God is created in righteousness and true holiness Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be not ye therefore partakers with them * For ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light * For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth * Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord * And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them * See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise * Redeeming the time because the days are evil * Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ fitteth on the right hand of God Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth * For ye are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God * Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry * But now you also pâ—t off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth * Lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds * And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world * Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ * Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God * Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord * Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the ingraffed word which is able to save your souls * But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust And besides this giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge * And to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness * And to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity * For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. * But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance * But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation * Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed The indispensable necessity of a good life represented in the following Scriptures WHosoever breaketh one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven And why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of God Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life * But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath * Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile * But glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ * Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Furthermore then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more * For ye know what Commandments we gave by the Lord Jesus * For this is the will of God even your sanctification As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a Father doth
the honesty of his heart caused God so to pardon him as to bring him to the knowledge of Christ which God therefore did because it was necessary necessitate medii no salvation was consistent with the actual remanency of that error but in the Question of Circumcision although they by consequence did overthrow the end of Christ's coming yet because it was such a consequence which they being hindred by a prejudice non impious did not perceive God tolerated them in their error till time and a continual dropping of the lessons and dictates Apostolical did wear it out and then the doctrine put on its apparel and became clothed with necessity they in the mean time so kept to the foundation that is Jesus Christ crucified and risen again that although this did make a violent concussion of it yet they held fast with their heart what they ignorantly destroyed with their tongue which Saul before his conversion did not that God upon other Titles than an actual dereliction of their error did bring them to salvation 5. And in the descent of so many years I find not any one Anathema past by the Apostles or their Successors upon any of the Bishops of Jerusalem or the Believers of the Circumcision and yet it was a point as clearly determined and of as great necessity as any of those Questions that at this day vex and crucifie Christendom 6. Besides this Question and that of the Resurrection commenced in the Church of Corinth and promoted with some variety of sence by Hymenaeus and Philetus in Asâ—a who said that the Resurrection was past already I do not remember any other heresie named in Scripture but such as were errors of impiety seductiones in materiâ practicâ such as was particularly forbidding to marry and the heresie of the Nicolaitans a doctrine that taught the necessity of lust and frequent fornication 7. But in all the Animadversions against errors made by the Apostles in the New Testament no pious person was condemned no man that did invincibly erre or bonâ mente but something that was amiss in genere morum was that which the Apostles did redargue And it is very considerable that even they of the Circumcision who in so great numbers did heartily believe in Christ and yet most violently retain Circumcision and without Question went to heaven in great numbers yet of the number of these very men they came deeply under censure when to their error they added impiety So long as it stood with charity and without humane ends and secular interests so long it was either innocent or connived at but when they grew covetous and for filthy lucres sake taught the same doctrine which others did in the simplicity of their hearts then they turned Hereticks then they were termed Seducers and Titus was commanded to look to them and to silence them For there are many that are intractable and vain bablers Seducers of minds especially they of the Circumcision who seduce whole houses teaching things that they ought not for filthy lucres sake These indeed were not to be induced but to be silenced by the conviction of sound doctrine and to be rebuked sharply and avoided 8. For heresie is not an error of the understanding but an error of the will And this is clearly insinuated in Scripture in the stile whereof Faith and a good life are made one duty and vice is called opposite to Faith and heresie opposed to holiness and sanctity So in S. Paul For saith he the end of the Commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned à quibus quòd aberrarunt quidam from which charity and purity and goodness and sincerity because some have wandred deflexerunt ad vaniloquium And immediately after he reckons the oppositions to faith and sound doctrine and instances only in vices that stain the lives of Christians the unjust the unclean the uncharitable the lyer the perjur'd person si quis alius qui sanae doctrinae adversatur these are the enemies of the true doctrine And therefore S. Peter having given in charge to adde to our vertue patience temperance charity and the like gives this for a reason for if these things be in you and abound ye shall be fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that knowledge and faith is inter praecepta morum is part of a good life And Saint Paul calls Faith or the form of sound words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doctrine that is according to godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 And veritati credere and in injustitiâ sibi complacere are by the same Apostle opposed and intimate that piety and faith is all one thing faith must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intire and holy too or it is not right It was the heresie of the Gnosticks that it was no matter how men lived so they did but believe aright Which wicked doctrine Tatianus a learned Christian did so detest that he fell into a quite contrary Non est curandum quid quisque credat id tantum curandum est quod quisque faciat And thence came the Sect Encratites Both these heresies sprang from the too nice distinguishing the faith from the piety and good life of a Christian They are both but one duty However they may be distinguished if we speak like Philosophers they cannot be distinguished when we speak like Christians For to believe what God hath commanded is in order to a good life and to live well is the product of that believing and as proper emanation from it as from its proper principle and as heat is from the fire And therefore in Scripture they are used promiscuously in sence and in expression as not only being subjected in the same person but also in the same faculty faith is as truly seated in the will as in the understanding and a good life as meerly derives from the understanding â—s the will Both of them are matters of choice and of election neither of them an effect natural and invincible or necessary antecedently necessaria ut fiant non necessariò facta And indeed if we remember that S. Paul reckons heresie amongst the works of the flesh and ranks it with all manner of practical impieties we shall easily perceive that if a man mingles not a vice with his opinion if he be innocent iâ— his life though deceived in his doctrine his errour is his misery not his crime it makes him an argument of weakness and an object of pity but not a person sealed up to ruine and reprobation 9. For as the nature of faith is so is the nature of heresie contraries having the same proportion and commensuration Now faith if it be taken for an act of the understanding meerly is so far from being that excellent grace that justifies us that it is not good at all in any kind but in genere naturae and makes the understanding better in it self or pleasing to God just
Adversaries put me often to sight with His words are these He viz. the Apostle S. Paul saith that he is unworthy of the Lord who otherwise celebrates the mystery than it was deliver'd by him For he cannot be devout that presumes otherwise than it was given by the Author Therefore he before admonishes that according to the order delivered the mind of him that comes to the Eucharist of our Lord be devout for there is a judgment to come that as every one comes so he may render an account in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ because they who come without the discipline of the delivery or tradition and of conversation are guilty of the body and blood of our Lord. One of my Adversaries says these words of S. Ambrose are to be understood only of the Priest and it appears so by the word celebrat not recipit he that celebrates otherwise than is delivered by Christ. To this I answer that first it is plain and S. Ambrose so expresses his meaning to be of all that receive it for so he says that the mind of him that cometh to the Eucharist of our Lord ought to be devout 2. It is an ignorant conceit that S. Ambrose by celebrat means the Priest only because he only can celebrate For however the Church of Rome does now almost impropriate that word to the Priest yet in the Primitive Church it was no more than recipit or accedit ad Eucharistiam which appears not only by S. Ambrose his expounding it so here but in S. Cyprian speaking to a rich Matron Locuples dives Dominicum celebrare te credis corban omnino non respicis Dost thou who art rich and opulent suppose that you celebrate the Lords Supper or sacrifice who regardest not the poor mans basket Celebrat is the word and receive must needs be the signification and so it is in S. Ambrose and therefore I did as I ought translate it so 3. It is yet objected that I translate aliter quam ab eo traditum est otherwise than he appointed whereas it should be otherwise than it was given by him And this surely is a great matter and the Gentleman is very subtle But if he be ask'd whether or no Christ appointed it to be done as he did to be given as he gave it I suppose this deep and wise note of his will just come to nothing But ab eo traditum est of it self signifies appointed for this he deliver'd not only by his hands but by his commandment of Hoc facite that was his appointment Now that all this relates to the whole institution and doctrine of Christ in this matter and therefore to the duplication of the Elements the reception of the chalice as well as the consecrated bread appears first by the general terms qui aliter mysterium celebrat he that celebrates otherwise than Christ delivered 2. These words are a Commentary upon that of S. Paul He that eats this bread and drinks the Cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Now hence S. Ambrose arguing that all must be done as our Lord delivered says also that the bread must be eaten and the cup drunk as our Lord delivered and he that does not do both does not do what our Lord delivered 3. The conclusion of S. Ambrose is full to this particular They are guilty of the body and blood of Christ who came without the discipline of the delivery and of conversation that is they who receive without due preparation and not after the manner it was delivered that is under the differing symbols of bread and wine To which we may add that observation of Cassander and of Vossius that the Apostles represented the persons of all the faithful and Christ saying to them Take and eat he also said Drink ye all of this he said not Eat ye all of this and therefore if by vertue of these words Drink ye all of this the Laity be not commanded to drink it can never be proved that the Laity are commanded to eat Omnes is added to bibite but it is not expresly added to Accipite Comedite and therefore Paschasius Radbertus who lived about eight hundred and twenty years after Christs incarnation so expounds the precept without any hesitation Bibite ex hoc omnes i. e. tam Ministri quam reliqui credentes Drink ye all of this as well they that minister as the rest of the believers And no wonder since for their so doing they have the example and institution of Christ by which as by an irrefragable and undeniable argument the Ancient Fathers us'd to reprove and condemn all usages which were not according to it For saith S. Cyprian If men ought not to break the least of Christs commandments how much less those great ones which belong to the Sacrament of our Lords passion and redemption or to change it into any thing but that which was appointed by him Now this was spoken against those who refus'd the hallowed wine but took water instead of it and it is of equal force against them that give to the Laity no cup at all but whatever the instance was or could be S. Cyprian reproves it upon the only account of prevaricating Christs institution The whole Epistle is worth reading for a full satisfaction to all wise and sober Christians Abeo quod Christus Magister praecepit gessit humana novella institutione decedere by a new and humane institution to depart from what Christ our Master commanded and did that the Bishops would not do tamen quoniam quidam c. because there are some who simply and ignorantly In calice Dominico sanctificando plebi ministrando non hoc faciunt quod Jesus Christus Dominus Deus noster sacrificii hujus author Doctor fecit docuit c. In sanctifying the cup of the Lord and giving it to the people do not do what Jesus Christ did and taught viz. they did not give the cup of wine to the people therefore S. Cyprian calls them to return ad radicem originem traditionis Dominicae to the root and original of the Lords delivery Now besides that S. Cyprian plainly says that when the chalice was sanctified it was also ministred to the people I desire it be considered whether or no these words do not plainly reprove the Roman doctrine and practice in not giving the consecrated chalice to the people Do they not recede from the root and original of Christs institution Do they do what Christ did Do they teach what Christ taught Is not their practice quite another thing than it was at first Did not the Ancient Church do otherwise than these men do and thought themselves oblig'd to do otherwise They urg'd the doctrine and example of our Lord and the whole Oeconomy of the Mystery was their warrant and their reason for they always believed that a
our natural powers but it is accounted for by the general measures and great periods of our life A man cannot pray always with equal intention nor give the same alms nor equally mourn with sharpness for his sins But God having appointed for every duty proper seasons and solennities hath declared that He does his best who heartily endeavours to do the duty in its proper season But it were well we would remember that he that did a good act to day can do the same to morrow in the same circumstances and he that yesterday fought a noble battle and resisted valiantly can upon the same terms contend as manfully every day if he will consider and watch And though it will never be that men will always do as well as at some times yet when at any time they commit a sin it is not because they could not but because they would not help it 10. VI. He that would be approved in doing his best must omit no opportunity of doing a good action because when it is plac'd in its proper circumstances God lays his hand upon it and calls to have it done and there can be no excuse for the omission He does not do his best that does not do that Because such a person does voluntarily omit the doing of a good without just cause and that cannot proceed from an innocent principle 11. VII He that leaves any thing undone which he is commanded to do or does what he is commanded to forbear and considers or chooses so to do does not do his best cannot plead his priviledge in the Gospel but is fallen under the portion of sinners and will die if he does not repent and make it up some way or other by sorrow and a future diligence 12. VIII To sin against our Conscience can at no hand consist with the duty of Christian perfection Because he loves not God with all his heart nor serves him with all his strength who gives some of his strength and some of his affection to that which God forbids 13. IX No man must account that he does his duty that is his best or according to the perfection requir'd of Christians but he that does better and better and grows toward the measures of the fulness of Christ. For perfection is an infinite word and it could not be communicated to several persons of different capacities and degrees but that there is something common to them all which hath analogy and equivalent proportions Now nothing can be perfect but that to which nothing is wanting and therefore a man is not any way perfect but by doing all all that he can for then nothing is wanting to him when he hath put forth all his strength For perfection is not to be accounted by comparing the subjects which are perfect for in that sence nothing is perfect but God but perfection is to be reckoned by every mans own proportions For a body may be a perfect body though it have not the perfection of a soul and a man is perfect when he is heartily and intirely Gods servant though he have not the perfection of S. Paul as a man is a meek man though he be not so meek as Moses or Christ. But he is not meek if he keeps any fierceness or violence within * But then because to be more perfect is incident with humane nature he that does not endeavour to get as much as he can and more than he hath he hath not the perfection of holy desires Therefore 14. X. Every person that is in the state of grace and designs to do his duty must think of what is before him not what is past of the stages that are not yet run not of those little portions of his course he hath already finish'd Vt cum carceribus missos rapit ungula currus Instat equis auriga suos vincentibus illum Praeteritum temnens extremos inter euntem For so did the Contenders in the Olympick Races never look behind but contend forwards And from hence S. Paul gives the rule I have now described Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling Let therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded That is no man can do the duty of a Christian no man can in any sence be perfect but he that adds vertue to vertue and one degree of grace unto another Nilque putans actum dum quid superesset agendum Nothing is finish'd as long as any thing is undone For our perfection is always growing it stands not till it arrive at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the crowning of him that runs For the enforcing of which the more I only use S. Chrysostoms argument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If S. Paul who had done so much and suffered so much was not very confident but that if he did look back he might also fall back what shall we say whose perfection is so little so infant and imperfect that we are come forwards but a little and have great spaces still to measure 15. XI Let every man that is or desires to be perfect endeavour to make up the imperfection or meanness of his services by a great a prompt an obedient a loving and a friendly mind For in the Parable our blessed Lord hath taught us that the servant who was bidden to plow the field or feed the cattel is still called an unprofitable servant because he hath done only what was commanded him that is they had done the work utcunque some way or other the thing was finish'd though with a servile spirit for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies to do the outward work and the works of the Law are those which consisted in outward obedience and by which a man could not be justified But our blessed Saviour teaching us the righteousness of the Kingdome hath also brought the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie the internal also a mixture of faith and operation For to the Jews enquiring What shall we do to work the works of God Jesus answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This is the work of God that ye believe in him whom he hath sent and since this to do in the Christian sence is to do bona benè good Works with a good mind For since the works are not only in themâ—elves inconsiderable but we also do them most imperfectly and with often failings a good mind and the spirit of a friend or a son will not only heighten the excellency of the work but make amends for the defect too The doing what we are commanded that is in the usual sence of doing still leaves us unprofitable for we are servants of God he hath a perfect and supreme right over us and when this is done still can demand more when we have plowed he will
in the Court of Conscience So Pacianus Haec est novi Testamenti tota conclusio despectus in multis Spiritus sanctus haec nobis capitalis periculi conditione legavit Reliqua peccata meliorum operum compensatione curantur Haec verò tria crimina ut basilisci alicujus afflatus ut veneni calix ut lethalis arundo meâ—uenda sunt non enim vitiare animam sed intercipere noverunt Some sins do pollute and some do kill the soul that is are very near approaches to death next to the unpardonable state and they are to be repented of just as habits are even by a long and a laborious repentance and by the piety and holiness of our whole ensuing life De peccato remisso noli esse securus said the son of Sirach Be not secure though your sin be pardoned when therefore you are working out and suing your pardon be not too confident 53. XI Those acts of sin which can once be done and no more as Parricide and such which destroy the subject or person against whom the sin is committed are to be cured by Prayer and Sorrow and entercourses with God immediately the effect of which because it can never be told and because the mischief can never be rescinded so much as by fiction of Law nor any supply be made to the injur'd person the guilty man must never think himself safe but in the daily and nightly actions of a holy Repentance 54. XII He that will repent well and truly of his single actual sins must be infinitely careful that he do not sin after his Repentance and think he may venture upon another single sin supposing that an act of contrition will take it off and so interchange his days by sin and sorrow doing to morrow what he was ashamed of yesterday For he that sins upon the confidence of Repentance does not repent at all because he repents that he may sin and these single acts so periodically returning do unite and become a habit He that resolves against a sin and yet falls when he is tempted is under the power of sin in some proportion and his estate is very suspicious though he always resolved against that sin which he always commits It is upon no other account that a single sin does not destroy a man but because it self is speedily destroyed if therefore it goes on upon its own strength and returns in its proper period it is not destroyed but lives and indangers the man 55. XIII Be careful that you do not commit a single act of sin toward the latter end of your life for it being uncertain what degrees of anger God will put on and in what periods of time he will return to mercy the nearer to our death such sins interâ—â—ne the more degrees of danger they have For although the former discourse is agreeable to the analogy of the Gospel and the Oeconomy of the Divine Mercy yet there are sad words spoken against every single sin Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offends in one instance he shall be guilty of all saith S. James plainly affirming that the admitting one sin much more the abiding in any one sin destroys all our present possession of Gods favour Concerning which although it may seem strange that one prevarication in one instance should make an universal guilt yet it will be certain and intelligible if we consider that it relates not to the formality but to the event of things He that commits an act of Murther is not therefore an Adulterer but yet for being a Murtherer he shall die He is as if he were guilty of all that is his innocence in the other shall not procure him impunity in this One crime is inconsistent with Gods love and favour 56. But there is something more in it than this For every one that breaks a Commandment let the instance be what it will is a transgressor of the same bond by which he was bound to all Non quòd omnia legis praecepta violârit sed quòd legis Authoreâ—â— contempserit eóque praemio meritò careat quod legis cultoribus propositum est saith Venerable Bede He did not violate all the Commandments but he offended him who is the giver of all the Commandments It is like letting one Bead fall from a Rosary or Corone of Bugles This or that or a third makes no difference the string iâ— as much broken if he lets one to slide as if he dropp'd twenty It was not an ill conceit of Meâ—edemus the Eretrian that there was but one vertue which had divers names Aristo Chius express'd the same conceit with a little difference affirming all vertues to be the same in reality and nature but to have a certain diversification or rational difference by relation to their objects As if one should call the sight when it looks upon a Crow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if upon a Swan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so is vertue When it moderates the affections it is Temperance when it balances contracts it is Justice when it considers what is and what is not to be done it is Prudence That which they call Vertue if we call it the grace of God or Obedience it is very true which they say For the same spirit the same grace of obedience is Chastity or Temperance or Justice according as is the subject matter The love of God if it be in us is productive of all worthiness and this is it which S. John said This is love that we keep his Commandments The love of God constraineth us It worketh all the works of God in us It is the fulfilling of the Commandments For this is a Catholicon an Universal Grace Charity gives being to all vertues it is the life and spirit of all holy actions Abstinence from feasts and inordination mingled with Charity is Temperance And Justice is Charity and Chastity is Charity and Humility is still but an instance of Charity This is that Transcendent that gives life and vertue to Alms to Preaching to Faith to Miracles it does all obedience to God all good offices to our Neighbours which in effect is nothing but the sentence of Menedemus and Aristo that there is an Universal Vertue that is there is one soul and essence of all vertue They call it Vertue S. Paul calls it Charity and this is that one thing which is necessary that one thing which every man that sins does violate He that is guilty of all is but guilty of that one and therefore he that is guilty of that one of the breach of Charity is guilty of all And upon this account it is that no one sin can stand with the state of grace because he that sins in once instance sins against all goodness not against all instances of duty but against that which is the life of all against Charity and Obedience A Prayer to be said in the days of Repentance for the commission of any great Crime O
For there is not only a not repenting a not rescinding of the past act by a contrary nolition but there is a continuance in it and a repetition of the same cause of death as if a man should marry death the same death so many times over it is an approving of our shame a taking it upon us an owning and a securing our destruction and before a man can arrive thither he must have broken all the instruments of his restitution in pieces and for his recovery nothing is left unless a Palladium fall from Heaven the man cannot live again unless God shall do more for him than he did for Lazarus when he raised him from the dead SECT IV. Sinful habits do require a distinct manner of Repentance and have no promise to be pardon'd but by the introduction of the contrary 32. THIS is the most material and practical difficulty of the Question for upon this depends the most mysterious article of Repentance and the interest of dying penitents For if a habit is not to be pardoned without the extirpation of that which is vicious and the superinducing its contrary this being a work of time requires a particular grace of God and much industry caution watchfulness frequent prayers many advices and consultations constancy severe application and is of so great difficulty and such slow progression that all men who have had experience of this imployment and have heartily gone about to cure a vicious habit know it is not a thing to be done upon our death-bed That therefore which I intend to prove I express in this Proposition A vicious habit is not to be pardon'd without the introduction of the contrary either in kind or in perfect affection and in all those instances in which the man hath opportunities to work 33. The Church of Rome whose Chairs and Pulpits are dangerous guides in the article of Repentance affirms that any sin or any habit of sin may be pardon'd by any single act of contrition the continued sin of forty years may be wash'd off in less than forty minutes nay by an act of attrition with the Priestly absolution which proposition if it be false does destroy the interest of souls and it cannot be true because it destroys the interest of piety and the necessities of a good life The reproof of this depends upon many propositions of which I shall give as plain accounts as the thing will bear 34. I. Every habit of vice may be expelled by a habit of vertue naturally as injustice by justice gluttony by temperance lust by chastity but by these it is not meritoriously remitted and forgiven because nothing in nature can remit sins or 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 only 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. 35. II. 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 than 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 36. III. 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 seldom 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 than a lasting and an habitual contrition to obtain pardon for the habit And although a habit can meritoriously remit a habit no more than 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 37. IV. 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 only the formality but the material and natural effect of that cursed production at least in very many degrees 38. V. A habit oppos'd to a habit hath greater effect than an act oppos'd to an act and therefore is not only 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
all the Sermons which were made by those whom God sent with his word in their mouths that they should live innocently or when they had sinned they should repent and be sav'd from their calamity 4. 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 question of that yet he was pleased to signifie to us that as we needed more so we should have and find 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 and endues with a lasting power and imploys 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 only 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 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 only 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 5. 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 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 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 read 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 Quo loco consistent poenitentiam agentes 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 observations 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 adds 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 far better expressed by those excellen◠words of our blessed Saviour There is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety nine just persons that need no repentance 6. 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 SECT II. Of Pardon of Sins committed after Baptism 7. 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 than 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 only prove that these great sins are pardonable
disposition are prepared for all Mankind according as any one can receive them We see thiâ— best exemplified by two instances and expressions of friendships and charity viz. Alms and Prayers Every one that needs relief is equally the object of our Charity but though to all mankind in equal needs we ought to be alike in charity yet we signifie this severally and by limits and distinct measures the poor man that is near me he whom I meet he whom I love he whom I fancy he who did me benefit he who relates to my family he rather than another because my expressions being finite and narrow and cannot extend to all in equal significations must be appropriate to those whose circumstances best fit me and yet even to all I give my Alms to all the world that needs them I pray for all mankind I am grieved at every sad story I hear I am troubled when I hear of a pretty Bride murthered in her bride-chamber by an ambitious and enrag'd Rival I shed a tear when I am told that a brave King was misunderstood then slandered then imprisoned and then put to death by evil men and I can never read the story of the Parisian Massacre or the Sicilian Vespers but my blood curdles and I am disorder'd by two or three affections A good man is a friend to all the world and he is not truly charitable that does not wish well and do good to all mankind in what he can But though we must pray for all men yet we say special Litanies for brave Kings and holy Prelates and the wise Guides of Souls for our Brethren and Relations our Wives and Children The effect of this consideration is that the Universal friendship of which I speak must be limited because we are so In those things where we stand next to Immensity and Infinity as in good wishes and prayers and a readiness to benefit all mankind in these our friendships must not be limited But in other things which pass under our hand and eye our voices and our material exchanges our hands can reach no further but to our arms end and our voices can but sound till the next air be quiet and therefore they can have entercourse but within the sphere of their own activity our needs and our conversations are served by a few and they cannot reach to all where they can â—hey must but where it is impossible it cannot be necessary It must therefore follow that our friendships to mankind may admit variety as does our conversation and as by nature we are made sociable to all so we are friendly but as all cannot actually be of our society so neither can all be admitted to a special actual friendship Of some entercourses all men are capable but not of all Men can pray for one another and abstain from doing injuries to all the world and be desirous to do all mankind good and love all men Now this friendship we must pay to all because we can but if we can do no more to all we must shew our readiness to do more good to all by actually doing more good to all them to whom we can To some we can and therefore there are nearer friendships to some than to others according as there are natural or civil nearnesses relations and societies and as I cannot express my friendships to all in equal measures and significations that is as I cannot do benefits to all alike so neither am I tied to love all alike For although there is much reason to love every man yet there are more reasons to love some than others and if I must love because there is reason I should then I must love more where there is more reason and where there 's a special affection and a great readiness to do good and to delight in certain persons towards each other there is that special charity and indearment which Philosophy calls Friendship but our Religion calls Love or Charity Now if the inquiry be concerning this special friendship 1. How it can be appropriate that is who to be chosen to it 2. How far it may extend that is with what expressions signified 3. How conducted The answers will depend upon such considerations which will be neither useless nor unpleasant 1. There may be a special friendship contracted for any special excellency whatsoever because friendships are nothing but love and society mixt together that is a conversing with them whom we love now for whatsoever we can love any one for that we can be his friend and since every excellency is a degree of amability every such worthiness is a just and proper motive of friendship or loving conversation But yet in these things there is an order and proportion Therefore 2. A Good man is the best friend and therefore soonest to be chosen longer to be retain'd and indeed never to be parted with unless he cease to be that for which he was chosen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where vertue dwells there friendships make But evil neighbourhoods forsake But although Vertue alone is the worthiest cause of amability and can weigh down any one consideration and therefore to a man that is vertuous every man ought to be a friend yet I do not mean the severe and philosophical excellencies of some morose persons who are indeed wise unto themselves and exemplar to others By Vertue here I do not mean Justice and Temperance Charity and Devotion for these I am to love the man but friendship is something more than that Friendship is the nearest love and the nearest society of which the persons are capable Now Justice is a good entercourse for Merchants as all men are that buy and sell and Temperance makes a Man good company and helps to make a wise man But a perfect Friendship requires something else these must be in him that is chosen to be my friend but for these I do not make him my privado that is my special and peculiar friend But if he be a good man then he is properly fitted to be my correlative in the noblest combination And for this we have the best warrant in the world For a just man scarcely will a man die the Syriack interpreter reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an unjust man scarcely will a man die that is a wicked man is at no hand fit to receive the expression of the greatest friendship but all the Greek copies that ever I saw or read of read it as we do for a righteous man or a just man that is justice and righteousness is not the nearest indearment of friendship but for a good man some will even dare to die that is for a man that is sweetly disposed ready to do acts of goodness and to oblige others to do things useful and profitable for a loving man a beneficent bountiful man one who delights in doing good to his friend such a man may have the highest friendship he may have