observe well in this place that these different affections which the Scripture attributes to God in respect of Sin are not to be found in God in the same manner as in men for they cause in men a discomposure of the mind from whence they are call'd Passions or the sufferings of the Soul but they make no such change in God who being unchangeable cannot be moved or suffer by different affections When therefore in Scripture it is said that God for example is touched with Grief Hatred Anger and the like this is to be understood as Divines express it no further then as to what concerns the exteriour effects which appear to us and are such as are amongst us the usual effects of a sorrowfull angry mind and not as to any change of affection which in God is none Quantum ad effectum non quantum ad affectum But this is no hindrance but that we may draw from these passages of Scripture infallible consequences to prove the enormity of Mortal Sin. For it is reasonable to judge of the malice of a cause by the evil effects which of its own nature it is capable to produce although it happen that the effect may not follow by reason of some extrinsecal impediment Sin therefore of it self being capable to produce in God all those Passions we have spoken of tho' his Sovereign perfection renders him uncapable to receive them this doth not diminish in the least the malice of it which is always such that in as much as in it lies it produceth in God all those passions and excites in him Grief Sadness Hatred Anger Fury and Indignation O Sin how wicked and cruel art thou since thou hast no regard to God himself but endeavourest to attaque that Sovereign Majesty even in his Throne of Glory A Prophet once said let Samaria be destroy'd because it hath raised bitterness and sadness to his God. Pereat Samaria quia ad amaritudinem concitavit Deum suum Osea 14. But with how much greater reason ought we to say that Sin should for ever perish seeing it attaques even God himself and in as much as in it lies fills that infinite Ocean of Sweetness and Bounty with Gall and Bitterness Behold Theotime the reasons we have to detest and abhor Sin from whence we may form to our selves a motive of true Contrition Behold how we are to detest Sin not only by reason of the evils which it heaps upon us whereof we have spoken above but for the evils with which it affects even God himself for once it is capable to cause all those effects in God altho' it doth not effectually produce them for the reason above mentioned it follows of necessity that the injury which it offers to God is dreadfully beyond measure great Conclude then with a strong resolution to hate this enemy of God this if possible disturber of the Deity ARTICLE VI. Of the Effects of Sin in the Person of Jesus Christ THat which Sin could not effect in God it hath brought about in his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ and if the Divinity by reason of it's infinite perfections be raised above the attempts of the malice of this Infernal Monster the most sacred humanity of the Son of God hath suffer'd for all beyond all that which we can either speak or think Consider this well Theotime and observe once more the enormity of Mortal Sin by the number and greatness of those evils which it made him to suffer who undertook to satisfy for it and destroy it Consider first that it was Sin which made the Son of God descend from Heaven that is which obliged him to take our humanity upon him and stoop to that wonderfull abasement of his Person which St. Paul called annihilation or becoming nothing Phil. 2.6.9 as to make himself Man for us and our Salvation to take the habit and form of a Servant to put himself in a capacity to satisfy the Divine Justice for the infinite injury done him by Mortal Sin An injury never to be repaired but by one who should be God and Man. Secondly this adorable Mystery of the Incarnation was no sooner accomplished but the first thought of the Son of God made Man was to offer himself to his Eternal Father a Sacrifice to the Divine Justice in satisfaction for all the Sins of Men as he himself said by the Prophet Psal 39.7 The Sacrifices and all Holocausts which hitherto have been offered to appease thy wrath against sin were not able to give thee satisfaction wherefore I am come and knowing that it was thy will that I should satisfy I am content O my God! and embrace with all my heart this thy good pleasure and decree From that first moment even untill the time of the Passion of the Son of God his life was a continual Sacrifice which he offered to his Father the divine love always burning never permitting him any repose untill he had accomplished the work he came for untill by his death he had conquer'd and destroy'd that cruel Enemy he came to fight with which was sin This is that which he himself testified when he said I have a Baptism wherewith I am to be Baptized and how am I streightned interiourly untill it be dispatcht Luk. 12.5 He who could recount the pains and travels of the life of the Son of God his fast his preaching his watchings his prayers and all that which he hath done and suffered as well in Soul as body during the 33 years of his mortal Life would easily perceive how all that tended to the destruction of sin for which he principally came into the world The time at length approaching wherein he was to enter into that last Combat of that so great and signal War which he was come to wage to free us all from sin and the captivity of the Devil its first Author what was he not obliged to do and suffer that he might conquer so potent an enemy it is true that he gained a glorious victory but it was with the loss of his precious life and at the price of his own death But what death Theotime A death full both of sorrows and reproaches the death of the Cross A death accompanied with all imaginable affronts and executed by those that he had in the highest degree obliged betrayed and delivered by one of his Disciples to his mortal enemies abandoned also and denied by his own Disciples arrained before a Judge accused as a Criminal Sentenced and condemned as a Malefactor exposed to the scoffs and derisions of the Multitude Before his execution he was Scourged with no less cruelty then shame and disgrace delivered over to the insolence of Soldiers who Crowned him with Thorns as a mock-King in derision and scorn In fine led to execution nailed to the Cross exposed to the view of all the world between two Thieves as if he had been an Impostor a Cheat and the worst of men Amidst these excessive pains
of his Body and yet far greater anguishes of his Soul overwhelmed with sorrow and confusion he expires upon the Cross and commends his Spirit into his hands who sent him O Theotime have you ever seriously thought of these sufferings of the Son of God your Saviour But perhaps you have not reflected upon that which caused them wonder at his goodness but be not surprised if I tell you that it is nothing else but Sin It was Sin alone that Crucified the Son of God. It is true they were the Jews who persecuted him to death it was Pilate who condemned him and the Executioners who nailed him on the Cross It is also most true that he offer'd himself unto death and underwent all these hardships because he was so pleased Oblatus est quia ipse voluit Isa 53. It is moreover most certain that his Eternal Father desired that of him and obliged him to drink that bitter Chalice But it is also without question that Sin was the first cause of the suffering of the Son of God it was that which first prosecuted him this also was his most cruel Executioner If he offer'd himself to death it was because he had willingly charged himself with our Sins If the Eternal Father would also have him suffer it was to receive from him the satisfaction which was due to his Divine Justice upon account of Sin. God saith Isaias c. 53. had laid on him all our Iniquities And the Eternal Father himself said that he had strucken him for the Sins of his people Propter scelus populi percussi eum Hearken here to the description which the same Prophet makes speaking of the torments of the Son of God which he saw as clearly in Spirit as if he had beheld them in effect There was no Beauty in him nor comeliness and we have seen him despised and most abject of Men a man of sorrows and knowing infirmities and his look as it were hid and despised whereupon neither have we esteemed him He surely hath born our infirmities and our sorrows he hath carryed and we have thought him as it were a leper and Stricken of God and humbled And he was wounded for our iniquities he was broken for our sins The discipline of our peace upon him and with his Stripes we are healed Behold dear Theotime how much our sins have made Jesus Christ to suffer Behold to what condition that cruel enemy hath reduced the Son of God Is not this sufficient to make us judge of the Greatness and enormity of Mortall Sin seeing it hath made him to suffer so great torments who had undertaken to destroy it seeing also the fault could not be expiated nor the damage repaired but by the death of God made man whose sole life is infinitely more estimable and precious then those of all Men Angels and other possible creatures put together Ought we not then to say that the wounds we have received by Sin are truly dreadfull since they could not be cured by any thing less then the blood of the Son of God Agnosce homo quam gravia sint nulnera pro quibus necesse fuit unigenitum Dei filium vulnerari Si non essent haec ad mortem ad mortem sempiternam nunquam prohis filius Dei moreretur Bern. Serm. 3. de Nat. Dom. O man saith St Bernard acknowledge how great those gashes were that obliged the only Son of God to be wounded to cure them If those Sores had not been mortall and the causes of an eternal death the Son of God had never dyed for their recovery Can there be a more considerable motive to lament and abhorr our sins then when we reflect that they were the cause why the Son of God our Saviour Suffered so much and also why he died upon the Cross The Jews once wept over and bewail'd the destruction of the Royal City of Jerusalem because of the loss of their King Cecidit corona capitis nostri vae nobis quia peccanimus Thren 5. How much more reason have we to lament our misfortune who by our sins are the only cause of the death of Jesus Christ our King our Redeemer and our Glory Weigh well Theotime and meditate upon this motive of sorrow and contrition it will pierce your heart except it be harder and more obdurate then the very Stones and say with St Bernard ubi supra Pudet itaque dilectissimi propriam negligenter dissimulare passionem cui tantam a majestate tantâ video exhiberi compassionem Compatitur filius Dei plorat homo patitur ridebit It is a shamefull thing for Christians not to acknowledge the evils which sin hath brought upon them when they consider what so supreme a Majesty as that of the Son of God hath been obliged to suffer for them The Son of God takes compassion on the miseries of man and weeps for sorrow whilst insensible man who is overwhelmed with his own Sins is not concern'd at all O Theotime have a care I will not say only that you never become so blind and insensible as to flight the grievousness and enormity of mortall Sin but that you never permit a day to pass in which with all the vigour of your heart you do not conceive new hatred against that infernall Monster which could not be destroyed but by the passion and death of the Son of God our Saviour CHAP. XII The practice of Contrition upon the Precedent Motives LEt us now resume all that which we have said concerning the Motives of Contrition since the Eighth Chapter that we may come to the practice of this great Virtue without which it is impossible to be justifyed in the sight of God. We have said that to have Contrition we must know the enormity or grievousness of Mortall Sin and we have made that Enormity appear from several heads First because it is incomprehensible in it self as we shewed in the Eighth Chapter 2dly From the knowledge we have of it from the Sacred Scripture which discovers unto us the several Signal and most enormous indignities of Sin whilst it treats of it as a Rebellion against God a detestable ingratitude a contempt of his Holy will a postponing the Creator to the Creature and a preferring of our own before the will of God which we spoke of in the 9th Chapter 3dly From the horrid offence or injury which by Sin is done to God an injury really infinite and so great that no pure Creature either Man or Angel is capable by himself to make satisfaction for it As we have seen in the 10th Chapter 4ly From the dreadfull effects which by sin are caused in all places and in all sorts of Subjects in Heaven in Earth in Hell in the Angels in Man in God himself and in his Son Jesus Christ as we have shewed in the several Articles of the 11th Chapter After all these Motives thus treated to give you an insight into the nature of that sorrow which is called Contrition
is with more Fervour and with a more Humble Contrite Spirit they are performed by so much more easily they obtain what they demand In fine with all these admirable qualities they have yet another of no less note which in all reason should make them more lovely more desirable And it is this they are good against the maladies of the Soul and serve not only as a remedy to cure past Sins but also as a preservative against them for the future CHAP. VIII That the Penitent who truly desires to work his Salvation ought not to satisfy himself with the Pennance enjoyned him in the Sacrament but he ought to perform others and how IT is a great errour and very common amongst Penitents to satisfy themselves if they comply with the Penance that is enjoyned them and to believe that they have done enough when they have performed the Penance such as it was tho' frequently far inferiour to what it ought to be This abuse is the cause of many evils and particularly above the rest of the small progress one makes in vertue of loose living and relapses into Sin it being certain that if we did Penance as we ought for our past offences we should not so easily fall into other sins Mistake not then Theotime but be perswaded that you ought to do other Penances besides those that are enjoyned you in your Confessions and this for several Reasons First the better to satisfy the Divine Justice for your past Sins and by little and little to diminish the punishment which yet remains due from you to be payed 2ly to make you more gratefull and acceptable in the sight of God after your Sins and to merit at his hands those graces which by your former crimes you had justly lost 3ly To restrain you from offending God and relapsing into those Sins for which you see your self obliged to suffer 4ly To cure the vicious and wicked inclinations of your Soul by exercising the acts of contrary virtues All these are the reasons of the Council of Trent cited above in the 5th Chapter to which I refer my self This is the cause why the same Council hath said Ses 6. c. 13. That the Life of a Christian ought to be a perpetual Penance and that the just ought to work their Salvation with fear and trembling by Labour by Watchings Almsdeeds Prayers Fastings and by Chastity And these maxims are drawn from the Gospell the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and his Apostles so that there is not the least ground to doubt of the truth thereof Wherefore dear Theotime I exhort you to reflect seriously upon this truth and convince your self that it is necessary for you to do Penance in whatsoever state you are if you intend to live like a Christian It is a great errour to beleive that Penance belongs only to Religious it is the duty of all Christians and of all those that hope to save their Souls But you will ask me how it is to be done Behold the most easy means can be imagined Penance consists in two things in a detestation of Sin and in suffering in order to satisfy for the injury it hath done to God. One of these is in the heart the other in action Comply with them both and you will perform a very profitable Penance First conserve always in your heart a true regret or sorowfull sense for having offended God. And to conserve it better accustome your self dayly to renew it elicit acts of sorrow in your prayers as at Morning and Night demanding of him pardon for your Sins and detesting them from the bottom of your heart Secondly suffer for your Sins and that two ways first by imposing upon your self some action of Penance to perform every day One while a recital of some prayers otherwhile a distribution of almes sometimes mortification as abstinence or retrenchment of some lawfull pleasures as divertisements or the like But all this must be done upon the motive of making satisfaction for injurys done to God which is the Spirit of Penance 2ly accepting willingly and with the same spirit of Penance and satisfaction all the pains and evils which dayly befall you As the inconveniences of Life the disorders of Body the troubles of mind disgusts loss of goods poverty necessities afflictions either private or publick and generally all the evills which occur and whereof this life is so fertile and abounding But especially the particular pains and hardships which you are forced to suffer in the state and vocation where God hath placed you there not being any where one is not obliged to labour and take pains All these afflictions and troubles we may make use of to do penance and satisfy for our Sins upon condition we suffer them with patience as the Council of Trent hath declared sess 14. c. 8 9. and with sorrow for our offences Whereas on the contrary when we undergo them without patience and without offering them up to God for the remission of our Sins and for satisfaction of the punishment which we have deserved our sufferings are not only not mitigated but also render'd unprofitable without bringing either any benefit for the future or any Comfort for the present which is a thing which we ought to observe well in this place CHAP. IX Of Sacramentall Absolution What it is Wherein it consists and what are its Effects ALtho' Absolution be a part of the Priests office yet it is very fitting that the Penitents should be instructed in it to the end they may receive it with respect and sutable dispositions First he must know that as in every Sacrament there are two parts whereof one is called the matter the other the form Absolution is the form of the Sacrament of penance and without it there is neither a Sacrament nor remission of Sins by vertue of it This Absolution is a juridicall sentence pronounced by the Priest upon the Penitent by which after that he hath taken cognisance of the Sins which the Penitent hath confessed and of his good disposition to receive the remission of them and after that he hath enjoyned him a convenient Penance he remits his Sins on the behalf of God and by the authority which he hath given him It consists but in these three words which are essentiall to it I absolve thee from thy Sins all the other which the Priests says before and after them are Prayers which the Holy Church hath instituted to implore the Grace and Mercy of God upon the Penitent and which may be omitted in case of necessity The effects of the Absolution are to remit the Sin as far as concerns the fault or offence of God and the Eternall punishment and blot out the stains which Sin had caused in the Soul and recover the favour and freindship of God by the means of sanctifying Grace which it bestows upon him and revive in him all the precedent merits which were mortifyed and lost by sin It produceth all these
Pag. 354. Art. 7. The practice of the Acts of Hope for Communion Pag. 355. The practice of Hope before Communion Ibid. After Communion Pag. 358. Chap. 3. Of Charity the Third disposition for the worthy receiving the Blessed Sacrament Pag. 361. Art. 1. How necessary Charity is and how much is requir'd to Communicate well and as we ought ibid Art. 2. That we must have a speciall care to distinguish false Charity from true Pag. 364. Art. 3. What is Charity Pag. 366. Art. 4. Of the motives of the love of God. Pag. 369. Art. 4. Of other particular motives of the love of God drawn from the Blessed Sacrament Pag. 371. Art. 6. The practice of the Acts of Charity before Communion Pag. 374. After Communion Pag. 376. Acts of love towards Jesus Christ Pag. 378. An Offering to Jesus Christ Pag. 379. A Prayer to Jesus Christ Pag. 380. Art. 7. Advices concerning the precedent practices of Faith Hope and Charity Pag. 381. Art. 8. Another advice of Prayer to the blessed Virgin before and after Communion Pag. 382. A Prayer to the Blessed Virgin before Communion Pag. 383. After Communion Pag. 384. A Prayer to the Blessed Virgin after Communion Pag. 385. Art. 9. How it is fit we should spend the day of our Communion Pag. 386. Art. 10. Of frequent Communion Pag. 388. Art. 11. When and how often we ought to Communicate Pag. 393. An advice of great Importance Pag. 395. Proverb I. SApientia foris praedicat in plateis dat vocem suam in capite turbarum clamitat in foribus portarum urbis profert verba sua dicens Vsquequo parvuli diligitis infantiam Et stulti ea quae sunt noxia cupient imprudentes odibunt scientiam Convertimini ad correptionem meam en proferam vobis spiritum meum ostendam vobis verba mea Instruction concerning Penance And the means to return to God by a true Conversion I shall divide this Instruction into Five Parts THe First shall Contain an Exhortation to him who is in Mortal Sin to return to God by Penance and by serious amendment of his Life The Second shall treat of Contrition which is the first part of Penance of the Motives which may raise it and of the means to obtain it The Third shall be of Confession and the Principal things that ought to be observed therein The Fourth shall give Instructions concerning Satisfaction and the Works of Penance which ought to be performed for Sins past In the Fifth we shall speak against the relapse into Sin Of its ill and dangerous consequences Of the means to avoid that dreadfull Rock where the greatest part of the World are Shipwrackt and unfortunately lost We shall adjoyn at the End a General Examen of all Sins THE INSTRUCTION OF YOUTH PART I. Containing an Exhortation to a true Conversion and Amendment of Life ALL that we have spoken in the first part of the Instruction of Youth is a continual exhortation to young people to live virtuously during the time of their youth and correct their lives by Penance if they shall be already engaged in Sin as it happens but too frequently This is the cause why it is not at all necessary to stop here to exhort them to think seriously of their Conversion and Salvation and that it will be sufficient to send them back to the reading of that first part This is the reason dear Theotime why if you be touched with a desire to consider seriously of the Salvation of your Soul I beseech and conjure you to read that part of your instruction and to weigh attentively the reasons and motives which I have brought to perswade and convince you of the great obligation you have to apply your self to virtue in your tender years I am confident that if you poise them well and with that serious attention the matter doth deserve you will be convinc'd and conclude with your self thus It is true I ought to think of my Salvation from the very moment that I desire to return to God to change my life and labour earnestly for my conversion And to the end you may be more firmly fixed in this resolution and may perform it with more constancy and without any wavering I shall propose here an exhortation which God himself hath made you that so I may the better remove from you all resistance and delay in a business so important and necessary for your good to which you are exhorted by the voice of God himself CHAP. I. An Exhortation which God made to Men and particularly to Young People to return to him by Penance IT is in the first Chapter of the book of Proverbs which was dictated by the Holy Ghost chiefly for the instruction of young persons where the divine wisdom speaks in this manner Give ear Theotime to the voice of God who addresses himself to you and comprehend well what he shall say unto you O Children how long will you love infancy and fools covet those things that are hurtfull and unwise hate knowledge Turn at my correction behold I will utter my mind to you and make you understand my words Because I called and you refused I have stretch'd out mine hand and there was none that regarded But you have despised all my Councells and neglected my reprehensions I will also Laugh at your destruction and mock when that shall come to you which you fear'd when sudden Calamity shall fall on you and destruction as a Tempest shall be at hand when tribulation and distress shall come upon you Then shall they call upon me and I will not hear they shall seek me early and shall not find me because they have hated knowledge and not received the fear of our Lord nor consented to my counsell but despised all my correction Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices The aversion of little ones shall kill them and the Prosperity of fools shall destroy them But he who shall hear me shall rest without terrour and shall enjoy abundance fear of evills being taken away Hitherto are the words of God which call men to their Conversion and which press men to think on their Salvation But I beseech you Theotime be not satisfied with once reading them offer not such an affront to the Speech which God himself has made you as to pass it over so slightly but read it often till you have perfectly understood it and deeply printed it in your mind and heart Desist not from reading untill you are resolved to obey and perform what it requires and to the end it may make a greater impression and produce more plentifull fruit in your mind read also these following reflections CHAP. II. Reflections upon the Precedent Exhortation and First upon the things which it contains IF you consider well this divine exhortation you shall find that it contains five parts In the first Almighty God that he might make you reflect upon your self gives
regret for an evil and truly detests it he also hath a will to avoid it if he hath not this will it is certain he hath neither sorrow nor aversion By this definition you see that Contrition is composed of three interior acts a Sorrow a Detestation and a good Purpose Detestation is the first Act which is the ground-work on which are raised the other two For he who hath conceiv'd in his heart an hatred against Sin hath a Sorow for having committed it and a purpose not to commit it any more So that we must chiefly apply our selves to this detestation or hatred and this is what we must carefully take notice off That we may arrive at this we must perfectly understand the malice that is included in Sin. for we only hate and detest those things which we know to be wicked Now there are in Sin two sorts of evils the evil of the fault and the evil of the punishment The first is the Injury which by Sin is done to God. The other is the damage which the same Sin draws upon Us in punishment of that injury which we did to God. The one regards God the other our Salvation and both of them render Sin infinitely detestable The evil of the fault because it offends God and the evil of the Pain because it makes us loose God and become punishable by eternall Damnation In fine Theotime there is nothing more detestable and which ought to breed in us a greater horror then the cause which produceth these two evils which are the greatest and most terrible of all mischiefs Sin offends God so highly and is such an injury done unto him that all men and all Angells together are not able to comprehend how heinous it is so grievous is it Is there any evil more heinous detestable The same Sin by this injury which it does to God separates us from him makes us loose his Grace excludes us for ever from his Glory and makes us subject to eternal Damnation And can we speak or think of an evil more dreadfull and which deserves more our hatred and detestation Let us raise our thoughts higher and consider Sin not only in general and as it is others but as it is within our selves and say to our own hearts By the Sins which I have committed I have offended my Creator my Redeemer my Benefactour my All God infinite in greatness in Bounty in Holyness without cause without reason by my malice alone and blindness Good God! how happens it that I have not a horrour of my self and of the evils which I have done By the same Sins I have lost the Grace of God I am become his Enemy I am deprived of Heaven I am fall'n into the Slavery of the Devil and made a Victim of Hell. O Sin how horrid art thou O siin why have I committed thee O Sin I hate and detest thee with all my heart and above any thing that is detestable in the world Iniquitatem odio habui abominatus sum Psalm 118. CHAP. IV. Of the qualities or conditions which true Contrition ought to have WE speak not here of perfect Contrition whereof we shall treat in the following Chapter but more generally of the Conditions which grief necessary for the obtaining the remission of Sin ought to have whether it be perfect or imperfect and I say this Contrition must have four Conditions to wit it must be Interiour Supernatural Vniversal and Sovereign Take notice of these Conditions for they are of great importance and many are deceived in them First Contrition or sorrow for Sin ought to be Interiour that is to say from the Heart and when it is only in words and outward appearance it is not Contrition but an Illusion The Heart must sincerely produce the Sentiment and Sorrow which the words express For this reason the Council said above that it was a Sorrow of Mind and a detestation of Sin Now this detestation is an Act of the Will. The Scripture saith that it is a Conversion that is a return of the Heart to God Convert your selves to God with all your hearts We must seek for God by Penance and in seeking we shall find if we seek for him with all our hearts and with the sorrow and tribulation of our Souls Deut. 4. God reprehended the Penance of the Jews who made great Exterior Demonstrations even to tear their Cloaths as a mark of their sorrow but they were not touched in their Hearts Convert your selves to me saith God to them with all your hearts in Fasting in Tears and Lamentations and tear your Hearts and not your Garments Joel 2. In fine Theotime there is nothing more manifest both by Scripture and Reason then this truth that Penance oght to be in the Heart that is in the Will that as the Will was the cause of Sin so also it may be the cause of Sorrow and produce Penance The Heart must revoke the evil which it hath wilfully committed and detest Sin which formerly it had affected Secondly It is not sufficient to detest Sin in the Heart it must also be detested upon a good Motive that is upon a Motive sufficient to obtain Pardon for the Sin. This Motive that it may produce that effect must be Supernatural that is one of those which God hath revealed and which we know by Faith The reason is because an Action purely Natural cannot procure sanctification for the Soul which is wrought by Grace and is a thing above Nature Hence we assigned the Second Condition of Contrition to be Supernatural that is conceived upon a Supernatural Motive and consequently by a Motion inspired by God. This Supernatural Motive hath relation to two Heads Viz. to that which concerns our Supernatural good which is Eternal Happiness and to that which regards the Glory of God. I say our Supernatural good because the Natural goods as Life Health Honour Riches are not able to raise such a sorrow for Sin as might serve to obtain the Pardon from God. This we must take good notice of Such was the sorrow of Saul who did not grieve for his Sin but for the loss of his Kingdom which he saw God would deprive him of Such was the sorrow of Antiochus who did not weep for his Crimes but because of the great Misfortunes he found himself overwhelmed with Such many times is the grief of Christians who demand pardon for their Sins when they are surrounded with Afflictions which they resent more livelily then the evils which they have committed by their Sins which move them little or nothing It is very true that Afflictions make us return to God and he himself sends them us for that effect but there is a great deal of difference between the occasion which makes us do an action and the motive for which it is performed Afflictions serve for an occasion to return to God because they awake us from the sleep of sin make us reflect upon our selves be sorry for
better the grievousness thereof SInce it is most certain that the best way to know a cause is to consider its effects doubtless the best means to discover the grievousness of Mortal Sin is to reflect on the Sad effects which followed from it We have said before that we could not perfectly know Sin in it self because it is the Supreme evil which is infinite no more then we can understand in it self the Supreme and Sovereign good which is God. But as by the effects which we see of his Power of his Wisdom of his Goodness we arrive at some knowledge of God So on the Contrary we may find out in some sort the heinousness of Sin if we do but consider attentively the Dreadful effects it causes and the horrible misfortunes which it carries with it And all these effects are as so many Powerfull motives of Contrition to make us detest and abhor Sin. To discover it the better we shall observe some order and search for it in several places viz. in our selves in Heaven in Hell in God himself and in his Son Jesus Christ ARTICLE I. Of the death of the Soul or the sad effects which Sin produceth in his Soul who commits it I Begin with the Death of the Soul because this is the first effect which Sin produceth as soon as ever is is committed Peccatum cum consummatum fuerit generat mortem Jac. 1. And I would to God it were as sensible as it is real and that those who are so unfortunate as to fall into Mortal Sin might exactly know the greatness of the evil which thereby they draw upon themselves as really in it self it is and resent it as it deserves It is for this reason that I desire to explicate it unto you and make you understand it Sin then saith the Scripture is no sooner finished but immediately it causeth Death It 's certain that it is not the death of the Body for a man doth not dye in the moment he hath committed it It is then the death of the Soul a thousand times more dreadfull then that of the Body for this doth but separate the Soul from the Body but the Death which is caused by Sin is a Separation of the Soul from God who is a Supernatural Life as St. Aug. saith vita corporis anima est vita animae Deus est And as this life which God gives the Soul is infinitely more estimable then that which the Soul confers upon the Body which it animates so the Death which causeth the loss of that Divine Life is infinitely more dreadfull and Lamentable then naturall Death To understand this well you must know what God hath reveal'd and we believe concerning a Soul which hath the Blessing to be in the State of the Grace of God And it is this when God receives a Soul into his Friendship he Cloathes her with the Robe of Sanctifying Grace a supernatural and Divine quality which cleanseth the Soul from all the spots of Sin and renders her agreeable to the eyes of God. And at the same moment he replenisheth her with Divine gifts as Faith Hope Charity and other Christian Virtues Then by the means of that Grace God dwells in that Soul after a particular manner he makes her his Temple and Habitation where he is pleased to be adored and loved by the Souls that possess him Lastly he interchangeably communicates himself unto her filling her with his holy Spirit and Divine Inspirations All these truths are drawn from the express words of the Sacred Scripture As from that where God promises That he will pour upon us a clean water which will cleanse us from all our stains Ezek. 36. This water is Sanctifying Grace From that where he saith That the Charity of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Rom. 5. That we are the Temples of the Living God and that the Spirit of God doth dwell in us 1. Cor. 3. from those words where our Saviour saith If any one love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our Dwelling with him Joh. 14. From those words of St. John. God is Charity and he who remains in Charity remains with God and God with him 1. Joh. 4. There are a great number of the like passages which clearly represent unto us the state of a Soul Sanctifyed by Grace and the great happiness she enjoys in that condition wherein she possesses God himself and is possessed by him Now all this felicity is constant and permanent as to what relates to God whose gifts are without repentance as the Scripture saith only the Soul can deprive her self of and destroy in her self this happiness This misfortune befalls us when forgetfull of the infinite blessing we possess and permitting our selves to be surprized by the allurements of Sin we break that happy League and Alliance which God had made with us And this we do by a criminal disobedience whereby we incur the displeasure of God and lose in a moment all those inestimable goods which before we happyly enjoyed O God Theotime who can worthily express the dreadfull misfortune which happens to a Soul by one mortal sin and paint to the life the deplorable state to which it is reduced in the moment she offends in which the Soul in that very instant is deprived of the grace of God and of one beautifull and as an Angel in his sight becomes as hideous and hatefull as a Devil Quomodo obscuratum est aurum mutatus est color optimus Thren 4. Is there any subject where we may more sitly apply those dolefull words of Jeremy how comes it to pass that this Soul should be so defaced what is become of that grace which made her more bright then gold how is that divine beauty changed into so hideous a form It is an effect of the divine Anger which hath justly fill'd that Soul with cloudy darkness which before had unjustly banisht the light of Grace But that which is most to be lamented is that that Soul which formerly had the honour to be employ'd as the Temple of God now sees her self rejected by him with horrour and detestation and the Holy Ghost retired from her having abandoned her to be the dwelling-place of the Devil according to that sentence of the same Prophet repulit Dominus Altare suum maledixit sanctificationi suae God hath rejected his Altar and laid a curse upon the place where he was adored and sanctified Thren 2. Is it possible Theotime that you can read these words without trembling if you are in the state of Mortal Sin It is this forsaking of God and this loss of his grace which properly causes the death of the Soul infinitely more to be feared then that of the Body forasmuch as by the death of the body we are only deprived of the presence of the Soul death being only a separation of the Soul from
change sin alone it was sin alone that God could not endure in his most perfect Creatures The Heavens as Job saith are not pure in his presence and he hath found disorder even in the Angells Job 15. He found sin in Heaven and in the Angells themselves and he hath not pardoned them as St. Peter saith but hath chained them in Hell to be there Tormented and thereby to manifest unto all creatures the hatred he bears to Sin. 2 Pet. 2. If Sin was so dreadfull to the Angels in Heaven it hath not been less Terrible to men upon earth if it was able to banish them so quickly there it hath not been less effectual or less speedy in Shutting the Gates of Heaven against us here It was when the first man who being created in the grace of God after he had received all possible assurance of his Friendship both as to this world and to the next forgetfull of his duty and of himself treacherously conspired with his Capital Enemy and broke the Commandments of God in eating the forbidden fruit He had no sooner fall'n into this offence but the Anger God appeared against him and banished him with scorn out of the Earthly Paradise that Garden of delight where but a while before he had been placed with so much love Both he and all his posterity were condemned to labour death and all the miseries we even now groan under for that first transgression of the Law of God. But that which is yet more terrible is that the Gates of Heaven which till then were open were immediately shut as well against himself as against all his posterity without the least hopes of his ever being able to re-enter those happy mansions by any means he either of himself or any of his off-spring of themselves could use O sin how dreadfull art thou and what a train of misfortues dost thou bring after thee This misery and desolation continued four thousand years and more during which time no man ever entred into heaven not even the just themselves and those who dyed in the Grace of God untill the coming of the Son of God into the world who by his Death opened the Gates of Heaven so long shut During that time how many millions of souls were excluded for ever and without recovery from that celestiall inheritance This happened to all those who in that compass of time died in their Sins and without doing penance for them But after the way was open to heaven by the Merits of Jesus Christ how many are there still that enter not at all Hell is filled dayly with millions and Paradice continues in comparison like a desert Why so It is an effect of sin alone and impenitence O how well did the Wise man say it is sin which makes men miserable Miseros facit populos peccatum Prov. 14. Is it possible Theotime that you should run so slightly over these fatal and horrible effects of sin that they should not move you in the least I might here recount the innumerable miseries the continual and dayly effects of Sin Death which it hath introduced from the beginning barrenness of the Earth Rebellion of living creatures the deluge which drowned the world near two thousand years after the Creation Plagues and Pestilence war and famine and all the Miseries as well publick as private which we see and dayly feel are so many unfortunate effects of Sin whether of that of our first parent or of those which men continually commit For as the wise man saith Fire hail famine are made to revenge Sin. Eccl. 39. But I shall pass by all these evils altho' most dreadfull and horrible to come to others infinitely greater and more terrible whereof those are but the fore runners according to that infallible Testimony of the Son of God. Haec omnia initia sunt dolorum Mar. 13. all these miseries says he are but the beginnings of others far greater ARTICLE III. Of the effects of Sin in Hell. LEt us sink down into the Pit of Hell that so we may conceive a more lively apprehension of the enormity of Mortal Sin we shall there see the frightfull evills which this Monster hath produced and by the vastness of so many dreadfull effects frame a judgment of the malice of that cause which hath brought them forth and we shall there learn two things the first to detest Sin the author of so many evils The Second to conceive a wholesome fear of falling into that abiss of misery into which man is thrown by Sin. That which St Bernard said being most certain It is necessary we descend into Hell alive that is think seriously and often on it That we may escape falling into it at the hour of death Consider then Theotime attentively what Faith teacheth us concerning Hell that it is an Eternal fire which God hath prepared for the Devil and his Apostate Angels and with which he hath also decreed to punish the Sins of men who follow the rebellious example of those Ambitious Spirits This we learn from that terrible Sentence which the Son of God shall pronounce at the day of judgment against the wicked Go ye accursed into Everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25. A dreadfull sentence which contains no more then four words but in those four words it comprehends Hell intirely and all the evils which compose it First it teacheth us that the fame punishment which is prepared for the Devils is also appointed for men and that they shall be Companions of those wicked and damned Spirits as they were their followers in their rebellion against God and by this we may see what Mortall sin is which renders us obnoxious to the same punishment and damnation with the Devils Ponder this well Theotime and behold what it is to be damned together with the Devils and as the Devils are damned and how great that offence must necessarily be which deserves a punishment equal to that with which the Devils are tormented But what will that punishment be I confess we are not able to comprehend but the Son of God by his infinite wisdom hath summ'd it up in four words that we may more easily conceive it Words which contain all the horror of Hell Go says he ye accursed into Everlasting fire Mat. 25. By these words are denoted the Separation from God the curse of God Fire and Eternity Behold in four words what Hell is behold the punishment of Mortal Sin To be separated from God to be accursed of God to be condemned to fire and that for ever Who can think of these things and not tremble with fear and horror Stay some time here Theotime this is not a subject to be read in hast revive these thoughts often and pause a while upon each of these frightfull punishments To be separated from God the Author and Fountain of all good whose only aspect gives a blessing to all Creatures and who no sooner turns away his face
but all things are in trouble and confusion as the Prophet hath it Ps 103. To be cursed of God that is of Goodness it self To be cursed that is hated rejected with Indignation abandoned to all possible mischiefs without relief without comfort without hope To be condemned to Fire that is to the most horrible of all torments And this for all Eternity that is without hope ever to be delivered from it so that neither a hundred years nor a hundred thousand years nor a hundred thousand millions of years make up the least part of that dreadfull duration The unfortunate Damned shall be cursed of God for ever They shall be damned to the Fire of Hell and that for ever From that very moment that this final decree shall be pronounced against them there will be no further recourse or hope of relief This will be a dreadfull Thunder-bolt which if once it falls upon their guilty heads will never be withdrawn It will incessantly torture them without ever giving them the least repose And during all eternity they shall never forget those four words of their Condemnation Go ye accursed into everlasting Fire O mighty God! how terrible art thou in thy Judgments Is not he strangely blind and wonderfully insensible who fears not to fall into thy hands at the hour of Death Who can live without an apprehension of that horrible Thunder of thy final Judgment It is not like the punishments and afflictions which thou sendest to us during this life and yet how fearfull are we of these which last but for a time whereas that shall never end Sagittae thae transeunt vox tonitrui tui in rotâ Psal 76. Thy Arrows says the Prophet that is the afflictions of this life are but passing at least they end with life But that terrible Judgment which thou layest upon the wicked is a Thunder that shall never cease From the moment that it shall issue from thy hands it continually rowls over their heads and oppresses them without ceasing and yet makes them not to dye ARTICLE IV. A continuation of the same Subject THis Subject is too vast and too important to content our selves with the little that we have said Let us not leave it off so soon Theotime let us meditate again and again upon these four punishments of Mortal Sin that we may comprehend them well fear them and conceive a Sacred horror of the cause from whence they come First then the Damned shall be separated from God shall be cast out of his sight never to see him more and to be eternally deprived of the beatifical vision and of all the felicities included in it In a moment they shall see themselves fall'n from all those inestimable goods which God hath prepared for his faithfull servants which neither Eye hath seen nor Ear hath heard nor ever enter'd into the heart of man. 1 Cor. 2.9 Then they will perfectly know what they have lost they will be continually afflicted with rage and despair to see that they have lost so rich treasures without hopes of ever recovering them again Then will the Prophecy of David be fully accomplished which saith the sinner shall see the blessings and favours which God hath bestowed upon the just and finding himself deprived will rage with anger gnash his teeth and will pine away with grief and all his desires will be frustrated Psal 112. and avail him nothing for it is certain that God will make the damned know the happiness which they have lost and this knowledge will be one of their greatest punishments and the cause of all the rest and that which will highly increase this pain will be the knowledge of the cause viz. sin which hath cast them into this final or never-ending misery They will see that there was no other cursed cause of their utmost and irreparable desolation then that of sin and the sorrow which they shall conceive of this loss shall be so much more encreas'd as they shall more clearly understand that it was by their own fault that they are deprived of so great happiness in that they have preferred fleeting and deceitfull pleasures before real and eternal blessings From hence it is that their sorrow and never-ending lamentations spring from hence their tears and gnashing of teeth whereof the Son of God speaks in the Gospel but all to no purpose or effect As long as God shall be God they shall continually understand that Prophecy Vsque in aeternum non videbit lumen Psal 48.20 They shall for ever be deprived of light and those words of the Angel in the Apocalips c. 22.15 Foris canes impudici homicidae c. From Heaven shall be cast Doggs and lascivious persons Murderers and Idolaters and Lyers This is the miserable state to which those accursed of God shall be reduced being separated from him for evermore and that by a just judgment of God who will forget them in the other who forgot him in this present life as a father of the Church says excellently well Vltra nescientur a Deo qui Deum scire noluerunt morituri vitae morti sine fine victuri Euseb Emis hom 3. de Epiph. God will never acknowledge them for his servants who would never acknowledge God for their Master They shall dye to this mortal life to live eternally to an everlasting death This is a most horrible punishment but this shall not be all for in the Second place the Damned shall be accursed of God. What is it to be accursed Do you understand well this word Theotime to be Cursed and do you not tremble when you know it For to be cursed by God is not only to be out of his favour to be loathed by him which yet are dreadfull evils But it is to be detested of God in that manner so as to be rejected by him and abandoned to all possible misfortunes The Curse of Almighty God is not like that of men for this is but a desire or imprecation of some evil which one man wishes to another and this doth not allways take effect because men desire evils which they are not able to inflict But the curse of God is efficacious it causeth the evil which it wisheth puts it in execution without any one being able to hinder or resist it Voluntati enim ejas quis resistit Rom. 9. For if there be any resistance it is that which increaseth the curse and the evil which the cursed endure The opposition which will augment the curse of the Damned will consist in this Their wicked and rebellious will shall eternally resist the will of God and the will of God shall perpetually resist and confound theirs There never will be any agreement saith St. Bernard between those two wills because the one is just right and equitable the other is unjust perverse and wicked nunquam recto pravoque conveniet There will be an eternal opposition between these two wills The one will incessantly desire the other
sententiâ stabit saeculis materia reparabilis nunquam ad metam malorum termino fugiente perveniet Eus Emis hom 1 ad Manachos From hence proceed those horrible Crys and Lamentations from hence that Rage and everlasting Despair of the Damned who shall clearly see that they shall never be freed from their Miseries Their minds shall always be full of this sad thought Thou shalt never be freed from hence What not after a thousand years not after Ten thousand years not after a Hundred thousand years nothing less Not after a Million of years no Never Thou shalt be Eternally Tormented in ignem aeternum in ignem aeternum in ignem aeternum O Eternity how Dreadfull art thou O Theotime is it possible you can read this without trembling as for my part I declare I can never think of it without an Horrour But it is to little purpose to have a dread of Hell if we do not endeavour to avoid it wherefore let us come to the Conclusion which follows The Conclusion of this ARTICLE Of the pains of Hell. IT is of infinite importance not to read slightly and in passant these frightfull pains that shall never have an end but into which we may dayly fall For this reason Theotime I conjure you to read them often with great attention and add three or four reflections which here I shall set before you The first is that all which we have said or can be spoken of these Torments is nothing if compared to what they are in themselves Humane discourses rather diminish then augment them There can be no exaggeration on this Subject for the Punishment doth far surpass all our expressions The Second is that their pains are a just Punishment of Mortal Sin. There is not any other besides that cursed cause which hath brought forth these so dreadfull effects of the Divine Anger And which hath set God and man at such a Frightfull and final distance Iniquitates vestrae diviserunt inter vos Deum vestrum Esai 52.2 These so Vast and Eternal Pains may make us understand three things The greatness and enormity of Mortal Sin the Hatred which God bears it since he punisheth it so dreadfully And the detestation we ought to have of it as well for those Pains as for the hatred God bears to Sin Ponder this well Theotime and reflect seriously upon it The 3d. is That you have merited these pains of Hell by the Sins you have committed and already deserved to be of the number of those unhappy damned of whom we but just now spoke To suffer the Tortures which they endure to be from this instant out of hopes of ever seeing God or ever being freed from Hell. Is not this consideration enough to make you weep and lament and is not this an urgent motive to raise in you a detestation of Sin which hath cast you into such eminent danger the only thought whereof ought to make you tremble But in the fourth place reflect upon the cause which hath hitherto preserved you from that dreadfull danger and you will find no other then the sole goodness of Almighty God which hath not treated you according to your deserts permitting you to dye in that sinfull State as most justly he might have done and as he hath done to others that had committed no greater sins then yours Where had you now been had he treated you in that manner You had been before now eternally lost and damned for ever And why hath he not done it but only out of that infinite goodness he hath shewn you expecting daily your repentance O Theotime how well may you say with the Prophet Misericordia Domini quia non sumus consumpti quià non defecerunt miserationes ejus Thren 3.22 Without question it proceeds only from the sole mercy of God that you have yet time to work your Salvation How perfect then ought your love to be towards him who hath shew'd himself so mercifull towards you and what can you refuse to do both for his sake and your own Salvation who hath yet granted you time wherein you may secure it The fifth and last Reflection is that you cannot now work your Salvation nor avoid for the future that Eternal Damnation except you change your life and do Penance to which I exhort you in this Treatise They are the express words of the Son of God repeated thrice in the fifteenth Chapter of St. Luke Dico vobis nisi poenitentiam habueritis omnes simul peribitis I say unto you unless you do Penance you shall all perish Take notice he saith All without exception either of old or young or what condition soever Conclude from hence and make your resolution And remember that upon this resolution depends your Salvation and your Eternity Wherefore do not make a slight one but a constant and an effectual resolution that is a purpose followed by the effect of a real and serious Conversion ARTICLE V. Of the effects which Sin produces in respect of God himself THis Title is surprizing and I declare that if it be taken according to the rigour of the expression it imports a thing equally incredible as impossible For how can God who is perfectly unchangeable receive any alteration in himself from external causes This cannot be That Sin should have filled Heaven with disorders Earth with miseries Hell with confusion and horrour is but too true But that God himself should be sensible of these effects this is that which cannot be easily understood It is true Theotime that this is hard to be understood but the Sacred Scripture that Oracle of Truth represents unto us in so many places the different effects which Sin seems to cause in respect of God that we cannot doubt it For of all the passions which men conceive against evil or against that which is offensive to them as Grief Sadness Repentance Hatred Anger Indignation Fury There is none which the Scripture doth not take notice of as remarkable in God against Sin. It saith in Genesis c. 6. that God seeing the Sins of men was touched with an hearty sorrow and repented himself that he had Created man who had abus'd his liberty so heinously to offend him Tactus dolore cordis intrinsecus dixit paenitet me foecisse hominem It saith that those who Sin contristate the Holy Ghost Nolite contristare Spiritum Sanctum Eph. 4.30 God hates the wicked and his wickedness Wisd 14.9 that he is angry against those that offend him That Sin enkindles his Fury and Indignation Iratus est furore Dominus in populum tuum abominatus est haeriditatem suam Psal 105.40 The whole Scripture is full of these expressions which give us plainly to understand that Sin which hath caused a disorder in all Gods creatures hath not spared the Creator and that this Infernall Monster as much as possible attaques God himself and were it possible would destroy him It is true Theotime and this we ought to
is we must accuse our selves with the spirit and disposition of a Criminal before his Judge And the reason is manifest because the Council of Trent above-cited saith that the Sacrament of Penance is instituted by the Son of God as a Tribunal and Judgment where the Sins of the Faithfull must be discovered before the Priest who ought to judge them and where the Penitent by consequence ought to appear as culpable Now he cannot appear as such if he be not accused and he cannot be accused but by himself the declaration then of his Sins must be such an Accusation as we have spoken of being it is made with this intent to obtain remission and pardon CHAP. III. Of the Conditions necessary for a good Confession IT is easy to form a judgment of them from the precedent definition For being it is an Accusation it follows that it ought to have two Conditions amongst others It must be entire that is of all the Sins they have committed and it must be made with sorrow for having committed them He who accuses himself that he may obtain pardon must accuse himself of all the evils he hath done and testify the sorrow he hath for his faults These two Conditions require or produce some others for the Integrity requires it should be Clear and Short the sorrow produceth a shame for having sinned and a Submission to the will of the person offended that he may obtain pardon upon what conditions he shall best think fit Thus one may put six conditions necessary for a good Confession It ought to be Entire Clear Short made with confusion and Shame of the Evil with Sorrow for having committed them and with Submission to the person offended this Latin Verse will make you remeber them Integra Clara Brevis Verecunda Dolens Humilisque It ought to be Entire that is of all the Sins they remember after a diligent and sufficient Examen This is to be understood of Mortal Sins and without this condition the Confession is null The reason is because Mortal Sins cannot be pardoned separately one without another being they are all and every one opposite to Sanctifying Grace and any one amongst them remaining in the Soul it is an hindrance not permitting Grace to enter there whence it follows that if one conceal but one only Mortal Sin in Confession the Sacrament cannot produce its effects which is the Sanctification of the Soul by the infusion of Grace It ought to be Clear that is in terms easy and intelligible as much as the Penitent is able who ought to have a sincere will to make himself understood by his Confessor and therefore he must as much as may be avoid obscurity at least he is obliged not to affect or desire to be obscure for this would be an evident sign that he hath a mind to conceal some Sins It must be Short not to say any more then what is necessary to make himself rightly understood and to avoid superfluous words the repeating the same thing and unprofitable Stories which are but too frequent amongst Penitents He must simply tell his sins in this manner I accuse my self that I have committed such a Sin and adding only that which is necessary to make the Confessor understand the quality of the sin or answering to the question he shall ask to inform himself It must be Shamefaced that is expressed with civil and modest words and with an interior sentiment of confusion for having offended God. A confusion which makes us blush to see our selves criminal in the sight of God but without making us by any means conceal our sins but rather making us ingeniously and humbly to declare them to him who hath the place of God. For the Penitent who acknowledges himself culpable in the sight of God hath no trouble to discover them before men Justus prior est accusator sui Prov. 18. The Just man that is he who desires to become just is the first accuser of himself And that other Sentence of Isaias according to the Septuagint Version Dic tu peccata sua ut justificeris Isai 43. Discover thy sins that thou mayst be justified It ought to be Sorrowfull that is with a sentitiment of grief and regret for the Sins he accuseth himself of otherwise it would not be an Accusation In fine it must be Humble that is the Penitent ought to acknowledge himself culpable declare that he deserves to be punished and submit himself unto the Conditions the Judge shall appoint for the remission of his Sins CHAP. IV. Of the Defects in Confession AS we have said that there are six Conditions required so also it is manifest that there are six Defects The want of Sorrow Clearness c. It is notwithstanding true that every one of them do not make the Confession null but only the want of those Conditions absolutely necessary which are Integrity and Contrition which we told you above were the two general Conditions from whence the others spring The want of Integrity renders the Confession null as also the want of true and necessary Sorrow and this is a certain Maxime which we must hold in this matter that there are two things necessary in the Penitent entire Confession and true Contrition If one of these are wanting by the Penitents fault the Sacrament is null and the Confession Sacrilegious The want of the other Conditions render the Confession imperfect but not invalid except they be such as destroy one of those two Essential Conditions Integrity or Sorrow Thus the defect of clearness may be such that it makes the Confessour not understand all the Mortal Sins and in that case it renders the Confession null and especially if that obscurity be affected and on purpose the want of obedience may be so great that it destroys Contrition and so of others Now there are three Cases where Integrity makes the Confession defective The first when willingly and knowingly one conceals a Mortal Sin for shame fear negligence or otherwise The second when one conceals it indirectly as when one accuses himself in terms obscure or ambiguous with design that the Confessour should not understand all that he would say or at least perceiving he did not understand every Mortal Sin or when one accuses himself by halfs leaving the rest to be guess'd at or to be asked by the Confessour which happens often to young people The third when one hath not made a sufficient Examen of his Conscience but goes presently to Confession knowing well enough he is not sufficiently prepared For altho' there be difference between concealing and forgetting a Sin in Confession and that forgetfulness doth not make the Confession invalid yet this is to be understood only when the forgetfulness is not voluntary or caused by our negligence for when we are the cause of such forgetfulness it is certain it is a Sin which renders the Confession null by the rule that he who desires the cause is judged also to desire the
effect which infallibly follows it As to the sorrow for Sins there are many cases wherein the Penitent may want it to that degree that the Sacrament is null thereby First when one has made no act neither before nor during Confession nor before he receives Absolution In this case the Confession is invalid altho' it may proceed from a pure forgetfulness that they did not perform that action because it is essential and absolutely necessary for the Sacrament and which cannot be supplied by any other action Secondly when one makes those acts but without due conditions as without supernatural motives or with a reserve or exception of some Mortal Sin for which one hath a complaisance or affection in a word without the Conditions we have spoken of before in the second Part fourth Chapter which you must reade over again in this place Thirdly when one hath not a sincere resolution of amendment altho' he believes he hath this is judged to happen when the Penitent will not leave the occasion of Sin practice the necessary remedies obey his Confessour in reasonable things CHAP. V. Of the Conditions necessary to make the Confession entire ACcording to the Doctrine of the Church there are three To declare the Species or Nature of the Sin the Number and the Circumstances that change the Species or Nature of it First we must confess the Species Sort or Nature of the Sin It is not sufficient to say in general terms I have sinned I have very much offended God but we must tell particularly in what I have for example committed Theft or Blasphemy or Detraction The reason of this rule is given by the Holy Council of Trent because says it the Priests are constituted Judges in this Sacrament to give a judgement of the sins of men Now it is manifest they cannot exercise that judgment without the knowledge of the Cause nor observe the necessary equity in the enjoining of the Penance except the Penitents declare their Sins in particular and not only in general Secondly they must discover the number that is how often they have fall'n into each sort of Sin. This is also absolutely necessary that the Confessor may judge aright because he who hath committed a Sin often is much more Culpable then he who hath done it but seldom Thirdly we must explain the circumstances which change the Species or Nature of Sin as the same Council hath declared in express terms and this is to be done for the same reason that obligeth us to confess the Sins of different Species or sorts Thus in Theft one must express the circumstance of a Sacred place in which he robbed or a Sacred thing which he hath taken because this circumstance changes the Species and makes it a Sacriledge In the sin of impurity one must discover the quality of the person with whom he hath sinned whether it be a Single or Married Person or relation for these circumstances make different sins of Fornication Adultery or Incest In fine Penitents and particularly young people are often defective in these three rules For first as to the Species or nature of the Sin it happens frequently that they do not declare it at all For example concerning the sin of Impurity they say no more then that they have willingly entertain'd evil thoughts without mentioning in the least whether they were accompanyed with any immodest touches of themselves or other effects which follow which are sins of another Species and more grievous then the thoughts They will confess they have touched others uncivilly without discovering how or what sort of persons They will accuse themselves of Detraction of their Neighbour but not offer to declare the thing they have said Secondly as to the number it happens often that telling the Species they are afraid to discover the number intirely and therefore conceal some part the number sometimes causing as much shame as the Species it self and quality of the sin In which case the Confession is no less invalid and Sacrilegious then if they had concealed the very Species of the sin Thirdly they frequently commit the same fault by the notable circumstances which they are afraid to discover For example if they have robbed or done some notable injury to their Neighbours Goods or cheated him at play they are afraid to tell the quantity lest they should be obliged to restitution In all these occurrences when one willingly and wittingly conceals these notable circumstances the Confession is null Have a care Theotime to avoid these considerable faults which often happen in Confession for want of discovering the Species or kind of the sin the number or notable circumstances CHAP VI. An observable Advice concerning the number of Sins I Have here an advice of great concern to impart unto you dear Theotime about the number of sins That is to avoid in Confession two extremes equally Vitious the one is a Supine negligence the other is too much exactness and scrupulosity There are some who that they may not trouble themselves with a just examen discover nothing of the number of Mortall Sins or if they do that which is very uncertain I have done it for example twenty times more or less or else in declaring a greater number then they are guilty of to comprehend therein the number they might have committed this doth not satisfy the exactness which is necessary in Confession Others on the contrary are so much troubled in the search of their Sins and the number of them that they are never quiet but vex themselves with continual doubts and anxiety of mind never believing they have sufficiently examined their Sins This makes them that they think of nothing but this examen and little or nothing of the principal concern which is Contrition These two faults must necessarily be avoided For the first may render the Confession invalid for want of integrity the other for want of Contrition Those who sind themselves guilty of negligence ought to remember what diligence is necessary to dispose themselves for a thing of such high concern as is the obtaining the remission of their Sins and since without confessing them all as far as they are able to remember that cannot be acquired it is necessary they should before-hand apply as much as possible their mind and attention thereunto to the end they may remember This is the rule which the Council of Trent gives in this matter Ses 14. in the fifth Chapter of Confession Ex his colligitur oportere a panitentibus omnia peccata Mortalia quorum post diligentem sui discussionem conscientiam habent in confessione recenseri etiam si occultissima illa sint It is necessary saith the Council that the Penitents must declare all their Sins they remember after a diligent examen even those that are most hidden And as to the others who trouble and disquiet themselves with the Examen of their Sins they are to be fully persuaded of this truth that God requires no more of
those that commit it But it happens by a strange misfortune that it is but too common amongst Penitents and particularly amongst simple and young people by reason they know not how grievous a sin it is and the dreadfull consequences it draws after it This is the reason why I treat of it in this place First then Theotime you must know and hold as most certain that to conceal willingly in Confession any Mortal Sin or what you believe is a Mortal Sin is also a Mortal Sin The reason is taken from the Command of our Saviour who as the Council of Trent above-cited says giving to the Apostles and their Successors the power to remit or retain sins hath also obliged the Faithfull to Confess all the sins which after a sufficient Examen they remember Thus to conceal a Mortal Sin in Confession is a formal disobedience to the Law of Jesus Christ in a matter of the highest concern Secondly this Sin is a formal and positive untruth in a matter of the highest consequence viz. The justification and eternal Salvation of the Soul an untruth not told to Man but to God whose place the Priest holds in Confession Now to tell a lye to God is a strange Crime Remember the rigorous punishment which God by S. Peter laid upon Ananias and Saphira his wife for having told an untruth in a thing of less importance where they denied only part of the price of some goods they sold which they concealed You have not said the Apostle lyed to men but to God. Act. 5.4 And at these words they fell down dead at his feet Thirdly this Sin is not only a disobedience to the Law of God and a base lye but also a sin of Sacrilege and that one of the greatest magnitude Sacrilege is one of the heinousest sins one can commit for it is an abuse and a prophanation of a consecrated and holy thing that is to say of a thing dedicated to God and which partakes of his sanctity And as amongst holy things there are some more holy then others so amongst Sacrileges there are some greater and more enormous then others according to the proportion of the thing that is prophan'd Now the abuse and prophanation of the Sacrament of Penance by him who conceals a Mortal Sin is not only an abuse of a holy thing but of a thing most holy Because the Sacraments are not only exteriourly holy like Churches Altars and holy Vessels which are holy because they are Consecrated to holy uses but they contain holiness in themselves because they cause and bestow it upon men If then it be a horrible Sacrilege to prophane a Church overthrow an Altar abuse a Chalice judge what we ought to say of the abuse and prophanation of a Sacrament and what a horrour we ought to have of such a Sacrilege Fourthly consider the evil you do in abusing this Sacrament in particular for this Sacrament is instituted to appease and pacify our Lord and to reconcile us unto him Now in making a false Confession you provoke God to anger by those very means which he hath appointed to appease him you make him your enemy at the same time that you go to make your atonement with him and you change the Sacrament which is a Judgment or Sentence of Absolution into a Judgment or Sentence of Condemnation O how miserable are you are you not in dread of that Curse of the Prophet Woe be to you saith he that turn judgement into wormwood Amos. 5.7 Fifthly consider the great injury you do to the adorable Blood of the Son of God for by this Sacrament the merits of that blood are applied to us for the remission of our Sins and when the Priest pronounces the Sacred words of Absolution he pours upon us that pretious blood which washes us as St. John saith 1. Jo. 1.7 from the spots and stains which we had contracted by all our sins But when you are so void of grace as to make a false Confession and having made it to permit the Priest to give you Absolution you frustrate the effect of the blood of the Son of God which falling upon a Criminal and unworthy Subject as you then are is more prophaned contemned and violated then when the Jews shed it upon the Earth and unworthily trampled it under their feet Be afraid here of that menace of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews 10.28 where he saith He that despiseth Moyses his Law dieth without mercy of how much more severe punishment think ye shall he deserve who treadeth under foot the Son of God and esteemeth the blood of the Testament wherewith he was sanctified as an unholy thing and doth affront the Spirit of grace Ponder well upon these three injuries for all these you do by a false Confession Sixthly consider how little reason you have to commit so great evils in thus concealing your sins in Confession this cannot proceed but either out of fear or shame which are the two inseparable Companions of Sin as Tertullian saith in Apologet. Omne malum aut timore aut pudore natura suffudit As for fear what is it that you can apprehend in this occasion If you fear to be defamed consider that you discover your sins but to one man alone and so this cannot defame you but besides he is obliged to secrecy by all both Divine and Humane Laws and he cannot violate that secret but he makes himself worthy of death both before God and Man. So that there is no danger of your honour Are you afraid to be reprehended by your Ghostly Father this is what sometimes hinders simple people who yet in reality are not simple but blind and stupid to commit so dreadfull a sin for fear of so small an evil and to be more apprehensive of the reprehension of a Ghostly Father who doth not do it but meerly out of Charity and for your good then you are afraid of the offence of God and to be reprehended and condemned by him to be scoffed at by the Divels and lost for evermore Has not he lost his wit who makes such a choice The same is to be said of those who conceal their sins for fear of a great Penance which is yet a more unsupportable stupidity and blindness yet this happens sometimes and chiefly amongst young and ignorant people Let us now come to speak of shame which is the second reason why the Penitent conceals his sins in Confession as vain as the former And first I agree and acknowledge that Sin deserves we should be ashamed of it and that he is not truly penitent that hath not this shame and that he justly merits that reproch which God gave to a Sinner Hierem. 33. Thou hast the forehead of a dishonest woman thou wilt not blush for thy crimes But I maintain that shame ought not to hinder any one from discovering all their sins in Confession that which with-holds us from such a declaration is not shame
Confession of Venial Sins AS for Venial Sins the Council of Trent hath given us two rules to follow The first is that to obtain the remission of them it is not absolutely necessary to Confess them and they may be forgiven by only Contrition and a sorrow for having committed them The reason which the Council of Trent gives is because Venial Sins do not at all destroy Sanctifying grace and so it is not necessary they should come under the Jurisdiction of the Sacrament of Pennance which is Instituted to restore that Grace to those who have lost it The Second rule is that although there be no necessity yet it is very profitable and wholsome to Confess the Venial Sins for many reasons 1. Because by the Sacrament of Penance they are pardon'd both with more certainty and more Grace 2ly By confessing them one learns better to know and correct them 3ly It is a very profitable means to avoid Mortal Sin as well by reason of the Grace which one receives by the Sacrament as also because he that hath a care to cleanse his Soul from lesser Sins will be more solicitous and apprehensive how he falls into greater according to that sentence of our Lord in modico fidelis in majore fidelis erit Luc. 16.10 Now there are two things which are to be observed in the Confession of Venial Sins The first is therein to avoid Scruples and disquiet or anxiety of mind an errour which many commit who examen themselves of their veniall Sins with the same trouble or concern as if they were Mortal and spend so much time in that examination that they think little or nothing of the means how to amend them The Second thing to be observed is that when they confess veniall Sins they always conceive a sorrow for having committed them and make a Resolution to amend them Without these two acts it is to no purpose to confess them they are not forgiven although they receive Absolution of their other Sins whereof they had Contrition Nay and I tell you more that if it happen that one have no other but Veniall Sins to Confess and have not sorrow or remorse for any of them the Absolution would be null and such a person would commit a Sacrilege by reason the Sacrament would want one of its essential parts which is Contrition This is a thing we must have a great care of for it may happen very easily But when I say we must resolve or have a will to amend our Venial Sins I speak of a real and sincere will which may be effectuall and not of a perpetual relapse as it frequently falls out You will say that this is very hard and that it is impossible to be without Venial Sins To this I Answer and it imports you to observe it well viz. That there are three sorts of venial Sins some which proceed from weakness others that are committed by inadvertency and surprize others which we call Sins of Malice that is which spring from our sole will with a perfect knowledge Such are those which are committed on set purpose or by an affected negligence which one will not at all amend or which happen by some tye or irregular affection which he hath to any thing As to the Sins of weakness or surprize it is true we can never be totally exempt from them and for these it sufficeth to have a good will to amend as well as one can But as for Sins which proceed from our will it is in our power to amend and we are strictly obliged to it because they very much displease God and the consequences are extreamly dangerous These Sins Theotime although they seem light produce very ill effects They are light if they be considered each one by themselves but being neglected and multiplyed they become very dangerous They do not destroy Sanctifying Grace but they dispose us very much to lose it All together they do not make a Mortal Sin but they dispose the Soul to fall into it They do not directly cause Death but they cause weakness and maladies which bring Death along with them that is which make us fall into Mortal Sin. In a word although these Sins do not break the league and amity betwixt God and the Soul which is in Grace yet by little and little they diminish it and by this diminution Charity is weakened in us and God also by degrees withdraws the graces and assistances which he vouchsafes us in all our Spiritual necessities And thus having less strength we more easily fall into Mortal Sin when Temptation comes Alas Theotime how many are there who have and dayly do lamentably fall the first source whereof was their neglect in correcting venial Sins Take great care of this resolution to amend them whether it be that you are in the State of Grace that you may conserve it by avoiding these sorts of Sin or you are not lest you make your self more unworthy by your neglect of them CHAP. XII Of Interiour and Exteriour Sins or of the Sins of Thought and Action IT is also very necessary and to be observed in Confession examination of Sins to know that there are Sins that may be committed interiourly or by a voluntary or willing thought only and others which proceed even to the exteriour action Thus to take Pleasure in a thought of revenge or to desire it is an interiour Sin or a Sin of thought actually to put in execution the same revenge is an exteriour Sin or a Sin of action It happens frequently that Penitents who are not well instructed confess exteriour Sins when they have committed them but say nothing of interiour Sins and those of thought when they have not proceeded unto action or effect However it is most certain that interiour Sins are the first Sins and very Criminal in the sight of God and even exteriour Sins are not Sins but because they proceed from the heart that is from the will which is the source of the Good and Evil which we do It is that which causeth all the Evil which is in our Actions and they are not wicked but in as much as they are order'd and consented to by the will. This was the reason why our Saviour said that the heart is the Fountain of all our Sins Mat. 15.18 From the Heart says he come Adultery Fornications Evil Thoughts And the wise man saith Prov. 6.18 that God hath in Abomination the Heart that contrives evil thoughts And in another place Wisd 1.3 that Wicked thoughts seperate us from God. You must have a care then Theotime when you Confess to accuse your self of the Sins of Thought when you have committed them altho' you have not put them in execution nay even when afterward you have retracted them in your heart for this retractation does not hinder the evil from having been consented to in thought and altho' it would have been far greater if you had actually put it in Execution yet however to
will and there is no will where there is no knowledge Thus when Noe by drinking Wine at first was overseen his excess in drink was not a Sin because he knew not then the force of wine nor could know it Secondly when ignorance proceeds from our fault by an express will or grosse and affected ignorance it neither takes away nor diminishes at all the Sin on the contrary it rather augments it The reason is because he that desires the cause desires also the effect If then I desire to be ignorant of the evil that is in an action and it happen by that ignorance that I Sin more freely and without remorse I am the voluntary cause of the Sin whose enormity I would not know Such was the ignorance of the unchast old men in the History of Susanna of whom it is said Dan. 13.9 That they cast down their Eyes that they might not see Heaven nor remember the Judgments of God. Such is the ignorance of those that will not be instructed in what they ought to know nor advertised of the evil they do and who will not understand to do well As the Prophet saith Psal 35.4 This is what frequently happens to young People Thirdly as the total ignorance of any evil in an action taketh away all the Sin when it doth not proceed from our fault so the ignorance of the part of the evil in which is a Sin takes away part that is diminisheth the Sin This is to be understood of that ignorance which doth not proceed from our fault nor is it in our power to be better instructed Such is the ignorance of young People when they begin to fall into Sins of impurity for they know well enough that there is ill in it which appears by the doubts they have in their Conscience and by the shame they have to Confess But they do not understand that the ill is so great as in reality it is untill such time as they are instructed and till then their Sins are not so great altho' they be almost always Mortal Sins ARTICLE II. Of Sins of Frailty or of Passion THe Sins of frailty are those which proceed from the will moved with some passion Passions are actions of the sensitive Appetite which is an inferiour part of the Soul and moves towards things forbidden by the law of God such as are Love Hatred Sadness Fear Anger Some push on the Soul to do that which is forbidden it as Love Hatred Joy Choler others withdraw it from doing the good which is commanded as Fear Sadness Despair Those cause the Sins of Action These the Sins of Omission Passions diminish the liberty of the will because being push'd on or withdrawn by other causes then by her self she doth not act with all the liberty she hath in that action either to do or not do what she will. Besides these Passions diminish also the judgment hindring the understanding which guides the will from judging of things so clearly as otherwise it would They diminish by consequence the Sin which is found in an action or omission and this differently sometimes less sometimes more and sometimes totally and othertimes they diminish them not at all but rather augment them They diminish sometimes but little when they are but light and the will may easily overcome them They diminish the Sin much when they are strong and violent because for that time they notoriously diminish the judgment and liberty however as long as they leave man with the knowledge of the evil which he does the Sin continues still They totally take away the Sin when they are so violent that they totally cloud the reason so that one doth not perceive at all that there is a Sin which never happens but in the first motions of passion which being a little appeas'd the mind returns to it self and knows what it has done and from thenceforward he Sins if he continues in his Passion In fine Passions do not at all diminish the Sin when they are voluntary and this happens when they are willingly excited or when one entertains them and endeavours to augment them as it happens too often and in this case they are not Sins of Passion but of malice ARTICE III. Of Sins of Malice BY Sins of Malice we do not understand here Sins which are maliciously committed whether purely to displease God or for the sole pleasure which one takes in doing ill These Sins are rather Sins of Devils then men and those who are so unfortunate as to Sin thus begin in this world to live the life of Devils which God often punisheth also with the punishment of Devils which is Obstinacy and Impenitence These are the Sins which our Saviour calls Mat. 12.32 Sins against the holy Ghost which are neither forgiven in this world nor the next Sins of Malice whereof I speak in this place are those which are committed without Ignorance and without Passion that is with full knowledg and entire liberty and they are called Sins of Malice because being commited neither out of ignorance nor passion they proceed only from the ill inclination of the will which scruples not to offend God upon condition it may compass the enjoyment of its Pleasures or other sensible content which it seeks by Sin. These Sins are very great and highly displeasing in the sight of God being they have nothing to excuse them as the two former had These must be Confessed very exactly declaring fully this circumstance that they committed them knowing well what they did and on set purpose and it is necessary that they do great pennance for them As these Sins are great so they ought to be rare and unheard of amongst Christians but it happens by a sad misfortune that there is nothing more common And if the lives of men were well examined the greatest part of Sins would be found to be Sins of Malice For as concerning Ignorance tho' much of it is found amongst the ordinary Sins of men and for that reason it is said that every man that Sins is ignorant How often doth it happen that the ignorance with which they Sin is affected and voluntary one searches after it expressly and with design he will be ignorant of that which he is obliged too know he will not be instructed he fears to look too narrowly into his own actions and he obliged to the good by the knowledge which he shall have of it To do thus is it not to desire the Sin upon set purpose and out of malice for this reason they fly all those things that may instruct them as reading of Books Sermons or amongst Preachers they care not for those that reprehend vice or discover the ablest Ghostly Father They seek the less understanding and most indulgent They do not consult at all about the doubts of Conscience or if they do they discover not all they seek after favourable resolutions to indulge themselves in remiss false opinions they frame a Conscience to
Sin with more liberty What is this but wilfully to run into a precipice and shut their eyes that they may cast themselves headlong more freely and without fear As for Passions we must say the same of them as of Ignorance It is true they diminish Sin when they are not voluntary but when one seeks them on design or is pleased to cherish or increase them these are not Sins of Passion but of Malice Now how ordinary is this amongst men He that has a desire of revenge does he not endeavour to nourish his hatred and indignation against his enemy He speaks against him on all occasions and is ravished with delight to hear one speak against him He whose heart is possest with impure love does all he can to cherish it he applies his care and thoughts that way all his Senses are employ'd therein as his Eyes Ears Tongue Touch he loses no occasion he searcheth after them with much care and sollicitude he follows all the motions of his Passion without resistance or any the least constraint upon himself What is this but to Sin on set purpose and malice And thus running over the greatest part of the Sins of men we shall find that they principally spring from the will and men are vicious because they will or have a mind to be so For this reason Theotime do not use to flatter your self in your Sins because you are young do not excuse your self with the ignorance of your youth nor with the passions which push it on remember that often and often again you make your ignorance and passion voluntary or wilfull and that your Sins proceed from the inclination you have to ill which you will not correct and thus the greatest part of your Sins are Sins of Malice ARTICLE IV. Of Sins which spring from a Vicious Habit. I Add here this fourth Article forasmuch as next to ignorance and passion there is another cause which draws the will to Sin and seems to diminish it viz. A vitious habit that is an inclination or facility to fall into a Sin which facility is contracted by often repeated actions of the same Sin for it is the property of actions to produce sutable habits When this habit is strong and inveterate it causes one to fall into Sin without ignorance and without passion witness those who Swear upon all occasions who have their mind always full of evil thoughts who have nothing in their mouth but immodest words and so of others This inclination is sometimes so great that it draws after it a kind of necessity to fall into the evil as St. Augustine says in his Confessions deploring the unfortunate experience he had of it Ex voluntate perversâ facta est libido dum servitur libidini facta est consuetùdo dum consuetudini non resistitur facta est necessitas S. Aug. l. 8. Confes c. 5. The will says he that is once depraved begets an inclination to ill the inclination produces a habit a habit when not resisted brings a necessity Yet this necessity doth not take away the sin because it doth not take away the liberty of the will which is always Mistress of her habit and which by means of grace may overcome it If you ask whether a vitious habit diminish the Sin I answer that of it self it doth not diminish it at all because it was freely contracted by the will and it is in her power to overcome it Hence to judge whether a vicious habit diminish the Sin we must consider how the will behaves her self in respect of the habit that is whether she be displeas'd whether she be afflicted whether she make any endeavours to correct her self and be delivered of it For in this case the habit without doubt lessens the Sin and when one falls therein he is more excusable in the sight of God and if the Sin be Mortal it is less grievous then if it were committed without a habit But if he who hath contracted a vicious habit doth not strive to amend his Sins are nothing less for being committed by a habit and then they are no more sins of frailty but become sins of malice because he willingly nourisheth the cause that produceth them And being he doth not efficaciously desire to correct his vicious habit he is rationally supposed to consent to all the Sins that spring from thence Take good notice of this rule Theotime that you may be able to judge aright of the quality of the Sins which you commit by habit and do not easily excuse your self upon this account They frequently proceed from your own fault and will. CHAP. XV. Of the Sins that are committed by Error or by Doubt THese also are two other Fountains of Sin which are necessary to be known and examined by reason of the great number of Sins that spring from them We call it error in this place when one believes there is a Sin in the action or omission when in reality there is none or that it is a Mortal when it is but a venial Sin. I Enquire whether an action or omission performed in this errour is a Sin without doubt it is and ought to be confessed and one ought to have a diligent care of himself for the future in regard to the like occasions The reason is because Sin consists in the Will and the will acts not but as it is guided by the judgment When the judgment proposes a thing as ill whether it be an action or omission if the Will embraces it she consents to it as bad in as much as she knows no other quality and Sins as if the thing were evil in effect because the sin doth not consist in the effect but in the affection And this is the reason why we say that an erroneous Conscience obliges that is when one believes that it is ill to do or omit an action he is obliged to follow that belief although false till such time as he shall be informed of the truth You must mark this well dear Theotime for two reasons First that you may avoid sinning thus by errour which happens but too often to young people who believe frequently that actions or omissions are sins when they are not yet nevertheless commit them and you ought firmly to hold and follow this rule never to perform an action or omission which you believe to be a Sin. Secondly that you may apply this truth to your Confession in which you ought to examin the Sins you have committed in this errour and to judg of the sins you have committed whether action or omission do not only examin whether it were a Mortal sin in it self or no but whether you did not verily believe it was a mortal sin for then it must be Confesied as if it were a Mortal sin Perhaps you will draw from hence a consequence in your favour If then you will say I judg either an action or omission to be lawfull and exempt from sin altho'
in effect it be not it follows that I shall not sin at all in committing it I answer that this is sometimes true when this erroneous judgment proceeds from an innocent ignorance or where there was no sault at all of ours or that it was not in our power to be instructed in the contrary But if this errour arise from a culpable ignorance and because we would not be better informed as it often happens in this case it doth not at all excuse the sin as 't is above said As concerning doubt this also is very often the cause of sin and it concerns us to know it We call that a doubt when one is uncertain whether an action or omission be a sin or no. This doubt is either very great or small or betwixt both it is very great when it inclines the judgment to determine that it is a Sin light when it rather resolves that it is not mean or betwixt both when it hangs in suspence and we know not on which side to incline the ballance Hence it is easy to tell when a doubt causes a Sin and when not A very strong doubt makes an action or omission a sin because it is esteemed as much as a judgment A light doubt doth not make a thing to be a sin in as much as it doth not at all destroy the contrary credence by which one believes there is no sin in it As for the doubt which is in the middle betwixt these two and which leaves the judgment in a totall uncertainty neither being able to affirm nor deny it is so far from excusing from sin that he who in this doubt resolves to do an action or omission which he doubts whether it be a Mortall sin or no sins Mortally The reason is because acting in that formall doubt he is supposed to desire it such as it might be in it self and as it might be evill he was resolved to do it in case it were so This deserves to be carefully remembered CHAP. XVI Of the Sins which we Commit in others WE are not only guilty of those sins which we commit by our selves but also of those which we commit by others that is of sins which others commit through our fault These Sins are often very heinous and of great consequence These are those of which David speaks when he says Psal 18.13 Cleanse me O Lord from my hidden Sins and pardon thy Servant from those which I commit in others Yet there is nothing more common amongst men nor of which they take less care for want of sufficient knowledge or understanding of the different ways by which one may concur to anothers Sin. Wherefore I shall here treat of them breifly To sin by another is to be the voluntary and culpable cause of the Sin which another commits I say voluntary and culpable because if we are the cause of the sin of another without our fault we do not Sin Now we may be the cause of the sin of another two ways positively and negatively by action or by omission By action when we do or say something which induceth our neighbour to sin By omission when we are wanting to say or do something that might hinder our neighbour from offending God. I said when we do or say to denote two ways whereby we may cause sin in another positively viz. by our actions and by our words By our actions which give ill example to our neighbour or an occasion to offend God. By words which induce others to evil The first way is called the sin of scandall the second inducement to evil The first happens as often as we do any action which is either wicked or esteemed so which we know or ought to know that it will be the cause that our neighbour will offend God. The second happens different ways viz. by Teaching Commanding Concealing and Soliciting to Sin by Entreaties Threats c. The One and the Other of these ways are very common amongst men and probably are the cause of the greatest part of those sins which are dayly committed The Son of God saith Mat. 18.7 Vae mundo a Scandalis necesse est enim ut veniant Scandale Veruntamen vae homini illi per quem Scandalum venit c. That it is a great misfortune that the world should be so filled with scandalls as it is and that this cannot otherwise be then a most lamentable case for him who causeth the scandall and that it were better for a man to have a Millstone tyed to his neck and cast into the bottom of the Sea then to give Scandall unto his neighbour that is then to make him fall into sin Besides this way of positively contributing to the sin of another by actions or words there is another which we may call negative which happens when any one refrains from doing or saying something which might hinder our neighbour from offending God. For not to hinder one from sinning when we may is to be the cause of the Sin of another This happens in many cases of which we shall discourse hereafter at the end of the examen of Sins The Fourth Part of the Treatise of Penance which is Satisfaction CHAP. I. What Satisfaction is IT is the third part of Penance which consists in doing or suffering something to repair in some manner the offence or injury which is done to God by Sin. I say to repair in some manner because the great reparation for Sin was performed by the Son of God who by his Precious Blood and Death hath exactly repaired the injury which Sin did to God and merited a generall Pardon of all the punishment which the Divine Justice could require This reparation hath opened and facilitated a way to a reconciliation with God after Sin. For as much as the merits of our Saviour being applyed to us as they are by the Sacraments of Baptism and Penance restore us again to the Grace of God which we had lost and make us receive the remission of the eternall Punishment due to our Sins All this through the merits of Jesus Christ and by the vertue of the Satisfaction which he hath given to God the Father for the same Sins A satisfaction without which we should always have remained uncapable of satisfying God and by consequence of ever returning again into his Grace and Favour But as it is in his power who receives him again into his favour by whom he hath been offended to admit him on such conditions as himself shall think sit and either to remit him all the punishment or to oblige him to undergo only part of it it hath pleased the Divine wisdom in respect of us to make use of both the one and the other of these two ways of reconciliation tho' more ordinarily of the second For in Baptism he receives us into his Grace and remits us all the Punishment due to our Sins But in Penance he remits us indeed the Eternall punishment but still reserves some
God and contristate the holy Spirit which they banish from their Souls These reasons which so much aggravate the sins of Christians are also the cause why God doth not pardon them with so much indulgence but obligeth the Penitent after the remission of the fault to some satisfaction for the sin Certainly saith the Council Ses 14. c. 8. the equity of the divine justice requires that he should deal otherwise with them who before Baptism have sinned by ignorance then with them who by Holy Baptism have been delivered from the servitude of sin and the Devil and after they have received the gift of the Holy Ghost have not been afraid to violate the Temple of God and contristat his holy Spirit Sanè divinae justitiae ratio exigere videtur ut aliter ab eo in gratiam-recipiantur qui ante Baptismum per ignorantiam deliquerint aliter verò qui semel a peccati servitute liberati accepto Spiritus sancti dono scienter Templum Dei violare Spiritum sanctum contristare non formidaverint From thence the Council descends to the second reason which they derive from the goodness of God which imposes these punishments for our advantage as followeth Et divinam clementiam decet ne ita nobis absque ulla satictfactione peccata dimittantur ut occasione acceptâ peccata leviora putantes velut injurii contumeliosi S. Sancto in graviora labamur thesaurizantes nobis iram in die irae It is very agreeable to the divine bounty not to remit our sins without obliging us to some Satisfaction lest by occasion of too much mildness we should think our sins less then they are and from thence take occasion to fall into greater and to become injurious and contumelious to the Holy Ghost and draw upon us the divine wrath in the day of Anger Proculdubio enim magnopere a peccato revocant quasi fraeno quodam coercent hae satisfactoriae paenae cautioresque vigilantiores in futurum poenitentes efficiunt medentur quoque peccatorum reliquiis vitiosos habitus male vivendo comparatos contrariis virtutum actionibus tollunt For without doubt these satisfactory punishments have a wonderfull Vertue to divert Penitents from Sin and serve as a Bridle to withdraw them and teach them to have a greater Guard for the future besides they cure those reliques and disorders which sin had left in the Soul and root out the Vicious habits contracted by a disorderly way of living In these last words the Council comprehends a third reason which they draw from the wholesome effects which follow from Satisfaction which are the correction of past faults and amendment of Penitents for the future They add yet two more viz. That the works of pennance duly performed are a powerfull means to avert the punishment which the divine Justice hath prepar'd in readyness to throw upon us And that by these pains which we suffer for our sins we become more like and better resemble our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath suffered for our Sins and from whose merit our satisfactions derive all their force or merit And we are assured Rom. 8.17 that if we have a part in his sufferings we shall also partake of his Glory The words of the Council are Ibid. Neque vero in Ecclesia Dei unquam existimata fuit ad amovendam imminentem a Domino paenam quam ut has paenitentiae opera homines cum vero animi dolore frequentent Accedit ad haec quod dum satisfaciendo patimur pro peccatis Christi Jesu qui pro peccatis nostris satisfecit ex quo omnis nostra sufficientia est conformes efficimur certissimam quoque arrham inde habentes quod si compatimur conglorificabimur CHAP. IV. Wherein Satisfaction consists and whether it be Essential to the Sacrament of Penance WE have already said that it consists in doing or suffering some painfull thing to recompence the Temporal punishment which God hath reserved after the remission of sin This satisfaction may be performed two manner of ways either in Vertue of the Sacrament by the impaition of the Priest or out of the Sacrament by the sole Devotion of the Penitent That only which is imposed by the Priest is Sacramentall and makes a part of the Sacrament of Pennance That which the Penitent performs upon his own free motion is an effect of the virtue of Penance with which his heart is fill'd and altho' it do not make a part of the Sacrament it is nevertheless very profitable and wholsome yea often very necessary to supply the defects of the Penance imposed by Confessours which ordinarily come very short of the punishment which their Sins deserve in the sight of God. It may be ask'd whether Sacramental Satisfaction be essential to the Sacrament of Penance that is to say whether or no it be so necessary that without it the Sacrament would be in valid as to the remission of Sins To which it is necessary that we answer under a distinction betwixt Satisfaction effectual or actual and affective only which is a sincere will to satisfy For the first is not at all of the essence of the Sacrament so as without it the Absolution should be null for it is certain that Absolution may be given to a Penitent before he hath actually made any Satisfaction imposed by the Priest which is evident from the practice of the Church which frequently gives Absolution before Satisfaction be actually perform'd But as to the will of fatisfying God it is so necessary that without it the Absolution would be of no effect The reason is because that will is inseparable from true Contrition and he who hath it not at all cannot have the necessary sorrow for his Sins nor be truly Penitent because it is the proper effect of Penance to endeavour to destroy Sin and repair the injury it doth to Almighty God as St. Thomas saith 3. p. q. 85. a. 2. In Poenitentia invenitur specialis ratio actus laudabilis viz. operari ad destructionem peccati in quantum est offensa Dei. Besides as it is not the intention of God to forgive the Sin but by obliging the Sinner to a Temporal Punishment so neither can it be that he who will not or doth not design to undergo that pain receive the remission of his Sins which is not given him but upon condition to endure it Moreover by that resistance to the Divine Will he commits a Sin in his very Confession and by consequence renders himself uncapable of Absolution This Conclusion we shall see more clearly hereafter in the Chapter CHAP. V. Of the Conditions Satisfaction ought to have on behalf of the Ghostly Father PEnance depends upon two persons the Priest that imposes it and the Penitent who accepteth and performs it There are certain Conditions which it ought to have on either side I shall speak briefly of the one and the other that not only the Penitent may know what he ought to
do to acquit himself of it with advantage but also what the Confessour on his side is obliged to do that he the Penitent may receive with greater submission and more obedience the Peâ—ance which shall be enjoyn'd him The Penance then which is enjoyned by the Confessor must have three conditions It must be Just Charitable and Prudent that is impos'd with justice with charity and with Prudence with Justice in regard to the Honour and Interest of God with Charity in respect of the Salvation of the Penitent with Prudence in order to the forming a right judgment of the quality of the Penance that the foresight of the effects may follow These three conditions correspond to the three Characters of a Confessour in the Sacrament of Confession of a Judge of a Father of a Physician he ought there to behave himself as a just Judge as a charitable Father and as a wise Phisician First it must be Just that is proportion'd to the Sins as well in respect of the enormity as the number for if the Penance be too rigorous it is an injustice in respect of the Penitent if it be too light or easy it is an injustice done to God. The first happens very seldome but the second frequently and renders the Confessours very often extreamly culpable in the sight of God which are the reasons why God as S. Ciprian saith doth not receive from Penitents the Satisfaction which is due unto him Laborant ne Deo satisfiat lib 1. ep 3. This proportion of the Penance with the Sin is not to be understood of an exact and rigorous proportion for that cannot possibly be observed by man none but God knowing the Punishment which each Sin deserves But it is to be understood of a Morall and prudent proportion so that a greater proportion be assigned to greater or more numerous Sins and a lesser for less heinous and fewer Sins All this must be enjoyned according to the ability of the Penitent which depends upon the strength of their bodys the disposition of their minds their age their sex their state and the like And in this the Confessors ought to proceed with much circumspection remembring that they are not the absolute Masters and Arbiters in the imposing of Penances as they please but that they act as Ministers of Jesus Christ and that it doth not appertain to the servant to dispose at his pleasure of what belongs to his Master For this reason the Council of Trent speaking of Satisfaction gives this advertisment to Confessours worthy to be observ'd and which they ought always to have before their eyes I shall cite it in this place not only for the Confessours but also for the Penitents sake that they may know in this point the obligations heir Confessours have and that they may understand that they are not absolute masters of the Penances they enjoyn The Preists of our Lord saith the Council ses 14. c. 8. ought as far as the Holy Ghost and Prudence shall suggest unto them to enjoyn convenient and wholsome penances having regard to the quality of the Sins and the ability of the Penitents for fear lest if they should connive at their Sins and use them too indulgently enjoyning some light works for most heinous crimes they may become partakers of others Sins and afterwards they add That they have a particular care that the Penances they impose be not only a means to conserve the Penitents in Grace and cure their infirmities but also serve to punish their past offences Debent ergo Sacerdotes Domini quantum Spiritus prudentia suggesserit pro qualitate criminum poenitentium facultate salutares convenientes satisfactiones injungere ne si forte peccatis conniveant indulgentiùs cum penitentibus agant levissima quaedam opera pro gravissimis delictis injungendo alienorum peccatorum participes efficiantur Habeant autem prae oculis ut satisfactio quam imponunt non sit tantùm ad novae vitae custodiam infirmitatis medicamentum sed etiam ad praeteritorum peccatorum vindictam castigationem If Penitents would but consider well this advertisement and the obligation which their Confessours have to weigh well the penances they enioyn them they would not complain as frequently they do that their penances are too severe whereas they are far inferiour to what they deserve Next to Justice Charity is necessary in enjoyning of Penance where the Priest ought to be mindfull that he is a Father of his Penitent to communicate unto him the life of grace Now this is to be understood of a true reall Charity and according to the will of God which is the Salvation of the Sinner and which consequently ought to make him only solicitous for the Salvation of the Penitent using to that end both mild and severe remedies as he shall judg most proper and most convenient Thus Charity avoids two extreams the one of too severe Confessours who behave themselves in regard of their Penitents as some Fathers do towards their Children whom they treat always with so much rigour that they rather ruin them then amend them The other is of too soft and indulgent Confessours who either following their own facil and complaisant nature or negligently performing that dreadfull Office treat all their Penitents with an equall but less discreet sweetness enjoyning ordinarily but slight penances for Mortall Sins how great or how numerous so ever they be These two extreams are vicious and have frequently very ill consequences for the former renders Confession troublesome and tedious and discourageth Penitents The other makes it unprofitable or of little or no effect for their amendment This indiscreet mildness fausters them in their vices without putting them to the trouble to correct them as we see by too frequent experience and the acknowledgment of Penitents themselves who frequently avouch that this excessive mildness hath been very prejudiciall to them and indulged them in their Sins Those Ghostly fathers ought first to remember that by this their mildness they become guilty of others Sins according to the above cited advertisement of the Council of Trent in the 3. ch Secondly they wrong their Penitents in an high degree whilst they think to favour them They hinder them from doing Penance and from satisfying God by their good works and are the causes why they relapse into their Sins This is the Doctrine which St. Cyprian delivers in his 14. Epist Haec qui subtrahit fratribus decipit miserios ut qui possunt agere poenitentiam veram Deo patri misericordi precibus operibus suis satisfacere seducantur ut magis peccent And moreover they ought to consider that they are no less injurious to the Sacrament of Penance and to other Confessours who administer that Sacrament as they ought with more exactness For the Penitents accustomed to this great indulgence cannot endure Confessours who are more exact in their duty altho' they treat them with all the
effects in the moment that it is pronounced And in that happy moment is wrought this wonderfull change of a Soul which is translated from the state of Sin to that of Grace and from the slavery of the Devil to the Blessed liberty of the Children of God. O Blessed moment Theotime O Fortunate change If we knew how to conceive it right how should we bless God qui dedit talem potestatem hominibus who hath given such power to men and what high esteem should we have of this Divine Sacrament CHAP X. Of the dispositions necessary to receive Absolution and of the cases where it ought to be denied or deferred THis is a point in which it is truly necessary that Penitents be well instructed For the greatest part of them imagin that when they have confessed their Sins there remains nothing more then to receive absolution and that the Confessor without further difficulty is obliged to give it them which is a very great errour because the Confessor ought to know the dispositions of the Penitent and judge whether or no he be in a fit state to receive it without which he would commit a Sacrilege absolving one unworthy in stead of conferring a Sacrament of which he ought to be very carefull He must then know judge whether the Penitent be sufficiently disposed to receive the absolution And being these dispositions consist in two things to be well Confess'd and to be truly Contrite for his Sins he must judg of them both and if he know him to be deficient in either of these two or justly doubt that he is he ought to deny the Absolution or defer it till another time First as to the Confession He must judg whether it be entire and true and made with requisite preparation If he perceive that the Penitent hath not examined his Conscience he must oblige him to take more time to call to mind his sins If he judg that he doth not declare all his sins and conceals any one he ought discreetly to dismiss him provided he have a just ground to form that judgment For example if he see that the Penitent confesses himself with trouble and that he is very much ashamed to confess his Sins If he know by some other way that he hath committed some Sin whereof he doth not accuse himself provided that he know it not by anothers Confession which is a knowledg whereof he can make no use As to Contrition The Confessour ought to understand whether the Penitent have that which is sufficient and if he judge that he hath not he cannot absolve him This judgment may be made one of these two ways certainly or under a doubt only but that well grounded In the first case he ought to deny absolution in the second it is his duty to defer it The Confessour judgeth with certainty that Contrition is wanting in these three following cases First when the Penitent gives not the least exteriour sign of it but is dull and insensible to all that the Confessor tells him In that case saith the Catechism of the Councill the Confessour seeing that the Penitent is not at all moved with compunction of his Sins must mildly and with sweetness dismiss him Secondly when either the Penitent doth not seriously promise amendment or when he doth promise it but will not perform what is necessary to effect it such as are to quit the immediate occasion of Sin the company of one who makes him offend God naughty depraved or mischevious books play or games that make him swear Thirdly when he will not perform these things to which he is obliged as to restore ill-gotten goods pardon his enemies and be reconciled to them In these three cases the Confessour ought to deny absolution because the Penitent is not at all in a state fit to receive it He must also deny it when the Penitent is guilty of any sin reserved to a Superiour because in this case he hath not power to absolve him There are other cases where he cannot so certainly judge of the want of true Contrition but where however he may reasonably doubt it And this frequently is the cause of much trouble to the Confessour who considers on the one side that he is obliged in conscience to deny absolution to him that is unworthy of it as he hath reason to judge that such a Penitent is on the other side findes himself press'd by the Penitent to give it who judges always in his own favour and ordinarily believes himself better disposed then in reality he is This difficulty and this doubt happens upon several occasions which it would be hard and too long to recount here in particular but one above the rest is very ordinary that is when the Penitent after his Confessions relapses frequently into his mortal Sins without any amendment of his Life For altho' every time he confesses he testifies his sorrowfull sense for his sins and promises to amend yet nevertheless having already failed so often in his promise one may reasonably doubt whether this last resolution of amendment be reall and sincere or no. CHAP XI Of the choice of a Confessor COuld I but see Penitents with the same care and Sollicitude endeavouring to cure the present and obviate the future diseases of their Soul that divine particle as I see them curious in repairing and occurring to the infirmities of the Body that frail peice of Mortality how unexcusable O God should I think any advice upon the Subject of the election of a Confessour But alas when the body is concern'd there is not any one who is satisfyed with the Physitian who is next at hand much less doth rely upon him whom he thinks unskillfull None was ever heard to say in a greivous sickness any one so he be a Physitian is good enough for me It is not then the sole Character can satisfy the curiosity of the Patient it is not the bare profession with let his arrogance be punished if he know no better which puts a stop to his inquisitive concern in point of health No no Theotime in the urgent necessity of a dangerous sickness the Illiterate Unskilfull or unexperienc't Physitian is not sought for neither would he be thought less then mad who should prefer the judgment of the unlearned when his malady required the most knowing artist Whereas this is the preposterous method Penitents ordinarily take in choosing a Confessour the Physitian of their Souls when they ly languishing in that fatal disease of Mortal Sin when upon the recovery depends eternal health or misery that Doctor is thought to have skill enough who dares profess his function for if say they he did not know his duty he would not expose himself And then it is that the first may be perhaps most wellcome And thus it is with many who seem fond to delude themselves with such specious pretentions and appear even to be convinc't with a gloss of reason in things of the greatest moment
Confession and by consequence it is very hard for them not to make frequently invalid and null Confessions whereby they receive no Absolution of their Sins For first it is certain that those who live in this manner do not ordinarily confess but by course and custom upon occasion of some great Solemnity or for some other reason of decency and apparent piety They seldom or never do it with a true Spirit of repentance and a real desire to amend and break themselves of their vicious habit And by this means how many invalid Confessions do they make Secondly how can it be thought that those who relapse ordinarily into the same Sins after their Confessions should have true Contrition when they make their Confessions For true Contrition requires a great and that sorrowfull sense of what is past with a firm and constant resolution for the time to come Now who can believe that they detest those Sins from the bottom of their hearts which they resume again so easily and so soon how can it be thought that they have a firm resolution to do what they wellnigh never go about to do that is to amend their Lives How can it be that in all their Confessions they have a firm resolution to leave the Sin which yet they never forsake or never leaving it at all can it be believ'd that they have always a true resolution to forsake it This is what cannot be conceiv'd and which never happens in Temporal concerns where a firm resolution never scarcely but takes effect and is follow'd with performance Certainly there is not any more infallible sign of false Repentance For as St. Augustin saith se poenitens es poeniteat te si poenitet te noli facere se adhuc facis poenitens non es If you are Penitent you ought to repent your self of your Sin if you be sorry for it do not commit it if yet you commit it you are not penitent at all And St. Ambrose saith excellently well that he who is asham'd of the evil he hath done will take great care to avoid what may make him blush anew Some are wont to answer that this relapse into Sin doth not proceed from any want of resolution and repentance but from humane frailty which inclines to evil This excuse is as false and ill grounded as it is common amongst men who flatter themselves in their Sins which they will not leave For first can it be said that this is an effect of Frailty when one willfully returns to Sin knowing full well the evil he doth and when he hath all the means necessary to preserve himself from it Is not this what we call the Sin of Malice and not of Frailty as we have shewn above in the Third Part Chap. 14. And yet this is the case of the greatest part of all those who relapse ordinarily into Sin after Confession Secondly Can it be call'd an effect of Frailty when one returns to Sin because he will not take pains or do any thing which may withdraw him from it he will not avoid the occasions nor remove the causes of it nor take counsel nor use any means to that effect Is not this clearly to deceive ones self to treat in this manner and yet to attribute his frequent relapse to Humane Frailty Thirdly However were not this frailty assisted by divine grace the excuse might pass But being strengthened as it is abundantly by the helps which God bestows upon us in our necessities we cannot lay the fault of our relapses into Sin upon our own frailty but we shall accuse our selves either of not demanding the grace of God in our prayert or of not being faithfull in cooperating with his grace Wherefore to speak the truth we ought not here to accuse humane frailty but the weakness of our repentance contrition the faint regret or sorrow for Sins past and the weak and very imperfect resolution we have to avoid them for the time to come I do not say that the relapse into Sin is always an effect of a false repentance for that is not true and it is certain it may happen and happens dayly that one falls back into those Sins of which he was truly penitent But I speak of a frequent and ordinary relapse and I affirm that morally speaking it is impossible that those who live in this manner do not make very frequently invalid and null Confessions for want of contrition and that they often believe themselves to be when they are not truly Penetent for the reasons above-mention'd which evinces the truth of that excellent saying of St. Clement of Alexandria to demand frequently pardon for faults which one frequently commits this is not to be a Penitent but only to have a shadow and appearance of Penance Ponder well these words CHAP. VI. An excellent Advertisement of St. Gregory upon the false repentance of those who return to their Sins I Cannot omit in this place an advertisement of main concern which St. Gregory the great in his Pastoral 3. p. c. 3. gives to those who after they have performed their Penances do not amend their lives which is that they ought to take heed lest their repentance be not very often false and only in outward shew Of which he gives a considerable reason in these words We must admonish those who do Penance for their past Sins and who nevertheless relapse into them that they carefully consider one thing which is that many times it happens to Sinners that they find within themselves motions which carry them on to Virtue but unprofitably and without fruit as it happens many times to the Just to be tempted and sollicited to Sin but without effect He adds that as the Temptations to which the Just do not at all consent serve to confirm them more in Virtue so these imperfect motions towards Virtue serve to detain the Sinners in their Sins and to give them a presumptuous considence of their Salvation in the midst of their Sins which they commit so freely without remorse And he observes that this presumption is a punishment of their reitersted and repeated Sins He produces consequent to this discourse two opposit examples of Balaam and St. Paul. Balaam saith St. Gregory seeing from the top of a Mountain the people of God encamp'd in the Desart conceived some pious and strong desires of his conversion languishing away in wishes to dye the death of the Just and to resemble that holy People in his death But immediately after he gave pernicious Counsel to destroy those very People whom he had so much wished to resemble in his death St. Paul on the contrary feels within himself the motions which sollicite him to Sin and these Tomptations confirm him more in Virtue Whence comes this St. Gregory asks the question Balaam is touched with motions of repentance and is not justified St. Paul is incited to Sin and the temptation doth not defile his Soul But to convince us that good works begun
those who frequently return to Sin. For first as to vicious habits it cannot be doubted but they are so fortifi'd by frequent relapse that they become at length invincible The reason is clear and the experience but too certain as was evidently shewn in the Instruction of Youth in the first part Chap. 10. As to the Graces or special favours of God there is not any thing more apt to diminish them then customary relapses accompanied with such and so many Ingratitudes perfidious Infidelities and contempts as have been above declar'd But that which most of all impairs them is the abuse of the Sacraments which one is guilty of during these frequent relapses For of two the one either the Confessions which they make and the Communions they frequent are good or bad if had then they are so many Sacriledges which provoke Gods wrath against us which banish his grace from our Souls and render us infinitely unworthy in his sight If good then they are so many benefits and divine favours which by relapse into Sin are render'd useless nay most miserably trampled under our feet What are so many divine favours so many illuminations good thoughts and pious motions which one had received in the Sacrament slighted and lost by one relapse No question but they are How can it then be but that those cast away and neglected favours should be the cause of the loss of many others according to that Sentence of our Saviour Mat. 13.12 He that hath to him shall be given and he shall abound but he that hath not from him shall be taken away that also which he hath Now if the divine graces and favours be lost and diminished by these ordinary relapses the third effect which is the encrease of the strength of our Ghostly enemy must follow of necessity For as God is no sooner departed from the Soul but the Devil presently takes possession of it so also according to the measure of his removal the Devil becomes more powerfull to destroy us This is a necessary and infallible consequence and this is the reason why God pronounced this Dreadfull Sentence Osea 9.12 Wo be to them when I shall depart from them Well knowing that nothing but miseries and misfortunes could attend them whom he had forsaken And the greatest of these misfortuues is that the Devil becomes master of the Soul and reduces her to such a slavery as to oblige her to do his will as St. Paul hath it 2. Tim. 2.26 by whom they are kept captives at his will or beck CHAP. IX That frequent relapse into Sin leads to final Impenitence and an evil death or to dye in Mortal Sin. THis Proposition is the result of all the former and more immediately follows from the three last for if this customary return to Sin be the cause of a great number of ill confessions and deprive us of the fruit of those we had made well if in the way of Salvation it make a man always fall from bad to worse it evidently follows that it leads to the broad way of Impenitence and that it may often come to pass that those who live in this ordinary relapse end their lives in mortal Sin. And I would to God this Proposition were not so absolutely true as indeed it is but besides the former reasons behold yet others which put it out of doubt First because those who live in these customary relapses intermingled with Confessions believe themselves to be in a good way whereas in reality they are far from it They rely much upon the confessions which they make from time to time and never consider how faulty and deficient their relapses make them in the sight of God. Hence it befalls them what S. Gregory above-cited cap. 31. speaks of That performing lamely some good works which they begin but do not perfect they live in a proud presumption that they shall be saved in the midst of the evils which they commit and accomplish to the full hence it is that not at all mistrusting their wicked state they dye without repentance of their Sins Secondly because being often subject to make false Confessions they are in great danger lest the last they make be like the former and that in this last important occasion they should suppose themselves to have true Contrition when they have but a false one what is apparent only as they had in many precedent Confessions This happens very easily especially if at that last time they confess themselves to their accustomed Ghostly father who hath entertain'd them in their ordinary relapses and cherished them in their perpetuall impenitences Thirdly by reason that those who live in these relapses intermixed with admittance to the Sacraments become obdurate to all things which might move them hardened against all the motives which one can offer them of Fear of Hope of the love of God. They are accustomed to hear all these things in their Confessions and elswhere This makes them that they are not moved at all when such motives are offer'd to them in the most pressing occasions Because whatsoever is familiar to us makes no impression upon us Ab assuetis non fit passio In fine the last reason is that those who live in this manner have great grounds to fear that God will forsake them at that last hour in punishment of their repeated Infidelities of the Abuses which they have offered to the Sacraments and divine graces which they have therein received and also in chastisement of a tacit presumption they have had of themselves that they were able to raise themselves from sin whensoe're they pleased A presumption however common yet highly offensive in the sight of God and so much the more for that it is the cause of all the relapses one falls into after confession Because they believe they shall always rise again well as hitherto they have done therefore they are so far from being affraid to offend again that hence they take occasion to sin more freely but it frequently falls out that they find themselves deceived and that God by a just judgment punisheth them at the hour of their death by forsaking them and leaving them then to themselves in their greatest need who before had continually abused his graces and yet were so rash and confident as to account themselves secure the History of Sampson is very remarkable upon this Subject God had endowed him with an extraordinary and miraculous strength of body he employ'd it many times against the Philistines his Enemies whom he had often overthrown and put to flight and particularly upon some occasions wherein his Wife who was of that Nation supposing she had got out of him the secret of his strength had attempted to deliver him into their hands He had dicomfited them with much ease and upon this confidence he comes to tell her that the secret of his Strength lay in his Hair not believing perhaps that what he said was true She called his Enemies
they allways promise to endeavour their amendment without doing almost any thing it is often not only profitable but necessary to deser their Absolution untill such time as they have given sufficient signs of their Conversion by abstaining from their Sins and practising faithfully what is appointed them for that end CHAP. XI Of the means which Penitents ought to observe to avoid the relapse into Sin. COntinuing the comparison of a Penitent with a sick person I affirm that there are four things which the Penitent ought to observe that he may not relapse in mortal Sin. The first is that he understand perfectly the greatness of his evil and the eminent danger to which he exposes his Salvation For the Sick man who hath no apprehension of the ill consequences of his disease shall never be cured and therefore he must be fully convinc'd of two things first that to fall into mortal Sin of all misfortunes is the greatest Secondly that the relapse into sin exposes the eternall salvation to an extream hazard and that one finds himself surpriz'd when he least thinks of it The next thing he ought to do in consequence to this knowlege is to avoid all those things which have been the causes of this misfortune or which may make it return This is an indispensable obligation this is also the first mark of a Penitent Soul and desirous to recover her former health We laugh at a sick man that will not abstain from such meats or actions as are apprehended prejudiciall to him we say that he loves his pleasures more then his health and that he is his own murderer The like is to be said of a Penitent when he doth the same Prov. 1.22 How long will Fools desire what is hurtfull to them The third is the choice of a good Physitian that is he must always address himself to the best Confessors to those whom he believes endowed with the three above-mentioned qualities and above all to those who are not in the least neglective of the recovery of their Penitents but apply themselves seriously and with much care to that effect The Penitent who desires his health must seek out such Physitians If he do not it is an infallible proof that he doth not desire to amend He is afraid lest the Confessor should make him sensible of his misery and put a stop to the disorders of his Conscience a certain sign that he is not willing to be cured Do not you do thus Theotime remember that excellent sentence of St. Augustin Non timet reprehensorem qui veritatem amat He that loves truth that is his Salvation is not afraid of a monitor or to have his defects laid open before his Eyes The 4th is faithfully to apply the remedies which are necessary to cure the Soul preserve it from Sin whether they be those which the Physitian prescribes or those which by other ways one comes to know None doubts but that this way is absolutely necessary yet few practise it so easily as they believe it Many Penitents there are who could wish to amend their lives but would do it at their ease without pain or trouble The sight of the remedies is a trouble to them and when they should put them in execution their heart fails them and they will do nothing at all Is not this to desire an impossible thing to seek the end without the means to obtain it the cure without the remedies and Salvation without trouble This is to act like the slothfull man who will and yet will not Prov. 13.4 This is a faint and imperfect wish to be deliver'd from their evils but in reality it is an effectual desire to continue in them and never to be cured You will do otherwise Theotime if you are truly Penitent and desirous of your Salvation You will with much care seek after the remedies against your Sins and apply them with no less exactness Behold here some few The First is that you have a special care to conserve in your Soul the Spirit of Penance which you were made partaker of in your Confession viz. an Hatred of Sin a Sorrow to have Committed it and a Resolution to offend no more Now to conserve this spirit it is necessary you renew these acts every day which may easily be done The Second is to perform with this Spirit the works of Penance as well those that are enjoyned in the Sacrament as others which you impose upon your self These works as the Council of Trent declares conduce very much to divert and deter us from our Sins The Third remedy is Prayer For as all our strength is from God it is but just we make our addresses to him that he will vouchsafe to assist us powerfully with his grace This is a means absolutely necessary without which it is impossible to cure the distempers of the Soul. Ask saith our Lord Luc. 11.9 and you shall receive which is as much as to say what you do not demand you shall not receive at all But as this means is necessary so also it is most powerfull and never fails of its effect According to that Sentence of the wise man Eccle. 2.11 No one hath ever hoped in God who hath been Confounded or frustrated of his desires But this Prayer must be frequent and serverous as we have need every day so also we must always pray Luc. 18. And as we beseech him to vouchsafe his mercies that we may be sav'd so it is but just that we demand them with a great and ardent desire to the end we may be worthy of them The Fourth remedy is frequent Confession This also is a necessary means without which it is morally impossible to be freed from a vicious habit when once one is engaged therein It is a Sacrament which remits sins past which gives grace to avoid them for the future There one renews his sorrow for having offended God and his resolution thence-forward to be faithfull to him one there receives advices and means to that effect one is thereby reduced into the path who had lost his way encouraged when he is remiss and fortified against the difficulties which occur They who neglect this means will never be freed from their habitual Sins but those who thirst after their Salvation will embrace it with much affection It is very convenient we make them often and ordinarily speaking to the same select Confessor and who is endowed with the qualities above-mention'd The holy Communion is also a very efficacious remedy against relapses It gives strength against temptations It weakens our ill habits it makes us avoid many venial Sins which lead and dispose to mortal But this is to be understood when the Communion is performed with all necessary dispositions and it produceth all these effects proportionably to the greater or less devotion with which we approach that holy Table Be very diligent and carefull Theotime in the use and application of this divine remedy and to that
either to errour or Impiety 10. The Tenth is to scoff at holy things the ceremonies of the Church to contemn them in his heart or by any action whatsoever 11. The Eleventh to abuse the words of the holy Scripture in applying them to wicked or prophane senses making them serve for jests or other ill uses 12. The Twelfth is to desire to know such things to come as appertain to God alone or those which are either past or present but totally hidden from us and for this end to employ unlawfull means as Soothsayers Magicians Fortune-tellers observe Omens cast Lotts or make use of other Superstitious Inventions 13. The thirteenth is to give credit to Dreams and Superstitions to employ Prayers or Sacred Names to ill uses to use Charms or other Inventions to the end to make ones self beloved to cure Diseases or to give a Spell whether to Men or Beasts All these are Mortal Sins even when the means seem innocent as Prayers or Sacred words if one believe they will certainly take effect For then as St. Augustin saith De medicin animae contra sortileg These are not remedies given us by Jesus Christ but rather Poyson which the Devil hath spread amongst holy things Non est in eis remedium Christi sed venenum Diaboli Sins against Hope Anchora quae nostrae stat pes bene fida salutis Motibus his quatitur dum Desperatio mentem Dejicit aut falsas addit Praesumptio vires I. 1. Hinc qui scelerum furiis agitantibus omnem Desperat veniam 2. vel ab his cessare modumque Ponere posse negans vitiis dimittit habenas Divinae contemptor opis spem laedit Et ille II. 1. Qui male confisus sperat placabile numen Dum nova praeteritis adjungens crimina 2. mores Mutare extremae differt in tempora vitae 3. Quique Deum tentans levis imprudensque periclis 4. Corporis aut animae sese objicit 5. auxiliique Non poscit coelestis opem praesentia cingunt Dum mala 6. praesidiis spernit melioribus uti Quae Deus ad nostram voluit conferre salutem 7. Rebus in adversis qui frangitur atque superbis Vocibus impatiens hominesque Deumque fatigat Hope is a Theological Virtue whereby we expect from the hand of God Eternal Salvation and the means whereby we may obtain it Two Sins there are diametrically opposit both contrary to this Virtue The one is hoping too little the other confiding too much the first is called Despair the other Presumption I. One sins by Despair 1. When one distrusts in the mercies of God or despairs to be ever able to obtain of God the remission of his Sins as it happened to Cain 2. When one despairs of amending ones Life and in this Despair abandons himself to all wickedness which is a mistrust or contempt of the grace of God. This Sin is but too common II. One sins by Presumption 1. When one hopes that God will allways forgive his Sins whatsoever life he leads and living in this hope he doth not at all concern himself to mend his Life 2. When one defers his conversion 'till the end of his life or puts off his Repentance 'till the honr of Death 3. When one willingly exposes himself to any danger of offending God as to Company Reading or any other thing by which he runs the hazard to offend This is what we call to tempt God. 4. When without necessity one exposes himself to some Corporal danger as Sickness Wounds or Death 5. When in these so remarkable dangers of Body or Soul one neglects his application and recourse to God by Prayer to implore his assistance 6. When in these same dangers one neglects the remedies which God hath instituted and appointed as those of Physick for the Body and those of Prayer and Sacraments for the Soul. One sins also against this Virtue in adversities when he is discouraged to that degree that he puts not his trust in God and more still when one is impatient or murmures against his Providence in Adversity or is exalted in his own thoughts in time of Prosperity attributing the good success or Honour to himself The Sins against Charity CHarity is a Theological Virtue which makes us to love God above all things whence it follows that every Mortal Sin is directly opposite to it totally destroys it Because the Sinner in every such Sin prefers the affection he bears to the thing wherein he offends before the love and bounden duty he owes to God who forbids the Sin. However there are some Sins more particularly opposed to this great Virtue whereof behold some examples Caelestem nullum non laedit crimen amorem Quod male divinum humano postponit amori Praecipuè tamen his virtutum maxima damnis Impetitur 1. Summae si quis bonitatis amarum Infandumque furens scelerata forte recepit Mente odium execrans blasphemans sancta Deique Dextram indignatus ferientem aut Judicis aequi Iram exhorrescens infensum quem timet odit 2. Praeterea ille nocens sanctum qui numen amore Diligit exiguo bona nec super omnia summum Prosequitur redamatque bonum peccare paratus Vt serventur opes vel honos aut vita caducis Postponens aeterna bonis 3. Hominum quoque amorem Posthabito quaesisse Deo quem non piget qui Esse suo gratus Domino nil curat at omnem Stultis ut placeat curam admovet atque laborem 4. Quem pudor aut vani revocat formido pericli Ne cupiat bona vel faciat quae conscius ipse Sancta jubere sibi novit mandata malumque Quod prohibent patrat humano compulsus amore 5. Inque Deum raro conversus segnius illum Cogitat aut loquitur tacito sub corde monentem Non andit Benefacta sui nec mente revolvens Auctoris dignas contemnit reddere grates The greatest sin against Charity is the hatred of God. This is a Sin the very thought whereof causes an horrour in the Soul and it is proper to the Devils and damned Souls Yet however sometimes it is found amongst men when a wicked Conscience oppress'd with misfortunes gives it self over to complaints against God as if he were the cause of them to execrations to Blasphemys and in fine to hate him whom he believes to be the cause of his miseries or from whom he fears the punishment of his crimes 2. The second is not to bear God the love which he requires at our hands that is the love above all things as he is the greatest and most amiable of all goods This happens when one is so disposed in mind that he will rather choose willfully to offend God then loose either some Honour Riches or life it self if it were necessary This Sin is but too common and one does not take notice of it 3. The third is to prefer the love of men before the love of God to be more fearfull of their
to abstain from these sort of actions but also to honour God by good and profitable works We shall set them forth in the following verses Sanctificare diem post sex qui septimus orbes Volvitur sanctam menti indulgere quietem Auctorem ut proprium agnoscat veneretur ametque Tertia lex jubet a primis jam lata diebus 1. Hinc procul esse jubet manuum quo vita paratur Omne opus 2. humanis animumque avertere curis 3. Vt sancto vacet obsequio propriaeque saluti 4. Abstergatque dolens incauto quas sibi sordes Aspersit vesanus amor mundique suique Inde sacri quaerens caelestia pabula verbi Mentem avidam pascat sanctoque incendat amore 5. Quam male proh dolor haec servat mandata diebus Qui sacris ludos epulas vana secutus Gaudia criminibus foedat pia tempora festum Non mentis sed carnis agens male sanus Averno Consecrat omnipotens sibi quos sacravit honores 1. The first Sin against this Commandment is to do on the Sunday any servile works that is to say handy-works which have some temporall gain for their end Consider whether you have done any or whether you were the cause that others did either by making them labour in your service or for your divertisement without a considerable necessity 2. It is also a sin against this Commandment to be employed any considerable time upon holy-days in labouring about temporall affairs as Merchants Advocates Solicitors and other Officers of Justice do who spend one part of the Sunday in business and the other in recreation 3. Is the Sin of omission as not to employ ones selfon these holy-days in pious exercises and especially not to hear Mass as the Church expressly Commands under pain of Mortall sin or not to hear it well but without attention or reverence For altho' in this case one complys with the precepts of the Church yet he doth not satisfy that of God who commands us to perform well and piously all holy duties 4. Those cannot easily be exempt from Sin who on these holy-days neither think at all of God nor their Salvation who are neither present at divine service nor at Sermons but especially those who make a custome and an habit of it for this is to neglect the Sanctification of the Sunday and the end for which it was ordained which cannot be done without a great Sin. 5. The greatest and most greivous profanation of the Sunday and festivall-days is committed by those who spend these holy-days in idleness in gaming in dances in feasting and other recreations which instead of sanctifying the feasts are a dishonour to them and by this means God who ought on those days to be more particularly honoured is much offended These profanations of Sundays and holy-days are very common and yet great Sins And therefore every one is to examin himself strictly in this point The EXAMEN upon the Fourth Commandment Honour thy Father and thy Mother THis Commandment regulates the duty of Children towards their Father and Mother and by consequence or according to a necessary proportion that of other inferiours towards their Superiours viz. Of Schollars towards those that teach them Of Servants towards their Masters Of Subjects towards their Princes and Magistrates Of all the Faithfull towards their Ecclesiastical Prelates And reciprocally of all sorts of Superiours towards those who are Subject to them as you may see in the following Verses Quod Nati patribus debent quod jure magistris Discipuli servi Dominis quod subditus omnis His quibus aut populis dare jura aut pascere verbò Coelesti dedit omnipotens coeloque parare I. Lex quarta edicit statuitque reciproca cunctis Officia Hinc natos 1. venerari 2. amare parentes 3. Jussa sequi docet ac monitis parere 5. vereri Et dum corripiunt poenisque salubribus instant 6. Placare offensos verbis mollibus iras Mulcere aversis actu meliore placere II. 7. Confectos annis aegros inopesque levare Qua licet auxilio Patres eademque magistris III. Reddere discipulos servos parere fidemque IV. Praestare illaesam Reges ut subditi honorent V. Pastoresque suae quibus est data cura salutis Auscultent venerentur ament dicta sequantur VI. At patribus contra atque aliis lex aequa vicissim Praecipit 1. ut recto chara amplectantur amore Pignora 2. provideant naturae commoda primum 3. Praecipuam tamen aeternae veraeque salutis Curam habeant nec nata sibi sed debita coelo Dona Dei natos reputent 4. quos nosce supremum Auctorem rerum doceant pariterque vereri Coelestem redamare patrem 5. tum mente sagaci Explorent puerorum animos mollia fingant Ingenia sanctum verae pietatis amorem Alta mente bibant seros quae crescat in annos 6. Emendent peccata ruat ne labilis aetas In vitium nullis posthac cohibenda catenis 7. Corripiant juste stulta indulgentia natos Ne perimat paenasque timens adhibere salubres Aeternae addicat paenae puerosque patresque Ista docet lex sancta patres eademque magistris Praescribit dominisque quos neglecta suorum Reddere cura potest alieno crimine sontes The Sins which Children commit against their Fathers and Mothers are 1. To deny them their due respect as when they despise them interiourly in their heart or exteriourly by words scornfull gestures or actions 2. To be deficient in the love they owe them as when they hate them or wish their death or any other misfortune or forsake them in their necessity 3. To fail in their obedience if it be in a matter of Consequence it is a mortall Sin or else to obey them but not readily as with repugnance impatience or despight Or what is worse to obey them in things unlawfull 4. To slight to scoff at their reprehensions to take no notice of them or not to benefit themselves by them 5. To resist their corrections and wish them harm 6. To put them into passion and take no care to pacify them again by submissive words by obeying and complying with their desires 7. Not to assist them in their old age in their sickness and in what other necessities To these Sins may be added the not executing their last Will and Testament after their death or not to procure Prayers for them II. Disciples and Schollars owe to their masters and to all those who instruct them a great part of the same dutys as respect obedience and the like in which they should examen themselves III. Servants ought to examen themselves concerning the obedience they owe to their Masters whether they have fail'd either in their trust or in the dilligence which is required at their hands whether through their fault they have displeased them whether they have neglected their reasonable and just interest whether they have obey'd them in things unlawfull
our Saviour Jesus Christ But Alas the contrary is too true and this crime tho' a thousand times greater yet is much more common amongst Christians then that of Paricide They have an horror and with good reason to deprive those of breath from whom they receiv'd their life yet they are not apprehensive to Murder and Crucifie again as much as in them lies our Saviour Christ by receiving him into an impure perfidious Breast Nature hath imprinted in them a profound and lasting respect for those from whom they have received only a Mortal and fading life But they easily forget the Reverence they owe to Jesus Christ notwithstanding he nourisheth them with his own substance his pretious Blood and offers them by his presence a Spiritual and immortal and a pledge of everlasting life O God Theotime is it possible then that there should be found Souls capable of so black a deed so horrible a Crime Surely they are only those who either have no Faith or such as have never considered the enormity of the Sin who can commit it for he must surpass the very Devils in malice who falls into such a Sin if he have but the least knowledge how grievous and great it is and what dreadfull consequences do follow from it Two points I therefore design to discourse of in this place I will set forth the enormity of this Sin from three heads 1. From that remarkable saying of our Lord himself Mat. 7.6 Do not give that which is Holy unto Dogs If it be a great Sacrilege to give to Dogs things consecrated to God what Crime must it needs be to give the Holy of Holies unto a Soul an enemy of God more impure and filthy then the very Dogs and what Sin must it be in those to receive the Body of our Lord who being no better then Dogs as it is said in the Apocalypse and under this notion excluded from the Sanctuary Foris canes impudici yet have the impudence to eat the Bread of Children the Bread of the very Angels themselves Ecce panis Angelorum vere panis filioram non mittendus canibus 2. From that so famed Doctrine and signal admonition of St. Paul 1. Cor. 11.27 Whosoever ones the Bread and drinks the Chalice of our Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of our Lord. This Sentence is a Thunder which ought to terrify all those who are so miserably unfortumate as to Communicate in Mortal Sin For he saith they are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Son of God that is they despise and treat in juriously this adorable Body and Blood whilst they receive it in a profane place in the Temple of Satan in a Soul polluted with Mortal Sin. It is particularly verified in this occasion what St. Paul relates elsewhere Heb. 6.6 this is to Crucisy Jesus Christ again to scoff at him to trample him under ones feet and contemn his Blood in that very action by which one ought to sanctify his holy name Can we think of these things without trembling and horror We never call to mind without a certain horror and eversion the inhumane methods the Jews and Soldiets a sed against our Saviour Jesus Christ in the time of his bitter Passion and can we be so insensible in our own case as not to detest those affronts we offer him even worse then the Jews did whilst we unworthily receive him For besides that they Luo. 23.34 knew not what they did we know and confess him to be the Son of God whom we offend St. Chrisostome explaining these words of St. Paul. 1. Cor. 11. Whosoever shall eat the Bread or drink the Cup of our Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of our Lord. Why so suith this Holy Father hom 27. and his answer is because he hath spilt the Blood and by that action he hath not offered a Sacrifice but committed a Murther for he who approaches unworthily to this Divine Table and receives no Fruit from thence resembles them who formerly pierced the Body of our Lord not to drink but to shed his Blood. And hom 60. Consider saith he what just Indignation you conceive against him who betrayed Jesus Christ and against those who Crucified him therefore consider lest you also be equally culpable and guilty of the Body and Blood of the Son of God. It is true they kill'd his most Sacred Body but you after so many and so often repeated benefits bestowed upon you receive him into an unclean and polluted Soul. St. Cyprian before him had said that unworthy Communicants offer Violence to the Body of Jesus Christ and that this sin is a more grievous offence in the sight of God then it is for a Christian to abjure him in the presence of Infidels The Third from hence which you ought never to forget that the sin of an unworthy Communion is the sin of Judas It was he who first committed it and those who fall into it since imitate his Example and become his Disciples They receive him as he did in a Criminall and guilty Soul They betray him not indeed to the Jews but which is worse to the Devil who inhabits in them What punishment ought they not to dread from such an Enormous Crime Ought they not to remember how that perfidious Apostle was immediately possessed by the Devil in the moment that be received Jesus Christ for since they imitate him in his Sin they cannot avoid being partaker of his punishment as we are about to shew you The dammages which follow from an unworthy Communion SUch a mischievous cause cannot but produce most fatal effects The death of the Soul which infallibly it brings with it is the first evil which follows from it Mors est malis vita bonis This death is an encrease or extension of that other wherein the Soul lay buried before by the Sin in which he receiv'd the Sacrament It is a further banishment from the grace of God and a further disheartning and exposing her to the Power of Satan From this Death follow other most dismal lamentable effects as the fall into new Sins the blindness of Spirit the encrease of vices and passions which makes a Soul to groan under the Yoke of her Captivity and hinder her from returning again to God by true Repentance The Prophet hath comprised these effects in few words Psalm 68.23 when speaking against the enemies of Jesus Christ he prays to God that their Table may prove a snare to them and an occasion of scandal That they may become blind so that they may not see their own good That they may always stoop under the Yoke of a miserable Servitude If those who persecuted Jesus Christ without knowing him are punished so severely what ought not Christians to expect when they treat him so ill in his own Person whom they know Histories are full of examples of divers punishments which God hath laid upon this so detestabie a
mortally and it is in this preference or esteem which we make of the creature before God himself wherein Mortal Sin and its greivousness doth consist For as the love of God above all things consists in preferring him before all that is before ones proper will passions pleasures honour interest So Mortal Sin which is directly opposite to Charity consists in preferring all things or any thing before God and choosing rather to lose the Friendship of God then deprive ones self of those apparent goods which in reality are true Miseries And he who resolves to commit a Mortal Sin performs this in effect as if he should place on one side the greatness of God all his favours all his promises and all his menaces and on the other side his own Passion his Pleasure his Honour or his Riches and having compared these two so opposite objects together says within himself I make more account of these miserable things then of the greatness of God of his friendship of his promises and of his threats and I renounce all that so I may content my Passions my Pleasure my Ambition my Avarice c. Consider this well Theotime and you may Comprehend something of the grievousness of Sin and the evil you have done to your self when you have been so blind as to fall into it CHAP. X. A Further illustration of the grievousness of sin ALL that which we have said is more then enough to give a judgment of the heinousness of Mortal Sin but because the more we sink into the matter the more copious is the Subject behold yet one more consideration to discover its enormity Sin is a resistance to the Divine will or as St. Ambrose hath very well defin'd it is a Swerving from the Law of God and a disobedience to his Divine Commandements Proevaricatio divinae legis coelestium inobedientia mandatorum This disobedience offends God and injures him so as to violate the right which God hath to be obey'd and loved by his Creatures It 's also necessarily accompanied with all those indignities which we have said above are found in Sin viz. Rebellion against God Ingratitude Contempt of him Violence committed in his Adorable Presence and Esteem and preference of the Creature before God a Renouncing of his Friendship and many other Indignities And this it is which makes the injury done to God by this Disobedience most Heinous and far surpass all that one can imagine And being that this vile and base injury is offered to a Person the most Eminent and of highest Dignity whose Authority is Boundless and infinitely raised above all that is great Hence it is that this affront is so immence that it infinitly surpasses all the abuses and wrongs that can be offered unto man it being a certain Rule that an offence takes its heinousness from the greatness of the Person that is offended And thus an affront offered to a Prince doth far Surmount that done to one of base condition Now being that God is infinite in Greatness and Majesty it follows that an injury offered to him is also infinite Add all these things together an Infinite offence committed against the Infinite Greatness of God accompanied with all those Indignities we have spoken of with Rebellion with Ingratitude with Contempt of God with Preference of a creature before his Friendship with Infidelity and judge what we ought to say of the greatness of the Injury which Sin offers to God. But above all consider the Sin as committed by a Wretched creature by a Miserable servant by a worm of the Earth which before God is less then nothing Judge then I say if you can but you can never arrive at a perfect Judgment although all the knowledge of both Men and Angels were united in your understanding An affront so great that it made St. Augustine and other Divines after him to say that it were far better the whole frame of the world should perish that is Heaven and Earth and all contain'd therein then that a man should commit any one mortal sin against God. Peccatum est inhonorare Deum quod non debet facere homo etiamsi totum pereat quod non est Deus Sin saith that Holy Doctor is to dishonour God which a man ought not to do altho' all things except God be destroyed An injury so horrible that it made St. Anselm say That if he should see on one side Hell open with all its flames and on the other side one sole Mortal Sin to be Committed and that he were forced to make choice of the one he would rather choose to cast himself into hell then sin mortally S. Anselm de similitudinibus c. 190. And he adds the reason Because said he I should rather desire being innocent and without sin to enter into Hell then enjoy Paradise being defiled with sin for it is most certain that only the wicked are tormented in Hell and only the just are blessed in Heaven Altho' this necessity of choice can never happen yet the supposition which this great Saint makes doth manifestly shew the grievousness of Mortal sin the injury which by it is done to God and it is grounded upon this manifest truth in Divinity that the evil of the fault is infinitely greater and more to be feared then the evil of the punishment A wrong so heinous that Divines with one accord agree that if all the men in the world and all the Angels in Heaven should unite their forces to deplore the injury offered to God by any one mortal sin to do Penance and give Satisfaction to God for it they could not all together in the least perform that which it deserves A damage so great an abuse so detestable that only God himself was able to repair it only God himself could satisfy for it to the full and to perform this it was necessary that God should put himself in a state to satisfy that he should humble himself so as to become man to offer himself in Sacrifice to the Divine justice a Sacrifice which equalled the price and also far surpass'd the grievousness of Sin and in which two things were admirably conjoyned the Divinity and Humanity this to be offer'd and that to give infinite value and merit to the offering as a Father of the Church said excellently well De nostro obtulit Sacrificium de suo contulit pretium Euseb Emis hom 6. de Pascha In fine an injury so offensive and enormous that the Flames of Hell which it hath kindled can neither purge it for all Eternity nor appease the Divine wrath which it hath incens'd against those who neglective whilst they lived to apply to themselves the Satisfaction made by the Sacrifice offered by the Son of God upon the Cross are dead in Mortal Sin. Weigh well all these Considerations Theotime read them often and endeavour by frequent Meditation to imprint them in your mind CHAP. XI Of the deplorable effects of Mortal Sin to discover