually to offend him and resist his grace and how can you have in your heart a true sorrow and detestation of sin when you take pleasure to commit it This is impossible Sin is the destruction of divine grace it roots out of the Soul all pious thoughts it banisheth all holy inspirations and disperses them at their first appearance like a blasting North-wind by its cold and dryness it scatters the Clouds disperses the Rain or dew of Heaven and parches up the Earth This is what theWise man would signify by those mysterious words of the Proverbs Ventus Aquilo dissipat plavias Auster congregat dissipatas Prov. 25. It is sin which locks up the Heavens and hinders the rains of Grace from showring upon men when they need it most whilst they stand obnoxious to his wrath On the contrary the fear of Gods Judgments which seizeth upon Sinners is like the favourable South-wind which gathers the Clouds dissolves them into Rain and pours them upon the Earth this fear is a gentle gale that breaths into the Soul the thoughts of Penance it moves us to conceive true sorrow for our sins and at last brings us to the so much to be desired Port perfect Contrition The Second means is to abridge ones self of pleasures and perform the works of Penance next to sin there is nothing more opposite to Contrition which is the fruit of sorrow then pleasures Contrition is not found but in afflictions and miseries of which the heart is incapable in the time of pleasure Job speaking of Wisdom says it is not found in the houses of pleasures and delights Job 28. Non invenitur in terra suaviter viventium Much less Contrition which is the beginning of Wisdom Contrition is the off-spring of an afflicted heart ruminating on all his sins in the bitterness of his Soul and can this be found amongst divertisements and pleasures No no It is most certain that he who resolves to be Penitent and contrite ought to banish far from his thoughts divertisements and pleasures and betake himself to the works of Penance as Fasting Alms-deeds and the like The Third necessary means is Prayer because Contrition being as is above declared a gift of God a gift which is not due unto us but proceeds from his pure bounty it is certain we have great need to demand pray or beg it of him very earnestly need to acknowledge our own misery and the absolute dependance we have upon his mercy Upon this occasion it is that we ought to re-enter perfectly into our selves and humble our selves in the presence of God in a profound acknowledgment of the misery to which we are reduced by this state of sin It is upon this occasion we ought to employ those excellent Sentences of the Prophet Jeremy Ego vir videns paupertatem meam in virgâ indignationis ejus It is true O my God! I acknowledge the extreme misery whither thy anger hath justly reduced me I am now in the darkness of sin instead of the light of thy grace which I formerly enjoyed Thou hast turned thy hand against me thou hast taken away all my forces and environ'd me with bitterness and pain my Life is fall'n into an abiss out of which I cannot get out Considering my self in this state I said I was lost but I had recourse unto thee O my God I invoked thy Holy Name from the depth of my misery Thou hast graciously hearkned unto me do not turn away thine Ears from the lamentations which flow from my heart from the clamours which I make to obtain thy mercy CHAP. VIII Of the Motives of Contrition and first of the grievousness of sin WHen you demand of God Contrition by Prayer and works of Penance you must not be wanting to your self but endeavour on your part to procure it This endeavour consists in weighing attentively the motives which are capable to raise this sorrow in your heart and in meditating upon the grievousness of sin and the reasons which may move you to an horror and detestation of it This practice is absolutely necessary for him who desires to be truly converted But is not much in use as God himself complains by his Prophet There is none says he that repents himself of his sins saying what have I done Jer. 8. Do it then as you ought dear Theotime and with all the attention of your heart whilst you read what I shall here propose unto you and beg of God that he will make you comprehend and understand this so important a concern for it is impossible without grace to know it exactly right You must then suppose that the grievousness of sin is so great that it is incomprehensible or unconceivable and this truth alone may make you judge of the greatness of it To comprehend this grievousness you should have a full Idea or true definition of sin which might perfectly explain it's nature But this is impossible The sovereign good which is God cannot be defined because it is infinite neither also can sin which is the supreme evil That is infinite in goodness this is infinite in malice That possesses all perfections this is the accomplishment of all mischiefs And as no created Spirit can comprehend the Greatness Bounty and Perfections of God so none but God can understand the grievousness malice miseries of Sin. And the reason is very evident because to understand well the grievousness of sin
of your Sins you must read over these same Motives with much attention again and again not once or twice but many times you must begg continually of God that he will vouchsafe to grant you his Grace to understand them well and that your Soul may be moved with them in reading them you must pause some time upon those which touch you most you must weigh them well and imprint them in your heart and having understood them cast your self upon your knees and deplore your Sins in the presence of God upon those motives which you conceived best and which affected you most demand of him pardon and beseech him to shew his mercy toward you making use of this or the like prayer O my God! have pitty on me and let me partake of the effects of thy great mercy I acknowledge now the evil which I have done and apprehend the grievousness of my Sins Thou art he O my God whom I have offended whom I have attacqued rebellious ungratefull and perfidious Creature as I am Thee have I abandoned to follow my pleasures and passions I have lost thy grace and I who have been created to thy Image and likeness by my Sins have made my foul like unto those monsters of ingratitude the Devils I have lost Heaven my blessed Country I have merited Hell and Eternal Damnation which I shall never be able to avoid without the assistance of thy great mercy But above all I have infinitely offended thy bounty The injury which I have offered it is so great that it caused thy Son Jesus Christ my Saviour to suffer death O my God! how can I worthily deplore so great an evil who will give water to my head and a fountain of Tears unto my eyes to deplore night and day my misery and malice and to do Penance for my sins Make this or the like prayer but make it from the bottom of your soul make it with an humble and contrite heart in the presence of God in acknowledgment of your sins and misery Run it not over briefly take time to make it make it long and for many days Put your self in the State of a true Penitent in the sight of God and that you may perform it better make use of this means which I shall give you CHAP. XIII Of Examples of Penance taken out of Holy Writ ALltho ' what we have said may be very effectual to excite Contrition and a true sorrow for our Sins yet we will add in this place another means which without question must needs be more efficacious They are some Examples of true Penitents which we find in the Holy Scripture as well in the Old as New Testament These are the true models by which we may frame ours and learn what is true Penance and how to practice it Reade then Theotime and attend Consider David after his Sin how full of interiour trouble and concern he was for the evil he had done bedewing as he saith his bed with his tears and having always his Sins before his eyes demanding mercy of God and beseeching him to turn away his eyes from his Iniquities not to take away from him his Holy Spirit not to contemn the Sacrifice which he offer'd him of an afflicted mind of an humble and contrite heart Behold a true Penitent behold what true Contrition is Vade fac similiter Imitate this Example and you are a true Penitent You will find these excellent dispositions of a penitent mind in the seven Penitential Psalms if you reade them wth attention Behold King Ezechias weeping and lamenting in the presence of God and promising him to pass again over in his heart and in the bitterness of his Soul all his mis-spent years to bewail his Sins and obtain remission of them Reade his Canticle which begins Ego dixi in dimidio Esai 38. Cast your eyes upon the good Israelites who were sent Captives into Babilon after the taking of Jerusalem doing Penance for their Sins which had thrown them into that miserable state crying out to God from the bottom of their hearts Baruch 2. We have sinned against the Lord our God in not obeying his word To the Lord our God belongs justice and uprightness but to us nothing but shame and confusion which our iniquities have deserved We have sinned we have done evil we have dealt unjustly O Lord our God in all thy Commandments Turn from us thy anger hear O Lord our Prayers and our Petitions open thy eyes and consider that the dead praise thee not but the Soul which is sensible and afflicted with the greatness of the evils she hath done and performs due Penance for them Consider Manasses also in his Conversion groaning under the weight of his Sins and lamenting his Iniquities with such a sorrow that he acknowledged himself unworthy even to lift up his eyes towards Heaven so great he confest were his offences You will perceive these words to proceed from a truly penitent Soul overwhelmed with sorrow for his Sins Oratio Manasses 'T is true O Lord I have infinitely offended thee and my Sins are more in number then the Sand of the Sea I am unworthy to lift up my eyes towards Heaven to demand thy mercy having provoked thy anger as I have done by my Iniquities But now O my God I prostrate my self from my heart before thee to beg thy mercy I have sinned O my God I have sinned I acknowledge all the evil I have done pardon O Lord pardon I beg of thee and earnestly beseech thee do not destroy me with my Iniquities do not reserve me to the utmost rigour of thy Justice do not condemn me for ever unto the fire of Hell Remember that thou art my God the God of Penitents and thy immense bounty will best appear in me whilst it makes thee to save a miserable Sinner unworthy of thy grace and gives me occasion to praise thee eternally for thy infinite goodness Go to the Gospel and there you will find more pressing examples of Penance and Contrition There you may see a holy Penitent moved to that degree with sorrow for her Sins that she seeks the Son of God and having found him casts her self at his feet washes them with her tears such was the compunction of her heart and so abundantly did they flow wipes them with her hair and annoints them with precious Ointment thus consecrating these Riches that Hair those Tears to pious uses which till then she had employ'd in vanity And thus that sorrow she had so happily conceived broke forth into all the Signs of the love of God and spared nothing to serve him from whom she expected the remission of her Sins So that She deserved to hear from the mouth of our Saviour Luc. 7.47 that her Sins were forgiven her because she loved much There you shall find the head of the Apostles unfortunately fall'n denying his divine Master three several times But he had scarce ended his last denial when
Inferior nay and even his Creature most heinously offended against the strictest tyes of humanity and gratitude and from whom he can neither expect a favour nor fear an Injury as for example a Master Superior King or Benefactor That this Person seek his friendship by whom he had been grievously offended This is that which one man never performs to another Yet this is that which God performs towards man viz. a Master towards his Servant a King towards his Subject a Judge towards his Criminal and that I may comprize all in one word God toward his Rebellious and Ungratefull Creature And in this he manifests unto the world a goodness and love which only appertains unto himself In hoc est charitas quoniam ipse prior dilexit nos 1. Joh. 4. It was in this point saith St. John that God made appear his goodness in loving us first and even then saith St. Paul when we were his Enemies he reconciled us unto his friendship Rom. 5. Was there ever any Bounty like unto this See here how God behaves himself towards man in this occasion Let us now see how man comports himself towards God. You understand Theotime very well what his duty is it is without doubt to yield himself conquer'd by this admirable Love and to cast himself into the arms of this infinite goodness which invites him so amorously to receive him into his favour But stand astonished at both his and your own actions after so long entreaty This God whom you have grievously offended seeks after you first and exhorts you to return unto him offering you pardon for your Sins This God so great and so powerfull who hath no need of you in any thing invites you and entreats you to return unto his favour He who can raise as much Glory to himself from your Damnation in punishing you by his justice as he shall receive from your Salvation by making you partake of his mercy Yet nevertheless out of the sole desire which he hath of your happiness he abaseth himself even to invite and urge you to your Conversion and you will not hearken to him at all you refuse or defer to follow the invitation of his love and perform what he requires of you for your own good Can there be an affront like unto this Job in his miseries complained that even his Servants themselves did not regard him and that they insolently scoft at the requests which he made them Servum meum vocavi non respondit mihi ore proprio deprecavi illum Job 10. Judge then how God may blame you and what complaints he will make of you when you continue in your wicked life and defer to obey his admonitions will not he have reason to make the same complaint as he did in times past of the Jews I have stretched forth my hands saith he towards that incredulous and always rebellious people which resists my words Isai 65. Tota die expandi manus meas ad populum incredulum That which a Master will not do in respect of his Servant which is a man like himself God performs in regard of you and you take no notice of it but to speak plainer God performs that for your sake which a Servant would scarce do for his Master he seeks you as if he had need of you he sollicites you as if he had a want of you O divine Love when I consider thee I cannot but exclaim according to the expression of an Author of these latter days O amor O pietas nostris bene provida rebus O bonitas servi facta ministra tui Picus Mirand O Love O piety of God who hast so great a care of our Salvation O goodness how great art thou that makest thy self a Servant of thy Servants But converting our consideration to our own obdurateness and ingratitude and to the contempt we have of thee I deplore our misery with the words of the same Author O amor O pietas nostris male cognita seclis O bonitas nostris nunc prope victa malis O Divine Love O goodness how little art thou reflected upon in our age O bounty it is true that thou art infinite yet our Sins are become so great that we have much reason to fear lest they should furmount thy goodness and oblige thee to withdraw thy Mercy from us CHAP. V. The Fourth Reflection upon Gods anger against those who refuse to yield to these Exhortations THe injury of this refusal being such as I have said or rather above all that we can think or imagine it is certain that it highly moves Gods anger against those who render themselves guilty Quanta est haec injuria quam graviter punienda cum vilissimus vermis clamantem ad se audire dedignatur creatorem St. Bern. Sec. 23. de diversis How great is this injury saith St. Bernard and what Chastizements ought it not to expect when wretched man who is less than a little worm of the Earth is so impudent as to refuse to hearken to the voice of his Creator who speaks to him for his Salvation Without doubt this refusal doth greatly provoke the anger of Almighty God as it is a contempt of his divine words and admonitions of all injuries contempt is the most insupportable and of all contempts there is none greater then that by which one refuses a reconciliation with their Sovereign principally when he offers himself and expresses his desire what will then the contempt be which one shews on this occasion towards Almighty God himself He that would Seriously consider of it would soon perceive how injurious and affrontive it is to Almighty God and how much it provokes the indignation of God against those who render themselves guilty but that I may make you more clearly discern it I shall give you here the judgment of God himself upon this subject which he hath declared in many places of the Scripture reade and consider well that which followeth In the 65. Chapter of Isaias God numbers up all the iniquities of his People and after he had reproached their enormous ingratitude he saith he will destroy them for all their crimes and particularly because they had contemned those mild exhortations which he had so often made them for their conversion and Salvation And you who have forsaken the Lord who have forgotten my holy Mount I will number you in the Sword and you shall all fall by Slaughter because I have called and you have not answered I spake and you have not heard and you did evil in mine eyes and you have chosen the things that I would not Isa 65. In the following Chapter he repeats the same menaces where he saith that as the wicked take a delight in the things that displease him so he will take a pleasure in bringing upon them all the evils that they feared and then adds the reason I have called and there was none that would answer I have spoken and they heard not Isai 66.
whilst yet he hath them open to receive us and so lovingly calls us to him Let us not delay lest he may shut them in punishment of our incredulity Let us prevent his anger by having recourse unto his Mercy and let us perform that which the Apostle St. Peter exhorts us to do in Conclusion of the above-mention'd admonition Let us therefore saith that Divine Apostle go boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may receive Mercy and find Grace to help in the time of need Heb. 4. CHAP. II. What Penance is SInce we cannot return to God after Sin by any other way but that of Penance it imports us very much to know what it is and to understand well this means which is of such importance as that without it we can never be saved according to that weighty sentnece of our Saviour If you do not do Penance you will all perish Nisi paenitentiam habueritis omnes simul peribitis This Penance so necessary may be considered two ways As it is a Virtue and as it is a Sacrament for it includes both these excellent qualities First it is one of the Christian Virtues which hath for its object and end the destruction of Sin in him that hath committed it and the satisfaction of the divine justice by sorrow and good works Secondly it is also one of the Seaven Sacraments of the New Law being raised to that dignity by Jesus Christ when he gave to his Apostles and their Successors power to remit Sins As a Virtue Divines define it thus A Virtue or gift of God which makes us deplore and hate the sins which we have committed with a purpose to amend and not offend any more for the future It s principal acts are Confession Contrition and Satisfaction Confession that is a declaration or acknowledgment that they have sinned before God by which they owe themselves before him guilty and worthy of punishment it being certain that the first degree necessary to obtain pardon for a fault is to acknowledge it and declare our selves culpable It was for this reason that David said that he had confessed his sins before God and had obtained pardon Psal 31. Contrition that is to say a regret or sorrow for having offended God because the declaration of the crime is not sufficient to obtain pardon except we also testify and declare a regret and displeasure from our heart without which it is impossible to obtain it Satisfaction is a punishment which one lays on himself to repair the injury he hath done to God by Sin that he may more easily obtain pardon and bear the punishment which his justice should impose It being certain that it is in the liberty of him that pardons an injury to pardon it on what condition he pleases and reserve what punishment he shall think convenient for it Hence it is that St. Ambrose in Psal 37. said that he who does Penance ought to offer himself to endure and be chastised by God in this life that he may avoid eternal punishment and St. Augustin begged of God with so much earnestness that he would be pleased to chastise him in this world so that he would pardon him in the next Hic ure hic seca modo in aeternum parcas As these three acts compose the Virtue of Penance they also make the parts of the Sacrament which Jesus Christ hath instituted upon this same Virtue The words of this institution are these which he spoke to his Apostles on the day of his Resurrection Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins you remit are remitted and whose sins you retain are retained John. 20. By these words he hath given to the Apostles and their Successours the Power to remit and retain the Sins of the faithfull and by a necessary consequence he obliged the faithfull that should fall into Sin to put themselves in a state fit to receive that remission and to have the dispositions without which a Sin cannot be pardon'd neither by God nor men which are Confession Contrition and Satisfaction Confession by which the delinquents declare their Sins to him who hath Power to judge to wit the Priest because a judge cannot give Sentence of a Crime if he know it not or it be not brought before him to judge Contrition because a Sin cannot be remitted to him who doth not declare some sorrow before the Judge and Satisfaction because to receive a remission one must be disposed to receive it upon the Conditions that shall please him who gives it and with that reasonable Chastizement that he shall think proper to impose as is already said So these three acts serving as dispositions for the remission of Sin serve also for the matter of the judgment which the Preist makes of the same Sin and of absolution which he pronounces in virtue of the power which Jesus Christ hath given him And these two things joyn'd together to wit the acts of the Penitent and the absolution of the Priest compose the Sacrament which we call Pennance whereof these acts are the matter and the Absolution is the form which are two parts necessary for a Sacrament Behold Theotime what Penance is and it is necessary that you should conserve in your mind this Idea and the distinction which we now made as the ground-work of all that which we shall say on this Subject Because to make a true conversion of which we speak here Penance is requisite in both those two manners both as a Virtue and as a Sacrament The Sacrament is necessary because it is by its virtue that one receives the remission of Sin and the acts of this same virtue are likewise necessary both before and after the Sacrament Before the Sacrament to dispose one to receive it and after having receiv'd it to Satisfy God and conserve ones self in Grace as we have said above CHAP. III. What Contrition is I Begin to explain the acts or parts of Penance with Contrition because it is the most necessary of all for without it the others are of no value and it may supply the want of the other in case of necessity on condition that it include the will to confess and satisfy when we are able Wherefore read attentively what follows The Council of Trent gives us a perfect Idea of this great action when it defines it in these terms to be A grief of mind and a detestation of Sin committed accompanied with a resolution not to commit it any more Counc Tre. Sess 14. c. 4. It says that it is a grief of mind that is a regret and interiour displeasure which is conceiv'd in the heart for having offended God. And a detestation by which word is meant a Hatred and an Aversion which one hath to Sin in looking on it as a wicked thing and mortal Enemy to our Salvation and the Glory of God. With a resolution not to Sin any more This is a necessary consequence of the grief and hatred of Sin. For he who hath a
our Saviour by a glance of his eye which penetrated Peters heart makes him to remember himself acknowledge his fault and conceive so great a grief that going out he wept bitterly for the Sin. Egressus foras flevit amare Mat. 26.75 And the grief continued all his life You will find in the Gospel two other examples of true penance which the Son of God himself proposed in two parables which he set forth for that intent The first is in the person of the Prodigal Son under which figure he sets before our eyes a perfect pattern of a Sinner returning again to God by means of Penance Luk. 15. This poor strayed young man after he had spent all his Estate is forced by the sense of his miseries to reflect or return to himself and say O how many hired Servants are there in my Fathers house who abound with bread and live at case and I miserable wretch am ready to starve with hunger I will arise and go to my Father and say Father I have sinned against Heaven and against you I am not now worthy to be called your Son permit me only to be like one of your hired Servants He had no sooner spoke these words but presently without delay he puts them in execution Leaves the place of his misery comes and casts himself at his Fathers feet to beg pardon and mercy at his hands and such and so great was this his repentance that whereas he only demanded a place amongst his Servants he was admitted unto that of his Son which he had lost Consider well this pattern Theotime imitate it in your Repentance and return to God. First Practice well that which is signified by these words in se reversus returning into himself for one must return into ones self to return to God that is to say one must acknowledge the miserable condition to which he is reduced by Sin the distance from God the loss of his grace the lack of Spiritual favours and particularly of Divine Inspirations and above all the continual danger of Damnation wherein one is Secondly in this view of your misery conceive a horrour of it and form in your heart a prompt and firm resolution to return unto your Heavenly Father in those words of the Prodigal Son Surgam ibo ad Patrem I will rise from my misery and I will go towards my Eternal Father I will declare my fault and ask him pardon submitting my self in all things to his will. Thirdly do not deferr no more then the Prodigal Son the performance of your resolution begin immediately and in earnest to do Penance for your Sins Prostrate your self in the presence of God and beg his pardon prepare your self for a good Confession using all the necessary means to make it well and in this Confession or even before make use often of those words of the Prodigal Pater peccavi in Coelum coram te jam non sum dignus vocari filius tuns fac me sicut unum de mercenariis tuis But ponder well what they signify for by those words you profess to God that you have grievously offended his Fatherly bounty that as a degenerate Child you have abused all his graces that you have not been ashamed to affront him even in his prefence and in the sight of the whole Court of Heaven that you acknowledge your self unworthy to appear before him or from thence forward to be treated by him as his Child that you only implore his mercy and the pardon of your Sins protesting to serve him faithfully from henceforward to do Penance and accomplish all his Commands as a good and faithfull Servant O what an excellent pattern is this Theotime if you did but know how to imitate it well The other example is that of the Publican in whose person the Son of God hath again represented to the life the dispositions which he requires in a true Penitent And that he might set it forth to the best advantage behold over against him a false or feigned Penitent who had nothing in him besides an appearance or a deceitfull shew of Penance Two men saith he Luke 18. went up into the Temple to pray the one was a Pharisee the other a Publican the Pharisee standing prayed thus with himself O God I give thee thanks that I am not like other men Thieves Adulterers Vnjust as also this Publican I fast twice a week I pay exactly the tenths of all my goods Behold an example of a feign'd Penitent who hath no sorrow for his own sins but who looks more into the sins of others then his own who justifies himself by the sins he hath not committed instead of condemning himself for those he is guilty of who esteems himself just before God when he is exempt from some certain sins altho' he commit others and sometimes greater Who thinks he sufficiently satisfies for his sins by some exterior good works as fasting and the like neglecting in the mean time Penance of heart and amendment of life Behold the Idea of a false Penitent which is but too frequently found amongst Christians Look now upon the Picture of a true one On the contrary saith our Saviour the Publican standing afar off would not so much as lift up his Eyes to Heaven but knockt his breast saying God have mercy upon me Miserable Sinner In this Example are set forth all the dispositions of a true Penitent First a profound humility which made him stay below in the Temple at a distance and separated from others as if he apprehended himself by reason of his sins unworthy to approach to God or intermix himself amongst the just But by how much he retired farther off in himself by so much saith St. Augustine he approached nearer to God. Publicanus autem de longinquo stabat Deo tamen ipse propinquabat cordis conscientia removebat pietas applicabat Serm. 36. de vers Dom. Secondly the shame and confusion he had to appear before God with a Conscience loaden with sins a confusion so great that it hindred him from raising his Eyes towards Heaven Thirdly the sorrow he had in his heart for having grievously offended God in token whereof he knocks his breast denoting by that action saith St. Ciprian the sins concealed within Sed percutiebat pectus suum ut peccata intus inclusa testaretur De Orat. Dominica Fourthly the pardon he emplored of God as a true Penitent having no other motive but his own unworthiness on the one side and on the other the pure mercy of God by which alone he hoped for pardon and not by his own Merits Behold Theotime Examples and patterns of true Penance by which we ought to form and model ours They are proposed to us by the Holy Ghost for that end and the two last were drawn and formed by the Son of God to teach us how to behave our selves in that great action For this reason if you resolve upon Penance and a serious Conversion you
is with more Fervour and with a more Humble Contrite Spirit they are performed by so much more easily they obtain what they demand In fine with all these admirable qualities they have yet another of no less note which in all reason should make them more lovely more desirable And it is this they are good against the maladies of the Soul and serve not only as a remedy to cure past Sins but also as a preservative against them for the future CHAP. VIII That the Penitent who truly desires to work his Salvation ought not to satisfy himself with the Pennance enjoyned him in the Sacrament but he ought to perform others and how IT is a great errour and very common amongst Penitents to satisfy themselves if they comply with the Penance that is enjoyned them and to believe that they have done enough when they have performed the Penance such as it was tho' frequently far inferiour to what it ought to be This abuse is the cause of many evils and particularly above the rest of the small progress one makes in vertue of loose living and relapses into Sin it being certain that if we did Penance as we ought for our past offences we should not so easily fall into other sins Mistake not then Theotime but be perswaded that you ought to do other Penances besides those that are enjoyned you in your Confessions and this for several Reasons First the better to satisfy the Divine Justice for your past Sins and by little and little to diminish the punishment which yet remains due from you to be payed 2ly to make you more gratefull and acceptable in the sight of God after your Sins and to merit at his hands those graces which by your former crimes you had justly lost 3ly To restrain you from offending God and relapsing into those Sins for which you see your self obliged to suffer 4ly To cure the vicious and wicked inclinations of your Soul by exercising the acts of contrary virtues All these are the reasons of the Council of Trent cited above in the 5th Chapter to which I refer my self This is the cause why the same Council hath said Ses 6. c. 13. That the Life of a Christian ought to be a perpetual Penance and that the just ought to work their Salvation with fear and trembling by Labour by Watchings Almsdeeds Prayers Fastings and by Chastity And these maxims are drawn from the Gospell the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and his Apostles so that there is not the least ground to doubt of the truth thereof Wherefore dear Theotime I exhort you to reflect seriously upon this truth and convince your self that it is necessary for you to do Penance in whatsoever state you are if you intend to live like a Christian It is a great errour to beleive that Penance belongs only to Religious it is the duty of all Christians and of all those that hope to save their Souls But you will ask me how it is to be done Behold the most easy means can be imagined Penance consists in two things in a detestation of Sin and in suffering in order to satisfy for the injury it hath done to God. One of these is in the heart the other in action Comply with them both and you will perform a very profitable Penance First conserve always in your heart a true regret or sorowfull sense for having offended God. And to conserve it better accustome your self dayly to renew it elicit acts of sorrow in your prayers as at Morning and Night demanding of him pardon for your Sins and detesting them from the bottom of your heart Secondly suffer for your Sins and that two ways first by imposing upon your self some action of Penance to perform every day One while a recital of some prayers otherwhile a distribution of almes sometimes mortification as abstinence or retrenchment of some lawfull pleasures as divertisements or the like But all this must be done upon the motive of making satisfaction for injurys done to God which is the Spirit of Penance 2ly accepting willingly and with the same spirit of Penance and satisfaction all the pains and evils which dayly befall you As the inconveniences of Life the disorders of Body the troubles of mind disgusts loss of goods poverty necessities afflictions either private or publick and generally all the evills which occur and whereof this life is so fertile and abounding But especially the particular pains and hardships which you are forced to suffer in the state and vocation where God hath placed you there not being any where one is not obliged to labour and take pains All these afflictions and troubles we may make use of to do penance and satisfy for our Sins upon condition we suffer them with patience as the Council of Trent hath declared sess 14. c. 8 9. and with sorrow for our offences Whereas on the contrary when we undergo them without patience and without offering them up to God for the remission of our Sins and for satisfaction of the punishment which we have deserved our sufferings are not only not mitigated but also render'd unprofitable without bringing either any benefit for the future or any Comfort for the present which is a thing which we ought to observe well in this place CHAP. IX Of Sacramentall Absolution What it is Wherein it consists and what are its Effects ALtho' Absolution be a part of the Priests office yet it is very fitting that the Penitents should be instructed in it to the end they may receive it with respect and sutable dispositions First he must know that as in every Sacrament there are two parts whereof one is called the matter the other the form Absolution is the form of the Sacrament of penance and without it there is neither a Sacrament nor remission of Sins by vertue of it This Absolution is a juridicall sentence pronounced by the Priest upon the Penitent by which after that he hath taken cognisance of the Sins which the Penitent hath confessed and of his good disposition to receive the remission of them and after that he hath enjoyned him a convenient Penance he remits his Sins on the behalf of God and by the authority which he hath given him It consists but in these three words which are essentiall to it I absolve thee from thy Sins all the other which the Priests says before and after them are Prayers which the Holy Church hath instituted to implore the Grace and Mercy of God upon the Penitent and which may be omitted in case of necessity The effects of the Absolution are to remit the Sin as far as concerns the fault or offence of God and the Eternall punishment and blot out the stains which Sin had caused in the Soul and recover the favour and freindship of God by the means of sanctifying Grace which it bestows upon him and revive in him all the precedent merits which were mortifyed and lost by sin It produceth all these
who after you have been admitted into his grace and favour continue to offend your maker But mark well that he never accepted of that reconciliation but upon condition of a sorowfull sense which you protested that you had to have offended him and upon Promise which you made to be faithfull to him not to offend him any more So that you are not only ungratefull in offending anew after he had pardon'd you but also a perfidious man and a traytour which is the second indignity which aggravates the Sin of a Relapse Perfidious because you acted contrary to your word and contrary to the Solemne promise which you made to God that you would serve him for the future A promise which you made not to a man but to God himself Solemnly in the hands of the Church and in the presence of Angells You would blush for shame if you should fail in your word to a man and you make a custome of it to be false to God to whom nothing is more displeasing then a promise slightly made and ill comply'd with Eccles 5.3 Displicet Deo infidelis Stulta promissio Moreover you are not only perfidious but your perfidiousness is a certain treason which you commit against God because you rebell and desert him to yield your self over to his Enemy the Devil and serve him anew against God himself This is that Sin which Tertullian exaggerates so strongly in the Book of Penance where he saith that he who after he hath renounc'd the Devil by Penance returns again to Sin gives occasion to the Enemy to rejoyce upon his return and triumph against God saying I have regain'd the prey which I had lost He subjoyns that this is manifestly to prefer the Devil before God himself when it being in his choice whether he will be for the one or for the other he so easily deserts the Service of God to deliver himself up to that of his Enemy and that by relapse into Sin he who before had a design to appease God by his Penance as if he repented himself of that good action becomes willing to make full satisfaction to the Devil by revoking his Penance and doing Penance for that he hath done Penance for his Sins rendring himself by this fatal change as hatefull in the sight of God as he will be wellcome to his enemy the Devil Weigh well these reflections Theotime and you will find they are all absolutely true not only for the ingratitude and persidious treachery which one is guilty of in regard of God when after Penance he returns again to Sin but also for the enormous contempt which one shews of his graces and of God himself For what greater affront can a person offer to God to make less esteem of his friendship then of all those trifling things for which one so easily relapses into Sin Is not this to esteem and make greater account of those things then of the grace of God or as Tertullian hath it to prefer the Devil who presents them before God who forbids them Nonne diabolum Domino praeponit And that I may make you truly sensible of the greatness of this contempt I ask whether there can be a greater affront offer'd to a person then not only continually to neglect his correspondence and all signes of amity after he hath been honoured with his friendship but dayly to offend him anew after his reconciliation to be almost constantly at distance with him in hopes to be restored to his favour when one pleases Would not every one say that he who should deal thus with his friend would take him for a stupid and a senseless man who had not the least sense to see himself so slighted and his friendship set at nought his favour or displeasure equally regarded never was there seen an affront or contempt comparable to this And yet this is that with which one treats Almighty God when he repeats his relapses into Sin after confession a contempt which ought to make those who are guilty of it tremble at the just judgments of God. And this is what we are about to speak of CHAP. IV. That those who relapse frequently into their Sins ought to dread their Salvation THe generality of Christians who live habituated to Relapses into Sin are wont to say that God is good and mereifull and to take occasion from this hope in his Mercy never to amend their lives Which is so intollerable an errour that it can never be sufficiently refelled And first it is in this that the greatness and the excess of the contempt which is offer'd to God consists that one takes occasion from his goodness and Mercy more heinously to offend him and never continue long in his favour since he believes it so easy to regain his Grace But in the next place those who make use of this pretext reason and discourse very ill and deceive themselves most shamefully for though it be very true that God is infinitely good and his mercies have no bounds where did they ever find that God is good to those who despise him and who trust so much to his goodness as not to apprehend but slight his displeasure Holy writ tells us that God is good to those that are good that he is good to those that hope in him and seek after him that he shews mercy to those who return unto him But it is not any where said that he is good to those that contemn and slight him On the contrary he threatens them with dreadfull punishments 1. Reg. 1.30 Qui contemnunt me erunt ignobiles It is said indeed that God shews mercy to Sinners who return unto him by repentance but it is no where said that he hath promis'd mercy to all Sinners that they shall return We are assured that God receives all those who truly converted from their Sins return unto him but where is it ever said that he receives those who return not to him but with this restriction for a time upon occasion of some great Solemnity and then after a little time willingly fall back into their Sins This is not found in any place of Holy writ But on the contrary we find there dreadfull and terrible menaces against those who treat God with such infidelity and so great contempt I shall produce two remarkable passages of this kind the one out of the Old the other from the New Testament The first is drawn from the People of Israel newly departed out of Egypt This chosen people of God was fallen into Captivity and under the Tyranny of the Egyptians under which they had groan'd for a long time overwhelmed with labours and miseries God by a peculiar mercy withdraws them from it working many prodigies and great miracles in their favour and amongst the rest the death of the first-born of the Egyptians the passage through the Red Sea as upon dry land so to free them from the Persecution of their Enemies who pursued them with a Powerfull Army
either to errour or Impiety 10. The Tenth is to scoff at holy things the ceremonies of the Church to contemn them in his heart or by any action whatsoever 11. The Eleventh to abuse the words of the holy Scripture in applying them to wicked or prophane senses making them serve for jests or other ill uses 12. The Twelfth is to desire to know such things to come as appertain to God alone or those which are either past or present but totally hidden from us and for this end to employ unlawfull means as Soothsayers Magicians Fortune-tellers observe Omens cast Lotts or make use of other Superstitious Inventions 13. The thirteenth is to give credit to Dreams and Superstitions to employ Prayers or Sacred Names to ill uses to use Charms or other Inventions to the end to make ones self beloved to cure Diseases or to give a Spell whether to Men or Beasts All these are Mortal Sins even when the means seem innocent as Prayers or Sacred words if one believe they will certainly take effect For then as St. Augustin saith De medicin animae contra sortileg These are not remedies given us by Jesus Christ but rather Poyson which the Devil hath spread amongst holy things Non est in eis remedium Christi sed venenum Diaboli Sins against Hope Anchora quae nostrae stat pes bene fida salutis Motibus his quatitur dum Desperatio mentem Dejicit aut falsas addit Praesumptio vires I. 1. Hinc qui scelerum furiis agitantibus omnem Desperat veniam 2. vel ab his cessare modumque Ponere posse negans vitiis dimittit habenas Divinae contemptor opis spem laedit Et ille II. 1. Qui male confisus sperat placabile numen Dum nova praeteritis adjungens crimina 2. mores Mutare extremae differt in tempora vitae 3. Quique Deum tentans levis imprudensque periclis 4. Corporis aut animae sese objicit 5. auxiliique Non poscit coelestis opem praesentia cingunt Dum mala 6. praesidiis spernit melioribus uti Quae Deus ad nostram voluit conferre salutem 7. Rebus in adversis qui frangitur atque superbis Vocibus impatiens hominesque Deumque fatigat Hope is a Theological Virtue whereby we expect from the hand of God Eternal Salvation and the means whereby we may obtain it Two Sins there are diametrically opposit both contrary to this Virtue The one is hoping too little the other confiding too much the first is called Despair the other Presumption I. One sins by Despair 1. When one distrusts in the mercies of God or despairs to be ever able to obtain of God the remission of his Sins as it happened to Cain 2. When one despairs of amending ones Life and in this Despair abandons himself to all wickedness which is a mistrust or contempt of the grace of God. This Sin is but too common II. One sins by Presumption 1. When one hopes that God will allways forgive his Sins whatsoever life he leads and living in this hope he doth not at all concern himself to mend his Life 2. When one defers his conversion 'till the end of his life or puts off his Repentance 'till the honr of Death 3. When one willingly exposes himself to any danger of offending God as to Company Reading or any other thing by which he runs the hazard to offend This is what we call to tempt God. 4. When without necessity one exposes himself to some Corporal danger as Sickness Wounds or Death 5. When in these so remarkable dangers of Body or Soul one neglects his application and recourse to God by Prayer to implore his assistance 6. When in these same dangers one neglects the remedies which God hath instituted and appointed as those of Physick for the Body and those of Prayer and Sacraments for the Soul. One sins also against this Virtue in adversities when he is discouraged to that degree that he puts not his trust in God and more still when one is impatient or murmures against his Providence in Adversity or is exalted in his own thoughts in time of Prosperity attributing the good success or Honour to himself The Sins against Charity CHarity is a Theological Virtue which makes us to love God above all things whence it follows that every Mortal Sin is directly opposite to it totally destroys it Because the Sinner in every such Sin prefers the affection he bears to the thing wherein he offends before the love and bounden duty he owes to God who forbids the Sin. However there are some Sins more particularly opposed to this great Virtue whereof behold some examples Caelestem nullum non laedit crimen amorem Quod male divinum humano postponit amori Praecipuè tamen his virtutum maxima damnis Impetitur 1. Summae si quis bonitatis amarum Infandumque furens scelerata forte recepit Mente odium execrans blasphemans sancta Deique Dextram indignatus ferientem aut Judicis aequi Iram exhorrescens infensum quem timet odit 2. Praeterea ille nocens sanctum qui numen amore Diligit exiguo bona nec super omnia summum Prosequitur redamatque bonum peccare paratus Vt serventur opes vel honos aut vita caducis Postponens aeterna bonis 3. Hominum quoque amorem Posthabito quaesisse Deo quem non piget qui Esse suo gratus Domino nil curat at omnem Stultis ut placeat curam admovet atque laborem 4. Quem pudor aut vani revocat formido pericli Ne cupiat bona vel faciat quae conscius ipse Sancta jubere sibi novit mandata malumque Quod prohibent patrat humano compulsus amore 5. Inque Deum raro conversus segnius illum Cogitat aut loquitur tacito sub corde monentem Non andit Benefacta sui nec mente revolvens Auctoris dignas contemnit reddere grates The greatest sin against Charity is the hatred of God. This is a Sin the very thought whereof causes an horrour in the Soul and it is proper to the Devils and damned Souls Yet however sometimes it is found amongst men when a wicked Conscience oppress'd with misfortunes gives it self over to complaints against God as if he were the cause of them to execrations to Blasphemys and in fine to hate him whom he believes to be the cause of his miseries or from whom he fears the punishment of his crimes 2. The second is not to bear God the love which he requires at our hands that is the love above all things as he is the greatest and most amiable of all goods This happens when one is so disposed in mind that he will rather choose willfully to offend God then loose either some Honour Riches or life it self if it were necessary This Sin is but too common and one does not take notice of it 3. The third is to prefer the love of men before the love of God to be more fearfull of their
ill or command them the good which they were obliged to do Whether you have failed to reprehend their evil actions and to chastise them when necessity required Whether you have not neglected to concurr towards the amendment of their lives by permitting them to live as they pleased 2. In regard of others who are not subject to you whether you have neglected fraternal correction that is whether seeing them offend God you have yet been careless to give them charitable admonitions when you might have done it to hinder them as much as in you lay from falling back into the same faults Or else whether when your could not or durst not reprehend your Neighbours fault foreseeing that he would yet fall therein you neglected either to give notice or cause notice to be given to those under whose charge he was and who ought to have a care of his Salvation according to the command of the Son of God who requires that one should declare to the Church that is to the Superiours the Sins of others when one cannot restrain him ones self We have given you an express Chapter of this Subject in the Instruction of Youth Part 4. Chap. 18. Moreover it is to be observed that every one ought to examen himself particularly concerning the Sins of his own State and condition which we shall not put here because we write now particularly for young people one may find them in other Books The EXAMEN Of the Sins of Students I Shall inform you only that Students ought to examen themselves concerning the Sins which they commit in their Studies by Idleness and loss of time which ordinarily is a very great Sin in the sight of God tho' they usually reflect not on it They must therefore examen themselves whether they have neglected to Employ their time in their Studies Whether they have spent Days Weeks Months Years without Studying or Studying but little wherein there may be a Mortall Sin. Whether they have Studyed remisly and loosely without application and desire to learn. Whether they have omitted frequently the duty of their Classe or have gotten it made by others Whether they have hindred others from Studying whether they dissuaded them whether they mocked at those who apply'd themselves to Study and were willing to learn. Whether they have neglected to attend and hearken to that which was taught them and to make their advantage of it Whether they gave themselves too much to Play and Recreation spent much time therein Whether upon that Account they have lost their School time and other Hours appointed for Study Whether they have played away a great deal of Money or spent in play in good cheer and in foolish Recreations the Monies which their Parents allowed them for their Maintenance or for other uses Whether they have sold their Books Stol'n or Cheated at Play. Whether they have contemned their Masters Scoffed at them or rendered them contemptible to their Companions Whether they have given them any disgust either in Private or Publick resisted them rebelled against them or stirred up others to disobedience or Rebellion Whether they have loved Courted the Company of naughty Knavish or Vicious Schollars Whether they have diverted others from Piety or Scoffed at those who are good and Virtuous or caused them to be laughed at by others which is a very great Sin whether they have debauched others or Sollicited them to Sin or instructed them in wickedness Whether they have read bad Authors or bad places in those that are permitted but are not corrected Whether in their Studies they have proposed to themselves any other end then the will of God and to make themselves capable to serve him in the State he shall call them to Whether in Studying they have endeavoured rather to advance themselves in Science then in Virtue and the true knowledge of their Salvation which is a sin very ordinary amongst Students and which carries a large train of evils after it INSTRUCTION Concerning the Holy Communion The Preface Of the Necessity of this Instruction and the Order to be observed therein THis Instruction is no less necessary then that of of Penance by reason that the Holy Communion is the Complement and perfection of what Penance had begun that is to say it is a perfect restauration and a certain confirmation of the Soul in the grace of God. It conserves it augments it fortifies the Soul dayly more and more in his holy grace and contributes very much towards finall Perseverance supposing it be frequently made use of and that the receiver approach unto it with those dispositions which so holy and so adorable a Sacrament requires Whereas on the contrary it heaps upon the head of the unworthy receiver dreadfull and almost irreparable ruins changing the fountain of life into the cause of death and that which of it self and by its first institution was a pledge of Salvation a Sacrament of Love and Mercy into a Sentence of Condemnation or Everlasting death If one Communicate tho' not absolutely unworthy that is in the State of Mortal sin but however with some irreverence or considerable defect in Devotion he is deprived of the better part of that fruit which otherwise he might gather from this Tree of Life And not only that he doth not only lose the many favours he might by means of the Sacrament be partaker of but also he thereby contracts a great number of infirmities as tepidity or coldness in Charity indevotion insensibility in the concerns of our Soul the diminution of our Spiritual strength and Divine Graces frequent relapses into Venial and sometimes into Mortal sin Thus you see Theotime of what importance it is to perform this great action well No less then your Salvation depends upon the right performance of it Now to do this worthily as the thing deserves it is necessary we be well informed whence it is easy to perceive 1. How usefull Instruction is upon this Subject 2. The Obligation you have to apply your serious attention in the reading of it so to advantage your self the more thereby The Division I Shall divide this Treatise into two Parts whereof the First shall treat of the Doctrin The Second of the Practice of Holy Communion In the First I shall declare what it imports us to know concerning this sublime Mystery and in the Second what we are to do to receive it worthily and with fruit In the First Part I shall give some Generall Expositions of Faith it self and of the Principal Mysteries of our Faith for the greater Convenience of those who are not already so fully instructed in these so necessary concerns and Especially of young People who very seldom have sufficient knowledge of them I hope that those who shall peruse them with Care and a Desire to Learn will find therein such and so solid Instructions in all the Fundamentall Points of our Holy Religion as by that means their Hearts will become more ample and Capacious
carefully cooperate with his grace and also that we ought dayly to begg of him that he will vouchsafe to continue replenish our hearts therewith lest by our Sins we render our selves unworthy of them ARTICLE III. That it is necessary to distinguish well betwixt True and False Good and Bad Hope THis distinction is of the highest importance for as much as the greatest part of the world deceive themselves therein taking false for true and embracing an evill and sinfull instead of a good and virtuous Hope and from this mistake proceeds the damnation of innumerable Christians There is no one but hopes to be saved but because their hopes are ill grounded they hope other wise then they ought they lull themselves asleep in this foolish hope and approaching to their end they find themselves upon the brink of a precipice when they imagined they were arrived into the port and stood upon firm land Such is their Hope who expect Salvation notwithstanding they do not use the means to obtain it and who living ill hope to dy well now how many are there of these and what numbers are herein deceived Such is their hope who believe indeed that it is necessary for Salvation to live a good and virtuous life but still defer their conversion thinking that God will allways expect them as hitherto he hath done with patience to repentance notwithstanding their wicked course of life and the perpetuall abuses which they never cease to offer to his graces Such is their hope who Sin upon account of the confidence they have of Pardon and who are wont to say when they have offended that Gods mercy is great and that he will forget their Sins Such is their hope who imagine they shall be converted and return to God whensoere they please or that his grace will be allways in their power or that let them do what they will it will never forsake them Such is their hope who willfully and by some signall negligence of theirs expose themselves to the immediate occasions of Sin in hopes that God will preserve them Such is the hope of many cold and negligent tho' otherwise just people who relying upon a certain confidence of working their Salvation without much trouble suffer themselves to sleep frequenting remissly or seldom the means which God hath been pleased to grant us as most proper to conserve encrease in us his Grace such as are Prayer the Sacraments and good Works All these hopes are false and deceitfull and like false lights lead them into a precipice instead of conducting them into the Port their Salvation A man Endowed with Hope which is good and true expects not only from the hand of God the performances of his promise but himself also expects that this shall be done in the manner God hath promised He hopes to be partaker of the goods of Glory but not except he serve him with fidelity as he hath promised those who shall serve him who shall be faithfull in complying with the graces dispens'd unto him and shall persevere therein unto the end He expects in this life the goods of Grace thereby to obtain that of glory but endeavours at the same time not to put any obstacle or let on his side to the workings of it He demands them with much fervour and humility he hath a care to comply sincerely with them If he be in sin he doth Penance without delay but never offends in hopes of doing Penance and as St. Gregory advises he is fearfull to commit a sin which he doth not know whether or no he shall ever be sufficiently able to deplore In a word a man who truly hopes walks always in the midst between confidence and fear he trusts in God and mistrusts himself He hopes that God will not reject him but he fears lest himself should forsake his God he hopes that God will assist him but fears lest himself prove unfaithfull or defective in his duty And thus between this confidence and fear humbling himself in the presence of God he prays he labours endeavouring to secure his Salvation on the one side by flying from Sin and all the occasions of it and on the other by a due performance of good works In short Hope consists in or is at least attended with these four acts 1. A confidence to obtain from the divine goodness Everlasting life with all the graces necessary to acquire it 2. A vehement desire of Salvation for the expectation which we have of any great good is apt to raise in us an ardent great desire of it 3. A fear to lose it by our fault or any infidelity of ours a fear which ought not to produce any disquiet in the Soul but the hatred of sin which only can make us lose it 4. A firm and that an efficacious resolution to labour for Salvation a Resolution which makes one act and employ the means necessary to obtain that end as is abovesaid ARTICLE IV. Of the great blessings which Hope derives upon us WHen this great Virtue is well imprinted in a Soul it there produceth wonderfull Effects First It makes her love and desire Heaven her dear Country her native Soil it makes her sigh after her Eternal happyness it makes her fear lest she be frustrated of it by her fault and lose her self among the dangers of this Mortall Life so full of Rocks whereon Salvation so often suffers Shipwrack Secondly It makes her love the divine goodness which hath prepared so great blessings for her and hath put into her hands the means to acquire them Thirdly It makes her contemn this present life it disengageth her from the love of these goods and pleasures making her look upon them as transitory things which pass like a shaddow and yet which are not obtained but with much trouble nor possessed without solicitude nor lost without great grief It is for this reason that the just Man accounts himself in this life no otherwise then as a Pilgrim or Traveller upon his way to his Native soil knowing well as St. Paul Heb. 13.14 saith that here we have no permanent City or abode but we seek that which is to come after this life And as it would be a folly in a Traveller to set his affections upon an however gallant or stately Inn and desire to make it his abode so he whose soul is full of the hopes of Heaven accounts it madness to apply his mind to the goods of the earth and in these trifles lose his precious time and let slip the occasion of aiming at Heaven And St. Augustin observes excellently well that God by his Wisdom hath mingled afflictions and bitterness with all the even most innocent goods of this life so to disengage us from the affection to them in Psal 40. Docetur amare meliora per amaritudinem inferiorum ne viator tendens ad patriam stabulum amet pro domo sua Lest says he Man who is a Traveller upon his way to
esteem themselves happy in his company and above all they take it for a peculiar honour that they are admitted to eat at his Table What shame is it then for Christians so to neglect so great a treasure and so nigh at hand to be just at the Spring-head of Divine Graces and not esteem them to remain in the death of Sin when the Fountain of Life is at their disposal Ezech. 33.11 quare moriemini domus Israel and why do you deliver your selves to death O house of Israel O Christians amongst whom God hath chose his habitation upon earth why do you suffer your selves thus to dye having the author of Life so near you who invites you to come and threatens you if you do not accept his invitation Crying out to you in a loud voice John 6.54 unless ye eat my Body and drink my Blood you shall have no life in you Adding that he who eateth me shall live for my sake After such threats if we do not come and so great assurance if we do what can we alledge before the divine Tribunall at the day of judgment if still we are at a distance from him from God the Fountain of life and continue still companions to the enemy of mankind in the state of death and Sin and this because we are unwilling so to live that frequently we may partake of this living and life-giving bread Call to mind the feast in the parable Luc. 14. where the Master of the house shewed so much anger and indignation against those who refused to come after they had been so solemnly invited They excused themselves the best they could some with their affairs others with their pleasures one said he was obliged to go to his country house another that he went to try the Oxen he had bought and the third that he was taken up and employed about his marriage but not any of these excuses were admitted they were all rejected as frivolous pleas and therefore themselves for framing them were all judged worthy to be not only then but ever after excluded from that Banquet And this is the method which God shall use towards Christians who refrain from the Sacraments upon the vain pretences which usually they form to themselves for all their excuses shall be rejected and themselves punished as in in the Parable we have seen To those who shall excuse themselves with the affairs and employments of the world it shall be answer'd that there is no concern of such importance as that of their Salvation which therefore they ought to prefer before all other things And they shall be reproached with this that they have prefer'd their temporal concerns before their eternal happiness and made more account of the possessions of this world then of the grace of God. To those who shall excuse themselves with the indispositions of their Soul saying that they have not that virtue which is required for frequent Communion One may reply that their excuse is but too true yet it is a very bad one for that it is their duty so to live that they may Communicate dayly and to use all imaginable industry to render themselves capable thereof Lastly we shall find that there is no other cause why people communicate but seldom besides their sloath their indevotion and fear lest if they should frequent the Sacraments thereby they shou'd be obliged to live holily and in a word a will or a tacit resolution not to amend their lives but to remain in their Sins their Pleasures their Covetuousness Ambition and in all their irregular affections O Theotime avoid this great misfortune this fault so generall and yet so common amongst Christians who slight in this manner their Salvation and the great advantages which by the goodness Mercy of God are presented to them Learn in time to set a great value on them to advantage your self from thence approaching frequently to these divine mysteries instituted by God the means for your Salvation Begin this exercise from your youth and continue it thence-forward all your life that you may perform it dayly better and better and oftener approach to the Holy Table of Communion and receive our Lord. ARTICLE XI When and how often we ought to Communicate THe time which you ought most commonly to observe in your communion is that of every month so that you should not exceed that time without giving your Soul the opportunity to partake of this divine nourishment of the holy Eucharist It is very hard for you to stay so long without having a considerable want of help to resist the temptations of your Ghostly enemy or repress the passions which spring from your age and the heat of blood You have need of strength whereby you may be able to withstand the Devil as also of a good preservative against your self The one and the other you shall find in the holy communion wherefore it is fit you have recourse unto it according to the proportion of the necessity you find that you have thereof Beside it is necessary that you grow up and encrease in the fear of God and in all Christian virtues Faith Hope Charity Humility Temperance Modesty and the rest Which you can never do if you Communicate but seldom Take this then for a general rule that regularly speaking you Communicate once a month and oftener upon either of these occasions 1st When there happens any Solemn feast as of our Lord or of the Blessed Virgin which you should never let pass without receiving the Blessed Sacrament both because you should honour the Feast by this Sacred action as also make your self worthy to partake of the graces which God more liberally distributes in respect of the united prayers of the faithfull on those days The 2d is when you perceive in your self any considerable want thereof as when you are assaulted with more violent or more frequent temptations for then you must have recourse to this remedy to strengthen you least you fall into mortall Sin. And if by misfortune it have so happen'd that you are already faln therein for want of due foresight of the fall which easily happens not only to young people but to many others by reason they are not sensible of the evil before it be faln upon them in this case Theotime take care to confess your self forthwith And as for Communion take the advice of your Ghostly father whether it be to receive that day if he find you suffiently disposed or to defer it some days longer during which time you may prepare your self for it by doing penance for your Sins and deploring in the presence of God the misery which hath befaln you Behold what you are to observe concerning the time of Communion whilst yet you are young When you shall be more advanc'd in age in judgment and in the love of God you may Communicate more frequently still according to the counsell you shall receive in that point supposing you have a good guide