in my Ministery saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what then he is not hereby justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because some sins might adhere to him he not knowing that they were sins Ab occult is meis munda me Domine was an excellent Prayer of David Cleanse me O Lord from my secret faults Hoc dicit nequid fortè per ignorantiam deliquisset saith S Hierome he prayed so lest peradventure he should have sinned ignorantly But of this I shall give a further account in describing the measures of sins of infirmity For the present although this resolution against all is ineffective as to a perfect immunity from small offences yet it is accepted as really done because it is done as it can possibly 5. Let no man relie upon the Catalogues which are sometimes given and think that such things which the Doctors have call'd Venial sins may with more facility be admitted and with smaller portions of care be regarded or with a slighter repentance washed off For besides that some have called perjuries anger envy injurious words by lighter names and titles of a little reproof and having lived in wicked times were betray'd into easier sentences of those sins which they saw all mankind almost to practise which was the case of some of the Doctors who lived in the time of those Wars which broke the Roman Empire besides this I say venial sins can rather be * See chap. 7. of sins of infirmity described then enumerated For none are so in their nature but all that are so are so by accident and according as sins tend to excuse so they put on their degrees of veniality No sin is absolutely venial but in comparison with others Neither is any sin at all times and to all persons alike venial And therefore let no man venture upon it upon any mistaken confidence They that think sins are venial in their own nature cannot agree which are venial and which are not and therefore nothing is in this case so certain as that all that doctrine which does in any sense represent sins as harmless or tame Serpents is infinitely dangerous and there is no safety but by striving against all beforehand and repenting of all as there is need I summe up this question and these advices with the saying of Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is as damnable to indulge leave to our selves to sin little sins as great ones A man may be choaked with a raisin as well as with great morsels of flesh and a small leak in a ship if it be neglected will as certainly sink her as if she sprung a plank Death is the wages of all and damnation is the portion of the impenitent whatever was the instance of their sin Though there are degrees of punishment yet there is no difference of state as to this particular and therefore we are tied to repent of all and to dash the little Babylonians against the stones against the Rock that was smitten for us For by the blood of Jesus and the tears of Repentance and the watchfulness of a diligent careful person many of them shall be prevented and all shall be pardoned A Psalm to be frequently used in our Repentance for our daily sins BOw down thine ear O Lord hear me for I am poor and needy Rejoyce the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy Name Shall mortal man be more just then God shall a man be more pure then his Maker Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly How much less on them that dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which are crushed before the moth Doth not their excellency which is in them go away They die even without wisdome The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from my secret faults keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression O ye sons of men how long will ye turn my glory into shame how long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself The Lord will hear when I call unto him Out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voice O let thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint If thou Lord wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it But there is mercy with thee therefore shalt thou be feared Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of my lips Take from me the way of lying and cause thou me to make much of thy law The Lord is full of compassion and mercy long-suffering and of great goodness He will not alway be chiding neither keepeth he his anger for ever Yea like as a Father pitieth his own children even so is the Lord mercifull unto them that fear him For he knoweth whereof we are made he remembreth that we are but dust Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sin and healeth all thine infirmities Glory be to the Father c. The PRAYER O Eternal God whose perfections are infinite whose mercies are glorious whose justice is severe whose eyes are pure whose judgements are wise be pleased to look upon the infirmities of thy servant and consider my weakness My spirit is willing but my flesh is weak I desire to please thee but in my endevours I fail so often so foolishly so unreasonably that I extremely displease my self and I have too great reason to fear that thou also art displeased with thy servant O my God I know my duty I resolve to doe it I know my dangers I stand upon my guard against them but when they come near I begin to be pleased and delighted in the little images of death and am seised upon by folly even when with greatest severity I decree against it Blessed Jesus pity me and have mercy upon my infirmities II. O Dear God I humbly beg to be relieved by a mighty grace for I bear a body of sin and death about me sin creeps upon me in every thing that I doe or suffer When I doe well I am apt to be proud when I doe amiss I am sometimes too confident sometimes affrighted If I see others doe amiss I either neglect them or grow too angry and in the very mortification of my anger I
commanded me to pray to thee in all needs thou hast made gracious promises to hear and accept me and I will never leave importuning thy glorious Majesty humbly passionately confidently till thou hast heard and accepted the prayer of thy servant Amen dearest Lord for thy mercy sake hear thy servant Amen CHAP. VII Of sins of Infirmity §. 1. 1. ALL Mankinde hath for ever complain'd of their irremediable calamity their propensity to sin For though by the dictates of Nature all people were instructed in the general notices of vertue and vice right reason being our rule insomuch that the old Philosophers as Plutarch reports said that vertue was nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a disposition and force of reason And this reason having guided the wisest was form'd into laws for others yet this reason serv'd to little other purposes but to upbraid our follies and infelicities and to make our actions punishable by representing them to be unreasonable for they did certainly sin and they could no more help it then they could prevent their being sick or hungry or angry or thirsty Nature had made organs for some and senses for others and conversation and example brought in all So that if you reprov'd a Criminal he heard and understood you but could not help it as Laius in the Tragedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason taught him well but Nature constrain'd him to the contrary his affections were stronger then his reason And it is no wonder that while flesh and bloud is the prevailing ingredient while men are in the state of conjunction and the soul serves the body and the necessities of this are more felt then the discourses of that that men should be angry and lustful proud and revengeful and that they should follow what they lust after not what they are bidden to do For passions and affections are our first governours and they being clearly possessed of all mankinde in their first years have almost secured to themselves the soul of man before reason is heard to speak And when she does speak she speaks at first so little and so low that the common noises of fancy and company drown her voice This I say is the state of Nature And therefore Lactantius brings in a Pagan complaining Lib. 4. Insti c. 24. Volo equidem non peccare sed vincor Indutus enim sum carne fragili et imbecillâ Haec est quae concupiscit quae irascitur quae dolet quae mori timet Itáque ducor incertus pecco non quia volo sed quia cogor Sentio me ipse peccare sed necessitas fragilitatis impellit cui repugnare non possum I would fain avoid sin but I am compelled I am invested with a frail and weak flesh This is it which lusteth which is angry which grieves which fears to die Therefore I am led uncertainly and I sin not because I will but because I am constrained I perceive that I doe ill but the necessity of my weakness drives me on and I cannot resist it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Medea apud Eurip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know well and perceive the evils that I go upon and they are horridones but my anger is greater then my reason So Medea in the Tragedy This is the state of a natural man in his meer naturals especially as they are made worse by evil customs and vile usages of the world Now this is a state of infirmity and all sins against which there is any reluctancy and contrary desires of actual reason are sins of infirmity But this infirmity excuses no man for this state of infirmity is also a state of death for by this S. Paul expressed that state from which Christ came to redeem us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when we were yet in infirmity or without strength in due time Christ died for us Rom. 5.6 that is when we were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impious or sinners such as the world was before it was redeemed before Christ came These are the sick and weak whom Christ the great Physician of our souls came to save This infirmity is the shadow of death and it signifies that state of mankinde which is the state of nature not of original and birth but in its whole constitution as it signifies not onely the natural imperfection but the superinduc'd evil from any principle all that which is oppos'd to Grace To this state of Nature being so pitiable God began to finde a remedy and renewed the measures of vertue and by a law made them more distinct and legible and impos'd punishments on the transgressors For by little and little the notices of natural reason were made obscure some were lost some not attended to all neglected some way or other till God by a law made express prohibition of what was unreasonable forbidding us to desire what before was unfit and unnatural and threatning them that did things unlawful But this way by reason of the peevishness of men succeeded not well but men became worse by it For what the law did forbid without the threatning of any penalty they took for an advice onely and no severe injunction And those Commandements which were established with a threatning to the transgressors they expounded onely by the letter and in the particular instance and in the outward act Before the Law men allowed to themselves many impieties which reason indeed mark'd out to be such but no law had forbidden them in express letter They thought it lawful to seduce and tempt another mans wife and invite her to his house and conjugation so he did not steal or force her away but if they found a coldness between her and her husband they would blow the coals and enkindle an evil flame It is supposed that Herod did so to Herodias his brother Philips wife even after the law They would not by violence snatch the estate from a young prodigal heir but if he were apt they would lend him money and nurse his vice and intangle his estate and at last devour it They would not directly deny to pay the price of a purchase but they would detain it or divert it or pay it in trifling sums or in undesir'd commodities This was Concupiscere rem alienam They did not steal but coveted it and so entred indirectly and this God seeing forbad it by a law Rom. 7.7 For I had not known lust or desires to be a sin saith S. Paul but that the law said Thou shalt not covet But because the law onely forbad lustings but imposed no penalty they despis'd it and those things which were forbidden with an appendent penalty they would act them privately For if they avoided the notice of the Criminal Judge they fear'd not the face of an angry God and this Lactantius observ'd of them Metus legum non scelera comprimebat sed licentiam submovebat Poterant enim leges delicta
24 25 26 27 28 29. * Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water * Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised * And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works * Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins * but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries * He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses * Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace For the time is come 1 Pet. 4.17 that judgement must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God And every man that hath this hope in him 1 Joh. 3.3 22. purifieth himself even as he is pure * And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandements and do those things which are pleasing in his sight And he that overcometh Apoc. 2.26 and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations A Penitentiall Psalm collected out of the Psalms and Prophets HAve mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindeness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions For our transgressions are multiplied before thee and our sins testifie against us our trangressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them In transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God speaking oppression and revolt conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falshood Our feet have run to evil our thoughts are thoughts of iniquity The way of peace we have not known we have made us crooked paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Therefore do we wait for light but behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness Look down from heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory where is thy zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me are they restrained We are indeed as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away But now O Lord thou art our Father we are the clay and thou our potter and we all are the work of thy hand Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are thy people Thou O Lord art our Redemer thy Name is from everlasting O Lord Father and Governour of my whole life leave me not to the sinful counsels of my own heart and let me not any more fall by them Set scourges over my thoughts and the discipline of wisdome over my heart lest my ignorances encrease and my sins abound to my destruction O Lord Father and God of my life give me not a proud look but turn away from thy servant alwayes a haughty minde Turn away from me vain hopes and concupiscence and thou shalt hold him up that is alwayes desirous to serve thee Let not the greediness of the belly nor the lust of the flesh take hold of me and give not thy servant over to an impudent minde There is a word that is clothed about with death God grant it be not found in the portion of thy servant For all such things shall be farre from the godly and they shall not wallow in their sins Though my fins be as scarlet yet make them white as snow though they be red like crimson let them be as wooll For I am ashamed of the sins I have desired and am confounded for the pleasures that I have chosen Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is that I may know how frail I am and that I may apply my heart unto wisdome Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me O Lord let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me For innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up for they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me But thou O Lord though mine iniquities testifie against me save me for thy Name sake for our backslidings are many we have sinned grievously against thee But the Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed He is near that justifieth me who will contend with me The Lord God will help me who is he that shall condemn me I will trust in the Lord and stay upon my God O let me have this of thine hand that I may not lie down in sorrow S. Paul 's Prayers for a holy life I. I Bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 3.14 c. of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant unto me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith that being rooted and grounded in love I may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge and may be filled with all the fulness of God through the same our most blessed Saviour Jesus Amen The Doxology Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us Vnto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen II. O Most gracious God Col. 1.9 c. grant to thy servant to be filled with the knowledge of thy Will in all wisdome and spirituall understanding to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing to be fruitfull in every good work increasing in the knowledge of God Strengthen me O God with all might according to thy glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering and joyfulness So shall I give thanks unto the Father who hath made me meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen III. NOw God himself and our Father 1
it then this For every one that breaks a Commandement let the instance be what it will is a transgressor of the same bond by which he was bound to all Non quòd omnia legis praecepta violârit sed quòd legis Authorem contempserit eóque proemio meritò careat quod legis cultoribus propositum est saith venerable Bede He did not violate all the Commandements but he offended him who is the giver of all the Commandements It is like letting one Bead fall from a Rosary or Coronet of Bugles This or that or a third makes no difference the string is as much broken if he lets one to slide as if he dropp'd twenty It was not an ill conceit of Menedemus the Eretrian that there was but one vertue which had divers names Aristo Chius express'd the same conceit with a little difference affirming all vertues to be the same in reality and nature but to have a certain diversification or rational difference by relation to their objects As if one should call the sight when it looks upon a Crow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if upon a Swan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so is vertue When it moderates the affections it is Temperance when it ballances contracts it is Justice when it considers what is and what is not to be done it is Prudence That which they call Vertue if we call it the Grace of God or Obedience it is very true which they say For the same spirit the same grace of obedience is Chastity or Temperance or Justice according as is the subject matter The love of God if it be in us is productive of all worthiness and this is it which S. John said This is love that we keep his Commandements The love of God constraineth us It worketh all the works of God in us It is the fulfilling of the Commandements For this is a Catholicon an Universal Grace Charity gives being to all vertues it is the life and spirit of all holy actions Abstinence from feasts and inordination mingled with Charity is Temperance And Justice is Charity and Chastity is Charity and Humility is still but an instance of Charity This is that Transcendent that gives life and vertue to Alms to Preaching to Faith to Miracles it does all obedience to God all good offices to our Neighbours which in effect is nothing but the sentence of Menedemus and Aristo that there is an Universal Vertue that is there is one soul and essence of all vertue They call it Vertue S. Paul calls it Charity and this is that one thing which is necessary that one thing which every man that sins does violate He that is guilty of all is but guilty of that one and therefore he that is guilty of that one of the breach of Charity is guilty of all And upon this account it is that no one sin can stand with the state of grace because he that sins in one instance sins against all goodness not against all instances of duty but against that which is the life of all against Charity and Obedience A Prayer to be said in the dayes of Repentance for the commission of any great Crime O Most glorious God I tremble to come into thy presence so polluted and dishonoured as I am by my foul stain of sin which I have contracted but I must come or I perish O my God I cannot help it now Miserable man that I am to reduce my self to so sad a state of things that I neither am worthy to come unto thee nor dare I stay from thee Miserable man that I am who lost that portion of innocence which if I should pay my life in price I cannot now recover O dear God I have offended thee my gracious Father my Lord my Patron my Judge my Advocate and my Redeemer Shame and sorrow is upon me for so offending thee my gracious Saviour But glory be to thee O Lord who art such to me who have offended thee It aggravates my sin that I have sinned against thee who art so excellent in thy self who art so good to me But if thou wert not so good to me though my sin would be less yet my misery would be greater The greatness of my Crime brings me to my Remedy and now I humbly pray thee to be merciful to my sin for it is very great II. O My God pity me and relieve my sad condition which is so extremely evil that I have no comfort but from that which is indeed my misery My baseness is increased by my hopes for it is thy grace and thy goodness which I have so provoked Thou O God didst give me thy grace and assist me by thy holy Spirit and call by thy Word and instruct me by thy Wisdome and didst work in me to will and to do according to thy good pleasure I knew my sin and I saw my danger and I was not ignorant and I was not surpris'd but wilfully knowingly basely and sensually I gave thee away for the pleasure of a minute for the purchase of vanity nay I exchanged thee for shame and sorrow and having justly forfeited thy love am plac'd I know not where nor in what degree of thy anger nor in what neighbourhood of damnation III. O God my God what have I done whither am I fallen I was well and blessed circled with thy Graces conducted by thy Spirit sealed up to the day of Redemption in a hopefull way towards thee and now I have listned to the whispers of a tempting Spirit and for that which hath in it no good no reason no satisfaction for that which is not I have forfeited those excellencies for the recovery of which my life is too cheap a price I am ashamed O God I am ashamed I put my mouth in the dust and my face in darkness and hate my self for my sin which I am sure thou hatest But give thy servant leave to hope that I shall feel the gracious effluxes of thy love I know thou art angry with me I have deserved it But if thou hadst not lov'd me and pitied me thou mightest have stricken me in the act of my shame I know the design of thy mercy and loving kindness is to bring me to repentance and pardon to life and grace I obey thee O God I humbly obey thy gracious purposes Receive O Lord a returning sinner a poor wounded person smitten by my enemies broken by my sin weary and heavy laden ease me of my burthen and strengthen me by a mighty grace that hereafter I may watch more carefully resist more pertinaciously walk more circumspectly and serve thee without the interruptions of duty by the intervening of a sin O let me rather die then choose to sin against thee any more Onely try me this once and bear me in thy arms and fortifie my holy purposes and conduct me with thy grace that thou mayest delight to pardon me and to save me through Jesus Christ my Lord and dearest Saviour Amen I
be accepted and when I fail of that I may be pitied and pardoned and in all my fights and necessities may be defended and secured prospered and conducted to the regions of victory and triumph of strength and glory through the mercies of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus and the blessed communication of the Spirit of God and our Lord Jesus Amen CHAP. VIII Of the effect of Repentance viz. Remission of sins §. 1. THE law written in the Heart of man is a law of obedience which because we prevaricated we are taught another which S. Austin says is written in the Heart of Angels Lib. 6. cont Julian c. 9. Vt nulla sit iniquitas impunita nisi quam sanguis Mediatoris expiaverit For God the Father spares no sinner but while he looks upon the face of his Son but that in him our sins should be pardon'd and our persons spared is as necessary a consideration as any S. Ambr. de poenit l. 1. c. 2. Nemo enim potest benè agere poenitentiam nisi qui speraverit indulgentiam To what purpose does God call us to Repentance if at the same time he does not invite us to pardon It is the state and misery of the damned to repent without hope and if this also could be the state of the penitent in this life the Sermons of Repentance were useless and comfortless Gods mercies were none at all to sinners the institution and office of preaching and reconciling penitents were impertinent and man should die by the laws of Angels who never was enabled to live by their strength and measures and consequently all mankinde were infinitely and eternally miserable lost irrecoverably perishing without a Saviour tied to a law too hard for him and condemned by unequal and intolerable sentences Tertullian considering that God threatens all impenitent sinners Lib. 2. de poenit argues demonstratively Neque enim comminaretur non poenitenti si non ignosceret delinquenti If men repent not God will be severely angry it will be infinitely the worse for us if we doe not and shall it be so too if we doe repent God forbid Frustra mortuus est Christus si aliquos vivificare non potest S. Hierom. Epist ad Ocean Mentitur Johannes Baptista digito Christum voce demonstrans Ecce agnus Dei ecce qui tollit peccata mundi si sunt adhuc in saeculo quorum Christus peccata non tulerit In vain did Christ die if he cannot give life to all And the Baptist deceiv'd us when he pointed out Christ unto us saying Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world if there were any in the world whose sins Christ hath not born But God by the old Prophets called upon them who were under the Covenant of Works in open appearance Exod. 34.6 Psa 103. per totum 128. Isa 55.7 8. Jer. 18.7 8. Ezek. 18.21 22. 33.11 Dan. 4.27 Mal. 3.7 Joel 2.13 Jonah 4.2 3.9 that they also should repent and by antedating the mercies of the Gospel promised pardon to the penitent He promised mercy by Moses and the Prophets He proclaimed his Name to be Mercy and Forgiveness He did solemnly swear he did not desire the death of a sinner but that he should repent and live and the holy Spirit of God haâ—â— respersed every book of holy Scripture with great and legible lines of mercy and sermons of Repentance In short it was the summe of all the Sermons which were made by those whom God sent with his word in their mouthes that they should live innocently or when they had sinned they should repent and be sav'd from their calamity But when Christ came into the world he open'd the fountains of mercy and broke down all the banks of restraint he preach'd Repentance offer'd health gave life call'd all wearied and burthen'd persons to come to him for ease and remedy he glorified his Fathers mercies and himself became the great instrument and channel of its emanation He preach'd and commanded mercy by the example of God he made his Religion that he taught to be wholly made up of doing and receiving good this by Faith that by Charity He commanded an indefinite and unlimited forgiveness of our brother repenting after injuries done to us seventy times seven times and though there could be little quostion of that yet he was pleased to signifie to us that as we needed more so we should have and finde more mercy at the hands of God And therefore he hath appointed a whole order of men whom he maintains at his own charges and furnishes with especial commissions Mat. 1â— 15 16. Joh. 20.23 2 Cor. 7.10 Gal. 6.1 Jam. 1.15 16 19 20. 1 Joh. 2.11 1.9 Rev. 2.5 3.1 2 3 19 20. and endues with a lasting power and imployes on his own errand and instructs with his own Spirit whose business is to remit and retain to exhort and to restore sinners by the means of Repentance and the word of their proper Ministery Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted that 's their Authority and their Office is to pray all men in Christs stead to be reconciled to God And after all this Christ himself labours to bring it to effect not onely assisting his Ministers with the gifts of an excellent Spirit and exacting of them the account of Souls but that it may be prosperous and effectual himself intercedes in Heaven before the Throne of Grace doing for sinners the office of an Advocate and a Reconciler If any man sins 1 Joh. 2.2 3. we have an Advocate with the Father and he is the propitiation for all our sins and for the sins of the whole world and therefore it is not onely the matter of our hopes but an Article of our Creed that we may have forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Jesus Qui nullum excepit in Christo donavit omnia God hath excepted none and therefore in Christ pardons all For there is not in Scripture any Catalogue of sins set down for which Christ died and others excluded from that state of mercy All that believe and repent shall be pardon'd if they go and sin no more Deus distinctionem non facit qui misericordiam suam promisit omnibus relaxandi licentiam sacerdotibus suis sine ullâ exceptione concessit Lib. 1. de poenit c. 2. said S. Ambrose God excepts none but hath given power to his Ministers to release all absolutely all And S. Bernard argues this Article upon the account of those excellent examples which the Spirit of God hath consign'd to us in holy Scripture If Peter after so great a fall did arrive to such an eminence of sanctity In solenni Petri Pauli Ser. 3. hereafter who shall despair provided that he will depart from his sins For that God is ready to forgive the greatest Criminals if they repent appears in the instances of Ahab and
time nothing hinders but that every sin is pardonable to him that repents But thus we finde that the style of Scripture and the expressions of holy persons is otherwise in the threatning and the edict otherwise in the accidents of persons and practise It is necessary that it be severe when duty is demanded but of lapsed persons it uses not to be exacted in the same dialect It is as all laws are In the general they are decretory in the use and application they are easier In the Sanction they are absolute and infinite but yet capable of interpretations of dispensations and relaxation in particular cases And so it is in the present Article Impossible and Vnpardonable and Damnation and shall be cut off and nothing remains but fearful expectation of judgement are exterminating words and phrases in the law but they doe not effect all that they there signifie to any but the impenitent according to the saying of Mark the Hermite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man is ever justified but he that carefully repents and no man is condemned but he that despises repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Basil The eye of God who is so great a lover of souls cannot deny the intercessions and letanies of Repentance §. 6. The former Doctrines reduc'd to Practise 1. Although the doors of Repentance open to them that sin after Baptism and to them that sin after Repentance yet every relapse does increase the danger and make the sin to be less pardonable then before For 1. A good man falling into sin does it without all necessity he hath assistances great enough to make him conqueror he hath reason enough to disswade him he hath sharp senses of the filthiness of sin his spirit is tender and is crush'd with the uneasie load he sighs and wakes and is troubled and distracted and if he sins he sins with pain and shame and smart and the less of mistake there is in his case the more of malice is ingredient and a greater anger is like to be his portion 2. It is a particular unthankfulness when a man that was once pardon'd shall relapse And when obliged persons prove enemies they are ever the most malicious as having nothing to protect or cover their shame but impudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So did the Greeks treat Agamemnon ill because he used them but too well Such persons are like Travellers who in a storm running to a fig-tree when the storm is over they beat the branches and pluck the fruit and having run to an altar for sanctuary they steal the Chalice from the holy place and rob the Temple that secur'd them And God does more resent it that the Lambs which he feeds at his own table which are as so many sons and daughters to him that daily suck plenty from his two breasts of Mercy and Providence that they should in his own house make a mutiny and put on the fierceness of wolves and rise up against their Lord and Shepherd 3. Every relapse after repentance is directly and in its proper principle a greater sin Our first faults are pitiable and we doe pati humanum we do after the manner of men but when we are recovered and then die again we doe facere Diabolicum we do after the manner of Devils For from ignorance to sin from passion and youthful appetites to sin from violent temptations and little strengths to fall into sin is no very great change it is from a corrupted nature to corrupted manners But from grace to return to sin from knowledge and experience and delight in goodnesse and wise notices from God and his Christ to return to sin to foolish actions and non-sense principles is a change great as was the fall of the morning stars when they descended cheaply and foolishly into darkness Well therefore may it be pitied in a childe to choose a bright dagger before a warm coat but when he hath been refreshed by this and smarted by that if he chooses again he will choose better But men that have tried both states that have rejoyced for their deliverance from temptation men that have given thanks to God for their safety and innocence men that have been wearied and ashamed of the follies of sin that have weighed both sides and have given wise sentence for God and for religion if they shall choose again and choose amiss it must be by something by which Lucifer did in the face of God choose to defie him and desire to turn Devil and be miserable and wicked for ever and ever 4. If a man repents of his repentances and returns to his sins all his intermedial repentance shall stand for nothing the sins which were marked for pardon shall break out in guilt and be exacted of him in fearful punishments as if he never had repented For if good works crucified by sins are made alive by repentance by the same reason those sins also will live again if the repentance dies it being equally just that if the man repents of his repentance God also should repent of his pardon For we must observe carefully that there is a pardon of sins proper to this life and another proper to the world to come Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and what ye binde on earth shall be bound in heaven Vid. suprà Num. 53. That is there are two remissions One here the other hereafter That here is wrought by the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments by faith and obedience by moral instruments and the divine grace all which are divisible and gradual and grow or diminish ebbe or flow change or persist and consequently grow on to effect or else fail of the grace of God that final grace which alone is effective of that benefit which we here contend for Here in proper speaking our pardon is but a disposition towards the great and final pardon a possibility and ability to pursue that interest to contend for that absolution and accordingly it is wrought by parts and is signified and promoted by every act of grace that puts us in order to heaven or the state of final pardon God gives us one degree of pardon when he forbears to kill us in the act of sin when he admits when he calls when he smites us into repentance when he invites us by mercies and promises when he abates or defers his anger when he sweetly engages us in the wayes of holiness these are several parts and steps of pardon For if God were extremely angry with us as we deserve nothing of all this would be done unto us and still Gods favours increase and the degrees of pardon multiply as our endevours are prosperous as we apply our selves to religion and holiness and make use of the benefits of the Church the ministery of the Word and Sacraments and as our resolutions passe into acts and habits of vertue But then in this world we are to expect no other pardon but a fluctuating alterable
and heart But if thou canst know thy self you need not enquire any further If thy duty be performed you may be secure of all that is on Gods part 5. When ever repentance begins know that from thence-forward the sinner begins to live but then never let that repentance die Doe not at any time say I have repented of such a sin and am at peace for that for a man ought never to be at peace with sin nor think that any thing we can doe is too much Our repentance for sin is never to be at an end till faith it self shall be no more for Faith and Repentance are but the same Covenant and so long as the just does live by faith in the Son of God so long he lives by repentance for by that faith in him our sins are pardoned that is by becoming his Disciples we enter into the Covenant of Repentance And he undervalues his sin and overvalues his sorrow who at any time fears he shall doe too much or make his pardon too secure and therefore sets him down and sayes Now I have repented 6. Let no man ever say he hath committed the sin against the Holy Ghost or the unpardonable sin for there are but few that doe that and he can best confute himself if he can but tell that he is sorrowful for it and begs for pardon and hopes for it and desires to make amends this man hath already obtained some degrees of pardon and S. Pauls argument in this case also is a demonstration If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life That is if God to enemies gives the first grace much more will he give the second if they make use of the first For from none to a little is an infinite distance but from a little to a great deal is not so much And therefore since God hath given us means of pardon and the grace of Repentance we may certainly expect the fruit of pardon for it is a greater thing to give repentance to a sinner then to give pardon to the penitent Whoever repents hath not committed the great sin the Unpardonable For it is long of the man not of the sin that any sin is unpardonable 7. Let every man be careful of entring into any great states of sin lest he be unawares guilty of the great offence Every resisting of a holy motion calling us from sin every act against a clear reason or revelation every confident progression in sin every resolution to commit a sin in despite of conscience is an access towards the great sin or state of evil Therefore concerning such a man let others fear since he will not and save him with fear plucking him out of the fire but when he begins to return that great fear is over in many degrees for even in Moses law there were expiations appointed not onely for errour but for presumptuous sins The PRAYER I. OEternal God gracious and merciful I adore the immensity and deepest abysse of thy Mercy and Wisdome that thou doest pity our infirmities instruct our ignorances pass by thousands of our follies invitest us to repentance and doest offer pardon because we are miserable and because we need it and because thou art good and delightest in shewing mercy Blessed be thy holy Name and blessed be that infinite Mercy which issues forth from the fountains of our Saviour to refresh our weariness and to water our stony hearts and to cleanse our polluted souls O cause that these thy mercies may not run in vain but may redeem my lost soul and recover thy own inheritance and sanctifie thy portion the heart of thy servant and all my faculties II. BLessed Jesus thou becamest a little lower then the Angels but thou didst make us greater doing that for us which thou didst not doe for them Thou didst not pay for them one drop of bloud nor endure one stripe to recover the fallen stars nor give one groan to snatch the accursed spirits from their fearful prisons but thou didst empty all thy veins for me and gavest thy heart to redeem me from innumerable sins and an intolerable calamity O my God let all this heap of excellencies and glorious mercies be effective upon thy servant and work in me a sorrow for my sins and a perfect hatred of them a watchfulness against temptations severe and holy resolutions active and effective of my duty O let me never fall from sin to sin nor persevere in any nor love any thing which thou hatest but give me thy holy Spirit to conduct and rule me for ever and make me obedient to thy good Spirit never to grieve him never to resist him never to quench him Keep me O Lord with thy mighty power from falling into presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me so shall I be innocent from the great offence Let me never despair of thy mercies by reason of my sins nor neglect my repentance by reason of thy insinite loving kindness but let thy goodness bring me and all sinners to repentance and thy mercies give us pardon and thy holy Spirit give us perseverance and thy infinite favour bring us to glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. IX Of Ecclesiasticall Penance or The fruits of Repentance §. 1. THe fruits of Repentance are the actions of spiritual life and signifie properly all that piety and obedience which we pay to God in the dayes of our return after we have begun to follow sober counsels For since all the duty of a Christian is a state of Repentance that is of contention against sin and the parts and proper periods of victory and Repentance which includes the faith of a Christian is but another word to express the same grace or mercies of the Evangelical Covenant it follows that whatsoever is the duty of a Christian and a means to possess that grace is in some sense or other a Repentance or the fruits of Gods mercy and our endevours And in this sense S. John the Baptist means it saying Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance that is since now the great expectation of the world is to be satisfied and the Lords Christ will open the gates of mercy and give Repentance to the world see that ye live accordingly in the faith and obedience of God through Jesus Christ That did in the event of things prove to be the effect of that Sermon But although all the parts of holy life are fruits of Repentance when it is taken for the state of favor published by the Gospel yet when Repentance is a particular duty or vertue the integral parts of holy life are also constituent parts of Repentance and then by the fruits of Repentance must be meant the less necessary but very useful effects and ministeries of Repentance which are significations and exercises of the main duty And these are sorrow for sins
to prevail in either because I am told before-hand that even the regenerate are under the power of sin they will and doe not they do and will not and so it is with me I would fain be perfect if I could but I must not hope it and therefore I would onely doe my actions so reasonably that I would not be tied to vex my self for what I cannot help or to lose the pleasure of my sin by fretting at it when it is certain it will be done and yet I shall remain in the state of regeneration And who can help all this but God whose mercy is indeed infinite and although in the secret dispensation of affairs he hath concluded all under sin yet he had no purpose we should therefore perish but it was done that he might have mercy upon all that is that we may glorify him for supplying our needs pardoning our sins relieving our infirmities And therefore when I consider that Gods mercy hath no limit in it self and is made definite onely by the capacity of the object it is not to be doubted but he loves his creatures so well that we shall all rejoyce in our being freed from eternal fears For to justify my hopes why may not I be confident of heaven for all my sins since the imputation of Christs righteousness is that by which I shall be justified my own is but like a menstruous rag and the just fals seven times a day but Christs Cross pays for all And therefore I am confident I shall do well For I am one of those for whom Christ died and I beleeve this this faith is not to be reprov'd for this is that which justifies who shall condemne me It is not a good life that justifies a man before God but it is faith in the special promises for indeed it being impossible to live innocently it is necessary that a way of Gods own finding out should be relied upon Onely this indeed I doe I doe avoid the capital sins blasphemies and horrid murders I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I sin like a Gentleman not like a Thief I suffer infirmities but doe not doe like a Devil and though I sin yet I repent speedily and when I sin again I repent again and my spiritual state is like my natural day and night succeed each other by a never failing revolution I sinne indeed in some instances but I doe my duty in many and every man hath his infirmities no man can say My soul is pure from sin but I hope that because I repent still as I sin my sinnes are but as single actions and since I resist them what I can I hope they will be reckoned to me but as sinnes of infirmity without which no man is or can be in this state of imperfection For if I pray against a sin and my spirit does resist it though the flesh prevails yet I am in the state of grace For that I may own publickly what I am publickly taught a man cannot be soon out of the state of grace but he may be soon in Gods love is lasting and perpetual when it hath once begun and when the curtain is drawn over the state of grace by the intervening of a sin yet as soon as ever we begin to cry for pardon nay when we doe but say we will confess our sinnes nay when we doe but resolve we will God meets us with his pardon and prevents us with some portions of it And let things be at the worst they can yet he that confesseth his sins to God shall finde mercy at the hands of God and he hath established a holy Ministery in his Church to absolve all penitents and if I goe to one of them and tell the sad story of my infirmity the good man will presently warrant my pardon and absolve me But then I remember this also that as my infirmity that is unavoidable shall not prejudice me so neither shall any time prejudice my repentance For if on my death-bed I cry unto God for pardon and turn heartily unto God in the very instant of my dissolution I am safe because when ever a man converts to God in the same instant God turns to him or else it were possible for God to hate him that loves God and our repentance should in some periods be rejected expresly against all the promises For it is an act of contrition an act of the love of God that reconciles us and I shall be very unfortunate if in the midst of all my pains when my needs increase and my fears are pregnant and my self am ready to accept pardon upon any terms I shall not then doe so much as one act of a hearty sorrow and contrition But however I have the consent of almost all men and all the Schools of learning in the world that after a wicked life my repentance at last shall be accepted Saint Ambrose who was a good probable Doctor and one as fit to be relied on as any man else in his Funeral Oration of Valentinian hath these words Blessed is he truly who even in his old age hath amended his error Blessed is he who even just before the stroke of death turns his minde from vice Blessed are they whose sinnes are covered for it is written Cease from evil and doe good and dwell for evermore Whoever therefore shall leave off from sinne and shall in any age be turned to better things he hath the pardon of his former sinnes which either he hath confessed with the affections of a penitent or turned from them with the desires of amends But this Prince hath company enough in the way of his obtaining pardon For there are very many who could in their old age recal themselves from the slipperinesse and sinnes of their youth but seldome is any one to be found who in his youth with a serious sobriety will bear the heavy yoke And I remember that when Faustus Bishop of Rhegium being asked by Paulinus Bishop of Nola from Marinus the Hermit whether a man who was involved in carnal sins and exercised all that a criminous person could doe might obtain a full pardon if he did suddenly repent in the day of his death did answer peevishly and severely and gave no hopes nor would allow pardon to any such Avitus the Archbishop of Vienna reproved his pride and his morosity Epist 4. and gave express sentence for the validity of such a repentance and that Gentleness hath been the continual Doctrine of the Church for many ages insomuch that in the year 1584 Henry Kyspenning a Canon of Xant published a Book intituled The Evangelical Doctrine of the meditation of death with solid exhortations and comforts to the sick from the currents of Scripture and the Commentaries of the Fathers Lib. 3. c. 11. where teaching the sick man how to answer the objections of Satan he makes this to be the fifteenth I repent too late of my sinnes He bids him answer
it may be usefull to every man and so inoffensively that it may hurt no man I know but one Objection which I am likely to meet withall excepting those of my infirmity and disability which I cannot answer but by protesting the piety of my purposes but this onely that in the Chapter of Original sin I speak otherwise then is spoken commonly in the Church of England whos 's ninth Article affirms that the natural propensity to evil and the perpetual lusting of the flesh against the spirit deserves the anger of God and damnation against which I so earnestly seem to dispute in the sixth Chapter of my Book To this I answer that it is one thing to say a thing in its own nature deserves damnation and another to say it is damnable to all those persons in whom it is subjected The thing it self that is our corrupted nature or our nature of corruption does leave us in the state of separation from God by being unable to bear us to heaven imperfection of nature can never carry us to the perfections of glory and this I conceive to be all that our Church intends for that in the state of nature we can onely fall short of heaven and be condemn'd to a poena damni is the severest thing that any sober person owns and this I say that Nature alone cannot bring us to God without the regeneration of the Spirit and the grace of God we can never go to heaven but because this Nature was not spoil'd by Infants but by persons of reason and we are all admitted to a new Covenant of Mercy and Grace made with Adam presently after his fall that is even before we were born as much as we were to a participation of sin before we were born no man can perish actually for that because he is reconcil'd by this He that sayes every sin is damnable and deserves the anger of God sayes true but yet some persons that sin of meer infirmity are accounted by God in the rank of innocent persons So it is in this Article Concupiscence remains in the regenerate and yet concupiscence hath the nature of sin but it brings not condemnation These words explain the former Original imperfection is such a thing as is even in the regenerate and it is of the nature of sin that is it is the effect of one sin and the cause of many but yet it is not damning because as it is subjected in unconsenting persons it loses its own natural venome and relation to guiltiness that is it may of it self in its abstracted nature be a sin and deserve Gods anger viz. in some persons in all them that consent to it but that which will always be in persons that shall never be damned that is in infants and regenerate shall never damn them And this is the main of what I affirm And since the Church of England intended that Article against the Doctrine of the Pelagians I suppose I shall not be thought to recede from the spirit and sense of the Article though I use differing manners of expression because my way of explicating this question does most of all destroy the Pelagian Heresie since although I am desirous to acquit the dispensation of God and his Justice from any imputation or suspicion of wrong and am loath to put our sins upon the account of another yet I impute all our evils to the imperfections of our nature and the malice of our choice which does most of all demonstrate not onely the necessity of Grace but also of Infant Baptism and then to accuse this Doctrine of Pelagianism or any newer name of Heresie will seem like impotency and weakness of spirit but there will be nothing of truth or learning in it And although this Article was penn'd according to the style of the Schools as they then did love to speak yet the hardest word in it is capable of such a sense as complies with the intendment of that whole sixth Chapter For though the Church of England professes her self fallible and consequently that all her truths may be peaceably improved yet I do think that she is not actually deceiv'd and also that divers eminently learned do consent in my sense of that Article However I am so truly zealous for her honour and peace that I wholly submit all that I say there or any where else to her most prudent judgement And though I may most easily be deceived yet I have given my reasons for what I say and desire to be tried by them not by prejudice and numbers and zeal and if any man resolves to understand the Article in any other sense then what I have now explicated all that I shal say is that it may be I cannot reconcile my Doctrine to his explication it is enough that it is consistent with the Article it self in its best understanding and compliance with the truth it self and the justification of God However he that explicates the Article and thinks it means as he says does all the honour he can to the Authority whose words if he does not understand yet the sanction he reverers And this liberty I now take is no other then hath been used by the severest Votaries in that Church where to dissent is death I mean in the Church of Rome I call to witness those disputations and contradictory assertions in the matter of some articles which are to be observed in Andreas Vega Dominicus à Soto Andradius the Lawyers about the Question of divorces and clandestine contracts the Divines about predetermination and about this very article of Original sin as relating to the Virgin Mary But blessed be God we are under the Discipline of a prudent charitable and indulgent Mother and if I may be allowed to suppose that the article means no more in short then the office of Baptism explicates at large I will abide by the trial there is not a word in the Rubricks or Prayers but may very perfectly consist with the Doctrine I deliver But though the Church of England is my Mother and I hope I shall ever live and at last die in her Communion and if God shall call me to it and enable me I will not refuse to die for her yet I conceive there is something most highly considerable in that saying Call no man Master upon earth that is no mans explication of her articles shall prejudice my affirmative if it agrees with Scripture and right reason and the doctrine of the Primitive Church for the first 300 years and if in any of this I am mistaken I will most thankfully be reproved and most readily make honourable amends But my proposition I hope is not built upon the sand and I am most sure it is so zealous for Gods honour and the reputation of his justice and wisdome and goodness that I hope all that are pious unless they labour under some prejudice and prepossession will upon that account be zealous for it or at least confess that
Scripture concludes all under sin that is declares all the world to be sinners that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that beleeve This S. Bernard expresses in these words Deus nobis hoc fecit ut nostram imperfectionem ostenderet Christi avidiores nos faceret Our imperfection was sufficiently manifest by the severity of the first Covenant that the world might long for salvation by Jesus Christ For since mankinde could not be saved by the Covenant of works that is of exact obedience they must perish for ever or else hope to be sav'd by a Covenant of ease and remission that is such a Covenant as may secure Mans duty to God and Gods mercy to Man and this is the Covenant which God made with mankinde in Christ Jesus the Covenant of Repentance This Covenant began immediately after Adams fall For as soon as the first Covenant the Covenant of works was broken God promised to make it up by an instrument of mercy which himself would finde out The Seed of the woman should make up the breaches of the man But this should be acted and published in its own time not presently In the mean time man was by virtue of that new Covenant or promise admitted to Repentance Adam confessed his sin and repented Three hundred years together did he mourn upon the mountains of India and God promised him a Saviour by whose obedience his repentance should be accepted And when God did threaten the old world with a floud of waters he called upon them to repent but because they did not God brought upon them the floud of waters For 120. years together he called upon them to return before he would strike his final blow Ten times God tried Pharaoh before he destroyed him And in all ages in all periods and with all men God did deal by this measure and excepting that God in some great cases or in the beginning of a Sanction to establish it with the terror of a great example he scarce ever destroyed a single man with temporal death for any nicety of the law but for long and great prevarications of it and when he did otherwise he did it after the man had been highly warned of the particular and could have obeyed easily which was the case of the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath and was like the case of Adam who was upon the same account judged by the Covenant of works This then was an emanation both of Gods justice and his mercy Until man had sinned he was not the subject of mercy and if he had not then receiv'd mercy the infliction had been too severe and unjust since the Covenant was beyond the measures of man after it began to multiply into particular laws and man by accident was lessen'd in his strengths From hence the corollaries are plain 1. God was not unjust for beginning his entercourse with mankind by the Covenant of works for these reasons 1. Because Man had strengths enough to doe it until he lessen'd his own abilities 2. The Covenant of works was at first instanc'd but in a small Commandement in abstaining from the fruit of one tree when he had by him very many others for his use and pleasure 3. It was necessary that the Covenant of works should begin for the Covenant of faith and repentance could not be at first there was no need of it no opportunity for it it must suppose a defailance or an infirmity as physick supposes sickness and mortality 4. God never exacted the obedience of Man by strict measures by the severity of the first Covenant after Adams fall but men were sav'd then as now they were admitted to repentance and justified by faith and the works of faith And therefore the Jews say that three things were before the world The Law the name of the Messias and Repentance 1 Cor. 2.7 that is as S. Paul better expresses it This Repentance through faith in the Messias is the hidden wisdome of God ordained before the world unto our glory So that at first it was not impossible and when it was it was not exacted in the impossible measure but it was kept in pretence and overture for ends of piety wisdome and mercy of which I have given account it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wise dispensation but it was hidden For since it is essentiall to a law that it be in a matter that is possible Plato lib 5. de leg Demosth contra Timocratem Plutar. in Solon Curius Fortunatianus Rhet. Nemo obligatur ad impossibile it cannot be suppos'd that God would judge man by an impossible Commandement A good man would not doe it much lesse the righteous and mercifull Judge of Men and Angels But God by holding over the world the Covenant of works non fecit praevaricatores sed humiles did not make us sinners by not observing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the minutes and tittles of the law but made us humble needing mercy begging grace longing for a Saviour relying upon a better Covenant waiting for better promises praying for the Spirit of grace repenting of our sins deploring our infirmities and justified by faith in the promises of God 2. This then is the great introduction and necessity of repentance We neither could have liv'd without it nor have understood the way of the Divine Justice nor have felt any thing of his most glorious attribute But the admission of us to repentance is the great verification of his justice and the most excellent expression of his mercy This is the mercy of God in Jesus Christ springing from the fountains of grace purchas'd by the bloud of the Holy Lamb the Eternal sacrifice promised from the beginning always ministred to mans need in the secret Oeconomy of God but proclaim'd to all the world at the revelation of God incarnate the first day of our Lord Jesus But what are we eased now under the Gospel which is a Law of greater holiness and more Commandements and a sublimer purity in which we are tied to more severity then ever man was bound to under any institution and Covenant If the Law was an impossible Commandement who can say he hath strictly and punctually perform'd the injunctions of the Gospel Is not the little finger of the Son heavier then the Fathers loyns Here therefore it is to be inquired Whether the Commandements of Jesus Christ be as impossible to be kept as the Law of Moses If we by Christ be tied to more holiness then the sons of Israel were by Moses Law then because that could not be kept then neither can this But if we be not tied to more then they how is the law of Christ a more perfect institution and how can we now be justified by a law no better then that by which we could not be justified But then if this should be as impossible as ever why is it anew imposed why is it held over us when the
ends for which it was held over us now are served And at last how can it be agreeable to Gods wisdome and justice to exact of us a law which we cannot perform or to impose a law which cannot justly be exacted The answering and explicating this difficulty will serve many propositions in the doctrine of Repentance §. 2. Of the possibility or impossibility of keeping the Precepts of the Gospel IT were strange that it should be possible for all men to keep the Commandements and requir'd and exacted of all men with the intermination or threatning of horrid pains and yet that no man should ever do it Lib. 1. Dial. adve Pelag. S. Hierome brings in Atticus thus arguing Da exemplum aut confitere imbecillitatem tuam and the same also was the argument of Orosius and the reasonableness of it is a great prejudice against the contrary affirmation of S. Austin Alipius Evodius Aurelius Possidius who because it is no good consequence to argue à non esse ad non posse and though it is not done yet possibly it might conclude that it is possible to keep the Commandements though as yet no man ever did but he that did it for us all But as Marcellinus said well It is hard to say that by a Man a thing can be done of which although there was a great necessity and a severe Commandement yet there never was any example Because in men there is such infinite variety of tempers dispositions apprehensions designes fears and hopes purposes and interests that it were next to a miracle that not one of all mankinde should do what he can and what so highly concerns him But because this although it be a high probability yet is no certain demonstration that which S. Paul taught is certainly to be relied upon That the Law could not do it for us that is Rom. 8. could not bring us justification in that it was weak through the flesh meaning that because we were so weak we could not fulfill the righteousness of the Law therefore we could not be justified by that Covenant Mosi manus graves facies cornuta impedita lingua lapideae tabulae Moses's hand were heavy his face bright his tongue stammering and the tables were of stone by which is meant that the imposition and the burthen was great but the shoulder is weak and crushed and therefore was not able to bear it and therefore much less can it stand under a bigger load if the holy Precepts of the Gospel should prove so and we be assisted by no firmer supporters For the nature and constitution of man is such that he cannot perpetually attend to any state of things Voluntas per momenta variatur S. Hier. lib. 2. in Gal. c. c. 3. quia solus Deus immutabilis variety and change inconstancy and repentance are in his very nature * If he be negligent he is soon tempted * If he be watchful he is soon wearied * If he be not instructed he is exposed to every abuse * If he be yet he is ignorant of more then he knows and may be cousened by very many things and in what he knows or seems to know he is sometimes confident sometimes capricious curious and impertinent proud and contemptuous * The Commandments are instanc'd in things against our naturall inclinations and are restraints upon our appetite and although a man may do it in single instances yet to act a part of perpetual violence and preternatural contentions is too hard and severe an expectation and the often unavoidable failings of men will shew how impossible it is It is as S. Hieromes expression is as if a man should hale a boat against the stream if ever he slacken his hand the vessel falls back and if ever we give way to our appetite in any of the forbidden instances we descend naturally and easily * Some vices are proportionable to a mans temper and there he falls pleasantly and with desire Rhet. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle That which is natural is sweet but that which is violent is troublesome to others he is indifferent but to them he is turn'd by every byas * If a man be morose he is apt to offend with sullenness and angry pretensions but if he be compliant and gentle he is easily cousened with fair entreaties * If he be alone he is sad and phantastick and woe to him that is alone If he be in company it will be very hard for him to go with them to the utmost limits of permission and not to step beyond it * No mans leisure is great enough to attend the inquiry after all the actions and particulars for which he is to be judged and he does many things which he considers not whether they be sins or no and when he does consider he often judges wrong * For some things there are no certain measures and there are very many constituent or intervening things and circumstances of things by which it is made impossible to give a certain judgement of the whole * Oftentimes a man is surpris'd and cannot deliberate for want of time sometimes he is amaz'd and wants order and distinction to his thoughts and cannot deliberate for want of powers * Sometimes the case is such that if a man determines it against his temporal interest he determines falsly and yet he thinks he does it safest and if he judges in compliance with his temporal regards he cannot be confident but that he was mov'd not by the prevailing reason but by prevailing passion * If the dispute be concerning degrees there is no certain measures to weigh them by and yet sometimes a degree does diversifie the kinde and vertue and vice are but differing degrees of the same instance and the wayes of sinning upon the stock of ignorance are as many as there are ignorances and degrees and parts and vicious causes and instances of it Concerning our infirmities they are so many that we can no more account concerning the wayes of errour coming upon that stock then it can be reckoned in how many places a lame man may stumble that goes a long journey in difficult and uneven wayes We have beginning infant strengths which are therefore imperfect because they can grow Crescere posse imperfectae rei signum est Seneca ep 67. and when they are most confirm'd and full grown they are imperfect still When we can reckon all the things of chance then we have summ'd up the dangers and aptnesses of man to sin upon that one principle but so as they can they are summ'd up in the words of Epiphanius Haeres 59. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The condition of our nature the inconstancy of our spirits the infirmity of our flesh the distraction of our senses are an argument to make us with confidence expect pardon and mercy from the loving kindness of the Lord according to the preaching of Truth the Gospel of Christ But besides all
it is hard and that 's the thing which in this question is complain'd of on all hands For an Oak is easie to be pull'd up by the roots if a man had strength enough to do it but if this be impos'd upon a weak man or a childe they have reason to complain and a Bushel or two of Wheat is no great thing to carry but it is too great for me I cannot do it So by this account of S. Hierome the Commandements are not impossible for there is not any one of them but any man can do at some time while he considers and is in perfect disposition But then we are to remember that the Commandements are alwayes imposed and we are not alwayes in that condition of good things to be wise and watchful well dispos'd and well resolv'd standing upon our guard and doing what we can at other times and therefore it is that the Commandements are impossible So that still the difficulty remains and the inquiry must go on How we are to understand the Divine Justice in exacting an impossible law or if he does not exact it how we understand the way of the Divine Wisdome in imposing that law which he cannot justly exact To the first I answer that God doth not exact of us what is not possible to be done The highest severity of the Gospel is to love God with all our soul that is to love him as much as we can love him and that is certain we can do Every man can do as much as he can and God requires no more and even those things which we can do though he calls upon us to do the most yet he punishes us not if we do it heartily and sincerely though with less passion and exactness Now as Gods justice was secur'd in the imposition of the law of Moses because whatever severity was held over them to restrain their loosenesses yet God exacted it onely by the measures of a man and healed all their breaches by the medicine of Repentance So now in the Gospel he hath done it much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath taken the vail off and profess'd it openly he hath included this mercy in the very constitution of the Covenant For the Gospel is the Covenant of Repentance we shall not have leave to sin but we shall have leave to repent if we have sinned so that God hath imposed a law of perfection but he exacts it according to the possibilities of imperfect persons S. August lib. 1. Retract c. 19. Omnia mandata Dei facta deputantur quando quicquid non fit ignoscitur and then we have kept the Commandements when we have received our pardon for what we have not kept 2. As the law of Moses was not of it self impossible absolutely and naturally so neither are the Commandements of the Gospel For if we consider the particular of Moses law they were such a burthen which the Jews themselves were loth to part withall because it was in the Morall part of it but a law of abstinence from evil to which fear and temporal promises was as they understood it a sufficient endearment But that burthen which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear was the sting of the law that it allowed no repentance for great crimes Heb. 10.28 but the transgressor should die without mercy under two or three witnesses Now then since in the Gospel there is no such thing but there is an allowance of repentance this must needs be an easie yoke This onely is to be added That the righteousness of the law was in abstinence from evil the righteousness of the Gospel is in that and in the doing all the affirmative Commandements of Christ Now this being a new obligation brought also with it new abilities I mean the glorious promises of the Gospel which whosoever believes heartily will finde himself able to do or suffer any thing for the enjoying of them and this is that which is taught us by S. Paul For what the law could not do Rom. 8.3 in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son made it possible by the Spirit of Grace and by our spirituall conversation 3. There is a Natural possibility and a Moral there are abilities in every man to do any thing that is there commanded and he that can do well to day may do so to morrow in the nature of things this is true and since every sin is a breach of a law which a man might and ought to have kept it is naturally certain that when ever any man did break the Commandement he might have done otherwise In man therefore speaking naturally and of the Physical possibilities of things there is by those assistances which are given in the Gospel ability to keep the Commandements Evangelical But in the Moral sense that is when we consider what Man is and what are his strengths and how many his enemies and how soon he falls and that he forgets when he should remember and his faculties are asleep when they should be awake and he is hindred by intervening accidents and weakned and determin'd by superinduc'd qualities habits and necessities the keeping of the Commandements is morally impossible Now that this may also be taken off there is an abatement and an allowance made for this also Our infirmities are pitied our ignorances excused our unavoidable errours not imputed These in the law were imputable and it was lawful for the avenger of blood to kill a Manslayer who sinn'd against his will if he could overtake him before he got to Sanctuary These I say in the Law were imputable but they were not imputed Gods mercy took them off privately upon the accounts of his Mercy and a general Repentance But in the Gospel they are neither imputed nor imputable They were paid for beforehand and put upon the accounts of the Cross God winked at the times of your ignorance and The Lord had pity on me because I did it in ignorance said S. Paul and so Christ prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they do But ye did it ignorantly as did also your Rulers so S Peter and upon that account he called them to accept of mercy And it is certain in reason that if God forgives those sins of malice of which we repent infinitely rather will he not impute what we cannot probably or possibly avoid Apud Diodor. Sicul. For to do otherwise were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a severity above the measures of humane sufferance and capacity to be punished for infirmities when they do not sin wilfully and therefore God who remembers and pities our infirmities will never put these into his account especially the holy Jesus having already paid our symbol Upon the account of these particulars it is certain God does not exact of us an impossible Commandement that is not in the impossible measure for that is the meaning of those words of S.
Hom. 3◠inter 19. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is impious to say the Commandements of the Spirit i.e. of the Gospel are impossible viz. in that sense in which they are exacted But now to the second inquiry Since in justice God exacts not an impossible law how does it consist with his wisdome to impose what in justice he does not exact I answer 1. That it was necessary the Law in its latitude and natural extension should be given for if in the sanction any limits and lessenings had been described it had been a permission given to us to despise him in a certain degree and could in no sense have been proportionable to his infinity God commands us to love him with all our hearts and all our strengths that is alwayes and with all that we can if less then this had been imposed and we commanded to love God but to a less and a certain proportion besides that it would not have been possible for us to understand when we did what was commanded it would have been either a direct lessening our opinion of God by tempting us to suppose no more love was due to him then such a limited measure or else a teaching us not to give him what was his due either of which must necessarily tend to Gods dishonour 2. The commanding us to do all that we can and that alwayes though less be exacted does invite our greatest endevours it entertains the faculties and labours of the best and yet despises not the meanest for they can endevour too and they can do their best and it serves the end of many graces besides and the honour of some of the Divine Attributes 3. By this means still we are contending and pressing forwards and no man can say he does now comprehend or that his work is done till he die and therefore for ever he must grow in grace which could not be without the proposing of a Commandement the performance of which would for ever sufficiently imploy him for by this means the Commandements do every day grow more possible then at first In epistolâ ad Innocentium dictum est multos Catholicos viros dixisse posse hominem esse sine peccato per gratiam Dei non à nativitate sed à conversione A lustful person thinks it impossible to mortifie his lust but when he hath long contended and got the mastery it grows easie and at last in the progressions of a long piety sin is more impossible then duty is He that is born of God sinneth not neither indeed can he so S. John and Through Christ that strengthens me I can do all things saith S. Paul It is long before a man comes to it but the impossibility by degrees turns into a possibility and that into an easiness and at last into a necessity It is a trouble for some to commit a sin By this also we exercise a holy fear and work out our salvation with fear and trembling It enlarges our care and endears our watchfulness and caution It cures or prevents our pride and bold challenges of God for rewards which we never can deserve It convinces us of the necessity of the Divine aid and makes us to relie upon Gods goodness in helping us and his mercy in pardoning us and truly without this we could neither be so sensible of our infirmities nor of the excellent gifts and mercies of God for although God does not make necessities on purpose that he may serve them or introduce sin that he might pardon it yet he loves we should depend upon him and by these rare arts of the Divine Oeconomy make us to strive to be like him and in the midst of our finite abilities have infinite desires that even so we may be disposed towards the holiness and glories of eternity 4. Although God exacts not an impossible law under eternal and insufferable pains yet he imposes great holiness in unlimited and indefinite measures with a design to give excellent proportions of reward answerable to the greatness of our endeaovur Hell is not the end of them that fail in the greatest measures of perfection but great degrees of Heaven shall be their portion who do all that they can alwayes and offend in the fewest instances For as our duty is not limited so neither are the degrees of glory and if there were not this latitude of duty neither could there be any difference in glory neither could it be possible for all men to hope for heaven but now all may The meanest of Gods servants shall go thither and yet there are greater measures for the best and most excellent services Thus we may understand that the imposing of the Divine Laws in all the periods of the world was highly consistent with the Divine Justice and an excellent infinite wisdome and yet in the exacting them Mercy prevail'd because the Covenant of Works or of exact obedience was never the rule of life and death since the Saviour of the world was promised that is since the fall of Adam but all Mankinde was admitted to repentance and wash'd clean in the blood of the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world and was slain from the beginning of it Repentance was the measure of our duty and the remedy for our evils and the Commandements were not impossible to him that might amend what was done amiss §. 3. How Repentance and the Precept of Perfection Evangelicall can stand together THat the Gospel is a Covenant of Repentance is evident in the whole design and nature of the thing in the preparatory Sermons made by the Baptist by the Apostles of our Lord by the seventy two Disciples and the Exhortations made by S. Peter at the first opening the Commission and the secret of the Religion Which Doctrine of Repentance lest it should be thought to be a permission to sin a leave to need the remedy is charged with an addition of a strict and severe holiness the Precept of Perfection It therefore must be such a repentance as includes in it perfection and yet the perfection is such as needs repentance How these two are to stand together is the subject of the present inquiry Mat. 5.48 Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect that 's the charge To be perfect as God and yet to repent as a Man seem contrary to each other They seem so onely For 1. It does not signifie perfection of degrees in the natural sense of the word For as Philo said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfections and the heights of excellencies are onely proper to one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Clemens of Alexandria God alone is wise he alone is perfect All that we do is but little and that little is imperfect and that imperfection is such as could be condemned if God did not use gentleness and mercy towards us But 2. Although perfection of degrees cannot be understood to be our duty in the periods and
we believe to be a sin Now that God requires no more and that we can do thus much and that good men from their conversion do thus much though in differing degrees is evident upon plain experience and the foregoing considerations I conclude with the words of the Arausican Councel Omnes baptizati Christo auxiliante cooperante possunt debent quae ad salutem pertineut si fidelitèr laborare voluerint adimplere All baptized Christians may by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ if they will faithfully labour perform and fulfill all things that belong to their salvation The summe of all is this The state of regeneration is perfection all the way even when it is imperfect in its degrees The whole state of a Christians life is a state of perfection Sincerity is the formality or the Soul of it A hearty constant endevour is the Body or materiall part of it And the Mercies of God accepting it in Christ and assisting and promoting it by his Spirit of Grace is the third part of its constitution it is the Spirit This perfection is the perfection of Men not of Angels and it is as in the perfection of Glory where all are perfect yet all are not equal Every regenerate man hath that perfection without which he cannot be accepted but some have this perfection more some less It is the perfection of state but the perfection of degrees is not yet Here men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made perfect according to the measure of their Fathers as Porphyrie express'd it that is by the measures of mortality or as it pleases God to enable and accept them §. 4. The former Doctrine reduc'd to Practise 1. THe Law is either taken for the Law of Moses or the Law of Works The Law of Works is that Empire and Dominion which God exercised over man using his utmost right and obliging man to the rigorous observation of all that Law he should impose upon him And in this sense it was a Law of death not of life for no man could keep it and they that did not might not live This was impos'd on Adam onely But when God brought Israel out of Egypt he began to make a Covenant with them with some compliance to their infirmities For because little things could not be avoided Sacrifices were appointed for their expiation which was a mercy as the other was a misery a repentance as the sin But for great sins there was no Sacrifice appointed no repentance ministred And therefore still we were in the ministration of death for this mercy was not sufficient as yet it was not possible for a man to be justified by the Law It threatned sinners with death it inflicted death it did not promise eternal life it ministred no grace but fear and temporal hope It was written in Tables of stone not in their hearts that is the material parts of the Law of Moses was not consonant to natural and essential reason but arbitrary impositions they were not perfective of a man but very often destructive This was a little alteration or ease of the Covenant of Works but not enough From this state of evil things we were freed by Christ The Law was called the letter the ministration of death the ministration of condemnation the old Testament apt to amaze and confound a sinner but did not give him any hopes of remission no glimpse of heaven no ministery of pardon But the Gospel is called the Spirit or the ministration of the Spirit the law of faith the law of liberty it ministers repentance it enjoyns holiness it gives life and we all have hopes of being saved This which is the state of things in which the whole world is represented in their several periods is by some made to be the state of every returning sinner and men are taught that they must pass through the terrors of the Law before they can receive the mercies of the Gospel The Law was a Schoolmaster to bring the Synagogue to Christ it was so to them who were under the Law but it cannot be so to us who are not under the law but under grace For if they mean the law of Works or that imposition which was the first entercourse with man they lose their title to the mercies of the Gospel If they mean the law of Moses then they do not stand fast in the liberty by which Christ hath made them free But whatsoever the meaning be neither of them can concern Christians For God hath sent his Son to establish a better Covenant in his blood to preach repentance to offer pardon to condemn sin in the flesh to publish the righteousness of God to convince the world of sin by his holy Spirit to threaten damnation not to sinners absolutely but absolutely to the impenitent and to promise and give salvation to his Sons and Servants 1. The use that we Christians are to make of the Law is onely to magnifie the mercies of God in Jesus Christ who hath freed us from so severe a Covenant who does not judge us by the measures of an Angel but by the span of a mans hand But we are not to subject our selves so much as by fiction of law or fancy to the curse and threatnings of the Covenant of Works or of Moses Law though it was of more instances and less severity by reason of the allowance of Sacrifices for expiation 2. Every Christian man sinning is to consider the horrible threatnings of the Gospel the severe intermination of eternal pains the goodness of God leading to repentance the severity of his Justice in exacting great punishments of criminals the reasonableness of this Justice punishing such persons intolerably who would not use so great a grace in so pleasing a service for the purchase of so glorious a reward The terrors of the Law did end in temporal death they could affright no further but in the Gospel Heaven and Hell were opened and laid before all mankinde and therefore by these measures a sinner is to enter into the sorrows of contrition and the care of his amendment And it is so vain a thing to think every sinner must in his repentance pass under the terrors of the Law that this is a very destruction of that reason for which they are fallen upon the opinion The Law is not enough to affright sinners and the terrors of the Gospel are farre more to persevering and impenitent sinners then the terrors of the Law were to the breakers of it The cause of the mistake is this The Law was more terrible then the Gospel is because it allowed no mercy to the sinner in great instances But the Gospel does But then if we compare the state of those men who fell under the evils of the Law with these who fall under the evils threatned in the Gospel we shall finde these to be in a worse condition then those by farre as much as hell is worse then being stoned to death
or thrust through with a sword This we are taught by that excellent Author of the Divine Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 10.28 29. He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was saenctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace So that under the Gospel he that sins and repents is in a farre better condition then he that sinn'd under the Law and repented For repentance was not then allowed of the man was to die without mercy But he that sins and repents not is under the Gospel in a farre worse condition then under the Law for under the Gospel he shall have a farre sorer punishment then under the Law was threatned Therefore let no man mistake the mercies of the New Covenant or turn the grace of God into wantonness The mercies of the Gospel neither allow us to sin nor inflict an easier punishment but they oblige us to more holiness under a greater penalty In pursuance of which I adde 3. The Covenant by which mankinde must now be judged is a Covenant of more Mercy but also of more holiness and therefore let no man think that now he is disobliged from doing good works by being admitted to the Covenant of Faith For though the Covenants are oppos'd as Old and New as a worse and a better yet Faith and Works are not oppos'd We are in the Gospel tied to more and to more excellent works then ever the subjects of any Law were but if after a hearty endevour we fall into infirmity and still strive against it we are pitied here but there we were not Under the first Covenant the Covenant of Works no endevour was sufficient because there was no allowance made for infirmities no abatements for ignorance no deductions of exact measures no consideration of surprises passions folly and inadvertency but under the New Covenant our hearty endevour is accepted but we are tied to endevour higher and more excellent things then they But he that thinks this mercy gives him liberty to do what he please loses the mercy and mistakes the whole design and Oeconomy of Gods loving kindness 4. To every Christian it is enjoyned that they be perfect that is according to the measure of every one Which perfection consists in doing our endevour He that does not do that must never hope to be accepted because he refuses to serve God by something that is in his power But he that does that is sure that God will not refuse it because we cannot be dealt withall upon any other account but by the measures of what is in our power and for what is not we cannot take care 5. To do our endevour or our best is not to be understood equally in all the periods of our life according to the work or effect it self nor according to our natural powers but it is accounted for by the general measures and great periods of our life A man cannot pray alwayes with equal intention nor give the same alms nor equally mourn with sharpness for his sins But God having appointed for every duty proper seasons and solennities hath declared that He does his best who heartily endevours to do the duty in its proper season But it were well we would remember that he that did a good act to day can do the same to morrow in the same circumstances and he that yesterday fought a noble battel and resisted valiantly can upon the same terms contend as manfully every day if he will consider and watch And though it will never be that men will alwayes do as well as at some times yet when at any time they commit a sin it is not because they could not but because they would not help it 6. He that would be approved in doing his best must omit no opportunity of doing a good action because when it is plac'd in its proper circumstances God layes his hand upon it and calls to have it done and there can be no excuse for the omission He does not do his best that does not do that Because such a person does voluntarily omit the doing of a good without just cause and that cannot proceed from an innocent principle 7. He that leaves any thing undone which he is commanded to do or does what he is commanded to forbear and considers or chooses so to do does not do his best cannot plead his privilege in the Gospel but is fallen under the portion of sinners and will die if he does not repent and make it up some way or other by sorrow and a future diligence 8. To sin against our Conscience can at no hand consist with the duty of Christian perfection Because he loves not God with all his heart nor serves him with all his strength who gives some of his strength and some of his affection to that which God forbids 9. No man must account that he does his duty that is his best or according to the perfection requir'd of Christians but he that does better and better and grows toward the measures of the fulness of Christ For perfection is an infinite word and it could not be communicated to several persons of different capacities and degrees but that there is something common to them all which hath analogy and equivalent proportions Now nothing can be perfect but that to which nothing is wanting and therefore a man is not any way perfect but by doing all all that he can for then nothing is wanting to him when he hath put forth all his strength For perfection is not to be accounted by comparing the subjects which are perfect for in that sense nothing is perfect but God but perfection is to be reckoned by every mans own proportions For a body may be a perfect body though it have not the perfection of a soul and a man is perfect when he is heartily and intirely Gods servant though he have not the perfection of S. Paul as a man is a meek man though he be not so meek as Moses or Christ But he is not meek if he keeps any fierceness or violence within * But then because to be more perfect is incident with humane nature he that does not endevour to get as much as he can and more then he hath he hath not the perfection of holy desires Therefore 10. Every person that is in the state of grace and designs to do his duty must think of what is before him not what is past of the stages that are not yet run not of those little portions of his course he hath already finish'd Vt cum carceribus missos rapit ungula currus Horat. Serm. l. 1 Satyr 1. Inflat equis auriga suos vincentibus illum Praeteritum temnens extremos inter euntem For so did the Contenders in the Olympick
both signifie the Gospel For the whole Gospel is nothing else but that glad tidings which Christ brought to all mankinde that the Govenant of Works or exact measures should not now be exacted but men should be saved by second thoughts that is by Repentance and amendment of life through faith in the Lord Jesus That is if we become his Disciples for that is the condition of the Covenant we shall finde mercy our sins shall be blotted out and we shall be saved if we obey heartily and diligently though not exactly This becoming his Disciples is called Faith that is coming to him believing him hoping in him obeying him and consequent to this is that we are admitted to Repentance that is to the pardon of our sins For him hath God exalted on his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 5.31 to give repentance and remission of sins This is the summe Total of the Gospel That we have leave to repent supposes that God will pardon what is past But then that we have leave to repent supposes us also highly bound to it It is in meer pity to our infirmities our needs and our miseries that we have leave to do it and this is given to mankinde by faith in Jesus Christ that is by becoming his Disciples for he hath power to pardon sins and to take them away and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness viz. which we have committed This is that which all the world did need and long'd for it was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hidden mystery from all ages but revealed in Christ whose blood as S. Clement expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought to all the world the grace of Repentance This is the Gospel For the Gospel is nothing else but Faith and Repentance The Gospel is called Faith by S. Paul Gal. 3.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before that faith came we were under the law shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed that is to the Gospel or the glad tidings of Repentance which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 2. the hearing of faith For Faith being here opposed to the Law that is the Covenant of Mercy to the Covenant of Works must mean the Covenant of Repentance And therefore although if we consider them as proper and particular graces and habits they have differing natures and definitions yet in the general and foederal sense of which I now speak Faith and Repentance are onely distinguished by relations and respects not by substance and reality Acts 20.21 Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ that is Repentance for having sinned against God a Repentance I say through faith in Jesus Christ that is a Repentance procured and preach'd and enjoyn'd by Christ being the summe of his Discipline And that it may appear Faith and Repentance to be the same thing and differing onely in name and manner of expression S. Paul confounds the distinction which he formerly made and that which he called Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus in his Sermons in Asia in his Epistles to the Hebrews he calls Repentance from dead works and faith in God And the words are used for each other promiscuously in S. Luke for that which the rich man in hell called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abraham called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one comes from the dead they will repent No said Abraham If they will not hear Moses and the Prophets then if one come from the dead they will not believe or be perswaded And S. 2 Pet. 3.9 15. Peter giving an account of the delaying of the coming of the Lord for the punishment of the obdurate Jews and enemies of Christ sayes it is because God of his infinite goodness expects even them also to be converted to the faith or becoming Christians as the whole design of the place infers this he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a coming to Repentance that is to the faith of Christ And therefore the Gospel is nothing else but an universal publication of Repentance and pardon of sins in the Name of Christ that is procured for all them who are his Disciples and to this we are baptized that is adopted into the Religion into that Discipleship under which God requires holiness but not perfect measures sincerity without hypocrisie but not impeccability or perfect innocence And as the Gospel is called Faith and Faith is Repentance that is it is the same Covenant of Grace and Mercy with this onely difference that it is called Faith as it relates to Christ who procured this mercy for us Repentance as it signifies the mercy it self so procured So Baptism by the same analogy is called the Baptism unto Repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Baptism of Repentance so it is called in the Jerusalem Creed that is the admission to the grace of the Gospel which the Fathers of CP in their appendage to the Nicene Creed thus express I believe one Baptism for the remission of sins that is to remission of sins we are admitted by Baptism alone no other way shall we have this grace this title but by being once initiated into the Gospel to be Disciples of Jesus Not that it is to be supposed that our sins are onely pardon'd when we are baptized but that by Baptism we are admitted to the state and grace of Repentance and pardon of sins And this is demonstratively certain not onely upon those many instances of baptized penitents admitted to pardon and baptized Criminals called upon in Scripture to repent but upon the very nature of the Evangelical Covenant and the whole design of Christs coming For if we were not admitted to Repentance after Baptism then we were still to be judged by the Covenant of Works not by the Covenant of Faith and we should inherit by the Law or not at all and not be heirs according to promise and then Christ were dead in vain we are yet in our sins and all the world must perish because all men have sinned and so none should go to heaven but newly baptized Infants or newly baptized Catechumens and how then could the Gospel be a New Covenant it being exactly the same with the Law for so it must be if it promise no mercy or Repentance to them that sin after our admittance to it * But Baptism is a new birth and by it we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renewed unto Repentance unto that state of life which supposes holiness and imperfection and consequently needs mercy all the way according to that saying Justus ex fide vivet The just shall live by faith that is all our righteousness all our hopes all our spiritual life is conserved by and is relying upon this Covenant of Mercy the Covenant of Faith or Repentance all his life time the just shall still need pardon and finde it if he perseveres in it that is endevours
Thess 3.11 12. and our Lord Jesus Christ perfect what is lacking in my faith direct my way unto him make me to increase and abound in love towards all men and establish my heart unblameable in holiness before God even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints IV. THe God of peace Heb. 13.20 21. that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant make me perfect in every good work to do his will working in me what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen A Penitentiall Prayer I. OEternal God most merciful Father who hast revealed thy self to Mankinde in Christ Jesus full of pity and compassion merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin be pleased to effect these thy admirable mercies upon thy servant whom thou hast made to put thy trust in thee I know O God that I am vile and polluted in thy sight but I must come into thy presence or I die Thou canst not behold any unclean thing and yet unless thou lookest upon me who am nothing but uncleanness I shall perish miserably and eternally O look upon me with a gracious eye cleanse my Soul with the blood of the holy Lamb that being purified in that holy stream my sins may lose their own foulness and become white as snow Then shall the leprous man be admitted to thy Sanctuary and stand before the Throne of Grace humble and full of sorrow for my fault and full of hope of thy mercy and pardon through Jesus Christ II. O My God thou wert reconciled to Mankinde by thy own graciousness and glorious goodness even when thou didst finde out so mysterious wayes of Redemption for us by sending Jesus Christ then thou didst love us and that holy Lamb did from the beginning of the world lie before thee as sacrific'd and bleeding and in the fulness of time he came to actuate and exhibite what thy goodness had design'd and wrought in the Counsels of Eternity But now O gracious Father let me also be reconciled to thee for we continued enemies to thee though thou lovedst us let me no longer stand at distance from thee but run unto thee bowing my will and submitting my understanding and mortifying my affections and resigning all my powers and faculties to thy holy Laws that thou mayest take delight to pardon and to sanctifie to assist thy servant with thy grace till by so excellent conduct and so unspeakable mercy I shall arrive to the state of glory III. O Blessed Saviour Jesus thou hast made thy self a blessed Peace-offering for sins thou hast procured and revealed to us this Covenant of Repentance and remission of sins and by the infinite mercies of the Father and the death and intercession of the Son we stand fair and hopeful in the eye of the Divine Compassion and we have hopes of being saved O be pleased to work thy own work in us The grace and admission to Repentance is thy own glorious production thou hast obtained it for us with a mighty puchase but then be pleas'd also to take me in to partake actually of this glorious mercy Give to thy servant a perfect hatred of sin a great displeasure at my own folly for ever having provoked thee to anger a perpetual watchfulness against it an effective resolution against all its tempting instances a prevailing strife and a glorious victory that the body of sin being destroyed I may never any more serve any of its baser interests but that by a diligent labour and a constant care I may approve my self to thee my God mindful of thy Covenant a servant of thy Will a lover of thy Glory that being thy Minister in a holy service I may be thy Son by adoption and participation of the glories of the Lord Jesus O let me never lie down in sin nor rise in shame but be partaker both of the Death and the Resurrection of our Lord that my imperfect and unworthy services may by passing into the holiness of thy Kingdome be such as thy servant desires they should and fit to be presented unto thee in the perfect holiness of Eternity through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. III. Of the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in what sense to be admitted and how the smallest sins are to be repented of and expiated §. 1. MEn have not been satisfied with devising infinite retirements and disguises of their follies to hide them from the world but finding themselves open and discerned by God have endeavoured to discover means of escaping from that Eye from which nothing can escape but innocence and from which nothing can be hid but under the cover of mercy For besides that we expound the Divine Laws to our own purposes of ease and ambition we give to our sins gentle censures and adorn them with good words and refuse to load them with their proper characters and punishments and at last are come to that state of things that since we cannot allow to our selves a liberty of doing every sin we have distinguished the Question of sins into several orders and have taken one half to our selves For we have found rest to our fancies in the permissions of one whole kinde having distinguished sins into Mortal and Venial in their own nature that is sins which may and sins which may not be done without danger so that all the difference is that some sins must be taken heed of but others there are and they the most in number and the most frequent in their instances and returns which we have leave to commit without being affrighted with the fearful noises of damnation by which doctrine iniquity and confidence have much increased and grown upon the ruines and declension of the Spirit And this one Article hath almost an infinite influence to the disparagement of Religion in the determination of Cases of Conscience For supposing the distinction to be believed experience and certain reason will evince that it is impossible to prescribe proper limits and measures to the several kindes and between the least Mortal and the greatest Venial sin no man is able with certainty to distinguish and therefore as we see it daily happen and in every page written by the Casuists men call what they please Venial take what measures of them they like appoint what expiation of them they fancy and consequently give what allowance they list to those whom they please to mislead For in innumerable Cases of Conscience it is oftner inquired whether a thing be Venial or Mortal then whether it be lawful or not lawful and as Purgatory is to Hell so Venial is to Sin a thing which men fear not because the main stake they think to be secured for if they may have Heaven at last they care not
prevail'd upon and master'd all his strengths The instance is great whatsoever it be that God hath chosen for our obedience To abstain from the fruit of a tree not to gather sticks or dew after a certain hour not to touch the Curtains of the Ark not to uncover our fathers shame all is one as to God for there is nothing in all our duty that can adde any moments to his felicity but by what he please he is to try our obedience Let no man therefore despise a sin or be bold to plead for it as Lot for Zoar Is it not a little one For no man can say it is little if God hath chosen the Commandement which the sin trangresses as an instrument of his glorification and our felicity Disobedience is the formality of sin and since the instance or the matter of sin is all one to God so also is the disobedience The result of this consideration is this 1. That no man should indulge to himself the smallest sin because it is equally against God as the greatest and though accidentally it may come not to be so exacted yet of it self it may and God is just if he does 2. There is no sin but if God enters into judgement with us he may justly sentence us for it to the portion of accursed Spirits For if for any then for all there being as to him no difference But these things are to be proved in the following Section §. 3. That all sins are punishable as God please even with the pains of Hell 1. IN the aggravation of sins the injured person is as considerable as any other circumstance He that smites a Prince he that fires a Temple he that rails upon the Bible he that pollutes the Sacraments makes every sin to be a load and therefore since every sin is against God it ought not to be called little unless God himself should be little esteemed And since men usually give this account that God punishes a transient sin with an immortal pain because though the action is finite yet it was against an infinite God we may upon the same ground esteem it just that even for the smallest sin God in the rigour of his justice can exact the biggest calamity For an act of Murther or a whole year of Adultery hath no nearer proportion to an eternity of pains then one sinful thought hath for greater or less are no approaches towards infinite for between them both and what is infinite the distance is equally infinite 2. In the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial the Doctors of the Roman Church define Venial sins to be such which can consist with the love of God which never destroy or lessen it * Venialia peccata ex consensu omnium Theologorum neque tollunt neque minuunt habitum charitatis sed solum actum fervorem ejus impediunt Bellarm. de amiss grat c. 13. § alterum est in the very definition supposing that thing which is most of all in question and the ground of the definition is nothing but the analogy and proportion of the entercourses and usages of men who for a small offence do not neglect or cast away the endearments of an old friend * Idem ib. cap. 11. §. Quartum argum of which when I have given account I suppose the greatest difficulty of the question is removed Against this therefore I oppose this proposition The smallest sins are destructive of our friendship with God For although Gods mercies are infinite and glorious and he forgives millions to us that grudge to remit the trifles of our brother and therefore whatsoever we can suppose a man will forgive to his friend that and much more infinitely more may we expect from the treasures of his goodness and mercy yet our present consideration is not what we can expect from Gods mercy but what is the just demerit of our sins not what he will forgive but what he may justly exact not what are the measures of pardon but what are the accounts of his justice for though we have hopes upon other reckonings yet upon the account even of our smallest sins we have nothing but fear and sadder expectations For we are not to account the measures and rules of our friendship with God by the easiness and ignorance by the necessities and usual compliances of men For 1. Certain it is that in the usual accounts of men some things are permitted which are not so in the accounts of God All sorts of ignorance use to lessen a fault amongst men but before God some sorts of ignorance do aggravate such as is the voluntary and malicious which is the worst sort of vincible Not that men do not esteem him vicious and unworthy who enquires not for fear he should know but because men oftentimes are not competent judges whether they do or no. 2. Because men know not by what purpose their neighbours action is directed and therefore reckon onely by the next and most apparent cause not by the secret and most operative and effective 3. Because by the laws of Charity we are bound to think the best to expound things fairly to take up things by the easier handle there being left for us no other security of not being confounded by mutual censures judgements and inflictions but by being restrained on the surer side of Charity on which the errors of men are not judged criminal and mischievous as on the other side they are But God knows the hearts of men their little obliquities and intricate turnings every propensity and secret purpose what malice is ingredient and what error is invincible and how much is fit to be pitied and therefore what may justly be exacted For there are three several wayes of judgement according to the several capacities of the Judges * First the laws of men judge onely by the event or material action and meddle not at all with the purpose but where it is open'd by an active sign He that gives me a thousand pounds to upbraid my poverty or with a purpose to feed my crimes is not punishable by law but he is that takes from me a thousand shillings though secretly he means to give it to my needy brother Because as in the estimation of men nothing is valuable but what does them good or hurt so neither can their Laws and Tribunals receive testimony of any thing but what is seen or felt And thus it is also in the measures of sins To break order in a day of battel is but a disorder and so it is to break order at S. Georges show at a training or in a Procession and yet that is punished with death this with a Cudgel the aptness to mischief and the evil consequent being in humane Judicatories the onely measures of judgement Men feel the effects and the Laws do judge accordingly 2. In the private judgements of men mercy must interpose and it can oftner then in the publick because in the private
was enough to signifie that there is difference in the degrees of sin yet because they were eodem sanguine eluenda and without shedding of blood there was no remission they were reckon'd in the same accounts of death and the Divine anger And it is manifest that by the severities and curse of the Law no sin could escape For cursed is he that continues not in every thing written in the law to do them The Law was a Covenant of Works and exact measures There were no venial sins by vertue of that Covenant for there was no remission and without the death of Christ we could not be eased of this state of danger Since therefore that any sin is venial or pardonable is onely owing to the grace of God to the death of Christ and this death pardons all upon the condition of Faith and Repentance and pardons none without it it follows that though sins differ in degree yet they differ not in their natural and essential order to death The man that commits any sin dies if he repents not and he that does repent timely and effectually dies for none The wages of sin is death of sin indefinitely and therefore of all sin and all death for there is no more distinction of sin then death onely when death is threatned indefinitely that death is to be understood which is properly and specifically threatned in that Covenant where the death is named as death temporal in the Law death eternal under the Gospel And thus it appears in a very material instance relating to this question for when our blessed Saviour had threatned the degrees of anger he did it by apportioning several pains hereafter of one sort to the several degrees of the same sin here which he expresses by the several inflictions passed upon Criminals by the Houses of Judgement among the Jews Mat. 5.22 Now it is observable that to the least of these sins Christ assigns a punishment just proportionable to that which the gloss of the Pharisees and the Law it self did to them that committed Murther which was capital He shall be guilty of judgement so we reade it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in the Greek He shall be guilty in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in the Court of Judgement the Assembly of the twenty three Elders and there his punishment was death but the gentlest manner of it the decapitation or smiting him through with the sword and therefore the least punishment hereafter answering to death here can mean no less then death hereafter †Ita interpretantur hunc locum Barradius Maldonatus Estius ad hunc locum apud vetustiores eadem sententia praevaluit Haec enim erat mens Strabi Fuldensis qui glossam ordinariam compilavit Hugonis Cardinalis * And so also was the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that cals Racha shall be guilty that is shall be used as one that stands guilty in the Sanhedrim or Councel meaning that he is to die too but with a severer execution by stoning to death this was the greatest punishment by the houses of judgement for Crucifixion was the Roman manner These two already signify hell in a less degree but as certainly and evidently as the third For though we read Hell-fire in the third sentence onely yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no otherwise signifies Hell then the other two by analogy and proportionable representment The cause of the mistake is this When Christ was pleased to adde yet a further degree of punishment in hell to a further degree of anger and reproach the Jews having no greater then that of stoning by the judgement of the Sanhedrim or Councel he would borrow his expression from that which they and their Fathers too well understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a barbarous custome of the Phoenicians of burning children alive in the valley of Hinnom which in succession of time the Hellenists called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not much unlike the Hebrew word and because by our blessed Lord it was used to signify or represent the greatest pains of hell that were spoken of in that gradation the Christians took the word and made it to be its appellative and to signify the state or place of the damned just as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garden of Eden is called Paradise But it was no more intended that this should signify Hell then that any of the other two should The word it self never did so before but that and the other two were taken as being the most fearful things amongst them here to represent the degrees of the most intolerable state hereafter just as damnation is called death the second death that because we fear the first as the worst of present evils we may be affrighted with the apprehensions of the latter From this authority it follows that as in the Law no sins were venial but by repentance and sacrifice so neither in the Gospel are they nor in their own nature not by the more holy Covenant of the Gospel but by repentance and mortification For the Gospel hath with greater severity laid restraint upon these minutes and little particles of action and passion and therefore if in the law every transgression was exacted we cannot reasonably think that the least parts of duty which the Gospel superadded with a new and severer caution as great and greater then that by which the law exacted the greatest Commandements can be broken with indemnity or without the highest danger The law exacted all its smallest minutes and therefore so does the Gospel as being a Covenant of greater holiness But as in the law for the smaller transgressions there was an assignment of expiatory rites so is there in the Gospel of a ready repentance and a prepared mercy 7. Lastly those sins which men in health are bound to avoid those sins for which Christ did shed his most precious bloud those sins which a dying man is bound to ask pardon for though he hopes not or desires not to escape temporal death certain it is that those sins are in their nature and in the Oeconomy or dispensation of the Divine threatnings damnable For what can the dying man fear but death eternal and if he be bound to repent and ask pardon even for the smallest sins which he can remember in order to what pardon can that repentance be but of the eternal pain to which every sin by its own demerit naturally descends If he must repent and ask pardon when he hopes not or desires not the temporal it is certain he must repent onely that he may obtain the eternal And they that will think otherwise will also finde themselves deceiv'd in this * For if the damned souls in hell are punish'd for all their sins then the unpardon'd venial sins are there also smarted for But so it is and so we are taught in the doctrine of our great Master If we
agree not while we are in the way we shall be cast into the eternal prison and shall not depart thence till we have paid the uttermost farthing that is even for our smallest sins if they be unremitted men shall pay in hell their horrible Symbol of damnation And this is confessed on all hands a Aquinas 1 2.◠quaest 87. art 5. that they who fall into hell pay their sorrows there even for all But it is pretended that this is onely by accident b Bellar. de amiss gra lib. 1. c. 14. §. Extusad not by the first intention of the Divine justice because it happens that they are subjected in such persons who for other sins not for these goe to hell Well! yet let it be considered whether or no do not the smallest unremitted sins in crease the torments of hell in their proportion If they doe not then they are not at all punished in hell for if without them the perishing soul is equally punished then for them there is no punishment at all But if they doe increase the pains as it is certain they doe then to them properly and for their own malignity and demerit a portion of eternal pains is assigned Now if God punishes them in hell then they deserv'd hell if they be damnable in their event then they were so in their merit for God never punishes any sin more then it deserves though he often does less But to say that this is by accident that is for their conjunction with mortal sins is confuted infinitely because God punishes them with degrees of evil proper to them and for their own demerit There is no other accident by which these come to be smarted for in hell but because they were not repented of for by that accident they become Mortal as by the contrary accident to wit if the sinner repents worthily not onely the smallest but the greatest also become Venial The impenitent payes for all all together But if the man be a worthy penitent if he continues and abides in Gods love he will finde a mercy according to his circumstances by the measures of Gods graciousness and his own repentance so that by accident they may be pardoned but if that accident does not happen if the man be not penitent the sins shall be punished directly and for their own natural demerit The summe is this If a man repents truly of the greater sins he also repents of the smallest for it cannot be a true repentance which refuses to repent of any so that if it happens that for the smallest he doe smart in hell it is because he did not repent truly of any greatest nor smallest But if it happens that the man did not commit any of the greater sins and yet did indulge to himself a licence to doe the smallest even for those which he cals the smallest he may perish and what he is pleased to call little Serm. 1. de coenâ Dom. Serm. 1. de convers Pauli God may call great Cum his peccatis neminem salvandum said S. Bernard with these even the smallest sins actually remaining upon him unrepented of in general or particular no man can be saved §. 4. The former doctrine reduc'd to practice I Have been the more earnest in this article not onely because the Doctrine which I have all this while opposed makes all the whole doctrine of moral Theology to be inartificial and in many degrees useless false and imprudent but because of the immediate influence it hath to encourage evil lives of men For 1. To distinguish a whole kinde of sins is a certain way to mak repentance and amendment of life imperfect and false For when men by fears and terrible considerations are scar'd from their sins as most repentances begin with fear they still retain some portions of affection to their sin some lookings back and phantastick entertainments which if they be not par'd off by repentance we love not God with all our hearts and yet by this doctrine of distinguishing sins into Mortal and Venial in their whole kinde and nature men are taught to arrest their repentances and have leave not to proceed further for they who say sins are Venial in their own nature if they understand the consequences of their own doctrine do not require repentance to make them so or to obtain a pardon which they need not 2. As by this means our repentances are made imperfect so is a relapse extremely ready for while such a leaven is left it is ten to one but it may sowre the whole mass S. Gregory said well Lib. 10. Moral c. 14. Si curare parva negligimus insensibiliter seducti audentèr etiam majora perpetramus we are too apt to return to our old crimes whose reliques we are permitted to keep and kiss 3. But it is worse yet For the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in their nature is such a separation of sin from sin as is rather a dispensation or leave to commit one sort of them the expiation of which is so easy the pardon so certain the remedy so ready the observation and exaction of them so inconsiderable For there being so many ways of making great sins little and little sins none at all found out by the folly of men and the craft of the Devil a great portion of Gods right and the duty we owe to him is by way of compromise and agreement left as a portion to carelesness and folly and why may not a man rejoyce in those trifling sins for which he hath security he shall never be damned As for the device of Purgatory indeed if there were any such thing it were enough to scare any one from committing any sins much more little ones But I have conversed with many of that perswasion and yet never observed any to whom it was a terror to speak of Purgatory but would talk of it as an antidote or security against hell but not as a formidable story to affright them from their sins but to warrant their venial sins and their imperfect repentance for their mortal sins And indeed let it be considered If venial sins be such as the Romane DD. describe them that they neither destroy nor lessen charity or the grace of God that they onely hinder the fervency of an act which sleep or business or any thing that is most innocent may doe that they are not against the law but besides it as walking and riding standing and sitting are that they are not properly sins that all the venial sins in the world cannot amount to one mortal sin but as time differs from eternity as finite from infinite so doe all the Venial sins in the world put together from one Mortal act that for all them a man is never the less beloved and loves God nothing the less I say if venial sins be such as the Roman Writers affirm they are how can it be imagined to be agreeable to Gods goodness to inflict
upon such sinners who onely have venial sins unsatisfied for such horrible pains which they dream of in Purgatory as are during their abode equal to the intolerable pains of hell for that which breaks none of his laws which angers him not which is not against him or his love which is incident to his dearest servants Pro peccato magno paulum supplicii sat is est patri But if fathers take such severe amends of their children for that which is not properly sin there is nothing left by which we can boast of a fathers kindness In this case there is no remission for if it be not just in God to punish such sins in hel because they are consistent with the state of the love of God and yet they are punished in Purgatory that is as much as they can be punished then God does remit to his children nothing for their loves sake but deals with them as severely as for his justice he can in the matter of venial sins indeed if he uses mercy to them at all it is in remitting their mortal sins but in their venial sins he uses none at all Now if things were thus on both sides it is strange men are not more afraid of their venial sins and that they are not more terrible in their description which are so sad in their event and that their punishment should be so great when their malice is so none at all and it is strangest of all that if men did believe such horrible effects to be the consequent of venial sins they should esteem them little and inconsiderable and warn men of them with so little caution But to take this wonder off though they affright men with Purgatory at the end yet they make the bugbear nothing by their easy remedies and preventions in the way Venial sins may be taken off according to their doctrine at as cheap a rate as they may be committed but of this I shall give a fuller account in the 6. § of this Chapter In the mean time to believe Purgatory serves the ends of the Roman Clergy and to have so much easiness and leave in venial sins serves the ends of their Laity but as truth is disserv'd in the former so is piety and the severities of a holy life very much slackned by the latter But as care is taken that their doctrine doe not destroy charity or good life by loosness and indulgence so care must be taken that ours doe not destroy hope and discountenance the endevours of pious people for if the smallest sins be so highly punishable who can hope ever to escape the intolerable state of damnation And if God can be eternally angry for those things which we account small sins then no man is a servant or a friend of God no man is in the state of the Divine favour for no man is without these sins for they are such Quae non possit homo quisquam evitare cavendo a man by all his industry cannot wholly avoid Now because the Scripture pronounces some persons just and righteous as David and Josiah Zechary and Elizabeth who yet could not be innocent and pure from small offences either these little things are in their own nature venial or the godly have leave to doe that which is punished in the ungodly or some other way must be found out how that which is in its own nature damnable can stand with the state of grace and upon what causes sins which of themselves are not so may come to be venial that is more apt and ready to be pardoned and in the next dispositions to receive a mercy §. 5. 1. NO just person does or can indulge to himself the keeping of any sin whatsoever for all sins are accounted of by God according to our affections and if a man loves any it becomes his poison Every sin is damnable when it is chosen deliberately either by express act or by interpretation that is when it is chosen regularly or frequently He that loves to cast over in his minde the pleasures of his past sin he that entertains all those instances of sin which he thinks not to be damnable this man hath given himself up to be a servant to a trifle a lover of little and phantastick pleasures Nothing of this can stand with the state of grace No man can love sin and love God at the same time and to think it to be an excuse to say the sin is little is as if an adulteress should hope for pardon of her offended Lord because the man whom she dotes upon is an inconsiderable person 2. In sins we must distinguish the formality from the material part The formality of sin is disobedience to God and turning from him to the Creature by love and adhesion The material part is the action it self The first can never happen without our will but the latter may by surprise and indeliberation and imperfection of condition For in this life our understanding is weak our attention trifling our advertency interrupted our diversions many our divisions of spirit irresistible our knowledge little our dulness frequent our mistakes many our fears potent and betrayers of our reason and at any one of these doors sin may enter in its material part while the will is unactive or the understanding dull or the affections busie or the spirit otherwise imployed or the faculties wearied or reason abused Therefore if you enquire for venial sins they must be in this throng of imperfections but they never go higher Let no man therefore say I have a desire to please my self in some little things for if he desires it he may not do it that very desire makes that it cannot be venial but as damnable as any in its proportion 3. If any man about to do an action of sin enquires whether it be a venial sin or no to that man at that time that sin cannot be venial for whatsoever a man considers and acts he also chooses and loves in some proportion and therefore turns from God to the sin and that is against the love of God in its degree destructive or diminutive of the state of grace Besides this such a person in this enquiry asks leave to sin against God and gives a testimony that he would sin more if he durst But in the same degree in which the choice is lessened in the same degree the material part of the sin receives also diminution 4. It is remarkable that amongst the Ancients this distinction of sins into Mortal and Venial or to use their own words Graviora Leviora or Peccata 〈◊〉 Crimina does not mean a distinction of kinde but of degrees They call them mortal sins which shall never or very hardly be pardon'd not at all but upon very hard terms So Pacianus De modo criminum edisserens nequis existimet omnibus omnino peccatis summum discrimen impositum In Paraen sedulóque requirens quae sint peccata quae crimina
grow angry and peevish My duties are imperfect my repentances little my passions great my fancy trifting The sins of my tongue are infinite and my omissions are infinite and my evil thoughts cannot be numbred and I cannot give an account concerning innumerable portions of my time which were once in my power but were let slip and were partly spent in sin partly thrown away upon trifles and vanity and even of the basest sins of which in accounts of men I am most innocent I am guilty before thee entertaining those sins in little instances thoughts desires and imaginations which I durst not produce into action and open significations Blessed Jesus pity me and have mercy upon my infirmities III. TEach me O Lord to walk before thee in righteousness perfecting holiness in the fear of God Give me an obedient will a loving spirit a humble understanding watchfulness over my thoughts deliberation in all my words and actions well tempered passions and a great prudence and a great zeal and a great charity that I may doe my duty wisely diligently holily O let me be humbled in my infirmities but let me be also safe from my enemies let me never fall by their violence nor by my own weakness let me never be overcome by them nor yet give my self up to folly and weak principles to idleness and secure careless walking but give me the strengths of thy Spirit that I may grow strong upon the ruines of the flesh growing from grace to grace till I become a perfect man in Christ Jesus O let thy strength be seen in my weakness and let thy mercy triumph over my infirmities pitying the condition of my nature the infancy of grace the imperfection of my knowledge the transportations of my passion Let me never consent to sin but for ever strive against it and every day prevail till it be quite dead in me that thy servant living the life of grace may at last be admitted to that state of glory where all my infirmities shall be done away and all teares be dried up and sin and death shall be no more Grant this O most gracious God and Father for Jesus Christ his sake Amen OUr Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Amen CHAP. IV. Of Actual single sins and what Repentance is proper to them §. 1. THE first part of Conversion or Repentance is a quitting of all sinful habits and abstaining from all criminal actions whatsoever Virtus est vitium fugere sapientia prima Stultitia caruisse For unless the Spirit of God rule in our hearts we are none of Christs but he rules not where the works of the flesh are frequently or maliciously or voluntarily entertained All the works of the flesh and whatsoever leads to them all that is contrary to the Spirit and does either grieve or extinguish him must be rescinded and utterly taken away Concerning which it is necessary that I set down the * Mat. 15.19 Mar. 7.21 Galat. 5.16 19 20 21. Eph 4.31 c. 5.3 4 5. 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5. Rom. 1.29 30 31 32. 1 Cor. 6.9 Revel 21.8 1 Pet. 4.3 15. Catalogues which by Christ and his Apostles are left us as lights and watch-towers to point out the rocks and quick-sands where our danger is and this I shall the rather doe not onely because they comprehend many evils which are not observed or feared some which are commended and many that are excused but also because although they are all mark'd with the same black character of death yet there is some difference in the execution of the sentence and in the degrees of their condemnation and of the consequent Repentance 2. Evil thoughts or discoursings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil reasonings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Hesychius that is prating importune pratling and loosness of tongue such as is usual with bold boyes and young men prating much and to no purpose But our Bibles reade it Evil thoughts or surmisings for in Scripture it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Suidas observes concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to think long and carefully to dwell in meditation upon a thing to which when our blessed Saviour addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil he notes and reproves such kinde of morose thinkings and fancying of evil things and it is not unlikely that he means thoughts of uncleanness or lustful fancies For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Hesychius it signifies such words as are prologues to wantonness so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aristophanes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lysistratâ So that here are forbidden all wanton words and all morose delighting in venereous thoughts all rollings and tossing such things in our minds For even these defile the soul Verborum obscoenitas si turpitudini rerum adhibeatur ludus ne libero quidem homine dignus est said Cicero Obscene words are a mockery not worthy of an ingenuous person This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that foolish talking and jesting which S. Paul joyns to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that filthiness of communication which men make a jest of but is indeed the basest in the world the sign of a vile dishonest minde and it particularly noted the talk of Mimicks and Parasites Buffoons and Players whose trade was to make sport 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they did use to doe it with nastiness and filthy talkings as is to be seen in Aristophanes and is rarely described and severely reproved in S. Chrysostome in his 6. Homily upon S. Matthew For per verba dediscitur rerum pudor which S. Paul also affirms in the words of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil words corrupt good manners and evil thoughts being the fountain of evil words lie under the same prohibition Under this head is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a talkative rash person ready to speak slow to hear against S. James his rule 3. Inventers of evil things Contrivers of all such artifices as minister to vice Curious inventions for cruelty for gluttony for lust witty methods of drinking wanton pictures and the like which for the likeness of the matter I have subjoyn'd next to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evil thinkings or surmisings reproved by our blessed Saviour as these are expresly by S. Paul 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covetousness or Inordinate unreasonable desires For the word does not onely signify the designing and contrivances of unjust ways of purchasing which is not often separated from covetous desires but the very studium habendi the
commission displease God and provoke him to anger To abide in any one sin or to doe it often or to love it is against the Covenant of the Gospel and the essence and nature of repentance which is a conversion from sin to righteousness but every single act is against the cautions and watchfulness of repentance It is an act of death but not a state it is the way of death but is not in the possession of it It is true that every single act of fornication merits an eternal hell yet when we name it to be a single act we suppose it to be no more that is to be rescinded and immediately cut off by a vigorous and proportionable repentance if it be not it is more then a single act for it is a habit as I shall remonstrate in the Chapter of Habits But then upon this account a single act of any sin may be incident to the state of a good man and yet not destroy his interests or his hopes but it is upon no other ground but this It is a single act and it does not abide there but passes immediately into repentance and then though it did interrupt or discompose the state of grace or the Divine favour yet it did not destroy it quite The man may pray Davids prayer I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost Psal 119. ult O seek thy servant for I doe not forget thy Commandements So that if a man asks whether a good man falling into one act of these great sins still remains a good man the answer is to be made upon this consideration He is a good man that is so sorry for his sin and so hates it that he will not abide in it and this is the best indication that in the act there was something very pityable because the mans affections abide not there the good man was smitten in a weak part or in an ill hour and then repents for such is our goodness to need repentance daily for smaller things and too often for greater things But be they great or little they must be speedily repented of and he that does so is a good man still Not but that the single act is highly damnable and exclusive of Heaven if it self were not excluded from his affections but it does not the mischief because he does not suffer it to proceed in finishing that death which it would have effected if the poison had not been speedily expelled before it had seis'd upon a vital part But 2ly I answer that being in the state of grace is a phrase of the Schools and is of a large and almost infinite comprehension Every Christian is in some degree in the state of grace so long as he is invited to Repentance and so long as he is capable of the Prayers of the Church This we learn from those words of S. John All unrighteousness is sin 1 Joh 5.17 and there is a sin not unto death that is some sorts of sins are so incident to the condition of men and their state of imperfection that the man who hath committed them is still within the methods of pardon and hath not forfeited his title to the Promises and Covenant of Repentance But there is a sin unto death that is some men proceed beyond the measures and Oeconomy of the Gospel and the usuall methods and probabilities of Repentance by obstinacy and persevering in sin by a wilful spiteful resisting or despising the offers of grace and the means of pardon for such a man S. John does not encourage us to pray If he be such a person as S. John described our prayers will do him no good but because no man can tell the last minute or period of pardon nor just when a man is gone beyond the limit and because the limit it self can be enlarged and Gods mercies stay for some longer then for others therefore S. John left us under this indefinite restraint and caution which was decretory enough to represent that sad state of things in which the refractary and impenitent have immerged themselves and yet so indefinite and cautious that we may not be too forward in applying it to particulars nor in prescribing measures to the Divine Mercy nor passing final sentences upon our brother before we have heard our Judge himself speak Sinning a sin not unto death is an expression fully signifying that there are some sins which though they be committed and displease God and must be repented of and need many and mighty prayers for their pardon yet the man is in the state of grace and pardon that is he is within the Covenant of mercy he may be admitted to repentance if he will return to his duty So that being in the state of grace is having a title to Gods loving kindness a not being rejected of God but a being beloved by him to certain purposes of mercy and that hath these measures and degrees 1. A wicked Christian that lives vilely and yet is called to Repentance by the vigorous and fervent Sermons of the Gospel is in a state of grace of this grace God would fain save him willing he is and desirous he should live but his mercy to him goes but thus farre that he still continues the means of his salvation he is angry with him but not finally The Jews were in some portions of this state until the final day came in which God would not be merciful any more Even in this thy day O Jerusalem said our blessed Saviour so long as their day lasted their state of grace lasted God had mercy for them if they had had gracious hearts to receive it 2. But he that begins to leave his sins and is in a continual contestation against them and yet falls often even most commonly at the return of the temptation and sin does in some measure prevail he is in the state of a further grace neerer to pardon as he is nearer to holiness his hopes are greater and nearer to performance He is not farre from the Kingdome of Heaven so our blessed Lord expressed the like condition he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordered dispos'd towards life eternal and this is a further approach towards the state of life 3. He that loves no sin but hath overcome his affections to all and hates all but yet with so imperfect a choice or aversation that his faith is weak and his repentance like an infant this man is in a better state then both the former God will not quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised reed God hath in some measure prevail'd upon him and as God is ready to receive the first unto the means and the second unto the grace of Repentance so this third he is ready to receive unto pardon if he shall grow and persevere in grace And these are the several stages and periods of being in the state of grace 1. With the first of these not onely an act but a habit of sin
is consistent but how long and how farre God onely knows 2. With the second period a frequency of falling into single sins is consistent But if he comes not out of this state and proceed to the third period he will relapse to the first he must not stay here long 3. But they that are in the third period do sometimes fall into single sins but it is but seldome and it is without any remanent portion of affection but not without much displeasure and a speedy repentance and to this person the proper remedy is to grow in grace for if he does not he cannot either be secure of the present or confident of the future 4. But then if by being in the state of grace is meant a being actually pardon'd and beloved of God unto salvation so that if the man dies so he shall be saved it is certain that every deliberate sin every act of sin that is considered and chosen puts a man out of the state of grace that is the act of sin is still upon his account he is not actually pardon'd in that for any other worthiness of state or relation of person he must come to new accounts for that and if he dies without a moral retractation of it he is in a sad condition if God should deal with him summo jure that is be extreme to mark that which was done amiss The single act is highly damnable the wages of it are death it defiles a man it excludes from heaven it grieves the holy Spirit of grace it is against his undertaking and in its own proportion against all his hopes if it be not pardon'd it will bear the man to Hell but then how it comes to be pardon'd in good men and by what measures of favour and proper dispensation is next to be considered Therefore 5. Though by the nature of the thing and the laws of the Covenant every single deliberate act of sin provokes God to anger who therefore may punish it by the severest laws which he decreed against it yet by the Oeconomy of God and the Divine Dispensation it is sometimes otherwise For besides the eternal wrath of God there are some that suffer his temporal some suffer both some but one God uses to smite them whom he would make to be or them who are his sons if they do amiss If a wicked man be smitten with a temporal judgement and thence begins to fear God and to return the anger will go no further and therefore much rather shall such temporal judgements upon the good man that was overtaken in a fault be the whole exaction God smites them that sin these single sins and though he could take all yet will demand but a fine 6. But even this also God does not do but in the case of scandal or danger to others as it was in the particular of David Because thou hast made the enemies of God to blaspheme the childe that is born unto thee shall die or else 2. When the good man is negligent of his danger or dilatory in his repentance and careless in his watch then God awakens him with a judgement sent with much mercy 7. But sometimes a temporal death happens to good men so overtaken It happened so to Moses and Aaron for their fault at the waters of Massah and Meribah to the Prophet of Judah that came to cry out against the Altar in Bethel to Vzzah for touching the Ark with unhallowed fingers though he did it in zeal to the Corinthians who had not observed decent measures in receiving the holy Sacrament and thus it happened say some of the ancient Doctors to Ananias and Sapphira God took a fine of them also salvo contenemento their main stake being secured Culpam hanc miserorum morte piabant There is in these instances this difference Moses and Aaron were not smitten in their sin but for it and as is not doubted after they had repented but Vzzah and the Prophet and Ananias and Sapphira and the Corinthians died not onely for their sin but in it too and yet it is hoped Gods anger went no further then that death because in every such person who lives well and yet is overtaken in a fault there is much of infirmity and imperfection of choice even when there are some degrees of wilfulness and a wicked heart And though it be easie to suppose that such persons in the beginning of that judgement and the approach of that death did morally retract the sinful action by an act of repentance and that upon that account they found the effect of the Divine mercies by the blood of the Lamb who was slain from the beginning of the world yet if it should happen that any of them die so suddenly as not to have power to exercise one act of repentance though the case be harder yet it is to be hoped that even the habitual repentance and hatred of sin by which they pleased God in the greater portions of their life will have some influence upon this also But this case is but seldome and Gods mercies are very great and glorious but because there is in this case no warrant and this case may happen oftner then it does even to any one that sins one wilful sin it is enough to all considering persons to make them fear but the fool sinneth and is confident 8. But if such overtaken persons do live then Gods Dispensation is all mercy even though he strikes the sinner for he does it for good For God is merciful and knows our weaknesses our natural and circumstant follies he therefore recals the sinning man he strikes him sharply or he corrects him gently or he calls upon him hastily as God please or as the man needs The man is fallen from the favour or grace of God but I say fallen onely from one step of grace and God is more ready to receive him then the man is to return and provided that he repent speedily and neither adde a new crime nor neglect this his state of grace was but allayed and disordered not broken in pieces or destroyed 9. I finde this thing rarely well discoursed of by some of the ancient Doctors of the Church Tertullians words are excellent words to this purpose Licet perisse dicatur Lib. de Pudicit c. 7. erit de perditionis genere retractare quia ovis non moriendo sed errando drachma non intereundo sed latitando perierunt Ita licet dici perisse quod salvum est That may be said to be lost which is missing and the sheep that went astray was also lost and so was the groat which yet was but laid aside it was so lost that it was found again And thus that may be said to have perish'd which yet is safe Perit igitur fidelis elapsus in spectaculum quadrigarii furoris gladiatorii cruoris scenicae foeditatis Xisticae vanitatis in lusus in convivia saecularis solennitatis in
sin is uncancell'd Of this nature is theft which cannot be cut off by a moral revocation or an internal act there must be something done without For it is a contradiction to say that a man is sorry for his act of stealing who yet rejoyces in the purchace and retains it Every man that repents is bound to make his sinful act as much as he can to be undone and the moral revocation or nolition of it is our entercourse with God onely who takes and accepts that which is the All which can be done to him But God takes care of our brother also and therefore will not accept his own share unless all interested persons be satisfied as much as they ought There is a great matter in it that our neighbour also do forgive us that his interest be served that he do not desire our punishment of this I shall afterwards give accounts in the mean time if the matter of our sin be not taken away so long as it remains so long there is a remanency and a tarrying in it and that is a degree of habit 9. Secondly if the single act have a continual fluxe or emanation from it self it is as a habit by moral account and is a principle of action and is potentially many Of this nature is every action whose proper and immediate principle is a passion Such as hatred of our neighbour a fearfulness of persecution a love of pleasures For a man cannot properly be said to have an act of hatred an actual expression of it he may but if he hates him in one act and repents not of it it is a vicious affection and in the sense of moral Theology it is a habit the law of God having given measures to our affections as well as to actions In this case when we have committed one act of uncharitableness or hatred it is not enough to oppose against it one act of love but the principle must be altered and the love of our neighbour must be introduced into our spirit 10. There is yet another sort of sinful action which does in some sense equal a habit and that is an act of the greatest and most crying sins a complicated sin Thus for a Prince or a Priest to commit adultery for a childe to accuse his Father falsly to oppress a widow in judgement are sins of a monstrous proportion they are three or four sins apeece and therefore are to be repented of by untwining the knot and cutting asunder every thred He that repents of adultery must repent of his uncleanness and of his injustice or wrong to his neighbour and of his own breach of faith and of his tempting a poor soul to sin and death and he must make amends for the scandal besides in case there was any in it In these and all the like cases let no man flatter himself when he hath wept and prayed against his sin one solemnity is not sufficient one act of contrition is but the beginning of a repentance and where the crime is capital by the laws of wise Nations the greatest the longest the sharpest repentance is little enough in the Court of conscience Paraenes ad poenitentiam So Pacianus Haec est novi Testamenti tota conclusio despectus in multis Spiritus sanctus haec nobis capitalis periculi conditione legavit Reliqua peccata meliorum operum compensatione curantur Haec verò tria crimina ut basilisci alicujus afflatus ut veneni calix ut lethalis arundo metuenda sunt non enim vitiare animam sed intercipere noverunt Some sins doe pollute and some doe kill the soul that is are very near approaches to death next to the unpardonable state * See Chapt. 5. and they are to be repented of just as habits are even by a long and a laborious repentance and by the piety and holiness of our whole ensuing life De peccato remisso noli esse securus said the son of Sirach Be not secure though your sin be pardoned when therefore you are working out and suing your pardon be not too confident 11. Those acts of sin which can once be done and no more as Parricide and such which destroy the subject or person against whom the sin is committed are to be cured by Prayer and Sorrow and entercourses with God immediately the effect of which because it can never be told and because the mischief can never be rescinded so much as by fiction of Law nor any supply be made to the injur'd person the guilty man must never think himself safe but in the daily and nightly actions of a holy Repentance 12. He that will repent well and truly of his single actual sins must be infinitely careful that he do not sin after his Repentance and think he may venture upon another single sin supposing that an act of contrition will take it off and so interchange his dayes by sin and sorrow doing to morrow what he was ashamed of yesterday For he that sins upon the confidence of Repentance does not repent at all because he repents that he may sin and these single acts so periodically returning do unite and become a habit He that resolves against a sin and yet falls when he is tempted is under the power of sin in some proportion and his estate is very suspicious though he alwayes resolved against that sin which he alwayes commits It is upon no other account that a single sin does not destroy a man but because it self is speedily destroyed if therefore it goes on upon its own strength and returns in its proper period it is not destroyed but lives and indangers the man 13. Be careful that you do not commit a single act of sin toward the latter end of your life for it being uncertain what degrees of anger God will put on and in what periods of time he will return to mercy the nearer to our death such sins intervene the more degrees of danger they have For although the former discourse is agreeable to the analogy of the Gospel and the Oeconomy of the Divine Mercy yet there are sad words spoken against every single sin Jam. 2.10 Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offends in one instance he shall be guilty of all saith S. James plainly affirming that the admitting one sin much more the abiding in any one sin destroys all our present possession of Gods favour Concerning which although it may seem strange that one prevarication in one instance should make an universal guilt yet it will be certain and intelligible if we consider that it relates not to the formality but to the event of things He that commits an act of Murther is not therefore an Adulterer but yet for being a Murtherer he shall die He is as if he were guilty of all that is his innocence in the other shall not procure him impunity in this One crime is inconsistent with Gods love and favour But there is something more in
repent speedily is certainly a duty The earth does not open and swallow up all Rebels in the day of their Mutiny but it did so once and by that God did sufficiently consign to all ages his displeasure against Rebelsion So it is in the deferring Repentance That some have smarted for it eternally is for ever enough to tell us that God is displeased with every one that does defer it and therefore commands us not to defer it But this consideration is sufficiently heightned upon this account For there is no sinner dies but he is taken away without one dayes respite For though God did many times forbear him yet now he does not and to his last sin or his last refusal to hear God either he afforded no time or no grace of Repentance S. Pauls discourse and treaty of the Corinthians is sufficient to guide us here he fear'd that at his coming again God would humble him that is 1 Cor. 12.21 afflict him with grief and sorrow to see it that himself should be forc'd to bewail many that is to excommunicate or deliver to Satan them that have sinn'd already and have not repented If they had repented before S. Pauls coming they should escape that rod but for deferring it they were like to smart bitterly Neither ought it to be supposed that the not repenting of sins is no otherwise then as the being discovered of theft The thief dies for his robbery not for his being discovered though if he were not discovered he should have escaped for his theft So for their uncleanness S. Paul would have delivered them over to Satan not for their not repenting speedily For the case is wholly differing here A thief is not bound at all to discover himself to the Criminal Judge but every man is bound to repent If therefore his repenting speedily would prevent so great a calamity as his being delivered over to Satan besides the procuring his eternal pardon it is clear that to repent speedily was great charity and great necessity which is that which was to be prov'd Satan should have power over him to afflict him for his sin if he did not speedily repent but if he did repent speedily he should wholly escape therefore to repent speedily is a duty which God expects of us and will punish if it be omitted Hodiè mihi credes vivere serum est Ille sapit quisquis Posthume vixit Heri Think it not a hasty Commandement that we are called upon to repent to day It was too much that yesterday past by you it is late enough if you do it to day 5. Not to repent instantly is a great loss of our time and it may for ought we know become the loss of all our hopes Nunc vivit sibi neuter Martial ep 20. lib. 5. heu bonosque Soles effugere atque abire sentit Qui nobis pereunt imputantur And this not onely by the danger of sudden death but for want of the just measures of Repentance Because it is a secret which God hath kept to himself onely and he onely knows what degrees of Repentance himself will admit of how much the sin provok'd him and by what measures of sorrow and carefulness himself will be appeased For there is in this a very great difference To Simon Magus it was almost a desperate case If peradventure the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven It was worse to Esau There was no place left for his repentance It was so with Judas he was not admitted to pardon neither can any one tell whether it was not resolved he should never be pardon'd However it be for the particulars yet it is certain there is a great difference in the admitting penitents On some have compassion Jude 22 23. others save with fear pulling them out of the fire Now since for all our sins we are bound to ask pardon every day if we do so who dares say it is too much that it is more then needs But if to repent every day be not too much who can be sure that if he puts it off one day it shall be sufficient To some men and at some times God is implacably angry some men and at some times God hath in his fury and sudden anger seis'd upon with the apprehensions of death and saddest judgements and broken them all in pieces and as there is a reign and kingdome of Mercy so there are sudden irruptions of a fierce Justice of which God hath therefore given us examples that we may not defer Repentance one day But this mischief goes further For 6. So long as we lie in the guilt of one sin unrepented of though we do not adde heaps upon heaps and multiply instances of the same or equal crimes yet we are in so unthriving a condition and so evil a state that all that while we lose all the benefit of any good thing that we can do upon the interest of any principle whatsoever For so long as we are out of Gods favour under the seisure and arrest of eternal guilt so long we are in a state of enmity with God and all our actions are like the performances of Heathens nothing to eternal life but mis-spendings of our powers and prodigalities of reason and wise discourses they are not perfective of our being neither do they set us forward to heaven until our state be changing Either then we are not by a certain Law and Commandement bound every day to serve God and please him or else we are positively and strictly bound instantly to repent of all our sins because so long as a known sin is unrepented of we cannot serve God we cannot do any thing that shall be acceptable to him in Jesus Christ 7. Every delaying of Repentance is one step of progression towards final Impenitence which is not onely then esteem'd a sin against the holy Ghost when a man resolves never to repent but if by carelesness he neglects or out of tediousness and an irreligious spirit quite puts off or for ever pass by it is unpardonable it shall never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come Now since final impenitence is the consummation and perfection of all sin we are to remember that it is nothing but a perseverance of neglecting or refusing to repent A man is alwayes dying and that which we call death is but the finishing of death the last act of it So is final impenitence nothing but the same sin told over so many dayes it is a persevering carelesness or resolution and therefore it cannot be the sin of one day unless it be by accident it is a state of sin begun as soon as ever the sin is acted and grows in every day of thy negligence or forgetfulness But if it should happen that a sinner that sinn'd yesterday should die to day his deferring his Repentance that one day would be esteem'd so and indeed really be a final impenitence It follows therefore that to
by a distinct obliquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ethic. lib. 3. c. 8. said Aristotle Actions are otherwise voluntary then habits We are masters of our actions all the way but of habits onely in the beginning But because it was in our choyce to doe so or otherwise therefore the habit which is consequent is called voluntary not then chosen because it cannot then be hindred and therefore it is of it self indifferent an evil indeed as sickness or crookedness thirst or famine and as death it self to them that have repented them of that sin for which they die but no sin if we consider it in its meer natural capacity * Nay so it may become the exercise of vertue the scene of trouble indeed or danger of temptation and sorrow but a field of victory For there are here two things very considerable 1. That God for the glorification of his mercy can and does turn all evil into some good so to defeat the Devils power and to produce honour and magnification to his own goodness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristoph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For so God uses to doe if we sin we shall smart for it but he turns it into good And S. Austin applies that promise that all things shall work together for good to them that fear God even to this particular etiam ipsa peccata nimirum non ex naturâ suâ sed ex Dei virtute sapientiâ if all things then sins also not by their proper efficacy but by the overruling power and wisdome of God like that of Phocylides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that will be a good man must be often deceived that is buy his wit at a dear rate And thus some have been cured of pride by the shames of lust and of lukewarmness by a fall into sin being awakened by their own noddings and mending their pace by their fall And so also the sense of our sad infirmities introduc'd by our vicious living and daily prevarications may become an accidental fortification to our spirits a new spur by the sense of an infinite necessity and an infinite danger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aâ—isteph For whoever repents after such sad intervals of sorrow and sin either must doe more then other men or they doe nothing to purpose For besides that an ordinary care cannot secure them who have brought tempters home to themselves a common industry cannot root out vicious customes a trifling mortification cannot crucify and kill what hath so long been growing with us besides this for this will not directly goe into the account for this difficulty the sinner must thank himself he must do more actions of piety to obtain his pardon and to secure it But because they need much pardon and an infinite care and an assiduous watchfulness oâ— they perish infallibly therefore all holy penitents are to arise to greater excellencies then if they had never sinned Major deceptae faema est gloria dextrae Si non errasset fecerat illa minùs Scaevola's hand grew famous for being deceived and it had been less reputation to have struck his enemy to the heart Vide S. Chrysost epist ad Theâ—dor then to doe such honourable infliction upon it for missing And thus there is in heaven more joy over one repenting sinner then over ninety nine just persons that need it not there is a greater deliverance and a mightier miracle a bigger grace and a prodigy of chance it being as S. Austin affirms a greater thing that a sinner should be converted then that being converted he should afterwards be saved and this he learn'd from those words of S. Paul Rom. 5.8 9. But God commended his love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Much more then being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him * But now the sinner is more busie in his recovery more fearful of relapse then before his fall Sicut ferae decipulam erumpentes cautiores facti saith Lactantius like wilde beasts breaking from their toils they walk more cautiously for ever after Thus it is impossible that sin should be exalted above grace or that the Devils malice can be superiour to the rare arts of the Divine mercy for by his conduct poison it self shall become medicinal and sin like the Persian apple Pomis quae Barbara Persis Miserat ut fama est patriis armata venenis At nunc expositi parvo discrimine lethi Ambrosios praebent succos oblita nocendi transplanted from its native soil to the Athenian gardens loses its natural venome and becomes pleasant as the rinds of Citrons and aromatick as the Eastern spices 2. Although sins in the state of penitence can by Gods grace procure an accidental advantage yet that difficulty of overcoming and fierceness of contention which is necessary to them who had contracted evil habits is not by that difficulty an augmentation of the reward As he that willingly breaks his legs is not more commended for creeping with pain then if he went with pleasure and ease and the taking away our own possibility being a destroying the grace of God a contradiction to the arts of the Divine mercy whatsoever proper effect that infers as it is impious in its cause and miserable in the event so it does nothing of advantage to the vertue but causes great diminution of it * For it is a high mistake crudely to affirm that every repugnancy to an act of vertue and every temptation to a sin if it be overcome increases the reward Indeed if the temptation be wholly from without unsought for prayed against inferr'd infallibly superinduc'd by God then the reward is greater by how much it was the more difficult to obey Thus for Jephthah to pay his daughter which he had vowed and for Abraham to slay his son were greater acts of obedience because they were in despite of great temptations to the contrary and there was nothing evil from within that did lessen the choice or retard the vertue * But when our nature is spoil'd and our strengths diminished when the grace of God by which we stood is despised and cancelled when we have made it natural for us to sin then this remaining inclination to sin and unwillingness to obey is so far from increasing the reward that it is not onely a state of danger but it is an unwillingness to doe good an abatement of the choice a state which is still to be mortified and the strengths to be restored and the affections made obedient and the will determin'd by other objects But if the unwillingness to obey even after the beginnings of repentance were as it is pretended by the Romane Doctors an increase of the merit or reward then 1. It were not fit that we should goe about to lessen these inclinations to sin or to exterminate the remains of the old man because if they
of a great sin and as it happens in War be put to death suddenly without leisure and space of repentance by the measures of this doctrine the man shall perish and consequently the power by which he fals is uncharitable I answer That in an act of sin the case is otherwise then in an habit as I have already demonstrated in its proper place It must be a habit that must extirpate a habit but an act is rescinded by a less violence and abode of duty and it is possible for an act of duty to be so heroical or the repentance of an hour to be so pungent and dolorous and the fruits of that repentance putting forth by the sudden warmths and fervour of the spirit be so goodly and fair as through the mercies of God in Jesus Christ to obtain pardon of that single sin if that be all 2. But it is to be considered whether the man be otherwise a vicious person or was he a good man but by misfortune and carelesness overtaken in a fault If he was a good man his spirit is so accustomed to good that he is soon brought to an excellent sorrow and to his former state especially being awakened by the sad arrest of a hasty death and if he accepts that death willingly making that which is necessarily inforc'd upon him to become voluntary by his acceptation of it changing the judgement into penance I make no question but he shall finde mercy But if the man thus taken in a fault was otherwise a vicious person it is another consideration It is not safe for him to goe to war but the Officers may as charitably and justly put such a person to death for a fault as send him upon a hard service The doing of his duty may as well ruine him as the doing of a fault and if he be repriev'd a week he will finde difficulty in the doing what he should and danger enough besides 3. The discipline of war if it be onely administred where it is necessary not onely in the general rule but also in the particular instance cannot be reprov'd upon this account Because by the laws of warre sufficiently published every man is sufficiently warned of his danger which if he either accept or be bound to accept he perishes by his own fault if he perishes at all For as by the hazard of his imployment he is sufficiently called upon to repent worthily of all his evil life past so is he by the same hazardous imployment and the known laws of war caution'd to beware of committing any great sin and if his own danger will not become his security then his confidence may be his ruine and then nothing is to be blam'd but himself 4. But yet it were highly to be wish'd that when such cases do happen and that it can be permitted in the particular without the dissolution of discipline such persons should be pitied in order to their eternal interest But when it cannot the Minister of justice is the Minister of God and dispenses his power by the rules of his justice at which we cannot quarrel though he cuts off sinners in their acts of sin of which he hath given them sufficient warning and hath a long time expected their amendment to whom that of Seneca may be applied Vnum bonum tibi superest repraesentabimus mortem Nothing but death will make some men cease to sin and therefore quo uno modo possunt desinant mali esse God puts a period to the increase of their ruine and calamity by making that wickedness shorter which if it could would have been eternal When men are incorrigible they may be cut off in charity as well as justice and therefore as it is always just so it is sometimes pity though a sad one to take a sinner away with his sins upon his head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When it is impossible to have it otherwise this is the onely good that he is capable of * Ingeniis talâ—bus vitae exitus remedium est optimúmque est abire ei qui ad se nunquam rediturus est Senec. de Benef. 7.10 to be sent speedily to a lesser punishment then he should inherit if he should live longer But when it can be otherwise it were very well it were so very often And therefore the customes of Spain are in this highly to be commended who to condemned criminals give so much respite till the Confessor gives them a benè discessit and supposes them competently prepared But if the Law-givers were truly convinced of this doctrine here taught it is to be hoped they would more readily practise this charity Obj. 4. But hath not God promised pardon to him that is contrite A contrite and broken heart O God thou wilt not despise And I said Psa 51.17 I will confess my sins unto the Lord Psal 32.6 and so thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin And the prodigal was pardon'd immediately upon his confession and return Coeperat dicere mox illum pater complectitur Homil. de poenit said S. Basil His Father embraces him when he began to speak And S. Chrysostome In that moment says he he wipes away all the sins of his life And S. Austin upon that of David before quoted My confession came not so far as my mouth and God heard the voyce of my heart To this I answer first concerning the words of David Then concerning the examples 1. Concerning contrition that it is a good beginning of repentance is certain and in its measure acceptable to God and effective of all its proper purposes But contrition can have but the reward of contrition but not of other graces which are not parts but effects of it God will not despise the broken and contrite heart no for he will receive it graciously and binde up the wounds of it and lead it on in the paths of righteousness and by the waters of comfort 2. But a man is not of a contrite heart as soon as he hath exercised one act of contrition He that goes to break a rock does something towards it by every blow but every blow does not break it A mans heart is not so easily broken I mean broken from the love of sin and its adherence to it Every act of temperance does not make a man temperate and so I fear will it be judg'd concerning contrition 3. But suppose the heart be broken and that the man is contrite there is more to be done then so God indeed does not despise this but he requires more God did not despise Ahabs repentance but it did not doe all his work for him He does not despise patience nor meekness nor resignation nor hope nor confession nor any thing that himself commands But he that commands all will not be content with one alone every grace shall have its reward but it shall not be crown'd alone Faith alone shall not justify and repentance alone taken in its
specifical distinctive sense shall not suffice but faith and repentance and charity and patience and the whole circle and rosary of graces and duties must adorn our heads 4. Those graces and duties which are commanded us and to which God hath promised glorious rewards must not be single or transient acts but continual and permanent graces Joh. 4.14 He that drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst again 6.58 He that eats of this bread shall live for ever He that believes in me rivers of living waters shall flow from his belly 7.38 He that confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall have mercy Repent and beleeve and wash away your sins Now these words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of extended and produced signification as Divines observe and signify a state of duty such as includes patience and perseverance Such also are these 1 Joh. 2.17 1 Joh. 1.9 He that doth the will of my Father abideth for ever If we confess our sins he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity Gal. 5.21 and they that doe such things shall possess the kingdome of Heaven And I will deliver him because he hath put his trust in me And If we love him he also will love us And Forgive and ye shall be forgiven These and many more doe not intend that any one grace alone is sufficient much less any one act of one grace proceeding from the Spirit of God can be sufficient to wipe off our leprosies But these signify states of duty and integrity not transient actions or separate graces And besides the infinite reasonableness of the thing this truth is consign'd to us plainly in Scripture Rom. 2.6 7. God will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life And if men had pleased they might as well have fallen upon this proposition that an act of humility would have procur'd our pardon as well as that an act of contrition will doe it because of the words of David Psa 34.17 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart and will save such as be of an humble spirit Salvation is as much promised to humility alone as to contrition alone that is to neither separately but in the conjunction with other parts of duty 5. Contrition is either taken in its proper specifick signification and so it is but a part of repentance and then who can say that it shall be sufficient to a full and final pardon Repentance alone is not sufficient There must be faith and hope and charity therefore much less shall a part be sufficicient when the whole is not But if contrition be taken in a sense comprehending more then it self then I demand how much shall it involve That it does include in it an act of the Divine love and a purpose to confess and a resolution to amend is affirmed So far is well But why thus far and no farther Why shall not contrition when it is taken for a sufficient disposition to pardon and salvation signify as much as repentance does and repentance signify the whole duty of a converted sinner Unless it does repentance it self that is as it is one single grace cannot suffice as I proved but now And therefore how shall contrition alone much less an act of contrition alone doe it For my part I should be very glad it were so if God so pleased for I have as much need of mercy as any man and have as little reason to be consident of the perfection of my repentance as any returning sinner in the world But I would not willingly deceive my self nor others and therefore I must take the surest course and follow his measures who hath describ'd the lines and limits of his own mercy * But it is remarkable that the manner of the Scripture is to include the consequents in the antecedents Joh. 8.47 He that is of God heareth Gods word That is not onely hears but keeps it For not the hearer Apoc. 19.9 but the doer is blessed So S. John in the Revelation Blessed are they that are called to the marriage of the Lamb. They which are called are blessed that is They which being called come and come worthily having on the wedding garment For without this the meaning of the Spirit is not full For many are called but few are chosen And thus also it is in the present instance God will not despise the contrite heart that is the heart which being bruised with sorrow returns to duty and lives in holiness for in order to holiness contrition was accepted But one thing I shall remark before I leave this In the definition of Contrition all the Schools of Theology in the world that I know of put the love of God Contrition is not onely sorrow but a love of God too Now this doctrine if they themselves would give men leave rightly to understand it is not onely an excellent doctrine but will also do the whole business of this great Question Without Contrition our sins cannot be pardon'd It is not Contrition unless the love of God be in it Adde then but these Our love to God does not consist in an act of intuition or contemplation nor yet directly and meerly of passion but it consists in obedience If ye love me keep my Commandements That 's our love of God So that Contrition is a detestation of our past sin and a consequent obedience to the Divine Commandements Onely as the aversion hath been so must be the conversion It was not one act of disobedience onely which the habitual sinner is to be contrite for but many and therefore so must his contrition be a lasting hatred against sin and an habitual love that is an habitual obedience to the Divine Commandement 6. But now to the instances of David and the Prodigal and the sudden pronunciation of their pardon there is something particular to be said The Parable of the Prodigal can prove nothing but Gods readiness to receive every returning sinner but neither the measures nor the times of pardon are there described As for David his pardon was pronounced suddenly but it was but a piece of pardon the sentence of death which by Moses law he incurred that onely was remitted but after this pardon David repented bitterly in sackcloth and ashes he fasted and prayed he liv'd holily and wisely he made amends as he could and yet the childe died that was born to him his Son and Subjects rebelled his Concubines were dishonoured in the face of the Sun and the Sword never departed from his house 2. But to both these and all other instances that are or can be of the like nature I answer That there is no doubt but Gods pardon is as early and speedy as the beginnings of our repentance but then it is
despair but neither must we presume without a warrant nay hope as long as God calls effectually But when the severity of God cuts him off from repentance by allowing him no time or not time enough to finish what is required the case is wholly differing But S. Chrysostome speaks words which are not easie to be reconciled to the former doctrine The words of S. Chrysostome are these Take heed of saying Ad Theodorum lupsum that there is a place of pardon onely for them that have sinn'd but little For if you please suppose any one abounding with all maliciousness and that hath done all things which shut men from the Kingdome let this man be not a Heathen but a Christian and accepted of God but afterwards an Whoremonger an Adulterer an effeminate person unnaturally lustfull a thief a drunkard a slanderer and one that hath diligently committed such crimes truly I will not be to him an author of despairing although he had persevered in these wickednesses to an extreme old age Truly neither would I. But neither could he nor any man else be forward to warrant his particular But if the remaining portion of his old age be well imployed according as the time is and the spending of that time and the earnestness of the repentance and the greatness of the grief and the heartiness of the return and the fulness of the restitution and the zeal of amends and the abundance of charity and the largeness of the devotion so we approach to very many degrees of hope But there is difference between the case of an extreme old age and a death-bed That may have more time and better faculties and fitted opportunities and a clearer choice and a more perfect resistance between temptation and grace But for the state of death-bed although there is in that also some variety yet the best is very bad and the worst is stark naught but concerning the event of both God onely is the Judge Onely it is of great use that Chrysostome says in the same Letters to Theodorus Quódque est majoris facilitatis argumentum etiamsi non omnem prae se fert poenitentiam brevem illam exiguo tempore factam non abnuit sed magnâ mercede compensat Even a dying person ought not to despair and leave off to do those little things of which onely there is then left to him a possibility because even that imperfect Repentance done in that little time God rejects not but will give to it a great reward So he did to Ahab And whatsoever is good shall have a good some way or other it shall finde a recompence but every recompence is not eternal glory and every good thing shall not be recompensed with heaven To the same purpose is that of Coelestinus Epist 1. reproving them that denied repentance to persons qui obitus sui tempore hoc animae suae cupiunt remedio subveniri who at the time of their death desired to be admitted to it Horremus fateor tantae impietatis aliquem reperiri ut de Dei pietate desperet quasi non posset ad se quovis tempore concurrenti succurrere periclitantem sub onere peccatorum hominem pondere quo se expedire desiderat liberare I confess saith he we abhor that any one should be found to be of so great impiety as to despair of Gods mercy as if he could not at any time relieve him that comes to him and ease him that runs to be eased of the burthen of his sins Quid hoc rogo aliud est c. What else is this but to adde death to the dying man and to kill his soul with cruelty by denying that he can be absolved since God is most ready to help and inviting to repentance thus promises saying In what day soever the sinner shall be converted his sins shall not be imputed to him and again I would not the death of a sinner but that he should be converted and live He therefore takes salvation from a man who denies him his hoped for repentance in the time of his death and he despairs of the clemency of God who does not believe it sufficient to help the dying man in a moment of time The thief on the Cross hanging on Christs right hand had lost his reward if the repentance of one hour had not helped him When he was in pain he repented and obtain'd Paradise by one discourse Therefore the true conversion to God of dying persons is to be accounted of by the minde rather then by time Thus far S. Coelestine The summe of which is this That dying persons must not be thrust into despair Because Gods mercy is infinite and his power is infinite He can do what he please and he may do more then we know of even more then he hath promised and therefore they that are spiritual must not refuse to do all that they can to such miserable persons And in all this there is nothing to be reproved but that the good man by incompetent arguments goes about to prove what he had a minde to If the hindring such persons to despair be all that he intends it is well if more be intended his arguments will not do it Afterwards in the descending ages of the Church things grew worse and it began to be good doctrine even in the dayes of S. Lib. 2. c. 14. de summo bono Isidore Nullus desperare debet veniam etiamsi circa finem vitae ad poenitentiam convertatur Vnumquemque enim Deus de suo fine non de vitâ praeteritâ judicat God judges a man by his end not by his past life and therefore no man must despair of pardon though he be not converted till about the end of his life but in these words there is a lenitive Circa finem vitae if he be converted about the end of his life that is in his last o◠declining years which may contain a fair portion of time like those who were called in the eleventh hour that is circa finem vitae but not in fine about not in the end of their life c. 80. But S. Austin or Gennadius or whoever is Author of the book De Ecclesiasticis dogmatibus speaks home to the Question but against the former doctrine Poenitentiâ aboleri peccata indubitantèr credimus etiamsi in ultimo vitae spiritu admissorum poeniteat publicâ lamentatione peccata prodantur quia propositum Dei quo decrevit salvare quod perierat stat immobile ideo quia voluntas ejus non mutatur sive emendatione vitae si tempus conceditur sive supplici confessione si continuò vitâ exceditur venia peccatorum fidelitèr praesumatur ab illo qui non vult mortem peccatoris sed ut convertatur à perditione poenitendo salvatus miseratione Domini vivat Si quis alitèr de justissimâ Dei pietate sentit non Christianus sed Novatianus est That sins are taken off by
chastity who cannot doe any acts of chastity or of temperance who have lost their stomack and have not any inclination or temptation to the contrary and every vertue must be cum potentiâ ad oppositum if it be not chosen it is not vertue nor rewardable And the case is almost the same to all persons young or old who have not opportunity of acting those graces in the matter of which they have formerly prevaricated To this I answer many things and they are of use in the explication of this material question 1. Old men may exercise many acts of chastity both internal and external For if they may be unchast they may also be chast But S. Paul speaks of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that being past feeling yet were given to lasciviousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 half men half boyes pruriâ—ntes in sepulchro For it is not the body but the soul that is wanton And an evil man may sin with ineffective lusts as he that lusts after a woman whom he cannot have sins with his soul Now where ever these unlawful desires can be there also they can be mortified and an old man can love to talk of his past vanities or not rescind them by repentance or desire that he were young and active in wickedness and therefore if he chooses not to doe so and therefore avoids these and the like out of hatred of his old impurities he does the proper works of that grace which he also may doe the easier because then his temptations to the contrary are not so strong but this advantage is not worth staying for so long They that doe so venture damnation a long time together and may also have an evil proper to that state greater then this little advantage I instance 2. If there were no other act of chastity to be exercised by old persons by reason of their disability yet the very accepting from the hands of God that disability and the delighting in that circumstance of things in which it is impossible to sin as formerly must needs be pleasing to God because it is a nolition of the former sins and a desire of pleasing him 3. Every act of sorrow for unchastity is an act of chastity and if this sorrow be great and lasting permanent and habitual it will be productive of much good And if to these the penitent addes penal actions and detestations of his crimes revenge and apt expressions of his holy anger against his sin these doe produce a quality in the soul contrary to that which made him formerly consent to lust 4. When a vicious habit is to be extirpated and the contrary introduc'd it is not necessary that the contrary be acted by the body but be radicated in the soul It is necessary that the body doe not sin in that instance but it is not always required that contrary acts be done by the body Suppose Origen had been a lustful person before his castration yet he might have been habitually chast afterwards by doing spiritual acts of a corporal chastity And there are many sins whose scene lies in the body to which the body afterwards cannot oppose a bodily act in the same instance as he that by intemperate drinking once or oftner fals into a loathing of wine he that dismembers himself and many others for which a repentance is possible and necessary but yet a contrary specifick act cannot be opposed In these cases it is sufficient that the habit be plac'd in the soul and a perfect contrary quality superinduc'd which is to be done by a frequent repetition of the acts of repentance proper to the sin 5. There are some sins for which amends is to be made in the way of commutation when it cannot be in the proper instance Redime peccata tua eleemosynis Dan. 4.27 said Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar Redeem thy sins with alms and thy iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor Our English Bibles read this Break off thy sins by alms as if alms were directly contrary to pride or lust or gluttony or tyranny and the shewing mercy to the poor a direct intercision and interruption of the sin He that gives alms that he may keep his lust loses his soul and his money too But he that leaves his lust or is driven from it and gives alms to obtain Gods favour for his pardon by doing something that is gracious in his eyes this man is a good penitent if his alms be great and proportionable given freely and without constraint when he can keep them and receive and retain the temporal advantage and be assisted by all those other acts and habits of which his present state is capable It cannot be said that to give alms can in all such cases be sufficient as it will be hard to say that so many acts of the contrary grace will suffice to get a habit or obtain a pardon but it is true that to give alms is a proper action of repentance in such cases and is in order to pardon For 6. As there is a supreme habit of vice a transcendent vileness that is a custome and readiness to doe every sin as it is presented in its proper temptation and this is worse then the habit of any one sin so there is a transcendent habit of grace by which a man is so holy and just and good that he is ready to obey God in every instance That is malice and this is charity When a man hath this grace habitually although it may be so that he cannot produce the proper specifick habit opposite to his sin for which he specially repents yet his supreme habit does contain in it the specifick habit virtually and transcendently An act of this charity will not doe this but the habit will For he that does a single act of charity may also doe a single act of malice and he that denies this knows not what he says nor ever had experience of himself or any man else For if he that does an act of charity that is he who by a good motion from Gods Spirit does any thing because God hath commanded to say that this man will doe every thing which is so commanded is to say that a good man can never fall into a great sin which is evidently untrue But if he that does one act in obedience to God or in love to him for obedience is love will also doe more then every man that does one act to please his senses may as well be supposed that he will doe more and then no mans life should have in it any variety but be all of a piece intirely good or intirely evil I see no difference in the instances neither can there be so long as a man in both states hath a power to choose But then it will follow that a single act of contrition or of charity cannot put a man into the state of the Divine favour it must be the grace or habit of charity and that is a
contracted the habit of a sin especially of youthful sins unless the habit of vertue be oppos'd to the instance of his sin he cannot be safe nor penitent For while the temptation and fierce inclinations remain it cannot be a cure to this to doe acts of Charity he must doe acts of Chastity or else he will fall or continue in his uncleanness which in old persons will not be Here the sin still tempts by natural inclination and commands by the habit and therefore as there can be no Repentance while the affections remain so neither can there be safety as long as the habit hath a natural being The first begins with a moral revocation of the sin and the same hath also its progression perfection and security by the extinction of the inherent quality 4. Let the penitent seek to obstruct or divert the proper principles of evil habits for by the same by which they begin commonly by the same they are nursed up to their ugly bulke There are many of them that attend upon the Prince of Darkness and minister to the filthy production Evil examples Natural inclinations false propositions evil prejudices indulgence to our own infirmities and many more but especially a cohabitation with the temptation by which we fell and did enter into death and by which we use to fall * There are some men more in love with the temptation then with the sin and because this rushes against the Conscience rudely and they see death stand at the end of the progression therefore they onely love to stand upon Mount Ebal and view it They resolve they will not commit the sin they will not be overcome but they would fain be tempted If these men will but observe the contingencies of their own own state they shall finde that when they have set the house on fire they cannot prescribe its measures of burning * But there is a secret iniquity in it For he that loves to stand and stare upon the fire that burnt him formerly is pleas'd with the warmth and splendour and the temptation it self hath some little correspondencies to the appetite The man dares not fornicate but loves to look upon the beauties of a woman or sit with her at the wine till his heart is ready to drop asleep He will not enter into the house because it is infected with the plague but he loves to stand at the door and fain would enter if he durst It is impossible that any man should love to abide by a temptation for a good end There is some little sensuality in being tempted And the very consideration concerning it sometimes strikes the fancy too unluckily and pleases some faculty or other as much as the man dares admit * I doe not say that to be tempted is always criminal or in the neighbourhood of it but it is the best indication of our love to God for his sake to deny its importunity and to overcome it but that is onely when it is unavoidable and from without against our wils or at least besides our purposes * For in the declination of sin and overcoming temptation there can be but these two things by which we can signify our love to God 1. To stand in a temptation when we could not avoid it 2. And to run from it when we can This hath in it more of prudence and the other of force and spiritual strength and we can best signify the sense of our weakness and our carefulness by avoiding the occasions but then we declare the excellency of our purposes and pertinacious love to God when we serve him in hard battels when we are tempted as before but fall not now as we did then Indeed this is the greatest trial and when God suffers us so to be tried we are accepted if we stand in that day and in such circumstances But he that will choose that state and dwell near his danger loves not to be safe and either he is a vain person in the confidences of his own strength or else he loves that which is like a sin and comes as near it as he dare and very often the event of it is that at last he dies like a flie about a candle But he that hath fallen by such a neighbourhood and still continues the cause may as well hope to cure his feaver by full draughts of the new vintage as return to life upon that account * A vicious habit is maintain'd at an easie rate but not cur'd without a mighty labour and expence any thing can feed it but nothing can destroy it if there be any thing near it whereby it can be kept alive If therefore you will cure a vicious habit dwell far from danger and tempt not death with which you have been so long in love 5. A vicious habit never could have come to that state and period but by impunity If God had smitten the sinner graciously in the beginning of his evil journey it is likely that as Balaam did he also would have offered to goe back Now when God does not punish a sinner early though it hath in it more of danger and less of safety yet we may in some measure supply the want of Divine mercy smiting and hindring a sinner by considering that impunity is no mark of innocence but very often it is an indication of Gods extremest and final anger Therefore be sure ever to suspect a prosperous sin For of it self prosperity is a temptation and it is granted but to few persons to be prosperous and pious The poor and the despised the humble and necessitous he that daily needs God with a sharpness of apprehension that feeds upon necessity and lives in hardships that is never flatter'd and is never cheated out of vertue for bread those persons are likely to be wise and wary and if they be not nothing can make them so for he that is impatient in want is impotent in plenty for impatience is pride and he that is proud when he is poor if he were rich he would be intolerable and therefore it is easier to bear poverty temperately then riches Securo nihil est te Naevole pejus Epigr. l. 4. ep 84. eodem Sollicito nihil est Naevole te melius and Passienus said of Caligula Nemo fuit servus melior nemo Dominus deterior He was the best Servant and the worst Master that ever was Poverty is like a girdle about our loyns it binds hard but it is modest and useful But a heap of riches is a heap of temptations and few men will escape if it be alwayes in their hand what can be offered to their heart And therefore to be prosperous hath in it self enough of danger But when a sin is prosperous and unpunished there are left but few possibilities and arguments of resistance and therefore it will become or remain habitual respectively S. Paul taught us this secret that sins are properly made habitual upon the stock of impunity Rom.
his animis incolumes non redeunt genae Trouble and sorrow will better become the spirit of an old sinner because he was a fool when he was young and weak when he is wise that his strengths must be spent in sin and that for God and wise courses nothing remains but weak hands and dim eyes and trembling knees 10. Let not an old sinner and young penitent ever think that there can be a period to his Repentance or that it can ever be said by himself that he hath done enough No sorrow no alms no affliction no patience no Sacraments can be said to have finish'd his work so that he may say with S. Paul I have fought a good fight I have finish'd my course nothing can bring consummation to his work till the day of his death because it is all the way an imperfect state having in it nothing that is excellent or laudable but onely upon the account of a great necessity and misery on one side and a great mercy on the other It is like a man condemn'd to perpetual banishment he is alwayes in his passive obedience but is a debtor to the law until he be dead So is this penitent he hath not finish'd his work or done a Repentance in any measure proportionable to his sins but onely because he can do no more and yet he did something even before it was too late 11. Let an old man in the mortification of his vicious habits be curious to distinguish nature from grace his own disability from the strengths of the Spirit and not think that he hath extirpated the vice of uncleanness when himself is disabled to act it any longer or that he is grown a sober person because he is sick in his stomack and cannot drink intemperately or dares not for fear of being sick His measures must be taken by the account of his actions and oppositions to his former sins and so reckon his comfort 12. But upon whatever account it come he is not so much to account concerning his hopes or the performance of his duty by abstaining from sin as by doing of good For besides that such a not committing of evil may be owing to weak or insufficient principles this not committing evil in so little a time cannot make amends for the doing it so long together according to the usual accounts of Repentance unless that abstaining be upon the stock of vertue and labour of mortification and resistance and then every abstinence is also a doing good for it is a crucifying of the old man with the affections and lusts But all the good that by the grace of God he superadds is matter of choice and the proper actions of a new life 13. After all this done vigorously holily with fear and caution with zeal and prudence with diligence and an uninterrupted observation the old man that liv'd a vile life but repents in time though he staid as long as he could and much longer then he should yet may live in hope and die in peace and charity To this purpose they are excellent words which S. Serm. 28. de temp Austin said Peradventure some will think that he hath committed such grievous faults that he cannot now obtain the favour of God Let this be farre from the conceits of all sinners O man whosoever thou art that attendest that multitude of thy sins wherefore doest thou not attend to the Omnipotency of the Heavenly Physician For since God will have mercy because he is good and can because he is Almighty he shuts the gate of the Divine Goodness against himself who thinks that God cannot or will not have mercy upon him and therefore distrusts either his Goodness or his Almightiness The proper Repentance and usage of sinners who repent not until their death-bed The inquiry after this article consists in these particulars 1. What hopes are left to a vicious ill liv'd man that repents on his death-bed and not before 2. What advices are best or can bring him most advantage That a good life is necessary * that it is requir'd by God * that it was design'd in the whole purpose of the Gospel * that it is a most reasonable demand and infinitely recompensed by the very smallest portions of Eternity * That it was called for all our life and was exacted by the continual voyce of Scripture of Mercies of Judgement of Prophets * That to this very purpose God offered the assistance of his holy Spirit and to this ministery we were supplied with preventing with accompanying and persevering grace that is powers and assistances to begin and to continue in well doing * That there is no distinct Covenant made with dying men differing from what God hath admitted between himself and living healthful persons * That it is not reasonable to think God will deal more gently with persons who live viciously all their lives and that at an easier rate they may expect salvation at the hands of God whom they have so provoked then they who have serv'd him faithfully according to the measures of a man * or that a long impiety should be sooner expiated then a short one * That the easiness of such as promise heaven to dying penitents after a vicious life is dangerous to the very being and constitution of piety * and scandalous to the honour and reputation and sanctity of the Christian Religion * That the grace of God does leave those that use it not * That therefore the necessity of dying men increases and their aids are lessen'd and almost extinguished * That they have more to doe then they have either time or strength to finish * That all their vows and holy purposes are useless and ineffective as to their natural production and that in their case they cannot be the beginnings of a succeeding duty and piety because for want of time it never can succeed * That there are some conditions and states of life which God hath determin'd never to pardon * That there is a sin unto death for which because we have no incouragement to pray it is certain there is no hope for it is impossible but it must be very fit to pray for all them to whom the hope of pardon is not precluded * That there is in Scripture mention made of an ineffective repentance and of a repentance to be repented of and that the repentance of no state is so likely to be it as this * That what is begun and produc'd wholly by affrightment is not esteem'd matter of choyce nor a pleasing sacifice to God * That they who sow to the flesh shall reap in the flesh and the final judgement shall be made of every man according to his works * That the full and perfect descriptions of repentance in Scripture are heaps and conjugations of duties which have in them difficulty and require time and ask labour * That those insinuations of duty in Scripture of the need of patience and diligence and watchfulness and the
express precepts of perseverance doe imply that the office and duty of a Christian is of a long time and business and a race * That repentance being the renewing of a holy life it should seem that on our death-bed the day for repentance is past since no man can renew his life when his life is done no man can live well when he cannot live at all * and therefore to place our hopes upon a death-bed repentance onely is such a religion as satisfies all our appetites and contradicts none and yet promises heaven at last * These things I say are all either notorious and evident or expresly affirmed in Scripture and therefore that in the ordinary way of things in the common expectation of events such persons are in a very sad condition So that it remains that in this sad condition there must be some extraordinary way found out or else this whole enquiry is at an end Concerning which all that I can say is this 1. God hath an Almighty power and his mercy is as great as his power He can doe miracles of mercy as well as miracles of mightiness And this S. Austin brings in open pretence against desperation O homo quicunque illam multitudinem peccatorum attendis cur omnipotentiam coelestis medici non attendis Thy sins are great but Gods mercies are greater But this does represent the mans condition at the best to be such that God may if he will have mercy upon him but whether he will or no there is as yet no other certainty or probability but that he can if he please which proposition to an amazed timorous person that fears a hell the next hour is so dry a story so hopeless a proposition that all that can be said of this is that it is very fit that no man should ever put it to the venture For upon this argument we may as well comfort our selves upon him that died without repenting at all But the inquiry must be further 2. All mankinde all the Doctors of the Church for very many ages at least some few of the most Ancient and of the Modern excepted have been apt to give hopes to such persons and no man bids them absolutely despair Let such persons make use of this easiness of men thereby to retain so much hope as to make them call upon God and not to neglect what can then be done Spem retine spes una hominem nec morte relinquit As long as there is life there is hope and when a man dies let him not despair for there is a life after this and a hope proper to that and amidst all the evils that the Ancients did fabulously report to be in Pandora's box they wittily plac'd Hope on the utmost lip of it and extremity Vivere spe vidi qui moriturus erat And S. Cyprian exhorts old Demetrianus to turn Christian in his old age and promises him salvation in the name of Christ and though his case and that of a Christian who entred into promises and Covenants of obedience be very different yet ad immortalitatem sub ipsâ morte transitur a passing from such a repentance to immortality although it cannot be hop'd for upon the just accounts of express promise yet it is not too great to hope from Gods mercy and until that which is infinite hath a limit a repenting mans hopes in this world cannot be wholly at an end 3. We finde that in the battels which were fought by the Maccabees some persons who fought on the Lords side and were slain in the sight were found having on their breasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pendants consecrate to the idols of the Samnenses and yet the good people of their party made oblation for them hoping that they might be partakers of a blessed resurrection They that repent heartily but one hour are in a better condition then the other that died in their sin though with the advantage of fighting in a good cause and if good people will not leave hoping for such persons it is not fit that themselves should 4. He that considers Gods great love to Mankinde * the infinite love that God hath to his holy Son Jesus and yet that he sent him to die for every man * and that the holy Jesus does now and hath for very many ages prayed for the pardon of our sins that he knows how horrible those pains are which are provided for perishing souls and therefore that he is exceedingly pitiful and desirous that we should escape them * and that God did give one extraordinary example of saving a dying penitent the Thief upon the Cross and though that had something in it extraordinary and miraculous yet that is it which is now expected a favour extraordinary a miraculous mercy * And that Christ was pleased to speak a Parable of comfort and the Master of the Vineyard did pay salary to him that began to work at the eleventh hour and though that was some portion of his life the twelfth part of it and the man was not call'd sooner yet there may be something in it of comfort to the dying penitent since it looks something like it it certainly relates to old men and can doe them comfort and possibly the merciful intention of it is yet larger * and that since God is so well pleased with repentance it may be he will abate the circumstance of time Nec ad rem pertinet ubi inciperet quod placuerat ut fieret and he will not consider when that begins which he loves should be done * And that he is our Father and paulum supplicii satis est Patri a Father will chastise but will not kill his son * And that it is therefore seasonable to hope because it is a duty and the very hope it self God delights to reward for so said the Apostle Cast not away your confidence Heb. 10.35 which hath great recompence of reward * And the Church of God imitating the mercies of our gracious God and Father Concil Nicen. can 13. hath denied to give the Sacrament of peace and mercy to none that seek it Viaticum omnibus in morte positis non est negandum Concil Agath c. 11. And in the saddest consideration of things that can be suppose it be with him as with Simon Magus suppose that he is in the gall of bitterness in the state of damnation in the guilt of a sin which we know not whether God will pardon or not yet still it is wise and pious counsel that he should pray if peradventure he may be forgiven He I say that considers these things will have cause to be very earnest and very busy to lose no time to remit no labour to quit no hope but humbly passionately diligently set upon that duty of repentance which should have long agoe come to some perfection Now because I have as I suppose said enough to make men afraid to put off their repentance to
their death-bed yet in behalf of those who have been unfortunately lost in their lives or less instructed or violently tempted or unhappily betrayed and are upon their death-beds because though nothing can be ascertain'd to them yet it is not to be suffer'd that they should utterly despair I have thought fit to transcribe out of the writings of the ancient Doctors such exhortations as may both instruct and comfort promote duty and give some little door of hope but not adde boldness in defiance of all the laws of holiness In an epistle of Celestine Bishop of Rome in S. Austins time we finde these words Vera ad Deum conversio in ultimis positorum mente potiùs aestimanda est quà m tempore .... Quum ergo Dominus sit cordis inspector quovis tempore non est deneganda poenitentia postulanti quum ille se obliget Judici cui occulta omnia noverit revelari True conversion is to be accounted of by the minde rather then by time Therefore repentance is not to be denied to him who at any time asks it And he despairs of the clemency of God who thinks it not sufficient or that it cannot relieve the sinner in an instant Donec sumus in hâc vitâ quantacunque nobis acciderint peccata possibile est omnia ablui per poenitentiam said S. Austin Serm. 181. de temp c. 16. As long as we are alive so long it is possible that the vilest sins that are may be wash'd off by repentance Si vulneratus es adhibe tibi curam dum vivis dum spiras etiam in ipso lecto positus etiam si dici potest animam efflans ut jam de hoc mundo exeas In Psa 50. hom 2. Non impeditur temporis angustiâ misericordia Dei. Quid enim est peccatum ad Dei misericordiam tela araneae quae vento flante nusquam comparet So S. Chrysostome If thou art wounded in thy soul take care of it while thou livest even so long as thou canst breath though thou beest now breathing thy last yet take care still The mercy of God cannot be hindred by time For what is thy sin to Gods mercy even as a spiders web when the winde blows it is gone in an instant Many more there are to the same purpose who all speaking of the mightiness of the Divine mercy doe insinuate their meaning to be concerning a miraculous or extraordinary mercy And therefore I shall oppose nothing against this onely say that it is very sad when men put their hopes of being sav'd upon a miracle and that without a miracle they must perish But yet then to despair is entring into hell before their time and even a course of the greatest imprudence in the world next to that they are already guilty of that is a putting things to that extremity Dandum interstitium poenitentiae said Tacitus And Inter vitae negotia diem mortis oportere aliquid spatium intercedere said Charls the Emperour For Nemo mortem venientem hilaris excepit nisi qui se ad eam diu composuerat said Seneca Repentance must have a space of time and from the affairs of the world to rush into the arms of death is too quick a change for him that would fain be saved If he can in the midst of all these disadvantages it is well but he cannot with chearfulness and joy receive his death unless he bestowed much time and care in preparations against that sad solemnity Now concerning these instruments of hope I am yet to give another account lest this either seem to be an easiness and flattery of souls and not warrantable from any revelation from God or if it be that it is also a perfect destruction of all the former doctrine For if it be inquired thus Hath God declared that death-bed penitents shall not be saved or that they may be saved or hath he said nothing at all of it If he hath said they cannot be saved why then doe I bid them hope and so abuse them with a false perswasion If he hath said that they may be saved why doe I dispute against it and make them fear where God by a just promise hath given them reason to be confident and hath obliged them them to believe they shall be saved If he hath said nothing of it why are not they to be comprehended within the general rules of all returning penitents especially since there was one case specially made for their interest the example of the Thief upon the Cross To this I shall give a clear and plain answer That God hath required such conditions of pardon and that the duty of repentance is of such extent and burden that it cannot be finish'd and perform'd by dying persons after a vicious life is evident from all the former arguments and therefore if we make dying mens accounts upon the stock of Gods usual dealing and open revelation their case is desperate for the preceding reasons But why then doe I bid them hope if their case be desperate Either God threatning death to all impenitent persons means not to exact death of all but of some onely or else when his holy Spirit describes Repentance in severe characters he secretly means to take less then he sayes For if it be such a work that cannot possibly be done on a death-bed how then can dying persons be called upon to repent for it is vain to repent if it be impossible to hope but if it be possible to do the work of Repentance on our death-bed but onely that it is very difficult there is in this affirmative no great matter Every one confesses that and all evil men put it to the venture For the first part of the dilemma I affirm nothing of it God threatning death to all the impenitent excepts none Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Neither does God exacting or describing Repentance in severe lines use any respect of persons but with the same measures he will deal with all For when there is a difference in the Divine mercy it is in giving time and grace to repent not in sparing one and condemning another who die equally criminal and impenitent Those little lines of hopes are not upon either of these foundations For whatsoever is known or revealed is against these persons and does certainly condemn them Why then are they bidden to hope and repent I answer once for all It is upon something that we know not And if they be not saved we know not how they cannot expect to be saved by any thing that is revealed in their particular When S. Peter had declared to Simon Magus that he was in the gall of bitterness and yet made him pray if peradventure the thought of his heart might be forgiven him he did not by any thing that was revealed know that he should be pardoned but by something that he did not know there might be hope It is at no hand to be dissembled out
refrained their feet therefore the Lord doth not accept them he will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins Then saith the Lord Ver. 11 12. Pray not for this people for their good When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer an oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them by the sword and by famine and by the pestilence Therefore thus saith the Lord Jer. 15.19 if thou return then will I bring thee again and thou shalt stand before me and if thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked Ver. 21. and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible Learn before thou speak Ecclus. 18.19 and use Physick or ever thou be sick Before judgement examine thy self Ver. 20. and in the day of visitation thou shalt finde mercy Humble thy self before thou be sick Ver. 21. and in the time of sins shew repentance Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy vows in due time Ver. 22. and deferre not until death to be justified I made haste Psal 119. and prolonged not the time to keep thy Commandements Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord. For if you throughly amend your ways and your doings if you throughly execute judgement If ye oppress not the stranger and the widow Jer. 7. then shall ye dwell in the land Thus saith the Lord God Ezek. 11.18 I will give you the land and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence And I will give them one heart Ver. 19. and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh That they may walk in my statutes Ver. 20. and keep mine ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God But as for them whose heart walketh after their detestable things and their abominations Ver. 21. I will recompense their way upon their own heads saith the Lord God They have seduced my people saying Peace Ezek. 13.10 and there was no peace and one built up a wall and others dawb'd it with untemper'd morter Will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread Ver. 19. to slay the souls that should not die and to save the souls alive that should not live by your lying unto my people that hear your lies Therefore I will judge you ô house of Israel Ezek. 18.30 every one according to your ways saith the Lord God repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed Ver. 31. and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die ô house of Israel For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God Ver. 32. wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ye shall remember your ways Ezek. 20.43 and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled and ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope Isa 5.18 Woe unto them that justify the wicked for a reward Ver. â—3 and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him And when ye spread forth your hands Isa 1.15 I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of bloud Wash ye Isa 1.16 make ye clean put away the evil of your doing from before mine eyes cease to doe evil Learn to do well Ver. 17. seek judgement relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow Come now and let us reason together Ver. 18. saith the Lord Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red as crimson they shall be as wooll If ye be willing and obedient Ver. 19. ye shall eat the fruit of the land But if ye refuse and rebel Ver. 20. ye shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it She hath wearied her self with lies Ezek. 24. therefore have I caused my fury to light upon her Sow to your selves in righteousness Hos 10.12 and reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you Turn thou unto thy God Mos 12.6 keep mercy and judgement and wait on thy God continually O Israel Hos 13.9 thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help Return to the Lord thy God Hos 24. for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy I will heal their backsliding I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away Seek ye the Lord while he may be found Isa 55.6 call ye upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way Ver. 7. and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon For thus saith the high and lofty One Isa 57.15 that inhabits eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones For I will not contend for ever Ver. 16. neither will I be alwayes wroth for the spirit should fail before mee and the soules which I have made For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth Ver. 17. and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his ways and will heal him Ver. 18. I will lead him also and restore comfort to him and to his mourners I create the fruit of the lips peace Ver. 19. peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord and I will heal him But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest Ver. 20. whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God Ver. 21. to the wicked It is
good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth Lam. 3.26 27. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Who is a God like unto thee Micah 7.18 that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy He will turn again Mic. 7.19 he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depth of the sea Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth Eccles 12.1 while the evil dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them A PSALM O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us have mercy upon us for thy Names sake for our backslidings are many we have sinned against thee O the hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in time of trouble why shouldst thou be a stranger to us and as a wayfaring-man that turneth aside to tarry for a night Why shouldst thou be as a man astonied as a mighty man that cannot save yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name leave us not We acknowledge O Lord our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers for we have sinned against thee Do not abhor us for thy Names sake Jer. 14.7 8 9. do not disgrace the Throne of thy Glory remember break not the Covenant with us I will no more sit in the assembly of mockers Jer. 15.17 nor rejoyce I will sit alone because of thy hand for thou hast filled me with indignation Why is my pain perpetual Ver. 18. and my wound incurable which refuseth to be healed wilt thou be altogether unto me as waters that fail O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps O Lord correct me but with judgement not in thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing O Lord the hope of Israel all that forsake thee shall be ashamed because they have forsaken the Lord the fountain of living waters Heal me O Lord and I shall be healed save me Jer. 17.13 and I shall be saved for thou art my praise Be not a terror unto me Ver. 17. thou art my hope in the day of evil Behold O Lord for I am in distress Lam. 1.20 my bowels are troubled mine heart is turned within me for I have grievously rebelled For these things I weep mine eye Ver. 15. mine eye runneth down with water because the Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me Hear me O Lord and that soon Psal 14 3. for my spirit waxeth faint hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit O let me hear thy loving kindness betimes for in thee in is my trust shew thou me the way that I should walk in for I lift up my soul unto thee Teach me the thing that pleaseth thee for thou art my God let thy loving Spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousness Quicken me O Lord for thy Names sake and for thy righteousness sake bring my soul out of trouble The Lord upholdeth all such as fall Psal 142.9 and lifteth up those that be down I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost O seek thy servant for I do not forget thy Commandements O do well unto thy servant that I may live and keep thy word O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. A Prayer for a sinner returning after a long impiety I. OEternal Judge of Men and Angels Father of Mercy and the great lover of Souls I humbly acknowledge that the state of my soul is sad and deplorable and by my fault by my own grievous fault I am in an evil condition and if thou shouldst now enter into judgement with me I have nothing to put in barre against the horrible sentence nothing of my own nothing that can ease thy anger or abate the fury of one stroke of thy severe infliction I do O God judge and condemn my self and justifie thee for thou art righteous and whatsoever thou doest is good and true But O my God when the guilty condemns himself nothing is left for the offended party but to return to graciousness and pardon I O Lord have done thy severe and angry work I have sentenc'd a vile man to a sad suffering and if I so perish as I have deserved thou art just and righteous and thou oughtest for ever to be glorified II. BVt O my God though I know that I have deserv'd evils that I know not and hope I shall never feel yet thou art gracious and holy and lovest more to behold thy glory reflected from the flouds and springs of mercy then to see it refracted from the troubled waters of thy angry and severe displeasure And because thou lov'st it so highly to shew mercy and because my eternal interest is served in it I also ought to desire what thou lovest and to beg of thee humbly and passionately that I may not perish and to hope with a modest confidence that thou hast mercy in store for him to whom thou hast given grace to ask for it for it is one degree of pardon to be admitted to the station of penitent beggers it is another degree of pardon that thou hast given me grace to hope and I know that in the fountains of thy own graciousness thou hast infinite arguments and inducements to move thee to pity me and to pardon III. O My God pity me for thy Names sake even for thy own goodness sake and because I am miserable and need it And because I have nothing of my own to be a ground of confidence give thy servant leave to place my hopes on thee through Jesus Christ thou hast commanded me to come to the Throne of Grace with boldness that I may finde mercy in time of need and thou hast promised to give thy holy Spirit to them that ask him O dear God give me pardon and give me thy Spirit and I am full and safe and clothed and healed and all that I desire to be and all that I ought to be IV. I Have spent much time in vanity and in undoing my self grant me thy grace that I may recover my loss and imploy all the remaining portion of my time in holy offices and duties of Repentance My understanding hath been abused by false perswasions and vain confidences But now O God I offer up that imperious faculty wholly to the obedience of Christ to be govern'd by his Laws to be instructed by his Doctrine to be bended by all his arguments My will hath been used to crookedness
and peevish morosity in all vertuous imployments but greedy and fierce in the election and prosecution of evil actions and designs But now O God I have no will but what is thine and I will rather die then consent and choose any thing that I know displeases thee My heart O God was a fountain of evil thoughts ungracious words and irregular actions because my passions were not obedient nor orderly neither temperate nor govern'd neither of a fitting measure nor carried to a right object But now O God I present them unto thee not as a fit oblation but as the Lepers and the blinde the lame and the crooked were brought unto the holy Jesus to be made straight and clean useful and illuminate and when thou hast taken into thy possession what is thine and what I stole from thee or detained violently and which the Devil did usurp then thou wilt sanctifie and save it use it as thine own and make it to be so for ever V. BLessed God refuse not thy returning son I have prodigally wasted my talents and spent my time in riotous and vain living but I have not lost my title and relation to thee my Father O my God I have the sorrow of an humble penitent the purposes of a converted sinner the love of a pardon'd person the zeal of an obliged and redeem'd prisoner the hope of him that feels thy present goodness and longs for more Reject me not O my God but do thou work all my works within me My heart is in thy hands and I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps But do thou guide me into the way of righteousness work in me an excellent Repentance a great caution and observance an humble fear a prudent and a religious hope and a daily growing charity work in me to will and to do of thy good pleasure Then shall I praise thy name and love thy excellencies and obey thy Commandements and suffer thy impositions and be what thou wouldst have me to be that I being rescu'd from the possession of the Devil and the torments of perishing souls may be admitted to serve thee and be a Minister of thy honour in the Kingdomes of Grace and Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for an old person returning after a wicked life I. O Eternal God give me leave to speak for my self before I die I would fain live and be heal'd I have been too long thine enemy and would not be so for ever My heart is broken within me and all my fortunes are broken without I know not how to speak and I must not I dare not hold my tongue II. O My God can yesterday be recall'd and the flying hours be stopped In my youth I had not the prudence and caution of old age but is it possible that in my old age I may be restored to the hopes and opportunities of youth Thou didst make the Sun to stand still at the prayer of Joshua and return back at the importunity of Hezekiah O do thou make a new account for me and reckon not the dayes of my youth but from this day reckon the beginnings of my life and measure it by the steps of duty and the light of the Sun of Righteousness now rising upon my heart III. I Am ashamed O God I am ashamed that I should betray my reason shame my nature dishonour all my strengths debauch my understanding and baffle all my faculties for so base so vile affections so unrewarding interests O my God where is all that vanity which I suck'd so greedily as the wilde Asses do the wind whither is that pleasure and madness gone which so ravish'd all my senses and made me deaf to the holy charms of thy divinest Spirit Behold O God I die for that which is not and unless thy mercy be my rescue for ever I shall suffer torments insufferable still to come still to succeed for having drunk of unsatisfying perishing waters which had no current no abode IV. O Dear God smite me not yet respite me one portion of time I dare not say how much but even as much as thou pleasest O stay a while and try me but this once It is true O God I have lost my strength and given my vigorous years to that which I am asham'd to think on But yet O Lord if thou pleasest my soul can be as active and dutiful and affectionate and humble and sorrowful and watchful as ever Thou doest not save any for his own worthiness but eternal life is a gift and thou canst if thou pleasest give it unto me But why does my soul run thither with all its loads of sin and shame upon it That is too great yet to be thought of O give me pardon and give me sorrow and give me a great a mighty grace to do the duty of a whole life in the remaining portion of my dayes V. O My gracious Lord whatever thy sentence be yet let me have the honour to serve thee Let me contribute something to thy glory let me converse with thy Saints and Servants in the entercourses of piety let me be admitted to be a servant to the meanest of thy servants to do something that thou lovest O God my God do what thou pleasest so I may not for ever die in the sad and dishonourable impieties of the damned Let me but be admitted to thy service in all the degrees of my soul and all the dayes of my short life and my soul shall have some comfort because I signifie my love and duty to thee for whom I will not refuse to die O my God I will not beg of thee to give me comfort but to give me duty and imployment Smite me if thou pleasest but smite me here kill me if thou pleasest I have deserved it but I would fain live to serve thee and for no other reason but that thou mayest love to pardon and to sanctifie me VI. O Blessed Jesus do thou intercede for me thy Father hears thee in all things and thou knowest our infirmities and hast felt our miseries and didst die to snatch us from the intolerable flames of Hell and although thou givest thy gifts in differing proportions to thy servants yet thou dost equally offer pardon to all thy enemies that will come unto thee and beg it O give me all faith and all charity and a spirit highly compunctive highly industrious passionate prudent and indefatigable in holy services Open thy fountains gracious Lord and bath my stained soul in thy blood Wash the Ethiop cleanse the Leper dress the strangers wounds and forgive thy enemy VII I Will not O my God I dare not distrust those infinite glories of thy mercy and graciousness by which thou art ready to save all the world The sins of all mankinde together are infinitely less then thy mercy and thou who didst redeem the Heathen world wilt also I hope
rescue me who am a Christian This is my glory and my shame my sins had not been so great if I had not disgrac'd so excellent a title and abused so mighty a grace but yet if the grace which I have abused had not been so great my hopes had been less One deep O God calls upon another O let the abyss of thy mercy swallow up the puddles of my impurity let my soul no longer sink in the dead sea of Sodom but in the laver of thy bloud and my tears and sorrow wash me who come to thee to be cleansed and purified It is not impossible to have it done for thy power hath no limit It is not unusual for thee to manifest such glories of an infinite mercy thou doest it daily O give me a fast a tenacious hope on thee and a bitter sorrow for my sins and an excellent zeal of thy glory and let my repentance be more exemplary then my sins that the infiniteness of that mercy which shall save me may be conspicuous to all Saints and Angels and may endear the return of all sinners to thee the fountain of Holiness and Mercy Mercy dear God pity thy servant and do thy work of grace speedily and mightily upon me through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Ejaculations and short Prayers to be used by dying or sick Penitents after a wicked life I. O Almighty Father of men and Angels I have often been taught that thy mercies are infinite and I know they are so and if I be a person capable of comfort this is the fountain of it for my sins are not infinite onely because they could not be so my desires were onely limited by my Nature for I would not obey the Spirit II. THou O God gavest mercy to the Thief upon the Cross and from pain thou didst bring him to Paradise from sin to repentance from shame to glory Thou wert the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world and art still slain in all the periods of it O be thou pleased to adorn thy passion still with such miracles of mercy and now in this sad conjunction of affairs let me be made the instance III. THou art angry if I despair and therefore thou commandest me to hope My hope cannot rest upon my self for I am a broken reed and an undermined wall But because it rests upon thee it ought not to be weak because thou art infinite in mercy and power IV. HE that hath lived best needs mercy and he that hath lived worst even I O Lord am not wounded beyond the efficacy of thy bloud O dearest sweetest Saviour Jesus V. I Hope it is not too late to say this But if I might be suffered to live longer I would by thy grace live better spending all my time in duty laying out all my passion in love and sorrow imploying all my faculties in Religion and Holiness VI. O My God I am ready to promise any thing now and I am ready to doe or to suffer any thing that may be the condition of mercy and pardon to me But I hope I am not deceived by my fears but that I should if I might be tried do all that I could and love thee with a charity great like that mercy by which I humbly pray that I may be pardon'd VII MY comfort O God is that thou canst if thou wilt and I am sure thy mercy is as great as thy power and why then may not I hope that thou wilt have mercy according to thy power Man only Man is the proper subject of thy mercy and therefore onely he is capable of thy mercy because he hath sinned against thee Angels and the inferiour creatures rejoyce in thy goodnesse but only we that are miserable and sinful can rejoyce in thy mercy and forgivenesse VIII I confess I have destroyed my self but in thee is my help for thou gettest glory to thy name by saving a sinner by redeeming a captive slave by inlightning a dark eye by sanctifying a wicked heart by pardoning innumerable and intolerable transgressions IX O My Father chastise me if thou pleasest but do not destroy me I am a son though an Absalom and a Cain an unthankful a malicious a revengeful uncharitable person Thou judgest not by time but by the measures of the Spirit The affections of the heart are not to be weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary nor repentance to be measured by time but by the Spirit and by the measures of thy mercy X. O My God Hope is a word of an uncertain sound when it is placed in something that can fail but thou art my hope and my confidence and thy mercies are sure mercies which thou hast revealed to man in Christ Jesus and they cannot fail them who are capable of them XI O Gracious Father I am as capable of mercy as I was of being created and the first grace is alwayes so free a grace so undeserved on our part that he that needs and calls is never forsaken by thee XII BLessEd Jesus give me leave to trust in thy promises in the letter of thy promises this letter killeth not for it is the letter of thy Spirit and saveth and maketh alive Ask and you shall have so thou hast said O my God they are thy own words and whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved XIII THere are O blessed Jesus many more and one tittle of thy word shall not pass away unaccomplished and nothing could be in vain by which thou didst intend to support our hopes If we confess our sins thou art just and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquities XIV WHen David said he would confess then thou forgavest him When the Prodigal was yet afar off thou didst run out to meet him and didst receive him When he was naked thou didst reinvest him with a precious robe and what O God can demonstrate the greatness of thy mercy but such a misery as mine so great a shame so great a sinfulness XV. BVt what am I O God sinful dust and ashes a miserable and undone man that I should plead with the great Judge of all the World Look not upon mè as I am in my self but through Jesus Christ behold thy servant clothe me with the robes of his righteousness wash me in his bloud conform me to his image fill me with his Spirit and give me time or give me pardon and an excellent heroick spirit that I may do all that can be done something that is excellent and that may be acceptable in Jesus Christ If I perish I perish I have deserved it but I will hope for mercy till thy mercy hath a limit till thy goodness can be numbred O my God let me not perish thou hast no pleasure in my death and it is impossible for man to suffer thy extremest wrath Who can dwell with the everlasting burning O my God let me dwell safely in the embraces of
thy sweetest mercy Amen Amen Amen CHAP. VI. Of Concupiscence and Original sin and whether or no or how far we are bound to repent of it §. 1. ORiginal sin is so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or figuratively meaning the sin of Adam which was committed in the Original of mankinde by our first Parent and which hath influence upon all his posterity Nascuntur non propriè De civit lib. 16. c. 18. sed originalitèr peccatores So S. Austin and therefore S. Ignatius cals it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old impiety Epist ad Trallian that which was in the original or first Parent of mankinde This sin brought upon Adam all that God threatned but no more A certainty of dying together with the proper effects and affections of mortality was inflicted on him and he was reduced to the condition of his own nature and then begat sons and daughters in his own likeness that is in the proper temper and constitution of mortal men For as God was not bound to give what he never promised viz. an immortal duration and abode in this life so neither does it appear in that angry entercourse that God had with Adam that he took from him or us any of our natural perfections but his graces onely Man being left in this state of pure Naturals could not by his own strength arrive to a supernatural end which was typified in his being cast out of Paradise and the guarding it with the flaming sword of a Cherub For eternal life being an end above our natural proportion cannot be acquir'd by any natural means Neither Adam nor any of his posterity could by any actions or holiness obtain heaven by desert or by any natural efficiency for it is a gift still and it is neque currentis neque operantis neither of him that runneth nor of him that worketh but of God who freely gives it to such persons whom he also by other gifts and graces hath dispos'd toward the reception of it What gifts and graces or supernatural endowments God gave to Adam in his state of Innocence we know not God hath no where told us and of things unrevealed we commonly make wild conjectures But after his fall we finde no sign of any thing but of a common man And therefore as it was with him so it is with us our nature cannot goe to heaven without the helps of the Divine grace so neither could his and whether he had them or no it is certain we have receiving more by the second Adam then we did lose by the first and the sons of God are now spiritual which he never was that we can finde But concerning the sin of Adam tragical things are spoken it destroyed his original righteousness and lost it to us for ever it corrupted his nature and corrupted ours and brought upon him and not him onely but on us also who thought of no such thing an inevitable necessity of sinning making it as natural to us to sin as to be hungry or to be sick and die and the consequent of these things is saddest of all we are born enemies of God sons of wrath and heirs of eternal damnation In the meditation of these sad stories I shall separate the certain from the uncertain that which is reveal'd from that which is presum'd that which is reasonable from that which makes too bold reflexions upon Gods honour and the reputation of his justice and his goodness I shall doe it in the words of the Apostle from whence men commonly dispute in this Question right or wrong according as it happens By one man sin came into the world That sin entred into the world by Adam Rom. 5.12 is therefore certain because he was the first man and unless he had never sinn'd it must needs enter by him for it comes in first by the first and Death by sin that is Death which at first was the condition of nature became a punishment upon that account just as it was to the Serpent to creep upon his belly and to the Woman to be subject to her Husband These things were so before and would have been so for the Apostle pressing the duty of subjection gives two reasons why the woman was to obey One of them onely was derived from this sin the other was the prerogative of creation for Adam was first formed 1 Tim. 2.13 then Eve so that before her fall she was to have been subject to her husband because she was later in being she was a minor and therefore under subjection she was also the weaker vessel But it had not been a curse and if any of them had been hindred by grace and favour by Gods anger they were now left to fall back to the condition of their nature Death passed upon all men That is upon all the old world who were drowned in the floud of the Divine vengeance and who did sin after the similitude of Adam And therefore S. Paul addes that for the reason In as much as all men have sinned If all men have sinned upon their own account as it is certain they have then these words can very well mean that Adam first sinned and all his sons and daughters sinned after him and so died in their own sin by a death which at first and in the whole constitution of affairs is natural and a death which their own sins deserved but yet which was hastned or ascertained upon them the rather for the sin of their progenitor Sin propagated upon that root and vicious example or rather from that beginning not from that cause but dum ita peccant similiter moriuntur If they sin so then so shall they die so S. Hierome But this is not thought sufficient and men doe usually affirm that we are formally and properly made sinners by Adam and in him we all by interpretation sinned and therefore think these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forasmuch as all men have sinned ought to be expounded thus Death passed upon all men In whom all men have sinned meaning that in Adam we really sinn'd and God does truly and justly impute his sin to us to make us as guilty as he that did it and as much punish'd and liable to eternal damnation And all the great force of this fancy relies upon this exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify in him Concerning which there will be the less need of a laborious inquiry if it be observed that the words being read Forasmuch as all men have sinned bear a fair and clear discourse and very intelligible if it be rendred In him it is violent and hard a distinct period by it self without dependence or proper purpose against the faith of all copies who do not make this a distinct period and against the usual manner of speaking 2. This phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in 2 Cor. 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not for that we would be unclothed and so it is
took upon him the wrath of God due to all mankinde yet Gods anger even in that case extended no further then a temporal death Because for the eternal nothing can make recompence and it can never turn to good 3. When God inflicts a temporal evil upon the son for his fathers sin he does it as a Judge to the father but as a Lord onely of the son He hath absolute power over the lives of all his creatures and can take it away from any man without injustice when he please though neither he nor his Parents have sinned and he may use the same right and power when either of them alone hath sinn'd But in striking the son he does not doe to him as a Judge that is he is not angry with him but with the Parent But to the son he is a supreme Lord and may doe what seemeth good in his own eyes 4. When God using the power and dominion of a Lord and the severity of a Judge did punish posterity it was but so long as the fathers might live and see it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Chrysostom Homil. 29. in 9. Gen. to the third and fourth generation no longer It was threatned to endure no longer in the second Commandement and so it hapned in the case of Zimri and Jehu after the fourth generation they prevailed not upon their Masters houses And if it happen that the Parents die before yet it is a plague to them that they know or ought to fear the evil shall happen upon their posterity quò tristiores perirent as Alexander said of the Traitors whose sons were to die after them They die with sorrow and fear 5. This power and dominion which God used was not exercised in ordinary cases but in the biggest crimes onely It was threatned in the case of idolatry and was often inflicted in the case of perjury of which the oracle recited by Herodotus said Impete magno Advenit atque omnem vastat stirpémque domúmque And in sacrilege the anger of God uses also to be severe of which it was observ'd even by the Heathens taught by the Delphick Priests Sed capiti ipsorum quÃque enascuntur ab ipsis Imminot Ãnque domo cladem subit altera clades Those sins which the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which the Christians called crying sins are such in the punishment of which God did not onely use his severe justice as to the offending person but for the enlargement and extension of his justice and the terror of the world he used the rights of his power and dominion over their Relatives 6. Although God threatned this and hath a right and power to doe this yet he did not often use his right but onely in such notable examples as were sufficient to all ages to consign and testify his great indignation against those crimes for the punishment of which he was pleased to use his right the rights of his dominion For although he often does miracles of mercy yet seldome it is that he does any extraordinaries of judgement He did it to Corah and Dathan to Achan and Saul to Jeroboam and Ahab and by these and some more expressed his severity against the like crimes sufficiently to all ages 7. But his goodness and graciousness grew quickly weary of this way of proceeding They were the terrors of the law and God did not delight in them Therefore in the time of Ezekiel the Prophet he declar'd against them and promised to use it no more that is not so frequently not so notoriously not without great necessity and charity Ne ad parentum exempla succresceret improbitas filiorum As I live saith the Lord Ezek. 18.3 ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel The Fathers have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge The soul that sinneth it shall die 8. The iniquity of the people and the hardness of their heart did force God to use this harsh course especially since that then there was no declaration or intermination and threatning the pains of hell to great sinners Duritia populi ad talia remedia compulerat ut vel posteritatibus suis prospicientes legi Divinae obedirent said Tertullian Something extraordinary was then needful to be done to so vile a people to restrain their sinfulness But when the Gospel was published and hell-fire threatned to persevering and greater sinners the former way of punishment was quite left off And in all the Gospel there is not any one word of threatning passing beyond the person offending De Monog Desivit uva acerba saith Tertullian à patribus manducata dentes filiorum obstupefacere unusquisque enim in suo delicto morietur Now that is in the time of the Gospel the sowre grape of the Fathers shall no more set on edge the childrens teeth but every one shall die in his own sin Upon this account alone it must needs be impossible to be consented to that God should still under the Gospel after so many generations of vengeance and taking punishment for the sin after the publication of so many mercies and so infinite a graciousness as is revealed to mankinde in Jesus Christ after the so great provisions against sin even the horrible threatnings of damnation still persevere to punish Adam in his posterity and the posterity for what they never did For either the evil that fals upon us for Adams sin is inflicted upon us by way of proper punishment or by right of dominion If by a proper punishment to us then we understand not the justice of it because we were not personally guilty and all the world says it is unjust directly to punish a childe for his fathers fault Nihil est iniquius quà m aliquem haeredem paterni odii fieri said Seneca and Pausanias the General of the Grecian army would not punish the children of Attagines who perswaded the Thebans to revolt to the Medes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying the children were not guilty of that revolt and when Avidius Cassius had conspired against Mark Anthony he wrote to the Senate to pardon his wife and son in law Et quid dico veniam cùm illi nihil fecerint but why says he should I say pardon when they had done nothing But if God inflicts the evil upon Adams posterity which we suffer for his sake not as a punishment that is not making us formally guilty but using his own right and power of dominion which he hath over the lives and fortunes of his creatures then it is a strange anger which God hath against Adam that he still retains so fierce an indignation as not to take off his hand from striking after five thousand six hundred years and striking him for that of which he repented him and which in all reason we believe he then pardon'd or resolv'd to pardon when he promised the Messias to him * To this I adde this consideration That
sixteen Heat and cold are both our enemies and yet the one always dwels within and the other dwels round about us The chances and contingencies that trouble us are no more to be numbred then the minutes of eternity The Devil often hurts us and men hurt each other oftner and we are perpetually doing mischief to our selves The stars doe in their courses fight against some men and all the elements against every man the heavens send evil influences the very beasts are dangerous and the air we suck in does corrupt our lungs many are deformed and blinde and ill coloured and yet upon the most beauteous face is plac'd one of the worst sinks of the body and we are forc'd to pass that through our mouthes oftentimes which our eye and our stomack hates Pliny did wittily and elegantly represent this state of evil things Lib. 6. Prooem Itaque foelicitèr homo natus jacet manibus pedibúsque devinctis flens animal caeteris imperaturum à suppliciis vitam auspicatur unam tantum ob culpam quia natum est A man is born happily but at first he lies bound hand and foot by impotency and cannot stir the creature weeps that is born to rule over all other creatures and begins his life with punishments for no fault but that he was born In short The body is a region of diseases of sorrow and nastiness and weakness and temptation Here is cause enough of being humbled Neither is it better in the soul of man where ignorance dwells and passion rules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After death came in there entred also a swarm of passions And the will obeys every thing but God Fertur equis Auriga neque audit currus habenas Our judgement is often abused in matters of sense and one faculty guesses at truth by confuting another and the error of the eye is corrected by something of reason or a former experience Our fancy is often abus'd and yet creates things of it self by tying disparate things together that can cohere no more then Musick and a Cable then Meat and Syllogisms and yet this alone does many times make credibilities in the understandings Our Memories are so frail that they need instruments of recollection and laborious artifices to help them and in the use of these artifices sometimes we forget the meaning of those instruments and of those millions of sins which we have committed we scarce remember so many as to make us sorrowful or asham'd Our judgements are baffled with every Sophism and we change our opinion with a wind and are confident against truth but in love with error We use to reprove one error by another and lose truth while we contend too earnestly for it Infinite opinions there are in matters of Religion and most men are confident and most are deceived in many things and all in some and those few that are not confident have onely reason enough to suspect their own reason We do not know our own bodies not what is within us nor what ails us when we are sick nor whereof we are made nay we oftentimes cannot tell what we think or believe or love We desire and hate the same thing speak against and run after it We resolve and then consider we binde our selves and then finde causes why we ought noo to be bound and want not some pretences to make our selves believe we were not bound Prejudice and Interest are our two great motives of believing we weigh deeper what is extrinsical to a question then what is in its nature and oftener regard who speaks then what is said The diseases of our soul are infinite Eccles Hier. c. 3. Part. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Dionysius of Athens Mankinde of old fell from those good things which God gave him and now is fallen into a life of passion and a state of death In sum it follows the temper or distemper of the body and sailing by such a Compass and being carried in so rotten a vessell especially being empty or fill'd with lightness and ignorance and mistakes it must needs be exposed to the danger and miseries of every storm which I choose to represent in the words of Cicero In Hortens Ex humanae vitae erroribus aerumnis fit ut verum sit illum quod est apud Aristotelem sic nostros animos cum corporibus copulatos ut vivos cum mortuis esse conjunctos The soul joyned with the body is like the conjunction of the living and the dead the dead are not quickened by it but the living are afflicted and die But then if we consider what our spirit is we have reason to lie down flat upon our faces and confess Gods glory and our own shame When it is at the best it is but willing but can do nothing without the miracle of Grace Our spirit is hindred by the body and cannot rise up whither it properly tends with those great weights upon it It is foolish and improvident large in desires and narrow in abilities naturally curious in trifles and inquisitive after vanities but neither understands deeply nor affectionately relishes the things of God pleas'd with forms cousen'd with pretences satisfi'd with shadows incurious of substances and realities It is quick enough to finde doubts and when the doubts are satisfied it raises scruples that is it is restless after it is put to sleep and will be troubled in despight of all arguments of peace It is incredibly negligent of matters of Religion and most solicitous and troubled in the things of the world We love our selves and despise others judging most unjust sentences and by peevish and cross measures Covetousness and Ambition Gain and Empire are the proportions by which we take account of things We hate to be govern'd by others even when we cannot dress our selves and to be forbidden to do or have a thing is the best art in the world to make us greedy of it The flesh and the spirit perpetually are at * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar hom 21. strife the spirit pretending that his ought to be the dominion and the flesh alleaging that this is her state and her day We hate our present condition and know not how to better our selves our changes being but like the tumblings and tossings in a Feaver from trouble to trouble that 's all the variety We are extremely inconstant and alwayes hate our own choice we despair sometimes of Gods mercies and are confident in our own follies as we order things we cannot avoid little sins and doe not avoid great ones We love the present world though it be good for nothing and undervalue infinite treasures if they be not to be had till the day of recompences We are peevish if a servant does but break a glass and patient when we have thrown an ill cast for eternity throwing away the hopes of a glorious Crown for wine and dirty silver We know that our prayers if
with weeping and on my eie-lids is the shadow of death Not for any injustice in my hand also my prayer is pure Wretched man that I am Rom. 7.24 who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God I am delivered through Jesus Christ our Lord. But now being made free from sin 6.22 and become servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin is death But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies V. 12,14 that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace The PRAYER O Almighty God great Father of Men and Angels thou art the preserver of men and the great lover of souls thou didst make every thing perfect in its kinde and all that thou didst make was very good onely we miserable creatures sons of Adam have suffered the falling Angels to infect us with their leprosie of pride and so we entred into their evil portion having corrupted our way before thee and are covered with thy rod and dwell in a cloud of thy displeasure behold me the meanest of thy servants humbled before thee sensible of my sad condition weak and miserable sinful and ignorant full of need wanting thee in all things and neither able to escape death without a Saviour nor to live a life of holiness without thy Spirit O be pleas'd to give me a portion in the new birth break off the bands and fetters of my sin cure my evil inclinations correct my indispositions and natural averseness from the severities of Religion let me live by the measures of thy law not by the evil example and disguises of the world Renew a right spirit within me and cast me not away from thy presence lest I should retire to the works of darkness and enter into those horrible regions where the light of thy countenance never shineth II. I Am ashamed O Lord I am ashamed that I have dishonoured so excellent a Creation Thou didst make us upright and create us in innocence And when thou didst see us unable to stand in thy sight and that we could never endure to be judged by the Covenant of works thou didst renew thy mercies to us in the new Covenant of Jesus Christ and now we have no excuse nothing to plead for our selves much less against thee but thou art holy and pure and just and merciful Make me to be like thee holy as thou art holy merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful obedient as our holy Saviour Jesus meek and charitable temperate and chaste humble and patient according to that holy example that my sins may be pardoned by his death and my spirit renewed by his Spirit that passing from sin to grace from ignorance to the knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ I may pass from death to life from sorrow to joy from earth to heaven from the present state of misery and imperfection to the glorious inheritance prepar'd for the Saints and Sons of light the children of the new birth the brethren of our Lord and Brother our Judge and our Advocate our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer JESVS Amen A Prayer to be said by a Matron in behalf of her husband and family that a blessing may descend upon their posterity I. O Eternal God our most merciful Lord and gracious Father thou art my guide the light of mine eyes the joy of my heart the author of my hope and the object of my love and worshippings thou relievest all my needs and determin'st all my doubts and art an eternal fountain of blessing open and running over to all thirsty and weary souls that come and cry to thee for mercy and refreshment Have mercy upon thy servant and relieve my fears and sorrows and the great necessities of my family for thou alone O Lord canst doe it II. FIt and adorn every one of us with a holy and a religious spirit and give a double portion to thy servant my dear husband Give him a wise heart a prudent severe and indulgent care over the children which thou hast given us His heart is in thy hand and the events of all things are in thy disposition Make it a great part of his care to promote the spiritual and eternal interest of his children not to neglect their temporal relations and necessities but to provide states of life for them in which with fair advantages they may live chearfully serve thee diligently promote the interest of the Christian family in all their capacities that they may be alwayes blessed and alwayes innocent devout and pious and may be graciously accepted by thee to pardon and grace and glory through Jesus Christ Amen III. BLess O God my sons with excellent understandings love of holy and noble things sweet dispositions innocent deportment diligent souls chaste healthful and temperate bodies holy and religious spirits that they may live to thy glory and be useful in their capacities to the servants of God and all their neighbours and the Relatives of their conversation Bless my daughters with a humble and a modest carriage and excellent meekness a great love of holy things a severe chastity a constant holy and passionate Religion O my God never suffer them to fall into folly and the sad effects of a wanton loose and indiscreet spirit possess their fancies with holy affections be thou the covering of their eyes and the great object of their hopes and all their desires Blessed Lord thou disposest all things sweetly by thy providence thou guidest them excellently by thy wisdome thou unitest all circumstances and changes wonderfully by thy power and by thy power makest all things work for the good of thy servants Be pleased so to dispose my daughters that if thou shouldst call them to the state of a married life they may not dishonour their family nor grieve their parents nor displease thee but that thou wilt so dispose of their persons and the accidents and circumstances of that state that it may be a state of holiness to the Lord and blessing to thy servants And until thy wisdome shall know it fit to bring things so to pass let them live with all purity spending their time religiously and usefully O most blessed Lord enable their dear father with proportionable abilities and opportunities of doing his duty and charities toward them and them with great obedience and duty toward him and all of us with a love toward thee above all things in the world that our portion may be in love and in thy blessings through Jesus Christ our dearest Lord and most gracious Redeemer IV. O My God pardon thy servant pity my infirmities hear the passionate desires of thy humble servant in thee alone is my trust my heart and all my wishes are towards thee Thou hast
Manasses of Mary Magdalen and S. Paul of the Thief on the Cross and the deprehended Adulteress and of the Jews themselves who after they had crucified the Lord of life were by messengers of his own invited passionately invited to repent and be purified with that blood which they had sacrilegiously and impiously spilt But concerning this who please may reade S. Austin discoursing upon those words Mittet Crystallum suum sicut buccellas which saith he mystically represent the readiness of God to break and make contrite even the hearts of them that have been hardened in impiety Gemara de Synedrio c. 11. Quo loco consisiâ—â—t poenitentiaâ—â—â—gentes ibi justi non poterunt stare said the Doctors of the Jews The just and innocent persons shall not be able to stand in the same place where the penitent shall be Pacem pacem remoto propinquo ait Dominus ut sanem eum Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord that I may heal him Praeponit remotum That 's their observation He that is afar off is set before the other that is he that is at great distance from God as if God did use the greater earnestness to reduce him Upon which place their gloss addes Magna est virtus eorum qui poenitentiam agunt ita ut nulla Creatura in septo illorum consistere queat So great is the vertue of them that are true penitents that no creature can stand within their inclosure And all this is farre better expressed by those excellent words of our blessed Saviour Luk. 15.7 There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more then over ninety nine just persone that need no repentance I have been the longer in establishing and declaring the proper foundation of this Article upon which every one can declaim but every one cannot believe it in the day of temptation because I guess what an intolerable evil it is to despair of pardon by having felt the trouble of some very great fears And this were the less necessary but that it is too commonly true that they who repent least are most confident of their pardon or rather least consider any reasons against their security but when a man truly apprehends the vileness of his sin he ought also to consider the state of his danger which is wholly upon the stock of what is past that is his danger is this that he knows not when or whether or upon what terms God will pardon him in particular But of this I shall have a more apt occasion to speak in the following periods For the present the Article in general is established upon the testimonies of the greatest certainty §. 2. Of pardon of sins committed after Baptism BUt it may be our easiness of life and want of discipline and our desires to reconcile our pleasures and temporal satisfactions with the hopes of heaven hath made us apt to swallow all that seems to favour our hopes But it is certain that some Christian Doctors have taught the Doctrine of Repentance with greater severity then is intimated in the premises For all the examples of pardon consign'd to us in the Old Testament are nothing to us who live under the New and are to be judged by other measures And as for those instances which are recorded in the New Testament and all the promises and affirmations of pardon they are sufficiently verified in that pardon of sins which is first given to us in Baptism and at our first Conversion to Christianity Thus when S. Stephen prayed for his persecutors and our blessed Lord himself on his uneasie death-bed of the Cross prayed for them that Crucified him it can onely prove that these great sins are pardonable in our first access to Christ because they for whom Christ and his Martyr S. Stephen prayed were not yet converted and so were to be saved by Baptismal Repentance Then the Power of the Keyes is exercised and the gates of the Kingdome are opened then we enter into the Covenant of mercy and pardon and promise faith and perpetual obedience to the laws of Jesus and upon that condition forgiveness is promised and exhibited offer'd and consign'd but never after for it is in Christianity for all great sins as in the Civil law for theft L. 65. D. de furtis l. 1. D. de Aediliâ—io edicto Qui eâ mente alienum quid contrectavit ut lucrifaceret tametsi mutato consilio id Domino postea reddidit fur est nemo enim tali peccato poenitentiâ suâ nocens esse desinit said Vlpian and Gaius Repentance does not here take off the punishment nor the stain And so it seems to be in Christianity in which every baptized person having stipulated for obedience is upon those terms admitted to pardon and consequently if he fails of his duty he shall fail of the grace But that this objection may proceed no further it is certain that it is an infinite lessening of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ to confine pardon of sins onely to the Font. For that even lapsed Christians may be restored by repentance and be pardoned appears in the story of the incestuous Corinthian and the precept of S. Paul to the spiritual man or the Curate of souls If any man be overtaken in a fault Gal. 6.1 ye which are spiritual restore such a man in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted The Christian might fall and the Corinthian did so and the Minister himself he who had the ministery of restitution and reconciliation was also in danger and yet they all might be restored To the same sense is that of S. James Jam. 5.15 Is any man sick among you let him send for the Presbyters of the Church and let them pray over him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although he was a doer of sins they shall be forgiven him For there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sin that is not unto death And therefore when S. Austin in his first Book de Sermone Dei had said that there is some sin so great that it cannot be remitted he retracts his words with this clause addendum fuit c. I should have added If in so great perverseness of minde he ends his life For we must not despair of the worst sinner we may not despair of any since we ought to pray for all For it is beyond exception or doubt that it was the great work of the Apostles and of the whole new Testament to engage men in a perpetual repentance For since all men doe sin all men must repent or all men must perish And very many periods of Scripture are directed to lapsed Christians baptized persons fallen into grievous crimes calling them to repentance Acts 8.22 So Simon Peter to Simon Magus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repent of thy wickedness and to the Corinthian Christians S. Paul urges the purpose of his legation
Serapi qui se Christi Episcopos dicunt Apud Spartian So the Emperor testifies in his letters to Servianus For it is not to be suppos'd that it was part of their perswasion that they might lawfully doe it or that it was solemn and usual so to doe but that to avoid persecution they did choose rather to seem unconstant and changeable then to be kill'd especially in that Nation which was tota levis pendula ad omnia famae momenta volans as these letters say light and inconstant tossed about with every noise of fame and variety These Bishops after the departure of Caesar without peradventure did many of them return to their charges and they and their Priests pardon'd each other just as the Libellatici and the Thurificati did in Carthage and all Africa as S. Cyprian relates 6. In Ephrem Syrus there is a form of Confession and of Prayer for the pardon of foul sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have mercy on my sins my injustices my covetousness which some render unnaturall lusts my adulteries and fornications my idle and filthy speakings If these after Baptism are pardonable Quid non speremus the former severity must be understood not to be their Doctrine but their Discipline And the same is to be said concerning their giving Repentance but to to those whom they did admit after Baptism we finde it expresly affirm'd by the next ages that the purpose of their Fathers was onely for Discipline and caution Epist 54. So S. Austin The Church did cautiously and healthfully provide that penitents should but once be admitted lest a frequent remedy should become contemptible yet who dares say Why doe ye again spare this man who after his first repentance is again intangled in the snares of sin So that whereas some of them use to say of certain sins that after Baptism or after the first relapse they are unpardonable we must know that in the style of the Church Vnpardonable signified such to which by the Discipline and Customs of the Church pardon was not ministred They were called Vnpardonable not because God would not pardon them but because he alone could this we learn from those words of Tertullian Salvâ illâ poenitentiae specie post fidem quae aut levioribus delictis veniam ab Episcopo consequi poterit aut majoribus irremissibilibus à Deo solo The lighter or lesser sins might obtain pardon from the Ministery of the Bishop Hoc satis est ipsi caetera mando Deo The greatest and the Vnpardonable could obtain it of God alone So that when they did deny to absolve some certain Criminals after Baptism or after a relapse they did not affirm the sins to be unpardonable as we understand the word Novatus himself did not Lib. 4. cap. 14. for as Socrates reports he wrote to all the Churches every where that they should not admit them that had sacrificed to the Mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to exhort them to repentance and yet to leave their pardon and absolution to him who is able and hath authority to forgive sins And the same also was the doctrine of Acesius his great Disciple for which Constantine in Eusebius reprov'd him Some single men have despair'd but there was never any Sect of men that seal'd up the Divine Mercy by the locks and barres of Despair much less did any good Christians ever doe it And this we finde expresly verified by the French Bishops in a Synod there held about the time of Pope Zephyrinus Poenitentia ab his qui daemonibus * sacrificant potiùs legend sanctificant agenda ad diem mortis non sine spe tamen remissionis quam ab eo planè sperare debebunt qui ejus largitatem solus obtinet tam dives misericordie est ut nemo desperet Although the Criminal must doe penance to his dying day that is the Church will not absolve or admit him to her communion yet he must not be without hope of pardon which yet is not to be hop'd for from the Church but from him who is so rich in mercy that no man may despair Epist 31. Quos separatos à nobis derelinquimus c. and not long after this S. Cyprian said Though we leave them in their separation from us yet we have and do exhort them to repent if by any means they can receive indulgence from him who can perform it Now if it be enquired what real effect this had upon the persons or souls of the offending relapsing persons the consideration is weighty and material For to say the Church could not absolve such persons in plain speaking seems to mean that since the Church ministers nothing of her own but is the Minister of the Divine mercy she had no commission to promise pardon to such persons If God had promised pardon to such Criminals it is certain the Church was bound to preach it but if she could not declare preach or exhibite any such promise then there was no such promise and therefore their sending them to God was but a put off or a civil answer saying that God might doe it if he please but he had not signified his pleasure concerning them and whether they who sinn'd so foully after Baptism were pardonable was no where revealed and therefore all the Ministers of Religion were bound to say they were unpardonable that is God never said he would pardon them which is the full sense of the word Vnpardonable For he that sayes any sin is unpardonable does not mean that God cannot pardon it but that he will not or that he hath not said he will And upon the same account it seem'd unreasonable to S. Ambrose that the Church should impose penances and not release the penitents He complain'd of the Novatians for so doing Lib. 1. de poenit c. 2. Cùm utique veniam negando incentivum auferant poenitentiae the penitents could have little encouragement to perform the injunctions of their Confessors when after they had done them they should not be admitted to the Churches communion And indeed the case was hard when it should be remembred that whatsoever the Church did binde on earth was bound in heaven and if they retain'd them below God would doe so above and therefore we finde in Scripture that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give repentance being the purpose of Christs coming and the grace of the Gospel does mean to give the effect of Repentance that is pardon And since Gods method is such by giving the grace and admitting us to doe the duty he consequently brings to that mercy which is the end of that duty it is fit that should also be the method of the Church For the ballancing of this Consideration we are further to consider that though the Church had power to pardon in all things where God had declar'd he would yet because in some sins the malice was so great the scandal so intolerable
the effect so mischievous the nature of them so contradictory to the excellent laws of Christianity the Church many times could not give a competent judgement whether any man that had committed great sins had made his amends and done a sufficient penance and the Church not knowing whether their Repentance was worthy and acceptable to God she could not pronounce their pardon that is she could not tell them whether upon those terms God had or would pardon them in the present disposition For after great crimes the state of a sinner is very deplorable by reason of his uncertain pardon not that it is uncertain whether God will pardon the truly penitent but that it is uncertain who is so and all the ingredients into the judgement that is to be made are such things which men cannot well discern they cannot tell in what measures God will exact the Repentance what sorrow is sufficient what fruits acceptable what is expiatory and what rejected Pro. 20.9 according to the saying of Solomon Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin they cannot tell how long God will forbear at what time his anger is final and when he will refuse to hear or what aggravations of the crime God looks on nor can they make an estimate which is greater the example of the sin or the example of the punishment And therefore in such great cases the Church had reason to refuse to give pardon which she could minister neither certainly nor prudently nor as the case then stood safely or piously But yet she enjoyn'd Penances that is all the solemnities of Repentance and to them the sinners stood bound in earth and consequently in heaven according to the words of our blessed Saviour but she bound them no further She intended charity and relief to them not ruine and death eternal On this she had no direct power and if the penitents were obedient to her Discipline then neither could they be prejudic'd by her indirect power she sent them to God for pardon and made them to prepare themselves accordingly Her injunction of penances was medicinal and her refusing to admit them to the Communion was an act of caution fitted to the present necessities of the Church S Ambros lib. 2. de poenit c 9. Nonnullae ideò poscunt poenitentiam ut statim sibi reddi communionem velint Hae non tam se solvere cupiunt quà m sacerdotem ligare Some demand penances that they may have speedy communion These doe not so much desire themselves to be loosed as to have the Priest bound that is such hasty proceedings doe not any good to the penitent but much hurt to him that ministers This the Primitive Church avoided and this was the whole effect which that Discipline had upon the souls of the penitents But for their Doctrine S. Austin is a sufficient witness Enchir. 6. Sed neque de ipsis criminibus quamlibe◠magnis remitttendis in Sanctâ Ecclesiâ Dei desperanda est misericordia agentibus poenitentiam secundum modum sui cujusque peccati They ought not to despair of Gods mercy even to the greatest sinners if they be the greatest penitents that is if they repent according to the measure of their sins Onely in the making their judgements concerning the measures of Repentance they differ'd from our practises Ecclesiastical Repentance and Absolution was not onely an exercise of the duty and an assisting of the penitent in his return but it was also a warranting or ensuring the pardon which because in many cases the Church could not so well doe she did better in not undertaking it that is in not pronouncing Absolution For the pardon of sins committed after Baptism not being described in full measures and though it be sufficiently signifi'd that any sin may be pardon'd yet it not being told upon what conditions this or that great one shall the Church did well and warily not to be too forward for as S. Paul said I am conscious to my self in nothing yet I am not hereby justified so we may say in Repentance I have repented and doe so but I am not hereby justified because that is a secret which until the day of Judgement we shall not understand for every repenting is not sufficient He that repents worthily let his sin be what it will shall certainly be pardon'd but after great crimes who does repent worthily is a matter of harder judgement then the manners of the present age will allow us to make and so secret that they thought it not amiss very often to be backward in pronouncing the Criminal absolved But then all this whole affair must needs be a mighty arrest to the gayeties of this sinful age For although Christs blood can expiate all sins and his Spirit can sanctifie all sinners and his Church can restore all that are capable yet if we consider that the particulars of every naughty mans case are infinitely uncertain that there are no minute-measures of repentance set down after Baptism that there are some states of sinners which God does reject that the arrival to this state is by parts and undetermin'd steps of progression that no man can tell when any sin begins to be unpardonable to such a person and that if we be careless of our selves and easie in our judgements and comply with the false measures of any age we may be in before we are aware and cannot come out so soon as we expect and lastly if we consider that the Primitive and Apostolical Churches who best knew how to estimate the mercies of the Gospel and the requisites of repentance and the malignity and dangers of sin did not promise pardon so easily so readily so quickly as we doe we may think it fit to be more afraid and more contrite more watchful and more severe I end this with the words of S. Hierome Cùm beatus Daniel prascius futurorum de sententiâ Dei dubitot Ad Dan. rem temerariam faciunt qui audacter peccatoribus indulgentiam pollicentur Though Daniel could foretel future things yet he durst not pronounce concerning the King whether God would pardon him or no it is therefore a great rashness boldly to promise pardon to them that have sinned That is it is not to be done suddenly according to the caution which S. Paul gave to the Bishop of Ephesus 1 Tim. 5.22 Lay hands suddenly on no man that is absolve him not without great trial and just dispositions For though this be not at all to be wrested to a suspicion that the sins in their kinde are not pardonable yet thus far I shall make use of it That God who onely hath the power he onely can make the judgement whether the sinner be a worthy penitent or not For there being no express stipulation made concerning the degrees of repentance no taxa poenitentiaria penitential Tables and Canons consign'd by God it cannot be told by man when after great sins
and a long iniquity the unhappy man shall be restor'd because it wholly depends upon the Divine acceptance In smaller offences and the seldome returns of sin intervening in a good or a probable life the Curates of souls may make safe and prudent judgements But when the case is high and the sin is clamorous or scandalous or habitual they ought not to be too easy in speaking peace to such persons to whom God hath so fiercely threatned death eternal But to hold their hands may possibly increase the sorrow and contrition and fear of the penitent and returning man and by that means make him the surer of it But it is too great a confidence and presumption to dispense Gods pardon or the Kings upon easy terms and without their Commission For since all the rule and measures of dispensing it is by analogies and proportions by some reason and much conjecture it were better by being restrain'd in the Ministeries of favour to produce fears and watchfulness carefulness and godly sorrow then by an open hand to make sinners bold and many confident and easy Those holy and wise men who were our Fathers in Christ did well weigh the dangers into which a sinning man had entred and did dreadfully fear the issues of the Divine anger and therefore although they openly taught that God hath set open the gates of mercy to all worthy penitents yet concerning repentance they had other thoughts then we have and that in the pardon of sinners there are many more things to be considered besides the possibility of having the sin pardoned §. 4. Of the sin against the Holy Ghost and in what sense it is or may be Unpardonable UPon what account the Primitive Church did refuse to admit certain Criminals to repentance I have already discoursed but because there are some places of Scripture which seem to have incouraged such severity by denying repentance also to some sinners it is necessary that they be considered also lest by being misunderstood some persons in the days of their sorrow be tempted to despair The Novatians denying repentance to lapsed Christians pretended for their warrant those words of S. Paul Heb. 6.4 5 6. It is impossible for those who were once inlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the son of God afresh and put him to an open shame and parallel to this are those other words Hebr. 10.26 27. For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shal consume the adversaries The sense of which words will be clear upon the explicating what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they shall fall away viz. from that state of excellent things in which they had received all the present endearments of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full conviction pardon of sins the earnest of the Spirit the comfort of the promises an antepast of heaven it self if these men shall fall away from all this it cannot be by infirmity by ignorance by surprise this is that which S. Paul cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth Malicious sinners these are who sin against the Holy Spirit whose influences they throw away whose counsels they despise whose comforts they refuse whose doctrine they scorn and from thence fall not onely into one single wasting sin but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they fall away into a contrary state into Heathenism or the heresy of the Gnosticks or to any state of despising and hating Christ expressed here by Crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame these are they here meant such who after they had worshipped Jesus and given up their names to him and had been blessed by him and felt it and acknowledged it and rejoyc'd in it these men afterwards without cause or excuse without error or infirmity choosingly willingly knowingly call'd Christ an Impostor and would have crucified him again if he had been alive that is they consented to his death by believing that he suffer'd justly This is the case here described and cannot be drawn to any thing else but its parallel that is a malicious renouncing charity or holy life as these men did the faith to both which they had made their solemne vows in Baptism but this can no way be drawn to the condemnation and final excision of such persons who after baptism fall into any great sin of which they are willing to repent There is also something peculiar in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renewing such men to repentance that is these men are not to be redintegrate and put into the former condition they cannot be restored to any other gracious Covenant of repentance since they have despis'd this Other persons who hold fast their profession and forget not that they were cleansed in baptism they in case they doe fall into sin may proceed in the same method in their first renovation to repentance that is in their being solemnly admitted to the method and state of repentance for all sins known and unknown But when this renovation is renounc'd when they despise the whole Oeconomy when they reject this grace and throw away the Covenant there is nothing left for such but a fearful looking for of judgement for these persons are incapable of the mercies of the Gospel they are out of the way For there being but one way of salvation viz. by Jesus Christ whom they renounce neither Moses nor Nature nor any other name can restore them And 2. Their case is so bad and they so impious and malicious that no man hath power to perswade such men to accept of pardon by those means which they so disown For there is no means of salvation but this one and this one they hate and will not have they will not return to the old and there is none left by which they can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renewed and therefore their condition is desperate But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or impossible is also of special importance and consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is impossible to renew such For impossible is not to be understood in the natural sense but in the legal and moral There are degrees of impossibility and therefore they are not all absolute and supreme So when the law hath condemned a criminal we usually say it is impossible for him to escape meaning that the law is clearly against him Magnus ab infernis revocetur Tullius umbris Mart. Ep. l. 4.
his servant Moses It is called sinning with a high hand that is with an hand lift up on high against God Corah and his Company committed the sin against the Holy Spirit for they spake against that Spirit and power which God had put into Moses and prov'd by the demonstration of mighty effects It is a denying that great argument of Credibility by which God goes about to verifie any mission of his to prove by mighty effects of Gods Spirit that God hath sent such a man When God manifests his holy Spirit by signs and wonders extraordinary not to revere this good Spirit not to confess him but to revile him or to reproach the power is that which God ever did highly punish Thus it happened to Pharoah he also sinn'd against the Holy Ghost the good Spirit of God for when his Magicians told him that the finger of God was there yet he hardned his heart against it and then God went on to harden it more till he overthrew him for then his sin became unpardonable in the sense I shall hereafter explicate And this pass'd into a law to the children of Israel and they were warned of it with the highest threatning that is of a capital punishment The soul that doeth ought presumptuously or with an high hand the same reproacheth the Lord Num. 15.30 that soul shall be cut off from among his people and this is translated into the New Testament They that doe despite to the Spirit of Grace shall fall into the hands of the living God That 's the sin against the Holy Ghost Now this sin must in all reason be very much greater under the Gospel then under the Law For when Christ came he did such miracles which never any man did and preach'd a better law and with mighty demonstrations of the Spirit that is of the power and Spirit of God prov'd himself to have come from God and therefore men were more convinc'd and he that was so and yet would oppose the Spirit that is defie all his proofs and hear none of his words and obey none of his laws and at last revile him too he had done the great sin for this is to doe the worst thing we can we dishonour God in that in which he intended most to glorifie himself Two instances of this we finde in the New Testament though not of the highest degree yet because done directly against the Spirit of God that is in despite or in disparagement of that Spirit by which so great things were wrought it grew intolerable Ananias did not revere the Spirit of God so mightily appearing in S. Peter and the other Apostles and he was smitten and died Simon Magus took the Spirit of God for a vendible commodity for a thing less then money and fit to serve secular ends and he instantly fell into the gall of bitterness that is a sad bitter calamity and S. Peter knew not whether God would forgive him or no. But it is remarkable that the holy Scriptures note various degrees of this malignity grieving the holy Spirit resisting him quenching him doing despite to him all sin against the Holy Ghost but yet they that had done so were all called to repentance S. Stephens Sermon was an instance of it and so was S. Peters and so was the prayer of Christ upon the Cross for the malicious Jews the Pharisees his betrayers and murtherers But the sin it self is of an indefinite progression and hath not physical limits and a certain constitution as is observable in carnal crimes Theft Murther or Adultery for though even these are increased by circumstances and an inward consent and degrees of love and adhesion yet of the crime it self we can say this is Murther and this is Adultery and therefore the punishment is proper and certain But since there are so many degrees of the sin against the Holy Ghost and it consists not in an indivisible point but according to the nature of internal and spiritual sins it is like time or numbers of a moveable being of a flux unstable immense constitution and may be alwayes growing not onely by the repetition of acts but by its proper essential increment and since in the particular case the measures are uncertain the nature secret the definition disputable and so many sins are like it or reducible to it apt to produce despair in timorous consciences and to discourage Repentance in lapsed persons it will be an intolerable proposition that affirms the sin against the Holy Ghost to be absolutely unpardonable That the sin against the Holy Ghost is pardonable appears in the instance of the Pharisees to whom even after they had committed the sin God was pleased to afford preaching signs and miracles and Christ upon the Cross prayed for them but in what sense also it was unpardonable appears in their case for they were so far gone that they would not return and God did not and at last would not pardon them For this appellative is not properly subjected nor attributed to the sin it self but it is according as the man is The sin may be and is at some time unpardonable yet not in all its measures and parts of progression as appears in the case of Pharaoh who all the way from the first miracle to the tenth sinn'd against the Holy Ghost but at last he was so bad that God would not pardon him Some men are come to the greatness of the sin or to that state and grandeur of impiety that their estate is desperate that is though the nature of their sins is such as God is extremely angry with them and would destroy them utterly were he not restrain'd by an infinite mercy yet it shall not be thus for ever for in some state of circumstances and degrees God is finally angry with the man and will never return to him Untill things be come to this height whatsoever the sin be it is pardonable For if there were any one sin distinguishable in its whole nature and instance from others which in every of its periods were unpardonable it is most certain it would have been described in Scripture with clear characters and cautions that a man might know when he is in and when he is out Speaking a word against the Holy Spirit is by our blessed Saviour called this great sin but it is certain that every word spoken against him is not unpardonable Simon Magus spoke a foul word against him but S. Peter did not say it was unpardonable but when he bid him pray he consequently bid him hope but because he would not warrant him that is durst not absolve him he sufficiently declared that this sin is of an indefinite nature and by growth would arrive at the unpardonable state the state and fulness of it is unpardonable that is God will to some men and in some times and stages of their evil life be so angry that he will give them over and leave them in their reprobate minde But no
man knowes when that time is God only knowes and the event must declare it But for the thing it self that it is pardonable is very certain because it may be pardoned in baptisme The Novatians denied not to baptisme a power of pardoning any sin in this sense it is without doubt true what Zosimus by way of reproach objected to Christian religion it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a deletery and purgative for every sin whatsoever And since the unconverted Pharisees were guilty of this sin and it was a sin forbidden and punished capitally in the law of Moses either to these Christ could not have been preached and for them Christ did not die or else it is certain that the sin against the holy Spirit of God is pardonable Now whereas our B. Lord affirmed of this sin it shall not be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come we may best understand the meaning of it by the parallel words of old Heli to his sons If a man sin against another 1 Sam. 2 25. the Judge shall judge him placari ei potest Deus so the vulgar latine reads it God may be appeased that is it shall be forgiven him that is a word spoken against the Son of man which relates to Christ only upon the account of his humane nature that may be forgiven him it shall that is upon easier terms as upon a temporal judgment called in this place a being judged by the Judge But if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him that is if he sin with a high hand presumptuously against the Lord against his power and his Spirit who shall intreat for him it shall never be pardoned never so as the other never upon a temporal judgement that cannot expiate this great sin as it could take off a sin against a man or the Son of man for though it be punished here it shall be punished hereafter But 2. It shall not be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come that is neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles For Saeculum hoc this World in Scripture is the period of the Jewes Synagogue and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world to come is taken for the Gospel or the age of the Messias frequently among the Jews and it is not unlikely Christ might mean it in that sense which was used amongst them by whom he would be understood But because the word was also as commonly used in that sense in which it is understood at this day viz. for the world after this life I shall therefore propound another exposition which seems to me more probable Though remission of sins is more plentiful in the Gospel then under the Law yet because the sin is bigger under the Gospel there is not here any ordinary way of pardoning it no Ministery established to warrant or absolve such sinners but it must be referred to God himself and yet that 's not all For if a man perseveres in this sin he shall neither be forgiven here nor hereafter that is neither can he be absolved in this world by the ministery of the Church nor in the world to come by the sentence of Christ and this I take to be the full meaning of this so difficult place For in this world properly so speaking there is no forgivenesse of sins but what is by the ministery of the Church For then a sin is forgiven when it is pardon'd in the day of sentence or execution that is when those evils are removed which are usually inflicted or which are proper to that day Now then for the final punishment that is not till the day of judgement and if God then gives us a mercy in that day then is the day of our pardon from him In the mean time if he be gracious to us here he either forbears to smite us or smites us to bring us to repentance and all the way continues to us the use of the Word and Sacraments that is if he does in any sense pardon us here if he does not give us over to a reprobate minde he continues us under the means of salvation which is the ministery of the Church for that 's the way of pardon in this * vide infrà numb 66. World as the blessed sentence of the right hand is the way of pardon in the World to come So that when our great Lord and Master threatens to this sin it shall not be pardon'd in this World nor in the World to come he means that neither shall the Ministers of the Church pronounce his pardon or comfort his sorrowes or restore him after his fall or warrant his condition or pray for him publickly or give him the peace and communion of the Church neither will God pardon him in the day of Judgement But all this fearful denunciation of the Divine judgement is only upon supposition the man does not repent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Athanasius Quaest 71. to 2. God did not say to him that blasphemes and repents it shall not be forgiven but to him that blasphemes and remains in his blasphemy for there is no sin which God will not pardon to them that holily and worthily repent S. Chrys in 1 Cor hom 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be wounded is not so grievous but it is intolerable when the wounded man refuses to be cured For it is considerable Whoever can repent may hope for pardon else he could not be invited to repentance I do not say whoever can be sorrowfull may hope for pardon for there is a sorrow too late then commencing when there is no time left to begin much lesse to finish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athanasius calls it a holy and a worthy repentance and of such Philo affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in allegor◠Some unhappy soules would fain he admitted to repentance but God permits them not that is their time is past and either they die before they can performe it or if they live they return to their old impieties like water from a rock But whoever can repent worthily and leave their sin and mortify it and make such amends as is required these men ought not to despair of pardon they may hope for mercy and if they may hope they must hope for not to do it were the greatest crime of despair For despair is no sin but where to hope is a duty But if this be all then the sin against the holy Ghost hath no more said against it then any other sin for if we repent not of theft or adultery it shall neither be forgiven us in this world nor in the world to come and if we do repent of the sin against the holy Ghost it shall not be exacted of us but shall be pardoned So that to say it is unpardonable without repentance is to say nothing peculiar of this To this I answer that pardonable and unpardonable have no definite
signification but have a latitude and increment and a various sense but seldome signifie in the absolute supreme sense sins of infirmity such I mean which in any sense can properly be called sins must in some sense or other be repented of and they are unpardonable without repentance that is without such a repentance as does disallow them and contend against them But these are also pardonable without repentance by some degrees of pardon that is God pities our sins of ignorance and winks at them and upon the only account of his own pity does bring such persons to better notices of things And they are pardonable without repentance if by repentance we mean an absolute dereliction of them for we shall never be able to leave them quite and therefore either they shall never be pardoned or else they are pardoned without such a repentance as signifies dereliction or intire mastery over them 2. But sins which are wilfully and knowingly committed as theft adultery murder are unpardonable without repentance that is without such a repentance as forsakes them actually and intirely and produces such acts of grace as are proper for their expiation but yet even these sins require not such a repentance as sins against the holy Ghost do These must have a greater sorrow and a greater shame and a more severe amends and a more passionate lasting prayer and a bigger fear and a more publick amends and a sharper infliction greater excellency of grace then is necessary in lesser sins But in this difference of sins it is usual to promise pardon to the less and not to the greater when the meaning is that the smaller sins are onely pardon'd upon easier terms an example of this we have in Clemens Alexandrinus Vid. etiam Caesar Arelat hom 42. quaedam ad hanc rem spectantia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sins committed before Baptism are pardon'd but sins after it must be purged that is by a severe repentance which the others needed not and yet without repentance baptism would nothing avail vicious persons So we say concerning those sins which we have forgotten they may be pardon'd without repentance meaning without a special repentance but yet not without a general Thus we finde it in the Imperial Law that they that had fallen into heresie or strange superstitions they were to be pardon'd if they did repent but if they did relapse they should not be pardon'd but they mean L. 4. Cod. Theod. ne sacrum baptisma iteretur venia eâdem modo praestari non potest so Gratian Valens and Valentinian expressed it So that by denying pardon they onely mean that it shall be harder with such persons their pardon shall not be so easily obtained but as they repeat their sins so their punishment shall increase and at last if no warning will serve it shall destroy them For it is remarkable that in Scripture Pardonable and Vnpardonable signifies no more then Mortal and Venial in the writings of the Church of which I have given accounts in its proper place But when a sin is declared deadly or killing and damnation threatned to such persons we are not therefore if we have committed any such to lie down under the load and die but with the more earnestness depart from it lest that which is of a killing damning nature prove so to us in the event For the sin of Adultery is a damning sin and Murther is a killing sin and the sin against the Holy Ghost is worse and they are all Vnpardonable that is condemning they are such in their cause or in themselves but if they prove so to us in the event or effect it is because we will not repent 1 Cor. 11.27 He that eateth drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself that 's as high an expression as any and yet there are several degrees and kindes of eating and drinking unworthily and some are more unpardonable then others but yet the Corinthians who did eat unworthily some of them coming to the holy Supper drunk and others schismatically were by S. Paul admitted to repentance Some sins are like deadly potions they kill the man unless he speedily take an Antidote or unless by strength of nature he work out the poison and overcome it and others are like a desperate disease or a deadly wound the Iliacal passions the Physicians give him over it is a Miserere mei Deus of which though men despair yet some have been cured Thus also in the capital and great sins many of them are such which the Church will not absolve or dare not promise cure Non est in medico semper relevetur ut aeger Interdum doctâ plus valet arte malum But then these persons are sent to God and are bid to hope for favour from thence and may finde it But others there are whom the Church will not meddle withall and sends them to God and God will not absolve them that is they shall be pardon'd neither by God nor the Church neither in this world nor in the world to come But the reason is not because their sin is in all its periods of an unpardonable nature but because they have persisted in it too long and God in the secret Oeconomy of his mercies hath shut the everlasting doors the olive doors of mercy shall not be open'd to them And this is the case of too many miserable persons They who repent timely and holily are not in this number whatsoever sins they be which they have committed But this is the case of them whom God hath given over to a reprobate minde and of them who sin against Gods holy Spirit when their sin is grown to its full measure So we finde it express'd in the Proverbs Turn ye at my reproof Pro. 1.23 26 28. I will pour out my Spirit unto you and then it follows Because I have called and ye refused I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh But this is not in all the periods of our refusing to hear God calling by his Spirit but when the sin of the Amalekites is full then it is unpardonable not in the thing but to that man at that time And besides all the promises this is highly verified in the words of our blessed Saviour taken out of the Prophet Isaiah where it is affirmed that when people are so obstinate and wilfully blinde Mat. 12.15 that God then leaves to give them clearer testimony and a mighty grace lest they should hear and see and understand it follows and should be converted and I should heal them plainly telling us that if even then they should repent God could not but forgive them and therefore because he hath now no love left to them by reason of their former obstinacy yet where ever you can suppose Repentance there you may more then suppose a pardon But if a man cannot or will not repent then it is another consideration In the mean
as the repentance does proceed yet it will never go quite off till hope it self be gone and passed into charity or at least into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into that fulnesse of confidence which is given to few as the reward of a lasting and conspicuous holinesse And the reason is plain For though it be certain in religion that whoever repents shall be pardoned yet it is a long time before any man hath repented worthily and it is as uncertain in what maner and in what measures and in what time God will give us pardon It is as easie to tell the very day in which a man first comes to the use of reason as to tell the very time in which we are accepted to final pardon The progressions of one being as divisible as the other and less discernible For reason gives many fair indications of it self whereas God keeps the secrets of this mercy in his sanctuary and drawes not the curtain till the day of death or judgement Adde to this that our very repentances have many allays and imperfections and so hath our pardon And every one that sins hath so displeased God that he is become the subject of the Divine anger Death is the wages what death God please and therefore what evil soever God will inflict or his mortality can suffer and he that knowes this hath cause to fear and he that fears hath cause to be grieved that he is fallen from that state of divine favour in which he stood secured with the guards of angels and covered with heaven it selfe as with a shield in which he was beloved of God and heir of all his glories But they that describe repentance in short and obscure characters and make repentance and pardon to be the children of a minute and born and grown up quickly as a fly or a mushrome with the dew of a night or the tears of a morning making the labours of the one and the want of the other to expire sooner then the pleasures of a transient sin are so insensible of the sting of sin that indeed upon their grounds it will be impossible to have a real godly sorrow For though they have done evil yet by this doctrine they feel none and there is nothing remains as a cause of grief unlesse they will be sorrowful for that they have been pleased formerly and are now secured nothing remains before them or behinde but the pleasure that they had and the present confidence and impunity and that 's no good instrument of sorrow Securitas delicti etiam libido est ejus Sin takes occasion by the law it self if there be no penalty annexed But the first inlet of a godly sorrow which is the beginning of repentance is upon the stock of their present danger and state of evil into which by their sin they are fallen viz. when their guilt is manifest they see that they are become sons of death expos'd to the wrath of a provoked Deity whose anger will expresse it self when and how it please and for ought the man knowes it may be the greatest and it may be intolerable and though his danger is imminent and certain yet his pardon is a great way off it may be Yea it may be No it must be hop'd for but it may be missed for it is upon conditions and they are or will seem very hard Sed ut valeas multa à olenda feres so that in the summe of affairs however that the greatest sinner and the smallest penitent are very apt and are taught by strange doctrines to flatter themselves into confidence and presumption yet he will have reason to mourn and weep when he shall consider that he is in so sad a condition that because his life is uncertain it is also uncertain whether or no he shall not be condemned to an eternal prison of slames so that every sinner hath the same reason to be sorrowful as he hath who from a great state of blessings and confidence is fallen into great fears and great dangers and a certain guilt and liableness of losing all he hath and suffering all that is insufferable They who state repentance otherwise cannot make it reasonable that a penitent should shed a tear And therefore it is no wonder that we so easily observe a great dulness and indifferency so many dry eies and merry hearts in persons that pretend repentance it cannot more reasonably be attributed to any cause then to those trifling and easy propositions of men that destroy the causes of sorrow by lessening and taking off the opinion of danger But now that they are observed and reproved I hope the evil will be lessened But to proceed 2. Having now stated the reasonableness and causes of penitential sorrow the next inquiry is into the nature and constitution of that sorrow For it is to be observed that penitential sorrow is not seated in the affections directly but in the understanding and is rather Odium then Dolor it is hatred of sin and detestation of it a nolition a renouncing and disclaiming it whose expression is a resolution never to sin and a pursuance of that resolution by abstaining from the occasions by praying for the Divine aid by using the proper remedies for its mortification This is essential to repentance and must be in every man in the highest kinde For he that does not hate sin so as rather to choose to suffer any evil then to doe any loves himself more then he loves God because he fears to displease himself rather then to displease him and therefore is not a true penitent But although this be not grief or sorrow properly but hatred yet in hatred there is ever a sorrow if we have done or suffered what we hate and whether it be sorrow or no is but a speculation of Philosophy but no ingredient of duty It is that which will destroy sin and bring us to God and that is the purpose of repentance For it is remarkable that sorrow is indeed an excellent instrument of repentance apt to set forward many of its ministeries and without which men ordinarily will not leave their sins but if the thing be done though wholly upon the discourses of reason upon intuition of the danger upon contemplation of the unworthiness of sin or onely upon the principle of hope or fear it matters not which is the beginning of repentance For we finde fear reckoned to be the beginning of wisdome that is of repentance of wise and sober counsels by Solomon We finde sorrow to be reckoned as the beginning of repentance by S. Paul Godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of So many ways as there are by which God works repentance in those whom he will bring unto salvation to all the kinds of these there are proper apportion'd passions and as in all good things there is pleasure so in all evil there is pain some way or other and therefore to love and hatred or which is all one to
progression and is increased into a habit of piety sorrow and sensitive trouble may come in upon another account for great and permanent changes of the minde make great impressions upon the lower man When we love an object intensely our very body receives comfort in the presence of it and there are friendly Spirits which have a natural kindness and cognation to each other and refresh one another passing from eye to eye from friend to friend and the Prophet David felt it in the matter of Religion My flesh and my heart rejoyce in the living Lord. For if a grief of minde is a consumption of the flesh and a cheerful spirit is a conservatory of health it is certain that every great impression that is made upon the minde and dwells there hath its effect upon the body and the lower affections And therefore all those excellent penitents who consider the baseness of sin * their own danger though now past in some degrees * the offence of God * the secret counsels of his Mercy * his various manners of dispensing them * the fearful judgements which God unexpectedly sends upon some men * the dangers of our own confidence * the weakness of our Repentance * the remains of our sin * the aptnesses and combustible nature of our Concupiscence * the presence of temptation and the perils of relapsing * the evil state of things which our former sins leave us in * our difficulty in obeying and our longings to return to Egypt * and the fearful anger of God which will with greater fierceness descend if we chance to fall back Those penitents I say who consider these things frequently and prudently will finde their whole man so wrought upon that every faculty shall have an enmity against sin and therefore even the affections of the lower man must in their way contribute to its mortification and that is by a real and effective sorrow But in this whole affair the whole matter of question will be in the manner of operation or signification of the dislike For the duty is done if the sin be accounted an enemy that is whether the dislike be onely in the intellectual and rational appetite or also in the sensitive For although men use so to speak and distinguish superior from inferior appetites yet it will be hard in nature to finde any real distinct faculties in which those passions are subjected and from which they have emanation The intellectual desire and the sensual desire are both founded in the same faculty they are not distinguished by their subjects but by their objects only they are but several motions of the will to or from several objects When a man desires that which is most reasonable and perfective or consonant to the understanding that we call an intellectual or rational appetite but if he desires a thing that will doe him hurt in his soul or to his best interest and yet he desires it because it pleases him this is fit to be called a sensitive appetite because the object is sensitive and it is chosen for a sensual reason But it is rather appetitio then appetiâ—us that is an act rather then a principle of action The case is plainer if we take two objects of several interests both of which are proportion'd to the understanding S. Anthony in the desert and S. Bernard in the Pulpit were tempted by the spirit of pride they resisted and overcame it because pride was unreasonable and foolish as to themselves and displeasing to God If they had listned to the whispers of that spirit it had been upon the accounts of pleasure because pride is that deliciousness of spirit which entertains a vain man making him to delight in his own images and reflexions and therefore is a work of the flesh but yet plainly founded in the understanding And therefore here it is plain that when the flesh and the spirit fight it is not a fight between two faculties of the soul but a contest in the soul concerning the election of two objects It is no otherwise in this then in every deliberation when arguments from several interests contest each other Every passion of the man is nothing else but a proper manner of being affected with an object and consequently a tendency to or an aversion from it that is a willing or a nilling of it which willing and nilling when they produce several permament impressions upon the minde and body receive the names of divers passions The object it self first striking the fancy or lower apprehensions by its proper energy makes the first passion or tendency to the will that is the inclination or first concupiscence but when the will upon that impression is set on work and chooses the sensual object that makes the abiding passion the quality As if the object be displeasing and yet not present it effects fear or hatred if good and not present it is called desire but all these diversifications are meerly natural effects as to be warm is before the fire and cannot be in our choice directly and immediately That which is the prime and proper action of the will that onely is subject to a command that is to choose or refuse the sin The passion that is the proper effect or impress upon the fancy or body that is natural and is determin'd to the particular by the mixture of something natural with the act of the will as if an apprehension of future evils be mingled with the refusing sin that is if it be the cause of it then fear is the passion that is effected by it If the feeling some evil be the cause of the nolition then sorrow is the effect and fear also may produce sorrow So that the passion that is the natural impress upon the man cannot be the effect of a Commandement but the principle of that passion is we are commanded to refuse sin to eschew evil that 's the word of the Scripture but because we usually doe feel the evils of sin and we have reason to fear worse and sorrow is the natural effect of such a feeling and such a fear therefore the Scripture calling us to repentance that is a new life a dying unto sin and a living unto righteousness expresses it by sorrow and mourning and weeping but these are not the duty but the expressions or the instruments of that which is a duty So that if any man who hates sin and leaves it cannot yet finde the sharpness of such a sorrow as he feels in other sad accidents there can nothing be said to it but that the duty it self is not clothed with those circumstances which are apt to produce that passion it is not an eschewing of sin upon considerations of a present or a feared trouble but upon some other principle or that the consideration is not deep and pressing or that the person is of an unapt disposition to those sensible effects The Italian and his wife who by chance espied a Serpent under the
and is a state of pardon and acceptable services But then there is a sorrow also proper to it For as this grace comes from the noblest passions and apprehensions so it does operate in the best manner and to the noblest purposes It hates sin upon higher contemplations then he that hates it upon the stock of fear he hates sin as being against God and Religion and right reason that is he is gone farther from sin He hates it for it self Poenitet ô si quid miserorum creditur ulli Poenitet facto torqueor ipse meo Cúmque sit exilium magis est mihi culpa dolori Estque pati poenam quà m meruisse minus That is not onely the evil effect to himself but the irregularity and the displeasure to Almighty God are the incentives of his displeasure against sin and because in all these passions and affective motions of the minde there is a sorrow under some shape or other this sorrow or displeasure is that which is a very acceptable signification and act of repentance and yet it is not to be judged of by sense but by reason by the caution and enmity against sin to which this also is to be added That if any man enquires whether or no his hatred against sin proceed from the love of God or no that is whether it be Attrition or Contrition he is onely to observe whether he does endevour heartily and constantly to please God by obedience for this is love that we keep his commandements and although sometimes we may tell concerning our love as well as concerning our fear yet when the direct principle is not so evident our onely way left to try is by the event That is Contrition which makes us to exterminate and mortify sin and endevour to keep the Commandements of God For that is sorrow proceeding from love And now it is no wonder if to Contrition pardon be so constantly annexed in all the Discourses of Divines but unless Contrition be thus understood and if a single act of something like it be mistaken for the whole state of this grace we shall be deceived by applying false promises to a real need or true promises to an incompetent and uncapable state of things But when it is thus meant all the sorrows that can come from this principle are signs of life His lacrymis vitam damus miserescimus ultrè No man can deny pardon to such penitents nor cease to joy in such tears The sum of the present enquiry is this Contrition is somtimes used for a part of repentance somtimes taken for the whole duty As it is a part so it is that displeasure at sin and hatred of it which is commonly expressed in sorrow but for ever in the leaving of it It is somtimes begun with fear somtimes with shame and somtimes with kindness with thankfulness and love but Love and Obedience are ever at the latter end of it though it were not at the beginning and till then it is called Attrition But when it is taken for the whole duty it self as it is always when it is effective of pardon then the elements of it or parts of the constitution are fides futuri saeculi Judicii fides in promissis passionibus Christi timor Divinae majestatis amor misericordiae dolor pro peccatis spes veniae petitio pro gratiâ Faith in the promises and sufferings of Christ an assent to the Article of the day of judgement and the world to come with all the consequent perswasions and practices effected on the spirit fear of the Divine Majesty love of his mercy grief for our sins begging for grace hope of pardon and in this sense it is true Cor contritum Deus non despiciet God will never refuse to accept of a heart so contrite §. 4. Of Confession THe modern Schoolmen make Contrition to include in it a resolution to submit to the Keyes of the Church that is that Confession to a Priest is a part of Contrition as Contrition is taken for a part of Repentance for it is incomplete till the Church hath taken notice of it but by submission to the Church Tribunal it is made complete and not onely so but that which was but Attrition is now turned into Contrition or perfect Repentance In the examining of this I shall because it is reasonable so to doe change their manner of speaking that the inquiry may be more material and intelligible That Contrition does include in it a resolution to submit to the Church Tribunal must either mean that godly sorrow does in its nature include a desire of Confession to a Priest and then the very word confutes the thing or else by Contrition they meaning so much of Repentance as is sufficient to pardon mean also that to submit to the Keyes or to confess to a Priest is a necessary or integral part of that Repentance and therefore of Contrition Concerning the other part of their affirmative that Attrition is by the Keyes chang'd into Contrition this being turned into words fit for men to speak such men I mean that would be understood signifies plainly this That the most imperfect Repentance towards God is sufficient if it be brought before the Church that is a little on the penitent mans part and a little on the Priests part is disposition enough to the receiving of a pardon So that provided you doe all that the Church commands you you may make the bolder to leave out something of Gods command which otherwise you might not doe The Priest may doe half the work for you These thus represented I shall consider apart 1. Confession is an act of Repentance highly requisite to its perfection and in that regard particularly called upon in holy Scripture But concerning this and all the other great exercises actions or general significations of Repentance every word singly is used indefinitely for the whole duty of Repentance Thus Contrition is used by David A broken and a contrite heart O God thou shalt not despise that is a penitent heart God will not reject The same also is the usage of Confession by S. John 1 Joh. 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness that is if we repent God hath promised us pardon and his holy Spirit that he will justifie us and that he will sanctifie us And in pursuance of this the Church called Ecclesiastical Repentance by the name of Exomologesis which though it was a Greek word yet both Greeks and Latines used it Exomolegesis est humiliandi hominis disciplina So Tertullian Confession is the discipline of humiliation for a man for his sins and S. Ambrose calls Confession poenarum compendium De Abel Cain l. 2. c. 9. the sum or abbreviature of penance And this word was sometimes chang'd and called Satisfaction which although the Latine Church in the later ages use onely for corporal austerities
but another expression or word for the Commandement of Repentance For Confess your sins means acknowledge that you have done amiss that you were in the wrong way that you were a miserable person wandring out of the paths of God and the methods of heaven and happiness that you ought not to have done so that you have sinn'd against God and broken his holy laws and therefore are liable and expos'd to all that wrath of God which he will inflict upon you or which he threatned Confession of sins is a justification of God and a sentencing of our selves This is not onely certain in the nature of the thing it self but apparent also in the words of David Psal 51.4 Against thee onely have I done this evil ut tu justificeris that thou mightest be justified in thy saying and clear when thou art judged That is if I be a sinner then art thou righteous and just in all the evils thou inflictest So that Confession of sins is like Confession of faith nothing but a signification of our conviction it is a publication of our dislike of sin and a submission to the law of God and a deprecation of the consequent evils Confessio error is In Ps 135. professio est desinendi said S. Hilary a confession of our sin is a profession that we will leave it and again Confessio peccati ea est ut ià quod à te gestum est per confessionem peccati confitearis esse peccatum That is confession of sins not that we enumerate the particulars and tell the matter of fact to him that remembers them better then we can but it is a condemning of the sin it self an acknowledging that we have done foolishly a bringing it forth to be crucified and killed This is apparent also in the case of Achan who was sufficiently convict of the matter of fact by the Divine disposing of lots which was one of the ways by which God answered the secret inquiries of the Jews but when he was brought forth to punishment Joshua 7.19 Joshua said unto him My son give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him that is acknowledge the answer of God to be true and his judgement upon us not to be causless To this answers that part of Achans reply Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel There God was justified and the glory was given to him that is the glory of his Truth and his Justice but then Joshua addes and tell me now what thou hast done hide it not from me Here it was fit he should make a particular enumeration of the fact and so he did to Joshua saying Thus and thus have I done For to confess to man is another thing then to confess to God Men need to be informed God needs it not but God is to be justified and glorified in the sentence and condemnation of the sin or the sinner and in order to it we must confess our sin that is condemne it confess it to be a sin and our selves guilty and standing at Gods mercy S. In 1 Corhom 28. Chrysostom upon those words of S. Paul If we would judge our selves we should not be judged hath these words He saith not if we would chastise our selves if we would punish our selves but onely if we would acknowledge our sins if we would condemn our selves if we would give sentence against our sins we should be freed from that punishment which is due both here and there For he that hath condemned himself appeases God upon a double account both because he hath acknowledged the sins past and is more careful for the future To this confession of sins is opposed the denying our sin our hiding it from God as Adam did that is either by proceeding in it or by not considering it or by excusing it or by justifying it or by glorying in it all these are high provocations of Gods anger but this anger is taken off by confession Psal 95.2 Praeveniamus faciem eius in confessione said the Psalmist Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving so we reade it let us prevent his anger or let us goe before his face with confession so the old Latin Bibles which is a doing as the Prodigal did I will goe unto my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and against thee and this is the first act of exterior repentance but it is of that repentance that is indispensably necessary to salvation Acts 20.21 this is Repentance towards God which the Apostles preach'd in the first publication of Christianity But then besides this there is a Repentance towards men and a Confession in order to it If I have sinn'd against my brother I must ask his pardon and confess my error that is I must repent or confess to him for he that is the injur'd person hath a right over me I am his debtor and oblig'd and he can forgive me if he please and he may choose that is I must pay him the debt I owe him unless he will be pleased to remit it For God in his infinite wisdome and goodness and justice hath taken care to secure every mans interest and he that takes any thing from me is bound by Gods law to restore it and to restore me to that state of good things from whence he forc'd me Now because for the injury which I have already suffered he cannot make me equal amends because what ever he does to me for the future still it is true that I did suffer evil from him formerly therefore it is necessary that I doe what I can to the reparation of that but because what is done and past cannot be undone I must make it up as well as I can that is I must confess my sin and be sorry for it and submit to the judgement of the offended party and he is bound to forgive me the sin and I am bound to make just and prudent amends according to my power for here every one is bound to doe his share If the offending person hath done his part of duty the offended must do his that is he must forgive him that wrong'd him if he will not God will untie the penitent man and with the same chain fast binde him that is uncharitable But my brother may be hurt by me though I have taken nothing from him nor intended him injury He may be scandalized by my sin that is tempted to sin incouraged in his vileness or discontented and made sorrowful for my unworthiness and transgression In all these cases it is necessary that we repent to them also that is that we make amends not only by confession to God but to our brethren also For when we acknowledge our folly we affright them from it and by repentance we give them caution that they may not descend into the same state of infelicity And upon this account all publick criminals were
of it was sometimes by Deacons sometimes by themselves at home This therefore was the dispensation of the keys this was the effect of the powers of binding and loosing of re mitting or retaining sins according as the sense and practice of the Church expounded her own power The prayers of the Priest going before his ministration of the Communion were called absolution Isaac Lin. tit 1 c. 16. that is the beginning and one of the first portions of it absolutio Sacerdotalium precum so it was called in ancient Councels the Priest imposed hands and prayed and then gave the Communion This was the ordinary way But there was an extraordinary For in some cases the imposition of hands was omitted that is when the Bishop or Priest was absent and the Deacon prayed or the Confessor but this was first by the leave of the Bishop or Priest for to them it belong'd in ordinary And 2. this was nothing else but a taking them from the station of the penitents and a placing them amongst the faithful communicants either by declaring that their penances were performed or not to be exacted For by this we shall be clear of an objection which might arise from the case of dying penitents to whom the Communion was given and they restored to the peace of the Church that is as they supposed to Gods mercy and the pardon of sins for they would not chuse to give the Communion to such persons whom they did not believe God had pardoned but these persons though communicated Can. 78. non tamen se credant absolutos sine manus impositione si supervixerint were not to suppose themselves absolved if they recovered that sicknesse without imposition of hands said the Fathers of the 4th Councel of Carthage by which it should seem absolution was a thing distinct from giving the Communion To this I answer that the dying penitent was fully absolved in case he had receiv'd the first imposition of hands for repentance that is if in his health he submitted himself to penance and publick amends and was prevented from finishing the impositions they supposed that desire and endevour of the penitent man was a worthy disposition to the receiving the holy Communion and both together sufficient for pardon but because this was only to be in the case of such intervening necessity and God will not accept of the will for the deed but in such cases where the deed cannot be accomplished therefore they bound such penitents to return to their first obligation in case they should recover since God had taken off their necessity and restored them to their first capacity And by this we understand the meaning of the third Canon of the first Arausican Councel They who having received penance depart from the body it pleases that they shall be communicated sine reconciliatoriâ manus impositione without the reconciling imposition of hands that is because the penitential imposition of hands was imposed upon them and they did what they could though the last imposition was not though the last hand was not put upon them declaring that they had done their penances and compleated their satisfactions yet they might be communicated that is absolved quod morientis sufficit consolationi this is enough to the comfort of the dying man according to the definition of the Fathers who conveniently enough called such a Communion their Viaticum their Passeport or provision for their way For there were two solemn impositions of hands in repentance The first and greatest was in the first admission of them and in the imposition of the Disciplne or manner of performing penances and this was the Bishops office and of great consideration amongst the holy Primitives and was never done but by the superiour Clergy as is evident in Ecclesiastical story The second solemn imposition of hands was immediatly before their absolution or Communion and it was a holy prayer and publication that he was accepted and had finished that processe This was the lesse solemn and was ordinarily done by the superiour Clergy but sometimes by others as I have remonstrated other intermedial impositions there were as appears by the Creber recursus mentioned in the 3d Councel of Toledo above cited the penitents were often to beg the Bishops pardon or the Priests prayers and the advocations and intercessions of the faithful but the peace of the Church that is that pardon which she could minister and which she had a promise that God would confirm in heaven was the Ministery of pardon in the dispensation of the Sacrament of that body that was broken and that bloud that was powred forth for the remission of our sins The result is That the absolution of sins which in the later forms and usages of the Church is introduced can be nothing but declarative the office of the preacher and the guide of soules of great use to timerous persons and to the greatest penitents full of comfort full of usefulness and institution and therefore although this very declaration of pardon may truly and according to the style of Scripture be called pardon and the power and office of pronouncing the penitents pardon is in the sense of the Scripture and the Church a good sense and signification of power as the Pharisees are said to justifie God when they declare his justice and as the preacher that converts a sinner is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to save a soul from death yet if we would speak properly and as things are in their own nature and institution this declarative absolution is only an act of preaching or opening and reading the Commission an effect of the Spirit of prudence and government entring upon the Church but the power of the keys is another thing it is the dispensing all those rites and ministeries by which heaven is opened and that is the word and baptisme at the first and ever after the holy Sacrament of the supper of the Lord and all the parts of the Bishops and Priests advocation and intercession in holy prayers and offices But as for the declarative absolution although it is rather an act of wisdom then of power it being true as S. Hierom said In 16 Mat. that as the Priests of the Law could only discern and neither cause nor remove leprosies so the Ministers of the Gospel when they retain or remit sins do but in the one judge how long we continue guilty and in the other declare when we are clear and free yet this very declaration is of great use and in many cases of great effect For as God did in the case of David give to the Prophet Nathan a particular special and extraordinary commission so to the Ministers of the Gospel he gives one that is ordinary and perpetual He had a prophetical evidence but these have a certainty of faith as to one of the propositions and as to the other some parts of humane experience to assure them 1. of Gods gracious pardon to the
to the necessity of holy life it is a device onely to advance the Priests office and to depress the necessity of holy dispositions it is a trick to make the graces of Gods holy Spirit to be bought and sold and that a man may at a price become holy in an instant just as if a Teacher of Musick should undertake to convey skill to his Scholar and sell the art and transmit it in an hour it is a device to make dispositions by art and in effect requires little or nothing of duty to God so they pay regard to the Priest But I shall need to oppose no more against it but those excellent words and pious meditation of Salvian Non levi agendum est contritione ut debita illa redimantur quibus mors aeterna debetur nec transitoriâ opus est satisfactione pro malis illis propter quae paratus est ignis aeternus It is not a light contrition by which those debts can be redeem'd to which eternal death is due neither can a transitory satisfaction serve for those evils for which God hath prepared the vengeance of eternal fire §. 6. Of Penances or Satisfactions IN the Primitive Church the word Satisfaction was the whole word for all the parts and exercises of repentance according to those words of Lactantius Poenitentiam proposuit ut si peccata nostra confessi Deo satisfecerimus veniam consequamur He propounded repentance that if we confessing our sins to God make amends or satisfaction we may obtain pardon Where it is evident that Satisfaction does not signify in the modern sense of the word a full payment to the Divine Justice but by the exercises of repentance a deprecation of our fault and a begging pardon Satisfaction and pardon are not consistent if satisfaction signify rigorously When the whole debt is paid there is nothing to be forgiven The Bishops and Priests in the Primitive Church would never give pardon till their satisfactions were performed To confess their sins to be sorrowful for them to express their sorrow to punish the guilty person to doe actions contrary to their former sins this was their amends or Satisfaction and this ought to be ours So we sinde the word used in best Classick Authors So Plautus brings in Alomena angry with Amphitruo Quin ego illum aut deseram Aut satisfaciat mihi atque adjuret insuper Nolle esse dicta quae in me insontem protulit i.e. I will leave him unless he give me satisfaction and swear that he wishes that to be unsaid which he spake against my innocence for that was the form of giving satisfaction to wish it undone or unspoken and to adde an oath that they beleeve the person did not deserve that wrong as we finde it in Terence Adelph Ego vestra haec novi nollem factum jusjurandum dabitur esse te indignum injuriâ hâc Concerning which who please to see more testimonies of the true sense and use of the word Satisfactions may please to look upon Lambinus in Plauti Amphiâ—r and Laevinus Torrentius upon Suetonius in Julio Exomologesis or Confession was the word which as I noted formerly was of most frequent use in the Church Si de exomologesi retractas gehennam in corde considera quam tibi exomologesis extinguet He that retracts his sins by confessing and condemning them extinguishes the flames of hell De poenit c. 12. So Tertullian The same with that of S. Cyprian Deo patri misericordi precibus operibus suis satisfacere possunt They may satisfy God our Father and merciful by prayers and good works that is they may by these deprecate their fault and obtain mercy and pardon for their sins Peccatum suum satisfactione humili simplici confitentes De lapsis So Cyprian confessing their sins with humble and simple satisfaction plainly intimating that Confession or Exomologesis was the same with that which they called Satisfaction And both of them were nothing but the publick exercise of repentance according to the present usages of their Churches as appears evidently in those words of Gennadius L. de dogm Eccles Poenitentiae satisfactionem esse causas peccatorum exscindere nec eorum suggestionibus aditum indulgere To cut off the causes of sins and no more to entertain their whispers and temptations is the satisfaction of repentance and like this is that of Lactantius Potest reduci liberari si eum poeniteat actorum ad meliora conversus satisfaciat Deo The sinner may be brought back and freed if he repents of what is done and satisfies or makes amends to God by being turned to better courses And the whole process of this is well described by Tertullian De poenit c. 9. Exomologesis est qua delictum Demino nostrum confitemur non quidem ut ignaro sed quatenus satisfactio confessione disponitur confessione poenitentia nascitur poenitentiâ Deus mitigatur we must confess our sins to God not as if he did not know them already but because our satisfaction is dispos'd and order'd by confession by confession our repentance hath birth and production and by repentance God is appeased Things being thus we need not immerge our selves in the trifling controversies of our later Schools about the just value of every work and how much every penance weighs and whether God is so satisfied with our penal works that in justice he must take off so much as we put on and is tied also to take our accounts Certain it is if God should weigh our sins with the same value as we weigh our own good works all our actions and sufferings would be found infinitely too light in the ballance Therefore it were better that we should doe what we can and humbly begge of God to weigh them both with vast allowances of mercy All that we can doe is to be sorrowful for our sins and to leave them Tertul. de poenit and to endevour to obey God in the time to follow and to take care ut aliquo actu administretur poenitentia that our repentance be exercised with certain acts proper to it Of which these are usually reckoned as the principle 74. Sorrow and mourning So S. Cyprian Serm. de lapsis Satisfactionibus lamentationibus justis peccata redimuntur Our sins are redeem'd or wash'd off by the satisfactions of just sorrow or mourning And Pacianus gives the same advice Paraen ad Poenit. Behold I promise that if you return to your Father by a true satisfaction wandring no more adding nothing to your former sins and saying something humble and mournful We have sinn'd in thy sight O Father we are not worthy of the name of sons presently the unclean beast shall depart from thee and thou shalt no longer be fed with the filthy nourishment of husks And S. Hom. in die Ciner Maximus cals this mourning and weeping for our sins moestam poenitentiae satisfactionem the sorrowful
amends or satisfaction of repentance The meaning of this is That when we are grieved for our sins and deplore them we hate them and goe from them and convert to God who onely can give us remedy 75. Corporal afflictions Such as are Fastings watchings hair-cloth upon our naked bodies lyings upon the ground journeys on foot doing mean offices serving sick and wounded persons solitariness silence voluntary restraints of liberty refusing lawful pleasure choosing at certain times the less pleasing meats laborious postures in prayer saying many and devout prayers with our arms extended in the fashion of Christ hanging on the Cross which indeed is a painful and afflictive posture but safe and without detriment to our body adde to these the austerities used by some of the Ancients in their Ascetick devotions who somtimes rolled themselves naked upon nettles or thorns shut themselves in tombs bound themselves to pillars endured heats and colds in great extremity chastisements of the body and all ways of subduing it to the empire of the soul Of which antiquity is infinitely full and of which at last they grew so fond and enamoured that the greatest part of their Religion was self-affliction but I choose to propound onely such prudent severities as were apt to signify a godly sorrow to destroy sin and to deprecate Gods anger in such ways of which they had experience or warrant express or authentick precedents their Exomologesis being De poenit c. 9. as Tertullian describes it a discipline of humbling and throwing a man down conversationem in jungens misericordiae illicem enjoyning a life that will allure to pity de ipso quoque habitu atque victu mandat sacco cineri incubare corpus sordibus obscurare Penitential sorrow expresses it self in the very clothes and gestures of the body that is a great sorrow is apt to express it self in every thing and infects every part of a man with its contact Vt Alexandrum Regem videmus Vide Ciceron Tuscul 4. qui cum interemisset Clytum familiarem suum vix à se abstinuit manus tanta vis fuit poenitendi When Alexander had kill'd his friend Clytus he scarce abstained from killing himself so great is the effort and violence of repentance this is no other thing then what the Apostle said If one member of the body is afflicted all the rest suffer with it and if the heart be troubled he that is gay in any other part goes about to lessen his trouble and that takes off it does not promote repentance 76. But the use of this is material It is a direct judging of our selves and a perverting the wrath of God not that these penances are a paiment for the reserve of the temporal guilt remaining after the sin is pardoned That 's but a dream for the guilt and the punishment are not to be distinguished in any material event so long as a man is liable to punishment so long he is guilty and so long he is unpardoned as he is obnoxious to the Divine anger God cannot will not punish him that is innocent and he that is wholly pardoned is in the place and state of a guiltlesse person Indeed God punishes as he pleases and pardons as he pleases by parts and as he is appeased or as he inclines to mercy but our general measure is As our repentance is so is our pardon and every action of repentance does something of help to us and this of self-affliction when it proceeds from a hearty detestation of sin and indignation against our selves for having provoked God is a very good exercise of repentance of it self it profits little but as it is a fruit of repentance in the vertue of it it is accepted towards its part of expiation and they that have refused this have felt worse Et qui non tulerat verbera tela tulit But when God sees us smite our selves in indignation for our sins because we have no better way to expresse and act our repentances God hath accepted it and hath himself forborn to smite us and we have reason to beleeve he will do so again For these expressions extinguish the delicacies of the flesh from whence our sins have too often had their spring and when the offending party accuses himself first and smites first and calls for pardon there is nothing left to the offended person to do but to pity and pardon For we see that sometimes God smites a sinner with a temporal curse and brings the man to repentance and pardons all the rest and therefore much rather will he do it when we smite our selves For this is the highest processe of confession God is pleased that we are ashamed of our sin that we justifie God and give sentence against our selves that we accuse our selves and acknowledge our selves worthy of his severest wrath If therefore we go on and punish the sinner too it is all it is the greatest thing we can do and although it be not necessary in any one instance to be done unlesse where the authority of our superiour does intervene yet it is accepted in every instance if the principle be good that is if it proceeds from our indignation against sin and if it be not rested in as a thing of it self and singly a service of God which indeed he hath no where in particular required and lastly if it be done prudently and temperately If these cautions be observed in all things else it is true that the most laborious repentance if other things be answerable is the best for it takes off the softnesse of the flesh and the tendernesse of the lower man it abates the love of the world enkindles the love of heaven it is ever the best token of sincerity and an humble repentance and does promote it too still in better degrees effecting what it doth signifie As musick in a banquet of wine and caresses and indications of joy and festivity are seasonable and proper expressions at a solemnity of joy so are all the sad accents and circumstances and effects and instruments of sorrow proper in a day of mourning All nations weep not in the same manner and have not the same interjections of sorrow but as every one of us use to mourn in our greatest losses and in the death of our dearest relatives so it is fit we should mourn in the dangers and death of our souls that they may being refreshed by such salutary and medicinal showers spring up to life eternal 77. In the several ages of the Church they had several methods of these satisfactions and they requiring a longer proof of their repentance then we usually do did also by consequent injoyn and expect greater and longer penitential severities Concerning which these two things are certain 78. The one is that they did not believe them simply necessary to the procuring of pardon from God which appears in this that they did absolve persons in the article of death though they had
not done their satisfactions They would absolve none that did not express his repentance some way or other but they did absolve them that could doe no exteriour penances by which it is plain that they made a separation of that which was useful and profitable only from that which is necessary 79. The other thing which I was to say is this That though these corporal severities were not esteemed by them simply necessary but such which might in any and in every instance be omitted in ordinary cases and commuted for others more fit and useful yet they chose these austerities as the best signification of their repentance towards men such in which there is the greatest likelyhood of sincerity and a hearty sorrow such which have in them the least objection such in which a man hath the clearest power and the most frequent opportunity such which every man can do which have in them the least inlet to temptation and the least powers to abuse a man and they are such which do not only signifie but effect and promote repentance But yet they are acts of repentance just as beating the breasts or smiting the thigh or sighing or tears or tearing the hair or refusing our meat are acts of sorrow if God should command us to be sorrowful this might be done when it could be done at all though none of these were in the expression and signification The Jewes did in all great sorrows or trouble of minde rent their garments As we may be as much troubled as they though we do not tear our clothes so we may be as true penitents as were the holy Primitives though we do not use that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hardship which was then the manner of their penitential solemnities But then the repentance must be exercised by some other acts proper to the grace 80. Prayers Preces undique undecunque lucrum says one Prayers are useful upon all occasions but especially in repentances and afflictive duties or accidents Is any man afflicted let him pray saith S. James and since nothing can deserve pardon all the good works in the world done by Gods enemy cannot reconcile him to God but pardon of sins is as much a gift as eternal life is there is no way more proper to obtainpardon then a devout humble persevering prayer And this also is a part of repentance poenaeque genus vidisse precantem When we confesse our sins and when we pray for pardon we concentre many acts of vertue together There is the hatred of sin and the shame for having committed it there is the justification of God and the humiliation of our selves there is confession of sins and hope of pardon there is fear and love sense of our infirmity and confidence of the Divine goodness sorrow for the past and holy purposes and desires and vowes of living better in time to come Unless all this be in it the prayers are not worthy fruits of a holy repentance But such prayers are a part of amends it is a satisfaction to God in the true and modest sense of the word So S. Cyprian affirmes speaking of the three children in the fiery furnace Domino satisfacere nec inter ipsa gloriosa virtutum suarum martyria destiterunt Serm de lapsis They did not cease to satisfie the Lord in the very midst of their glorious martyrdomes For so saith the Scripture Stans Azarias precatus est Azarias standing in the flames did pray and made his exomologesis or penitential confession to God with his two partners Thus also Tertullian describes the manner of the Primitive repentance de paenit cap. 9. animum moeroribus dejicere illa quae peccavit tristi tractatione mutare caeterum pastum potum pura nosse non ventris scil sed animae causâ plerumque verò jejuniis preces alere ingemiscere lachrymari mugire dies noctésque ad Dominum Deum suum presbyteris advolvi caris Dei adgeniculari omnibus fratribus legationes deprecationis suae injungere to have our mindes cast down with sorrow to change our sins into severity to take meat and drink without art simple and pure viz. bread and water not for the bellies sake but for the soul to nourish our prayers most commonly with fasting to sigh and cry and roar to God our Lord day and night to be prostrate before the Ministers and Priests to kneel before all the servants of God and to desire all the brethren to pray to God for them Oportet orare impensiùs rogare so S. Cyprian we must pray and beg more earnestly and as Pacianus addes according to the words of Tertullian before cited multorum precibus adjuvare we must help our prayers with the assistance of others Pray to God said Simon Peter to Simon Magus if peradventure the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee Pray for me said Simon Magus to S. Peter that the things which thou hast spoken may not happen to me and in this case the prayers of the Church and of the holy men that minister to the Church as they are of great avail in themselves so they were highly valued and earnestly desir'd and obtain'd by the penitents in the first ages of the Church 81. Almes Almes and fasting are the wings of prayer and make it pierce the clouds That is humility and charity are the best advantages and sanctification of our desires to God Dan. 4. This was the counsel of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar Eleemosynis peccata tua redime redeem thy sins by almes so the vulgar Latine reads it Not that money can be the price of a soul for we are not redeemed with silver and gold but that the charity of almes is that which God delights in and accepts as done to himself Pro. 16.6 and procures his pardon according to the words of Solomon In veritate misericordia expiatur iniquitas In truth and mercy iniquity is pardoned that is in the confession and almes of a penitent there is pardon for water will quench a flaming fire Ecclus. 3.30 1 Pet. 4.8 Tob. 12.9 and almes maketh an attonement for sin This is that love which as S. Peter expresses it hideth a multitude of sins Almes deliver from death and shall purge away every sin Those that exercise almes and righteousnesse shall be filled with life said old Tobias which truly explicates the method of this repentance To give almes for what is past and to sin no more but to work righteousness is an excellent state and exercise of repentance For he that sins and gives almes spends his money upon sin not upon God and like a man in a Calenture drinks deep of the Vintage even when he bleeds for cure 82. But this command and the affirmation of this effect of almes we have best from our blessed Saviour Give almes Luke 11.41 and all things are clean unto you Repentance does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it cleanses that which is
within for to that purpose did our blessed Saviour speak that parable to the Pharisees of cleansing cups and platters The parallel to it is here in S. Luke Vide Rule of Holy Dying c. 2. Sect. 3. Lact. l. 6. Almes does also cleanse the inside of a man for it is an excellent act and exercise of repentance Magna est misericordiae merces cui Deus polliceturse omnia peccata remissurum Great is the reward of mercy to which God hath promised that he will forgive all sins To this of almes is reduced all actions of piety and a zealous kindness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the labour of love all studious endearing of others and obliging them by kindness a going about seeking to do good such which are called in Scripture opera justitiae the works of righteousness that is such works in which a righteous and good man loves to be exercised and imployed But there is another instance of mercy besides almes which is exceeding proper to the exercise of Repentance and that is 83. Forgiving injuries Vt absolvaris ignosce Pardon thy brother that God may pardon thee Forgive and thou shalt be forgiven so says the Gospel and this Christ did presse with many words and arguments because there is a great mercy and a great effect consequent to it he put a great emphasis and earnestness of commandment upon it And there is in it a great necessity for we all have need of pardon and it is impudence to ask pardon if we refuse to give pardon to them that ask it of us and therefore the Apostles to whom Christ gave so large powers of forgiving or retaining sinners were also qualified for such powers by having given them a deep sense and a lasting sorrow and a perpetual repentance for and detestation of their sins their repentance lasting even after their sin was dead Therefore S. Paul calls himself the chiefest or first of sinners and in the Epistle of S. Barnabas the Apostle affirmes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Jesus chose for his own Apostles men more wicked then any wickednesse and by such humility and apprehensions of their own needs of mercy they were made sensible of the needs of others and fitted to a merciful and prudent dispensation of pardon 84. Restitution This is an act of repentance indispensably necessary integral part of it if it be taken for a restitution of the simple or original theft or debt for it is an abstinence from evil or a leaving off to commit a sin The crime of theft being injurious by a continual efflux and emanation and therefore not repented of till the progression of it be stopped But then there is a restitution also which is to be reckoned among'st the fruits of repentance or penances and satisfactions Such as was that of Zacheus If I have wronged any man by false accusation I restore him fourfold In the law of Moses theevs convicted by law were tied to it but if a thief or an injurious person did repent before his conviction and made restitution of the wrong he was tied only to the paiment of one fift part above the principal by way of amends for the injury and to do this is an excellent fruit of repentance and a part of self-judicature a judging our selves that we be not judged of the Lord and if the injured person be satisfied with the simple restitution then this fruit of repentance is to be gathered for the poor 85. These are the fruits of repentance which grow in Paradise and will bring health to the Nations for these are a just 〈…〉 of sinne they oppose a good 〈…〉 every evil they make amend◠〈…〉 and to the Church competently and to God acceptably through his mercy in Jesus Christ These are all we can doe in relation to what is past some of them are parts of direct obedience and consequently of return to God and the others are parts and exercises and acts of turning from the sin Now although so we turn from sin it matters not by what instruments so excellent a conversion is effected yet there must care be taken that in our return there be 1 hatred of sin and 2 love of God and 3 love of our brother The first is served by all or any penal duty internal or external but sin must be confessed and it must be left The second is served by future obedience by prayer and by hope of pardon and the last by alms and forgiveness and we have no liberty or choyce but in the exercise of the penal or punitive part of repentance but in that every man is left to himself and hath no necessity upon him unless where he hath first submitted to a spiritual guide or is noted publickly by the Church But if our sorrow be so trifling or our sins so slightly hated or our flesh so tender or our sensuality so unmortified that we will endure nothing of exteriour severity to mortify our sin or to punish it to prevent Gods anger or to allay it we may chance to feel the load of our sins in temporal judgements and have cause to suspect the sincerity of our repentance and consequently to fear the eternal S. Cyptian epist 8. ep 26. We feel the bitter smart of this rod and scourge of God because there is in us neither care to please him with our good deeds nor to satisfy him or make amends for our evil that is we neither live innocently nor penitently Let the delicate and the effeminate doe their penances in scarlet and Tyrian purple and fine linen and faring deliciously every day but he that passionately desires pardon and with sad apprehensions fears the event of his sins and Gods displeasure will not refuse to suffer any thing that may procure a mercy and endear Gods favour to him no man is a true penitent but he that upon any terms is willing to accept his pardon I end this with the words of S. Homil. 50. c. 15. Austin It suffices not to change our life from worse to better unless we make amends and doe our satisfactions for what is past That is no man shall be pardon'd but he that turns from sin and mortifies it that confesses it humbly and forsakes it that accuses himself and justifies God that prays for pardon and pardons his offending brother that will rather punish his flesh then nurse his sin that judges himself that he may be acquitted by God so these things be done let every man choose his own instruments of mortification and the instances and indications of his penitential sorrow §. 7. The former doctrine reduc'd to practice HE that will judge of his repentance by his sorrow must not judge of his sorrow by his tears or by any one manner of expression For sorrow puts on divers shapes according to the temper of the body or the natural or accidental affections of the minde or to the present consideration of things Wise men and women doe not very
overvalue a single act of sorrow call it Repentance or be at rest as soon as he hath wip'd his eyes For to be sorrowful which is in the Commandement is something more then an act of sorrow it is a permanent effect and must abide as long as its cause is in being not always actual and pungent but habitual and ready apt to pass into its symbolical expressions upon all just occasions and it must always have this signification viz. 7. No man can be said ever truly to have griev'd for his sins if he at any time after does remember them with pleasure Such a man might indeed have had an act of sorrow but he was not sorrowful except onely for that time but there was no permanent effect by which he became an enemy to sin and when the act is past the love to sin returns at least in that degree that the memory of it is pleasant No man tels it as a merry story that he once broke his leg or laughs when he recounts the sad groans and intolerable sharpnesses of the stone If there be pleasure in the telling it there is still remaining too much kindness towards it and then the sinner cannot justly pretend that ever he was a hearty enemy to it for the great effect of that is to hate it to leave it and to hate it Indeed when the penitent inquires concerning himself and looks after a sign that he may discern whether he be as he thinks he is really a hater of sin the greatest and most infallible mark which we have to judge by is the leasing it utterly But yet in this thing there is some difference For Some doe leave sin but doe not hate it They will not doe it but they wish it were lawful to do it and this although it hath in it a great imperfection yet it is not always directly criminal for it onely supposes a love to the natural part of the action and a hatred of the irregularity The thing they love but they hate the sin of it But others are not so innocent in their leaving of sin They leave it because they dare not doe it or are restrain'd by some over-ruling accident but like the heifers that drew the Ark they went lowing after their Calves left in their stals so doe these leave their heart behinde and if they still love the sin their leaving it is but an imperfect and unacceptable service a Sacrifice without a heart Therefore sin must be hated too that is it must be left out of hatred to it and consequently must be used as naturally we doe what we doe really hate that is do evil to it and always speak evil of it and secretly have no kindness for it 8. Let every penitent be careful that his sorrow be a cure to his soul but no disease to his body an enemy to his sin but not to his health Exigit autem Interdum ille dolor plus quà m lex ulla dolori Concessit For although no sorrow is greater then our sin yet some greatness of sorrow may destroy those powers of serving God which ought to be preserved to all the purposes of charity and religion This caution was not to be omitted although very few will have use of it because if any should be transported into a pertinacious sorrow by great considerations of their sin and that sorrow meet with an ill temper of body apt to sorrow and afflictive thoughts it would make Religion to be a burden and all passions turn into sorrow and the service of God to consist but of one duty and would naturally tend to very evil consequents For whoever upon the conditions of the Gospel can hope for pardon he cannot maintain a too great actual sorrow long upon the stock of his sins It will be allayed with hope and change into new shapes and be a sorrow in other faculties then where it first began and to other purposes then those to which it did then minister But if his sorrow be too great it is because the man hath little or no hope 9. But if it happens that any man fals into an excessive sorrow his cure must be attempted not directly but collaterally not by lessening the consideration of his sins nor yet by comparing them with the greater sins of others like the grave man in the Satyr Si nullum in terris tam detestabile factum Sat. 13. ◠Ostendis taceo nec pugnis caedere pectus Te veto nec planâ faciem contundere palmâ Quandoquidem accepto claudenda est janua damno For this is but an instance of the other this lessens the sin indirectly but let it be done by heightning the consideration of the Divine mercy and clemency for even yet this will far exceed and this is highly to be taken heed of For besides that there is no need of taking off his opinion from the greatness of the sin it is dangerous to teach a man to despise a sin at any hand For if after his great sorrow he can be brought to think his sin little he will be the sooner brought to commit it again and think it none at all and when he shall think his sorrow to have been unreasonable he will not so soon be brought to an excellent repentance another time But the Prophets great comfort may safely be applied Misericordia Dei praevalitura est super omnem malitiam hominis Gods mercy is greater then all the malice of men and will prevail over it But this is to be applied so as to cure onely the wounds of a conscience that ought to be healed that is so as to advance the reputation and glories of the Divine mercy but at no hand to create confidences in persons incompetent If the man be worthy and capable and yet tempted to a prevailing and excessive sorrow to him in this case and so far the application is to be made In other cases there is no need but some danger 10. Although sorrow for sin must be constant and habitual yet to particular acts of sin when a special sorrow is apportion'd it cannot be expected to be of the same manner and continuance as it ought to be in our general repentances for our many sins and our evil habits For every single folly of swearing rashly or vainly or falsly there ought to be a particular sorrow and a special deprecation but it may be another will intervene and a third will steal in upon you or you are surpriz'd in another instance or you are angry with your self for doing so and that anger transports you to some undecent expression and as a wave follows a wave we shall finde instances of folly croud in upon us If we observe strictly we shall prevent some but we shall observe too many to press us If we observe not they will multiply without notice and without number But in either case it will be impossible to attend to every one of them with a special lasting
the memory of the shame which began when the sin was acted and abode but as a handmaid of the guilt and goes away with it Confession of sins opens them to man but draws a vail before them that God will the less behold them And it is a material consideration that if a man be impatient of the shame here when it is revealed but to one man who is also by all the ties of Religion by common Honesty oblig'd to conceal them or if he account it intolerable that a sin publick in the scandal and the infamy should be made publick by solemnity to punish and to extinguish it the man will be no gainer by refusing to confess when he shall remember that sins unconfessed are most commonly unpardon'd and unpardon'd sins will be made publick before all Angels and all the wise and good men of the world when their shame shall have nothing to make it tolerable 19. When a penitent confesses his sin the holy man that ministers to his Repentance and hears his Confession must not without great cause lessen the shame of the repenting man he must directly encourage the duty but not adde confidence to the sinner For whatsoever directly lessens the shame lessens also the hatred of sin and his future caution and the reward of his repentance and takes off that which was an excellent defensative against the sin But with the shame the Minister of Religion is to doe as he is to doe with the mans sorrow so long as it is a good instrument of repentance so long it is to be permitted and assisted but when it becomes irregular or dispos'd to evil events it is to be taken off And so must the shame of the penitent man when there is danger lest the man be swallowed up by too much sorrow and shame or when it is perceiv'd that the shame alone is a hinderance to the duty In these cases if the penitent man can be perswaded directly and by choice for ends of piety and religion to suffer the shame then let his spirit be supported by other means but if he cannot let there be such a confidence wrought in him which is deriv'd from the circumstances of the person or the universal calamity and iniquity of man or the example of great sinners like himself that have willingly undergone the yoke of the Lord or from consideration of the divine mercies or from the easiness and advantages of the duty but let nothing be offer'd to lessen the hatred or the greatness of the sin lest a temptation to sin hereafter be sowed in the furrows of the present Repentance 20. He that confesseth his sins to the Minister of Religion must be sure to express all the great lines of his folly and calamity that is all that by which he may make a competent judgement of the state of his soul Now if the man be of a good life and yet in his tendency to perfection is willing to pass under the method and discipline of greater sinners there is no advice to be given to him but that he doe not curiously tell those lesser irregularities which vex his peace rather then discompose his conscience but what is most remarkable in his infirmities or the whole state and the greatest marks and instances and returns of them he ought to signifie for else he can serve no prudent end in his confession But secondly if the man have committed a great sin it is a high prudence and an excellent instance of his repentance that he confess it declaring the kinde of it if it be of that nature that the spiritual man may conceal it But if upon any other account he be bound to reveal every notice of the fact let him transact that affair wholly between God and his own soul And this of declaring a single action as it is of great use in the repentance of every man so it puts on some degrees of necessity if the man be of a sad amazed and an afflicted conscience For there are some unfortunate persons who have committed some secret facts of shame and horror at the remembrance of which they are amazed of the pardon of which they have no signe for the expiation of which they use no instrument and they walk up and down like distracted persons to whom reason is useless and company is unpleasant and their sorrow is not holy but very great and they know not what to doe because they wil not ask I have observed some such and the onely remedy that was fit to be prescribed to such persons was to reveal their sin to a spiritual man and by him to be put into such a state of remedy and comfort as is proper for their condition It is certain that many persons have perished for want of counsel and comfort which were ready for them if they would have confessed their sin for he that concealeth his sin non dirigetur saith Solomon he shall not be counselled or directed And it is a very great fault amongst a very great part of Christians that in their inquiries of Religion even the best of them ordinarily ask but these two questions Is it lawful Is it necessary If they finde it lawful they will do it without scruple or restraint and then they suffer imperfection or receive the reward of folly For it may be lawful and yet not fit to be done It may be it is not expedient And he that will doe all that he can doe lawfully would if he durst do something that is not lawful And as great an error is on the other hand in the other question He that too strictly inquires of an action whether it be necessary or no would do well to ask also whether it be good whether it be of advantage to the interest of his soul For if a Christian man or woman that is a redeemed blessed obliged person a great beneficiary endeared to God beyond all the comprehensions of a mans imagination one that is less then the least of all Gods mercies and yet hath received many great ones and hopes for more if he should doe nothing but what is necessary that is nothing but what he is compell'd to then he hath the obligations of a son and the affections of a slave which is the greatest undecency of the world in the accounts of Christianity If a Christian will doe no more then what is necessary he will quickly be tempted to omit something of that also And it is highly considerable that in the matter of souls Necessity is a divisible word and that which in disputation is not necessary may be necessary in practise it may be but charity to one and duty to another that is when it is not a necessary duty it may be a necessary charity And therefore it were much the better if every man without further inquiry would in the accounts of his soul consult a spiritual Guide and whether it be necessary or no yet let him doe it because
invited by arts and ministred to by external instruments and arguments of invitation and just so are the penances they are then to be chosen so as may make the person a sorrowful mourner to make him take no delight in sin but to conceive and to feel a just displeasure For if men feel no smart no real sorrow or pain for their sins they will be too much in love with it impunity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the occasion and opportunity of sin as the Apostle intimates and they use to proceed in finishing the methods of sin and death who Non unquam reputant quantum sibi gandia constant reckon their pleasures but never put any smart or danger or fears or sorrows into the ballance But the injunction or susception of penances is a good instrument of repentance because a little evil takes off the pleasure of the biggest sin in many instances and we are too apprehensive of the present that this also becomes a great advantage to this ministery we refuse great and infinite pleasures hereafter so we may enjoy little and few and inconsiderable ones at present and we fear not the horrible pains of hell so we may avoid a little trouble in our persons or our interest Therefore it is to be supposed that this way of undertaking a present punishment and smart for our sins unless every thing when it becomes religious is despoyl'd of all its powers which it had in nature and what is reason here is not reason there will be of great effect and power against sin and be an excellent instrument of repentance But it must be so much and it must be no more for penances are like fire and water good so long as they are made to serve our needs but when they go beyond that they are not to be endured For since God in the severest of his anger does not punish one sin with another let not us do worse to our selves then the greatest wrath of God in this world will inflict upon us A sin cannot be a punishment from God For then it would be that God should be the Author of sin for he is of punishment If then any punishment be a sin that sin was unavoidable deriv'd from God and indeed it would be a contradiction to the nature of things to say that the same thing can in the same formality be a punishment and a sin that is an action and a passion voluntary as every sin is and involuntary as every punishment is that it should be done by us and yet against us by us and by another and by both intirely and since punishment is the compensation or the expiation of sin not the aggravation of the Divine anger it were very strange if God by punishing us should more provoke himself Vide Chapt. 6. ◠42 and in stead of satisfying his justice or curing the man make his own anger infinite and the patient much the worse Indeed it may happen that one sin may cause or procure another not by the efficiency of God or any direct action of his but 1. withdrawing those assistances which would have restrain'd a sinful progression 2. By suffering him to fall into evil temptation which is too hard for him consisting in his present voluntary indisposition 3. By the nature of sin it self which may either 1 effect a sin by accident as a great anger may by the withdrawing Gods restraining grace be permitted to pass to an act of murder or 2 it may dispose to others of like nature as one degree of lust brings in another or 3 it may minister matter of fuel to another sin as intemperance to uncleanness or 4 on sin may be the end of another as covetousness may be the servant of luxury In all these ways one sin may be effected by another but in all these God is onely conniving or at most takes off some of those helps which the man hath forfeited and God was not obliged to continue Thus God hardned Pharaohs heart even by way of object and occasion God hardned him by shewing him a mercy by taking off his fears when he remov'd the judgement and God ministred to him some hope that it be so still But God does not inflict the sin The mans own impious hands do that not because he cannot help it but because he chooses and delights in it * Now if God in justice to us will not punish one sin directly by another let not us in our penitential inflictions commit a sin in indignation against our sin for that is just as if a man out of impatience of pain in his side should dash his head against a wall 3. But if God pleases to inflict a punishment let us be careful to exchange it into a penance by kissing the rod and entertaining the issues of the Divine justice by approbation of Gods proceeding and confession of our demerit and justification of God It was a pretty accident and mixture of providence and penance that hapned to the three accusers of Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem They accused him falsly of some horrid crimes but in verification of their indictment bound themselves by a curse The first that if his accusation were false he might be burn'd to death The second Euseb li. 6. c. 7. that he might die of the Kings evil The third that he might be blinde God in his anger found out the two first and their curse hapned to them that delighted in cursing and lies The first was burnt alive in his own house and the second perished by the loathsome disease Which when the third espied and found Gods anger so hasty and so heavy so pressing and so certain he ran out to meet the rod of God and repented of his sin so deeply and wept so bitterly so continually that he became blinde with weeping and the anger of God became an instance of repentance the judgement was sanctified and so passed into mercy and a pardon he did indeed meet with his curse but by the arts of repentance the curse became a blessing And so it may be to us Praeveniamus faciem ejus in confessione let us prevent his anger by sentencing our selves or if we do not let us follow the sad accents of the angry voice of God and imitate his justice by condemning that which God condemnes and suffering willingly what he imposes and turning his judgements into voluntary executions by applying the suffering to our sins and praying it may be sanctified For since God smites us that we may repent if we repent then we serve the end of the Divine judgement and when we perceive God smites our sin if we submit to it and are pleased that our sin is smitten we are enemies to it after the example of God and that is a good act of repentance 4. For the quality or kinde of penances this is the best measure Those are the best which serve most ends not those which most vex us but such which will
The natural evils of mans life 427 4 Luke 15 7. expl 531 5 and 11.41 expl 654 82 Lukewarmness how it comes to be a sin 268 47 M MAlefactors condemn'd by the Customes of Spain are allowed respite till their Confessor supposes them competently prepared 281 56 Mark 12.34 exp 475.26 and 12.32 exp 551 41 Matthew 5.19 exp 115 18 5.22 132 34 Mercy Gods mercy and justice reconciled about his exacting of the law 120 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how they differ 64 65 Morall the difference between the moral regenerate and profane man in committing sin 483 31 579 1 Mortification is a precept not a counsel 265 44 the method of mortifying vicious habits 314 10 11 N NAture what the phrase by nature means 399 18 In a natural estate we cannot hope for heaven 436 10 Novatians their doctrine opposed 533 8 A great objection of theirs proposed 544 24 answered 545 26 O ORiginall sin whether we derive from Adam original and natural ignorance 373 22 Adams sin made us not heirs of damnation 375 22 NOr makes us necessarily vicious 383 37 Adams sin did not corrupt our nature by a physical efficiency 383 39 Nor because we were in the loyns of Adam 384 40 Nor because of the will and decree of God 386 41 Objections out of Scripture against this doctrine answered 392 45. Vide Sin P PArdon severall degrees of pardon of sin 284 63 As repentance is so is our pardon 649 Mistakes about pardon and salvation 499 44 Some sins called unpardonable in a limited sense 542 21 What is our state of pardon in this life 571 66 In what manner and to what purposes the Church pardoneth penitents by the hand of a Priest 625 51 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 119 21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it sign fies 119 22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what they signifie 551 37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 171 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 172 5 Passions their violence excuseth not under the title of sins of Infirmity 508 54 Make it the great business of thy life to subdue thy passions 516 65 Perfection perfection of degrees and perfection of state 27 28 29 How perfection is consistent with repentance Cap. 1. sect 3. per tot Wherein perfection of state consisteth 329 44 Perfection in genere actus 30 45 what it is 44 13 Penances or corporal austerities 680 26 A rule for the measure of them 685 30 Which are best and rather to be chosen 685 29 Fasting prayer and alms are the best penances 685 29 They are not to be accounted simply necessary or a direct service of God 680 26 Philippians 2.12 13. eâ—p 274 55 Psalm 51.5 exp 394 47 Prayer of prayer as a fruit or act of repentance 652 80 It is one of the best penances 684 29 Priest what is the power of Priests in order to pardoning sin 625 51 Of the forms of absolution 627 53 absolution of sins by the Priest can be no more then declarative 634 58 Confession to a Priest is no part of contrition 615 The benefit of confessing to a Priest 616 43 Auricular confession to a Priest whence it descended 615 Of confessing to a Priest or Minister 678 24 Proverb a proverb contrary to truth is a great prejudice to a mans understanding 523 78 avoid all proverbs by which evil life is encouraged ibid. Prophane the difference in committing sin between the prophane moral and regenerate man 483 31 Punishment God punishes not one sin with another 682 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the use of the word 398 48 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what the word signifies 401 51 Questions Whether the practice of the Primitive Fathers denying Ecclesiastical repentance to Idolaters Murderers and Adulterers and them onely be warrantable 540 20 Whether we derive from Adam original and natural ignorance 373 22 Whether attrition with absolution pardoneth sin 638 Whether it be possible to keep the Law 17 Whether perfection be consistent with repentance Cap. 1. Sect. 3. per tot Whether sinful habits require a distinct manner of repentance 256 272 Whether every single deliberate act of sin put the sinner out of Gods favour Cap. 4. Sect. 2. per totum Whether disobedience that is voluntary in the cause but not in the effect is to be punished 388 43 490 489 R REgenerate the state of unregenerate men 472 Between the regenerate and a wicked person there is a middle state 474 26 An unregenerate man may be convinced of and clearly instructed in his duty and approve the Law 476 28 an unregenerate man may with his will delight in goodness and delight in it earnestly 478 29 The contention between the flesh and the conscience no sign of regeneration but onely the contention between the flesh and the spirit 480 29 the difference between the regenerate profane and moral man in their sinning 483 31 whence come so frequent sins in regenerate persons 484 32 How sin can be consistent with the regenerate estate 485 33 Unwillingness to sin no sign of regeneration 486 An unregenerate person may not onely desire to doe moral good things but even spiritual also 488 35. The difference between a regenerate and unregenerate man 490 35 An unregenerate man may leave many sins not onely for temporal interest but of reverence of the Divine Law 492 An unregenerate man may doe many good things for heaven and yet never come there 492 38 An unregenerate man may have received the Spirit of God and yet be in a state of distance from God 493 39 It is not the propriety of the regenerate to feel a contention within him concerning doing good or evil 497 41 The regenerate man hath not onely received the Spirit of God but is wholly led by him 498 42 Repentance the covenant of repentance when it began 4. How repentance and perfection Evangelical are consistent Cap. 1. Sect. 3. per tot That proposition rejected that every sinner must in his repentance pass under the terrors of the Law 41 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how they differ 64 65 it is a whole change of state and life 66 4 its parts 71 9 the difference between the repentance preach'd to the Jews and the Gentiles 77 5 6 7 It may be called conversion 80 10 Repentance onely makes sins venial 134 34 What repentance single acts of sin require 198 43 A general repentance when sufficient 201 47 Some acts of sin require more then a moral revocation or opposing a contrary act of vertue in repentance 202 50 That proposition proved to be false that no man is ordinarily bound to repent instantly of his sin 215 7 The danger of deferring repentance 218 2 Deferring repentance differs but by accident from final impenitence 226 9 Repentance of sinful habits to be performed in a distinct manner 256 31 Seven objections against that proposition
this the numbers of sin are not easily to be told the lines of account are various and changeable our opinions uncertain and we are affrighted from one into another and all changes from sin are not into vertue but more commonly into sin Obsessa mens hominis undique †Zabuli S. Cypr. de oper cleemos diaboli infestatione vallata vix occurrit singulis vix resistit si avaritia prostrata est exurgit libido And if we do not commit things forbidden yet the sins of omission are innumerable and undiscernible * Businesses intervene and visits are made and civilities to be rendred and friendly compliances to be entertain'd and necessities to be served and some things thought so which are not so and so the time goes away and the duty is left undone prayers are hindred and prayers are omitted and concerning every part of time which was once in our power no man living can give a fair account This moral demonstration of the impossibility of perfect and exact obedience and innocence would grow too high if I should tell how easily our duties are sowr'd even when we think we walk wisely Severity is quickly turn'd into ungentleness love of children to indulgence joy to gayety melancholy to peevishness love of our wives to fondness liberties of marriage to licentiousness devotion to superstition austerity to pride feasting to intemperance Vrbanity to foolish jesting a free speech into impertinence and idle talking There were no bottom of this consideration if we consider how all mankinde sins with the tongue He that offends not in his tongne he is a perfect man indeed But experience and the following considerations do manifest that no man is so perfect For Every passion of the Soul is a spring and a shower a parent and a nurse to sin Our passions either mistake their objects or grow intemperate either they put too much upon a trifle or too little upon the biggest interest They are material and sensual best pleas'd and best acquainted with their own objects and we are to do some things which it is hard to be told how they can be in our own power We are commanded to be angry to love to hope to desire certain things towards which we cannot be so affected ever when we please A man cannot love or hate upon the stock and interest of a Commandement and yet these are parts of our duty To mourn and to be sorrowful are natural effects of their proper apprehensions and therefore are not properly capable of a law Though it be possible for a man who is of a sanguine complexion in perfect health and constitution not to act his lust yet it will be found next to impossible not to love it not to desire it and who will finde it possible that every man and in all cases of his temptation should overcome his fear But if this fear be instanced in a matter of religion it will be apt to multiply eternal scruples and they are equivocal effects of a good meaning but are proper and univocal enemies to piety and a wise religion I need not take notice of the infinite variety of thoughts and sentences that divide all mankinde concerning their manner of pleasing and obeying God and the appendent zeal by which they are furiously driven on to promote their errors or opinions as they think for God and he that shall tell these men they do amiss would be wondred at for they think themselves secure of a good reward even when they do horrible things But the danger here is very great when the instrument of serving God is nothing but opinion and passion abus'd by interest especially since this passion of it self is very much to be suspected it being temerity or rashness for some zeal is no better and its very formality is inadvertency and inconsideration But the case is very often so that even the greatest consideration is apt to be mistaken and how shall men be innocent when besides the signal precepts of the Gospel there are propounded to us some generall measures and as I may call them extraregular lines by which our actions are to be directed such as are the analogie of faith fame reputation publick honesty not giving offence being exemplary all which and divers others being indefinite measures of good and evil are pursued as men please and as they will understand them And because concerning these God alone can judge righteously he alone can tell when we have observed them we cannot and therefore it is certain we very often doe mistake Hence it is that they who mean holiness and purity are forc'd to make to themselves rules and measures by way of Idea or instrument endevouring to choose that side that is the surest which indeed is but a guessing at the way we should walk in and yet by this way also men do often run into a snare and lay trouble and intricacy upon their consciences unnecessary burthens which presently they grow weary of and in striving to shake them off they gall the neck and introduce tediousness of spirit or despair For we see when Religion grows high the dangers do increase not onely by the proper dangers of that state and the more violent assaults made against Saints then against meaner persons of no religious interest but because it will be impossible for any man to know certainly what intension of spirit is the minimum religionis the necessary condition under or less then which God will not accept the action and yet sometimes two duties justle one another and while we are zealous in one we less attend the other and therefore cannot easily be certain of our measures and because sometimes two duties of a very different matter are to be reconcil'd and waited upon who can tell what will be the event of it since mans nature is so limited and little that it cannot at once attend upon two objects Is it possible that a man should so attend his prayers that his minde should be alwayes present and never wander does not every man complain of this and yet no man can help it And if of this alone we had cause to complain yet even for this we were not innocent in others and he that is an offender in one is guilty of all and yet it is true that in many things we all offend And all this is true when a man is well and when he is wise but he may be foolish and he will be sick and there is a new scene of dangers new duties and new infirmities and new questions and the old uncertainty of things and the same certainty of doing our duty weakly and imperfectly and pitiably Quid tam dextro pede concipis ut te Conatus non poeniteat votÃque peracti Since therefore every sin is forbidden and yet it can enter from so many angles I may conclude in the words of Sedulius Lex spiritualis est In cap. 7. Rom. quia spiritualia mandat