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holy Spirit of grace,' it is against his undertaking, and in its own proportion against all his hopes: if it be not pardoned, it will bear the man to hell; but then how it comes to be pardoned in good men, and by what measures of favour and proper dispensation, are next to be considered. Therefore,

36. V. Though, by the nature of the thing and the laws of the covenant, every single deliberate act of sin provokes God to anger, who therefore may punish it by the severest laws which he decreed against it ;-yet by the economy of God and the divine dispensation it is sometimes otherwise. For besides the eternal wrath of God, there are some that suffer his temporal; some suffer both; some but one. God uses to smite them whom he would make to be, or them who are, his sons,—if they do amiss. If a wicked man be smitten with a temporal judgment, and thence begins to fear God and to return, the anger will go no further; and therefore much rather shall such temporal judgments upon the good man, that was overtaken in a fault,' be the whole exaction. God smites them that sin these single sins, and though he could take all, yet will demand but a fine.

37. VI. But even this also God does not do, but in the case of scandal or danger to others as it was in the particular of David, "Because thou hast made the enemies of God to blaspheme, the child that is born unto thee, shall die:" or else, 2. When the good man is negligent of his danger, or dilatory in his repentance, and careless in his watch, then God awakens him with a judgment, sent with much mercy.

38. VII. But sometimes a temporal death happens to good men so overtaken; it happened so to Moses and Aaron for their fault at the waters of Massah and Meribah; to the Prophet of Judah, that came to cry out against the altar in Bethel; to Uzzah, for touching the ark with unhallowed fingers, though he did it in zeal; to the Corinthians, who had not observed decent measures in receiving the holy sacrament; and thus it happened, say some of the ancient doctors, to Ananias and Sapphira; God took a fine of them also 'salvo contenemento,' their main stake being secured.'

Culpam hanc miserorum morte piabant.

There is in these instances this difference: Moses and Aaron

were not smitten in their sin, but for it, and (as is not doubted) after they had repented: but Uzzah, and the Prophet, and Ananias and Sapphira, and the Corinthians, died not only for their sin, but in it too: and yet it is hoped God's anger went no further than that death, because in every such person who lives well, and yet is overtaken in a fault, there is much of infirmity and imperfection of choice, even when there are some degrees of wilfulness and a wicked heart. And though it be easy to suppose that such persons in the beginning of that judgment, and the approach of that death, did morally retract the sinful action by an act of repentance, and that upon that account they found the effect of the divine mercies by the blood of the Lamb, who was slain from the beginning of the world; yet if it should happen that any of them die so suddenly, as not to have power to exercise one act of repentance, though the case be harder,-yet it is to be hoped that even the habitual repentance and hatred of sin, by which they pleased God in the greater portions of their life, will have some influence upon this also. But this case is but seldom, and God's mercies are very great and glorious; but because there is in this case no warrant, and this case may happen oftener than it does, even to any one that sins one wilful sin,— it is enough to all considering persons to make them fear: "but the fool sinneth, and is confident."

39. VIII. But if such overtaken persons do live, then God's dispensation is all mercy, even though he strikes the sinner, for he does it for good. For God is merciful, and knows our weaknesses, our natural and circumstant follies: he therefore recalls the sinning man, he strikes him sharply, or he corrects him gently, or he calls upon him hastily, as God please, or as the man needs. The man is fallen from the favour or grace of God, but (I say) fallen only from one step of grace; and God is more ready to receive him, than the man is to return; and provided that he repent speedily, and neither add a new crime, nor neglect this, his state of grace was but allayed and disordered, not broken in pieces or destroyed.

40. IX. I find this thing rarely well discoursed of by some of the ancient doctors of the church. Tertullian's words are excellent words to this purpose: "Licet perisse dicatur,

Lib. de Pudicit. c. 7.

erit et de perditionis genere retractare, quia et ovis non moriendo, sed errando,-et drachma non intereundo, sed latitando, perierunt. Ita licet dici perisse quod salvum est:" "That may be said to be lost which is missing: and the sheep that went astray, was also lost; and so was the groat, which yet was but laid aside, it was so lost that it was found again. And thus that may be said to have perished, which yet is safe."-" Perit igitur et fidelis, elapsus in spectaculum quadrigarii furoris et gladiatorii cruoris, et scenicæ fœditatis, Xysticæ vanitatis,in lusus, in convivia sæcularis solennitatis,in officium, in ministerium alienæ idolatriæ aliquas artes adhibuit curiositatis,-in verbum ancipitis negotiationis impegit, ob tale quid extra gregem datus est: vel et ipse fortè irâ, tumore, æmulatione, quod denique sæpe fit, dedignatione cas→ tigationis abrupit,-debet requiri atque revocari:" "The Christian is, in some sort, perished, who sins by beholding bloody or unchaste spectacles, who ministers to the sins of others; who offends by anger, emulation, rage, and swelling, too severe animadversions; this man must be sought for and called back," but this man is not quite lost." Quod potest recuperari, non perit, nisi foris perseveravit. Benè interpretaberis parabolam, viventem adhuc revocans peccatorem." "That which may be recovered, is but as it were lost, unless it remains abroad, and returns not to the place from whence it wandered."

41. To the same purpose St. Cyprian and St. Ambrose discourse of the parable of him, that fell among the thieves and was wounded and half dead. Such are they, who, in times of persecution, fell away into dissimulation. "Nec putemus mortuos esse, sed magis semianimes jacere eos, quos persecutione funestâ sauciatos videmus ; qui si in totum mortui essent, nunquam de eisdem postmodùm et confessores et martyres fierent:" "for if these were quite dead, you should not find of them to return to life, and to become martyrs and confessors for that faith," which through weakness they did seemingly abjure. These men therefore were but 'wounded and half dead' for they still keep the faith, they preserve their title to the covenant, and the promises of the Gospel, and the grace of repentance. "Quam fidem qui habet, vitam habet," saith St. Ambrose'; "He that hath this faith hath life;" h De Lapsis ad Anton. 52.

i Lib. 1. de Ponit. c. 10.

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that is, he is not excluded from pardon; whom therefore peradventure the good Samaritan does not pass by, because he finds there is life in him, some principle by which he may live again.-Now as it was in the matter of faith, so it is of charity and the other graces. Every act of sin takes away something from the contrary grace; but if the root abides in the ground, the plant is still alive, and may bring forth fruit again. "But he only is dead, who hath thrown God off for ever, or entirely, with his very heart :" so St. Ambrose. To be "dead in trespasses and sins,” which is the phrase of St. Paul, is the same with that expression of St. John, of " sinning a sin unto death," that is, habitual, refractory, pertinacious, and incorrigible sinners, in whom there is scarce any hope or sign of life. These are they upon whom, as St. Paul's' expression is, "the wrath of God is come upon them to the uttermost;" siç rò Téλos, 'unto death;' so was their sin, it was a sin unto death; so is their punishment.

The result of these considerations is this. He that commits one act of a wilful sin, hath provoked God to anger; which whether it will be final or no, we cannot know but by the event, by his forbearing us, and calling us, and accepting us to repentance. One act does not destroy the life of grace utterly, but wounds it more or less, according to the vileness and quantity, or abode in the sin.

SECTION III.

What Repentance is necessary for single Acts of Sin. 42. I. UPON consideration of the premises, it appears to be dangerous practically to inquire how far single acts of sin can stand with the state of grace, or the being of a good man. For they ought not to be at all, and if they be once, we must repent, and the sin must be pardoned, or we die and when it can be asked how far any sin can be consistent with the state of God's favour, it cannot be meant that God indulges it to a good man with impunity, or that his grace and favour consist in this, that he may safely sin,

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once or twice, in what instance or in any instance he shall choose: but in this it does; a single act of sin does not so destroy the hopes of a good man, but that if he returns speedily, he shall be pardoned speedily; for God will do this for him, not by permitting him to sin again, but by taking his sin away, and healing his soul; but how soon, or how much, or how long, God will pardon or forbear, he hath no way told us. For in the several states and periods of the soul in order to virtue or vice respectively, there is no specifical difference but of degrees only, not of state. As the sins are more or longer, God is more angry, and the man further off; but the man is not wholly altered from his state of grace, till he be arrived at the unpardonable condition. He is a good or an evil man, more or less, according as he sins or repents. For neither of the appellatives are absolute and irrespective ; and though in philosophy we use to account them such by the prevailing ingredient, yet the measures of the spirit are otherwise. The whole affair is arbitrary, and gradual, various by its own measures and the good pleasure of God, so that we cannot in these things, which are in perpetual flux, come to any certain measures. But although in judging of events we are uncertain, yet in the measures of repentance we can be better guided. Therefore first, in general,

43. II. St. Cyprian's rule is a prudent measure, "Quam magna deliquimus, tam granditèr defleamus; ut pœnitentia crimine minor non sit:" "According to the greatness of the sin, so must be the greatness of the sorrow :" and therefore we are, in our beginnings and progressions of repentance, to consider, 1. all the circumstances of aggravation; 2. the complication of the crime; 3. the scandal; and, 4. evil effect; and in proportion to every one of these, the sorrow is to be enlarged and continued. For if it be necessary to be afflicted because we have done evil; it is also necessary, that our affliction and grief be answerable to all the parts of evil: because a sin grows greater by being more in matter or choice, in the instances, or in the adhesion; and as two sins must be deplored more than one, so must two degrees, that is, the greater portions of malice and wilfulness be mourned for with a bigger sorrow than the less.

44. III. Every single act of sin must be cut off by a moral revocation, or a contrary act; by which I mean, an ex

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