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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

do to acquit himself of it with advantage but also what the Confessour on his side is obliged to do that he the Penitent may receive with greater submission and more obedience the Pe●ance which shall be enjoyn'd him The Penance then which is enjoyned by the Confessor must have three conditions It must be Just Charitable and Prudent that is impos'd with justice with charity and with Prudence with Justice in regard to the Honour and Interest of God with Charity in respect of the Salvation of the Penitent with Prudence in order to the forming a right judgment of the quality of the Penance that the foresight of the effects may follow These three conditions correspond to the three Characters of a Confessour in the Sacrament of Confession of a Judge of a Father of a Physician he ought there to behave himself as a just Judge as a charitable Father and as a wise Phisician First it must be Just that is proportion'd to the Sins as well in respect of the enormity as the number for if the Penance be too rigorous it is an injustice in respect of the Penitent if it be too light or easy it is an injustice done to God. The first happens very seldome but the second frequently and renders the Confessours very often extreamly culpable in the sight of God which are the reasons why God as S. Ciprian saith doth not receive from Penitents the Satisfaction which is due unto him Laborant ne Deo satisfiat lib 1. ep 3. This proportion of the Penance with the Sin is not to be understood of an exact and rigorous proportion for that cannot possibly be observed by man none but God knowing the Punishment which each Sin deserves But it is to be understood of a Morall and prudent proportion so that a greater proportion be assigned to greater or more numerous Sins and a lesser for less heinous and fewer Sins All this must be enjoyned according to the ability of the Penitent which depends upon the strength of their bodys the disposition of their minds their age their sex their state and the like And in this the Confessors ought to proceed with much circumspection remembring that they are not the absolute Masters and Arbiters in the imposing of Penances as they please but that they act as Ministers of Jesus Christ and that it doth not appertain to the servant to dispose at his pleasure of what belongs to his Master For this reason the Council of Trent speaking of Satisfaction gives this advertisment to Confessours worthy to be observ'd and which they ought always to have before their eyes I shall cite it in this place not only for the Confessours but also for the Penitents sake that they may know in this point the obligations heir Confessours have and that they may understand that they are not absolute masters of the Penances they enjoyn The Preists of our Lord saith the Council ses 14. c. 8. ought as far as the Holy Ghost and Prudence shall suggest unto them to enjoyn convenient and wholsome penances having regard to the quality of the Sins and the ability of the Penitents for fear lest if they should connive at their Sins and use them too indulgently enjoyning some light works for most heinous crimes they may become partakers of others Sins and afterwards they add That they have a particular care that the Penances they impose be not only a means to conserve the Penitents in Grace and cure their infirmities but also serve to punish their past offences Debent ergo Sacerdotes Domini quantum Spiritus prudentia suggesserit pro qualitate criminum poenitentium facultate salutares convenientes satisfactiones injungere ne si forte peccatis conniveant indulgentiùs cum penitentibus agant levissima quaedam opera pro gravissimis delictis injungendo alienorum peccatorum participes efficiantur Habeant autem prae oculis ut satisfactio quam imponunt non sit tantùm ad novae vitae custodiam infirmitatis medicamentum sed etiam ad praeteritorum peccatorum vindictam castigationem If Penitents would but consider well this advertisement and the obligation which their Confessours have to weigh well the penances they enioyn them they would not complain as frequently they do that their penances are too severe whereas they are far inferiour to what they deserve Next to Justice Charity is necessary in enjoyning of Penance where the Priest ought to be mindfull that he is a Father of his Penitent to communicate unto him the life of grace Now this is to be understood of a true reall Charity and according to the will of God which is the Salvation of the Sinner and which consequently ought to make him only solicitous for the Salvation of the Penitent using to that end both mild and severe remedies as he shall judg most proper and most convenient Thus Charity avoids two extreams the one of too severe Confessours who behave themselves in regard of their Penitents as some Fathers do towards their Children whom they treat always with so much rigour that they rather ruin them then amend them The other is of too soft and indulgent Confessours who either following their own facil and complaisant nature or negligently performing that dreadfull Office treat all their Penitents with an equall but less discreet sweetness enjoyning ordinarily but slight penances for Mortall Sins how great or how numerous so ever they be These two extreams are vicious and have frequently very ill consequences for the former renders Confession troublesome and tedious and discourageth Penitents The other makes it unprofitable or of little or no effect for their amendment This indiscreet mildness fausters them in their vices without putting them to the trouble to correct them as we see by too frequent experience and the acknowledgment of Penitents themselves who frequently avouch that this excessive mildness hath been very prejudiciall to them and indulged them in their Sins Those Ghostly fathers ought first to remember that by this their mildness they become guilty of others Sins according to the above cited advertisement of the Council of Trent in the 3. ch Secondly they wrong their Penitents in an high degree whilst they think to favour them They hinder them from doing Penance and from satisfying God by their good works and are the causes why they relapse into their Sins This is the Doctrine which St. Cyprian delivers in his 14. Epist Haec qui subtrahit fratribus decipit miserios ut qui possunt agere poenitentiam veram Deo patri misericordi precibus operibus suis satisfacere seducantur ut magis peccent And moreover they ought to consider that they are no less injurious to the Sacrament of Penance and to other Confessours who administer that Sacrament as they ought with more exactness For the Penitents accustomed to this great indulgence cannot endure Confessours who are more exact in their duty altho' they treat them with all the

sententiâ stabit saeculis materia reparabilis nunquam ad metam malorum termino fugiente perveniet Eus Emis hom 1 ad Manachos From hence proceed those horrible Crys and Lamentations from hence that Rage and everlasting Despair of the Damned who shall clearly see that they shall never be freed from their Miseries Their minds shall always be full of this sad thought Thou shalt never be freed from hence What not after a thousand years not after Ten thousand years not after a Hundred thousand years nothing less Not after a Million of years no Never Thou shalt be Eternally Tormented in ignem aeternum in ignem aeternum in ignem aeternum O Eternity how Dreadfull art thou O Theotime is it possible you can read this without trembling as for my part I declare I can never think of it without an Horrour But it is to little purpose to have a dread of Hell if we do not endeavour to avoid it wherefore let us come to the Conclusion which follows The Conclusion of this ARTICLE Of the pains of Hell. IT is of infinite importance not to read slightly and in passant these frightfull pains that shall never have an end but into which we may dayly fall For this reason Theotime I conjure you to read them often with great attention and add three or four reflections which here I shall set before you The first is that all which we have said or can be spoken of these Torments is nothing if compared to what they are in themselves Humane discourses rather diminish then augment them There can be no exaggeration on this Subject for the Punishment doth far surpass all our expressions The Second is that their pains are a just Punishment of Mortal Sin. There is not any other besides that cursed cause which hath brought forth these so dreadfull effects of the Divine Anger And which hath set God and man at such a Frightfull and final distance Iniquitates vestrae diviserunt inter vos Deum vestrum Esai 52.2 These so Vast and Eternal Pains may make us understand three things The greatness and enormity of Mortal Sin the Hatred which God bears it since he punisheth it so dreadfully And the detestation we ought to have of it as well for those Pains as for the hatred God bears to Sin Ponder this well Theotime and reflect seriously upon it The 3d. is That you have merited these pains of Hell by the Sins you have committed and already deserved to be of the number of those unhappy damned of whom we but just now spoke To suffer the Tortures which they endure to be from this instant out of hopes of ever seeing God or ever being freed from Hell. Is not this consideration enough to make you weep and lament and is not this an urgent motive to raise in you a detestation of Sin which hath cast you into such eminent danger the only thought whereof ought to make you tremble But in the fourth place reflect upon the cause which hath hitherto preserved you from that dreadfull danger and you will find no other then the sole goodness of Almighty God which hath not treated you according to your deserts permitting you to dye in that sinfull State as most justly he might have done and as he hath done to others that had committed no greater sins then yours Where had you now been had he treated you in that manner You had been before now eternally lost and damned for ever And why hath he not done it but only out of that infinite goodness he hath shewn you expecting daily your repentance O Theotime how well may you say with the Prophet Misericordia Domini quia non sumus consumpti quià non defecerunt miserationes ejus Thren 3.22 Without question it proceeds only from the sole mercy of God that you have yet time to work your Salvation How perfect then ought your love to be towards him who hath shew'd himself so mercifull towards you and what can you refuse to do both for his sake and your own Salvation who hath yet granted you time wherein you may secure it The fifth and last Reflection is that you cannot now work your Salvation nor avoid for the future that Eternal Damnation except you change your life and do Penance to which I exhort you in this Treatise They are the express words of the Son of God repeated thrice in the fifteenth Chapter of St. Luke Dico vobis nisi poenitentiam habueritis omnes simul peribitis I say unto you unless you do Penance you shall all perish Take notice he saith All without exception either of old or young or what condition soever Conclude from hence and make your resolution And remember that upon this resolution depends your Salvation and your Eternity Wherefore do not make a slight one but a constant and an effectual resolution that is a purpose followed by the effect of a real and serious Conversion ARTICLE V. Of the effects which Sin produces in respect of God himself THis Title is surprizing and I declare that if it be taken according to the rigour of the expression it imports a thing equally incredible as impossible For how can God who is perfectly unchangeable receive any alteration in himself from external causes This cannot be That Sin should have filled Heaven with disorders Earth with miseries Hell with confusion and horrour is but too true But that God himself should be sensible of these effects this is that which cannot be easily understood It is true Theotime that this is hard to be understood but the Sacred Scripture that Oracle of Truth represents unto us in so many places the different effects which Sin seems to cause in respect of God that we cannot doubt it For of all the passions which men conceive against evil or against that which is offensive to them as Grief Sadness Repentance Hatred Anger Indignation Fury There is none which the Scripture doth not take notice of as remarkable in God against Sin. It saith in Genesis c. 6. that God seeing the Sins of men was touched with an hearty sorrow and repented himself that he had Created man who had abus'd his liberty so heinously to offend him Tactus dolore cordis intrinsecus dixit paenitet me foecisse hominem It saith that those who Sin contristate the Holy Ghost Nolite contristare Spiritum Sanctum Eph. 4.30 God hates the wicked and his wickedness Wisd 14.9 that he is angry against those that offend him That Sin enkindles his Fury and Indignation Iratus est furore Dominus in populum tuum abominatus est haeriditatem suam Psal 105.40 The whole Scripture is full of these expressions which give us plainly to understand that Sin which hath caused a disorder in all Gods creatures hath not spared the Creator and that this Infernall Monster as much as possible attaques God himself and were it possible would destroy him It is true Theotime and this we ought to

count not many from the time they return'd unto his favour before they return to the offences by which they lost it Thus they pass all their Life Confessing from time to time and continually returning to Mortal Sin after Confession So that their whole life seems to be but one as it were continued Series or Succession of Confession and Relapses into Mortal Sin Now and then to Confess to give their Conscience a little ease and free it from some heinous Crime by this way of proceeding seems to be only a disposition to enslave it in some other yet more enormous Sin As if the Sacrament were instituted only for the remission of past Sins and not at all to give us strength to avoid them for the future Good God Theotime Is it possible that Christians believing Christians should be guilty of this disorder That men endued with the light of Faith should treat God after this unreasonable and unworthy manner Is this to understand the nature of the Sacrament of Penance what it is Is this to believe that it is a Sacrament of reconciliation with God not only by way of truce or for a time but after the manner of a perpetual or eternal peace is this to form a right judgment of his unlimited power not to value his favour and Friendship or do they as indeed their repeated and customary offences speak it believe him only infinite in his attribute of Mercy but not of Justice so easily to withdraw themselves from that Grace to which by his only Mercy they have been admitted Did God only seldom and with much difficulty receive us again into his favour after we had offended him every one would stand upon his guard one would be afraid to fall again into his dis-favour and to hazzard his Eternal Salvation by an unfortunate relapse But being we think we shall be re-admitted into his favour when we please and that there is no more to be done than to present our selves to him in the Sacrament of Penance to receive remission of our Sins we take the freedom to offend him on all occasions Thus we treat our God and thus we take a motive from his goodness to continue to offend him and to neglect that Sacred tye of his Friendship to that degree as every moment to break its bonds An affront one would not offer to the most contemptible Person living See then Theotime and consider well of what great consequence this Subject is and how it deserves to be solidly treated and requires also your serious reflection CHAP. II. How the relapse into Sin is a very great evil ALL what I have said doth sufficiently evince the greatness and enormity of this evil yet that you may be the more fully persuaded of it it is necessary that you learn it from the Holy Ghost himself and by those lights he hath vouchsafed to shew us in Holy Writ First the Wise Man in the 26th Chapter verse 25 of Ecclesiasticus considering the greatness of this evil declares that he cannot behold it without a just indignation He saith then that there are two things which when they happen grieve him very much the one to see a great Warriour after he hath served a long time in the Campagne reduc't to Poverty the other to see a Wise Man despised instead of being esteemed according to his merit But he adds that the third he is not able to endure and that it causes in him a transport of the highest wrath that is to see a man who falls from the State of Justice and Sanctity to that of Sin and who abandons Virtue to follow Vice and he assures us that God will make that Person feel one day the effects of his Justice In another place he exclaims against those who forsake the path of Virtue and give themselves over to Vice. Eccle. 2.16 Woe be to you who have forsaken the right and have declined into perverse ways what will you do when God shall examine your ways and all the actions of your Life The Apostle St Peter 2. Ep. 2.20 inveighs with much zeal against those who return to sin after they have renounc't it by the Profession of Christianity and declares that they fall back into a far worse State or Condition than the former from whence they were deliver'd by their Conversion which was a State of darkness and Sin. That it had been better for them they had never known the Truth than to have forsaken it after they had known it That their relapse into Sin makes them resemble the Dog which returns to his vomit and the Hog which after he hath been wash'd wallows in the mire What could be more emphatically said against the relapse into Sin yet it is the Holy Ghost himself who speaks it Add also that which he hath spoken upon this Subject by the Council of Trent in those excellent words which we cited above in the Fourth Part the third Chapter in which he describes with much energy the enormity of their fault who relapse into Sin after Baptism He remarks four notorious circumstances which aggravate their first relapse The first is that they sin after that they have been once delivered from the Slavery of Sin and the Devil Mark this word Once 2. That they sin after they have received the Grace of the Holy Ghost 3. That they sin with knowledge or knowingly 4. That in sinning they violate the Temple of God and contristate his Holy Spirit CHAP. III. Of three great indignities which are found in the Sin of relapse The Ingratitude The Perfidiousness and the Contempt of God. THis is to shew you yet more clearly the grievousness of the Sin of relapse from three circumstances which it includes and which render it most enormous The first is a prodigious Ingratitude which it discovers towards God in offending him over and over after innumerable benefits received from his hand and above the rest after he hath been by God's pure Mercy deliver'd not only once or twice but many times from Sin and eternal death Ponder well upon this ingratitude Theotime judge what it is for a Slave to be ungratefull to his Lord his Redeemer to him to whom he owes all he hath in fine to God himself If the Councill of Trent exaggerate with such vigour the first sin which one commits after Baptism upon this only account that it offends God after one hath been once deliver'd from the captivity of Sin and the Devil Semel a peccati Daemonis Servitute liberate What would they say of those who fall back into sin after they have been delivered from it not once but many times only by the Sacrament of Penance Was there ever an ingratitude parallel to this Deut. 32.6 Haeccine reddis Domino Popule stulte insipiens O Christian Souls is it thus that you treat your God Must you not have lost all your judgment and understanding to be thus forgetfull of the infinite favours of your Creator and