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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
some crooked or deformed part But of the thing it self I have given such accounts as I could being ingaged on no side and the servant of no interest and have endevour'd to represent the dangers of every sinner the difficulty of obtaining pardon the many parts and progressions of Repentance the severity of the Primitive Church their rigid Doctrines and austere Disciplines the degrees of easiness and complyings that came in by negligence and I desire that the effect should be that all the pious and religious Curates of Souls in the Church of England would endevour to produce so much fear and reverence caution and wariness in all their penitents that they should be willing to undergo more severe methods in their restitution then now they do that men should not dare to approach to the holy Sacrament as soon as ever their foul hands are wet with a drop of holy rain but that they should expect the periods of life and when they have given to their Curate fair testimony of a hearty Repentance and know it to be so within themselves they may with comfort to all parties communicate with holiness and joy For I conceive this to be that event of things which was design'd by S. Paul in that excellent advice Obey them that have the rule over you Heb. 13.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 submit your selves viz. to their ordering and discipline because they watch for your souls as they that must give accounts for them that they may do it with joy I am sure we cannot give accounts of souls of which we have no notice and though we had reason to rescue them from the yoke of bondage which the unjust laws and fetters of annual and private Confession as it was by them ordered did make men to complain of yet I believe we should be all unwilling our Charges should exchange these fetters for worse and by shaking off the laws of Confession accidentally entertain the tyranny of sin It was neither fit that all should be tied to it nor yet that all should throw it off There are some sins and some cases and some persons to whom an actual Ministery and personal provision and conduct by the Priests Office were better then food or physick It were therefore very well if great sinners could be invited to bear the yoke of holy discipline and do their Repentances under the conduct of those who must give an account of them that they would inquire into the state of their souls that they would submit them to be judged by those who are justly and rightly appointed over them or such whom they are permitted to choose and then that we would apply our selves to understand the secrets of Religion the measures of the Spirit the conduct of Souls the advantages and disadvantages of things and persons the wayes of life and death the labyrinths of temptation and all the remedies of sin the publick and private the great and little lines of Conscience and all those wayes by which men may be assisted and promoted in the wayes of godliness for such knowledge as it is most difficult and secret untaught and unregarded so it is most necessary and for want of it the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is oftentimes given to them that are in the gall of bitterness that which is holy is given to Dogs Indeed neither we nor our Forefathers could help it alwayes and the Discipline of the Church could seise but upon few all were invited but none but the willing could receive the benefit but however it were pity that men upon the account of little and trifling objections should be discouraged from doing themselves benefit and from enabling us with greater advantages to do our duty to them It was of old observed of the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they obey the laws and by the excellency of their own lives excel the perfection of the laws and it is not well if we shall be earnest to tell them that such a thing is not necessary if we know it to be good For in this present dissolution of manners to tell the people concerning any good thing that it is not necessary is to tempt them to let it alone The Presbyterian Ministers who are of the Church of England just as the Irish are English have obtained such power with their Proselytes that they take some account of the Souls of such as they please before they admit them to their communion in Sacraments they doe it to secure them to their party or else make such accounts to be as their Shibboleth to discern their Jews from the men of Ephraim but it were very well we would doe that for Conscience for Charity and for Piety which others doe for Interest or Zeal and that we would be careful to use all those Ministeries and be earnest for all those Doctrines which visibly in the causes of things are apt to produce holiness and severe living It is no matter whether by these arts any Sect or Name be promoted it is certain Christian Religion would and that 's the reall interest of us all that those who are under our Charges should know the force of the Resurrection of Christ and the conduct of the Spirit and live according to the purity of God and the light of the Gospel To this let us cooperate with all wisdome and earnestness and knowledge and spiritual understanding And there is no better way in the world to doe this then by ministring to persons singly in the conduct of their Repentance which as it is the work of every man so there are but few persons who need not the conduct of a spiritual guide in the beginnings and progressions of it To the assistance of this work I have now put my Symbol having by the sad experience of my own miseries and the calamities of others to whose restitution I have been called to minister been taught something of the secret of Souls and I have reason to think that the words of our dearest Lord to S. Peter were also spoken to me Tu autem conversus confirma fratres I hope I have received many of the mercies of a repenting sinner and I have felt the turnings and varieties of spiritual entercourses and I have often observed the advantages in ministring to others and am most confident that the greatest benefits of our office may with best effect be communicated to souls in personal and particular Ministrations In the following book I have given advices and have asserted many truths in order to all this I have endevoured to break in pieces almost all those propositions upon the confidence of which men have been negligent of severe and strict living I have cancell'd some false grounds upon which many answers in Moral Theology us'd to be made to inquiries in Cases of Conscience I have according to my weak ability described all the necessities and great inducements of a holy life and have endevoured to do it so plainly that
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
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
the Kingdome of God be not in some sense a teaching men so to do then nothing is For when God said to Adam That day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou shalt die the Tempter said Nay but ye shall not die and so was author to Adam of committing his sin So when our blessed Saviour hath told us that to break one of these least Commandements is exclusive of us from heaven they that say that not every solution or breaking of them is exclusive from heaven which are the words of Bellarmine and the doctrine of the Roman Church must even by the consequence of this very gloss of his fall under the danger of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the false teachers or the breakers of them by false interpretation However fearful is the malediction even to the breakers of the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may use the words of Theophylach he shall be last in the resurrection and shall be thrown into hell for that is the meaning of least in the Kingdom of heaven fortasse ideò non erit in regno coelorum ubi nisi magni esse non possunt said S. Austin least is none at all for into heaven none can enter but they which are great in Gods account 7. Lastly God hath given us the perpetual assistances of his Spirit the presence of his grace the ministery of his word the fear of judgements the endearment of his mercies the admonition of friends the severity of Preachers the aid of Books the apprehension of death the sense of our daily dangers our continual necessities and the recollection of our prayers and above all he hath promised heaven to the obedient which is a state of blessings so great and infinite as upon the account of them it is infinitely reasonable and just if he shall exact of us every sin that is every thing which we can avoid Upon this account it is that although wise and prudent men doe not despise the continual endearments of an old friend yet in many cases God may and doth and from the rules and proper measures of humane friendship to argue up to a presumption of Gods easiness in not exacting our duty is a fallacious proceeding but it will deceive no body but our selves 2. Every sin is directly against Gods law and therefore is damnable and deadly in the accounts of the Divine justice one as well though not so grievously as another For though sins be differenc'd by greater and less yet their proportion to punishment is not differenc'd by Temporal and Eternal but by greater and less in that kinde which God hath threatned So Origen Homil. 35. in Lucam Vnusquisque pro qualitate quantitate peccati diversam mulctae sententiam expendit Si parum est quod peccas ferieris damno minuti ut Lucas scripsit ut verò Matthaeus quadrantis Veruntamen necesse est hoc ipsum quod exstitisti debitor solvere Non eniminde exibis nisi minima quaeque persolveris Every one according to the quantity and quality of his sin must pay his fine but till he hath paid he shall not be loosed from those fearful prisons that is he shall never be loosed if he agree not before he comes thither The smallest offence is a sin and therefore it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Law a violation of that band by which our obedience unites us unto God And this the holy Scripture signifies unto us in various expressions For though the several words are variously used in sacred and profane writers yet all of them signifie that even the smallest sin is a prevarication of the Holy laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 4. de orthod fide cap. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Damascen cals sin which we render well by Transgression and even those words which in distinction signify a small offence yet they also signify the same with the greater words to shew that they all have the same formality and doe the same displeasure or at least that by the difference of the words no difference of their natures can be regularly observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Sins against God onely are by Phavorinus called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the same word is also used for sin against our neighbours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thy brother sin against thee that is doe thee injury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 injustice But Demosthenes distinguishes injustice from sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by voluntary and involuntary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that does wrong willingly is unjust he that does it unwillingly is a sinner The same indistinction is observable in the other words of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by S. Hierome used for the beginnings of sin Cum cogitatio tacita subrepit ex aliquâ parte conniventibus nobis nec dum tamen nos impulit ad ruinam when a sudden thought invades us without our advertency and observation and hath not brought forth death as yet and yet that death is appendent to whatsoever it be that can be signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may observe because the sin of Adam that called death upon all the world is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5.18 Eph. 2.1 and of the Ephesian Gentiles S. Paul said they had been dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in trespasses and sins and therefore it cannot hence be inferred that such little obliquities or beginnings of greater sins are onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the law not against it for it is at least the word hinders not but it may be of the same kinde of malignity as was the sin of Adam Lib. 3. quaest super Levit. q. 20. And therefore S. Austin renders the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delictum or offence and so do our Bibles And the same also is the case of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is attributed even to concupiscence or the beginnings of mischief Rom. 7.5 In cap. 2. Ephes Jam. 1.15 by S. Paul and by S. Hierome but the same is used for the consummation of concupiscence in the matter of uncleanness by S. James Lust when it hath conceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Com. DD. in Titum verb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peccatum is the Latine word which when it is used in a distinct and pressed sense it is taken for the lesser sins and is distinguished from crimen Paulus Orosius * Apol. de liber arbit uses it to signify onely the concupiscence or sinful thoughts of the heart and when it breaks forth to action he cals it a crime peccatum cogitatio concipit crimen verò non nisi actus ostendit and it was so used by the ancient Latins Peccatus it
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
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
truths nor yet ought to make the returning sinner to despair Onely this If he fears that there may be a secret habit unmortified let him go about his remedy 2. If he still fears let him put himself to the trial 3. If either that does not satisfie him or he wants opportunity let him endevour to encrease his supreme habit the habit of Charity or that universal grace of the love of God which will secure his spirit against all secret undiscernible vicious affections 5. This onely is certain No man needs to despair that is alive and hath begun to leave his sins and to whom God hath given time and power and holy desires If all these be spent and nothing remain besides the desires that is another consideration and must receive its sentence by the measures of the former doctrine But for the present a man ought not to conclude against his hopes because he findes propensities and inclinations to the former courses remaining in him even after his conversion For so it will be always more or less and this is not onely the remains of a vicious habit but even of natural inclination in some instances 6. Then the habit hath lost its killing quality and the man is freed from his state of ungraciousness when the habit of vertue prevails when he obeys frequently willingly chearfully But if he sins frequently and obeys his temptations readily if he delights in sin and chooses that that is if his sins be more then sins of infirmity as they are described under their proper title then the habit remains and the man is in the state of death But when sentence is given for God when vertue is the greater ingredient when all sin is hated and labour'd and pray'd against the remaining evils and struglings of the Serpent are signs of the Spirits victory but also engagements of a persevering care and watchfulness lest they return and prevail anew He that is converted and is in his contentions for heaven is in a good state of being let him go forward He that is justified let him be justified still but whether just now if he dies he shall be sav'd or not we cannot answer or give accounts of every period of his new life In what minute or degree of Repentance his sins are perfectly pardon'd no man can tell and it is unreasonable to reprove a doctrine that infers a man to be uncertain where God hath given no certain notices or measures If a man will be certain he must die as soon as he is worthily baptiz'd or live according to his promises then made If he breaks them he is certain of nothing but that he may be sav'd if he returns speedily and effectively does his duty But concerning the particulars there can no rules be given sufficient to answer every mans case beforehand If he be uncertain how Gods judgement will be of him let him be the more afraid and the more humble and the more cautious and the more penitent For in this case all our security is not to be deriv'd from signs but from duty Duty is the best signification and Gods infinite boundless mercy is the best ground of our Confidence §. 6. The former Doctrine reduc'd to Practise IT now remains that we account concerning the effect of this Doctrine and first concerning them that are well and vigorous 2. Them that are old 3. Them that are dying All which are to have several usages and receptions proper entertainments and exercises of Repentance The manner of Repentance and usage of Habitual sinners who convert in their timely and vigorous years 1. Let every man that thinks of his return be infinitely careful to avoid every new sin for it is like a blow to a broken leg or a burthen to a crushed arm Every little thing disorders the new health and unfinish'd recovery So that every new sin to such a person is a double damage it pulls him back from all his hopes and makes his labours vain and he is as far to seek and as much to begin again as ever and more For so may you see one climbing of a Rock with a great contention and labour and danger if when he hath got from the foot to the shoulder he then lets his hold go he falls lower then where he first set his foot and sinks deeper by the weight of his own fall So is the new converted man who is labouring to overcome the rocks and mountains of his habitual sins every sin throws him down further and bruises his very bones in the fall To this purpose therefore is the wise advice of the son of Sirach Hast thou sinn'd do so no more but aske pardon for thy former fault Adde not sin to sin for in one a man shall not be unpunished Ergo ne pietas sit victa cupidine ventris Metamorp 15. Parcite vaticinor cognat as caede nefandâ Exturbare animas ne sanguine sanguis alatur Let not bloud touch bloud nor sin touch sin for we destroy our souls with impious hands when a crime follows a habit like funeral processions in the pomps and solennities of death 2. At the beginning of his recovery let the penitent be arm'd by special cautions against the labours and difficulties of the restitution and consider that if sin be so pleasant it is the habit that hath made it so it is become easie and natural by the custome And therefore so may vertue And complain not that Nature helps and corroborates the habits of sin For besides that Nature doth this mischief but in some instances not in all the Grace of God will as much assist the customes and labours of vertue as Nature doth the habits of vice And choose whether you will Take any institution or course of life let it at first be never so violent use will make it pleasant And therefore we may make vertue as certain as vice is as pleasing to the spirit as hard to be removed as perfective of our nature as the other is destructive and make it by assuefaction as impossible to be vicious as we now think it difficult and impossible to overcome flesh and bloud * But let him remember this also that it will be a strange shame that he can be in a state of sin and death from which it will be very hard to remove and to confess our natures so caitiff and base that we cannot as easily be united unto vertue that he can become a Devil and cannot be like an Angel that he can decline to the brutishness of beasts and yet never arise up to a participation of the excellent beauties of the intellectual world 3. He that undertakes the repentance of his vicious habits when he hath strength and time enough for the work must do it in kinde that is he must oppose a habit to a habit every contrary to its contrary as Chastity to his Wanronness Temperance to his Gluttony or Drunkenness The reason is because if he had
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
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
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
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
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
the black registers of death that my sins being covered and cured dead and buried in the grave of Jesus I may live to thee my God a life of righteousness and grow in it till I shall arrive at a state of glory II. I Have often begun to return to thee but I turn'd short again and look'd back upon Sodom and lov'd to dwell in the neighbourhood of the horrible regions Now O my God hear now let me finish the work of a holy repentance Let thy grace be present with me that this day I may repent acceptably and to morrow and all my days not weeping over my returning sins nor deploring new instances but weeping bitterly for the old loathing them infinitely denouncing warre against them hastily prosecuting that warre vigorously resisting them every hour crucifying them every day praying perpetually watching assiduously consulting spiritual guides and helps frequently obeying humbly and crying mightily I may doe every thing by which I can please thee that I may be rescued from the powers of darkness and the sad portions of eternity which I have deserved III. O Give unto thy servant intentions so real a resolution so strong a repentance so holy a sorrow so deep a hope so pure a charity so sublime that no temptation or time no health or sickness no accident or interest may be able in any circumstance of things or persons to tempt me from thee and prevail Work in me a holy and an unreprovable faith whereby I may overcome the world and crucify the flesh and quench the fiery darts of the Deâ—â—l and let this faith produce charity and my sorrow cause amendment and my fear produce caution and that caution beget a holy hope let my repentance be perfect and acceptable and my affliction bring forth joy and the pleasant fruit of righteousness Let my hatred of sin pass into the love of God and this love be obedience and this obedience be universal and that universality be lasting and perpetual that I may rejoyce in my recovery and may live in health and proceed in holiness and abide in thy favour and die with a blessing the death of the righteous and may rest in the arms of the Lord Jesus and at the day of judgement may have my portion in the resurrection of the just and may enter into the joy of my Lord to reap from the mercies of God in the harvest of a blessed eternity what is here sown in tears and penitential sorrow being pardoned and accepted and sav'd by the mercies of God in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen Amen Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The End ERRATA PAge 32. line 16. dele to p. 72. l. 15. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 131. l. 5. for highest r. lightest p. 133. l. 28. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 328. l. 28. for Samnenses r. Jamnenses p. 338. l. 16. for repealing r. repeating p. 370. l. 36. for unusual r. usual p. 388. l. 12. for In r. It. p. 391. l. 32. for miseram r. miserum p. 393. l. 16. r. numqua p. 400. l. 16. for I have already r. I have in the next Chapter ibid. l. 18. for I then reproved r. I there reprove p. 431. l. 2. r. illud p. 454. l. 12. for endure r. endear p. 504 l. 17. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 508. l. 11. for precept r. precepts p. 522. l. 12. for have it r. hate it p. 523. l. 34. r. for good evil r. good or evil p. 564 l. 7. after supreme sense put a period p. 565. l. 15. for eâdem r. eodem p. 572. l. 6. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 626. l. 28. for thing r. King p. 671. l. 31. r. our conservation is In the Margent p. 120. l. ult r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 133. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 475. l. 1. r. Acts 13.48 THE TABLE The numbers relate to the Page and the marginall Numbers or Paragraphs of each CHAPTER A ABsolution of the forms of Absolution which have been used p. 627. num 53 In the primitive Church there was no judicial form of absolution in their Liturgies 628 54 Absolution of sins by the Priest can be no more then declarative 634 58 The usefulness of that kinde of absolution 63â— 59 Iudicial absolution by the Priest is not that which Christ intended in giving the power of remitting and retaining sins 636 Acts what repentance single acts of sin require 198 43. a single act of sin is cut off by the exercise of contrary vertue 199 45 A single act of vertue is not sufficient to be opposed against a single act of vice 200 46. How a single act of sin sometimes is habitual 202 49. some acts of sin require more then a moral revocation or opposing a contrary act of vertue in repentance 202 50. Single acts of sin without a habit give a denomination 185 25 Act. Chap. 13.48 explicated 475 26 Adam his 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 loins of Adam 384 40 nor because of the decree of God 386 41 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what latitude of signification it hath 552 39 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 119 21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 170 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 178 15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 177 14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 115 21. 125 26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 551 38 Art how much it can change Nature 212 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 174 8 245 18 Alms as a part of repentance 654. How they operate in order to pardon ibid. It is one of the best penances 684 29 Attrition what is is 601. The difference between it and Contrition ibid. Attrition joyned with absolution by the Priest that it is not sufficient demonstrated by many arguments 638 S. Augustine his zeal against the Pelagians to make sure work with their doctrine was the occasion of his mistake interpreting Rom. 7.15 464 17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Tit. 3.11 expl 474.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 311 5 B BAptism of the pardon of sins after baptism 532 7 C CHarity gives being to all vertues 207.56 Children how God punishes the fathers upon the children 403 God never imputes the fathers sin to the childe so as to inflict eternal punishment but temporal onely 404 54 This he does onely in very great crimes 406 57 and not often 406 58 but before the Gospel was published not since 407.8 Rules of deportment for those children who fear a curse descending on them from their sinful parents 439 17 Christ we are by him redeemed from the state of spiritual infirmity 473 25 Commandments Of the difference between S Augustine and S. Hierome in the proposition concerning the