such persons to the communion of prayers and holy offices at least the Church may choose whether she will or no. The Church in her Government and Discipline had two ends and her power was accordingly apt to minister to these ends 1. By condemning and punishing the sin she was to doe what she could to save the criminal that is by bringing him to repentance a holy life to bring him to pardon 2. And if she could or if she could not effect this yet she was to remove the scandal and secure the flock from infection This was all that was needful this was all that was possible to be done In order to the first the Apostles had some powers extraordinary which were indeed necessary at the beginning of the Religion not onely for this but for other ministrations The Apostles had power to binde sinners that is to deliver them over to Satan and to sad diseases or death it self and they had power to loose sinners that is to cure their diseases to unloose Satans bands to restore them to Gods favour and pardon This manner of speaking was used by our blessed Saviour in this very case of sickness and infirmity Ought not this woman a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years be loosed from this band on the Sabbath day The Apostles had this power of binding and loosing and that this is the power of remitting and retaining sins appears without exception in the words of our blessed Saviour to the Jews who best understood the power of forgiving sins by seeing the evil which sin brought on the guilty person taken away That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins He saith to the man sick of the palsy Arise take up thy bed and walk For there is a power in heaven and a power on earth to forgive sins The power that is in heaven is the publick absolution of a sinner at the day of judgement The power on earth to forgive sins is a taking off those intermedial evils which are inflicted in the way sicknesses temporal death loss of the Divine grace and of the privileges of the faithful These Christ could take off when he was upon earth and his heavenly Father sent him to do all this to heal all sicknesses and to cure all infirmities and to take away our sins and to preach glad tidings to the poor and comfort to the afflicted and rest to the weary and heavy laden The other judgement is to be perform'd by Christ at his second coming Now as God the Father sent his Son so his holy Son sent his Apostles with the same power on earth to binde and loose sinners to pardon sins by taking away the material evil effects which sin should superinduce or to retain sinners by binding them in sad and hard bands to bring them to reason or to make others afraid Thus S. Peter sentenc'd Ananias and Saphira to a temporal death and S. Paul stroke Elymas with blindness and deliver'd over the incestuous Corinthian to be beaten by an evil spirit and so also he did to Hymenaeus and Alexander But this was an extraordinary power and not to descend upon the succeeding ages of the Church but it was in this as in all other ministeries something miraculous and extraordinary was for ever to consign a lasting truth and ministery in ordinary The preaching of the Gospel that is faith it self at first was prov'd by miracles and the holy Ghost was given by signs and wonders and sins were pardon'd by the gifts of healing and sins were retained by the hands of an angel and the very visitation of the sick was blessed with sensible and strange recoveries and every thing was accompanied with a miracle excepting the two Sacraments in the administration of which we doe not finde any mention of any thing visibly miraculous in the records of holy Scripture and the reason is plain because these two Sacraments were to be for ever the ordinary ministeries of those graces which at first were consign'd by signs and wonders extraordinary For in all ages of the Church reckoning exclusively from the days of the Apostles all the graces of the Gospel all the promises of God were conveyed or consign'd or fully ministred by these Sacraments and by nothing else but what was in order to them These were the inlets and doors by which all the faithful were admitted into the outer Courts of the Lords Temple or into the secrets of the Kingdome and the solemnities themselves were the keys of these doors and they that had the power of ministration of them they had the power of the keys These then being the whole Ecclesiastical power and the sum of their ministrations were to be dispensed according to the necessities and differing capacities of the sons and daughters of the Church The Thessalonians who were not furnished with a competent number of Ecclesiastical Governours were commanded to abstain from the company of the brethren that walk'd disorderly S. John wrote to the Elect Lady that she should not entertain in her house false Apostles and when the former way did expire of it self and by the change of things and the second advice was not practicable and prudent they were reduced to the onely ordinary ministery of remitting and retaining sins by a direct admitting or refusing and deferring to admit criminals to their ministeries of pardon which were now onely left in the Church as their ordinary power and ministration For since in this world all our sins are pardon'd by those ways and instruments which God hath constituted in the Church and there are no other external rites appointed by Christ but the Sacraments it follows that as they are worthily communicated or justly denied so the pardon is or is not ministred And therefore when the Church did binde any sinner by the bands of Discipline she did remove him from the mysteries and sometimes enjoyn'd external or internal acts of repentance to testify and to exercise the grace and so to dispose them to pardon and when the penitents had given such testimonies which the Church demanded then they were absolved that is they were admitted to the mysteries For in the primitive records of the Church there was no form of absolution judicial nothing but giving them the holy Communion admitting them to the peace of the Church to the society and privileges of the faithful For this was giving them pardon by vertue of those words of Christ Whose sins ye remit they are remitted that is if ye who are the Stewards of my family shall admit any one to the Kingdom of Christ on earth they shall be admitted to the participation of Christs Kingdom in Heaven and what ye binde here shall be bound there that is if they be unworthy to partake of Christ here they shall be accounted unworthy to partake of Christ hereafter if they separate from Christs members they also shall be separate from the head
nequis existimet propter innumera delicta quorum fraudibus nullus immunis est me omne hominum genus indiscretâ poenitendi lege constringere The highest danger is not in every sin offences and crimes must be distinguished carefully for the same severe impositions are not indifferently to be laid upon Criminals and those whose guilt is in such instances from which no man is free Wherefore covetousness may be redeem'd with liberality slander with satisfaction morosity with cheerfulness sharpness with gentle usages lightness with gravity perversness or peevishness with honesty and fair carriage But what shall the despiser of God do what shall the Murtherer do what remedy shall the Adulterer * Fornicator promiscuè Saepius usurpantur fornicatio adulterium have Ista sunt capitalia Fratres ista mortalia These are the deadly sins these are capital crimes meaning that these were to be taken off by the severities of Ecclesiastical or publick Repentance of which I am afterwards to give account and would cost more to be cleansed To a good man and meliorum operum compensatione as Pacianus affirms by the compensation of good works that is of the actions of the contrary graces they are venial they are cured For by venial they mean such which with less difficulty and hazard may be pardon'd such as was S. Pauls blasphemy and persecuting the Church for that was venial that is apt for pardon because he did it ignorantly in unbelief and such are those sins saith Caesarius which are usual in the world though of their own nature very horrible as forswearing our selves slander reproach and the like yet because they are extremely common they are such to which if a continual pardon were not offered Gods numbers would be infinitely lessen'd In this sense every sin is venial excepting the three Capitals reckoned in Tertullian Idolatry Murther and Adultery every thing but the sin against the Holy Ghost and its branches reckoned in Pacianus every thing but the seven deadly sins in others Now according to the degree and malignity of the sin or its abatement by any lessening circumstance or intervening consideration so it puts on its degrees of veniality or being pardonoble Every sin hath some degree of being venial till it arriv'd at the unpardonable state and then none was But every sin that had many degrees of Venial had also some degrees of Damnable So that to enquire what venial sins can stand with the state of grace is to ask how long a man may sin before he shall be damn'd how long will God still forbear him how long he will continue to give him leave to repent For a sin is venial upon no other account but of Repentance If Venial be taken for pardonable it is true that many circumstances make it so more or less that is whatever makes the sin greater or less makes it more or less venial and of these I shall give account in the chapter of sins of Infirmity But if by Venial we mean actually pardon'd or not exacted Nothing makes a sin venial but Repentance and that makes every sin to be so Therefore 5. Some sins are admitted by holy persons and yet they still continue holy not that any of these sins is permitted to them nor that God cannot as justly exact them of his servants as of his enemies nor that in the Covenant of the Gospel they are not imputable nor that their being in Gods favour hides them for God is most impatient of any remaining evil in his children But the onely reasonable account of it is because the state of grace is a state of Repentance these sins are those which as Pacianus expresses it contrariis emendata proficiunt they can be helped by contrary actions and the good man does perpetually watch against them he opposes a good against every every evil that is in effect he uses them just as he uses the greatest that ever he committed Thus the good man when he reproves a sinning person over-acts his anger and is transported to undecency though it be for God Some are over zealous some are phantastick and too apt to opinion which in little degrees of inordination are not so soon discernible A good man may be over-joyed or too much pleas'd with his recreation or be too passionate at the death of a childe or in a sudden anger go beyond the evenness of a wise Christian and yet be a good man still and a friend of God his son and his servant but then these things happen in despite of all his care and observation and when he does espy any of these obliquities he is troubled at it and seeks to amend it and therefore these things are venial that is pitied and excused because they are unavoidable but avoided as much as they well can all things considered and God does not exact them of him because the good man exacts them of himself * These being the Rules of Doctrine we are to practise accordingly To which adde the following measures 6. This difference in sins of Mortal and Venial that is greater and less is not to be considered by us but by God alone and cannot have influence upon us to any good purposes For 1. We do not alwayes know by what particular measures they are lessened In general we know some proportions of them but when we come to particulars we may easily be deceived but can very hardly be exact S. Austin said the same thing Quae sint levia Enchirid cap. 78. quae gravia peccata non humano sed Divino sunt pensanda judicio God onely not man can tell which sins are great and which little For since we see them equally forbidden we must with equal care avoid them all Indeed if the case should be so put that we must either commit Sacrilege or tell a spiteful lie kill a man or speak unclean words then it might be of use to us to consider which is the greater which is less that of evils we might choose the less but this ease can never be for no man is ever brought to that necessity that he must choose one sin for he can choose to die before he shall do either and that 's the worst that he can be put to And therefore though right reason and experience and some general lines of Religion mark out some actions as criminal and leave others under a general and indefinite condemnation yet it is in order to repentance and amends when such things are done not to greater caution directly of avoiding them in the dayes of temptation for of two infinites in the same kinde one cannot be bigger then the other We are tied with the biggest care to avoid every sin and bigger then the biggest we finde not This onely For the avoiding of the greatest sins there are more arguments from without and sometimes more instruments and ministeries of caution and prevention are to be used then in lesser sins but it is because fewer will
as in the unregenerate there might be some good such as are good desires knowledge of good and evil single actions of vertue beginnings and dispositions to grace acknowledging of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ some lightnings and flashes of the holy Ghost a knowing of the way of righteousness but sanctifying saving good does not dwell that is doth not abide with them and rule so in the regenerate there is sin but because it does not dwell there they are under the Empire of the Spirit and in Christs Kingdome Gal. 2.20 or as Saint Paul expresses it Christ liveth in them and that cannot be unless sin be crucified and dead in them The summe of which is thus in S. Pauls words Rom. 6.11 12 14. Reckon your selves indeed to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof For sin shall not have dominion over you because we are not under the law but under grace 7. Lastly the man whom S. Paul describes is carnal but the regenerate is never called carnal in the Scripture Ro 7.14 but is spiritual oppos'd to carnal A man not onely in pure naturals but ever plac'd under the law is called Carnal that is until he be redeemed by the Spirit of Christ he cannot be called spiritual but is yet in the flesh Now that the regenerate cannot be the carnal man is plain in the words of S. Paul Rom. 8.7 The carnal minde is enmity against God and they that are in the flesh cannot please God To which he addes But ye are not in the flesh V. 8. but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you But the Spirit of God does dwell in all the servants of God in all the regenerate V. 9. For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Now as these are in Scripture distinguished in their appellatives and in their character so also in their operations They that are carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. 5. according to the flesh do minde or relish the things of the flesh They that are after the Spirit do minde the things of the Spirit And they that are Christs Gal. 5.24 have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Now they that have crucified the flesh cannot in any sense of Scripture or Religion be called Carnal That there is something of carnality in the regenerate is too true because our regeneration and spirituality in this life is imperfect But when carnal and spiritual are oppos'd in Scripture and the Question is Whether of these two is to be attributed to the servants and sons of God to the Regenerate it is certain by the analogy of the thing and the perpetual manner of speaking in Scripture that by this word Carnal the Spirit of God never means the sons of God or the spiritual that is the Regenerate Rom. 8. The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God therefore not by the flesh which they have crucified Whatsoever is essential to regeneration to new birth to the being the sons of God all that is in the regenerate for they cannot be that thing of which they want an essential part as a thing cannot be a body unless it be divisible nor a living creature if it have not life Therefore regeneration is perfect in respect of its essentials or necessary parts of constitution But in the degrees there is imperfection and therefore the abatement is made by the intermixture of carnality For it is in our new and spiritual birth as in our natural The childe is a man in all essential parts but he is as a beast in some of his operations he hath all the faculties of a man but not the strengths of a man but grows to it by the progression and encrease of every day So is the spiritual man regenerate in his minde his will his affections and therefore when carnal and spiritual are oppos'd in their whole nature and definitions the spiritual man is not the carnal though he still retain some of the weaknesses of the flesh against which he contends every day To this purpose are those words of S. Leo. De resuâ— Dom. Quamvis spe salvi facti sumus corruptionem adhuc carnémque mortalem gestamus rectè tamen dicimur in carne non esse si carnales nobis non dominentur affectus meritò ejus deponimus nuncupationem cujus non sequimur voluntatem We are not to be called Carnal though we bear about us flesh and its infirmities yet if carnal affections doe not rule over us well are we to quit the name when we doe not obey the thing Now if any man shall contend that a man may be called Carnal if the flesh strives against the Spirit though sin does not rule I shall not draw the Saw of Contention with him but onely say that it is not usually so in Scripture and in this place of which we now dispute the sense and use it is not so for by Carnal S. Paul means such a person upon whom sin reigns I am carnal V. 14. sold under sin therefore this person is not the spiritual not the regenerate or the son of God 1 Cor. 3.1 2â—3 S. Paul uses the word Carnal in a comparative locution for babes and infants or unskilful persons in the Religion but then this carnality he proves to be in them wholly by their inordinate walking by their strifes and contentions by their being Schismaticks and therefore he reproves them which he had no reason to doe if himself also had been carnal in that sense which he reproves The Conclusion from all these premises is I suppose sufficiently demonstrated that S. Paul does not in the seventh Chapter to the Romans describe the state of himself really or of a regenerate person neither is this state of doing sin frequently though against our will a state of unavoidable infirmity but a state of death and unregeneration §. 3. St. Austin did for ever reject that interpretation and indeed so did the whole Primitive Church but yet he having once expounded this Chapter of the unregenerate or a man under the law not redeemed by the Spirit of Christ from his vain conversation he retracted this Exposition Ver. 15. 19. and constru'd those words in question thus Non ergo quod vult agit Apostolus quia vult non concupiscere Serm. 43. 45. de temp tamen concupiscit ideo non quod vult agit The Apostle does not doe what he would because he would fain not desire but yet because he desires he does what he would not Did that desire lead him captive to fornication God forbid He did strive but was not mastered but because he would not have had that concupiscence left against which he should contend therefore he said What I would
we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God The Spirit of God reprov'd some of the Asian Churches for foul misdemeanours Apâ—â—al 2.26 and even some of the Angels the Asian Bishops calling upon them to return to their first love V. 5. and to repent and to doe their first works and to the very Gnosticks and filthiest hereticks he gave space to repent V. 21. and threatned extermination to them if they did not doe it speedily For Baptism is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the admission of us to the Covenant of Faith and Repentance or as Marc the Anchoret call'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the introduction to repentance or that state of life that is full of labour and care and amendment of our faults for that is the best life that any man can live and therefore repentance hath its progress after baptism as it hath its beginning before for first repentance is unto baptism and then baptism unto repentance And if it were otherwise the Church had but ill provided for the state of her sons and daughters by commanding the baptism of infants For if repentance were not allowed after then their early baptism would take from them all hopes of repentance and destroy the mercies of the Gospel and make it now to all Christendome a law of works in the greater instances Vide Great Exemplar part 1. Dise of Baptism pag. 175. c. because since in our infancy we neither need nor can perform repentance if to them that sin after baptism repentance be denied it is in the whole denied to them for ever to repent But God hath provided better things for us and such which accompany salvation For besides those many things which have been already consider'd our admission to the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a perpetual entertainment of our hopes because then and there is really exhibited to us the body that was broken and the blood that was shed for remission of sins still it is applied and that application could not be necessary to be done anew if there were not new necessities and still we are invited to doe actions of repentance to examine our selves and so to eat all which as things are order'd would be infinitely useless to mankinde if it did not mean pardon to Christians falling into foul sins even after baptism I shall adde no more but the words of S. 2 Cor. 12 21. Paul to the Corinthians Left when I come again my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many who have sinn'd already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed Here is a fierce accusation of some of them for the foulest and the basest crimes and a reproof of their not repenting and a threatning them with censures Ecclesiastical I suppose this article to be sufficiently concluded from the premises The necessity of which proof they onely will best beleeve who are severely penitent and full of apprehension and fear of the Divine anger because they have highly deserved it However I have serv'd my own needs in it and the need of those whose consciences have been or shall be so timorous as mine hath deserved to be But against the universality of this doctrine there are two grand objections The one is the severer practice and doctrine of the primitive Church denying repentance to some kinde of sinners after baptism The other the usual discourses and opinions concerning the sin against the holy Ghost Of these I shall give account in the two following sections §. 3. Of the difficulty of obtaining pardon The doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church in this article NOvatianus and Novatus said that the Church had not power to minister pardon of sins except onely in baptism which proposition when they had well digested and considered they did thus explicate That there are some capital sins crying and clamorous into which if a Christian did fall after baptism the Church had nothing to doe with him she could not absolve him This opinion of theirs was a branch of the elder heresy of Montanus De pudic c. 5. c. 9. which had abus'd Tertullian who fiercely declaims against the decree of Pope Zephyrinus because against the custome of his Decessors he admitted adulterers to repentance while at the same time he refus'd idolaters and murderers And this their severity did not seem to be put upon the account of a present necessity or their own zeal or for the avoiding scandal or their love of holiness but upon the nature of the thing it self and the sentences of Scripture An old man of whom Irenaeus makes mention said Lib. 4. c. 45. Non debemus superbi esse neque reprehendere veteres ne fortè post agnitionem Dei agentes aliquid quod non placet Deo remissionem non habeamus ultrà delictorum excludamur à regno ejus We must not be proud and reprove our Fathers lest after the knowledge of God we doing something that does not please God we may no more have remission of our sins but be excluded from his Kingdome To the same purpose is that Canon made by the Gallic Bishops against the false accusers of their brethren ut ad exitum ne communicent that they should not be admitted to the Communion or peace of the Church no not at their death And Pacianus Bishop of Barcinona gives a severe account of the doctrine of the Spanish Churches even in his time and of their refusing to admit idolaters murderers and adulterers to repentance Paraen ad poenit Other sins may be cured by the exercise of good works But these three kill like the breath of a Basilisk and are to be feared like a deadly arrow They that were guilty of such crimes did despair What have I done to you was it not in your power to have let it alone Did no man admonish you Did none foretel the event Was the Church silent Did the Gospels say nothing Did the Apostles threaten nothing Did the Priest intreat nothing of you why doe you seek for late comforts Then you might have sought for them when they were to be had But they that pronounce such men happy doe but abuse you This opinion and the consequent practice had its fate in several places to live longer or die sooner And in Africa the decree of Zephyrinus for the admission of penitent adulterers was not admitted even by the Orthodox and Catholikes S. Cyprian ep 52. but they dissented placidly and modestly and governed their own Churches by the old severity For there was then no thought of any necessity that other Churches should obey the sanctions of the Pope or the decrees of Rome but they retain'd the old Discipline But yet the piety and the reasonableness of the decree of Zephyrinus prevail'd by little and little and adulterers were admitted but the severity stuck longer upon diolaters or apostates
Ep. 16. Et te defendat Regulus ipse licèt Non potes absolvi That is your cause is lost you are inexcusable there is no apology no pleading for you and that the same is here meant we understand by those parallel words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is left no sacrifice for him alluding to Moses law in which for them that sin'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a high hand Heb. 10.26 for them that despised Moses law there was no sacrifice appointed which Ben Maimon expounds saying that for Apostates there was no sacrifice in the law So that it is impossible to renew such means that it is ordinarily impossible we have in the discipline of the Church no door of reconciliation If he repents of this he is not the same man but if he remains so the Church hath no promise to be heard if she prays for him which is the last thing that the Church can doe To absolve him is to warrant him that in this case is absolutely impossible but to pray for him is to put him into some hopes and for that she hath in this case no commission For this is the sin unto death of which S. John speaks and gives no incouragement to pray So that impossible does signify in sensu forensi a state of sin which is sentenc'd by the law to be capital and damning but here it signifies the highest degree of that deadliness and impossibility as there are degrees of malignity and desperation in mortal diseases for of all evils this state here described is the worst And therefore here is an impossibility But besides all other senses of this word it is certain by the whole frame of the place and the very analogy of the Gospel that this impossibility here mentioned is not an impossibility of the thing but onely relative to the person It is impossible to restore him whose state of evil is contrary to pardon and restitution as being a renouncing the Gospel that is the whole Covenant of pardon and repentance Such is that parallel expression used by S. John 1 Joh. 3.9 He that is born of God sinneth not neither indeed can he that is it is impossible he cannot sin for the seed of God remaineth in him Now this does not signify that a good man cannot possibly sin if he would that is it does not signify a natural or an absolute impossibility but such as relates to the present state and condition of the person being contrary to sin the same with that of S. Paul Be ye led by the spirit Gal. 5.17 for the spirit lusteth against the flesh so that ye cannot doe the things which ye would viz. which the flesh would fain tempt you to A good man cannot sin that is very hardly can he be brought to choose or to delight in it he cannot sin without a horrible trouble and uneasiness to himself so on the other side such Apostates as the Apostle speaks of cannot be renewed that is without extreme difficulty and a perfect contradiction to that state in which they are for the present lost But if this man will repent with a repentance proportion'd to that evil which he hath committed that he ought not to despair of pardon in the Court of Heaven we have the affirmation of Justin Martyr Dial. cont Tryph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that confess and acknowledge him to be Christ and for whatsoever cause goe from him to the secular conversation viz. to Heathenism or Judaism c. denying that he is Christ and not confessing him again before their death they can never be saved So that this impossibility concerns not those that return and doe confess him but those that wilfully and maliciously reject this onely way of salvation as false and deceitful and never return to the confession of it again which is the greatest sin against the Holy Ghost of which I am in the next place to give a more particular account §. 5. HE that speaketh against the Holy Ghost Matth. 12.32 it shall never be forgiven him in this world nor in the world to come so said our blessed Saviour Origen and the Novatians after him when the Scholars of Novatus to justify their Masters Schism from the Church had chang'd the good old discipline into a new and evil doctrine said that all the sins of Christians committed after Baptism are sins against the Holy Ghost by whom in Baptism they have been illuminated and by him they were taught in the Gospel and by him they were consign'd in confirmation and promoted in all the assistances and Conduct of grace and they gave this reason for it Because the Father is in all Creatures the Son only in the Reasonable and the Holy Spirit in Christians against which if they prevaricate they shall not be pardon'd while the sins of Heathens as being onely against the Son are easily pardon'd in baptism I shall not need to refute this fond opinion as being already done by S. Athanasius in a Book purposely written on this subject and it fals alone for that to sin against the Holy Ghost is not proper to Christians appears in this that Christ charg'd it upon the Pharisees and that every sin of Christians is not this sin against the Holy Ghost appears because Christians are perpetually called upon to repent for to what purpose should any man be called from his sin if by returning he shall not escape damnation or if he shall then that sin is not against the Holy Ghost or if it be that sin is not unpardonable either of which destroys their fond affirmative S. Austin makes final impenitence to be it against which opinion though many things may be oppos'd yet it is openly confuted in being charged upon the Pharisees who were not then guilty of final impenitence But the instance clears the article The Pharisees saw the light of Gods Spirit manifestly shining in the miracles which Christ did and they did not onely despise his Person and persecute it which is speaking against the Son of Man that is sinning against him for speaking against is sinning or doing against it in the Jews manner of expression but they also spightfully and maliciously blasphemed that Spirit and that power of God by which they were convinc'd and by which such Miracles were done Vers 36. And this was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that idle and unprofitable word spoken of in the following verses by which Christ said they should be judged at the last day such which whosoever should speak he should give account thereof in that day Now this was ever esteemed a high and an intolerable Crime for it was not new but an old Crime onely it was manifested by an appellative relating to a power and a name now more used then formerly This was the sin for which Corah and his Company died who did despise and reproach the works of God his power and the mightiness of his hand manifested in
his servant Moses It is called sinning with a high hand that is with an hand lift up on high against God Corah and his Company committed the sin against the Holy Spirit for they spake against that Spirit and power which God had put into Moses and prov'd by the demonstration of mighty effects It is a denying that great argument of Credibility by which God goes about to verifie any mission of his to prove by mighty effects of Gods Spirit that God hath sent such a man When God manifests his holy Spirit by signs and wonders extraordinary not to revere this good Spirit not to confess him but to revile him or to reproach the power is that which God ever did highly punish Thus it happened to Pharoah he also sinn'd against the Holy Ghost the good Spirit of God for when his Magicians told him that the finger of God was there yet he hardned his heart against it and then God went on to harden it more till he overthrew him for then his sin became unpardonable in the sense I shall hereafter explicate And this pass'd into a law to the children of Israel and they were warned of it with the highest threatning that is of a capital punishment The soul that doeth ought presumptuously or with an high hand the same reproacheth the Lord Num. 15.30 that soul shall be cut off from among his people and this is translated into the New Testament They that doe despite to the Spirit of Grace shall fall into the hands of the living God That 's the sin against the Holy Ghost Now this sin must in all reason be very much greater under the Gospel then under the Law For when Christ came he did such miracles which never any man did and preach'd a better law and with mighty demonstrations of the Spirit that is of the power and Spirit of God prov'd himself to have come from God and therefore men were more convinc'd and he that was so and yet would oppose the Spirit that is defie all his proofs and hear none of his words and obey none of his laws and at last revile him too he had done the great sin for this is to doe the worst thing we can we dishonour God in that in which he intended most to glorifie himself Two instances of this we finde in the New Testament though not of the highest degree yet because done directly against the Spirit of God that is in despite or in disparagement of that Spirit by which so great things were wrought it grew intolerable Ananias did not revere the Spirit of God so mightily appearing in S. Peter and the other Apostles and he was smitten and died Simon Magus took the Spirit of God for a vendible commodity for a thing less then money and fit to serve secular ends and he instantly fell into the gall of bitterness that is a sad bitter calamity and S. Peter knew not whether God would forgive him or no. But it is remarkable that the holy Scriptures note various degrees of this malignity grieving the holy Spirit resisting him quenching him doing despite to him all sin against the Holy Ghost but yet they that had done so were all called to repentance S. Stephens Sermon was an instance of it and so was S. Peters and so was the prayer of Christ upon the Cross for the malicious Jews the Pharisees his betrayers and murtherers But the sin it self is of an indefinite progression and hath not physical limits and a certain constitution as is observable in carnal crimes Theft Murther or Adultery for though even these are increased by circumstances and an inward consent and degrees of love and adhesion yet of the crime it self we can say this is Murther and this is Adultery and therefore the punishment is proper and certain But since there are so many degrees of the sin against the Holy Ghost and it consists not in an indivisible point but according to the nature of internal and spiritual sins it is like time or numbers of a moveable being of a flux unstable immense constitution and may be alwayes growing not onely by the repetition of acts but by its proper essential increment and since in the particular case the measures are uncertain the nature secret the definition disputable and so many sins are like it or reducible to it apt to produce despair in timorous consciences and to discourage Repentance in lapsed persons it will be an intolerable proposition that affirms the sin against the Holy Ghost to be absolutely unpardonable That the sin against the Holy Ghost is pardonable appears in the instance of the Pharisees to whom even after they had committed the sin God was pleased to afford preaching signs and miracles and Christ upon the Cross prayed for them but in what sense also it was unpardonable appears in their case for they were so far gone that they would not return and God did not and at last would not pardon them For this appellative is not properly subjected nor attributed to the sin it self but it is according as the man is The sin may be and is at some time unpardonable yet not in all its measures and parts of progression as appears in the case of Pharaoh who all the way from the first miracle to the tenth sinn'd against the Holy Ghost but at last he was so bad that God would not pardon him Some men are come to the greatness of the sin or to that state and grandeur of impiety that their estate is desperate that is though the nature of their sins is such as God is extremely angry with them and would destroy them utterly were he not restrain'd by an infinite mercy yet it shall not be thus for ever for in some state of circumstances and degrees God is finally angry with the man and will never return to him Untill things be come to this height whatsoever the sin be it is pardonable For if there were any one sin distinguishable in its whole nature and instance from others which in every of its periods were unpardonable it is most certain it would have been described in Scripture with clear characters and cautions that a man might know when he is in and when he is out Speaking a word against the Holy Spirit is by our blessed Saviour called this great sin but it is certain that every word spoken against him is not unpardonable Simon Magus spoke a foul word against him but S. Peter did not say it was unpardonable but when he bid him pray he consequently bid him hope but because he would not warrant him that is durst not absolve him he sufficiently declared that this sin is of an indefinite nature and by growth would arrive at the unpardonable state the state and fulness of it is unpardonable that is God will to some men and in some times and stages of their evil life be so angry that he will give them over and leave them in their reprobate minde But no
man knowes when that time is God only knowes and the event must declare it But for the thing it self that it is pardonable is very certain because it may be pardoned in baptisme The Novatians denied not to baptisme a power of pardoning any sin in this sense it is without doubt true what Zosimus by way of reproach objected to Christian religion it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a deletery and purgative for every sin whatsoever And since the unconverted Pharisees were guilty of this sin and it was a sin forbidden and punished capitally in the law of Moses either to these Christ could not have been preached and for them Christ did not die or else it is certain that the sin against the holy Spirit of God is pardonable Now whereas our B. Lord affirmed of this sin it shall not be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come we may best understand the meaning of it by the parallel words of old Heli to his sons If a man sin against another 1 Sam. 2 25. the Judge shall judge him placari ei potest Deus so the vulgar latine reads it God may be appeased that is it shall be forgiven him that is a word spoken against the Son of man which relates to Christ only upon the account of his humane nature that may be forgiven him it shall that is upon easier terms as upon a temporal judgment called in this place a being judged by the Judge But if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him that is if he sin with a high hand presumptuously against the Lord against his power and his Spirit who shall intreat for him it shall never be pardoned never so as the other never upon a temporal judgement that cannot expiate this great sin as it could take off a sin against a man or the Son of man for though it be punished here it shall be punished hereafter But 2. It shall not be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come that is neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles For Saeculum hoc this World in Scripture is the period of the Jewes Synagogue and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world to come is taken for the Gospel or the age of the Messias frequently among the Jews and it is not unlikely Christ might mean it in that sense which was used amongst them by whom he would be understood But because the word was also as commonly used in that sense in which it is understood at this day viz. for the world after this life I shall therefore propound another exposition which seems to me more probable Though remission of sins is more plentiful in the Gospel then under the Law yet because the sin is bigger under the Gospel there is not here any ordinary way of pardoning it no Ministery established to warrant or absolve such sinners but it must be referred to God himself and yet that 's not all For if a man perseveres in this sin he shall neither be forgiven here nor hereafter that is neither can he be absolved in this world by the ministery of the Church nor in the world to come by the sentence of Christ and this I take to be the full meaning of this so difficult place For in this world properly so speaking there is no forgivenesse of sins but what is by the ministery of the Church For then a sin is forgiven when it is pardon'd in the day of sentence or execution that is when those evils are removed which are usually inflicted or which are proper to that day Now then for the final punishment that is not till the day of judgement and if God then gives us a mercy in that day then is the day of our pardon from him In the mean time if he be gracious to us here he either forbears to smite us or smites us to bring us to repentance and all the way continues to us the use of the Word and Sacraments that is if he does in any sense pardon us here if he does not give us over to a reprobate minde he continues us under the means of salvation which is the ministery of the Church for that 's the way of pardon in this * vide infrà numb 66. World as the blessed sentence of the right hand is the way of pardon in the World to come So that when our great Lord and Master threatens to this sin it shall not be pardon'd in this World nor in the World to come he means that neither shall the Ministers of the Church pronounce his pardon or comfort his sorrowes or restore him after his fall or warrant his condition or pray for him publickly or give him the peace and communion of the Church neither will God pardon him in the day of Judgement But all this fearful denunciation of the Divine judgement is only upon supposition the man does not repent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Athanasius Quaest 71. to 2. God did not say to him that blasphemes and repents it shall not be forgiven but to him that blasphemes and remains in his blasphemy for there is no sin which God will not pardon to them that holily and worthily repent S. Chrys in 1 Cor hom 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be wounded is not so grievous but it is intolerable when the wounded man refuses to be cured For it is considerable Whoever can repent may hope for pardon else he could not be invited to repentance I do not say whoever can be sorrowfull may hope for pardon for there is a sorrow too late then commencing when there is no time left to begin much lesse to finish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athanasius calls it a holy and a worthy repentance and of such Philo affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in allegor◠Some unhappy soules would fain he admitted to repentance but God permits them not that is their time is past and either they die before they can performe it or if they live they return to their old impieties like water from a rock But whoever can repent worthily and leave their sin and mortify it and make such amends as is required these men ought not to despair of pardon they may hope for mercy and if they may hope they must hope for not to do it were the greatest crime of despair For despair is no sin but where to hope is a duty But if this be all then the sin against the holy Ghost hath no more said against it then any other sin for if we repent not of theft or adultery it shall neither be forgiven us in this world nor in the world to come and if we do repent of the sin against the holy Ghost it shall not be exacted of us but shall be pardoned So that to say it is unpardonable without repentance is to say nothing peculiar of this To this I answer that pardonable and unpardonable have no definite
signification but have a latitude and increment and a various sense but seldome signifie in the absolute supreme sense sins of infirmity such I mean which in any sense can properly be called sins must in some sense or other be repented of and they are unpardonable without repentance that is without such a repentance as does disallow them and contend against them But these are also pardonable without repentance by some degrees of pardon that is God pities our sins of ignorance and winks at them and upon the only account of his own pity does bring such persons to better notices of things And they are pardonable without repentance if by repentance we mean an absolute dereliction of them for we shall never be able to leave them quite and therefore either they shall never be pardoned or else they are pardoned without such a repentance as signifies dereliction or intire mastery over them 2. But sins which are wilfully and knowingly committed as theft adultery murder are unpardonable without repentance that is without such a repentance as forsakes them actually and intirely and produces such acts of grace as are proper for their expiation but yet even these sins require not such a repentance as sins against the holy Ghost do These must have a greater sorrow and a greater shame and a more severe amends and a more passionate lasting prayer and a bigger fear and a more publick amends and a sharper infliction greater excellency of grace then is necessary in lesser sins But in this difference of sins it is usual to promise pardon to the less and not to the greater when the meaning is that the smaller sins are onely pardon'd upon easier terms an example of this we have in Clemens Alexandrinus Vid. etiam Caesar Arelat hom 42. quaedam ad hanc rem spectantia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sins committed before Baptism are pardon'd but sins after it must be purged that is by a severe repentance which the others needed not and yet without repentance baptism would nothing avail vicious persons So we say concerning those sins which we have forgotten they may be pardon'd without repentance meaning without a special repentance but yet not without a general Thus we finde it in the Imperial Law that they that had fallen into heresie or strange superstitions they were to be pardon'd if they did repent but if they did relapse they should not be pardon'd but they mean L. 4. Cod. Theod. ne sacrum baptisma iteretur venia eâdem modo praestari non potest so Gratian Valens and Valentinian expressed it So that by denying pardon they onely mean that it shall be harder with such persons their pardon shall not be so easily obtained but as they repeat their sins so their punishment shall increase and at last if no warning will serve it shall destroy them For it is remarkable that in Scripture Pardonable and Vnpardonable signifies no more then Mortal and Venial in the writings of the Church of which I have given accounts in its proper place But when a sin is declared deadly or killing and damnation threatned to such persons we are not therefore if we have committed any such to lie down under the load and die but with the more earnestness depart from it lest that which is of a killing damning nature prove so to us in the event For the sin of Adultery is a damning sin and Murther is a killing sin and the sin against the Holy Ghost is worse and they are all Vnpardonable that is condemning they are such in their cause or in themselves but if they prove so to us in the event or effect it is because we will not repent 1 Cor. 11.27 He that eateth drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself that 's as high an expression as any and yet there are several degrees and kindes of eating and drinking unworthily and some are more unpardonable then others but yet the Corinthians who did eat unworthily some of them coming to the holy Supper drunk and others schismatically were by S. Paul admitted to repentance Some sins are like deadly potions they kill the man unless he speedily take an Antidote or unless by strength of nature he work out the poison and overcome it and others are like a desperate disease or a deadly wound the Iliacal passions the Physicians give him over it is a Miserere mei Deus of which though men despair yet some have been cured Thus also in the capital and great sins many of them are such which the Church will not absolve or dare not promise cure Non est in medico semper relevetur ut aeger Interdum doctâ plus valet arte malum But then these persons are sent to God and are bid to hope for favour from thence and may finde it But others there are whom the Church will not meddle withall and sends them to God and God will not absolve them that is they shall be pardon'd neither by God nor the Church neither in this world nor in the world to come But the reason is not because their sin is in all its periods of an unpardonable nature but because they have persisted in it too long and God in the secret Oeconomy of his mercies hath shut the everlasting doors the olive doors of mercy shall not be open'd to them And this is the case of too many miserable persons They who repent timely and holily are not in this number whatsoever sins they be which they have committed But this is the case of them whom God hath given over to a reprobate minde and of them who sin against Gods holy Spirit when their sin is grown to its full measure So we finde it express'd in the Proverbs Turn ye at my reproof Pro. 1.23 26 28. I will pour out my Spirit unto you and then it follows Because I have called and ye refused I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh But this is not in all the periods of our refusing to hear God calling by his Spirit but when the sin of the Amalekites is full then it is unpardonable not in the thing but to that man at that time And besides all the promises this is highly verified in the words of our blessed Saviour taken out of the Prophet Isaiah where it is affirmed that when people are so obstinate and wilfully blinde Mat. 12.15 that God then leaves to give them clearer testimony and a mighty grace lest they should hear and see and understand it follows and should be converted and I should heal them plainly telling us that if even then they should repent God could not but forgive them and therefore because he hath now no love left to them by reason of their former obstinacy yet where ever you can suppose Repentance there you may more then suppose a pardon But if a man cannot or will not repent then it is another consideration In the mean
and heart But if thou canst know thy self you need not enquire any further If thy duty be performed you may be secure of all that is on Gods part 5. When ever repentance begins know that from thence-forward the sinner begins to live but then never let that repentance die Doe not at any time say I have repented of such a sin and am at peace for that for a man ought never to be at peace with sin nor think that any thing we can doe is too much Our repentance for sin is never to be at an end till faith it self shall be no more for Faith and Repentance are but the same Covenant and so long as the just does live by faith in the Son of God so long he lives by repentance for by that faith in him our sins are pardoned that is by becoming his Disciples we enter into the Covenant of Repentance And he undervalues his sin and overvalues his sorrow who at any time fears he shall doe too much or make his pardon too secure and therefore sets him down and sayes Now I have repented 6. Let no man ever say he hath committed the sin against the Holy Ghost or the unpardonable sin for there are but few that doe that and he can best confute himself if he can but tell that he is sorrowful for it and begs for pardon and hopes for it and desires to make amends this man hath already obtained some degrees of pardon and S. Pauls argument in this case also is a demonstration If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life That is if God to enemies gives the first grace much more will he give the second if they make use of the first For from none to a little is an infinite distance but from a little to a great deal is not so much And therefore since God hath given us means of pardon and the grace of Repentance we may certainly expect the fruit of pardon for it is a greater thing to give repentance to a sinner then to give pardon to the penitent Whoever repents hath not committed the great sin the Unpardonable For it is long of the man not of the sin that any sin is unpardonable 7. Let every man be careful of entring into any great states of sin lest he be unawares guilty of the great offence Every resisting of a holy motion calling us from sin every act against a clear reason or revelation every confident progression in sin every resolution to commit a sin in despite of conscience is an access towards the great sin or state of evil Therefore concerning such a man let others fear since he will not and save him with fear plucking him out of the fire but when he begins to return that great fear is over in many degrees for even in Moses law there were expiations appointed not onely for errour but for presumptuous sins The PRAYER I. OEternal God gracious and merciful I adore the immensity and deepest abysse of thy Mercy and Wisdome that thou doest pity our infirmities instruct our ignorances pass by thousands of our follies invitest us to repentance and doest offer pardon because we are miserable and because we need it and because thou art good and delightest in shewing mercy Blessed be thy holy Name and blessed be that infinite Mercy which issues forth from the fountains of our Saviour to refresh our weariness and to water our stony hearts and to cleanse our polluted souls O cause that these thy mercies may not run in vain but may redeem my lost soul and recover thy own inheritance and sanctifie thy portion the heart of thy servant and all my faculties II. BLessed Jesus thou becamest a little lower then the Angels but thou didst make us greater doing that for us which thou didst not doe for them Thou didst not pay for them one drop of bloud nor endure one stripe to recover the fallen stars nor give one groan to snatch the accursed spirits from their fearful prisons but thou didst empty all thy veins for me and gavest thy heart to redeem me from innumerable sins and an intolerable calamity O my God let all this heap of excellencies and glorious mercies be effective upon thy servant and work in me a sorrow for my sins and a perfect hatred of them a watchfulness against temptations severe and holy resolutions active and effective of my duty O let me never fall from sin to sin nor persevere in any nor love any thing which thou hatest but give me thy holy Spirit to conduct and rule me for ever and make me obedient to thy good Spirit never to grieve him never to resist him never to quench him Keep me O Lord with thy mighty power from falling into presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me so shall I be innocent from the great offence Let me never despair of thy mercies by reason of my sins nor neglect my repentance by reason of thy insinite loving kindness but let thy goodness bring me and all sinners to repentance and thy mercies give us pardon and thy holy Spirit give us perseverance and thy infinite favour bring us to glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. IX Of Ecclesiasticall Penance or The fruits of Repentance §. 1. THe fruits of Repentance are the actions of spiritual life and signifie properly all that piety and obedience which we pay to God in the dayes of our return after we have begun to follow sober counsels For since all the duty of a Christian is a state of Repentance that is of contention against sin and the parts and proper periods of victory and Repentance which includes the faith of a Christian is but another word to express the same grace or mercies of the Evangelical Covenant it follows that whatsoever is the duty of a Christian and a means to possess that grace is in some sense or other a Repentance or the fruits of Gods mercy and our endevours And in this sense S. John the Baptist means it saying Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance that is since now the great expectation of the world is to be satisfied and the Lords Christ will open the gates of mercy and give Repentance to the world see that ye live accordingly in the faith and obedience of God through Jesus Christ That did in the event of things prove to be the effect of that Sermon But although all the parts of holy life are fruits of Repentance when it is taken for the state of favor published by the Gospel yet when Repentance is a particular duty or vertue the integral parts of holy life are also constituent parts of Repentance and then by the fruits of Repentance must be meant the less necessary but very useful effects and ministeries of Repentance which are significations and exercises of the main duty And these are sorrow for sins
which by way of appropriation they are pleased also to call Penances yet it was anciently used for the whole course and offices of Ecclesiastical Repentance as appears in the Councel of a Lib. 1. c. ult Paris of b Cap. 37. Agatho and the c Cap. 11. third Councel of Toledo The result and effect of this observation is that no more be put upon one part or action of Repentance then upon another to serve ends For pardon of sins is promis'd to the penitent under single words under Contrition under Sorrow under Alms under judging our selves under Confession but no one of these alone is sufficient for pardon and when pardon is promised to any one they must mean the whole duty for when the whole effect is ascribed to a part that part stands for the whole and meanes more then a part 2. But concerning Confession as it is a special act of Repentance the first thing that is to be said of it is that it is due onely to God for he is the person injured sin is the prevarication of his laws he is our Judge and he onely can pardon as he onely can punish eternally Non tibi dico ut tua peccata tanquam in pompam in publicum proferas neque ut te accuses sed ut pareas Prophetae dicenti Psa 36.5 Revela Domino viam tuam Apud Deum ea confitere apud Judicem confitere peccata tua orans si non linguâ saltem memoriâ ita roga ut tui misereatur I doe not enjoyn thee to betray thy self to the publick ear bringing thy sins as into a Theatre but obey the Prophet saying Reveal thy way unto the Lord. Confess to God confess to thy Judge praying if not with thy tongue yet at least with thy minde and pray so that thou mayest be heard So S. Chrysostome In Ep. ad Heb. hom 31. And upon those words of S. Paul Let a man examine himself he saith Non revelavit ulcus non in commune Theatrum accusationem produxit c. He did not reveal his ulcer he did not bring his accusation into the common Theatre he made none witness of his sins but in his conscience none standing by God onely excepted who sees all things And again upon that of the Psalm My sin is alwayes against me if thou art ashamed to speak it to any one say them daily in thy minde I doe not say that thou confess them to thy fellow servant who may upbraid thee say them to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let this judicatory be without assessors or witnesses let God alone see thy confession Quod si verecundiâ retrahente revelare ea coram hominibus erubescis illi quem latere non possunt confiteri ea jugi supplicatione non desinas ac dicere Iniquitatem me am agnosco c. qui absque ullius verecundiae publicatione curare sine improperio peccata donare consuevit Collat. 20. c. 8. So Cassian in the imitation of S. Ambrose * In Lucae cap. 22. Serm. 46. If bashfulness call thee back and thou art asham'd to reveal them before men cease not by a continual supplication to confess them to him from whom they cannot be conceal'd who without any pressing upon our modesty is wont to cure and without upbraiding to forgive us our sins And the Fathers of the Councel of Cabaillon advanc'd this duty by divers sentences of Scripture Cap. 33. habetur de poenit dist 1. cap. 90. ita duntaxat ut Deo qui remissor est peccatorum confiteamur peccata nostra cum David dicamus Delictum meum cognitum tibi feci injustitiam meam non abscondi Dixi cenfitebor adversum me injustitias meas Domino tu remisisti impietatem peccati mei c. God is the pardoner of sins and therefore let us confess to him and say with David I have made my sin known unto thee and mine unrighteousness have I not hid I said I will confess mine iniquity unto Lord and thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin But this thing is press'd most earnestly by Laurentius Novarriensis who because he was a Father of the fift age his words are of more use by being a testimony that the Ecclesiastical repentance which we finde to be now press'd by some as simply necessary De poenit homil 1. Biblioth pp. tom 2. was not the doctrine of those times From that day in which thou goest out of the Font thou becomest to thy self a continual Font and a daily remission There is no absolute necessity of the Priests right hand from thence forward God hath appointed thee to be thy own judge thy own arbiter and hath given thee knowledge whereby of thy self thou mayest discern good and evil and because while thou remainest in the body thou canst not be free from sin God hath after baptism plac'd thy remedy within thy self he hath plac'd pardon within thy own choice so that thou art not in the day of thy necessity indispensably tied to seek a Priest but thou thy self as if thou wert a most skilful Doctor and Master mayest amend thy error within thee and wash away thy sin by repentance The fountain is never dry the water is within thee absolution is in thy choice sanctification is in thy diligence pardon is within the dew of thine own tears Doe not thou therefore look neither for John nor Jordan be thou thy own baptist viz. in the baptism of repentance Thou art defiled after thou art washed thy bowels are defiled thy soul is polluted plunge thy self in the waters of repentance cleanse thy self by abundance of tears let compunction be plentifully in thy bowels .... and the Lord himself shall baptize thee with the Holy Ghost and with fire and shall heap the fruits of repentance and lay them up like wheat but the chaff of thy sins he shall burn with unquenchable fire Many testimonies out of Antiquity to the same purpose are to be seen ready collected by Gratian under the title De poenitentiâ Now if any one shall inquire to what purpose it is that we should confess our sins to God who already knows them all especially since to doe so can be no part of mortification to the mans spirit For if I steal in the presence of my brother afterwards to tell him who saw me that I did that which he saw me doe is no confusion of face That which will be an answer to this and make it appear necessary to confess to God will also make it appear not to be necessary to confess to men in respect I say of any absolute necessity of the thing or essential obligation of the person I answer that Confession of sins as it is simply taken for enumeration of the actions and kindes of sin can signifie nothing as to God for the reasons now mention'd in the inquiry But when we are commanded to confess our sins it is nothing else
possibility of keeping Gods Commandments 17 Confession due to God 607 35 Why we are to confess sins to God who knoweth them before 610. What properly is meant by it ibid. Auricular confession whence it descended 615. Confession to a Priest is no part of contrition ibid. The benefit of confessing to a Priest 616 43 Rules concerning the practise of confession 669 shame should not hinder confession 673 A rule to be observed by the Minister that receiveth confessions 674 20 Of confessing to a priest or Minister 678 24 Confession in preparation to the Sacrament 678 25 Concupiscence is not mortal till it proceeds further 466 19 Conscience the contention between the flesh and conscience no sign of regeneration 480 29 How to know which prevails in this contention 481 29 Contrition the efficacy of contrition in repentance 281 61 What contrition is 280 59. 582 5. The difference between it and attrition 601. Contrition must not be mistaken for a single act 604. 31 1 Cor. 6.12 explained 122 23. and 10.23 ibid. and 2.14 expl 400 51. and 488 35 and 11.27 expl 566 2 Cor. 5.21 expl 369 15. and 12.21 535 12 Corporal austerities or penances 680 26. they are not simply necessary ibid. Coloss 2.18 expl 478 29 Covenant the opposition between the new and old Covenant is not in respect of faith and works 42 7 S. Cyprian was not the author of that book under his name with the title De coena Domini 285 64 D DEath how to treat a dying man being in despair 277 56 Despair a caution to be observed by them that minister comfort to those who are near to despair 665 10. Considerations to be opposed against the despair of penitent Clinicks 329 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 170 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 178 15 E Ephes 2.2 3. expl 397 48 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes was put to signifie Ecclesiastical Repentance 6â—6 34 645 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 175 10 F FAther how God punishes the fathers sin upon the children â—03 God never imputes the fathers sin to the children so as to inflict eternal punishment but onely temporal 404 54 This God does onely in punishment of the greatest crimes 406 57 and not often 406 58 but before the Gospel was published 407 8 Fasting it is one of the best penances 684 29 Fear to leave a sin out of fear is not sinful but may be accepted 491 Flesh the law of the flesh in man 479 29 The contention between it and the conscience no sign of regeneration 480 29 How to know which prevails in the contention 481 29 Forgiving injuries considered as a part or fruit of repentance 956.84 G GAlat 5.15 16 17 18. expl 481 and 5.24 expl 500 56 and 5.17 expl 554 Ganefis 6.5 exp 392 45 and 8.21 expl 393 46 God no man is tempted of God 437 14 Holy Ghost what is the sin against the Holy Ghost 535 41 Final impenitence proved not to be the sin against the Holy Ghost 556 42 That the sin against the Holy Ghost is pardonable 559 48 In what sense it is affirmed in Scripture that the sin against the Holy Ghost shall not be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come 561 51 52 Gospel difference between it and the Law 4 20 23 Whether the precepts of the Gospel be impossible to be kept 8 What is required in the Gospel 43 9 The Gospel is nothing else but faith and repentance 74 2 Grace to be in the state of grace is of very large signification 189 31 The just measures and latitude of a mans being in the state of grace 190 52 How it works 273 52 H HAbits a single act of sin without a habit gives a denomination 185 25 Sins are damnable that cannot be habitual 184 24 A sinful habit hath a guilt distinct from that of the act 228 1 Sinful habits require a distinct manner of repentance 256 31 seven objections against that assertion answered 272 51 Of infused habits 71 53 The method of mortifying vicious habits 314 9 10 Hands imposition of hands was twice solemnly had in repentance 634 Heaven in a natural estate we cannot hope for heaven 436 10 Hebrews 9.28 expl 369 15 and 7.27 expl 370 17 and 5.23 expl 370 17 and 64 5 6 expl 551 and 10 26 27 expl ibid. Hosea 6.7 expl 366 11. I JAmes 2.10 expl 206 55 Ignorance where it self is no sin the action flowing from it is innocent 515 62 Infants what punishment Adams sin can bring upon Infants that die 375.23 Infirmity that state which some men call a state of infirmity is a state of sin and death 473 25 What are sins of infirmity 500 47 sins of infirmity consist more in the imperfection of obedience then in the commission of any evil 502 49 A sin of infirmity cannot be but in a small matter 505 52 What are not sins of infirmity 507.53 Violence of passion excuseth not under the title of sins of infirmity 508 54 sins of infirmity not accounted in the same manner to young men as to others 510 57 The greatness of the temptation does not make sin excusable upon the account of sins of infirmity 511 58 The smallest instance if observed ceases to be a sin of infirmity 512 59 A mans will hath no infirmity 512 60 Nothing is a sin of infirmity but what is in some sense involuntary â—â—4 61 sins of inculpable ignorance are sins of infirmity 514 62 There is no pardonable state of infirmity 522 76 John 8.47 expl 284 62. and 5.34 expl 394 47. and 14.17 expl 489 and 20.23 expl 570 66 1 John 5.17 expl 189 31 and 5.16 17. expl 553 39 and 3.9 expl 554 and 1.9 expl 606 34 Isaiah 53.10 expl 369 15 Impossible a limited signification of it 552 39 Justice Gods justice and mercy reconciled about his exacting the law 20 K 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 173 6 L LAw in what sense said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 Its severity made the Gospel better received ibid. Difference between it and the Gospel 4 20 23 Of the difference between S. Augustine and S. Hierome concerning the possibility of keeping the law of God 17 In what measures God exacteth it 20 and 22 His mercy and justice reconciled about that thing ibid and 23 35 To keep the law naturally possible but morally impossible 21 34 No man can keep the law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in a sense of favour 34 50 The law of Works imposed on Adam onely 39 1 The state of men under the law 472 A threefold law in man Flesh or Members the MInde or Conscience the Spirit 478 29 The contention between the law of the flesh and conscience no sign of regeneration but the contention between the law of the flesh and spirit is 480 29 Lawfull every thing that is lawful or the utmost of what is lawful not always fit to be done 676 23 Life the necessity of good life 325 25
prevail'd upon and master'd all his strengths The instance is great whatsoever it be that God hath chosen for our obedience To abstain from the fruit of a tree not to gather sticks or dew after a certain hour not to touch the Curtains of the Ark not to uncover our fathers shame all is one as to God for there is nothing in all our duty that can adde any moments to his felicity but by what he please he is to try our obedience Let no man therefore despise a sin or be bold to plead for it as Lot for Zoar Is it not a little one For no man can say it is little if God hath chosen the Commandement which the sin trangresses as an instrument of his glorification and our felicity Disobedience is the formality of sin and since the instance or the matter of sin is all one to God so also is the disobedience The result of this consideration is this 1. That no man should indulge to himself the smallest sin because it is equally against God as the greatest and though accidentally it may come not to be so exacted yet of it self it may and God is just if he does 2. There is no sin but if God enters into judgement with us he may justly sentence us for it to the portion of accursed Spirits For if for any then for all there being as to him no difference But these things are to be proved in the following Section §. 3. That all sins are punishable as God please even with the pains of Hell 1. IN the aggravation of sins the injured person is as considerable as any other circumstance He that smites a Prince he that fires a Temple he that rails upon the Bible he that pollutes the Sacraments makes every sin to be a load and therefore since every sin is against God it ought not to be called little unless God himself should be little esteemed And since men usually give this account that God punishes a transient sin with an immortal pain because though the action is finite yet it was against an infinite God we may upon the same ground esteem it just that even for the smallest sin God in the rigour of his justice can exact the biggest calamity For an act of Murther or a whole year of Adultery hath no nearer proportion to an eternity of pains then one sinful thought hath for greater or less are no approaches towards infinite for between them both and what is infinite the distance is equally infinite 2. In the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial the Doctors of the Roman Church define Venial sins to be such which can consist with the love of God which never destroy or lessen it * Venialia peccata ex consensu omnium Theologorum neque tollunt neque minuunt habitum charitatis sed solum actum fervorem ejus impediunt Bellarm. de amiss grat c. 13. § alterum est in the very definition supposing that thing which is most of all in question and the ground of the definition is nothing but the analogy and proportion of the entercourses and usages of men who for a small offence do not neglect or cast away the endearments of an old friend * Idem ib. cap. 11. §. Quartum argum of which when I have given account I suppose the greatest difficulty of the question is removed Against this therefore I oppose this proposition The smallest sins are destructive of our friendship with God For although Gods mercies are infinite and glorious and he forgives millions to us that grudge to remit the trifles of our brother and therefore whatsoever we can suppose a man will forgive to his friend that and much more infinitely more may we expect from the treasures of his goodness and mercy yet our present consideration is not what we can expect from Gods mercy but what is the just demerit of our sins not what he will forgive but what he may justly exact not what are the measures of pardon but what are the accounts of his justice for though we have hopes upon other reckonings yet upon the account even of our smallest sins we have nothing but fear and sadder expectations For we are not to account the measures and rules of our friendship with God by the easiness and ignorance by the necessities and usual compliances of men For 1. Certain it is that in the usual accounts of men some things are permitted which are not so in the accounts of God All sorts of ignorance use to lessen a fault amongst men but before God some sorts of ignorance do aggravate such as is the voluntary and malicious which is the worst sort of vincible Not that men do not esteem him vicious and unworthy who enquires not for fear he should know but because men oftentimes are not competent judges whether they do or no. 2. Because men know not by what purpose their neighbours action is directed and therefore reckon onely by the next and most apparent cause not by the secret and most operative and effective 3. Because by the laws of Charity we are bound to think the best to expound things fairly to take up things by the easier handle there being left for us no other security of not being confounded by mutual censures judgements and inflictions but by being restrained on the surer side of Charity on which the errors of men are not judged criminal and mischievous as on the other side they are But God knows the hearts of men their little obliquities and intricate turnings every propensity and secret purpose what malice is ingredient and what error is invincible and how much is fit to be pitied and therefore what may justly be exacted For there are three several wayes of judgement according to the several capacities of the Judges * First the laws of men judge onely by the event or material action and meddle not at all with the purpose but where it is open'd by an active sign He that gives me a thousand pounds to upbraid my poverty or with a purpose to feed my crimes is not punishable by law but he is that takes from me a thousand shillings though secretly he means to give it to my needy brother Because as in the estimation of men nothing is valuable but what does them good or hurt so neither can their Laws and Tribunals receive testimony of any thing but what is seen or felt And thus it is also in the measures of sins To break order in a day of battel is but a disorder and so it is to break order at S. Georges show at a training or in a Procession and yet that is punished with death this with a Cudgel the aptness to mischief and the evil consequent being in humane Judicatories the onely measures of judgement Men feel the effects and the Laws do judge accordingly 2. In the private judgements of men mercy must interpose and it can oftner then in the publick because in the private
upon such sinners who onely have venial sins unsatisfied for such horrible pains which they dream of in Purgatory as are during their abode equal to the intolerable pains of hell for that which breaks none of his laws which angers him not which is not against him or his love which is incident to his dearest servants Pro peccato magno paulum supplicii sat is est patri But if fathers take such severe amends of their children for that which is not properly sin there is nothing left by which we can boast of a fathers kindness In this case there is no remission for if it be not just in God to punish such sins in hel because they are consistent with the state of the love of God and yet they are punished in Purgatory that is as much as they can be punished then God does remit to his children nothing for their loves sake but deals with them as severely as for his justice he can in the matter of venial sins indeed if he uses mercy to them at all it is in remitting their mortal sins but in their venial sins he uses none at all Now if things were thus on both sides it is strange men are not more afraid of their venial sins and that they are not more terrible in their description which are so sad in their event and that their punishment should be so great when their malice is so none at all and it is strangest of all that if men did believe such horrible effects to be the consequent of venial sins they should esteem them little and inconsiderable and warn men of them with so little caution But to take this wonder off though they affright men with Purgatory at the end yet they make the bugbear nothing by their easy remedies and preventions in the way Venial sins may be taken off according to their doctrine at as cheap a rate as they may be committed but of this I shall give a fuller account in the 6. § of this Chapter In the mean time to believe Purgatory serves the ends of the Roman Clergy and to have so much easiness and leave in venial sins serves the ends of their Laity but as truth is disserv'd in the former so is piety and the severities of a holy life very much slackned by the latter But as care is taken that their doctrine doe not destroy charity or good life by loosness and indulgence so care must be taken that ours doe not destroy hope and discountenance the endevours of pious people for if the smallest sins be so highly punishable who can hope ever to escape the intolerable state of damnation And if God can be eternally angry for those things which we account small sins then no man is a servant or a friend of God no man is in the state of the Divine favour for no man is without these sins for they are such Quae non possit homo quisquam evitare cavendo a man by all his industry cannot wholly avoid Now because the Scripture pronounces some persons just and righteous as David and Josiah Zechary and Elizabeth who yet could not be innocent and pure from small offences either these little things are in their own nature venial or the godly have leave to doe that which is punished in the ungodly or some other way must be found out how that which is in its own nature damnable can stand with the state of grace and upon what causes sins which of themselves are not so may come to be venial that is more apt and ready to be pardoned and in the next dispositions to receive a mercy §. 5. 1. NO just person does or can indulge to himself the keeping of any sin whatsoever for all sins are accounted of by God according to our affections and if a man loves any it becomes his poison Every sin is damnable when it is chosen deliberately either by express act or by interpretation that is when it is chosen regularly or frequently He that loves to cast over in his minde the pleasures of his past sin he that entertains all those instances of sin which he thinks not to be damnable this man hath given himself up to be a servant to a trifle a lover of little and phantastick pleasures Nothing of this can stand with the state of grace No man can love sin and love God at the same time and to think it to be an excuse to say the sin is little is as if an adulteress should hope for pardon of her offended Lord because the man whom she dotes upon is an inconsiderable person 2. In sins we must distinguish the formality from the material part The formality of sin is disobedience to God and turning from him to the Creature by love and adhesion The material part is the action it self The first can never happen without our will but the latter may by surprise and indeliberation and imperfection of condition For in this life our understanding is weak our attention trifling our advertency interrupted our diversions many our divisions of spirit irresistible our knowledge little our dulness frequent our mistakes many our fears potent and betrayers of our reason and at any one of these doors sin may enter in its material part while the will is unactive or the understanding dull or the affections busie or the spirit otherwise imployed or the faculties wearied or reason abused Therefore if you enquire for venial sins they must be in this throng of imperfections but they never go higher Let no man therefore say I have a desire to please my self in some little things for if he desires it he may not do it that very desire makes that it cannot be venial but as damnable as any in its proportion 3. If any man about to do an action of sin enquires whether it be a venial sin or no to that man at that time that sin cannot be venial for whatsoever a man considers and acts he also chooses and loves in some proportion and therefore turns from God to the sin and that is against the love of God in its degree destructive or diminutive of the state of grace Besides this such a person in this enquiry asks leave to sin against God and gives a testimony that he would sin more if he durst But in the same degree in which the choice is lessened in the same degree the material part of the sin receives also diminution 4. It is remarkable that amongst the Ancients this distinction of sins into Mortal and Venial or to use their own words Graviora Leviora or Peccata 〈◊〉 Crimina does not mean a distinction of kinde but of degrees They call them mortal sins which shall never or very hardly be pardon'd not at all but upon very hard terms So Pacianus De modo criminum edisserens nequis existimet omnibus omnino peccatis summum discrimen impositum In Paraen sedulóque requirens quae sint peccata quae crimina
be the immediate natural disposition to pardon All this is the gift of God a grace obtain'd by our holy Redeemer the price of his bloud but in this the case is all one as it is in the greatest innocence of the best of men which if it be not allowed by incorporation into Christ and sanctified by faith wants its proper title to heaven and so it is with Repentance For nature cannot teach us this lesson much less make it acceptable For it depending wholly upon Gods graciousness and free forgiveness can be taught onely by him by whom it is effectual and this is conveyed to us by our blessed Lord according to that saying Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ 2. Although a habit cannot be the meritorious cause of pardoning the contrary habit yet to him that hath contracted a vicious habit it is necessary in order to his pardon that he root out that habit and obtain the contrary in some degrees of prevalency so that the scales be turned on that side where is the interest of vertue and this depends upon the evidence of the former proposition If to be an habitual sinner be more then to be guilty of those actual sins by which the habit was contracted then as it is necessary to rescind the act of sin by an act of contrition and repentance so also it is as necessary that the habit be retracted by a habit that every wound may have its balsam and every broken bone be bound up and redintegrate 3. But in the case of habitual sins the argument is more pressing For if the act which is past and remains not yet must be reversed by its contrary much rather must that be taken off which does remain which actually tempts us by which we are in a state exactly contrary to the state of grace For some seldome acts of sin and in trifling instances may stand with the state of holiness and be incident to a good man but no vicious habit can neither in a small matter nor in a great this is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a destroyer and therefore as it hath a particular obliquity so it must have a special repentance a repentance proper to it that is as an act rescinds an act so must a habit be oppos'd to a habit a single act of contrition to a single sin and therefore it must be more no less then a lasting and an habitual contrition to obtain pardon for the habit And although a habit can meritoriously remit a habit no more then an act can do an act they being both equal as to that particular yet they are also dispositions equally at least on this hand necessary for the obtaining pardon of their respective contraries 4. It is confessed on all sides that every single sin which we remember must be repented of by an act of repentance that must particularly touch that sin if we distinctly remember it it must distinctly be revok'd by a nolition a sorrow and moral revocation of it Since therefore every habit is contracted by many single actions every one of which if they were sinful must some way or other be rescinded by its contrary the rescission of those will also introduce a contrary habit and so the question will be evinc'd upon that account For if we shall think one act of sorrow can abolish many foul acts of sin we but deceive our selves we must have many for one as I have already made to appear a multitude of sighs and prayers against every foul action that we remember and then the consequent is plain that upon this reckoning when a habit is contracted the actions which were its principle cannot be rescinded but by such Repentances which will extinguish not onely the formality but the material and natural effect of that cursed production at least in very many degrees 5. A habit oppos'd to a habit hath greater effect then an act oppos'd to an act and therefore is not onely equally requisite but the more proper remedy and instance of repentance For an act of it self cannot naturally extinguish the guilt nor meritoriously obtain its pardon but neither can it destroy its natural being which was not permanent and therefore not to be wrought upon by an after act But to oppose a habit to a habit can equally in the merits of Christ be the disposition to a pardon as an act can for an act and is certainly much better then any one act can be because it includes many single acts of the same nature and it is all of them and their permanent effect and change wrought by them besides So that it is certainly the better and the surer way But now the Question is not whether it be the better way but whether it be necessary and will not the lesser way suffice To this therefore I answer that since no man can be acceptable to God as long as sin reigns in his mortal body and since either sin must reign or the Spirit of Christ must reign for a man cannot be a Neuter in this war it is necessary that sins kingdome be destroyed and broken and that Christ rule in our hearts that is it is necessary that the first and the old habits be taken off and new ones introduc'd For although the moral revocation of a single act may be a sufficient disposition to its pardon because the act was transient and unless there be a habit or something of it nothing remains yet the moral revocation of a sinful habit cannot be sufficient because there is impressed upon the soul a viciousness and contrariety to God which must be taken off or there can be no reconciliation For let it be but considered that a vicious habit is a remanent aversation from God an evil heart the evil treasure of the heart a carnall mindedness an union and principle of sins and then let it be answered whether a man who is in this state can be a friend of God or reconcil'd to him in his Son who lives in a state so contrary to his holy Spirit of Grace The guilt cannot be taken off without destroying its nature since the nature it self is a viciousness and corruption 6. Either it is necessary to extirpate and break the habit or else a man may be pardon'd while he is in love with sin For every vicious habit being radicated in the will and being a strong love inclination and adhesion to sin unless the natural being of this habit be taken off the enmity against God remains For it being a quality permanent and inherent and its nature being an aptness and easiness a desire to sin and longing after it to retract this by a moral retractation and not by a natural also is but hypocrisie for no man can say truly I hate the sin I have committed so long as the love to sin is inherent in his will and then if God should pardon such a person it would be to justifie a sinner remaining such which God equally
express precepts of perseverance doe imply that the office and duty of a Christian is of a long time and business and a race * That repentance being the renewing of a holy life it should seem that on our death-bed the day for repentance is past since no man can renew his life when his life is done no man can live well when he cannot live at all * and therefore to place our hopes upon a death-bed repentance onely is such a religion as satisfies all our appetites and contradicts none and yet promises heaven at last * These things I say are all either notorious and evident or expresly affirmed in Scripture and therefore that in the ordinary way of things in the common expectation of events such persons are in a very sad condition So that it remains that in this sad condition there must be some extraordinary way found out or else this whole enquiry is at an end Concerning which all that I can say is this 1. God hath an Almighty power and his mercy is as great as his power He can doe miracles of mercy as well as miracles of mightiness And this S. Austin brings in open pretence against desperation O homo quicunque illam multitudinem peccatorum attendis cur omnipotentiam coelestis medici non attendis Thy sins are great but Gods mercies are greater But this does represent the mans condition at the best to be such that God may if he will have mercy upon him but whether he will or no there is as yet no other certainty or probability but that he can if he please which proposition to an amazed timorous person that fears a hell the next hour is so dry a story so hopeless a proposition that all that can be said of this is that it is very fit that no man should ever put it to the venture For upon this argument we may as well comfort our selves upon him that died without repenting at all But the inquiry must be further 2. All mankinde all the Doctors of the Church for very many ages at least some few of the most Ancient and of the Modern excepted have been apt to give hopes to such persons and no man bids them absolutely despair Let such persons make use of this easiness of men thereby to retain so much hope as to make them call upon God and not to neglect what can then be done Spem retine spes una hominem nec morte relinquit As long as there is life there is hope and when a man dies let him not despair for there is a life after this and a hope proper to that and amidst all the evils that the Ancients did fabulously report to be in Pandora's box they wittily plac'd Hope on the utmost lip of it and extremity Vivere spe vidi qui moriturus erat And S. Cyprian exhorts old Demetrianus to turn Christian in his old age and promises him salvation in the name of Christ and though his case and that of a Christian who entred into promises and Covenants of obedience be very different yet ad immortalitatem sub ipsâ morte transitur a passing from such a repentance to immortality although it cannot be hop'd for upon the just accounts of express promise yet it is not too great to hope from Gods mercy and until that which is infinite hath a limit a repenting mans hopes in this world cannot be wholly at an end 3. We finde that in the battels which were fought by the Maccabees some persons who fought on the Lords side and were slain in the sight were found having on their breasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pendants consecrate to the idols of the Samnenses and yet the good people of their party made oblation for them hoping that they might be partakers of a blessed resurrection They that repent heartily but one hour are in a better condition then the other that died in their sin though with the advantage of fighting in a good cause and if good people will not leave hoping for such persons it is not fit that themselves should 4. He that considers Gods great love to Mankinde * the infinite love that God hath to his holy Son Jesus and yet that he sent him to die for every man * and that the holy Jesus does now and hath for very many ages prayed for the pardon of our sins that he knows how horrible those pains are which are provided for perishing souls and therefore that he is exceedingly pitiful and desirous that we should escape them * and that God did give one extraordinary example of saving a dying penitent the Thief upon the Cross and though that had something in it extraordinary and miraculous yet that is it which is now expected a favour extraordinary a miraculous mercy * And that Christ was pleased to speak a Parable of comfort and the Master of the Vineyard did pay salary to him that began to work at the eleventh hour and though that was some portion of his life the twelfth part of it and the man was not call'd sooner yet there may be something in it of comfort to the dying penitent since it looks something like it it certainly relates to old men and can doe them comfort and possibly the merciful intention of it is yet larger * and that since God is so well pleased with repentance it may be he will abate the circumstance of time Nec ad rem pertinet ubi inciperet quod placuerat ut fieret and he will not consider when that begins which he loves should be done * And that he is our Father and paulum supplicii satis est Patri a Father will chastise but will not kill his son * And that it is therefore seasonable to hope because it is a duty and the very hope it self God delights to reward for so said the Apostle Cast not away your confidence Heb. 10.35 which hath great recompence of reward * And the Church of God imitating the mercies of our gracious God and Father Concil Nicen. can 13. hath denied to give the Sacrament of peace and mercy to none that seek it Viaticum omnibus in morte positis non est negandum Concil Agath c. 11. And in the saddest consideration of things that can be suppose it be with him as with Simon Magus suppose that he is in the gall of bitterness in the state of damnation in the guilt of a sin which we know not whether God will pardon or not yet still it is wise and pious counsel that he should pray if peradventure he may be forgiven He I say that considers these things will have cause to be very earnest and very busy to lose no time to remit no labour to quit no hope but humbly passionately diligently set upon that duty of repentance which should have long agoe come to some perfection Now because I have as I suppose said enough to make men afraid to put off their repentance to
be tied to any particular repentance relative to this sin the answer will not be difficult I remember a pretty device of Hierome of Florence a famous Preacher not long since who used this argument to prove the blessed Virgin Mary to be free from Original sin Because it is more likely if the blessed Virgin had been put to her choice she would rather have desired of God to have kept her free from venial actual sin then from Original Since therefore God hath granted her the greater and that she never sinn'd actually it is to be presum'd God did not deny to her the smaller favour and therefore she was free from Original Upon this many a pretty story hath been made and rare arguments fram'd and sierce contestations whether it be more agreeable to the piety and prudence of the Virgin Mother to desire immunity from Original sin that is deadly or from a venial actual sin that is not deadly This indeed is voluntary and the other is not but the other deprives us of grace and this does not God was more offended by that but we offend him more by this The dispute can never be ended upon their accounts but this Gordian knot I have now untied as Alexander did by destroying it and cutting it all in pieces But to return to the Question S. Austin was indeed a fierce Patron of this device and one of the chief inventers and finishers of it and his sense of it is declared in his Book De peccatorum medicinâ Cap. 3. homil 50. where he endevours largely to prove that all our life time we are bound to mourn for the inconveniences and evil consequents deriv'd from Original sin I dare say every man is sufficiently displeased that he is liable to sickness weariness displeasure melancholy sorrow folly imperfection and death dying with groans and horrid spasms and convulsions In what sense these are the effects of Adams sin and though of themselves natural yet also upon his account made penal I have already declar'd and need no more to dispute my purpose being onely to establish such truths as are in order to practice and a holy life to the duties of repentance and amendment But our share of Adams sin either being in us no sin at all or else not to be avoided or amended it cannot be the matter of repentance Neminem autem rectè it a loqui poenitere sese quòd natus sit aut poenitere quòd mortalis sit aut quòd ex offenso fortè vulnerató que corpore dolorem sentiat Li. 17. c. 1. said A. Gellius A man is not properly said to repent that he was born or that he shall die or that he feels pain when his leg is hurt he gives this reason Quando istiusmodi rerum nec consilium sit nostrum nec arbitrium As these are besides our choyce so they cannot fall into our deliberation and therefore as they cannot be chosen so neither refused and therefore not repented of for that supposes both that they were chosen once and now refused * As Adam was not bound to repent of the sins of all his posterity so neither are we tied to repent of his sins Neither did I ever see in any ancient Office or forms of prayer publick or private any prayer of humiliation prescrib'd for original sin They might deprecate the evil consequents but never confess themselves guilty of the formal sin Adde to this Original sin is remitted in Baptism by the consent of those Schools of learning who teach this article and therefore is not reserv'd for any other repentance and that which came without our own consent is also to be taken off without it That which came by the imputation of a sin may also be taken off by the imputation of righteousness that is as it came without sin so it must also goe away without trouble But yet because the Question may not render the practice insecure I adde these Rules by way of advice and caution §. 7. Advices relating to the matter of Original sin 1. IT is very requisite that we should understand the state of our own infirmity the weakness of the flesh the temptations and diversions of the spirit that by understanding our present state we may prevent the evils of carelesness and security * Our evils are the imperfections and sorrows inherent in or appendant to our bodies our souls our spirits * In our bodies we finde weakness and imperfection sometimes crookedness sometimes monstrosity filthiness and weariness infinite numbers of diseases and an uncertain cure great pain and restless night hunger and thirst daily necessities ridiculous gestures madness from passions distempers and disorders great labour to provide meat and drink and oftentimes a loathing when we have them if we use them they breed sicknesses if we use them not we die and there is such a certain healthlesness in many things to all and in all things to some men and at some times that to supply a need is to bring a danger and if we eat like beasts onely of one thing our souls are quickly weary if we eat variety we are sick and intemperate and our bodies are inlets to sin and a stage of temptation If we cherish them they undoe us if we doe not cherish them they die we suffer illusion in our dreams and absurd fancies when we are waking our life is soon done and yet very tedious it is too long and too short darkness and light are both troublesome and those things which are pleasant are often unwholsome wholesome Sweet smels make the head ake and those smels which are medicinal in some diseases are intolerable to the sense The pleasures of our body are bigger in expectation then in the possession and yet while they are expected they torment us with the delay and when they are enjoyed they are as if they were not they abuse us with their vanity and vex us with their volatile and fugitive nature Our pains are very frequent alone and very often mingled with pleasures to spoil them and he that feels one sharp pain feels not all the pleasures of the world if they were in his power to have them We live a precarious life begging help of every thing and needing the repairs of every day and being beholding to beasts and birds to plants and trees to dirt and stones to the very excrements of beasts and that which dogs and horses throw forth Our motion is slow and dull heavy and uneasy we cannot move but we are quickly tired and for every days labour we need a whole night to recruit our lost strengths we live like a lamp unless new materials be perpetually poured in we live no longer then a fly and our motion is not otherwise then a clock we must be pull'd up once or twice in twenty four hours and unless we be in the shadow of death for six or eight hours every night we shall be scarce in the shadows of life the other
For although it is piety to be troubled for their fathers regard and because he died an enemy to God yet in reference to themselves they must know that God puts upon every head his own punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Plato For every one is submitted to his own fortune by his own act The fathers crime and the fathers punishment make no real permanent blot upon the son No man is forc'd to succeed in his fathers crime said Callistratus the Lawyer 4. Every evil that happens to a son for his fathers fault hath an errand of its own to him For as God is a just Judge to his father so he is an essential enemy to sin and a gracious Lord to the suffering person When God sent blindeness upon the man in the Gospel neither for his parents sins nor his own yet he did it for his own glory Let the afflicted person study by all wayes to advance Gods glory in the sufferance and the sharpness of the evil will be taken off 5. Let not a son retain the price of his fathers sin the purchase of his iniquity If his father entred into the fields of the fatherless let not the son dwell there If his ancestors were sacrilegious let not the son declaim against the crime and keep the lands but cast off that which brings the burthen along with it And this is to be observed in all those sins the evil consequent and effect of which remains upon the posterity or successors of the injur'd person for in those sins very often the curse descends with the wrong So long as the effect remains and the injury is complained of and the title is stil kept on foot so long the son is tied to restitution But even after the possession is setled yet the curse and evil may descend longer then the sin as the smart and the aking remains after the blow is past And therefore even after the successors come to be lawful possessors it may yet be very fit for them to quit the purchase of their fathers sin or else they must resolve to pay the sad and severe rent-charge of a curse 6. In such cases in which there cannot be a real let there be a verbal and publick disavowing their fathers sin which was publick scandalous and notorious Gregoras lib. 5. c. 81. We finde this thing done by Andronicus Palaeologus the Greek Emperour who was the son of a bad Father and it is to be done when the effect was transient or irremediable 7. Sometimes no piety of the children shall quite take off the anger of God from a family or nation as it hapned to Josiah who above all the Princes that were before or after him turned to the Lord. 2 Kings 23.26 Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withall In such a case as this we are to submit to Gods will and let him exercise his power his dominion and his kingdome as he pleases and expect the returns of our piety in the day of recompences and it may be our posterity shall reap a blessing for our sakes who feel a sorrow and an evil for our fathers sake 8. Let all that have children endevour to be the beginners and the stock of a new blessing to their family by blessing their children by praying much for them by holy education and a severe piety by rare example and an excellent religion And if there be in the family a great curse and an extraordinary anger gone out against it there must be something extraordinary done in the matter of religion or of charity that the remedy be no less then the evil 9. Let not the consideration of the universal sinfulness and corruption of mankinde adde confidence to thy person and hardness to thy conscience and authority to thy sin but let it awaken thy spirit and stir up thy diligence and endear all the watchfulness in the world for the service of God for there is in it some difficulty and an infinite necessity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Orest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Electra in the Tragedy Our nature is very bad in it self but very good to them that use it well Prayers and Meditations THE first Adam bearing a wicked heart transgressed and was overcome Esdras 2.3.21.22 and so be all they that are born of him Thus infirmity was made permanent And the law also in the heart of the people with the malignity and root so that the good departed away and the evil abode still Lo Eccl. 7.29 this onely have I found that God hath made man upright but they have sought many inventions For there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not V. 20. Behold Psal 51.5 7 10. I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Purge me with hysop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter then snow create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me The fool hath said in his heart Psal 14.1 2 3. There is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God They are all gone aside they are all become filthy There is not one that doeth good no not one V. 7. * O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people Jacob shall rejoyce and Israel shall be glad Man dieth and wasteth away Job 14.10 c. yea man giveth up the ghost and where is he For now thou numbrest my steps Dost thou not watch over my sin my transgression is seal'd up in a bag and thou sewest up iniquity Thou destroyest the hope of man Thou prevailest against him for ever and he passeth thou changest his countenance and sendest him away But his flesh upon him shall have pain and his soul within him shall mourn What is man that he should be clean Job 15.14 and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints yea the heavens are not clean in his sight How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid V. 24. they shall prevail against him as a King ready to battel For he stretcheth out his hand against God and strengthneth himself against the Almighty Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity V. 31. for vanity shall be his recompence Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing no not one I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin Job 16.15 and defiled my horn in the dust My face is foul
be accepted and when I fail of that I may be pitied and pardoned and in all my fights and necessities may be defended and secured prospered and conducted to the regions of victory and triumph of strength and glory through the mercies of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus and the blessed communication of the Spirit of God and our Lord Jesus Amen CHAP. VIII Of the effect of Repentance viz. Remission of sins §. 1. THE law written in the Heart of man is a law of obedience which because we prevaricated we are taught another which S. Austin says is written in the Heart of Angels Lib. 6. cont Julian c. 9. Vt nulla sit iniquitas impunita nisi quam sanguis Mediatoris expiaverit For God the Father spares no sinner but while he looks upon the face of his Son but that in him our sins should be pardon'd and our persons spared is as necessary a consideration as any S. Ambr. de poenit l. 1. c. 2. Nemo enim potest benè agere poenitentiam nisi qui speraverit indulgentiam To what purpose does God call us to Repentance if at the same time he does not invite us to pardon It is the state and misery of the damned to repent without hope and if this also could be the state of the penitent in this life the Sermons of Repentance were useless and comfortless Gods mercies were none at all to sinners the institution and office of preaching and reconciling penitents were impertinent and man should die by the laws of Angels who never was enabled to live by their strength and measures and consequently all mankinde were infinitely and eternally miserable lost irrecoverably perishing without a Saviour tied to a law too hard for him and condemned by unequal and intolerable sentences Tertullian considering that God threatens all impenitent sinners Lib. 2. de poenit argues demonstratively Neque enim comminaretur non poenitenti si non ignosceret delinquenti If men repent not God will be severely angry it will be infinitely the worse for us if we doe not and shall it be so too if we doe repent God forbid Frustra mortuus est Christus si aliquos vivificare non potest S. Hierom. Epist ad Ocean Mentitur Johannes Baptista digito Christum voce demonstrans Ecce agnus Dei ecce qui tollit peccata mundi si sunt adhuc in saeculo quorum Christus peccata non tulerit In vain did Christ die if he cannot give life to all And the Baptist deceiv'd us when he pointed out Christ unto us saying Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world if there were any in the world whose sins Christ hath not born But God by the old Prophets called upon them who were under the Covenant of Works in open appearance Exod. 34.6 Psa 103. per totum 128. Isa 55.7 8. Jer. 18.7 8. Ezek. 18.21 22. 33.11 Dan. 4.27 Mal. 3.7 Joel 2.13 Jonah 4.2 3.9 that they also should repent and by antedating the mercies of the Gospel promised pardon to the penitent He promised mercy by Moses and the Prophets He proclaimed his Name to be Mercy and Forgiveness He did solemnly swear he did not desire the death of a sinner but that he should repent and live and the holy Spirit of God haâ—â— respersed every book of holy Scripture with great and legible lines of mercy and sermons of Repentance In short it was the summe of all the Sermons which were made by those whom God sent with his word in their mouthes that they should live innocently or when they had sinned they should repent and be sav'd from their calamity But when Christ came into the world he open'd the fountains of mercy and broke down all the banks of restraint he preach'd Repentance offer'd health gave life call'd all wearied and burthen'd persons to come to him for ease and remedy he glorified his Fathers mercies and himself became the great instrument and channel of its emanation He preach'd and commanded mercy by the example of God he made his Religion that he taught to be wholly made up of doing and receiving good this by Faith that by Charity He commanded an indefinite and unlimited forgiveness of our brother repenting after injuries done to us seventy times seven times and though there could be little quostion of that yet he was pleased to signifie to us that as we needed more so we should have and finde more mercy at the hands of God And therefore he hath appointed a whole order of men whom he maintains at his own charges and furnishes with especial commissions Mat. 1â— 15 16. Joh. 20.23 2 Cor. 7.10 Gal. 6.1 Jam. 1.15 16 19 20. 1 Joh. 2.11 1.9 Rev. 2.5 3.1 2 3 19 20. and endues with a lasting power and imployes on his own errand and instructs with his own Spirit whose business is to remit and retain to exhort and to restore sinners by the means of Repentance and the word of their proper Ministery Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted that 's their Authority and their Office is to pray all men in Christs stead to be reconciled to God And after all this Christ himself labours to bring it to effect not onely assisting his Ministers with the gifts of an excellent Spirit and exacting of them the account of Souls but that it may be prosperous and effectual himself intercedes in Heaven before the Throne of Grace doing for sinners the office of an Advocate and a Reconciler If any man sins 1 Joh. 2.2 3. we have an Advocate with the Father and he is the propitiation for all our sins and for the sins of the whole world and therefore it is not onely the matter of our hopes but an Article of our Creed that we may have forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Jesus Qui nullum excepit in Christo donavit omnia God hath excepted none and therefore in Christ pardons all For there is not in Scripture any Catalogue of sins set down for which Christ died and others excluded from that state of mercy All that believe and repent shall be pardon'd if they go and sin no more Deus distinctionem non facit qui misericordiam suam promisit omnibus relaxandi licentiam sacerdotibus suis sine ullâ exceptione concessit Lib. 1. de poenit c. 2. said S. Ambrose God excepts none but hath given power to his Ministers to release all absolutely all And S. Bernard argues this Article upon the account of those excellent examples which the Spirit of God hath consign'd to us in holy Scripture If Peter after so great a fall did arrive to such an eminence of sanctity In solenni Petri Pauli Ser. 3. hereafter who shall despair provided that he will depart from his sins For that God is ready to forgive the greatest Criminals if they repent appears in the instances of Ahab and
Manasses of Mary Magdalen and S. Paul of the Thief on the Cross and the deprehended Adulteress and of the Jews themselves who after they had crucified the Lord of life were by messengers of his own invited passionately invited to repent and be purified with that blood which they had sacrilegiously and impiously spilt But concerning this who please may reade S. Austin discoursing upon those words Mittet Crystallum suum sicut buccellas which saith he mystically represent the readiness of God to break and make contrite even the hearts of them that have been hardened in impiety Gemara de Synedrio c. 11. Quo loco consisiâ—â—t poenitentiaâ—â—â—gentes ibi justi non poterunt stare said the Doctors of the Jews The just and innocent persons shall not be able to stand in the same place where the penitent shall be Pacem pacem remoto propinquo ait Dominus ut sanem eum Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord that I may heal him Praeponit remotum That 's their observation He that is afar off is set before the other that is he that is at great distance from God as if God did use the greater earnestness to reduce him Upon which place their gloss addes Magna est virtus eorum qui poenitentiam agunt ita ut nulla Creatura in septo illorum consistere queat So great is the vertue of them that are true penitents that no creature can stand within their inclosure And all this is farre better expressed by those excellent words of our blessed Saviour Luk. 15.7 There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more then over ninety nine just persone that need no repentance I have been the longer in establishing and declaring the proper foundation of this Article upon which every one can declaim but every one cannot believe it in the day of temptation because I guess what an intolerable evil it is to despair of pardon by having felt the trouble of some very great fears And this were the less necessary but that it is too commonly true that they who repent least are most confident of their pardon or rather least consider any reasons against their security but when a man truly apprehends the vileness of his sin he ought also to consider the state of his danger which is wholly upon the stock of what is past that is his danger is this that he knows not when or whether or upon what terms God will pardon him in particular But of this I shall have a more apt occasion to speak in the following periods For the present the Article in general is established upon the testimonies of the greatest certainty §. 2. Of pardon of sins committed after Baptism BUt it may be our easiness of life and want of discipline and our desires to reconcile our pleasures and temporal satisfactions with the hopes of heaven hath made us apt to swallow all that seems to favour our hopes But it is certain that some Christian Doctors have taught the Doctrine of Repentance with greater severity then is intimated in the premises For all the examples of pardon consign'd to us in the Old Testament are nothing to us who live under the New and are to be judged by other measures And as for those instances which are recorded in the New Testament and all the promises and affirmations of pardon they are sufficiently verified in that pardon of sins which is first given to us in Baptism and at our first Conversion to Christianity Thus when S. Stephen prayed for his persecutors and our blessed Lord himself on his uneasie death-bed of the Cross prayed for them that Crucified him it can onely prove that these great sins are pardonable in our first access to Christ because they for whom Christ and his Martyr S. Stephen prayed were not yet converted and so were to be saved by Baptismal Repentance Then the Power of the Keyes is exercised and the gates of the Kingdome are opened then we enter into the Covenant of mercy and pardon and promise faith and perpetual obedience to the laws of Jesus and upon that condition forgiveness is promised and exhibited offer'd and consign'd but never after for it is in Christianity for all great sins as in the Civil law for theft L. 65. D. de furtis l. 1. D. de Aediliâ—io edicto Qui eâ mente alienum quid contrectavit ut lucrifaceret tametsi mutato consilio id Domino postea reddidit fur est nemo enim tali peccato poenitentiâ suâ nocens esse desinit said Vlpian and Gaius Repentance does not here take off the punishment nor the stain And so it seems to be in Christianity in which every baptized person having stipulated for obedience is upon those terms admitted to pardon and consequently if he fails of his duty he shall fail of the grace But that this objection may proceed no further it is certain that it is an infinite lessening of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ to confine pardon of sins onely to the Font. For that even lapsed Christians may be restored by repentance and be pardoned appears in the story of the incestuous Corinthian and the precept of S. Paul to the spiritual man or the Curate of souls If any man be overtaken in a fault Gal. 6.1 ye which are spiritual restore such a man in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted The Christian might fall and the Corinthian did so and the Minister himself he who had the ministery of restitution and reconciliation was also in danger and yet they all might be restored To the same sense is that of S. James Jam. 5.15 Is any man sick among you let him send for the Presbyters of the Church and let them pray over him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although he was a doer of sins they shall be forgiven him For there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sin that is not unto death And therefore when S. Austin in his first Book de Sermone Dei had said that there is some sin so great that it cannot be remitted he retracts his words with this clause addendum fuit c. I should have added If in so great perverseness of minde he ends his life For we must not despair of the worst sinner we may not despair of any since we ought to pray for all For it is beyond exception or doubt that it was the great work of the Apostles and of the whole new Testament to engage men in a perpetual repentance For since all men doe sin all men must repent or all men must perish And very many periods of Scripture are directed to lapsed Christians baptized persons fallen into grievous crimes calling them to repentance Acts 8.22 So Simon Peter to Simon Magus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repent of thy wickedness and to the Corinthian Christians S. Paul urges the purpose of his legation
time nothing hinders but that every sin is pardonable to him that repents But thus we finde that the style of Scripture and the expressions of holy persons is otherwise in the threatning and the edict otherwise in the accidents of persons and practise It is necessary that it be severe when duty is demanded but of lapsed persons it uses not to be exacted in the same dialect It is as all laws are In the general they are decretory in the use and application they are easier In the Sanction they are absolute and infinite but yet capable of interpretations of dispensations and relaxation in particular cases And so it is in the present Article Impossible and Vnpardonable and Damnation and shall be cut off and nothing remains but fearful expectation of judgement are exterminating words and phrases in the law but they doe not effect all that they there signifie to any but the impenitent according to the saying of Mark the Hermite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man is ever justified but he that carefully repents and no man is condemned but he that despises repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Basil The eye of God who is so great a lover of souls cannot deny the intercessions and letanies of Repentance §. 6. The former Doctrines reduc'd to Practise 1. Although the doors of Repentance open to them that sin after Baptism and to them that sin after Repentance yet every relapse does increase the danger and make the sin to be less pardonable then before For 1. A good man falling into sin does it without all necessity he hath assistances great enough to make him conqueror he hath reason enough to disswade him he hath sharp senses of the filthiness of sin his spirit is tender and is crush'd with the uneasie load he sighs and wakes and is troubled and distracted and if he sins he sins with pain and shame and smart and the less of mistake there is in his case the more of malice is ingredient and a greater anger is like to be his portion 2. It is a particular unthankfulness when a man that was once pardon'd shall relapse And when obliged persons prove enemies they are ever the most malicious as having nothing to protect or cover their shame but impudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So did the Greeks treat Agamemnon ill because he used them but too well Such persons are like Travellers who in a storm running to a fig-tree when the storm is over they beat the branches and pluck the fruit and having run to an altar for sanctuary they steal the Chalice from the holy place and rob the Temple that secur'd them And God does more resent it that the Lambs which he feeds at his own table which are as so many sons and daughters to him that daily suck plenty from his two breasts of Mercy and Providence that they should in his own house make a mutiny and put on the fierceness of wolves and rise up against their Lord and Shepherd 3. Every relapse after repentance is directly and in its proper principle a greater sin Our first faults are pitiable and we doe pati humanum we do after the manner of men but when we are recovered and then die again we doe facere Diabolicum we do after the manner of Devils For from ignorance to sin from passion and youthful appetites to sin from violent temptations and little strengths to fall into sin is no very great change it is from a corrupted nature to corrupted manners But from grace to return to sin from knowledge and experience and delight in goodnesse and wise notices from God and his Christ to return to sin to foolish actions and non-sense principles is a change great as was the fall of the morning stars when they descended cheaply and foolishly into darkness Well therefore may it be pitied in a childe to choose a bright dagger before a warm coat but when he hath been refreshed by this and smarted by that if he chooses again he will choose better But men that have tried both states that have rejoyced for their deliverance from temptation men that have given thanks to God for their safety and innocence men that have been wearied and ashamed of the follies of sin that have weighed both sides and have given wise sentence for God and for religion if they shall choose again and choose amiss it must be by something by which Lucifer did in the face of God choose to defie him and desire to turn Devil and be miserable and wicked for ever and ever 4. If a man repents of his repentances and returns to his sins all his intermedial repentance shall stand for nothing the sins which were marked for pardon shall break out in guilt and be exacted of him in fearful punishments as if he never had repented For if good works crucified by sins are made alive by repentance by the same reason those sins also will live again if the repentance dies it being equally just that if the man repents of his repentance God also should repent of his pardon For we must observe carefully that there is a pardon of sins proper to this life and another proper to the world to come Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and what ye binde on earth shall be bound in heaven Vid. suprà Num. 53. That is there are two remissions One here the other hereafter That here is wrought by the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments by faith and obedience by moral instruments and the divine grace all which are divisible and gradual and grow or diminish ebbe or flow change or persist and consequently grow on to effect or else fail of the grace of God that final grace which alone is effective of that benefit which we here contend for Here in proper speaking our pardon is but a disposition towards the great and final pardon a possibility and ability to pursue that interest to contend for that absolution and accordingly it is wrought by parts and is signified and promoted by every act of grace that puts us in order to heaven or the state of final pardon God gives us one degree of pardon when he forbears to kill us in the act of sin when he admits when he calls when he smites us into repentance when he invites us by mercies and promises when he abates or defers his anger when he sweetly engages us in the wayes of holiness these are several parts and steps of pardon For if God were extremely angry with us as we deserve nothing of all this would be done unto us and still Gods favours increase and the degrees of pardon multiply as our endevours are prosperous as we apply our selves to religion and holiness and make use of the benefits of the Church the ministery of the Word and Sacraments and as our resolutions passe into acts and habits of vertue But then in this world we are to expect no other pardon but a fluctuating alterable
the black registers of death that my sins being covered and cured dead and buried in the grave of Jesus I may live to thee my God a life of righteousness and grow in it till I shall arrive at a state of glory II. I Have often begun to return to thee but I turn'd short again and look'd back upon Sodom and lov'd to dwell in the neighbourhood of the horrible regions Now O my God hear now let me finish the work of a holy repentance Let thy grace be present with me that this day I may repent acceptably and to morrow and all my days not weeping over my returning sins nor deploring new instances but weeping bitterly for the old loathing them infinitely denouncing warre against them hastily prosecuting that warre vigorously resisting them every hour crucifying them every day praying perpetually watching assiduously consulting spiritual guides and helps frequently obeying humbly and crying mightily I may doe every thing by which I can please thee that I may be rescued from the powers of darkness and the sad portions of eternity which I have deserved III. O Give unto thy servant intentions so real a resolution so strong a repentance so holy a sorrow so deep a hope so pure a charity so sublime that no temptation or time no health or sickness no accident or interest may be able in any circumstance of things or persons to tempt me from thee and prevail Work in me a holy and an unreprovable faith whereby I may overcome the world and crucify the flesh and quench the fiery darts of the Deâ—â—l and let this faith produce charity and my sorrow cause amendment and my fear produce caution and that caution beget a holy hope let my repentance be perfect and acceptable and my affliction bring forth joy and the pleasant fruit of righteousness Let my hatred of sin pass into the love of God and this love be obedience and this obedience be universal and that universality be lasting and perpetual that I may rejoyce in my recovery and may live in health and proceed in holiness and abide in thy favour and die with a blessing the death of the righteous and may rest in the arms of the Lord Jesus and at the day of judgement may have my portion in the resurrection of the just and may enter into the joy of my Lord to reap from the mercies of God in the harvest of a blessed eternity what is here sown in tears and penitential sorrow being pardoned and accepted and sav'd by the mercies of God in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen Amen Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The End ERRATA PAge 32. line 16. dele to p. 72. l. 15. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 131. l. 5. for highest r. lightest p. 133. l. 28. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 328. l. 28. for Samnenses r. Jamnenses p. 338. l. 16. for repealing r. repeating p. 370. l. 36. for unusual r. usual p. 388. l. 12. for In r. It. p. 391. l. 32. for miseram r. miserum p. 393. l. 16. r. numqua p. 400. l. 16. for I have already r. I have in the next Chapter ibid. l. 18. for I then reproved r. I there reprove p. 431. l. 2. r. illud p. 454. l. 12. for endure r. endear p. 504 l. 17. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 508. l. 11. for precept r. precepts p. 522. l. 12. for have it r. hate it p. 523. l. 34. r. for good evil r. good or evil p. 564 l. 7. after supreme sense put a period p. 565. l. 15. for eâdem r. eodem p. 572. l. 6. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 626. l. 28. for thing r. King p. 671. l. 31. r. our conservation is In the Margent p. 120. l. ult r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 133. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 475. l. 1. r. Acts 13.48 THE TABLE The numbers relate to the Page and the marginall Numbers or Paragraphs of each CHAPTER A ABsolution of the forms of Absolution which have been used p. 627. num 53 In the primitive Church there was no judicial form of absolution in their Liturgies 628 54 Absolution of sins by the Priest can be no more then declarative 634 58 The usefulness of that kinde of absolution 63â— 59 Iudicial absolution by the Priest is not that which Christ intended in giving the power of remitting and retaining sins 636 Acts what repentance single acts of sin require 198 43. a single act of sin is cut off by the exercise of contrary vertue 199 45 A single act of vertue is not sufficient to be opposed against a single act of vice 200 46. How a single act of sin sometimes is habitual 202 49. some acts of sin require more then a moral revocation or opposing a contrary act of vertue in repentance 202 50. Single acts of sin without a habit give a denomination 185 25 Act. Chap. 13.48 explicated 475 26 Adam his sin made us not heirs of damnation 375 22. nor makes us necessarily vicious 383 37. Adams sin did not corrupt our nature by a physical efficiency 383 39 nor because we were in the loins of Adam 384 40 nor because of the decree of God 386 41 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what latitude of signification it hath 552 39 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 119 21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 170 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 178 15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 177 14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 115 21. 125 26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 551 38 Art how much it can change Nature 212 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 174 8 245 18 Alms as a part of repentance 654. How they operate in order to pardon ibid. It is one of the best penances 684 29 Attrition what is is 601. The difference between it and Contrition ibid. Attrition joyned with absolution by the Priest that it is not sufficient demonstrated by many arguments 638 S. Augustine his zeal against the Pelagians to make sure work with their doctrine was the occasion of his mistake interpreting Rom. 7.15 464 17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Tit. 3.11 expl 474.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 311 5 B BAptism of the pardon of sins after baptism 532 7 C CHarity gives being to all vertues 207.56 Children how God punishes the fathers upon the children 403 God never imputes the fathers sin to the childe so as to inflict eternal punishment but temporal onely 404 54 This he does onely in very great crimes 406 57 and not often 406 58 but before the Gospel was published not since 407.8 Rules of deportment for those children who fear a curse descending on them from their sinful parents 439 17 Christ we are by him redeemed from the state of spiritual infirmity 473 25 Commandments Of the difference between S Augustine and S. Hierome in the proposition concerning the