such persons to the communion of prayers and holy offices at least the Church may choose whether she will or no. The Church in her Government and Discipline had two ends and her power was accordingly apt to minister to these ends 1. By condemning and punishing the sin she was to doe what she could to save the criminal that is by bringing him to repentance a holy life to bring him to pardon 2. And if she could or if she could not effect this yet she was to remove the scandal and secure the flock from infection This was all that was needful this was all that was possible to be done In order to the first the Apostles had some powers extraordinary which were indeed necessary at the beginning of the Religion not onely for this but for other ministrations The Apostles had power to binde sinners that is to deliver them over to Satan and to sad diseases or death it self and they had power to loose sinners that is to cure their diseases to unloose Satans bands to restore them to Gods favour and pardon This manner of speaking was used by our blessed Saviour in this very case of sickness and infirmity Ought not this woman a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years be loosed from this band on the Sabbath day The Apostles had this power of binding and loosing and that this is the power of remitting and retaining sins appears without exception in the words of our blessed Saviour to the Jews who best understood the power of forgiving sins by seeing the evil which sin brought on the guilty person taken away That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins He saith to the man sick of the palsy Arise take up thy bed and walk For there is a power in heaven and a power on earth to forgive sins The power that is in heaven is the publick absolution of a sinner at the day of judgement The power on earth to forgive sins is a taking off those intermedial evils which are inflicted in the way sicknesses temporal death loss of the Divine grace and of the privileges of the faithful These Christ could take off when he was upon earth and his heavenly Father sent him to do all this to heal all sicknesses and to cure all infirmities and to take away our sins and to preach glad tidings to the poor and comfort to the afflicted and rest to the weary and heavy laden The other judgement is to be perform'd by Christ at his second coming Now as God the Father sent his Son so his holy Son sent his Apostles with the same power on earth to binde and loose sinners to pardon sins by taking away the material evil effects which sin should superinduce or to retain sinners by binding them in sad and hard bands to bring them to reason or to make others afraid Thus S. Peter sentenc'd Ananias and Saphira to a temporal death and S. Paul stroke Elymas with blindness and deliver'd over the incestuous Corinthian to be beaten by an evil spirit and so also he did to Hymenaeus and Alexander But this was an extraordinary power and not to descend upon the succeeding ages of the Church but it was in this as in all other ministeries something miraculous and extraordinary was for ever to consign a lasting truth and ministery in ordinary The preaching of the Gospel that is faith it self at first was prov'd by miracles and the holy Ghost was given by signs and wonders and sins were pardon'd by the gifts of healing and sins were retained by the hands of an angel and the very visitation of the sick was blessed with sensible and strange recoveries and every thing was accompanied with a miracle excepting the two Sacraments in the administration of which we doe not finde any mention of any thing visibly miraculous in the records of holy Scripture and the reason is plain because these two Sacraments were to be for ever the ordinary ministeries of those graces which at first were consign'd by signs and wonders extraordinary For in all ages of the Church reckoning exclusively from the days of the Apostles all the graces of the Gospel all the promises of God were conveyed or consign'd or fully ministred by these Sacraments and by nothing else but what was in order to them These were the inlets and doors by which all the faithful were admitted into the outer Courts of the Lords Temple or into the secrets of the Kingdome and the solemnities themselves were the keys of these doors and they that had the power of ministration of them they had the power of the keys These then being the whole Ecclesiastical power and the sum of their ministrations were to be dispensed according to the necessities and differing capacities of the sons and daughters of the Church The Thessalonians who were not furnished with a competent number of Ecclesiastical Governours were commanded to abstain from the company of the brethren that walk'd disorderly S. John wrote to the Elect Lady that she should not entertain in her house false Apostles and when the former way did expire of it self and by the change of things and the second advice was not practicable and prudent they were reduced to the onely ordinary ministery of remitting and retaining sins by a direct admitting or refusing and deferring to admit criminals to their ministeries of pardon which were now onely left in the Church as their ordinary power and ministration For since in this world all our sins are pardon'd by those ways and instruments which God hath constituted in the Church and there are no other external rites appointed by Christ but the Sacraments it follows that as they are worthily communicated or justly denied so the pardon is or is not ministred And therefore when the Church did binde any sinner by the bands of Discipline she did remove him from the mysteries and sometimes enjoyn'd external or internal acts of repentance to testify and to exercise the grace and so to dispose them to pardon and when the penitents had given such testimonies which the Church demanded then they were absolved that is they were admitted to the mysteries For in the primitive records of the Church there was no form of absolution judicial nothing but giving them the holy Communion admitting them to the peace of the Church to the society and privileges of the faithful For this was giving them pardon by vertue of those words of Christ Whose sins ye remit they are remitted that is if ye who are the Stewards of my family shall admit any one to the Kingdom of Christ on earth they shall be admitted to the participation of Christs Kingdom in Heaven and what ye binde here shall be bound there that is if they be unworthy to partake of Christ here they shall be accounted unworthy to partake of Christ hereafter if they separate from Christs members they also shall be separate from the head
acting sin does to most men appear in all its ugliness and deformity and if in the dayes of your temptation you did lessen the measure of your sin yet in the days of your sorrow doe not shorten the measures of repentance Every sin is deadly enough and no repentance or godly sorrow can be too great for that which hath deserved the eternal wrath of God 12. I end these advices with the meditation of S. Hierom. Si ira sermonis injuria atque interdum jocus judicio concilióque atque Gehenne ignibus delegatur quid merebitur turpium rerum appetitio avaritia quae est radix omnium malorum If anger and injurious words and sometimes a foolish jest is sentenc'd to capital and supreme punishments what punishment shall the lustful and the covetous have And what will be the event of all our souls who reckon these injurious or angry words of calling Fool or Sot amongst the smallest and those which are indeed less we doe not observe at all For who is there amongst us almost who cals himself to an account for trifling words loose laughter the smallest beginnings of intemperance careless spending too great portions of our time in trifling visits and courtships balls revellings phantastick dressings sleepiness idleness and useless conversation neglecting our times of prayer frequently or causlesly slighting religion and religious persons siding with factions indifferently forgetting our former obligations upon trifling regards vain thoughts wandrings and weariness at our devotion love of praise laying little plots and snares to be commended high opinion of our selves resolutions to excuse all and never to confess an error going to Church for vain purposes itching ears love of flattery and thousands more The very kinds of them put together are a heap and therefore the so frequent and almost infinite repetition of the acts of all those are as Davids expression is without hyperbole more then the hairs upon our head they are like the number of the sands upon the Sea shore for multitude §. 6. What repentance is necessary for the smaller or more Venial sins 1. UPon supposition of the premises since these smaller sins are of the same nature and the same guilt and the same enmity against God and consign'd to the same evil portion that other sins are they are to be wash'd off with the same repentance also as others Christs bloud is the lavatory and Faith and Repentance are the two hands that wash our souls white from the greatest and the least stains and since they are by the impenitent to be paid for in the same fearful prisons of darkness by the same remedies and instruments the intolerable sentence can only be prevented The same ingredients but a less quantity possibly may make the medicine Caesarius Bishop of Arles who spake many excellent things in this article says that for these smaller sins a private repentance is proportionable Hom. 1. Si levia fortasse sunt delicta v.g. si homo vel in sermone vel in aliquâ reprehensibili voluntate si in oculo peccavit aut corde verborum cogitationum maculae quotidianâ oratione curandae privatâ compunctione terendae sunt The sins of the eye and the sins of the heart and the offences of the tongue are to be cured by secret contrition and compunction and a daily prayer But S. Cyprian commends many whose conscience being of a tender complexion they would even for the thoughts of their heart doe publick penance His words are these multos timoratae conscientiae De lapsis quamvis nullo sacrificii aut libelli facinore constricti â—ssent quoniam tamen de hoc vel cogitaverunt hoc ipsum apud Sacerdotes Dei dolentèr simplicitèr confitentes exomologesin conscientiae fecisse animi sui pondus exposuisse salutarem medelam parvis licet modicis vulneribus exquirentes Because they had but thought of complying with idolaters they sadly and ingenuously came to the Ministers of holy things Gods Priests confessing the secret turpitude of their conscience laying aside the weight that pressed their spirit and seeking remedy even for their smallest wounds Vide S. Aug. lib. 83. q. 26. Caesar Arelat hom 1. And indeed we finde that among the Ancients there was no other difference in assignation of repentance to the several degrees of sin but onely by publike and private Capital sins they would have submitted to publick judgement but the lesser evils to be mourn'd for in private of this I shall give account in the Chapter of Ecclesiastical repentance In the mean time their general rule was That because the lesser sins came in by a daily incursion therefore they were to be cut off by a daily repentance which because it was daily could not be so intense and signally punitive as the sharper repentances for the seldome returning sins yet as the sins were daily but of less malice so their repentance must be daily but of less affliction Lib. 50. hom h. 50. c. 8. Medicamento quotidianae pâ—â—â—itertiae dissecentur That was S. Austins rule Those evils that happen every day must be cried out against every day 2. Every action of repentance every good work done for the love of God and in the state of grace and design'd and particularly applied to the intercision of the smailest unavoidable sins is through the efficacy of Christs death and in the vertue of repentance operative towards the expiation or pardon of them For a man cannot doe all the particulars of repentance for every sin but out of the general hatred of sin picks out some special instances and apportions them to his special sins as to acts of uncleanness he opposes acts of severity to intemperance he opposes fasting But then as he rests not here but goes on to the consummation of Repentance in his whole life so it must be in the more venial sins A less instance of express anger is graciously accepted if it be done in the state of grace and in the vertue of Repentance but then the pardon is to be compleated in the pursuance and integrity of that grace in the Summes total For no man can say that so much sorrow or such a degree of Repentance is enough to any sin he hath done and yet a man cannot apportion to every sin large portions of special sorrow it must therefore be done all his life time and the little portions must be made up by the whole grace and state of Repentance One instance is enough particularly to express the anger or to apply the grace of Repentance to any single sin which is not among the Capitals but no one instance is enough to extinguish it For sin is not pardon'd in an instant as I shall afterwards discourse neither is the remedy of a natural and a just proportion to the sin * Ecclesia Romana alia excogitavit facilè quorum non nulla declinant aperte nimis ad superstitionem Confiteor tundo conspergor
provokes God to anger but that anger can be as soon rescinded as the act is past if it remains not by something that is habitual Indeed he is called a thief or an adulterer that does one action of those crimes because his consent in such things is great enough to equal a habit in lesser things The effect is notorious the prohibition severe the dangers infinite the reasons of them evident they are peccata vastantia conscientiam quae uno actu perimunt as S. Austin says they kill with one blow and therefore God exacts them highly and men call the criminal by the name of the vice But the action gives denomination but in some cases but the habit in all No man lives without sin and in the state of regeneration our infirmities still press upon us and make our hands shake and our foot to stumble and sometimes the enemy makes an inroad and is presently beaten out again and though the good man resolves against all and contends against all Pauca tamon suberunt priscae vestigia fraudis there will be something for him to be humbled at somthing to contest against to keep him watchful and upon his guard But if he be ebriosus or petulans if he be a drunkard or wanton an extortioner or covetous that is if he have a habit of any sin whatsoever then he is not the son of God but an heir of death and hell That therefore which in all cases denominates a man such both before God and before men when the actions do not that must needs have in it a proper malignity of its own and that 's the habit 4. This we may also see evidently in the matter of smaller sins the trifles of our life which though they be often repeated yet if they be kept asunder by the intercision of the actions of repentance doe not discompose our state of grace but if they be habitual they doe though it may be the single instances by some accident being hindred do not so often return and this is confess'd on all hands But then the consequent of this is that the very being habitual is a special irregularity 5. This also appears by the nature and malignity of the greater sins A vicious habit is a principle of evil naturally and directly And therefore as the capital sins are worse then others because they are an impure root and apt to produce accursed fruits as covetousness is the root of all evil and pride and envy and idolatry so is every habit the mother of evil not accidentally and by chance but by its proper efficacy and natural germination and therefore is worse then single actions 6. If natural concupiscence hath in it the nature of sin and needs a laver of regeneration and the blood of Christ to wash it off much more shall our habitual and acquir'd concupiscence For this is much worse procur'd by our own act introduc'd by our consent brought upon us by the wrath of God which we have deserv'd springing from the baseness of our own manners the consequent of our voluntary disobedience So that if it were unreasonable that our natural concupiscence should be charged upon us as criminal as being involuntary yet for the same reason it is most reasonable that our habitual sins our superinduc'd concupiscence should be imputed to us as criminal because it is voluntary in its cause which is in us and is voluntary in the effect that is it is delighted in seated in the will But however this argument ought to prevail upon all that admit the article of original sin as it is usually taught in Schools Churches For upon the denial of it Pelagius also introduc'd this opinion against which I am now disputing And lest concupiscence might be reckon'd a sin he affirm'd that no habitude no disposition nothing but an act could be a sin But on the other side lest concupiscence should be accounted no sin Lib. de peccat Grig cap. 6. 13. S. Austin disputes earnestly largely affirming and proving that a sinful habit is a special sinfulness distinct from that of evil actions malus thesaurus cordis the evil treasure of the heart out of which proceeds all mischief and a continual defluxion of impurities 7. And therefore as God severely forbids every single action of sin so with greater caution he provides that we be not guilty of a sinful habit Rom. 6.13 20. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies we must not be servants of sin not sold under sin that sin have no dominion over us That is not onely that we doe not repeat the actions of sin but that we be not enslaved to it under the power of it of such a lost liberty that we cannot resist the temptation For he that is so is guilty before God although no temptation comes Such are they whom S. Peter notes that cannot cease from sin And indeed we cannot but confess the reasonableness of this For all men hate such persons whose minds are habitually averse from them who watch for opportunities to do them evil offices who lose none that are offered who seek for more who delight in our displeasure who oftentimes effect what they maliciously will Saul was Davids enemy even when he was asleep For the evil will and the contradicting minde and the spiteful heart are worse then the crooked or injurious hand And as grace is a principle of good so is this of evil and therefore as the one denominates the subject gracious so the other sinful both of them inherent that given by God this introduc'd by our own unworthiness * He that sins in a single act does an injury to God but he that does it habitually he that cannot do otherwise is his essential enemy The first is like an offending servant who deserves to be thrown away but in a vicious habit there is an antipathy The Man is Gods enemy as a Wolf to the Lamb as the Hyaena to the Dog He that commits a single sin hath stain'd his skin and thrown dirt upon it but an habitual sinner is an Ethiop Jer. 13.23 and must be flayed alive before his blackness will disappear 8. A man is called just or unjust by reason of his disposition to and preparation for an act and therefore much more for the habit Paratum est cor meum Deus O God my heart is ready my heart is ready and S. John had the reward of Martyrdome because he was ready to die for his Lord though he was not permitted and S. Austin affirms De bono conjugat c. 21. that the continency of Abraham was as certainly crown'd as the continence of John it being as acceptable to God to have a chaste spirit as a virgin body that is habitual continence being as pleasing as actual Thus a man may be a Persecutor or a Murtherer if he have a heart ready to do it and if a lustful soul be an Adulteress because the desire is
a sin it follows that the habit is a particular state of sin distinct from the act because it is a state of vicious desires And as a body may be said to be lustful though it be asleep or eatting without the sense of actual urtications and violence by reason of its constitution so may the soul by the reason of its habit that is its vicious principle and base effect of sin be hated by God and condemn'd upon that account So that a habit is not onely distinct from its acts in the manner of being as Rhetorick from Logick in Zeno as a fist from a palm as a bird from the egge and the flower from the gemme but a habit differs from its acts as an effect from the cause as a distinct principle from another as a pregnant Daughter from a teeming Mother as a Conclusion from its Premises as a state of aversation from God from a single act of provocation 9. If the habit had not an irregularity in it distinct from the sin then it were not necessary to persevere in holiness by a constant regular course but we were to be judg'd by the number of single actions and he onely who did more bad then good actions should perish which was affirmed by the Pharisees of old and then we were to live or die by chance and opportunity by actions and not by the will by the outward and not by the inward man then there could be no such thing necessary as the Kingdome of Grace Christs Empire and Dominion in the soul then we can belong to God without belonging to his Kingdome and we might be in God though the Kingdome of God were not in us For without this we might do many single actions of vertue and it might happen that these might be more then the single actions of sin even though the habit and affection and state of sin remain Now if the case may be so as in the particular instance that the mans final condition shal not be determin'd by single actions it must be by habits and states and principles of actions and therefore these must have in them a proper good and bad respectively by which the man shall be judg'd distinct from the actions by which he shall not in the present case be judg'd All which considerations being put together do unanswerably put us upon this conclusion That a habit of sin is that state of evil by which we are enemies to God and slaves of Satan by which we are strangers from the Covenant of Grace and consign'd to the portion of Devils and therefore as a Corollary of all we are bound under pain of a new sin to rise up instantly after every fall to repent speedily for every sin not to let the Sun go down upon our wrath nor rise upon our lust nor run his course upon our covetousness or ambition For not onely every period of impenitence is a period of danger and eternal death may enter but it is an aggravation of our folly a continuing to provoke God a further aberration from the rule a departure from life it is a growing in sin a progression towards final impenitence to obduration and Apostasie it is a tempting God and a despising of his grace it is all the way presumption and a dwelling in sin by delight and obedience that is it is a conjugation of new evils and new degrees of evil As pertinacy makes error to be heresie and impenitence makes little sins unite and become deadly and perseverance causes good to be crowned and evil to be unpardonable So is the habit of viciousness the confirmation of our danger and solennities of death the investiture and security of our horrible inheritance The summe is this Every single sin is a high calamity it is a shame and it is a danger in one instant it makes us liable to Gods severe anger But a vicious habit is a conjugation of many actions every one of which is highly damnable and besides that union which is formally an aggravation of the evils there is superinduc'd upon the will and all its ministring faculties a viciousness and pravity which makes evil to be belov'd and chosen and God to be hated and despis'd A vicious habit hath in it all the Physical Metaphysical and Moral degrees of which it can be capable For there is not onely a not repenting a not rescinding of the past act by a contrary nolition but there is a continuance in it and a repetition of the same cause of death as if a man should marry death the same death so many times over it is an approving of our shame a taking it upon us an owning and a securing our destruction and before a man can arrive thither he must have broken all the instruments of his restitution in pieces and for his recovery nothing is left unless a Palladium fall from heaven the man cannot live again unless God shall do more for him then he did for Lazarus when he raised him from the dead §. 4. Sinful habits do require a distinct manner of Repentance and have no promise to be pardon'd but by the introduction of the contrary THis is the most material and practical difficulty of the Question for upon this depends the most mysterious article of Repentance and the interest of dying penitents For if a habit is not to be pardoned without the extirpation of that which is vicious and the superinducing its contrary this being a work of time requires a particular grace of God and much industry caution watchfulness frequent prayers many advices and consultations constancy severe application and is of so great difficulty and such slow progression that all men who have had experience of this imployment and have heartily gone about to cure a vicious habit know it is not a thing to be done upon our death-bed That therefore which I intend to prove I express in this Proposition A vicious habit is not to be pardon'd without the introduction of the contrary either in kinde or in perfect affection and in all those instances in which the man hath opportunities to work The Church of Rome whose Chairs and Pulpits are dangerous guides in the article of Repentance affirms that any sin or any habit of sin may be pardon'd by any single act of contrition the continued sin of fourty years may be wash'd off in less then fourty minutes nay by an act of attrition with the Priestly absolution which proposition if it be false does destroy the interest of souls and it cannot be true because it destroys the interest of piety and the necessities of a good life The reproof of this depends upon many propositions of which I shall give as plain accounts as the thing will bear 1. Every habit of vice may be expelled by a habit of vertue naturally as injustice by justice gluttony by temperance lust by chastity but by these it is not meritoriously remitted and forgiven because nothing in nature can remit sins or
time nothing hinders but that every sin is pardonable to him that repents But thus we finde that the style of Scripture and the expressions of holy persons is otherwise in the threatning and the edict otherwise in the accidents of persons and practise It is necessary that it be severe when duty is demanded but of lapsed persons it uses not to be exacted in the same dialect It is as all laws are In the general they are decretory in the use and application they are easier In the Sanction they are absolute and infinite but yet capable of interpretations of dispensations and relaxation in particular cases And so it is in the present Article Impossible and Vnpardonable and Damnation and shall be cut off and nothing remains but fearful expectation of judgement are exterminating words and phrases in the law but they doe not effect all that they there signifie to any but the impenitent according to the saying of Mark the Hermite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man is ever justified but he that carefully repents and no man is condemned but he that despises repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Basil The eye of God who is so great a lover of souls cannot deny the intercessions and letanies of Repentance §. 6. The former Doctrines reduc'd to Practise 1. Although the doors of Repentance open to them that sin after Baptism and to them that sin after Repentance yet every relapse does increase the danger and make the sin to be less pardonable then before For 1. A good man falling into sin does it without all necessity he hath assistances great enough to make him conqueror he hath reason enough to disswade him he hath sharp senses of the filthiness of sin his spirit is tender and is crush'd with the uneasie load he sighs and wakes and is troubled and distracted and if he sins he sins with pain and shame and smart and the less of mistake there is in his case the more of malice is ingredient and a greater anger is like to be his portion 2. It is a particular unthankfulness when a man that was once pardon'd shall relapse And when obliged persons prove enemies they are ever the most malicious as having nothing to protect or cover their shame but impudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So did the Greeks treat Agamemnon ill because he used them but too well Such persons are like Travellers who in a storm running to a fig-tree when the storm is over they beat the branches and pluck the fruit and having run to an altar for sanctuary they steal the Chalice from the holy place and rob the Temple that secur'd them And God does more resent it that the Lambs which he feeds at his own table which are as so many sons and daughters to him that daily suck plenty from his two breasts of Mercy and Providence that they should in his own house make a mutiny and put on the fierceness of wolves and rise up against their Lord and Shepherd 3. Every relapse after repentance is directly and in its proper principle a greater sin Our first faults are pitiable and we doe pati humanum we do after the manner of men but when we are recovered and then die again we doe facere Diabolicum we do after the manner of Devils For from ignorance to sin from passion and youthful appetites to sin from violent temptations and little strengths to fall into sin is no very great change it is from a corrupted nature to corrupted manners But from grace to return to sin from knowledge and experience and delight in goodnesse and wise notices from God and his Christ to return to sin to foolish actions and non-sense principles is a change great as was the fall of the morning stars when they descended cheaply and foolishly into darkness Well therefore may it be pitied in a childe to choose a bright dagger before a warm coat but when he hath been refreshed by this and smarted by that if he chooses again he will choose better But men that have tried both states that have rejoyced for their deliverance from temptation men that have given thanks to God for their safety and innocence men that have been wearied and ashamed of the follies of sin that have weighed both sides and have given wise sentence for God and for religion if they shall choose again and choose amiss it must be by something by which Lucifer did in the face of God choose to defie him and desire to turn Devil and be miserable and wicked for ever and ever 4. If a man repents of his repentances and returns to his sins all his intermedial repentance shall stand for nothing the sins which were marked for pardon shall break out in guilt and be exacted of him in fearful punishments as if he never had repented For if good works crucified by sins are made alive by repentance by the same reason those sins also will live again if the repentance dies it being equally just that if the man repents of his repentance God also should repent of his pardon For we must observe carefully that there is a pardon of sins proper to this life and another proper to the world to come Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and what ye binde on earth shall be bound in heaven Vid. suprà Num. 53. That is there are two remissions One here the other hereafter That here is wrought by the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments by faith and obedience by moral instruments and the divine grace all which are divisible and gradual and grow or diminish ebbe or flow change or persist and consequently grow on to effect or else fail of the grace of God that final grace which alone is effective of that benefit which we here contend for Here in proper speaking our pardon is but a disposition towards the great and final pardon a possibility and ability to pursue that interest to contend for that absolution and accordingly it is wrought by parts and is signified and promoted by every act of grace that puts us in order to heaven or the state of final pardon God gives us one degree of pardon when he forbears to kill us in the act of sin when he admits when he calls when he smites us into repentance when he invites us by mercies and promises when he abates or defers his anger when he sweetly engages us in the wayes of holiness these are several parts and steps of pardon For if God were extremely angry with us as we deserve nothing of all this would be done unto us and still Gods favours increase and the degrees of pardon multiply as our endevours are prosperous as we apply our selves to religion and holiness and make use of the benefits of the Church the ministery of the Word and Sacraments and as our resolutions passe into acts and habits of vertue But then in this world we are to expect no other pardon but a fluctuating alterable
and 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
tied to a publick Exomologesis or Repentance in the Church who by confession of their sins acknowledged their error and entred into the state of repentance and by their being separate from the participation and communion of the mysteries were declared unworthy of a communion with Christ and a participation of his promises till by repentance and the fruits worthy of it they were adjudged capable of Gods pardon At the first this was as the nature of the thing exacted it in case of publick and notorious crimes such which had done injury and wrought publick scandal and so far was necessary that the Church should be repaired if she have been injured if publick satisfaction be demanded it must be done if private be required onely then that is sufficient though in case of notorious crimes it were very well if the penitent would make his repentance as exemplary as Modesty and his own and the publick circumstances can permit In pursuance of this in the Primitive Church the Bishop and whom he deputed did minister to these publick satisfactions and amends which custome of theirs admitted of variety and change according as new scandals or new necessities did arise For though by the nature of the thing they onely could be necessarily and essentially obliged who had done publick and notorious offences yet some observing the advantages of that way of repentance the prayers of the Church the tears of the Bishop the compassion of the faithful the joy of absolution and reconciliation did come in voluntarily and to doe that by choice which the notorious criminals were to do of necessity Then the Priests which the penitents had chosen did publish or enjoyn them to publish their sins in the face of the Church but this grew into lerable and was left off because it grew to be a matter of accusation before the criminal Judge and of upbraiding in private conversation and of confidence to them that sought for occasion and hardness of heart and face and therefore they appointed one onely Priest to hear the cases and receive the addresses of the penitents and he did publish the sins of them that came onely in general and by the publication of their penances and their separation from the mysteries and this also changed into the more private and by several steps of progression dwindled away into private repentance towards men that is confession to a Priest in private and private satisfactions or amends and fruits of repentance and now Auricular Confession is nothing else but the publick Exomologesis or Repentance Ecclesiastical reduced to ashes it is the relicks of that excellent Discipline which was in some cases necessary as I have declared and in very many cases useful until by the dissolution of manners and the extinction of charity it became unsufferable and a bigger scandal then those which it did intend to remedy The result is this That to enumerate our sins before the Holy man that ministers in holy things that is Confession to a Priest is not virtually included in the duty of Contrition for it not being necessary by the nature of the thing nor the Divine Commandement is not necessary absolutely and properly in order to pardon and therefore is no part of Contrition which without this may be a sufficient disposition towards pardon unless by accident as in the case of scandal the criminal come to be obliged Onely this one advantage is to be made of their doctrine who speak otherwise in this article The Divines in the Councel of Trent * Sess 14. c. 4. affirm that they that are contrite are reconciled to God before they receive the Sacrament of penance as they use to speak that is before Priestly absolution If then a man can be contrite before the Priest absolves him as their saying supposes and as it is certain they may and if the desire of absolution be as they say included in Contrition and consequently that nothing is wanting to obtain pardon to the penitent even before the Priest absolves him it follows that the Priests absolution following this perfect disposition and this actual pardon can effect nothing really the man is pardon'd before-hand and therefore his absolution is onely declarative God pardons the man and the Priest by his office is to tell him so when he sees cause for it and observes the conditions completed Indeed if absolution by the Minister of the Church were necessary then to desire it also would be necessary and an act of duty and obedience but then if the desire in case it were necessary to desire it would make Contrition to be complete and perfect and if perfect contrition does actually procure a pardon then the Priestly absolution is onely a solemn and legal publication of Gods pardon already actually past in the Court of heaven For an effect cannot proceed from causes which are not yet in being and therefore the pardon of the sins for which the penitent is contrite cannot come from the Priests ministration which is not in some cases to be obtain'd but desir'd only and afterwards when it can be obtain'd comes when the work is done God it may be accepts the desire but the Priests ministery afterwards is not cannot be the cause why God did accept of that desire because the desire is accepted before the absolution is in being But now although this cannot be a necessary duty for the reasons before reckon'd because the Priest is not the injur'd person and therefore cannot have the power of giving pardon properly and sufficiently and effectively and confession is not an amends to him and the duty it self of Confession is not an enumeration of particulars but a condemnation of the sin which is an humiliation before the offended party yet confession to a Priest the minister of pardon and reconciliation the Curate of souls and the Guide of Consciences is of so great use and benefit to all that are heavy laden with their sins that they who carelesly and causlesly neglect it are neither lovers of the peace of consciences nor are careful for the advantages of their souls For the publication of our sins to the minister of holy things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Basil Regul brev 229. is just like the manifestation of the diseases of our body to the Physitian for God hath appointed them as spiritual Physicians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to heal sinners by the antidote of repentance said the Fathers in the first Roman Councel under Simplicius Their office is to comfort the comfortless to instruct the ignorant to reduce the wanderers to restore them that are overtaken in a fault to reconcile the penitent to strengthen the weak and to incourage their labours to advise remedies against sins and to separate the vile from the precious to drive scandals far from the Church and as much as may be to secure the innocent lambs from the pollutions of the infected Now in all these regards the penitent may have advantages from
ministery that is before their penances and satisfactions were completed The Priest or Bishop laid his hands upon him and prayed and gave him the Communion For that this was the whole purpose of imposition of hands we are taught expressely by S. Austin Lib. 3. de baptism cap. 16. who being to prove that imposition of hands viz. in repentance might be repeated though baptisme might not uses this for an argument Quid enim est aliud nisi oratio super hominem It is nothing else but a Prayer said over the man And indeed this is evident and notorious in matter of fact for in the beginning and in the progression in the several periods of publick repentance and in the consummation of it the Bishop or the Priest did very often impose hands that is pray over the penitent Tertio tomo con Gall. c. 8. 11. as appears in Is Ling. from the authority of the Gallican Councels Omni tempore jejuniis manus poenitentibus à Sacerdotibus imponantur and again Criminalia peccata multis jejuniis crebris manus sacerdotum impositionibus eorúmque supplicationibus juxta Canonum statuta placuit purgari Criminal that is great sins must according to the Canons be purged with much fasting and frequent impositions of the Priests hands and their supplications In every time or period of their fast let the Priests hands be laid upon the penitents that is let the Priests frequently pray with him and for him or over him The same with that which he also observes out of the Nicene Councel Cap. 16. 17. Vultu capite humiliato humilitèr ex corde veniam postulent pro se or are exposcant that 's the intent of imposition of hands let the penitent humbly ask pardon that is desire that the holy man and all the Church would pray for him This in every stage or period of repentance was a degree of reconciliation for as God pardons a sinner when he gives him time to repent he pardons him in one degree that is he hath taken off that anger which might justly and instantly crush him all in pieces and God pardons him yet more when he exhorts him to repentance and yet more when he inclines him and as he proceeds so does God but the pardon is not ful and final till the repentance is so too So does the Minister of repentance and pardon Those only are in the unpardoned state who are cut off from all entercourse in holy things with holy persons in holy offices when they are admitted to do repentance they are admitted to the state of pardon and every time the Bishop or Minister prayes for him he still sets him forwarder towards the final pardon but then the penitent is fully reconciled on earth when having done his repentance towards men that is by the commands of the Church he is admitted to the holy Communion and if that be sincerely done on the penitents part and this be maturely and prudently done on the Priests part as the repentance towards men was a repentance also towards God so the absolution before men is a certain indication of absolution before God But as to the main question Then the Church only did reconcile penitents when she admitted them to the Communion and therefore in the second Councel of Carthage Can. 4. absolution is called reconciliari Divinis altaribus a being reconciled to the altar of God and in the Councel of Eliberis Communione reconciliari a being reconciled by receiving the Communion Can. 72. opposite to which in the same Canon is Communionem non accipiat he may not receive the Communion that is he shall not be absolved The same is to be seen in the 8th Canon of the Councel of Ancyra in the second Canon of the Councel of Laodicea in the 85 epistle of P. Leo Can. 12. and the first epistle of P. Vigilius and in the third Councel of Toledo we finde the whole processe of binding and loosing described in these words Because we finde that in certain Churches of Spain men doe not according to the Canons but unworthily repent them of their sins that so often as they please to sin so often they desire of the Priest to be reconciled therefore for the restraining so execrable a presumption it is commanded by the holy Councel that repentance should be given according to the form of the ancient Canons that is that he who repents him of his doings being first suspended from the Communion he should amongst the other penitents often runne to the imposition of hands that is to the Prayers of the Bishop and the Church but when the time of his satisfaction is compleated according as the Priests prudence shall approve let him restore him to the Communion That 's the absolution as the rejecting him from it was the binding him It was an excommunication from which when he was restored to the Communion he was loosed And this was so known so universal a practice and processe of Ecclesiastical repentance that without any alteration as to the main inquiry it continued so in the Church to very many ages succeeding and it was for a long while together the custome of penitent people in the beginning of Lent to come voluntarily to receive injunctions of discipline and penitential offices from the Priest and to abstain from the holy Communion till they had done their penances and then by ceremonies and prayers to be restored to the Communion at Easter without any other form of Judicial absolution De divers Offic. c. 13. 16. as is to be seen in Albinus and in the Romane Pontifical * To which this consideration may be added That the reconciling of penitents in the Primitive Church was not done by the Bishop or Priest only but sometimes by Deacons as appears in Saint Cyprian lib. 3. Ep. 17. 2 Cor. 2.10 de Consecra dist 4 cap. Sanctum and sometimes by the people as it was allowed by S. Paul in the case of the incestuous Corinthian and was frequently permitted to the Confessors in the times of persecution and may be done by an unbaptized Catechumen as S. Austin affirms The result of which is that this absolution of penitents in the Court Christian was not an act of Priestly power incommunicably it was not a dispensation of the proper power of the keys but to give or not to give the Communion that was an effect of the power of the keys that was really properly and in effect the Ecclesiastical absolution for that which the Deacons or Confessors the Laics or Catechumens did was all that and only that which was of rite or ceremony before the giving the Communion therefore that which was besides this giving the Communion was no proper absolution it was not a priestly act indispensably it might be done by them that were no Priests but the giving of the Communion that was a sacerdotal act I mean the consecration of it though the tradition
then he is not the minister of God but the supreme lord and must doe it by his own measures if he does it not by the measures of God For God does never pardon him that is onely attrite and this is confessed in that they require the man to goe to the Priest that he may be made contrite which is all one as if he were bidden to goe to the Priest to be made chast or liberal temperate or humble in an instant 3. And if it be said that although God does not pardon him that is attrite unless it be together with the Keys that is unless the Priest absolves him but then it being all that God requires in that case the Priest does no more then God warrants it is done by Gods measures the attrition or imperfect repentance of the penitent and the Keys or the Church being all which God requires this indeed if it could be proved were something but there is no tittle of it in Scripture or Antiquity it being no where said that attrition and absolution alone are sufficient and is an unreasonable dream but of yesterday 4. For if attrition be good of it self and a sufficient disposition to receive pardon from the Church then it is also sufficient to obtain pardon of God without the Church in case of necessity For unless it be for him in case of necessity sufficient to desire absolution then the outward act does more then the inward and the ceremony were more then the grace and the Priest could doe more then God would for the Priest would and could pardon him whom God would not pardon without the Priest and the will could not be accepted for the deed when the deed were impossible to be done and God would require of us more then we have more then he hath given us and a man should live or die not by himself but should be judged by the actions of others All which contain in them impossible affirmatives and therefore proceed from a false principle 5. But then if Attrition in some cases without the Sacrament were good it is as good to all intents and purposes of pardon as Contrition for Contrition say the Roman Schools is not sufficient of it self without the Keys that is unless it contain in it a resolution to confess and beg absolution Now this resolution is no resolution unless it be reduced to act when it can it is a mockery if it does not and it is to be excused in no case but in that of necessity And just so it is in attrition as I have proved In vain therefore it is for any good man to perswade his penitent to heighten his repentance and to be contrite for he may at a cheaper rate be assured of his pardon if he makes the Priest his friend but as for Contrition by this doctrine it is more then needs 6. But then it is strange that Attrition which of it self is insufficient shall yet do the work of pardon with the Priests absolution and yet that that which is sufficient as Contrition is affirmed to be in the Councel of Trent shall not doe it without absolution in act or desire that is in act always Sess 14. c. 4. unless it be impossible This incourages the imperfect and discourages the perfect tying them both to equal laws whether they need it or need it not 7. But I demand Can the Priest hearing of a penitent mans confession whom he justly and without error perceives onely to be attrite can he I say refuse to absolve him can he retain his sins till he perceives him to be contrite certainly in the Primitive Church when they deferr'd to give him the peace of the Church for 3 for 7 for 10 for 13 years together their purpose then was to work in him contrition or the most excellent Repentance But however if he can refuse to absolve such a man then it is because absolution will not work for him what is defective in him it will not change it into contrition for if it could then to refuse to absolve him were highly uncharitable and unreasonable But if he cannot refuse to absolve such a person it is because he is sufficiently disposed he hath done all that God requires of him to dispose himself to it and if so then the Sacrament as they call it that is the Priests absolution does nothing to the increasing his disposition it is sufficient already Adde to this if in the case of attrition the Priest may not deny to absolve the imperfect penitent then it is certain God will absolve him in case the Priest does not for if the Priest be bound and refuses to doe it this ought not it cannot prejudice the penitent but himself onely He therefore shall not perish for want of the Priests absolution and if it could be otherwise then the Parishioner might be damned for the Curates fault which to affirm were certain blasphemy and heresy What the Priest is bound to doe God will doe if the Priest will not The result is this That if this imperfect repentance which they call attrition be a sufficient disposition to absolution then the Priests ministery is not operative for the making it sufficient and indeed it were strange it should that absolution should make contrition and yet contrition be necessary in order to absolution that the form should make the matter that one essential or integral part should make another that what is to be before must be made by that which comes after But if this attrition be not a sufficient disposition to absolution then the Priest may not absolve such imperfect penitents So that the Priest cannot make it sufficient if of it self it be insufficient and if it be of it self sufficient then his absolution does but declare it so it effects it not 8. And after all it is certain that the words of absolution effect no more then they signifie If therefore they doe pardon the sin yet they doe not naturally change the disposition or the real habit of the sinner And if the words can effect more they may be changed to signify what they doe effect for to signify is less then to effect Can therefore the Church use this form of absolution I doe by the power committed unto me change thy attrition into contrition The answer to this is not yet made for their pretence is so new and so wholly unexamined that they have not yet considered any thing of it It will therefore suffice for our institution in this useful material and practical question that no such words were instituted by Christ nor any thing like them no such were used by the Primitive Church no such power pretended And as this new doctrine of the Roman Church contains in it huge estrangements and distances from the spirit of Christianity is another kinde of thing then the doctrine and practice of the Apostolical and succeeding ages of the Church did publish or exercise so it is a perfect destruction
within for to that purpose did our blessed Saviour speak that parable to the Pharisees of cleansing cups and platters The parallel to it is here in S. Luke Vide Rule of Holy Dying c. 2. Sect. 3. Lact. l. 6. Almes does also cleanse the inside of a man for it is an excellent act and exercise of repentance Magna est misericordiae merces cui Deus polliceturse omnia peccata remissurum Great is the reward of mercy to which God hath promised that he will forgive all sins To this of almes is reduced all actions of piety and a zealous kindness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the labour of love all studious endearing of others and obliging them by kindness a going about seeking to do good such which are called in Scripture opera justitiae the works of righteousness that is such works in which a righteous and good man loves to be exercised and imployed But there is another instance of mercy besides almes which is exceeding proper to the exercise of Repentance and that is 83. Forgiving injuries Vt absolvaris ignosce Pardon thy brother that God may pardon thee Forgive and thou shalt be forgiven so says the Gospel and this Christ did presse with many words and arguments because there is a great mercy and a great effect consequent to it he put a great emphasis and earnestness of commandment upon it And there is in it a great necessity for we all have need of pardon and it is impudence to ask pardon if we refuse to give pardon to them that ask it of us and therefore the Apostles to whom Christ gave so large powers of forgiving or retaining sinners were also qualified for such powers by having given them a deep sense and a lasting sorrow and a perpetual repentance for and detestation of their sins their repentance lasting even after their sin was dead Therefore S. Paul calls himself the chiefest or first of sinners and in the Epistle of S. Barnabas the Apostle affirmes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Jesus chose for his own Apostles men more wicked then any wickednesse and by such humility and apprehensions of their own needs of mercy they were made sensible of the needs of others and fitted to a merciful and prudent dispensation of pardon 84. Restitution This is an act of repentance indispensably necessary integral part of it if it be taken for a restitution of the simple or original theft or debt for it is an abstinence from evil or a leaving off to commit a sin The crime of theft being injurious by a continual efflux and emanation and therefore not repented of till the progression of it be stopped But then there is a restitution also which is to be reckoned among'st the fruits of repentance or penances and satisfactions Such as was that of Zacheus If I have wronged any man by false accusation I restore him fourfold In the law of Moses theevs convicted by law were tied to it but if a thief or an injurious person did repent before his conviction and made restitution of the wrong he was tied only to the paiment of one fift part above the principal by way of amends for the injury and to do this is an excellent fruit of repentance and a part of self-judicature a judging our selves that we be not judged of the Lord and if the injured person be satisfied with the simple restitution then this fruit of repentance is to be gathered for the poor 85. These are the fruits of repentance which grow in Paradise and will bring health to the Nations for these are a just 〈…〉 of sinne they oppose a good 〈…〉 every evil they make amend◠〈…〉 and to the Church competently and to God acceptably through his mercy in Jesus Christ These are all we can doe in relation to what is past some of them are parts of direct obedience and consequently of return to God and the others are parts and exercises and acts of turning from the sin Now although so we turn from sin it matters not by what instruments so excellent a conversion is effected yet there must care be taken that in our return there be 1 hatred of sin and 2 love of God and 3 love of our brother The first is served by all or any penal duty internal or external but sin must be confessed and it must be left The second is served by future obedience by prayer and by hope of pardon and the last by alms and forgiveness and we have no liberty or choyce but in the exercise of the penal or punitive part of repentance but in that every man is left to himself and hath no necessity upon him unless where he hath first submitted to a spiritual guide or is noted publickly by the Church But if our sorrow be so trifling or our sins so slightly hated or our flesh so tender or our sensuality so unmortified that we will endure nothing of exteriour severity to mortify our sin or to punish it to prevent Gods anger or to allay it we may chance to feel the load of our sins in temporal judgements and have cause to suspect the sincerity of our repentance and consequently to fear the eternal S. Cyptian epist 8. ep 26. We feel the bitter smart of this rod and scourge of God because there is in us neither care to please him with our good deeds nor to satisfy him or make amends for our evil that is we neither live innocently nor penitently Let the delicate and the effeminate doe their penances in scarlet and Tyrian purple and fine linen and faring deliciously every day but he that passionately desires pardon and with sad apprehensions fears the event of his sins and Gods displeasure will not refuse to suffer any thing that may procure a mercy and endear Gods favour to him no man is a true penitent but he that upon any terms is willing to accept his pardon I end this with the words of S. Homil. 50. c. 15. Austin It suffices not to change our life from worse to better unless we make amends and doe our satisfactions for what is past That is no man shall be pardon'd but he that turns from sin and mortifies it that confesses it humbly and forsakes it that accuses himself and justifies God that prays for pardon and pardons his offending brother that will rather punish his flesh then nurse his sin that judges himself that he may be acquitted by God so these things be done let every man choose his own instruments of mortification and the instances and indications of his penitential sorrow §. 7. The former doctrine reduc'd to practice HE that will judge of his repentance by his sorrow must not judge of his sorrow by his tears or by any one manner of expression For sorrow puts on divers shapes according to the temper of the body or the natural or accidental affections of the minde or to the present consideration of things Wise men and women doe not very
answered 272 51 Objections against the repentance of Clinicks 281 57. 277 56. 284 64 Heathens newly baptised if they die immediately need not repentance 284 64 The objection concerning the thief on the Cross answered 288 289 Testimonies of the Ancients against death bed repentance 292 66 The manner of repentance in habitual sinners who begin repentance betimes 305 1 The manner of repentance which habitual sins must be cured by in them who return not till old age 317 12 The usage of sinners who repent not till their death-bed 325 25 Considerations shewing how dangerous it is to delay repentance 325 25 Considerations to be opposed against the despair of penitent Clinicks 329 29 What hopes penitent Clinicks have taken out of the writings of the Fathers of the Church 330 30 The manner how the ancient Church treated penitent Clinicks 3â—7 5 The particular acts and parts of repentance that are fittest for a dying man 339 32 The penitent in the opinion of the Jewish Doctors preferred above the just and innocent 530 5 The practice of the Primitive Fathers about penitent Clinicks 539 the practice of the ancient Fathers excluding from repentance murderers adulterers and idolaters 540 Penitential sorrow is rather in the understanding then the affections 586 12 penitential sorrow is not to be estimated by the measures of sense 588 15 590 17 a double solemne imposition of hands in repentance 633 as our repentance is so is our pardon 649 a man must not judge of his repentance by his tears nor by any one manner of expression 658 1 He that suspects his repentance should use that suspicion as a means to improve his repentance 660 Meditations that will dispose the heart to repentance ibid. No man can be said truly to have grieved for sins which at any time after he remembers with pleasure 662 7 the repentance of Clinicks 667 13 sorrow for sin is but a sign or instrument of repentance 668 14 Restitution considered as a part of repentance 656 84 Romans 7.14 exp 261 40 6.7 exp 266 44 7.7 exp 311 5 5.12 exp 363 7 5.13 14. exp 365 11 7.23 exp 400 50 455 8 7.15 19. exp 454 6 456 9 S. Aug. restrained the words of the Apostle R m 7.15 to the matter of desires and concupiscence and excluded all evil actions from the meaning of that text 463 17 reasons against the interpretation of that Father 465 18 7.9 exp 468 23 8.7 exp 478 29 7.22 23. exp 480 29 5.10 exp 576 77 Revelation 19.9 exp 284 62 Religion if it be seated onely in the understanding not accepted to salvation 476 28 S SAcrament Church of God used to deny the Sacrament to no dying penitent that desired it 330 29 Of confeshon to a Minister in preparation to the Sacrament 678 25 1 Sam 2.25 exp 561 51 Satisfaction what it signified in the sense of the Ancients 644 72 606 34 645 the Ancients did not beleeve satisfactions simply necessary to the procuring of pardon from God 651 78 Sins are not equal 104 5 How they are made greater or less ibid. No sin is ven al 110 9 the smallest sins are destructive of our friendship with God 111 12 the Doctors of the Roman Church doe not rightly define venial sins ibid. the smallest is against charity 123 24 and is turning from God 125 26 the smaller the sin the less excusable if done with observation 127 27 Venial sins distinguished into such as are venial by the imperfection of the agent by the smalness of the matter or venial in the whole kinde 128 28 that no sins are venial in their nature or whole kinde 129 31 sins differ in degree but not in their essential order to punishment 132 33 No sins are venial but by repentance 134 34 The absurdity of the Romane doctrines concerning venial sins 138 39 the inconveniences following from the doctrine of venial sins 137 35 c. Among the ancients the distinction of sins into mortal and venial means not a distinction of kinde but degree 142 44 some sins destroy not holiness 144 45 the distinction of sins into mortal and venial cannot have influence on us to any good purposes 145 46 What sins are venial cannot be known to us 147 47 we should have judged some sins venial if it had not been otherwise revealed in Scripture 148 48 sins that we account in their nature venial may by their multitude become damnable 152 52 the means of expiating venial sins appointed by some Romane Doctors 157 57 Whether every single deliberate act of sin put the sinner out of Gods favour 182 22 single acts of sin without a habit give a denomination 185 25 sins are damnable that cannot be habitual 184 24 single acts of mortal sin displease God and are forbidden but are not a state of death 188 29 what repentance single acts of sin require 198 43 how a single act of sin sometimes is habitual 202 49 sin often in Scripture used for the punishment of sin 368 15 leaving of fin the best sign of hatred of it 603 7 How sin can be consistent with the regenerate estate 485 33 he that leaves a sin out of fear may be accepted 491 the violence of a temptation doth not in the whole excuse sin 511 58 Of the pardon of sins after Baptism 532 7 some sins styled unpardonable but in a limited sense 542 21 God punishes not one sin with another 682 One sin may cause or procure another ibid. Sin Original cap 6 362 whether we from Adam derive Original ignorance 373 22 Adams sin made us not heirs of damnation 375 22 nor makes us necessarily vicious 383 37 Adams sin did not corrupt our nature by a physical efficiency 383 39 nor because we were in the loyns of Adam 384 40 nor because of the will and decree of God 386 41 the principles by which sin pollutes the manners of men 413 66 Sins of Infirmity cap. 7 per tot That which some men call a state of infirmity is a state of sin and death 473 25 Sinner how every sinner is Gods enemy 81.11 God is ready to forgive all and the greatest sinners 530. Sorrow as a fruit of repentance 647 Rules concerning sorrow that is a part of repentance 663 A caution to those that minister comfort to such as are afflicted with immoderate sorrow for their sins 665 10 sorrow for sin is but a sign or instrument of repentance 668 14 cautions concerning the measures of this sorrow 686 30 penitential sorrow is rather in the understanding then the affections 586 12 Scripture the manner of it is to include the consequents in the antecedents 284 62 Spirit the rule of the spirit in us 481 to have received the spirit is not an inseparable propriety of the regenerate 493 39 what the spirit of God doth in us 494 the regenerate man hath not onely received the spirit of God but is wholly led by him 498 42 Supererogation what it is 49 17 T TEars A man by them must not judge of his repentance nor by any other one way of expression 658 1 Temptation every temptation to sin if overcome increases not the reward 234 7 No man is tempted of God 437 10 the violence of a temptation doth not in the whole excuse sin 511 58 Thief on the Cross why his repentance was accepted 289 65 1 Timoth. 5.22 exp 548 31 Titus 3.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exp 477 28 V VErtue The difference of vertue is in relation to their objects 206 56 Theology findeth a medium between vertue and vice 268 47 Vnderstanding Religion if it be seated onely in the understanding not accepted to salvation 476 28 Voluntary whether disobedience that is voluntary in the cause but not in the effect is to be punished 388 43 389 390 unwilingness unto sin no sign of regeneration 486 W WIll Of Freewill 418 a mans will hath no infirmity 512 60 the will is not moved necessarily by the understanding ibid. Works covenant of works when it began 1. reasons shewing the justice of that dispensation of Gods beginning his entercourse with man by the covenant of works 6. the Law of works imposed on Adam only 39 1 Y YOung Sins of infirmity not accounted to young men as to others 510 57 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 178 14 The End