is either I have prayed for that grace or I have seen that I have that desire not by a direct observation but by some other signification But it is certain no man can be sorrowful for not being sorrowful if he means the same kinde and manner of sorrow as there cannot be two where there is not one and there cannot be a reflex ray where there was not a direct But if there be such difficulty in the questions of our own sorrow it were very well that even this part of repentance should be conducted as all the other ought by the ministery of a spiritual man that it may be better instructed and prudently managed and better discerned and led on to its proper effects But when it is so help'd forward it is more then Contrition it is Confession also of which I am yet to give in special accounts §. 3. Of the natures and difference of Attrition and Contrition ALL the passions of the irascible faculty are that sorrow in some sense or other which will produce repentance Repentance cannot kill sin but by withdrawing the will from it and the will is not to be withdrawn but by complying with the contrary affection to that which before did accompany it in evil Now whatever that affection was pleasure was the product it was that which nurs'd or begot the sin Now as this pleasure might proceed from hope from possession from sense from fancy from desire and all the passions of the concupiscible appetite so when there is a displeasure conceived it will help to destroy sin from what passion soever of what faculty soever that displeasure can be produced If the displeasure at sin proceeds from any passion of the irascible faculty it is that which those Divines who understand the meaning of their own words of art commonly call Attrition that is A resolving against sin the resolution proceeding from any principle that is troublesome and dolorous and in what degree of good that is appears in the stating of this Question it is acceptable to God not an acceptable repentance for it is not so much but it is a good beginning of it an acceptable introduction to it and must in its very nature suppose a sorrow or displeasure in which although according to the quality of the motives of attrition or the disposition of the penitent there is more or less sensitive trouble respectively yet in all there must be so much sorrow or displeasure as to cause a dereliction of the sin or a resolution at least to leave it But there are some natures so ingenuous and there are some periods of repentance so perfect and some penitents have so farre proceeded in the methods of holiness and pardon that they are fallen out with sin upon the stock of some principles proceeding from the concupiscible appetite such are Love and Hope and if these have for their object God or the Divine promises it is that noblest principle of repentance or holy life which Divines call Contrition For hope cannot be without love of that which is hoped for if therefore this hope have for its object temporal purchases it is or may be a sufficient cause of leaving sin according as the power and efficacy of the hope shall be but it will not be sufficient towards pardon unless in its progression it joyn with some better principle of a spiritual grace Temporal Hope and temporal Fear may begin Gods work upon our spirits but till it be gone farther we are not in the first step of an actual state of grace But as attrition proceeds from the motives of those displeasing objects which are threatned by God to be the evil consequents of sin relating to eternity so Contrition proceeds from objects and motives of desire which are promises and benefits received already or to be received hereafter But these must also be more then temporal good things for hopes and fear relating to things though promised or threatned in holy Scripture are not sufficient incentives of a holy and acceptable repentance which because it is not a transient act but a state of holiness cannot be supported by a transitory and deficient cause but must wholly rely upon expectation and love of things that are eternal and cannot pass away Attrition begins with fear Contrition hath hope and love in it The first is a good beginning but it is no more before a man can say he is pardoned he must be gone beyond the first and arrived at this The reason is plain because although in the beginnings of Repentance there is a great fear yet the causes of this fear wear away and lessen according as the repentance goes on and are quite extinguished when the penitent hath mortified his sin and hath received the spirit of adoption the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the confidence of the sons of God but because repentance must be perfect and must be perpetual during this life it must also be maintained and supported by something that is lasting and will not wear off and that is hope and love Serm. 7. de tempor according to that of S. Austin Poenitentiam certam non facit nisi odium peccati amor Dei. Hatred of sin and the love of God make repentance firm and sure nothing else can do it but this is a work of time but such a work that without it be done our pardon is not perfect Now of this Contrition relying upon motives of pleasure and objects of amability being the noblest principle of action and made up of the love of God and holy things and holy expectations the product is quite differing from that of attrition or the imperfect repentance for that commencing upon fear or displeasure is onely apt to produce a dereliction or quitting of our sin and all the servile affections of frighted or displeased persons But this would not effect an universal obedience which onely can be effected by love and the affection of sons which is also the product of those objects which are the incentives of the divine love and is called Contrition that is a hatred against sin as being an enemy to God and all our hopes of enjoying God whom because this repenting man loves and delights in he also hates whatsoever God hates and is really griev'd for ever having offended so good a God and for having endangered his hopes of dwelling with him whom he so loves and therefore now does the quite contrary Now this is not usually the beginning of repentance but is a great progression in it and it contains in it obedience He that is attrite leaves his sin but he that is contrite obeys God and pursues the interests and acquists of vertue so that Contrition is not onely a sorrow for having offended God whom the penitent loves that is but one act or effect of Contrition but Contrition loves God and hates sin it leaves this and adheres to him abstains from evil and does good dies to sin and lives to righteousness
what comes between And as many men of the Roman perswasion will rather choose Purgatory then suffer here an inconsiderable penance or do those little services which themselves think will prevent it so they choose venial sins and hug the pleasures of trifles warming themselves at phantastick fires and dancing in the light of the glo-worms and they love them so well that rather then quit those little things they will suffer the intolerable pains of a temporary Hell for so they believe which is the testimony of a great evil and a mighty danger for it gives testimony that little sins can be beloved passionately and therefore can minister such a delight as is thought a price great enough to pay for the sufferance of temporal evils and Purgatory it self But the evil is worse yet when it is reduc'd to practise For in the decision of very many questions the answer is It is a venial sin that is though it be a sin yet there is in it no danger of losing the favour of God by that but you may do it and you may do it again a thousand thousand times and all the venial sins of the world put together can never do what one mortal sin can that is make God to be your enemy Lib. 1. de amiss gratiae cap. 13. §. alterum est So Bellarmine expresly affirms But because there are many Doctors who write Cases of Conscience and there is no measure to limit the parts of this distinction for that which is not at all cannot be measured the Doctors differ infinitely in their sentences some calling that Mortal which others call Venial as you may see in the little Summaries of Navar and Emanuel Sà the poor souls of the Laity and the vulgar Clergy who believe what is told them by the Authors or Confessors they choose to follow must needs be in infinite danger and the whole body of Practical Divinity in which the life of Religion and of all our hopes depends shall be rendred dangerous and uncertain and their confidence shall betray them unto death To bring relief to this state of evil and to establish aright the proper grounds and measures of Repentance I shall first account concerning the difference of sins and by what measures they are so differenc'd 2. That all sins are of their own nature punishable as God please even with the highest expressions of his anger 3. By what Repentance they are cur'd and pardon'd respectively §. 2. Of the difference of sins and their measures 1. SIns are not equal but greater or less in their principle as well as in their event It was one of the errours of Jovinian which he learned from the Schools of the Stoicks that all sins are alike grievous Nam dicunt esse pares res Horat. Serm. l. 1. Sat. 3. Furta latrociniis magnis parva minantur Falce recisuros simili se si sibi regnum Permittant homines For they supposed an absolute irresistible Fate to be the cause of all things and therefore what was equally necessary was equally culpable that is not at all and where men have no power of choice or which is all one that it be necessary that they choose what they do there can be no such thing as Laws or sins against them To which they adding that all evils are indifferent and the event of things be it good or bad had no influence upon the felicity or infelicity of man they could neither be differenc'd by their cause nor by their effect the first being necessary and the latter indifferent * Against this I shall not need to oppose many Arguments for though this follows most certainly from their doctrine who teach an irresistible Decree of God to be the cause of all things actions yet they that own the doctrine disavow the consequent and in that are good Christians but ill Logicians But the Article is sufficiently cleared by the words of our B. Lord in the case of Judas whose sin as Christ told to Pilate was the greater because he had not power over him but by special concession Mat. 23.24 Luk. 6.41 in the case of the servant that knows his Masters will and does it not in the several condemnations of the degrees and expressions of anger in the instances of Racha and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Ira festuca est odium verò trabs Aug. Thou vain man or Thou fool by this comparing some sins to gnats and some to Camels and in proportion to these there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Luke many stripes a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. James a greater condemnation * Ira festuca est odium verò trabs Aug. Thus to rob a Church is a greater sin then to rob a Thief To strike a Father is a higher impiety then to resist a Tutor To oppress a Widow is clamorous and calls aloud for vengeance when a less repentance wil vote down the whispering murmurs of a trifling injury done to a fortune that is not sensible of smaller diminutions Nec vincit ratio tantundem ut peccet idémque Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti Vt qui nocturnus Divûm sacra legerit He is a greater criminal that steals the Chalice from a Church then he that takes a few Coleworts or robs a garden of Cucumers But this distinction and difference is by something that is extrinsecal to the action the greatness of the mischief or the dignity of the person according to that Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se Crimen habet quanto major qui peccat habetur 2. But this when it is reduc'd to its proper cause is because such greater sins are complicated they are commonly two or three sins wrapt together as the unchastity of a Priest is uncleanness and scandal too Adultery is worse then Fornication because it is unchastity and injustice and by the fearful consequents of it is mischievous and uncharitable Et quas Euphrates quas mihi misit Orontes Me capiant Nolo furta pudica thori So Sacrilege is theft and impiety And Apicius killing himself when he suppos'd his estate would not maintain his luxury was not onely a self-murtherer but a gluttonous person in his death Nil est Apici tibi gulosius factum Lib. 3.22 Epign Mart. So that the greatness of sins is in most instances by extension and accumulation that as he is a greater sinner who sins often in the same instance then he that sins seldome so is he who sins such sins as are complicated and intangled like the twinings of combining Serpents And this appears to be so because if we take single sins as uncleanness and theft no man can tell which is the greater sin neither can they be differenc'd but by something that is besides the nature of the action it self A thought of theft and an unclean thought have nothing by which they can excel each other but when you clothe them
and so would the smallest offences also destroy the life of grace if they were not destroyed themselves But of this afterwards For the present let it be considered how it can possibly consist with our love to God with that duty that commands us to love him with all our heart with all our strength with all our might and with all our soul how I say it can be consistent with a love so extended so intended to entertain any thing that he hates so essentially To these particulars I adde this one consideration That since there is in the world a fierce opinion that some sins are so slight and little that they doe not destroy our relation to God and cannot break the sacred tie of friendship he who upon the inference and presumption of that opinion shall choose to commit such small sins which he thinks to be the All that is permitted him is not excused by that supposition For if it be said that he is therefore supposed to love God because he onely does those little sins which he thinks are not against the love of God and if he did not think so he would not do them This excuses him not but aggravates the sin for it is turning the grace of God into wantonness For since that such little things are the easier pardon'd is wholly owing to Gods grace and his singular goodness he that abuses this goodness to licentiousness makes his sin to abound because Gods grace abounds because God is good he takes leave to do evil that is to be most contrary to God For it is certain that every man in this case hath affections for sin as formerly indeed he entertains it not in the ruder instances because he dares not but he does all that he dares doe for when he is taught that some certain sins are not damnable there he will not abstain which is a demonstration that though he does something for fear yet he does nothing for love 4. From this it follows that every sin though in the smallest instance is a turning from God and a conversion to the creature Suidas defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a declension from good and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shoot besides the mark to conduct our actions by an indirect line to a wrong object from God to the Creature Peccare est tanquam lineas transilire so * Parad. 3. Cicero a sinner goes out of those limits and marks which are appointed him by God Then this no greater evil can be spoken of any thing and of this all sin partakes more or less Some few sins are direct aversions from God so Atheism Blasphemy Apostasie Resolution never to repent and some few more but many other very great sins are turnings from God not directly but by interpretation He that commits fornication may yet by a direct act of understanding and a full consent believe God to be the chiefest Good and some very vicious persons have given their lives for a good cause and to preserve their innocence in some great instance where the scene of their proper and natural temptation does not lie Some others there are who out of a sincere but an abused Conscience persecute a good cause these men are zealous for God and yet fight against him But because these are real enemies and but supposed friends therefore by interpretation and in effect they turn from God and turn to the Creature Lib. 3. Quaest in Lev. c. 20. Delictum quasi derelictum said S. Austin because in every sin God is forsaken They have left me the living Fountain and digged to themselves cisterns that hold no water So God complains by the Prophet He that prefers pleasure or profit before his duty rejects God but loves money and payes his devotion to interest or ease or sensuality And just so does the smallest sin For since every action hath something propounded to it as its last end it is certain he that sins does not do it for God or in order to him He that tells a lie to promote Religion or to save the life of a man or to convert his soul does not tell that lie for God but tells the lie to make way for something else which is in order to God he breaks his legs that he may the better walk in the path of the Divine Commandements A sin cannot be for God or in order to him no not so much as habitually For whatsoever can never be referred to God actually câ—nnot at any time be referred habitually Since therefore the smallest sins cannot be for God that which is not with him is against him if it be no way for God it is either directly or by interpretation for pleasure or ease or profit or pride for something that is against him And it is not to be neglected that the smaller the sin is the less it is excusable if it be done when it is observed For if it be small is it not the sooner obeyed and the more reasonably exacted and the more bountifully repaid when Heaven is given as the price of so small a service He that pursues his crime for a mighty purchase to get a Kingdome or a vast estate or an exquisite beauty or something that is bigger then the ordinary vertues of easie and common men hath something not to warrant and legitimate but to extenuate the offence by greatning the temptation But to lose the friendship of God for a Nut-shell to save six pence to lose heaven with peevishness to despise the Divine Laws for a non-sense insignificant vapour and a testy pride hath no excuse but it loads the sinner with the disreputation of a mighty folly What excuse can be made for him that will not so much as hold his peace to please God What can he do less for him How should it be expected he should mortifie his lusts deny his ambition part with his goods lose an eye cut off a hand give his life for God when he will not for God lose the no pleasure of talking vainly and proudly and ridiculously If he will not chastise his wanton thoughts to please God how shall he throw out his whole body of lust If he will not resist the trifling temptations of a drinking friend to preserve his temperance how shall he choose to be banished or murther'd by the rage of a drunken Prince rather then keep the circle in their giddy and vertiginous method The less the instance be the direct aversation from God is also most commonly the less but in many cases the aversation is by interpretation greater more unreasonable and therefore less excusable as when the small instance is chosen by a perfect distinct act of election as it is in those who out of fear of Hell quit the acting of their clamorous sins and yet keep the affections to them and consequently entertain them in thoughts and little reflexions in remembrances
de millibus una It is not this or that alone that is contrary to God Every vicious habit is equally his enemy and he that exterminates one vice and entertains another hath destroyed the vice but not the viciousness he hath quitted the instance but not the irregularity he hath serv'd the interest of his fortune or his pleasure his fame or his quiet his passion or his humour but not his vertue and relations to God By changing his vice for another he is convinced of his first danger but enters not into safety He is onely weary of his feaver and changes it into the ease of a dead palsy and it is in them as in all sharp sicknesses that is always worst that is actually upon him and the man dies by his imaginary cure but real sickness 10. When the mortification of a vicious habit is attempted and is found difficult and pertinacious not flexible or malleable by the strokes of contrition and its proper remedies it is a safe way if the penitent will take some course to disable the sin and make it impossible to return in the former instance provided it be done by a lawful instrument Origen took an ill course to doe it but resolved he would mortify his lust and made himself an Eunuch But a solemne vow were an excellent instrument to restrain the violences of a frequent temptation if the person were to be trusted with it that is if he were a constant person not giddy nor easy to revolt but of a pertinacious nature or of so tender conscience that he durst not for the world break his vow But this remedy is dangerous where the temptations return strongly But there are some others which are safer Cut off the occasion wholly Defie the Concubine publickly and disgrace her make it impossible for her to consent to thee if thou shouldest ask her If thy Lord or Master tempts thee to drunkenness quit his service or openly deny him Make thy face unpleasant and tear off the charms from thy beauty that thou mayest not be courted any more This is a fierceness and zeal of repentance but very fit to be used when milder courses will not cure thee Scelerum si benè poenitet Horat. Eradenda cupidinis pravi sunt elementa Et tenerae nimis mentes asperioribus Formandae studiis If thou repentest truly pluck up sin by the roots take away its principle strangle its nurse and destroy every thing that can foment it 11. It was not well with thee when thou didst first enter into the suburbs of hell by single actions of sin but they were transient and passed off sooner then the habit But when this did supervene a mans acts of malice were enlarged and made continual to each other that is joyn'd by a common term of affection and delight in sin and perfect subjection to its accursed empire But now in thy return consider proportionably concerning thy actions of repentance and piety whether they be transient or permanent Good men often say their prayers and choose good forms and offices the best they can and they use them with an earnest and an actual devotion but he that hath prayed long and well yet when he rises it may be he cannot tell all the particulars which he begg'd of God I doubt not but those prayers which contain matter in them agreeable to his usual and constant desires and are actually attended to in the time of their use are recorded in heaven and there will abide to procure the blessing and towards the accounts of Eternity But then it is to be observ'd that those transient acts of devotion or other volatile and fugitive instances of Repentance are not the proper and proportion'd remedy to the evil of vicious habits There must be something more permanent Therefore let the penitent make no sudden resolutions but first consider them well and imprint them upon his spirit and renew them often and call them to minde constantly and at certain periods let him use much meditation upon the matter of his repentance and remedy and let his prayers be the same passionate material alike expressed and made the business of much of our time For our spirit by use must be made holy and by assiduity of reading of praying of meditating and acts of self-deniall be accustomed to the yoke of Jesus for let the habit be firm as a rock united and hard as a stone it will be broken and made soft by a continual dropping The proper Repentance and usage of sinners who return not till their old age 1. Let all such penitents be reminded that their sins will not so easily be pardoned as the sins of younger persons whose passions are greater and their reason less and their observations loose and their experience trifling But now God hath long expected the effects of wise and sober counsels The old man in the Comedy did so to his son Dum tempus ad eam rem tulit Andria Act 1. Scen. 2. sivi animum ut expleret suum Nunc hic dies aliam vitam adfert alios mores postulat Dehinc postulo sive aequum est te oro Dave ut redeat jam in viam And God does so to us And therefore follies of old age are upbraidings of a man and confusions to his spirit Lateranus ad illos Thermarum calices inscriptáque lintea vadit Maturus bello Armeniae To have a grave wise man wrangle for nutshels and a Judge scramble for apples is an undecency bigger then the sin and dishonours him by the disproportion Quaedam cum primâ resâ—centur crimina barbâ Lateranus should have gone to the Armenian wars or been charging a Parthian horsman when he went to the baths and hir'd an unfortunate woman standing under the titles And every old man should have been gray with sorrow and carefulness and have passed many stages of his Repentance long before he now begins and therefore he is not onely straightned for want of time but hath a greater work to do by how much the longer he hath staid and yet is the more unable to do it The greatness of his need hath diminished his power and the more need he hath of grace the less he shall have But however with such helps as they have they must instantly set upon their work Breve sit quod turpitèr audes But they have abode in their sin too long let them now therefore use such abbreviatures and hastnings of return as can be in their power 2. Let every old man that repents of the sins of his evil life be very diligent in the search of the particulars that by drawing them into a heap and spreading them before his eyes he may be mightily ashamed at their number and burthen For even a good man will have cause to be asham'd of himself if the single sins respersed over his whole life were drawn into a body of articles and united in the accusation but then for a man who is grown
express precepts of perseverance doe imply that the office and duty of a Christian is of a long time and business and a race * That repentance being the renewing of a holy life it should seem that on our death-bed the day for repentance is past since no man can renew his life when his life is done no man can live well when he cannot live at all * and therefore to place our hopes upon a death-bed repentance onely is such a religion as satisfies all our appetites and contradicts none and yet promises heaven at last * These things I say are all either notorious and evident or expresly affirmed in Scripture and therefore that in the ordinary way of things in the common expectation of events such persons are in a very sad condition So that it remains that in this sad condition there must be some extraordinary way found out or else this whole enquiry is at an end Concerning which all that I can say is this 1. God hath an Almighty power and his mercy is as great as his power He can doe miracles of mercy as well as miracles of mightiness And this S. Austin brings in open pretence against desperation O homo quicunque illam multitudinem peccatorum attendis cur omnipotentiam coelestis medici non attendis Thy sins are great but Gods mercies are greater But this does represent the mans condition at the best to be such that God may if he will have mercy upon him but whether he will or no there is as yet no other certainty or probability but that he can if he please which proposition to an amazed timorous person that fears a hell the next hour is so dry a story so hopeless a proposition that all that can be said of this is that it is very fit that no man should ever put it to the venture For upon this argument we may as well comfort our selves upon him that died without repenting at all But the inquiry must be further 2. All mankinde all the Doctors of the Church for very many ages at least some few of the most Ancient and of the Modern excepted have been apt to give hopes to such persons and no man bids them absolutely despair Let such persons make use of this easiness of men thereby to retain so much hope as to make them call upon God and not to neglect what can then be done Spem retine spes una hominem nec morte relinquit As long as there is life there is hope and when a man dies let him not despair for there is a life after this and a hope proper to that and amidst all the evils that the Ancients did fabulously report to be in Pandora's box they wittily plac'd Hope on the utmost lip of it and extremity Vivere spe vidi qui moriturus erat And S. Cyprian exhorts old Demetrianus to turn Christian in his old age and promises him salvation in the name of Christ and though his case and that of a Christian who entred into promises and Covenants of obedience be very different yet ad immortalitatem sub ipsâ morte transitur a passing from such a repentance to immortality although it cannot be hop'd for upon the just accounts of express promise yet it is not too great to hope from Gods mercy and until that which is infinite hath a limit a repenting mans hopes in this world cannot be wholly at an end 3. We finde that in the battels which were fought by the Maccabees some persons who fought on the Lords side and were slain in the sight were found having on their breasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pendants consecrate to the idols of the Samnenses and yet the good people of their party made oblation for them hoping that they might be partakers of a blessed resurrection They that repent heartily but one hour are in a better condition then the other that died in their sin though with the advantage of fighting in a good cause and if good people will not leave hoping for such persons it is not fit that themselves should 4. He that considers Gods great love to Mankinde * the infinite love that God hath to his holy Son Jesus and yet that he sent him to die for every man * and that the holy Jesus does now and hath for very many ages prayed for the pardon of our sins that he knows how horrible those pains are which are provided for perishing souls and therefore that he is exceedingly pitiful and desirous that we should escape them * and that God did give one extraordinary example of saving a dying penitent the Thief upon the Cross and though that had something in it extraordinary and miraculous yet that is it which is now expected a favour extraordinary a miraculous mercy * And that Christ was pleased to speak a Parable of comfort and the Master of the Vineyard did pay salary to him that began to work at the eleventh hour and though that was some portion of his life the twelfth part of it and the man was not call'd sooner yet there may be something in it of comfort to the dying penitent since it looks something like it it certainly relates to old men and can doe them comfort and possibly the merciful intention of it is yet larger * and that since God is so well pleased with repentance it may be he will abate the circumstance of time Nec ad rem pertinet ubi inciperet quod placuerat ut fieret and he will not consider when that begins which he loves should be done * And that he is our Father and paulum supplicii satis est Patri a Father will chastise but will not kill his son * And that it is therefore seasonable to hope because it is a duty and the very hope it self God delights to reward for so said the Apostle Cast not away your confidence Heb. 10.35 which hath great recompence of reward * And the Church of God imitating the mercies of our gracious God and Father Concil Nicen. can 13. hath denied to give the Sacrament of peace and mercy to none that seek it Viaticum omnibus in morte positis non est negandum Concil Agath c. 11. And in the saddest consideration of things that can be suppose it be with him as with Simon Magus suppose that he is in the gall of bitterness in the state of damnation in the guilt of a sin which we know not whether God will pardon or not yet still it is wise and pious counsel that he should pray if peradventure he may be forgiven He I say that considers these things will have cause to be very earnest and very busy to lose no time to remit no labour to quit no hope but humbly passionately diligently set upon that duty of repentance which should have long agoe come to some perfection Now because I have as I suppose said enough to make men afraid to put off their repentance to
it is not easily to be imagined how Christ reconciled the world unto his Father if after the death of Christ God is still so angry with mankinde so unappeased that even the most innocent part of mankinde may perish for Adams sin and the other are perpetually punished by a corrupted nature a proneness to sin a servile will a filthy concupiscence and an impossibility of being innocent that no faith no Sacrament no industry no prayers can obtain freedom from this punishment Certain it is the Jews knew of no such thing they understood nothing of this Oeconomy that the Fathers sin should be punish'd in the children by a formal imputation of the guilt and therefore Rabbi Simeon Barsema said well that when God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children jure dominii non poenae utitur He uses the right of Empire not of justice of dominion not of punishment of a Lord not of a Judge Libr. de pietate And Philo blames it for the worst of institutions when the good sons of bad Parents shall be dishonoured by their Fathers stain and the bad sons of good Parents shall have their Fathers honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the law praises every one for their own not for the vertue of their Auncestors and punishes not the Fathers but his own wickedness upon every mans head And therefore Josephus cals the contrary way of proceeding which he had observ'd in Alexander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a punishment above the measures of a man and the Greeks and Romans did always call it injustice Illic immeritam maternae pendere linguae Andromedam poenas injustus jusserat Ammon Ovid. And hence it is that all Laws forbear to kill a woman with childe lest the Innocent should suffer for the Mothers fault and therefore this just mercy is infinitely more to be expected from the great Father of spirits the God of mercy and comfort And upon this account Abraham was confident with God Wilt thou slay the righteous with the wicked shall not the Judge of all the world doe right And if it be unrighteous to slay the righteous with the wicked it is also unjust to slay the righteous for the wicked Cicero lib. 4. de Nat. Deor. Ferrétne ulla civitas laborem istiusmodi legis ut condemnetur Filius aut Nepos si Pater aut Avus deliquissent It were an intolerable Law and no community would be govern'd by it that the Father or Grandfather should sin and the Son or Nephew should be punish'd I shall adde no more testimonies but onely make use of the words of the Christian Emperours in their Laws L. Sancimus C. de poenis Peccata igitur suos teneant auctores nec ulteriùs progrediatur metus quà m reperiatur delictum Let no man trouble himself with unnecessary and melancholy dreams of strange inevitable undeserved punishments descending upon us for the faults of others The sin that a man does shall be upon his own head onely Sufficient to every man is his own evil the evil that he does and the evil that he suffers §. 4. Of the causes of the Universal wickedness of Mankinde BUt if there were not some common natural principle of evil introduced by the sin of our Parent upon all his posterity how should all men be so naturally inclined to be vicious so hard and unapt so uneasy and so listless to the practices of vertue How is it that all men in the world are sinners and that in many things we offend all For if men could choose and had freedome it is not imaginable that all should choose the same thing As all men will not be Physicians nor all desire to be Merchants But we see that all men are sinners and yet it is impossible that in a liberty of indifferency there should be no variety Therefore we must be content to say that we have onely a liberty of adhesion or delight that is we so love sin that we all choose it but cannot choose good To this I answer many things 1. If we will suppose that there must now be a cause in our nature determining us to sin by an irresistible necessity I desire to know why such principle should be more necessary to us then it was to Adam what made him to sin when he fell He had a perfect liberty and no ignorance no original sin no inordination of his affections no such rebellion of the inferiour faculties against the superiour as we complain of or at least we say he had not and yet he sinned And if his passions did rebel against his reason before the fall then so they may in us and yet not be long of that fall It was before the fall in him and so may be in us and not the effect of it But the truth of the thing is this He had liberty of choice and chose ill and so doe we and all men say that this liberty of choosing ill is still left to us But because it is left here it appears that it was there before and therefore is not the consequent of Originall sin But it is said that as Adam chose ill so doe we but he was free to good as well as to evil but so are not we we are free to evil not to good and that we are so is the consequent of original sin I reply That we can choose good and as naturally love good as evil and in some instances more A man cannot naturally hate God if he knows any thing of him A man naturally loves his Parents He naturally hates some sort of uncleanness He naturally loves and preserves himself and all those sins which are unnatural are such which nature hates and the law of nature commands all the great instances of vertue and marks out all the great lines of justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a law imprinted in the very substance of our natures and incorporated in all generations of reasonable creatures not to break or transgress the laws which are appointed by God Here onely our nature is defective we doe not naturally know nor yet naturally love those supernaturall excellencies which are appointed and commanded by God as the means of bringing us to a supernatural condition That is without Gods grace and the renovation of the Spirit of God we cannot be saved Neither was Adams case better then ours in this particular For that his nature could not carry him to heaven or indeed to please God in order to it seems to be confessed by them who have therefore affirmed him to have had a supernaturall righteousness which is affirmed by all the Roman party But although in supernatural instances it must needs be that our Nature is defective so it must needs have been in Adam and therefore the Lutherans who in this particular dream not so probably as the other affirming that justice was natural in Adam do yet but differ in the manner of speaking and have not at
is not yet alive But when he prevails regularly and daily over his sin then he is in a state of regeneration but let him take heed for every voluntary or chosen sin is a mortal wound But because no man in this world hath so conquer'd but he may be smitten and is sometimes struck at and most good men have cause to complain of their calamity that in their understandings there are doubtings and strange mistakes which because after a great confidence they are sometimes discovered there is cause to suspect there are some there still which are not discovered that there are in the will evil inclinations to forbidden instances that in the appetite there are carnal desires that in their natural actions there are sometimes too sensual applications that in their good actions there are mighty imperfections it will be of use that we separate the certain from the uncertain security from danger the apology from the accusation and the excuse from the crime by describing what are and what are not sins of Infirmity For most men are pleased to call their debaucheries sins of infirmity if they be done against their reason and the actual murmur of their consciences and against their trifling resolutions and ineffective purposes to the contrary Now although all sins are the effects of infirmity Natural or Moral yet because I am to cure a popular mistake I am also to understand the word as men doe commonly and by sins of Infirmity to mean Such sins which in the whole and upon the matter are unavoidable and therefore excusable Such which can consist with the state of grace that is such which have so much irregularity in them as to be sins and yet so much excuse and pity as that by the Covenant and Mercies of the Gospel they shall not be exacted in the worst of punishments or punished with eternal pains because they cannot with the greatest moral diligence wholly be avoided Concerning these so described we are to take accounts by the following measures 1. Natural imperfections and evil inclinations when they are not consented to or delighted in either are no sins at all or if they be they are but sins of infirmity That in some things our nature is cross to the divine Commandement is not always imputable to us because our natures were before the Commandement and God hath therefore commanded us to doe violence to our nature that by such preternatural contentions we should offer to God a service that costs us something But that in some things we are inclin'd otherwise then we are suffered to act is so far from offending God that it is that opportunity of serving him by which we can most endear him To be inclined to that whither nature bends is of it self indifferent but to love to entertain to act our inclinations when the Commandement is put between that is the sin and therefore if we resist them and master them that is our obedience For it is equally certain no man can be esteemed spiritual for his good wishes and desires of holiness but for his actual and habitual obedience so no man is to be esteemed carnal or criminal for his natural inclinations to what is forbidden But that good men complain of their strange propensities to sin it is a declaration of their fears of their natural weakness of the needs of grace and the aids of Gods Spirit But because these desires even when they are much restrained doe yet sometimes insensibly go too far therefore it is that such are sins of infirmity because they are almost unavoidable This remain is like the image of the ape which Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria left after the breaking of the other idols a testimony of their folly but as that was left for no other purpose but to reprove them so is this to humble us that we may not rely upon flesh and blood but make God to be our confidence 2. Sins of infirmity are rather observed in the imperfection of our duty then in the commission of any criminal action For in this it was that our blessed Saviour instanc'd these words Mat. 26.21 The spirit truly is willing but the flesh is weak The body is weary the eies heavy the fancy restless diversions many businesses perpetually intervene and all the powers of discourse and observation cannot hinder our minde from wandring in our prayers Odi artus fragilémque hunc corporis usum Desertorem animi But this being in the whole unavoidable is therefore in many of its parts and instances very excusable if we doe not indulge to it if we pray and strive against it that is so long as it is a natural infirmity For although we cannot avoid wandring thoughts yet we can avoid delighting in them or a careless and negligent increasing them For if they once seise upon the will they are sins of choice and malice and not of infirmity So that the great scene of sins of infirmity is in omission of degrees and portions of that excellency of duty which is required of us We are imperfect and we do imperfectly and if we strive towards perfection God will pity our imperfection There is no other help for us but blessed be God that is sufficient for our need and proportionable to our present state 3. But in actions and matters of commission the case is different For though a man may forget himself against his will or sleep or fall yet without his will he cannot throw himself down or rise again Every action is more or less voluntary but every omission is not A thing may be let alone upon a dead stock or a negative principle or an unavoidable defect but an action cannot be done without some command or action of the will therefore although sins of defect are in many cases pitied and not exacted yet sinful actions have not so easy a sentence but they also have some abatements Therefore 4. Imperfect actions such which are incomplete in their whole capacity are sins of infirmity and ready and prepar'd for pity of this sort are rash or ignorant actions done by surprise by inconsideration and inadvertency by a sudden and great fear in which the reason is in very many degrees made useless and the action cannot be considered duly In these there is some little mixture of choice so much as to make the action imputable if God should deal severely with us but yet so little that it shall not be imputed under the mercies of the Gospel although the man that does them cannot pretend he is innocent yet he can pretend that he does stand fair in the eye of mercy A good man may sometimes be unwary or he may speak or be put to it to resolve or doe before he can well consider If he does a thing rashly when he can consider and deliberate he is not excused but if he does it indiscreetly when he must doe it suddenly it is his infirmity and he shall be relieved at the Chancery of
pleasure and displeasure all passions are reducible as all colours are to black and white So that though in all repentances there is not in every person felt that sharpness of sensitive compunction and sorrow that is usuall in sad accidents of the world yet if the sorrow be upon the intellectual account though it be not much perceived by inward sharpnesses but chiefly by dereliction and leaving of the sin it is that sorrow which is possible and in our power and that which is necessary to repentance For in all inquiries concerning penitential sorrow if we will avoid scruple and vexatious fancies we must be careful not to account of our sorrow by the measures of sense but of religion David grieved more for the sickness of his child and the rebellion of his son so far as appears in the story and the Prophet Jeremy in behalf of the Jews for the death of their glorious Prince Josiah and S. Paula Romana at the death of her children were more passionate and sensibly afflicted then for their sins against God that is they felt more sensitive trouble in that then this and yet their repentances were not to be reproved because our penitential sorrow is from another cause and seated in other faculties and fixed upon differing objects and works in other manners and hath a divers signification and is fitted to other purposes and therefore is wholly of another nature It is a displeasure against sin which must be expressed by praying against it and fighting against it but all other expressions are extrinsecal to it and accidental and are no parts of it because they cannot be under a command as all the parts and necessary actions of repentance are most certainly Indeed some persons can command their tears so Gellia in the Epigram Si quis adest jussae prosiliunt lachrymae she could cry when company was there to observe her weeping for her Father and so can some Orators and many Hypocrites and there are some that can suppress their tears by art and resolution so Vlysses did when he saw his wife weep he pitied her but Intra palpebras ceu cornu immota tenebat Lumina vel ferrum lachrymas astúque premebat he kept his tears within his eye-lids as if they had been in a phial which he could pour forth or keep shut at his pleasure But although some can doe this at pleasure yet all cannot And therefore S. John Climacus speaks of certain penitents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who because they could not weep expressed their Repentance by beating their breasts and yet if all men could weep when they list yet they may weep and not be sorrowful and though they can command tears yet sorrow is no more to be commanded then hunger and therefore is not a part or necessary duty of Repentance when sorrow is taken for a sensitive trouble But yet there is something of this also to be added to our duty If our constitution be such as to be apt to weep and sensitively troubled upon other intellectuall apprehensions of differing objects unlesse also they finde the same effect in their Repentances there will be some cause to suspect that their hatred of sin and value of obedience and its rewards are not so great as they ought to be The Masters of spiritual life give this rule Sciat se culpabiliter durum qui deflet damna temporis vel mortem amici dolorem verò pro peccatis lachrymis non ostendit He that weeps for temporall losses and does not in the same manner express his sorrow for his sins is culpably obdurate which proposition though piously intended is not true For tears are emanations of a sensitive trouble or motion of the heart and not properly subject to the understanding and therefore a man may innocently weep for the death of his friend and yet shed no tears when he hath told a lie and still be in that state of sorrow and displeasure that he had rather die himself then choose to tell another lie Therefore the rule onely hath some proportions of probability in the effect of several intellectual apprehensions As he that is apt to weep when he hath done an unhandsome action to his friend who yet will never punish him and is not apt to express his sorrow in the same manner when he hath offended God I say he may suspect his sorrow not to be so great or so real but yet abstractedly from this circumstance to weep or not to weep is nothing to the duty of Repentance save onely that it is that ordinary signe by which some men express some sort of sorrow And therefore I understand not the meaning of that prayer of S. Austin Domine da gratiam lachrymarum Lord give me the grace of tears for tears are no duty and the greatest sorrow oftentimes is the driest and excepting that there is some sweetness and ease in shedding tears and that they accompany a soft and a contemplative person an easie and a good nature and such as is apt for religious impressions I know no use of them but to signifie in an apt and a disposed nature what kinde of apprehensions and trouble there is within For weeping upon the presence of secular troubles is more ready and easie because it is an effect symbolical and of the same nature with its proper cause But when there is a spiritual cause although its proper effect may be greater and more effective of better purposes yet unless by the intermixture of some material and natural cause it be more apportion'd to a material and natural product it is not to be charged with it or expected from it Sin is a spiritual evil and tears is the signe of a natural or physical sorrow Smart and sickness and labour are natural or physical evils and hatred and nolition is a spiritual or intellectual effect Now as every labour and every smart is not to be hated or rejected but sometimes chosen by the understanding when it is mingled with a good that pleases the understanding and is eligible upon the accounts of reason So neither can every sin which is the intellectual evil be productive of tears or sensitive sorrow unless it be mingled with something which the sense and affections that is which the lower man hates and which will properly afflict him such as are fear or pain or danger or disgrace or loss The sensitive sorrow therefore which is usually seen in new penitents is upon the account of those horrible apprehensions which are declared in holy Scriptures to be the consequent of sins but if we shall so preach Repentance as to warrant a freedome and a perfect escape instantly from all significations of the wrath of God and all dangers for the future upon the past and present account I know not upon what reckoning he that truly leaves his sin can be commanded to be sorrowful and if he were commanded how he can possibly obey But when Repentance hath had its growth and
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
the memory of the shame which began when the sin was acted and abode but as a handmaid of the guilt and goes away with it Confession of sins opens them to man but draws a vail before them that God will the less behold them And it is a material consideration that if a man be impatient of the shame here when it is revealed but to one man who is also by all the ties of Religion by common Honesty oblig'd to conceal them or if he account it intolerable that a sin publick in the scandal and the infamy should be made publick by solemnity to punish and to extinguish it the man will be no gainer by refusing to confess when he shall remember that sins unconfessed are most commonly unpardon'd and unpardon'd sins will be made publick before all Angels and all the wise and good men of the world when their shame shall have nothing to make it tolerable 19. When a penitent confesses his sin the holy man that ministers to his Repentance and hears his Confession must not without great cause lessen the shame of the repenting man he must directly encourage the duty but not adde confidence to the sinner For whatsoever directly lessens the shame lessens also the hatred of sin and his future caution and the reward of his repentance and takes off that which was an excellent defensative against the sin But with the shame the Minister of Religion is to doe as he is to doe with the mans sorrow so long as it is a good instrument of repentance so long it is to be permitted and assisted but when it becomes irregular or dispos'd to evil events it is to be taken off And so must the shame of the penitent man when there is danger lest the man be swallowed up by too much sorrow and shame or when it is perceiv'd that the shame alone is a hinderance to the duty In these cases if the penitent man can be perswaded directly and by choice for ends of piety and religion to suffer the shame then let his spirit be supported by other means but if he cannot let there be such a confidence wrought in him which is deriv'd from the circumstances of the person or the universal calamity and iniquity of man or the example of great sinners like himself that have willingly undergone the yoke of the Lord or from consideration of the divine mercies or from the easiness and advantages of the duty but let nothing be offer'd to lessen the hatred or the greatness of the sin lest a temptation to sin hereafter be sowed in the furrows of the present Repentance 20. He that confesseth his sins to the Minister of Religion must be sure to express all the great lines of his folly and calamity that is all that by which he may make a competent judgement of the state of his soul Now if the man be of a good life and yet in his tendency to perfection is willing to pass under the method and discipline of greater sinners there is no advice to be given to him but that he doe not curiously tell those lesser irregularities which vex his peace rather then discompose his conscience but what is most remarkable in his infirmities or the whole state and the greatest marks and instances and returns of them he ought to signifie for else he can serve no prudent end in his confession But secondly if the man have committed a great sin it is a high prudence and an excellent instance of his repentance that he confess it declaring the kinde of it if it be of that nature that the spiritual man may conceal it But if upon any other account he be bound to reveal every notice of the fact let him transact that affair wholly between God and his own soul And this of declaring a single action as it is of great use in the repentance of every man so it puts on some degrees of necessity if the man be of a sad amazed and an afflicted conscience For there are some unfortunate persons who have committed some secret facts of shame and horror at the remembrance of which they are amazed of the pardon of which they have no signe for the expiation of which they use no instrument and they walk up and down like distracted persons to whom reason is useless and company is unpleasant and their sorrow is not holy but very great and they know not what to doe because they wil not ask I have observed some such and the onely remedy that was fit to be prescribed to such persons was to reveal their sin to a spiritual man and by him to be put into such a state of remedy and comfort as is proper for their condition It is certain that many persons have perished for want of counsel and comfort which were ready for them if they would have confessed their sin for he that concealeth his sin non dirigetur saith Solomon he shall not be counselled or directed And it is a very great fault amongst a very great part of Christians that in their inquiries of Religion even the best of them ordinarily ask but these two questions Is it lawful Is it necessary If they finde it lawful they will do it without scruple or restraint and then they suffer imperfection or receive the reward of folly For it may be lawful and yet not fit to be done It may be it is not expedient And he that will doe all that he can doe lawfully would if he durst do something that is not lawful And as great an error is on the other hand in the other question He that too strictly inquires of an action whether it be necessary or no would do well to ask also whether it be good whether it be of advantage to the interest of his soul For if a Christian man or woman that is a redeemed blessed obliged person a great beneficiary endeared to God beyond all the comprehensions of a mans imagination one that is less then the least of all Gods mercies and yet hath received many great ones and hopes for more if he should doe nothing but what is necessary that is nothing but what he is compell'd to then he hath the obligations of a son and the affections of a slave which is the greatest undecency of the world in the accounts of Christianity If a Christian will doe no more then what is necessary he will quickly be tempted to omit something of that also And it is highly considerable that in the matter of souls Necessity is a divisible word and that which in disputation is not necessary may be necessary in practise it may be but charity to one and duty to another that is when it is not a necessary duty it may be a necessary charity And therefore it were much the better if every man without further inquiry would in the accounts of his soul consult a spiritual Guide and whether it be necessary or no yet let him doe it because
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
Sect. 1. Of sins of Infirmity p. 449 Sect. 2 455 Sect. 3 463 Sect. 4 468 Sect. 5 How far an Unregenerate man may goe in the ways of piety and Religion 474 Sect. 6 The Character of the Regenerate estate or person 495 Sect. 7 What are properly and truly sins of Infirmity and how far they can consist with the regenerate estate 499 Sect. 8 Practical advices to be added to the foregoing considerations 515 CHAP. VIII Sect. 1. Of the effect of Repentance viz. Remission of sins p. 527 Sect. 2 Of pardon of sins committed after Baptism 532 Sect. 3 Of the difficulty of obtaining pardon The doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church in this article p. 536 Sect. 4 Of the sin against the Holy Ghost and in what sense it is or may be Unpardonable 550 Sect. 5 555 Sect. 6 The former Doctrines reduc'd to Practice 568 CHAP. IX Sect. 1. Of Ecclesiastical Penance or The fruits of Repentance p. 579 Sect. 2 Of Contrition or godly Sorrow 582 Sect. 3 Of the natures and difference of Attrition and Contrition 599 Sect. 4 Of Confession 605 Sect. 5 Attrition or the imperfect repentance though with absolution is not sufficient 638 Sect. 6 Of Penances or Satisfactions 644 Sect. 7 The former doctrine reduc'd to practise 658 Sect. 8 669 Sect. 9. 680 place this before page 1. Cor contritum et humiliatum Deus non despiciet CHAP. I. The foundation and necessity of Repentance §. 1. Of the indispensable necessity of Repentance in remedy to the unavoidable transgressing the Covenant of Works IN the first entercourse with Man God made such a Covenant as he might justly make out of his absolute dominion and such as was agreeable with those powers which he gave us and the instances in which obedience was demanded For 1. Man was made perfect in his kinde and God demanded of him perfect obedience 2. The first Covenant was the Covenant of Works that is there was nothing in it but Man was to obey or die but God laid but one command upon him that we finde the Covenant was instanced but in one precept In that he fail'd and therefore he was lost There was here no remedy no second thoughts no amends to be made But because much was not required of him and the Commandement was very easie and he had strengths more then enough to keep it therefore he had no cause to complain God might and did exact at first the Covenant of Works because it was at first infinitely tolerable But From this time forward this Covenant began to be hard and by degrees became impossible not onely because mans fortune was broken and his spirit troubled and his passions disordered and vext by his calamity and his sin but because man upon the birth of children and the increase of the world contracted new relations and consequently had new duties and obligations and men hindred one another and their faculties by many means became disorder'd and lessen'd in their abilities and their will becoming perverse they first were unwilling and then unable by superinducing dispositions and habits contrary to their duty However because there was a necessity that man should be tied to more duty God did in the several periods of the world multiply Commandements first to Noah then to Abraham and then to his posterity and by this time they were very many And still God held over mans head the Covenant of Works Upon the pressure of this Covenant all the world did complain Tanta mandata sunt ut impossbile sit servari ea In cap. 3. Gal. said S. Ambrose the Commandements were so many and great that it was impossible they should be kept For at first there were no promises at all of any good nothing but a threatning of evil to the transgressors and after a long time they were entertain'd but with the promise of temporal good things which to some men were perform'd by the pleasures and rewards of sin and then there being a great imperfection in the nature of man it could not be that man should remain innocent and for repentance in this Covenant there was no regard or provisions made But I said The Covenant of Works was still kept on foot How justly will appear in the sequel but the reasonableness of it was in this that men living in a state of awfulness might be under a pedagogy or severe institution restraining their loosenesses recollecting their inadvertencies uniting their distractions For the world was not then prepar'd by spirituall usages and dispositions to be governed by love and an easie yoke but by threatnings and severities And this is the account S. Paul gives of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law was a Schoolmaster Gal. 3.24 that is had a temporary authority serving to other ends with no finall concluding power It could chastise and threaten but it could not condemn it had not power of eternall life and death that was given by other measures But because the world was wilde and barbarous good men were few the bad potent and innumerable and sin was conducted and help'd forward by pleasure and impunity it was necessary that God should superinduce a law and shew them the rod and affright and check their confidences lest the world it self should perish by dissolution The law of Moses was still a part of the Covenant of Works Some little it had of repentance Sacrifice and expiations were appointed for small sins but nothing at all for greater Every great sin brought death infallibly And as it had a little image of Repentance so it had something of Promises to be as a grace and auxiliary to set forward obedience But this would not do it The promises were temporall and that could not secure obedience in great instances and there being for them no remedy appointed by repentance the law could not justifie it did not promise life Eternall nor give sufficient security against the Temporall onely it was brought in as a pedagogy for the present necessity But this pedagogy or institution was also a manuduction to the Gospel For they were used to severe laws that they might the more readily entertain the holy precepts of the Gospel to which eternally they would have shut their ears unless they had had some preparatory institution of severity and fear And therefore S. Paul also calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pedagogy or institution leading unto Christ For it was this which made the world of the Godly long for Christ as having commission to open the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hidden mystery of Justification by Faith and Repentance For the law called for exact obedience but ministred no grace but that of fear which was not enough to the performance or the engagement of exact obedience All therefore were here convinced of sin but by this Covenant they had no hopes and therefore were to expect relief from another and a better Gal. 3.22 according to that saying of S. Paul The
our duty I do not say all that we can naturally or possibly but all that we can morally and probably according to the measures of a man and the rate of our hindrances and infirmities 5. But the last sort and sense of perfection is that which our blessed Saviour intended particularly in the instance and subject matter of this Precept and that is a perfection in the kinde of action that is a choice and prosecution of the most noble and excellent things in the whole Religion Three are especially instanc'd in the holy Gospel 1. The first is a being ready or a making our selves ready to suffer persecution prescrib'd by our blessed Saviour to the rich young man If thou wilt be perfect Mat. 19.21 sell all and give to the poor that is if thou wilt be my disciple make thy self ready and come and follow me For it was at that time necessary to all that would follow Christs person and fortune to quit all they had above their needs For they that followed him were sure of a Cross and therefore to invite them to be disciples was to engage them to the suffering persecution and this was that which our blessed Saviour calls perfection Dulce periculum est O Lenaee sequi Deum Cingentem viridi tempora pampino It is an easie thing to follow God in festivals and dayes of Eucharist but to serve him in hard battels to die for him is the perfection of love of faith and obedience Obedient unto death was the Character of his own perfection for Greater love then this hath no man then to lay down his life Scis quem dicam bonum perfectum absolutum Seneca Quem malum fucere nulla vis nulla necessitas potest He is good absolute and perfect whom no force no necessity can make evil 2. The second instance is being merciful for S. Luke recording this Precept expounds it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye perfect that is Luk. 6.36 Be ye merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful for by mercy onely we can be like him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scriptor act Diognetum He that bears his neighbours burthen and is willing to do benefit to his inferiors and to minister to the needy of the good things which God hath given him he is as God to them that receive he is an imitator of God himself And Justin Martyr reciting this Precept of our blessed Saviour in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye good and bountiful as your heavenly Father is And to this purpose the story of Jesus and the young man before mentioned is interpolated in the Gospel according to the Hebrews or the Nazarens The Lord said unto him How sayest thou I have kept the Law and the Prophets when it is written in the Law Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self and behold many of thy brethren the sons of Abraham are covered in filth and die with hunger and thy house is full of good things and nothing goes forth to them from thence If therefore thou wilt be perfect sell all and give to the poor Charity which is the fulfilling the Commandement is also the perfection of a Christian and that a giving of alms should be perfection is not disagreeing with the design of the word it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Grammarians it signifies to spend and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a great spender or a bountiful person 3. The third is the very particular to which our blessed Master did especially relate to in the words of the sanction or institution and we are taught it by the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or therefore For when the holy Jesus had describ'd that glory of Christianity that we should love our enemies bless them that curse us do good to them that hate us and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us he propounds the example of our heavenly Father for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good But the Publicans love their friends and salute their brethren but more is expected of us Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect that is do more then the Publicans do as your Father does be perfect as he is that is love your enemies 6. Now concerning this sense of the Precept of perfection which is the choice and pursuance of the noblest actions of Religion we must observe that they are therefore perfection because they suppose a man to have pass'd through the first and beginning graces to have arrived at these excellencies of piety and duty For as no man can on a sudden become the worst man in the world his soul must by degrees be unstript of holiness and then of modesty and then of all care of reputation and then of disuse and by these measures he will proceed to the consummation of the method of Hell and darkness So can no man on a sudden come to the right use of these graces Not every man that dies in a good Cause shall have the reward of Martyrdome but he that having liv'd well seals that doctrine with dying which before he adorn'd with living And therefore it does infinitely concern all them that suffer in a good Cause to take care that they be not prodigal of their sufferings and throw them away upon vice Peevishness or pride lust or intemperance can never be consecrated by dying or by alms But he that after a patient continuance in well doing addes Charity or Martyrdome to the collective body of his other graces he hath made them perfect with this kinde of perfection Martyrdome can supply the place of actual baptisms but not of repentance Because without our fault it may so happen that the first cannot be had but without our fault the second is never left undone Thus perfection and repentance may stand together Perfection does not suppose the highest intention of degrees in every one but in all according to their measures of grace and time Evangelicall perfection is such as supposes a beginning an infant grace progression and variety watchfulness and fear trembling fear And there are many graces required of us whose materiall and formal part is Repentance Such as are Mortification Penitential sorrow Spiritual mourning Patience some parts of Humility all the parts and actions of Humiliation and since in these also perfection is as great a duty as in any thing else it is certain that the perfection of a Christian is not the supreme degree of action or intention But yet perfection cannot be less then an intire piety a holiness perfect in its parts wanting nothing material allowing no vicious habit permitting no vile action but contending towards the greatest excellency a charitable heart a ready hand a confident Religion willing to die when we are called to die patient constant and persevering endevouring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the measures of a man to
or thrust through with a sword This we are taught by that excellent Author of the Divine Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 10.28 29. He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was saenctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace So that under the Gospel he that sins and repents is in a farre better condition then he that sinn'd under the Law and repented For repentance was not then allowed of the man was to die without mercy But he that sins and repents not is under the Gospel in a farre worse condition then under the Law for under the Gospel he shall have a farre sorer punishment then under the Law was threatned Therefore let no man mistake the mercies of the New Covenant or turn the grace of God into wantonness The mercies of the Gospel neither allow us to sin nor inflict an easier punishment but they oblige us to more holiness under a greater penalty In pursuance of which I adde 3. The Covenant by which mankinde must now be judged is a Covenant of more Mercy but also of more holiness and therefore let no man think that now he is disobliged from doing good works by being admitted to the Covenant of Faith For though the Covenants are oppos'd as Old and New as a worse and a better yet Faith and Works are not oppos'd We are in the Gospel tied to more and to more excellent works then ever the subjects of any Law were but if after a hearty endevour we fall into infirmity and still strive against it we are pitied here but there we were not Under the first Covenant the Covenant of Works no endevour was sufficient because there was no allowance made for infirmities no abatements for ignorance no deductions of exact measures no consideration of surprises passions folly and inadvertency but under the New Covenant our hearty endevour is accepted but we are tied to endevour higher and more excellent things then they But he that thinks this mercy gives him liberty to do what he please loses the mercy and mistakes the whole design and Oeconomy of Gods loving kindness 4. To every Christian it is enjoyned that they be perfect that is according to the measure of every one Which perfection consists in doing our endevour He that does not do that must never hope to be accepted because he refuses to serve God by something that is in his power But he that does that is sure that God will not refuse it because we cannot be dealt withall upon any other account but by the measures of what is in our power and for what is not we cannot take care 5. To do our endevour or our best is not to be understood equally in all the periods of our life according to the work or effect it self nor according to our natural powers but it is accounted for by the general measures and great periods of our life A man cannot pray alwayes with equal intention nor give the same alms nor equally mourn with sharpness for his sins But God having appointed for every duty proper seasons and solennities hath declared that He does his best who heartily endevours to do the duty in its proper season But it were well we would remember that he that did a good act to day can do the same to morrow in the same circumstances and he that yesterday fought a noble battel and resisted valiantly can upon the same terms contend as manfully every day if he will consider and watch And though it will never be that men will alwayes do as well as at some times yet when at any time they commit a sin it is not because they could not but because they would not help it 6. He that would be approved in doing his best must omit no opportunity of doing a good action because when it is plac'd in its proper circumstances God layes his hand upon it and calls to have it done and there can be no excuse for the omission He does not do his best that does not do that Because such a person does voluntarily omit the doing of a good without just cause and that cannot proceed from an innocent principle 7. He that leaves any thing undone which he is commanded to do or does what he is commanded to forbear and considers or chooses so to do does not do his best cannot plead his privilege in the Gospel but is fallen under the portion of sinners and will die if he does not repent and make it up some way or other by sorrow and a future diligence 8. To sin against our Conscience can at no hand consist with the duty of Christian perfection Because he loves not God with all his heart nor serves him with all his strength who gives some of his strength and some of his affection to that which God forbids 9. No man must account that he does his duty that is his best or according to the perfection requir'd of Christians but he that does better and better and grows toward the measures of the fulness of Christ For perfection is an infinite word and it could not be communicated to several persons of different capacities and degrees but that there is something common to them all which hath analogy and equivalent proportions Now nothing can be perfect but that to which nothing is wanting and therefore a man is not any way perfect but by doing all all that he can for then nothing is wanting to him when he hath put forth all his strength For perfection is not to be accounted by comparing the subjects which are perfect for in that sense nothing is perfect but God but perfection is to be reckoned by every mans own proportions For a body may be a perfect body though it have not the perfection of a soul and a man is perfect when he is heartily and intirely Gods servant though he have not the perfection of S. Paul as a man is a meek man though he be not so meek as Moses or Christ But he is not meek if he keeps any fierceness or violence within * But then because to be more perfect is incident with humane nature he that does not endevour to get as much as he can and more then he hath he hath not the perfection of holy desires Therefore 10. Every person that is in the state of grace and designs to do his duty must think of what is before him not what is past of the stages that are not yet run not of those little portions of his course he hath already finish'd Vt cum carceribus missos rapit ungula currus Horat. Serm. l. 1 Satyr 1. Inflat equis auriga suos vincentibus illum Praeteritum temnens extremos inter euntem For so did the Contenders in the Olympick
their friend or accuse him secretly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Polybius calls it a new way of accusation to undermine a man by praising him that you seeming his friend a lover of his vertue and his person by praising him may be the more easily believed in reporting his faults like him in Horace who was glad to hear any good of his old friend Capitolinus whom he knew so well who had so kindely obliged him Sed tamen admiror quo pacto Judicium illud Fugerit but yet I wonder that he escaped the Judges Sentence in his Criminal cause There is a louder kinde of this evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Railers that 's when the smoke is turned into a flame and breaks out it is the same iniquity with another circumstance it is the vice of women and boyes and rich imperious fools and hard rude Masters to their Servants and it does too often infect the spirit and language of a Governour Our Bibles reade this word by Despitefull that notes an aptness to speak spiteful words cross and untoward such which we know will do mischief or displease 13. Foolishness Which we understand by the words of S. Paul Eph. 5.17 Be not foolish but understanding what the will of the Lord is It means a neglect of enquiring into holy things a wilful or careless ignorance of the best things a not studying our Religion Prov. 2◠9 which indeed is the greatest folly and sottishness it being a neglecting of our greatest interests and of the most excellent notices and it is the fountain of many impure emanations A Christian must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must not call fool nor be a fool Heady is reduc'd to this and signifies rash and indiscreet in assenting and dissenting people that speak and do foolishly because they speak and do without deliberation 14. Pride 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a despising of others if compared with our selves so Theophrastus calls it Concerning which we are to judge our selves by the voices of others and by the consequent actions observable in our selves any thing whereby we overvalue our selves or despise others preferring our selves or depressing them in unequal places or usages is the signification of this vice which no man does heartily think himself guilty of but he that is not that is the humble man A particular of this sin is that which is in particular noted by the Apostle under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 arrogance or bragging which includes pride and hypocrisie together for so Plato defines it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pretending to excellencies which we have not a desiring to seem good but a carelesness of being so reputation and fame not goodness being the design To this may be referred Emulations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Apostle calls them zeals it signifies immoderate love to a lawful object like that of the wife of Ajax in Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She did him most strange zealous services as if her affection had no measure It signifies also violent desires of equalling or excelling another for honours sake ambition and envy mixt together it is a violent pursuit after a thing that deserves it not A consequent of these is 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seditions or Schisms and Heresies That is Divisions in the Church upon diversity of Opinions or upon Pride Faction and Interest as in choosing Bishops in Praelations and Governments Ecclesiastical from factious Rulers or factious Subjects which are properly Schisms but use commonly to belch forth into Heresie according to that saying Plerunque schisma in haeresin eructat 16. An evil Eye That is a repining at the good of others Envy a not rejoycing in the prosperity of our Neighbours a grieving because he grieves not Aut illi nescio quid incommodi accidit aut nescio cui aliquid boni when good happens to another it is as bad as if evil happened to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is one of the worst of Crimes for a man to hate him that is prosperous hate him whom God loves or blesses It bears part of its punishment along with it the sin hath in it no pleasure but very much torment Nam sese excruciat qui beatis invidet A part of this is Vnthankefulness 2 Tim. ◠2 those who do not return kindnesses to others from whom they have received any neither are apt to acknowledge them which is properly an envying to our friend the noblest of all graces that of Charity or it is Pride or Covetousness for from any of these roots this equivocal issue can proceed 17. Lovers of Pleasures Such who study and spend their time and money to please their senses rarum memorabile magni Gutturis exemplum conducendúsque Magister Rare Epicures and Gluttons such which were famous in the Roman Luxury and fit to be Presidents of a Greek Symposiack not for their skill in Philosophy but their witty Arts of drinking Ingeniosa gula est Petron. Siculo scarus aequore mersus Ad mensam vivus perducitur Sensual men Such who are dull and unaffected with the things of God and transported with the lusts of the lower belly Alex. Aphrod in lib. de anim persons that are greedy of baser pleasures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Scholiast upon Aristotle The wicked man allows to himself too large a portion of sweet things Licorishness is the common word to express this vice in the matter of eating and drinking 18. Busie-bodies That is such who invade the offices or impertinently obtrude their advice and help when there is no need and when it is not lik'd not out of charity but of curiosity or of a trifling spirit and this produces talking of others and makes their conversation a scene of Censure and Satyre against others never speaking of their own duty but often to the reproach of their Neighbours something that may lessen or disparage him 19. The Fearful and the Unbelievers That is they that fear man more then God that will do any thing but suffer nothing that fall away in persecution such who dare not trust the Promises but fear want and fear death and trust not God with cheerfulness and joy and confidence 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that take pleasure in those that do these things That is they who in any sense incourage or promote or love the sin of another are guilty themselves not of the others sin but of their own He that commands a man to swear is not guilty of that swearing but of that commanding him It is a sin to do so but that sin to which the man is encouraged or tempted or assisted is his own sin and for it he is to repent every man for his own For it is inartificially said by the Masters of Moral Theology that by many wayes we are guilty of the sins of
that there is no ground for it in Scripture nor in Antiquity nor in right Reason but it is infinitely destructive of all that wise conduct of Souls by which God would glorifie himself by the means of a free obedience and it is infinitely confuted by all those Scriptures which require our cooperation with the assistance of Gods holy Spirit For all the helps that the Spirit of Grace ministers to us is farre from doing our work for us that it onely enables us to do it for our selves and makes it reasonable that God should therefore exact it of us because we have no excuse and cannot plead disability To which purpose that discourse of S. Paul is highly convincing and demonstrative Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 13. for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our desire so it is better read that is fear not at all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughly do your duty †Magis operamini Syrus Augescite in opere Arabs for according as you desire and pray God will be present to you with his grace to bear you through all your labours and temptations And therefore our conversion and the working our salvation is sometimes ascribed to God sometimes to men * 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. 2 Tim. 2.21 Jam. 4.8 Epâ—â— 4.22 23 24. Col. 3 9 10. to God as the prime and indeficient cause to man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the fellow-worker with God it is the expression of S. Paul The Scripture mentions no other effect of Gods grace but such as I have now described But that Grace should do all our work alone and in an instant that which costs the Saints so much labour and fierce contentions so much sorrow and trouble so many prayers and tears so much watchfulness and caution so much fear and trembling so much patience and long-suffering so much toleration and contradiction and all this under the conduct of the Spirit in the midst of all the greatest helps of grace and the inhabitation of the holy Spirit of God that all this labour and danger should be spar'd to a vile person who hath griev'd and extinguish'd Gods holy Spirit and a way contriv'd for him that he should enjoy the pleasures of this world and the glories of the next is such a device as if it had any ground or colourable pretence for it would without the miracles of another grace destroy all piety from the face of the earth And in earnest it seems to me a strange thing that the Doctors of the Church of Rome should be so loose and remiss in this Article when they are so sierce in another that takes from such persons all manner of excuse It is I say very strange that it should be so possible and yet withall so unncessary to keep the Commandements Obj. 2. But if a single act of contrition cannot procure pardon of sins that are habitual then a wicked man that returns not till it be too late to root out vicious habits must despair of salvation I answer That such a man should doe well to ask his Physician whether it be possible for him to escape that sickness If his Physician say it is then the man need not despair for if he return to life and health it will not be too late for him by the grace of God to recover in his soul But if his Physician say he cannot recover first let the Physician be reproved for making his patient to despair I am sure he hath less reason to say he cannot live then there is to say such a person hath no promise that he shall be saved without performing the condition But the Physician if he be a wise man will say So farre as he understands by the rules of his art this man cannot recover but some secret causes of things there are or may be by which the event may be better then the most reasonable predictions of his art The same answer I desire may be taken in the Question of his soul Concerning which the Curate is to preach the rules and measures of God but not to give a resolution concerning the secret and final sentence 2. The case of the five foolish Virgins if we may construe it as it is expressed gives a sad account to such persons and unless that part of the Parable be insignificant which expresses their sorrow their diligence their desire their begging of oyle their going out to buy oyle before the Bridegroom came but after it was noised that he was coming and the insufficiency of all this we may too certainly conclude that much more then a single act of contrition and a moral revocation that is a sorrow and a nolition of the past sins may be done upon our death-bed without effect without a being accepted to pardon and salvation 3. When things are come to that sad state let the man hope as much as he can God forbid that I should be Author to him to despair The purpose of this discourse is that men in health should not put things to that desperate condition or make their hopes so little and afflicted that it may be disputed whether they be alive or no. 4. But this objection is nothing but a temptation and a snare a device to make me confess that the former arguments for fear men should despair ought to be answered and are not perfectly convincing I intended them onely for institution and instruction not to confute any person or any thing but to condemne sin and to resoue men from danger But truly I doe think they are rightly concluding as moral propositions are capable and if the consequent of them be that dying persons after a vicious life cannot hope ordinarily for pardon I am truly sorrowful that any man should fall into that sad state of things as I am really afflicted and sorrowful that any man should live vilely or perish miserably but then it ought not to be imputed to this doctrine that it makes men despair for the purpose and proper consequent of it is that men are warned to live so that they may be secur'd in their hopes that is that men give diligence to make their calling and election sure that they may take no desperate courses and fall into no desperate condition And certainly if any man preach the necessity of a good life and of actual obedience he may as well be charged to drive men to despair for the summe of the foregoing doctrine is nothing else but that it is necessary we should walk before God in all holy conversation and godliness But of this I shall give a large account in the fifth § Obj. 3. But if things be thus it is not good or safe to be a criminal Judge and all the Discipline of Warre will be unlawful and highly displeasing to God For if any one be taken in an act
well done are great advantages to our state and yet we are hardly brought to them and love not to stay at them and wander while we are saying them and say them without minding and are glad when they are done or when we have a reasonable excuse to omit them A passion does quite overturn all our purposes and all our principles and there are certain times of weakness in which any temptation may prevail if it comes in that unlucky minute This is a little representment of the state of man whereof a great part is a natural impotency and the other is brought in by our own folly Concerning the first when we discourse it is as if one describes the condition of a Mole or a Bat an Oyster or a Mushrome concerning whose imperfections no other cause is to be inquired of but the will of God who gives his gifts as he please and is unjust to no man by giving or not giving any certain proportion of good things And supposing this loss was brought first upon Adam and so descended upon us yet we have no cause to complain for we lost nothing that was ours Praeposterum est said Paulus the Lawyer antè nos locupletes dici quà m acquisierimus We cannot be said to lose what we never had and our fathers goods were not to descend upon us unless they were his at his death If therefore they be confiscated before his death ours indeed is the inconvenience too but his alone is the punishment and to neither of us is the wrong But concerning the second I mean that which is superinduc'd it is not his fault alone nor ours alone and neither of us is innocent we all put in our accursed Symbol for the debauching of our spirits for the besotting our souls for the spoiling our bodies Ille initium induxit debiti S. Chrys in cap. 6. Ephes nos foenus auximus posterioribus peccatis c. He began the principal and we have increas'd the interest This we also finde well expressed by Justin Martyr for the Fathers of the first ages spake prudently and temperately in this Article as in other things Christ was not born or crucified because himself had need of these things but for the sake of mankinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. cum Tryph. which from Adam fell into death and the deception of the Serpent besides the evil which every one addes upon his own account And it appears in the greatest instance of all even in that of natural death which though it was natural yet from Adam it began to be a curse just as the motion of a Serpent upon his belly which was concreated with him yet upon this story was changed into a malediction and an evil adjunct But though Adam was the gate and brought in the head of death yet our sins brought him in further we brought in the body of death Our life was left by Adam a thousand years long almost but the iniquity of man brought it quickly to 500 years from thence to 250 from thence to 120 and at last to seventy and then God would no more strike all mankinde in the same manner but individuals and single sinners smart for it and are cut off in their youth and do not live out half their dayes And so it is in the matters of the soul and the spirit Every sin leaves an evil upon the soul and every age grows worse and addes some iniquity of its own to the former examples And therefore Tertullian calls Adam mali traducem he transmitted the original and exemplar and we write after his copy Infirmitatis ingenitae vitium so Arnobius calls our natural baseness we are naturally weak and this weakness is a vice or defect of Nature and our evil usages make our natures worse like Butchers being us'd to kill beasts their natures grow more savage and unmerciful so it is with us all If our parents be good yet we often prove bad as the wilde olive comes from the branch of a natural olive or as corn with the chaff come from clean grain and the uncircumcised from the circumcised But if our parents be bad it is the less wonder if their children are so a Blackamore begets a Blackamore as an Epileptick son does often come from an Epileptick father and hereditary diseases are transmitted by generation so it is in that viciousness that is radicated in the body for a lustful father oftentimes begets a lustful son and so it is in all those instances where the soul follows the temperature of the body And thus not onely Adam but every father may transmit an Original sin or rather an Original viciousness of his own For a vicious nature or a natural improbity when it is not consented to is not a sin but an ill disposition Philosophy and the Grace of God must cure it but it often causes us to sin before our reason our higher principles are well attended to But when we consent to and actuate our evil inclinations we spoil our natures and make them worse making evil still more natural For it is as much in our nature to be pleased with our artificial delights as with our natural And this is the doctrine of S. Austin speaking of Concupiscence Lib. 1. de nupt conâ—â—p c. 23. Modo quodam loquendi vocatur peccatum quòd peccato facta est peccati si vicerit facit reum Concupiscence or the viciousness of our Nature is after a certain manner of speaking called sin because it is made worse by sin and makes us guilty of sin when it is consented to It hath the nature of sin so the Article of the Church of England expresses it that is it is in eâdem materiâ it comes from a weak principle à naturae vitio from the imperfect and defective nature of man and inclines to sin But that I may again use S. Austins words Quantum ad nos attinet Lib 2. ad Julian sine peccato semper essemus donec sanaretur hoc malum si ei nunquam consentiremus ad malum Although we all have concupiscence yet none of us all should have any sin if we did not consent to this concupiscence unto evil Concupiscence is Naturae vitium but not peccatum a defect or fault of nature but not formally a sin which distinction we learn from S. Austin Ibid. Non enim talia sunt vitia quae jam peccata dicenda sunt Concupiscence is an evil as a weak eye is but not a sin if we speak properly till it be consented to and then indeed it is the parent of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. James it brings forth sin This is the vile state of our natural viciousness and improbity and misery in which Adam had some but truly not the biggest share and let this consideration sink as deep as it will in us to make us humble and careful but let us not use it as an excuse to lessen
and heart But if thou canst know thy self you need not enquire any further If thy duty be performed you may be secure of all that is on Gods part 5. When ever repentance begins know that from thence-forward the sinner begins to live but then never let that repentance die Doe not at any time say I have repented of such a sin and am at peace for that for a man ought never to be at peace with sin nor think that any thing we can doe is too much Our repentance for sin is never to be at an end till faith it self shall be no more for Faith and Repentance are but the same Covenant and so long as the just does live by faith in the Son of God so long he lives by repentance for by that faith in him our sins are pardoned that is by becoming his Disciples we enter into the Covenant of Repentance And he undervalues his sin and overvalues his sorrow who at any time fears he shall doe too much or make his pardon too secure and therefore sets him down and sayes Now I have repented 6. Let no man ever say he hath committed the sin against the Holy Ghost or the unpardonable sin for there are but few that doe that and he can best confute himself if he can but tell that he is sorrowful for it and begs for pardon and hopes for it and desires to make amends this man hath already obtained some degrees of pardon and S. Pauls argument in this case also is a demonstration If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life That is if God to enemies gives the first grace much more will he give the second if they make use of the first For from none to a little is an infinite distance but from a little to a great deal is not so much And therefore since God hath given us means of pardon and the grace of Repentance we may certainly expect the fruit of pardon for it is a greater thing to give repentance to a sinner then to give pardon to the penitent Whoever repents hath not committed the great sin the Unpardonable For it is long of the man not of the sin that any sin is unpardonable 7. Let every man be careful of entring into any great states of sin lest he be unawares guilty of the great offence Every resisting of a holy motion calling us from sin every act against a clear reason or revelation every confident progression in sin every resolution to commit a sin in despite of conscience is an access towards the great sin or state of evil Therefore concerning such a man let others fear since he will not and save him with fear plucking him out of the fire but when he begins to return that great fear is over in many degrees for even in Moses law there were expiations appointed not onely for errour but for presumptuous sins The PRAYER I. OEternal God gracious and merciful I adore the immensity and deepest abysse of thy Mercy and Wisdome that thou doest pity our infirmities instruct our ignorances pass by thousands of our follies invitest us to repentance and doest offer pardon because we are miserable and because we need it and because thou art good and delightest in shewing mercy Blessed be thy holy Name and blessed be that infinite Mercy which issues forth from the fountains of our Saviour to refresh our weariness and to water our stony hearts and to cleanse our polluted souls O cause that these thy mercies may not run in vain but may redeem my lost soul and recover thy own inheritance and sanctifie thy portion the heart of thy servant and all my faculties II. BLessed Jesus thou becamest a little lower then the Angels but thou didst make us greater doing that for us which thou didst not doe for them Thou didst not pay for them one drop of bloud nor endure one stripe to recover the fallen stars nor give one groan to snatch the accursed spirits from their fearful prisons but thou didst empty all thy veins for me and gavest thy heart to redeem me from innumerable sins and an intolerable calamity O my God let all this heap of excellencies and glorious mercies be effective upon thy servant and work in me a sorrow for my sins and a perfect hatred of them a watchfulness against temptations severe and holy resolutions active and effective of my duty O let me never fall from sin to sin nor persevere in any nor love any thing which thou hatest but give me thy holy Spirit to conduct and rule me for ever and make me obedient to thy good Spirit never to grieve him never to resist him never to quench him Keep me O Lord with thy mighty power from falling into presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me so shall I be innocent from the great offence Let me never despair of thy mercies by reason of my sins nor neglect my repentance by reason of thy insinite loving kindness but let thy goodness bring me and all sinners to repentance and thy mercies give us pardon and thy holy Spirit give us perseverance and thy infinite favour bring us to glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. IX Of Ecclesiasticall Penance or The fruits of Repentance §. 1. THe fruits of Repentance are the actions of spiritual life and signifie properly all that piety and obedience which we pay to God in the dayes of our return after we have begun to follow sober counsels For since all the duty of a Christian is a state of Repentance that is of contention against sin and the parts and proper periods of victory and Repentance which includes the faith of a Christian is but another word to express the same grace or mercies of the Evangelical Covenant it follows that whatsoever is the duty of a Christian and a means to possess that grace is in some sense or other a Repentance or the fruits of Gods mercy and our endevours And in this sense S. John the Baptist means it saying Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance that is since now the great expectation of the world is to be satisfied and the Lords Christ will open the gates of mercy and give Repentance to the world see that ye live accordingly in the faith and obedience of God through Jesus Christ That did in the event of things prove to be the effect of that Sermon But although all the parts of holy life are fruits of Repentance when it is taken for the state of favor published by the Gospel yet when Repentance is a particular duty or vertue the integral parts of holy life are also constituent parts of Repentance and then by the fruits of Repentance must be meant the less necessary but very useful effects and ministeries of Repentance which are significations and exercises of the main duty And these are sorrow for sins
suppose was done in the lower regions The Judge did examine and hear their crimes and crafts and even there compell'd them to confess that the eternal Justice may be publickly acknowledg'd for all the honour that we can doe to the Divine attributes is publickly to confess them and make others so to do for so God is pleased to receive honour from us Therefore repentance being a return to God a ceasing to dishonour him any more and a restoring him so far as we can to the honour we depriv'd him of it ought to be done with as much humility and sorrow with as clear glorifications of God and condemnations of our selves as we can To which purpose 15. He that confesseth his sins must doe it with all sincerity and simplicity of spirit not to serve ends or to make Religion the minister of design but to destroy our sin to shame and punish our selves to obtain pardon and institution always telling our sad story just as it was in its acting excepting where the manner of it and its nature or circumstances require a vail and then the sin must not be concealed nor yet so represented as to keep the first immodesty alive in him that acted it or to become a new temptation in him that hears it But this last caution is onely of use in our confessions to the Minister of holy things for our confession to God as it is to other purposes so must be in other manners but I have already given accounts of this I onely adde that 16. All our confessions must be accusations of our selves and not of others For if we confess to God then to accuse another may spoil our own duty but it can serve no end for God already knows all that we can say to lessen or to aggravate the sin if we confess to men then to name another or by any way to signify or reveal him is a direct defamation and unless the naming of the sin do of it self declare the assisting party it is at no hand to be done or to be inquired into But if a man hath committed incest and there is but one person in the world with whom he could commit it in this case the confessing his sin does accuse another but then such a Guide of souls is to be chosen to whom that person is not known but if by this or some other expedient the same of others be not secured it is best to confess that thing to God onely and so much of the sin as may aggravate it to an equal height with its own kinde in special may be communicated to him of whom we ask comfort and counsel and institution If to confess to a Priest were a Divine Commandement this caution would have in it some difficulty and much variety but since the practice is recommended to us wholly upon the stock of prudence and great charity the doing it ought not in any sense to be uncharitable to others 17. He that hath injur'd his neighbour must confess to him and he that hath sinn'd against the Church must make amends and confess to the Church when she declares her self to be offended For when a fact is done which cannot naturally be undone the onely duty that can remain is to rescind it morally and make it not to be any longer or any more For as our conversation is a continual creation so is the perpetuating of a sin a continuation of its being and actings and therefore to cease from it is the death of the sin for the present and for the future but to confess it to hate it to wish it had never been done is all the possibility that is left to annihilate the act which naturally can never be undone and therefore to all persons that are injur'd to confess the sin must needs be a duty because it is the first part of amends and sometimes all that is left but it is that which God and man requires before they are willing to pardon the offender For until the erring man confesses it does not appear who is innocent and who is guilty or whether the offended person have any thing to forgive And this is the meaning of these preceptive words of S. James Jam. 5.16 Confess your sins one to another that is to the Church who are scandalized and who can forgive and pray for the repenting sinner and confess to him that is injur'd that you may do him right that so you may cease to do wrong that you may make your way for pardon and offer amends This onely and all of this is the meaning of the precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greek Commentaries upon Acts 19.18 Every faithful man must declare or confess his sins and must stand in separation that he may be reproved and that he may promise he will not doe the same again according to that which is said Do thou first declare thy sins that thou mayest be justified and again A just man in the beginning of his speech is an accuser of himself No man is a true penitent if he refuses or neglects to confess his sins to God in all cases or to his brother if he have injur'd him or to the Church if she be offended or where she requires it for wheresoever a man is bound to repent there he is bound to Confession which is an acknowledgement of the injury and the first instance and publication of repentance In other cases Confession may be of great advantage in these it is a duty 18. Let no man think it a shame to confess his sin or if he does yet let not that shame deter him from it There is indeed a shame in confession because nakedness is discovered but there is also a glory in it because there is a cure too there is repentance and amendment This advice is like that which is given to persons giving their lives in a good cause requiring them not to be afraid that is not to suffer such a fear as to be hindred from dying For if they suffer a great natural fear and yet in despite of that fear die constantly and patiently that fear as it increases their suffering may also accidentally increase their glory provided that the fear be not criminal in its cause nor effective of any unworthy comportment So is the shame in confession a great mortification of the man and highly punitive of the sin and such that unless it hinders the duty is not to be directly reproved but it must be taken care of that it be a shame onely for the sin which by how much greater it is by so much the more earnestly the man ought to fly to all the means of remedy and instruments of expiation and then the greater the shame is which the sinner suffers the more excellent is the repentance which suffers so much for the extinction of his sin But at no hand let the shame affright the duty but let it be remembred that this confession is but