and love according to that of S. Austin Poenitentiam certam non facit nisi odium peccati amor Dei. Hatred of sin and the love of God make repentance firm and sure nothing else can do it but this is a work of time but such a work that without it be done our pardon is not perfect 27. Now of this Contrition relying upon motives of pleasure and objects of amability being the noblest principle of action and made up of the love of God and holy things and holy expectations the product is quite differing from that of Attrition or the imperfect repentance for that commencing upon fear or displeasure is only apt to produce a dereliction or quitting of our sin and all the servile affections of frighted or displeased persons But this would not effect an universal obedience which only can be effected by love and the affection of sons which is also the product of those objects which are the incentives of the Divine love and is called Contrition that is a hatred against sin as being an enemy to God and all our hopes of enjoying God whom because this repenting man loves and delights in he also hates whatsoever God hates and is really griev'd for ever having offended so good a God and for having endangered his hopes of dwelling with him whom he so loves and therefore now does the quite contrary 28. Now this is not usually the beginning of repentance but is a great progression in it and it contains in it obedience He that is attrite leaves his sin but he that is contrite obeys God and pursues the interests and acquists of vertue so that Contrition is not only a sorrow for having offended God whom the penitent loves that is but one act or effect of Contrition but Contrition loves God and hates sin it leaves this and adheres to him abstains from evil and does good dies to sin and lives to righteousness and is a state of pardon and acceptable services 29. But then there is a sorrow also proper to it For as this grace comes from the noblest passions and apprehensions so it does operate in the best manner and to the noblest purposes It hates sin upon higher contemplations than he that hates it upon the stock of fear he hates sin as being against God and Religion and right reason that is he is gone farther from sin He hates it for it self Poenitet ô si quid miserorum creditur ulli Poenitet facto torqueor ipse meo Cúmque sit exilium magis est mihi culpa dolori Estque pati poenam quà m meruisse minus That is not only the evil effect to himself but the irregularity and the displeasure to Almighty God are the incentives of his displeasure against sin and because in all these passions and affective motions of the mind there is a sorrow under some shape or other this sorrow or displeasure is that which is a very acceptable signification and act of repentance and yet it is not to be judged of by sense but by reason by the caution and enmity against sin to which this also is to be added 30. That if any man enquires whether or no his hatred against sin proceed from the love of God or no that is whether it be Attrition or Contrition he is only to observe whether he does endeavour heartily and constantly to please God by obedience for this is love that we keep his Commandments and although sometimes we may tell concerning our love as well as concerning our fear yet when the direct principle is not so evident our only way left to try is by the event That is Contrition which makes us to exterminate and mortifie sin and endeavour to keep the Commandments of God For that is sorrow proceeding from love 31. And now it is no wonder if to Contrition pardon be so constantly annexed in all the Discourses of Divines but unless Contrition be thus understood and if a single act of something like it be mistaken for the whole state of this grace we shall be deceived by applying false promises to a real need or true promises to an incompetent and uncapable state of things But when it is thus meant all the sorrows that can come from this principle are signs of life His lachrymis vitam damus miserescimus ultró No man can deny pardon to such penitents nor cease to joy in such tears 32. The summ of the present enquiry is this Contrition is sometimes used for a part of repentance sometimes taken for the whole duty As it is a part so it is that displeasure at sin and hatred of it which is commonly expressed in sorrow but for ever in the leaving of it It is sometimes begun with fear sometimes with shame and sometimes with kindness with thankfulness and love but Love and Obedience are ever at the latter end of it though it were not at the beginning and till then it is called Attrition But when it is taken for the whole duty it self as it is always when it is effective of pardon then the elements of it or parts of the constitution are fides futuri saeculi Judicii fides in promissis passionibus Christi timor Divinae majestatis amor misericordiae dolor pro peccatis spes veniae petitio pro gratiâ Faith in the promises and sufferings of Christ an assent to the Article of the day of Judgment and the world to come with all the consequent perswasions and practices effected on the spirit fear of the Divine Majesty love of his mercy grief for our sins begging for grace hope of pardon and in this sence it is true Cor contritum Deus non despiciet God will never refuse to accept of a heart so contrite SECT IV. Of Confession 33. THE modern Schoolmen make Contrition to include in it a resolution to submit to the Keys of the Church that is that Confession to a Priest is a part of Contrition as Contrition is taken for a part of Repentance for it is incomplete till the Church hath taken notice of it but by submission to the Church Tribunal it is made complete and not only so but that which was but Attrition is now turned into Contrition or perfect Repentance In the examining of this I shall because it is reasonable so to do change their manner of speaking that the inquiry may be more material and intelligible That Contrition does include in it a resolution to submit to the Church Tribunal must either mean that godly sorrow does in its nature include a desire of Confession to a Priest and then the very word confutes the thing or else by Contrition they meaning so much of Repentance as is sufficient to pardon mean also that to submit to the Keys or to confess to a Priest is a necessary or integral part of that Repentance and therefore of Contrition Concerning the other part of their affirmative that Attrition is by the Keys chang'd into Contrition this being
they are transgressions of the Divine Law So S. Basil argues Nullum peccatum contemnendum ut parvum quando D. Paulus de omni peccato generatim pronunciaverat stimulum mortis esse peccatum The sting of death is sin that is death is the evil consequent of sin and comes in the tail of it of every sin and therefore no sin must be despised as if it were little Now if every little sin hath this sting also as it is on all hands agreed that it hath it follows that every little transgression is perfectly and intirely against a Commandment And indeed it is not sence to say any thing can in any sence be a sin and that it should not in the same sence be against a Commandment For although the particular instance be not named in the Law yet every instance of that matter must be meant It was an extreme folly in Bellarmine to affirm Peccatum veniale ex parvitate materiae est quidem perfectè voluntarium sed non perfectè contra legem Lex enim non prohibet furtum uniu◠oboli in specie sed prohibet furtum in genere That a sin that is venial by the smalness of the matter is not perfectly against the Law because the Law forbids theft indeed in the general but does not in particular forbid the stealing of a half-peny for upon the same reason it is not perfectly against the Law to steal three pound nineteen shillings three pence because the Law in general only forbids theft but does not in particular forbid the stealing of that summ * But what is besides the Law and not against it cannot be a sin and therefore to fancy any sin to be only besides the Law is a contradiction so to walk to ride to eat flesh or herbs to wear a long or a short garment are said to be besides the Law but therefore they are permitted and indifferent Indifferent I say in respect of that Law which relates to that particular matter and indifferent in all sences unless there be some collateral Law which may prohibit it indirectly So for a Judge to be a Coachman for a Priest to be a Fidler or Inne-keeper are not directly unlawful but indirectly they are as being against decency and publick honesty or reputation or being inconvenient in order to that end whither their calling is design'd To this sence are those words of S. Paul All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient That is some things which directly are lawful by an indirect obligation may become unfit to be done but otherwise Licitum est quod nullâ lege prohibetur saith the Law If no Law forbids it then it is lawful and to abstain from what is lawful though it may have a worthiness in it more than ordinary yet to use our liberty is at no hand a sin The issue then is this either we are forbidden to do a venial sin or we are not If we are not forbidden then it is as lawful to do a venial sin as to marry or eat flesh If we are forbidden then every such action is directly against Gods Law and consequently finable at the will of the supreme Judge and if he please punishable with a supreme anger And to this purpose there is an excellent observation in S. Austin Peccatum delictum si nihil differrent inter se si unius rei duo nomina essent non curaret Scriptura tam diligentèr unum esse utriusque sacrificium There are several names in Scripture to signifie our wandrings and to represent the several degrees of sin but carefully it is provided for that they should be expiated with the same sacrifice which proves that certainly they are prevarications of the same Law offences of the same God provocations of the same anger and heirs of the same death and even for small offences a Sacrifice was appointed lest men should neglect what they think God regarded not 24. III. Every sin even the smallest is against Charity which is the end of the Commandment For every sin or evil of transgression is far worse than all the evils of punishment with which mankind is afflicted in this world and it is a less evil that all mankind should be destroyed than that God should be displeased in the least instance that is imaginable Now if we esteem the loss of our life or our estate the wounding our head or the extinction of an eye to be great evils to us and him that does any thing of this to us to be our enemy or to be injurious we are to remember that God hates every sin worse than we can hate pain or beggery And if a nice and a tender conscience the spirit of every excellent person does extremely hate all that can provoke God to anger or to jealousie it must be certain that God hates every such thing with an hatred infinitely greater so great that no understanding can perceive the vastness of it and immensity For by how much every one is better by so much the more he hates every sin and the soul of a righteous man is vexed and afflicted with the inrodes of his unavoidable calamities the armies of Egypt the Lice and Flies his insinuating creeping infirmities Now if it be holiness in him to hate these little sins it is an imitation of God for what is in us by derivation is in God essentially therefore that which angers a good man and ought so to do displeases God and consequently is against charity or the love of God For it is but a vain dream to imagine that because just men such who are in the state of grace and of the love of God do commit smaller offences therefore they are not against the love of God for every degree of cold does abate something of the heat in any hot body but yet because it cannot destroy it all cold and heat may be consistent in the same subject but no man can therefore say they are not contraries and would not destroy each other if they were not hindred by something else and so would the smallest offences also destroy the life of grace if they were not destroyed themselves But of this afterwards For the present let it be considered how it can possibly consist with our love to God with that duty that commands us to love him with all our heart with all our strength with all our might and with all our soul how I say it can be consistent with a love so extended so intended to entertain any thing that he hates so essentially To these particulars I add this one consideration That since there is in the world a fierce opinion that some sins are so slight and little that they do not destroy our relation to God and cannot break the sacred tie of friendship he who upon the inference and presumption of that opinion shall chuse to commit such small sins which he thinks to be the All that is
his laws what unfitting means and sinful progressions were made to arrive thither what criminal and undecent circumstances what degrees of consent and approaches to a perfect choice what vicious hopes and vile fears what expence of time and mis-imployed passions were in one act of fornication or murder oppression of the poor or subornation of witnesses we shall find that the proportions will be too little to oppose but one act of vertue against all these evils especially since an act of vertue as we order our affairs is much more single than an act of vice is 47. VI. Every single act of vice may and must be repented of particularly if it be a wilful deliberate and observed action A general repentance will not serve the turn in these cases When a man hath forgotten the particulars he must make it up as well as he can This is the evil of a delayed repentance it is a thousand to one but it is imperfect and lame general and unactive it will need arts of supply and collateral remedies and reflex actions of sorrow and what the effect will be is in many degrees uncertain But if it be speedy and particular the remedy is the more easie the more ready and the more certain But when a man is overtaken in a fault he must be restored again as to that particular for by that he transgressed there he is smitten and wounded in that instance the habit begins and at that door the Divine judgment may enter for his anger is there already For although God pardons all sins or none in respect of the final sentence and eternal pain yet God strikes particular sins with proper and specifick punishments in this life which if they be not diverted by proper applications may break us all in pieces And therefore Davids repentance was particularly applied to his special case of murder and adultery and because some sins are harder to be pardoned and harder to be cured than others it is certain they must be taken off by a special regard A general repentance is never sufficient but when there cannot be a particular 48. VII Whoever hath committed any one act of a great crime let him take the advantage of his first shame and regret and in the activity of that passion let him design some fasting days as the solemnities of his repentance which he must imploy in the bitterness of his soul in detestation of his sin in judging condemning and executing sentence upon himself and in all the actions of repentance which are the parts and fruits of this duty according as he shall find them described in their proper places 49. These are the measures of repentance for single acts of deliberate sin when they have no other appendage or proper Consideration But there are some acts of sin which by several ways and measures pass into habits directly or by equivalency and moral value For 1. The repetition of acts and proceeding in the same crime is a perfect habit which as it rises higher to obstinacy to perseverance to resolutions never to repent to hardness of heart to final impenitence so it is still more killing and damnable 2. If a man sins often in several instances it is a habit properly so called for although the instances be single yet the disobedience and disaffection are united and habitual 3. When a single act of sin is done and the guilt remains not rescinded by repentance that act which naturally is but single yet morally is habitual Of these I shall give account in the next Chapter where they are of proper consideration But there are yet three ways more by which single acts do become habits by equivalency and moral value and are here to be considered accordingly 50. VIII First if a single act of sin have a permanent matter so long as that matter remains the sin is uncancell'd Of this nature is theft which cannot be cut off by a moral revocation or an internal act there must be something done without For it is a contradiction to say that a man is sorry for his act of stealing who yet rejoyces in the purchase and retains it Every man that repents is bound to make his sinful act as much as he can to be undone and the moral revocation or nolition of it is our entercourse with God only who takes and accepts that which is the All which can be done to him But God takes care of our brother also and therefore will not accept his own share unless all interested persons be satisfied as much as they ought There is a great matter in it that our neighbour also do forgive us that his interest be served that he do not desire our punishment of this I shall afterwards give accounts in the mean time if the matter of our sin be not taken away so long as it remains so long there is a remanency and a tarrying in it and that is a degree of habit 51. IX Secondly if the single act have a continual flux or emanation from it self it is as a habit by moral account and is a principle of action and is potentially many Of this nature is every action whose proper and immediate principle is a passion Such as hatred of our neighbour a fearfulness of persecution a love of pleasures For a man cannot properly be said to have an act of hatred an actual expression of it he may but if he hates him in one act and repents not of it it is a vicious affection and in the sence of moral Theology it is a habit the law of God having given measures to our affections as well as to actions In this case when we have committed one act of uncharitableness or hatred it is not enough to oppose against it one act of love but the principle must be altered and the love of our neighbour must be introduced into our spirit 52. X. There is yet another sort of sinful action which does in some sence equal a habit and that is an act of the greatest and most crying sins a complicated sin Thus for a Prince or a Priest to commit adultery for a child to accuse his Father falsly to oppress a widow in judgment are sins of a monstrous proportion they are three or four sins apiece and therefore are to be repented of by untwining the knot and cutting asunder every thred He that repents of adultery must repent of his uncleanness and of his injustice or wrong to his neighbour and of his own breach of faith and of his tempting a poor soul to sin and death and he must make amends for the scandal besides in case there was any in it In these and all the like cases let no man flatter himself when he hath wept and prayed against his sin one solemnity is not sufficient one act of contrition is but the beginning of a repentance and where the crime is capital by the laws of wise Nations the greatest the longest the sharpest repentance is little enough
that we do not compare it with secular sorrow and the passions effected by natural or sad accidents For he that measures the passions of the mind by disproportionate objects may as well compare Musick and a Rose and measure weights by the bushel and think that every great man must have a great understanding or that an Ox hath a great courage because he hath a great heart He that finds fault with his repentance because his sorrow is not so great in it as in the saddest accidents of the world should do well to make them equal if he can if he can or if he cannot his work is done If he can let it be done and then the inquiry and the scruple is at an end If he cannot let him not trouble himself for what cannot be done God never requires of us to do 91. VI. Let no man overvalue a single act of sorrow and call it Repentance or be at rest as soon as he hath wip'd his eyes For to be sorrowful which is in the Commandment is something more than an act of sorrow it is a permanent effect and must abide as long as its cause is in being not always actual and pungent but habitual and ready apt to pass into its symbolical expressions upon all just occasions and it must always have this signification viz. 92. VII No man can be said ever truly to have griev'd for his sins if he at any time after does remember them with pleasure Such a man might indeed have had an act of sorrow but he was not sorrowful except only for that time but there was no permanent effect by which he became an enemy to sin and when the act is past the love to sin returns at least in that degree that the memory of it is pleasant No man tells it as a merry story that he once broke his leg or laughs when he recounts the sad groans and intolerable sharpnesses of the stone If there be pleasure in the telling it there is still remaining too much kindness towards it and then the sinner cannot justly pretend that ever he was a hearty enemy to it for the great effect of that is to hate itâ— to leave it and to hate it Indeed when the penitent inquires concerning himself and looks after a sign that he may discern whether he be as he thinks he is really a haâ—er of sin the greatest and most infallible mark which we have to judge by is the leaving it utterly But yet in this thing there is some difference For 93. Some do leave sin but do not hate it They will not do it but they wish it were lawful to do it and this although it hath in it a great imperfection yet it is not always directly criminal for it only supposes a love to the natural part of the action and a hatred of the irregularity The thing they love but they hate the sin of it But others are not so innocent in their leaving of sin They leave it because they dare not do it or are restrain'd by some over-ruling accident but like the heifers that drew the Ark they went lowing after their Calves left in their sâ—â—lls so do these leave their heart behind and if they still love the sin their leaving it is but an imperfect and unacceptable service a Sacrifice without a heart Therefore sin must be hated too that is it must be left out of hatred to it and consequently must be used as naturally we do what we do really hate that is do evil to it and always speak evil of it and secretly have no kindness for it 94. VIII Let every penitent be careful that his sorrow be a cure to his soul but no disease to his body an enemy to his sin but not to his health Exigit autem Interdum ille dolor plus quà m lex ulla dolori Concessit For although no sorrow is greater than our sin yet some greatness of sorrow may destroy those powers of serving God which ought to be preserved to all the purposes of charity and religion This caution was not to be omitted although very few will have use of it because if any should be transported into a pertinacious sorrow by great considerations of their sin and that sorrow meet with an ill temper of body apt to sorrow and afflictive thoughts it would make Religion to be a burden and all passions turn into sorrow and the service of God to consist but of one duty and would naturally tend to very evil consequents For whoever upon the conditions of the Gospel can hope for pardon he cannot maintain a too great actual sorrow long upon the stock of his sins It will be allayed with hope and change into new shapes and be a sorrow in other faculties than where it first began and to other purposes than those to which it did then minister But if his sorrow be too great it is because the man hath little or no hope 95. IX But if it happens that any man falls into an excessive sorrow his cure must be attempted not directly but collaterally not by lessening the consideration of his sins nor yet by comparing them with the greater sins of others like the grave man in the Satyr Si nullum in terris tam detestabile factum Ostendis taceo nec pugnis caedere pectus Te veto nec planâ faciem contundore palmâ Quandoquidem accepto claudenda est janua damno For this is but an instance of the other this lessens the sin indirectly but let it be done by heightning the consideration of the Divine mercy and clemency for even yet this will far exceed and this is highly to be taken heed of For besides that there is no need of taking off his opinion from the greatness of the sin it is dangerous to teach a man to despise a sin at any hand For if after his great sorrow he can be brought to think his sin little he will be the sooner brought to commit it again and think it none at all and when he shall think his sorrow to have been unreasonable he will not so soon be brought to an excellent repentance another time But the Prophets great comfort may safely be applied Misericordia Dei praevalitura est super omnem malitiam hominis Gods mercy is greater than all the malice of men and will prevail over it But this is to be applied so as to cure only the wounds of a conscience that ought to be healed that is so as to advance the reputation and glories of the Divine mercy but at no hand to create confidences in persons incompetent If the man be worthy and capable and yet tempted to a prevailing and excessive sorrow to him in this case and so far the application is to be made In other cases there is no need but some danger 96. X. Although sorrow for sin must be constant and habitual yet to particular acts of sin when a special sorrow is apportion'd it
misery 5. But that which is of special concernment is this that the Liturgy of the Church of England hath advantages so many and so considerable as not only to raise it self above the devotions of other Churches but to endear the affections of good people to be in love with Liturgy in general 6. For to the Churches of the Roman Communion we can say that ours is reformed to the reformed Churches we can say that ours is orderly and decent for we were freed from the impositions and lasting errors of a tyrannical spirit and yet from the extravagancies of a popular spirit too our reformation was done without tumult and yet we saw it necessary to reform we were zealous to cast away the old errors but our zeal was balanced with consideration and the results of authority Not like women or children when they are affrighted with fire in their clothes we shak'd off the coal indeed but not our garments lest we should have exposed our Churches to that nakedness which the excellent men of our sister Churches complained to be among themselves 7. And indeed it is no small advantage to our Liturgy that it was the off-spring of all that authority which was to prescribe in matters of Religion The King and the Priest which are the Antistites Religionis and the preservers of both the Tables joyn'd in this work and the people as it was represented in Parliament were advised withal in authorizing the form after much deliberation for the Rule Quod spectat ad omnes ab omnibus tractari debet was here observed with strictness and then as it had the advantages of discourse so also of authorities its reason from one and its sanction from the other that it might be both reasonable and sacred and free not only from the indiscretions but which is very considerable from the scandal of popularity 8. And in this I cannot but observe the great wisdom and mercy of God in directing the contrivers of the Liturgy with the spirit of zeal and prudence to allay the furies and heats of the first affrightment For when men are in danger of burning so they leap from the flames they consider not whither but whence and the first reflexions of a crooked tree are not to straightness but to a contrary incurvation yet it pleased the Spirit of God so to temper and direct their spirits that in the first Liturgy of King Edward they did rather retain something that needed further consideration than reject any thing that was certainly pious and holy and in the second Liturgy that they might also throughly reform they did rather cast out something that might with good profit have remained than not satisfie the world of their zeal to reform of their charity in declining every thing that was offensive and the clearness of their light in discerning every semblance of error or suspicion in the Roman Church 9. The truth is although they fram'd the Liturgy with the greatest consideration that could be by all the united wisdom of this Church and State yet as if Prophetically to avoid their being charg'd in after ages with a crepusculum of Religion a dark twilight imperfect Reformation they joyn'd to their own Star all the shining tapers of the other reformed Churches calling for the advice of the most eminently learned and zealous Reformers in other Kingdoms that the light of all together might shew them a clear path to walk in And this their care produced some change for upon the consultation the first form of King Edwards Service-book was approved with the exception of a very few clauses which upon that occasion were review'd and expung'd till it came to that second form and modest beauty it was in the Edition of MDLII and which Gilbertus a German approved of as a transcript of the ancient and primitive forms 10. It was necessary for them to stay some-where Christendom was not only reformed but divided too and every division would to all ages have called for some alteration or else have disliked it publickly and since all that cast off the Roman yoke thought they had title enough to be called Reformed it was hard to have pleased all the private interests and peevishness of men that called themselves friends and therefore that only in which the Church of Rome had prevaricated against the word of God or innovated against Apostolical tradition all that was par'd away But at last she fix'd and strove no further to please the people who never could be satisfied 11. The Painter that exposed his work to the censure of the common passengers resolving to mend it as long as any man could find fault at last had brought the eyes to the ears and the ears to the neck and for his excuse subscrib'd Hanc populus fecit But his Hanc ego that which he made by the rules of art and the advice of men skill'd in the same mystery was the better piece The Church of England should have par'd away all the Canon of the Communion if she had mended her piece at the prescription of the Zuinglians and all her office of Baptism if she had mended by the rules of the Anabaptists and kept up Altars still by the example of the Lutherans and not have retain'd decency by the good will of the Calvinists and now another new light is sprung up she should have no Liturgy at all but the worship of God be left to the managing of chance and indeliberation and a petulant fancy 12. It began early to discover its inconvenience for when certain zealous persons fled to Frankford to avoid the funeral piles kindled by the Roman Bishops in Queen Maries time as if they had not enemies enough abroad they fell soul with one another and the quarrel was about the Common-Prayer-Book and some of them made their appeal to the judgment of Mr. Calvin whom they prepossessed with strange representments and troubled phantasms concerning it and yet the worst he said upon the provocation of those prejudices was that even its vanities were tolerable Tolerabiles ineptias was the unhandsome Epithete he gave to some things which he was forc'd to dislike by his over-earnest complying with the Brethren of Frankford 13. Well! upon this the wisdom of this Church and State saw it necessary to fix where with advice she had begun and with counsel she had once mended And to have altered in things inconsiderable upon a new design or sullen mislike had been extreme levity and apt to have made the men contemptible their authority slighted and the thing ridiculous especially before adversaries that watch'd all opportunity and appearances to have disgraced the Reformation Here therefore it became a Law was established by an Act of Parliament was made solemn by an appendant penalty against all that on either hand did prevaricate a sanction of so long and so prudent consideration 14. But the Common-Prayer-Book had the fate of S. Paul for when it had scap'd the storms of
for conversion which was their word could signifie nothing of that But if they meant the change of substance into substance properly by conversion then they have confuted the present doctrine of Transubstantiation which though they call a substantial change yet an accident is the terminus mutationis that is it is by their explication of it wholly an accidental change as I have before discoursed for nothing is produced but Vbiquity or Presentiality that is it is only made present where it was not before And it is to be observed that there is a vast difference between Conversion and Transubstantiation the first is not denied meaning by it a change of use of condition of sanctification as a Table is changed into an Altar a House into a Church a Man into a Priest Matthias into an Apostle the Water of the River into the Laver of Regeneration But this is not any thing of Transubstantiation For in this new device there are three strange affirmatives of which the Fathers never dream'd 1. That the natural being of bread is wholly ceased and is not at all neither the matter nor the form 2. That the accidents of bread and wine remain without a subject their proper subject being annihilated and they not subjected in the holy body 3. That the body of Christ is brought into the place of the bread which is not chang'd into it but is succeeded by it These are the constituent propositions of Transubstantiation without the proof of which all the affirmations of conversion signifie nothing to their purpose or against ours 7. Seventhly When the Fathers use the word Nature in this question sometimes saying the Nature is changed sometimes that the Nature remains it is evident that they either contradicted each other or that the word Nature hath amongst them diverse significations Now in order to this I suppose if men will be determined by the reasonableness of the things themselves and the usual manners of speech and not by prejudices and prepossessions it will be evident that when they speak of the change of Nature saying that bread changes his nature it may be understood of an accidental change for that the word Nature is used for a change of accidents is by the Roman Doctors contended for when it is to serve their turns particularly in their answer to the words of Pope Gelasius and it is evident in the thing for we say a man of a good nature that is of a loving disposition It is natural to me to love or hate this or that and it is against my nature that is my custome or my affection But then as it may signifie accidents and a Natural change may yet be accidental as when water is chang'd into ice wine into vinegar yet it is also certain that Nature may mean substance and if it can by the analogie of the place or the circumstances of speech or by any thing be declared when it is that they mean a substance by using the word nature it must be certain that then substance is meant when the word nature is used distinctly from and in opposition to accidents or when it is explicated by and in conjunction with substance which observation is reducible to practice in the following testimonies of Theodoret Gelasius and others Immortalitatem dedit naturam non abstulit says S. Austin 8. Eighthly So also Whatsoever words are used by the ancient Doctors seemingly affirmative of a substantial change cannot serve their interest that now most desire it because themselves being pressed with the words of Natura and Substantia against them answer that the Fathers using these words mean them not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not naturally but Theologically that is as I suppose not properly but Sacramentally by the same account when they speak of the change of the bread into the substance of Christs body they may mean the change of substance not naturally but sacramentally so that this ought to invalidate the greatest testimony which can be alledged by them because themselves have taken from the words that sence which only must have done them advantage for if Substantia and Natura always mean naturally then their sentence is oftentimes positively condemned by the Fathers if this may mean Sacramentally then they can never without a just answer pretend from their words to prove a Natural Substantial change 9. Ninthly But that the words of the Fathers in their most hyperbolical expressions ought to be expounded Sacramentally and Mystically we have sufficient warrant from themselves affirming frequently that the name of the thing signified is given to the sign S. Cyprian affirms ut significantia significata eisdem vocabulis censeantur the same words represent the sign and the thing signified The same is affirmed by S. Austin in his Epistle ad Bonifacium Now upon this declaration of themselves and of Scripture whatsoever attributes either of them give to bread after consecration we are by themselves warranted against the force of the words by a metaphorical sence for if they call the sign by the name of the thing signified and the thing intended is called by the name of a figure and the figure by the name of the thing then no affirmative of the Fathers can conclude against them that have reason to believe the sence of the words of institution to be figurative for their answer is ready the Fathers and the Scriptures too call the figure by the name of the thing figurated the bread by the name of flesh or the body of Christ which it figures and represents 10. Tenthly The Fathers in their alledged testimonies speak more than is allowed to be literally and properly true by either side and therefore declare and force an understanding of their words different from the Roman pretension Such are the words of S. Chrysostom Thou seest him thou touchest him thou eatest him and thy tongue is made bloody by this admirable blood thy teeth are fastned in his flesh thy teeth are made red with his blood and the Author of the book de coenâ Domini attributed to S. Cyprian Cruci haeremus c. We stick close to the cross we suck his blood and fasten our tongue between the very wounds of our Redeemer and under his head may be reduced very many other testimonies now how far these go beyond the just positive limit it will be in the power of any man to say and to take into this account as many as he please even all that go beyond his own sence and opinion without all possibility of being confuted 11. Eleventhly In vain will it be for any of the Roman Doctors to alledge the words of the Fathers proving the conversion of bread into Christs body or flesh and of the wine into his blood since they say the same thing of us that we also are turned into Christs flesh and body and blood So S. Chrysostom He reduces us into the same mass
place and Religion into vanity and our hope in God to a confidence in man and our fears of hell to be a meer scare-crow to rich and confident sinners and at last it was frugally employed by a great Pope to raise a portion for a Lady the Wife of Franceschet to Cibo Bastard Son of Pope Innocent the eighth and the merchandize it self became the stakes of Gamesters at Dice and Cards and men did vile actions that they might win Indulgences by Gaming making their way to Heaven easier Now although the Holy Fathers of the Church could not be suppos'd in direct terms to speak against this new Doctrine of Indulgences because in their dayes it was not yet they have said many things which do perfectly destroy this new Doctrine and these unchristian practises For besides that they teach repentance wholly reducing us to a good life a faith that intirely relies upon Christ's merits and satisfactions a hope wholly depending upon the plain promises of the Gospel a service perfectly consisting in the works of a good conscience a labour of love a religion of justice and piety and moral vertues they do also expresly teach that pilgrimages to holy places and such like inventions which are now the earnings and price of Indulgences are not requir'd of us and are not the way of salvation as is to be seen in an Oration made by Saint Gregory Nyssene wholly against pilgrimages to Jerusalem in Saint Chrysostom Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard The sence of these Fathers is this in the words of Saint Augustine God said not Go to the East and seek righteousness sail to the West that you may receive indulgence But indulge thy brother and it shall be indulg'd to thee you have need to inquire for no other indulgence to thy sins if thou wilt retire into the closet of thy heart there thou shalt find it That is All our hopes of Indulgence is from GOD through JESVS CHRIST and is wholly to be obtain'd by faith in Christ and perseverance in good works and intire mortification of all our sins To conclude this particular Though the gains which the Church of Rome makes of Indulgences be a heap almost as great as the abuses themselves yet the greatest Patrons of this new Doctrine could never give any certainty or reasonable comfort to the Conscience of any person that could inquire into it They never durst determine whether they were Absolutions or Compensations whether they only take off the penances actually impos'd by the Confessor or potentially and all that which might have been impos'd whether all that may be paid in the Court of men or all that can or will be required by the Laws and severity of God Neither can they speak rationally to the Great Question Whether the Treasure of the Church consists of the Satisfactions of Christ only or of the Saints For if of Saints it will by all men be acknowledged to be a defeisible estate and being finite and limited will be spent sooner than the needs of the Church can be served and if therefore it be necessary to add the merits and satisfaction of Christ since they are an Ocean of infinity and can supply more than all our needs to what purpose is it to add the little minutes and droppings of the Saints They cannot tell whether they may be given if the Receiver do nothing or give nothing for them And though this last particular could better be resolv'd by the Court of Rome than by the Church of Rome yet all the Doctrines which built up the new Fabrick of Indulgences were so dangerous to determine so improbable so unreasonable or at best so uncertain and invidious that according to the advice of the Bishop of Modena the Council of Trent left all the Doctrines and all the cases of Conscience quite alone and slubber'd the whole matter both in the Question of Indulgences and Purgatory in general and recommendatory terms affirming that the power of giving Indulgence is in the Church and that the use is wholesome And that all hard and subtil Questions viz. concerning Purgatory which although if it be at all it is a fire yet is the fuel of Indulgences and maintains them wholly all that is suspected to be false and all that is uncertain and whatsoever is curious and superstitious scandalous or for filthy lucre be laid aside And in the mean time they tell us not what is and what is not Superstitious nor what is scandalous nor what they mean by the general term of Indulgence and they establish no Doctrine neither curious nor incurious nor durst they decree the very foundation of this whole matter The Churches Treasure Neither durst they meddle with it but left it as they found it and continued in the abuses and proceeded in the practice and set their Doctors as well as they can to defend all the new and curious and scandalous Questions and to uphold the gainful trade But however it be with them the Doctrine it self is prov'd to be a direct Innovation in the matter of Christian Religion and that was it which we have undertaken to demonstrate SECT IV. THE Doctrine of Purgatory is the Mother of Indulgences and the fear of that hath introduc'd these For the world happened to be abus'd like the Countrey-man in the Fable who being told he was likely to fall into a delirium in his feet was advis'd for remedy to take the juyce of Cotton He feared a disease that was not and look'd for a cure as ridiculous But if the Patent of Indulgences be not from Christ and his Apostles if upon this ground the Primitive Church never built the Superstructures of Rome must fall they can be no stronger than their Supporter Now then in order to the proving the Doctrine of Purgatory to be an Innovation 1. We consider That the Doctrines upon which it is pretended reasonable are all dubious and disputable at the very best Such are 1. Their distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in their own nature 2. That the taking away the guilt of sins does not suppose the taking away the obligation to punishment that is That when a mans sin is pardoned he may be punished without the guilt of that sin as justly as with it as if the guilt could be any thing else but an obligation to punishment for having sinned which is a Proposition of which no wise man can make sence but it is certain that it is expresly against the Word of God who promises upon our repentance so to take away our sins that he will remember them no more And so did Christ to all those to whom he gave pardon for he did not take our faults and guilt on him any other way but by curing our evil hearts and taking away the punishment And this was so perfectly believ'd by the Primitive Church that they alwayes made the penances and satisfaction to be undergone before they gave absolution and
or two forc'd tears against a good time and believe it that 's a great matter too that is not ordinary But if men lose an estate Nemo dolorem Fingit in hoc casu vestem diducere summam Contentus vexare oculos humore coacto Men need not to dissemble tears or sorrow in that case but as if men were in no danger when they are enemies to God and as if to lose Heaven were no great matter and to be cast into Hell were a very tolerable condition and such as a man might very well undergo and laugh heartily for all that they seem so unconcerned in the actions of Religion and in their obedience to the severe laws of Repentance that it looks as if men had no design in the world but to be suffered to die quietly to perish tamely without being troubled with the angry arguments of Church-men who by all means desire they should live and recover and dwell with God for ever Or if they can be forc'd to the further entertainments of Repentance it is nothing but a calling for mercy an ineffective prayer a moist cloud a resolution for to day and a solemn shower at the most Mens immota manet lachrymae volvuntur inanes The mind is not chang'd though the face be for Repentance is thought to be just as other Graces fit for their proper season like fruits in their own month but then every thing else must have its day too we shall sin and we must repent but sin will come again and so may repentance For there is a time for every thing under the Sun and the time for Repentance is when we can sin no more when every objection is answered when we can have no more excuse and they who go upon that principle will never do it till it be too late For every age hath temptations of its own and they that have been us'd to the yoke all their life time will obey their sin when it comes in any shape in which they can take any pleasure But men are infinitely abus'd and by themselves most of all For Repentance is not like the Summer fruits fit to be taken a little and in their own time it is like bread the provisions and support of our life the entertainment of every day but it is the bread of affliction to some and the bread of carefulness to all and he that preaches this with the greatest zeal and the greatest severity it may be he takes the liberty of an enemy but he gives the counsel and the assistance of a friend My Lord I have been so long acquainted with the secrets of your Spirit and Religion that I know I need not make an apology for dedicating this severe Book to you You know according to the prudence which God hath given you that he that flatters you is your enemy and you need not be flattered for he that desires passionately to be a good man and a religious to be the servant of God and be sav'd will not be fond of any vanity and nothing else can need to be flattered but I have presented to your Lordship this Discourse not only to be a testimony to the world how great a love and how great an honour I have for you but even by ascribing you into this relation to endear you the rather every day more and more to the severest Doctrines and practices of Holiness I was invited to make something of this by an Honourable Person who is now with God and who desir'd his needs should be serv'd by my Ministery But when I had entred upon it I found it necessary to do it in order to more purposes and in prosecution of the method of my other Studies All which as they are designed to Gods glory and the Ministery of Souls so if by them I can signifie my obligations to your Lordship which by your great Nobleness do still increase I shall not esteem them wholly ineffective even of some of those purposes whither they are intended for truly my Lord in whatsoever I am or can do I desire to appear My Noblest Lord Your Honours most obliged and most affectionate Servant JER TAYLOR THE PREFACE To the Right Reverend and Religious FATHERS BRIAN Lord Bishop of SARVM AND JOHN Lord Bishop of ROCHESTER And to the most Reverend and Religious Clergy of ENGLAND my dear Brethren Men Brethren and Fathers THE wiser part of Mankind hath seen so much trifling in the conduct of disputations so much partiality such earnest desires of reputation such resolution to prevail by all means so great mixture of interest in the contention so much mistaking of the main question so frequent excursions into differing matter so many personal quarrels and petty animosities so many wranglings about those things that shall never be helped that is the errors and infirmities of men and after all this which also must needs be consequent to it so little fruit and effect of questions no man being the wiser or changed from error to truth but from error to error most frequently and there are in the very vindication of truth so many incompetent uncertain and untrue things offered that if by chance some truth be gotten we are not very great gainers because when the whole account is cast up we shall find or else they that are disinterest will observe that there is more error than truth in the whole purchase and still no man is satisfied and every side keeps its own unless where folly or interest makes some few persons to change and still more weakness and more impertinencies crowd into the whole affair upon every reply and more yet upon the rejoynder and when men have wrangled tediously and vainly they are but where they were save only that they may remember they suffered infirmity and iâ— may be the transport of passions and uncharitable expressions and all this for an unrewarding interest for that which is sometimes uncertain it self unrevealed unuseful and unsatisfying that in the event of things and after being wearied for little or nothing men have now in a very great proportion left it quite off as unsatisfying waters and have been desirous of more material nourishment and of such notices of things and just assistances as may promote their eternal interest And indeed it was great reason and high time that they should do so for when they were imployed in rowing up and down in uncertain seas to find something that was not necessary it was certain they would less attend to that which was more worthy their inquiry and the enemy of mankind knew that to be a time of his advantage and accordingly sowed tares while we so slept and we felt a real mischief while we contended for an imaginary and phantastick good For things were come to that pass that it was the character of a good man to be zealous for a Sect and all of every party respectively if they were earnest and impatient of contradiction were sure to be sav'd by
a perfect grace * We must be ready to part with all for a good conscience and to die for Christ that 's perfect obedience and the most perfect love * We must conform to the Divine Will in doing and suffering that 's perfect patience we must live in all holy conversation and godliness that 's a perfect state * We must ever be going forward and growing in godliness that so we may be perfect men in Christ. * And we must persevere unto the end that 's perfection and the crown of all the rest If any thing less than this were intended it cannot be told how the Gospel should be a holy institution or that God should require of us to live a holy life but if any thing more than this were intended it is impossible but all mankind should perish 52. To the same sence are we to understand those other severe Precepts of Scripture of being pure unblameable without spot or wrinkle without fault that is that we be honest and sincere free from hypocrisie just in our purposes and actions without partiality and unhandsome mixtures S. Paul makes them to expound each other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincere that is without fault pure and clear in Conscience 53. Like to this is that of Toto corde loving and serving God with all our heart and with all our strength That this is possible is folly to deny For he that saith he cannot do a thing with all his strength that is that he cannot do what he can do knows not what he says and yet to do this is the highest measure and sublimity of Christian perfection and of keeping the Commandments But it signifies two things 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without hypocrisie sincerely and heartily opposite to that of Corde corde in the Psalmist Corde corde loquuti sunt they spake with a double heart but the men of Zebulon went out to battel absque corde corde they were not of a double heart so S. Hierome renders it but heartily or with a whole heart they did their business 2. It signifies diligence and labour earnestness and caution Totus in hoc sum so the Latines use to speak I am earnest and hearty in this affair I am wholly taken up with it 54. Thus is the whole design of the Gospel rarely abbreviated in these two words of Perfection and Repentance God hath sent Jesus to bless you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilest or so that every one of you turn from your iniquities He blesses us and we must do our duty He pardons us and we obey him He turns us and we are turned And when S. Peter had represented the terrors of the day of Judgment he infers What manner of persons ought we to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in holy living and holy worshippings This he calls a giving diligence to be found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without spot and unblameable that 's Christian perfection and yet this very thing is no other than what he calls a little before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a coming to repentance Living in holy conversation and piety in the faith of Christ is the extent and burthen of repentance and it is the limit and declaration of the spotless and unblameable This is no more and that is no less 55. Upon this account the Commandments are not only possible but easie necessary to be observed and will be exacted at our hands as they are imposed That is 1. That we abstain from all deliberate acts of sin 2. That we never contract any vicious habit 3. That if we have we quite rescind and cut them off and make amends for what is past 4. That our love to God be intire hearty obedient and undivided 5. That we do our best to understand Gods will and obey it allowing to our selves deliberately or by observation not the smallest action that we believe to be a sin Now that God requires no more and that we can do thus much and that good men from their conversion do thus much though in differing degrees is evident upon plain experience and the foregoing considerations I conclude with the words of the Arausican Council Omnes baptizati Christo auxiliante cooperante possunt debent quae ad salutem pertinent si fidelitèr laborare voluerint adimplere All baptized Christians may by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ if they will faithfully labour perform and fulfil all things that belong to their salvation 56. The summ of all is this The state of regeneration is perfection all the way even when it is imperfect in its degrees The whole state of a Christians life is a state of perfection Sincerity is the formality or the Soul of it A hearty constant endeavour is the Body or material part of it And the Mercies of God accepting it in Christ and assisting and promoting it by his Spirit of Grace is the third part of its constitution it is the Spirit This perfection is the perfection of Men not of Angels oand it is as in the perfection of Glory where all are perfect yet all are not equal Every regenerate man hath that perfection without which he cannot be accepted but some have this perfection more some less It is the perfection of state but the perfection of degrees is not yet Here men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made perfect according to the measure of their Fathers as Porphyrie express'd it that is by the measures of mortality or as it pleases God to enable and accept them SECT IV. The former Doctrine reduc'd to Practice 1. THE Law is either taken for the Law of Moses or the Law of Works The Law of Works is that Empire and Dominion which God exercised over man using his utmost right and obliging man to the rigorous observation of all that Law he should impose upon him And in this sence it was a law of death not of life for no man could keep it and they that did not might not live This was impos'd on Adam only 2. But when God brought Israel out of Egypt he began to make a Covenant with them with some compliance to their infirmities For because little things could not be avoided Sacrifices were appointed for their expiation which was a mercy as the other was a misery a repentance as the sin But for great sins there was no Sacrifice appointed no repentance ministred And therefore still we were in the ministration of death for this mercy was not sufficient as yet it was not possible for a man to be justified by the Law It threatned sinners with death it inflicted death it did not promise eternal life it ministred no grace but fear and temporal hope It was written in Tables of stone not in their hearts that is the material parts of the Law of Moses were not consonant to natural and essential reason but arbitrary impositions they were not perfective of a man but
call upon us to wait at supper and for all this we are to expect only impunity and our daily provisions And upon this account if we should have performed the Covenant of Works we could not have been justified But then there is a sort of working and there are some such servants which our Lord uses magis ex aequo bono quà m ex Imperio with the usages of sons not of slaves or servants He will gird himself and serve them he will call them friends and not servants these are such as serve animo liberali such which Seneca calls humiles amicos humble friends serving as S. Paul expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the simplicity of their heart not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with eye-service but honestly heartily zealously and affectionately 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. Peter freely readily not grudgingly or of necessity 16. XII The proper effect of this is that all the perfect do their services so that their work should fail rather than their minds that they do more than is commanded Exiguum est ad legem bonum esse To be good according to the rigour of the law to do what we are forcâ—d to to do all that is lawful to do and to go toward evil or danger as far as we can these are no good signs of a filial spirit this is not Christian perfection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That slaves consider This is commanded and must be done under horrible pains and such are the negative precepts of the Law and the proper duties of every mans calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is an act of piety of mine own choosing a righteousness that I delight in that is the voice of sons and good servants and that 's rewardable with a mighty grace And of this nature are the affirmative precepts of the Gospel which being propounded in general terms and with indefinite proportions for the measures are left under our liberty and choice to signifie our great love to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Chrysostome Whatsoever is over and above the Commandments that shall have a great reward God forbids unmercifulness he that is not unmerciful keeps the Commandment but he that besides his abstinence from unmercifulness according to the commandment shall open his hand and his heart and give plentifully to the poor this man shall have a reward he is amongst those servants whom his Lord will make to sit down and himself will serve him When God in the Commandment forbids uncleanness and fornication he that is not unchast and does not pollute himself keeps the Commandment But if to preserve his chastity he uses fasting and prayer if he mortifies his body if he denies himself the pleasures of the world if he uses the easiest or the harder remedies according to the proportion of his love and industry especially if it be prudent so shall his greater reward be If a man out of fear of falling into uncleanness shall use austerities and find that they will not secure him and therefore to ascertain his duty the rather shall enter into a state of marriage according as the prudence and the passion of his desires were for God and for purity so also shall his reward be To follow Christ is all our duty but if that we may follow Christ with greater advantages we quit all the possessions of the world this is more acceptable because it is a doing the Commandment with greater love We must so order things that the Commandment be not broken but the difference is in finding out the better ways and doing the duty with the more affections 17. Now in this case they are highly mistaken that think any thing of this nature is a work of supererogation For all this is nothing but a pursuance of the commandment For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Commandment is taken in a general sence for the prescription of whatsoever is pleasing and acceptable to God whatsoever he will reward with mighty glories So loving God with all our heart with all our soul and all our mind and all our strength is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first and the great Commandment that is nothing is more pleasing nothing more acceptable to God because it proceeds out of an excellent love But some Commandments are propounded as to friends some as to servants some under the threatning of horrible pains others not so but with the proposition and under the invitation of glorious rewards It was commanded to S. Paul to preach the Gospel if he had not obeyed he should have perished Wo is me saith he if I preach not the Gospel he was bound to do it But he had another Commandment also to love God as much as was possible and to love his neighbour which precepts were infinite and of an unlimited signification and therefore were lest to every servants choice to do them with his several measures of affection and zeal He that did most did the Commandment best and therefore cannot be said to do more than was commanded but he that does less if he preaches the Gospel though with a less diligence and fewer advantages he obeys the Commandment but not so nobly as the other For example God Commands us to pray He obeys this that constantly and devoutly keeps his morning and evening Sacrifice offering devoutly twice a day He that prays thrice a day does better and he that prays seven times a day hath done no work of supererogation but does what he does in pursuance of the Commandment All the difference is in the manner of Doing what is commanded for no man can do more than he is commanded But some do it better some less perfectly but all is comprehended under this Commandment of loving God with all our hearts When a father commands his children to come to him he that comes slowly obeys the commandment but he that runs does obey more willingly and readily now though to come running was left to the choice of the childs affection yet it was but a brisk pursuance of the commandment Thus when he that is bound to pay Tithes gives the best portion or does it cheerfully without contention in all questions taking the worse of the thing and the better of the duty does what he is commanded and he does it with the affection of a son and of a friend he loves his duty Be angry but sin not so it is in the Commandment but he that to avoid the sin will endeavour not to be angry at all is the greater friend of God by how much the further he stands off from sin Thus in all doubts to take the surest side to determine always for Religion when without sin we might have determin'd for interest to deny our selves in lawful things to do all our duty by the measures of Love and of the Spirit are instances of this filial obedience and are rewarded by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a perswasion and confidence
of Gods love to us enabling us to call him Father as well as Lord. Thus this Parable or one like it is told in the book of Hermas The Lord commanded his servant to put pales about his vineyard He did so and digg'd a ditch besides and rooted out all the weeds which when his Lord observ'd he made him coheir with his son When S. Paul exhorted the Corinthians to give a free contribution to the poor Saints at Jerusalem he invites to do it nobly and cheerfully not as of constraint for Gods Commandment nam'd not the summ neither can the degree of affection be nam'd but yet God demands all our affection Now in all the affirmative Precepts the duty in the lowest degree is that which is now made necessary under the loss of all our hopes of Eternity but all the further degrees of the same duty are imposed upon the condition of greater rewards and other collateral advantages of duty When Hystaspes ask'd Cyrus the Persian why he preferr'd Chrysantas before him since he did obey all his Commands The Prince answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysantas does not stay till he is called and he does not only what is commanded but what is best what he knows is most pleasing to me So does every perfect man according to the degrees of his love and his perfection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The righteousness of a perfect man consists not in legal innocence but in love and voluntary obedience This is that charity which is the glory of Christianity the crown of all other graces that which makes all the external works of obedience to be acceptable and every act of the most excellent piety and devotion is a particular of that grace and therefore though it is highly acceptable yet it is also commanded in the general and in the sence before explicated and he that does no more than he is particularly commanded obeys God as a Lion obeys his keeper meat and stripes are all the endearments of his peace and services Qui manet ut moneatur semper servos homo officium suum Non voluntate id facere meminit servos is habitu haud probus est The servant that must be called upon at every step is but an unprofitable and unworthy person To do only what we are commanded will never bring us to the portion and inheritance of Sons We must do this chearfully and we must do more even contend to please God with doing that which is the righteousness of God striving for perfection till perfection it self becomes perfect still obeying that law of Sons Love the Lord with all thy heart till our charity it self is crown'd Therefore 19. XIII Let no man propound to himself a limit of duty saying he will go so far and go no further For the Commandment is infinite and though every good man obeys it all the way of his holy conversation yet it shall not be finish'd till his life is done But he that stints himself to a certain measure of love hath no love at all for this grace grows for ever and when the object is infinite true love is not at rest till it hath possess'd what is infinite and therefore towards that there must be an infinite progression never stopp'd never ceasing till we can work no more 20. XIV Let every man be humbled in the sense of his failings and infirmities Multum in hâc vitâ ille profecit qui quà m longè sit à perfectione justitiae proficiendo cognovit said S. Austin It is a good degree of perfection to have proceeded so far as well to know and observe our own imperfections The Scripture concludes all under sin not only because all have fail'd of the Covenant of Works of the exactness of obedience but by reason of their prevarication of that law which they can obey And indeed no man could be a sinner but he that breaks that law which he could have kept We were all sinners by the Covenant of works but that was in those instances where it might have been otherwise For the Covenant of Works was not impossible because it consisted of impossible Commandments for every Commandment was kept by some or other and all at some times but therefore it was impossible to be kept because at some time or other men would be impotent or ignorant or surpris'd and for this no abatement was made in that Covenant But then since in what every man could help he is found to be a sinner he ought to account it a mighty grace that his other services are accepted In pursuance of this 21. XV. Let no man boast himself in the most glorious services and performances of Religion Qui in Ecclesiâ semper gloriosè granditer operati sunt opus suum Domino nunquam imputaverunt as S. Cyprian's expression is They who have greatly serv'd God in the Church and have not been forward to exact and challenge their reward of God they are such whom God will most certainly reward For humility without other external works is more pleasing to God than pride though standing upon heaps of excellent actions It is the saying of S. Chrysostome * For if it be as natural to us to live according to the measures of reason as for beasts to live by their nature and instinct what thanks is due to us for that more than to them for this And therefore one said well Ne te jactes si benè servisti Obsequitur Sol obtemperat Luna Boast not if thou hast well obeyed The Sun and the Moon do so and shall never be rewarded * But when our selves and all our faculties are from God he hath power to demand all our services without reward and therefore if he will reward us it must wholly be a gift to us that he will so crown our services * But he does not only give us all our being and all our faculties but makes them also irriguous with the dew of his Divine Grace sending his holy Son to call us to repentance and to die to obtain for us pardon and resurrection and eternal life sending his holy Spirit by rare arguments and aids external and internal to help us in our spiritual contentions and difficulties So that we have nothing of our own and therefore can challenge nothing to our selves * But besides these considerations many sins are forgiven to us and the service of a whole life cannot make recompence for the infinite favour of receiving pardon * Especially since after our amendment and repentance there are remaining such weaknesses and footsteps of our old impieties that we who have daily need of the Divine Mercy and Pity cannot challenge a reward for that which in many degrees needs a pardon for if every act we do should not need some degrees of pardon yet our persons do in the periods of our imperfect workings * But after all this all that we can do is no advantage to God he is not
profited or obliged by our services no moments do thence accrew to his felicities and to challenge a reward of God or to think our best services can merit heaven is as if Galileo when he had found out a Star which he had never observed before and pleased himself in his own fancy should demand of the Grand Signior to make him king of Tunis for what is he the better that the studious man hath pleased himself in his own Art and the Turkish Empire gets no advantages by his new Argument * And this is so much the more material if we consider that the littleness of our services if other things were away could not countervail the least moment of Eternity and the poor Countrey man might as well have demanded of Cyrus to give him a Province for his handful of river water as we can expect of God to give us Heaven as a reward of our good works 22. XVI But although this rule relying upon such great and convincing grounds can abolish all proud expectations of reward from God as a debtor for our good works yet they ought not to destroy our modest confidence and our rejoycings in God who by his gracious promises hath not only obliged himself to help us if we pray to him but to reward us if we work For our God is merciful he rewardeth every man according to his work so said David according to the nature and graciousness of the work not according to their value and proper worthiness not that they deserve it but because God for the communication of his goodness was pleased to promise it Promissum quidem ex misericordiâ sed ex justitiâ persolvendum said S. Bernard Mercy first made the promise but justice pays the debt Which words were true if we did exactly do all that duty to which the reward was so graciously promised but where much is to be abated even of that little which was bound upon us by so glorious promises of reward there we can in no sence challenge Gods justice but so as it signifies equity and is mingled with the mercies of the chancery Gratis promisit gratis reddit So Ferus God promised freely and pays freely If therefore thou wilt obtain grace and favour make no mention of thy deservings And yet let not this slacken thy work but reinforce it and enlarge thy industry since thou hast so gracious a Lord who of his own meer goodness will so plentifully reward it 23. XVII If we fail in the outward work let it be so ordered that it be as little imputable to us as we can that is let our default not be at all voluntary but wholly upon the accounts of a pityable infirmity For the Law was a Covenant of Works such as they were but the mind could not make amends within for the defect without But in the Gospel it is otherwise for here the will is accepted for the fact in all things where the fact is not in our power But where it is there to pretend a will is hypocrisie Nequam illud verbum est benè vult nisi qui benè facit said the Comedian This rule is our measure in the great lines of duty in all negative Precepts and in the periods of the law of Christ which cannot pass by us without being observed But in the material and external instances of duty we may without our fault be disabled and therefore can only be supplied with our endeavours and desires But that is our advantage we thus can perform all Gods will acceptably For if we endeavour all that we can and desire more and pursue more it is accepted as if we had done all for we are accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not Unless we can neither endeavour nor desire we ought not to complain of the burthen of the Divine Commandments For to endeavour truly and passionately to desire and contend for more is obedience and charity and that is the fulfilling of the Commandments Matter for Meditation out of Scripture according to the former Doctrine The Old Covenant or the Covenant of Works IN that day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Cursed in every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the law to do them And thou shalt write upon stones all the words of this law very plainly Thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day to the right hand or to the left But it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes then shall all these curses come upon thee and overtake thee And if you will not be reformed by these things but will walk contrary unto me then will I also walk contrary unto you and will punish you yet seven times for your sins He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses The New Covenant or the Covenant of Grace WE are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God * To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus * Where is boasting then it is excluded by what law of works Nay but by the law of faith * Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For as many as are led by the Spirit they are the sons of God * Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God * And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall not he with him also freely give us all things Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people all shall know me from the least to the greatest * For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away all things are become new And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when Christ had been preached all the obfirmation and obstinacy of mind by which they shut their eyes against that light all that was choice and interest or passion and was to be rescinded by Repentance But Conversion was the word indifferently used concerning the change both of Jews and Gentiles because they both abounded in iniquity and did need this change called by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a redemption from all iniquity by S. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conversion from wickedness 10. In analogy and proportion to these Repentances and Conversions of Jews and Gentiles the Repentances of Christians may be called Conversion We have an instance of the word so used in the case of S. Peter When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren that is when thou art returned from thy folly and sin of denying the Lord do thou confirm thy brethren that they may not fall as thou hast done This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conversion from vanity and impiety or injustice when a person of any evil life returns to his duty and his undertaking in Baptism from the unregenerate to the regenerate estate that is from habitual sin to habitual grace But the Repentances of good men for their sins of infirmity or the seldom interruptions of a good life by single falls is not properly Conversion But as the distance from God is from whence we are to retire so is the degree of our Conversion The term from whence is various but the term whither we go is the same All must come to God through Jesus Christ in the measures and strictness of the Evangelical holiness which is that state of Repentance I have been now describing which is A perfect abrenunciation of all iniquity and a sincere obedience in the faith of Jesus Christ which is the result of all the foregoing considerations and usages of words and is further manifested in the following appellatives and descriptions by which Repentance is signified and recommended to us in Scripture 11. I. It is called Reconciliation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God that is to be friends with him no longer to stand in terms of distance for every habitual sinner every one that provokes him to anger by his iniquity is his enemy not that every sinner hates God by a direct hate but as obedience is love so disobedience is enmity or hatred by interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enemies in their mind by wicked works So S. Paul expresses it and therefore the reconciling of these is to represent them holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight Pardon of sins is the least part of this reconciliation Our sins and our sinfulness too must be taken away that is our old guilt and the remanent affections must be taken off before we are friends of God And therefore we find this reconciliation press'd on our parts we are reconciled to God not God to us For although the term be relative and so signifies both parts as conjunction and friendship and society and union do yet it pleased the Spirit of God by this expression to signifie our duty expresly and to leave the other to be supposed because if our parts be done whatsoever is on Gods part can never fail And 2. Although this reconciliation begins on Gods part and he first invites us to peace and gave his Son a Sacrifice yet Gods love is very revocable till we are reconciled by obedience and conformity 12. II. It is called Renewing and that either with the connotation of the subject renewed or the cause renewing The renewing of the Holy Ghost and the renewing of the mind or the spirit of the mind The word is exactly the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a change of mind from worse to better as it is distinguished from the fruits and effects of it So be renewed in your mind that is throw away all your foolish principles and non-sence propositions by which you use to be tempted and perswaded to sin and inform your mind with wise notices and sentences of God That ye put off concerning the old conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness which is an excellent description of Repentance In which it is observable that S. Paul uses two words more to express the greatness and nature of this change and conversion It is 13. III. A new Creature The new Man Created in Righteousness for the state of Repentance is so great an alteration that in some sence it is greater than the Creation because the things created had in them no opposition to the power of God but a pure capacity obediential but a sinner hath dispositions opposite to the Spirit of Grace and he must unlearn much before he can learn any thing He must die before he can be born Nam quodcunque suis mutatum finibus exit Continuò hoc mors est illius quod fuit anté Lucret. Our sins the body of sin the spirit of uncleanness the old man must be abolished mortified crucified buried our sins must be laid away we must hate the garments spotted with the flesh and our garments must be whitened in the blood of the Lamb our hearts must be purged from an evil conscience purified as God is pure that is as S. Paul expresses it from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit denying or renouncing all ungodliness and worldly lusts 14. And then as the antithesis or consequent of this is when we have laid away our sin and renounced ungodliness We must live godly righteously and soberly in this present world we must not live either to the world or to our selves but to Christ Hic dies aliam vitam adfert alios mores postulat Our manner of life must be wholly differing from our former vanities so that the life which we now live in the flesh we must live by the faith of the Son of God that is according to his Laws and most holy Discipline 15. This is pressed earnestly upon us by those many Precepts of obedience to God to Christ to the holy Gospel to the Truth to the Doctrine of Faith * of doing good doing righteousness doing the truth * serving in the newness of the Spirit * giving our members up as servants of righteousness unto holiness * being holy in all conversations * following after peace with all men and holiness being followers of good works providing things hones◠in the sight of God and men abhorring evil and cleaving to that which is good * perfecting holiness in the fear of God to be perfect in every good work * being filled with the fruits of righteousness walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being
God is created in righteousness and true holiness Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be not ye therefore partakers with them * For ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light * For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth * Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord * And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them * See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise * Redeeming the time because the days are evil * Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ fitteth on the right hand of God Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth * For ye are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God * Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry * But now you also pâ—t off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth * Lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds * And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world * Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ * Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God * Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord * Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the ingraffed word which is able to save your souls * But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust And besides this giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge * And to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness * And to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity * For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. * But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance * But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation * Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed The indispensable necessity of a good life represented in the following Scriptures WHosoever breaketh one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven And why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of God Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life * But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath * Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile * But glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ * Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Furthermore then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more * For ye know what Commandments we gave by the Lord Jesus * For this is the will of God even your sanctification As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a Father doth
can they be differenc'd but by something that is besides the nature of the action it self A thought of theft and an unclean thought have nothing by which they can excel each other but when you cloath them with the dress of active circumstances they grow greater or less respectively because then two or three sins are put together and get a new name 7. III. There is but one way more by which sins can get or lose degrees and that is the different proportions of our affections This indeed relates to God more immediately and by him alone is judg'd but the former being invested with material circumstances can be judg'd by men But all that God reserves for his own portion of the Sacrifice is the Heart that is our love and choice and therefore the degrees of love or hatred is that measure by which God makes differing judgments of them For by this it is that little sins become great and great sins become little If a Jew had maliciously touch'd a dead body in the days of Easter it had been a greater crime than if in the violence of his temptation he had unwillingly will'd to commit an act of fornication He that delights in little thefts because they are breaches of Gods Law or burns a Prayer-book because he hates Religion is a greater criminal than he that falls into a material heresie by an invincible or less discerned deception Secure but to God your affections and he will secure your innocence or pardon for men live or die by their own measures If a man spits in the face of a Priest to defie Religion or shaves the beard of an Embassador to disgrace the Prince as it hapned to Davids Messengers his sin is greater than if he kill'd the Priest in his own just defence or shot the Embassador through the heart when he intended to strike a Lion For every negligence every disobedience being against Charity or the love of God by interpretation this superaddition of direct malice is open enmity against him and therefore is more severely condemned by him who sees every thought and degrees of passion and affection For the increase of malice does aggravate the sin just as the complication of material instances Every degree of malice being aâ— distinct and commensurate a sin as any one external instance that hath a name and therefore many degrees of malice combine and grow greater as many sins conjoyn'd in one action they differ only in Nature not in Morality just as a great number and a great weight So that in effect all sins are differenc'd by complication only that is either of the external or the internal instances 8. IV. Though the negligence or the malice be naturally equal yet sometimes by accident the sins may be unequal not only in the account of men but also before God too but it is upon the account of both the former It is when the material effect being different upon men God hath with greater caution secur'd such interests So that by interpretation the negligence is greater because the care was with greater earnestness commanded or else because in such cases the sin is complicated for such sins which do most mischief have besides their proper malignity the evil of uncharitableness or haâ—ing our brother In some cases God requires one hand and in others both Now he that puts but one of his fingers to each of them his negligence is in nature the same but not in value because where more is required the defect was greater If a man be equally careless of the life of his Neighbours Son and his Neighbours Cock although the will or attendance to the action be naturally equal that is none at all yet morally and in the divine account they differ because the proportions of duty and obligation were different and therefore more ought to have been put upon the one than upon the other just as he is equally clothed that wears a single garment in Summer and Winter but he is not equally warm unless he that wears a silk Mantle when the Dog-star rages claps on Furrs when the cold North-star changes the waters into rocks 9. V. Single sins done with equal affection or disaffection do not differ in degrees as they relate to God but in themselves are equally prevarications of the Divine Commandment As he tells a lie that says the Moon is foursquare as great as he that says there were but three Apostles or that Christ was not the Son of Man and as every lie is an equal sin against truth so every sin is an equal disobedience and recession from the Rule But some lies are more against Charity or Justice or Religion than others are and so are greater by complication but against truth they are all equally oppos'd and so are all sins contrary to the Commandment And in this sence is that saying of S. Basil Primò enim scire illud convenit differentiam minorum majorum nusquam in Novo Testamento reperiri Siquidem una est eadem sententia adversus quaelibet peccata cum Dominus dixerit Qui facit peccatum servus est peccati item Sermo quem loquutus sum vobis ille judicabit eum in Novissimo die Johannes â—ociferans dicat Qui contumax est in filium non videbit vitam aeternam sed ira Dei manet super eum cum contumacia non in discrimine peccatorum sed in violatione praecepti positam habeat futuri supplicii denunciationem The difference of great and little sins is no where to be found in the New Testament One and the same sentence is against all sins our Lord saying He that doth sin is the servant of sin and the word that I have spoken that shall judge you in the last day and John crieth out saying He that is disobedient to the Son shall not see eternal life but the wrath of God abideth on him for this contumacy or disobedience does not consist in the difference of sins but in the violation of the Divine Law and for that it is threatned with eternal pain But besides these Arguments from Scripture he adds an excellent Reason Prorsus autem si id nobis permittitur ut in peccatis hoc magnum illud exiguum appellemus invicto argumento concluditur magnum micâ—ique esse illud à quo quisque superatur contráque exiguum quod unusquisque ipse superat Vt in athletis qui vicit fortis est qui autem victus est imbecillior eo unde victus est quisque ille sit If it be permitted that men shall call this sin great and that sin little they will conclude that to be great which was too strong for them and that to be little which they can master As among Champions he is the strongest that gets the victory And then upon this account no sin is Venial that a man commits because that is it which hath prevail'd upon and master'd all his strengths 10. The instance is
infinite repetition of the acts of all those are as Davids expression is without hyperbole more than the hairs upon our head they are like the number of the sands upon the Sea shore for multitude SECT VI. What repentance is necessary for the smaller or more Venial sins 56. I. UPON supposition of the premises since these smaller sins are of the same nature and the same guilt and the same enmity against God and consign'd to the same evil portion that other sins are they are to be wash'd off with the same repentance also as others Christs blood is the lavatory and Faith and Repentance are the two hands that wash our souls white from the greatest and the least stains and since they are by the impenitent to be paid for in the same fearful prisons of darkness by the same remedies and instruments the intolerable sentence can only be prevented The same ingredients but a less quantity possibly may make the medicine Caesarius Bishop of Arles who spake many excellent things in this article says that for these smaller sins a private repentance is proportionable Si levia fortasse sunt delicta v. g. si homo vel in sermone vel in aliquâ reprehensibili voluntate si in oculo peccavit aut corde verborum cogitationum maculae quotidianâ oratione curandae privatâ compunctione terendae sunt The sins of the eye and the sins of the heart and the offences of the tongue are to be cured by secret contrition and compunction and a daily prayer But S. Cyprian commends many whose conscience being of a tender complexion they would even for the thoughts of their heart do publick penance His words are these multos timoratae conscientiae quamvis nullo sacrificii aut libelli facinore constricti essent quoniam tamen de hoc vel cogitaverunt hoc ipsum apud Sacerdotes Dei dolenter simplicitèr confitentes exomologesin conscientiae fecisse animi sui pondus exposuisse salutarem medelam parvis licet modicis vulneribus exquirentes Because they had but thought of complying with idolaters they sadly and ingenuously came to the Ministers of holy things Gods Priests confessing the secret turpitude of their conscience laying aside the weight that pressed their spirit and seeking remedy even for their smallest wounds And indeed we find that among the Ancients there was no other difference in assignation of repentance to the several degrees of sin but only by publick and private Capital sins they would have submitted to publick judgment but the lesser evils to be mourn'd for in private of this I shall give account in the Chapter of Ecclesiastical repentance In the mean time their general rule was That because the lesser sins came in by a daily incursion therefore they were to be cut off by a daily repentance which because it was daily could not be so intense and signally punitive as the sharper repentances for the seldome returning sins yet as the sins were daily but of less malice so their repentance must be daily but of less affliction Medicamento quotidianae poenitentiae dissecentur That was S. Austins rule Those evils that happen every day must be cried out against every day 57. II. Every action of repentance every good work done for the love of God and in the state of grace and design'd and particularly applied to the intercision of the smallest unavoidable sins is through the efficacy of Christs death and in the vertue of repentance operative towards the expiation or pardon of them For a man cannot do all the particulars of repentance for every sin but out of the general hatred of sin picks out some special instances and apportions them to his special sins as to acts of uncleanness he opposes acts of severity to intemperance he opposes fasting But then as he rests not here but goes on to the consummation of Repentance in his whole life so it must be in the more venial sins A less instance of express anger is graciously accepted if it be done in the state of grace and in the vertue of Repentance but then the pardon is to be compleated in the pursuance and integrity of that grace in the Summes total For no man can say that so much sorrow or such a degree of Repentance is enough to any sin he hath done and yet a man cannot apportion to every sin large portions of special sorrow it must therefore be done all his life time and the little portions must be made up by the whole grace and state of Repentance One instance is enough particularly to express the anger or to apply the grace of Repentance to any single sin which is not among the Capitals but no one instance is enough to extinguish it For sin is not pardon'd in an instant as I shall afterwards discourse neither is the remedy of a natural and a just proportion to the sin Therefore when many of the ancient Doctors apply to venial sins special remedies by way of expiation or deprecation such as are beating the breast saying the Lords Prayer Alms communicating confessing and some others the doctrine of such remedies is not true if it be understood that those particulars are just physically or meritoriously proportion'd to the sin No one of these alone is a cure or expiation of the past sin but every one of these in the vertue of Repentance is effective to its part of the work that is he that repents and forsakes them as he can shall be accepted though the expression of his Repentance be applied to his fault but in one or more of these single instances because all good works done in the Faith of Christ have an efficacy towards the extinction of those sins which cannot be avoided by any moral diligence there is no other thing on our parts which can be done and if that which is unavoidable were also irremediable our condition would be intolerable and desperate To the sence of this advice we have the words of S. Gregory Si quis ergo peccata sua tecta esse desiderat Deo ea per vocem confessionis ostendat c. If any man desires to have his sins covered let him first open them to God in confession but there are some sins which so long as we live in this world can hardly or indeed not at all be wholly avoided by perfect men For holy men have something in this life which they ought to cover for it is altogether impossible that they should never sin in word or thought Therefore the men of God do study to cover the faults of their eyes or tongue with good deeds they study to over-power the number of their idle words with the weight of good works But how can it be that the faults of good men should be covered when all things are naked to the eyes of God but only because that which is covered is put under something is brought over it Our sins are covered when we bring
endeavour it but a studying how to circumvent him and an habitual design of getting advantage upon his weakness a watching him where he is most easie and apt for impression and then striking him upon the unarm'd part But this is brought to effect by DECEIT 7. Cùm aliud simulatur aliud agitur alterius decipiendi causâ said Vlpian and Aquilius that is all dissembling to the prejudice of thy Neighbour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any thing designed to thy Neighbours disadvantage by simulation or dissimulation VNCLEANNESS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. Stinking So the Syriack Interpreter renders it and it means obscene actions But it signifies all manner of excess or immoderation and so may signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prodigal or lavish expences and immoderate use of permitted pleasures even the excess of liberty in the use of the Marriage-bed For the Ancients use the word not only for unchaste but for great and excessive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are exceeding fat and a Goat with great horns is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is luxuria or the excess of desire in the matter of pleasures Every excess is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is intemperance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a special kind of crime under this It means all voluntary pollutions of the body or WANTONNESS 9. That is all tempting foolish gestures such which Juvenal reproves Cheironomon Ledam molli seltante Bathyllo which being presented in the Theatre would make the Vestal wanton Every thing by which a man or woman is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abominable in their lusts to which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lusts not to be named are reducible amongst which S. Paul reckons the effeminate and abusers of themselves with mankind that is they that do and they that suffer such things Philoctetes and Paris Caesar and the King of Pontus Mollities or softness is the name by which this vice is known and the persons guilty of it are also called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The abominable HATRED 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great but transient angers The cause and the degree and the abode makes the anger Criminal By these two words are forbidden all violent passion fury revengefulness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The enemy and the avenger says David But not this only but the misliking and hating of a man though without actual designs of hurting him is here noted that is when men retain the displeasure and refuse to converse or have any thing to do with the man though there be from him no danger of damage the former experiment being warning enough The forbearing to salute him to be kind or civil to him and every degree of anger that is kept is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a part of Enmity or Hatred To this are reduc'd the Vnmerciful that is such as use their right in extream severity towards Servants and Malefactors Criminal or obnoxious persons and the Implacable that is a degree beyond such who being once offended will take no satisfaction but the utmost and extremest forfeiture DEBATE CONTENTIONS 11. That is all striving in words or actions scolding and quarrels in which as commonly both parties are faulty when they enter so it is certain they cannot go forth from them without having contracted the guilt of more than one sin whither is reduced clamour or loud expressions of anger Clamour is the horse of anger said S. Chrysostom anger rides upon it throw the horse down and the rider will fall to the ground Blasphemy backbiting we read it but the Greek signifies all words that are injurious to God or Man WHISPERERS 12. That is such who are apt to do shrewd turns in private a speaking evil of our Neighbour in a mans ear Hic nigrae succus loliginis haec est Aerugo mera this is an arrow that flieth in the dark it wounds secretly and no man can be warned of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 backbiters it is the same mischief but it speaks out a little more than the other and it denotes such who pretend friendship and society but yet traduce their friend or accuse him secretly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Polybius calls it a new way of accusation to undermine a man by praising him that you seeming his friend a lover of his vertue and his person by praising him may be the more easily believed in reporting his faults like him in Horace who was glad to hear any good of his old friend Capitolinus whom he knew so well who had so kindly obliged him Sed tamen admiror quo pacto Judicium illud Fugerit but yet I wonder that he escaped the Judges Sentence in his Criminal cause There is a louder kind of this evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Railers that 's when the smoke is turned into a flame and breaks out it is the same iniquity with another circumstance it is the vice of women and boys and rich imperious fools and hard rude Masters to their Servants and it does too often infect the spirit and language of a Governour Our Bibles read this word by Despiteful that notes an aptness to speak spiteful words cross and untoward such which we know will do mischief or displease FOOLISHNESS 13. Which we understand by the words of S. Paul Be not foolish but understanding what the will of the Lord is It means a neglect of enquiring into holy things a wilful or careless ignorance of the best things a not studying our Religion which indeed is the greatest folly and sottishness it being a neglecting of our greatest interests and of the most excellent notices and it is the fountain of many impure emanations A Christian must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must not call fool nor be a fool Heady is reduc'd to this and signifies rash and indiscreet in assenting and dissenting people that speak and do foolishly because they speak and do without deliberation PRIDE 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a despising of others if compared with our selves so Theophrastus calls it Concerning which we are to judge our selves by the voices of others and by the consequent actions observable in our selves any thing whereby we overvalue our selves or despise others preferring our selves or depressing them in unequal places or usages is the signification of this vice which no man does heartily think himself guilty of but he that is not that is the humble man A particular of this sin is that which is in particular noted by the Apostle under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 arrogance or bragging which includes pride and hypocrisie together for so Plato defines it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pretending to excellencies which we have not a desiring to seem good but a carelesness of being so reputation and fame not goodness being the design To this may be referred Emulations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Apostle calls them zeals it signifies immoderate love to a lawful
habit virtually and transcendently An act of this charity will not do this but the habit will For he that does a single act of charity may also doe a single act of malice and he that denies this knows not what he says nor ever had experience of himself or any man else For if he that does an act of charity that is he who by a good motion from Gods Spirit does any thing because God hath commanded to say that this man will do every thing which is so commanded is to say that a good man can never fall into a great sin which is evidently untrue But if he that does one act in obedience to God or in love to him for obedience is love will also do more then every man that does one act to please his senses may as well be supposed that he will do more and then no mans life should have in it any variety but be all of a piece intirely good or intirely evil I see no difference in the instances neither can there be so long as a man in both states hath a power to chuse But then it will follow that a single act of contrition or of charity cannot put a man into the state of the Divine favour it must be the grace or habit of charity and that is a magazine of habits by equivalency and is formally the state of grace And upon these accounts if old men will repent and do what they can do and are enabled in that state they have no cause to be afflicted with too great fears concerning the instances of their habits or the sins of their youth Concerning persons that are seis'd upon by a lingring sickness I have nothing peculiar to say save this only That their case is in something better than that of old men in some things worse It is better because they have in many periods of their sickness more hopes of returning to health and long life than old men have of returning to strength and youth and a protracted age and therefore their repentance if it be hearty hath in it also more degrees of being voluntary and relative to a good life But in this their case is worse An old man that is healthful is better seated in the station of penitents and because he can chuse contraries is the more acceptable if he chuses well But the sick man though living long in that disadvantage cannot be indifferent in so many instances as the other may and in this case it is remarkable what S. Austin said Si autem vis agere poenitentiam quando jam peccare non potes peccata te dimiserunt non tu illa To abstain from sin when a man cannot sin is to be forsaken by sin not to forsake it At the best it is bad enough But I doubt not but if they do what they can do there is mercy for them which they shall find in the day of recompences 67. Obj. 7. But how shall any man know whether he have perform'd his repentance as he ought For if it be necessary that he get the habits of vertue and extirpate the habits of vice that is if by habits God do and we are to make judgments of our repentance who can be certain that his sins are pardon'd and himself reconcil'd to God and that he shall be sav'd The reasons of his doubts and fears are these 1. Because it is a long time before a habit can be lost and the contrary obtain'd 2. Because while one habit lessens another may undiscernibly increase and it may be a degree of covetousness may expel a degree of prodigality 3. Because a habit may be lurking secretly and for want of opportunity of acting in that instance not betray it self or be discover'd or attempted to be cur'd For he that was not tempted in that kind where he sinn'd formerly may for ought he knows say that he hath not sinn'd only because he was not tempted but if that be all the habit may be resident and kill him secretly These things must be accounted for 70. I. But to him that inquires whether it be light or darkness in what regions his inheritance is design'd and whether his Repentance is sufficient I must give rather a reproof than an answer or at least such an answer as will tell there is no need of an answer For indeed it is not good inquiring into measures and little portions of grace * Love God with all thy heart and all thy strength do it heartily and do it always If the thing be brought to pass clearly and discernibly the pardon is certain and notorious But if it be in a middle state between ebbe and floud so is our pardon too and if in that undiscerned state it be in the thing certain that thou art on the winning and prevailing side if really thou dost belong unto God he will take care both of thy intermedial comfort and final interest * But when people are too inquisitive after comfort it is a sign their duty is imperfect In the same proportion also it is not well when we enquire after a sign for our state of grace and holiness If the habit be compleat and intire it is as discernible as light and we may as well enquire for a sign to know when we are hungry and thirsty when you can walk or play on the lute The thing it self is its best indication 71. II. But if men will quarrel at any truth because it supposes some men to be in such a case that they do not know certainly what will become of them in the event of things I know not how it can be help'd I am sure they that complain here that is the Roman Doctors are very fierce Preachers of the certainty of salvation or of our knowledge of it But be they who they will since all this uncertainty proceeds not from the doctrine but from the evil state of things into which habitual sinners have put themselves there will be the less care taken for an answer But certainly it seems strange that men who have liv'd basely and viciously all their days who are respited from an eternal Hell by the miracles of mercy concerning whom it is a wonderful thing that they had not really perished long before that these men returning at the last should complain of hard usage because it cannot be told to them as confidently as to new baptized Innocents that they are certain of their salvation as S. Peter and S. Paul * But however both they and better men than they must be content with those glorious measures of the Divine mercy which are described and upon any terms be glad to be pardon'd and to hope and fear to mourn and to be afflicted to be humbled and to tremble and then to work out their salvation with fear and trembling 72. III. But then to advance one step further there may be a certainty where is no evidence that is the thing may be certain in it self though
production and that in their case they cannot be the beginnings of a succeeding duty and piety because for want of time it never can succeed * That there are some conditions and states of life which God hath determined never to pardon * That there is a sin unto death for which because we have no incouragement to pray it is certain there is no hope for it is impossible but it must be very fit to pray for all them to whom the hope of pardon is not precluded * That there is in Scripture mention made of an ineffective repentance and of a repentance to be repented of and that the repentance of no state is so likely to be it as this * That what is begun and produc'd wholly by affrighâ—ment is not esteem'd matter of choice nor a pleasing sacrifice to God * That they who sow to the flesh shall reap in the flesh and the final judgment shall be made of every man according to his works * That the full and perfect descriptions of repentance in Scripture are heaps and conjugations of duties which have in them difficulty and require time and ask labour * That those insinuations of duty in Scripture of the need of patience and diligence and watchfulness and the express precepts of perseverance do imply that the office and duty of a Christian is of a long time and business and a race * That repentance being the renewing of a holy life it should seem that on our death-bed the day for repentance is past since no man can renew his life when his life is done no man can live well when he cannot live at all * and therefore to place our hopes upon a death-bed repentance only is such a religion as satisfies all our appetites and contradicts none and yet promises heaven at last * These things I say are all either notorious and evident or expresly affirmed in Scripture and therefore that in the ordinary way of things in the common expectation of events such persons are in a very sad condition 26. So that it remains that in this sad condition there must be some extraordinary way found out or else this whole inquiry is at an end Concerning which all that I can say is this 1. God hath an Almighty power and his mercy is as great as his power He can doe miracles of mercy as well as miracles of mightiness And this S. Austin brings in open pretence against desperation O homo quicunque illam multitudinem peccatorum attendis cur omnipotentiam coelestis medici non attendis Thy sins are great but Gods mercies are greater But this does represent the mans condition at the best to be such that God may if he will have mercy upon him but whether he will or no there is as yet no other certainty or probability but that he can if he please which proposition to an amazed timorous person that fears a hell the next hour is so dry a story so hopeless a proposition that all that can be said of this is that it is very fit that no man should ever put it to the venture For upon this argument we may as well comfort our selves upon him that died without repenting at all But the inquiry must be further 27. II. All mankind all the Doctors of the Church for very many ages at least some few of the most Ancient and of the Modern excepted have been apt to give hopes to such persons and no man bids them absolutely despair Let such persons make use of this easiness of men thereby to retain so much hope as to make them call upon God and not to neglect what can then be done Spem retine spes una hominem nec morte relinquit As long as there is life there is hope and when a man dies let him not despair for there is a life after this and a hope proper to that and amidst all the evils that the Ancients did fabulously report to be in Pandora's box they wittily plac'd Hope on the utmost lip of it and extremity Vivere spe vidi qui moriturus erat And S. Cyprian exhorts old Demetrianus to turn Christian in his old age and promises him salvation in the name of Christ and though his case and that of a Christian who entred into promises and Covenants of obedience be very different yet ad immortalitatem sub ipsâ morte transitur a passing from such a repentance to immortality although it cannot be hoped for upon the just accounts of express promise yet it is not too great to hope from Gods mercy and untill that which is infinite hath a limit a repenting mans hopes in this world cannot be wholly at an end 28. III. We find that in the battels which were fought by the Maccabees some persons who fought on the Lords side and were slain in the fight were found having on their breasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pendants consecrate to the idols of the Jamnenses and yet the good people of their party made oblation for them hoping that they might be partakers of a blessed resurrection They that repent heartily but one hour are in a better condition than the other that died in their sin though with the advantage of fighting in a good cause and if good people will not leave hoping for such persons it is not fit that themselves should 29. IV. He that considers Gods great love to Mankind * the infinite love that God hath to his holy Son Jesus and yet that he sent him to die for every man * and that the holy Jesus does now and hath for very many ages prayed for the pardon of our sins that he knows how horrible those pains are which are provided for perishing souls and therefore that he is exceeding pitiful and desirous that we should escape them * and that God did give one extraordinary example of saving a dying penitent the Thief upon the Cross and though that had something in it extraordinary and miraculous yet that is it which is now expected a favour extraordinary a miraculous mercy * And that Christ was pleased to speak a parable of comfort and the Master of the Vineyard did pay salary to him that began to work at the eleventh hour and though that was some portion of his life the twelfth part of it and the man was not call'd sooner yet there may be something in it of comfort to the dying penitent since it looks something like it it certainly relates to old men and can do them comfort and possibly the merciful intention of it is yet larger * and that since God is so well pleased with repentance it may be he will abate the circumstance of time Nec ad rem pertinet ubi inciperet quod placuerat ut fieret and he will not consider when that begins which he loves should be done * And that he is our Father and paulum supplicii satis est Patri a Father will chastise but will not kill his son * And
mercies give us pardon and thy holy Spirit give us perseverance and thy infinite favour bring us to glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. X. Of Ecclesiastical Penance or The fruits of Repentance SECT I. 1. THE fruits of Repentance are the actions of spiritual life and signifie properly all that piety and obedience which we pay to God in the days of our return after we have begun to follow sober counsels For since all the duty of a Christian is a state of Repentance that is of contention against sin and the parts and proper periods of victory and Repentance which includes the faith of a Christian is but another word to express the same grace or mercies of the Evangelical Covenant it follows that whatsoever is the duty of a Christian and a means to possess that grace is in some sence or other a Repentance or the fruits of Gods mercy and our endeavours And in this sence S. John the Baptist means it saying Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance that is since now the great expectation of the world is to be satisfied and the Lord 's Christ will open the gates of mercy and give Repentance to the world see that ye live accordingly in the faith and obedience of God through Jesus Christ. That did in the event of things prove to be the effect of that Sermon 2. But although all the parts of holy life are fruits of Repentance when it is taken for the state of favour published by the Gospel yet when Repentance is a particular duty or vertue the integral parts of holy life are also constituent parts of Repentance and then by the fruits of Repentance must be meant the less necessary but very useful effects and ministeries of Repentance which are significations and exercises of the main duty And these are sorrow for sins commonly called Contrition Confession of them and Satisfactions by which ought to be meant an opposing a contrary act of vertue to the precedent act of sin and a punishing of our selves out of sorrow and indignation for our folly And this is best done by all those acts of Religion by which God is properly appeased and sin is destroyed that is by those acts which signifie our love to God and our hatred to sin such as are Prayer and Alms and forgiving injuries and punishing our selves that is a forgiving every one but our selves 3. Many of these I say are not essential parts of Repentance without the actual exercise of which no man in any case can be said to be truly penitent for the constituent parts of Repentance are nothing but the essential parts of obedience to the Commandments of God that is direct abstinence from evil and doing what is in the Precept But they are fruits and significations exercises and blessed productions of Repentance useful to excellent purposes of it and such from which a man cannot be excused but by great accidents and rare contingencies To visit prisoners and to redeem captives and to instruct the ignorant are acts of charity but he that does not act these special instances is not always to be condemn'd for want of charity because by other acts of grace he may signifie and exercise his duty He only that refuses any instances because the grace is not operative he only is the Vncharitable but to the particulars he can be determin'd only by something from without but it is sufficient to the grace it self that it works where it can or where it is prudently chosen So it is in these fruits of Repentance He that out of hatred to sin abstains from it and out of love to God endeavours to keep his Commandments he is a true penitent though he never lie upon the ground or spend whole nights in prayer or make himself sick with fasting but he that in all circumstances refuses any or all of these and hath not hatred enough against his sin to punish it in himself when to do so may accidentally be necessary or enjoyned he hath cause to suspect himself not to be a true penitent 4. No one of these is necessary in the special instance except those which are distinctly and upon their own accounts under another precept as Prayer and forgiving injuries and self-affliction in general and Confession But those which are only apt ministeries to the grace which can be ministred unto equally by other instances those are left to the choice of every one or to be determin'd or bound upon us by accidents and by the Church But every one of the particulars hath in it something of special consideration SECT II. Of Contrition or godly Sorrow 5. IN all repentances it is necessary that we understand some sorrow ingredient or appendant or beginning To repent is to leave a sin which because it must have a cause to effect it can begin no where but where the sin is for some reason or other disliked that is because it does a mischief It is enough to leave it that we know it will ruine us if we abide in it but that is not enough to make us grieve for it when it is past and quitted For if we believe that as soon as ever we repent of it we shall be accepted to pardon and that infallibly and that being once forsaken it does not and shall not prejudice us he that considers this and remembers it was pleasant to him will scarce find cause enough to be sorrowful for it Neither is it enough to say he must grieve for it or else it will do him mischief For this is not true for how can sorrow prevent the mischief when the sorrow of it self is not an essential duty or if it were so in it self yet by accident it becomes not to be so for by being unreasonable and impossible it becomes also not necessary not a duty To be sorrowful is not always in our power any more than to be merry and both of them are the natural products of their own objects and of nothing else and then if sin does us pleasure at first and at last no mischief to the penitent to bid them be sorrowful lest it should do mischief is as improper a remedy as if we were commanded to be hungry to prevent being beaten He that felt nothing but the pleasure of sin and is now told he shall feel none of its evils and that it can no more hurt him when it is forsaken than a Bee when the sting is out if he be commanded to grieve may justly return in answer that as yet he perceives no cause 6. If it be told him it is cause enough to grieve that he hath offended God who can punish him with sad unsufferable and eternal torments This is very true But if God be not angry with him and he be told that God will not punish him for the sin he repents of then to grieve for having offended God is so Metaphysical and abstracted a speculation that there must be something else in
faciem ejus in confessione let us prevent his anger by sentencing our selves or if we do not let us follow the sad accents of the angry voice of God and imitate his justice by condemning that which God condemns and suffering willingly what he imposes and turning his judgments into voluntary executions by applying the suffering to our sins and praying it may be sanctified For since God smites us that we may repent if we repent then we serve the end of the Divine judgment and when we perceive God smites our sin if we submit to it and are pleased that our sin is smitten we are enemies to it after the example of God and that is a good act of repentance 114. IV. For the quality or kind of penances this is the best measure Those are the best which serve most ends not those which most vex us but such which will most please God If they be only actions punitive and vindictive they do indeed punish the man and help so far as they can to destroy the sin but of these alone S. Paul said well Bodily exercise profiteth but little but of the latter sort he added but Godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come and this indeed is our exactest measure Fastings alone lyings upon the ground disciplines and direct chastisements of the body which have nothing in them but toleration and revenge are of some use they vex the body and crucifie the sinner but the sin lives for all them but if we add prayer or any action symbolical as meditation reading solitariness silence there is much more done towards the extinction of the sin But he that adds Alms or something that not only is an act contrary to a former state of sin but such which is apt to deprecate the fault to obey God and to do good to men he hath chosen the better part which will not easily be taken from him Fasting prayer and alms together are the best penances or acts of exterior repentance in the world If they be single fasting is of the least force and alms done in obedience and the love of God is the best 115. V. For the quantity of penances the old rule is the best that I know but that it is too general and indefinite It is S. Cyprian's Quà m magna deliquimus tam granditèr defleamus If our sins were great so must our sorrow or penances be As one is so must be the other For sorrow and penances I reckon as the same thing in this question save only that in some instances of corporal inflictions the sin is opposed in its proper matter as intemperance is by fasting effeminacy by suffering hardships whereas sorrow opposes it only in general and in some other instances of penances there is a duty distinctly and directly serv'd as in prayer and alms But although this rule be indefinite and unlimited we find it made more minute by Hugo de S. Victore Si in correctione minor est afflictio quà m in◠culpâ fuit delectatio non est dignus poenitentiae tuae fructus Our sorrow either in the direct passion or in its voluntary expressions distinctly or conjunctly must at least equal the pleasure we took in the committing of a sin And this rule is indeed very good if we use it with these cautions First that this be understood principally in our repentances for single sins for in these only the rule can be properly and without scruple applied where the measures can be best observed For in habitual and long courses of sin there is no other measures but to do very much and very long and until we die and never think our selves safe but while we are doing our repentances Secondly that this measure be not thought equal commutation for the sin but be only used as an act of deprecation and repentance of the hatred of sin and opposition to it For he that sets a value upon his punitive actions of repentance and rests in them will be hasty in finishing the repentance and leaving it off even while the sin is alive For in these cases it is to be regarded that penances or the punitive actions of repentance are not for the extinction of the punishment immediately but for the guilt That is there is no remains of punishment after the whole guilt is taken off but the guilt it self goes away by parts and these external actions of repentance have the same effect in their proportion which is wrought by the internal Therefore as no man can say that he hath sufficiently repented of his sins by an inward sorrow and hatred so neither can he be secure that he hath made compensation by the suffering penances for if one sin deserves an eternal Hell it is well if upon the account of any actions and any sufferings we be at last accepted and acquitted 116. VI. In the performing the punitive parts of external repentance it is prudent that we rather extend them than intend them that is let us rather do many single acts of several instances than dwell upon one with such intension of spirit as may be apt to produce any violent effects upon the body or the spirit In all these cases prudence and proportion to the end is our best measures For these outward significations of repentance are not in any kind or instance necessary to the constitution of repentance but apt and excellent expressions and significations exercises and ministeries of repentance Prayer and Alms are of themselves distinct duties and therefore come not in their whole nature to this reckoning but the precise acts of corporal punishment are here intended And that these were not necessary parts of repentance the Primitive Church believed and declared by absolving dying persons though they did not survive the beginnings of their publick repentance But that she enjoyn'd them to suffer such severities in case they did recover she declar'd that these were useful and proper exercises and ministeries of the Grace it self And although inward repentance did expiate all sins even in the Mosaical Covenant yet they had also a time and manner of its solemnity their day of expiation and so must we have many But if any man will refuse this way of repentance I shall only say to him the words of S. Paul to them who rejected the Ecclesiastical customs and usages We have no such Custom neither the Churches of God But let him be sure that he perform his internal repentance with the more exactness as he had need look to his own strengths that refuses the assistance of auxiliaries But it is not good to be too nice and inquisitive when the whole Article is matter of practice For what doth God demand of us but inward sincerity of a returning penitent obedient heart and that this be exercised and ministred unto by fit and convenient offices to that purpose This is all and from this we are to make
a rare reason for it is so certain that it did not perish in a sinner that this thing only is it by which they do sin especially when they delight in their sin and by the love of sin that thing is pleasing to them which they list to do And therefore when we are charged with sin it is worthy of inquiry whence it is that we are sinners Is it by the necessity of Nature or by the liberty of our Will If by nature and not choice then it is good and not evil for whatsoever is our Nature is of Gods making and consequently is good but if we are sinners by choice and liberty of will whence had we this liberty If from Adam then we have not lost it but if we had it not from him then from him we do not derive all our sin for by this liberty alone we sin If it be replied that we are free to sin but not to good it is such a foolery and the cause of the mistake so evident and so ignorant that I wonder any man of Learning or common sence should own it For if I be free to evil then I can chuse evil or refuse it If I can refuse it then I can do good for to refuse that evil is good and it is in the Commandment Eschew evil but if I cannot chuse or refuse it how am I free to evil For Voluntas and Libertas Will and Liberty in Philosophy are not the same I may will it when I cannot will the contrary as the Saints in Heaven and God himself wills good they cannot will evil because to do so is imperfection and contrary to felicity but here is no liberty for liberty is with power to do or not to do to do this or the contrary and if this liberty be not in us we are not in the state of obedience or of disobedience which is the state of all them who are alive who are neither in Hell nor Heaven For it is to many purposes useful that we consider that in natural things to be determined shews a narrowness of being and therefore liberty of action is better because it approaches nearer to infinity But in moral things liberty is a direct imperfection a state of weakness and supposes weakness of reason and weakness of love the imperfection of the Agent or the unworthiness of the object Liberty of will is like the motion of a Magnetick needle toward the North full of trepidation till it be fixt where it would fain dwell for ever Either the object is but good in one regard or we have but an uncertain apprehension or but a beginning love to it or it could never be that we could be free to chuse that is to love it or not to love it And therefore it is so far from being true that by the fall of Adam we lost our liberty that it is more likely to be the consequent of it as being a state of imperfection proper indeed to them who are to live under Laws and to such who are to work for a reward and may fail of it but cannot go away till we either lose all hopes of good by descending into Hell or are past all fear or possibility of evil by going to Heaven But that this is our case if I had no other argument in the world and were never so prejudicate and obstinate a person I think I should be perfectly convinced by those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 7.37 The Apostle speaks of a good act tending not only to the keeping of a Precept but to a Counsel of perfection and concerning that he hath these words Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his Virgin doth well The words are plain and need no explication If this be not a plain liberty of choice and a power of will those words mean nothing and we can never hope to understand one anothers meaning But if sin be avoidable then we have liberty of choice If it be unavoidable it is not imputable by the measures of Laws and Justice what it is by Empire and Tyranny let the Adversaries inquire and prove But since all Theology all Schools of learning consent in this that an invincible or unavoidable ignorance does wholly excuse from sin why an invincible and an unavoidable necessity shall not also excuse I confess I have not yet been taught But if by Adam's sin we be so utterly indisposed disabled and opposite to all good wholly inclined to evil and from hence come all actual sins that is That by Adam we are brought to that pass that we cannot chuse but sin it is a strange severity that this should descend upon Persons otherwise most innocent and that this which is the most grievous of all evils For prima maxima peccantium poena est peccâsse said Seneca To be given over to sin is the worst calamity the most extreme anger never inflicted directly at all for any sin as I have other-where proved and not indirectly but upon the extremest anger which cannot be supposed unless God be more angry with us for being born Men than for chusing to be sinners The Consequent of these Arguments is this That our faculties are not so wholly spoiled by Adams fall but that we can chuse good or evil that our nature is not wholly disabled and made opposite to all good But to nature are left and given as much as to the handmaid Agar nature hath nothing to do with the inheritance but she and her sons have gifts given them and by nature we have Laws of Vertue and inclinations to Vertue and naturally we love God and worship him and speak good things of him and love our Parents and abstain from incestuous mixtures and are pleased when we do well and affrighted within when we sin in horrid instances against God all this is in Nature and much good comes from Nature Neque enim quasi lassa effaeta natura est ut nihil jam laudabile pariat Nature is not so old so obsolete and dried a trunk as to bring no good fruits upon its own stock and the French-men have a good proverb Bonus sanguis non mentitur a good blood never lies and some men are naturally chast and some are abstemious and many are just and friendly and noble and charitable and therefore all actual sins do not proceed from this sin of Adam for if the sin of Adam left us in liberty to sin and that this liberty was before Adams fall then it is not long of Adams fall that we sin by his fall it should rather be according to their principles that we cannot chuse but do this or that and then it is no sin But to say that our actual sins should any more proceed from Adams fall than Adams fall should proceed from it self is not to be imagined for
is worth a little Peace every day of the week and caeteris paribus Truth is to be preferred before Peace not every trifling truth to a considerable peace But if the truth be material it makes recompence though it brings a great noise along with it and if the breach of Peace be nothing but that men talk in Private or declaim a little in publick truly Madam it is a very pitiful little proposition the discovery of which in truth will not make recompence for the pratling of disagreeing Persons Truth and Peace make an excellent yoke but the truth of God is always to be preferred before the Peace of men and therefore our Blessed Saviour came not to send Peace but a Sword That is he knew his Doctrine would cause great divisions of heart but yet he came to perswade us to Peace and Unity Indeed if the truth be clear and yet of no great effect in the lives of men in government o◠in the honour of God then it ought not to break the Peace That is it may not run out of its retirement to disquiet them to whom their rest is better than that knowledge But if it be brought out already it must not be deserted positively though peace goes away in its stead So that Peace is rather to be deserted than any truth should be renounced or denied but Peace is rather to be procured or continued than some Truth offered This is my sence Madam when the case is otherwise than I suppose it to be at present For as for the present case there must be two when there is a falling out or a peace broken and therefore I will secure it now for let any man dissent from me in this Article I will not be troubled at him he may do it with liberty and with my charity If any man is of my opinion I confess I love him the better but if he refuses it I will not love him less after than I did before but he that dissents and reviles me must expect from me no other kindness but that I forgive him and pray for him and offer to reclaim him and that I resolve nothing shall ever make me either hate him or reproach him And that still in the greatest of his difference I refuse not to give him the Communion of a Brother I believe I shall be chidden by some or other for my easiness and want of fierceness which they call Zeal but it is a fault of my nature a part of my Original sin Vnicuique dedit vitium Natura Creato Mî Natura aliquid semper amare dedit Propert. Some weakness to each man by birth descends To me too great a kindness Nature lends But if the peace can be broken no more than thus I suppose the truth which I publish will do more than make recompence for the noise that in Clubs and Conventicles is made over and above So long as I am thus resolved there may be injury done to me but there can be no duel or loss of Peace abroad For a single anger or a displeasure on one side is not a breach of Peace on both and a War cannot be made by fewer than a bargain can in which always there must be two at least Object 3. But as to the thing If it be inquired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what profit what use what edification is there what good to souls what honour to God by this new explication of the Article I answer That the usual Doctrines of Original sin are made the great foundation of the horrible proposition concerning absolute Reprobation the consequences of it reproach God with injustice they charge God foolishly and deny his goodness and his Wisdom in many instances And whatsoever can upon the account of the Divine Attributes be objected against the fierce way of Absolute Decrees all that can be brought for the reproof of their usual Propositions concerning Original sin For the consequences are plain and by them the necessity of my Doctrine and its usefulness may be understood For 1. If God decrees us to be born sinners Then he makes us to be sinners and then where is his goodness 2. If God does damn any for that he damns us for what we could not help and for what himself did and then where is his Justice 3. If God sentence us to that Damnation which he cannot in justice inflict where is his Wisdom 4. If God for the sin of Adam brings upon us a necessity of sinning where is our liberty where is our Nature what is become of all Laws and of all Vertue and vice How can Men be distinguished from Beasts or the Vertuous from the vicious 5. If by the fall of Adam we are so wholly ruined in our faculties that we cannot do any good but must do evil how shall any man take care of his ways or how can it be supposed he should strive against all vice when he can excuse so much upon his Nature or indeed how shall he strive at all For if all actual sins are derived from the Original and which is unavoidable and yet an Unresistible cause then no man can take care to avoid any actual sin whose cause is natural and not to be declined And then where is his Providence and Government 6. If God does cast Infants into Hell for the sin of others and yet did not condemn Devils but for their own sin where is his love to mankind 7. If God chuseth the death of so many Millions of Persons who are no sinners upon their own stock and yet swears that he does not love the death of a sinner viz. sinning with his own choice how can that he credible he should love to kill Innocents and yet should love to spare the Criminal Where then is his Mercy and where is his Truth 8. If God hath given us a Nature by derivation which is wholly corrupted then how can it be that all which God made is good For though Adam corrupted himself yet in propriety of speaking we did not but this was the Decree of God and then where is the excellency of his providence and Power where is the glory of the Creation Because therefore that God is all goodness and justice and wisdom and love and that he governs all things and all men wisely and holily and according to the capacities of their Natures and Persons that he gives us a wise Law and binds that Law on us by promises and threatnings I had reason to assert these glories of the Divine Majesty and remove the hinderances of a good life since every thing can hinder us from living well but scarcely can all the Arguments of God and man and all the Powers of Heaven and Hell perswade us to strictness and severity Qui serere ingenuum volet agrum Liberet arva priùs fruticibus Falce rubos silicemque resecet Vt novâ fruge gravis Ceres eat Boeth lib. 3. Metr 1. He that will sow his field with hopeful
disposition are prepared for all Mankind according as any one can receive them We see thiâ— best exemplified by two instances and expressions of friendships and charity viz. Alms and Prayers Every one that needs relief is equally the object of our Charity but though to all mankind in equal needs we ought to be alike in charity yet we signifie this severally and by limits and distinct measures the poor man that is near me he whom I meet he whom I love he whom I fancy he who did me benefit he who relates to my family he rather than another because my expressions being finite and narrow and cannot extend to all in equal significations must be appropriate to those whose circumstances best fit me and yet even to all I give my Alms to all the world that needs them I pray for all mankind I am grieved at every sad story I hear I am troubled when I hear of a pretty Bride murthered in her bride-chamber by an ambitious and enrag'd Rival I shed a tear when I am told that a brave King was misunderstood then slandered then imprisoned and then put to death by evil men and I can never read the story of the Parisian Massacre or the Sicilian Vespers but my blood curdles and I am disorder'd by two or three affections A good man is a friend to all the world and he is not truly charitable that does not wish well and do good to all mankind in what he can But though we must pray for all men yet we say special Litanies for brave Kings and holy Prelates and the wise Guides of Souls for our Brethren and Relations our Wives and Children The effect of this consideration is that the Universal friendship of which I speak must be limited because we are so In those things where we stand next to Immensity and Infinity as in good wishes and prayers and a readiness to benefit all mankind in these our friendships must not be limited But in other things which pass under our hand and eye our voices and our material exchanges our hands can reach no further but to our arms end and our voices can but sound till the next air be quiet and therefore they can have entercourse but within the sphere of their own activity our needs and our conversations are served by a few and they cannot reach to all where they can â—hey must but where it is impossible it cannot be necessary It must therefore follow that our friendships to mankind may admit variety as does our conversation and as by nature we are made sociable to all so we are friendly but as all cannot actually be of our society so neither can all be admitted to a special actual friendship Of some entercourses all men are capable but not of all Men can pray for one another and abstain from doing injuries to all the world and be desirous to do all mankind good and love all men Now this friendship we must pay to all because we can but if we can do no more to all we must shew our readiness to do more good to all by actually doing more good to all them to whom we can To some we can and therefore there are nearer friendships to some than to others according as there are natural or civil nearnesses relations and societies and as I cannot express my friendships to all in equal measures and significations that is as I cannot do benefits to all alike so neither am I tied to love all alike For although there is much reason to love every man yet there are more reasons to love some than others and if I must love because there is reason I should then I must love more where there is more reason and where there 's a special affection and a great readiness to do good and to delight in certain persons towards each other there is that special charity and indearment which Philosophy calls Friendship but our Religion calls Love or Charity Now if the inquiry be concerning this special friendship 1. How it can be appropriate that is who to be chosen to it 2. How far it may extend that is with what expressions signified 3. How conducted The answers will depend upon such considerations which will be neither useless nor unpleasant 1. There may be a special friendship contracted for any special excellency whatsoever because friendships are nothing but love and society mixt together that is a conversing with them whom we love now for whatsoever we can love any one for that we can be his friend and since every excellency is a degree of amability every such worthiness is a just and proper motive of friendship or loving conversation But yet in these things there is an order and proportion Therefore 2. A Good man is the best friend and therefore soonest to be chosen longer to be retain'd and indeed never to be parted with unless he cease to be that for which he was chosen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where vertue dwells there friendships make But evil neighbourhoods forsake But although Vertue alone is the worthiest cause of amability and can weigh down any one consideration and therefore to a man that is vertuous every man ought to be a friend yet I do not mean the severe and philosophical excellencies of some morose persons who are indeed wise unto themselves and exemplar to others By Vertue here I do not mean Justice and Temperance Charity and Devotion for these I am to love the man but friendship is something more than that Friendship is the nearest love and the nearest society of which the persons are capable Now Justice is a good entercourse for Merchants as all men are that buy and sell and Temperance makes a Man good company and helps to make a wise man But a perfect Friendship requires something else these must be in him that is chosen to be my friend but for these I do not make him my privado that is my special and peculiar friend But if he be a good man then he is properly fitted to be my correlative in the noblest combination And for this we have the best warrant in the world For a just man scarcely will a man die the Syriack interpreter reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an unjust man scarcely will a man die that is a wicked man is at no hand fit to receive the expression of the greatest friendship but all the Greek copies that ever I saw or read of read it as we do for a righteous man or a just man that is justice and righteousness is not the nearest indearment of friendship but for a good man some will even dare to die that is for a man that is sweetly disposed ready to do acts of goodness and to oblige others to do things useful and profitable for a loving man a beneficent bountiful man one who delights in doing good to his friend such a man may have the highest friendship he may have
a friend that will die for him And this is the meaning of Laelius Vertue may be despised so may Learning and Nobility At una est amicitia in rebus humanis de cujus utilitate omnes consentiunt only Friendship is that thing which because all know to be useful and profitable no man can despise that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goodness or beneficence makes friendships For if he be a good man he will love where he is beloved and that 's the first tie of friendship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That was the commendation of the bravest friendship in Theocritus They lov'd each other with a love That did in all things equal prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The world was under Saturn's reign When he that lov'd was lov'd again For it is impossible this nearness of friendship can be where there is not mutual love but this is secured if I chuse a good man for he that is apt enough to begin alone will never be behind in the relation and correspondency and therefore I like the Gentiles Litany well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let God give friends to me for my reward Who shall my love with equal love regard Happy are they who when they give their heart Find such as in exchange their own impart But there is more in it than this felicity amounts to For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good man is a profitable useful person and that 's the band of an effective friendship For I do not think that Friendships are Metaphysical nothings created for contemplation or that men or women should stare upon each others faces and make dialogues of news and prettinesses and look babies in one anothers eyes Friendship is the allay of our sorrows the ease of our passions the discharge of our oppressions the Sanctuary to our calamities the counsellor of our doubts the clarity of our minds the emission of our thoughts the exercise and improvement of what we meditate And although I love my friend because he is worthy yet he is not worthy if he can do no good I do not speak of accidental hindrances and misfortunes by which the bravest man may become unable to help his Child but of the natural and artificial capacities of the man He only is fit to be chosen for a friend who can do those offices for which friendship is excellent For mistake not no man can be loved for himself our perfections in this world cannot reach so high it is well if we would love God at that rate and I very much fear that if God did us no good we might admire his Beauties but we should have but a small proportion of love towards him and therefore it is that God to endear the obedience that is the love of his servants signifies what benefits he gives us what great good things he does for us I am the Lord God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt and does Job serve God for nought and he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder all his other greatnesses are objects of fear and wonder it is his goodness that makes him lovely and so it is in friendships He only is fit to be chosen for a friend who can give counsel or defend my cause or guide me right or relieve my need or can and will when I need it do me good only this I add into the heaps of doing good I will reckon loving me for it is a pleasure to be beloved But when his love signifies nothing but kissing my cheek or talking kindly and can go no further it is a prostitution of the bravery of friendship to spend it upon impertinent people who are it may be loads to their families but can never ease my loads but my friend is a worthy person when he can become to me instead of God a guide or a support an eye or a hand a staff or a rule There must be in friendship something to distinguish it from a Companion and a Country-man from a School-fellow or a Gossip from a Sweet-heart or a Fellow-traveller Friendship may look in at any one of these doors but it stays not any where till it come to be the best thing in the world And when we consider that one man is not better than another neither towards God nor towards Man but by doing better and braver things we shall also see that that which is most beneficent is also most excellent therefore those friendships must needs be most perfect where the friends can be most useful For men cannot be useful but by worthinesses in the several instances a fool cannot be relied upon for counsel nor a vicious person for the advantages of vertue nor a begger for relief nor a stranger for conduct nor a tatler to keep a secret nor a pitiless person trusted with my complaint nor a covetous man with my childes fortune nor a false person without a witness nor a suspicious person with a private design nor him that I fear with the treasures of my love But he that is wise and vertuous rich and at hand close and merciful free of his money and tenacious of a secret open and ingenuous true and honest is of himself an excellent man and therefore fit to be loved and he can do good to me in all capacities where I can need him and therefore is fit to be a friend I confess we are forced in our friendships to abate some of these ingredients but full measures of friendship would have full measures of worthiness and according as any defect is in the foundation in the relation also there may be imperfection and indeed I shall not blame the friendship so it be worthy though it be not perfect not only because friendship is charity which cannot be perfect here but because there is not in the world a perfect cause of perfect friendship If you can suspect that this discourse can suppose friendship to be mercenary and to be defective in the greatest worthiness of it which is to love our friend for our friends sake I shall easily be able to defend my self because I speak of the election and reasons of chusing friends after he is chosen do as nobly as you talk and love as purely as you dream and let your conversation be as metaphysical as your discourse and proceed in this method till you be confuted by experience yet till then the case is otherwise when we speak of chusing one to be my friend He is not my friend till I have chosen him or loved him and if any man enquires whom he shall chuse or whom he should love I suppose it ought not to be answered that we should love him who hath least amability that we should chuse him who hath least reason to be chosen But if it be answered he is to be chosen to be my friend who is
most worthy in himself not he that can do most good to me I say here is a distinction but no difference for he is most worthy in himself who can do most good and if he can love me too that is if he will do me all the good he can or that I need then he is my friend and he deserves it And it is impossible from a friend to separate a will to do me good and therefore I do not chuse well if I chuse one that hath not power for if it may consist with the nobleness of friendship to desire that my friend be ready to do me benefit or support it is not sence to say it is ignoble to desire he should really do it when I need and if it were not for pleasure or profit we might as well be without a friend as have him Among all the pleasures and profits the sensual pleasure and the matter of money are the lowest and the least and therefore although they may sometimes be used in friendship and so not wholly excluded from the consideration of him that is to chuse yet of all things they are to be the least regarded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When fortune frowns upon a man A friend does more than money can For there are besides these many profits and many pleasures and because these only are sordid all the other are noble and fair and the expectations of them no disparagements to the best friendships For can any wise or good man be angry if I say I chuse this man to be my friend because he is able to give me counsel to restrain my wandrings to comfort me in my sorrows he is pleasant to me in private and useful in publick he will make my joys double and divide my grief between himself and me For what else should I chuse For being a fool and useless for a pretty face or a smooth chin I confess it is possible to be a friend to one that is ignorant and pitiable handsome and good for nothing that eats well and drinks deep but he cannot be a friend to me and I love him with a fondness or a pity but it cannot be a noble friendship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Menander By wine and mirth and every days delight We chuse our friends to whom we think we might Our souls intrust but foools are they that lend Their bosom to the shadow of a friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch calls such friendships the Idols and Images of friendship True and brave friendships are between worthy persons and there is in Mankind no degree of worthiness but is also a degree of usefulness and by every thing by which a man is excellent I may be profited and because those are the bravest friends which can best serve the ends of friendships either we must suppose that friendships are not greatest comforts in the world or else we must say he chuses his friend best that chuses such a one by whom he can receive the greatest comforts and assistances 3. This being the measure of all friendships they all partake of excellency according as they are fitted to this measure a friend may be counselled well enough though his friend be not the wisest man in the world and he may be pleased in his society though he be not the best natured man in the world but still it must be that something excellent is or is apprehended or else it can be no worthy friendship because the choice is imprudent and foolish Chuse for your friend him that is wise and good and secret and just ingenuous and honest and in those things which have a latitude use your own liberty but in such things which consist in an indivisible point make no abatements That is you must not chuse him to be your friend that is not honest and secret just and true to a tittle but if he be wise at all and useful in any degree and as good as you can have him you need not be ashamed to own your friendships though sometimes you may be ashamed of some imperfections of your friend 4. But if you yet enquire further whether Fancy may be an ingredient in your choice I answer that Fancy may minister to this as to all other actions in which there is a liberty and variety and we shall find that there may be peculiarities and little partialities a friendship improperly so called entring upon accounts of an innocent passion and a pleas'd fancy even our Blessed Saviour himself loved S. John and Lazarus by a special love which was signified by special treatments and of the young man that spake well and wisely to Christ it is affirmed Jesus loved him that is he fancied the man and his soul had a certain cognation and similitude of temper and inclination For in all things where there is a latitude every Faculty will endeavour to be pleased and sometimes the meanest persons in a house have a festival even Sympathies and natural inclinations to some persons and a conformity of humors and proportionable loves and the beauty of the face and a witty answer may first strike the flint and kindle a spark which if it falls upon tender and compliant natures may grow into a flame but this will never be maintained at the rate of friendship unless it be fed by pure materials by worthinesses which are the food of friendship where these are not men and women may be pleased with one anothers company and lye under the same roof and make themselves companions of equal prosperities and humor their friend but if you call this friendship you give a sacred name to humor or fancy for there is a Platonick friendship as well as a Platonick love but they being but the Images of more noble bodies are but like tinsel dressings which will shew bravely by candle-light and do excellently in a mask but are not fit for conversation and the material entercourses of our life These are the prettinesses of prosperity and good-natured wit but when we speak of friendship which is the best thing in the world for it is love and beneficence it is charity that is fitted for society we cannot suppose a brave pile should be built up with nothing and they that build Castles in the air and look upon friendship as upon a fine Romance a thing that pleases the fancy but is good for nothing else will do well when they are asleep or when they are come to Elysium and for ought I know in the mean time may be as much in love with Mandana in the Grand Cyrus as with the Infanta of Spain or any of the most perfect beauties and real excellencies of the world and by dreaming of perfect and abstracted friendships make them so immaterial that they perish in the handling and become good for nothing But I know not whither I was going I did only mean to say that
treating our friends One sort of men say that we are to expect that our friends should value us as we value our selves which if it were to be admitted will require that we make no friendships with a proud man and so far indeed were well but then this proportion does exclude some humble men who are most to be valued and the rather because they undervalue themselves Others say that a friend is to value his friend as much as his friend values him but neither is this well or safe wise or sufficient for it makes friendship a mere bargain and is something like the Country weddings in some places where I have been where the bridegroom and the bride must meet in the half way and if they fail a step they retire and break the match It is not good to make a reckoning in friendship that 's merchandise or it may be gratitude but not noble friendship in which each part strives to out-do the other in significations of an excellent love And amongst true friends there is no fear of losing any thing But that which amongst the old Philosophers comes nearest to the right is that we love our friends as we love our selves If they had meant it as our Blessed Saviour did of that general friendship by which we are to love all mankind it had been perfect and well or if they had meant it of the inward affection or of outward justice but because they meant it of the most excellent friendships and of the outward significations of it it cannot be sufficient for a friend may and must sometimes do more for his friend than he would do for himself Some men will perish before they will beg or petition for themselves to some certain persons but they account it noble to do it for their friend and they will want rather than their friend shall want and they will be more earnest in praise or dispraise respectively for their friend than for themselves And indeed I account that one of the greatest demonstrations of real friendship is that a friend can really endeavour to have his friend advanced in honour in reputation in the opinion of wit or learning before himself Aurum opes rura frequens donabit amicus Qui velit ingenio cedere rarus erit Sed tibi tantus inest veteris respectus amici Carior ut mea sit quà m tua famatibi Lands gold and trifles many give or lend But he that stoops in fame is a rare friend In friendships Orb thou art the brightest Star Before thy fame mine thou preferrest far But then be pleased to think that therefore I so highly value this signification of friendship because I so highly value humility Humility and Charity are the two greatest graces in the world and these are the greatest ingredients which constitute friendship and express it But there needs no other measures of friendship but that it may be as great as you can express it beyond death it cannot go to death it may when the cause is reasonable and just charitable and religious and yet if there be any thing greater than to suffer death and pain and shame to some are more insufferable a true and noble friendship shrinks not at the greatest trials And yet there is a limit even to friendship It must be as great as our friend fairly needs in all things where we are not tied up by a former duty to God to our selves or some pre-obliging relative When Pollux heard some body whisper a reproach against his Brother Castor he killed the slanderer with his fist that was a zeal which his friendship could not warrant Nulla est excusatio si amici causâ peccaveris said Cicero No friendship can excuse a sin And this the braver Romans instanced in the matter of duty to their Country It is not lawful to fight on our friends part against our Prince or Country and therefore when Caius Blosius of Cuma in the sedition of Gracchus appeared against his Country when he was taken he answered That he loved Tiberius Gracchus so dearly that he thought fit to follow him whithersoever he led and begg'd pardon upon that account They who were his Judges were so noble that though they knew it no fair excuse yet for the honour of friendship they did not directly reject his motion but put him to death because he did not follow but led on Gracchus and brought his friend into the snare For so they preserved the honours of friendship on either hand by neither suffering it to be sullied by a soul excuse nor yet rejected in any fair pretence A man may not be perjured for his friend I remember to have read in the History of the Low-Countries that Grimston and Redhead when Bergenapzoom was besieged by the Duke of Parma acted for the interest of the Queen of England's forces a notable design but being suspected and put for their acquittance to take the Sacrament of the Altar they dissembled their persons and their interest their design and their religion and did for the Queens service as one wittily wrote to her give not only their bodies but their souls and so deserved a reward greater than she could pay them I cannot say this is a thing greater than a friendship can require for it is not great at all but a great villany which hath no name and no order in worthy entercourses and no obligation to a friend can reach as high as our duty to God And he that does a base thing in zeal for his friend burns the golden thred that ties their hearts together it is a conspiracy but no longer friendship And when Cato lent his wife to Hortensius and Socrates lent his to a merry Greek they could not amongst wise persons obtain so much as the fame of being worthy friends neither could those great Names legitimate an unworthy action under the most plausible title It is certain that amongst friends their estates are common that is by whatsoever I can rescue my friend from calamity I am to serve him or not to call him friend there is a great latitude in this and it is to be restrained by no prudence but when there is on the other side a great necessity neither vicious nor avoidable A man may chuse whether he will or no and he does not sin in not doing it unless he have bound himself to it But certainly friendship is the greatest band in the world and if he have professed a great friendship he hath a very great obligation to do that and more and he can no ways be disobliged but by the care of his Natural relations I said Friendship is the greatest band in the world and I had reason for it for it is all the bands that this world hath and there is no society and there is no relation that is worthy but it is made so by the communications of friendship and by partaking some of its excellencies For Friendship is a transcendent
chosen my friend wisely or fortunately he cannot be the correlative in the best Union but then the friend lives as the soul does after death it is in the state of separation in which the soul strangely loves the body and longs to be reunited but the body is an useless trunk and can do no ministeries to the soul which therefore prays to have the body reformed and restored and made a brave and a fit companion So must these best friends when one is useless or unapt to the braveries of the princely friendship they must love ever and pray ever and long till the other be perfected and made fit in this case there wants only the body but the soul is still a relative and must be so for ever A Husband and a Wife are the best friends but they cannot always signifie all that to each other which their friendships would as the Sun shines not upon a Valley which sends up a thick vapour to cover his face and though his beams are eternal yet the emission is intercepted by the intervening cloud But however all friendships are but parts of this a man must leave Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife that is the dearest thing in Nature is not comparable to the dearest thing of friendship and I think this is argument sufficient to prove friendship to be the greatest band in the world Adde to this that other friendships are part of this they are marriages too less indeed than the other because they cannot must not be all that endearment which the other is yet that being the principal is the measure of the rest and are all to be honoured by like dignities and measured by the same rules and conducted by their portion of the same Laws But as Friendships are Marriages of the soul and of fortunes and interests and counsels so they are Brotherhoods too and I often think of the excellencies of friendships in the words of David who certainly was the best friend in the world Ecce quà m bonum quà m jucundum fratres habitare in unum It is good and it is pleasant that Brethren should live like friends that is they who are any ways relative and who are any ways social and confederate should also dwell in Unity and loving society for that is the meaning of the word Brother in Scripture It was my Brother Jonathan said David such Brothers contracting such friendships are the beauties of society and the pleasure of life and the festivity of minds and whatsoever can be spoken of love which is God's eldest daughter can be said of vertuous friendships and though Carneades made an eloquent Oration at Rome against justice yet never saw a Panegyrick of malice or ever read that any man was witty against friendship Indeed it is probable that some men finding themselves by the peculiarities of friendship excluded from the participation of those beauties of society which enamel and adorn the wise and the vertuous might suppose themselves to have reason to speak the evil words of envy and detraction I wonder not for all those unhappy souls which shall find Heaven-gates shut against them will think they have reason to murmur and blaspheme The similitude is apt enough for that is the region of friendship and Love is the light of that glorious Country but so bright that it needs no Sun Here we have fine and bright rays of that Celestial flame and though to all mankind the light of it is in some measure to be extended like the treasures of light dwelling in the South yet a little do illustrate and beautifie the North yet some live under the line and the beams of friendship in that position are imminent and perpendicular I know but one thing more in which the Communications of friendship can be restrained and that is in Friends and Enemies Amicus amici amicus meus non est My friends friend is not always my friend nor his enemy mine for if my friend quarrel with a third person with whom he hath had no friendships upon the account of interest if that third person be my friend the nobleness of our friendships despises such a quarrel and what may be reasonable in him would be ignoble in me sometimes it may be otherwise and friends may marry one anothers loves and hatreds but it is by chance if it can be just and therefore because it is not always right it cannot be ever necessary In all things else let friendships be as high and expressive till they become an Union or that friends like the Molionidae be so the same that the flames of their dead bodies make but one Pyramis no charity can be reproved and such friendships which are more than shadows are nothing else but the rays of that glorious grace drawn into one centre and made more active by the Union and the proper significations are well represented in the old Hieroglyphick by which the Ancients depicted friendship In the beauties and strength of a young man bare-headed rudely clothed to signifie its activity and lastingness readiness of action and aptnesses to do service Upon the fringes of his garment was written Mors vita as signifying that in life and death the friendship was the same on the forehead was written Summer and Winter that is prosperous and adverse accidents and states of life the left arm and shoulder was bare and naked down to the heart to which the finger pointed and there was written longè propè by all which we know that friendship does good far and near in Summer and Winter in life and death and knows no difference of state or accident but by the variety of her services and therefore ask no more to what we can be obliged by friendship for it is every thing that can be honest and prudent useful and necessary For this is all the allay of this Universality we may do any thing or suffer any thing that is wise or necessary or greatly beneficial to my friend and that in any thing in which I am perfect master of my person and fortunes But I would not in bravery visit my friend when he is sick of the plague unless I can do him good equal at least to my danger but I will procure him Physicians and prayers all the assistances that he can receive and that he can desire if they be in my power and when he is dead I will not run into his grave and be stifled with his earth but I will mourn for him and perform his will and take care of his relatives and do for him as if he were alive and I think that is the meaning of that hard saying of a Greek Poet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To me though distant let thy friendship fly Though men be mortal friendships must not die Of all things else there 's great satiety Of such immortal abstracted pure friendships indeed there is no great plenty and to see brothers
hate each other is not so rare as to see them love at this rate The dead and the absent have but few friends say the Spaniards but they who are the same to their friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he is in another Country or in another World these are they who are fit to preserve the sacred fire for eternal sacrifices and to perpetuate the memory of those exemplar friendships of the best men which have filled the world with history and wonder for in no other sence but this can it be true that friendships are pure loves regarding to do good more than to receive it He that is a friend after death hopes not for a recompense from his friend and makes no bargain either for fame or love but is rewarded with the conscience and satisfaction of doing bravely but then this is demonstration that they chuse Friends best who take persons so worthy that can and will do so This is the profit and usefulness of friendship and he that contracts such a noble Union must take care that his friend be such who can and will but hopes that himself shall be first used and put to act it I will not have such a friendship that is good for nothing but I hope that I shall be on the giving and assisting part and yet if both the friends be so noble and hope and strive to do the benefit I cannot well say which ought to yield and whether that friendship were braver that could be content to be unprosperous so his friend might have the glory of assisting him or that which desires to give assistances in the greatest measures of friendship but he that chuses a worthy friend that himself in the days of sorrow and need might receive the advantage hath no excuse no pardon unless himself be as certain to do assistances when evil fortune shall require them The summ of this answer to this enquiry I give you in a pair of Greek verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Friends are to friends as lesser Gods while they Honour and service to each other pay But when a dark cloud comes grudge not to lend Thy head thy heart thy fortune to thy friend 3. The last inquiry is How friendships are to be conducted that is What are the duties in presence and in absence whether the friend may not desire to enjoy his friend as well as his friendship The answer to which in a great measure depends upon what I have said already and if friendship be a charity in society and is not for contemplation and noise but for material comforts and noble treatments and usages this is no peradventure but that if I buy land I may eat the fruits and if I take a house I may dwell in it and if I love a worthy person I may please my self in his society and in this there is no exception unless the friendship be between persons of a different sex for then not only the interest of their religion and the care of their honour but the worthiness of their friendship requires that their entercourse be prudent and free from suspicion and reproach And if a friend is obliged to bear a calamity so he secure the honour of his friend it will concern him to conduct his entercourse in the lines of a vertuous prudence so that he shall rather lose much of his own comfort than she any thing of her honour and in this case the noises of people are so to be regarded that next to innocence they are the principal But when by caution and prudence and severe conduct a friend hath done all that he or she can to secure fame and honourable reports after this their noises are to be despised they must not fright us from our friendships nor from her fairest entercourses I may lawfully pluck the clusters from my own Vine though he that walks by calls me thief But by the way Madam you may see how much I differ from the morosity of those Cynicks who would not admit your sex into the communities of a noble friendship I believe some Wives have been the best friends in the world and few stories can out-do the nobleness and piety of that Lady that suck'd the poysonous purulent matter from the wound of our brave Prince in the holy Land when an Assasine had pierc'd him with a venom'd arrow And if it be told that women cannot retain counsel and therefore can be no brave friends I can best confute them by the story of Porcâ—a who being fearful of the weakness of her sex stabb'd her self into the thigh to try how she could bear pain and finding her self constant enough to that sufferance gently chid her Brutus for not daring to trust her since now she perceived that no torment could wrest that secret from her which she hoped might be intrusted to her If there were not more things to be said for your satisfaction I could have made it disputable whether have been more illustrious in their friendships men or women I cannot say that Women are capable of all those excellencies by which men can oblige the world and therefore a female friend in some cases is not so good a counsellor as a wise man and cannot so well defend my honour nor dispose of reliefs and assistances if she be under the power of another but a woman can love as passionately and converse as pleasantly and retain a secret as faithfully and be useful in her proper ministeries and she can die for her friend as well as the bravest Roman Knight and we find that some persons have engag'd themselves as far as death upon a less interest than all this amounts to such were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks call them the Devoti of a Prince or General the Assasines amongst the Saracens the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the old Galatians they did as much as a friend could do And if the greatest services of a friend can be paid for by an ignoble price we cannot grudge to vertuous and brave women that they be partners in a noble friendship since their conversation and returns can add so many moments to the felicity of our lives and therefore though a Knife cannot enter as far as a Sword yet a Knife may be more useful to some purposes and in every thing except it be against an enemy A man is the best friend in trouble but a woman may be equal to him in the days of joy a woman can as well increase our comforts but cannot so well lessen our sorrows and therefore we do not carry women with us when we go to fight but in peaceful Cities and times vertuous women are the beauties of society and the prettinesses of friendship And when we consider that few persons in the world have all those excellencies by which friendship can be useful and illustrious we may as well allow women as men to be friends since they can have all that