yond that, they are not to be endured. For since God, in the severest of his anger, does not punish one sin with another, let not us do worse to ourselves than the greatest wrath of God in this world will inflict upon us. A sin cannot be a punishment from God. For then it would be, that. God should be the author of sin; for he is, of punishment. If then any punishment be a sin, that sin was unavoidable, derived from God; and indeed it would be a contradiction to the nature of things to say, that the same thing can, in the same form. ality, be a punishment and a sin, that is, an action, and a passion, voluntary, as every sin is, and involuntary as every punishment is; that it should be done by us, and yet against us, by us and by another, and by both entirely: and since punishment is the compensation of the expiation of sin, not the aggravation of the divine anger; it were very strange, if God, by punishing us, should more provoke himself, and, instead of satisfying his justice or curing the man, make his own anger infinite, and the patient much the worse". Indeed, it may happen that one sin may cause or procure another, not by the efficiency of God, or any direct action of his but, 1. By withdrawing those assistances, which would have restrained a sinful progression. 2. By suffering him to fall into evil temptation, which is too hard for him, consisting in his present voluntary indisposition. 3. By the nature of sin itself, which may either (1.) effect a sin by accident; as a great anger may, by the withdrawing God's restraining grace, be permitted to pass to an act of murder; or (2.) it may dispose to others of like nature, as one degree of lust brings in another; or (3.) it may minister matter of fuel to another; as intemperance to uncleanness; or (4.) one sin may be the end of another, as covetousness may be the servant of luxury. In all these ways, one sin may be effected by another; but in all these, God is only conniving, or at most, takes off some of those helps, which the man hath forfeited, and God was not obliged to continue. Thus God hardened Pharaoh's heart, even by way of object and occasion; God hardened him, by shewing him a mercy, by taking off his fears when he removed the judgment; and God ministered to him some hope, that it be so still. But God does not inflict the sin: the man's own impious hands do that, not because he cannot n Vide chap. 6. n. 42.

help it, but because he chooses and delights in it. Now if God in justice to us, will not punish one sin directly by another let not us, in our penitential inflictions, commit a sin in indignation against our sin; for that is just as if a man, out of impatience of pain in his side, should dash his head against a wall.

113. III. But if God pleases to inflict a punishment, let us be careful to exchange it into a penance, by kissing the rod, and entertaining the issues of the divine justice by approbation of God's proceeding, and confession of our demerit and justification of God. It was a pretty accident and mixture of providence and penance, that happened to the three accusers of Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem; they accused him falsely of some horrid crimes, but in verification of their indictment, bound themselves by a curse: the first, that if his accusation were false, he might be burned to death: the second, that he might die of the king's evil : the third that he might be blind. God in his anger found out the two first, and their curse happened to them that delighted in cursing and lies. The first was burnt alive in his own house: and the second perished by the loathsome disease: which when the third espied, and found God's anger so hasty and so heavy, so pressing and so certain, he ran out to meet the rod of God; and repented of his sin so deeply, and wept so bitterly, so continually, that he became blind with weeping and the anger of God became an instance of repentance; the judgment was sanctified, and so passed into mercy and a pardon: he did indeed meet with his curse, but by the arts of repentance the curse became a blessing. And so it may be to us: "Præveniamus faciem ejus, in confessione:""Let us prevent his anger by sentencing ourselves:" or or if we do not, let us follow the sad accents of the angry voice of God, and imitate his justice, by condemning that which God condemns, and suffering willingly what he imposes; and turning his judgments into voluntary executions, by applying the suffering to our sins, and praying it may be sanctified. For since God smites us that we may repent,-if we repent then, we serve the end of the divine judgment: and when we perceive God smites our sin, if we submit to it, and are pleased that our sin is smitten, we

Euseb. lib. 6. c. 7.

are enemies to it, after the example of God; and that is a good act of repentance.

114. IV. For the quality or kind of penances, this is the best measure; those are the best which serve most ends; not those which most vex us, but such which will most please God. If they be only actions punitive and vindictive, they do indeed punish the man, and help, so far as they can, to destroy the sin; but of these alone St. Paul said well, ' Bodily exercise profiteth but little ;' but of the latter sort, he added, but godliness is profitable to all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come:' and this indeed is our exactest measure. Fastings alone, lyings upon the ground, disciplines and direct chastisements of the body, which have nothing in them but toleration and revenge, are of some use; they vex the body and crucify the sinner, but the sin lives for all them: but if we add prayer, or any action symbolical, as meditation, reading, solitariness, silence, there is much more done towards the extinction of the sin. But he that adds alms, or something that not only is an act contrary to a former state of sin, but such which is apt to deprecate the fault, to obey God, and to do good to men, 'he hath chosen the better part, which will not easily be taken from him.' Fasting, prayer, and alms together, are the best penances or acts of exterior repentance in the world. If they be single, fasting is of the least force; and alms done in obedience and the love of God, is the best.

115. V. For the quantity of penances, the old rule is the best that I know, but that it is too general and indefinite. It is St. Cyprian's: "Quàm magna deliquimus, tam granditer defleamus:" "If our sins were great, so must our sorrow or penances be."-As one is, so must be the other. For sorrow and penances I reckon as the same thing in this question; save only, that, in some instances of corporal inflictions, the sin is opposed in its proper matter; as intemperance is, by fasting; effeminacy, by suffering hardships; whereas sorrow opposes it only in general; and in some other instances of penances, there is a duty distinctly and directly served, as in prayer and alms. But although this rule be indefinite and unlimited, we find it made more minute by Hugo de St. Victore. "Si in correctione minor est afflictio quam in culpâ fuit delectatio, non est dignus poenitentiæ tuæ fructus :"

"Our sorrow, either in the direct passion, or in its voluntary expressions, distinctly or conjunctly, must at least equal the pleasure we took in the committing of a sin." And this rule is indeed very good, if we use it with these cautions. First: that this be understood principally in our repentances for single sins; for in these only the rule can be properly and without scruple applied, where the measures can be best observed. For in habitual and long courses of sin, there is no other measures but to do very much, and very long, and until we die, and never think ourselves safe, but while we are doing our repentances. Secondly: that this measure be not thought equal commutation for the sin, but be only used as an act of deprecation and repentance, of the hatred of sin, and opposition to it; for he that sets a value upon his punitive actions of repentance, and rests in them, will be hasty in finishing the repentance, and leaving it off, even while the sin is alive for in these cases it is to be regarded, that penances, or the punitive actions of repentance, are not for the extinction of the punishment immediately, but for the guilt. That is, there are no remains of punishment, after the whole guilt is taken off: but the guilt itself goes away by parts, and these external actions of repentance have the same effect, in their proportion, which is wrought by the internal. Therefore, as no man can say, that he hath sufficiently repented of his sins by an inward sorrow and hatred; so neither can he be secure, that he hath made compensation by the suffering penances; for if one sin deserves an eternal hell, it is well, if, upon the account of any actions and any sufferings, we be at last accepted and acquitted.

116. VI. In the performing the punitive parts of external repentance, it is prudent, that we rather extend them than intend them that is, let us rather do many single acts of several instances, than dwell upon one with such intension of spirit as may be apt to produce any violent effects upon the body or the spirit. In all these cases, prudence and proportion to the end are our best measures. For these outward significations of repentance, are not, in any kind or instance, necessary to the constitution of repentance; but apt and excellent expressions and significations, exercises and ministries, of repentance. Prayer and alms are of themselves distinct duties, and therefore come not in their whole nature to this

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reckoning but the precise acts of corporal punishment are here intended. And that these were not necessary parts of repentance, the primitive church believed, and declared, by absolving dying persons, though they did not survive the beginnings of their public repentance. But that she enjoined them to suffer such severities in case they did recover, she declared that these were useful, and proper exercises and ministries of the grace itself. And, although inward repentance did expiate all sins, even in the Mosaical covenant, yet they had also a time and manner of its solemnity, their day of expiation; and so must we have many. But if any man will refuse this way of repentance, I shall only say to him the words of St. Paul to them, who rejected the ecclesiastical customs and usages: "We have no such custom, neither the churches of God." But let him be sure, that he perform his internal repentance with the more exactness; as he had need look to his own strengths, that refuses the assistance of auxiliaries. But it is not good to be too nice and inquisitive, when the whole article is matter of practice. For what doth God demand of us but inward sincerity of a returning, penitent, obedient heart, and that this be exercised and ministered unto by fit and convenient offices to that purpose ? This is all, and from this we are to make no abatements.

The Prayer.

O ETERNAL God, gracious and merciful, the fountain of pardon and holiness, hear the cries, and regard the supplications, of thy servant. I have gone astray all my days, and I will for ever pray unto thee, and cry mightily for pardon. Work in thy servant such a sorrow, that may be deadly unto the whole body of sin, but the parent of an excellent repentance. O suffer me not any more to do an act of shame; nor to undergo the shame and confusion of face, which are the portion of the impenitent and persevering sinners, at the day of sad accounts. I humbly confess my sins to thee, do thou hide them from all the world; and while I mourn for them, let the angels rejoice; and while I am killing them by the aids of thy Spirit, let me be written in the book of life, and my sins be blotted out of the black registers of death, that, my sins being covered and cured, dead and buried in the