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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42885	Instruction concerning penance and holy communion the second part fo the instruction of youth, containing the means how we may return to God by penance, and remain in his grace by the good and frequent use of the sacraments. By Charles Gobinet, Doctor of Divinity, of the house and Society of Sorbon, principal of the college of Plessis-Sorbon.; Instruction de la jeunesse en la piété chrétienne. Part 2. English	Gobinet, Charles, 1614-1690.; Gobinet, Charles, 1614-1690. Instruction sur la pénitence et sur la sainte communion. English.	1689 (1689)	Wing G904C; ESTC R223681	215,475	423

Virgin that thou partake of the thanks which I am obliged to render to thy Son since he hath been pleas'd I should receive him in this Communion It was to thee that this living bread descended from heaven and from thee he took the body and blood which he gives us for our food Luc. 1.42 Blessed be thou amongst women and blessed be the fruit of thy womb Let the Angells praise thee for that thou hast given us this fruit of life and prepared for us this divine food which nourisheth us and brings us to everlasting bliss Help me to preserve this fruit that I may never loose it more And as thou hadst grace after thou hadst happily born him in thy womb to conserve him also more fortunately in thy heart obtain of him for me the like favour without which this Communion would not be usefull to me O Holy mother of God assist me that I may conceive in my Soul thy Son Jesus Christ that he may be born in me that he may dayly increase that he may there live and reign as absolute Lord and Master of my Soul. You may add here any of those prayers which the Church is used to make to her as the hymn Ave Maris Stella her Litanies or the like ARTICLE IX How we ought to spend the day of our Communion IT is an advice of very great consequence to spend all that day in Piety and Devotion wherein you have performed so holy so religious and so august an action and to honour that day by the exercise of good works upon which God hath been pleas'd to Sanctify you by his presence To spend it otherwise is to fail in your respect to Jesus Christ and it happens but too often that by this neglect of our duty we loose the greater part of the fruit which otherwise we might reap from the holy Table of Communion What then you are to do Theotime on that day is frequently in the day time to call to mind and seriously to reflect upon the honour you have received and to acknowledg that it is beyond your capacity sufficiently to esteem it 2ly Not to distract your mind either with vain divertisements or with unprofitable frivolous discourses but to be more serious modest and reserved in all the actions of that day remembring what honour it is how they value themselves who are admitted to the presence of a King and consequently what hath been done to you whilest you were chosen to be the Temple of Jesus Christ 3ly Employ all that day in good works as far as you are able as the rest of the morning in Divine Service or reading some good book After dinner in hearing the word of God assisting at Evensong and the remainder of the day either in discourse with good and virtuous persons or in reading At night in your prayers be not unmindfull to give God thanks for your Communion and for all the favours which he hath bestowed upon you Beseech him most earnestly that he will give you grace to benefit your self there-by the next day and all the remainder of your life and to practise well all the resolutions you have made upon this occasion But for the better complyance with these holy resolutions remember that you renew them every day in your morning prayers even to the day of your following Communion and at night in your examen of conscience see and consider well whether you have faithfully fullfill'd them or whether you have failed therein and broke your promise and in what that so you may rectify your self out of hand and set your self again into the right way of the Service of God and the path of your own Salvation ARTICLE X. Of frequent Communion NOthing remains but that I exhort you to Communicate often dear Theotime and benefit your self of the great advantages which God presents you with in this Divine Sacrament It is in reality a great benefit to have Communicated well in the manner we have but just now declared But if after this one abstain a long time from it he endangers himself to loose the fruit of the foregoing Communion by relapsing into Sin and the disorders of his former Life There is a certain proportion betwixt Spiritual and Corporal nourishment This requires we should take it as often as the necessity of our Body shall require and we need it according as the natural heat consumes our substance and whatsoever else serves for its subsistance The same we must affirm of Spiritual food which serves to repair the forces of the Soul which are continually diminished and weakened by Concupiscence and all the passions with which it is assaulted If these forces are not frequently recruited the Life of Grace is by degrees much weakned and totally lost at length Now that which serves to repair them is the Sacred Eucharist which renews our strength and restores our Soul to her former vigour weakening Concupiscence diminishing the Passions preserving her from Mortal nay even from Venial Sins as we have already said and proved at large After this is there any necessity of other motives to persuade either you or any other Christian to frequent Communion Certainly those who are willing to do what is pleasing in the sight of God and to continue in his grace have need of none And I suppose you are one of that number I exhort you then by the Charity of Jesus Christ and by the excess of love which he shewed us in bestowing himself upon us in this adorable Mystery as the best means for our Salvation that you will frequently approach unto him in this Divine Sacrament to the end he may remain in you and you in him according as he himself hath promised and you surely cannot but desire Consider that your Soul is always sick and that these Distempers if neglected may bring you to Eternal Death Come then to this great Physitian who only is able to cure you and preserve you from death by this Bread which he hath given as himself affirms for the Life of the World. Joan. 6.52 Panis quem ego dabo caro mea est pro mundi vita Ponder O ponder well upon the earnest desire he hath to relieve you in all your wants and the ardent love with which he calls and even compels you to come unto him Mat 11.28 Come to me all you that labour and are burthened and I will refresh you In me you shall find the repose which your Souls desire They who are not won with these so moving and vehement expressions do they not evidently shew that they are altogether insensible of the love which Jesus Christ hath so plainly testified he hath for them and that they are enemies to their own Salvation Is it possible that you should be one of these Look to it for if you be you are not of the number of the Children of God for Children listen and attend to the voice of their Father come to him willingly and

to the performance of the Penance it ought to be exact and faithfully complied with there is an obligation to discharge ones self of this Duty First because it is a part and belongs to the perfection of the Sacrament 2ly because it is enjoyn'd by an authority which hath power to oblige since God hath declared that to be bound in Heaven which the Priest binds upon Earth 3ly because it is in vertue of that acceptance one receives absolution There is then an obligation of complying with that penance which one hath accepted and he who on set purpose or by willfull negligence fails to perform it commits a Sin and an offence against God and this more or less greivously according as the omission is more or less considerable for if it be but a slight omission it is but a venial Sin but if it be a notorious omission as of the whole penance or the greatest part of it it may be a mortal Sin which is to be understood if the Penance was enjoyn'd in satisfaction for a Mortal Sin. Acquit your self then faithfully Theotime of your Penance as obeying God in the person of your Confessour discharge your self of the promise you have made him and compleat the Sacrament But remember to perform it willingly devoutly and secretly Willingly to avoid the fault which those commit who never perform it but with pain and trouble whereby they loose the greatest part of the merit they might otherwise have It is a strange thing that men should run after Sin with so much earnestness and pleasure and should have such an Aversion and Horrour against Penance which is a remedy against it And this is the complaint which Tertullian makes of his time Nauseabit ad antidotum qui hiavit ad venenum We nauseate the Remedy and love the Poyson Perform it also devoutly but especially with a true Spirit of repentance and an acknowledgment that it is a certain satisfaction you make to God for the injury you have done him by your Sins Place them always before your eyes deplore them as David did iniquicatem meam ego cognosco peccatum meum contra me est semper Psal 50.4 In fine perform your Penance secretly if it be great and if it be given you for great Sins but which are altogether unknown to those amongst whom you live that you may neither scandalise any one nor defame your self It was for these two reasons we said in the precedent Chapter that the Preist ought to enjoyn such a penance that may be secretly comply'd with when the Sins are wholly secret and the Penitent also must keep his Penance secret that he may avoid the same inconveniences And yet this is a thing wherein Penitents and particularly young people are frequently faulty declaring indiscreetly their penances to others which cannot but be of very ill consequence when their penances are signall and notorious If the penance be enjoyn'd you for Sins that are known to others as you ought not to affect to publish it so neither ought you to avoid the making of it known being it may serve for the edification of others and satisfy for the scandal which your Sins have caused CHAP. VII Of the Works which may be enjoyn'd for Penance THe most ordinary works of Penance are prayer fasting almsdeeds and whatsoever may have a relation to any of these three such as in respect of Prayer are reading pious books Meditation Confession hearing Mass In respect of fasting all the Mortifications of the body Labour retrenching our selves even of lawfull Pleasures Abstinence from things either Hurtfull or Dangerous In regard of Alms all the Helps and Assistances one can give to their Neighbour These three sorts of works are very proper for Penance and agree with it admirably well For first by these three works we submit to God all the goods which we possess the goods of the Mind those of the Body and of Fortune The goods of the mind by Prayer which subjects the Spirit to God those of the Body by Fasting and other Mortifications and those of Fortune by Almsdeeds Secondly because almost all our Sins consist in the abuse of some of these three things Pride proceeds from the abuse of the goods or advantages of the mind Luxury from those of the goods of the Body and from the abuse of our Riches proceeds Covetousness We repair that abuse by the three above-mentioned works Prayer humbles the mind Fasting tames the body and Alms makes good use of Riches These three works are highly praised and commended in the Scripture as having a wonderfull force to appease Gods anger after Sin and obtain of him all manner of favours It is said of prayers Judith 9.16 That the Prayers of the humble and good have always been pleasing to God. Eccle. 35.21 That the Prayer of him that humbles himself penetrates the Clouds Peircing as I may say the Heavens to mount to the Divine Throne and make it self be understood and graciously heard This made St. Augustine say that it is the same for Prayer to ascend unto Heaven as for Mercy to descend from thence Ascendit Oratio descendit miseratio And he adds elsewhere th●t to make Prayer mount more easily up to Heaven it is good to give it two wings viz. Fasting and Alms. As for Fasting it is said Tob. 12.8 That Prayer is good with Fasting That the Fasting and Penance of the Ninevites appeased Gods wrath against them When God exhorts his People to penance he assignes fasting as one of the most efficacious means Convert your selves to me in Fasting Tears and Lamentations Joel 2.13 And as for Alms it is said Tob. 4.11 That it delivers from Sin and Death And that it will not permit that the Soul which gives it should be lost That Dan. 4.24 by it we must redeem our Sins That Eccl. 29.15 we must hide our almes in the bosome of the poor and it will Pray and obtain of God an exemption from all evil for him that does it There is a great number of other passages in the Holy Scripture to shew how powerfull these three works are to obtain the mercy of God and remission of Sins These three works have each of them three singular qualities which render them more amiable and commend them to our more frequent practise For they are Satisfactory Meritorious and impetratorious They are Satisfactorious in respect of the temporal punishment by reason of the trouble which they give of Sins past either to the Body or Mind and by these pains or trouble willingly undergone one Satisfies for the punishments which are due to the Sins he hath committed They are meritorious in respect of grace and glory which is common to all good works performed in the state of Sanctifying grace They are impetratorious that is they have a particular vertue whereby to obtain of God the favours which we demand and that according to the intention of those who do them and by how much better that

in lying Swearing Stealing beating c. IV. The Subjects whether they have fail'd to obey the King and the Magistrates to observe their Laws and their Commands and to bear a respect to their Persons V. Towards their Ecclesiastical Superiours as Bishops Curates Confessors whether one hath not fail'd to give ear to their Admonitions to shew them respect to love them and obey them whether on the contrary one hath contemned them spoken ill of them or murmured against them Fathers and Mothers reciprocally ought to examen whether they have performed their duty towards their Children whether they love them as they ought whether they have care to maintain them and to supply them in their other Corporal necessities whether they have been carefull of their Salvation and to provide them all things necessary for that end viz. to teach them to know God and fear him to love him as their Heavenly Father to instill into them the Sentiments of true Piety to redress their faults by opportune and convenient reprehensions to correct them when they stand in need not to flatter them in their vicious Inclinations as also not to be too severe towards them to give them good but never any bad Example Never to force them in the choice of their State of Life nor to love one more then another without a very good reason not to take from one to give to another except it be according to the exact rules of Justice The Sins of other Superiours may be examened upon all the Points here mentioned proportionably to what may appertain to every one in his proper Post Masters should consider how they have behaved themselves towards their Servants whether they have had a care of their Life and Conversation and of their Salvation whether they have been watchfull over their Actions reprehended their faults made them say their Prayers go to Mass on Sundays and Holy-days frequent the Sacraments Whether they have not commanded them to do some evil thing treated them too rudely either by words injuries or stroaks whether they have not paid their Wages and so of others The EXAMEN upon the Fifth Commandment Thou shalt not Kill THis Commandment forbids Murther and all that which comes near it or inclines that way that is either actually to hurt our Neighbour in his Body or to desire it This may happen in many ways which are ranked as it were in order in these following Verses Caedem hominis lex quinta vetat mentemque nocendi Hinc 2. iram 2. rixas 3. convicia probra 4. minasque 5. Vindictam 6. pugnas 7. verberae vulnera 8. mortes 9. Proditiones insidiasque venena furores 10. Invidiamque odiumque quodcunque improba menti Suggerit iratae rabies mitissima damnat Lex ab humanis longe congressibus arcet One must then examen himself 1. Whether he hath been enraged or angry against his Neighbour 2. Or hath Quarrelled with him 3. Whether in the quarrel he used any injurious or vilifying Language or reproachfull actions 4. Whether he hath threatened any one and how 5. Whether the effect that is the Revenge followed 6. Whether he hath fought against him or challenged him to the field or beaten him in effect 7. Or strucken or provoked or wounded him 8. If he have been the cause of his death 9. If he have made use of treachery to entrap him of Ambushes to hurt him of Poyson or other inventions of humane wrath 10. If one have kept a grudge or born malice against him how long it hath lasted and what evil effects have proceeded from it The EXAMEN upon the Sixth Commandment Thou shalt not Commit Adultery THis Commandment forbidding Adultery prohibits likewise all sorts of Sins of impurity and all whatsoever is opposite to Chastity as well of mind as body whereof these Verses will give an account Casta pudicitiam sexto Lex Ordine servat Et Vetat auditu aspectu sermone pudorem Laedere vel sactu tum nequis mente revolvat Turpe aliquid 2. Vel corde optet 3. Statuatue pudenda Perficere heu miserum si fecerit atque pudorem Nec vitae aequandum turpi violaverit actu 1. Ipse suum corpus male faedans 2. aut alienae Corruptor carnis 3. stuprans 4. incestus 5. adulter 5. Aut si naturae calcato jure peregit In quae caelestes arserunt crimina flammae There are three degrees in the sin of Impurity The First contains the sins of the exteriour Senses which serve as an entrance and dispositions to this Vice. The Second comprehends the interiour sins which are committed against purity in the mind The Third contains the different kinds of impure actions by which one actually commits that sin I. It is convenient then in the first place that we examen the acts of the exteriour senses 1. Of Hearing by which bad as well as good enters into the mind Whether one hath given Ear either to immodest words discourses or Songs wherein one may sin four ways 1. If one interiourly takes pleasure therein 2. If one shews that he willingly gives Ear unto them 3. If one does not hinder them when he may 4. If one do not avoid the company of those who speak them when it is not in his power to divert the discourse 2. Of the Sight and that in divers manners Whether one hath cast his eyes with pleasure or design upon immodest objects or such as are capable to raise ill thoughts as nakedness dishonest Pictures or Figures Women or Maids either entertaining at the same time Lascivious thoughts or being in danger to admit them which ordinarily is a Mortal Sin. Whether one hath read dishonest books treating of Love immodest Stories or other unchast things Whether one hath taken pleasure in reading them And altho' one took no delight therein yet the danger to which one exposes himself to admit it is the reason why one can ever scarce reade such Books without a Mortal fin Whether one has kept such books by him for he is obliged to rid himself of them Whether he hath imparted them to others Whether one hath neglected to suppress them when he might either by himself or by another 3. Of the Tongue one must examine whether he hath uttered immodest words or used expressions bearing a double sense or apt to create in the Soul impure thoughts Whether he hath held discourse or entertainments of this nature recounted wanton Stories reported his own or others wicked actions Whether one hath sollicited others to the sin of impurity Sung unchast Songs or recited immodest Verses 4. Of the Touch whether one hath touched himself immodestly that is having no necessity but only pleasure or with danger of impurity and yet more whether one hath touched another with either of these two circumstances of pleasure or danger II. The Second rank of immodest sins contains those which are committed in the mind and under this head we must examine three things 1. Whether one hath willingly